Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann - Tolstoy Alexander Ivanovich Count Osterman - Tolstoy ( Russian : Александр Иванович Остерман - Толстой ; 1772 – 12 February 1857 ) was a Russian nobleman and soldier in the era of the French Revolutionary Wars . He belonged to the famous Tolstoy family . Biography . Count Alexander Ivanovich Osterman - Tolstoy was the son of the Lieutenant - General Ivan Matveevich Tolstoy ( 1746 – 1808 ) and his wife Agrafena Ilyinichna , nee Bibikova . He began his military service during the Turkish - Russian war of 1787 - 1791 . In 1796 his two childless great - uncles , Fedor and Ivan Osterman , brothers of his paternal grandmother , gave him their family name , the title of count and a large fortune . Count Osterman - Tolstoy did not leave the military service . In 1798 he was already a major - general , and became Lieutenant General in 1805 . He participated in all major Russian battles of the Napoleonic Wars in 1805 - 1814 . Upon his return from the campaign in northern Germany in 1805 , he was named Governor of St . Petersburg . In 1811 , he inherited the title of Count Osterman from his childless uncle , Ivan Osterman , the last of the Osterman line . During 1812 - 1814 commanded a corps , and distinguished himself in the battle at Kulm 17 – 18 August 1813 . He participated in the 1812 campaigns as a Commander of the 4th Army Corps , under the overall command of Johann von Klenau . Osterman - Tolstoy was wounded in the Battle of Bautzen ( 21 – 22 May 1813 ) , before fighting at Dresden and at the Battle of Leipzig . His corps defended the gorges in the mountains of Bohemia and captured Marshal Vandamme . During the battle the count lost his left hand , as Emperor Alexander I put it , “ by sacrificing his hand he bought us victory ” . In 1815 , Osterman - Tolstoy briefly had a diplomatic assignment to Paris . In 1817 , he was appointed General of the Infantry . Count Osterman - Tolstoy remained in service until 1826 , after Alexander ' s I death he retired and started traveling around Europe and the Middle East in the company of the scholar Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer . In 1831 , he was a military consultant to Ibrahim - pasha in Egypt and participated in actions against the Turks . He never returned to Russia and shared his time between Italy and Switzerland . He loved practical jokes and hoaxes . According to his contemporaries he was “ a remarkable and original person , distinguished by his frankness and generosity . Even among his famous contemporaries he could be singled out . Fearlessness , courage , and endurance in battle were his characteristics as a military officer . ” Count Osterman - Tolstoy was married to Princess Elisabeth Alexeevna Galitzine ( 1779 – 1853 ) from 1799 ; they had no children . He had foreign mistresses and a lot of illegitimate children . There is an engraving , published in Pisa in 1827 , on which Count Osterman - Tolstoy is depicted sitting beside a pram with a sleeping baby and two older children playing nearby ; the inscription says , ‘ Je me flatte que c ’ est les derniers faries ( sic ) . A 55 ans il est temps de faire la clôture . ’ ( I flatter myself with the thought that it ’ s my last extravagancy . At the age of 55 one must stop ) . Osterman - Tolstoy finally settled in Le Petit - Saconnex on Lake Geneva ( Switzerland ) in 1837 , where he died in 1857 .