Feodor Rostopchin

Feodor Rostopchin
Count Feodor Vasilievich Rostopchin
Rostopchin Coat of Arms

Count Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin (Russian: Фёдор Васи́льевич Ростопчи́н) (23 March 1763 [O.S. 12 March] – 30 January 1826 [O.S. 18 January]) was a Russian statesman, who served as governor of Moscow during French invasion of Russia.

Rostopchin was born in Orel, son of Vasily Fyodorovich Rostopchin, Lord of Livna (22 March 1765 - 1810) and ... Krakova. His father was the son of Rastapcha, of Mongolian descent.

Feodor Rostopchin had great influence over the tsar Paul I, who made him in 1796 adjutant general, grand-marshal of the court, then Foreign Minister. In 1799, he received the title of count. He was disgraced in 1801 for his opposition to the French alliance, but was restored to favor in 1810, and was shortly afterwards appointed military governor of Moscow. He was therefore charged with its defence against Napoleon, and took every means to rouse the population of the town and district against the invader. He has been generally charged with instigating the burning of Moscow the day after the French had made their entry; it is certain that the prisons were opened by his order, and that he took no means to stop the break out. He defended himself against the charge of arson in a pamphlet printed in Paris in 1823, but he subsequently made grave admissions. Shortly after the Congress of Vienna, to which he had accompanied tsar Alexander I, he was disgraced. He only returned to Russia in 1825 and died in Moscow in February of the next year.

He married Ekaterina Petrovna Protassova (1775–1869), and had five children:

  • Count Sergei Fyodorovich Rostopchin
  • Countess Natalya Fyodorovna Rostopchine
  • Countess Sofiya Fyodorovna Rostopchine
  • Countess Lise Fyodorovna Rostopchine
  • Count Andrei Fyodorovich Rostopchine, married Evdokia ...vna Sushkova

Their daughter Sofiya Feodorovna, the Comtesse de Ségur, was a noted French novelist.

He appears as a character in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, in which he is presented very unfavorably.

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