General of the Cavalry Count Alexander Khristoforovich Benkendorf (1826–1844) (1 Dez 1826 Jahr – 1 Jan 1844 Jahr)

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In 1821 he attempted to warn Alexander I against the threat from the Decembrist clandestine organisation, but the Tsar ignored his note. After the 1825 Decembrist Revolt he sat on the investigation committee and lobbied for the establishment of a Corps of Gendarmes and a secret police, the Third Section of the Imperial Chancellery. He served as the first Chief of Gendarmes and Executive Director of the Third Section from 1826 to 1844. Under his management, the Third Section established, inter alia, strict censorship over literature and theatre performances. His aim for Russian historiography was reflected in his statement that "Russia's past was admirable, its present is more than magnificent and as for its future — it is beyond anything that the boldest mind can imagine."[3] In his rôle as Chief Censor, he became involved in the fate and tragic death of Alexander Pushkin in an unnecessary duel, an involvement that for long made him an unmentionable in Russian historiography.

Yet by temperament, he was the very opposite of a proto-Dzerzhinsky or a proto-Beria. He suffered from a bizarre tendency to forget his own name, and periodically had to be reminded of it by consulting his own visiting card.[4] From the mid-1830s, his family seat was the Gothic Revival manor, Schloss Fall (now Keila-Joa) near Tallinn in today's Estonia.[5] He died in Dagö.

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