Abram Petrovich Gannibal (1696

Abram Petrovich Gannibal (1696 – May 14, 1781)

He was an Afro-Russian nobleman, military engineer and general. Kidnapped as a child and presented as a gift to Peter the Great, he was raised in the Emperor's household, and eventually rose to become a prominent member of the imperial court in the reign of Peter's daughter Elizabeth. He is the great-grandfather of the author and poet Alexander Pushkin.

The main reliable accounts of Gannibal's life come from Peter the Great's Negro, Pushkin's unfinished biography of his great-grandfather, published after Pushkin's death in 1837. Scholars argue that Pushkin's account may be inaccurate due to the author’s desire to elevate the status of his ancestors and family. There are a number of contradictions between the biographies of Pushkin and the German novel, The Blackamoor of Peter the Great. One such a historical biography by Gannibal's son-in-law Rotkirkh was largely responsible for the myth, propagated by some earlier historians, that Gannibal was born in a part of what was then the Abyssinian Empire.

In an official document that Gannibal submitted in 1742 to Empress Elizabeth, while petitioning for the rank of nobility and a coat of arms, he asked for the right to use a family crest emblazoned with an elephant and the mysterious word "FVMMO" (means homeland in Kotoko). However, FVMMO has also been suggested to stand for the Latin expression "Fortuna Vitam Meam Mutavit Omnino" which means "Fortune has changed my life entirely."

At the age of seven (c. 1703), Gannibal was stolen and taken to the court of the Ottoman Sultan at Constantinople. Based on the year, the Sultan was either Mustafa II (reigned 1695–1703) or Ahmed III (reigned 1703–1730). The German biography of Gannibal, compiled anonymously from his own words, explains that "the children of the noble families were taken to the ruler of all the Muslims, the Turkish sultan, as hostages", to be killed or sold into slavery if their fathers misbehaved.

In 1704, after one year in Constantinople, Gannibal was ransomed and brought to the Russian capital by the deputy of the Russian ambassador Sava Vladislavich-Raguzinsky, on orders of his superiors (one of whom was Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy, great-grandfather of the celebrated writer Leo Tolstoy), and was presented to Peter the Great. The Emperor is noted to have taken a liking to young Abram’s intelligence and potential for military service, and brought the child into his home. Abram had a close relationship with Peter, and starting at a young age Abram would travel alongside Peter during his military campaigns. During these military journeys, Abram served as his godfather’s valet. Abram valued his relationship with his godfather, as well as Peter’s daughter (Elizabeth), and was loyal to them as if they were family.

Gannibal was baptized in 1705, in St. Paraskeva Church in Vilnius, with Peter as his godfather. The date of Gannibal’s baptism held personal significance and he used the date as his birthday because he did not know his actual date of birth.

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