The Burning of Moscow

by Alexander Mikaberidze

  But such calm was misleading, as other parts of the city were far from quiet. Many Allied officers allowed their men to secure necessary provisions, effectively sanctioning looting. Pion des Loches spent most of the night ransacking stores to secure supplies for his men. After taking a short nap ‘in a chair, in my clothes, with weapons handy’, he woke up at dawn on 15 September, by which time the fires had damaged several quarters around the Merchant Court. ‘Being without orders, and not knowing where to seek any,’ he later recalled, ‘I thought I would establish myself solidly with my command.’ He recruited a young Frenchman, the son of the French family who had served as his hosts the night before, to explore the houses in the neighbourhood, some of which had been pillaged already. ‘I lodged my cannoneers in a very large palace, the apartments of which were brilliant but unfurnished. It was moreover provided with ovens in which I proposed to bake a quantity of bread without loss of time.’ Pion des Loches himself continued to explore the street and found ‘another palace of a less pretentious appearance’ belonging to Prince Baryatinskii. The few remaining servants told him that ‘the palace was still intact, furnished, but with no other provisions than some poultry, a large quantity of oats, and a very rich cellar. A cellar! I lodged there at once.’ Hoping to be safely provided for by exchanging wine for other commodities procured by the soldiers, Pion des Loches banished the servants to another part of the palace, forbidding them to approach the French quarters. He then broke down the doors into the cellar, where, to his utter amazement, he found a vast collection of wines: ‘Except for an enormous cask of over 400 bottles, all the wine was in bottles buried in sand. We recognized, with glass in hand, the most exquisite brands: Bordeaux, Fontignan, Malaga, Madeira-sec, and elsewhere were liquors and syrups.’ Concerned that his men would soon be subjected to great privations, he immediately had a cask with 250 Madeira bottles placed in a wagon, along with some sacks of flour and salted fish, which we found in large supply. His artillery crews likewise were busy plundering nearby buildings, but, as Pion des Loches commented, they did it ‘without intelligence. From a candy store they brought me baskets full of sugar-plums, macaroons and roasted almonds. I had much trouble in getting these away from them so as to make them take casks of excellent porter and an ox recently butchered and still hung in a butcher’s shop.’90

  Across the town Kicheyev saw ‘three enemy soldiers, in long blue coats and wearing blue-coloured [forage] caps that looked like sleep caps. Like almost all other marauders they had no muskets but only rods, which they began to throw to break our chickens’ legs …’ They left after killing several birds but were soon followed by another group of men, who took away the family’s horses and cart. Similar visits occurred throughout the next few days.91 As some Muscovites discovered, the presence of senior Allied officers did not guarantee order. Maxim Sakov, who managed Ivan Batashov’s estate, where Marshal Murat and his suite had lodged for the night, recalled that

  we spent Tuesday, 3 September [the 15th] in utmost commotion since upon waking up each [Allied] official demanded whatever they wished from us: some desired tea, others coffee, while a few requested white wine, Champagne, Burgundy, vodka, Rhein-wein and white bread. In short, using harsh threats, they demanded that we satisfy all their whims. They worked us so hard that we could barely stand on our feet and many of us simply fled … All the while, we heard women yelling that soldiers had taken away their biscuits and bread; in other rooms soldiers were breaking chests and plundering everything they could lay hands on. Although guard sentries were assigned to all plundered buildings, the pillaging went on at other locations where guards were not present. We thus spent the entire day in commotion and turmoil.92

  Although the determined efforts of the Guardsmen had halted the initial progression of the blaze in Kitai-gorod, fires continued to break out in other parts of the city. At dawn on 15 September the Cossacks raided the Pyatnitskii, Yakimanskii and Serpukhovskii districts in Zamoskvorechye (part of Moscow that lay south of the Kremlin, across the Moscow river) and set buildings on fire near the Moskvoretskii bridge.93 Along the Moscow river the barges laden with provisions and ammunition that the Russians had set on fire the previous day were still burning and it was the billowing smoke from these that Napoleon observed during his tour of the city. The relatively fire-free first half of 15 September proved to be illusory since the fires returned with a vengeance in the evening. Bourgogne’s memoirs reveal that his company had been repeatedly deployed to fight new fires throughout the evening of the 15th and the night of 15/16 September, when they were ‘busy trying to extinguish the fires round the Kremlin and were successful for a time, but the fires broke out again afterwards more fiercely than ever … At midnight fire broke out again near the Kremlin and fresh efforts were made to extinguish it. But on the 16th, at three o’clock in the morning, it recommenced more violently than ever …’94

  Indeed, throughout the evening of 15 September new outbreaks were reported in the Merchant Court, which spread to Zaryadye (between Varvarka street and the river), Balchug island and further around. These fires, fanned by a strong wind, carried burning embers to other parts of the city, spawning a score of new fires in the eastern suburbs, and along the Arbat and the long avenue leading to the Dorogomilovskaya barrier. That day (the 15th) ‘fierce fires had raged at the Pokrovka and devastated the Nemetskaya sloboda [in northeast Moscow] … The night was equally dreadful because of the fires and the [pillaging of the] French troops,’ lamented Maxim Sakov. Surrugues saw fires in the Pokrovskaya suburb but also refers to outbreaks on the Tverskoi and Nikitskii boulevards. Charles de Quaij related: ‘I was put on watch with the battalion and we had just taken our post when fire broke out on three sides (the Merchant Court being the fourth side); this increased so much that [as] all of the Guard, which was in the palace, took their weapons, the city too caught fire everywhere.’95 Castellane’s journal entry for 15 September shows the gradual change in his circumstances, as it opens with the author’s delight at finally having an opportunity to rest and enjoy good food, and ends with his horror at seeing ‘fires near our house’ and ‘numerous detained Russians who held burning torches in their hands’. By the end of the day Vionnet de Maringone described conditions as ‘dreadful’, with the noise of houses crashing down and the sight of the unfortunates who could hardly escape from the flames creating ‘a spectacle that defies human imagination’.96 Pion des Loches believed that ‘15th September marked the start of the conflagration and general pillage of Moscow … The army was completely disbanded. Everywhere officers and soldiers were seen drunk and loaded with booty and provisions taken from the burning houses. The streets were strewn with books, crockery, furniture and clothing of all kinds. The numerous female army followers furnished themselves with an incredible avidity, so as to make us pay dear during the retreat for the results of their pillage. They were seen loaded with barrels of wine and liquor, with sugar and coffee, and with expensive furs.’97 As he crossed the river to escape the fires, Paymaster Duverger saw one of these ruthless sutlers in action: ‘On the main street we saw some poor women and children with hardly any clothes on running from all directions. The fire was already threatening to cut off their retreat on all sides. At that moment, an old sutler placed herself athwart the road. I saw her repulsing with her fist a grenadier who tried to stop her coming into the town. There she stood, her savage green eyes on the hurrying fugitives, stopping and searching them.’ Duverger’s attention was drawn to ‘an old man, two or three children, a girl, beautiful despite her pallor, and a woman who was carried on a stretcher by two men. All were weeping so piteously it broke your heart. The old sutler flung herself at the sick woman, with a sacrilegious hand searching her clothes to see if they concealed anything of value …’98

  Concerned about her safety on the eve of the enemy occupation, Madame Fusil, who had stayed in Moscow against her will, left the house she was living in and joined a family of artists who had occupied a large palace belonging to Prince Golit
syn in the Basmanskaya suburb, a rather isolated place at the opposite end of the city from where the Allied army entered it. On 15 September she decided to return to her apartment and was surprised to find ‘all buildings occupied by the military. Two captains of the Gendarmerie were lodged at my apartment. All my belongings were ransacked and my papers were scattered around on the floor. I found these men shamelessly reading my personal papers. My appearance confused them and they assured me that they had found the apartment already ransacked.’ Unable to stay there any longer, Fusil chose to return to the Golitsyn estate. However, ‘the swiftly spreading fires threatened this house. As I turned back, my path was illuminated by the flames that consumed homes all around me. The fires made for a remarkably bright illumination, while the wind howled ominously. It seemed that everything conspired to destroy this ill-fated city.’ Climbing to the top of one of the princely estates, Madame Fusil beheld ‘the magnificent yet terrifying sight’ of Moscow burning. ‘For the next four nights we did not light candles since it was just as bright in the evening as at noon.’99

  As if the situation were not bad enough, a strong wind from the east drove the flames to previously untouched areas of the city in the west. A couple of hours later the wind turned and strengthened to gale force, spreading the fires with frightful rapidity. ‘Three times did the wind change from north to west, and three times did these hostile fires, as if obstinately bent on the destruction of the imperial quarters, appear eager to follow new directions,’ lamented Ségur. ‘Black clouds of smoke rose high into the sky,’ recalled Napoleon’s secretary Fain. ‘In the eastern neighbourhoods the fires spread throughout the suburbs, carrying the awful smell of sulphur and bitumen. The flames spread swiftly, moving from house to house and consuming everything in their path.’100 As one eyewitness described, ‘the soldiers evacuated one shelter after another as fast as the fire reached them and sought asylum in the next house, which was soon in its turn attacked by the flames’.101 Furthermore, some Allied participants describe rockets being fired into the air and ‘wretches and rogues’ seized in the act of spreading the conflagration. Interrogated under threat of instant death, the ‘criminals’ claimed to have been acting on the orders of Count Rostopchin, who had instructed them to burn down the city. Napoleon ordered military commissions to be formed in each quarter of the city for the purpose of judging (and executing) incendiaries taken in the act, and commanded that all available troops should be employed in extinguishing the flames. Their first action was to find the city’s fire pumps, but found they had been removed – which gave the first clear indication that the fires might not be accidental. The fires that began at the Solyanka spread to the neighbouring wooden houses along the Yauza river towards the Shvivyi hill and soon threatened Batashev’s house, where Marshal Murat was quartered. Like many of his compatriots, Murat initially dismissed the fires as insignificant, only to realize that he was dealing with a much more menacing threat. As the flames devoured the buildings around his quarters, Murat diverted troops, assisted by Batashev’s servants, to contain the fire and save the house. By evening, however, the fire had become so fierce that ‘every building on the [Shvivyi hill], be it wooden or stone-built, was burning … Sparks rained down on the main building and other structures [at the Batashev’s estate]. Murat, realizing there was nothing he could do to save the house, gave the order to evacuate but not before his royal kitchen and several carts were destroyed by flames. Forced to seek new shelter, the King of Naples soon found refuge at the estate of Count Razumovskii on the Gorokhovo Pole in the Basmannaya district.102

  During the night of 15/16 September Bourgogne and two of his comrades set out to explore the city and the Kremlin. ‘[Despite it being night-time] there was no need of a torch to light our way,’ he remembered, ‘but, as we intended to pay visits to the houses and cellars of the Muscovite gentlemen, we each took a man with us armed with candles.’ They quickly got lost in the winding streets of the unknown city; after walking aimlessly for some time, they encountered a Jewish rabbi ‘tearing his beard and hair’ at seeing his synagogue ablaze. The rabbi guided them through several districts of the town, the greater part of them already on fire, before leading them to the Kremlin, ‘as clearly visible as in daylight by the light of the fires’. After ransacking a nearby cellar, Bourgogne’s comrades took some wine, sugar and preserved fruits, and entered the Kremlin, where they encountered some friends from the 1st Chasseurs Regiment and, with the sun already rising, joined them for breakfast. Bourgogne was surprised to see that the Chasseurs had some silver bullion taken from the Mint, in brick-shaped ingots. But the Chasseurs were not the only ones having fun that night. When a member of Napoleon’s household ventured out of the palace at dawn, he discovered that ‘the greatest disorder reigned everywhere. There were some detachments bivouacking in the vast empty space before the palace, but there were very few men in each of them. Some soldiers were lying down and others were smoking, crouching or sitting beside a few embers. Some were walking about, others, again, were coming with unsteady steps to join their comrades. Empty bottles or flasks scattered about the fires showed clearly enough how the men had passed the night.’103

  16 September

  Almost all the witnesses comment on the rapid spread of the fires during the evening of 15 September. ‘Just as the night began to darken the horizon,’ recalled Bourgoing, ‘we saw the ominous light of a couple of fires, then five fires, which soon turned into twenty and in no time it seemed that a thousand jets of flame were erupting all over the place. After two hours the horizon was a glowing circle.’104 Vionnet could see how ‘a violent wind was now fuelling the flames and causing them to advance at astonishing speed’, while Boniface de Castellane believed that one contributory reason for the fires spreading so swiftly was the presence of extensive stables, mews and coach houses next to each noble house and palace. All made of wood, they acted as kindling for the flames, igniting the adjoining buildings. At 10.30pm Caulaincourt was awakened by his valet with the news that for three-quarters of an hour the city had been engulfed in flames. ‘I had only to open my eyes to realize that this was so,’ he recalled, ‘for the fire was giving off so much light that it was bright enough to read in the middle of my room.’ Caulaincourt sprang from his bed and sent his valet to wake up Napoleon’s Grand Marshal, Michel Duroc. The two men observed the burning city from their palace windows. Since the fire was spreading in the quarters furthest away from the Kremlin, they decided to send word to Mortier to mobilize the Guard but to let Napoleon sleep a little longer, especially due to his cold and bladder troubles. However, other participants offer a different version of events: Constant recalled that it was at around midnight, just as Napoleon was dictating a letter, that ‘he saw from his windows an immense glow at some distance from the palace’. The fires had broken out again with greater force than ever, and the north wind was driving the flames in the direction of the Kremlin.

  Shortly after midnight, in the early hours of 16 September, additional fires could be seen starting in the western suburbs and out on the Pokrovka.105 Dutch officer Frederic Carel List recalled that ‘during the night of 15/16 September fires broke out in numerous places across the city and proved to be impossible to put out because the Russians had taken all the firefighting equipment with them and the inhabitants of the burning buildings had fled. By the 16th of September, the fire grew frightfully in size and intensity.’106 Kicheyev, whose family lived near the Presnenskii Lakes, watched as the fire spread ‘from the east to the south and then to the west, burning through Nikitskaya, Povarskaya, Arbat, Kudrino and Novinskoe. The wind blew directly at us [in a northwesterly direction].’107 In the Kremlin Napoleon’s mamluk Ali (St-Denis) woke up because of the bright light coming in through the windows of his room, which looked westwards. ‘I rose and went to one of the windows to see what caused the brightness. I was not a little astonished to see the city on fire … It was horrible! Imagine a city as large as Paris swept by flames, and that one was on the to
wers of Notre Dame, watching such a spectacle at night.’108 Alarmed by the size of the conflagration, Caulaincourt judged it necessary to inform the emperor, who at once sent more officers to find out how things stood and how these fires could be starting.’ Yet Napoleon seems to have underestimated the importance of these fires since he then went back to bed.109 St-Denis states that the emperor ‘gave us no order and everybody lay down again, having nothing better to do than to wait for day’.110 By the morning ‘Moscow had turned into a sea of fire stirred up by the winds’,111 and Baron Fain was stunned by the ferocity of the fire as ‘it moaned, and boiled like the waves of a tempest.’112 Ségur saw ‘sparks and burning fragments already flying over the roofs of the Kremlin, when the wind, shifting from north to west, blew them in another direction … [yet] it was not long before fresh and vivid lights [appeared and] other flames rising precisely in the new direction which the wind had taken towards the Kremlin’.