Aleksandr Baryatinsky

Prince Aleksandr Ivanovich Baryatinsky (, tr. ; – 9 March 1879) was a Russian General and Field Marshal (from 1859), Prince, governor of the Caucasus. Early life and background He was born to aristocratic Baryatinsky family on 14 May 1815 in Ivanovsky village of Lgovsky district in Kursk Governorate. His father, Prince Ivan Ivanovich Baryatinsky (1767-1825), son of Princess Catherine of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, was one of the wealthiest people in Russia, having inherited numerous estates and about 35,000 serfs. His mother was Countess Marie Wilhelmine von Keller (1792-1858), daughter of Bavarian diplomat, Count Dorotheus Ludwig Christoph von Keller (1757-1827) and his wife, Countess Amalie Luise of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Ludwigsburg (1771-1853), sister of the Russian field marshal Peter Wittgenstein. Education and career He was the eldest son and received an excellent education at home. His father died in 1825, when Alexander was merely 10 years old. His mother took him along with his second son Vladimir to Moscow for "improvement in the sciences" in 1829. The upbringing of both brothers was carried out by an Englishman - Thomas Evans, a well-known teacher at that time, who taught young men "classics and literature." Baryatinsky entered the school of the ensigns of the Guard in his seventeenth year and, on 8 November 1833, received his commission of cornet in the Life Guards of the future Tsar Alexander II. In 1835, he served with great gallantry in the Caucasus, and on his return to St.Petersburg was rewarded with a golden sword for valour. On 1 January 1836, he was attached to the suite of Alexander, and in 1845 was again ordered off to the Caucasus and again most brilliantly distinguished himself, especially in the attack on Shamil's stronghold, for which he received the Order of St. George. In 1846, he assisted Field Marshal Ivan Paskevich to suppress the Kraków Uprising. From 1848 to 1856 he took a leading part in all the chief military events in the Caucasus, his most notable exploits being his victory at Mezeninsk in 1850 and his operations against Shamil in Chechnya.