The Patriotic War of 1812 continued. Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Sparrow Hills
The emergence of the Patriotic War of 1812 was caused by Napoleon's desire for world domination. In Europe, only Russia and England retained their independence. Despite the Treaty of Tilsit, Russia continued to oppose the expansion of Napoleonic aggression. Napoleon was especially annoyed by her systematic violation of the continental blockade. Since 1810, both sides, realizing the inevitability of a new clash, were preparing for war. Napoleon flooded the Duchy of Warsaw with his troops, created military depots there. The threat of invasion loomed over the borders of Russia. In turn, the Russian government increased the number of troops in the western provinces.
Napoleon became the aggressor
He began hostilities and invaded Russian territory. In this regard, for the Russian people, the war became liberation and Patriotic, since not only the cadre army, but also the broad masses of the people took part in it.
balance of power
Preparing for the war against Russia, Napoleon gathered a significant army - up to 678 thousand soldiers. These were well-armed and trained troops, hardened in previous wars. They were led by a galaxy of brilliant marshals and generals - L. Davout, L. Berthier, M. Ney, I. Murat and others. They were commanded by the most famous commander of that time - Napoleon Bonaparte. The weak point of his army was its motley national composition. German and Spanish, Polish and Portuguese, Austrian and Italian soldiers were deeply alien to the aggressive plans of the French emperor.
Active preparations for the war, which Russia has been conducting since 1810, have brought results. She managed to create modern armed forces for that time, powerful artillery, which, as it turned out during the war, was superior to the French. The troops were led by talented military leaders - M. I. Kutuzov, M. B. Barclay de Tolly, P. I. Bagration, A. P. Ermolov, N. N. Raevsky, M. A. Miloradovich and others. They were distinguished by great military experience and personal courage. The advantage of the Russian army was determined by the patriotic enthusiasm of all segments of the population, large human resources, food and fodder supplies.
However, at the initial stage of the war, the French army outnumbered the Russian. The first echelon of troops that entered Russia numbered 450 thousand people, while there were about 210 thousand Russian people on the western border, divided into three armies. The 1st - under the command of M.B. Barclay de Tolly - covered the St. Petersburg direction, the 2nd - led by P.I. Bagration - defended the center of Russia, the 3rd - General A.P. Tormasov - was located in the southern direction .
Side Plans
Napoleon planned to seize a significant part of Russian territory up to Moscow and sign a new treaty with Alexander in order to subjugate Russia. Napoleon's strategic plan rested on his military experience acquired during the wars in Europe. He intended to prevent the dispersed Russian forces from connecting and decide the outcome of the war in one or more frontier battles.
On the eve of the war, the Russian emperor and his entourage decided not to make any compromises with Napoleon. With the successful outcome of the collision, they were going to transfer hostilities to the territory of Western Europe. In the event of a defeat, Alexander was ready to retreat to Siberia (up to Kamchatka, according to him), in order to continue the fight from there. Russia had several strategic military plans. One of them was developed by the Prussian General Fuhl. It provided for the concentration of most of the Russian army in a fortified camp near the city of Drissa on the Western Dvina. According to Fuhl, this gave an advantage in the first frontier battle. The project remained unrealized, as the position on Drissa was unfavorable and the fortifications were weak. In addition, the balance of forces forced the Russian command at first to choose an active defense strategy. As the course of the war showed, this was the most correct decision.
Stages of war
The history of the Patriotic War of 1812 is divided into two stages. First: from June 12 to mid-October - the retreat of the Russian army with rearguard battles in order to lure the enemy deep into Russian territory and disrupt his strategic plan. Second: from mid-October to December 25 - the counter-offensive of the Russian army with the aim of completely driving the enemy out of Russia.
The beginning of the war
On the morning of June 12, 1812, French troops crossed the Neman and forced a march into Russia.
The 1st and 2nd Russian armies retreated, evading the general battle. They fought stubborn rearguard battles with separate units of the French, exhausting and weakening the enemy, inflicting significant losses on him.
Two main tasks were faced by the Russian troops - to eliminate disunity (not to allow themselves to be defeated one by one) and to establish unity of command in the army. The first problem was solved on July 22, when the 1st and 2nd armies joined near Smolensk. Thus, Napoleon's original plan was thwarted. On August 8, Alexander appointed M. I. Kutuzov Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army. This meant the solution of the second problem. M. I. Kutuzov took command of the combined Russian forces on 17 August. He did not change his retreat tactics. However, the army and the whole country expected a decisive battle from him. Therefore, he gave the order to look for a position for a pitched battle. It was found near the village of Borodino, 124 km from Moscow.
battle of Borodino
M. I. Kutuzov chose defensive tactics and, in accordance with this, deployed his troops. The left flank was defended by the army of P.I. Bagration, covered with artificial earthen fortifications - flushes. An earth mound was poured in the center, where the artillery and troops of General N. N. Raevsky were located. The army of M. B. Barclay de Tolly was on the right flank.
Napoleon adhered to offensive tactics. He intended to break through the defenses of the Russian army on the flanks, surround it and finally defeat it.
The balance of forces was almost equal: the French had 130 thousand people with 587 guns, the Russians had 110 thousand regular forces, about 40 thousand militias and Cossacks with 640 guns.
Early on the morning of August 26, the French launched an offensive on the left flank. The battle for flushes continued until 12 noon. Both sides suffered huge losses. General P.I. Bagration was seriously wounded. (He died of his wounds a few days later.) Taking the fleches did not bring much advantage to the French, since they could not break through the left flank. The Russians retreated in an organized manner and took up a position at the Semenovsky ravine.
At the same time, the situation in the center became more complicated, where Napoleon directed the main blow. To help the troops of General N. N. Raevsky, M. I. Kutuzov ordered the Cossacks of M. I. Platov and the cavalry corps of F. P. Uvarov to raid behind French lines. The sabotage, which was not very successful in itself, forced Napoleon to interrupt the assault on the battery for almost 2 hours. This allowed M.I. Kutuzov to bring fresh forces to the center. The battery of N. N. Raevsky changed hands several times and was captured by the French only at 16 o'clock.
The capture of Russian fortifications did not mean the victory of Napoleon. On the contrary, the offensive impulse of the French army dried up. She needed fresh forces, but Napoleon did not dare to use his last reserve - the imperial guard. The battle, which lasted more than 12 hours, gradually subsided. Losses on both sides were huge. Borodino was a moral and political victory for the Russians: the combat potential of the Russian army was preserved, while that of Napoleon's was significantly weakened. Far from France, in the vast Russian expanses, it was difficult to restore it.
From Moscow to Maloyaroslavets
After Borodino, Russian troops began to retreat to Moscow. Napoleon followed, but did not seek a new battle. On September 1, a military council of the Russian command was held in the village of Fili. M. I. Kutuzov, contrary to the general opinion of the generals, decided to leave Moscow. The French army entered it on September 2, 1812.
M. I. Kutuzov, withdrawing troops from Moscow, carried out an original plan - the Tarutinsky march-maneuver. Retreating from Moscow along the Ryazan road, the army turned sharply to the south and, in the area of Krasnaya Pakhra, reached the old Kaluga road. This maneuver, firstly, prevented the capture by the French of the Kaluga and Tula provinces, where ammunition and food were collected. Secondly, M. I. Kutuzov managed to break away from Napoleon's army. He set up a camp in Tarutino, where the Russian troops rested, replenished with fresh regular units, militia, weapons and food supplies.
The occupation of Moscow did not benefit Napoleon. Abandoned by the inhabitants (an unprecedented event in history), it blazed in the flames of fires. It had no food or other supplies. The French army was completely demoralized and turned into a bunch of robbers and marauders. Its decomposition was so strong that Napoleon had only two options - either immediately make peace, or start a retreat. But all the peace proposals of the French emperor were unconditionally rejected by M.I. Kutuzov and Alexander I.
On October 7, the French left Moscow. Napoleon still hoped to defeat the Russians, or at least to break into the unravaged southern regions, since the issue of providing the army with food and fodder was very acute. He moved his troops to Kaluga. On October 12, another bloody battle took place near the city of Maloyaroslavets. Again, neither side achieved a decisive victory. However, the French were stopped and forced to retreat along the Smolensk road they had devastated.
Expulsion of Napoleon from Russia
The retreat of the French army was like a rout. It was accelerated by the unfolding partisan movement and the offensive actions of the Russians.
The patriotic upsurge began literally immediately after Napoleon's entry into Russia. Looting and looting French. Russian soldiers provoked resistance from the locals. But this was not the main thing - the Russian people could not put up with the presence of invaders in their native land. The history includes the names of ordinary people (G. M. Kurin, E. V. Chetvertakov, V. Kozhina), who organized partisan detachments. "Flying detachments" of regular army soldiers led by career officers (A. S. Figner, D. V. Davydov, A. N. Seslavin and others) were also sent to the rear of the French.
At the final stage of the war, M. I. Kutuzov chose the tactics of parallel pursuit. He took care of every Russian soldier and understood that the enemy's forces were dwindling every day. The final defeat of Napoleon was planned near the city of Borisov. For this purpose, troops were brought up from the south and northwest. Serious damage was inflicted on the French near Krasny in early November, when more than half of the 50,000 men of the retreating army were taken prisoner or fell in battle. Fearing encirclement, Napoleon hastened to transport his troops on November 14-17 across the Berezina River. The battle at the crossing completed the defeat of the French army. Napoleon abandoned her and secretly left for Paris. The order of M. I. Kutuzov on the army of December 21 and the Tsar's Manifesto of December 25, 1812 marked the end of the Patriotic War.
The meaning of war
The Patriotic War of 1812 is the greatest event in Russian history. In its course, heroism, courage, patriotism and selfless love of all sectors of society and especially ordinary people for their homeland were clearly manifested. However, the war caused significant damage to the Russian economy, which was estimated at 1 billion rubles. During the hostilities, about 300 thousand people died. Many western regions were devastated. All this had a huge impact on the further internal development of Russia.
Patriotic War of 1812 |
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Russian empire |
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Almost complete destruction of Napoleon's army |
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Opponents |
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Allies: |
Allies: |
England and Sweden did not participate in the war on the territory of Russia |
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Commanders |
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Napoleon I |
Alexander I |
E. McDonald |
M. I. Kutuzov |
Jerome Bonaparte |
M. B. Barclay de Tolly |
K.-F. Schwarzenberg, E. Beauharnais |
P. I. Bagration † |
N.-Sh. Oudinot |
A. P. Tormasov |
K.-W. Perrin |
P. V. Chichagov |
L.-N. Davout |
P. H. Wittgenstein |
Side forces |
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610 thousand soldiers, 1370 guns |
650 thousand soldiers, 1600 guns 400 thousand militias |
Military casualties |
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About 550 thousand, 1200 guns |
210 thousand soldiers |
Patriotic War of 1812- military operations in 1812 between Russia and the army of Napoleon Bonaparte that invaded its territory. Napoleonic studies also use the term " Russian campaign of 1812"(fr. campagne de Russie pendant l "année 1812).
It ended with the almost complete destruction of the Napoleonic army and the transfer of hostilities to the territory of Poland and Germany in 1813.
Napoleon originally called this war second Polish, because one of the goals of the campaign proclaimed by him was the revival of the Polish independent state in opposition to the Russian Empire with the inclusion of the territories of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. In pre-revolutionary literature, there is such an epithet of war as "the invasion of twelve languages."
background
Political situation on the eve of the war
After the defeat of the Russian troops in the battle of Friedland in June 1807. Emperor Alexander I concluded the Treaty of Tilsit with Napoleon, according to which he pledged to join the continental blockade of England. By agreement with Napoleon, in 1808 Russia took Finland from Sweden and made a number of other territorial acquisitions; Napoleon, however, untied her hands to conquer all of Europe, with the exception of England and Spain. After an unsuccessful attempt to marry the Russian Grand Duchess, in 1810 Napoleon married Marie-Louise of Austria, daughter of the Austrian Emperor Franz, thus strengthening his rear and creating a foothold in Europe.
French troops, after a series of annexations, moved close to the borders of the Russian Empire.
On February 24, 1812, Napoleon signed an alliance treaty with Prussia, which was supposed to field 20 thousand soldiers against Russia, as well as provide logistics for the French army. Napoleon also concluded on March 14 of the same year a military alliance with Austria, according to which the Austrians pledged to field 30,000 soldiers against Russia.
Russia also diplomatically prepared the rear. As a result of secret negotiations in the spring of 1812, the Austrians made it clear that their army would not go far from the Austro-Russian border and would not be zealous at all for the good of Napoleon. In April of the same year, on behalf of Sweden, the former Napoleonic Marshal Bernadotte (the future King Charles XIV of Sweden), who was elected crown prince in 1810 and actually headed the Swedish aristocracy, gave assurances of his friendly position towards Russia and concluded an alliance treaty. On May 22, 1812, the Russian ambassador Kutuzov (the future field marshal and winner of Napoleon) managed to conclude a profitable peace with Turkey, ending the five-year war for Moldavia. In the south of Russia, the Danube army of Chichagov was released as a barrier against Austria, forced to be in alliance with Napoleon.
On May 19, 1812, Napoleon left for Dresden, where he held a review of the vassal monarchs of Europe. From Dresden, the emperor went to the "Great Army" on the Neman River, which separated Prussia and Russia. On June 22, Napoleon wrote an appeal to the troops, in which he accused Russia of violating the Tilsit agreement and called the invasion a second Polish war. The liberation of Poland became one of the slogans that made it possible to attract many Poles to the French army. Even the French marshals did not understand the meaning and goals of the invasion of Russia, but they habitually obeyed.
At 2 am on June 24, 1812, Napoleon ordered the crossing to the Russian bank of the Neman through 4 bridges above Kovno.
Causes of the war
The French infringed on the interests of Russians in Europe, threatened to restore an independent Poland. Napoleon demanded that Tsar Alexander I tighten the blockade of England. The Russian Empire did not observe the continental blockade and taxed French goods. Russia demanded the withdrawal of French troops from Prussia, stationed there in violation of the Treaty of Tilsit.
The armed forces of the opponents
Napoleon was able to concentrate about 450 thousand soldiers against Russia, of which the French themselves made up half. Italians, Poles, Germans, Dutch, and even Spaniards mobilized by force also took part in the campaign. Austria and Prussia allocated corps (30 and 20 thousand, respectively) against Russia under allied agreements with Napoleon.
Spain, having connected about 200 thousand French soldiers with partisan resistance, provided great assistance to Russia. England provided material and financial support to Russia, but its army was involved in the fighting in Spain, and the strong British fleet could not influence land operations in Europe, although it was one of the factors that tilted Sweden's position in favor of Russia.
Napoleon had the following reserves: about 90,000 French soldiers in the garrisons of central Europe (of which 60,000 were in the 11th reserve corps in Prussia) and 100,000 in the French National Guard, which, by law, could not fight outside France.
Russia had a large army, but could not quickly mobilize troops due to poor roads and vast territory. The blow of Napoleon's army was taken over by the troops stationed on the western border: the 1st Army of Barclay and the 2nd Army of Bagration, a total of 153 thousand soldiers and 758 guns. Even further south in Volhynia (north-west of Ukraine), the 3rd Army of Tormasov (up to 45 thousand, 168 guns) was located, which served as a barrier from Austria. In Moldova, the Danube army of Chichagov (55 thousand, 202 guns) stood against Turkey. In Finland, the corps of the Russian general Steingel (19 thousand, 102 guns) stood against Sweden. In the Riga area there was a separate Essen corps (up to 18 thousand), up to 4 reserve corps were located away from the border.
According to the lists, irregular Cossack troops numbered up to 110 thousand light cavalry, but in reality up to 20 thousand Cossacks took part in the war.
Infantry, |
Cavalry, |
Artillery |
Cossacks, |
garrisons, |
Note |
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35-40 thousand soldiers, |
110-132 thousand in the 1st army of Barclay in Lithuania, |
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1370 guns |
190 |
450 thousand invaded Russia. After the start of the war, another 140 thousand arrived in Russia in the form of reinforcements. In the garrisons of Europe, up to 90 thousand + the National Guard in France (100 thousand) |
Strategic plans of the parties
From the very beginning, the Russian side planned a long organized retreat in order to avoid the risk of a decisive battle and the possible loss of the army. Emperor Alexander I said to the French ambassador to Russia, Armand Caulaincourt, in a private conversation in May 1811:
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« If Emperor Napoleon starts a war against me, then it is possible and even likely that he will beat us if we accept the battle, but this will not give him peace yet. The Spaniards were repeatedly beaten, but they were neither defeated nor subdued. And yet they are not as far from Paris as we are: they have neither our climate nor our resources. We won't take risks. We have vast space behind us, and we will keep a well-organized army. […] If the lot of arms decides the case against me, then I would rather retreat to Kamchatka than give up my provinces and sign treaties in my capital, which are only a respite. The Frenchman is brave, but long hardships and a bad climate tire and discourage him. Our climate and our winter will fight for us.» |
Nevertheless, the original plan of the campaign, developed by the military theorist Pfuel, proposed defense in the Drissa fortified camp. During the course of the war, the Pfuel plan was rejected by the generals as impossible to carry out under the conditions of modern mobile warfare. Artillery depots for supplying the Russian army were located in three lines:
- Vilna - Dinaburg - Nesvizh - Bobruisk - Polonne - Kyiv
- Pskov - Porkhov - Shostka - Bryansk - Smolensk
- Moscow - Novgorod - Kaluga
Napoleon desired a limited campaign for 1812. He told Metternich: The triumph will be the lot of the more patient. I will open the campaign by crossing the Neman. I will finish it in Smolensk and Minsk. There I will stop.» The French emperor hoped that the defeat of the Russian army in the general battle would force Alexander to accept his conditions. Caulaincourt in his memoirs recalls the phrase of Napoleon: " He spoke of Russian nobles who, in the event of war, would be afraid for their palaces and, after a major battle, would force Emperor Alexander to sign peace.»
Napoleon's offensive (June-September 1812)
At 6 am on June 24 (June 12, old style), 1812, the vanguard of the French troops entered Russian Kovno (modern Kaunas in Lithuania), crossing the Neman. The crossing of 220 thousand soldiers of the French army (1st, 2nd, 3rd infantry corps, guards and cavalry) near Kovno took 4 days.
On June 29-30, near Prena (modern Prienai in Lithuania), a little south of Kovno, the Neman crossed another group (79 thousand soldiers: 6th and 4th infantry corps, cavalry) under the command of Prince Beauharnais.
At the same time, on June 30, even further south near Grodno, the Neman crossed 4 corps (78-79 thousand soldiers: the 5th, 7th, 8th infantry and 4th cavalry corps) under the general command of Jerome Bonaparte.
To the north of Kovno, near Tilsit, the Neman crossed the 10th Corps of the French Marshal MacDonald. In the south of the central direction from Warsaw, the Bug River was crossed by a separate Austrian corps of Schwarzenberg (30-33 thousand soldiers).
Emperor Alexander I learned about the beginning of the invasion late in the evening on June 24 in Vilna (modern Vilnius in Lithuania). And already on June 28, the French entered Vilna. Only on July 16, Napoleon, having arranged state affairs in occupied Lithuania, left the city after his troops.
From the Neman to Smolensk (July - August 1812)
North direction
Napoleon sent the 10th Corps of Marshal MacDonald, consisting of 32 thousand Prussians and Germans, to the north of the Russian Empire. His goal was to capture Riga, and then, connecting with the 2nd Corps of Marshal Oudinot (28 thousand), strike at St. Petersburg. The skeleton of MacDonald's corps was the 20,000th Prussian corps under the command of General Gravert (later York). MacDonald approached the fortifications of Riga, however, having no siege artillery, he stopped at the distant approaches to the city. The military governor of Riga, Essen, burned the suburbs and locked himself in the city with a strong garrison. Trying to support Oudinot, MacDonald captured the abandoned Dinaburg on the Western Dvina and stopped active operations, waiting for siege artillery from East Prussia. The Prussians of Macdonald's corps tried to avoid active combat clashes in this alien war for them, however, if the situation threatened the "honor of the Prussian weapons", the Prussians offered active resistance, and repeatedly beat off the Russian attacks from Riga with heavy losses.
Oudinot, having occupied Polotsk, decided to bypass Wittgenstein's separate corps (25 thousand), allocated by Barclay's 1st Army during the retreat through Polotsk, from the north, and cut it off from the rear. Fearing a connection between Oudinot and MacDonald, on July 30 Wittgenstein attacked Oudinot's corps, which was not expecting an attack and was weakened by the march, in the battle of Klyastitsy and threw it back to Polotsk. The victory allowed Wittgenstein to attack Polotsk on August 17-18, but Saint-Cyr's corps, timely sent by Napoleon to support Oudinot's corps, helped repulse the attack and restore balance.
Oudinot and Macdonald were bogged down in sluggish fighting, remaining in place.
Moscow direction
Parts of Barclay's 1st Army were scattered from the Baltic to Lida, the headquarters was located in Vilna. In view of the rapid advance of Napoleon, the divided Russian corps faced the threat of being defeated piecemeal. Dokhturov's corps found itself in an operational encirclement, but was able to break out and arrive at the Sventsyany assembly point. At the same time, Dorokhov's cavalry detachment turned out to be cut off from the corps and united with Bagration's army. After the 1st Army connected, Barclay de Tolly began to gradually retreat to Vilna and further to Drissa.
On June 26, Barclay's army left Vilna and on July 10 arrived at the Drissa fortified camp on the Western Dvina (in northern Belarus), where Emperor Alexander I planned to fight off the Napoleonic troops. The generals managed to convince the emperor of the absurdity of this idea put forward by the military theorist Pful (or Ful). On July 16, the Russian army continued its retreat through Polotsk to Vitebsk, leaving the 1st Corps of Lieutenant General Wittgenstein to defend Petersburg. In Polotsk, Alexander I left the army, convinced to leave by the persistent requests of dignitaries and family. The executive general and cautious strategist Barclay retreated under the onslaught of superior forces from almost all of Europe, and this greatly annoyed Napoleon, who was interested in an early general battle.
The 2nd Russian army (up to 45 thousand) under the command of Bagration at the beginning of the invasion was located near Grodno in the west of Belarus, about 150 kilometers from the 1st army of Barclay. First, Bagration moved to connect with the main 1st Army, but when he reached Lida (100 km from Vilna), it was too late. He had to leave the French to the south. In order to cut off Bagration from the main forces and destroy him, Napoleon sent Marshal Davout to cut off Bagration with forces of up to 50 thousand soldiers. Davout moved from Vilna to Minsk, which he occupied on July 8. On the other hand, from the west, Jerome Bonaparte advanced on Bagration with 4 corps that crossed the Neman near Grodno. Napoleon sought to prevent the connection of the Russian armies in order to smash them piece by piece. Bagration broke away from the troops of Jerome with swift marches and successful rearguard battles, now Marshal Davout became his main opponent.
On July 19, Bagration was in Bobruisk on the Berezina, while Davout occupied Mogilev on the Dnieper with advanced units on July 21, that is, the French were ahead of Bagration, being in the northeast of the 2nd Russian army. Bagration, having approached the Dnieper 60 km below Mogilev, sent on July 23 the corps of General Raevsky against Davout in order to push the French back from Mogilev and reach the direct road to Vitebsk, where the Russian armies were supposed to join. As a result of the battle near Saltanovka, Raevsky delayed Davout's advance east to Smolensk, but the path to Vitebsk was blocked. Bagration was able to force the Dnieper in the town of Novoe Bykhovo without interference on July 25 and headed for Smolensk. Davout no longer had the strength to pursue the Russian 2nd Army, and the troops of Jerome Bonaparte, hopelessly behind, were still overcoming the wooded and swampy territory of Belarus.
On July 23, Barclay's army arrived in Vitebsk, where Barclay wanted to wait for Bagration. To prevent the advance of the French, he sent the 4th Corps of Osterman-Tolstoy towards the enemy's vanguard. On July 25, 26 miles from Vitebsk, a battle took place at Ostrovno, which continued on July 26.
On July 27, Barclay retreated from Vitebsk to Smolensk, having learned about the approach of Napoleon with the main forces and the impossibility for Bagration to break through to Vitebsk. On August 3, the Russian 1st and 2nd armies joined near Smolensk, thus achieving the first strategic success. There was a small respite in the war, both sides put their troops in order, tired of incessant marches.
Upon reaching Vitebsk, Napoleon made a stop to rest the troops, upset after a 400 km offensive in the absence of supply bases. Only on August 12, after long hesitation, Napoleon set out from Vitebsk to Smolensk.
South direction
The 7th Saxon Corps under the command of Rainier (17-22 thousand) was supposed to cover the left flank of Napoleon's main forces from the 3rd Russian army under the command of Tormasov (25 thousand under arms). Rainier took up a cordon position along the Brest-Kobrin-Pinsk line, spraying a small corps over 170 km. On July 27, Tormasov surrounded Kobrin, the Saxon garrison under the command of Klengel (up to 5 thousand) was completely defeated. Brest and Pinsk were also cleared of the French garrisons.
Realizing that the weakened Rainier would not be able to keep Tormasov, Napoleon decided not to involve the Austrian corps of Schwarzenberg (30 thousand) in the main direction and left him in the south against Tormasov. Rainier, gathering his troops and linking up with Schwarzenberg, attacked Tormasov on August 12 at Gorodechna, forcing the Russians to retreat to Lutsk (northwestern Ukraine). The main battles take place between the Saxons and the Russians, the Austrians try to limit themselves to artillery fire and maneuvers.
Until the end of September, sluggish fighting was carried out in the south in a sparsely populated swampy area in the Lutsk region.
In addition to Tormasov, in the southern direction was the 2nd Russian reserve corps of Lieutenant General Ertel, formed in Mozyr and providing support to the blockaded garrison of Bobruisk. For the blockade of Bobruisk, as well as to cover communications from Ertel, Napoleon left the Polish division of Dombrovsky (10 thousand) from the 5th Polish corps.
From Smolensk to Borodino (August-September 1812)
After the connection of the Russian armies, the generals began to insistently demand a general battle from Barclay. Taking advantage of the scattered position of the French corps, Barclay decided to defeat them one by one and marched on August 8 to Rudnya, where Murat's cavalry was quartered.
However, Napoleon, using the slow advance of the Russian army, gathered his corps into a fist and tried to go behind Barclay, bypassing his left flank from the south, for which he crossed the Dnieper west of Smolensk. On the path of the vanguard of the French army was the 27th division of General Neverovsky, covering the left flank of the Russian army near Krasnoe. The stubborn resistance of Neverovsky gave time to transfer the corps of General Raevsky to Smolensk.
By August 16, Napoleon approached Smolensk with 180 thousand. Bagration instructed General Raevsky (15 thousand soldiers), in whose 7th Corps the remnants of Neverovsky's division had joined, to defend Smolensk. Barclay was against the battle, which in his opinion was unnecessary, but at that time the actual dual command reigned in the Russian army. At 6 am on August 16, Napoleon began the assault on the city from the march. The stubborn battle for Smolensk continued until the morning of August 18, when Barclay withdrew troops from the burning city in order to avoid a big battle with no chance of victory. Barclay had 76 thousand, another 34 thousand (Bagration's army) covered the withdrawal route of the Russian army to Dorogobuzh, which Napoleon could cut with a roundabout maneuver (similar to the one that failed near Smolensk).
Marshal Ney pursued the retreating army. On August 19, in a bloody battle near Valutina Gora, the Russian rear guard detained the marshal, who suffered significant losses. Napoleon sent General Junot to go behind Russian lines in a detour, but he failed to complete the task, burying himself in an impenetrable swamp, and the Russian army left in perfect order towards Moscow to Dorogobuzh. The battle for Smolensk, which destroyed a considerable city, marked the deployment of a nationwide war between the Russian people and the enemy, which was immediately felt by both ordinary French suppliers and Napoleon's marshals. Settlements along the route of the French army were burned, the population left as far as possible. Immediately after the battle of Smolensk, Napoleon made a disguised offer of peace to Tsar Alexander I, while from a position of strength, but received no answer.
Relations between Bagration and Barclay after leaving Smolensk became more and more tense with each day of retreat, and in this dispute the mood of the nobility was not on the side of the cautious Barclay. As early as August 17, the emperor gathered a council that recommended that he appoint a general from infantry, Prince Kutuzov, as commander-in-chief of the Russian army. On August 29, Kutuzov received the army in Tsarevo-Zaimishche. On this day, the French entered Vyazma.
Continuing in general the strategic line of his predecessor, Kutuzov could not avoid a general battle for political and moral reasons. The battle was demanded by Russian society, although it was superfluous from a military point of view. By September 3, the Russian army retreated to the village of Borodino, further retreat meant the surrender of Moscow. Kutuzov decided to give a general battle, as the balance of power shifted to the Russian side. If at the beginning of the invasion Napoleon had a threefold superiority in the number of soldiers over the opposing Russian army, now the numbers of the armies were comparable - 135 thousand for Napoleon against 110-130 thousand for Kutuzov. The problem of the Russian army was the lack of weapons. While the militia provided up to 80-100 thousand warriors from the Russian central provinces, there were no guns to arm the militias. The warriors were given lances, but Kutuzov did not use people as "cannon fodder".
On September 7 (August 26 according to the old style) near the village of Borodino (124 km west of Moscow) the largest battle of the Patriotic War of 1812 took place between the Russian and French armies.
After an almost two-day battle, which was an assault by the French troops on the fortified Russian line, the French, at the cost of 30-34 thousand of their soldiers, pushed the Russian left flank from the position. The Russian army suffered heavy losses, and Kutuzov ordered a retreat to Mozhaisk on September 8 with the firm intention of preserving the army.
At 4 pm on September 13, in the village of Fili, Kutuzov ordered the generals to meet for a meeting on a further plan of action. Most of the generals were in favor of a new general battle with Napoleon. Then Kutuzov interrupted the meeting and announced that he was ordering a retreat.
On September 14, the Russian army passed through Moscow and entered the Ryazan road (southeast of Moscow). Toward evening, Napoleon entered the deserted Moscow.
Capture of Moscow (September 1812)
On September 14, Napoleon occupied Moscow without a fight, and already at night of the same day the city was engulfed in fire, which increased so much by the night of September 15 that Napoleon was forced to leave the Kremlin. The fire raged until September 18 and destroyed most of Moscow.
Up to 400 lower-class citizens were shot by a French court-martial on suspicion of arson.
There are several versions of the fire - organized arson when leaving the city (usually associated with the name of F. V. Rostopchin), arson by Russian spies (several Russians were shot by the French on such charges), uncontrolled actions of the invaders, an accidental fire, the spread of which was facilitated by general chaos in the abandoned city. There were several sources of fire, so it is possible that all versions are true to some extent.
Kutuzov, retreating from Moscow south to the Ryazan road, made the famous Tarutinsky maneuver. Having knocked Murat off the trail of the pursuing cavalrymen, Kutuzov turned west from the Ryazan road through Podolsk to the old Kaluga road, where he left on September 20 in the Krasnaya Pakhra region (near the modern city of Troitsk).
Then, convinced of the disadvantage of his position, by October 2, Kutuzov transferred the army south to the village of Tarutino, which lies along the old Kaluga road in the Kaluga region not far from the border with Moscow. With this maneuver, Kutuzov blocked the main roads to Napoleon in the southern provinces, and also created a constant threat to the rear communications of the French.
Napoleon called Moscow not a military, but a political position. From here, he makes repeated attempts to reconcile with Alexander I. In Moscow, Napoleon found himself in a trap: it was not possible to spend the winter in the city devastated by fire, foraging outside the city was not successful, the French communications stretched for thousands of kilometers were very vulnerable, the army, after suffering hardships, began to decompose. On October 5, Napoleon sent General Lauriston to Kutuzov for a pass to Alexander I with the order: “ I need the world, I need it absolutely no matter what, save only honor". Kutuzov, after a short conversation, sent Loriston back to Moscow. Napoleon began to prepare for a retreat not yet from Russia, but to winter quarters somewhere between the Dnieper and the Dvina.
Retreat of Napoleon (October-December 1812)
Napoleon's main army cut deep into Russia like a wedge. At the time when Napoleon entered Moscow, Wittgenstein's army hung over his left flank in the north in the Polotsk region, held by the French corps of Saint-Cyr and Oudinot. The right flank of Napoleon was trampling near the borders of the Russian Empire in Belarus. Tormasov's army connected the Austrian corps of Schwarzenberg and the 7th Renier corps with its presence. The French garrisons along the Smolensk road guarded Napoleon's line of communication and rear.
From Moscow to Maloyaroslavets (October 1812)
On October 18, Kutuzov attacked the French barrier under the command of Murat, who was following the Russian army near Tarutino. Having lost up to 4 thousand soldiers and 38 guns, Murat retreated to Moscow. The Tarutino battle became a landmark event that marked the transition of the Russian army to the counteroffensive.
On October 19, the French army (110 thousand) with a huge convoy began to leave Moscow along the old Kaluga road. Napoleon, on the eve of the coming winter, planned to get to the nearest major base, Smolensk, where, according to his calculations, supplies were stocked for the French army, which was experiencing hardships. It was possible to get to Smolensk in Russian off-road conditions by a direct route, the Smolensk road, along which the French came to Moscow. Another route led the southern route through Kaluga. The second route was preferable, as it passed through undestroyed places, and the loss of horses from a lack of fodder in the French army reached alarming proportions. Due to the lack of horses, the artillery park was reduced, large French cavalry formations practically disappeared.
The road to Kaluga to Napoleon was blocked by Kutuzov's army, located near Tarutino on the old Kaluga road. Not wanting to break through a fortified position with a weakened army, Napoleon turned in the area of the village of Troitskoye (modern Troitsk) onto the new Kaluga road (modern Kiev highway) in order to bypass Tarutino.
However, Kutuzov transferred the army to Maloyaroslavets, cutting off the French retreat along the new Kaluga road.
On October 24, a battle took place near Maloyaroslavets. The French managed to capture Maloyaroslavets, but Kutuzov took a fortified position outside the city, which Napoleon did not dare to storm. Kutuzov's army by October 22 consisted of 97 thousand regular troops, 20 thousand Cossacks, 622 guns and more than 10 thousand militia warriors. Napoleon had at hand up to 70 thousand combat-ready soldiers, the cavalry practically disappeared, the artillery was much weaker than the Russian one. The course of the war was now dictated by the Russian army.
On October 26, Napoleon ordered a retreat north to Borovsk-Vereya-Mozhaisk. The battles for Maloyaroslavets turned out to be in vain for the French and only delayed their retreat. From Mozhaisk, the French army resumed its movement towards Smolensk along the same road along which it had advanced on Moscow.
From Maloyaroslavets to the Berezina (October-November 1812)
From Maloyaroslavets to the village of Krasnoy (45 km west of Smolensk), Napoleon was pursued by the vanguard of the Russian army under the command of Miloradovich. From all sides, the retreating French were attacked by Platov's Cossacks and partisans, without giving the enemy any opportunity for supplies. The main army of Kutuzov slowly moved south parallel to Napoleon, making the so-called flank march.
On November 1, Napoleon passed Vyazma, on November 8 he entered Smolensk, where he spent 5 days waiting for the stragglers. On November 3, the Russian avant-garde badly battered the closing corps of the French in the battle of Vyazma. At the disposal of Napoleon in Smolensk there were up to 50 thousand soldiers under arms (of which only 5 thousand cavalry), and about the same number of unfit soldiers who were wounded and lost their weapons.
Parts of the French army, greatly thinned on the march from Moscow, entered Smolensk for a whole week with the hope of rest and food. There were no large supplies of provisions in the city, and what they had was plundered by crowds of unruly soldiers of the Great Army. Napoleon ordered the execution of the French quartermaster Sioff, who, faced with the resistance of the peasants, failed to organize the collection of food.
Napoleon's strategic position deteriorated greatly, Chichagov's Danube army was approaching from the south, Wittgenstein was advancing from the north, whose vanguard captured Vitebsk on November 7, depriving the French of food supplies accumulated there.
On November 14, Napoleon with the guard moved from Smolensk following the avant-garde corps. Ney's corps, which was in the rearguard, left Smolensk only on November 17th. The column of French troops was greatly extended, since the difficulties of the road precluded a compact march of large masses of people. Kutuzov took advantage of this circumstance, cutting off the French retreat in the Krasnoye area. On November 15-18, as a result of the battles near Red, Napoleon managed to break through, losing many soldiers and most of the artillery.
The Danube army of Admiral Chichagov (24 thousand) captured Minsk on November 16, depriving Napoleon of the largest rear center. Moreover, on November 21, Chichagov's vanguard captured Borisov, where Napoleon planned to cross the Berezina. The vanguard corps of Marshal Oudinot drove Chichagov from Borisov to the western bank of the Berezina, but the Russian admiral with a strong army guarded possible crossing points.
On November 24, Napoleon approached the Berezina, breaking away from the armies of Wittgenstein and Kutuzov pursuing him.
From the Berezina to the Neman (November-December 1812)
On November 25, with a series of skillful maneuvers, Napoleon managed to divert Chichagov's attention to Borisov and south of Borisov. Chichagov believed that Napoleon intended to cross in these places in order to take a short cut to the road to Minsk and then head to join the Austrian allies. In the meantime, the French built 2 bridges north of Borisov, along which on November 26-27 Napoleon crossed to the right (western) bank of the Berezina, rejecting the weak outposts of the Russians.
Realizing the error, Chichagov attacked Napoleon with the main forces on November 28 on the right bank. On the left bank, the French rear guard, defending the crossing, was attacked by the approaching corps of Wittgenstein. The main army of Kutuzov lagged behind. Without waiting for the crossing of the entire huge crowd of French stragglers, which consisted of the wounded, frostbite, lost weapons and civilians, Napoleon ordered the bridges to be burned on the morning of November 29. The main result of the battle on the Berezina was that Napoleon avoided complete defeat in the face of a significant superiority of Russian forces. In the memoirs of the French, the crossing of the Berezina occupies no less place than the largest Battle of Borodino.
Having lost up to 30 thousand people at the crossing, Napoleon, with 9 thousand soldiers remaining under arms, moved to Vilna, joining French divisions operating in other directions along the way. The army was accompanied by a large crowd of incompetent people, mostly soldiers from the allied states who had lost their weapons. The course of the war at the final stage, a 2-week pursuit by the Russian army of the remnants of Napoleon's troops to the border of the Russian Empire, is described in the article "From the Berezina to the Neman". Severe frosts, which hit even during the crossing, finally destroyed the French, already weakened by hunger. The pursuit of the Russian troops did not allow Napoleon to gather at least a little force in Vilna, the flight of the French continued to the Neman, which separated Russia from Prussia and the buffer state of the Duchy of Warsaw.
On December 6, Napoleon left the army, going to Paris to recruit new soldiers to replace those who died in Russia. Of the 47,000 elite guards that entered Russia with the emperor, several hundred soldiers remained six months later.
On December 14, in Kovno, the miserable remnants of the "Great Army" in the amount of 1600 people crossed the Neman to Poland, and then to Prussia. Later they were joined by the remnants of troops from other directions. The Patriotic War of 1812 ended with the almost complete annihilation of the invading "Great Army".
The last stage of the war was commented by the impartial observer Clausewitz:
Northern direction (October-December 1812)
After the 2nd battle for Polotsk (October 18-20), which took place 2 months after the 1st, Marshal Saint-Cyr retreated south to Chashniki, dangerously bringing Wittgenstein's advancing army closer to Napoleon's rear line. During these days, Napoleon began his retreat from Moscow. Marshal Viktor's 9th Corps was immediately sent to help from Smolensk, arriving in September as Napoleon's reserve from Europe. The combined forces of the French reached 36 thousand soldiers, which roughly corresponded to the forces of Wittgenstein. The oncoming battle took place on October 31 near Chashniki, as a result of which the French were defeated and rolled back even further south.
Vitebsk remained uncovered, a detachment from Wittgenstein's army stormed this city on November 7, capturing 300 soldiers of the garrison and food supplies for the retreating army of Napoleon. On November 14, Marshal Victor, near the village of Smolyany, tried to throw Wittgenstein back behind the Dvina, but to no avail, and the parties maintained their positions until Napoleon approached the Berezina. Victor then, linking up with the main army, retreated to the Berezina as Napoleon's rearguard, holding back Wittgenstein's pressure.
In the Baltics near Riga, a positional war was fought with occasional Russian sorties against MacDonald's corps. The Finnish corps of General Steingel (12 thousand) approached on September 20 to help the garrison of Riga, but after a successful sortie on September 29 against the French siege artillery, Steingel was transferred to Wittgenstein in Polotsk to the theater of the main hostilities. On November 15, MacDonald, in turn, successfully attacked the Russian positions, almost destroying a large Russian detachment.
The 10th Corps of Marshal MacDonald began to withdraw from Riga towards Prussia only on December 19, after the miserable remnants of Napoleon's main army had left Russia. On December 26, MacDonald's troops had to engage in battle with Wittgenstein's vanguard. On December 30, the Russian General Dibich concluded an armistice agreement with the commander of the Prussian corps, General York, known at the place of signing as the Taurogen Convention. Thus, MacDonald lost his main forces, he had to hastily retreat through East Prussia.
South direction (October-December 1812)
On September 18, Admiral Chichagov with an army (38 thousand) approached from the Danube to the sedentary southern front in the Lutsk region. The combined forces of Chichagov and Tormasov (65 thousand) attacked Schwarzenberg (40 thousand), forcing the latter to leave for Poland in mid-October. Chichagov, who took over the main command after Tormasov's recall, gave the troops a 2-week rest, after which on October 27 he moved from Brest-Litovsk to Minsk with 24,000 soldiers, leaving General Saken with a 27,000-strong corps against the Schwarzenberg Austrians.
Schwarzenberg chased Chichagov, outflanking the positions of Saken and hiding from his troops by the Saxon corps of Rainier. Renier failed to hold onto Sacken's superior forces, and Schwarzenberg was forced to turn on the Russians from Slonim. Together, Rainier and Schwarzenberg drove Saken south of Brest-Litovsk, however, as a result, Chichagov's army broke through to the rear of Napoleon and occupied Minsk on November 16, and on November 21 approached Borisov on the Berezina, where the retreating Napoleon planned to cross.
On November 27, Schwarzenberg, on the orders of Napoleon, moved to Minsk, but stopped in Slonim, from where on December 14 he retreated through Bialystok to Poland.
Results of the Patriotic War of 1812
Napoleon, a recognized genius of military art, invaded Russia with forces three times superior to the Western Russian armies under the command of generals not marked by brilliant victories, and after six months of the company his army, the strongest in history, was completely destroyed.
The destruction of almost 550 thousand soldiers does not fit even modern Western historians. A large number of articles are devoted to the search for the causes of the defeat of the greatest commander, the analysis of the factors of war. The following reasons are most often cited - bad roads in Russia and frost, there are attempts to explain the rout by the poor harvest of 1812, which made it impossible to ensure normal supply.
The Russian campaign (in Western terms) received the name Patriotic in Russia, which explains the defeat of Napoleon. A combination of factors led to his defeat: the nationwide participation in the war, the mass heroism of soldiers and officers, the military talent of Kutuzov and other generals, and the skillful use of natural factors. The victory in the Patriotic War caused not only a rise in national spirit, but also a desire to modernize the country, which ultimately led to the Decembrist uprising in 1825.
Clausewitz, analyzing Napoleon's campaign in Russia from a military point of view, comes to the conclusion:
According to Clausewitz's calculations, the army of the invasion of Russia, together with reinforcements during the war, consisted of 610 thousand soldier, including 50 thousand soldiers of Austria and Prussia. While the Austrians and Prussians, operating in secondary directions, mostly survived, from the main army of Napoleon gathered behind the Vistula by January 1813, only 23 thousand soldier. Napoleon lost in Russia over 550 thousand trained soldiers, the entire elite guard, over 1200 guns.
According to the estimates of the Prussian official Auerswald, by December 21, 1812, 255 generals, 5111 officers, 26950 lower ranks, "in a miserable condition and mostly unarmed" passed through East Prussia from the Great Army. Many of them, according to the testimony of Count Segur, died of disease, reaching safe territory. To this number must be added about 6 thousand soldiers (who returned to the French army) from the corps of Renier and MacDonald, who operated in other directions. Apparently, from all these returning soldiers, 23 thousand (mentioned by Clausewitz) gathered later under the command of the French. The relatively large number of surviving officers allowed Napoleon to organize a new army, calling on the recruits of 1813.
In a report to Emperor Alexander I, Field Marshal Kutuzov estimated the total number of French prisoners in 150 thousand man (December, 1812).
Although Napoleon managed to raise fresh forces, their fighting qualities could not replace the dead veterans. The Patriotic War in January 1813 turned into the "Foreign campaign of the Russian army": the fighting moved to the territory of Germany and France. In October 1813, Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig and in April 1814 abdicated the throne of France (see the article War of the Sixth Coalition).
The historian of the middle of the 19th century, M. I. Bogdanovich, traced the replenishment of the Russian armies during the war according to the records of the Military Scientific Archive of the General Staff. He counted the replenishment of the Main Army at 134 thousand people. The main army at the time of the occupation of Vilna in December had 70 thousand soldiers in its ranks, and the composition of the 1st and 2nd Western armies by the beginning of the war was up to 150 thousand soldiers. Thus, the total loss by December is 210 thousand soldiers. Of these, according to Bogdanovich, up to 40 thousand wounded and sick returned to service. The losses of the corps operating in secondary directions, and the losses of the militias can be approximately the same 40 thousand people. Based on these calculations, Bogdanovich estimates the losses of the Russian army in World War II at 210,000 soldiers and militias.
Memory of the War of 1812
On August 30, 1814, Emperor Alexander I issued a Manifesto: December 25, let the day of the Nativity of Christ be from now on also the day of a thanksgiving feast under the name in the church circle: the Nativity of our Savior Jesus Christ and the remembrance of the deliverance of the Church and the Russian Power from the invasion of the Gauls and with them twenty languages».
The highest manifesto, on bringing thanks to the Lord God for the liberation of Russia 12/25/1812
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God and the whole world is a witness to this, with what desires and forces the enemy entered our beloved Fatherland. Nothing could avert his evil and stubborn intentions. Firmly relying on his own and the terrible forces he had gathered against Us from almost all European Powers, and driven by the greed of conquest and the thirst for blood, he hastened to break into the very chest of Our Great Empire in order to pour out on it all the horrors and disasters not accidentally generated, but long since devastating war prepared for them. Knowing from experience the boundless lust for power and the impudence of his enterprises, the bitter cup of evils prepared from him for Us, and seeing him with indomitable fury entered Our limits, We were forced with a painful and contrite heart, calling on God for help, to draw our sword, and to promise Our Kingdom that We will not put her in the vagina, as long as one of the enemies remains armed in Our land. We made this promise firmly in our hearts, hoping for the strong valor of the people entrusted to Us by God, in which we were not deceived. What an example of bravery, courage, piety, patience and firmness Russia showed! The enemy who had broken into her chest with all unheard-of cruelty and fury could not reach the point that she even once sighed about the deep wounds inflicted on her by him. It seemed that with the shedding of her blood, the spirit of courage multiplied in her, with the fires of her city, her love for the Fatherland was inflamed, with the destruction and desecration of the temples of God, faith was affirmed in her and irreconcilable revenge arose. The army, the nobles, the nobility, the clergy, the merchants, the people, in a word, all the state ranks and states, sparing neither their property nor their lives, made up a single soul, a soul together courageous and pious, as much burning with love for the Fatherland, as much with love for God. . From this universal consent and zeal, consequences soon arose, hardly incredible, hardly ever heard of. Let them imagine the terrible forces gathered from 20 Kingdoms and peoples, united under a single banner, with what power-hungry, arrogant victories, a ferocious enemy entered Our land! Half a million foot and cavalry soldiers and about one and a half thousand guns followed him. With this huge militia, he penetrates into the very middle of Russia, spreads, and begins to spread fire and devastation everywhere. But barely six months have passed since he entered Our borders, and where is he? Here it is proper to say the words of the sacred Song-Singer: “The sight of the wicked is exalted and exalted, like the cedars of Lebanon. And they went past, behold, they did not, and sought him, and did not find his place. Truly, this lofty saying was accomplished in all the power of its meaning over Our proud and impious enemy. Where are his troops, like a cloud of black clouds driven by the winds? They crumbled like rain. A great part of them, having drunk the earth with blood, lies, covering the space of the Moscow, Kaluga, Smolensk, Belorussian and Lithuanian fields. Another great part in various and frequent battles was taken prisoner with many Commanders and Generals, and in such a way that after repeated and strong defeats, finally, their entire regiments, resorting to the generosity of the victors, bowed their weapons before them. The rest, an equally great part, in their swift flight, driven by our victorious troops and met with scum and famine, covered the path from Moscow itself to the borders of Russia with corpses, cannons, carts, shells, so that the smallest, insignificant part of the exhausted and unarmed warriors, hardly half-dead can come to their country, in order to tell them to the eternal horror and trembling of their fellow earthmen, since a terrible execution befalls those who dare with swearing intentions to enter the bowels of mighty Russia. Now, with heartfelt joy and ardent gratitude to God, We announce to Our dear loyal subjects that the event has surpassed even Our very hope, and that what We announced, at the opening of this war, has been fulfilled beyond measure: there is no longer a single enemy on the face of Our land; or better to say, they all stayed here, but how? dead, wounded and captured. The proud ruler and their leader himself could hardly ride away with his most important officials from here, losing all his army and all the guns he brought with him, which are more than a thousand, not counting those buried and sunk by him, recaptured from him and are in Our hands. The spectacle of the death of his troops is incredible! You can hardly believe your own eyes! Who could do this? Not taking away worthy glory from either the famous Commander in Chief of our troops, who brought immortal merits to the Fatherland, or from other skillful and courageous leaders and military leaders who marked themselves with zeal and zeal; nor in general with all our brave army, we can say that what they have done is beyond human strength. And so, let us recognize in this great work the providence of God. Let us bow down before His Holy Throne, and seeing clearly His hand that punished pride and wickedness, instead of vanity and arrogance about Our victories, let us learn from this great and terrible example to be meek and humble of the laws and will of His executors, not like these defilers who have fallen away from the faith. temples of God, Our enemies, whose bodies in myriad quantities are lying around as food for dogs and crows! Great is the Lord Our God in His mercies and in His wrath! Let us go by the goodness of deeds and the purity of Our feelings and thoughts, the only way leading to Him, to the temple of His holiness, and there, crowned by His hand with glory, let us give thanks for the bounty poured out on us, and let us fall down to Him with warm prayers, may He prolong His mercy over Nami, and stopping wars and battles, He will send victories to Us; desired peace and quiet. |
The Christmas holiday was also celebrated as modern Victory Day until 1917.
To commemorate the victory in the war, many monuments and memorials were erected, of which the most famous are the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the ensemble of Palace Square with the Alexander Column. In painting, a grandiose project has been implemented, the Military Gallery, which consists of 332 portraits of Russian generals who participated in the Patriotic War of 1812. One of the most famous works of Russian literature was the epic novel "War and Peace", where L. N. Tolstoy tried to comprehend global human issues against the backdrop of war. The Soviet film War and Peace, based on the novel, was awarded an Oscar in 1968; large-scale battle scenes in it are still considered unsurpassed.
Causes
1. the desire of Napoleon Bonaparte and the French bourgeoisie supporting him to establish world hegemony, which was impossible without the defeat and subjugation of Russia and Great Britain;
2. aggravation of contradictions between Russia and France, which intensified both as a result of Russia's non-compliance with the conditions of the continental blockade, and Napoleon's support of anti-Russian sentiments in Poland, supporting local magnates in their aspirations to recreate the Commonwealth within the former borders;
3. Russia's loss of former influence in Central Europe as a result of France's conquests, as well as Napoleon's actions aimed at undermining its international authority;
4. the growth of personal hostility between Alexander I and Napoleon I, caused both by the refusal of the Russian side to marry the French emperor, Grand Duchesses Catherine, then Anna, as well as hints
Napoleon about Alexander's involvement in the murder of his father, Emperor Paul I.
Main battles
On the night of 12 (24 NST) June 1812, the French army began crossing the border river. Neman and invaded Russia. The War of 1812 is usually divided into four stages:
1st - from the beginning of the war to the battle of Smolensk (August 1812);
4th - from October to December 1812, i.e. until the complete defeat and expulsion of the Napoleonic troops from Russia.
The first stage of the war was characterized by the failure of Napoleon's original strategic plan. At the beginning, the 1st army of Barclay de Tolly headed for the Dris camp, but the balance of forces was unfavorable, and the fortifications were weak. M.B. Barclay de Tolly managed to convince Alexander I to abandon the original plan and continue the retreat in order to join Bagration's 2nd Army. Between the 1st and 2nd armies there was a gap of 100 km. During the retreat, two battles took place - near Vitebsk and Mogilev, but Napoleon failed to defeat the Russian armies. Army P.I. Bagration, skillfully maneuvering and holding back the onslaught of the enemy in battle, managed to get out from under the attacks of the French. In early August, the Russian armies united near Smolensk. It was a major success for the Russian command.
Near Smolensk, both Russian armies numbered about 120 thousand people, Napoleon's army - about 200 thousand. The French emperor hoped to draw the Russian army into a general battle and defeat it. From August 4 to 6, fierce battles were going on near Smolensk, but when Napoleon pulled up the main forces to the city, M.B. Barclay de Tolly withdrew troops from the burning city, continuing his retreat to the east. The war took on a protracted character, which especially worried Napoleon. The communications of the French army were stretched, losses in battles, from desertion, disease and looting grew. The convoys could not keep up with the movement of troops, there was a lack of food and fodder. The rear of the French army was disturbed by partisans. The rumor that the French emperor would give the peasants freedom was not justified. Having occupied Smolensk, Napoleon tried to enter into negotiations with Alexander I, but his proposal for peace was left unanswered. As a result, Napoleon continued to pursue the retreating Russian troops.
At this time, patriotism was growing in the country. The further retreat of the army caused discontent, both in the troops and in the rear, although the tactics of retreat were justified and the only correct one, given the continued inequality of forces. Public opinion condemned the commander of the troops M.B. Barclay de Tolly for caution. Under these conditions, Alexander I yielded to the public and appointed M.I. Kutuzov, for whom he had a personal dislike.
By this time, Kutuzov was 67 years old, he was a major military leader, a wise strategist, a talented diplomat who became famous in the wars waged by Russia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The appointment of Kutuzov raised the morale of the army. However, the retreat continued for the first time. At the same time, under the pressure of the general mood, Kutuzov decided to give a general battle on the distant approaches to Moscow.
battle of Borodino
Kutuzov decided to give a general battle near the village of Borodino, 120 km. from Moscow. The chosen position made it possible on a narrow front to cut two main roads to Moscow - New and Old Smolensk. The rugged nature of the terrain made it difficult for the enemy to carry out a wide maneuver or bypass of the Russian army, made it possible to successfully install artillery and hide part of the troops. Kutuzov counted on the approach of large reinforcements. His immediate task was to stop the further advance of the French troops on Moscow.
Napoleon from the first days of the war was looking for a general battle with the Russian army. He did not think about a possible failure, he believed that Moscow would be the end point of the Russian company, where he would dictate a victorious peace to Alexander I. Under Borodino, he hoped to knock down Russian troops from their positions, throw them into a "bag" at the confluence of the Kolocha and Moscow rivers, and defeat them.
The French army at Borodino consisted of 130 - 135 thousand people (at Troitsky - 133.8 thousand) with 587 guns. The Russian army numbered about 150 thousand people (at Troitsky - 154.8 thousand) and 640 guns, while about 40 thousand were militias and Cossacks. The large reinforcements promised by the Governor-General of Moscow F.V. Rostopchin did not arrive. Thus, at Borodin, the forces of the opponents were approximately equal.
Battle plan. Kutuzov deployed his forces as follows. On the right flank, along the river. Kolochi, there were troops of the 1st Army, which closed the New Smolensk road. The left flank and center were in open country. Therefore, to strengthen them, earthen arrow-shaped structures were built - Semenov flushes (by the name of the village of Semenovskoye). A fortified artillery battery (Rayevsky) was placed in the center. Ahead of the position was the Shevardinsky raid, which, apparently, was supposed to delay the advance and regroup the enemy forces. On August 24, the Russian troops stationed here took upon themselves the first blow of the enemy, after which they were forced to retreat.
The Battle of Borodino took place on August 26 (September 7), 1812. The offensive initiative in it belonged to Napoleon. He managed to create a numerical superiority at all points of attack, forcing the Russians to repel attacks twice, three times superior forces. The main blow was dealt on the left flank. Twice Semyonov flushes changed hands. After the mortal wound of General Bagration, the Russian troops were withdrawn. At the same time, there was a struggle for the Raevsky battery located in the center, which also passed from hand to hand. Her last capture by Napoleonic troops was delayed by a raid behind French lines by the Russian cavalry F.P. Uvarova and Cossacks M.I. Platov. By the end of the day, the reserves were exhausted. The Russian troops retreated 1 km, but the French units failed to break through their defenses. They stopped fighting and were withdrawn to their original positions.
Results
The losses of both sides in the Battle of Borodino were enormous. The French lost about 35 thousand people, the Russian army - 35 thousand. Neither Napoleon nor Kutuzov achieved their goals. The French emperor did not achieve the defeat of the Russian army and the victorious end of the war. Kutuzov could not defend Moscow. It didn't stop both sides.
declare victory in battle. Nevertheless, the Battle of Borodino was a moral victory for the Russian army.
1. The idea of Napoleon's invincibility was destroyed. Under Borodin, his best forces were defeated, thanks to which, in the future, the transition of the initiative into the hands of the Russian troops was prepared.
2. The morale of the Russian army has risen.
3. The hopes of the French soldiers for an early end to this exhausting war far from home collapsed, dissatisfaction with the duration of the campaign and, in general, endless wars intensified.
Meaning
Russian victory:
2) Created the conditions for liberation from French domination of the countries of Europe and the collapse of Napoleon's empire.
4) Contributed to the growth of national consciousness and the consolidation of the Russian people.
5) Contributed to the emergence of a social movement (Decembristism).
6) Had a fruitful impact on the development of Russian national culture
Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Humanities University
Yekaterinburg city
Faculty of Social Psychology
Specialty "Socio-cultural service and tourism"
Correspondence form of education
Course 1 (2006 onwards)
FULL NAME. student Vyatkina Svetlana Vladimirovna
Discipline
NATIONAL HISTORY
Test
Patriotic War of 1812: causes, course of events, consequences
Lecturer: Zemtsov V.N.
Delivery date:
Result
return date
Yekaterinburg-2006
Introduction. 3
Chapter 1. Causes of the Patriotic War of 1812 4
Chapter 2. The course of events of the war ... 7
Paragraph 1. Preparation for war. 7
Paragraph 2. Commencement of hostilities. 12
Paragraph 3. Battle of Borodino. eighteen
Paragraph 4. The end of the war ... 25
Chapter 3. Consequences of the Patriotic War ... 32
Conclusion. 34
This topic was chosen because the Patriotic War against Napoleon became an event that played a crucial role in the fate of the Russian people, Russian culture, foreign policy and Russia as a whole. The war of 1812 had not only pan-European, but also world significance. For Russia, from the first days it was a just war, it had a national character and therefore contributed to the growth of national self-consciousness. The clash of the two major powers - Russia and France - involved other independent European states in the war and led to the creation of a new system of international relations.
To disclose this topic, such literature was involved as: a textbook for secondary schools, gymnasiums, universities of Troitsky N.A. Lectures on Russian history of the 19th century; textbook edited by Fedorov V.A. History of Russia XIX - early XX century; and the book of Zaichkin I.A., Pochkaev I.N. was especially helpful. Russian History From Catherine the Great to Alexander II.
So, what are the causes of the war of 1812, the course of the battles and the consequences? Which of the great commanders led the armies? And could the war have been avoided? The answers to these and other questions will be described in the test.
Chapter 1. Causes of the Patriotic War of 1812
The war of 1812, one of the most famous not only in Russian but also in world history, was generated by a number of reasons: Alexander 1's personal resentment against Napoleon; the negative mood of the court circles, who feared, in particular, the restoration of Poland; economic difficulties; the incendiary anti-French activity of the City of London, etc. But the main prerequisite for its emergence was the striving of the French bourgeoisie for world domination. The creator of this aggressive policy was Napoleon Bonaparte. He did not hide his claims to dominance and spoke about it: "Three more years, and I am the master of the whole world." Having shown himself to be an outstanding military leader at the final stage of the French Revolution, in 1799 he became consul, and in 1804 - emperor. By 1812, he managed to defeat the next, 5th anti-French coalition and was at the zenith of power and glory.
He considered England to be a long-time rival of the French bourgeoisie, which was the only country in the world economically more developed than France. Therefore, Napoleon set as his ultimate task the crushing of the economic and political power of England, but he could break this enemy only after he made the entire European continent dependent on him. Russia remained on the way to achieving this goal. All other powers were either defeated by Napoleon, or close to it (like Spain). Russian ambassador in Paris, Prince A.B. Kurakin wrote to Alexander 1 in 1811: "From the Pyrenees to the Oder, from the Sound to the Strait of Messina, everything is France." According to eyewitnesses, after the alleged victory over Russia, Napoleon intended to make a campaign against India. Thus, at the beginning of the 19th century. the fate of the peoples of Europe, including England, largely depended on Russia, on whether it would withstand the invasion of the French army, unprecedented in its scale.
Also, one of the causes of the war was the conflict between Russia and France due to the continental blockade. Russia's participation in the continental blockade of England had a detrimental effect on the Russian economy, since England was its main trading partner. The volume of Russia's foreign trade for 1808-1812. decreased by 43%. The new ally - France - could not compensate for this damage, since Russia's economic ties with France were superficial (mainly the import of French luxury items into Russia). Violating the foreign trade turnover of Russia, the continental system upset its finances. Already in 1809, the budget deficit increased compared to 1801 from 12.2 million to 157.5 million rubles, i.e. almost 13 times. The business was headed for financial ruin.
In August 1810, the French emperor raised duties on goods imported to France, which had an even worse effect on Russia's foreign trade. For his part, Alexander 1 in December 1810 signed a new tariff of a prohibitive nature, satisfying the interests of the nobility and the bourgeoisie, but not beneficial to France, which caused Napoleon's indignation. “To burn Lyon materials,” he wrote about the new tariff, “means to alienate one nation from another. From now on, war will depend on the slightest breath of the breeze.
The terms of the Peace of Tilsit were very difficult for Russia also because this alliance obliged Russia to oppose countries hostile to Napoleon and their allies.
The peace of Tilsit seemed to usher in an era of tranquility, made it possible to deal with internal affairs, but it became only a temporary respite before a new, even more dangerous military conflict with France. In 1810, Napoleon openly declared his desire for world domination, as well as the fact that Russia was on the way to it.
Chapter 2
Paragraph 1. Preparation for war
Russia was aware of the impending danger. Both sides began intensive preparations for the coming war. Napoleon did not prepare any of his wars as carefully as the war against Russia, realizing that he would have to meet with a strong enemy. Having created a huge, well-armed and equipped army, Napoleon sought to politically isolate Russia, and to enlist as many allies as possible, “to turn the idea of a coalition inside out,” as A.Z. put it. Manfred. He expected that Russia would have to fight simultaneously on three fronts against five states: in the north - against Sweden, in the west - against France, Austria and Prussia, in the south - against Turkey. But he only managed to conclude in February-March 1812 secret alliances with Austria and Prussia. These countries were promised territorial acquisitions at the expense of Russian possessions. Napoleon's attempts to create a threat to Russia from Sweden and Turkey were unsuccessful: in April 1812, Russia entered into a secret alliance with Sweden, and a month later signed a peace treaty with Turkey. If Napoleon's plan had come true, Russia would have fallen into a catastrophic situation. He didn't stop there. Along with trading privileges, he achieved that on June 18, 1812, a week before the French invasion of Russia, the United States of America declared war on England, Napoleon's main enemy, naturally making it difficult for her to fight France and assist Russia.
Indeed, Napoleon's plan for the complete isolation of Russia and the simultaneous attack on it from three sides by the forces of five powers was thwarted. Russia managed to secure its flanks. In addition, feudal Austria and Prussia were forced into an alliance with bourgeois France and "helped" Napoleon, as they say, under pressure, ready at the first convenient moment to go over to the side of feudal Russia, which they, in the end, did .
However, the blow, which in the summer of 1812. Russia took over, was a terrible force. Napoleon's allocations for military purposes amounted to 100 million francs. He carried out additional mobilization, which increased his army by 250 thousand people. To march on Russia, he managed to form the so-called Great Army of over 600 thousand soldiers and officers. Its core was the 10,000th old guard, which consisted of veterans who remembered the victory at Austerlitz. The command staff of the army had solid combat experience. The famous marshals: Davout, Ney, Murat - were great masters of military art. The cult of the “little corporal” still lived among the troops, as French soldiers and officers continued to affectionately call their emperor at the bivouac fires, thus maintaining a certain mood in the army. Troop control was well established, the headquarters worked smoothly.
Before the start of the offensive, the French carefully studied the features of the theater of the upcoming battles. Napoleon drew up his strategic plan for the campaign, it was simple and quite specific: with the whole mass of troops to wedge between the Russian armies, surround each one by one and defeat in pitched battles as close to the western border as possible. The duration of the entire campaign was planned for no more than a month.
However, it would be wrong to exaggerate the military and economic power of the Napoleonic coalition. His army in 1812 had serious weaknesses. So, a motley, multi-tribal composition adversely affected her. The French in it was less than half. The majority were Germans, Poles, Italians, Dutch, porters, Portuguese and other nationalities. Many of them hated Napoleon as the enslaver of their fatherland, followed him to war only under duress, fought reluctantly and often deserted. With each new war, the morale of his army fell. Soldiers became alien to the causes that led to wars, and those tasks that were resolved in the course of wars. The great writer F. Stendhal, who served under the banner of Napoleon for a long time, testified: "From republican, heroic, she became more and more selfish and monarchical."
Petersburg not only knew about Napoleon's preparations for war, but they themselves tried to carry out a number of measures in the same direction. The War Ministry, headed by M.B. Barclay de Tolly, in 1810, developed a program that provided for the rearmament of the Russian army and the strengthening of the western borders of the empire, in particular, the strengthening of the defensive line along the rivers Western Dvina, Berezina and Dnieper. But this program was not implemented due to the difficult financial situation of the state. And partially built along the Neman, the Western Dvina and the Berezina, military fortifications were created hastily and did not become an obstacle to the invasion of the French army.
The problem of human resources was also not simple. The system of recruiting the Russian army by recruiting from serfs, as well as the 25-year term of soldier's service, did not allow for a sufficient number of trained reserves. During the war, it was necessary to create militias that needed training and weapons. So on July 6, 1812, Alexander 1 appealed to the population "to gather new forces, which, inflicting horror on the enemy, would constitute a second fence and reinforcements of the first (regular army)".
Despite the additional recruitment sets, the Russian army, covering the western border, by the beginning of the war had 317 thousand soldiers, who were divided into three armies and three separate corps. The number of Russian troops is indicated in the literature with striking heterogeneity. Meanwhile, the archive contains authentic records of the size of the army and reserve corps. The 1st Army, under the command of the Minister of War, General M.B. Barclay de Tolly was stationed in the Vilna region, covering the St. Petersburg direction, and consisted of 120,210 people; 2nd Army of General Prince P.I. Bagration, near Bialystok, in the Moscow direction - 49423 people; 3rd Army of General A.P. Tormasov, near Lutsk, in the Kiev direction - 44180 people. In addition, the corps of General I.N. Essen (38077 people), and the second line consisted of two reserve corps - Generals E.I. Meller-Zakomelsky (27473 people) and F.F. Ertel (37539 people). The flanks of both lines were covered: from the north - the 19,000th corps of General F.F. Steingel in Finland and from the south - the Danube army of Admiral P.V. Chichagov (57526 people) in Wallachia.
The Russian side began to prepare a plan for the upcoming military operations in 1810 in deep secrecy. Alexander 1, Barclay de Tolly and the Prussian General Fuhl took part in its development. However, it was not adopted in its final form and was already being finalized in the course of hostilities. At the beginning of the war, Fuhl proposed an option according to which, in the event of an attack by the French on the army of Barclay de Tolly, it was to retreat to a fortified camp near the city of Drissa and fight a general battle here. Bagration's army, according to Ful's plan, was to act on the flank and rear of the enemy. From this option, just
followed the division of Russian troops into three separate armies.
However, the main trouble of the Russian army was then not in small numbers, but in the feudal system of its recruitment, maintenance, training and management. The impassable abyss between the mass of soldiers and the commanding staff, drill and cane discipline based on the principle of "kill two - learn the third" humiliated the human dignity of Russian soldiers. The famous soldier's song was composed just before the war of 1812:
I am the fatherland - protection,
And the back is always beaten ...
It is better not to be born in the world,
What is in the soldiers to be ...
But one should not think that the Russians did not have capable officers and talented commanders. On the contrary, the traditions of the glorious military school of Generalissimo Suvorov still lived in the army to win by small numbers, skill and courage. In addition, the experience of the wars of 1805-1807. forced Alexander 1 to learn from Napoleon, which made the Russian army stronger. But the main sources of its military strength were not in borrowing from outside, but in itself. Firstly, it was a national army, more homogeneous and cohesive than the heterogeneous army of Napoleon; secondly, it was distinguished by a higher morale: in their native land, the soldiers were animated by a patriotic mood. For the Russian soldier, the concept of "motherland" was not an empty phrase. He was ready to fight to the last breath for his land, for his faith. Napoleon's army did not have a significant quantitative and qualitative superiority in artillery and did not surpass the Russian in the number and fighting qualities of the cavalry. Horse breeding in no other European country was as developed as in Russia. However, the rational use of huge material resources was hampered by the large extent of the territory, low population density, the absence of even the slightest passable roads, serfdom and the inertia of the tsarist administration.
Thus, losing to the enemy in terms of numbers, planning and organization of the strategic deployment of troops, the Russian army was not inferior to him in armament and combat training.
Paragraph 2. Commencement of hostilities
On the night of June 12, 1812. Napoleon's army, without declaring war, began crossing the Neman, along which the western border of Russia then passed. Near Kovno, French covering detachments in boats sailed to the eastern shore and did not meet anyone there except Cossack patrols. Sappers built floating bridges, along which regiments of the guard, infantry and cavalry corps and artillery crossed the river. There were no Russian troops anywhere, no busy roads, no noisy camps. Early in the morning the vanguard of the French troops entered Kovno.
Napoleon's strategic plan at the beginning of the war was as follows: to defeat the Russian armies separately already in border battles. He did not want to delve into the boundless spaces of Russia.
Such a calculation of Napoleon could have been realized if the Russian armies had acted according to the plan that was drawn up by the military mentor of Alexander 1, General K. Ful.
The main forces of the Russian troops (the army of Barclay de Tolly) were concentrated at that time 100 km southeast of the enemy's crossing. Since the time of the invasion of the Teutonic Order, the Lithuanian population has tried to settle away from the borders of Prussia. Therefore, the eastern bank of the Neman seemed deserted. One of the participants in the campaign later recalled: “Before us lay a desert, a brown, yellowish land with stunted vegetation and distant forests on the horizon ...”.
On the very day, June 12, when the French army began its crossing of the Neman, Alexander 1 was present at the celebration that Russian officers gave in his honor in the vicinity of Vilna, inviting Vilna high society to the celebrations. Here, in the evening, the Russian emperor learned about the enemy’s advance. On June 14, he left the city, having previously sent his Minister of Police, Adjutant General A.D. Balashov to the French emperor with a proposal to start negotiations on a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Napoleon received the latter already in Vilna, which the French occupied on the fourth day after crossing the Neman. Napoleon remained in Vilna for a full 18 days, which later military historians considered one of his fatal mistakes. But, as before in Dresden, he was waiting for the new army units coming up to him.
Barclay de Tolly, having learned about Napoleon's invasion, led his army from Vilna to the Drissa camp. He sent a courier to Bagration with an order on behalf of the tsar, who was then at Barclay's headquarters: to retreat to Minsk to interact with the 1st Army. Napoleon, following his plan, rushed with the main forces behind Barclay, and in order to prevent Barclay and Bagration from connecting, he sent the corps of Marshal Davout between them. But his hopes to intervene, to impose major battles on them and to defeat them one by one, failed. Barclay, in view of the unfavorable balance of forces, convinced of the weakness of his defensive fortifications and the unsuitability of his chosen position, promptly began to retreat through Polotsk to Vitebsk and further to Smolensk to join the 2nd Army. The blow planned by Napoleon against the troops of the 1st Army in the Vilna region fell on an empty place. In addition, he twice failed to defeat the 1st Russian army near Polotsk and Vitebsk - he overtook Barclay, but he left the battle and retreated further.
The 2nd army (Bagration) moved through Slutsk, Bobruisk, crossed the Dnieper, passed Mstislavl and headed for Smolensk. Only great experience and skill allowed Bagration to get out of the trap set by the talented French Marshal Davout. On July 22, both Russian armies joined at Smolensk.
Thus, Napoleon's plan to defeat the dispersed Russian troops collapsed one by one. Moreover, he was forced to disperse his forces: to the north against I.N. Essen detached the corps of J.-E. Macdonald; south against A.P. Tormasov - buildings Zh.L. Renier and K.F. Schwarzenberg. Another corps (N.Sh. Oudinot) was allocated, and then reinforced by the corps of L.G. Saint-Cyr for action against the troops of P.H. Wittgenstein, who defended Petersburg.
Having learned about the connection of Barclay and Bagration, Napoleon consoled himself with the hope of involving the Russians in the general battle for Smolensk, as “one of the sacred Russian cities”, and defeating both of their armies at once. He decided to bypass Smolensk and go to the rear of the Russian troops.
The French offensive began on 1 August. Napoleon moved the corps of Marshal Ney and the cavalry of Marshal Murat around Smolensk. This was prevented by the troops of the 27th division of D.P. Neverovsky - they met the French at Krasnoy. Russian soldiers repulsed enemy attacks with unprecedented persistence. After the battle, only a sixth of the division remained, which broke through the enemy ring, entered Smolensk and joined with the main forces of the army. From 4 to 6 August N.N. Raevsky and D.S. Dokhturov defended the city from three enemy infantry and three cavalry corps approaching one after another. They were helped by the inhabitants of the city. The city was on fire. The Russians blew up the powder stores, after which they left Smolensk on the night of August 18.
When the French troops entered the burning dilapidated city, Napoleon again faced the question of the future prospects of the war: only 135 thousand troops remained in his shock group. Marshal Murat advised his emperor not to go further. While remaining in Smolensk, Bonaparte tried to negotiate peace with Alexander 1. However, this proposal remained unanswered. Wounded by the tsar's silence, he ordered to march from Smolensk to Moscow, in pursuit of the Russian armies. Perhaps in this way he wanted to push Alexander 1 to agree to peace negotiations. Napoleon hoped that if the Russians fought so desperately for Smolensk, then for the sake of Moscow they would definitely go to the general battle and allow him to end the war with a glorious victory, like Austerlitz or Friedland.
After the unification of the armies of Barclay and Bagration, the Russians numbered about 120 thousand people in their ranks. The French troops still outnumbered the Russians. Some generals, including Bagration, offered to give battle. But Barclay de Tolly, having learned about the approach of the Napoleonic army, gave the order to continue moving inland.
The war took on a protracted character, and this Napoleon feared most of all. His communications were stretched, losses in battles, losses from desertion, disease and looting grew, and convoys lagged behind. This alarmed Bonaparte, especially since in Europe another coalition was rapidly forming against him, which included, in addition to Russia, England, Sweden and Spain.
The French robbed the population, ravaged villages and cities. This, in turn, caused bitterness and stubborn resistance among the local residents. When the enemy approached, they hid in the forests, burned food, stole cattle, leaving nothing to the enemy. A peasant partisan movement was born and expanded. “Each village,” the French recalled, “turned into either a fire or a fortress when we approached.”
Public opinion condemned Barclay, who avoided big battles with the French and retreated to the east. The national liberation nature of the war required the appointment of a new commander-in-chief who would enjoy great confidence and authority. M.I. was such a person. Kutuzov, who at that time was the head of the St. Petersburg militia. The Russian emperor was confused and puzzled, because he did not like Kutuzov. But the nobility of both capitals unanimously called him the first candidate. He has repeatedly shown his art as a commander and, most importantly, was popular in the army and in Russian society. He distinguished himself in more than a dozen campaigns, sieges, battles and firmly established himself as a wise strategist and a brilliant diplomat.
On August 8, the appointment of Kutuzov to such an important and responsible post was approved by all of Russia. Among the soldiers, the proverb immediately became popular: “Kutuzov has arrived to beat the French! »
Kutuzov took command in very difficult conditions. A large territory of Russia (600 km inland) was captured by the enemy, the French were superior in military strength. Beyond Smolensk, Russian troops no longer had a stronghold until Moscow itself. “The key to Moscow has been taken,” - this is how M.I. assessed the fall of Smolensk. Kutuzov. In addition, the government of Alexander 1 did not fulfill its promises: 100 thousand recruits, as well as a people's militia of 100 thousand warriors. When the Russian army was already near Mozhaisk, it turned out that Kutuzov could really get only 15,000 recruits and 26,000 militias.
On August 29, the new commander-in-chief arrived at the headquarters of the Russian army, located in the town of Tsarevo-Zaimishche, where Barclay de Tolly was preparing to give a general battle with Napoleon. Kutuzov canceled this decision, adhering to the tactics of retreat and considering it the only correct one to maintain the combat effectiveness of the army. The withdrawal of troops continued to the village of Borodina, located near Mozhaisk, 120 km west of Moscow. Here the battle with Napoleon's army took place, which went down in history as a bright page.
Kutuzov did not accidentally choose the Borodino position for a big and responsible battle. It allowed the Russian troops to carry out defensive operations against the advancing French with the greatest success. On a relatively narrow front, this position immediately blocked two roads to Moscow - Staraya Smolenskaya and Novaya Smolenskaya, which joined at Mozhaisk. From the right flank, commanded by Barclay de Tolly, the troops were covered by the Kolocha River, which flows into the Moscow River. There was not much water in Kolocha by the end of the summer, but its banks were steep and steep. Hilly terrain with streams and ravines made it possible to create strongholds at prominent heights, install artillery and hide part of their troops from the enemy. The entire field was covered in places with shrubs and undergrowth, and from the south and east it was bordered by solid alder and birch forests. Kutuzov assessed the chosen position as "one of the best, which can only be found on flat places."
To improve the position, Kutuzov ordered to further strengthen it. To this end, several ramparts were erected on the right flank and cannons were mounted on them. The battery of 18 guns, called Kurgannaya, was located on the central hill (the 7th Infantry Corps, commanded by General Raevsky, stood here during the battle). On the left flank, near the village of Semyonovskaya, on an open plain, artificial earth fortifications were built for artillery batteries. They were turned at an angle to the enemy and were called flushes.
The terrain forced the French in a narrow area to attack the Russian troops in the forehead, overcoming the steep banks of the Kolocha. This inevitably led to heavy losses among the attackers.
Kutuzov's immediate task was to stop the further advance of the enemy, and then to unite the efforts of all armies, including the Danube and 3rd Western, launching an active offensive. This plan stemmed from the military-strategic situation, which was presented to him in the documents of the Military Ministry and letters from Rostopchin. He defined his task as follows: "the salvation of Moscow." He took into account the possibility of both success and failure: “with a happy rebuff of the enemy forces, I will give my own orders to pursue them. In case of an unsuccessful case, several roads are open, along which the armies will have to retreat.
Napoleon, who had longed for a general battle from the first days of the war, did not think about a possible failure. Anticipating victory, he exclaimed at dawn before the battle: “Here is the sun of Austerlitz! ". His goal was to take Moscow and there, in the heart of Russia, to dictate a victorious peace to Alexander 1. For this it was enough, according to Napoleon, to win the Battle of Borodino. His plan was simple: to knock down the Russian troops from their positions, throw them into a "bag" at the confluence of the river. Kolochi with the Moscow River and smash.
Paragraph 3. Battle of Borodino
The battle of Borodino on August 26, 1812 is the only example of a general battle in the history of wars, the outcome of which both sides immediately announced and still celebrate as their victory, with good reason. Therefore, many questions of its history, starting with the balance of power and ending with losses, remain controversial. A new analysis of old data shows that Napoleon had 133.8 thousand people and 587 guns under Borodin, Kutuzov - 154.8 thousand people and 640 guns. True, Kutuzov had only 115.3 thousand regular troops, plus 11 thousand Cossacks and 28.5 thousand militia, but Napoleon’s entire guard (19 thousand best, selected soldiers) stood all day of the battle in reserve, then how the Russian reserves were completely used up. Bonaparte hoped to oppose the small superiority of the Russians in artillery with his skill in command and control, the swiftness of maneuver and the crushing power of the blow.
When studying the Patriotic War, the question repeatedly arose: was there a need for the Battle of Borodino? And if yes, then for each of the opposing sides this need was more important, more essential? In his own way, L.N. answered this question in an original and unambiguous way. Tolstoy. In the novel "War and Peace" he wrote: "Why was the Battle of Borodino given? Neither for the French nor for the Russians it made the slightest sense. The results were and should have been the closest - for the Russians, that we approached the death of Moscow, and for the French, that they approached the death of the entire army.
However, the Battle of Borodino could not be. She was inevitable. Kutuzov gave battle, firstly, because the retreating army desired it. Secondly, the excited public opinion would not have forgiven Kutuzov if he had retreated to Moscow itself without a decisive battle with the enemy. In addition, when deciding on the Battle of Borodino, Kutuzov, with good reason, hoped to bleed the enemy, deprive him of hope for an easy victory, and thereby initiate the shameful expulsion of the invaders from Russia. Napoleon had his own ideas. Considering his temporary superiority in strength, he hoped to defeat the Russian army in a general battle, force Alexander 1 to a forced peace and finish the next campaign with brilliance.
Having reached the Borodino region, Kutuzov deployed Russian troops along the front in the following way. He placed the more numerous and stronger 1st Army under the command of Barclay (about 70% of all forces) on the right flank, along the coast of Kolocha. Units of this army covered the road to Moscow. He placed Bagration's army on the left flank to the village of Utitsy. The role of the advanced defensive point was performed by a pentagonal redoubt (a field fortification adapted for all-round defense), built in front of the entire position on the left flank near the village of Shevardino.
When Napoleon was informed that the Russian army was no longer retreating and preparing for battle, he was very happy. Finally, he had the opportunity to show the Russians his strength.
At noon on August 24, the French vanguard attacked the Shevardino redoubt. He interfered with the regrouping of French forces and the transfer of their troops from the New Smolensk Road, where the 1st Army was located, to bypass the left flank occupied by Bagration's troops. It was important for the Russians to detain the enemy here for several hours. About 30,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry were brought down by Napoleon on 8,000 Russian infantry and 4,000 cavalry. Soon the firefight turned into a bayonet fight. The fort changed hands several times. By evening, the French took possession of it, but the Russians drove them out with a surprise attack. On the approaches to the redoubt and on its earthen ramparts, 6 thousand enemy corpses remained. Only on the orders of Kutuzov did the Russian troops leave their position around midnight. After taking the fortifications, Napoleon was unable to move on.
The battle of Borodino began on August 26 at half past six in the morning and lasted more than 12 hours. To divert the forces and attention of the enemy, the French began a battle with a skirmish on the right flank near the village of Borodino against a regiment of guards rangers. A small detachment with battles left Borodino and retreated across the Kolocha River.
An hour later, Napoleon's main blow was delivered to the left flank - the Bagration flushes (field fortifications). Napoleon's goal was to break through them, go behind the lines of the Russian army and force it to fight on an inverted front. Here, on a section of about 2 km, Napoleon concentrated 45 thousand soldiers and 400 guns. This offensive was led by the best generals - Ney, Davout, Murat and Oudinot.
The first attack was repulsed by Russian troops. In the second attack, the French managed to capture part of the fortifications, but the fleches were soon recaptured. Napoleon transferred new forces to the left flank. Almost all of his artillery operated in this area. In order to pull off part of the enemy forces from the troops of Bagration, Kutuzov ordered the Cossacks of General M.I. Platov and the cavalry corps of General F.P. Uvarov to make a raid on the left flank and in the rear of the French. Part of the reserves of the Commander-in-Chief was sent to the flushes. Bagration went on the offensive again. But, having received fresh troops, the French launched an attack along the entire front and for some time captured N.N. Raevsky. Then General A.P. Yermolov led the troops on a counterattack and soon the enemy was knocked out of the battery. Only after the eighth attack, the flushes were occupied by the enemy. However, the Russian troops in this area retreated only half a kilometer and did not allow the enemy to build on their success. Both sides suffered heavy losses. General Dokhturov, who replaced Bagration, who was mortally wounded by a fragment of the core, quickly restored the defense behind the Semyonovsky ravine.
The capture of flashes opened the way to Raevsky's battery. (There is an opinion that the attacks on the Kurgan Heights - Raevsky's battery - were carried out simultaneously with the battles for the Bagration flushes). Pushing back the defending fleches, Bonaparte set up guns there and in the afternoon began shelling the center of the Russian troops - the Kurgan battery. He even decided to bring into battle from his reserve a division of the Young Guard. Having concentrated more than 35 thousand soldiers and about 200 tons of guns, Napoleon prepared for a general attack. However, at this time (at two o'clock in the afternoon) the Russian cavalry under the command of Platov and Uvarov bypassed the left flank of the French, which diverted Napoleon's attention for 2 hours from the battery attack. He stopped his guard division and was forced to regroup troops. Although this raid did not reach its intended goal (the defeat of the rear of the French army), it suspended attacks on the Russian center for two hours, which made it possible for Kutuzov to pull up reserves and regroup.
The battle for the Kurgan battery was fierce. The resilience of the Russians surprised the French. Only at the fourth hour of the day, having suffered huge losses, the French captured the redoubt on the central hill. Russian troops retreated about 1 km. But this was their last success. By evening, Kutuzov ordered his troops to withdraw to a new line of defense. Twilight fell, a light rain fell. Napoleon stopped the attacks and withdrew his troops to their original lines, which they occupied in the morning, confining themselves to artillery cannonade. On this occasion, Kutuzov reported: "Batteries passed from hand to hand, and it ended with the enemy nowhere winning a single step of land with excellent forces." The losses incurred and delays in the arrival of the promised reserves did not allow Kutuzov to give a new battle.
Losses on both sides were huge. The Russians lost, according to the materials of the Military Scientific Archive of the General Staff of Russia, 45.6 thousand people (over 30% of the personnel); the French in this bloody battle lost, according to the Archives of the French Ministry of War, 28 thousand people (Soviet historians raise this figure to 58-60 thousand people arbitrarily).
On September 1, in the village of Fili, three miles from Moscow, a military council was assembled. Kutuzov raised the question for discussion: “Should we expect an attack on a disadvantageous position or cede Moscow to the enemy? » Opinions are divided. Kutuzov gave the order to leave Moscow in order to save the army.
On September 2, the French army entered the deserted city: out of 275,547 thousand Muscovites, about 6 thousand remained in it. Officers and soldiers were met by hostile residents, mostly simple and poor, who had nowhere to go. On the same evening, fires broke out in different parts of the city, raging for a whole week. At first they were local in nature, but then they became widespread. Many of the remaining residents, as well as the wounded in hospitals, became victims of the fire. Historians and writers are still arguing about the causes and culprits. For serious researchers, there is no question here, just as it was not for Napoleon and Kutuzov: both of them knew that the Russians had burned Moscow. Kutuzov and Moscow Governor-General F.V. Rostopchin was ordered to burn numerous warehouses and shops and take out of the city "the entire fire-extinguishing projectile", which already doomed Moscow, mostly wooden, to an unquenchable fire. In addition, the residents themselves burned the city, they burned it according to the principle “do not get to the villain! ". By order of the French command, Russian patriots suspected of arson were seized and shot. However, some eyewitnesses of the events and historians considered the French themselves to be the culprits of the fires - during robberies and drunken revelry, they carelessly handled the fire.
As a result, three-quarters of Moscow (out of 9158 buildings - 6532, including the most valuable monuments of history and culture: palaces, temples, libraries) perished in the fire. The fire raged on Red Square, on the Arbat, in Zamoskvorechye. Gostiny Dvor, Moscow University, Kudrinsky widow's house with 700 wounded Russian soldiers became his terrible prey. On the night of September 4-5, a strong wind arose in Moscow, which lasted more than a day. The fires intensified. The fire engulfed the city center near the Kremlin, the Trinity Tower caught fire. For security reasons, the French emperor was forced to take refuge in the suburban Petrovsky Palace for several days.
The course of the battle was in favor of Napoleon. He occupied all Russian positions from Borodino on the right to Utitsa on the left, including the supporting Kurgan height in the center. Since the Russian army left Moscow after Borodino, he considered the Battle of Borodino won tactically and strategically. However, Bonaparte, with all his hopes and plans, could not defeat the Russian army, put it to flight. He knew that the fall of Moscow would echo around the world as another major victory for him. But the fire immediately changed everything, putting the emperor from a winning position to a losing one. Instead of conveniences and contentment, the French found themselves in ashes in the city. True, Kutuzov did not solve his main task: to save Moscow. He was forced to sacrifice the city. But he did this not so much by the will of Napoleon, but by his own will, not because he was defeated, but because he survived and believed in the outcome of the war victorious for Russia. The battle of Borodino was a moral victory for the Russian army, it was the beginning of the end of the greatness of the French emperor and his army. And General Kutuzov received from Alexander 1 field marshal's baton for the Battle of Borodino
Napoleon repeatedly returned to the memories of this battle in subsequent years, already being on the island of St. Helena. In a conversation with General Gurgaud, he asked: what battle does he consider the most outstanding? The general replied that Austerlitz. Napoleon objected to this - no, he puts the battle near Moscow much higher. In his memoirs, he emphasized: “The Battle of Moscow is my greatest battle: it is a battle of giants ... We can say that it was one of those where it was most deserved, and the results were the least.”
Paragraph 4. End of the war
Continuing to stay in Moscow, Napoleon saw that his army began a dangerous process of moral decay, robberies and looting did not stop. Neither the emperor nor the governor-general and the commandant of the city appointed by him were able to stop this. There was a food problem. True, there were still reserves in the city, but they were coming to an end and were not replenished. The peasants of the surrounding villages hid food from the enemy.
Now, in the Moscow Kremlin, Napoleon realized that he was in danger of death and only peaceful negotiations could save everything that had been achieved. Staying in Moscow for 36 days, he “generously” offered peace to Alexander 1 three times and received no answer three times.
In those days, the tsar was pushed towards peace by his mother, brother Konstantin and the most influential dignitaries, including Arakcheev and the chancellor of the empire N.P. Rumyantsev. Alexander, however, was adamant. He even expressed his readiness to retreat to Kamchatka and become the "emperor of Kamchadals", but not to put up with Napoleon.
While Napoleon was waiting in Moscow for an agreement to peace, Kutuzov managed to prepare for a counteroffensive. Leaving Moscow, the field marshal demonstrated to the French for four days the appearance of a retreat along the Ryazan road, and on the fifth day he secretly turned at Krasnaya Pakhra onto the Kaluga road and on September 21 camped near the village. Tarutino, 80 km southwest of Moscow. Kutuzov's famous Tarutino march-maneuver allowed him to avoid persecution by the French army led by Murat, to control three southern directions at once and thereby block Napoleon's path to the fertile southern provinces and to the cities with military reserves - Tula, Kaluga and Bryansk.
In Tarutino, Kutuzov's army received reinforcements. Within two weeks, he gathered more than twice the enemy forces of regular troops, Cossacks and the people's militia - a total of 240 thousand people - against 116 thousand from Napoleon. Additional weapons were brought into the army (Kutuzov had more than 600 guns, Napoleon-569) and food, more efficient communication was established with the partisans. The balance of power changed in favor of the Russians.
The stay of the army in the Tarutinsky camp became a turning point in the course of the Patriotic War. And it is no coincidence that Kutuzov himself wrote that the Nara River, which flows near Tarutin, will be “as famous for the Russians as Nepryadva, on the banks of which countless Mamai militias died.”
On October 6, the famous Tarutinsky battle took place. Convinced that Kutuzov with the main forces went west, Murat (he had 26 thousand soldiers and officers in the vanguard) also turned to Podolsk from the Ryazan road and stopped on the right bank of the Chernishni River. In the vicinity of Tarutino, he was attacked by Kutuzov. The movement of Russian units to the initial lines for the attack was carried out at night. At the same time, the Russian columns did not act in concert, as a result of which it was not possible to surround and destroy the French. Nevertheless, Murat lost about 5 thousand soldiers and was forced to retreat. This operation was the first victory of the Russian troops who launched an offensive.
The defeat of Murat accelerated the retreat of the 110,000th French army from Moscow. On October 7, Napoleon left Moscow. Feeling a sharp dislike for the Russians and their intractable emperor, before leaving, he gave a barbaric order to blow up the palaces, the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral. Only the courage and resourcefulness of the Russian patriots, who cut the lit fuses in time, and the rain that began, saved the outstanding cultural monuments from destruction. As a result of the explosions, the Nikolskaya Tower, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and other structures on the territory of the Kremlin were partially damaged.
Napoleon went to Kaluga with the intention of retreating to Smolensk not along the Old, utterly devastated Mozhaisk road, but along the New, Kaluga. Kutuzov blocked his path at Maloyaroslavets. Here, on October 12, a fierce battle broke out. The small city, burned to the ground, changed hands eight times and remained with the French. Kutuzov's troops left him only after they took a convenient position, retreated 2.5 km to the south, and reliably blocked the enemy's path to Kaluga. Bonaparte was faced with a choice: to attack Kutuzov in order to break through to Kaluga, or to leave for Smolensk along the devastated road through Mozhaisk. Calculating the forces and weighing the chances, he chose a retreat. So for the first time in his life, Napoleon himself abandoned the general battle, voluntarily turned his back on the enemy, moved from the position of the pursuer to the position of the pursued. But Kutuzov, after the battle at Maloyaroslavets, did not want new battles and avoided them. The strategy of the old commander was calculated on the fact that the French army itself would come to its death.
On October 13, the emperor abandoned Kaluga and went to Mozhaisk on the Old Smolensk road. The retreat of the French from October 13 to December 2 was a disaster for them. The road was a scorched desert, where, according to eyewitnesses, "even cats could not be found." The French could not profit anywhere and at least something on such a road. They had nowhere to turn from it: everywhere death awaited them at the hands of Cossacks, partisans, and peasants. The scourge of the army was the mass death of horses. The cavalry and artillery turned into infantry, and the cannons had to be abandoned. Even before Smolensk, the famine assumed such catastrophic proportions that the French sometimes resorted to cannibalism. “Yesterday,” Kutuzov wrote to his wife on October 28, “two Frenchmen were found in the forest, who are frying and eating their third comrade.”
Fights and numerous small skirmishes with the enemy arose by themselves. The Russian army attacked the rearguard of the French army near Vyazma. The battle lasted 10 hours, as a result of which the enemy lost 7 thousand people and was forced to continue his hasty retreat. Since the main forces of Kutuzov approached Yelna, Napoleon had to leave Smolensk. Leaving Smolensk on November 2, his army numbered about 50 thousand people. About 30,000 unarmed people trailed behind the army.
After Vyazma, where the first truly winter frost hit, immediately at 18 degrees, a new enemy fell upon the "Great Army" - the cold. The winter of 1812 in Russia turned out to be the most frosty for many decades. Frosts, northern winds, snowfalls weakened and killed the hungry French.
But the most formidable enemy remained regular Russian troops. In addition to the troops of Kutuzov, the troops of Field Marshal P.Kh. Wittgenstein (previously his corps covered the direction to St. Petersburg), and from the south - the Danube army of Admiral P.V. Chichagov. Thus, the danger that threatened the retreating army increased every day.
On November 5, near Krasnoye, a three-day battle took place between the Russian troops and the French who had left Smolensk. As a result of stubborn battles, Ney's corps was almost completely destroyed. The French left the Russians 116 guns, many prisoners and a huge convoy. There were about 5 thousand killed and wounded on the French side. The enemy lost almost all of his artillery and cavalry. For this battle, Field Marshal Kutuzov received the title of Prince of Smolensk, and Ataman Platov received the title of count.
Coming out of the battle near Krasnoye, Napoleon went through Orsha to Borisov. There he intended to cross the Berezina. It was here that Kutuzov predicted "the inevitable extermination of the entire French army."
Three Russian armies (Wittgenstein, Chichagov and the commander-in-chief himself) were to surround the retreating Napoleon, prevent him from crossing to the right bank of the Berezina and defeat him. In accordance with this plan, Wittgenstein took Polotsk, Chichagov - Borisov, and Kutuzov himself followed the French. Everything foreshadowed Russian success. There were twice as many of them in the Berezina region as the French. Admiral Chichagov prepared to capture Napoleon himself. He even told his troops the signs of the emperor, emphasizing in particular his “small stature”, and then ordered: “For greater reliability, catch and bring all the small ones to me! ".
Napoleon found himself in a catastrophic situation. On top of all his troubles, the Berezina River, long frozen, now, after a two-day thaw, opened up again, and a strong ice drift prevented the construction of bridges. In this hopelessness, Napoleon found the only chance for salvation. Taking advantage of the slowness of Kutuzov, who was three crossings behind, he feignedly convinced Chichagov that he was going to undertake a crossing south of Borisov. In fact, the crossing was made from November 14 to November 16 near the village of Studyanka, 12 versts above Borisov. But here, too, the Napoleonic army suffered heavy losses. One of the two pontoon bridges they built broke during the passage of artillery. A significant part of the retreating enemy troops could not cross to the right bank of the river in time and were killed or captured by Wittgenstein and Kutuzov's advanced units.
After the Berezina, the retreat of the remnants of the French army was a disorderly flight. About 20-30 thousand French crossed the Russian border - this is all that remains of the 600-thousandth army, which launched an invasion of our land in June. Not only Napoleon survived, but also his guards, the officer corps, the generals and all the marshals. On November 21, in Molodechno, he compiled a “funeral”, as the French themselves would call it, the 29th bulletin - a kind of funeral word about the “Great Army” . Having admitted his defeat, Napoleon explained it by the vicissitudes of the Russian winter.
On the evening of November 23, in the town of Smorgon, the emperor left the remnants of his army, transferring command to I. Murat. He hurried to Paris in order to determine the rumors around the 29th bulletin, and most importantly, to assemble a new army. On December 6, he arrived in Paris. The first to meet him was the Minister of Foreign Affairs G.-B. Mare. “Sir, what is the state of the army? ' the minister asked. Napoleon replied: "There is no more army."
The crushing defeat that hitherto invincible Napoleon suffered in Russia excited the whole world. No one expected that the “scourge of the universe”, which had already conquered Moscow, would flee Russia in three months and leave almost all of its “Great Army” in its snows. The Russians themselves were shocked by the enormity of their victory. Alexander 1 did not dare to explain it either by the patriotic upsurge of the people and the army, or by his own firmness, but entirely attributed it to God: “The Lord walked ahead of us. He defeated the enemies, not us! ".
Chapter 3. Consequences of the Patriotic War
Such a grandiose victory also had grandiose consequences for Russia on the international plane - it marked the beginning of the liberation of the peoples of Central and Western Europe. On the one hand, it dispelled Napoleon's plans for world domination and marked the beginning of the death of Napoleon's empire, and on the other hand, more than ever, it raised the international prestige of Russia, which won France's leading positions on the world stage, highly.
The historical significance of the war of 1812 was that it raised a new surge of patriotic feelings among all sections of the population - peasants, townspeople, soldiers. The fight against a cruel enemy awakened the dormant forces until then and made her see herself in a new light. The victory caused a rapid growth of national self-consciousness and sent the best people of the nation to the liberation struggle against autocracy and serfdom. The initiators of this struggle, the Decembrists, openly called themselves "children of 1812". Of these, about a third directly participated in the hostilities.
The war gave impetus to the development of Russian culture. The inspiration of patriotic feelings, the bitterness of loss and the valor of the soldiers pushed the Russian people to create wonderful poems, songs, novels and articles. Poets and writers colorfully describe to us pictures of battles, the exploits of the Russian people, the thoughts of soldiers. Subsequently, the mood in the army was very well conveyed by M.Yu. Lermontov in the words of an experienced veteran:
We retreated silently for a long time,
It was annoying, they were waiting for the battle,
The old people grumbled:
“What are we? for winter quarters?
Do not dare, or something, commanders
Aliens tear up their uniforms
Kutuzov raised Russian military art to a new stage of development. Thanks to a more flexible strategy, he exhausted the enemy in battles, forced retreats, and finally defeated him. The advanced people of the country, in particular, felt the greatness and power of their people in a new way.
The participation of the people in the war consisted not only in the fact that they replenished the army with recruits and militias. The people fed, clothed, shod and armed the army. With his work, he helped to overcome the omissions that the military department showed. It is important to note that at this time, labor productivity increased markedly and the rate of production increased at military factories, manufactories and in craft workshops that worked for the army. The workers of not only the Bryansk arsenal, the Tula arms factory, the Shostka powder and Lugansk foundry, but also other state-owned enterprises and "free masters" of Moscow, Kaluga, Tver, Vladimir and many other cities of Russia worked selflessly.
That's why A.I. Herzen reasoned as follows: “Only 1812 opens the true history of Russia; everything that happened before is just a preface.
Conclusion
Starting with Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, whose work was written “by the highest command” of Nicholas 1 and edited by the tsar, in Russian literature the war of 1812 began to be called the Patriotic War. Soviet historians, at first (in the person of their leader M.N. Pokrovsky) discarded this name, under Stalin returned to it again. But it was not by chance that the war of the year received the name Patriotic War in the history of Russia. It is named so, firstly, because the fate of Russia was decided in it, and, secondly, because it caused an unprecedented upsurge of patriotic feelings in the minds of the broad masses. Despite the confusion and sometimes inaction of the tsarist government, despite the inertia of many nobles, frightened by the scope of the popular movement within the country, the simple population of Russian villages and cities joined the fight against foreign invaders.
From the very beginning of the war, one thing became clear to the Russian people: a cruel and insidious enemy had come to their land, he was devastating the country and robbing its inhabitants. Resentment for the tormented homeland, a thirst for sacred revenge for the burned villages and destroyed cities, for the plundered Moscow, for all the horrors of the invasion, the desire to defend Russia and punish the uninvited conquerors - these feelings swept over the entire people. The peasants, armed with axes, pitchforks, scythes and clubs, voluntarily united in small groups and detachments, caught lagging behind French soldiers and mercilessly killed them. If the French came for bread and fodder, the peasants offered them fierce resistance, and in those cases when they could not overcome the visitors who came, they themselves burned bread and fodder and fled into the forests.
The national character of the war was also expressed in the formation of militia forces. Recruitment for the militia was announced on July 6 in 16 central provinces and in Ukraine. On the Don and the Urals, a Cossack militia was formed. The peasants willingly went to the warriors, especially since there were rumors that after the war the militias would be freed from serfdom. Despite poor training and insufficient weapons, they fought heroically side by side with soldiers on the battlefields. A striking example of popular activity was the partisan movement. It arose spontaneously, but then was sent from the main headquarters of Kutuzov. In the ranks of the partisans were soldiers, Cossacks, militias and volunteers from the peasants.
The soldiers and officers of the Russian army showed samples of selfless courage, stamina and endurance on the battlefields with the hordes of Napoleon. The Russian people have always honored and still continue to honor their heroes.
Grateful descendants built 49 monuments to Russian military units that participated in the battle on the Borodino field. In 1912, on the centenary of the Battle of Borodino, the French, with the permission of the Russian government, erected a granite monument on the Borodino field, inscribed on it: "To the dead of the Great Army." In St. Petersburg, the Hermitage has a unique portrait gallery of the Patriotic War of 1812. She was immortalized by the following lines from a poem by A.S. Pushkin "Commander", carved on the wall of the hall:
The Russian tsar has a chamber in his halls
She is not rich in gold, not in velvet ...
Crowd close artist placed
Here the chiefs of our people's forces,
Covered with the glory of a wonderful campaign
And the eternal memory of the twelfth year ...
Bibliography
1. Geller M.Ya. History of the Russian Empire. - M.: MIK, 2001. - Volume 2. p. 199-200.
2. Zaichkin I.A., Pochkaev I.N. Russian History From Catherine the Great to Alexander II. - M.: Thought, 1994. pp. 477-503.
3. Pototurov V.A., Tugusova G.V., Gurina M.G. etc. History of Russia. - M.: Academic Project, 2002. p. 294-300.
4. Troitsky N.A. Lectures on Russian history of the XIX century. - Saratov: Slovo, 1994. pp. 27-50.
5. Fedorov V.A. History of Russia XIX - early XX century. - M.: Academy, 2004. pp. 79 - 90.
6. Chernobaev A.A., Gorelov I.E., Zuev M.N. etc. History of Russia. - M.: Higher School, 2001. pp. 168-171.
Geller M.Ya. History of the Russian Empire. M., 2001. S.199.
Zaichkin I.A., Pochkaev I.N. Russian History From Catherine the Great to Alexander II. M., 1994. P.478.
Troitsky N.A. Lectures on Russian history of the XIX century. Saratov, 1994. P.28.
Zaichkin I.A., Pochkaev I.N. Russian History From Catherine the Great to Alexander II. M., 1994. P.500.
Troitsky N.A. Lectures on Russian history of the XIX century. Saratov, 1994. P.49.
Troitsky N.A. Lectures on Russian history of the XIX century. Saratov, 1994. P.50.
Fedorov V.A. History of Russia XIX-beginning of XX century. M., 2004. P.87.
Zaichkin I.A., Pochkaev I.N. Russian History From Catherine the Great to Alexander II. M., 1994. P.503.
2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the military-historical patriotic event - the Patriotic War of 1812, which is of great importance for the political, social, cultural and military development of Russia.
The beginning of the war
June 12, 1812 (old style) Napoleon's French army, having crossed the Neman near the city of Kovno (now it is the city of Kaunas in Lithuania), invaded the Russian Empire. This day is recorded in history as the beginning of the war between Russia and France.
In this war, two forces clashed. On the one hand, Napoleon's half-million army (about 640,000 men), which consisted of only half the French and included, in addition to them, representatives of almost all of Europe. An army intoxicated with numerous victories, led by famous marshals and generals, led by Napoleon. The strengths of the French army were large numbers, good material and technical support, combat experience, and faith in the invincibility of the army.
She was opposed by the Russian army, which at the beginning of the war represented one-third of the French army. Before the start of the Patriotic War of 1812, the Russian-Turkish war of 1806-1812 had just ended. The Russian army was divided into three groups far apart from each other (under the command of Generals M. B. Barclay de Tolly, P. I. Bagration and A. P. Tormasov). Alexander I was at the headquarters of Barclay's army.
The blow of Napoleon's army was taken over by the troops stationed on the western border: the 1st Army of Barclay de Tolly and the 2nd Army of Bagration (a total of 153 thousand soldiers).
Knowing his numerical superiority, Napoleon pinned his hopes on a blitzkrieg war. One of his main miscalculations was the underestimation of the patriotic impulse of the army and the people of Russia.
The beginning of the war was successful for Napoleon. At 6 am on June 12 (24), 1812, the vanguard of the French troops entered the Russian city of Kovno. The crossing of 220 thousand soldiers of the Great Army near Kovno took 4 days. After 5 days, another grouping (79 thousand soldiers) under the command of the Viceroy of Italy, Eugene Beauharnais, crossed the Neman to the south of Kovno. At the same time, even further south, near Grodno, the Neman was crossed by 4 corps (78-79 thousand soldiers) under the general command of the King of Westphalia, Jerome Bonaparte. In the northern direction, near Tilsit, the Neman crossed the 10th Corps of Marshal MacDonald (32 thousand soldiers), which was aimed at St. Petersburg. In the southern direction from Warsaw through the Bug, a separate Austrian corps of General Schwarzenberg (30-33 thousand soldiers) began to invade.
The rapid advance of the powerful French army forced the Russian command to retreat inland. The commander of the Russian troops, Barclay de Tolly, evaded the general battle, saving the army and striving to unite with Bagration's army. The numerical superiority of the enemy raised the question of an urgent replenishment of the army. But in Russia there was no universal military service. The army was completed by recruiting sets. And Alexander I decided on an unusual step. On July 6, he issued a manifesto calling for the creation of a people's militia. So the first partisan detachments began to appear. This war united all segments of the population. As now, so then, the Russian people are united only by misfortune, grief, tragedy. It didn't matter who you were in society, what wealth you had. Russian people fought unitedly, defending the freedom of their homeland. All people became a single force, which is why the name "Patriotic War" was determined. The war became an example of the fact that a Russian person will never allow freedom and spirit to be enslaved, he will defend his honor and name to the end.
The armies of Barclay and Bagration met near Smolensk at the end of July, thus achieving the first strategic success.
Battle for Smolensk
By August 16 (according to the New Style), Napoleon approached Smolensk with 180 thousand soldiers. After the connection of the Russian armies, the generals began to insistently demand a general battle from the commander-in-chief Barclay de Tolly. At 6 am August 16 Napoleon launched an assault on the city.
In the battles near Smolensk, the Russian army showed the greatest stamina. The battle for Smolensk marked the unfolding of a nationwide war between the Russian people and the enemy. Napoleon's hope for a blitzkrieg collapsed.
Battle for Smolensk. Adam, circa 1820
The stubborn battle for Smolensk lasted 2 days, until the morning of August 18, when Barclay de Tolly withdrew troops from the burning city in order to avoid a big battle with no chance of victory. Barclay had 76 thousand, another 34 thousand (Bagration's army).After the capture of Smolensk, Napoleon moved to Moscow.
Meanwhile, the protracted retreat caused public discontent and protest among most of the army (especially after the surrender of Smolensk), so on August 20 (according to the new style), Emperor Alexander I signed a decree appointing M.I. Kutuzov. At that time, Kutuzov was in his 67th year. The commander of the Suvorov school, who had half a century of military experience, he enjoyed universal respect both in the army and among the people. However, he also had to retreat in order to gain time to gather all his forces.
Kutuzov could not avoid a general battle for political and moral reasons. By September 3 (according to the New Style), the Russian army retreated to the village of Borodino. Further retreat meant the surrender of Moscow. By that time, Napoleon's army had already suffered significant losses, and the difference in the size of the two armies was reduced. In this situation, Kutuzov decided to give a pitched battle.
To the west of Mozhaisk, 125 km from Moscow near the village of Borodina August 26 (September 7, New Style), 1812 there was a battle that went down in the history of our people forever. - the largest battle of the Patriotic War of 1812 between the Russian and French armies.
The Russian army numbered 132 thousand people (including 21 thousand poorly armed militias). The French army, pursuing her on the heels, 135,000. Kutuzov's headquarters, believing that there were about 190 thousand people in the enemy's army, chose a defensive plan. In fact, the battle was an assault by French troops on the line of Russian fortifications (flashes, redoubts and lunettes).
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Napoleon hoped to defeat the Russian army. But the steadfastness of the Russian troops, where every soldier, officer, general was a hero, overturned all the calculations of the French commander. The fight went on all day. Losses were huge on both sides. The Battle of Borodino is one of the bloodiest battles of the 19th century. According to the most conservative estimates of cumulative losses, 2,500 people died on the field every hour. Some divisions lost up to 80% of their composition. There were almost no prisoners on either side. French losses amounted to 58 thousand people, Russian - 45 thousand.
Emperor Napoleon later recalled: “Of all my battles, the most terrible is what I fought near Moscow. The French showed themselves worthy of victory in it, and the Russians - to be called invincible.
Cavalry fight
On September 8 (21), Kutuzov ordered a retreat to Mozhaisk with the firm intention of preserving the army. The Russian army retreated, but retained its combat capability. Napoleon failed to achieve the main thing - the defeat of the Russian army.
September 13 (26) in the village of Fili Kutuzov held a meeting on a further plan of action. After the military council in Fili, the Russian army, by decision of Kutuzov, was withdrawn from Moscow. “With the loss of Moscow, Russia is not yet lost, but with the loss of the army, Russia is lost”. These words of the great commander, which went down in history, were confirmed by subsequent events.
A.K. Savrasov. The hut in which the famous council in Fili was held
Military Council in Fili (A. D. Kivshenko, 1880)
Capture of Moscow
In the evening September 14 (September 27, new style) Napoleon entered deserted Moscow without a fight. In the war against Russia, all the plans of Napoleon were consistently destroyed. Expecting to receive the keys to Moscow, he stood for several hours in vain on Poklonnaya Hill, and when he entered the city, he was met by deserted streets.
Fire in Moscow on September 15-18, 1812 after the capture of the city by Napoleon. Painting by A.F. Smirnova, 1813
Already on the night of 14 (27) to 15 (28) September, the city was engulfed in fire, which increased so much by the night of 15 (28) to 16 (29) September that Napoleon was forced to leave the Kremlin.
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On suspicion of arson, about 400 townspeople from the lower classes were shot. The fire raged until September 18 and destroyed most of Moscow. Of the 30 thousand houses that were in Moscow before the invasion, after Napoleon left the city, "hardly 5 thousand" remained.
While Napoleon's army was inactive in Moscow, losing combat effectiveness, Kutuzov retreated from Moscow, first to the southeast along the Ryazan road, but then, turning to the west, went to the flank of the French army, occupied the village of Tarutino, blocking the Kaluga road. gu. In the Tarutino camp, the foundation was laid for the final defeat of the "great army".
When Moscow was on fire, bitterness against the invaders reached its highest intensity. The main forms of the war of the Russian people against the invasion of Napoleon were passive resistance (refusing to trade with the enemy, leaving bread unharvested in the fields, destroying food and fodder, going into the forests), partisan warfare and mass participation in militias. To the greatest extent, the course of the war was influenced by the refusal of the Russian peasantry to supply the enemy with food and fodder. The French army was on the verge of starvation.
From June to August 1812, Napoleon's army, pursuing the retreating Russian armies, traveled about 1,200 kilometers from the Neman to Moscow. As a result, her communication lines were greatly stretched. Given this fact, the command of the Russian army decided to create flying partisan detachments for operations in the rear and on the enemy’s communication lines, in order to prevent his supply and destroy his small detachments. The most famous, but far from the only commander of the flying detachments was Denis Davydov. Army partisan detachments received comprehensive support from the spontaneous peasant partisan movement. As the French army moved deep into Russia, as violence from the Napoleonic army grew, after the fires in Smolensk and Moscow, after the decrease in discipline in Napoleon's army and the transformation of a significant part of it into a gang of marauders and robbers, the population of Russia began to move from passive to active resistance to the enemy. Only during their stay in Moscow, the French army lost more than 25 thousand people from the actions of the partisans.
The partisans constituted, as it were, the first ring of encirclement around Moscow, occupied by the French. The second ring was made up of militias. Partisans and militias surrounded Moscow in a dense ring, threatening to turn Napoleon's strategic encirclement into a tactical one.
Tarutinsky fight
After the surrender of Moscow, Kutuzov apparently avoided a major battle, the army was building up strength. During this time, a 205,000 militia was recruited in the Russian provinces (Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Tula, Kaluga, Tver and others), and 75,000 in Ukraine. By October 2, Kutuzov led the army south to the village of Tarutino, closer to Kaluga.
In Moscow, Napoleon found himself in a trap, it was not possible to spend the winter in the city devastated by fire: foraging outside the city was not successful, the stretched communications of the French were very vulnerable, the army began to decompose. Napoleon began to prepare for a retreat to winter quarters somewhere between the Dnieper and the Dvina.
When the "great army" retreated from Moscow, its fate was sealed.
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Battle of Tarutino, October 6th (P. Hess)
October 18(according to the new style) Russian troops attacked and defeated near Tarutino Murat's French corps. Having lost up to 4 thousand soldiers, the French retreated. The battle of Tarutino became a landmark event, marking the transition of the initiative in the war to the Russian army.
Napoleon's retreat
October 19(according to the new style) the French army (110 thousand) with a huge convoy began to leave Moscow along the Old Kaluga road. But the road to Kaluga to Napoleon was blocked by Kutuzov's army, located near the village of Tarutino on the Old Kaluga road. Due to the lack of horses, the French artillery fleet was reduced, large cavalry formations practically disappeared. Not wanting to break through a fortified position with a weakened army, Napoleon turned in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Troitskoye (modern Troitsk) onto the New Kaluga Road (modern Kiev highway) in order to bypass Tarutino. However, Kutuzov transferred the army to Maloyaroslavets, cutting off the French retreat along the New Kaluga road.
Kutuzov's army by October 22 consisted of 97 thousand regular troops, 20 thousand Cossacks, 622 guns and more than 10 thousand militia warriors. Napoleon had at hand up to 70 thousand combat-ready soldiers, the cavalry practically disappeared, the artillery was much weaker than the Russian one.
October 12 (24) took place battle near Maloyaroslavets. The city changed hands eight times. In the end, the French managed to capture Maloyaroslavets, but Kutuzov took a fortified position outside the city, which Napoleon did not dare to storm.On October 26, Napoleon ordered a retreat north to Borovsk-Vereya-Mozhaisk.
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A. Averyanov. Battle for Maloyaroslavets October 12 (24), 1812
In the battles for Maloyaroslavets, the Russian army solved a major strategic task - it thwarted the plan for the French troops to break through to Ukraine and forced the enemy to retreat along the Old Smolensk road he had devastated.
From Mozhaisk, the French army resumed its movement towards Smolensk along the same road along which it had advanced on Moscow.
The final defeat of the French troops took place at the crossing of the Berezina. The battles of November 26-29 between the French corps and the Russian armies of Chichagov and Wittgenstein on both banks of the Berezina River during the crossing of Napoleon went down in history as battle on the Berezina.
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The retreat of the French through the Berezina on November 17 (29), 1812. Peter von Hess (1844)
When crossing the Berezina, Napoleon lost 21 thousand people. In total, up to 60 thousand people managed to cross the Berezina, most of them civilian and non-combatant remnants of the "Great Army". Unusually severe frosts, which hit even during the crossing of the Berezina and continued in the following days, finally destroyed the French, already weakened by hunger. On December 6, Napoleon left his army and went to Paris to recruit new soldiers to replace those who died in Russia.
The main result of the battle on the Berezina was that Napoleon avoided complete defeat in the face of a significant superiority of Russian forces. In the memoirs of the French, the crossing of the Berezina occupies no less place than the largest Battle of Borodino.
By the end of December, the remnants of Napoleon's army were expelled from Russia.
"Russian campaign of 1812" was over December 14, 1812.
The results of the war
The main result of the Patriotic War of 1812 was the almost complete destruction of Napoleon's Great Army.Napoleon lost about 580,000 soldiers in Russia. These losses include 200 thousand killed, from 150 to 190 thousand prisoners, about 130 thousand deserters who fled to their homeland. The losses of the Russian army, according to some estimates, amounted to 210 thousand soldiers and militias.
In January 1813, the "Foreign campaign of the Russian army" began - the fighting moved to the territory of Germany and France. In October 1813, Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Leipzig, and in April 1814 he abdicated the throne of France.
The victory over Napoleon as never before raised the international prestige of Russia, which played a decisive role at the Congress of Vienna and in the following decades exerted a decisive influence on the affairs of Europe.
Main dates
June 12, 1812- The invasion of Napoleon's army into Russia across the Neman River. 3 Russian armies were at a great distance from each other. Tormasov's army, being in Ukraine, could not participate in the war. It turned out that only 2 armies took the blow. But they had to retreat in order to connect.
August 3rd- the connection of the armies of Bagration and Barclay de Tolly near Smolensk. The enemies lost about 20 thousand, and ours about 6 thousand, but Smolensk had to be left. Even the united armies were 4 times smaller than the enemy!
8 August- Kutuzov was appointed commander in chief. An experienced strategist, wounded many times in battles, Suvorov's student fell in love with the people.
August, 26th- The Battle of Borodino lasted more than 12 hours. It is considered a pitched battle. On the outskirts of Moscow, the Russians showed mass heroism. The losses of the enemies were greater, but our army could not go on the offensive. The numerical superiority of the enemies was still great. Reluctantly, they decided to surrender Moscow in order to save the army.
September October- Seat of Napoleon's army in Moscow. His expectations were not met. Failed to win. Kutuzov rejected requests for peace. The attempt to move south failed.
October December- the expulsion of Napoleon's army from Russia along the destroyed Smolensk road. From 600 thousand enemies, about 30 thousand remained!
December 25, 1812- Emperor Alexander I issued a manifesto on the victory of Russia. But the war had to continue. Napoleon had armies in Europe. If they are not defeated, then he will attack Russia again. The foreign campaign of the Russian army lasted until victory in 1814.
Prepared by Sergey Shulyak
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