more and more towards Austria. Nevertheless, even after Paul's second marriage, Panin maintained all his old influence over his pupil, who, like himself, was now a warm admirer of the king of Prussia. Traditional tales exist from this period of an actual conspiracy of Panin and Paul against the empress. As the Austrian influence increased, Panin found a fresh enemy in Joseph II, and the efforts of the old statesman to prevent a matrimonial alliance between the Russian and Austrian courts catalyzed Catherine into getting rid of a counsellor of whom, for some mysterious reason, she was secretly afraid. The circumstances of his disgrace are complicated and obscure. The final rupture seems to have arisen on the question of the declaration of the armed neutrality of the North, but it is known that Grigori Potemkin and the English ambassador, James Harris (afterwards 1st earl of Malmesbury), had both been working against him some time before that. In May 1781, Panin was dismissed. He died two years later in the spring of 1783. Personal qualities Panin was one of the most learned, accomplished, and courteous Russians of his day. Catherine called him her encyclopaedia. The Earl of Buckinghamshire declared him to be the most amiable negotiator he had ever met. He was also of a most humane disposition and a friend of liberal institutions. As to his honesty and kindness of heart there were never two opinions. By nature a sybarite, he took care to have the best cook in the capital, and women had for him an irresistible attraction, though he never married. References Further reading Britannica cites these sources: Anonymous. Life of Count N. I. Panin. (Rus.; St Petersburg, 1787) Political correspondence (Rus. and Fr.), Collections of Russian Historical Society, vol. ix. (St Petersburg, 1872) V. A. Bilbasov. Geschichte Katharina II. (Berlin, 1891-1893) A. Bruckner. Materials for the Biography of Count Panin. (Rus.; St Petersburg, 1888). Raeff, Marc. Origins of the Russian Intelligentsia. (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1966), pp. 102–103. Ransel, David L. The Politics of Catherinian Russia: The Panin Party (Yale University Press, 1975). 1718 births 1783 deaths Russian nobility Foreign ministers of the Russian Empire Active Privy Councillors, 1st class (Russian Empire) Politicians from Gdańsk 18th-century politicians from the Russian Empire Russians in Estonia Burials at the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra Ambassadors of the Russian Empire to Denmark Paul I of Russia