Russia Against Napoleon (95 page)

29 See the comments by Konovnitsyn and General Kreutz (who commanded some of the rearguard’s cavalry) in Kharkevich (ed.), 1812
god
, vol. 2, pp. 70–72, 124–5; also Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky’s reminiscences about Konovnitsyn in Tartakovskii (ed.),
Voennye dnevniki
, pp. 313–16. Bogdanovich,
Istoriia
…1812, vol. 2, pp. 129–36.

30 Ivan Radozhitskii,
Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s
1812
po
1816
god
, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 1, pp. 131–2.

31 For the record of this committee, see
Kutuzov
, vol. 4i, no. 82, pp. 71–3. For the issues behind the choice, see A. G. Tartakovskii,
Nerazgadannyi Barklai
, Moscow, 1996, pp. 130–37. A. A. Podmazo, ‘K voprosu o edinom glavnokomanduiushchem v 1812 godu’, in
Otechestvennaia voina
1812
goda: Istochniki, pamiatniki, problemy. Materialy X vserossiiskoi nauchnoi konferentsii. Borodino,
3–5
sentiabria
2001
g.
, Moscow, 2002, pp. 140–46.

32
Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina
, 19 Aug. 1812 (OS), p. 59.
Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre
, nos. 70 and 73, Alexander to Catherine, 8 Aug. and 18 Sept. (OS), pp. 81–2, 86–93.

33 The literature on Kutuzov is immense. Probably the best summary is by N. A. Troitskii,
Fel’dmarshal Kutuzov: Mify i fakty
, Moscow, 2002.

34 On relations among the leading generals, see above all V. Bezotosnyi, ‘Bor’ba general’skikh gruppirovok’, in
Epokha
1812
goda: issledovaniia, istochniki, istoriografiia
, TGIM, Moscow, 2002, vol. 1, but also Lidiia Ivchenko,
Borodino: Legenda i deistvitel’nost’
, Moscow, 2002, pp. 6–18.

35 In addition to the sources listed in the previous note, see
Mémoires du Général Bennigsen
, 3 vols., Paris, n.d., vol. 3, pp. 77–84. On one dispute, concerning the design of the Raevsky Battery, see I. P. Liprandi,
Materialy dlia otechestvennoi voiny
1812
goda: Sobranie statei
, SPB, 1867, 176–8.

36 Clausewitz,
Campaign
, p. 148.

37 The secondary literature on Borodino is vast: English-language readers should start with A. Mikaberidze,
The Battle of Borodino
, Barnsley, 2007, which provides a clear and fair interpretation, above all from the Russian perspective. Duffy,
Borodino
, remains a good, brief introduction. As almost always, the place to start in the case of Russian-language work is the entry in
Entsiklopediia
(in this case ‘Borodinskoe srazhenie’, pp. 80–92), which gives a good summary of the best contemporary Russian interpretation of the battle. The Russian literature on military operations in 1812 is immense, detailed and often very good. An example of this is the three long articles which A. A. Smirnov devotes to the battle at Shevardino on 5 September: these cover tsarist, Soviet and post-Soviet historiography respectively. See
Epokha
1812
goda: Issledovaniia, istochniki, istoriografiia
, TGIM, Moscow, vol. 3, 2004, pp. 320–51; vol. 4, 2005, pp. 239–71; vol. 5, 2006, pp. 353–68: ‘Chto zhe takoi Shevardinskii redut?’

38 There is a good description of this deployment and its implications in the memoirs of a young staff officer in Fifth Corps, Nikolai Muravev: see ‘Zapiski Nikolaia Nikolaevicha Murav’eva’,
RA
, 3, 1885, pp. 225–62, at p. 250. For a discussion of casualties caused by artillery fire, see: A. A. Smirnov, ‘Somnitel’nye vystrely’, in
Problemy izucheniia istorii otechestvennoi voiny
1812
goda
, Saratov, 2002, pp. 150–4.

39 Mark Adkin,
The Waterloo Companion
, London, 2001, pp. 120–21, 284–301.

40 The distances are from
Entsiklopediia
, pp. 80–83. Barclay’s report to Kutuzov is in Valkovich and Kapitonov (eds.),
Borodino: Dokumental’naia khronika
, no. 331, 26 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 249–51. In his excellent book
Tactics and the Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon
, London, 1998, Rory Muir states on p. 15 that the Russians had 36,000 men per mile in comparison to 24,000 in Wellington’s army. These calculations are always difficult to make but I suspect that if one looked at where the Russian army actually fought rather than where it was initially deployed the figure would be even higher.

41 For example, Barclay through Löwenstern urged the commander of the Guards cavalry to try to keep his men, the army’s ultimate elite reserve, under cover. General Shevich responded that there was no cover to be found. Löwenstern,
Mémoires
, vol. 1, p. 264. Grabbe, for example, writes that Ermolov told him to order the troops covering the Raevsky Redoubt to lie down in order to reduce the impact of artillery fire but that they refused to do so: P. Grabbe,
Iz pamiatnykh zapisok: Otechestvennaia voina
, Moscow, 1873, p. 77.

42 The best description from the Russian viewpoint is the official history of the Russian corps of military engineers in this period: Fabritsius,
Glavnoe inzhenernoe upravlenie
, pp. 760–65, covers Borodino but needs to be read in the context of other sections on sieges in 1812 and on the structure and tasks of the corps of military engineers at that time. Bogdanovich has a sensible description of the fortifications, which he describes as ‘very weak’ in
Istoriia
…1812, vol. 2, pp. 142–3. Inevitably the English-language secondary literature usually just repeats established myths of French origin. Thus the recently published
Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age
, London, 2008 (edited by Robert Bruce
et al
.), writes of ‘the daunting defences of the…massive Russian redoubt’: p. 113.

43 Bogdanov’s memoirs are reproduced in
Borodino v vospominaniiakh sovremennikov
, SPB, 2001, pp. 169–71.

44 Fabritsius,
Glavnoe inzhenernoe upravlenie
, pp. 762–4. Clausewitz,
Campaign
, p. 151.

45 Liprandi,
Materialy
, pp. 177–80.

46 Mikaberidze,
Borodino
, pp. 75–6, handles these issues well. Even young (and at this point retired) Lieutenant Glinka records seeing from Borodino bell-tower how Napoleon’s troops massed on the left towards the evening of 6 September and recalls ‘the general opinion’ of Russian officers he met that day that Napoleon would attack the Russian left:
Pis’ma
, pp. 18, 299.

47 Löwenstern,
Mémoires
, vol. 1, pp. 261–2.

48 Mikaberidze,
Borodino
, pp. 49–53, discusses numbers and provides a table showing the many differing estimates by historians and contemporaries.

49 On Miloradovich’s reinforcements, see his report to Alexander of 18 Aug. 1812 (OS), in Valkovich and Kapitonov (eds.),
Borodino: Dokumental’naia khronika
, pp. 21–2.

50 Philippe de Ségur,
History of the Expedition to Russia, 1812
, 2 vols., Stroud, 2005, vol. 1, p. 255.

51
Correspondance de Napoléon Ier
, vol. 24, no. 19182, p. 207.

52 Ségur,
History
, vol. 1, pp. 251–2. On this occasion General Gourgaud,
Napoléon et la Grande Armée en Russie ou Examen critique de l’ouvrage de M. le Comte de Ségur,
Paris, 1826, pp. 213–15, is wholly correct in his defence of Napoleon’s decision.

53 The official report of the regiment’s commander, Karl Bistrom, rather confuses the reader by its details, as does the regiment’s official history: Valkovich and Kapitonov (eds.),
Borodino: Dokumental’naia khronika
, no. 293, Bistrom to Lavrov, 31 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 168–70;
Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka za sto let 1796–1896
, SPB, 1896, pp. 84–6. On Barclay, see Grabbe, Iz pamiatnykh, p. 74. For rumours, see e.g. Tartakovskii (ed.),
Voennye dnevniki
, p. 107, diary of Ivan Durnovo.

54 Complete casualty figures for other ranks are provided in the
prilozhenie
(appendix) 4 of Valkovich and Kapitonov (eds.),
Borodino: Dokumental’naia khronika
, pp. 332–54. On the French artillery, see A. P. Larionov, ‘Izpol’zovanie artillerii v Borodinskom srazhenii’, in
K stopiatidesiatiletiiu otechestvennoi voiny
, Moscow, 1962, pp. 116–31 at p. 127.

55 Jomini,
Art of War
, pp. 202–3.

56 T. von Bernhardi,
Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben des kaiserlichen russischen Generals der Infanterie Carl Friedrich Grafen von Toll
, 5 vols., Leipzig, 1858, vol. 4, p. 74.

57 I. Ul’ianov,
1812: Russkaia pekhota v boiu
, Moscow, 2008, pp. 164–5.

58 On Kutaisov, see A. A. Smirnov,
General Aleksandr Kutaisov
, Moscow, 2002.

59 Thanks to their translator and editor, Alexander Mikaberidze, Ermolov’s memoirs are now available in English:
The Czar’s General
, Welwyn Garden City, 2007. His account of this episode is on pp. 159–61. Löwenstern’s account is in
Mémoires
, vol. 1, pp. 257–9.

60 On the deployment of artillery at Borodino, see Larionov, ‘Izpol’zovanie’,
passim
. P. Pototskii,
Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii
, SPB, 1896, pp. 181–2, explains these failings by Kutaisov’s death. For Liprandi’s views, see Kharkevich (ed.),
1812 god
, vol. 2, ‘Zamechaniia I. P. Liprandi’, pp. 28–9.

61 For Paskevich’s account, see I. F. Paskevich, ‘Pokhodnyia zapiski’, in
1812 god v vospominaniiakh sovremennikov
, Moscow, 1995, pp. 72–105, at pp. 102–3.

62 Pototskii,
Istoriia
, p. 178, for Norov’s comment. Kharkevich (ed.),
1812 god
, vol. 2, pp. 176–84, for the excellent memoirs of Lieutenant-Colonel Vasilii Timofeev of the Izmailovskys. For the Finland Regiment, see S. Gulevich,
Istoriia leib gvardii Finliandskago polka 1806–1906
, SPB, 1906, pp. 204–20. For the Lithuania Regiment, see N. S. Pestreikov,
Istoriia leib-gvardii Moskovskago polka
, SPB, 1903, vol. 1, pp. 59–83.

63 Eugen,
Memoiren
, vol. 2, pp. 110–11; Bogdanovich,
Istoriia…1812 goda
, vol. 2, pp. 219, 226.

64 Together the Preobrazhenskys and Semenovskys lost fewer than 300 men on 7 Sept.: Valkovich and Kapitonov (eds.),
Borodino: Dokumental’naia khronika
, p. 342.

65 D. Chandler,
The Campaigns of Napoleon
, London, 1993, p. 807, writes that Napoleon’s decision was probably correct.

66 The most recent analysis of the second attack on the redoubt is by V. N. Zentsov, ‘Borodinskoe srazhenie: Padenie “bol’shogo reduta”’, in
Borodinskoe pole: Istoriia, kul’tura, ekologiia
, Moscow, 2000, pp. 31–55.

67 ‘Zhurnal uchastnika voiny 1812 goda’,
VIS
, 3/2, 1913, pp. 163–4.

68 Radozhitskii,
Pokhodnyia zapiski
, vol. 1, p. 168.

69 Valkovich and Kapitonov (eds.),
Borodino: Dokumental’naia khronika
, pp. 332–5. Mikaberidze,
Borodino
, p. 209.

70 V. M. Bezotosnyi,
Donskoi generalitet i ataman Platov v 1812 godu
, Moscow, 1999, pp. 33–4, 62–4, 75–83. The memoirs of Fedor Akinfov, Miloradovich’s aide-de-camp, are very useful for this period: ‘Iz vospominanii Akinfova’, in Kharkevich (ed.),
1812 god
, vol. 2, pp. 205–12.

71 Countess Edling’s memoirs in A. Libermann (ed.),
Derzhavnyi sfinks
, Moscow, 1999, p. 177, for Kutuzov’s words to Alexander.
Kutuzov
, vol. 4i, no. 105, Kutuzov to Rostopchin, 17 August 1812 (OS), pp. 90–91.

72 As usual, the best summary account of the council of war is in
Entsiklopediia
, pp. 666–7. Mikaberidze’s translation of Ermolov’s memoirs gives a strong sense of the game played between him and Kutuzov over responsibility for Moscow’s abandonment:
The Czar’s General
, pp. 168–72. Bennigsen’s letter to Alexander of 19 Jan. 1813 (OS) in
VS
, 1, 1903, pp. 235–8, puts his side of the argument.