Count, then (from 1834) the Most High Prince Lev Petrovich Wittgenstein ( Ludwig Adolf Friedrich zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn ; June 7, 1799 - June 8, 1866 ) - one of the richest landowners of the Russian Empire , lieutenant of the Life Guard Cavalry Regiment , member of the Union of Welfare and the Southern Society .
Lev Petrovich Wittgenstein | |
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Ludwig Adolf Friedrich zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn | |
Artist F. Kruger , 1836. | |
Date of Birth | June 18 (7), 1799 |
Place of Birth | |
Date of death | 20 (8) June 1866 (67 years old) |
Place of death | Cannes |
A country | |
Occupation | Colonel , Decembrist |
Father | Petr Khristianovich Wittgenstein (1768–1842) |
Mother | Antoinette Stanislavovna Snarskaya (1779–1855) |
Spouse | |
Children | and |
Content
Biography
The eldest son of Field Marshal Count Peter Christian Wittgenstein (from the German Wittgenstein sovereign house) and State Lady Antoinette Stanislavovna Snarrskaya. He received a secular education in the Main German School of St.. Petra (Petrishule) , in which he studied from 1808 to 1815 . He graduated from the Corps of Pages and joined the cornet service in the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment - April 20, 1817 , the regimental adjutant - September 22, 1818 , the lieutenant - February 8, 1819 [1] .
From January 16, 1820, the adjutant of Emperor Alexander I. In 1821 he was with the emperor at the Laybach Congress , was sent with diplomatic missions to Paris and London , was at the coronation of the English King George IV . From June 25, 1821, the staff captain , captain from February 8, 1824 . Since 1825, the aide-de-camp of Emperor Nicholas I ; Squadron commander from September 1826 to February 1827 .
Decembrist
The military career of Count Wittgenstein stopped when in 1826 his participation in the Union of Welfare and Southern Society was revealed, for which he was involved in the investigation of the Decembrists. The members of the Southern Society, N. M. Muravyov , S. G. Volkonsky , N. Ya. Bulgari , V. Tolstoy, and L. I. Polivanov , showed that in 1821, to attract candidates to a secret society, Count Wittgenstein together with P. I. Pestel went to Poltava and with him was preparing an attempt on Alexander I.
Using business trips from St. Petersburg to Tulchin, he played the role of a liaison between the Northern and Southern societies. Decembrist Prince A. Baryatinsky admitted that in 1820 he attracted Count Wittgenstein to the Welfare Union and they both followed his father, P. Kh. Wittgenstein, and transmitted information to Pestel [2] .
During the interrogation, Count Wittgenstein testified that after returning from Leibach he found out about the destruction of society. Taking into account the merits of his father, Emperor Nicholas I ordered the investigative committee to make an acquittal decision in his respect. Count Wittgenstein was " commanded not to be considered involved in the case ." On the petition of his father on November 30, 1827, he was released from the front due to illness, and on September 14, 1828, he was released from service with the award of the rank of colonel .
Retired
Upon his retirement, Count Wittgenstein devoted much of his time to managing extensive possessions in Belarus and Ukraine, including Mir Castle , which he inherited after the early death of his first wife, Stephanie , the heiress of the Nesvizh Radzivils . In her honor in his estate Druzhnosele , bought in 1826 for his father, according to the project of A. Bryullov, he built a church .
A close friend of Stephanie, A.O. Smirnova , recalled that Prince Volkonsky, who was in love with Wittgenstein, presented him with Pavlino's cottage on the Peterhof road . Stephanie was against such gifts. On the eve of the wedding, she achieved that the count would sell Pavlino, and the proceeds ( 40,000 banknotes) would be transferred to her former mistress, from whom he had children [3] .
Stephanie’s legacy had to be defended in the courts with the Tyszkiewicz and other descendants of the Lithuanian magnates. Prince Wittgenstein entrusted the conduct of business in the courts to a certain Anton Kozhukhovsky, who received several thousand souls of peasants. Although Kozhukhovsky always followed his patron everywhere, according to his contemporaries, “Wittgenstein did not have any respect for him, because he often slapped him on the back of his head with his hand on others, at which he smiled and humiliatedly smiled” [4] .
Widowed, Wittgenstein entered into a scandalous relationship with the wife of Prince A. A. Suvorov . To put an end to the widow's love affairs, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna personally found him a young wife in the person of his cousin niece Princess Leonilla Baryatinsky , a delightful beauty whose velvet eyes and sable eyebrows made a lot of noise in the world [3] .
Together with his father he received the title of the Most Serene Prince in the Kingdom of Prussia (June 16, 1834 ). In October 1834, he married Princess Baryatinskaya. The dowry consisted of only movable property. The wedding took place in the Great Church of the Winter Palace in the presence of the entire imperial family headed by the emperor. (In 1828, Nicholas I did not appear at the wedding ceremony of Count Wittgenstein with his first wife because of his participation in the Decembrist plot, which greatly offended the young).
After the wedding, Wittgenstein with his second wife went to France and settled in Paris, where he led a luxurious lifestyle. The French Revolution of 1848 forced them to move to Germany, where, in the vicinity of Frankfurt am Main, they acquired the dilapidated Castle Sayn , the former family estate of Sayn-Wittgenstein , and built a new beautiful neo-Gothic castle.
In 1856, Prince Wittgenstein and his wife participated in the celebrations on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Alexander II in Moscow. In 1861, the Prussian king Frederick William IV bestowed upon them the title of princes Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn . At the end, the happy family life of Prince Wittgenstein was overshadowed by his wife’s fanatical passion for Catholicism. The princess surrounded herself with bishops and clerics, and Lev Petrovich settled a German mistress in the wing of his castle.
The last years of his life, Prince Wittgenstein spent in insanity, he was taken as a child in a wheelchair. For treatment, he was transported to Cannes , where he died on June 8, 1866.
Family
First Prince Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn was married twice:
- wife from April 16, 1828 to Princess Stefania Dominikovna Radziwill (1809–1832), maid of honor of Empress Maria Feodorovna , daughter and sole heiress of the real chamberlain Prince Dominic Radziwill and Teofilii Moravska ; She died of fleeting consumption , leaving a spouse of two children.
- Maria (Antoinette-Caroline-Stephanie) Lvovna (1829-1898), was married to Prince Clovis Hohenlohe , Chancellor of the German Empire , governor of Alsace and Lorraine.
- Petr (Petr-Dominik-Ludwig) Lvovich (1832–1887), Adjutant General, Lieutenant General, died childless.
- wife from October 22, 1834, Princess Leonilla Ivanovna Baryatinsky (1816–1918), Maid of Honor, daughter of Prince I. Baryatinsky and Countess Maria Keller . Extremely devout from an early age, she and her children converted to Catholicism.
- Fyodor (Friedrich) Lvovich (1836–1909), a major in the Russian service, in January 1880 renounced the princely title and took the name of Count von Altenkirchen, marrying Wilhelmina Hagen.
- Antoinette Lvovna (1839–1918), from 1857 she was married to Mario Chiji-Albano della Rovere , Prince Campagnano. Signora Chigi adequately raised her five children, one of whom - Louis Chigi della Rovere Albani (1866-1951) - was one of the last major representatives of the Chigi House, the Grand Master of the Order of Malta.
- Ludwig Lvovich (1843–1876), died idle.
- Alexander Lvovich (1847–1940), in 1883, renounced the princely title and took the name of Count von Hohenburg, was married three times, including the daughter of the famous collector of antiques of the Duke de Blakas ; now the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn family is headed by his great-grandson Alexander (born 1943).
Notes
- ↑ Pages for 183 years (1711-1894). Biographies of the former pages with portraits. - Vol. 1., 1894. - p. 191.
- ↑ Investigation case of L. P. Wittgenstein // Rise of the Decembrists, T. XX. - p. 443-444, 557-558.
- ↑ 1 2 Smirnova-Rosset A. O. Diary. Memories. - M .: Science, 1989. - ( Literary monuments ). - pp. 174, 203.
- ↑ Insarsky V.A. Notes. - SPb, 1894. Part 1. - p. 248-249.
Literature
Oleynikov V.P. Bariatinsky and Italy. - Kursk: Regional Financial and Economic Institute, 2014. - 130 p. - ISBN 978-5-600-00175-6