Young van Heiden fought in the Caucasus and against the Hungarian Revolutionary Army, which Nicholas I assisted the Austrian emperor against. He was promoted to colonel in 1849. During the Crimean War van Heiden was chief of staff in Baltic Corps, but did not participate in any notable battles. After the war, he was promoted to major general in 1855.
In 1854, he married Countess Elisabeth Nikolayevna Zubova (1833–1894), the daughter of Countess Alexandra Raimond-Modène (1807–1839).[2] Her father Count Nikolay Dmitrievich Zubov (1801–1871; Russian: Николай Дмитриевич Зубов) was Steward of the Russian Imperial Court, himself the son of princess Paraskeva Viazemskaia and Count Dmitri Alexandrovich Zubov, one of the brothers of Prince Platon Zubov.
Countess Elisabeth was a first cousin of countess Olga van Suchtelen.
After the war, van Heiden was chiefly a member of the General Staff. He participated in Dmitry Milyutin's military reforms and was appointed as head of the General Staff (Glavni Stab) in 1866. He also chaired the conscription committee that enacted the conscription in Russia in 1874, and was in charge of the mobilization during the Turkish War, acting as Minister of War during Milyutin's absence during the Turkish War.
In 1870, van Heiden was promoted to full general. Eleven years later, he was appointed Governor-General of Finland.
Although he had adopted Russian culture later in life, van Heiden was eagerly Russian and a Slavophile. He saw the Russification of Finland as a primary task. However, his reputation among Finns is better than many of his contemporaries, due to his subtle methods. By contrast, his successor General Bobrikov was widely considered a Russifying tyrant.
To attain this goal, van Heiden supported the use of Finnish as the language of administration, university, and military, as opposed to the traditionally dominant Swedish. In appointments to public offices in government, administration, justice, and military, he favored the conservative and monarchist Finnish Party and those who had learned the Russian language well and resided in Russia, as opposed to possibly separatist Swedes and the liberal Swedish Party. Van Heiden furthered trade between Finland and Russia, and reduced customs formalities.
Another of his priorities was to clarify jurisdiction within Finland, defining which decisions belonged to the imperial government and which to autonomous local governments in Finland.
He was awarded Order of Prince Danilo I and a number of other decorations.[3]
Regarding personal names: Reichsgraf is a title, usually translated as Imperial Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Reichsgräfin. Titles using the prefix Reichs- were not created after the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 626.
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