Leslie (Russian nobility)

The Leslie family (Лесли) is the name of Russian noble family of Scottish origin.

History
Descendants of Alexander Leslie of Auchintoul, who was a Scottish soldier in Swedish and General in Russian service. In 1654 he wrested Smolensk from the Poles and became the Tsar's governor/voivode there. Auchintoul fought for the Montrosians in the English Civil War. He was the son of William Leslie, third laird of Crichie, a branch of the Balquhain Leslies. He was commander of Russian forces during the Siege of Smolensk (1654), one of the first great events of the Russo-Polish War (1654–67).

Descendants
Family had several generals during Great Northern War, War of the Polish Succession and Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739).
 * Alexander Leslie of Auchintoul, General and voivode of Smolensk, owner of Gerchikovo manor had three sons, Colonel 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, 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.
 * Leslie, Dmitri Egorovich, (1748—1815) — major general, chief of 1st Chuguevsky Cossack regular regiment (1797—1798).
 * Lesli, Sergey Ivanovich, (1758—1826) - commander of Smolensk Zemskoe Narodnoe Opolcheniye in 1812.
 * Leslie, Yuri Federovich, (? — 1737) — major general, under command of Generalfeldmarschall Peter Lacy in Siege of Danzig (1734).