Alexander Von Benckendorff
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Konstantin Alexander Karl Wilhelm Christoph Graf von Benckendorff (russian: Александр Христофорович Бенкендорф, Alexander Khristoforovich Benkendorf, – ) was a
Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...
Cavalry General and statesman,
Adjutant General An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...
of
Tsar Alexander I Alexander I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death. He was the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. The son of G ...
, 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 , house = Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp , father = Paul I of Russia , mother = Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg) , birth_date = , birth_place = Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire , death_date = ...
, as the founding head of the
Gendarmes Wrong info! --> A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...
and the
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in Imperial Russia.


Family and career

Alexander von Benckendorff was born into the Baltic German noble Benckendorff family in
Reval Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ''m ...
(Tallinn in present-day
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), son of General Baron (12 January 1749, Friedrichsham – 10 June 1823,
Kolga Kolga is a small borough ( et, alevik) in Kuusalu Parish, Harju County, in northern Estonia, on the territory of Lahemaa National Park. It has a population of 490 (). Kolga is best known for its classicist manor. Wrestler Aleksander Aberg Al ...
), who served as the military governor of
Livonia Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...
, and of his wife Baroness Anna Juliane Charlotte Schilling von Canstatt (31 July 1744, Thalheim – 11 March 1797,
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), who held a high position at the
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court as senior lady-in-waiting and best friend of Empress Maria Fyodorovna (the second wife of the Emperor
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). His paternal grandparents were Johann Michael von Benckendorff and his wife Sophie von Löwenstern. Alexander von Benckendorff's younger brother
Konstantin von Benckendorff Konstantin von Benckendorff (russian: Константин Христофорович Бенкендорф, ''Konstantin Khristoforovich Benkendorf''; 31 January 1785 – 6 August 1828) was a Baltic German general and diplomat. Life and career K ...
(1785–1828) became a general and diplomat, and his sister
Dorothea von Lieven Princess Katharina Alexandra Dorothea von Lieven (russian: Дарья Христофоровна Ливен, tr. ), née Freiin von Benckendorff, 17 December 1785 – 27 January 1857), was a Baltic German noblewoman and the wife of Prin ...
(1785–1857) a socialite and political force in
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and
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. His other sister, Maria von Benckendorff (1784–1841), married Ivan Georgievitch Sevitsch. Having received his education at a
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, Benckendorff started military service in 1798 in the Semyonovsky Life-Guards Regiment. During
Napoleon's invasion of Russia The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign, the Second Polish War, the Army of Twenty nations, and the Patriotic War of 1812 was launched by Napoleon Bonaparte to force the Russian Empire back into the continental block ...
in 1812, Benckendorff led the
Velizh Velizh (russian: Ве́лиж) is a town and the administrative center of Velizhsky District in Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the bank of the Western Dvina, from Smolensk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: History In ...
offensive, taking three French generals prisoner. When
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
was liberated (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
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. He further distinguished himself at Leipzig (October 1813) and later cleared out the French forces occupying the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. After British and Prussian forces arrived to succeed him, his unit proceeded to take
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and
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, liberating 600 imprisoned Englishmen on the way. In 1821 he attempted to warn Emperor
Alexander I Alexander I may refer to: * Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC * Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus * Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome * Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...
of the threat from the
Decembrist The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Al ...
clandestine organisation, but the Tsar ignored his note. After the 1825
Decembrist Revolt The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Al ...
he sat on the investigation committee and lobbied for the establishment of a Corps of Gendarmes and of a
secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...
, the
Third Section The Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery (russian: Tretiye Otdeleniye, or ''III otdeleniye sobstvennoy E.I.V. kantselyarii'' - in full: Третье отделение Собственной Его Императорского В ...
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
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over
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and theatre performances. His aim for
Russian historiography This list of Russian historians includes the famous historians, as well as archaeologists, paleographers, genealogists and other representatives of auxiliary historical disciplines from the Russian Federation, the Soviet Union, the Russian Empire a ...
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." In his rôle as Chief Censor, he became involved in the tragic death (1837) of
Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
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 Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ;  – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...
. 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 A visiting card, also known as a calling card, is a small card used for social purposes. Before the 18th century, visitors making social calls left handwritten notes at the home of friends who were not at home. By the 1760s, the upper classes in ...
. From the mid-1830s, his family seat was the
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manor, Schloss Fall (now Keila-Joa) near Tallinn in present-day Estonia.Forum entry about Benckendorff's residence
He died in
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. In 1817 Alexander von Benckendorff married Elisaveta Andreyevna Donets-Zacharzhevskaya (11 September 1788 – 7 December 1857, Berlin). The couple had three daughters: * Countess Anna Alexandrovna Benckendorff (11 September 1818 – 19 November 1900, Lengyel), married to Count Rudolf Appony de Nagy-Appony * Countess Maria Alexandrovna Benckendorff (24 May 1820, Saint Petersburg – 4 November 1880,
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) married in Saint Petersburg on 12 January 1838 as his first wife Prince (28 March 1808, Saint Petersburg – 7 May 1882,
Menton Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Me ...
(Nice)) * Countess Sophia Alexandrovna Benckendorff (2 August 1825, Keila-Joa – 5 March 1875, Paris), married to and to Prince .


Benckendorff's notes

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. . 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


Sources

*


Further reading

*
Ronald Hingley Ronald Francis Hingley (26 April 1920, Edinburgh – 23 January 2010) was an English scholar, translator and historian of Russia, specializing in Russian history and literature. Hingley was the translator and editor of the nine-volume collect ...
, ''The Russian Secret Police: Muscovite, Imperial, and Soviet Political Security Operations'' (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1970). * R. J. Stove, ''The Unsleeping Eye: Secret Police and Their Victims'' (Encounter Books, San Francisco, 2003). * Judith Lissauer Cromwell, "Dorothea Lieven: A Russian Princess in London and Paris" (McFarland and Co., 2007)


External links


Baltic nobility genealogy handbook
Alexander von Benckendorff * http://www.mois.ee/english/harju/keilajoa.shtml – overview of Keila-Joa (in German: Schloss Fall) manor in Estonian Manors Portal {{DEFAULTSORT:Benckendorff, Alexander Von 1780s births 1844 deaths People from Tallinn People from Kreis Harrien Baltic-German people Counts of the Russian Empire Members of the State Council (Russian Empire) Chiefs of the Special Corps of Gendarmes 19th-century Estonian people Russian commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Third Degree Knights Fourth Class of the Military Order of William