CountValerian Aleksandrovich Zubov (Russian:Валериа́н Алекса́ндрович Зу́бов; 1771–1804) was a Russian general who led thePersian Expedition of 1796. His siblings includedPlaton Zubov andOlga Zherebtsova.

Count Valerian Aleksandrovich Zubov
Zubov in 1796
Born	(1771-11-28)28 November 1771 Saint Petersburg,Russian Empire
Died	21 June 1804(1804-06-21) (aged 32)
Buried	Coastal Monastery of Saint Sergius, Russian Empire
Allegiance	Russian Empire
Service/ branch	Imperial Russian Army
Rank	Major general (c. 1792), General-in-chief (c. 1796), General of the Infantry (c. 1800)
Battles / wars	Persian Expedition of 1796 Capture of Derbent
Relations	House of Zubov

Valerian was born into the powerful Russian nobleZubov family. As a young man Zubov had flattering prospects of a brilliant military career due to his brother Platon's ascendancy atCatherine II's court. He was reputed by contemporaries as "the handsomest man in Russia". The legend has it that the aged Empress flirted with him, secretly from his brother.

During her reign he was much lionized as a military hero of incredible valor. He was appointed General-Major and sent to assistSuvorov in quelling theKościuszko Uprising in Poland, where he was said to treat both the Polish noblemen and their wives brazenly and "in the most lowly manner". During this stay in Poland, he married Princess MariannaLubomirska (1773-1810), widow ofCount Antoni Protazy Potocki,Teodor Lubomirski's adopted granddaughter and lost his left leg in the autumn of 1794 while crossing the Western Bug, as he was wounded by a cannonball.

Several months before Catherine's death, 24-year-old Zubov was invited to take charge of the army heading forPersia. Theexpedition, launched in 1796, initially under the motto of complying to the promise Russia had made 23 years earlier toGeorgia to protect it against any Persian attempts to bring the country under its hegemony again, was now just one of another wars for regional hegemony that was going on for a long time betweenTurkey, Persia, andImperial Russia.

Zubov started the expedition in a much promising manner,seizingDerbent inDagestan in April 1796, andBaku by July of the same year.^[1] Catherine waxed jubilant at his rapid progress,^[1] which in two months repeated some of the gains ofPeter the Great during theRusso-Persian War (1722-1723). By November, they were stationed at the confluence of the Araks and Kura Rivers, poised to attack mainland Iran. It was in that month that the Empress of Russia died and her son and successorPaul I, who detested the Zubovs and had other plans for the army, ordered the troops to retreat back to Russia. Zubov's return from his luckless expedition occasioned an ode byGavrila Derzhavin, meditating on the fleeting nature of fortune and success.

• Alexander, John T. (1989).Catherine the Great: Life and Legend. Oxford University Press. p. 321.ISBN 0199874301.

• Kudriashov, K. (1916)."Zubov, Valerian Aleksandrovich". In Polovtsov, A. A. (ed.).Russkiĭ biograficheskiĭ slovarʹРусский биографический словарь [Russian Biographical Dictionary] (in Russian). Vol. 7. Saint Petersburg: Tip. Glavnogo Upravleniia Udel. pp. 514–522.
• "Zubov Valerian Aleksandrovich"Зубов Валериан Александрович.Great Russian Encyclopedia (in Russian). 2023.Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved28 October 2024.