kärˈlō ändrĕˈä pôtˈtsō dē bôrˈgō, 1764–1842. Corsican politician and diplomat in Russian service, b. Corsica. In the French Revolution, he allied with Pasquale Paoli against the Jacobins on Corsica and supported the British occupation of the island in 1794. He became head of the British-backed civil government, superseding Paoli. After the French reconquest of Corsica (1796), Pozzo di Borgo left the island. He entered the Russian diplomatic service in 1804. An irreconcilable enemy of the Bonapartes (largely because of the role they had played in Corsican events), he helped to promote the Russo-Austrian alliance of 1805 against Napoleon I. The treaty of Tilsit (1807) between Czar Alexander I and Napoleon (1807) caused him to retire from the Russian service. Alexander recalled him in 1812, when hostilities with France reopened. In 1814, after Napoleon's first abdication, he was appointed Russian ambassador in Paris. Strongly sympathetic to the restored Bourbon regime, he strove to lighten the burdens laid on it by the allies. His pro-French attitude eventually caused his transfer to London, where he served (1835–39) as ambassador.

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