Russian ice attack

12
Russian ice attack


Details of the unprecedented campaign of Russian soldiers on the ice of the Baltic to Sweden

Muscovy and the Russian Empire eleven times fought with Sweden. Best known for its durability and brutality is the Northern War, which Peter the Great led against Charles XII. But the last Russian-Swedish armed confrontation of 1808 – 1809 was notable for intense struggle, during which Russian troops not only conquered all of Finland, but also made a unique stories of mankind, the military feat, never - neither before nor after - not repeated by any army in the world.

About this feat - 100-right transition of infantry and cavalry on the frozen Baltic Sea to the shores of hostile Sweden - says "Russian Planet".

War with the heirs of Charles XII


By the beginning of the XIX century, Sweden remained the strongest state in the north of Western Europe. Stockholm was then the main center of European metallurgy, had a developed industry, which was supported by a serious army. Russia, on the other hand, had to fight against Sweden immediately after the unsuccessful war with Napoleonic France, and in St. Petersburg they understood that a decisive clash with Bonaparte was not far off.

Throughout 1808, Russian troops with stubborn battles occupied the whole of Finland. Here they had to face a fierce guerrilla war waged by the Finns under the command of Swedish officers. The experience of fighting partisans would soon be very useful to our troops when they already had to form guerrilla units to fight Napoleon’s army.

In the meantime, by December 1808, the war with Sweden came to a strategic impasse - our troops took control of all of Finland, captured the largest fortress of Sveaborg (which in the future will become Russia's main naval base in the Baltic), but the enemy army, having retreated to Swedish territory, retained its main forces . Winter storms and ice on the Baltic Sea did not allow the fleet until the spring of 1809 to conduct military operations against Stockholm. Thus, the enemy received a long respite.

It was clear that by the spring the Swedish army, rested and strengthened, would try to return to the territory of Finland, where the partisans would support it. The rugged gulfs of the Finnish coast stretched almost 1000 miles, so it was impossible to completely cover up from the Swedish troops.

The Russian command and the government of Alexander I were well aware that if the Swedes were given this winter respite, then, despite all the successes in conquering Finland, in the spring of 1809, the war will begin essentially anew. In a dubious world with Napoleonic France, which controlled almost all of Europe, such a protracted war could turn into a serious threat to Russia.

The war with Sweden had to end as quickly as possible, with a decisive blow. And the Russian military leaders have matured a unique design in boldness and decisiveness: taking advantage of the fact that the northern Baltic, the vast Bay of Bothnia between Sweden and Finland, is occasionally briefly covered with ice, go over the sea ice to Sweden closer to Stockholm and force the enemy to recognize defeat.

German and Russian courage


The plan was resolute and brave to the point of madness. We had to walk almost 100 versts on unreliable sea ice to meet the main enemy forces. The author of the desperate plan, apparently, was 32-year-old General Nikolai Mikhailovich Kamensky, one of the youngest and most determined military commanders of the Russian army, who particularly distinguished himself during the conquest of Finland in 1808 year.


Portrait of N. M. Kamensky. Artist Friedrich Georg Weich, 1810 Year

Kamensky was rightfully considered the most promising of the military leaders, Alexander I called him “the most skilled general,” but now Nikolai Kamensky is completely unknown and forgotten because he was not among the 1812 heroes of the year: he died from a “fever” and unidentified disease , a year before the invasion of Napoleon in Russia. By the end of 1808, Kamensky was already struck down by the illness, and he was forced to leave the army in force, without having made his intended ice trip to Stockholm.

The commander-in-chief of the Russian army in Finland at that time was Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxgevden, the Ostsee baron from the clan who recognized the Russian rule of the Baltic nobles, a direct descendant of the founder of the Sword Order who had once conquered the Baltic States and fought with Prince Alexander Nevsky. Fedor Fedorovich Buksgevden, as he was called in Russian, was a brave and experienced general, who had repeatedly successfully fought under the command of the legendary Suvorov.


Portrait of Friedrich Wilhelm von Buksgevden. Artist VL Borovikovsky, 1809 Year

But the German baron could not decide on a company that could not be calculated based on previous military experience. "The battalions are not frigates, to walk through the bays ...", he exclaimed, having learned about the plan.

Alexander I is considered in our history to be a “mild” emperor, but in reality, with all the external courtesy and courtesy of manners, he was a very determined and stubborn man (another would not have won the terrible 1812 war of the year). By order from St. Petersburg, instead of Buksgevden, the commander-in-chief of the Russian “Finnish Army” appointed another highly experienced general, Gotthard Logan Knorring, also an Estland, that is, Baltic baron.

Like Buksgevden, General Knorring (in Russian his name was Bogdan Fedorovich) had a great military experience, successfully and bravely fought under the command of the Orlov brothers and Suvorov himself. But even Knorring, not becoming openly opposing the “ice campaign” plan, did not dare to launch the operation for several months under the pretext of the lack of sufficient preparation and supplies.

We repeat: both Buksgevden and Knorring were brave and experienced generals of the Russian empire, but they could not decide for the sake of victory on an unreadable risk. Even in our time, it is impossible to accurately predict the weather, so to speak about weather forecasts two centuries ago. Winter storms are frequent in the Baltic, which could easily break the ice during the army’s transition along it, completely destroying it.

There was another danger: storms could break the unreliable sea ice after a successful transition to Sweden. Navigation of the ships among the ice floes was then impossible, and thus our troops would be permanently cut off from the rear and supply in enemy territory in the face of all the Swedish forces. It was impossible to calculate all these risks - the experienced generals of Buksgevden and Knorring were not frightened by the enemy, but the forces of nature, who were not subject to anyone except God, were afraid of them ...

"To push the army on the ice ..."

Knorring, the commander-in-chief, hesitated almost the whole winter, not daring to start an “ice campaign. Finally, in February 1809, he openly admitted that he was not ready for such a risky venture, and asked to resign. Even the reserved and always emphatically polite Emperor Alexander I did not restrain himself and called the behavior of the commander "shameless."

The winter was ending, which threatened to prolong the war for another year. And so that, as he put it, to push the "army on the ice", the emperor sent his closest to Finland - the Minister of War Arakcheev. Alexey Andreyevich Arakcheev, the son of the impoverished Novgorod nobles, entered the liberal version of Russian history as a negative and reactionary character, a lover of military training, a heavy “club” of the seemingly gracious Tsar Alexander I. In reality, General Arakcheev was a talented gunner - he owes his brilliant condition Russian artillery, in 1812, was not inferior to the French.


Portrait of Alexei Andreyevich Arakcheev. Artist george doe

However, a resolute and tough man, Arakcheev really played under Alexander I the role of a royal approximate, capable of forcing his subjects to perform any monarchy will. The king officially gave Arakcheev power, "unlimited in all of Finland." At the end of February 1809, the royal commissioner arrived in Abo - now the city of Turku on the south-west coast of Finland - where the headquarters of the Russian "Finnish Army" was located.

At the meeting, all military leaders spoke about the complexity and unprecedented risk of the planned operation. Only the commander of one of the corps, General Peter Ivanovich Bagration, decisively declared Arakcheev, who brought the tsarist will, to say: “What is there to talk, order you - let's go!”

Arakcheev actually forced the generals to go on the ice. But as a professional of the war, he showed not only a tough will. It was through the efforts of Arakcheev that the Russian troops on the west coast of Finland received all the necessary supplies, which were very difficult to deliver from St. Petersburg through the snowy and frankly unfriendly country of Suomi.

In addition to gunpowder and bullets, the troops received fur hats and sheepskin coats, fur coats, boots and even special sheepskin sleeveless under their overcoats, which were not previously provided for in uniform. It was impossible to light fires and cook food on the Baltic ice, so soldiers were given portions of bacon and flasks of vodka to keep warm in the piercing wind.

Carefully perekovali horses new winter horseshoes. The artillery was placed on the ski runners, while on the cannon wheels they made special notches so that in case of firing from the ice, the guns did not slide too much.

At the end of February 1809, everything was ready for a fantastic trek through the frozen sea. It only remained to take the first step and go beyond the icy horizon to reach the enemy coast or drown the whole army, if the weather changes and the south-westerly winds, stirring the waters of the Baltic, break the ice of the Gulf of Bothnia ...

"This time I would like to be not a minister, but in your place ..."

The bay of Bothnian from 100 to 200 km stretches almost 700 miles from south to north between the coast of Finland and Sweden. In the southern part of the bay, where it flows into the Baltic, and the Finnish coast turns to the east, the Aland Islands are located - a deposit of almost seven thousand small islets and rocky reefs in the middle of the sea.

According to the Russian command, the corps of General Bagration was supposed to pass almost 90 miles across the sea ice to the largest island of the archipelago, which was called Big Aland, capture it, and from that island go 40 miles across the Baltic Sea to the Swedish coast itself, so that reach it 70 versts from Stockholm.


Portrait of P. I. Bagration. Artist george doe

In 300 km north of the Bagration group, a corps under the command of General Barclay de Tolly was to operate. He had to cross the so-called Kvarken - the section where the Gulf of Bothnia narrows to 90 versts. If along the route of the Bagration corps there were numerous islands, albeit uninhabited, and he had the opportunity to rest the troops on Big Aland, then Barclay's body needed to cross these 90 versts over the ice, that is, at least one night in the middle of the icy desert - on frozen sea water.

Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly was a descendant of the Scottish nobles who emigrated to the Baltic after the English revolution of the XVII century. Peter Ivanovich Bagration also had a distant origin from Russia, being a descendant of the ancient dynasty of the Georgian kings Bagrationi. But, in contrast to the generals of Bucksgäuden and Knorring, who grew up among the Baltic nobility with their German culture, Barclay and Bagration grew up and were raised in the Russian environment. In fact, they were quite Russian people with foreign roots.


Fragment of the portrait of Field Marshal Prince M. B. Barclay de Tolly. Artist George Doe, 1829 Year

Going over the ice almost a hundred miles away could not help scaring even the bravest commander. Severe and harsh, sometimes even cruel and rude, War Minister Arakcheev found a psychological approach to Barclay de Tolly when he hesitated before a terrible campaign. “On account of your explanation that you received very little instruction from the commander-in-chief, the general with your merits does not need it,” the omnipotent minister wrote to the general. “This time I would like to be not a minister, but in your place, for there are many ministers, and the Providence provides the transfer of Quarken to one Barclay de Tolly.”

After these words, the general could not hesitate. The ice attack has begun.

"The sea is not scary to those who trust in God!"

The Baltic ice was not the usual plane of frozen rivers and lakes - sea storms often break the salt shell created by frost, ice fragments intermingled with raging waves and whole ice mountains freeze together again in the most bizarre way, forming almost impassable hummocks. An eyewitness described the Baltic ice crust in this way: “Huge polynyas and cracks in the ice, covered by alluvial snow, are threatened by hidden depths at every step. It often happens that sudden storms destroy this unreliable platform of a harsh winter and take it to the sea ... ”

The 17-thousandth corps of Prince Bagration set off on the 3 ice offensive in March 1809. Cossacks, hussars and huntsmen were in the forefront - in fact, special forces under the command of Major General Yakov Kulnev.


Portrait of Jacob Petrovich Kulnev by artist George Dow

Aland Islands defended 10-thousandth Swedish squad. In order to hinder the Russian offensive on sea ice from the island to the island, the Swedes burned all the villages and settlements on separate islands, concentrating in the well-fortified center of the archipelago.

However, the heirs of Charles XII could not stand the ice attack of the Russians - in March they were very afraid that the spring would break the sea ice between the Aland archipelago and the coast of Sweden, leaving the island garrison alone with the Russian army. Under the blows of the Russians, the Swedes ran. Already by March 6, the corps of Bagration, having lost only a few dozen killed and wounded, captured 2248 prisoners and a large number of trophies, including many Swedish ships overwintering in the ice.

After the capture of the Aland Islands, the Russian army was separated from Sweden by the entire 40 versts of the frozen sea. The detachment of General Kulnev, who had not actually left the ice for five days, was to reach the enemy shore. A disciple of Suvorov, Yakov Petrovich Kulnev, on the eve of the last throw, addressed the Swedish coast to his fighters in the style of the great generalissimo: “God is with us! I am before you, Prince Bagration is yours ... The march to the Swedish shores is crowned with all our labors. These waves are a true reward, honor and glory immortal! Have with you two cups of vodka per person, a piece of meat and bread, and two garnets of oats. The sea is not afraid of those who trust in God! ”

In 3 hours of the night 7 in March 1809, the Cossacks and hussars of Kulnev left the most western islet of the Aland archipelago, over eight hours they crossed the ice toros, attacked the coastal posts of the Swedes and captured the town of Grisslagamn, located just two transitions from Stockholm.

"Only the Russian can only be overcome"

In 300 km north at the same time, a detachment of General Barclay de Tolly was moving along the ice of the Baltic Sea to the coast of Sweden. To the north of Finland, the reserves did not have time to get there, having been stuck on forest snowy roads, and the detachment of de Tolly counted only 3200 people. He had to go 90 km of the Kvarken strait between the shores of Finland and Sweden, including almost 60 km exclusively on the frozen accumulation of sea ice - it was here that winter storms and frosts created especially large hummocks, real ice mountains and ravines.

Our troops took to the ice at 5 in the morning hours of March 8 1809. The participants of that heroic campaign left us several phrases vividly describing the terrible path through the frozen Kvarken Strait: “From the very first steps on the ice field, the soldiers faced almost insurmountable difficulties. A few weeks ago, a mighty hurricane blew up ice, piling up whole mountains from huge boulders. These ice mountains created the impression of sea waves, suddenly frost-bound. The transition was getting harder and harder. The soldiers were forced to climb ice blocks, and sometimes to get them out of the way, fighting, moreover, with a blizzard. The soldiers' brows were white with frost. At this time, a strong north wind rose, threatening to turn into a hurricane capable of breaking the ice underfoot ... ”; "Sweat poured from the chela of warriors from extreme tension of forces, and at the same time a piercing and burning north wind constrained breathing, killed the body and soul, raising fear that, turning into a hurricane, did not explode the ice stronghold ..."

Fifty Don Cossacks, commanded by troop sergeant Dmitry Kiselyov, marched in front of the Russian soldiers breaking through the ice hummocks. The road among the icy rocks had to actually cut through. Unlike humans, horses could not stand the way, so guns and a wagon train with supplies and firewood for heating had to be left — they could not be dragged through the hummocks.

After 12 hours of a grueling campaign on sea ice, on 6 evenings 8 March 1809, Barclay de Tolly's detachment stopped to rest. But there was nothing to set fires in the icy desert, for some time fur sheepskin coats as well as pre-prepared portions of vodka and lard rescued from the frost. Despite the deadly fatigue of the soldiers, the general decided not to sleep on the ice: many could not survive this halt by freezing to death in the middle of the Baltic. Exactly at midnight on March 9, in complete darkness, the Russian detachment again moved across the sea ice to the west.

This transition lasted 18 hours almost nonstop, the last mile at the Swedish coast had to go on virgin snow - the snow was above the belt. As de Tolly himself wrote later in the report to the tsar, “the work of the only Russian incurred in this transition is only possible to overcome.”

On the land of Sweden, the Russians entered 8 on the evening of 9 in March 1809. The soldiers and Cossacks dismantled two Swedish ships that spent winters near the coast for firewood, and thanks to this, the detachment de Tolly was able to survive the night of March 10. The Swedes noticed these bonfires, but they no longer had time to react to the Russians who had suddenly emerged from the icy desert from the east. In the morning the Russians attacked and quickly captured the city of Umeå, one of the regional centers of Sweden. No one was waiting for an attack here and was not preparing a defense - the Swedes considered the frozen Kvarken Strait insurmountable.

The results of the ice attack


The soldiers of Barclay and Bagration who appeared literally “out of the ice” on the shores of Sweden terribly frightened the heirs of Charles XII. Stockholm immediately requested a truce and spoke about ending the war.

However, in St. Petersburg now they were afraid, only of the other. Because of the indecision and long hesitation of Buxgewden and Knorring, who commanded the Russian troops in Finland, the ice trip began too late - not in the middle of winter, but in March. The government of Alexander I was afraid that the spring thawing of the ice would completely cut off the advanced Russian troops in Sweden and leave them alone with a hostile country.

Therefore, the troops of Bagration and Barclay de Tolly were ordered to return to the Finnish coast, since Swedish society was so shocked by the Russian ice attack across the Baltic that they didn’t want to continue the war. In Stockholm in March 1809, a coup d'état took place, and in April, after several skirmishes on the land border of Sweden and Finland, the fighting finally stopped. In the autumn of the same year, peace was concluded - Russia received the entire country of Suomi, which became the Grand Duchy of Finland, and thus on the eve of the ominous events of 1812, secured St. Petersburg from the northwest.

Peter Bagration and Mikhail Barclay de Tolly, who commanded an unprecedented campaign in world history on the ice of the Baltic Sea, were rightly considered the best generals of the Russian Empire. Soon it was they who led the two Russian armies, who with dignity and bravely took upon themselves the first, most terrible blow of Napoleon in the summer of 1812 of the year.

In Sweden, they remembered forever the icy offensive of the Russian soldiers and never again fought with Russia.
Our news channels

Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest news and the most important events of the day.

12 comments
Information
Dear reader, to leave comments on the publication, you must sign in.
  1. +3
    31 July 2015 13: 02
    Interesting article !!! Great commanders presented in the article))))
    1. +5
      31 July 2015 13: 27
      Another heroic page of Russian history, which is not much talked about. Article +
  2. -16
    31 July 2015 13: 24
    because non-Russian muzzles wrote the history of Russia, I question this story
    and you can write anything you want
    paper will endure
    1. +5
      31 July 2015 13: 33
      You, my friend, in my opinion, warm with soft confuse ...
      1. MrK
        +2
        2 August 2015 15: 17
        That's right. Over the past decades, Europeans have become somewhat weaned from the immediate simplicity of the Slavs, who more than once in history wiped their dirty manure on their well-groomed and well-groomed European faces.
  3. +3
    31 July 2015 13: 47
    Yes, well ... Well, the ancestors gave the heat. Will our current army of the Bering Strait overpower? Should he freeze by time ...
    1. +2
      31 July 2015 15: 10
      Quote: BERTRAN
      Will our current army of the Bering Strait overpower? Should he freeze by time ...

      Do you doubt it? In vain.
  4. +6
    31 July 2015 14: 38
    Wow! I have not even heard of this. Thanks to the author for the article.
  5. 0
    31 July 2015 15: 50
    But now judging by reports in VO again run up
  6. +2
    31 July 2015 21: 25
    Great article. It would be desirable to add that Emperor Alexander I arrived in liberated Finland and in the temple announced the entry of Finland into Russia. Accompanied by M.A. Miloradovich. I have the honor.
  7. +1
    2 August 2015 21: 34
    Great article, many thanks to the author! good How many times did I read the mention of this campaign, but to my shame, I did not bother to figure out exactly what it really was? The heroic page of Russian history, it’s a pity that it is rarely mentioned. After these events, Napoleonic Marshal Bernadotte was elected ruler (subsequently king) of Sweden and Norway, Barclay de Tolly became RI Minister of War.
  8. 0
    2 August 2015 21: 38
    By the way, didn’t General Kamensky die in the Danube Army? Where then did Kutuzov give the famous Battle of Ruschuk and capture the Turkish army?

"Right Sector" (banned in Russia), "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (UPA) (banned in Russia), ISIS (banned in Russia), "Jabhat Fatah al-Sham" formerly "Jabhat al-Nusra" (banned in Russia) , Taliban (banned in Russia), Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia), Anti-Corruption Foundation (banned in Russia), Navalny Headquarters (banned in Russia), Facebook (banned in Russia), Instagram (banned in Russia), Meta (banned in Russia), Misanthropic Division (banned in Russia), Azov (banned in Russia), Muslim Brotherhood (banned in Russia), Aum Shinrikyo (banned in Russia), AUE (banned in Russia), UNA-UNSO (banned in Russia), Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People (banned in Russia), Legion “Freedom of Russia” (armed formation, recognized as terrorist in the Russian Federation and banned)

“Non-profit organizations, unregistered public associations or individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent,” as well as media outlets performing the functions of a foreign agent: “Medusa”; "Voice of America"; "Realities"; "Present time"; "Radio Freedom"; Ponomarev; Savitskaya; Markelov; Kamalyagin; Apakhonchich; Makarevich; Dud; Gordon; Zhdanov; Medvedev; Fedorov; "Owl"; "Alliance of Doctors"; "RKK" "Levada Center"; "Memorial"; "Voice"; "Person and law"; "Rain"; "Mediazone"; "Deutsche Welle"; QMS "Caucasian Knot"; "Insider"; "New Newspaper"