The defeat of the Swedish army at Wilmanstrand
The Preobrazhenians proclaim Elizaveta Petrovna Empress. Painting by E. E. Lancere
Russian offensive
Swedish troops in Finland were divided into two corps, each with 4 soldiers. Both detachments under the command of Generals Karl Wrangel and Henrik Buddenbrock were in the Wilmanstrand area. There was a small garrison in the city itself.
The Swedish authorities and command, convinced of the disintegration of the Russian Empire after the death of Peter the Great and lulled by messages about the weakness of the Russian ambassador Nolken in St. Petersburg, spread misinformation that the coup in Russia and Elizaveta Petrovna urged the troops not to resist the Swedes (How the Swedes tried to take revenge for the Northern War).
The Russian commander-in-chief, Field Marshal P. Lassi, convened a council of war, at which it was decided to go to Wilmanstrand. On August 22, 1791, Russian troops (about 10 thousand soldiers) approached Vilmanstrand and stopped in the village of Armile. In the evening, Wrangel's detachment went out to the city. The Swedish corps, together with the city garrison, numbered, according to Russian data, more than 5,2 thousand people, according to the Swedish - 3,5 thousand.
There was no order in both armies.
The officer corps exaggerated the strength of the enemy, was afraid of battle. So, at 11 pm on August 22, there was a great alarm. The commandant of Wilmanstrand, Colonel Wilbrand, having learned about the approach of the enemy, sent several scouts, who, using the darkness and the forest, were supposed to go out to the Russians and conduct reconnaissance. One of our guards noticed something was wrong and raised a noise. A mess began in the Russian troops. Second line shelves grabbed weapon and opened "friendly fire" on parts of the first line. For half an hour there was no way to put things in order. At the same time, even several cannon shots were fired. Several people were killed and injured.
About 200 dragoon horses, stunned by the confusion and fire, broke out of the camp and ran along the road to the city. The Swedish forward post, hearing gunfire and the stamping of horses, decided that the Russians had launched an offensive. The Swedes fled to the city. Behind them are horses. A general alarm began in Wilmanstrand. General Wrangel, hearing the shooting at night, decided that the city was under attack, reported this to Buddenbrook and set out at dawn to support the city's garrison.
Battle of Wilmanstrand
On August 23, 1791, Lassi launched an offensive against the enemy, who occupied an advantageous position under the cover of fortress artillery.
First, the Russians captured the hill, which was located opposite the main Swedish field battery. Our soldiers have installed several 3- and 6-pounder cannons. An artillery firefight began. Then the Ingermanland and Astrakhan grenadier regiments under the command of Colonel Manstein attacked the Swedish battery.
The Swedes, despite the bravery of the Russian soldiers, who withstood the volley of grapeshot, repulsed the Russian attack. Then Lassi ordered to bypass the enemy from the right flank, where there was a deep ravine. The grenadiers jumped out of the ravine 60 paces from the Swedes and fired a rifle volley. The Swedes fled, abandoning their cannons. Meanwhile, Lieven's dragoons attacked on the enemy's left flank. The organized resistance of the Swedes was broken. The Swedish cavalry fled first and so quickly that the Russian dragoons could not catch up with it. The remnants of the enemy infantry fled: some to the surrounding forests and swamps, some to the city.
Pursuing the enemy, Russian troops reached Wilmanstrand. An envoy was sent to the city to demand the surrender of the city, but the Swedes shot him. Then heavy artillery fire was opened on the city. Moreover, the Russians used not only their own guns, but also the captured Swedish ones. The city caught fire. By 7 o'clock in the evening, the fortress surrendered. The commander of the Swedish corps, Major General Wrangel, 7 staff officers and more than 1200 soldiers surrendered. More than 3300 enemy corpses were found on the battlefield. 12 cannons, 1 mortar, 2000 horses, and enemy food supplies were captured as trophies. The soldiers who stormed the city rewarded themselves with various values and goods. Losses of the Russian army: more than 500 people, including Major General Ukskul.
The Swedish corps of Buddenbrook was located 15–20 km from the battle site. Later, the Swedish Senate accused the general of not helping the neighboring Wrangel corps in time. True, the fighting spirit and discipline in the Buddenbrook corps also left much to be desired. So, on the night of August 23-24, a small detachment of Swedish cavalry, who fled with all their might from Wilmanstrand, arrived at the Buddenbrock camp. The sentry called out to the riders, they did not answer him, he fired. The entire guard fled to the camp, followed by the dragoons. Such a panic began in the camp that most of the troops simply fled, leaving their commander and his officers. The next day, the commanders with difficulty assembled the detachment by noon.
This was such a mess in the Swedish army.
End of the 1741 campaign
On August 25, 1741, Lassi ordered the destruction of Wilmanstrand. Its inhabitants were relocated to Russia.
And the Russian army turned back and returned to its camp, from where it left a week ago. Although it was reasonable to continue the offensive and finish off the enemy, taking advantage of his confusion. The government of Anna Leopoldovna expressed dissatisfaction with such actions of Lassi. The field marshal justified himself. Anna Leopoldovna's position was not such as to quarrel with the field marshal and the army. They closed their eyes at the retreat. In Swedish Finland, only small mobile detachments of Kalmyks and Cossacks remained, who burned several dozen villages.
In September, the Swedish commander-in-chief Karl Levengaupt arrived in Finland. He gathered the Swedish troops and gave them a review. There were 23 people in the army in total. There was a shortage of provisions and forage, during navy diseases raged.
This ended the campaign of 1741.
Both sides have taken shelves to winter quarters. In the following months, the matter was limited to small skirmishes of the Cossacks and Kalmyks with the Swedish cavalry.
In August 1741, the Russian government turned to Prussia for help, with which there was an alliance treaty. But the Prussian king Frederick II got out, finding a loophole in the treatise.
The Swedes, in turn, tried to involve Porto in the war, with which they had an agreement. But Constantinople had no time for Russia, Persia threatened the Ottomans with war. France wanted to support the Swedish ally and began arming a large fleet in Brest to send it to the Baltic. But the British government made it clear that if the French entered the Baltic Sea, the British squadron would also enter there to neutralize the French fleet. The French ships did not leave Brest.
Actions at sea
After the death of Tsar Peter the Great, the fleet developed mainly by inertia, and then began to decline. The government of Anna Ioannovna took a number of measures to strengthen the fleet in the Baltic, but without much success. True, the number of ships under construction increased in the 1730s.
On paper, the Baltic Fleet looked very impressive (the number of ships and frigates, small vessels), but the level of combat training was extremely low. For example, in 1739, the fleet was able to go to sea only on August 1, in 1740 - on June 29. Moreover, in 1739 the ships reached only Krasnaya Gorka, and in 1740 - to Revel. The entire fleet was now based only in Kronstadt, the squadron in Revel was no longer there. The number of combat-ready ships fell sharply: in 1737, 1739 and 1740 only 5 ships were taken out to sea, in 1738 - 8. The number of frigates that went out to sea decreased from 6 in 1737 to 3 in 1740.
The fleet experienced a catastrophic shortage of personnel: the shortage was more than a third. There were not enough experienced navigators and doctors. Before the war, it was necessary to urgently hire navigators and boatswains in Holland. However, this only partially improved the situation. As a result, with the beginning of the war with Sweden, the Russian fleet was only ready, together with coastal batteries, to repel the enemy's attack near Kronstadt. The ships could not go to sea.
The Swedes had a better situation.
In May 1741, the Swedish fleet under the command of Admiral Thomas Ryalin left Karlskrona. 5 battleships and 4 frigates went to sea. Later they were joined by 5 more ships. The Swedish Navy entered the Gulf of Finland and took up a position between Gogland and the coast of Finland. The Swedish galley fleet was stationed at Friedrichsgam to provide communication between the fleet and ground forces. Separate ships went on reconnaissance to Rogervik, Gogland and Sommers.
However, the Swedish fleet was also inactive during the 1741 campaign. An epidemic began, hundreds of people died. A thousand people had to be transferred from the army regiments to the navy. Ryalin himself died. He was replaced by Admiral Schoeshern. Soon the Swedish fleet was reinforced by two more ships. But this did not force the Swedish naval command to decide on any action.
The Swedes were so relaxed that they did not even try to disrupt the Russian sea trade, although they had such an opportunity. Foreign merchant ships freely arrived in Arkhangelsk, Riga, Revel and even Kronstadt. In October 1741, Swedish ships returned to Karlskrona. In this unsuccessful campaign, the Swedes lost one frigate, which crashed off the Finnish coast.
Actions in the north were also not very active. Even before the start of the war, the Russian government sent a detachment of three frigates from the Baltic to Arkhangelsk. There was no sense in this action, since in Arkhangelsk itself, before the start of the war, 3 new battleships and 2 frigates were ready. Then three ships and one frigate decided to transfer from Arkhangelsk to Kronstadt. They reached the Kola Peninsula and stayed for the winter in the ice-free Catherine harbor. Obviously, the parking lot was caused by the fear of the command of a clash with the Swedes. In the summer of 1, the detachment returned back to Arkhangelsk.
The Russian galley fleet in 1741 was also inactive, like the ship one. This was due to the mediocrity of the command, the crisis in the capital and the personnel problem. There was an acute shortage of trained rowers. It was necessary to urgently start training the teams, for which three galleys were allocated, which sailed near Kronstadt.
The case of Captain Ivan Kukarin speaks volumes about the state of the galley fleet. He was supposed to take command of 3 training galleys and 8 galleys, which were used to transport soldiers from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt. Kukarin did not do this, as he was in a binge. He was summoned to the Admiralty for explanations, but he arrived there, too, intoxicated. As a result, the captain was dismissed.
Coup in St. Petersburg
On November 24, 1741, the government of Anna Leopoldovna ordered the guards regiments to prepare to march into Finland against the Swedes. It was believed that the Swedish commander-in-chief Levengaupt was planning an attack on Vyborg. The entourage of Elizabeth Petrovna decided that the government wanted to remove the guard from the capital, knowing its commitment to the crown princess. The entourage of Elizabeth - Vorontsov, Razumovsky, Shuvalov and Lestok - began to insist that Elizabeth immediately start a mutiny. Elizabeth hesitated, but on the 25th she made up her mind and went to the barracks of the Preobrazhensky regiment.
Arriving at the grenadiers, who had already been notified of her arrival, Elizabeth said:
"Guys! You know whose daughter I am, follow me! "
The guards shouted:
"Mother! We are ready, we will kill them all! "
They swore to die for the crown princess.
The government of Anna Leopoldovna was arrested, as were the adherents of the Braunschweig family. There was no resistance. A manifesto was issued on the accession to the throne of Elizabeth Petrovna. The regiments took the oath of allegiance to the new queen. The most powerful nobles of the previous rule - Minich, Levenvolde and Osterman - were sentenced to death, but she was replaced by exile to Siberia. The Braunschweig family was deported to Europe, but on the way they were detained in Riga until their fate was finally decided. Later, the family of Anna Leopoldovna was exiled to Kholmogory.
Elizabeth, who had secret contacts with the French and Swedish ambassadors, concluded an armistice with Levengaupt. However, she could not cede the lands conquered by her father to Sweden. The cession of Russian territories to Sweden, and even in such conditions, could lead to a new coup d'état. There were strong patriotic sentiments in the army and the guards: only victory and no concessions.
The new empress was distinguished by common sense and did not intend to increase the number of her enemies. The Swedish ambassador Nolken negotiated with Russian dignitaries in the capital and in April 1742 arrived in Moscow for the coronation of Elizabeth. But he did not receive the consent of the Russian government to any territorial concessions and left for Sweden in May. The war continued.
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