RUSSIA  

Alexander I, 1801 - 1825

Medal. Bronze. 41.5 mm. By Dieudonné.

Uniformed bust of Duke of Richeloeu. (1766- 1822). 

Founder of Odessa. 

The new Russian emperor, Alexander I, was one of his friends. The erasure of Richelieu's name from the list of prohibited migrs who could not legally return to France, which Richelieu on his own had previously been unable to secure from

Napoleon Bonaparte, was accorded on the request of Alexander's new imperial government, and in 1803 Alexander appointed him Governor ofOdesa.

Two years later, he became Governor-Generalof a large swathe of land recently conquered from the Ottoman Empire and called New Russia, which included the territories of Kherson,Ekaterinoslav and the Crimea. He commanded a division in theTurkish War of 18061807, and was engaged in frequent expeditions to the Caucasus.Richelieu played a role during Ottoman plague epidemic which hit Odesa in the autumn 1812.Dismissive of any attempt to forge a compromise between quarantine requirements and free trade,

Princ eKuriakin(the Saint Petersburg-based High Commissioner for Sanitation) countermanded Richelieu's orders.In the eleven years of his administration, Odessa greatly increased in size and importance, eventually becoming the third largest city in the empire by population. The grateful Odessan erected a bronze monument to him in 1828. These are the famous Odessa Steps, crowned by a statue of Richelieu.

Extremely fine.

RARE.

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