Sergey Nikolayevich Lanskoy

Sergey Nikolayevich Lanskoy (Russian: Сергей Николаевич Ланской; also seen as Lanskij/Lanskij, Lanski, Landskoi/Lanskoy in Latin transliterations) was a Russian Imperial Army cavalry officer who rose to Lieutenant general and was killed in the 1814 campaign in France.

He was born in 1779 into the Lanskoy noble family of the Galich district of Kostroma Governorate. He was the son of Major General Nikolai Sergeyevich Lanskoy (1746–1812) and Anna Petrovna Tormasova, and was connected by family ties to senior Russian commanders of the era.

Lanskoy entered service in the Guard at an unusually early age, being enrolled on 23 November 1783 in the Life Guards Izmailovsky Regiment. His commissioned promotion sequence began after the accession of Paul I: he was made an ensign on 16 April 1797 and a second Lieutenant on 8 September 1798. On 13 March 1801 he transferred into the Life Guards Horse Regiment and became adjutant to Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, receiving the cavalry staff-grade rank used in the Guard at that time; on 5 October 1801 he was promoted again within the mounted Guard establishment.

In 1802 he left purely military employment for state service. On 23 May 1802 he entered the College of Foreign Affairs with a civil rank, and on 3 July 1802 he departed for Paris with the Russian mission, remaining there about two years. This diplomatic interval ended as Russia mobilized for the War of the Third Coalition. On 14 August 1805 he returned to the army holding the rank of Lieutenant colonel.

In the 1805 campaign he fought in Austria and distinguished himself at Austerlitz on 2 December 1805. In recognition he was promoted to Colonel on 12 December 1805. He then served during the Russo-Turkish War of 1806–1812, remaining in cavalry employment while Russia simultaneously faced the strategic pressures of Napoleonic Europe.

On 3 August 1810 Lanskoy was promoted to Major general. He received command of the Belarusian Hussars, a post that placed him at the head of a light cavalry regiment that would be heavily used for screening, pursuit, and rearguard fighting in the coming wars.

During the 1812 invasion of Russia he served in the field against the French. In that campaign he was noted for his conduct at the Berezina crossings in late November 1812, when Russian forces attempted to trap Napoleon’s retreating army and cavalry units were repeatedly committed in difficult terrain and harsh weather to attack columns, seize prisoners, and disrupt movement routes.

In 1813 Lanskoy campaigned in Central Europe with the allied armies. He distinguished himself at the Battle of the Katzbach on 26 August 1813, one of the key allied victories of the autumn operations in Silesia. Soon after, on 15 September 1813, he was promoted to Lieutenant general.

In the winter campaign of 1814 in France he commanded light cavalry elements within the Russian corps under General Fabian Wilhelm von Sacken. In this capacity he fought in the Battle of La Rothière on 1 February 1814, part of the allied advance that pushed Napoleon back toward the Marne basin. He was also engaged during the volatile operations around Montmirail on 11 February 1814, when Napoleon struck at separated allied columns in the Six Days’ Campaign and cavalry formations were required to screen withdrawals, cover roads, and contest crossings.

Lanskoy was mortally wounded in the Battle of Craonne on 7 March 1814. Late in the day he was tasked with covering the withdrawal of Russian infantry, and in the fighting that followed he received wounds from which he did not recover. He died on 7 March 1814 (New Style), ending a career that had moved from Guard service and diplomatic employment into high-tempo mounted command during the climactic coalition wars.

He expressed a wish to be buried in Russian soil. His hussars transported his remains back east, and he was buried at Grodno (Hrodna). His grave has been reported as extant in modern times.

Sources

• Ланской, Сергей Николаевич
• Sergei Nikolajewitsch Lanskoi