Alexander Kurakin

Who was Alexander Kurakin?

Prince Alexander Borisovich Kurakin, sometimes spelled Kourakine was a Russian statesman and diplomat, a member of the State Council, who was ranked Actual Privy Counsellor 1st Class.

Born in Moscow to a long line of Russian diplomats, he was the great grandson of Boris Kurakin a Russian ambassador and close associate of Peter the Great. He moved to St. Petersburg in 1764 following the death of his father, Boris Alexandrovich Kurakin. There he became acquainted with Great Prince Pavel Petrovich, the future Emperor Paul I of Russia, and remained one of his most trusted friends. This friendship, though, did not meet the approval of the then reigning Empress Catherine II, and so Kurakin was forced to depart abroad. In 1776, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

After Catherine II's death, Kurakin was allowed to return to St. Petersburg in 1796 and he resumed his career, becoming Vice Chancellor in 1796. During the reign of Alexander I Kurakin became the Ambassador of Russia in Vienna in 1806. Two years later, he replaced Ambassador Pyotr Tolstoy in Paris.