Biography of Field Marshal Apraksin

Born on July 30, the son of Stolnik, came from an attended branch of the clan. He was brought up by his relative of his Count Peter Matveevich Apraksin, since Stepan Fedorovich lost his father in infancy.

According to the custom of that time, he entered the service of a soldier in the Preobrazhensky regiment and in the reign of Peter II was already a captain. Then he moved to the Semenovsky regiment and received from Empress Anna the Chin of the Second Major. He was on a campaign under the command of Field Marshal Minikh - when taking Ochakov in the year, for which he was awarded the rank of prime minister and villages.

Then, in the city of Stepan Fedorovich, he met the embassy of Tahmas-Kuly Khan on the border, consisting of a man with a liner. Following the departure in the city of Stepan Fedorovich, he was awarded to Field Marshals. When the war began against Prussia, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna entrusted Apraksina with the Russian army. Upon entering Prussia, Apraksin separated part of the troops led by General Farmer for Memel and gathered all his forces about 80 thousand.

Apraksin dealt with the Prussian Field Marshal Levald, an experienced military leader, whose authorities consisted of up to 22 tons. The cavalry and artillery of Russians were inferior to Prussian. Levald received an order to attack the Russians, and he decided to do this under the village of Gros Egersdorf. Victory hesitated for a long time. The enemy used all his strength to break into our ranks and grab both wings of the Russian army, but the second line led by Rumyantsev met the Prussians in the forest with joined bayonets and turned them into.

According to Apraksin, "this decided the victory"; The enemy lost up to 10 thousand killed, wounded and prisoners. In addition, up to 29 guns went to the Russians. On our part, among the killed were Anthef General Vasily Avramovich Lopukhin, the nephew of the Queen Evdokia Fedorovna, the first wife of Peter I. This brave general, commanding the left wing, was wounded by three bullets. He were with the dying words: “Do they drive the enemy?

When did he find out about the victory, he said:“ Now I die calmly, giving my duty to the most mulberry sovereign! Some explain this action with a lack of food, others say that the Chancellor Count Bestuzhev-Ryumin, for the sake of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, who gravitated to Friedrich the Great, ordered Apraksin to retreat. But, according to the compiler of the vocabulary of the memorable people of the Russian land, "the narrative of Bishinka in this case is more thorough: Bestuzhev, hated by the Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, decided to elevate his son, Pavel Petrovich, under the guardianship of Ekaterina.

The serious illness of Empress Elizabeth presented him to fulfill the brave intention; On the deathbed, he recalled his friend, Field Marshal, to the limits of Russia, to have an army at his disposal, having recovered, removed the Chancellor to the village, where he remained in the reign of Peter III. Places called three hands; he languished in court for about three years and suddenly died on August 26 of his death, the tradition was preserved, as if the empress, dissatisfied with the slow production of the investigation, asked: why did this matter continue for so long?

She was answered that the Field Marshal did not admit anything and that they did not know, "what to do with him." After this conversation at the first meeting of the Investigative Commission, Field Marshal still affirmed his innocence. Borozdin, St. Petersburg.