MIKHAIL SEMENOVICH VORONTSOV (1782-1856)

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 213 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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MIKHAIL SEMENOVICH VORONTSOV (1782-1856) , Russian prince and field-

marshal

MARSHAL (med. Lat. marescalcus, from O.H.Ger. marah, horse, and scalc, servant)

, son of the preceding, spent his childhood and youth with his father in London, where he received a brilliant education. During 1803--4 he served in the Caucasus under Tsitsianov and Gulyakov, and was nearly killed in the Zakatahko disaster (January 15, 1804). From ISo,5 to 1807 he served in the Napoleonic wars, and was present at the battles of Pultusk and

Friedland

FRIEDLAND

. From 1809 to 1811 he participated in the Turkish War and distinguished himself in nearly every important action. He was attached to Bagration's army during the war of 1812, was seriously wounded at Borodino, sufficiently recovering, however, to re-join the army in 1813. In 1814, at Craonne, he brilliantly withstood

Napoleon

NAPOLEON

in person. He was the

commander

COMMANDER

of the corps of occupation in France from 1815 to 1818. On the 7th of May 1823 he was appointed

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

-general of New Russia, as the southern provinces of the empire were then called, which under his administration developed marvellously. He may be said to have been the creator of Odessa and the benefactor of the Crimea. He was the first to start steam-boats on the Black Sea (1828). The same year he succeeded the wounded Menshikov as

commander

COMMANDER

of the forces besieging Varna, which he captured on the 28th of September. In the campaign of ,829 it was through his energetic efforts that the plague, which had broken out in Turkey, did not penetrate into Russia. In 1844 Vorontsov was appointed commanderin-

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

and

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

of the Caucasus with plenipotentiary powers. For his brilliant campaign against Shamyl, and especially for his difficult

march

through the dangerous forests of Ichkerinia, he was raised to the dignity of prince, with the title of Serene Highness. 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 be-ginning of 1853 Vorontsov was allowed to retire because of his increasing infirmities. He was made a field-

marshal

MARSHAL (med. Lat. marescalcus, from O.H.Ger. marah, horse, and scalc, servant)

in 1856, and died the same year at Odessa. Statues have been erected to him both there and at Tiflis.
See V. V. Ogarkov, The Vorontsovs (Rus.) (

Petersburg

PETERSBURG

, 1892); Vorontsov Archives (Rus. and Fr ) (Moscow, 187o, &c.) ; M. P. Shelverbinin,

Biography

BIOGRAPHY (from the Gr. (3ios, life, and yp&4 , writing)

of Prince M. S. Vorontsov (Rus.) (Peters-burg, 1858). (R. N. B.)

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