Alexander Leslie of Auchintoul (1590–1663) was a Scottish soldier in Swedish and Russian service. He was Russia's first general and a reformer of the Muscovite army in cooperation with the boyar Boris Morozov. He was the son of William Leslie, third laird of Crichie, a branch of the Balquhain Leslies.W. Barnhill and P. Dukes, 'North-east Scots in Muscovy in the seventeenth century' in Northern Scotland, vol. 1, no. 1, 1972 In 1618, he was an officer in Polish employ, captured by the Russians, but released. He was the owner of manor and the voivode of Smolensk.Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries 1635–1699 , University of Aberdeen website
Military career In Sweden and Russia In 1629 he was a colonel in Sweden, sent by King Gustav II Adolf on a mission to Moscow and entered the Tsar's service.Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603–1746 (2003), pp.92-93 During the audience by king Michael I of Russia as a member of Swedish mission in Russia he gave a petition for military service in Russia in January 1630. Since March 1630 Colonel Leslie in Russian service. Leslie returned to Sweden in April 1631 to inform Gustav Adolf that war between Russia and Poland was imminent. In 1631 he recruited thousands of soldiers in western countries including Scotland and supervised the first regiments of "foreign order" ("Полки нового строя" or "Полки иноземного строя", Polki novovo (inozemnovo) stroya), that was the Russian term that was used to describe military units organised and armed along western lines. After the capitulation of Mikhail Shein in the Siege of Smolensk (1632-33) to the Commonwealth army his regiment was the only one to leave the battlefield with flags and arms.Sergey Solovyov History of Russia from the Earliest Times, (in Russian), II During that siege he accused an Englishman, Colonel Sanderson, of treason, and killed him in a fight. He subsequently advanced to the rank of a Russian General.Being granted the rank of Major General by Charles I in a letter to the Tsar, but he is apparently recorded only in Russia as "senior colonel" Leslie returned to Scotland after the unhappy outcome of the Smolensk War. Charles I of England wrote to Russian Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich on behalf of Leslie in March 1637 saying that he was returning to Britain on private business. He writes:
Civil War Auchintoul fought with James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, in the Civil War. He was captured at the Battle of PhiliphaughGeorge Wishart, Res gestae (Amsterdam, 1647), published in English as "Memoirs of the Most Renowned James Graham, Marquis of Montrose", 1819, A. Constable and, by the direct intervention of the victor, Lieutenant General David Leslie, whom he had served with in Russia,Leslie, David [SSNE 2920, Institute of Scottish Historical Research, University of St Andrews. was dealt with leniently compared to other prisoners (most of whom were executed after the battle). Auchintoul was spared (along with Lord Gray), but was banished from Scotland for life.
Return to Russia by 1647 So sentenced, Auchintoul returned to Russia at some point after that, with a recommendation from King Charles I and finally settled in Muscovy in 1647. He converted to Orthodoxy in September 1652, his godfather was Prince Ilya Miloslavsky, after that act he received 23,000 silver rubles. Auchintoul was commander of the Russian forces during the Siege of Smolensk (1654), one of the first great events of the Russo-Polish War (1654–67). After the victory he was nominated Governor of Smolensk by the tsar.
Family Alexander Leslie of Auchintoul, General and voivode of Smolensk had three sons, ColonelD. Fedosov, The Caledonian Connection, Aberdeen, 1996 Alexander, Yakov-John and Colonel Fedor-Theodore (?-1695), commander of Belgorodski Regiment. John Leslie of Balquhain, son of General Alexander Leslie, was a Scottish cavalry colonel in Russian service killed in the storming of Igolwitz Castle on 30 August 1655,Historical records of the Family of Leslie from 1067 to 1868/69, Printed by R. Clark, Edinburgh, 1869 he married a daughter of Colonel Crawford in Muscovy, though there are at least three Crawfords with that rank in the Russian service, so it's not entirely clear who is meant.D. Fedosov in the Caledonian Connection in Aberdeen, 1996 and Dukes in "Aberdeen and North-east Scotland: some archival and other sources", in The Study of Russian History from British Archival Sources, 1986, p.54
See also Clan Leslie Leslie baronets Leslie of Smolensk Scotland and the Thirty Years' War
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