Artemy Petrovich Volynsky
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Artemy Petrovich Volynsky (Арте́мий Петро́вич Волы́нский in Russian) (1689 – 1740) was a Russian statesman and diplomat.
Artemy Volynsky was a son of Peter Volynsky, one of the dignitaries at the court of Feodor III , and came of an ancient Gediminid family. He entered a dragoon regiment in 1704 and rose to the rank of captain; then, exchanging the military service for diplomacy, he was attached to the suite of Vice-Chancellor Peter Shafirov. He was present during the Pruth Campaign, shared Shafirov's captivity in the Seven Towers and in 1715 was sent by Peter the Great to Persia to promote Russian influence there, and if possible to find an outlet to India. In 1718 Peter made him one of his six adjutant generals, and governor of Astrakhan. In this post Volynsky displayed distinguished administrative and financial talents. In 1723 he married Alexandra Naryshkina, Peter's cousin. The same year he was accused of peculation and other offences to the emperor, who caned him severely and deprived him of his plenipotentiary powers, despite his undeniable services in Persia, but for which Peter could never have emerged so triumphantly from the difficult Persian war of 1722-1723. Catherine I made Volynsky governor of Kazan for a short time, and he held the same post for two years (1728-1730) under Peter II. But his incurable corruption and unbridled temper so discredited the government that he was deprived of the post shortly after the accession of Anne. From 1730 to 1736 Volynsky served in the army under Munnich. In 1737 he was appointed the second Russian plenipotentiary at the abortive congress of Nemirov held for the conclusion of peace with the Porte. In 1738 he was introduced into the Russian cabinet by Biron as a counterpoise against Andrei Osterman. Volynsky, however, now thought himself strong enough to attempt to supersede Biron himself, and openly opposed the favorite in the State Council in the debates as to the indemnity due to Poland for the violations of her territory during the war of the Polish Succession, Biron advising that a liberal indemnity should be given, whereas Volynsky objected to any indemnity at all. Biron thereupon forced Anne to order an inquiry into Volynsky's past career, with the result that he was tried before a tribunal of Biron's creatures and condemned to be broken on the wheel and then beheaded. On the scaffold, by the clemency of the empress, his punishment was mitigated to the severing of his right hand followed by decapitation. The whole business seems to have been purely a piece of vindictiveness on the part of Biron.