Ivan Shevich

Ivan Egorovich (Georgievich) Shevich (Russian: Иван Егорович Шевич; ; 1754–4 October 1813) was a Russian-born Serb nobleman who was one of the leading fighting-generals, and one of the bravest, in the Russian Imperial army under the command of Mikhail Kutuzov and Emperor Alexander I in the war against Napoleonic France. His grandfather, Lieutenant-General Jovan Šević, led Serb colonists from the Habsburg Monarchy to Imperial Russia during the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Today his portrait hangs with other generals in the Military Gallery of the 1812 State Hermitage at St. Petersburg.

Biography Ivan Shevich was born into a noble Serbian family in Slavo-Serbia in 1754. His father Georgije was the son of Jovan Šević who led the migration of Serbs from the Habsburg Monarchy Military Frontier to Russia. There Ivan spent most of his childhood in Novorossiya, the new name given by Catherine the Great to the territories gained from the Tartars and Turks and settled by Serbs and other co-religionists, Slavs and Vlachs. After completing his training, he entered the Russian military service at the age of 16, becoming a sergeant of the Moscow Legion. Two years later he received the first officer's rank of ensign while serving already in the Illyric Hussars. In 1773, he participated in a campaign in the Crimea, and the following year, in the suppression of a peasant uprising led by Yemelyan Pugachev, where he stood up to this baptism of fire.

Awards and decorations Silver Medal Commemorating the Patriotic War of 1812 for participating in the defense of the Fatherland; Order of St. George, III class (25 February 1813, for courage in the battles of the Krasnoe); Order of Saint Vladimir, III degree, Order of Saint Anna, I degree; and Golden Weapon "For Bravery" with diamonds.