Beheaded August 9, because he favored making peace with foreigners
THE Russian legation is situated on the north side of Legation street, directly opposite the United States legation, one hundred and fifty yards west of the moat that runs northward from the city wall to the wall of the Forbidden City; between the British legation and the Su Wang Fu. Consequently, the Russian legation is directly south of the British legation, and separated from it only by a small street containing shops of the humbler sort.
Immediately upon a state of siege being declared, the foreign guards took possession of this street, drove out the inhabitants, barricaded both ends of the highway, and so made it possible to go with safety directly from the position held by the American marines on the city wall, through the American legation, across Legation street, also barricaded, through the Russian legation, and on into the British legation—one continuous foreign occupation. This was a necessity for our protection, and to secure for the American and Russian marines a safe retreat into the British legation in the event of their own locations being no longer tenable.
At the beginning of the siege the following persons resided in the Russian legation: His Eminence M. de Giers, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, his wife, daughter and son, and Miss Edith Miller, a governess in his family; B. N. Kroupensky, first secretary; B. N. Evreinow, second secretary; P. S. Popoff, interpreter; Mme. Popoff and five daughters; N. F. Kolessoff, second interpreter; A. T. Beltchenko and H. P. Wulff, student interpreters; V. V. Korsakoff, M.D., surgeon, wife and daughter; N. T. Gomloyeff, postmaster; A. Polyanoff, clerk in post office; the Rt.-Rev. Father Archimandrite Innocent Figuroffsky; the Rev. Father Abraham, Deacon Basile, Messrs. Osipoff and Piskimoff, ecclesiastical students. This comprised the legation personnel.
There was also the staff of the Russo-Chinese bank, consisting of the following persons: D. D. Pokotiloff, company manager for China and Japan, and his wife; D. M. Pozdneeff, his wife and child; R. T. Barbier, wife and child; Mlle. C. Titoff; E. Wihlfahrt, cashier; F. Vavier, bookkeeper; Messrs. Brackmann, Mirny, Alexandroff, Wasilieff, Brauns, and Kehler; and Mr. A. W. Borodavkine, professor of Russian in the Imperial University.
Russian Minister and Staff of Legation and their families
The Russian guards were sailors from the battleships Navarine and Sissoi Veliku, to the number of seventy-two men, under Naval Lieutenant Baron von Rahden and Sub-Lieutenant Carl von Dehn, with seven trans-Baikalian Cossacks.
Captain Jean Wroublevsky, who was on language-leave, also resided in the legation, and acted with Baron von Rahden alternately as commander of the forces. Captain Wroublevsky belongs to the Ninth Rifle Corps, stationed at Port Arthur.
Some of the staff of the Russo-Chinese bank served in the British legation under the orders of Captain Strouts until his death, and thereafter under Sir Claude MacDonald, who assumed command, but Messrs. Kroupensky, Evreinow, Kolessoff, Beltchenko, Dr. Korsakoff, and Professor Borodavkine constituted themselves Russian volunteers, and remained by their legation throughout the siege, never becoming a part of the so-called international volunteers serving in the British legation.