Minich Christopher Andreevich (German Burkhard Christoph von Münnich, in Russia was known as Christopher Antonovich Munnich; May 9, 1683 (16830509), Neuenhuntorf, Oldenburg - October 16 (October 27), 1767, Tartu) - Russian Field Marshal.

Christopher Antonovich Munnich had German origin, but his military and state talents manifested themselves in Russia, which he served for a long time and zealously as his second homeland. He went down in Russian history as an outstanding military and economic figure, an invincible field marshal, a successor to the cause of Peter the Great. Under the military leadership of Minich, the Russian army has always won victories; Field Marshal Minich entered military history as the winner of the Turks and Crimeans. Minich carried out colossal work on the qualitative improvement of the Russian army, serfdom and rear, and Minich's enormous creative activity also concerned strengthening state system Russian Empire. Many of Minich's innovations for the Russian army have become fundamental and cardinal, the fruits of which we are reaping almost to this day.

The Russian state has the advantage over others that it is directly controlled by God himself, otherwise it is impossible to understand how it exists.

Minikh Khristofor Andreevich

Munnich was born in Oldenburg into a family of hereditary engineers involved in water communications. He received a thorough education, having mastered engineering and drawing arts, mastered Latin and French, and also gained experience in the field of hydraulic engineering.

In the years 1700-1720 he served as an engineer in the French, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Kassel and Polish-Saxon armies. Under the banner of Prince Eugene of Savoy and the Duke of Marlborough, he participated in the War of the Spanish Succession, in a number of military campaigns in Europe, which gave him combat experience. In Germany, he earned the rank of colonel, in Poland he received the rank of major general from Augustus II.

In 1721, at the invitation of the Russian ambassador in Warsaw, G. Dolgorukov, Minich arrived in Russia to conduct engineering affairs, conceived by Peter I.

Minikh's successful activities in arranging navigation on the Neva, laying roads, building the Baltic port, and laying the first bypass Ladoga Canal in 1723-1728 brought him deep respect from the tsar. In 1722 he was promoted to lieutenant general, in 1726, already under Catherine I, to general general, awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky.

After Peter's death, his successors Catherine I and Menshikov had no intention of canceling the results of his activities, but such an uncertain situation arose that Peter's decrees were no longer implemented, and police chief Devier often allowed concessions in this matter. From the spring of 1725 began a general flight of people from St. Petersburg, belonging to any class, who sought to leave the capital for Moscow or the provinces. On February 24, 1728, the young Emperor Peter the Second (October 12, 1715 - January 19, 1730) was crowned in Moscow, and the court moved there the day before. The emperor was completely uninterested state affairs and led I'm celebrating life. No one was paid anything, and everyone stole as much as they could. Petersburg was empty, and the question was even raised as to whether it should remain the capital, since during four years it was missing imperial court.

In 1727, Emperor Peter II, who moved with his court to Moscow, appointed Minich the ruler of St. Petersburg. from 1728 he was a count, governor-general of Ingermanland, Karelia and Finland (until 1734).

Russian commander and statesman, Count (1728), Field Marshal General (1732).

Burchard Christoph Munnich was born on May 9 (19), 1683 in the county of Oldenburg in the family of a hydraulic engineer. He received a thorough education, focused mainly on engineering.

In 1700-1720, B.K. Minich served as an engineer in the French, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Kassel and Polish-Saxon armies, gained combat experience in the War of the Spanish Succession.

In 1721, having the rank of major general of the Polish-Saxon army, B.K. Minich came to and was introduced. He successfully passed tests for knowledge of engineering (he was instructed to draw a fortification plan), received the rank of major general in the Russian service, and soon lieutenant general. In Russia, they began to call him Christopher Antonovich.

Since 1723, Kh. A. Minikh supervised the construction of the Ladoga Canal (completed in 1728). In 1726 he was promoted to General-in-Chief and awarded the order Saint Alexander Nevsky. The promotion of H. A. Munnich was harmed by hostile relations with, while his patron was. After the fall in 1727, Munnich's career went up sharply: in 1728 he received the title of count, and in 1729 - the post of Feldzeugmeister General. Peter II appointed Kh. A. Munnich as governor-general.

The peak of H. A. Munnich's career fell on the years of his reign. In 1731 he became a member of the Cabinet of Ministers, Chief of Police and President of the Military College, in 1732 he received the rank of Field Marshal. Kh. A. Minikh carried out a number of important transformations in the Russian army. On his initiative, a decree was issued on equalizing the salaries of Russian and foreign officers, the gentry was founded cadet corps which soon became one of the best educational institutions. Also H. A. Minich is credited with the creation of heavy cavalry in the Russian army - a cuirassier. Thanks to his efforts, the first hussar regiments appeared.

Kh. A. Minikh developed and put into effect a number of new documents of a statutory nature concerning the training of troops, the organization of combat, the structure of army regiments, etc.

In 1734-1735, H. A. Minich commanded the Russian troops in the War of the Polish Succession, took Danzig (Gdansk) and secured the Polish throne for King August III. In the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739, the troops of Kh. A. Minich captured Perekop, penetrated the Crimea and captured the capital of the Crimean Khanate - Bakhchisaray. In July 1737, he stormed the fortress of Ochakov. In August 1739, the army of Kh. A. Minich defeated the Turkish troops, which outnumbered them in the battle near Stavuchany, after which the Khotyn fortress capitulated.

After the death in 1740, H. A. Minich, together with organized a palace coup, which removed the favorite of the empress from power. In 1741, with the accession to the throne, the field marshal was arrested, tried and sentenced to death, replaced by exile in the town of the Tobolsk province of the Siberian province.

In 1762 he returned Kh. A. Munnich from exile and returned to him all the ranks and awards. The field marshal occupied a prominent position at court. Being with the person of the emperor on the day coup d'état June 28 (July 9), 1762, H. A. Munnich gave him a number valuable advice about how to organize resistance to the conspirators, but the emperor did not listen to them. When the case was lost, the commander swore allegiance and was appointed commander-in-chief of the ports of Rogervik, Reval, Narva, Kronstadt, and also over the Ladoga Canal.

In the last years of his life H. A. Munnich was engaged in the construction of a port in Rogervik (now Paldiski in Estonia).

Khristofor Antonovich Minich died on October 16 (27), 1767 in Dorpat (now the Estonian city of Tartu), and was buried in his Livonian estate Lunia.

Field Marshal Munnich

(von Münnich, 1683-1767) - Russian statesman. Born in the county of Oldenburg. Minich's father, Anton Günther, rose to the rank of colonel in the Danish service and received the title of superintendent of dams and all water works in the counties of Oldenburg and Delmengort from the Danish king; he was elevated to the nobility in 1702. Minich's initial education was aimed at studying, mainly, drawing, mathematics and the French language. At the age of sixteen he entered French service in engineering, but in view of the war being prepared between France and Germany, he moved to the Hesse-Darmstadt Corps, where he soon received the rank of captain. When, during the War of the Spanish Succession, the Hesse-Kassel Corps was hired with Anglo-Dutch money, Minich joined it and fought under the command of Prince Eugene and Marlborough. In 1712 he was wounded and taken prisoner, where he remained until the end of the war. In 1716, he entered the service of Augustus II, but did not get along with his favorite, Count Flemming, and began to look for new service, fluctuating between Charles XII and Peter I. His choice was decided by death Charles XII. Having met the Russian envoy in Warsaw, Prince G. Dolgoruky, Munnich handed over his writings on fortification to Peter I through him, and in 1720 he received an offer to take the post of general engineer in Russia. Minich agreed, without even concluding a written condition, and in February 1721 he arrived in Russia.

The rank of lieutenant general promised to him was given to him only a year later; at the same time, Minich presented written "conditions", according to which he pledged to serve Russia for 5-6 years, observing hydraulic work on the Baltic coast. In 1723, he was entrusted by the emperor with the completion of the Ladoga Canal, begun under the supervision of Major General Pisarev back in 1710, which had swallowed up a lot of lives and money and, nevertheless, made little progress. Pisarev was patronized by Menshikov, and therefore in the last Minich made himself a sworn enemy. The channel was completed by Minich after the death of Peter I. With the accession to the throne of Catherine I, Minich tried to more accurately define his relationship to Russia. He presented the Empress with new "conditions", by which he pledged to serve in Russia for another ten years, after which he could leave; children at this time he could bring up abroad; demanded a guarantee from Russia of his estates in Denmark and England, in case of war between the latter; agreed to replace them with a corresponding number of estates in Russia; asked for the return to him "at the disposal" of all customs and tavern fees on the Ladoga Canal. These "conditions" were already approved by Peter II, who appointed Minich the chief director of the fortifications. In 1728, he entered into a second marriage with the widow of Chief Marshal Saltykov, nee Baroness Maltsan, who followed him through all the vicissitudes of his life.

When the plans of the leaders, at the beginning of the reign of Anna Ioannovna, failed, Minich became close to Osterman, and through him to the Empress and Biron, and was made a member of the cabinet for military and foreign affairs. In 1731, Munnich was appointed chairman of a special commission, which had the goal of streamlining the state of the army and finding measures to maintain the latter without much burden from that people. In this rank, he outlined a new order for the guards, field and garrison regiments, formed two new guards regiments - Izmailovsky and horse guards, started a cuirassier, separated the engineering unit from the artillery, established a land cadet corps, took measures to more properly equip and arm the troops, arranged for twenty regiments of Ukrainian militia, from the same palaces of the Belgorod and Sevsk ranks. Fearing Munnich's influence on the Empress, Osterman, Biron, Count Golovkin tried to remove him from St. Petersburg. During the struggle for the Polish throne in 1733, Munnich was sent to the theater of operations and took Danzig (1734). Shortly thereafter began Turkish war. The Kyiv governor-general von Weisbach was appointed to the commander-in-chief, but he died on the eve of the campaign; his successor, Leontiev, went on a campaign late autumn and lost many soldiers to disease. Then it was ordered to Minich, who at that time was in Poland, to move the army to Ukraine and take the main command over the army. Minich met with the Cossacks and with their help began to make campaigns in the Crimea, then took Ochakov, took possession of Khotyn (1739), and so on. He did not feel sorry for the soldiers who died in multitudes from hunger, cold and various diseases. A trip to the Crimea, for example, cost Russia up to 30 thousand people. During a campaign in Bessarabia (1738), 11,060 soldiers and 5,000 Cossacks died from diseases, especially from diarrhea and scurvy. Such treatment of the soldiers caused murmurs against Munnich both among officers and soldiers, and among Russian society. After the victory at Stavuchany (1739) and the occupation of Khotin, Minich dreamed of crossing the Danube, of conquering Constantinople, of forming a special Moldavian principality under the protectorate of Russia, and he, Minich, would be the ruler of Moldavia, like Biron - the Duke of Courland. Munnich's hopes did not come true. Russia's allies, the Austrians, entered into negotiations with Turkey and concluded peace in Belgrade separately from Russia, and on October 7, 1739, St. Petersburg joined this peace. cabinet (see Belgrade world). Minich's military successes had almost no results for Russia.

Minich was among those present at last hours the life of Anna Ioannovna; he asked Biron to accept the regency during the early childhood of Ivan Antonovich and assisted in the preparation of Anna Ioannovna's will in this sense. When Biron became regent, Minich became close to Anna Leopoldovna and on November 8, 1740, made a coup: Biron was arrested and subsequently exiled to Pelym, Anna Leopoldovna was proclaimed ruler, and Minich was made the first minister. Minich was now the most strong man in Russia; but this did not last long. As a result of Osterman's intrigues, between Munnich and the husband of the ruler, Anton-Ulrich, there were constant disagreements and clashes in relation to the army (Anton-Ulrich was the generalissimo of the Russian troops). These clashes had the effect of cooling the ruler towards Minich; the latter was forced to resign (March 6, 1741). After the coup that placed Elizaveta Petrovna on the throne, Minich was sent into exile, to the very Pelym where he exiled Biron.

Minich spent twenty years in Pelym, praying to God, reading Holy Bible, zealously attending the service, which, after the death of the pastor with him, he performed himself. This did not prevent him, however, from sending various projects to St. Petersburg with requests for pardon - and these sendings were so frequent that around 1746 they were even banned, but from 1749 they resumed again. By decree of Peter III, Minich was returned from exile in 1762 and restored in all his rights and distinctions. Minich did not get along with Peter III, since he did not sympathize with either the war planned by the emperor with Denmark, or the desire to dress him up and remake the Russian army according to the Prussian model. During the coup on June 28, 1762, Munnich was with Peter III and advised him to go to Revel, and from there, on the Russian squadron, abroad and with the Holstein troops, come again to get the throne. When Peter's case was lost, Minich swore allegiance to Catherine and was appointed commander-in-chief of the ports of Rogervik, Revel, Narva, Kronstadt and the Ladoga Canal. He was mainly engaged in the construction of the Rogervik harbor, for which he once drew up a drawing. Catherine II treated him with attention: she handed one of the first copies of her "Instruction" to Minikh, with a request to read it and tell her her opinion. They also think that Minich's Notes, in which he tries to prove the necessity of the establishment state council, in order to "fill the void between the supreme power and the power of the Senate", - written for Catherine and with her consent (opinion of K. N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin). Minich was buried in his Lunia estate, in Livonia, not far from Derpt. Minich's personality has not yet found an impartial assessment in Russian historiography: M. D. Khmyrov exaggerates the significance of facts unfavorable to him; N. I. Kostomarov, on the contrary, tries to present the personality of Munnich in a possibly sympathetic light.

"Notes of Field Marshal Count M." ("Ebauche pour donner une idée de la forme du gouvernement de l" empire de Russie ") were published in the 2nd volume of Notes of Foreigners on Russia in the 18th century" (St. Petersburg 1874), which also contains: 1) "Excerpt from Munnich's diary", embracing the time from May 1683 to September 1721; 2) M. D. Khmyrov's article: "Count Munnich's Feldzeugmeister" and 3) Index of books and articles about Munnich. Cf. Kostomarov, "Field Marshal Munnich and its significance in Russian history" ("Russian history in the biographies of its main figures").

N. V-ko.

Encyclopedia Brockhaus-Efron

People with great minds and strong will, people capable of versatile activities, however, there are objects to which they indulge more than others and, so to speak, show a predilection for them. Peter the Great had such an addiction to water. Swimming on water, directing water in such a way that it would benefit a person and not cause harm - these were Peter's favorite pastimes. Water navigation occupied his being to such an extent that he took it into his head to found a harbor in the middle of the mainland in Voronezh and wanted to make the deep-bottomed Don a direct route to the Black Sea. Petersburg, his creation, was his chosen "paradise", where he willy-nilly dragged inhabitants from all over his wide state, and no one dared complain to him about the damp and unhealthy air of this paradise. The arrangement of docks, the digging of canals, the construction and launching of ships - all this was pleasant to Peter's heart and gave him reasons to show festive pleasures. It is clear that with such a love for water, the Russian sovereign, both in Russia and abroad, was looking for people who, like him, would love the same water exercises and could be faithful and capable performers of his inscriptions. And in this regard, no one was a suitable person for the great sovereign to such an extent as Minich, just like Peter, versatile, capable of everything, agile, indefatigable, and also cherishing the water business to a passion. Munnich was a native of the region lying on the German Sea. This region in the seaside, between the Weser and the Bremen region from the east, the bishopric of Münster and the county of Ostfriesland from the west and the electorate of Brunswick from the south, from the 12th century included two separate counties - Oldenburg and Delmengorst, which at the beginning of the 14th century merged into one possession, but then more than once again divided and reunited. In the middle of the 15th century, the son of Count Dietrich of Oldenburg, Christian, was elected Danish king, and since then the fate of this region has been closely associated with the fate of Denmark, although at times there were individual rulers, and with half of XVII centuries, both counties firmly entered the Danish possessions. In general, this region, according to its topographic position, was extremely abundant in water and was subject to frequent floods, and one of the volosts into which this region was divided, Die Vogtey Wüsteland, where Minich was born, was a perfect swamp; the construction of channels and the construction of dams, locks and bridges was a matter of prime necessity for the inhabitants; without it, it would be impossible to live there.

The Minich family belonged to peasant class, and members of this family from generation to generation were engaged in the construction of dams and in general water business: the great-grandfather and grandfather of our Munnich were the main dam builders in their small Vusteland volost, and his father, Anton-Günther Munnich, served in the Danish service with the rank of lieutenant colonel, and then he received from the Danish king the title of chief overseer of dams and all water works in the counties of Oldenburg and Delmengorst. He received the dignity of nobility, which was subsequently approved by Emperor Leopold in 1702. Being in the Danish service in the position indicated above, Anton-Günther Minich lived with his family on his estate in the village of Neingunttorf, and there, from his marriage to Sophia-Katerina, née von Etken, on May 9, 1683, his second son , Burchard-Christoph, the hero of this biography.

Even in tender childhood and then in adolescence, he showed extraordinary abilities, he quickly learned everything, easily adopted everything. Being nine years old, he copied drawings and plans, accompanied his parent on his trips to duty and rewrote his father's book on waterworks in the Oldenburg county. The boy had no other tools for his drawings, except for those he bought with the savings left over from travel expenses to Courland, where he accompanied his sister, who had married there. In 1699, Anton-Günther left the Danish service and received a position in the neighboring principality of Ostfriesland. The young Burchard-Christoph continued to study, acquired a thorough mathematical knowledge, and learned French. When he was sixteen years old, his father let him go to France, where the young man entered the military service in engineering, but soon left it, having heard that there would be a war between France and Germany: he would have to fight against compatriots and participate in the shedding of German blood . After leaving France, he settled in Germany in the Hesse-Darmstadt Corps, which was preparing to fight the French. At that time, patriotic fanaticism flared up among German youth. According to the manifesto, addressed to all Germans in general, they shouted that the French were hereditary enemies of the German tribe, that they constantly slandered and humiliated german people; the still unforgotten ferocity committed by the French in the conquest of Alsace, gave this enmity a justification for the need for retribution. Such a spirit then prevailed among all Germans, with the exception of the Bavarians, who alone were then the allies of France. Minich, having received the rank of captain, given to him because they noticed extraordinary information in military affairs in him, participated in the siege and conquest of the city of Landau, where the Hesse-Darmstadt army worked together with the Badenites. But soon after that the Hesse-Darmstadt army retreated; Minich's father invited his son to his place and convinced him to take the position of chief engineer in the Ostfriesland principality. This happened in 1702, exactly the year when Anton-Günther received from the emperor approval of the nobility, granted to him by the Danish king. The young Minich did not live long with the Ostfriesland prince Eberhard, serving in the engineering department. He was attracted to Darmstadt by heartfelt love. There he liked the court of the Hesse-Darmstadt maid of honor Christina-Lukrezia Witzleben, a beautiful person of twenty years old. Minich was twenty-two years old. This happened in 1705. He entered into a marriage union with this person, who became his girlfriend in the true sense of the word, devoted to him until her death and sharing with him all his labors and dangers.

At that time, the Hesse-Kassel corps entered the military field against France, on the Anglo-Dutch salary. Minich decided to join this corps and soon received the rank of major. He was on campaigns under the leadership of Eugene of Savoy and the Duke of Marlborough, and had the opportunity to look at the military methods of these greatest generals of their century. Under the command of Eugene, Minich participated in the cleansing of upper Italy from the French, and although the Hessians were defeated at Castiglion, Eugene soon corrected the matter, defeating the French at Turin, and undertook an invasion of Provence, which ended only in the conquest of Susa. But then, when the French completely left Italy, Eugene transferred weapons to the Netherlands, where Marlborough was already fighting, and the Hesse-Kassel corps went there; Minich continued to serve in it. In 1708 he was at the battle of Oudenard: that was the first general battle in which our hero had to be; he was also under a long-term siege and the capture of Lille, during the capture of Bruges and Ghent. After that, peace negotiations were opened, and the Hesse-Kassel corps retreated to winter quarters in Germany. The winter that followed was unusually harsh and cruel: this is the winter that we in Little Russia exterminated a significant part of Swedish forces brought there by Charles XII. Peaceful attempts were not successful, and in the spring of 1709 hostilities began again between the Germans and the French. Minich with the Hessians-Kassels participated in the capture of Tournai and in the Battle of Malplaquet, the bloodiest of all the battles in the 18th century (August 31, or September 11, NS, 1709). AT next years, 1710 and 1711, the German troops almost did not take part in the war, and in 1712, when negotiations between the warring parties were already taking place in Utrecht and everything in Europe was tending to peace, the Dutch general Abermerl, who served under the banner of Prince Eugene, received an order from his chief commander to protect shops with supplies arranged for the army. But England was negotiating peace with France, and as a result, the English troops suddenly retreated from Eugene; the repulsed Eugene could not help the detachment guarding the shops; Abermerl was taken prisoner with many generals and staff officers. On this day, Lieutenant Colonel Munnich, who served in the Hesse-Kassel army, was pierced in lower part stomach, fainted and was taken prisoner by the French. They treated him very kindly and attentively, bandaged his wound, looked after him, and when he began to get out of bed, they sent him as a prisoner of war somewhere in France (in Paris or in Cambrai?). There they continued to provide him with medical benefits, and meanwhile, he met the famous Archbishop Fenelon. Munnich liked to remember conversations with this man already in his old age as the most pleasant moments in his life, spent in a community with such a bright mind.

Minich recovered and received freedom. The War of the Spanish Succession ended. Minich arrived in Kassel, received the rank of colonel, and, being in the Hesse-Kassel service for another two years, was engaged in his favorite since childhood, water business - he watched the device of the canal and the gateway in Karlshaven. But his extremely lively disposition and the need for strong sensations carried him to where military activity. The West of Europe was pacified; in the east, the great Northern War has not yet ended. In 1716 Munnich entered the service of the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland Augustus. He arranged for the Polish crown guard, was promoted to the rank of major general and received fourteen thousand Reichstalers an annual salary. He was not at ease there. But he did not get along with some persons and, most importantly, did not get along with Count. Flemming, favorite of King Augustus. Already before, many generals left the Polish service through this man. And Minich had to experience the same. Minich from 1719 began to seek out another fatherland. He hesitated over which of his two rivals he should stick to: Charles XII or Peter I. Charles laid his violent head near Friedrichsham, and Munnich settled on Peter. He met his envoy in Warsaw, Prince Grigory Dolgoruky, and gave him his essay on fortification to inform the tsar. In this way, Minich became known to Peter, and in the next 1720, Prince. Grigory Dolgoruky invited Minikh to go to Russia and serve there as an engineer general, promising an immediate promotion to the rank of lieutenant general. Minich, apparently, respected Peter, and he really wanted to get into the service of such a sovereign, whose transforming exploits were then trumpeted in Europe. Minich agreed immediately and did not even make any written conditions with the Russian ambassador: later, having seen Russia closer, he considered it appropriate to limit his excessive credulity. Minich did not reveal to King Augustus his intention to enter the Russian service, but said that he was going to his old father in his homeland. Leaving Warsaw, he traveled through Konigsberg and Riga to Petersburg, where he arrived in February 1721.

From that time on, Minich became wholly owned by Russia, and his name entered a number of names of famous figures in Russian history. He was 37 years old. He was tall, extremely stately complex, handsome in face; his high open forehead and quick penetrating eyes showed from the first sight that greatness of spirit which makes one love, respect and obey in everything. But at the same time, he seemed very youthful for his years. Many in the Russian service, who distinguished themselves in the war against the Swedes, were older than the new stranger in years and time of service and remained in the rank of major general. The special preference of the newcomer would be insulting to them. Moreover, Peter himself wanted to test the newcomer. The tsar ordered him to accompany him on various trips, showed him the Admiralty shipyard in St. Petersburg himself, went with him to Kronstadt, then to Riga, surveyed various fortifications and listened attentively to Munnich's remarks, made an inspection of the troops in his eyes, and also on this occasion listened to his speeches, but meanwhile, he did not promote him to the rank, as Minich hoped, having received a promise from Prince. Dolgoruky. An unexpected case decided this issue in favor of Munnich. The king with a circle of close associates was in Riga. Minich was also with them. Suddenly, a lightning strike lit up the bell tower of St. Peter's Church. The sovereign wanted to fix what had been destroyed and restore it in its original form, and demanded from the Riga magistrate a drawing former building. The drawing was not preserved in the magistrate. Luckily for Munnich, in the room allotted to him right opposite St. Peter's Church, sitting by the window, having nothing to do, he sketched a bell tower for himself. A certain Baron Waldecker, the commander of the Order of St. John, knew about this, posing as an envoy of the Elector of Trier, but in fact former agent the pretender to the English throne, Stuart, and who came to Russia to visit: is it possible to win over Tsar Peter to the pretender. When the magistrate did not have a drawing of the bell tower, Waldecker told Yaguzhinsky that Munnich had such a drawing. Yaguzhinsky demanded it from Minikh and presented it to the tsar, and the tsar, remembering that Minikh had been promised a promotion, ordered him to issue a patent for the rank of lieutenant general. But the patent was signed a year in advance - May 22, 1722, and Minich still had to serve another whole year with the rank of major general. Minich was to accept with gratitude this royal favor. Here Minich realized that if Prince. Dolgoruky promised him a promotion immediately, but it did not follow as soon as one could hope, which means that the Russian government cannot be trusted unconditionally. Now only he presented the conditions under which he pledged to serve Russia for five or six years - to supervise hydraulic work, but only on the Baltic coast, so that everything he needed was given to him at his request.

At the same time, in Riga, Munnich received the sad news of the death of both his parents, one after the other, and asked to go to Oldenburg to arrange his affairs. He visited his homeland, and that was last time in his life, although constant desire it was old age to return there. His older brother ( chief caretaker water business, appointed by the Danish king) disputed his father's will, which left all his father's estate not to him, but to his second son. Christoph Munnich settled the dispute with his brother, reconciled with him and returned to Russia.

Taking care of St. Petersburg, his favorite work, Peter was worried that the water communication of the newly built city with the internal countries of Russia was hampered by the rapids on the Tosna River at its confluence with the Neva. The king wanted to arrange a gateway, hold bypass channel and build a road along the banks of the Neva from Shlisselburg to St. Petersburg. All this was performed by Minich. Peter instructed him to draw a plan for the Rogervik harbor, which the king intended to build. Minich introduced him to the king.

In 1723, Munnich had other, more important and complex hydraulic work ahead of him. Since 1710, the Ladoga Canal was started in order to enable floating ships to avoid Lake Ladoga, extremely restless and stormy in autumn, where many ships disappeared every year. The work was carried out under the supervision of Major General Pisarev and proceeded extremely slowly. When in 1723 Peter returned from Persian campaign and stopped in Moscow, he drew attention to the fact that the Ladoga Canal was made for such long time barely twelve versts. Peter found that it was necessary to entrust the supervision of the canal works to another person. Feldzeugmeister General Bruce pointed out Munnich to the tsar. The tsar saw Minikh, listened to his considerations and instructed to visit the canal and make sure that the water in Lake Ladoga either rises or falls, and whether it is necessary, in accordance with these changes in the water level in the lake, to build a channel. Minich made this trip. The inhabitants of the shores of Lake Ladoga assured that the water in the lake rises seven feet for seven years, and falls by the same amount over the next seven years; but Munnich, experienced and versed in the laws of hydraulics, found that to such an extent a difference in the rise and fall of the water level is impossible, and although it actually exists, it does not reach more than three feet. Upon the return of Minich from the trip, a disagreement arose between the engineers on the direction which should be chosen for the canal, and Tsar Peter appointed a commission of knowledgeable people who were to consider and resolve this issue. Major General Pisarev, who until that time was in charge of canal work, was among the members of this commission. He argued that the dug twelve versts should be left in their present form, and the remaining 92 versts (the length of the entire canal should have been 104 versts) - to dig a canal, to reduce costs by raising two arshins above ordinary water and only one arshin deeper than the water in the lake, having concluded these 92 versts between two locks in order to raise the water above the level. The majority of the members of the commission approved Pisarev's opinion solely because Pisarev was patronized by the all-powerful Menshikov. Only engineer Len suggested some change. Minich refuted both and argued that the small rivers, which were thought to fill the canal with their water, were so shallow that the canal could remain waterless during the summer. Peter, hearing such heterogeneity, referred the matter to the senate for discussion, but the senators, in addition to having little understanding of hydraulics, looked at how to please Menshikov as the main thing. Menshikov, on the other hand, did not like Minich and said: perhaps Minich is a good general, but he does not understand much about the canal business. Prince Grigory Dolgoruky, the same one who invited Minich to Russia from Warsaw, now informed Minich that Pisarev was slandering him before the tsar that he, Minich, wanted to deceive the tsar and deceive him. Munnich, a proud and ardent man, said: “If the canal is conducted the way Pisarev wants, then it will never be finished. Let the sovereign look with his own eyes - and then he will say that Minich is right. "This was handed over to the sovereign, and Peter wished to survey the canal together with Minich and others. In the autumn of 1723, Peter set off. Munnich, following the king, showed him that it was impossible to draw a canal through the swamp from seven to nine feet above the usual water level. "I see that you worthy person"- Peter told him in Dutch. In the evening we reached the village of Chernaya. Due to the abundance of cockroaches in the huts, the tsar did not dare to spend the night in people's housing and ordered to pitch a tent for himself, where he spent the night in the great autumn cold. Here Pisarev used all his efforts , as if to prevent the sovereign from going further, so that the sovereign would not see his bad work in the village of Dubna. Pisarev's side was held by the tsar's life physician Blumentrost: he represented to the tsar that further riding would damage his health. Blumentrost turned to Minich and said to him: " You are embarking on a dangerous business. You drag the sovereign on the road when he is weak, and this path can only be done on horseback, and then with with great difficulty. Well, if he finds something different from what you reported to him, then great grief will happen to you!" "Come with me to the sovereign!" - said Minich. The king was then dressing. majesty took the trouble to personally review this channel! Your Majesty hasn't seen anything yet. If you please, go to Dubna to give an appropriate order to continue the canal." "What is this for?" asked Peter. Minich answered: "All the work begun twelve miles to Belozersk must change! This will require a lot of money, and if Your Majesty does not see it for yourself, then Pisarev's party will assure that the changes have been made in vain, the money has been spent, and the one who will be in charge of the work will disappear. "Peter was very tired, but ordered to give himself a horse and said: "Let's go to Dubna". Before reaching Dubna, the tsar surveyed part of Pisarev's works for fifteen miles. He did not like them very much. Peter jumped off his horse, lay down on his stomach on the ground and showed with his hand to Pisarev that the bank of the canal does not go along one lines, that its bottom is not everywhere of equal depth, that curvature was made without any need, that a dam was not built, etc. "Gregory," the king told him, "there are two kinds of errors: some come from ignorance, others follow their own vision and other senses. The latter are unforgivable." Pisarev took it into his head to justify himself and began to prove that the soil was hilly. But Peter got to his feet, looked around him and asked: "Where are the hills? You, I see, are a real scoundrel!" Everyone then thought that Peter would beat Pisarev with a club, and Pisarev himself would be pleased if this happened, because then he could get forgiveness for himself sooner. But the tsar restrained himself.

It was a complete victory for Munnich over his opponents; the king entrusted him with the construction of the canal. For this, Minich has since made an enemy in Menshikov.

A year later, in the autumn of 1724, according to a promise made in advance, Peter arrived at the canal to inspect Munnich's work. Having met with Minich, he ordered the water to be drained and, with his own hand, taking a spade, began to dig the dam that held it. The water rushed into the canal with rapidity. Nearby stood a small boat. Peter entered it and ordered Minich to sit down. The little boat was carried along the current of the channel dug by Minich, according to one message 3, four versts, and according to another 4 - ten or twelve. Peter, always and everywhere passionately fond of swimming, was delighted, constantly threw off his hat from his head, waved it and shouted: "Hurrah! Hurray!" Having made a trial voyage, Peter hugged and kissed Minich. "This canal," said the tsar, "will be of great importance. It will deliver food to St. Petersburg, Kronstadt, as well as building materials, and will facilitate Russia's trade with the rest of Europe." Returning to Petersburg, the tsar ordered Minich to go there as well. Arriving in St. Petersburg, Peter said to Catherine: "The works of my Munnich delight me and strengthen my health. The time is not far off when we will board a boat in St. Petersburg and go ashore in Moscow, in the Golovinsky Garden." The next day, Peter, together with Minikh, appeared in the senate and said in front of all the senators: “I found a person who will finish the Ladoga Canal for me. Even in the service, I did not have such a foreigner who would be so able to carry out great plans as Minikh! You must do whatever he wants!" After the departure of the tsar, Yaguzhinsky told Minich: "General! We will await your orders." Peter then entrusted Minich with the direction of the construction of the canal. At first sixteen thousand people worked on it, now Peter appointed twenty-five thousand. The tsar gave Minikh a promise, upon the retirement of the old Yakov Vasilievich Bruce, to give Minikh the post of Feldzeugmeister General and director over all state and private buildings. Peter did not live to see the end of the Ladoga Canal by Minikh.

A new reign has begun. Munnich realized that he was in a country where there is nothing lasting, and tried to provide himself with new conditions. He submitted a project for approval by the empress, by which he doomed himself to the service of Russia for another ten years, after which he reserved the right to leave. During these ten years he was able to bring up his children abroad. Minich asked for the rank of feldzeigmeister promised by Peter, with the benefits enjoyed by his predecessor Bruce. He asked for several items of real estate as a gift: an island on the Neva near Shlisselburg, the village of Ledneva, lying in the middle of the canal he had built, an old palace in Ladoga and a house in St. Petersburg. In the event of a war with Denmark and England, Russia was to guarantee his property in the possession of these powers, or instead of those properties, allot him appropriate estates in Russia. All customs and tavern fees on the Ladoga Canal were given to him at the disposition. Catherine did not have time to approve the agreement with Minich. He was approved under her successor Peter II, but even then not completely, because Munnich received the title of chief director of fortifications, and not the rank of general feldzeigmister, which he desired, relying on a promise, given by Peter Great. The fall of Menshikov, who did not love Minich, paved the way for the latter to rise. With Dolgoruky, who replaced Menshikov in influence over the tsar, Minich got along rather than with Menshikov. When in January 1728 Peter was taken to Moscow, Minich was left in St. Petersburg and entrusted to him to manage Ingermanland, Karelia and Finland with the main command over the troops stationed there, and on February 25 of the same year, on the day of the coronation of the sovereign, he was granted the title of count. One attention to him supreme power followed the other. In the same year, the Ladoga Canal was completely completed, and navigation was opened through it: on this occasion, the Supreme Privy Council sent him an address of thanks for completing such an important undertaking. The significance of Minich in the state increased with the granting of the post of governor-general in St. Petersburg. This happened because, as the chief commander of the troops, he had the right to promote and transfer persons who served under his command, and of these persons there were many who were in family and patronage ties with representatives of noble families, and the latter, interceding for their clients turned to Munnich with requests. Among the high-ranking persons who then needed Minich was Tsesarevna Elisaveta, who petitioned for some kind of second lieutenant.

One of the important things that Munnich did at that time was the project of establishing an engineering corps and a miner company (sappers) and an institution special school for the preparation of knowledgeable officers in this part 5. The following year, in 1729, after the death of General Feldzeigmeister Ginter, Munnich was made the chief commander of artillery 6.

In the autumn of 1728 Minich remarried. His first wife died in 1727. The new wife of Minikh was called Varvara-Eleonora, she was the widow of the Chief Marshal Saltykov, nee Baroness Maltzan, a natural German. Fortunately for Minich, the second friend of life, like the first, turned out to be a virtuous woman, she was sincerely devoted to him and shared with him all the twists and turns of fate that befell him.

A new reign of Anna Ivanovna began. Minich, a prudent man and, moreover, aware that he was a foreigner in Russia, did not interfere in the political undertakings of the leaders, who were trying to limit the autocratic power, and did not lean to either side. When Anna declared herself autocrat, Munnich became close to Osterman, who introduced him to the new empress and her favorite, Biron. Both liked it, and with the new reign began to acquire more significance. He received the long-desired rank of Feldzeugmeister General, and after the death of the old Prince Trubetskoy, the post of President of the Military Collegium, in which until that time he had been Vice President. Staying permanently in St. Petersburg as a local governor-general and leaving a memory in the annals of St. Petersburg with the cleansing of the Mya (Moika) River and the construction of several bridges and canals, Minich visited the Empress in Moscow, and became more and more close to Osterman and Biron. Osterman set up Minich to propose to the empress that instead of the destroyed supreme privy council, an office be established, the highest government place that would serve as an intermediary body between the highest person and the ruling senate. Initially, Minich proposed three dignitaries to this cabinet - Osterman, Golovkin and Prince. Cherkassky; Anna Ivanovna herself wished to add Munnich himself to them. Minich made excuses, finding that, as a foreigner, he was not sufficiently familiar with domestic policy Russia, but the empress insisted that Minich without fail join the cabinet for military and foreign affairs. In 1731, Minich was made chairman of a commission set up to find and establish measures for the elimination of unrest in the army and so arrange that the army be kept in order without burdening the people. As the head of this commission, Minich made several changes in the structure of the military unit in Russia; he drew up a new order for the guards, field and garrison regiments, formed two new guards regiments: Izmailovsky and Horse Guards, brought in heavy cavalry, the so-called cuirassiers, changing three dragoon regiments into cuirassiers, gave independent view the engineering unit, previously merged with the artillery, and established the Land Cadet Corps, in which Russian and Livonian gentry children from 13 to 18 years old should be taught arithmetic, geometry, drawing, fortification, horseback riding, fencing, shooting and any military formation. In addition, it was taken into account that the state needs not only military, but also political and civilian education, and, moreover, not everyone is capable of military service, and in these forms it is necessary to have teachers of foreign languages, to teach history, geography, jurisprudence, dancing, music and other sciences, which are considered useful, depending on the natural ability of the pupils. First, the number of students was determined at two hundred, then at 300; they were given to the premises on Vasilyevsky Island, the house of Prince. Menshikov, confiscated after his exile, and an amount was determined for the maintenance of the entire corpus, which increased with the multiplication of the number of students. Attention was also drawn to the children of military men of non-noble rank. Schools were established at the garrison infantry regiments, where boys from 7 to 15 years old were gathered for training, born while their fathers were in the service, but by no means those who were born already when their parents were retired. This was decided on the principle that the sons of servicemen should themselves be servicemen. By this measure, they thought to reduce recruitment sets in the form of alleviating the people. Minich, although he was a German by origin and until his death remained attached to his nationality, nowhere showed that arrogant attitude towards the Russians, which distinguished the Germans who served in Russia. Peter the Great, in order to lure foreign officers into the Russian army, ordered foreigners serving in the Russian army to make a double salary against natural Russians. And so the rule remained. Munnich was the first to realize the injustice of such a distinction and equate both to the same degree. For this, he won forever the love of Russians. Among the useful military institutions indicated by Minich at that time were the establishment of grocery stores for food for the troops, hospitals for crippled soldiers; various measures have been taken to properly equip and arm the troops; general reviews were established. Twenty regiments of the Ukrainian Land Militia were organized from the one-palaces of the Belogorod and Sevsk categories, resettling them and endowing them with arable land along the line of fortifications being built between the Dnieper and the Northern Donets and along the Northern Donets to the Cossack Don cities. A similar population followed the Tsaritsyn line. Instead of the six thousand settlers supposed under Peter the Great, twenty thousand were now assigned to the Ukrainian line. The recruitment and arrangement of the newly established Ukrainian line was assigned to General Tarakanov. On the Tsaritsyno militia along the banks of the Ilavlya and Medveditsa, a similar population of Cossacks under the chieftainship of Persidsky followed.

Minich, with his advice, helped to move the court from Moscow to St. Petersburg. As a foreigner and a sane supporter of the Peter the Great reform, he was not disposed to stay at the court in Moscow, where the influence of the party, which did not part with the memories of the old Muscovite Russia and did not tolerate any foreignness, was felt. After the empress settled down in Petersburg, Minich begged her to survey the canal he had completed and, so to speak, sanctify it with his personal attention. The Empress arrived in Shlisselburg and from there set off along the entire length of the canal in a yacht, which was accompanied by eighty ships. So they swam to the Volkhov River for a hundred and four miles. Two huge locks at both ends of the length of the canal closed the canal and kept water in it, the average height of which was up to a sazhen. Sixteen smaller locks were built on the north and south sides of the canal, which ran from west to east. These locks served to ensure that the accumulated excess water poured into the lake, and small rivers: Naziia, Shaldikha, Kabona and others, bringing their waters into the canal, into summer time they did not carry masses of sand and mud with them.

Munnich, as was said, at first became very close to Osterman, but when the empress made him a member of the cabinet, Osterman changed his feelings towards him. Biron began to hate Minich even more inwardly. The empress, seeing in Minich a very intelligent, versatile person and, moreover, devoted to her interests, more and more obeyed his advice and became attached to him. Biron was afraid that the clever Munnich would not push him away from the highest person, since Biron himself did not have a great mind or education, and he always felt his own smallness in front of Munnich. Minich was disliked by Ober-Stalmeister Levenvold and Chancellor Count. Golovkin. Both of them felt that Minich was more gifted and smarter than them; both excited, together with Osterman, the favorite of the Empress against Munnich. Biron and Levenvold arranged for Minich's behavior to be supervised, appointed fiscal officers who were supposed to find out his intentions or induce him to take some step that could harm him in the grace of the empress. But Munnich was not such that he could be let down by such measures. Minich lived in the palace, next to the chambers of the empress. Biron planned to force him out of there, so that, by at least, such proximity of the premises did not arouse fears in him that he could easily replace him, Biron, for Anna Ivanovna. Taking advantage of the empress's extraordinary confidence in himself, he presented to her that it was necessary to clear a room in the palace for the empress's niece, who had arrived in Petersburg; and the Empress looked upon her as her successor. Minikh was told that for this reason he had to cross the Neva. Minich obeyed, especially since there was a plausible reason: beyond the Neva, on Vasilyevsky Island, there was a cadet corps, of which Minich was the chief commander. Biron gave orders so unceremoniously that he did not even leave the field marshal time to move his furniture. But Minich's rivals were not content with this. They were looking for a reason to remove him altogether from the capital. The occasion presented itself.

King Augustus of Poland, a long-term ally of Russia, died on February 11, 1733. Two parties arose in Poland: one wanted to elect his son, Elector of Saxony, as successor to Augustus, the other - Stanislav Leshchinsky, who had already been elected to the rank of king at the insistence of Swedish king Charles XII. The courts of Russia and Vienna favored the elector of Saxony, because he promised, having become king, to approve a pragmatic sanction, an act by which the Roman emperor Charles VI transferred his hereditary possessions to his daughter Maria Theresa, and the Russian court not to interfere with the dignity of the Duke of Courland, favorite of Empress Anna Ivanovna, Biron. France, on the contrary, supported Stanislav Leshchinsky. Field Marshal Lassi, sent with 20,000 Russian troops to Poland, contributed to the election of the Elector of Saxony under the name of August III and pursued the party of Stanislav Leshchinsky, who settled in the city of Gdansk. On February 22, 1734, Lassi with 12,000 troops laid siege to Gdansk. But the besieged had more strength, and the war went on indecisively, limited to skirmishes between the besieged, who made sorties, and the Cossacks. Then Biron, in order to get rid of the eyes of the Empress Minich, convinced her to send Minich to Poland with an army against Leshchinsky. Minich himself was not disgusted by such an assignment, since from his youth he loved military affairs, and court intrigues could not satisfy him.

Minich arrived at Gdansk on March 5, 1734 and took over the main command over the remaining Russian army, demanding a few more fresh forces.

First, Minich sent a formidable manifesto to the inhabitants of Gdansk, demanded obedience to King Augustus III and the extradition of Stanislav Leshchinsky, in case of refusal he threatened to destroy the city to the ground and punish the sins of the fathers on their children. There was no resignation to such a statement. Minich was forced to abandon the assassination attempts to carry out his threats: he lacked siege artillery. But then mortars arrived from Saxony, transported through the Prussian possessions in carts under the guise of the carriages of the Duke of Weissenfell, and other Russian artillery came from Poland: then began throwing bombs into the city. The siege of Gdansk lasted 135 days. The Poles of Leshchinsky's party tried to help the besieged from outside by attacking the Russians, but were defeated by Russian detachments. The besieged hoped for the arrival of the French flotilla, which they expected would bring them fresh forces. The French ships brought and landed on the shore only 2,400 people. Then Minich came to the aid of the Saxon military force, and on June 12, the Russian flotilla, including 29 ships, entered the Gdansk raid and brought more guns to Minich. The bombardment intensified. On June 19, Munnich demanded surrender again. The besieged begged for three days to think. After many negotiations, the French army came out with the fact that they would be taken to one of the neutral ports Baltic Sea and sent from there to France. They hoped that they would be taken to Copenhagen, but they were taken to Livonia, placed there in apartments, and a few months later they were sent to France.

On June 28, the Gdansk magistrate sent an envoy to Minich. Minich demanded obedience to King Augustus and the extradition of Stanislav Leshchinsky with his main followers. The next day, the magistrate informed Munnich that it was impossible to extradite Stanislav, because he had run away, having changed into peasant clothes. Munnich became very angry and ordered the bombardment to begin again; finally, on June 30, he accepted the humility of the city and allowed the Polish pans who were in the city to go wherever they wished, ordering the arrest of only three persons: the primate, Pan Poniatowski and the Frenchman Marquis de Monty; they were taken to Torun. Thus ended this siege, during which the Russians lost eight thousand soldiers and two hundred officers. An indemnity of two million was imposed on the city of Gdansk; the Empress threw away half of this amount.

Minich returned to Petersburg in triumph. His ill-wishers tried to denigrate his actions, dismissed suspicions that Minich took bribes from the enemy and deliberately allowed Stanislav Leshchinsky to leave. But all this did not hurt Minich.

Following this, another war was started, where Minich also had to go, to the pleasure of both himself and his enemies, who rejoiced that he could be removed from the capital under any pretext. It was a war with Turkey.

Turkey has been at war with Persia for several years. To defeat the Persians north side while the Persian forces were heading south, Crimean Tatars, tributaries of the Turkish state, were ordered to invade Persia, and as the nearest route lay through Russian possessions, they did not find it difficult to pass through them, thus violating the neutrality of Russia. So, in 1732, on the banks of the Terek River, they encountered a Russian detachment under the command of the General Prince of Hesse-Hamburg. There was a battle: up to a thousand Tatars, up to four hundred Russians, lay down in it. Russia complained diplomatically to Turkey about the violation of neutrality and did not receive satisfaction: on the contrary, Turkey again sent the Crimean Khan with 70,000 troops through Russian possessions to Persia. The Turkish force this time suffered a severe defeat from the Persians. Then Neplyuyev, who was Russian ambassador in Constantinople, declared to his government that now was a convenient time to repay Turkey for the Treaty of Prut, humiliating the honor of the Russian name. At court, Ober-Stalmeister Levenvold supported the same opinion. Osterman, always prudent and cautious, advised against giving in to such seductive hopes and not daring to tease Turkey, because she was still strong; in his opinion, it was enough to limit himself to pacifying the Tatars, since this would not lead to a break with Turkey: the padishah was dissatisfied with the arbitrariness of his tributary, the Crimean Khan, but could not keep him in obedience. Field Marshal Munnich, later an ardent supporter of the war with Turkey, this time joined Osterman. He wanted a war, but one that would not start from a direct challenge by Russia. After spending several months in St. Petersburg after the Gdansk case, Minich had to go to the army left in Poland, since there were still many opponents of King August III in Poland. Affairs with Turkey, meanwhile, began to escalate. The Persian Shah Kulikhan was already agreeing to reconcile with Turkey, but the Russian envoy in Persia, Prince Sergei Golitsyn, did his best to prevent such a reconciliation - and succeeded: the Persian Shah became indebted to Russia with gratitude, because Russia then ceded to Persia acquisitions of Peter the Great - Baku, Derbent and even the fortress of St. Cross. Under the influence of Russia, the Shah of Persia again resumed the war with Turkey. Then the Petersburg court, having secured an alliance with Persia, openly decided to go to war, but not directly with Turkey, but with the Tatars, under the pretext that the latter were constantly raiding and in recent times twice they violated the neutrality of Russia by passing their troops through the Russian regions. Weisbach, the Governor-General of Kyiv, was supposed to start hostile actions against the Tatars. But he died at the same time. His successor, Lieutenant General Leontiev, the same one who went to Mitava to Anna Ivanovna as a deputy from the generals, went on a campaign. It was already in October, in bad weather, and he returned back, having lost nine thousand soldiers who died not from enemy weapons, but from disease and deprivation. At this time, an order was sent to Minich to move with his army from Poland to Ukraine and go with him on a campaign against the Tatars.

Having instructed the General Prince of Hesse-Hamburg to lead the army to Ukraine, Minich went to Pavlovsk-on-Don, made an order there to load artillery and supplies on ships necessary for the proposed siege of Azov, then arrived in Ukraine, examined the Ukrainian line from the Dnieper to the Donets, where he found sixteen fortresses, each with an earthen parapet, with a counter-scarp, with a moat filled with water, and redoubts were erected between these fortifications different size . Minich traveled all over this line, guarded, as was said above, by the land militia from the settled one-palaces, made the necessary orders for the placement of guards and noticed that in the Bakhmut province the line remained open and work was needed to bring it to the proper position. To this end, Munnich demanded 53,263 workers. Prince Shakhovskoy, who then ruled the Little Russian region, in response to such a request, reported to the government that such work would be extremely ruinous for the people. Minich, for his part, reported that, having surveyed the then state of Ukraine, he clearly sees that the ruin of the people is really noticeable, but it does not come from work, but from bad administration, headed by Shakhovskoy: incapable people are appointed colonels and centurions, everywhere they try get rich at the expense of subordinates, rich people try to shirk their service, and only the poor are sent on campaigns. The Cossacks, dissatisfied with the injustices of their superiors, run away and pester the owners of the lands, who promise the settlers years of grace, while others run to the Tatars, and together with them go to fight against Russia. Because of this, the Cossacks in the Hetmanate generally diminished: before, it used to be possible to gather a hundred thousand Cossacks, and recently, when Leontiev’s campaign in the Crimea was announced, there were barely twelve thousand seven hundred and thirty of them. Here Minich met with the Cossacks, whom he found in military terms much better than the Little Russian city Cossacks, and had a meeting with the Zaporizhian foremen in Tsarichinka. The Cossacks gave him advice to set out on a campaign in the steppe from early spring, when the waters from the melting snows had not yet completely dried up, and the young grass had not yet been burned. Munnich found this advice suitable and in March went to Azov, from which military operations were to begin. He instructed General Levashov to conduct the siege of Azov, and he himself returned to his army in Ukraine, again consulted with the Zaporizhzhya foremen, and on April 10 set off on a campaign in the steppe. With him were 54,000 Russian troops and 12,000 Cossacks (5,000 Don, 4,000 Ukrainian and 3,000 Cossacks). According to the biographer Minikhov, the convoy that set off with this military force extended up to nine thousand carts, and there were two hundred and fifty of them for each regiment. There were up to seven thousand marketers alone. The entire convoy did not go with the army; a significant part of it with heavy artillery was entrusted to Prince Trubetskoy, who was supposed to deliver military and food supplies, accompanied by the part of the army left for that, previously stationed in a more remote region in apartments.

The army moved into the steppe in five columns under the command of Generals Spiegel, Prince of Hesse-Hamburg, Izmailov, Leontiev and Tarakanov. Commander-in-Chief Minich himself was in the forefront. The Cossacks said that on their way the Russian army would find food and fodder; Minich trusted them and did not really care about the speedy delivery of supplies by Prince Trubetskoy, and this prince hesitated so much that he reached the point when Minich had finished his campaign. To ensure communication between the army and Ukraine, Minikh, on the way across the steppe, ordered redoubts to be set up at a distance of five and ten miles from one another and to leave ten soldiers and thirty Cossacks in each under the supervision of a chief officer, and on three large retrenchments from 400 to 500 people with a staff officer.

After minor skirmishes with the enemy Spiegel's column, the army approached Perekop on May 28. The Perekop Isthmus was dug with a ditch seven versts long: the ditch was up to twelve yards wide and seven yards deep. Behind this ditch was a rampart up to 70 feet high from the top to the bottom of the ditch. Six stone towers covered the entire line of the shaft; Behind this rampart was the fortress of Perekopskaya. Khan, as reported by the captives, was not far from the hundred thousandth army.

Minich began by writing to the khan, informing him that he had come with an army to punish the Tatars who raided Russian possessions, and asked the khan to voluntarily let the Russian garrison into the Perekop fortress and recognize superiority over him Russian empress; otherwise, he threatened to devastate the entire Crimea. Khan sent Murza with an answer in the following sense: the khan is a tributary of the Turkish sovereign and does not want to betray him; he cannot let the Russians into Perekop, because the Turkish garrison is placed there not from the Crimean Khan, but from Turkey itself; the Tatars did not give a reason for war, and if they made raids, then the legs did it, and the Russian troops can deal with them, as was done before: these people, although they are under the rule of the khan, are not always obedient to this authority and allow themselves self-will . To top it off, the khan asked the field marshal to suspend hostilities and then enter into explanations.

But Munnich did not then come to spend time explaining. Having sent the Khan's Murza with a refusal, the field marshal the next day, before dawn, sent two thousand five hundred people to the right in the direction of the Perekop line, and at the same time the Russian army moved with its entire mass to the left. Tatars, deceived fake movement two thousand five hundred detachment, rushed at him, and suddenly suddenly saw the Russian forces on the other side. The Russians reached the ditch and a short time stopped. The ditch was very wide. But this ditch was dry. The soldiers went down to the bottom, and from there they began to climb the rampart. Instead of ladders, they were served with pikes, bayonets and slingshots. The rear ones helped the front ones, and then, holding on to them, they climbed themselves, and so they reached the top of the rampart under strong enemy fire. Such fearlessness struck the Tatars: they fled. Turkish janissaries were sitting in the towers. By order of Minich, the Prince of Hesse-Hamburg sent the St. Petersburg Grenadier Regiment of Captain Manstein with sixty people from his company to one of the towers. The grenadiers cut through the doors: Manstein went inside and demanded surrender. The Janissaries, of course, agreed and began to lay down their weapons, but then a dispute arose between the grenadiers and the Janissaries, and then a fight: the Janissaries killed six and wounded sixteen grenadiers; the grenadiers killed all the Janissaries, and there were one hundred and sixty of them in the tower. Then the Janissaries, who were sitting in other towers, left them and fled after the Tatars. Minich demanded surrender from the Perekop commandant: it was promised to escort everyone to the seaside pier to sail to Turkey. The commandant agreed to everything. But when the Turks laid down their arms, they were all declared prisoners of war under the pretext that, contrary to the peace treaty, two hundred Russian merchants were detained, and when their freedom is restored, then the Turks taken in Perekop will be released to the fatherland.

The city of Perekop, containing up to 800 wooden houses and surrounded by a wall of sandstone crumbling from cannon shots, was immediately occupied by one Russian regiment, and on June 4, Minikh sent Lieutenant General Leontiev with ten thousand to Kinburn. With the remaining generals, Minich held a military council - what to do next. Many were of the opinion that they should not be driven into the interior of the country, since food for the army remained for no more than twelve days, but it was better to fortify at Perekop and wait for the arrival of Prince. Trubetskoy with a convoy. Minich opposed this and insisted that it was necessary to go forward and inflict fear on the Tatars; he hoped that the convoy would be in time and catch up with them, and if it were late, the army could be fed at the expense of the enemy region.

And the army went through the waterless wilderness into the depths Crimean peninsula. The Tatars deliberately spoiled the water, which was already scarce in the wells. Them flying units disturbed the army moving in a quadrangle. When the army settled down for the day in Balchik, the Tatars approached it. Major General Gein, who was seconded against them, although he was not defeated, did not exactly fulfill the instructions given by the field marshal, and for this he was immediately brought to court-martial and demoted to the soldiers. Minich was extremely strict about the matter of discipline in the army. Day after day went by. The heat was unbearable. The soldiers disappeared from thirst and heat. The delivery of the expected supplies did not come due to the slowness of Prince Trubetskoy. The General Prince of Hesse-Hamburg, who had already been at enmity with Minich, and after him other generals, including Biron's close relative, who bore the same surname, reproaches Minich among his subordinates that he destroys an entire army in order to satisfy his ambition and acts completely against the wishes and prescriptions of the Petersburg court. Fortunately for Minich, the army, still not waiting for Prince Trubetskoy with the convoy, suddenly found food for themselves. On the tenth day of the journey from Perekop, it reached the city of Khazleiva (Kozlov-Evpatoria) and entered there without any resistance: all the Muslim inhabitants of this city fled from there in advance, having managed to take with them what was possible in a hurry, and set fire to the houses of Christian merchants behind them . But those who fled to take everything with them were not able to. The Russians in the deserted and half-burnt city found treasures buried in the ground - gold, silver, pearls; copper, iron and lead were in abundance, rice and wheat were so abundant that Minich distributed them as provisions to the soldiers for twenty-four days.

In addition, the Russians managed to capture ten thousand sheep and several hundred pieces of cattle, and this was very useful, since the soldiers had not eaten anything meat for two weeks.

After spending five days in Hazleiva in order to give the bakers time to make bread and crackers for the soldiers, Minich moved on. He chose a path near the sea: the Tatars did not expect the Russians to go there, and did not make devastation; therefore, the Russians could get fodder on this way: Minich spread a rumor among the enemies that he was returning to Perekop.

Meanwhile, on June 27, the army approached the Khan's capital Bakhchisaray. Minich left most of the troops with luggage, entrusting the leadership to Spiegel, he himself went around the mountains with another part, and at dawn the Russians were right under the city. The Tatars did not expect this and were extremely surprised to see Russians there at such a time. They attacked the Don Cossacks and the Vladimir Infantry Regiment, managed to force them to retreat, and took away one cannon. But when General Leslie arrived in time with five other regiments, the Tatars immediately fled. Panic fear attacked all the inhabitants of Bakhchisaray. They left their homes, took with them what they could grab, and fled to the mountains.

In Bakhchisarai at that time there were two thousand houses: a third of them belonged to Christians Greek origin. The Russians burned everything. The beautiful Khan's palace, which consisted of many buildings and surrounded by gardens, was reduced to ashes. The Jesuit house with the library burned down. The Jesuits themselves left the city in advance.

Having dealt with Bakhchisarai, on June 29, Minikh withdrew his army to the Alma River. The convoy that went with Munnich also arrived there; the Tatars attacked him, but unsuccessfully.

On July 3, the commander-in-chief detached generals Izmailov and Magnus Biron with eight thousand soldiers and two thousand Cossacks to Akmechet (now Simferopol), the capital of Kalgi-saltan and its murzas. The Russians did not find a soul in the city: two days later the inhabitants left. The Russians robbed everything they could find and burned the whole city, which then had eighteen hundred wooden houses.

Minich intended to go to Kafu, the richest and most populous city on Black Sea coast. This was opposed at the military council by all the generals.

They imagined that a third of the army was ill, and many were so weak that they were unable to move further, meanwhile, on this path, there were no hopes ahead of delivering food to people and horses, since the Tatars, waiting for their enemies, burned all the surroundings of Kafa to a distant space. In addition, the heat increased. Minich had to keep his warlike enthusiasm and turn to Perekop. The army reached Perekop on July 17 and, to everyone's pleasure, met General Arakcheev, who brought grain supplies from Ukraine, and with him sutlers arrived and brought a large number of wine and all kinds of food. So, after many labors and hardships, the army felt abundance. To multiply the joy, the news came that Lieutenant General Leontiev took Kinburn without losing a single person: the Turks surrendered him without a fight and, by capitulation, left the fortress among two thousand; two hundred and fifty Christian slaves kept in the fortress were released. Russians in Kinburn found a lot of cattle and sheep. Minich ordered to blow up the Perekop fortifications with gunpowder and on July 28 moved to Ukraine. The Tatars did not disturb the returning Russian army. General Leontiev joined the main army.

On the banks of the Samara River, Minikh reviewed his army. There was not a single regiment where the number of employees reached the full set: in those days, the full set of the infantry regiment extended to 1575 people with the inclusion of officers, and the set of the cavalry regiment - 1231 people. Now there was not a single one where there would be more than 600 people. Meanwhile, it was reliably known that the number of those killed by the enemy did not exceed two thousand. The army was reduced by disease and deprivation. The slowness of the book contributed a lot to this. Trubetskoy and the malfunction of the commissariat in delivery livelihoods at the right time. But Field Marshal Munnich himself was accused of not pitying his soldiers, leading them during the summer heat of the day, not giving rest, and taking too lightly the failure to deliver Prince. Trubetskoy of food, hoping to feed the army at the expense of the enemy country. The campaign in the Crimea cost Russia up to thirty thousand people. Munnich's opponent, the Prince of Hesse-Hamburg, raised the generals against him, and from the latter the grumbling against the field marshal passed to the headquarters and chief officers and even reached the rank and file.

Upon arrival in Ukraine, Minikh, in order to prevent Tatar winter raids through the ice of the Dnieper into the Hetmanate and Sloboda Ukraine, made an order from the first frosts to cut ice on the rivers and for this use soldiers and drive the people. This aroused grumbling between soldiers and villagers, and did not reach the goal, because in February 1737 the Tatars broke into Ukraine through the Dnieper at Keleberda; General Leslie, who defended the pass, was killed and many officers were taken prisoner.

The Prince of Hesse-Hamburg did not limit himself to inciting the generals of his army against Minich, but also wrote and sent a denunciation to the field marshal to Duke Biron, and although Biron sent this denunciation to Minich himself, he left an unpleasant impression at court. This was not slow to take advantage of Minikhov's ill-wishers and envious people. Despite the fact that Munnich's main enemy, Oberstalmeister Levenvold, had died, in the office itself they wanted to humiliate the field marshal: they decided to discuss Munnich's actions in the military council and indicate the reasons for the large loss of troops. The chairmanship of this council belonged to Field Marshal Lassi, who, during Minich’s campaign in the Crimea through Perekop, besieging Azov for a month and a half, forced him to surrender and then went to connect with Minich, but, having learned that Minich was already returning, he himself turned to Sloboda Ukraine. Now he was instructed to analyze the actions of his comrade, who had recently acquired such fame and importance that he was becoming higher than him. Lassie turned down such an assignment. He was not replaced by anyone else, and so there was no investigation of Minich's actions, and Empress Anna not only did not show Minich her displeasure, but also rewarded him with estates in Ukraine, which were at the disposal of the late Weisbach.

In the spring of 1737 a campaign against the Turks was again undertaken. The Petersburg government concluded an agreement with the Vienna court on the mutual action of troops against the Turks, a new recruitment was made - 40,000 people, orders were made to set up stores, and in Bryansk it was supposed to build flat-bottomed ships at the shipyard to launch them on the Dnieper.

At the end of March 1737, Field Marshal Munnich gave an order that the entire army, whose number ranged from 60 to 70 thousand people, be ready for the campaign twenty-four hours after receiving the warrant. In early April, everyone left the apartments where they had been put up for the winter. From the end of April to May 6 (NS), the army crossed the Dnieper at three points: at Perevolnaya, at Orlik, and at Kremenchug. June 3 (N. S.) All departments joined on the Omelnik River; from June 25 (NS) to July 2 (NS) the army crossed the Bug. Wanting to hide his real intentions, Minich showed everyone the appearance that he was heading towards the Benders. He hid even from the Poles, who seemed to be allies. When the adjutant of the Polish Crown Hetman Potocki came to the General-Field Marshal, Minikh, treating him, proposed a toast to the happy success of Russian weapons near Ochakov, and at the same time, in the form of special confidence in him, announced the proposed route to Bendery.

The Pole, who was then sent to see where Minich would lead his army, was at a loss and did not know what to convey to those who had given him the order. It was all the more difficult for the Turks to find out about Minich's plans. Just in case, they were waiting for him at Bender, but they sent significant reinforcements to Ochakov.

Minich accelerated his campaign and headed for Ochakov, wanting to get there before the enemy had time to gather strength there. But heavy artillery, combat and food stocks followed the water, and this was in charge of the same Prince Trubetskoy, who declared himself to be incompetent during the last campaign. And now the same thing happened. When Minich with the whole army was already approaching Ochakov, Prince Trubetskoy was not there, although he should have arrived there before the troops. The army found itself without fodder, without firewood, without fascines, and there was no forest around to get the necessary supplies. Contemporaries found it strange that Munnich was so gullible towards a man who had already shown his inability. Gossips of that time, the reasons for the indulgence of the field marshal to the prince were attributed. Trubetskoy's attention to the wife of the latter, the famous beauty of her century. Prince Trubetskoy subsequently justified himself by the fact that that summer there was little water on the Dnieper, and therefore more time was spent in transporting through the rapids than in regular time required.

Approaching Ochakov at night from 10 to 11 (new style) July and seeing the fire of the suburbs, lit, in view of the approach of the Russians, by the Ochakov commandant himself, on the morning of the 11th in the camp located between the mouth of the Dnieper and the Black Sea, Minich gathered a military council and on he declared that it was impossible to delay, so as not to give the enemy time to bring fresh forces to Ochakov, and that Ochakov should be taken with all possible speed. Minich hoped that the flotilla of Prince. Trubetskoy will come soon and the army will not be put in a difficult position for a long time.

At first they thought of digging trenches and pouring redoubts, but the earth turned out to be excessively hard. Fortunately for the Russians, there were gardens with earthen fences near the city. The Russians turned them into redoubts. In one such garden, they set up heavy artillery and began to throw bombs, which, bursting in the fortress, set fires there. On the 13th (N.S. or 2nd Art.) July, an hour before dawn, a flame broke out in the corner where, according to the plan that Minich managed to get himself in advance, there was a gunpowder magazine. Shots were sent there.

Meanwhile, in order to distract the besieged and prevent them from extinguishing the fire, Minich, in the hope of luring them to the other side, ordered a general attack. Generals Rumyantsev and Biron commanded on the right wing, Keith and Levendal commanded on the left. The field marshal himself reinforced those going on the attack, exposing himself personally to dangers - a horse was killed under him. With him, Prince Anton-Ulrich of Brunswick was inseparable, who was already being tagged as a fiancé to the Empress's niece. The army reached a ditch 12 feet wide, the bravest descended into it and from there tried in vain to climb opposite side: struck by enemy shots from above, they fell in whole heaps. So it took about two hours. Unable to climb, they began to retreat. General Rumyantsev was the first to notice that the fire produced by Russian bombs was approaching the powder magazine, and fearing that the explosion would not harm the besiegers, he signaled to retreat. The left wing was carried away by the retreat of the right. Several hundred Turks jumped out of the fortress and attacked the retreating, many were killed by the Turks, and the wounded were unable to keep up with the others: it was like a flight. If the seraskir and the commandant of the Ochakovo fortress had guessed and hit with all their might on the fugitives, the victory would have been on the side of the Turks, and the Russians would have been forced to leave the siege. Minich was in terrible agitation. Artillery corrected the matter.

With a terrifying crash, a gunpowder magazine flew into the air, and after that a white banner appeared, and a Turkish adjutant appeared to the Russian commander-in-chief to ask for a truce for several hours. Minich understood what was the matter, rejected the offer and demanded that the entire Turkish garrison surrender to prisoners of war within one hour, otherwise he threatened to show no mercy to anyone. Meanwhile, Seraskier, having sent this adjutant to Minich, planned to make his way from the fortress to the sea with part of the garrison and escape, boarding the Turkish galleys at the time when the articles of surrender were being drawn up. But he and the Turks who were with him were not allowed to reach the sea by Russian hussars and Cossacks, they drove him into the fortress, and behind them they themselves broke in and began to beat the Turks. Then the seraskier sent another adjutant to the Field Marshal General to announce that he was surrendering unconditionally. The gates of the fortress opened; the garrison laid down their weapons and was taken to the Russian camp for prisoners of war. About two hundred 7, and according to other news, up to two thousand 8 Turks managed to get to the galleys, but many could not get there, because the helmsmen, seeing that the city was taken by the Russians, hastily weighed anchor and raised sails, and the Turks from Ochakov, who wanted sail away with them, rushed after the ships by swimming and, weakened, drowned. Others, before the withdrawal of the garrison into captivity, were stabbed to death by the Russians who broke into the fortress. Seventeen thousand Turkish corpses were buried by the Russians on July 20 (NS). A large number of them died under the ruins of collapsed walls and buildings. During the explosion of a gunpowder store, more than six thousand of them died, and after this explosion two more such stores caught fire, and many Russians died, who had already rushed to the conquered city to plunder. Of the Turkish garrison, which at first consisted of twenty thousand, only three thousand five hundred people surrendered as prisoners of war, and among them were the seraskir Yaya, the Ochakovo commandant Mustafa-aga and three hundred officers. Several hundred Christian slaves received freedom, fifty-four Greeks entered the Russian service as hussars. The Russians killed 68 officers and 987 privates with non-commissioned officers, and wounded about a hundred officers and 2703 privates.

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In January 1742, Prince Yakov Shakhovsky announced to the arrested dignitaries of Anna Leopoldovna the decree of the new Empress Elizaveta Petrovna on the decision of their fate. The condemned met their executor in different ways. Some, sobbing, hugged his knees, others moaned about their bitter fate. And only the former Field Marshal Munnich moved towards Shakhovsky, fearlessly awaiting the verdict.

Shakhovskoy, who had once served under the command of Munnich, recognized this courageous look of wide-open eyes, "with which I had occasion to see him repeatedly in dangerous battles with the enemy, fumigated with gunpowder."

Yes, Minich was a real daredevil and embodied the then common type of landsknecht, a mercenary who was ready to sell his sword to hell. For him there was nothing sacred, except for ambition and, of course, money.

Mercenary, informer, engineer

Burchard Christopher Minich was born in the Duchy of Oldenburg in 1683. His father received the nobility after the birth of his son, which is why Minich himself, a commoner by birth, was always eager to prove his superiority to everyone. His father was a military engineer, a builder of dams and canals, and the capable Burchard followed the same path, having adopted considerable knowledge from his father. For two decades of service, engineer Munnich, like many other landsknechts, changed five armies! His early biography is woven from the wars in which he participated, and constant quarrels and duels with his colleagues. In the late 1710s, while serving in the Saxon army of August II, he quarreled with his boss, Field Marshal Fleming, and decided to again to change the banner, for which he turned to Peter I, sending him his treatise on fortification.

This was the beginning of the Russian biography of Munnich. He was engaged in the fortifications of Riga and Kronstadt, and since 1723, the construction of the Ladoga Canal. With the disgrace in 1727 of Menshikov, Minikh's main enemy, the latter's career went up sharply: Minikh became a count, governor-general of St. Petersburg, received an estate in Livonia.

And with the beginning of the reign of Anna Ioannovna in 1730, a golden age began for Munnich. He quickly became one of the most trusted dignitaries of the new empress. Minich not only took the oath of St. Petersburg entrusted to him to the new empress, but also denounced Admiral Peter Sievers, who, during the days of Anna Ioannovna's election to the throne, showed a clear preference for the daughter of Peter I, Elizabeth. According to Munnich's denunciation, Sievers was stripped of all titles and orders and went into exile for ten years.

There is no doubt that Munnich was a good engineer. He successfully completed and opened the Ladoga Canal. It is noteworthy that he not only did his job well, but was even better able to present it.

Minich made such a fuss about his success that the propagandists of later times can envy him. He personally drove foreign envoys along the canal "to inspect the great and very fair work there." In 1732, he even lured Anna Ioannovna, a small huntress before trips, to the canal. Then he stood at the head of the military department, received the rank of field marshal.

Charming and deceitful

It would be a mistake to present Munnich as a rude martinet. The letters left after him speak of the sophistication of the mind. Minich had a pompous, flamboyant style. In a letter to Catherine II, he wrote: “Come, empress of high spirit, all of Russia, all of Europe, both Indias, look for where you will find such a rare bird ... But you will say:“ Who is this so extraordinary person"How, most gracious empress! This is the person whom you know better than others, who is constantly at your feet, to whom you reach out your hand to raise him ..."

I think that these sublime formulas have been tested by their author on many ladies, and there is evidence of this. Here is what Lady Rondo wrote to her correspondent in England in 1735: “You say that you imagine him as an old man, whose appearance is inherent in all the rudeness of a soldier who has been in alterations .... He has Beautiful face, very white skin, he is tall and slim, and all his movements are soft and graceful. He dances well, from all his actions he breathes youth, with the ladies he behaves like one of the most gallant gentlemen of this court and, being among the representatives of our sex, radiates gaiety and tenderness.

Lady Rondo adds that at the same time, Minih lacks a sense of proportion and seems very deceitful: "Sincerity is a quality with which, in my opinion, he is not familiar."

This portrait cannot but be recognized as accurate. To deal with Minich, and especially to serve under him, meant to experience humiliation, to know slander, to be drawn into endless intrigues. Courage and determination, charm and courtesy were combined in him with incredible aplomb, narcissism, arrogance, arrogance and rudeness.

However, there were limits for Munnich. They were installed by another, even more powerful person, whom everyone was afraid of - the favorite of the Empress Anna, Duke Biron. A jealous favorite, a purely civilian man, Biron was afraid to lose in Anna's eyes to this warrior in brilliant armor. Therefore, the favorite tried to direct all tremendous energy field marshal in another direction - instructed him to fight on the borders of the empire, away from St. Petersburg.

Scammer and lucky

Sent to Russian-Polish war 1733-35, Minich then fought almost continuously with the Turks in the south. With his arrival in the army, such quarrels and scandals began among the generals, which the Russian army did not know either before or after Minich.

Minich had an amazing talent for making mortal enemies: first he brought people closer to him, and then he rudely insulted him. There was not a general in the army with whom Minich would not quarrel. In 1736, a real conspiracy formed in the army against the field marshal, whom the enraged generals were ready to kill.

All this caused the Empress to worry. She demanded from the diplomats an urgent conclusion of peace with the Porte, and from the generals - an end to the quarrel. Minich received the highest reprimand and calmed down a little.

Meanwhile, Munnich himself was a would-be commander. in his actions during Russian-Turkish war 1735-1739 you can see so many gross mistakes, ill-conceived decisions, unjustified human losses!

But surprisingly - luck and happiness never left him! Saved him from destruction more than once Lucky case or fantastic luck. When he took the Turkish fortress of Ochakov, he was almost defeated. Attacked in the forehead by Russian regiments, the fortress successfully repulsed the assault. Minich, seeing the death of a third of his army, was already ready to fall into despair, when the main powder magazine in the fortress suddenly exploded and a monstrous explosion destroyed all the fortifications and half of the Turkish garrison.

Otherwise, Minich acted like many Russian commanders - he ruined soldiers without measure, for which he received the nickname "Flayer" in the army.

With a scythe on the shoulder

In 1740 he finally tried to play political role. After the death of Anna Ioannovna, he showed himself to be a supporter of the regent Biron, and then unexpectedly plotted and overthrew the temporary worker, arresting him in bed. He hoped to take first place under the ruler Anna Leopoldovna and receive the coveted rank of generalissimo. But the ruler, proceeding from the principle "I love a traitor - I hate betrayal", transferred this rank to her husband, Prince Anton Ulrich of Brunswick.

Annoyed, Minich defiantly submitted a letter of resignation, which Anna Leopoldovna, who had long suffered from Minich's exorbitant ambitions, immediately signed. So, unexpectedly for himself, the field marshal, full of strength and plans, turned out to be a pensioner.

But they were afraid of him: until Minich moved from the palace where he lived to his own house, the ruler slept in different rooms every night, fearing that Minich would do to her what he had done to Biron.

And then there was a coup in 1741, Elizaveta Petrovna came to power. Companions of the ruler were arrested and sentenced to death, including Minich. When they were led to their execution in January 1742, Minich behaved better than anyone: smart, clean-shaven, he walked calmly and had a friendly conversation about something with a security officer who, perhaps, had once served under him.

I especially emphasize that Minich was shaved, while all the other criminals were overgrown with beards - which means that the guards gave Minich a razor without fear that he, as happened with those sentenced to death, would commit suicide. The guards had no doubts - they knew that a brave warrior would meet death as it should, boldly and courageously. But Elizabeth pardoned Minich and exiled him to Siberia.

And now Shakhovskoy read the verdict. Minich and his wife got into a sleigh, and they were taken to Siberia, to exile, to Pelym.

People in exile behave differently. Some drink too much, others run wild, others die of longing. Not that Minich! In the difficult conditions of the polar Pelym, he showed courage and patience. He became interested in gardening, and when he got the opportunity to go beyond the prison, he took up cattle breeding and field cultivation. During the long polar nights, by candlelight, the field marshal sorted and sorted the seeds, knitted nets.

A lot of things awaited Munnich in the barnyard, where he had cows and other livestock. In the summer, the Pelymians could see how Minikh, in a burnt-out field marshal's uniform without insignia, with a scythe on his shoulder, went to haymaking with mowers hired by him.

When the longed-for moment of freedom came in the spring of 1762 and Munnich returned to St. Petersburg, all his numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who met the patriarch at the entrance to St. Petersburg, were shocked when a brave tall old man jumped out of the road wagon in a torn sheepskin coat, straight and cheerful. He seemed, as a contemporary wrote, "not touched by corruption, upheavals of happiness." And meanwhile, he was almost 80 years old!

Arriving from Siberia, Munnich tried again to take a prominent place at court. It was he who, during the coup of Catherine II in June 1762, advised Peter III in Peterhof to mount a horse, go to St. Petersburg and personally suppress the rebellion. Where there! Peter III was a coward - he did not go himself and did not send Minich.

But in vain! Of course, the aged field marshal would hardly have defeated the rebels in battle, but under the influence of his bizarre fortune, some bridge could collapse or something could fall from above on the conspirators, and the history of Russia would have gone a different way. But that did not happen. Peter III was successfully overthrown, Catherine II reigned, and Minich remained a useless old man.

In 1767 he died, and we all often pass by the place where he is buried - the Church of St. Catherine on Nevsky Prospekt.