Russian partisans of 1812: "people's war"

I. M. Pryanishnikov. “In 1812. Captured French "

partisans

When it comes to the Russian partisans of 1812, the first thing they think about is the "club of the people's war" (an expression that became "winged" after the publication of Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace"). And they represent bearded men in the winter forest like those depicted in the painting by V. Vereshchagin.

V. Vereshchagin. “Don't hide it! Let me come "

Or - "summer version", presented on this splint:

Peasant Ivan Dolbila

Or - on this British copy of a Russian lubok, 1813:

The war of the Russian people against Napoleon. British copy of a Russian popular print, 1813

Then they recall Denis Davydov's "squadron of flying hussars". But usually this "squadron" is considered some kind of free irregular formation. Like, Davydov left with a number of hussars and Cossacks from Kutuzov and began to fight the French at his own peril and risk. Just like Serbian Yunaks or Dalmatian Uskoks with Turks.

Meanwhile, even in the "Military Encyclopedic Lexicon" published in 1856, partisans are called the formations of the regular army performing specific tasks. Most often, various cavalry units were used as such:

“Partisan detachments are formed according to their purpose; by locality and circumstances, now from one, now from two or even three genera weapons... The troops of the partisan detachments should be light: gamekeepers, hussars, lancers, and where they are, Cossacks and the like ... mounted guns or rocket teams. Dragoons and horse archers trained to operate on foot and on horseback are also very useful.

These detachments, often called "flying", were supposed to conduct reconnaissance and observation of the enemy's movements, constantly maintaining contact with their headquarters.

They made quick raids on the rear of the enemy, trying to disrupt communications, intercepting messengers and couriers. Small enemy detachments or foraging teams were attacking separately. Nowadays, such actions of regular troops are often called "power reconnaissance".

Peasants on foot and motley armed peasants could fight off marauders. They managed to destroy or capture small groups of lagging enemy soldiers. But for the solution of the other tasks listed above, the peasant detachments, of course, were not suitable. And they had no desire to leave their villages.

And in historical Documents from the Patriotic War of 1812 also clearly distinguish between partisan detachments ("parties") proper, composed of regular army servicemen, and detachments of peasants.

Peasant War

A number of historians of the XIX century, talking about the events of those years, when it comes to the actions of the peasants of the villages, who found themselves in the way of Napoleon's army, use the expression "People's War." Among them are D. Buturlin, A. Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, M. Bogdanovich, A. Slezskinsky, D. Akhsharumov.

But the term "people's war" appeared in later times. And in 1812, the unauthorized arming of the peasants by the Russian government, to put it mildly, was not welcomed, since it was not clear against whom they would turn this weapon. The events of the civil war of Yemelyan Pugachev were still fresh in the memory. And most of all in Petersburg they feared that Napoleon, having announced the abolition of serfdom, would call on the peasants to divide the land of the landowners among themselves. No one had any illusions about what would follow. In this case, Alexander I would immediately conclude peace on any terms, not only with Napoleon, but also with the real Antichrist.

After the battle of Borodino, the officer of the partisan detachment in Vintsinogorod AH Benkendorf had to investigate the complaint of the landowners of the Volokolamsk district against their peasants, who allegedly robbed their estates. It turned out that the landlords were frightened by the initiative of the peasants to protect their villages and villages. And the insubordination consisted in the refusal of these peasants to disarm. The armed peasants who did not trust their serf landowners seemed more dangerous than the enemy soldiers: after all, they were "civilized Europeans" - the French, Italians, Spaniards, Germans and others.
Following the results of the check, the future chief of gendarmes reported to St. Petersburg that

"Not only was there no disobedience from the peasants ... But I found these peasants completely ready to defeat the enemy."

I must say that the reasons for the concern of the landowners were more than weighty.

In Moscow, Napoleon received several requests for the abolition of serfdom. For example, a petition from 17 inhabitants of the city of Ruza.

In the provinces adjacent to Moscow in 1812, the number of peasant uprisings against the authorities, in comparison with previous years, increased 3 times. In the Dorogobuzh district of the Smolensk province, the peasants of a certain Baryshnikov "went out of control": they robbed the estate, stole the cattle belonging to the master, squeezed the master's bread.

Moreover, Russian officials and officers reported that the peasants of some villages near Moscow told them that they were now subjects of Napoleon:

"Bonaparte is in Moscow, and therefore he is their sovereign."

In Volokolamsk uyezd, refusals of peasants from submission to landowners and elders were recorded on the grounds that

"From now on they belong to the French, so they will obey them, and not the Russian authorities."

There have been cases of peasants issuing their owners to the French. One of them - the Smolensk landowner P. Engelhardt, even got into the list of heroes of the Patriotic War.
According to the official version, he created a detachment from his peasants, which attacked the French passing by, for which he was shot by them.

Apsit A. "The feat of Engelhardt"

In the church of the First Cadet Corps, where he once studied, a personal memorial marble plaque dedicated to him was placed.

However, according to the unofficial version, Engelhardt was a typical "wild landowner" who cruelly oppressed his serfs. And driven to despair by his tyranny, the peasants in October 1812 decided to deal with him by someone else's hands. Finding the corpse of a French officer on the road, they buried it in the master's garden. And then they reported about the landowner leading "guerrilla" to the commander of the first detachment of the Napoleonic army that came across. Engelhardt, who understands nothing, of course, did not confess anything during interrogation. And he went down in history as a staunch Russian patriot - just the noble Ivan Susanin.

In general, the Russian nobles had very serious reasons not to trust their serfs. Therefore, Alexander I and his government would have preferred that the peasants did not get involved in their war with Napoleon. And many are now surprised by the assessment of the contribution of the peasants to the victory, sounded in the Manifesto of Emperor Alexander I of August 30, 1814, and the "gratitude" he expressed to them:

"Peasants, our faithful people, may they receive a bribe from God."

"People's War"

So, the anti-French actions of the Russian peasants were of an independent and spontaneous character. They were not supported or encouraged by the Russian authorities. But the "people's war" is not a myth. And, despite its short duration, it was quite massive and successful.

V. M. Sibirskiy "French guards under the guards of partisans, 1812", drawing 2003

Most often, peasant detachments performed the role of local self-defense forces: the inhabitants of Russian villages were by no means eager to share with foreigners their already meager supplies. But sometimes the peasants gathered bands of "hunters" not to defend themselves against the French, but to attack small groups of stragglers from foreign soldiers.

The fact is that practically all of them carried in their knapsacks rich trophies “collected” in the captured Moscow and its environs. And the temptation to "rob the robbers" with impunity was very great. Sometimes they killed and robbed Russian officers who were dressed in uniforms similar to foreign ones, and even spoke to each other in an incomprehensible language.

Those who tried to explain something in broken Russian were mistaken for Poles, of whom there were many in Napoleon's Great Army. The fact is that the native language of many Russian nobles was French. Leo Tolstoy wrote in the novel War and Peace:

"The prince spoke that exquisite French language, which not only spoke, but also thought our grandfathers."

Later, in 1825, it turned out that many Decembrists, for example, M.S.Lunin, did not know the Russian language. MP Bestuzhev-Ryumin in the Peter and Paul Fortress, answering questionnaires of investigators, was forced to use a dictionary. Even little Alexander Pushkin first began to speak French (and even the first poems were written by him even before entering the Lyceum in French), and only then did he learn his native language.

In the fall of 1812, it came to the point that during cavalry raids and patrols, Russian officers were officially forbidden to speak French: upon hearing a foreign speech, the peasants who were sitting in ambush first fired shots and only then asked questions. But this did not correct the situation. In Russian, the Russian nobles spoke in such a way that the peasants, as we remember, took them for Poles. And, if they took such a "Pole" prisoner, then, as a rule, they killed - just in case. Because, suddenly, the prisoner is telling the truth - he is a Russian barchuk, and will there be punishment for the offense inflicted on him?

However, some authors believe that some of the peasants only pretended not to understand that they were dealing with Russian officers. There were no reasons for the great love of Russian serfs for the nobles at that time. And money and all sorts of useful things in the economy, as you know, do not have "nationality" and "do not smell."

Commanders of the "people's war"

So, there were peasant detachments that acted against the French, German, Polish, Italian, Spanish and other parts of Napoleon's Great Army in 1812, even if they were not then called partisan. And some of them were really created by landowners. Such, for example, was the detachment of A.D. Leslie, created in the Dukhovshchinsky district of the Smolensk province. The number of this detachment reached 200 people. He operated from ambushes near the Dukhovshchina-Krasny-Gusino road, attacking small groups of lagging enemy soldiers.

In the Sychevsky district, a retired major Semyon Yemelyanov, who had fought under Suvorov, organized his detachment.

In the Krasninsky district, the peasant detachment was headed by the village head Semyon Arkhipov. He was shot together with two subordinates, and his death became the subject of V. Vereshchagin's painting “With a weapon in your hands? - Shoot! ".

Vasilisa Kozhina is even more famous. Already in 1813, Alexander Smirnov painted her ceremonial portrait.

A. Smirnov. Portrait of Vasilisa Kozhina, 1813

In addition, she became the heroine of numerous popular prints, the most famous of which was written by Venetsianov:

A. Venetsianov. Lubok "The French - hungry rats in the command of the elder Vasilisa."

Shown here is an authentic episode of the escort of several captured Frenchmen. The officer who led them, who did not want to obey her on the grounds that she was a woman, Vasilisa personally killed. The scythe that she had in her hands on the splint, which you saw above, served as a tool. The explanatory inscription to this splint read:

"An illustration of an episode in the Sychevsky district, where the wife of the village head Vasilisa, having recruited a team of women armed with scythes and dope, drove several captured enemies before her, one of whom was killed by her for disobedience."

This, incidentally, is the only reliable evidence of Vasilisa's participation in the "partisan movement." All other stories - about how she created a squad of women and teenage boys, are legend. But, thanks to the publication in the journal "Son of the Fatherland", her name became a symbol of popular resistance to the invaders. Vasilisa was awarded a medal on the St. George ribbon and a prize of 500 rubles.

A similar incident happened in the United States during World War II. Thanks to the photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal, soldiers were declared national heroes, without risking their lives changing the flag previously erected by other people on the top of Mount Suribachi (Japanese island of Iwo Jima).

This is the magical power of the printed word.

But back to Kozhina. Look how the audience of the film "Vasilisa" (2013) saw it.

S. Khodchenkova as Vasilisa Kozhina. There is a great lack of a bear, balalaika and vodka. You can also put the group Boney M, performing the song "Rasputin", in the background.

But in the Soviet film "Kutuzov" (1943) everything is fine.

A. Danilova as Vasilisa Kozhina

Now let's talk about Yermolai Chetvertakov, whose exploits are completely real.

He was a soldier of the Kiev dragoon regiment, a participant in the wars with Napoleon in 1805–1807. In August 1812, he was captured in the battle at Tsarev-Zaymishche, but escaped after three days.

In the Gzhatsky district, he managed to create a detachment of peasants from the villages of Zibkovo and Basman. At first, the number of his subordinates did not exceed 50 people, at the end of his campaign it increased to 4 thousand (this figure still needs to be treated with some caution).

Chetvertakov not only attacked the French passing by (it is believed that his detachment had more than 1000 killed enemy soldiers and officers), but controlled the territory “within 35 versts from the Gzhatskaya pier”. In the biggest skirmish, Chetvertakov's detachment defeated an entire battalion.

Some historians bashfully point out that when units of the 26th division of the Russian army, headed by I. Paskevich, approached Gzhatsk, the issue of giving Chetvertakov to a tribunal for "desertion" was being decided. But nothing happened, and he was sent to serve in his regiment.

It is curious that the French considered this private colonel in the Russian army. Given the level of his military talents, we can safely assume that if he was born then in France, he would easily have risen to this rank (if not higher). In tsarist Russia, in November 1812, he was promoted to non-commissioned officer and awarded the soldier's Insignia of the Order of St. George. Participated in the Foreign campaigns of 1813-1814. And, unlike the same Vasilisa Kozhina, he is little known in our country.

Another successful commander of the peasant detachment was Gerasim Kurin from the estate of state peasants. He acted on the territory of the Moscow province.

A. Smirnov. Portrait of Gerasim Matveyevich Kurin, 1813

Patriotic historians brought the number of Kurin's detachment to 5300 people with three cannons, and 500 of his subordinates were allegedly cavalrymen. However, there is reason to believe that the riders in this detachment were only 20 people, assigned to Kurin by one of the commanders of the militia of the Vladimir province. The figure of more than five thousand "partisans" near Moscow should also be treated with healthy skepticism. One way or another, it is believed that it was the actions of this detachment that forced the French to leave the city of Bogorodsk. In 1813, G. Kurin was awarded the Soldier's Insignia of the Order of St. George, the Medal of Honor in 1812 and was appointed head of the village of Vokhny.

Bust of Gerasim Kurin, Pavlovsky Posad

The detachment of Nikita Minchenkov, operating in the Porechsky district of the Smolnek province, managed to capture the banner of one of the French regiments, as well as capture one of the couriers.

Semyon Silaev, a peasant from the village of Novoselki, Dukhovshchinsky district, is credited with repeating the feat of Ivan Susanin.

Detachments of Ivan Golikov, Ivan Tepishev, Savva Morozov were known near Roslavl. In the vicinity of Dorogobuzh, a detachment of Ermolai Vasiliev operated, near Gzhatsk - Fyodor Potapov.

The names of other peasants have been preserved in the sources of those years: Fedor Kolychev, Sergey Nikolsky, Ilya Nosov, Vasily Lavrov, Timofey Konoplin, Ivan Lebedev, Agap Ivanov, Sergey Mironov, Maxim Vasiliev, Andrey Stepanov, Anton Fedorov, Vasily Nikitin.

So the peasant resistance to the French was quite massive. And sometimes these detachments acted in cooperation with real partisan detachments, consisting of soldiers of regular units, which were commanded by active officers of the Russian army.

"Partisans". Painting by an unknown artist, first quarter of the XNUMXth century

Alexander Figner especially often used peasant detachments in his operations, as evidenced by Yermolov:

"The first fiend can rightly be attributed to the excitement of the villagers to the war, which had disastrous consequences for the enemy."

Other well-known commanders of partisan detachments are Denis Davydov, Alexander Seslavin, Ivan Dorokhov. Less well known is Ferdinand Vincengorod's "flying squad", whose vanguard was commanded by Alexander Benckendorff (the former aide-de-camp of Paul I and the future head of the III department).

It is about such "flying" detachments, which were then officially considered partisan, and we will talk in the next article.

Comments

[Nikolay Donskov]

Davidov Davydov
"Diary of partisan actions of 1812" - http://www.museum.ru/museum/1812/Library/davidov1/index.html
There is a lot of documentary and interesting stuff here.

[Richard]

In the fall of 1812, it came to the point that Russian officers during cavalry raids and patrols were officially forbidden to speak French: upon hearing a foreign speech, the peasants who were sitting in ambush first fired and only then asked questions.

“... However, at first I had difficulty finding a common language with the peasants. We approached each village with caution, as the armed peasants guarding their villages, seeing army uniforms, attacked the partisans. First, we had to prove that we were Russian soldiers. How many times have I asked the inhabitants after the conclusion of peace between us: "Why did you consider us French?" Each time they answered me: “Yes, you see, my dear (pointing at my hussar mentic), this, they say, is similar to their clothes.” - “But don't I speak Russian?” - "Why, they have all kinds of people!" Then I learned from experience that in the People's War one should not only speak the language of the rabble, but adapt to it both in customs and in clothes.I put on a man's caftan, began to let go of a beard, instead of the Order of St. them in the language of the people ... "
- D. Davydov. Guerrilla Action Diary

[depressant]

Dmitry, this is the first thing that unkindly touched the attention when reading the article:

“Sometimes they killed and robbed Russian officers who were dressed in uniforms similar to foreign ones, and even spoke to each other in an incomprehensible language.
Those who tried to explain something in broken Russian were mistaken for Poles, of whom there were many in Napoleon's Great Army. The fact is that the native language of many Russian nobles was French. Leo Tolstoy wrote in the novel War and Peace:
"The prince spoke that exquisite French language, which not only spoke, but also thought our grandfathers."

What a reference to modern times! Adjusted for a century. They speak Russian, think in French. Rather, even in English. And even more precisely - strangers.
And you can't get rid of the analogy.

[Richard]

What a reference to modern times! Adjusted for a century. They speak Russian, think in French. Rather, even in English. And even more precisely - strangers.

They speak Russian, teach children in England, think pro-Western.
Everything is very similar. Yes, only partisans cannot be made of such

[Ryazan87]

You are very careful about what the author writes, relying on the works of art by Leo Tolstoy.
If you look at the real data on Russian officers in 1812 (there is a wonderful research by the historian Dmitry Tselorungo - "Officers and soldiers of the Russian army during the Patriotic War of 1812: Social portraits and service"), then the following will become clear (data based on the study of several thousand forms):
Officers from untitled Russian nobles - 74,8%, while landlord officers were only 3,8% of the total!
77% did not own real estate.
Next, about the French language. Infantry officer data show that 65% of infantry officers could only read and write (in Russian, of course). Knowledge of foreign languages ​​- no more than 10%! It must be admitted that in the Guards this figure was much higher.
However, an ordinary Russian army officer in 1812 was not a prince, not a landowner, he lived on a salary and had literacy at the level of the current elementary school.

[VLR]

That's right:
There were 3952 officers and generals in the Russian army that entered the Battle of Borodino. 150 of them were landowners, 700 - heirs of estates, were supposed to become landowners in the future. But the rest, not from the "titled" nobility - also did not "come out of the people" at all, and they spoke the very famous "mixture of French and Nizhny Novgorod" (Griboyedov).
And the "titled nobility" at that time, for the most part, was not engaged in war, but in more "important" matters - all kinds of "Russian balls", "patriotic dinners" and so on.

[Ryazan87]

also did not "come out of the people" at all

- I wonder where from? or the nobles are not the people? Well, here he is, a semi-literate infantry second lieutenant, living on a salary, who is he?

"a mixture of French with Nizhny Novgorod" (Griboyedov).

Tolstoy is not enough, Griboyedov was connected - well, ok. Skalozub is not part of the people, you have to understand? And the peasants would have taken him for a foreigner?

And the "titled nobility" at that time, for the most part, was not engaged in war

Those. can you give in numbers the ratio of titled nobles who took part in hostilities and evaded service? Or so, for the "catchphrase".

[VLR]

That is, you deny the data on erroneous attacks by peasants on Russian detachments, confirmed by numerous testimonies of contemporaries? Davydov, for example, "in order to avoid", even had to take off his uniform and change clothes, and even hang an icon on his chest. And do you deny the order for the Russian army prohibiting the officers of the advanced units to speak French?
As for both Tolstoy and Griboyedov, they, living in Russia in those years, knew perfectly well how their older acquaintances and relatives spoke. And none of their contemporaries ever accused them of slander. Neither these same relatives, nor fellow peers.

[Ryazan87]

That is, you deny the data on erroneous attacks by peasants on Russian detachments, confirmed by numerous testimonies of contemporaries?

Those. I deny that this happened because the officers, without exception, communicated in French. As for the "multiplicity" of these attacks and their causes, it is necessary to sort it out very individually. This is how the regular troops used to confuse their own and others (the same uhlans, for example).

Davydov, for example, "in order to avoid", even had to take off his uniform and change clothes, and even hang an icon on his chest.

See the memoirs of Denis Vasilievich:
"... How many times have I asked the inhabitants after the conclusion of peace between us:" Why did you consider us French? " Each time they answered me: "Yes, you see, my dear (pointing at my hussar mentik), this, they say, is similar to their clothes." "But don't I speak Russian?" - "Why, they have people of every gathering!" “It’s easy to see that the point is not in the language of communication.

And do you deny the order for the Russian army prohibiting the officers of the advanced units to speak French?

You, of course, will be able to give the text and details of this order? In any case, it is only relevant for the officers of the guard.
"... In general, foreign languages ​​were not widely spread among the army officers. So, only 30% of the officers had knowledge of the French language in their service records, 25%, along with French, had knowledge of the German language and a few had knowledge of other European languages. . " This is taking into account the artillerymen (in the infantry and cavalry, the figures were twice lower). Again, "knowledge" does not imply the possibility of free communication.
By the way, was it forbidden in German? (considering that more than half of the Great Army are ethnic Germans) Or in Polish? There were no orders on this score?

As for both Tolstoy and Griboyedov,

Well, yes, in the descriptions of the high society - there is a fair amount of French communication (what can you do, if the Russian literary language has not yet been invented). And what does the bulk of the army officers have to do with it? Who, Captain Tushin, or what, speaks French? Skalozub mentioned above (by the way, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars)?

[vladcub]

Valery, purely out of harm,: Figner, Seslavin, Benckendorff also let go of their beard, or did they operate in a different area?
The act of Denis Davydov is not yet an indicator that everyone did this.
Here it is more likely to rely on the psychology of men: it will be easier for them to find a common language with such a commander than, for example, Figner or Benckendorf.

[vladcub]

Generally speaking, "French with Nizhny Novgorod" is close to the truth. Remember, at Dubrovsky's, Anton Pafnutyevich, when he tried to communicate in French with the tutor?
Anton Pafnutevich is from the provinces and might not know French, but one of Pushkin's friends wanted to show off we know French and said to the Empress: "My thoughts are as pure as the bowels of my hall." Not all aristocrats were fluent in French

[Nikolaevich I]

I agree with you, Nikita! Similar to your comment and I had to write in the comments to the articles "about Napoleon, the Napoleonic army and the Napoleonic wars"! For even earlier, in the comments to such articles, the opinion about "* Russian * officers who do not know the Russian language" was repeatedly "voiced"!

[Korsar4]

I agree. Very often, both words and thoughts are clichés of Western production. Maybe they recognize their own.

[VLR]

Yes, in 1812 a tragic situation was highlighted: in the Russian Empire, as if two different peoples live - masters and servants who speak different languages, dress differently, eat different food. Like an oak tree and a parasitic mistletoe. That is why, during the Pugachev uprising, the peasants burned the manor estates with such joy - for them they were actually analogs of the Norman castles in the Saxon England conquered by William. And this contradiction was not overcome even by 1917. Therefore, even then the landowners' estates were destroyed not by the Bolsheviks, and not by order of the small Bolsheviks, but by the peasants themselves.

[depressant]

By the way, only thanks to your article, dear Author, for me personally, the abyss between ordinary people and the ruling class of Russia at that time was finally highlighted to its bottomless depths. And it was so great, this abyss, that the further, the more there were those who wanted to bury it. Yes, in the USSR, this abyss was thrown with rocks in an attempt to reduce the depth, but the attempt quickly lost its original message. Because the governing class was falling asleep, not the entire people. Those who fell asleep were "tired", and in the 90s those who came to power began to intensify it to the previous values ​​in the sweat of their brow and without losing the pace.
Two peoples ...

[Korsar4]

Not really. Many from the other side simply left.
Remember how Tsvetaeva cut her daughter off when she addressed her in French among people.

[depressant]

Sergei, I don't remember, but I read a lot about Tsvetaeva. About how she ran with her son, what she went for for him. Tragic end. I also thought then: why did you come back? Thanks for the information. A small volume of Tsvetaev's poems "Old fogs of love", beautifully decorated with gilding in 2002, right now in front of me. When she returned, she looked for the shadows of the past, but found a completely different Russia - one in which only foreigners speak French.

[Korsar4]

Don't just judge what and how. But I love Tsvetaeva's Moscow.

[depressant]

Do you mean to say that Moscow at the time when Tsvetaeva was doing so well could never be better?

[Korsar4]

Not. You can go to Trekhprudny Lane even now.
And it's not so difficult to imagine Tsvetaeva's walk with her daughter or Mandelstam.

Now I write: and the verses change in the background like in a kaleidoscope.

[depressant]

I looked at the table of contents of my Tsvetaevo volume. Many appeals to poets. There are only seven to Mandelstam. But there is also less - already to the Soviet.
Found only this:

Pursued by the ragamuffins
And slowly blowing smoke
Solemn strangers
We pass the city to our relatives.

And here further:

Let us pause by the river that rushes
Colored lantern beads.
I'll take you to the square
Who has seen the youth-kings ...

This is how native Muscovites had a sense of the city - a historical one. They lived it as they breathed.

[Korsar4]

So this cycle is great.

“What do you want, young Derzhavin
My ill-mannered verse "(c).

[depressant]

You know, I fell in love with Moscow in the early 80s. She was human. The ancient and constructivist architecture of its streets and squares was a single ensemble. But the people who filled the capital, living in it then, also meant a lot. They complemented each other with architecture, creating a feeling of mental comfort. What I saw when I visited Moscow a few years ago - this is no longer my city, the era is gone.
But to some, it seems cozy right now.

[Korsar4]

Favorite time began in the 90s. Libraries. Realization that you can walk a lot. And then favorite places appeared: from botanical gardens to cheburek ones. But the best thing is the streets themselves.

[depressant]

Cheburek ...)))

From my hands - hail not made by hands
Accept, my strange, my beautiful brother.
According to the alignment - all forty forties,
And doves flying over them;
And Spassky - with flowers - gates,
Where the Orthodox hat is removed;
The star chapel - a shelter from evils -
Where wiped - from kisses - the floor;
Five-cathedral incomparable circle
Accept, my ancient, inspired friend.
To Unexpected Joy in the Garden
I will bring a foreign guest.

[Korsar4]

“Seven hills are like seven bells!
There are bell towers on seven bells ”(c).

[depressant]

In general, I am surprised how many old buildings have survived in Moscow. Of course, it is incomparable with St. Petersburg, and still. What a fire it was! Or rebuilt again. Architecture as a reflection of people. Shared relevance. Pompous remakes near the embankments of Moscow, all sorts of "Scarlet Sails" should fill the emptiness of the human shells that have settled in them with significance. But somehow it turns out that often architecture does not enter into symbiosis.

[Korsar4]

Rebuilt. Once I wrote a popular article. There the phrase was: "The history of Moscow - the history of fires." I was looking for the primary source - who to refer to. Not found.

[depressant]

RusArkh, S. Gorbova "History of Moscow fires".
Wikipedia. Fires of Moscow. Here in detail, over the centuries.

[Korsar4]

Do not read. I will definitely take a look.

[Nikolaevich I]

Quote: depressant

But to some, it seems cozy right now.

Moscow is considered "cozy" for adventurers of all stripes and concepts! Who is sure that he (she, they) are not like everyone else ... that they are not "trembling and" right "(ability?) Have ..."! To "guess" what "today" Moscow is for many Russians who "glanced" inadvertently into the "capital", one can read articles such as "Moscow is not Russian ..." on the Internet!

[depressant]

Nikolaevich, dear, just like that!
Somewhere in the mid-10s, deciding to inspect the Shukhov tower, I found it surrounded by a dense and very large Armenian bazaar. There was all sorts of nonsense on the trays, the same as elsewhere in similar bazaars that disfigured the approaches to the metro, and around the tower itself lay mountains of garbage, the tower looked pitiful and was, in fact, dead. I don't know how it is now.
The area of ​​the three stations also looked ugly in this sense.

[SERGE ANT]

In 1812, a rebellion of the serfs was greatly feared. Alexander, seeing that war with the French was inevitable, and fearing unrest, prepared measures in advance to suppress them. For this purpose, in each province there was to be a half-battalion of three hundred people. “Suppose,” says the sovereign in a letter to his sister Yekaterina Pavlovna, “that a serious rebellion will begin and that 300 people will not be enough” (to pacify him), “then half-battalions of neighboring provinces can immediately be used in business”, and since, for example, the Tver province is surrounded by six others, this will already amount to 2100 people "(together with the Tver detachment). General N.N. Raevsky wrote at the end of June 1812: “I am afraid of proclamations so that Napoleon would not give liberty to the people, I am afraid in our land of internal anxiety.” In St. Petersburg, the following considerations were expressed regarding the proposed departure from the capital of the ministries: “Everyone knows who has serfs, that these people are usually dissatisfied with the masters. " If the government is forced to “leave the capital, then these domestic people, incited by violent minds, who live here without any fortune or kinship, of which there are quite enough, in conjunction with the rabble, will plunder, ruin, devastate.” In the city of Insar, a pogrom was carried out: the property of nobles, merchants and commoners was plundered and houses, mostly nobles, were destroyed; the excitement continued the next day. The local residents helped the warriors. One old woman from the serfs in the Insar district said to an officer who wanted to escape at the mill where she served: “This is not Pugachevo: then not all of you were hanged, but now you will not get out! No, it is full for you to rule! ”In the Minsk province. Among the criminal cases of this time, "the overwhelming percentage are cases of indignation of peasants against the landlords, arson of their estates and the murder of their lords." So, in September 1812, out of 28 criminal cases, 25 belong to this category, approximately the same percentage accounted for the month of August. The peasants of four villages of Borisov district, Minsk province, retiring into the forests, made up several detachments and organized attacks on grain barns , barns and pantries of local landowners, began to rob their houses and farms. On August 8, the Vitebsk vice-governor told the corps commander Wittgenstein that especially in the “poviets” (counties) “Polotsk, Gorodetsky and Nevelskoye, due to unbridled liberty and independence, not only numerous peasants withdrew from obedience to their landowners, but,“ robbed and expelled ” them, "reached the highest degree of riot and indignation," so that the zemstvo police were unable to pacify them. The vice-governor asked to send a "decent detachment" to "calm the indignant." Peasant riots broke out in the central provinces (Moscow, Smolensk, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Minsk), and in remote (Vologda, Perm, Tambov, Saratov, Orenburg).

[depressant]

It would seem that give the peasants freedom at the end of the war of 1812. But the king could not agree to this. I suppose there were many reasons, and the ignorance of the interests of the mob speaking another language by the French ruling class is not the most important of them. It seems to me that in the areas of military operations, and not only of military operations, there was a high degree of ruin of noble estates. They needed to be restored, as well as the well-being of the nobles themselves, who suffered significant losses. It was impossible to do this without the cheap labor of the serfs. In those years, the nobility would not have forgiven the tsar for the liberation of the peasants from serfdom.

[Ryazan87]

The abrupt abolition of serfdom in 1812 meant the scrapping not even of the economy, but of the entire lower administrative structure of the state. In general, the most reasonable option for release is what, oddly enough, Arakcheev proposed. Redemption of peasants from ruined landowners by the treasury. In fact, spontaneously by 1861, it turned out that way - there were already noticeably more state peasants than serfs.

[Korsar4]

Why is it strange? The habit of painting Arakcheev only with black paints is also not entirely true.

[Ryazan87]

It's just that this particular project is often called unsuccessful, "overly cautious", etc.

[Korsar4]

Even the cancellation that happened led to serious consequences. In particular, to a strong decrease in forest cover.

For some reason I think that the content of things is very different from the form.
Especially in the beginning.

[vladcub]

"this contradiction was not overcome even by 1917" Valery, I will tell you more: such contradictions WILL NEVER be overcome. As long as there is honest property, there will always be rich and poor, which means, perhaps, even theoretically, the repetition: "plunder the loot."
Human psychology cannot be changed in an instant. The task of the government is to ensure that there is no sharp drop in the income of citizens

[VLR]

There was always social stratification, but a unique situation developed in imperial Russia: people of the same nationality were divided not even into classes, but almost into races. They spoke languages ​​incomprehensible to each other, wore clothes of different cut, ate different products. Even at the beginning of the twentieth century, there were still two types of expensive restaurants: some were visited by aristocrats, others by wealthy merchants. The prices were quite comparable, but the menu was completely different.

[Ryazan87]

Imperial Russia has a unique situation:

There is nothing unique. Frederick the Great communicated in the world and conducted all correspondence in French, which did not prevent him from shouting something to the grenadiers in German.
Or, say, the British aristocracy ate the same way as day laborers and land tenants or what? BGG ..

They spoke languages ​​incomprehensible to each other, wore clothes of different cut, ate different products.

Based on your assertions, the son of a Soviet high-ranking diplomat-nomenklatura and the son of a collective farmer from the village of Chmarovka in 1972 is exactly the same unique phenomenon. They ate and dressed differently. Highly. Yes, and they said, I must admit, too.

Even at the beginning of the twentieth century, there were still two types of expensive restaurants.

-
(carefully) - at the beginning of the 20th century in Russia, oddly enough, there were restaurants with different national cuisine. Including, with the Russian national, which was then safely exterminated. Well, we won't go far for an example, the famous "Yar", who is it for? For merchants or aristocrats? Or Palkin? "Dominic"? "Bear", where was the bar opened with cocktails then?

[vladcub]

The menu is nonsense, but the fact that the nobility and merchants, or modern entrepreneurs could not get along is worse.
And here I agree with you: the great fault of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the weakness of Nicholas 2.

[A. Privalov]

Regarding the war of 1812, I am a supporter of the old classical school. However, about a month ago, Yevgeny Ponasenkov unexpectedly exposed the myth of the partisan movement of 1812 on the "Channel of Common Sense" ...

[Nikolaevich I]

There have been "opportunists" at all times! As soon as there is a tendency towards a change in public opinion or a "request from the top", the corresponding articles with the "motto" appear immediately: for the sake of a good word, I will not regret my father! So "there are" articles "like": "Non-fictional truth about the Soviet partisans" ... "Was there a feat ... (Gastello, Matrosov, Kosmodemyanskaya, Molodogvardeytsev, 28 Panfilovites .....)?" Immediately after the Yeltsin putsch, for example, a certain “author” (Vinogradov? If I’m not mistaken ...) “appeared”, who wrote a series of articles in which all the famous statesmen and political figures of the past; composers, poets, writers, artists ... etc. ... which were well written about in Soviet literature ... "announced" to pedagogues and "proved" it in his libels! And recently there was an article for the film "Only old men go to battle" under the "topic": "Who is the Grasshopper and was he at all!" - with a video in which a "journalist" "proved" that the Grasshopper was not there because he thinks so ...

[Tavrik]

Miles sorry ... in a decent society, referring to Ponasenkov is not comme il faut ...

[Basil50]

richard
IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE, the class division was more rigid than the caste division in India. Not everyone understands this. The peasants were deprived of rights not only before their master, they had no rights at all. After the war of 1812, the police noted an upsurge in the brutality of punishing peasants, including whipping them to death * for insolence *.
Until 1917, the peasants were not even referred to as a * vile class * even in the media.

[Ryazan87]

IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE, the class division was more rigid than the caste division in India. Not everyone understands this.

Of course, they do not understand, because it is not so. The transition between estates was quite possible for itself and was actively taking place. In Indian varnas, this is impossible in principle (caste is a word inaccurate and not used by the Indians themselves).

The peasants were deprived of rights not only before their master, they had no rights at all.

Why do you write about something that you do not understand at all? State peasants (by 1861 there were more than half of the total number of peasants) had no rights? Seriously?
By law, the state peasants were considered "free rural inhabitants". "... State peasants, in contrast to the owner, were considered as persons with legal rights - they could appear in court, conclude transactions, own property. State peasants were allowed to conduct retail and wholesale trade, open factories and plants. which such peasants worked, was considered state ownership, but the right of use was recognized for the peasants - in practice, the peasants made transactions as owners of the land. "
And serfs, by the way, gradually acquired rights. We look at the "capitalist peasants".

Until 1917, the peasants were not even referred to as a * vile class * even in the media.

Well, this is just some kind of zviralshchina. The peasants were elected to the State Duma and became generals by that time.

[Richard]

The names of other peasants have been preserved in the sources of those years: Fedor Kolychev, Sergey Nikolsky, Ilya Nosov, Vasily Lavrov, Timofey Konoplin, Ivan Lebedev, Agap Ivanov, Sergey Mironov, Maxim Vasiliev, Andrey Stepanov, Anton Fedorov, Vasily Nikitin. But many remained nameless

"... Already in the first half of the war, when the main pioneer of the partisan movement Denis Davydov had not yet come forward with his proposal, the peasant mass had already begun a partisan struggle. Stepan Eremenko, a private of the Moscow infantry regiment, wounded and left in Smolensk, escaped from captivity and organized of the peasants, a partisan detachment of 300. Samus gathered about 2 thousand peasants around him and made bold attacks on the French.Peasant Ermolai Vasiliev gathered and armed a detachment of 600 people taken from the French with guns and sabers. about these national heroes, but they themselves did not pursue glory.The peasant woman of the village of Sokolovo, Smolensk province, Praskovya, who defended one from six Frenchmen, killed three of them with a pitchfork (including the colonel), wounded and put to flight the other three, and remained for Praskovya's offspring, without a surname. "
- E. V. Tarle. Napoleon's invasion of Russia
link: Tarle E. V. Napoleon's invasion of Russia. - Collected works: in 12 volumes. - M .: Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1959 .-- T. 7

[Richard]

Other well-known commanders of partisan detachments are Denis Davydov, Alexander Seslavin, Ivan Dorokhov. Less well known is Ferdinand Vincengorod's "flying squad", whose vanguard was commanded by Alexander Benckendorff (the former aide-de-camp of Paul I and the future head of the III department).

The first partisan detachments were created even before the Battle of Borodino. On July 23, after joining Bagration near Smolensk, Barclay de Tolly formed a flying partisan detachment from the Kazan Dragoon, three Don Cossack and Stavropol Kalmyk regiments under the general command of F. Vintsingerode

[Olgovich]

Engelhardt, who understands nothing, of course, did not confess anything during the interrogation. And he went down in history as a staunch Russian patriot - just the noble Ivan Susanin.

statements from the series "he just slipped and, not understanding, fell into the embrasure."

And here is what is officially installed:

PI Engelhardt is an officer who served in the Russian army for many years, a retired lieutenant colonel.

he, together with several other landowners organized a partisan detachment, which began to attack enemy units. Engelhardt personally participated in forays into enemy units, in skirmishes personally killed 24 Frenchmen. Was issued to the French. On October 3, 1812, a French military court sentenced Engelhardt to death. The French tried to persuade Engelhardt to cooperate and offered him the rank of colonel in the Napoleonic army, but he refused.

On October 15, 1812, Engelhardt was shot at the Molokhov gate of the Smolensk fortress wall (now they do not exist). On his last journey he was accompanied by the priest of the Odigitrievskaya church, the first Smolensk historian Nikifor Murzakevich. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, before the execution, he interrupted the escort who was reading the sentence to him, forbade him to blindfold him with the words: “Away! Nobody saw his death, but I will see her, ”said goodbye to his colleagues and ordered to shoot. Initially, the French shot him in the leg, promising to cancel the execution and cure Engelhardt if he agreed to go over to their side, but he again refused. Then a volley of 18 charges was fired, 2 of which went in the chest and 1 in the stomach. Engelhardt survived even after that. Then one of the French soldiers shot him in the head. (from)

Those. the peasants fought against the French in the detachment of the lieutenant colonel, but, as in any war, there were also traitors. But this is not the people, like the policemen of the Second World War, it is not the people. And there were marauders, etc., as in any war

Therefore, Alexander I and his government would have preferred that the peasants did not get involved in their war with Napoleon.

it's just a lie: we read not fictions, but documents, namely Manifesto of Alexander I on the need to create a militia to help the Russian regular army fighting Napoleon's troops on July 6/18, 1812.

We, Alexander the First, are the emperor and autocrat of All Russia ...

"We appeal to to all our loyal subjects, to all estates and states, spiritual and worldly, inviting them with us by unanimous and GENERAL UPRISING to assist against all enemy designs and attempts... May he find at every step the faithful sons of Russia, striking him by all means and forces, not heeding any of his guile and deceptions. May he meet Pozharsky in every nobleman, in every spiritual Palitsyn, in every citizen of Minin. "

And there was a war, and it was a people's war, no matter how anyone tried to slander it from today: stubborn facts speak about this: there was massive partisan movement, the mass of peasant heroes and exploits and 216 thousand prisoners were taken by the peasants (the army captured only 50 thousand)
.

And many are now surprised by the assessment of the contribution of the peasants to the victory, voiced in the Manifesto of Emperor Alexander I of August 30, 1814, and the "gratitude" he expressed to them:

“Peasants, our loyal people

Someone is still surprised by the round Earth, yes, but the Emperor just recorded a FACT

Someone is not able to understand that this is his statement

anti-French actions of Russian peasants were amateur and spontaneous character

directly contradicts this statement of his:

But the "people's war" was massive and successful

it just doesn't happen. And more than 200 thousand invaders captured by the peasants are proof of that.

Everything "by itself", "spontaneously and accidentally" happened, yeah ....

[Undecim]

For a better understanding of the issue, the author should have prefaced the presentation with a small amount of theory from the XNUMXth century.
According to the views of that time, there were such concepts as guerrilla warfare, small war and popular war.
Guerrilla war - "independent actions of detachments allocated by the army, interrupting communication with it, at least temporarily, and harming the enemy, mainly in the rear."
Small war - "guard service, collection of information about the enemy, cavalry raids and similar actions of small units of troops, that is, actions that are essentially always necessary, closely related to the general actions of the army."
People's war is when "the gangs of the insurgent people are tied to their native places, waging the war at their own risk and fear."
All definitions are taken from the "Military Encyclopedia" by Sytin.

[Undecim]

I saw Sytin's quasi-patriots minus.

[Pane Kohanku]

I saw Sytin's quasi-patriots minus.

The same is on the branch at Shpakovsky's ... But we dream of people's happiness!

And money and all sorts of useful things in the economy, as you know, do not have "nationality" and "do not smell."

Vespasian day! Colleagues, a bunch of great comments. I will not discuss the flaws of the article, if any, but I will thank you all and Valery personally. I look forward to continuing!

[Catfish]

Nikolay, hello, again on the site miracles are in the sieve and I cling to you.

... or rocket teams.

The hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Colonel Alexander Dmitrievich Zasyadko, was successfully engaged in the creation of rocket weapons for the Russian army. For the first time its missile systems were successfully used in 1828 during the siege of the Turkish fortress of Brailov.
The weapon turned out to be so successful that Alexander Dmitrievich was proud to say: “If we had missile weapons earlier, who knows, Bonaparte would have dared to set foot on our land. And if he had started his barbarian invasion, he might have been stopped earlier. "

[Pane Kohanku]

The hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Colonel Alexander Dmitrievich Zasyadko, was successfully engaged in the creation of rocket weapons for the Russian army.

I didn't know about him, Uncle Kostya, thanks! Of the 19th century missile designers, I only remember Konstantinov - by the way, the illegitimate son of Konstantin Pavlovich.
Hmm ... I see, "a certain anonymous herd" has already come here, and we have some minuses on this thread? Just? Just like that, take and distribute three or four minuses? ...
I haven't given out a single one today ...
However ... This is our "Honor and Conscience of the Nation", damn it ...

[Catfish]

"some anonymous herd"

This is all elementary, at the level of the cave individual. Do you remember an old anecdote about a goldfish: "Here, you know, a fish, my neighbor has a cow, but I don't. Make it so that he doesn't have one either."
Nothing changes, the stupid and lazy have remained what they were, and their petty envy always blooms in a magnificent color, if a neighbor has meat in cabbage soup, then you definitely need to spit in the pan. "Vile people", it's not for nothing that they have been nicknamed since ancient times.

[Pane Kohanku]

In general, you are right. It's disgusting when karma is not deserved. But, on the other hand, such people do not think so much as express their emotions. Hence the minusA in packs for our entire company ...

[Catfish]

Envy, envy, again envy and indigestion.

[Korsar4]

Why the version of the joke: "A box of vodka and these two back" has a right to exist.

[Catfish]

Why does the version of the joke: "A box of vodka and these two back" have a right to exist?

Why, the version of the anecdote: "A box of vodka and these two back" - has a right to exist.

Hello, Sergey! Which option did you mean?

[Korsar4]

Hi Constantine!

Desert island. Lamp. Gin. 2 wishes for everyone.
The German wants a woman and home.
Englishman - money and home.
And Russian - a box of vodka and all back.

[Catfish]

Now remembered.
That is why they, having returned, were delighted.

[Korsar4]

It is always important - who has the last word.

[Catfish]

"In the beginning there was a word" (c)

[Korsar4]

There is both alpha and omega everywhere.

[Catfish]

There is both alpha and omega everywhere.

And here and there the delta.

[Korsar4]

Was on a famous cigarette case.

[Catfish]

Not only.
Colt Delta Elite pistol, 10 mm.

[Korsar4]

In mathematics, Δ means difference or change.

[Catfish]

This means that mathematicians had a hand in both the cigarette case and the pistol. I respect you.

[Korsar4]

At some stage, certainly.

[Catfish]

"Gogi, twice two - there will be four, perhaps five, in extreme cases six, but certainly not eight!" (C)

[Korsar4]

This depends on whether we buy or sell.

[Catfish]

I realized it was like on the Odessa Privoz. A chicken costs ten, give five and take three rubles in change.

[Korsar4]

“Forty, forty. The ruble is forty.
Did you drink beer? Didn't you drink? Two forty.
Let's sum up: five rubles.
Your ten. Change ruble ”(Probably folk).

[Catfish]

"Rupee for hay, two for a cart, one and a half for a carriage" (c)

[Korsar4]

"Afonya owes me a ruble" (c).

[Catfish]

"... Oh, count, I beg your pardon -
I behaved tactlessly, -
I wanted to borrow from you,
But he didn't dare somehow. "(C)

[Korsar4]

“Interest is absurd,
And I can wait even a century ”(c).

[Korsar4]

And you set yourself a norm of minuses, but how will you evaluate your performance?

[astra wild2]

And I thought that rockets appeared at the end of the 19th century.

[Catfish]

They appeared among the Chinese even earlier, around the XNUMXth century A.D.

[vladcub]

Vic. Nick, so Sytin is an obvious thief.

[Korsar4]

"Why didn't England please him?" (from).

[Ryazan87]

The author writes a lot of very dubious things to please his own political views. Fictions, references to Leo Tolstoy, tales about polls speaking "French" officers, ignoring official documents ...
For example, here's a speculation:

In this case, Alexander I would immediately conclude peace on any terms, not only with Napoleon, but also with the real Antichrist.

The author does not even understand that in such and such a case Alexander would never have gone to peace with him! It would be easier to jump into the Gulf of Finland with a cast-iron core.
Actually, Napoleon did not take this measure precisely for this reason (and there would be no one to conclude peace with, the Russian Empire would inevitably collapse).

[astra wild2]

"The empire would have collapsed inevitably" that's even how, but I did not know that serfdom is hoops, so that the state does not collapse. Why didn't Britain collapse? Did they have serfdom?
I think that you are not successful in deducing

[Ryazan87]

"I have no other braces for you." Serfdom in Russia in the 18-19th century is such an extremely unpleasant form of organizing the state's administrative and fiscal policy "for cheap" and with an acute shortage of at least some educated people. It was possible and necessary to abolish this evil, but not by a harsh decision (the reformer will most likely be killed, and anarchy will begin in the state).
In Britain, firstly, serfdom also existed, although it was abolished much earlier (about three centuries). Secondly, there this cancellation led to such a wonderful phenomenon as fencing. He can read on his own how glad the English peasants were.

[Aviator_]

The author gave a brief overview of the organized partisan detachments of the 1812 campaign. Elementary resistance to the self-supply of the Napoleonic army was also widespread, since Napoleon did not envisage a centralized supply of it, apparently hoped for a blitzkrieg. So in the village of Khripan (now the Ramensky district of the Moscow region), the peasant did not like very much that two Napoleon men encroached on his vehicle (a horse with a cart). After he used a household carpenter's tool (ax) on the heads of the property managers, the conflict was settled. The episode is taken from the Lyubertsy Museum of Local Lore.

[agond]

How many interesting questions are raised, if the tsar and the landowners are afraid of serfs with arms, then on whose side should the serf be and whether a forced person has a homeland in general, and should he defend it in war, and should a serf serve in the army in general if slaves are in ancient Rome and the army served anger, by the way, in 1815 many of our serf soldiers fled, I think being in France, everyone thought about it but did not dare ... imagine Suvorov, after the meeting, leaves the tent with the officers anywhere in Italy, and the whole army escaped

[VLR]

Yes, the camps of the Russian Army in France were very carefully guarded along the perimeter. On the march - too. Precisely because among the soldiers there were many who wanted to stay. In France, the demographic situation was very difficult and young healthy men were gladly hired in the surrounding farms, and girls and widows willingly married them: there were not enough men of their own. Georges Simenon, for example, is a descendant of the Russian soldier Semyonov, who fled from his regiment.

[Bolt cutter]

Georges Simenon, for example, a descendant of the Russian soldier Semyonov

His father, Desiree Simenon, is a Walloon native of Liege.

[VLR]

But in the family of Simenon there was a legend about a Russian soldier-great-grandfather. He himself spoke about this in an interview. Moreover, such a surname is unique for those places and is not found either in Wallonia or in Flanders. True, Simenon himself believed that he was a descendant of one of the Russian prisoners who did not want to return to his homeland, and not a deserter of the victorious army of Alexander I.

[Bolt cutter]

Can I have a link? The French (and English) internet is silent about this.

[VLR]

Here is: the book "I dictate memories" -
https://itexts.net/avtor-zhorzh-simenon/224123-ya-diktuyu-vospominaniya-zhorzh-simenon/read/page-31.html
"I believed the legend, the echoes of which my grandfather had heard; I had already told it. According to it, a Napoleonic soldier, a Breton by birth, wounded in a Russian campaign, stopped on the mend in the Belgian Limburg and, like in a cheap novel, married the daughter of his host farmer.
Later, living in Brittany, I searched all the telephone directories of the province for the name Simenon, but did not find anything even remotely similar. I did not carry out searches all over France. And then I found out about the existence of a Soviet writer by the name of Semyonov and thought: what if the wounded from the Limburg farm was not a soldier of the retreating Napoleonic army, but just the opposite, of the Russian, pursuing the French?
It is interesting that two weeks ago this writer Semenov visited me in our house. It could be a meeting of relatives! "

[Bolt cutter]

He had a violent fantasy, you will not say anything.

[Olgovich]

Quote: Bolt Cutter

he had a dull imagination, you will not say anything.

Yes, these versions about Semyonov are full. And in his interview to the newspaper "Shield and Sword" this is an already wounded Russian soldier, taken out by the French from Russia. Those. they left their wounded near Moscow and already devoured their comrades near Vilno, and dragged the wounded Russian prisoner to ... Flanders.

Simenon is the same Semenoff as Columbus comes from Kolomyia

[VLR]

You will be surprised, but at the first stages of the 1812 campaign, Russian prisoners were, in fact, sent to France. And many of them then waited for the Russian army there. The commander of one of the partisan detachments, Vintsingerode, was sent to Westphalia for trial on the day the French left Moscow as a subject of Jerome Bonaparte. But he was repulsed on the way by other partisans - on the territory of Belarus. More about this in the next article. So, there is nothing impossible in the fact that a Russian soldier ended up in Limoges in 1812.

[Olgovich]

Quote: VlR

You will be surprised, but at first stages of the 1812 campaign of the year, Russian prisoners were indeed sent to France

Simenon spoke specifically about the RETREATING running French army (later, about the advancing Russian), and not about the first stages of 1812.

[Moskovit]

If he knew, Shaw this Semyonov is not exactly Semyonov. And his relatives live in one hot and restless country))

[Ryazan87]

Interestingly, within the framework of your logic, the state peasants were supposed to serve in the army? And defend the fatherland? In 1812 there were about the same number of serfs (by the reform of 1861 there will be more).

[Senior seaman]

"Bonaparte is in Moscow, and therefore he is their sovereign."

It seems to me that the topic of betrayal in the Patriotic War of 1812 is still waiting for its researcher.
Interestingly, in the suppression of such facts, one can see a touching unity of our state "patriots" and home-grown "liberals". Both those and others do not notice them at close range, although for different reasons. The first is simply thoughtless, because there was no command, and the second, in order not to lose their dogma, that there were no cases of betrayal before Stalin and the Second World War ...
Meanwhile, if you carefully read the material, you can find examples of treason in all strata of Russian society. For example, the journalist Grech wrote with indignation about the unashamed supporters of Napoleon in the high-society salons of St. Petersburg. The same Davydov wrote about the landowners supplying the enemy with supplies, and also calling on the punishers to fight them. One of our poet-guerrillas even whipped for such "feats" (unless, of course, Denis Vasilyevich didn’t prank slightly, as usual :))). Archbishop of Mogilev and Vitebsk Varlaam, voluntarily took the oath to the conqueror along with all the clergy.
So there have been traitors at all times. Alas.

[Ryazan87]

Vaughn Thaddeus Bulgarin had time everywhere) And against the French and together with them)

Russia is being sold by Thaddeus
Not for the first time, as you know.
Perhaps he will sell his wife, children,
Both the earthly world and the heavenly paradise,
He would sell his conscience for a fair price,
Yes, it's a pity, it is included in the treasury.

[Senior seaman]

Fadey Venediktovich is, if not a Pole, then a Polish nobleman. Not that it's forgivable, but ...

[Pane Kohanku]

Fadey Venediktovich is, if not a Pole, then a Polish nobleman. Not that it's forgivable, but ...

But Auguste Montferrand was French, but he also had time! He fought for Napoleon, then put in Russia the symbol of victory over him - the Alexandrian Column!

[Korsar4]

Personally, I am interested in the relationship of the Old Believers to Napoleon. I suspect that they are slandering a lot of unnecessary things.

[north 2]

Danilevsky in his novel "Burnt Moscow" perfectly showed how in the high society salons of Moscow they babbled in French, knowing their native Russian perfectly, not only when Napoleon entered Russia with the war, but also when Napoleon had already reached Moscow ... And then, after the war, in the high society salons of St. Petersburg suddenly began to dislike Byron, who stated that it was Russia and Moscow that brought Napoleon into the sunset:
-Here are the semi-wild towers of Moscow
Before you, in crowns of gold,
Burn in the sun ... But, alas ...
That is the sun of your sunset!
And these, ready to barbarians from Europe to lick everything even after Napoleon turned the Moscow Kremlin Church into stables, they were definitely afraid to admit that Napoleon's army was very much beaten by ordinary Russian peasant partisans. Before this and such a word, the partisans did not know that in Russia. There were rioters, there were troublemakers. There were no partisans. And it was here that something happened, because of which both the high-society saltons and the entire Romanov dynasty were afraid to the end of their days and would remember these partisans of 1812. It was dangerous to publicly recall, the more dangerous it was to publicly exalt such a popular force. After all, in 1812 the Romanovs and all the "nobility" saw how ordinary people know how to organize themselves. However, the Romanovs did not have to be bored anyway after 1812. Thirteen years after the victory over Napoleon, the Anglo-Saxons organized the Decembrists by Romanov, and forty years later, and the mature Herzen, Russia received from the same Anglo-Saxons and everything went and went ... And it reached Lenin, which Russia was organized by the same most Anglo-Saxons ...

[agond]

Quote: Senior Sailor

It seems to me that the topic of betrayal in the Patriotic War of 1812 is still waiting for its researcher.

If we consider an event as a betrayal for the onset of which it is necessary to voluntarily accept certain obligations and promises, then the whole question of voluntariness itself, or in violation of the oath, always amazed in the army, as if voluntarily called up solemnly promise loyalty to the homeland, swear, and the homeland, neither which does not promise them in return, but meanwhile Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said, "Do not swear at all ...". By the way, the communists did not swear any oaths when they were admitted to the party. To be honest, in 1812 only an officer, a nobleman, could be a traitor, accusing a serf of treason is like accusing a galley rower who sawed through the chain and jumped overboard.

[Ryazan87]

To be honest, in 1812 only an officer, a nobleman, could be a traitor, accusing a serf of treason is like accusing a galley rower who sawed through the chain and jumped overboard.

Do you know that after the beginning of the service, the soldier ceased to be a serf (if he was one at the time of recruitment)? Likewise, were his wife and children free people?

[VLR]

Yes, a retired soldier was freed from serfdom and all duties. But during his service the peasant community paid taxes for him! And at the same time he was expelled from the community and mourned as if he had died. That is, if he was very lucky: the sergeant would not beat him to death during training, would not be killed in battle, or he would not die from some infectious disease during the campaign, then he had nowhere to return. They usually did not return to their homeland (if they did return, they settled separately, like strangers). They usually lived in townships, acting as firefighters, caretakers or doormen. Or, if you got married - in the village of your bride. The crippled were sent to monasteries, and later to almshouses.
They served under Peter I -
for life (until death or serious injury), under Catherine II - 25 years, under Nicholas I - 20 years, from 1874 - 6 years. Until 1874, soldiers' sons were obligatory soldiers, their daughters were married off to soldiers. Only in 1828 was it allowed to leave one of the sons at home so that he could take care of his parents. Russian fairy tales often begin like this:
"He served as a soldier for twenty-five years, they gave him a blue ticket and he had money - as much as three kopecks!" Only in 1867 retired soldiers began to receive three rubles a month.

[Tavrik]

Quote: Vasily50

After the war of 1812, the police noted an upsurge in the brutality of punishing peasants, including whipping them to death * for insolence *.

Including because after the war there was an outbreak of peasant uprisings. Everyone was waiting for "freedom", but waited for "bribes from God" ...

[agond]

The memory of the gross injustice, total and chronic disruption of the balance of interests does not disappear without a trace (the law of conservation) along with the death of a person, it remains at the genetic level in descendants in the form of a negative, will always be present in the subconscious of subsequent generations, will contribute to their behavior. no matter how much the facts are hushed up

[Lewww]

So the peasant resistance to the French was quite massive. And sometimes these detachments acted in cooperation with real partisan detachments, consisting of soldiers of regular units,

here is the keyword PORAY

In reality, the actions of the peasants do not fit into the concept of people's guerrilla war, which was formed during the Second World War.
In 1812, the actions of the villagers were reduced to self-defense and banal robbery, including the ruin of the master's estates.
It was declared a people's war already in the Soviet period.