The causes of the Seven Years' War 1756 1763 briefly. Seven Years' War
In Europe, the Seven Years' War was fought between an alliance of France, Russia, Sweden, Austria and Saxony against Prussia, Hanover and Great Britain from 1756 to 1763. However, the war was global in nature. Mainly because Britain and France were fighting for dominance in North America and India. Thus, it was called the first "World War". The North American theater of war was called the "French and Indian" War, and in Germany the Seven Years' War is known as the "Third Silesian War".
Diplomatic revolution
The treaty signed in Aix-la-Chapelle, which ended the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748, in fact turned out to be only a truce, a temporary stop to the war. Austria, angry at Prussia and its own allies for the loss rich land– Silesia – began to review alliances and search for alternatives. The growing power and influence of Prussia worried Russia and raised the question of conducting a “preventive” war. Prussia believed that another war would be required to retain Silesia.
In the 1750s, as tensions increased in North America between British and French colonists competing for North American lands, the British attempted to prevent an ensuing war that would destabilize Europe by changing their alliances. These actions and the change in policy of the Prussian king Frederick II, known to many of his later followers as Frederick "the Great", sparked the so-called "Diplomatic Revolution" as the previous system of alliances broke down and a new one emerged: Austria, France and Russia united against Britain, Prussia and Hanover.
Europe: Frederick immediately seeks retribution
In May 1756, Britain and France officially declared war on each other, prompted by French attacks on Minorca; recent treaties have kept other countries from trying to intervene. With new alliances, Austria was ready to strike Prussia and retake Silesia, and Russia was also planning a similar initiative, so Frederick II, aware of the conflict that had begun, tried to gain an advantage.
He wanted to defeat Austria before France and Russia could mobilize, occupying as much enemy territory as possible. Frederick therefore attacked Saxony in August 1756 to try to break the alliance with Austria, seize Saxon resources and organize a military campaign planned for 1757. Under the pressure of the Prussian army, Saxony capitulated. Frederick took its capital, forcibly incorporated the Saxons into his army, and drained vast amounts of wealth from Saxony.
Prussian troops then advanced into Bohemia, but were eventually unable to gain a foothold there and retreated back to Saxony. In the spring of 1757, on May 6, the Prussians blocked the Austrian army in Prague. However, another Austrian army came to the aid of the besieged. Fortunately for the Austrians, Frederick lost the battle on June 18 at the Battle of Kolin and was forced to leave Bohemia.
Prussia under attack
Prussia was under attack from all sides, as French forces defeated the Hanoverians, who were commanded by an English general (the King of England was also the King of Hanover), and headed into Prussia, while Russia entered Prussia from the east. The Russian army eventually retreated, re-occupying East Prussia in January next year. Sweden, which fought against Prussia on the side of the Franco-Russian-Austrian alliance, also initially successfully acted against Prussia. Frederick was depressed for some time, but proved himself a brilliant general, defeating vastly superior French and Austrian forces: the French army at Rosbach on November 5, and the Austrian army at Leuthen on December 5. But none of these victories were enough to force Austria or France to capitulate.
From this point on, the French set their sights on Hanover, which had recovered from defeat, and did not fight Frederick while he quickly redeployed his troops and defeated the enemy armies one by one, preventing them from effectively uniting. Austria soon ceased to fight Prussia in large open spaces, which allowed for superior maneuvering of the Prussian army, despite the fact that this was accompanied by heavy losses among the Prussians. Britain began to pursue the French coast to try to draw troops back, while Prussia drove the Swedes out.
Europe: victories and defeats
The British ignored the surrender of their Hanoverian army and returned to the region to contain France. This new British-Prussian army, commanded by Frederick's close ally (his brother-in-law), kept French forces engaged in the west away from Prussia and the French colonies. They won the Battle of Minden in 1759 and carried out a series of strategic maneuvers to tie down the enemy armies.
As mentioned above, Frederick attacked Austria, but was outnumbered during the siege and forced to retreat. He then fought the Russians at Zorndorf, but suffered heavy losses (a third of his army was killed). He was battered by Austria at Hochkirch, again losing a third of his army. By the end of the year he had cleared Prussia and Silesia of enemy armies, but was greatly weakened, unable to continue larger offensives. Austria was very pleased with this.
By this time, all the warring parties had spent huge sums on the war. At the Battle of Kunersdorf in August 1759, Frederick was completely defeated by the Austro-Russian army. On the battlefield, he lost 40% of his troops, although he managed to save the rest of the army. Thanks to Austrian and Russian caution, delays and disagreements, the victory over Prussia was not brought to its logical conclusion, and Frederick avoided capitulation.
In 1760, Frederick failed in another siege, but won minor battles against the Austrians, although at the Battle of Torgau he emerged victorious thanks to his subordinates, and not his own military talents. France, with some support from Austria, tried to achieve peace. By the end of 1761, with the enemy wintering on Prussian soil, things were going badly for Frederick, whose once highly trained army was now overflowing with hastily recruited recruits (significantly outnumbered by the enemy armies).
Frederick could no longer carry out marches and detours, and sat on the defensive. If Frederick's enemies had overcome their seeming inability to coordinate (thanks to xenophobia, animosity, confusion, class differences, etc.), the Prussians might already have been defeated. Against only part of Prussia, Frederick's efforts looked doomed, despite Austria being in dire financial straits.
The death of Elizabeth as the salvation of Prussia
Frederick hoped for a miracle, and it happened. Russian Empress Elizabeth II died and was succeeded by Tsar Peter III. The new emperor was favorable to Prussia and made an immediate peace, sending Russian troops to help Frederick. And although Peter (who even tried to invade Denmark) was soon killed, the new empress - Peter's wife, Catherine the Great - continued to honor the peace agreements, but withdrew the Russian army that had helped Frederick. This freed Frederick's hands and allowed him to win the battles against Austria. Britain took the opportunity to break its alliance with Prussia (thanks in part to mutual antipathy between Frederick and the new British Prime Minister), and declared war on Spain. Spain invaded Portugal but was stopped by the British.
World War
Although British troops fought on the continent, Britain chose to limit itself to financial support for Frederick and Hanover (subsidies exceeding anything ever previously issued in the history of the British crown) rather than fighting in Europe. This made it possible to send troops and navies to a completely different part of the world. The British had been fighting in North America since 1754, and William Pitt's government decided to further prioritize the war in America and attack French imperial possessions with its powerful navy, where France was most vulnerable.
In contrast, France first focused on Europe, planning an invasion of Britain, but this opportunity was dashed by the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759, destroying what remained of France's Atlantic naval power and ability to hold colonies in the Americas. By 1760, England had effectively won the French and Indian War in North America, but the world was awaiting the end of hostilities in other theaters.
In 1759, a small opportunistic British force, without suffering any losses and acquiring a large amount of valuables, captured Fort Louis on the Senegal River in Africa. Thus, by the end of the year, all French trading posts in Africa were in British hands. Britain then attacked France in the West Indies, taking the rich island of Guadeloupe and moving on to other targets to enrich itself. The British East India Company attacked the French colonies in India and, thanks to the large British Royal Navy, dominated Indian Ocean, as in the Atlantic, knocked France out of this region. By the end of the war, the British Empire had increased significantly, and the territory of the French possessions had decreased significantly. England and Spain also declared war on each other, and Britain crushed its new enemy, capturing Havana and a quarter of the Spanish navy.
World
Neither Prussia, nor Austria, nor Russia or France could achieve the decisive advantage in the war necessary to capitulate their enemies, and by 1763 the war in Europe had so exhausted the belligerents that the powers began to seek peace. Austria faced bankruptcy and the inability to continue the war without Russia, France was winning abroad and was unwilling to fight for Austria in Europe, and England was seeking to consolidate global success and put an end to France's resources. Prussia intended to return to the pre-war state of affairs, but as peace negotiations dragged on, Frederick sucked as much out of Saxony as he could, including kidnapping girls and placing them in depopulated areas of Prussia.
The Treaty of Paris was signed on February 10, 1763. He settled the problems between Great Britain, Spain and France, diminishing the latter, once the greatest power in Europe. Britain returned Havana to Spain, but received Florida in return. France ceded Louisiana to Spain, while England received all French lands in North America east of the Mississippi except New Orleans. Britain also received most of the West Indies, Senegal, Minorca and lands in India. Hanover remained with the British. On February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Hubertusburg, signed between Prussia and Austria, confirmed the status quo: it secured Silesia and achieved the status of a “great power,” while Austria retained Saxony. As historian Fred Anderson noted, “Millions were spent and tens of thousands died, but nothing changed.”
Results
Britain remained the dominant world power, although it incurred large debts, which led to increased exploitation of the colonies in North America, and, as a result, the War of Independence of the British Colonies (another global conflict that would end in British defeat). France approached economic disaster and the ensuing revolution. Prussia lost 10% of its population, but, crucially for Frederick's reputation, survived an alliance of Austria, Russia, and France that wanted to reduce Prussia's influence or even destroy it, although historians like Szabó claim that Frederick's role is too exaggerated.
Reforms followed in many of the warring states and armies, as Austrian fears that Europe was on the road to catastrophic militarism were well founded. Austria's failure to subjugate Prussia condemned it to competition between them for the future of Germany, benefiting Russia and France, and led to the emergence of German Empire under the leadership of Prussia. The war also brought a shift in the balance of diplomacy, with Spain and Holland decreasing in importance to give way to two new Great Powers - and Russia. Saxony was plundered and destroyed.
Bengal subaFrance
Russia (1757-1761)
(1757-1761)
Sweden
Spain
Saxony
Kingdom of Naples
Sardinian Kingdom
F. W. Seydlitz
George II
George III
Robert Clive
Jeffrey Amherst
Ferdinand of Brunswick
Siraj ud-Daula
Jose I
Count Lassi
Prince of Lorraine
Ernst Gideon Loudon
Louis XV
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm
Elizaveta Petrovna †
P. S. Saltykov
K. G. Razumovsky
Charles III
August III
The designation “Seven Years’ War” was given in the 80s of the 18th century; before that it was referred to as a “recent war.”
Causes of the war
Opposing coalitions in Europe in 1756
The first shots of the Seven Years' War rang out long before its official announcement, and not in Europe, but overseas. In - gg. Anglo-French colonial rivalry in North America led to border skirmishes between English and French colonists. By the summer of 1755, the clashes resulted in an open armed conflict, in which both allied Indians and regular military units began to participate (see French and Indian War). In 1756, Great Britain officially declared war on France.
"Reversing Alliances"
Participants in the Seven Years' War. Blue: Anglo-Prussian coalition. Green: anti-Prussian coalition
This conflict disrupted the established system of military-political alliances in Europe and caused a foreign policy reorientation of a number of European powers, known as the “reversal of alliances.” The traditional rivalry between Austria and France for hegemony on the continent was weakened by the emergence of a third power: Prussia, after Frederick II came to power in 1740, began to claim a leading role in European politics. Having won the Silesian Wars, Frederick took Silesia, one of the richest Austrian provinces, from Austria, as a result increasing the territory of Prussia from 118.9 thousand to 194.8 thousand square kilometers, and the population from 2,240,000 to 5,430,000 people. It is clear that Austria could not easily accept the loss of Silesia.
Having started a war with France, Great Britain concluded a treaty of alliance with Prussia in January 1756, thereby wanting to protect itself from the threat of a French attack on Hanover, the hereditary possession of the English king on the continent. Frederick, considering a war with Austria inevitable and realizing the limitations of his resources, relied on “English gold”, as well as on the traditional influence of England on Russia, hoping to keep Russia from participating in the upcoming war and thereby avoid a war on two fronts. Having overestimated England's influence on Russia, he, at the same time, clearly underestimated the indignation caused by his agreement with the British in France. As a result, Frederick will have to fight a coalition of the three strongest continental powers and their allies, which he dubbed the “union of three women” (Maria Theresa, Elizabeth and Madame Pompadour). However, behind the jokes of the Prussian king in relation to his opponents lies a lack of confidence in his own strength: the forces in the war on the continent are too unequal, England, which does not have a strong land army, except for subsidies, can do little to help him.
The conclusion of the Anglo-Prussian alliance pushed Austria, thirsting for revenge, to move closer to its old enemy - France, for which Prussia also became an enemy from now on (France, which supported Frederick in the first Silesian wars and saw in Prussia only an obedient instrument for crushing Austrian power, I was able to make sure that Friedrich did not even think about taking into account the role assigned to him). The author of the new foreign policy course was the famous Austrian diplomat of that time, Count Kaunitz. A defensive alliance was signed between France and Austria at Versailles, to which Russia joined at the end of 1756.
In Russia, the strengthening of Prussia was perceived as a real threat to its western borders and interests in the Baltic states and northern Europe. Close ties with Austria, a treaty of union with which was signed back in 1746, also influenced Russia’s position in the brewing European conflict. Traditionally, close ties also existed with England. It is curious that, having broken diplomatic relations with Prussia long before the start of the war, Russia, nevertheless, did not break diplomatic relations with England throughout the war.
None of the countries participating in the coalition was interested in the complete destruction of Prussia, hoping to use it in the future for their own interests, but all were interested in weakening Prussia, in returning it to the borders that existed before the Silesian Wars. Thus, the war was fought by the coalition participants to restore the old system of political relations on the continent, disrupted by the results of the War of the Austrian Succession. Having united against a common enemy, the participants in the anti-Prussian coalition did not even think of forgetting about their traditional differences. Disagreement in the enemy’s camp, caused by conflicting interests and having a detrimental effect on the conduct of the war, was ultimately one of the main reasons that allowed Prussia to resist the confrontation.
Until the end of 1757, when the successes of the newly-minted David in the fight against the “Goliath” of the anti-Prussian coalition created a club of admirers for the king in Germany and beyond, it never occurred to anyone in Europe to seriously consider Frederick “The Great”: at that time, most Europeans saw He is an impudent upstart who is long overdue for being put in his place. To achieve this goal, the Allies fielded a huge army of 419,000 soldiers against Prussia. Frederick II had at his disposal only 200,000 soldiers plus 50,000 defenders of Hanover, hired with English money.
European theater of war
1756: attack on Saxony
Strengths of the parties in 1756
| A country | Troops |
|---|---|
| Prussia | 200 000 |
| Hanover | 50 000 |
| England | 90 000 |
| Total | 340 000 |
| Russia | 333 000 |
| Austria | 200 000 |
| France | 200 000 |
| Spain | 25 000 |
| Total allies | 758 000 |
| Total | 1 098 000 |
Without waiting for Prussia's opponents to deploy their forces, Frederick II was the first to begin hostilities on August 29, 1756, suddenly invading Saxony, allied with Austria, and occupying it. On September 1 (11), 1756, Elizaveta Petrovna declared war on Prussia. On September 9, the Prussians surrounded the Saxon army encamped near Pirna. On October 1, the 33.5 thousand army of the Austrian Field Marshal Brown, who went to the rescue of the Saxons, was defeated at Lobositz. Finding itself in a hopeless situation, the eighteen-thousand-strong army of Saxony capitulated on October 16. Captured, the Saxon soldiers were forced into the Prussian army. Later they would “thank” Frederick by running over to the enemy in entire regiments.
Saxony, which had armed forces the size of an average army corps and, moreover, bound by eternal troubles in Poland (the Saxon elector was also the Polish king), did not, of course, pose any military threat to Prussia. The aggression against Saxony was caused by Frederick's intentions:
- use Saxony as a convenient base of operations for the invasion of Austrian Bohemia and Moravia, the supply of Prussian troops here could be organized by waterways along the Elbe and Oder, while the Austrians would have to use inconvenient mountain roads;
- transfer the war to the territory of the enemy, thus forcing him to pay for it and, finally,
- use the human and material resources of prosperous Saxony for their own strengthening. Subsequently, he carried out his plan to rob this country so successfully that some Saxons still dislike the inhabitants of Berlin and Brandenburg.
Despite this, in German (not Austrian!) historiography it is still customary to consider the war on the part of Prussia to be a defensive war. The reasoning is that the war would still have been started by Austria and its allies, regardless of whether Frederick attacked Saxony or not. Opponents of this point of view object: the war began not least because of the Prussian conquests, and its first act was aggression against a weakly protected neighbor.
1757: Battles of Kolin, Rosbach and Leuthen, Russia begins hostilities
Strengths of the parties in 1757
| A country | Troops |
|---|---|
| Prussia | 152 000 |
| Hanover | 45 000 |
| Saxony | 20 000 |
| Total | 217 000 |
| Russia | 104 000 |
| Austria | 174 000 |
| Imperial German Union | 30 000 |
| Sweden | 22 000 |
| France | 134 000 |
| Total allies | 464 000 |
| Total | 681 000 |
Bohemia, Silesia
Having strengthened himself by absorbing Saxony, Frederick at the same time achieved the opposite effect, spurring his opponents to active offensive actions. Now he had no choice but, to use the German expression, “flight forward” (German. Flucht nach vorne). Counting on the fact that France and Russia will not be able to enter the war before the summer, Frederick intends to defeat Austria before that time. Early in 1757, the Prussian army, moving in four columns, entered Austrian territory in Bohemia. The Austrian army under the command of the Prince of Lorraine numbered 60,000 soldiers. On May 6, the Prussians defeated the Austrians and blocked them in Prague. Having taken Prague, Frederick plans to march on Vienna without delay. However, the blitzkrieg plans were dealt a blow: a 54,000-strong Austrian army under the command of Field Marshal L. Down came to the aid of the besieged. On June 18, 1757, in the vicinity of the city of Kolin, a 34,000-strong Prussian army entered into battle with the Austrians. Frederick II lost this battle, losing 14,000 men and 45 guns. The heavy defeat not only destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the Prussian commander, but also, more importantly, forced Frederick II to lift the blockade of Prague and hastily retreat to Saxony. Soon the threat that arose in Thuringia from the French and the Imperial Army (the "Tsars") forced him to leave there with the main forces. Having from this moment on a significant numerical superiority, the Austrians win a series of victories over Frederick's generals (at Moise on September 7, at Breslau on November 22), and the key Silesian fortresses of Schweidnitz (now Świdnica, Poland) and Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) are in their hands. In October 1757, the Austrian general Hadik managed to briefly capture the capital of Prussia, the city of Berlin, with a sudden raid of a flying detachment. Having warded off the threat from the French and the “Caesars,” Frederick II transferred an army of forty thousand to Silesia and on December 5 won a decisive victory over the Austrian army at Leuthen. As a result of this victory, the situation that existed at the beginning of the year was restored. Thus, the result of the campaign was a “combat draw”.
Central Germany
1758: The battles of Zorndorf and Hochkirch do not bring decisive success to either side
Field Marshal General Willim Villimovich Fermor became the new commander-in-chief of the Russians. At the beginning of 1758, he occupied, without meeting resistance, all of East Prussia, including its capital, the city of Königsberg, then heading towards Brandenburg. In August he besieged Küstrin, a key fortress on the road to Berlin. Frederick immediately moved towards him. The battle took place on August 14 near the village of Zorndorf and was notable for its stunning bloodshed. The Russians had 42,000 soldiers in the army with 240 guns, and Frederick had 33,000 soldiers with 116 guns. The battle revealed several big problems in the Russian army - insufficient interaction between individual units, poor moral training of the observation corps (the so-called “Shuvalovites”), and finally called into question the competence of the commander-in-chief himself. At a critical moment in the battle, Fermor left the army, did not direct the course of the battle for some time, and appeared only towards the denouement. Clausewitz later called the Battle of Zorndorf the strangest battle of the Seven Years' War, referring to its chaotic, unpredictable course. Having started “according to the rules,” it eventually resulted in a great massacre, breaking up into many separate battles, in which the Russian soldiers showed unsurpassed tenacity; according to Friedrich, it was not enough to kill them, they also had to be knocked down. Both sides fought to the point of complete exhaustion and suffered huge losses. The Russian army lost 16,000 people, the Prussians 11,000. The opponents spent the night on the battlefield; the next day, Frederick, fearing the approach of Rumyantsev’s division, turned his army around and took it to Saxony. Russian troops retreated to the Vistula. General Palmbach, sent by Fermor to besiege Kolberg, stood for a long time under the walls of the fortress without accomplishing anything.
On October 14, the Austrians operating in South Saxony managed to defeat Frederick at Hochkirch, however, without any special consequences. Having won the battle, the Austrian commander Daun led his troops back to Bohemia.
The war with the French was more successful for the Prussians; they beat them three times in a year: at Rheinberg, at Krefeld and at Mer. In general, although the campaign of 1758 ended more or less successfully for the Prussians, it further weakened the Prussian troops, who suffered significant, irreplaceable losses for Frederick during the three years of the war: from 1756 to 1758 he lost, not counting those captured, 43 the general was killed or died from wounds received in battle, among them his best military leaders, such as Keith, Winterfeld, Schwerin, Moritz von Dessau and others.
1759: Defeat of the Prussians at Kunersdorf, “miracle of the House of Brandenburg”
Complete defeat of the Prussian army. As a result of the victory, the road was open for the Allied advance on Berlin. Prussia was on the brink of disaster. “Everything is lost, save the yard and archives!” - Frederick II wrote in panic. However, the persecution was not organized. This made it possible for Frederick to gather an army and prepare for the defense of Berlin. Prussia was saved from final defeat only by the so-called “miracle of the House of Brandenburg.”
Strengths of the parties in 1759
| A country | Troops |
|---|---|
| Prussia | 220 000 |
| Total | 220 000 |
| Russia | 50 000 |
| Austria | 155 000 |
| Imperial German Union | 45 000 |
| Sweden | 16 000 |
| France | 125 000 |
| Total allies | 391 000 |
| Total | 611 000 |
8 (19) May 1759 commander-in-chief Russian army, concentrated at that time in Poznan, instead of V.V. Fermor, Chief General P.S. Saltykov was unexpectedly appointed. (The reasons for Fermor’s resignation are not entirely clear; however, it is known that the St. Petersburg Conference repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with Fermor’s reports, their irregularity and confusion; Fermor could not account for spending significant sums on the maintenance of the army. Perhaps the decision to resign was influenced by the indecisive the outcome of the battle of Zorndorf and the unsuccessful sieges of Küstrin and Kolberg). On July 7, 1759, a forty-thousand-strong Russian army marched west to the Oder River, in the direction of the city of Krosen, intending to link up with Austrian troops there. The debut of the new commander-in-chief was successful: on July 23, in the battle of Palzig (Kai), he completely defeated the twenty-eight thousandth corps of the Prussian General Wedel. On August 3, 1759, the allies met in the city of Frankfurt an der Oder, which had been occupied by Russian troops three days before.
At this time, the Prussian king with an army of 48,000 people, possessing 200 guns, was moving towards the enemy from the south. On August 10, he crossed to the right bank of the Oder River and took a position east of the village of Kunersdorf. On August 12, 1759, the famous battle of the Seven Years' War took place - the Battle of Kunersdorf. Frederick was completely defeated; out of an army of 48 thousand, by his own admission, he did not have even 3 thousand soldiers left. “In truth,” he wrote to his minister after the battle, “I believe that all is lost. I will not survive the death of my Fatherland. Goodbye forever". After the victory at Kunersdorf, the Allies could only deliver the final blow, take Berlin, the road to which was clear, and thereby force Prussia to capitulate, but disagreements in their camp did not allow them to use the victory and end the war. Instead of attacking Berlin, they withdrew their troops away, accusing each other of violating allied obligations. Frederick himself called his unexpected salvation “the miracle of the House of Brandenburg.” Frederick escaped, but setbacks continued to haunt him until the end of the year: on November 20, the Austrians, together with imperial troops, managed to encircle and force the 15,000-strong corps of the Prussian General Finck to surrender without a fight at Maxen.
The severe defeats of 1759 prompted Frederick to turn to England with the initiative to convene a peace congress. The British supported it all the more willingly because they, for their part, considered the main goals in this war to be achieved. On November 25, 1759, 5 days after Maxen, representatives of Russia, Austria and France were sent an invitation to a peace congress in Rysvik. France signaled its participation, but it came to nothing because of the irreconcilable position taken by Russia and Austria, who hoped to use the victories of 1759 to deal the finishing blow to Prussia in the following year's campaign.
Nicholas Pocock. "Battle of the Gulf of Quiberon" (1759)
Meanwhile, England defeated the French fleet at sea in the Gulf of Quiberon.
1760: Frederick's Pyrrhic victory at Torgau
The losses of both sides are enormous: more than 16,000 for the Prussians, about 16,000 (according to other sources, more than 17,000) for the Austrians. Their actual size was hidden from the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, but Frederick also prohibited the publication of lists of the dead. For him, the losses suffered are irreparable: in the last years of the war, the main source of replenishment of the Prussian army were prisoners of war. Driven by force into Prussian service, at any opportunity they run over to the enemy in entire battalions. The Prussian army is not only shrinking, but also losing its qualities. Its preservation, being a matter of life and death, now becomes Frederick's main concern and forces him to abandon active offensive actions. The last years of the Seven Years' War are filled with marches and maneuvers; there are no major battles like the battles of the initial stage of the war.
Victory at Torgau was achieved, a significant part of Saxony (but not all of Saxony) was returned to Frederick, but this was not the final victory for which he was ready to “risk everything.” The war will last another three long years.
Strengths of the parties in 1760
| A country | Troops |
|---|---|
| Prussia | 200 000 |
| Total | 200 000 |
| Austria | 90 000 |
| Total allies | 375 000 |
| Total | 575 000 |
The war thus continued. In 1760, Frederick had difficulty raising the size of his army to 200,000 soldiers. The Franco-Austro-Russian troops by this time numbered up to 375,000 soldiers. However, as in previous years, the Allies' numerical superiority was negated by the lack of a unified plan and inconsistency in actions. The Prussian king, trying to impede the actions of the Austrians in Silesia, transported his thirty thousand army across the Elbe on August 1, 1760 and, with passive pursuit of the Austrians, arrived in the Liegnitz region by August 7. Misleading the stronger enemy (Field Marshal Daun had about 90,000 soldiers by this time), Frederick II first actively maneuvered and then decided to break through to Breslau. While Frederick and Daun were mutually exhausting the troops with their marches and countermarches, the Austrian corps of General Laudon on August 15 in the Liegnitz area suddenly collided with Prussian troops. Frederick II unexpectedly attacked and defeated Laudon's corps. The Austrians lost up to 10,000 killed and 6,000 captured. Frederick, who lost about 2,000 people killed and wounded in this battle, managed to escape from the encirclement.
Having barely escaped encirclement, the Prussian king almost lost his own capital. On October 3 (September 22), 1760, Major General Totleben’s detachment stormed Berlin. The assault was repulsed, and Totleben had to retreat to Köpenick, where he waited for the corps of Lieutenant General Z. G. Chernyshev (reinforced by Panin’s 8,000-strong corps) and the Austrian corps of General Lassi, appointed as reinforcements. On the evening of October 8, at a military council in Berlin, due to the overwhelming numerical superiority of the enemy, a decision was made to retreat, and that same night the Prussian troops defending the city left for Spandau, leaving a garrison in the city as an “object” of surrender. The garrison brings surrender to Totleben, as the general who first besieged Berlin. The illegal, by the standards of military honor, pursuit of the enemy, who had given up the fortress to the enemy, was taken over by Panin’s corps and Krasnoshchekov’s Cossacks, they managed to defeat the Prussian rearguard and capture more than a thousand prisoners. On the morning of October 9, 1760, Totleben's Russian detachment and the Austrians (the latter in violation of the terms of surrender) entered Berlin. In the city, guns and rifles were captured, gunpowder and weapons warehouses were blown up. An indemnity was imposed on the population. At the news of the approach of Frederick with the main forces of the Prussians, the allies left the Prussian capital in panic.
Having received news on the way that the Russians had abandoned Berlin, Frederick turned to Saxony. While he was conducting military operations in Silesia, the Imperial Army managed to oust the weak Prussian forces left in Saxony to screen, Saxony was lost to Frederick. He cannot allow this in any way: he needs the human and material resources of Saxony to continue the war. On November 3, 1760, the last major battle of the Seven Years' War took place near Torgau. He is distinguished by incredible fierceness, victory leans first to one side, then to the other several times during the day. The Austrian commander Daun manages to send a messenger to Vienna with the news of the defeat of the Prussians, and only by 9 pm it becomes clear that he was in a hurry. Frederick emerges victorious, but it is a Pyrrhic victory: in one day he loses 40% of his army. He is no longer able to make up for such losses; in the last period of the war he is forced to abandon offensive actions and give the initiative to his opponents in the hope that, due to their indecisiveness and slowness, they will not be able to take advantage of it properly.
In the secondary theaters of war, Frederick's opponents had some successes: the Swedes managed to establish themselves in Pomerania, the French in Hesse.
1761-1763: the second “miracle of the Brandenburg House”
Strengths of the parties in 1761
| A country | Troops |
|---|---|
| Prussia | 106 000 |
| Total | 106 000 |
| Austria | 140 000 |
| France | 140 000 |
| Imperial German Union | 20 000 |
| Russia | 90 000 |
| Total allies | 390 000 |
| Total | 496 000 |
In 1761, no significant clashes occur: the war is waged mainly by maneuvering. The Austrians manage to recapture Schweidnitz, Russian troops under the command of General Rumyantsev take Kolberg (now Kolobrzeg). The capture of Kolberg would be the only major event of the 1761 campaign in Europe.
No one in Europe, not excluding Frederick himself, at that time believed that Prussia would be able to avoid defeat: the resources of the small country were incommensurate with the power of its opponents, and the further the war continued, the more important this factor became. And then, when Frederick was already actively probing through intermediaries for the possibility of starting peace negotiations, his irreconcilable opponent, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, dies, having once declared her determination to continue the war to the victorious end, even if she had to sell half of her dresses to do so. On January 5, 1762, Peter III ascended the Russian throne, who saved Prussia from defeat by concluding the Peace of St. Petersburg with Frederick, his longtime idol. As a result, Russia voluntarily abandoned all its acquisitions in this war (East Prussia with Königsberg, the inhabitants of which, including Immanuel Kant, had already sworn allegiance to the Russian crown) and provided Frederick with a corps under Count Z. G. Chernyshev for the war against the Austrians , their recent allies.
Strengths of the parties in 1762
| A country | Troops |
|---|---|
| Prussia | 60 000 |
| Total allies | 300 000 |
| Total | 360 000 |
Asian theater of war
Indian campaign
In 1757, the British captured French Chandannagar in Bengal, and the French captured British trading posts in southeastern India between Madras and Calcutta. In 1758-1759 there was a struggle between fleets for dominance in the Indian Ocean; On land, the French unsuccessfully besieged Madras. At the end of 1759 the French fleet left the Indian coast, and at the beginning of 1760 the French land forces were defeated at Vandiwash. In the autumn of 1760, the siege of Pondicherry began, and in early 1761 the capital of French India capitulated.
British landing in the Philippines
In 1762, the British East India Company, sending 13 ships and 6,830 soldiers, took possession of Manila, breaking the resistance of a small Spanish garrison of 600 people. The company also entered into an agreement with the Sultan of Sulu. However, the British failed to extend their power even into Luzon. After the end of the Seven Years' War, they left Manila in 1764, and in 1765 completed the evacuation from the Philippine Islands.
British occupation gave impetus to new anti-Spanish uprisings
Central American Theater of War
In 1762-1763, Havana was captured by the British, who introduced a free trade regime. At the end of the Seven Years' War, the island was returned to the Spanish crown, but now it was forced to soften the former harsh economic system. Cattle breeders and planters received greater opportunities in conducting foreign trade.
South American theater of war
European politics and the Seven Years' War. Chronological table
| Year, date | Event |
|---|---|
| June 2, 1746 | Union Treaty between Russia and Austria |
| October 18, 1748 | Aachen world. End of the War of the Austrian Succession |
| January 16, 1756 | Westminster Convention between Prussia and England |
| May 1, 1756 | Defensive alliance between France and Austria at Versailles |
| May 17, 1756 | England declares war on France |
| January 11, 1757 | Russia joins the Treaty of Versailles |
| January 22, 1757 | Union Treaty between Russia and Austria |
| January 29, 1757 | The Holy Roman Empire declares war on Prussia |
| May 1, 1757 | Offensive alliance between France and Austria at Versailles |
| January 22, 1758 | Estates of East Prussia swear allegiance to the Russian crown |
| April 11, 1758 | Subsidy Treaty between Prussia and England |
| April 13, 1758 | Subsidy treaty between Sweden and France |
| May 4, 1758 | Treaty of Union between France and Denmark |
| January 7, 1758 | Extension of the subsidy agreement between Prussia and England |
| January 30-31, 1758 | Subsidy Treaty between France and Austria |
| November 25, 1759 | Declaration of Prussia and England on the convening of a peace congress |
| April 1, 1760 | Extension of the union treaty between Russia and Austria |
| January 12, 1760 | Latest extension of the subsidy treaty between Prussia and England |
| April 2, 1761 | Treaty of Friendship and Trade between Prussia and Turkey |
| June-July 1761 | Separate peace negotiations between France and England |
| August 8, 1761 | Convention between France and Spain concerning the war with England |
| January 4, 1762 | England declares war on Spain |
| January 5, 1762 | Death of Elizaveta Petrovna |
| February 4, 1762 | Pact of Alliance between France and Spain |
| May 5, 1762 | Peace Treaty between Russia and Prussia in St. Petersburg |
| May 22, 1762 | Peace Treaty between Prussia and Sweden in Hamburg |
| June 19, 1762 | Treaty of Alliance between Russia and Prussia |
| June 28, 1762 | Coup in St. Petersburg, overthrow of Peter III, rise to power of Catherine II |
| February 10, 1763 | Treaty of Paris between England, France and Spain |
| February 15, 1763 | Treaty of Hubertusburg between Prussia, Austria and Saxony |
Military leaders of the Seven Years' War in Europe
Frederick II during the Seven Years' War
In the 50s Prussia becomes Russia's main enemy. The reason for this is the aggressive policy of its king, aimed at the east of Europe.
The Seven Years' War began in 1756 . The conference at the highest court, which under Empress Elizabeth played the role of the Secret, or Military, Council, set the task - “by weakening the king of Prussia, make him fearless and carefree for the local side (for Russia”).
Frederick II in August 1756, without declaring war, attacked Saxony. His army, having defeated the Austrians, captured Dresden and Leipzig. The anti-Prussian coalition is finally taking shape - Austria, France, Russia, Sweden.
In the summer of 1757, the Russian army entered East Prussia. On the way to Königsberg, near the village of Gross-Jägersdorf, the army of Field Marshal S. F. Apraksin met with the army of Field Marshal H. Lewald on August 19 (30), 1757.
The Prussians began the battle. They successively attacked the left flank and center, then the right flank of the Russians. They broke through the center, and a critical situation was created here. The regiments of the division of General Lopukhin, who was killed during the battle, suffered heavy losses and began to retreat. The enemy could break into the rear of the Russian army. But the situation was saved by the four reserve regiments of P. A. Rumyantsev, a young general whose star began to rise in these years. Their swift and sudden attack on the flank of the Prussian infantry led to its panicked flight. The same thing happened in the location of the Russian vanguard and right flank. Fire from cannons and rifles mowed down the ranks of the Prussians. They fled along the entire front, losing more than 3 thousand killed and 5 thousand wounded; Russians - 1.4 thousand killed and more than 5 thousand wounded.
Apraksin won the victory with the help of only part of his army. As a result, the road to Koenigsberg was clear. But the commander took the army to Tilsit, then to Courland and Livonia for winter quarters. The reason for the departure was not only the lack of provisions and mass illnesses among the soldiers, which he wrote to St. Petersburg, but also something else that he kept silent about - the empress fell ill and the accession of Prince Peter Fedorovich, her nephew and supporter of the Prussian king, was expected.
Elizaveta soon recovered, and Apraksin was put on trial. General V.V. Farmer, an Englishman by birth, is appointed commander. He distinguished himself in the wars of the 30s and 40s. with Turkey and Sweden. During the Seven Years' War, his corps took Memel and Tilsit. The general showed himself well with his division in the Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf. Having become the head of the Russian army, in January he occupied Konigsberg, then all of East Prussia. Its residents took an oath to the Russian Empress.
At the beginning of June, Fermor went southwest - to Küstrin, which is eastern Berlin, at the confluence of the Warta River with the Oder. Here, near the village of Zorndorf, a battle took place on August 14 (25). The Russian army numbered 42.5 thousand people, the army of Frederick II - 32.7 thousand. The battle lasted all day and was fierce. Both sides suffered heavy losses. Both the Prussian king and Fermor spoke of their victory, and both withdrew their armies from Zorndorf. The result of the battle was uncertain. The indecisiveness of the Russian commander, his distrust of the soldiers did not allow him to complete the job and win a victory. But the Russian army showed its strength, and Frederick retreated, not daring to fight again with those whom, as he himself admitted, he “could not crush.” Moreover, he feared a disaster, since his army had lost its best soldiers.
Fermor received his resignation on May 8, 1758, but served in the army until the end of the war and showed himself well while commanding corps. He left behind a memory as an efficient, but uninitiative, indecisive commander in chief. Being a military leader of a lower rank, showing courage and management, he distinguished himself in a number of battles.
In his place, unexpectedly for many, including himself, General Pyotr Semenovich Saltykov was appointed. A representative of an old family of Moscow boyars, a relative of the empress (her mother was from the Saltykov family), he began serving as a soldier in Peter's guard in 1714. He lived in France for two decades, studying maritime affairs. But, returning to Russia in the early 30s, he served in the guard and at court. Then he takes part in the Polish campaign (1733) and Russian-Swedish war; later, during the Seven Years' War - in the capture of Koenigsberg, the Battle of Zorndorf. He became commander-in-chief when he was 61 years old - for that time he was already an old man.
Saltykov had an eccentric, peculiar character. He was somewhat reminiscent of the man who began his military career during these years - he loved the army and soldiers, just like they did him, he was a simple and modest, honest and comical person. He could not stand ceremonies and receptions, splendor and pomp. This “gray-haired, small, simple old man,” as A. T. Bolotov, a famous memoirist and participant in the Seven Years’ War, attests to him, “seemed... like a real chicken”. The capital's politicians laughed at him and recommended that he consult the Farmer and the Austrians in everything. But he, an experienced and decisive general, despite his “simple” kind of made decisions himself, delved into everything. He did not bend his back to the Conference, which constantly interfered in the affairs of the army, believing that it could be controlled from St. Petersburg, thousands of miles from the theater of military operations. His independence and firmness, energy and common sense, caution and hatred of routine, quick intelligence and remarkable composure captivated the soldiers who sincerely loved him.
Having taken command of the army, Saltykov leads it to Frankfurt-on-Oder. On July 12 (23), 1759, he defeats the army of General Wedel at Palzig. Then Frankfurt is captured. Here, near the village of Kunersdorf, on the right bank of the Oder, opposite Frankfurt, on August 1 (12), 1759, a general battle took place. In Saltykov's army there were about 41 thousand Russian soldiers with 200 guns and 18.5 thousand Austrians with 48 guns; in Frederick's army - 48 thousand, 114 heavy guns, regimental artillery. During the fierce battle, success accompanied first one side, then the other. Saltykov skillfully maneuvered the shelves, moved them to the right places and in right time. The artillery, Russian infantry, Austrian and Russian cavalry performed excellently. At the beginning of the battle, the Prussians pushed back the Russians on the left flank. However, the Prussian infantry attack in the center was repulsed. Here Frederick twice threw his main force into battle - the cavalry of General Seydlitz. But it was destroyed by Russian soldiers. Then the Russians launched a counterattack on the left flank and drove the enemy back. The transition of the entire Allied army to the offensive ended in the complete defeat of Frederick. He himself and the remnants of his army fled in terrible panic from the battlefield. The king was almost captured by the Cossacks. He lost more than 18.5 thousand people, the Russians - more than 13 thousand, the Austrians - about 2 thousand. Berlin was preparing to capitulate, the archives and the king’s family were taken out of it, and he himself, according to rumors, was thinking about suicide.
After brilliant victories, Saltykov received the rank of field marshal. In the future, the intrigues of the Austrians and the distrust of the Conference unsettle him. He fell ill and was replaced by the same Fermor.
During the campaign of 1760, the detachment of General Z. G. Chernyshev occupied Berlin on September 28 (October 9). But the lack of coordination between the actions of the Austrian and Russian armies again and greatly hinders the matter. Berlin had to be abandoned, but the fact of its capture made a strong impression on Europe. At the end of the next year, a 16,000-strong corps under the skillful command of Rumyantsev, with the support of a landing force of sailors led by G. A. Spiridov, captured the Kolberg fortress on the Baltic coast. The path to Stettin and Berlin opened. Prussia stood on the brink of destruction.
Salvation for Frederick came from St. Petersburg - she died on December 25, 1761, and her nephew (the son of the Duke of Goshtinsky and Anna, daughter) Peter III Fedorovich, who replaced her on the throne, concluded a truce on March 5 (16), 1762 with the Prussian monarch he adored. And a month and a half later, he concludes a peace treaty with him - Prussia receives all its lands back. Russia's sacrifices in the seven-year war were in vain.
In the 18th century, one of the bloodiest and largest wars took place: the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). It can be argued that the war was global in nature.
Causes of the war
A long-simmering conflict between world powers has resulted in war. Two opposing coalitions were formed:
- England, Prussia and Portugal;
- Austria, France, Russia, Saxony, Sweden.
Main reasons:
- the colonial interests of England and France intersected in India and America;
- strengthening of Prussia and the German army, interests collided with Austria in relation to Silesia;
- The Russian Empire was dissatisfied with Prusia's entry onto the world stage;
- Sweden's desire to reconquer Pomerania;
- the contemptuous antics of the Prussian king Frederick 2, a famous misogynist towards the Austrian and Russian empresses and the Marquise de Pompadour, who actually ruled France. He called the enemy coalition itself “the union of three women.”
Course of events
In the spring of 1756, England declares war on France. Almost simultaneously, in August, Prussia invades Saxony. After the complete defeat of the latter, the Russian Empire and a number of other states join the conflict on the side of Austria. Portugal is adjacent to the Anglo-Prussian bloc.
In 1756, the English fleet defeated the French. Thus, the Anglo-Prussian bloc takes a leading position.
The Russian troops are commanded by Apraksin, he was given the task of capturing Koeningsberg. Two powerful armies found near Groß-Jägersdorf in 1757. Army Russian Empire won a big victory. At this time, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna became very ill in the capital, and her heir was Peter III, who greatly liked Frederick II. Apraksin, fearing the wrath of the heir, orders to abandon the pursuit and complete defeat of the German army. The Prussian army was defeated and suppressed. The myth of his invincibility is dispelled.
After the defeat, the Prussian army of Frederick II takes revenge on Rosbach and defeats the Austrian-French troops.
The Russian Empress recovers and orders the war to continue. Fermor was put in command of the Russians. At the end of 1757, the Russians captured Koeningsberg, and already in 1758, by order of Elizabeth Petrovna East Prussia part of the Russian Empire. In the same year, under the command of Fermor, another major battle took place at Zorindorf. Fermor escaped, but thanks to the courage of the Russian soldiers, the German army was again defeated.
At this time the French are losing to the British major battle near Quebec, and then lose Canada, and later fail in India.
In 1759, P.S. took command of the Russian army. Saltykov. At the very beginning they suffered a major defeat against Prussia at Kunersdorf. After the capture of the city, the road to Berlin was opened to Russian troops. In 1760 the city was captured, and a year later in 1762 the Kolberg fortress was captured.
Thus, the defeat of Prussia became obvious. King Frederick was in despair, even tried to abdicate the throne. In this theater of military events, the Allies did not provide assistance to either Russia or Prussia. And at such a moment an important message came from St. Petersburg: the empress died, Peter III became the new emperor. His first decree was a peace treaty with Prussia. According to the Treaty of St. Petersburg, all lost lands were returned to Prussia, and Russia left the war.
This moment became a turning point in the course of the war. Austria and France lost a powerful ally in Russia, and the Anglo-Prussian bloc gained strength. In 1763, when it became clear that waging war was futile, the Peace of Paris was concluded.
Results of the war
In January 1763, the Peace of Paris was concluded, according to which:
- Prussia becomes a powerful power;
- Canada was annexed to England's possessions;
- France lost Menroc;
- Havana was separated from England in favor of Spain;
- Austria lost Silesia;
- The Russian Empire remained without territorial changes.
More than 650 thousand people were killed during the hostilities. The losses for the 18th century were simply colossal. But it is still unclear what the consequences could have been if Russia had not withdrawn from the war with shameful world. It is likely that the division of the world and further world history would be different.
Secrets of the House of Romanov Balyazin Voldemar Nikolaevich
The Seven Years' War between Russia and Prussia in 1757-1760
After Russia on January 11, 1757 joined the Treaty of Versailles, concluded on May 1, 1756 between Austria and France against England and Prussia, Sweden, Saxony and some small states of Germany joined the anti-Prussian coalition strengthened at the expense of Russia.
The war, which began in 1754 in the colonial possessions of England and France in Canada, only moved to Europe in 1756, when on May 28, the Prussian king Frederick II invaded Saxony with an army of 95 thousand people. Frederick defeated the Saxon and allied Austrian troops in two battles and occupied Silesia and part of Bohemia.
It should be noted that foreign policy Russia during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna was distinguished almost all the time by its peacefulness and restraint. The war it inherited with Sweden was ended in the summer of 1743 with the signing of the Abo Peace Treaty, and until 1757 Russia did not fight.
As for the Seven Years' War with Prussia, Russia's participation in it turned out to be an accident, fatally connected with the intrigues of international political adventurers, as already mentioned when it came to Madame Pompadour's furniture and the tobacco trade of the Shuvalov brothers.
But now, after the victories won by Frederick II in Saxony and Silesia, Russia could not remain on the sidelines. She was obliged to do this by the recklessly signed alliance treaties with France and Austria and the real threat to her possessions in the Baltic states, since East Prussia was a border territory adjacent to the new Russian provinces.
In May 1757, a Russian army of seventy thousand, under the command of Field Marshal Stepan Fedorovich Apraksin, one of the best Russian commanders of that time, moved to the banks of the Neman River bordering Prussia.
Already in August, the first major victory was won - at the village of Gross-Jägersdorf, Russian troops defeated the corps of Prussian Field Marshal Lewald.
However, instead of going to the nearby capital of East Prussia, Koenigsberg, Apraksin gave the order to return to the Baltic states, explaining this by the lack of food, large losses and illnesses in the troops. This maneuver gave rise to rumors in the army and in St. Petersburg about his treason and led to the fact that a new commander-in-chief was appointed in his place - a Russified Englishman, general-in-chief, Count Vilim Vilimovich Fermor, who successfully commanded troops in the wars with Sweden, Turkey and the latter. war - with Prussia.
Apraksin was ordered to go to Narva and await further orders. However, no orders were given, and instead the “Grand State Inquisitor,” the head of the Secret Chancellery, A.I. Shuvalov, came to Narva. It should be borne in mind that Apraksin was a friend of Chancellor Bestuzhev, and the Shuvalovs were his ardent enemies. The “Grand Inquisitor,” having arrived in Narva, immediately subjected the disgraced field marshal to a strict interrogation, mainly concerning his correspondence with Catherine and Bestuzhev.
Shuvalov had to prove that Catherine and Bestuzhev persuaded Apraksin to commit treason in order to ease the position of the Prussian king in every possible way. After interrogating Apraksin, Shuvalov arrested him and transported him to the Four Hands tract, not far from St. Petersburg.
Apraksin also denied any malicious intent in his retreat beyond the Neman and claimed that “he did not make any promises to the young court and did not receive any comments from him in favor of the Prussian king.”
However, he was accused of high treason, and everyone suspected of having a criminal connection with him was arrested and brought for interrogation to the Secret Chancellery.
On February 14, 1758, unexpectedly for everyone, Chancellor Bestuzhev was also arrested. They first arrested him and only then began to look for him: what could he be charged with? It was difficult to do this, because Bestuzhev was an honest man and a patriot, and then he was charged with “the crime of lese majeste and for the fact that he, Bestuzhev, tried to sow discord between Her Imperial Majesty and Their Imperial Highnesses.”
The case ended with Bestuzhev being expelled from St. Petersburg to one of his villages, but during the investigation, suspicion fell on Ekaterina, the jeweler Bernardi, Poniatovsky, the former favorite of Elizaveta Petrovna, Lieutenant General Beketov, and Ekaterina’s teacher Adodurov. All these people were connected with Catherine, Bestuzhev and the English envoy Williams. Of all of them, only Catherine, as the Grand Duchess, and Poniatovsky, as a foreign ambassador, could have felt relatively calm if not for their secret intimate relationships and highly secret relations with Chancellor Bestuzhev, which could easily be regarded as an anti-government conspiracy. The fact is that Bestuzhev drew up a plan according to which, as soon as Elizaveta Petrovna died, Peter Fedorovich would become emperor by right, and Catherine would be a co-ruler. Bestuzhev foresaw for himself special status, which invested him with power no less than that of Menshikov under Catherine I. Bestuzhev claimed chairmanship of the three most important boards - Foreign, Military and Admiralty. In addition, he wanted to have the rank of lieutenant colonel in all four Life Guards regiments - Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky, Izmailovsky and Cavalry. Bestuzhev outlined his thoughts in the form of a manifesto and sent it to Catherine.
Fortunately for both himself and Catherine, Bestuzhev managed to burn the manifesto and all the drafts and thus deprived the investigators of serious evidence of treason. Moreover, through one of her most devoted servants - valet Vasily Grigorievich Shkurin (remember the name of this man, soon, dear reader, you will meet him again in more than extraordinary circumstances), Catherine learned that the papers were burned and she had nothing to fear.
And yet, suspicion remained, and Elizaveta Petrovna, through the efforts of the Shuvalov brothers, Peter and Alexander, was notified of the Bestuzhev-Ekaterina alliance. The impulsive and unbalanced empress decided, at least outwardly, to show her displeasure with Catherine and stopped accepting her, which led to a cooling towards her and a significant part of the “big court”.
And Stanislav-August remained still a lover Grand Duchess, and there are many reasons to believe that in March 1758, it was from him that Catherine became pregnant again and on December 9 gave birth to a daughter named Anna. The girl was taken to Elizaveta Petrovna’s chambers immediately after birth, and then everything happened as it did four years ago, when her first-born, Pavel, was born: balls and fireworks began in the city, and Catherine was left alone again. True, this time at her bedside were the court ladies close to her - Maria Alexandrovna Izmailova, Anna Nikitichna Naryshkina, Natalya Alexandrovna Senyavina and the only man - Stanislav-August Poniatovsky.
Anna Naryshkina, née Countess Rumyantseva, was married to Chief Marshal Alexander Naryshkin, and Izmailova and Senyavina were born Naryshkins - the marshal’s sisters and Catherine’s trusted confidantes. In “Notes,” Catherine reports that this company gathered secretly, that the Naryshkins and Poniatovsky hid behind screens as soon as there was a knock on the door, and in addition, Stanislav-August went into the palace, calling himself the Grand Duke’s musician. The fact that Poniatovsky was the only man who found himself at Catherine’s bedside after the birth seems to be quite eloquent evidence confirming the version of his paternity.
In her Notes, Catherine cites an interesting episode that occurred shortly before giving birth in September 1758: “Since I was becoming heavy from my pregnancy, I no longer appeared in society, believing that I was closer to giving birth than I actually was. . It was boring for the Grand Duke... And therefore His Imperial Highness was angry with my pregnancy and decided to say one day at his place, in the presence of Lev Naryshkin and some others: “God knows where my wife gets her pregnancy from, I don’t really know, my “Is this a child and should I take it personally?”
And yet, when the girl was born, Pyotr Fedorovich was glad about what happened. Firstly, the child was named exactly as the name of his late mother, the Empress’s sister, Anna Petrovna. Secondly, Pyotr Fedorovich, as the father of a newborn, received 60,000 rubles, which, of course, he more than needed.
The girl lived very briefly and died on March 8, 1759. For some reason, she was buried not in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which since 1725 became the tomb of the Romanov house, but in the Church of the Annunciation of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. And this circumstance also did not escape contemporaries, leading them to think about whether Anna Petrovna was the legitimate tsar’s daughter?
And events behind the walls of the imperial palaces went on as usual. On January 11, 1758, Vilim Fermor's troops occupied the capital of East Prussia - Königsberg.
Then on August 14 there followed a bloody and stubborn battle at Zorndorf, in which the opponents only lost about thirty thousand people killed. Catherine wrote that more than a thousand Russian officers were killed in the battle of Zorndorf. Many of the dead had previously lodged or lived in St. Petersburg, and therefore the news of the Zorndorf massacre caused grief and despondency in the city, but the war continued, and so far there was no end in sight. Ekaterina was worried along with everyone else. Pyotr Fedorovich felt and behaved completely differently.
Meanwhile, on August 6, 1758, without waiting for the trial, S. F. Apraksin suddenly died. He died of cardiac paralysis, but rumors immediately spread throughout St. Petersburg about a violent death - after all, he died in captivity. Supporters of this version were even more convinced by the fact that the field marshal was buried without any honors, hastily and secretly from everyone in the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Apraksin died of cardiac paralysis, but one could only guess why the paralysis occurred. An indirect recognition of Apraksin’s innocence was that everyone involved in the investigation in the Bestuzhev case - and it arose after Apraksin’s arrest - were either demoted in their positions or expelled from St. Petersburg to their villages, but no one suffered criminal punishment.
Catherine remained out of favor with the Empress for some time, but after she asked to be released to Zerbst, to her parents, so as not to experience humiliation and suspicions offensive to her, Elizaveta Petrovna changed her anger to mercy and restored her previous relationship with her daughter-in-law.
And in the theater of military operations, successes gave way to failures, and, as a consequence, the commanders-in-chief were replaced: Fermor was replaced in June 1759 by Field Marshal, Count Pyotr Semenovich Saltykov, and in September 1760, another Field Marshal, Count Alexander Borisovich Buturlin, appeared. The empress's favorite flashed with fleeting success - he occupied Berlin without a fight, whose small garrison left the city when a Russian cavalry detachment approached.
However, three days later, the Russians also hastily retreated, having learned about the approach of the superior forces of Frederick II to the capital of Prussia. The “sabotage” against Berlin did not change anything during the war. And what was decisive for its outcome was not the military campaign, but the coming to power in England of a new government, which refused Prussia further monetary subsidies.
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From the book 500 famous historical events author Karnatsevich Vladislav LeonidovichTHE SEVEN YEARS' WAR AND ITS END The dismissed Apraksin was replaced by General Fermor. On January 11, 1758, the Russians occupied Königsberg, East Prussia was included in Russia, then its troops gained a foothold in the lower reaches of the Vistula, and in the summer they entered Brandenburg, a key fortress on
From the book of the Romanovs. Family secrets of Russian emperors author Balyazin Voldemar NikolaevichThe Seven Years' War between Russia and Prussia in 1757–1760 After on January 11, 1757, Russia joined the Treaty of Versailles, concluded on May 1, 1756 between Austria and France against England and Prussia, the anti-Prussian coalition strengthened at the expense of Russia
From the book History of the Seven Years' War author Archenholtz Johann Wilhelm vonWorld Seven Years' War Political disputes became so intense that one cannon shot in America threw the whole of Europe into the fire of war. Voltaire The history of mankind knows a number of world wars - at least from the era early Middle Ages. However, the coalition
From the book Catherine the Great author Bestuzheva-Lada Svetlana IgorevnaThe Seven Years' War Meanwhile, Russia found itself drawn into the so-called Seven Years' War, the instigator of which was Prussia. By strengthening the supreme power, mobilizing resources, creating a well-organized large army (over 100 years it has grown 25 times and
