Balabin, Peter Ivanovich

Peter Balabin was born on April 21, 1776 into a noble family; the son of Major General Ivan Timofeevich Balabin who managed the Poltava Provincial Commission ^[2] .

Since childhood, enlisted in the lists of the guards, he received his home education, finished his studies in England , where he stayed for several years and upon returning to his homeland, was January 1, 1794, was assigned to the army with the rank of captain in the Black Sea Fleet ^[2] .

Soon, however, Balabin switched to naval service and was renamed “ lieutenant in the fleet ” as an adjutant of Admiral Fyodor Ushakov , and took part in some naval campaigns of the Black Sea fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. On September 30 (October 11), 1799, a detachment of Russian sailors under the command of Colonel Skipor and Lieutenant Balabin entered Rome, freed from the French during the Second Coalition War . ^[3]

Awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 3rd degree for a sword for honors in battles, he returned to Russia and in 1801 was transferred to the Baltic Rowing Fleet , with a determination to the then existing Maritime Committee to compile, under the direction of Vice Admiral Shishkov, marine magazines ^{[ 2]} .

In September 1802, Balabin again became a member of the army and, as lieutenant of the Cavalier Guard regiment , was appointed adjutant to General Fedor Uvarov . As part of this regiment, he took part in the Third Coalition War . September 18, 1806, he was already granted a colonel ^[2] .

He took part in the War of the Fourth Anti-Napoleonic Coalition and in the Russian-Swedish War of 1808-1809. .

On May 20, 1808, the military merits of Balabin were awarded the Order of St. George , 4th class

On August 14, 1808, Pyotr Ivanovich Balabin was sent with dispatches to the capital of France, Napoleon I Bonaparte, and, after completing his assignment, on October 1, 1808 , was granted the adjutant wing of the Russian Emperor Alexander I ^[2] .

During the Patriotic War of 1812, Balabin served in the Baltic states; consisted of the military governor of Riga, Ivan Nikolaevich Essen .

After the expulsion of the Napoleonic army from the borders of the Russian Empire, he took part in the foreign campaign of the Russian army in 1813 . September 15, 1813 for differences during the wars with the French, Balabin was promoted to major general ^[2] .

In 1817 he returned to Russia and soon requested a resignation for health reasons, which he was in from January 7, 1818 to November 16, 1826.

Upon returning to military service, he was appointed to be the head of the 1st district of the special gendarme corps. Having been in this position for about six years and awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 1st degree in 1827, Balabin was again dismissed, due to illness, from service, having received his retirement (with uniform and pension), on February 10, 1832, the rank of lieutenant general ^[2] .

Surrounded by a large family, Pyotr Ivanovich Balabin lived in St. Petersburg in recent years, where he died on October 9, 1856 and was buried with honors at the city’s Lazarevsky cemetery ^[2] .

Wife (from January 31, 1808) - Varvara (Paulina) Osipovna Paris (1789 — after 1870), Belgian and Lutheran, daughter of Dr. Joseph Paris and his wife Teresa, niece of Anna Breitkopf . She was brought up in the house of Princess V.A. Shakhovskaya , where she received an excellent education. She was a talented painter, painted portraits. Her wedding with Balabin was in St. Petersburg in the Cathedral of St. Isaac of Dalmatia ^[4] . According to contemporary reviews, there was a “sweet, smart, kind, mortal woman” ^[5] . Gogol was very fond and respected by Balabin and sometimes read his works to her. P. A. Pletnev , who was very close with the whole family, found Varvara Osipovna “smart and interesting person”. According to J. Grotto , she was “a woman extremely educated, well-read, with a delicate taste in assessing works of literature and art” ^[6] . I had children in marriage:

• Ivan (01/26/1809 — after 1870), the godson of F.P. Uvarov and Princess V.A. Shakhovskaya ^[7] , a graduate of the school of guards sub-ensigns, the Cornet of the Horse Guards regiment, a special assignment officer at the Ministry of Education. The first marriage was married to the daughter of Minister S. S. Uvarov . Widowed, married Princess Alexandra Dmitrievna Gagarina (1834—?), Sister of P. D. Gagarin . Their son Alexander (08/21/1870, Paris — 01/01/1934, Yugoslavia), lawyer, state secretary of state. advice.
• Victor (07.24.1812-24.11.1864), diplomat, was secretary of the Russian embassy in Paris, senior adviser in Constantinople and envoy in Vienna, chamberlain (1856) and secret adviser, author of the diary ^[8] . He died "from a nervous blow" in Dresden and was buried in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra .
• Elizabeth (1813-1883), maid of honor of the court (from 01.01.1830), married to Prince Vasily Nikolayevich Repnin-Volkonsky (1806-1880). She suffered from insanity and persecution mania.
• Eugene (1815-1895), a Catholic priest, a member of the Jesuit Order.
• Maria (1820-1901), Gogol’s beloved student, “is very beautiful and talented” ^[5] , married (from July 21, 1844, Stuttgart) to a doctor of medicine, college adviser Alexander Lvovich Wagner (1803-1878). In her letters to Gogol, she told him the story of her meeting with her future husband and his matchmaking ^[9] . Died in Rome.

• Kolpakidi A., North A. Special Forces GRU. - M .: Yauza, Eksmo, 2008 .-- S. 62-63. - 864 s. - ISBN 978-5-699-28983-7 .

• Dictionary of Russian generals, participants in the hostilities against the army of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1812-1815. // Russian archive. The history of the Fatherland in the evidence and documents of the XVIII — XX centuries. : Collection. - M .: TRITE studio N. Mikhalkova , 1996. - T. VII . - S. 304-305 . - ISSN 0869-20011 . (Comm. A. A. Podmazo )