Peter Shafirov
Baron Peter Pavlovich Shafirov (Russian: Пётр Павлович Шафиров) (1670—1739), Russian statesman, one of the ablest coadjutors of Peter the Great.
Early life and career
Shafirov was born into a Polish Jewish family. His father Pavel Shafirov was a translator in the Russian Foreign Office, whose parents converted to Russian Orthodox Christianity after Smolensk was ceded to Russia by Poland in 1654.
Peter Shafirov first made himself useful by his extraordinary knowledge of foreign languages. He was the chief translator in the Russian Foreign Office for many years, subsequently accompanying tsar Peter on his travels. Made a baron and raised to the rank of vice-chancellor, he displayed diplomatic talents of the highest order.
Diplomatic missions
Shafirov concluded the Peace of the Pruth during the campaign of 1711. Peter left him in the hands of the Turks as a hostage, and on the rupture of the peace he was imprisoned in the Seven Towers. Finally, however, with the aid of the British and Dutch ambassadors, he defeated the diplomacy of Charles XII of Sweden and his agents, and confirmed the good relations between Russia and Turkey by the treaty of Adrianople (June 1713).