Russian Cavalry General and statesman
Alexander von Benckendorff
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Alexander_von_Benckendorff.jpg/220px-Alexander_von_Benckendorff.jpg) |
Native name
| Александр Христофорович Бенкендорф
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Birth name
| Konstantin Alexander Karl Wilhelm Christoph Graf von Benckendorff
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Born
| (
1781-07-04
)
4 July 1781
Reval
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Died
| 5 October 1844
(1844-10-05)
(aged 63)
Dago
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Buried
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Allegiance
| Russian Empire
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Service/
branch
| Cavalry
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Rank
| General
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Unit
| Semyonovsky Life-Guards Regiment
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Commands held
| Partisan (Kossak irregular) units
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Battles/wars
| War of 1812-13
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Awards
| Order of the White Eagle
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Spouse(s)
| Elisaveta Pavlovna Donez-Sacharshevskaya
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Children
| 3 daughters
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Relations
| General Baron Christoph von Benckendorff
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Konstantin Alexander Karl Wilhelm Christoph Graf
[1]
von Benckendorff
(
Russian
:
Александр Христофорович Бенкендорф
, Alexander Khristoforovich Benkendorf, 4 July [
O.S.
23 June] 1781 or 1783 ? 5 October [
O.S.
11 September or 23 September] 1844) was a
Baltic German
Cavalry General
and statesman,
Adjutant General
of
Tsar Alexander I
, a commander of
partisan
(
Kossak irregular
) units during the
War of 1812?13
. However, he is most frequently remembered for his later role, under
Tsar Nicholas I
, as the founding head of the
Gendarmes
and the
Secret Police
in Imperial Russia.
Family and career
[
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]
Alexander von Benckendorff was born into the
Baltic German noble
Benckendorff
family in
Reval
(Tallinn in present-day
Estonia
), son of General Baron
Christoph von Benckendorff
[
de
]
(12 January 1749,
Friedrichsham
? 10 June 1823,
Kolga
), who served as the military governor of
Livonia
, and of his wife Baroness Anna Juliane Charlotte Schilling von Canstatt (31 July 1744,
Thalheim
? 11 March 1797,
Riga
), who held a high position at the
Romanov
court as senior lady-in-waiting and best friend of Empress
Maria Fyodorovna
(the second wife of the Emperor
Paul
). His paternal grandparents were Johann Michael von Benckendorff and his wife Sophie von Lowenstern.
Alexander von Benckendorff's younger brother
Konstantin von Benckendorff
(1785?1828) became a general and diplomat, and his sister
Dorothea von Lieven
(1785?1857) a socialite and political force in London and Paris. His other sister, Maria von Benckendorff (1784?1841), married Ivan Georgievitch Sevitsch.
Having received his education at a
Jesuit
boarding school
, Benckendorff started military service in 1798 in the
Semyonovsky Life-Guards Regiment
.
Benckendorff then served as
aide-de-camp
to the czar. In 1803, while bearing the rank of
Colonel
he arrived in the
Septinsular Republic
. He was tasked with raising the nucleus of the
Greek Legion
, becoming the first commander of the unit. He then became the commander of the Souliote Legion component of the Greek Legion until his return to Russia in March 1805. Benckendorff had developed an amiable relationship with his
Souliot
subordinates, requesting the czar to be sent back to his previous unit. His request was denied, but Benckendorff remained a
philhellene
until the end of his life.
Kozakken op een landweg bij Bergen in Noord-Holland, 1813, SK-A-4067
During
Napoleon's invasion of Russia
in 1812, Benckendorff led the
Velizh
offensive, taking three French generals prisoner. When the Grande Armee left Moscow (October 1812), he became the commander of its garrison. In the foreign campaigns following, he defeated a French contingent at
Tempelberg
and became one of the first Russians to enter Berlin. He further distinguished himself at the
Battle of Leipzig
. On 2 November 1813 he arrived at
Bad Bentheim
.
[4]
In 22 November he crossed the
IJssel
with a
vanguard
regiment from
Bashkortostan
(under Prince Fyodor Fyodorovich Gagarin). On 27 November he left Harderwijk to cross the
Zuiderzee
by boat.
[5]
[6]
He consulted
Krayenhoff
.
[5]
On 1 December the strategic
Muiden Castle
was taken.
[7]
[8]
On 2 December he was received the townhall by
William I of the Netherlands
, the provisional king. Benckendorff passed
Loevestein
when he went to Tilburg and Breda. After British and Prussian forces arrived to succeed him, his unit proceeded to take
Louvain
and
Mechelen
, liberating 300 imprisoned Englishmen captured in Spain.
[9]
On 1 February they surrounded Brussels. It seems he went to Dusseldorf alone.
[10]
(At the end of March the French surrendered, which was followed by
Treaty of Fontainebleau (1814)
)
Grave of Alexander von Benckendorff in
Keila-Joa
, Estonia, 2009
In 1821 he attempted to warn Emperor
Alexander I
of the threat from the
Decembrist
clandestine organisation
, but the Tsar ignored his note. After the 1825
Decembrist Revolt
he sat on the investigation committee and lobbied for the establishment of a
Corps of Gendarmes
and of a
secret police
, the
Third Section
of
the Imperial Chancellery
. He served as the first Chief of Gendarmes and executive director of the Third Section from 1826 to 1844. Under his management, the Third Section established,
inter alia
, strict
censorship
over
literature
and theatre performances. His aim for
Russian historiography
was reflected in his statement that "Russia's past was admirable, its present is more than magnificent and as for its future ? it is beyond anything that the boldest mind can imagine."
[11]
In his role as Chief Censor, he became involved in the tragic death (1837) of
Alexander Pushkin
in an unnecessary duel, an involvement that for long made him an
unmentionable
in Russian historiography.
Yet by temperament, he was the very opposite of a proto-
Dzerzhinsky
or a proto-
Beria
. He suffered from a bizarre tendency to forget his own name, and periodically had to be reminded of it by consulting his own
visiting card
.
[12]
From the mid-1830s, his family seat was the
Gothic Revival
manor, Schloss Fall (now
Keila-Joa
) near Tallinn in present-day Estonia.
[13]
He died in
Hiiumaa
.
[
citation needed
]
In 1817 Alexander von Benckendorff married Elisaveta Andreyevna Donets-Zacharzhevskaya (11 September 1788 ? 7 December 1857, Berlin). The couple had three daughters:
Benckendorff's notes
[
edit
]
A recent Russian publication reveals his own view of his early life:
Zapiski Benkendorfa: Otechestvennaia voina; 1813 god: Osvobozhdenie Niderlandov
(Benkendorff's Notes. The Patriotic War; 1813: The Liberation of the Netherlands): Yaziki slavyanskikh kul'tur, Moscow, 2001.
ISBN
5-7859-0228-1
. This book reproduces two sections of Benckendorff's private notes that had not seen publication since 1903, very lively on the events of the Napoleonic war, correspondences with his contemporaries, Bagration and others, and associated regimental histories.
According to that book, Benckendorff kept personal notes and diaries throughout his life. One additional source for his notes, in this case from the late 1830s, can be found in volume 91 of the journal
Istoricheskii vestnik
for 1903.
References
[
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]
Sources
[
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]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Ronald Hingley
,
The Russian Secret Police: Muscovite, Imperial, and Soviet Political Security Operations
(Simon & Schuster, New York, 1970).
ISBN
0-671-20886-1
- R. J. Stove,
The Unsleeping Eye: Secret Police and Their Victims
(Encounter Books, San Francisco, 2003).
ISBN
1-893554-66-X
- Judith Lissauer Cromwell, "Dorothea Lieven: A Russian Princess in London and Paris" (McFarland and Co., 2007)
ISBN
0-7864-2651-9
External links
[
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]
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