Jacob von Sievers

Jacob Johann Graf von Sievers was a Russian statesman of Baltic German origin. He was from the Sievers family, originating in Livonia. From 1764 to 1781, he served as the governor of Novgorod.

Biography

He was born into the family of a Livonian nobleman. At the age of 12, he was moved to St. Petersburg by his uncle, whose daughter he later married. Sievers worked as a scribe in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and later served in the Russian embassies in Denmark and Britain.
During the Seven Years' War, he served in the Russian army as quartermaster general and participated in the battles of Gross-Jägersdorf and Zorndorf. He was then appointed governor of Novgorod in 1764 by Catherine II and he held that position until 1781. Catherine accepted many of his proposals after he wrote a report and insisted on the demarcation of lands and the creation of an agricultural society. As a result, he was one of the founders of the Free Economic Society.
He also introduced the cultivation of potatoes to Russia, regulated the postal services, and was instrumental in the abolition of torture in 1767.
Based on Sievers' initiative, the provincial government reform was instituted; he was himself appointed general governor of Novgorod, Tver and Pskov. He was Russian ambassador to Poland and led the second and third partition of the kingdom. Emperor Paul I of Russia appointed him senator in 1796; in 1797 he became head of the new department for water communications. He was knighted in 1798.
In Sievers' honor, Alexander I named the channel that connects the outlet of the Msta River with the Volkhov river the Sievers Canal.