Ivan Fyodorovich Paskevich

Ivan Fyodorovich Paskevich-Erevansky, graf of Erivan, svetleyshiy knyaz’ of Warsaw was born at Poltava into a family of the Ukrainian Cossack gentry that had been integrated into the imperial nobility. Educated at the Imperial Page Corps (Pazheskiy korpus), he entered the Guards in 1800, joining the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment, and was early employed at court and headquarters as an aide-de-camp. His first Major field experience came with the coalition operations of 1805, including the campaign that ended at Austerlitz.

From 1806 Paskevich served for several years in the Russo–Turkish War, holding successive staff and detached-command responsibilities and gaining promotion into the general officer ranks. By 1812 he was a major-general commanding the 26th Infantry Division. During the opening phase of Napoleon’s invasion he served under Prince Bagration’s 2nd Western Army and fought in the actions around Mogilev (Saltanovka) during the army’s withdrawal and concentration. At Borodino (7 September 1812) he commanded the 26th Infantry Division within Raevsky’s 7th Infantry Corps, a formation engaged in the central sector around the Great Redoubt and the successive counterattacks and withdrawals that followed the French assaults. In the later phases of the 1812 campaign and in the foreign campaigns of 1813–1814 he continued in divisional and then higher command, taking part in Major operations that included Dresden, Leipzig, and the entry into Paris. During the final coalition campaign of 1815 he again held senior command responsibilities on Russia’s western frontier.

After the Napoleonic Wars Paskevich remained in continuous high command and was entrusted with Major imperial theatres. He was appointed to the Transcaucasus in 1826 and conducted the principal operations of the Russo–Persian War of 1826–1828, culminating in the capture of Erivan and the title graf of Erivan. In the Russo–Turkish War of 1828–1829 he commanded on the Caucasian front, capturing Kars and Erzurum; he was promoted to генерал-фельдмаршал (field marshal) in 1829. In 1831 he was placed in command against the Polish uprising, took Warsaw, and was created svetleyshiy knyaz’ of Warsaw; he then served for many years as viceroy (namestnik) and commander-in-chief in the Kingdom of Poland. In 1849 he commanded Russian forces intervening in the Habsburg lands during the suppression of the Hungarian revolution. He died in Warsaw in 1856.

Sources

• Britannica: Ivan Fyodorovich Paskevich, Graf Yerevansky, Knyaz Varshchavsky
• Great Russian Encyclopedia: ПАСКЕВИЧ ИВАН ФЁДОРОВИЧ
• Presidential Library of Russia: Ivan F. Paskevich, Field Marshal General
• Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (Wikisource): Паскевич, Иван Федорович
• 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica (Wikisource): Paskevich, Ivan Fedorovich
• Napoleon Series: Major General Ivan Feodorovich Paskevich
• Napoleon Series: The Battle of Borodino, Order of Battle of the Russian Army (Mikaberidze)