Count Fyodor Logginovich Heiden (born Friedrich Moritz Reichsgraf van Heiden; , tr. ; – ), better known as Count Fyodor Logginovich van Heiden, was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

military commander of

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ancestry who served in the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

. He served as the

Governor-General of Finland The governor-general of Finland was the military commander and the highest administrator of Finland sporadically Finland under Swedish rule, under Swedish rule in the 17th and 18th centuries and continuously in the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finl ...

1881–1898. Heiden's 17-year office in the

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...

encompassed the entire reign of

Alexander III of Russia Alexander III (; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 1894. He was highly reactionary in domestic affairs and reversed some of the libera ...

, who appointed him at the start of his own reign to succeed Count

Nikolay Adlerberg Count Nikolay Vladimirovich Adlerberg (; 19 May 1819 – 25 December 1892) was a Russian aristocrat who served as Councilor of State and Chamberlain in the imperial court, as well as governor of Taganrog, Simferopol and Finland. Early life ...

, and the four first years of the reign of

Nicholas II of Russia Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until Abdication of Nicholas II, hi ...

Background

Friedrich Moritz Reichsgraf van Heiden was born in Sveaborg, later renamed Suomenlinna, son of

Lodewijk Sigismund Gustaaf van Heiden (6 September 1772 – 5 November 1850), who left the

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in 1795 during the French invasion and settled in

Livonia Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...

. Admiral van Heiden died in 1850. His mother was Lady Anne-Marie Akeleye, from a Danish family. The youngest son of the family, Friedrich took up a military career, converted to

Orthodoxy Orthodoxy () is adherence to a purported "correct" or otherwise mainstream- or classically-accepted creed, especially in religion. Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical co ...

, and took the Russified name of Fyodor Logginovich Geyden.

Earlier career

Young van Heiden fought in the

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and against the

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, which Nicholas I assisted the Austrian emperor against. He was promoted to colonel in 1849. During the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

van Heiden was chief of staff in Baltic Corps, but did not participate in any notable battles. After the war, he was promoted to major general in 1855. In 1854, he married Countess Elisabeth Nikolayevna

Zubov The House of Zubov () was the Russian noble family, that rose to occupy some of the highest offices of state in the 1790s, when Platon Zubov became the last favorite of Empress Catherine the Great (). Members of the family were granted the tit ...

a (1833–1894), the daughter of Countess Alexandra Raimond-Modène (1807–1839). Her father Count Nikolay Dmitrievich Zubov (1801–1871; ) was Steward of the Russian Imperial Court, himself the son of princess Paraskeva Viazemskaia and Count Dmitri Alexandrovich Zubov, one of the brothers of Prince

Platon Zubov Prince Platon Alexandrovich Zubov (; ) was the last of Catherine the Great's favourites and the most powerful man in the Russian Empire during the last years of her reign. Early life The prince was a member of the Zubov Russian noble family a ...

. Countess Elisabeth was a first cousin of countess Olga van Suchtelen. After the war, van Heiden was chiefly a member of the General Staff. He participated in

Dmitry Milyutin Count Dmitry Alekseyevich Milyutin (; – ) was a Russian Military history, military historian and politician who served as the Ministry of War of the Russian Empire, minister of war from 1861 to 1881. He was also the last Russian Field marshal ...

's military reforms and was appointed as head of the General Staff (Glavni Stab) in 1866. He also chaired the conscription committee that enacted the conscription in Russia in 1874, and was in charge of the mobilization during the Turkish War, acting as Minister of War during Milyutin's absence during the Turkish War. In 1870, van Heiden was promoted to full general. Eleven years later, he was appointed Governor-General of Finland.

Governor-General

Although he had adopted Russian culture later in life, van Heiden was eagerly Russian and a Slavophile. He saw the Russification of Finland as a primary task. However, his reputation among Finns is better than many of his contemporaries, due to his subtle methods. By contrast, his successor General Bobrikov was widely considered a Russifying tyrant. To attain this goal, van Heiden supported the use of Finnish as the language of administration, university, and military, as opposed to the traditionally dominant Swedish. In appointments to public offices in government, administration, justice, and military, he favored the conservative and monarchist

Finnish Party The Finnish Party () was a Fennoman conservative political party in the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland and independent Finland. Born out of Finland's language strife in the 1860s, the party sought to improve the position of the Finnish langu ...

and those who had learned the Russian language well and resided in Russia, as opposed to possibly separatist Swedes and the liberal Swedish Party. Van Heiden furthered trade between Finland and Russia, and reduced customs formalities. Another of his priorities was to clarify jurisdiction within Finland, defining which decisions belonged to the imperial government and which to autonomous local governments in Finland. He was awarded

Order of Prince Danilo I The Order of Prince Danilo I () is an order, formerly of the Principality and later Kingdom, of Montenegro; it is currently a dynastic order granted by the head of the House of Petrović-Njegoš, Crown Prince Nicholas. It is awarded to promine ...

and a number of other decorations.

References

Sources

* Seitkari, Olavi:
Kenraalikuvernööri kreivi Fedor Logginovits Heiden
'', Genos 18 (1947), pp. 80–86 , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Heiden, Fyodor Logginovich van 1821 births 1900 deaths Politicians from Helsinki People from the Grand Duchy of Finland Russian people of Dutch descent Russian people of Danish descent Governors of the Grand Duchy of Finland Members of the State Council (Russian Empire) Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Protestantism Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Russia) Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (House of Romanov) Danish people of Dutch descent Dutch people of Danish descent Burials at the Isidorovskaya Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra Finnish people of Dutch descent Imperial Russian Army generals