It just so happened that the Russian-Turkish war of 1787-1791 is known for many battles - sea and land. During it, two famous assaults took place on well-fortified fortresses protected by large garrisons - Ochakov and Izmail. And if the capture of Ochakov was actually carried out at the beginning of the war, the capture of Izmail in many ways accelerated its end.
Austria comes out of the war. Danube knot
By the beginning of 1790, the initiative in hostilities was in the hands of the Russian army and navy, although the Ottoman Empire was by no means a weak enemy and did not exhaust its internal reserves. But foreign policy circumstances intervened in the course of the war, which was successful as a whole for Russia. The fight against Turkey was fought within the framework of the Russian-Austrian alliance, signed by Catherine II and the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Archduke Joseph II. Austria fought mostly its own war - Field Marshal Laudon's army fought against the Turks in Serbia and Croatia. To help the Russians, a compact corps of the Prince of Coburg was allocated, not exceeding 18 thousand people. Joseph II considered himself a zealous ally of Russia and a friend of Catherine II. Experiencing a sincere penchant for military affairs, but not having any special strategic talents, in the fall of 1789 the emperor personally led the Austrian army on a campaign, but on the way he caught a cold and fell seriously ill. Returning to Vienna and leaving detailed instructions to many officials, and primarily to his brother Leopold II, Emperor Joseph died. It is no exaggeration to say that in his person Russia has lost a loyal ally, and such are a rarity in Russian history.
Leopold accepted the country in a very upset form - his brother was known as a tireless reformer and innovator in many areas, but not all of his deeds, like any zealot of change, were successful. The tricolor of "freedom, equality, brotherhood" of the French Revolution was already fluttering in the West, and foreign policy pressure on Vienna in the person of England and its political guide, Prussia, was intensifying. Leopold II was forced to sign a separate truce with the Turks.
This was an unpleasant event for the Russian troops. Suvorov's corps was recalled by order of Potemkin in August 1790. According to the terms of the armistice, the Austrians were not supposed to let Russian troops into Wallachia, the Seret River became a demarcation line between the former allies. Now the operational area in which the Russian army could operate was limited to the lower reaches of the Danube, where the large Turkish fortress of Izmail was located.
This stronghold was considered one of the most powerful and well-defended fortresses of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks widely attracted European engineers and fortifiers to modernize and strengthen their fortresses. Since then, during the war of 1768-1774, the troops under the command of N. V. Repnin was taken by Izmail on August 5, 1770, the Turks made enough efforts so that such an unfortunate event would not happen again. In 1783–1788, a French military mission was operating in Turkey, sent by Louis XVI to strengthen the Ottoman army and train its officer corps. Until the French Revolution, more than 300 French instructor officers worked in the country, primarily in fortification and naval affairs. Under the leadership of the engineer de Lafite-Clovier and the German who replaced him Richter, Ishmael was reconstructed from an ordinary fortress into a large defense center.
Turkish underground galleries in Izmail
The fortress was an irregular triangle, adjacent to the southern side of the Danube Cilician Canal. It was located on the slope of heights, sloping towards the Danube. The total length of the fortifications of the bastion outline along the outer contour was 6.5 kilometers (the western face is 1.5 kilometers, the northeastern face is 2.5 kilometers, and the southern face is 2 kilometers). Ishmael was divided into two parts by a wide ravine stretching from north to south: the western, or Old Fortress, and the Eastern, or New Fortress. The main rampart reached 8, 5-9 meters in height and was surrounded by a moat up to 11 meters deep and up to 13. The rampart from the land side was reinforced with 7 earthen bastions, 2 of which were faced with stone. The height of the bastions varied from 22 to 25 meters. From the north, Izmail was covered by a fortress citadel - here, at the apex of a triangle formed by fortress lines, there was a stone-clad Bendery bastion. The southwestern corner, where the bank descended to the sloping river, was also well fortified. An earthen rampart, 100 meters from the water, ended with a stone Tabia tower with a three-tiered arrangement of guns inside, firing through the embrasures. Ishmael had four gates: Brossky, Khotinsky, Bendery and Cilician. Inside the fortress, there were many sturdy stone buildings that could easily be turned into knots of resistance. The approaches to the ramparts were covered with wolf pits. Only from the side of the Danube the fortress did not have bastions - the Turks placed protection from this side on the ships of their Danube flotilla. The number of artillery at the time of the late autumn of 1790 was estimated at 260 barrels, of which 85 cannons and 15 mortars were on the river side.
Flotilla de Ribas and the approach of the army
It was clear that Ishmael was a tough nut, but it was necessary and desirable to take him as soon as possible - without any semblance of "Ochakov's sitting". The presence of a waterway - the Danube - meant its use for military purposes. In 1789, the Danube flotilla was created on the Danube (again after 1772): a detachment of ships under the command of Captain I rank Akhmatov arrived from the Dnieper. On October 2, 1790, Potemkin gave an order to the commander of the Liman rowing flotilla, Major General de Ribas, to enter the Danube to strengthen the forces available there. De Ribas' flotilla consisted of 34 ships. On the transition from the Dnieper, which became rear after the capture of Ochakov, it was supposed to be covered by the Sevastopol squadron under the command of F. F. Ushakov. The Turks missed the passage of de Ribas' ships. The fact is that the escort of the flotilla was able to leave Sevastopol only on October 15, and the commander of the Ottoman fleet, Hussein Pasha, missed the chance to prevent the penetration of the Russians into the Danube.
The consequences did not fail to tell - already on October 19, de Ribas attacked the enemy at the Sulino mouth of the Danube: 1 large galley was burned, 7 merchant ships were captured. A tactical assault force of 600 grenadiers landed on the shore, destroying the Turkish coastal batteries. The cleanup of the Danube continued: on November 7, the fortress and port of Tulcea were taken, on November 13 - the Isakchi fortress. On November 19, the detachments of de Ribas and Akhmatov approached directly to Izmail, where the main forces of the Turkish flotilla were located. At first, the enemy was attacked by 6 fire-ships, but due to ignorance of the river flow they were carried towards the Turks. Then the Russian ships came close, to a pistol shot, and opened fire. As a result, 11 Turkish rowing ships were blown up or burned. 17 merchant and transport ships with various supplies were immediately destroyed. The Russians did not have their own losses in the ships. During the period from October 19 to November 19, 1790, the Danube Flotilla inflicted serious damage on the enemy: 210 ships and vessels were destroyed, 77 were captured. More than 400 guns were taken as trophies. Turkish shipping in this Danube region was done away with. Fortress Izmail lost the ability to count on the support of its own flotilla due to its destruction. In addition, an important result of the activities of de Ribas and Akhmatov was the termination of the supply of provisions and other means of supply by water.
On November 21-22, a Russian 31,000-strong army under the command of Lieutenant-General N. V. Gudovich and P. S. Potemkin, also a lieutenant general, a cousin of Catherine's favorite. The Serene One himself at first wanted to lead the troops, but then changed his mind and remained at his headquarters in Yassy. The forces of the Turkish garrison were estimated from 20 to 30 thousand people under the command of Aydozli Mahmet Pasha.
Probably, the first information about what is happening inside the fortress, the Russian command received from a fugitive Zaporozhets, a certain Ostap Styagailo from Uman, in early November 1790. According to his testimony, in the fall there were about 15 thousand Turks in the fortress, not counting the small contingents of Tatars, Zaporozhian Cossacks from the Transdanubian Sich, a number of Nekrasov Cossacks, descendants of the participants in the Bulavin uprising of 1708, who took Turkish citizenship. Ostap Styagailo complained about poor quality food and said that "the old Zaporozhians, in order to keep the young from escaping, disclose that they are being subjected to various torments to the Russian army, and that there are no more than five hundred Black Sea residents in Russia, who are not Kleinods and have no advantages." Since Ishmael was always considered by the Turks not only as a fortress, but also as a point of concentration of troops in the Danube region, its garrison had to be large enough and have extensive storerooms for provisions and ammunition. Although, it is likely that the food was of "poor quality", as Steagailo pointed out.
Meanwhile, Russian troops surrounded Ishmael and launched a bombardment. An envoy was sent to the commandant of the garrison, just in case, with a proposal to surrender. Naturally, Mahmet Pasha refused. The sight of the fortress inspired respect and corresponding fears. Therefore, the lieutenant generals convened a council of war, at which it was decided to lift the siege and retreat to winter quarters. Obviously, the Most Serene One through his people knew about the pessimistic moods that reigned in the command of the siege army, so he, not yet knowing the decision of the military council, ordered General-in-Chief Suvorov to arrive under the walls of the fortress and on the spot deal with the situation - whether to take Ishmael by storm or retreat. Potemkin was well informed about the increasing number of ill-wishers in St. Petersburg, about the rising star - the favorite of the Empress Platon Zubova, and he did not need the obvious failure in the final of the company in 1790. On December 13, 1790, Suvorov, endowed with broad powers, arrives at Izmail, where preparations for lifting the siege are already in full swing.
Hard to learn - easy to fight
Together with the general-in-chief from his division, which previously operated together with the Austrian corps of the Prince of Coburg, the Fanagoria regiment and 150 people from the Absheron regiment arrived. By this time, new information appeared about the state of affairs inside the fortress - a Turk, a certain Kulhochadar Akhmet, deserted to the Russians. The defector said that the morale of the garrison is strong enough - they consider Ishmael impregnable. The garrison commander himself visits all positions of the fortress three times a day. Food and forage, although not in abundance, will last for several months. The Turks assess the Russian army as very large and constantly expect an assault. There are a lot of Tatar soldiers in the fortress under the command of the brother of the Crimean Khan Kaplan-Girey. The fortitude of the garrison was additionally given by the firman of Sultan Selim III, in which it was promised to execute any defender of Ishmael, wherever he was, if the fortress fell.
This information finally convinced Suvorov that the case must be resolved by storm, and the siege is unacceptable. Having changed into simple clothes, accompanied only by an orderly, the general-in-chief drove around Ishmael and was forced to admit that "a fortress without weak points." The lieutenant-generals were pleased with the appearance of Suvorov, who actually took over the command of the army. With all his ebullient energy "forward general" began preparations for the assault. For all the strategic reasoning in the style of "Everyone will eat and ask for pardon" Suvorov rightly pointed out the impossibility of a winter siege for a variety of reasons, not least because of the lack of food in the Russian army itself.
Major General de Ribas, whose flotilla was still blocking Ishmael from the side of the river, was ordered, in addition to the already existing seven batteries on the island of Chatal (opposite the fortress), to lay another one - from heavy guns. From the island de Ribas conducted bombardment of Turkish positions in preparation for the assault and during it. In order to lull the vigilance of the Turks and show that the Russians are supposedly preparing for a long siege, several siege batteries were laid, including false ones.
On December 18, Suvorov sent a proposal for surrender to the commandant of the garrison, giving him 24 hours to think it over. The general made it clear that in the event of an assault, the Turks would not have to count on mercy. The next day, the famous answer came that "the Danube would sooner flow backwards and the sky would fall to the ground than Ishmael would surrender." However, the Pasha added that he wanted to send messengers to the vizier "for instructions", and asked for a truce for 10 days, starting on December 20. Suvorov objected that such conditions did not suit him at all, and he gave Makhmet Pasha a deadline until December 21. There was no response from the Turkish side at the appointed time. This decided the fate of Ishmael. The general assault was scheduled for December 22.
Storm
It would be unreasonable to think that Suvorov was going to attack such a strong fortress as Ishmael, headlong with a whoop and a valiant whistle. To train the troops behind the Russian positions, a kind of training ground was created, where ditches were dug and ramparts were poured, comparable in size to those of Izmail. On the night of December 19 and 20, while the Pasha was thinking, Suvorov conducted real exercises for the troops using assault ladders and fascines, which were thrown into the ditches. The General-in-Chief personally showed many techniques of working with a bayonet and forcing fortifications. The assault plan was worked out in detail, and the troops received a corresponding directive regulating certain actions. The assault units consisted of five columns. There was a reserve for crisis situations. Disarmed and Christians were instructed not to deprive them of their lives. The same applies to women and children.
On the morning of December 21, when it became clear that the Turks did not intend to surrender, the Russian artillery opened heavy fire on the enemy positions. In total, about 600 guns took part in the bombing, including from de Ribas' flotilla. At first, Ishmael answered cheerfully, but by noon the enemy's return fire began to weaken and by evening it had stopped altogether.
At 3 o'clock in the morning on December 22, the first signal rocket shot up, along which the troops left the camp, lined up in columns and began to advance to their assigned positions. At 5:30 am, again at the signal of a rocket, all the columns went to storm.
The Turks allowed the attackers at close range and opened heavy fire, making extensive use of canister. The first to approach the fortress was the column under the command of Major General P. P. Lassi. Half an hour after the start of the assault, the soldiers managed to climb the shaft, where a stubborn battle began to boil. Together with the column of Major General S. L. Lvov, they attacked the Brossky Gate and one of the most centers of defense - the Tabie tower. A massive bayonet attack managed to break through to the Khotyn gates and open them, giving way to cavalry and field artillery. This was the first serious success of the storming men. Attacking the large northern bastion, the third column of General F. I. Meknoba faced additional difficulties besides the opposition of the enemy. On its site, the assault ladders turned out to be short - they had to be tied in two, and all this was done under the fire of the Turks. Finally, the troops managed to climb the rampart, where they were met with fierce resistance. The situation was straightened out by the reserve, which helped to throw the Turks from the rampart into the city. The column headed by Major General M. I. Golenishchev-Kutuzov, storming the New Fortress. Kutuzov's troops reached the rampart, where they were counterattacked by the Turkish infantry. A historical legend tells: Mikhail Illarionovich sent a messenger to Suvorov with a request to allow him to retreat and regroup - the commander replied that Kutuzov had already been appointed commandant of Izmail and a messenger had already been sent to St. Petersburg with a corresponding report. The future field marshal and "expeller Bonaparte", having shown, according to the opinions of others, great courage, with his courage was an example to his subordinates, repulsed all Turkish attacks and took the Cilician gates on the shoulders of the retreating.
Simultaneously with the assault on land, an attack was carried out on the fortress from the side of the Danube under the cover of fire from the batteries of the Danube flotilla on the island of Chatal. General management of the river part of the operation was carried out by de Ribas. By 7 am, when fierce battles were raging along the entire perimeter of the Turkish defense, rowing ships and boats approached the shore and began to land. The coastal battery, which resisted the landing, was captured by the huntsmen of the Livonian regiment under the command of Count Roger Damas. Other units suppressed the Turkish defenses from the river.
At dawn, the scale of the battle was already confidently tilting towards the Russians. It was clear that the defense of the fortress had been broken and now there was a fight inside it. By 11 o'clock in the morning, all the fortress gates had already been captured, as well as the outer perimeter of the ramparts and bastions. The still large Turkish garrison, using buildings and barricades erected in the streets, fiercely defended. Without the active support of artillery, it was difficult to smoke them from every center of resistance. Suvorov throws additional reserves into battle and actively uses field artillery for street battles. In the reports of the assault and in the descriptions of eyewitnesses, the persistence of the Turks in defense was emphasized. It was also indicated that the civilian population was rather active in the battle. For example, women throwing daggers at attacking soldiers. All this raised the level of bitterness of opponents even more. Hundreds of Turkish and Tatar horses escaped from the burning garrison stables and scampered across the battle-engulfed fortress. Kaplan-Girey, personally led a detachment of several thousand Turks and Tatars and tried to organize a counterattack, apparently intending to break through from Ishmael. But in battle, he was killed. The commandant of the Aydozli fortress, Mahmet Pasha, with a thousand janissaries sat down in his palace and stubbornly defended for two hours. Only when Major Ostrovsky's battery was brought there and put on direct fire, it was possible to smash the gates of the palace with intense fire. The grenadiers of the Fanagoria regiment burst inside and, as a result of hand-to-hand combat, destroyed all its defenders.
By 4 o'clock in the afternoon the assault was over. According to reports, the losses of the Turkish garrison amounted to 26 thousand people, including the Tatars. 9 thousand were taken prisoner. It is quite obvious that the number of those killed among the civilian population was also great. 265 guns and 9 mortars were taken as trophies.
The assault cost the Russian army dearly: 1,879 people were killed and 3,214 wounded. According to other sources, these numbers are even higher: 4 and 6 thousand. Due to the low quality of medical care (the best doctors in the army were in Yassy at the apartment of the Serene One), many of the wounded died in the days following the assault. The wounds were in large numbers stabbed in the stomach and from the hit of buckshot, which is intensively used by the Turks. A number of "historians-revealers" and rippers like to complain about, they say, the excessive "bloodiness" of the assault and the great losses of the Russian army. It is necessary to take into account, firstly, the size of the garrison, and secondly, its fierceness in resistance, to which there were many incentives. After all, no one accuses the Duke of Wellington of "bloodiness", who after the storming of the French fortress of Badajoz, having lost more than 5 thousand killed and wounded, wept bitterly at the sight of such a massacre? And the technical means of destruction over the years (until 1812) remained generally at the same level. But Wellington is the hero of Waterloo, and the "abnormal" Suvorov was only able to shower the "poor Turks" with corpses. Still, the “children of the Arbat” are too far from military strategy. The victory won by Suvorov is not only an example of the selfless courage and bravery of the Russian soldier, but also a vivid illustration of the history of military art, an example of a carefully prepared and confidently implemented plan of an operation.
When the thunder of guns fell silent
The news of the capture of Ishmael alarmed the court of Sultan Selim III. An urgent search began for those responsible for the catastrophe. The closest and most convenient candidate for the role of a traditional switchman was the figure of the Grand Vizier Sharif Gassan Pasha. The second most powerful person in the empire was dismissed in the Sultan style - the head of the Vizier was exposed in front of the gates of the palace of the ruler of the faithful. The fall of Ishmael sharply strengthened the party of peace at court - it became clear even to the most notorious skeptics that the wars could no longer be won.
Monument to A. V. Suvorov in Izmail
Potemkin was preparing a solemn meeting for the winner of Izmail, but both famous figures of Russian history disliked each other: partly because of the Serene Highness's zeal for the glory of others, partly due to the sharp and caustic in terms of Alexander Vasilyevich. The meeting was cold and emphatically businesslike - Suvorov, avoiding unnecessary ceremonies, arrived incognito at the headquarters and handed over a victory report. Then the commander-in-chief and his general bowed and dispersed. They never met again. In order not to aggravate the personal conflict, Suvorov was urgently summoned by Catherine to Petersburg, where he was received with restraint (the empress in his confrontation with Potemkin was on the side of the favorite) and awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Preobrazhensky regiment. The title, of course, is an honorable one, since the empress herself was the colonel. Suvorov never received the field marshal's baton and was soon sent to Finland to inspect the fortresses there in case of a new war with Sweden. Potemkin himself soon after the Izmail victory, leaving the army, went to Petersburg to restore order near the throne of Catherine - the new favorite Platon Zubov was already in full command at court. The prince could not return to his former position and, crushed by the sunset of his star, returned to Iasi. The matter was going to the victorious end of the war, but Potemkin was not destined to sign the future Yassy Peace. He fell seriously ill and died in the steppe 40 kilometers from Yassy on the way to Nikolaev, where he wanted to be buried. The news of his death, despite personal grievances, upset Suvorov very much - he considered Potemkin a great man.
Revolting Poland, the rank of generalissimo and the Alpine campaign awaited Alexander Vasilyevich. A new era was approaching Europe - a lieutenant of artillery, to whom the Russian Lieutenant-General I. A. Zaborovsky recklessly refused admission to the service, the little Corsican, who said goodbye: "You will hear about me again, General," - was already making his first steps towards the imperial crown.
