- Alexander von Benckendorff
Count Alexander von Benckendorff, ( _ru. граф Александр Христофорович Бенкендорф, "Aleksandr Khristoforovich Benkendorf", OldStyleDate|4 July|1781|23 June or 1783 - OldStyleDate|5 October|1844|23 September) was a
Russia nLieutenant General and statesman,Adjutant General of theSvita and a commander inPatriotic War of 1812 best remembered for having established theGendarmes in Russia.Alexander von Benckendorff was born to a Baltic German family in
Reval (now Tallinn,Estonia ). His brotherKonstantin von Benkendorff was a general and diplomat, and his sisterDorothea von Lieven was a socialite and political force famous atLondon andParis . DuringNapoleon's invasion of Russia , Beckendorff led theVelizh offensive, taking prisoner three French generals as a result. WhenMoscow was liberated, he became the commander of its garrison. In the foreign campaigns, he defeated a French contingent atTempelberg and was one of the first Russians to enterBerlin . He further distinguished himself at Leipzig and cleared theNetherlands from the French. After the Britons and Prussians arrived to succeed him, his unit proceeded to take Louvain andMechelen , liberating 600 imprisoned Englishmen on the way.In 1821 he attempted to warn Alexander I of the
Decembrist clandestine organisations, but the Tsar ignored his note. After the 1825Decembrist Revolt , he sat on the investigation committee and lobbied for the creation of the Corps of Gendarmes and thesecret police ofThird Section ofHis Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery . He was the first Chief of Gendarmes and Executive Director of the Third Section (1826-1844). Under his management, the Third Section established a strictcensorship over literature and theater plays. He directed the bias inRussian historiography , having said 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." [http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10102921]Yet by temperament, he was the very opposite of a proto-Dzerzhinsky or a proto-
Beria ; 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 [http://www.mk.by/archiv/05.10.2004/rub5.php] . After the mid 1830s, his family seat was theGothic Revival manor, Schloss Fall (nowKeila-Joa ) near Tallinn [http://www.baltische-ritterschaften.de/forum/?de=true&language=de&message=.74.1] .Further reading
* Ronald Hingley, "The Russian Secret Police: Muscovite, Imperial, and Soviet Political Security Operations" (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1970). ISBN 0-671-20886-1
* R. J. Stove, "The Unsleeping Eye: Secret Police and Their Victims" (Encounter Books, San Francisco, 2003). ISBN 1-893554-66-X
* Judith Lissauer Cromwell, "Dorothea Lieven: A Russian Princess in London and Paris" (McFarland and Co., 2007) ISBN 0-7864-2651-9Benckendorff's Notes
In 2001, a Moscow publisher came out with "Zapiski Zapiski Benkendorfa: 1812 God: Otechestvennaia Voina; 1813 God: Osvobozhdenie Niderlandov" (Yaziki Slav'anskix Kul'Tur, Moscow, 2001). ISBN 5-7859-0228-1. (The title translates to Benkendorff's notes: 1812: The Patriotic war; 1813: Liberation of the Netherlands). This book reproduces two sections of Benckendorff's private notes which had previously not seen publication since 1903, along with commentary, some associated regimental history and letters.
According to the book cited above, Benckendorff kept personal notes/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 "Istoricheskij Vestnik" (alternate spelling: "Istoricheskii Vestnik") for 1903.
Links
* [http://mdz1.bib-bvb.de/cocoon/baltlex/Blatt_bsb00000601,00041.html?prozent= 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
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