Brigitta Scherzenfeldt
| Brigitta Scherzenfeldt | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Brigitta Christina Scherzenfeldt 1684 Bäckaskog, Sweden |
| Died | 1736 (aged c. 52) |
| Other names | Brigitta Christina Bernow; Brigitta Christina Lindström; Brigitta Christina Ziems; Brigitta Christina Renat ? |
| Occupation | Memoirist, weaving teacher |
| Known for | Living as a slave |
| Spouse(s) | Mats Bernow; Johan Lindström; Michael Ziems; Johan Gustaf Renat ? |
Brigitta Christina Scherzenfeldt, as married Bernow, Lindström, Ziems, and Renat (1684 – 4 April 1736), was a Swedish memoirist and weaving teacher who was captured during the Great Northern War and lived as a slave in the Dzungar Khanate in Central Asia. She dictated her memoirs, describing her life as a slave, after her release. Her story is regarded as a unique source of information about life among the Dzungars.
Born in Bäckaskog Manor in Scania in Sweden as the child of the noble Lieutenant Knut Scherzenfeldt and Brigitta Tranander, she married the military Mats Bernow at the Life Guards in 1699 and followed him to war in 1700. She mainly lived in Riga, and when her spouse died in Thorn in 1703, she married the military officer Johan Lindström. After the Battle of Narva, they were both taken to Moscow as prisoners, where she became a widow in 1711. She remarried again in 1712, this time to a lieutenant, Michael Ziems, a German who had been taken prisoner of war in by the Russians during his service in the Swedish army; they were subsequently both deported to Tobolsk in Siberia.
Ziems, who was clearly not a Swedish subject, joined the service of the Russian army in 1715 to gain their freedom. In 1716, Ziems was a part of the reinforcements sent to the garrison of Ivan Bucholtz at Jarmyn Lake, above the Irtysh River, by Governor Matvei Petrovich Gagarin. Scherzenfeldt, as well as several other Swedish and German people in Russian service, was a part of that convoy. At the same time, the garrison was attacked and captured by the Dzungar, who also met and defeated the convoy, killing Michael Ziems during the conflict.
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