Members of the partisan movement in 1812. The guerrilla movement is the club of the people's war

The price of victory Victor Bezotosny The country, of course, exalts the victory. But it educates and tempers - a grueling path to it. To analyze the consequences of the most important historical events, to trace their influence on the subsequent course of history is the task of the historian. But

While the Napoleonic troops are relaxing with drunkenness and robbery in Moscow, and the regular Russian army is retreating, making cunning maneuvers that will then allow it to rest, gather strength, significantly replenish its composition and defeat the enemy, let's talk about cudgel of the people's war, as we like to call the partisan movement of 1812 with the light hand of Leo Tolstoy.

Partisans of the Denisov detachment
Illustration for Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace
Andrey NIKOLAEV

Firstly, I would like to say that this cudgel has a very remote relation to guerrilla warfare in the form in which it existed. Namely, army partisan detachments of regular military units and Cossacks, created in the Russian army to operate in the rear and on enemy communications. Secondly, reading even in Lately various materials, not to mention Soviet sources, you often come across the idea that the alleged ideological inspirer and organizer of them was exclusively Denis Davydov, the famous poet and partisan of that time, who was the first to propose the creation of detachments, like the spanish guerilla, through Prince Bagration to Field Marshal Kutuzov before the Battle of Borodino. I must say that the dashing hussar himself put a lot of effort into this legend. It happens...

Portrait of Denis Davydov
Yuri IVANOV

In fact, the first partisan detachment in this war was created near Smolensk by order of the same Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly, even before Kutuzov was appointed commander in chief. By the time Davydov turned to Bagration with a request to allow the creation of an army partisan detachment, Major General Ferdinand Fedorovich Wintzingerode (commander of the first partisan detachment) was already in full swing and successfully smashing the rear of the French. The detachment occupied the cities of Surazh, Velez, Usvyat, constantly threatened the suburbs of Vitebsk, which caused Napoleon to send the Italian division of General Pino to the aid of the Vitebsk garrison. As usual, we have forgotten the affairs of these "Germans" ...

Portrait of General Baron Ferdinand Fedorovich Wintzingerode
Unknown artist

After Borodino, in addition to Davydov's (by the way, the smallest detachment), several more were created that began active fighting after leaving Moscow. Some detachments consisted of several regiments and could independently solve major combat missions, for example, the detachment of Major General Ivan Semenovich Dorokhov, which included dragoon, hussar and 3 cavalry regiments. Large detachments were commanded by colonels Vadbolsky, Efremov, Kudashev, captains Seslavin, Figner and others. Many glorious officers fought in partisan detachments, including future satraps(as they were previously presented to us) Alexander Khristoforovich Benkendorf, Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev.

Portraits of Ivan Semenovich Dorokhov and Ivan Efremovich Efremov
George Dow Unknown artist

At the beginning of October 1812, it was decided to surround the Napoleonic army with a ring of army partisan detachments, with a clear action plan and a specific area of ​​\u200b\u200bdeployment for each of them. So, Davydov's detachment was ordered to function between Smolensk and Gzhatsk, Major General Dorokhov - between Gzhatsk and Mozhaisk, Staff Captain Figner - between Mozhaisk and Moscow. In the Mozhaisk area there were also detachments of Colonel Vadbolsky and Colonel Chernozubov.

Portraits of Nikolai Danilovich Kudashev and Ivan Mikhailovich Vadbolsky
George Doe

Between Borovsk and Moscow, the detachments of Captain Seslavin and Lieutenant Fonvizin attacked the enemy's communications. To the north of Moscow, a group of detachments under the general command of General Winzingerode conducted an armed struggle. On the Ryazan road, a detachment of Colonel Efremov operated, on Serpukhovskaya - Colonel Kudashev, on Kashirskaya - Major Lesovsky. The main advantage of partisan detachments was their mobility, surprise and swiftness. They never stood in one place, they constantly moved around, and no one except the commander knew in advance when and where the detachment would go. If necessary, several detachments were temporarily united for large-scale operations.

Portraits of Alexander Samoilovich Figner and Alexander Nikitich Seslavin
Yuri IVANOV

Without detracting from the exploits of the detachment of Denis Davydov and himself, it must be said that many commanders were offended by the memoirist after the publication of his military notes, in which he often exaggerated his own merits and forgot to mention his comrades. To which Davydov simply replied: Fortunately, there is something to say about yourself, why not talk? And it's true, the organizers Generals Barclay de Tolly and Wintzingerode passed away one after another in 1818, what to remember about them ... And written in a fascinating juicy language, the works of Denis Vasilyevich were very popular in Russia. True, Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky wrote to Xenophon Polevoy in 1832: Between us, be it said, he wrote out more than cut himself the glory of a brave man.

A memoirist, and even more so a poet, and even a hussar, well, how can we do without fantasies :) So let's forgive him these little pranks? ..

Denis Davydov at the head of the partisans in the vicinity of Lyakhovo
A. TELENIK

Portrait of Denis Davydov
Alexander ORLOVSKY

In addition to partisan detachments, there was also the so-called people's war, which was waged by spontaneous self-defense detachments of the villagers and the significance of which, in my opinion, is greatly exaggerated. And it is already teeming with myths ... Now, they say, they concocted a film about the old man Vasilisa Kozhina, whose very existence is still disputed, and nothing can be said about her exploits.

But oddly enough, the same “German” Barclay de Tolly had a hand in this movement, who back in July, without waiting for instructions from above, turned through the Smolensk governor, Baron Casimir Asch, to the residents of the Pskov, Smolensk and Kaluga regions with appeal:

The inhabitants of Pskov, Smolensk and Kaluga! Listen to the voice that calls you to your own comfort, to your own safety. Our irreconcilable enemy, having undertaken a greedy intention against us, fed himself hitherto with the hope that his impudence alone would be enough to frighten us, to triumph over us. But our two brave armies, stopping the daring flight of his violence, with their breasts resisted him on our ancient borders ... Avoiding a decisive battle, ... his robber gangs, attacking unarmed villagers, tyrannize over them with all the cruelty of barbarian times: they rob and burn their houses; they desecrate the temples of God... But many of the inhabitants of the province of Smolensk have already awakened from their fear. They, armed in their homes, with courage worthy of the name of the Russian, punish the villains without any mercy. Imitate them all who love themselves, the fatherland and the sovereign!

Of course, the inhabitants and the peasants behaved differently in the territories left by the Russians. When the French army approached, they moved away from home or into the forests. But often, first of all, some people ruined the estates of their tyrannical landowners (we must not forget that the peasants were serfs), robbed, set fire to, ran away in the hope that the French would come now and free them (the earth was full of rumors about Napoleon’s intentions to rid the peasants of serfdom ).

Destruction of the landowner's estate. Patriotic War of 1812
The looting of the landowner's estate by the peasants after the retreat of the Russian troops before Napoleon's army
V.N. KURDYUMOV

During the retreat of our troops and the entry of the French into Russia, the landlord peasants often rose up against their masters, divided the master's estate, even tore up and burned houses, killed landowners and managers- in a word, they smashed the estates. The passing troops joined the peasants and, in turn, carried out the robbery. Our picture depicts an episode from such a joint robbery of the civilian population with the military. The action takes place in one of the rich landowners' estates. The owner himself is no longer there, and the remaining clerk was seized so that he would not interfere. The furniture was taken out into the garden and broken. The statues decorating the garden are broken; crushed flowers. There is also a barrel of wine lying around with the bottom knocked out. The wine spilled. Everyone takes whatever they want. And unnecessary things are thrown away and destroyed. A cavalryman on a horse stands and calmly looks at this picture of destruction.(original caption for illustration)

Partisans of 1812.
Boris ZVORYKIN

Where the landlords behaved like human beings, the peasants and yard people armed themselves with what they could, sometimes under the leadership of the owners themselves, attacked the French detachments, carts and rebuffed them. Some detachments were led by Russian soldiers who fell behind their units due to illness, injury, captivity and subsequent flight from it. So the audience was diverse.

Homeland Defenders
Alexander APSIT

Scouts Scouts
Alexander APSIT

It is also impossible to say that these detachments acted on a permanent basis. They organized for as long as the enemy was on their territory, and then disbanded, all for the same reason that the peasants were serfs. Indeed, even from the militias created at the behest of the emperor, fugitive peasants were escorted home and subjected to trial. So the detachment of Kurin, whose exploits were sung by Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, lasted 10 days - from October 5 to October 14, until the French were in Bogorodsk district, and then was disbanded. Yes, and not the entire Russian people participated in the people's war, but only the inhabitants of several provinces where hostilities took place, or adjacent to them.

French guards under the escort of grandmother Spiridonovna
Alexey VENETSIANOV, 1813

I started this whole conversation in order, firstly, to understand that our cudgel of the people's war could not stand any comparison with the Spanish-Portuguese guerilla (you can read a little about this), which, allegedly, we were equal to, and, secondly, to once again show that the Patriotic War was won primarily thanks to the actions of our commanders, generals, officers , soldier. And the emperor. And not by the forces of the Gerasimov Kurins, the mythical lieutenants Rzhevskys, Vasilis Kozhins and other entertaining characters ... Although they could not do without them ... And more specifically, we will talk more about the guerrilla war ahead ...

And finally, today's picture:

Archpriest of the Cavalier Guard Regiment Gratinsky, serving a prayer service in the parish church of St. Euplas, in Moscow, in the presence of the French on September 27, 1812.
Engraving from a drawing by an unknown artist

... Wishing to create a more favorable attitude towards himself among the population, Napoleon ordered not to interfere with the celebration of worship in churches; but this was possible only in a few temples that were not touched by the enemy. From September 15, divine services were regularly performed in the church of Archdeacon Evpla (on Myasnitskaya); divine services were performed daily in the church of Kharitonius in Ogorodniki. The first evangelism in the church of Peter and Paul on Yakimanka made a particularly deep impression in Zamoskorechye...(w-l Tourist's companion No. 3, published for the centenary of the war of 1812)

The partisan movement in the Patriotic War of 1812 significantly influenced the outcome of the campaign. The French met fierce resistance from the local population. Demoralized, deprived of the opportunity to replenish their food supplies, ragged and frozen, Napoleon's army was brutally beaten by flying and peasant partisan detachments of Russians.

Squadrons of flying hussars and detachments of peasants

The greatly stretched Napoleonic army, pursuing the retreating Russian troops, quickly became a convenient target for partisan attacks - the French often found themselves far removed from the main forces. The command of the Russian army decided to create mobile detachments to carry out sabotage behind enemy lines and deprive him of food and fodder.

During the Patriotic War, there were two main types of such detachments: flying squadrons of army cavalrymen and Cossacks, formed by order of the commander-in-chief Mikhail Kutuzov, and groups of peasant partisans, which united spontaneously, without army leadership. In addition to the actual sabotage actions, the flying detachments were also engaged in reconnaissance. Peasant self-defense forces basically fought off the enemy from their villages and villages.

Denis Davydov was mistaken for a Frenchman

Denis Davydov - the most famous commander of a partisan detachment in the Patriotic War of 1812. He himself drew up a plan of action for mobile partisan formations against the Napoleonic army and offered it to Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration. The plan was simple: to annoy the enemy in his rear, to capture or destroy enemy warehouses with food and fodder, to beat small groups of the enemy.

Under the command of Davydov there were over one and a half hundred hussars and Cossacks. Already in September 1812, in the area of ​​the Smolensk village of Tsarevo-Zaimishche, they captured a French caravan of three dozen carts. More than 100 Frenchmen from the accompanying detachment were killed by Davydov's cavalrymen, another 100 were captured. This operation was followed by others, also successful.

Davydov and his team did not immediately find support from the local population: the peasants at first mistook them for the French. The commander of the flying detachment even had to put on a peasant's caftan, hang an icon of St. Nicholas on his chest, grow a beard and switch to the language of the Russian common people - otherwise the peasants did not believe him.

Over time, the detachment of Denis Davydov increased to 300 people. The cavalrymen attacked the French units, sometimes having a fivefold numerical superiority, and defeated them, taking the carts and freeing the prisoners, it even happened to capture enemy artillery.

After leaving Moscow, on the orders of Kutuzov, flying partisan detachments were created everywhere. Mostly these were Cossack formations, each numbering up to 500 sabers. At the end of September, Major General Ivan Dorokhov, who commanded such a formation, captured the city of Vereya near Moscow. United guerrilla groups could resist large military formations Napoleon's army. So, at the end of October, during a battle near the Smolensk village of Lyakhovo, four partisan detachments completely defeated the more than one and a half thousand brigade of General Jean-Pierre Augereau, capturing him himself. For the French, this defeat was a terrible blow. On the contrary, this success encouraged the Russian troops and set them up for further victories.

Peasant Initiative

A significant contribution to the destruction and exhaustion of the French units was made by the peasants who organized themselves into combat detachments. Their partisan units began to form even before Kutuzov's instructions. Willingly helping the flying detachments and units of the regular Russian army with food and fodder, the peasants at the same time harmed the French everywhere and in every possible way - they exterminated enemy foragers and marauders, often at the approaches of the enemy they themselves burned their houses and went into the forests. Fierce resistance on the ground intensified as the demoralized French army became more and more a crowd of robbers and marauders.

One of these detachments was assembled by the dragoons Yermolai Chetvertakov. He taught the peasants how to use captured weapons, organized and successfully carried out many sabotage against the French, capturing dozens of enemy carts with food and livestock. At one time, up to 4 thousand people entered the Chetvertakov compound. And such cases when peasant partisans, led by military personnel, noble landowners, successfully operated in the rear of the Napoleonic troops, were not isolated.

Essay on the history of a student of grade 11, school 505 Afitova Elena

Partisan movement in the War of 1812

Partisan movement, the armed struggle of the masses for the freedom and independence of their country or social transformations, conducted in the territory occupied by the enemy (controlled by the reactionary regime). Regular troops operating behind enemy lines may also take part in the Partisan Movement.

The partisan movement in the Patriotic War of 1812, the armed struggle of the people, mainly the peasants of Russia, and detachments of the Russian army against the French invaders in the rear of the Napoleonic troops and on their communications. The partisan movement began in Lithuania and Belarus after the retreat of the Russian army. At first, the movement was expressed in the refusal to supply the French army with fodder and food, the massive destruction of stocks of these types of supplies, which created serious difficulties for the Napoleonic troops. With the entry of the pr-ka into the Smolensk, and then into the Moscow and Kaluga provinces, the partisan movement assumed an especially wide scope. At the end of July-August, in Gzhatsky, Belsky, Sychevsky and other counties, the peasants united in foot and horseback partisan detachments armed with pikes, sabers and guns, attacked separate groups of enemy soldiers, foragers and carts, disrupted the communications of the French army. The partisans were a serious fighting force . The number of individual detachments reached 3-6 thousand people. The partisan detachments of G.M. Kurin, S. Emelyanov, V. Polovtsev, V. Kozhina and others became widely known. Tsarist law treated the partisan movement with distrust. But in an atmosphere of patriotic upsurge, some landowners and progressively minded generals (P.I. Bagration, M.B. Barclay de Tolly, A.P. Yermolov and others). The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, Field Marshal M.I., attached particular importance to the people's partisan struggle. Kutuzov. He saw in it a huge force capable of inflicting significant damage, promoted in every possible way the organization of new detachments, gave instructions on their weapons and instructions on the tactics of partisan struggle. character. This was largely facilitated by the formation of special detachments from regular troops, who acted by guerrilla methods. The first such detachment of 130 people was created at the end of August on the initiative of Lieutenant Colonel D.V. Davydov. In September, 36 Cossack, 7 cavalry and 5 infantry regiments, 5 squadrons and 3 battalions acted as part of army partisan detachments. The detachments were commanded by generals and officers I.S. Dorokhov, M.A. Fonvizin and others. Many peasant detachments that arose spontaneously subsequently joined the army or closely cooperated with them. Separate detachments of the formation of bunks were also involved in partisan actions. militia. The partisan movement reached its widest scope in the Moscow, Smolensk and Kaluga provinces. Acting on the communications of the French army, the partisan detachments exterminated enemy foragers, captured carts, and provided the Russian command with valuable information to the OPD. Under these conditions, Kutuzov set broader tasks for the Partisan movement to interact with the army and strike at individual garrisons and reserves of the pr-ka. So, on September 28 (October 10), on the orders of Kutuzov, a detachment of General Dorokhov, with the support of peasant detachments, captured the city of Vereya. As a result of the battle, the French lost about 700 people killed and wounded. In total, in 5 weeks after the Battle of Borodino in 1812, the pr-k lost more than 30 thousand people as a result of partisan strikes. Throughout the retreat of the French army, partisan detachments assisted the Russian troops in pursuing and destroying the enemy, attacking his carts and destroying individual detachments. In general, the Partisan movement provided great assistance to the Russian army in defeating the Napoleonic troops and driving them out of Russia.

Causes of guerrilla warfare

The partisan movement was a vivid expression of the national character of the Patriotic War of 1812. Having flared up after the invasion of Napoleonic troops into Lithuania and Belarus, it developed every day, took on more and more active forms and became a formidable force.

At first, the partisan movement was spontaneous, represented by performances of small, scattered partisan detachments, then it captured entire areas. Large detachments began to be created, thousands of folk heroes appeared, and talented organizers of the partisan struggle came to the fore.

Why, then, did the disenfranchised peasantry, ruthlessly oppressed by the feudal landlords, rise to fight against their seemingly "liberator"? Napoleon did not think of any liberation of the peasants from serfdom or improvement of their disenfranchised position. If at first promising phrases were uttered about the liberation of the serfs, and even it was said that it was necessary to issue some kind of proclamation, then this was only a tactical move, with the help of which Napoleon hoped to intimidate the landowners.

Napoleonunderstood that the release of Russian serfs would inevitably lead torevolutionary consequences, which he feared most of all. Yes, this did not meet political goals when entering Russia. According to Napoleon's comrades-in-arms, it was "important for him to strengthen monarchism in France and it was difficult for him to preach the revolution in Russia."

The very first orders of the administration established by Napoleon in the occupied regions were directed against the serfs, in defense of the serf landlords. work and duties, and those who would evade were to be severely punished, involving for this, if circumstances so required, military force.

Sometimes the beginning of the partisan movement in 1812 is associated with the manifesto of Alexander I of July 6, 1812, as if allowing the peasants to take up arms and actively join the struggle. In reality, things were different. Without waiting for orders from their superiors, when the French approached, the inhabitants went into the forests and swamps, often leaving their homes to be looted and burned.

The peasants did not quickly realize that the invasion of the French conquerors put them in an even more difficult and humiliating position, something in which they were before. The peasants also associated the struggle against foreign enslavers with the hope of liberating them from serfdom

Peasants' War

At the beginning of the war, the struggle of the peasants took on the character of mass abandonment of villages and villages and the departure of the population to forests and areas remote from hostilities. And although it was still a passive form of struggle, it created serious difficulties for the Napoleonic army. The French troops, having a limited supply of food and fodder, quickly began to experience an acute shortage of them. This immediately affected the deterioration of the general condition of the army: horses began to die, soldiers starve, looting intensified. Even before Vilna, more than 10 thousand horses died.

French foragers sent to the villages for food encountered not only passive resistance. One French general after the war wrote in his memoirs: "The army could only eat what the marauders, organized in whole detachments, got; Cossacks and peasants daily killed many of our people who dared to go in search." In the villages there were skirmishes, including shooting, between the French soldiers sent for food and the peasants. Such skirmishes occurred quite often. It was in such battles that the first peasant partisan detachments were created, and a more active form of people's resistance was born - partisan struggle.

The actions of the peasant partisan detachments were both defensive and offensive. In the area of ​​Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, detachments of peasant partisans made frequent day and night raids on enemy carts, destroyed his foragers, and captured French soldiers. Napoleon was forced more and more often to remind the chief of staff Berthier about the great losses in people and strictly ordered that an increasing number of troops be allocated to cover the foragers.

The partisan struggle of the peasants acquired the widest scope in August in the Smolensk province. It began in Krasnensky, Porechsky counties, and then in Belsky, Sychevsky, Roslavl, Gzhatsky and Vyazemsky counties. At first, the peasants were afraid to arm themselves, they were afraid that they would later be held accountable.

Vg. In the Belsky and Belsky districts, partisan detachments attacked the French who made their way to them, destroyed them or took them prisoner. The leaders of the Sychevsk partisans, police officer Boguslavskaya and retired major Yemelyanov, armed their detachments with guns taken from the French, established proper order and discipline. Sychevsk partisans attacked the enemy 15 times in two weeks (from August 18 to September 1). During this time, they destroyed 572 soldiers and took 325 prisoners.

Residents of the Roslavl district created several partisan detachments on horseback and on foot, arming them with pikes, sabers and guns. They not only defended their county from the enemy, but also attacked marauders who made their way to the neighboring Elnensky county. Many partisan detachments operated in the Yukhnovsky district. Having organized a defense along the Ugra River, they blocked the path of the enemy in Kaluga, provided significant assistance to the army partisans to the detachment of Denis Davydov.

The largest Gzhatsk partisan detachment operated successfully. Its organizer was a soldier of the Elizavetgrad regiment Fedor Potopov (Samus). Wounded in one of the rearguard battles after Smolensk, Samus ended up behind enemy lines and, after recovering, immediately set about organizing a partisan detachment, the number of which soon reached 2 thousand people (according to other sources, 3 thousand). Its strike force consisted of an equestrian group of 200 men armed and dressed in French cuirassiers. The Samus detachment had its own organization, strict discipline was established in it. Samus introduced a warning system for the population about the approach of the enemy through bell ringing and other conventional signs. Often in such cases, the villages were empty, according to another conventional sign, the peasants returned from the forests. Lighthouses and the ringing of bells of various sizes told when and in what quantity, on horseback or on foot, it was necessary to go into battle. In one of the battles, the members of this detachment managed to capture a cannon. Detachment Samusya inflicted minor damage to the French troops. In the Smolensk province, he destroyed about 3 thousand enemy soldiers.

The invasion of foreign invaders caused an unprecedented popular upsurge. Literally the whole of Russia rose to fight the invaders. The peasantry, as the class with the strongest spiritual traditions, unitedly, in a single outburst of patriotic feelings, stood up against the invaders.

The invasion of foreign invaders caused an unprecedented popular upsurge. Literally the whole of Russia rose to fight the invaders. Napoleon miscalculated when, trying to win over the peasants to his side, he announced to them that he would abolish serfdom. Not! The peasantry, as the class with the strongest spiritual traditions, unitedly, in a single outburst of patriotic feelings, stood up against the invaders.

Immediately after the appearance of the enemy army in Lithuania and Belarus, a spontaneous partisan movement of local peasants was born. The partisans inflicted significant damage on foreigners, destroyed enemy soldiers, and upset the rear. At the very beginning of the war, the French army felt a shortage of food and fodder. Due to the death of horses, the French were forced to abandon 100 guns in Belarus.

The people's militia was actively created in Ukraine. 19 Cossack regiments were formed here. Most of them were armed and maintained at their own expense by the peasants.

Peasant partisan detachments arose in the Smolensk region and in other occupied regions of Russia. A powerful partisan movement also operated on the territory of the Moscow province. Here distinguished such folk heroes like Gerasim Kurin and Ivan Chushkin. Some of the peasant detachments numbered several thousand people. For example, the detachment of Gerasim Kurin consisted of 5,000 people. The detachments of Yermolai Chetvertakov, Fyodor Potapov, Vasilisa Kozhina were widely known.

The actions of the partisans inflicted heavy human and material losses on the enemy, and disrupted his connection with the rear. In just six weeks of autumn, the partisans destroyed about 30,000 enemy soldiers. Here is what is said in the report on the actions of peasant partisan detachments in the territory of only one Moscow province (written by the Governor-General of Moscow F.V. Rastopchin):

REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF PEASANT PARTISAN GROUPS

AGAINST NAPOLEON'S ARMY IN MOSCOW PROVINCE

In pursuance of his highest and. in. of will, the news of the brave and commendable deeds of the settlers of the Moscow province, who unanimously and courageously took up arms against the parties sent from the enemy to rob and incite parties, is given here for general information, with the indication of the names and deeds of those merchants, philistines and peasants who in this time most distinguished themselves.

Bogorodsk district Egor Stulov, head of the Vokhon economic volost, Ivan Chushkin of Sotsky, and Gerasim Kurin, a peasant, and Emelyai Vasiliev, head of the Amerevsky volost, having gathered the peasants under their jurisdiction and inviting also neighboring ones, courageously defended themselves from the enemy and not only did not allow him to ruin and rob their villages, but, reflecting and driving away the enemies, the Vokhon peasants beat and took up to fifty in full, while the Amerev peasants up to three hundred people. Such courageous deeds of theirs were testified and approved in writing by the head of the Vladimir militia, Mr. Lieutenant General Prince Golitsyn.

In Bronnitsky district peasants of the villages: Shubin, Veshnyakov, Konstantinov, Voskresensky and Pochinok; villages: Salvacheva, Zhiroshkina, Rogacheva, Ganusova, Zalesye, Golushina and Zhdanskaya, according to appeals from the Zemstvo police, up to 2 thousand armed horsemen and footmen repeatedly gathered on the road that runs to the city of Podol, where, being under cover in the forest, they waited with the Cossacks of the enemy, who, passing from Bronnitsy to the aforementioned city, ravaged entire villages. Finally, they saw a detached enemy detachment, which included up to 700 people, which, with the help of the Cossacks, they courageously attacked and, putting 30 people in place, forced the others to drop their weapons and took them prisoner with their carts and booty. These prisoners were escorted by the Cossacks to our Main Army. In this incident, they distinguished themselves most for their bravery and courage, encouraging others to defend against enemies: the village of Konstantinov, the headman Semyon Tikhonov, the village of Salvacheva, the headman Yegor Vasilyev, and the village of Pochinok, the headman Yakov Petrov.

The villagers of Zalesye, the peasants, noticing that the one who called himself a Russian native served the French, immediately seized him and handed him over to the Cossacks who were in their village for presentation where they should.

The village of Ganusov, the peasant Pavel Prokhorov, seeing 5 French people riding towards him, set off on horseback in a Cossack dress and, not having with him firearms, with one tokmo lance took them prisoner and delivered them to the Cossacks for sending on command.

In the villages of Velin, Krivtsy and Sofyin, the peasants, arming themselves against the French, who arrived in sufficient numbers to rob the holy churches and to seduce those living in these places, not only did not allow them to do so, but, having overcome, exterminated them. In this case, 62 yards with all buildings and property were burned from enemy shots in the village of Sofyino.

The villages of Mikhailovskaya Sloboda and Yaganova, the villages of Durnikha, Chulkova, Kulakova and Kakuzeva, peasants daily up to 2 thousand people gathered for the Borovsky transport of the Moscow River to the mountain, having the strictest supervision of the crossing of enemy detachments. Some of them dressed in Cossack clothes and armed themselves with tsiks to greatly intimidate their enemies. -They repeatedly hit and drove the enemy; and on September 22, seeing that the enemy detachment, quite numerous, stretched along the other side of the river to the village of Myachkovo, many of them, together with the Cossacks, crossed the river ford and, attacking the enemies swiftly, 11 people were put in place and 46 people were taken prisoner with weapons, horses and two wagons; the rest, having been scattered, fled.

In the Bronnitsky district, during the defeat and dispersion of the enemy detachment, which was striving to plunder the village of Myachkovo, the peasants of the village of Durnikha showed the greatest courage: Mikhailo Andreev., Vasily Kirillov and Ivan Ivanov; the villages of Mikhailovskaya Sloboda: Sidor Timofeev, Yakov Kondratiev and Vladimir Afanasiev; the village of Yaganova: the headman Vasily Leontiev and the peasant Fedul Dmitriev, who encouraged others to cross the river and attack the enemy. In the village of Vokhrin and the villages of Lubniv and Lytkarino, the inhabitants, arming themselves against small enemy detachments, often exterminated the naked, and the Vokhrino residents lost 84 yards with all their buildings and property from the burning, and in Lubnin two master's yards were burned - horse and cattle. Two Frenchmen came to the village of Khripav and, taking a horse harnessed to a cart that was standing behind the yards, mounted it and drove into the forest. The peasant of that village, Yegor Ivanov, who was guarding the village, having seen this, chased after them with an ax and threatened to cut them down if they did not leave the horse. The robbers, seeing that they could not leave him, were frightened, abandoned the cart with the horse and ran themselves; but the aforesaid peasant, having unhitched his horse from the cart, pursued them on horseback, and first cut one of them, and then overtook and killed the other.

Volokolamsk district. The peasants of this district, who were constantly armed until the very removal of the enemies from there, courageously repulsed all their attacks, taking many prisoners, and exterminating others on the spot. When the police captain who was in charge of these peasants was away to carry out other assignments, then the order and authority over them were entrusted to Mr. Actual Privy Councilor and Senator Alyabyev to the steward Gavril Ankudinov, who, as well as those who were with him, Mr. Alyabyev, courtyard people : Dmitry Ivanov, Fedor Feopemptov, Nikolai Mikhailov, also the economic Seredinsky volost, the village of Seredy, the volost head Boris Borisov and his son Vasily Borisov, the village of Burtsev, the volost headman Ivan Ermolaev, the volost clerk Mikhailo Fedorov, the peasant Filipp Mikhailov, the village of Podsukhina, the peasants Kozma Kozmin and Gerasim Semyonov, they acted excellently against the enemy and were always the first to strive for him, setting an example to others with their fearlessness.

Zvenigorod district. When almost all of this district was already occupied by the enemy, except for a small part of the villages lying on the side of the provincial city of Voskresensk, which the enemy detachments did not have time to occupy, then the city and surrounding residents, even from the places occupied by the enemy, united, decided unanimously to defend the city of Voskresensk. They armed themselves with whatever they could, established guards and agreed among themselves that, at the ringing of bells from her, everyone should immediately gather there on horseback and on foot. According to this conventional sign, they always flocked in considerable numbers, armed with guns, pikes, axes, pitchforks, scythes, and repeatedly drove away the enemy parties approaching Voskresensk from the side of Zvenigorod and Ruza. They often fought near the city itself and far from it, sometimes alone, sometimes with the Cossacks, they killed many, took them in full and delivered them to the Cossack teams, so that more than 2 thousand enemies were exterminated in one Zvenigorod district and by the townsfolk alone. Thus, the city of Voskresensk, some villages and the monastery, called New Jerusalem, were saved from the invasion and ruin of the enemy. In this, they distinguished themselves: the head of the economic Velyaminovskaya volost, Ivan Andreev, who, in addition to being engaged in the outfit and ordering people, went out on horseback to the battle and inspired courage in others by his example; of the village of Luchinsky, Mr. Golokhvastov, Sotsky Pavel Ivanov, who also not only dressed up people, but always himself with his children was in battles, in which he was wounded with one of his sons; Nikolai Ovchinnikov, a tradesman from Zvenigorod, who lived in Voskresensk, went to battle more than once and was wounded in the arm; Resurrection merchant Pentiokhov, Zvenigorod tradesman Ivan Goryainov, courtyard people: Prince Golitsyn - Alexei Abramov, gentlemen] Colonshna - Alexei Dmitriev and Prokhor Ignatiev, gentlemen] Yaroslavova - Fedor Sergeyev, patrimonial elders: the village of Ilyinsky gr. Osterman - Egor Yakovlev, the village of Ivashkov mister] Ardalionova - Ustin Ivanov and a peasant of the same village Yegor Alekseev. All of them have been in battle many times and encouraged others to exterminate and drive away the enemy.

Serpukhov district. When the enemy parties were divided for robbery, then the peasants who remained in the houses used cunning to exterminate the enemies of the fatherland. They tried first to get them drunk and mislead them, and then they attacked them. In this way, 5 people were killed in the state-owned village of Stromilov 5, in the village of Lopasna 2, in the village of Teterkah (Mr.] Zhukov) 1, in the village of Dubna (Mr.] Akimov) 2, in the village of Artishchevo (Mr.] Volkov) 7 people. Burmese Akim Dementyev and Countess A. A. Orlova-Chesmenskoy of the village of Khatuni, clerk Ivan Ilyin and landowner Orlova of the village of Gorok Burmese Nikifor Savelyev, according to rumors, the enemy is walking along the Kashira road , gathered the departments of their peasants and, arming them with pikes, pitchforks, axes and house guns of Count Orlov, boldly expected the enemy in the village of Papushkina, who, having learned about it and being in small forces, was forced to pass by.

Ruza district. The peasants, having armed themselves and wound up in each village to collect the bell, hastily gathered up to several thousand people when enemy detachments appeared and attacked the enemy parties with such unanimity and courage that more than a thousand of them were exterminated by them, not counting those taken with their help by the Cossacks in captivity. On the past October 11, having gathered up to 1,500 people, they helped the Cossacks and completely drive the enemy out of Ruza.

According to Vereyskomu county. When the enemy repeatedly attacked the Vyshegorodsky estate of Countess Golovkina in the last days of August and at the beginning of September, it was always repulsed by the patrimonial elders Nikita Fedorov, Gavril Mironov and the clerks of the same landowner Alexei Kirpichnikov, Nikolai Uskov and Afanasiev * Shcheglov with the peasants. In the same month of October, when the enemy, returning from Moscow, attempted to cross the Protva river (on which a flour mill with five posts was built) in order to plunder the Church of the Assumption Holy Mother of God and located near the landowner's house and the state bakery, in which more than 500 quarters of rye were stored, at that time the aforementioned clerks - Alexei Kirpichnikov and Nikolai Uskov, having gathered peasants up to 500 people, tried by all means to repel the enemy, who had up to 300 people in his detachment. The peasant Pyotr Petrov Kolupanov and her wife, Countess Golovkina, of the village of Lobanova, the peasant Emelyan Minaev, who were workers at the mill in the Mozhaisk district of the economic Reitarsky volost of the Ilyinsky settlement, torn down the lava on the dam and, dismantling the boards, drained the water , which kept the enemy party and saved the aforementioned church, the landowner's house with all the services, the bakery shop, also church houses and the embankment settlement, in which there are 48 peasant houses. The villages of Dubrova and Ponizovye with the churches in them were also saved in the same way, by the defense from the peasants of these and villages close to them, who were especially encouraged by the advice and exhortations of the Verona cathedral priest John Skobeev, who was in the village of Dubrov, to whom the sexton also contributed a lot Vasily Semyonov, who not only encouraged others, but also participated in repelling the enemy himself.

This news. sent and certified by the commander-in-chief in Moscow, General of Infantry, Count F. V. Rostopchin. The commanding people mentioned in it are distinguished by the highest behavior with the St. George 5th class badge, and the rest with a silver medal on the Vladimir ribbon with the inscription: "for love for the fatherland." Without a doubt, many excellent and courageous deeds of other peasants, according to information that has not come down to them, remain unknown.

Simultaneously with the peasants, army partisan detachments operated, formed by order of the command for reconnaissance and military operations behind enemy lines. The first army partisan commander was hussar lieutenant colonel Denis Vasilyevich Davydov. Here is how he himself recalls how he became a partisan:

“Seeing myself useful to the fatherland no more than an ordinary hussar, I decided to ask myself a separate command, despite the words uttered and extolled by mediocrity: do not ask anywhere and do not refuse anything. On the contrary, I have always been sure that in our craft he only fulfills his duty, who crosses his line, is not equal in spirit, as in shoulders, in a line with comrades, asks for everything and does not refuse anything.

With these thoughts, I sent a letter to Prince Bagration with the following content:

“Your Excellency! You know that, having left the post of your adjutant, which is so flattering to my pride, and joining the hussars, I had partisan service as a subject both according to the strength of my years, and experience, and, if I dare say, according to my courage. Circumstances lead me to this time in the ranks of my comrades, where I have no will of my own and, consequently, I can neither undertake nor accomplish anything remarkable. Prince! You are my only benefactor; let me come to you to explain my intentions; if they are pleasing to you, use me at my will and be reliable that the one who held the rank of Bagration's adjutant for five years in a row will support this honor with all the reverence that the plight of our dear fatherland requires. Denis Davydov.

On the twenty-first of August the prince called me to his place; presenting myself to him, I explained to him the benefits of guerrilla warfare under the circumstances of the time. "The enemy goes one way," I said him, the way this extension went out of measure; transports of vital and combat food of the enemy cover the area from Gzhat to Smolensk and beyond. Meanwhile, the vastness of the part of Russia lying in the south of the Moscow Route contributes to the twists and turns not only of the parties, but of our entire army. What are the crowds of Cossacks doing at the vanguard? Leaving a sufficient number of them to maintain the outposts, it is necessary to divide the rest into parties and let them into the middle of the caravan following Napoleon. Will strong troops go to them? “They have plenty of room to avoid defeat. Will they be left alone? - They will destroy the source of strength and life of the enemy army. Where will she get supplies and food from? - Our land is not so abundant that the roadside part could feed two hundred thousand troops; weapons and gunpowder factories - not on the Smolensk road. In addition, the return appearance of our villagers among the villagers scattered from the war will encourage them and turn the military war into a people's war. Prince! I'll tell you frankly: the soul hurts from everyday parallel positions! It's time to see that they do not close the bowels of Russia. Who doesn't know that The best way to defend the object of the enemy's desire does not consist in a parallel, but in a perpendicular or, at least, in an indirect position of the army relative to this object? And therefore, if the retreat, chosen by Barclay and continued by the most illustrious, does not stop, Moscow will be taken, peace is signed in it, and we will go to India to fight for the French! I'll lie down here! In India, I will disappear with a hundred thousand of my compatriots without a name and for a benefit alien to Russia, and here I will die under the banner of independence, around which the villagers will crowd, grumbling at the violence and godlessness of our enemies ... And who knows! Maybe an army determined to operate in India! .. "

The prince interrupted the indiscreet flight of my imagination; he shook hands with me and said: “Today I will go to the most illustrious and tell him your thoughts.”

In addition to the detachment of D.V. Davydov, the detachments of A.N. Seslavin, A.S. Figner, I.S. Dorokhov, N.D. Kudashev, I.M. Vadbolsky also successfully operated. The partisan movement was such an unexpected and unpleasant surprise for the French occupiers that they tried to accuse Russia of violating the rules of war; the head of the General Staff of the French Army, Marshal Berthier, even sent Colonel Bertemi to the Headquarters of M.I. Kutuzov with a letter full of indignation. To which Kutuzov replied with a letter with the following content:

Colonel Berthemy, whom I allowed to pass to my main quarters, handed me the letter that Your Grace had instructed him to convey to me. About everything that is the subject of this new appeal, I immediately presented it to the Imperial Majesty, and the transmitter of this was, as you no doubt know, Adjutant General Prince Volkonsky. However, considering the long distance and bad roads at this time of the year, it is impossible that I can already receive an answer on this matter. Therefore, it only remains for me to refer to what I had the honor to say on this subject to General Lauriston. However, I will repeat here the truth, the significance and strength of which you, the prince, will undoubtedly appreciate: it is difficult to stop a people who are hardened by everything that they have seen, a people who have not seen wars on their land for two hundred years, a people ready to sacrifice themselves for homeland and who makes no distinction between what is accepted and what is not accepted in ordinary wars.

As for the armies entrusted to me, I hope, prince, that everyone recognizes in their mode of action the rules that characterize a brave, honest and generous people. In the course of my long military service I have never known any other rules, and I am sure that the enemies I have ever fought have always done justice to my principles.

Accept, Prince, the assurances of my deepest respect.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armies Field Marshal

Prince Kutuzov

The partisan and militia movement made a huge contribution to the defeat and extermination of the enemy. Cutting off the enemy's communications, exterminating his detachments, instilling fear and horror in him, hour after hour, it brought the inevitable defeat of the invaders closer. And the experience gained by the people in 1812 was very useful in the future.

Russian Civilization