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Count Chernyshev was one of the outstanding "fledglings from the Peter nest". He took part in the Azov campaign in 1695, the capture of Narva in 1700, and many of the battles of the Northern War, where he distinguished himself by his personal courage and daring.
In 1722 he was in charge of the census of taxable social estates in Moscow and the Moscow gubernia. In 1 730 he was appointed a senator and raised to the rank of general-in-chief, and a year later he was appointed governor-general of the Moscow gubernia.
During the governorship of Chernyshev, the city underwent considerable alterations. A special decree On the Installation of Glass Lamps for Illumination in Winter Time in Moscow, issued in 1730, marked the beginning of permanent street lighting. It was Chernyshev who ordered lamps of this kind to be erected on posts along the main roads of the city. This undertaking was financed by the city treasury, but lighting the lamps and maintaining them in a state of repair was the duty of the residents of the houses in their immediate vicinity. Two years later, Chernyshev informed the Senate that the lamps had been installed in the appointed places.
In 1740, Chernyshev was again appointed a senator, and also a member of several commissions, including one dealing with charges of state crimes brought against A.P. Volynsky. On 25 April 1742, to mark the coronation of Empress Elizabeth, he was raised to the rank of count and awarded the order of St Andrew.
Chernyshev died in St Petersburg and was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.
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