Nikolai Sukhozanet

Born 1794; died July 22 (Aug. 3), 1871. Russian state and military figure. Adjutant general (1856); general of the artillery (1852).

Sukhozanet began military service in 1811 in the artillery. He fought in the Patriotic War of 1812 and the foreign campaigns of 1813 and 1814. He helped suppress the Polish Uprising of 1830–31. From 1849 to 1855 he was chief of the artillery of the army in the field, and in 1855 and 1856, at the end of the Crimean War (1853–56), he commanded an infantry corps and the Southern Army.

Between 1856 and 1861, as minister of war, Sukhozanet instituted a series of reforms in the army aimed at reducing military spending. For example, he eliminated military settlements and the category of cantonists and reduced the term of service of soldiers to 15 years. Ignorant and lacking in administrative ability, Sukhozanet proved unfit to direct the implementation of the reforms and was replaced by D. A. Miliutin.