Stofeln, Christopher Fedorovich

The son of Lieutenant General Stofeln , the famous defense of Ochakov in 1737

Born in 1720 and at the age of twelve he was assigned to the Ground Cadet Corps , at the end of which, in January 1738, he was released into the army as second lieutenant.

As a lieutenant, he participated in campaigns against the Turks and Crimean Tatars (1738-1739) and was in the capture of Karasubazar and the Perekop line.

Produced in 1741 in second majors . In the same year, he fought against the Swedes near Wilmanstrand , in 1742 near Friedrichsham and Helsingfors , and in 1743 during the complications that arose between Sweden and Denmark over the election (see Abo Peace ) to the Swedish throne of the Duke of Holstein , he served as quartermaster under the corps of General-General Keith , who was sent by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna to help the Swedish government.

During the Seven Years' War , Stofeln, who was promoted from brigadier to colonel engineer in 1756, and with the outbreak of hostilities in Prussia in 1757, was appointed quartermaster general and sent to Polish Livonia and Lithuania to procure provisions and fodder stores for the entire Russian army. In 1758, he was in a battle near Koenigsberg , on a business trip to occupy the town of Marienverdera and the city of Landsberg , and after that during the blockade of the Küstrin fortress ( Siege of Küstrin ), the forstadt of which he cleared of the enemy, and put the fortress on fire.

In 1762 he was promoted to lieutenant general and granted the Alexander Ribbon.

In 1764-1765 he was with his corps in Poland when Stanislav Augustus was elected to the throne. Until November 1765, he commanded the Sevsk division.

Having crossed the Prut into the Turkish campaign of 1769, he watched the enemy from Bender , held and distributed the conquests in Wallachia and Moldova, the control of which was entrusted to him.

In winter, having his main apartment in Iasi , Stofeln, on the orders of Rumyantsev , occupied Falchi , Galati and Bucharest with strong detachments and intended to move to Brailov (possession of this fortress would ensure the security of the advanced troops in Moldova for winter time), but was forced to change his plan and head to the Focsani to prevent the Turks from crossing the Prut. The victory won by Major General Podgorichani and Potemkin over the combined forces of Abdy Pasha and Suleiman-Aga at Fokshany (January 3 and 4, 1770) allowed Stofeln to move his troops to Brailov, who, beyond expectations, was greatly fortified. Having repulsed the Turks' sally and feeling a great shortage of siege artillery and people, Stofeln burnt out the city and up to 260 villages located along the Danube, and he himself went to Bucharest, threatened by the enemy from Zhurzhi .

Having seized Zhurzhu by an attack (February 4, 1770) and emptying the entire space along the Danube from the Prut to Olta , Stofeln retreated to Bucharest, the inhabitants of which arranged a solemn meeting for him and brought 1000 chervonets as a sign of gratitude. Stofeln refused to accept this money and on his advice they were used at the hospital and the wounded near Bucharest and Zhurzhey.

The appearance of a pestilence in Moldova and Wallachia in the spring of 1770 caused Stofeln, as a precaution, to withdraw troops from the cities to the camps, while he himself, attaching great importance to his stay in Iasi, remained in the city, where he soon fell victim to the infection that had not yet stopped.

Polovtsov writes:

“Loving the service, Stofeln did not stop doing business all the time of his illness and personally dictated all the orders. Distinguished by rightness, selflessness and affection, Stofeln was nevertheless cruel to the vanquished, which repeatedly incurred the wrath of the empress, accusing him of excessive cruelty. Rumyantsev, who greatly valued Shtofeln, justified his actions in the eyes of Empress Catherine and, telling her about Shtofeln’s death, called him “a prudent commander from the slaves of Her Imperial Majesty, who sacrificed himself out of the greatest zeal for service, holding himself to those places from which he repeatedly ordered him to leave for his own safety ""

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• Storfeln, Khristofor Fedorovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Shtofeln-von, Khristofor Fedorovich // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.

• Russian Germans. History and Modernity