Eduard Totleben
| Eduard Totleben | |
|---|---|
Eduard Totleben
|
|
| Born |
20 May 1818 Mitau, Courland, Russian Empire |
| Died | 1 July 1884 (aged 66) Bad Soden, German Empire |
| Allegiance |
 Russian Empire
|
| Service/branch | Imperial Russian Army |
| Years of service | 1836–1884 |
| Rank | Engineer-General |
| Battles/wars |
Caucasian War Crimean War Russo-Turkish War |
| Awards |
Order of St. Andrew Order of St. George (2nd class) Order of St. Vladimir |
Eduard Ivanovich Totleben (Russian: Эдуа́рд Ива́нович Тотле́бен, sometimes transliterated as Todleben; 20 May [O.S. 8 May] 1818 – 1 July [O.S. 19 June] 1884) was a Baltic German military engineer and Imperial Russian Army general. He was in charge of fortification and sapping work during a number of important Russian military campaigns.
Totleben was born at Mitau in Courland (now Jelgava, Latvia). His parents were of German descent, belonging to the merchant class, and he himself was intended for commerce, but a strong instinct led him to seek a career as a military engineer. He entered the school of engineers at Saint Petersburg, now Military engineering-technical university (Russian: ).
Totleben joined the Imperial Russian Army in 1836. He saw active service as captain of engineers in the campaigns against Imam Shamil in the Caucasus, beginning in 1848 for two years.
At the outbreak of war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire in 1853, he took part in the siege of Silistria, and after the siege was raised was transferred to the Crimea. Sevastopol, while strongly fortified toward the sea, was almost unprotected on the land side. Totleben, though still a junior field officer, became the animating genius of the defense. On his advice the fleet was sunk, in order to block the mouth of the harbour, and the deficiency of fortifications on the land side was made good before the allies could take advantage of it. The construction of earthworks and redoubts was carried out in extreme haste and much of the artillery from the warships was transferred to them. It was in the ceaseless improvisation of the defensive works and offensive counterworks to meet every changing phase of the enemy's attack that Totleben's peculiar strength and originality showed itself. He never commanded a large army in the open field, nor was he the creator of a great permanent system of defence like Vauban. But he may justly be called the originator of the idea that a fortress should be considered not a walled town but an entrenched position, intimately connected with the offensive and defensive capacities of an army and as susceptible of alteration as the formation of troops in battle or manoeuvre.
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