Count Gustaf (also Gustav) Otto Douglas (23 February 1687 – 2 February 1771) was a Swedish

mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

descent, grandson of Robert Douglas, Count of Skenninge. He was captured by the

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 ...

army in the

Battle of Poltava The Battle of Poltava took place 8 July 1709, was the decisive and largest battle of the Great Northern War. The Russian army under the command of Tsar Peter I defeated the Swedish army commanded by Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld. The battle would l ...

during the rout of the Swedish troops and was eventually employed by

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

during the

Great Northern War In the Great Northern War (1700–1721) a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the ant ...

. In 1717, Douglas was appointed General Governor of Finland and ensured the stability of the local administration. However, his repressive policy in the region made him extremely unpopular and feared among the Finnish population. As the Governor General of an occupied province, Douglas deported thousands of civilians from Finland to Russia in order to put them to forced labour or military service and floated the idea of sending about 20,000 Finns to help with the construction of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. His administration in a war-ravaged country was also overshadowed by epidemics of plague, which were often caused by troop movements and famines in the Europe of the eighteenth century.Kohn G. C. Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present. Infobase Publishing. 2007. P. 343 In 1732, he was tasked with putting down a rebellion in the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

. Together with 1,700 soldiers, he occupied the key town of

Endirey Endirey (; OKATO: 82254815001) is a village#Russia, village (''selo'') in the Khasavyurt District of the Republic of Dagestan in Russia. It is the center of the Endireyskoe Rural Settlement and has a population of 7,863 (2015). Endirey is an imp ...

, after which he sent a 500-strong column to the town of

Chechen–Aul Chechen-Aul is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, rural locality (a ''village#Russia, selo'') in Argun urban okrug, Argun urban ''okrug'' of the Republic of Chechnya, Russia, located on the left bank of the Argun River (Caucasus), Argun Ri ...

, one of the centers of the rebels. The column was ambushed, surrounded and destroyed, however. In 1737, Douglas took part in Lacy's campaign to Crimea.

References

, - Imperial Russian Army generals 1687 births 1771 deaths Gustaf Otto Douglas Swedish people of Scottish descent Swedish governors-general of Finland Swedish mercenaries {{Russia-mil-bio-stub