or MENZIKOFF, ALEXANDER, an eminent Russian general and statesman, was the son of a peasant, and was born near Moscow in 1674. While playing his trade as a pastry-cook's boy in the streets of the capital, he attracted the notice of Lefort, the favourite of Peter the Great. Having become the servant of that nobleman, he showed so much talent that his master raised him from the office of a menial and instructed him in the affairs of war and government. On the death of Lefort in 1699 Menschikoff succeeded to his place in the favour of the czar. Nor was he an unworthy successor. He distinguished himself at the siege of Schlüsselburg in 1702; and in 1704, so notable had been his services that he was appointed governor of Ingria, and was honoured with the rank of a prince and with the title of major-general. In the war against Charles XII. of Sweden Menschikoff bore an important part. In 1706 he routed the Swedes in a pitched battle; in 1709 he led on the left wing at Pultowa, and in the flight that followed that decisive victory he compelled Lewenhaupt, the Swedish general, to capitulate. Hitherto his style of living had been simple and unostentatious. But no sooner had Peter the Great in 1711 set out on his expedition against the Turks, and left him in charge of the government at St Petersburg, than he erected a palace, increased the number of his servants, and began to give the most sumptuous banquets. At the same time, his riches swelled to such a suspicious extent, that on the czar's return he would have been punished for embezzlement of the public money had not his former distinguished services palliated the offence. Restored to favour, Menschikoff was appointed commander of the army in the Ukraine in 1719, and ambassador to Poland in 1722. About this time he was anxiously looking for the death of the czar, and was employing all his penetration to discover the likely successor to the crown. On attaining the object of his scrutiny he timed his conduct so ably, that on the death of Peter in 1725 he was raised to the summit of power under Catherine I. Two years afterwards that princess died, charging her heir, Peter II., to espouse the daughter of Menschikoff. But the eagerness of the ambitious father to bring about the espousals disgusted the young prince; the suggestions of the Dolgoroukis, the royal favourites, intensified that disgust; and in a few days Menschikoff was sentenced to be banished to one of his own estates. Obeying the sentence with a defiant haughtiness, he left the city sitting in his handsome chariot, wearing all his badges, and attended by troops of servants. Before he had proceeded far, however, he was overtaken by the emissaries of the czar, stripped of all his pomp and magnificence, clothed in the garb of a peasant, and conducted in a covered waggon, along with his family, into Siberia. His wife had died by the way; his eldest daughter fell a prey to the small-pox soon afterwards; but Menschikoff himself, while shivering in a rude hut, and digging an inhospitable soil for bread, maintained his spirit unbroken. He began to seek the consolations of religion, and died of apoplexy on the 2d November 1729 while engaged in erecting a wooden chapel. He was the first count and the first prince created by a Russian sovereign, and was the founder of a family which cannot boast of any very distinguished name till we come to his grandson, the present Prince Menschikoff, the celebrated general who defended Sebastopol.