Count Totleben entered the Russian service during the Seven Years’ War (1757-1763). He distinguished himself at the Battle of Kunersdorf (1759) and was promoted to General. Totleben gained particular fame for his brief occupation of the Prussian capital Berlin in 1760. Shortly, the advance of Frederick the Great’s Prussian army forced him to retreat, however. In June 1761, he was accused of treachery and arrested in Pomerania. Sent in chains to St. Petersburg, he was sentenced to death via quartering, but Empress Catherine the Great pardoned him in 1763. Nevertheless, Totleben was deprived of all his titles and awards and sent into exile abroad (or to Siberia, according to one account).