thumb|300px|Artemy Volynsky
Artemy Petrovich Volynsky (; 1689–1740) was a Russian statesman and diplomat. His career started as a soldier but was rapidly upgraded to ambassador to Safavid Iran, and later as Governor of Astrakhan during the reign of Peter the Great (r. 1682–1725). He was later accused of corruption and stripped of nearly all his powers, before Catherine I of Russia sent him to govern the vast Governorate of Kazan. Anna of Russia appointed Volynsky one of her three chief ministers in 1738. After beating the noted poet Vasily Trediakovsky, Volynsky was arrested on charges of conspiracy and misconduct. Volynsky's archenemy Ernst Johann von Biron had him sentenced to death and beheaded on 27 June 1740.
Military youth
Artemy Volynsky was a male-line descendant of Prince Bobrok and thus the Lithuanian Gediminid dynasty. His father was one of the dignitaries at the court of Feodor III, and also a voivod in Kazan. He entered a dragoon regiment in 1704 and rose to the rank of captain, by 1711; then, exchanging the military service for diplomacy, he was attached to the suite of Vice-Chancellor Peter Shafirov. He was present during the Pruth Campaign and shared Shafirov's captivity in the Seven Towers in Constantinople.
Minister for Peter the Great
In 1715, by orders of Peter the Great he was sent to Isfahan, Persia, (which he reached in March 1717) as the new Russian ambassador. During his travels he was supposed to redirect the silk trade route in Persia to Russia with the Armenians' help. During his stay in Isfahan, Volynsky signed the Russo-Iranian treaty of 1717 with Shah Soltan Hoseyn.
In 1718 Peter made him one of his six adjutant generals, and governor of Astrakhan. In this post Volynsky displayed distinguished administrative and financial talents. In 1722, he married Alexandra Naryshkina, Peter's cousin. The same year he was accused of peculation and other offences to the emperor, who caned him severely and deprived him of his plenipotentiary powers, despite his undeniable services in Persia, but for which Peter could never have emerged so triumphantly from the difficult Persian War of 1722–1723. He was arrested on 23 June 1740 and thus condemned to be broken on the wheel and then beheaded.
Legacy
thumb|300px|[[St Sampson's Cathedral, the burial place of Artemy Volynsky]]
A tombstone in their honour was erected in 1741 by order of Elizabeth of Russia over their burial place beside St. Sampson Cathedral. That was the only thing that was visible over their grave until 1885 when a monument was placed as they were seen as national heroes because they opposed German ideas, as represented by Biron.