Count Alexei Ivanovich, a famous archaeologist, a member of the Russian Academy; was chief procurator of the Holy Synod, president of the Academy of Fine Arts and senator. The first of these positions gave him the opportunity to draw materials from the archives of monasteries and dioceses; from Sopikov he bought all the papers of Krekshin about Peter the Great. His “assembly” was opened to all members of the Moscow Society of Russian History and Antiquities, and Karamzin also used it.
Now it is only known from stories, since most of it died in the Moscow fire of 1812. M.-Pushkin was able to open the “Word of the Regiment of Igor’s”, the oldest list of the Laurentian Chronicle, the new lists of the “Russian Truth”, “The Wills of Vladimir Monomakh” and others. He managed to publish many of his manuscripts.