For other people with name Ivan Yelagin, see Yelagin (surname).
Portrait by Jean-Louis Voille
Ivan Perfilievich Yelagin (Russian: Иван Перфильевич Елагин; 1725–94) was a Russian Imperial historian, an amateur poet and translator who acted as unofficial secretary to Catherine the Great in the early years of her reign.
Yelagin studied in the cadet corps for nobles with Mikhail Kheraskov and Alexander Sumarokov, a popular playwright whose works he alternately praised and derided.[1] He became Catherine's ally when she was Grand Duchess at the court of Empress Elisabeth. In 1758, the Empress banished him from the court for his close ties to the disgraced chancellor Bestuzhev.
After Catherine's coming to power in 1762, Yelagin replaced Sumarokov as director of the court theatres. His dominion over the Russian theatre was described as tyrannical: for instance, Yelagin demanded that comedies and other foreign plays were transposed to Russian settings.[1] He also helped Catherine in re-editing her manuscripts: all her literary works survive only in Yelagin's handwritten copies.[1]
"There were few social activities in which he did not involve himself", as historians have noted.[2] "With Dr Ely, a converted Jew and a mason, Yelagin studied Hebrew and Cabbala, theosophy, physics and chemistry, Egyptian traditions".[3] He entertained Count Cagliostro in his house and is mentioned in Casanova's memoirs.[4] Yelagin is probably best remembered as a founding father of the Russian freemasonry.[5] This side of his activities eventually aroused Catherine's suspicions and contributed to his downfall in the early 1780s.
Yelagin's sumptuous villa on the eponymous isle to the north of St. Petersburg was later rebuilt into an imperial residence (see Yelagin Palace).
^ abcLurana Donnels O'Malley. The dramatic works of Catherine the Great: theatre and politics in eighteenth-century Russia. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006. ISBN 978-0-7546-5628-9. Page 23.
Ivan Perfilievich Yelagin (Russian: Иван Перфильевич Елагин; 1725–94) was a Russian Imperial historian, an amateur poet and translator who acted as unofficial...
the imperial Russian capital owes its name to its former proprietor, IvanYelagin (1725–94), a close ally of Catherine II from her early days as Grand...
Yelagin Island Yelagin Island (Central Saint Petersburg) Yelagin Island (Russian: Елагин остров) is a park island at the mouth of the Neva River which...
Ivan Elagin may refer to: Ivan Elagin (poet) (1918–1987), Russian émigré poet IvanYelagin (1725–1794), Russian historian, amateur poet and translator...
Master of Russia by the Grand Lodge of England. In the early 1770s, IvanYelagin succeeded in reorganizing Russian Freemasonry into a far-reaching system...
master of Russia by the Grand Lodge of England. Catherine II's factotum IvanYelagin succeeded in reorganizing Russian Freemasonry into a far-reaching nationwide...
Freemasonry and Martinism. In the early 1770s, Catherine the Great's secretary IvanYelagin succeeded in reorganizing Russian Freemasonry into a far-reaching system...
Martini in February 1770 by the director of the Russian imperial theatres, IvanYelagin, by which time Berezovsky was already in Bologna and had begun classes...
After accession to the throne, Catherine II commissioned Adam Olsufiev, IvanYelagin and Grigory Teplov to manage her affairs. In June 1763, the order of...
to Moscow in 1775 was connected with the unification of the lodges of IvanYelagin, a disgraced Russian historian and poet, and Johann Reichel, a German...
and refectory on the western end. Most of the funding was provided by IvanYelagin, a prominent figure of Catherine the Great's reign, with further funding...
Людмила Титова) was a Jewish-Ukrainian poet from Kiev, wife of the poet IvanYelagin (Іван Єлагін) also from Kiev, whom she had first met as a schoolgirl...
actually Dolgorukov's fourth wife, Paraskeva Timofievna Yelagina (sister of IvanYelagin, the leader of all Russian riflemen) from her first husband, Olferiy...
Moscow, helping emancipate their compatriots from the Swedish Rite and Yelagin's antics. Schwarz travelled in Europe to catch up with recent developments...
Minister of Agriculture. In June 1908 Stolypin lived in a wing of the Yelagin Palace where the Council of Ministers convened. Supported by the Peasants'...
met her second cousin, a writer and translator named Alexei Andreyevich Yelagin (1790-1846), and they soon became close. Shortly after, that same year...
Prince in Saint Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo, take walks with him on Yelagin Island and participate in games, many of which were, in effect, small scale...
from a version of the speech written up later by the emigre musician Yuri Yelagin, from notes he said that he made at the conference – but its accuracy is...
single season.[citation needed] 2011: MLAE-2011 led by Vasily Igorevich Yelagin travelled from Dudinka, Russia – North Pole – Resolute, Nunavut, Canada...