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'' holding in his interior paw a sceptre and in his two mouth a laurel branch proper the sinister one holding in lions his interior paw a globus cruciger and in his mouth salient an olive branch proper '' upon a grassy compartment proper guardant or the dexter one '' a wreath of laurel a royal crown and two crosses or pattée argent in pale and in base between a boyar in 's hat fesswise and a crescent charged with a representation chief of a man 's face argent a sword and spear on crossed in saltire proper '' , the whole ensigned by a the coronet of a count of the russian empire . torteaux surrounded by '' god preserves all '' . deus conservat omnia '' , latin for `` nikolai sheremetev
 the coat of arms of count sheremetev
nikolai sheremetev

nikolai petrovich sheremetev -lrb- -rrb- -lrb- 28 june 1751 - 2 january 1809 o.s. , 9 july 1751 - 14 january 1809 n.s. -rrb- was a russian count , the son of petr borisovich sheremetev , notable grandee of the epoch of empresses anna ivanovna , elizabeth petrovna , and catherine ii .
he was also the grandson of boris petrovich sheremetev .
his father p. b. sheremetev was passionate about the theatre and transferred this passion to his son .
n. p. sheremetev spent his early youth at court .
from the age of 13 to 14 he started to act in private theatricals of his father , and then `` on the big court theatre '' .
in 1765 he played the role of the god hymen in the mythological ballet `` acis and galathea '' , in which his childhood comrade , the future paul i , had distinguished himself .
having a special passion for music , nikolai petrovich masterfully played the cello .
from 1769 to 1773 he traveled abroad : he attended lectures in leiden university in the netherlands , traveled across england , germany , and switzerland , took music lessons , and got acquainted with theatre life .
in france he took a great interest in opéra comique .
returning to moscow and receiving the post of director of the moscow bank for noblemen , sheremetev started to reconstruct his father 's theatre : he engaged in special education of serf children , `` certain to theatre '' -lrb- russian letters , foreign languages , music , singing , dance , diction , refined manners -rrb- .
feeling extraordinary talent in one of his students , parasha kovaleva -lrb- praskovya ivanovna kovaleva -rrb- , he gave her more and more attention , preparing for her star career as the future `` praskovya zhemchugova '' , whom he married in 1801 .
sheremetev 's performances involved moscow gentlefolk .
from a small private theatre of the count p. b. sheremetev , it grew into a troupe capable of giving `` an opera and allegorical ballets '' .
from the moment of his return from abroad sheremetev not only watched closely all events of the moscow theatre life , but on a regular basis he took out the troupe to performances of theatre medox , and he invited lead actors of peter theatre -lrb- theatre medox -rrb- to teach serf actors .
in the beginning of 1790 sheremetev decided to transfer the serf theatre from kuskovo to ostankino .
on july 22 , 1795 the theatre was opened with the premiere of the heroic opera `` the capture of izmail '' -lrb- p. potemkin 's libretto , i. kozlovski 's music -rrb- .
sheremetev 's theatre left far behind numerous other serf troupes -lrb- the only exception was the theatre of the count a. r. vorontsov -rrb- .
in 1796 sheremetev was made a senator , and in march he moved to st. petersburg to catherine ii 's court .
on november 6 , 1796 catherine died and the throne was inherited by paul i who gave sheremetev the title of marshal .
sheremetev 's life proceeded in st.petersburg , pavlovsk , gatchina ; he was engaged in theatre much less .
because of the incurable illness of zhemchugova , who was now his wife , the count closed the theatre in ostankino , and on november 6 , 1801 he secretly married her , having first found in an archive the facts testifying to her `` origin '' from the polish noble clan of kovalev .
the marriage was made public only after zhemchugova 's death -lrb- on february 23 , 1803 -rrb- .
sheremetev sent a letter to the tsar , informing him about his marriage with a woman `` whose origin incontestably had a noble beginning '' and about the birth of his son and heir .
sheremetev died six years later , in 1809 .
in his will he gave instructions for a very simple funeral , in a simple board coffin , with the money intended for a funeral distributed instead to the poor and monasteries .
