Pierre de Poletica

Pierre de Poletica, also known as Petr Poletika or Petro Poletyka, was born in 1778 at Vasylkiv in Kyiv province. The son of a physician, he trained in the Noble Land Cadet Corps before entering the Foreign Ministry as a translator in 1798. His early assignments took him to Stockholm and Naples and into diplomatic work alongside Russian military commanders. He later served in Madrid and London. ^{1, 2}

He had already worked at the Russian mission in Philadelphia before returning to the United States as minister. His instructions brought European questions into American diplomacy. On 29 May 1819 he discussed Spain with Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and shared confidential instructions favoring a peaceful Spanish-American settlement. He opposed premature recognition of the former Spanish colonies and disputed the suggestion that Russian ships sold to Spain signaled a special alliance. Adams replied that further Spanish delay in ratifying the Florida treaty might lead Congress to occupy Florida and recognize Buenos Aires. ^{2, 3}

After returning to Russia in 1822, Poletica helped settle competing claims on the Pacific coast. With Count Nesselrode he signed the Russian-American convention of 17 April 1824, opposite Henry Middleton. It limited new American settlements north of 54°40′ and new Russian settlements south of that latitude, while allowing specified reciprocal fishing and trading access for ten years. He also signed the British-Russian convention of 28 February 1825, which defined the boundary between their northwestern American possessions. These were negotiations in St. Petersburg after his American posting. ⁴

Poletica also interpreted American society for European readers. The Encyclopedia of Ukraine credits him with A Sketch of the Internal Condition of the United States of America and of Their Political Relations with Europe, published in English at Baltimore in 1826. He became a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1822. In Russia he belonged to the Arzamas literary circle and knew writers including Vasily Zhukovsky and Alexander Pushkin. ^{2, 1}

Appointed a senator in 1825, he undertook administrative and diplomatic assignments involving Baltic privileges, claims against the Ottoman Empire, and inspections in St. Petersburg province. He later presided over the Forest Society. He died in St. Petersburg in 1849. His memoirs appeared posthumously in Russkii arkhiv in 1885. ^{1, 2}