Vasily Lukich Dolgorukov

A male-line descendant of the legendary prince Rurik, Dolgorukov was one of the first batch of young Russians whom Peter the Great sent abroad to be educated.

From 1687 to 1700 he resided in Paris, where he learned thoroughly the principal European languages, acquired the superficial elegance of the court of Versailles, and associated with the Jesuits, whose moral system he is said to have appropriated.

There, he succeeded in persuading King Frederick IV to join the second coalition against Charles XII in the Treaty of Copenhagen (1709).

At the end of 1720 he was transferred to Versailles, in order to seek the mediation of France in the projected negotiations with Sweden and obtain the recognition of Peter's imperial title by the French court.

After procuring the banishment of Menshikov he drew up a letter purporting to be the last will of the emperor, appointing Catherine Dolgorukova his successor, but shortly afterwards abandoned the nefarious scheme as impracticable, and was one of the first to support the election of Anne of Courland to the throne on condition that she first signed nine "articles of limitation", which left the supreme power in the hands of the Russian council.