Count Gustaf (also Gustav) Otto Douglas
(1687–1771) was a Swedish mercenary, grandson of
Robert Douglas, Count of Skenninge. He
was Administrator
of Finland, 1717 - 1721.
In 1721 Douglas became chairman of the
great Estonian Commission, 1725 Major General, Lieutenant General in 1729,
1737 General of a manager and governor of Estonia 11 August 1738 - March 22
1740 . In 1744 he resigned from government service.
He was captured by Russians during
the Battle of Poltava. He was eventually employed by the Russian army during
the Great Northern War, and in 1717 was placed in charge of the occupation
of Finland.
While resident in Turku, Douglas is reputed to have
killed a Russian attendant during festivities of some kind. After being
sentenced to imprisonment, Douglas bought his freedom with the lives of two
hundred Finns, followed by the same number of horses, one from each of the
families of these men. Douglas is believed to have made several inhumane
pronouncements on the scorched earth policy he employed during the
occupation of Finland. By making the land uninhabited and uninhabitable, he
sought to leave nothing for his former employers the Swedes to retake. He is
generally believed to have been a more cruel and sadistic figure even than
his Russian superiors, and bears comparison with Kurtz of Joseph Conrad's
Heart of Darkness, particularly when one considers the
10,000 slaves estimated to have been taken to Russia from Finland during the
Greater Wrath.
He was an ancestor of
Archibald Douglas, who was commander in
Chief of the Swedish army during WWII.
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