Paul Simon Unterberger


Paul Simon Unterberger was a Russo-German military and state leader, military governor of the Primorskaya Oblast, Nizhny Novgorod Governor, Military ataman of the Ussuri Cossack Host, Amur Governor-General. General Engineer.
His other names are Pavel Fridrikhovich, Pavel-Simon and Simon Fridrikhovich Unterberger.

Biography

Paul was born on August 21, 1842 to Heinrich Friedrich Simon Unterberger and Marie Rudolph. His father, the son of the carriage master from Riga, was one of the founders of the veterinary business in Russia, for which he received a noble title. His family were Austrian Protestants from Salzburg which moved to Prussia during the early-18th Century. His grandfather Simon Thomas Unterberger moved to Riga during the early-19th Century. After the Russian Revolutions, most members of the family, including Paul, all moved back to their German homeland.
In 1849, together with his father, Paul moved to Dorpat, where his father and uncle were appointed professors of the University of Dorpat. He graduated from the classical gymnasium.
In 1860 he entered the Nikolaev Engineering School, which he graduated from in 1862 as a second lieutenant. In 1868 he graduated from the Nikolaev Academy of Engineering in the first category in the rank of staff captain. After graduating from the Academy, he was sent on a business trip to Europe, then left at the Academy for teaching and research work.
In the years 1870–1871, Paul Simon Unterberger, in the rank of captain, was seconded to Turkestan to take part in a military campaign. After a business trip, he lost interest in his academic career and went to serve in Eastern Siberia.
In 1875–1877, in the rank of lieutenant colonel, he served in Irkutsk as a staff officer for special assignments under the district engineering department of the East Siberian Military District. He was engaged in construction work in the underdeveloped areas of the Far East. He conducted a large research work, studying the military geography of the territories included in the East Siberian governorship. During the uprising in Mongolia, he was seconded to Urga for the construction of fortifications in the Russian embassy. Then, overcoming difficulties, he proceeded for research purposes through Mongolia and the Gobi Desert, visited Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Japan.
One of the goals of the trip was to hire 134 workers in China for construction in the Khabarovka post area. Under the terms of the contract, workers were hired for 2 years.
In 1877–1878, he served as chairman of the Irkutsk Provisional Military Prison Commission. In April 1878, promoted to colonel and appointed head of the engineering part of the East Siberian Military District. He is engaged in the fortification of Nikolaevsk and especially of Vladivostok, where he initiates a large-scale construction plan for the Vladivostok Fortress. In 1879, he again visited Vladivostok and completed the development of a plan for the deployment of defensive structures around him and the drafting of their projects.
On October 1, 1888, Unterberger was appointed military governor of the Primorskaya Oblast and the appointed leader of the Ussuri Cossack Host. On August 30, 1889, a fortress flag was raised on the fortifications of Vladivostok in connection with obtaining the status of a fortress of the 2nd rank. The role of Vladivostok increased, and in August 1890, the seat of the military governor of the Primorsky region and the regional administration was transferred from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok. In 1896 he received the rank of lieutenant general.
Paul Unterberger spent almost 9 years as a military governor of the Primorskaya Oblast. During this time, with his participation or with his knowledge, the Ussuriysk railway, port, floating and coastal docks, many residential and office buildings were built, medical and educational institutions were put into operation, trade developed, ships on the coastal coast were established, nautical classes, large deposits of coal were discovered in Suchan and mining began, many settlements in the Primorye territory were founded.
In 1897, Unterberger was appointed governor of Nizhny Novgorod. When in May 1897, Pavel Unterberger handed over his affairs to the military governor of the Primorskaya Oblast, General Dean Subbotich, the city duma, noting his services to the city, elected him an honorary citizen of Vladivostok.
In Nizhny Novgorod, Unterberger makes an impression on Nizhny Novgorod with civil engineering and social activities: he builds stone moorings, arranges places for mooring vessels. He initiated the redemption of the Boldin estate of Alexander Pushkin in order to create a state memorial museum. He also initiated the creation of the Nizhny Novgorod Society of Art Lovers. He was a member of 29 charitable societies, in which he regularly paid considerable contributions.
A demonstration took place in his governorship in Sormovo, and Peter Zalomov was arrested. The severity of the measures against the revolutionaries intensified the efforts of the Social Revolutionaries, who, led by Boris Savinkov, were preparing an attempt on the Nizhny Novgorod governor.
Unterberger stayed in the post of the Nizhny Novgorod governor until the beginning of November 1905. A few days before the end of the governorship, he was promoted to senator.
On November 8, 1905, Lieutenant-General Pavel Unterberger was appointed commander of the Amur military district and ataman of the Amur Cossack troops, and 10 days later he was appointed Amur Governor-General. As governor-general, he made efforts to develop and settle the region. With his participation, new educational and medical institutions, including rural ones, were put into operation, development of polymetallic ores in Tetyukh was started, fisheries supervision was introduced, the Kamchatka and the Commander Islands were separated from the regional administration of the Primorsk region, new settlements were based. He contributed to the activities of Vladimir Arsenyev.
In foreign policy issues, he adhered to conservative positions, was extremely wary of Japan, despite the Russian-Japanese rapprochement after the Russo-Japanese War and the signing of a number of bilateral agreements of a general political and economic nature. Known as a systematic opponent of the migration of Koreans to the Russian Far East. In 1910, on his initiative, a cross was installed in honor of Semyon Dezhnev on Cape Dezhnev.
Unterberger completed his re-service in the Far East on December 6, 1910, at the age of 68. He passed the case to the Grand Master of the Stables Nikolai Gondatti and departed for Petersburg, where he was appointed a member of the State Council on December 6, 1910.
In 1912, Pavel Unterberger published the work "The Amur Region. 1906–1910" on the basis of materials collected during the service.
After the revolution, Unterberger went to Germany to visit his wife, daughter Maria and her husband, and became manager at Remplin Castle, where he died at the age of 78.

Awards and titles

Unterberger is a knight of many orders, including St. Stanislav, 1st class, St. Anna, 1st class, St. Vladimir, 2nd class, White Eagle, St. Alexander Nevsky with the diamond sign.
On June 3, 1897, he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of the city of Vladivostok.
In 1902, the annual meeting of the Russian Geographical Society awarded Pavel Unterberger a small gold medal for his work "Primorskaya Oblast. 1856–1898".

Tributes to Pavel Unterberger