Prince Boris Vladimirovich Golitsyn (; 6 January 1769, Moscow - 6 January 1813,

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

) was a Russian aristocrat from the Moscow branch of the

House of Golitsyn The House of Golitsyn or Galitzine was one of the largest princely of the noble houses in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire. Among them were boyars, warlords, diplomats, generals (the Mikhailovichs), stewards, chamberlains, the richest ...

, who fought in the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

and rose to the rank of lieutenant general.

Life

Boris was the son of

Vladimir Borisovich Golitsyn Prince Vladimir Borisovich Golitsyn (russian: Владимир Борисович Голицын; 21 June 1731 – 25 December 1798) was a Russian statesman. Early life 21 June 1731. He was the son of Admiral Prince Boris Vasilevich Golitsyn (17 ...

and his wife Natalya Petrovna. She was known as a learned woman, a gambler, and a good dancer and served

Catherine the Great , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...

. Natalya was the inspiration for the lead character in

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, ...

's '' The Queen of Spades''. His younger siblings were Sophie Vladimirovna Stroganova, countess

Ekaterina Vladimirovna Apraksina Ekaterina Vladimirovna Apraksina (nee Golitysna; Russian - Екатерина Владимировна Апраксина; 30 May 1770, Moscow - 14 March 1854) was a Russian noblewoman. Life The eldest daughter of prince Vladimir Borisovich Gol ...

and prince

Dmitry Golitsyn Prince Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn (russian: Князь Дмитрий Владимирович Голицын; 29 October 177127 March 1844, Paris) was an Imperial Russian cavalry general prominent during the Napoleonic Wars, statesman and mi ...

. He joined up as a sergeant in the

Semyonovsky Regiment The Semyonovsky Lifeguard Regiment (, ) was one of the two oldest guard regiments of the Imperial Russian Army. The other one was the Preobrazhensky Regiment. In 2013, it was recreated for the Russian Armed Forces as a rifle regiment, its na ...

of Russia's

Imperial Guard An imperial guard or palace guard is a special group of troops (or a member thereof) of an empire, typically closely associated directly with the Emperor or Empress. Usually these troops embody a more elite status than other imperial forces, in ...

in 1781 aged 12. Between 1782 and 1786 he studied at the Protestant faculty in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

to perfect his French and

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

skills. He admired

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

and

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...

and wrote the latter a letter in German when he was only 17. He also keenly studied music and dance, gaining him the nickname "Boris-Vestris" after the French dancer

Auguste Vestris Marie-Jean-Augustin Vestris, known as Auguste Vestris (27 March 1760 – 5 December 1842), was a French dancer. He was born in Paris, the illegitimate son of Gaétan Vestris and Marie Allard (1742–1802). His father was a Florentine dancer who ...

. He continued his education as a sub-lieutenant at the

École militaire École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in Paris during the last years of the

Ancien Regime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for "ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word fo ...

; he did not meet Napoleon Bonaparte who left the school in October 1785. Two weeks after the

Storming of the Bastille The Storming of the Bastille (french: Prise de la Bastille ) occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when revolutionary insurgents stormed and seized control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille. At t ...

a written order came to the Golitsyns to patrol in the city as guards. The correspondence of the elder of the Golitsyn brothers attests to his deep interest in analyzing and comprehending the events of the French Revolution. Boris made critical remarks on the proposals of Dubois-Crancé in the Assembly.Rzewski V.S. & V.A. Chudinov Russian "members" of the French revolution // French Yearbook 2010: Sources of the history of the French revolution of the XVIII century and the era of Napoleon. M.C. 6-45. In 1791 Catherine the Great had ordered the whole family to leave Paris and get back to Moscow, but they first visited Rome, where the brothers were portrayed by

Hugh Douglas Hamilton Hugh Douglas Hamilton ( – 10 February 1808) was an Irish people, Irish portrait-painter. He spent considerable periods in London and Rome before returning to Dublin in the early 1790s. Until the mid-1770s he worked mostly in pastel. His s ...

Dmitry Golytsin by Hugh Douglas Hamilton

Boris became very hostile to the turn of events and joined the Swedish army to fight against Revolutionary France. In 1794 he fought in Poland (then on the eve of its Third Partition), receiving the

Order of St George The Order of Saint George (russian: Орден Святого Георгия, Orden Svyatogo Georgiya) is the highest military decoration of the Russian Federation. Originally established on 26 November 1769 Julian (7 December 1769 Gregorian) a ...

fourth class on 1 January 1795 for brave deeds in the attack on the fortress at

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

during the

Battle of Praga The Battle of Praga or the Second Battle of Warsaw of 1794 was a Russian assault on Praga, the easternmost suburb of Warsaw, during the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794. It was followed by a massacre (known as the Massacre of Praga) of the civilia ...

on 24 October 1794 (

Old Style Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...

) - during that battle, he had fought alongside his brother Dmitry. He was made a colonel in 1796 then major general in 1798 commanding the St Petersburg Grenadier Regiment. On 31 December 1799, he rose to his final rank of lieutenant general before resigning on 24 March the following year. He rejoined the army in 1801 and was put in command of the Pavlovsky Grenadier Regiment in the Guards on 20 May 1802. He was made inspector of

Smolensk Smolensk ( rus, Смоленск, p=smɐˈlʲensk, a=smolensk_ru.ogg) is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest c ...

's infantry regiments on 11 October 1803 and fought in the battles of 1805. He was badly wounded at the

battle of Austerlitz The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important and decisive engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near the town of Austerlitz in ...

and resigned on health grounds on 7 September 1806. As well as being a skilled musician and dancer, he also tried writing in his youth, publishing 'Aurora' and 'Diogenes and Glyceria' in ''The Literary Almanac'' in 1788 when only twenty years old. He also made the first Russian translations of works by

Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright, dramatist and poet, who is best known for his novel ''The Vicar of Wakefield'' (1766), his pastoral poem ''The Deserted Village'' (1770), and his pl ...

and François de La Rochefoucauld. He was a friend of

Gavrila Derzhavin Gavriil (Gavrila) Romanovich Derzhavin ( rus, Гаврии́л (Гаври́ла) Рома́нович Держа́вин, p=ɡɐˈvrilə rɐˈmanəvʲɪtɕ dʲɪrˈʐavʲɪn, a=Gavrila Romanovich Dyerzhavin.ru.vorb.oga; 14 July 1743 – 20 ...

and with him founded a literary society in 1811 called ''La Causerie des amateurs des mots russes'' to study archaisms in Russian. That society was strongly criticized by backers of

Nikolay Karamzin Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin (russian: Николай Михайлович Карамзин, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ kərɐmˈzʲin; ) was a Russian Imperial historian, romantic writer, poet and critic. He is best remembered for ...

. He rejoined the army yet again during the

French 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, fighting at the battle of Smolensk and being wounded at the

Battle of Borodino The Battle of Borodino (). took place near the village of Borodino on during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The ' won the battle against the Imperial Russian Army but failed to gain a decisive victory and suffered tremendous losses. Napoleon ...

. He refused to be evacuated and died at Vilnius on 6 January 1813. His body was later moved to his family state at Viaziomy Castle near Moscow. In 1936 it was reburied in the family chapel of Moscow's

Donskoy Monastery Donskoy Monastery (russian: Донско́й монасты́рь) is a major monastery in Moscow, founded in 1591 in commemoration of Moscow's deliverance from the threat of an invasion by the Crimean Khan (title), Khan Ğazı II Giray, Kazy-G ...

References

External links

Généalogie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galitzine, Boris Vladimirovitch 1769 births 1813 deaths Military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars Russian military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Russian commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Translators to Russian Translators from English Translators from French Military personnel of the Russian Empire killed in action Military personnel killed in the Napoleonic Wars