Pyotr Bagration

Pyotr Bagration was a Russian general and prince of Georgian origin, prominent during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Bagration, a member of the Bagrationi dynasty, was born in Kizlyar. His father, Ivan (Ivane), served as an officer in the Imperial Russian Army, in which Bagration also enlisted in 1782. Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration began his military career serving in the Russo-Circassian War of 1763–1864 for a couple of years. Afterwards he participated in a war against the Ottomans and the capture of Ochakov in 1788. Later he helped suppress the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794 in Poland and capture Warsaw. During Russia's Italian and Swiss campaigns of 1799 against the French, he served with distinction under Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov. In 1805 Russia joined the coalition against Napoleon. After the collapse of the Austrians at Ulm in October 1805, Bagration won praise for his successful defense in the Battle of Schöngrabern (November 1805) that allowed Russian forces to withdraw and unite with the main Russian army of Mikhail Kutuzov. In December 1805 the combined Russo-Austrian army suffered defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz, where Bagration commanded the allied right wing against the French under Jean Lannes. He subsequently participated in a series of unsuccessful battles: Austerlitz (Dec. 2, 1805), Eylau (Feb. 7–8, 1807), Heilsburg (June 10, 1807), and Friedland (June 14, 1807); but, after Russia formed an alliance with France (Treaty of Tilsit; July 7, 1807) and engaged in a war against Sweden, Bagration marched across the frozen Gulf of Finland and captured the strategic Åland Islands (1808). He was then transferred to the south (1809) and placed in command of a force fighting the Turks in Bulgaria (Russo-Turkish War of 1806–12). When Russia and France renewed their hostilities (1812), he was given command of the 2nd Russian Army in the West. Although his troops were defeated by the French at Mogilyov and separated from the main Russian army in July, he saved them from destruction and rejoined the main force in August. On Sept. 7, 1812, at the Battle of Borodino, near Moscow, Bagration commanded the left wing of the Russian forces and was fatally wounded. A monument was erected in his honour by Emperor Nicholas I on the battlefield of Borodino.