Appendix E: Biographies

Destrem

Engineer General Jean-Antoine Maurice Destrem (31 July 1788 – 10/22 November 1855; see Image 246), called Moris Gugonovich by the Russians, was born in Fanyeau, France in July 1788. In April 1810, at the request of Alexander I (see Image 418), he and three other graduates of the Polytechnic School in Paris and the École de Ponts et Chaussées [School of Bridges and Roads], “entered Russian service … with the permission of Emperor Napoleon I,” to teach in the newly founded Institute of Transport Engineers. Destrem and Bazaine (1786–1838) were sent to build ports on the Black Sea: specifically, to design the project for the port of Eupatoria and to construct hydraulic works in the port of Odessa.1 When the War of 1812 broke out, all four Frenchmen “were placed under surveillance and then exiled for two years to Irkutsk.”2 At the war’s end, “they returned from exile and decided to remain permanently in the tsar’s service.”3 “Fabre [1782–1844] and Destrem resumed their work in the south, taking command of expeditions of Institute graduates and other officers to build the port of Taganrog, complete the Georgian Military Highway and improve waterways between the Volga and Don and along the Kuban and Riom.”4 Later, Destrem was sent to the Institute of Transport Engineers, where he taught mechanics5 and became professor in 1818.6 In 1820, he published Principaux de Mécanique [Principles of Mechanics] in French, an account of S.D. Poisson’s Traité de mécanique [Treatise on Mechanics] (Paris: Courier, 1811), expanding the sections on engineering.7 He was the first editor of Zhurnal Putei Soobshcheniia [The Journal of Transport], which began to appear in 1826.8 In 1833, he published Mémoires surs divers objets relatif à la science de l’engénieur [Thoughts on Diverse Topics of Engineering Science] (St. Petersburg, 1833).

Starting in the early 1830s, for a decade Destrem had been against the building of railways, as opposed to canals, in Russia.9 In autumn of 1841, however, “he submitted a special report favorable to the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway, disagreeing with his colleagues in the Main Administration of Transport and Public Buildings.”10 Both of his positions were viewed by his contemporaries as opportunistic, reflecting in each case the opinion of his superior.11 As chairman of the Temporary Technical Commission of the Department of Railways, of which Major Whistler (see 7–8, 21) became a member in February 1843, Destrem, apparently on the instruction of Count Kleinmikhel’ (see Image 243), continually supported Major Whistler’s proposals for building the railway.12

Destrem eventually became director of the Department of Planning and Estimates. He was instrumental in building the fortifications of Cronstadt.13 He participated as well in the construction of the Annunciation Bridge (see 140–142), for which he was promoted to engineer general on 22 November / 4 December 1850, the day after it was officially opened.14 He also “direct[ed] the engineering work of the defence of Sebastopol.”15 The Times (London) reported in December 1854 that “he is spoken of as an engineer officer of the greatest merit and … has a remarkable talent for poetry, united to profound mathematical knowledge,” and that while “he is the author of several beautiful compositions … his best work is said to be a translation into French verse of the fables of the Russian Lafontaine, Kriloff [see Image 186].”16 Such cultural accomplishments prompted Anna Whistler (see Images 1–5) to describe him as “very intellectual.”

He was married to Françoise Tenant de la Tour (1806 –1855), and they had three children: Dmitrii, Sofia, and Hugo.17 In 1852, before going abroad to take the waters, he and his entire family became Russian citizens. The spa waters could not restore his shattered health, and on returning to Russia, he suffered almost two more years. He continued, however, to work, presenting to the Adacemy of Sciences an analysis of a paper by Dmitrii Ivanovich Zhuravskii’s (see Image X) paper, “O dereviannykh mostakh po amerikanskoi sisteme” [“Concerning Wooden Bridges Made Using the American System”], for which he was awarded a gold medal.18 General Destrem died in Tsarskoe Selo on 10/22 November 1855.19

Notes