Orlov family
He was educated in the corps of cadets at St Petersburg, began his military career in the Seven Years' War, and was wounded at Zorndorf.
While serving in the capital as an artillery officer he caught the fancy of Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseyevna, and was the leader of the conspiracy which resulted in the dethronement and death of her husband Peter III (1762).
Their illegitimate son, Aleksey, was born in 1762 and named after the village of Bobriki where he lived; from him descends the line of Counts Bobrinskoy.
At one time the empress thought of marrying her favorite, but the plan was frustrated by her influential advisor Nikita Panin.
[1] Gregory Orlov was no statesman, but he had a quick wit, a fairly accurate appreciation of current events, and was a useful and sympathetic counsellor during the earlier portion of Catherine's reign.
He entered with enthusiasm, both from patriotic and from economical motives, into the question of the improvement of the condition of the serfs and their partial emancipation.
On returning without permission to his Marble Palace at St Petersburg, he found himself superseded in the empress's favor by the younger Potemkin.
[1][a] In 1770 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the fleet sent against the Turks, whose far superior navy he annihilated at Chesme, a victory which led to the so-called Orlov Revolt and conquest of the Greek archipelago.
[1] The same year, on Catherine's request, he went to Livorno to seduce and bring to Russia the so-called Princess Tarakanova, who proclaimed herself daughter of Empress Elizabeth.
The fourth Orlov brother was Count Fyodor Grigoryevich (1741–1796), Russian general, who first distinguished himself in the Seven Years' War.
He participated with his elder brothers in the coup d'etat of 1762, after which he was appointed chief procurator of the Governing Senate.
These exploits were, by the order of Catherine, commemorated by a triumphal column, crowned with naval trophies, erected at Tsarskoe Selo.
He had several daughters, one of them a wife of Nikita Petrovich Panin, and a son — Count Grigory Vladimirovich (1777 – 22 June 1826) — who predeceased his father.
In November 1799 he married Countess Anna Saltykova, left Russia and traveled in France, Italy and Switzerland.
His chief works are Mémoirs historiques, politiques et littéraires sur le Royaume de Naples, translated into German, English and Italian, and embracing the History of Lower Italy from the earliest times until 1820; Histoire des Arts en Italie, the two volumes of which treat of music, the others of painting; Voyages dans une Partie de la France, ou Lettres descriptives et historiques (Paris, 1824).
For his services as commander of the cavalry regiment of the Life Guards on the occasion of the rebellion of 1825 he was created a count, and in the Turkish War of 1828–1829 rose to the rank of lieutenant-general.
[1] His wife, Katherine (Kathi) Orlov had a close relationship with Otto von Bismarck in the early 1860s.
A friend of Alexander Pushkin and convinced liberal himself, he now concentrated his attention on the projects for emancipation of the serfs and introduction of republican government in Russia.
