NIKOLAI ALEKSYEEVICH ORLOV (1827-1885)

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NIKOLAI ALEKSYEEVICH ORLOV (1827-1885)
A collection of five autograph letters, in French, signed 'N. Orloff', from St. Petersburg, September 23/October 5 1861 - May 9/21 [1863], 10pp, 4°, 33pp, 8°, with envelope and address, to Monsieur Belnalette, corresponding on the Russian political and economic situation. Orloff begins by discussing industrial patents, his own business, the hateful alarmist press toward 'our race so full of future, of sap and latent energy'...there can not be a 'Caesarean surgery' as in the Place de Concorde [a reference to the beheading of Louis XVI during the French Revolution], at most there will be a slightly violent purge. Despite the crisis, Orloff has faith in the future, there needs to be reconciliation between the classes and he discusses at length the distribution of land after the abolition of serfdom. New governmental reforms on the basis of local self government are the stakes of moral and political progress. The fires in St. Petersburg are the work of delinquents - the 'few agents of Socialist propoganda that the perfidious Albion shelters at her home', Orsini and Herzen, 'are minor' and calls them 'stupid fanatics stupefied by envy'. He fears insolvency more than these troubles and looks forward to a new freedom based on the majority owning land. Here is a situation that will surprise Europe, if she will get over her instinctive terror and learn to know us. Orloff speaks of national pride and launches a violent attack on Poland, going on to denouce the Polish character, 'the Pole has all the vices of the French and not one of his virtues except a sort of impetuous bravery' (slight spotting and rubbing, creased on folds).
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Lot Essay

Orlov belonged to a long line of distinguished Russian statesmen, diplomatists and soldiers. After being seriously wounded in the Crimean War he entered the diplomatic service, serving in Brussels, Paris and Berlin. He stood at the forefront of reform, bringing about the abolition of corporal punishment in 1881.

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