ORLOFF' (ante), the name of a distinguished Russian family of recent origin in Euro pean family annals. Ivex was noted, first, for having taken part in a mutiny in 1689 against the young czar Peter (the great). His coolness at the scaffold obtained him a pardon, and a commission in the army; and he adopted the name of Orloff. H. GRIOORI GREOORIEWITCH, grandson of the preceding, 1731-83; an intriguer, a protege of Catherine II., who • helped her dethrone her husband Peter III., and when Catherine became empress vainly sought to marry her. She became tired of him, sent him to Moscow when infected with the plague, where he so distinguished himself by energetic perform ance of humane duties in arresting the pestilence that he was re-instated in her favor, afterward sent to prison by her, and died a wanderer and insane. III. ALEXEI, 1737 1808; brother of the preceding, is said to have ffcquired the favor of the same Catherine by strangling her husband with his own hands. In 1768 was made admiral of the Rus sian fleet in the Grecian archipelago, achieved brilliant successes in battles with the Turks in 1770; was rewarded with honor, then exiled by czar Paul. IV. FEnon, 1741 9G; another brother, made general-in•chief of an army serving against the Turks, and the father of four illegitimate sons, by whom the family name has been continued. V.
ALCXEI, 1787-1861; one of the above sons, was engaged in the campaign against the first Napoleon, aid-de-camp of Alexander I. His energy on the accession of Nicholas in 1825 aided to suppress the conspiracy on that occasion, for which he was promoted; fought against the Turks in 1828, negotiated the peace of Adrianople in 1829, and super intended the movements of the Russian army in Poland in 1830-31. He was suspected of poisoning the grand duke Constantine and marshal Diebitsch, but the charge was not sustained. In 1833 he was a party to the secret treaty with Turkey by which the Bos porus and the Dardenelles were closed to all but Russian ships of war. In 1844 he was at the head of the police system of Russia, and after the death of Nicholas retained the favor of Alexander II. In 1856 he was Russia's chief representative at the congress of Paris, and on his return to Russia was made president of the grand council of Russia, and a prince. VI. NIKOLAI a son of the preceding, b. in 1827; minister at Brussels in 1859; ambassador to Paris in 1872; recipient of the grand cross of the legion of honor from president MacMahon in 1875; and author of a work published in St. Petersburg in 1856, on the campaign in Prussia in 1806.