Artemy Volynsky

Artemy Petrovich Volynsky (Russian: Арте́мий Петро́вич Волы́нский; 1689–1740) was a Russian statesman and diplomat. His career started as a soldier but was rapidly upgraded to ambassador to Safavid Iran, and later as Governor of Astrakhan during the reign of Peter the Great (r. 1682–1725). He was later accused of corruption and stripped of nearly all his powers, before Catherine I of Russia sent him to govern the vast Governorate of Kazan. Anna of Russia appointed Volynsky one of her three chief ministers in 1738. After beating the noted poet Vasily Trediakovsky, Volynsky was arrested on charges of conspiracy and misconduct. Volynsky's archenemy Ernst Johann von Biron had him sentenced to death and beheaded on June 27, 1740.

Artemy Volynsky was a male-line descendant of Prince Bobrok. His father was one of the dignitaries at the court of Feodor III, and also a voivod in Kazan. He entered a dragoon regiment in 1704 and rose to the rank of captain, by 1711; then, exchanging the military service for diplomacy, he was attached to the suite of Vice-Chancellor Peter Shafirov. He was present during the Pruth Campaign and shared Shafirov's captivity in the Seven Towers in Constantinople.

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