He was educated at the Polotsk Cadet Corps (1856) and the Pavlovsk Military School, from which he was graduated on June 30, 1858, as a warrant officer in the Life Guards Finnish Regiment, and was seconded to the Nikolaev Engineering Academy on October 17, 1860.

On July 30, 1868, he was transferred to the General Staff as captain, with the remainder of the headquarters of the Finnish Military District and the appointment of Assistant Senior Adjutant.

During the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 he was in the army; when crossing the Danube near Zimnitsa, he participated in the battle at the Sist highs and during the capture of Sistov.

During this time, he corrected the position of the chief of military educational institutions several times, participated in the work of the commissions: to review the staff of the main departments of the military ministry, to develop a new position for the Finnish cadet corps and chaired the commission to discuss issues of lump sum costs caused by the increase in staff cadets of the Mikhailovsky Artillery School.

On January 1, 1911, he formally dismissed a member of the Military Council with a uniform and pension, but the next day he was reassigned to the service with the appointment to be a Minister of War and enlisted in the General Staff and Life Guards of the Volyn Regiment.