Diebitsch, Johann, Graf

▪ Russian military officer

(Count),Russian  Ivan Ivanovich Dibich-zabalkansky  

born May 13, 1785, Grossleipe, Silesia, Prussia

died June 10, 1831, Kleczewo, near Pułtusk, Pol.

      military officer whose Balkan campaigns determined the Russian victory in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29.

      Although he was of German parentage and was educated at the Berlin cadet school, Diebitsch joined the Russian Army in 1801, and, after fighting against Napoleon in the battles of Austerlitz, Eylau, Friedland, and Smolensk, he acquired the rank of major general. He continued to serve in various military and diplomatic capacities as the Russians continued the war in western Europe (1812–14). In 1815 he attended the Congress of Vienna, at which the allies, having defeated Napoleon, reorganized Europe. Subsequently, Diebitsch became adjutant general to the Russian emperor Alexander I, chief of the Russian general staff (1824), a participant in the suppression of the Decembrist uprising, and a member of a secret committee formed by the emperor Nicholas I to examine administrative and social reform programs (1826–32).

      After the Russo-Turkish War broke out (1828) and Diebitsch was given command of the Russian forces in Europe (February 1829), he defeated the Turks at Silistra on the Danube River, at the Kamchyk River near Varna, and at Burgas (all in Bulgaria). Continuing his campaign, he advanced westward, inflicting another defeat upon the Turks at Sliven; he then turned south, forcing Adrianople (Edirne) to surrender and precipitating the conclusion of the Treaty of Edirne (Sept. 14, 1829), by which Turkey ceded the mouth of the Danube River and some territory in the Caucasus to Russia. For his victory Diebitsch was promoted to the rank of field marshal and given the name Zabalkansky to commemorate his march across the Balkans.

      When the Poles staged an uprising against their Russian rulers (1830), Diebitsch led the Russian army that defeated the Poles at Grochów (Feb. 25, 1831) and at Ostroleka (May 20, 1831), but he died from cholera before the Poles capitulated.

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