MENSHIKOV, ALEXANDER DANILOVICH, PRINCE (1663 ?—1729), Russian statesman, was born not earlier than 166o nor later than 1663. At the age of twenty he was gaining his live lihood in the streets of Moscow as a vendor of meat-pies. Fran cois Lefort, Peter's first favourite, took him into his service and finally transferred him to the tsar. On the death of Lefort in 1699, Menshikov succeeded him as prime favourite. Ignorant, brutal, grasping and corrupt as he was, he deserved the confidence of his master. He could drill a regiment, build a frigate, administer a province, and decapitate a rebel with equal facility. During the tsar's first foreign tour, Menshikov worked by his side in the dockyards of Amsterdam, and acquired a thorough knowledge of colloquial Dutch and German. He took an active part in the Azov campaigns (1695-96), and superseded Ogilvie as commander-in chief during the retreat before Charles XII. in 1708, subsequently participating in the battle of Holowczyn, the reduction of Mazepa, and the crowning victory of Poltava ( June 26, 1709), where he won his marshal's baton. From 1709 to 1714 he served during the Courland, Holstein and Pomeranian campaigns, but then, as governor-general of Ingria, with almost unlimited powers, was entrusted with a leading part in the civil administration. Men shikov was the right hand of the tsar in all his gigantic under takings. But every time the tsar returned to Russia he received fresh accusations of peculation against "his Serene Highness." Peter's first serious outburst of indignation (March 1711) was due to the prince's looting in Poland. On his return to Russia in 1712, Peter discovered that Menshikov had winked at whole sale corruptions in his own governor-generalship. Peter warned
him "for the last time" to change his ways. Yet, in 1713, he was implicated in the famous Solov'ey process over the export of corn, in the course of which it was demonstrated that he had defrauded the government of ioo,000 roubles. He only owed his life on this occasion to a sudden illness. In the last year of Peter's reign fresh frauds and defalcations of Menshikov came to light, and he was obliged to appeal for protection to the empress Catherine. It was chiefly through the efforts of Menshikov and his colleague Tolstoi that, on the death of Peter, in 1725, Catherine was raised to the throne. During her short reign (February 1725—May 1727), Menshikov was practically absolute. He contrived to prolong his power after Catherine's death by means of a forged will and a coup d'etat. While his colleague Tolstoi would have raised Elizabeth Petrovna to the throne, Menshikov set up the youthful Peter II., son of the tsarevich Alexius, with himself as dictator during the prince's minority. He now aimed at estab lishing himself definitely by marrying his daughter Mary to Peter II. But the old nobility overthrew him, and he was deprived of all his dignities and offices and expelled from the capital (Sept. 9, 1727). He died in exile at Berezov, Siberia, on Nov. 12 (0.S.), 1729.
See G. V. Esipov, Biography of A. D. Menshikov (Rus.) (St. Peters burg, 1875) ; N. I. Kostomarov, The History of Russia in the biogra phies of her great Men (Rus.), vol. ii. (St. Petersburg, i888, etc.) ; R. Nisbet Bain, The First Romanovs (London, i9o5) ; ibid. The Pupils of Peter the Great, ch. 2-4 (Westminster, 1897). (R. N. B.; X.)