At dawn on June 24 (12 old style) June 1812, Napoleon's troops crossed the Neman River without declaring war and invaded Russia. Napoleon's army, which he himself called the "Grand Army", numbered over 600,000 people and 1,420 guns. In addition to the French, it included the national corps of European countries conquered by Napoleon, as well as the Polish corps of Marshal Y. Poniatowski.
Napoleon's main forces were deployed in two echelons. The first (444,000 people and 940 guns) consisted of three groups: the right wing, led by Jerome Bonaparte (78,000 people, 159 guns) was supposed to move to Grodno, diverting as many Russian forces as possible; the central group under the command of Eugene Beauharnais (82,000 people, 208 guns) was supposed to prevent the connection of the 1st and 2nd Russian armies; the left wing, led by Napoleon himself (218,000 people, 527 guns) moved to Vilna - he was assigned the main role throughout the entire campaign. In the rear, between the Vistula and Oder, there remained a second echelon - 170,000 people, 432 guns and a reserve (Marshal Augereau's corps and other troops).
The invading enemy was opposed by 220 - 240 thousand Russian soldiers with 942 guns - 3 times less than the enemy had. In addition, the Russian troops were divided: the 1st Western Army under the command of the Minister of War, General of Infantry M.B. Barclay de Tolly (110 - 127 thousand people with 558 guns) stretched over more than 200 kilometers from Lithuania to Grodno in Belarus; The 2nd Western Army, led by Infantry General P.I. Bagration (45 - 48 thousand people with 216 guns) occupied a line up to 100 kilometers east of Bialystok; The 3rd Western Army of cavalry general A.P. Tormasov (46,000 people with 168 guns) was stationed in Volyn near Lutsk. On the right flank of the Russian troops (in Finland) was the corps of Lieutenant General F.F. Steingel, on the left flank - the Danube Army of Admiral P.V. Chichagov.
Considering the enormous size and power of Russia, Napoleon planned to complete the campaign in three years: in 1812, to capture the western provinces from Riga to Lutsk, in 1813 - Moscow, in 1814 - St. Petersburg. Such gradualism would allow him to dismember Russia, providing rear support and communications for the army operating over vast areas. The conqueror of Europe did not count on a blitzkrieg, although he intended to quickly defeat the main forces of the Russian army one by one in the border areas.
But realizing that it was impossible to resist in scattered units, the Russian command began to retreat deeper into the country. And this thwarted Napoleon's strategic plan. Instead of gradually dismembering Russia, Napoleon was forced to follow the fleeing Russian armies deeper into the country, stretching communications and losing superiority in forces.
FIRST STAGE OF THE WAR: RETREAT
Retreating, Russian troops fought rearguard battles, inflicting significant losses on the enemy. The main task was to unite the forces of the 1st and 2nd Western armies. The position of Bagration's 2nd Army, which was threatened by encirclement, was especially difficult. It was not possible to get through to Minsk and connect with Barclay’s army there: the path was cut off. Bagration changed the direction of movement, but the troops of Jerome Bonaparte overtook him. On July 9 (June 27, old style) near the town of Mir, a battle between the rearguard of Russian troops (it was the Cossack cavalry of Ataman M.I. Platov) and the French cavalry took place. The French were defeated and retreated in disorder. The next day there was a new battle, and again the French were defeated. On July 14 (2), near the town of Romanovo, Platov’s Cossacks held back the French for 24 hours to allow army convoys to cross the Pripyat. Platov's successful rearguard battles allowed the 2nd Army to freely reach Bobruisk and concentrate its forces, which had been stretched to that point. All attempts to surround Bagration failed. Npoleon was furious; he accused his brother Jerome of slowness and transferred command of his corps to Marshal Davout.
From Tarutin, Kutuzov launched a “small war” with army partisan detachments. The detachments of D.V. Davydov, A.N. Seslavin, A.S. Figner, I.S. Dorokhov, N.D. Kudashev, I.M. Vadbolsky were especially successful. Kutuzov sought to expand the peasant partisan movement, merging it with the actions of army units. Some of the peasant detachments numbered several thousand people. For example, Gerasim Kurin’s detachment consisted of 5,000 people. The detachments of Ermolai Chetvertakov, Fyodor Potapov, and Vasilisa Kozhina were widely known.
The actions of the partisans caused great human and material losses to the enemy and disrupted their communications with the rear. In just six autumn weeks, the partisans destroyed about 30,000 enemy soldiers.
On October 18 (6), on the Chernishna River, Russian troops defeated the strong vanguard of the French army, commanded by Marshal Murat. This victory marked the beginning of a counteroffensive by the Russian army.
On the same days, active operations of the 3rd Western Army began. On October 17 (5), the battle for Polotsk began, in which, in addition to the soldiers of Wittgenstein’s corps, soldiers of the Novgorod and St. Petersburg militia took an active part. By the morning of October 20, Polotsk was liberated. In the southwestern direction, Admiral Chichagov threw back the troops of Schwarzenberg and Rainier beyond the Southern Bug, into the Duchy of Warsaw, and moved towards Minsk.
All this prompted Napoleon to take action. On October 19 (7), the French set out from Moscow to Tarutin, hoping to take Kutuzov by surprise, defeat him and break through to Kaluga. The ancient capital of Russia was burned and plundered. The French tried to blow up the Kremlin, but fortunately the destruction was not too great. Napoleon's new plans were again destroyed. Seslavin's partisan detachment discovered Naoleon's army near the village of Fominskoye and transmitted information about this to Kutuzov's headquarters. The Russian army set out from the Tarutino camp and moved towards the French. On October 24 (12), a fierce battle took place between the advanced units of both armies for Maloyaroslavets. The city changed hands 8 times. And although in the end the French captured the city, Napoleon had to give up hope of breaking through to Kaluga: the main forces of the Russian army that arrived took up strong positions near Maloyaroslavets. Napoleon gave the order to begin a retreat to Mozhaisk and further to the old Smolensk road, devastated by the war.
Having finally wrested the strategic initiative from the enemy’s hands, Kutuzov launched a general counteroffensive. It was active in nature and set as its goal, while preserving the army, not just to expel, but to completely destroy the enemy. A huge role in the pursuit of the French was played by army and peasant partisan detachments, as well as the mobile Cossack units of Ataman Platov.
In the battles near Vyazma and Dorogobuzh, the enemy fleeing to the west lost about 13,000 people killed, wounded and captured. In the battle near Lyakhov, the partisans surrounded and forced to surrender an entire enemy division led by General Augereau. Leaving Moscow, Napoleon had an army of 107,000 people. He managed to bring only about 60,000 people to Smolensk, including reinforcements.
In mid-November, Russian troops surrounded Napoleonic army near the Berezina River. However, due to inconsistency in the actions of the Russian corps, Napoleon managed to cross the Berezina near the village of Studyanki. However, only about 9,000 people crossed to the west bank. The rest either died or were captured. After the Berezina, Napoleon fled to Paris. To the question “What is the situation of the army?” he replied: “There is no more army.”
On November 28, old style, Russian troops occupied Vilna. On December 2, near Kovno, about 1,000 enemy soldiers crossed the Neman. These were the last remnants of Napoleon's main forces. In total, about 30,000 people out of the 600,000-strong “Grand Army” escaped. The war, as Kutuzov wrote, “ended with the complete extermination of the enemy.”
“No matter how critics speak about individual moments of the persecution, one must attribute the energy with which this persecution was carried out to the fact that the French army was completely destroyed, and a greater result cannot be imagined,” wrote the German military theorist and historian Carl Clausewitz. "
As a result of the defeat of Napoleonic army in Russia, the national liberation movement intensified in Europe. The patriotic upsurge of 1812 had a huge impact on the growth of self-awareness of the peoples of Russia.
Beginning of the Patriotic War of 181212 June 1812Napoleon's Grand Army (640 thousand people), having crossed the Neman, invaded the borders Russian Empire. The Russian army numbered 590 thousand people, but little more than could be deployed against Napoleon 200 thousand. It was divided into three groups far apart from each other (under the command of generals M.B. Barclay de Tolly, P.I. Bagration and A.P. Tormasov). Alexander I was at the headquarters of Barclay's army. “I will not lay down my arms,- he stated, - until not a single enemy warrior remains in the kingdom mine.”
Napoleon waited in vain...
About how two hundred years ago Russian intelligence completely outplayed its French colleagues
Russia won the War of 1812 against France long before the Grand Army crossed the Niemen. The fact is that the Russian special services brilliantly outplayed the cunning intelligence service of the French emperor. This conclusion was reached by the chief researcher at the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences Petr Cherkasov. With a conversation with this famous researcher, Itogi continues a series of materials dedicated to the 200th anniversary historical event.
— In what historical context did the confrontation between France and Russia unfold two centuries ago?
— Having defeated five European coalitions, France became a superpower. Napoleon had no rivals except Great Britain. The Corsican did not take Alexander I seriously and counted on the support of Russia, which he had repeatedly defeated on the battlefield, in completely isolating the British. In 1807, in Tilsit, Napoleon literally imposed a peace treaty on Alexander. It had two main conditions - recognition of all the conquests of the French emperor, his full titles and Russia's joining the continental blockade of Great Britain. The humiliating Peace of Tilsit did not suit Russia at all. Alexander, realizing that the ban on trade with Great Britain was causing enormous financial damage to his empire, tried to ignore the blockade. His father's shadow also haunted him. After all, Emperor Paul was an ally of Napoleon and was preparing to attack India with him: the marching ataman Matvey Platov and the Cossacks had already reached Orenburg when a palace coup took place in St. Petersburg... Napoleon saw that the Russian Tsar was violating the Treaty of Tilsit, and decided to punish Alexander with a short war. Defeat him in several decisive border battles and make the Russian emperor an obedient toy of the French. But this plan failed even before the planned blitzkrieg began. Napoleon did not gain the glory of the new Austerlitz, and was forced to go deep into Russian territory, which he initially had no intention of doing.
- Why did you do it anyway?
“I was counting on military superiority.” Napoleon gathered an unprecedented army on the borders with Russia: 650 thousand people! Of these, the French made up no more than forty percent. The rest were Saxons, Poles, Austrians, Prussians, Spaniards, Italians... They were opposed by the Russian army, divided into three parts, which covered the three main directions of a possible attack: St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kyiv. Almost half the size of the French, our reconnaissance had complete information about the enemy, which Napoleon did not have in relation to the Russian army. More precisely, the French emperor had a very rough idea of the deployment of Russian units and their composition.
- Isn't it strange? Despite the fact that Napoleonic intelligence was brilliantly organized under the Minister of Police Joseph Fouche and that such detective masters as, say, Karl Schulmeister, who became a legend during his lifetime, worked for France...
“It was one thing for Napoleon’s agents to spy in Europe, but quite another thing to spy in Russia with its national specifics.” In addition, at the beginning of 1810, Russian military intelligence was created in St. Petersburg on the initiative of the Minister of War Mikhail Barclay de Tolly. The premonition of war was already in the air, and special agents were being sent to our embassies in Europe. These young officers are given the goal of collecting information “about the number of troops, about their structure, weapons and spirit, about the state of fortresses and reserves, the abilities and merits of the best generals, as well as about the welfare, character and spirit of the people.” These military agents are located as aides-de-camp to ambassadors or as employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The names of these brave people are forever covered in glory: Major Victor Prendel in Dresden, Lieutenant Pavel Brozin in Kassel, and then in Madrid, Colonel Robert Rennie in Berlin, Lieutenant Pavel Grabbe in Munich, Colonel Fedor Theil von Seraskerken in Vienna... And, of course, captain Alexander Chernyshev, who operated in Paris itself.
One of the heroes of the intelligence war in early XIX century became Alexander Chernyshev - our resident in Paris. “Portrait of Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev” George Dow
— That same Chernyshev, the handsome man and rake about whom we had the TV series “Adjutants of Love” not so long ago? James Bond is resting next to this guy...
- Yes, in this adventurous and amorous picture main character- my absolute namesake: Pyotr Cherkasov... But in fact, Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev, who quickly rose to the rank of colonel, is the first Russian professional military intelligence officer. He, acting in Paris from a special office of the quartermaster part of the main headquarters created in St. Petersburg, managed to gain Napoleon’s personal trust and create an effective network of informants in France.
Chernyshev was at Napoleon's court from 1809 to 1811 as the personal representative of Alexander I, participating in France's campaign against Austria. In battles, he shows personal courage and receives the Order of the Legion of Honor from the hands of Bonaparte. Napoleon loves to talk in an informal setting with a witty young man raised by a French emigrant abbot, and unwittingly becomes Chernyshev’s main source of information. The Parisian nobility learns about the warm meetings between the Russian officer and the emperor and begins to look for an acquaintance with the lucky man.
But his fame reached its apogee after the famous fire in the winter of 1810 in the mansion of the Austrian ambassador, Prince Karl Schwarzenberg. He was giving a magnificent ball on the occasion of Napoleon’s marriage to the Austrian Archduchess Marie-Louise, when a fire started in the palace due to the awkwardness of a footman. If not for the bravery of the Russian guardsman, there would have been many casualties among the European nobility gathered at the ball. And so Chernyshev not only organized a team of volunteers who managed to extinguish the resulting panic, but he himself carried people out of the fire. Including the wives of Marshals Ney and Duroc, as well as the sisters of the emperor himself - Caroline Murat and Pauline Borghese. Naturally, the envoy of the Russian Tsar became the very next day after the fire the most popular figure in secular Paris.
- And how did he take advantage of this fame?
— A year before the invasion of Russia by the Great Army, Chernyshev managed to report to Alexander about Napoleon’s plans. The Russian intelligence officer managed to create an extensive network of informants in Paris. No expense was spared to pay for their services. When there was not enough money, Chernyshev generously invested his own. The most valuable agent was an employee of the French War Ministry, a certain Michel. He was part of a group of officials who compiled the so-called short statement twice a month - analytical report on the condition and deployment of the French armed forces. The summary was executed in one copy - personally for Napoleon. True, there was one thing: Michel made a copy of a secret document, which, through secret channels, was promptly delivered to the table of the Russian sovereign. “Why don’t I have more ministers like this young man,” the tsar wrote in the margins of one of Alexander Chernyshev’s reports.
- Did the French really not know anything?
- Chernyshev managed to gain the confidence of even the director of Napoleon’s topographical office, which prepared for imperial army military cards. So active work a Russian officer could not go unnoticed by the French police. Chernyshev was under constant surveillance, which he, of course, noticed. They didn’t dare arrest him - he was a diplomat. But they could have staged any provocation, killed somewhere on the street, finally. Chernyshev was told that he needed to run away by Polina Fures, Napoleon’s former passion, who was in love with him. All night Alexander Ivanovich burned papers in the fireplace that could somehow compromise him, and in the morning he hastily left for St. Petersburg. The flight was so rapid that Chernyshev did not bother to check whether some random piece of paper had rolled into the corner. During a search in the mansion of a Russian officer, French police found a note from Michel under the carpet. The official was interrogated with partiality and after his confession he was sent to the guillotine.
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Meeting of the emperors in Erfurt. "Erfurt Congress" by Nicolas Gosse
— But Napoleonic secret services probably weren’t idle either?
— Yes, but the results of Russian intelligence in France were much richer. After all, our “agent number one” was not just anyone, but Charles Maurice de Talleyrand himself, former minister Foreign Affairs of Napoleon, one of the most influential people in France. Here is how it was. Napoleon's meeting with Alexander in Erfurt in September 1808 turned into a competition between the two emperors in diplomatic dexterity. Napoleon endlessly reproached the Russian Tsar for insufficient compliance with the continental blockade, while Alexander was very tired during these negotiations. And suddenly Talleyrand, whom Napoleon had the imprudence to take with him to Erfurt, secretly appeared to him and declared: “Sire, only you can stop this man...” Talleyrand - an unprincipled, but extremely insightful intriguer - foresaw the collapse of Napoleon, he realized that the Corsican went too far. Located in last years in disgrace with Napoleon, Talleyrand offered to become a secret informant of Alexander I...
Through our embassy in Paris, secret correspondence was organized with Talleyrand, who was encrypted under many pseudonyms: Anna Ivanovna, Cousin Henri, Handsome Leander... St. Petersburg allocated up to 40 thousand francs for this espionage “game”. Huge money in those days! Yes, Talleyrand was formally out of work, but he still had great connections in Paris and Europe. Thus, he used, as they say, in the dark, Joseph Fouché, who in 1810 was dismissed by Napoleon from the post of Minister of Police of France and who harbored a grudge against the emperor. Fouché had agent pseudonyms in Russia: Natasha and President... And this continued until Napoleon’s attack on Russia.
Talleyrand was recruited by Russian intelligence at a meeting of emperors in Erfurt. "Charles Maurice Talleyrand-Périgord" Jean François Garneret
- Yes, it’s not for nothing that Talleyrand was awarded the highest Russian awards: Orders of St. Andrew the First-Called, Alexander Nevsky and Anna, 1st degree...
— And, mind you, not without Russian help, he again became Minister of Foreign Affairs after the restoration of royal power in France.
— Why did the attempts of French intelligence to find out Russia’s military capabilities fail?
— I repeat: Russia is not Europe. “The Emperor complained all the time that he could not get information about what was happening in Russia,” wrote General Armand de Caulaincourt. - And in fact, nothing reached us from there; not a single secret agent dared to get there. Any direct communication was very difficult, even impossible. For any amount of money it was impossible to find a person who would agree to go to St. Petersburg.” The French agents—up to forty in number—sent to our territory, despite all the difficulties, were promptly identified and neutralized on the eve of the war. They acted under the guise of merchants, travelers, and tutors. Not only the French, but also Italians, Greeks, Armenians, Maltese... The Poles especially tried, especially in the border areas.
— How did Russian counterintelligence manage to beat the intelligence services of almost all of continental Europe?
— Suffice it to recall the story of David Sawan. This retired captain of the Russian army, a Frenchman by birth, found himself on Polish territory after the formation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and was recruited by French intelligence. In 1811, Savan was sent to the border zone to collect information about Russian units. How the captain began working for our special services is unknown in detail. According to one version, he confessed to the headquarters of the Russian command in Vilna. The main thing is different: Sawan was a typical double agent, thanks to whom the Russian special services managed to identify almost the entire French intelligence network in the zone bordering the duchy. It is curious that our counterintelligence officers were in no hurry to detain the spies. They preferred to organize a disinformation game with the enemy, the purpose of which was to convince Napoleon of the desire of the Russian command to give the French and others like them a decisive battle right at the border with the forces of all three Russian armies. This is exactly what Napoleon wanted with all his characteristic southern passion.
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...And they drove the remnants of the great army along the Old Smolensk Road. "Crossing the Berezina on November 29, 1812" V. Adam
- AND great commander did you believe in this misinformation?
“Not right away, but I believed it.” He sent Count Louis de Narbonne-Lara to Vilna for verification. This adjutant general of Napoleon met with Alexander several times, most likely in order to offer peace to the Tsar for the last time. But the official part was only a cover; in fact, Narbonne-Lara had clear instructions to divert attention from Bonaparte’s military preparations with peaceful conversations and at the same time actively conduct reconnaissance. In order to neutralize the nobleman and misinform Napoleon through him, captain Savan was involved in the operation. Acting out the role of a resident who had lost contact with the center, David Sawan gained confidence in the count and provided him with “particularly valuable” information. They were prepared, of course, at Russian headquarters. In particular, they very convincingly stated that Minister of War Mikhail Barclay de Tolly would do his best to oppose the crossing of the Grand Army across the border. Narbonne, who took all this at face value, hastened to please his emperor. But when Napoleon crossed the Neman in June 1812, he did not encounter serious resistance; the Russians retreated, fighting rearguard action. The great army could only go deeper into the endless country, where in a matter of months both the multilingual armada and Napoleon’s military happiness would melt away...
Invasion of Russia by Napoleonic troops. June 12, 1812 "Great Army" Napoleon (450 thousand people), having crossed the Neman, invaded the Russian Empire. Later, reinforcements approached Napoleon total number about 200 thousand people. In total, about 650 thousand soldiers and officers went on a campaign against Russia. Essentially it was a European army, since it included German, Dutch, Italian and Polish divisions and corps. But the core "Great Army" were battle-hardened French troops loyal to their emperor.
The Russian command had at its disposal three far apart armies with a total number of 590 thousand people. The largest army, under the command of General Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly, directly opposed Napoleon. At the headquarters of the first army there was
A little further south was the second army, under the command of Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration. Even further south, covering Kyiv, was the third army under the command of Alexander Petrovich Tormasov.
« I will not lay down my weapons until not a single enemy warrior remains in my kingdom.“, said Alexander I. The harsh reality, however, was that Barclay’s army could not resist Napoleon’s troops. I had to retreat. The Russian army retreated to in perfect order, without leaving behind lagging units, infirmaries, abandoned guns and carts. The immediate goal was to unite the troops of Barclay and Bagration.
Reserves were being pulled up. In the rear, the urgent formation of new military units. On July 6, Alexander I issued a manifesto calling for the creation of a people's militia. On the same day he left the army and went to Smolensk.
In Smolensk, the tsar met with local nobles who asked permission to arm themselves and the peasants. Having approved this petition, Alexander turned to the Smolensk Bishop Irenaeus with a rescript, in which he charged him with the duty of convincing the peasants to arm themselves with whatever they could, not give shelter to their enemies and inflict on them "great harm and horror".
This rescript legalized guerrilla warfare. But the peasants, who went into the forests when the enemy approached, knew nothing about this. Their struggle against the invaders unfolded independently of the royal rescripts. In August, the first partisan detachments.
At this time, Alexander I was already in Moscow. The population of the ancient capital was overwhelmed with patriotic enthusiasm. " Napoleon can't defeat us- said ordinary Muscovites, - because for this you need to kill us all first" At a meeting with the emperor, the nobility expressed a desire to put 10 people in the militia for every hundred souls of their serfs. The Moscow merchants collected 2.4 million rubles by subscription. The mayor, whose capital consisted of one hundred thousand, was the first to subscribe for 50 thousand, crossing himself and saying: “ God gave them to me and I give them to the Fatherland».
Alexander I in those days he behaved unusually modestly, even timidly. Walking through the Kremlin, he bowed to the people and asked not to push away the people crowding around him. Before going out to the nobility and making a speech, for a long time “ gained courage" The fate of his reign hung in the balance, but he had already grasped the mood of the people, realized that the war was acquiring a national character and that only this could save him in the battle with Napoleon. Someone dared to ask what he intended to do if Bonaparte captured Moscow. - " Make Russia a second Spain", Alexander answered firmly. In Spain at that time there was a popular struggle against the French occupiers.
A. A. Arakcheev, who had already gained a bad reputation, kept a low profile in those days, but relentlessly followed the emperor. Another Pavlovsky nominee, Count F.V. Rostopchin, was appointed to the post of Moscow Governor-General. Distinguished by tyranny and extreme suspicion, he looked for spies everywhere and puzzled Muscovites with his antics. When nobles and merchants gathered in one of the Moscow palaces to meet the tsar, at the side exit the nimble Rostopchin placed a cart with two policemen dressed for the road. Everyone knew that the one who said an extra word would go to Siberia in this cart.
July 22 At Smolensk, the two main Russian armies united. Bagration voluntarily ceded overall command to Barclay. Now the enemy was confronted by an army of 130 thousand people. In the advanced units of Napoleon there were about 150 thousand. "Great Army"became smaller and smaller, losing soldiers in fast marches and skirmishes with partisans, leaving garrisons in occupied cities and barriers against flank attacks. In addition, as the Russian generals noticed, the approaching Napoleonic army widely scattered its units.
July 25 At the military council in Smolensk, a plan arose to go on the offensive, break through Napoleon’s central grouping and, without allowing his corps to connect, beat them piece by piece. Barclay de Tolly was against. He believed that the balance of forces was still in favor of the enemy, and therefore the previous strategy of wearing him out in rearguard battles and accumulating his own reserves should be continued. But under pressure from the generals, Barclay had to give in.
The next day, the Russian armies moved west along two main roads from Smolensk. The third road (the bypass, through the village of Krasnoe) was covered by a division under the command of General D.P. Neverovsky.
Having learned about the actions of the Russian troops, Napoleon quickly concentrated his corps and moved to Smolensk through Krasnoe. He intended to go to the rear of the Russian troops and impose on them a general battle with an inverted front.
August 2 the advanced French corps under the command of I. Murat stumbled upon Neverovsky’s division. The self-confident marshal decided to disperse the Russians with a cavalry attack, without resorting to artillery. The French cavalry rushed to the attack forty times that day - and did not achieve success. Neverovsky's soldiers fired back at the enemy, fought back with bayonets and slowly retreated. The French were unable to break through their defenses and capture Smolensk on the move. Soon Barclay de Tolly and Bagration returned to Smolensk.
Battle for Smolensk A.Yu.Averyanov, 1995.
5th of August French units captured the outskirts of the burning city. But by the evening of the same day they were driven out of there. And at night Barclay gave the order for a general retreat.
This decision caused bewilderment and grumbling in the army and society. Barclay was not very liked before. A far-sighted strategist and courageous warrior, he was silent, withdrawn, inaccessible, and almost never spoke to soldiers. The complete opposite of Barclay was Bagration, a descendant of the Georgian kings, a military general who went through the school of A.V. Suvorov. Lack of theoretical education and excessive ardor prevented Bagration from becoming a major strategist. But he was a brilliant tactician, a master of attack and maneuver. From the very beginning of the war, Bagration called for active offensive action. After Smolensk, his relationship with Barclay went completely wrong. First, those around Bagration, and then throughout the army and in society, they started talking about the fact that Barclay “ takes a guest to Moscow" Rumors of betrayal began to spread.
Barclay treated these rumors and rumors with stoic calm. He believed that the Russian army should retreat until the balance of forces changed—maybe even to the Volga. However, his authority was undermined. The first and second armies did not always act in concert; the long retreat lowered the morale of the soldiers, and cases of looting became more frequent. But Alexander I hesitated in appointing a commander-in-chief.
Meanwhile, having victoriously completed the war with Turkey, M. I. Kutuzov returned to St. Petersburg. At that time he was 67 years old. A student and ally of Suvorov, he had broad strategic thinking and extensive life and military experience. In addition, he was known as a charming person and an excellent storyteller. He spoke with ladies in French, in letters to his wife he spoke in the old-fashioned language of the 18th century, and in conversations with men and soldiers he spoke simple Russian.
They immediately started talking about him as the only person capable of taking the post of commander in chief. The Moscow and St. Petersburg militias elected him as their commander, and in St. Petersburg he was elected unanimously, and in Moscow he beat Rostopchin. Alexander did not like Kutuzov, knowing his negative attitude towards the coup of March 11, 1801. But in the current situation, the tsar had to give in. In the future, he more than once thought about replacing Kutuzov, but never decided to do it.
It was a reasonable act on Alexander’s part - to place the leadership of military operations entirely in the hands of Kutuzov. He himself concentrated on diplomatic work. He was a good diplomat. After holding difficult negotiations with the Swedish king, Alexander managed to keep him from an alliance with Napoleon. Thus, another diplomatic victory was achieved in this war.
On the way to the army, Kutuzov often repeated: “If I only find Smolensk in our hands, then the enemy will not be in Moscow.”. But news came that Smolensk was abandoned. Beyond Smolensk, Russian troops no longer had a stronghold until Moscow itself. " The key to Moscow has been taken", Kutuzov said with disappointment. After that, his thoughts returned again and again to what choice he should make. “The issue has not yet been resolved,- he wrote in one of his letters, - whether to lose the army or lose Moscow".
August 17 near the village of Tsarevo Zaymishche, Kutuzov arrived in the army, greeted with general jubilation. The officers congratulated each other, and the soldiers quickly formed a saying: “ Kutuzov came to beat the French.” “Is it possible to retreat with such fellows?“he said, examining the troops. Using decisive measures, Kutuzov improved the supply of the army, stopped looting, and improved discipline. The commander-in-chief pinned great hopes on the militia being formed in Moscow.
Moscow lived an unusual life these days. Most of those who could bear arms joined the militia. Old people, women, children set off on their journey. After leaving Smolensk, lines of carriages and carriages stretched from the Moscow outposts. Then they were replaced by carts and carts. And then the pedestrians started walking.
August 14 A ceremonial farewell to the Moscow militia took place. The wonderful Russian poet V.A. Zhukovsky left with the militia, although the man was not at all a military man. He said that " enlisted under the banners not for the rank, not for the cross and not by choice, but because at that time everyone had to be a military man, even without the desire" The Moscow militia took part in Battle of Borodino.
WITH August 27 At three training sites in St. Petersburg, accelerated training of 13 thousand warriors was carried out over five days. Subsequently, the St. Petersburg and Novgorod militias were used to strengthen the troops covering St. Petersburg. Somewhat later, other militias, as well as Kalmyk, Tatar and Bashkir regiments, joined the hostilities.
battle of Borodino and Moscow fire. At the end of August, the numerical superiority was still on the side of the French. But Kutuzov knew that it was impossible to hold back the army rushing into battle for too long. Moreover, Russian society demanded decisive action and was ready to do everything to win.
After Kutuzov's arrival, the Russian army retreated for another five days. In the evening August 22 she stopped at the village of Borodina on the New Smolensk road, 110 km from Moscow. To the south of the village, about five kilometers, there was the village of Utitsa - on the Old Smolensk road. Deploying between them on the hilly terrain, the Russian army blocked the enemy’s path to Moscow. When the commander-in-chief examined Borodino field, a gigantic eagle soared high in the sky above him. " Wherever he goes, the eagle goes“, recalled Kutuzov’s orderly. This was considered a good sign.
The Russian army numbered 132 thousand people (including 21 thousand poorly armed militias). French army - 135 thousand. Kutuzov's headquarters, believing that there were about 190 thousand people in the enemy army, chose a defensive plan.
The French approached Borodino the very next day, but were detained near the village of Shevardino. 24 August The enemy stormed the Shevardinsky redoubt, which was defended by a small detachment of Russian troops. At this time, fortifications were hastily erected on the Borodino field. In the center of the defense, on Kurgan Heights, a battery of 18 guns was deployed. She was part of the corps led by General N.N. Raevsky. Subsequently, it began to be called the Raevsky battery. To the left of it, not far from the village of Semenovskoye, earthen fortifications (fleshes) were dug, on which 36 guns were placed. This was the key point of defense of the left flank, commanded by P.I. Bagration. His name remains in the name of the flashes.
August 26, 1812. it started at half past six in the morning battle of Borodino. Napoleon intended to break through the Russian positions in the center, bypass the left flank, push the Russian army back from the Old Smolensk Road and clear his way to Moscow. But the roundabout maneuver failed: the French were stopped near Utitsa. Napoleon unleashed the main blow on Bagration's flushes. Their assault lasted almost continuously for six hours. Bagration was seriously wounded, command of the flank passed to Lieutenant General P. P. Konovnitsyn. Around noon, at the cost of huge losses, the French captured the fortifications. Russian troops retreated to the nearest hills. The attempt of the French cavalry to dislodge the Russians from their new position was unsuccessful.
At the same time, two French attacks on Raevsky's battery. Together with the general, his two sons, 15 and 10 years old, were on the battery. While the French were preparing a third attack, they had Russian cavalry in their rear, led by Cossack ataman M.I. Platov and General F.P. Uvarov. Several hours passed before the French organized a response. Kutuzov used this time to transfer reinforcements to “hot spots.” The third, decisive attack on Raevsky’s battery was launched at about two o’clock in the afternoon. The fight lasted more than an hour and a half. Under pressure from superior forces, the Russians were forced to retreat. Napoleon threw his cavalry after them. But the Russian cavalry responded with a counterattack, and the French were stopped. Wedged into the defense of the Russian troops, they were unable to achieve a breakthrough. The path to Moscow was still closed. The day ended with the roar of artillery. The cannonade of the Battle of Borodino was heard in Moscow. With the onset of darkness, Napoleon ordered the abandonment of a number of captured points, including Raevsky's battery.
The attacking side usually suffers larger losses. In battles August 24-26 Napoleon lost 58.5 thousand soldiers and officers. But the losses of the Russian army were not much less - 44 thousand. This was explained by the fact that during the battle the armies repeatedly changed roles - the Russians knocked out the French from captured positions. Russian troops suffered heavy losses from enemy artillery. In the Battle of Borodino, the Russian army had a slight advantage in the number of guns, but the French fired more concentrated fire. The actions of the Russian artillery were affected by the death of its commander, General A.I. Kutaisov, at the height of the battle. The Russian army lost about a thousand officers and 23 generals. The brave Bagration died from a wound.
Due to heavy losses and taking into account that Napoleon had an untouched reserve (Old Guard), Kutuzov ordered in the morning August 27 withdraw from the battlefield.
The next day the Russian army left Moscow.
The abandonment of Moscow by Kutuzov was strongly reminiscent of the abandonment of Smolensk by Barclay de Tolly. And again, dissatisfied voices began to be heard in the army and in society. But Kutuzov, unlike Barclay, did not believe that it was necessary to retreat “ all the way to the Volga" Leaving Moscow along the Ryazan road, he performed his famous flank march maneuver. When the Russian troops managed to break away from the enemy, the field marshal ordered the country roads through Podolsk to reach the Kaluga road. With this maneuver, Kutuzov made the further movement of the French to the east pointless and covered the food warehouses located in the Kaluga region, and at the same time the path to the food-rich southern provinces. Napoleon did not immediately understand what trap he found himself in.
September 2 In the half-empty Moscow abandoned by Russian troops, terrible events took place. Marauders from " Great Army"and ordinary robbers. The French command at first did not attach any importance to the fires that started in different places. But in dry and warm weather they grew quickly. And now Arbat and Zamoskvorechye have completely caught fire, wooden houses on Mokhovaya have caught fire. The fire engulfed the shopping arcades of Kitay-Gorod. Barges with hay on the Moscow River turned into huge bonfires. A ring of fires tightened around the Kremlin, where Napoleon stayed. Late in the evening he left the Kremlin with his retinue and moved along the burning Tverskaya to the Petrovsky Country Palace.
Kutuzov was drinking tea and talking with peasants when he was informed about the fire. After a pause, he said: “ It's a shame, really, but wait, I'll break his head.».
Moscow burned for six days. Three quarters of the city's buildings were destroyed. The fire also destroyed food warehouses. The French army immediately found itself on the brink of starvation.
Document: I. T. Radozhitsky "Camping notes of an artilleryman from 1812 to 1816."
(Extract)
...The Battle of Borodino was described by many eyewitnesses and is known to almost everyone; and therefore, avoiding repetition, I will describe only some pictures and cases.
With the rising of the sun, a terrible cannonade of cannons, howitzers, and unicorns opened up along the entire line from the left flank to the middle. The shots were so frequent that there was no gap left in the blows: they continued continuously, like a clap of thunder, producing an artificial earthquake. Thick clouds of smoke, swirling from the batteries, rose to the sky and obscured the sun, which was covered with a bloody veil, as if changing from human bitterness and rage. Figner and I on the right flank remained for a long time calm spectators of this phenomenon and stood silently at our guns... The enemy cannonballs reached us in the last leaps or rolled on their way out; the grenades flapped in the air and, scattering into fragments, made terrible sounds.
A fierce battle took place on the left flank; The Russians stood courageously in the trenches. The French paid for every step forward with countless losses of people. One cannot help but be surprised at the despair with which they climbed to their death; One cannot be surprised at the presence of the spirit of the Russians, with which they defended themselves, holding back the aspirations of the superior forces of the enemy.
When the French in the middle of our line captured the mound lunette for the first time and were overturned, at that time the infantry of the 4th Corps was ordered to move to reinforce those fighting near the lunette. The news of our exploits in shooting down the enemy in this place quickly spread along the line. Of the Yelets regiment, Major T..., in delight of the military spirit, galloped from the battlefield along our line, proclaiming to everyone that the French had been defeated and the Neapolitan king had been captured... But this imaginary Murat was General Bonamy. When the Russian grenadier wanted to stab him, he cried out to save himself: “I am the king!” Then the mustache, taking the king by the collar, dragged him to the commander-in-chief. Prince Kutuzov immediately congratulated the private non-commissioned officer and awarded him the insignia of the Military Order of St. George. The meeting near the lunette was not cheap and it cost us: here at the battery they killed the chief of all artillery, Count Kutaisov, a general who promised a lot with his personal merits.
A howitzer is a type of artillery gun used for overhead firing at hidden targets.
The Unicorn was a howitzer with a long barrel that allowed it to fire over the heads of its infantry. Named after a fantastic beast.
The infantry of the 4th Corps went to the center, but the artillery still remained in reserve. Figner and I were constantly waiting to see if they would invite us to a bloody feast... We were only ordered to take the guns out of the bushes, put them together and be ready. Out of curiosity, I drove up to the nearest mound, in front of the village. Gorki, from which the Russian battery fired at enemy columns. Here a vast battlefield opened up before me. I saw how our infantry in dense masses converged with the enemy; I saw how, approaching one another, they fired battle fire, turned around, scattered and, finally, disappeared; Only the dead remained on the spot, and the wounded returned. The other columns converged again and again disappeared in the same way. This spectacle of the extermination of people amazed me so much that I could not look any longer and with a clenched heart I drove off to my guns...
It seemed that the commander-in-chief did not lose hope of victory, as long as the large lunette in the center of the line and the village of Semenovskoye, on the left flank, were in our hands. Rejecting as much as possible the increasing danger on the left flank, he tried to regain what was lost and use all his strength to turn the wavering victory to the Russian banners. To distract the enemy's attention, he ordered Lieutenant General Uvarov with the 1st Cavalry Corps to cross the river. I pound and attack their left flank, open behind the villages. Borodin. We watched with pleasure as our cavalry on the other side of the river moved forward in long lines of red, blue hussars and lancers, then struck the French cavalry and drove it far beyond Borodino; there she attacked the battery... But four regiments of enemy infantry, having formed a square from Borodino, went towards our cavalry; she attacked each square in turn and, unable to break a single one, retreated. At this time, Figner received orders to approach the village of Gorki with artillery; On the way, we heard strong rifle fire to the right, fired by the French against our cavalry, and suddenly several scattered hussars galloped past us. Some of them, shot through, immediately fell from their horses, including one fine officer, shot in the chest by a bullet, fell from his horse two steps in front of us... Soon after that we saw two Don Cossack regiments, quite skillfully walking forward in all directions , under the cannonballs, without any damage; then they gathered and attacked the French together.
In the afternoon, when the Italian Viceroy1 made his last attack on our mound lunette, the battery and rifle fire thrown from it in all directions, likened this mound to a fire-breathing vent; Moreover, the shine of sabers, broadswords, bayonets, helmets and armor from the bright rays of the setting sun, all together presented a terrible and majestic picture. We are from the village. Gorki witnessed this bloody attack. Our cavalry interfered with the enemy's in a cruel battle: they shot, hacked and stabbed each other from all sides. The French had already approached the very lunette, and our guns fell silent after the final salvo... Meanwhile, the enemy infantry climbed onto the rampart from all sides and was overturned by Russian bayonets into the ditch, which was filled with the corpses of the dead; but fresh columns took the place of the broken ones and with new fury climbed to die; ours met them with equal ferocity and themselves fell with the enemies. Finally, the French furiously burst into the lunette and stabbed everyone they came across; The artillerymen, who acted with deadly force on the battery, suffered especially. Then the mound lunette remained in the hands of the enemy. This was the last trophy of their exhausted strength...
They said that at the beginning of the battle an eagle flew over the head of Prince Kutuzov, and the prince, taking off his hat, seemed to greet him as a harbinger of victory; but many doubted that the commander-in-chief would begin to deal with the eagle at a time when all his thoughts and attention were directed to the action of the battle. It was more likely that the random appearance of an eagle during the battle seemed to be something foreshadowing. It cannot be disputed that prudent commanders do not miss the slightest opportunity to instill courage in their soldiers. So Napoleon, wanting to strengthen the hope of victory among his troops, cried out at sunrise on the day of the Battle of Borodino: “This is the sun of Austerlitz!” But he was cruelly deceived.
The Italian Viceroy is Eugene Beauharnais, stepson of Napoleon, commander of the 4th Corps of the Grand Army. Napoleon appropriated the title of King of Italy to himself.
The War of 1812, also known as the Patriotic War of 1812, the war with Napoleon, the invasion of Napoleon, is the first event in the national history of Russia when all layers of Russian society rallied to repel the enemy. It was the popular nature of the war with Napoleon that allowed historians to give it the name of the Patriotic War.Cause of the war with Napoleon
Napoleon considered England his main enemy, an obstacle to world domination. Crush her military force he could not for geographical reasons: Britain is an island, a landing operation would have cost France very dearly, and besides, after the Battle of Trafalgar, England remained the only mistress of the seas. Therefore, Napoleon decided to strangle the enemy economically: to undermine England’s trade by closing all European ports to it. However, the blockade did not bring benefits to France either; it ruined its bourgeoisie. “Napoleon understood that it was the war with England and the blockade associated with it that prevented a radical improvement in the economy of the empire. But in order to end the blockade, it was first necessary to get England to lay down its arms.”* However, the victory over England was hampered by the position of Russia, which in words agreed to comply with the terms of the blockade, but in fact, Napoleon was convinced, did not comply with it. “English goods from Russia along the entire vast western border are leaking into Europe and this reduces the continental blockade to zero, that is, it destroys the only hope of “bringing England to its knees.” The Great Army in Moscow means the submission of the Russian Emperor Alexander, this is the complete implementation of the continental blockade, therefore, victory over England is possible only after victory over Russia.
Subsequently, in Vitebsk, already during the campaign against Moscow, Count Daru frankly declared to Napoleon that neither the armies, nor even many in the emperor’s entourage understood why this difficult war was being waged with Russia, because because of the trade in English goods in Alexander’s possessions, not worth it. (However) Napoleon saw in the consistently carried out economic strangulation of England the only means of finally ensuring the durability of the existence of the great monarchy he created
Background to the War of 1812
- 1798 - Russia, together with Great Britain, Turkey, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Kingdom of Naples, created the second anti-French coalition
- 1801, September 26 - Paris Peace Treaty between Russia and France
- 1805 - England, Russia, Austria, Sweden formed the third anti-French coalition
- 1805, November 20 - Napoleon defeats the Austro-Russian troops at Austerlitz
- 1806, November - the beginning of the war between Russia and Turkey
- 1807, June 2 - defeat of Russian-Prussian troops at Friedland
- 1807, June 25 - Treaty of Tilsit between Russia and France. Russia pledged to join the continental blockade
- 1808, February - the beginning of the Russian-Swedish War, which lasted a year
- 1808, October 30 - Erfur Union Conference of Russia and France, confirming the Franco-Russian alliance
- Late 1809 - early 1810 - Napoleon’s unsuccessful matchmaking with Alexander the First’s sister Anna
- 1810, December 19 - introduction of new customs tariffs in Russia, beneficial for English goods and disadvantageous for French ones
- 1812, February - peace agreement between Russia and Sweden
- 1812, May 16 - Treaty of Bucharest between Russia and Turkey
“Napoleon subsequently said that he should have abandoned the war with Russia at the moment when he learned that neither Turkey nor Sweden would fight with Russia.”
Patriotic War of 1812. Briefly
- 1812, June 12 ( old style) - the French army invaded Russia by crossing the Neman
The French did not see a single soul in the entire vast space beyond the Neman until the very horizon, after the Cossack guards disappeared from sight. “Before us lay a desert, brown, yellowish land with stunted vegetation and distant forests on the horizon,” recalled one of the participants in the hike, and the picture seemed “ominous” even then.
- 1812, June 12-15 - in four continuous streams, the Napoleonic army crossed the Neman along three new bridges and a fourth old one - at Kovno, Olitt, Merech, Yurburg - regiment after regiment, battery after battery, in a continuous stream crossed the Neman and lined up on the Russian bank.
Napoleon knew that although he had 420 thousand people at hand... the army was far from equal in all its parts, that he could only rely on the French part of his army (in total, the great army consisted of 355 thousand subjects of the French Empire, but among them there were far from all were natural French), and even then not entirely, because young recruits could not be placed next to the seasoned warriors who had been on his campaigns. As for the Westphalians, Saxons, Bavarians, Rhenish, Hanseatic Germans, Italians, Belgians, Dutch, not to mention his forced allies - the Austrians and Prussians, whom he dragged for purposes unknown to them to death in Russia and of whom many do not hate at all Russians, and himself, it is unlikely that they will fight with particular fervor
- 1812, June 12 - the French in Kovno (now Kaunas)
- 1812, June 15 - The corps of Jerome Bonaparte and Yu. Poniatowski advanced to Grodno
- 1812, June 16 - Napoleon in Vilna (Vilnius), where he stayed for 18 days
- 1812, June 16 - a short battle in Grodno, the Russians blew up bridges across the Lososnya River
Russian commanders
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Barclay de Tolly (1761-1818) - Since the spring of 1812 - commander of the 1st Western Army. At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812 - Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army
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Bagration (1765-1812) - chief of the Life Guards of the Jaeger Regiment. At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, the commander of the 2nd Western Army
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Bennigsen (1745-1826) - cavalry general, by order of Kutuzaov - chief of the General Staff of the Russian army
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Kutuzov (1747-1813) - Field Marshal General, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army during the Patriotic War of 1812
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Chichagov (1767-1849) - admiral, naval minister of the Russian Empire from 1802 to 1809
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Wittgenstein (1768-1843) - Field Marshal General, during the War of 1812 - commander of a separate corps in the St. Petersburg direction
- 1812, June 18 - the French in Grodno
- 1812, July 6 - Alexander the First announced recruitment into the militia
- 1812, July 16 - Napoleon in Vitebsk, the armies of Bagration and Barclay retreat to Smolensk
- 1812, August 3 - connection of the armies of Barclay to Tolly and Bagration near Smolensk
- 1812, August 4-6 - Battle of Smolensk
At 6 a.m. on August 4, Napoleon ordered the general bombardment and assault of Smolensk to begin. Fierce fighting broke out and lasted until 6 pm. Dokhturov's corps, defending the city together with the division of Konovnitsyn and the Prince of Württemberg, fought with courage and tenacity that amazed the French. In the evening, Napoleon called Marshal Davout and categorically ordered the next day, no matter the cost, to take Smolensk. He had already had the hope earlier, and now it has grown stronger, that this Smolensk battle, in which supposedly the entire Russian army is participating (he knew about Barclay’s finally united with Bagration), will be the decisive battle that the Russians have so far avoided, giving to him without a fight huge parts of his empire. On August 5, the battle resumed. The Russians offered heroic resistance. After a bloody day, night came. The bombing of the city, by order of Napoleon, continued. And suddenly on Wednesday night there were terrible explosions one after another, shaking the earth; The fire that started spread throughout the city. It was the Russians who blew up the powder magazines and set the city on fire: Barclay gave the order to retreat. At dawn, French scouts reported that the city had been abandoned by troops, and Davout entered Smolensk without a fight.
- 1812, August 8 - Kutuzov was appointed commander-in-chief instead of Barclay de Tolly
- 1812, August 23 - Scouts reported to Napoleon that the Russian army had stopped and taken up positions two days earlier and that fortifications had also been built near the village visible in the distance. When asked what the name of the village was, the scouts answered: “Borodino”
- 1812, August 26 - Battle of Borodino
Kutuzov knew that Napoleon would be destroyed by the impossibility of a long war several thousand kilometers from France, in a deserted, meager, hostile huge country, a lack of food, and an unusual climate. But he knew even more precisely that they would not allow him to give up Moscow without a general battle, despite his Russian surname, just as Barclay was not allowed to do this. And he decided to fight this battle, which was unnecessary, in his deepest conviction. Strategically unnecessary, it was morally and politically inevitable. At 15:00 the Battle of Borodino killed more than 100,000 people on both sides. Napoleon later said: “Of all my battles, the most terrible was the one I fought near Moscow. The French showed themselves worthy of victory, and the Russians acquired the right to be invincible...”
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The most blatant school linden concerns French losses in the Battle of Borodino. European historiography admits that Napoleon was missing 30 thousand soldiers and officers, of which 10–12 thousand were killed. Nevertheless, on the main monument erected on the Borodino field, 58,478 people are engraved in gold. As Alexey Vasiliev, an expert on the era, admits, we owe the “mistake” to Alexander Schmidt, a Swiss who at the end of 1812 really needed 500 rubles. He turned to Count Fyodor Rostopchin, posing as a former adjutant of Napoleonic Marshal Berthier. Having received the money, the “adjutant” from the lantern compiled a list of losses for the corps of the Great Army, attributing, for example, 5 thousand killed to the Holsteins, who did not participate in the Battle of Borodino at all. The Russian world was happy to be deceived, and when documentary refutations appeared, no one dared to initiate the dismantling of the legend. And it still hasn’t been decided: the figure has been floating around in textbooks for decades, as if Napoleon lost about 60 thousand soldiers. Why deceive children who can open a computer? (“Arguments of the Week”, No. 34(576) dated 08/31/2017)
- 1812, September 1 - council in Fili. Kutuzov ordered to leave Moscow
- 1812, September 2 - The Russian army passed through Moscow and reached the Ryazan road
- 1812, September 2 - Napoleon in Moscow
- 1812, September 3 - the beginning of a fire in Moscow
- 1812, September 4-5 - Fire in Moscow.
On the morning of September 5, Napoleon walked around the Kremlin and from the windows of the palace, wherever he looked, the emperor turned pale and silently looked at the fire for a long time, and then said: “What a terrible sight! They set the fire themselves... What determination! What people! These are Scythians!
- 1812, September 6 - September 22 - Napoleon three times sent envoys to the Tsar and Kutuzov with a proposal for peace. Didn't wait for an answer
- 1812, October 6 - the beginning of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow
- 1812, October 7 - The victorious battle of the Russian army of Kutuzov with the French troops of Marshal Murat in the area of the village of Tarutino, Kaluga region
- 1812, October 12 - the battle of Maloyaroslavets, which forced Napoleon’s army to retreat along the old Smolensk road, already completely destroyed
Generals Dokhturov and Raevsky attacked Maloyaroslavets, which had been occupied the day before by Delzon. Eight times Maloyaroslavets changed hands. Losses on both sides were heavy. The French lost about 5 thousand people in killed alone. The city burned to the ground, catching fire during the battle, so that many hundreds of people, Russians and French, died from fire in the streets, many wounded were burned alive
- 1812, October 13 - In the morning, Napoleon with a small retinue left the village of Gorodni to inspect the Russian positions, when suddenly Cossacks with pikes at the ready attacked this group of horsemen. Two marshals who were with Napoleon (Murat and Bessieres), General Rapp and several officers crowded around Napoleon and began to fight back. Polish light cavalry and guards rangers arrived in time and saved the emperor.
- 1812, October 15 - Napoleon ordered a retreat to Smolensk
- 1812, October 18 - frosts began. Winter came early and cold
- 1812, October 19 - Wittgenstein's corps, reinforced by St. Petersburg and Novgorod militias and other reinforcements, drove out the troops of Saint-Cyr and Oudinot from Polotsk
- 1812, October 26 - Wittgenstein occupied Vitebsk
- 1812, November 6 - Napoleon's army arrived in Dorogobuzh (city Smolensk region), only 50 thousand people remained ready for battle
- 1812, early November - Chichagov’s Southern Russian army, arriving from Turkey, rushed to the Berezina (a river in Belarus, the right tributary of the Dnieper)
- 1812, November 14 - Napoleon left Smolensk with only 36 thousand men under arms
- 1812, November 16-17 - a bloody battle near the village of Krasny (45 km southwest of Smolensk), in which the French suffered huge losses
- 1812, November 16 - Chichagov's army occupied Minsk
- 1812, November 22 - Chichagov's army occupied Borisov on the Berezina. There was a bridge across the river in Borisov
- 1812, November 23 - defeat of the vanguard of Chichagov's army from Marshal Oudinot near Borisov. Borisov again went over to the French
- 1812, November 26-27 - Napoleon transported the remnants of the army across the Berezina and took them to Vilna
- 1812, December 6 - Napoleon left the army, going to Paris
- 1812, December 11 - the Russian army entered Vilna
- 1812, December 12 - the remnants of Napoleon's army arrived in Kovno
- 1812, December 15 - the remnants of the French army crossed the Neman, leaving Russian territory
- 1812, December 25 - Alexander I issued a manifesto on the end of the Patriotic War
“...Now, with heartfelt joy and bitterness to God, We declare gratitude to Our dear loyal subjects, that the event has surpassed even Our very hope, and that what We announced at the opening of this war has been fulfilled beyond measure: there is no longer a single enemy on the face of Our land; or better yet, they all stayed here, but how? Dead, wounded and prisoners. The proud ruler and leader himself could barely ride away with his most important officials, having lost all his army and all the cannons he brought with him, which, more than a thousand, not counting those buried and sunk by him, were recaptured from him, and are in Our hands ... "
Thus ended the Patriotic War of 1812. Then the foreign campaigns of the Russian army began, the purpose of which, according to Alexander the First, was to finish off Napoleon. But that is another story
Reasons for Russia's victory in the war against Napoleon
- The nationwide character of the resistance provided
- Mass heroism of soldiers and officers
- High skill of military leaders
- Napoleon's indecisiveness in announcing anti-serfdom laws
- Geographical and natural factors
The result of the Patriotic War of 1812
- The growth of national self-awareness in Russian society
- The beginning of the decline of Napoleon's career
- Growing authority of Russia in Europe
- The emergence of anti-serfdom, liberal views in Russia
The fire of European wars increasingly engulfed Europe. At the beginning of the 19th century, Russia was also involved in this struggle. The result of this intervention was the unsuccessful foreign wars with Napoleon and the Patriotic War of 1812.
Causes of the war
After the defeat of the Fourth Anti-French Coalition by Napoleon on June 25, 1807, the Treaty of Tilsit was concluded between France and Russia. The conclusion of peace forced Russia to join the participants in the continental blockade of England. However, neither country was going to comply with the terms of the treaty.
The main causes of the War of 1812:
- The Peace of Tilsit was economically unprofitable for Russia, so the government of Alexander I decided to trade with England through neutral countries.
- The policy pursued by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte towards Prussia was detrimental Russian interests, French troops concentrated on the border with Russia, also contrary to the provisions of the Tilsit Treaty.
- After Alexander I did not agree to give his consent to the marriage of his sister Anna Pavlovna with Napoleon, relations between Russia and France deteriorated sharply.
At the end of 1811, the bulk of the Russian army was deployed against the war with Turkey. By May 1812, thanks to the genius of M.I. Kutuzov, the military conflict was resolved. Türkiye curtailed its military expansion in the East, and Serbia gained independence.
Beginning of the war
By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1812-1814, Napoleon managed to concentrate up to 645 thousand troops on the border with Russia. His army included Prussian, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Polish units.
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The Russian troops, despite all the objections of the generals, were divided into three armies and located far from each other. The first army under the command of Barclay de Tolly numbered 127 thousand people, the second army, led by Bagration, had 49 thousand bayonets and sabers. And finally, in the third army of General Tormasov, there were about 45 thousand soldiers.
Napoleon decided to immediately take advantage of the mistake of the Russian emperor, namely, with a sudden blow to defeat the two main armies of Barclay de Toll and Bagration in border battles, preventing them from uniting and moving with an accelerated march to defenseless Moscow.
At five in the morning on June 12, 1821, the French army (about 647 thousand) began to cross the Russian border.
Rice. 1. Crossing of Napoleonic troops across the Neman.
The numerical superiority of the French army allowed Napoleon to immediately take the military initiative into his own hands. The Russian army did not yet have universal conscription and the army was replenished using outdated recruitment kits. Alexander I, who was in Polotsk, issued a Manifesto on July 6, 1812 calling for the collection of a general people's militia. As a result of the timely implementation of such internal policy by Alexander I, different layers of the Russian population began to rapidly flock to the ranks of the militia. Nobles were allowed to arm their serfs and join the ranks of the regular army with them. The war immediately began to be called “Patriotic”. The manifesto also regulated the partisan movement.
Progress of military operations. Main events
The strategic situation required the immediate merging of the two Russian armies into a single whole under a common command. Napoleon’s task was the opposite - to prevent the union Russian forces and defeat them as quickly as possible in two or three border battles.
The following table shows the course of the main chronological events of the Patriotic War of 1812:
| date | Event | Content |
| June 12, 1812 | Invasion of Napoleon's troops into the Russian Empire |
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| June 27-28, 1812 | Clashes near the town of Mir |
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| July 11, 1812 | Battle of Saltanovka |
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| July 25-28, 1812 | Battle near Vitebsk |
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| July 27, 1812 | Battle of Kovrin |
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| July 29-August 1, 1812 | Battle of Klyastitsy |
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| August 16-18, 1812 | Battle for Smolensk |
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| August 18, 1812 | Kutuzov arrived in the village of Tsarevo-Zaimishche |
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| August 19, 1812 | Battle at Valutina Mountain |
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| August 24-26 | battle of Borodino |
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| September 13, 1812 | Council in Fili |
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| September 14-October 20, 1812 | Occupation of Moscow by the French |
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| October 18, 1812 | Tarutino fight |
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| October 24, 1812 | Battle of Maloyaroslavets |
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| November 9, 1812 | Battle of Lyakhov |
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| November 15, 1812 | Battle of Krasny |
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| November 26-29, 1812 | Crossing at the Berezina |
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Rice. 2. Crossing of French troops across the Berezina. Januariy Zlatopolsky...
Napoleon's invasion caused enormous damage to the Russian Empire - many cities were burned, tens of thousands of villages were reduced to ashes. But a common misfortune brings people together. An unprecedented scale of patriotism united the central provinces; tens of thousands of peasants signed up for the militia, went into the forest, becoming partisans. Not only men, but also women fought the French, one of them was Vasilisa Kozhina.
The defeat of France and the results of the War of 1812
After the victory over Napoleon, Russia continued to liberate European countries from the yoke of the French invaders. In 1813, a military alliance was concluded between Prussia and Russia. The first stage of the foreign campaigns of Russian troops against Napoleon ended in failure due to the sudden death of Kutuzov and the lack of coordination in the actions of the allies.
- However, France was extremely exhausted by continuous wars and asked for peace. However, Napoleon lost the fight on the diplomatic front. Another coalition of powers grew up against France: Russia, Prussia, England, Austria and Sweden.
- In October 1813, the famous Battle of Leipzig took place. At the beginning of 1814, Russian troops and allies entered PARIS. Napoleon was deposed and at the beginning of 1814 exiled to the island of Elba.
Rice. 3. Entry of Russian and allied troops into Paris. HELL. Kivshenko.
- In 1814, a Congress was held in Vienna, where the victorious countries discussed questions about the post-war structure of Europe.
- In June 1815, Napoleon fled the island of Elba and retook the French throne, but after just 100 days of rule, the French were defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena.
Summing up the results of the Patriotic War of 1812, it should be noted that the influence it had on the leading people of Russian society was limitless. Many great works were written by great writers and poets based on this war. The post-war peace was short-lived, although the Congress of Vienna gave Europe several years of peace. Russia acted as the savior of occupied Europe, however historical meaning Western historians tend to underestimate the Patriotic War.
What have we learned?
The beginning of the 19th century in the history of Russia, studied in grade 4, was marked by a bloody war with Napoleon. A detailed report and table “Patriotic War of 1812” tells briefly about the Patriotic War of 1812, what the nature of this war was, the main periods of military operations.
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