Burchard Christoph von Münnich, whose family came from Oldenburg, was a famous engineer in the service of the Russian Empire, a military figure, politician and a member of both the Estonian and the Livonian knighthood. His career exemplified the opportunities offered by the Russian empire to Germans and Baltic Germans in the 18th century.
In 1721 he joined the Russian Imperial Army and built the Ladoga Canal under Peter the Great. He served Tsarina Anna Ivanovna as a cabinet minister and field marshal. Due to confusion over the throne, he was initially promoted to the position of prime minister of the Russian Empire in 1740, but already in 1742 he was sentenced to death by intrigue, expropriated and later exiled to Siberia. It was not until 1762 that he was allowed to return to St Petersburg and became the imperial councillor and director general of the Baltic canals and ports. He was buried on his estate at Lunia (today Luunja) estate near Dorpat (Tartu) in 1767.
Illustration:
Map of the old Ladoga Canal by Johann Elias Grimmel in 1742. The canal, which was 110 km long canal with 32 locks, was built along the shore of Lake Ladoga between the Neva and Volkhov river from 1719-1732 in order to make shipping safer.