Early Life
Nikolay Raevsky was born in Saint Petersburg. He descended from an old noble family of remote Scandinavian ancestry, who left Denmark to settle in Livonia during the fourteenth century. By the sixteenth century, they had acquired Polish nationality, and were granted the (Łabędź Coat of Arms) by King Sigismund III, in the early seventeenth century. His grandfather, Semyon Raevsky, was the Prosecutor of the Holy Synod.
The family rose to prominence in Russia when Raevsky's father, Colonel Nikolay Semyonovich Raevsky, commander of the elite Izmaylovsky Regiment, married Ekaterina Samoylova. Ekaterina was a lady-in-waiting and close friend of Empress Catherine II, and a niece of the Empress’ influential favorite, Prince Potemkin. Ekaterina’s brother was the general and statesman, Count Alexander Samoylov.
Nikolay Semyonovich Raevsky was killed in action during the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774 at Iaşi, dying several months before the birth of his son, General Nikolay Raevsky. Not long after the Colonel’s death, the Empress arranged for Raevsky's mother to marry a wealthy landowner, Lev Davydov, who proved to be a generous stepfather.
Raevsky was enrolled in the Leib-Guard Semyonovsky Regiment at a very early age. On 30 April 1777 he was promoted to sergeant and on 1 January 1786 to ensign. On 23 February 1789 he was transferred to the Nizhegorodsky Dragoon Regiment with the rank of premier-major. With this regiment he took part in the Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792 and distinguished himself at Bendery and Akkerman. In recognition of his valor, Raevsky was promoted on 1 September 1790 to lieutenant colonel and became the chief of a Cossack regiment.
After the peace treaty was concluded, he took part in the Polish-Russian War of 1792 with the Nizhegorodsky Dragoon Regiment. For this campaign he received on 28 June 1792 the Order of St. George of the 4th degree and the gold sword with an inscription for bravery.
When the war with Persia erupted in 1796, Raevsky, under command of Count Valerian Zubov, took part in the taking of Derbent and in other engagements.
Upon his ascension to the throne, Emperor Paul I recalled the army back to Russia, and had Raevsky dismissed from the military because of his relationship to Prince Potemkin, whom Paul detested. After Paul's murder, and Alexander I's assumption of the throne, Raevsky rejoined the army and was promoted to the rank of Major General.
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