Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace

by Dominic Lieven

  41 For example, Barclay through Löwenstern urged the commander of the Guards cavalry to try to keep his men, the army’s ultimate elite reserve, under cover. General Shevich responded that there was no cover to be found. Löwenstern, Mémoires, vol. 1, p. 264. Grabbe, for example, writes that Ermolov told him to order the troops covering the Raevsky Redoubt to lie down in order to reduce the impact of artillery fire but that they refused to do so: P. Grabbe, Iz pamiatnykh zapisok: Otechestvennaia voina, Moscow, 1873, p. 77.

  42 The best description from the Russian viewpoint is the official history of the Russian corps of military engineers in this period: Fabritsius, Glavnoe inzhenernoe upravlenie, pp. 760–65, covers Borodino but needs to be read in the context of other sections on sieges in 1812 and on the structure and tasks of the corps of military engineers at that time. Bogdanovich has a sensible description of the fortifications, which he describes as ‘very weak’ in Istoriia…1812, vol. 2, pp. 142–3. Inevitably the English-language secondary literature usually just repeats established myths of French origin. Thus the recently published Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age, London, 2008 (edited by Robert Bruce et al.), writes of ‘the daunting defences of the…massive Russian redoubt’: p. 113.

  43 Bogdanov’s memoirs are reproduced in Borodino v vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, SPB, 2001, pp. 169–71.

  44 Fabritsius, Glavnoe inzhenernoe upravlenie, pp. 762–4. Clausewitz, Campaign, p. 151.

  45 Liprandi, Materialy, pp. 177–80.

  46 Mikaberidze, Borodino, pp. 75–6, handles these issues well. Even young (and at this point retired) Lieutenant Glinka records seeing from Borodino bell-tower how Napoleon’s troops massed on the left towards the evening of 6 September and recalls ‘the general opinion’ of Russian officers he met that day that Napoleon would attack the Russian left: Pis’ma, pp. 18, 299.

  47 Löwenstern, Mémoires, vol. 1, pp. 261–2.

  48 Mikaberidze, Borodino, pp. 49–53, discusses numbers and provides a table showing the many differing estimates by historians and contemporaries.

  49 On Miloradovich’s reinforcements, see his report to Alexander of 18 Aug. 1812 (OS), in Valkovich and Kapitonov (eds.), Borodino: Dokumental’naia khronika, pp. 21–2.

  50 Philippe de Ségur, History of the Expedition to Russia, 1812, 2 vols., Stroud, 2005, vol. 1, p. 255.

  51 Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, vol. 24, no. 19182, p. 207.

  52 Ségur, History, vol. 1, pp. 251–2. On this occasion General Gourgaud, Napoléon et la Grande Armée en Russie ou Examen critique de l’ouvrage de M. le Comte de Ségur, Paris, 1826, pp. 213–15, is wholly correct in his defence of Napoleon’s decision.

  53 The official report of the regiment’s commander, Karl Bistrom, rather confuses the reader by its details, as does the regiment’s official history: Valkovich and Kapitonov (eds.), Borodino: Dokumental’naia khronika, no. 293, Bistrom to Lavrov, 31 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 168–70; Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka za sto let 1796–1896, SPB, 1896, pp. 84–6. On Barclay, see Grabbe, Iz pamiatnykh, p. 74. For rumours, see e.g. Tartakovskii (ed.), Voennye dnevniki, p. 107, diary of Ivan Durnovo.

  54 Complete casualty figures for other ranks are provided in the prilozhenie (appendix) 4 of Valkovich and Kapitonov (eds.), Borodino: Dokumental’naia khronika, pp. 332–54. On the French artillery, see A. P. Larionov, ‘Izpol’zovanie artillerii v Borodinskom srazhenii’, in K stopiatidesiatiletiiu otechestvennoi voiny, Moscow, 1962, pp. 116–31 at p. 127.

  55 Jomini, Art of War, pp. 202–3.

  56 T. von Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben des kaiserlichen russischen Generals der Infanterie Carl Friedrich Grafen von Toll, 5 vols., Leipzig, 1858, vol. 4, p. 74.

  57 I. Ul’ianov, 1812: Russkaia pekhota v boiu, Moscow, 2008, pp. 164–5.

  58 On Kutaisov, see A. A. Smirnov, General Aleksandr Kutaisov, Moscow, 2002.

  59 Thanks to their translator and editor, Alexander Mikaberidze, Ermolov’s memoirs are now available in English: The Czar’s General, Welwyn Garden City, 2007. His account of this episode is on pp. 159–61. Löwenstern’s account is in Mémoires, vol. 1, pp. 257–9.

  60 On the deployment of artillery at Borodino, see Larionov, ‘Izpol’zovanie’, passim. P. Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, SPB, 1896, pp. 181–2, explains these failings by Kutaisov’s death. For Liprandi’s views, see Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god, vol. 2, ‘Zamechaniia I. P. Liprandi’, pp. 28–9.

  61 For Paskevich’s account, see I. F. Paskevich, ‘Pokhodnyia zapiski’, in 1812 god v vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, Moscow, 1995, pp. 72–105, at pp. 102–3.

  62 Pototskii, Istoriia, p. 178, for Norov’s comment. Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god, vol. 2, pp. 176–84, for the excellent memoirs of Lieutenant-Colonel Vasilii Timofeev of the Izmailovskys. For the Finland Regiment, see S. Gulevich, Istoriia leib gvardii Finliandskago polka 1806–1906, SPB, 1906, pp. 204–20. For the Lithuania Regiment, see N. S. Pestreikov, Istoriia leib-gvardii Moskovskago polka, SPB, 1903, vol. 1, pp. 59–83.

  63 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 2, pp. 110–11; Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812 goda, vol. 2, pp. 219, 226.

  64 Together the Preobrazhenskys and Semenovskys lost fewer than 300 men on 7 Sept.: Valkovich and Kapitonov (eds.), Borodino: Dokumental’naia khronika, p. 342.

  65 D. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon, London, 1993, p. 807, writes that Napoleon’s decision was probably correct.

  66 The most recent analysis of the second attack on the redoubt is by V. N. Zentsov, ‘Borodinskoe srazhenie: Padenie “bol’shogo reduta”’, in Borodinskoe pole: Istoriia, kul’tura, ekologiia, Moscow, 2000, pp. 31–55.

  67 ‘Zhurnal uchastnika voiny 1812 goda’, VIS, 3/2, 1913, pp. 163–4.

  68 Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski, vol. 1, p. 168.

  69 Valkovich and Kapitonov (eds.), Borodino: Dokumental’naia khronika, pp. 332–5. Mikaberidze, Borodino, p. 209.

  70 V. M. Bezotosnyi, Donskoi generalitet i ataman Platov v 1812 godu, Moscow, 1999, pp. 33–4, 62–4, 75–83. The memoirs of Fedor Akinfov, Miloradovich’s aide-de-camp, are very useful for this period: ‘Iz vospominanii Akinfova’, in Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god, vol. 2, pp. 205–12.

  71 Countess Edling’s memoirs in A. Libermann (ed.), Derzhavnyi sfinks, Moscow, 1999, p. 177, for Kutuzov’s words to Alexander. Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 105, Kutuzov to Rostopchin, 17 August 1812 (OS), pp. 90–91.

  72 As usual, the best summary account of the council of war is in Entsiklopediia, pp. 666–7. Mikaberidze’s translation of Ermolov’s memoirs gives a strong sense of the game played between him and Kutuzov over responsibility for Moscow’s abandonment: The Czar’s General, pp. 168–72. Bennigsen’s letter to Alexander of 19 Jan. 1813 (OS) in VS, 1, 1903, pp. 235–8, puts his side of the argument.

  73 S. I. Maevskii, ‘Moi vek ili istoriia generala Maevskago, 1779–1848’, RS, 8, 1873, pp. 135–67, at p. 143.

  74 ‘Iz vospominanii Akinfova’, in Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god, vol. 1, pp. 205–12. Maevskii, ‘Moi vek’, pp. 143–4.

  75 The most up-to-date surveys are, as usual, in Entsiklopediia: see especially the pieces on Moscow (pp. 476–9) and the fire (pp. 482–4). For the figure on private property destroyed, see Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812 goda, vol. 3, p. 28. For the evacuation of the wounded, see Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Memuary 1814–1815, SPB, 2001, p. 189, for a subsequent conversation with Wylie. Also S. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia i snabzheniia russkoi armii nakanune i v khode otechestvennoi voiny 1812 g. i zagranichnykh pokhodov 1813–1815 gg.: Istoricheskie aspekty, SPB, 2003, pp. 143–4.

  76 On the barges, see the records of the post-war inquiry in Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, prilozhenie no. 20, pp. 717–18.

  77 As always, A. I. Popov, Velikaia armiia v Rossii: Pogonia za mirazhom, Samara, 2002, pp. 178 ff., has an excellent discussion of these issues.

  78 V. N. Speranskii, Voenno-ekonomicheskaia podgotovka Rossii k bor’be s Napoleonom v 1812–1814 godakh, candidate’s dissertation, Gorky, 1967, pp. 386–8. Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 294, Kutuzov to Voronov, 7 Sept. 18
12 (OS), p. 250.

  Chapter 7: The Home Front in 1812

  1 P. A. Chuikevich, ‘Analiticheskii proekt voennykh deistvii v 1812. P. A. Chuikevicha’, Rossiiskii Arkhiv, 7, 1996, p. 46. S. N. Golubeva (ed.), General Bagration: Sbornik dokumentov i materialov, Moscow, 1945, no. 57, ‘Plan kampanii 1812 goda, predstavlennyi P. I. Bagrationom Aleksandru I’, pp. 130–38. Janet Hartley provides a very useful survey of Russian society’s resistance to Napoleon in ‘Russia and Napoleon: State, Society and the Nation’, in M. Rowe (ed.), Collaboration and Resistance in Napoleonic Europe, Basingstoke, 2003, pp. 186–202.

  2 N. Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr Pervyi: Ego zhizn’ i tsarstvovanie, 4 vols., SPB, 1897, vol. 3, pp. 100–103.

  3 MVUA 1812, 17, Barclay to Asch, 21 July 1812 (OS), pp. 157–8.

  4 L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Narodnoe opolchenie v otechestvennoi voine 1812 goda: Sbornik dokumentov, Moscow, 1962, no. 2, 6 July 1812 (OS), pp. 14–15.

  5 The statistics come from Beskrovnyi (ed.), Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 205, pp. 218–19: these are the final reports of Lieutenant-General Tyrtov, the commander of the Tver militia. C. F. Adams (ed.), John Quincy Adams in Russia, New York, 1970, p. 452.

  6 The outstanding work on Russian popular (and other) resistance to Napoleon is A. I. Popov, Velikaia armiia v Rossii: Pogonia za mirazhom, Samara, 2002. Popov also contributed many excellent articles, on ‘People’s War’, peasant disturbances, partisans and adjacent topics, to Entsiklopediia. There are parallels here with Spain, where Charles Esdaile shows that many of the guerrillas were regular cavalrymen. The Russian case was much more clear-cut, however, as one would expect. Unlike in Spain, the Russian state had not collapsed. See Charles Esdaile, Fighting Napoleon: Guerrillas, Bandits and Adventurers in Spain 1808–14, London, 2004.

  7 Beskrovnyi, Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 140, Kutuzov to Alexander, 23 Oct. 1812 (OS), pp. 155–6; see e.g. no. 89, pp. 113–17, and no. 121, p. 142, for descriptions of individual actions.

  8 Popov, Velikaia armiia, pp. 185–229. A. G. Tartakovskii (ed.), Voennye dnevniki, Moscow, 1990, diary of Prince D. M. Volkonsky, p. 146. For an older but still useful view of peasant disturbances, see V. I. Semevskii, ‘Volneniia krest’ian v 1812 gi. sviazannyia s otechestvennoi voinoi’, in A. K. Dzhivelegov, S. P. Melgunov and P. I. Pichet (eds.), Otechestvennaia voina i russkoe obshchestvo, 7 vols., Moscow, 1911, vol. 5, pp. 74–113.

  9 See the many interesting documents in RGVIA, Fond 1, Opis 1ii, Delo 2584: ‘O vozmushcheniiakh krest’ian i ob usilenii sredstv k poimke beglykh rekrut, dezertirov i kazakov’: fos. 41–2: d’Auvray to Gorchakov, 1 Nov. 1812 (OS), describes the rout of the dragoons, and fo. 35: Wittgenstein to Gorchakov, 6 Nov. 1812 (OS), explains why military operations have to come first.

  10 SIM, 2, no. 312, Alexander to Gorchakov, 9 Nov. 1812 (OS), pp. 171–2.

  11 There is an immense literature on Moscow in 1812 with many interesting materials contained, for example, in the multi-volume series compiled by P. I. Shchukin: Bumagi otnosiashchiiasia do otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda, Moscow, 1897–1908. N. Dubrovin (ed.), Otechestvennaia voina v pis’makh sovremennikov, Moscow, 2006, contains a number of Rostopchin’s letters to Balashev: see in particular nos. 55 and 62, 23 July and 30 July 1812 (OS), pp. 60–63, 70–71. English-speaking readers need to look no further than an excellent article by Alexander Martin, ‘The Response of the Population of Moscow to the Napoleonic Occupation of 1812’, in Eric Lohr and Marshall Poe (eds.), The Military and Society in Russia, 1450–1917, Leiden, 2002, pp. 469–89.

  12 Dubrovin, Otechestvennaia voina, no. 47, 15 July 1812 (OS), pp. 54–6. Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr, vol. 3, p. 90. L. V. Mel’nikova, Armiia i pravoslavnaia tserkov’ Rossiiskoi imperii v epokhu Napoleonovskikh voin, Moscow, 2007, pp. 57–90, 100–115.

  13 PSZ, 22, 16187, 21 April 1785 (OS), p. 348.

  14 Compare for example the language of Alexander’s decree to Governor Suponev of Vladimir with Suponev’s own subsequent reference to the emperor’s ‘commands’: RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1, Delo 16, fos. 21, 23–8: Suponev to Lobanov-Rostovsky, 11 June 1812 (OS), and Alexander to Suponev, 13 May 1812 (OS). As regards service in the militia and its evasion, see e.g. N. F. Khovanskii, Uchastie Saratovskoi gubernii v otechestvennoi voine 1812 g., Saratov, 1912, pp. 41–64; I. I. Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia guberniia v 1812 godu, Riazan, 1913, pp. 277–528.

  15 See the memoirs of Countess Edling, reprinted in A. Libermann (ed.), Derzhavnyi sfinks, Moscow, 1999: ‘Grafinia Roksandra Skarlatovna Edling: Zapiski’, pp. 157–236, at pp. 174–5. On sabotaging the estate tax, see e.g. Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, pp. 8–21.

  16 ‘V. V. Viazemskii: Zhurnal 1812 g.’, in Russkie dnevniki: 1812 god, Moscow, 1990, pp. 185–225, at p. 211.

  17 Khovanskii, Uchastie, pp. 31–3.

  18 Upravlenie General-Intendanta Kankrina: General’nyi sokrashchennyi otchet po armiiam…za pokhody protiv Frantsuzov, 1812, 1813 i 1814 godov, Warsaw, 1815, pp. 11, 44. L. G. Beskrovnyi, Otechestvennaia voina 1812 goda, Moscow, 1962, pp. 245–7. S. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia i snabzheniia russkoi armii nakanune i v khode otechestvennoi voiny 1812 g. i zagranichnykh pokhodov 1813–1815 gg.: Istoricheskie aspekty, SPB, 2003, p. 121.

  19 V. V. Tivanov, Finansy russkoi armii, Moscow, 1993, p. 79.

  20 PSZ, 32, nos. 24975 and 25035, 27 Jan. and 13 March 1812 (OS), pp. 43–164 and 228–9. Upravlenie General-Intendanta, p. 134. Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 387, Kutuzov to Kaverin, 13 Sept. 1812 (OS), p. 305: the same letter went to the governors of Riazan, Orel, Tver and Tula.

  21 The estimate is by Tivanov, Finansy, p. 66, but is based on the discussion in M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda, 3 vols., SPB, 1859–60, vol. 2, pp. 31–90.

  22 The key documents for Kleinmichel’s operation are in SIM, 1, no. 3, Alexander to Gorchakov, 27 June 1812 (OS), pp. 5–11; no. 9, Alexander to Kleinmichel, 27 June 1812 (OS), pp. 14–15; no. 21, Alexander to Kleinmichel, 6 July 1812 (OS), pp. 23–4. There is a fine new book on the Russian marines which includes extensive coverage of the Napoleonic era: A. Kibovskii and O. Leonov, 300 let Rossiiskoi morskoi pekhoty, Moscow, 2007.

  23 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, e.g. fos. 18–19, Suponev to Lobanov, 6 June 1812 (OS); fo. 21, Suponev to Lobanov, 11 June 1812 (OS); fos. 23–8, copies of Alexander’s orders to Suponev, dated 13 May 1812 (OS). See Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, p. 168, for a list of these provinces.

  24 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos. 2–3, Pasynkov to Lobanov, 18 June 1812 (OS); fos. 90–91, Shter to Lobanov, 6 July 1812 (OS).

  25 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 16, fos. 6–7, Pasynkov to Lobanov, 23 July 1812 (OS); fos. 100–101, Shter to Lobanov, 18 July 1812 (OS).

  26 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos. 6–7, Pasynkov to Lobanov, 23 July 1812 (OS); fos. 284–5, Prince Grigorii Golitsyn to Lobanov, 9 July 1812 (OS). RA, 6, 1866, pp. 922–7: ‘Avtobiograficheskie zametki Grafa Arakcheeva’.

  27 Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, pp. 174–82, 210–22; Entsiklopediia, p. 297.

  28 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos. 92–3, Shter to Balashev, 24 June 1812 (OS); Delo 19, fos. 77–81, Urusov to Lobanov, 23 July 1812 (OS). Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, p. 188.

  29 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos.

  29 and 32, Dolgorukov to Lobanov, 6 Aug. and 3 Sept. 1812 (OS).

  30 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 19, fos. 2–4, Gorchakov to Lobanov, 20 Aug. 1812 (OS); fos. 134–40, ‘Spisok o vsekh shtab i ober ofitserakh postupivshikh na sluzhbu’.

  31 Kutuzov, vol 4ii, Kutuzov to Alexander, 9 October 1812 (OS), pp. 62–3. Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, pp. 224–7. RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos. 100–101, Shter to Lobanov, 18 July 1812 (OS).

  32 Beskrovnyi, Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 3, 18 July 1812 (OS), pp. 15–16, is the text of this manifesto.

  33 The statistic comes from an article by V. I. Babkin, the leading Soviet-era expert on the militia: ‘Organizatsiia i voennye deistviia narodnogo opolcheniia v otechestvennoi voine 1812 goda’, in K stopiatide
siatiletiiu otechestvennoi voiny, Moscow, 1962, pp. 134–62, at p. 145.

  34 Beskrovnyi, Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 117, pp. 137–9: regulations of the Kaluga militia committee, 25 July 1812 (OS).

  35 Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, p. 228. A few of these men did receive new uniforms produced abroad: see Ch. 10. The minister added that even in wartime not all wool could be assigned for uniforms.

  36 Beskrovnyi, Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 354, Tolstoy to Alexander, 28 Sept. 1812 (OS), p. 368.

  37 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812 goda, vol. 2, p. 56.

  38 Apart from Babkin and Bezotosnyi, the fullest source on the militia is the many volumes compiled by V. R. Apukhtin for the centenary of 1812: see e.g. Narodnaia voennaia sila: Dvorianskiia opolcheniia v otechestvennoi voine, Moscow, 1912. Apukhtin is as determined to sing the nobles’ glory as Babkin is to downplay their contribution. Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, pp. 229–621, is an immensely informative study of the Riazan militia.

  39 Speranskii, Voenno-ekonomicheskaia podgotovka, pp. 381, 392, 407–23. Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 18: memorandum by Müller-Zakomel’sky, 10 July 1812 (OS), p. 20.

  40 SIM, 1, no. 81, Alexander to Kutuzov, 24 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 64–5.

  41 A. I. Ulianov, ‘Tarutinskii lager: “neudobnye” fakty’, in Ot Tarutino do Maloiaroslavtsa: K 190-letiiu Maloiaroslavetskogo srazheniia, Kaluga, 2002, pp. 23–36.

  42 Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski, vol. 1, p. 172. Viazemskii, ‘Zhurnal’, p. 215. Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre, nos. 33 and 37, Catherine to Alexander, 6 Sept. and 23 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 107–8, 119–22.

  43 Meshetich, ‘Istoricheskie zapiski’, p. 50. L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Dnevnik Aleksandra Chicherina, 1812–1813, Moscow, 1966, pp. 14–16.

  44 On Tishchenko, see MVUA 1812, 19, pp. 335–6. Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka za sto let 1796–1896, SPB, 1896, p. 88. V. Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god v dnevnikakh, zapiskakh i vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, 4 vols., Vilna, 1900–1907, vol. 2, p. 200: ‘Opisanie srazhenii’.