Russian troops in Berlin. How the Russians took Berlin for the first time

The capture of Berlin by Soviet troops in 1945 marked the victory point in the Great Patriotic War. The red flag over the Reichstag, even decades later, remains the most striking symbol of Victory.

But the Soviet soldiers marching on Berlin were not pioneers. Their ancestors first entered the streets of the capitulated German capital two centuries earlier.

The Seven Years' War, which began in 1756, became the first full-scale European conflict in which Russia was drawn into.

The rapid strengthening of Prussia under the rule of the warlike King Frederick II worried the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna and forced her to join the anti-Prussian coalition of Austria and France.

Frederick II, not inclined to diplomacy, called this coalition “the union of three women,” referring to Elizabeth, the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa and the favorite of the French king Marquise de Pompadour.

War with caution

King of Prussia Frederick II. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Russia's entry into the war in 1757 was quite cautious and hesitant. Firstly, the Russian army until that time had no experience of battles with the Prussians, who had created a reputation for themselves as brilliant warriors. The eternal Russian reverence for foreigners did not work in our favor here either. The second reason why Russian military leaders did not seek to force events was the deteriorating health of the empress. It was known that heir to the throne Peter Fedorovich- an ardent admirer of the Prussian king and a categorical opponent of war with him.

The first major battle between the Russians and the Prussians, which took place at Gross-Jägersdorf in 1757, to the great surprise of Frederick II, ended in victory for the Russian army. This success, however, was offset by the fact that Commander of the Russian Army, Field Marshal General Stepan Apraksin ordered a retreat after a victorious battle.

This step was explained by the news about the serious illness of the empress, and Apraksin was afraid of angering the new emperor, who was about to take the throne.

But Elizaveta Petrovna recovered, Apraksin was removed from his post and sent to prison, where he soon died.

Miracle for the King

The war continued, increasingly turning into a struggle of attrition, which was disadvantageous for Prussia - the country's resources were significantly inferior to the enemy's reserves, and even the financial support of allied England could not compensate for this difference.

In August 1759, at the Battle of Kunersdorf, the allied Russian-Austrian forces utterly defeated the army of Frederick II.

The king's condition was close to despair. “The truth is, I believe that all is lost. I will not survive the death of my Fatherland. Farewell forever,” Frederick wrote to his minister.

The road to Berlin was open, but a conflict arose between the Russians and the Austrians, as a result of which the moment to capture the Prussian capital and end the war was missed. Frederick II, taking advantage of the sudden respite, managed to gather a new army and continue the war. He called the Allied delay, which saved him, “the miracle of the House of Brandenburg.”

Throughout 1760, Frederick II managed to resist the superior forces of the Allies, who were hampered by inconsistency. At the Battle of Liegnitz, the Prussians defeated the Austrians.

Failed assault

The French and Austrians, concerned about the situation, called on the Russian army to step up its actions. Berlin was proposed as a target.

The capital of Prussia was not a powerful fortress. Weak walls, turning into a wooden palisade - the Prussian kings did not expect that they would have to fight in their own capital.

Frederick himself was distracted by the fight against Austrian troops in Silesia, where he had excellent chances of success. Under these conditions, at the request of the allies, the Russian army was given a directive to conduct a raid on Berlin.

A 20,000-strong Russian corps advanced to the Prussian capital Lieutenant General Zakhar Chernyshev with the support of a 17,000-strong Austrian corps Franz von Lassi.

The Russian vanguard was commanded Gottlob Totleben, a born German who lived in Berlin for a long time and dreamed of the sole glory of the conqueror of the Prussian capital.

Totleben's troops arrived at Berlin before the main forces. In Berlin they hesitated as to whether it was worth holding the line, but under the influence Friedrich Seydlitz, commander of the cavalry Frederick, who was undergoing treatment in the city after being wounded, decided to give battle.

The first assault attempt ended in failure. The fires that started in the city after the shelling by the Russian army were quickly extinguished; of the three attacking columns, only one managed to break through directly to the city, but they also had to retreat due to the desperate resistance of the defenders.

Count Gottlob Kurt Heinrich von Totleben. Source: Public Domain

Victory with scandal

Following this, the Prussian corps came to the aid of Berlin Prince Eugene of Württemberg, which forced Totleben to retreat.

The capital of Prussia rejoiced early - the main forces of the Allies approached Berlin. General Chernyshev began to prepare a decisive assault.

On the evening of September 27, a military council met in Berlin, at which it was decided to surrender the city due to the complete superiority of the enemy.

At the same time, the envoys were sent to the ambitious Totleben, believing that it would be easier to come to an agreement with a German than with a Russian or Austrian.

Totleben really went towards the besieged, allowing the capitulated Prussian garrison to leave the city.

At the moment when Totleben entered the city, he met with Lieutenant Colonel Rzhevsky, who arrived to negotiate with the Berliners on the terms of surrender on behalf of General Chernyshev. Totleben told the lieutenant colonel to tell him: he had already taken the city and received symbolic keys from it.

Chernyshev arrived in the city beside himself with rage - Totleben’s initiative, supported, as it later turned out, by a bribe from the Berlin authorities, categorically did not suit him. The general gave the order to begin the pursuit of the departing Prussian troops. The Russian cavalry overtook the units retreating to Spandau and defeated them.

“If Berlin is destined to be busy, then let it be the Russians”

The population of Berlin was horrified by the appearance of the Russians, who were described as absolute savages, but, to the surprise of the townspeople, the soldiers of the Russian army behaved with dignity, without committing atrocities against civilians. But the Austrians, who had personal scores to settle with the Prussians, did not restrain themselves - they robbed houses, passers-by on the streets, and destroyed everything they could reach. It got to the point that Russian patrols had to use weapons to reason with their allies.

The stay of the Russian army in Berlin lasted six days. Frederick II, having learned about the fall of the capital, immediately moved an army from Silesia to help the main city of the country. Chernyshev’s plans did not include a battle with the main forces of the Prussian army - he completed his task of distracting Friedrich. Having collected trophies, the Russian army left the city.

The King of Prussia, having received a report of minimal destruction in the capital, remarked: “Thank you to the Russians, they saved Berlin from the horrors with which the Austrians threatened my capital.” But these words of Friedrich were intended only for his immediate circle. The monarch, who highly valued the power of propaganda, ordered that his subjects be informed about the monstrous atrocities of the Russians in Berlin.

However, not everyone wanted to support this myth. German scientist Leonid Euler wrote this in a letter to a friend about the Russian raid on the Prussian capital: “We had a visit here, which in other circumstances would have been extremely pleasant. However, I always wished that if Berlin were ever destined to be occupied by foreign troops, then let it be the Russians ... "

What is salvation for Frederick is death for Peter

The departure of the Russians from Berlin was a pleasant event for Frederick, but it was not of key importance for the outcome of the war. By the end of 1760, he completely lost the opportunity to qualitatively replenish the army, driving prisoners of war into its ranks, who very often defected to the enemy. The army could not conduct offensive operations, and the king increasingly thought about abdicating the throne.

The Russian army took full control of East Prussia, whose population had already sworn allegiance to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.

At this very moment, Frederick II was helped by the “second miracle of the House of Brandenburg” - the death of the Russian Empress. Who replaced her on the throne Peter III not only immediately made peace with his idol and returned to him all the territories conquered by Russia, but also provided troops for the war with yesterday’s allies.

What turned out to be happiness for Frederick cost Peter III himself dearly. The Russian army and, first of all, the guard did not appreciate the broad gesture, considering it offensive. As a result, a coup, soon organized by the emperor's wife Ekaterina Alekseevna, went like clockwork. Following this, the deposed emperor died under circumstances that were not fully clarified.

But the Russian army firmly remembered the road to Berlin, laid in 1760, so that it could return whenever necessary.

How many times did Russian troops take Berlin? and got the best answer

Answer from REW.MOY.SU[newbie]
Seven Years' War 1756-63.
Report of General Z. G. Chernyshev
to the Empress about the occupation of Berlin by Russian troops (Commander-in-Chief Saltykov)
September 28, 1760
With the Russian army crossing its western border, the immediate liberation of the peoples of Europe began. In March 1813, Russian troops were stationed in Berlin, Dresden and other cities, occupying German territory east of the Elbe. The rapid advance of the Russians led to the collapse of the Napoleonic coalition.
Russian troops took Berlin by storm in 1945.
On the morning of June 17, many Berlin workers followed the call for a general strike. They formed columns and marched from their own companies and construction sites to the shopping center of East Berlin, where they put forward their political demands. The workers demanded free elections, the admission of Western parties to elections, and the reunification of Germany. The public number of demonstrators reached an impressive number of 100 thousand people. In other cities the strike was no less violent than in Berlin. In Dresden, Görlitz, Magdeburg and in some other places, armed clashes took place, first with the people's militia, and then with Russian military units. In particular, in Dresden, a similar development of events was caused by the fact that criminals who had served their sentences were released from prisons, many of whom immediately joined the more aggressive part of the demonstrators. In Berlin, the situation became heated by the fact that not a single representative of the East German government came to the protesters, shifting the difficult burden of dispersing the demonstration onto Russian troops and police. Meanwhile, certain pre-formed groups began storming party and government buildings and state trade companies. In some places, excited people began to tear down Russian and national state flags. Due to the sharp escalation of the situation, Russian tanks from the 12th Tank and 1st Mechanized Divisions appeared on the streets of the German capital. The Group of Russian Occupation Forces, which since May 26, 1953 was headed by Colonel General A. Grechko, was once again at the forefront of the conflict.

The Seven Years' War became one of the first wars in history that could actually be called a world war. Almost all significant European powers were involved in the conflict, and fighting took place on several continents at once. The prelude to the conflict was a series of complex and intricate diplomatic combinations, resulting in two opposing alliances. Moreover, each of the allies had its own interests, which often contradicted the interests of the allies, so the relations between them were far from cloudless.

The immediate cause of the conflict was the sharp rise of Prussia under Frederick II. The once mediocre kingdom in the capable hands of Frederick sharply strengthened, which became a threat to other powers. In the middle of the 18th century, the main struggle for leadership in continental Europe was between Austria and France. However, as a result of the War of the Austrian Succession, Prussia managed to defeat Austria and take away a very tasty morsel from it - Silesia, a large and developed region. This led to a sharp strengthening of Prussia, which began to cause concern in the Russian Empire for the Baltic region and the Baltic Sea, which at that time was the main one for Russia (there was no access to the Black Sea yet).

The Austrians were eager for revenge for their failure in the recent war when they lost Silesia. Clashes between French and English colonists led to war breaking out between the two states. The British decided to use Prussia as a deterrent to the French on the continent. Frederick loved and knew how to fight, and the British had a weak ground army. They were ready to give Frederick money, and he was happy to field soldiers. England and Prussia entered into an alliance. France took this as an alliance against itself (and rightly so) and formed an alliance with its old rival, Austria, against Prussia. Frederick was confident that England would be able to keep Russia from entering the war, but in St. Petersburg they wanted to stop Prussia before it became too serious a threat, and the decision was made to join the alliance of Austria and France.

Frederick II jokingly called this coalition a union of three skirts, since Austria and Russia were then ruled by women - Maria Theresa and Elizaveta Petrovna. Although France was formally ruled by Louis XV, his official favorite, the Marquise de Pompadour, had a huge influence on all French politics, through whose efforts an unusual alliance was created, which Frederick, of course, knew about and did not fail to tease his opponent.

Progress of the war

Prussia had a very large and strong army, but the military forces of the Allies together were significantly superior to it, and Frederick's main ally, England, could not help militarily, limiting itself to subsidies and naval support. However, the main battles took place on land, so Frederick had to rely on surprise and his skills.

At the very beginning of the war, he carried out a successful operation, capturing Saxony and replenishing his army with forcibly mobilized Saxon soldiers. Frederick hoped to defeat the Allies piecemeal, expecting that neither the Russian nor the French armies would be able to quickly advance to the main theater of war and he would have time to defeat Austria while she was fighting alone.

However, the Prussian king was unable to defeat the Austrians, although the forces of the parties were approximately comparable. But he managed to crush one of the French armies, which caused a serious decline in the prestige of this country, because its army was then considered the strongest in Europe.

For Russia, the war developed very successfully. Troops led by Apraksin occupied East Prussia and defeated the enemy in the Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf. However, Apraksin not only did not build on his success, but also began to urgently retreat, which greatly surprised the Prussian opponents. For this he was removed from command and arrested. During the investigation, Apraksin stated that his rapid retreat was due to problems with forage and food, but it is now believed that it was part of a failed court intrigue. Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was very ill at that moment, it was expected that she was about to die, and the heir to the throne was Peter III, who was known as a passionate admirer of Frederick.

According to one version, in this regard, Chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin (famous for his complex and numerous intrigues) decided to carry out a palace coup (he and Peter mutually hated each other) and place his son, Pavel Petrovich, on the throne, and Apraksin’s army was needed for support coup. But in the end, the empress recovered from her illness, Apraksin died during the investigation, and Bestuzhev-Ryumin was sent into exile.

Miracle of the Brandenburg House

In 1759, the most important and most famous battle of the war took place - the Battle of Kunersdorf, in which Russian-Austrian troops under the leadership of Saltykov and Laudon defeated Frederick's army. Frederick lost all the artillery and almost all the troops, he himself was on the verge of death, the horse under him was killed, and he was saved only by the preparation (according to another version - a cigarette case) lying in his pocket. Fleeing with the remnants of the army, Frederick lost his hat, which was sent to St. Petersburg as a trophy (it is still kept in Russia).

Now the Allies could only continue the victorious march to Berlin, which Frederick actually could not defend, and force him to sign a peace treaty. But at the very last moment the allies quarreled and separated the armies, instead of pursuing the fleeing Frederick, who later called this situation a miracle of the House of Brandenburg. The contradictions between the allies were very great: the Austrians wanted the reconquest of Silesia and demanded that both armies move in that direction, while the Russians were afraid of stretching communications too far and proposed to wait until Dresden was captured and go to Berlin. As a result, inconsistency did not allow it to reach Berlin that time.

Capture of Berlin

The following year, Frederick, having lost a large number of soldiers, switched to the tactics of small battles and maneuvers, exhausting his opponents. As a result of such tactics, the Prussian capital again found itself unprotected, which both Russian and Austrian troops decided to take advantage of. Each side was in a hurry to be the first to arrive at Berlin, since this would allow them to take the laurels of the conqueror of Berlin for themselves. Large European cities were not captured in every war, and, of course, the capture of Berlin would have been an event on a pan-European scale and would have made the military leader who accomplished this a star of the continent.

Therefore, both Russian and Austrian troops almost ran towards Berlin in order to get ahead of each other. The Austrians were so eager to be the first to Berlin that they walked without rest for 10 days, covering more than 400 miles during this period (that is, on average they walked about 60 kilometers per day). The Austrian soldiers did not complain, although they had nothing to do with the glory of the winner, they simply realized that a huge indemnity could be exacted from Berlin, the thought of which drove them forward.

However, the very first to arrive in Berlin was a Russian detachment under the command of Gottlob Totleben. He was a famous European adventurer who managed to serve at many courts, leaving some of them with great scandal. Already during the Seven Years' War, Totleben (by the way, an ethnic German) found himself in the service of Russia and, having proven himself well on the battlefield, rose to the rank of general.

Berlin was very poorly fortified, but the garrison there was sufficient to defend against a small Russian detachment. Totleben attempted an assault, but eventually retreated and laid siege to the city. At the beginning of October, a detachment of the Prince of Württemberg approached the city and, with fighting, forced Totleben to retreat. But then the main Russian forces of Chernyshev (who exercised overall command), followed by the Austrians of Lassi, approached Berlin.

Now the numerical superiority was already on the side of the allies, and the defenders of the city did not believe in their strength. Not wanting unnecessary bloodshed, the Berlin leadership decided to surrender. The city was handed over to Totleben, which was a cunning calculation. Firstly, he arrived to the city first and was the first to begin the siege, which means that the honor of the conqueror belonged to him, secondly, he was an ethnic German, and the residents counted on him to show humanism towards his compatriots, thirdly, the city It would have been better to hand it over to the Russians and not to the Austrians, since the Russians had no personal accounts with the Prussians in this war, but the Austrians entered the war, guided by a thirst for revenge, and, of course, would have plundered the city completely.

One of the richest merchants of Prussia, Gochkovsky, who participated in the negotiations on the surrender, recalled: “There was nothing left to do but try to avoid disaster as much as possible through submission and agreement with the enemy. Then the question arose of who to give the city to, the Russians or the Austrians. They asked my opinion , and I said that, in my opinion, it is much better to come to an agreement with the Russians than with the Austrians; that the Austrians are real enemies, and the Russians are only helping them; that they first approached the city and formally demanded surrender; that, as heard, in number they are superior to the Austrians, who, being notorious enemies, will deal with the city much more harshly than the Russians, and with these it is possible to come to an agreement better. This opinion was respected. The governor, Lieutenant General Von Rochow, also joined him, and thus the garrison surrendered to the Russians." .

On October 9, 1760, members of the city magistrate gave Totleben a symbolic key to Berlin, the city came under the jurisdiction of Commandant Bachmann, appointed by Totleben. This caused the indignation of Chernyshev, who was in general command of the troops and senior in rank, whom he did not notify about the acceptance of surrender. Because of Chernyshev’s complaints about such arbitrariness, Totleben was not awarded the order and was not promoted in rank, although he had already been nominated for the award.

Negotiations began on the indemnity that the conquered city would pay to the side that captured it and in exchange for which the army would refrain from destroying and plundering the city.

Totleben, at the insistence of General Fermor (commander-in-chief of the Russian troops), demanded 4 million thalers from Berlin. Russian generals knew about the wealth of Berlin, but such a sum was very large even for such a rich city. Gochkovsky recalled: “The mayor of Kircheisen fell into complete despair and almost lost his tongue from fear. The Russian generals thought that the head was faking or drunk, and indignantly ordered him to be taken to the guardhouse. It would have happened; but I swore to the Russian commandant “that the mayor has been suffering from attacks of dizziness for several years.”

As a result of tedious negotiations with members of the Berlin magistrate, the amount of spare money was reduced several times. Instead of 40 barrels of gold, only 15 plus 200 thousand thalers were taken. There was also a problem with the Austrians, who were late to share the pie, since the city had surrendered directly to the Russians. The Austrians were unhappy with this fact and now demanded their share, otherwise they were going to start looting. And the relations between the allies were far from ideal. Totleben, in his report on the capture of Berlin, wrote: “All the streets were full of Austrians, so to protect against robbery by these troops I had to appoint 800 people, and then an infantry regiment with brigadier Benckendorff, and place all the horse grenadiers in the city. Finally, since the Austrians attacked my guards and beat them, I ordered to shoot at them."

Part of the money received was promised to be transferred to the Austrians to stop them from looting. After receiving the indemnity, the city property remained intact, but all the royal (that is, owned by Frederick personally) factories, shops and manufactories were destroyed. Nevertheless, the magistrate managed to preserve the gold and silver manufactories, convincing Totleben that, although they belonged to the king, the income from them did not go to the royal treasury, but to the maintenance of the Potsdam Orphanage, and he ordered the factories to be deleted from the list of those subject to ruin.

After receiving the indemnity and the destruction of Frederick's factories, the Russian-Austrian troops left Berlin. At this time, Frederick and his army were moving towards the capital to liberate it, but there was no point in holding Berlin for the Allies, they had already received everything they wanted from him, so they left the city a few days later.

The presence of the Russian army in Berlin, although it caused understandable inconvenience to local residents, was nevertheless perceived by them as the lesser of two evils. Gochkovsky testified in his memoirs: “I and the whole city can testify that this general (Totleben) treated us more like a friend than an enemy. What would have happened under another military leader? What would he not have said and forced for himself personally? "What would have happened if we had fallen under the rule of the Austrians, to curb whom Count Totleben had to resort to shooting from robbery in the city?"

The Second Miracle of the Brandenburg House

By 1762, all parties to the conflict had exhausted their resources to continue the war and active hostilities had practically ceased. After the death of Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter III became the new emperor, who considered Frederick one of the greatest people of his time. His conviction was shared by many contemporaries and all descendants; Frederick was truly unique and known at the same time as a philosopher king, a musician king and a military leader king. Thanks to his efforts, Prussia turned from a provincial kingdom into the center of the unification of the German lands; all subsequent German regimes, starting from the German Empire and the Weimar Republic, continuing with the Third Reich and ending with modern democratic Germany, honored him as the father of the nation and German statehood. In Germany, since the birth of cinema, a separate genre of cinema has even emerged: films about Friedrich.

Therefore, Peter had reason to admire him and seek an alliance, but this was not done very thoughtfully. Peter concluded a separate peace treaty with Prussia and returned East Prussia, whose inhabitants had already sworn allegiance to Elizabeth Petrovna. In return, Prussia pledged to help in the war with Denmark for Schleswig, which was to be transferred to Russia. However, this war did not have time to begin due to the overthrow of the emperor by his wife, who, however, left the peace treaty in force without renewing the war.

It was this sudden and so happy for Prussia death of Elizabeth and the accession of Peter that was called by the Prussian king the second miracle of the House of Brandenburg. As a result, Prussia, which did not have the opportunity to continue the war, having withdrawn its most combat-ready enemy from the war, found itself among the victors.

The main loser of the war was France, which lost almost all of its North American possessions to Britain and suffered heavy casualties. Austria and Prussia, which also suffered huge losses, maintained the pre-war status quo, which was actually in Prussia's interests. Russia did not gain anything, but did not lose any pre-war territories. In addition, its military losses were the smallest among all participants in the war on the European continent, thanks to which it became the owner of the strongest army with rich military experience. It was this war that became the first baptism of fire for the young and unknown officer Alexander Suvorov, the future famous military leader.

The actions of Peter III laid the foundation for the reorientation of Russian diplomacy from Austria to Prussia and the creation of a Russian-Prussian alliance. Prussia became a Russian ally for the next century. The vector of Russian expansion gradually began to shift from the Baltic and Scandinavia to the south, to the Black Sea.

How the Russian army first took Berlin

The capture of Berlin by Soviet troops in 1945 marked the victory point in the Great Patriotic War. The red flag over the Reichstag, even decades later, remains the most striking symbol of Victory. But the Soviet soldiers marching on Berlin were not pioneers. Their ancestors first entered the streets of the capitulated German capital two centuries earlier...

The Seven Years' War, which began in 1756, became the first full-scale European conflict in which Russia was drawn into.

The rapid strengthening of Prussia under the rule of the warlike King Frederick II worried the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna and forced her to join the anti-Prussian coalition of Austria and France.

Frederick II, not inclined to diplomacy, called this coalition “the alliance of three women,” referring to Elizabeth, the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa and the favorite of the French king, the Marquise de Pompadour.

War with caution

Russia's entry into the war in 1757 was quite cautious and hesitant.

The second reason The reason why Russian military leaders did not seek to force events was the deteriorating health of the empress. It was known that the heir to the throne, Pyotr Fedorovich, was an ardent admirer of the Prussian king and a categorical opponent of the war with him.

Frederick II the Great

The first major battle between the Russians and the Prussians, which took place at Gross-Jägersdorf in 1757, to the great surprise of Frederick II, it ended in victory for the Russian army. This success, however, was offset by the fact that the commander of the Russian army, Field Marshal General Stepan Apraksin, ordered a retreat after the victorious battle.

This step was explained by the news about the serious illness of the empress, and Apraksin was afraid of angering the new emperor, who was about to take the throne.

But Elizaveta Petrovna recovered, Apraksin was removed from his post and sent to prison, where he soon died.

Miracle for the King

The war continued, increasingly turning into a struggle of attrition, which was disadvantageous to Prussia - The country's resources were significantly inferior to those of the enemy, and even the financial support of the allied England could not compensate for this difference.

In August 1759, at the Battle of Kunersdorf, the allied Russian-Austrian forces utterly defeated the army of Frederick II.

Alexander Kotzebue. "Battle of Kunersdorf" (1848)

The king's condition was close to despair.“The truth is, I believe that all is lost. I will not survive the death of my Fatherland. Goodbye forever",- Frederick wrote to his minister.

Throughout 1760, Frederick II managed to resist the superior forces of the Allies, which were hampered by inconsistency. At the Battle of Liegnitz, the Prussians defeated the Austrians.

Failed assault

The French and Austrians, concerned about the situation, called on the Russian army to step up its actions. Berlin was proposed as a target.

The capital of Prussia was not a powerful fortress. Weak walls, turning into a wooden palisade - the Prussian kings did not expect that they would have to fight in their own capital.

The 20,000-strong Russian corps of Lieutenant General Zakhar Chernyshev advanced to the Prussian capital with the support of the 17,000-strong Austrian corps of Franz von Lassi.

Count Gottlob Kurt Heinrich von Totleben

The Russian vanguard was commanded by Gottlob Totleben, a born German who lived in Berlin for a long time and dreamed of the sole glory of the conqueror of the Prussian capital.

Totleben's troops arrived to Berlin before the main forces. In Berlin they hesitated as to whether to hold the line, but under the influence of Friedrich Seydlitz, the commander of Friedrich's cavalry, who was undergoing treatment in the city after being wounded, they decided to give battle.

The first assault attempt ended in failure. The fires that started in the city after the shelling by the Russian army were quickly extinguished; of the three attacking columns, only one managed to break through directly to the city, but they also had to retreat due to the desperate resistance of the defenders.

Victory with scandal

Following this, the Prussian corps of Prince Eugene of Württemberg came to the aid of Berlin, which forced Totleben to retreat.

The capital of Prussia rejoiced early - the main forces of the Allies approached Berlin. General Chernyshev began to prepare a decisive assault.

On the evening of September 27, a military council met in Berlin, at which it was decided to surrender the city due to the complete superiority of the enemy. At the same time, the envoys were sent to the ambitious Totleben, believing that it would be easier to come to an agreement with a German than with a Russian or Austrian.

Totleben really went towards the besieged, allowing the capitulated Prussian garrison to leave the city.

At the moment when Totleben entered the city, he met with Lieutenant Colonel Rzhevsky, who arrived to negotiate with the Berliners on the terms of surrender on behalf of General Chernyshev. Totleben told the lieutenant colonel to tell him: he had already taken the city and received symbolic keys from it.

Chernyshev arrived in the city beside himself with rage - Totleben’s initiative, supported, as it later turned out, by a bribe from the Berlin authorities, categorically did not suit him. The general gave the order to begin the pursuit of the departing Prussian troops. The Russian cavalry overtook the units retreating to Spandau and defeated them.

“If Berlin is destined to be busy, then let it be the Russians”

The stay of the Russian army in Berlin lasted six days. Frederick II, having learned about the fall of the capital, immediately moved an army from Silesia to help the main city of the country. Chernyshev’s plans did not include a battle with the main forces of the Prussian army - he completed his task of distracting Friedrich. Having collected trophies, the Russian army left the city.

Russians in Berlin. Engraving by Daniel Chodowiecki.

The King of Prussia, having received a report of minimal destruction in the capital, remarked: “Thank you to the Russians, they saved Berlin from the horrors with which the Austrians threatened my capital.” But these words of Friedrich were intended only for his immediate circle. The monarch, who highly valued the power of propaganda, ordered that his subjects be informed about the monstrous atrocities of the Russians in Berlin.

However, not everyone wanted to support this myth. The German scientist Leonid Euler wrote this in a letter to a friend about the Russian raid on the Prussian capital: “We had a visit here which in other circumstances would have been extremely pleasant. However, I always wished that if Berlin were ever destined to be occupied by foreign troops, then let it be the Russians ... "

What is salvation for Frederick is death for Peter

The Russian army took full control of East Prussia, whose population had already sworn allegiance to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.

At this very moment, Frederick II was helped by the “second miracle of the House of Brandenburg” - the death of the Russian Empress. Peter III, who replaced her on the throne, not only immediately made peace with his idol and returned to him all the territories conquered by Russia, but also provided troops for the war with yesterday’s allies.

Peter III

What turned out to be happiness for Frederick cost Peter III himself dearly. The Russian army and, first of all, the guard did not appreciate the broad gesture, considering it offensive. As a result, the coup, soon organized by the emperor’s wife Ekaterina Alekseevna, went off like clockwork. Following this, the deposed emperor died under circumstances that were not fully clarified.

But the Russian army firmly remembered the road to Berlin, laid in 1760, so that it could return whenever necessary.

The capture of the German capital is an old Russian tradition, dating back more than a quarter of a millennium.

They die but don't give up

At the beginning of October 1760, the Russian army approached Berlin. The war with Prussia, which lasted for seven years, came to its logical end. Frederick the Great, the formidable emperor, who until recently was considered the foremost European commander, understood perfectly well that the old fortifications of Berlin were not capable of withstanding either a long siege or a serious assault. The dilapidated medieval walls and wooden palisade were weak protection for the garrison, which at that moment numbered only one and a half thousand bayonets.

However, in response to the first demand for surrender sent by the commander of the Russian advanced units, the international adventurer General Gottlob Kurt Heinrich von Totleben, the Prussians responded with a decisive refusal. Then he deployed an assault battery and struck the center of the city, making it clear that he was able to shoot right through it. However, the garrison still did not lower the flag. The valor of the Germans was appreciated - the old Berliner Totleben set up another battery, this time at the city gates. A dense fire opened the way into the city and led to fires along Friedrichstrasse. By midnight, in the light of the fires, Russian grenadiers attacked the breach in three detachments. But it was not possible to take the city “by spear” on the move.

Participant in the assault prince Prozorovsky, who commanded the Russian troops here, wrote in his memoirs that one detachment lost its way in the dark, the second came under fire from fortress artillery and retreated. And only the detachment that he personally led, despite huge losses, managed to break through to the ditch filled with water. However, it was impossible to cross the ditch itself under fire. The first assault ended in failure, but the worst thing was that the leading corps was running out of fire supplies. In addition, many guns were out of order: to increase the range of the shot, they were loaded with excessive amounts of gunpowder. The fortress, which seemed almost defenseless, survived and was ready to continue its defense.

The Russians are fighting - the Germans are trembling

Soon the main Russian forces under the command of General Zakhara Chernysheva. This is where the main battle began - in which the unfortunate Germans did not take part, awaiting the decision of their fate. Chernyshev and Totleben located their camps on the right and left banks of the Spree, respectively. At the same time, Chernyshev tried to achieve obedience from Totleben, wanting to take overall leadership of the assault. In turn, Totleben, with fortitude worthy of better use, ignored all Chernyshev’s orders. He responded to demands to cross to the right bank with a categorical refusal. Half a century later, retreating before Napoleon, in the same way they will pull the blanket over themselves Bagration And Barclay de Tolly..

The Berliners, perked up, did not stop the besiegers from engaging in their quarrels, especially since they had enough of their own to do - fresh reinforcements were arriving from Saxony and Pomerania. So by the time the Russians turned their attention back to Berlin, the balance of forces was already quite decent. Berliners hoped that the miracle of three years ago would repeat itself when Stepan Apraksin for reasons only known to him. Moreover, now the battle, which only yesterday had seemed like a simple undertaking, threatened to turn into a real massacre.

Force majeure circumstance

However, unlike the generals who were concerned only with personal glory, the Almighty was on the side of the Russian battalions - on October 8, a hurricane of unprecedented force swept over Berlin. And if the burgomaster could still do something with the hundred-year-old oak trees uprooted, then it was already difficult to repair the fallen sections of the palisade under the fire of Russian troops. And then, to the misfortune of the Prussians, their sworn friends, the Austrians, allies of the Russians, approached the city two days earlier than planned. Of course, it was possible to wait to see if the Russian generals would clash with the Austrian ones, finding out who was in charge now, but the Prussians decided not to risk it. On the night of October 9, they began to retreat to Spandau. On the morning of the same day, the Berlin authorities took out the keys and capitulated to their fellow countryman, General Totleben, who of the three military leaders seemed to be the least evil.

In Berlin, Russian troops captured 4.5 thousand soldiers, captured 143 guns, 18 thousand rifles and pistols, and almost 2 million indemnity thalers as payment for travel expenses. But at the same time, the pogroms and reprisals expected by the Berliners did not follow - the ferocious Russians behaved surprisingly peacefully and calmly.

Gifted Victory

The fall of Berlin plunged Emperor Frederick the Great into extreme despondency, but the fruits of Russian victories in this war were soon wiped out. January 5, 1762 Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna died and her nephew ascended the throne PeterIII. The new sovereign idolized Frederick the Great and therefore immediately ended the war without any benefits for Russia, returning to his idol all the lands conquered from him.

Contrary to established opinion, there was a certain logic in the actions of the new sovereign. Peter III, born Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, wanted to involve Frederick in the war with Denmark, which at that time had chopped off a large piece of his Holstein possessions, and he succeeded. True, our emperor did not live to see the triumph of such dubious diplomacy: he was eliminated in the interests of Ekaterina Alekseevna, which would later be called the Great. But that's a completely different story...

And the keys to Berlin, presented to General Totleben on October 9, are still kept in the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg.