Background
Pavel Petrovich Vyazemsky was born on June 2, 1820, in Warsaw, Poland.
Saint Peter's School
Saint Petersburg Imperial University
Pavel Petrovich Vyazemsky was born on June 2, 1820, in Warsaw, Poland.
Pavel Petrovich was educated at home; later he studied in Saint Peter's School, attended lectures at Saint Petersburg Imperial University.
In December of 1840, he started to serve in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1846 he was assigned the assistant to the Russian mission secretary in Constantinople (now Istanbul) and in 1850 - the secretary junior of the Russian mission in Haag. Later he became the senior secretary of this mission and the charge d’affaires in Karlsruhe.
In 1856 Pavel Petrovich was conferred the title of the gentleman of the monarch’s bed chamber and assigned the senior secretary of the Russian embassy in Vena. From April 10 (22), 1869 he had been a member of the Imperial Archaeological Committee. In 1862 he was transferred to the Ministry of Domestic Affairs, had been the President of Saint Petersburg Committee for Foreign Censure, and the next year was conferred the title of the steward of the imperial household. On April 5 (17), 1881 Pavel Petrovich was assigned the Head of the Press Chief Department. He headed the Censure Committee until January 1 (13), 1883 when he was assigned a senator for Heralds Office.
In 1877 on Vyazemsky’s initiative was founded the Society of Lovers of Ancient Script which Pavel Petrovich had been heading until his last days. The object of the Society was to publish Slavic-Russian manuscripts, their study, and popularization. The core of the Museum of the Society of Lovers of Ancient Script was the collection of Pavel Petrovich which included ABC books, deeds, gospels, hagiographies, calendars, facial images, chronicles, prayer books, descriptions of cities and provinces, sermons, rank books, legends on miracles, petitions. At almost every congress of the Society Pavel Petrovich granted to the museum rare books, manuscripts, other antiquities.
Being a fervent collector, Petrovich Vyazemsky constantly aspired for replenishing his collections and visited regularly book shops and antique traders.
Quotes from others about the person
Wrote about Vyazemsky his secretary E. N. Opochinin: "In spite of the disorderliness of his knowledge, Pavel Petrovich was no dilettante. The particularity of his mind was the ability to grab always and everywhere the essential or the most important thing that describes the subject."