The Patriotic War of 1812 gave birth to a new phenomenon in history - the mass partisan movement. During the war with Napoleon, Russian peasants began to unite in small detachments to defend their villages from foreign invaders. The brightest figure among the partisans of that time was Vasilisa Kozhina, a woman who became a legend in the war of 1812.
partisan
At the time of the invasion of French troops into Russia, Vasilisa Kozhina, according to historians, was about 35 years old. She was the wife of the headman of the Gorshkov farm in the Smolensk province. According to one version, she was inspired to participate in the peasant resistance by the fact that the French killed her husband, who refused to provide food and fodder for the Napoleonic troops. Another version says that Kozhina's husband was alive and led a partisan detachment himself, and his wife decided to follow her husband's example.
In any case, to fight the French, Kozhina organized her own detachment of women and teenagers. The partisans wielded what was available in the peasant economy: pitchforks, scythes, shovels and axes. The Kozhina detachment cooperated with the Russian troops, often handing over captured enemy soldiers to them.
Merit recognition
In November 1812, the Son of the Fatherland magazine wrote about Vasilisa Kozhina. The note was devoted to how Kozhina escorted prisoners to the location of the Russian army. One day, when the peasants brought in some captured Frenchmen, she gathered her detachment, mounted her horse, and ordered the prisoners to follow her. One of the captured officers, not wanting to obey "some peasant woman", began to resist. Kozhina immediately killed the officer with a scythe on the head. Kozhina shouted to the remaining prisoners that they should not dare to be impudent, because she had already cut off the heads of 27 “such mischievous people”. This episode, by the way, was immortalized in a lubok picture by the artist Alexei Venetsianov about the “old man Vasilisa”. In the first months after the war, such pictures were sold throughout the country as a memory of a national feat.
It is believed that for her role in the liberation war, the peasant woman was awarded a medal, as well as a cash prize personally from Tsar Alexander I. In the State historical museum in Moscow there is a portrait of Vasilisa Kozhina, painted by the artist Alexander Smirnov in 1813. A medal on the St. George ribbon is visible on Kozhina's chest.
And the name of the brave partisan is immortalized in the names of many streets. So, on the map of Moscow, not far from the Park Pobedy metro station, you can find Vasilisa Kozhina Street.
folk rumor
Vasilisa Kozhina died around 1840. Almost nothing is known about her life after the end of the war, but the fame of Kozhina's military exploits spread throughout the country, acquiring rumors and fictions. According to such folk legends Kozhina once tricked 18 Frenchmen into a hut and then set it on fire. There are also stories about Vasilisa's mercy: according to one of them, a partisan once took pity on a captured Frenchman, fed him and even gave him warm clothes. Whether at least one of these stories is true, unfortunately, is not known - there is no documentary evidence.
It is not surprising that over time, many tales began to appear around the brave partisan - Vasilisa Kozhina turned into a collective image of the Russian peasantry who fought against the invaders. And folk heroes often become characters in legends. Modern Russian directors could not resist myth-making either. In 2013, the mini-series "Vasilisa" was released, later remade into a full-length film. The title character in it was played by Svetlana Khodchenkova. And although the fair-haired actress does not at all look like the woman depicted in the portrait by Smirnov, and the historical assumptions in the film sometimes look completely grotesque (for example, the fact that the simple peasant woman Kozhina speaks fluent French), nevertheless, such films say that that the memory of the brave partisan is alive even two centuries after her death.
protracted military conflict. Detachments in which people were united by an idea liberation struggle, fought on a par with the regular army, and in the case of a well-organized leadership, their actions were highly effective and largely decided the outcome of the battles.
Partisans of 1812
When Napoleon attacked Russia, the idea of strategic guerrilla warfare arose. Then for the first time in world history Russian troops a universal method of conducting military operations on enemy territory was applied. This method was based on the organization and coordination of the actions of the rebels by the regular army itself. To this end, trained professionals - "army partisans" - were thrown over the front line. At this time, the detachments of Figner, Ilovaisky, as well as the detachment of Denis Davydov, who was a lieutenant colonel of Akhtyrsky, became famous for their military exploits.
This detachment was separated from the main forces longer than others (for six weeks). The tactics of Davydov's partisan detachment consisted in the fact that they avoided open attacks, swooped in by surprise, changed the direction of attacks, and felt for the enemy's weak points. the local population helped: the peasants were guides, spies, participated in the extermination of the French.
In the Patriotic War, the partisan movement was of particular importance. The basis for the formation of detachments and units was the local population, who were well acquainted with the area. In addition, it was hostile to the invaders.
The main goal of the movement
The main task of the guerrilla war was the isolation of enemy troops from its communications. The main blow of the people's avengers was directed at the supply lines of the enemy army. Their detachments violated communications, prevented the approach of reinforcements, the supply of ammunition. When the French began to retreat, their actions were aimed at destroying ferry crossings and bridges across numerous rivers. Thanks to the active actions of the army partisans, almost half of the artillery was lost by Napoleon during the retreat.
The experience of conducting a partisan war in 1812 was used in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). During this period, this movement was large-scale and well organized.
The period of the Great Patriotic War
The need to organize a partisan movement arose due to the fact that most of the territory of the Soviet state was captured German troops who sought to make slaves and eliminate the population of the occupied areas. The main idea of the guerrilla war in the Great Patriotic War is the disorganization of activities Nazi German troops causing them human and material losses. For this, extermination and sabotage groups were created, and a network of underground organizations was expanded to direct all actions in the occupied territory.
The partisan movement of the Great Patriotic War was bilateral. On the one hand, detachments were created spontaneously, from people who remained in the territories occupied by the enemy, and sought to protect themselves from mass fascist terror. On the other hand, this process was organized, under the leadership from above. Diversionary groups were thrown behind enemy lines or organized in advance on the territory, which was supposed to be left in the near future. To provide such detachments with ammunition and food, caches with supplies were previously made, and they also worked out issues of their further replenishment. In addition, issues of secrecy were worked out, the places for basing detachments were determined in the forest after the front retreated further to the east, and the provision of money and valuables was organized.
traffic guidance
In order to lead the guerrilla war and sabotage struggle, workers from among the local residents who were well acquainted with these areas were thrown into the territory captured by the enemy. Very often, among the organizers and leaders, including the underground, were the leaders of the Soviet and party organs, who remained in the territory occupied by the enemy.
Guerrilla warfare played a decisive role in the victory Soviet Union over Nazi Germany.
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 World War II, 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, 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 is 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 they were in the area Smolensk village Tsarevo-Zaimishche 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: at first, the peasants 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 cavalry 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 suburban city I believe. 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 thousandth 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. While 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.
Partisan movement in the Patriotic War of 1812.
Essay on the history of a student of grade 11, school 505 Afitova Elena
Partisan movement in the War of 1812
A partisan movement, an 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 of supplies French army 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. Imperial law reacted with distrust to the Partisan movement. But in an atmosphere of patriotic upsurge, some landowners and progressive generals (P.I. Bagration, M.B. Barclay de Tolly, A.P. Yermolov and others). Field Marshal M.I., Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, attached particular importance to the people's partisan struggle. Kutuzov. He saw in it a huge force capable of inflicting significant damage on the pr-ku, assisted in every possible way in the organization of new detachments, gave instructions on their weapons and instructions on the tactics of guerrilla warfare. After leaving Moscow, the front of the Partisan movement was significantly expanded, and Kutuzov, to his plans, gave it an organized character. This was largely facilitated by the formation of special detachments from regular troops operating by partisan 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 the army partisan detachments. The detachments were commanded by generals and officers I.S. Dorokhov, M.A. Fonvizin and others. Many peasant detachments, which 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, partisan detachments exterminated enemy foragers, captured carts, and reported valuable information about the pr-ke to the Russian command. Under these conditions, Kutuzov set before the Partisan movement broader tasks of interacting with the army and delivering strikes against 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 over 30 thousand people as a result of partisan attacks. 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 appeared folk heroes, talented organizers of the partisan struggle came to the fore.
Why, then, did the disenfranchised peasantry, mercilessly oppressed by the feudal landlords, rise to fight against their seemingly "liberator"? Napoleon did not even think about any liberation of the peasants from serfdom or improvement of their disenfranchised position. If at first promising phrases were uttered about the emancipation of the serfs, and even there was talk of the need to issue some kind of proclamation, then this was only a tactical move with which Napoleon hoped to intimidate the landlords.
Napoleon understood that the liberation of the Russian serfs would inevitably lead to revolutionary consequences, which he feared most of all. Yes, this did not meet his 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 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 landowners. The interim Lithuanian "government", subordinate to the Napoleonic governor, in one of the very first decrees obliged all peasants and rural residents in general to unquestioningly obey the landlords, to continue to perform all work and duties, and those who would evade were to be severely punished, involving for this if circumstances so require, 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 quickly realized 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 was not long in affecting the general condition of the army: horses began to die, soldiers starved, looting intensified. Even before Vilna, more than 10 thousand horses died.
The French foragers sent to the countryside for food faced 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." Skirmishes took place in the villages, including shootings, between French soldiers sent for food and 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 region of Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, detachments of peasants - 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 to allocate all large quantity troops 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.
In the city of Bely and Belsky district, partisan detachments attacked French parties making 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 captured 325 people.
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 Yelnensky county. Many partisan detachments operated in the Yukhnovsky district. Having organized a defense along the Ugra River, they blocked the enemy's path in Kaluga, and provided significant assistance to the army partisans to Denis Davydov's detachment.
The largest Gzhatsk partisan detachment successfully operated. Its organizer was a soldier of the Elizavetgrad Regiment Fyodor Potopov (Samus). Wounded in one of the rearguard battles after Smolensk, Samus found himself behind enemy lines and, after recovering, immediately set about organizing a partisan detachment, the number of which soon reached 2,000 people (according to other sources, 3,000). Its strike force was a cavalry group of 200 men armed and dressed in French cuirassier armor. The Samusya detachment had its own organization, strict discipline was established in it. Samus introduced a system for warning the population about the approach of the enemy by means of 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 informed when and in what quantity, on horseback or on foot, one should go into battle. In one of the battles, the members of this detachment managed to capture a cannon. The Samusya detachment inflicted significant damage on the French troops. In the Smolensk province, he destroyed about 3 thousand enemy soldiers.
In the Gzhatsk district, another partisan detachment was also active, created from peasants, headed by Yermolai Chetvertak (Chetvertakov), a private of the Kyiv Dragoon Regiment. He was wounded in the battle near Tsarevo-Zaimishch, and taken prisoner, but he managed to escape. From the peasants of the villages of Basmany and Zadnovo, he organized a partisan detachment, which at first consisted of 40 people, but soon increased to 300 people. The detachment of Chetvertakov began not only to protect the villages from marauders, but to attack the enemy, inflicting heavy losses on him. In the Sychevsky district, partisan Vasilisa Kozhina became famous for her courageous actions.
There are many facts and evidence that the partisan peasant detachments of Gzhatsk and other areas located along the main road to Moscow caused great trouble to the French troops.
The actions of partisan detachments were especially intensified during the stay of the Russian army in Tarutino. At this time, they widely deployed the front of the struggle in the Smolensk, Moscow, Ryazan and Kaluga provinces. Not a day passed that in one place or another the partisans did not raid the enemy's food convoy, or defeated a detachment of the French, or, finally, suddenly raided the French soldiers and officers stationed in the village.
In the Zvenigorod district, peasant partisan detachments destroyed and captured more than 2 thousand French soldiers. Here the detachments became famous, the leaders of which were the volost head Ivan Andreev and the centurion Pavel Ivanov. In the Volokolamsk district, partisan detachments were led by retired non-commissioned officer Novikov and private Nemchinov, volost head Mikhail Fedorov, peasants Akim Fedorov, Filipp Mikhailov, Kuzma Kuzmin and Gerasim Semenov. In the Bronnitsky district of the Moscow province, peasant partisan detachments united up to 2 thousand people. They repeatedly attacked large parties of the enemy and defeated them. History has preserved for us the names of the most distinguished peasants - partisans from the Bronnitsky district: Mikhail Andreev, Vasily Kirillov, Sidor Timofeev, Yakov Kondratiev, Vladimir Afanasyev.
The largest peasant partisan detachment in the Moscow region was the detachment of the Bogorodsk partisans. He had about 6,000 men in his ranks. The talented leader of this detachment was the serf Gerasim Kurin. His detachment and other smaller detachments not only reliably protected the entire Bogorodsk district from the penetration of French marauders, but also entered into an armed struggle with the enemy troops. So, on October 1, partisans led by Gerasim Kurin and Yegor Stulov entered into battle with two squadrons of the enemy and, skillfully acting, defeated them.
Peasant partisan detachments received assistance from the commander-in-chief of the Russian army M. I. Kutuzov. With satisfaction and pride, Kutuzov wrote to St. Petersburg:
The peasants, burning with love for the Motherland, arrange militias among themselves ... Every day they come to the Main Apartment, convincingly asking for firearms and cartridges to protect themselves from enemies. The requests of these respectable peasants, true sons of the fatherland, are satisfied as far as possible and they are supplied with rifles, pistols and cartridges.
During the preparation of the counteroffensive, the combined forces of the army, militias and partisans fettered the actions of the Napoleonic troops, inflicted damage on the enemy's manpower, and destroyed military property. The Smolensk road, which remained the only protected postal route leading from Moscow to the west, was constantly subjected to partisan raids. They intercepted French correspondence, especially valuable ones were delivered to the Headquarters of the Russian army.
The partisan actions of the peasants were highly appreciated by the Russian command. “Peasants,” wrote Kutuzov, “from the villages adjacent to the theater of war, inflict the greatest harm on the enemy ... They kill the enemy in large numbers, and deliver those taken prisoner to the army.” The peasants of the Kaluga province alone killed and captured more than 6,000 French. During the capture of Vereya, a peasant partisan detachment (up to 1 thousand people), led by priest Ivan Skobeev, distinguished himself.
In addition to direct hostilities, the participation of militias and peasants in reconnaissance should be noted.
Army partisan detachments
Along with the formation of large peasant partisan detachments and their activities, army partisan detachments played an important role in the war.
The first army partisan detachment was created on the initiative of M. B. Barclay de Tolly. Its commander was General F.F. Vintsengerode, who led the combined Kazan Dragoon, Stavropol, Kalmyk and three Cossack regiments, which began to operate in the area of the city of Dukhovshchina.
A real thunderstorm for the French was the detachment of Denis Davydov. This detachment arose on the initiative of Davydov himself, lieutenant colonel, commander of the Akhtyrsky hussar regiment. Together with his hussars, he retreated as part of Bagration's army to Borodin. A passionate desire to be even more useful in the fight against the invaders prompted D. Davydov "to ask for a separate detachment." In this intention, he was strengthened by Lieutenant M.F. Orlov, who was sent to Smolensk to clarify the fate of the seriously wounded General P.A. Tuchkov, who was captured. After returning from Smolensk, Orlov spoke about the unrest, the poor protection of the rear in the French army.
While driving through the territory occupied by Napoleonic troops, he realized how vulnerable the French food warehouses, guarded by small detachments. At the same time, he saw how difficult it was to fight without an agreed plan of action for the flying peasant detachments. According to Orlov, small army detachments sent behind enemy lines could inflict great damage on him and help the actions of the partisans.
D. Davydov asked General P.I. Bagration to allow him to organize a partisan detachment for operations behind enemy lines. For a "test" Kutuzov allowed Davydov to take 50 hussars and 80 Cossacks and go to Medynen and Yukhnov. Having received a detachment at his disposal, Davydov began bold raids on the rear of the enemy. In the very first skirmishes near Tsarev - Zaymishch, Slavsky, he achieved success: he defeated several French detachments, captured a wagon train with ammunition.
In the autumn of 1812, partisan detachments surrounded the French army in a continuous mobile ring. Between Smolensk and Gzhatsk, a detachment of Lieutenant Colonel Davydov, reinforced by two Cossack regiments, operated. From Gzhatsk to Mozhaisk, a detachment of General I. S. Dorokhov operated. Captain A. S. Figner with his flying detachment attacked the French on the road from Mozhaisk to Moscow. in the Mozhaisk region and to the south, a detachment of Colonel I. M. Vadbolsky operated as part of the Mariupol hussar regiment and 500 Cossacks. Between Borovsk and Moscow, the roads were controlled by the detachment of Captain A.N. Seslavin. Colonel N. D. Kudashiv was sent to the Serpukhov road with two Cossack regiments. On the Ryazan road there was a detachment of Colonel I. E. Efremov. From the north, Moscow was blocked by a large detachment of F. F. Vintsengerode, who, separating small detachments from himself to Volokolamsk, on the Yaroslavl and Dmitrov roads, blocked access to Napoleon's troops in the northern regions of the Moscow region.
The main task of the partisan detachments was formulated by Kutuzov: “Since now the autumn time is coming, through which the movement of a large army becomes completely difficult, I decided, avoiding a general battle, to wage a small war, because the separate forces of the enemy and his oversight give me more ways to exterminate him , and for this, being now 50 versts from Moscow with the main forces, I am giving away important parts from me in the direction of Mozhaisk, Vyazma and Smolensk.
Army partisan detachments were created mainly from the Cossack troops and were not the same in size: from 50 to 500 people. They were tasked with bold and sudden actions behind enemy lines to destroy his manpower, strike at garrisons, suitable reserves, disable transport, deprive the enemy of the opportunity to get food and fodder, monitor the movement of troops and report this to the General Staff Russian army. The commanders of the partisan detachments were indicated the main direction of action, and the areas of operations of neighboring detachments were reported in case of joint operations.
Partisan detachments operated in difficult conditions. At first, there were many difficulties. Even the inhabitants of villages and villages at first treated the partisans with great distrust, often mistaking them for enemy soldiers. Often the hussars had to change into peasant caftans and grow beards.
Partisan detachments did not stand in one place, they were constantly on the move, and no one except the commander knew in advance when and where the detachment would go. The actions of the partisans were sudden and swift. To fly like snow on the head, and quickly hide became the basic rule of the partisans.
Detachments attacked individual teams, foragers, transports, took away weapons and distributed them to the peasants, took tens and hundreds of prisoners.
On the evening of September 3, 1812, Davydov's detachment went to Tsarev-Zaimishch. Not reaching 6 miles to the village, Davydov sent reconnaissance there, which established that there was a large French convoy with shells, guarded by 250 horsemen. The detachment at the edge of the forest was discovered by French foragers, who rushed to Tsarevo-Zaimishche to warn their own. But Davydov did not let them do this. The detachment rushed in pursuit of the foragers and almost broke into the village with them. The baggage train and its guards were taken by surprise, and an attempt by a small group of Frenchmen to resist was quickly crushed. 130 soldiers, 2 officers, 10 wagons with food and fodder ended up in the hands of the partisans.
Sometimes, knowing in advance the location of the enemy, the partisans made a sudden raid. So, General Vinzengerod, having established that in the village of Sokolov there was an outpost of two squadrons of cavalry and three companies of infantry, singled out 100 Cossacks from his detachment, who quickly broke into the village, killed more than 120 people and captured 3 officers, 15 non-commissioned officers , 83 soldiers.
The detachment of Colonel Kudashev, having established that there were about 2,500 French soldiers and officers in the village of Nikolsky, suddenly attacked the enemy, more than 100 people and 200 captured.
Most often, partisan detachments set up ambushes and attacked enemy vehicles on the way, captured couriers, and freed Russian prisoners. The partisans of the detachment of General Dorokhov, acting along the Mozhaisk road, on September 12 seized two couriers with dispatches, burned 20 boxes of shells and captured 200 people (including 5 officers). On September 16, a detachment of Colonel Efremov, having met an enemy convoy heading for Podolsk, attacked it and captured more than 500 people.
The detachment of Captain Figner, who was always in the vicinity of the enemy troops, in a short time destroyed almost all the food in the vicinity of Moscow, blew up the artillery park on the Mozhaisk road, destroyed 6 guns, exterminated up to 400 people, captured a colonel, 4 officers and 58 soldiers.
Later, partisan detachments were consolidated into three large parties. One of them, under the command of Major General Dorokhov, consisting of five infantry battalions, four cavalry squadrons, two Cossack regiments with eight guns, took the city of Vereya on September 28, 1812, destroying part of the French garrison.
Conclusion
It was not by chance that the War of 1812 was called the Patriotic War. The popular character of this war was most clearly manifested in the partisan movement, which played a strategic role in the victory of Russia. Responding to reproaches of "a war against the rules," Kutuzov said that such were the feelings of the people. Responding to a letter from Marshal Berthier, he wrote on October 8, 1818: “It is difficult to stop a people who have been embittered by everything they have seen, a people who have not known war on their territory for so many years, a people ready to sacrifice themselves for the Motherland... ".
Activities aimed at attracting the masses to active participation in the war, proceeded from the interests of Russia, correctly reflected the objective conditions of the war and took into account the broad possibilities that emerged in the national liberation war.
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O. V. Orlik "Thunderstorm of the twelfth year ...". M., 1987.
DAVYDOV DENIS VASILIEVICH (1784 - 1839) - lieutenant general, ideologist and leader of the partisan movement, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, Russian poet of the Pushkin Pleiades.
Born July 27, 1784 in Moscow, in the family of brigadier Vasily Denisovich Davydov, who served under the command of A.V. Suvorov. A significant part of the childhood years of the future hero passed in a military situation in Little Russia and Slobozhanshchina, where his father served, commanding the Poltava light horse regiment. Once, when the boy was nine years old, Suvorov came to visit them. Alexander Vasilyevich, looking at the two sons of Vasily Denisovich, said that Denis "this daring one will be a military man, I will not die, but he will win three battles already." Denis remembered this meeting and the words of the great commander for the rest of his life.
In 1801, Davydov entered the service of the Guards Cavalry Guard Regiment and the following year he was promoted to cornet, and in November 1803 to lieutenant. Because of the satirical poems, he was transferred from the guard to the Belarusian hussar regiment with the rank of captain. Since the beginning of 1807, Denis Davydov, as an adjutant of P.I.Bagration, has been participating in military operations against Napoleon in the territory East Prussia. For exceptional bravery shown in the battle of Preussisch-Eylau, he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir IV degree.
During Russian-Swedish war 1808-1809 in the detachment of Kulnev he went through all of Finland to Uleaborg, occupied the island of Carlier with the Cossacks and, returning to the vanguard, retreated across the ice of the Gulf of Bothnia. In 1809, during Russian-Turkish war Davydov was under Prince Bagration, who commanded troops in Moldova, participated in the capture of Machin and Girsovo, in the battle of Rassevat. When Bagration was replaced by Count Kamensky, he entered the vanguard of the Moldavian army under the command of Kulnev, where, according to him, "he completed the course of an outpost school begun in Finland."
At the beginning of the war of 1812, Davydov, with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Akhtyrsky hussar regiment, was in the vanguard troops of General Vasilchikov. When Kutuzov was appointed commander-in-chief, Davydov, with the permission of Bagration, appeared to the most illustrious prince and asked for a partisan detachment to be in his command. After the battle of Borodino, the Russian army moved to Moscow, and Davydov, with a small detachment of 50 hussars and 80 Cossacks, went west, to the rear of the French army. Soon the successes of his detachment led to the full-scale deployment of the partisan movement. In one of the very first sorties, Davydov managed to capture 370 Frenchmen, while recapturing 200 Russian prisoners, a cart with cartridges and nine carts with provisions. His detachment, at the expense of the peasants and the liberated prisoners, grew rapidly.
Constantly maneuvering and attacking, Davydov's detachment haunted the Napoleonic army. Only in the period from September 2 to October 23, he captured about 3,600 enemy soldiers and officers. Napoleon hated Davydov and ordered him to be shot on the spot upon arrest. The French governor of Vyazma sent one of his best detachments to capture him, consisting of two thousand horsemen with eight chief officers and one staff officer. Davydov, who had half as many people, managed to drive the detachment into a trap and take him prisoner along with all the officers.
During the retreat of the French army, Davydov, together with other partisans, continued to pursue the enemy. Davydov's detachment, together with the detachments of Orlov-Denisov, Figner and Seslavin, defeated and captured the two thousandth brigade of General Augereau near Lyakhov. Pursuing the retreating enemy, Davydov defeated a three thousandth cavalry depot near the town of Kopys, dispersed a large French detachment near Belynichi and, having reached the Neman, occupied Grodno. During the campaign of 1812, Davydov was awarded the Orders of St. Vladimir, 3rd class and St. George, 4th class.
During the foreign campaign of the Russian army, Davydov distinguished himself in the battles of Kalisz and La Rothiere, entered Saxony with the vanguard, captured Dresden. For the heroism shown by Davydov during the storming of Paris, he was awarded the rank of major general. The fame of the brave Russian hero thundered throughout Europe. When Russian troops entered a city, all the inhabitants went out into the street and asked about him in order to see him.
After the war, Denis Davydov continued to serve in the army. He wrote poetry and military-historical memoirs, corresponded with famous writers of his era. Participated in Russo-Persian War 1826-1828 and in the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1830-1831. He was married to Sofya Nikolaevna Chirkova, with whom he had 9 children. Last years D. V. Davydov spent his life in the village of Upper Maza, which belonged to his wife, where he died on April 22, 1839, at the age of 55, from an apoplexy. The ashes of the poet were transported to Moscow and buried in the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent.
SESLAVIN ALEXANDER NIKITICH (1780 - 1858) - major general, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, famous partisan.
He was educated in the 2nd Cadet Corps, served in the Guards Horse Artillery. In 1800, Emperor Paul awarded Lieutenant Seslavin with the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Participated in the wars with Napoleon in 1805 and 1807. In 1807 he was wounded at Heilsberg, awarded a golden sword with the inscription "For Bravery", then he distinguished himself near Friedland. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1806-1812 he was wounded for the second time - in the arm, with crushing of the bone.
At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, he served as adjutant to General M. B. Barclay de Tolly. Participated in almost all the battles of the 1st Russian army. For the special courage shown in the Battle of Borodino, he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree.
With the beginning of the guerrilla war, Seslavin was given command of a flying detachment and proved to be a talented intelligence officer. The most outstanding feat of Seslavin was the discovery of the movement of Napoleon's army along the Borovskaya road to Kaluga. Thanks to this information, the Russian army managed to block the French road at Maloyaroslavets, forcing them to retreat along the already devastated Smolensk road.
On October 22, near Vyazma, having galloped through the French troops, Seslavin discovered the beginning of their retreat and, having reported this to the Russian command, personally led the Pernovsky regiment into battle, breaking into the city first. Near Lyakhov, together with the detachments of Davydov and Figner, he captured the two thousandth brigade of General Augereau, for which he was promoted to colonel. On November 16, Seslavin captured the city of Borisov and 3,000 prisoners, establishing a link between the armies of Wittgenstein and Chichagov. On November 23, attacking the French near Oshmyany, he almost captured Napoleon himself. Finally, on November 29, on the shoulders of the retreating French cavalry, Seslavin broke into Vilna, where he was again seriously wounded in the arm.
During the foreign campaign of the Russian army, Seslavin often commanded advanced detachments. For distinction in Leipzig battle In 1813 he was promoted to major general. Since 1814 - retired. The wounded hero was treated abroad for a long time. Seslavin died in 1858 in his estate Kokoshino, Rzhevsky district, where he was buried.
FIGNER ALEXANDER SAMOYLOVICH . (1787 - 1813) - Colonel, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, an outstanding partisan, scout and saboteur.
Born in the family of the head of the Imperial glass factories, a graduate of the 2nd cadet corps. In 1805, with the rank of officer, he was assigned to the troops of the Anglo-Russian expedition in Italy, where he mastered Italian. In 1810 he fought against the Turks in the Moldavian army. For distinction during the assault on Ruschuk, he was promoted to lieutenant and awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree.
At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, Figner was the captain of the 3rd light company of the 11th artillery brigade. In the battle near Smolensk, the fire of his battery repelled the onslaught of the French on the left wing of the Russian army.
After the occupation of Moscow by the French, he, with the permission of the commander-in-chief, went there as a scout, but with the secret intention of killing Napoleon, for whom he had a fanatical hatred, as well as for all the French. He did not succeed in fulfilling this intention, but thanks to his extraordinary sharpness and knowledge foreign languages Figner, dressed in different costumes, moved freely among the enemy soldiers, obtained the necessary information and reported it to our main apartment. During the retreat of the French, having recruited a small detachment of hunters and backward soldiers, Figner, with the assistance of the peasants, began to disturb the rear communications of the enemy. Irritated by the activities of the Russian intelligence officer, Napoleon put a reward on his head. However, all efforts to capture Figner were fruitless; several times surrounded by the enemy, he managed to escape. Strengthened by Cossacks and cavalrymen, he began to annoy the enemy even more importunately: he intercepted couriers, burned carts, once, together with Seslavin, recaptured an entire transport with treasures stolen in Moscow. For actions in the Patriotic War, the sovereign promoted Figner to lieutenant colonel with a transfer to the guard.
With a brilliant education and appearance, Figner had strong nerves and a cruel heart. In his detachment, prisoners were not left alive. As Denis Davydov recalled, once Figner asked him to give him the French captured in battle - so that they would be “torn apart” by the Cossacks of his detachment, who were still “not incited”. “When Figner entered into feelings, and his feelings consisted solely in ambition and pride, then something satanic was revealed in him, .... when placing up to a hundred prisoners nearby, he killed them with a pistol one after another with his own hand, ”wrote Davydov. As a result of this attitude towards the prisoners, Figner's detachment very soon left all the officers.
Figner's nephew, trying to justify his uncle, cited the following information: “When the masses of prisoners were given into the hands of the winners, my uncle was at a loss for their large number and report to A.P. Yermolov asked what to do with them, because there were no means and opportunities to support them. Yermolov answered with a laconic note: "those who enter the Russian land with weapons - death." To this, my uncle sent back a report of the same laconic content: “From now on, Your Excellency will no longer disturb the prisoners,” and from that time on, the cruel extermination of prisoners, who were killed by the thousands, began.
In 1813, during the siege of Danzig, Figner entered the fortress under the guise of an Italian and tried to anger the inhabitants against the French, but was captured and imprisoned. Released from there for lack of evidence, he managed to infiltrate the confidence of the commandant of the fortress, General Rapp, to such an extent that he sent him to Napoleon with important dispatches, which, of course, ended up in the Russian headquarters. And soon, having recruited hunters, including fugitives (Italians and Spaniards) from the Napoleonic army, he again began to act on the flanks and behind enemy lines. Surrounded as a result of betrayal near the city of Dessau by enemy cavalry and pinned to the Elbe, he, not wanting to give up, rushed into the river, bandaging his hands with a handkerchief.
DOROKHOV IVAN SEMYONOVYCH (1762 - 1815) - lieutenant general, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, partisan.
Born in 1762 in a noble family. From 1783 to 1787 he was brought up in the Artillery and Engineering Corps. In the rank of lieutenant, he fought against the Turks in 1787-1791. He distinguished himself near Focsani and Machin, served at the headquarters of A.V. Suvorov. During the Warsaw Uprising of 1794, fighting for 36 hours with his company surrounded, he managed to break through to the main Russian forces. Among the first broke into Prague. In 1797 he was appointed commander of the Life Guards Hussars. Participated in the campaign of 1806-1807. Was awarded with orders St. George 4th and 3rd degree, St. Vladimir 3rd degree, Red Eagle 1st degree.
At the very beginning of the war of 1812, Dorokhov, cut off from the 1st Army with his brigade, decided, on his own initiative, to join the 2nd Army. For several days he advanced between the French columns, but managed to elude them and joined Prince Bagration, under whose command he participated in the battles of Smolensk and Borodino.
On the day of the Battle of Borodino, he commanded four cavalry regiments of the 3rd Cavalry Corps. Successfully carried out a counterattack on the Bagration flushes. For his bravery, he was promoted to lieutenant general.
Since September, Dorokhov commanded a partisan detachment consisting of one dragoon, one hussar, three Cossack regiments and half a company of horse artillery and caused a lot of harm to the French, exterminating their separate teams. In just one week - from September 7 to September 14, 4 cavalry regiments, an infantry and cavalry detachment of 800 people were defeated, carts were captured, an artillery depot was blown up, about 1,500 soldiers and 48 officers were taken prisoner. Dorokhov was the first to inform Kutuzov about the French movement to Kaluga. During the Tarutinsky battle, the Cossacks of his detachment successfully pursued the retreating enemy, killing the French general Deri. Under Maloyaroslavets, he was wounded by a bullet through the leg.
The main success of the partisan detachment of Dorokhov was the capture on September 27 of the city of Vereya, the most important point of communications of the enemy. The battle was carefully planned, fleeting, with a sudden bayonet attack and almost no shooting. In just an hour, the enemy lost more than 300 people killed, 15 officers and 377 soldiers were taken prisoner. Russian losses were 7 killed and 20 wounded. Dorokhov's report to Kutuzov was brief: "By order of Your Grace, the city of Vereya was taken by storm on this date." Kutuzov announced this "excellent and brave feat" in an order for the army. Later, Dorokhov was awarded a gold sword, decorated with diamonds, with the inscription: "For the liberation of Vereya."
The wound received by the general near Maloyaroslavets did not allow him to return to duty. On April 25, 1815, Lieutenant General Ivan Semenovich Dorokhov died. He was buried, according to his dying will, in Vereya, liberated by him from the French, in the Nativity Cathedral.
CHEVERTAKOV YERMOLAY VASILIEVICH (1781 - after 1814) Non-commissioned officer, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, partisan.
Born in 1781 in Ukraine into a family of serfs. Since 1804, a soldier of the Kyiv Dragoon Regiment. Participated in the wars against Napoleon in 1805-1807.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, being in the regiment in the rearguard of the troops of General P.P. Konovnitsyn, he was captured in the battle on August 19 (31) near the village of Tsarevo-Zaimishche. Chetvertakov stayed in captivity for three days, and on the night of the fourth he fled from the French, when they had a day in the city of Gzhatsk, having obtained a horse and weapons.
He formed a partisan detachment from 50 peasants from several villages of the Gzhatsk district of the Smolensk province, which successfully operated against the invaders. He defended villages from marauders, attacked passing transports and large French units, inflicting significant losses on them. The inhabitants of the Gzhatsk district were grateful to Chetvertakov, whom they considered their savior. He managed to protect all the surrounding villages “in the space of 35 versts from the Gzhatsk pier”, “while all around all the surrounding villages lay in ruins”. Soon the size of the detachment increased to 300, and then 4 thousand people.
Chetvertakov organized shooting training for peasants, established reconnaissance and guard services, and attacked groups of Napoleonic soldiers. On the day of the Battle of Borodino, Chetvertakov with a detachment came to the village of Krasnaya and found 12 French cuirassiers there. During the battle, all the cuirassiers were killed. By the evening of the same day, an enemy foot team of 57 people with 3 wagons approached the village. The squad attacked them. 15 French were killed, the rest fled, and the partisans got the trucks. Later, at the village Skugarevo, at the head of 4 thousand peasants Chetvertakov, defeated the French battalion with artillery. Skirmishes with marauders took place during c. Antonovka, der. Krisovo, in with. Flowers, Mikhailovka and Drachev; at the Gzhatskaya pier, the peasants recaptured two cannons.
The officers of the French units who had combat clashes with Chetvertakov were amazed at his skill and did not want to believe that the commander of the partisan detachment was a simple soldier. The French considered him an officer with the rank no lower than a colonel.
In November 1812 he was promoted to non-commissioned officer, joined his regiment, in which he participated in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army in 1813-1814. For initiative and courage, E. Chetvertakov was awarded the Distinction of the Military Order.
KURIN GERASIM MATVEEVICH (1777 - 1850) Member of the Patriotic War of 1812, partisan.
Born in 1777 in the Moscow province, from state peasants. With the advent of the French, Kurin gathered around him a detachment of 200 daredevils and began fighting. Very quickly, the number of partisans increased to 5300 people and 500 horsemen. As a result of seven clashes with Napoleonic troops from September 23 to October 2, Kurin captured many French soldiers, 3 guns and a grain convoy, without losing a single person. Applying the maneuver false retreat, lured and defeated the punitive detachment of two squadrons of dragoons sent against him. With their active actions, Kurin's detachment actually forced the French to leave the city of Bogorodsk.
In 1813, Gerasim Matveyevich Kurin was awarded the St. George Cross, 1st class. In 1844, Kurin participated in the opening of Pavlovsky Posad, which was formed at the confluence of Pavlov and four surrounding villages. 6 years after this event, in 1850, Gerasim Kurin died. Buried at the Pavlovsky cemetery.
ENGELHARDT PAVEL IVANOVICH (1774-1812) - retired lieutenant colonel of the Russian army, commanded a partisan detachment in the Smolensk province during the Patriotic War of 1812. Shot by the French.
Born in 1774 in a family of hereditary nobles of the Porech district of the Smolensk province. He studied in the land cadet corps. Since 1787 he served in the Russian army with the rank of lieutenant. He retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel, lived in his family estate Diaghilev.
When French troops captured Smolensk in 1812, Engelhardt, together with several other landowners, armed the peasants and organized a partisan detachment that began to attack enemy units and transports. Engelhardt himself participated in sorties against enemy units, in skirmishes he personally killed 24 Frenchmen. Was issued by his serfs to the French. On October 3, 1812, a French military court sentenced Engelhardt to death. The French tried for two weeks to persuade Engelhardt to cooperate, they offered him the rank of colonel in the Napoleonic army, but he refused.
On October 15, 1812, Engelhardt was shot at the Molokhov Gates of the Smolensk fortress wall (now they do not exist). On his last journey, he was accompanied by the priest of the Hodegetrievskaya Church, the first Smolensk historian, Nikifor Murzakevich. This is how he described the execution of the hero: “He was calm all day and spoke with a cheerful spirit about the death assigned to him by fate ... - Behind the Molokhov Gates, in the trenches, they began to read the sentence to him, but he did not let them finish reading, shouted in French : “It’s full of lies, it’s time to stop. Charge quickly and fire! In order not to see the ruin of my fatherland and the oppression of my compatriots anymore. They began to blindfold him, but he did not allow it, saying: “Get out! No one has seen his death, but I will see it.” Then he prayed briefly and ordered to shoot.
Initially, the French shot him in the leg, promising to cancel the execution and cure Engelhardt if he went over to their side, but he again refused. Then a volley of 18 charges was fired, 2 of which went through the chest and 1 into the stomach. Engelhardt remained alive even after that. Then one of the French soldiers shot him in the head. On October 24, another member of the partisan movement, Semyon Ivanovich Shubin, was shot at the same place.
Engelhardt's feat was immortalized on a marble plaque in the church of the 1st Cadet Corps, where he studied. Russian emperor Alexander I provided the Engelhardt family with an annual pension. In 1833, Nicholas I gave money for the construction of a monument to Engelhardt. In 1835, a monument with the inscription: “To Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Ivanovich Engelhardt, who died in 1812 for loyalty and love for the Tsar and Fatherland” was erected at the place of his death. The monument was destroyed under the Soviet regime.
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