Fyodor Vasilyevich, Count Rostopchin

Fyodor Vasilyevich, Count Rostopchin (born March 12 [March 23, New Style], 1763, Livny, Russia—died Jan. 18 [Jan. 30], 1826, Moscow) was a military officer and statesman who was a close associate and adviser to Emperor Paul I of Russia (reigned 1796–1801) and served as military governor of Moscow during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia (1812).

Descended from an ancient noble family of Tatar origin, Rostopchin joined the Russian army in 1785. When Paul ascended the throne (Nov. 6 [Nov. 17, New Style], 1796), he was promoted to the rank of major general and made the emperor’s personal adjutant general. After he was appointed foreign minister in 1798, Rostopchin, who opposed both Great Britain and Napoleonic France, prevented the formation of an anti-British Franco-Russian alliance and was dismissed on Feb. 20 (March 4), 1801.

Retiring to his estate at Voronovo, near Moscow, he subsequently became closely associated with the conservative, patriotic circle sponsored by the dowager empress Maria Fyodorovna, mother of the new emperor, Alexander I (reigned 1801–25), and the emperor’s sister, Grand Duchess Yekaterina.

In 1809 Yekaterina introduced Rostopchin to Alexander, who appointed him commander and military governor of Moscow in May 1812. Convinced that Moscow was riddled with pro-Napoleonic secret societies that would, if encouraged by reports of Russian defeats, incite peasant uprisings and obstruct the Russian war effort, Rostopchin persistently issued statements falsely proclaiming Russian victories. When the failure of Russia’s army to halt the French march on Moscow could no longer be denied, he assured the populace that a defense plan was in operation; and only when he was notified, at the last minute, that Moscow was to be yielded to the enemy without a fight did he organize an evacuation. It is also alleged (although Rostopchin denied it in a pamphlet published in Paris in 1823, “La Vérité sur l’incendie de Moscou”) that he was responsible for setting the fires that during the first days of Napoleon’s occupation (September 1812) burned three-quarters of Moscow. These fires did, however, destroy the supplies that could have sustained the French army through the winter and were thus a major factor in Napoleon’s decision to withdraw from Moscow and begin the retreat that ultimately destroyed his army.

Following Napoleon’s defeat, Rostopchin accompanied Alexander to the Congress of Vienna, but shortly afterward he fell into disgrace and did not return to Russia until 1825.