Platon Shirinsky-Shikhmatov

Prince Platon Alexandrovich Shirinsky-Shikhmatov (Russian: Платон Александрович Ширинский-Шихматов; 1790–1853) was Nicholas I's deputy education minister (1842–50) and education minister (1850–53) who spearheaded the Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality policy introduced by his predecessor Sergey Uvarov.

Shirinsky-Shikhmatov came from a Tatar princely family that could trace its lineage to Genghis Khan.

As a protégé of admiral Alexander Shishkov he followed his mentor from the navy to the ministry of education.

Boasting that he was but "a blind tool of his emperor's will",[1] he sought to increase the number of university students who were of noble origin at the expense of commoners.

[2] Shirinsky-Shikhmatov's most durable achievement was the Archaeographic Commission set up in 1834 to oversee the publication of medieval archives and chronicles.