Fyodor Loginowitsch Heiden

Count Fyodor Loginowitsch Heiden ( Russian Фёдор Логинович Гейден ; born September 27, 1821 in Suomenlinna ; † August 18, ^July / August 31,  1900 ^greg. In Tsarskoje Selo ) was a Russian military. From 1881 to 1898 he was Tsarist Governor General of the Grand Duchy of Finland .

Early years

Fjodor Heiden ( German: Friedrich Moritz Reichsgraf van Heyden) came from a noble Dutch family who settled in Livonia and Estonia in 1795 because of Napoleon's occupation of the Netherlands . His father, Ludwig (Lodewijk) Sigismund Gustav Graf Heyden (* 1772, † 1850), became Tsarist war governor of Reval .

Fyodor Heiden himself was born a Lutheran , but later converted to the Orthodox faith. He decided early on to pursue a military career. In July 1840 he became an ensign in the guard regiment .

Fyodor Heiden served in the Caucasus from 1844 to 1847 and took part in the campaign in Hungary in 1859 . In 1854 he became Chief of Staff of the Russian Baltic Sea Units, in 1862 Tsarist Adjutant General and in 1866 Chief of the Russian General Staff. After the accession of Tsar Alexander III. Heiden was appointed Tsarist Governor General of Finland in 1881.

Governor General of Finland

The appointment of Fyodor Heiden was particularly welcomed by the Finnish-speaking population group. In 1883, 1886 and 1887, despite his own Slavophile tendencies, he was involved in the language regulations that were progressive for the time and granted Finnish greater rights in administration, the university and the military. He also campaigned for a reduction in customs barriers between Finland and Russia.

Initially, he also resisted pressure from Saint Petersburg to restrict Finland's autonomy rights, but later had to largely give in to Tsarist pressure. In 1890, for example, he subordinated the Finnish post to the Russian Interior Ministry and introduced Russian national emblems on Finnish postage stamps.

On his initiative, the draft of a new Basic Law for Finland was finally drawn up, which wanted to abolish large parts of the autonomy. This did not happen, however, as Fyodor Heiden resigned from his office in January 1897 due to illness and age. It was not until his successor, General Nikolai Bobrikow , who took office in 1898, that Russification reached its peak in Finland.

Private life

In 1854 Fyodor Heiden married Elisabeth Subow (1833-1894), whose father Nikolai Dmitrijewitsch Subow (1801-1871) held important positions at the Tsar's court. The relationship resulted in three boys and four girls.

literature

• Genealogical manual of the Baltic knighthoods . Part 2,3: Estonia . Goerlitz 1930
• Fyodor Loginowitsch Heiden . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 1st edition. tape 20 : Supplement: C – Öxnevalla . Gernandts boktryckeri, Stockholm 1899, Sp. 1088 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Web links

• Kenraalikuvernööri kreivi Fedor Logginovits Heiden (Finnish)