Menshikov Alexander Danilovich (1673 - 1729), second Russian Field Marshal, Generalissimo (1727), one of the closest associates of Peter I. He participated in the Azov Campaigns of 1695-1696 and the Northern War of 1700-1721. In 1702, he was appointed commandant of Noteburg taken from the Swedes. He supervised the construction of St. Petersburg, Kronstadt, shipyards on the Neva and Svir rivers. During the Northern War, showing the talent of a military leader, he won a number of important victories. In 1713-1724 and 1726-1727 he was President of the Military College. Under Peter II, he was accused of high treason and embezzlement of the treasury, and exiled to Siberia.

Menshikov was born on the outskirts of Moscow on November 6, 1673. The son of a pie-maker, who came from the lowest ranks and had no education, he was, according to the biographer, "gifted by nature with a fluent, sharp mind, courage, and a beautiful appearance." An incident helped him to prove himself: a lively boy Aleksashka got caught on the street by Petr Lefort's favorite, and he took the boy he liked into his service. Soon Menshikov was introduced to the Emperor, and he asked Lefort to " give up the boy to him."

Aleksashka received the post of valet and was almost constantly with the young Peter: "... carefully executed the instructions given to him; remembered the orders; kept secrets and with rare patience submitted to the hot temper of the ruler, at whose bedside he usually slept." Soon he became indispensable to Peter, who enrolled him in the company of "funny", made up entirely of noble youth.

During the foreign journey of the young Peter, Alexander Danilovich accompanied him already in the rank of nobility, in Holland "together with the Sovereign he studied ship construction..., went to work every day, having an axe in his belt, received written praise from the carpenter Pool for his diligence and success." It is after returning from a trip abroad that the rapid rise of the "semi-autocratic ruler" begins, as A. S. Pushkin called Menshikov. He was granted a sergeant of the Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, then a lieutenant of the bombardier company, the captain of which was Peter himself.

The military career of the future Field Marshal and generalissimo of the Russian army began at the siege of Noteburg. Menshikov acted bravely and "led his soldiers to attack under a hail of enemy bullets and buckshot." After the capture of the city, Peter named it Shlisselburg and appointed the distinguished favorite as the commandant of the fortress. At the same time, the tsar said to Alexander Danilovich: "You do not owe me this; when I raised you, I was not thinking of your happiness, but of the general benefit. If I knew someone better, I wouldn't have made you."

Then Menshikov repeatedly distinguished himself in the military campaign of 1703-1704, when Russian troops captured the territory along the entire course of the Neva River and forced the surrender of the Narva garrison.

Menshikov, together with Peter, is directly involved in a truly historic event: the first victory of the nascent Russian fleet. This happened when a detachment of Swedish ships under the command of Vice Admiral Numers, who did not know about the capture of Nienschanz by the Russians, approached the mouth of the Neva River on May 2. The ships dropped their anchors and lowered their sails, and on May 6, two ships separated from the detachment and, after passing through shallow water, entered the Neva. The rest, having a large draft, remained in their original places. The enemy could not assume that the ambush organized by Peter I, led by Menshikov, was closely monitoring the movement of each ship. Not having the necessary funds,

Peter, of course, could not attack Numers ' entire force. But when he learned about the two small ships that had separated from the main forces, he decided to attack them and, if possible, capture them. To this end, he ordered thirty boats to be equipped, and two companies of soldiers from the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiments to be put in them. Under cover of darkness on the night of May 6-7, the boats entered the mouth of the Neva River and quietly approached the Swedes. The attack was sudden, and the fight was fierce. Swedish ships armed with naval artillery desperately fought off the onslaught of simple unarmed fishing boats. Soldiers under the command of Peter I himself and Menshikov boarded both ships, which became the first battle trophies. The captured vessels were the galiot " Gedan "and the shnyava"Astrild". The Gedan was armed with ten guns, while the Astrild was armed with eight. In honor of the victory, all participants of the battle received commemorative medals with the inscription "The unprecedented happens". This day is the birthday of the Baltic Fleet. Peter I and Menshikov, who had the ranks of bombardier captain and bombardier lieutenant, respectively, became knights of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. It was presented to them by Admiral Count F. A. Golovin , the first holder of this order.

Nevertheless, the main glory of Menshikov as a military commander was brought by the decisive battles of the Northern War on land. There, he did not just follow Peter's orders and instructions, but acted independently, showing remarkable talent and ingenuity.

The Battle of Kalish on October 18, 1706, demonstrated the increased generalship of Alexander Danilovich. At the beginning of the battle, the Swedes, desperately resisting, were able to push back the Russian cavalry. Carried away by the pursuit of the Russians, General Mardefeld left his infantry without cover. Menshikov took good advantage of this. He ordered several squadrons of dragoons to be hurried to act in the center, and sent cavalry to the enemy's flanks, which crushed the enemy infantry. Most of the Swedish army fell on the battlefield, 1800 people led by Mardefeld were captured. The losses of the Russian army were insignificant: 80 killed and 320 wounded. The day of the Kalish victory, October 18, was declared a memorial day and was annually solemnly celebrated along with the days of victory at Lesnaya, Poltava and Gangut. This victory, as the historian Bantysh - Kamensky writes, "belonged exclusively to Menshikov," and " Peter the Great received the news of it with indescribable joy and granted his favorite a military baton decorated with a large emerald, diamonds and the princely coat of arms, and later promoted him to lieutenant colonel of the Preobrazhensky regiment."

Menshikov's finest hour came on the day of the famous Battle of Poltava. As an eyewitness testified, Alexander Danilovich " on the unforgettable day of the battle, June 27, stopped the rapid movement of the Swedes who broke through our redoubts, gave time for the cavalry to retreat in the best order." Menshikov risked his life, two horses were killed under him. Then he attacked General Ross, who was cut off from the Swedish army, " dispersed the detachment he led, forced

surrender to General Renzel; meeting the enemy's three-thousandth reserve corps, destroyed it and returned to the Monarch with victory and prisoners." "If," Voltaire wrote in the History of Charles XII, " Menshikov performed this maneuver on his own, then Russia owes its salvation to him; if he carried out the tsar's orders, then Peter was a worthy rival of Charles XII."

When the main battle began, Menshikov, under which the third horse was killed, "contributed to the victory by attacking the Swedish cavalry with such force that he put it to flight, while Field Marshal Sheremetev, who was in the center, overturned the infantry with bayonets." The Swedes rushed to Reshetilovka, pursued by Prince Golitsyn and Bohr, and on July 1 Menshikov attacked the enemy near Perevolochnaya and " with only ten thousand troops and a courageous onslaught forced fourteen thousand people to lay down their arms."

Many generals and officers of the Russian army were generously awarded by Peter for the victory won. But" more than others " the tsar noted Menshikov, because few of the military leaders who participated in the battle could compare with him in terms of contribution to the victory. Alexander Danilovich was granted field marshals, and almost 45 thousand serfs, the cities of Pochep and Yampol were transferred to his possession.

Here's how the Field Marshal's biographer describes the winner's award ceremony: "The grateful Monarch embraced Menshikov in the presence of the army, kissed him several times on the head, extolling his excellent exploits and labors; granted him the rank of second Russian Field Marshal General and did not want to have a solemn entry into Moscow without him: on December 15, Prince Izhorsky arrived in the village of Kolomenskoye, where Peter the Great was waiting for him; on the 16th the inhabitants of the ancient capital saw their beloved Monarch and next to him, on the right side, in the Preobrazhensky uniform, with a naked sword - Menshikov."

At this point, the list of military affairs of the new Russian Field Marshal General ends. But his palace life does not end. After the death of Peter I in 1725, he became the de facto ruler of Russia, dictating all state decisions to the weak-willed Catherine I. His greed and lust for power, which Peter I was able to restrain, are now being fully realized:

Menshikov did not have enough field marshal rank, and he, being essentially a regent under the young Peter II, assumed the rank of generalissimo. Alexander Danilovich even managed to arrange the engagement of his daughter to the young emperor, hoping in this way to actively influence the young monarch. However, Menshikov was still more successful on the battlefield than in palace intrigues. Peter II turned out to be not such a weak-willed ruler and, on the "advice of loyal courtiers", turned the once all-powerful favorite of Peter I into a "primitive state", depriving him of power and wealth, exiling him to the distant Siberian Berezov.