The Burning of Moscow

by Alexander Mikaberidze

  116. Marchenko, 500–501.

  Chapter 5: ‘And Moscow, Mighty City, Blaze!’

  1. Alexander Pushkin, Sochineniya (St Petersburg, 1859), 254. ‘Fight on, embattled Russia mine, / Recall the rights of ancient days! / The sun of Austerlitz, decline! / And Moscow, mighty city, blaze!’

  2. Biot, 41–42.

  3. Dumas, III, 445.

  4. Pion des Loches, 296–297.

  5. Berthier to Eugène, 15 September 1812, in Mémoires et correspondence politique et militaire du Prince Eugène, VIII, 46.

  6. Labaume, 194.

  7. Adam, 203–204

  8. Eugène to his wife, 15 September 1812, in Mémoires et correspondence politique et militaire du Prince Eugène, VIII, 46. See also his letters of 17–18 September in Ibid, 47–48.

  9. According to Labaume, in the morning of 15 September, ‘While the 13th and 15th Divisions encamped around the Petrovskii Palace, the 14th established itself in the village situated between Moscow and the palace, and the Bavarian light horse, under the orders of Count Ornano, were a league in advance of that village.’

  10. Adam, 204. Also see Biot, 42.

  11. Labaume, 195.

  12. Laugier, 73.

  13. Molosov, 337.

  14. Zalusky, 527. Zalusky was referring to the infamous massacre of the Polish residents of Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, by the Russian troops led by General Alexander Suvorov in 1794.

  15. Zalusky, 528.

  16. Maxim Sakov to Ivan Batashov, [n.d.] September 1812, in Russkii Arkhiv (1871), 0218.

  17. Maxim Sakov to Ivan Batashov, [n.d.] September 1812, in Russkii Arkhiv (1871), 0218–0219.

  18. Bestuzhev-Riumin, 362.

  19. Fain, II, 86–87.

  20. Muralt, 74–75.

  21. Bestuzhev-Riumin, 370.

  22. Chudimov to Soimonov, 17 November 1812, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 16.

  23. Maxim Sakov to Ivan Batashov, [n.d.] September 1812, in Russkii Arkhiv (1871), 0218–0219; Nevzorov to Golenischev-Kutuzov, 3 December 1812, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 20. Ysarn agrees with them, noting that the first fire broke out in the Solyanka, near the Foundlings Home, and subsequent break-outs took place in the Merchant Court. Ysarn, 8–9. Interestingly, F. Becker recalled seeing the first fires starting in the Merchant Court on ‘Sunday’, that is 13 September, while the Russians were still abandoning the city. Becker, 509.

  24. Pion des Loches, 297.

  25. Vionnet de Maringone, 27–30.

  26. Materialy dlya istorii Imperatorskogo Moskovskogo Vospitatelnogo doma (Moscow, 1863), 100.

  27. Tutolmin to Emperor Alexander, 19 September 1812, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 64; Tutolmin to Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna, 23 November 1812, in Russkii arkhiv 11 (1900), 462–473; Christiani, 47. For the costs of maintaining these gendarmes at the Foundlings Home see the Register of Expenses in Provisions and Forage, 23 November 1812, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 44–47.

  28. Christiani, 47–48.

  29. Surrugues, 27–28.

  30. Dedem, 250–251. When Madame Fusil’s companion went to check the nature of these rockets, he reported that it was ‘a small balloon with the Congrève rockets [fusée à la Congrève] that exploded at the house of Prince Trubetskoi in the Pokrovka district’. Fusil, 7.

  31. Quaij, 103.

  32. Roos 122–123.

  33. M.I. Kutuzov: Sbornik Dokumentov, IV, part 1, 473.

  34. Kaptsevich to Arakcheyev, 16 September 1812, in Dubrovin, 122.

  35. Rostopchin to Golitsyn, 28 December 1812, Journal of Outgoing Correspondence of Governor Rostopchin, 234.

  36. Becker, 512.

  37. Bausset, II, 89, 91.

  38. Bausset, II, 91–92.

  39. Duverger, 142.

  40. Boulart, 258–259.

  41. Montesquiou-Fezensac, 233.

  42. Fain, II, 86–87.

  43. Chudimov to Soimonov, 17 November 1812, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 16.

  44. Brandt, 227–228.

  45. Caulaincourt, Mémoires, II, 4–5.

  46. Bourgogne, 16.

  47. Bourgoing, 111–112.

  48. Scheltens, 154.

  49. Pion des Loches, 296.

  50. Kicheyev, 12–16.

  51. Montesquiou-Fezensac, Journal de la Campagne de Russie, 55–56.

  52. Combe, 102–103.

  53. Brandt, 227.

  54. Combe, 106.

  55. Montesquiou-Fezensac, Journal de la Campagne de Russie, 56.

  56. Vionnet de Maringone, 30.

  57. Pion des Loches, 298.

  58. Letters of Shirovskii and Schroeder to the Moscow Trustee Council, January 1814, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 51–52.

  59. Herzen, 32.

  60. Polyanskii, 40–41.

  61. Alekseyev, 25–26.

  62. Kruglova, 60–61.

  63. Herzen, 32–33.

  64. Brandt, 228.

  65. Nazarova, 81.

  66. Alekseyev, 26.

  67. Soltyk, 273–278.

  68. The precise moment of Napoleon’s entry varies depending on source. Ségur states that it took place at dawn, Gourgaud and Constant refer to 6am, Denniée to 8am, Korbeletskii and René Bourgeois to 11am, Caulaincourt to noon and Ysarn to around 2pm.

  69. Meneval, III, 63–64.

  70. Napoleon to Marie-Louise, 16 September 1812, in Correspondance générale, XII, 1099; Lettres inédites de Napoléon 1er à Marie-Louise écrites de 1810 à 1814 (Paris, 1935), 78.

  71. Dominique Larrey to his wife, 15 September 1812, in L’Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux: Notes and queries français (Paris, 1912), vol. 66, 278.

  72. Meneval, III, 63–64.

  73. Quaij, 103.

  74. St Denis, 28.

  75. None of the existing biographies or campaign histories deals in detail with Napoleon’s activities during the first week in Moscow. Neither the famous Correspondance de Napoléon, nor the Correspondance militaire de Napoléon, Correspondance inedite de Napoléon or other compilations of Napoleon’s papers contain much information on Napoleon’s activities between 14 and 20 September. Thus, Picard and Tuetey’s Correspondance inedite de Napoléon contains only the 19th and 20th Bulletins, while the Correspondance de Napoléon includes just two orders that Napoleon had issued on the 15th. The Correspondance militaire de Napoléon skips from 6 September directly to 23 September. Fortunately the newly published Correspondance générale contains over a dozen documents from this period. In addition, some insights can be gleaned from correspondences of Eugene, Davout and other marshals and generals who received orders and instructions from Napoleon.

  76. Dumas, III, 446.

  77. Napoleon to Berthier, 15 September 1812, Correspondance de Napoléon, XIV, Nos. No. 19,207, 218.

  78. Napoleon to Bessieres, 15 September 1812, S.H.D., département de l’Armée de Terre, 17 C 113; Correspondance de Napoléon, XXIV, No. 19,206, 218.

  79. Caulaincourt, II, 11.

  80. Combe, 104.

  81. Constant, Chapter XXIV,

  82. Proclamation aux habitants de Moscou in Chuquet, La guerre de Russie, I, 78.

  83. Bourgogne, 23.

  84. Laugier, 73.

  85. Labaume, 197–198.

  86. Ibid, 199–200.

  87. Fantin des Odoards, 333.

  88. Duverger, 141–142.

  89. Roos, 125.

  90. Pion des Loches, 298–300.

  91. Kicheyev, 20.

  92. Maxim Sakov to Ivan Batashov, [n.d.] September 1812, in Russkii Arkhiv (1871), 0218–0219.

  93. Zemtsov questions the veracity of this attack, which has been mentioned by most Russian historians. Zemtsov, 98.

  94. Bourgogne, 24.

  95. Quaij, 104.

  96. Maxim Sakov to Ivan Batashov, [n.d.] September 181
2, in Russkii Arkhiv (1871), 0218; Surrugues, 28–31; Castellane, 154–155; Vionnet de Maringone, 29.

  97. Pion des Loches, 300.

  98. Duverger, 143.

  99. Fusil, 8–9.

  100. Fain, II, 87.

  101. Pion des Loches, 300.

  102. Maxim Sakov to Ivan Batashov, [n.d.] September 1812, in Russkii Arkhiv (1871), 0218; Ysarn, 8–9.

  103. St Denis, 24.

  104. Bourgoing, 112–113.

  105. Ysarn, 9.

  106. List, 89.

  107. Kicheyev, 20.

  108. St-Denis, 23.

  109. Napoleon’s letter to Marie Louise, written in the morning of 16 September, betrays no hint of the disaster unfolding in Moscow and instead describes the wealth of the city, briefly mentioning that Napoleon was recovering from a cold. Napoleon to Marie Louise, 16 September 1812, in Lettres inédites de Napoléon Ier à Marie-Louise, écrites de 1810 à 1814, 78.

  110. St-Denis, 23.

  111. Chambray, I, 355.

  112. Fain, II, 86–87.

  113. Mestivier’s attestation in Ségur, Histoire et mémoires, VI, 17–18.

  114. Ysarn, 10.

  115. Nevzorov to Golenischev-Kutuzov, 3 December 1812, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 21–22.

  116. Dominique Larrey to his wife, 15 September 1812, in L’Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux: Notes and queries français (Paris, 1912), vol. 66, 278; Larrey, Mémoires, IV, 64.

  117. Perovskii, 264–265.

  118. Ségur, 292–293.

  119. Las Cases, III, 172.

  120. Caulaincourt, II, 12–13.

  121. Ordre du Jour, 16 September 1812, RGVIA, f. 846, op. 16. d. 3588, l. 1.

  122. Berthier to Mortier, 16 September 1812, in Chuquet, La guerre de Russie (1er Sér), 79.

  123. Boulart, 259–261.

  124. Martens, 133.

  125. Kicheyev, 21.

  126. Ysarn, 15–20.

  127. Fain, II, 88.

  128. Bourgogne, 26–27.

  129. Boulart, 260–261.

  130. Montesquiou-Fezensac, 234.

  131. Caulaincourt, II, 13; Fain, II, 90.

  132. Caulaincourt, II, 14; Gourgaud, 276.

  133. Caulaincourt, II, 14.

  134. Caulaincourt, II, 14.

  135. Chambray, I, 355–356.

  136. Meneval, III, 68–69.

  137. Montesquiou-Fezensac, Souvenirs, 235; Larrey, IV, 65.

  138. Montesquiou-Fezensac, Souvenirs, 235.

  139. Gourgaud, 283–284; Montesquiou-Fezensac, Souvenirs, 234–235; Caulaincourt, II, 14–16.

  140. Denniée, 95.

  141. Ségur, Histoire de Napoléon et de la Grande-Armée, II, livre VIII, 50–51.

  142. Perovskii, 265–266.

  143. Peyrusse to Andre, 21 September 1812, in Peyrusse, Memorial, 96.

  144. Gourgaud, 278; Meneval, III, 69; Caulaincourt, II, 15.

  145. Itinéraire des Archives de Caulaincourt, in Caulaincourt, II, 15. Mathieu Dumas says 3pm. Dumas, III, 448.

  146. Interestingly, Fantin des Odoards describes the passage as rather narrow and difficult, with the Imperial Guard troops marching through in single file. Yet, Peyrusse also speaks of the imperial treasury, moved in carriages, accompanying Napoleon. It is unclear if the treasury wagon used a different gate to leave the Kremlin. Fantin des Odoards, 334; Peyrusse to Andre, 21 September 1812, in Peyrusse, Memorial, 96.

  147. Denniée, 95.

  148. Gourgaud, 280.

  149. The Vsekhsvyatskii bridge was the first permanent stone bridge in Moscow and was completed in 1693. It was located some distance away from the Kremlin’s southeastern tower (Vodovzvodnaya or Sviblov’s Tower) and connected the city centre to the Zamoskvorechye. It was demolished in the 1850s.

  150. Peyrusse to Andre, 21 September 1812, in Peyrusse, Memorial, 96.

  151. Fantin des Odoards, 334.

  152. Constant, Chapter XXIV, http://napoleonic-literature.com/Book_11/V3C24.html

  153. Bourgogne, 30.

  154. Dumas, III, 449–450.

  155. St-Denis, 26.

  156. Montesquiou-Fezensac, 235.

  157. Ségur, Histoire de Napoléon et de la Grande-Armée, II, livre VIII, 53–54.

  158. Gourgaud, 280.

  159. Domergues, II, 68–70.

  160. Boulart, 261.

  161. Korbeletskii, 33.

  162. Caulaincourt, II, 16.

  163. Stendhal to Felix Faure, 4 October 1812, in Correspondance de Stendhal, I, 390.

  164. Dumas, III, 450.

  165. Planat de la Faye, 90.

  166. Montesquiou-Fezensac, Souvenirs, 237. Similar description in Prosper to his stepfather, 15 October 1812, in Lettres interceptées pendant la Campagne de 1812, 149.

  Chapter 6: The Great Conflagration

  1. O’Meara, I, 196.

  2. Peyrusse to Andre, 21 September 1812, in Lettres inédites, 93.

  3. Le Roy, 169. See similar descriptions in Rigau, 60–61.

  4. Vionnet de Maringone, 30–32.

  5. Surrugues, 23.

  6. Larrey, IV, 73.

  7. Larrey, IV, 73–74.

  8. Eugène to his wife, 17 September 1812, Mémoires et correspondence politique et militaire du Prince Eugène, VIII, 47.

  9. Rapp, 209–211.

  10. Larrey, IV, 75.

  11. Ryazanov, 72.

  12. Chambray, 355–356.

  13. Labaume, 213

  14. Kicheyev, 31, 39.

  15. Labaume, 211–212.

  16. Planat de la Faye, 90.

  17. Larrey, IV, 76.

  18. Kicheyev, 39–40.

  19. Norov, 208.

  20. Chambray, 355–356.

  21. Laugier, 75.

  22. Combe, 105.

  23. Adam, 208f.

  24. Pion des Loches, 302.

  25. Pion des Loches, 302.

  26. Griois, II, 56–57.

  27. Dumas, III, 453.

  28. Nevzorov to Golenischev-Kutuzov, 3 December 1812, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 22.

  29. Ryazanov, 76–77.

  30. Karfachevskii, 166.

  31. Christiani, 48.

  32. Surrugues, 24–25. Their actions, noted the abbé, ‘saved the entire district, including [the Kuznetskii bridge], the Rozhdestvenka and Lubyanka streets, the post office, the bank, the Clean Ponds [Chistye prudy] and part of the Pokrovka between the boulevards and the Maroseika street.’ Built in the mid-eighteenth century, the Kuznetskii bridge was a stone three-arched bridge across the Neglinnaya river. It was 16 metres wide and some 30 metres long. In 1818–1819, after the Neglinnaya river was placed in an underground masonry canal, the bridge was buried as well. The Clean Ponds is a large pond located in the Basmanny district.

  33. Fusil, 11, 15–17.

  34. Kolchugin, 47–48.

  35. Kruglova, 60.

  36. Priest Legonin to Bishop Augustin of Moscow, 11 March 1813; Priest Vasilii Gavrilov to Bishop Augustin of Moscow, 17 December 1813; Archpriest Romodanovskii to Bishop Augustin of Moscow, 25 March 1813, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 88–90, 100. Also see Popov, Frantsuzy v Moskve, 144–147; L. Melnikova, Armiya i Pravoslavnaya tserkov’ Rossiiskoi imperii v epokhu napoleonovskikh voin (Moscow, 2007), 113.

  37. Priest Vasilii Gavrilov to Bishop Augustin of Moscow, 17 December 1813, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 90.

  38. Karfachevskii, 166.

  39. Priest Vasilii Gavrilov to Bishop Augustin of Moscow, 17 December 1813, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 90.

  40. In Orthodox Christianity, a hieromonk can be either a monk who has been ordained to the priesthood or a priest who has received monastic tonsure.

  41. Hieromonk Aaron to Bishop Augustin, January 1813, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 30.

  42. Hieromonk Aaron to Bishop Augustin, January 1813, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina
1812 g., II, 30.

  43. Ryazanov, 81, 135–137.

  44. Semen Klimych, 420.

  45. Sister Antonina, 9; ‘Tableau synoptique de la Grande Armée’ in Emile Marco de Saint-Hilaire, Histoire de la Campagne de Russie, 1812 (Paris, 1846) II, 374.

  46. Semen Klimych, 420.

  47. Sister Antonina, 9.

  48. For details see Semen Klimych, 420–421.

  49. Ibid., 9–10.

  50. Semen Klimych, 421–422.

  51. Nazarova, 84–85.

  52. Karfachevskii, 166.

  53. Semen Klimych, 427.

  54. Histoire de la destruction de Moscou en 1812, 149.

  55. See letters of A. Nikiforov, Priest V. Veniaminov, Priest T. Tankovskii, Privy Councillor N. Obreskov to Bishop Augustin of Moscow, November 1812–February 1813, in Gorshkov, Moskva i Otechestvennaya voina 1812 g., II, 136–137, 139–140.

  56. Becker, 519.

  57. Sister Antonina, 14.

  58. Ryazanov, 143–144.

  59. Ryazanov, 191–192.

  60. ‘Opisanie proischestvii v Moskovskom Danilove monastyre vo vremya nashestviya nepriyatelya v Moskvu v 1812 godu,’ in Chteniya v Imperatorskom Moskovskom obshestve istorii i drevnosti 1 (1861), 195.

  61. ‘Griboedosvkaya Moskva v pismakh M.A. Volkovoi k V.I. Lanskoi, 1812–1818gg.’ in Vestnik Evropy 8 (1874), 613.

  62. ‘Rasskazy ochevidtsev o dvenadtsatom gode: Na Mokhovoi,’ Moskovskie vedomosti, March 1, 1872.

  63. Lebedev, 259.

  64. Surrugues, 10–11.

  65. Russkii arkhiv (1864), 1195.

  66. Kicheyev, 40.

  67. Kruglova, 61–62.

  68. Ysarn, 23. Also see Kool, 56.

  69. Alekseyev, 26.

  70. Kicheyev, 19.

  71. Schukin, VII, 214.

  72. Becker, 513.

  73. Fusil, 10–11.

  74. Kicheyev, 39.

  75. Domergues, I, 46.

  76. ‘Opisanie proischestvii v Moskovskom Danilove monastyre vo vremya nashestviya nepriyatelya v Moskvu v 1812 godu,’ in Chteniya v Imperatorskom Moskovskom obshestve istorii i drevnosti 1 (1861), 195.

  77. Sister Antonina, 13–14.

  78. Alexey Olenin, ‘Rasskazy iz istorii 1812 g.’ in Russkii arkhiv 12 (1868), Entry No. 14,

  79. Histoire de la destruction de Moscou en 1812, 111–112.

  80. ‘Griboedosvkaya Moskva v pismakh M.A. Volkovoi k V.I. Lanskoi, 1812–1818gg.’ in Vestnik Evropy 8 (1874), 615–616.

  81. Tutolmin to Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna, 23 November 1812, in Russkii arkhiv 11 (1900), 472; Chteniya v Imperatorskom obschestve istorii i drevnostei rossiiskikh 2 (1860), 179.