In the article “Burkhard Minich. The incredible fate of the Saxon who chose Russia”was told about the European period of the life of this statesman and commander, his service in Russia under Peter I, Catherine I, Anna Ioannovna, the siege of Danzig and campaigns against the Turks, as well as about the palace coup that ended with the arrest of the regent Biron. We ended this story with a message about the conflict between Minich and the new rulers of Russia.
Minich was deprived of all government posts, but his resignation did not save him from the revenge of the "meek Elizabeth" who came to power as a result of another palace coup.
And again, not without the participation of the guards. These were no longer the Petrine veterans of Lesnaya and Poltava, but the "praetorians" corrupted by the life of the capital, whom the secretary of the French embassy in Russia Claude Carloman Rulier called "guards, always terrible for their sovereigns" in his notes.
And the French diplomat Favier wrote about the guards regiments of St. Petersburg at that time:
"A large and extremely useless corps … janissaries of the Russian Empire, whose garrison is in the capital, where they seem to keep the courtyard in captivity."
Russian-Swedish war and Elizabeth's conspiracy
On August 30 (September 10), 1721, the Nishtadt Peace Treaty was signed. Twenty years passed, and in 1741 a new Russian-Swedish war began.
Anti-Russian forces, thirsting for revenge and revision of the results of the Northern War, in Sweden united in a party of "battle hats" (meaning officer hats). The Swedish "hawks" contemptuously called their opponents, who wanted peace, "nightcaps", although they preferred to call themselves "caps" (headdresses of the civilian population). As a result, the war party won. The fighting took place on the territory of Finland in 1741-1743, in Sweden this adventure is often called hattarnas ryska krig - "Russian war of hats". It also ended with the victory of Russia: Sweden was forced to confirm the terms of the Nystadt Peace Treaty of 1721, to hand over the fortress of Nyshlot and the mouth of the Kyumeni River to Russia. The commander-in-chief of the Russian army in this war was already familiar to us from the first article, Peter Lassi. But what has the retired Minich got to do with it?
In a narrow circle of supporters of the daughter of Peter I, Elizabeth, a conspiracy has long matured. The conspirators counted primarily on the Preobrazhensky regiment, with whose soldiers Elizabeth strenuously flirted (the company of Transfiguration grenadiers, which took part in the coup, then turned into the Life Campaign, notorious for its unpunished debauchery).
Initially, it was supposed to expel the young emperor and his parents (Anna Leopoldovna and Anton Ulrich) from the country. The new emperor was to be another boy - Elizabeth's nephew Karl Peter Ulrich Godstein-Gottorp, and Elizabeth was only to rule Russia on his behalf until he reached the age of majority. But appetite, as you know, comes with eating. The nephew (future Peter III) from Kiel was summoned, but declared only the heir to the new empress. The juvenile emperor from a rival family of Tsar Ivan Alekseevich spent his entire life in solitary confinement. He was killed while trying to free him according to the instructions drawn up by Catherine II (who set a "record" by being involved in the murder of two legitimate Russian emperors at once).
His mother died in Kholmogory after the fifth birth at the age of 28, his father died in 1774, having outlived his son by 10 years.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves - we are back in 1741. Anna Leopoldovna had every chance to remain the Blessed Empress-Ruler (that was her title), and the young John to become the sovereign emperor.
Elizabeth's position was precarious, the "game" was extremely risky and adventurous, and the government had every reason to arrest her on charges of high treason. Back in the spring of 1741, the English ambassador Finch handed over to Andrei Osterman and Anton-Ulrich a letter from King George II, which literally said the following:
“A large party has formed in Russia, ready to take up arms for the enthronement of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Petrovna … This whole plan was conceived and finally settled between Nolken (the Swedish ambassador) and the agents of the Grand Duchess with the help of the French ambassador, the Marquis de la Chetardie … All negotiations between them and the Grand Duchess are led through the French surgeon (Lestok), who has been with her since childhood."
It was Chetardie who financed the conspiracy, the purpose of which was to destroy the Russian-Austrian alliance and help Sweden by destabilizing the situation in St. Petersburg. This letter from the King of England, oddly enough, did not have any consequences, like other warnings coming to Anna Leopoldovna in considerable numbers. And in November 1741, two events occurred that provoked the conspirators to take immediate action.
On November 23, Anna Leopoldovna presented Elizabeth with a letter from a Russian agent that had come from Silesia. It contained a detailed story about a conspiracy surrounded by the daughter of Peter I and an appeal to immediately arrest the court doctor and adventurer Lestock, through whom Elizabeth was in contact with the ambassadors of France and Sweden and who took money from both.
Anna Leopoldovna, who was only 22 years old, was not distinguished by either great intelligence or insight. 32-year-old Elizabeth, too, has not yet been called very smart, but she was much more experienced, cunning and resourceful than her cousin niece. In a long private conversation, she managed to convince the ruler of her innocence.
But both the princess and Lestok realized that the danger was very great. And it was already impossible to hesitate. And then, fortunately for them, the very next day (November 24, 1741), the guards regiments of St. Petersburg were ordered to prepare for a march to Finland - for the "war of hats". Anna Leopoldovna hoped in this way to remove the Transfiguration faithful to Elizabeth from the capital, but she was tragically mistaken. The Life Guards of St. Petersburg did not want to fight and were not going to leave the cozy capital brothels and cheerful taverns. And therefore the conspirators did not have to persuade them for a long time. A total of 308 Transfigurations (they will become the Leib-Campanians under Elizabeth) decided the fate of Russia by capturing the legal juvenile emperor and arresting his parents.
The young emperor John (he was then 1 year and three months old), Elizabeth forbade to wake up, and an ominous guard stood at his cradle for about an hour. But they did not stand on ceremony with his younger sister Catherine and even dropped her on the floor, from which the girl became deaf forever and grew up mentally retarded.
A close friend of Anna Leopoldovna, Baroness Julia Mengden, was also arrested. Some said that the girls were "too close" friends, and, according to the Swedish diplomat Manderfeld, Anna Ivanovna even ordered a medical examination of Juliana before her niece's wedding in order to determine her gender, which turned out to be female. However, this friendship did not prevent Anna Leopoldovna from getting pregnant regularly, and Juliana to be on excellent terms with her husband, Anton Ulrich.
In total, Baroness Mengden spent 18 years in captivity and exile, after which she was expelled from the country.
This is how the "merry Elizabeth" came to power. The unfortunate Emperor John "reigned" for only 404 days. The Saxon envoy Petzold said then:
"All Russians admit that you can do whatever you want, having at your disposal a certain number of grenadiers, a vodka cellar and a few sacks of gold."
Minich was in retirement, but as a former member of the opposing palace group, just in case he was arrested and sentenced to death by quartering.
On January 18, 1742, the convicts, among whom were the recently omnipotent Reingold Gustav Levenvolde (favorite of Catherine I and chief marshal of Anna Leopoldovna) and Andrei Ivanovich Osterman (the closest employee of Peter I, first cabinet minister of Anna Leopoldovna, general-admiral, father of the future Chancellor of Russia empire of Ivan Osterman), brought to the scaffold erected near the building of the twelve colleges. All the eyes of those present were fixed on Munnich. He was the only one clean-shaven and behaved well, talking merrily with the security officer. At the scaffold it was announced about the "mercy" of the new empress: instead of execution, the condemned were sent to eternal exile. Minikh "got" the Ural Pelym (now in the Sverdlovsk region), which even now can only be reached by water.
The jail here was built according to the drawing of Minich himself and was intended for the overthrown by him Biron. Together with the field marshal, anticipating the fate of the Decembrists, his second wife, Barbara Eleanor (Varvara Ivanovna) Saltykova, nee von Maltzan, went.
By the way, in 1773 Emelyan Pugachev was sent to Pelym for attempting a riot, but he escaped safely from there in order to arrange not a riot, but a full-fledged Peasant War. Then two Decembrists were exiled here: Vranitsky and Briggen. The USSR and Russia continued this tradition by organizing here a colony-settlement number 17, which was closed in 2013. In 2015, Pelym was completely empty.
Return to Petersburg and Catherine's conspiracy
But back to our hero. Minikh spent 20 years in Pelym: he was engaged in gardening, raised cattle, and taught local children. Only after the death of the "gentle" Elizabeth, he was pardoned by the new emperor Peter III, who restored him in all ranks and ranks and returned the orders to him. At the time of his return, the field marshal was 79 years old, but, according to Rulier, he "returned from exile with a rare vigor in such years."
In February 1762, Peter appointed Minich a member of the Imperial Council, on June 9 of the same year - also the Siberian governor and chief director of the Ladoga Canal.
But already on June 28, 1762, his own wife, Catherine, spoke out against the legitimate emperor. Unlike many others, Minich remained loyal to Peter III to the end, and if the emperor decided to follow his advice, this strange and incredibly poorly composed conspiracy would have ended in complete failure and disaster for its participants.
Minich suggested that Peter, taking only 12 grenadiers, go with him to Petersburg to appear to the troops and people: no one would dare to publicly arrest the legitimate emperor or shoot him. Most likely, this plan would have worked, because the conspirators deceived everyone, spreading rumors about the death of Peter and even staging a procession with the "coffin of the emperor." And at first, everyone was sure that they were swearing allegiance to Pavel Petrovich, the accession to the throne of the German woman Catherine seemed impossible.
Then Minich offered to sail to Kronstadt, which was not captured by the revolt, but Peter hesitated, and this strategically important fortress was intercepted from him by Admiral Talyzin, who participated in the conspiracy.
Minich advised to go to Pomerania to the army of Peter Rumyantsev, loyal to the emperor - and the path was free: there were removable horses and carriages along the Narva tract, the emperor had a yacht and a galley at his disposal, and in Narva or Reval, where they did not know anything about the events in the capital, was to board any ship. The mere news of the movement to the capital of a real combat (and victorious) army led by the best commander of Russia, no doubt, would have thrilled the corrupted garrison of St. Petersburg. If Catherine and her accomplices had not been able to escape, the guards would probably have arrested them themselves and met Peter on their knees.
Finally, the emperor had a completely combat-ready detachment of the Petershtadt garrison: three thousand personally loyal and well-trained soldiers. And, contrary to popular belief, among them were not only Holsteiners, but also many Russians. But the rioters' soldiers were unreliable: they certainly drank free vodka for the health of "Mother Catherine" with great pleasure, but shooting at the order of a visiting German woman who did not even have the slightest rights to the throne at the "natural emperor" was a completely different matter.
On top of that, not only the rank and file, but also many officers did not understand what was happening: the conspirators used them "in the dark." Jacob Stehlin recalled the arrest of the Holsteinites, whom Peter III forbade to resist:
"The monster Senator Suvorov (father of Alexander Vasilyevich) shouts to the soldiers:" Chop the Prussians!"
“Do not be afraid, we will not do anything bad to you; we were deceived, they said that the emperor was dead."
Seeing a living and healthy Peter at the head of the troops loyal to him, these hussars and soldiers of other units could well go over to his side.
In addition, during a poorly organized drunken march to Oranienbaum, a column of rebel troops stretched out along the road. And the experienced Minich, who stood at the head of Peter's sober and extremely motivated soldiers, would hardly have missed the chance to defeat the mutinous regiments in turn. He was never afraid of blood - neither his own, nor someone else's, and he was determined not to take away.
Rulier reports that, upon learning of Peter's decision to surrender to Catherine, Minich, "enveloped in indignation, asked him: Does he really not know how to die, like the emperor, before his army? If you are afraid," he continued, "of a saber strike, then take a crucifix in your hands, they will not dare to harm you, and I will command in battle ".
This was described in detail in the article Emperor Peter III. Conspiracy.
It was with Minich that Pushkin proudly compared his grandfather:
My grandfather when the mutiny rose
Among the Peterhof courtyard, Like Minich, remained faithful
The fall of Third Peter.
("Pedigree".)
The last years of the hero's life
Minich lived for another five years, continuing to serve Russia. Catherine II deprived him of the post of Siberian governor and a place in the imperial council, but left behind him the leadership of the Ladoga and Kronstadt canals. Then he was entrusted with the completion of the construction of the Baltic port. At the same time, he still found time to write "An Outline of the Management of the Russian Empire," which describes the rulers of Russia from Peter I to Peter III and the peculiarities of their reigns.
It is curious that it was Minich who was appointed the Supreme Arbiter of a kind of knightly tournament - "Carousel", which took place on June 16, 1766. The courtiers, divided into four teams ("quadrilles") - Slavic, Roman, Indian and Turkish, competed in horse riding, dart throwing, and scarecrow cutting.
Only shortly before his death, he turned to Catherine with a request for resignation, but received the answer: "I have no second Minich."
Burchard Christoph Munnich died on October 27, 1767 and was first buried in the Lutheran Church of Saints Peter and Paul on Nevsky Prospekt. However, then his remains were transferred to his estate Lunia, which is located on the territory of present-day Estonia.
