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Jacob von Sievers

Jacob von Sievers
Portrait by Josef Grassi, 1790–1795
Personal details
Born30 August 1731
Wesenberg, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire
Died23 July 1808(1808-07-23) (aged 76)
Bauenhof, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire
Military service
Allegiance Russia
Battles/wars

Jacob Johann Graf[1] von Sievers (Russian: Я́ков Ефи́мович Си́верс, romanizedYakov Yefimovich Sivers; 30 August 1731 – 23 July 1808) was a Russian statesman of Baltic German origin.[2] He was from the Sievers family, originating in Livonia.[2] From 1764 to 1781, he served as the governor of Novgorod.[2]

Biography

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He was born into the family of a Livonian nobleman.[2] At the age of 12, he was moved to St. Petersburg by his uncle, whose daughter he later married.[2] Sievers worked as a scribe in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and later served in the Russian embassies in Denmark and Britain.[2]

During the Seven Years' War, he served in the Russian army as quartermaster general and participated in the battles of Gross-Jägersdorf and Zorndorf.[2] He was then appointed governor of Novgorod in 1764 by Catherine II and he held that position until 1781.[2] Catherine accepted many of his proposals after he wrote a report and insisted on the demarcation of lands and the creation of an agricultural society.[2] As a result, he was one of the founders of the Free Economic Society.[2] He also introduced the cultivation of potatoes to Russia, regulated the postal services, and was instrumental in the abolition of torture in 1767.[2]

Based on Sievers' initiative, the provincial government reform was instituted; he was himself appointed general governor of Novgorod, Tver and Pskov. He was Russian ambassador to Poland and led the second and third partition of the kingdom. Emperor Paul I of Russia appointed him senator in 1796; in 1797 he became head of the new department for water communications. He was knighted in 1798.

In Sievers' honor, Alexander I named the channel that connects the outlet of the Msta River with the Volkhov river the Sievers Canal.

Notes and references

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  1. ^ Regarding personal names: Until 1919, Graf was a title, translated as 'Count', not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin. In Germany, it has formed part of family names since 1919.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kamenskii 2020, p. 126.

Sources

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  •  "Сиверс, Яков-Иоанн (Яков Ефимович)" . Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.
  • Blum, Karl Ludwig: Ein russischer Staatsmann, Denkwürdigkeiten des Grafen von Sievers, Leipzig 1857–58, 4 vols.
  • Blum, Karl Ludwig: Graf Jacob Johann von Sievers und Russland zu dessen Zeit. Leipzig; Heidelberg: Winter, 1864
  • Jones, Robert E: Provincial Development in Russia. Catherine II and Jacob Sievers. Rutgers University Press, 1984
  • Kamenskii, Alexander (15 September 2020). "Sievers, Jacob Johann von (Yakov Efimovich)". Catherine the Great: A Reference Guide to Her Life and Works. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. pp. 126–127. ISBN 978-1-5381-3028-5.
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Preceded by Governor General of Pskov
1777–1781
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Position established
Governor General of Novgorod and Tver
1776–1781
Succeeded by