Vasilii Iakovlevich Mirovich

Born 1740; died Sept. 15 (26), 1764, in St. Petersburg. Second lieutenant of the Smolensk Infantry Regiment; organizer of the unsuccessful palace coup of 1764 in Russia.

As an officer of a detachment of guards at the Shlissel’burg Fortress, where Ivan VI Antonovich was confined, Mirovich made plans to free the prisoner and elevate him to the throne, having first overthrown Catherine II. On the night of July 4, 1764, a detachment, drawn into the plot and headed by Mirovich, seized the fortress. However, Ivan Antonovich had already been murdered by internal security officers on instructions from Catherine II. Mirovich was arrested, condemned by the Senate, and executed.