page_title: Fyodor Apraksin
section_title: Great Northern War
hierarchical_section_title: Fyodor Apraksin / Great Northern War
caption_attribution_description: English: Christofer Marselius. Apraxin Palace in en:St Petersburg, en:1725.
context_page_description: Count Fyodor Matveyevich Apraksin was one of the first Russian admirals, governed Estonia and Karelia from 1712 to 1723, was made general admiral, presided over the Russian Admiralty from 1718 and commanded the Baltic Fleet from 1723.
context_section_description: Having pacified the rebellious Astrakhan, Apraksin was summoned to Moscow, where he was put in charge of the mint and the armoury. In 1707, he was appointed president of the Russian Admiralty. The following year, he was appointed commander-in-chief in Ingria, to defend the new capital Saint Petersburg against the Swedes, whom he utterly routed. On February 25, 1710, aged 48, he became the third Russian ever to be elevated to the comital dignity. In March 1710 he was in command at the Siege of Vyborg. Taking this Swedish fortress in June, he was invested with the Order of St. Andrew and appointed governor of the conquered provinces (Estonia, Ingria, and Karelia).
  Apraksin held the chief command in the Black Sea during the campaign of the Pruth (1711).  He commanded the Imperial Russian Navy in the taking of Helsinki (1713) - materially assisting the conquest of Finland by his operations from the side of the sea - and the great Battle of Gangut (1714). That same year he assisted the tsar in launching a new harbour in Revel. Earlier, in 1712, he held parley with Turkey, which ended in the destruction of Taganrog and the surrender of Azov to the Ottomans.
  From 1710 to 1720 he personally conducted the descents upon Sweden, ravaging that country mercilessly, and thus extorting the peace of Nystad, whereby she surrendered the best part of her Baltic provinces to Russia. For these great services he was made a senator and General Admiral of the Empire.
caption: Apraksin Palace in St Petersburg was constructed to a design by Jean-Baptiste Le Blond in 1717-1725. Foreign visitors admitted that "even a king would have been jealous of such a noble dwelling". Several decades later, the palace was demolished to make room for the Winter Palace, which now occupies the spot
exif: {}