Arseni Andreevich Sakrewsky

Arseni Andreevich Sakrewsky

Arseni Andrejewitsch Sakrewski ( Russian Арсений Андреевич Закревский , scientific transliteration Arsenij Andreevič Zakrevskij ; born  September 13, 1783 in the village of Bernikovo, Tver province; † January 11, 1865 in Florence ) was a Russian military and statesman of Finland (1823 governor-general) 1831), Minister of the Interior (1828–1831) and most recently Governor General of Moscow (1848–1859).

Life

Arseni Sakrewski was originally of Polish descent and was baptized as Arseniusz Zakrzewski. He was the son of a large landowner from Tver, Andrei Ivanovich Sakrewski, a retired lieutenant and Anna Alexejewna, née Solntzew.

Early military career

In the years 1795-1802 he was trained in the cadet corps of Grodno (Shklow), after which he was appointed ensign in the Archangel Musketeer Regiment. He made a quick career in the Imperial Russian Army and took part in the wars with France (1805, 1806–1807, 1812–1815), against Sweden (1808–1809) and against Turkey (1806–1811). In the Battle of Austerlitz he saved the regiment's commander, General NM Kamenski, and for his bravery he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd Class. In 1806 Sakrewski was promoted to regimental adjutant and also distinguished himself in the battle of Prussian Eylau . In December 1808 he was appointed chief of the operations office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in Finland and received the Order of St. Vladimir 4th Class with Swords. After the appointment of General Kamensky as commander in chief of the Russian army in Moldova , Sakrewski was appointed chief secretary of its mobile operations offices in March 1810. He took part in the fighting at Batin (Russian) and the attack on Rustschuk and was wounded twice. On September 22nd, 1811 he received the Order of St. George, 4th grade. In December 1811, after an audience with Alexander I, he was appointed adjutant to Barclay de Tolly and on January 30, 1812 promoted to lieutenant colonel. On February 13, he was employed as a colonel in the Preobrazhensky Regiment of the Life Guard. Finally, on March 21, he was appointed head of Russian military intelligence and counter-espionage at the War Ministry. During the Patriotic War of 1812 it excelled in battles near Vitebsk , Smolensk , near Walutino and also in the battle of Borodino . From December 1812 he was an adjutant at the headquarters of the army under Barclay de Tolly and took part in the spring campaign of 1813 in Germany. On September 15, 1813, after the Battle of Kulm, he was promoted to major general and on October 18, after participating in the Battle of Leipzig, he was appointed adjutant general of the Tsar. After taking Paris , he was awarded the Order of Saint Anne, 1st class.

From December 1815 to 1823 Sakrewski held a department of the General Staff and headed the inspection and auditing department as well as the military printing department. In 1818, when the imperial court was meeting in Moscow, Tsar Alexander I, who knew about Sakrevsky's inadequate financial resources, brokered his connection with one of the richest brides of the time. His future wife, Countess Agrafena Fyodorovna (1799–1879) was the only daughter of the landowner Count Fyodor Andreevich Tolstoy (1758–1849), one of the most famous beauties of her time. She was the heir to her father's extensive estates in the provinces of Penza, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow, including Ivanovo in the Podolsk region and Studenets on Presnya.

Governor of Finland and Minister of the Interior

As he acted militarily clever and detested reactionary ideas, he also gained the trust of the new Tsar Nicholas I from 1825 onwards . On August 30, 1823, Sakrewski was appointed Governor General of the Grand Duchy of Finland as successor to Steinheil and received the rank of Lieutenant General . In Finland he was raised as a count to the nobility and under the name Arseni Zakrevski in 1831 with a seat and vote in the first estate. Sakrewski was largely critical of Finland and Finnish autonomy. Nevertheless, he was loyal to the laws there. However, he refused to learn Swedish or even Finnish himself . From April 19, 1828, he was appointed Minister of the Interior of Russia, still acting Governor General of Finland. In 1829 Sakrewski also rose to general of the infantry. On November 19, 1831, he had to resign as Minister of the Interior. Probably because of his hesitant measures against a cholera epidemic that broke out in southern Russia, he fell out of favor with the tsar and subsequently withdrew from his political offices.

Governor General of Moscow

Frightened by the revolutionary wave in Western Europe, Tsar Nicholas I called him back from retirement in May 1848 and appointed him military governor of Moscow in place of Prince A. Shcherbatov. On November 1, Sakrewsky was admitted to the State Council and received the Order of Saint Andrew 1st class. He took this position at the age of 65 and for nearly eleven years had kept the Muscovite population calm and shielded them from all political revolutionaries. He immediately took drastic measures and as a result had a bad reputation in liberal circles. In progressive circles, Sakrewsky gained a reputation as an unyielding reactionary. He regulated everything and everyone, he even had private balls and parties monitored. He wanted to control everything and if he showed some respect for the nobility, he treated the merchants as if they were lackeys. Sakrewski did not support the reforms introduced by the new emperor Alexander II and was therefore unsustainable in his function. In April 1859 he had to resign under the pretext of a scandal provoked by his daughter on the instructions of Alexander II. His only surviving daughter Lydia (1826 - 1884) was even the goddaughter of Nicholas I .; she had been married to Dmitri Nesselrode (1816-1891), son of Count KV Nesselrode, since January 1847. Because she led a life without secular conventions and married Prince DV Drutzk Sokolinski in 1859 without a previous divorce, she aroused the hearts of the Orthodox Church. The synod invalidated the second marriage and Sakrewski's daughter and her new husband were forced into exile. In 1861 Sakrewski followed exile to Florence, where he spent the rest of his days with his daughter's family. He died on January 11 (23) 1865 and was buried in Montemurlo, Italy .

See also

• List of Interior Ministers of Tsarist Russia

literature

• А. А. Половцова : Русский биографический словар , тome 7: Жабокритский - Зяловский, Moskwa 1897, pp. 195–199

Web links

• Sakrewski and the Russian censorship in Finland (Finnish)