Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin (Russian: Ники́та Ива́нович Па́нин; September 29 [O.S. September 18] 1718 – April 11 [O.S. March 31] 1783) was an influential Russian statesman and political mentor to Catherine the Great for the first 18 years of her reign (1762–1780). In that role, he advocated the Northern Alliance, closer ties with Frederick the Great of Prussia and the establishment of an advisory privy council. His staunch opposition to the Partitions of Poland led to his being replaced by the more compliant Prince Alexander Bezborodko. Catherine appointed many men to the Senate who were related to Panin's powerful family.
During Elizabeth's reign, he served as ambassador extraordinary to Denmark–Norway (1747–48), as well as ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Sweden (1748–59, and until June 1760). Under Catherine, he was the "first present" of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs (1765–83, actually until 1781; since 1763 and further).
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Early life and career
Nikita Ivanovich Panin was born in Danzig, to the Russian commandant of Pärnu, the city where he would spend most of his childhood. In 1740, he entered the Imperial Russian Army, and was rumored to be one of the favorites of Empress Elizabeth. In 1747, he was accredited to Copenhagen as Russian minister, but a few months later was transferred to Stockholm, where for the next 12 years he played a conspicuous part as the chief opponent of the French party. During his residence in Sweden, Panin, who certainly had a strong speculative bent, is said to have conceived a fondness for constitutional forms of government. Politically, he was a pupil of Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin; consequently, when in the middle 1750s, Russia suddenly turned Francophile instead of Francophobe, Panin's position became extremely difficult. However, he found a friend in Bestuzhev's supplanter, Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov, and when in 1760 he was unexpectedly appointed the governor of the little grand duke Paul, his influence was assured.