Frederick 2 King of Prussia short biography. Frederick II the Great, King of Prussia. One step away from the death penalty

Reforms of enlightened absolutism Germany was almost completely untouched, except for Prussia and Austria. Fragmented after the Thirty Years' War into hundreds of separate principalities, the empire as a whole did not experience any major changes for a century and a half, and absolutism of the most petty nature continued to dominate in individual principalities. In the middle of the 18th century. In Germany, only literature revived. At this time it adopted an educational direction, but was more concerned with issues of personal morality and the education of the individual than with political and social issues. In the higher spheres this literature Moreover, she did not receive the slightest attention. The main hero of his time, Frederick II, who received a French upbringing in his youth, did not even know German literature at all and despised it, although Lessing, Herder, Kant, Goethe and Schiller were already active in his time. Both he and his younger contemporary, Joseph II, were influenced by the ideas of the French Enlightenment. The vast majority of the German princes had too small possessions and were too poor to undertake anything large. Therefore, for Germany, a new life began only with the impetus given to it by the French Revolution. In Prussia and Austria things went differently.

192. Frederick II

IN 1740 ascended the Prussian throne Frederick II, to whom contemporaries gave the name of the Great. He was the son of the rude and despotic Frederick William I, and in his father’s house he passed harsh life school. The Crown Prince developed a passion for reading in his earliest youth, and in addition, he was greatly influenced by his French tutor, who supported his serious intellectual interests. The king-father was very dissatisfied with this, constantly grumbled at his son, and at times beat him. He did not like that “Fritz” showed no interest in the pastor’s lessons and military exercises, being carried away, on the contrary, by French writers and secular entertainment. In 1730, the Crown Prince, then only 18 years old, planning to flee abroad but his plan was discovered by the brother of one of the young officers who wanted to help escape. The king brought Frederick to a military court as a deserter, and under the windows of the room where he was kept in custody, one of his comrades was executed. They thought that the same fate would befall the young crown prince, and the father himself was thinking about depriving his son of the right to the throne. The matter ended, however, with Frederick being exiled to Küstrin, where he was to learn business as a simple official in one government institution. Having become familiar with the mechanism of Prussian economic management here, he later went through the same practical school in the army. This enriched the young man with knowledge and experience, but left very bad marks on his character. The Crown Prince became embittered and used to being a hypocrite and pretending trying in every possible way to please my father. According to his father's instructions, he even got married, but he never loved his wife and therefore subsequently did not know family life at all. However, having been a reluctant official and becoming a regimental commander, Friedrich was able to appreciate the good sides of the strict, sometimes petty, but caring and thrifty Prussian administration. At the end of his life, Frederick William I was no longer worried about the fate of Prussia.

While still crown prince, Frederick II entered into correspondence with Voltaire and began to send him his own compositions. He was not only a wonderful ruler, but also prolific writer in French. Frederick II left behind quite a few works of philosophical, historical and political content. His philosophical and political ideas were imbued with the rationalism of the 18th century. In religion he stood for religious tolerance. He said that in his state everyone can save themselves “in their own way,” and that he himself wants to be “neutral between Rome and Geneva.” One of the earliest political treatises of Frederick II was devoted to a refutation of Machiavellian “The Prince,” but in fact the policy of the Prussian king was precisely was distinguished by the greatest Machiavellianism. For Frederick II, the basis of state power was the original treaty, but together with Hobbes he stood on the point of view that this treaty transfers all the rights of the people to the government. He guarded his absolutism very jealously, but it was not the absolutism of Louis XIV, who said: “the state, this is me,” or Louis XV, who said: “after us there may be a flood.” Like his father and great-grandfather, Frederick II was imbued with a sense of duty to his Prussia and called himself (and sovereign in general) the first servant of the state. From his predecessors, Frederick II also inherited a view of public administration as a matter that requires, first of all, discipline and economy. In Prussia during his reign it was just as difficult to live as under his father, because the philosopher king controlled the entire society under the tutelage of his obedient and careful officials, and only in the realm of abstract thought did the subjects of Frederick II still enjoy some freedom. Public initiative in his state was completely suppressed, and he himself said at the end of his life that he was “tired of reigning over slaves.”

193. Reign of Frederick II

Frederick II, having exalted his monarchy with successful wars; like his father, He was most concerned about strengthening and improving the army. All the material forces of the country were sacrificed to this necessity, and for the sake of this same necessity, the philosopher-king did not put into practice what directly followed from his own political theory. Frederick II was, indeed, a servant of the state, because it was scary worked a lot, delving into everything and interfering himself and not having real ministers around him, but his idea that power should first of all keep in mind the good of all subjects was not implemented by him. In essence, he left the class system of Prussia intact with all the privileges of the nobility, with all the humiliation of the burghers, with all the serfdom of the peasants. The king needed officers for the army, and he considered only noblemen capable of occupying officer positions, but since he could not pay them a large salary, he left their power over the peasants completely intact. The army needed bread and cloth, and so, in order to have both at a cheap price, Frederick II in every possible way restricted the trade in these products, and thereby prevented the development of the urban class. Frederick II also had certain prejudices about the nobles: behind them alone he recognized the sense of honor necessary to occupy officer positions, and therefore he found it necessary to maintain the spirit of class in the nobility, prohibiting, for example, marriages between nobles and non-nobles. However, he still considered it necessary to protect the peasants, as tax payers, from the arbitrariness of the landowners. His predecessors had already freed the serfs in the royal domains, but Frederick II did not dare to extend the liberation to the landed peasants. When one day he only planned to improve the life of the peasants in Pomerania, the nobility there declared that under the new order it would be difficult for the landowners to supply recruits to the army, and the king canceled the planned measures. In general, however, the Prussian nobility under Frederick II was not so much a privileged class as a service class, which is how it differed, for example, from the French nobility, which did not know any duty to the state.

In Prussia under Frederick II, his father's government receptions and the German “police state” in general. Half the army was recruited. Royal recruiters usually made their victims drunk with vodka and shoved cash deposits into their hands or pockets, and then the soldiers recruited in this way were subjected to the most severe punishments for trying to escape. To increase finances, Frederick II developed a system of indirect taxes and customs duties, and to stop smuggling, officials were allowed to search houses and shops. To ensure that nobles served in the army and did not waste money on travel, they were not allowed to travel abroad.

194. Reforms of Frederick II

Improvements and reforms were undertaken by Frederick II only in the areas of the national economy, legal proceedings and public education. In the first respect, measures to drain the swamps, attract colonists to the country, improve communications, and develop the manufacturing industry in the spirit of Colbert’s system were important. Frederick II did a lot in the field of legal proceedings. A special commission (chaired by Chancellor Coccei) was supposed to review and combine into one whole all the previous Prussian laws, but this revision should have been carried out according to the thoughts of Frederick II in the spirit of new philosophical ideas. The results of this work were first the Frederick Code, which improved legal proceedings, and then the General Land Law, published only under the successor of Frederick II. The king stood for complete independence of the court from the administration and wanted judges to strictly adhere to the law, without listening to any outside suggestions. Frederick II himself set an example of obedience to the court in a dispute with a miller who did not want to demolish his mill near the royal country palace of Sans Souci. However, the king did not always act this way. Once it seemed to him that the judges had incorrectly decided a case in favor of an official, also against one miller, and he, with his own power, overturned the verdict, punishing the judges. In any case, Prussia received under Frederick II an exemplary court for its time.(The king abolished the torture immediately upon his accession to the throne.) In the field of public education, Frederick II made some improvements in higher and secondary education. One of his first acts at the beginning of his reign was to return to the throne the philosopher Wolf, who had been expelled from Prussia by his father for freethinking. In addition, Frederick II reformed the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Only lower education, which was generally neglected by governments even in the first half of the 19th century, made little progress under the philosopher king. Theoretically, he admitted that ignorance of villagers is a great state evil, and even issued a decree on the compulsory attendance of primary schools by peasant children, but did not give money for the establishment of these schools, and where there were schools, disabled people were appointed as teachers in the form of a reward for service and in return for giving them pensions.

Frederick II the Great (Friedrich II der Grosse) (1712-1786)

People are legends. New time

There are very few rulers in world history who experienced as many stellar times and suffered as many hellish hours as Frederick II the Great, Hohenzollern. He earned the right to be called Great not for his excessive love of everything French, but for his intelligence as a statesman, for his self-control during military operations and for his unshakable fortitude under the heavy blows of fate. He was an incredibly honest but powerful ruler and commanded armies with ease. Therefore, he remains an outstanding personality whose life is worth studying.

Frederick II was born on January 24, 1712 in the Berlin Royal Palace. At that time, the newborn’s grandfather, Frederick I, was sitting on the throne. This intelligent and enterprising ruler compensated for the meager funds of his state and its very small military forces by using the vicissitudes of the then politics to his own advantage.

In 1700, after the death of the childless King Charles II, the War of the Spanish Succession broke out between France and Austria. Frederick I, then still the Elector of Brandenburg, joined the latter as an ally. For this, in 1701 he received from the Austrian Emperor the title of king of his Prussian possessions. The elevation of Prussia to the rank of kingdom was the most significant event of his reign. Frederick I hastened to acquire a magnificent court, build a palace in Berlin, then still a poor provincial town, and found an Academy of Arts in the city. Huge sums from the meager Prussian treasury were spent on maintaining the splendor of the royal title.

Frederick I died in 1713, and his son, Frederick William, the father of Frederick the Great, became king of Prussia. The new reign began with harsh changes that affected almost all areas of the country's life. Frederick William declared himself Minister of War and Minister of Finance. Apparently frightened by his father’s extravagance, he only sought to multiply and accumulate. The salaries of civil servants were reduced five times, but taxes increased and applied equally to all the king’s subjects: both the nobility and the common people.

Friedrich Wilhelm I - Prussian king, Friedrich's father

Money regularly flowed into the royal treasury from an impoverished country and remained there in the form of barrels of gold coins. Having as many of these barrels as possible seemed to the king the surest guarantee of the power of the state. Not limited to this, Frederick William acquired massive silver items for his palace, and “art” was less important than material value.

He gave his wife an office in which all the furniture was gold, including the handles of the fireplace tongs and spatulas and coffee pots. But in this rich palace the same regime of extreme economy reigned as throughout the whole country.

The second passion of the king, besides gold, was the army. He also saved up soldiers, bringing the size of the Prussian army to 80 thousand people. This army practically did not participate in military operations.

Frederick William I deserved all sorts of offensive nicknames: miser, blockhead, barbarian. Even this man's virtues looked like vices. Honesty turned into rudeness, economy - into stinginess. And yet, he was far from being so stupid and, strange as it may seem, he loved his eldest son. But here, too, Friedrich Wilhelm was just as despotic as in matters of government. His affection for his eldest son was expressed mainly in attempts to turn the prince into his own likeness.

Favorite son

Friedrich's childhood and teenage years, his quarrel with his father, are a separate story. In principle, it was then that his character was strengthened. Suffice it to say that General Count von Frankenstein, who became a household name, was appointed his teacher.

Frederick William I loved his son very much, but he loved him with a despotic, even tyrannical love. Love often turns into hatred. The father simply wanted his heir to be an exact copy of him. But Friedrich was not. “No!” said Friedrich Wilhelm I. “Fritz is a rake and a poet: he will be of no use! He does not like a soldier’s life, he will ruin the whole business on which I have worked for so long for him!” One day, in anger, Frederick William burst into the prince's room, broke all his flutes (Frederick II played the flute well), and threw his books into the oven.

Here is an excerpt from one of Frederick’s letters to his mother: “I am brought to the most desperate situation, the king has completely forgotten that I am his son; he treats me as a person of the lowest rank. When I entered his room today, he rushed at me and beat me me with a stick until I myself was exhausted. My sense of personal dignity does not allow me to endure such treatment any longer; I was driven to the extreme and therefore decided to put an end to this one way or another."

In the summer of 1730, Frederick even attempted to escape from his father to England. He was caught. Frederick begged his father to deny him the inheritance and let him go. The father replied: “You must become king!” - and sent him to Kistrin Castle, where he was put under arrest in a cell without furniture or candles.

Emperor Charles VI stood up for Frederick. Frederick was released from captivity, given a separate house in Kistrin, given a small allowance and appointed inspector of appanage lands. But he did not dare to leave the city. Reading books, especially French, as well as playing music, were strictly forbidden to him. In the summer of 1731, the king relented and gave his son more freedom. In February 1732, he called the prince to Berlin, promoted him to colonel and commander of one of the guards regiments.

The father finally reconciled with Frederick only after he agreed to the marriage arranged by the king with Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick. After the wedding, he settled in Rheinsberg and led a life here according to his taste. The morning was devoted to science, and the evening to entertainment. At the same time, Friedrich began correspondence with many famous educators, including Voltaire. In May 1740, the old king died and the throne passed to Frederick.

First war

Having received from his father a flourishing state and a full treasury, Frederick changed almost nothing in the court order: he retained the same simplicity and moderation that had been established under Frederick William. But unlike him, Frederick did not intend to limit his activities only to domestic affairs. In October 1740, the Spanish Emperor Charles VI died without leaving any male offspring. He was succeeded by his daughter Maria Theresa. In December, Frederick announced to the Austrian envoy that Austria was illegally holding Silesia, although this province rightfully belonged to Prussia. For a long time, the king noted, the just claims of the Brandenburg electors were ignored by the emperors, but he does not intend to continue this fruitless dispute and prefers to resolve it by force of arms. Without waiting for a response from Vienna, Frederick moved his army to Silesia. (In fact, the Hohenzollerns had sovereign rights over the Silesian provinces of Jägersdorf, Liegnitz, Brig and Wolau.)

The blow was struck so unexpectedly that almost all of Silesia surrendered to the Prussians without resistance. In 1741 France and Bavaria entered the war against Austria. In March, the Prussians stormed the Glogau fortress, and on April 10, a hot battle took place near the village of Mollwitz. The beginning of it was unsuccessful for Frederick. The Austrian cavalry overthrew the right flank of the Prussian army, which was commanded by the king himself. Thinking that the battle was lost, Frederick and his retinue rode off to Oppelna and found it already occupied by the enemy. Discouraged, he went back and then learned that after his departure, General Schwerin was able to turn the situation around Mollwitz and, after a stubborn five-hour battle, forced the Austrians to retreat. In October the Prussians occupied Neuss. All of lower Silesia was now in their power, and in November Frederick took the oath of his new subjects.

In 1742, Frederick, in alliance with the Saxons, began a war in Moravia and the Czech Republic. On May 17, a battle took place near the town of Shotuzits. At first, the Austrians quickly attacked the Prussian system and threw it into confusion. To distract the enemy, Frederick ordered his convoy to be opened in front of him. When the attackers greedily rushed to plunder him, the king quickly attacked the left wing of the Austrians and defeated it. With this deft maneuver he won the battle. The winners received many prisoners and guns. The new defeat forced the Vienna cabinet to think about peace. In June, a treaty was signed in which Maria Theresa ceded Silesia and the County of Glatz to Frederick. But this agreement was not final. Over the next two years, the Austrians won several high-profile victories over the Bavarians and French. Concerned, Frederick re-entered the war in 1744 and invaded the Czech Republic. At the same time, Louis XV launched an offensive in the Netherlands. In September, the Prussians, after a brutal bombardment, captured Prague. But that was where their success ended. The Czechs began a stubborn guerrilla war against the enemy. Provisions and fodder were delivered to the Prussian camp with great difficulty. Soon Frederick's army began to experience severe hardships, he decided to leave Prague and retreat to Silesia.

In 1745, the Second Silesian War broke out, the outcome of which was not clear for a long time. Finally, on July 4, Frederick defeated the Prince of Lorraine at Hohenfriedberg. Having lost more than ten thousand people killed and captured, the Austrians retreated. The king pursued the enemy in the Czech Republic and on September 30 gave him battle near the village of Sor. Victory remained with the Prussians. But lack of food again forced them to retreat to Silesia. In the autumn, Charles of Lorraine tried to penetrate Brandenburg through Saxony. The Prussian army secretly moved towards him, suddenly attacked the Austrians in the village of Gennersdorf and inflicted a severe defeat on them. The prince retreated to Bohemia, and Frederick invaded Saxony. At the end of November he captured Leipzig, and on December 15 he fought with the Saxon army at Kesselsdorf. The enemy's position was excellent - most of the army stood on a steep slope, the slopes and cliffs of which were covered with ice and snow. The Prussians could approach the enemy only from the left flank, but here a Saxon battery was placed on a hill, causing terrible damage with its fire. Two fierce Prussian attacks were repulsed, but after the third attack the battery was captured. At the same time, the Prussian cavalry bypassed the Saxon positions and attacked them from the rear. This double success decided the outcome of the battle. The Saxons retreated in disorder, and the next day Frederick approached Dresden. The capital could not defend itself because the elector Augustus I the Strong (Polish king Augustus II the Strong), expanding his palace parks, ordered the destruction of many fortifications. On December 18, the Prussian king solemnly entered Dresden. The Kesselsdorf victory decided the outcome of the war, and at the end of December peace was signed: Maria Theresa yielded to Frederick Silesia for the second time, and for this he recognized her husband Francis I as Emperor of the “Holy Roman Empire.”

After the successful end of the war, Frederick returned to government concerns and his favorite literary pursuits.

Maria Theresa - Austrian Empress, constant opponent of Frederick the Great

Great King

Like all great men, Frederick had his quirks. He was intemperate when it came to food: he ate a lot and greedily, did not use forks and took food with his hands, causing the sauce to flow down his uniform. He often spilled wine and sprinkled tobacco, so that the place where the king sat was always easy to distinguish from others. He wore out his clothes to the point of indecency. His pants had holes, his shirt was torn. When he died, they could not find a single decent shirt in his wardrobe to properly place him in the coffin. The king had neither a nightcap, nor shoes, nor a robe. Instead of a cap, he used a pillow, tying it with a scarf around his head. He did not take off his uniform and boots even at home. The robe replaced the half-caftan. Frederick usually slept on a very thin, short bed with a thin mattress and got up at five or six in the morning. Soon the minister appeared with large bundles of papers. Looking through them, the king made notes in two or three words. Using these notes, the secretaries then compiled full answers and resolutions. At 11 o'clock Frederick went to the parade ground and inspected his regiment. At this hour, throughout Prussia, colonels were reviewing their regiments. Then the king went to dinner with his brothers, two generals and chamberlains and went back to his office. Until five or six o'clock he worked on his literary works. Among them, a special place was occupied by the historical works “History of Brandenburg” and “Modern History” (in which he outlined the history of his reign, following the example of ancient authors). The day usually ended with a small concert, with the king himself playing the flute and often pieces of his own composition. He was a great lover of music. The evening table was served in a small hall, decorated with a painting of Peon, painted according to the king’s drawing. It had such a frivolous content that it seemed almost obscene. At this hour, the king sometimes began a philosophical conversation with the guests, and, according to the evil-tongued Voltaire, it might seem to an outside observer that he was hearing the conversation of seven Greek sages sitting in a brothel.

Seven Years' War

The Peace of Aachen, which put an end to the War of the Austrian Succession, could satisfy neither Austria nor Saxony. Maria Theresa spent the next eight years preparing for a new European war.

In principle, the Seven Years' War itself (1756 - 1763) is a kind of historical kunststyuku, where natural allies entered into alliances with their natural enemies and threshed each other for other people's interests. So Prussia, France and Russia in those days were natural allies and were opponents of another pair of natural allies - Austria and England. At the same time, alliances were between Prussia and England and between France, Austria and Russia. Well, if France, in alliance with Austria, received at least something in this war, then it is completely unclear what Russia was looking for in the vast expanses of Prussia. Some people accused Peter III of making peace with Frederick II as another indicator of stupidity, but Catherine II, although Frederick’s niece, had a very unflattering personal opinion about him, still preferred to be friends with “Uncle Fritz.”

In general, this war itself, or rather the alignment of its participants, is a mystery of the “gallant age”. In 1753, Empresses Maria Theresa and Elizabeth I formed an alliance against Frederick. Then he was joined by the Saxon Elector Augustus. In 1756, war began between England and France. The Prussian king, as an ally of France, had to participate in it and attack Hanover. Instead, Frederick entered into negotiations with George II and offered him a defensive and offensive alliance against France. He hoped that with the help of England he would win Russia over to his side, since both powers had previously been in a close alliance, but he miscalculated. The Anglo-Prussian alliance suddenly changed the entire European system in one minute. Louis XV began to seek rapprochement with his old enemy, Austria, and joined the anti-Prussian alliance. Following France, Sweden joined the coalition. Prussia found itself surrounded by enemies and had to prepare for a stubborn war.

Elizaveta Petrovna - Russian empress, enemy of Frederick the Great

Through his spies, whom he had at all European courts, Frederick knew that opponents were preparing to attack his possessions in 1757, and decided to launch a preemptive strike. Leaving barriers in East Prussia and Silesia, he entered Saxony at the head of an army of 56,000. The Saxon regiments assembled on the vast plain between Pirna and Königsstein. The position here was well fortified and almost impregnable, but due to the sudden outbreak of war, they did not have time to bring enough supplies to the camp. Frederick easily occupied Leipzig, Dresden and announced that he was temporarily taking Saxony under his control. The army of Augustus III, surrounded by the Prussians on all sides, was deprived of food supplies. Two Austrian armies rushed to the rescue of an ally in trouble. One of them was stopped by Schwerin, and the king himself met the other near the town of Lozowitz near the Elbe and, after a six-hour battle, forced it to retreat. The news of the Prussian victory took away the last hope from the starving Saxons. On the night of October 15, they decided to make their way to the Czech Republic, left their fortified camp, but could not get far. Surrounded near the city of Lilienstein, they surrendered to the mercy of the winner. Frederick ordered the officers to go home, and forced the soldiers to join his army. King Augustus III received permission to travel to Warsaw.

By the spring of 1757, Frederick increased the size of his army to 200 thousand people. Meanwhile, all his opponents combined could field about 500 thousand soldiers against him. But they acted uncoordinatedly, separately from each other on a broad front. By quickly moving troops from one place to another and delivering swift attacks, Frederick hoped to successfully confront all coalition forces. First of all, he moved against Austria and approached Prague in May. The Austrians, led by the Prince of Lorraine, awaited them in an excellent position. Their left wing rested on Mount Zishki and was protected by the fortifications of Prague; the center was on a steep hill, at the foot of which lay a swamp; the right wing was occupied by a slope, fenced by the village of Shcherbogol. Intelligence informed the king that only from this side could he bypass the enemy and attack him on the flank, because here, between the lakes and dams, there were clearings sown with oats through which the army could easily get through. By order of Frederick, Field Marshal Schwerin led his regiments around the indicated road. It soon became clear that the clearings sown with oats were nothing more than drained muddy ponds overgrown with grass. The soldiers were forced to make their way alone along narrow dams and paths. In other places, entire shelves were almost completely mired in muddy mud and could hardly get out of it. Almost all the guns had to be abandoned. At one o'clock in the afternoon, Schwerin, having overcome all difficulties, lined up his soldiers for the attack. The Austrians met the Prussians with heavy artillery fire. The first attack failed. Schwerin snatched the banner from the standard-junker, led the soldiers in a second attack, but was struck by grapeshot. General Fouquet took command after him. A shrapnel shattered his hand. Fouquet ordered the sword to be tied to the crushed hand and again led the soldiers to attack. This onslaught brought victory to the Prussians. Brovn, who commanded the right flank of the Austrians, was mortally wounded. The Austrian cavalry attack was repulsed, and Fouquet soon took possession of the enemy position. At the same time, the Prussian cavalry quickly attacked the left flank of the Austrians and, after a bloody battle, forced them to flee. Frederick himself, noticing that a gap had formed in the middle of the Austrian army, wedged himself into it with his regiments and cut the enemy army into two parts. Pressed from all sides, the enemy began to retreat in disorder along the entire front. Up to 40 thousand people managed to take refuge in Prague, the rest were driven until nightfall. This brilliant victory cost Frederick 16 thousand killed and wounded.

Meanwhile, France, Russia and Sweden entered the war. Leaving the Duke of Bevern in his place in Silesia and the Czech Republic, the king with part of his forces set out to meet the French on the banks of the Sala. After his departure, the Duke of Bevern had an unsuccessful battle with Charles of Lorraine and retreated to Silesia. The Czech Republic was completely cleared of Prussian troops. Things were also not going well in the west. In the absence of Frederick, the French were confronted by an army recruited from Hanoverians, Hessians and Brunswickers, under the command of the English prince Duke of Cumberland. On July 26, at the Battle of Gastenbeck, she was defeated by the French Marshal d'Este. On September 8, the Duke signed peace with the winner and disbanded his army. The French immediately occupied Wesel and Brunswick and invaded the Prussian provinces along the Elbe. The entire Hanover region and Hesse too was in their hands. The Russian army under the command of Apraksin invaded East Prussia, and the Swedes landed at Stralsund and began to devastate Pomerania. Frederick had to split his forces into pieces to counter each advancing enemy. In East Prussia, on August 30, General Lewald dealt with Apraksin at Gross-Jägersdorf. The Prussians were defeated, but Apraksin did not take advantage of the victory and hastily retreated. Lewald moved to Pomerania and with his very appearance instilled fear in the Swedes - they fled from the occupied cities, surrendering them without any resistance. But so far the Prussian troops were successful acted on the borders, the capital remained unprotected.In mid-October, a small Austrian corps under the command of General Gaddick approached Berlin. The Austrians plundered all the suburbs. Gaddik demanded an indemnity of 200 thousand thalers from the magistrate and safely retreated to the main forces.

Frederick himself tried to stop the advance of Duke Richelieu, who replaced Marshal d'Este. In mid-October, news arrived that the second French army under the command of Prince Soubise had penetrated Saxony and reached almost Leipzig. Hastily gathering 20 thousand soldiers, the king hastened against him. November 5 a decisive battle took place near Rosbach. Having significantly fewer forces, Frederick first took a wait-and-see position in his camp. For some time he watched the ponderous maneuvers of the French, who tried to encircle his army from all sides, and, having waited for an opportune moment when their formation was broken, abandoned attacked their cavalry under the command of the young brave General Seydlitz. With a rapid onslaught, the Prussians threw the enemy into confusion. Then the infantry arrived, struck with bayonets and completed the rout. Endurance, calculation and a lightning attack brought Frederick victory in just two hours. Soubise lost killed and captured before 17 thousand people, while the Prussian losses were negligible.

This success inspired courage in Frederick's allies. The English king refused to fulfill the agreement concluded by the Duke of Cumberland. The troops he had disbanded were reassembled and placed under the command of the Prussian field marshal, the Duke of Brunswick. Frederick, however, could not rest on his laurels for long - the Austrians had already penetrated Silesia, captured the important fortress of Schweidnitz, inflicted a new defeat on the Prince of Bevern (who was captured) and took Breslau. The king announced that he would not allow the Austrians to winter peacefully in Silesia. On December 5, near the village of Leuthen, he gave battle to the Prince of Lorraine. First, the king ordered an attack on the enemy’s right flank, and when the prince transferred his reserves there, he struck at the left flank. Having mixed it up, the Prussians began to press the center and soon captured the village of Leuthen, which was located at a commanding height. From here the Prussian batteries rained down fierce fire on the retreating Austrians. The rout was completed by a frantic cavalry attack. The generals congratulated the king on the brilliant victory, but Frederick replied that it was important to take advantage of the success and not allow the enemy to come to his senses. Together with the volunteers, he moved at night after the retreating enemy and at dawn captured Lissa, the bridge over the Schweidnitz River and many more prisoners. In total, the Austrians lost 6 thousand killed, 21 thousand prisoners and all artillery in the Battle of Leuthen. Frederick's losses amounted to 5 thousand people. He besieged Breslau and took it two weeks later. Here another 18 thousand Austrians surrendered.

In February 1758, the Duke of Brunswick went on the offensive against the French, drove them out of Hanover and forced them to retreat all the way to the Rhine. Louis XV recalled Richelieu and gave command to the Count of Clermont. In June, the Duke of Brunswick crossed the Rhine and inflicted a strong defeat on the French at Krefeld. After this, Dusseldorf, where the main French stores were located, capitulated. But at the same time, the Russian army, led by General Farmer, occupied East Prussia for the second time. Koenigsberg and Pilau surrendered without a fight. Frederick was bitter to hear about this, but he decided not to leave Silesia until he had finished with the Austrians. In mid-April he stormed Schweidnitz, then invaded Moravia and blockaded Olmütz. However, without gunpowder and cannonballs, he could not wage an effective siege, and a large Prussian transport with fire supplies was intercepted by the Austrians. In July, Frederick lifted the siege and retreated to Silesia. He left the war against the Austrians to the Margrave of Brandenburg, and he himself hurried to East Prussia.

The situation here was very difficult. In August, the Russians, under the command of Farmer, entered Pomerania and besieged Küstrin, where large army stores were located. Upon learning of the king's approach, the Farmer hastened to take a good position near the village of Zorndorf. Here on August 13 a decisive battle took place. It began in the morning with heavy artillery fire. The Prussian infantry then went on the attack without waiting for the cavalry. The farmer noticed this mistake and ordered his cavalry to charge at the attackers. The Prussians were overwhelmed and fled. However, the passage of the cavalry left a large gap in the Russian formation. General Seydlitz took advantage of this, striking the Russian cavalry on the flank. He overthrew it, and then with his dragoons and hussars burst into the ranks of the infantry. At this time, the Prussian infantry managed to form up again and came to his aid. A brutal massacre began. The right wing of the Russian army was soon completely defeated, but the center and left flank continued to hold out. Frederick ordered to move the batteries and disperse the enemy formation with grapeshot. The Russian cavalry attacked the batteries, but then the same thing that happened before on the right flank was repeated: Seydlitz's cavalry mixed up the Russian cavalry and, after it, cut into the infantry formation. The grenadier attack supported the success of the dragoons. A brutal hand-to-hand fight began. Neither side was willing to retreat. Only darkness put an end to the battle. Both Farmer and Friedrich considered themselves winners. The troops remained under arms all night. It seemed that in the morning the battle would begin with renewed vigor, but the terrible fatigue of the soldiers and the lack of ammunition made it impossible. After standing on the battlefield for two days, the Russians retreated to Poland for winter quarters. Frederick lost up to 13 thousand soldiers in this battle, Farmer - about 19 thousand.

Meanwhile, in Frederick's absence, the Austrians entered Saxony and began to threaten Dresden. In September, the king gathered the main forces against them. He was eager to give a general battle, but General Down took a strong position and did not want to accept the battle. Then Frederick moved towards the Austrian stores in Lausation. Realizing the danger that threatened him, Daun hastily moved away, followed the Prussian army and on October 10 blocked Frederick’s path near the village of Gochkirch. A master of defensive warfare, he, as always, chose an excellent position: his army stood on the hills and could keep all the lowlands under fire. For three days Frederick stood in front of these positions and finally decided to retreat. But he did not have time to carry out his intention - on the night of October 13-14, Daun quietly raised his soldiers and secretly moved towards the Prussians. He ordered part of the troops to bypass the Prussian camp and attack it from the rear. At five in the morning the attack began, which turned out to be a complete surprise for the king. Only excellent discipline helped the Prussians withstand this brutal blow. A stubborn battle began everywhere, in which Frederick’s best commanders fell: Field Marshal Keith and Prince Moritz of Dessau. As daylight came, Frederick began to withdraw his regiments from the battle and retreated. In this battle he lost 9 thousand people, however, Daun did not achieve a decisive victory - Saxony remained in the hands of the Prussians.

Despite a number of brilliant successes, the position of Prussia became more and more difficult year by year: numerous enemies began to overcome it. In 1759, the king had to abandon offensive actions and tried only to repel attacks. The beginning of this campaign was unsuccessful for him. The French captured Frankfurt and established communications with the Austrian army. In April, the Duke of Brunswick was defeated by them at Bergen and retreated to the Weser. In the summer, he took revenge at Minden and stopped the enemy’s advance. Frederick himself began the year by destroying Russian stores in Poland, destroying a three-month supply of food for fifty thousand people. At the same time, his brother, Prince Henry, destroyed all Austrian stores in the Czech Republic. The king remained in front of the Austrian army and guarded every movement. He sent General Wedell against the Russians. The new Russian commander-in-chief Saltykov defeated him completely at Palzig, marched to Crossen and here united with Laudon’s 18,000-strong corps. The news of this shocked Frederick. He handed over the command of the Saxon army to his brother Henry, and he himself, with 40 thousand, moved towards the enemy. On August 1, a battle took place near the village of Kunersdorf. In the morning, the Prussians attacked Saltykov’s left flank and completely upset him, capturing more than a hundred guns and several thousand prisoners. The king was triumphant. He no longer doubted his final success and even sent messengers to Berlin with the joyful news of victory. But to complete the success, he had to support the initial success with a cavalry charge and artillery fire. However, his cavalry, occupied on the right flank, did not arrive in time. The guns also arrived at the indicated positions very late. Taking advantage of this, Count Rumyantsev, who commanded the center of the Russian army, together with Laudon, struck the advancing Prussians on the flank and overthrew them. Even the brave Seydlitz could not improve the situation - his squadrons became upset and fled. After this, the outcome of the battle became doubtful. Frederick changed the direction of the main attack and ordered the capture of Mount Spitzberg, which dominated the area. It was perfectly fortified and defended by selected Russian and Austrian units. Several times the Prussians approached Spitsberg and rolled back with huge losses. Finally, under fierce Russian fire, they fled. Seeing that it was all over, Frederick, in complete despair, stopped in the most dangerous place of the battle, under fierce fire, and exclaimed: “Is there really not a single cannonball here for me! “Two horses were killed under him, his uniform was shot through in several places, and three adjutants fell near him. Finally, the cannonball hit his third horse in the chest. Frederick was almost forcibly taken away from under fire by several hussars. In the evening he wrote to his minister Finkenstein in Berlin: “Out of 40,000 people, I have only 3,000 left. I can no longer have an army. Think about the safety of Berlin. I will not survive my misfortune... Goodbye forever!

But very soon the king became convinced that his fear and despair were exaggerated. In the Battle of Kunersdorf he lost about 20 thousand people. A few days later, up to 18 thousand soldiers gathered around him. With them he crossed the Oder and began to prepare for the battle under the walls of Berlin. However, he waited in vain for the enemy - the victors did not take advantage of their victory. Having quarreled with Down, who was slow to attack and did not give the Russians provisions, Saltykov retreated to Poland in the fall. But while the king was guarding the Russians, the imperial army led by the Duke of Zweibrück captured all of Saxony, including Dresden and Leipzig. The autumn and most of the winter were spent fighting the Austrians. At the cost of enormous efforts, the king managed to oust them from many Saxon cities. At the same time, Frederick lost more people from frost than in the bloodiest of his battles.

In 1760, Frederick began to experience an urgent need for soldiers. He had to enlist all the prisoners into his troops. In addition, throughout Germany, about 60 thousand more recruits were captured through promises, deception and direct violence. To keep this motley crowd in obedience, the king established the most severe discipline in the troops. By the beginning of the campaign, Frederick had about 90 thousand soldiers under arms. In July, Frederick approached Dresden. But all attempts to recapture him ended in failure. The king only turned one of the most beautiful cities in Germany into ruins. Meanwhile, the Austrians were gaining victories in Silesia and captured Glatz. Frederick left Dresden and went against them. His old enemy Daun was preparing a trap for the king: he sent Loudon’s corps to the rear of the Prussian army and was preparing to hit it from two sides. Frederick guessed the trouble that threatened him, destroyed this plan with skillful maneuvers and defeated his opponents one by one. On August 14, at Liegnitz, the king met with Laudon. A stubborn battle ensued. Having repelled all the attacks of the Austrians, the Prussians themselves went on the offensive and drove them away with great damage. A few hours later Daun appeared, Frederick allowed part of his army to cross the Black River, suddenly attacked and defeated it. Upon learning of Loudon's defeat, Daun retreated behind Katzbach. In both battles, the Austrians lost about 10 thousand soldiers.

Having heard about the defeat of the allies, Saltykov moved to Silesia and besieged Kolberg. In the fall, Saltykov sent Chernyshev’s corps to Berlin, which on October 9 solemnly entered the Prussian capital. The Russians maintained exemplary order in the city, but demanded an indemnity of 2 million thalers from the population and destroyed all the weapons factories. Frederick hastily came to the rescue of Berlin. However, Chernyshev, without waiting for the king, left the city a week after its capture. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the retreat of the Prussian army, the Austrians and Imperials occupied all of Saxony. Frederick turned back and learned that Daun had stationed his army in the fortified Torgau camp. The king decided to knock him out of there, although he understood that this was an almost hopeless undertaking: the left wing of the Austrians was adjacent to the Elbe, the right was protected by the heights on which powerful batteries were located, and the front was covered by forests and swamps. The king divided the army into two parts and moved one, under the command of General Zieten, bypassing the Austrian positions, ordering it to launch an attack from the rear. He himself attacked Down from the front. When the Prussians emerged from the forest, they were met by fire from 200 Austrian guns. The hail of grapeshot was so strong that five Prussian battalions were killed before they could fire a single shot. Frederick dismounted from his horse and himself led the soldiers into the attack. The Prussians stormed the heights and captured the batteries. It seemed that victory was already on their side. But then a fierce attack by Austrian cuirassiers and dragoons forced the Prussians to retreat. New attack attempts were unsuccessful. Night fell and the fighting stopped. Frederick was unable to dislodge the enemy from his positions, and this was tantamount to defeat. However, the king stubbornly refused to believe in failure and announced that he would resume the battle in the morning. Meanwhile, Zieten went to the rear of the Austrians, and at night the battle resumed. At the glow of the fires, Zieten's soldiers went on the attack and captured the Siptitsa Heights. Down was wounded. General d'Onnel, who replaced him, gave the order to retreat. At dawn, the frustrated Austrian army left its impregnable positions and retreated beyond the Elbe.

In 1761, Frederick could barely muster an army of one hundred thousand. He sent his brother Henry with 32 thousand to Saxony against Daun, gave Prince Eugene of Württemberg 20 thousand and instructed him to defend Pomerania from the Russians, and he himself with the rest of the army went to Silesia and tried to prevent the union of the Russians with the Austrians. Despite all his efforts, the allies united at the end of August and now had 135 thousand against the 50 thousand royal army. Frederick retreated to Bunzelwitz and occupied a fortified camp here. To raise the morale of the army, the king was with his soldiers day and night, ate the same food with them and often slept by the bivouac fire. One day, after a stormy, rainy night spent in a soldier’s tent, the king said to General Zieten: “I have never had such a comfortable overnight stay.” “But there were puddles in your tent!” - Zieten objected. “That’s the convenience,” answered Frederick, “drinking and bathing were at my fingertips.” The Allies surrounded the Prussian camp on all sides, trying to stop the supply of food. Hunger and disease began. Fortunately for Frederick, the Russians and Austrians constantly quarreled among themselves and did not even think about active action. As soon as autumn began, they separated without doing anything. After the Russians left, the Austrian commander, Laudon, captured Schweidnitz with a surprise attack.

At the same time, Rumyantsev, operating in Pomerania, inflicted a strong defeat on the Prince of Württemberg and besieged Kolberg. On December 5, the city capitulated. But soon after this sad news, another news came - on January 5, Frederick’s implacable opponent, the Russian Empress Elizabeth, died. Peter III ascended the Russian throne, who never hid his ardent sympathies for Prussia and its king. As soon as he assumed power, he hastened to conclude a truce and ordered his regiments to immediately separate from the Austrians. Peace was concluded in April. The following month, Sweden followed Russia's example. Frederick had the opportunity to rally all his forces against the Austrians and assembled an army of 60,000. His first concern was to recapture Schweidnitz. After a two-month siege, the city surrendered on October 9. Silesia again became entirely Prussian. Twenty days later, Prince Henry defeated the Austrian and Imperial armies near Freiberg. In the fall, England and France made peace among themselves. Austria remained Frederick's last opponent. Maria Theresa was unable to continue the war and also agreed to negotiations.

On February 16, 1763, the Peace of Hubertsburg was signed, ending the Seven Years' War. All powers retained their pre-war borders. Silesia and the County of Glack remained with Prussia. Although the war did not bring Frederick any territorial gains, it brought him great fame throughout Europe. Even in France and Austria he had many enthusiastic supporters, who deservedly considered the Prussian king the best commander of his time.

The day after the signing of peace, upon the king’s arrival in Berlin, a prayer service and funeral service took place in the Charlottenburg court church. At the end of the service they began to look for the king and found him kneeling in the corner of the church. He dropped his head into his hands and cried.

Cathedral in Berlin, built under Frederick the Great

Post-war years

Frederick spent the last quarter century of his reign in peace. He had to work hard to establish order and prosperity in a kingdom disturbed by war. During the seven years of war, the population decreased by half a million people, many cities and villages lay in ruins. The king actively took up the restoration of the country. The devastated provinces received financial assistance, all the grain from army stores was distributed to the peasants, and the king ordered 35 thousand baggage horses to be given to them. To strengthen finances, the king in three years removed from circulation all the damaged coins that he was forced to issue during the war, and ordered them to be minted into full-fledged thalers. The population decline was partially replenished by attracting colonists from other lands.

Cities were rebuilt. Wanting to show all of Europe that Prussia was still rich, and therefore strong, Frederick spared no expense on construction. In Sanssouci, on his orders, they began the construction of a large palace. Taxes were collected from the provinces affected by the war: from Silesia - for six months, from Pomerania - for two years. In addition, significant sums were received from the treasury for the restoration of destroyed manufactories and factories. In an attempt to compensate for the budget deficit, Frederick introduced a duty on the import of luxury goods from abroad and gave the treasury the exclusive right to produce and trade tobacco and coffee.

At the same time, the king did not neglect the army. Maneuvers and exercises continued, to replenish the officer corps, the Berlin Cadet Corps was enlarged and two more were established: in Pomerania and East Prussia. All fortifications destroyed by the war were repaired, gun factories and foundries were in operation. Having recently cursed the war, the king, exhausted by it, continued to rely on the army as the only means of maintaining the power of the country.

In foreign relations, Frederick tried to maintain a friendly alliance with Russia, supported it in the war with Poland, but at the same time did not forget about his own interests. In 1772, he very cleverly raised the issue of the division of Poland, offering Catherine II to thus reward herself for the costs of the Turkish war. During the first partition he himself received West Prussia with the mouth of the Vistula.

Behind these worries, old age approached him. Frederick was never in good health. In old age, he began to suffer from attacks of gout and hemorrhoids. In recent years, dropsy has been added to them. In January 1786, when his military comrade General Zieten died, Friedrich said: “Our old Zieten, even in death, fulfilled his purpose as a general. In wartime he always led the vanguard - and in death he went forward. I commanded the main army - and I will follow him." His prediction came true a few months later.

Frederick the Great was not only an outstanding statesman, but also a bright, multi-talented personality. He was a polyglot. In addition to his native German language, the king spoke French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. I read in Latin, Greek and Ancient Greek, Hebrew. In addition to state and military activities, the king was heavily involved in literature: he wrote poetry, philosophical, political and historical works. They were published more than once. In the Berlin edition of 1846-57. (in 30 volumes) the first seven volumes include historical works, two - philosophical, six - poetry, twelve - correspondence, the last three - works of military content. In addition, the king had musical talent: he played the flute excellently and composed music (about 100 sonatas and 4 symphonies, and Friedrich’s flute concertos are still included in the repertoire of German chamber music ensembles along with the works of other composers of the 18th century).

Childhood and adolescence

Friedrich was born in Berlin in 1712 and received the name Karl-Friedrich at baptism. His father was King Frederick William I of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty, his mother was Sophia Dorothea of ​​Hanover, daughter of King George I of England. Frederick was the third and oldest (his two older brothers died in infancy) child in this large royal family, where a total of 14 were born. children. Although his father was not a fan of foreigners, he entrusted the crown prince to his old French Bonnet. In 1716 he took as his teacher the young officer Dugan de Gendin, whose father, one of the many Huguenots who settled in Brandenburg, was the secretary of the great elector. Under the influence of French educators, Friedrich developed a love for French literature and everything French from childhood. At the same time, two Prussian officers were assigned to young Frederick as uncles, who were supposed to give the crown prince a military education. The king gave these teachers and educators instructions: “The prince should be taught to be a good Christian. He must be a good and intelligent owner and abhor any kind of licentiousness, extravagance and gambling; Moreover, he should be taught that he will be nothing more than a despicable person if he fails to develop himself into a brave soldier.” In accordance with these instructions, Friedrich's daily routine was built. “In the morning there is prayer, then marching and book teaching; On Sunday, the crown prince walked to church at the head of his platoon.”
However, the prince’s upbringing was not so monotonous. King Frederick William I loved music, preferring Handel. He appointed the cathedral organist to teach Frederick the basic rules of organ playing and music theory.

Over time, a contrast began to emerge between the aspirations, tastes and mood of young Frederick and everything that especially characterized his father. Frederick William I was thrifty, and the crown prince showed a penchant for luxury. The king loved soldiers - his heir found the military rude. The king considered himself, first of all, a good Christian - his son was interested in all sciences, but did not study the Law of God well. Even then, the father began to doubt that his son would follow in his footsteps. “I would like to know,” he said one day, pointing to the boy, “what’s going on in that head. I know he doesn't think like me; there are scoundrels who instill in him feelings different from mine, and teach him to scold everything.” Then he turned to his son with advice not to think about trifles, but to “stick only to the real.” In 1727, the crown prince's educational years ended, but he continued to be kept under the strictest supervision, and the young man had to hide his aspirations even more.
Conflict with father
In 1728, the Prussian king and his son took a trip to Dresden. The court of Augustus II, one of the most brilliant in Europe, did not make any impression on Frederick William, but 16-year-old Frederick, who was honored like a real prince, was captivated by the luxury of court holidays. Here he had his first passion - Countess Anna Orzelskaya, the illegitimate daughter of Augustus II. After this, Berlin, where only parades and shows served as entertainment, seemed boring to Frederick. He wanted to transfer at least a part of Dresden’s carefree life to the northern capital. In 1730, together with Lieutenant Hans-Hermann von Katte, a charming and frivolous playmaker, Frederick planned to escape to England, to his mother’s Hanoverian relatives. But the escape undertaken by the young people during their journey with the king along the Rhine lands was unsuccessful. Frederick was detained and transported to the Küstrin fortress, where he was charged with treason, as he was planning to flee to England, hostile to Prussia.

The king sent the case of his son's desertion to a military court for consideration. Katte was put on trial along with the crown prince. Although the king showed anger and was even going to insist on capital punishment against the heir, Frederick was hardly in danger of losing his life. But for Katte the circumstances were deplorable, he was executed. Friedrich was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was later released from prison, but had to live in the Küstrin fortress. As a minor official of the local domain chamber, he was obliged to work on an equal basis with other employees, and in his free time from compulsory classes, study old cases stored in the archives, or conduct conversations with elders about the structure of the state, about administration, finance, court, but “ not about political affairs.”
Frederick's stay in Küstrin was a practical school for him, in which he became acquainted with the system of Prussian military and economic management. Already here, the future hero of two wars for the possession of Silesia learned from his conversations with Küstrin officials about Prussian trade, how important the Silesian province of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy was for it. As the Crown Prince became better acquainted with the economic management and military strength of Prussia, he became more and more imbued with respect for both his father and the Prussian system. Frederick wrote letters to his father from Küstrin, in which he sent economic reports about his trips and asked that he be allowed to become a soldier again. The king did not believe his sincerity for a long time, but in the end he was convinced that his heir would be a good master.
The imprisonment and exile lasted more than two years, after which Frederick was finally forgiven. It seemed to the king that the moment had come to think about the marriage of the heir. The Austrian party proposed Princess Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick-Bevern, niece of the Austrian Empress, as a bride, and on June 12, 1733, the marriage took place. This marriage turned out to be childless and unhappy for both spouses, who had very little affection for each other and remained barely acquainted people until the end of their lives. After the wedding, Frederick received from his father a regiment and the estate of Rheinsberg near the Mecklenburg border, where he could already dispose of his time at his own discretion.

During these years, Frederick began regular correspondence with Voltaire, who was 18 years older than the crown prince. This famous writer and theorist of the French Revolution willingly participated in correspondence with the heir to the Prussian throne, although he did not forget to mention in his memoirs that Frederick began it out of nothing to do, and he supported it only out of respect for the title of his correspondent. In 1750, already a king, Frederick invited Voltaire to his residence in Potsdam. However, the personal relationship between the king and the philosopher was not smooth. The king hoped to acquire a mentor and senior friend in Voltaire, who limited himself only to correcting the royal manuscripts. With his ironic statements about the king's friends and his poems, Voltaire made enemies for himself, and in 1753 he had to hastily leave Prussia.
During the two years spent under arrest, Friedrich parted with his youthful fantasies. The upbringing of Frederick William, against whom the prince so violently rebelled, nevertheless had a latent and strong influence on him. A king must be a soldier and a good master, this is what Frederick learned from his father’s instructions. He decided that if he became the king of his state, he would be one of the best kings in history. And he succeeded!

Frederick's success was predetermined by his writing of the political treatise Anti-Machiavelli, or The Trial of the Prince (1739). The treatise contains a refutation of the postulates put forward in the work of Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) “The Prince”. Practical Machiavellianism is based on the belief that kings have only rights and no duties. Frederick argues that a ruler is primarily obligated to promote the well-being and prosperity of his subjects. According to Friedrich, Machiavelli attaches too much importance to intrigue, forgetting the harm they bring to the state, and extols great villains, while remaining silent about the negative aspects of their rule. Even the people of the enlightened eighteenth century were struck by Anti-Machiavelli with its humanism and nobility of ideas. The book went through three reprints and was distributed almost throughout Europe: in England, France, Spain. It became even more popular by the fact that in 1740 its author became king.
Territorial acquisitions

After the death of the king-father (May 31, 1740), 28-year-old Frederick received not just the crown of Prussia, but a strong army and a treasury not wasted on empty court entertainment. The crown prince's friends, who had hoped for the generosity of Frederick, whom they knew during the Rheinsberg years, were deceived in their hopes. The king manages his money extremely sparingly. He planned to use these funds to expand the borders of his state so that it could become on a par with the major European powers. Prussia, weak and striped, placed among strong monarchies, in an age when all sorts of divisions were being planned, needed mainly an army and money. Frederick immediately increased the army by 16 infantry battalions, 5 squadrons of hussars and a squadron of guards.

He made his first and most important acquisition already in the first year of his reign, starting the Silesian War. After the death of the Austrian Emperor Charles VI, leaving no male descendants, Frederick refused to recognize the Pragmatic Sanction issued by Charles VI himself, which allowed for the transfer of the imperial throne through the female line. Under the pretext of the old Hohenzollern rights to several Silesian counties, Frederick invaded and occupied Silesia in December 1740. In 1745, Frederick had to again defend Silesia and even Berlin (to which the Austro-Saxon troops were moving), which he did brilliantly. After this war, Prussia gained a lot in terms of territory and international prestige. The acquisition of populous and industrialized Silesia dramatically strengthened Prussia, giving it the status of a great European power and a dangerous rival to the Habsburg Monarchy. Then Frederick began to be called “Frederick the Great.” The second acquisition of Frederick II was West Prussia - the territory of Poland that divided Brandenburg with East Prussia. It was obtained peacefully in 1772, taking advantage of a diplomatic alliance with Russia. Three powers participated in the division of Poland: Russia, Prussia and Austria. At the same time, the undoubted benefit of Prussia was that the Polish lands annexed to it destroyed the striped stripes of its possessions. Possession of the mouth of the Vistula made Frederick the master of Polish trade.
The importance of Prussia and its monarch was especially enhanced by the struggle of Frederick II with the powerful European coalition during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). Empress Maria Theresa of Austria planned to return Silesia and prevent further intrigues of Prussia by depriving Frederick of his royal rank and part of his lands. Austria was joined by Russia, Saxony and France, and then Sweden. In 1755, a secret treaty was concluded in Vienna, according to which the participating countries pledged to attack Frederick if he opened military action against any of them. The agreement also included a clause on the subsequent division of Prussian lands. Through his spies, Frederick knew about the preparations for war and hastened to prevent the first strike.

By the beginning of the winter of 1756-1757, the Prussian army numbered 200 thousand people, the allied armies - 500 thousand. The only hope for success in this case was to quickly attack opponents and not allow them to unite, to defeat them one by one. His forces weakened with each campaign, but his opponents also suffered losses and were almost ruined by the war. Hostilities continued until 1762; their end was brought closer by the death of the Russian Empress Elizabeth, who was succeeded by Peter III. He bowed to Frederick and immediately made peace with Prussia. Provinces and cities were returned to Frederick. He had one strong opponent left - Austria. But a further war seemed to Maria Theresa to be too expensive a pleasure given the deplorable state in which the country’s economy was. On February 16, 1762, a peace was signed between Austria, Prussia and Saxony, according to which all powers remained within the borders until the Seven Years' War. Silesia was again recognized as the property of Frederick.
The Seven Years' War is over. She made Frederick a hero, turned him into a living legend, but also aged him prematurely. He was only 50 years old when he wrote to his friend, the writer D'Arzhans: “As an old man, from whom every day takes a year of life, an invalid, wounded by gout, I return to a city in which I know only the walls. There is no more close to my heart. Not old friends will meet me at the threshold, but the new wounds of my people and countless worries about their healing." The next day after the king's arrival in Berlin, a prayer service and funeral service took place in the Charlottenburg court church. At the end of the service, they began to look for the king and found him kneeling in the corner of the church, his head in his hands, crying.
Frederick II was a real hero of these wars, both militarily and politically. He personally took part in all military campaigns. The most brilliant victories in these wars were won by the Prussian king, who also suffered many terrible defeats in the fight against the coalition. In all his wars, Frederick, completely in accordance with his basic principle, always knew how to keep all his military preparations in the deepest secrecy and took his enemies by surprise. In general, in terms of military cunning, Frederick II is most often compared to Hannibal: his resourcefulness in the most desperate cases was amazing.
Although these wars had a pan-European character, since all the main states of Europe took part in them, in different combinations, they nevertheless had the greatest significance for Prussia. Along with Russia, Austria, France and England, Prussia had finally established itself as the fifth European great power. The British statesman Robert Walpole had to admit that the balance of Europe was in the hands of the Prussian king and that this could not be changed, no matter how unpleasant it might be for England.

Internal reforms

Having come to power, Frederick first began to rebuild Prussia on the principles of the Enlightenment, inviting the German encyclopedist, philosopher and lawyer Christian von Wolf to his court. Frederick outlined the program of transformation in his “Political Testament” as follows: “A well-functioning government must represent a system as firmly connected as the system of concepts in philosophy. All his decisions should be well justified; economic, foreign and military policies must contribute to a single goal - consolidating the power of the state and increasing its power." For such a rational approach, Frederick received the nickname of the philosopher king.
Less than a month after the accession of Frederick II to the throne, torture disappeared from Prussian criminal proceedings, the death penalty was limited and justice was improved. Then some restrictions on marriage were abolished, the property rights of subjects were guaranteed, and religious tolerance was introduced. Under him, for the first time, it became possible to legislate for freedom of the press on German soil. Censorship was limited to three articles: it was impossible to write against God, against the sacraments of the Christian Church and against the honor of the people.

In 1749, a new set of laws, Corpus juris Fridericianum, came into force. This legal act collected all the current laws of Prussia, supplemented by new, relevant norms. In 1781, Frederick, together with leading Prussian lawyers, developed new laws: “General Civil Law” and “General Procedure of Legal Proceedings.” estates. “One law for all” was the principle that guided Frederick. The king stood for complete independence of the court from the administration and found that judges “should not pay attention to rescripts, even if they came from the royal office.” The reformed courts were imbued with this idea, and Prussian justice rightly began to be considered exemplary in the independence and integrity of judges.
Frederick especially developed his government activities in the field of state and national economy. He had his own economic theory. It boiled down to keeping gold and silver in the country, patronizing the development of industry in Prussia itself, but at the same time protecting and improving agriculture. The Oder marshes were drained and dams were built in the coastal floodlands of East Friesland. This increased the area of ​​arable land, and 300 thousand colonists found a new homeland here. In agriculture, he introduced new crops such as potatoes. Later, potatoes from Germany were brought to Russia. Many navigable rivers were connected by canals, which made the transportation of Prussian goods easier and significantly cheaper. Two trading companies were founded - Asian and Bengal.

Serious measures were also taken to spread education. In 1763, a decree on rural schools (General-Land-Schul-Reglement) was issued, the introduction to which speaks of the ignorance of villagers as a great evil, and the need to educate the masses. A commentary on this regulation could be some passages in the writings of Frederick himself, indicating how correctly he judged the meaning of “education of youth” from the point of view of the common good. The regulations of 1763 made it compulsory for village children to attend primary school. Parents, guardians and landowners were to be held accountable for failure to comply with this rule.

Frederick the Great promoted the development of science, art and culture. One of the first state decrees after his ascension to the throne was the decree on the establishment of the Royal Opera in Berlin. The king united the best musicians and bandmasters of Prussia at his court. One of his court musicians was Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, the second son of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1747, he invited Johann Sebastian Bach to visit him in Potsdam. In 1744, Frederick, on the basis of the Berlin Scientific Society, created the Berlin Academy of Sciences, where he invited the best scientists from all over Europe, and a year later he opened the first public library in Berlin. Berlin became the center of the Enlightenment. Frederick the Great continued the architectural modernization of the city begun by his father under the leadership of the architect Knobelsdorff.

But Frederick II chose Potsdam, not Berlin, as his permanent residence. Here in 1747 he laid the foundation of the Sans Souci palace and park complex, which became world famous. Based on his sketches, architect Georg Wenceslaus von Knobelsdorff created a project for the future park with its famous palaces and buildings. The one-story Sanssouci Palace served as a place where Frederick, enjoying the beautiful views from the windows of the palace, was engaged in government affairs, wrote books or played music. “When I’m there, I’ll live without worries,” he once told his friend as he moved into his summer residence. That’s what he called his beloved palace: “sans souci” - “without worries.” In Sanssouci, Frederick created an intellectual center, inviting there the intellectual elite of the state: scientists, writers, philosophers, with whom he loved to talk. In the period from 1755 to 1764, according to the design of Johann Gottfried Bühring, an art gallery was built - the first building in the history of museums intended only for storing paintings. Friedrich was personally involved in replenishing her collections.

During the reign of Frederick II and after him, under Frederick Wilhelm IV, outstanding masters were attracted to work in Sanssouci: architects Knobelsdorff, Schinkel and Perzius, sculptors Glume, Ebenhech, Benkert and Heimuller, the Hoppenhaupt brothers, the creator of Lenne parks and many others. They created here a single work of art, which with its artistic perfection is an example of high German culture. In 1990, Sans Souci, with its palaces and large park, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
last years of life
The last important act of the Prussian king was the creation in 1785 of a defensive alliance of German princes (Fürstenbund) in response to a new attempt by Joseph II to annex Bavaria. This was a major diplomatic victory not only over Austria, which was opposed by the Prussian Union (a union of states in which two different states have a common monarch), but also over the mistrust of the imperial princes. Although the union did not matter at that time, nevertheless, the first experience of unifying Germany under Prussian hegemony was made, which laid the foundation for a completely new system in the empire. Germany was finally freed from serving Habsburg interests, and the Hohenzollerns, on the contrary, became representatives of the national aspirations of the German people. All subsequent policies of Frederick II supported the idea that the main exponent and defender of German national interests was Prussia. It is not without reason that Mirabeau, in his essay “On the Prussian Monarchy,” advises the Germans to stick to this state.

At the same time, Frederick continued to actively govern Prussia. Here his autocratic character found excellent use. The king rarely listened to anyone's advice, but there was no sovereign who knew his subjects better than he. He ruled his country like a large estate. He was given daily reports on the number of births and deaths, crops and buildings. He knew how much cloth and linen was sold abroad, what was produced in one province or another, and what income each factory or manufactory brought in.

His daily routine, which has not changed throughout his life, surprises with the effort required to carry it out. The king rose at five o'clock in the summer and at six in the winter and immediately got down to business, having time to read correspondence and sketch out draft replies. “At about eleven o’clock the king reviewed his guards regiment in the garden, and at the same hour in all the provinces the regimental commanders reviewed their regiments.” Before lunch, Frederick had time to listen to the reports of the ministers and discuss military affairs with the generals. After lunch, audiences are given. The king then spends several hours in literary studies. Before dinner there was a small concert. The king himself played in the orchestra music of his own composition or the work of Quantz, the director of his court chapel.
Having buried all his friends and military generals, he became withdrawn and sad. For the most part, the king lived alone, surrounded in the empty palace of Sans Souci by dogs, horses and soldiers. The following phrase is attributed to him: “I have long become the history of myself.” During the 46 years of his reign, Frederick was constantly worried about the topic of death. In addition to his “Political Testament” of 1752, he drew up detailed wills before almost every battle, before every war. Just as often, he repeated his instructions regarding burial: “I lived like a philosopher and I want to be buried like a philosopher, without pomp, without solemn pomp, without luxury. I don't want to be cut open and embalmed. Let me be buried at Sans Souci on a terraced hill in a tomb that I ordered built for myself. If I die in war or on the road, then let me be buried in the nearest suitable place, and in the winter transferred to Sans Souci.” The king died on the night of August 16-17, 1786 in the Sans Souci Palace. At the moment of his death, the clock in the bedroom stopped. Subsequently, this watch ended up with Napoleon Bonaparte. It was them that he took with him to the island of St. Helena.

The king left his nephew, the heir to the Prussian crown, Frederick William II, a rich treasury for that time (70 million thalers) and an army of 200 thousand people, which was considered exemplary. During the reign of Frederick the Great, Prussia expanded territorially. At his accession to the throne he had 2,240,000 subjects, in the year of his death - more than 6 million. He fully deserves to be called Great for his statesman's intelligence and strong character, for his self-control during military operations, for comprehending his royal life task and, finally, for his unshakable steadfastness under the heavy blows of fate.

Svetlana Pankratz

Title: King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786

Domestic and foreign policy of Frederick II

In domestic politics, Frederick II wanted to show that he was not devoid of liberal ideas and was close to the French enlighteners (in particular, Voltaire). Therefore, he abolished torture, simplified legal proceedings, and expanded primary education. To attract settlers to Prussia, Frederick more than once declared his religious tolerance. However, behind many of his progressive steps, completely different intentions were hidden. For example, posing as a supporter of free thought, the Prussian king in fact introduced the strictest censorship. Nevertheless, he managed to create the image of an enlightened monarch, and he went down in history as Frederick II the Great.

Frederick considered his main business to be military campaigns, in which he showed himself to be an outstanding commander and wise strategist. Prussia managed to capture most of the economically developed Silesia from Austria (1740-1745). In 1756, he unleashed the Seven Years' War, during which he repeatedly defeated Austrian and French troops. But as a result of the first partition of Poland, which Frederick stubbornly sought, Prussia managed to annex Polish lands along the lower Vistula.

Frederick 2: character traits and hobbies

Frederick was a polyglot; in addition to his native German, the king spoke French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian; read in Latin, Greek and Ancient Greek. In everyday life he loved simplicity, order, moderation, and was thrifty to the point of stinginess. I got up early (no later than 6 am). Since childhood I loved music. Every evening he set aside one hour for playing the flute. In his free time, he wrote books. In communication he was sometimes too sarcastic. He was also an avid dog owner.

During the war, Frederick was brave and never lost heart. He personally led his soldiers into the attack. Frederick made decisions with lightning speed and implemented them just as quickly, which often gave him an advantage over his opponents, who were forced to coordinate their actions for a long time with the governments of their monarchs.

Results of the reign of Frederick II

Frederick II became famous for his love of military uniform. He created one of the most powerful armies in Western Europe, it numbered about 200 thousand people (a huge figure at that time), and huge amounts of money were spent on its maintenance. The army of Frederick II is, first of all, blind obedience, mechanical execution of orders and discipline with the stick. Prussia under Frederick turned into a military camp, peasants and townspeople worked for the army, into which the urban male population and peasant recruits were forcibly driven. But only nobles could be officers.

Frederick 2 carried out reforms that strengthened the Prussian army, industry and education of the country. He fought protracted wars with Austria (1740-1742, 1744-1745, 1756-1763) for Silesia; received it as a result of the Seven Years' War. As a result of the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772), Polish Prussia (West Prussia) was annexed to the kingdom, thus uniting all of historical Prussia. Changed his title "King in Prussia" to "King of Prussia" (1772). Defended Bavaria from absorption by Austria during the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-1779). He supported the Enlightenment, was one of the representatives of enlightened absolutism, and called himself “the first servant of the state.”

He acted as a patron of the sciences and arts, encouraged German emigration to Prussia, proclaimed freedom of religion, prohibited torture, and allowed people from the common people to participate in public administration, legal proceedings and education. Built the Sansouci Palace (1747).

In German traditional historiography of the 19th-20th centuries, he is portrayed as a national hero of Germany, an outstanding strategist, a wise and effective ruler. Nicknames: Frederick the Great (for transforming Prussia into a great European power), “Old Fritz” (for his long reign among the Prussian kings), “Potato King” (for planting potatoes).

- King of Prussia (1740-1786), one of the most prominent figures in the history of the 18th century, famous as a sovereign and writer, as a commander and diplomat, to whom Prussia owes its rise to the level of a great power and who played a leading role in the international politics of his time ("age of Frederick the Great").

Frederick II before the beginning of his reign.

Frederick II, son of Frederick William I and Sophia Dorothea, Princess of Hanover, b. January 24, 1712 In childhood and early youth he had to go through a very harsh school under the rule of his narrow-minded and uneducated father, who dealt very harshly with members of his family. Even then, the father began to doubt that his son would follow in his footsteps. “I would like to know,” he said one day, pointing to the boy, “what’s going on in that head. I know that he doesn’t think like me; there are scoundrels who instill in him feelings different from mine, and they teach him everything scold". Then he turned to his son with advice not to think about trifles, but to “stick only to the real,” that is, “to have a good army and a lot of money, for in them is both the glory and security of the sovereign,” and he concluded this advice with affection that passed into slaps. Although Frederick William I was not a fan of foreigners, he entrusted the crown prince to his old French Bonnet, and then took as his “informant” the young officer Duhan de Jandun, whose father was one of the many Huguenots , settled in Brandenburg, was the secretary of the great elector. The king liked this officer for his courage during the siege of Stralsund, but Frederick William did not suspect that his son’s future mentor was a man of great and varied education. Next to him were placed as uncles two real Prussian officers, Count von Finckenstein and Major von Kalkstein, who were supposed to give the crown prince a military education. Thus, Frederick grew up under the dual influence of French education and Prussian militarism. These educators and teachers were given instructions by the king: no need for Latin; teach in German and French; go through ancient history lightly, but study in the most detailed way the history of the last hundred and fifty years, and especially the history of Brandenburg, with indications of what was done well and what was done poorly; mathematics is needed most of all for fortification; the main thing is to instill in the prince the idea that the soldier’s craft is the only path to glory. Fritz was introduced to the study of military affairs by playing toy soldiers; a company of 131 boys was already organized for the six-year-old crown prince. Frederick developed very early, and Dugan also deviated from the royal instructions, instilling in his pet a taste for mental pursuits. Just reading Telemachus gave Dugan constant reasons to talk to his student about the ancients, and then the student himself began to read the classics in French translation. He did this furtively, getting up at night, and thus became accustomed to violating his father's will. Soon the contrast between his aspirations, tastes and mood and everything that especially characterized his father began to be revealed more and more. Frederick William I was stingy to the point of stinginess, and the crown prince showed a penchant for luxury; the king loved soldiers - his heir found the military rude and funny; The king considered himself, first of all, a good Christian - his son was interested in all sciences, but did not study the Law of God well. Friedrich's mother and older sister armed him against his father. Queen Sophia Dorothea did not share the same tastes with her husband, and Princess Wilhelmina, connected with her brother by the closest bonds of friendship, was even especially guilty of aggravating relations between Frederick and their father. In 1727, the crown prince's educational years ended, but he continued to be kept under the strictest supervision, and the young man had to hide his aspirations even more. He got himself a large library, but kept it in a rented apartment not far from the palace, only sneaking a peek into his book depository, which included Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” More’s “Utopia,” Bodin’s “Republic,” and Abbe de’s “Perpetual Peace.” S.-Pierre. A trip in 1728 to Dresden, to the most brilliant court of then Germany, where 16-year-old Frederick was honored as a real prince, especially made him feel the gravity of his position. The following year, he decided to achieve freedom from heavy domestic oppression by fleeing to England, to the Hanoverian relatives of his mother. Two young men in Prussian service, Keith and Katte, were privy to this plan, which was to be carried out at the first opportunity. In 1730, the king undertook a trip to his Rhine possessions, taking Frederick with him; the latter decided to take advantage of this circumstance to escape. Keith's brother, a page, revealed the plot to the king, and Frederick was detained. The young “prisoner” discovered in this whole story remarkable restraint and composure with no less remarkable resourcefulness. He resorted to tricks to soften his fate and get his accomplices out of the case. Returning to Berlin, Friedrich Wilhelm ordered the most stringent investigation into his son's case to begin. To the question points presented by the judges to the “prisoner,” the king added several more of his own, which dealt with whether a deserter could inherit the throne and whether Frederick would prefer to save his life by renouncing his inheritance rights. Committing himself to the mercy of the king, and not considering himself entitled to be a judge in his own case, the crown prince declared with great dignity that he did not recognize himself as a man who had violated the duty of honor; he does not value life, although he does not think that His Majesty will reach the final limits of severity; in conclusion he asked for forgiveness. The king was irritated by the coldness of his son's answers and ordered him to be subjected to the most severe imprisonment. He suspected the crown prince of criminal relations with foreigners, of high treason, even of conspiracy against the life of the king. There were rumors that Frederick would be executed. Foreign governments interceded with the Prussian king on behalf of his son (Frederick's rescue from death by Maria Theresa's father must be classified as a historical legend). At one time, Frederick William I apparently intended to deprive the Crown Prince of the right to inherit the throne. The king sent the case of his son’s “desertion” to a military court for consideration. Together with the crown prince, Katte, who did not have time to escape, was put on trial. The judges decided to subject the crown prince to the fate of the highest and fatherly mercy of the king, to imprison Katte for eternity in the fortress, and to execute the escaped Keith in effigie. Frederick William I was dissatisfied with the sentence and changed what he did not like in it: life imprisonment in the fortress was replaced by the death penalty for Katte - in front of the window to which, by order of the king, the captive crown prince was brought; Frederick himself, however, was granted life, but he still had to endure a number of tests before receiving a full pardon. It began with pastoral exhortations that were supposed to turn the young man to the path of truth. He was later released from prison, but had to live in the Küstrin fortress. As a minor official of the local domain chamber, he, by order of the king, was obliged to work on an equal basis with other employees, and in his free time from compulsory classes - to study old cases stored in the archives, or to conduct conversations with elders about the word of God, about the structure of the state, about administration, finance, court, manufactures, but “not at all about war and peace and other political matters.” Frederick's stay in Küstrin was a practical school for him, in which he became acquainted with the system of Prussian military and economic management. He found experienced teachers here who managed to interest him in financial and commercial issues, as they connected them with the rise of Brandenburg. Already here, the future hero of two wars for the possession of Silesia learned from his conversations with Küstrin officials about Prussian trade how important the named province of the Habsburg monarchy was for the latter. He visited the royal domains in the vicinity of Küstrin and looked closely at how the economy was conducted in them. Friedrich wrote letters to his father from Küstrin, in which he sent economic reports about his trips and, starting to get very bored in the provincial outback, asked “not out of a desire to please, but from the bottom of his heart” to be allowed to become a soldier again. The king did not believe his sincerity for a long time, but in the end he was convinced that his heir would be a good master. He had to make another sacrifice to his father’s harsh disposition - to marry the latter’s chosen bride, the Princess of Brunswick-Bevern, and, however, he decided in advance not to commit himself to anything in his married life. After the wedding (1733), Frederick received from his father a regiment in Neu-Ruppin (near Berlin), and soon after that the Rheinsberg estate, near the Mecklenburg border, where he could already dispose of his time at his own discretion. The harsh school that Friedrich went through in his youth affected his character. When he came from Küstrin to Berlin for the wedding of his older sister, married to the Margrave of Bayreuth, he was barely recognized by those close to him. The Crown Prince learned a lot, but much of the same remained in him (a very interesting description of Frederick during his Küstrin life can be compiled on the basis of letters from Gille, who served with him in the same government office; this contemporary noted some features that subsequently characterized the great king : love of witty conversation, conceit, disdainful mockery, courage and harshness of judgment). Not all those who had the opportunity to observe the young crown prince, however, judged him correctly. Others thought that upon ascending the throne he would only indulge in serving the muses and pleasures, leaving government for the good of the people to the ministers, and that he would not become a warrior. However, as the crown prince became better acquainted with the economic management and military strength of Prussia, he became more and more imbued with respect for both his father and the Prussian system, which was reflected both in his letters to Voltaire and in those written by himself." Mémoires de Brandenbourg" (cf. Breda, "Fr. der Grosse, als Erbe der Regierungsmaximen Friedrich-Wilhelms I"). He managed to combine this commitment to the system inherited from his father with worship of the genius of Voltaire, with whom he entered into correspondence when he lived in Rheinsberg. Both, equally great ambitious, were, first of all, people of great intelligence, which dominated in them over all other mental abilities; both were keenly interested in the most important problems of knowledge, but both, in essence, remained skeptics, best of all noticing their negative side in all phenomena of life, and both did not think about radically breaking the existing order in the name of any abstract ideal. This similarity of characters with the same liberal views was the basis of that peculiar “friendship” that existed between Frederick and Voltaire. We can say that as a result of this, the spirit of enlightened absolutism was best embodied in Frederick (see). On May 31, 1740, Frederick William I died, and the “philosopher king” ascended the throne, and immediately increased the army by 16 infantry battalions, 5 squadrons of hussars and a squadron of guards. Less than a month had passed since the accession of Frederick II to the throne, torture disappeared from Prussian criminal proceedings, some restrictions on marriage were abolished, religious tolerance was introduced, allowing everyone to escape “auf seine Façon” and pointing to the state as such a force, which can force different religions to live in peace if they decide to quarrel. At the same time, Frederick II surrounded himself with educated and learned Frenchmen, with whom he loved to talk, began to patronize the Berlin Academy, returned the philosopher Wolf, expelled by Frederick William I for freethinking, to the department in Halle, did not persecute newspapers and did not abandon his previous studies in history and philosophy and poetry.

Foreign policy of Frederick II

In the first half of his reign, Frederick II waged two wars, first, in 1740-1748. “for the Austrian inheritance” (q.v.), then, in 1756-1763, seven years (q.v.), which glorified him as a top commander, increased Prussia by annexing Silesia and raised this state to the level of a first-class power and a dangerous rival of the Habsburg monarchy. Although these wars had a pan-European character, since all the main states of Europe took part in them, in different combinations, they nevertheless had the greatest significance for Prussia. The War of the Austrian Succession began with a Prussian attack on Silesia, which Frederick II planned to take from the House of Habsburg; the seven-year war was again started by Frederick, against whom a formidable European coalition was formed, which set itself the task of fragmenting Prussia; the most brilliant victories in these wars were won by the Prussian king, who also suffered many terrible defeats in the fight against the coalition; in a word, Frederick II was a real hero of these wars, both militarily and politically. Already Walpole had to admit that the balance of Europe is in the hands of the Prussian king and that this cannot be changed, no matter how unpleasant it may be for England. The importance of Prussia and its monarch was especially enhanced by the struggle of Frederick II with the European coalition during the Seven Years' War. In the second half of his reign, Frederick II mainly used the fruits of his military and political successes in order to further strengthen his monarchy through diplomacy. The two main parts of the latter - Brandenburg and Prussia - were separated from one another by Polish lands, which were easy prey given the then shattered state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The only thing that saved Poland from partitions was the rivalry of its neighbors and, by the way, the fact that since Peter the Great the task of Russian politics became to preserve the territorial integrity of Poland under the condition of political domination in it by Russia alone. This was unfavorable for Prussia, whose vital interests, on the contrary, required that the interstriped network of its two main parts be destroyed by separating the lower reaches of the Vistula from Poland. The first Polish partition (1772), which gave this region to Prussia (except for Danzig and Thorn) and thus further increased its territory, was a real diplomatic victory for Frederick over Catherine II, who had long resisted the combination invented by the Prussian king (see Poland). By the way, Austria was rewarded for the loss of Silesia by acquiring Galicia, which was also of course not without benefit for Prussia, and Russia was rewarded for its victories over the Turks, which alarmed Austria and prepared a clash between two empires, which could be dangerous for the Prussian monarchy. The last important work of the Prussian king was the organization of the so-called league of princes (Fürstenbund) in Germany. At this time, the future absorption of individual principalities of Germany by Austria or Prussia was already outlined and the parties of the Caesarians (Austrian) and Confederates (Prussian) were formed, the predecessors of the Great German and Little German parties of the mid-19th century. Frederick II and the German princes did not sympathize with each other. The Prussian king treated them mockingly, and they hated him, as a “traitor”, the Machiavelli of his time, etc. But when Joseph II drew up a plan to exchange Belgium for Bavaria - which almost led to the start of an all-German war (see . War of the Bavarian Succession), - Frederick II turned into a defender of German freedom (deutsche Libertät) from the strengthening of imperial power, i.e., into a defender of the structure that was given to Germany by the Peace of Westphalia. Then Frederick managed to form the famous “union of princes” (1785). This was a major diplomatic victory not only over Austria, which was opposed by the Prussian Union, but also over the mistrust of the imperial princes. Although for that time the union did not matter, and could not be strong, except that it was necessary, in the words of its organizer, “to put on one hat for so many heads,” nevertheless, the first experience of unifying Germany under Prussian hegemony was made, which laid the basis for a completely new system in the empire. Germany was finally freed from serving Habsburg interests, and the Hohenzollerns, on the contrary, became representatives of the national aspirations of the German people. Already the victory of Frederick II in 1757 over the French at Rosbach (see the corresponding article), which washed away from the Germans the shame of previous constant defeats by their western neighbor, made the Prussian king a national hero of Germany; his entire subsequent German policy only supported the idea that the main exponent and defender of German national interests was Prussia. It is not without reason that Mirabeau, in his essay “De la monarchie prussienne,” advises the Germans to stick to this state. Other facts in the history of Frederick II's foreign policy include the acquisition of East Frisia in 1744 (by inheritance) and the king's sympathetic attitude toward the North American uprising. The political activity of Frederick II, aimed at the external strengthening of Prussia, could not but be reflected in the nature of his internal policy: in the creation of a new great power, external goals and interests prevailed, in relation to which everything else had to play the role of means. Prussia, weak and striped, placed among strong monarchies, in an age when all sorts of divisions were being planned, needed mainly an army and money. The military-economic administration created by the predecessors of Frederick II could not have been more consistent with this need for troops and finances, and all he could do was maintain and improve the previous system. During the reign of Frederick, Prussia increased from 120,583 square meters. km up to 193546 sq. km. At his accession to the throne he had 2,240,000 subjects, in the year of his death more than 6 million. Dying (August 17, 1786), Frederick II left his nephew, Frederick William II, a rich treasury for that time (70 million thalers) and an army of 200 thousand people, which was considered exemplary.

Internal activities of Frederick II

Frederick II was a representative, and even the founder, of “enlightened absolutism,” but this does not mean that his domestic policy was particularly innovative. Achieving the main goal that Frederick II set for himself - to create a powerful power - required a lot of sacrifices on the part of society and the people. Very often, newly emerging needs and aspirations could not be satisfied precisely for the reason that it was in the interests of the state to preserve the old relations, no matter how imperfect they were from a theoretical point of view. For all his progressiveness in the field of abstract ideas, Frederick II had to follow in practice the old Hohenzollern traditions, contrary to the “philosophy” he had adopted. Much, however, is also explained by the personal psychology of Frederick II - his innate character, the conditions of his upbringing, and the influence of the environment. Having assimilated, as a man, the cultural ideas of the century, Frederick, as a ruler, continued to adhere to antiquity. In the social system of Prussia, Frederick left everything as before. In his monarchy, various class rights and advantages of the nobility were kept intact, in the form of compensation for the loss of political importance and especially for service in the army; the nobility supplied officers who were poorly paid and therefore needed income from the peasants. Frederick II not only preserved this order of things, but also looked at the nobility as people of a superior race. Already in the role of auditor of the Küstrin chamber, he expressed aristocratic views and, having become king, continued to think that only nobles have a sense of honor and courage and that therefore only they alone are capable of occupying officer positions. Only tax exemptions did not exist in Prussia for the nobility, but this was introduced earlier than Frederick II. The needs of the state, satisfied by the old military-economic regime, often forced Frederick to look at the burgher and peasant population of Prussia solely as a tax-paying mass, requiring, first of all, strict state and landowner discipline. Mirabeau defined Frederick’s attitude to the peasant question very correctly, saying: “The Prussian sovereigns did not want to offend the nobles by the abolition of serfdom, but they understood their own interests very well and therefore tried to put serfdom within a narrow framework. Frederick II did not at all bother to change this He did not see the freedom of the peasant as a great means of prosperity, but even if he had, many considerations would have stopped him from taking such a step. Without a doubt, he could have forced all the major owners of his country to free the peasants, but with such an act of power he did not want to alienate the nobility, which he needed for his army. "On the other hand, the state, in its own interests, could not help but take the peasants under his defense. Frederick II had to twice confirm a decree prohibiting the demolition of peasant households (1749 and 1764) under the threat of increasingly large fines. The officials themselves were oppressors of the people, as if, as one decree of the philosopher king said on this occasion, the peasants were their serfs. The famous Prussian bureaucratic discipline was powerless against what was deeply rooted in the morals of society. The nobility and officials not only did not carry out the royal instructions when it came to the peasants, but also in every possible way interfered with new measures. Only in the provinces taken from Poland, Frederick II had the opportunity to abolish the most flagrant abuses of landowner power.The reforms of the philosopher king concerned mainly administration, finance, court and only partly mutual relations between landowners and peasants, while fully preserving the old foundations of the political and social system. One of the most important enterprises of Frederick II was judicial reform, the main figure of which was Chancellor Samuel von Coczei (q.v.), a learned lawyer who adhered to the doctrine of natural law. The king stood for complete independence of the court from the administration and, in contrast to the ideas and practice of his father, found that judges “should not pay attention to rescripts, even if they came from the royal office.” The reformed courts were imbued with this idea, and Prussian justice rightly began to be considered exemplary in the independence and integrity of judges. There is a well-known anecdote about a miller who did not want to demolish his mill, as demanded by the king, who was disturbed by it in his residence of Sans Souci; The stubborn miller threatened to file a complaint to the court, and the king gave in: “il y a des juges à Berlin,” he said, having learned about the miller’s courage. But the story of another miller, Arnold, shows that the imperious nature of Frederick II did not reconcile well with his own doctrine: it seemed to the king that the highest court had unfairly decided the case of this Arnold - and he overturned the decision and imprisoned the judges in the fortress. Work on the development of substantive and procedural law was continued by von Karmer (chancellor from 1779) and especially his assistant, Svarets, but it was completed only in the next reign, when it was published (1794). ) under the name "Allgemeines Landrecht". The establishment of correct order instead of the previous arbitrariness in the courts was fully consistent with a higher understanding of the tasks of the state. In the same year (1748) with the judicial reform, the Directorate General received new instructions that improved its activities, although at the same time the competence of royal officials expanded at the expense of zemstvo officials in those provinces where the latter still existed. Frederick especially developed his government activities in the field of state and national economy. He had his own economic theory, mercantilistic in significant parts; it boiled down to keeping gold and silver in the country, patronizing the development of industry in Prussia itself, but at the same time protecting and improving agriculture. Frederick took care of the colonization of sparsely populated lands, the drainage of swamps, the introduction of new crops, the founding of plants and factories, the facilitation of credit, the improvement of communications and terms of trade, the increase in the state treasury, and in all this he achieved quite a lot, although at that time At the same time, I made many big mistakes. In the second half of his reign (1763-1786), he faced the difficult task of healing the wounds inflicted on Prussia by the Seven Years' War. Directing his activities towards accumulating money in the treasury and artificially creating industries that did not exist before, not always necessary, and not even always possible in a country like Prussia (for example, sericulture), Frederick brought the payment forces of the population to extreme tension, sacrificing at the same time private interests to the needs of the treasury. Indirect taxes on the most necessary items reached monstrous proportions, reducing consumption, for example, salt, beer, coffee, etc. Monopolies gave rise to smuggling and espionage. Particularly hated was the so-called "régie", or "general administration of excises and duties", organized by Frederick contrary to the opinion of the "general directory" and placed in charge of the French. This institution, to which various kinds of adventurers were attached, increased the royal income, but to the extreme burden and displeasure of the people, who were subjected to all kinds of extortions and oppression. In 1763, a decree on rural schools (General-Land-Schul-Reglement) was issued, the introduction to which speaks of the ignorance of village residents as a great evil, and the need to educate the masses. A commentary on this regulation could be some passages in the writings of Frederick himself, indicating how correctly he judged the meaning of “education of youth” from the point of view of the common good. The regulations of 1763 made it compulsory for the children of the villagers to attend primary schools; Parents, guardians and landowners were to be held accountable for failure to comply with this rule. However, no money was given for schools, and disabled people, who, of course, were bad teachers, were hired as teachers (in exchange for pensions). While supporting religious tolerance, Frederick II tried not to irritate his Catholic subjects; under him, Prussia was at peace with the papacy, although the king defended the authority of the state. When the Pope destroyed the Jesuit order, it was allowed to continue to exist in Prussia. Frederick hoped that, in gratitude for this, the Jesuits would help him reconcile the Catholic population of Silesia taken from Austria with the new situation. In general, if in many respects Frederick, as German historians put it, recreated the former police state (Polizeistaat) into a cultural state (Kulturstaat) of modern times, this still did not affect the very essence of the “old order” in Prussia, which twenty years later years after the death of the great king, he did not withstand the first serious test: one battle in the war with Napoleon I brought Prussia to the brink of death, and in order to save its future it was necessary to begin reforms precisely in that sphere of internal relations in which the philosopher-king was primarily a conservative. Meanwhile, the need for these reforms was clearly seen by Mirabeau, who was an admirer of Frederick, and even predicted that without them one defeat would be enough for complete defeat. In addition to Mirabeau, Frederick was glorified by Voltaire and Raynal, even Rousseau, “the enemy of kings, promised to die at the foot of his throne” if he “finally gives happiness to the people in his state and becomes their father.” Frederick made a strong impression on the minds of his contemporaries, who expected the happiness of the people from the great monarchs, as Frederick was recognized already at the beginning of his reign. German and foreign sovereigns and their ministers equally saw in Frederick the ideal of a ruler and transformer and tried to imitate him in their endeavors.

Frederick II as writer

Frederick left behind a large number of different kinds of works written in French. He was generally very interested in French literature, but completely ignored German literature. Many historians think that this saved German literature from royal patronage, which could have deprived it of the noble independence that distinguishes it; others, on the contrary, suggest that a rapprochement between Frederick and the German writers of his time could free the latter from “baseless cosmopolitanism” and contribute to the development of their national spirit and political interest. In the thirties, Friedrich was still fascinated by Wolf's philosophy, which, however, was translated for him into French. Under her influence, he even began to “notice the possibility of the existence of a soul and, perhaps, the possibility of its immortality.” In the spirit of Wolffian optimism, he composed odes in French about the “goodness of God” and the “love of God.” “Philosophers like you,” he then wrote to Wolf, “teach what should be, and kings exist only to carry out your ideas.” Subsequently, Friedrich lost interest in Wolf; the metaphysics of this thinker did not correspond much to Friedrich’s mentality and the influence that Voltaire had already had on him. “God,” he once wrote, “gave us enough intelligence to be able to behave as we should, but too little to know what neither Descartes nor Leibniz could find, and no one will ever find.” Like Voltaire, he does not doubt the existence of God, but refuses to know the essence of the Divine. A skeptical attitude towards metaphysical questions made him especially value the philosophy of Bayle, whom he called “the prince of European dialectics.” In 1765, Friedrich even compiled a brief summary of his ideas, republished it in 1767, and in the preface he called Bayle’s philosophy a “breviary of common sense.” Frederick had a well-known philosophical worldview, more eclectic than synthetic in nature; it satisfied him and brought him closer to representatives of advanced thought of the 18th century. In his way of thinking, he is most similar to Voltaire (for the relationship between Voltaire and Frederick II - see Voltaire); encyclopedists, in general, were rather antipathetic to him, especially when they touched upon political and social issues. Friedrich was especially antipathetic to Holbach, with whom he willingly polemicized, writing, among other things, an analysis of his “System of Nature.” The philosopher-king defended the old French monarchy from Holbach's attacks and pointed out that if this writer had ruled some small town for at least a few months, he would have understood people better than on the basis of all his “empty speculations.” Rousseau in the same way could not be to the taste of Friedrich, who did not rate him very highly (without calling him by name) in his “Discourse on the State Use of Sciences and Arts” (1772). Frederick II expressed his general attitude towards modern philosophers well in one of his letters: “I patronize only such free thinkers who have decent manners and reasonable views.” Kings and philosophers had to, so to speak, separate themselves, and if the sovereigns gave thinkers complete freedom in their field, then the latter, for their part, should not interfere with their criticism in state affairs. This, in general, determined the measure of freedom that the press enjoyed in Prussia under Frederick II. In the matter of religious freethinking, the philosopher-king even himself set an example. Frederick II's attitude towards religion is reminiscent of Voltaire's attitude towards it. Just as Voltaire objected to Bayle, who considered the existence of a state of atheists possible, so Frederick II polemicized against Holbach, who advised the abolition of religion, although the latter among the masses seemed to the king to be necessarily associated with superstition. Together with other writers of the 18th century, he saw religions as the work of priests who invented them to control people. At the same time, Frederick was far from thinking about religious uniformity in the state. Both the old Hohenzollern policy, and the new conditions in which the Prussian state found itself after the annexation of lands with a Catholic population, and the modern idea of ​​religious tolerance, and finally, Frederick’s own worldview forced him, as he put it, to maintain neutrality between Rome and Geneva and allow everyone to escape auf seine Façon. Accordingly, Frederick’s political theory was based not on theological foundations, but on the ideas of rationalistic philosophy of the 18th century. Two years before ascending the throne, Frederick wrote “Considérations sur l”état présent du corps politique de l”Europe,” where he expressed the following thoughts: “Most sovereigns imagine that God, on purpose and out of special attention to their greatness, has prospered the general administration of excises and duties. The philosopher-king defended the old French monarchy from Holbach's attacks and pointed out that if this writer had governed some small town for even a few months, he would have understood people better than il y a des juges à Berlin on the basis of all his ideas and pride created that mass of people, the care of which they were in. Subsequently, Friedrich lost interest in Wolf, the metaphysics of this thinker did not correspond much to Friedrich’s mentality and the influence that Voltaire had already had on him. The argument about the state usefulness of sciences is artificial, and that subjects are intended only to be instruments and servants of their moral debauchery." He stood at the same point of view later. "Our enemy of kings,” he wrote, polemicizing with Holbach the traitor, “ assures that the power of sovereigns does not at all have a divine origin, and we do not at all intend to find fault with this point." He was very much interested in the question of the duties of sovereigns. Voltaire instilled in him his idea of ​​​​enlightened absolutism; he himself wrote to Wolf that kings should carry out the plans of thinkers , and the old Hohenzollern tradition told him that the king should be the first servant (le premier domestique, later le premier serviteur) of the state. Frederick expresses this idea already in his first political writings, written shortly before ascending the throne, namely in “Considerations sur l"état présent de l"Europe" and in "Refutation of Machiavelli's "The Prince" [In this work, Frederick, in fact, condemned his entire future policy, which was completely Machiavellian.]. Practical Machiavellianism stems from the idea that kings have only rights and no duties; Frederick opposed him to the idea of ​​monarchical duty, based on the idea that people elected the king to perform a certain kind of duty. Without providing evidence anywhere why, from his point of view, royal power should be hereditary (as he, for example, stated in his polemic with Holbach), Frederick especially insisted on the need to provide sovereigns with unlimited power, as the only condition under which they can perform their duties properly. In his “Essay on the Forms of Government and the Duties of Sovereigns” (1777), he says that only a madman can imagine people who would say the following words to a monarch: “We put you above us because we like to be slaves, and we give you have the power to direct our thoughts as you please." On the contrary, Frederick continues, this is what they said: “We need you to maintain the laws that we want to obey, to govern us wisely, for our defense, and for all this we demand that you respect our freedom.” The idea of ​​the state had to be subordinated to the behavior of its head. “The sovereign,” wrote Frederick II in the same “Experience,” “is only the first servant of the state, obliged to act conscientiously, wisely and completely disinterestedly, as if every minute he had to be ready to give an account to his fellow citizens in his government.” If, he thought, sovereigns behave differently, it is only because they think little about their rank (institution) and the responsibilities arising from it. According to his idea, the correctly understood interests of the monarch and the interests of his subjects are inseparable. Finally, in his “Political Testament” Φ. II likens the ideal state (un gouvernement bien conduit) to a philosophical system in which everything is closely connected with each other: the government must also have its own system, “so that all measures are well thought out and so that finance, politics and military affairs strive towards the same goal, which consists in strengthening the state and increasing its power." The last words contain an indication of the true goal of all the political aspirations of Frederick II. The philosopher king was one of the largest representatives of the state idea, in its abstraction from the immediate good of the people. Above all else is the state interest, which only the sovereign himself can judge - this is the government formula of Frederick II, following which he considered it even unnecessary to discuss matters in the Council of Ministers. Taking care that everything in the government system was closely connected with each other, as in the philosophical system, Frederick undertook the compilation of a general code for his state (Allgemeines Landrecht), on which the most prominent statesmen and lawyers of the then Prussia worked. Although this code was promulgated only in 1794, under Frederick’s successor, nevertheless, in its origin and in its principles it belongs to the century of the philosopher king and illustrates his political theory. In addition to philosophical and political works, Frederick also wrote historical ones: “Considération sur l"état présent du corps politique de l"Europe", "Mémoires pour servir à l"histoire de la maison de Brandenbourg", "Histoire de mon temps", " Histoire de la guerre de sept ans", "Mém. depuis la paix de Hubertsbourg jusqu"à la fin du partage de la Pologne", "Mém. de la guerre de 1778", etc. Friedrich cannot be called a completely truthful historian, but he often speaks about himself with amazing frankness. He also tried his hand at poetry, but did not have much luck (Voltaire, who received several poems written by Frederick for correction, called them “dirty linen that the king gave him to wash”).

Private life of Frederick II

– was of great interest to contemporaries. He created a new residence for himself in Potsdam and built the famous Sans Souci Palace near it, where he loved to spend time, surrounded by French writers, musicians, etc. There are a huge number of different anecdotes and so-called “traits from life” about Frederick. Voltaire, by the way, wrote about his private life.

Literature about Frederick II

Everything that was written about Frederick II up to 1886 (the hundredth anniversary of his death) is listed in the book by M. Baumgart, "Die Literatur des In- und Auslandes über Friedrich den Grossen." The general, dominant tone of literature about Frederick II in German is panegyric. The great talents of the philosopher king, reaching the point of real genius, his insightful mind and strong character, his famous exploits and difficult trials, his popularity among his subjects and fame among his contemporaries and descendants - all this in itself sufficiently explains the enthusiastic attitude of most historians towards the personality Frederick II; but besides this, so to speak, psychological motive, in the views of German historians one can see (and even to a greater extent) a national motive. In general, German, and especially Prussian, historiography is distinguished by great nationalism, and such a mood is not particularly favorable for criticism or analysis. Very often, Frederick’s words are taken as deeds, small deeds are attributed great importance, major mistakes are glossed over, contradictions in the activities of Frederick II are hushed up or justified by various far-fetched explanations, etc. The idea of ​​Frederick II as a hero is transferred to the internal history of Prussia of his time , as a state of highest culture, supposedly ahead of all other European countries.

Works of Frederick II

published more than once. In the Berlin edition of 1846-57. (in 30 volumes) first 7 volumes. contain historical works, two - philosophical, six - poetry, twelve - correspondence, the last three - works of military content. In 1879, the publication of all the political correspondence of Frederick II was undertaken.

N. Kareev.

Frederick the Great as a commander

Under the harsh rule of his father, Frederick received a military education, which he hated with all his heart; He could not learn military affairs in practice, for the reign of his father was completely peaceful. The political conditions of the first year of his reign prompted Frederick to start a war with Austria - and here his remarkable natural talents in leading an army immediately unfolded. The fundamental feature of his strategy was expressed from the very first steps: he always sought to retain the offensive, and therefore all his wars always began (usually very quickly) with his invasion of the enemy country. In this regard, his decisiveness resembles the actions of Napoleon I. He considered the basis not only of the army, but of “glory and preservation of the state” to be discipline, in which no one in the army should reason except the commander-in-chief, but only carry out what is ordered (nicht raisonnieren, sondern executiren “nur was befohlen worden,” he says in one of his instructions). Perhaps he so often reiterates the paramount importance of discipline because he had to endure serious disputes with his generals in one of the most important points of his strategic and tactical program: Frederick was an ardent supporter of a purely offensive course of action. The main rule for the successful conduct of war, a rule that Frederick tirelessly recommended to his generals and which he always adhered to in practice, was, wherever possible, to begin a war, or a new period of war, or any particular battle, with a sudden, unexpected attack. on the enemy. This principle, which he followed in strategy and tactics, both for entire wars and for individual battles, amazed all his enemies and was for the 18th century. news, because no one before Frederick had so consciously and systematically adhered to this rule. Sometimes he even happened to go on a campaign without fully stocking up on everything he needed, but he preferred to slightly increase the overall risk of the enterprise, just to get ahead of the enemy. Nevertheless, he cared extremely much about food, and his armies were fed more by requisition methods than by previously prepared store supplies. In all his wars, Frederick, completely in accordance with his basic principle, always knew how to keep all his military preparations in the deepest secrecy and took his enemies by surprise. In general, in terms of military tricks, Frederick is most often compared to Hannibal: his resourcefulness in the most apparently hopeless cases was amazing. With the exception of one case - the establishment of the Bundelwitz camp (see Prince Golitsyn, "General Military History", vol. III, p. 306) - he never placed his army in fortified positions, precisely in order to not give the enemy a chance to cross to attack. He improved the cavalry like no other military unit, due to the conviction that cavalrymen were most suitable for attacking in closed lines. He fundamentally advises his generals not to accept battles on the initiative of the enemy, but to start them only on their own initiative, with their own specific purpose. Everything should be aimed at ending the war as quickly as possible, without depleting the state’s finances and without diminishing discipline in the army. This eternal fear for discipline is unusually characteristic of the strategist of the 18th century, when mercenary and forcefully recruited soldiers extremely quickly lost the appearance of an army and turned into a violent predatory horde. This is how Prince Golitsyn characterizes Friedrich’s tactics: 1) Friedrich shortened the duration of the initial artillery fire as much as possible, moved the infantry forward at a quick pace to a rifle shot from the enemy; hit him with volleys of fire in thin deployed lines and continued to move the infantry forward; 2) the cavalry followed the advance of the infantry and its generals tried in every possible way to take advantage of all the convenient and advantageous moments of the battle to carry out quick, strong and decisive attacks, with the goal of breaking through, overturning and defeating the enemy infantry; 3) Φ. was an opponent of parallel attacks from the front and a supporter of attacks in an indirect battle order, with the main forces on one of the flanks, while part of the forces occupied and held the other wing of the enemy; 4) for this, the army advanced, at a quick pace, in platoon lines, bypassing the attacked flank and, having made a bypass, lined up perpendicular to this flank, moving platoons to the right or left, and immediately went on the attack with fire. Frederick's main battles did not last long, but were accompanied by great bloodshed; military authorities recognize him as even greater in the management of battle than in the general conduct of military operations. Physical tirelessness and the ability to maintain good spirits despite all failures greatly helped Frederick to implement his strategic and tactical principles. As a military practitioner, he ranks among the most remarkable commanders of all times; as a military theorist, he is extremely curious in characterizing his time.