Alexander Pushkin's great-uncle Hannibal IvanAbramovich was born in the north of Estonia in the Karjakylä manor. Until our time has not survived accurate information about the date of his birth. Only the number is known (October 12, according to the new style), but the year causes controversy among biographers. This is either the 1735th, or the 1736th, or the 1737th.
Ivan was the eldest son of Abram Petrovich Hannibal - a military engineer and commander-in-chief. Alexander Pushkin dedicated the novel “Arap of Peter the Great” to this man (that is, to his great-grandfather).
Ivan Abramovich's father really was closelyassociated with the emperor. He came to Russia in 1704, after he was taken out by the Russian ambassador in Constantinople, Savva Raguzinsky. Abram was the son of an African prince who was a vassal of the Turkish sultan. Ivan made an amazing career in Russia. His godfather was Peter I. himself. Due to his father’s position, Hannibal Ivan Abramovich could count on no less success in high society.
As a child, the boy studied at the Petersburg Marineartillery school. Already at this age it was clear that his life would be connected with military affairs. Then Hannibal Ivan Abramovich graduated from the Marine Gentry Corps. The officer began to serve in the naval artillery. In 1769, he was promoted to chief ceichmeister.
The increase occurred at the beginning of the nextRussian-Turkish war of 1768-1774 The fleet played a particularly important role in this campaign. In St. Petersburg, they decided to send a Baltic military squadron to the Aegean Sea, which was supposed to help the Slavic peoples of the Balkans. Thus began the Archipelago expedition, in which Ivan Abramovich Hannibal took part. The life path led him to the most serious test, which was to determine the whole further course of his career as an officer.
The trip to the Aegean Sea was unprecedented.Hannibal Ivan Abramovich, like his colleagues, had no experience of such large-scale voyages. On the way the ships got into several storms. Breakdowns had to be repaired right on the way. On the other hand, Hannibal was more fortunate than the crews of some other ships. For example, the most powerful ship, Svyatoslav, received a leak, due to which he had to return to Revel. In addition, the squadron suffered from disease. When the expedition reached Denmark, the illness has already struck about 300 people. 50 sailors died altogether.
General command was in the hands of Admiral GregorySpiridov. Ivan Abramovich Hannibal was one of those officers whom the head of the expedition on arrival in the Aegean Sea was going to entrust important missions. Spiridov took him with him when part of the ships with the sick remained in Denmark. The first real operation in February 1770 was the landing of troops on the Peloponnese. Ivan Abramovich Hannibal did not participate in it, preparing to repeat something similar in the future.
While most squadron shipsconcentrated on the shelling of an important fort Corona, Hannibal went to the coast in another part of the Peloponnese. Under his command were the battleships of the Three Hierarchs and St. Januarius, as well as the frigate St. Nicholas. In this detachment were 300 people and several siege artillery guns. The ships approached the Turkish fortress Navarin. The siege began on April 10, 1770.
According to the plan, a few days later, on the 21st,Russian troops landed near enemy walls. The same naval artillery brigadier Ivan Abramovich Hannibal commanded them. The biography of this man as a military man is best known for this glorious episode. The bombardment of Navarin lasted six days. After it, the fortress was taken by a Russian detachment. The landing force managed to seize a lot of weapons, cannons, mortars and hundreds of pounds of enemy gunpowder. The capture of Navarin allowed the Russian fleet to get a comfortable bay, which housed its temporary base.
July 5, 1770 Hannibal Ivan Abramovich(1736-1801) took part in another important battle of that war against Turkey. On the eve of the Russian fleet found several Turkish ships on the roadstead in the Chesme Bay on the west coast of the Asia Minor Peninsula opposite the island of Chios. The command decided to give battle to the enemy.
Ivan Hannibal received the task to prepareseveral firefighters (ships stuffed with explosives and flammable substances). At the most crucial moment of the battle, these ships were sent to the bay infested with frigates and galleys of the enemy. The Turks decided that Russian defectors were approaching them. This mistake allowed to set fire to the court and cause serious damage to the Ottoman Empire’s fleet. The battle was won, and Hannibal made a significant contribution to this success.
После войны Иван Ганнибал стал генерал-майором.In 1778, he was ordered to found a new Black Sea port of Kherson. The initiative belonged to the Empress Catherine II herself. Ivan Abramovich led the creation of special artisan groups that built the city from scratch. Three years later, a shipyard, a fortress with a garrison, barracks, private houses, an arsenal, a foundry house, etc., were already in the wasteland. The harbor became permanent parking for military and merchant ships. Hannibal did a great deal to ensure that the city attracted not only Russian colonizers, but also Greeks and Italians.
In 1780, Ivan Abramovich received a large allotmentland (10 thousand acres). His state and military career ended prematurely due to a conflict with the favorite of the Empress, Grigory Potemkin. In 1784, Hannibal with the rank of General-in-Chief resigned. Later he lived in his estate near St. Petersburg. The relative of Alexander Pushkin died on October 12, 1801. He was a childless bachelor.
