Russian Army Generals of Polish Ancestry in 1812

Abstract

The article aims to find persons of Polish ancestry among Russian generality of Patriotic war of 1812. It seems that there were only nine Polish generals in the Russian army at that time. Futhermore this paper also dedicated to the family background of these generals and investigation of their biographies. The author considers the problem of ethnicity identity in historical context. The question of national ancestry is really complicated especially in case of studying the epoch of 1812 Patriotic war. Unfortunately, official lists of all serviceman of the Russian imperial army is inapplicable, since this research is intended to reveal criteria that were used by contemporaries of the French invasion to Russia. Even the surname of a person indicates just belonging to a certain family, but it may not match the nationality. On the biographical material of nine Polish generals the author shows some specific characteristics of ethnic identity in the 19^th century, such as religious and language affiliation. Comparison of the biographies of Polish ancestry generals, based on a few parameters, including the social and economic status of these people, shows that there were both rich (“magnates”) and impoverished aristocrats among them. All of them participated in battles, promoted in army career fast (especially “magnates”), but generally their biographies do not contain any specific features. The author draws attention to the perception of Polish generals in Russian society, not always positive strongly related to ethnic-religious stereotypes.