Mikhail Shcherbatov

Prince Mikhail Shcherbatov (1733–1790) was a Russian statesman, historian and political thinker of an ancient boyar family. He defended serfdom and the nobility's old privileges, while holding up the British constitutional monarchy and separation of powers as an ideal. He represented the Yaroslavl nobility at Catherine II's Legislative Commission of 1767 and became imperial historiographer in 1768.

His seven-volume History of Russia from the Earliest Times appeared from 1771, followed by the utopian Journey to the Land of Ophir (1784). A founder of Russian conservatism, he attacked court morals in On the Corruption of Morals in Russia, published posthumously in 1797.