The strong personality and numerous talents of Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, founder of the Russian branch of the family, induce him to be spoken of first and to dedicate to him a space that will not be brief. Born in 1764 he left for America at the age of 17, both because he had been involved in a duel with a bishop, and also because he was impatient with inactivity. He fought in the regiment of the Duc Laval-Montomorency and in America he battled the English, distinguishing himself in the battles of Puerto-Cabella, Caracas, and San Domingo, earning his first laurels, that is, the decoration conferred upon him by the American Governor, of the order of Cincinnatus.
Having returned to the Fatherland he was promoted to Colonel in 1788; since garrison life did not suit his character, he requested and obtained from the Empress of Russia Caterina the Great, to become part of the Russian army, battling against Sweden first and then Turkey. At the siege of the fortress of Ismail he was wounded in the leg, but he returned to combat after being treated and conquered the fortress at the head of his soldiers, whom he personally guided and spurred. He was decorated for bravery. In 1795, he was promoted to Brigadier General and in 1796 Lieutenant General.
He took part in the battle of Austerlitz against Napoleon; he commanded one of the columns of attack, but he was beaten and taken prisoner. Conducted into the presence of Napoleon, the emperor offered him restitution of his estates and a rank at court, but the ex-Frenchman responded to him that His Majesty had before him a Russian citizen and not a Count of Langeron. (“La science historique,” December 1922). In fact in 1799 he had received Russian citizenship and Emperor Paul of Russia conferred upon him the title of Count of the Russian Empire.
During the campaign in France (1814) he commanded the right wing of the Blucher Armata and in the battle of Paris he attacked the hill of Montmartre. After Waterloo he occupied with his troops Alsace-Lorraine. He therefore held various governorships in Russia: that of Kherson, of Novorossisk, and that of Odessa.
After the restoration he made various trips to France and King Louis XVIII restored to him ownership of the ruined castle! But the Bourbons rubbed him the wrong way and he was happy to return to Russia where we find him in 1882 at the Supreme Imperial Command during the Russo-Turkish War. He was decorated with the highest decoration in Russia: The Order of St. Andrew with diamonds.
Louis ALexandre Andrault de Langeron went into retirement in 1829, settling in his beloved Odessa, where, during his governorship, he had accomplished great works of such great usefulness to the public they availed him of the satisfaction of giving his name of Langeron to one of the principal arteries of the city. It was written of him: “He
belonged to that group of leaders the were relatively numerous in the XVIII century and in the beginning of the XIX century. He was not a great strategist, but certainly extremely courageous. He loved to emphasize his contempt for danger and in the crucial moments of battle he bore a happy spirit.”
He did not disdain the pen. He wrote some Memories which are found in the National Library of France, interesting for the period in which he lived and for the doings in which he participated; of these was published only the part relative to the military operations. He collaborated in other magazines of that period and wrote other works for the theater that did not survive him.
Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron married three times. His first wife Diana de la Vaupelière died young and it is said of her that she succeed in saving from the halter the families Langeron, Dreuille, and others, courageously pleading their cause to Madame Tallien who, on a journey to Bourbonnais, had stopped to rest in the shade of a large oak near the village square of Livry. The second wife was Natalia Petrovna Kashitzev and the third Elisabetta Adolprovna von Brummer.
From these marriages issued no children. Instead he had a son by Angelica Dzierzonaska (see the reference to her family and coat of arms), who was born in 1804 and named Theodoro (Feodor in Russian). Theodoro was legitimated in France by Louis XVIII and authorized to make use of all the titles of his family. The legitimization was also confirmed in Russia by a decree of the Senate, but he was not allowed to carry the title given to his father, Count of the Russian Empire.
Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, so courageous at war, had by contrast a great fear of Cholera. When this scourge reached Odessa, he moved to St. Petersburg where on the 7th of April. 1831… he died of cholera!
- Theodoro Andrault de Langeron was also an official himself. He was born in 1804 and died in 1885. He took part in the Russo-Turkish war of 1828 as Aide-de-Camp of Commander in Chief, Baron General Dibich. It was he who brought to the Emperor Nicola I the keys to the fort of Slivno which he had conquered. For his merits as a soldier he was entered as a part of the the most famous and requested Russian Regiment: the Regiment of the Hussars of the Guard. In 1844 he was in the Stato Maggiore of Prince Paskevich, Vice Regent of the Polish Provinces. He was President of the city of Warsaw for 20 years. He married Anne Olenine, one of the beauties of her time, a type of Beatrice for the Russian poet Pushkine and a lady of great intelligence. Her father Alexis Olenine, President of the Acadamie des Beaux Artes, polyglot, archeologist, scholar (he was the President and founder of the national library of St. Petersburg), he passed to his daughter a good portion of his gifts.
Anna Olenine of the Olenine family will be spoken of shortly. Same for the coat of arms. Theodoro was the grandfather of Alessandra Stael Holstein who married Paolo Primo Ruggeri Laderchi and Louis Alexandre the great-grandfather (see the genealogical tree of the the Andrault de Langeron family).
Theodoro Andrault de Langeron wanted to be buried in France in the Castle of his ancestors, the 10th of October 1885. “The funeral gathering was accompanied by his son, the Colonel Andrault de Langeron (Theodoro like his father, brother of Sophie wife of Nicola Stael Holstein) official of the Russian light cavalry, accompanied by many officials of the Stato Maggiore.” (“La Science Historique,” booklet from December 1922.)
In the early 1600’s the family split into three branches: one remained in France (then became Russian) and continued to call itself Andrualt de Langeron; one branch moved to Poland and called themselves Andrault de Hugenglatte; a third assumed the surname of Andrault de Malevrier Langeron.
After the first World War an official Andrault de Langeron, emigrated from Russia into France, (probably Dimitri son of Theodoro), and worked very hard for an accord to be reached, or at the least a “modus vivendi” between Denikin commander of the White Russians and General Petlioura of the Red Army, but without success. La Science Historique, to which I refer in its December 1922 booklet, thus expresses: “Mais toute les tentatives menées dans ce sense au compte des représentants militaires francais ou alliées par des chefs do cors rancs russes dont le plus notoire comme le plus legendaire restera le conte Andrault de Langeron, l’auteur du fameux projet des ‘brigades mixtes’, furent vouées è l’insuccés le plus absolu.”
- Sofia Andreault de Langeron, married Nicola Stael Holstein and had three children: Olga, Alessandra (Sania) married to Paolo Primo Ruggieri-Laderchi, and George, who died a bachelor in the early days of the Russian Revolution, which is to say he was murdered following a coup.
Sofia, after having been caught in at her Villa in the countryside (Otradneo) by the Bolshevicks, found refuge in Voronezh at the house of her old maid who succeeded in placing her in the corner of a room (the place of privilege), and died in 1920.
The Ruggeri-Laderchi Family 