Also, Muravyov-Apostol served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Purveyance Department and supervised the Schlisselburg canal as a Premier Major.

Ivan Muravyov-Apostol never supported Paul I (despite the latter's benevolence towards him) and took part in the 1801 conspiracy against the emperor, becoming the author of one of the unrealized draft laws on legal restriction of sovereign power.

For example, he made a stand for Vasili Popov, the director of the Department of Public Education, who had taken part in the translation of a mystical book by Johannes Gossner banned in Russia.

He stood for the teaching of philosophy at the universities, contravening the official stance of a powerful statesman, Mikhail Magnitsky, who had been overseeing the educational affairs at that time.

He participated in the proceedings of a literary club called Conversations of the Admirers of the Russian Language ("Беседы любителей русского слова").

Also, Ivan Muravyov-Apostol was a member of the Free Society of the Admirers of the Russian Literature (Вольное общество любителей российской словесности).

[2][3] It contains valuable information on archaeology, flora and fauna of the Crimea, unique features of urban, rural and monastic life of this region, and colorful depictions of its customs.

According to testimonies of Ivan Muravyov-Apostol's contemporaries (such as Konstantin Batyushkov, Nikolai Grech and others), he was a man of a brilliant mind, esthete, polyglot, and bibliophile.

[citation needed] Ivan Muravyov-Apostol ranged almost all of Europe and met many prominent people, such as Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Vittorio Alfieri, and George Byron.