How the Russian army stormed the Azov. Azov campaigns Fortress taken by Russians in 1696

In 1395 it was destroyed by Tamerlane. Since 1475 Turkish fortress. As part of Russia since 1739 (finally since 1774).]. The change in the direction of the main blow was due to a number of reasons. The unsuccessful experience of Golitsyn's campaigns predetermined the choice of a more modest goal. The object of the onslaught was now not the center of the khanate, but its eastern flank, the starting point of the Crimean-Turkish aggression towards the Volga region and Moscow. With the capture of Azov, the land connection between the possessions of the Crimean Khanate in the Northern Black Sea region and the North Caucasus was broken. Owning this fortress, the tsar strengthened control not only over the khanate, but also over the Don Cossacks. In addition, Azov opened Russia's access to the Sea of ​​Azov. The relative convenience of communication also played an important role in the choice of the object of the campaign. Unlike the path to Perekop, the path to Azov ran along the rivers (Don, Volga) and through fairly populated areas. This freed the troops from unnecessary carts and long marches across the sultry steppe.

"Azov seat" (1637-1641). The prologue to the Azov campaigns of Peter I was the so-called Azov seat - the defense of the Azov fortress, taken from the Turks in 1637, by the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks. In 1641, the Cossacks withstood the siege, in the summer of 1642, having destroyed the fortifications, they left Azov. Reflected in the military story, created on the Don - "Poetic Tale" (1642).

First Azov campaign (1695). The first Azov campaign began in March 1695. The main blow to Azov was dealt by an army commanded by generals Avton Golovin, Franz Lefort and Patrick Gordon (31 thousand people). In this army, the tsar himself was in the position of commander of the bombardment company. Another less significant grouping, led by Boris Sheremetev, operated in the lower reaches of the Dnieper to divert the troops of the Crimean Khan. Sheremetev captured 4 Turkish fortresses on the Dnieper (Islam-Kermen, Tagan, etc.), destroyed two of them, and left Russian garrisons in the other two. However, the main events unfolded on the Don. In July 1695, all Russian detachments finally gathered under the walls of Azov and on the 8th began shelling the fortress. On one of the batteries, the scorer Pyotr Alekseev himself stuffed grenades and fired around the city for 2 weeks. Thus began the military service of the tsar, about which he reported with a note: "He began to serve as a bombardier from the first Azov campaign." Azov was a strong Turkish fortress, surrounded by stone walls, in front of which an earthen rampart towered. Then followed a moat with a wooden palisade. Upstream of the river there were two stone towers on different banks, between which three iron chains were stretched. They blocked the way along the river. The fortress was defended by a 7,000-strong Turkish garrison. The siege lasted for 3 months, but it was not possible to achieve a complete blockade of the fortress. The lack of a Russian fleet allowed the besieged to receive support from the sea. The delivery of food to the Russian camp along the river was hindered by watchtowers with chains. They were taken by storm. But this was, perhaps, the only success of the first Azov campaign. Both assaults on Azov (August 5 and September 25) ended in failure. Artillery was not able to punch holes in the fortress wall. The stormers acted inconsistently, which allowed the Turks to regroup their forces in time to repulse. In October the siege was lifted and the troops returned to Moscow. The only trophy of the campaign was a captured Turk, who was led through the streets of the capital and shown to the curious.

Second Azov campaign (1696). After the failure of the 1st Azov campaign, the king did not lose heart. Peter discovered remarkable strength to overcome obstacles. Returning from the campaign, he began to prepare for a new campaign. It was supposed to use the fleet. The place of its creation was Voronezh (founded in 1585 as a fortress). The king himself worked here with an ax in his hands. By the spring of 1696, 2 ships, 23 galleys, 4 firewalls, as well as a significant number of plows (1300) were built, on which Peter set out on a new campaign in the spring of 1696. In the 2nd Azov campaign, the number of Russian forces, led by the governor Alexei Shein, was brought to 75 thousand people. To divert the troops of the Crimean Khan, the Sheremetev group was again sent to the lower reaches of the Dnieper. As a result of joint actions of the army and navy, Azov was completely blocked. The attacks of the Crimean troops, who tried to prevent the siege, were repulsed. The onslaught from the sea was also reflected. On June 14, 1696, Cossack planes attacked a Turkish squadron with a 4,000-strong landing force that entered the mouth of the Don. Having lost two ships, the squadron went to sea. Behind her, the Russian squadron entered the sea for the first time. The attempt of the Turks to break through to Azov was unsuccessful, and their ships left the combat area. After the naval victory, the assault Cossack detachments under the command of chieftains Yakov Lizogub and Frol Minaev (2 thousand people) went on the attack. They were driven out of the inner fortifications, but managed to gain a foothold on the rampart, from where a direct shelling of the fortress began. After that, Peter ordered all the troops to prepare for a general assault. However, it did not follow. Deprived of support, the garrison threw out the white flag and surrendered on July 19, 1696. The capture of Azov was Russia's first major victory over the Ottoman Empire.

In honor of this victory, a medal with the image of Peter was knocked out. The inscription on it read: "Winner with lightning and waters." For successful actions in the 2nd Azov campaign, governor Alexei Shein was the first in Russia to receive the rank of generalissimo. The consequences of the Azov campaigns for the history of Russia were enormous. First, they expanded Peter's foreign policy plans. Access to the Sea of ​​Azov did not solve the problem of Russia's access to the Black Sea, since the way there was reliably covered by Turkish fortresses in the Kerch Strait. To solve this problem, Peter organizes the Great Embassy to European countries. The tsar hoped with their help to oust the Turks from Europe and achieve Russia's access to the Black Sea coast. Secondly, the experience of the Azov campaigns convincingly confirmed the need for further reorganization of the Russian armed forces. The Azov campaigns marked the beginning of the creation of the Russian fleet. From 1699, the recruitment of a new regular army began. Its distinctive feature was the lifelong service of conscripts (in the regiments of a foreign system, soldiers, after a military campaign, as a rule, went home). The mission of the Great Embassy did not justify the hopes of Peter. In Europe in those years, the confrontation between France and Austria escalated, and no one sought a serious fight with Turkey. In 1699, at the Karlovitsky Congress, representatives of the countries of the "Holy League", with the exception of Russia, signed peace with the Ottoman Empire. A year later, Russia also concluded peace with Turkey. According to the Treaty of Constantinople (1700), the Russians received Azov with adjacent lands and stopped the tradition of sending gifts to the Crimean Khan. The collapse of the Black Sea hopes leads to the reorientation of Peter's foreign policy plans to the Baltic coast. Soon the Northern War began there, which became a turning point in the history of Russia.

"From Ancient Russia to the Russian Empire". Shishkin Sergey Petrovich, Ufa.

At the end of 1695, during the Russo-Turkish War (1686–1700), the preparation of the Russian army for the second Azov campaign began. By the spring of 1696, the construction of the fleet was completed. In April, the 75,000-strong army under the command of Alexei Shein moved on ships along the Voronezh and Don rivers, as well as by land to Azov. In early May, a galley flotilla headed by Peter I set sail.

By the beginning of June 1696, the Russian fleet under the command of Franz Lefort went to sea and blocked Azov. Soon the Turkish fleet appeared against the mouth of the Don. However, having lost 2 ships, the Ottomans went to sea.

(17) On July 27, after a bombardment by land and sea, the decisive moment came for the siege of the city. The Zaporizhian Cossacks, led by Hetman Ivan Mazepa, and the Don Cossacks, under the command of Ataman Frol Minaev, launched an attack. After a six-hour battle, the Cossacks managed to capture the outer rampart.

The Turks offered to conclude an agreement on the surrender of the fortress, since they were no longer able to recover from the battle.

Years Azov capitulated. In the surrender agreement, it was ordered: “The Turkish garrison should go with their wives and children on budars (river flat-bottomed rowboats) to the sea mouth, take as much belongings with them as anyone raises, and leave everything else, together with the military treasury, in the fortress.”

The capture of Azov was Russia's first major victory over the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of Russia's transformation into a maritime power. In honor of this event, a medal was issued with the image of Peter and the inscription: “Winner with lightning and waters”, and the voivode Alexei Shein was the first in Russia to receive the rank of generalissimo.

Back in the distant XV century, the troops of the Ottoman Empire captured the city of Azov for the first time. To avoid the raids of the Don Cossack flotillas on the Crimea and Northern Anatolia, the Turks immediately built a fortress on this site. Movement down the Don and access to the sea turned out to be closed for Russia for several centuries. Meanwhile, Azov was an important transit point on the silk caravan route to China.

False Dmitry I planned to strike at Azov and expel the Turks from the mouth of the Don. For these purposes, the tsar launched the construction of ships on the Vorona River (at its confluence with the Don). In addition, the Yelets border fortress was fortified. False Dmitry considered it as a support base for the upcoming campaign. Siege and field artillery were sent to the fortress from Moscow, and warehouses with a large amount of military equipment and food were also created in it.

But the campaign, planned for the summer of 1606, was never destined to take place due to the overthrow and murder of the false king in May of that year.

A convenient moment for the capture of Azov presented itself in 1637 during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich. Cossack intelligence reported on the war that had begun between the Ottoman Turks and Persia. The troops of the Crimean Khan left to fight on the side of the Ottomans. The Cossacks immediately decided to act. Having dug under the fortress walls, they blew them up and burst into the city through the breach. The Turks, who returned from the war in 1641, began to liberate the fortress. By order of the Sultan, 30 thousand Turks, 70 galleys, as well as 40 thousand soldiers from the army of the Crimean Khan arrived in the city. 5.5 thousand Cossacks defended against this bulk of Azov, who successfully repelled 24 enemy assaults. In the midst of the battles, the Cossacks sent a dispatch to Mikhail Fedorovich with a request to take Azov under their authority. However, the Zemsky Sobor, convened in 1642, did not express unity on this issue. It was clear that Russia would have to wage a difficult war with Turkey and the Crimea, but there were no forces for this. The Cossacks were forced to leave Azov, but first they destroyed all the fortifications. The Turks rebuilt and fortified the fortress. Just above Azov, on the Don, two stone towers were built, and guns were mounted on them. Three iron chains were strung between the towers across the river. Now even access to the fortress was closed.

The following attempts to recapture the fortress were made during the reign of Peter the Great. In the spring of 1695, the Russian army under the command of the tsarist generals F.Ya. Lefort and A.M. Golovina went to Azov. Two assaults were unsuccessful and were repulsed by the Turks, who constantly brought ammunition by sea.

One of the reasons for the failure was the betrayal of the Dutch gunner Jacob Jansen, who defected to the Turks.

Using the instructions of Jansen, the Turks made a sortie, captured nine Russian field guns and damaged the siege guns. The Russian command was forced to lift the siege and retreat. But the main reason for the failure was the lack of a regular fleet. The shipbuilding campaign began. A disassembled 32-oared galley, a wooden rowing vessel, was brought from Holland. According to her model, in the village of Preobrazhenskoye near Moscow, the best artisans made parts for another 22 galleys. Parts of the galleys were transported to Voronezh and the first domestic 22 warships were assembled. In addition to the galleys, two ships were also built: the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter. Each of these ships was armed with 36 guns. By the spring of 1696, Russia had about 30 warships and a significant number of vehicles. The fleet was built on the Voronezh River at its confluence with the Don. In the spring of 1696, the Russian fleet blocked the Turkish fortress from the sea. Enemy ships did not dare to make a breakthrough. The Russian army under the command of governor Alexei Shein laid siege to the fortress from land. For the first time, the domestic navy acted with the troops of the land army. In the middle of 1696, the Turkish garrison decided to surrender. The first big victory of the Russian army and navy was won. For the capture of Azov, the boyar Shein became the first Russian governor to be awarded the title of generalissimo. In order to consolidate Russian positions on the Sea of ​​Azov, the Taganrog fortress was built.

Jean-Marc Nattier. "Portrait of Peter I". 1717. Fragment

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But already in 1711, Azov had to be returned. At the height of the Northern War, Turkey declared war on Russia. On the Prut River, the Turkish army surrounded the Russian troops. Only by returning Azov to Turkey and destroying Taganrog, Russia achieved a truce.

Russia was able to win revenge in the confrontation with Turkey in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov in the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna. The Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739 became a logical continuation of the traditions of Peter's foreign policy. It became a new stage in the advance of Russia to the south and was the first major war after the death of Peter I. In the spring of 1736, the self-confident Field Marshal Munnich, in a letter to Duke Biron, described the "general plan of the war." In 1736, the military leader appointed the capture of Azov, in 1737 - the Crimea, in 1738 - Moldavia and Wallachia, and in 1739 and Constantinople (Istanbul). But the main merit in the capture of Azov belongs to Field Marshal P.P. Lassi and Vice Admiral P.P. Bradal. The assault on the fortress began on June 17. However, it was preceded by a long shelling, which was carried out by 46 siege guns. The fortress was so badly destroyed by artillery fire that it didn’t even come to a general assault. The Turkish garrison, having lost hope for a successful outcome of the defense, threw out the white flag on June 19, 1736. And on June 20, Pasha Mustafa Aga of Azov handed over the keys to the city to Count Lassi.

In 1740, following the results of the Belgrade peace, Azov finally became part of Russia.

The engraving dedicated to the capture of Azov, created shortly after the end of the war, fully reflects the scope of the siege itself. The engraving depicts many cannons, a continuous line of fortifications and a grandiose explosion inside the fortress from a Russian bomb, which led to the surrender of the fortress garrison.

On July 2, 1736, in the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg, in honor of the capture of Azov, the following lines sounded: “And so the Almighty God help this enemy city, from which All-Russian borders and subjects only great grievances and sensual ruins happened, and which from the treacherous Turks in 1711, due to the circumstances of that time, was torn off from the Russian State, to the eternal security of the All-Russian borders there and the subjects of the glorious arms of Her Imperial Majesty, still attached to the Russian Empire, for which may he, Almighty God, be glory and thanksgiving forever and ever” .

Thanks to the capture of Azov, Russian troops opened their way to the Sea of ​​Azov. However, this was only the beginning of the glorious Russian victories in the Black Sea region. The Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov is inland and closed by the Kerch Strait, and the Crimean Tatars lived in Kerch - the main allies of the Turks. Beyond Kerch, there was another inland sea - the Black Sea, closed by the Bosporus Strait, where the main Turkish stronghold - Istanbul was located. These victories were only to be won by Russia.

The failure of the first campaign near Azov (1695) did not discourage Peter I. Well, it didn’t work out to play near Azov. Do not say anything, strong city. But you can take. You can take.

Peter arrived in Moscow with a ready plan for a new campaign. Messengers rode to the allies, to Vienna and Warsaw, with the message that an even larger army would go under Azov next year. The tsar asked the Austrian emperor to select and send efficient engineers to Moscow.

But the main thing is that it is necessary to block access to Azov for the Turkish naval squadron. And for this you need a fleet - dozens of ships. The royal company began to doubt, shook their heads, even Lefort whistled incredulously. It would be nice, of course, to move the fleet to Azov, but where can we get it? Buying in Holland - no treasury is enough, but building it yourself - how long will it take? Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich built only one ship in eight years. Yes, and Mr. skipper has no more than two ships a year.

Peter abruptly cut short the objections. It seems they don't understand him. He doesn't care about what happened before. He needs a fleet, a rowing flotilla - galleys, galleasses, hard labor, fireships. And another fifteen hundred plows and boats for transporting shells and food. By next spring. Everything.

The conversations ended, - and the axes rattled, the saws began to sing. Shipyards were built in the forest areas closest to the Don: in Voronezh, Kozlov, Dobry and Sokolsk. A galley was urgently ordered from Holland - for a sample. According to her drawing, the Preobrazhenians and Semyonovites laid down 30 ships. Arkhangelsk carpenters and shipbuilders gathered willy-nilly or not from foreign ships were brought to help them. Another 26,000 workers harvested wood for them. In the dense forests of Voronezh, there was a smell of bitter smoke from fires, the frosty silence was split by the booming sounds of felling; snow-covered pines fell into the snow, disappearing into clouds of sparkling white dust. Many forests were brought to the root - twenty miles or more.

At the end of February, Peter left for Voronezh. Lefort stayed in Moscow - he caught a cold while walking on butter. The personal presence of the king was indeed necessary: ​​thousands of peasants did not come to work, they fled from ship service; the soldiers sent to Boronezh were so foolish that Peter himself had to yell at the captains so that they would look more strictly for their subordinates. And then the weather got silly: it rained until the middle of March, and then suddenly such frosts struck that for four days it was impossible to leave the house. Nevertheless, the tsar managed, before April, to build with his own hands the easiest galley Principium on the move.

Things, however, piled on, and now the already ill Lefort was ordered to go to Voronezh without delay. I had to drag myself through snowstorms and blizzards in a carriage with a stove, with a whole staff of doctors. The coughing Genevan cheered up: "I will instruct myself in every circle of medicines, and the frosts will not get me." However, on the road, the doctors themselves had to be treated. “On Efremov,” Lefort reported to the tsar, “the doctors got together, began to drink, everyone began to praise his wine; after that, a dispute arose between them about medicines, and they came to swords, and three of them were wounded.

The idea with the Voronezh fleet was not easy for skipper Peter. “We,” he wrote to Moscow, “by the order of God to our great-grandfather Adam, we eat our bread in the sweat of our brow.” Doctors cut each other, contractors steal, peasants leave carts with timber... A new, terrible misfortune: the workers set fire to the forests around the shipyards where plows are built, and a great destruction is being done to the plow business, and the naval military campaign is stopped. And the captains in Voronezh shout and complain that there is no coal in the forges: “That’s why our business has stopped!” And Peter manages to do everything - either with an ax in his hand he gives an example of work, then he calculates the material sent, then he reconciles those who have fought, then he corrects the negligent with a club ... And he eats his bread, watered with sweat, in a small house of two chambers with a passage and a porch. The glorious skipper does not forget about Ivashka Khmelnitsky - fortunately, Lefort brought from Moscow a fair supply of Muskatelen wine and good beer.

And the matter, thank God, is not standing still, it is moving.

On April 1, the army, treasury and supplies began to be loaded onto galleys and plows. Holy Week passed in this lesson. Peter congratulated the entire company that remained in Moscow at once, in one letter to Vinius - "not for laziness, but for the sake of the great for the sake of shortcomings." Foreign engineers from Vienna, however, were late.

At the end of April, the noble militia set out on a campaign. A week later, a “sea caravan” with regiments of the new system moved after them. Admiral Lefort entrusted command over him to the captain of the Principium galley Pyotr Alekseev (the tsar himself was hiding under this name). The captains of other ships were read the naval regulations drawn up by the king. It was instructed to go together, "because the common good requires it, and warships, closely moving with each other, can go around the whole Universe." Who does not listen to the signals from the admiral's ship - the death penalty. Whoever goes into battle on his own initiative - the death penalty. Whoever leaves a comrade or a damaged galley in trouble - the death penalty.

Peter flew up to Azov before the main forces. In Cherkassk, he learned from the Cossacks that at the mouth of the Don, on the seashore, two Turkish ships were being unloaded. The Don people tried to board them - it did not work: the sides were too high; they tried to cut through them with axes, but were driven away by rifle and cannon fire. Peter caught fire: you need to attack as soon as possible before they leave. Together with the Cossack boats, the galleys hastily sailed to the lower reaches of the Don.

But while they were sailing, Borey screwed up - he drove water into the sea from the narrow channels into which the mouth of the Don is divided: the Cossack boats passed through the shallows, the galleys did not. Reseeding to the Cossacks, Peter nevertheless got out to sea, but instead of two ships he saw the entire Turkish squadron in front of him - about twenty galleys. Sad and frustrated, he returned to Azov. As soon as he sailed, the news immediately came: the Cossacks could not resist, suddenly attacked the Turks, burned ten ships and captured one. Peter bit his lip. Left for nothing! Early - oh, damn it! .. The fleet immediately moved to the mouth, but the Turks evaded a new battle.

Meanwhile, regiments of noble militia approached Azov. The Turks did not expect a second siege so soon: they barely straightened the sagging rampart and did not even fill last year's trenches under the city and did not rake the embankments. The Russians occupied their abandoned aproshi without hindrance. The Tatar cavalry, which tried to disturb the Russian camp from the side of the steppe, was quickly driven away.

On June 16, a letter on an arrow flew over the city wall with a proposal to surrender. The Turks responded with gunfire. In response, Russian guns spoke. Climbing on one of the batteries, Peter himself threw the first bombs into the city. The enemy batteries fell silent one after another. The Turks, like last time, waited out the cannonade, hiding in dugouts. However, foreign engineers still had not arrived, and the digging was going badly. The regiments grumbled that there would be no good from the mines, only we would kill our own again.

In order to arouse the morale of the troops, at the council of the gentlemen of the generals, it was decided to directly ask the army: in what way does it want to take Azov? As they say, so be it. Streltsy and noble servants replied that it was best to conduct a siege by the great-grandfather custom - to build a rampart on a level with the enemy and fill up the ditch: this is how Saint Prince Vladimir took Kherson. General Gordon found the idea interesting and, inspired, began to improve it: he drew up a project for such a rampart that would exceed the city walls - with passages for the attackers and peals for the batteries.

The whole army turned into diggers. The formidable earthen wall grew higher every day. The Turks, horrified, interfered with the work with one rifle fire. Like last year, Peter did not get out of the front lines. To an alarming letter from his sister, Princess Natalya, who heard rumors that the tsar was approaching the fortress at a distance of a rifle shot, he jokingly replied: “According to your letter, I don’t go close to the balls and bullets, but they go to me. Order them not to go; however, although they go around, only politely for the time being.

On July 11, the long-awaited Austrian engineers arrived. They marveled at the rampart and set about digging. By this time, the Azov batteries had finally calmed down - they had already run out of shells. And the Turkish squadron was white with sails in the sea in full view of the Russian galleys, not daring to enter the mouth of the Don. On July 22, Peter appointed the assault on the city.

However, the sapper art of overseas engineers turned out to be useless. The Cossacks were bored with earthworks. They agreed among themselves to strike at Azov and thereby drag the rest of the army with them. On July 18, Hetman Lizogub and Ataman Minyaev themselves led the brave men to attack. The Cossacks quickly knocked the Turks off the rampart and almost burst into the city, but at the stone castle the Turks stopped their onslaught with rifle fire, shooting chopped coins for lack of lead.

The Cossacks entrenched themselves on the rampart. The Janissaries rushed to the counterattack and began to push the Donets, but then, finally, the soldier and archery regiments of Golovin and Gordon arrived in time. After an hour-long battle, the Turks were beaten off and driven to the very city walls.

There was a short break. Peter announced a general assault, and the Russian regiments hastily pulled up to the rampart, tightly encircling the city. After some time, a Janissary aga in a red caftan came out of the gate. He shouted that the letter on the arrow was without the boyar seal - so the pasha did not believe him, and if it was the same with the seal again, then the pasha would surrender the city. The seal was applied, and negotiations began for surrender.

To celebrate, Peter agreed to the most honorable conditions for the Turks: he left them weapons and even offered to transport them on ships by the Don to the mouth of the Kagalnik. But he was adamant about one thing - to give him the traitor Yakushka Jansen. At first, the Turks were stubborn (the fact was that the Dutchman converted to Islam and became a Janissary), however, after thinking, they decided not to anger the winner - they gave him away.

On the morning of the next day, the Russian regiments lined up in two rows in front of the gates of Azov. The Turks poured out of the gates in a terrible disorder: some rushed to the ships, others ran into the steppe. One aga importantly marched with a banner and a hundred janissaries through a living corridor.

The Russians entered the deserted Azov. The city was a heap of ruins, as if it had been lying in ruins for several centuries. The Cossacks, looking for prey, broke into the dugouts of the remaining inhabitants, but found only household utensils and junk. War trophies amounted to about a hundred guns and mortars - all without shells.

Awards were handed out to the army from the treasury, according to grandfather's custom: for officers - gold medals, cups, fur coats, money, peasant households; soldiers - a gilded penny.

On the same day, having appointed boyar Matvey Stepanovich Pushkin as the governor of Azov, Peter left to look for a convenient harbor for the future fleet. The mouth of the Don with shallows did not suit him. He was lucky: not far from the Don lower reaches, at Cape Taganrog with strong rocky soil, he discovered a wide bay of sufficient depth. He ordered to lay the Trinity fortress here.

Returning to Azov, he drank with gentlemen generals for the fact that, thank God, the Moscow state already has one corner of the Black Sea, and in time it will have the whole sea. Intoxicated, but not losing seriousness, Gordon noticed that it would be difficult to do this. Peter smiled. Nothing. Not suddenly, but little by little.

He was in no hurry to Moscow. The first victory of the Russians over the Turks was to be celebrated as magnificently as possible. The clerk Vinius was instructed to build a triumphal arch on the Stone Bridge across the Moscow River, and the clerk reported that the arch would not be ready until mid-September.

In order not to waste time, Peter went to the Tula factories. Along the way, he learned what impression the Azov victory made in allied Poland. At the meeting of the Sejm, the senators listened to the report sent to them from Moscow and shook their heads: “What a brave and careless person! And what will happen to him in the future? Voivode Matchinsky sneered contemptuously: “Muscovites need to remember the late King Jan, who raised them and made them military men. And if he had not concluded an alliance with them, then to this day they would have paid tribute to the Crimea, and they themselves would have been lying at home. Voivode Pototsky, thoughtfully twirling his mustache, answered him: “It would be better if they were sitting at home, it would not harm us, and when they are polished and blood is sniffed, you will see what will come of them - what, Lord God, do not allow .. .” However, the gentry of the Orthodox faith shouted on the streets of Warsaw and Krakow: “Vivat his grace to the king!” - and the people picked up three times: “Vivat! Neh be sir God blessed!”

In the center is depicted the sovereign sitting on the throne. It is surrounded by allegorical figures of the virtues. Above Peter I is the Russian coat of arms, surrounded by various symbols, in front of the throne are the Turks offering the crowns of foreign states to the Russian Tsar. To the left of the central composition is an image of the bombardment of Azov. On the right is the plan of Azov, under which is a chariot with a gallows, on which the traitor Yakov Jansen is hanged.

On September 30, the victorious army, having passed through Zamoskvorechye, entered the Stone Bridge, decorated with a huge triumphal arch. Above its pediment, among the banners and weapons, sat a double-headed eagle under three crowns. On the vault of the arch in three places one could see the inscription: “I came, I saw, I won.” Soaring Glory held a laurel wreath in one hand, and an olive branch in the other. The inscription under it read: "Worthy is the worker of his reward." The pediment was supported by statues of Hercules and Mars. Under Hercules on a pedestal were depicted a Pasha of Azov in a turban and two chained Turks; under Mars - Tatar Murza with two chained Tatars.

Above both verses. Above pasha:

Oh! Azov we lost

And so they got themselves into trouble.

Above Murza:

Before on the steppes we fought,

Now they were barely fleeing from Moscow.

Near Hercules and Mars towered pyramids entwined with green branches - one "in praise of the brave howls of the sea", the other "in praise of the brave howls of the field." On both sides of the gate canvases were stretched with paintings depicting a naval battle and Neptune, saying: “Behold, I congratulate you on the capture of Azov and submit.”

In front of the army, lounging in a carriage, rode Prince-Papa Nikita Zotov. Lefort followed him on a gilded sleigh drawn by six horses; behind walked the captain of the third company of the Preobrazhensky regiment, Pyotr Alekseev, in a hat with a white feather and a dagger* in his hand.

* Protazan - a spear with a flat and long metal tip, an honorary weapon of an officer.

The organizer of the celebration, Vinius, who was sitting on the arch, greeted Lefort into the trumpet with loud verses:

Admiral General! Marine of all forces head.

He came, matured, defeated the proud enemy.

The greeting was accompanied by gun salvos. Doxology in their honor was heard by other military leaders who passed under the arch.

Soldiers dragged Turkish banners across the ground. The traitor Jansen, dressed in a Turkish dress, was carried on a cart with a platform and a gallows, under which stood two executioners. On the Dutchman's chest hung a board with the inscription: "For Christians, a villain." Behind him were captured Turks in white robes.

The people marveled at the royal entrance, but without joy. Spitting and crossing themselves, the Muscovites looked at the statues of the Hellenic devils, at the drunkard leading the procession ... Most of all they were indignant that the tsar was marching in a German dress and on foot. People crowded along the streets and silently followed the columns of troops with their eyes.

Jansen was executed later, by quartering. According to an eyewitness, “they broke his arms and legs with a wheel and stuck his head on a stake.”