Baron Gustaf Axel von Kothen
Baron Gustav-Axel Ferdinandovich (von) Koten (1843-1906) - Major-General, Governor of Tavastgus. Descended from Swedish nobles of the Grand Duchy of Finland. He was born on 5 July 1843, the son of retired Major-General Baron Moritz-Ferdinand Gustavovich von Koten, commandant of Friedrichsgamsk, and his wife Amalia-Magdalina, née Countess Pieper. He was educated at the Corps of Pages, where he was an ‘excellent’ pupil and from which he was released on 13 June 1862 as a warrant officer in the Life Guards 2nd Rifle Tsarskoselsky Battalion. In September 1862 Koten was sent to Novgorod to attend the opening of the monument to the Millennium of Russia. From 3 January 1863 to 9 May 1864 he was part of the troops of the Warsaw Military District and took part in the pacification of the Polish rebellion. On 17 April 1863 Koten was promoted to lieutenant. On 15 August 1869 he was sent to the alternate staff of the Training Infantry Battalion. On 17 April 1870 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In 1871 Koten won two first prizes for shooting competitions. On 25 March 1873 he was promoted to staff-captain, and in the same year he received the first and second prizes for shooting competitions. On 16 April 1874 Koten was confirmed commander of His Highness's company. On 27 March 1877 he was promoted to captain and on 29 April he was granted the rank of adjutant. On 14
August 1877 the 2nd Life Guards Rifle Battalion left Tsarskoye Selo for the theatre of military operations against Turkey, on 24 August it crossed the Romanian border at Ungheni station, and on 3 September it crossed the Danube at Zimnitsa. On 25 September the battalion joined the detachment of Prince Charles of Romania. On 11 April 1878, Baron Koten was awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 3rd degree with swords and bow for his distinguished service against the Turks at Horny Dubnyak on 12 October 1877. From 19 January to 3 May 1878 he was on treatment in Tsarskoye Selo. On 30 August 1878 he was promoted to colonel, remaining in the rank of wing-adjutant. On 6 June 1881 Koten was appointed commander of the 14th Rifle Battalion, with the rank of wing-adjutant. On 11 April 1882 he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd class and on 27 August at the shooting competitions of officers of the 14th Rifle Battalion he received the battalion prize, he won this prize again in 1883. On 6 May 1886 he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 2nd class, and on 22 September 1888, for 25 years of meritorious service in the officer ranks, he received the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class with a bow. On 12 December of the same year, he was appointed commander of the 65th Moscow Infantry Regiment, while remaining in the rank of wing-adjutant. On 23 March 1890 he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd degree. In 1893, Baron Koten was sent to the imperial estate of Livadia as part of a deputation to congratulate the Crown Prince Nicholas Alexandrovich on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his highness' appointment as chief of the regiment. In October 1894 Koten was sent to St. Petersburg to attend the burial of Emperor Aleksander III. On 14 November 1894 he was promoted to major-general, and on 8 March 1895 he was appointed commander of the Life Guards Lithuanian Regiment. In 1896 he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the 1st class of the Swedish Order of the Sword and in 1897 - the Order of St. Stanislaus of the 1st degree. On 13 December 1898, Baron Koten received a new appointment - as governor of Vasa province, and from 8 January 1900 he was governor of Tavastgus. He died on 25 June 1906.
Finnish Guards' Rifle Battalion, colloquially known as just Finnish Guards (Finnish: Suomen kaarti, Swedish: Finska gardet) was a Finnish military unit during 1829–1905 based in Helsinki. Continuing the legacy of the Finnish Training Battalion (1817), it was part of the Imperial Russian Army and the only Finnish unit of the Russian Imperial Guard. For the most of its history, the battalion also functioned as the only operational Finnish military unit. Because of its status as both a national showpiece and as a part of the Imperial Guard, it had a visible role in Finland. The Finnish Guards' Battalion participated in four campaigns outside Finland. Two of these included actual combat: first in 1831 during the Polish November Uprising and for the second time, on the Balkan front of the Russo-Turkish War. The most famous of the battles it participated in was the battle of Gorni Dubnik in 1877. The unit was also deployed in 1849 to assist in quelling the Hungarian Uprising and later during the Crimean War to guard the western border of Russia. However, it did not engage in combat during these deployments. During peace time, the battalion was responsible for guard duty in Helsinki and participated in the Russian military exercises held annually in Krasnoye Selo. The neighbourhood of Kaartinkaupunki in Helsinki has been named after the battalion, as it is where the Guards' Barracks (Finnish: Kaartin kasarmi) was based in. The military of the Grand Duchy of Finland was established by an imperial order on 18 September 1812 by Alexander I of Russia, which became the anniversary of the battalion. As per the imperial order, Finland had to
form three rifle units, consisting each of two battalions of 600 men, totaling 3600 men. The Governor-General of Finland Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt and many other officials in Finland found it important that in addition to the Russian troops stationed in Finland there was also a domestic military force to respond to any possible future uncertainties. These units were formed of willing recruits as well as pressed vagabonds. The intention was to use these units only within Finnish territory and in defense of the coastline of the Baltic Sea, not for conflicts outside of Finnish borders. In July 1829 the Finnish Training Battalion was suddenly ordered to join the imperial life-guards' exercise camp in Krasnoye Selo, south-west of Saint Petersburg. After inspecting the battalion, Nicholas I of Russia announced that it would be promoted to the rank of Young Guard.
Von Kothen is a noble family that has influenced Finland and Sweden. One branch of the family has been raised to the rank of baronet. According to tradition, the family would have originated in Saaremaa, where people of the name Cothemus or Cothenius are known to have lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Christopher Cothenius, who owned a farm in Kihelkonna and was the over-indentor of Saaremaa in 1645, or his father, supposedly Leonhard Cothenius (d. 1571), has been mentioned as the ancestor of the family. Christopher Cothenius' son Christopher Kothen (d. 1662) was the commander of Narva, who was promised a peerage shortly before his death. His two sons were ennobled in 1682 under the name von Kothen, and the family was entered in the Swedish Order of Knighthood the following year as noble family No 995. Magnus Adolf von Kothen, governor of Västerbotten, was raised to the rank of baron in 1771 and his branch became the baronial family No 252. When the Finnish House of Knights was reorganised in 1818, the noble von Kothen family in Finland became number 74 and the baronial family number 16. No representatives of the baronial branch of the family have lived in Sweden since 1809 and the noble branch also died out there from the
male line in 1947. In Finland, the freehold branch died out in 1987 and the noble branch has lived exclusively outside Finland since 1870, mainly in Russia. A branch of the family thought to have disappeared after the Russian Revolution was found in Belarus in the 2010s. In Finland, the family motto was Vincet amor patriae ('May love for the fatherland prevail').
Awards: Sash, insignia and star of the Imperial Order of Saint Prince Vladimir, Stars of the Imperial Order of Saint Stanislaus and of the Imperial Order of Saint Anna.
