Paskevich, Ivan

Born May 8 (19), 1782, in Poltava; died Jan. 20 (Feb. 1), 1856, in Warsaw. Count of Yerevan (1828), prince of Warsaw (1831). Russian military leader, field marshal (1829), adjutant general (1825).

After graduating from the Corps of Pages in 1800, Paskevich fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1806–12. During the Patriotic War of 1812 and the foreign campaigns of 1813–14, he commanded a division. From 1817 to 1819 he served under Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich. He then commanded a guards infantry division, in which the future emperor Nicholas I served. This helped Paskevich to advance rapidly, and he became one of Nicholas’ closest aids. In 1825, Paskevich had command of a corps. He was a member of the Supreme Court, which heard the case against the Decembrists. In 1826 he took command of the troops in the Transcaucasus, and in March 1827 he became vicegerent of the Caucasus. During the Russo-Iranian War of 1826–28 and the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29, he was commander in chief of the troops in the Caucasus theater.

Paskevich led the suppression of the Polish Uprising of 1830–31, after which he was appointed vicegerent of the Kingdom of Poland. He carried out a policy of national oppression and russification. In 1849 he commanded troops during the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848–49. In the Crimean War of 1853–56, he was commander in chief of the forces on the western borders and in 1853–54 of those on the Danube.