Fyodor Rostopchin
Fyodor Rostopchin | |
---|---|
Governor-General of Moscow | |
In office 24 May [O.S. 12 May] 1812 – 11 September [O.S. 30 August] 1814 | |
Preceded by | Ivan Gudovich |
Succeeded by | Alexander Tormasov |
President of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs | |
In office 17 April [O.S. 6 April] 1799 – 4 March [O.S. 20 February] 1801 | |
Preceded by | Alexander Bezborodko |
Succeeded by | Nikita Panin |
Personal details | |
Born | Fyodor Vasilievich Rostopchin 23 March 1763 Kosmodemyanskoe village, Livensky uezd, Oryol Governorate, Russian Empire |
Died | 30 January 1826 Moscow, Russian Empire | (aged 62)
Citizenship | Russia |
Nationality | Russian |
Spouse | Yekaterina Rostopchina |
Children | 8 |
This article is part of a series on |
Conservatism in Russia |
---|
Count Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin (Russian: Фёдор Васильевич Ростопчин) (23 March [O.S. 12 March] 1763 – 30 January [O.S. 18 January] 1826) was a Russian statesman and General of the Infantry who served as the Governor-General of Moscow during the French invasion of Russia. He was disgraced shortly after the Congress of Vienna, to which he had accompanied Tsar Alexander I. He appears as a character in Leo Tolstoy's 1869 novel War and Peace, in which he is presented very unfavorably.
Biography
Rostopchin was born in the Kosmodemyanskoe village (modern-day Livensky District, Oryol Oblast of Russia) into a Russian noble family, the son of Vasily Fyodorovich Rostopchin (1733–1802), a landlord and former army major, and Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Rostopchina (née Kryukova) who died shortly after giving birth to his younger brother Peter. Rostopchin's date and place of birth, as well as his family roots are still questioned by biographers. While the date 12 March 1763 is written on his tombstone, other sources, including Rostopchin himself, pointed at 1765 as the real year and Moscow – as the real place of his birth.[1]
He also claimed that his family was very ancient and originated around the 15th century from Crimean Tatars, direct descendants of Genghis Khan.[2][3][1] In Part 2 of the All-Russian Armorials of Noble Houses he named some Boris Davydovich nicknamed Rostopcha (from Russian rastopcha which means scatterbrain, blockhead[4]) who arrived to Moscow to serve Vasili III of Russia, while in Part 4 his name changed to Boris Fyodorovich and later official encyclopedias renamed him to Mikhail Davydovich.[5][6][7] His descendants supposedly served in Moscow, Tver, Klin and Rzhev at various army and state positions, yet none of them left any trace in Russian history, and some modern historians consider it to be a mystification.[1]
He spent most of his childhood and youth at his father's family estate in the Kosmodemyanskoe village where he received home education. He was fluent in English, German, French and Italian languages, and from 1786 to 1788 he traveled to Europe. This trip, especially the time spent in Berlin, influenced his later views and his passion for self-education. He described it in his first book The Trip to Prussia (1792–1794) which has been compared to the Letters of a Russian Traveller by Nikolay Karamzin.[1]
Feodor Rostopchin started his military career as a member of the
Rostopchin had great influence over
During the
When later on in his memoirs Count Rostopchín explained his actions at this time, he repeatedly says that he was then actuated by two important considerations: to maintain tranquillity in Moscow and expedite the departure of the inhabitants. If one accepts this twofold aim all Rostopchín’s actions appear irreproachable. “Why were the holy relics, the arms, ammunition, gunpowder, and stores of corn not removed? Why were thousands of inhabitants deceived into believing that Moscow would not be given up—and thereby ruined?” “To preserve the tranquillity of the city,” explains Count Rostopchín. “Why were bundles of useless papers from the government offices, and Leppich’s balloon and other articles removed?” “To leave the town empty,” explains Count Rostopchín. One need only admit that public tranquillity is in danger and any action finds a justification.
Tolstoi also attributes the Fire of Moscow to the constitution of the city and not to Rostopchin:
The French attributed the Fire of Moscow au patriotisme féroce de Rostopchíne (To Rostopchín’s ferocious patriotism),the Russians to the barbarity of the French. In reality, however, it was not, and could not be, possible to explain the burning of Moscow by making any individual, or any group of people, responsible for it. Moscow was burned because it found itself in a position in which any town built of wood was bound to burn, quite apart from whether it had, or had not, a hundred and thirty inferior fire engines. Deserted Moscow had to burn as inevitably as a heap of shavings has to burn on which sparks continually fall for several days. A town built of wood, where scarcely a day passes without conflagrations when the house owners are in residence and a police force is present, cannot help burning when its inhabitants have left it and it is occupied by soldiers who smoke pipes, make campfires of the Senate chairs in the Senate Square, and cook themselves meals twice a day.
In 1814 the Rostopchine family left Russia, going first to the
Family
He married
- Count Sergei Fyodorovich Rostopchin;
- Countess Natalya Fyodorovna Rostopchine;
- under the title of comtesse de Ségur;
- Countess Lise Fyodorovna Rostopchine;
- Count Andrei Fyodorovich Rostopchine, married Yevdokiya Petrovna Sushkova.
References
- Citations
- ^ ISBN 978-5-9726-0006-9
- ^ Alexander Mikaberidze, The Burning of Moscow: Napoleon's Trail By Fire 1812, Pen and Sword (2014), p. 28
- ^ Alexandre Jevakhoff, Le Roman des Russes à Paris, Editions du Rocher (2014), p. 86
- ^ Rastopcha from the Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary. Volume 2, p. 507 (in Russian)
- ^ Rostopchins coat of arms by All-Russian Armorials of Noble Houses of the Russian Empire, Part 2. June 20, 1798 (in Russian)
- ^ Count Rostopchin coat of arms by All-Russian Armorials of Noble Houses of the Russian Empire, Part 4. December 7, 1799 (in Russian)
- ^ Rostopchins article from Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1890–1907 (in Russian)
- ISBN 5-268-01462-5
- ^ Ten Years' Exile, pp. 350–352
- ^ Caulaincourt p. 112
- ^ Caulaincourt p. 114
- ^ Caulaincourt p. 115
- ^ Caulaincourt p. 119
- ^ 1812: Napoleon in Moscow by Paul Britten Austin, pp. 141–142
- Bibliography
- Caulaincourt, Armand-Augustin-Louis With Napoleon in Russia translated by Jean Hanoteau New York, Morrow 1935.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 754–755.