Ivan Fersen

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Ivan Yevstafyevich Fersen
Fersen by Andrey Zhdanov (1775–1811), 1795
Native name
Иванъ Евстафьевичъ Ферзенъ[a]
Other name(s)Hans Heinrich von Fersen
Born1747[1]
DiedEarly 1799[1]
AllegianceRussia
Service/branchImperial Russian Army
Years of service1760–1798[1]
RankGeneral of the Infantry
Battles/warsSiege of Khotin (1769)[1]
Battle of Larga[1]
Siege of Silistria (June 1773)[1]
Battle of Vyborg Bay (1790)
Battle of Brest (1792)
Battle of Gołków
Battle of Maciejowice
Battle of Kobyłka
Battle of Praga
AwardsOrder of Saint George
Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky [1]
RelationsFersen family

Baron, Graf[b] Hans Heinrich von[c] Fersen or Ivan Yevstafyevich Fersen (Russian: Иван Евстафьевич Ферзен, romanizedIvan Yevstaf'yevič Ferzen) was a Russian military commander and general of the infantry from the nobility of what was then Russia's Livonia. As a lieutenant colonel, he fought in the 1769–74 Russo-Turkish War.[2] In 1790 he acted in Finland against the Swedes, where he assisted Vasily Chichagov's ships in the Bay of Vyborg with the fire of coastal artillery batteries, increasing the confusion of the Swedish warships in the bay.[2][1] He also fought in the Polish–Russian War of 1792 and the Kościuszko Uprising.[2]

In 1792, in the aftermath of the adoption of the constitution of 3 May 1791 he formed in Lithuania a general confederation (after the example of Targowica), which was enacted under the patronage of Empress Catherine II, and thus quickly pacified the whole region.[1] Fersen gained notoriety with the defeat and capture of Kościuszko in the battle of Maciejowice. Then he took part in the capture of Praga by Suvorov. In 1797 he was appointed director of the First Cadet Corps; he soon retired and died in his Livonian estate.[2]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Pre-1918 Russian orthography
  2. ^ since 1793[1]
  3. ^ In German personal names, von is a preposition which approximately means of or from and usually denotes some sort of nobility. While von (always lower case) is part of the family name or territorial designation, not a first or middle name, if the noble is referred to by his last name, use Schiller, Clausewitz or Goethe, not von Schiller, etc.

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

  • Arsenyev, Konstantin; Petrushevsky, Fyodor (1902). Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). Vol. 70: Фенолы – Финляндия. Friedrich A. Brockhaus (Leipzig), Ilya A. Efron (Saint Petersburg). pp. 582–583.
  • Polovtsov, Alexander (1901). Russian Biographical Dictionary. Vol. 21: Фабер – Цявловский. St. Petersburg: Типография В. Безобразова и Ко. pp. 51–52.