Alexander Mikhailovich Volkonsky

Coat of arms of the Volkonsky princes

Alexander Michailowitsch Wolkonski ( Russian Александр Михайлович Волконский , born April 25, 1866 in Saint Petersburg , † October 18, 1934 in Rome ) was a Russian prince and general staff officer of the Imperial Russian Army and author . He converted to Catholicism and was ordained a Catholic priest .

Life

military

AM Wolkonski studied at the University of Saint Petersburg Law and graduated with an exam from. He then entered military service and began his officer training at the cavalry school and continued this at the military academy (1890) in Saint Petersburg. In addition, he was at the Stabsakademie-Nikolaus in 1896 and took part in advanced courses in 1900. Since 1889 Wolkonski served in the cavalry - regiment of the Russian Imperial Guard . In 1890 he was a non-commissioned officer , then he was appointed Junker and on December 28, 1890 he was appointed cornet . He was promoted to lieutenant in 1894 and in 1895 sent on an extraordinary mission to Persia . In 1897 he was sent to the Russian embassy in Beijing . In his confidential dossier "The need to strengthen our strategic position in the Far East", he discussed a possible conflict with Japan and the unwillingness of Russia. In 1898 Russia sent him to Turkestan .

His military career continued, he participated on the Russian side in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 and fought in the province of Beijing. In 1901 he became a staff captain promoted and the 5th Infantry - Division displaced from September 1901 to October 1902 he was squadron commander in the 3rd Dragoons regiment, called the Life Guards regiment Finland. His next assignment was in the general staff from 1902 to 1905 , where he worked in the secret service department as an investigator and statistician (a so-called evaluator) for foreign armed forces. From May to August 1905 he was chief of the 8th division of the Pacific Naval Command Staff and from May 1906 he was assigned to the general staff to analyze the data and the military situation of the Asian countries.

In his next assignment he was sent to Italy as a military agent in February 1908 , where he wrote military reports and evaluations about the Italian armed forces and their cooperation with the German Reich . In this function he was promoted to colonel and created information about the Italian machine guns Perino Model 1908 and Fiat-Revelli Modello 1914 , state reports on the Italian armed forces and supplied this information to the Imperial Russian secret staff. He was then appointed as the tsar's wing adjutant . On the occasion of the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812 , he criticized the address given by Tsar Nicholas II , who portrayed the Tsar as the autocrat of all Russians. Volkonsky took the view that since the manifesto of October 17, 1905, the emperor had been a constitutional sovereign . This point of view and the hostility of the press and his superiors consequently led him to request his dismissal for health reasons, which was also granted "with uniform and pension". Nevertheless, at the beginning of World War I , he was reactivated with the rank of Colonel of the Reserve and was appointed Chief of Staff of the 12th Reserve Brigade in the Crimea . From 1915 to 1917 he was again sent to Rome as a military attaché in the reconnaissance service .

After the October Revolution , AM Volkonsky had to leave the Russian Empire in 1917 and maintained close relationships with General Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel , who served as a general in the White Army . In his exile he wrote several newspaper articles, published military-political analyzes and was an opponent of the Ukrainian national movement and the central assembly . He was also the author of several historical books on Russia.

theology

In the 1920s Volkonsky turned to Uniatism , he studied theology and was ordained a priest on July 6, 1930 by the exarch of Sofia Kyrill Kurtew . As a Catholic priest he dealt with the Roman Community of the United Nation and wrote his book "Catholicism and Eastern Tradition", which was published in Paris from 1933 to 1934 and in Shovkva in 1992 . He became a member of the Pro-Russian Commission in Rome and taught Russian as well as other Slavic languages at the Pontifical Oriental Institute . Alexander Michailowitsch died on October 18, 1934, he was buried in the crypt of the Pontifical Greek College of St. Athanasius , which is located in the Roman cemetery of Campo Verano . But his grave no longer exists today.

Origin and family

Knes Alexander Michailowitsch Volkonski came from the ancient Russian rurik family Volkonsky . His father was the chief steward Michail Sergejewitsch Volkonsky (1832-1909), his grandfather was the Decembrist and Major General Sergei Grigoryevich Volkonsky (1788-1865), his paternal great-uncle was Major General Nikita Grigoryevich Volkonsky (1781-1844), who was court lady with the lady Sinaida Alexandrovna Volkonskaya (1792-1862). His brothers were the music teacher Sergei Michailowitsch Volkonsky (1860-1937) and the politician Vladimir Mikhailovich Volkonsky (1868-1953). Alexander Michailowitsch married the princess Eugenia Petrovna Wassiltchikov († 1924 in Paris ), their sons were Daniel Alexsandrovich Wolkonski (* 1902 - 1979 in Palma de Mallorca), Nikita Alexandrovich Wolkonski (* 1904 - 1924 in Paris) and Vladimir Alexsandrovich Wolkonski ( * 1908; † 1980 in Montefiore dell'Aso ), her daughter Maria died in 1968 in New York.

Works (excerpt)

• Prince Alexandre Wolkonsky, The Ukraine Question, The hisotical truth versus The separatist Propaganda, Translated under the direction of William Gibson, Rome, Ditta E. Armani, 1920 [1]
• Священник князь А. Волконский. Католичество и Священное Предание Востока (Catholicism and Sacred Tradition of the East) [2]

At the end of 1904, AM Volkonsky published a critical article in Novoje Vremja , in which he regretted the conduct of the Russo-Japanese war on the Russian side. This article caused disapproval from his superiors. He advocates the refusal to involve the army in political affairs, as expressed in a brochure entitled "The Army and the Rule of Law". He also wrote an analysis of the current politico-military situation in Russia in December 1906, which advocates strengthening the Council of National Defense. He defends this point of view in another brochure published in 1907 under a pseudonym. He wrote some historical books, e.g. B. “The Name of Russia Before the Mongolian Period” (1929) and various essays such as: What is the greatest danger? (1929), Little Russian and Ukrainian (1929).

literature

• Ponomarev V., Fomin M. Alexander Mikhailovich Volkonsky, Russian officer and Catholic priest. // Pokrov, No. 2, 1999.
• Alekseev M. Military Intelligence Service of Russia. From Rurik to Nikolaus II. Book 1, M., 1998. Book 2, M., 1998.

Web links

• Волконский Александр Михайлович: Сочинения (Russian)
• Волконский Александр Михайлович (1866-1934) (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See en: General Staff Academy (Imperial Russia)
2. ↑ Note: This meant that he could continue to wear the uniform in public and that he was paid his pension.