Dmitry Bludov

Alexander II appointed him President of the Academy of Sciences (1855) and Chairman of the State Council (1862).

[1] Bludov's personal friends included Nikolay Karamzin and Vasily Zhukovsky.

Although on friendly terms with many of the Decembrists, Bludov presided over the court that condemned them to death.

[1] Leo Tolstoy described Bludov's house on Nevsky Avenue as the place "where writers, and in general, the best people of the time would gather.

Bludov was a man who was at one time close to the Decembrists and sympathetic in spirit to the whole progressive movement.