Abram Gannibal

Abram Petrovich Gannibal
Abram Gannibal, bust in Petrovskoe.
Born	1696 Logo-chewa, Medri Bahri
Died	May 14, 1781(1781-05-14) (aged 85) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Nationality	Russian
Other names	Petrov Hannibal
Signature

Abram Petrovich Gannibal, also Hannibal or Ganibal, or Abram Hannibal or Abram Petrov (Russian: Абра́м Петро́вич Ганниба́л; 1696 – 14 May 1781), was a Russian nobleman, military engineer and general. Kidnapped as a child and presented as a gift to Peter the Great, he was raised in the Emperor's court household as his godson. Gannibal eventually rose to become a prominent member of the imperial court in the reign of Peter's daughter Elizabeth. He is a great-grandfather of the author and poet Alexander Pushkin.

The main reliable accounts of Gannibal's life come from The Moor of Peter the Great, Pushkin's unfinished biography of his great-grandfather, published after Pushkin's death in 1837. Scholars argue that Pushkin's account may be inaccurate due to the author’s desire to elevate the status of his ancestors and family. There are a number of contradictions between the biographies of Pushkin and the German novel, The of Peter the Great based on his great-grandfather. An historical biography by Gannibal's son-in-law, Rotkirkh, was largely responsible for the myth, propagated by some historians, that Gannibal was born in a part of what was then Medri Bahri.

As to Gannibal's actual place of birth, this continues to be uncertain, and is subject to speculation by modern historians such as Hugh Barnes and Frances Somers Cocks. As a young child, he was kidnapped from his parents and sold into slavery. He ended up in Turkey. Gannibal was taken to Russia where Tsar Peter (Peter the Great) adopted him.

Tsar Peter sent Gannibal to France to learn mathematics and engineering from the highest educational institutes. During Gannibal's studies, war broke out between France and Spain and in 1718, he joined the French army to gain access to the best military engineering program and was captured by the Spanish army. He was released in 1722 and promoted to lieutenant and continued to study mathematics and engineering in France for another year. He returned to Russia the following year and his advanced training enabled him to apply and successfully acquire posts first as an engineer and than as a mathematics tutor for one of the Tsar's private guard units.