Prut campaign: was there any embarrassment? Prut campaign Defeat of Peter 1 from the Turks.

During Northern war in the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Russia inflicted a crushing defeat on the Swedish army of King Charles 12. The army of the Swedes was practically destroyed, and Charles 12 fled to Turkey. There he hid in the fortress of Bendery (on the territory of modern Transnistria) and for 2 years persuaded the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire to war with Russia.

As a result, in 1711 the Sultan declared war on Russia. But military operations were inactive. The Turks did not want a large-scale war, and limited their participation only to the fact that they sent their vassals - the Crimean Tatars - to regular raids on the territory of modern Ukraine and Moldova. Peter the Great also did not want an active war, he just wanted to raise a peasant uprising against the Ottomans.

Many historians argue that Peter himself is to blame for the declaration of war. Because after the Battle of Poltava, the army of the Swedes was almost completely destroyed, and the Russian tsar did not pursue Charles 12, allowing him to freely leave the territory of the state.

The pursuit began only 3 days after the end of the battle, when precious time had already been lost and it was impossible to catch up with the enemy. This mistake was worth the fact that Charles 12, during his 2 years in Turkey, was able to turn the Turkish sultan against Russia.

In this military company from Russia took part Russian army, as well as the Moldovan Corps. The total number of troops was about 86,000 men and 120 guns.

On the part of the Ottoman Empire, the army of the Turks and the army of the Crimean Khanate took part in the war. The total strength of the enemy army was about 190,000 men and 440 guns.

Peter the Great for the Prut campaign transferred the army through Kiev to the territory of Poland. On June 27, 1711, the Russian army, under the leadership of Peter the Great, as well as his closest associate Sheremetev, crossed the Dniester River and began its movement to the Prut River. This campaign lasted less than a week, but the poor quality of its organization led to the fact that this transition (during which there were no battles with the enemy) cost the lives of many Russian soldiers. The reason was the lack of supplies. Soldiers died from elementary dehydration.

On July 1, Sheremetev's troops approached the eastern bank of the Prut and here they were suddenly attacked by the cavalry of the Crimean Tatars. After a short battle, 280 Russian soldiers died. The attack was repelled.

On July 6, Peter the Great ordered to cross the Prut River. After crossing the river, the Moldavian gospodar Dmitry Cantemir joined the Russian army.

On July 14 the army joined again. In the city of Iasi, 9,000 soldiers remained to protect the garrison. The rest of the army continued to participate in the campaign.

July 18 began the first battle in this campaign. At 14:00, the Turkish army attacked the rear of the Russian army. Despite the numerical superiority, the Turkish troops were forced to retreat, as their offensive was unorganized. They had no artillery, and the infantry was poorly armed.

On July 19, the Turks began to surround the Russian army. In the middle of the day, the Turkish cavalry made a complete encirclement, but did not attack. Peter the Great decided to go up the river in order to find a more convenient place to take the fight. The movement started at night.

On July 20, during the movement in the Russian army, a significant gap formed, which the Turks immediately took advantage of and struck at the convoy, which was left without cover. After that, the pursuit of the main forces began. Peter the Great took up defense near the village of Stanilesht and prepared for battle. By evening, large forces of the Turkish army, Crimean Tatars and Zaporizhzhya Cossacks began to pull up here. The battle began. The Turks were unable to defeat the Russians, their attack was repulsed. The losses of the Russian army during this battle amounted to 750 people killed and more than a thousand wounded. Turkish losses were even more significant, and amounted to about 8,000 people killed and wounded.

On July 21, the army of the Ottoman Empire began a massive artillery shelling of the positions of the Russian army. In between shelling, Russian positions were attacked by cavalry and infantry. Despite the huge superiority of their army, the Turks could not break the resistance of the Russians. Peter the Great, realizing the hopelessness of the position of his army, proposed at a military council to conclude peace with the Turks. As a result, Shafirov was sent to the Turks, who was given the widest powers of the ambassador.

The wife of Peter the Great, Catherine, gave all her jewelry to give them to the Turkish Sultan, moving him to conclude peace. This once again proves that the position of the Russian army in this war was so difficult. Peter the Great himself, sending his ambassador, told him to agree to any terms of peace except one - the loss of St. Petersburg is unacceptable.

Negotiations between the parties on the conclusion of peace lasted two days. As a result, Peter's ambassadors returned on July 22. The requirements were:

Russia undertakes to transfer the fortress of Azov to Turkey;

the fortress of Taganrog, erected to protect the outlet to the Black Sea, must be destroyed;

complete rejection of political and military interference in the affairs of Poland and the Zaporizhian Cossacks;

free pass for King Charles 12 to Sweden.

The general of the Russian army, Sheremetyev, remained a hostage of the Ottoman Empire until Charles 12 passed through the territory of Russia.

The Prut campaign ended with the signing of a peace treaty on July 23, 1711. The signing of the agreement took place at 18:00, after which the Russian army withdrew to the city of Iasi, and then returned to Moscow through Kiev. As for Charles 12, he opposed this peace agreement, insisted that the Ottoman Empire continue the war.

"You fought them. We also saw their prowess. If you want to fight with Russia, fight on your own, and we conclude a peace treaty ”(Baltaci Mohmed Pasha)

The signing of peace between Russia and Turkey was of great political importance, for the Russian tsar, being threatened with the complete annihilation of his army, was able to make peace through diplomatic convictions. But, one very significant amendment needs to be made - the signing of such a peace became permissible only because of Turkey's interest. The Sultan understood that the destruction of the Russian army would contribute to the rise of Sweden, which was also unacceptable.

Russia in one day lost everything that it had won over the years. The loss of the Black Sea Fleet was especially painful.

Peter I, after the victory over Charles XII, who was considered at that time the best commander in Europe, apparently believed in the power of his army and in his abilities as a strategist. And not only he himself believed it, but his entire court, the government and even his generals. The frivolity in the preparation, organization and implementation of the campaign was simply incredible. As a result, only some kind of miracle allowed him, his wife Catherine and members of the Petrine government, who for some reason dragged along with the army, to stay alive. But the army, the one that defeated the Swedes, Peter lost. The corpses of soldiers were scattered along the entire retreat.

Prut campaign in 1711.

The plan of Peter I was specific - to cross the Danube a little higher from its confluence with the Black Sea and move across Bulgaria to the southwest until the second capital of the Sultan - Adrianople - was threatened. (The Turkish name of the city is Edirne. It was the capital of Turkey in 1365-1453). In Adrianople, Peter hoped for reinforcements at the expense of 30,000 Vlachs and 10,000 Moldavians. To justify the campaign in the Balkans, Peter used a proven ideological weapon - the Orthodox faith. In his appeal to the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula, who professed Christianity, it was said: "All kind, pure and noble hearts must despise fear and difficulties, not only fight for the Church and the Orthodox faith, but also shed their last blood."

There were many who wished to participate in the celebration of Moscow weapons. Everyone wanted to be present at the great victory over Turkey, and especially over the Crimean Khanate. Indeed, back in 1700, Peter and his Moscow kingdom paid a humiliating tribute to the Crimean Tatars. The whole world knew about this humiliation and constantly reminded the Muscovites. So Dositheus, the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, wrote: "There are only a handful of Crimean Tatars ... and yet they boast that they receive tribute from you. The Tatars are Turkish subjects, hence it follows that you are subjects of Turkey." That is why the Chancellor of the State G.I. Golovkin, Vice-Chancellor P.P. Shafirov, the clergyman Feofan Prokopovich, Ekaterina, about two dozen court ladies and many others were in the Petrov convoy. It was supposed to recapture Constantinople from the Turks and subjugate to Moscow the lands that were once part of the Byzantine Empire. The intentions were serious, but it was like going to a picnic.

Having celebrated the two-year anniversary of the Poltava victory with his guards regiments on June 27 (July 8, 1711) in the steppes of Moldavia and drinking his favorite Magyar wine, Peter on the same day sent his cavalry, 7 thousand sabers, under the command of General Rene to the capture of the Danube city of Brailov, where the Turkish army, moving towards the Muscovites, concentrated its supplies. General Rene was supposed to capture them, in extreme cases, burn them. And three days later the infantry crossed the Prut and moved south along the western bank in three columns. The first was led by General Janus, the second by the Tsar, and the third by Repnin. On July 8, the vanguard units of General Janus met the Turkish troops and retreated to the royal column. Tsar Repnin's orders to urgently bring a third column to the aid of the first two were in vain. Repnin's soldiers were squeezed by the Tatar cavalry in Stanilesti and could not move. The alarmed king ordered to retreat towards Stanilesht. The retreat began at night and continued all morning. It was a terrible transition. The Turks advanced on their heels and continuously attacked the Peter's rearguard. The Tatar detachments galloped back and forth between the wagon trains and almost all of it died. The exhausted infantry suffered from thirst. The Turks completely surrounded the camp of the defenders on the banks of the Prut. Turkish artillery approached - the guns were deployed in a wide semicircle so that by nightfall 300 guns were looking at the camp with their muzzles. Thousands of Tatar horsemen controlled the opposite bank. There was nowhere to run. The soldiers were so exhausted from hunger and heat that many could no longer fight. Even water from the river was not easy to collect - those sent for water fell under heavy fire.

A shallow hole was dug in the middle of the camp, where they hid Catherine and the accompanying ladies. This shelter, surrounded by wagons, was a pitiful defense against Turkish cannonballs. The women wept and howled. The next morning, a decisive Turkish offensive was expected. What thoughts overcame Peter can only be imagined. The probability that he, the Moscow Tsar, the Poltava winner, would be beaten and taken in a cage through the streets of Constantinople was very high.

What did the king do? Here are the words of Peter's contemporary F.I. Peter ordered his envoy, P.P. Shafirov, to agree to any conditions, "except for slavery", but to insist on immediate signing, troops were dying of hunger. And here are the lines from the report of P.P. Shafirov to the tsar: "... the vizier ordered to be with him. And when we came to him, the Crimean Khan and a man with ten cubic viziers and a pasha, including the Janissary aga ... and the khan got up and went out angry and said that he supposedly told them before that that we would fool them.

For the safety of signing the Act of Surrender on the night of July 12, a dense corridor of Turkish guard soldiers was built between the encircled camp and the vizier's tent. That is, although negotiations with the vizier were conducted by Vice-Chancellor P.P. Shafirov, Peter I personally had to sign the Act of Surrender in the vizier's tent. (The peace treaty between the kingdom of Moscow and the Ottoman Empire was signed in Adrianople in 1713).

If the Turkish commanders really received huge bribes - a ransom for the king and his courtiers, then the Crimean Khan did not receive any ransom from Peter I. It was the Crimean Khan Davlet-Girey who spoke out so that "the Poltava victor would be taken in a cage through the streets of Constantinople." Despite the fact that the Crimean Khan was very dissatisfied with the signed document, he still did not destroy the remains tsarist army during the retreat, although he could easily do it. From the 54,000th army, Peter led out across the Dniester on August 1 about 10 thousand people, completely demoralized. The Moscow army was destroyed not so much by the Turks and Tatars as by ordinary famine. This famine pursued Peter's army from the first day of its crossing of the Dniester, for two whole months.

Petr Pavlovich Shafirov.

According to "Sheets and papers ... Peter the Great". Starting from July 13 to August 1, 1711, the troops lost daily from 500 to 600 people who died of starvation. Why, then, did the Crimean Khan Davlet-Girey, having the opportunity, not destroy the Moscow army and the Tsar of Moscow? Indeed, in order for the Crimean Khan to release the Moscow Tsar, his tributary, from his hands, the power of the vizier Bataldzhi - Pasha was not enough. The Khan was the ruler on his territory and had enough strength and capabilities to destroy his eternal enemy after the Turkish army retreated to the south, and the Moscow one to the north.

However, Davlet Giray did not do this. Apparently, the Moscow tsar took some tactical steps, since the Crimean Khan let him out of his hands. What Peter I did to save himself, his wife and the remnants of the army is still being hidden in the most careful way. He signed the Shert (oath) letter confirming his vassal dependence on the Genghisides family. There is quite serious evidence that Prince Peter of Moscow (the Crimean khans never recognized the royal title of Moscow Grand Dukes, which, in their opinion, was completely illegally appropriated by Ivan the Terrible), was forced to sign just such a shameful document.

And about some events and legends connected with this campaign.
150 thousand rubles were allocated from the treasury to bribe the vizier, smaller amounts were intended for other Turkish bosses and even secretaries. The vizier was never able to receive the bribe promised to him by Peter. On the night of July 26, the money was brought to the Turkish camp, but the vizier did not accept it, fearing his ally, the Crimean Khan. Then he was afraid to take them because of the suspicions raised by Charles XII against the vizier. In November 1711, thanks to the intrigues of Charles XII, through English and French diplomacy, the vizier Mehmed Pasha was deposed by the Sultan and, according to rumors, was soon executed.

According to legend, Peter's wife Ekaterina Alekseevna donated all her jewelry to bribery, however, the Danish envoy Just Yul, who was with the Russian army after she left the encirclement, does not report such an act of Catherine, but says that the queen gave her jewelry to the officers and then, after the conclusion of peace, she gathered them back.

Catherine I

And now let's fast forward 25 years, to the time of Anna Ioannovna, when, for an absolutely unknown reason, in 1736, the Russian army of 70 thousand soldiers and officers, together with a corps of Ukrainian Cossacks, under the command of Field Marshal Munnich (the German Munnich did a lot for the development Russian army, in particular, he introduced field hospitals for the first time) set out from the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe current city of Tsarichanka, Dnepropetrovsk region, and by May 17 approached Perekop. On May 20, Perekop was taken and the army of the Field Marshal moved deep into the Crimea. In mid-June, Minich approached the city of Kezlev (Evpatoria) and took it by storm. After that, Minich's army went to the capital of the Crimean Khanate - Bakhchisarai and took it by storm on July 30. The main goal of the trip was state archive Crimean Khanate. Minich confiscated many documents from the archive (perhaps Peter the Great's charter), and the rest of the documents were burned along with the archive building. It is believed that Anna Ioannovna organized a raid on the Crimean archives in pursuance of the secret will of Peter I. Field Marshal Minich completed his main task (which very few people knew about) - to seize the khan's archives, so already in the first days of August he left Bakhchisarai, and on August 16 Perekop passed and with the remnants of a shabby army moved to Hetman's Ukraine. Minich lost more than half of the army, mainly due to epidemics, but the empress was pleased with the work done and generously rewarded the general with estates in different parts country.

Anna Ioannovna.

Apparently Anna Ioannovna did not receive all the desired documents. That is why in 1737 the army of Field Marshal Lassi made a second campaign in the Crimea. He no longer visited either Evpatoria or Bakhchisaray. He was interested in other ancient cities of the Crimea, mainly Karasu-Bazar, where the Crimean Khan moved after the pogrom of Bakhchisarai. Looking for something! By the way, the generals of his army, unaware of the true tasks of the campaign, offered many very practical ideas about the routes and methods of conducting this military campaign, but Lassi remained unshakable and even threatened to expel the generals from the army.

Field Marshal Minich

Minich's army campaign in 1736

The epic of classifying ancient Crimean documents did not end there. the authorities sent one expedition after another to conduct searches. Many interesting documents were found, but all of them are still classified.

I shared with you the information that I "dug up" and systematized. At the same time, he has not become impoverished at all and is ready to share further, at least twice a week. If you find errors or inaccuracies in the article, please let us know. I will be very grateful.

Diplomatic results of Poltava. Poltava encouraged the Russian tsar with the imminent conclusion of peace. But this hope was not destined to come true. It took another 11 long years to end the war.

The direct diplomatic result of the Poltava victory was the restoration of the Northern Alliance with the participation of the Polish-Saxon (Peter returned the Polish throne to Augustus II) and the Danish kings. Joined the defensive alliance prussian king. The military consequences were also not long in coming. In 1710, Russian troops conducted a successful "fortress campaign": they captured Riga (it was the largest city in the Kingdom of Sweden!), Reval and Vyborg. After Poltava, Russia waged war only on enemy territory.

Prut campaign against the Turks. However, the strengthening of Russia did not suit everyone in Europe. Turkey friendly received Charles XII. Incited by Charles and European diplomats, the Sublime Porte in 1711 declared war on Russia. Encouraged by his victories, Peter led the Russian army far into enemy territory on the banks of the Prut River and almost made a mistake similar to the one that led to the death of the Swedish army. Historians (starting with Peter I himself) have repeatedly compared Peter's Prut campaign with the adventure of Charles XII in Ukraine.

Charles XII demands the renewal of the Turks
battles at the Prut

The king recognized the fallacy of the chosen strategy. 38 thousandth Russian army far from its borders, it turned out to be surrounded by a 135,000-strong Turkish army. Heat, lack of water and food complicated the situation. Peter counted on the help of the population of Moldavia and Wallachia, but it turned out to be minimal. The ruler of Moldova, Dmitry Cantemir, whom Voltaire compared with Mazepa, went over to the side of the Russian Tsar. The situation seemed critical. The threat of captivity hung not only over the army, but also over the king, who was in the camp with his wife.

True, the Russian soldiers fought off all the attacks of the Janissaries, who suffered heavy losses and, finally, refused to go into battle. Therefore, the Turkish commander-in-chief Baltaji Pasha began negotiations. The courage of Russian soldiers, the skill of diplomats (and, perhaps, the diamonds of Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna) determined the relatively easy terms of the Prut Treaty: Russia ceded Azov to Turkey and pledged not to interfere in Polish affairs. Russian troops could freely return home. Most of all, Charles XII, who was located nearby, in Bendery, was dissatisfied with the agreement. He demanded troops to pursue Peter, but the Turks cooled his warlike ardor. Regretting the losses, the tsar found consolation in the fact that now he could concentrate entirely on the Baltic problems.

Battle at Cape Gangut. 1715 A. Zubov

Victories at Gangut and Grengam. The war with the Swedes continued in Pomerania (Northern Germany) and in Finland. The war had to be waged not for the sake of new conquests, but in order to persuade the Swedes to a world advantageous for Russia (as the tsar wrote, so that “the Swedish neck began to bend more gently”). In 1714, under the leadership of Peter I, the first victory of the Russian galley fleet at Cape Gangut was won, which had great moral significance. Real try to conclude peace with Sweden at the Åland Congress in 1718 was unsuccessful due to the death of the Swedish king (died during the siege of a fortress in Norway). By that time, the Northern Alliance had collapsed, and Sweden had found an ally in the person of Great Britain. The new victory of the Russian fleet near Grengam Island on July 27, 1720 and the ensuing Russian landing in Sweden made the Swedish Queen Ulrika-Eleanor more accommodating.

Nystadt world. The peace treaty was signed in the Finnish city of Nystadt on August 30, 1721. Livonia, Estonia, Ingria and part of Karelia with Vyborg went to Russia. Peter returned Finland to the Swedes and paid compensation of 2 million Reichstallers for lost territories. There was an exchange of prisoners.

As a result of the war, Russia received much more than it hoped to receive by starting hostilities. It gained not only access to the Baltic Sea, but also a number of economically developed territories. The war became a harsh school for the Russian state. The tsar himself called it a “three-time school”, because he believed that schoolchildren should study for 7 years. Russia withdrew from the war strong army and navy. Actually Russian empire became a powerful European power, although she had to confirm this status in subsequent wars in the middle and second half of the 18th century.

The nature of the war. The war with Sweden was not for Russia " Patriotic War". Even such a talented historian as E.V. Tarla, in essence, failed to prove its emancipatory character. Of course, when the troops of Charles XII rampaged in Ukraine, robbed and killed the local population, they rose to fight the invaders. There was a partisan struggle, which the Swedes also encountered in the Commonwealth. The general exasperation of the people and the actions of the partisans were considered in Europe a violation of the "rules of Christian and political peoples" in the conduct of the war. But, as we have seen, in the war there were cases of betrayal and the transition of part of the Ukrainian Cossacks to the side of the Swedish king.

The majority of the population of Russia, experiencing the hardships of wartime, languishing from taxes and duties, was not very well aware of the goals of the battle that dragged on for 21 years. It is no coincidence that uprisings broke out in the country, the opponents of the tsar condemned the war and the construction of a new capital on the swampy banks of the Neva. To the tsar himself in 1717, in an afterword to the book by P.P. Shafirov about the reasons Swedish war had to prove the need to continue hostilities. “Because any war at the present time cannot bring sweetness, but a burden, for the sake of which many are indignant about that burden.” But when great sacrifices have already been made, is it possible to cede the conquered lands and fortresses to the enemy? asked Peter. “And will not the whole world laugh that, having already endured the 17th year and received such glory, moreover, security, we will expose ourselves to everlasting misfortune and eternal shame without any need?”

The price and meaning of victory. Indeed, victory in the war was not easy for Russia. Combat losses The Russian army amounted to 120-130 thousand people, of which about 40 thousand were killed. Even more human lives (up to half a million) were claimed by diseases.

The main event of the Northern War - the Battle of Poltava turned out to be truly fateful for Russia. She prepared for the country the fate of an empire - a state with a multinational population formed as a result of conquests. On this path, the country faced not only victories, but also difficult trials.

Read also other topics part III ""Concert of Europe": the struggle for political balance" section "West, Russia, East in the battles of the XVII-beginning of the XVIII century":

• 9. "Swedish Deluge": from Breitenfeld to Lützen (September 7, 1631-November 16, 1632)
  • Battle of Breitenfeld. Winter Campaign of Gustavus Adolphus
• 10. Marston Moor and Nasby (July 2, 1644, June 14, 1645)
  • Marston Moor. The victory of the parliamentary army. Cromwell's army reform
• 11. "Dynastic Wars" in Europe: the struggle "for the Spanish inheritance" in early XVIII v.
  • "Dynastic Wars". The struggle for the Spanish inheritance
• 12. European conflicts take on a global dimension
  • War of the Austrian Succession. Austro-Prussian conflict
  • Frederick II: victories and defeats. Treaty of Hubertusburg
• 13. Russia and the "Swedish question"

Image caption Map of the Prut Campaign

300 years ago, an event occurred that a Russian person is not too pleased to remember: the Prut campaign of Peter I ended in a crushing failure.

The history of this campaign can still serve as a warning against hatred and unbridled expansionism.

Two years earlier, the victory at Poltava brought Russia to the rank of great powers. The Swedish king Charles XII fled to Turkey with a handful of associates and sat there, according to historians, not wanting to return to his homeland, where his popularity fell below zero.

Military experts have no doubts: if Peter, after Poltava, had launched an offensive in Finland or landed an amphibious assault on the Swedish coast - the Landtag, without hesitation, would have deposed the king and made peace on the condition of recognizing all the gains of Russia in the Baltic.

However, the king, inspired by success, decided that nothing was impossible for him now, and set out to decide at the same time and " southern question"As a result, Russia lost in the Black Sea region all the acquisitions of Peter's predecessors and the achievements of his two Azov campaigns, and the war with Sweden dragged on for another 10 years.

"Giant Plans"

Peter in general was sometimes denied a sense of reality.

In 1716, he sent 6,100 soldiers and Cossacks under the command of the captain of the Preobrazhensky regiment Bekovich-Cherkassky with the task of conquering the Khiva and Bukhara khanates, and at the same time digging a channel that could get from the Caspian Sea to the Amu Darya (all members of the expedition were killed by many times superior forces Khivans).

A year later, he went to Paris to offer his daughter Elizabeth as a wife to Louis XV, as if he did not understand that the marriage of the king of France with the daughter of a former washerwoman and soldier slut could not be discussed under any circumstances.

Having barely completed the war with Sweden, he began to plot a sea expedition to establish a colony in Madagascar, although the Russian fleet had only eight ships capable of leaving the Baltic for the ocean.

"Giant plans were ripening in the head of the Russian emperor!" - admired Soviet writer Nikolai Pavlenko, although one should rather talk about the gigantic scale of adventurism.

empty promises

The formal reason for the war was the stay of Charles XII on Turkish territory, although the fact that he was away from his country and army was beneficial to Russia.

The Turks were not going to listen to the advice of the king, because they respected only real power and pursued exclusively their own interests, and they did not want to fulfill Peter's demands for his expulsion for reasons of prestige.

Military historians point out that Charles XII, when planning a campaign against Russia, which ended in a rout near Poltava, made a complete set of all conceivable strategic mistakes: he attacked with insufficient forces, without providing communications; underestimated the enemy; did not organize intelligence; placed fantastic hopes on the allies, who did not seriously think of helping.

Surprisingly, two years later, Peter repeated all these mistakes, as they say, one to one.

He set out with insufficient forces on a poorly prepared campaign, not really knowing the situation, being confident in the weakness of the Turks and relying on the help of the Romanians, Serbs and Montenegrins.

With an excessive reserve of hopes for Turkish Christians, empty promises from the Moldavian and Wallachian rulers, and a significant reserve of his own Poltava self-confidence, but without a sufficient convoy and study of circumstances, Peter set off into the sultry steppe, not with the aim of protecting Little Russia, but to defeat the Turkish Empire Vasily Klyuchevsky

As the Romanian historian Armand Gosu points out, immediately after Poltava, "delegations of Moldavian and Wallachian boyars began to beat the thresholds of St. Petersburg, asking the tsar to swallow them up by the Orthodox empire."

The lords of Wallachia [modern Romania] and Moldavia Konstantin Brynkovyanu and Dmitry Cantemir promised, as soon as Russia spoke, to announce their withdrawal from Turkish citizenship, to send an army of 30,000 to help Peter and to provide Russian troops with food.

According to them, it turned out that the terrain in Moldova was ideal for conducting military operations, there would be no problems with water and food, and the Turks were not capable of combat and were terribly afraid of the Russians.

Having heard these tales, Peter wrote to Sheremetyev: “The lords write that as soon as our troops enter their lands, they will immediately unite with them and induce all their numerous people to revolt against the Turks; looking at what the Serbs (from whom we we have the same request and promise), also the Bulgarians and other Christian peoples will rise up against the Turks, and some will join our troops, others will revolt against the Turkish regions; in such circumstances, the vizier will not dare to cross the Danube, most of his army will scatter, or maybe be, and a revolt will be raised."

When the war began, Brâncoveanu pretended that what was happening did not concern him. Cantemir, however, came to the camp of Peter (his descendants became Russian nobles), but brought only five thousand irregular cavalry armed with bows and lances.

In fact, the situation of two years ago was repeated, only in the role of Mazepa was Kantemir, and in the role of Charles XII - Peter.

It was in 1711 that a long tradition of Russia's reckless, often to the detriment of its own interests, support for the Balkan Orthodox "brothers" was laid down, who either did not ask to be saved from anyone at all, or did not rush into battle, hoping to rake the heat with Russian hands. It ended, as you know, with the First World War and the death of the empire created by Peter.

Fleeting Campaign

The Russian army numbered 79,800 bayonets and sabers and about 10,000 Cossacks with 160 guns. Field Marshal Sheremetiev and seven generals went on a campaign with Peter, including Bruce and Repnin, who distinguished themselves near Poltava.

June 27 (June 16, old style) crossed the Dniester. Then I had to go through the waterless steppe, with sweltering heat during the day and cold nights. The army began to be mowed down by disease. Some soldiers, reaching the water, drank themselves to death, others shot themselves, unable to endure the torment.

On July 14, the army reached the Prut. On July 17, a review was held, at which 19 thousand people were missing, and about 14 thousand more had to be left to protect communications.

“The soldiers turned black from thirst and hunger. Dying people lay in multitudes along the road, and no one could help their neighbor or save him, since no one had anything,” recalled Rasmus Erebo, the secretary of the Danish envoy Just Jul, who accompanied Peter on the campaign .

The army under the command of the Grand Vizier Baltaji Mehmed Pasha and the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey II, numbering 190 thousand people with 440 guns, came out to meet Peter.

After three days of fighting, the superior forces of the Turks on July 21 pinned the Russian army to the Prut and surrounded it with a semicircle of earthen fortifications and artillery batteries. Peter, according to the memoirs of Erebo, "ran up and down the camp, beat his chest and could not utter a word." Death or captivity seemed inevitable.

"Everything but Slavery"

The tsar sent a messenger to St. Petersburg with a letter to the Senate not to follow any instructions that he might have to give while in captivity, and to the Turkish camp - the dodgy diplomat Pyotr Shafirov.

A note from Pyotr Shafirov has been preserved: "Bet everything with them, except for slavery [slavery]."

He was ready to cede to the Swedes the previously conquered Baltic coast, in addition to his beloved "paradise", St. Petersburg, and even Pskov.

Fortunately for Russia, the Turks did not even think of defending Swedish interests. But they had to return Azov to them, tear down the fortresses of Taganrog and Kamenny Zaton, abandon the maintenance of warships in the Azov and Black Seas, and those already built at the Voronezh shipyards at the cost of incredible efforts and many lives - either burn or transfer to Turkey for insignificant compensation.

Russia was forced to declare non-interference in the affairs of the Right-Bank Ukraine. In addition, she lost the right to have a permanent embassy in Istanbul, which, according to the then concepts, was considered a great humiliation.

Russia managed to restore its positions in the Black Sea region only under Catherine.

The only concession on the part of the Turks was the promise to send Charles XII out of the country.

Negotiations took less than two days. Already on July 23, the treaty was sealed, and at six in the evening of the same day the Russian army moved to Return trip with cannons and banners.

The next day, Charles XII rode to the Turkish camp, attacking the vizier with angry reproaches and accusations of corruption. The Swedish king urged Mehmed Pasha to give him 30 thousand soldiers and swore that by the evening he would bring Peter with a rope around his neck.

The losses of the Turks and Tatars during the fleeting campaign amounted to about eight thousand people. Russians died 37 thousand, of which only five thousand in battle.

Bought the world

Historians find a prosaic explanation for the quick conclusion and the relatively easy terms of the treaty for Russia: Peter simply paid off the Turks.

Shafirov received a huge sum of 150 thousand rubles for bribes to the Grand Vizier, dignitaries and even secretaries.

Already in November 1711, the Grand Vizier was removed from power for corruption and subsequently executed. They reminded him, among other things, of relations with the Russians.

Mehmed Pasha claimed that he did not take any money and that it was apparently pocketed by Shafirov.

It is hard to believe in the disinterestedness of the vizier, but there could be some truth in his words. Shafirov was famous for his enchanting embezzlement of public funds, for which he was later also sentenced to death (cutting off his head at the last moment was replaced by exile) - however, in cases that had nothing to do with the Prut campaign.

Bendery defense

Among historical figures, two categories stand out sharply: successful pragmatists, about whom, as they say, no one can write songs, and brave romantic madcaps.

The most famous among the Swedish kings, Charles XII, in character, lifetime and posthumous fate, resembled Richard the Lionheart. Having lost everything possible and having died senselessly at the age of 35 during the siege of an insignificant Norwegian fortress, he remained a hero in the eyes of his contemporaries and descendants, and his portraits hung for a long time in the aristocratic houses of Europe.

After the Peace of Prut, Charles XII dragged on for two more years, categorically refusing to leave Turkey.

When the authorities finally sent a military team to expel the king from the house he occupied in Bendery, he raised his bodyguards, ordered the muskets to be distributed to the lackeys, and, together with his people, shot back from the window until the Turks set fire to the house.

Then Karl, the great master of a spectacular pose and a good mine in a bad game, declared that he could not wait a day, because urgent matters called him to Sweden, and, driving horses, he galloped to his homeland, which he had not been for 14 years.

Order in memory of the defeat

There is a legend that the wife of Peter Ekaterina Alekseevna, who accompanied her husband in the Prut campaign, gave her jewelry to bribe the Turks.

According to the credible recollections of the participants in the events, both Russians and foreigners, she did not make such a sacrifice, but she behaved with dignity, although she was in her seventh month of pregnancy.

Under Peter, it was highly recommended not to doubt the history of jewelry.

"In memory of Her Majesty's stay in the battle with the Turks at the Prut, where at such a dangerous time it was not like a wife, but like a man's person was visible to everyone" Peter established the female Order of St. Catherine, which was considered second in value after the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. On the obverse of the badge was the motto "For Love and Fatherland", and on reverse side: "Works are compared with a spouse." Until 1917, he was awarded the Grand Duchesses and Princesses, as well as the wives of the highest dignitaries of the empire, who were called "cavalry ladies".

The establishment of the order was the only positive result of the Prut campaign.

Everyone in Russia knows about Poltava, and mostly history buffs know about the Prut campaign.

It's probably wrong. They take pride in victories, but learn from defeats.

The Swedish monarch Charles XII took refuge in Ottoman Empire. Peter 1 insisted that the Turkish Sultan expelled the Swedish king from his country, but he left Charles on his territory. Then the Russian tsar began to threaten the sultan with war, but, taking the initiative, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire was the first to declare war on Russia. It happened on November 20, 1710. But the real reason for declaring war was the desire to return the lost Azov during the second Azov campaign.

After the declaration of war, Turkey was not active in the outbreak of the war. Only Crimean Tatars raided Ukraine. Then Peter 1 decided to take the initiative into his own hands. His plan of action was as follows - to make a trip to the Danube, cross the Danube and raise an uprising of the peoples who belong to the Ottoman Empire, but want to be more independent.

The Prut campaign of 1711 and its main events

Before the start of the Prut campaign, the Russian army was counted. The test results were as follows:

• nearly 80,000 regular army men,
• 60 heavy artillery pieces (from 4 pounds to 12 pounds),
• about 100 guns (caliber from 2 to 3 pounds).

Also, up to 10,000 Cossacks and up to 6,000 Moldovans joined the Russian army. The route of the Russian army was a straight line from Kiev to the city of Yassy, ​​crossing the Prut River.

On June 27, 1711, the Russian army crossed the Dniester River. After the Dniester, the army moved in two groups. The hike from the Dniester River to the Prut River lasted 6 days. This path was very difficult - many soldiers died from dehydration.

Since the Russian army was experiencing problems with fodder, Peter decided to send General Renne with an army to the city of Brailov, where there were large supplies of food and fodder. The army of Rennes consisted of 5,000 dragoons and 5,000 Moldovans. (Renne captured Brailov on July 25, but after 2 days he surrendered the city, since the Prut peace treaty had already been signed).

On July 14, Sheremetev's army and the army of Peter 1 united on the western bank of the Prut River. In Iasi, about 9,000 soldiers were left to protect the rear, the rest of the army advanced along the Prut River towards the Danube River. On the 17th, another review of the troops was held, but this time the army of Peter 1 consisted of only 47 thousand soldiers.

On July 18, at 2 pm, the Turkish cavalry attacked the vanguard of the Russian troops under the command of General Janus von Eberstedt.

The Russian general had 6,000 dragoons and 32 cannons at his disposal.

Once in complete encirclement, the Russian general lined up an army of dismounted dragoons in a square with artillery in the center. The Russians fired back and slowly retreated to the main forces.

The Turkish cavalry were armed mainly with bows and had no artillery - this helped the dragoons to successfully repel attacks.

As soon as the sun went below the horizon, the Turks retreated and this gave the Russians a chance on the morning of the 19th to join the main army.

Battles with the Turkish army and encirclement

On July 19, the Turkish cavalry surrounded the Russian army, but did not approach the Russian soldiers at a distance closer than 300 steps. Since the Russian army was in a lowland, Peter 1 decided to go upstream along the Prut River in order to find a more advantageous position for defense.

At 23:00 the Russian army advanced up the Prut. The army marched in six parallel columns. Particularly dangerous areas were protected by slingshots carried by soldiers in their arms. On that day, the losses of Peter 1 reached 800 people.

The next day in the morning, due to the rough terrain, a large gap formed between the leftmost column of the guards and the neighboring column. The Tatars immediately took advantage of this and attacked the defenseless convoy. Before the columns connected, not a few people died. Due to a hitch, the Turkish infantry (Janissaries) with artillery managed to catch up with the Russian army.

At about 5 p.m., the Russian army stopped and took up defensive positions near Stanileshti, which is 75 km from Yass downstream of the river. Rod.

At 19 o'clock the first attack of the Turkish infantry began, but they were stopped by a volley of guns and rifles. While the Janissaries were hiding behind a hillock, grenadiers began to throw grenades at them. Having jumped out and rushed again to the attack, the Turkish infantry was again stopped by a rifle salvo.

During the night, the Turks attacked the Russians 2 more times, but both times the attacks were repulsed. On that day, Russian losses amounted to almost 2,700 killed and wounded. Turkish losses were between 7,000 and 8,000.

On July 21, the Turks began shelling the Russian army with 160 guns. The Turkish infantry once again tried to attack the Russian army, but was again driven back, losing many soldiers in the process. Once surrounded, the affairs of the Russian army became worse and worse - there was little ammunition left, the food was running out. At the council, Peter 1 offered to start peace negotiations, but if the Sultan refuses, then break through without sparing himself or the enemy.

There was a decision to send a trumpeter with a truce, but the commander of the Turkish troops refused and gave the order to attack. The Janissaries, having huge losses, refused to go on the attack. After an unsuccessful first attempt, Peter decides to send a second letter with a proposal for peace, but this time he added that in case of refusal, the Russian army would go on a decisive attack without sparing himself. After this letter, the Turkish vizier decided to conclude a truce for 2 days and start peace negotiations.

On July 22, Vice-Chancellor Shafirov returned from the Turkish military camp with the terms of the Prut peace treaty. The main articles of the peace treaty were:

• the return of Azov to the Turks;
• destruction of fortresses in the coastal lands of the Sea of ​​Azov;
• destruction of the Azov fleet.

Results

After Peter's army crossed the Dniester River, he ordered to count the army. Of the 80,000 people before the campaign, there were only 37 and a half thousand soldiers + 5,000 soldiers of General Renne. During the Prut campaign, the army lost about 37,000 people, but only 5,000 died in battle, the rest died of hunger, dehydration, surrendered, deserted.

The most important loss as a result of this campaign was the loss of control over the Sea of ​​​​Azov and the loss of the Azov fleet. Three ships, one of them "Goto Predistance", Peter 1 wanted to transport to the Baltic Sea, but the Turks did not allow passage through the Bosphorus. Therefore, Peter had to sell these ships to the Turks.

Map of the Prut Campaign