Alexander Alexandrovich Bibikov

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Alexander Alexandrovich Bibikov

Alexander Alexandrovich Bibikow ( Russian Александр Александрович Бибиков ; born January 7, jul. / 18th January  1765 greg. , † July 20 jul. / 1. August  1822 greg. In Dresden) was a Russian statesman and militia leader during the Patriotic War of 1812 .

Life

Origin and family

He was born in 1765 as the son of the Catholic general and statesman Alexander Ilyich Bibikow (1729–1774) and the princess Anastasia Semyonovna Kozlovskaya (1729–1800). Through his father he was a nephew of Prince Mikhail I. Kutuzov .

He married Anna Wassiljewna Chanykowa (1772–1826), with whom he had three children:

  • Wassili (1793–1867), Russian major general
  • Alexandra (1801–1875), ⚭ NM Besobrasow (1796–1839), Russian major general
  • Alexander

Career

Early military career

In 1768 he was enrolled in the Izmailovsky Life Guard Regiment as a Junker . After the death of his father in 1774, he received the rank of ensign at the age of nine and was accepted into the Preobrazhensky Regiment of the Life Guard on September 22, 1786 . At the beginning of 1787 he took up active military service and accompanied the very highest court during the trips to Tauria (southern Ukraine) and to the Crimea , in memory of this trip he received a gold medal from Catherine II . Bibikov aspired to martial fame and received the Tsarina’s permission to volunteer in Lieutenant General Ivan Michelson 's corps , which was deployed in the Russo-Swedish War . Bibikow participated on August 2, 1788 in the exploration of the village of Kiro in Wilmanstrand. In the following fighting near Kiro, he and two other grenadiers captured a Swedish cannon on May 29, 1789. In the village of Parusalmi he was injured by a bullet in his left leg on June 1, 1789, but was put back into service on June 7. For his courage in the battles at Parusalmi, he received the Order of St. George IV Class on June 9, 1789 . In July 1789 Bibikow took part in the fighting on the River Kyumen. Then he was assigned to the squadron under Vice Admiral Prince von Nassau-Siegen , the commander of the Russian rowing fleet, under whose command he was on 24/25. August 1789 participated in the archipelago battle on Svensksund (near Rochensalm). On August 21, during the landing of the Russian troops at the mouth of the Kyumen River, he commanded a battalion of the Preobrazhensky Regiment of the Life Guard. For the courage and discipline of these fighting, Bibikow received the Golden Sword for Bravery on August 30th . After the end of the Russo-Swedish War he returned to Petersburg in 1790 and served another five years as a captain in the guard.

On May 31, 1795 he was raised to chamberlain and on October 1, 1798 to a real privy councilor . After Tsar Paul I ascended the throne , he began a brief diplomatic mission with the Duke of Württemberg . Paul I urged him to serve in the Academy of Foreign Affairs from November 7, 1798, and on December 22 of the same year he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to Portugal . On January 1, 1799, he was sent to Saxony as a special envoy , but was recalled on February 28, and on January 7, 1800 he was appointed the official herald for foreign affairs. By the highest decree he was made a senator and awarded the Order of St. Anne 1st Class. From January 12, 1800 he worked briefly in the department for provisional land surveys and fell out of favor in early February 1800, which resulted in several years of inactivity.

Formation of the militia army

In 1806 he was commissioned by the tsar with the formation of a militia army to repel a possible invasion of Napoleon's troops . Bibikow joined the militia on December 16 and was appointed police chief of the Oranienbaum district for 1807 . In 1808 Bibikov returned to the public service, from February 10, 1808 he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Neapolitan Court and remained in this office until February 22, 1810, when he was called back to St. Petersburg. With an imperial decree of December 20, 1810, he was again promoted to senator.

With the start of the Patriotic War of 1812 , he decided to return to military service and, through his uncle, Prince Mikhail I. Kutuzov, applied to the Tsar to be allowed to fight again. Bibikow allowed to organize the St. Petersburg militia, which numbered about 5,000 men, which he then with two seasons Grodno Hussars and a Polish lancer - Regiment was strengthened. On September 3, a division of his militias was sent to reinforce the I. Infantry Corps under General Graf von Wittgenstein , whom Bibikow himself joined on September 28. General Wittgenstein then ordered all St. Petersburg militias to be concentrated in the Novgorod area. On October 19, Bibikov and his men took part in the Battle of Polotsk ; the next day, during the reconquest of the city, the militias were at the fore again and were the first to enter Polotsk . For these battles Bibikow were awarded the Order of St. George III on January 3, 1813. Class awarded.

After Lieutenant General Wittgenstein's corps merged with Lieutenant General Steinheil's corps on October 28 , Bibikow was entrusted with the command of the 1st Combined Corps, which consisted of the militia regiments Perm , Sevsk and Kaluga as well as cavalry troops and 30 cannons. With these armed forces he successfully participated in the battles against the French near the villages of Chashniki and Smolny. In the last stand he was again wounded in the leg by a bullet, but did not leave the field until the end of the fighting. From November 28, 1812, he and his militias took part in the Battle of the Beresina near the village of Studjanka . During this time he was unable to ride due to his injured leg and organized the operations from a sled. In December 1812, the remnants of his troops of the main army followed to East Prussia , although only 900 of the 12,000 men in his militia were still in action. With this handful of people Bibikow took part in the battle at Labiau and in the capture of Königsberg . Then he asked Count Wittgenstein for permission to stay in Koenigsberg in order to calm down his decimated militia for reorganization. For the achievements of his men, with the approval of the emperor, he received a golden sword with the following engraving on the blade "For faith and the tsar" and on the handle "Senator Bibikow of the Petersburg militia". The refreshed militia then marched from Königsberg to the fortress of Pillau , from February 6, 1813, his division became part of the troops that besieged Danzig .

During this time Bibikow fell seriously ill and had to return to Königsberg to be restored. There, despite the illness, he gradually collected more remains of the scattered militia. On the road to recovery he led these men to Danzig on June 16 and placed them under the command of the siege corps, Duke Alexander von Württemberg. On July 1, Bibikov presented the Duke with a plan to transform the militia into regular formations, which was immediately carried out. He has since been given permission to leave the service and on July 10 he said goodbye to the troops. The Tsar particularly favored him and allowed him to continue wearing his militia uniform.

In order to restore his ailing health, Bibikow was also released from the Senator's mandate on October 15, 1813. At the end of this year, however, he returned to St. Petersburg and rejoined the 1st division of the third Senate Chamber. On April 25, 1821, he went to Karlsbad for treatment and died in Dresden in 1822. His body was brought back home from Saxony and buried in the Lazarewski cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky monastery .

Bibikov became known in the literature as the author of an autograph about his father "Notes on the life and service of Alexander Ilyich Bibikov" ( Записки о жизни и службие Александра Ильича Бибикова , St. Petersburg 1817).

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Bibikow, Alexander Alexandrovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Бибиков, Александр Александрович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian statesman and militia leader
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1765
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1822
Place of death Dresden