The meaning of Mini Johann Ernst in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, BSE. Sergei Khristoforovich Minikh

Plan:

1 Biography
2 Compositions

Introduction

Johann Ernst Minich, otherwise Sergei Khristoforovich Minikh (December 30, 1707( 17071230 ) - January 21, 1788, St. Petersburg) - Russian politician, diplomat, writer, count.

1. Biography

Born in the family of Field Marshal Burkhard Christoph (Christopher Antonovich) Munnich. He came to Russia at the age of 13. Studied in Riga and Geneva, studied jurisprudence, foreign languages and philosophy. From 1727 he worked at the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. In 1729 - in the Russian embassy in France. In 1733 he returned to Russia, received the rank of chamber junker, in 1737 - chamberlain, in 1740 - chief chamberlain and the rank of lieutenant general, enjoyed the favor of Empress Anna Ioannovna, and after her death - Anna Leopoldovna. After the overthrow of the latter, in 1741 he was captured with his father, convicted, deprived of ranks and estates, after which he was exiled with his family to the Kostroma province, and in 1743 to Vologda, where he spent 20 years in exile, until the death of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.

In 1762, with the accession of Emperor Peter III, he was pardoned and returned to St. Petersburg. Then the ranks, awards and lost property were returned to him. In 1763, already during the reign of Empress Catherine II, he received the rank of real privy councillor. Since 1764 - a member of the Customs Commission, chief director of the country's customs fees. From 1774 until his death - Chairman of the College of Commerce.

A well-known memoirist, I. E. Munnich, during the years of Vologda exile, wrote “Notes of Count Ernst Munnich…”, interesting with a detailed depiction of court life during the time of Anna Ioannovna and portraits of political figures of that era.

He was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (1740), the Order of the White Eagle (1741), the Order of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called (1774).

2. Compositions

"Notes of Count Ernst Munnich, Field Marshal's son, written by him for his children in Vologda in 1758", St. Petersburg 1817.
"Remarks on the notes of General Manstein", "Domestic Notes". 1825-1828.
Minikh I.E. Letters from Vologda 1756-1758 / Publication, translation and comments. Dm. Tolstoy // Russian antiquity, 1887. - T. 53. - No. 2. - S. 465-469.

Literature

"Russia and the Russian court in the 1st half of the 18th century", St. Petersburg 1891.
For the biography of Count John-Ernest Munnich // Russian archive, 1866. - Issue. 10. - Stb. 1544-1567.

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This abstract is based on an article from the Russian Wikipedia. Synchronization completed on 07/11/11 10:53:26
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MINICH JOHANN ERNST

Johann Ernst, count, Russian diplomat, author of memoirs. The son of B.K. Minich, held diplomatic posts in France and Italy. In the early 40s. Chief Marshal of the Court. In 1743-63 he was in exile in Vologda, where he wrote "Notes of Count Ernst Munnich, Field Marshal's son, written by him for his children in Vologda in 1758" (published in St. Petersburg in 1817). The "Notes" contain interesting material about the life of the Russian imperial court in the 1930s and 1940s. 18th century

Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB. 2012

Sergei Khristoforovich Minikh

Minich Ivan Ernest (1707-1788), son of a field marshal (see: Minich B.K.). He studied in Riga and Geneva, was an attorney in Paris. In 1736 he was ambassador to the king August III, then successively granted the chamberlain, chief marshal and lieutenant general. Exiled Elizabeth Petrovna in 1742 to Vologda, lived there for 20 years. Catherine II put him at the head of the College of Commerce. The “Notes for Children” written by him during his exile was published in 1817 in St. Petersburg; they contain a lot of information from the biography of the author and a description of the reign Anna Ivanovna .

Site materials used Big Encyclopedia Russian people.

Minich Ernst (1707-1788), count, - author of memoirs, son of B.K. Minich. In 1743 he was exiled to Vologda, where he stayed for 20 years. Since 1774 - President of the College of Commerce. "Notes of Count Ernst Munnich, Field Marshal's son, written by him for his children in Vologda in 1758." (St. Petersburg, 1817) are interesting for the characteristics of court figures during the reign of Anna Ivanovna. Munnich wrote "Remarks on the notes of General Manstein", in which he justified his father ("Notes of the Fatherland", 1825-1828).

Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 9. MALTA - NAKHIMOV. 1966.

Minikh Sergei Khristoforovich (Johann Ernst) (December 30, 1707 - January 24, 1788), count, statesman, diplomat, active state councilor (1763), memoirist. Son HA. Minikha. At birth, he was recorded as an ensign in the Hesse-Kassel army, in 1717 - in the Polish crown guard. At the age of 13, he came to Russia with his father, studied at the Riga city school. In 1724 he was sent to Switzerland to continue his education, in Geneva he studied philosophy, law, languages, mathematics. In 1727 he made a trip to Italy. In the same year he returned to Russia and entered the service of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. Soon he was sent to the congress in Soissons as the secretary of the embassy. From 1729 he was an employee of the Russian mission in Paris. In April 1733 he was recalled to St. Petersburg; chamber junker at the court of Empress Anna Ivanovna, from 1737 - chamberlain; performed various diplomatic assignments. After the death of Anna Ivanovna, he was appointed chamberlain to the court of Anna Leopoldovna, immediately won her favor and special trust. In 1740 he was promoted to chief chamberlain with the rank of lieutenant general. Cavalier of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (1740). Cavalier of the Order of the White Eagle, which he accepted with the permission of the ruler (1741). Such a brilliant career was interrupted by a palace coup. On the night of November 26, 1741, Minich was arrested at the same time as his father, put on trial, deprived of his ranks and positions. He was charged with the fact that, knowing about Anna Leopoldovna's plans to proclaim herself empress, he did not try to dissuade her. The Livonian estates of Minikh were confiscated, and he himself was ordered to live “without a break” in the village of Vychug, Kostroma province. In 1742-1743 he was in St. Petersburg due to his wife's illness, then he had to go with his family to Vologda, where he lived for 20 years. In 1762 he was returned to St. Petersburg by decree of Emperor Peter III. All ranks and awards were returned to him. as well as confiscated estates. Peter III was going to send Munnich as an envoy to Stockholm, but because of palace coup this appointment did not take place. In 1763, Empress Catherine II granted him the rank of real privy councilor and soon appointed him to the newly established position of chief director of all customs duties in the empire. In 1764-1788 Minich was a member of the customs commission for commerce. He drew up a project for the development of Russian commerce by liberalizing trade, expanding the range and increasing the volume of agricultural exports, and attracting foreign merchants to Russia. He participated in the development of laws on the mitigation and elimination of restrictions on grain exports, the preparation of customs tariffs of 1766 and 1782, the Russian-British customs tariff of 1766, and trade agreements with other countries concluded in the 1780s. In 1766, Catherine II proposed to appoint Munnich president of the Academy of Sciences. In 1767-1769 Minich was a deputy of the Legislative Commission from the Main Office for Customs Duties. He participated in the discussion of the bill of exchange charter and the question of peasant trade. He advocated the permission of peasant trade with some restrictions. President of the College of Commerce (1774-1788). Cavalier of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (1774).

Avoiding marriage with the wife's sister E.I. Biron's maid of honor von Treiden, Munnich in 1739 married Anna Dorothea Baroness von Mengden (? -1.03.1760). Children: Johann Gottlieb (Ivan Sergeevich) (05/09/1740-1813) Minich, actual state councilor, president of the Livonian Consistory; Ernst Gustav (Sergey Sergeevich) Munnich (1744-1812), major general; Burkhard Christopher (Christopher Sergeevich) Minich (1.1.1747-22.5.1824), privy councilor, senator, Ludwig Anton (Anton Sergeevich) Minich (5.1.1748-1810), captain of the guard, was married to Vera Nikolaevna Choglokova; Anna Ulrika (4.5.1741-18.1.1811); Dorothea (9.1.1746-?); Juliana Eleonora (April 30, 1749-?). During the Vologda exile, Minikh wrote memoirs covering the period from his birth to the summer of 1741. The memoirs contain information about the life of the Russian court in the 1730s-1740s, Russian-Turkish war 1735-1739.

Burchard Christopher Count Munnich and Christina Lucrezia Witzleben are the parents to whom I owe my life. I was born on January 1708, on the tenth day of the new calm, near Oettingen, in a Swabian village called Gainsfurt. My father, whom my late mother, as was the custom of those times, always accompanied on campaigns, was in the Hesse-Kassel service as a major and was on a campaign with the corps of the Hesse-Kassel troops, which was on the payroll of the English and Dutch powers and then marched from Italy to Brabandy .

My mother, not wanting to be left alone, was forced the next day, with permission from me, to go further from the burden, which her strength allowed her.

In my infancy and up to the very world of Utrecht 1 my father not only had the opportunity to learn the art of war in the best school, but also the happiness in many campaigns, led by him under the leadership of two of the most famous commanders, namely, Prince Eugene of Savoy and the Duke of Marlbrug, to acquire the glory of a brave and skillful officer.

At the same time, it is noteworthy that he was wounded no more than once in many battles that took place in this war. This followed near Denin, where a French dragoon, to whom he did not immediately want to surrender, wounded him with a dagger in the chest and then took him prisoner to Cambrai. In this city, he had a favorable opportunity, as he himself spoke of according to the testimony of many, not only to get acquainted with the then archbishop - the glorious Fenelon, but also to be received from him with great condescension and with special respect.

Upon the conclusion of peace, he remained a colonel for 1717 in the Hessian service, and at this time, due to his experience in engineering science, he was entrusted by the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel to build a canal connecting near the town of Seeburg, now called Karlshaven, the Dimel River with Veeer. For the most part, he brought this work to an end, when, in respect of the slow production in the service of humble owners, he decided to enter the service of some high power to show his merits and abilities, and this he hoped to find in Poland.

Here King Augustus, after the battle of Poltava, who, unfortunately, decided to Charles XII, although he still sat on the throne, however, hesitated on it, until he was confirmed by the strength of the peace treaty between the Swedes and Russians. Despite the poor state of affairs in Sweden, the Poles did not yet want to expose themselves to a real war, and their so-called confederation caused a lot of anxiety to the king: the confederates especially insisted that the Saxon troops leave the state, because the king was forced to keep them in Poland as for their own security, and for the cessation of the great disturbances that were taking place at that time; but since these troops were for the most part dependent on the Poles, they were publicly looked upon as unpleasant and extremely burdensome guests. Finally, through Russia, peace was concluded, and among other articles of the peace decree, it was agreed to withdraw the Saxon troops from Poland and to protect it, establish a corps of troops of twelve thousand infantry and dragoons, which in peacetime and wartime should be maintained at the expense of the republic.

Under such circumstances of affairs in Poland, my father offered his services to King Augustus, which were received very favorably, so that in the same year 1717 he was promoted to Major General of the Polish and Saxon army and soon after received the commission to establish a new infantry regiment of four battalions, which, according to today known as the Polish Crown Guard.

Field Marshal Earl Fleming was to be in this corps as a real one, and my father as a colonel in command. Moreover, the condition was made that my father should first use all the colonel's income and rations for several years, which at the present time extend to a very noble amount, and then share them with Field Marshal Earl Fleming, or at least provide him with a certain part of them every year. As soon as the aforementioned order was made, my father ordered his family, who remained in Hesse-Kassel, to come to Warsaw, where, upon my arrival, in the ninth year of my age, I was appointed an ensign in the mentioned guard, for hitherto I had been in the same rank in the Hessian service in the Ketler Infantry shelf.

Although, after the restoration of peace in Poland, my father did not have the opportunity to show his talents in the war, nevertheless, his other knowledge and abilities in a short time won him the respect and favor of the king. He always had his stay in Warsaw and lived in a house rented from Bishop Płocki. In the contract with the owner, they agreed that the bishop, in case he came to the city on some business, had several chambers in the same house for his residence. Meanwhile, it happened in 1718, when the aforementioned bishop was standing in our apartment, that his people in the kitchen, where ours were also working, spread a very strong fire on the hearth, which caused it to be thrown into the chimney, and after that the whole wing of the house burned out. The bishop, under the pretext that the fire was caused by the negligence of our people, demanded that my father pay for the damage caused, and, on the refusal he received, asked him to do so in court. This litigious case continued deliberately for a long time; Finally, the bishop transferred the case to Rome, and my father received from the pope, who no doubt did not know that he was writing to a heretic, a letter in which his Holiness exhorted the bishop to please. In spite of this, the dispute between them remained unresolved for a long time, as in the end the king himself entered the mediation and satisfied the bishop, promising his nephew Abbot Salutsky, the current Polish Grand Chancellor, a distinguished bishopric.

In the same year, the glorious and unfortunate husband Baron Hertz was passing through Warsaw. According to an old acquaintance, he stuck in our house, and his friendship with my father, as well as, perhaps, his desire to lure a skilled general from King Augustus, extended to the point that he not only offered my father a lieutenant general in the Swedish army , but also by the strength of the full urine given to him, he handed over a patent for the rank shown with his own hand, but this matter remained without further success, for Charles XII was shot near Friedrichsham in the same year, and the head of the worthy Baron Hertz was beheaded in Stockholm.

In 1719, the Electoral Saxon prince, after the former king of Poland, married Duchess Maria Joseph in Vienna. The king, one of the most splendid proprietors of that time, determined to receive his bride with the greatest pomp and with the rarest amusements and festivities. All the chief officials were recalled there, and likewise my father was ordered to come to Saxony. He took his whole surname with him, and we arrived in Dresden in the middle of July. The festivities opened in the month of August with a magnificent departure, and the Saxon generals formed a special cavalry corps, which my father led as the then junior general, and Field Marshal Count Fleming brought up the rear of this corps. What other amusements took place on this occasion for six weeks, you can see about it in many printed writings. The rarest sight, in my opinion, moreover, was the resumption of the ancient and so glorious carousel, where all the former laws and regulations in use were most accurately observed.

At the end of these amusements, we returned to Poland and arrived at the end of that year in Warsaw. A little later my father came into disagreement with Field Marshal Earl Fleming. Semy did not want to continue to comply with the above-described condition, which was decided upon the establishment of the Guards Regiment. And when my father did not intend to give in to him, then Earl Fleming taught some officers to make a denunciation that they were dissatisfied with the order and management of my father in the regiment. On this occasion, some insulting speeches also came to the attention of my father from a staff officer, nicknamed Bonafou, whom he challenged to a duel on this occasion and wounded him with a bullet in the chest. Fearing bad consequences when the wounded man dies, my father for good reason decided to hide in the monastery, where he stayed for several weeks, until Bonafou got out of all the danger.

At this time, the king had a desire to survey the canal, which was built on his orders in the pleasure castle of Uyazdov under the main supervision of my father. The king had to drive past the monastery where my father took refuge. Arriving at it, he ordered to stop and call my father, who, having put him in his carriage, went to the aforementioned Uyazdov castle. After spending several hours watching the canal and expressing his pleasure, he returned to the city and dropped my father out of the carriage at the very place where he had taken him. Meanwhile, the enmity of Field Marshal Earl Fleming grew more and more from the hour. And although the king loved my father inwardly, nevertheless, the power of Earl Fleming over the orders of the sovereign’s thoughts did not allow him to follow his inclinations in order to protect my father from the tricks of the said field marshal. It even got to the point that Field Marshal Earl Fleming ordered my father to announce a house arrest. When he was actually a Saxon field marshal, and in Poland, and precisely with the crown guard, nothing more than a colonel, on the contrary, my father was both a Polish major general and a vice-colonel in the crown guard and actually was under the command of a grand courier Sinyavsky, this considered the act of Count Fleming reprehensible to his rights and power, ordered my father to be informed that same day that he would grant him freedom and did not respect the arrest announced to him by Field Marshal Count Fleming, and in other respects could rely on his patronage. Earl Fleming was forced to subdue his anger, but after this case there were no further investigations.

During these strife, Prince Grigory Fedorovich Dolgoruky was the Russian envoy at the Polish court; my father's displeasure was known to him, which is why he took advantage of this opportunity to persuade
him with the promise of the greatest benefits to enter Russian service.

At the end of 1720, my late grandfather Anton Ginter Miiikh died, decide, according to the strength of my spiritual father, the only heir to his family and acquired estate. Upon receiving news of his death. my father asked the king for permission to go to his homeland, which he received rigorously with the award of five hundred chervonets for travel expenses.

Instead of going to Oldenburg, he went at the beginning of 1721 under a false name to St. Petersburg, but did not get any further, as to Riga, because here he had already met Emperor Peter the Great. Here he made a contract for six years with such a condition that not before, after the first year, to receive the rank of lieutenant general. In other matters, as already about this time, namely in the month of May 1721, the war with the Swedes ceased, he had to be content with less than what Prince Dolgorukov promised in Warsaw; so that instead of eight thousand chimes thalers of annual income received in Poland, he now had no more than two thousand four hundred rubles.

From Riga he went to his patrimonies to take them into his possession and to complete settlements with his brothers and sisters about the remaining inheritance.

In the meantime, he asked the king for a dismissal from the service, which, having received, he wrote to my late mother, so that she would come to Gdansk and wait for him there. And so we all set off from Warsaw by water and, after a ten-day journey, arrived safely in Gdansk. A few weeks later my father came to us, and then all together we undertook the journey through Konigsberg, Prussia and Courland to Russia.

In September 1721 we arrived in Riga. This city, by virtue of the peace treaty concluded between Russia and Sweden, became this year a new frontier fortress of the Russian Empire. From here my father went alone to St. Petersburg, disposed of everything necessary for his household there, and after two months he returned again to Riga in order to take his whole surname with him.

I was left alone in Riga to study at the local city school and sent to a boarding school to the rector of the said school - a very learned man, nicknamed Miner. I was then about fourteen years of age, and I had a great desire for learning; but, unfortunately for me, in addition to Latin and part Greek, I could learn very little in this school.

After two years, my father, for good reason, decided to send me to Geneva, but ordered in advance to appear in Petersburg, where I arrived in February 1723. Upon my arrival, my father offered me a choice, Whether I wish to be a scientist or a military man; I decided on the first one.

At that time, Peter the Great had the idea of bringing the Ladoga Canal, which was necessary to facilitate trade and crafts of the inhabitants in St. Petersburg, to a perfect end. Although through a small canal connecting the Tvertsa and Meta rivers near Vyshny Volochek, water communication was already free from the Caspian Sea even to St. it was so dangerous for the flat-bottomed barges, usually used for transporting Russian products, that almost no year passed without significant damage and death to people and goods, then, in order to avert such inconvenience in transporting supplies, Emperor Peter the Great undertook the Volkhov River, which flows into the Ladoga the lake, and the Neva River, flowing from it, to be connected by means of a canal, through which the lake remained aloof and navigation was not exposed to any danger.

This canal, stretching along the shore of Lake Ladoga, takes its beginning at Novaya Ladoga and ends at Shlisselburg; the length of it contains one hundred and four versts or fifteen German miles, the width is seventy, and the depth under the water is ten English feet. It is composed for the most part of straight lines of two, three and four versts and does not make large angles, except that in one place there is a curvature resulting from an oversight of the former to the structure of this canal by a used engineer, but my father corrected this shortcoming as much as possible . The banks of this canal were at first wooden, but later they were made of stone. And as many small streams that overflow over a vast area in the spring, when the snow begins to melt and fall, flow through this channel, strong locks are made on both sides at their inflow and exit, partly in order to control the water of these streams and partly in order to keep and not let in sand and silt that they bring with them. The beginning of the canal at Novaya Ladoga is several feet higher than the end at Shlisselburg, which is why the flow of water in it is very noticeable, however, so that in very dry years there would be no stoppage in navigation, two large and main locks were built at both ends, by means of which the water in the whole channel can be stopped and, if necessary, can be raised a few feet.

Although more than a million rubles were spent on the construction of the canal described above, everything that was made turned out to be in such a state of disrepair that the emperor intended to let the former director go; why did he suddenly go there along with my father, who, having explained to him in detail all the errors committed, presented a new project, according to which the emperor entrusted him with this important structure to continue. My father actually set about doing the work, but he did not receive that amount of money, lower than the people, as he was first promised.

Peter the Great, after the coronation of his wife in Moscow in 1724, undertook a return trip to St. Petersburg and, in passing, wanted to survey the work newly produced by my father. He came to the channel in the autumn of that year. My father showed him a part of the canal, stretching for ten or twelve versts, which makes a mile and a half, in perfect decoration, but the water has not yet been let in, in order to give the emperor the pleasure of personally seeing the entrance thereof. As soon as he examined the work in the indicated position, he went to the dam, which held the water, and ordered it to be broken. Behind the dam stood a small boat, which the emperor barely saw, at the same instant he had the desire to sit in it and descend into the canal with fast-rushing water. His companions were my father and another non-commissioned officer instead of a navigator. The boat swam along the canal with unspeakable speed, and the emperor could not refrain from joy, repeatedly took off his hat and, waving it over his head, shouted “Hurrah!”. His pleasure was so extraordinary that, standing in the boat, he hugged, kissed and thanked my father for the diligent performance of this work. After this, the emperor went to my father’s house, and, having supped and spent the night, continued the next morning on his way to St. Petersburg, instructing my father to come there in order to judge and negotiate about means for the speedy end of the canal. When this monarch arrived at the aforesaid capital, then in his first presence in the Senate he presented the state in which he found new job, praised my father and announced that he deserved a reward after accomplishing this noble. But as far as this last one is concerned, the emperor, in his own person, could not do anything more, since he died a few months later.

My father, desiring to give me a better education than I could have had in Russia at that time, sent me to Geneva at the end of November of that year. My late mother accompanied me from the Ladoga Canal even to St. Petersburg. In December, the betrothal of the Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna to His Highness the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp took place, and at this celebration I had the honor to see Peter the Great for the last time.

A few days after this celebration, I undertook my journey through Riga, Konigsberg and Gdansk to Berlin, where I had the honor of being presented to the late Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm on the so-called parade square. His Majesty most graciously visited me about the circumstances of my father, which he knew. Here I received from a relative of ours, the Saxon minister, Mr. Suma, whom, out of courtesy, received me into his house, many letters of recommendation to Geneva. Upon my arrival in Anspach, I had the pleasure of meeting my maternal aunt, the wife of the local chief marshal, Mr. Kinoberg, as well as the honor of being introduced to the widowed margravine and her young son, who invited me to their table. After this, I visited another aunt of mine, who was married to the Ober-Jägermeister of Oettingen, Mr. Lasperg. In the house of this aunt lived my late grandmother, my lady Anna Deborah Sebach, widow Witzleben, for this latter, as you can easily guess, I was not an unpleasant guest. After a stay of several days, I went further and, after passing through all the libraries, churches and tombstones according to the old German rite in Ulbme, Schaffhausen, Solothurn and Lausanne, arrived in Geneva at the end of March safely and in good health.

Here I heard that Emperor Peter the Great died on the twenty-eighth day of January 1725, and his wife, Empress Catherine, assumed the throne of Russia.

In Geneva my first concern was to find a good hostel. Among the many offered to me back in Berlin, my choice fell mainly on the house of Mr. Pastor and Professor of Philosophy Ezekiel Gallatin, a most kind and learned man, whose memory for his love and friendship, as well as his whole family, is still pleasant for me and precious. I consulted with him how to most usefully dispose of my teaching and exercise in the sciences, and calculated how much all of this would cost me annually. I found that my expenses were at least a thousand spices thalers, I wrote about it to my father, who agreed to release the indicated amount, despite his small income at that time. In the first year I attended private philosophical lectures on natural and popular law and institutions, and I also learned dance, swordsmanship and music. The following year I went to lecture on German public law with the newly arrived Professor Necker, together with the Prince of Kulmbach, after the former Margrave of Bareith, with the two Princes of Saxe-Hildburgsgau-Vienne and with the Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstat; further I learned horseback riding, kept a teacher for the Italian language, practiced history and French style, learned to draw and made a start in algebra; but in this last science he succeeded so little that soon afterwards he forgot even the first initial foundations. I had no inclination to mathematics since my childhood, although my father urged me to do so. Unfortunately for me, I could not overcome my disgust for it, about which now, as I am writing this in exile, I express my condolences, all the more so since at the very moment of my arrival in captivity I felt the aforesaid science through an ordinary desire, considering it an inexhaustible source of the dispersal of annoying thoughts; but for the study of it, it is provided only with some insufficient books, over which I must now rack my brains.

In addition to this internal reproach, which I do to myself, I intend to give some more circumstances regarding my behavior in Geneva with the sole intention that my children take an example from this and try to avoid and avoid such things.

In the same house in Geneva where I lived, many young Englishmen stood above the Germans, and between them two brothers called Spencers, of whom the eldest later inherited the title and noble estate of his grandfather, the glorious commander of the Duke of Marlborough. With the younger brother, who was then very sharp and luxury prone person, I lived for more than a year in a close alliance of friendship, and in his conversation many in my young years did pranks.

Among other letters of recommendation, I had one with me to the French resident Monsieur della-Closure, who was then in Geneva, which, of course, could serve my great benefit if I began to diligently seek ways with this subtle, well-behaved and reasonable husband; but the bashful quality that I adopted in the Riga school, where all my comrades were generally of low birth, caused me to become shy and in some way ran away from people older than me or such husbands whom I considered incomparably more reasonable than myself. Daily treatment of most of the, so to speak, unpolished Englishmen and other young people like them, in whose company I learned to jump through bushes and ditches during idle hours, distracted me from conversation with men of excellent qualities and from dealing with well-behaved women completely, so that That is why I began to attend schools negligently and had little success in secular circulation, and therefore, after a long time, I myself was forced to play the pitiable role of a mute in societies between open and lively people.

In the autumn of 1727 I received the sad news of the sudden death of my mother, who was publicly revered for her virtue and meritorious qualities.

Soon after, my father sent me joyful news that Empress Catherine had granted him the newly established Order of St. Alexander Nevsky and, moreover, several thousand rubles as a gift.

In April of the same year I received an order from my father to go to Italy. And so, at the beginning of May, I went in the company of two Englishmen and one German from Geneva to Turin.

Here, during my short stay, I managed to get acquainted only with Field Marshal Rebinder, who was a born Livonian, with the French envoy, Mr. Cambyses, and with the English Minister, Mr. Gedges.

I had not lived in Turin for even one month, when the news came there that Empress Catherine had died and Peter II had ascended the throne. While I was deluded by pleasant thoughts of surveying the sights in Italy, my father wrote to me so that I would hasten to St. Petersburg as soon as possible.

But when he forgot to send me a bill of exchange and I didn’t have enough money for such a long journey, I found myself forced to return to Geneva with the rest of the chervonets and there to borrow the required amount on the guarantee of my former master, Mr. Gallatin; he willingly bowed to this, and as I suggested this to my former banker, this one answered that he did not need the mentioned guarantor, who, although an honest person, had more debts than he had wealth, and for that it was better to believe my honest face, and he will give me as much money as I need to continue my journey, which is why he released me three hundred thalers in Spanish pistoles on the spot.

And so I went through Bern and Wasel to Strasbourg, and from there through Baden to Oettingen, and suddenly visited my late grandmother and aunt, Madame Lasperg; I also had the honor to pay my respects to the Prince of Ettingham and dine with him. I showed him various drawings I had made in Geneva. On the contrary, he ordered to bring his plan of the fortress of Philippsburg, where he was governor, and explained all his projects regarding the correction of its fortifications, and the work of this work stopped solely because of the non-release of money from the imperial treasury. From Oettingen I went to my aunt, Mrs. Winsberg, who then lived in the country, and from her to Anspach, where, after paying my respects to Mrs. Margravine and her son for the second time, I continued on my way.

Upon arrival in Berlin, I visited the Russian Minister Count. Golovkin, that my father was granted lieutenant general and chief of the engineering corps, and, moreover, from Emperor Peter II, land in Livonia was given to him in hereditary possession. I was suddenly presented to the king on the main square and had the honor of being brought here for the first time to the crown prince, now the owner of the king of Prussia, Frederick II; from here I went further through Gdansk and Konigsberg to Riga and arrived at the beginning of August in St. Petersburg.

My father was at that time at the Ladoga Canal, so that of my relatives I found in Petersburg only my elder sister, who was a maid of honor to Her Highness Grand Duchess Elisaveta Petrovna. However, as soon as my father was informed of my arrival, he immediately arrived in the city.

The Roman Imperial Minister Count Rabutin, who, with illustrious success, shortly before the death of Empress Catherine I, concluded in 1726 between the Russian and Viennese courts a well-known allied treaty, by virtue of which Charles VI, in the event of an attack on him, has to receive from Russia thirty thousand auxiliary troops, was then still in St. Petersburg and, being bound by ties of sincere friendship with my father, agreed, at the request of this, to take me to him and use me for embassy affairs. But upon my arrival, he lay near death, ill, and then died a few days later, and as through that aforementioned intention was overthrown, my father, together with me, returned to the canal, which I found more than half finished.

A few weeks later we received news that Prince Menshikov had been overthrown and exiled. 2 . Emperor Peter I elevated this man of blessed memory from the lowest state to the highest degrees of rank and merit, not for his excellent talents or knowledge, but for the fact that, according to the liking of the monarch, in all cases he knew how to please incomparably and, most importantly, won his favor by the fact that he he often took on cases that were presented to the emperor by others as impossible, and tried to carry them out, no matter what they cost him. Moreover, in the person of the empress, who was lent to him for the beginning of his happiness, he had a powerful protector, and after her accession to the throne he was in the greatest nobility and power. After her death, she could be considered his regent of the empire, especially as he sent the Duke of Holstein and his wife on a frigate to Kiel, in order to more freely and with unlimited power to manage all affairs. He took the young emperor into his house and already betrothed him to his eldest daughter. He disposed that when he was the father-in-law of the monarch, his power would be firmly established, and therefore he began to neglect all the noblest officials in the empire. He did not give the emperor himself and his sister, Grand Duchess Natalia, the slightest liberties even in the most insignificant matters, through which it was not difficult for the young gentlemen around him to darken him in the thoughts of the emperor.

The family of Dolgoruky, hoping to quickly achieve the benefits expected from one of their own, namely, Prince Ivan Alekseevich, who was beginning to enter into favor with the emperor, used this relative most of all to overthrow Prince Menshikov. They managed to succeed in this business before the fact that once the court was in Peterhof, and Prince Menshikov remained in the city, the young emperor revealed to some noble people who were there that he was displeased with the actions of Prince Menshikov and that he wanted to get rid of him. According to this explanation, it was necessary to dismiss the publicly hated prince from the service, and at the same time an order was given to one guards major to announce it to him and arrest him himself.

Baron Osterman was then the most famous husband in the empire and a friend of my father. This received, together with the news of the fall of Prince Menshikov, an order to come to St. Petersburg to take the presidency in the Military Collegium; upon his arrival, this flattering greeting was made to him that, apart from him, it was impossible to entrust the army to another better overseer.

Osterman had a great surname, and, due to the many tasks entrusted to him, he lacked the time to look after his own housekeeping. This prompted him to think about another marriage. When my older sister was a maid of honor to Her Highness Grand Duchess Elisaveta Petrovna, this very thing gave him a reason to visit this court often and get acquainted with the chamberlain, the dowager Countess Saltykova, nee Malchenoy (von Maltzan), and both agreed to marry.

In the meantime, Baron Osterman presented a new argument for his good dispositions towards my father by offering me an advantageous position. The disputes then going on between the so-called Viennese and Hanoverian allies were supposed to be resolved in an appointed congress at Soissons in France; when the Russian court, as mentioned above, proceeded to the Vienna alliance, they intended to send a noble embassy to the aforementioned congress. Prince Boris Ivanovich Kurakin, minister at the French court, and Count Alexander Gavrilovich Golovkin, minister at the Berlin court, were appointed to this, but the latter sent this embassy alone, because Prince Kurakin died shortly after this in Paris. So, Baron Osterman gave me a place at this embassy with the rank of nobleman of the embassy with a salary of five hundred rubles a year and two hundred rubles for travel to Berlin to see Count Golovkin.

Around this time, my second sister Christina Elisaveta was arranged for the Livonian nobleman Baron Johann Heinrich Mengden, and my father promised her ten thousand rubles as a dowry.

In the reasoning of the older sister, it seemed as if a groom had been found for her as well. The new imperial confidante, Prince Ivan Alekseevich Dolgoruky, had such a great inclination towards her that, apparently, he intended to marry her. But when at last his parents and other relatives did not agree, the whole thing fell apart, to the greatest happiness for my sister.

At the end of January 1728, Emperor Peter II undertook a trip to Moscow for the coronation. My father was entrusted with the post of commander-in-chief in St. Petersburg, and a few days later I went to Berlin.

The favorable reception that I received on my arrival from Count Golovkin and from his wife, nee Countess von Don, was already the beginning of a special love and friendship, which for four years I continuously enjoyed in the house of this virtuous couple. We did not set out for Soissons until two months later. Meanwhile, the coronation of Emperor Peter II took place in Moscow, and Count Golovkin, on hearing of it, also received an order to organize a joyful celebration for this occasion. As a result, Count Golovkin gave a magnificent dining table, which the king honored with his presence, in the evening a ball and an evening table together with illumination. In other matters, the aforementioned day of the celebration for the coronation is memorable in our family, because my father and his descendants were elevated to the dignity of a count.

Finally, Count Golovkin received his bills, powers and instructions. The latter contained the most important force, so that he would use extreme harassment to apply for the imperial title from those powers that were not yet ready to give it to the Russian sovereigns. Moreover, it is also instructed to take special care of the interest of the Duke of Holstein regarding the return of the Schleswig land. 3 . How much he managed both in one and in the other - it will be mentioned below.

At the end of May we went to Soissons. But, having gone not far, the elder two sons of Count Golovkin got measles in a place called Gornburg, not far from the Brunswick border, and we were forced to stop here for two weeks. In the neighborhood at the dacha of Mr. Minkhhausen, called Linden, the old Duke Anton-Ulrich of Blankenburg then had a residence together with his wife. Count Golovkin, wishing to pay his respects to this duke, the grandfather of our sovereign, went to him, taking me with him. I had the honor to dine with their lordships, and the duchess questioned me, as a newcomer from Russia, in great detail about everything relating to the young emperor and his sister. At the end of the table, the two senior princes of Bevern, the grandsons of the aforementioned duke, arrived there, namely, the Duke of Brunswick, who soon entered the reign and later combined in Russia with Princess Anna of Mecklenburg, Prince Anton-Ulrich. In the evening we took a pleasant walk in the forest to the very gates of the city of Wolfenbitel, and about night Count Golovkin returned with me again to Gornburg.

As soon as our patients recovered, we went further. Before we got to Gam in Westphalia, measles broke out again on another child, and even on the countess herself. And so we were forced to stand again for more than two weeks. From Gam we continued our way unhindered even to Wesel; here Countess Golovkina felt a severe pain in her chest, because she set off on the road early, but after twelve days she again became able to endure the shaking from the road. From Wesel we went through Mastricht to Brussels, where soon after our arrival the Duke of Aremberg visited the Count and Countess, and as the Count, in accompanying me alone, mutually gave a visit to the aforementioned Duke, he invited us to the evening table, at which there were still members of the French service Count Delamarck and glorious writer Jean Baptiste Rousseau. The presence of this latter caused that the conversation about important matters did not last long, but soon took on a deliberately mocking tone.

From Brussels we went to Mons, from there we turned to Lafer, and finally, with a cannon fire, we arrived safely in Soissons; but because after the first two or three meetings before our arrival, in which, apart from the exchange of certain credentials, nothing else was done 4 , all the envoys followed Cardinal Fleury to Paris, it was impossible for Count Golovkin alone to do anything in the discussion of affairs here, and therefore he, leaving his whole surname in Soissons, went together with me and with one secretary to the said capital.

In Paris, we found Prince Alexander Borisovich Kurakin, who, after the death of his father, was left in France for affairs concerning Russia, and was only waiting for the arrival of Count Golovkin in order to go to Moscow himself.

Count Golovkin rigorously went to Versailles, had a meeting with Cardinal Fleury, as well as with the keeper of the seal, Mr. Chauvelin, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, and from the first was introduced to the king as a minister appointed to the congress.

After one month, the meetings in Soissons reopened, which is why Count Golovkin also returned there again. But since in his powers the imperial title is indicated, not yet recognized by all the powers, many did not agree to accept and listen to them. The Roman imperial envoys, in spite of the alliance between the two courts, were among the first to object to this most strongly. And the Swedes imagined that this title was recognized from them for Peter I and after for Empress Catherine I only for persons, and by no means for their descendants. After many verbal disputes, this matter was decided by the fact that the mentioned powers were accepted this time, with a solemn, however, objection to the title depicted in them. 5 .

After two meetings, the gentlemen of the commissioners again all parted, and at that time it was already clear that not much would be done in Soissons. Why did Count Golovkin intend to go to Paris with all his surname. Here we spent the whole winter, and I, having received a dangerous fever, nearly died.

Even during our stay in Soissons, news came to me from my father that he was married to the Dowager Countess Saltykov. Shortly after their marriage, my stepmother undertook a journey to Mecklenburg to visit her relatives, taking with her my two sisters Sophia and Louise; one year as a court lady-in-waiting and after that she was given to this duchess in marriage to the Franconian nobleman Ober-Stalmeister Margrave of Anspach Baron Schaumberg.

Up to this time, I was the only nobleman of the embassy under Count Golovkin, and then I got a comrade in the person of the young Count Nesvidsky, now in possession, whose mother was Countess Dona and cousin of Countess Golovkina.

In the month of May, 1729, we went again, and, moreover, for the last time, to Soissons, for after several months, during which no business was carried out there, we did not want to hear any more about the congress, but it seemed that the court of Versailles had now become the center negotiations. So, before the end of the summer, we returned back to Paris for an indispensable stay there.

Here we spent a very pleasant time. Count Golovkin was accredited as an envoy to the French court, received thirty-six thousand rubles a year and maintained a magnificent house. The commendable quality of his soul and friendliness in a short time produced such respect for him in the nation that the noblest nobility not only visited him, but for their part was also anxious to give him every possible amusement.

As for me, I tried to acquire a perfect knowledge of the French language, for the study of which I do not think that any young man from the Russians would be sent to France in advance of me, and I succeeded in it deliberately so that when Count Golovkin was recalled to Petersburg and the administration of affairs was entrusted to me, then I was already able to write my reports in French.

Meanwhile, the family of Dolgoruky seized almost all power in Russia. The young emperor was forced to be engaged to the sister of his confidante; but as soon as we were informed of this, Count Golovkin received unexpected news through a messenger that Peter II had died on the 19th day of January 1730 and the Dowager Duchess of Courland, the second daughter of Tsar John Alekseevich, had assumed the Russian throne.

During the reign of the late Emperor Peter II, all state affairs were decided in the so-called Supreme Council, which consisted of five or six persons and in which Prince Dolgoruky had the most voice. As soon as the young emperor betrayed his spirit, the aforementioned Council gathered for a meeting on the legacy of the empire. The death of Peter II ended the male tribe of the imperial house, which is why Prince Dolgoruky and his accomplices considered this circumstance an opportunity to limit the power of Russian sovereigns in some way. They did not expect to make a mistake when, regardless of the degree of kinship or first birth, they would present the throne of Russia to such an empress who would be grateful to them for the advantage given to her and, therefore, out of gratitude, would confirm all whatever conditions were presented to her.

And so the choice fell, as said above, on the Dowager Duchess of Courland, and the most remarkable articles proposed to her were as follows:

1) Without the discretion and consent of the High Council, no decision shall be made in matters of state,
hence:

2) not to declare war and not to make peace;

3) not impose any fees or taxes;

4) not to condemn anyone for the crime of lèse majesté to death in one Privy Chancellery and not
not to confiscate the estate from a single nobleman without clear evidence of the above-mentioned crime committed by him;

5) unquestioningly be content with the annual income determined for the maintenance of her person and the court staff;

6) do not give government estates to anyone;

7) not to marry and not to appoint an heir to the throne.

After this, deputies were sent to the new empress, who was in Mitava, among whom the leader was Prince Vasily Lukich Dolgoruky, both to announce her election, and to propose the mentioned articles for approval.

This change to the form of government concerning the change could not be so secretive that the chamberlain of the late emperor, Count Gustav Reinhold Levenvolde, did not find out about it, whose elder brother, after the former chief horseman with Empress Anna Ioannovna, then lived in retirement in his villages in Livonia and with For a long time he was devoted to the Duchess of Courland. In order to notify this and through him the empress about this matter as soon as possible, the chamberlain Count Levenvolde did not find any other convenient means but to send his runner in peasant clothes to him with a letter to Livonia. The herald, having hired a sleigh, soon arrived there, so that the elder Count Levenwolde managed to go to Mitava and arrive there a whole day earlier than the deputies. He was the first to announce to the newly elected empress about her elevation and notified that his brother wrote to him in a discussion of the limitations of autocracy. Moreover, he gave his advice, so that the empress, in the first case, deigned to sign that paper, which after it was not difficult to tear, assuring that the nation could not be satisfied with the new aristocratic rule for a long time and that in Moscow there would already be ways to bring everything back to the former state. After this, bowing, without delay he returned to his villages.

The deputies arrived in Mitava one day later. The Empress unquestioningly signed the proposed conditions and rigorously undertook her way to Moscow.

Here she was, so to speak, under the tutelage of Dolgoruky, and was borrowed from the imperial dignity with one title only; but, a few weeks later, many nobles and most of the officers of the guard, led by Field Marshal Prince Trubetskoy and Prince Cherkassky, who were later cabinet ministers, submitted a petition to the empress, which contained that, as they, among the well-known articles, find some reprehensible for the state and the monarchist power is considered the most useful for their fatherland, then her imperial majesty is most humbly asked that she deign to reject the newly introduced form of government and rule the empire with unlimited power, following the example of her ancestors. The petition, as one can easily imagine, was received most favorably, the guards were assembled in the square in front of the palace, the agreed articles were torn up, and a new oath of allegiance was made to the monarch. Soon afterward, the most famous of the Dolgoruky family were arrested in their homes, charged with the crime of lèse majesté, sentenced, and exiled to Siberia in captivity.

When the empress saw that she had thus established herself on the throne, then the coronation was performed on the twenty-eighth day of April of the old style, and all ministers staying in foreign countries were informed that they, as a sign of this joy, established solemn festivities, for which the required sums of money were delivered to them Count Golovkin received six thousand rubles at this end and sent the celebration for the coronation as follows: he invited more than a hundred noble persons of both sexes to his place. The Chevalier of Orleans, the natural son of the former regent, Grand Prior of the Order of Malta in France, gave Count Golovkin his own house, called Letample, for this occasion. The celebration opened at about six o'clock in the evening with a concert. After that there was a splendid dinner, during which both the front of the house and the garden were illuminated by lights. At the end of the table, the ball began, and two hours later, several hundred masks on tickets came to it. The merriment continued all night and did not end until seven o'clock in the morning. In the same year, Empress Anna Ioannovna multiplied the Life Guards with two new regiments, of which one consisted of one thousand two hundred reiters, and the other of three battalions or two thousand eight hundred infantry soldiers. and was granted the lieutenant colonel of that regiment. At the same time, it is noteworthy that according to the project made, the mentioned infantry regiment was recruited not from real Russian recruits, but from the so-called one-dvortsy or Ukrainians, and the officers were assigned to it none other than Livonians or other foreigners. The intention at the same time was such that the ancient crowd of spoiled and unbridled people should be kept in their hands, which seems to be not unnecessarily for those times; but as they gradually began to retreat from the assumed rules, both in the reasoning of privates and officers, then in subsequent times it turned out that there was no other success in this, except that the army, already dangerous in itself, was made more numerous.

Since 1728, my father had served as commander-in-chief in St. Petersburg, and in the summer he lived for the most part near the Ladoga Canal and continued this work with extreme zeal. The Empress not only provided him with the above-mentioned exercises, but also, as an expression of her pleasure, granted him the Order of St. Andrew.

In 1731 he went to Moscow and in a short time won the favor of the monarch and the friendship of the then Chief Chamberlain Biron.

This favorite of happiness was a man of a favorable appearance, with sound mind and sharp insight. Although he could not speak a single language according to the rules, nevertheless, by his natural eloquence, he was able to clearly depict his thoughts and, no matter what the situation, defend. He was generous and loved splendor, but for all that a prudent householder and an enemy of waste. In his manner, he could, when he wished, take on a very affectionate and courteous air; but for the most part he seemed stately and proud in appearance. His ambition had no limits; now distrust, now credulity often caused him much needless anxiety. He was excessively quick-tempered and often offended out of advance; if it happened sometimes that he perceived his error, then although he tried to reconcile again, he never brought it to a verbal explanation, but was content with the fact that the offended party delivered some kind of affection or benefit. If someone, on the contrary, once committed an offense against him, he could no longer hope for his generosity, even lower with his most sincere repentance. The slightest attempt to harm him by the Empress was an unforgivable crime, and his revenge extended even to cruelty. Fortunately, he laid the foundation for his happiness back in Courland, and his influence on the heart of the then Dowager Duchess was so well known during her election that the deputies sent to Mitava had a secret order from this empress to obtain a promise that Biron would not go to Moscow, but stay in Courland . But this did not last long, for when the autocracy was again restored and the Dolgoruky were exiled into exile, the said favorite appeared again in his full radiance. Then his power increased to such a height that, being an obvious witness for nine years, I find few examples in history with which it can be compared.

In addition to this, so to speak, almighty favorite, Karl-Gustav, the senior count of Levenwolde, was also in only great power that although he did not hold any position in the ministry, however, no business took place without his knowledge and agreement; even Biron himself, who did not want to share his power with the empress with anyone else, not only this husband, as long as he was alive, endured with him, but also, which should be marveled at, was in some way afraid of him.

The personal qualities and qualities of Count Levenwolde really deserved respect. In addition to a sharp and penetrating mind, he had a completely honest heart, was generous, disinterested and willingly helped everyone who, with a just deed or a request, resorted to him. He lived very moderately and without splendor. His appearance was important, but not unpleasant, and in his domestic routine they found him cheerful and playful. He did good to his friends, and whoever once fell in love with him, through slander and slander, did not soon lose them. But if he once hated someone, he was already completely irreconcilable.

The good agreement between the two above-named men and the Vice-Chancellor, Count Ostermann, was at that time the most perfect. The latter became indispensable for his skill in political affairs, extensive knowledge of the internal state of the empire and the exquisite style in his writings. My father enjoyed his friendship for a long time and was recommended from him to the new chief chamberlain on a very good side, why not even two weeks had passed after his arrival in Moscow, when he was introduced into the society of these triumvirs with all the possible signs of goodwill and soon after long-term and burdensome labors, the noble received a gift. For when, not long before, shipping along the Ladoga Canal was opened and by this the intention of the great founder of this city, which was useful for Petersburg, was fulfilled, then forty thousand rubles were granted to him as a reward, and almost at the same time the post of feldzeugmeister fell down.

The Empress established a secret council or the so-called Cabinet to solve the most important state affairs. 6 by appointing Count Golovkin, Count Osterman and Prince Cherkassky as members of this Chancellor; my father was involved with them.

To correct the state of war, he gave the monarch various designs, which were approved and entrusted to him for execution.

Under the Russian army, national officers hitherto received half the salary against foreign officers of the same rank, so that, for example, a foreign captain had a salary of fifteen rubles a month, and a Russian only eight rubles. Such a difference naturally produced more envy than cheerfulness in the latter. My father found a way to cancel some unnecessary expenses in the regiments to deliver from such a saved amount for each class of officers a uniform salary, and in the similarity of this new institution, the national colonel received three hundred rubles against the previous one.

Another project was the establishment of the Cadet Corps 7 , so that in it from four to five hundred young nobles and officer children to educate and teach both bodily and military exercises, as well as foreign languages, arts and sciences.

The third project related to the establishment of twelve cuirassier regiments on a German basis: such an increase in troops was considered most necessary because the Russian cavalry consisted of only very defective dragoons, with whom absolutely no or very little success could be expected against heavy cavalry. But in order to keep the amount determined for the maintenance of the army always in its state, they intended to destroy a certain number of dragoon regiments and first establish only three of the above-mentioned regiments. One of these was supposed to have my father as a colonel and is forever nicknamed the Minich Regiment.

In May of this year, 1731, I received news that the empress had granted me a chamber junker, and at the same time a patent was sent to me for this title, as well as a bill for accepting an annual salary for this rank, for, according to the then custom, chamberlains and chamberlains Junkers received their salaries in advance.

Soon afterwards, when the empress intended instead of the ancient, broken and enormous Moscow bell that hung on Ivan the Great, to order another nine thousand pounds, or three thousand and six hundred centners of Dutch weight, to be poured, then I was instructed to find a skilled person in Paris in order to make a plan the bell is available in all sizes. For this reason, I turned to the royal goldsmith and member of the Academy of Sciences Germain, who in this part was revered as the most skillful mechanic. This artist was surprised when I told him about the weight of the bell, and at first he thought that I was joking with him; but after I assured him that I had the highest order for that, he undertook to correct this. Having brought the plan to me, I handed it to Count Golovkin for sending. But the bell was later cast not according to this plan, but according to a different content, another two thousand pounds heavier than the weight shown above. It poured out very beautifully and successfully and was already ready to be raised to the bell tower, when, unfortunately, in the big fire that happened in Moscow in 1737, a log that fell on it caught fire and, through that, became incapable of consumption.

In September 1731, Count Golovkin received the highest rescript: to leave the French court and go with the rank of envoy to the Estates General in The Hague; and I am left chargé d'affaires in France. For this, three thousand rubles of an annual salary were determined for me, and another three hundred rubles each for parcels of couriers, envelopes and other things, and one thousand rubles were sent for my own correction. Count Golovkin soon afterwards had a vacation audience, and at the end of it introduced me to the king, to whom, on this occasion, beyond the common custom, I had the honor of submitting a letter of entrustment of myself.

Two weeks later, my benefactor Count Golovkin, with all his surname, went to The Hague. Our farewell was the same, and we parted not without tears. Both the count and the countess expressed a special love for me, and I confess that they treated me in their house not as a stranger, but as their own son.

Thus, in the twenty-third year of my age, I already had a public title at one of the first European courts. But six months had not yet passed, when, at the request of my father, I was ordered by decree to return to St. Petersburg, where the whole court was then found.

My father gave me no notice of his intention in reasoning with me; and the decree stated that my absence would be short-lived. Why did I take my leave of the Cardinal de Fleury and the then keeper of the press of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Chauvelin, with such a response that I soon have to return back.

At the end of February 1733 I left Paris and continued on my way to Russia through Strasbourg.

In Berlin, I found out from the then Russian minister at the Prussian court, Count Yaguzhinsky, that my father had recently been granted Field Marshal General. On my way through Prussia, I visited my older sister in Riesenburg, where her husband Lieutenant-Colonel Baron Maltzan was garrisoned with several squadrons of the Budenbrook Cuirassier Regiment. This one ordered, in order to honor me, one squadron to come forward and in my presence to carry out all their usual exercises.

In the border city of Riga, I found my sister Mengden, with her husband, who was then a lieutenant of Livonia. There, not long before me, the elder Count Levenwolde arrived, who traveled to the courts of Vienna and Berlin for some important matters entrusted to him. As soon as I had time to visit him, he continued on his way. Two days later I also set out from there, and as I overtook the aforementioned count in Dorpat, he forced me to go into his carriage in order to go with him to the appointed place.

At the beginning of April we arrived safely in St. Petersburg, and after almost five years of absence I had the pleasure of seeing my father in good health and in the greatest dignity.

As soon as I changed clothes, he took me with him to the court and introduced me to the empress, who was then in the chambers of the chief chamberlain Biron. The Empress honored me with the most merciful reception, as well as from the aforementioned favorite and his wife, who were also present, I was received very courteously and favorably. The next day my father went with me to the three imperial princesses, namely the Duchess of Mecklenburg, sister of the Empress, Grand Duchess Elisaveta Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great, and Princess Anna, the Empress's niece. Princess Anna no longer had her stay with her aunt, but lived in a large palace, where she enjoyed the entire imperial court staff. From all the above-named princesses I was received with excellent favor and received such an honor, which was then paid to some of the most famous persons, namely, that they deigned to kiss me on the cheek.

Upon my arrival, my father revealed to me his intention to marry me to the court lady-in-waiting Treiden, the sister of Chief Chamberlain Biron. I did not have time to get to know her in just two days, when I was already forced to come out with a formal declaration of my love. Her answer contained a cold thank you for my proposal, coupled with a friendly reminder, so that I could reasonably judge in myself that she was always weak and ill. To such a frank explanation, I thought it best to answer that I very willingly offer my services to follow her in her illnesses. Immediately after this, I was ordered to ask the chief chamberlain for permission and agreement for this marriage. From her I received the following response: that she knows how to appreciate my personal qualities and the honor that I render to her sister, and that she is ready to promote my intentions, as soon as she is sure of her sister's mutual inclination. But it soon turned out that such an expected inclination had to depend not on love, but on the persistence of the empress's goodwill towards my father, which was already beginning to waver.

When I arrived in St. Petersburg, as mentioned above, I found my father in the greatest favor with the Empress and in the best agreement with the Chief Chamberlain Biron. The Empress had recently granted him ten thousand rubles as a gift, and in addition, his own newly built house, located in a remote part of the city, was bought into the treasury for twenty thousand rubles so that he would move to another house assigned to him near the imperial palace. This was still not enough, but it was ordered to break through the wall in his house, so that he, without going out into the street, could pass from his rooms to the chambers of his pet.

He was burdened with affairs to the extreme, for in the rank of the military collegium of the president he managed the entire ground force; he sat in the Cabinet with the rank of Feldzeugmeister General; Corps of Engineers he was chief boss and over all the fortresses the chief overseer; at the same time, he was engaged in the establishment of the Cadet Corps and new cuirassier regiments; the supervision of the Ladoga Canal remained with him as before, and even the police, both in St. Petersburg and in other cities, were in his charge. It was impossible to enjoy the great confidence that was placed in him, and, in a word, not a single case passed by his hands. But this did not last long, and his emergency credit began to fall little by little for the following reasons.

IN guards regiments it was for the good reasoned that the lieutenant captains in each company make a change and leave them all, since there were no such ranks in the floor regiments, and, therefore, they were also considered unnecessary in the guard, which is why it was supposed to release them all into the army and determine there each in rank, namely: seniors - prime majors and juniors - seconds majors. This unexpected change was not at all to the taste of the aforementioned gentlemen, who for the most part were young people from the most distinguished houses and wished to remain at their places until they became captains, so that after graduation, they would join the army as colonels or brigadiers. My father was entrusted with the said transfer, and therefore it was impossible to avoid, in the image of others, not to make the shown reform in the Izmailovsky regiment, in which Count Levenvolde was a lieutenant colonel. This one was at that time in foreign lands and did not know about it before, as when it was impossible to help. For this reason, his sensitivity was so touched that from the same hour he developed an irreconcilable hatred for my father, which is why as soon as he returned from his journey, he began to shake the credit and authority of my father.

Count Osterman, being dissatisfied that my father often did not want to agree with him in the Cabinet, and besides, he knew how to bring his brother, then real Privy Councilor Munnich, to supervise him in the department of foreign affairs, did not miss in this case help Count Levenvold.

To this was added that, not knowing the secret agreement that had already taken place between the court of Vienna and the chief chamberlain, he got involved in one such matter, which was completely contrary to the intentions of the latter and had already been rejected as inconvenient. The frustrated health of King Augustus II and his soon-to-be-expected death led Cardinal de Fleury to the idea of placing Stanisław Leszczynski on the Polish throne again; why the chargé d'affaires, nicknamed Magnan (Manyan), located in St. Petersburg, was ordered to inform the Russian court about it and to offer noble promises if the choice of the aforementioned sovereign would not be hindered. These proposed promises were as follows: recognize the imperial title, pay certain annual support money, and persuade the Turks to give up the Azov fortress, or if it is taken with an armed hand, then persuade the Turks to make peace strictly.

With these proposals, the said chargé d'affaires was at Osterman's, but this one refused him with short words. After this, he turned to my father, to whom the above conditions seemed so advantageous that, although this matter did not belong to his part, he undertook to present them to the chief chamberlain. This he did, but with no other success, except that he acquired only the then hated nickname of the French accomplice.

Shortly after this, the chief master of the horse, Count Levenvolde, who returned from Vienna, only informed about the above through the chief chamberlain, as he used this case in his favor, began to slander my father, condemn his actions and portray him as a most dangerous person.

Under such circumstances, the inevitable consequence was that they did not begin to think about my wedding at all, but tried to break it off with such zeal, as if it were associated with state importance. And so they did not hesitate to put it into action. Major General Bismarck, whom Count Levenwolde transferred from Prussian to Russian service, had to woo and received her without further circumlocution.

At the beginning of 1733, the subsequent death of the King of Poland disturbed for the second time the silence in Europe, which had barely been restored. Here the most important thing depended on the luck of one of the participating powers in order to install a new supreme head in the republic. The court of Vienna was in the best agreement with the Russian from the time the emperor of Rome sent two hundred thousand guilders to the chief chamberlain as a gift for the purchase of the Wartenberg domination of Schlese. Neither of these two courts wanted to see the father-in-law of the king of France 8 on the Polish throne, and Biron, intoxicated with thoughts of becoming the Duke of Courland in time, sought to incline the choice to such a candidate who would be obliged to him alone for that and, out of gratitude, contributed to his intentions in the discussion of the mentioned ducal dignity.

Why, as soon as it became known in St. Petersburg about the aforementioned adventure, it was determined the choice of the Polish king to leave himself, to prevent the restoration of Stanislav to the throne in every possible way and deliver the crown to Piast, that is, a natural Pole. To this end, the chief master of the horse, Count Levenwolde, being provided with rich bills, was sent to the republic as an extraordinary ambassador.

But the French money warned the Russians, and Stanislav already won over the primate of the state and many other noble persons to his side. And those who were still holding on to the Russian side, they announced that they could not produce anything without reinforcements from the army. Count Levenwolde promised them this help and left soon afterwards. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, he only presented about the state of affairs in Poland, how a decree was rigorously sent to the troops standing on the border to enter Lithuania and direct his campaign to Poland in a direct way. The main command over this army, of course, should have gone to my father, since he was a field marshal, but the disagreement that took place between him, the chief chamberlain, the chief horse master and Count Osterman was the reason that he was bypassed, and to insult him the main command was entrusted to the then general - Anshef Lassius. However, the aforementioned corps only completed half the road to Warsaw, when the news came that Stanislav was elected and declared king from the French party.

At the same time, they found out that on this occasion there had been a strife, and adherents to the Russian side, on the basis of a formal objection, crossed to Prague on the other side of the Vistula, where they were waiting for the arrival Russian troops to under cover of their new undertake the choice of the king.

Moreover, it could be foreseen that at this Sejm there was more agreement and less noise than at the first one, since not only at the imperial courts about the elected candidate was completely agreed, but also the crowd of dissidents had long been inclined to deliver the crown to the same. This candidate was the elector of Saxony, the son of the late king, whose election the emperor of Rome at first rebuked because he had hitherto not wanted to recognize the Pragmatic sanction 9 , but as he later agreed to this and promised the chief chamberlain to try to prevent the division of Courland into voivodships, he now became the only seeker whom the said court wanted to see on the Polish throne.

Meanwhile, the approach of Russian troops had already had such an effect that, in order to avoid danger, Stanislav was forced, together with the primate, the French envoy, and many nobles, to escape to Gdansk, under the cover of a crown guard regiment. Of his other accomplices in Warsaw, only Potocki, the governor of Kiev, remained; Tarlo, the governor of Lublin and the castellan of Terek, whose entire force consisted of some of the so-called Polish banners, with which they rode around and inside Warsaw.

As soon as General Lassius reached the banks of the Vistula, the leaders of the party opposed to Stanislav came to him and announced that they were ready to fulfill the desire of the Russian Empress in discussing the choice of the king. The real elective place, called Wola, was on the side of the river where Warsaw lies. But as another party soon after the departure of Stanislav removed all the bridges and there was no time to lose, the rite of election was performed on the very same field on this side of the Vistula, on which Heinrich de Valois was elected in the sixteenth century, and here on the fifth day of October a new style unanimously approved for the aforementioned elector of the Polish crown.

During this incident, the Confederates who remained in Warsaw informed the Russian and Saxon ministers to leave the city, and as they did not do this, after the appointed time they plundered the house of the first, and to the apartment of the other, bringing cannons, they fired cannonballs. But when from thirty to forty people were killed at this attack, their fury was tamed and the people in the house of the Saxon envoy demanded capitulation, by virtue of which they were given freedom to move to the house of the imperial envoy Welzeg, where a few days before this both of the above-mentioned ministers they had their own shelter.

Upon the announcement of August III by the King of Poland and the construction of new bridges, General Lassy ordered his army to cross the Vistula, leaving several regiments in the city, from which the Poles fled at the very speed.

In order to restore silence as soon as possible, the empress ordered that another noble corps from Ukraine enter Poland. On the other hand, the Saxon army entered there, and when this one captured Cracow, the newly elected king was crowned there.

For all that, the state of affairs grew from hour to hour into greater confusion: the enemy side still relied on the help of France and did not want to hear about another king, except for Stanislav. Moreover, it was very difficult to pacify this nomadic and devastating crowd, for it did not stop anywhere in one place and was scattered before it could be beaten.

For the best success in this matter, it was necessary, most of all, to constrain and conclude Stanislav himself and his accomplices, why a decree was sent to General Lassius, leaving only the garrison in Warsaw, to proceed with the rest of the troops to the mentioned city. He got there already late in the autumn, kept him in a certain blockade, but, lacking the strongest compulsory allowances, could do nothing more.

Meanwhile, the winter passed and the month of February 1734 arrived, and Gdansk did not agree to any proposals. The chief chamberlain seemed to think this very slowly. He knew my father's quickness and enterprise on many occasions, and so hatred was forced to give way to necessity, and my father, beyond expectation, received the main command of the army in Poland, as well as the management of the siege of Gdansk. He was sent very hastily and secretly, and in twelve days came under Prussian cover to a camp located under the aforementioned city. Here he found a corps consisting of twelve thousand regular troops, of which, however, barely eight thousand people were able to carry out their service. The heavy artillery required for the siege was not there at all, and, moreover, one could not expect it from the Russian harbors before the month of June.

The city of Gdansk is regularly fortified, equipped with good external fortifications and many trenches lying around, on the one hand it was impregnable due to the submerged land; the garrison in the city, to which the Polish crown guard and the newly established dragoon regiment of the Marquis de Monty belonged, consisted of at least ten thousand regular troops. All fortifications were covered by a sufficient number of serviceable guns. There was no shortage of military ammunition, and there was so much bread in the merchants' barns that the inhabitants could have food in bulk and with a garrison for several years. If, at the same time, we take into account the presence of the king, the noblest persons of the state and the French envoy, who, in the name of his sovereign, promised the city not only an ambulance, but also full retribution for losses, then it cannot seem strange that the magistrate and citizens were more willing to endure everything rather than leave the granted patronage from such a sovereign, who placed his trust in their loyalty.

The next day, after my father’s arrival, he sent to Gdansk a written explanation of such content that he had an order to destroy the city with fire and sword, if the inhabitants of it did not dare to recognize August as their king and Stanislav together with his accomplices in one day. But the answer to this was that they respected Stanislav as their rightful king and would defend themselves to the last extreme.

Upon receipt of this response, enemy operations began rigorously. The offensive was made on the first suburb, called Scotland, where the city troops were, and, after a strong battle, in which about a hundred people from the enemy side were killed, the Russians took possession of it. The queue soon reached some trenches, which were also occupied by Russian troops, but it was still impossible to formally approach the city, due to a lack of artillery needed for the siege.

The small loss suffered in people during the capture of the mentioned trenches aroused in my father the desire to take away from the enemy one well-known fortified hillock, from which the whole city stood under cannon fire. This hillock is called Gagelsberg, which has such an advantageous position that if it were possible to take it, it would certainly follow soon after this and the surrender of Gdansk would follow. On the night of April 28, old style, all the necessary preparations were made. The plan of attack was such that 3,000 men, to whom 5,000 more were attached as reinforcements, would attack the designated hillock from the weakest side. The troops appointed for the attack, secretly and in the best order, were already brought almost to the base of the fortifications, and the attack of one column was carried out with such good success that some grenadiers had already entered the rampart and taken possession of one battery. But as, by misfortune, the leaders of the other two columns were killed by the enemy, the troops fell into disorder and it was impossible to carry out an attack according to the prescribed plan, for this reason this enterprise did not have the proper success, and on our side a great many people were killed, because the most fierce the soldiers would rather die in the place where the strongest fire was made than retreat and save their lives; even the survivors did not obey until General Lassius, who arrived in time there, persuaded them.

The loss of nine hundred to a thousand people could not be honored as great during a siege similar to that carried out near Lisle in Flanders, where in 1708 an unsuccessful attack cost six thousand grenadiers, but in such a small army, which stood near Gdansk, the said loss was all the more sensitive at court, that they were not accustomed to any unpleasant news, and therefore despondency spread so great that they thought that my father with all his corps had been driven out and defeated by the Gdansk troops. On the contrary, this one, being more irritated than frightened by difficulties, did not lose his vigor of spirit, but the preparations begun for the siege, such as trenches and ditches, continued with his usual perspicacity unceasingly.

Shortly after the aforesaid incident, the troops that arrived in Gdansk made repeated and strong sorties, but because of the good orders they made, they always returned back to the city without any success.

The Poles' enterprise to enter Gdansk was equally unsuccessful, namely: a corps of eight to ten thousand horse Poles loyal to Stanislav, having the intention of joining the troops in Gdansk under the leadership of the castellan of Tersky, had already approached several miles to the city, and some outposts were forced retreat back, but when my father sent general Lassius against them, the said castellan turned back before Lassius went out to meet them.

Immediately after the unsuccessful offensive near Gagelsberg, my father sought to increase his strength by a part
by many detachments returned back and partly by some from Warsaw, on the highest command, regiments that joined him. Thus, between that time, he received two hundred bombs together with four mortars, sent to him secretly from King Augustus of Saxony on mail carriages and under the name of the luggage of the Duke of Weissenfell. The arrival of them was all the more pleasant for my father, since he, of necessity, was forced to order the cannonballs fired from the city to collect and again load his cannons with them.

But in the discussion of the siege, in spite of the new aid shown, everything remained in the same position, and the most noble promises, incessantly seduced by the inhabitants of Gdansk, least of all thought about surrendering; the Marquis de Monti stood there not only as an envoy, but also as a commander, and, consequently, was included in all the orders necessary for the defense of the city. He assured his court that if no more than two thousand French troops were sent to him, then he hoped with them and with the garrison in the city to force the Russians to leave the siege. Why did the French Ministry respond with its opinion that three battalions should be ordered in Dunkirchen to be put on ships and sent to Gdansk.

As soon as my father was informed of this, he undertook this auxiliary army to block the path to the city by means of a strong retransmission. The three battalions mentioned soon after sailed to the mouth of the Vistula River. The brigadier de la Mothe, who commanded them, having reconnoitered the position of the places, saw the impossibility of seizing the retranchement and this way to get into the city, which is why he boarded the ships with his troops and went back to Sound. But the French envoy to the Danish court, Mr. Plelo, a young and quick-tempered man, did not want to believe the report of the old and experienced foreman in the reasoning of the obstacles he had found, but announced to him that this enterprise, no matter what the cost, must be put into action, end it, the envoy, set out to himself take command of the three battalions depicted above. The brigadier de la Mothe replied that in this case he would not renounce being under his command and following him wherever he wished.

Meanwhile, my father received, in addition to the auxiliary troops, from three to four thousand people from Warsaw, a few more cannons with supplies belonging to that from Reval through the Pilavsky and Elbingsky ports.

A little later, the French arrived again at the Gdansk raid, went ashore and camped under a trench at the mouth of the Vistula River. Their new commander, Count Plelo, lost no time, but the very next day he led them straight to the retreat. The retreatment was a man and a half high and lined with logs on the outside like a wall. In front of it, a fence was made of cut down trees and branches. The French, despite the strong fire produced against them, made their way through the aforementioned notches with amazing vigor. Having reached the steepness of the retransaction, Mr. Plelo saw late that there was nothing to do here, but, having not yet had time to repent of his advance, he was killed by a cannonball. After that, Monsieur de la Mothe ordered the alarm to be sounded for retreat, and after the loss of about two hundred people, he retreated again to the mouth of the Vistula River, where, after a short delay, he moved to a nearby sandy island and camped there.

The mentioned offensive, according to the condition made, should have been reinforced by a strong attack from the city, but the latter did not follow until the French had already retreated, and, consequently, it was the easier to repel it.

The news received at court about this victory over the enemy amused the packs of the chief chamberlain, who was saddened by the last unsuccessful attack near Gagelsberg. He could not refrain from revealing to me sincerely that my father, by this meritorious deed, had already acquired all his power of attorney. Some of the crosses of the Order of St. Louis, taken from the murdered officers and sent to Petersburg, were shown here as a rarity with great magnificence to everyone at court.

Two days after this small victory, Duke Johann Adolf of Saxe-Weissenfels arrived at my father's camp with a corps of ten thousand Saxon troops. At the same time, almost at the same time, the Russian fleet finally appeared on the Gdansk raid, consisting of seventeen battleships, four frigates and two bombardment galliots with artillery that had long been expected and needed for the siege.

On the contrary, the French squadron, which had been stationed in these waters for a deliberate time, disappeared. It consisted of three warships under the command of a highly skilled naval officer, nicknamed Baral. This one, of course, could not have run away from the Russian fleet so easily if he had not been notified of its approach from one frigate that had run ahead in ignorance, which he took possession of without firing a single shot. The captain on the mentioned frigate was one well-known French officer who entered the Russian service, nicknamed Fremery. This man, not having in his instructions the slightest notice of the breaking of peace with France, was so careless that, at the invitation of Mr. Baral, his old acquaintance, he boarded his ship, and did not have time to just look around how his frigate was surrounded by three ships of the line and with threats of drowning all people was forced to surrender.

Upon the arrival of the fleet, the bombarding galliots were positioned strictly opposite the sandy island, where the French awaited their fate and were soon forced to surrender at the next capitulation, so that they from their camp with all the military shells would go to Russian fleet went to one on the East Sea lying, but unnamed port; and then, as soon as the ships needed for their transportation arrive, they will be released back to France. After signing this surrender, my father crossed to the island to view it, received from them the honors befitting a field marshal by sending banners to him, and after that gave the order to put them on court.

After the arrival of heavy artillery, after the arrival of the Saxon corps, after occupying the mouth of the Vistula River and after the unsuccessful assassination attempt on the French, as well as after several samples were made with newly brought three hundred and sixty-pound bombs, the unfortunate inhabitants of Gdansk began to finally bow to peaceful dispositions.

They asked for a truce for one week, which, however, they were denied. Meanwhile, two Prussian agents were working (sometimes in the Russian camp, then again in the city) to open the way to reconciliation. Finally, the magistrate also received permission to send several deputies to the main apartment at Or for negotiations. The conditions proposed by my father for the foundation of these conditions were as follows: Stanislav, primate of the state, the Marquis de Monty, along with all the troops in the city service and foreign officers, to be handed over to state prisoners of war; oath of allegiance to King Augustus III; from the Empress of Russia, through the first members of the Council of Deputies, who were ordered, to ask for forgiveness for their insubordination; to pay one million two hundred thousand rubles for losses and, in addition, to pay a ransom for artillery - for ringing the bells during the siege - three hundred thousand Dutch chervonny.

During these negotiations, an incident occurred that forced the inhabitants of Gdansk to be burdened with the most difficult conditions. This was the escape of Stanislav. This sovereign, now exalted by fate, now again overthrown, having heard that they were demanding the extradition of his person, decided to secretly escape from the city. To this end, he changed into peasant attire and, with one escort, General Steinflicht, boarding a fishing boat, he crossed the sunken part of the Gdansk region and, after a six-day wandering, on which his liberty and life were in constant danger, finally reached the Prussian town of Marienwerder.

The magistrate did not miss the fact that at the same time he did not inform my father about this incident and, in honor and conscience, testify that no one else, except the Marquis de Monti, knew about the escape of Stanislav. My father's answer read as follows: "If it turned out that the magistrate took part in this escape in the slightest, then the fine payment money would have to be increased by another million rubles."

Gdansk hesitated for a deliberate time whether or not to agree to such burdensome and reprehensible conditions. The Marquis de Monti also wrote a letter to my father, in which, relying on popular law, he objected to the required detention of his person; but on the contrary, he was informed in reply that the privileges of his rank could no longer be combined with his person, because during the siege, instead of the office of peacekeeper, he sent the office of the enemy leader. Moreover, it was also indicated to the magistrate that if the Marquis de Monti did not surrender at the same hour, then enemy actions would unfailingly begin.

Most of the Polish nobles who were in the city asked at regular intervals to grant them liberties and promised to recognize King Augustus as their legitimate sovereign. They were told in reply to await the arrival of King Augustus.

Meanwhile, another letter was received from the French envoy, in which he swore by all the saints that the magistrate did not have the slightest information about the escape of Stanislav, but that he alone knew about it and made all the orders for this, why he more willingly agrees to surrender himself to the most severe captivity than allow a new spark of enmity to ignite for one of his persons.

When this difficulty ceased and the city agreed to everything else, then finally on the seventh day of July 1734 an agreement was concluded and a Russian guard was immediately posted at one of the city gates.

First of all, the articles cited for execution were the disarmament of the troops recruited for Stanislav and the departure of the Marquis de Monti, who was taken under arrest. Two hundred thousand rubles together with thirty thousand chervonny for ringing the bells the city was obliged to pay on the spot, and the rest of the amount is located for a period, and until the entire debt is paid, the mouth of the Vistula River, occupied by the Saxon troops, was detained instead of a pledge. In the discussion of the remission of a million rubles for the escape of Stanislav, the magistrate is indicated with a request to take him directly to the Russian court. Polish nobles are allowed to stay in the city until the arrival of the king. But as the primate, in spite of the various signs of favor shown to him and his whole house from the empress, mainly contributed to the choice of Stanislav, and, moreover, did not want to recognize King Augustus at all, then he, like the Marquis de Monty, was arrested for this until the decree was sent to Elbing.

After the above orders, my father, accompanied by the Duke of Weissenfeld and all the Russian and Saxon generals, went to the city, where, after a prayer of thanksgiving, an oath of allegiance was made to King Augustus.

A few days later, the king arrived at the Oliva Monastery, located near Gdansk, and there received solemn declarations of allegiance both from the city and from the Polish nobles who were found in it during the siege. The latter are presented from my father, who, following the most favorable reception from the monarch and after reporting to him about all the orders made so far for attacking the city, had the honor to treat him to a dinner table in his apartment, to which more than a hundred people were invited.

After a short stay, the king went to Warsaw and, saying goodbye to my father, repeated his assurances of gratitude and granted a sword and cane, strewn with precious stones, as a gift.

Thus ended the four-month siege of the city of Gdansk, which resolved the fate of two kings.

The Russian fleet with three French regiments, as if with booty, returned back to Kronstadt. Thirty or forty Swedish officers who were in the defense of the city, despite the fact that there was still no obvious break in peace with their nation, were sent to Stockholm on a galliot while writing, and my father, having appointed places and order for the withdrawal of the troops under his command, went himself directly to St. Petersburg.

Here, although he seems to be received favorably, yet in the thing itself not as he expected and as the services rendered to him demanded. The reason for this was the suspicion born in the chief chamberlain that my father, for the noble sum of money received from the French, helped Stanislav's escape. Nothing else but one false letter from a frivolous officer sent to receive money in Gdansk and established himself on the speeches of two local artisans seemed to the suspicious favorite a deliberately convincing document. But in the absence of clear evidence, he left the whole matter under one suspicion, and never had the courage to explain the said accusation to my father, who, no doubt, would begin to demand satisfaction for insulting his honor.

Even before his return, the Gdansk deputies arrived in St. Petersburg and had a public audience at the court, at which Burgomaster Valen delivered a decent and very touching speech. They were so successful in their request that another million imposed on them was released to them. But the remainder of the first they were obliged, as a result of capitulation, to pay within a year.

In the celebration that took place at the court after the surrender of Gdansk, Monsieur de la Mothe appeared at the ball in the evening with two colonels, the marquis de Bellefon and de la Lucerne. Moreover, they had the honor of being admitted to the hand of the Empress, who also deigned to greet them.

Having mentioned these French officials, I cannot help but add the following here: when they, together with their troops, surrendered on such a condition that they have to be taken to some port in the East Sea to be sent from there on transport ships back to France , then instead of going to the Sound, as they thought, they were taken straight to Kronstadt. The reason for this act was then announced to the brigadier de la Mothe, so that he would inform his court about it, and precisely the following: that the empress does not at all want to violate the surrender decreed with them, but how the French squadron, without a preliminary declaration of war, captured one Russian packet boat together with two galliots and another frigate, called “Mitava”, and the latter even took to France, then Her Majesty finds an equal use of detention for the necessary, until the said frigate, together with other ships, with their full shell, is returned from the French side and surrendered in any Russian port, and that meanwhile the detained officers and troops have to receive everything necessary for their maintenance. As a result, as soon as they landed on a dry route, they sent them to a place lying between St. sending them to France.

In the meantime, it was said about Stanislaw that he confirmed his stay in Konigsberg in Prussia and admonished the Poles with a manifesto that they would not hesitate in loyalty to him when they promised the strongest help from the French court. The aforesaid manifesto had such an effect that even some senators, who had turned to King Augustus in Gdansk, again turned to him, while others, such as the governor of Kiev Potocki and the governor of Lublin Tarlo, continued their robbery and devastation in various places, but when the latter defeated by the Russians, and the French auxiliary troops did not come to them, then both the above-named and other recalcitrant nobles sought to reconcile with the king, if possible.

In the spring of 1735, my father was sent to Poland a second time, not so much to put an end to the troubles there, but to order the troops to march out of Poland, where their stay was no longer necessary, and to set them in motion for new military operations.

Emperor Charles VI, for the sake of Stanislav, brought himself to war on the part of France and rigorously asked the Russian court for the help promised by the strength of the treatises. As a result, a decree was given to General Lassius so that he would march to the Rhine with twelve thousand troops and join the army of Prince Eugene, but as soon as he arrived at the appointed place, peace was concluded between both powers, and, consequently, he was forced with his corps return back.

Before I finish my story about the fate of Stanislav, I find it necessary to mention one incident, which has no other price, except that it just relates to one of my sisters. When Stanislaw, leaving all hope of obtaining the Polish throne, issued a manifesto issued on the twelfth of May 1735, ordered the Polish subjects tied to his side to lay down their weapons and leave their fate to the Providence of God, he undertook his return journey through Berlin to France. On this way, he passed through a small Prussian town called Risenburg, where my son-in-law, then Lieutenant Colonel of the Budenbrook Cuirassier Regiment, Baron Maltzan, stood with one squadron in the garrison. As soon as he found out that the wife of the aforementioned lieutenant colonel was the daughter of Field Marshal Count Munnich, he immediately came to visit her and have coffee. His first question was this: what news does she have about her father? And as she answered that she had not received any information since deliberate time and did not know where he was now, he suggested that if she wanted to write to him, she would entrust her letter to him, and he would deliver it reliably, because which still has a very good acquaintance in Poland.

My father, as mentioned above, having detached a corps of troops under the command of General-in-Chief Lassius to the Rhine, went himself with the rest of the troops stationed in Poland to Ukraine, in order to mount two armies against the Turks and Tatars, one under his own, and the other under the command of the aforementioned general.

The then numerous and military experiments, tempted by the Russian army, led the empress into a state of tangible vengeance against her famous predatory neighbors. These neighbors were the Crimean and Kuban Tatars, who, from some years of frequent attacks on the border provinces, took many thousands of people with them into slavery. Whatever the Porte of the Ottoman representations were made for that, but always in vain, and the incessant response from her read like this: that she herself was not able to curb the Tatars. When this excuse seemed absurd because it was most evident that in the fortresses of Ochakov and Azov lying at the mouths of the Dnieper and Don, Turkish troops were incessantly stationed and, therefore, the said Tatars, without the will and knowledge of the Ports of violence in Russia, could not produce, then it is necessary both, hiders and thieves, to attack and take possession of the main robber nest, namely the Crimea.

To facilitate this taking over for the right reason, they began to make Azov a siege. A newly-appointed field marshal was appointed to this enterprise and General Lassius, elevated to the rank of count by the Roman emperor. But as he had not yet returned, meanwhile, in the meantime, my father, back in March 1736, having taken several troops standing in the vicinity of Azov, attacked the Turks with them by accident and at night took possession of Littik, a trench covering the city and lying on an island in the Don. At the same time, it may seem remarkable to some that at the very hour when he gave the command for the said attack, it happened in heaven moon eclipse. But whether this can be considered an omen, I leave it to others to judge, only I truly know that in the old days not a single soothsayer would have doubted in such a case from such a phenomenon to conclude that the people who, like the Turks, in their coat of arms they have the moon, the most unfortunate war was foretold. When he later ordered to occupy some posts, to make various redoubts to cover the troops, and to completely conclude the city from the land side, he entrusted the main command to General Levashov before the arrival of Field Marshal Count Lassia, and he himself went packs to Ukraine for the necessary orders to the Crimean campaign.

The Crimea is separated from the Ukraine by a vast steppe, more than a hundred miles wide and long. Good and tall grass grows on this steppe, but the water is so scarce that in many places there is not a single stream for twelve or fifteen miles. The aforementioned grass has such a property that it dries up completely in summer and easily catches fire, so that the great expanse of the steppe in shortest time can burn out. The Tatars come to this steppe as the most direct and shortest route to Ukraine when they want to attack the Russian provinces in winter, where they carry out their violence with all the greater ability because they themselves live contentedly with one handful of snow, but on the contrary, their horses are trained to tear the snow with their front legs. and, taking out grass from under it, they feed on it.

From this description, it turns out in itself how much danger a regular army can be exposed to in winter or summer on this steppe, if its campaign lay through it. For this reason, my father preferred to make a circle, first set off along the local bank of the Dnieper River to a short distance from the Crimea, then, turning to the left, marched straight to the Perekop line.

This dry ditch, which crosses the Crimean isthmus and is seven versts or one German mile long, extends from the Black Sea even to the Sea of Azov, which is twelve fathoms wide and seven fathoms deep. There is only one stone bridge on it, and on the other side of the bridge lies the Or fortress. otherwise called Perekop.

As soon as, as a result of the above, the Russian army turned here from the Dnieper, the Tatars went out to meet it, to taste their happiness with repeated attacks, but soon they retreated from the regimental guns to such a distance that their arrows had little or no effect. When they lingered here for a long time, they began to throw bombs at them from mortars, from which they were sown like dust from the wind.

Meanwhile, the army, with almost daily sorties, approached the very line, behind which the entire Tatar force stood near Perekop. My father, in order to irritate them, ordered that several bombs be strictly thrown into the mentioned fortress, and on the coming night he ordered the troops to stretch along the line, and the next day, before dawn, he had the good fortune to cross the aforementioned deep and steep ditch with the whole army, which the Tatars did not imagine at all. . They were not far from there, numbering about eighty thousand people, under the leadership of their khan, rested in a pleasant dream and did not at all think that it would be possible to cross so soon and on a dark night.

The next morning, as soon as light came, my father intended to attack the khan's camp, but the enemies, seeing their death so close and inevitable, fled with such haste that it was impossible to reach them in any way, except that the Don Cossacks, having overtaken some they beat and took the others in full. Between the booty received by the Cossacks mentioned in this case, there was a carriage Tatar Khan on two wheels, upholstered in red cloth, and even his telescope. This was English work and so good that my father traded it for money from the Cossacks and did not use any other than this one in the next campaigns.

After the Tatars had taken flight, the Russian army on the same day proceeded to the fortress of Perekop, and after a few shots, the garrison of this, consisting of three or four hundred Janissaries and several Tatars, surrendered. The local store was found with a poor supply, but as for the artillery, the Russians got sixty cannons as booty, among which others had Russian brands and got here in the last century after an unfortunate campaign in the Crimea led by Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn.

Two days before the arrival of a courier sent by my father with the news of the victory in St. Petersburg, the Empress deigned to send me to Warsaw with the Order of St. Andrew to King Augustus. In other respects, regarding this assignment entrusted to me, I have nothing else to note, except that the king granted me a diamond ring worth one thousand two hundred rubles and another thousand red as a gift.

But before I intended to embark on my return trip, almost three weeks passed, during which the peaceful Sejm in Warsaw continued, and, by the way, the fate of Courland was also decided, to the pleasure of the Russian court.

The Courland nobility, nine years earlier, had enjoyed the right disputed by the republic until this last Diet. In 1727, although Ferdinand, the last duke of the Ketler generation, was still alive, but as, due to his old age, heirs could not be expected from him, the aforementioned nobility unanimously decided to choose an heir for him, and this choice fell on Moritz, Count of Saxony, illegitimate son king of Poland Friedrich-August. As soon as this happened to the well-known, the republic sent deputies there with such a command that the new ducal choice should be declared invalid and the Courlanders should indicate that their land, after the death of Duke Ferdinand, was divided into voivodeships and attached to the Polish kingdom. I do not intend to enter here into a description of the incidents that followed regarding this in the reign of Empress Catherine I, namely: that the Russian troops, having entered Courland, expelled the Count of Saxony and that Prince Menshikov urged that the new ducal choice fell on him - since everything Onom in various periodic writings contain the most detailed news.

Things were in this position even up to the aforementioned last Diet. But as Ober-chamberlain Biron saw that the king of Poland, to whom he personally rendered services, had deliberately established himself on the throne, and, moreover, he also won many of the most powerful Polish nobles to his side with various promises, he considered this very case to be the most convenient, giving the Courlanders the right to choose open the way to ducal dignity for himself. Why is it that the Russian ministry at the Polish court, Count Keyserling, has been entrusted with the strongest harassment at the aforementioned Sejm in order to cancel the partition of Courland and grant the right of choice to the nobility there.

The gratitude of the king, as well as of the Polish nobles, and the consideration of the consequences that could occur in the event of a refusal to the desire of only a highly powerful intercessor, such as the Empress of Russia, produced that in the last meeting of the often mentioned Sejm, it was supposed and solemnly approved to grant the Courland nobility only the desired liberty to choose for themselves sovereign at his will.

At the very time that this matter was decided, I was in perfect readiness to leave, which is why I had the opportunity to bring the first chief chamberlain only important and joyful news.

Upon my return to St. Petersburg, I heard not only about the capture of the city of Azov, but also that my father, unhindered continuing his campaign even to Kozlov 10 lying port on the western coast of Crimea, took possession of this place, left from the entire garrison and most of the inhabitants

Before he went there, lieutenant-general Leontiev was dispatched with several thousand troops near Kinburn - a fortified place lying at the mouth of the Dnieper opposite Ochakov. Leontiev took possession of this fortress with little difficulty, and, moreover, received rich booty, consisting of horses, cattle and sheep, which the Tatars drove there for their safety.

A campaign extended from Kozlov, while escorting the enemy who was constantly surrounding the army, to Bakhchisarai, the capital of the Tatar Khan. This city was found almost completely deserted, and, besides some old people, there was no one else there, like three or four Catholic priests, one French consul and several Jews. Whatever belongings and appliances were found in the houses were given to the soldiers as booty, and all the buildings were burned. The Khan's palace was not evenly left intact. It is built to Turkish taste quite beautifully. The tables and benches in the rooms were neat, painted with flowers, others again gilded or lacquered. In the middle courtyard there was a marble bathhouse, in which the purest water spouted like fountains. All this only magnificent building was plundered in a few hours and turned into ashes. The most curious and gilded ornaments with a roof were sent from my father to St. Petersburg.

Akmochet, the usual place of residence of the so-called Kalga Sultan or Tatar commander, was subject to a similar fate. The enemy was terrified of the Russian troops to the point that, hiding in the mountains, he appeared from there to the army only in small crowds and, moreover, from a distance. Why did my father not have great difficulties to get to Kafa, the greatest and richest city in the Crimea, and take possession of it. But to his most sensitive regret, from the heat and dryness of the local air, the diseases that occurred in the army intensified so much that even half of the healthy were not found, and even these, from impotence, could hardly walk. For this reason, he was forced to turn back, and this retreat was made without any obstacles from the enemy.

Perekop, as well as Kinburn, were completely ruined, the artillery that was in both these cities was taken away together with the prisoners, and the army, after a campaign that lasted about two months, settled in Ukraine in winter quarters.

Inasmuch as it has been known from experiments that in an unhealthy and from the inhabitants themselves in various places devastated land, the more numerous the troops are, the more diseases spread between them (besides, according to all the news received, the rumor was confirmed that the Turks were making great preparations for war), then at the court it was supposed and determined in the coming year to turn the main army against these latter, and to occupy the Tatars in their land with only a mediocre corps.

Charles VI, despite the fact that he had recently freed himself from the war waged with France, was obliged, at the request of Russia, for the auxiliary army given to him last year on a campaign to the Rhine, or rather, in order to continue, in case of need, the strongest receive an allowance, a new to make war with the Turks. No matter how from the beginning both imperial armies, apparently, agreed that each would have to act separately against the enemy, however, soon there was such a disagreement between them in the discussion of operations that they gave little assistance to each other throughout the war. From the Roman-imperial side, it was imagined that the Grand Vizier with the most selective corps Turkish troops opposed them and therefore demanded that twenty or thirty thousand people of the Russian army be sent to their aid. On the contrary, on the part of Russia, it was said that upon attacking one or another fortress lying on this side, such as Ochakov or Bender, their hands would be untied, that is, that the Grand Vizier would be forced to separate the noble corps from his army and through that force weaken yours. But each side remained in its opinion, and there was no end to reproaches and reproaches.

If the first presentation of my father from the court had been approved, then the difficult and dangerous marches across the steppes would have been averted. For his opinion from the very beginning was to first attack the Turks in Moldavia and to that end take the shortest and most capable road, namely through the southern provinces of Poland. But this idea was refuted by Chief Chamberlain Biron, who, before his election as the Duke of Courland and before being recognized in this dignity from the republic, considered it necessary to protect the Poles and in no case burden them. For all that, it cannot be said that my father did not evenly recognize as necessary the first thing to do was to take possession of Ochakov, in order to deprive the enemy of the means of attacking the second army operating in the Crimea from the rear. What I mentioned about the march of the army through the steppes, this applies, in fact, only before the campaign in 1738. But in the current campaign, which I will now talk about, it was necessary to keep along the path of these devastated places, since crossing the Bug River flowing there is nowhere as convenient as not far from its mouth.

And so the plan outlined for this campaign consisted mainly in capturing the Ochakov fortress lying at the mouth of the Dnieper and the Black Sea, then, if he was lucky in this enterprise, put several troops on ships and sent along the coast to Belgrade 11 in order to exterminate this nest of Budzhak Tatars. For the execution of the last enterprise, a flotilla built in Bryansk and determined to transport the guns needed for the siege was appointed.

At the end of April 1737, when the army gathered on the other side of the Dnieper opposite Perevolochna, my father went straight to the steppe, between the Dnieper and Moldavia and stretching from the Polish border even to the Black Sea. The natural quality of this vast country is similar to the above-described Crimean steppe. The grass on it grows so tall that it reaches the very belly of the horses, and, moreover, is very nutritious. The soil of the earth is generally fertile, so that not only the best asparagus and various garden and medicinal herbs grow, but also rather tasty cherries and a certain kind of wild peaches growing in small bushes. Wild game, such as hares, hazel grouse, partridges and quails, is there in great abundance and is not so accustomed to catching that soldiers often surrounded the hare and grabbed it with their hands. On the contrary, there is nowhere to be seen a wood forest there, except for small shrubs, and as these are found occasionally and not everywhere, a fire was often laid out to boil food from horse dung and dried grass. Lack of water is the chief vice in these otherwise only pleasant places. For although many rivers, such as the Bug, the Dniester, and other small streams flowing into them, flow in them, however, the distance of the space of the earth between the mentioned rivers and the stream is so extensive that in many places it happens to travel a whole day, while from one river you can get to the other one.

The army assembled for this campaign consisted of fifty to sixty thousand regular troops and ten to twelve thousand Don, Zaporozhye and Ukrainian Cossacks, not including drivers and other service people in the wagon train.

It is not difficult to feed this numerous people in the desert for half a year, perhaps, it would have seemed to the Israelite commander Moses, but my father caused the necessary orders all the more labor and trouble, because the very people who are entrusted with delivering provisions to the army acted with great and unrequited negligence, and therefore the necessary supply for the army was never brought at the right time. In Ukraine, he bought from forty to fifty thousand oxen, in order to carry on them a six-month supply of food, together with various field devices, following the army. The latter also included many empty barrels, which were distributed among all the food trucks, one for each; water was carried in these barrels when the distance between the rivers was wide, and if necessary, they could also be used for laying pontoon bridges, since it only cost a few barrels under a loaded wagon with ropes to tie it up to make part of a floating bridge.

Moreover, the team of oxen also delivered that no less important benefit, that as soon as the provisions carried on them came out, then after that the oxen were beaten and the beef was divided among the soldiers.

In this way, the maintenance of the troops was ensured. But in order to cover only a great supply and continue the march without hindrance, on which one had to be afraid every day not to be surrounded by the traveling Belgrade and Lipkan Tatars, the army moved in the form of a square battalion, in the middle of which there were provisions, artillery and the entire convoy. Why, when the Tatars from all sides met the equipped front with spears of reiters and field cannons, they did not stand against it for a long time, but usually retreated after small skirmishes with the hussars and Don Cossacks located at the corners of the battalion. Moreover, in order to avert the present danger, so that the grass fire does not cause harm to the provisions and the gunpowder magazine, as well as to people and livestock, it is commanded and strongly confirmed that from the side where the fire begins to spread, immediately dig wide ditches, except that in each regiment there was a certain number of brooms and wooden spades in readiness, with which the soldiers were obliged to extinguish the fire mentioned above.

When the army, marching for about two months, reached a distance of three miles to this side of Ochakov, the Turks appeared here for the first time. They, part Spagi, part Bosnians and Arnauts, numbering up to six thousand people, all set out on horseback towards the Russian army, wanting to reconnoiter it, and, moreover, to show the experience of their courage. As soon as they approached, hussars and Don Cossacks were sent against them, who, after a bloody battle, forced them to return to the city. One Tatar murza taken prisoner on this occasion announced that the three-bunch Seraskir Pasha had arrived there in a few days, that the garrison in the city consisted of more than 20 thousand people, and that more deliberate help was expected there soon.

After this, my father represented to the generals under his command that although the tools necessary for the siege, carried by the Dnieper, had not yet arrived, he believed in his opinion that it was necessary to close the city and thereby block the path of the approaching auxiliary army. As a result, the army, moving further, on the first day of July, had Ochakov in its mind.

Ochakov lies on the corner, which is formed from the mouth of the Dnieper, called in this place the estuary, and from the coast of the Black Sea. The ground there contains very hard, silty rock, and for a mile and a half in the vicinity not a single stalk of grass is visible. The fortress fortifications consisted of eight irregular field stone-clad bolters and a double dry moat. Metal cannons, about a hundred in number, stood on the ramparts. Food supplies could be brought there without hindrance along the Black Sea, until the Russian flotilla arrived. In the city there were one seraskir, seven pashas and twenty thousand selected troops, and several Turkish galleys were also anchored in front of the estuary.

As soon as the aforementioned large garrison saw the Russian army, then most of it, having stepped out of the fortress, as if for show, settled down in combat formation. On the contrary, my father ordered his army to stand in line in the form of a crescent moon and, putting their guns on their shoulders, march against them with music and straight to the city. Here the seraskir, not wanting to join the battle, retreated back into the city rigorously. The Russian army, having driven all the Turks out of their redoubts, which were in the surrounding gardens of the city, stopped at the advancing night at a distance of one cannon shot from the city.

Even that same night they began to dig ditches, as well as throw bombs into the city. The latter produced so good success that in the city, filled with a cramped wooden structure, fires soon broke out in different places; and when at dawn the bombardment continued stronger than before, not only the whole city was engulfed in flames, but also the gunpowder magazine was blown up with a terrible crack.

These sad circumstances prompted the Seraskier to send out one deputy and ask for a truce for twenty-four hours. The answer to this was that he, with his entire garrison, surrendered to military captivity, and he was given no more time for reflection than one hour with such a reminder that if he did not decide before the end of the hour, then not a single person would be spared. But as soon as they found out that the seraskir was on the other side of the fortress near the seashore and attempted to escape in galleys with several people, then hussars and Cossacks were sent after him; and the army at the same time made an attack on the enemy, who, leaving the city devoured by fire, rushed into the covered road. On this occasion, my father showed so much zeal and courage that he himself commanded a battalion of the Izmailovsky Guard on foot, and hoisted the banner of this glacis with his own hands. 12 . The battle was very bloody and stubborn on both sides. The Turks stood, covered to the very head behind the palisades, and shot very accurately, because they could lean their guns against the palisades. No matter how often they flew around the nucleus, but my father, not being afraid of them, did not leave his place and not before they persuaded him to leave it, until they showed that his hat was in two places and the folds in his uniform on both sides were shot through. Prince Anton-Ulrich of Brunswick, who volunteered on this campaign, was constantly with him, and both, fortunately, did not receive a single hair of harm, despite the fact that the standing page of the mentioned prince was shot near them and his adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Heimburg, was wounded with two bullets. Finally he got on his horse in order to see what was going on in other places. But even here he was in no less danger, for not only was the horse under him wounded in the head and the saddle-cloth shot through, but through his frock coat, which, fortunately, was unbuttoned and moved somewhat away from the body, a bullet flew into the very seam on his back, without hurting him. not the slightest harm. Wherever he turned, everywhere he saw a terrible defeat from the strong fire of the enemy. The brave General Lowendahl was wounded in the arm, and General Keith in the knee.

In the end, after a desperate defense of more than two hours, and when the enemies, for lack of gunpowder, threw axes, hooks and shovels into the neighborhood, ours broke into the paved road. Here the murder has not yet stopped, since the furious and indomitable Russian soldier does not show mercy to anyone, the Turks, out of desperation, received new vigor and, defending themselves with sabers and long knives to the last drop of blood, they took many winners with them to the coffin.

About two thousand Turks, who fled, as mentioned above, to the seashore, successfully escaped on their galleys. But almost the same number of people, sailing towards them, drowned miserably, for all the ships, as soon as they began to shoot at them, having raised their anchors, rolled away from the shores with the greatest haste.

After such a terrible defeat, out of thirty thousand people, part of the soldiers and part of the inhabitants, who were in this unfortunate place for several hours, saved their lives no more than five thousand people, counting their wives and children. Among the captives was also a seraskir, called Aggiya Pasha, a reasonable, well-behaved and stately person. He was the son-in-law of the estranged Grand Vizier Ali Pasha, and during the management of his state affairs he was the chief master of the horse under the Sultan.

Of the seven pashas who were under the aforementioned seraskir, only one survived, namely the commandant of the Ochakovskaya fortress, and among the other captives there was no other noble official, except for Osman Bey, the son of the deceased pasha of Herzegovina. This one, having been no more than thirteen years old, already commanded three thousand Bosniaks. His pleasant appearance and cheerful disposition prompted my father to take him to himself, upon his return to St. Petersburg, to present him to the empress, who, after baptizing him into the Christian law, raised him to the noble dignity with the name of a warrior and, having granted him land, assigned him a page to the court . The booty obtained during the conquest of Ochakov was very noble, despite the fact that much was destroyed by fire, so that the soldiers carried with them full hats of Turkish chervonets. My father bought from them a lot of precious things, such as: gold and diamonds showered with sabers, daggers, horse tools and watches to present to the Empress, the King of Poland and the Chief Chamberlain Biron as a gift, which was later fulfilled.

On the day after the capture of Ochakov, or even more so after the battle, a prayer of thanksgiving was sent on the glacis of the fortress. The army came out in full formation and fired the usual triple rapid fire. After this, they led the seraskier past the entire front to the tent of my father, who invited him to his table. Coming here, my father asked him, how do Russian troops seem to him? He replied that he had never seen the best in his whole life. And as the first to this said that Mr. Seraskir, in his opinion, had no reason to complain about their courage, this one answered: “If they were not so brave people, then it would not be hopeful that I would have the honor this day testify my respects to the Russian Mr. Field Marshal General.

With the news of this important victory won, my father sent to court his then adjutant general and native nephew, lieutenant colonel Wildemann, who made extraordinary joy there, because they did not know at all that the army had come near Ochakov. The courtiers did not leave my father to attach the well-known saying: “Veni, vidi, vici”, that is: “I came, I saw, I conquered”. The messenger was granted by the Empress by the colonel and received two thousand rubles as a gift. As for me, I was awarded, on the day of departure at the court of the celebration of this victory, the chamberlain's key, which I had been waiting for seven years.

No matter how great my father's desire was to take some other important action against the enemy, it was impossible to approach the enemy in any other way than to go under Bendery, which required a long wandering through the steppe; or, having landed troops on the shores of the Black Sea, look for it further inside the earth. The first was considered inconvenient, both because of the failure to receive artillery that was still needed for the siege, and also because of the burning of dry grass described at this time of the year, and the flotilla should have been used for the other, but these ships were so badly built that, according to the experiments performed, it was impossible to walk on them, and even more so to act on the Black Sea. Why did my father, having issued all the necessary orders for the repair of the Ochakov fortress, having laid many redoubts outside it and leaving here Major General Bakhmetev with six thousand troops, with six months of provisions and deliberate ammunition, was forced to decide with the rest of the army to undertake a return campaign to Ukraine. On this campaign, where many bloody clashes with the Turks sent from Bendery for reconnaissance took place, he ordered, for the freest communication, not only to lay a large trench near the place where the Bug flows into the Dnieper, but also to make several redoubts along the high road even to the Russian borders .

As soon as the troops settled down in winter quarters, the news came that a corps of Turks and Tatars, numbering up to forty thousand people, led by Genzia Pasha, approaching Ochakovo, began to besiege it. It was impossible to return there with the army because of the onset of winter and because of the excessive remoteness. Why the best remedy only one thing remained: in order to send there at the very speed along the Dnieper, on which navigation was still open, strong support to reinforce the garrison in Ochakovo. My father had already made all the necessary preparations for this and intended to go there himself, when he received from the brave Major General Stoffel, who shortly before this, instead of Major General Bakhmetev, was transferred there, a joyful report that the enemy, besieging the fortress for two weeks without any success and after the loss of several thousand people, he was forced, leaving his enterprise, to retreat back, leaving almost all his ammunition on the spot.

This incident deserved all the more respect because of the intensified diseases, to which the ulcer even joined, from the entire garrison no more than one and a half thousand people were able to carry weapons. My father had a special reason to rejoice at this occasion, for such an unsuccessful enemy attempt was a clear proof that the place he won was important for the Turks, or was not a simple nest. The courier who came to him with this news, the son of Major General Stoffel, he strictly sent to St. Petersburg, and he prepared to leave there himself. The court, as it seemed, was pleased with his current campaign. From the empress he was received very favorably, and the chief chamberlain Biron, the newly elected Duke of Courland, did not fail to caress him with all signs of honor.

Established in Nemirov, a small town in Podolia, the congress 13 at the request of the Turks, he departed again without any success, and the Roman-imperial troops, who at first had a happy campaign in Hungary, ended it so unsuccessfully that Field Marshal Count Seckendorf was recalled to Vienna for a report. And therefore it was necessary on the part of Russia to take the most convenient measures for the opening of a new campaign.

Count Ostein, the Roman imperial minister, as well as Lieutenant-General Marquis de Botta, sent to St. Petersburg on purpose, insisted that a corps of auxiliary troops be sent to their army in Hungary. But when this matter was proposed for discussion, my father argued that it was more useful for Russia to attack the enemy in two different places and through that compel him to divert most of his strength from the Austrians than to weaken the local army with a corps separated from it. His opinion was accepted and military operations were determined not only to continue in the Crimea, but also to turn them against Moldavia, but in order to take the shortest and most capable road there, and precisely through Poland, this for some particular types is not yet allowed this time, but it was necessary, according to example of the Israelites, to go through the wilderness to the promised land, that is, to undertake a campaign there through the vast steppe.

Before I begin to describe this campaign, I consider it necessary to briefly mention what happened to me at that time.

The inclination born in me to the court maid of honor, Baroness Anna Dorothea Mengden, brought me to the point that I, with my request, bothered the monarchess for gracious permission to marry her, and soon after that an illness that happened to me from a cold forced me to ask for warm waters in Aachen. Both the first and the other are permitted by the Empress most graciously, and my father, who had long wanted to see me as a spouse, was extremely pleased and glad in the reasoning of the first.

A few days later, my father went to the Ukraine, and I stayed for a few more weeks in St. Petersburg and did not leave until the end of February 1738. Having bowed to the monarchine, I received at my home two thousand rubles for the journey as a gift.

As for the campaign this year under the leadership of my father, I have to announce that the troops marched, under all the previous and above orders, a second time through the steppe and straight to the Dniester. On the other side of the Dniester and not far from Bender, a large Turkish army gathered with the intention of preventing the crossing of Russian troops. On a long campaign, on which frequent and strong skirmishes with the enemy took place, especially when taking some forage, my father reached the banks of the said river. But the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, who alone at that time were guides, unknowingly led him so badly that he not only met very uncomfortable roads, but even went straight into the eyes of the enemy encamped on the other side of the river. The coast there stretched for several miles in length, entirely very steep and rocky; and the Turkish camp was covered with a carved retransaction of stone, and, moreover, it was equipped with numerous artillery.

When it seemed impossible for this to have any success in the enterprise here, then my father, after several cannon shots fired for the sake of retransmission, turned to the right and moved up along the river. His intention was that, partly meeting a bottleneck for crossing and partly luring the enemy, cross the river and join the battle. He expected the latter with all the greater reason that he deliberately pretended that he had directed his campaign straight to Khotin. But one must think that the Turks this time had no desire to fight; for without any distant undertakings they followed Russian army on the other side, sending only Tatars to this side to disturb our troops. Once, at night, a crowd of Janissaries ventured across the river in small ships and attacked the rearguard when the army set out on a campaign, but they were so well received from this that, after the loss of several hundred people, the rest barely had time to somehow get out to the other side.

In this way, my father, moving almost to Khotin himself and not finding any means to achieve his goal, besides, with the coming autumn, illnesses among the soldiers multiplied day by day, he reasoned for the good of this campaign to end. But how embarrassing it was to return through the steppe, because the Tatars burned the grass on it in many places, he decided to divide his army into columns, of which he left the last one for himself, and escort it through part of the Polish possession to the Russian border. Although the Crown Hetman, Count Potocki, objected to this on behalf of the republic, in response he was informed that the law was changing in need, that all supplies would be bought for cash during the passage of the army, and that, in the event of any harm, for the entire loss paid be has.

Thus ended the campaign of 1738, and although no new conquests were acquired on it, however, the Russian soldier, with his glory for the acquired courage and with a calm disposition, was completely preserved this time.

The operations of the Austrian troops in Hungary were no happier this year than in the past. For, besides the fact that they rarely retreated victorious in many battles, they also lost the fortress of Orsova with all the artillery that was in it, and finally returned to their winter quarters in a distressed state.

In these, I leave for a while about the army, in order to mention briefly about my wedding and about the rituals used at that time at the Russian court.

When a court lady-in-waiting marries, she receives from the court not only a dowry in money, depending on her service, but also a donated bed with all the appliances, a piece of silver eyelet for a wedding dress, two pieces of a rich damask for other dresses and a thousand rubles for a linen and lace. The wedding table, and also the ball, is given by the empress as her dependent at court. The day before, the Hoffourier invites both state ladies and court officials, as well as foreign ministers and all nobles of both sexes of the first four classes, counting from field marshal to major general. But the groom himself is obliged to ask the grand duchesses to honor his wedding with their presence. On the appointed day in the morning at ten o'clock, the above-mentioned guests gather in the palace and, while the bride is dressing up, to which dress the Empress usually bestows her own diamond things, the well-known appointed persons in various court carriages of six horses go to the grooms house, and the noblest of these the escort puts the groom next to him in a carriage and takes him to the palace. After this, they accompany the bride, who was then walking between the two grand duchesses, from the chambers of the empress for the wedding. This happens either in the cathedral or in the court church. If in the first, the procession is as follows: court trumpeters and timpani ride ahead, followed by the marshal with a staff in his hand in an open carriage, then all the invited male persons, two by two in a carriage of six horses, and, finally, the groom with the very same a special person who came to his house for him. After this, the ladies follow in pairs in carriages, and the conclusion is made by the Grand Duchesses with their bride sitting opposite them. After the wedding, they return to the palace in the same order. But when the marriage takes place in the court church, although there is less pomp here, the entrance to the church is always opened by playing the trumpets and timpani, which one of the haiduks carries on his back around the hall. As soon as all the guests from the church return, each one sits in order at a large and magnificent table. The middle place is occupied by the bride and groom, the Grand Duchesses sit on the right hand of the bride, and so on, other ladies, and on the left hand of the groom sits the noblest of all male persons and others follow him, each in rank. During the table, instrumental and vocal music is played, and when drinking for the health of everyone, pipes and timpani are played. The ball begins in the afternoon at five o'clock and usually goes on until nine o'clock in the evening. The conclusion of the ball is an old dance adopted from the German land, in which the marshal with a staff in his hand precedes; it consists of as many couples as there are married persons. When they dance three times in this way or, moreover, pass, then the bride and groom approach the empress to offer their gratitude, and after that all the couples, with the musicians in front, pass through the palace rooms and further down the stairs to the very bottom. Here the bride sits down with the chief chamberlain or with the state lady in the carriage, and the groom with the person who came for him in the morning, and then all the specially invited guests come to the newlywed's house; here they are treated to an evening table, after which the young are taken to the bedroom. But while these people are dressing in a funeral dress, the guests drink various health from glasses, which continues until the groom finally comes out to them and, emptying a large glass, wishes them good night. The next day, in the morning, the young people go to the palace, where they suddenly bring thanks in a row, first to the empress and then to the grand duchesses. At noon they treat their relatives and friends, and in the evening they go to the palace for a ball, and finally, with a magnificent dinner in the palace, all this celebration will end.

For my wedding, the Empress appointed February 20, 1739. And as my father had returned to St. Petersburg from the Ukraine a few weeks earlier, he had not only the time to organize everything he needed in his house, but also the pleasure of being in person at the same time. And so, on the approach of the designated day, the celebration of my wedding took place with all the above-described rites.

My bride, the maid of honor Mengden, was decked out with diamonds bestowed by the empress in the most magnificent way. The eldest son of the Duke of Courland came to my house and then the wedding in the presence of the monarchine was performed by a Lutheran pastor called Nazzius in a large hall in the palace. At the table sat Grand Duchess Elisaveta Petrovna and Princess Anna of Mecklenburg on the right side of the bride, and next to me on left hand was Anton-Ulrich, Prince of Brunswick. At the end of the ball, instead of the first, the said prince took me home. The bride, in the absence of the chief chamberlain, was accompanied there by a lady of state. After this evening there was supper, and both after it and after it, the glasses went around insanely around. The next day, my father gave a large dining table to foreign ministers and other distinguished persons of both sexes; in the evening another ball and supper, as usual, were held at court.

As a dowry my wife received from the Empress four thousand rubles in large sums of money with the other gifts mentioned above. In addition to her own, she also had five thousand Albert thalers in cash. According to the strength of the wedding contract, my father approved for my patrimony Ranzen in Livonia, which he bought for twenty-two thousand rubles; Yes, he undertook to give my wife eighteen thousand rubles, that is, twice as much as she brought with her.

Meanwhile, in the office, they were already working on a plan for a new campaign. The unfortunate two campaigns of the Roman imperial troops in Hungary and their caustic complaints that they were constantly exposed to the greatest enemy force forced them to finally proceed to the most capable means of alleviating them and entering Moldavia directly through Poland. With such a project, my father went to the army and at the end of April went on a campaign with her.

But before I begin to describe the hostilities of this year, without interrupting the connection of these, I need to talk about the incident that followed at the Russian court at that time, namely the marriage of Princess Anna, the niece of Empress Anna Ioannovna, with Prince Anton-Ulrich of Brunswick.

This prince, the nephew of the Empress of Rome, was recalled by the approval of the Vienna court already in 1733 to Russia to be married to Princess Anna.

Charles VI, the Roman emperor, without missing a single opportunity from the reign of Catherine I and Peter II, to involve Russia in the interest of his home, hoped to lay the foundation for the closest and most unshakable friendship between both courts with such a new alliance of kinship. Judging by age and years, this marriage should have taken place earlier. But what actually prevented it, I can’t really say about it. It is true that many laid all the blame on the Duke of Courland, as if this one alone stopped the whole thing with the intention of delivering only a high bride to his eldest son, when he reaches the proper age.

When the court of Vienna, although it had not yet begun to distrust, was already looking very impatiently at such a postponement, the emperor decided to end this matter as soon as possible and, moreover, to give the prince more respect, proceed to formal courtship through an emergency embassy.

Marquis Botta de Adorno, who was then the imperial minister at the Russian court, already in March 1739 received a proper order to that effect. According to the strength of the instructions given to him, he was also instructed to seek by all means so that the princess on the day of her betrothal or marriage was declared heir to the throne, but the Duke of Courland Biron was able to rigorously object to this with the following review: that the whole thing can stop and collapse if the empress is presented with the election of an heiress, because she considers that there is doubt about the longevity of her life and that she seems to be reminded of death. To the submission from the Minister of Brunswick, Mr. Krum, consisting in determining the dowry for the princess and assigning how much she has to receive for her maintenance, it was answered that during the life of the Empress she would not lack anything, and after her death everything to her , that is, the princess, will get undeniably.

Some believe that they really found the reason for the refutation of both of the above proposals, and attribute it to the incredulity of the disposition of Biron's favorite, who, as they say, did not want to allow his unlimited power to be diminished by the excessive strengthening of the merits of the princess, and therefore He considered it necessary to leave the Empress's niece in an unknown state of some kind, so that she would incessantly please him and expect all her future prosperity from him alone.

The Vienna court did not insist on it anymore, but was pleased when it finally brought it to the point that the empress formally agreed to the said marriage. This took place in the month of April, and the marriage is supposed to take place in a few weeks.

All court ranks and persons from the first to the fifth class were sent a message, so that for the aforementioned celebration they would be provided not only with rich clothes, but also with a carriage and livery decent for their rank.

On the second of July, the Marquis de Botta, in the rank of envoy extraordinary, had a public entry into St. Petersburg and on the third day at court an audience. The empress stood on a lofty throne, on both sides of which the ladies on one side and gentlemen on the other side made up a large assembly; the aforementioned marquis, approaching the throne, ascended one step of it and stopped right in front of the empress. After that, according to the old German custom, putting on a hat, he spoke in German speech, which most importantly related to the courtship on behalf of the emperor, Princess Anna for the Prince of Brunswick. The Empress answered this in Russian, which answer contained an expression of her consent to that.

At the end of this audience, the Empress walked into the decorated gallery of the palace and, standing under a canopy, admitted the Prince of Brunswick to the audience, who briefly explained his desire to marry Princess Anna, for which he received permission from the Empress. When then the envoy entered the same place and approached the empress, she explained to him how willingly she had a desire to satisfy the will of the Roman emperor and, entering another room, took the princess out with her and betrothed them on the spot in the presence of the aforementioned envoy. According to this betrothal, the envoy handed over to the princess-bride on behalf of the Roman emperor a rich clave of precious stones and oriental pearls, and then returned home.

On the fourth of July, on the day of the wedding, all the nobles of both sexes appointed for this ceremony gathered at the court early in the morning, and on the streets, through which the procession followed to the cathedral church of Our Lady of Kazan, there were regiments in two rows on both sides.

Between ten and eleven o'clock before noon the procession began. A detachment of the Horse Guards rode ahead, followed by court trumpeters and timpani players on horseback, after the chauffeurs, and behind them followed the marshal in an open carriage with a baton in his hands. Then the military and civilians of the first five classes, two by two and by rank, in carriages of six horses, accompanied by their livery attendants, who walked on foot. Behind them rode the chief marshal, also with a staff in his hand. Then followed the Duke of Courland in a large front carriage. Behind this, and directly in front of the carriage, where the Empress was sitting, chamberlains and chamber junkers rode on horseback, two in a row in seniority. The princess-bride sat with the empress in the same carriage opposite her. The chief horseman and adjutant general rode by the carriage. The Empress was followed by the Grand Duchess Elisaveta Petrovna with her court staff and then the Duchess of Courland in a more magnificent carriage than the Empress herself. Here again a detachment of the Horse Guards rode, followed by the chief chamberlain, ladies of state, court ladies-in-waiting and other noble female persons according to their ranks. Finally, the whole procession was brought up to the rear by the third detachment of the Horse Guards.

Upon arrival at the church, the empress, together with the princess bride, stopped at the royal place opposite the altar. The Prince of Brunswick, who had arrived here a quarter of an hour in advance, stood in a place specially prepared against the wall on the left hand of the Empress. All the other people present settled down on both sides of the church on the built steps.

After a brief speech appropriate to this solemnity, spoken by the Archbishop of Novgorod, a solemn ceremony of the wedding was performed by the same Archbishop 14 . At the end of the thanksgiving service, with cannon fire from both fortresses and with three quick fires from the regiments, the entire staff returned to the palace in the previously described order, except that now the Prince of Brunswick was traveling with the Empress in a carriage. In the palace, the monarchess received congratulations, first from newly married people and then from all the nobles of both sexes who had come together, and bestowed them on her hand. At noon, the Empress had an open dining table in common with Grand Duchess Elisaveta Petrovna, Princess Anna and the Prince of Brunswick. The Duke of Courland with all his surname is also invited to this table. In the evening there was a ball that lasted no longer than two hours.

The next day, before noon, the prince went together with his wife to the Summer Palace and had a private dining table with the empress. In the evening there was a ball in the gallery in the presence of the monarch. During the ball, the imperial envoy, the Marquis de Botta, arrived to bring congratulations to the Empress. He found her in another room near the gallery, and bowing to the empress, she asked him to sit down. After a brief conversation, both got up and went into the gallery to watch the dance, on which occasion the said messenger entered into conversation with the princess, and finally left after three-quarters of an hour. At about ten o'clock the princess was in common with the prince, and all the invited persons of both sexes had an evening meal in the great hall, while the empress ate in another chamber with the Duke of Courland and his family. After the table, the dancing did not last long, and so the day ended.

On the third day, the Empress honored the newlyweds with her visit and had a dinner table with them in common with the Duke of Courland and his surname.

The fourth day was a day of rest, but on the fifth day at the Summer Palace there was a masquerade, consisting of four quadrilles, on which was also the Marquis de Botta, who had resigned the title of extraordinary envoy the day before. The evening table was in the garden under a vast tent, and the public danced in the alleys.

On the sixth, an Italian opera is presented.

On the seventh and last day there was a ball and dinner in the Summer Palace, and at the end of this celebration, a magnificent and precious firework was burned on the Neva River.

With military operations this year, the following happened.

At the end of April, my father set out for the second time from the Ukraine with an army of sixty to seventy thousand regular troops, not including others, irregulars.

After a comfortable and calm march through the southern Polish provinces, my father stopped at the town of Sinyavki, on the banks of the Dniester.

Successor: Alexander Romanovich Vorontsov Birth: December 30th(1707-12-30 ) Death: January 21(1788-01-21 ) (80 years old)
Saint Petersburg Genus: von Minich Father: Burchard Christoph von Minich Mother: Christina Lucrezia von Witzleben Spouse: Anna Dorothea von Mengden Military service Affiliation: Russian empire Russian empire Rank: lieutenant general Awards:

Graph Johann Ernst Minich, in Russian documents Sergei Khristoforovich Minikh (Ernst Johann von Munnich; December 30th ( 17071230 ) - January 21, St. Petersburg) - Russian politician, diplomat, memoirist from the Minich family. Grandfather of Baroness Kridener, who had a huge influence on Alexander I.

Biography

Compositions

"Notes of Count Ernst Munnich, Field Marshal's son, written by him for his children in Vologda in 1758", St. Petersburg 1817.
"Remarks on the notes of General Manstein", "Domestic Notes". 1825-1828.

Family

Daughter: Anna Ulrika von Munnich (05/07/1741-01/16/1811) was married from October 23, 1756 to Baron Otto Hermann von Vietinghoff

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Literature

An excerpt characterizing Munnich, Johann Ernst

- How?
“To the head of the French government, au chef du gouverienement francais,” Prince Dolgorukov said seriously and with pleasure. - Isn't that good?
“Good, but he won’t like it very much,” Bolkonsky remarked.
- Oh, and very much! My brother knows him: he dined with him more than once, with the present emperor, in Paris and told me that he had never seen a more refined and cunning diplomat: you know, a combination of French dexterity and Italian acting? Do you know his jokes with Count Markov? Only one Count Markov knew how to handle him. Do you know the history of the scarf? This is a charm!
And the garrulous Dolgorukov, turning now to Boris, now to Prince Andrei, told how Bonaparte, wanting to test Markov, our envoy, purposely dropped his handkerchief in front of him and stopped, looking at him, probably expecting services from Markov, and how, Markov immediately he dropped his handkerchief beside him and picked up his own without picking up Bonaparte's handkerchief.
- Charmant, [Charming,] - said Bolkonsky, - but here's what, prince, I came to you as a petitioner for this young man. Do you see what?…
But Prince Andrei did not have time to finish, when an adjutant entered the room, who called Prince Dolgorukov to the emperor.
- Oh, what a shame! - said Dolgorukov, hastily getting up and shaking hands with Prince Andrei and Boris. - You know, I am very glad to do everything that depends on me, both for you and for this nice young man. - He once again shook Boris's hand with an expression of good-natured, sincere and lively frivolity. “But you see…until another time!”
Boris was excited by the thought of the closeness to the highest power in which he felt himself at that moment. He was aware of himself here in contact with those springs that guided all those enormous movements of the masses, of which he in his regiment felt himself to be a small, obedient and insignificant part. They went out into the corridor after Prince Dolgorukov and met a short man in civilian clothes, with an intelligent face and a sharp line of protruding jaw, which, without spoiling him, gave him a special vivacity and resourcefulness of expression. This short man nodded, as to his own, Dolgoruky, and began to stare at Prince Andrei with an intently cold look, walking straight at him and apparently waiting for Prince Andrei to bow to him or give way. Prince Andrei did neither one nor the other; Anger was expressed in his face, and the young man, turning away, walked along the side of the corridor.
- Who is this? Boris asked.
- This is one of the most remarkable, but the most unpleasant people to me. This is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Adam Czartoryski.
“These are the people,” said Bolkonsky with a sigh that he could not suppress, while they were leaving the palace, “these are the people who decide the fate of peoples.
The next day, the troops set out on a campaign, and Boris did not have time to visit either Bolkonsky or Dolgorukov until the battle of Austerlitz, and remained for a while in the Izmailovsky regiment.

At dawn on the 16th, Denisov's squadron, in which Nikolai Rostov served, and who was in the detachment of Prince Bagration, moved from overnight to work, as they said, and, having passed about a verst behind other columns, was stopped on the main road. Rostov saw how the Cossacks, the 1st and 2nd squadrons of hussars, infantry battalions with artillery passed by him, and generals Bagration and Dolgorukov with adjutants passed by. All the fear that he, as before, experienced before the deed; all the internal struggle through which he overcame this fear; all his dreams of how he would distinguish himself like a hussar in this matter were in vain. Their squadron was left in reserve, and Nikolai Rostov spent that day bored and dreary. At 9 o'clock in the morning he heard firing ahead of him, shouts of cheers, saw the wounded brought back (there were few of them) and, finally, saw how in the middle of hundreds of Cossacks they led a whole detachment of French cavalrymen. Obviously, the matter was over, and the matter was apparently small, but happy. Soldiers and officers passing back spoke of a brilliant victory, about the occupation of the city of Vishau and the capture of an entire French squadron. The day was clear, sunny, after a strong night frost, and the merry brilliance of the autumn day coincided with the news of the victory, which was conveyed not only by the stories of those who participated in it, but also by the joyful expression on the faces of soldiers, officers, generals and adjutants who were traveling back and forth past Rostov . The more painful was the heart of Nikolai, who in vain had suffered all the fear that preceded the battle, and spent this cheerful day in inaction.
- Rostov, come here, let's drink from grief! shouted Denisov, sitting down on the edge of the road in front of a flask and a snack.
The officers gathered in a circle, eating and talking, near Denisov's cellar.
- Here's another one! - said one of the officers, pointing to a French dragoon prisoner, who was led on foot by two Cossacks.
One of them led a tall and beautiful French horse taken from a prisoner.
- Sell the horse! shouted Denisov to the Cossack.
"Excuse me, your honor..."
The officers stood up and surrounded the Cossacks and the captured Frenchman. The French dragoon was a young fellow, an Alsatian who spoke French with a German accent. He was choking with excitement, his face was red, and, hearing French, he quickly spoke to the officers, referring first to one, then to the other. He said they wouldn't take him; that it was not his fault that they took him, but le caporal, who sent him to seize blankets, that he told him that the Russians were already there. And to every word he added: mais qu "on ne fasse pas de mal a mon petit cheval [But don't hurt my horse,] and caressed his horse. It was evident that he did not understand well where he was. He then apologized, that he was taken, then, assuming before him his superiors, showed his soldierly serviceability and care for the service.He brought with him to our rearguard in all the freshness the atmosphere of the French army, which was so alien to us.