Alexander Ilyich Bibikov

Alexander Ilyich Bibikov

Alexander Ilyich Bibikow ( Russian Александр Ильич Бибиков * May 30 ^jul. / 10. June  1729 ^greg. In Moscow , † April 9 ^jul. / 20th April  1774 ^greg. In Bugulma ) one was Russian statesman and lieutenant general of the Imperial Russian Army under Tsarina Catherine II , senator and commander in chief of the troops in the fight against the Polish Confederation and in the suppression of the Pugachev uprising .

Life

Origin and family

Born as the son of Lieutenant General of the Russian engineering troops Ilya Alexandrowitsch Bibikow (1698–1784) from his marriage to a woman from the house of Pisarew. His older sister Agrafena Ilinichna married Lieutenant General Ivan Matwejewitsch Tolstoy (1746-1808), the younger Eudokia Iljinichna (1743-1807), married the later admiral Ivan Loginowitsch Golenitschew-Kutuzov (1729-1802). After his mother died and his father had entered into the second marriage with Varvara Schishkow (1719–1773), widow of L. Larinow, Alexander Ilyich was brought into the care of relatives and sisters of the Zachatiewski monastery in Moscow. A younger half-sister sister Ekaterina Ilyinichna Bibikowa (1754-1824) married in April 1778 the lieutenant colonel Kutuzov , who later became field marshal .

The following children were born from his marriage to Princess Anastasia Semenovna Koslowskaja (* December 6, 1729 - † May 4, 1800), daughter of Prince Semyon Borisowitsch Koslowski:

• Agrafena Alexandrovna (1755–1812), later Catherine II's maid of honor
• Pawel Alexandrovich (1764–1784), later adjutant at the wing .
• Alexander Alexandrowitsch (1765–1822) Privy Councilor and Chamberlain .
• Ilya Alexandrovich (1767–?)

Military career and civil service

At the age of fifteen, he was enrolled in the Engineer Cadet Corps. In 1744 he joined the regiment of the Prince of Hesse-Homburg as an ensign and served in Saint Petersburg . In 1749 he was assigned to the Genie Corps of General Ljuberas to organize the structure of the Kronstadt Canal. He also translated several current French technical articles on engineering , was then transferred to the artillery and in 1751 promoted to lieutenant . In 1753 he went on a business trip to the court in Dresden to find out about improvements to the Saxon artillery. In 1756 he took part in the Seven Years' War in East Prussia as a lieutenant colonel and commanded the 3rd Grenadier Regiment. After participating in the Battle of Zorndorf , he was promoted to colonel . In 1759 he was wounded during the fighting for Frankfurt an der Oder . During the siege of Kolberg on August 31, 1761, 800 soldiers from Bibikov's troops and their supply train were taken prisoner by the Prussians. During the war, Bibikow became friends with Colonel Michelson, who was his assistant chief in 1774, and with the Panin brothers ( Nikita Ivanovich and Peter Ivanovich ).

At the end of the Seven Years' War, Bibikov was promoted to major general and appointed leader of the Chernigov infantry regiment . In 1763, in the service of the new Tsarina Catherine II, he made a diplomatic trip to Cholmogory to negotiate with Prince Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig , he was supposed to submit an offer to the Tsarina for exile. Essentially Bibikow should set the mood of the followers of Peter III. explore. His overly enthusiastic review for the eldest daughter of the prince earned him the displeasure of the tsarina and he was sent to Ryazan for service until autumn 1763 . On behalf of the Tsarina, he calmed down the peasant revolts in the provinces of Kazan and Simbirsk in 1764 .

In the following year, 1765, he checked the southern and southwestern borders of Russia, where riots were expected over the election of Stanislaus II August Poniatowski as King of Poland . In carrying out this task, he checked the border on the Sinyukha River and then went to Smolensk , where he met with General Weymarn . In 1767 Bibikow was appointed marshal (chairman) of a commission that should draft a new code of law. The deputies of the commission were given the right to convene three candidates for the position of marshal, and the choice and approval of this position depended on the empress. The right to appoint a candidate actually came from the Attorney General, but Bibikow was confirmed in office by the Empress. His work in the commission suggested that he initially treated the new duty somewhat passively, but soon he was more actively participating in the meetings. From 1769 to 1771 he renewed the border protection against Finland in order to be able to proceed effectively in the event of a war with Sweden. In 1771 Bibikow negotiated with Prince Heinrich of Prussia to discuss the division of Poland . On June 20 of the same year he received orders to replace General Weymarn in Poland, whose previous measures had not been approved by the Tsarina. At the same time he received the rank of lieutenant general and in 1772 was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky .

Fight against Pugachev

In 1773 he was ordered to move with several regiments from Poland to the Danube front in order to reinforce the troops under General Rumjanzow . The order was changed after the Tsarina Bibikow had ordered to suppress the revolt of the Cossacks under Pugachev . On November 29, 1773 he was appointed successor to the unsuccessful Major General Kar . One of the people who accompanied the new commander in chief was the poet GR Derschawin , then a lieutenant in the Preobrazhensky regiment of the Life Guard. Bibikow issued a ready-made printed manifesto that was distributed to the insurgent population, demanding submission and forbearance by the Tsarina in the event of voluntary conversion. This manifesto was awkwardly drafted, had no effect on the rural population and prompted Bibikov to take decisive military action.

Immediately after his arrival in Kazan on December 26th, he was indignant at the suggestion made by the local governor von Brandt to defend only the province of Kazan and to leave the Orenburg region to the insurgents. Major General Larionov, a relative of Bibikov, then took command of the Kazan Corps. Bibikow had too few troops for an offensive and first had to strengthen the spirit of the loyal local population while trying to win over the local nobility. After the rebellion in Samara was crushed and the village of Alexejwskoye was taken at the end of December, he ordered Major General Mansurov to advance along the Samara River in order to establish the union with the Corps of General Freyman , who was staying in the Bugulma area. Both were to advance to Orenburg, whose direct free fighting was entrusted to the corps of Prince Golitzyn . At the same time the troops of Major Kordischewski and those of his relative Colonel Yuri Bibikov were to take action from Bashkiria. The first section was to carry out the movement along the Kama River to the Vyatka , the second section had to advance along the road between Kazan and Bugulma. By March 1794, the combined forces under Golitsyn, Yuri Bibikow, Freyman and Mansurow captured the fortress Tatishchev, and on March 24th Colonel Michelson , who had succeeded the unsuccessful General Larionov , lifted the blockade of Ufa . The cities of Chelyabinsk , Yekaterinburg and Kungur were also liberated. The defeat of the Pugachev troops brought relief from Orenburg. Pugachev escaped to Bashkortostan and continued the uprising. Bibikow did not live to see the final results of his activities, he died on April 9, 1774 in Bugulma of cholera . According to another unofficial version, he was poisoned by an agent of the Polish Confederation . After Bibikov's death, the Kazan nobility offered to bury him in Kazan and to erect a monument for him. At the request of his widow, his remains were cremated and the ashes were transferred to their home Kostroma estate in Borschewka and buried in the church of Bogorodskoje in the Kineschma district (today Strelka in the Ivanovo district ).

literature

• А. А. Половцова: Русский биографический словарь , тome 3: Бетанкур - Бякстер, Moscow 1908, pp. 16-20
• Р. В Овчинников: Пушкин в работе над архивными докуменами ("История Пугачева"). Л., 1969. pp. 178-181.
• О. В. Сухарева: Кто был кто в России от Петра I до Павла I , Москва, 2005
• Военная энциклопедия в 18 т. / Под ред. В. Ф. Новицкого и др. - СПб.; М. Тип. т-ва И. В. Сытина, 1911-1915.

Web links

http://deduhova.ru/statesman/aleksandr-ilich-bibikov/