50 Facts About Mikhail Miloradovich

On his father's side, Miloradovich descended from the Serb noble family and the katun clan of Miloradovic from Hum, later part of Sanjak of Herzegovina, in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mikhail Miloradovich was, along with Pyotr Bagration, a brilliant pupil of Suvorov, and became one of the outstanding figures in the military history of Russia.

Mikhail Miloradovich served in wars against France and the Ottoman Empire, earning distinction in the Battle of Amstetten, the capture of Bucharest, the Battle of Borodino, the Battle of Tarutino and the Battle of Vyazma.

Mikhail Miloradovich led the reserves into the Battle of Kulm, the Battle of Leipzig and the Battle of Paris.

Mikhail Miloradovich attained the rank of General of the Infantry in 1809 and the title of count in 1813.

Mikhail Miloradovich boasted that he had fought fifty battles but had never been wounded nor even scratched by the enemy.

When news of the death of Alexander I reached Saint Petersburg, Mikhail Miloradovich prevented the heir, the future Emperor Nicholas I, from acceding to the throne.

Mikhail Miloradovich rode into the rows of rebel troops and tried to talk them into obedience, but was fatally shot by Pyotr Kakhovsky and stabbed by Yevgeny Obolensky.

Mikhail Miloradovich was the son of Major General Andrei Miloradovich.

The family owned lands in the Poltava Governorate; Mikhail Miloradovich inherited up to fifteen hundred serfs.

Mikhail Miloradovich's father "enrolled" him in the military in his infancy, and later sent teenage Mikhail Miloradovich to study military sciences in the universities of Konigsberg and Gottingen, and in Strasbourg and Metz.

Mikhail Miloradovich won Suvorov's unconditional trust for taking Lecco on the eve of the Battle of Cassano and for commanding the rearguard in the crossing of the Gotthard Pass.

Miloradovich played a key role in the Battle of Amstetten, where Mikhail Kutuzov ordered his three regiments to take a stand and provide relief for Pyotr Bagration's troops.

Reports of the battle by Mikhail Miloradovich himself contradict the French accounts and are not corroborated by Bagration's laconic report: each side presented their own perspective, and Mikhail Miloradovich had a particular penchant for glorifying his own actions.

On November 11,1805 Mikhail Miloradovich attacked the French in the Battle of Durenstein, but the French withdrew before his corps could inflict significant damage.

Contrary to the popular view that "he was almost the only Russian general who obtained an advantage over the French" at Austerlitz, General Karl Wilhelm von Toll contested Mikhail Miloradovich's actions, asserting that his column was the first to fall back and that it was Bagration, not Mikhail Miloradovich, who saved the allied troops from annihilation.

In May 1807 Mikhail Miloradovich tried to capture Giurgiu, but failed and fell back to Bucharest.

The years 1808 and 1809 did not see any remarkable action either, but were marked by a dual intrigue among top Russian generals; at the top level, Mikhail Kutuzov was in conflict with Alexander Prozorovsky, while below them burned a feud between Miloradovich and Pyotr Bagration.

Mikhail Miloradovich was officially discharged in September 1810 but was called up for service in November, again, as Governor of Kiev.

At the beginning of the 1812 campaign, Mikhail Miloradovich was tasked with assembling and training volunteer militia troops in the hinterland; he returned to action on the eve of the Battle of Borodino with 14,600 militiamen.

The battle plan required Mikhail Miloradovich to protect the old Smolensk-Moscow road.

Between 10 am and 12 noon his troops took a stand in the center of the Russian line and held off French attacks, with Baggovut's corps seeing critical action around noon, and Ostermann's corps around 4 pm By the end of the battle, the French succeeded in forcing the Russians from their defences, and Mikhail Miloradovich's troops fell back to the same Smolensk road from where they had started.

Mikhail Miloradovich, acting on behalf of Kutuzov, made a deal with Murat: if the French wanted Moscow intact, they had to allow Mikhail Miloradovich free passage to the east, or face stubborn urban warfare.

Four days later, Murat engaged Mikhail Miloradovich and forced him to fall back to Krasnaya Pakhra.

Mikhail Miloradovich quickly deployed front-line artillery that withstood Beauharnais's counterstrike and forced Davout's troops to take cover in the forest.

Mikhail Miloradovich began the three-day Battle of Krasnoi by capturing a large supply train and cutting Ney and Beauharnais off from Napoleon's army.

Mikhail Miloradovich again offered honorable surrender, but Ney arrested the messenger and expended his 10th and 11th divisions in a frontal assault.

Mikhail Miloradovich missed the opportunity to intercept the French crossing of Berezina by two days.

Tormasov refused to obey Wittgenstein altogether and left the army, while Mikhail Miloradovich stayed and became the "official speaker" for the opposition.

At Bautzen, Mikhail Miloradovich managed to push Oudinot out of Tronberg, but the battle as a whole remained a French victory.

Mikhail Miloradovich concluded the campaign of 1814, his last one, in Paris.

Mikhail Miloradovich had the unconditional trust of Alexander, who could hardly have found a worse candidate for the job.

In 1820 Mikhail Miloradovich interrogated Alexander Pushkin on suspicion of political propaganda.

Mikhail Miloradovich said "Ah, c'est chevaleresque", dismissed the charges and sent Pushkin on a well-paid tour of the south.

Author and publisher Nikolai Grech recounted another, less inspiring episode: in 1824 Mikhail Miloradovich vigorously investigated an alleged breach of censorship rules at a printshop owned by Grech and Bezacque.

Mikhail Miloradovich lived alone in a luxurious apartment "in complete disarray coupled with the most exquisite taste", without a single bedroom; "I spend the night where I feel like", he used to say.

Mikhail Miloradovich lent them support and then himself "grabbed both the power and the purse strings"; Mikhail Miloradovich, Maikov and Shakhovskoy became a "committee of three formidable officials" that governed the everyday life of the imperial theatres.

Alexandra Kolosova, in 1822, was the first actress to break the ring and flee to Paris; upon return to Saint Petersburg she sought protection from Alexander, but Mikhail Miloradovich had her arrested for twenty-four hours for turning down "the most insignificant role" offered to her.

Historians argue as to whether or not Mikhail Miloradovich had been formally made aware of Alexander's decision.

Golitsyn arrived at the palace later and announced the terms of Alexander's manifest, but Mikhail Miloradovich persuaded the State Council that Nicholas was aware of it and that his pledge of allegiance to Constantine was effectively an act of abdication.

Mikhail Miloradovich then sent a messenger to Moscow with two instructions: to pledge allegiance to Constantin and to keep the original of Alexander's manifest secret and locked away.

Correspondence between Saint Petersburg and Warsaw took two weeks, during which Mikhail Miloradovich acted as de facto interrex and regularly assured Nicholas that "everything is quiet".

Once again Mikhail Miloradovich assured Nicholas that the city was "perfectly tranquil"; Alexander von Benckendorff and other witnesses wrote that he was in his usual boastful, optimistic mood.

Nicholas coldly responded that Mikhail Miloradovich must do his duty as the military governor and calm his troops down.

Mikhail Miloradovich saluted, turned around, and headed to the barracks of the Horse Guards.

General Orlov of the Horse Guards pleaded with Mikhail Miloradovich to stay with the loyal troops but Mikhail Miloradovich refused to take cover, mounted a horse and rode out to the rows of rebel troops, accompanied either by two aides or only by Bashutsky on foot.

Mikhail Miloradovich harangued the soldiers for obedience, showing Constantine's sword "to prove that he would have been incapable of betraying him".

When Mikhail Miloradovich slumped from his horse to the ground, Yevgeny Obolensky stabbed him with a bayonet.

Mikhail Miloradovich was taken to a nearby house, but by the time the surgeons arrived on the scene the marauders had stripped Mikhail Miloradovich of his clothes, medals and jewelry.

Medics removed the bullet ; Mikhail Miloradovich remained conscious and dictated his last will in a letter to the tsar.