Vladimir Fyodorovich Adlerberg

Count Vladimir Fyodorovich Adlerberg (Russian - Владимир Фёдорович Адлерберг; born - Eduard Ferdinand Woldemar Adlerberg; 21 November 1791 - 29 March 1884) was a general in the Imperial Russian Army and a Russian government minister. The son of an oberst in the Swedish 'Svebelius' family, he took the name Adlerberg when he was promoted to the nobility in 1864.

Life
Sources are unclear whether he was born in Vyborg or Saint Petersburg, but it is certain that he entered the military in 1811 as an officer in the Lithuanian Guard Infantry Regiment, with which he campaigned in 1812 and 1814. In 1817 he became adjutant and confidant to Grand Prince Nicholas, who he supported during the Decembrist Uprising on 14 December 1825 and on whose staff he served as a major general during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828.

He became a lieutenant general in 1833 and between 1842 and 1852 served as Director General of the Post Office. In 1843 he was promoted to General of the Infantry, then four years later he was made a count, finally becoming a minister and chancellor of the orders in 1852. He fully backed Nicholas' authoritarian policies and acted as a personal servant to the tsar, used for several secret missions and duties. He retained some influence under Alexander II of Russia but did not support his liberal reforms.

In 1870, aged 79, he retired from public office, succeeded as minister by his eldest son Alexander, count Adlerberg II. (* 1819), General of the Infantry and Adjutant General, who during the last Russo-Turkish War was appointed to the general staff by Alexander III of Russia but removed from that role immediately after becoming a minister. Wladimir's second son, Count Nikolay Adlerberg, was another General of the Infantry and Adjutant General, who also acted as governor-general of Finland and wrote the 1853 book "From Rome to Jerusalem".