Temoignage d'vn contemporain svr Saint Vladimir par le Prince Augustin Galitzin
J. Techener, Libraire Paris 1861
Softcover, front detached from spine, pages yellowed, not cut in print, complete throughout, pp 76, good print condition
GOLICYN Augustin Petrovich(1823-1876) - prince, writer and publicist, son of Prince Peter Alekseevich Golitsyn (1731-1810), who converted to Catholicism in 1820, and the Polish woman Elizabeth Antonovna Zlotnicka (1800-1866). He was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. Having received a French home education, he lived in France from his youth, married Louise de Laroche-Aymon in June 1844 and settled in the family estate of Chatin-Creuse (V. Vienne department, France). Engaging in literary activity, Avgustin Petrovich Golitsyn turned his attention to popularizing new Russian literature among Western readers, translating Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin's "History of the Pugachev Uprising" (1799-1837), Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy's "Kniazia Sergebriai" (1817-1875) and a number of other works into French. Thanks to his efforts, works by European writers and publicists, the distribution of which was banned during the reign of Emperor Nicholas I (1825-1855), were regularly delivered to Russia. At the request of the director of the Imperial Public Library, Baron Modest Andreyevich Korf (1800-1876), Avgustin Petrovich Golitsyn secretly sent new books, including publications from the Russian uncensored press, for which he was awarded the title of Honorary Correspondent of the Public Library in 1868. In the 1860s. he was an active supporter of the reforms of Emperor Alexander II Nikolaevich (1855-1881) and undertook a mission to explain and popularize them in France, publishing the pamphlets "Un mot sur la Russie" ("A Word on Russia") and "L'émancipation des serfs en Russie" ("The Emancipation of Serf Peasants in Russia"). In the 1840s. He was one of the regulars at the Paris Catholic salon of Sofia Petrovna Swechina (1782-1857), where, influenced by the Jesuit Gustav Xavier de Ravignan (1795-1858) and Prince Ivan Sergeyevich Gagarin (1814-1882), who had converted to Catholicism, he became a supporter of the idea of uniting the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, which was widely discussed at the time. He took part in the organization of the publication of I.S. Gagarin since 1857 published the journal Études de théologie, de philosophie et d'histoire. From 1861, Avgustin Petrovich Golitsyn got into a polemic with the Slavophiles Alexei Stepanovich Khomyakov (1804-1860) and Ivan Sergeevich Aksakov (1823-1886), triggered by I.S. Gagarin's publication "Is Russia Catholic?" (Will Russia be Catholic?) As part of this controversy, he wrote the works "L'Église russe est-elle libre?" ("Is the Russian Church free?") and "L'Église Gréco-Russe" ("The Greek-Russian Church"), as well as I.S. Aksakov's response to his editorial, which appeared in the newspaper "Day" (1864, no. 12; due to the cessation of publication, it remained unpublished; it is now in the archives of the Slavic Library), which provoked numerous objections from Russian Catholics. In the Parisian Orthodox journal L'Union chrétienne, Avgustin Petrovich Golitsyn polemicized with Father Vladimir Goett (1816-1892), who had converted from Catholicism to Orthodoxy.He published a number of articles on Russian history in the journals Correspondant and Revue d'Anjou, as well as works on the history of relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches: Le Saint-Siège et la Russie (The Holy See and Russia), Témoignage d'un contemporain sur St. Vladimir" ("Testimony of a contemporary on Saint Vladimir") and others wrote biographies of his Catholic relatives: Dmitry Dmitriyevich Golitsyn (1770-1840) and Helena Alexandrovna Golitsyn (1785-1855). With his help, a large number of memoirs and letters on Russian history from the 10th to the 17th centuries were found and published. The correspondence and other documents of Augustine Petrovich Golitsyn are kept mainly in the archives of the Slavic Library in Lyon. He is buried in the church of St. Sulpic in the Châten-Creuse estate.
