Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov

Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov

Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov Graf ( Russian Павел Александрович Строганов ; born June 7 ^{. Jul} / 18th June  1774 ^greg. In Paris ; † June 10 ^jul. / 22. June  1817 ^greg. In Copenhagen) was a Russian lieutenant general , senator and member of the privy councilor. His godfather was the Russian Tsar Paul I , which made him a childhood friend of Tsarevich Alexander Pavlovich .

Life

Early time

Born in Paris as the son of Count Alexander Sergejewitsch Stroganow (January 14, 1733 - October 9, 1811) and his second wife, Ekaterina Petrovna, daughter of Prince Peter Nikititsch Trubetzkoi . Immediately after the father's wedding to Ekaterina Petrovna, the couple went to Paris in July 1769. In 1779, after ten years in France, Paul's parents returned to St. Petersburg . His father hired the educator Charles-Gilbert Romme to educate his son. In the same year his mother left the family because of an earlier love affair with Tsarina Catherine II , Prince Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov. His father then had to raise the son alone. To hide his emotional frustration from the boy, the father and his teacher Romme financed longer educational trips through Europe. The young count first traveled to northwestern Russia (1784), visited Lake Ladoga and the Grand Duchy of Finland , and returned to Moscow, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Perm . In 1785 Pavel Alexandrovich visited the Waldai region , Novgorod, Moscow and Tula with the tutor . In the next year Lesser Russia was visited and the Crimea traveled. In the period from 1787 to 1789 Pawel Stroganow traveled all over Europe, visited many countries such as Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Prussia and France and, according to his own reports, also traveled to Great Britain. First he visited Rome and from 1787 began studying botany at the University of Geneva . Stroganov also dealt with theology, chemistry and physics and kept himself vital with various sports, especially fencing and horse riding. In his spare time, he also went on trips to the mountains and studied mineralogy.

After a long stay in Geneva, during the course of the revolution, he traveled to Paris , where Romme founded the “Society of Friends of the Law” and served as a member of the Montagnard Convention. Under the influence of his teacher, Stroganov also became a member of the Jacobin Club under a fictional name . After his recall from abroad, Catherine II, dissatisfied with his political views, decided to take up his residence near Moscow. In 1791 he was promoted to lieutenant in the bodyguard of the Preobrazhensky regiment and on February 14, 1792 appointed Junker. At the end of the reign of Catherine II he was allowed to return to the St. Petersburg aristocratic world. As the godson of Paul I, he grew up with his son Alexander I, and in 1798 he became chamberlain to the Tsar. After Alexander I took the throne, a steep career began. At his suggestion, Alexander founded the Secret Committee in June 1801 and became its most active member. On September 8, 1802 he was given the rank of privy councilor and was appointed advisor to the interior minister, in addition to which he had diplomatic tasks. He accompanied Alexander I in the 1805 campaign and took part in the Battle of Austerlitz . In the spring of 1806 he was sent to London , where he sought Russian-English rapprochement and negotiated a coalition against France. On February 14, 1807, he gave up his position as Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and in March also the office of Senator. After his father's death in 1811, all rights went to his only son, Pavel Alexandrovich.

Military career

Pawel Alexandrowitsch Stroganow, after George Dawe

After the end of the 1807 campaign , he was officially accepted into military service. After he had withdrawn from his political activities, he volunteered for the army service, where he initially commanded a Cossack regiment and soon demonstrated extraordinary military skills. On December 21, 1807 he received the rank of Major General and the Order of St. George 3rd Class. On January 27, 1808 joined the ranks of the Izmailovsk Life Guard Regiment, which took part in the Russo-Swedish War 1808-1809. He served under the command of General Peter Bagration and took part in the capture of the Aland Islands . From 1809 to 1811 he served in both Danube Army and distinguished himself in several meetings against the Ottoman Empire . He was awarded a golden saber of honor with the inscription "For Courage and Bravery" and received the Order of St. Anna 1st Class and the Order of St. Vladimir 2nd Class. From May 1809 he led a grenadier regiment and soon became chief of a brigade of the 1st Grenadier Division. On November 15, 1811, he was promoted to adjutant general. On September 7, 1812 he commanded the 1st Grenadier Division at Utiza during the Battle of Borodino ; he replaced the wounded General Nikolai Tutschkow as commander of the 3rd Infantry Corps. On October 30, 1812 he received the rank of lieutenant general. At the head of the 3rd Infantry Corps he fought in the same year in the battle of Tarutino (October 18), Malojaroslawetz (October 24) and near Krasnoye (November 15-18). From October 16-19, 1813, he took part in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig and was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Newski . He then led the Russian troops in the storming of the fortress Stade near Hamburg . In February 1814 after the start of the campaign in France, he led his troops in the Union of General Wintzingerode . He commanded his corps in the battle of Craonne and the skirmishes at Champaubert and Montmiral . On April 23, 1814, he was awarded the Order of St. George 2nd Class for his leadership. On September 3, 1814 he received command of the 2nd Guard Division.

family

On May 6, 1793 he married Sophie Golitzyn , daughter of Prince Vladimir Borissowitsch Golitzyn and his wife Natalja Petrovna. The couple had five children:

• Alexander Pawlowitsch Stroganow (1794–1814)
• Natalia Pawlowna Stroganowa (1796–1872), sole heiress of the Stroganow estates, married her cousin Count Sergei Grigoryevich Stroganow (1794–1882) in 1818.
• Adelaide Pavlovna Stroganowa (1799-1882), lady-in-waiting, member of the Order of St. Catherine, married Prince Vassili Sergejewitsch Golitzyn (1794-1836) in 1821 and inherited the castle of Marino from her mother in 1845
• Elizaveta Pawlowna Stroganowa: (1802–1863), married Prince Ivan Dmitrijewitsch Saltykow (1797–1832).
• Olga Pawlowna Stroganowa: (1808–1837), married Count Pavel Karlowitsch Fersen (1800–1884).

After the early death of their only son, Alexander Pavlovich, Count Stroganov fell into melancholy in 1814 and began to lose interest in life. He searched the body of his son on the battlefield for two days and had the painful task of transporting the son's body to Russia. In order not to have to divide the family property between the four daughters, he asked Tsar Alexander I in 1816 to make his immovable property a crown property.

literature

• Залесский К.А. Наполеоновские войны 1799–1815. Биографический энциклопедический словарь, Москва, 2003
• Михайловский-Данилевский А. И., Имп. Александр I и его сподвижники в 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815 гг. Воен. галерея Зимнего дворца, т. 1, СПБ, 1845
• Предтеченский А. В., Очерки обществ.-политич. истории России в первой четв. XIX в., М.-Л., 1957

Web links

• Biography on hrono.ru (Russian)