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Prince Alexandru Sturdza (; Jassy, Moldavia, 18 November 1791Odessa, 13 June 1854) was a Russian publicist and diplomat of Romanian origin. In his writings, he referred to himself with a French rendition of his name, Alexandre Stourdza.
Early life
Alexandru Sturdza was a member of the House of Sturdza. He was born in Jassy, in Moldavia, and was the son of , the governor of Bessarabia, and Princess Ekaterina Mourousis, the daughter of Constantine Mourouzis, Prince of Moldavia. Through his mother he was related to all Greek Phanariote families. Alexandru Sturdza was brother of Roxandra Edling-Sturdza and a cousin of Mihail Sturdza, Prince of Moldavia from 1834 to 1849. After his family fled Bessarabia in 1802 in order to avoid the repression from the Ottomans, he was educated in Germany, then Russia.
thumb|180px|[[Franz Xaver Winterhalter|Winterhalter's portrait of Princess Maria Gagarin, the eldest daughter of Alexander Sturdza. Her descendants were known as Princes Gagarin-Sturdza.]]
Later life
He entered the Russian diplomatic service in 1809 and acted as secretary of Ioannis Kapodistrias during the Congress of Vienna. Under this capacity, he drafted the first version of the treaty of the Holy Alliance, from the penciled notes of the Czar Alexander I. Because of his Greek origins and his friendship with Ioannis Kapodistrias, he was a strong supporter of Philhellenism before and during the Greek War of Independence. Together with his sister Roxandra he sponsored philanthropic activities to help Greek war refugees. He retired in Odessa in 1830, where he devoted himself to his literary works.
Personal life
In 1819, he settled at Dresden and married Elisabeth Hufeland, daughter of German physician Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland. It aroused great indignation in Germany, which indignation has been attributed to the levity with which its author arraigned the German national character and branded the universities as hotbeds of the revolutionary spirit and atheism.