Nikita Panin

Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin (Russian: Ники́та Ива́нович Па́нин) (September 29 [O.S. September 18] 1718 – April 11 [O.S. March 31] 1783) was an influential Russian statesman and political mentor to Catherine the Great for the first 18 years of her reign. In that role, he advocated the Northern Alliance, closer ties with Frederick the Great of Prussia and the establishment of an advisory privy council. His staunch opposition to the partitions of Poland led to his being replaced by the more compliant Prince Bezborodko.

He was born at Gdańsk, Poland, to the Russian commandant of Pärnu, the Estonian city where he would spend most of his childhood. In 1740, he entered the Russian army, and was rumored to be one of the favorites of Empress Elizabeth. In 1747, he was accredited to Copenhagen as Russian minister, but a few months later was transferred to , where for the next 12 years he played a conspicuous part as the chief opponent of the French party. During his residence in Sweden, Panin, who certainly had a strong speculative bent, is said to have conceived a fondness for constitutional forms of government. Politically, he was a pupil of Aleksei Bestuzhev; consequently, when in the middle 1750s, Russia suddenly turned francophile instead of francophobe, Panin's position became extremely difficult. However, he found a friend in Bestuzhev's supplanter, Mikhail Vorontsov, and when in 1760 he was unexpectedly appointed the governor of the little grand duke Paul, his influence was assured.

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