[1] After studies in Kharkov and England he was posted as the priest of the Russian Embassy Church in London in 1780 and remained in this position until 1837, when he retired due to poor health.
Besides his duties as priest, he was involved in almost all the activities of the Embassy: he took care of the Russian students studying in Britain and even paid their fees, helped the Ambassador Semyon Vorontsov to compile the diplomatic dispatches and gathered valuable information.
Smirnov introduced Vorontsov to the industrialist Matthew Boulton[2] When the Russian Emperor Paul I struck an alliance with France, the relations with Britain worsened.
[3] Though Smirnov carried out his diplomatic duties and maintained contact with the Foreign Office, he never received and presented letters of credence and was only recognized as de facto envoy.
[6] The archpriest features in Valentin Pikul’s short story “Old quills” which deals with the successful public opinion campaign carried out by the Russian Embassy during the Ochakov crisis.