Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy

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Alexander Ivanovich Count Ostermann-Tolstoy (1772 – 12 February 1857) was a Russian nobleman and soldier in the era of the French Revolutionary Wars. He belonged to the famous Tolstoy family.

[edit] Biography

Alexander Tolstoy attained the rank of Major General in 1798 and Lieutenant General in 1805.

Upon his return from a campaign in northern Germany in 1805, he was named Governor of St. Petersburg. In 1811, he inherited the title of Count Osterman from his childless uncle, Ivan Osterman, the last of the Osterman line.

He participated in the 1812 campaigns as Commander of the 4th Army Corps. Ostermann-Tolstoi was wounded in the Battle of Bautzen (May 21/22, 1813) before fighting at Dresden. In the Battle of Kulm (29/30 August) he was wounded again, losing his left arm.

1815 saw Ostermann-Tolstoy briefly on diplomatic assignment to Paris. In 1817, he was appointed General of the Infantry.

After some years spent in France and Italy, in 1831 he travelled to the Orient in the company of scholar Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer.

Ostermann-Tolstoy finally settled in Le Petit-Saconnex on Lake Geneva (Switzerland) in 1837, where he died in 1857. He had no children.