Trophies, glory, all the blessings for which we sacrificed everything, became a burden to us; now it was not about how to decorate your life, but about how to save it. At this great wreck, the army, like a great ship wrecked by a terrible storm, did not hesitate to throw into this sea of ​​ice and snow everything that could impede and delay its movement.(from the Notes of the Adjutant of Emperor Napoleon I Philippe Paul de Segur)

Napoleon's retreat from Russia
Jerzy KOSSAK

Napoleon's retreat from Russia (detail)
Jerzy KOSSAK

Trophies taken from Moscow were thrown into the waters of Smelevsky Lake: cannons, ancient weapons, Kremlin decorations and a cross from the bell tower of Ivan the Great were flooded.

A few words about the hardships that befell the Napoleonic Great Army on the territory of Russia. It just so happened that the non-combat losses of the army exceeded the combat ones, which, however, happened quite often in those days. As we remember, in the first half of the campaign, terrible heat, dust that covered the eyes and penetrated everywhere, and not only into the upper respiratory tract, endless strenuous marches, diseases tormented and mowed down the fighters. People died from heatstroke, heart attacks, intestinal, lung infections and simply from physical overwork.

Retreat after Smolensk
Adolf NORTERN

Road
Jan HELMINSKY

hard road
Jan HELMINSKY

Literally a few days after the exodus of the French army from Moscow, interruptions began in the supply of its food, and the further the worse.

In the evening, hunger began to be felt among those units that had managed to deplete their supplies. Until then, each time soup was cooked, each gave his portion of flour, but when it was noticed that not everyone participated in the clubbing, many began to hide in order to eat what they had; they ate together only the soup of horse meat, which they began to cook in recent days.

Dinner preparation
Alexander APSIT

French retreat from Russia
Friedrich KAMP

Not only the meat of fallen and specially slaughtered horses was used, but also birds, bears, everything that came across in the way of hungry people:
– Since yesterday, I have eaten only half of the crow I raised on the road, and a few spoonfuls of groats stew, half with oat straw and rye salted with gunpowder.

The flight of the French with their families from Russia.
Bogdan VILLEVALDE

In contemplation. 1812
Woyzeck KOSSACK

Return
Jerzy Kossak

Two French hussars
Woyzeck KOSSACK

In addition, ahead of time it was necessary to take care of the coming winter, especially since on the way to Moscow, some soldiers, exhausted from the intense heat, got rid of warm uniforms. And from Moscow, they did not take warm winter clothes with them, and this became one of the fatal mistakes. As Dominique Pierre de la Flies, Assistant Surgeon General of the French Army and the Imperial Guard, Jean-Dominique Larrey wrote: ... our French did not seem to have foreseen it. The Poles, who were more ingenious, and even familiar with the region, in advance, back in Moscow, stocked up on fur coats they had collected in shops and rows, since no one prevented them from doing this, and their vans were full of this stuff.. He also claimed, and apparently had grounds for this, since he lived both in France and in Russia (after the Russian captivity he did not want to return to his homeland, he remained in Russian Empire, married), that those who believe that the French, Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese who were in the army died from the cold, like the inhabitants of the south, were too mistaken. On the contrary, the doctor believed that this Russian peasant, who grew up in a warm, stuffy hut, was more sensitive to cold than the French and Italians, accustomed to it in their unheated rooms; they tolerate 5-6 ° frosts quite well in light clothing.

French withdrawal from Moscow
January SUKHODOLSKY

Good weather stood both near Maloyaroslavets and Vyazma, but this did not help the French army to win the battles. Campaigner Henri Beuyl ( future writer Stendhal) wrote: It would be a mistake to think that the winter of 1812 came early; on the contrary, the weather in Moscow was most beautiful. When we set out from there on October 19, it was only three degrees of frost, and the sun was shining brightly. Although it should be noted that spending the night in the open air, even at low positive temperatures, high humidity, causing chills, is sometimes more dangerous than severe frosts.

Retreat from Russia
Theodore GERICO

They say that when leaving Moscow, Emperor Napoleon intended to send all the wounded, in order to avoid Russian revenge, saying:
– I will give all the treasures of Russia for the life of one wounded man...

Dutch regiment during the retreat from Russia
Kate ROCCO

In fact, it turned out differently. Carriages full of wounded often got stuck on Russian roads, left without help, despite the cries for salvation and the groans of the dying. Everyone passed by. At first, Napoleon's order was executed, according to which everyone who had a carriage was obliged to seat one wounded person in his cart, each sutler had a sick or wounded person in the cart, but this did not last long. Later they were simply thrown out onto the road.

Return from Russia
Theodore GERICO

... many sick and wounded who were unable to walk were forced to leave on the road; among them were women and children, exhausted by hunger and prolonged walking. In vain they persuaded us to help them, but we did not have the means for this... ...the wounded trudged along as best they could, some on crutches, some with a bandaged arm or head; after a few steps, they sat down on the edge of the road.

The moment we left the battlefield was terrible and sad; our poor wounded, seeing that we were leaving them on the killing field surrounded by the enemy - especially the soldiers of the 1st Voltizhor Regiment, most of whose legs were crushed by buckshot - dragged with difficulty on their knees after us, staining the snow with their blood; they raised their hands to the sky, emitting soul-rending cries and begging for help, but what could we do? After all, the same fate awaited us every minute; retreating, we were forced to leave to the mercy of fate all those who fell in our ranks.(from the Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgony)

The return of the French army from Russia
J. RUSSO

Return of Napoleon from Russia in 1812
Marie Gaston Honfray de BREVILLE

Retreating French
Kazimir PULATSKY

Hussar in the snow
Woyzeck KOSSACK

Russian frosts began in early November, very severe after Smolensk, they alternated with thaws, but did not play a decisive role in the defeat of the French, since the army was demoralized even before their offensive. Did not contribute to the strengthening of combat capability and daily endless transitions. People were so weak, even hardened, that, having fallen down, they could not get up and froze; the whole road was strewn with corpses. The despair, hopelessness and fear that gripped many contributed to an increase in losses, especially after Smolensk, when hopes for warm shelter and more or less decent food collapsed.

The main reason for the death of the French in the coming frosts was the lack of warm clothes, the lack of nutritious food and vodka, which cannot be dispensed with, being constantly in the cold.(Napoleon's campaign in Russia in 1812, de la Flies)

retarded
Vladimir ZVORYKIN

retarded
Alexander APSIT

Soon, chronic hunger and exhaustion led to the fact that many soldiers, obeying the instinct of self-preservation, began to disperse singly or in groups in search of food and shelter, to fall behind their columns. But in vain, everything in the district was devastated by them during the invasion. The stragglers were met by Cossacks, partisans or local peasants, who did not stand on ceremony with them, undressed them, drove them to the Smolensk road, or even completely killed them.

In 1812. Captured French
Illarion Pryanishnikov

As Leo Tolstoy so aptly remarked, The partisans destroyed the Great Army in parts. They picked up those fallen leaves that fell of their own accord from a withered tree - the French army, and sometimes shook this tree ...

Partisans in ambush
Alexander APSIT

partisans
Alexander APSIT

Alexander APSIT

Don't stop - let it pass!
Vasily VERESHCHAGIN

The painting is dedicated to the peasant struggle against the enemy in 1812. In the center is its generalized image of the hero partisan movement in 1812, about which the artist learned from oral tradition. In my searches, I collected what I could from the oral folk traditions of the old people, such as, for example, the legend about a partisan, the headman of one of the villages of the Mozhaisk district, Semyon Arkhipovich, whom I depicted in the picture Do not block - let me come!

The partisans lead the French prisoners. Illustrations for Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace
Dementy SHMARINOV

It happened that the peasants themselves fell into the hands of the French, whom they also did not spare.

With a weapon in hand - shoot
Vasily VERESHCHAGIN

Napoleon sentences partisans to be shot
Alexander APSIT

Military execution. The execution of Lieutenant Colonel P.I. Engelhardt in October 1812
Engraving JAZET after the original by Pierre Roche Vigneron

At the beginning Patriotic War 1812 Pavel Ivanovich Engelhardt, retired lieutenant colonel, lived in his estate Dyagilevo, Smolensk province. When the enemy occupied Smolensk, he, along with several other landowners, armed his peasants, organizing a people's detachment. Engelhardt's detachment caused quite serious damage to the enemy, robbing French carts and attacking separate groups of Frenchmen who looted throughout the county.

The execution of Lieutenant Colonel P.I. Engelhardt in October 1812
Semyon KOZHIN

Execution of Engelhart
Engraving by an unknown author

Engelhardt's feat
Alexander APSIT

Later, Pavel Ivanovich was captured, they say, his own peasants surrendered him. The French tried to persuade him to betray the Fatherland, to go to their service, but to no avail. From was sentenced to death. In Smolensk, behind the Molokhov Gates, an execution was carried out. Courageously, not allowing himself to be blindfolded, he accepted death.

Arrival in Omsk of a party of captured Poles of Napoleon's great army.
Enrollment in the Cossacks and distribution to the regiments by Yesaul Nabokov.
Nikolay KARAZIN

By the way, you can listen to or read about the prisoners in the war of 1812 and their fate in the program of a brilliant storyteller, historian
Alexey Kuznetsov

Retreat of the Grand Army
L. BRIEF

The army was moving, shrouded in a cold mist... It seemed that the sky descended and merged with this land and with this hostile people to end our death!

While our soldiers struggled to make their way through the raging snow whirlwind, the wind swept snowdrifts. These snowdrifts hid from us the ravines and potholes on the road unfamiliar to us; soldiers fell into them, and the weakest of them found their grave there.

A whirlwind of snow both from above and from below lashed them in the face; he seemed to vehemently rebel against their campaign. Russian winter, in its new form, attacked them from all sides: it made its way through their light clothes and torn shoes. The wet dress froze on them; this icy shell bound and twisted the body; a sharp and fierce wind made it impossible to breathe; beards and mustaches were covered with icicles. The unfortunate, shivering from the cold, dragged on until some fragment, branch or corpse of one of their comrades made them slip and fall. Then they began to moan. In vain: they were immediately covered with snow; small mounds made people aware of them: here was their grave! The whole road was covered with these elevations, like a graveyard. Nature, like a shroud, shrouded the army! The only objects that stood out from the mist were the fir trees, those grave trees with their gloomy greenery, and the majestic immobility of their dark trunks, their sad appearance, complemented the spectacle of general mourning, wildlife and an army dying in the midst of dead nature! (from the Notes of the Adjutant of Emperor Napoleon I Philippe Paul de Segur)

On the eve of the 205th anniversary of the battle near the village of Borodino, which took place on September 7, 1812, the AiF columnist asked French students answer whether they know the Patriotic War. The result was stunning.

"Mikhail Kutuzov? It seems that this is such a Russian vodka ... "

Was Russia really at war with France?

— Yes, and France attacked Russia.

- And how did it all end?

The Russians defeated the French and captured Paris.

Listen, this can't be. After all, Napoleon was overthrown by the British.

The death of a Frenchman. The battle on the Berezina put an end to the whole battle

Then I immediately remembered the magnificent assertions that the Americans won World War II, and I did not torture the person further. In total, I interviewed 20 students in Paris. None of them could name the year of the beginning of the Patriotic War, and also was not aware of the battle at Borodino (in French it is called bataille de la Moskova - the battle on the Moscow River) and the subsequent defeat of the "great army" of Bonaparte.

French researchers of the Napoleonic Wars confirmed my assumptions - the vast majority of French citizens now do not know anything about the invasion of Napoleon in 1812, the battle of Borodino, the occupation of Moscow, the Berezinsky disaster and, as a result, the assault Russian Cossacks Paris.

Cake and hussars

- Some Parisians will confidently tell you: “Oh, we heard something about the old war with Russia!” - explainsamateur historian Didier Rivarol . - We also have metro stations "Sevastopol", "Crimea", the suburb of Malakoff. True, all these names refer to Crimean War 1853-1856, and it began under Emperor Napoleon III, 41 years after World War II.

When I speak to ordinary people about the death of the Napoleonic army in Russia, they feel a state of shock. "How? Didn't we defeat the Russians?! According to a popular (albeit false) version, the name of the French cafes (“bistros”) was born when the Russian Cossacks who occupied Paris shouted to the waiters: “Come quickly!” However, the French do not think about where the Cossacks came from in the capital of France. (Laughs) Perhaps you bought a cheap tour on the Internet?

To retreat means to win! Enemies called Kutuzov "cunning northern fox"

Regarding the iconic characters of the Patriotic War - alas, it’s generally a disaster. " Mikhail Kutuzov? It seems that this is such a Russian vodka ... ”- happily said a 20-year-old student at the University of Paris. Four other people answered the same way. General Bagration was defined by the French as a type of cake, but about the partisan commander Denis Davydov Two of them confidently declared at once: “Well, of course, Davidoff is a well-known brand of cigarettes. Only we did not know that the company was founded by a Russian hussar. In fairness, I will say: the respondents did not even remember the years of government Napoleon I Bonaparte. The problem is this - recently the conquering emperor has been criticized in French historiography, and pages about him disappear from school books. After the education reform in 2010, information about Napoleon in textbooks was reduced ... 10 times!

The French emperor is accused of restoring slavery in the colonies, a brutal dictatorship and many other sins. The French do not know not only about Borodino - they also do not name the dates of the battles near Leipzig, at Austerlitz or at Jena. The only event known to everyone is the defeat of Napoleon, who was defeated by the Anglo-Prussian army at Waterloo in 1815.

History without rogues

“Even if we take into account the opinion of French historians about the Patriotic War, everything is not easy here,” says a history teacher from ParisEmmanuel Martinez . - For example, the number of killed and wounded soldiers of Napoleon in the Battle of Borodino is estimated at a maximum of 28,000 people, although both British and Russian historians estimate the losses among the French at an average of 35,000 soldiers.

And so constantly. French artists of the 19th and 20th centuries willingly painted the brave grenadiers and marshals of Napoleon Bonaparte among the fires of Moscow, at the gates of the Kremlin, or on the squares of conquered cities, but they always tried not to depict a later version: an army of wild ragamuffins ingloriously perishing in the ominous Russian snows.

Also, you will not find information anywhere that the French army set up stables in Orthodox churches in Moscow, plundered the treasures of the Kremlin, stole icons from cathedrals, not to mention Bonaparte's failed attempt to blow up the Kremlin itself during the retreat. Although Napoleon is now being heavily criticized, they still say almost nothing about the looting of the French in Moscow. Our army is a good army, and nothing else.

Uncultured Asians

The unsuccessful “Russian campaign” of Napoleon is popular at the present time especially among specialist historians or in historical societies - the general public in France has completely forgotten the Patriotic War and is even surprised: how is it, their great-great-great-grandfathers invaded Russia in 1812 ... I wonder why ? “You wanted to conquer your state? - the girl at the University of Paris is naively surprised. “A stunningly stupid act on their part. You have such a cold climate.

Sightin past. Which European capitals were taken by the Russian army

Previously, many French researchers justified the defeat of Napoleon by "harsh weather and non-standard conditions", referring to the memoirs of the generals of the French emperor. They sincerely resented the partisans from the Russian peasants, who non-politically-correctly raised the invaders on the pitchforks and attacked the patrols of the invaders: "This is not a noble conduct of the war, but simply barbaric Asianism."

Yes, unfortunately, we are such an uncultured people - you climb up to us with a civilized European army, and we, beyond any rules, hit in response with a shovel on the head.

However, not everything is so clear. At the university in the capital of France, I was told about a Parisian student who was inspired by the history of the Patriotic War and made a special trip to Orenburg in order to find out about the “French Cossacks”. These are captive officers of the Napoleonic army - they fell in love with Russia so much that they married local girls and stayed in Orenburg, taking Russian citizenship and enrolling in the Orenburg Cossack army.

None of the Parisian students heard about the defeat of Bonaparte's "Great Army" in Russia.

I'm not trying to show - oh, what fools the French are. Moreover, I am not at all sure that our students will simply name the dates of the Patriotic War, the Battle of Borodino and tell how it all ended. Kutuzov is remembered, but Bagration or Davydov is not a fact. And of course, any country pretty much embellishes its victories and justifies its defeats with a bunch of reasons.

There is even a plus here - after all, people in France now consider Russia as a friend and ally and are very surprised: wow, our states were once enemies. Although, personally, I am sorry that the French for the most part have forgotten the large-scale episode of their own history, which led to the collapse of the First Empire. I hope things will be better with our memory about the Patriotic War.

The partisan movement in the Patriotic War of 1812 significantly influenced the outcome of the campaign. The French met fierce resistance from the local population. Demoralized, deprived of the opportunity to replenish their food supplies, ragged and frozen, Napoleon's army was brutally beaten by flying and peasant partisan detachments of Russians.

Squadrons of flying hussars and detachments of peasants
The greatly stretched Napoleonic army, pursuing the retreating Russian troops, quickly became a convenient target for partisan attacks - the French often found themselves far removed from the main forces. The command of the Russian army decided to create mobile detachments to carry out sabotage behind enemy lines and deprive him of food and fodder. During World War II, there were two main types of such detachments: flying squadrons of army cavalrymen and Cossacks, formed by order of the commander-in-chief Mikhail Kutuzov, and groups of peasant partisans, united spontaneously, without army leadership. In addition to the actual sabotage actions, the flying detachments were also engaged in reconnaissance. Peasant self-defense forces basically fought off the enemy from their villages and villages.

Denis Davydov was mistaken for a Frenchman
Denis Davydov is the most famous commander of a partisan detachment in the Patriotic War of 1812. He himself drew up a plan of action for mobile partisan formations against the Napoleonic army and offered it to Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration. The plan was simple: to annoy the enemy in his rear, to capture or destroy enemy warehouses with food and fodder, to beat small groups of the enemy. Under the command of Davydov there were over one and a half hundred hussars and Cossacks. Already in September 1812, in the area of ​​the Smolensk village of Tsarevo-Zaimishche, they captured a French caravan of three dozen carts. More than 100 Frenchmen from the accompanying detachment were killed by Davydov's cavalrymen, another 100 were captured. This operation was followed by others, also successful. Davydov and his team did not immediately find support from the local population: at first, the peasants mistook them for the French. The commander of the flying detachment even had to put on a peasant's caftan, hang an icon of St. Nicholas on his chest, grow a beard and switch to the language of the Russian common people - otherwise the peasants did not believe him.

Over time, the detachment of Denis Davydov increased to 300 people. The cavalry attacked the French units, sometimes having a fivefold numerical superiority, and defeated them, taking the carts and freeing the prisoners, it even happened to capture enemy artillery. After leaving Moscow, on the orders of Kutuzov, flying partisan detachments were created everywhere. Mostly these were Cossack formations, each numbering up to 500 sabers. At the end of September, Major General Ivan Dorokhov, who commanded such a formation, captured the city of Vereya near Moscow. The combined partisan groups could withstand the large military formations of Napoleon's army. So, at the end of October, during a battle near the Smolensk village of Lyakhovo, four partisan detachments completely defeated the more than one and a half thousand brigade of General Jean-Pierre Augereau, capturing him himself. For the French, this defeat was a terrible blow. On the contrary, this success encouraged the Russian troops and set them up for further victories.

Peasant Initiative
A significant contribution to the destruction and exhaustion of the French units was made by the peasants who organized themselves into combat detachments. Their partisan units began to form even before Kutuzov's instructions. While willingly helping the flying detachments and units of the regular Russian army with food and fodder, the peasants at the same time harmed the French everywhere and in every possible way - they exterminated enemy foragers and marauders, often at the approaches of the enemy they themselves burned their houses and went into the forests. Fierce resistance on the ground intensified as the demoralized French army became more and more a crowd of robbers and marauders. One of these detachments was assembled by the dragoons Yermolai Chetvertakov. He taught the peasants how to use captured weapons, organized and successfully carried out many sabotage against the French, capturing dozens of enemy carts with food and livestock. At one time, up to 4 thousand people entered the Chetvertakov compound. And such cases when peasant partisans, led by military personnel, noble landlords, successfully operated in the rear of the Napoleonic troops, were not isolated.

This year we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812. Now, thanks to feature films and books, that time seems incredibly romantic to many. Gallant French, cavalry girls, sorry, madam, would you like to rendezvous with me? However, you should not be mistaken. Contemporaries considered Napoleon to be the embodiment of the devil, and in his plans he had a purposeful destruction of the Russian people.

The war of 1812 was of a very different type than all the wars before it. In addition to the most powerful ideological and propaganda support with the help of the press, books, fabrication of rumors, visual agitation in pictures that were hung on fences for ordinary people, a sort of analogue of the current TV, a large-scale financial scam was carried out. A huge amount of counterfeit money was thrown into the economy of Napoleon's enemy - Russia, England and Austria. To destabilize the financial system of the enemy, they were released before, but for the first time it took on such a large-scale character. It was a real financial war.

The case was staged on a grand scale: there were two printing houses in Paris and two in Warsaw. They even equipped a special “dusty” room in which fresh banknotes were carried across the dirty floor, giving them the appearance of being in circulation. During the occupation, a printing house for rubles was opened right in Moscow, on the Rogozhskaya Zastava, in the courtyard of the Old Believer church.

Fake

A note has been preserved from the Minister of Finance Dmitry Guryev, where he informed Alexander I that in 1811, according to his intelligence information, “the French released in Warsaw through the Duke de Bassano and some banker Frenkel up to twenty million rubles in banknotes of 100, 50, 25 rubles. This is 4.5 percent of all the money that generally went in Russia!

The ruble began to crack at the seams. Some historians believe that in 1811-1812 up to 120 million counterfeit rubles were poured into the Russian economy. The general controller of the main audit department reported to Emperor Alexander I: “Your grandmother’s wars were a toy compared to the current ones ... You must stop the emission.” For the war, 25 kopecks of silver were given in banknotes for the ruble.

The French fakes were superior in quality to the originals - they were distinguished by a bluish tint of paper, a clearer watermark, deep embossed embossing, and an even arrangement of letters. This, by the way, let the counterfeiters down: it was possible to distinguish them, if desired, precisely because of the quality of the work. However, the ignorance of the Russian language by the French led to a funny confusion of letters: “state”, instead of “state” and “holyach”, instead of “walking”. But the masses - and the peasants, and the nobles too - were mostly illiterate, so such mistakes got away with it.

This begs the question: how did the Russian economy survive after such a huge injection of unsecured money? Very simple. Russia quickly won the war, and fakes simply did not have time to spread in sufficient volume. On Christmas Day 1812, the last occupier was thrown out of Russia. Then one important factor played its role - natural relations reigned in the country, especially among the peasants. And they never saw paper money. AT best case silver and copper. A cow - the main wealth of a peasant - cost from a ruble to two, a bucket of vodka - 30 kopecks, and Napoleon issued banknotes of 25, 50, 100 rubles. There was no place to exchange them either. By the way, he also paid the salaries of his troops with counterfeit money, for which his army could not really buy anything. By the way, the same thing happened in 1941. In the collective-farm USSR, where subsistence-economic relations reigned, fakes printed by Hitler were also not successful.

But back to the Napoleonic fraud scam. Even those peasants who agreed to sell food, and there were few of them, refused to take paper money of this denomination. French soldiers who received a salary could not spend it. During the retreat, the fires of the freezing occupiers were often kindled with fake banknotes. Millions burned out. But some still remained in the country. After the victory, in order to restore the economy, the ministers proposed to carry out a reform, issue new money and thus cut off the fakes. After much deliberation, Alexander I abandoned this plan. I chose the most expensive, but also the most humane way. He said: “For some of my poor subjects, a piece of paper worth 50 or 100 rubles that fell into their hands is a fortune. And I can't take it away from them." The emperor equated the circulation of fake and real money, withdrawing them only through banks. Only by 1824 was a decree issued that basically all counterfeit money was seized. But they came across until the end of the 1840s. Russia withstood not only the invasion, but also the economic provocation.

Anarchists

I explain this miracle by the idea formulated by the famous Russian publicist Ivan Solonevich. He writes: “Russia ... has always represented a higher type of state than the states that attacked it. because state organization The Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Russian Empire has always exceeded the organization of all its competitors, opponents and enemies - otherwise neither the Grand Duchy, nor the kingdom, nor the empire would have been able to withstand this life-and-death struggle. To this one can boldly add Soviet Union, which for the same reasons survived in the Great Patriotic War. All the wars waged by the West against Russia, in 1812, in 1941, and now, only, perhaps less noticeably, came down to the destruction of Russian, Russian civilization, the nation itself.
Nikolai Berdyaev in his “Philosophy of Inequality” aptly noted that “a nation includes not only human generations, but also the stones of churches, palaces and estates, gravestones, old manuscripts and books, and in order to understand the will of the nation, you need to hear these stones, read the decayed pages".

So they always destroyed faith, and stones, and churches, and manuscripts. To destroy the essence of the people. By the way, as a result of the invasion, the greatest work of the Russian people - "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", many annals, perished. Moreover, the West always declares that it brings us its "high" civilization. Very funny. It's the same as the bombing of Belgrade or Tripoli planted "human rights" and "universal values"! Carrying the "torch of freedom," Napoleon carried out a frenzy in our land no less than Hitler. He just had less time, only six months. The phrase of this herald of European values ​​\u200b\u200bis known: "For victory, it is necessary that a simple soldier not only hate his opponents, but also despise them." Officers retold propaganda about the barbarism of the Slavic peoples to Napoleon's soldiers. Since then, the idea of ​​Russians as a second-rate, wild nation has been consciously entrenched in the minds of Europeans.

So they despised us. Monasteries were destroyed, architectural monuments were blown up. The altars of Moscow churches were deliberately turned into stables and latrines. Priests who did not give out church shrines were killed with a fierce death, nuns were raped, and stoves were kindled with ancient icons. At the same time, the soldiers knew for sure that they had come to a barbaric wild country and that they were bringing into it the best culture in the world - European.

Barbarians

The banal robbery began from the distant approaches to Moscow. In Belarus and Lithuania, soldiers destroyed orchards and orchards, killed livestock, and destroyed crops. Moreover, there was no military need for this, it was just an act of intimidation. As Evgeny Tarle wrote: “The ruin of the peasants by the passing army of the conqueror, countless marauders and simply robbing French deserters was so great that hatred of the enemy grew every day.”

Having taken Moscow, the brutal invaders staged mass executions
The real robbery and horror began on September 3, 1812 - the day after entering Moscow, when officially, by order, it was allowed to rob the city. Numerous Moscow monasteries were completely ruined. Soldiers tore off silver salaries from icons, collected lampadas, crosses. For the convenience of viewing, they blew up the Church of John the Baptist, which stood next to the Novodevichy Convent. In the Vysokopetrovsky Monastery, the invaders set up a slaughterhouse, and the cathedral church was turned into a butcher's shop. The entire monastery churchyard was covered with caked blood, and in the cathedral on chandeliers and on nails hammered into the iconostasis hung pieces of meat and the entrails of animals. In the Andronievsky, Pokrovsky, Znamensky monasteries, French soldiers chopped icons for firewood, the faces of saints were used as targets for shooting.

In the Miracle Monastery, the French, wearing mitres and clergy vestments on themselves and on their horses, rode like this and laughed very much. In the Danilov Monastery, they stripped the shrine of Prince Daniel and tore off the clothes from the thrones. In the Mozhaisk Luzhetsky Monastery, the icon of St. John the Baptist kept here has traces of a knife - the French used it as a cutting board, chopped meat on it. From the historical relics of the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, located on the territory of the Savvino-Storozhevsky monastery, almost nothing remained. The bed of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was burned, expensive chairs were stripped, mirrors were broken, stoves were broken, rare portraits of Peter the Great and Princess Sophia were stolen.

Hieromonk of the Znamensky Monastery Pavel and priest of the St. George Monastery Ioann Alekseev were killed. The priest of the Church of the Forty Saints, Peter Velmyaninov, was beaten with rifle butts, stabbed with bayonets and sabers for not giving them the keys to the church. All night he lay on the street, bleeding, and in the morning a French officer passing by mercifully shot Father Peter. The monks of the Novospassky Monastery buried the priest, but the French then dug up his grave three times: when they saw fresh soil, they thought that they had buried a treasure in this place. In the Epiphany Monastery, the treasurer of the monastery Aaron, the French dragged his hair, pulled out his beard and then carried loads on it, harnessing it to a cart.

The killers

On October 10 - 11, 1812, powder mines were laid under the towers, walls and buildings of the Kremlin. If everything happened the way Napoleon, the creator of modern Europe, wanted, then Russia would lose the symbol of its thousand-year history. But by God's providence, it began to rain at night, extinguished some of the wicks, and Muscovites put out the rest, risking their lives.

However, some of the charges worked. The Vodovzvodnaya tower was demolished to the ground, Nikolskaya was half destroyed. The Arsenal was partially destroyed, the Faceted Chamber, the Filaret's extension, the Commandant's House were damaged. The building of the Senate was damaged, and the bronze George the Victorious, which adorned the dome of the Round Hall, disappeared without a trace. According to one version, he, along with two more items that were the pride of the Kremlin - an eagle from the Nikolsky Gate and a cross from the Ivan the Great Bell Tower - was taken out in a convoy of "civilized" invaders. So far, these historical relics have not been found. Leaving Moscow, the French also tried to blow up the Novodevichy, Rozhdestvensky, Alekseevsky monasteries.

Here, too, a miracle happened: the monks managed to put out the fire in time and thereby save their cloisters.

These are just touches on the behavior of the occupiers. The whole truth is even scarier. What the already doomed invaders were doing, retreating, does not lend itself to common sense at all. Depraved French officers forced peasant women to perform oral sex, which for many girls and women was then worse than death. Those who disagreed with the rules of the French kiss were killed, some deliberately went to death, biting their teeth into the flesh of the invaders. But despite this, the Russians were sympathetic to the sick and wounded enemies. In the Novodevichy Convent, sick French soldiers were treated, and in Rozhdestvensky they shared their food with the hungry invaders. Talking about this, one of the nuns explained: “Again, it’s a pity for them, my hearts, they don’t have to die of starvation, but they didn’t come at us of their own free will.”

Forgiveness

Good Russian man. Sometimes even redundant. Apparently, and therefore a huge part of Napoleon's troops remained in Russia just to live. For different reasons. Most of the Russian people helped for Christ's sake, picking them up frostbitten and hungry. Since then, the word "sharomyzhnik" appeared in Russia - from the French "cher ami" (dear friend). They became janitors, porters. The educated became teachers of French. We remember them very well by the numerous uncles, tutors who flashed in Russian literature after 1812 ... They completely took root in Russia, became completely Russian, being the ancestors of many famous surnames like Lurie, Masherova (from mon cher - my dear) , Mashanovs, Zhanbrovs. Bergi and Schmidt with numerous children - also mostly from the Napoleonic German soldiers. The fate of Nikolai Andreevich Savin, or Jean Baptiste Saven, a former lieutenant of the 2nd Guards Regiment of the 3rd Corps of the Army of Marshal Ney, a participant in the Egyptian campaigns, Austerlitz, is interesting and in many ways at the same time typical.

"Civilized French" set up stables in Orthodox churches
The last soldier of that Great Army. He died surrounded by numerous offspring in 1894, having lived to be 126 years old. He taught at the Saratov gymnasium for over 60 years. Until the end of his days, he retained clarity of mind and remembered that one of his students was none other than Nikolai Chernyshevsky. He recalled a very characteristic episode, how Platov's Cossacks captured him. Excited, Platov immediately punched him in the face, then ordered him to drink vodka so as not to freeze, feed him and send him to a warm convoy so that the captive would not catch a cold. And then constantly inquired about his health. This was the attitude in Russia towards the defeated enemy. Therefore, they remained in Russia in tens of thousands.

2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the military-historical patriotic event - the Patriotic War of 1812, which is of great importance for the political, social, cultural and military development of Russia.

The beginning of the war

June 12, 1812 (old style) Napoleon's French army, having crossed the Neman near the city of Kovno (now it is the city of Kaunas in Lithuania), invaded the Russian Empire. This day is recorded in history as the beginning of the war between Russia and France.

In this war, two forces clashed. On the one hand, Napoleon's half-million army (about 640,000 men), which consisted of only half the French and included, in addition to them, representatives of almost all of Europe. An army intoxicated with numerous victories, led by famous marshals and generals, led by Napoleon. Strengths the French army was a large number, good material and technical support, combat experience, faith in the invincibility of the army.

She was opposed by the Russian army, which at the beginning of the war represented one-third of the French army. Before the start of the Patriotic War of 1812, the Russian-Turkish war 1806-1812. The Russian army 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.

The blow of Napoleon's army was taken over by the troops stationed on the western border: the 1st Army of Barclay de Tolly and the 2nd Army of Bagration (a total of 153 thousand soldiers).

Knowing his numerical superiority, Napoleon pinned his hopes on a blitzkrieg war. One of his main miscalculations was the underestimation of the patriotic impulse of the army and the people of Russia.

The beginning of the war was successful for Napoleon. At 6 o'clock in the morning on June 12 (24), 1812, the vanguard of the French troops entered Russian city Kovno. The crossing of 220 thousand soldiers of the Great Army near Kovno took 4 days. After 5 days, another grouping (79 thousand soldiers) under the command of the Viceroy of Italy, Eugene Beauharnais, crossed the Neman to the south of Kovno. At the same time, even further south, near Grodno, the Neman was crossed by 4 corps (78-79 thousand soldiers) under the general command of the King of Westphalia, Jerome Bonaparte. In the northern direction, near Tilsit, the Neman crossed the 10th Corps of Marshal MacDonald (32 thousand soldiers), which was aimed at St. Petersburg. In the southern direction from Warsaw through the Bug, a separate Austrian corps of General Schwarzenberg (30-33 thousand soldiers) began to invade.

The rapid advance of the powerful French army forced Russian command retreat inland. The commander of the Russian troops, Barclay de Tolly, evaded the general battle, saving the army and striving to unite with Bagration's army. The numerical superiority of the enemy raised the question of an urgent replenishment of the army. But in Russia there was no universal conscription. The army was completed by recruiting sets. And Alexander I decided on an unusual step. On July 6, he issued a manifesto calling for the creation civil uprising. So the first partisan detachments began to appear. This war united all segments of the population. As now, so then, the Russian people are united only by misfortune, grief, tragedy. It didn't matter who you were in society, what wealth you had. Russian people fought unitedly, defending the freedom of their homeland. All people became a single force, which is why the name "Patriotic War" was determined. The war became an example of the fact that a Russian person will never allow freedom and spirit to be enslaved, he will defend his honor and name to the end.

The armies of Barclay and Bagration met near Smolensk at the end of July, thus achieving the first strategic success.

Battle for Smolensk

By August 16 (according to the New Style), Napoleon approached Smolensk with 180 thousand soldiers. After the connection of the Russian armies, the generals began to insistently demand a general battle from the commander-in-chief Barclay de Tolly. At 6 am August 16 Napoleon launched an assault on the city.

In the battles near Smolensk, the Russian army showed the greatest stamina. The battle for Smolensk marked the unfolding of a nationwide war between the Russian people and the enemy. Napoleon's hope for a blitzkrieg collapsed.

Battle for Smolensk. Adam, circa 1820

The stubborn battle for Smolensk lasted 2 days, until the morning of August 18, when Barclay de Tolly withdrew troops from the burning city in order to avoid a big battle with no chance of victory. Barclay had 76 thousand, another 34 thousand (Bagration's army).After the capture of Smolensk, Napoleon moved to Moscow.

Meanwhile, the protracted retreat caused public discontent and protest among most of the army (especially after the surrender of Smolensk), so on August 20 (according to the new style), Emperor Alexander I signed a decree appointing M.I. Kutuzov. At that time, Kutuzov was in his 67th year. The commander of the Suvorov school, who had half a century of military experience, he enjoyed universal respect both in the army and among the people. However, he also had to retreat in order to gain time to gather all his forces.

Kutuzov could not avoid a general battle for political and moral reasons. By September 3 (according to the New Style), the Russian army retreated to the village of Borodino. Further retreat meant the surrender of Moscow. By that time, Napoleon's army had already suffered significant losses, and the difference in the size of the two armies was reduced. In this situation, Kutuzov decided to give a pitched battle.

To the west of Mozhaisk, 125 km from Moscow near the village of Borodina August 26 (September 7, New Style), 1812 there was a battle that went down in the history of our people forever. - the largest battle of the Patriotic War of 1812 between the Russian and French armies.

The Russian army numbered 132 thousand people (including 21 thousand poorly armed militias). The French army, pursuing her on the heels, 135,000. Kutuzov's headquarters, believing that there were about 190 thousand people in the enemy's army, chose a defensive plan. In fact, the battle was an assault by French troops on the line of Russian fortifications (flashes, redoubts and lunettes).

Napoleon hoped to defeat the Russian army. But the steadfastness of the Russian troops, where every soldier, officer, general was a hero, overturned all the calculations of the French commander. The fight went on all day. Losses were huge on both sides. The Battle of Borodino is one of the bloodiest battles of the 19th century. According to the most conservative estimates of cumulative losses, 2,500 people died on the field every hour. Some divisions lost up to 80% of their composition. There were almost no prisoners on either side. French losses amounted to 58 thousand people, Russian - 45 thousand.

Emperor Napoleon later recalled: “Of all my battles, the most terrible is what I fought near Moscow. The French showed themselves worthy of victory in it, and the Russians - to be called invincible.

Cavalry fight

On September 8 (21), Kutuzov ordered a retreat to Mozhaisk with the firm intention of preserving the army. The Russian army retreated, but retained its combat capability. Napoleon failed to achieve the main thing - the defeat of the Russian army.

September 13 (26) in the village of Fili Kutuzov held a meeting on a further plan of action. After the military council in Fili, the Russian army, by decision of Kutuzov, was withdrawn from Moscow. “With the loss of Moscow, Russia is not yet lost, but with the loss of the army, Russia is lost”. These words of the great commander, which went down in history, were confirmed by subsequent events.

A.K. Savrasov. The hut in which the famous council in Fili was held

Military Council in Fili (A. D. Kivshenko, 1880)

Capture of Moscow

In the evening September 14 (September 27, new style) Napoleon entered deserted Moscow without a fight. In the war against Russia, all the plans of Napoleon were consistently destroyed. Expecting to receive the keys to Moscow, he stood for several hours in vain on Poklonnaya Hill, and when he entered the city, he was met by deserted streets.

Fire in Moscow on September 15-18, 1812 after the capture of the city by Napoleon. Painting by A.F. Smirnova, 1813

Already on the night of 14 (27) to 15 (28) September, the city was engulfed in fire, which increased so much by the night of 15 (28) to 16 (29) September that Napoleon was forced to leave the Kremlin.

On suspicion of arson, about 400 townspeople from the lower classes were shot. The fire raged until September 18 and destroyed most of Moscow. Of the 30 thousand houses that were in Moscow before the invasion, after Napoleon left the city, "hardly 5 thousand" remained.

While Napoleon's army was inactive in Moscow, losing combat effectiveness, Kutuzov retreated from Moscow, first to the southeast along the Ryazan road, but then, turning to the west, went to the flank of the French army, occupied the village of Tarutino, blocking the Kaluga road. gu. In the Tarutino camp, the foundation was laid for the final defeat of the "great army".

When Moscow was on fire, bitterness against the invaders reached its highest intensity. The main forms of the war of the Russian people against the invasion of Napoleon were passive resistance (refusing to trade with the enemy, leaving bread unharvested in the fields, destroying food and fodder, going into the forests), partisan warfare and mass participation in militias. To the greatest extent, the course of the war was influenced by the refusal of the Russian peasantry to supply the enemy with food and fodder. The French army was on the verge of starvation.

From June to August 1812, Napoleon's army, pursuing the retreating Russian armies, traveled about 1,200 kilometers from the Neman to Moscow. As a result, her communication lines were greatly stretched. Given this fact, the command of the Russian army decided to create flying partisan detachments for operations in the rear and on the enemy’s communication lines, in order to prevent his supply and destroy his small detachments. The most famous, but far from the only commander of the flying detachments was Denis Davydov. Army partisan detachments received comprehensive support from the spontaneous peasant partisan movement. As the French army moved deep into Russia, as violence from the Napoleonic army grew, after the fires in Smolensk and Moscow, after the decrease in discipline in Napoleon's army and the transformation of a significant part of it into a gang of marauders and robbers, the population of Russia began to move from passive to active resistance to the enemy. Only during their stay in Moscow, the French army lost more than 25 thousand people from the actions of the partisans.

The partisans constituted, as it were, the first ring of encirclement around Moscow, occupied by the French. The second ring was made up of militias. Partisans and militias surrounded Moscow in a dense ring, threatening to turn Napoleon's strategic encirclement into a tactical one.

Tarutinsky fight

After the surrender of Moscow, Kutuzov apparently avoided a major battle, the army was building up strength. During this time, a 205,000 militia was recruited in the Russian provinces (Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Tula, Kaluga, Tver and others), and 75,000 in Ukraine. By October 2, Kutuzov led the army south to the village of Tarutino, closer to Kaluga.

In Moscow, Napoleon found himself in a trap, it was not possible to spend the winter in the city devastated by fire: foraging outside the city was not successful, the stretched communications of the French were very vulnerable, the army began to decompose. Napoleon began to prepare for a retreat to winter quarters somewhere between the Dnieper and the Dvina.

When the "great army" retreated from Moscow, its fate was sealed.

Battle of Tarutino, October 6th (P. Hess)

October 18(according to the new style) Russian troops attacked and defeated near Tarutino Murat's French corps. Having lost up to 4 thousand soldiers, the French retreated. The battle of Tarutino became a landmark event, marking the transition of the initiative in the war to the Russian army.

Napoleon's retreat

October 19(according to the new style) the French army (110 thousand) with a huge convoy began to leave Moscow along the Old Kaluga road. But the road to Kaluga to Napoleon was blocked by Kutuzov's army, located near the village of Tarutino on the Old Kaluga road. Due to the lack of horses, the French artillery fleet was reduced, large cavalry formations practically disappeared. Not wanting to break through a fortified position with a weakened army, Napoleon turned in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe village of Troitskoye (modern Troitsk) onto the New Kaluga Road (modern Kiev highway) in order to bypass Tarutino. However, Kutuzov transferred the army to Maloyaroslavets, cutting off the French retreat along the New Kaluga road.

Kutuzov's army by October 22 consisted of 97 thousand regular troops, 20 thousand Cossacks, 622 guns and more than 10 thousand militia warriors. Napoleon had at hand up to 70 thousand combat-ready soldiers, the cavalry practically disappeared, the artillery was much weaker than the Russian one.

October 12 (24) took place battle near Maloyaroslavets. The city changed hands eight times. In the end, the French managed to capture Maloyaroslavets, but Kutuzov took a fortified position outside the city, which Napoleon did not dare to storm.On October 26, Napoleon ordered a retreat north to Borovsk-Vereya-Mozhaisk.

A. Averyanov. Battle for Maloyaroslavets October 12 (24), 1812

In the battles for Maloyaroslavets, the Russian army decided a major strategic objective- thwarted the plan for the French troops to break through to Ukraine and forced the enemy to retreat along the Old Smolensk road devastated by him.

From Mozhaisk, the French army resumed its movement towards Smolensk along the same road along which it had advanced on Moscow.

The final defeat of the French troops took place at the crossing of the Berezina. The battles of November 26-29 between the French corps and the Russian armies of Chichagov and Wittgenstein on both banks of the Berezina River during the crossing of Napoleon went down in history as battle on the Berezina.

The retreat of the French through the Berezina on November 17 (29), 1812. Peter von Hess (1844)

When crossing the Berezina, Napoleon lost 21 thousand people. In total, up to 60 thousand people managed to cross the Berezina, most of them civilian and non-combatant remnants of the "Great Army". Unusually severe frosts, which struck even during the crossing of the Berezina and continued in the following days, finally destroyed the French, already weakened by hunger. On December 6, Napoleon left his army and went to Paris to recruit new soldiers to replace those who died in Russia.

The main result of the battle on the Berezina was that Napoleon avoided complete defeat in the face of a significant superiority of Russian forces. In the memoirs of the French, the crossing of the Berezina occupies no less place than the largest Battle of Borodino.

By the end of December, the remnants of Napoleon's army were expelled from Russia.

"Russian campaign of 1812" was over December 14, 1812.

The results of the war

The main result of the Patriotic War of 1812 was the almost complete destruction of Napoleon's Great Army.Napoleon lost about 580,000 soldiers in Russia. These losses include 200 thousand killed, from 150 to 190 thousand prisoners, about 130 thousand deserters who fled to their homeland. The losses of the Russian army, according to some estimates, amounted to 210 thousand soldiers and militias.

In January 1813, the "Foreign campaign of the Russian army" began - fighting moved to Germany and France. In October 1813, Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Leipzig, and in April 1814 he abdicated the throne of France.

The victory over Napoleon, as never before, raised the international prestige of Russia, which played a decisive role in Congress of Vienna and in subsequent decades had a decisive influence on the affairs of Europe.

Main dates

June 12, 1812- The invasion of Napoleon's army into Russia across the Neman River. 3 Russian armies were at a great distance from each other. Tormasov's army, being in Ukraine, could not participate in the war. It turned out that only 2 armies took the blow. But they had to retreat in order to connect.

August 3rd- the connection of the armies of Bagration and Barclay de Tolly near Smolensk. The enemies lost about 20 thousand, and ours about 6 thousand, but Smolensk had to be left. Even the united armies were 4 times smaller than the enemy!

8 August- Kutuzov was appointed commander in chief. An experienced strategist, wounded many times in battles, Suvorov's student fell in love with the people.

August, 26th- The Battle of Borodino lasted more than 12 hours. It is considered a pitched battle. On the outskirts of Moscow, the Russians showed mass heroism. The losses of the enemies were greater, but our army could not go on the offensive. The numerical superiority of the enemies was still great. Reluctantly, they decided to surrender Moscow in order to save the army.

September October- Seat of Napoleon's army in Moscow. His expectations were not met. Failed to win. Kutuzov rejected requests for peace. The attempt to move south failed.

October December- the expulsion of Napoleon's army from Russia along the destroyed Smolensk road. From 600 thousand enemies, about 30 thousand remained!

December 25, 1812- Emperor Alexander I issued a manifesto on the victory of Russia. But the war had to continue. Napoleon had armies in Europe. If they are not defeated, then he will attack Russia again. The foreign campaign of the Russian army lasted until victory in 1814.

Prepared by Sergey Shulyak

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