Vasily Tatishchev Nikitich

(1686-1750)
Born April 19, 1686 in Pskov, in a noble a noble family. Seven years of age he complained to the steward, and took to the court of Tsar Ivan Alekseevich, with his wife whose Paraschiva Feodorovna (nee Saltykova) Tatishcheva is related. Courtiers 'service' lasted until the death in 1696 of Ivan Alekseevich, then Tatishchev left the yard. In the documents there is no evidence of learning in school Tatishcheva. In 1704 the young man was enrolled in the Azov Dragoon Regiment and served in the Army 16 years, leaving her before the end of the Northern War with Sweden. Participated in the capture of Narva, in the battle of Poltava, Prut campaign of Peter I against the Turks.
At the end of 1712 Tatishchev was sent to Germany, where he remained intermittently 2,5 years, studying the fortifications and Gunnery, optics, geometry and geology. In the spring of 1716 he returned to Russia and was transferred to the artillery regiment, special assignments chief of artillery of the Russian army YV Bruce and Peter I himself.

In 1720 he was sent to the Urals, where he studied mining industry organization. With names Tatishcheva and large metallurgical engineer VI Genin linked base and Ekaterinburg Yagoshihinskogo plant, which started the g. Perm, geological and geographical study of the Urals. In 1724-1726 was in Sweden, where he oversaw the training of young Russian mining and studied economics and finance. Upon returning Tatishcheva appointed a member, then head Monetnaya office (1727-1733), dealing with the coinage of gold, silver and copper coins (paper money - banknotes have appeared in Russia in 1769)

. In his writings and representations to the Empress Catherine I advocated the introduction in Russia of the decimal system of weights and measures, . for the regulation of money circulation, . increase in Treasury revenues by developing industry, . trade, . export growth, . not over-exploited monetary regalia,
. At the same time wrote to social-political and philosophical work of a conversation between two friends about the benefits of science and Colleges (1733). In 1734-1737 a second was sent to lead the metallurgical industry of the Urals, started the construction of new iron and copper smelters, setting targets to increase the production of iron by a third. Ekaterinburg began work on a general geographical description of all of Siberia, which is due to lack of material left unfinished, written just 13 chapters and plan book. Conflict with puppets Biron and dissatisfaction of local influential people, a separate abuse of power by Tatishcheva, led to his withdrawal, and then surrender to trial.

In the last years of life Tatishchev was head of the Orenburg and the Kalmyk commissions, governor of Astrakhan. In 1745, because of the audit revealed financial irregularities at their former work, he was dismissed by the governor and exiled to his estate - Selco Boldino Dmitrov district, Moscow province, where he remained under house arrest until his death.

Boldinskiy Tatishcheva period of life - the most fruitful in the scientific sense. Here he managed to finish the first Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary of Russia History, . geographical and political lexicon, . largely complete history Rossiyskuyu, . work on which he began when he was still head of the office Monetnaya (published from the original GF Miller in 1760-1780-ies),
. Working on the history of Russia, Tatishchev opened for science documentaries such monuments as the Russian True, Sudebnik Ivan the Terrible, the Big Book of Drawings, has collected abundant materials chronicle. Work Tatishcheva the shape of a chronicle, in which the chronological sequence of events outlining the history of Russia from ancient times to 1577. Central to the presentation was given to autocracy. Periods of economic prosperity and might of Russia, claimed by the author, always coincided with the 'edinovlastitelstvom'. Go to the aristocracy, feudal strife in the specific period led to the subordination of Russia to the Mongols, and the limitation of royal power in the early 17. - To the ruin of the state and the rejection of large parts of the Swedes and Poles. The main conclusion Tatishcheva: ': Everyone can see how monarchical rule in our state protchih useful, through which the wealth, power and glory of the state is multiplied, and through protchee diminished and ginet'.

Died in Tatishchev Boldino July 15, 1750.