Pyotr Kleinmichel

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Count Pyotr Andreevich Kleinmichel (Peter von Kleinmichel) (1789–1869) was a Russian politician who served as minister of transport from 1842 to 1855. He fought in the Battle of Leipzig and the Battle of Borodino.

In March 1814, Tsar Alexander I worried about the safety of his brothers Nicholas and Constantine, who were in Paris. Kleinmichel warned them to return to Basel. After this, he became Aide-de-Camp to the Tsar, which brought him to the attention of the future Tsar Nicholas I.

Kleinmichel oversaw the building of the Saint Petersburg–Moscow Railway and helped restore the Winter Palace after the 1837 fire. There were rumors that Nicholas I promoted him because Kleinmichel adopted the Emperor’s illegitimate children.

Kleinmichel was married twice. In 1816 he married Varvara Kokoshkina, the granddaughter of business magnate Alexei Turchaninov; she died in 1842. They reportedly divorced due to his impotence. In 1832 he married Kleopatra Petrovna Ilyinskaya, a relative of Nicholas I’s mistress Varvara Nelidova. She died of tuberculosis in Paris and was buried in St. Petersburg. They had eight children.