Akhsharumov, Dmitry Ivanovich

Akhsharumov was born on October 11, 1785 ^[4] in Astrakhan, into a noble family of Armenian descent. At the end of the 1st cadet corps, with the rank of ensign of the Chernigov Infantry Regiment, he participated in the campaign of 1806-1807 in East Prussia and in the war with Turkey in 1809-1811. In the latter, for the difference in the battle of Bazardzhik , he was awarded the Order of St. 4th degree Vladimir with a bow.

Then, in the ranks of the 20th Jaeger Regiment and then the Life Guards Regiment , he took part in the Patriotic War of 1812, fought with honors at Smolensk , near Borodin , at Tarutin, and especially in the battle of Maloyaroslavets , for which February 13, 1813 years was awarded a golden weapon with the inscription "For courage" ^[5] . He also distinguished himself in overseas campaigns ; for the battle of Lutsen he was promoted to colonel and on October 20, 1813 he was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree (No. 2716 according to the list of cavalier Grigorovich - Stepanov)

In 1814, he accompanied the Allied armies to Paris and, at the end of hostilities, remained abroad, as the duty staff officer at the corps of Russian troops occupying France .

In 1819 he published his Description of the War of 1812 . This work at one time was of great importance. The authors of the Military Encyclopedia gave the following characterization of his work: “The Russian self-identified warrior not only thoroughly and succinctly (the entire book has 294 pages) outlined the actual side of the war, but in many places did not forget to express his thoughts and remarks, which did not lose much of their correctness and interest even to the present. The absence of references to sources partly detracts from the significance of his work, but the latter nevertheless, in truthfulness and sincerity of presentation, undoubtedly belongs to the remarkable. ”

On February 19, 1820, Akhsharumov was promoted to major general with the appointment of the 17th Infantry Division as commander of the 2nd Brigade, but on December 8 of the same year he was dismissed from the service "for determination in state affairs", on November 8, 1821 he was appointed vice director Commissariat Department. Here Akhsharumov set himself the goal of "making a methodological code of military decisions." The need to publish such a code was felt for a long time, but all attempts in this direction were unsuccessful until 1826, when, finally, Akhsharumov got down to business, although, as a member of the Heraldry, who, by his official position, had nothing to do with military law issues.

In 1826, Akhsharumov, having developed a note and a draft program of a set of military decrees, presented them to the head of the General Staff of His Imperial Majesty Baron I. I. Dibich . Dibich found it necessary to seek the advice and help of an authority on the publication and codification of laws by MM Speransky . Speransky recognized the proposals of Akhsharumov as very thorough and useful, and he agreed to take upon himself the general and main direction of the work of Akhsharumov.

On July 5, 1827, Akhsharumov was already assigned to the Main Headquarters of His Imperial Majesty for studies on behalf of him and received a small staff for this work. On December 31, 1827, Speransky received Akhsharumov’s first report on his work and not only supported him with his sympathy, but requested the annual appointment of a leave editorial office of 1850 rubles, as well as the appointment of two additional officials.

Since March 1828, Akhsharumov began work in full swing, presenting monthly reports to Speransky, who often sought personal instructions from Emperor Nicholas I on them. On February 2, 1830, Speransky presented at the discretion of the sovereign the already completed first part of the code, and the report drew particular attention to the difficulty and vastness of the work, which required the collection and study of all military regulations from the time of Peter the Great .

Further work on the compilation of the code and verification of his finished books, according to the Highest Command, was entrusted to a special meeting, which included both Speransky and Akhsharumov. Finally, after intensive work, in 1830 the 2nd part of the arch was completed, and in 1832 - its 3rd and 4th parts. However, the "revision" of the code by the council of the Minister of War and departments of the ministry greatly impeded the progress of work.

Difficult days came for Akhsharumov, as attempts began to eliminate the indefatigable worker when "nine-tenths of the matter was prepared." The Minister of War, Count Chernyshev , in February 1833, in addition to Speransky, presented a report on the verification of books of the code by a special committee, of which Akhsharumov was not a member. But Nicholas I, who knew the whole course of work closely, ordered that the report be sent to Speransky for conclusion. The latter examined in detail the assumptions of Count Chernyshev and did not agree, among other things, with the reluctance to return the books compiled by 1829 to supplement Akhsharumov’s addition and to remove him from the committee. Chernyshev disputed the opinion of Speransky, whose defense Akhsharumov resorted to, but secondly received the Highest Command - "get on with Speransky" and "submit a report on the measures for a speedy and successful conclusion of the case with joint signing." As a result, Akhsharumov was not only not eliminated, but received assistant advisers to the State Councilor N.I. Kutuzov , and all the books were returned to him for addition.

Two more years of painstaking work passed. In 1835, the editors completed all the books of the code, which were presented to the Speran emperor. On July 4, 1835, the Highest Established Committee for verifying the code of military decisions opened its operations, and Akhsharumov himself and his assistant Kutuzov took an active part in the work of the committee. With the transfer of books of the code to the committee for revision, the editors were entrusted with the compilation of the book of states.

However, Akhsharumov was not destined to wait for the publication of the Code of Military Orders: on January 13, 1837, he died in St. Petersburg ; buried at the St. George cemetery of Big Ohta .

If we take into account that out of the 52 years lived, Akhsharumov devoted more than 11 years to the creation of the code, laying a solid foundation for the codification of military decisions, then the merit of this worker should be recognized as extraordinary. Such an assessment of Akhsharumov’s codification merit does not seem exaggerated, if we recall that in the code of military decisions of 1869 the book XIX was never published (in its entirety), and Akhsharumov re-compiled the whole code for 1827-1835, that is, for eight years.

Since January 28 ( February 11 ), 1820 he was married to Maria Semyonovna Bizheich. He had five sons: Nicholas , Dmitry , Vladimir , Semyon and Ivan ^[6] .

• Akhsharumov, Dmitry Ivanovich // Aral Flotilla - Mount Athos. - SPb. ; [ M. ]: Type. t-va I. D. Sytin , 1911. - P. 301. - ( Military Encyclopedia : [in 18 vol.] / edited by V.F. Novitsky [and others ]; 1911-1915, v. 3).
• Volkov S.V. Generality of the Russian Empire. Encyclopedic dictionary of generals and admirals from Peter I to Nicholas II. Volume I. AK. M., 2009
• Ismailov E.E. Golden weapon with the inscription "For courage." Lists of gentlemen 1788-1913. M., 2007
• Akhsharumov, Dmitry Ivanovich // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• Stepanov V.S., Grigorovich P.I. In memory of the centennial of the imperial Military Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George. (1769-1869). SPb., 1869.