Petr Tolstoi

Born 1761; died Sept. 28,1844. Russian military figure and diplomat; count.

Tolstoi served in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–91, the Polish campaign (1794–95), and the war against France (1799–1800). He was military governor of St. Petersburg and commander of the life guards of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment from 1803 to 1805. From 1805 to 1807 he was the personal representative of Alexander I on the staff of General L. A. Bennigsen, commander of the Russian army. As ambassador to Paris in 1807–08, Tolstoi recommended that the Russian government immediately conclude a peace with Turkey, fortify the western border, and organize a new anti-French coalition with Prussia and Austria. Napoleon had Tolstoi recalled from Paris. Tolstoi became a member of the State Council in 1823. As commander of the reserve army, he suppressed the Polish Uprising of 1830–31.