Todleben, EDUARD IVANOVITCH, Russian general, was born of German descent at Mitau in Courland, 20th May 1818. After studying at Riga and St Petersburg, he distinguished himself as a lieutenant of engineers in the Caucasus, and was with the engineer corps when the Russian army entered the Danubian Principalities in 1853. His genius as a military engineer was discovered before the Russian army crossed the Pruth, on its retreat from the Principalities; and when the French and English undertook the siege of Sebastopol, Colonel Todleben was sent to assist in its defence. He arrived in the middle of April, and the fortifications were soon placed under his direction. The prodigious activity displayed by the Russians in making good the damage sustained by the heavy fire of the enemy filled the allies with astonishment. Everywhere massive ramparts of earthworks, mounted with formidable batteries, rose up as if by magic at each threatened point within the line of defence. During the latter part of the siege he was wounded in the leg. For services in the siege he was created a general, decorated, and made director of the engineer department in the war office. In 1865 he visited England, and was cordially received. He held no very important post till disasters began to befall the Russian army during the Turkish war. Todleben was remembered, and was called to undertake the siege of Plevna (q.v.), which, after a brilliant defence, he took. He was subsequently made commander-in-chief in Bulgaria, and at the time of his death, 1st July 1884, was governor of Odessa.
He wrote an admirable account of the defence of Sebastopol (French ed. 1864). There are Lives by Briamont (Brussels, 1884) and Krämer (Berlin, 1888). See Kinglake's and Hamley's histories of the Crimean War.