Prince Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov-Smolensky was a Field Marshal of the Russian Empire. He served as a military officer and a diplomat under the reign of three Romanov monarchs: Empress Catherine II, and Emperors Paul I and Alexander I. Kutuzov was shot in the head twice while fighting the Turks and survived the serious injuries seemingly against all odds. He defeated Napoleon as commander-in-chief using attrition warfare in the Patriotic war of 1812. Alexander I, the incumbent Tsar during Napoleon's invasion, would write that he would be remembered amongst Europe's most famous commanders and that Russia would never forget his worthiness.
Portrait by Roman Volkov [ru]
Kutuzov between 1777 and 1780, the Pietro Rotari's copy of Karel Brož [ru]
M. I. Golenishchev-Kutuzov by G. Dawe. Hermitage Museum, Winter Palace, Military Gallery
Kutuzov before the Battle of Borodino. Lithograph by N. S. Samokish. 1912
Paul I was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his 1801 assassination. Paul remained overshadowed by his mother for most of his life. He adopted the laws of succession to the Russian throne—rules that lasted until the end of the Romanov dynasty and of the Russian Empire. He also intervened in the French Revolutionary Wars and toward the end of his reign, added Kartli and Kakheti in Eastern Georgia into the empire, which was confirmed by his son and successor Alexander I.
Natalia Alexeievna by Alexander Roslin 1776
Maria Feodorovna, portrait by Alexander Roslin
Paul I in the early 1790s
A statue of Emperor Paul in front of the Pavlovsk Palace