Tauroggen, Convention of 1812

a Russo-Prussian agreement concluded at the Lithuanian town of Tauroggen (now the city of Tauragé) on December 18 (30) by the generals I. I. Dibich-Zabalkanskii and Yorck von Wartenburg. The Convention of Tauroggen neutralized the Prussian auxiliary corps of 20,000, which, with other troops under the French marshal J. Macdonald, was fighting Russia in the Baltic area. The Russian government had been attempting to negotiate with Yorck as early as the summer of 1812. However, only after the complete rout of Napoleon I and the departure of the Russians for the East Prussian frontier did Yorck agree to the proposed convention, which he signed in defiance of the Prussian king Frederick William III. The Convention of Tauroggen facilitated the Russian offensive; in addition, Prussia’s withdrawal from its French alliance paved the way for the liberation of the German states from Napoleonic rule.