Shishkov A.S. (1754-1841), man of letters, philologist, statesman

Categories / Science. Education/Personalia
Categories / Capital/Personalia
SHISHKOV Alexander Semenovich (1754-1841, St. Petersburg), a statesman, military leader, philologist, man of letters, Admiral (1824), Honorary Fellow of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1800). Graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps in 1772, and later taught at the same institution. Took part in a number of naval campaigns, and in the Russo-Swedish War of 1788-90. In 1797, he was appointed Adjutant General of the Navy under Emperor Pavel I; in 1812-14, he was Secretary of State; during the Patriotic War of 1812, and wrote Imperial Decrees, Edicts, and Manifestoes. He was admitted to the State Assembly in 1814; in 1824-28 he was Minister of Public Education; and from 1826, Head of the Committee for the Development of New Regulations for All Educational Institutions. In 1826, Shishkov was a member of the Supreme Penal Court over the Decembrists Case. He retired in 1828. He was one of the founders and a principal inspirer of the Gathering of Lovers of the Russian Word, as well as N.M. Karamzin's chief literary adversary. In 1813-41, he presided over the Russian Academy. Shishkov left written works on seamanship and popular books for children. Being a conservative in social life, as well as in the political domain, Shishkov went down in the Russian cultural history as the author of a ideological and philological doctrine directed against sentimentalism in literature. The doctrine asserted that it was necessary for Russian literary language to adopt the lexical and stylistic potential of Old Church Slavonic and Old Russian language and literature. Shishkov was also a council member of the Society of Noble Ladies and of the St. Catherine School (his membership in the both dates back to 1821). From 1799, he lived intermittently in his own building at 14 Furshtatskaya Street. He was buried in the St. Lazar's Burial Vault at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

References: Стоюнин В. Я. Александр Семенович Шишков. СПб., 1880. (Ист. соч.; Ч. 1); Аксаков С. Т. Воспоминание об Александре Семеновиче Шишкове // Собр. соч.: В 5 т. М., 1966. Т. 2. С. 258-303; Чернета В., Яковлев Б. Предтеча: (Адм. А. С. Шишков - человек, ученый, министр // Высш. образование в России. 1999. №9. С. 137-151.

D. N. Cherdakov. Karamzin Nikolay Mikhailovich
Paul (Pavel) I, Emperor
Shishkov V.M.
Furshtatskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 14
Чернета В., Яковлев Б. Предтеча: (Адм. А. С.Шишков - человек, ученый, министр // Высш. образование в России, 1999
Стоюнин В.Я. Александр Семенович Шишков. СПб., 1880
Аксаков С.Т. Воспоминание об Александре Семеновиче Шишкове // Аксаков С.Т. Собр. соч.: В 5 т. М., 1966 Russian Academy of Sciences
Naval Cadet Corps
Naval Cadet Corps
State Assembly
Conversations for Lovers of the Russian Word , Literary Society
Lazarevskaya Burial Vault