Eduard Totleben. The Modest Hero of Sevastopol and Plevna
Eduard Totleben in a portrait by Rudolf Wimmer
В previous article We talked about the origin and youth of Eduard Ivanovich Totleben, the beginning of his military service, participation in the Caucasian War and the beginning of the Crimean War. Today we will continue this story.
We have already noted that Totleben is a minor hero for the vast majority of our contemporaries. During the Crimean War, he was in the shadow of Nakhimov, Kornilov, and Istomin. Although the only truly irreplaceable military leader during the defense of Sevastopol was Totleben.
In the stories about another war, the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, the “White General” Mikhail Skobelev is a much more famous character, but real successes were achieved only after the hero of our articles arrived at besieged Plevna.
Let's start the story in order.
Eduard Totleben in besieged Sevastopol
We parted ways with E. Totleben in the autumn of 1854, when, after the landing of enemy troops in Crimea, he was finally allowed to begin work on strengthening the Ship and City sides of Sevastopol. In the shortest possible time, more than 40 artillery batteries were built. To speed up the work, Totleben even invented a new type of shovel, which turned out to be so successful that it was then widely used in the Russian Imperial Army and, after minor modernization, became a large sapper shovel of the Soviet Army.
On the commanding heights, pentagonal defensive structures connected by trenches were erected - bastions. Tightly installed, high baskets filled with earth and sandbags placed on them were widely used - the force of friction stopped bullets, cannonballs, shrapnel. All this became a real (and extremely unpleasant) surprise for the invaders.
On October 5 (17), 1854, the first bombardment of Sevastopol took place, and the allied fleet tried to break through to the inner roadstead of the city. It was then that Admiral Kornilov died on the famous Malakhov Kurgan (later Nakhimov would also die here). But on that October day, this was the only major success of the enemy.
Interior view of the battery on Malakhov Kurgan (a tactically important height on the Korabelnaya side of Sevastopol) in a drawing by V. Timm.
Totleben managed to predict the enemy's intention to blow up the 4th bastion and prevented this attempt with the help of a prepared network of mine galleries. Totleben's authority was very high, but not everyone liked his high demands. And some even considered it beneath their dignity to obey some "little engineer". But the same Nakhimov, without listening to the complainers, simply showed them the door.
From autumn to spring 1854-1855, Colonel Totleben was engaged in planning and construction of the second line of defense on the City Side; the Chesmensky, Rostislavsky, and Yazonovsky redoubts were built, as well as a system of lodgements in front of the Schwartz redoubt and the 4th bastion, around which a mine and countermine war unfolded.
Totleben's merits were also noted by Nicholas I in April 1855, who awarded him the rank of major general and assigned him to his retinue. And on June 6 of that year, Totleben was awarded the Order of St. George, 3rd degree. But already on June 8, he received a bullet wound to the leg. Despite the wound, Totleben remained in Sevastopol for another two months, leaving only after the fall of Malakhov Kurgan. Even before the end of the war, the Conference of the Engineering Academy passed a resolution to award him a gold medal with the following wording:
“Adjutant General Totleben, with his ingenious ingenuity, found the means, under enemy fire, to turn an almost open city into a fortress that withstood an 11-month gradual attack... He forestalled the enemy’s actions and with brilliant success countered them at every step with obstacles, both on the surface of the earth and underground.”
It is curious that the surname of the article’s hero, who never graduated from the Engineering School, was inscribed on a marble memorial plaque with the names of the best graduates of this educational institution.
At the end of the war, Totleben assembled a group of military engineers who were tasked with compiling stories defense of Sevastopol. The result was a three-volume work, "Description of the Defense of Sevastopol, compiled under the direction of Adjutant General Totleben," which was published in St. Petersburg in 1863-1872 and translated into many European languages.
But let's return to 1855. After the fall of Sevastopol, Totleben was sent to Nikolaev, although he could only move around on crutches. The explanatory note he wrote then on the issues of fortifying this city is considered by many, among other things, as a scientific work.
Between two wars
Returning to St. Petersburg, E. Totleben headed the work to strengthen the fortifications of Kronstadt, and then spent two years studying fortresses in Germany and France. Incidentally, he then, having examined a model of the fortifications of Strasbourg, upset the French by declaring that in the event of war this fortress would hold out for no more than two weeks. This is what happened during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.
In 1856, Eduard Ivanovich, who had arrived in St. Petersburg, asked Alexander II to ease the fate of F. M. Dostoevsky, who, having served his Siberian penal servitude (in connection with the Petrashevsky Circle case), was sent to the Siberian 7th Line Battalion stationed in Semipalatinsk. Dostoevsky wrote to Totleben:
"If you can do anything for me, I beg you, do it!"
The fact is that the future writer studied at the Nikolaevsky School together with the brother of the hero of the article, Adolf, and for some time even rented an apartment with him on Karavannaya Street. It was Totleben's intercession that became decisive - the emperor could not refuse the hero of the defense of Sevastopol. As a result, Dostoevsky received the rank of ensign, and this was a completely different position in the regiment. Two years later, he retired and returned to St. Petersburg.
In 1859, we see the hero of the article as the director of the engineering department, in this position in 1862 he compiled a “General Review of the State of the Empire’s Fortresses” for the Ministry of War.
In 1863, Totleben was appointed comrade (i.e. deputy) of the inspector general for engineering. That same year, under his leadership, work was carried out to modernize a number of fortresses, including Sveaborg, Dinaburg, Nikolayev, and Vyborg. In 1869, he became an engineer general and presented a project to fortify Kyiv. As chairman artillery The engineering commission contributed to arming Russian fortresses with rifled guns. From 1871 to 1875, he drew up plans for a new system of defensive lines, traveling to Brest-Litovsk, Kovno, Bialystok, Grodno, Proskurov, Goniondz and Dubno. Due to a chronic shortage of funds in the treasury, according to Totleben's plans, only the fortresses of Brest, Kerch and Kronstadt were fully modernized. Nevertheless, Totleben's work was highly praised by such a convinced Russophobe as F. Engels, who wrote:
“Modlin, Warsaw, Ivangorod, Brest-Litovsk form a whole system of fortresses, which, in terms of the combination of its strategic capabilities, is unique in the world.”
In 1876, Totleben found himself in the position of the chief administrator of the defense of the Black Sea coast, but was recalled to St. Petersburg and even fell into disgrace for some time. The reason for the emperor's displeasure was his position on the new war with Turkey. At that time, the "hawks" prevailed at the royal court, while Totleben claimed that Russia (as usual!) was not ready for war, the war would cost a huge amount of money, which would be better spent on strengthening the borders, rearming the army and navy, and developing the railway network. The hero of Sevastopol was accused of almost cowardice, and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (the Elder), the third son of Nicholas I (commander-in-chief of the Danube Army), who imagined himself a great strategist, claimed that the "German" Totleben "does not understand the Russian soul, Russian daring." At the end of 1876, E.I. Totleben returned to St. Petersburg.
New war with Turkey
On April 12 (24), 1877, Russia entered the war with the Ottoman Empire – the eleventh in a row. It was not an easy walk for the Russian army, and it was then that the ironic phrase “all is quiet on Shipka” came into use and became a catchphrase. It became the title of the famous triptych by V. Vereshchagin:
Great difficulties arose during the siege of the strategically important Plevna; three attempts to take this fortress ended in complete failure, and Osman Pasha, who commanded its garrison, received the title of "gazi" - "Invincible" from the Sultan. The situation was so dire that Nikolai Nikolaevich and Emperor Alexander II, who was in the army, were about to give the order to retreat, but the Minister of War D.A. Milyutin sharply objected to this.
As a result, the Emperor and his brother Nicholas decided to call Eduard Totleben, who was already 59 years old at the time, from St. Petersburg, "who did not understand Russian daring." He arrived in Bucharest in September 1877, and in October he headed the siege of Plevna. To his surprise, he learned that the fortress was still not blockaded by Russian troops and that the Turkish troops stationed there were able to receive food and ammunition. By his order, fortifications were taken near the villages of Gorni-Dybnik and Telish, and the artillery strikes on the Turkish positions in Telish were so powerful that they had a huge demoralizing effect on the entire Ottoman army. Ill-wishers reproached Totleben for exhausting the troops with siege work, to which the hero of the article replied:
"It is better for a soldier to shed seven drops of sweat than even one drop of blood."
He ordered the blockade line to be divided into 6 sections, its total length was 47 kilometers, 125 thousand people and batteries of 496 guns directly participated in the siege of Plevna. Now this fortress was completely blockaded, the Turkish army experienced an increasing need for food, and therefore in November 1877 Osman Pasha tried to break through to Isker, and from there to Sofia. The plans of the Turkish commander-in-chief became known to the Russians from a defector, as a result the Ottoman troops were ambushed and capitulated, about 43 thousand people surrendered, including the "invincible" Osman Pasha. It must be said that Totleben assessed his merits quite modestly and always said:
"It was not I who defeated Osman, but hunger."
He was appointed commander of the Eastern Detachment of Russian troops, but on February 8 he was recalled to St. Petersburg. Here the question of whether it was possible to close the Bosphorus Strait for the English warships stationed at the Princes' Islands was being decided. Totleben's conclusion was negative: on the one hand, he considered it impossible to install minefields, on the other, he believed that it would not be possible to establish reliable communication with the Russian Black Sea ports. However, he proposed a number of measures that were supposed to ensure the security of Bulgaria after the withdrawal of Russian troops.
At the final stage of the war, Totleben found himself in the post of commander-in-chief, but was mainly engaged in diplomatic work in negotiations with the Turks, and was then responsible for organizing the movement of troops returning to Russia, including the evacuation of the sick and wounded.
E. I. Totleben in an engraving from a photograph of 1878
The awards included the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called and appointment as a member of the State Council of the Russian Empire. In Bulgaria, Eduard Totleben became a national hero – along with the “white general” M. D. Skobelev. A boulevard in Sofia and a village in Bulgaria were named in his honor; a bust of the article’s hero can be seen in the city of Pleven.
Bust of Totleben in Pleven
The last years of Eduard Totleben's life
On April 5, 1879, the hero of the article became the temporary governor-general of Odessa, and on September 1 – the commander of the Odessa Military District, on October 5 of the same year – the 25th anniversary of the first bombardment of Sevastopol, he received the title of count. And on May 18, 1880, he was appointed governor-general of the North-Western Territory, commander of the Vilnius Military District and Grodno governor-general. At this time, in his estate in Keidany (Kedainiai – on the territory of modern Lithuania), he arranged a park and built a large house for himself, as well as a minaret, which, according to his plan, was supposed to remind of Plevna. However, ill-wishers immediately announced that the minaret was built for a certain Turkish woman, brought by Totleben as a mistress.
Age and illnesses took their toll, and in the spring of 1882, E. Totleben caught a cold and probably suffered from pneumonia. In the autumn, the count's condition worsened, and he decided to go to Germany for treatment - first to Wiesbaden, then to the resort town of Soden, and finally to Bad Soden. Here he died on June 19, 1884. He was buried in the chapel in the cemetery near the Lutheran church of his estate in Keidany, but on October 5, 1884 (the 30th anniversary of the first bombing of Sevastopol), by order of Alexander III, his remains were reburied in the Fraternal Cemetery on the Northern Side of Sevastopol. In 1886, the embankment along the Southern Bay of this city was named after Totleben. Four years later, a monument with a bust of the hero was unveiled at Totleben's grave, the construction of which was financed by the Engineering Department.
Totleben's grave in Sevastopol
And in August 1909, another monument was erected to Totleben on the Historical Boulevard.
In addition to the statue of the article's hero, you can see sculptural images of soldiers from various branches of the military, including a sapper in the underground gallery.
Finally, in 1910, the name of the article's hero was given to Fort A, built on an artificial island 10 km from Kotlin (construction took place from 1896 to 1913). Its garrison participated in the defense of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War. Unfortunately, it was not possible to preserve it even as a museum; the island and the fort, plundered by vandals, stand empty.
Another fort, Totleben, was luckier – the central defensive structure of the Kerch fortress, built on the White Cape. Now there is a museum there.
Information