François Le Fort

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François Le Fort , also: Franz Lefort (* January 2 July / January 12,  1656 greg. In Geneva ; † March 2 July / March 12,  1699 greg. In Moscow ), was a confidante of Tsar Peter I. and the first Russian admiral . The man from Geneva is considered one of the organizers of the Imperial Russian Navy .

François Le Fort
François Le Fort, inscription of the engraving in Russian

Life

The family Le Fort were Huguenots who from the Piedmont had fled to Geneva and had come there as merchants to wealth and prestige. Francois Le Fort, son of the merchant and chemist Jacques Le Fort and Francoise Lect, daughter of the Attorney General Pierre Lect, was the younger brother of Ami Le Fort. In 1678, during the Russo-Turkish War (1676–1681) , he married Elisabeth Souhay, Daughter of Francois Souhay, a French colonel in the service of the Tsar.

Since his father had planned a career as a businessman for him, Le Fort left his parents' house in 1672 at the age of 16 to do a commercial apprenticeship in Marseille. In 1674, at the age of 18, he began his military career as an officer, initially in the Dutch service. He fought against the French in the Netherlands and in July 1675 went to Moscow via Arkhangelsk . Here he knew how to acquire a certain reputation among foreigners in the German suburb ( Nemezkaja sloboda ). Until 1678 he worked as secretary to the Danish envoy. Already at the end of the reign of Tsar Fyodor III. Le Fort entered Russian service. After the end of the war against the Sublime Porte , he traveled to his hometown of Geneva, where he arrived on April 13, 1682 and stayed for a month. On the return trip to Moscow he learned of the death of Tsar Fyodor III in Bernburg . During the reign of Sophia (1682-89) he enjoyed the favor of the chief head of Russian state affairs, Prince Vasili Gallizin . It was in 1683 Lieutenant Colonel , 1687 Colonel and assumed the Krimfeldzügen part 1687 and the 1689th

The 17-year-old Peter Alexejewitsch got to know Le Fort after the state upheaval in 1689. Through sociable talent, varied education, altruism and unconditional devotion to the young tsar, Le Fort acquired his close friendship. As a good friend and drinking brother, he was a big influence on Peter. In Moscow he held lavish parties, for which the tsar made a palace available to him that could accommodate around 1,500 people. Anyone with a reputation in Russia came here. Alcohol flowed freely; in this wild goings-on, Peter found the relaxation he was looking for. Le Fort had a brilliant career in Peter's service, which was by no means based solely on his sociable qualities.

In 1693 Francois Le Fort reorganized the Russian army with the rank of general and created the Russian fleet , which earned him the rank of admiral in September 1694. He was the first Russian admiral and stood by Peter the Great's side during the campaigns (1695 and 1696) to Azov as an advisor and military leader. During the second Azov campaign against the Turks in 1696, the Russians commissioned for the first time two ships of the line , four fires , 23 galleys and 1300 Strugi, which had been built on the Voronezh River as cannon rowing boats. After the occupation of the Azov fortress, the Tsar submitted a report to the Duma on the campaign, which on October 20, 1696, decided to build a navy. The date is considered the official birthday of the regular Russian Navy. For a time, Le Fort represented Russia's interests abroad as the leader of the Grand Legation . He received the rank of Grand Admiral and the title of Governor of Novgorod and became a member of the Russian nobility . On December 10, 1698, Francois Le Fort received a diploma from Tsar Peter I, elevation to the baron class and an improvement in the traditional coat of arms.

Intercourse with men like Le Fort and Patrick Gordon made the Tsar want to get to know Western Europe better and to open up Russia to the influence of Western culture as well as to forge political alliances and trade relations. In 1697 Le Fort was at the head of the Russian embassy of Peters, with which the tsar visited foreign countries incognito and which also passed through Mecklenburg . The journey provided Albert Lortzings in 1837 with the material for his opera Zar und Zimmermann .

The founding of the new capital Saint Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland by the tsar also took place according to the plans of Le Forts, which however no longer lived to see it. He died of a fever at the age of 43 shortly after returning to Russia in 1699. It has been proven that excessive alcohol consumption is partly responsible for the early deterioration in health. Peter arranged a state funeral for him with all possible honors. Despite the great geographical distance to his homeland, Francois Le Fort always tried to protect their interests and supported his family. The Tsar became the godfather of his son Peter. The family custom of adding the name Peter or Petrea the other first name to each child of the Le Forts was derived from him. Since the tsar's godson died early, Francois Le Fort adopted the son of his eldest brother Ami. In a letter of recommendation, Tsar Peter I informed the Geneva Council that he had received Pierre Le Fort, son of the State Councilor Ami Le fort and nephew of Admiral Francois Le Fort. He asked the council to complete the education of Henri Le Fort (1684-1703), another son of Francois Le Fort who had been sent to Geneva.

A district east of central Moscow still bears the name Lefortowo today . The notorious Lefortovo prison for political prisoners got its name from the neighborhood.

literature

  • Karl Ludwig Blum : Franz Lefort, Peters the Great's famous favorite . Heidelberg: Groos, 1867.
  • Jost Soom: advancement et fortune, Swiss and their descendants as officers, diplomats and court officials in the service of the tsarist empire . Zurich: Chronos, 1996. http: //www.françoislefort.ch

Web links

Commons : François Lefort  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ MC Posselt: The General and Admiral Franz Le Fort , 2 volumes, 1866. St. Petersburg Marine Museum.
  2. ^ Martine Piguet: François Le Fort. In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz . December 4, 2007 , accessed June 14, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Waren (Müritz): On the family history LE FORT. Were 2007.
  4. ↑ The Lefortowo Palace in Moscow still bears his name today. In the 20th century it gained notoriety as the NKVD prison.
  5. ^ Page of the Chekhov Society on the history of the city of Taganrog ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deutsche-tschechow-gesellschaft.de
  6. ↑ a b Geneva, Archives d'Etat: Letter from Tsar Peter I , June 19, 1695.
  7. ↑ Otto Titan von Hefner: The flourishing nobility of the Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg (Schwerin and Strelitz). Nuremberg 1858.
  8. ↑ Antje Kleinewefers: The Le Fort family. Annweiler o. JS 34.
personal data
SURNAME Le Fort, François
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fort, François Le; Lefort, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION first Russian admiral
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1656
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva
DATE OF DEATH March 12, 1699
Place of death Moscow