Background
Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov was born on September 24, 1737 in Bezhetsky District, Tver Oblast, Russian Federation. He was the son of Grigory Ivanovich Orlov, governor of Novgorod, and brother of Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov.
1779
Oval portrait of Alexei Orlov by Carl-Ludwig Christinek
Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov was born on September 24, 1737 in Bezhetsky District, Tver Oblast, Russian Federation. He was the son of Grigory Ivanovich Orlov, governor of Novgorod, and brother of Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov.
Alexei Grigoryevich entered the Preobrazhensky Regiment and by 1762 had reached the rank of sergeant. He distinguished himself in the Seven Years' War and was wounded at the Battle of Zorndorf.
Together with his brother Grigory, Alexei Orlov became involved in the palace coup to overthrow Tsar Peter III and place his wife, Catherine, on the Russian throne. In the coup, carried out in July 1762, Alexei went to meet Catherine at the Peterhof Palace, and finding her in bed, announced 'the time has come for you to reign, madame.' He then drove her to St Petersburg, where the guards regiments there proclaimed their loyalty to her. The Tsar was arrested and imprisoned at Ropsha, under the guard of Alexei Orlov. There Peter died in mysterious circumstances on 17 July [O.S. 6 July] 1762. Alexei Grigoryevich is popularly supposed to have murdered him, either on his own initiative or on Catherine's orders. One account has Alexei Grigoryevich giving him poisoned wine to drink. It was announced that the Tsar had died from an attack of haemorrhoidal colic.
The Orlovs were rewarded after Catherine's accession, and Alexei Grigoryevich was promoted to the rank of major-general, and given the title of count. He and his brother received 50,000 roubles and 800 serfs.
Alexei Grigoryevich became involved in military operations during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74, organising the First Archipelago Expedition, and commanding of a squadron of the Imperial Russian Navy. He fought and won the Battle of Chesma against an Ottoman fleet on 5 July 1770, with the help of British naval expertise, and received the right to add the honorific 'Chesmensky' to his name. Alexei Grigoryevich was also awarded the Order of St. George First Class. His expedition sparked off the Orlov Revolt in Greece, which despite initial successes, lacked continued Russian support, and was eventually put down by the Ottomans.Alexei Grigoryevich was sent as plenipotentiary to the talks at Focşani in 1772, but his impatience caused the breaking off of negotiations, which led to dissatisfaction from the Empress.
Catherine then commissioned Alexei Grigoryevich to make contact with Yelizaveta Alekseyevna, a pretender to the throne claiming to be the daughter of Empress Elizabeth of Russia, and deliver her to Russia. Alexei Grigoryevich did so by pretending to be a supporter of hers, and successfully seduced her. He then lured her aboard a Russian ship at Livorno in May 1775, where she was arrested by Admiral Samuel Greig and taken to Russia, where she was imprisoned and later died. Shortly after this service, the Orlovs fell from favour at court, and Alexei and Grigory were dismissed from their positions.
Alexei Grigoryevich retired to the Sans Ennui Palace near Moscow, and gave luxurious balls and dinners, making himself 'the most popular man in Moscow.'
After Catherine's death in 1796 the new ruler, Tsar Paul I ordered that his father, Peter III, be reburied in a grand ceremony. Alexei Orlov was ordered to carry the Imperial Crown in front of the coffin. Alexei Grigoryevich was briefly suspected of having been one of the assassins of Paul I. He left Russia during the reign of Paul I, but returned to Moscow after his death and the accession of Tsar Alexander I. Orlov commanded the militia of the fifth district during the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806-7, which was placed on a war footing almost entirely at his own expense.
Alexei Grigoryevich died in Moscow on 5 January [O.S. 24 December 1807] 1808. He left an estate worth five million roubles and 30,000 serfs.
Despite a lack of formal education and his ignorance of foreign languages, Alexei Grigoryevich maintained an interest in science, patronizing Mikhail Lomonosov and Denis Fonvizin, and corresponding with Jean Jacques Rousseau. He was one of the founders of the Free Economic Society and its first elected chairman. Rewarded with large estates, he took an interest in horse breeding, developing the Orlov Trotter, and popularising the breed of chicken now known as the Orloff.
Physical Characteristics: Alexei Grigoryevich was described as a giant of a man, over two meters tall, and a celebrated duellist, with a scar across his cheek. The scar earned him the nickname 'scarface'.
His marriage with Eudokia Nikolayevna Lopukhina (contracted on 6 May 1782) produced a daughter, Anna Orlova-Tshesmenskaja (1785-1848), and a son, Ivan (1786-1787). Eudokia died while giving birth to Ivan in 1786. Orlov also is believed to have had an illegitimate son named Alexander (1763-1820).
