Appendix E: Biographies

Kleinmikhel’

The superior to whom Major Whistler was responsible was Count Pyotr Andreevich Kleinmikhel’ (30 November [OS] 1793 – 3 February [OS] 1869; see Image 243), head of the Main Administration of Transport and Public Buildings (Russian acronym: GUPSiPZ).

On 7 February (OS) 1808, Kleinmikhel’ entered service as a second lieutenant in the Life Grenadiers Regiment, serving first under his father, Lt. General Andrei Ivanovich, director of the Second Cadet Corps.1 On 23 March (OS) 1812, he was transferred to the Preobrazhenskii Regiment and made adjutant to Count Aleksei Andreevich Arakcheev (1769–1834; see Image 244), famous for the establishment of military colonies of Draconian discipline. Henceforth, Kleinmikhel’ rose swiftly, achieving the rank of colonel in 1816 at the age of twenty-three and the position of head of staff for the administration of the military colonies. On 8 July (OS) 1820, he was appointed to the rank of major general. On 22 August (OS) 1826, he was made an adjutant general, and on 1 May (OS) 1832 duty general of the Main Staff of Nicholas I (see Images 420–423). On 19 June (OS) 1835, with the re-formation of the administration of the military colonies into a department, he was made director, at the same time heading the inspection department of the Ministry of War. On 16 April (OS) 1841, he was promoted to infantry general. In 1830, he was assigned the task of compiling a historical description of the dress and arms of the Russian military forces; in 1837, at his behest, a special committee was set up for this purpose, on which Kleinmikhel’ served as chairman until 21 October (OS) 1855. The resulting work (in 30 parts), which appeared from 1841 to 1862, was primarily the effort of A.V. Viskovatov (1804–1858), a military historian. In addition, Kleinmikhel’ actively participated on a number of commissions concerned with the building of several structures in St. Petersburg, chief among which was the reconstruction of the Winter Palace (see Images 114–117), which had burned down in 1837. He also directed the building of the permanent bridge over the Neva, which was opened on 21 November (OS) 1850 (see Images 140–142). He served, too, on the commission for the construction of the New Hermitage (see Image 113). On 4 March (OS) 1834, he was appointed chairman of the committee for establishing telegraph communication between St. Petersburg and Warsaw. His chief work, however, was the building of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway. On 1 February (OS) 1842, he was made a member of the Construction Committee and Construction Commission established for this purpose. On 11 August (OS) 1842, he was appointed head of the Main Administration of Transport and Public Buildings. Alexander II dismissed Kleinmikhel’ as head of the Main Administration of Transport and Public Buildings on 15 October (OS) 1855. The dismissal, over which there was much rejoicing among his subordinates, was represented as being the result of a request by Kleinmikhel’ to be allowed to resign because of ill health. He remained an adjutant general and a member of the State Council.

Kleinmikhel’ was married twice. His first marriage, to Varvara Aleksandrovna Kokoshkina (d. 1842), in the 1820s, ended in divorce, with rumors that Kleinmikhel’ was impotent. His second wife, whom he married in 1832, was a widow, Kleopatra Petrovna (Il’inskaia) Khorvat (17 October [OS] 1811 – France 17 January [OS] 1865), who was young, rich, and at the time childless. They subsequently had a large family.2

Poorly educated, suspicious of anything technical and of abstract thinking, quick to anger and to heap insults on his unfortunate subordinates, arbitrary and fierce in his conduct towards others, and cynical, he has perhaps been best described by Baron Andrei Ivanovich Del’vig (Delwig) (1813–1887; see Image 251), who was on special assignment to him from 1842 until Kleinmikhel’ retired. Finding that he had been assigned to Kleinmikhel’ at the latter’s request to the emperor, Del’vig wrote in his memoirs: “Although I liked Kleinmikhel from our first meeting for his politeness and energeticness, I had heard from everyone that he was an animal … and I was very dissatisfied with the aforesaid appointment.”3 While acknowledging that “Kleinmikhel belongs among the most remarkable people in the reigns of Alexander I and Nicholas I,”4 Del’vig stressed the negative aspects of his character.

Young Kleinmikhel’, a spoiled only son, lived at home, receiving no education. Registered in the Cadet Corps while his father was its director, he was a first lieutenant at fifteen and assigned to serve under his father, who was then commander of the reserve corps, the main headquarters of which was located in Yaroslavl’. Kleinmikhel’ continued to live with his family and do nothing. This upbringing and his life with his mother and sisters resulted, despite his brutality, in a certain effeminacy in him that persisted into old age.5

He became an adjutant to Arakcheev through his father’s ties to the latter, and eventually a colonel and head of staff of the military colonies, where his brutality was such that when Arakcheev wished to punish some part of the military colonies severely, he would say: “I’ll send you Kleinmikhel,” and when Arakcheev was removed, it was said: “Arakcheev is gone, but his teeth remain.”6 Later, his anticipated appearance for an inspection of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway had the same effect. When Nicholas I wanted the Winter palace, which had burned down in 1837, to be rebuilt quickly, he appointed Kleinmikhel’ to direct the operations, which, Del’vig says, only Kleinmikhel’ could accomplish. On the completion of the work on 26 March (OS) 1839, the emperor rewarded him with a million rubles and the title of count. The motto on the Kleinmikhel’ coat-of-arms, on which was depicted the Winter Palace, read: “Diligence overcometh all.”7

Although the qualified candidate to be in charge of the construction of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway was Major General Konstantin Vladimirovich Chevkin (1803–1875; see Image 245), the post was given to Kleinmikhel’, who knew nothing about the financial and technical aspects of building railroads, and who, because of his lack of education, was unable ever to attain any understanding of them. He had, moreover, never seen a railway. Despite the fact that in 1842 the line from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoe Selo had been in operation for five years, Kleinmikhel’ had always traveled to Tsarskoe Selo by horse and carriage to see the emperor. The same pressure to finish the work quickly that had been applied by Kleinmikhel’ to the rebuilding of the Winter Palace was applied in the building of the railway.8 Shtukenberg (see Image 250) said of him: “This was a steel battering ram, who was needed for the Emperor’s imperial will to penetrate the wall of all the obstacles and difficulties encountered … which is proven by the fact that many useful works in the Department of Transport, postponed for many years, were accomplished only during Kleinmikhel’s tenure in office.”9

On assuming his post, Kleinmikhel’ set out to inspect the Moscow Road, which was under repair. The result of this inspection was a sharp-tongued order, couched in a sarcastic tone, lashing out at various parties and attracting public curiosity and amusement to the extent that people actually subscribed to forthcoming orders, called by one of his witty detractors “Count Kleinmikhel’s travel impressions.”10

Many careers were destroyed. No one paid any attention then, says Del’vig, to the fact that his actions were highly arbitrary and his jibes at his subordinates inappropriate. One of his hang-ups in the building of the railway was that the seams of the grouting between bricks must be fine. The latter requirement was, moreover, a dangerous one and the architect Konstantin Andreevich Ton (1794–1881) refused to obey it, for which he was removed as inspector of the station houses being built along the railway line. Many are the stories Del’vig tells of Kleinmikhel’s humiliation of his subordinates, some his own age, who patiently bore his goading and insults because he was in favor with the emperor.11

Kleinmikhel’ liked Del’vig, but the latter tried to avoid all closeness out of fear that Kleinmikhel’ would become too familiar with him. He therefore rarely went to the evening gatherings Kleinmikhel’ gave, even when sent for. He pointed out that Kleinmikhel’ had an extraordinary capacity to size people up at first glance and thus know what he could and could not ask of them. Del’vig could not, therefore, avert Kleinmikhel’s use of the familiar “thou” when addressing him.12

As for Kleinmikhel’s ignorance and his suspicion of what he could not understand, there is the following story. While in Moscow, he invited several engineers to dinner at 4 p.m. Hearing them arrive somewhat before 4 o’clock, he asked Del’vig with some annoyance why they had come so early. Told that it was almost four, he checked one of the several watches he always carried and announced that it was not yet half past three. Del’vig told him that the timepieces in Moscow were about half an hour ahead of those in Petersburg, whereupon Kleinmikhel’ vented his rage at the Moscow makers of timepieces and ordered that dinner be served. At dinner he recounted the story to his doctor. The latter, ignoring the fact that it was useless to explain the cause of the time difference between the two capitals, started to explain it and in doing so used the word “meridian.” Kleinmikhel’ asked what that was and, on receiving an explanation, said it was all nonsense, that there are no such circles drawn on the earth, that it had all been dreamed up by engineers and that the doctor had become infected by them.13

This, then, is the man to whom Major Whistler (see Images 7–8, 21) answered and with whom he traveled to inspect the line. Anna Whistler was relieved when the end of the railway work season came, because her husband’s contact with Kleinmikhel’ would temporarily cease. But Kleinmikhel’ did not address or treat Whistler as he did his Russian subordinates. On the contrary, George Henry Prince said that “Major Whistler handles him well” and reported that “a contractor said that the Major rides him.”14

Notes