Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov
Encyclopedia
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, and most famous for his participation in the Caucasian War
Caucasian War
The Caucasian War of 1817–1864, also known as the Russian conquest of the Caucasus was an invasion of the Caucasus by the Russian Empire which ended with the annexation of the areas of the North Caucasus to Russia...
from 1844 to 1853.
The son of Count Semyon Vorontsov and nephew of the imperial chancellor Alexander Vorontsov
Alexander Vorontsov
Count Alexander Romanovich Vorontsov was the Russian imperial chancellor during the early years of Alexander I's reign....
, he spent his childhood and youth with his father in London, where he received a brilliant education. During 1803–1804 he served in the Caucasus under Pavel Tsitsianov
Pavel Tsitsianov
Pavel Dmitriyevich Tsitsianov was the Georgian Imperial Russian military commander and infantry general from 1804. A member of the noble Georgian family Tsitsishvili , Tsitsianov participated in suppression of the Kościuszko Uprising and in the Russo-Persian War...
and Gulyakov, and was nearly killed in the Zakatali
Zaqatala (rayon)
Zaqatala is a rayon of Azerbaijan. The capital and principal town of the rayon is Zaqatala. The rayon is an appendix of Azeri territory wedged between Georgia and Dagestan...
disaster (January 15, 1804). From 1805 to 1807 he served in the Napoleonic wars, and was present at the battles of Pułtusk and Friedland
Battle of Friedland
The Battle of Friedland saw Napoleon I's French army decisively defeat Count von Bennigsen's Russian army about twenty-seven miles southeast of Königsberg...
. From 1809 to 1811 he participated in the Russo-Turkish War
Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812
The Russo-Turkish War was one of many wars fought between Imperial Russia and the Ottoman Empire.- Background :The war broke out in 1805–1806 against the background of the Napoleonic Wars...
and distinguished himself in nearly every important action.
He commanded the composite grenadiers division in Prince Petr Bagration's Second Western Army during Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. At the battle of Borodino
Battle of Borodino
The Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...
his division was in the front line and was attacked by three French divisions under Marshal Davout
Louis Nicolas Davout
Louis-Nicolas d'Avout , better known as Davout, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, was a Marshal of France during the Napoleonic Era. His prodigious talent for war along with his reputation as a stern disciplinarian, earned him the title "The Iron Marshal"...
. Vorontsov led several counter-attacks, sword in hand. Of the 4,000 men in his division only 300 survived the battle. Vorontsov was wounded, but recovered to rejoin the army in 1813. He commanded a new grenadiers division and fought at the battle of Dennewitz
Battle of Dennewitz
The Battle of Dennewitz took place on 6 September 1813 between the forces of the First French Empire and an army of Prussians and Russians of the Sixth Coalition. It occurred in Dennewitz, a village of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, near Jüterbog, 40 km. S.W...
and the battle of Leipzig
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
. In 1814, at Craonne, he brilliantly held out for a day against Napoléon in person. He was the commander of the corps of occupation in France from 1815 to 1818.
On 7 May 1823 he was appointed governor-general
Governor-General
A Governor-General, is a vice-regal person of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a Governor General can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.- Current uses...
of New Russia, as the southern provinces of the empire were then called, and namestnik of Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
. He may be said to have been the creator of Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
and the benefactor of the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
, both places being graced with his brilliant residences. He was the first to start steamboats on the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
in 1828. The same year saw the start of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829
Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829
The Russo–Turkish War of 1828–1829 was sparked by the Greek War of Independence. The war broke out after the Sultan, incensed by the Russian participation in the Battle of Navarino, closed the Dardanelles for Russian ships and revoked the Akkerman Convention....
and Vorontsov succeeded the wounded Menshikov as commander of the forces besieging Varna
Varna
Varna is the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and third-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia and Plovdiv, with a population of 334,870 inhabitants according to Census 2011...
, which he captured on 28 September 1828. In the campaign of 1829 it was through his energetic efforts that the plague, which had broken out in Turkey, did not penetrate into Russia. But perhaps the best remembered of all is his wife's (née Countess Branicka) liaison with Alexander Pushkin during the latter's stay in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, which resulted in some of the finest poems in Russian language.
In 1844 Vorontsov was appointed commander-in-chief and viceroy of the Caucasus
Viceroyalty of the Caucasus
The Viceroyalty of the Caucasus is a term used to denote the Imperial Russian administrative and political authority in the Caucasus region exercised through the offices of glavnoupravlyayushchiy and namestnik...
. For his campaign against Shamil
Imam Shamil
Imam Shamil also spelled Shamyl, Schamil, Schamyl or Shameel was an Avar political and religious leader of the Muslim tribes of the Northern Caucasus...
, and especially for his difficult march through the dangerous forests of Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
, he was raised to the dignity of prince, with the title of Serene Highness. (Others describe his 1845 campaign as the successful withdrawal of his remaining forces after a near-disastrous over-penetration to capture the fort of Dargo ). By 1848 he had captured two-thirds of Daghestan, and the situation of the Russians in the Caucasus, so long almost desperate, was steadily improving. In the beginning of 1853 Vorontsov was allowed to retire because of his increasing infirmities. He was made a field-marshal in 1856, and died the same year at Odessa.
The Odessa statue of Prince Vorontsov was unveiled in 1863. In front of the monument stands the Odessa Cathedral
Odessa Cathedral
The Odessa Orthodox Cathedral is dedicated to the Saviour's Transfiguration and belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church .The first and foremost church in the city of Odessa, the cathedral was founded in 1794 by Gavril Bănulescu-Bodoni...
with the marble tombs of Prince Vorontsov and his wife. After the Soviets demolished the cathedral in 1936, Vorontsov's remains were secretly reburied at a local cemetery. The cathedral was rebuilt in the early 2000s. The remains of Vorontsov and his wife were solemnly transferred to the church in 2005.