Viazemskii, Aleksandr Alekseevich
Viazemskii, Aleksandr Alekseevich
Born Aug. 3, 1727; died Jan. 8, 1793, in St. Petersburg. Russian statesman, one of the high officials closest to Catherine II. He began his career with the suppression in 1763 of an uprising of peasants working in the mining-metallurgical plants in the Urals. From 1764 until 1793 he was general procurator. In this post he first supervised the administration and reported to the empress; later, in the 1780’s, Viazemskii’s authority expanded and he in fact was in charge of finance, justice, and internal affairs. In 1767 he was chairman of the Commission for the compilation of a New Code. In 1769 he was appointed to the Council of the Imperial Court.