Terrible tsarinas

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Another Catherine!

In fact, the decision was dictated by the Russian artillery, which had remained intact despite repeated attacks. On August 13, the Prussian infantry and then the cavalry were crushed by cannon shot. The survivors were overcome by panic. Of the 48,000 men originally commanded by Frederick II, only 3000 remained. This horde, exhausted and demoralized, was barely able to keep together a rearguard during its retreat. Overwhelmed by this defeat, Frederick II wrote to his brother: “The downstream effects of the matter are worse than the matter itself. I have no more resources. All is lost. I will not survive the loss of the fatherland!”

In giving his account of this victory to the tsarina, Saltykov showed himself more circumspect: “Your Imperial Majesty should not be surprised by our losses,” he wrote, “for she is not unaware that the king of Prussia sells his defeats dearly. Another victory like this one, Majesty, and I will see myself constrained to walk to St. Petersburg, staff in hand, to bring you the news myself - for I will have no one else left to serve as courier.”3 Thoroughly reassured as to the outcome of the war, Elizabeth ordered “a real Te Deum” to be celebrated this time, and she declared to the Marquis de l’Hopital: “Every good Russian must be a good Frenchman, and every good Frenchman must be a good Russian.”4 As a reward for this great feat of arms, old Saltykov, “the Pullet,” received the title of Field Marshal. Did this honor go to his head? Instead of pursuing the enemy in his retreat, he fell asleep on his laurels. All of Russia seemed to fall into a happy torpor at the idea of having demolished a leader as prestigious as Frederick