Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova

Princess Yekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova - Daschkowa (Russian Екатерина Романовна Воронцова - Дашкова; scientific transliteration Ekaterina Romanovna Voroncova - Dašková; . * 17 Märzjul / March 28 1743greg in Saint Petersburg, .. † 4 Januarjul / January 16 1810greg in. Moscow) was a close friend of the Russian Empress Catherine the Great and a major figure of the Enlightenment in Russia, including as head of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Your memoirs of Princess Daschkaw or Dachkoff were published in 1804 in Paris ( Mon Histoire ), and published in 1840 in two volumes in London.

Early Biography and Coup d' Etat

Born as Countess Ekaterina Vorontsova, she was the third daughter of Count Roman Vorontsov (1707-1783), a member of the Senate. Her mother Marfa Ivanovna Surmina died at twenty-six years of typhus. She left behind three daughters and two sons. Her uncle Mikhail Vorontsov and her brother both served as Chancellor, another brother was a noted Anglophile. You got a very good education and was from childhood skills and perspectives that made their entire future career so unique. She was well versed in mathematics, which she studied at the Moscow University and in literature. Your favorite authors were Bayle, Montesquieu, Boileau, Voltaire and Helvetius.

Even as a young girl, she was connected to the Russian court, and in time became one of the leaders who supported the Grand Duchess and later Empress Catherine Alexeyevna. Before she was sixteen, she married Prince Mikhail Dashkov (1736-1764), a prominent Russian nobles of the dynasty of Rurik, and moved with him to Moscow. In 1762 she was in Saint Petersburg and played a leading role in the coup, in the course of Catherine the Great came to the throne and her husband Peter III. deposed. Another output of this event would probably have led to the rise of the older sister Daschkowas, previously mistress of Peter III. was and with whom he wanted to open before replacing his wife Catherine.

Traveling abroad

Your relations with the new Empress were not cordial, but she remained loyal to her. They often liked the men not that Catherine took as a lover and disapproved of the privileges and courtesies that Catherine had given them be. This led to an estrangement between her and the Tsarina, so they eventually asked for a permission to travel abroad since her husband died by this time. From 1769 to 1771 she undertook her first extensive trip through Europe. It was received in many countries at court with great respect, while their scientific and literary reputation made ​​it possible for her to meet with the most respected scholars of the time. In Paris she made ​​friends and earned admiration of Denis Diderot and Voltaire. From 1775 to 1782 we went on the second trip to Europe, she also served her son at the University of Edinburgh to allow a place of study. They also showed a strong affection for England and all things English. In 1782, she made the Hôtel de la Chine acquaintance with Benjamin Franklin.

Administration of Academy

1782 Daschkowa returned back to the Russian capital, and has become a close confidant of Catherine the Great. Both had much in common in literary taste and had the desire to make the Russian language of the prestigious literary language of Europe. On January 24, 1783 Daschkowa became the director of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This made her the first woman worldwide who headed a National Academy of Sciences ( President of the Academy was at this time Kirill Razumovsky, in fact, the Academy was, however, conducted by specially appointed for this purpose Directors ). They helped the problem- ridden Academy with reforms to previous size and reputation. At the same time she was an editor of a monthly magazine and wrote at least two dramatic works, The Marriage of Fabian and a comedy called Toissiokoff. 1789, she was elected to the German Leopoldina.

Shortly before the death of Catherine the Great quarreled both a literary piece, the Daschkowa made ​​possible the publication of the Academy and included the revolutionary ideas of the Tsarina 's view. Although the two women reconciled again soon, but Daschkowa left soon after the yard.

Exile

With the accession of Paul I in 1796 Daschkowa was all their offices, as well as the director post at the Academy, relieved and was ordered to withdraw to a poor estate near Novgorod. Reason for this was the old coup of 1762, the death of Peter III. led what his son Paul did not want to forgive. After a while the sentence was mitigated Paul and Daschkowa allowed to spend their twilight years in the family estate Troizkoje near the present town Kremjonki south of Moscow. She died on 4 January 1810 and was buried in the Trinity Church in Troizkoje.

Exhibitions

The exhibition The Princess and the Patriot: Ekaterina Dashkova, Benjamin Franklin and the Age of Enlightenment was organized in 2006 in Philadelphia. Daschkowa and Benjamin Franklin met only once, in Paris in 1782, when Franklin 75 and Daschkowa was 37 years old. Both were impressed with each other. Franklin invited Daschkowa the first woman to a, the American Philosophical Society to join, and she was the only woman who had been a member for more in 80 years. Later Daschkowa retaliated by making Franklin the first American member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The issued correspondence between the two was the highlight of the exhibition.

Other

Princess Daschkowa is considered the initiator of the introduction of the Cyrillic letters Ё, she suggested in one of the first meetings of the Academy of Sciences in the presence of numerous writers.