Ivan Petrovich Liprandi lived a long life, having managed to personally get acquainted with a huge number of iconic figures in Russian history. This statesman and military leader devoted most of his life to serving the Russian Empire, rising to the rank of Major General of the Russian Imperial Army and being an active member of the secret police. He devoted the last third of his life to military history, collecting materials about the Patriotic War of 1812, and also wrote memoirs about Pushkin. By the way, Alexander Sergeevich immortalized the image of Liprandi in literature, having copied the image of the mysterious Silvio in the story "Shot" from his best friend of the period of exile in Chisinau.
Hot blood of the Iberian Peninsula
The future general of the Russian army and an active member of the secret police had Hispano-Moorish roots and belonged to the Liprandi family, who settled in Piedmont in the 17th century. Thus, Liprandi changed the Iberian Peninsula to the Apennine. The father of the future Russian intelligence officer owned weaving factories located in the Italian city of Mondovi in the Piedmont region. He moved to Russia only at the end of the 18th century, in 1785.
In our country, the industrialist took the name Pyotr Ivanovich Liprandi and began organizing the weaving business that was well known to him. In particular, he was one of the founders of the Imperial Aleksandrovskaya Manufactory, which became the first mechanical paper mill in the Russian Empire. In Russia, the children of Peter Ivanovich were also born, whom he baptized into the Orthodox faith. Ivan Liprandi was born on July 17, 1790. According to some reports, Pyotr Ivanovich Liprandi lived for 106 years. Whether it is true or not, it is difficult to say today. But it can be noted that longevity for those years, extremely atypical, was passed on to his son, who did not live quite a bit before his 90th birthday (he died in St. Petersburg on May 9, 1890).
For his first-born, Peter Ivanovich chose a military career, and Ivan Liprandi himself was hardly opposed. In 1807, at the age of 17, he entered the military service, becoming a column leader. At the beginning of the 19th century in Russia, this was the name given to junkers (non-commissioned officers), who were preparing to become officers of the "suite of His Imperial Majesty in the quartermaster unit" in the future. This is the old name of the General Staff of the Russian Empire.
Liprandi took a direct part in the next Russian-Swedish war, which lasted from February 1808 to October 1809. Already in December 1808, Ivan Liprandi was promoted to second lieutenant for the courage shown in combat conditions, and was additionally awarded a golden sword. Despite the fact that he was originally trained as an officer of the General Staff, he was often in battle formations. While at the headquarters of Prince Mikhail Dolgoruky, Liprandi was a personal witness to his death, when on October 15, 1808, in the battle of Idensalmi, the prince, together with employees of his headquarters, tried to raise a squad that had been lying down. Later, many decades later, Ivan Petrovich will describe this event in his memoirs.
At the same time, already during the years of the Russian-Swedish war, the talent of a young officer who had a tenacious memory and could well remember all the details and events was really revealed. Also, Ivan Liprandi was well versed in military topography, knew how to read maps and navigate the terrain. He distinguished himself in the collection of intelligence information, including secret. He easily collected information about the movement of enemy troops, found a common language with the prisoners and the local population, which provided access to important information. For the next quarter of a century, it is intelligence activity in its most original form, when there was still no division into agent, sabotage and analytical branches, will become the main activity for Ivan Petrovich. In this exploration field at the beginning of the 19th century, Liprandi will be virtually unmatched.
Another important quality of Liprandi was the ability to easily learn foreign languages. He read fluently in Latin and in a large number of European languages. After the conclusion of peace with Sweden, Liprandi spent a lot of time in the library in Abo (today Turku), engaged in self-education. However, the hot blood made itself felt. In the summer of 1809, a duel took place in Abo between Liprandi and the Swedish officer Baron Blom, who was considered a famous Swedish brute. Ivan Liprandi emerged victorious from this duel, gaining fame throughout the army. At the same time, the reputation of a brute and a recognized expert in matters of honor is forever fixed for him.
At the origins of the "military police"
Ivan Liprandi met the Patriotic War of 1812 already in the rank of chief quartermaster of the corps, Dmitry Sergeevich Dokhturov. Together with him, Liprandi visited almost all the significant battles of the war of 1812, including the battle at Smolensk, Borodino, Tarutin, Krasny, Maloyaroslavets. For Borodino he was awarded a state award - the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree. He also distinguished himself during the battle on the Katsbakh River in August 1813. Liprandi managed to take part in the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig.
The military career of Ivan Liprandi developed successfully, the Patriotic War of 1812 and the foreign campaigns of the Russian army brought him a dozen state awards, and he himself rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Until 1818, Ivan Petrovich Liprandi was in France as part of the Separate Guards (Occupation) Corps, commanded by Count Mikhail Vorontsov and Major General Mikhail Orlov. It was in France that Liprandi immersed himself even more in intelligence activities, in practice he got acquainted with the methods of work of the outstanding policeman Vidocq.
Eugene François Vidocq did a lot for the development of the police business all over the world. Having turned from a criminal into a private detective, and then the chief police officer of France, Vidocq believed that only a criminal could overcome a crime. In fact, he created a whole brigade of ex-criminals, which was named "Syurte" ("Security"). Vidocq put into practice many ideas that are still used by the police and special services of many countries. In particular, he created a system of operational registration of criminals, contributed to the development of forensic science, began to turn to representatives of science for scientific and technical expertise and work with material evidence, had a huge impact on the organization, strategy and tactics of police work. Meeting this extraordinary person was very useful for Liprandi.
It was Lieutenant Colonel Liprandi Vorontsov and Orlov who were instructed to organize a "military police", the structure of which in the Russian army never existed. In fact, it was a symbiosis of the GRU and the FSB, and the organization itself was supposed to deal with intelligence and counterintelligence issues. It simply could not be otherwise. Intelligence activities in the occupied territory were inseparable from counterintelligence, and political investigation was associated with the criminal investigation.
Very soon, Ivan Petrovich Liprandi became a real Russian resident in Paris, who joined the local Masonic lodges and was in close contact with his French colleagues. In particular, on the instructions of Vorontsov, he investigated a secret royalist conspiracy ("The Society of Pins"). In the same place in France, Liprandi, thanks to Vidoku, saw the criminal world up close, mastered the skills of surveillance, recruitment, interrogation, got acquainted with the most modern detective technologies, which he would later introduce in Russia.
Intelligence and Secret Police Service
In 1818, Liprandi returned to his homeland, but instead of a guard uniform, he donned a simple army uniform. And instead of a brilliant career in the General Staff in the capital, the officer was actually expected to be exiled to the outskirts of the empire - to Bessarabia. According to one of the versions, another duel became the cause of the service troubles of an excellent officer. But in the new conditions Liprandi was true to himself. As in France, he was engaged in military intelligence. The love of gathering information, which some considered manic, and which will help him in the future with memoirs and historiography, was in demand in a new place.
Now, instead of the French, Liprandi collected mainly information about the Turks, studying the life and structure of the border regions: Bessarabia, Wallachia, Bulgaria, Romania, as well as the Balkans and the European part of Turkey. He also began to learn new languages, to which Turkish and numerous local ones were added. Despite the ebullient activity and numerous analytical notes and reports, this period of Liprandi's life will be remembered by all the acquaintance with Pushkin in Chisinau. Liprandi made friends with the poet, they were together first in Chisinau, then in Odessa until the departure of Alexander Pushkin from the south of Russia.
At the same time, acquaintance with Pushkin and friendship with him were only one episode in the life of a scout. In 1826 Liprandi was among those who were suspected of preparing the Decembrist uprising. At the same time, many believe that Ivan Petrovich, on the contrary, was introduced into the Southern Society of the Decembrists, made the necessary acquaintances and collected the necessary information. Contemporaries considered him a man of liberal views, who came from Paris, as well as an officer who was critical of the power of the monarch. Most likely, this was not true. Since after the arrest of Liprandi in Chisinau and charges of involvement in the activities of the Southern Society, he was released on February 19, 1826 with an acquittal certificate.
This was followed by the most intense five-year intelligence activity in Liprandi's life. The genius of intelligence and an expert on Turkey and the Turks themselves Ivan Petrovich was assigned to the Southern Army, led by Pavel Dmitrievich Kiselev. Kiselev was preparing a military campaign against Turkey and Liprandi's skills and abilities came in handy. Liprandi received full carte blanche for work and was actively involved in establishing an agent network, as well as the work of the military police in the Danube principalities. He personally recruited agents throughout the theater of future hostilities and did so very energetically. The meticulousness of Liprandi here again played into the hands of the Russian army, since he collected all possible information: about the condition of roads and fortresses, the nature of the terrain, the composition and quality of the fleet, ports and marinas, the weapons of the troops and the quality of their supplies.
At the same time, he bribed Turkish officials and got the correspondence of foreign consuls. But Liprandi's work did not go unnoticed by the enemy. Three assassination attempts were organized against him, but they all ended unsuccessfully for the Turkish side. Against this background, showing his characteristic adventurism and perseverance, which combined with meticulousness, Liprandi continued to prepare voluminous reports and analytical notes that fell on the command table.
After the end of hostilities with Turkey in 1832, Liprandi retired from military service, already a major general, married a Greek woman Zinaida Samurkash and lived in a happy marriage, in which the family had three sons. Liprandi returned to service in 1840, becoming an official for special assignments at the Ministry of the Interior. As an employee of the Russian secret police, he did a lot to uncover the Petrashevsky circle, identifying the main members of the secret society, all of them were then arrested. Also in the 1850s he was engaged in the issue of the Old Believers, especially the sect of eunuchs. Having studied the life and customs of the followers of this sect, Liprandi came to the conclusion that they do not pose any danger to the state.
In 1861 he finally retired and focused on history and literature, collecting memoirs and information about the Patriotic War of 1812, as well as publishing his own essays, notes and memoirs. Later, Leo Tolstoy quoted Liprandi's memoirs in his famous novel War and Peace.
