TOLSTOY, PETR ANDREYEVICH, COUNT (164S 1729), Russian statesman, was the son of Andrei Vasilevich Tol stoy, an okolnichy or courtier attached to the person of the Tsar.
Even before Poltava, Tolstoy had the greatest difficulty in preventing the Turks from aiding the Swedes, and when Charles XII. took refuge on Turkish soil he instantly demanded his extradition. This was a diplomatic blunder, as it only irritated the already alarmed Turks ; and on Oct. Io, 1710, Tolstoy was thrown into the Seven Towers, a proceeding tantamount to a declaration of war against Russia. On his release from "this Turk ish hell," in 1714, he returned to Russia, was created a senator, and closely associated himself with the omnipotent favourite, Menshikov. In 1717 his position during Peter's reign was secured once for all by his successful mission to Naples to bring back the unfortunate tsarevich Alexius, whom he may be said to have literally hunted to death.
Tolstoy materially assisted Menshikov to raise the empress consort to the throne on the decease of Peter (1725), and the new sovereign made him a count and one of the six members of the newly instituted supreme privy council. When Menshikov,
during the last days of Catherine I., declared in favour of Peter II., Tolstoy endeavoured to form a party to promote the accession of Catherine's second daughter, the tsarevna Elizabeth. But Menshikov was too strong and too quick for his ancient colleague. On the very day of the empress's death (May II, 1727), Tolstoy, now in his eighty-second year, was banished to the Solovetsk monastery in the White Sea, where he died two years later.