Cudgel people's war and peace. The guerrilla movement is the club of the people's war

From the performance of the 1st Army from the camp near Drissa to the declaration of war

Chapter Eleven The Cudgel of the People's War

Chapter Eleven Club of the People's War Turning to this topic, we have to admit that too many fables have been told to us about the so-called "club of the people's war." In fact, a fair number of residents of the Russian Empire in 1812 did not

XVIII Monarchy as the supremacy of the moral ideal. - The meaning of religion and Christianity. - Independence of the monarchy from the will of the people. - Subjection of the monarchy to popular faith

XVIII Monarchy as the supremacy of the moral ideal. - The meaning of religion and Christianity. - Independence of the monarchy from the will of the people. - Subordination of the monarchy to the people's faith

French historians, describing the position of the French army before leaving Moscow, argue that everything in the Great Army was in order, except for cavalry, artillery and carts, but there was no fodder for horses and cattle. Nothing could help this disaster, because the surrounding peasants burned their hay and did not give it to the French.

The battle won did not bring the usual results, because the peasants Karp and Vlas, who, after the French had come to Moscow with carts to rob the city, did not personally show heroic feelings at all, and all the countless number of such peasants did not bring hay to Moscow for the good money that they offered, but burned it.

Let's imagine two people who went out to a duel with swords according to all the rules of fencing art: fencing went on for quite a long time; suddenly one of the opponents, feeling wounded - realizing that this was not a joke, but about his life, threw down his sword and, taking the first club that came across, began to roll with it. But let us imagine that the enemy, having so wisely used the best and simplest means to achieve the goal, at the same time inspired by the traditions of chivalry, would want to hide the essence of the matter and would insist that he, according to all the rules of art, won with swords. One can imagine what confusion and obscurity would result from such a description of the duel that took place.

The fencer who demanded the fight according to the rules of the art was the French; his opponent, who dropped his sword and raised his club, were Russians; people who try to explain everything according to the rules of fencing are historians who wrote about this event.

Since the fire of Smolensk, a war has begun that does not fit under any previous legends of wars. The burning of cities and villages, the retreat after the battles, the blow of Borodin and the retreat again, the abandonment and fire of Moscow, the catching of marauders, the capture of transports, the guerrilla war - all these were deviations from the rules.

Napoleon felt this, and from the very time when he stopped in Moscow in the correct posture of a fencer and saw a cudgel raised above him instead of the enemy’s sword, he did not stop complaining to Kutuzov and Emperor Alexander that the war was being waged against all the rules (as if there were some rules for killing people). Despite the complaints of the French about non-compliance with the rules, despite the fact that for some reason the Russians, the highest in position, seemed ashamed to fight with a cudgel, but they wanted by all the rules to take the position en quarte or en tierce [fourth, third], to make a skillful fall into prime [first], etc., - the cudgel of the people's war rose with all its formidable and majestic strength and, without asking anyone's tastes and rules, with stupid simplicity, but with expediency, without analyzing anything, rose, fell and nailed the French to until the whole invasion is gone.

And it is good for the people who, not like the French in 1813, saluting according to all the rules of art and turning the sword over with the hilt, gracefully and courteously hand it over to the generous winner, but good for the people who, in a moment of trial, without asking about how they acted according to the rules others in such cases, with simplicity and ease, pick up the first club that comes across and nail it until the feeling of insult and revenge in their soul is replaced by contempt and pity.

One of the most tangible and advantageous deviations from the so-called rules of war is the action of scattered people against people huddled together. This kind of action always manifests itself in a war that takes on a popular character. These actions consist in the fact that, instead of becoming a crowd against the crowd, people disperse separately, attack one by one and immediately flee when they are attacked by large forces, and then attack again when the opportunity presents itself. This was done by the Guerillas in Spain; this was done by the highlanders in the Caucasus; the Russians did it in 1812.

A war of this kind was called guerrilla warfare, and it was believed that by calling it that, its meaning was explained. Meanwhile, this kind of war not only does not fit any rules, but is directly opposed to the well-known and recognized as an infallible tactical rule. This rule says that the attacker must concentrate his troops in order to be stronger than the enemy at the time of the battle.

Guerrilla warfare (always successful, as history shows) is the exact opposite of this rule.

This contradiction arises from the fact that military science accepts the strength of troops as identical with their numbers. Military science says that the more troops, the more power. Les gros bataillons ont toujours raison. [Law is always on the side of large armies. ]

In saying this, military science is like that mechanics, which, based on the consideration of forces only in relation to their masses, would say that the forces are equal or not equal to each other, because their masses are equal or not equal.

Force (momentum) is the product of mass and speed.

In military affairs, the strength of an army is also the product of the mass by something like that, by some unknown x.

Military science, seeing in history countless examples of the fact that the mass of troops does not coincide with strength, that small detachments defeat large ones, vaguely recognizes the existence of this unknown factor and tries to find it now in geometric construction, now in armament, then - the most ordinary - in the genius of the generals. But substituting all these multiplier values ​​does not produce results consistent with the historical facts.

And meanwhile, one has only to abandon the established, for the sake of the heroes, false view of the reality of the orders of the highest authorities during the war in order to find this unknown x.

This is the spirit of the army, that is, a greater or lesser desire to fight and expose themselves to the dangers of all the people who make up the army, completely regardless of whether people fight under the command of geniuses or non-geniuses, in three or two lines, with clubs or guns firing thirty once a minute. The people who have the greatest desire to fight will always put themselves in the best conditions for a fight.

The spirit of the army is a multiplier for the mass, which gives the product of force. To determine and express the meaning of the spirit of the army, this unknown multiplier, is the task of science.

This task is possible only when we stop arbitrarily substituting, instead of the value of the entire unknown X, the conditions under which force is manifested, such as: the orders of the commander, weapons, etc., taking them as the value of a multiplier, and we recognize this unknown in all its integrity, that is, as a greater or lesser desire to fight and endanger oneself. Only then, by expressing known historical facts in equations, from a comparison of the relative significance of this unknown, can one hope to determine the unknown itself.

Ten people, battalions or divisions, fighting with fifteen people, battalions or divisions, defeated fifteen, that is, they killed and took prisoner all without a trace and themselves lost four; therefore, four were destroyed on one side, and fifteen on the other. Therefore, four was equal to fifteen, and therefore 4a:=15y. Therefore, w: g/==15:4. This equation does not give the value of the unknown, but it does give the relation between two unknowns. And from subsuming various historical units (battles, campaigns, periods of wars) under such equations, series of numbers will be obtained in which laws must exist and can be discovered.

The tactical rule that it is necessary to act in masses during the offensive and separately during the retreat, unconsciously confirms only the truth that the strength of the army depends on its spirit. In order to lead people under the core, more discipline is needed, achieved only by movement in the masses, than in order to fend off attackers. But this rule, in which the spirit of the army is overlooked, constantly turns out to be wrong and especially strikingly contradicts reality where there is a strong rise or fall in the spirit of the army - in all people's wars.

The French, retreating in 1812, although they should have defended themselves separately, tactically, huddle together, because the spirit of the army has fallen so that only the mass holds the army together. The Russians, on the contrary, tactically should have attacked en masse, but in reality they are splitting up, because the spirit is raised so that individuals strike without the orders of the French and do not need coercion in order to expose themselves to labor and danger.

The so-called guerrilla war began with the entry of the enemy into Smolensk.

Before the guerrilla war was officially accepted by our government, already thousands of people of the enemy army - backward marauders, foragers - were exterminated by the Cossacks and peasants, who beat these people as unconsciously as dogs unconsciously bite a runaway rabid dog. Denis Davydov, with his Russian intuition, was the first to understand the significance of that terrible club, which, without asking the rules of military art, destroyed the French, and he owns the glory of the first step in legitimizing this method of war.

On August 24, the first partisan detachment of Davydov was established, and after his detachment others began to be established. The further the campaign progressed, the more the number of these detachments increased.

The partisans destroyed the Great Army in parts. They picked up those falling leaves that fell of themselves from a withered tree - the French army, and sometimes shook this tree. In October, while the French fled to Smolensk, there were hundreds of these parties of various sizes and characters. There were parties that adopted all the methods of the army, with infantry, artillery, headquarters, with the comforts of life; there were only Cossack, cavalry; there were small, prefabricated, foot and horse, there were peasants and landlords, unknown to anyone. There was a deacon head of the party, who took several hundred prisoners a month. There was an elder, Vasilisa, who beat hundreds of Frenchmen.

The last days of October were the time of the height of the guerrilla war. That first period of this war, during which the partisans, themselves surprised at their audacity, were afraid at any moment to be caught and surrounded by the French and, without unsaddling and almost dismounting their horses, hid in the forests, waiting for every minute of the chase, has already passed. Now this war was already determined, it became clear to everyone what could be done with the French and what could not be done. Now only those commanders of the detachments, who, according to the rules, went away from the French with headquarters, still considered many things impossible. The small partisans, who had long ago begun their work and were closely looking out for the French, considered possible what the leaders of large detachments did not even dare to think about. The Cossacks and the peasants, who climbed between the French, believed that now everything was possible.

On October 22, Denisov, who was one of the partisans, was with his party in the midst of partisan passion. In the morning he and his party were on the move. All day long, through the forests adjacent to the main road, he followed a large French transport of cavalry things and Russian prisoners, separated from other troops and under strong cover, as was known from scouts and prisoners, heading for Smolensk. This transport was known not only to Denisov and Dolokhov (also a partisan with a small party), who walked close to Denisov, but also to the heads of large detachments with headquarters: everyone knew about this transport and, as Denisov said, they sharpened their teeth on it. Two of these great detachment commanders - one Pole, the other German - almost at the same time sent an invitation to Denisov to join his detachment in order to attack the transport.

“Imagine,” Tolstoy wrote, “two people who went out with swords for a duel according to all the rules of fencing art ... suddenly one of the opponents, feeling wounded, realizing that this was no joke ... threw his sword and taking the first club he came across, began grumble at her. The swordsman who demanded a fight according to the rules of art was a Frenchman, his opponent, who abandoned his punks and raised his club, was Russian ... Despite the French's complaints about the failure to comply with the rules ... the cudgel of the people's war rose with all its formidable and majestic strength and, without asking anyone's tastes and rules , rose, fell and nailed the French until the whole invasion died. It is with the help of the "club of the people's war" that Lev Nikolayevich reveals the main idea of ​​the epic novel "War and Peace".

The Patriotic War of 1812 in the image of Leo Tolstoy appears as a people's war. The writer is convinced that the Russian people won the war. The further development of the people's war is drawn by the author in Volume IV, the chapters of which are devoted to the strong and powerful partisan movement.

In those years, patriotic feelings and hatred for enemies swept all segments of the population. But even V.G. Belinsky wrote: "Patriotism does not consist in magnificent exclamations." L.N. Tolstoy opposes true patriotism to such an ostentatious one, which was heard in speeches and exclamations at a meeting of Moscow nobles. They were worried about whether the peasants would gain a free spirit (“It’s better to recruit ... otherwise neither a soldier nor a peasant will return to us, but only one debauchery,” voices were heard at a meeting of the nobility).

During the stay of the army in Tarutino, the partisan movement began to expand, which began before Kutuzov took the post of commander in chief. L.N. very accurately and figuratively spoke about the partisan movement and the popular character of the war of 1812. Tolstoy, for the first time using the expression "club of the people's war" in the first chapter of the third part of the fourth volume of the novel "War and Peace".

The partisan movement in the Patriotic War of 1812 is one of the main expressions of the will and desire for the victory of the Russian people against the French troops. The partisan movement reflects the popular character of the Patriotic War.

The movement of partisans began after the entry of Napoleonic troops into Smolensk. Before the guerrilla war was officially accepted by our government, already thousands of people of the enemy army were exterminated by the Cossacks and "Partisans".

The image of Petya Rostov is an expression in the novel of the theme of guerrilla war, which shows that the people are the true force of history. It reveals the true value of human life, human relationships.

The guerrilla war with the French took on a popular character. She brought with her new methods of struggle, "overturning Napoleon's strategy of conquest."

Tolstoy has an ambiguous attitude not only to the people's war, but also to the partisan one. The People's War delights the writer as the highest manifestation of patriotism, as the unity of people of all walks of life in their love for their homeland and in their common desire to prevent the enemy from seizing Russia. Only a guerrilla war, that is, a liberation war, which is not a "game", not "the entertainment of idle people", but retribution for ruin and misfortune, aimed at protecting one's own freedom and the freedom of the whole country, is fair, according to Tolstoy. But still, any, even a just war, brings destruction, pain and suffering, is the personification of an evil, inhuman principle. Therefore, the partisan war, sung by Tolstoy in the novel, is, according to the author, a manifestation of popular anger, but not the embodiment of humanism and the highest good. tolstoy rostov novel war

The popular character of the war is shown by Tolstoy in various ways. The author's historical and philosophical arguments about the role of the individual and the people in history in general and the war of 1812 in particular are used, vivid pictures of outstanding historical events are drawn; the people can be depicted (albeit extremely rarely) as a whole, in common, and as an innumerable multitude of living ordinary characters. The motives and feelings of the entire nation are concentrated in the image of the "representative of the people's war" commander Kutuzov, and are felt by the best representatives of the nobility who have become close to the people.

Tolstoy shows a combination of formidable strength, courage and kindness, heroic patience and generosity in the Russian character; this unique combination represents, according to Tolstoy, the essence of the Russian soul. The writer himself says: "There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth." Russian soldiers, having met Captain Rambal and his batman Morel, freezing in the forest, bring them porridge, vodka, lay out an overcoat for the sick Rambal. Smiling joyfully, they look at Morel.

Such is the main assessment of the people's war in Tolstoy's novel. “And it is good for the people who, in a moment of trial, with simplicity and ease, pick up the first club that comes across and nail it until the feeling of insult and revenge in their soul is replaced by contempt and pity.”

L. Tolstoy glorified and immortalized for all time the image of the "club of the people's war." At the same time, he glorified the Russian people, who boldly, decisively and recklessly raised it against the enemy.

(L. N. Tolstoy. "War and Peace")

L. Tolstoy was one of the first in Russian and world literature to recreate the pictures of the people's guerrilla war and managed to reveal its true meaning and significance. With historical authenticity and truthfulness, the great Russian writer showed how the "club of the people's war", which acted with "simplicity and expediency", led to victory over the conquerors. In the actions of partisan detachments in 1812, he saw the highest form of unity between the people and the army, which radically changed the very idea of ​​war. L. Tolstoy notes that “since the fire of Smolensk, a war has begun that does not fit any previous ideas of wars. The burning of cities and villages, the retreat after battles, the blow of Borodin and another retreat, the fire of Moscow, the catching of marauders, the capture of transports, the guerrilla war - all these were deviations from the rules.

L. Tolstoy says that Napoleon, who faced such a phenomenon for the first time in his military practice, “did not stop complaining to Kutuzov and Emperor Alexander that the war was being waged contrary to all rules.” Along the way, the author remarks: “as if there were some rules for killing people.”

Before the start of the Battle of Borodino, during a meeting with Pierre, Prince Andrei says that when near Smolensk “we fought for the first time ... for the Russian land”, then “there was such a spirit in the troops that I had never seen that we fought off the French for two days in a row and that this success multiplied our strength tenfold.

Not only the regular army, but also the militias were preparing for the Battle of Borodino. One of the wounded soldiers in the wagon train, met by Pierre on the way to Borodino, says: “Today, not only a soldier, but also seen peasants! The peasants and those are driven. Today they don’t sort it out ... They want to pile on all the people, one word - Moscow. They want to make one end." But Pierre understood the meaning of what he heard only when he “saw for the first time militia men with crosses on their hats and in white shirts, who, with a loud voice and laughter, animated and sweaty, were working something to the right of the road.”

The hidden "warmth of patriotism" takes possession of Kutuzov, who is informed that the militia men put on "clean white shirts to prepare for death." He replies with emotion and delight to this: “Wonderful, incomparable people!” With the same seriousness and thoroughness, soldiers and officers of the Russian army are preparing for an important decisive event - the Battle of Borodino. Captain Timokhin says to Pierre and Prince Andrei: “Why feel sorry for yourself now! The soldiers in my battalion, believe me, did not drink vodka: not such a day, they say.

After the Battle of Borodino, the entire population, as one person, abandoning their property, “flowed out of Moscow, showing by this negative action the full strength of their national feeling.” But even those ordinary people - artisans and factory workers who remained in the city, were ready to stand under the banner of the defenders of the motherland. L. Tolstoy says that "the understanding of the people was tuned in a high way." People "not sparing their lives, wanted to serve" the fatherland. However, neither the governor, nor the chief of police, nor other senior officials of Moscow had the same mood and were more concerned about their own safety.

Despite the lack of a common team, after the arrival of the French, Moscow looked like an abandoned hive. The streets were empty, there was hardly anyone. The gates and shops were all locked. No one traveled the streets, and footsteps of pedestrians were rarely heard. The people themselves made sure that the invaders feel like on a powder keg. The ground was literally on fire underneath them. The peasants Karp and Vlas and "all the countless number of such peasants" not only did not bring hay to Moscow for big money, but also burned it. They burned everything that was left of the population and could be useful to the French.

Effective assistance to their army was provided by the people who went into partisan detachments. There were hundreds of them then - large and small, on foot and horseback, with artillery and simply with spears. “He was the head of the party, a deacon who took several hundred prisoners a month. There was an elder, Vasilisa, who beat hundreds of Frenchmen.

The partisan movement occupies a special place in the history of the Patriotic War of 1812. The strength of the partisan detachments consisted in the suddenness of the attack, the elusiveness for regular troops. “The guerrillas destroyed the great army in parts. They picked up those fallen leaves that fell of their own accord from a withered tree - the French army, and sometimes shook this tree. And no matter how much Napoleon and his marshals complained that the Russians were waging war “not according to the rules,” no matter how embarrassed they were at the court of Emperor Alexander to talk about partisans, “the cudgel of the people’s war rose with all its formidable and majestic strength and, without asking anyone’s tastes and ruled ... rose and nailed the French until the whole invasion died.