Gorchakov, Mikhail Dmitrievich

Born in the family of writer Dmitry Petrovich Gorchakov (from the princely family of the Gorchakovs ) and his wife Natalia Fedorovna, nee Boborykina.

In 1807 he entered the guards artillery as a cadet , with whom (after a short trip to the Caucasus in 1809 ) he made campaigns of 1812 , 1813 and 1814 . In the Patriotic War of 1812 he participated in the battle of Borodino; awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 4th degree (1812). During the overseas campaigns of 1813-1814 he participated in the battles of Luzen, Bautzen, Dresden, in the battle of peoples at Leipzig ^[2] .

In 1820 he was appointed chief of staff of the 3rd Infantry Corps , with whose troops he participated in the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829 . When crossing the Danube near Satunov, he was among the first to enter the enemy’s coast and was awarded the Order of St. George of the 3rd Art. ^[3] .

Before the Polish War of 1831, he was appointed chief of staff of the 1st Infantry Corps, and held this position until the battle of Wavre ; After the adjutant-general Sukhozaneta wounded in this battle, he took over the post of chief of artillery of the army operating in Poland and participated in the battle of Grochow , the battle of Ostroleka and the assault on Warsaw .

During the Hungarian war , as the chief of staff of the army, he participated in the battle of Weizen and ordered the crossing of the troops across the Tisu River, under Tisafured .

In 1854 , at the beginning of the Eastern War , the troops of the 3rd, 4th and 5th infantry corps operating on the Danube and the Black Sea coast to the Southern Bug were entrusted to Gorchakov’s authorities, although the main disposal of these forces, as well as the troops located in Poland and the western provinces, was granted to Field Marshal Prince Paskevich . The campaign on the Danube was generally unsuccessful, and Gorchakov’s troops were already withdrawn from Wallachia and Moldavia by the end of August 1854 . Upon their return to the empire, Gorchakov was appointed commander of the Southern Army, located on the northwestern coast of the Black Sea and on the Prut River .

When the landing of the allies in Crimea followed, Gorchakov, on his own initiative, warning the highest command, tried his best to help meet the material needs of the Crimean army. Finally, the command of this army had to take Gorchakov himself, and in the most difficult time; he led the defense of Sevastopol from February to August 1855 .

In May 1855, after one of the repulsed assaults, the leaders of the enemy army sent a parliamentarian to Prince M. D. Gorchakov to ask for his portrait. He replied that he did not have a photographer in Sevastopol . The next day, the enemy sent a photographer with the parliamentarian, and Prince. Gorchakov allowed to take off his portrait. This portrait was sent by the prince as a gift to his opponents, who gifted him with a large photograph - his portrait ^[4] .

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  M.D. Gorchakov in Sevastopol, 1855. Portrait made by an enemy photographer

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  Lord Raglan , Omer Pasha and J.-J. Pelisie near Sevastopol in 1855. Portrait donated by M.D. Gorchakov

At the end of 1855 he was replaced in Crimea by the Adjutant General Leaders , and in January 1856 , upon the death of Field Marshal Prince Paskevich , he was appointed viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland and commander in chief of the newly formed 1st Army. In this position he remained until his death.

His body, according to the will, is interred in the city of Sevastopol . Above his grave in the Bratskoye cemetery, according to the design of A. A. Avdeev, a chapel was erected ^[5] with the inscription:

Prince Gorchakov for a long time enjoyed the reputation of a man who was selflessly brave and chivalrously honest and noble. During and after the Crimean War he was rightly reproached for the lack of independence and indecision, which were harmful in military operations ^[6] ; but it’s hard to say whether it was the innate traits of his character or whether they appeared and developed as a result of an almost 22-year stay as chief of staff of Count Paskevich , who behaved despotically with his subordinates, did not tolerate objections and, possessing tremendous power, guarded her very jealously, and softness in handling did not differ. True, Gorchakov himself liked to complain about the lack of initiative of his subordinates.

• Order of St. Vladimir 4th degree with a bow (1812) ^[7]
• Ring with the monogram of Emperor Alexander I (1820)
• Order of St. George 3rd degree (1828)
• Golden sword “For courage” with diamonds (1828)
• Order of St. Anne 1st degree (1830)
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (1831)
• Polish insignia "For military dignity" 2nd degree (1832)
• Order of St. Vladimir 1st degree with swords over the star (1838)
• Snuffbox with a portrait of Emperor Nicholas I , decorated with diamonds (1839 and 1848)
• Diamond signs to the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (1842)
• Order of the White Eagle (1849)
• Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (08/15/1849)
• Diamond signs to the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (12/06/1852)
• Portrait of Emperor Nicholas I , adorned with diamonds, to be worn in a buttonhole (1854)
• Swords to the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (08/05/1855) ^[8]
• Insignia "For XL Years of Immaculate Service" (1855)
• Portrait of Emperor Alexander II , adorned with diamonds, to be worn in a buttonhole on the St. Andrew's ribbon (1856)

Foreign :

• Order of Pour le Mérite (Prussia, 1813)
• Austrian Order of Leopold , Grand Cross (Austria, 1831)
• Order of the Red Eagle , 1st class (Prussia, 1833)
• Order of Civil Merit of the Bavarian Crown , Grand Cross ( Kingdom of Bavaria , 1838)
• Snuffbox with a portrait of King of Prussia Frederick William III (Prussia, 1838)
• Order of St. Januarius ( Kingdom of both Sicilies , 1845)
• Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen , Grand Cross (Austria, 1849)
• Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia, 1851)
• Order of St. Ferdinand , Grand Cross (Spain, 1857)
• Diamond Signs to the Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia, 1857)
• Order of the White Falcon , Grand Cross ( Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach , 1858)
• Legion of Honor , Grand Cross (France, 1858)

He was married to Agafoklei Nikolaevna Bakhmeteva (1802-1888), daughter of Nikolai Alekseevich Bakhmetev (1770-1836) from his marriage to Princess Varvara Fedorovna Nesvitskaya ; Alexey Bakhmetev’s sister. In June 1833, Princess Gorchakova was granted the cavalry ladies of the Order of St. Catherine (the Lesser Cross) , on August 26, 1856, was elevated to the rank of state lady. After the death of her husband, she chose Geneva as her permanent place of residence, in the summer she went to German resorts, where she met with her married daughters. She died in November 1888. Her body was transported to Russia and buried in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow. In marriage had children:

• Nicholas (1823-1874)
• Barbarian (1824-1901), wife of V.N. Pankratiev.
• Natalia (1827-1889), wife of General A. D. Stolypin , mother of Prime Minister P. A. Stolypin .
• Sofia (1835-1917), since 1866 the wife of Baron E.E. Staal , Ambassador to Great Britain.
• Olga (1837-1926), since 1857 the wife of Baron Felix Kazimirovich Meyendorf , mother of the politician A.F. Meyendorf .
• Anna (1838—?)

• Krasovsky I. From memories of the war of 1853-1856. The case on the Black River on August 4, 1855 and Prince Mikhail Dmitrievich Gorchakov // Russian Archive, 1874. - Prince. 2. - Vol. 7. - Stb. 207-222.