Levin August, Count von Bennigsen
| Levin August Bennigsen | |
|---|---|
Portrait by George Dawe in the Military Gallery
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| Native name | (Russian: Лео́нтий Лео́нтьевич Бе́ннигсен |
| Born |
10 February 1745 Braunschweig |
| Died | 3 December 1826 (aged 81) Banteln |
| Battles/wars |
Siege of Ochakov (1788); Battle of Eylau; Battle of Friedland; Battle of Borodino;< Battle of Tarutino; Battle of Bautzen; Battle of Lützen (1813); Battle of Leipzig; Siege of Hamburg; Persian Expedition of 1796 |
| Awards | Order of St. Andrew |
Count Levin August Gottlieb Theophil von Bennigsen (10 February 1745 in Braunschweig – 3 December 1826 in Banteln) was a German general in the service of the Russian Empire.
Bennigsen was born on 10 February 1745 into a Hanoverian noble family in Brunswick. His family owned several estates at Banteln in Hanover. Bennigsen served successively as a page at the Hanoverian court and as an officer of foot-guards, and four years later, in 1763, as captain, he participated in the final campaign of the Seven Years' War. In 1764, after the death of his father and his marriage to Baroness Steimberg, he retired from the Hanoverian army, and settled at the estates he owned in Banteln. In 1773, shortly after reentering Hanoverian service for a brief period, he entered the Russian service as a field officer, and was subsequently accepted into the Vyatka musketeer regiment in the same year. He fought against the Turks in 1774 and in 1778, becoming lieutenant-colonel in the latter year. In 1787 his conduct at the storming of Ochakov won him promotion to the rank of brigadier, and he distinguished himself repeatedly in smashing the Kościuszko Uprising and in the Persian War of 1796 where he fought at Derbent. On 9 July 1794, he was promoted to Major General for his accomplishments in the former campaign, and on 26 September 1794 he was awarded the Order of St. George of the Third Degree and an estate in Minsk guberniya.
In 1798 Bennigsen was fired from military service by the Tsar Paul I allegedly because of his connections with Platon Zubov. It is known that he took an active part in the planning phase of the conspiracy to assassinate Paul I, but his role in the actual killing remains a matter of conjecture. Tsar Alexander I made him governor-general of Lithuania in 1801, and in 1802 a general of cavalry.
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