Major or Major General? (To the Biography of Petrashevite Nikolai Mombelli)

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Mombelli was one of the members of the Petrashevsky, Durov, and Speshnev circles closest to Dostoevsky in the late 1840s. December 22, 1849 they stood together on the scaffold on the Semenovsky parade ground. The article introduces new documentary data on the military service performed by former Petrashevite Mombelli in the North Caucasus in 1857–1884. An obituary notice about his death in St. Petersburg on December 14, 1891 from the “Novoe Vremya” newspaper was republished, naming Mombelli’s highest rank in his military career — Major General. The author traces the origin of the false information about the time and place of the death of the former Petrashevite (1902, Vladikavkaz), widely presented in dictionary-encyclopedic publications and biographical literature, as well as the erroneous indication that N. A. Mombelli “rose to the rank of Major” in the military sphere. The stages of the former Petrashevite career have been restored according to Mombelli’s 1884 Service Record, discovered by the authors in the Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA), as part of the case “On the Dismissal of Major General Mombeli.” Such 19th century printed sources as collections of the “Highest Orders on Military Ranks,” annual Lists of generals and officers (Majors, Lieutenant Colonels, Colonels) by seniority, and publications in the Russian Invalid newspaper, the official organ of the Ministry of War, are extensively utilized. In the light of new archival and printed sources, the memoirs of N. A. Mombelli and the few biographical studies about the Petrashevite have been critically revised.