Alexey Cherkassky

Who was Alexey Cherkassky?

Prince Alexey Mikhailovich Cherkassky or Tcherkassky was the Chancellor of the Russian Empire in the beginning of Empress Elizabeth's reign.

Prince Cherkassky stemmed from one of Russia's richest families which descended from the sovereign rulers of Circassia. His surname translates as "Circassian".

In 1702, Prince Cherkassky held a post of senior stolnik and was soon assigned to assist his father, Prince Mikhail Yakovlevich Cherkassky, who had been a voivod in Tobolsk at that time. Tcherkassky served under his father for 10 years and in 1714 was summoned to Saint Petersburg. There, he was appointed member of the Urban Construction Commission.

In 1719, Peter the Great sent Aleksey to Siberia as governor. In 1726, he became a senator. During the election of Anna Ivanovna for the Russian throne in 1730, Cherkassky, the richest man in Russia in terms of the amount of serfs he owned at that time, was in charge of the gentry party, which had been in opposition to the verkhovniki.

For his services to the Crown he was appointed one of the three cabinet ministers and was promoted to the rank of grand chancellor in 1740.