Konstantin von Benckendorff


Konstantin von Benckendorff was a Baltic German general and diplomat.

Life and career

Konstantin von Benckendorff was born into Russia's distinctive Baltic nobility to a Baltic German family in Saint Petersburg, son of General Baron, who served as the military governor of Livonia, and wife Baroness Anna Juliane Charlotte Schilling von Canstatt, who held a high position at the Romanov Court as senior lady-in-waiting and best friend of Empress Maria Fyodorovna, and paternal grandson of Johann Michael von Benckendorff and wife Sophie von Löwenstern.
His brother Alexander von Benckendorff was also a general and statesman, and his sister Dorothea von Lieven was a political force famous at London, St. Petersburg, and Paris. His other sister Maria von Benckendorff married Ivan Georgievich Sevitsch.
Trained as a diplomat, he joined the army to take part in the concluding stages of the Napoleonic Wars, specifically in the taking of Kassel, Fulda, Hanau, Reims, and Soissons. After the war, Benckendorff returned to diplomacy.
Five years later, he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Baden and Stuttgart. With the outbreak of the Russo-Persian War he returned to Russia, captured Echmiadzin and routed the Kurds near Erivan. He then crossed the Araks River and defeated the Persian cavalry. Benckendorff died of a fever that swept through the Russian army at the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War, 1828–1829.

Personal life

Konstantin married on 1 September 1814 Natalia von Alopaeus, daughter of Count Maximilian Magnus von Alopaeus and his wife, Friederike Wilhelmine Henriette Antoinette von Quast. They couple had two children:

Honours and awards