Frederick Heyden
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Count Frederick Maurice van Heyden (1821–1900) was a general of infantry in the Imperial Russian Army. He served as the Governor-General of Finland 1881–1898. Count van Heyden's 17-year office in the Grand Duchy of Finland encompassed the entire reign of Alexander III of Russia, who appointed him at the start of his own reign, to succeed the courtly and diplomatic Count Nikolay Adlerberg), and four first years of reign of Nicholas II of Russia.
Count van Heyden was born in Suomenlinna son of Dutch Lodewijk (Ludwig) Sigismund Guslavus van Heyden (b.September 6, 1772, Hague-d. November 5 ,Tallin) , who left Netherlands in 1795 during French invasion and settled in Livonia. Admiral Heyden died in 1850. His mother was lady Anne-Marie Akeleye from a Danish family.
Youngest son of family, count van Heyden, baptized as Friedrich Moritz, took military career, and switched his religion from Protestantism to Eastern Orthodox, after which he was known by a Russian name Fedor Logginovich.
Young Graf Heyden fought in Caucasus and against Hungarian rebels, whom Nikolai I assisted Austrian emperor against. He was promoted to colonel in 1849. During Crimean War Graf Heyden was chief of staff in Baltic Corps, without participation in notable battles. After the war was he was promoted to Major General in 1855.
He married in 1854 countess Elisabeth Zubov (1833-1894) whose father Nicholas Zubov was Steward of the Russian Imperial Court, and mother was countess Alexandra Remond de Modene.
After the war Heyden was mainly member of the General Staff. He participated in Dmitry Milyutin's military reforms and was appointed as head of Main Staff (Glavni Stab) in 1866. He was in main role in Milyutin's reforms, ie. as the head of conscription committee, that enacted the conscription in Russian in 1874. He also lead the mobilization during the Turkish War and served as Minister of War during Milyutin's absence, ie. during the Turkish War.
In 1870 Heyden was promoted to full General. When he was eleven years later appointed as Governor-General of Finland, he had made a long and successful military career.
As it was usual with persons who adopted themselves a new nationality, count van Heyden was eagerly Russian. In his position in Finland, the slavophile van Heyden saw his task to russificate the country. However, his reputation among the Finns is not very bad, because of his subtle methods - his successor, general Bobrikov, enjoys a really contrasting fame of a russifying tyrant.
To attain his goal Count van Heyden supported use of Finnish as language of administration, university and military, as opposed to Swedish. In appointments to public offices in government, administration, justice, and military he favored the conservative and monarchist Finnish Party and persons who had learned well the Russian language and resided longer times there, as opposed to possibly separatist Swedes and liberal Swedish Party. Count van Heyden furthered trade between Finland and Russia, and had customs formalities reduced.
His one interest was to clarify the legal position of Finland - to make clear definitions what belonged to decision-making of the imperial government, what to autonomous and local governments in Finland.
[edit] Sources
- Seitkari, Olavi: Kenraalikuvernööri kreivi Fedor Logginovits Heiden, Genos 18(1947), s. 80-86
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