Robert Bruce (General)

Robert Bruce or Russified Roman Wilimowitsch Bruce ( Russian Ро́берт Брюс ; * 1668 ; † 1720 ) was a Scottish general in the Russian army at the time of the Great Northern War and first commander of St. Petersburg .

Life

Robert was the son of the Scottish nobleman William Bruce, who immigrated to Russia in 1649 . His father came from a line of the Bruce clan and served a total of 30 years in the Russian army, until his death in 1680. The father achieved the rank of major general .

Robert was twelve when his father died. His brother, Jacob Daniel Bruce , who was a year younger than him , also achieved an influential position in Petrine Russia. Both brothers also had a sister.

In 1683 he joined the game regiments of Peter I. , in 1695 he was promoted to captain of the Preobrazhensk body guard regiment . In the same and the next year he took part in the two Azov campaigns .

He probably accompanied the Great Legation Peters from 1697 to 1698. In 1700 he was appointed colonel appointed an infantry regiment and took after the outbreak of the Great Northern War at the Battle of Narva in part. In 1702 he took part in the siege and capture of Nöteborg , in 1703 he took part in the conquest of Nyenschanz .

From 1704 until his death he was major general in command of the defenses of the newly founded city of St. Petersburg . He recruited stonemasons and carpenters from the Novgorod region to further develop the city of St. Petersburg. As early as 1704, as commander of St. Petersburg, he fended off a Swedish attack on the city . He also attended the failed siege of Vyborg in 1706 . In 1710 he commanded a unit in the renewed siege of Vyborg and then participated in the siege of Kexholm . This earned him the rank of lieutenant general .

in 1720, Robert died at the age of 53. He was buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress , near the cathedral.

literature

• Robert Collis: The Petrine Instauration. Religion, Esotericism and Science at the Court of Peter the Great, 1689-1725 (= Aries Book Series. Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism. Vol. 14). Brill, Leiden et al. 2012, ISBN 978-90-04-21567-2 , p. 56 f.