At noon on March 31, 1814, the cavalry led by Tsar Alexander I triumphantly entered Paris. The city was overrun by Russians. The Cossacks turned the banks of the Seine into a beach area. “Water procedures” were taken as in their native Don - in underwear or completely naked.
Chess move
On the 20th of March, Napoleon, after successful actions against the allies in France, went to the northeastern fortresses to strengthen the army and force the allies to retreat. He did not expect an attack on Paris, counting on the well-known intractability of the allied armies. However, on March 24, 1814, the Allies urgently approved a plan to attack the capital. To distract Napoleon, a 10,000-strong cavalry corps under the command of General Wintzingerode was sent against him. Meanwhile, the Allies, without waiting for the concentration of troops, began an attack on Paris. 6,000 soldiers were lost due to lack of preparedness. The city was taken within a day.
Having defeated a small detachment, Napoleon realized that he had been tricked: “This is an excellent chess move! I would never have believed that any Allied general was capable of doing this.”
All Paris
Most of all, the Parisians feared Russian revenge. There were stories about soldiers loving violence and playing barbaric games. For example, driving people naked for flogging in the cold.
Major General Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov, one of those who signed the surrender, recalled his first trip around the captured city:
“We rode on horseback and slowly, in the deepest silence. All that could be heard was the sound of the horses’ hooves, and from time to time several faces with anxious curiosity appeared in the windows, which quickly opened and quickly closed.”
When a proclamation of the Russian Tsar appeared on the streets of houses, promising residents special patronage and protection, many townspeople rushed to the north-eastern borders of the city to get at least a glimpse of the Russian Emperor. “There were so many people in the Place Saint-Martin, the Place Louis XV and the avenue that the divisions of the regiments could hardly pass through this crowd.” Particular enthusiasm was expressed by the Parisian young ladies who grabbed the hands of foreign soldiers and even climbed onto their saddles in order to get a better look at the conqueror-liberators entering the city. The Russian emperor fulfilled his promise to the city, stopping the slightest crimes.
Cossacks in Paris
If Russian soldiers and officers could not be distinguished from Prussians and Austrians (except perhaps by their uniform), then the Cossacks were bearded, wearing trousers with stripes - the same as in the pictures in French newspapers. Only real Cossacks were kind. Delighted flocks of children ran after the Russian soldiers. And Parisian men soon began to wear beards “like the Cossacks”, and knives on wide belts, like the Cossacks.
During their stay in the French capital, the Cossacks turned the banks of the Seine into a beach area: they swam themselves and bathed their horses. “Water procedures” were taken as in their native Don - in underwear or completely naked. The popularity of the Cossacks and the great interest of Parisians in them is evidenced by a large number of mentions of them in French literature. George Sand's novel is even called: "Cossacks in Paris."
The Cossacks captivated the city, especially beautiful girls, gambling houses and delicious wine. The Cossacks turned out to be not very gallant gentlemen: they squeezed the hands of Parisian women like bears, ate ice cream at Tortoni's on the Boulevard of Italians and stepped on the feet of visitors to the Palais Royal and the Louvre.
The Russians were seen by the French as gentle, but also not very delicate giants in their treatment. Parisian women gave the soldiers their first lessons in etiquette.
The French were frightened by the Asian cavalry regiments in the Russian army. For some reason they were horrified at the sight of the camels that the Kalmyks brought with them. French young ladies fainted when Tatar or Kalmyk warriors approached them in their caftans, hats, with bows over their shoulders, and with a bunch of arrows on their sides.
Once again about the bistro
The Parisians were amazed by their interactions with the Russians. French newspapers wrote about them as scary “bears” from a wild country where it is always cold. And the Parisians were surprised to see tall and strong Russian soldiers, who in appearance did not differ at all from the Europeans. And the Russian officers, moreover, almost all spoke French. There is a legend that soldiers and Cossacks entered Parisian cafes and hurried food peddlers: “Quickly, quickly!”, which is why eateries in Paris began to be called bistros.
However, this version is confirmed by French linguists. The first mention of the use of the word "bistrot" in French dates back to the 1880s. In addition, there are similar dialect and colloquial words, for example, bist(r)ouille, bistringue or bistroquet. French etymological dictionary"Robert" connects bistro with dialect bistouille - "swill, bad alcohol". The Russian version qualifies as “pure fantasy.”
The commander of the Russian occupation corps, Count Mikhail Vorontsov, paid everyone’s debts in 1818, when the last soldiers were leaving France. To do this, he had to sell the Krugloye estate.
Exactly 200 years ago, on March 19 (31), 1814, Russian troops entered Paris in a solemn march.
Jubilant crowds of townspeople greeted them as liberators. Unlike the “civilized French” who ruined Moscow, the Russians brought peace and hope for a better life to the Parisians.
This was the end of the adventure begun by Napoleon in June 1812. Before the invasion of Russia, he told the French envoy to the King of Saxony, Abbot Dominique Dufour Pradt: “In five years I will be the master of the world: only Russia remains, but I will crush it!” Less than two years had passed before the contender for world domination found himself on the Elbe, and the Russians in Paris.
"Invasion twelve languages"
To appreciate what happened on the last day of March 1814 on the banks of the Seine, it is necessary to remember the summer of 1812, when Russia suffered a terrible blow. The “Great Army” of the hitherto invincible Napoleon invaded Russia.
We had to fight almost all of continental Europe. French historians Ernest Lavisse and Alfred Rambaud calculated that of the 678 thousand soldiers in Napoleon's army, the French made up 355,913 thousand. “The Grand Army is not a French project, but an international one, later similar to NATO,” emphasizes historian Kirill Serebrenitsky. - Great Army - unique instrument created by Napoleon: whoever commands the pan-continental armed forces controls Europe."
It would not be an exaggeration to note that in 1812 the fate of Europe was decided on the battlefields of Russia. The Russian poet Pyotr Vyazemsky thought so too. He wrote: “The invasion of Russia was a European event, almost a global one. The suffering, misfortunes of the people during the war, the donations generously made by them... were aimed not only at ensuring the independence of the Russian state, but also at pacifying Europe.”
Emperor Alexander I, who understood the threat looming over the Russian Empire, immediately sent his emissary to Napoleon - Adjutant General Alexander Balashov. While he was looking for Napoleon, the French were moving deeper into Russia. Ironically, Balashov’s meeting with the French emperor took place in Vilna in the very office where just a few days earlier he had received an assignment from the Russian emperor. Having rejected the offer to make peace, Bonaparte, according to Balashov’s memoirs, allegedly asked what roads led to Moscow. And he proudly replied that they were different, but the Swedish king Charles XII preferred the one passing through Poltava. However, historians doubt that these words were actually spoken by Balashov.
Be that as it may, Napoleon chose his path to Moscow. It ran past the village of Borodino. A grandiose battle took place there, about which Napoleon said in his declining years: “Of all my battles, the most terrible was the one I fought near Moscow. The French showed themselves worthy of winning, and the Russians showed themselves worthy of being called invincible.”
After the Battle of Borodino, our commander-in-chief Mikhail Golenishchev-Kutuso decided to leave Moscow. When on September 1 (13), 1812, Napoleon left for Poklonnaya Gora, the view of Moscow that opened from it delighted him - the Russian city shining in the sun was so magnificent. The mood of the French emperor was spoiled by the fact that the Moscow “boyars” never brought him the keys to the throne.
Europeans in Moscow
When the French entered the city, it amazed them with its beauty. “My surprise upon entering Moscow was mixed with admiration. The mansions of private individuals were like palaces, and everything was rich and delightful,” the commissariat official Prosper noted in a letter.
The admiration for Moscow among the Europeans who entered it quickly gave way to a desire to plunder. The taking of the throne was celebrated by the soldiers and officers of the “Great Army” with a drinking party. However, very soon the unbridled joy of the invaders was overshadowed by the outbreak of an unprecedented fire.
Over its centuries-old history, Moscow has burned several times (Ivan the Terrible’s grandfather, Grand Duke Ivan III, personally participated in putting out fires more than once), but this is the first time this has happened. The fire broke out at different ends almost simultaneously. Then there were persistent rumors that the city in different parts of it was set on fire by the Muscovites themselves. The fire was so strong that in a few days three quarters of the buildings burned down, and with them supplies of firewood and hay. On September 4 (16), Napoleon had to leave the Kremlin for the Petrovsky Palace for 4 days.
The Parisian newspaper Moniteur wrote on October 14 about the Moscow fire: “With great difficulty, one might still believe that the arson of Moscow was a fit of despair from the inability to stop the advance of the French army and that this is why the Russians were forced to do this, leaving their capital...
Now we can confidently say that this very fire was planned in advance and that the devastation of the city was carefully calculated. Thus, the feelings that can be expressed about this are surprise and annoyance. Never before have we encountered such a cold-blooded devastation of the capital. Rostopchin's assistants, namely the five thousand bandits whom he released from prison, passed torches from hand to hand and carried them throughout all quarters of the city to light a fire everywhere. In order for the fire to spread with great speed, the arsonists observed which direction the wind was blowing from and set the fire so that the fire would immediately spread to neighboring buildings with the help of the wind. In most houses, tow moistened with resin and tar was found, as well as sulfur, which was placed under wooden stairs, in carriage houses, stables, and other outbuildings. To create fire from the outside of houses, sheaves of straw and haystacks tied with ropes were used, as well as cannon wicks.
Our soldiers also found fire flares, which were made with such care that once they were lit, it was impossible to extinguish them... But what seems completely incredible and implausible is that the French, wanting to stop the fire, could not find a single suitable item , suitable for extinguishing fire. The firefighters themselves were forced to leave this unfortunate city, which was condemned with cold blood to destruction. And such composure outrages humanity.”
French journalists, true to the principle of double standards, did not consider it necessary to inform “humanity” that the “Grand Army”, having barely crossed the threshold of the ancient capital of our Motherland, began to drink, rob, kill and rape. “Half of this city was burned by the Russians themselves, but robbed by us,” General L. J. Grando admitted in a letter.
French newspapers did not write about the meltdown church utensils for the extraction of precious metals. They also did not report that after the rain put out the fire, for more than a month Napoleon’s soldiers burned everything they could get their hands on in the streets and squares of the capital. They cooked food over fires, throwing icons, books, expensive furniture and paintings into them. The soldiers burned everything that burned! The fire destroyed “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” which was in the collection of the Moscow collector, Count Alexei Musin-Pushkin. And the French generals, in order not to freeze in the mansions of the Russian nobles they captured, heated the stoves with parquet.
“Everywhere large fires were lit from mahogany furniture, window frames and gilded doors, around these fires, on a thin bed of wet and dirty straw, under the protection of several boards, soldiers and officers, stained in mud and blackened by smoke, sat or lay in armchairs and on sofas covered with silk. At their feet lay piles of cashmere fabrics, precious Siberian furs, woven with gold from Persian mothers, and in front of them were silver dishes on which they had to eat cakes made of black dough, baked under ashes, and half-roasted and still bloody horse meat,” recalled the brigadier general from his retinue French Emperor, Count Philippe Paul de Segur.
The order of September 23 for the guards division of F.B.J.F. Curial also confirms the savagery of the Napoleonic army. It says, in particular: “The court marshal was animatedly indignant that, despite repeated prohibitions, the soldier continues to relieve himself in all corners and even under the windows of the emperor.”
In the altar of the main church in the Kremlin Miracle Monastery, Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout built himself a bedroom. Cathedral of the TransfigurationOn Bor, the occupiers used it as stables and a warehouse for storing loot. In the Church of the Resurrection of the Word, they damaged the cross, roof and iconostasis, and stole some of the utensils and icons. In the Verkhospassky Cathedral, the Europeans plundered and desecrated everything that was not taken away by the Muscovites. The royal doors were burned, and the vestments were torn from the icons. After the expulsion of the French, bones were found on the throne in the cathedral (it served as a dining table), empty bottles were lying on the floor, and there were beds in the dining room.
On September 16 (28), a second fire started in the city. This time the arson was carried out by soldiers from the so-called “civilized Europe”, maddened by robberies.
The list of atrocities committed by the “Great Army” in Moscow can be continued for a long time. Needless to say, it was not only the Mother See that suffered, but the entire territory through which the invaders from Europe passed.
On October 6 (18), Golenishchev-Kutuzov’s troops suddenly struck the corps of Marshal Joachim Murat, stationed on the Chernishna River near Tarutin. Having lost 5 thousand people, Murat retreated. This defeat was the last straw that broke Napoleon's patience. The Emperor decided to leave Moscow.
The picture of the French flight from Moscow on the morning of October 7 (19) was drawn by academician Evgeniy Tarle: “An endless string of diverse crews and carts with provisions and property looted in Moscow followed the army. Discipline was so weakened that even Marshal Davout stopped shooting disobedient people who, under various pretexts and all sorts of tricks, tried to put valuable things captured in the city into carts, although there were not enough horses even for artillery. The leaving army with this endless convoy was a colossally stretched line... After a whole day of continuous marches, by the evening of October 7 (19), the army and convoy, walking along the wide Kaluga road, where eight carriages moved freely side by side, had not yet completely left the city.”
Retreating, annoyed by the unsuccessful course of the war, Napoleon gave the order to Marshal Edouard Adolphe Casimir Mortier to blow up the Kremlin. The subsequent events were outlined by the 19th-century historian Mikhail Fabritius in his “History of the Moscow Kremlin,” which was published more than 130 years ago:
“On the night of October 11-12, Mortier left Moscow and, moving a short distance from it, gave the signal for the explosion of the Kremlin with a cannon shot. The earth shook, all the buildings trembled; even at a great distance from the Kremlin, glass in the windows broke; in many houses in the city, ceilings and walls collapsed... The consequences of the explosions were, however, not as devastating for the Kremlin as might have been expected. Part of the Arsenal and the adjacent eastern Kremlin wall and the top of the tower at the Nikolsky Gate were destroyed... A part of the southern wall of the Kremlin with three towers was blown up: Petrovskaya with the abolished Church of Moscow St. Peter the Metropolitan, Rozhdestvenskaya with its former church and Filaretovskaya, which is near Ivanovo Bell Tower. The Ivanovo Bell Tower itself cracked from top to bottom and shook at its foundation, but stood firm and has stood unshakable ever since. The Coal Water Tower flew into the air and with its remains covered the embankment and the river; in its place a column of dust and smoke rose high up. To everyone's surprise and joy, all the palaces, cathedrals, churches and monasteries in the Kremlin survived. The rain that poured in during the time flooded several mines and tunnels in the Kremlin ... "
Foreign trip Russian army
The heroic Russian army did not need even six months to defeat the “invincible” Napoleonic “Grand Army” and throw it out of the country. Russian Empire. Abandoning the remnants of his troops on the Berezina, Bonaparte fled to France. French newspapers, like the press of the states that fought on Napoleon's side, reported the whereabouts of the emperor only after his arrival in Paris. The emperor himself admitted: “In the current state of affairs, I can only inspire respect in Europe from the palace in the Tuileries.” However, Napoleon would cease to be himself if he took energetic measures to form new army. By the spring of 1813, he had solved this problem.
Russia was not going to stop at expelling the enemy from its territory. The peoples of Europe had to be liberated from the yoke of the French enslavers. Noteworthy is Kutuzov’s warning contained in his order: “We will cross the borders and succeed in completing the defeat of the enemy on his own fields. But let us not follow the example of our enemies in their violence and frenzy, which humiliates the soldier. They burned our houses, cursed at the holy things, and you saw how the right hand of the Most High righteously noted their wickedness. Let us be generous and make a distinction between the enemy and the civilian.”
On January 1 (13), 1813, the Main Russian Army under the command of Field Marshal Kutuzov crossed the western border of the Russian Empire along the ice of the Neman. During January, the eastern part of Prussia was liberated from the French occupiers.
The beginning of the campaign was overshadowed by the death of the commander-in-chief. Russian patriot Field Marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuso died on April 16 (28) at 21:35 in Bunzlau (now Polish Boleslawiec). His adjutant Alexander Mikhailovsky-Dan Ilevsky, who was present at the death of the famous military leader and diplomat, wrote: “The sunset of his days was beautiful, like the sunset of a luminary that illuminated a magnificent day during its course; but it was impossible to watch without particular sorrow how our famous leader was fading away, when, during his illnesses, the deliverer of Russia gave me orders, lying in bed, in such a weak voice that it was hardly possible to hear his words. However, his memory was very fresh, and he repeatedly dictated several pages to me non-stop.”
Misfortune never comes alone. On May 2, at the Battle of Lutzen (near Leipzig), Napoleon defeated the Russian-Prussian army. A week later, history repeated itself at the Battle of Bautzen. The Russian-Prussian troops had to withdraw to east coast Elbe.
Fortunately, in the spring of 1813, the hero of the War of 1812, General Barclay de Tolly, returned to duty. He led the 3rd Army and took the Thorn fortress. And after the battle of Bautzen, Barclay de Tolly again received the post of commander-in-chief.
"Battle of the Nations"
In the summer of 1813, the military campaign continued with varying degrees of success. In August, Austria went over to the side of the anti-Napoleonic coalition (although Emperor Franz II was Bonaparte’s father-in-law). The balance of power changed not in Napoleon's favor. According to military historians, on the eve of the decisive battles, Russia had a group of 175 thousand people (including 107 thousand infantry, 28 thousand cavalry, 26 thousand Cossacks) with 648 guns. In addition, near Danzig, which was defended by the French corps of General Rap, there were another 30 thousand bayonets with 59 guns. The active forces of the allied Prussia numbered 170 thousand soldiers and officers with 376 guns. Austria fielded 110 thousand, Sweden - 28 thousand, small German states - 13 thousand people. Summing up, we get 525 thousand soldiers and officers. For comparison, Napoleon at that time had approximately 420 thousand people and more than a thousand guns.
At the end of September, Napoleon concentrated his main forces at Leipzig. It was in the vicinity of this German city that the famous “Battle of the Nations” took place, which lasted from October 4 (16) to October 7 (19), 1813. Half a million Russians, French, Germans, Austrians, Swedes, Poles, Italians, Swiss, Dutch, Hungarians, Croats, Belgians, etc. took part in it.
The Allied armies approached Leipzig separately, which gave Napoleon the opportunity to do what he loved - beat the enemy piece by piece. Austrian Field Marshal Karl Philipp von Schwarzenberg was appointed commander-in-chief of the coalition forces. It is noteworthy that a year ago he commanded a corps in Napoleonic army, and a few weeks before the “Battle of the Nations” he was defeated by the French near Dresden.
Schwarzenberg commanded the Bohemian Army (133 thousand people, 578 guns), which found itself in the Leipzig area in early October. The Silesian Army of Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht Blucher (60 thousand people, 315 guns) also came there. These two armies opposed Napoleon on the first day of the battle of Leipzig.
On the morning of October 4 (16), Schwarzenberg launched an attack on the southern approaches to the city, attacking Russian troops under the command of Barclay de Tolly. A stubborn battle ensued, which at first went with varying degrees of success. But by 15 o'clock Napoleon threw the cavalry of Marshal Joachim Murat into battle. Having crushed the defenses, she found herself close to the hill on which the headquarters of the allied monarchs was located. To prevent their capture, the personal guard of Alexander I rushed into the attack - His Imperial Majesty’s Own convoy under the command of Lieutenant General Vasily Orlov-Denisov.
The first day of the battle did not bring decisive success to either side. Napoleon only managed to push back the Bohemian army. But Blucher's Silesian army came close to Leipzig.
The opponents spent October 5 (17) inactive. More precisely, they collected the wounded, received reinforcements and ammunition. However, if Napoleon received 25 thousand soldiers and officers, then two more armies approached the allies - the Northern, commanded by the Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johan (also the former Napoleonic Marshal Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte) consisting of 58 thousand people and 256 guns, and Polish - under the command of Russian general Leonty Bennigsen (54 thousand soldiers and 186 guns).
The next day, the largest in history unfolded Napoleonic wars a battle in which half a million people took part on both sides. The opponents showed extreme tenacity in the battle, but at the decisive moment of the battle, the Saxons, who fought on the side of Napoleon, went over to the side of the allies with unfurled banners. And although the troops loyal to Napoleon continued to fight, they could no longer count on success.
On the morning of October 19 - the anniversary of the French withdrawal from Moscow - it became finally clear to Napoleon that he had lost the battle. Bonaparte gave the order to withdraw troops across the bridge over the Elster River. The retreat was covered by units of Marshals Jozef Poniatowski and Jacques Etienne Joseph Alexander MacDonald. The French failed to retreat in an organized manner. Hearing the painfully familiar Russian “hurray!”, panicked French sappers blew up the bridge. About 20 thousand French were abandoned to their fate. Even Marshals MacDonald and Poniatowski had to cross the river on horseback. If the first of them managed to cross the river, then the Pole, who had only been promoted to marshal by Napoleon the day before, drowned. Many French did not risk their lives and surrendered.
In the battle, Russian troops showed steadfastness and massive heroism. Historian Nikolai Shefov writes: “For example, the feat of the corporal of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment L.L. Korenny, who, after the death of his comrades, alone fought off the French surrounding him, is known. The guardsman received 18 wounds, but did not surrender. As a sign of respect for his courage, the French took the wounded hero to the hospital, where Napoleon ended up at that moment. Having learned about the brave Russian, the emperor ordered not only to release him, but also to mark him in the army order as an example to his soldiers. This was the only time when Russian soldier was noted in Napoleon's order."
Special mention must be made about the role of Russian soldiers, officers and generals in the “Battle of the Nations”. They were the ones who fought in the most difficult areas and suffered heavy losses. Nine of our generals laid down their lives in the “Battle of the Nations.” Among them is the favorite of the soldiers, the hero of the Smolensk and Borodino battles, Dmitry Neverovsky. During the battle, the commander of the 27th division was wounded in the leg, but remained in the saddle until the last opportunity. The Russian patriot was operated on, but doctors were unable to save him from gangrene. In the last minutes of his life, being unconscious, Neverovsky called the soldiers to attack: “Forward! On bayonets!
The road from Leipzig to Paris
After the defeat at Leipzig, Napoleon lost all his conquests in Germany and went to France. And the anti-Napoleonic coalition was replenished by the accession of Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and other German states that had previously fought on the side of France.
In early 1814, two Allied armies invaded France. The main (formerly Bohemian) army, consisting of Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian units, was commanded by the Austrian field marshal Schwarzenberg. The Russian-Prussian Silesian Army was led by Prussian Field Marshal Blücher.
True to his strategy of hitting the enemy piecemeal, Napoleon inflicted sensitive blows on his allies and quickly escaped pursuit. And then the Corsican, Count Charles Andre Pozzo di Borgo, who hated Napoleon, gave the allies advice: “We must strive to end the war not by military means, but by political means... Touch Paris with just your finger, and Napoleon will be overthrown, you will break his sword...”
Information from the French capital also prompted the same decision. From there they reported that Parisians were tired of the war. As a result, the decision was made to march on Paris. In order to mislead Napoleon, a 10,000-strong cavalry corps under the command of General Ferdinand Winzengerode was sent against him. Napoleon defeated him and at the same time... lost Paris.
As presented by historian Oleg Airapetov, the course of events appears as follows: “On March 13 (25), 12 thousand Russian cavalrymen with 94 guns defeated a barrier of two French corps (23 thousand with 84 guns) near Fer-Champenoise. The Allied armies (100 thousand people, 64 thousand of them Russians) moved towards Paris. On March 29 they reached the city and on March 30 they stormed the Belleville Heights and Montmartre. The garrison of the city put up stubborn resistance, but with the loss of the heights dominating the city it was doomed. Having learned about this, Napoleon moved to the rescue of his capital, but it was too late. On March 30, 1814, its 45,000-strong garrison surrendered.”
The surrender was signed at 2 a.m. on March 19 (31) in the village of Lavilette. During the capture of Paris, the allied forces lost 9 thousand soldiers and officers, more than 6 thousand of them were Russian. In honor of the capture of the capital of France, Russia issued a medal “For the Capture of Paris.” Barclay de Tolly received the field marshal's baton, and generals A.I. Gorchakov, A.P. Ermolov, P.P. Palen 2nd, N.N. Raevsky, A.Ya. Rudzevich were awarded the Order of St. George of the second degree.
A few days after the capitulation of Paris, Napoleon signed an abdication for himself and his heirs.
The grandiose victories of 1812–1814 ensured Russia a leading role in Europe and the security of its own borders for forty years.
On March 30, 1814, Allied troops began to storm the French capital. The very next day the city capitulated. Since the troops, although they were allied, consisted mainly of Russian units, Paris was flooded with our officers, Cossacks and peasants.
Checkmate
In early January 1814, Allied forces invaded France, where Napoleon gained superiority. Excellent knowledge of the terrain and his strategic genius allowed him to constantly push back the armies of Blucher and Schwarzenberg to their original positions, despite the numerical superiority of the latter: 150-200 thousand against 40 thousand Napoleonic soldiers.
In the 20th of March, Napoleon went to the northeastern fortresses on the border of France, where he hoped to strengthen his army at the expense of local garrisons and force the allies to retreat. He did not expect further advance of the enemies towards Paris, counting on the slowness and intractability of the allied armies, as well as the fear of his attack from the rear. However, here he miscalculated - on March 24, 1814, the allies urgently approved a plan for an attack on the capital. And all because of rumors about the fatigue of the French from the war and unrest in Paris. To distract Napoleon, a 10,000-strong cavalry corps under the command of General Wintzingerode was sent against him. The detachment was defeated on March 26, but this no longer affected the course further developments. A few days later the assault on Paris began. It was then that Napoleon realized that he had been fooled: “This is an excellent chess move,” he exclaimed, “I would never have believed that any Allied general was capable of doing this.” With a small army, he rushed to save the capital, but it was already too late.
All Paris
Major General Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov, one of those who signed the surrender, recalled his first trip through the captured city: “We rode on horseback and slowly, in the deepest silence. All that could be heard was the sound of the horses’ hooves, and from time to time several faces with anxious curiosity appeared in the windows, which quickly opened and quickly closed.” The streets were deserted. It seemed that the entire population of Paris had fled the city. Most of all, citizens feared the revenge of foreigners. There were stories that Russians loved to rape and play barbaric games, for example, in the cold, driving people naked for flogging. Therefore, when a proclamation of the Russian Tsar appeared on the streets of houses, promising residents special patronage and protection, many residents rushed to the north-eastern borders of the city to get at least a glimpse of the Russian Emperor. “There were so many people in the Place Saint-Martin, the Place Louis XV and the avenue that the divisions of the regiments could hardly pass through this crowd.” Particular enthusiasm was expressed by the Parisian young ladies who grabbed the hands of foreign soldiers and even climbed onto their saddles in order to get a better look at the conqueror-liberators entering the city.
The Russian emperor fulfilled his promise to the city, Alexander suppressed any robbery, punished looting, and any attacks on cultural monuments, in particular the Louvre, were especially strictly prohibited.
Scary forecasts
Young officers were gladly accepted into the aristocratic circles of Paris. Among other pastimes were visits to the fortune-telling salon of the fortune-teller known throughout Europe - Mademoiselle Lenormand. One day, eighteen-year-old Sergei Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol, famous in battle, came to the salon with his friends. Addressing all the officers, Mademoiselle Lenormand twice ignored Muravyov-Apostol. In the end, he asked himself: “What will you tell me, madam?” Lenormand sighed: “Nothing, Monsieur...” Muravyov insisted: “At least one phrase!”
And then the fortune teller said: “Okay. I’ll say one phrase: you will be hanged!” Muravyov was taken aback, but did not believe it: “You are mistaken! I am a nobleman, and in Russia they don’t hang nobles!” - “The emperor will make an exception for you!” - Lenormand said sadly.
This “adventure” was heatedly discussed among officers until Pavel Ivanovich Pestel went to see a fortune teller. When he returned, he said, laughing: “The girl has lost her mind, afraid of the Russians, who occupied her native Paris. Imagine, she predicted a rope with a crossbar for me!” But Lenormand’s fortune-telling came true in full. Both Muravyov-Apostol and Pestel did not die a natural death. Together with other Decembrists, they were hanged to the beat of a drum.
Cossacks in Paris
Perhaps the brightest pages of those years in the history of Paris were written by the Cossacks. During their stay in the French capital, Russian cavalrymen turned the banks of the Seine into a beach area: they swam themselves and bathed their horses. “Water procedures” were taken as in our native Don - in underwear or completely naked. And this, of course, attracted considerable attention from the locals.
The popularity of the Cossacks and the great interest of Parisians in them is evidenced by the large number of novels written by French writers. Among the surviving novels famous writer George Sand, which is called: “Cossacks in Paris.”
The Cossacks themselves were captivated by the city, although mostly by beautiful girls, gambling houses and delicious wine. The Cossacks turned out to be not very gallant gentlemen: they squeezed the hands of Parisian women like bears, ate ice cream at Tortoni's on the Boulevard of Italians and stepped on the feet of visitors to the Palais Royal and the Louvre. The Russians were seen by the French as gentle, but also not very delicate giants in their treatment. Although the brave warriors still enjoyed popularity among ladies of simple origin. So the Parisians taught them the basics of gallant treatment of girls: do not squeeze the handle too much, take it under the elbow, open the door.
New impressions
The French, in turn, were frightened by the Asian cavalry regiments in the Russian army. For some reason they were horrified at the sight of the camels that the Kalmyks brought with them. French young ladies fainted when Tatar or Kalmyk warriors approached them in their caftans, hats, with bows over their shoulders, and with a bunch of arrows on their sides. But the Parisians really liked the Cossacks. If Russian soldiers and officers could not be distinguished from Prussians and Austrians (only by uniform), then the Cossacks were bearded, wearing trousers with stripes, exactly the same as in the pictures in French newspapers. Only real Cossacks were kind. Delighted flocks of children ran after the Russian soldiers. And Parisian men soon began to wear beards “like the Cossacks”, and knives on wide belts, like the Cossacks.
Quickly at the Bistro
The Parisians were amazed by their communication with the Russians. French newspapers wrote about them as scary “bears” from a wild country where it is always cold. And the Parisians were surprised to see tall and strong Russian soldiers, who in appearance did not differ at all from the Europeans. And the Russian officers, moreover, almost all spoke French. There is a legend that soldiers and Cossacks entered Parisian cafes and hurried food peddlers - quickly, quickly! This is where a network of eateries in Paris called “Bistros” later appeared.
What did the Russians bring from Paris?
Russian soldiers returned from Paris with a whole baggage of borrowed traditions and habits. In Russia, it has become fashionable to drink coffee, which was once brought by the reformer Tsar Peter I along with other colonial goods. For a long time, the aromatic drink remained unrecognized among the boyars and nobles, but after seeing enough of the sophisticated French who started their day with a cup of invigorating drink, Russians officers found the tradition extremely elegant and fashionable. From that moment on, drinking the drink in Russia began to be considered one of the signs of good manners.
The tradition of removing an empty bottle from the table also came from Paris in 1814. Only this was done not because of superstition, but because of banal economy. In those days, Parisian waiters did not take into account the number of bottles given to the client. It is much easier to issue a bill - to count the empty containers left on the table after the meal. One of the Cossacks realized that they could save money by hiding some of the bottles. From there it went - “if you leave an empty bottle on the table, there will be no money.”
Some lucky soldiers managed to get French wives in Paris, who in Russia were first called “French”, and then the nickname turned into the surname “French”.
The Russian emperor also did not waste time in the pearl of Europe. In 1814, he was presented with a French album containing drawings of various designs in the new Empire style. The emperor liked the solemn classicism, and he invited some French architects to his homeland, including Montferrand, the future author of St. Isaac's Cathedral.
Elena Pankratova, Tatyana Shingurova
Kivshenko A.D. Entry of Russian troops into Paris. XIX century
1814 On March 31 (March 19, old style), the Russian army led by Emperor Alexander I triumphantly entered the capital of France, Paris.
After the defeat near Leipzig in October 1813, Napoleon's army could no longer offer serious resistance to the troops of the 6th coalition. The coalition by this time included Russia, Prussia, England, Austria, Sweden, Württemberg and Bavaria. From the beginning of 1814, fighting took place on French territory. On January 12, 1814, the Russian Guard, led by Alexander I, entered France from Switzerland, in the Basel region; other Allied corps crossed the Rhine earlier, on the 20th of December 1813. By January 26, the allied corps, bypassing the fortresses, gathered in the province of Champagne between the right tributaries of the Seine, the Marne and the Aube, about 200 kilometers east of Paris. Napoleon could field about 70 thousand soldiers against the 200 thousand allied army. Covering first one direction and then the other, he tried as best he could to delay the advance of the allies. Due to the need to stay in winter quarters, protect communications and blockade French fortresses, the coalition was forced to disperse its forces so that their superiority directly on the battlefield was not so overwhelming, which made it possible for Napoleon to concentrate his relatively small forces against individual parts of the allied armies and with successfully fight them. True, Napoleon lost the best, battle-hardened part of his army in Russia, and the recruits were not yet properly trained and prepared, but Napoleon was helped by the fact that there were disagreements in the Allied camp: Austria was not interested in further battles and the advancement of the Allied troops. It was more profitable for her to maintain the balance of power in Europe and not allow one of the countries to become too strong. However, Prussia and Russia aimed at Paris. Therefore, the main force in the battles were the armies of these powers, and the Austrian army of Schwarzenberg, although called the Main Army, had an auxiliary role.Napoleon decided to strike at the formations of Blucher's Silesian army. On January 29, the battle of Brienne took place, in which both sides lost approximately 3 thousand people. Blucher had to retreat several kilometers, after which he united with Schwarzenberg’s troops, thus gathering up to 110 thousand people under his command. The allied army goes on the offensive. On February 1, at the Battle of La Rotière, the French were pushed back from their positions with approximately equal losses on both sides. In February, the camp of the 6th coalition decided to attack Paris separately.
The army under Schwarzenberg advanced towards Napoleon's main forces, while Blücher's Silesian army advanced further north and had to face the weaker formations of Marmont and MacDonald. The French again managed to inflict several sensitive blows on Blucher. Due to the slow actions of Schwarzenberg, the Silesian army did not receive support on time and suffered a number of serious defeats from the French in the period from February 10 to 14 (the so-called “Six Day War”) - at Champaubert, Montmiral, Chateau-Thierry and Vauchamps.
On February 17, the Allies offered Napoleon peace on the terms of the French borders at the beginning of the French Revolution, which he refused. Napoleon's goal was to maintain the borders of the empire along the Rhine and the Alps.
Schwarzenberg continued his slow offensive, his corps stretched over a long distance, which made it possible for Napoleon, who transferred his army to this direction, to inflict a series of defeats separate parts Main army. On February 17, the Russian vanguard of Palen was defeated, then the Bavarian division. On February 18, in the battle of Montreux, the Württemberg corps with two Austrian divisions found itself pressed against the Seine by a French army twice as strong, but the allies managed to cross to the other bank with heavy losses. Schwarzenberg withdrew to Troyes, where he linked up with Blücher's Silesian Army, and then to the initial offensive position.
Napoleon did not dare to attack the combined forces of the Allies, which were more than 2 times larger than all the troops at his disposal. However, Schwarzenberg, after a series of defeats, continued to retreat. Dissatisfied with this, Blucher turned to the Russian Tsar and the Prussian King, receiving permission from them to act independently. Now the main army was Blucher's army. To strengthen its units, the Russian corps of Wintzingerode and the Prussian corps of Bülow from Bernadotte's Northern Army were sent.
On February 24, Blucher moved northwest, towards Paris, to meet reinforcements. Napoleon, having learned about Blucher's separation, decided to organize his pursuit as the most dangerous and active enemy. Convinced of Schwarzenberg's passivity, Napoleon left against him near Bar-sur-Aube and Bar-sur-Seine the small troops of Marshals Oudinot, MacDonald and General Gerard, a total of 30 thousand soldiers, and on February 27, with about 40 thousand soldiers, he secretly moved from Troyes to rear to Blucher.
In mind big threat Blucher's army, the monarchs of the coalition forced Schwarzenberg to go on the offensive.. The Russian corps under the command of Wittgenstein, with the support of Wrede's Austro-Bavarian corps, pushed back Marshal Oudinot's troops across the Aube River (the right tributary of the Seine) in the area of the town of Bar-sur-Aube on February 27. On March 5, the Allies Once again occupied Troyes, but here Schwarzenberg stopped his advance, following the order of the Austrian government not to move far beyond the Seine. The main battles took place to the northwest, across the Marne River, between the armies of Napoleon and Blucher. In terms of the number of troops, Napoleon was half as large as his allies, but thanks to their disunity and his talent as a commander, he skillfully restrained the advances of both parts of the coalition. However, by the beginning of March the Allies were already less than a hundred kilometers from Paris. Napoleon tried to break through to the north in order to replenish his army from the garrisons located there. On the Kraon Heights, he inflicted a strong defeat on two Russian divisions - Vorontsov and Stroganov. Luckily for Bonaparte, Blücher's illness knocked him down and the Silesian army lost the initiative. On March 13, Napoleon defeated the 14,000-strong Russian-Prussian corps of Count Saint-Prix near Reims and occupied the city. But it was very difficult to fight with two armies. Napoleon rushes towards Schwarzenberg's army marching towards Paris, but at the same time he has to ignore Blucher's army. Napoleon chose the following strategy: set up barriers against the allies, and himself go between the armies of Blucher and Schwarzenberg to the northeastern fortresses, where he could, by releasing and annexing the garrisons, significantly strengthen his army. He would then be able to force the Allies to retreat by threatening their rear communications. Napoleon relied on the slowness of the allied armies and their fear of the army of the French emperor in their rear. Paris was left to the defense mainly of its inhabitants and the National Guard. On March 21, the battle of Arcy-sur-Aube took place, Napoleon's troops were thrown back across the Au River and retreated, as he had intended, slowing down the advance of the Austrian army. On March 25, both Allied armies marched on Paris. The coalition used a diversionary maneuver by sending a 10,000-strong cavalry corps against Napoleon under the command of the Russian general Wintzingerode. This corps was defeated, but it completed its mission, taking the blow upon itself. Meanwhile, the allied army defeats the French at Fer-Champenoise, causing big damage National Guard detachment.
On March 29, the allied armies (about 100 thousand soldiers, of which 63 thousand were Russian) approached the front line of defense of Paris. The French had approximately 22-26 thousand regular troops, 6-12 thousand National Guard militia and about 150 guns.
Map of the Battle of Paris
Paris at that time had 500 thousand inhabitants and was well fortified. The defense of Paris was led by Marshals Mortier, Moncey and Marmont. The supreme commander of the defense of Paris was Napoleon's brother, Joseph. Approximately 40 thousand soldiers were concentrated under their command. The allies had an army of about 100 thousand under their command, of which 63 thousand were Russian. The troops approached Paris from the northeast in three main columns: the right (Russian-Prussian) army was led by Field Marshal Blücher, the central one was led by Russian General Barclay de Tolly. The left column under the command of the Crown Prince of Württemberg moved along the right bank of the Seine. The Battle of Paris became one of the bloodiest for the Allies in the 1814 campaign, losing more than 8 thousand soldiers (of which more than 6 thousand Russians) in one day of fighting.
On March 30, at 6 am, the attack on Paris began. The Russian 2nd Infantry Corps of Prince Eugene of Württemberg attacked the village of Panten, and the corps of General Raevsky with the 1st Infantry Corps and Palen's cavalry stormed the heights of Romainville. The French launched a strong counterattack on Pantin, and Eugene of Württemberg requested reinforcements. Barclay de Tolly sent two divisions of the 3rd Grenadier Corps to help him, which helped turn the tide of the battle. The French retreated from Pantin and Romainville to the village of Belleville, where they could count on artillery support. Barclay de Tolly suspended his advance, awaiting the entry of the belated Silesian army and the troops of the Crown Prince of Württemberg.
At 11 a.m., Blücher attacked the left flank of the French defense. The Prussian corps of York and Kleist with Vorontsov’s corps approached the fortified village of Lavilette, and Langeron’s Russian corps began an attack on Montmartre. Seeing the gigantic size of the advancing troops from Montmartre, the commander of the French defense, Joseph Bonaparte, left the battlefield, leaving Marmont and Mortier with the authority to surrender Paris.
Medal "For the Capture of Paris"
At 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the column of the Crown Prince of Württemberg crossed the Marne and attacked the extreme right flank of the French defense from the east, passing through the Bois de Vincennes and capturing the village of Charenton. Barclay resumed his attack in the center, and Belleville soon fell. Blucher's Prussians drove the French out of Lavillette. In all directions, the Allies reached directly to the neighborhoods of Paris. They installed guns at all heights, pointing them at Paris. During March 30, all the suburbs of Paris were occupied by the Allies. Seeing that the fall of the city was inevitable and trying to reduce losses, Marshal Marmont sent an envoy to the Russian emperor. Alexander delivered a strict ultimatum to surrender the city under the threat of its destruction.
On March 31 at 2 a.m. the surrender of Paris was signed. By 7 o'clock in the morning, according to the terms of the agreement, the French regular army had to leave Paris. At noon on March 31, the Russian and Prussian guards, led by Emperor Alexander I, entered the capital of France.
History in faces
K. N. Batyushkov, from a letter to N. I. Gnedich.Things started in the morning. Our army occupied Romainville, which Delisle seems to mention, and Montreuil, a beautiful village, within sight of the capital itself. From the heights of Mont Trell I saw Paris covered in thick fog, an endless row of buildings dominated by Notre-Dame with its tall towers. I admit, my heart trembled with joy! So many memories! Here is the gate of the Throne, to the left is Vincennes, there are the heights of Montmartre, where the movement of our troops is directed. But the gunfire became stronger and stronger hour by hour. We advanced with great loss through Bagnolet to Belleville, a suburb of Paris. All the heights are occupied by artillery; another minute, and Paris will be bombarded with cannonballs. Do you want this? - The French sent an officer to negotiate, and the guns fell silent. Wounded Russian officers passed by us and congratulated us on our victory. “Thank God! We saw Paris with a sword in our hands! We celebrated for Moscow!” the soldiers repeated, bandaging their wounds.
We left the height of L "Epine; the sun was setting on the other side of Paris; the cheers of the victors were heard all around and on the right side there were several cannon shots, which fell silent after a few minutes. We took another look at the capital of France, passing through Montreuil, and returned to Noisy to rest, but not on roses: the village was ruined.
The next morning the general went to the sovereign in Bondy. There we found the embassy de la bonne ville de Paris, followed by the magnificent Duke of Vécensky. The negotiations ended, and the sovereign, the King of Prussia, Schwarzenberg, Barclay with a large retinue galloped to Paris. There were guards on both sides of the road. “Hurray” thundered from all sides. The feeling with which the winners entered Paris is inexplicable. Finally we are in Paris. Now imagine a sea of people on the streets. Windows, fences, roofs, trees of the boulevard, everything, everything is covered with people of both sexes. Everyone is waving their arms, nodding their heads, everyone is in convulsions, everyone is shouting: “Vive Alexandre, vivent les Russes! Vive Guillaume, vive 1 "empereur d" Autriche! Vive Louis, vive le roi, vive la paix!”<…>The Emperor, among waves of people, stopped at the Champs Elysees. Troops marched past him in perfect order. The people were in admiration, and my Cossack, nodding his head, said to me: “Your honor, they have gone crazy.” "For a long time!" - I answered, dying of laughter. But the noise made me dizzy. I got off the horse, and people surrounded both me and the horse and began to look at both me and the horse. Among the people there were decent people, and beautiful women who randomly asked me strange questions: why do I have blond hair, why is it long? “In Paris they wear them shorter. Artist Dulong will cut your hair in fashion.” “And so good,” the women said. “Look, he has a ring on his hand. Apparently, they wear rings in Russia too. The uniform is very simple"
Quoted from: Batyushkov K.N. Essays. Moscow, Fiction, 1989. vol.2
The French capital was expecting an invasion of “northern monsters”, but saw disciplined and generous - real - winners
On March 31, 1814, the Union forces led by Russian Emperor Alexander I entered Paris. It was a huge, motley, multi-colored army that united representatives of all countries of the Old World. The Parisians looked at them with fear and doubt. As eyewitnesses of those events recalled, most of all in Paris they were afraid of the Prussians and, of course, the Russians. There were legends about the latter: to many they seemed like snarling beast-like monsters, either with clubs or with pitchforks at the ready. In fact, the Parisians saw tall, fit, neat soldiers, indistinguishable in their European appearance from the indigenous population of France (only the Cossacks and Asian units stood out with a special flavor). The Russian officer corps spoke flawless French and instantly - in every sense - found mutual language with the vanquished.
...The Russians left Paris in June 1814 - exactly two hundred years ago, following the main regular units withdrawn back in May, the guard left the city. Russians in Paris are one of the greatest triumphs of Russian history, a glorious period that in the world and even our historiography is not quite rightly overshadowed by the events of 1812. Let us remember what it was.
Two hundred years ago
Let's start with the fact that the participants in the anti-Napoleonic campaign did not divide the events of those years into the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Foreign Campaign of the Russian Army of 1813-1814. They called this confrontation the Great Patriotic War and dated 1812-1814. Therefore, it is appropriate to talk about the year 1814 as the time when Russia emerged from the war with Napoleon, in contrast to the Anglo-Austrian and other allies, who still had fun in the format of restoring Bonaparte to the throne during the Hundred Days and by a miracle, only a miracle won the battle of Waterloo. (True, according to the 2nd Treaty of Paris, signed after Waterloo in 1815, a 30,000-strong occupation corps under General VORONTSOV was introduced into France, but that’s a completely different story.)
At the time the allied armies entered the capital of France, their ruler was no longer with the Parisians - Emperor Napoleon with an army of sixty thousand was in Fontainebleau, a castle 60 km from the French capital. A few days later, on April 6, he ceased to be an emperor: with one stroke of the pen in the act of abdication, he made himself simply General Bonaparte... For many this was a shock: “He abdicated the throne. This can bring tears of molten metal from Satan’s eyes!” - wrote the great BYRON.
To the great surprise of Alexander I the Liberator, the French did not at all dream of being “liberated” from the power of Napoleon. Both before and after the occupation of Paris by the allies, French peasants united into partisan detachments and, with the support of the remnants of the regular French army and the national guard, periodically attacked the rear of the allied coalition. However, the degree of this movement was significantly reduced by the vile behavior of other close associates of Napoleon (such as Marshal MARMON, who betrayed the head of state and earned many millions in one day due to a huge jump in the shares of the French Bank on the stock exchange after the abdication of the emperor). It brought down pro-Napoleonic sentiments in society and more than decent behavior Russian troops in Paris. There was no talk of “I give you three days to plunder the city”! Of course, there were individual incidents, but they did not turn into a system: for example, once the French city authorities complained about a number of relevant episodes to the Russian military governor, General Fabian Osten-Sacken, and he nipped the already few outrages in the bud. It’s funny that when the Russians finally abandoned Paris, the general was presented with a golden sword, strewn with diamonds, on which was honorably emblazoned the inscription: “The city of Paris - to General Saken.” The definition formulating the grounds for such an award stated: “He established peace and security in Paris; thanks to his vigilance, the inhabitants could indulge in their ordinary activities and considered themselves not in a martial situation, but enjoyed all the benefits and guarantees of peacetime.” All this is extremely far from the horrors that were pictured in the heads of Parisians as the Allied armies approached the capital.
In the fallen French capital, the “king of kings” Alexander, Emperor of All Russia, behaved mercifully. Although the participants in the capture of Moscow in 1812, who saw with their own eyes how other soldiers and officers of the “Great Army” behaved in the capital, had suspicions that the Russian autocrat would lift all bans. He will, so to speak, show Kuzkin’s mother to the French: well, for example, he will set fire to the Louvre, set up a stable or latrine in Notre-Dame de Paris, demolish the Vendôme Column or abolish the Order of the Legion of Honor (he was, by the way, directly called upon to do the last two points royalists - supporters of the overthrown Bourbon dynasty). Nothing happened. Alexander turned out to be, to use the now popular vocabulary, a polite and tolerant person. Often, without security, he went for a walk in the center of Paris, talked with ordinary people, which greatly endeared them to him. Alexander was respected even more after he ordered the restoration of green spaces on Champs Elysees, accidentally destroyed by units of the Russian army stationed here.
Actually, Paris did not live in wartime mode, under a curfew for almost a day: by the beginning of April, banks, post offices, and all public places were operational, it was possible to safely leave the city, it was possible to enter the city calmly and safely. The overall smooth picture was spoiled by the Prussians: they plundered wine cellars in one of the Parisian suburbs and got drunk. Such things did not happen in the Russian army, and the “polite” soldiers complained in a low voice about the overly strict discipline that prevented them from enjoying all the benefits of the “tour of Europe”: they say, in Moscow the “paddling pools” were not very moral...
Information wars XIX century
As is known, the presence of Russian troops in Paris enriched both Russian and French culture, including household ones. Off the top of my head, “bistro” immediately comes to mind. Speaking of cuisine: there are household habits that are considered purely Russian, but in fact are of Parisian origin. We are talking, for example, about the sign not to put empty bottles on the table - “there will be no money.” The point is this: waiters in French drinking establishments did not take into account the number of bottles given to customers (yes, the soldiers also paid!), but simply counted the empty containers on the table. The savvy Cossacks noted this method of calculation and moved some of the bottles under the table. Certain savings were indeed evident.
As soon as we are talking about the Cossacks, it is impossible not to mention them in more detail (although in the ranks of the Russian army there were also more exotic ingredients, for example, Kalmyks on camels, at one glance at which - both Kalmyks and camels - sensitive Parisian women fainted, sir ). The Cossacks created a real sensation: they swam in the Seine completely without uniform, bathed and watered their horses there. Remember how in famous song about the Cossacks in Berlin 1945: “The horseman sings: “Oh, guys, this is not the first time // We have to water the Cossack horses // From a foreign river...” Despite the lack of particular delicacy, the Cossacks left a good memory of themselves. Parisian boys ran in droves after the “conquerors” and begged for souvenirs.
The Cossacks were the main attraction of Paris for two months. On the eve of the capture of Paris, popular horror cartoons were posted all over the city: Cossacks were depicted as monstrous creatures in furry hats, they were hung with nightmarish necklaces made of human ears. Drunken scoundrels burned houses, and having done their dirty deed, fell into a puddle in bestial unconsciousness, et cetera.
Real Cossacks were strikingly different from the caricatures. Although initially they were afraid: the bearded men made fires on the banks of the Seine and fried meat, and who knows whose meat was browned on the fire?.. So, the wife of the Napoleonic general Andoche JUNOT cited the following episode in her memoirs: the famous Cossack ataman Matvey PLATOV took a girl in his arms one and a half years old, and her mother immediately began to scream and threw herself at his feet. For a long time, General Platov could not understand what the distraught woman was shouting at him, and only a little later he understood that she was asking him “not to eat her daughter” (!).
On the one hand, this is comical, on the other - sad (especially considering that our people in Paris never allowed themselves such things as the allies in the 6th anti-Napoleonic coalition). And yet the ridiculous, stilted horror stories about Russians have survived centuries and migrated to our time...
Nevertheless, the stay of the Russians in Paris was overgrown with legends of a much more grateful kind, and the capture of the French capital finally secured Russia’s status as a superpower. The concept of “Russians in Paris” acquired an archetypal sound, and other historical jokes, such as the famous imperial one, were based on it: for example, in 1844 in Paris they were preparing to stage the openly anti-Russian play “Paul I”, and Nicholas I, the son of the “chief”, learned about it hero" of the play, sent a letter to Paris. In it, he indicated that if the play was nevertheless made public, he would send to the French capital “a million spectators in gray overcoats who would boo this performance”...
Textbook behavior
After the final withdrawal of Russian troops from Paris, ours were still destined to return to France. True, for this, Napoleon needed to triumphantly regain power and draw upon himself the fire of all of Europe, which was offended in the best feelings. (To get a feel for the dynamics of this truly greatest comeback, here are the headlines that appeared in the same French media as Napoleon approached Paris: “The Corsican monster landed in Juan Bay” (near Cannes on the Mediterranean coast of France. - Author); “ The cannibal is approaching Grasse”; “The usurper has entered Grenoble”; “Bonaparte has occupied Lyon”; “Napoleon is approaching Fontainebleau”, and finally the final and magnificent - “His Imperial Majesty is expected today in his faithful Paris.”)
What happened next is known to everyone. Napoleon lost Waterloo and the Allied troops were once again stationed in France. It should be noted that both the first and second “occupation” of France bore little resemblance to the seizure of the country by the Nazis in 1940 and the next four years: in 1814 and 1815, all local civil power belonged to the French themselves, the allies tried not to interfere in internal affairs of the country, and it was the Russians who behaved more tolerantly than others. A remarkable fact: the municipalities of French cities intended to accommodate foreign troops remembered the behavior of the Russians in Paris in 1814 and asked that they accommodate not “civilized” Englishmen and “disciplined” Germans (the latter, by the way, especially distinguished themselves in robberies , as subsequently their great-great-great-grandchildren in the 20th century), namely the Russian regiments.
P.S. Of course, our fellow countrymen also visited the banks of the Seine back then! Since childhood, each of us has heard about the Saratov resident who entered defeated Paris in 1814 - even those who have little idea of the details of that operation, as well as the geography of those who took part in the capture of the French capital. “Tell me, uncle, it’s not without reason...” Aha, the same one! We are, of course, talking about Afanasy STOLYPIN, the provincial leader of the Saratov nobility and LERMONTOV’s granduncle. He entered Paris with the rank of staff captain, and in 1817 he retired from the army so that, at the behest of his brilliant nephew, he could be included in all the anthologies...