Ilya Miloslavsky

Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky (Russian: Илья Данилович Милославский) (1594 - 1668) was a Russian boyar and diplomat.

Ilya Miloslavsky was brought forward by the head of the Posolsky Prikaz Ivan Gramotin, who had been his uncle. Miloslavsky was soon sent to Constantinople with a message from tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who wanted to establish a cordial relationship with the Turkish sultan. In 1646, Miloslavsky went to the Netherlands with orders to select gunsmiths for a Russian weapons factory and invite foreign officers and soldiers to serve in Russia.

When Alexei Mikhailovich married his daughter Maria, Miloslavsky, as the tsar's father-in-law, began to play a more visible role at the royal court. During the Polish campaigns of 1654-1655, he was appointed court voyevoda. In 1656-1662, Miloslavsky was in charge of the Streltsy Prikaz, Treasury Prikaz, Inozemsky Prikaz, and Reiter Prikaz. His foreign contemporaries considered him a self-interested and dull-witted individual.

According to an Austrian diplomat Augustin Meyerberg (author of Journey to the Muscovy), the tsar did not respect Miloslavsky, never called him his father-in-law, and even pulled him by the hair and hit him with his fist on several occasions. It was Miloslavsky who built the Amusement Palace in the Moscow Kremlin.