Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky
Quick Facts
Biography
Count Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky (1794–1857) was animperial Russian general and statesman.
The illegitimate son of Count Aleksey Kirillovich Razumovsky, who became Russia'sMinister of National Education, Perovsky studied atMoscow University, then joined the retinue of Emperor Alexander I in 1811. When retreating toward Moscow after the 1812 Battle of Borodino he was taken prisoner bythe French; he remained in captivity until thefall of Paris in 1814.
He was seriously wounded in the 1828 war with Turkey.
In 1833 Perovsky was appointed the military governor ofOrenburg on the Russian Empire's southeastern frontier. In 1839 he led an invasion of the Khanate of Khiva, in part to free Russian slaves captured from the Russian frontiers on the Caspian Sea and sold by Turkmen raiders, but also as an attempt to extend the Russian borders in the direction of Central Asia while the British Empire was entangled in the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-1842. Perovsky's expeditionary force consisted of 5,200 infantry and 10,000 camels. Due to poor planning and a bit of bad luck, they set off southwards, in November 1839, into one of the worst winters in memory, and had to turn back in February 1840. The expeditionary force arrived back in Orenburg in May, having suffered over 1,000 casualties, mostly from cold and disease. See Khivan campaign of 1839.
In 1842 Perovsky left the Orenburg governor's position, but he returned to that office in 1851-1857. This time, his campaigning in the central Asia (today's central Kazakhstan) against the Khanates of Khiva andKokand proved much more successful. After his troops successfully took the Kokand fortress of Ak-Mechet in 1853, the fort was renamed Fort-Perovsky after him. His military successes forced the Khanate of Khiva to make concessions in the 1854 treaty with the Russia Empire.
For his achievements, Perovsy was made a count in 1855.
