Alexey Andreyevich Arakcheyev

From Freepedia

Count Alexey Andreyevich Arakcheyev (граф Алексей Андреевич Аракчеев) (1769-1834) was Russian general and statesman under the reign of the czar Alexander I, serving as the War Minister, the Head of the War Department of the State Council of Imperial Russia, and the head of Imperial Chancellery.

During Patriotic War of 1812 he oversaw recruitment and management of army supplies. He introduced several useful military reforms, which proved themselves during wars of 1812-1814.

Throughout his service Arakcheyev was known for his scrupulousness and mercilessness in following the will of tsar. After the war he is known for organizing military-agricultural colonies, an idea initially conceived by Alexander I. At first Arakcheyev tried to oppose it, but when he fulfilled it with unrelenting rigor. The hardships of military service combined with the hardships of peasant life created terrifying conditions in those settlements.

Through that his name started to be synonymous to military despotism, the period of his power is known as Arakcheyevshchina.