The Burning of Moscow

by Alexander Mikaberidze

  36. Mikhail Pokrovskii, Diplomatiya i voiny tsarskoi Rossii v XIX stoletii (Moscow, 1923), 56.

  37. Eugène Tarle, Nashestvie Napoleona na Rossiyu. 1812 god (Moscow, 1943, reprint 1992) 167–168. In 1951 the journal Bolshevik, a mouthpiece of the Communist party, accused Tarle, arguably the most renowned Soviet historian at the time, that in his classic study of the 1812 Campaign he had not been sufficiently critical of ‘aristocratic-bourgeois’ historians. He was accused of distorting the history of the Patriotic War and seeking to remove responsibility for the ‘deliberate’ destruction of Moscow from Napoleon and his soldiers. Already hardened in earlier squabbles and exile to Central Asia, Tarle avoided direct confrontation with these critics and appealed directly to Joseph Stalin for help. Two months later, the same periodical retracted its statements but noted that Tarle’s study did require ‘some’ corrections. Understanding what he was asked to do, Tarle conformed to the ‘party line’ and the 1952 edition of his work contained greater emphasis on the culpability of Napoleon in the destruction of Moscow.

  38. I. Polosin, ‘Kutuzov i pozhar Moskvy,’ in Istoricheskie zapiski (1950), XXXIV, 162–165. Polosin pointed out that the wooden bridge at the Dorogomilov barrier was not demolished after the withdrawal of the Russian forces, which would have delayed the enemy forces for at least few hours. For Polosin, the answer lay in Kutuzov’s intention to lure the Allied forces into Moscow where he had already sprung a trap.

  39. Thus, in her Istoriya Moskvy (1954), historian Militsa Nechkina was convinced that ‘the Moscow fire was above all the result of the actions of the Napoleonic forces. Afterwards Napoleon did everything he could to shift his responsibility for it [on to the Russians].’ Ignoring numerous documents to the contrary, Nechkina insisted that ‘the French marauders burnt Moscow because they sought to plunder it and the French military command made no effort to curb their activities’. Interestingly, just a few years prior, Nechkina gave a public lecture ‘Moscow in 1812’, in which she considered three possible versions of culpability (accidental burning, French involvement or deliberate Russian act) and came to the conclusion that ‘the Moscow fire was an act of heroic people’s patriotism’. See Militsa Nechkina, Moskva v 1812 gody (Moscow, 1947), 25; Idem, Istoriya Moskvy (Moscow, 1954), III, 102–103.

  40. V. Kholodkovskii, ‘Napoleon li podzheg Moskvu?’ in Voprosy istorii 4 (1966); A. Tartakovskii, Voennaya publitsistika 1812 g (Moscow, 1967).

  41. O. Orlik, Groza dvenadtsatogo goda (Moscow, 1987).

  42. N. Ryazanov, ed. M.I. Kutuzov general-feldmarshal. Pisma, Zapiski (Moscow, 1989), 558.

  43. Nikolai Troitskii, 1812. Velikii god Rossii (Moscow, 1988).

  44. Troitskii, 189.

  45. For example, N. Shakhmagonov, Taina moskovskogo pozkara: kto szheg belokamennuyu? (Moscow, 1999).

  46. Zemtsov, 3.

  47. Popov, 181–183.

  Chapter 1: The Road to Moscow

  1. 2nd Bulletin, 22 June 1812, Imperial Glory: The Bulletins of Napoleon’s Grande Armée, 1805–1814, ed. J. David Markham (London, 2003), 246.

  2. Order to the Armies, 25 June 1812, in Vneshnaya politika Rossii XIX i nachala XX veka (Moscow, 1962), VI, 442–443.

  3. Cobbett’s Political Register, 8 August 1812, XXII, 173.

  4. Napoleon to King Frederick of Württemberg, 2 April 1811, Correspondance de Napoléon, XXII, No. 17553, 17.

  5. Grabbe, 467–468.

  6. Barclay de Tolly, Izobrazhenye, 24.

  7. Barclay de Tolly, Izobrazhenye, 24–25.

  8. Bogdanovich, II, 236.

  9. Clausewitz, 131.

  10. In addition to the Cossacks, Platov also received four jager regiments from the 2nd Corps, one hussar regiment and twelve horse artillery guns.

  11. Chambray, II, 82.

  12. Montesquiou-Fezensac, Journal de la Campagne de Russie en 1812, 51–52.

  13. Bausset, II, 110.

  14. It comprised four reserve cavalry corps and Dufour’s 2nd Division (from I Corps).

  15. Bellot de Kergorre, 60–61.

  16. Order to the Armies, No. 14, 11 September 1812.

  17. ‘Mount of Salutation’. It lies a few miles from the capital and is so called because travellers, upon seeing the great city, saluted it by prostrating themselves.

  18. Jean Baptiste de Crossard, Mémoires militaires et historiques (Paris, 1829), IV, 361.

  19. As the Russian army occupied its positions, its right wing was protected by the Moscow river near the village of Fili, its centre was located between the villages Volynskoe and Troitskoe and the left flank was anchored on the Vorobyevo (‘Sparrow’) Heights; Miloradovich’s rearguard bivouacked at the village of Setun’.

  20. Löwernstern, I, 280.

  21. Mayevskii, 141.

  22. Barclay de Tolly, Izobrazhenye, 25–26.

  23. Wintzingerode to Emperor Alexander I, 25 September 1812, in Dubrovin, Otechestvennaia voina v pis’makh sovremennikov, 138.

  24. Toll, II, 139–142.

  25. Wintzingerode to Emperor Alexander I, 25 September 1812, in Dubrovin, Otechestvennaia voina v pis’makh sovremennikov, 138.

  26. Crossard, IV, 363–365.

  27. Yermolov, 168–169; Grabbe, 469.

  28. J.M. von Helldorff, ed. Aus dem Leben des kaiserlich-russischen Generals der Infanterie Prinzen Eugen von Württemberg (Berlin, 1862), II, 58–59; Toll, II, 143.

  29. Yermolov, 169–170.

  30. Buturlin, I, 306; Rostopchin (1889), 717; Rayevskii, 71; Mikhnevich, ‘Fili’ in Otechestvennaya voina i Russko obshchestvo (Moscow, 1911), IV, 32; Sovetskaya Istoricheskaya Entsiklopedia (Moscow, 1974), XV, 80; Bolshaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya (Moscow, 1977), XXVII, 392; Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii (1839), II, 323; Bogdanovich, II, 248; Kharkevich, 34; Beskrovnyi, 415; Zhilin, 176–177; Tarle, Nashestvie Napoleona na Rossiu, Chapter 6 (on-line edition); Garin, 275; Troitskii, 183.

  31. In his memoir, Konovnitsyn mentions that General Karl Baggovut had also attended the council but no other source confirms this information. Konovnitsyn, 128.

  32. Cate, 268; Garin, 275; Troitskii, 183.

  33. Barclay de Tolly, Izobrazhenie, 26–27; Toll, II, 143–144.

  34. Toll, II, 143–144.

  35. Yermolov, 170. Barclay de Tolly’s Izobrazhenye differs in some details of this speech.

  36. Toll, II, 145.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Barclay de Tolly, Izobrazhenie, 26–27; Rayevskii, 72–73; Bennigsen 9 (1909), 503; Yermolov, 170–171; Löwernstern 1 (1901), 105.

  39. Bennigsen 9 (1909), 503. Bennigsen states that he left the meeting after it became clear that his opinion was discounted and the debate was not recorded as required by regulations. Kaissarov’s opinion (if he indeed took part in the council) remains unknown. Challenges inherent to memoir literature become apparent when one considers Dokhturov’s position. Writing to his wife just two days after the council, Dokhturov noted that he wanted to fight and ‘did everything I could to convince [the council] to advance against the enemy. Bennigsen was of the same opinion … But this gallant idea had no effect on these pusillanimous men so we retreated through the city.’ Yet Yermolov, in his memoirs, states, ‘General Dokhturov said that it would be good to march against the enemy, however, because of the loss of so many commanders at Borodino, who had been replaced by less familiar officers, success in the ensuing battle could not be guaranteed; therefore, he proposed to retreat.’ Dokhturov to his wife, 15 September 1812, in Russkii arkhiv 1 (1874), 1098; Yermolov, 171.

  40. Rayevskii, 74.

  41. Kutuzov to Wintzingerode, 15 September 1812, in M.I. Kutuzov: Sbornik Dokumentov, IV, part 1, 231.

  42. Rastkovskii, 31.

  43. Bennigsen (1908), III, 94–95.

  44. Sanglen, 553.

  45. Disposition for the 1st and 2nd Western Armies, 14 September 1812, in M.I. Kutuzov: Sbornik Dokumentov, IV, part 1, 225. A similar order was issued on 12 September and specified that any official or officer who left the ranks without permission should be ha
nged or shot while rank-and-file ‘should be bayoneted [zakolot’] on the spot’. Journal of Incoming Correspondence, in General Staff Archives, XVII, 192.

  46. Barclay de Tolly to Rostopchin, 13 September 1812, in Dubrovin, Otechestvennaia voina v pis’makh sovremennikov, 118–119.

  47. Lowenstern, I, 283.

  48. Golitsyn, Ofitserskie zapiski, 21.

  49. Yermolov, 172.

  50. Dokhturov to his wife, 15 September 1812, in Russkii arkhiv 1 (1874), 1098–1099.

  51. Lowenstern, I, 284.

  52. Toll, II, 148–149.

  53. In late 1811 Kutuzov routed the Ottoman army near Rousse (in present-day Bulgaria) and starved its remnants into submission.

  54. A.B. Golitzyn, ‘Zapiski o voine 1812 goda,’ in Voennyi sbornik 12 (1910), 24.

  55. Radozhitskii, 87–88.

  56. A four-wheeled open carriage, popular in Russia.

  57. Sergei Glinka, ‘Iz zapisok o 1812 gode,’

  Chapter 2: The City

  1. K. Batyushkov, ‘Progulka po Moskve,’ in K.N. Batyushkov, Sochineniya (Moscow, 1934), 299.

  2. Travels in the Crimea: A History of the Embassy from Petersburg to Constantinople in 1793 (London, 1802), 51.

  3. Catherine Wilmot to Anna Chetwood, 24 September 1806, in The Russian Journals of Martha and Catherine Wilmot, edited by Harford M. Hyde (London, 1934), 192.

  4. Porter, 161.

  5. While researching this book I consulted more than two dozen maps of Moscow spanning the period between 1770 and 1852. A vast collection of digitized city maps can be accessed at www.retromap.ru.

  6. Johann Gottfried Seume, A Tour through Part of Germany, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, etc. (London, 1807), 35–36.

  7. Robert Ker Porter, Travelling sketches in Russia and Sweden (Philadelphia, 1809), 160.

  8. ‘Statisticheskaya tablitsa o sostoyanii g. Moskvy v 1811 g.,’ in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 16.

  9. ‘Statisticheskaya tablitsa o sostoyanii g. Moskvy v 1811 g.,’ in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 15.

  10. ‘Vedomost’ o sushestvuyushikh v Moskovskoi stolitse tserkvakh, kazennykh i obyvatelskikh domakh, 1812 goda,’ in Russkii arkhiv (1864), 1207–1208; ‘Statisticheskaya tablitsa o sostoyanii g. Moskvy v 1811 g.,’ in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 16.

  11. A History of the Embassy from Petersburg to Constantinople in 1793, 53.

  12. Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire in the years 1793–1794 (London, 1812), I, 7.

  13. Porter, 166–167.

  14. The city was also divided into ninety police districts. ‘Statisticheskaya tablitsa o sostoyanii g. Moskvy v 1811 g.’, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 15.

  15. Originally the Kremlin of the fifteenth century was red but later it was whitewashed all over; the first reliable evidence of this practice goes back to the late seventeenth century. The Kremlin remained white-coloured until the early twentieth century (a fact often missed by artists), when the Soviet authorities removed the whitewash and coated the Kremlin with a special red paint to make it look like brick.

  16. Seume, 36.

  17. Edward Daniel Clarke, Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia and Africa (London, 1813), I, 128–129.

  18. Graf Helmuth von Moltke, Field-marshal Count Moltke’s letters from Russia (New York, 1878), 122.

  19. Some scholars do suggest, however, that the term may have been developed from the Tartar word kitay (‘fortress’ or ‘centre’).

  20. Porter, 162.

  21. Clarke, 130.

  22. Pavel Svinin, Sketches of Russia (London, 1814), 30–31.

  23. These districts were: IV Pyatnitskii, V Yakimanskii, VI Prechistenskii, VII Arbatskii, VIII Sretenskii and IX Yauzskii.

  24. These districts were: X Basmannii, XI Rogozhskii, XII Taganskii, XIII Serpukhovskii, XIV Khamovnicheskii, XV Novinskii, XVI Presnenskii, XVII Suschevskii, XVIII Meschanskii, XIX Pokrovskii and XX Lefortovskii.

  25. The Georgian community grew in Moscow in the early eighteenth century when King Vakhtang of Kartli (eastern Georgia), unable to resist joint invasions of Iran and the Ottoman Empire, fled with a large retinue to Russia in 1724.

  26. Porter, 164.

  27. William Coxe, Travels in Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark (London, 1802), 282.

  28. Istoriya Moskvy (Moscow, 1948), III, 168; Sytin, Pozhar Moskvy v 1812, 13–15. The official Statistical Report on the Number of Residents of the City of Moscow, completed in February 1811, shows the population of Moscow at 263,423 people. Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 12–13. However, the report seems to be incomplete. For example, the ethnic breakdown of the city shows 260,472 Russians but only 703 French, even though most Russian studies suggest that the French community in Moscow was much larger. The German population, shown at 1,029 ‘Germans’, 34 ‘Saxons’, 129 ‘Prussians’ and 18 ‘Liflandians’, also seems to be under-reported. Another official ‘Statistical Report on the Well-Being of Moscow in 1811,’ completed in February 1812, showed the city population at 270,184 people. Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 12–17.

  29. ‘Statisticheskaya vedomost’ o kolichestve zhitelei g. Moskvy,’ February 1811, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 12–13.

  30. ‘Statisticheskaya tablitsa o sostoyanii g. Moskvy v 1811 g.,’ 1 February 1812, Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 13–14.

  31. For comparison, a colonel’s salary was about 1000 rubles per year.

  32. ‘Statisticheskaya tablitsa o sostoyanii g. Moskvy v 1811 g.,’ in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 15; ‘Vedomost’ o sushestvuyushikh v Moskovskoi stolitse tserkvakh, kazennykh i obyvatelskikh domakh, 1812 goda,’ in Russkii arkhiv (1864), 1207–1208.

  33. T.J. Binyon, Pushkin: A Biography (New York, 2004), 9.

  34. Charles Colville Frankland, Narrative of a visit to the courts of Russia and Sweden (London, 1832), II, 269.

  35. Maria Volkova to Varvara Lanskoi, 15 September 1812, in Pis’ma 1812 goda M.A. Volkovoi k V.A. Lanskoi (Moscow, 1990) (accessed on 4 April 2012).

  36. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, translated and edited by Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude (Oxford, 2010), 574.

  37. ‘Statisticheskaya tablitsa o sostoyanii g. Moskvy v 1811 g.,’ in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 16; ‘Vedomost’ o sushestvuyushikh v Moskovskoi stolitse tserkvakh, kazennykh i obyvatelskikh domakh, 1812 goda,’ in Russkii arkhiv (1864), 1207–1208.

  38. Siegmund Freiherr von Herberstein, Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (Russian edition) (Moscow, 1988), Part 4, 128.

  39. ‘Statisticheskaya tablitsa o sostoyanii g. Moskvy v 1811 g.,’ in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 16.

  40. For details see Robert Leach and Victor Borovsky, A History of Russian Theatre (Cambridge, 1999), 57–85.

  41. Russkii Arkhiv 8 (1891), 173.

  42. For details see Catherine A. Schuler, Theatre and Identity in Imperial Russia (Iowa City, 2009).

  43. Samuel H. Baron, ed. The Travels of Olearius in Seventeenth-Century Russia (Stanford, 1967), 112.

  44. For an insightful discussion of the impact these calamities had on Moscow’s development see John. T. Alexander, Bubonic Plague in Early Modern Russia: Public Health and Urban Disaster (Oxford, 2003).

  45. John Perry, The State of Russia under the Present Tsar (London, 1716, reprint 1968), 264–265.

  46. Glushkovskii, 122.

  Chapter 3: The Governor

  1. Emperor Alexander to Ivan Gudovich, 25 May 1812, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 81.

  2. Some sources suggest he may have been born in 1765. A. Meshcheryakova, F.V. Rostopchin: U osnovaniya konservatisma i natsionalisma v Rossii (Voronezh, 2007); Lydie Rostoptchine, Les Rostoptchine (n.p., 1984); Alexander M. Martin, Romantics, Reformers, Reactionaries: Russian Conservative Thought and Politics in the Reign of
Alexander I (DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, 1997).

  3. Stendhal to Felix Faure, 4 October 1812, in Correspondance de Stendhal, I, 391.

  4. Pierre de Ségur, ‘Rostopchin en 1812,’ in La Revue de Paris (1908), IV, 88.

  5. Rostopchin fell victim to a court intrigue and was dismissed by Paul I in mid-March, less than ten days before his assassination. See Ségur, ‘Rostopchin en 1812,’ in La Revue de Paris (1908), IV, 89–90; Gornostaev, General-gubernator Moskvy F.V. Rostopchin

  6. Ségur, ‘Rostopchin en 1812,’ in La Revue de Paris (1908), IV, 93.

  7. Fedor Rostopchin, Sochineniya (St Petersburg, 1853), 1–19; Anatole Henri de Ségur, Vie du Comte Rostopchine, Gouverneur de Moscou en 1812 (Paris, 1893), 117–120; Ségur, ‘Rostopchin en 1812,’ in La Revue de Paris (1908), IV, 91–92; Gornostaev, General-gubernator Moskvy F.V. Rostopchin

  8. Many contemporaries remarked on the governor’s wit and intelligence. Thus, the perceptive Prussian general August Wilhelm Antonius Graf Neidhardt von Gneisenau, who briefly encountered Rostopchin in 1816, found him a ‘capable and well informed’ man. Gneisenau to Madame Clausewitz, 15 August 1816, in Georg H. Pertz and Hans Delbrūck, eds. Das Leben des Feldmarschalls Grafen Neithardt von Gneisenau (Berlin, 1880), V, 140.

  9. Bulgakov, Vospominaniya, 99–100.

  10. The Senate’s decree of 5 June granted Rostopchin the rank of general of infantry and appointed him the military governor of Moscow. Minister of Police Alexander Balashov congratulated Rostopchin on 6 June. Alexander Balashov to Rostopchin, 6 June 1812, in Dubrovin, 5. Also see Gudovich to Provincial Administration of Moscow, 13 June 1812, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 96.

  11. Decree of the Senate, c.29 July 1812, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 194–195. Alexander signed the decree during his stay in Moscow in late July. Also see Rostopchin to Emperor Alexander, 19 June 1812, in Russkii arkhiv 8 (1892), 422.

  12. Rostopchin to Major General Ivashkin; Major General Ivashkin to City Constable Putyatin, 25–26 June 1812, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechesvennaya voina, I, 100.