Apollon Galafeyev

Apollon Vasilyevich Galafeyev () (1793–1853) was a decorated

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

. Apollon Galafeyev was born into a noble family in

Tambov Tambov ( , ; rus, Тамбов, p=tɐmˈbof) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, Central Federal District, central Russia, at the confluence of the Tsna River (Moksha basin), Tsna ...

guberniya. After having received his education at the 1st Cadet Corps, he graduated in the rank of

podporuchik ''Podporuchik'' ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, потпоручник, potporučnik, , , , , ) is the most junior officer in some Slavic armed forces, and is placed below the rank of lieutenant, typically corresponding to rank of second lieutenant in English ...

on December 26, 1811, and was assigned to the Tula Infantry Regiment. In 1812, Apollon Galafeyev served in Count

Peter Wittgenstein Louis Adolf Peter, 1st Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Ludwigsburg-Berleburg (; ; ''Pyotr Christianovitch Wittgenstein''; – 11 June 1843), better known as Peter Wittgenstein in English, was a prince of the German dynasty of Sayn-Wittgenstein ...

’s unit and took part in the Battle of Sivoshino, Battle of Svolnya,

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and Second Battle of Polotsk (promoted to

poruchik The rank of lieutenant in Eastern Europe, also called ''poruchnick'' in Slavic languages, is one used in Slavophone armed forces. Depending on the country, it is either the lowest or second lowest officer rank. Etymology The rank designatio ...

and awarded the Order of St. Anna, 4th Class), Battle of Czasniki, and Battle of Smolyanka (promoted to

staff captain Staff captain is the English translation of a number of military ranks: Historical use of the rank Czechoslovakia In the Czechoslovak Army, until 1953, staff captain (, ) was a senior captain rank, ranking between captain and major. Estonia T ...

). In 1813, Apollon Galafeyev participated in the siege of

Pillau Baltiysk ( ); ; Old Prussian: ''Pillawa''; ; ; is a seaport town and the administrative center of Baltiysky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the northern part of the Vistula Spit, on the shore of the Strait of Baltiysk separ ...

and the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...

, the blockade of

Wittenberg Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is the fourth-largest town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. It is situated on the River Elbe, north of Leipzig and south-west of the reunified German ...

, Battle of Luckau (promoted to captain),

Battle of Leipzig The Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations, was fought from 16 to 19 October 1813 at Leipzig, Saxony. The Coalition armies of Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia, led by Tsar Alexander I, Karl von Schwarzenberg, and G ...

, capturing of

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and repelling of the enemy from

Breda Breda ( , , , ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. ...

. In 1814, Apollon Galafeyev took part in the blockade of

Jülich Jülich (; in old spellings also known as ''Guelich'' or ''Gülich'', , , Ripuarian: ''Jöllesch'') is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. As a border region between the competin ...

Battle of Craonne The Battle of Craonne (7 March 1814) was a battle between an Imperial French army under Emperor Napoleon I opposing a combined army of Imperial Russians and Prussians led by Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. The War ...

Battle of Laon The Battle of Laon, fought on March 9–10, 1814, was a pivotal engagement during the waning months of the Napoleonic Wars. Prelude Following his costly success at the Battle of Craonne, Napoleon sought to exploit the disarray within Genera ...

, and occupation of Paris. On April 23, 1817, Apollon Galafeyev was promoted to the rank of

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

and then lieutenant colonel (September 15, 1819). On December 8, 1820, he was transferred to the Velikolutsky Infantry Regiment. On December 12, 1823, Galafeyev was appointed commander of the 20th Jaeger Regiment. On January 28, 1828, he was promoted to the rank of

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

and then sent to the

Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

. For his performance in several battles, Apollon Galafeyev was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir (4th class), Order of St. Anna (2nd class), a gold sabre inscribed "For Bravery", and another Order of Saint Anna with

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

s. Besides this, Galafeyev took part in the siege of Shumla and

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city ** Varna Province ** Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna ** Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis * Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy * Varna (Šabac), a village in Serbia Asia * Var ...

. On October 23, 1829, he was also awarded the

Order of St. George The Order of Saint George () is the highest military decoration of the Russian Federation. It was originally established on 26 November 1769 Julian (7 December 1769 Gregorian) as the highest military decoration of the Russian Empire for commiss ...

(4th class). In 1831, Apollon Galafeyev participated in the Russo-Polish War, mainly fighting against the units of

Brigadier Brigadier ( ) is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore (rank), commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several t ...

Józef Dwernicki and General

Samuel Różycki Samuel Różycki (1781 – 1834) was an officer in the Polish Legions of the Napoleonic period, then in the army of the Duchy of Warsaw and later of Congress Poland. Early life Born on 19 June 1781 in Bosowice, he was orphaned at a young age ...

. For his service in

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, he was awarded the Order of Saint Vladimir (3rd class), promoted to the rank of major general (December 6), and assigned to the commander-in-chief of the 1st Army. On August 19, 1833, Apollon Galafeyev was awarded the

Order of Saint Stanislaus The Order of Saint Stanislaus (, ), also spelled Stanislas, was a Polish order of knighthood founded in 1765 by King Stanisław August Poniatowski of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It remained under the Congress Poland, Kingdom of Pola ...

(1st class) and then Order of Saint Anna (1st class) a year later. On October 19, 1834, he was appointed chief-of-staff of a detached

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

n Corps. On December 6, 1838, Galafeyev was appointed commander of the 20th Infantry Division. Also, Apollon Galafeyev participated in the Caucasian War of 1817-1864. As infantry commander, he took part in Adjutant General Pavel Grabbe’s

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; ; ), officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Fede ...

campaign against

Imam Shamil Imam Shamil (; ; ; ; ; 26 June 1797 – 4 February 1871) was the political, military, and spiritual leader of North Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia in the 1800s, the third Imam of the Caucasian Imamate (1840–1859), and a Sunni Muslim ...

from April to September 1839. Galafeyev was awarded the imperial crown to his Order of Saint Anna (1st class) for defeating Tashev-hadji (Shamil’s associate) and Order of Saint Vladimir (2nd class) with a promotion to

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

for capturing Shamil’s mountain stronghold of Akhoulgo. From March to December 1840, Apollon Galafeyev participated in a military campaign against the mountaineers, commanding the so-called Chechen unit. On July 11, the famous Battle of the Valerik River took place, in which

Mikhail Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov ( , ; rus, Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, , mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲerməntəf, links=yes; – ) was a Russian Romanticism, Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called ...

took part (later he would describe this event in his poem called "The Valerik"). In October 1841, Galafeyev participated in military action in the Chechen unit under the command of Pavel Grabbe and was wounded in upper

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

with a rifle bullet. On September 7, 1842, he was shell-shocked in his right shoulder by a cannonball. On November 3, 1844, Apollon Galafeyev was appointed governor of

Sevastopol Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...

, but had to remain in the Caucasus due to his illness until 1846. On October 1, 1852, he was removed from his post and

court-martial A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the arme ...

ed for administrative abuses. On December 15, 1853, Apollon Galafeyev was dismissed from military service. He died later that same year. {{DEFAULTSORT:Galafeyev, Apollon 1793 births 1853 deaths Imperial Russian Army generals Russian commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd class