August 26, 1812. The 124th
km to the west of Moscow.
A field by Borodino village.
Two huge armies were
finishing the last preparations
for the one of the bloodiest
battles of the epoch.
A quarter million people.
Over a thousand guns.
Borodino was to determine
the fate of the entire military campaign.
The fate of Moscow.
The fate of the entire Russia.
NAPOLEONIC WARS IN RUSSIA
At the daybreak drums
and trumpets were heard
in both the French
and the Russian camps.
At half past five over 100
French guns opened artillery fire
at the left flank of the Russians
where Bagration’s positions were.
Napoleon carried out his first
diversions at the right flank.
The first flank of the
Russian positions by Borodino
was defended by the First
Army of Barclay de Tolly —
76 thousand people and 480 guns.
The Koloch River separated
it from the enemy.
Barclay’s troops were
covering the Moscow direction.
In case of need they could
attack flanks and rear
of the French troops.
The left flank was open country.
It was taken by the
Second Army of Bagration —
34 thousand people and 156 guns.
After the loss of Shevardinskiy
Redoubt Bagration’s units
were left with just three
half-constructed flashes.
That’s why they built a
fortification in the middle
which was handed over to
General Rayevskiy’s battery.
Napoleon knew about the weakness
of the Russian left flank.
He decided to deal it the hardest blow.
He wanted to divert
the Russians’ attention
by seizing the village
of Borodino and then
to send the main forces to
the center, break through
Kuruzov’s defense lines,
come out into the rear,
press his army to the Moscow
River and devastate it.
Napoleon never used more than 20
thousand soldiers for diversion maneuvers.
The main forces of his troops,
about 115 thousand soldiers,
attacked Bagration’s positions.
The total strength of the
French army amounted to
135 thousand people and 587 guns.
Kutuzov had about 150
thousand soldiers including,
according to different estimates,
up to 10 thousand Cossacks
and up to 20 thousand home guards.
The home guards were
mostly armed with bayonets
and hardly took any part in the battle.
Holy Mother, save us!
The French delivered the main blow
by the village of Semenovskoye.
They believed that
their majority in numbers
would allow them to easily break
through the Russians’ defense.
The Corps of Marshals Davout,
Ney, Murat and General Junot went forward.
The French were met with fierce
fire. Losing dozens of killed
and wounded, they started to retreat.
Get ready!
Fire by the row!
Fire by the row!
In less than half an hour
the second attack started.
Marshal Davout rode to his soldiers
and took a place among them.
Send someone to the Commander-in-Chief.
We need reinforcements.
Tell Rayevskiy to move
the entire second line
of the Seventh Infantry
Corps to the flashes.
Tell General Tuchkov to send
Konovnitsin’s division here.
Headed by the Marshal
the infantrymen stormed
one of the flashes and
engaged into a furious battle.
Generals Dessaix and Compana and
almost all brigade generals were wounded.
A horse was killed under Davout.
The Marshal himself was concussed.
Despite the losses the French managed
to capture the fortification.
Neverovskiy’s division came
to the rescue of the flashes’ defenders.
His soldiers kicked the French
out of the positions with mere bayonets.
Guns and cannons never fell silent.
The third attack started.
Kutuzov had already sent
reinforcements to Bagration.
But they needed an hour to
get to the place of battle.
30 thousand French were
storming the flashes
defended by 16 thousand Russians.
Three cavalry corps
of Murat engaged into the battle.
The French artillery force was 160 guns.
Two flashes were seized but later
the Russians recaptured them.
Bagration moved his
reserves to the flashes
and they counter-attacked the French.
Murat himself barely escaped captivity.
Grenadiers of General Vorontsov took the
hardest blow of the massive French attack.
Almost all those brave warriors
died on the battlefield.
Vorontsov himself was wounded
with a bayonet.
Commander of the infantry division
General Neverovskiy was
severely wounded too.
To support his infantry
Napoleon sent in the cavalry
that took the flashes back.
Anrie, the cannon! Be quick! Be quick!
Konovnitsin’s division rushed
into the battle right on approach.
Damn it! Stop it! Get back!
The Russian infantrymen,
grenadiers and cuirassiers
were attacking the enemy from all sides.
Soldiers! Attack!
Columns of Revelskiy
and Muromskiy Regiments
were headed by a 34-year old
General Alexandra Tuchkov,
the youngest brother of Nicolay,
Pavel and Sergey Tuchkovs.
Soldiers! Attack!
The soldiers failed to bring
Tuchkov’s body from the battlefield.
They didn’t find it. The place of his death
was literally plowed with cannon balls.
After the end of the war
General Tuchkov’s widow
Margarita Mikhaylovna built
the Church of the Vernicle Image
of the Savior for her own money.
She opened a women’s parish
that was later reformed
into the Spaso-Borodinskiy
Women’s Monastery.
Tuchkov’s widow had been
its Mother Superior Maria
for many years.
The battle had been
raging for six hours.
A witness recalled:
“The ground before the flashes
was covered with the bodies of the French
and behind the flashes — with
the bodies of the Russians.
The soldiers were walking on blood
that the earth refused to swallow”.
Napoleon concentrated about
45 thousand of his soldiers
supported by 400 guns on a little stripe
less than one km wide.
Bagration had to oppose that devastative
force with just 20 thousand people
and 300 cannons.
This is the end!
Play the attack!
Aye-aye!
Play the attack! Play the attack!
Play the attack!
Get ready to attack!
Bagration’s positions withstood
over six hours of relentless storming.
Generals, colonels, officers
and privates were fighting with
bayonets, butts, cleaning rods,
stones and everything they
could lay their hands on.
It seemed that the Russian
troops were overpowering the French.
The reserves were on their way.
Then a grenade fragment
hit Bagration’s leg.
The Prince is wounded!
Call the doctor! Call the doctor!
Lay him on the ground.
Be careful. Be careful.
Tell… tell General Barclay
that the fate and the survival
of the army now depend on him.
It has been all right so far.
But let him watch over my army.
Tell Barclay…
Tell him “Thank you” and
“I’m sorry”. “I’m sorry”.
Prince Peter Ivanovitch Bagration
died on September 12, 1812
in the village of Simy of Vladimir
province where he was buried.
In 1839 his remains
were reburied on Borodino Field.
Repulsing fierce enemy attacks
the Russians who were now
left with their commander
retreated behind the Semenovskiy Gorge.
The French took the flashes.
But the price for them
was so high that they
had no strength left
to pursue the remains
of the Russian regiments.
Soon general Dokhturov who was appointed
the commander of the Second Army arrived.
He organized a new defense line.
He positioned artillery on top of the gorge
and immediately opened fire.
Napoleon ordered to bring all the light
cannons to the Semenovskiy Gorge.
A wall of fire fell on approaching
reserves of Life Guards
of Izmaylovskiy and
Lithuanian Regiments.
Under the terrible fire
of the Russian batteries
cuirassiers of Latour-Mobur and
Nansutie engaged into battle.
The cuirassiers were the heavy cavalry.
They used to wear helmets
and cuirasses for protection.
A cuirass consisted of two
metal plates on the chest
and on the back
connected with fasteners.
They were armed with broadswords —
a type of cold weapon with a long blade
weighting up to two kg.
That weapon could cut an enemy
in half but demanded great strength
and stamina from a cuirassier.
“The Iron Men”, as Napoleon called them,
easily plundered light
cavalry and bravely attacked
close ranks of infantry squares.
The French cavalry crossed a stream
and soon met the regiments
of the Russian cuirassiers.
Supported by the infantry and cavalry
they tried to encircle the French.
The latter had to retreat.
In the beginning of the day
when the defenders of
the flashes were repelling
the third attack Napoleon
sent Beauharnais’s Corps
to storm the Mound Height.
It was where the Russian battery
of General Rayevskiy was stationed.
They only managed to place 18
guns at the breastwork in time.
Before them were camouflaged
ditches with stakes
dug into the earth at the bottom.
Beauharnais took his time to
fire at the height from the guns.
When it seemed to him
that the Russian battery
was devastated he sent his
infantry into the attack.
But the trap ditches,
Russian snipers in the shrubs
and cannon balls made the French retreat.
The artillery cannonade
never fell silent.
All the slopes and approaches to the base
station were littered with dead bodies.
Fire! Fire the cannon! Give me the ball!
The cannon balls were
used up at the battery,
so the cannons fell silent at last.
General Bonami’s
Brigade crossed the ditch
and stormed the battery.
A hand-to-hand combat started.
The head of the headquarters
of the First Army
General Yermolov happened
to be at the battery
in that critical moment. He saw
that the height may be captured
so be threw three regiments of chasseurs
and an infantry
battalion into the attack.
Yermolov took Crosses
of St. George in his hand
and rushed to the battery
inspiring the rest to follow him.
“Many soldiers ran after him
and fought the enemy bravely”.
Yermolov Alexei Petrovitch,
the Infantry General.
He headed the headquarters of Barclay
de Tolly during the Battle of Borodino.
The participant of the Foreign Campaign
and the Battles of
Lutzen, Kulma and Leipzig.
In 1816 he was appointed
the Commander-in-Chief
of the Russian forces in
Georgia and Ambassador in Persia.
“A man of dignity, but a
lying one and an intriguer” —
that is how Barclay de
Tolly commented on him.
Denis Davidov called Yermolov
“The Guardian Angel of the Russian troops”.
Yermolov’s attack was
supported by soldiers
of the two infantry divisions
and a few dragoon regiments
that went round the Mound
Height from both right and left.
The French found themselves encircled.
After recapturing the battery the Russian
followed the retreating regiments.
The success was absolute.
The news about the captivity
of a French general
whom they confused for Marshal Murat
strengthened the army’s
battle spirit greatly.
Beauharnais threw all his infantry
forces at Rayevskiy’s battery.
Artillery fire and
hand-to-hand combat resumed.
Yermolov got wounded with case shot
and handed the command
over to General Likhachov.
Beauharnais begged
Napoleon for reinforcements.
The Mound Height was to be
urgently reinforced with reserves.
To win some time and to help Bagration
Kutuzov ordered the
Cossacks of Atamans Platov
and Uvarov’s cavalrymen
to go to the French rear
and deliver an unexpected blow.
The attack of the Russian
cavalry was so unexpected
that it spread panic in
Napoleon’s headquarters.
The Emperor stopped the attack
at the Rayevskiy’s battery
and turned his division around.
Waiting for the Russians’ general offensive
he was staying put till 3 p.m.
The psychological effect of
that raid was huge.
The Russian Army used the break
to reinforce its positions.
Beauharnais got reinforcements
too — the regiments of Ney,
Murat’s cavalry and the Young Guard.
Napoleon ordered the Marshals to join
efforts to seize the Mound Height.
After the artillery fire
Murat’s cuirassiers and uhlans
rushed at Rayevskiy’s battery.
The main tactical unit of
the cavalry was a squadron.
It consisted of about 100 riders.
After the start of the attack
the squadron would line up in
two lines 35 to 40 m long each.
The riders used to
sit knee-to-knee.
Other squadrons followed the first one.
The squadron would go
into the attack at a trot.
It would attack the cavalry
during the last 90 to 100 meters.
There the horses would
be snapped into a gallop.
To faster overcome the
artillery fire damage zone
or the enemy infantry positions
the same tactic was used.
The horses loaded with the
field kit got tired quickly.
It was impossible to make a
horse gallop more than twice
or trice during one battle. A
rider attacking at full speed
would hold his blade
above his head point-first
as the statute ordered
“to stab and not to cut”.
When cavalry was at a 60-step distance,
the Russian infantry opened fire.
The cuirassiers’ armor
didn’t save from bullets.
The riders had to retreat to their infantry
that was approaching the Mound Height
in closed ranks.
On getting the scattered
regiments in order
the cuirassiers broke through
the wall of the Russian infantry,
went round the Mound Height
and stormed the battery.
The French infantry followed.
Several battalions of
Likhachov were encircled.
A desperate fight, bloody and relentless
ensued at the Mound Height.
I’ll gladly die for the
sake of my Motherland!
Likhachov led his soldiers
into a bayonet fight.
The enemy learned a lot that day.
They saw what the Russian fight means,
our hand-to-hand combat…
The hand-to-hand bayonet fight is
the scariest episode of the battle.
A soldier had less chances of surviving
it than under fire.
The trihedral wide-bladed bayonets
inflicted terrible
wounds maiming people.
Commanders tried to settle
the battle with the artillery
or gun fire or the
offensive with closed ranks.
It usually made the enemy retreat.
But the parties wanted to carry
the fight through to victory
and rushed to
fight hand-to-hand.
The Borodino Battle holds
one of the first places
in quantity of the hand-to-hand
combats of those times.
Thus, in a battle for Rayevskiy’s
battery only 300 people
out of the 30th French Line
Regiment 4100 strong survived.
The French officers managed to pull
blood-covered General
Likhachov from the common heap.
He ran at an enemy with a lance in his hand
and was all stabbed with bayonets.
They brought him together with 15 surviving
soldiers to Napoleon.
I value courage that
failed too much, my Lord,
to deprive myself of a
pleasure to give you back
your weapon of a brave man.
Captivity deprived me of my
lance given to me by my Tsar
and given away against my will.
I may only take it back from him.
Likhachov Petr Gavrilovitch
was the General Major.
He used to serve in the
army since he was 14.
Being the commander of
a regiment of chasseurs
in the Caucasian Mountains
he demonstrated independence
in learning and battle
preparation of his subordinates.
During the Borodino Battle he used
to lead the 24th Infantry Division.
He was released from captivity
in December of 1812.
He died of consequences
of battle wounds in his family estate.
The Mound Height was
seized by the French.
But they failed to develop their success
due to inexhaustible
persistence of the Russians,
great losses and physical
tiredness of the troops.
Anrie! Your wound is bleeding.
You shall see the doctor!
To cover the Old
Smolensk Road Kutuzov sent
the Third Infantry Corps
of General Nicolay Tuchkov,
the eldest of the Tuchkovs brothers.
He also got a detachment of the Cossacks
and 15 thousand soldiers from the Moscow
and Smolensk volunteers’
units. The Corps was defending
the village of Utitsa. In
case of necessity Tuchkov
was to retreat to a little
elevation — the Utitskiy Mound.
The home guards that consisted
of serfs, petty bourgeois
and city dwellers were
armed with bayonets and axes.
There were no other weapons.
Forward!
A French officer recalled:
“A tall wood suddenly came into life.
Seven thousand beards
ran out from an ambush.
Shouting madly they rushed at the enemy
with home-made bayonets and axes
chopping people like firewood”.
Who is there at the Mound?
Our people, Your Honor.
Thank you!
Nicolay Alexeyevitch Tuchkov
died in Yaroslavl in three weeks.
General Baggovut took the command
over the left flank of the troops.
After the end of the battle Napoleon
started pulling his forces back.
The Russian army was ready
to go on fighting.
The Russian soldiers shouted “Hurray!”
on hearing the news
of the French attack the following day.
The battles started and ended.
The battles for life continued
at the dressing stations,
in mobile and permanent hospitals
that were receiving
more and more wounded.
As a rule experienced doctors
and nurses were working in the hospitals.
They were using bandages, lint, spirit,
quinine, potions, ointments,
lotions, different bandages,
plasters, surgical instruments,
silk and many other materials.
The wounded’s fate depended
on the first medical aid —
quick and skillful
dressing and timely surgery.
The doctor would widen
a bullet wound and clean it
from dirt, bones and powder,
as they used to say,
“until the meat is red
and the blood is clean’.
The doctors were trying
to save damaged limbs.
Sepsis was treated with amputation.
Hacksaw was used to cut off
limbs in field conditions.
The only anesthetics
were spirit or vodka.
Dominique-Jean Larrey, the
Chief Surgeon of the French Army
was for the early amputation of limbs.
He personally carried out
200 amputations at Borodino.
The wounded from Borodino
were taken to Moscow by carts.
By the end of August
of 1812 the hospitals
were overcrowded with up to
30 thousand wounded and sick.
According to some historians,
that number was about 40 thousand people.
When the decision to leave Moscow
was taken the wounded were
evacuated to Kasimov, Yelatma,
Melenki, Ryazan and other settlements.
However a major part of
them remained in the city.
One of the bloodiest battles of
the first half of the 19th century,
the Borodino Battle, lasted for 12 hours
and ended right where it started.
The historians estimate Napoleon’s
losses at about 35 to 50 thousand men.
49 of his generals died. The battle became
a grave for the French cavalry
60 per cent of which were lost.
According to different
estimates, the Russian army lost
from 38 to 45 thousand people killed,
wounded and missing
including 23 generals.
On getting fuller data
about the quantity of killed
And wounded Kutuzov changed his mind
about a major battle.
Closed to the midnight the troops
were divided into four columns
and got an order to retreat.
The battle inflicted serious
damage on the French Army too.
Napoleon now had no more
than 80 thousand soldiers.
The Emperor believed
that Kutuzov would lead
his army into a decisive
battle the following day.
He had no doubts in his
victory and was almost sure
that representatives of
Alexander I would come to him
in Moscow with a peace mission.
But Kutuzov acted otherwise.
His army was retreating to Mozhaysk.
Napoleon got to know
about that only at 10 a.m.
Who won the Borodino Battle?
In his letter to Emperor
Alexander I Kutuzov wrote:
“The battle culminated so
that the enemy failed to win
even one step of our land”.
But the French considered
themselves victors.
However Napoleon failed
to fulfill his main task —
to defeat Kutuzov’s army.
Napoleon recalled:
“Out of all my battles
the one by Moscow was the worst.
The French proved themselves
capable of achieving victory
while the Russians won
the right to be invincible.
Out of 50 battles that I led
we showed the greatest courage
and achieved the least
success by Moscow”.
In a few versts from
Moscow Kutuzov ordered
General Bennigsen to find a
good place for a new battle.
If the battle is tomorrow
he’ll get no Moscow for sure!
I hope so… So many people died.
The Second Grenadier
Company is almost gone.
My brother-in-law
died there.
They chose the Fili Hole in a
few km from the Vorobyovy Hills.
This position was weak. However
the army was ready to fight
anywhere not to let
the enemy enter Moscow.
Kutuzov ordered to build a
battery at the Poklonnaya Hill
showing that he was ready to fight.
However, according to General Yermolov’s
words, the cunning old man
had no intentions of fighting there
and was looking for a
suitable pretext to retreat.
On September 1, 1812 in 4
versts from Dragomilov post
at the edge of the village of
Fili in peasant’s Frolov’s house
Kutuzov gathered the council of war.
He invited the War
Minister Barclay de Tolly,
the head of the Chief
Headquarters Bennigsen,
Commander of the Second Army Dokhturov,
General-Quartermaster Tol,
the head of the headquarters
of the First Army
Yermolov, Generals Uvarov,
Osterman-Tolstoy,
Konovnitsin and Rayevskiy.
The events that happened in that house
continue to baffle historians to this day.
Kutuzov prohibited drawing
minutes of the meeting.
We only know about it
from the memoirs of its participants.
Kutuzov suggested that all
the generals should share
their opinion on the
main issue — what to do?
Should they fight or
leave Moscow and retreat?
Sit down, gentlemen.
Bennigsen and Yermolov
were for the fighting.
Barclay de Tolly, Osterman-Tolstoy
and Tol were for leaving Moscow.
We don’t know for sure the opinions
of Uvarov, Konovnitsin and Dokhturov.
Rayevskiy was the last to speak.
“Russia is not in Moscow.
It is among its sons.
The main thing is to save
the army. My opinion is that
we shall leave Moscow without a fight.”
According to Bennigsen’s
recollections, six generals
wanted to fight and four,
including Kutuzov, were against it.
In Yermolov’s memoirs the
exact opposite is true.
I order the retreat with
powers entrusted upon me
by the Tsar and the Motherland!
People heard the Commander-in-Chief crying
in his room several times that night…
The decision of the council of
war was announced to the troops.
The soldiers were upset.
But at 10 p.m. on September 1
the army left Fili and
moved towards Moscow.
At dawn first echelons of the
Russian army entered the city,
The bridges and streets were crowded
with the carts of refugees,
wounded and wagons.
The soldiers were walking
silently, looking down.
Many of them were crying.
Kutuzov ordered General Miloradovitch
who was heading the rear
guard to delay the enemy
until the Russian troops pass Moscow.
Marshal Murat was trying to
cut Miloradovitch’s rear guard
from the city and encircle him.
Then Miloradovitch sent
a letter to the Marshal.
“If you start the battle,
the Russians will fight
for every street and every house
and will ultimately set Moscow on fire”.
Miloradovitch Mikhail
Andreyevitch, the Infantry General.
He was heading the rear guard
and during the offensive —
the vanguard of the Russian army.
Because of his courage he enjoyed
endless authority among his soldiers.
In 1818 he was appointed
the General Governor of St.-Petersburg.
In 1825, on the day of
rebellion at the Senate Square
he addressed the rebels and
practical led talked the soldiers
into going back to the barracks.
He avoided wounds in 50 battles
only to get a mortal shot
in his back from the retired
Lieutenant Kakhovskiy on December 14.
Murat agreed to wait until
the last Russian soldier left the capital.
The partial reason
for that noble compliance
was a sorry plight of his cavalry.
Thanks to the agreement
between Miloradovitch and Murat
the Russian army and the majority of the
city dwellers managed to leave the city.
By the evening of September 2
Moscow was almost empty.
Napoleon and his army approached Moscow.
Venice and Milan, Alexandria
and Lisbon, Vienna, Berlin
and Rome succumbed to
the Emperor of France.
However no other capital was
as hugely, almost mystically
important for him as Moscow.
Here he hoped to get a petition
from the Russian Emperor
with an entreaty for truce.
Here his army was to get warm
apartments, food and forage.
The French soldiers entered Moscow.
Behind them were endless marches in heat
without a drop of water, hungry
nights under pouring rain.
Behind them were fire,
blood and thousands of dead.
Ahead of them was peace
promised by their Emperor.
They believed that they
had already defeated
the Russian army, this
country and its people…
The Emperor was impressed with
a view of the city from the Poklonnay Hill.
He was waiting for a boyars’ delegation
with the keys from the city.
The time was passing.
Nobody came.
Napoleon was getting impatient.
He was reported that
not only the authorities
but even common city dwellers
are largely absent from the city.
That same evening Napoleon
started getting disturbing reports:
fires began in Moscow. Napoleon decided
that the marauding
soldiers were to blame.
He called for Marshall Mortier
appointed the Governor of Moscow.
He demanded to immediately restore order
in the units and stop looting.
You’ll answer for that with your head!
"The fires already raged in
Zaryadye; then Kitay-Gorod lit up. "
Soon fire claimed two more districts.
There was nothing
to put the flames out with.
Moreover the soldiers who were looting
 the shops didn’t want to fight the fires.
They barely managed to
put the Market Square out.
The next day Napoleon entered Moscow
half-hidden under
thick clouds of smoke.
At last I’m in Moscow…
…in the palace of ancient tsars…
…in the Kremlin!
In the evening the fires resumed.
The fire caught the major part of the city.
It was light as during the day.
Strong wind was pushing the
flames to the center of Moscow.
Fire approached the Kremlin by night.
The guards managed
to put out the arsenal
where some stocks of powder
and shells still remained.
But when one of the
Kremlin’s towers caught fire
Marshals turned to Napoleon
asking him to leave the Kremlin.
They are setting fires themselves.
What kind of people are
they? They are real Scythians!
What decisiveness! The barbarians!
What a terrible sight!
Napoleon was still lingering.
How could he come to
the Kremlin as a winner
and run away without even
spending a night there?
This is impossible!
To burn their own cities!
What fierce decisiveness!
What a people! What a people!
The fire intensified. It was
hard to breathe because of smoke.
Sir…
Napoleon and his entourage
barely made their way
to Petrovskoe along the Moscow River.
The country palace of
the Russian Emperors
became Napoleon’s
headquarters for three days.
Moscow was still in flames.
Historians still argue on
the causes of the fires.
In his letter to
Alexander I Napoleon blamed
“the death of a
beautiful and great city”
on Governor Count Rostopchin.
Incendiaries detained
by the French claimed
that they were acting on his orders.
After the war Rostopchin first confirmed
and then disproved
his involvement in the fires.
There are also other
versions including arson
by the Russian scouts,
uncontrollable actions of the French,
and even accidents inevitable
in the general war chaos.
According to some estimates,
the fire destroyed 6,500 houses
out of over 9,000, 122
churches out of 329,
over 8,000 storehouses and shops.
The University, library of Buturlin,
Petrovskiy and Arbatskiy Theatres
all perished in the flames.
Up to 2,000 wounded Russian
soldiers died in the fire.
While the fire was raging
Moscow was being looted and destroyed.
On September 7, when
Napoleon returned to the city,
he found scorched streets,
looted shops and drunk soldiers.
The Emperor was worried by what he saw.
A burnt city is a bad
place to spend the winter
for the army with shaken discipline.
However Napoleon was
still energetic and active.
He continued to rule
his empire from Moscow.
He was signing decrees,
appointments and awards, orders.
Among them was the Statute
of “Comedie Francais”,
that is still in full effect
today. The time was passing.
Alexander I was keeping
silence. Signing of truce
became a deed of honor for
Napoleon, no matter what the price.
The Emperor sent two letters
to St.-Petersburg but got no answer.
The Russians still had a capable army
and Napoleon knew nothing
of its whereabouts…
On leaving Moscow the Russian
troops went to the Ryazan Road,
but then abruptly turned
to the old Kaluga Road.
Barclay de Tolly who was against
that decision left for St.-Petersburg.
The power now fully concentrated in
Kutuzov’s and Bennigsen’s hands.
The movement of the army to the south
was kept secret from the Frenchmen.
The Cossack units and Rayevskiy Corps were
distracting Murat’s detachments
by continuing their retreat to Ryazan.
There they… disappeared in the woods.
Every time Murat was moving forward
a Russian Cossack would ride up to him
from the Russian units asking
in the exquisite French:
“By what settlement is the
Italian Vice-King going to stop”?
Murat found the Russian
army only on September 14.
It stationed by the village of Tarutino.
85,000 people took a favorable position.
They were securely covering
the southern provinces
that were supplying the army with recruits,
food, horses and ammunition.
Murat constructed his
own fortified camp nearby.
After that a silent
truce was established.
Officers of the enemy
armies were meeting
on the neutral territory,
communicating, joking
and even arranging joint picnics.
The generals didn’t lag behind.
The two main brave heroes of both armies,
Murat and Miloradovitch,
got on especially well.
Yermolov recalled:
“General Miloradovitch met with Murat
several times.
Murat used to come either dressed
as a Spaniard,
or in a silly attire with a sable hat
and in silk brocade pants.
Miloradovitch would come on top
of a Cossack’s horse with a lance,
in three shawls of three different colors.
There was nobody like
them in both armies”!
The officers became such good friends
that Murat was sure — the
Russian army wouldn’t fight
with the French any more.
He reported to his Emperor accordingly.
So Napoleon was waiting for peaceful
 propositions from Alexander I.
Alexander I was in a state of blissful
ignorance about the army affairs.
Kutuzov informed his Tsar
on the situation only in nine
days after the Borodino Battle
and in two days after the
enemy had entered Moscow.
“Let me dare report
to you, Your Highness,
that arrival of the enemy
to Moscow doesn’t mean Russia’s defeat”.
Kutuzov explained that they left Moscow
because the army was
weakened after Borodino.
He sent Colonel Misho with
an oral report to Petersburg.
The Tsar’s family, the nobles
and the merchants were at a loss.
Some people were packing their things.
What if Napoleon goes
from Moscow to Petersburg?
Some supported the idea of
signing the peace treaty.
But the majority of the
Russian society was implacable.
Tsar’s sister Ekaterina
Pavlovna was begging his brother
not to sign the peace treaty.
“I better stop being who
I am but not make a deal
with a monster who makes
the entire world unhappy”.
Meanwhile guerilla units
started appearing in the rear
and on the flanks of Napoleon’s army.
They were hunting the occupants down.
The first order on
establishment of a guerilla unit
was given by Bagration
just five days before the Borodino Battle.
It was the General’s former adjutant,
Lieutenant Colonel of the
Akhtirskiy Hussar Regiment
Denis Davidov who suggested this idea.
The village of Borodino
was his father’s estate.
In five days before the
battle, when his native house
was being dismantled
to build fortifications
Davidov addressed
Bagration with a suggestion
to form a mobile detachment.
Davidov Denis Vasilyevitch
was a General Lieutenant,
an author and a poet,
a cousin of General Yermolov.
He participated in wars with
France, Sweden and Turkey.
His first guerilla detachment
consisted of 50 hussars and 80 Cossacks.
He was the participant
of the Foreign Campaign of 1813-1815.
He captured Dresden
with his vanguard unit
without an order after which
he was put under home arrest.
Davidov’s bravery was
legendary throughout Europe.
Residents of towns that the
Russian soldiers were passing
were asking about Davidov in the
streets dreaming of seeing him.
During one little raid
a small Davidov’s unit
released 200 Russian prisoners,
seized a cart with bullets,
nine carts with food and
took 370 Frenchmen prisoners.
Napoleon hated Davidov and ordered
to execute him on site in case of capture.
2,000 were sent to catch him.
Davidov had twice less people.
However he managed to trap
and capture his enemies.
On November 9 Davidov and
other guerillas took 2,000
men of General Ajearaix
prisoners by Lyahov.
He also eliminated the
French cavalry depot by Kopis.
He defeated the enemy
detachment by Belynitchi,
came up to the Neman and seized Grodno.
Right after the Russian army left Moscow
a few new guerilla units were formed.
They were headed by Captain
Seslavin, Captain Figner,
Colonel Kudashev and other officers.
A real people’s war began
in the Frenchmen’s rear.
Kutuzov and Bennigsen took all
measures to prevent the French
from moving into the heart of Russia.
The Vladimir Home
Guard occupied the road
from Moscow to Pokrovsk,
the Ryazan Home Guard
stood on the Oka River, the
Tula Home Guard was blocking
the road to Serpukhov
and the Kaluga Home Guard
was controlling the roads to
Yukhnov, Vyazma and Bryansk.
The burnt-down Moscow — this is
all what Napoleon got in Russia.
Created by Valeriy Babitch,
Directed by Pavel Tupik
Director of Photography
— Dmitry Kiptiliy
Music by Boris Kukoba, Hosted by Sergey
Chonishvili and Yevgeniy Sinchukov
Produced by Valeriy Babitch, Vlad
Ryashin, Oleg Volnov and Konstantin Ernst
