Alexander Nikolayevich Meller-Zakomelsky (russian: Александр Николаевич Меллер-Закомельский; german: Alexander Nikolajewitsch Möller-Sakomelski; , in St. Petersburg — 15 April 1928, in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

) was a Russian

General of the infantry General of the Infantry is a military rank of a General officer in the infantry and refers to: * General of the Infantry (Austria) * General of the Infantry (Bulgaria) * General of the Infantry (Germany) ('), a rank of a general in the German Impe ...

(06.12.1906) and

Governor-General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

in the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

and of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

Family

Alexander was a member of the Meller-Zakomelsky family, being the great grandson of

Ivan Ivanovich Möller-Sakomelsky Baron (from 1789) Johann Möller-Sakomelsky (Russian: Иван Иванович Меллер-Закомельский, ''Ivan Ivanovich Möller-Zakomelsky''; 1725 – 10 October 1790) was a General of the Russian Empire. An artillery expert, he ga ...

. His father was Nikolay Ivanovich Meller-Zakomelsky ( ru) (1813—1887) — General-Adjutant, General of the Infantry.

Career

During the

1905 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

Meller-Zakomelsky took an active part in suppressing the revolt: 13 January 1905 (Julian Calendar), 50,000 workers protested against the

Meller-Zakomelsky in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

, Livonia Governorate, and marched through the city. To put down the protests, Meller-Zakomelsky gave orders to the soldiers to fire on the crowd: 70 people were killed, and 200 injured. In the wake of the massacre, Meller-Zakomelsky took pride in the way his troops handled the situation, writing to the

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

suggesting that there would be no more further trouble if more local authorities were willing to act as he had.Figes, p. 185

Personal life

He was an active member of the irregular freemasonic lodge, the

Grand Orient of Russia’s Peoples The Grand Orient of Russia's Peoples (russian: Великий восток народов России) (GOoRP) was an illegal Co-Freemasonry political organisation which existed in Russia from 1912 until 1917. The organisation was highly politic ...

References

Bibliography

* Imperial Russian Army generals Governors-general 1844 births 1928 deaths {{Russia-stub