TO THE GENERALS

YEAR TWELVE

Marina Tsvetaeva

You, whose wide greatcoats
Reminds me of sails
Whose spurs rang merrily
And voices.

And whose eyes are like diamonds
A mark was cut out on the heart -
Charming dandies
Years past.

With one fierce will
You took the heart and the rock, -
Kings on every battlefield
And at the ball.

The hand of the Lord protected you
And a mother's heart. Yesterday -
Little boys, today -
Officer.

All heights were too small for you
And soft is the staleest bread,
O young generals
Your destinies!

Sovereign Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia (since March 12 (24), 1801), the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Maria Feodorovna.

At the beginning of his reign, he carried out moderate liberal reforms developed by the Secret Committee and M. M. Speransky. In foreign policy maneuvered between Great Britain and France. In 1805-1807 he participated in anti-French coalitions. In 1807-1812 he temporarily became close to France. He fought successful wars with Turkey (1806-1812), Persia (1804-1813) and Sweden (1808-1809). Under Alexander I, the territories of Eastern Georgia (1801), Finland (1809), Bessarabia (1812), and the former Duchy of Warsaw (1815) were annexed to Russia. After Patriotic War 1812 led the anti-French coalition of European powers in 1813-1814. He was one of the leaders of the Congress of Vienna of 1814-1815 and the organizers of the Holy Alliance.

In the last years of his life, he often spoke of his intention to abdicate the throne and “retire from the world,” which, after his unexpected death from typhoid fever in Taganrog, gave rise to the legend of “elder Fyodor Kuzmich.” According to this legend, it was not Alexander who died and was then buried in Taganrog, but his double, while the tsar lived for a long time as an old hermit in Siberia and died in Tomsk in 1864.

In 1805, through the conclusion of a number of treaties, a new anti-French coalition was actually formed, and on September 9 of the same year, Alexander left for the active army. Although the commander was M.I. Kutuzov, in fact main role Alexander began to play a role in decision making. The emperor bears primary responsibility for the defeat of the Russian-Austrian army at Austerlitz, however, serious measures were taken against a number of generals: Lieutenant General A.F. Langeron was dismissed from service, Lieutenant General I. Ya. Przhibyshevsky and Major General I. A. Loshakov was put on trial, the Novgorod Musketeer Regiment was deprived of its honors.

On November 22 (December 4), 1805, a truce was concluded, according to which Russian troops were to leave Austrian territory. On June 8 (20), 1806, a Russian-French peace treaty was signed in Paris. In September 1806, Prussia began a war against France, and on November 16 (28), 1806, Alexander announced the Russian Empire’s action against France. On March 16, 1807, Alexander left for the army through Riga and Mitau and on April 5 arrived at the Main Apartment of General L. L. Bennigsen. This time Alexander interfered less in the affairs of the commander than in the last campaign. After the defeat of the Russian army in the war, he was forced to enter into peace negotiations with Napoleon.

“From a long time ago, WE noticed the hostile actions of the French Emperor against Russia, but we always hoped to reject them in meek and peaceful ways. Finally, seeing the incessant renewal of obvious insults, with all OUR desire to maintain silence, WE were forced to take up arms and gather OUR troops; but even then , still caressed by reconciliation, remained within the boundaries of OUR Empire, without violating the peace, but only being ready for defense. All these measures of meekness and peacefulness could not maintain the peace that OUR desired. The French Emperor opened the first war with an attack on OUR troops at Kovno. And so, Seeing him inflexible to peace by any means, WE have no choice but to call upon the help of the Witness and Defender of truth, the Almighty Creator of heaven, to put OUR forces against the forces of the enemy. I do not need to remind OUR leaders, generals and warriors of their duty and courage. Since ancient times, the blood of the Slavs, resounding with victories, has flowed in them. Warriors! You defend the faith, the Fatherland, freedom. I am with you. God for the beginner. Alexander. "

He also issued a manifesto on the outbreak of war with France, which ended with the words

“I will not lay down my weapons until not a single enemy warrior remains in my kingdom.”

Then Alexander sent A.D. Balashov to Napoleon with a proposal to begin negotiations on the condition that the French troops leave the empire. On June 13 (25) he left for Sventsyany. Arriving at the active army, he did not declare M.B. Barclay de Tolly commander-in-chief and thereby assumed command. On the night of July 7 (19), he left the army in Polotsk and went to Moscow. Alexander approved the plan of defensive military action and forbade peace negotiations until at least one enemy soldier remained on Russian soil. December 31, 1812 (January 12, 1813) issued a manifesto, c. which also said:

“The spectacle of the death of his troops is incredible! Who could do this?.. Let us recognize God’s providence in this great deed.”

He commanded the entire Russian army at the initial stage of the Patriotic War of 1812, after which he was replaced by M. I. Kutuzov. In the foreign campaign of the Russian army of 1813-1814, he commanded the united Russian-Prussian army as part of the Bohemian Army of the Austrian Field Marshal Prince Schwarzenberg.

According to Western authors, he entered the history of military art as the architect of the “scorched earth” strategy and tactics - cutting off the main enemy troops from the rear, depriving them of supplies and organizing guerrilla warfare in their rear.

In Russian history he is remembered as a commander who was forced to make a strategic retreat before Napoleon in the Patriotic War of 1812 and for this was unfairly condemned by his contemporaries.

The assessment of the role of Barclay de Tolly in the War of 1812 was largely determined by the views and influence at court of the “Russian party,” which saw Barclay as a “German” and demanded his removal from the post of commander in chief. The landed nobility were not happy with his scorched earth tactics, which he was forced to use in a defensive war with Napoleon's stronger army.

In the Patriotic War of 1812, Barclay de Tolly commanded the 1st Western Army, stationed on the border of the Russian Empire in Lithuania. Under pressure from superior forces, he was forced to retreat, conducting rearguard battles near Vitebsk and Smolensk. Near Smolensk in early August he united with the 2nd Western Army of P.I. Bagration, who submitted to him rather voluntarily, but soon began to openly accuse Barclay of his inability to lead the troops. As Barclay later wrote in the journal of the 1st Army about his relationship with Bagration: “I had to flatter his pride and give in to him on various occasions against my own identity in order to carry out the most important enterprises with great success.” The forced retreat caused discontent in the country and the army.

The elder brother of Lieutenant General of the Russian Army, Prince Roman Ivanovich Bagration, and the uncle of Lieutenant General of the Russian Army, engineer and metallurgist Prince Pyotr Romanovich Bagration (son of R.I. Bagration).

At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, the 2nd Western Army was located near Grodno and found itself cut off from the main 1st Army by the advancing French corps. Bagration had to retreat with rearguard battles to Bobruisk and Mogilev, where, after the battle near Saltanovka, he crossed the Dnieper and on August 3 united with the 1st Western Army of Barclay de Tolly near Smolensk.

Bagration advocated involving broad sections of the people in the fight against the French and was one of the initiators of the partisan movement.

At Borodino, Bagration's army, forming the left wing of the battle formation Russian troops, repelled all attacks of Napoleon's army. According to the tradition of that time, decisive battles were always prepared as for a show - people changed into clean linen, shaved carefully, put on ceremonial uniforms, orders, white gloves, sultans on shakos, etc. Exactly as he is depicted in the portrait - with a blue St. Andrew's ribbon, with three stars of the orders of Andrei, George and Vladimir and many order crosses - were seen by Bagration's regiments in the Battle of Borodino, the last in his military life. A cannonball fragment crushed the general's tibia in his left leg. The prince refused the amputation proposed by the doctors. The next day, Bagration mentioned the injury in his report to Tsar Alexander I:

“I was rather slightly wounded in the left leg by a bullet that shattered the bone; but I don’t regret it in the least, being always ready to sacrifice and the last straw my blood for the defense of the fatherland and the august throne..."

The commander was transported to the estate of his friend, Lieutenant General Prince B. A. Golitsyn, who also participated in the Battle of Borodino (his wife was Bagration’s fourth cousin, and their son, N. B. Golitsyn, was his orderly), to the village of Sima, Vladimir province .

On September 12 (24), 1812, Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration died of gangrene, 17 days after being wounded. According to the surviving inscription on the grave in the village of Sima, he died on September 23.

Golenishchev-Kutuzov Mikhail Illarionovich

Field Marshal General, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army during the Patriotic War of 1812. The first full holder of the Order of St. George.

At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, General Kutuzov was elected in July as the head of the St. Petersburg and then the Moscow militia. At the initial stage of the Patriotic War, the 1st and 2nd Western Russian armies rolled back under the pressure of Napoleon's superior forces. The unsuccessful course of the war prompted the nobility to demand the appointment of a commander who would enjoy the trust of Russian society. Even before the Russian troops left Smolensk, Alexander I was forced to appoint infantry general Kutuzov as commander-in-chief of all Russian armies and militias. 10 days before the appointment, the tsar granted (July 29) Kutuzov the title of His Serene Highness Prince. The appointment of Kutuzov caused a patriotic upsurge in the army and the people. Kutuzov himself, as in 1805, was not in the mood for a decisive battle against Napoleon. According to one piece of evidence, he expressed himself this way about the methods he would use against the French: “We will not defeat Napoleon. We will deceive him." On August 17 (29), Kutuzov received an army from Barclay de Tolly in the village of Tsarevo-Zaimishche, Smolensk province.

After leaving Moscow, Kutuzov secretly carried out the famous Tarutino flank maneuver, leading the army to the village of Tarutino by the beginning of October. Finding himself south and west of Napoleon, Kutuzov blocked his routes to the southern regions of the country.

Having failed in his attempts to make peace with Russia, Napoleon began to withdraw from Moscow on October 7 (19). He tried to lead the army to Smolensk by the southern route through Kaluga, where there were supplies of food and fodder, but on October 12 (24) in the battle for Maloyaroslavets he was stopped by Kutuzov and retreated along the devastated Smolensk road. Russian troops launched a counteroffensive, which Kutuzov organized so that Napoleon's army was under flank attacks by regular and partisan detachments, and Kutuzov avoided a frontal battle with large masses of troops.

Thanks to Kutuzov's strategy, Napoleonic's huge army was almost completely destroyed. It should be especially noted that the victory was achieved at the cost of moderate losses in the Russian army. Kutuzov was criticized in pre-Soviet and post-Soviet times for his reluctance to act more decisively and aggressively, for his preference for certain victory at the expense of great glory. Prince Kutuzov, according to contemporaries and historians, did not share his plans with anyone, his words to the public often differed from his orders for the army, so the true motives for the actions of the famous commander make it possible different interpretations. But the final result of his activities is undeniable - the defeat of Napoleon in Russia, for which Kutuzov was awarded the Order of St. George, 1st degree, becoming the first full Knight of St. George in the history of the order.

Count, cavalry general. During the Patriotic War of 1812, he commanded the 3rd Western Army on the southern flank, Moscow mayor.

During the Patriotic War of 1812, Tormasov commanded the 3rd Observation Army (54 battalions, 76 squadrons, 9 Cossack regiments, 43 thousand in total), designed to contain Austria.

First Schwarzenberg was sent against Tormasov, then Rainier, with the Saxon corps. On July 1, Tormasov, leaving Osten-Sacken’s corps to guard Volyn and for communication with the Danube army, and Major General Khrushchev (dragoon brigade and 2 Cossack regiments) in Vladimir-Volynsky, to secure the borders from Galicia and the Duchy of Warsaw, himself, with with the main forces, moved against the flank and rear of the French troops advancing from Brest to Pinsk against Bagration. Rainier's corps was scattered over a large area (Slonim - Pruzhany - Brest - Kobrin - Yanovo - Pinsk). On July 24, part of Tormasov’s army captured Brest. On the 27th, the Saxon detachment was defeated and laid down its arms in the battle near Kobrin (General Klengel, 66 officers, 2200 lower ranks, 8 guns); after that Tormasov occupied Pruzhany. This victory had important psychological significance as the first success during the retreat of the Russian armies. For her, Tormasov received the Order of St. George, 2nd class (No. 43 on the list) on July 28, 1812. For the defeat of the French at Kobrin on July 15, 1812.

Rainier, having gathered his troops and united with Schwarzenberg, attacked Tormasov at Gorodechno. On August 1, Russian troops retreated first to Kobrin, and then to Lutsk, to join the Danube army, which was marching to Russia after the conclusion of the Bucharest Peace with the Ottoman Porte.

In September, the armies united and forced Schwarzenberg to hastily retreat to Brest. Soon, command of the united armies passed to Admiral Chichagov, and Tormasov was recalled to the main headquarters, where he was entrusted with internal control of the troops and their organization. Tormasov took part in the battles of Maloyaroslavets, Vyazma, Krasny and crossed the border of the empire with the main army in December 1812. During the Patriotic War of 1812, the only holder of the Order of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called was General A.P. Tormasov for his distinction in the Battle of Krasnoe. When Kutuzov, due to illness, remained in Bunzlau, Tormasov temporarily took over the main command of the army.

Soon, poor health forced him to ask for dismissal; he was appointed a member of the State Council, and in 1814 - Governor General of Moscow. On August 30, 1816 he was elevated to the dignity of count.

Died in 1819. (Report of Moscow Governor E. A. Durasov on the death of Governor General A. P. Tormasov. 1819)

He was buried in Moscow in the Donskoy Monastery.

Wittgenstein Peter Christianovich

During the Patriotic War of 1812 - commander of a separate corps in the St. Petersburg direction. In April-May 1813, commander-in-chief of the Russian-Prussian army in Germany; after a series of battles with superior forces of Napoleon and the subsequent retreat, he was demoted. At the beginning of the Russian-Turkish War of 1828, he was the commander-in-chief of the Russian army.

During the Patriotic War of 1812, he commanded the 1st Infantry Corps and already on June 27 fought with the French near Vilkomir. During the retreat of the Russian army from the camp near Drissa, Wittgenstein, who had 20 thousand soldiers under his command, was entrusted with covering the routes to St. Petersburg against the French corps of MacDonald (in Courland) and Oudinot (on the banks of the Dvina).

Having stopped Oudinot's advance in the battle of Klyastitsy, Wittgenstein brilliantly completed his task, and was wounded twice - in the battles of Golovchitsy and Polotsk. Wittgenstein was proclaimed the “savior of St. Petersburg,” Alexander I awarded him the Order of St. George, 2nd degree, for Klyastitsy. Many engraved images of him have appeared.

After the fall of Moscow, Wittgenstein strengthened his corps with warriors of the St. Petersburg militia to 40 thousand and on October 19 forced Marshal Saint-Cyr to retreat from Polotsk, which he took by storm. For this victory, he was immediately promoted to cavalry general, even before the liberation of Polotsk.

On October 30, Wittgenstein won a new victory over the united corps of Saint-Cyr and Victor. During the battle on the Berezina, he received an order from Commander-in-Chief M.I. Kutuzov to move from the north in the direction of Borisov and join the corps of Admiral P.V. Chichagov with the goal of encircling and defeating the retreating Napoleon. However, he was in no hurry to carry out the order, believing that “let Chichagov himself take the risk and stop the French.” As a result, Napoleon was able to cross the Berezina north of Borisov in the area of ​​the village of Studenka and escape from encirclement. Kutuzov blamed both Chichagov and Wittgenstein for the failure, and the latter even more so, because Chichagov at least tried to do something to stop the enemy, while Wittgenstein sat on the sidelines. However, public opinion in Russia placed the blame for Napoleon’s Berezina breakthrough only on P.V. Chichagov; Wittgenstein, with his fame as the “savior of St. Petersburg,” remained beyond criticism.

Then he took part in the pursuit of the remnants of the main enemy army and on February 27 (March 11), 1813, entered Berlin.

Davydov Denis Vasilievich

Lieutenant General, ideologist and leader of the partisan movement, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, Russian poet of the Pushkin Pleiad.

At the beginning of the war of 1812, Davydov was a lieutenant colonel in the Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment and was in the vanguard troops of the general. Vasilchikova. On August 21, 1812, in sight of the village of Borodino, where he grew up, where they were already hastily dismantling parents' house on fortifications, five days before the great battle, Denis Vasilyevich proposed to Bagration the idea of ​​a partisan detachment. He borrowed this idea from the Guerillas (Spanish partisans). Napoleon could not cope with them until they united into a regular army. The logic was simple: Napoleon, hoping to defeat Russia in twenty days, took so much food with him. And if you take away carts, fodder and break bridges, this will create big problems for him.

His rapid successes convinced Kutuzov of the advisability of guerrilla warfare, and he was not slow to give it wider development and constantly sent reinforcements. The second time Davydov saw Napoleon was when he and his partisans were in ambush in the forest, and a dormez with Napoleon drove past him. But at that moment he had too little strength to attack Napoleon’s guards. Napoleon hated Davydov and ordered him to be shot on the spot upon his arrest. For the sake of his capture, he allocated one of his best detachments of two thousand horsemen with eight chief officers and one staff officer. Davydov, who had half as many people, managed to drive the detachment into a trap and take him prisoner along with all the officers.

One of Davydov’s outstanding feats during this time was the case near Lyakhov, where he, along with other partisans, captured General Augereau’s two-thousand-strong detachment; then, near the city of Kopys, he destroyed the French cavalry depot, scattered the enemy detachment near Belynichi and, continuing the search to the Neman, occupied Grodno. Denis Davydov’s awards for the 1812 campaign were the Orders of St. Vladimir, 3rd degree, and St. George, 4th degree: “Your Grace! While the Patriotic War continued, I considered it a sin to think about anything other than the extermination of the enemies of the Fatherland. Now I am abroad, I humbly ask your Lordship to send me Vladimir 3rd class and Georgy 4th class,” Davydov wrote to Field Marshal M.I. Kutuzov after crossing the border.

After crossing the border, Davydov was assigned to the corps of General Wintzingerode, participated in the defeat of the Saxons near Kalisz and, having entered Saxony with an advanced detachment, occupied Dresden. For which he was put under house arrest by General Wintzingerode, since he took the city without permission, without orders. Throughout Europe, legends were made about Davydov’s courage and luck. When Russian troops entered a city, all the residents went out into the street and asked about him in order to see him.

For the battle on the approach to Paris, when five horses were killed under him, but he, together with his Cossacks, still broke through the hussars of the Jacquinot brigade to the French artillery battery and, having chopped up the servants, decided the outcome of the battle, Davydov was awarded the rank of major general.

Seslavin Alexander Nikitich

Major General, famous for his partisan actions during the wars of 1812-1814.

Father - Nikita Stepanovich Seslavin (1756-1826).

He was educated in the 2nd Cadet Corps and served in the Guard. horse artillery; participated with distinction in the wars of 1805 and 1807 with the French and 1810 in the Turkish War.

At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, he was the adjutant of General M.B. Barclay de Tolly. Alexander Seslavin showed particular courage in the Battle of Borodino, and with the beginning of partisan operations he was given command of a separate light detachment. He was the first to open Napoleon's speech from Moscow and his movement to the Kaluga road, thanks to which Russian troops managed to block the enemy's path at Maloyaroslavets. Then, relentlessly following the French, Seslavin delivered very important information about them to the commander-in-chief and caused them all kinds of harm.

In 1813, while serving in Wittgenstein's army, Seslavin often commanded forward detachments. For his distinction in the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, he was promoted to major general.

In 1814, he maintained communication between the main army and Blucher's army and stopped the supply of food to Paris.

At the end of the war, Seslavin, covered with wounds, spent a long time receiving treatment abroad. At the end of his life, considering his merits insufficiently rewarded, he fell into misanthropy and died alone on his estate Kokoshkino, Rzhev district, where he was buried.

Konovnitsyn Pyotr Petrovich

Russian military and statesman: infantry general, adjutant general, minister of war, member of the State Council, member of the Senate, member of the Committee of Ministers, head of military educational institutions, chief director of the Page and other cadet corps. Hero of the Patriotic War of 1812.

At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, Konovnitsyn’s 3rd Division became part of the 1st Western Army of M. Barclay de Tolly. On July 14, at Ostrovny, the division entered into its first battle with the French; Having replaced the tired corps of General A.I. Osterman, she held back the enemy’s onslaught all day, ensuring the withdrawal of the main forces of the army. Konovnitsyn wrote home: “I spent the whole day holding Napoleon himself, who wanted to dine in Vitebsk, but didn’t get there for the night, except perhaps the next day. Our guys fight like lions." Konovnitsyn himself fought just like a lion, and was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky for this battle.

On August 5 he defended Smolensk, remaining wounded in the ranks, and on August 6 he fought at Lubin. In Smolensk, soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division took Smolensk icon Mother of God, which was brought to Moscow and carried in front of the Russian troops on the day of the Battle of Borodino.

After the retreat from Moscow, Kutuzov appointed Konovnitsyn as duty general of the Russian army headquarters. Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky wrote the following in his diaries on this matter: “General Konovnitsyn in our army was a model of courage and reliability, on whom you can always rely... This man, worthy of respect in all respects, did more than any other general to save Russia, and this merit is now forgotten. But he will forever preserve in our history a name that envy cannot tear out of this memory. I will not talk about his victories in Vitebsk and Smolepsk, where he alone commanded the army, I will not talk about his exploits as a brilliant rearguard general, but I will only say one thing: after Moscow was surrendered to the enemy, our army was in a state of complete disorganization, when everyone despaired of saving their homeland. Prince Kutuzov and all his generals asked General Konovnitsyn to take charge General Staff army. He accepted this most difficult post in Krasnaya Pakhra, and he fulfilled it with all possible zeal and energy, and he managed to form from the most scattered, most disorganized army, the first army of the world, which beat Napoleon and all of Europe, united against us. In all subsequent affairs that occurred after, he was the first at the head of our columns. It was he who personally commanded the ever-memorable battles of Tarutino and Maloyaroslavets. This is a genuine Russian who knows how to truly appreciate valor and knows the true value of foreigners. “Never,” he says, “will I give a foreigner the rank of general. Give them as much money as you want, but don’t give them honors, because they are mercenaries.” As for me, I consider myself happy in my acquaintance with him. People like him are rare. And when he dies, I will write on his grave: “Sit ti bi terra levis”... Konovnitsyn only once advised to retreat. It was in Krasnaya Pakhra.”

Raevsky Nikolai Nikolaevich

Russian commander, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, cavalry general (1813). During thirty years of impeccable service, he participated in many of the largest battles of the era. After his feat at Saltanovka, he became one of the most popular generals in the Russian army. The fight for the Raevsky battery was one of the key episodes of the Battle of Borodino. Participant in the “Battle of the Nations” and the capture of Paris. Member State Council. He was closely acquainted with many Decembrists. A. S. Pushkin was proud of his friendship with Raevsky. He was the cousin of Denis Davydov.

On the night of June 24, 1812, Napoleon’s “Great Army” invaded Russian territory. Raevsky at this time headed the 7th Infantry Corps of the 2nd Western Army of General P.I. Bagration. From near Grodno, Bagration's 45,000-strong army began to retreat to the east for subsequent connection with the army of M. B. Barclay de Tolly. In order to prevent the connection of the two Russian armies, Napoleon sent the 50,000-strong corps of the “Iron Marshal” Davout to cross Bagration. On July 21, Davout occupied the city of Mogilev on the Dnieper. Thus, the enemy got ahead of Bagration and found himself northeast of the 2nd Russian Army. Both sides did not have accurate information about the enemy’s forces, and Bagration, approaching the Dnieper 60 km south of Mogilev, equipped Raevsky’s corps to try to push the French away from the city and take a direct road to Vitebsk, where, according to plans, the Russian armies were supposed to unite.

At the military council in Fili, held on September 1 (September 13), Raevsky spoke out in favor of leaving Moscow: “I said that... most of all it is necessary to save the troops... and that my opinion is to leave Moscow without a battle, which I say as a soldier.”

M.I. Kutuzov also shared a similar opinion. On September 2 (September 14), the Russian army left Moscow, and on the same day it was occupied by the French.

However, a month later Napoleon was forced to leave the burned city. On October 19, the French army began to retreat towards Kaluga. On October 24, a major battle took place near Maloyaroslavets. The 6th Infantry Corps of General D.S. Dokhturov put up stubborn resistance to the enemy, the city changed hands several times. Napoleon brought more and more units into battle, and Kutuzov decided to send Raevsky’s corps to help Dokhturov. Reinforcements came in handy, and the enemy was driven away from the city. As a result, Maloyaroslavets remained with the Russian army. The French were unable to break through to Kaluga, and were forced to continue their retreat along the Smolensk road, which they had already destroyed. Raevsky was awarded the Order of St. George, 3rd degree, for his actions near Maloyaroslavets.

The forces of the French, rapidly retreating to the western borders of Russia, were melting every day. In November, during the three-day battle of Krasnoye, Napoleon lost about a third of his army. In this clash, Raevsky’s corps actually finished off the remnants of Marshal Ney’s corps, with whom he had to face more than once during the campaign.

Soon after the battle of Krasnoye, Nikolai Nikolaevich was forced to leave the army. The constant overexertion of forces, as well as numerous shell shocks and wounds, took their toll.

Paskevich Ivan Fedorovich

In November 1810, for distinction in the battle of Batin, Paskevich was awarded the rank of major general and was appointed to Kyiv as the head of the 26th Infantry Division, with which he fought through the Patriotic War of 1812. Operating as part of P. Bagration’s 2nd Army, Paskevich’s division distinguished itself in heavy defensive battles near Saltanovka and Smolensk. In the Battle of Borodino, the general and his division valiantly defended the redoubt on Kurgan Heights, which went down in history under the name “Raevsky’s battery.” French attacks followed one after another, but Paskevich survived. Of the six regiments of his division, about 1,200 people remained in service - one regiment. Then Paskevich skillfully acted in the battles of Maloyaroslavets, Vyazma, Krasny. Paskevich was the fourth and last person in Russia to have the Order of St. George of all four degrees.

A female officer (“cavalry maiden”) and writer Nadezhda Andreevna Durova was born on September 17, 1783 in Kyiv in the family of a hussar captain, a poor landowner.

From the first days, the Durovs had to lead a wandering regimental life. The upbringing of the girl was entrusted to Hussar Astakhov. In such an environment, the child grew up to the age of 5 and acquired the habits and inclinations of a playful boy.

In 1789, my father entered the city of Sarapul as mayor. Mother began to teach Nadya to do needlework and housework, but her daughter did not like it. When she grew up, her father gave her a Circassian horse, Alcidas, riding which became her favorite pastime.

In 1801 she was married, a year later her son Ivan was born (Durova does not mention this in her Notes). She did not have any feelings for her son, just like her mother for her. And having fallen in love with the Cossack esaul, she rode off with him on Alkida in 1806, following the regiment, dressed in a Cossack dress, calling herself the son of a landowner Alexander Durov.

She took part in the battles of Gutshadt, Heilsberg, Friedland, and showed courage everywhere. For saving a wounded officer in the midst of a battle, she was awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross and promoted to non-commissioned officer. Amazingly, while participating in battles, she never shed someone else’s blood.

Her horse Alcides saved her life more than once, and his absurd death was a terrible shock for her. Having stagnated in the stall, he began to jump over the fences and ripped open his belly with one of the stakes.

When the secret of the cavalry maiden became known to Alexander I, she was summoned to St. Petersburg. The Emperor, struck by the woman’s selfless desire to serve her homeland in the military field, allowed her to continue serving under the name Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov and transferred her to the Mariupol Hussar Regiment. In 1811 she transferred to the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment.

During World War II she commanded a half-squadron. She took part in the battles of Smolensk and the Kolotsky Monastery, at Borodino she defended the Semyonov flushes, where she was shell-shocked in the leg by a cannonball, and went to Sarapul for treatment. Later she was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and served as an orderly for Kutuzov, who knew who she was.

In May 1813, she again appeared in the active army and took part in the war for the liberation of Germany, distinguishing herself during the blockade of the Modlin fortress and the capture of the city of Hamburg.

In 1816, yielding to her father’s requests, she retired with the rank of captain and a pension and lived either in Sarapul or in Yelabuga. She always wore a man's suit, signed all her letters with the surname Alexandrov, got angry when people addressed her as a woman, and was generally distinguished, from the point of view of her time, by great oddities.

A. S. Pushkin published with his preface a chapter from Durova’s notes in the Sovremennik magazine (1836, No. 2). In the same year, notes were published under the title “Cavalry Maiden. Incident in Russia." Since 1837, her works were published in the “Library for Reading” (“Elena, T-skaya Beauty”, “Count Mauritius”), “Notes of the Fatherland” (“Pavilion”) and other magazines. The autobiographical story “A Year of Life in St. Petersburg, or the Disadvantages of the Third Visit” (1838), the novel “Hooters” (1839), “Treasure”, “Angle”, “Yarchuk. Dog-spirit" (1840); in 1839, “Notes of Alexandrov (Durova)” were published. Addition to the Maid of the Cavalry" and the collected works "Tales and Stories" in four volumes.

Nadezhda Andreevna died on March 21 (April 2), 1866 in Yelabuga, Vyatka province, at the age of 82, and was buried at the Trinity Cemetery. She bequeathed the funeral service for herself as the servant of God Alexander, but the priest did not violate church rules. At burial she was given military honors.

Napoleon led the largest group of the left flank Great Army. Before the invasion of Russia, it was located near the Vistula River on the border of Prussia and Poland. The corps of the Napoleonic group were commanded by the best marshals: L.-N. Davout, N. S. Oudinot and M. Ney, and the cavalry reserve was the Neapolitan king I. Murat.

The central group, based in the Duchy of Warsaw, was commanded by Eugene Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy. On the right flank, near Warsaw, stood the group of Napoleon's brother, Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia, including the Polish corps of J. Poniatowski. In the north, near Koenigsberg, there was a Prussian corps under the command of the French Marshal J. MacDonald. In the south, in Austria, the Austrian corps of K. F. Schwarzenberg was ready. In the rear were the reserve corps of Marshals K. Victor and J.-P. Augereau.

Davout

Louis-Nicolas Davout (1770-1823), a French nobleman from Burgundy, received his military education at the same school as Napoleon. He took part in revolutionary wars and distinguished himself in Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign. In 1805, Emperor Napoleon made Davout marshal. Davout acted brilliantly with his corps at Ulm and Austerlitz. In 1806, Davout defeated the Prussians at Auerstedt and received the title of Duke of Auerstedt, and in 1809 he defeated the Austrians at Eckmühl and Wagram and was awarded the title of Prince of Eckmühl. “Iron Marshal” Davout, the only one of all Napoleonic marshals, did not lose a single battle.

Joachim Murat (1767-1815) - the son of an innkeeper, who received a military education, made a career during the years of the revolution. In 1794 he met Bonaparte and became his adjutant. In the Italian and Egyptian campaigns, Murat proved himself to be a brave soldier and an efficient military leader. In 1799 he helped Napoleon seize power, and in 1800 he married his sister Caroline. In 1804, Napoleon made Murat marshal of France. Murat fought at Austerlitz and Preisis-Eylau. Having brutally suppressed the anti-French uprising in Madrid in 1808, Murat received the crown of Naples as a reward. In 1812, the emperor assigned him to command the cavalry reserve.

MacDonald

Jacques-Etienne Alexander MacDonald, a Scot whose ancestors moved to France in the 17th century, began serving in the royal army. Taking the side of the revolution, he took part in revolutionary wars, in particular, he opposed Suvorov in his Italian campaign. In 1800, during Bonaparte's Second Italian Campaign, Macdonald made the most difficult crossing of the Alps. A disagreement with Napoleon removed MacDonald from military service for several years, and only in 1809 was he again entrusted with command of the corps. For his distinction in the battle with the Austrians at Wagram, Mandonald was promoted to marshal. In 1810-1811 he fought in Spain. In the Russian campaign he commanded the Prussian-French corps in the Baltic states.

Carl Philipp zu Schwarzenberg (1771-1820) - an Austrian from the princely family of the Holy Roman Empire, began his military career at the age of 16. He participated in many wars waged by Austria in the 1780-1790s, resisting French troops on the Rhine and in Italy, Germany and Switzerland. After Napoleon's defeat of the Austrian army at Ulm in 1805, Schwarzenberg withdrew the Austrian cavalry from attack, and then fought against Napoleon at Wagram. After the Peace of Schönbrunn in 1809, when Austria was forced into an alliance with France, Schwarzenberg became the Austrian envoy in Paris and gained the confidence of Napoleon. The Emperor appointed him to command the corps assembled in Austria in the Russian campaign of 1812

The son of a cooper, Michel Ney (1769-1815) joined a hussar regiment as a private in 1788 and, participating in the revolutionary wars, rose to the rank of general. Napoleon, having become emperor, handed her the marshal's baton. The newly minted marshal successfully defeated the Austrians at Ulm, the Prussians at Jena, and the Russians at Friedland, becoming known as “the bravest of the brave.” He also fought in Spain, and in 1812 Napoleon appointed him to command a corps in the Russian campaign. For his distinction under Borodin, Ney received the title of Prince of Moskvoretsky. His main feat in Russia was the retreat from Krasny.

Russian armies and commanders

The largest formation, the 1st Western Army, stretched between the cities of Raseiniai (Rossieny), Kovno, Vilno, Lida, was commanded by the General of Infantry, Minister of War of Russia M.B. Barclay de Tolly. His army included infantry corps under the command of P. Kh. Wittgenstein, K. F. Baggovut, N. A. Tuchkov, P. A. Shuvalov, Tsarevich Konstantin (brother of Alexander I) and D. S. Dokhturov, 3 cavalry corps and Cossack corps of M. I. Platov.

In the area of ​​Bialystok and Volkovysk there was the 2nd Western Army under the command of Infantry General P.I. Bagration, which included two infantry corps N.N. Raevsky and M.M. Borozdin.

Behind the impassable swamps of the Pripyat River, the 3rd Western Army of cavalry general A.P. Tormasov was located, far from the main forces. The corps of General P.K. Essen was formed in Riga.

Alexander I took over overall command of the army and from May 1812 was at the headquarters of Barclay's army in Vilna.

Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov was born in 1745 into the family of the noble Golenishchev-Kutuzov family. Having received a military education at the age of 14, Mikhail became an officer at the age of 16, and at the age of 19 he already fought in Poland. He mastered the art of a commander under Catherine II, in the Russian-Turkish wars of 1768-1774. and 1787-1792 under the leadership of A.V. Suvorov, whom he revered as his teacher. In these wars, Kutuzov was seriously wounded in the head twice, and he lost his right eye. During the legendary assault Turkish fortress Izmail Kutuzov was Suvorov’s “right hand”. In 1805, Kutuzov was placed at the head of the Russian army sent to Austria. After the defeat of the Austrians at Ulm, Kutuzov proposed to retreat, but the emperors insisted on a general battle. Not believing in the possibility of victory under the current conditions, Kutuzov, who was appointed commander-in-chief, did not object to the ill-conceived battle plan put forward by the Austrians. Kutuzov fought bravely at Austerlitz and was wounded. Alexander I, although he rewarded Kutuzov, considered him the culprit of the shameful defeat.

Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration (1769-1812) from an ancient Georgian family, served in the Russian army from the age of 17. Participant of the Italian and Swiss campaigns of Suvorov, hero of the Battle of Austerlitz, the Battle of Preussisch-Eylau, the Russian-Swedish and Russian-Turkish wars early XIX c., Bagration won the glory of a brave warrior and an experienced military leader. Napoleon considered him the only intelligent commander in the Russian army. Bagration, appointed commander of the 2nd Western Army under the supreme command of Barclay, did not want to retreat and had a hard time enduring his subordinate position. The prince's hot Caucasian temperament contradicted de Tolly's cold restraint, which complicated the relations between the commanders.

Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly (1761-1818) - a native of a Russified Scottish family, poor, humble and modest, he achieved all ranks and awards through honest military labor. He began serving in Russia at the age of 15, fought near Ochakov in 1788, fought at Austerlitz, was wounded at Preussisch-Eylau, in the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809. took Finland from the Swedes and was appointed its governor-general. In 1810, Alexander I, appreciating Barclay's merits, appointed him Minister of War. In this position, Barclay prepared the army for war. Cold and reserved, Barclay did not win the love of the army and the people. In 1812, his decision to retreat, exhausting the enemy with rearguard battles, was considered by many to be a betrayal.

Pyotr Christianovich Wittgenstein (1768-1843) came from a noble Prussian family who lived in Russia from the mid-18th century. Having chosen the military path, Wittgenstein quickly advanced through the ranks. Under Paul I he fell into disgrace, but was restored to service by Alexander I. In 1805, Wittgenstein fought against Napoleon at Amstetten and Austerlitz, in 1806 he was transferred to Turkey, and in 1807 he again fought against the French in Prussia . In 1812, appointed to command a 17,000-strong corps, Wittgenstein held back the enemy in the northern direction.

Alexander Petrovich Tormasov (1752-1819) began military service at the age of 20. Commanding a cavalry regiment, he pacified the Tatars in the Crimea, distinguished himself in the Machinsky battle of the Russian-Turkish war of 1787-1791, and participated in the suppression of the Polish Kosciuszko uprising. In 1801, Tormasov received the rank of general from the cavalry, served as governor-general of Kyiv and Riga, commanded troops in Georgia, restraining the rebellious highlanders and successfully resisting Turkish and Persian influence in the Caucasus. In 1812, Alexander I appointed the experienced military leader Tormasov to command the 3rd Western Army in the south of the theater of operations.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Raevsky (1771-1829), a native of an old noble family, at the age of 14 already fought under the leadership of G. A. Potemkin in the Russian-Turkish war. Then he served in the Caucasus, participated in many battles of the Napoleonic wars under the command of his friend Bagration, and fought with him in Sweden and Turkey. In 1812 main character battle of Saltanovka, Raevsky became one of the best generals of the Russian army. He took part in the Battle of Smolensk and covered himself with glory at Borodino, defending the Great Redoubt, which went down in history as the Raevsky battery. Raevsky took part in many battles with the retreating army of Napoleon, in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army and reached Paris.

Denis Davydov

Denis Vasilievich Davydov (1784–1839), a nobleman from a military family, began his service in the guard. Having transferred to the active army as Bagration's adjutant, he participated in many battles of the Napoleonic Wars, in the Russian-Swedish and Russian-Turkish wars. Davydov met the War of 1812 as a lieutenant colonel of the Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment. Shortly before Borodin, he proposed to Bagration and Kutuzov to organize a partisan war in Napoleon’s rear and received a small detachment. Davydov’s partisans united with the peasants and, so that they would not be confused with the French by their uniforms, they changed into sheepskin coats and grew beards. Davydov became famous not only as a military man, but also as a poet.

Miloradovich

Mikhail Andreevich Miloradovich, a nobleman, great-grandson of an associate of Peter I, received an excellent education in Russia and abroad. He began his military service under Catherine II, and under Paul I he participated in Suvorov’s Italian and Swiss campaigns. Under Alexander I, he distinguished himself at Austerlitz, participated in the Russian-Turkish War, and in 1810 became the military governor of Kyiv. At the beginning of the war of 1812, Miloradovich formed reinforcements for the army near Moscow and with his detachment participated in the Battle of Borodino. Upon leaving Moscow, he was appointed to command the vanguard of the Russian army. For his successes in the battles of Maloyaroslavets and Vyazma, Miloradovich was nicknamed the “Russian Murat.”

Chichagov

The son of the famous admiral, Pavel Vasilyevich Chichagov (1767-1849) during the Russian-Turkish war of 1788-1790. commanded the ship and took part in battles. Having fallen into disgrace under Paul I, he resumed his service under Alexander I and became minister of naval forces and admiral. In the spring of 1812, the tsar sent Chichagov to Turkey to replace Kutuzov. Having accepted the Danube Army, Chichagov restored order to the conquered Moldavia and Wallachia and, uniting with Tormasov, in November 1812 participated in an unsuccessful operation on the Berezina. Although Chichagov acted according to the command’s plan, Kutuzov blamed the failure on the Berezina on the “land” admiral. The unfairly accused Chichagov was ridiculed by I. A. Krylov in a fable about a pike that decided to catch mice. The offended admiral left Russia forever.

Kutuzov Mikhail Illarionovich (Golenishchev-Kutuzov)

Kutuzov (Golenishchev-Kutuzov, His Serene Highness Prince of Smolensk), Mikhail Illarionovich - famous commander (1745 - 1813). He was brought up in the artillery and engineering corps (now the 2nd cadet corps). He distinguished himself during the 1st Turkish War in the battles of Ryaba Mogila, Larga and Kagul. In 1774, during an attack on the village of Shumy (near Alushta), he was seriously wounded (a bullet hit the left temple and exited near the right eye). During the 2nd Turkish War, during the siege of Ochakov, Kutuzov was again seriously wounded (1788). In 1790, participating, under the command of Suvorov, in the assault on Izmail, Kutuzov, at the head of a column, captured the bastion and was the first to break into the city. He also distinguished himself in the battles of Babadag and Machny. In 1792, Kutuzov, commanding the left-flank column in the army of General Kakhovsky, contributed to the victory over the Poles at Dubenka. In 1793 he successfully completed a diplomatic mission from Catherine II in Constantinople. In 1795 he was appointed director general of the land gentry corps. Upon the accession of Alexander I to the throne, Kutuzov received the post of St. Petersburg military governor, but in 1802 he displeased the sovereign with the unsatisfactory state of the St. Petersburg police and was dismissed to his estates. In 1805 he was placed at the head of the Russian army sent to help Austria. Constrained by the orders of the Austrian military council, he could not come to the rescue of Mack, but successfully took his army to Bohemia, where he united with Buxhoeveden. Responsibility for the Austerlitz defeat cannot be attributed to Kutuzov: in fact, he did not have the power of commander-in-chief, and the battle was not fought according to his plan. Nevertheless, Emperor Alexander I, after Austerlitz, forever retained his dislike for Kutuzov. In 1808, Kutuzov was sent to Wallachia to help the elderly Prince Prozorovsky, but due to disagreements with the commander-in-chief, he was recalled and appointed military governor of Vilna. In 1811, Kutuzov took command of the army operating on the Danube. A number of his successful operations led to the conclusion of peace with the Turks, which was necessary for Russia in view of the impending French invasion. Kutuzov, however, continued to be out of favor and at the beginning of the Patriotic War remained out of work. Public opinion treated him differently: they looked at him as the only leader who could be entrusted with the leadership of the Russian armies in the decisive struggle against Napoleon. A sign of public respect for Kutuzov was the unanimous election of him by the St. Petersburg nobility to head the zemstvo militia of the province. As the French succeeded, public dissatisfaction with Barclay increased. The decision on the appointment of a new commander-in-chief was entrusted to a special committee, which unanimously pointed the sovereign to Kutuzov. The Emperor conceded common desire. Arriving at the army on August 17, Kutuzov raised its spirit, but, like Barclay, he recognized the need to retreat into the interior of the country in order to preserve the army. This was achieved by lengthening the enemy’s line of communication, weakening his forces and bringing him closer to his own reinforcements and supplies. The Battle of Borodino was a concession from Kutuzov to public opinion and the spirit of the army. Kutuzov's further actions reveal his outstanding strategic talents. The transfer of the Russian army from the Ryazan road to the Kaluga road was a deeply thought-out and skillfully executed operation. With this maneuver, Kutuzov put his army in the most advantageous position relative to the enemy, whose messages became open to attacks from our army. The French army was gradually encircled and pursued by partisan detachments. Having forced the French to retreat along the Smolensk road, devastated by the previous campaign, Kutuzov considered his main task to expel the enemy from the borders of Russia and continued to spare his army, leaving the difficult spontaneous conditions of retreat to complete the destruction of the enemy. The plan to capture Napoleon himself and his army did not belong to him; During Napoleon's crossing of the Berezina, he did not act energetically. Awarded the title of His Serene Highness Prince of Smolensky and the rank of Field Marshal General, Kutuzov did not sympathize with the transfer of the war outside Russia; according to his conviction, Russian blood should not have been shed for the liberation of Europe. He soon died in the Silesian city of Bunzlau. His ashes were transported to St. Petersburg and rest in the Kazan Cathedral, on the square of which a monument was erected to him. Kutuzov had a clear and subtle mind, a strong will, deep military knowledge and extensive combat experience. As a strategist, he always tried to study his enemy, was able to take into account all the elements of the situation and steadily strived to achieve the intended goal. The main feature of his military talent is caution. Deeply thinking about his every step, he tried to use cunning where the use of force was inappropriate. The balance of his clear mind and unwavering will was never disturbed. He knew how to be charming in his manner, understood the nature of the Russian soldier, knew how to raise his spirit and enjoyed the boundless trust of his subordinates. For literature, see the article Patriotic War.

Barclay de Tolly Mikhail Bogdanovich

Barclay de Tolly, a count, then a princely family, originating from Scotland, from where it moved to Livonia in the 17th century. By a personal Highest Decree, on December 29, 1814, the Infantry General, Field Marshal Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly, “in commemoration of his exploits on the battlefield and the special services he rendered to the Throne and the Fatherland,” was elevated to the dignity of a count of the Russian Empire; and by decree - on August 15, 1815, he was elevated to the dignity of prince of the Russian Empire.

Barclay de Tolly, Mikhail Bogdanovich, prince, famous Russian commander, of Scottish origin. During the turmoil of the 17th century, one of the members of this family left the fatherland and settled in Riga; his descendant was B. He was born in 1761, as a child he was enrolled in the Novotroitsk cuirassier regiment and in 1778 he was promoted to cornet. In 1788, B., as an adjutant of the Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg, took part in the assault on Ochakov, and in 1789 - in the defeat of the Turks near Causeni and in the capture of Ackerman and Bendery. In 1790, B., together with the prince, participated in cases against the Swedes, and in 1794 - in military operations against the Poles. During the campaign of 1806, B. especially distinguished himself in the battles of Pułtusk, for which he was awarded the Order of St. George 3rd degree, and at Gough, where he withstood the pressure of almost the entire army of Napoleon; near Preussisch-Eylau he was wounded in the right arm with a broken bone. In the Swedish War of 1808, B. first commanded a separate detachment, but due to a disagreement with General Buxhoeveden, he left Finland; in 1809 he was sent there again, made the famous crossing of Kvarken and captured the mountains. Umeå, the consequence of which was the conclusion of peace with Sweden. Promoted to infantry general, B. was appointed governor-general of Finland and commander of the Finnish army, and on January 20, 1810, he took the post of minister of war. Under him, an “Institution for the Management of a Large Active Army” was drawn up and significant improvements were introduced in various branches of military administration, which turned out to be especially useful in view of the impending war with Napoleon: the army was almost doubled; New fortresses were put into a defensive state and armed, food supplies were stockpiled, arsenals were replenished, and ammunition parks were established. Before the start of the Patriotic War, B. took command of the 1st Western Army. He clearly foresaw that the war would be “most terrible in intention, unique in its kind and most important in its consequences,” but for the sake of caution, he did not consider it possible to “previously warn the public about the critical situation of the fatherland” and preferred to endure insults and attacks, “calmly awaiting justification from the very consequences.” ". Napoleon's forces turned out to be so great that it was impossible to wage, as previously assumed, even a defensive war. B.’s brilliant plan to retreat and “having lured the enemy into the bowels of the fatherland itself, force him at the cost of blood to acquire every step, every means of reinforcement and even his existence, and, finally, having exhausted his strength with as little shedding of his blood as possible, inflict on him “a decisive blow” was not understood, and reproaches even for treason were heard at the commander’s address; even those who understood the plan sometimes echoed the public voice. As a result, Kutuzov was appointed commander-in-chief of the armies, but he was forced to follow his predecessor's plan and retreat. In the Battle of Borodino, B. commanded the right wing of the army and appeared, as if seeking death, in the most dangerous places; he personally led the regiments into the attack, and they enthusiastically greeted him, as if instinctively realizing their previous wrong. All the insults and unrest he experienced affected B.’s health, and he left the army in the Tarutino camp. He returned to the troops already in 1813, accepting first the 3rd and then the Russian-Prussian army. On May 8 and 9, near Bautzen, he repelled Napoleon's main attacks; On August 18, near Kulm, he completed the defeat of Vandam (awarded the Order of St. George, 1st degree), and in the “Battle of the Nations” near Leipzig he was one of the main culprits of the victory; for this campaign B. was elevated to the rank of count. During the campaign of 1814, the battles of Brienne, Arcy-on-Aube, Fer-Champenoise and Paris brought B. a field marshal's baton. In 1815, B., being the commander-in-chief of the 1st Army, again entered France, where, after a review at Vertue, he was elevated to princely dignity. Upon returning to Russia, B. continued to command the 1st Army. Having gone abroad due to poor health, he died on the way in the city of Insterburg; his body was brought to Russia and buried on May 14, 1818 in the town of Bekgof, in Livonia. B. built a monument in St. Petersburg; The 4th Nesvizh Grenadier Regiment is still called after him. - Compare: Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, “Military Gallery of the Winter Palace”.

Bagrationi

Bagrations, princes. The most ancient and one of the most famous families of Georgia, which gave many Armenian and Georgian kings. It originates from Athanasius Bagratidas, whose son Ashod Kuropalat, who died in 826, was the king of Georgia. The line of Georgian kings continued from Ashod. Queen Tamara (the Great), died in 1211, was in her first marriage to the Russian Prince Yuri, nephew of Andrei Bogolyubsky, and in her second to the Ossetian Prince Davyd, the son of Prince Janderon from his first marriage. Some Georgian chroniclers consider Janderon to be the grandson of Prince Davyd, grandson of King George I, who fled to Ossetia. If these legends are true, then the current princes of B., Georgian and Mukhrani are descendants in the direct male tribe of the ancient Bagratids; if the testimony of the chroniclers is erroneous, then in this case the Bagratid clan ceased in 1184, with the death of King George III, and then the origin of these clans should be considered to be from the Ossetian rulers. From the Bagration family, some members became kings of Imereti, Kartalin and Kakheti. One of the Imeretian kings (whose descendants reigned in Imereti before its annexation to Russia in 1810), Mikhail, died in 1329, is considered the ancestor of the Imeretian kings, as well as the princes Bagrationi-Imereti and Bagrationi-Davydov; the latter were recognized as princes on December 6, 1850. From Prince Teimuraz, the ruler (batoni) of Mukhrani, descended from the former Georgian royal family of the Bagratids, the branch of the Bagrationi-Mukhrani princes traces their ancestry. The ancient inheritance of the Mukhrani princes was in Kartaliniya. The former Georgian royal house is divided into 4 branches: 1) the senior branch, whose ancestors reigned in Kartalinia until 1724; 2) princes B., the junior branch of the previous branch; 3) the princes of B.-Mukhrani - a branch that separated from the common root in the 17th century and until the beginning of the 19th century owned the Mukhrani inheritance; 4) the younger branch, whose ancestors reigned in Kakheti and Kartalinia until 1800. The second branch was included in the number of Russian-princely families in 1803. The grandson of Tsar Vakhtang VI, Prince Ivan Vakhushtovich B., served under Catherine II as lieutenant general and commanded the Siberian division. His nephew, Tsarevich Alexander Jesseevich, the ancestor of the current princes of B., left for Russia in 1757 and served as a lieutenant colonel in the Caucasian division. His son, Prince Kirill, was a senator.

The grandson of Alexander Jesseevich B., Prince Peter Ivanovich, was born in 1765, in 1782 he entered the service as a sergeant; participated in the cases of 1783 - 90 against the Chechens and was seriously wounded; in 1788 he was at the capture of Ochakov; in 1794 he took part in almost all cases against the Confederates and attracted the attention of Suvorov. In 1798, he was appointed chief of the 6th Jaeger Regiment and with him a year later, with the rank of major general, he set out on the Italian campaign. In this campaign, as well as in the famous crossing of the Alps, B. took a brilliant part, receiving the most responsible and difficult assignments from Suvorov; affairs at Puzzolo, Bergamo, Lecco, Tidone, Trebia, Nura and Novi are associated with his name. When entering Switzerland, B. commanded the vanguard; On September 13, he attacked and drove back the French who occupied St. Gotthard; On September 14, he crossed the Devil's Bridge and pursued the enemy to Lake Lucerne; On September 16, in the Mutten Valley, he surrounded and captured a strong French detachment; On September 19 and 20, he withstood a successful battle near the village of Kloptal, where he received a severe shell shock, and then commanded the rearguard, covering our retreat from Switzerland. Upon returning from the campaign, B. was appointed chief of the Life Guards of the Jaeger Battalion and reorganized it into a regiment. During the campaign of 1805 and in the war of 1806-07, B. participated in almost all battles and, often being in a dangerous situation, constantly showed courage and stewardship. B. distinguished himself in affairs at Lambach, Enz and Amstetten, at Rausnitz, Wischau and in the battle of Austerlitz, especially at the village of Schöngraben, where he, with a detachment of 6,000 people, held off the strongest enemy for a whole day, who was crossing our path of retreat, for which he received the Order of St. George 2nd degree. During the Swedish War of 1808-09, B. became famous for the occupation of the Åland Islands. In August 1809, B. was appointed commander-in-chief of the army against the Turks; under him, Machin, Girsov, Brailov, Izmail were taken and the Turks were defeated at Rassevat, but the siege of Silistria, the garrison of which was almost equal to the besieging army, was not successful. In 1810, B. was replaced by Kamensky. During the Patriotic War, B. commanded the second Western army. During the initial retreat of our armies, B. had to make a difficult roundabout march under pressure from a superior enemy to join the army of Barclay de Tolly; having united near Smolensk, B., being older than Barclay de Tolly, who had previously been under his command several times, nevertheless submitted to him for the sake of unity of command, bearing in mind that Barclay, as Minister of War, was more familiar with the wishes of the sovereign and the general plan actions. During a further retreat, when public opinion rebelled against Barclay, B., although he understood all the benefits of such a course of action, also condemned it. During the Battle of Borodino, B. was wounded in the leg by a grenade fragment, causing bone fragmentation; from the dressing station, realizing that he was wrong before Barclay, he sent an adjutant to tell him that “the salvation of the army depends on him.” The wound, which at first seemed harmless, brought him to the grave on September 12, in the village of Simakh, Vladimir province; Now his ashes rest on the Borodino field. In memory of B., the 104th Ustyug Infantry Regiment bears his name.

Davydov Denis Vasilievich

Davydov, Denis Vasilievich - famous partisan, poet, military historian and theorist. Born into an old noble family, in Moscow, July 16, 1784; Having been educated at home, he entered the cavalry regiment, but was soon transferred to the army for satirical poetry, to the Belarusian Hussar Regiment (1804), from there he transferred to the Hussar Life Guards (1806) and participated in campaigns against Napoleon (1807), the Swedish (1808) ), Turkish (1809). He achieved wide popularity in 1812 as the head of a partisan detachment, organized on his own initiative. At first, the higher authorities reacted to Davydov’s idea with some skepticism, but the partisan actions turned out to be very useful and brought a lot of harm to the French. Davydov had imitators - Figner, Seslavin and others. On the great Smolensk road, Davydov more than once managed to recapture military supplies and food from the enemy, intercept correspondence, thereby instilling fear in the French and raising the spirit of the Russian troops and society. Davydov used his experience for the wonderful book “The Experience of the Theory of Guerrilla Action.” In 1814, Davydov was promoted to general; was chief of staff of the 7th and 8th army corps (1818 - 1819); In 1823 he retired, in 1826 he returned to service, participated in the Persian campaign (1826 - 1827) and in the suppression of the Polish uprising (1831). In 1832, he finally left service with the rank of lieutenant general and settled on his Simbirsk estate, where he died on April 22, 1839. - The most lasting mark left by Davydov in literature is his lyrics. Pushkin highly valued his originality, his unique manner of “twisting verse.” A.V. Druzhinin saw in him a writer “truly original, precious for understanding the era that gave birth to him.” Davydov himself speaks about himself in his autobiography: “He never belonged to any literary guild; he was a poet not by rhymes and footsteps, but by feeling; as for his exercise in poetry, this exercise, or, better to say, the impulses of it they consoled him like a bottle of champagne "... "I am not a poet, but a partisan, a Cossack, I sometimes visited Pinda, but in a hurry, and carefree, somehow, I set up my independent bivouac in front of the Kastal current." This self-assessment is consistent with the assessment given to Davydov by Belinsky: “He was a poet at heart, for him life was poetry, and poetry was life, and he poeticized everything he touched... His wild revelry turns into a daring but noble prank ; rudeness - into the frankness of a warrior; the desperate courage of another expression, which is no less than the reader himself is surprised to see himself in print, although sometimes hidden under dots, becomes an energetic outburst of a powerful feeling. .. Passionate by nature, he sometimes rose to the purest ideality in his poetic visions... Of particular value should be those poems by Davydov, the subject of which is love, and in which his personality is so chivalrous... As a poet, Davydov decisively belongs to the most bright luminaries of the second magnitude in the firmament of Russian poetry... As a prose writer, Davydov has every right to stand alongside the best prose writers of Russian literature. epigrams and the famous "Modern Song", with proverbial caustic remarks about the Russian Mirabeau and Lafayette. - Davydov's works were published six times (the last edition, edited by A.O. Krugly, St. Petersburg, 1893); the best edition - 4th, Moscow, 1860. His "Notes" were published in 1863. The bibliography is listed in Vengerov, "Sources of the Dictionary of Russian Writers", volume II. See V.V. Gervais, "Partisan-poet Davydov" (St. Petersburg , 1913); B. Sadovsky, "Russian Kamena" (Moscow, 1910). N.L.

During the negotiations, the French envoy Lauriston complained to Kutuzov that the war was being waged against the Napoleonic army “not according to the rules.” Indeed, a real people's, patriotic war was flaring up in Russia, which did not recognize any “rules.” The War of 1812 is called “Patriotic” precisely because it involved not only the regular army, but also the entire people. The brightest thing is the people's character...

The Russian patriot was unshakable. And he was shot. There were many examples of such perseverance and heroism of Smolensk residents in the fight against foreign invaders in the Patriotic War of 1812. On the captured Smolensk land, from the first days of the war, the flame of partisan warfare began to flare up. The Smolensk region became the birthplace of a powerful partisan movement. “The people’s war,” testified F.N. Glinka, “is hour by hour...

The Patriotic War of 1812 is an important event in Russian history. Napoleon, a recognized genius of military art, invaded Russia with forces superior to the Western Russian armies, and after six months of campaign, his army, the strongest in history, was completely destroyed.

Kutuzov Mikhail Illarionovich Illustrious Russian commander Hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Full Knight of the Order of St. George. Kutuzov began his fighting career at the age of nineteen. A great school of military art for him was participation in Russian-Turkish wars. Kutuzov was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian troops on August 8, 1812. Decided to give Napoleon a general battle near Moscow (Battle of Borodino on August 26, 1812).

To save the Russian army, Kutuzov made an extremely difficult decision to withdraw troops from Moscow. He undertook a flank march maneuver from the Ryazan road to Kaluga, setting up a camp near Tarutino. Having blocked the path of Napoleon's army to the south of Russia, Kutuzov forced it to leave Russian territory along the devastated Smolensk road.

Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly Commanded the entire Russian army at the initial stage of the Patriotic War of 1812, after which he was replaced by M. I. Kutuzov. He managed to achieve the unification of the Russian armies near Smolensk, thwarting Napoleon's plans to break the Russian forces separately. In Russian history he is remembered as a commander who was forced to make a strategic retreat before Napoleon in the Patriotic War of 1812 and for this was unfairly condemned by his contemporaries. He initiated the creation of the first partisan formations. He distinguished himself during the Battle of Borodino and, on behalf of Kutuzov, led the withdrawal of the army from Moscow.

Bagration Peter Ivanovich Prince, originally from the Georgian royal Bagrationi dynasty. In military service since 1782. At Borodino, Bagration's army, forming the left wing of the battle formation of the Russian troops, repelled all attacks of Napoleon's army. People changed into clean linen, shaved carefully, put on ceremonial uniforms, orders, white gloves, sultans on shakos, etc. A fragment of the cannonball crushed the tibia of the general's left leg in the Battle of Borodino, the last in his combat life.

Dorokhov Ivan Semyonovich Lieutenant General. At the very beginning of the war of 1812, Dorokhov, cut off with his brigade from the 1st Army, decided, on his own initiative, to join the 2nd Army. During the Battle of Borodino, he commanded a cavalry division that fought heroically on the Bagration flushes. After the Russian army abandoned Moscow, Dorokhov formed a 2,000-strong partisan detachment and was awarded a golden sword for the capture of the city of Vereya. In the battle near Maloyaroslavets, he was seriously wounded.

Platov Matvey Ivanovich () General of the cavalry. Since 1801 - Ataman of the Don Cossack Army. During the French retreat, the Cossacks exterminated the remnants of the defeated units, captured more than 50 thousand prisoners, more than 500 guns and almost captured Napoleon himself. Platov was very popular in Europe and during his stay in London (1814) he was given special honors.

Miloradovich Mikhail Andreevich () General from the infantry. Near Borodin, he commanded the troops of the right wing, which reliably covered the road to Moscow, and was later put in charge of the rearguard. Ensured the retreat of the Russian army to Moscow, and its lag and the transition of the Russian army from the Ryazan road to the Kaluga road in full battle order. Participant in foreign campaigns, holder of almost all Russian and foreign orders of that time.

Raevsky Nikolai Nikolaevich () General of the cavalry. During the Patriotic War of 1812, he commanded the 7th Infantry Corps and distinguished himself in battles near Saltanovka, near Smolensk. In the Battle of Borodino, his corps defended Kurgan Heights (Raevsky's Battery). After Borodin, participating in all major battles, his corps reached Paris. Thanks to his personal courage, he was very popular in the army.

Wittgenstein Pyotr Christianovich () Field Marshal General, His Serene Highness Prince. In the Patriotic War of 1812, he commanded the 1st Infantry Corps, covering the St. Petersburg direction, against which Napoleon threw 3 corps. Managed to weaken the main group of enemy troops. He was loved by the troops for his humanity, kindness and personal courage.

Davydov Denis Vasilievich At the beginning of the war of 1812, Davydov was a lieutenant colonel in the Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment and was in the vanguard troops of the general. Vasilchikova. On August 21, 1812, in sight of the village of Borodino, where Denis Vasilyevich grew up, he proposed to Bagration the idea of ​​a partisan detachment. He borrowed this idea from the Guerillas (Spanish partisans). Napoleon could not cope with them until they united into a regular army. Outstanding courage and military talents made Davydov one of the most famous heroes of the War of 1812.

Dokhturov Dmitry Sergeevich () In the Battle of Borodino, Dokhturov commanded the center of the Russian army between the Raevsky battery and the village of Gorki, and after Bagration was wounded, the entire left wing. He put the upset troops in order and consolidated his position. In the battle of Tarutino he also commanded the center. In the battle of Maloyaroslavets, Dokhturov withstood the strongest pressure of the French for seven hours. For this battle he was awarded the Order of St. George, 2nd degree. He distinguished himself in the battle of Dresden and in the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig.

Figner Alexander Samoilovich At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, Figner was an artillery staff captain. He went as a scout, but with the secret intention of killing Napoleon, for whom he had a fanatical hatred, as well as for all the French. He failed to fulfill this intention, but thanks to his extraordinary ingenuity and knowledge foreign languages Figner, dressing in different costumes, moved freely among the enemies, obtained the necessary information and reported it to our main apartment. Having recruited a small detachment of hunters and lagging soldiers, surrounded by opponents, he managed to escape.

Kulnev Yakov Petrovich Major General. In 1812, as part of Count Wittgenstein's corps, he took part in battles to protect the road to St. Petersburg from the enemy. On July 17, 1812, in a battle near the village of Klyastitsy, he was mortally wounded, having entered into an unequal battle with the enemy. Dying, he addressed the soldiers with the words: “Friends, do not yield a single step to Russian soil. Victory awaits us."

Napoleon stayed in Moscow until October 7, 1812. Confusion and vacillation began in Napoleon's Army, discipline was broken, and the soldiers began to drink. The French army decided to retreat south, to grain-growing regions that were not devastated by the war. The Russian army gave battle to the French at Maloyaroslavets. Napoleon was forced to retreat along the Old Smolensk Road, the same one along which he had come. The battles near Vyazma, Krasny and at the crossing of the Berezina put an end to the Napoleonic intervention. The Russian army drove the enemy from its land.

The War of 1812 caused an unprecedented surge in national self-awareness among the Russian people. Everyone defended their Fatherland: from young to old. By winning this war, the Russian people confirmed their courage and heroism, and showed an example of self-sacrifice for the good of the Motherland. On December 23, 1812, Alexander I issued a manifesto on the end of the Patriotic War.

Conclusions: The War of 1812 was truly a Patriotic War. A combination of factors led to Napoleon’s defeat: popular participation in the war, mass heroism of soldiers and officers, the leadership talent of Kutuzov and other generals, and the skillful use of natural factors. The victory in the Patriotic War caused a rise in the national spirit.

1) 1812. Borodino panorama: Album/Auth.-comp.: I. A. Nikolaeva, N. A. Kolosov, P. M. Volodin.- M.: Image. Art, 1985; 2) Bogdanov L.P. Russian army in 1812. Organization, management, weapons. M., Voenizdat,) Danilov A.A. History of Russia IX-XIX centuries. Reference materials. – M.: Humanite. Publishing center VLADOS; 4) Internet resources: a) b) NAYA_VONA_1812.html

The main anniversary that all of Russia will celebrate this year is the 200th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812, during which the heroic Russian army, all the peoples of our Fatherland defended its freedom and independence in the glorious struggle against the invasion of the “twelve languages” - the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte .

Two hundred years is a grain of sand on the scales of History. And during this generally short period of time – two bloodiest wars, two Patriotic Wars. Analogies involuntarily arise. Both wars began in June. Why? And everything is simple - calculation for a lightning war. Both Napoleon and Hitler hoped to strangle the “Russian bear” in a month or two. June - because the spring thaw is behind us, and it’s quite possible to cope with the autumn thaw. In a conversation with the French ambassador in Warsaw Pradt, Napoleon said: “I’m going to Moscow and in one or two battles I’ll finish everything.” It is characteristic that the invasions of French and Nazi troops began without a declaration of war. On the night of June 24 (12 old style) 1812, Napoleon's corps crossed the Russian border on the Neman River. The enemy was met by the 1st and 2nd armies under the command of M.B. Barclay - de - Tolly and P.I. Bagration. The Russian corps were stretched along the front line, and there was a threat of being defeated piecemeal due to the rapid advance of Napoleonic troops. Having given up populated areas in battle, the Russian armies sought to unite to give the invaders a decisive battle. On August 3, they retreated to Smolensk and, as a result of a bloody battle, finally united.

The Russian troops numbered 120 thousand people versus Napoleon's 200 thousand. The active actions of the Russians on the flanks pinned down significant forces of the Napoleonic army. But Smolensk was surrendered, and the retreat caused general discontent. This forced Alexander I to appoint General M.I. as commander-in-chief. Kutuzov, whose name was especially popular in connection with his victories over Turkey.

Kutuzov led his troops to the village of Borodino, where he gave a decisive battle to the French army.

On September 5, 1812, a battle took place near Borodino - one of the greatest in history, in which the fate of the peoples of Russia was decided. In this battle, the patriotic spirit of the Russian army and the entire Russian society manifested itself with the highest force. Borodino is the beginning of the decline and final death of Napoleon’s “invincible” army. Despite the fact that the enemy lost 58 thousand killed (Russians - 44 thousand), Kutuzov retreated to Moscow, then left it. Having retained his troops, he surrounded the French.

Napoleon occupied the capital on September 14. At night of the same day, the city was engulfed in fire, which the next day intensified so much that the conqueror was forced to leave the Kremlin. The fire raged until September 18 and destroyed most of Moscow. There are several versions of the fire - an organized arson when Russian troops abandoned the city, arson by Russian spies, uncontrolled actions of the occupiers, an accidental fire, the spread of which was facilitated by the general chaos in the abandoned city. There were several outbreaks, so all versions are true to one degree or another. But the main thing remains in the people’s memory: God’s will was accomplished.

The invasion of foreign invaders caused a patriotic upsurge among various segments of the Russian population. By the autumn of 1812, a partisan movement had developed and a people's militia was formed. Peasant resistance to foreign invaders began spontaneously in Lithuania and Belarus after the retreat of the Russian army, first expressed in the mass abandonment of villages and the destruction of food and fodder. It actively unfolded at the end of July - beginning of August in the Smolensk province, and then in the Moscow and Kaluga provinces, where armed detachments of peasants attacked individual groups and convoys of the enemy. Some landowners began to organize partisan detachments from peasants.

Army detachments also began to be created for partisan operations behind enemy lines. The first such detachment (130 people) was created by Lieutenant Colonel D.V. Davydov at the end of August 1812. Great importance Commander-in-Chief M.I. gave the partisan movement its due. Kutuzov. He promoted the organization of army partisan detachments, gave instructions on their weapons and tactics, and sought to connect the popular movement with his strategic plans and give it an organized character.

In September, 36 Cossack regiments, 7 cavalry regiments, 5 squadrons, 5 infantry regiments, and 3 battalions were already operating as part of the army partisan detachments. At the head of the military detachments, besides Davydov, were I.S. Dorokhov, A.N. Seslavin, A.S. Figner, M.A. Fonvizin and other Russian officers.

During the retreat of the French troops, the partisans assisted the regular units in pursuing and destroying the enemy, playing an important role in the defeat of the conquering army. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the invader’s back was broken by the club of the people’s war.

The critical situation forced Napoleon to send his general to the headquarters of the Russian High Command with peace proposals, but Kutuzov rejected them, declaring that the war was just beginning and would not be stopped until the enemy was expelled from Russian soil. The denouement came on the Berezina River, where the ring of strategic encirclement of Napoleonic army closed. On December 21 (January 2), 1813, Kutuzov congratulated the troops on expelling the enemy from Russia.

The War of 1812 ended with the almost complete destruction of the invading "Great Army". The assessment of these events by an impartial observer, the German military theorist K. Clausewitz, is very interesting: “The Russians rarely got ahead of the French, although they had many opportunities for this. When they managed to get ahead of the enemy, they released him every time. In all battles the French remained victorious; the Russians gave them the opportunity to accomplish the impossible; but if we sum it up, it turns out that the French army ceased to exist, and the entire campaign ended in complete success for the Russians ... "

The moral strength of the French attacking army was exhausted... Not the kind of victory that is determined by the pieces of material picked up on sticks called banners, and by the space on which the troops stood and are standing, but a moral victory, one that convinces the enemy of the moral superiority of his enemy and in its powerlessness, was defeated by the Russians at Borodino... The direct consequence of the Battle of Borodino was Napoleon’s causeless flight from Moscow, the return along the old Smolensk road, the death of a five hundred thousandth invasion and the death of Napoleonic France, which for the first time at Borodino was laid down by the hand of the strongest enemy in spirit.

This day will remain an eternal monument courage and excellent bravery Russian soldiers, where all the infantry, cavalry and artillery fought desperately. Everyone’s desire was to die on the spot and not yield to the enemy. The French army did not overcome the fortitude of the Russian soldier, who cheerfully sacrificed his life for his fatherland.

M.I. Kutuzov

Petr Ivanovich Bagration

Prince from the Georgian royal house of Bagrationi. Participated in the conquest of the Caucasus in 1783 - 1790, in the Russian-Turkish War of 1787 - 1791, the Polish War of 1794; in the Italian and Swiss campaigns, where he was the right hand of A.V. Suvorov; during the capture of Brescia, Bergamo, Lecco, Tortona, Turin and Milan, in the battles of Trebbia and Novi, where he was in the most difficult and decisive places; in the wars against France in 1805 - 1807, in the Russian-Turkish war of 1806 - 1812 and the Russian-Swedish war of 1808 - 1809.

At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, the 2nd Western Army was located near Grodno and found itself cut off from the main 1st Army by the advancing French corps. Bagration had to retreat with rearguard battles to Bobruisk and Mogilev, where, after the battle near Saltanovka, he crossed the Dnieper and on August 3 united with the 1st Western Army of Barclay de Tolly near Smolensk. Bagration advocated involving broad sections of the people in the fight against the French and was one of the initiators of the partisan movement.

At Borodino, Bagration's army, forming the left wing of the battle formation of the Russian troops, repelled all attacks of Napoleon's army. According to the tradition of that time, decisive battles were always prepared as for a show - people changed into clean linen, shaved carefully, put on ceremonial uniforms, orders, white gloves, sultans on shakos, etc. Exactly as he is depicted in the portrait - with a blue St. Andrew's ribbon, with three stars of the orders of Andrei, George and Vladimir and many order crosses were seen by Bagration's regiments in the Battle of Borodino, the last in his military life. A cannonball fragment crushed the general's tibia in his left leg. The prince refused the amputation proposed by the doctors. The next day, Bagration mentioned the injury in his report to Tsar Alexander I:

“I was rather slightly wounded in the left leg by a bullet that shattered the bone; but I don’t regret this in the slightest, being always ready to sacrifice the last drop of my blood for the defense of the fatherland and the august throne...”

The commander was transported to the estate of his friend, who also participated in the Battle of Borodino, Lieutenant General Prince B. A. Golitsyn (his wife was Bagration’s fourth cousin, and their son, N. B. Golitsyn, was his orderly), to the village of Sima Vladimirskaya provinces.

On September 23, 1812, Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration died of gangrene, 18 days after being wounded.

Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay - de - Tolly

Commander, Field Marshal General (1814), Prince (1815), Minister of War (1810-1812). During the Patriotic War of 1812, Barclay de Tolly commanded the 1st Army, and in July-August he actually commanded all the operating Russian armies. In 1813-1814 - commander-in-chief of the Russian-Prussian army in foreign campaigns. Michael Barclay de Tolly came from an old family of Scottish barons. His ancestors moved to Germany and then to the Baltic states at the beginning of the 17th century due to religious persecution. In 1767, a ten-year-old boy was enrolled in the service as a corporal in the Novotroitsk Cuirassier Regiment, and began active service in 1776 in the ranks of the Pskov Carabineer Regiment with the rank of sergeant. In 1778, Barclay de Tolly received the first officer rank cornet. He received his baptism of fire during the Russian-Turkish War (1787-1791) during the assault on Ochakov (1788) in the army of G.A. Potemkin, then participated in the Russian-Swedish war (1788-1790) and in the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1794, during which he was awarded the Order of George, fourth class.

During the first period of the Patriotic War of 1812, Barclay served as commander-in-chief of the 1st Western Army and was able, despite the resistance of some of the generals and officer corps, bring your plan to life. From the beginning of hostilities, he organized the withdrawal of Russian troops, and his units avoided attacks from superior enemy forces. After the unification of the two Western armies near Smolensk, Mikhail Bogdanovich began to exercise overall leadership of their actions and continued the retreat, which caused an explosion of discontent and accusations against him in the army environment and Russian society. After arriving at the troops M.I. Kutuzov on August 17, he handed over general command to him, but remained at the head of the 1st Western Army. In the Battle of Borodino, Barclay de Tolly was in charge of the center and right flank of the Russian positions; he took part in repelling enemy attacks in its most dangerous sectors. His skillful leadership of the troops at Borodino was highly praised by Kutuzov, who believed that largely thanks to the firmness he showed, the desire of the superior enemy to the center of the Russian position was “restrained,” and “his courage surpassed all praise.” As a reward, Barclay de Tolly received the Order of George, 2nd class. At the military council in Fili, Mikhail Bogdanovich acted as the main opponent of L.L. Bennigsen, criticizing the position he had chosen on Sparrow Hills, and was the first to decisively speak out for leaving Moscow in order to preserve the army. He organized the passage of retreating troops through Moscow.

Then Barclay de Tolly considered it necessary to leave the active army, the command of which was completely concentrated in the hands of M.I. Kutuzova. On September 21, Mikhail Bogdanovich left all his posts and left the army. During the foreign campaigns of the Russian army (1813-1814), on February 4, 1813, he took command of the 3rd Army. The troops under his command took the Thorn fortress, distinguished themselves in the battle of Königswart, and participated in the Battle of Bautzen. In 1813, Barclay was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian-Prussian troops, and after Austria joined the ranks of the Allies, he commanded the Russian-Prussian troops as part of the Bohemian Army. Under his leadership, the victory at Kulm was won, for which he was awarded the Order of George, First Class. Barclay de Tolly was one of the heroes of the victory in the Battle of Leipzig and, together with his descendants, was elevated to the dignity of count. After the end of hostilities, Barclay de Toli led the 1st Army, at the head of which he made a campaign in France in 1815. After reviewing Russian troops near the city of Vertue, he received the princely title. M. Barclay de Tolly was buried on the estate of his wife Bekhof in Livonia.

Denis Vasilievich Davydov

Lieutenant General, ideologist and leader of the partisan movement, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, Russian poet of the Pushkin Pleiad.

At the beginning of the war of 1812, Davydov was a lieutenant colonel in the Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment and was in the vanguard troops of General Vasilchikov. On August 21, 1812, near the village of Borodino, where he grew up, where his parents’ house was already being hastily dismantled into fortifications, five days before the great battle, Denis Vasilyevich proposed to Bagration the idea of ​​a partisan detachment.

He borrowed this idea from the Guerillas (Spanish partisans). Napoleon could not cope with them until they united into a regular army. The logic was simple: Napoleon, hoping to defeat Russia in twenty days, took that much provisions with him. And if you take away carts, fodder and break bridges, this will create big problems for him. Bagration's order to create a flying partisan detachment was one of his last before the Battle of Borodino, where he was mortally wounded.

On the very first night, Davydov’s detachment of 50 hussars and 80 Cossacks was ambushed by peasants, and Denis Vasilyevich almost died. The peasants had little understanding of details military uniform, which was similar for the French and Russians. Moreover, the officers spoke, as a rule, French. After this, Davydov put on a peasant's caftan and grew a beard.

Napoleon hated Davydov and ordered him to be shot on the spot upon his arrest. For the sake of his capture, he allocated one of his best detachments of two thousand horsemen with eight chief officers and one staff officer. Davydov, who had half as many people, managed to drive the detachment into a trap and take him prisoner along with all the officers.

Denis Davydov’s awards for the 1812 campaign were the Orders of St. Vladimir, 3rd degree, and St. George, 4th degree: “Your Grace! While the Patriotic War continued, I considered it a sin to think about anything other than the extermination of the enemies of the Fatherland. Now I am abroad, I humbly ask Your Lordship to send me Vladimir 3rd class and Georgy 4th class,” Davydov wrote to Field Marshal M.I. Kutuzov after crossing the border.

For the battle approaching Paris, when five horses were killed under him, but he and his Cossacks still broke through to the French artillery battery and decided the outcome of the battle, Davydov was awarded the rank of major general.

Ivan Ivanovich Dibich

Famous Russian commander, one of the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812. Unfortunately, few people know the name of Dibich today, although there is one very remarkable fact in the biography of this wonderful man. Ivan Dibich is a full holder of the Order of St. George, and there are only four of them in Russian history - Kutuzov, Barclay-de-Tolly, Paskevich and Dibich.

Ivan Ivanovich Dibich was the son of a Prussian army officer who transferred to Russian service. Diebitsch was born in the spring of 1785 in Silesia, and grew up there. Ivan Ivanovich received his education in the Berlin cadet corps. During his studies, Dibich showed himself to be an outstanding personality. In 1801, Dibich's father achieved serious success in his service in the Russian army and became a lieutenant general. At the same time, the father assigned his son to the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment with the rank of ensign. Soon a series of wars broke out with Napoleonic France. Ivan Dibich received his first combat experience on the battlefields of Austerlitz.

The Battle of Austerlitz was lost, but the courage and perseverance of Russian soldiers and officers in this battle could only be envied. Diebitsch was among those who managed to prove themselves in this fierce and bloody battle with the best side. Ivan Dibich was wounded in the hand, but remained in service. He hastily bandaged his wound and continued the battle, remaining in the battle formation of his company. But Dibich was no longer holding the weapon with his right hand, but with his left hand. For the courage shown in the battle of Austerlitz, Dibich received his first award - a golden sword on which were emblazoned the words: “For bravery.” There were only a few people awarded after Austerlitz; this added special value to Diebitsch’s award. For the successful disposition of troops in the Battle of Heilsberg, Ivan Ivanovich was awarded the Order of St. George, fourth degree. For participation in the fierce battles of the War of 1812. Ivan Dibich was awarded another award - the Order of St. Gerogius, third degree. Before Dibich, the Order of St. George, third degree, was awarded only to generals; now a 27-year-old colonel of the Russian army was nominated for the award. During the Patriotic War of 1812, Ivan Ivanovich Dibich was engaged not only in staff work, but also personally led soldiers in attacks, always finding himself at the very epicenter of events. Under the command of Diebitsch, cavalry attacks on the French army at Lützen are organized. He takes the Russian army out of attack at Bautzen and fights courageously at Dresden. Diebitsch's contribution to the victory at Leipzig is so great that the Austrian General Field Marshal Schwarzeberg, right on the battlefield, takes off the Order of Maria Theresa (this is the highest Austrian order) and puts it on Diebitsch's chest.

Durova Nadezhda Andreevna

Russia's first female officer (“cavalry maiden”).

The daughter of a poor nobleman-hussar. Durova spent her childhood in conditions of camp life, and she got used to military life and fell in love with it. In 1789 settled with her father, who retired, in the city of Sarapul. In 1801 Durova was married to a minor official and gave birth to a son. Family life did not work out, and Durova returned to her parents, never again maintaining a relationship with either her husband or son.

In 1806, dressed in men's suit, fled from home with a Cossack regiment, calling herself the son of a landowner, and managed to enlist in a mounted Uhlan regiment. Participated in the war between Russia and France in 1806 - 1807. first as a private, then as a cornet. When it was accidentally discovered that Durova was a woman, she was summoned to St. Petersburg by Alexander I and, after a conversation, received the tsar’s permission to continue serving under the name Alexandrov. For saving an officer in battle she was awarded the Cross of St. George. Participated in the Patriotic War of 1812. and was wounded on the eve of the Battle of Borodino.

She took part in the battles of Gutshadt, Heilsberg, Friedland, and showed courage everywhere. For saving a wounded officer in the midst of a battle, she was awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross and promoted to non-commissioned officer. Amazingly, while participating in battles, she never shed someone else’s blood.

She served as an orderly for M.I. Kutuzov and retired in 1816 with the rank of captain. She was engaged in literary activities: she wrote several novels and stories. Her “Notes of a Cavalry Maiden,” first published in 1836, became widely known. in “Notes of the Fatherland” and earned an approving review from A.S. Pushkin. The story of Durova’s extraordinary life subsequently became the basis for a novel, story, play, film and opera.

Alexey Petrovich Ermolov

Military and statesman. Born into a poor noble family. He was educated at home and at the Noble boarding school at Moscow University. Enlisted in the army since childhood, in 1792 he began active military service in the Nezhin Dragoon Regiment with the rank of captain. Carried away by the educational ideas of the French republicans, Ermolov was arrested in connection with the case of an officer’s political circle and, after a short imprisonment in the Peter and Paul Fortress, he was exiled “forever” to Kostroma. In 1801 after the death of Paul I, he was among many forgiven and continued his service.

In the campaigns against France 1805 - 1807. commanded the artillery of the vanguard and showed courage and skill. In 1808 Ermolov was promoted to major general. In the Patriotic War of 1812. Ermolov took part in all major battles, especially distinguishing himself in the battles of Smolensk, Borodino, Maloyaroslavets and Berezina. At the very beginning of hostilities, Alexander I appointed Major General Ermolov to the post of chief of the main headquarters of the Western Army, commanded by Minister of War Barclay de Tolly.

From that time on, Ermolov was a direct participant in all more or less major battles and the battles of the Patriotic War of 1812, both during the offensive of the French army and during its expulsion from Russia. In heavy battles near Smolensk for distinction, Ermolov, according to Barclay de Tolly, was later promoted to lieutenant general. In the Battle of Borodino, the general was with Kutuzov himself. At the critical, decisive moment of the battle, he accomplished an outstanding feat. Having discovered, following with the reserve to the 2nd Army, that the French had gained the upper hand on Kurgan Heights and captured the Raevsky redoubt, Ermolov instantly decided to restore order here, to knock the enemy out of the redoubt, which dominated the entire battlefield and was rightly called the key to the Borodino position. He turned around the units retreating from the heights and personally led the attack. Raevsky's battery was repulsed. After the Battle of Borodino, Alexey Petrovich was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 1st degree. He was convinced that in the Battle of Borodino the entire Russian army crowned itself with immortal glory. Ermolov played decisive role in stopping Napoleon's attempt to retreat to Kaluga. After three days of fierce battles for Maloyaroslavets, the French army had no choice but to turn from the Kaluga road and retreat along the ashes of the burned cities and villages of the old Smolensk road, where famine and Russian partisan detachments awaited it. Accepting the offer of the chief of the main staff of the army Ermolov, Kutuzov began his famous parallel pursuit, which led the French army to disaster. After the battle of Krasnoye, Ermolov received the rank of lieutenant general.

Mikhail Andreevich Miloradovich

A descendant of Serbian nobles who moved to Russia (the Poltava province) under Peter I. Enlisted in the guard from an early age, he was considered on leave until the end of his education, which he received at several foreign universities. He began his military service in the guards regiments in 1787 with the rank of ensign. He took part in the Russian-Swedish war of 1788-90.

Promoted to the rank of major general in 1798, he especially distinguished himself in Suvorov's Italian and Swiss campaigns of 1799-1800, as well as in the campaign against the French in 1805. Commanding a corps, he took part in hostilities against the Turks in 1806 and received the rank of infantry general for the victory at Rassevat (1809). Since August 14, 1812, M. A. Miloradovich, in the campaign against Napoleon Bonaparte, forms a detachment of troops for the army between Kaluga and Volokolamsk and Moscow, and then goes to war with this detachment. In the Battle of Borodino he commanded the right wing of the 1st Army. Then he led the rearguard, restrained the French troops, which ensured the withdrawal of the entire Russian army. The main quality that earned respect among his soldiers and the enemy was courage, fearlessness, bordering on recklessness.

His adjutant, poet and writer Fyodor Glinka left a verbal portrait of Mikhail Andreevich during the battle:

Here he is, on a beautiful, jumping horse, sitting freely and cheerfully. The horse is richly saddled: the saddle cloth is covered in gold, decorated with order stars... He himself is dressed smartly, in a shiny general’s uniform; there are crosses on his neck (and how many crosses!), stars on his chest, a large diamond burning on his sword... A smile brightened up his narrow, even pursed, lips. For others, this means stinginess; in him it could mean some kind of inner strength, because his generosity reached the point of extravagance... Cheerful, talkative (as he always was in battle), he rode around the killing field as if in his home park... The French called him Russian Bayard; In our country, for his daring, a little dapper, he was compared to the French Murat. And he was not inferior in courage to both.

It was M.A. Miloradovich who agreed with Murat on a temporary truce when Russian troops left Moscow. In the battle of Maloyaroslavets, he did not allow the French to immediately overthrow the Russian troops. When pursuing the Napoleonic army, General Miloradovich's rearguard turned into the vanguard of the Russian army.

On October 22, 1812, a battle took place near Vyazma between the vanguard of the Russian army under the command of General Miloradovich and Don Ataman M.I. Platov (25 thousand people) with 4 French corps (37 thousand people in total), which ended in a brilliant victory for the Russian troops, and as a result of which the French lost 8.5 thousand people. killed, wounded and captured. The damage to the Russians amounted to about 2 thousand people.

Miloradovich gained the greatest fame and glory as one of the most experienced and skillful vanguard commanders of the Russian army, who successfully pursued the French to the borders of the Russian Empire, and then in a foreign campaign, participated in the capture of Paris. In the battle of Leipzig he commanded the Russian and Prussian guards. For the successful actions of his corps at the beginning of 1813, M. A. Miloradovich was the first to receive as a reward the right to wear the monogram of Emperor Alexander I on his epaulettes, and for skillful leadership of troops in a foreign campaign on May 1, 1813, he received the title of Count of the Russian Empire. He chose the words as his motto: “My integrity supports me.” On May 16, 1814, he was appointed commander of the foot reserve of the active army, and on November 16, commander of the guards corps.

Ivan Fedorovich Paskevich

Born into a family of Belarusian and Ukrainian nobles who lived in Poltava. Paskevich had four younger brothers, who, like him, later became famous and respected people. The Paskevich brothers should be grateful to their grandfather, who in 1793 took his grandchildren to the capital of the Russian Empire. Two brothers, Stepan and Ivan Paskevich, were enrolled in the Corps of Pages. Ivan Paskevich did not have much time to study, when suddenly he became the personal page of Emperor Paul I.

Soon, having the rank of lieutenant in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, he was promoted to adjutant wing. The first military campaign in which Paskevich participated was Russian-Turkish war 1806-1812. Paskevich was an adjutant to the commanders-in-chief of the Russian army, changing like gloves. Despite the rank of adjutant, Paskevich sought to directly participate in the battle whenever possible. During the war with Turkey, Ivan Fedorovich Paskevich was awarded the Order of St. George of the third and fourth degree. For his participation in the same war, Paskevich was awarded the rank of colonel.

The division led by Paskevich performed excellently during the Patriotic War of 1812. Bagration personally thanked Paskevich for his participation in the Battle of Smolensk for his courage and fortitude. In the Battle of Borodino, Ivan Fedorovich Paskevich and his division fought fierce battles for the “Raevsky battery.” The French had a five-fold numerical superiority, but the Russian soldiers knew no fear. Paskevich's knights repelled enemy attacks over and over again. During the Battle of Borodino, two horses died under Ivan Paskevich, and Paskevich himself was not even shell-shocked. For the bravery and courage shown on the Borodino field, Paskevich was awarded the Order of St. Anna, second degree. Paskevich probably knew no worse than Kutuzov how to beat the French. Throughout the entire campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, Ivan Fedorovich was invariably lucky. But this luck smiled on Paskevich for his bravery, courage, audacity, intelligence and willingness to give his life for the glory of the Fatherland. In the battle of Krasnoye, Ivan Fedorovich led a bayonet attack of the Russian army and overturned the enemy’s formation, for which he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, second degree. Leipzig, Dresden and Hamburg also did not happen without the active participation of Ivan Fedorovich Paskevich. For his successes on the European battlefields, Paskevich was promoted to lieutenant general of the Russian army and awarded the Order of St. Anne, first degree. At the beginning of 1814, Paskevich was appointed commander of the second grenadier division, in which he defeated Marshal Ney and took Paris.

Matvey Ivanovich Platov

General of the cavalry. Graph. The most famous ataman of the Cossack troops of Russia.

Cossack ataman number one in history Russian state, undoubtedly, was and remains M.I. Platov. He was born on the Don in the village of Pribylyanskaya, and came from the “senior children of the Don Army.” The father is Colonel Ivan Fedorovich Platov, who taught his son all the wisdom of Cossack military skill.

He received baptism of fire during the campaign to the Crimea, distinguished himself during the capture of Perekop (Turkish Wall), and in the capture of the Kinburn fortress. Platov found himself among those Russian troops who had the opportunity to fulfill a truly historical mission - to put an end to the Crimean Khanate, the last fragment of the Golden Horde. In 1772, Matvey Platov received the rank of Cossack colonel and at the same time (at the age of 18!) began to command a Cossack regiment. In 1774, in the Kuban, he skillfully and independently repelled seven attacks by “non-peaceful” highlanders on a Cossack camp on the Kalnakh (Kalalakh) River. For this feat he was awarded, by decree of Empress Catherine II, a personal gold medal. Then the words of Matvey Ivanovich Platov were heard, which became his life motto: “Honor is more valuable than life!”...

General glory came to the three-time Cavalier of St. George, General of the Cavalry M.I. Platov during the Patriotic War of 1812. From the very beginning of the invasion of the Russian borders of the Great Army of the conqueror Napoleon I, the Don Cossack regiments of the Platov flying (irregular) corps did not leave the battles. The corps covered the retreat of the Russian armies to Smolensk from Rudnya and Porechye. List of battles carried out by the irregular cavalry represented by the flying corps of Ataman M.I. Platov in the first period of the war is impressive: these are Karelichi and Mir, Romanovo and Molevo Boloto, Inkovo... The fact is that the Russian 1st Western Army of Infantry General M.B. Barclay de Tolly and the 2nd Western Army of Infantry General P.I. Bagration united in the Smolensk region, great credit goes to the flying Cossack corps. After the two armies united and retreated to Moscow, Platov commanded the rearguard battles. In the Battle of Borodino, the corps of General Platov’s cavalry was on the right flank of Kutuzov’s army, opposing the cavalry of the Italian viceroy. After the Battle of Borodino, the ataman goes to his native Don, where in the most short time The Don militia is created. And 26 cavalry regiments of Donets militias in a rapid forced march arrive at the Tarutino camp of the Main Russian Army. During the retreat of the Russian army from Moscow, the Cossack regiments formed the rearguard forces. They managed to hold back the onslaught of the cavalry of the Marshal of France, the King of Naples, Joachim Murat, near the city of Mozhaisk.

When the relentless pursuit of the fleeing Napoleonic army began, it was the Cossack commander Platov who was entrusted with command of the vanguard of the Main Army. Platov did this great thing for the history of Russia together with the troops of General M.A. Miloradovich successfully and effectively. Strong blows are dealt to the troops of the famous Marshal Davout, from whom the Cossacks recapture 27 guns in battle near the Kolotsky Monastery. Then the Platov cavalry takes part in the battle near the city of Vyazma, in which the French corps of Marshals Michel Ney, the same Davout and the Italian Viceroy suffer complete defeat. The Cossack cavalry also won a brilliant victory on October 27 on the banks of the Vop River, defeating the French troops of Marshal Eugene Beauharnais and recapturing 23 artillery pieces. For this genuine victory, the ataman of the Don Army was elevated by Alexander I to the dignity of count of the Russian Empire. On November 8, the flying corps of the cavalry general Count M.I. Platov, while crossing the Dnieper River, completely defeated the remnants of Marshal Ney's corps. Three days later, the Cossacks occupied the city of Orsha. Emperor Alexander I more than once expressed his royal “favor” to the Cossack commander from the banks of the Don. The effectiveness of the combat activities of the Cossack troops under the command of Ataman Count M.I. Platov during the Patriotic War of 1812 is amazing. They captured 546 (548) enemy guns, 30 banners and captured more than 70 thousand Napoleonic soldiers, officers and generals. Commander M.I. Golenishchev-Kutuzov wrote the following words to the military leader of the Cossacks of Russia: “The services you provided to the Fatherland have no examples, you proved to the whole of Europe the power and strength of the inhabitants of the blessed Don...”

Nikolai Nikolaevich Raevsky

A cavalry general, a friend of A.S. Pushkin, who wrote about him: “I spent the happiest minutes of my life among the family of the venerable Raevsky. Witness of the Catherine century, monument of the 12th year; a man without prejudice, with a strong character and sensitivity, he will involuntarily attract to himself anyone who is worthy of understanding and appreciating his high qualities.”

Nikolai Nikolaevich Raevsky is the pride of the Russian army. A man of high honor, selfless devotion to duty, a gifted military leader. Even his opponents appreciated him. Napoleon said about him: “This general is made of the material from which marshals are made.” When Bagration’s army retreated under the pressure of Napoleon’s troops, Raevsky’s corps—seventeen thousand soldiers—was ahead of the troops from the border. Near the Belarusian village of Saltanovka, Raevsky’s corps met with French troops under the leadership of Marshal Davout, who were twice as numerous. General Raevsky could avoid the battle, but he knew that on this day Bagration’s troops were crossing the Dnieper, and they could be easily destroyed at the crossing.

The duty and honor of Nikolai Nikolaevich Raevsky did not allow him to avoid a fight with the enemy. “Many officers and lower ranks, having received two wounds and bandaged them, returned to the battle as if to a feast... All were heroes,” Nikolai Nikolaevich wrote in his report. But the forces were unequal: the regiment held back the attacks of the entire army. A moment arose when the death of the corps seemed inevitable. A gap began to form in the middle of the Russian system. Where can I get new strength? How to help your soldiers? And then Raevsky took his sons, the youngest, Alexander, was holding his father’s hand, on the other side was the eldest, Nikolai, with the banner of the Smolensk regiment. The three of them ran towards the enemy, who was advancing with hostility. This heroic act in the name of the Motherland shocked not only Russian soldiers. With redoubled force, the soldiers rushed to save their commander and his sons and forced the French to retreat with a bayonet strike. At night, Raevsky's corps joined the army and went with it to Smolensk. General Raevsky showed extraordinary heroism in the Battle of Borodino. A battery of 18 guns stood on Kurgan Heights on the right flank. It was surrounded by a parapet more than two meters high and surrounded by a wide ditch two meters deep. The height was defended by the infantry corps of General Raevsky, and therefore the battery was called “Raevsky’s battery.” The French attacked, but when they met the fire of our cannons, they retreated. After World War II, Raevsky was listed as commander of the army corps. In 1824 he retired.

Alexander Alekseevich Tuchkov

The Russian commander, major general, died during the Battle of Borodino. He came from an old noble family, the founder of which moved from Prussia to Russia. In the family of engineer-lieutenant general A.V. Tuchkov Alexander was the youngest of five sons. (All rose to the rank of general and four - Nikolai, Pavel, Sergei and Alexander - of them participated in the Patriotic War of 1812). In 1788 he was enrolled as a bayonet cadet in the Bombardier Regiment.

Promoted to captain on June 27, 1794. and began serving in the 2nd Artillery Battalion. In 1799 received the rank of colonel in 1800. appointed commander of the 6th artillery regiment. In 1801 left the service, “wishing to improve my knowledge and become familiar with European states" Since 1804 continued his army service in the Murom Infantry Regiment, and two years later he was transferred to the Tauride Grenadier Regiment, with which he fought in 1806-1807. He was appointed chief of the Revel Musketeer (after 1811 - infantry) regiment on December 3, 1806. May 24, 1807 Revelians fought bravely near Gutstadt in the vanguard of P.I. Bagration, for which their chief on December 27, 1807. awarded the Order of St. George, 4th class.

At the beginning of 1812, Revelsky infantry regiment, whose chief was Tuchkov, as part of the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division was part of the 3rd Infantry Corps of the 1st Western Army. Tuchkov also commanded this brigade. Tuchkov's brigade held back the enemy near Vitebsk, Smolensk and Lubin. On the Borodino field, inspiring the Revel regiment, which was faltering under hurricane enemy fire, rushed forward with the regimental banner in his hands and was mortally wounded in the chest by a grapeshot bullet at the middle Semyonovskaya flush. They could not take him out of the battlefield, which was plowed by artillery shells and swallowed up the hero without a trace... Two months passed. Napoleon's army, retreating from Moscow, moved past the Borodino field, where more than fifty thousand bodies were rotting. Following the French, peasants from the surrounding villages came to this terrible field. It was necessary to destroy the remains of people and horses so that they would not become a source of infection for the entire region. The fires began to burn and the corpses were burned on them. And in their smoke, between groups of peasants and mountains of dead bodies, two figures dressed in black moved - Margarita Mikhailovna Tuchkova and the old monk of the nearby Kolotsk monastery accompanying her. An inconsolable widow was looking for the remains of her husband. And I didn’t find them. Three years after the end of the war with Napoleon, Tuchkova built a small church near the village of Semenovskoye, on the spot where, according to eyewitnesses, her husband fell.

In 1806, in Moscow, Colonel Alexander Tuchkov married a lovely girl from the Russian aristocracy. Her name was Margarita Mikhailovna Naryshkina.

The young woman fell madly in love with Tuchkov, which is not surprising: what a romantic appearance, and what awards on her chest! Indeed, the young man fought brilliantly. As General Bennigsen wrote about him, Tuchkov in the battle against the French at Golymin “under a hail of bullets and grapeshot acted as if it were a training exercise,” i.e. calm and cool. Then he was awarded George 4th degree - an outstanding military award.

After the wedding, Tuchkov went to another, this time Russian-Swedish, war. And his young wife, instead of waving her cap from the porch and shedding tears, changed into a soldier’s uniform, jumped on a horse and, under the guise of Tuchkov’s orderly, followed him on a difficult winter campaign. Margarita withstood this test along with her husband - a newly minted general with two new orders and the glory of a brave warrior.

In 1811, she gave birth to a son, Nicholas, so that with the outbreak of the War of 1812, she could no longer follow her husband as before. She accompanied him only to Smolensk, and then returned to her parents in Moscow.

And then Borodin’s day came - August 26th. During the battle, both Tuchkov brothers were mortally wounded: Nikolai, who at a critical moment led the counterattack of his corps, and Alexander, who also fell with a banner in his hands in front of his regiment.

Nicholas was carried out from the battlefield, and he died after it, and Alexander’s fate was even worse: a French bomb - a cast-iron ball filled with gunpowder - fell into the stretcher on which the soldiers carried the commander, and nothing remained of his body - it disappeared, dissolved in this hell...

Margarita learned about this misfortune at the very beginning of September. Then, in many noble and peasant families, widows howled - the losses of the Russian army were terrifying. Margarita's mother-in-law, having received the news of the fate of her sons, immediately and forever became blind. Margarita, who fled with everyone from Moscow, held out for two months, but when she received a letter from Alexander’s boss, General Konovnitsyn, she made up her mind - she quickly got ready and went to the battlefield. For two days in a row, together with a monk from a neighboring monastery, Margarita searched for the remains of her husband, but found nothing: only a terrible mess of earth, the remains of human bodies and weapons stuffed with lead and cast iron.

I had to return home. With difficulty she passed this test, and then suddenly decided: since it is impossible to bury Alexander in a Christian way, then in the place where his body disappeared into the ground, a church must be built. She sold the diamonds, received another 10 thousand rubles from Alexander I and began construction. Son Nikolai grew up, his mother adored him, for with each month the features of Alexander appeared more and more clearly in him.

Margarita moved to St. Petersburg, where the boy was accepted into the Corps of Pages. It seemed that life was leveling out, time was healing wounds. But the fatal year 1826 came for Margarita’s family. In the case of the Decembrists, her younger brother Mikhail went to Siberia to do hard labor. Then, unable to withstand the test, the mother died, and after her, scarlet fever took away 15-year-old Nikolai. The suffering seemed unbearable to her: “It’s boring to live - it’s scary to die,” she wrote to her friend. This continued until Metropolitan Philaret, a saint of rare human virtues, came to her. He managed to instill in Margarita the idea that she was leading a non-Christian life, that her pain was only a part of the general pain: after all, there is so much grief around, so many widows, orphans and unfortunate people like her, and she must devote herself to serving them, the suffering.

It was as if a scale had fallen from her eyes, and Margarita energetically set to work: she formed a widow’s community around the church. Serving others was not easy for Margarita - she had neither experience nor the ability to communicate with ordinary people, but gradually the life of the community improved, and in 1833 it turned into the Spaso-Borodinsky hostel...

She was not a saint, did not perform miracles, did not heal the sick, and was not even included in the church annals as a righteous woman and passion-bearer, but she did so much good that when she was buried, all the nuns cried so much that they could not sing, and the burial took place without a choir. singing according to Orthodox rite. In fact, Margarita Tuchkova was like thousands of other Russian women who lost loved ones and remained faithful to their memory to the end. She, like these women, carried her cross - as best she could - and, probably, until her death hour she had no doubts on her chosen path - just like her husband at his death hour, in this same place, at the Semyonovsky flashes, on August 26 1812.

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