Levenstern, Vladimir Ivanovich

Belonged to an ancient noble family , which received baronial dignity in 1720, was born in 1777 in the castle of Razik, in the Harrien district of Estonia .

At the end of primary education at the Revel Academy of the nobility in 1793, he was adopted by a sergeant in the Life Guards Semyonovsky Regiment and was a permanent adjutant under General-General Count N. I. Saltykov .

Transferred to the cavalry guards in December 1794 as a warmaster, the following year he was appointed captain in the light cavalry Ukrainian regiment, renamed Starodubovsky cuirassier , in whose ranks he was in a campaign of 1798-1799 against the banks of the Rhine against the French . In 1800, with the rank of major, he was among the troops sent under the command of Count Palen to the shores of the Baltic Sea to monitor the English fleet of Admiral Nelson , but in 1802, due to illness, resigned from service.

During the Patriotic War of 1812 , at the suggestion of the Minister of War Barclay de Tolly , Levenstern again entered the military service and was appointed senior adjutant to the commander in chief. During the retreat of the main apartment from Vilna to Drissa, he served as clerk in the preparation of secret reports that Barclay de Tolly sent to the sovereign, and then, as a parliamentarian, was on a business trip to a French intelligence camp.

He participated in the battle of Borodino : as senior adjutant, Barklya carried out his errands. At the head of the battalion of the Tomsk regiment participated in the famous counterattack on the Raevsky battery, during which he was wounded ^[1] . This episode, known only from notes by Levenstern himself, is usually hushed up in Russian military-historical literature: the honor of organizing a counterattack is attributed to its other participants, Yermolov and Kutaisov . Given the official attitude of Barclay de Tolly to Count Rastopchin for No. 677 of August 11, 1812, historians and researchers of the general’s work have every reason to doubt his involvement in the Battle of Borodino:

In 1813, Levenstern was promoted to lieutenant colonel and on December 18 was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree (No. 2761 according to the cavalier list of Grigorovich - Stepanov). Since that time, the whole of 1814 was under Lieutenant General Count Vorontsov . In 1815, Levenstern received the rank of colonel with the appointment of a commander in the Akhtyr hussar regiment . Having served in the separate corps of Count Vorontsov in 1815-1818, Baron Levenstern, upon the corps ’appearance in Russia, was on April 15, 1819 the commander of all Russian troops remaining in France .

Upon his return to Russia, he was dismissed from state affairs and on April 30, 1823 renamed to actual state councilors, and on September 14, 1826 he was again accepted for military service as a colonel , with the appointment of the second commandant in Revel. December 6, 1826 he was promoted to major general , with the appointment of being the head of the 3rd Dragoon division. March 19, 1828 was appointed commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Lancers; On May 28, 1824 he was expelled by cavalry and finally on January 8, 1838 he was dismissed from service with a uniform and full-time pension.

Levenstern died in St. Petersburg on January 21, 1858.

Three editions of Leuvenstern's memoirs are known. They could be conditionally called the first, second, and compilation. The sequence of their publication by chance turned out to be the reverse of the time of their creation.

The compilation edition appeared in print immediately after the death of the memoirist, in 1858, in Heidelberg, in German, under the title "Denkwürdigkeiten eines Livländers aus den Jahren 1790-1815" ("Memoirs of a Livonian about 1790-1815"). The publisher, Friedrich von Smith , personally knew Leuvenstern and at one time even served under his command. According to his testimony, the text was compiled from the diary, letters and oral stories of Leuvenstern, who in 1850 revised them, corrected them and supplemented them.

The second edition is represented by a manuscript in French, stored in the 2nd half of the 19th century. in the archive of the Ministry of War; published in Russian translation in the journal " Russian Antiquity " in 1900-1902. ^[3]

The first edition appeared in the last press: published in Paris according to the original manuscript (written in French) in 1903 ^[4] . The publisher was French military historian Major Maurice Henry Weil. Upon learning that the Russian Antiquity magazine was going to publish Notes by General V.I. Lowenstern, Weil wanted to abandon the idea of ​​publishing Memoirs, which he had inherited from the brother of the general, Georges de Lowenstern. But, having received the journal number for 1900 with the beginning of the Notes and comparing the Russian translation with the original in French, Weil “discovered sensible differences, significant changes, additions and abbreviations that completely changed the meaning and sequence in the manuscript that I kept in the hands ” ^[5] .

The origin of the two copyrighted editions is revealed in a letter from Vladimir Leuvenstern to his brother, dated December 1846: “The emperor found out about my intentions and asked me to submit my memoirs to him. I could not send them to him in the form in which I wrote before. I worked a year and a half to make them a little more digestible and give them a more suitable shape. I'm too old to rewrite everything a second time, and I can only send you the first draft, full of blots and corrections, in general complete chaos. But this sketch has at least the advantage that it depicts the truth without embellishment, sometimes sharp and unadjusted. Let these papers lie on your old cupboard until the archives are open to all the curious. And then you will have a true expression of my thoughts, as well as complete control over these documents ” ^[5] . After reviewing the Russian-language publication, Weil concluded that he was holding in his hands the very first draft of memoirs, which, in the opinion of its author, expresses the whole truth and his true thoughts.

Analyzing the manuscript, Weil came to the conclusion that the main goal of Lowenstern was to write a defensive speech “pro domo sua” (that is, in defense of himself and his affairs). Reading the memoirs, the French historian saw in their author a “true warrior, a wonderful cavalryman,” who tells with all frankness about all the ups and downs, about all the ups and downs of his changeable life. Weil emphasizes the rare high human and moral qualities of a senior Russian officer, who, “casting a calm eye into the past, talked about the great events of which he was a participant, with rare impartiality and playful philosophy, he looked without envy at the brilliance and vanity of those who were favored by fate more than him, and who often excelled around him, is satisfied that he was able to maintain a good-natured character until the end of his life ” ^[5] .

The early version of the Leuvenstern memoirs has never been translated into Russian.

The historical miniature of V. Pikul “How capitals surrendered” is dedicated to Levenstern.

• Volkov S.V. Generality of the Russian Empire. Encyclopedic dictionary of generals and admirals from Peter I to Nicholas II. Volume II L — I. M., 2009
• Levenstern V.I. 1790-1815. - M .: Kuchkovo field; X-History, 2018 .-- 768 p. ISBN 978-5-9950-0500-1
• Levenshtern V.I. Notes by General V.I. Levenshtern // Russian Antiquity, 1900. - T. 103. - No. 8. - P. 265—297; No. 9. - S. 485-522; T. 104. - No. 11. - S. 331—361; No. 12. - S. 553-582.
• I. Artamonova. Levenstern, Vladimir 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
• Genealogisches Handbuch der baltischen Ritterschaften, Teil: Estland, Bd.:2, Görlitz, 1930

• Levenstern, Vladimir Ivanovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.