Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov began his military service in 1749 and took part in the Seven Years' War, where he distinguished himself in the battle of Zorndorf. He was one of the organisers of the palace coup on 28 June 1762, for which Empress Catherine II promoted him to the rank of major-general and gave him the title of count. He was her favourite and first counsellor.
After his election to the Lawcode Commission in 1767 as a deputy representing the nobility of the Koporye district of the St Petersburg gubernia, he took part as a horseguard platoon commander in the ceremonial entry of Catherine II into the Kremlin to mark the start of the commission's activities.
In her manifesto, the Empress ordered G.G. Orlov "in view of his well-known zeal, devotion and loyalty to ourself and the fatherland", to leave for the old capital in connection with the plague riots. Five days later, despite the autumn mud, the count, endowed by the Empress with exceptional powers, arrived in the city. He set up a preventative and an executive commission, took measures to ensure the supply of provisions for the population still remaining in the city, and increased the number of quarantine stations and hospitals. The sick were provided not only with free food, but also with clothing and money. He himself gave his family home on Voznesyenskaya (Malaya Nikitskaya) as a hospital; a government-financed orphanage was opened on Taganka. More than six thousand houses with sick residents were disinfected. According to contemporaries, Orlov "personally visited hospitals, provided assistance for the infected, appeared among the people, took part in religious processions". On his instructions, the dead were buried in special cemeteries.
On 17 November 1771, the Senate listened to a decree recalling Orlov from Moscow. On 21 November he left for St Petersburg, where he was given a splendid reception. A special medal "For Delivering Moscow from the Ulcer" was struck in his honour, and triumphal marble gates were erected in the Tsarkoye Selo Gardens with the inscription "Moscow Delivered from Disaster by Orlov".
In November 1782, already seriously ill, Orlov returned to Moscow, and settled in the Neskuchny Palace, where he died.
He was buried in the village of Otradnoye in the Serpukhov district.
|
RUS
ENG
