Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgorukov

Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgorukov

Prince Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgorukov ( Russian князь Василий Владимирович Долгоруков ; * January 1667 , † February 11, 1746 in Saint Petersburg ) was a Russian politician and since 1728 field marshal .

Life

Dolgorukov was the son of a boyar and since 1685 in the rank of Stolnik at the Tsar's court. In 1700 he was enlisted in the Preobrazhensk bodyguard regiment .

He took part in the Great Northern War and distinguished himself during the siege of Mitau in 1705. In 1706 he was transferred to Ukraine, where he was under the command of Ivan Masepa and fought the Bulavin Rebellion from 1707 to 1708, led by Kondrati Afanassjewitsch Bulavin . During the Battle of Poltava he was the commander of the reserve cavalry. He also took part in Peter's Prut campaign in 1711. In 1713 he distinguished himself at the siege of Szczecin . In 1715 he was chairman of a commission to investigate cases of fraud and embezzlement of Alexander Danilowitsch Menshikov .

In 1715 he was sent to Poland to represent the Tsar, who was sick at the time. There he signed a pact with Danzig in 1716 , which obliged the city to follow an anti-Swedish policy. He also accompanied Peter I during his trips abroad to Western Europe in 1717 and 1718.

Although he was a favorite of Peter, he disapproved of a number of Peter's reforms and eventually became a supporter of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich . In 1718, after Alexei's death, Dolgorukov fell out with Peter by condemning Peter's violence against his own son. Dolgorukov was demoted and sent into exile in Solikamsk .

After the coronation of Catherine I on May 7, 1724, he was brought back from his exile and first appointed to the rank of colonel and then to brigadier general. In 1726 he was appointed commander of the armed forces in the Caucasus . In 1728 he was promoted to field marshal and a member of the Secret War Council.

After Anna's coronation in 1730, Dolgorukov was appointed to the Senate and president of the War College. In 1731 he was charged with insulting statements about the empress and sentenced to death. His sentence was then to life imprisonment in the Schlüsselburg changed. In 1737 he was brought to Ivangorod and finally exiled to the Solovetsky Monastery in 1739 .

In December 1741, after Elisabeth's coronation, Dorgorukov was fully rehabilitated. Elisabeth appointed him President of the War College. He kept this post until his death. While serving in the War College, Dolgoroukov improved the organization and logistics of the Russian military.

source

• Bantysh-Kamensky: Field Marshal Prince Wassili Dolgoruky, in: Biographies of Russian Generalissimuse and Field Marshal General in four parts, reprint edition from 1840, part 1–2, 1991, ISBN 5-7158-0002-1