Carlo Andrea Pozzo di Borgo

Who was Carlo Andrea Pozzo di Borgo?

Carlo Andrea, count Pozzo di Borgo, was a Corsican politician who became a Russian diplomat.

He was born at Alata, near Ajaccio, of a noble Corsican family, four years before the island became a French possession. He was educated at Pisa, and in early life was closely associated with Napoleon and Joseph Bonaparte, the two families at that time being close political allies. Pozzo was one of two delegates sent to the National Assembly in Paris to demand the political incorporation of Corsica into France, and was subsequently one of the Corsican deputies to the Legislative Assembly, where he sat on the benches of the right until the events of August 1792. On his safe return to Corsica he was warmly received by Pasquale Paoli, but found himself in opposition to the Bonaparte brothers who belonged to a different Corsican clan who were now veering towards the Jacobin party. Under the new constitution Pozzo was elected procureur-general-syndic, that is, chief of the civil government, while Paoli commanded the army.