2-587-647 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

Portrait of General Count Alexey Arakcheyev, late 18th century. Arakcheyev (1769-1834) rose rapidly in the Russian Army in the 1790s. After the coronation of Tsar Paul I in 1796 he was appointed commandant of the St Petersburg garrison, but was later disgraced and stripped of his functions for covering up misdeeds by army officers. He was rehabilitated in 1803 by the new tsar, Alexander I, who appointed him Inspector of the Artillery. He introduced major reforms to Russian artillery, particularly after it performed badly at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805. Found in the collection of the Far Eastern Art Museum, Khabarovsk, Russia.