Dmitry Mikhaylovich Golitsyn

Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn (Russian: Голи́цын, tr. Golitsyn, IPA: [ɡɐˈlʲitsɨn] ( ); 1665 – 1737) was a Russian of the Golitsyn family. A cousin of Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn, he was noted for his noble attempt to turn Russia into a constitutional monarchy.

Golitsyn was sent by Peter the Great in 1697 to Italy to learn military affairs; in 1704 he was appointed to the command of an auxiliary corps in Poland against Charles XII; from 1711 to 1718 he was governor of Belgorod. In 1718 he was appointed president of the newly erected Commerce Collegium and a senator. In May 1723 he was implicated in the disgrace of the vice-chancellor Shafirov and was deprived of all his offices and dignities, which he only recovered through the mediation of the empress.

After the death of Peter the Great, Golitsyn became the recognized head of the old Conservative party which had never forgiven Peter for divorcing Eudoxia and marrying the plebeian Martha Skavronskaya (Catherine I of Russia). But the reformers, as represented by Alexander Menshikov and Peter Tolstoi, prevailed; and Golitsyn remained in the background till the fall of Menshikov, 1727. During the last years of Peter II (1728–1730), Golitsyn was the most prominent statesman in Russia and his high theories had full play.

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