Kutuzov goes to beat the French. Kutuzov came to beat the French. A story without ragamuffins
Moscow words, catchphrases and popular expressions Vladimir Bronislavovich Muravyov
Kutuzov came to beat the French
The Russian army, commanded by the Minister of War, General Barclay de Tolly, retreated into the interior regions with fierce battles. This was the strategic plan of the command, but the people did not accept such tactics and considered retreat to be treason. Anxiety grew everywhere.
Moscow knew that the main blow was directed at it. A month before the invasion of Russia, at one of the palace receptions, Napoleon publicly declared: “I am going to Moscow and in one or two battles I will finish everything. Emperor Alexander will be on his knees to ask for peace... Moscow is the heart of the empire.”
Napoleon strove for Moscow. The situation became more and more dangerous. On July 6, a special royal manifesto was issued “to the Mother Capital of our Moscow”: “Having the intention, for proper defense, to gather new internal forces, we first turn to the ancient capital of our ancestors, Moscow: it has always been the head of other Russian cities; she always poured out from her depths deadly force on her enemies; following her example, from all other surroundings, the sons of the fatherland flowed to her, like blood to the heart, to protect it.”
It was a declaration of a general militia.
On July 12, Emperor Alexander arrived in Moscow. On July 15, in Lefortovo, in the Slobodsky Palace, a meeting of the tsar with the Moscow nobility and merchants took place, at which he made an appeal to organize a militia. “We are ready to die rather than submit to the enemy,” was the decision of the Muscovites.
M. I. Kutuzov was elected commander-in-chief of the Moscow military force (as the Moscow militia was officially called) by the general meeting of nobles of Moscow and the Moscow province. This election was an expression of the desire of Russian society to see him at the head of the Russian army. Kutuzov, who was in St. Petersburg, having learned about his election in Moscow, said: “This is the best reward for me in my life.”
But he could not accept this position, because he was also elected leader of the St. Petersburg militia, and on August 8, Alexander I, having removed Barclay de Tolly, appointed Kutuzov commander-in-chief of all armies and militias.
Kutuzov, a student and ally of A.V. Suvorov, according to the deep conviction of Russian society and the army, was able to stop the offensive and achieve a turning point in the war. Therefore, his appointment was greeted with delight.
Artillery officer I. Radozhitsky witnessed the first meeting of Kutuzov, appointed commander-in-chief, with the army in Tsarevo-Zaimishche. “Everyone was waiting for a decisive battle, as a single joy, a single means of victory to redeem the salvation of the dying fatherland or fall under its ruins,” he writes in his memoirs. “The troops were in such a mood when suddenly the news of the arrival of the new commander-in-chief, Prince Kutuzov, ran electrically through the army. The moment of joy was inexplicable: the name of this commander produced a general resurrection of the spirit in the troops, from soldier to general. Everyone who could flew to meet the venerable leader, to accept from him hope for the salvation of Russia. The officers cheerfully congratulated each other on the happy change of circumstances; Even the soldiers, who were walking with boilers for water, as usual sluggishly and lazily, upon hearing about the arrival of their beloved commander, ran to the river shouting “Hurray!”, imagining that they were already chasing the enemy. They immediately had a saying: “Kutuzov came to beat the French!”
This saying marked the most important episode of the Patriotic War of 1812 - a moral turning point in its course: from defense to offensive.
How great was the people's trust in Kutuzov is evidenced by the fact that the people justified his leaving Moscow. In September 1812, when the French were in Moscow, the poet I. A. Kovanko wrote the poem “Soldier’s Song”, then it was published, and what is especially important - it was actually sung. The song began with this stanza:
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Napoleonic Wars Sklyarenko Valentina Markovna
“Kutuzov came to beat the French!”
The search for a candidate for the position of commander-in-chief was long and thorough. Among the applicants were such famous military leaders as P. I. Bagration, A. P. Tormasov, D. S. Dokhturov, L. A. Bennigsen. All candidates were discussed on August 17 in St. Petersburg, at a meeting of a special committee, where the Chairman of the State Council, Count and Field Marshal General N. I. Saltykov, Privy Councilors - Prince P. V. Lopukhin and Count V. P. Kochubey, Minister of Police Balashev and St. Petersburg commander-in-chief S.K. Vyazemsky. But the committee members did not choose any of the proposed candidates. The council considered M. I. Kutuzov the most worthy, experienced and inspiring commander. At the same time, high dignitaries understood perfectly well that after the Battle of Austerlitz at court, everyone, including the emperor, did not want to hear about him.
Alexander I spent three days in thought before reluctantly agreeing to this proposal. He signed a corresponding decree to the Senate and accepted the new commander-in-chief on Kamenny Island. The audience, however, was short-lived. Later, in a letter to his sister Ekaterina Pavlovna, the tsar admitted: “...In general, Kutuzov enjoys great love among wide circles of the population here and in Moscow... I saw that absolutely everyone was in favor of appointing old Kutuzov as commander-in-chief; it was a common desire. Knowing this man, at the beginning I opposed his appointment... In the circumstances in which we find ourselves, I could not do otherwise. I had to choose whoever the general voice pointed to.” “Old Man Kutuzov” was then 68 years old, and he well understood that he was taking command of the retreating army during the most difficult period of the war with Napoleon and what responsibility lay on him. Moreover, having appointed him commander-in-chief, Alexander I stated: “As for me, I wash my hands of it...”
Did fate, fate, or some higher power contribute to the fact that it was Kutuzov who led the Russian troops? It is difficult not to believe in some kind of predestination from above, given that throughout the commander’s life many mysteries and mystical stories were associated with his name. Take, for example, the field marshal’s wounds, which were all fatal... Kutuzov began his service as a 14-year-old teenager with the rank of artillery corporal, and two years later he commanded a company in the Astrakhan infantry regiment. During his combat service, a Turkish bullet twice made an incredible journey from Kutuzov’s left temple to his right. The first time he was supposed to die was on July 24, 1779, in a battle with a Turkish landing force that landed in the Crimea near Alushta, when “a bullet, hitting him between the eye and temple, came out in the same place on the other side of the face.” The doctors did not hope to save him, but the young officer miraculously survived. On August 18, 1788, everything was repeated with amazing accuracy: during a sortie of Turkish troops from besieged Ochakov, 43-year-old Kutuzov was mortally wounded - and again the bullet went right through “from temple to temple behind both eyes.” The surgeon who treated him, Massot, already noted that such a coincidence was “not an accident”: “We must believe that fate appoints Kutuzov to something great, for he survived after two wounds, fatal according to all the rules of medical science.”
But the most mysterious thing in both cases is not so much the amazing vitality of the commander, but something else. Here it must be clarified that bullets from smoothbore rifles and pistols of the late 18th century usually had a caliber of 17–25 millimeters. When they hit the head, the skull, as a rule, shattered into pieces. Kutuzov was hit by two such bullets at an interval of twelve years, and his skull suffered minimal damage. Three months after the second wound, the commander returned to duty. Moreover, he did not even lose his sight. Despite the fact that some contemporaries called him “crooked” and “one-eyed,” in fact he was not one. Although his right eye's vision became worse, he remained sighted in both eyes.
A second question arises: what should happen to the mental abilities of a person who miraculously survived such injuries? At best, he should become weak-minded. But this did not happen with Kutuzov. On the contrary, the highest peak of his career occurred after the second wound. Moreover, in addition to military service, he successfully tries himself in a new field - diplomatic, brilliantly preventing several bloody wars and establishing himself as a far-sighted politician. For this, it was not enough to just have a strong body; you needed a good education, refined manners and developed intelligence. At the same time, we should not forget that Kutuzov received his second wound at an advanced age, when the peak of a person’s physical and intellectual development usually begins to decline. Apparently, there was still some higher power behind this, which the surgeon Massot called fate.
There were other mysterious moments in Kutuzov’s life. In addition to his suddenly discovered diplomatic talent, he clearly possessed a mystical, and perhaps magical, gift. Everything he predicted, including the collapse of Napoleon’s “grand army,” came true! But to do this, he had to make many difficult and fateful decisions for Russia.
Returning to the summer of 1812, it is necessary to emphasize that the appointment of M. I. Kutuzov as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army not only became the only way out of the current situation, but also instilled faith in the troops in victory and raised their fighting spirit. This is what eyewitnesses wrote about Kutuzov’s farewell to the active army: “The people crowded around the venerable old man, touched his dress, begged him: “Our Father! Stop the fierce enemy; cast down the serpent!” Hope for the commander as the deliverer of the Russian land from enemy invasion was even expressed in the well-known folk saying: “Kutuzov came to beat the French!”
On August 29, 1812, M.I. Kutuzov arrived in Tsarevo-Zaimishche. Walking around the guard of honor, he addressed the soldiers and officers with the words: “Well, how can you retreat with such fellows!” However, they still had to retreat, now under his leadership. When 150 kilometers remained to Moscow, the commander-in-chief makes a difficult decision about the further withdrawal of the army. In the two months since the invasion, the Russians have retreated 800 kilometers into the interior of the country. The army was in dire need of rest and reinforcement. The French followed her relentlessly, ready at any moment for a decisive battle. Napoleon was preparing an attack on Moscow: “If I take Kyiv, I will take Russia by the feet; if I take possession of St. Petersburg, I will take her by the head; Having occupied Moscow, I will strike her in the heart.”
M.I. Kutuzov understood that no strategic considerations would justify further retreat in the eyes of Russian society and he could not avoid a general battle. But, in his opinion, the position of the Russian army at Tsarev-Zaimishch was too unfavorable, and therefore he withdrew his troops to Mozhaisk. Here, near the village of Borodino, it was decided to meet Napoleon’s “great army”.
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From the book Reserve Capital author Pavlov AndreyDID STALIN ARRIVE IN KUIBYSHEV? While the diplomatic corps is busy with its efforts to organize and establish work in a previously unknown wilderness - Samara, let us dwell on the question: did Stalin also intend to evacuate from Moscow to Samara? Yes and no, obviously. “Yes” because
- Was Russia really at war with France?
- Yes, and France attacked Russia.
- How did it all end?
- The Russians defeated the French and captured Paris.
- Listen, this can’t happen. After all, Napoleon was overthrown by the British.
Then I immediately remembered the magnificent statements that the Americans won World War II, and I did not torture the man further. In total, I interviewed 20 students in Paris. No one could name the year the Patriotic War began, and was also not aware of the Battle of Borodino (in French it is called bataille de la Moskova - the Battle of the Moscow River) and the subsequent defeat of Bonaparte’s “grand army”. French researchers of the Napoleonic Wars confirmed my assumptions - the vast majority of French citizens now know nothing about Napoleon’s invasion in 1812, the Battle of Borodino, the occupation of Moscow, the Berezina disaster and the resulting storming of Paris by Russian Cossacks.
Cake and hussars
- Some Parisians will confidently tell you: “Oh, we heard something about the old war with Russia!” - explains “Amateur” historian Didier Rivarol. - We have metro stations “Sevastopol”, “Crimea”, Malakoff suburb. True, all these names refer to the Crimean War of 1853-1856, and it began under Emperor Napoleon III, 41 years after the Patriotic War. When I talk to ordinary people about the death of 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 French cafes (“bistros”) was born when the Russian Cossacks who occupied Paris shouted to the waiters: “Come on 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?
Regarding the iconic characters of the Patriotic War - alas, there is a general problem here. " Mikhail Kutuzov? It seems like this is some kind of Russian vodka…” a 20-year-old student at the University of Paris said joyfully. Four more people responded similarly. General Bagration was defined by the French as a type of cake, but about the partisan commander Denis Davydov two immediately confidently stated: “Well, of course, Davidoff is a well-known brand of cigarettes. Only we didn’t know that the company was founded by a Russian hussar.” To be fair, I will say: those surveyed 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 are disappearing from school books. After the education reform in 2010, information about Napoleon in textbooks was reduced... by 10 times! The French emperor is accused of restoring slavery in the colonies, a brutal dictatorship and many other sins. The French not only do not know about Borodino - they also do not name the dates of the battles of Leipzig, Austerlitz or Jena. The only event known to everyone is the defeat of Napoleon, defeated by the Anglo-Prussian army at Waterloo in 1815.A story without ragamuffins
“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 Paris Emmanuel Martinez. - For example, the number of Napoleon's killed and wounded soldiers at the Battle of Borodino is estimated at a maximum of 28,000, although both British and Russian historians estimate French losses at an average of 35,000 soldiers. And so on all the time. French artists of the 19th and 20th centuries willingly painted the brave grenadiers and marshals of Napoleon Bonaparte amid the fire of Moscow, at the gates of the Kremlin or in the squares of conquered cities, but they always tried not to depict the later version: an army of savage ragamuffins dying ingloriously in the ominous Russian snows. Also, in few places you will find information that the French army set up stables in Orthodox churches in Moscow, plundered the Kremlin’s treasures, stole icon frames from cathedrals, not to mention Bonaparte’s failed attempt to blow up the Kremlin itself during the retreat. Even if Napoleon is heavily criticized now, they still say practically nothing about the looting of the French in Moscow. Our army is a good army, and nothing else.
Uncultured Asians
Napoleon’s unsuccessful “Russian campaign” is popular nowadays 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 that their great-great-great-grandfathers invaded Russia in 1812... I wonder why ? “You wanted to conquer your state? - a girl at the University of Paris naively wonders. - A stunningly stupid act on their part. You have such a cold climate.”
Previously, many French researchers justified Napoleon's defeat by “harsh weather and unusual conditions,” citing the memoirs of the generals of the French emperor. They were sincerely indignant at the partisans from Russian peasants, who politically incorrectly raised the invaders to pitchforks and attacked the occupiers’ patrols: “This is not noble warfare, but simply barbaric Asianism.” Yes, unfortunately, we are such an uncultured people - you come at us with a civilized European army, and we, without any rules, hit you over the head with a shovel. However, not everything is so simple. At the university in the capital of France, they told me about a Parisian student who was imbued with the history of the Patriotic War and made a special trip to Orenburg in order to find out about the “French Cossacks.” These are captured officers of Napoleonic army - they fell in love with Russia so much that they married local girls and stayed to live in Orenburg, accepting Russian citizenship and joining the Orenburg Cossack army.None of the Parisian students had heard about the defeat of Bonaparte’s “Great Army” in Russia. Painting by Vasily Vereshchagin “On the high road. Retreat, flight..." reproduction
I'm not trying to show - oh, what fools the French are. Moreover, I am not at all sure that our students will so easily 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 greatly embellishes its victories and justifies its defeats with a bunch of reasons. There is even a plus here - after all, people in France now view 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 forgot a large-scale episode in their own history, which led to the collapse of the First Empire. I hope things will be better with our memory regarding the Patriotic War.
We continue to publish a chronicle of the events of the late summer of 1812. We remind you that the last issue of KGV talked about the battles of Russian troops with the French near Smolensk.
During the retreat from Smolensk, the flying Cossack corps of the 1st Western Army from August 8 (20) to August 18 (30) was in the main rearguard under the overall command of Platov. He fought near the villages of Pnevo and Mikhalevka, at Dorogobuzh and at Semlev. After Platov was sent to Moscow, the rearguard Cossack regiments were commanded by I. Krasnov, who was mortally wounded in the case at the Kolotsky Monastery.
On August 16, our armies retreated from Vyazma. “The rearguard withstood the bloody affair, but held out in front of the city until the 17th, when it withdrew after the armies; immediately, as soon as our last regiments passed, the residents set the city on fire, so that the French artillery could not follow the streets,” wrote an eyewitness of those events, A. Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky.
Retreating, Barclay de Tolly believed in the imminent victory of Russia. According to his adjutant V. Levenshtern, who was entrusted with making reports on behalf of the commander-in-chief to the tsar, Barclay from the first days of the war reassured the sovereign and “guaranteed with his head that by November the French troops would be forced to leave Russia more hastily than they entered there.”
Soon after Smolensk, having received reinforcements from 10 thousand Smolensk warriors in Dorogobuzh and learning that Miloradovich was already leading another 15 thousand to him, Barclay began to prepare for a general battle. He knew from questioning the prisoners that there were already more French than Russians. On August 25, Napoleon had 155,675 people in the central group, and both Russian armies, according to data on August 29, had 100,453 people, not counting 10 thousand militias and more than 11 thousand Cossacks, that is, a total of 121.5 thousand.
Already on August 24, Barclay (together with Bagration) examined the position near Dorogobuzh, recommended by K. Tol, but considered it unprofitable and by August 29 he withdrew his troops to another position - near the village. Tsarevo-Zaimishche, where he decided to give battle, especially since on the 30th Miloradovich arrived at the head of 15.5 thousand fighters.
However, the military generals and officers, who had lost all confidence in Barclay, did not want to put up with him. The mass of soldiers were even more irreconcilable, who were not at all consoled by the fact that, by order of Barclay, mileposts - indicators of the number of miles to Moscow - were “removed from the road in advance” in front of them. Bagration supported the general irritation against Barclay with his authority. In such conditions, when the army actually became unified, and there were only two commanders left, the discord between Bagration and Barclay perfectly illustrated Napoleon’s saying: “One bad commander-in-chief is better than two good ones.” The army and the country were faced with the acute question of a single commander in chief.
Kutuzov had an obvious advantage over others. He was then 67 years old. His combat experience amounted to almost half a century. He became a general in 1784, earlier than Napoleon became a lieutenant. Many times death looked him in the eye. In his youth, he was shot in the head twice, but both times, to the surprise of Russian and European doctors, he survived. His right eye was knocked out by a Turkish bullet in the battle of Alushta when he was 28 years old. After this, Kutuzov distinguished himself in more than a dozen campaigns, sieges, battles, and assaults, especially in the famous assault on Izmail on December 22, 1790. “He walked on my left wing,” Suvorov wrote about Kutuzov then, “but he was my right hand.” By 1812, Kutuzov had firmly established himself as a wise strategist and brilliant diplomat. “Cunning, cunning! Smart, smart! No one will deceive him,” Suvorov said about him.
Kutuzov, replacing Barclay, continued his strategy. But not because he used it, unable to come up with anything of his own, but because it was the only correct one, and Kutuzov understood this no worse than Barclay.
The appointment of Kutuzov as commander-in-chief was both strategically and politically justified, because Barclay, even if he was right three times, did not have confidence in himself either in the army or among the people. “The feat of Barclay de Tolly is great, his fate is tragically sad and capable of arousing indignation in a great poet,” wrote V. G. Belinsky, “but the thinker, blessing the memory of Barclay de Tolly and reverently before his sacred feat, cannot blame and his contemporaries, seeing in this phenomenon (in replacing Barclay with Kutuzov) a reasonable and immutable necessity.”
The troops then said: “Kutuzov came to beat the French.” The experienced commander himself modestly answered all greetings: “You can’t win, but God forbid you deceive Napoleon.” But Kutuzov really understood that the time had come to give a decisive battle to the enemy.
Salavat ASFATULLIN.
From the editor
The past two months have been very productive for our today's author. The magazine “Russian History” published his article about the 400th anniversary of the voluntary annexation of Bashkiria to the Moscow Principality, and the magazines “Our Contemporary” and “Podvig” published materials related to the Patriotic War of 1812. Let us add that the other day he was awarded the certificate of Honored Worker of Culture of the Kaluga Region. Keep it up, Salavat!
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