Franz Lefort, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Franz Lefort

Russian admiral

Date of Birth: 02-Jan-1656

Place of Birth: Geneva, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland

Date of Death: 02-Mar-1699

Profession: military personnel, politician

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn


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About Franz Lefort

  • Franz Jakob Lefort (Russian: ????? ????????? ??????, tr.
  • Frants Yakovlevich Lefort; French: François Jacques Le Fort; January 2(12), 1656 – March 2(12), 1699) was a Genevan-born Russian military figure of Huguenot origin, general admiral (1695), and close associate of Tsar Peter the Great. Franz Lefort, born in Geneva, came from a merchant family.
  • He began his military career in the Dutch army.
  • In 1675 Lefort arrived in Archangelsk in the company of the Prussian Colonel Jacob van Frosten in order to find employment with the Russian army.
  • In February 1676 he came to Moscow, but military officials turned him down.
  • The Posolsky Prikaz listed him as a visiting foreigner.
  • Lefort settled in the so-called Nemetskaya sloboda in Moscow, where he would gain respect among other distinguished foreigners.
  • In July 1678 he once again applied for service in the tsarist army.
  • Accepted with the rank of captain, Lefort then went to one of the fronts during the Russo-Turkish War of 1676-1681.
  • In early 1679 he was ordered to join the Kiev garrison under the command of Prince Vasily Golitsyn and General Patrick Gordon.
  • Upon his return to Moscow from a short trip to Geneva in 1683, Lefort carried out various diplomatic assignments until the fall of 1685. Lefort's house gradually turned into a main attraction of the Nemetskaya sloboda, attended not only by locals, but by Russian noblemen, such as the Golitsyns.
  • It appears that Lefort utilized his connections with the latter and received rapid promotion. In 1687 and 1689 he took part in two unsuccessful Crimean campaigns.
  • Peter the Great became a frequent guest in Lefort's house from 1690.
  • Lefort was one of the principal organizers and participators in Peter's military games, which would pave the way for his career advancement.
  • In 1690 Lefort was promoted to the rank of major general.
  • He then became lieutenant general (1691) and general (1693).
  • In 1692 Peter I funded the construction of a large reception hall for 1,500 people, which formed an extension to Lefort's house.
  • This hall hosted administrative meetings and Peter's parties. In 1691 Lefort was put in charge of a regiment and assigned a training ground on the left bank of the Yauza River.
  • Peter ordered the construction of a sloboda for this purpose, which would later be called Lefortovskaya sloboda (the Lefort quarter, present-day Lefortovo in Moscow's South-Eastern Administrative Okrug).
  • In 1693-1694 Lefort accompanied Peter on his trip to Arkhangelsk.
  • In 1694 he participated in Peter's "play" Kozhukhov campaign (a military game in the village of Kozhukhovo, between Moscow and Kolomenskoye). During the Azov campaigns of 1695-1696 Lefort was in charge of the Imperial Russian Navy.
  • His return from the war was marked with a solemn parade through Moscow to his "native" Nemetskaya sloboda and subsequent festivities.
  • Lefort was awarded a title of governor (?????????, or namestnik) of Novgorod and estates in two uyezds. In 1696 Lefort together with Fedor Golovin and Prokopy Voznitsyn took official charge of Peter's Grand Embassy, a Russian diplomatic mission to Western Europe.
  • Upon his return to Moscow in 1698 he took part in the trial of the Streltsy rebels.
  • That same year he moved to a custom-built palace, later known as the Lefortovsky Palace, on the Yauza River.
  • The palace would soon become a center of Russian political and royal life in 1698-1699.
  • Peter the Great used to hold all his important meetings and numerous celebrations in Lefort's palace.
  • Franz Lefort died in Moscow in early March 1699.
  • Upon hearing the news of his death, Tsar Peter lamented "Now I am alone without one trusty man.
  • He alone was faithful to me.
  • Whom can I confide in now?" On March 21 Peter held Lefort's state funeral, a ceremony second only to the funerals of Tsars or Patriarchs. Lefort lies buried in the Vvedenskoye Cemetery in Lefortovo. The Russian 84-gun ship-of-the-line Lefort (launched 1835, shipwrecked 1857) was named in honor of Lefort.

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