Pyotr Valuyev

Count Pyotr Aleksandrovich Valuev (September 22, 1815 - January 27, 1890, St. Petersburg) was a Russian statesman and writer.

Career

Valuev served as Emperor Alexander II's Minister of Interior between April 23, 1861 and March 9, 1868 and as Minister of State Property from February 17, 1872 through 1877. In 1877 he was made Chairman of the imperial Committee of Ministers. In 1880 he was sent into early retirement when his opponent, Count Loris-Melikov, gained the upper hand in the government.

Writing

Valuev was always close to the literary world. In 1834 he was transferred from Moscow to St. Petersburg and became acquainted with prominent Russian poets Aleksandr Pushkin and Pyotr Vyazemsky. Valuev served as one of the prototypes for the protagonist of Pushkin's novel The Captain's Daughter (1836) and the same year he married Vyazemsky's daughter.

Valuev kept a diary from 1861 on and began writing fiction in the 1870s while still serving in the government. His first novel, "Lorin", was finished in 1878 and circulated in manuscript, although it remained unpublished until 1882. Once he was retired, he concentrated on writing and published four novels and a devotional calendar with his poetry before his death in 1890.

Works

Non-fiction

• Dnevnik (Diary), full publication 1919, 1961 reprint.

Novels

• Lorin, 1882.
• Cherny bor, 1887.
• U pokrova v Levshine, 1881, 1892.
• Knyazhna Tatyana (also Knyaginya Tatyana, Princess Tatyana), 1891

References

• James A. Malloy, Jr. "Petr Aleksandrovich Valuev" in The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History, volume 41, Academic International Press, 1996-2003
• N.R. Antonov. "Graf Pyotr Aleksandrovich Valuev" in Russkie svetskie bogoslovy i ih religiozno-obschetvennoe mirosozertsanie, volume 1, St. Petersburg, 1912, reprinted in Pyotr Valuev. Cherny bor: Povesti, stat'i, Moscow, Agraf, 2002.