The Orthodox Connection
Yakov Smirnov was the brother of Ivan Smirnov. As we have seen, both were born Linitsky, in the Ukraine, sons of an Orthodox priest. Yakov, with a name change, was ordained into the Russian Orthodox church and was for sixty years in charge of the chapel attached to the Imperial Russian Embassy, in London. Born on 16th October 1755, he died on April 28th 1840.
From all accounts, he was quite a character, and his duties at the Embassy included from time to time covert intelligence gathering, lobbying on behalf of the Russian Government (and his Empress, Catherine the Great) and investigations into British agriculture. He became a legendary Yakov-of-all-trades.
18 July 2012
Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko lays a wreath at the grave of Yakov Smirnov, Kensal Green, London
(see speech below, The Glorious 1812)
Count Evgraf Fedotovich Komarovsky (1769-1843), then acting as a diplomatic courier, had high praise. "Out of all the officials attached to our mission in London" he enthused, "there was only one remarkable man: he was the priest of our church, Yakov Ivanovich Smirnov, who was used in the diplomatic sector." A few years later, Russian journalist and author Petr Ivanovich Makarov (1765-1804) called on Smirnov. "I was led into a room which was very well furnished" he reported, "and some minutes later there appeared a man who was fairly young, fairly handsome, tall, well-built, erect, impressive in bearing and dressed with the greatest care but without the least hint of unbecoming foppishness: in a word, a young, well-educated Lord - and this Lord was Mr S-v, the Russian priest at the Embassy." Aleksandr Ivanovich Turgenev (1784-1845), the second of the famed quartet of brothers, was escorted, on his visit to Parliament early in 1826, by "the respected Smirnov, whose appearance was in accord with his calling and good reputation." Fedor Ivanovich Iordan (1800-1883), Rector of the Academy of Arts, left us an evocative portrait of Yakov, very similar to Makarov's. "Yakov Ivanovich pleased me greatly, dressed like a lord of an earlier age: in a long frock coat with tails which reached down almost to his heels, with buckles on his shoes, in gaiters (shtiblety), with a low, wide-brimmed hat and carrying a large sturdy stick with a silver knob. His whole appearance inspired sincere respect. He walked along quietly, describing circles with his stick, and with respectable appearance, and his hair in a plait, heavily powdered and brushed back at the temples, he seemed to me a living portrait of the seventeenth-century Dutch school."
A last glimpse of Yakov Smirnov, a year before his death, is a poignant portrait of an emigree surrounded by memories of homeland and heritage. "It seemed to me" Nikolay Ivanovich Grech (1787-1867) wrote, "that I had visited a pious hermit living on a lonely island amidst stormy waves of a foreign ocean. Russian icons, the portrait of Russian tsars, Russian books and a Russian heart - that is all he had saved from the shipwreck. Sufficient for this world - and the next." Upon his death, his effects were inherited by various family members.
Yakov lived for much of the time in an Embassy residence, No 36 Harley Street. He had three daughters, Sophia, Elizabeth and Catherine and two sons, Constantine and John. His daughters are all buried with their father in Grave 2491 at Kensal Green Cemetery, London. Catherine Smirnov wrote many letters to her cousin Maria out in Australia and also received mail from Maria's sisters still living in Russia.
On July 29, 1815, Yakov wrote to Count Karl Vasilyevich Nesselrode, (1780-1862) a Russian statesman who entered diplomatic service under Czar Alexander I, became state secretary in 1814, and attended the Congress of Vienna (1814-15). In 1816, he became Russian Foreign Minister, guiding Russian policy for 40 years. Nesselrode was a leading conservative statesman and his efforts to expand Russian influence in the Eastern Mediterranean at the expense of the Ottoman Empire and his miscalculations of British and French tolerance of this policy contributed decisively to the outbreak of the Crimean War (in which, incidentally, Yakov's nephew and Maria's younger brother John - Ivan Ivanovich Smirnov - died in 1855). Nesselrode also served as Chancellor from 1845 to 1856. Nesselrode was, therefore, perfectly placed to help Ivan's widow and children:
The Nesselrode letterHis Excellency K.V. Nesselrode
London July 29/August 10 1815
Your Excellency
Dear Sir!
Karl Vasilyevich
From the report delivered, as I heard, from Rotterdam, to Your Excellency, there are no doubts that all the details on the circumstances relating to the unfortunate demise of my brother, former Consul General in Amsterdam, are better known to you rather than myself, for I have only been informed by his widow that my brother being in Rotterdam on a business trip was attacked without any reason by violent murderous hand of a certain Russian officer with the rank of Major, that after having sustained multiple deep wounds on the head and arms and after terribly suffering for about three weeks he finally died, survived by wife and six little children who mourn his death and their misfortune. His elder daughter has not reached the age of nine and his youngest son is, I understand, not even five months old, and there is not a single kopek to support this unfortunate family. And there is fear that there are many debts.
It is known to Your Excellency that since my brother left this position together with the minister G. Akopeus till by proposal of Your Excellency, Tsar the Emperor was pleased to appoint him as Consul General in Holland where he took over his position only in the beginning of this year, the political situation in Europe was such that he, just as a ship in stormy weather was pushed around from one place to another, having problems and incurring losses with his big family, while he was always zealously and diligently performing his duties, especially in Holland (where he was appointed as Charge d'Affaires after Duke Dolgorukov left), and because of the then person who shattered European's peace and quiet, he had to extensively travel and did not have an opportunity to come back to the Fatherland, and all these circumstances led to exhaustion and ruin of my brother's domestic position.
I am fortunate to rely on experience indicating both kindness of your heart and your favourable and protective attitude to my unfortunate late brother, and that is why I dare to approach Your Excellency with this humble request to kindly take the trouble to bring to the attention to our most kind Tsar the Emperor the most grievous state of this family bereft of their natural protector by cruel fate, and ask His Majesty the Tsar to cast a kind and favourable glance on this family and to instruct kindly to make arrangements to sufficiently finance both bringing up of the unfortunate orphans and meals for the widow and orphans since they do not have any hope to get financial support from anywhere. For such your paternal protection of orphans, Your Excellency, you will be blessed by God and you will receive eternal gratitude from the family as well as myself, while I remain, with deep and utmost loyalty to Your Excellency,
Your most obedient and humble servant
Priest Yakov Smirnov
The Glorious 1812
18.07.2012
Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko’s address at wreath laying ceremony
Dear friends,
Today, as we commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Russia-UK peace treaty which sealed our alliance against Napoleon, we have gathered to pay tribute to an outstanding personality - Iakov (or James) Smirnov, who was posted to London in 1780 and spent almost 60 years here acting not only as a spiritual father for the Russian compatriots and all other Orthodox Christians in Britain, but also as a diplomat. Twice during the turbulent times of the Napoleonic wars he was left in charge of the Embassy, maintained link with Russia and cared about the Russian community.
Reverend James Smirnov will be remembered as a polymath who took deep interest in all spheres of knowledge, from entomology to astronomy, from literature to geography and agriculture. He was a friend of great men from all walks of life, and not only British – for example, he rendered help more than once to the Venezuelan national hero Francisco de Miranda. In the epoch when diplomats mostly conveyed messages from their sovereigns or followed court intrigues, Smirnov practiced public diplomacy in the very modern sense – he met British travellers to Russia, translated and published books about our country and was the key man in the successful newspaper and pamphlet campaign initiated by Ambassador Count Vorontsov in 1791 to prevent war between London and St. Petersburg.
One could base more than one adventure novel on the life of Iakov Smirnov – a priest, a diplomat, a polymath, a sincere friend of the British people and, above all, a devoted patriot of Russia. I am proud to be one of his successors. Before I pass the floor to Archbishop Elisey of Sourozh, the successor of Father Iakov in the spiritual way, I would like to thank all those who have studied his life, kept his memory alive and contributed to the restoration of his grave here. I am also glad to announce that we have received a message from his direct descendants who now live in Russia. It will be posted on the official website of the Embassy.
Voice of Russia report on the Yakov Smirnov Memorial
