Rhine campaign (1748)

From the beginning of 1746, intense negotiations were held in St. Petersburg on the conclusion of a Russian-Austrian defensive alliance. At the end of May 1746, an agreement was signed for a period of 25 years, in accordance with the secret articles of which Russia and Austria pledged to act jointly against Prussia and against the Ottomans (Turkey). In order to prevent possible unexpected actions by Frederick, it was decided to keep a large corps of troops of the Russian army in Livonia under the command of V. A. Repnin ^[1] consisting of 23 infantry regiments , 4 dragoon companies and the command of the Chuguev Cossacks , a total of 36,000 personnel, 5,115 horses, ready by the first order from St. Petersburg to move to Königsberg .

After the victories of the French army under the leadership of Moritz of Saxony in the Austrian Netherlands in 1746-1747, with the assistance of Austria, two Russian-English subsidiary conventions were concluded, under which Russia pledged to provide Great Britain and the Netherlands for a large sum of money 30 thousand soldiers who were supposed to act against France.

Pursuant to the treaty, in the spring of 1748, the 36,000th ^[1] Russian corps under the command of Prince Vasily Anikitich Repnin sailed from Livonia through Bohemia and Bavaria to the Rhine with the aim of providing international assistance to Maria Theresa . However, while the Russian army was marching across Germany, Moritz of Saxony took Maastricht on May 7 and thereby deprived the Anglo-Dutch of their last outposts in Flanders . Repnin came to the Rhine when it was all over for the Anglo-Dutch, but his actions contributed to the conclusion of the Aachen peace .

• Repnin, Vasily Nikitich // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• Yu. Yu. Nenakhov “The Wars and Campaigns of Frederick the Great” - Minsk: Harvest, 2002. ISBN 985-13-0659-2 .