PANIN, NIKITA IVANOVICH, COUNT Russian statesman, was born at Danzig on Sept. 18, 1718. He passed his childhood at Pernau, where his father was commandant. In 1740 he entered the army, and rumour had it that he was one of the favourites of the empress Elizabeth. In 1747 he was accredited to Copenhagen as Russian minister, but a few months later was transferred to Stockholm, where for the next twelve years he played a conspicuous part as the chief opponent of the French party. It is said that during his residence in Sweden .
Panm, who certainly had a strong speculative bent, conceived a fondness for constitutional forms of government. Politically he was a pupil of Alexis Bestuzhev; consequently, when in the middle 'fifties Russia suddenly turned Francophil instead of Francophobe, Panin's position became extremely difficult. However, he found a friend in Bestuzhev's supplanter, Michael Vorontsov, and when in 1760 he was unexpectedly appointed the governor of the little grand duke Paul, his influence was assured. He was on Catherine's side during the revolution of 1762, but his jealousy of the influence which the Orlovs seemed likely to obtain over the new empress predisposed him to favour the proclamation of his ward the grand duke Paul as emperor, with Catherine as regent only.
Panin was never chancellor; but he was the political mentor of Catherine during the first eighteen years of her reign. He was the inventor of the famous "Northern Accord," which aimed at opposing a combination of Russia, Prussia, Poland, Sweden, and perhaps Great Britain, against the Bourbon-Habsburg League. The idea, though never quite realized, influenced the policy of Russia for many years. It explains, too, Panin's tenderness towards Poland, whom he regarded as an indispensable member of his "Accord," wherein she was to supply the place of Austria, whom circumstances had temporarily detached from the Russian alliance. All the diplomatic questions concerning Russia from 1762 to 1783 are intimately associated with the name of Panin. It was only when the impossibility of realizing the "Northern Accord" became patent that his influence began to wane.
After 1772, when Gustavus III. upset Panin's plans in Sweden, Panin became more and more subservient to Frederick II. of Prussia. As to Poland, his views differed widely from the views of both Frederick and Catherine. He seriously guaranteed the
integrity of Polish territory, after placing Stanislaus II. on the throne, in order that Poland, undivided and as strong as circum stances would permit, might be drawn wholly within the orbit of Russia. But he did not foresee the complications which were likely to arise from Russia's interference in the domestic affairs of Poland. Thus the confederation of Bar, and the Turkish War thereupon ensuing, took him completely by surprise. He was forced to acquiesce in the first partition of Poland, and when Russia came off third best, Gregory Orlov declared in the council that the minister who had signed such a partition treaty was worthy of death. Panin further incensed Catherine by meddling with the marriage arrangements of the grand duke Paul and by advocating a closer alliance with Prussia, whereas the empress was beginning to incline more and more towards Austria.
Nevertheless, even after the second marriage of Paul, Panin maintained all his old influence over his pupil, who, like himself, was now a warm admirer of the king of Prussia. There are even traditions from this period of an actual conspiracy of Panin and Paul against the empress. As the Austrian influence increased Panin found a fresh enemy in Joseph II., and the efforts of the old statesman to prevent a matrimonial alliance between the Russian and Austrian courts determined Catherine to get rid of a counsellor of whom, for some mysterious reason, she was secretly afraid. The final rupture seems to have arisen on the question of the declaration of "the armed neutrality of the North"; and in May 1781 Panin was dismissed. He died in Italy on March 31, 1783. Panin was one of the most learned, accomplished and courteous Russians of his day. Catherine called him "her encyclo paedia." The earl of Buckinghamshire declared him to be the most amiable negotiator he had ever met. He was also of a most humane disposition and a friend of Liberal institutions.
See anonymous Life of Count N. I. Panin (Rus.; St Petersburg, 1787) ; Political correspondence (Rus. and Fr.), Collections of Russian Histor. Society, vol. ix. (St Petersburg, 1872) ; V. A. Bilbasov, Geschichte Katharina 11. (Berlin, 1891-1893) ; A. Bruckner, Materials for the Biography of Count Panin (Rus.; St Petersburg, 1888).