Grigory Nikolayevich Teplov ' onMouseout='HidePop("52780")' href="/topics/Saint_Petersburg">Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

) was a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n academic administrator of lowly birth who ruled the Petersburg Academy of Sciences and wielded influence over Little Russia

Little Russia

Little Russia , sometimes Little or Lesser Rus’ , is a historical political and geographical term in the Russian language referring to most of the territory of modern-day Ukraine before the 20th century. It is similar to the Polish term Małopolska of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...

 in his capacity as the secretary and advisor to Kirill Razumovsky

Kirill Razumovsky

Count Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky was a Ukrainian Registered Cossack from the Kozelets regiment in north-eastern Ukraine, who served as the last Hetman of Left- and Right-Bank Ukraine until 1764; Razumovsky was subsequently elected Hetman of the sovereign Zaporozhian Host in 1759, a position...

. He was also an amateur musician and printed in 1751 the collection of his songs entitled Idle Hours Away from Work.

Teplov was educated at Feofan Prokopovich

Feofan Prokopovich

thumb|Theophan ProkopovichFeofan/Theophan Prokopovich was an archbishop and statesman in the Russian Empire, of Ukrainian descent. He elaborated and implemented Peter the Great's reform of the Russian Orthodox Church...

's school in St. Petersburg and in Germany. On his return to Russia Aleksey Razumovsky, the secret spouse of Empress Elisabeth, asked him to look after his junior brother Kirill. After Kirill turned 18, he was appointed President of the Academy of Sciences. It was Teplov who ran the institution on his behalf. He published a Russian translation of Christian Wolff

Christian Wolff (philosopher)

Christian Wolff was a German philosopher.He was the most eminent German philosopher between Leibniz and Kant...

's writings, quarrelled with Mikhail Lomonosov

Mikhail Lomonosov

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was the atmosphere of Venus. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art,...

, persecuted Gerhardt Friedrich Müller

Gerhardt Friedrich Müller

Gerhard Friedrich Müller was a historian and pioneer ethnologist.-Biography:He was educated at Leipzig.In 1725, he was invited to St. Petersburg to co-found the Imperial Academy of Sciences...

 for his Normanist theories, and publicly berated Vasily Trediakovsky. He was also interested in the history of Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 and amassed many documents on the subject.

Peter III of Russia

Peter III of Russia

Peter III was Emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was very pro-Prussian, which made him an unpopular leader. He was supposedly assassinated as a result of a conspiracy led by his wife, who succeeded him to the throne as Catherine II.-Early life and character:Peter was born in Kiel, in...

 had Teplov arrested for some obscure reasons but he was released shortly. The event pushed him towards the party of Empress Catherine

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

 and the Orlov brothers. Teplov contributed to the downfall of the emperor and was present at his murder in the Ropsha Palace

Ropsha

Ropsha is a settlement in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated about 20 km south of Peterhof and 49 km south-west of central Saint Petersburg, at an elevation of 80 metres to 130 metres above sea level.-History:...

. It was Teplov who drafted Catherine's first ukase

Ukase

A ukase , in Imperial Russia, was a proclamation of the tsar, government, or a religious leader that had the force of law...

s and persuaded her to abolish the Cossack Hetmanate

Cossack Hetmanate

The Hetmanate or Zaporizhian Host was the Ruthenian Cossack state in the Central Ukraine between 1649 and 1782.The Hetmanate was founded by first Ukrainian hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Khmelnytsky Uprising . In 1654 it pledged its allegiance to Muscovy during the Council of Pereyaslav,...

. Mindful of Chancellor Bestuzhev's advices, Catherine bestowed upon him the title of senator

Governing Senate

The Governing Senate was a legislative, judicial, and executive body of Russian Monarchs, instituted by Peter the Great to replace the Boyar Duma and lasted until the very end of the Russian Empire. It was chaired by the Ober-Procurator...

 but effectively removed him from power. Giacomo Casanova

Giacomo Casanova

Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie , is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century...

describes him as the man "whose vice was that he loved boys, and his virtue that he had strangled Peter III".