Barclay de Tolly, Mikhail Bogdanovich

Born 1761, in Pamushise, Lifliand Province; died May 14, 1818, in Insterburg, East Prussia. Russian field marshal (1814), prince (1815), hero of the Patriotic War of 1812. He descended from an old Scottish family that settled in Riga in the 17th century.

Barclay entered military service in 1776 and fought in the Russo-Turkish war of 1787—91 and in the Russo-Swedish war of 1788–90. He distinguished himself during the war with France in 1806–07 at the battle of Preussisch-Eylau and was made division commander in 1807. During the Russo-Swedish war of 1808–09, he commanded a corps and led the successful crossing of the Kvarken Straits in the winter of 1809. He was governor-general of Finland in 1809–10. Barclay was minister of war from January 1810 to September 1812 and did important work in strengthening the Russian army. During the Patriotic War of 1812 he was in command of the First Western Army and, as minister of war, also of the Second Western Army. In the face of considerable superiority of the enemy, he showed himself to be a gifted regimental leader and successfully carried out the retreat and juncture of the two armies. But the retreat caused dissatisfaction among the dvorianstro (nobility or gentry) and the army, and on Aug. 17, 1812, Barclay de Tolly surrendered the command of the armies to M. I. Kutuzov. In the Battle of Borodino he commanded the right wing of the Russian Army and showed steadfastness and mastery in defense. He thought that the positions near Moscow chosen by L. L. Bennigsen were unfavorable and at the war council in Fili supported M. I. Kutuzov’s proposal that Moscow be abandoned. In September 1812 he left the army for reasons of sickness. In February 1813 he was appointed commander of the Third Army, and then of the Russo-Prussian Army, which he successfully commanded during the foreign campaigns of the Russian army in 1813–14 (Kulm, Leipzig, Paris). He is buried on the Beklor estate in Lifliand (now Iygeveste, Estonian SSR). A mausoleum monument was erected on his grave (1823, sculptor, V. I. Demut-Malinovskii). Monuments to Barclay de Tolly were also erected in Leningrad in front of the Kazan Cathedral (1837, sculptor B. I. Orlovskii) and in Tartu (1849, sculptor V. I. Demut-Malinovskii).