Langeron, Louis-Alexandre Andrault

Langeron, Louis-Alexandre Andrault, b 13 January 1763 in Paris, d 16 July 1831 in Saint Petersburg. A French nobleman, Russian general, count (from 1799), and political figure. In 1790, during the French Revolution, he emigrated to Russia and served as an officer in the Russian infantry. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1806–12 his adjutant was Ivan Kotliarevsky. From November 1815 to May 1823 he was governor-general of New Russia in Southern Ukraine and commander in chief of the Boh Cossack Army and the Black Sea Cossacks. While governor-general, until 1820 he was also chief of the Odesa autonomous administrative territory (gradonachalstvo). He promoted the growth of Odesa’s port, established the first public utilities in Odesa, and was a major benefactor of the Richelieu Lyceum, the girls’ school, and the Greek commercial school there. He was also one of the founders of Freemasonry in Ukraine.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]