Pyotr von der Palen

Pyotr Petrovich Palen (Пётр Петрович Пален, Peter Graf von der Pahlen; 1778-1864) was a Russian military commander and a General of the Imperial Russian Army. Son to Russian statesman and regicide Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen and brother to Russian diplomat Fyodor Palen, Peter von der Pahlen was an heir to an old family of Baltic Germans. Joining the army at an early age, in 1798 he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and in 1800 - to Major General. Highly decorated for his command in the Polish campaign of the Napoleonic Wars (1806-1807), he retired from service in 1823. Recalled to the army in 1828 for the Russo-Turkish War (1828–29), he also was a high ranking Russian commander during the subsequent November Uprising, and notably the Battle of Warsaw (1831).