100 years ago, on January 28, 1916, one of the last great statesmen of the Russian Empire, Illarion Ivanovich Vorontsov-Dashkov, died. The last Russian count Vorontsov-Dashkov had a special destiny even in the famous Vorontsov family. One of the richest people of the Russian Empire, the largest landowner, the owner of a large number of industrial enterprises, and a personal friend of Emperor Alexander III, Count Illarion Ivanovich Vorontsov-Dashkov, for sixty years of his career, held many important military and civilian positions, had high ranks and was well known all over Russia.
Vorontsov-Dashkov was a wing and adjutant general of the Russian sovereigns, a cavalry general, commander of the Life Guards of the Hussar regiment, chief of the tsarist guard, minister of the Imperial court and estates, a member of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers. Already during the reign of Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich, Count Vorontsov-Dashkov was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the troops in the Caucasus, military initial ataman of the Caucasian Cossack troops, chairman of the Main Directorate of the Russian Red Cross Society. Finally, due to his passion for horse breeding, he was president and vice-president of the Imperial Trotting and Racing Societies, and the manager of the State Horse Breeding. He was the last owner of the famous Alupka.
Born May 27, 1837 in St. Petersburg. The son of a member of the State Council, Count Ivan Illarionovich Vorontsov and his wife Alexandra Kirillovna, nee Naryshkina. Count II Vorontsov-Dashkov died in 1854 and was buried in St. Petersburg in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. His widow soon joined a second marriage with the French Baron de Poidy and went with him to Paris. She died in 1856.
Having received his primary education in his parents' house, Illarion Ivanovich entered Moscow University, but the outbreak of the Crimean War interrupted his studies. In 1856, nineteen-year-old Vorontsov-Dashkov joined the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment as a volunteer in order to fight the enemies. But the war that brought him into military service soon ended with the Peace of Paris. As a result, in the early years in a military uniform, the count spent not at the front, but in the capital.
Caucasus
In 1858 he was promoted to cornet and transferred to the Caucasus, where the Caucasian War was ending at that time. The end of the Eastern War and the conclusion of the Paris Peace Treaty allowed Russia to concentrate significant forces against the highlanders of Shamil. The Caucasian Corps was transformed into an army. In 1859, Shamil surrendered, and the main forces of the Circassians surrendered, which led to the conquest of the Western Caucasus.
For five years, tested in the wartime conquest of the Western Caucasus, Vorontsov-Dashkov has earned the authority of a very modest and at the same time brave man. At the request of the Caucasian governor, Prince A. I. Baryatinsky, he receives the first awards: the Order of St. Anna of the 4th degree, a golden saber, as well as silver medals "For the conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan" and "For the conquest of the Western Caucasus."Appointed as the chief of the convoy of Prince Baryatinsky and in friendly relations with him, the young officer, simultaneously with the military, acquired experience in the administration of a territory new to Russia.
In the spring of 1864, Russian troops stormed the last center of resistance of the Circassians Kbaadu (Krasnaya Polyana). This event completed the conquest of the Western Caucasus and marked the end of the Caucasian War of 1817-1864 as a whole. In the same summer, Count Vorontsov-Dashkov returned to St. Petersburg and began to fulfill his duties as adjutant to the heir to Alexander Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Alexander III. Illarion Ivanovich and Alexander Alexandrovich became true friends for life.
Turkestan
At the same time, Vorontsov-Dashkov continued his military service. Promoted to colonel (April 4, 1865), the count is sent to Turkestan, where he inspects the troops. Illarion Ivanovich not only inspects the troops, but also participates in military operations with the Kokand and then Bukhara khanates. In 1865, Russian troops took Tashkent. In the same year, Count Vorontsov-Dashkova was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree with swords for the distinction in affairs under Murza-Arabat against the Bukharians, and in 1866 - one of the most honorable awards of the Russian officers - the Order of St. George 4th degree for the distinction during the storming of the Ura-Tyube fortress. In the same year, he was promoted to major general with an appointment to the emperor's retinue and was appointed assistant to the military governor of the Turkestan region.
Petersburg
After the appointment of von Kaufmann as the Turkestan Governor-General, Vorontsov-Dashkov left Central Asia and returned to St. Petersburg. The year 1867 was marked by the marriage with Countess Elizaveta Andreevna Shuvalova (1845-1924), granddaughter of His Serene Highness Prince Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov. In this marriage, two branches of the Vorontsov family tree were united. Then the count accompanied Alexander II to the World Exhibition in Paris. On June 25, the Emperor of France Napoleon III awarded the young general with the Commander's Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honor.
Family life did not interrupt the count's military service. Illarion Ivanovich was appointed commander of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment, and in the early 1870s he became the commander of the Guards Brigade, Chief of Staff of the Guards Corps, complained to adjutant generals and was promoted to lieutenant general. At the same time, he was a member of the Committee for the Arrangement and Education of Troops and the Council of the Main Directorate of the State Horse Breeding. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1778. commanded the cavalry of the Ruschuk detachment (the commander of the detachment was the heir to the throne). For his excellent courage and management in various matters with the Turks, the count received the Order of the White Eagle with Swords, the Medal "For the Turkish War" and the Romanian iron cross "For crossing the Danube."
In 1878 he was seriously ill and left for Europe to improve his health. Returning, he led the 2nd Guards Division. Vorontsov-Dashkov did not approve of many ill-considered liberal steps of Alexander II, having his own program of action. After the tragic death of Emperor Alexander II on March 1, 1881, Count Illarion Ivanovich expressed his readiness to take over the protection of the new Tsar. Count Vorontsov-Dashkov became one of the organizers of the so-called "Sacred Guard". It was a kind of secret society, which was supposed to protect the emperor and fight "sedition" by secret means. The "squad" included many high-ranking officials (Shuvalov, Pobedonostsev, Ignatiev, Katkov, etc.). The Sacred Druzhina's agent network existed both in Russia and abroad. Within the empire, the "squad" was primarily engaged in the protection of Emperor Alexander III in the capital and travels to the cities of Russia, as well as members of the imperial family. About half of the personnel of the "squad" were military, among them 70% of the officers who had the highest military ranks. It also included a large number of representatives of Russian aristocratic families. However, the organization lasted only until the end of 1882. Equipment, newspapers and a significant number of personnel were transferred to the police.
Illarion Ivanovich also became the Chief Governor of the State Horse Breeding, Minister of the Imperial Court and Appanages, Chancellor of the Chapter of the Russian Imperial and Tsarist Orders. This appointment was not only a consequence of a long-standing friendship with the emperor, but also recognition of the high administrative qualities of Vorontsov-Dashkova.
At the same time, the count retained the high qualities of a person and allowed himself to give advice to the emperor, which not everyone would dare. So, during the famine of 1891, he wrote to the emperor: “And if at the same time Your Majesty announced that due to the general inaction this year at the Highest Court there will be no balls or large dinners, and the money usually spent on this, you donating as the first contribution to the Committee's fund for food, it would undoubtedly make the most gratifying impression on the people. Forgive me, Your Majesty, for this letter, but believe that when you compare the peasant starving in a dark hut with the Petersburg dandies, luxuriously dining in the halls of the Winter Palace lit like daylight, somehow it becomes bad at heart."
Count Vorontsov-Dashkov was also the main horse breeder of the empire. Back in 1859, he founded a stud farm on his Tambov estate, Novo-Tomnikovo, for breeding trotting Orlov horses. The buildings of the plant were built according to the best models of that time and consisted of stables, covered arenas, an infirmary and other premises. With the money received from the development of gold mines belonging to him in Siberia, the count in a short time bought up the elite of the Oryol stallions and queens. They started talking about the Vorontsov stud farm very soon. Since 1890, thoroughbred riding stallions and American trotters have appeared at the Vorontsov-Dashkova plant. The Oryol-American horses received from them became the ancestors of the breeding of the Russian trotting breed. The pets of the plant were awarded with gold medals of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition. The Count was elected President of the Imperial St. Petersburg Trotting Society and Vice-President of the Imperial Horse Racing Society.
Under Vorontsov-Dashkov, 8 new factory stables were opened, all state factories were improved, many new producers were acquired, the withdrawal of Russian horses abroad doubled (in 1881, 23642 were bred, and in 1889 - over 43000); the activity of trotting and racing societies has been expanded, measures have been taken to more correctly issue certificates for trotting horses; the beginning of the preventive vaccination of the vaccine of infectious diseases in domestic animals; at the Belovezhsky and Khrenovsky factories, agriculture was established, and a large amount of land was cultivated and sown; at the Khrenovsky plant, a school for riders was established on the initiative and at his own expense.
Under the leadership of Vorontsov-Dashkova, the management of the imperial property was improved. Vorontsov-Dashkov was also involved in the development of winemaking in the imperial appanage estates. In 1889, his department acquired the estates "Massandra" and "Aidanil", thus, the area of the imperial lands in the Crimea and the Caucasus, occupied by vineyards, reached 558 dessiatines.
The experience and merits of Count Illarion Ivanovich were also appreciated by Nicholas II. He was still entrusted with positions of responsibility and at the same time offered honorary positions. But in 1897, Count Vorontsov-Dashkov was dismissed from the post of Minister of the Court and Appanages, Chancellor of Russian Orders and General Manager of the State Horse Breeding. Whether this was a consequence of the Khodyn events (some in the first place among the guilty put the Governor-General of the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, others - the Minister of the Court of Count Vorontsov-Dashkova) or the result of dislike on the part of the new Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, is unknown.
However, Count Vorontsov-Dashkov retained his position in the highest echelon of the Russian Empire. In 1897, he was appointed a member of the State Council, leaving the rank and position of adjutant general, and in 1904-1905 he was chairman of the Main Directorate of the Russian Red Cross Society, the Society for Aid to Prisoners of War, Sick and Wounded Soldiers. Vorontsov-Dashkov was actively involved in charity work, generously spending his huge fortune on this. So, on the eve of the First World War, Vorontsov-Dashkov, together with his wife, owned a starch, sawmill, distilleries, oil mills, a cloth factory, the Yugo-Kama iron and wire and nail plant. At the beginning of the twentieth century. with the help of the Branobel oil corporation, he organized oil production near Baku. He was the chairman of the board in the share sugar factories: Kubinsky, Sablino-Znamensky, Golovschinsky and Kharkovsky.
Caucasus again
Illarion Ivanovich played an important role in the development of the Caucasus region. When the revolution began, the emperor in such a complex region as the Caucasus needed an experienced person. In 1905, Vorontsov-Dashkov was appointed governor of the tsar in the Caucasus with the receipt of the rights of the commander-in-chief of the troops in the Caucasus and the military mandate ataman of the Caucasian Cossack troops, that is, he actually became the head of the administration in the Caucasus. In this position, on March 25, 1908, he celebrated fifty years since the beginning of his military service. The count was awarded the orders of Saints Andrew the First-Called and St. George, 3rd degree.
In the Caucasus, the revolution took especially extreme forms, and, moreover, as always, at the slightest weakening of Russian power in the region, a general massacre began. In these conditions, the 68-year-old governor was at the height of the situation. Count Vorontsov-Dashkov stopped the riots with an iron hand, but at the same time carried out a series of reforms that calmed the region. Thus, he abolished the sequestration on the property of the Armenian Gregorian Church, eliminated all remnants of serfdom (temporarily liable fortune, debt dependence, etc.), put forward a bill on land management of state peasants, which provided for the granting of allotments allotted to the peasants to private ownership, carried out a "purge" corrupt and unreliable officials. In the viceroyalty of Vorontsov-Dashkov, entrepreneurship developed in the Caucasus, there was extensive railway construction, the introduction of zemstvo institutions, the creation of higher educational institutions. Baku, Tiflis and Batum were rapidly turning from dirty eastern slum cities into comfortable European cities with all the trappings of civilization. Commanding the troops of the Caucasian District, the old general prepared both personnel and infrastructure for a possible war with Turkey. The campaigns of 1914-1917 showed how effectively he trained the troops of the Caucasian District. on the Caucasian front, on which Russian troops won constant high-profile victories.
It should be noted that Vorontsov-Dashkov achieved the pacification of the Caucasus, and then ensured its socio-economic prosperity not only by administrative measures, but also managed to influence the Caucasians as a person. In particular, Witte, to whom Vorontsov-Dashkov was rather cold, nevertheless noted not without envy: “This is, perhaps, the only one of the chiefs of the region who, during the whole revolution, at a time when in Tiflis every day someone was killed or they threw a bomb at someone, calmly rode around the city both in a carriage and on horseback, and during all this time not only was no assassination attempt made on him, but even no one had ever insulted him with a word or a gesture."
The governor of the Caucasus demonstratively neglected the protection of his person. Of course, for all his personal courage, Vorontsov-Dashkov was far from senseless prowess. It's just that since the time of his participation in the Caucasian and Turkestan wars in the days of his youth, he has well mastered the psychology of the peoples of the East. He mercilessly fought terrorism and banditry, which were often combined in the Caucasus, and all criminals knew about the inevitability of punishment. At the same time, Vorontsov-Dashkov could show mercy to the defeated enemies. Vorontsov-Dashkov made it clear with all his appearance that he represented the “White Tsar” in the Caucasus, all the might of the empire. Therefore, he was respected.
With the outbreak of the First World War and the formation of the Caucasian army, Count Vorontsov-Dashkov became its nominal commander, but due to his age he could not show the proper activity, therefore, the army was led by Myshlaevsky, and then Yudenich. In September 1915, 78-year-old Vorontsov-Dashkov resigned from his post. Illarion Ivanovich did everything possible in his post to strengthen the empire: he left a pacified land and a victorious army that beat the Turks on foreign territory. Having lived all his life in hard toil, Vorontsov-Dashkov lived quite a bit in retirement. He died on January 15 (28), 1916. He was a real aristocrat and statesman who faithfully served the empire almost until his death.
