Early Career
Born in Bochum in Westphalia, of middle-class parents, his original name was Heinrich Johann Friedrich Ostermann. Osterman became secretary to Vice-Admiral Cornelis Kruse, who had a standing commission from Peter the Great to pick up promising young men, and soon thereafter entered the tsar's service. The young man's knowledge of the principal European languages made him the right hand of Vice-Chancellor Shafirov, whom he materially assisted during the troublesome negotiations which terminated in the peace of the Pruth (1711). Osterman, together with General Bruce, represented Russia at the Åland peace congress of 1718. Shrewdly guessing that Sweden was at exhaustion point, and that Heinrich von Görtz, the Swedish plenipotentiary, was acting ultra vires, he advised Peter to put additional pressure on Sweden to force a peace.
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