Anton de Balmen explained

Office:Viceroy of Caucasus
Term:1790
Predecessor:Ivan Saltykov
Successor:Ivan Gudovich
Birth Date:1741
Death Place:Georgiyevsk
Commands:Rostov Carabinieri Regiment
Russian Caucasian corps
Battles:Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774)
Sheikh Mansur Movement
Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792)

Count Anton Bogdanovich de Balmen (; 1741 – 15 October 1790) was a Russian general of Scottish origin, Governor-General of Kursk and Oryol, commander of the Russian Caucasian corps.

Biography

A member of the de Balmens, his father came to Russia during the reign of Empress Anna and entered the Russian service as a major. Since childhood, Anton de Balmen was enlisted in the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment. In 1758 he was an ensign, three years later a lieutenant colonel.

He participated in the Russian-Turkish war in 1770, as commander of the Rostov Carabinieri Regiment, where he distinguished himself during the assault on Bendery and the capture of the Perekop fortifications and the city of Kaffa by storm. Rose to the rank of Major-General in 1774. He served in the army in Ukraine, participated in the liquidation of the Zaporozhian Sich. He was promoted to Lieutenant-general in 1780.

In 1784, de Balmain was appointed director of First Cadet Corps. From 1786 to 1789 he was the Governor-General of Kursk and Oryol. On November 20, 1786, he was awarded the Order of St. George of the 4th degree.

He was appointed commander of Russian Caucasian corps from May to October 1790, during the war with Ottoman Empire, where, after the unsuccessful expedition of General Yuri Bibikov to Anapa, matters were in extremely poor condition. De Balmen arrived in the Caucasus completely ill with consumption and died on October 4, 1790, in Georgievsk. Among other awards, Balmen had the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky.

Family

He was married to Countess Elena Antonovna de Vieira, granddaughter of Peter I's associate Anton de Vieira (1682-1745). For the merits of Count de Balmen, Empress Catherine II granted his widow 500 serfs and several thousand acres of land, and placed the children in educational institutions at public expense. They had several children:

Sources