Count Zakrevsky was born into the local gentry of the Tver gubernia. At the age of sixteen he was sent to serve as a corporal in the Arkhangelogorodsky infantry regiment. He fought in the battle of Austerlitz in 1805 and the battle at Preussisch-Eylau in 1807. His military biography also includes "the siege and capture" of the fortress of Sveaborg in Finland (1808), and a battle against the Turks (1810).
During the Napoleonic war of 1812, Count Zakrevsky saw military action near Smolensk and Borodino. For his courage and daring he was awarded a gilded sabre, and also the highest Russian orders and decorations.
In 1823 Count Zakrevsky began his administrative career, his first post being that of governor-general of Finland and commander of an independent Finnish corps. In 1828 he was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs. Three years later he retired "at his own request as a result of serious ill health, retaining his rank and pension".
Count Zakrevsky began a new stage in his state service in 1848. The rescript of Nicholas I defining Zakrevsky's sphere of competence as military governor-general of Moscow was by way of being also an exhortation. This document instructed him to expel from the city those who engaged in anti-government conversation, and also to concern himself with the young people, eradicating "the cockle of free-thinking and urge to anarchy". A zealous defender of the interests of the monarchical state, Zakrevsky rigorously adhered to the basic ideas set out in this decree.
Zakrevsky devoted much of his time to improving the amenities of the city. On his orders a water elevator was constructed at the Babyegorodskaya dam, work was undertaken to supply Arbat and Tverskaya Squares with water, and money was provided to repair the Sokolniki, Zamoskvorechye and Mytishchi water pipes, the last of these being redesigned. In 1858 work began on erecting telegraph wires from Moscow to Nizhni Novgorod, and from Moscow to Kharkov. An exhibition of manufactured goods was opened in 1853, a School of Sericulture, affiliated to the Moscow Agricultural Society, was opened in 1855. In 1856 the Bolshoi Theatre, damaged by fire in 1853, was rebuilt according to a design unaltered to this day.
Successful measures were taken to combat cholera epidemics in 1848 and 1854. In 1849, Zakrevsky ordered a census of the population of Moscow in order to determine the size of the taxable population following the 1848 epidemic.
Zakrevsky carried through Shcherbatov's project to levy contributions from residents to finance the construction of roads running alongside their property. His proposals for the improvement of sanitation in the city won the support of the Committee of Ministers and were set out in a law passed on 28 June 1849. Thereafter "the establishment of... paper mills, wool mills, iron foundries, stearin, tallow, varnish and all such factories manufacturing inflammable chemical products" was prohibited in Moscow and other gubernia towns.
Zakrevsky's activities as governor-general frequently won imperial recommendation "for excellent and useful service ... and his many labours in administering the old capital, and for his particular attention to ensuring constant concern for improvement and welfare..."
The accession of Alexander II changed the political situation in the country. Zakrevsky did not share belief in the need for reform, and this led to his resignation on 16 April 1859.
Count Zakrevsky died and was buried in Florence.
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