Konstantin von Benckendorff

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Portrait by George Dawe from the Military Gallery
Portrait by George Dawe from the Military Gallery

Konstantin von Benckendorff (Russian: Константин Христофорович Бенкендорф, Konstantin Khristoforovich Benkendorf, January 31, 1785-August 6, 1828) was a Russian general and diplomat. His brother Alexander von Benckendorff (1783-1844) was also a general and statesman, and his sister Dorothea von Lieven was a political force famous at London St. Petersburg, and Paris.

Benckendorff was born to a Baltic German family in Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia). Trained as a diplomat, he joined the army to take part in the concluding stages of the Napoleonic wars, specifically in the taking of Kassel, Fulda, Hanau, Rheims, and Soissons. After the war, Benckendorff returned to diplomacy.

Five years later, he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Baden and Stuttgart. With the outbreak of the Russo-Persian War he returned to Russia, captured Echmiadzin and routed the Kurds near Erivan. He then crossed the Araks River and defeated the Persian cavalry. Benckendorff died of a fever that swept through the Russian army at the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829

[edit] External links

  • Judith Lissauer Cromwell, "Dorothea Lieven: A Russian Princess in London and Paris, 1785-1857" (McFarland & Co. 2007) ISBN 0-7864-2651-9