Afanasy Lavrentyevich Ordyn-Nashchokin

Afanasy Lavrentyevich Ordyn-Nashchokin (born c. 1605, Pskov province, Russia—died 1680/81, Monastery of St. John the Evangelist, near Pskov) was a statesman and diplomat who became the chief adviser on foreign affairs to Tsar Alexis of Russia (ruled 1645–76).

The son of a petty landowner, Ordyn-Nashchokin received a good education in the relatively cosmopolitan environment of Pskov. During the reign of Michael (ruled 1613–45), he participated in the work of ambassadorial commissions that defined the Russo-Swedish borders and gained a reputation as a talented administrator. In 1656–58 he served as the virtual ruler of all the Livonian lands recently seized by Russia from Poland-Lithuania.

The experience Ordyn-Nashchokin acquired in dealing with Sweden at this time convinced him that Russia should seek to become a maritime power with a Baltic seaboard. Since Russia could not simultaneously contend for Livonia against Sweden and for Ukraine against Poland, he recommended peace with Poland even at the price of losing Ukraine. Alexis, however, overruled his plan; he concluded the Peace of Kardis (1661) with Sweden that restored the prewar territorial distribution, and pursued his war against Poland until 1666, when he commissioned Ordyn-Nashchokin to conclude a peace settlement with Poland. After eight months of negotiations, Ordyn-Nashchokin and the Poles agreed upon the Truce of Andrusovo (January 1667), which placed those parts of Ukraine east of the Dnieper River, as well as the city and region of Kiev, under Russian control. Following his diplomatic success, Ordyn-Nashchokin was promoted to the rank of boyar, appointed minister of foreign affairs, and also made head of several other departments, including the Ukrainian department.

Assuming the role of Alexis’ chief adviser, Ordyn-Nashchokin not only involved himself in foreign policy but also, foreshadowing Peter I the Great (reigned 1682–1725), advocated using western Europe as a model for Russian development. He promulgated a trade ordinance protecting Russian merchants from both foreign competition and native bureaucrats (1667), advanced the prospect of trade with Iran and Central Asia, and promoted interest in the shipbuilding industry.

Nevertheless, as Ordyn-Nashchokin continued to view expansion into the Baltic region as the major objective of Russian foreign policy and to favour a policy of friendship with Poland, which precluded an attempt to seize control of the remainder of Ukraine, he came into conflict with the tsar, who dismissed him from the Ukrainian department in 1669 and from the Foreign Office in 1671. In February 1672 Ordyn-Nashchokin took monastic vows and subsequently only briefly resumed his lay career to conduct negotiations with the Poles in 1679.