How Russian troops took Berlin for the first time. How many European capitals did the Russians take? “If Berlin is destined to be occupied, then let it be the Russians”

How the Russian army first took Berlin

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

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

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

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

War with caution

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

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

Frederick II the Great

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

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

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

Miracle for the King

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

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

Alexander Kotzebue. "Battle of Kunersdorf" (1848)

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

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

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

Failed assault

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

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

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

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

Count Gottlob Kurt Heinrich von Totleben

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

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

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

Victory with scandal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The population of Berlin was horrified by the appearance of the Russians, who were described as absolute savages, but, to the surprise of the townspeople, the soldiers of the Russian army behaved with dignity, without committing atrocities against civilians.

But the Austrians, who had personal scores to settle with the Prussians, did not restrain themselves - they robbed houses, passers-by on the streets, and destroyed everything they could reach. It got to the point that Russian patrols had to use weapons to reason with their allies. The stay of the Russian army in Berlin lasted six days

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

Russians in Berlin. Engraving by Daniel Chodowiecki. The King of Prussia, having received a report of minimal destruction in the capital, remarked:“Thank you to the Russians, they saved Berlin from the horrors with which the Austrians threatened my capital.”

But these words of Friedrich were intended only for his immediate circle. The monarch, who highly valued the power of propaganda, ordered that his subjects be informed about the monstrous atrocities of the Russians in Berlin. “We had a visit here which in other circumstances would have been extremely pleasant. However, I always wished that if Berlin were ever destined to be occupied by foreign troops, then let it be the Russians ... "

What is salvation for Frederick is death for Peter

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

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

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

Peter III

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

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

Commanders G. K. Zhukov
I. S. Konev G. Weidling

Storm of Berlin- the final part of the Berlin offensive operation of 1945, during which the Red Army captured the capital of Nazi Germany and victoriously ended the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War in Europe. The operation lasted from April 25 to May 2.

Storm of Berlin

The “Zoobunker” - a huge reinforced concrete fortress with anti-aircraft batteries on the towers and extensive underground shelter - also served as the largest bomb shelter in the city.

Early in the morning of May 2, the Berlin metro was flooded - a group of sappers from the SS Nordland division blew up a tunnel passing under the Landwehr Canal in the Trebbiner Strasse area. The explosion led to the destruction of the tunnel and filling it with water along a 25-km section. Water rushed into the tunnels, where a large number of civilians and wounded were taking refuge. The number of victims is still unknown.

Information about the number of victims... varies - from fifty to fifteen thousand people... The data that about a hundred people died under water seems more reliable. Of course, there were many thousands of people in the tunnels, including the wounded, children, women and old people, but the water did not spread through the underground communications too quickly. Moreover, it spread underground in various directions. Of course, the picture of advancing water caused genuine horror in people. And some of the wounded, as well as drunken soldiers, as well as civilians, became its inevitable victims. But talking about thousands of deaths would be a gross exaggeration. In most places the water barely reached a depth of one and a half meters, and the inhabitants of the tunnels had enough time to evacuate themselves and save the numerous wounded who were in the “hospital cars” near the Stadtmitte station. It is likely that many of the dead, whose bodies were subsequently brought to the surface, actually died not from water, but from wounds and illnesses even before the destruction of the tunnel.

At one o'clock in the morning on May 2, the radio stations of the 1st Belorussian Front received a message in Russian: “We ask you to cease fire. We are sending envoys to the Potsdam Bridge.” A German officer who arrived at the appointed place, on behalf of the commander of the defense of Berlin, General Weidling, announced the readiness of the Berlin garrison to stop resistance. At 6 a.m. on May 2, Artillery General Weidling, accompanied by three German generals, crossed the front line and surrendered. An hour later, while at the headquarters of the 8th Guards Army, he wrote a surrender order, which was duplicated and, with the help of loudspeaker installations and radio, delivered to enemy units defending in the center of Berlin. As this order was communicated to the defenders, resistance in the city ceased. By the end of the day, the troops of the 8th Guards Army cleared the central part of the city from the enemy. Individual units that did not want to surrender tried to break through to the west, but were destroyed or scattered.

On May 2 at 10 o'clock in the morning everything suddenly became quiet, the fire stopped. And everyone realized that something had happened. We saw white sheets that had been “thrown away” in the Reichstag, the Chancellery building and the Royal Opera House and cellars that had not yet been taken. Entire columns fell from there. A column passed ahead of us, where there were generals, colonels, then soldiers behind them. We walked for probably three hours.

Alexander Bessarab, participant in the Battle of Berlin and the capture of the Reichstag

Results of the operation

Soviet troops defeated the Berlin group of enemy troops and stormed the capital of Germany, Berlin. Developing a further offensive, they reached the Elbe River, where they linked up with American and British troops. With the fall of Berlin and the loss of vital areas, Germany lost the opportunity for organized resistance and soon capitulated. With the completion of the Berlin operation, favorable conditions were created for encircling and destroying the last large enemy groups on the territory of Austria and Czechoslovakia.

The losses of the German armed forces in killed and wounded are unknown. Of the approximately 2 million Berliners, about 125 thousand died. The city was heavily destroyed by bombing even before the arrival of Soviet troops. The bombing continued during the battles near Berlin - the last American bombing on April 20 (Adolph Hitler's birthday) led to food problems. The destruction intensified as a result of Soviet artillery attacks.

Indeed, it is unthinkable that such a huge fortified city could be taken so quickly. We know of no other such examples in the history of World War II.

Alexander Orlov, Doctor of Historical Sciences.

Two Guards IS-2 heavy tank brigades and at least nine Guards heavy self-propelled artillery self-propelled artillery regiments took part in the battles in Berlin, including:

1st Belorussian Front
- 7th Guards Ttbr - 69th Army
- 11th Guards ttbr - front-line subordination
- 334 Guards tsap - 47th Army
- 351 Guards tsap - 3rd shock army, front-line subordination
- 396 Guards tsap - 5th shock army
- 394 Guards tsap - 8th Guards Army
- 362, 399 guards tsap - 1st Guards Tank Army
- 347 Guards tsap - 2nd Guards Tank Army
1st Ukrainian Front
- 383, 384 guards tsap - 3rd Guards Tank Army

Situation of the civilian population

Fear and despair

A significant part of Berlin, even before the assault, was destroyed as a result of Anglo-American air raids, from which the population hid in basements and bomb shelters. There were not enough bomb shelters and therefore they were constantly overcrowded. In Berlin by that time, in addition to the three million local population (consisting mainly of women, old people and children), there were up to three hundred thousand foreign workers, including “ostarbeiters”, most of whom were forcibly taken to Germany. Entry into bomb shelters and basements was prohibited for them.

Although the war had long been lost for Germany, Hitler ordered resistance to the last. Thousands of teenagers and old men were conscripted into the Volkssturm. From the beginning of March, by order of Reichskommissar Goebbels, responsible for the defense of Berlin, tens of thousands of civilians, mostly women, were sent to dig anti-tank ditches around the German capital.

Civilians who violated government orders even in the last days of the war faced execution.

There is no exact information about the number of civilian casualties. Different sources indicate different numbers of people who died directly during the Battle of Berlin. Even decades after the war, previously unknown mass graves are found during construction work.

Violence against civilians

In Western sources, especially recently, a significant number of materials have appeared concerning mass violence by Soviet troops against the civilian population of Berlin and Germany in general - a topic that was practically not raised for many decades after the end of the war.

There are two opposing approaches to this extremely painful problem. On the one hand, there are artistic and documentary works by two English-speaking researchers - “The Last Battle” by Cornelius Ryan and “The Fall of Berlin. 1945" by Anthony Beevor, which are more or less a reconstruction of the events of half a century ago based on the testimony of participants in the events (overwhelmingly representatives of the German side) and memoirs of Soviet commanders. The claims made by Ryan and Beevor are regularly reproduced by the Western press, which presents them as scientifically proven truth.

On the other hand, there are the opinions of Russian representatives (officials and historians), who acknowledge numerous facts of violence, but question the validity of statements about its extreme mass character, as well as the possibility, after so many years, of verifying the shocking digital data provided in the West . Russian authors also draw attention to the fact that such publications, which focus on hyper-emotional descriptions of scenes of violence that were allegedly committed by Soviet troops on German territory, follow the standards of Goebbels propaganda of the beginning of 1945 and are aimed at belittling the role of the Red Army as the liberator of Eastern and Central Europe from fascism and denigrate the image of the Soviet soldier. In addition, the materials distributed in the West provide virtually no information about the measures taken by the Soviet command to combat violence and looting - crimes against civilians, which, as has been repeatedly pointed out, not only lead to tougher resistance of the defending enemy, but also undermine the combat effectiveness and discipline of the advancing army.

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Do you know that our troops took Berlin three times?! 1760 - 1813 - 1945.

Even without going back centuries, when the Prussians and Russians sang, prayed and cursed in the same (or very similar) language, we will find that in the campaign of 1760, during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the commander-in-chief, General Field Marshal Pyotr Semenovich Saltykov captured Berlin, at that time just the capital of Prussia.

Austria had just quarreled with its northern neighbor and called for help from its powerful eastern neighbor - Russia. When the Austrians were friends with the Prussians, they fought together with the Russians.

This was the time of gallant conquering kings, the heroic image of Charles XII had not yet been forgotten, and Frederick II was already trying to outdo him. And he, like Karl, was not always lucky... The march on Berlin required only 23 thousand people: the corps of General Zakhar Grigoryevich Chernyshev with the attached Don Cossacks of Krasnoshchekov, Totleben’s cavalry and the Austrian allies under the command of General Lassi.

The Berlin garrison, numbering 14 thousand bayonets, was protected by the natural border of the Spree River, Kopenick Castle, flushes and palisades. But, not counting on his charges, the city commandant decided to immediately “make his feet” and, if not for the warlike commanders Lewald, Seydlitz and Knobloch, the battle would not have happened at all.

Ours tried to cross the Spree, but the Prussians forced them to drink some water, and they were unable to seize a bridgehead for the assault on the move. But soon the tenacity of the attackers was rewarded: three hundred Russian grenadiers - renowned masters of bayonet fighting - burst into the Gali and Cottbus gates. But, not receiving reinforcements in time, they lost 92 people killed and were forced to retreat from the Berlin Wall. The second assault detachment, commanded by Major Patkul, retreated without any losses.

Troops from both sides flocked to the Berlin Wall: the regiments of Chernyshev and the Prince of Wirtenberg. The Prussian cuirassiers of General Gulsen - armored vehicles of the eighteenth century - wanted to set out from Potsdam and crush the Russians near the town of Lichtenberg. Ours met them with shrapnel volleys from horse artillery - the prototype of the Katyusha. Not expecting anything like this, the heavy cavalry wavered and was overturned by Russian hussars and cuirassiers.

The morale of the troops was very high. This factor was valued in those days when they fought exclusively in the fresh air. General Panin's division, having covered 75 versts in two days with only knapsacks on their backs and without ammunition or convoys, was in full force, from generals to privates, full of the desire to “carry out this attack in the most perfect way.”

It is difficult to say what would have happened to the Berlin garrison, but even the most militant of the Prussian generals decided not to risk it and evacuate from the capital under cover of darkness. They chose Totleben, who was eager to fight less than others, and surrendered to him. Without consulting Chernyshev, Totleben accepted the surrender and let the Prussians pass through his positions. It is interesting that on the Russian side this surrender, not unconditional, but quite acceptable to the Germans, was accepted by Messrs. Totleben, Brink and Bachmann. With the German side, negotiations were conducted by Messrs. Wigner and Bachmann, our namesake.

One can imagine how Commander-in-Chief Chernyshev felt when he learned that the Prussians had “capitulated” and he had been deprived of his valiant victory. He rushed in pursuit of the slowly and culturally retreating enemy columns and began to crumble their orderly ranks into cabbage.

They established secret surveillance over Totleben and soon received irrefutable evidence that he was connected with the enemy. They wanted to shoot the high-ranking double-dealer, but Catherine took pity on Totleben, who had been lured by Friedrich. Our own people. The Totlebenov surname did not end in Rus'; during the Crimean War, the military engineer Totleben built beautiful fortifications around Sevastopol.

STORM NAMED AFTER BENKENDORFF

The next Berlin operation took place when the Russians drove Napoleon’s army from under the walls of Moscow, the fire victim. We did not call the Patriotic War of 1812 the Great, but the Russians nevertheless visited the capital of Prussia.

The commander of the Berlin direction in the campaign of 1813 was Lieutenant General Pyotr Christianovich Wittgenstein, but the surname Chernyshev could not be avoided here either: Cossack partisans under the command of Major General Prince Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev on February 6 raided Berlin, defended by French troops under the command of Marshal Augereau.

A few words about the attackers. At one time, military historians made an average portrait of an officer who took part in the Battle of Borodino. He turned out to be: age - thirty-one, not married, since it is difficult to feed a family on one salary, in the army - more than ten years, participant in four battles, knows two European languages, cannot read and write.

At the forefront of the main troops was Alexander Benckendorff, the future gendarmerie chief and oppressor of free-thinking writers. He did not know then and hardly thought about it later, that only thanks to writers will the pictures of peaceful life and battles be preserved in the memory of the people.

The unpretentious Russians drove the “cultured” enemy with an indecent speed for the latter. The Berlin garrison outnumbered the 1760 garrison by a thousand men, but the French were even less willing to defend the Prussian capital. They retreated to Leipzig, where Napoleon was gathering his troops for a decisive battle. The Berliners opened the gates, the townspeople welcomed the Russian liberator soldiers. http://vk.com/rus_improvisation Their actions contradicted the French convention they had concluded with the Berlin police, who were obliged to inform the Russians about the enemy’s retreat no earlier than ten o’clock in the morning the next day after the retreat.

The campaign of the thirteenth year had its own May 9th. Let us quote once again “Letters of a Russian Officer” by F.N. Glinka:

“On May 9 we had a common big battle, about which you will read a detailed description in the newspapers and then in the magazine about the actions of a large army, when it is written. I do not even go into detail in describing the excellent actions of the leftist who covered himself that day with the most brilliant glory flank, commanded by the commander Count Miloradovich... At the beginning of the case, Count Miloradovich, going around the regiments, told the soldiers: remember that you are fighting on the day of St. Nicholas! This saint of God has always given the Russians victories and is now looking at you from heaven!..”

VICTORY BANNER IN WOMEN'S HANDS

It is unlikely that in the spring of 1945 many in the warring armies knew that the Russians had already been near Berlin. But since they acted there in a completely businesslike manner, the idea comes that the genetic memory of generations still exists.

The Allies hurried as best they could to the “Berlin pie”; against their powerful eighty German divisions there were only sixty German divisions on the Western Front. But the allies failed to participate in the capture of the “lair”; the Red Army surrounded it and took it on their own.

The operation began with thirty-two detachments being sent to the city for reconnaissance in force. Then, when the operational situation was more or less clarified, the guns thundered and 7 million shells rained down on the enemy. “In the first seconds, several machine-gun bursts crackled from the enemy’s side, and then everything became quiet. It seemed as if there was no living creature left on the enemy’s side,” wrote one of the participants in the battle.

But it only seemed so. Entrenched in a defense in depth, the Germans resisted stubbornly. The Seelow Heights were especially difficult for our units; Zhukov promised Stalin to capture them on April 17, but they took them only on the 18th. There were some mistakes; after the war, critics agreed that it would be better to storm the city with a narrower front, perhaps one reinforced Belorussian one.

But be that as it may, by April 20, long-range artillery began shelling the city. And four days later the Red Army broke into the suburbs. It was not so difficult to get through them; the Germans were not preparing to fight here, but in the old part of the city the enemy again came to his senses and began to desperately resist.

When the Red Army soldiers found themselves on the banks of the Spree, the Soviet command had already appointed a commandant of the dilapidated Reichstag, and the battle was still going on. We must pay tribute to the selected SS units who fought for real and to the last...

And soon the banner of the winner’s colors soared over the Reich Chancellery. Many people know about Egorov and Kantaria, but for some reason they have not previously written about the one who raised the banner over the last stronghold of resisting fascism - the imperial chancellery, and this person turned out to be a woman - an instructor in the political department of the 9th Rifle Corps, Anna Vladimirovna Nikulina.

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

They die but don't give up

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

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

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

The Russians are fighting - the Germans are trembling

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

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

Force majeure circumstance

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

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

Gifted Victory

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

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

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