Notes

Abbreviations

AGM	Arkhiv grafov Mordvinovykh
BL	British Library
Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre	Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre Ier avec sa sœur la Grande Duchesse Cathérine 1805–1818, ed. Grand Duke Nicholas, SPB, 1910
Entsiklopediia	V. Bezotosnyi et al. (eds.), Otechestvennaia voina 1812 goda: Entsiklopediia, Moscow, 2004
Eugen, Memoiren	Memoiren des Herzogs Eugen von Württemberg, 3 vols., Frankfurt an der Oder, 1862
IV	Istoricheskii vestnik
Kutuzov	L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), M. I. Kutuzov: Sbornik dokumentov, Moscow, 1954, vols. 4i, 4ii, 5
MVUA	Materialy voenno-uchenago arkhiva (1812, 1813)
PSZ	Polnoe Sobranie Zakonov Rossiiskoi Imperii
RA	Russkii arkhiv
RD	Relations diplomatiques
RGVIA	Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voenno-istoricheskii arkhiv
RS	Russkaia Starina
SIM	Sbornik istoricheskikh materialov izvlechennykh iz arkhiva S.E.I.V. kantseliarii
SIRIO	Sbornik imperatorskago russkago istoricheskago obshchestva
SPB	St Petersburg
SVM	Stoletie voennago ministerstva
TGIM	Trudy gosudarstvennogo istoricheskogo muzeia
VIS	Voenno-istoricheskii sbornik
VPR	Vneshniaia politika Rossii
VS	Voennyi sbornik

Chapter 1: Introduction

1 Much of this introduction is drawn from my article, ‘Russia and the Defeat of Napoleon’, Kritika, 7/2, 2006, pp. 283–308. That article includes comprehensive footnotes, and interested readers should consult it as regards references to most of the secondary literature. This introductory chapter also skims across many topics covered in more detail later in the book, at which point I will make the necessary citations to literature in the notes.

2 For the key works in English on and around this subject, see Additional Reading.

3 The one exception is Christopher Duffy: see his Austerlitz, London, 1999, and Borodino and the War of 1812, London, 1999: both of these are reprints by Cassell of books published some years previously. Both books are brief and were written when Russian archives were shut to foreigners. Duffy’s main works on Russia cover an earlier period.

4 Of course by this I mean the primary sources: there is much splendid French secondary literature on the Napoleonic era. See my article in Kritika, n. 14.

5 Memoiren des Herzogs Eugen von Württemberg, 3 vols., Frankfurt an der Oder, 1862.

6 For example, the memoirs of Friedrich von Schubert, the chief of staff of Baron Korff’s cavalry corps: Unter dem Doppeladler, Stuttgart, 1962.

7 Carl von Clausewitz, The Campaign of 1812 in Russia, London, 1992.

8 Clausewitz’s judgements on the later stages of the campaign are more mellow: conceivably it helped that by then he was serving under Peter Wittgenstein, at whose headquarters all the key officers were German.

9 The first three volumes of Rudolph von Friederich (Die Befreiungskriege 1813–1815) cover the spring and autumn campaigns of 1813 and the campaign of 1814: Der Frühjahrsfeldzug 1813, Berlin, 1911; Der Herbstfeldzug 1813, Berlin, 1912; Der Feldzug1814, Berlin, 1913.

10 See the five volumes of Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs: Kriege unter der Regierung des Kaisers Franz. Befreiungskrieg 1813 und 1814, Vienna, 1913.

11 This is most true as regards Henry Kissinger, A World Restored, London, 1957.

12 See e.g. Anthony D. Smith, ‘War and Ethnicity: The Role of Warfare in the Formation, Self-Images, and Cohesion of Ethnic Communities’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 4/4, 1981, pp. 375–97.

13 Above all thanks to Peter Hofschroer’s two volumes: 1815: The Waterloo Campaign, London, 1998 and 1999.

14 The tart comment by F. Zatler in 1860 that logistics is the big weakness of military history still largely remains true: Zapiski o prodovol’stvii voisk v voennoe vremia, SPB, 1860, p. 95. The best published source on Russian logistics in 1812–14 remains the report submitted to Alexander I by Georg Kankrin and Mikhail Barclay de Tolly: Upravlenie General-Intendanta Kankrina: General’nyi sokrashchennyi otchet po armiiam…za pokhody protiv Frantsuzov, 1812, 1813 i 1814 godov, Warsaw, 1815. There is a useful candidate’s dissertation by Serge Gavrilov, Organizatsiia i snabzheniia russkoi armii nakanune i v khode otechestvennoi voiny 1812 g. i zagranichnykh pokhodov 1813–1815 gg.: Istoricheskie aspekty, SPB, 2003. On Napoleonic logistics, see Martin van Creveld,Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton, Cambridge, 1977, ch. 2.

15 There is an interesting recent work on the horse in war by Louis DiMarco, War Horse: A History of the Military Horse and Rider, Yardley, 2008.

16 On Wellington and the history of Waterloo, see Malcolm Balen, A Model Victory: Waterloo and the Battle for History, London, 1999, and Peter Hofschroer, Wellington’s Smallest Victory: The Duke, the Model-Maker and the Secret of Waterloo, London, 2004. Buturlin’s work was originally published in French in 1824: Histoire militaire de la campagne de Russie en 1812. Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky’s first published campaign history was on the 1814 campaign: Opisanie pokhoda vo Frantsii v 1814 godu, 2 vols., SPB, 1836. His history of 1812 was published in Petersburg in 1839 in four volumes: Opisanie otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda. The next year his two-volume history of the 1813 campaign was published: Opisanie voiny 1813 g.

17 On Russian historiography of the Napoleonic Wars, see I. A. Shtein, Voina 1812 goda v otechestvennoi istoriografii, Moscow, 2002, and the article by V. P. Totfalushin in Entsiklopediia, pp. 309–13.

18 B. F. Frolov, ‘Da byli liudi v nashe vremia’: Otechestvennaia voina 1812 goda i zagranichnye pokhody russkoi armii, Moscow, 2005.

19 See the discussion and bibliography in D. Lieven, Empire: The Russian Empire and its Rivals, London, 2001.

20 There are some parallels in Chinese and Turkish historiography concerning the Manchu and Ottoman empires.

21 Anyone touching this theme owes much to John Keegan, The Face of Battle, London, 1978, pp. 117–206. There were great similarities and relatively few differences between the values of the British officers he discusses and their Russian counterparts.

22 Pamfil Nazarov and Ivan Men’shii.

23 J. P. Riley, Napoleon and the World War of 1813, London, 2000, is an interesting and original study of world war in 1813 by a senior British officer. It is true that the Anglo-American war of 1812–14 was directly linked to the Napoleonic Wars though not part of them: see Jon Latimer, 1812: War with America, Cambridge, Mass., 2007.

Chapter 2: Russia as a Great Power

1 See the chapters by Paul Bushkovitch and Hugh Ragsdale in D. Lieven (ed.), The Cambridge History of Russia, Cambridge, 2006, vol. 2, pp. 489–529, for surveys of Russian foreign policy in the eighteenth century.

2 On Catherine and her reign, the bible is Isabel de Madariaga, Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great, London, 1981. On the ‘Greek project’, see Simon Sebag Montefiore’s splendid Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin, London, 2000, pp. 219–21, 241–3.

3 The fullest recent survey of eighteenth-century Ottoman developments is Suraiya Faroqhi (ed.), Turkey, vol. 3: The Later Ottoman Empire 1603–1839, Cambridge, 2003. On the Ottoman army, see Virginia Aksan, Ottoman Wars 1700–1870: An Empire Besieged, Harlow, 2007. I attempted Russo-Ottoman comparisons in D. Lieven, Empire: TheRussian Empire and its Rivals, London, 2001, ch. 4, pp. 128 ff.

4 There is a vast literature on the European Old Regime. For the long view of state formation in Europe, see Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital and European States: A.D. 990–1992, Oxford, 1990. Equally thought-provoking are Perry Anderson, Lineages of the AbsolutistState, London, 1974, and Brian Downing, The Military Revolution and Political Change, Princeton, 1992.

5 The best recent survey of the Russian peasantry is by David Moon, The Russian Peasantry, 1600–1930, London, 1999. On comparative European landholding by elites, see D. Lieven, Aristocracy in Europe 1815–1914, Basingstoke, 1992, chs. 1 and 2, pp. 1–73.

6 The exact figure is 7.3 per cent, and is derived from the nearly 500 generals included in Entsiklopediia. On education and Enlightenment in the Baltic provinces, see G. von Pistohlkors, Deutsche Geschichte in Osten Europas: Baltische Länder, Berlin, 1994, pp. 266–94.

7 The best source is the official history of Russian military engineering: I. G. Fabritsius, Glavnoe inzhenernoe upravlenie, SVM, 7, SPB, 1902. On doctors see: A. A. Baranov, ‘Meditsinskoe obespechenie armii v 1812 godu’, in Epokha 1812 goda: Issledovaniia, istochniki, istoriografiia, TGIM, vol. 1, Moscow, 2002, pp. 105–24.

8 D. G. Tselerungo, Ofitsery russkoi armii, uchastniki Borodinskogo srazheniia, Moscow, 2002, p. 81. The best source on the origins of the general staff is N. Glinoetskii, ‘Russkii general’nyi shtab v tsarstvovanie Imperatora Aleksandra I’, VS, 17/10, 1874, pp. 187–250. See also: P. A. Geisman, Vozniknovenie i razvitie v Rossii general’nago shtaba, SVM, 4/1/2/1, especially pp. 169 ff: ‘Svita Ego Imperatorskago Velichestva po kvartirmeisterskoi chasti’.

9 This is to borrow the term used by John Brewer in the context of eighteenth-century Britain.

10 The Russian statistics are inexact because the government only counted the number of subjects who owed compulsory military service. This did not include women, nobles, priests, merchants or all non-Russian minorities. For the basic statistics on European populations, see R. Bonney (ed.), Economic Systems and Finance, Oxford, 1995, pp. 315–19 and 360–76. For a more detailed breakdown of the European population in 1812, see the statistics compiled by Major Josef Paldus which are contained in the appendix to Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs: Kriege unter der Regierung des Kaisers Franz. Befreiungskrieg 1813 und 1814, vol. 1: O. Criste, Österreichs Beitritt zur Koalition, Vienna, 1913. All these statistics have to be watched carefully. For example Paldus’s figure for the Russian population is much too low, though it may well be that he is using estimates for ethnic Russians rather than for all subjects of the emperor. Bonney cites P. G. M. Dickson for the Habsburg figure (Finance and Government under Maria Theresa 1740– 1780, 2 vols., Oxford, 1987, vol. 1, p. 36), but Dickson does not include the population of the Habsburg Netherlands or Italy.

11 On Russian pay and rations, see F. P. Shelekhov, Glavnoe intendantskoe upravlenie: istoricheskii ocherk, SVM, 5, SPB, 1903, pp. 87, 92. On Wellington’s troops, see Matthew Morgan, Wellington’s Victories, London, 2004, pp. 33, 74.

12 E. K. Wirtschafter, From Serf to Russian Soldier, Princeton, 1990, ch. 4, pp. 74–95.

13 On Russian conscription, see Janet Hartley, Russia, 1762–1825: Military Power, London, 2008, ch. 2, pp. 25–47. On French conscription, see Isser Woloch, The New Regime: Transformations of the French Civil Order, 1789–1820s, London, 1994, ch. 13, pp. 380–426, and David Hopkin, Soldier and Peasant in French Popular Culture, Woodbridge, 2003, pp. 125–214. On the nation in arms, see MacGregor Knox, ‘Mass Politics and Nationalism as Military Revolution: The French Revolution and After’, in MacGregor Knox and Williamson Murray (eds.), The Dynamics of Military Revolution. 1300–2050, Cambridge, 2001, ch. 4, pp. 57–73.

14 ‘Zapiski I. V. Lopukhina’, RA, 3, 1914, pp. 318–56, at p. 345. On the militia and the debate that surrounded its mobilization, see V. V. Shchepetil’nikov, Komplektovanie voisk v tsarstvovanie imperatora Aleksandra I, SVM, 4/1/1/2, SPB, 1904, pp. 18–40, 69–72.

15 I. Merder, Istoricheskii ocherk russkogo konevodstva i konnozavodstva, SPB, 1868: the quote is on pp. 84–5. V. V. Ermolov and M. M. Ryndin, Upravlenie general-inspektora kavalerii o remontirovanii kavalerii. Istoricheskii ocherk, SVM, 3/3.1, SPB, 1906. This is a key work.

16 Marquess of Londonderry, Narrative of the War in Germany and France in 1813 and 1814, London, 1830, p. 31. Sir Robert Wilson, Campaigns in Poland. 1806 and 1807, London, 1810, p. 14.

17 Apart from Merder, see Shelekhov, Glavnoe intendantskoe upravlenie, for the purchase and upkeep of horses: e.g. purchase prices are on p. 104. A useful modern history of the Russian cavalry is A. Begunova, Sabli ostry, koni bystry, Moscow, 1992. On the incident with the Austrians, see T. von Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben des kaiserlichen russischen Generals der Infanterie Carl Friedrich Grafen von Toll, 5 vols., Leipzig, 1858, vol. 4, book 7, pp. 183–4.

18 There are two extremely useful unpublished Russian candidates’ dissertations (i.e. roughly equivalent to a contemporary British Ph.D.) on the military economy: S. V. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia i snabzheniia russkoi armii nakanune i v khode otechestvennoi voiny 1812g i zagranichnykh pokhodov 1813–1815gg: Istoricheskie aspekty, candidate’s dissertation, SPB, 2003, and V. N. Speranskii, Voenno-ekonomicheskaia podgotovka Rossii k bor’be s Napoleonom v 1812–1814 godakh, Gorky, 1967. The basic statistics on raw materials are in Gavrilov, pp. 39–42. Speransky is a mine of useful information: his only weakness appears to be that he neglects the crucial production of field artillery at the Petersburg arsenal. See the following note for references to this production. Viktor Bezotosnyi kindly confirmed that the arsenal did indeed produce most Russian field artillery.

19 For the basic statistics, see L. Beskrovnyi, The Russian Army and Fleet in the Nineteenth Century, Gulf Breeze, 1996, pp. 196–7. Speranskii, Voenno-ekonomicheskaia, pp. 38–58, on production at the Petrozavodsk and other works. On the artillery’s equipment, guns and tactics in 1812–14, see A. and Iu. Zhmodikov, Tactics of the Russian Army, 2 vols., West Chester, Ohio, 2003, vol. 2, chs. 10–15. See also: Anthony and Paul Dawson and Stephen Summerfield, Napoleonic Artillery, Marlborough, 2007, pp. 48–55.

20 On the three arms works, the best introduction are the articles in Entsiklopediia, pp. 296, 654 and 724–5.

21 Speranskii, Voenno-ekonomicheskaia, ch. 2, especially pp. 82 ff., 362 ff. Much the most detailed primary source on the Tula works is an exceptionally interesting article by P. P. Svinin, ‘Tul’skii oruzheinyi zavod’, Syn Otechestva, 19, 1816, pp. 243 ff. Though naively Soviet-era in many of its judgements, V. N. Ashurkov, Izbrannoe: Istoriia Tul’skogo kraia, Tula, 2003, contains interesting details.

22 On the French tests, see K. Alder, Engineering the Revolution: Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763–1815, Princeton, 1997, p. 339. On English criticism, see Philip Haythornthwaite, Weapons and Equipment of the Napoleonic Wars, London, 1996, p. 22. Speranskii, Voenno-ekonomicheskaia, pp. 458–9, on the sources of the muskets distributed to the army in 1812–13.

23 Even Wellington’s men did not usually expect to beat off attacks by musketry alone. Volleys were followed up by rapid counter-attacks with the bayonet.

24 Two recent surveys of Russian finance and taxation are: Peter Waldron, ‘State Finances’, in Lieven (ed.), Cambridge History of Russia, vol. 2, pp. 468–88, and Richard Hellie, ‘Russia’, in R. Bonney (ed.), The Rise of the Fiscal State in Europe c. 1215–1815, Oxford, 1999, pp. 481–506.

25 All these statistics should be viewed with a certain scepticism. The Russian ones are specially to be distrusted because of uncertainties as to whether sums are being cited in silver or paper rubles. Most of the statistics are drawn from Bonney, Economic Systems, pp. 360–76. The French figure is from Michel Bruguière, ‘Finances publiques’, in J. Tulard (ed.), Dictionnaire Napoléon, Paris, 1987, pp. 733–5. The British figure is from J. M. Sherwig, Guineas and Gunpowder: British Foreign Aid in the Wars with France1793– 1815, Cambridge, Mass., 1969, p. 96.

26 W. M. Pintner, Russian Economic Policy under Nicholas I, Ithaca, NY, 1967, ch. 5. There is a useful table on p. 186 which shows the volume of paper money issued annually and its value vis-à-vis the silver currency. A well-informed source stated that the peasants’ obligation to feed the soldiers for very inadequate compensation from the state was a well-established custom: L. Klugin, ‘Russkaia soldatskaia artel’, RS, 20, 1861, pp. 90, 96–7.

27 Most of the subsequent discussion is gleaned from basic texts, with the addition of some of my own ideas: see in particular Paul W. Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics 1763–1848, Oxford, 1994; H. M. Scott, The Emergence of the Eastern Powers, 1756–1775, Cambridge, 2001; H. M. Scott, The Birth of a Great Power System 1740– 1815, Harlow, 2006; A. N. Sakharov et al. (eds.), Istoriia vneshnei politiki Rossii: Pervaia polovina XIX veka, Moscow, 1995.

28 Isabel de Madariaga, Britain, Russia and the Armed Neutrality of 1780, London, 1962. There is a good description of the realities behind these disputes over maritime rights in ch. 1 of Ole Feldbaek, The Battle of Copenhagen 1801, Barnsley, 2002. Pitt’s miscalculation is analysed by Jeremy Black, ‘Naval Power, Strategy and Foreign Policy, 1775–1791’, in Michael Duffy (ed.), Parameters of British Naval Power 1650–1850, Exeter, 1998, pp. 93–120.

29 Apart from the general diplomatic histories, see in particular H. Heppner, ‘Der Österreichisch-Russische Gegensatz in Sudosteuropa im Zeitalter Napoleons’, in A. Drabek et al. (eds.), Russland und Österreich zur Zeit der Napoleonischen Kriege, Vienna, 1989, pp. 85 ff.

30 Elise Wirtschafter, ‘The Groups Between: raznochintsy, Intelligentsia, Professionals’, in Lieven, Cambridge History of Russia, vol. 2, pp. 245–63, is a good introduction to the evolution of the Russian middle classes. On state and society in the Napoleonic era, Nicholas Riasanovsky, A Parting of Ways: Government and the Educated Public in Russia 1801–1855, Oxford, 1976, remains valuable.

31 Jerzy Lukowski, The Partitions of Poland, Harlow, 1999, is a reliable introduction to this issue.

32 J. Hartley, Alexander I, London, 1994, pp. 58–72. A. A. Orlov, Soiuz Peterburga i Londona, Moscow, 2005, ch. 1, pp. 7 ff.

33 The key text for this is Alexander’s instructions for his envoy to the British government, Nikolai Novosil’tsev: VPR, 1st series, 2, pp. 138–46 and 151–3, 11/23 Sept. 1804. See also Patricia Grimsted, The Foreign Ministers of Alexander I, Berkeley, 1969, pp. 32–65.

34 On the 1805 campaign, see above all two recent works: R. Goetz, 1805 Austerlitz: Napoleon and the Destruction of the Third Coalition, London, 2005; Frederick W. Kagan, Napoleon and Europe 1801–1805: The End of the Old Order, Cambridge, Mass., 2006.

35 For an interesting defence of Prussian policy, see Brendan Simms, The Impact of Napoleon: Prussian High Politics, Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Executive 1797–1806, Cambridge, 1997. Russia’s foreign minister in 1806, Prince Adam Czartowski, was very unsympathetic to the Prussian dilemma. See W. H. Zawadski, A Man of Honour: Adam Czartoryski as a Statesman of Russia and Poland 1795–1831, Oxford, 1993, pp. 61–136.

36 The best source on this is Shelekhov, Glavnoe intendantskoe upravlenie, chs. VI–XIV; F. Zatler, Zapiski o prodovol’stvii voisk v voennoe vremia, SPB, 1860, is also an excellent source and provides statistics on relative population densities on pp. 23 and 78–9: even in 1860, after decades of rapid population growth, densities in Belorussia and Lithuania were one-quarter of what one found in Silesia, Saxony, Bohemia or north-eastern France. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia, p. 59. On salaries, see PSZ, 30, 23542, 17 March 1809 (OS), pp. 885–6. In 1809 the salaries of all junior officers had to be raised 33 per cent to offset the depreciation of the paper ruble.

37 There is a good, detailed article on this in Drabek et al. (eds.), Russland und Österreich by Rainer Egger: ‘Die Operationen der Russischen Armee in Mahren und Österreich ob und unter der Enns im Jahre 1805’, pp. 55–70.

38 See above all E. Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen, Stanford, Calif., 1976, especially ch. 6, pp. 67 ff.

39 This statistic is based on a survey I carried out of 1,500 NCOs whose details are recorded in the personnel records (formuliarnye spiski) in RGVIA, Fond 489. I included all NCOs whose records were legible and who were not the sons of soldiers and clergy, from the following regimental lists: Preobrazhensky Guards (Ed. Khr. 1); Little Russia Grenadiers (Ed. Khr. 1190); Kherson Grenadiers (Ed. Khr. 1263); Murom (Ed. Khr. 517), Chernigov (Ed. Khr. 1039), Reval (Ed. Khr. 754), Kursk (Ed. Khr. 425) infantry regiments; the 39th (Ed. Khr. 1802) and 45th (Ed. Khr. 1855) Jaegers; His Majesty’s Life Cuirassiers (Ed. Khr. 2114) and the Mitau (Ed. Khr. 2446), Borisogleb (Ed. Khr. 2337), Narva (Ed. Khr. 2457), Iamburg (Ed. Khr. 2631) and Pskov (Ed. Khr. 212) dragoons; the 2nd (Ed. Khr. 3798), 5th (Ed. Khr. 3809) and 10th (Ed. Khr. 3842) artillery brigades.

40 There is much information on this in A. N. Andronikov and V. P. Fedorov, Prokhozhdenie sluzhby, SVM, 4/1/3, SPB, 1909, pp. 1–59, and Shchepetil’nikov, Komplektovanie, pp. 41–55.

41 On the artel, see the comments of William Fuller in Strategy and Power in Russia, 1600–1914, New York, 1992, pp. 172–3; also L. Klugin, ‘Russkaia soldatskaia artel”, pp. 79–130; Andronikov and Fedorov, Prokhozhdenie sluzhby, pp. 112–14. On the formation of new regiments, see A. A. Kersnovskii, Istoriia russkoi armii, 4 vols., Moscow, 1992, vol. 1, p. 206.

42 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 2, p. 49; S. F. Glinka, Pis’ma russkogo ofitsera, Moscow, 1987, p. 347.

43 In 1806, for example, a circular from Alexander’s Personal Military Chancellery stressed that ‘the transfer of officers from one regiment to another is wholly contrary to the emperor’s wishes’: Andronikov and Fedorov, Prokhozhdenie sluzhby, p. 112. In 1812 Baron Cyprian von Kreutz became chief of the Siberian Lancer Regiment. Next year his two young brothers-in-law transferred into the regiment. Within thirty months one of them had been promoted twice and the other three times: RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Ed. Khr. 2670, fos. 34–45: ‘Spisok o sluzhbe i dostoinstv Sibirskago ulanskago polka generaliteta’ and ‘Spisok o sluzhbe i dostoinstv Sibirskago ulanskago polka rotmistrov i shtab-rotmistrov’. See the personnel records e.g. of the Preobrazhensky Guards (Ed. Khr. 1), the Little Russia and Kherson Grenadiers (Ed. Khr. 1190 and 1263), the Kursk and Briansk (39th Jaegers) regiments (Ed. Khr. 425 and 1802) and the Pskov Dragoons (Ed. Khr. 212).

44 On Karneev, see RGVIA, Fond 489, Ed. Khr. 1, fo. 506: ‘Formuliarnyi spisok leib gvardii Preobrazhenskago polka, generalam, shtab i ober ofitseram i drugim chinam’, dated 1 Jan. 1808 (OS). On the Briansk, Narva and Grenadier regiments, see the sections on NCOs in their personnel records listed in n. 39 above. On soldiers’ sons and NCOs, see Komplektovanie, SVM, pp. 173–208. On Russian NCOs, see D. G. Tselerungo, ‘Boevoi opyt unter-ofitserov russkoi armii – uchastnikov Borodinskago srazheniia’, inOtechestvennaia voina 1812 goda: Istochniki, pamiatniki, problemy. Materialy XII vserossisskoi nauchnoi konferentsii. Borodino, 6–8 sentiabria 2004 g., Moscow, 2005, pp. 21–6.

45 Much the best evaluation of the Russian army’s performance in 1805–7 is in vol. 1 of Zhmodikov, Tactics.

46 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 1, p. 136.

47 This information comes from the biographical sketch which introduced Osten-Sacken’s own diaries when these were published by Russkii arkhiv in 1900: RA, 1, 1900, pp. 6–25.

48 ‘Iz zapisok fel’dmarshala Sakena’, RA, 1, 1900, pp. 161–80. Langeron’s memoirs are a useful source on this dispute, since he had a healthy respect for both Bennigsen and Sacken. Langeron’s letter to Bennigsen, dated 10 Dec. 1816, is in vol. 1, pp. xxvii–xxix, of Mémoires du Général Bennigsen, 3 vols., Paris, n.d. The comments in his own memoirs are in Mémoires de Langeron, Général d’Infanterie dans l’Armée Russe: Campagnes de 1812, 1813, 1814, Paris, 1902, pp. 15–18.

49 The best source on the views of both Alexander and his advisers is the many letters of Prince Aleksandr Kurakin to the Dowager Empress Marie, in RA, 1, 1868. See also A. Gielgud (ed.), Memoirs of Prince Adam Czartoryski, 2 vols., London, 1888, vol. 2, pp. 174–83. V. Sirotkin, Napoleon i Aleksandr I, Moscow, 2003, is a good introduction to opinion within the Russian ruling elite on foreign policy.

50 S. Tatishcheff, Alexandre I et Napoléon, Paris, 1894, Alexander to Lobanov, 4/16 June 1807, p. 121.

51 D. N. Shilov, Gosudarstvennye deiateli Rossiiskoi imperii, SPB, 2001, pp. 377–9. Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, Russkie portrety, SPB, n.d., vol. 4, part 1, no. 62.

52 On Aleksandr Kurakin’s career, see S. N. Shipov and Iu. A. Kuz’min, Chleny gosudarstvennogo soveta Rossiiskoi imperii, SPB, 2007, pp. 412–16. Lobanov’s reports on the initial negotiations are in RS, 98, 1899, pp. 594–5, Lobanov to Alexander, 7/19 June 1807. See also RA, 1, 1868, Kurakin to Empress Marie, 10/22 June 1807, pp. 183–7.

53 It seems that in his initial drafts Tolstoy depicted the Kuragins in more sympathetic terms: K. B. Feuer, Tolstoy and the Genesis of War and Peace, Ithaca, NY, 1976, p. 71. On the ancestry of Lobanov and Kurakin, see N. Ikonnikov, La Noblesse de Russie, 2nd edn., vols. A1–Z2, Paris, 1958–66: vols. H1, pp. 211–16 and I1, pp. 426–31.

54 On Constantine, see E. Karnovich, Tsesarevich Konstantin Pavlovich, SPB, 1899. On Paul, see R. McGrew, Paul I of Russia, Oxford, 1992, and H. Ragsdale (ed.), Paul I: A Reassessment of his Life and Reign, Pittsburgh, 1979.

55 V. I. Genishta and A. T. Borisovich, Istoriia 30-go dragunskago Ingermanlandskago polka 1704–1904, SPB, 1904, pp. 119–21, describes Lieven’s role in preparing the army for the 1805 campaign.

56 Lieven’s personnel record is in RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Delo 7062, fo. 356: as was true of many officers, he omitted to mention his parents’ property. See his self-appraisal in a letter to his fiancée, Dorothea, who was the god-daughter of the Empress Marie: J. Charmley, The Princess and the Politicians, London, 2005, p. 7.

57 S. W. Jackman (ed.), Romanov Relations, London, 1969, Grand Duchess Anna to Grand Duke Constantine, 2 April 1828, p. 149.

58 See e.g. Tatishcheff, Alexandre, pp. 140, 183, and A. Vandal, Napoléon et Alexandre Premier, 3 vols., Paris, 1891, vol. 1, pp. 61–7. The instructions are in VPR, 1st series, 3, note 414, pp. 754–60.

59 Alexander did relinquish the Ionian Islands and Cattaro, which Russia could in any case never defend once at war with the Ottomans and Britain. It received the more useful Belostok district in return.

60 The treaties of peace and alliance are in VPR, 1st series, vol. 3, nos. 257 and 258, pp. 631 ff.

61 These comments on Alexander’s preferences and perceptions are drawn from the instructions he gave to Kurakin and Lobanov: VPR, 1st series, vol. 3, note 414, pp. 754–60.

62 For a list of regimental artisans, see I. Ul’ianov, Reguliarnaia pekhota 1801–1855, vol. 2, Moscow, 1996, p. 212. On the Church in the army, see L. V. Mel’nikova, Armiia i pravoslavnaia tserkov’ Rossiiskoi imperii v epokhu Napoleonovskikh voin, Moscow, 2007, pp. 45–56, 116–37.

63 The key work on officers’ profiles is Tselerungo, Ofitsery russkoi armii.

64 The information on the Preobrazhenskys comes from: RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Ed. Khr. 1, fos. 455–560: ‘Formuliarnyi spisok leib gvardii Preobrazhenskago polka, generalam, shtab i ober ofitseram i drugim chinam’, dated 1 Jan. 1808. Only occasionally in the personnel records of line regiments can one spot that officers have neglected to mention serf-owning: see for one example the three Dolzhikov brothers in the Narva Dragoons who had family serfs as orderlies: RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Ed. Khr. 2457, ‘Spisok o sluzhbe…Narvskago dragunskago polka’, fos. 95 ff. for the list of batmen and lines 6 ff. and 27 ff. for the personnel records of the brothers. It is much easier to spot omissions among the prominent officers of the Preobrazhensky officers, let alone in the generals’ personnel records in Fond 489, Opis 1, Delo 7602.

65 The quote is from Zapiski Sergeia Grigorovicha Volkonskago (dekabrista), SPB, 1902, p. 70. See e.g. L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Dnevnik Aleksandra Chicherina, 1812–1813, Moscow, 1966, for excellent insights into the cultured young Guards officers’ mentality. Two such strikes were in the Semenovskys on the eve of 1812 and in the Guards artillery in January 1814: P. Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, SPB, 1896, pp. 285–6; Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina, Leningrad, 1987, pp. 49–50.

66 On Lazarev, see http:www.svoboda.org/programs. For examples of ex-rankers being censured for poor behaviour after the war, see e.g. the cases of lieutenants Beliankin and Kirsanov of the 45th Jaegers (RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Delo 1855, fos. 19–20) or of three officers of the Iamburg Lancers (Lt. Krestovskii, Istoriia 14-go Ulanskago Iamburgskago E.I.V. velikoi kniagini Marii Aleksandrovny polka, SPB, 1873, appendices). Of course, many ex-rankers flourished.

67 ‘Imperator Aleksandr I: Ego kharakteristika po sochineniiu N. K. Shil’dera’, RS, 99/3, 1899, pp. 98–114, at p. 99.

68 The catalogue of the excellent recent exhibition at the Hermitage on Alexander contains articles with many insights into his personality: Aleksandr I: ‘Sfinks ne razgadannyi do groba’, SPB, 2005.

69 Quoted in N. Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr pervyi: Ego zhizn’ i tsarstvovanie, 4 vols., SPB, 1897, vol. 3, a letter to Alexander from Professor Parrot, p. 489.

70 D. V. Solov’eva (ed.), Graf Zhozef de Mestr: Peterburgskie pis’ma, SPB, 1995, no. 72, de Maistre to de Rossi, 20 Jan./1 Feb. 1808, p. 99.

71 There is a dearth of work on provincial society and administration under Alexander. The reign of Catherine II and the period from the 1861 Emancipation to 1917 are much better covered. For a good overview of local administration, see Janet Hartley, ‘Provincial and Local Government’, in Lieven (ed.), Cambridge History of Russia, vol. 2, pp. 446–67.

72 The book which best expresses Alexander’s dilemmas is S. V. Mironenko, Samoderzhavie i reformy: Politicheskaia bor’ba v Rossii v nachale XIX v., Moscow, 1989.

73 Metternich to Hardenberg, 5 Oct. 1812, in W. Oncken, Österreich und Preussen in Befreiungskriege, Berlin, 1878, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 378–80.

74 RD, 5, no. 520, Caulaincourt to Champagny, 19 Sept. 1810, pp. 138–40.

Chapter 3: The Russo-French Alliance

1 N. F. Dubrovin, ‘Russkaia zhizn’ v nachale XIX v.’, RS, 29/96, 1898, pp. 481–516.

2 RD, 4, no. 334, Caulaincourt to Champagny, 3 Oct. 1809, pp. 110–16.

3 e.g. RD, 1, no. 52, Caulaincourt to Champagny, 25 Feb. 1808, pp. 161–74; 2, no. 165, Caulaincourt to Napoleon, 8 Sept. 1808, pp. 344–6; 3, no. 187, Caulaincourt to Champagny, 15 Jan. 1809, pp. 27–32.

4 Zapiski Sergeia Grigorovicha Volkonskago (dekabrista), SPB, 1902, pp. 60–62.

5 A. Vandal, Napoléon et Alexandre Premier, 3 vols., Paris, 1891, vol. 1, pp. 196–7. SIRIO, 89, 1893, no. 15, Tolstoy to Rumiantsev, 26 Oct./7 Nov. 1807, pp. 183–5; no. 86, Tolstoy to Alexander, Dec. 1807, pp. 312–13; no. 111, Tolstoy to Rumiantsev, 25 April/7 May 1808, pp. 519–27.

6 Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre, no. 12, Catherine to Alexander, 25 June 1807, pp. 18–19. On the French émigrés in Russia, see André Ratchinski, Napoléon et Alexandre Ier, Paris, 2002.

7 VPR, 4, no. 219, Stroganov to Alexander, 1/13 Feb. 1809, pp. 490–91.

8 On Mordvinov, see e.g. AGM, 4, pp. xliv–xlv: see in particular his memorandum on the Continental System dated 25 Sept. 1811 (OS), pp. 479–86. For Gurev’s statement, see C. F. Adams (ed.), John Quincy Adams in Russia, New York, 1970, p. 277. Since official policy on the surface remained committed to the French alliance until the moment Napoleon crossed the border, diplomats usually camouflaged this view. The main but by no means only exception was Petr Tolstoy, who was already arguing for rapprochement with Britain as early as the summer of 1808. See e.g. SIRIO, 89, 1893, no. 111, Tolstoy to Rumiantsev, 25 April/7 May 1808, pp. 519–27; no. 176, Tolstoy to Rumiantsev, 26 July/7 Aug. 1808, pp. 631–5. But see also e.g. VPR, 4, no. 101, Alopaeus to Rumiantsev, 18/30 April 1808, pp. 233–5, for just one of many examples of other Russian diplomats expressing very ‘Tolstoyan’ views.

9 Mémoires du Général Bennigsen, 3 vols., Paris, n.d., vol. 1, 4th letter, pp. 33–52; vol. 3, annex 53, pp. 377–95.

10 The main English-language source on Speransky remains Marc Raeff’s classic Mikhail Speransky: Statesman of Imperial Russia, The Hague, 1969, but at the very least the anglophone reader should also turn to John Gooding, ‘The Liberalism of Michael Speransky’, Slavonic and East European Review, 64/3, 1986, pp. 401–24.

11 For de Maistre’s views, see D. V. Solov’eva (ed.), Graf Zhozef de Mestr: Peterburgskie pis’ma, SPB, 1995, no. 72, de Maistre to de Rossi, 20 Jan./1 Feb. 1808, pp. 98–101. For Caulaincourt, see RD, 1, no. 18, Caulaincourt to Napoleon, 13 Jan. 1808, pp. 48–51. Count A. de Nesselrode (ed.), Lettres et papiers du Chancelier Comte de Nesselrode 1760–1850, Paris, n.d., vol. 3, Nesselrode to Speransky, 2/14 April 1810, pp. 251–2. See also Joanna Woods, The Commissioner’s Daughter: The Story of Elizabeth Proby and Admiral Chichagov, Witney, 2000.

12 RA, 2, 1876, Prozorovsky to Golitsyn, 23 July/4 Aug. 1807, pp. 157–9. On the British angle, see Brendan Simms, Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, 1714–1783, London, 2007.

13 On Ireland, see S. J. Connolly, Religion, Law and Power: The Making of Protestant Ireland 1660–1760, Oxford, 1992, pp. 249–50.

14 On the global context, see Christopher Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World 1780– 1914, Oxford, 2004, part 1, chs. 1–3, pp. 27–120; John Darwin, After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire, London, 2007, ch. 4, ‘The Eurasian Revolution’, pp. 158–217.

15 RD, 5, no. 563, Caulaincourt to Champagny, 14 Dec. 1810, pp. 235–43.

16 Adams, Adams, p. 209.

17 Ibid., pp. 87, 432.

18 The debate on the origins of the Industrial Revolution seldom bothers even to mention Russia as a potential candidate. Apart from the reasons set out in the text, it is generally assumed that industrial take-off required a densely concentrated population. See e.g. the interesting discussion in Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World Economy, Princeton, 2000.

19 RD, 4, no. 334, Caulaincourt to Champagny, 3 Oct. 1809, pp. 110–16; no. 423, 11 March 1810, pp. 325–8.

20 P. Bailleu (ed.), Briefwechsel König Friedrich Wilhelm III’s und der Königin Luise mit Kaiser Alexander I, Leipzig, 1900, no. 157, Alexander to Friedrich Wilhelm, 2 Nov. 1807, pp. 167–8. VPR, 4, no. 146, Kurakin to Rumiantsev, 16/28 Aug. 1808, pp. 320–21, is merely one of many Russian appreciations on the damage done to any hopes of peace by Napoleon’s debacle in Spain. Another is no. 198, Rumiantsev to Alexander, 16/28 Dec. 1808, p. 441.

21 N. Shil’der: ‘Nakanune Erfurtskago svidaniia 1808 goda’, RS, 98/2, 1899, pp. 3–24, Marie to Alexander, 25 Aug. 1808 (OS), pp. 4–17. The Erfurt convention is in VPR, 4, no. 161, pp. 359–61.

22 RS, 98/2, 1899, Alexander to Marie, n.d. but certainly late Aug. 1808, pp. 17–24.

23 Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre, no. 19, Alexander to Catherine, 26 Sept. 1808, p. 20.

24 This paragraph is based on reading all the Russian diplomatic correspondence in these six months and it is impossible to cite all the relevant dispatches. The key ones are: VPR, 4, no. 131, Kurakin to Alexander, 2/14 July 1808, pp. 291–8; no. 143, Alexander to Kurakin, 14/26 Aug. 1808, pp. 316–17; no. 144, Rumiantsev to Kurakin, 14/26 Aug. 1808, pp. 317–19; no. 150, Alexander to Kurakin, 27 Aug./8 Sept. 1808, pp. 331–2; no. 174, Rumiantsev to Alexander, 26 Oct./7 Nov. 1808, pp. 387–9; no. 186, Anstedt to Saltykov, 22 Nov./4 Dec. 1808, pp. 410–12; no. 217, Rumiantsev to Alexander, 30 Jan./11 Feb. 1809, pp. 485–7; no. 220, Alexander to Rumiantsev, 2/14 Feb. 1809; no. 224, Alexander to Rumiantsev, 10/22 Feb. 1809, pp. 502–4; no. 246, Rumiantsev to Anstedt, 11/23 March 1809, pp. 543–5.

25 SIRIO, 89, 1893, no. 94, Rumiantsev to Tolstoy, March 1808, pp. 496–7; no. 112, Tolstoy to Rumiantsev, 26 April/8 May 1808, pp. 525–7.

26 Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre, Marie to Catherine, 23 Dec. 1809 (OS), pp. 251–7; Catherine to Marie, 26 Dec. 1809 (OS), pp. 259–60.

27 On the non-ratification of the convention, see RD, 4, no. 410, Caulaincourt to Champagny, 26 Feb. 1810, pp. 296–9; Barclay de Tolly’s memorandum is reproduced in MVUA 1812, 1/2, pp. 1–6.

28 VPR, 4, no. 221, Rumiantsev to Kurakin, 2/14 Feb. 1809, pp. 496–7.

29 The statistics are drawn from A. A. Podmazo, ‘Kontinental’naia blokada kak ekonomicheskaia prichina voiny 1812 g.’, Epokha 1812 goda: Issledovania, istochniki, istoriografiia, 137, TGIM, Moscow, 2003, vol. 2, pp. 248–66, and M. F. Zlotnikov,Kontinental’naia blokada i Rossiia, Moscow, 1966, ch. IX, pp. 335 ff. For Caulaincourt’s comment, see RD, 2, no. 179, Caulaincourt to Napoleon, 9 Dec. 1808, pp. 387–8.

30 Adams, Adams, pp. 236–8, 364; J. Hanoteau (ed.), Mémoires du Général de Caulaincourt, Duc de Vicenze, 3 vols., Paris, 1933, vol. 1, pp. 282–3. AGM, vol. 4, no. 1050, 25 Sept. 1811, pp. 479–86 for Nikolai Mordvinov’s memorandum on the Continental System.

31 SIRIO, 121, 1906, Chernyshev to Barclay de Tolly, 31 Dec. 1811/12 Jan. 1812, pp. 196–202. V. M Bezotosnyi, Razvedka i plany storon v 1812 godu, Moscow, 2005, pp. 51–5.

32 The quote is from a letter to Rumiantsev from Chernyshev dated 6/18 June 1810: SIRIO, 121, 1906, no. 7, pp. 55–8.

33 Nesselrode (ed.), Nesselrode, vol. 3, 5/17 July 1811, pp. 375–9.

34 The memorandum is reprinted in N. K. Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr pervyi: Ego zhizn’ i tsarstvovanie, 4 vols., SPB, 1897, vol. 3, pp. 471–83, but note the comment in VPR, 5, note 246, pp 692–3, which corrects Shil’der’s error as to when this report reached Alexander.

35 All this is drawn from Chernyshev’s reports to Alexander, Barclay de Tolly and Rumiantsev published in SIRIO, 121, 1906, parts 2 and 4, pp. 32–108 and 114–204. The quote is from report no. 6, to Barclay, dated Nov. 1811, pp. 178–87. Chernyshev’s one error was a moment of carelessness on departure in 1812 which allowed his agent in the War Ministry to be caught. Vandal, Napoléon et Alexandre, vol. 3, pp. 306–18, 377, 393, discusses Chernyshev’s activities. Some details differ: for example, he writes that the War Ministry’s ‘book’ was produced every fortnight. More importantly, he underestimates the scale and impact of Chernyshev’s role, let alone the importance of his and Nesselrode’s information combined.

36 Bailleu (ed.), Briefwechsel, no. 192, Frederick William to Alexander, 19/31 Oct. 1809, pp. 204–5. Nesselrode (ed.), Nesselrode, vol. 3, Nesselrode to Speransky, 6/18 Aug. 1811, pp. 382–5. The most detailed description of Chernyshev’s activities is ch. 2 of General A. Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Zhizneopisanie kniazia Aleksandra Ivanovicha Chernysheva ot 1801 do 1815 goda, reprinted in Rossiiskii arkhiv, 7, Moscow, 1996, pp. 13–40.

37 SIRIO, 121, 1906, no. 12, Chernyshev to Barclay, received 3 March 1812, pp. 204–10.

38 VPR, 6, Barclay de Tolly to Alexander, 22 Jan./3 Feb. 1812, pp. 267–9.

39 By far the best source in English on these men and issues is Alexander Martin, Romantics, Reformers, Reactionaries: Russian Conservative Thought and Politics in the Reign of Alexander I, De Kalb, Ill., 1997. There are also useful biographical details about Rostopchin in A. Kondratenko, Zhizn’ Rostopchina, Orel, 2002.

40 All this discussion is drawn from Richard Pipes’s excellent translation and analysis of Karamzin’s work: see R. Pipes, Karamzin’s Memoir on Ancient and Modern Russia: ATranslation and Analysis, Ann Arbor, 2005; the quote is from p. 146.

41 Ibid., pp. 147–67.

42 VPR, 6, no. 137, Rumiantsev to Stackelberg, 28 March/9 April 1812, pp. 341–3; no. 158, Stackelberg to Rumiantsev, 29 April/11 May 1812, pp. 393–4.

43 Bailleu (ed.), Briefwechsel, no. 196, Frederick William to Alexander, 30 April/12 May 1812, pp. 214–18.

44 W. H. Zawadski, A Man of Honour: Adam Czartoryski as a Statesman of Russia and Poland 1795–1831, Oxford, 1993, pp. 188–205. See VPR, 6, p. 693, n. 98 for a detailed demolition of Vandal’s statement that Russia was planning a pre-emptive strike in 1811.

45 W. Oncken, Österreich und Preussen in Befreiungskriege, 2 vols., Berlin, 1878, vol. 2, appendices, no. 30, Saint-Julien to Metternich, 13 Aug. 1811, pp. 611–14.

46 Bailleu (ed.), Briefwechsel, no. 198, Alexander to Frederick William, 14 May 1811, pp. 219–22; no. 208, Frederick William to Alexander, 19/31 March 1812, pp. 238–9.

47 I. G. Fabritsius, Glavnoe inzhenernoe upravlenie, SVM, 7, SPB, 1902, pp. 733–58. There is a new and interesting book on Ottoman warfare by Virginia Aksan: Ottoman Wars 1700–1870: An Empire Besieged, London, 2007. If it has a weakness it is that it says too little about actual battle and tactics.

48 SIRIO, 121, 1906, no. 13, Chernyshev to Rumiantsev, 13/25 July 1810, and no. 15, 5/17 Sept. 1810, pp. 75–80 and 88–95. For his account of his mission to Sweden, see SIRIO, 121, pp. 22–48.

49 The quote is from a letter from Bernadotte to Count Löwenhielm, the special Swedish emissary to Alexander, dated 7/19 March 1812 and published in La Suède et la Russie: Documents et matériaux 1809–1818, Uppsala, 1985, pp. 96–8. The text of the Russo-Swedish treaty of alliance is no. 66, pp. 105–11.

50 The phrase ‘blundered towards empire’ was suggested by Owen Connelly to describe Napoleon’s campaigns: Blundering to Glory: Napoleon’s Military Campaigns, Wilmington, Del., 1987.

51 The literature on Napoleon’s empire is so immense that any attempt at a bibliography is impossible here. The best up-to-date general history in my opinion is Thierry Lentz, Nouvelle histoire du Premier Empire, 3 vols., Paris, 2004–7. In English, the best recent works include P. Dwyer (ed.), Napoleon and Europe, Harlow, 2001; M. Broers, Europe under Napoleon, London, 1996; S. Wolff, Napoleon’s Integration of Europe, London, 1991.

52 See above all Christopher Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire, Cambridge, 1988, ch. 3, and the chapters by Michael Duffy, Patrick O’Brien and Rajat Kanta Ray in P. J. Marshall (ed.), The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Eighteenth Century, Oxford, 1998.

53 Rajat Kanta Ray, ‘Indian Society and the Establishment of British Supremacy, 1765–1818’, in Marshall (ed.), British Empire, pp. 509–29, at p. 525. On changing European views on overseas empire, see especially Jennifer Pitts, A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France, Princeton, 2005. On French (and other) views of eastern Europe, see Larry Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment, Stanford, Calif., 1994.

54 This is to risk embroiling myself in a vast literature on the origins of nations: see e.g. A. D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations, London, 1986. The Napoleonic era provides fine opportunities to test national identities’ strength and constituent elements, not just in Europe but in comparative terms across the globe: R. G. S. Cooper, The Anglo-Maratha Campaign and the Contest for India, Cambridge, 2003, illustrates the internal weaknesses of a polity which was Britain’s toughest enemy in India. Compare this with e.g. M. Rowe (ed.), Collaboration and Resistance in Napoleonic Europe, Basingstoke, 2003.

55 The perfect model of an imperial conqueror is the Chinese Emperor Ch’in Shih-Huang, whom Sam Finer calls the ruler who left the biggest and most lasting mark on government. Measured against him, Napoleon’s ambitions and impact appear puny: S. Finer,The History of Government, 3 vols., Oxford, 1997, vol. 1, pp. 472–3. For a fuller study of the First Emperor, see D. Bodde, ‘The State and Empire of Ch’in’, in D. Twitchett and M. Loewe (eds.), The Cambridge History of China, vol. 1: The Ch’in and Han Empires 221 BC–AD 220, Cambridge, 1986, ch. 1. Michael Doyle, Empires, Ithaca, NY, 1986, is perceptive as regards institutionalization.

56 On this and many other points discussed in this section, see the excellent Lentz, Nouvelle histoire, vol. 3: La France et l’Europe de Napoléon 1804–1814, Paris, 2007. As will be evident from the above, I agree with Professor Lentz on the question of ideology: see pp. 671–5 of his book.

57 VPR, 5, no. 142, Memorandum of F. P. Pahlen, not later than 14/26 Nov. 1809, pp. 294–5.

58 On Napoleon’s ‘Indian projects’ and Russian fears that they would be forced to serve them, see V. Bezotosnyi, ‘Indiiskie proekty Napoleona i Rossiia v 1812 g.’, in Epokha 1812 goda: Issledovaniia, istochniki, istoriografiia, 161, TGIM, Moscow, 2006, vol. 5, pp. 7–22.

Chapter 4: Preparing for War

1 D. V. Solov’eva (ed.), Graf Zhozef de Mestr: Peterburgskie pis’ma, SPB, 1995, no. 72, 20 Jan./1 Feb. 1808, pp. 98–9.

2 On Arakcheev, see E. Davydova, E. Liatina and A. Peskov (eds.), Rossiia v memuarakh: Arakcheev. Svidetel’stva sovremennikov, Moscow, 2000, a very useful collection of contemporary recollections of Arakcheev. See also ch. 1 by K. M. Iachmenikov, ‘Aleksei Andreevich Arakcheev’, pp. 17–62, in Russkie konservatory, Moscow, 1997.

3 Solov’eva, de Mestr, no. 72, 20 Jan./1 Feb. 1808, p. 99.

4 Above all these were better canister ammunition and better sights.

5 P. Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, SPB, 1896, chs. VI and VIII, pp. 99–153, is the best source on Arakcheev’s role. There is a useful chapter also in V. N. Stroev, Stoletie sobstvennoi Ego Imperatorskago Velichestva kantseliarii, SPB, 1912, pp. 98–129. As regards memoirs, see above all ‘Zapiski A. A. Eilera’, RA, 11, 1880, pp. 333–99, at pp. 342–3, 348–50. F. Lange (ed.), Neithardt von Gneisenau: Schriften von und über Gneisenau, Berlin, 1954: ‘Denkschrift Gneisenaus an Kaiser Alexander I’, pp. 119–34, at p. 133.

6 See e.g. laws and decrees published in these years: PSZ, 30, 22756, 17 Jan. 1808, p. 27 (all reports to Alexander to go via Arakcheev); 22777, 25 Jan. 1808, pp. 42–3 (accounting); 22809, 5 Feb. 1808, p. 58 (no private letters); 23052, 2 June 1808, p. 284 (accurate service records); 23205, 5 Aug. 1808, pp. 486–508 (rules for the acceptance of cloth supplied).

7 PSZ, 30, 23923, 21 Oct. 1809, pp. 1223–7, on cloth supplies; MVUA 1812, 1/2, no. 8, Arakcheev to Barclay, 26 Jan. 1810, pp. 21–3. The regimental histories are the best source for Arakcheev’s instructions on shooting practice and the upkeep of weapons: see e.g. V. V. Rantsov, Istoriia 96-go pekhotnago Omskago polka, SPB, 1902, pp. 114–17.

8 MVUA 1812, 1, no. 116, Barclay to Commissary-General, 4 June 1810, p. 53; RD, 4, no. 332, Caulaincourt to Champagny, 2 Oct. 1809, pp. 106–8.

9 On recruit uniforms, see e.g. PSZ, 30, 20036, 23 May 1808, pp. 272–4. On initial emergency measures regarding cloth supplies, 23121, 26 June 1808, pp. 357–68. S. V. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia i snabzheniia russkoi armii nakanune i v khode otechestvennoi voiny1812 g. i zagranichnykh pokhodov 1813–1815 gg.: Istoricheskie aspekty, candidate’s dissertation, SPB, 2003, pp. 117–20, 124.

10 The same was true in France: see K. Alder, Engineering the Revolution: Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763–1815, Princeton, 1997, p. 466 for all the references to the failed effort to introduce interchangeable parts.

11 See above all the excellent chapter on small arms production in V. N. Speranskii, Voenno-ekonomicheskaia podgotovka Rossii k bor’be s Napoleonom v 1812–1814 godakh, Gorky, 1967, pp. 82–135. On the new musket and its calibre, PSZ, 30, 23580, 13 April 1809, pp. 908–11. On lead, 22827, 16 Feb. 1808, pp. 71–7, and also MVUA 1812, 4, no. 11, Kremer to Barclay de Tolly, 25 July 1811, pp. 82–5; no. 12, Barclay to Gurev, draft, pp. 85–6. P. Haythornthwaite, Weapons and Equipment of the Napoleonic Wars, London, 1996, p. 21.

12 PSZ, 30, 23297, 10 Oct. 1808, pp. 603–38.

13 ‘Dvenadtsatyi god: Pis’ma N. M. Longinova k grafu S. R. Vorontsovu’, RA, 4, 1912, pp. 381–547, 13 Oct. 1812, pp. 534–5. I. P. Liprandi, Materialy dlia otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda: Sobranie statei, SPB, 1867, ch. 10, pp. 199–211.

14 Much the best source on Barclay’s background, values and early life is Michael and Diana Josselson, The Commander: A Life of Barclay de Tolly, Oxford, 1980.

15 See e.g. the comments of Eugen of Württemberg: Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 1, pp. 274–7.

16 Josselson, Commander, pp. 81–2. V. P. Totfalushin, M. V. Barklai de Tolli v otechestvennoi voine 1812 goda, Saratov, 1991, ch. 1.

17 The law is in PSZ, 31, no. 24975, 27 Jan. 1812 (OS), pp. 43–164. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia, pp. 61 ff. discusses it in detail.

18 The amendment is PSZ, 31, no. 25035, 13 March 1812 (OS), pp. 228–9. On the law, see P. A. Geisman, Svita Ego Imperatorskago Velichestva po kvartirmeisterskoi chasti v tsarstvovanie Imperatora Aleksandra I, SVM, 4/2/1, SPB, 1902, pp. 284 ff.

19 The law on forming the 13 new regiments is PSZ, 30, no. 24505, Jan. 1811, pp. 537–43; the law on internal security is vol. 30, no. 24704, pp. 783–802. On the new regiments’ quality, see e.g. F. G. Popov, Istoriia 48-go pekhotnago Odesskago polka, 2 vols., Moscow, 1911, vol. 1, pp. 7–52; S. A. Gulevich, Istoriia 8-go pekhotnago Estliandskago polka, SPB, 1911, pp. 117–21.

20 A collection of documents on the internal security troops was published in Moscow in 2002: Vnutrenniaia i konvoinaia strazha Rossii: Dokumenty i materialy. For English-language readers John LeDonne provides a short guide in Absolutism and Ruling Class, Oxford, 1991, pp. 132–9. P. E. Shchegoleva (ed.), Zapiski grafa E. F. Komarovskgogo, SPB, 1914, pp. 183–7, is very revealing about the formation of the internal security troops and Alexander’s attitude towards them. For Alexander’s views on Balashev, see ‘Zapiski Iakova Ivanovicha de Sanglena: 1776–1831 gg.’, RS, 37, 1883, pp. 1–46, at pp. 20–25.

21 See in particular Lobanov’s letter to Alexander of 8 May 1814 (OS): RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 153, fo. 65. It is only fair to add that Lobanov wrote that some of these officers were excellent.

22 In this period all regiments had so-called chiefs. They might be anything from colonels to senior generals. They bore responsibility for their regiment’s training, finances and administration. If they had no other job, then chiefs would actually command the regiment. In all circumstances they exercised a strong influence on their subordinate officers’ behaviour.

23 Colonel Markov, Istoriia leib-gvardii kirasirskago Eia Velichestva polka, SPB, 1884, pp. 199–201; E. K. Wirtschafter, From Serf to Russian Soldier, Princeton, 1990, pp. 97–8.

24 M. A. Rossiiskii, Ocherk istorii 3-go pekhotnago Narvskago general-fel’dmarshala kniazia Mikhaila Golitsyna polka, Moscow, 1904, pp. 291–302.

25 P. Voronov and V. Butovskii, Istoriia leib-gvardii Pavlovskago polka 1790–1890, SPB, 1890, pp. 46–73; Popov, Istoriia 48go, vol. 1, pp. 26–8. For another example of how poor leadership contributed to desertion in individual squadrons, see Lt. Krestovskii,Istoriia 14-go Ulanskago Iamburgskago E.I.V. velikoi kniagini Marii Aleksandrovny polka, SPB, 1873, pp. 327–33.

26 The latest British work on Wellington’s 95th Regiment makes these points convincingly: see Mark Urban, Rifles, London, 2003.

27 Hon. George Cathcart, Commentaries on the War in Russia and Germany in 1812 and 1813, London, 1850, p. 7.

28 On the regulations for training jaegers and recruits, see A. I. Gippius, Obrazovanie (Obuchenie) voisk, SVM, 4/1, book 2, SPB, 1903, pp. 76–7, 81–2. On the history of the jaegers, see e.g. Rantsov, Istoriia 96-go, pp. 1–36. The three-volume history of the Russian infantry by I. Ulianov, Reguliarnaia pekhota 1801–1855, Moscow, 1995–8, is a very useful summary of regulations, uniforms, weaponry and tactics: fortunately, it includes the jaegers. Lange, Gneisenau, pp. 130–31.

29 The two light infantry regiments of the Guard have excellent histories which tell one a great deal about jaegers in this era: Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka za sto let 1796– 1896, SPB, 1896, and S. Gulevich, Istoriia leib gvardii Finliandskago polka1806–1906, SPB, 1906.

30 Mémoires de Langeron, Général d’Infanterie dans l’Armée Russe: Campagnes de 1812, 1813, 1814, Paris, 1902, pp. 74–5. On the 2nd Jaegers, see Rantsov, Istoriia 96-go, pp. 81–3. On the 10th Jaegers, see N. Nevezhin, 112-i pekhotnyi Ural’skii polk: Istoriia polka 1797–1897, Vilna, 1899, pp. 35–8.

31 Digby Smith, Napoleon against Russia: A Concise History of 1812, Barnsley, 2004, p. 92. M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda, 3 vols., SPB, 1859–60, vol. 2, p. 456.

32 I read all the issues of Voennyi zhurnal for 1810–12. It is impossible to cite them all.

33 The two key works on the origins of the general staff are Geisman, Svita, SVM, and N. Glinoetskii, ‘Russkii general’nyi shtab v tsarstvovanie Imperatora Aleksandra I’, VS, 17/10, Oct. 1874, pp. 187–250 and 17/11, Nov. 1874, pp. 5–43.

34 Volkonsky’s former subordinate, Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, damns him with faint praise: A. I. Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Memuary 1814–1815, SPB, 2001, pp. 156–7.

35 Glinoetskii, ‘Russkii general’nyi shtab’, VS, 17/11, Nov. 1874, p. 11.

36 RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Ed. Khr. 1, fos. 215 ff.

37 All these statistics are drawn from S. V. Shvedov, ‘Komplektovanie, chislennost’ i poteri russkoi armii v 1812 godu’, in K 175-letiiu Otechestvennoi voiny 1812 g., Moscow, 1987, pp. 120–39. The older statistics provided in Geisman, Vozniknovenie, SVM, p. 298, are higher. As Adam Czartoryski commented, ‘I have so often seen in Russia 100,000 men on paper represented only by 65,000 effectives’: A. Gielgud (ed.), Memoirs of Prince Adam Czartoryski, 2 vols., London, 1888, vol. 2, p. 221.

38 The basic rules on the structure and wartime deployment of regiments are in PSZ, 31, nos. 24400 and 24526, pp. 420–24 and 553–8.

39 The likeliest reason for this was that the Guards veterans companies, the marine regiments and the many other military units and institutions in Petersburg provided a more than sufficient rear cadre so there was no need to leave the second battalions behind.

40 For Alexander’s view, see SIM, 1, no. 56, Alexander to Essen, 3 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 46–7. When he arrived in Riga, General von Steinhel supported Essen’s view: ‘The troops here are reserve battalions, weak in numbers and inferior in combat-readiness to front-line units’: SIM, 13, no. 3, Steinhel to Arakcheev, 7 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 205–7.

41 For picking one’s way through the complicated changes in policy and nomenclature as regards recruit depots and reserve formations, the outstanding Entsiklopediia on 1812 is immensely useful.

42 The key document on the distribution of the fourth battalions is a memorandum attached to a letter of Alexander to Wittgenstein dated 3 Aug. 1812 (OS): SIM, 1, no. 58, pp. 47–9.

43 On the Noble Regiment, see M. Gol’mdorf, Materialy dlia istorii byvshego Dvorianskago polka, SPB, 1882: the statistics are from p. 137. On attracting officers, see also A. N. Andronikov and V. P. Fedorov, Prokhozhdenie sluzhby, SVM, 4/1/3, SPB, 1903, pp. 2–9, 100–182.

44 N. Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr pervyi: Ego zhizn’ i tsarstvovanie, 4 vols., SPB, 1897, vol. 3, pp. 98–102. This will be covered in more detail in Ch. 7. The instructions to Lobanov to form twelve new regiments on the basis of voluntary contributions were enclosed in a letter from Barclay of 10 May 1812 (OS): RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 15, fos. 2–10. Estimates of costs are contained in a letter from the governor of Voronezh to Balashev on 24 June 1812 (OS): RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos. 92–3.

45 MVUA 1812, 1/2, no. 1, pp. 1–6.

46 For Wolzogen’s view, see his memorandum of 13 Oct. 1811 (OS) in MVUA 1812, 5, no. 139, Wolzogen to Barclay, pp. 273–9. For the minister’s own view that an offensive strategy was the better option, see e.g. a memorandum by him of Jan. 1811:MVUA1812, 7, no. 16 (additional), pp. 187–9.

47 MVUA 1812, 2, no. 56, Plan of Military Operations, Feb. 1811, pp. 83–93.

48 Alexander of Württemberg’s useful memorandum is in MVUA 1812, 10, no. 143, pp. 253–75; for Bagration, see e.g. MVUA 1812, 12, no. 103, Bagration to Barclay, 12 June 1812 (OS), pp. 107–9; for Volkonsky, MVUA 1812, 11, no. 260, 29 April 1812 (OS), pp. 324–33.

49 There are very many documents on the difficulties of feeding the troops but see e.g. a report from Barclay to Alexander of 4 April 1812 (OS) in which he states that food and particularly fodder is a great problem, the roads are impassable, he cannot requisition since a state of war has not yet been proclaimed but has no money to buy food, and is keeping sickness rates down so long as the units are well dispersed; MVUA 1812, 11, no. 41, 4 April 1812 (OS), pp. 54–5.

50 Again, there are very many memorandums on this theme in MVUA but the best summary of the problem is in I. G. Fabritsius, Glavnoe inzhenernoe upravlenie, SVM, 7, SPB, 1902.

51 For Wolzogen’s views, see his memorandum above (n. 6). Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812 goda, vol. 1, pp. 407–11, describes the terrain well. Oppermann’s report to Barclay is dated 10 Aug 1811 (OS): MVUA 1812, 4, no. 56, pp. 207–9.

52 The two key works on the Pfühl plan in particular and Russian planning in general are V. M. Bezotosnyi, Razvedka i plany storon v 1812 godu, Moscow, 2005, pp. 85–108, and V. V. Pugachev, ‘K voprosu o pervonachal’nom plane voiny 1812 goda’, in K stopiatidesiatiletiiu otechestvennoi voiny, Moscow, 1962, pp. 31–46. I owe a great deal to both works.

53 ‘Analiticheskii proekt voennykh deistvii v 1812 P. A. Chuikevicha’, in Rossiiskii arkhiv, 7, 1996, pp. 41–57.

54 Josselson, Commander, pp. 41–2; Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre, no. 73, Alexander to Catherine, 18 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 86–93; Comte de Rochechouart, Souvenirs de la Révolution, l’Empire et la Restauration, Paris, 1889, pp. 167–8. Rostopchin’s letter is quoted in A. G. Tartakovskii, Nerazgadannyi Barklai, Moscow, 1996, p. 73.

55 F. von Schubert, Unter dem Doppeladler, Stuttgart, 1962, pp. 212–13: ‘Russia would have been irretrievably lost’. Metternich: The Autobiography 1773–1815, London, 2004, p. 153. MVUA 1812, 7, prilozheniia, no. 21, ‘Plan voennykh deistvii’, Johann Barclay de Tolly, 1811, pp. 217–42, at p. 218.

56 It is impossible to cite all this correspondence: see e.g. a typical letter from Lieutenant-General Baggohufvudt to Barclay, dated 9 Feb. 1812 (OS): MVUA 1812, 9, no. 50, p. 128.

57 Most of these retreats are too famous to require references, but see C. Esdaile, The Peninsular War, London, 2002, p. 412, for the impact on British discipline of the retreat from Burgos (‘many units went to pieces’). The quote comes from Gordon Corrigan,Wellington: A Military Life, London, 2001, p. 227. For Bagration, see his letter to Alexander of 6 June 1812 (OS): MVUA 1812, 13, no. 57, pp. 48–50.

58 See e.g. the comments by the historian of the Iamburg Lancer Regiment: Lieutenant Krestovskii, Istoriia…Iamburgskago…polka, pp. 102–3. The English-speaking reader will get some sense of Suvorov’s ‘doctrine’ from P. Longworth, The Art of Victory, London, 1965. Christopher Duffy, Russia’s Military Way to the West, London, 1981, is a very good introduction to the eighteenth-century Russian army’s history, including the evolution of its ‘doctrine’.

59 MVUA 1812, 1/2, no. 60, Diebitsch to Barclay, 9 May 1810 (OS), pp. 87–91; the anonymous report is not dated but clearly originates from the winter of 1811–12: see MVUA 1812, 7, no. 13, pp. 175–83.

60 C. F. Adams (ed.), John Quincy Adams in Russia, New York, 1970, p. 426. Longinov’s letter to S. R. Vorontsov is dated 28 July 1812 (OS): RA, 4, 1912, pp. 481–547, at p. 490.

61 MVUA 1812, 16, no. 2, Alexander to Barclay, 7 April 1812 (OS), pp. 180–81, on the significance of the alliance and the impossibility now of a pre-emptive strike; 13, no. 190, Arenschildt to Münster, 22 May (3 June) 1812, pp. 189–94.

62 MVUA 1812, 12, no. 260, Memorandum by Volkonsky, 29 April 1812 (OS), pp. 324–33.

63 MVUA 1812, 13, no. 65, Barclay to Bagration, 6 June 1812 (OS), p. 56.

64 MVUA 1812, 13, no. 94, pp. 96–7, and no. 103, pp. 107–9: Bagration to Barclay.

65 MVUA 1812, 13, no. 57, Bagration to Alexander, 6 June 1812 (OS), pp. 48–50.

Chapter 5: The Retreat

1 Statistics from S. V. Shvedov, ‘Komplektovanie, chislennost’ i poteri russkoi armii v 1812 godu’, in K 175-letiiu Otechestvennoi voiny 1812 g., Moscow, 1987, p. 125.

2 See Appendix 1. The table is drawn from MVUA 1812, 17, pp. 51–4.

3 See e.g. Paulucci’s letter to Alexander of 14 July 1812 (OS) in MVUA 1812, 14, no. 130, pp. 128–9.

4 For biographical information on Toll, see D. N. Shilov, Gosudarstvennye deiateli Rossiiskoi imperii, SPB, 2001, pp. 671–4. The comments are drawn from N. Murav’ev, ‘Zapiski Nikolaia Nikolaevicha Muraveva’, RA, 3, 1885, pp. 5–84, at p. 81.

5 P. Grabbe, Iz pamiatnykh zapisok: Otechestvennaia voina, Moscow, 1873, pp. 17–19, 60, 74–7.

6 Murav’ev, ‘Zapiski’, p. 53. P. Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, SPB, 1896, pp. 155–6.

7 Ludwig von Wolzogen, Mémoires d’un Général d’Infanterie au service de la Prusse et de la Russie (1792–1836), Paris, 2002, pp. 106, 115. V. von Löwenstern, Mémoires du Général-Major Russe Baron de Löwenstern, 2 vols., Paris, 1903, vol. 1, pp. 217, 247–8.

8 SIM, 5, nos. 1 and 2, Ermolov to Alexander, 1 and 10 Aug. 1812, pp. 411–17. V. Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god v dnevnikakh, zapiskakh i vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, 4 vols., Vilna, 1900–1907, vol. 1, p. 183 (‘Iz zapisok Vistitskago’).

9 S. N. Golubeva (ed.), General Bagration: Sbornik dokumentov i materialov, Moscow, 1945, no. 102, Ermolov to Bagration, 30 June 1812 (12 July NS), pp. 189–90. There is a vast literature on the Decembrists, much of which discusses Ermolov: see e.g. M. A. Davydov, Oppozitsiia ego velichestva, Moscow, 1994. For Alexander’s comment: ‘Zapiski Iakova Ivanovicha de Sanglena: 1776–1831 gg.’, RS, 37, 1883, pp. 1–46, 539–56, at p. 551.

10 See, above all, R. I. Sementkovskii, E. F. Kankrin: Ego zhizn’ i gosudarstvennaia deiatel’nost’, SPB, 1893.

11 Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre, no. 73, Alexander to Catherine, 18 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 86–93. For Alexander’s key statement on the need to beware public opinion, see VS, 47/1, 1904, no. 19, Alexander to Barclay, 24 November 1812 (OS), pp. 231–3.

12 On Wittgenstein, see MVUA 1812, 13, no. 173, Barclay to Alexander, 18 June 1812 (OS), pp. 183–4; Baggohufvudt’s letter is quoted in I. I. Shelengovskii, Istoriia 69-goRiazanskago polka, 3 vols., Lublin, 1911, vol. 2, p. 143.

13 Mémoires du Général Bennigsen, 3 vols., Paris, n.d., vol. 3, p. 77; see Mémoires de Langeron, Général d’Infanterie dans l’Armée Russe: Campagnes de 1812, 1813, 1814, Paris, 1902, e.g. p. 35, for the view that Bennigsen was Russia’s best tactician.

14 On Barclay’s frustrating efforts to create a mobile magazine, see e.g. V. P. Totfalushin, M. V. Barklai de Tolli v otechestvennoi voine 1812 goda, Saratov, 1991, pp. 29–31.

15 See Pushchin’s diary: V. G. Bortnevskii (ed.), Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina: 1812–1814, Leningrad, 1987, pp. 46–7. Aleksei Nikitin, for instance, notes that most of the Polish Lancer Regiment deserted at Vitebsk: ‘Vospominaniia Nikitina’, in Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god, vol. 2, pp. 140–41. This may be an exaggeration.

16 M. M. Petrov, ‘Rasskazy sluzhivshego v 1-m egerskom polku polkovnika Mikhaila Petrova o voennoi sluzhbe i zhizni svoei’, in 1812 god: Vospominaniia voinov russkoi armii, Moscow, 1991, pp. 112–355, at pp. 176–7.

17 N. E. Mitarevskii, Rasskazy ob otechestvennoi voine 1812 goda, Moscow, 1878, pp. 13–23. The story about the priests comes from the reminiscences of Ivan Liprandi, the quartermaster general of Sixth Corps: Kharkevich, 1812 god, vol. 2, p. 5: ‘ZamechaniiaI. P. Liprandi’. 18 MVUA 1812, 13, no. 203, Uvarov to Alexander, 19 June 1812 (OS), pp. 206–7.

19 Armand de Caulaincourt, At Napoleon’s Side in Russia, New York, 2003, p. 43. V.M. Bezotosnyi, Razvedka i plany storon v 1812 godu, Moscow, 2005, pp. 58–9, 100–101.

20 Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, 32 vols., Paris, 1858–70, vol. 24, no. 18925, Napoleon to Clarke, 8 July 1812, pp. 33–4.

21 On Orlov’s mission, see e.g. the diary of Nikolai Durnovo for 21 and 22 June 1812 (OS), in A. G. Tartakovskii (ed.), Voennye dnevniki, Moscow, 1990, pp. 79–80.

22 Grabbe, Iz pamiatnikh, pp. 22–35.

23 MVUA 1812, 13, no. 296, Barclay to Alexander, 25 June 1812 (OS), pp. 302–3 and no. 323, 27 June 1812 (OS), pp. 331–3.

24 On the engineers, see I. G. Fabritsius, Glavnoe inzhenernoe upravlenie, SVM, 7, SPB, 1902, pp. 392–5.

25 See the discussion in Bezotosnyi, Razvedka, pp. 112–13, where it is argued that the so-called Pfühl plan was a cunning ploy on Alexander’s part to avoid responsibility for a policy of strategic withdrawal which he considered necessary but did not want to acknowledge.

26 Löwenstern, Mémoires, vol. 1, p. 208. MVUA 1812, 17, Alexander to Bagration, 5 July 1812 (OS), pp. 275–6. Shishkov reproduces the letter to Alexander in his memoirs and discusses the conversations between the three men: N. Kiselev and I. Iu. Samarin (eds.), Zapiski, mneniia i perepiska Admirala A. S. Shishkova, 2 vols., Berlin, 1870, vol. 1, pp. 141–8.

27 For Bagration’s ‘system’, see e.g. his order of the day to his troops of 7 July 1812 and his earlier letter to Arakcheev: General Bagration, nos. 95, pp. 179–80, and 103, which is simply dated June 1812 and is on pp. 190–91. For his proposed diversion, seeMVUA1812, 13, no. 120, Bagration to Alexander, 26 June 1812, pp. 131–3.

28 I. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s 1812 po 1816 god, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 1, p. 67.

29 See e.g. Löwenstern, Mémoires, vol. 1, p. 209. In defence of Ostermann-Tolstoy, see I. I. Lazhechnikov, ‘Neskol’ko zametok i vospominanii po povodu stat’i “Materialy dlia biografii A. P. Ermolova”’, Russkii vestnik, 31/6, 1864, pp. 783–819. On Ostermann-Tolstoy’s appearance, see Serge Glinka, Pis’ma russkogo ofitsera, Moscow, 1987, p. 316.

30 On the Ingermanland Dragoons, see V. I. Genishta and A. T. Borisovich, Istoriia 3-go dragunskago Ingermanlandskago polka 1704–1904, SPB, 1904, pp. 172–5, and prilozhenie 7. One cannot be absolutely sure that all five promoted NCOs were not nobles but they were certainly not junkers, in other words officer cadets. See G. P. Meshetich, ‘Istoricheskie zapiski voiny rossiian s frantsuzami i dvadtsat’iu plemenami 1812, 1813, 1814 i 1815 godov’, in Vospominaniia voinov russkoi armii: Iz Sobraniia otdela pis’mennykh istochnikov gosudarstvennogo istoricheskogo muzeia, Moscow, 1991, pp. 39–102, at pp. 42–3.

31 Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski, pp. 32–3.

32 Here as elsewhere in this chapter my narrative owes much to M. Bogdanovich, Istoriia otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda, 3 vols., SPB, 1859–60, supported in all moments of uncertainty by Entsiklopediia. On the decision to retreat from Vitebsk, see e.g. Barclay’s explanation to Alexander of 22 July 1812 (OS), MVUA 1812, 14, no. 196, pp. 195–6.

33 See e.g. Barclay’s letter to Alexander of 15 July 1812 (OS) in MVUA 1812, 14, no. 136, pp. 136–7. On Peter Pahlen, see M. Bogdanovich, ‘Graf Petr Petrovich fon der Palen i ego vremia’, VS, 7/8, 1864, pp. 410–25. General Gourgaud as usual defends Napoleon from these attacks but does so partly by blurring the timing of the Russian decision to retreat: Général Gourgaud, Napoléon et la Grande Armée en Russie ou Examen critique de l’ouvrage de M. le Comte de Ségur, Paris, 1826, pp. 132–6.

34 Duc de Fezensac, Souvenirs militaires, Paris, 1863, pp. 221–2; Philippe de Ségur, History of the Expedition to Russia, 1812, 2 vols., Stroud, 2005, vol. 1, p. 145.

35 ‘Zapiski Paskevicha’, in Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god, vol. 1, pp. 82–119, at p. 96. ‘Zhurnal uchastnika voiny 1812 goda’, VIS, 1/3, 1913, pp. 155–72, at pp. 152–3.

36 SIM, 5, no. 1, 1 August 1812 (OS), Ermolov to Alexander, pp. 411–14.

37 MVUA 1812, 14, no. 257, Alexander to Barclay, 28 July 1812 (OS), pp. 263–4. N. Dubrovin (ed.), Otechestvennaia voina v pis’makh sovremennikov, Moscow, 2006, no. 60, Alexander to Barclay, 30 July 1812 (OS), pp. 68–9.

38 MVUA 1812, 16, no. 59, Barclay to Alexander, 9 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 47–8.

39 MVUA 1812, 16, no. 92, Barclay to Alexander, 16 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 76–7; 17, Barclay to Chichagov, 31 July 1812 (OS), pp. 167–8; Barclay to Kutuzov, 17 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 186–7.

40 Löwenstern, Mémoires, vol. 1, p. 220. Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812 goda, vol. 1, pp. 234–5.

41 MVUA 1812, 14, no. 277, Bagration to Barclay, 30 July 1812 (OS), pp. 280–81.

42 Golubeva (ed.), General Bagration, no. 129, Bagration to Arakcheev, 29 July 1812 (OS), p. 226.

43 e.g. Popov, Istoriia 48-go pekhotnago Odesskago polka, 2 vols., Moscow, 1911, vol. 1, pp. 7–26. D. V. Dushenkovich, ‘Iz moikh vospominanii ot 1812 goda do 1815 goda’, in 1812 god v vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, Moscow, 1995, pp. 103–35.

44 Baron Fain, Manuscrit de Mil Huit Cent Douze, Paris, 1827, p. 359.

45 Dushenkovich, ‘Iz moikh vospominanii’, in 1812 god v vospominaniiakh, p. 111.

46 ‘Zapiski Paskevicha’, in Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god, vol. 1, pp. 99–103.

47 There is a good discussion of these issues in A. G. Tartakovskii, Nerazgadannyi Barklai, Moscow, 1996, pp. 103–8.

48 ‘Zamechaniia I. P. Liprandi na “Opisanie Otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda” Mikhailovskago-Danilevskago’, in Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god, vol. 2, pp. 1–35, at pp. 15–16. Dushenkovich, ‘Iz moikh vospominanii’, p. 111.

49 P. A. Geisman, Svita Ego Imperatorskogo Velichestva po kvartirmeisterskoi chasti v tsarstvovanie Imperatora Aleksandra I, SVM, 4/2/1, SPB, 1902, pp. 313–14. The best source on overburdening is the memoirs of Nikolai Muravev: ‘Zapiski’.

50 Much the best sources on this action are Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 1, pp. 285–9, and Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 2, book 2, pp. 18–41.

51 F. von Schubert, Unter dem Doppeladler, Stuttgart, 1962, p. 97.

52 Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god, vol. 1, p. 13 (‘Zapiski Shcherbinina’) and pp. 219–24 (‘Iz vospominanii grafa Orlova-Denisova’). SIM, 5, no. 2, Ermolov to Alexander, 10 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 414–17.

53 T. Lentz, Nouvelle histoire du Premier Empire, 3 vols., Paris, 2004–7, vol. 2, p. 324.

54 Schubert, Doppeladler, pp. 203–4.

Chapter 6: Borodino and the Fall of Moscow

1 The best source on Riga’s defences is I. G. Fabritsius, Glavnoe inzhenernoe upravlenie, SVM, 7, SPB, 1902, pp. 355–9. As always, M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda, 3 vols., SPB, 1859–60 (here vol. 1, pp. 340–43) and the many relevant entries in Entsiklopediia, are also invaluable. See VS, 53/11, 1910, pp. 30–38 for the memoirs of General Emme, the commandant of the Riga fortress: these are interesting but perhaps a little unfair to General Essen.

2 I derive all troop strengths for 1812 from the relevant entries in Entsiklopediia, unless otherwise stated. For Wittgenstein’s instructions, see MVUA 1812, 17, Barclay to Wittgenstein, 4 July 1812 (OS), pp. 134–5.

3 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 1, pp. 351–2, makes the point about experience in the Finnish war but see too e.g. two regimental histories: Captain Geniev, Istoriia Pskovskago pekhotnago general-fel’dmarshala kniazia Kutuzova-Smolenskago polka:1730–1831, Moscow, 1883, pp. 178–82; S. A. Gulevich, Istoriia 8-go pekhotnago Estliandskago polka, SPB, 1911, pp. 128–41. On morale in Wittgenstein’s corps and the impact of victory, see V. Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god v dnevnikakh, zapiskakh i vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, 4 vols., Vilna, 1900–1907, ‘Zapiski A. I. Antonovskago’, vol. 3, pp. 72–3.

4 See e.g. comments by Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, in A. G. Tartakovskii (ed.), Voennye dnevniki, Moscow, 1990, pp. 333, 345.

5 On d’Auvray, see e.g. F. von Schubert, Unter dem Doppeladler, Stuttgart, 1962, p. 58; on Sukhozhanet, see e.g., N. M. Zatvornitskii, Pamiat’ o chlenakh voennago soveta, SVM, 3/4, SPB, 1906, pp. 141 ff.

6 On Diebitsch, see e.g. the comments of Aleksandr Chicherin: L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Dnevnik Aleksandra Chicherina, 1812–1813, Moscow, 1966, p. 135. Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina, SPB, 1896, p. 111.

7 Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, 32 vols., Paris, 1858–70, vol. 24, no. 19100, Napoleon to Berthier, 19 Aug. 1812, pp. 158–9.

8 Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire militaire sous le Directoire, le Consulat et l’Empire, Paris, 1831, vol. 3, pp. 79–81; MVUA 1812, 17, Wittgenstein to Alexander, 6 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 284–5.

9 Gulevich, Istoriia…Estliandskago polka, pp. 137–41.

10 Saint-Cyr, Mémoires, vol. 3, p. 87.

11 MVUA 1812, 17, no. 32, p. 295: Wittgenstein to Alexander: the letter is dated 25 Aug. (OS) but it seems clear that these reports to the emperor are dated by when Alexander received them rather than when they were written. The sum of 14 million comes from Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812 goda, vol. 2, p. 72. The figure for the 1811 budget comes from F. P. Shelekhov, Glavnoe intendantskoe upravlenie, SVM, 5/1, SPB, 1903, p. 373. The slight vagueness as regards the number of provinces is caused by complications in defining the word province in the Russia of 1812. Some border districts and Asiatic regions were not called provinces.

12 See e.g. the comments of Major-General Prince Vasili Viazemsky, who commanded a brigade in Tormasov’s army: Tartakovskii (ed.), Voennye dnevniki, pp. 199–215.

13 Langeron calls this army ‘one of the best in Europe’. As deputy commander of this force his view is biased but it was to be proved by the Army of the Danube’s performance. Mémoires de Langeron, Général d’Infanterie dans l’Armée Russe: Campagnes de1812, 1813, 1814, Paris, 1902, p. 7.

14 VPR, 6, no. 164, Russo-Turkish peace treaty, pp. 406–17.

15 The two key letters from Alexander to Chichagov were written on 6 and 22 July (OS): VIS, 2/3, 1912, pp. 201–6.

16 MVUA 1812, 16, Alexander to Barclay, 7 April 1812 (OS), pp. 181–2.

17 The instructions are VPR, 6, no. 145, 21 April 1812, pp. 363–5.

18 VPR, 6, no. 197, Rumiantsev to Alexander, 5/17 July 1812, pp. 486–90.

19 MVUA 1812, 13, no. 321, Tuyll to Barclay, 26 June/8 July 1812, pp. 329–30. VIS, 2/3, 1912, Alexander to Chichagov, 13 June 1812 (OS), pp. 196–8. On Austrian promises, see in particular Francis II’s conversation with Stackelberg: VPR, 6, no. 158, Stackelberg to Rumiantsev, 29 April/11 May 1812, pp. 393–6.

20 For march-routes and times, see MVUA 1812, vol. 17, pp. 197–8.

21 V. von Löwenstern, Mémoires du Général-Major Russe Baron de Löwenstern, 2 vols., Paris, 1903, vol. 1, p. 250. VS, 47/1, 1904, no. 19, Alexander to Barclay, 24 Nov. 1812 (OS), pp. 231–6.

22 S. Panchulidzev, Istoriia kavalergardov, SPB, 1903, vol. 3, p. 180.

23 N. M. Konshin, ‘Zapiski o 1812 gode’, IV, 8, 1884, pp. 263–86, at pp. 281–2. A.M. Valkovich and A. P. Kapitonov (eds.), Borodino: Dokumental’naia khronika, Moscow, 2004, no. 27, Kutuzov to Alexander, 19 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 24–5. Kutuzov, vol. 4i, Moscow, 1954, no. 125, Kutuzov to E. I. Kutuzova, 19 August 1812 (OS), p. 108.

24 Langeron, Mémoires, p. 28. Many wounded were actually abandoned at Mozhaisk but this was exceptional.

25 Carl von Clausewitz, The Campaign of 1812 in Russia, London, 1992, pp. 175–6.

26 Antoine de Jomini, The Art of War, London, 1992, pp. 64–5, 230, 233–8.

27 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 2, pp. 70–72.

28 F. Glinka, Pis’ma russkogo ofitsera, Moscow, 1987, p. 293.

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.

73 S. I. Maevskii, ‘Moi vek ili istoriia generala Maevskago, 1779–1848’, RS, 8, 1873, pp. 135–67, at p. 143.

74 ‘Iz vospominanii Akinfova’, in Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god, vol. 1, pp. 205–12. Maevskii, ‘Moi vek’, pp. 143–4.

75 The most up-to-date surveys are, as usual, in Entsiklopediia: see especially the pieces on Moscow (pp. 476–9) and the fire (pp. 482–4). For the figure on private property destroyed, see Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812 goda, vol. 3, p. 28. For the evacuation of the wounded, see Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Memuary 1814–1815, SPB, 2001, p. 189, for a subsequent conversation with Wylie. Also S. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia i snabzheniia russkoi armii nakanune i v khode otechestvennoi voiny 1812 g. i zagranichnykh pokhodov1813–1815 gg.: Istoricheskie aspekty, SPB, 2003, pp. 143–4.

76 On the barges, see the records of the post-war inquiry in Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, prilozhenie no. 20, pp. 717–18.

77 As always, A. I. Popov, Velikaia armiia v Rossii: Pogonia za mirazhom, Samara, 2002, pp. 178 ff., has an excellent discussion of these issues.

78 V. N. Speranskii, Voenno-ekonomicheskaia podgotovka Rossii k bor’be s Napoleonom v 1812–1814 godakh, candidate’s dissertation, Gorky, 1967, pp. 386–8. Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 294, Kutuzov to Voronov, 7 Sept. 1812 (OS), p. 250.

Chapter 7: The Home Front in 1812

1 P. A. Chuikevich, ‘Analiticheskii proekt voennykh deistvii v 1812. P. A. Chuikevicha’, Rossiiskii Arkhiv, 7, 1996, p. 46. S. N. Golubeva (ed.), General Bagration: Sbornik dokumentov i materialov, Moscow, 1945, no. 57, ‘Plan kampanii 1812 goda, predstavlennyi P. I. Bagrationom Aleksandru I’, pp. 130–38. Janet Hartley provides a very useful survey of Russian society’s resistance to Napoleon in ‘Russia and Napoleon: State, Society and the Nation’, in M. Rowe (ed.), Collaboration and Resistance in Napoleonic Europe, Basingstoke, 2003, pp. 186–202.

2 N. Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr Pervyi: Ego zhizn’ i tsarstvovanie, 4 vols., SPB, 1897, vol. 3, pp. 100–103.

3 MVUA 1812, 17, Barclay to Asch, 21 July 1812 (OS), pp. 157–8.

4 L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Narodnoe opolchenie v otechestvennoi voine 1812 goda: Sbornik dokumentov, Moscow, 1962, no. 2, 6 July 1812 (OS), pp. 14–15.

5 The statistics come from Beskrovnyi (ed.), Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 205, pp. 218–19: these are the final reports of Lieutenant-General Tyrtov, the commander of the Tver militia. C. F. Adams (ed.), John Quincy Adams in Russia, New York, 1970, p. 452.

6 The outstanding work on Russian popular (and other) resistance to Napoleon is A. I. Popov, Velikaia armiia v Rossii: Pogonia za mirazhom, Samara, 2002. Popov also contributed many excellent articles, on ‘People’s War’, peasant disturbances, partisans and adjacent topics, to Entsiklopediia. There are parallels here with Spain, where Charles Esdaile shows that many of the guerrillas were regular cavalrymen. The Russian case was much more clear-cut, however, as one would expect. Unlike in Spain, the Russian state had not collapsed. See Charles Esdaile, Fighting Napoleon: Guerrillas, Bandits and Adventurers in Spain 1808–14, London, 2004.

7 Beskrovnyi, Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 140, Kutuzov to Alexander, 23 Oct. 1812 (OS), pp. 155–6; see e.g. no. 89, pp. 113–17, and no. 121, p. 142, for descriptions of individual actions.

8 Popov, Velikaia armiia, pp. 185–229. A. G. Tartakovskii (ed.), Voennye dnevniki, Moscow, 1990, diary of Prince D. M. Volkonsky, p. 146. For an older but still useful view of peasant disturbances, see V. I. Semevskii, ‘Volneniia krest’ian v 1812 gi. sviazannyia s otechestvennoi voinoi’, in A. K. Dzhivelegov, S. P. Melgunov and P. I. Pichet (eds.), Otechestvennaia voina i russkoe obshchestvo, 7 vols., Moscow, 1911, vol. 5, pp. 74–113.

9 See the many interesting documents in RGVIA, Fond 1, Opis 1ii, Delo 2584: ‘O vozmushcheniiakh krest’ian i ob usilenii sredstv k poimke beglykh rekrut, dezertirov i kazakov’: fos. 41–2: d’Auvray to Gorchakov, 1 Nov. 1812 (OS), describes the rout of the dragoons, and fo. 35: Wittgenstein to Gorchakov, 6 Nov. 1812 (OS), explains why military operations have to come first.

10 SIM, 2, no. 312, Alexander to Gorchakov, 9 Nov. 1812 (OS), pp. 171–2.

11 There is an immense literature on Moscow in 1812 with many interesting materials contained, for example, in the multi-volume series compiled by P. I. Shchukin: Bumagi otnosiashchiiasia do otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda, Moscow, 1897–1908. N. Dubrovin (ed.), Otechestvennaia voina v pis’makh sovremennikov, Moscow, 2006, contains a number of Rostopchin’s letters to Balashev: see in particular nos. 55 and 62, 23 July and 30 July 1812 (OS), pp. 60–63, 70–71. English-speaking readers need to look no further than an excellent article by Alexander Martin, ‘The Response of the Population of Moscow to the Napoleonic Occupation of 1812’, in Eric Lohr and Marshall Poe (eds.), The Military and Society in Russia, 1450–1917, Leiden, 2002, pp. 469–89.

12 Dubrovin, Otechestvennaia voina, no. 47, 15 July 1812 (OS), pp. 54–6. Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr, vol. 3, p. 90. L. V. Mel’nikova, Armiia i pravoslavnaia tserkov’ Rossiiskoi imperii v epokhu Napoleonovskikh voin, Moscow, 2007, pp. 57–90, 100–115.

13 PSZ, 22, 16187, 21 April 1785 (OS), p. 348.

14 Compare for example the language of Alexander’s decree to Governor Suponev of Vladimir with Suponev’s own subsequent reference to the emperor’s ‘commands’: RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1, Delo 16, fos. 21, 23–8: Suponev to Lobanov-Rostovsky, 11 June 1812 (OS), and Alexander to Suponev, 13 May 1812 (OS). As regards service in the militia and its evasion, see e.g. N. F. Khovanskii, Uchastie Saratovskoi gubernii v otechestvennoi voine 1812 g., Saratov, 1912, pp. 41–64; I. I. Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia guberniia v 1812 godu, Riazan, 1913, pp. 277–528.

15 See the memoirs of Countess Edling, reprinted in A. Libermann (ed.), Derzhavnyi sfinks, Moscow, 1999: ‘Grafinia Roksandra Skarlatovna Edling: Zapiski’, pp. 157–236, at pp. 174–5. On sabotaging the estate tax, see e.g. Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, pp. 8–21.

16 ‘V. V. Viazemskii: Zhurnal 1812 g.’, in Russkie dnevniki: 1812 god, Moscow, 1990, pp. 185–225, at p. 211.

17 Khovanskii, Uchastie, pp. 31–3.

18 Upravlenie General-Intendanta Kankrina: General’nyi sokrashchennyi otchet po armiiam…za pokhody protiv Frantsuzov, 1812, 1813 i 1814 godov, Warsaw, 1815, pp. 11, 44. L. G. Beskrovnyi, Otechestvennaia voina 1812 goda, Moscow, 1962, pp. 245–7. S. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia i snabzheniia russkoi armii nakanune i v khode otechestvennoi voiny 1812 g. i zagranichnykh pokhodov 1813–1815 gg.: Istoricheskie aspekty, SPB, 2003, p. 121.

19 V. V. Tivanov, Finansy russkoi armii, Moscow, 1993, p. 79.

20 PSZ, 32, nos. 24975 and 25035, 27 Jan. and 13 March 1812 (OS), pp. 43–164 and 228–9. Upravlenie General-Intendanta, p. 134. Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 387, Kutuzov to Kaverin, 13 Sept. 1812 (OS), p. 305: the same letter went to the governors of Riazan, Orel, Tver and Tula.

21 The estimate is by Tivanov, Finansy, p. 66, but is based on the discussion in M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda, 3 vols., SPB, 1859–60, vol. 2, pp. 31–90.

22 The key documents for Kleinmichel’s operation are in SIM, 1, no. 3, Alexander to Gorchakov, 27 June 1812 (OS), pp. 5–11; no. 9, Alexander to Kleinmichel, 27 June 1812 (OS), pp. 14–15; no. 21, Alexander to Kleinmichel, 6 July 1812 (OS), pp. 23–4. There is a fine new book on the Russian marines which includes extensive coverage of the Napoleonic era: A. Kibovskii and O. Leonov, 300 let Rossiiskoi morskoi pekhoty, Moscow, 2007.

23 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, e.g. fos. 18–19, Suponev to Lobanov, 6 June 1812 (OS); fo. 21, Suponev to Lobanov, 11 June 1812 (OS); fos. 23–8, copies of Alexander’s orders to Suponev, dated 13 May 1812 (OS). See Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, p. 168, for a list of these provinces.

24 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos. 2–3, Pasynkov to Lobanov, 18 June 1812 (OS); fos. 90–91, Shter to Lobanov, 6 July 1812 (OS).

25 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 16, fos. 6–7, Pasynkov to Lobanov, 23 July 1812 (OS); fos. 100–101, Shter to Lobanov, 18 July 1812 (OS).

26 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos. 6–7, Pasynkov to Lobanov, 23 July 1812 (OS); fos. 284–5, Prince Grigorii Golitsyn to Lobanov, 9 July 1812 (OS). RA, 6, 1866, pp. 922–7: ‘Avtobiograficheskie zametki Grafa Arakcheeva’.

27 Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, pp. 174–82, 210–22; Entsiklopediia, p. 297.

28 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos. 92–3, Shter to Balashev, 24 June 1812 (OS); Delo 19, fos. 77–81, Urusov to Lobanov, 23 July 1812 (OS). Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, p. 188.

29 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos.

29 and 32, Dolgorukov to Lobanov, 6 Aug. and 3 Sept. 1812 (OS).

30 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 19, fos. 2–4, Gorchakov to Lobanov, 20 Aug. 1812 (OS); fos. 134–40, ‘Spisok o vsekh shtab i ober ofitserakh postupivshikh na sluzhbu’.

31 Kutuzov, vol 4ii, Kutuzov to Alexander, 9 October 1812 (OS), pp. 62–3. Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, pp. 224–7. RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos. 100–101, Shter to Lobanov, 18 July 1812 (OS).

32 Beskrovnyi, Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 3, 18 July 1812 (OS), pp. 15–16, is the text of this manifesto.

33 The statistic comes from an article by V. I. Babkin, the leading Soviet-era expert on the militia: ‘Organizatsiia i voennye deistviia narodnogo opolcheniia v otechestvennoi voine 1812 goda’, in K stopiatidesiatiletiiu otechestvennoi voiny, Moscow, 1962, pp. 134–62, at p. 145.

34 Beskrovnyi, Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 117, pp. 137–9: regulations of the Kaluga militia committee, 25 July 1812 (OS).

35 Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, p. 228. A few of these men did receive new uniforms produced abroad: see Ch. 10. The minister added that even in wartime not all wool could be assigned for uniforms.

36 Beskrovnyi, Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 354, Tolstoy to Alexander, 28 Sept. 1812 (OS), p. 368.

37 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812 goda, vol. 2, p. 56.

38 Apart from Babkin and Bezotosnyi, the fullest source on the militia is the many volumes compiled by V. R. Apukhtin for the centenary of 1812: see e.g. Narodnaia voennaia sila: Dvorianskiia opolcheniia v otechestvennoi voine, Moscow, 1912. Apukhtin is as determined to sing the nobles’ glory as Babkin is to downplay their contribution. Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, pp. 229–621, is an immensely informative study of the Riazan militia.

39 Speranskii, Voenno-ekonomicheskaia podgotovka, pp. 381, 392, 407–23. Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 18: memorandum by Müller-Zakomel’sky, 10 July 1812 (OS), p. 20.

40 SIM, 1, no. 81, Alexander to Kutuzov, 24 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 64–5.

41 A. I. Ulianov, ‘Tarutinskii lager: “neudobnye” fakty’, in Ot Tarutino do Maloiaroslavtsa: K 190-letiiu Maloiaroslavetskogo srazheniia, Kaluga, 2002, pp. 23–36.

42 Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski, vol. 1, p. 172. Viazemskii, ‘Zhurnal’, p. 215. Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre, nos. 33 and 37, Catherine to Alexander, 6 Sept. and 23 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 107–8, 119–22.

43 Meshetich, ‘Istoricheskie zapiski’, p. 50. L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Dnevnik Aleksandra Chicherina, 1812–1813, Moscow, 1966, pp. 14–16.

44 On Tishchenko, see MVUA 1812, 19, pp. 335–6. Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka za sto let 1796–1896, SPB, 1896, p. 88. V. Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god v dnevnikakh, zapiskakh i vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, 4 vols., Vilna, 1900–1907, vol. 2, p. 200: ‘Opisanie srazhenii’.

45 Dnevnik Chicherina, pp. 18–19, 28. Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina, Leningrad, 1987, pp. 61–2.

46 ‘Edling’, pp. 172–3, makes this point about mutual distrust.

47 E. F. Komarovskii, Zapiski grafa E. F. Komarovskago, SPB, 1914, p. 195. Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr, vol. 3, pp. 88–90.

48 Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr, pp. 90–92. ‘Edling’, pp. 174–5.

49 Sir Robert Wilson, The French Invasion of Russia, Bridgnorth, 1996, pp. 115–16.

50 Ibid., pp. 116–17.

51 Ibid.

52 ‘Edling’, pp. 178–9.

53 Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre, nos. 33, 38, 39, Catherine to Alexander, 6, 23 and 28 Sept., 1812 (OS), pp. 83–4, 93–6 and 98–9; nos. 73 and 74, Alexander to Catherine, 18 and 24 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 86–93, 96–8.

54 Elizabeth to the Margravine of Baden, 7 and 9 Sept. 1812, in Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, L’Impératrice Élisabeth, épouse d’Alexandre Ier, 4 vols., SPB, 1908–9, vol. 2ii, pp. 443–5.

55 Quoted in F. Ley, Alexandre Ier et sa Sainte-Alliance (1811–1825), Paris, 1975, pp. 49–55; ‘Edling’, pp. 176–9.

56 See Michaud’s account of the conversation in Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr, vol. 3, prilozheniia, document VII, pp. 509–10.

Chapter 8: The Advance from Moscow

1 Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 187, Kutuzov to Alexander, 27 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 154–5; no. 241, Alexander to Kutuzov, 31 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 194–5.

2 The plans were set out in Alexander’s letter of 31 Aug. (OS) and also in the draft instructions to Chichagov, Tormasov, Wittgenstein and Steinhel which Chernyshev brought with him to Kutuzov’s headquarters. For the latter see prilozheniia 6, 7, 8 and 9 inKutuzov, vol. 4i, pp. 463–70.

3 Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 322, Chernyshev to Alexander, 10 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 265–8.

4 Chernyshev’s own account of these actions is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3386, fos. 2ii–3ii: ‘Zhurnal voennykh deistvii General Adiutanta Chernysheva’. MVUA 1812, 20, no. 1, Wittgenstein to Alexander, 6 Nov. 1812 (OS), p. 4.

5 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 2, pp. 169, 173. A. Brett-James (ed.), General Wilson’s Journal 1812–1814, London, 1964, p. 75.

6 A good translation of Davydov’s memoirs was recently published in English: In the Service of the Tsar against Napoleon: The Memoirs of Denis Davydov, trans Prince G. Trubetskoy, London, 2006.

7 T. J. Binyon, Pushkin: A Biography, London, 2002, p. 130.

8 I. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s 1812 po 1816 god, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 1, pp. 205–6. On Figner, see an anonymous article entitled ‘Uverennost’ v zvezde svoego schastiia’, Rodina, 8, 2002, pp. 47–50.

9 MVUA 1812, 18, no. 124, Davydov to Konovnitsyn, 21 Sept. 1812 (OS), p. 101.

10 P. Grabbe, Iz pamiatnykh zapisok: Otechestvenniaia voina, Moscow, 1873, pp. 97–8; V. von Löwenstern, Mémoires du Général-Major Russe Baron de Löwenstern, 2 vols., Paris, 1903, vol. 1, p. 296.

11 S. G. Volkonskii, Zapiski Sergeia Grigorovicha Volkonskogo (dekabrista), SPB, 1902, pp. 170–71, 189–94; Löwenstern, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 7, 182. Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 163, Kutuzov to Alexander, 20 Oct. 1812 (OS), p. 175. For Arakcheev’s efforts to reduce his own contributions, see his angry correspondence with Governor Sumarokov of Novgorod in the summer and autumn of 1812 and his appeals for help to Balashev: P. I. Shchukin (ed.), Bumagi otnosiashchiiasia do otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda, vol. 4, Moscow, 1899, pp. 118–27.

12 See, above all, G. Bibikov, ‘Aleksandr Khristoforovich Benkendorf (1781–1844): Istoricheskii ocherk’, Vestnik MGU, 1, 2007, pp. 36–60. Also an informative letter from Johann to Christoph Lieven, dated 5 Jan. 1811 (OS): BL Add. Mss 47410, p. 56.

13 Zapiski Benkendorfa, 1812 god: Otechestvennaia voina. 1813 god. Osvobozhdenie Niderlandov, Moscow, 2001, pp. 70–71.

14 All these statistics are drawn from Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 439, Kutuzov to Alexander, 22 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 353–61, and prilozheniia.

15 For example, on 22 September Kutuzov’s order of the day warned that remounts would soon be arriving from many sources and told his regiments to prepare to collect them. One such source was Tula province, whose governor had been told by Kutuzov to purchase 500 horses and send 2,000 militia horses to the army’s regular cavalry: Kutuzov, vol. 4i, nos. 287, 296, 320, pp. 246–7, 251, 264: the first two documents are letters of 6 and 7 Sept. (OS) to Governor Bogdanov, the third is an order of the day of 10 September.

16 Babkin, ‘Organizatsiia’, p 145. L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Narodnoe opolchenie v otechestvennoi voine 1812 goda: Sbornik dokumentov, Moscow, 1962, nos. 452, 453, pp. 473–7. The first document is a report of 23 July (OS) from the Don region to Platov on the universal mobilization. The second is Platov’s October report to Alexander I on the results of the mobilization. See also V. M. Bezotosnyi, Donskoi generalitet i ataman Platov v 1812 godu, Moscow, 1899, pp. 92–6.

17 Viscount de Puybusque, Lettres sur la Guerre de Russie en 1812, Paris, 1816, pp. 142–4.

18 For Kutuzov’s comment, see A. I. Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Opisanie otechestvennoi voiny v 1812 godu, repr. Moscow, 2008, p. 384. Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 531, Alexander to Kutuzov, 2 Oct. 1812 (OS), pp. 431–2.

19 A. P. Ermolov, The Czar’s General, ed. and trans. A. Mikaberidze, Welwyn Garden City, 2007, pp. 178–80, covers Tarutino and Ermolov’s views on the command structure in the English translation of his memoirs. Prince Aleksandr Golitsyn, Kutuzov’s aide-de-camp, describes his rage in VS, 53/12, 1910, pp. 21–35, at p. 29: ‘Zapiska o voine 1812 goda A. B. Golitsyna’.

20 Barclay’s letter to Alexander of 24 Sept. 1812 (OS) on this score is in MVUA 1812, 18, no. 148, pp. 118–22.

21 N. A. Troitskii, Fel’dmarshal Kutuzov: Mify i fakty, Moscow, 2002, quotes Raevsky on pp. 232–3.

22 By far the fullest recent account of the battle is by V. A. Bessonov, ‘Tarutinskoe srazhenie’, in Epokha 1812 goda: Issledovaniia, istochniki, istoriografiia, TGIM, Moscow, 2006, vol. 5, pp. 101–53.

23 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 2, pp. 175–82, gives a graphic but fair account.

24 Bennigsen’s view is best put in a letter to his wife of 10 Oct. 1812 (OS): no. 177, pp. 223–5 in N. Dubrovin (ed.), Otechestvennaia voina v pis’makh sovremennikov, Moscow, 2006. The casualty figures are from Bessonov, ‘Tarutinskoe’, pp. 142–3, though A. I. Ulianov cites higher ones in Entsiklopediia, p. 694. Kutuzov’s report to Alexander on Tarutino is in Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 16, Kutuzov to Alexander, 7 Oct. 1812 (OS), pp. 16–19.

25 P. de Ségur, History of the Expedition to Russia, 1812, 2 vols., Stroud, 2005, vol. 2, pp. 75–8, recalls some of Napoleon’s thinking on the various possibilities. Napoleon himself spelled them out in a number of letters and memorandums written in Moscow in October 1812: see Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, 32 vols., Paris, 1858–70, vol. 24, especially no. 19237, notes, undated, pp. 235–8, but also his letters to Berthier of 5 and 6 Oct. and to Maret of 16 Oct.: nos. 19250, 19258, 19275, pp. 246–7, 252–4, 265–6.

26 Ségur, History, vol. 2, pp. 82–3; A. de Caulaincourt, At Napoleon’s Side in Russia, New York, 2003, pp. 136–8; Duc de Fezensac, Souvenirs militaires, Paris, 1863, p. 258. Brett-James, Wilson’s Journal, p. 80. On the astonishing level of plundering in the Italian campaign, see Martin Boycott-Brown, The Road to Rivoli, London, 2001, pp. 287–8, 306, 335–6.

27 The key report from Dokhturov to Kutuzov, written at 9.

30 p.m. on 22 October, is in Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 59, pp. 75–6.

28 The best account of the battle is by A. Vasil’ev, Srazhenie pri Maloiaroslavtse 12/24 oktiabria 1812 goda, Maloiaroslavets, 2002; see p. 27 for the information on the 6th Jaegers. The entries on the battle and the monastery in Entsiklopediia, on pp. 437–9 and 472, are very useful too.

29 Kutuzov’s account is in his report to Alexander of 16 Oct. 1812 (OS), which enclosed his army’s journal of military operations: Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 119, pp. 128–34.

30 Sir Robert Wilson, The French Invasion of Russia, Bridgnorth, 1996, p. 234.

31 His comment about England is cited by Troitskii, Fel’dmarshal Kutuzov, p. 278.

32 Many of Wilson’s letters both to the emperor and to his compatriots are published in Dubrovin (ed.), Otechestvennaia voina. They were drawn from police files. Bennigsen’s letter of 8 October (OS) asking Alexander to return to headquarters is published inMVUA 1812, 19, pp. 344–5.

33 N. Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr pervyi: Ego zhizn’ i tsarstvovanie, 4 vols., SPB, 1897, vol. 3, p. 124.

34 See e.g. Alexander’s comments to Wilson in Vilna in December 1812 or the Grand Duchess Catherine’s annoyance about Kutuzov’s huge popularity and how unworthy of it he was: Wilson’s Journal, p. 95. Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre, no. 46, Catherine to Alexander, 25 Nov. 1812 (OS), pp. 108–9.

35 Kutuzov, vol 4ii, no. 192, pp. 195–201, journal of military operations. MVUA 1812, 19, e.g. Ermolov to Kutuzov, 18 Oct. 1812 (OS), p. 73; Platov to Kutuzov, 20 Oct. 1812 (OS), p. 78.

36 P. B. Austen, 1812: Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia, London, 2000, p. 47.

37 F. Glinka, Pis’ma russkogo ofitsera, Moscow, 1987, p. 371.

38 S. V. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia i snabzheniia russkoi armii nakanune i v khode otechestvennoi voiny 1812 g. i zagranichnykh pokhodov 1813–1815 gg.: Istoricheskie aspekty, candidate’s dissertation, SPB, 2003, p. 109, for the statistics quoted here.

39 Kutuzov, vol 4i, no. 536 and annex, Kutuzov to Lanskoy, 3 Oct. 1812 (OS), pp. 439–40. See also Gavrilov, Organizatsiia, pp. 158–9.

40 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 210/4, Sv. 1, Delo 1: fos. 1–2, Kutuzov’s circular to twelve governors of 15 Sept. 1812 (OS); fos. 28–9, Lanskoy’s report to Kutuzov of 9 Oct. (OS).

41 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 210/4, Sv. 1, Delo 1: fos. 38–9: Major-General Potulov to Bennigsen, 11 Oct. 1812 (OS); NB the letter was received on 16 Oct.; fos. 77–8, Lanskoy to Kutuzov, 11 Nov. (OS); fo. 97, Santi to Kutuzov, November but no day given; fos. 113–14, Lanskoy to Kutuzov, 11 Dec. (OS); fos. 126–7, Lanskoy to Kutuzov, 15 Dec. (OS); fos. 137–8, Lanskoy to Kutuzov, 23 Jan. 1813 (OS). On winter clothing, see e.g. Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 387, Kutuzov to Kaverin, 13 Sept. 1812 (OS), p. 305.

42 See e.g. Kutuzov’s letters to Nikolai Bogdanov, the governor of Tula, of 19 and 24 Oct. (OS): Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, nos. 159 and 196, pp. 169–70 and 205–6.

43 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 195, pp. 203–4, 24 Oct. 1812 (OS): an Order of the Day. Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Opisanie 1812, p. 457, writes that 74 million rubles’ worth of property was destroyed in Smolensk province in 1812. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia, p. 159.

44 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 2, pp. 204–7. Entsiklopediia, p. 170, states that the Russians lost 1,800 men, the enemy 7,000. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski, vol. 1, pp. 250–51.

45 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, prilozhenie 21, p. 719, has a table showing the temperature month-by-month in 1812 in various places with statistics indicating how much this diverged from the norm. Anyone using this table must remember that the months are according to the Russian calendar. R. M. Zotov, Sochineniia, Moscow, n.d., p. 611, on how winter came suddenly in 1812. It would be tedious to list all the Russian sources which criticize French excuses about the weather, but see e.g. V. Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god v dnevnikakh, zapiskakh i vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, 4 vols., Vilna, 1900–1907, vol. 1, pp. 80–81, for General Kreutz’s comments. Baron Fain, Manuscrit de Mil Huit CentDouze, Paris, 1827, pp. 151–2.

46 Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski, vol. 1, pp. 256–67.

47 Puybusque, Lettres, pp. 105–15: 7, 10, 12 Nov. 1812. Fezensac, Souvenirs, p. 276.

48 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. 307.

49 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 2, pp. 241–50. Löwenstern, Mémoires, vol. 1, p. 348.

50 Both M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda, 3 vols., SPB, 1859–60, vol. 3, pp. 101–46, and Entsiklopediia, pp. 379–80, give accurate and fair accounts. Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 2, pp. 268–70 explains Ney’s escape from the Russian perspective.

51 Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina, Leningrad, 1987, pp. 71–2.

52 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 2, p. 275.

53 Gavrilov, Organizatsiia, pp. 154–71. Upravlenie General-Intendanta Kankrina: Generalnyi sokrashchennyi otchet po armiiam…za pokhody Frantsuzov, 1812, 1813, 1814 godov, Warsaw, 1815, p. 79. On the troops’ exhausting marches down snow-bound side roads, see Zapiski o pokhodakh 1812 i 1813 godov ot Tarutinskago srazheniia do Kul’mskago boia, SPB, 1834, part 1, p. 40. The book is anonymous because its author, V. S. Norov, had been imprisoned after the Decembrist rising of 1825 and wrote it in custody.

54 There are interesting sidelights on this from Kutuzov’s discussions with the captured Puybusque: Lettres, especially as recorded in his letters of 11 and 18 Dec. 1812 (OS), pp. 141 ff. Note too Kutuzov’s earlier comments to Wilson and Bennigsen discussed in this chapter and his later conversations with Alexander and Shishkov which I will discuss in Ch. 9.

55 The letter is in a footnote on p. 282 of Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 295.

56 Kutuzov’s two letters to Chichagov are in Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 295, 3 Nov. 1812 (OS), pp. 282–3, and no. 363, 10 Nov. 1812 (OS), pp. 344–5. His letter to Wittgenstein of 8–9 November is in the same volume, no. 349, pp. 334–5. His comment to Ermolov is cited by V. S. Norov who was an aide-de-camp and an officer of the Guards Jaegers, one of the Guards regiments entrusted to Ermolov. See Norov’s Zapiski, p. 75. Ermolov quotes the first but not the second sentence in his memoirs and he was best placed to know exactly what Kutuzov said. Norov may have been embellishing his tale. But the words he ascribes to Kutuzov do sum up an attitude which comes across in many accounts, including Ermolov’s: see A. P. Ermolov, Zapiski A. P. Ermolova 1798–1826, Moscow, 1991, pp. 243–6.

57 Carl von Clausewitz, The Campaign of 1812 in Russia, London, 1992, pp. 213–14.

58 The basic narrative here comes from Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 2, ch. XXXI, pp. 442 ff. and vol. 3, ch. XL, pp. 205 ff. See RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3419: ‘Iskhodiashchii zhurnal Generala Sakena’, fos. 4i–ii, Sacken to Kutuzov, 21 Feb. 1813 for his complaint that he and his men had sacrificed themselves for the common good without hope of personal recognition.

59 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, pp. 206–35. A. G. Tartakovskii (ed.), Voennye dnevniki, Moscow, 1990, pp. 211–25, covers the advance to the Berezina.

60 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, p. 236.

61 See Oertel’s letter to Chichagov of 3 Nov. 1812 (OS): MVUA 1812, 21, pp. 115–17; Chichagov to Alexander, 17 Nov. 1812 (OS): SIRIO, 6, 1871, pp. 56–8.

62 MVUA 1812, 19, Wittgenstein to Alexander, 19 Oct. 1812 (OS), p. 265.

63 Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire militaire sous le Directoire, le Consulat et l’Empire, Paris, 1831, vol. 3, pp. 201–3.

64 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, pp. 198–204. MVUA 1812, 19, Wittgenstein to Alexander, 26 Oct. 1812 (OS), p. 268; Wittgenstein to Alexander, 31 Oct. 1812 (OS), pp. 270–72. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia, p. 163. See e.g. Alexander’s letter to Kutuzov of 30 Oct. 1812 (OS) in SIM, 2, no. 270, pp. 140–41, and Kutuzov’s letter to Wittgenstein of 3 Nov. (OS) on the same danger in Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 293, pp. 280–81.

65 V. Kriuchkov, 95-i pekhotnyi Krasnoiarskii polk: 1797–1897, SPB, 1897, p. 172. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia, p. 161, on requisitioning in Mogilev province.

66 Ermolov, Zapiski, pp. 244–8.

67 P. Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, SPB, 1896, pp. 207–10. (Norov), Zapiski, pp. 76–7; Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka za sto let 1796–1896, SPB, 1896, pp. 88–94.

68 S. Gulevich, Istoriia leib gvardii Finliandskago polka 1806–1906, SPB, 1906, pp. 256–61. (Norov), Zapiski, pp. 76–7.

69 Chichagov’s letters to Alexander constitute his first defence of his actions: see SIRIO, 6, 1871, pp. 51–67: 17 and 18 Nov. 1812 (OS). In the memoir material, perhaps the best defence comes in an article by General Ivan Arnoldi: ‘Berezinskaia pereprava’, VS, 53/9, 1910, pp. 8–20. The main recent defence is by I. N. Vasilev, Neskol’ko gromkikh udarov po khvostu tigra, Moscow, 2001.

70 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 363, Kutuzov to Chichagov, 10 Nov. 1812 (OS), pp. 344–5. Clausewitz, Campaign, p. 210.

71 Ermolov, Zapiski, p. 251.

72 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, pp. 255–61. Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Opisanie 1812, p. 519.

73 Arnol’di, ‘Berezinskaia pereprava’, pp. 11–12.

74 The best Russian descriptions are Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, pp. 263–76, and Vasil’ev, Neskol’ko gromkikh udarov, pp. 190–200, 248–68.

75 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, pp. 270–72, 277–84, 297. Vasil’ev, Neskol’ko gromkikh udarov, pp. 235–48, 268–85. Clausewitz, Campaign, pp. 204–8.

76 Ermolov, Zapiski, pp. 254–5.

77 Both Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, p. 288, and Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 4, p. 319, make this point.

78 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 563, Kutuzov to Alexander, 19 Dec. 1812, pp. 551–4. N. Murav’ev, ‘Zapiski Murav’eva’, RA, 3, 1885, pp. 389–90. The numbers do not include Osten-Sacken’s corps.

79 I. I. Shelengovskii, Istoriia 69-go Riazanskago polka, 3 vols., Lublin, 1911, vol. 2, p. 192. Upravlenie General-Intendanta, pp. 108–16.

80 Upravlenie General-Intendanta, pp. 114–16.

81 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 516, Kutuzov to Alexander, 1 Dec. 1812 (OS), pp. 494–5.

Chapter 9: 1813: The Spring Campaign

1 C. F. Adams (ed.), John Quincy Adams in Russia, New York, 1970, pp. 458–9. VPR, 7, no. 120, Rumiantsev to Alexander, 27 June/9 July 1813, pp. 293–4; no. 158, Rumiantsev to Alexander, 18/30 Sept. 1813, pp. 386–9.

2 Countess Choiseul-Gouffier, Historical Memoirs of the Emperor Alexander I and the Court of Russia, London, 1904, p. 148.

3 S. I. Maevskii, ‘Moi vek ili istoriia generala Maevskago’, RS, 8, 1873, p. 253.

4 ‘Grafinia Roksandra Skarlatovna Edling: Zapiski’, in A. Libermann (ed.), Derzhavnyi sfinks, Moscow, 1999, p. 181.

5 See e.g. the comments by Sir Charles Stewart, later Marquess of Londonderry, in his Narrative of the War in Germany and France in 1813 and 1814, London, 1830, pp. 33, 242–3.

6 On seduction, see e.g. V. von Löwenstern, Mémoires du Général-Major Russe Baron de Löwenstern, 2 vols., Paris, 1903, and Boris Uxkull, Arms and the Woman: The Intimate Journal of an Amorous Baltic Nobleman in the Napoleonic Wars, London, 1966. The Guards officers’ memoirs bear out David Bell’s point about the links between sex and war in aristocratic military culture: D. A. Bell, The First Total War, London, 2007, pp. 23–4.

7 For Shishkov’s conversation with Kutuzov, see N. Kiselev and Iu. Samarin (eds.), Zapiski, mneniia i perepiska Admirala A. S. Shishkova, 2 vols., Berlin, 1870, vol. 1, pp. 167–9. For Toll’s memorandum, see T. von Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben des kaiserlichen russischen Generals der Infanterie Carl Friedrich Grafen von Toll, 5 vols., Leipzig, 1858, vol. 3, book 5, pp. 469–70.

8 VPR, 7, no. 12, Nesselrode to Alexander I, early Feb. 1813, pp. 33–4.

9 L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod russkoi armii protiv Napoleona v 1813 g. i osvobozhdenie Germanii: Sbornik dokumentov, Moscow, 1964: no. 24, Chernyshev to Kutuzov, 1/13 Jan. 1813, p. 23.

10 ‘Perepiska markviza Paulushi s imperatorom Aleksandrom, prusskim generalom Iorka i drugimi litsami’, in K. Voenskii (ed.), Akty, dokumenty i materialy dlia istorii 1812 goda, 2 vols., SPB, 1910–11, vol. 2, pp. 330–443.

11 See F. Martens (ed.), Sobranie traktatov i konventsii, zakliuchennykh Rossiei s inostrannymi derzhavami, vol. 7: Traktaty s Germaniei 1811–1824, SPB, 1885, no. 254, pp. 40–62.

12 See F. Reboul, Campagne de 1813: Les préliminaires, 2 vols., Paris, 1910, vol. 1, pp. 194–6, on Yorck’s numbers.

13 See Paulucci’s letter to Alexander I of 27 Dec. 1812 (OS), in Voenskii, Akty, vol. 2, pp. 400–402, and Wittgenstein’s angry letter to Chichagov about Paulucci’s idiotic behaviour: MVUA 1813, vol. 2, no. 24, Wittgenstein to Chichagov, 4 Jan. 1813 (OS).

14 Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 16, pp. 14–15.

15 Ibid., no. 7, 6/18 Dec. 1812, pp. 6–8, and no. 53, 25 Jan./6 Feb. 1813, for two important memorandums by Stein to Kutuzov about feeding the Russian troops and utilizing the Prussian administration.

16 There are any number of documents to this effect, but see e.g. Wittgenstein’s report to Kutuzov of 31 Dec. 1812/12 Jan. 1813 (Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 21, pp. 19–20) in which he states that the troops’ behaviour in Königsberg had been exemplary and the local population had greeted them as liberators and was providing food through local Prussian officials in the manner prescribed by Kutuzov’s orders.

17 E. Botzenhart (ed.), Freiherr vom Stein: Briefwechsel, Denkschriften und Aufzeichnungen, 8 vols., Berlin, 1957–70, vol. 4, Stein to Alexander I, 27 Feb./11 March 1813, pp. 234–6.

18 The discussion of Frederick William’s attitudes and policies in the following paragraphs owes much to T. Stamm-Kuhlmann, König in Preussens grosser Zeit, Berlin, 1992, pp. 365 ff.

19 W. Oncken, Österreich und Preussen in Befreiungskriege, 2 vols, Berlin, 1878: the discussion of the Knesebeck mission is in vol. 1, pp. 137–56, with the Knesebeck quotation on p. 166.

20 Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 33, 10/22 Jan. 1813, Chernyshev to Kutuzov, pp. 31–3.

21 Ibid., no. 48, 22 Jan./3 Feb. 1813, Chernyshev to Kutuzov, pp. 43–4.

22 On the battle on the Warthe, see Chernyshev’s journal: RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3386, fos. 6ii–7i, and his report to Wittgenstein of 31 Jan./11 Feb. 1813 in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3905, fo. 2ii; on Benckendorff, see Beskrovnyi (ed.),Pokhod, no. 80, 15/27 Feb. 1813, Wittgenstein to Kutuzov, pp. 80–81.

23 See e.g. Reboul, Campagne de 1813, vol. 2, ch. 5, and Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire militaire sous le Directoire, le Consulat et l’Empire, vol. 4, Paris, 1831, ch. 1.

24 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3386, fo. 8.

25 See e.g. reports by Benckendorff to Repnin of 22 Feb. (10 Feb. OS) and of Chernyshev to Wittgenstein on the previous day: RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3905, fo. 8ii; Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 86, 20 Feb./4 March 1813, Wittgenstein to Kutuzov, p. 89.

26 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3416, fos. 1–2.

27 A. G. Tartakovskii (ed.), Voennye dnevniki, Moscow, 1990: A. I. Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, pp. 319–20.

28 On the treaty, see Martens, Sobranie traktatov, vol. 7, pp. 62–82. For Stein’s views on Poland, see Botzenhart, Stein, vol. 4, Stein to Münster, 7/19 Nov. 1812, pp. 160–62.

29 Oncken, Österreich, vol. 1, pp. 359–60; vol. 2, p. 287. VPR, no. 50, Nesselrode to Stackelberg, 17/29 March 1813, pp. 118–22. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 131, Kutuzov to Winzengerode, 24 March/5 April 1813, p. 132.

30 The fullest source on Austrian policy remains Oncken’s two volumes, Österreich und Preussen. Apart from general works on the diplomacy of the period already cited, see E. K. Kraehe, Metternich’s German Policy, vol. 1: The Contest with Napoleon 1799–1814, Princeton, 1963, and the essays in A. Drabek et al. (eds.), Russland und Österreich zur Zeit der Napoleonischen Kriege, Vienna, 1989.

31 Oncken, Österreich, vol. 1, p. 423: no. 19, Instructions for Lebzeltern, 8 Feb. 1813; vol. 2, pp. 323–4, conversation with Count Hardenberg, 30 May 1813. On military preparations, see the first two volumes of Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs: Kriege unter der Regierung des Kaisers Franz, Befreiungskrieg 1813 und 1814, vol. 1: O. Criste, Österreichs Beitritt zur Koalition, Vienna, 1913; vol. 2: W. Wlaschutz, Österreichs entscheidendes Machtaufgebot, Vienna, 1913.

32 Count A. de Nesselrode (ed.), Lettres et papiers du Chancelier Comte de Nesselrode 1760–1850, Paris, n.d., vol. 5, e.g. Gentz to Nesselrode, 16 Jan. 1813, pp. 12–21; 28 Jan. 1813, pp. 27–31; 10 March 1813, pp. 35–44; 12 March 1813, pp. 44–7; 17 March 1813, pp. 48–51; 18 March 1813, pp. 51–5; Nesselrode to Gentz, 14/26 March 1813, pp. 58–60; Gentz to Nesselrode, 11 April 1813, pp. 64–70; 16 April 1813, pp. 70–78; 2 May 1813, pp. 83–90; 16 May 1813, pp. 96–101; 13 June 1813, pp. 104–7; 23 July 1813, pp. 122–4.

On Gentz’s position in Vienna, see Helmut Rumpler, Österreichische Geschichte 1804– 1914, Vienna, 1997, pp. 78–80.

33 Most of the later negotiations were conducted by Fabian von der Osten-Sacken and the relevant documents are in his journal of outgoing correspondence: RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403. The Austrians passed on considerable information about Polish movements. The text of the original armistice is in Martens, Sobranie traktatov, vol. 3, no. 67, pp. 70–91. Subsequent agreements are in VPR, 7, p. 118, and no. 74, pp. 184–5.

34 Kutuzov, vol. 5, no. 320, Order of the Day, 16 Feb. 1813 (OS), pp. 282–4. N.S. Pestreikov, Istoriia, leib-gvardii Moskovskago polka, SPB, 1903, vol. 1, pp. 115–19.

35 Pestreikov, Istoriia, vol. 1, p. 115; on the Kexholm Regiment, see B. Adamovich, Sbornik voenno-istoricheskikh materialov leib-gvardii Keksgol’mskago imperatora Avstriiskago polka, vol. 3, SPB, 1910, p. 300.

36 On the Iaroslavl Regiment, see RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Delo 1098, fos. 46–71.

37 Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 59, Tettenborn to Alexander, 31 Jan. 1813, pp. 54–6. For his reports to Wittgenstein, see RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3905: the two reports cited are Tettenborn to Wittgenstein, 9 March 1813 (OS) (fos. 22ii–23i) and 11 March 1813 (OS) (fos. 24ii–25i).

38 Londonderry, Narrative, p. 63.

39 J. von Pflugk-Harttung, Das Befreiungsjahr 1813: Aus dem Geheimen Staatsarchivs, Berlin, 1913, no. 136, conversation of Bernadotte with Pozzo and Suchtelen, June 1813, pp. 175–7.

40 R. von Friederich, Die Befreiungskriege 1813–1815, vol. 1: Der Frühjahrsfeldzug 1813, Berlin, 1911, pp. 196–7; C. Rousset, La Grande Armée de 1813, Paris, 1871, pp. 96–7; A. Vallon, Cours d’hippologie, 2 vols., Paris, 1863, vol. 2, p. 473. I am grateful to Professor Thierry Lentz for bringing Vallon’s work to my attention.

41 A. Uffindell, Napoleon’s Immortals, Stroud, 2007, pp. 76, 88–90.

42 The two key sources here are Rousset, Grande Armée, chs. I–XII; Friederich, Frühjahrsfeldzug, pp. 162–80. Friederich states that Napoleon withdrew about 40,000 veterans from Spain: Scott Bowden writes that ‘the Army of Spain immediately provided 20,000 proven veterans for Napoleon’s new Grande Armée’, so the difference between the figures may be a question of the precise period involved. S. Bowden, Napoleon’s Grande Armée of 1813, Chicago, 1990, p. 29.

43 Mémoires de Langeron, Général d’Infanterie dans l’Armée Russe: Campagnes de 1812, 1813 1814, Paris, 1902, p. 190.

44 Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 141, Kutuzov to Golenishchev-Kutuzov, 28 March/9 April 1813, p. 142.

45 Ibid., no. 131, Kutuzov to Winzengerode, 24 March/5 April 1813, p. 132.

46 Tartakovskii, Voennye dnevniki, p. 329: this is an extract from Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky’s diary for 1813. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 105, Kutuzov to Wittgenstein, 8/20 March 1813, pp. 107–8; no. 123, Kutuzov to Wittgenstein, 17/29 March 1813, pp. 125–6; no. 94, Wittgenstein to Kutuzov, 26 Feb./10 March 1813, pp. 95–6; no. 150, Volkonsky to d’Auvray, 8/20 April 1813, pp. 151–2.

47 K. von Clausewitz, Der Feldzug in Russland und die Befreiungskriege von 1813–15, Berlin, 1906, pp. 196–202.

48 Pflugk-Harttung, Befreiungsjahr, no. 82, Blücher to Wittgenstein, c. 20 April 1813, pp. 106–7: no. 45, Scharnhorst to Volkonsky, 22 March 1813, pp. 62–5.

49 P. Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, SPB, 1896, pp. 220–21.

50 I. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s 1812 po 1816 god, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 2, pp. 22–5.

51 S. G. Volkonskii, Zapiski Sergeia Grigorovicha Volkonskogo (dekabrista), SPB, 1902, p. 232: there are many similar comments, e.g. by young staff officers, as a group the best educated men in the army.

52 Tartakovskii, Voennye dnevniki, pp. 333, 345.

53 Hon. George Cathcart, Commentaries on the War in Russia and Germany in 1812 and 1813, London, 1850, pp. 122–30. J. P. Riley, Napoleon and the World War of 1813, London, 2000, pp. 79–89 (the description of the villages is on p. 80).

54 Clausewitz, Feldzug, p. 209.

55 On this, see Botzenhart, Stein, vol. 4, memorandums and correspondence with Scharnhorst, Hardenberg and Nesselrode in April 1813, pp. 274–6, 289–90, 293–4, 299–300, 304–6.

56 VPR, no. 102, Alexander to Bernadotte, 26 May/7 June 1813, pp. 238–42; Oncken, Österreich, vol. 2, no. 46, Stadion to Metternich, 3 June 1813, pp. 660–63.

57 Oncken, Österreich, vol. 2, nos. 33 and 34, Metternich to Lebzeltern, 29 April 1813, pp. 630–34.

58 Ibid., vol. 2, no. 38, Instructions for Stadion, 7 May 1813, pp. 640–44.

59 VPR, no. 80, Nesselrode to Alexander, 1/13 May 1813, pp. 196–7.

60 VPR, no. 101, Nesselrode to Alexander, 24 May/5 June 1813, pp. 236–7.

61 Langeron, Mémoires, pp. 169–78. Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 3, p. 39.

62 In addition to the basic texts already cited (Bogdanovich, Friederich, Chandler, Riley and Hofschroer), Baron Müffling’s memoirs are a vital source on this, but his figure of 5,000 for Barclay’s corps should be discounted since Langeron, who commanded this unit, states that 8,000 men were present that day: Baron Karl von Müffling, The Memoirs of Baron von Müffling: A Prussian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars, London, 1997, pp. 36–8.

63 Langeron, Mémoires, p. 189. Baron von Odeleben, A Circumstantial Narrative of the Campaign in Saxony in the Year 1813, 2 vols., London, 1820, vol. 1, p. 95.

64 Odeleben, Narrative, vol. 1, p. 103.

65 Oncken, Österreich, vol. 2, pp. 323–4, and no. 46, Stadion to Metternich, 3 June 1813, pp. 660–63.

66 For Alexander’s view on Schweidnitz, see RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3905, fo. 51ii, Volkonsky to Wittgenstein, 11 May 1813 (OS); Müffling, Memoirs, pp. 44–9.

67 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 17, Delo 34, fo. 18, Kankrin to Barclay de Tolly, 23 May 1813; RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 17, fos. 158–9, Barclay to Wittgenstein, 26 June 1813. Botzenhart, Stein, vol. 4, Kutuzov to Stein, 6/18 April 1813, p. 287.

68 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3905, fo. 55ii, Volkonsky to d’Auvray, 19 May 1813 (OS); Pflugk-Harttung, Befreiungsjahr, no. 135, L’Estocq to Hardenburg, 30 May 1813, pp. 171–5; M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia voiny 1813 g. za nezavisimost’ Germanii, 2 vols., SPB, 1863, vol. 1, pp. 299–301.

69 F. Ley, Alexandre Ier et sa Sainte-Alliance (1811–1825), Paris, 1975, pp. 63–5. On Alexander’s behaviour, see e.g. Oncken, Österreich, vol. 2, p. 330.

70 Langeron, Mémoires, p. 199.

Chapter 10: Rebuilding the Army

1 RGVIA, Fond 1, Opis 1/2, Delo 2888, fos. 11–13.

2 John Keep, ‘The Russian Army in the Seven Years’ War’, in E. Lohr and M. Poe (eds.), The Military and Society in Russia, 1450–1917, Leiden, 2002, pp. 197–221. For an overall view of logistics in the Seven Years War campaigns, see F. Szabo, The Seven Years War in Europe 1756–1763, Harlow, 2008.

3 MVUA 1813, 1, pp. 119–20. The army law of January set out the basic arrangements for military roads: see PSZ, 32, no. 24975, 27 Jan. 1812 (OS), pp. 116–18. Kutuzov, vol. 5, no. 461, Order of the Day, 15 March 1812 (OS), pp. 416–17.

4 PSZ, 32, no. 24975, 27 Jan. 1812 (OS), part 3, pp. 107–58.

5 Kutuzov, vol. 5, no. 255, Kutuzov to Stein, 31 Jan. 1813 (OS), pp. 214–15; L.G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod russkoi armii protiv Napoleona v 1813 g. i osvobozhdenie Germanii: Sbornik dokumentov, Moscow, 1964, no. 7, Stein memorandum to Alexander, 6/18 Dec. 1812, pp. 6–8, and no. 53, Stein to Kutuzov, 25 Jan./6 Feb. 1813, pp. 47–8.

6 F. Martens (ed.), Sobranie traktatov i konventsii, zakliuchennykh Rossiei s inostrannymi derzhavami, vol. 7: Traktaty s Germaniei 1811–1824, SPB, 1885, no. 258, pp. 88–96. See also p. 123 of Upravlenie General-Intendanta Kankrina: General’nyi sokrashchennyi otchet po armiiam…za pokhody protiv Frantsuzov, 1812, 1813 i 1814 godov, Warsaw, 1815.

7 In late 1813, for example, the Russian war ministry calculated that in the previous four months it had spent 3.9 million rubles feeding units of the Reserve Army deployed within the empire, and only 1. 1 million on the much more numerous forces stationed in the Duchy. Even this 1. 1 million was only due to Alexander’s order that the Reserve Army’s meat and spirits rations should be paid for by the Russian treasury, and no longer by the Poles: ministry of war memorandum for Prince Aleksei Gorchakov, 30 Dec. 1813 (OS), RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3441, fos. 100–101.

8 Kutuzov, vol. 5, no. 370, Law on the Provisional Government of the Duchy of Warsaw, 1/13 March 1813, pp. 329–35; quotation on p. 332.

9 Kutuzov, vol. 5, no. 34, Kutuzov’s proclamation to the Polish population, 27 Dec. 1812 (OS), p. 29, and no. 326, Kutuzov to Alexander, 18 Feb. 1813 (OS), p. 291. MVUA 1813, vol. 2, no. 96, Vorontsov to Chichagov, 1 Feb. 1813 (OS), p. 70.

10 For Kankrin’s instructions, see RGVIA, Fond 474, Opis 1, Ed. Khr. 1204, fos. 4i–ii. Kutuzov, vol. 5, no. 442, Kutuzov to his wife, 11 March 1813 (OS), p. 400. Adamovich, Sbornik, III, pp. 302–5, has interesting statistics on victualling the Kexholm Regiment in the advance guard in January–April. On Frederick’s treatment of Saxony, see Szabo, Seven Years War, pp. 119–20.

11 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 208a, Sv. 28, Delo 31, fos. 161–7, Barclay to Alexander, 18 June 1813 (OS). There is another copy of this letter in Opis 4/210, Sv. 17, Delo 34, fos. 100–106.

12 There are two key reports on Chichagov’s mobile magazine: see RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 18, Delo 76, fos. 20–25: report of Lisanevich to Kankrin, 5 Dec. 1813 (OS); RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 17, Delo 34, fos. 184–7: report by Major Alekseev to Kankrin, 25 June 1813 (OS). See also Kutuzov, vol. 5, Kutuzov to Chichagov, 31 Jan. 1813 (OS), pp. 212–13.

13 On the deal with Adelsohn and co., see RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 17, Delo 34, fos. 240–41, 317–18. The first document is a report by a senior Prussian court official, Count de Bethusy, dated 25 July. The second is a report submitted by Adelsohn himself on 8 November. On the main army’s magazine, see in particular the reports by Kankrin to Barclay of 6, 10 and 16 July 1813 (OS): RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 17, Delo 34, fos. 207–8, 226, 251–3. On peasant carts’ operational limits, see Keep, ‘Russian Army’, p. 215.

14 This was mostly money in the so-called exchange offices set up to remit back to Russia paper rubles which foreigners had received and which they wished to exchange for their own currencies.

15 Alexander’s orders to Gurev are in SIM, 3, no. 136, Alexander to Gurev, 14 June 1813 (OS), pp. 100–101. Two of Gurev’s letters to Barclay, dated 28 June and 1 July (OS), are of interest: see RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 208a, Sv. 28, Delo 31, fos. 125 and 219.

16 SIM, 1, section B, ‘Sekretnyia ofitsial’nyiia svedeniia o polozhenii nashikh finansov v 1813g i ob izyskanii sredstv k prodolzheniiu voennykh deistvii v chuzhikh kraiakh’: no. 1, memorandum by Gurev of 24 April 1813 (OS), pp. 47–50 and 54.

17 Ibid., pp. 55–63.

18 VPR, 7, nos. 13 and 14, Alexander to Lieven, 20 Jan./1 Feb. 1813, pp. 36–9.

19 VPR, 7, no. 55, Lieven to Alexander, 25 March/6 April 1813, pp. 132–7; no. 84, Gurev to Nesselrode, 5/17 May 1813, pp. 203–6. E. Botzenhart (ed.), Freiherr vom Stein: Briefwechsel, Denkschriften und Aufzeichnungen, 8 vols., Berlin, 1957–70, Stein to Kochubei, 31 May 1813, pp. 350–51. The biggest remaining problem was the exchange costs of British treasury bills on the continent.

20 Kankrin’s list is in RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 17, Delo 34, fos. 64–5: Kankrin to Barclay, 30 May 1813 (OS); Barclay’s letter to Lanskoy, dated 31 May (OS) is on fo. 66 of the same Delo. Alexander’s orders to Lanskoy are in SIM, 3, no. 140, 14 June 1813, pp. 102–3.

21 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 17, Delo 34: Lanskoy to Barclay, 22 June 1813 (OS), fos. 167–8; Open orders to Major Vinokurov, 18 June 1813 (OS), fo. 135; Vinokurov to Barclay, 23 Aug. 1813 (OS), fos. 311–12; Lieutenant-Colonel Lekarsky to Barclay, 27 July 1813 (OS), fos. 313–14.

22 Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 184, Order of the Day, 29 May/10 June 1813, pp. 195–6.

23 Kutuzov, vol. 5, no. 300, Kutuzov to Barclay, 9 Feb. 1813 (OS), pp. 259–60; no. 258, Kutuzov to the commandant of Königsberg (Major-General Count Sievers), 2 Feb. 1813 (OS), pp. 216–18; no. 441, Kutuzov to Alexander, 11 March 1813 (OS), pp. 398–9.

24 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 3/209b, Sv. 10, Delo 117, fo. 6: report by Kankrin on boots and trousers. Radozhitsky, Pokhodnyia, vol. 2, pp. 156–9. RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 209b, Sv. 11, Delo 2, fos. 104–10: report by Major-General Prince Gurialov to d’Auvray, 13 July 1813 (OS) on muskets.

25 MVUA 1813, 1, pp. 97–132.

26 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, pp. 575–7. Alexander set out his plan to Kutuzov in a letter dated

29 November 1812 (OS): SIM, 2, no. 367, pp. 211–13.

27 V. V. Shchepetil’nikov, Komplektovanie voisk v tsarstvovanie imperatora Aleksandra I, SVM, 4/1/1/2, SPB, 1904, pp. 55–62. The average age of conscripts into the Moscow Dragoons in 1813 was 28 – four years above the peacetime average. See RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Ed. Khr. 2442, fos. 94–119: note that, although the document states that the men joined in 1812, in fact very many did so in 1813. Forty per cent of conscripts into the Kherson Grenadier Regiment in late 1812 and 1813 were married: see RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Ed. Khr. 1263. The folio numbers are indecipherable but the list of new recruits comes after the formuliarnyi spisok of NCOs on fos. 43 ff.

28 V. A. Aleksandrov, Sel’skaia obshchina v Rossii (XVII-nachalo XIX v.), Moscow, 1976, pp. 244–5.

29 I. I. Prokhodtsov, Riazanskaia guberniia v 1812 godu, Riazan, 1913, p. 119. RGVIA, Fond 1, Opis 1/2, Delo 2636, fo. 11, for the ministry’s circular urging recruit boards to check the records submitted by the state peasant administration.

30 V. Lestvitsyn (ed.), ‘Zapiski soldata Pamfila Nazarova’, RS, 9/8, 1878, pp. 529–43.

31 These records are held in the British Library as Additional Manuscript 47427 of the Lieven papers.

32 On the estate, see Edgar Melton, ‘Household Economies and Communal Conflicts on a Russian Serf Estate, 1800–1817’, Journal of Social History, 26/3, 1993, pp. 559–86.

33 On Staroust, see BL Add. MSS. 47424, fos. 47–53. Melton, ‘Household Economies’, p. 569, for the Leontev case, in which the estate management’s efforts to allow the wife of a conscripted man to be the breadwinner and keep his land were rejected by the commune. All other individual cases are drawn by me from Add. MSS. 47427.

34 Charlotta’s instructions for the ‘wealth tax’ are in BL Add. MSS. 47427: they and the lists providing sums to be raised from each household are contained in fos. 122–41. See also Melton, ‘Household Economies’, p. 569.

35 RGVIA, Fond 1, Opis 1/2, Delo 2636, fo. 53.

36 S. E. Charnetskii, Istoriia 179-go pekhotnago Ust-Dvinskago polka: 1711–1811–1911, SPB, 1911, p. 26.

37 I used above all the service records (formuliarnye spiski) in RGVIA. The regiments covered were: the Kherson (Ed. Khr. 1263) and Little Russia (Ed. Khr. 1190) Grenadiers; the Murom (Ed. Khr. 517), Kursk (Ed. Khr. 425), Chernigov (Ed. Khr. 1039), Reval (Ed. Khr. 754), Selenginsk (Ed. Khr. 831) and Belostok (Ed. Khr. 105) infantry regiments; the 29th (Ed. Khr. 1794), 39th (Ed. Khr. 1802) and 45th (Ed. Khr. 1855) Jaegers; His Majesty’s Life Cuirassier Regiment (Ed. Khr. 2114), the Iamburg (Ed. Khr. 2631), Siberia (Ed. Khr. 2670), Moscow (Ed. Khr. 2442), Borisogleb (Ed. Khr. 2337) and Pskov (Ed. Khr. 212) Dragoon regiments and the Volhynia Lancers (Ed. Khr. 2648). In addition, the appendices of three regimental histories have lists of officers giving dates when they were commissioned. These are the Guards Jaegers (Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka za sto let 1796–1896, SPB, 1896, prilozheniia, pp. 56 ff.); the Guards Lancers (P. Bobrovskii, Istoriia leib-gvardii ulanskago E.I.V. gosudarnyi Imperatritsy Aleksandry Fedorovny polka, SPB, 1903, prilozheniia, pp. 140 ff.); Her Majesty’s Life Cuirassier Regiment (Colonel Markov, Istoriia leib-gvardii kirasirskago Eia Velichestva polka, SPB, 1884, prilozheniia, pp. 73 ff.). In all there were 341 new officers, of whom 43 per cent were former sub-ensigns or junkers. This does not comprise all the newly commissioned officers in these regiments, since some of the service records are from January or July 1813. That also biases the results towards men who had served as noble NCOs.

38 Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka, prilozheniia, pp. 56 ff., is a mine of information.

39 Of the new officers surveyed, 20 per cent were formerly non-noble NCOs. In fact a handful of these men were nobles but had not yet reached even the rank of sub-ensign or junker. But this was far fewer than the twelve non-noble NCOs commissioned into other regiments, so the statistic of one in five holds good. In reality Russian society was more blurred than the sharp legal distinctions between estates admitted. A halfway house was the many petty Polish noble NCOs from lancer regiments who received commissions in the Russian lancer units which in 1813 were created out of some dragoon regiments.

40 SIM, 2, no. 249, Alexander to Wittgenstein, 26 Oct. 1812 (OS), pp. 119–21.

41 In my survey, 8. 5 per cent of the officers came from the Noble Regiment and 7 per cent were former civil servants but the bias towards the first half of the war undoubtedly underestimates their importance. Another source of officers was the military orphanages, where the sons of dead officers were educated. On the Noble Regiment, see M. Gol’mdorf, Materialy dlia istorii byvshego Dvorianskago polka, SPB, 1882; the statistics are fromp. 137. Alexander wrote on 18 December 1812 (OS) to Count Saltykov that there were superfluous civil officials and what the state needed at present were officers. Men unwilling to transfer to the army should therefore be dismissed: SIM, 2, no. 417, pp. 253–4. On 29 December 1812 he ordered that the Noble Regiment be ‘restarted’, which reflects the reality that it had more or less come to a halt amidst the emergency of 1812: SIM, 2, no. 412, Alexander to Viazmitinov, 17 Dec. 1812 (OS), p. 250.

42 Mémoires du Général Bennigsen, 3 vols., Paris, n.d., vol. 3, pp. 278–9 (letter to Alexander Iof 24 June (OS)). RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 70: Essen’s report on his troops’ condition upon departure from their training camps is on fo. 4 and the list of men dispatched on fo. 5.

43 SIM, 11, no. 13, Lobanov-Rostovsky to Alexander I, 16 Nov. 1812 (OS), pp. 109–11.

44 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, pp. 578–80. This was in a report by the inspector-general of artillery, Müller-Zakomelsky, dated 3 Jan. 1813 (OS). SIM, 11, no. 12, 14 Nov. 1812 (OS), is Lobanov’s acknowledgement to Alexander that he had received this order. V. N. Speranskii, Voenno-ekonomicheskaia podgotovka Rossii k bor’be s Napoleonom v 1812–1814 godakh, candidate’s dissertation, Gorky, 1967, pp. 385–454 is excellent on small-arms production in 1812–14.

45 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 163, fos. 31–2: Gorchakov to Lobanov-Rostovsky, 31 March 1813 (OS).

46 SIM, 11, Saltykov to Lobanov-Rostovsky, 19 Dec. 1812 (OS), p. 199.

47 The two key sources on the Reserve Army in this period are Lobanov-Rostovsky’s reports to Alexander I for 7 Jan.–6 Aug. 1813 (RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 47) and the journal of outgoing correspondence of Lobanov’s headquarters for 1 Jan.–1 April 1813 (RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 42).

48 Alexander’s orders are in SIM, 3, no. 52, Alexander to Lobanov-Rostovsky, 5 Feb. 1813 (OS), pp. 39–43. Lobanov’s initial response to the movement orders is in RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 147, fos. 17–18: letter dated 15 Feb. 1813 (OS).

49 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3441, fos. 31–2: Lobanov to Alexander, 17 Feb. 1813 (OS).

50 For Lobanov’s report, see RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 47, fos. 26–9. For Neverovsky’s report to the emperor, see RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 39, fos. 28–9. The statistics come from the same Delo and are on fos. 31–2. Lobanov’s letters to Alexander I of 9 May (fos. 62–4) and 18 July (fos. 104–5) 1813 (OS) (in RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 47) state that of 9,000 sick left behind in Belitsa 7,000 had already rejoined their units and more were expected to do so. The reserve companies of the Guards Jaeger Regiment, for example, left Petersburg with 704 men and arrived in Silesia with 481; see Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka, p. 113.

51 Even the Chevaliers Gardes at Kulm put out skirmishers: see S. Panchulidzev, Istoriia kavalergardov, SPB, 1903, vol. 3, p. 314.

52 The best shorthand guide to the Russian cavalry of this era (including useful illustrations of horse furnishings, how to hold the reins and use a sword, and how to deploy to skirmish and charge, etc.) is Alla Begunova, Sabli ostry, koni bystry, Moscow, 1992.

53 See e.g. Arakcheev’s letter to Kutuzov of 31 March 1813 (OS) and Alexander’s letter to the Grand Duke Constantine of the same date: RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/20, Sv. 3, Delo 22, fos. 42 and 43.

54 Kologrivov received 269 fine horses from the state studs in December 1812, for example: all were for the Guards and he gave only one even to the Guards Lancers: MVUA 1812, 20, Kologrivov to Gorchakov, 12 Dec. 1812 (OS), p. 153.

55 V. V. Ermolov and M. M. Ryndin, Upravlenie general-inspektora kavalerii o remontirovanii kavalerii, SVM, 13, SPB, 1906, pp. 126–7.

56 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3442, is devoted to this mission. See also Komarovsky’s memoirs: Zapiski Grafa E. F. Komarovskago, SPB, 1914, pp. 200 ff. Ermolov and Ryndin, Upravlenie, SVM, 13, pp. 134–6.

57 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 513, memorandum, pp. 488–90: no date but probably late November.

58 A. Grigorovich, Istoriia 13-go dragunskago voennago ordena general-fel’dmarshala Grafa Minikha polka, 2 vols., SPB, 1907 and 1912, vol. 2, pp. 32–3. Even in late October (OS) the five cuirassier regiments of this division had barely 1,000 other ranks present.

59 N. Durova, The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Female Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars, ed. and trans. Mary Fleming Zirin, Bloomington, Ill., 1989, p. 168.

60 V. Godunov, Istoriia 3-go ulanskago Smolenskago Imperatora Aleksandra III-go polka 1708–1908, Libava, 1908, pp. 133–4. At Slonim they were joined by the 8 officers and 155 veterans of the former reserve squadron, the 7th, which had been deployed in the rear at Olviopol in 1812.

61 The report is entitled ‘Otnoshenie Generala ot Infanterii kniaz’ia Lobanova-Rostovskago s otchetami o raspredelenii v rezervy voinov i loshadei’. Together with a covering letter from Lobanov to Gorchakov dated 14 April 1815 (OS), it is to be found in RGVIA, Fond 1, Opis 1/2, Delo 3230. The Reserve Army’s cavalry corps had dispatched 543 officers and 21,699 other ranks to the Field Army. Since the formation of the Reserve Army 1,749 officers, 33,423 veteran other ranks and 38,620 recruits had served in its cavalry corps. The Reserve Army’s infantry corps had dispatched 635 officers and 61,843 other ranks to the Field Army; 3,662 officers, 116,904 veterans and 174,148 recruits had served in the infantry corps during the existence of the Reserve Army. It is important to remember that these statistics do not include the ‘first wave’ of reinforcements dispatched by Kologrivov and Lobanov in the spring of 1813 before the Reserve Army was created.

62 A. S. Griboedov, Sochineniia, Moscow, 1953: ‘O kavaleriiskikh rezervakh’, pp. 363–7.

63 For the statistics, see Ermolov and Ryndin, Upravlenie, p. 136. For Lobanov’s comments on cavalry training, see e.g. his report to Alexander of 4 Feb. 1814 (OS) in RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 153, fo. 21. RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 47, no. 135: Lobanov to Alexander, 29 Nov. 1813 (OS), on Wittgenstein’s men.

64 A. Brett-James (ed.), General Wilson’s Journal, 1812–1814, London, 1964, p. 147.

65 Rudolph von Friederich, Die Befreiungskriege 1813–1815, vol 2: Der Herbstfeldzug 1813, Berlin, 1912, pp. 18–26.

66 Friedrich von Schubert, Unter dem Doppeladler, Stuttgart, 1962, p. 311.

67 SIM, 3, no. 131, Alexander to Bennigsen, 25 May (OS) 1813, pp. 96–8.

68 MVUA 1813, 1, Barclay to Bennigsen, 14 June 1813 (OS), p. 123. On troop strengths, see M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia voiny 1813 g. za nezavisimost’ Germanii, 2 vols., SPB, 1863, vol. 1, pp. 722–7. Essen’s battalions, intended for Sacken and Langeron’s regiments, were attached to regiments in Bennigsen’s army rather than merged into them, in order to preserve their own regimental identity: see e.g. Lieutenant Lakhtionov, Istoriia 147-go Samarskago polka 1798–1898, SPB, 1898, pp. 66–7.

69 SIM, 3, no. 150, Alexander to Bennigsen, 10 July 1813 (OS), pp. 107–9. Lobanov passed on these instructions in an order of the day dated 16 July 1813 (OS): RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 149, fo. 35.

70 The statistics are from Lobanov’s final report and accounting for the Reserve Army, with a covering note from him to Gorchakov dated 14 April 1815. The figure of 325,000 includes 45,783 supernumerary other ranks, in other words men not yet formally assigned to units. As always, theoretical numbers will have been considerably larger than the number of men actually present in the ranks. See RGVIA, Fond 1, Opis 1/2, Delo 3230 passim. On sickness, see RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 144, fo. 12, Essen to Lobanov, 8 May 1814 (OS).

Chapter 11: Europe’s Fate in the Balance

1 VPR, no. 101, Nesselrode to Alexander, 24 May/5 June 1813, pp. 236–7. W. Oncken, Österreich und Preussen in Befreiungskriege, vol. 2, Berlin, 1878, Metternich to Stadion, 6 June 1813, pp. 663–4; 8 June 1813, pp. 664–5.

2 VPR, no. 104, Nesselrode to Lieven, 2/14 June, pp. 246–9; Oncken, Österreich, vol. 2, Metternich to Stadion, 30 July 1813, pp. 680–81.

3 VPR, no. 118, Alexander’s instructions to Anstedt, 26 June/8 July 1813, pp. 283–92 (quotation from p. 286).

4 VPR, no. 107, Nesselrode to Metternich, 7/19 June 1813, pp. 257–8.

5 E. Botzenhart (ed.), Freiherr vom Stein: Briefwechsel, Denkschriften und Aufzeichnungen, 8 vols., Berlin, 1957–70, vol. 4, Stein to Gneisenau, 11 July 1813; to Münster, 17 July 1813; to Alexander, 18 July 1813, pp. 372–81.

6 Oncken, Österreich, vol. 2, pp. 402–5.

7 Ibid., pp. 405–8.

8 R. von Friederich, Die Befreiungskriege 1813–1815, vol. 2: Der Herbstfeldzug 1813, Berlin, 1912, pp. 26, 31; M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia voiny 1813 g. za nezavisimost’ Germanii, 2 vols., SPB, 1863, vol. 1, p. 448. The figure given by C. Rousset (La Grande Armée de 1813, Paris, 1871, p. 180) is 425,000 soldiers ready for battle, of whom 365,000 were in the ranks of Oudinot, Ney and Napoleon’s three armies. In August 1813 Davout in Hamburg and Girard in Magdeburg were able to contribute 40,000 men to the advance on Berlin.

9 Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 33, 348.

10 N. S. Pestreikov, Istoriia leib gvardii Moskovskago polka, SPB, 1903, vol. 1, pp. 129–30. RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Delo 1098, fo. 220, on the men detached from the Iaroslavl Regiment.

11 F. G. Popov, Istoriia 48-go pekhotnago Odesskago polka, 2 vols., Moscow, 1911, vol. 1, pp. 119–27.

12 RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Delo 1098, fos. 177–94 and 271–391 (Iaroslavl Regiment); Delo 105, fos. 194i–195ii (Belostok Regiment); Delo 106, fos. 111–13 (Kursk Regiment).

13 All this information comes from the two regiments’ service records in RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Dela 105 and 106. In the Belostok Regiment, 10 of the 29 sub-lieutenants, lieutenants and staff captains were of lower-class origin. None of the more senior officers and none of the ensigns was.

14 Oncken, Österreich, vol. 2, Bubna to Metternich, 9 Aug. 1813, pp. 684–6. Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 3, pp. 64–8.

15 Karl Fürst Schwarzenberg, Feldmarschall Fürst Schwarzenberg: Der Sieger von Leipzig, Vienna, 1964, p. 233.

16 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, Volkonsky to Wittgenstein, 9/21 Aug. 1813, fo. 1i.

17 A. G. Tartakovskii (ed.), Voennye dnevniki, Moscow, 1990, p. 355; Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, p. 233.

18 L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod russkoi armii protiv Napoleona v 1813 g. i osvobozhdenie Germanii: Sbornik dokumentov, Moscow, 1964, Trachenberg Conference, 28–30 June/10–12 July 1813, p. 462; Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs: Kriege unter der Regierung des Kaisers Franz, Befreiungskrieg 1813 und 1814, vol. 3: E. Glaise von Horstenau, Feldzug von Dresden, Vienna, 1913, pp. 3–6.

19 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, Alexander to Bernadotte, 9/21 Aug. 1813, fos. 2–3.

20 On the Swedish army, see Marquess of Londonderry, Narrative of the War in Germany and France in 1813 and 1814, London, 1830, pp. 72–4. On Bernadotte, the latest book is C. Bazin, Bernadotte, Paris, 2000.

21 The best appreciation of Bernadotte’s position is in the Prussian general staff’s history: Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 146–8. See also M. Leggiere, Napoleon and Berlin, Stroud, 2002, for a fine account of operations in the northern theatre and the mobilization of Prussian resources.

22 The best angle on this is the two volumes of the Austrian staff history, which discuss the planning and execution of Schwarzenberg’s initial advance to Dresden in August and subsequent move on Leipzig. See Horstenau, Dresden, pp. 63–106; Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs: Befreiungskrieg 1813 und 1814, vol. 5: Max von Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, Vienna, 1913, especially pp. 127–34.

23 F. von Schubert, Unter dem Doppeladler, Stuttgart, 1962, pp. 336–7.

24 Baron von Odeleben, A Circumstantial Narrative of the Campaign in Saxony in the Year 1813, 2 vols., London, 1820, vol. 1, p. 140.

25 The quotation is from Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 22.

26 On the French emigration in Russia in general, see A. Ratchinski, Napoléon et AlexandreIer, Paris, 2002; on Langeron and Richelieu, see L. de Crousaz-Cretet, Le Duc de Richelieu en Russie et en France, Paris, 1897, especially pp. 18–20. Langeron’s personality and career are summarized by Emmanuel de Waresquiel in J. Tulard (ed.), Dictionnaire Napoléon, Paris, 1999 edn., 2 vols., vol. 2, pp. 144–6.

27 On Langeron, see especially Schubert, Doppeladler, pp. 163–7. For the quotation, see Langeron, Mémoires de Langeron, Général d’Infanterie dans l’Armée Russe: Campagnes de 1812, 1813, 1814, Paris, 1902, p. 205.

28 On the action at Bunzlau, see in particular E. Nikolaev, Istoriia 50 pekhotnago Belostokskago, Ego Vysochestva Gertsoga Saksen-Al’tenburgskago polka, SPB, 1907, pp. 71–3. Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, p. 122, notes the poor quality of Sebastiani’s regiments.

29 Langeron, Mémoires, p. 220; J. von Pflugk-Harttung, Das Befreiungsjahr 1813: Aus dem Geheimen Staatsarchivs, Berlin, 1913, no. 196, Gneisenau to Hardenberg, 25 Aug. 1813, pp. 276–8.

30 Yorck’s letter is quoted by Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 42. Bennigsen also complained about Blücher’s strategy: see his letter to Alexander of 14/26 Aug., written from Kalicz: RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3385, fos. 191–2.

31 Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire militaire sous le Directoire, le Consulat et l’Empire, Paris, 1831, vol 4, no. 8, Protocole de la conférence de Trachenberg: no. 9, Instructions pour S. Ex. M. de Blücher, pp. 347–53.

32 Alexander’s letter to Blücher is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fos. 7ii–8i.

33 Blücher’s letter to Alexander, undated but received on 27 Aug., is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3911, fos. 215i–ii.

34 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3911, fo. 247ii: Venançon to Volkonsky, 16/28 Aug. 1813, on MacDonald’s failure to reconnoitre the allied position.

35 The best source on the movements of Third Corps is the journal compiled by Captain Koch: Journal des opérations du IIIe Corps en 1813, Paris, 1999. The description of the corps’s role at the Katzbach is on pp. 54–60.

36 Müffling’s description of the battle comes in two sections of his memoirs, which were written and published years apart because some of his comments would have caused offence if published earlier: see Baron Karl von Müffling, The Memoirs of Baron von Müffling: A Prussian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars, London, 1997, pp. 58–75 and 317–24. The quotation is on p. 60.

37 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3911, fos. 246ii–247i: Venançon to Volkonsky, 16/28 Aug. 1813. Venançon’s long report is much the best account of the battle from the perspective of Osten-Sacken’s corps. Koch gives the best French eyewitness account and Müffling is the best Prussian source. Bogdanovich provides an excellent detailed account too, which Friederich confirms.

38 Apart from the general works and Koch, the history of the Odessa Regiment, which was part of Neverovsky’s 27th Division, is useful on this little-remarked last episode in the battle: Popov, Istoriia 48-go, pp. 139–41.

39 Prince A. G. Shcherbatov, Moi vospominaniia, SPB, 2006, p. 87.

40 Müffling, Memoirs, pp. 67–8. I. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s 1812 po 1816 god, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 2, p. 202.

41 Captain Geniev, Istoriia Pskovskago pekhotnago general-fel’dmarshala kniazia Kutuzova-Smolenskago polka: 1700–1831, Moscow, 1883, pp. 216–17; Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 65.

42 Pflugk-Harttung, Befreiungsjahr, no. 219: Silesian military government to the military governor of Berlin, 28 Aug. 1813, pp. 283–4.

43 Koch, Journal, p. 64; RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 24i–25i: Sacken to Volkonsky, 3 Sept. 1813.

44 Schubert, Doppeladler, p. 321.

45 Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 216, Journal of Military Operations, 23 Aug./4 Sept. 1813, pp. 245–7. Apart from Bogdanovich, there is a good account of the pursuit in Prince N. B. Golitsyn, Zhizneopisanie generala ot kavalerii Emmanuelia, Moscow, 1844, pp. 97–104.

46 The statistics are drawn from George Nafziger, Napoleon at Dresden, Chicago, 1994, pp. 77, 301.

47 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 78.

48 Horstenau, Dresden, pp. 1–11.

49 The key sources on Austrian organization and preparations are the first three volumes of Befreiungskrieg 1813 und 1814 authored by O. Criste (Österreichs Beitritt zur Koalition, Vienna, 1913), Wlaschutz (Österreichs entscheidendes Machtaufgebot, Vienna, 1913) and Glaise von Horstenau. See e.g. Horstenau’s comment in Dresden, p. 78. See also, however, a very interesting conversation with Radetsky recorded in Wilson’s diary: A. Brett-James (ed.), General Wilson’s Journal 1812–1814, London, 1964, 20 Aug. 1813, p. 63.

50 See e.g. an indignant protest from Vorontsov to Barclay on hearing that he was being subordinated to Bülow, who had become a lieutenant-general one month after Vorontsov himself. Barclay accepted the protest and subordinated him to Winzengerode. RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 53, Delo 18, fos. 15–16: Vorontsov to Barclay, 9 July 1813 (OS).

51 See e.g. Barclay’s letter to Sacken of 10 Sept. 1813 (OS), one of many such examples: MVUA 1813, 1, p. 202; Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 3, pp. 145–6.

52 Saint-Cyr, Mémoires, vol. 4, no. 15, Napoleon to Saint-Cyr, 17 Aug. 1813, pp. 365–8.

53 Horstenau, Dresden, pp. 78–117. Brett-James, Wilson’s Journal, p. 165.

54 Horstenau, Dresden, pp. 103, 106–7, 123–4.

55 Hon. George Cathcart, Commentaries on the War in Russia and Germany in 1812 and 1813, London, 1850, p. 29. Langeron, Mémoires, p. 256.

56 Horstenau, Dresden, p. 159; Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, p. 69; Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 127. Saint-Cyr, Mémoires, vol. 4, no. 26, Saint-Cyr to Napoleon, 25 Aug. 1813, pp. 383–4.

57 A quick guide to Napoleon’s initial plan is conveyed in a letter to the Duc de Bassano of 24 August: Saint-Cyr, Mémoires, vol. 4, no. 21, 24 Aug. 1813, pp. 377–8.

58 Cathcart, Commentaries, pp. 231–2. Horstenau, Dresden, p. 270.

59 Cathcart, Commentaries, p. 228. On Constantine’s views, see e.g. RA, 1, 1882, pp. 142–54.

60 These points are all made by Horstenau, Dresden, pp. 257–68, 277–86: since he was the official Austrian historian of the campaign he had no reason to exaggerate the failings of Austrian leadership, so one can assume that his judgements are fair. See also Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 76–8.

61 Brett-James, Wilson’s Journal, 30 August 1813, p. 169.

62 All the general histories of the campaign go into detail about the crucial events of 26–30 August on the allied right. Apart from Friederich and Bogdanovich, there is a full description in Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs: Befreiungskrieg 1813 und 1814, vol. 4: Maximilian Ehnl, Schlacht bei Kulm, Vienna, 1913. Apart from Eugen’s own memoirs, it is also important to read the memoirs of his chief of staff, General von Helldorff: Zur Geschichte der Schlacht bei Kulm, Berlin, 1856. All subsequent histories draw heavily on the three volumes written between 1844 and 1852 by Colonel Aster of the Saxon army about the autumn 1813 campaign. Nevertheless one must go back to Aster himself because his works contain significant details omitted from the later histories: on the events on the right wing, see H. Aster, Die Kriegsereignisse zwischen Peterswalde, Pirna, Königstein und Priesten im August 1813 und die Schlacht bei Kulm, Dresden, 1845. For obvious reasons it is far harder to find detailed French coverage of these events: Rousset, Grande Armée, for example, says little on the debacle though he does cite important correspondence of Vandamme. Saint-Cyr also publishes useful documents but like all the other French participants is anxious to exonerate himself from blame. Fezensac puts most of the blame on Vandamme though he is also critical of Saint-Cyr and Napoleon. His is the best-informed account from the French side: Souvenirs militaires, Paris, 1863, pp. 403–29.

63 The clearest and most detailed description of the intended march-routes is in Horstenau, Dresden, pp. 293–6.

64 There is a useful discussion of this decision in T. von Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben des kaiserlichen russischen Generals der Infanterie Carl Friedrich Grafen von Toll, 5 vols., Leipzig, 1858, vol. 3, book 6, pp. 175–83.

65 Saint-Cyr, Mémoires, vol. 4, no. 30, Saint-Cyr to Berthier, 29 Aug. 1813, pp. 386–7; Brett-James, Wilson’s Journal, 30 Aug. 1813, p. 172; the best description of the road is in P. Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, SPB, 1896, pp. 261–3.

66 P. Nazarov, ‘Zapiski soldata Pamfila Nazarova’, RS, 9/8, 1878, p. 535.

67 The key order to Vandamme, issued at 4 p.m. on 28 August by Berthier in Napoleon’s name, is reprinted as no. 5, p. 204, in the appendices of Ehnl, Kulm.

68 The memoirs of Eugen and of Colonel von Helldorff who served on his staff might be seen as biased against Ostermann-Tolstoy, though Aleksei Ermolov also remarked that at the battle of Kulm Ostermann-Tolstoy was more trouble than the French. Helldorff writes that the whole army knew that Ostermann-Tolstoy had mental problems in 1813 after returning from sick leave: Helldorff, Kulm, p. 17. Many other memoirs confirm that Ostermann-Tolstoy was in no fit state to command troops in August 1813. In his defence, see I. I. Lazhechnikov, ‘Neskol’ko zametok i vospominanii po povodu stat’i “materialy dlia biografii A. P. Ermolova”’, Russkii vestnik, 31/6, 1864, pp. 783–819.

69 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 3, pp. 131–3; L. von Wolzogen, Mémoires d’un Général d’Infanterie au service de la Prusse et de la Russie (1792–1836), Paris, 2002, p. 169; Pototskii, Istoriia, p. 250. Helldorff says that Ermolov initially supported Ostermann but then backed down for fear of annoying Eugen and therefore bringing Alexander’s wrath down on his own head: Kulm, pp. 29–30.

70 The best description of the highway and the terrain is in Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka za sto let 1796–1896, SPB, 1896, pp. 125–30.

71 Apart, as always, from Bogdanovich, some of the regimental histories offer excellent descriptions of the events of 28 August. The history of the Guards Jaegers, cited in the previous note, is probably the best, but see also e.g. S. A. Gulevich, Istoriia 8-go pekhotnago Estliandskago polka, SPB, 1911, pp. 178–81.

72 Helldorff’s description of these events, of which he was an eyewitness, is on pp. 35–8 of Kulm.

73 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 3, p. 149.

74 All the general histories describe the terrain well, but Bogdanovich, Friederich and Ehnl presumably take it for granted that a reader will know that Bohemian villages were built of wood and say nothing about buildings. It is because he provides small but crucial details of this sort that Aster is so important: on houses, for example, see Aster: Kriegsereignisse…Kulm, pp. 14–15.

75 Helldorff, Kulm, p. 45.

76 Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, p. 88; Brett-James, Wilson’s Journal, p. 173; Londonderrry, Narrative, p. 124. Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka, p. 135.

77 For Kovalsky’s account, see ‘Iz zapisok pokoinago general-maiora N. P. Koval’skago’, Russkii vestnik, 91/1, 1871, pp. 78–117, especially p. 102; ‘Zapiski N. N. Murav’eva-Karskago’, RA, 24/1, 1886, pp. 5–55, especially pp. 22–6; P. Bobrovskii, Istoriia leibgvardii ulanskago E.I.V. gosudarynyi Imperatritsy Aleksandry Fedorovny polka, SPB, 1903, p. 231.

78 On French losses, see Muravev’s conversation with Vandamme’s chief of staff: ‘Zapiski’, p. 25; Brett-James, Wilson’s Journal, p. 173; Bobrovskii, Istoriia leib-gvardii ulanskago…polka, p. 230.

79 L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Dnevnik Aleksandra Chicherina, 1812–1813, Moscow, 1966, pp. 252 ff.; ‘Zapiski N. N. Murav’eva’, 24/1, 1885, p. 26.

80 This point is well documented by Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 90–92, and Ehnl, Kulm, pp. 112–18, so there is no reason why the fable still exists.

81 Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten, p. 454.

82 Ehnl, Kulm, p. 132, writes that 41,000 allied infantry and 10,000 cavalry faced 39,000 French infantry and 3,000 cavalry. Given Vandamme’s casualties on 28 and 29 August, the figure for his infantry seems too high.

83 P. A. Kolzakov, ‘Vziatie v plen marshala Vandama 1813 g.’, RS, 1, 1870, pp. 137–44. Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 704; SIM, no. 254, Alexander to Rostopchin, 22 Dec. 1813, p. 164.

84 Tartakovskii, Voennye dnevniki: Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky’s journal for 1813, p. 360.

85 This does not count members of the Romanov family or foreigners.

86 Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, p. 274: neutral in the sense that Hoen was an Austrian.

87 Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 144–8; Leggiere, Napoleon and Berlin, ch. 7 and especially pp. 137–41.

88 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3911, fos. 213–4, Thuyl to Volkonsky, 21 Aug./2 Sept. 1813.

89 VPR, no. 141, Alexander’s instructions to Pozzo, 31 July/10 Aug. 1813, p. 345; Botzenhart, Stein, vol. 4, Stein to Munster, 7 and 10 Aug. 1813, pp. 390–92; Londonderry, Narrative, p. 179.

90 V. von Löwenstern, Mémoires du Général-Major Russe Baron de Löwenstern, 2 vols., Paris, 1903, vol. 2, pp. 136–7, 184–5; S. G. Volkonskii, Zapiski Sergeia Grigorovicha Volkonskago (dekabrista), SPB, 1902, pp. 264–5, 306–7.

91 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3911, Winzengerode to Alexander, 7/19 Aug. 1813, fos. 148–9; 22 Aug./3 Sept. 1813, fos. 289–91; RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 53, Delo 18, fo. 7: Kankrin to Lotthum, 1/19 July 1813.

92 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/120, Sv. 18, Delo 57, fos. 5–6: Barclay to Lanskoy, 28 July 1813 (OS): Sv. 53, Delo 18, fo. 25, Barclay to Kankrin, 8 Aug. 1813 (OS).

93 Löwenstern, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 100, 146–78; Volkonskii, Zapiski, pp. 258–9; V. M. Bezotosnyi, Donskoi generalitet i ataman Platov v 1812 godu, Moscow, 1899, pp. 109–18.

94 Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 139–73, provides an excellent analysis and description.

95 A recent full account in English of both the battle and some of the disputes that surrounded it is in Leggiere, Napoleon and Berlin, ch. 11. Leggiere is more hostile to Bernadotte than is Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 177–91.

96 V. Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god v dnevnikakh, zapiskakh i vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, 4 vols., Vilna, 1900–1907, vol. 2, p. 28.

97 Major-General E. S. Kamenskii, Istoriia 2-go dragunskago S-Peterburgskago generalafel’dmarshala kniazia Menshikova polka 1707–1898, Moscow, 1900, pp. 225–37. Volkonskii, Zapiski, p. 266.

98 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, pp. 275, 281.

Chapter 12: The Battle of Leipzig

1 The treaty is in F. Martens (ed.), Sobranie traktatov i konventsii, zakliuchennykh Rossiei s inostrannymi derzhavami, vol. 3: Traktaty s Avsrtieiu, SPB, 1876, no. 71, pp. 126–38. Kankrin’s comments are in Upravlenie General-Intendanta Kankrina: General’nyi sokrashchennyi otchet po armiiam…za pokhody protiv Frantsuzov, 1812, 1813 i 1814 godov, Warsaw, 1815, pp. 72–6.

2 L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod russkoi armii protiv Napoleona v 1813 g. i osvobozhdenie Germanii: Sbornik dokumentov, Moscow, 1964, no. 214, Jomini to Alexander, 21 Aug./

2 Sept. 1813, pp. 241–2.

3 The letter to Knesebeck is quoted by Rudolph von Friederich, Die Befreiungskriege 1813– 1815, vol. 2: Der Herbstfeldzug 1813, Berlin, 1912, pp. 214–15; the letter to Alexander is printed in Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 232, Blücher to Alexander, 30 Aug./11 Sept. 1813, pp. 268–9.

4 Rühle’s words are quoted by Friederich in Herbstfeldzug, p. 215: VPR, no. 162, Nesselrode to Pozzo, 21 Sept./3 Oct. 1813, pp. 393–4.

5 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, nos. 50 and 51, Volkonsky to Blücher, Volkonsky to Bennigsen, 1/13 Sept. 1813, fos. 21ii–22ii; Delo 3416, ‘Zhurnal voennykh deistvii Pol’skoi armii’, fos. 12i–14i.

6 M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia voiny 1813 g. za nezavisimost’ Germanii, 2 vols., SPB, 1863, vol. 2, pp. 336–41; RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, Volkonsky to Platov, 4 Sept. 1813 (OS), fos. 24ii–25i.

7 Chernyshev’s journal covers the raid in fos. 26–31 of RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3386. Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, pp. 342–55, provides a narrative, though my conclusions are very different from his.

8 A. Raevskii, Vospominaniia o pokhodakh 1813 i 1814 godov, Moscow, 1822, pp. 1–77.

9 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3416, fos. 16i–17ii.

10 The best and most detailed narrative is in Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs: Kriege unter der Regierung des Kaisers Franz. Befreiungskrieg 1813 und 1814, vol. 5: M. von Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, Vienna, 1913; on Schwarzenberg’s fears see RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, Volkonsky to Oppermann, no. 97, 24 Sept. 1813 (OS), fos. 38i–39i; on victualling, see A. A. Eiler, ‘Zapiski A. A. Eilera’, RS, 1/11, 1880, p. 367 and Pokhod, no. 254, Barclay to Wittgenstein, 20 Sept./2 Oct. 1813, pp. 296–7.

11 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3385, Bernadotte to Winzengerode, 2 Oct. 1813, fo. 57i; I. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s 1812 po 1816 god, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 2, p. 246.

12 It is true that some of the 35,000 were sick, but the basic point remains valid: on Bennigsen’s deployment of troops at Dresden, see Feldzug der kaiserlichen Russischen Armee von Polen in den Jahren 1813 und 1814, Hamburg, 1843, pp. 33–6.

13 Mémoires de Langeron, Général d’Infanterie dans l’Armée Russe: Campagnes de 1812, 1813, 1814, Paris, 1902, pp. 222, 298.

14 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 27i–28ii, Sacken to Barclay, 1 Oct. 1813 (OS).

15 Langeron, Mémoires, pp. 299–300.

16 I visited the battlefield on two occasions, before major construction began on the motor-way which will provide a bypass for Leipzig and in the process ruin much of the southern battlefield.

17 Hon. George Cathcart, Commentaries on the War in Russia and Germany in 1812 and 1813, London, 1850, p. 298.

18 Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, p. 294.

19 Ibid., p. 295.

20 Bogdanovich cites Alexander’s words: Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 439.

21 Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, pp. 402–10. The possibility of treason is raised by Digby Smith (1813 – Leipzig, Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations, London, 2001, p. 69) but no evidence is provided. My own explanation is partly drawn from Ludwig von Wolzogen, Mémoires d’un Général d’Infanterie au service de la Prusse et de la Russie (1792–1836), Paris, 2002, pp. 179–82.

22 The statistics come from Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 296–300.

23 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 3, p. 230.

24 J.-N. Noel, With Napoleon’s Guns, London, 2005, pp. 180–81.

25 Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, p. 232; Mémoires du Général Griois, Paris, n.d., p. 202; Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 3, p. 232. Smith, Leipzig, p. 86, argues that Eugen should have moved his corps out of the line of fire or at least ordered them to lie down. But the prince could not just decamp and leave a hole in the allied line. Moreover, Russian troops (or Prussian and Austrian ones) were not trained to lie down in sight of enemy guns. Even Wellington’s infantry might have hesitated to do so on an open glacis with a mass of enemy cavalry nearby.

26 RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Delo 754, fos. 38 ff.

27 All this information comes from the personnel records (posluzhnye spiski) of the Murom Regiment in RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Ed. Khr. 517: each rank has its separate posluzhnoi spisok, beginning on fo. 2.

28 See for instance a report from Diebitsch to Barclay timed at 8 a.m. on 16 October in which the former urges that the Guards be moved forward immediately: unless this was done ‘the distance to Rotha is so great that they will never arrive in time’: Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 283, Diebitsch to Barclay, 4/16 Oct. 1813, p. 329.

29 As one might expect, the Austrian official history gives most attention to this part of the battle but its account is largely confirmed by Bogdanovich: the Austrians and Russians were not very fond of each other even in 1813 and had become a good deal less so by the time they got round to writing their official histories of the campaign. On the whole, a good rule of thumb is to believe the Russian history when it praises the Austrians, and vice versa. If in doubt, Friederich is often a remarkably fair and neutral arbiter. Hoen,Feldzug von Leipzig, pp. 471–82; Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, pp. 461–4; Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 308–12.

30 Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 300, Diebitsch’s account of the battle of Leipzig, 1813, pp. 360–81, at pp. 363–5.

31 Cathcart, Commentaries, pp. 306–7.

32 Ibid., pp. 307–8.

33 Ibid., p. 308; P. Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, SPB, 1896, pp. 271–2; A. Mikaberidze, The Russian Officer Corps in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1795–1815, Staplehurst, 2005, p. 382.

34 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, p. 460; Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, pp. 270–73. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 299, Sukhozhanet to Iashvili, 29 Dec. 1813/10 Jan. 1814, pp. 358–60; no. 300, Diebitsch’s account of Leipzig, 1813, pp. 365–7.

35 ‘Vospominaniia Matveia Matveevicha Muromtseva’, RA, 27/3, 1890, pp. 366–94, at p. 378.

36 Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina, Leningrad, 1987, p. 128.

37 S. Gulevich, Istoriia leib gvardii Finliandskago polka 1806–1906, SPB, 1896, pp. 303–13; Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka za sto let 1796–1896, SPB, 1906, pp. 144–50; Griois, Mémoires, pp. 202–3.

38 Gulevich, Istoriia leib gvardii Finliandskago polka, pp. 312–15.

39 ‘Zapiski soldata Pamfila Nazarova’, RS, 9/8, 1878, pp. 536–7.

40 There is a good description of Vasilchikov’s attack in Smith, Leipzig, pp. 166–8.

41 Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, pp. 619–27.

42 D. V. Dushenkovich, ‘Iz moikh vospominanii ot 1812 goda’, in 1812 god v vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, Moscow, 1995, pp. 124–6.

43 Langeron, Mémoires, p. 330.

44 Ibid., pp. 326–34; Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski, vol. 2, pp. 269–74.

45 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, pp. 550–51.

46 On the 39th Jaegers, see RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Ed. Khr. 1802, passim, but also Sacken’s reports after the fall of Czenstochowa (RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 8ii–9i: Sacken to Kutuzov, 25 March 1813 (OS)) and the battle of Leipzig; Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 293, pp. 349–51: Sacken to Barclay, 18/30 Oct. 1813.

47 See RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Delo 1855, fos. 2 ff., for the 45th Jaegers (‘Spisok…45go Egerskago polka’ dated 1 July 1813) and Delo 1794, fos. 2 ff., for the 29th Jaegers (‘29-go egerskago polka…o sluzhbe ikh i po prochim’, dated 1 Jan. 1814). Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 300, Diebitsch’s account, pp. 379–82; Langeron, Mémoires, p. 343.

48 Smith, Leipzig, p. 272, on attempts to shift responsibility.

49 On allied losses, see e.g. Smith, Leipzig, p. 298; on French statistics, see J. Tulard (ed.), Dictionnaire Napoléon, Paris, 1987, p. 354; on lost guns, see Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, pp. 652–4.

Chapter 13: The Invasion of France

1 F. Martens (ed.), Sobranie traktatov i konventsii, zakliuchennykh Rossiei s inostrannymi derzhavami, vol. 3: Traktaty s Avstrieiu, SPB, 1876, no. 70, pp. 111–26, and vol. 7: Traktaty s Germeniei 1811–1824, SPB, 1885, no. 259, pp. 96–112, for Russia’s treaties with Austria and Prussia. The Austro-Prussian treaty was identical.

2 See e.g. a letter from Count Münster, the Hanoverian statesman, to the Prince Regent (the future George IV of Britain) about the arguments over military and diplomatic policy towards France in January: ‘The main factor in all these disagreements is that Russia has not stated how far it wishes to extend its borders in Poland.’ A. Fournier, Der Congress von Chatillon: Die Politik im Kriege von 1814, Vienna, 1900, sect. IV, no. 1, Münster to Prince Regent, 30 January 1814, pp. 295–6.

3 There is a large literature even in English about Metternich and his policies. The two great pillars of this literature are Paul W. Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics 1763–1848, Oxford, 1994, and Henry Kissinger, A World Restored, London, 1957. Schroeder’s book in particular is a splendid piece of scholarship. Alan Sked punctures some of the more elevated interpretations of Metternich’s ‘system’ in Metternich and Austria, London, 2008. As regards this book’s focus, in other words Metternich’s role in Napoleon’s overthrow, I have some sympathy with his scepticism.

4 On Knesebeck’s views, see R. von Friederich, Die Befreiungskriege 1813–1815, vol. 3: Der Feldzug 1814, Berlin, 1913, pp. 81–2.

5 Baron Karl von Müffling, The Memoirs of Baron von Müffling: A Prussian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars, London, 1967, pp. 92–3, 100–101, 418–19.

6 On Frederick William, see Chapter 9, n. 18.

7 Fournier, Congress, p. 10. Paul Schroeder tries to defend Aberdeen, not altogether convincingly, in ‘An Unnatural “Natural Alliance”: Castlereagh, Metternich, and Aberdeen in 1813’, International History Review, 10/4, Nov. 1988, pp. 522–40. VPR, 7, no. 191, Alexander’s instructions to Lieven and Pozzo di Borgo, 6 Dec. 1813, pp. 492–500.

8 N. A. M. Rodger, The Command of the Ocean, London, 2004, pp. 572–3, sets out the elements of British power.

9 VPR, 7, no. 249, Dubachevsky to Rumiantsev, 2 April 1814, pp. 230–37.

10 Castlereagh’s statement is in a key letter to Aberdeen on British war aims, dated 13 November 1813. See Marquess of Londonderry (ed.), Correspondence, Despatches, and Other Papers of Viscount Castlereagh, 12 vols., vol. 9, London, 1853, pp. 73–6.

11 VPR, 7, no. 180, n.d. but not later than 20 Nov. 1813: Chernyshev to Alexander, pp. 447–51.

12 VPR, 7, no. 171, Gurev to Nesselrode, 3 Nov. 1813, pp. 429–31; N. Kiselev and I. Iu. Samarin (eds.), Zapiski, mneniia i perepiska Admirala A. S. Shishkova, 2 vols., Berlin, 1870; A. de Jomini, Précis politique et militaire des campagnes de 1812 à 1814, 2 vols. in 1, Geneva, 1975, vol. 2, pp. 231–2; Fournier, Congress, annex VI, Hardenberg’s diary, 27 Feb. 1814, p. 364.

13 VPR, 7, no. 197, Nesselrode to Gurev, 19 Dec. 1813, pp. 512–14. Count A. de Nesselrode (ed.), Lettres et papiers du Chancelier Comte de Nesselrode 1760–1850, Paris, n.d., vol. 6, pp. 152–3: Nesselrode to his wife, 16 Jan. 1814.

14 SIRIO, 31, 1881, pp. 301–3: ‘Memoire présenté par le comte de Nesselrode sur les affaires de Pologne’.

15 VPR, 7, no. 207, Nesselrode to Alexander, 9 Jan. 1814, pp. 539–41.

16 Nesselrode, vol. 6, pp. 161–3, Nesselrode to his wife, 28 Feb. 1814; Countess Nesselrode to her husband, 9 April 1814, pp. 188–90. Castlereagh, vol. 9, Castlereagh to Lord Liverpool, 30 Jan. 1814, pp. 212–14.

17 See Baron Hardenberg’s comments in his diary entry for 27 Feb.: Fournier, Congress, p. 364.

18 Castlereagh, vol. 9, Stewart to Castlereagh, 30 March 1814, pp. 412–13.

19 Fournier, Congress, Metternich to Hudelist, 9 Nov. 1813, p. 242.

20 The manifesto is reproduced in Baron Fain, Manuscrit de Mil Huit Cent Quatorze, Paris, 1825: no. 5, pp. 60–61.

21 Fournier, Congress, p. 8, mentions the agreement between Alexander and Metternich in Meiningen. Fain, Manuscrit de Mil Huit Cent Quatorze, nos. 1 and 2, pp. 49–56, gives Saint-Aignan’s report to Napoleon and his memorandum stating the allied terms.

22 On Alexander’s innermost thoughts, see ‘Grafinia Roksandra Skarlatovna Edling: Zapiski’, in A. Libermann (ed.), Derzhavnyi sfinks, Moscow, 1999, p. 181; SIRIO, 31, 1881: ‘Considérations générales sur la politique du Cabinet de Russie à la fin de la Campagne de 1813’, pp. 343–5. For Castlereagh’s very measured subsequent ‘advice’ to Aberdeen, see Castlereagh, vol. 9, Castlereagh to Aberdeen, 30 Nov. 1813, pp. 73–6.

23 Fain, Manuscrit de Mil Huit Cent Quatorze, no. 5, pp. 60–61.

24 Benckendorff’s own account is in Zapiski Benkendorfa, 1812 god: Otechestvennaia voina. 1813 god. Osvobozhdenie Niderlandov, Moscow, 2001, pp. 205–38. On the jaegers, see V. V. Rantsov, Istoriia 96-go pekhotnago Omskago polka, SPB, 1902, pp. 187–90. The French comment is by Captain Koch in Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la campagne de 1814, 3 vols., Paris, 1819, vol. 1, p. 69.

25 The fullest recent study of events in the Netherlands is M. V. Leggiere, The Fall of Napoleon: The Allied Invasion of France 1813–1814, Cambridge, 2008, pp. 100–104, 145–87. For the background to the revolt, see Simon Schama, Patriots and Liberators, London, 2005.

26 See e.g. Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 6–10.

27 VPR, 7, no. 172, Barclay to Alexander, 9 Nov. 1813, pp. 431–3. For Blücher, see e.g. his report to Alexander of 23 Nov.: RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3915, fos. 121–2. The historian of the Riazan Regiment wrote that ‘the storming of Schönefeld had weakened the regiment and the march to the Rhine almost destroyed it’: I. I. Shelengovskii, Istoriia 69-go Riazanskago polka, 3 vols., Lublin, 1911, vol. 2, p. 246.

28 For most of these statistics, see M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia voiny 1814 goda vo Frantsii, 2 vols., SPB, 1865, vol. 1, pp. 35–40, 48–9. He states that 45 squadrons had arrived by

27 December from Lobanov but 18 more were on the way, and in fact still more arrived subsequently. See e.g. Lobanov’s report to Alexander of 15 Nov. 1813 (OS) in RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1, Delo 148, fos. 44–7.

29 S. Panchulidzev, Istoriia kavalergardov, SPB, 1903, vol. 3, p. 433. Barclay reported to Alexander that of the 6,250 men on the rolls of the reserve units reaching Wittgenstein, only 48 had been left behind in hospital en route: MVUA 1813, 1, Barclay to Alexander, 22 Dec. 1813 (OS), p. 276.

30 MVUA 1813, 1, Barclay to Alexander, 30 Nov., 1 and 22 Dec. 1813 (OS), pp. 258–60, 276; Barclay to Army Corps GOCs, 21 Dec. 1813 (OS), p. 275. Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, p. 80. SIM, 4, no. 3, Alexander to Lobanov, 3 Jan. 1814 (OS), p. 3. On the general appearance of the line army in the 1814 campaign, see Il’ia Ul’ianov, ‘I eti nas pobedili’, Rodina, 8, 2002, pp. 74–8; Oleg Sheremet’ev, ‘Katat’ shineli, gospoda’, Rodina, 6, 2006, pp. 53–9.

31 Bogdanovich’s and Friederich’s histories of the 1814 campaign say something about this, but the key text is by Peter Graf von Kielmansegg, Stein und die Zentralverwaltung 1813/14, Stuttgart, 1964.

32 For Kutuzov’s comments, see Count de Puybusque, Lettres sur la Guerre de Russie en 1812, Paris, 1816, pp. 153 ff., 18 Dec. 1812. For the fortresses, see a recent work by Paddy Griffith, The Vauban Fortifications of France, Oxford, 2006.

33 See e.g. Barclay’s report to Alexander of 9 Nov. 1813 (VPR, 7, no. 172, pp. 431–3), but also his letter to Kankrin of 29 Jan. 1814 (OS), in RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 18, Delo 17, fo. 128.

34 For the Austrian view on this, see Karl Fürst Schwarzenberg, Feldmarschall Fürst Schwarzenberg: Der Sieger von Leipzig, Vienna, 1964, pp. 268–71. Jomini’s line is inevitably different: see Jomini, Précis, vol. 2, pp. 224–5, 228–31. Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 9–15, gives a balanced account but argues that going through Switzerland was probably unnecessary. Alexander’s letter to Bernadotte is in VPR, 7, no. 174, pp. 434–6. His indignant letter to Schwarzenberg of 5 Jan. 1814 is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fo. 108.

35 Marquess of Londonderry, Narrative of the War in Germany and France in 1813 and 1814, London, 1830, pp. 254–5. Perhaps Stewart’s feelings at the time were not as clear-cut as this last sentence, written in 1830, implies.

36 Lord Burghersh, The Operations of the Allied Armies in 1813 and 1814, London, 1822, pp. 72–3.

37 Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina, Leningrad, 1987, pp. 142–3. I. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s 1812 po 1816 god, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 3, pp. 36–9. ‘Iz zapisok pokoinago general-maiora N. P. Koval’skago’, Russkii vestnik, 91/1, 1871, pp. 106–7. RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fos. 120i–ii, Alexander to Platov, 24 Jan. 1814 (OS).

38 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fos. 99ii–100i, Alexander to Blücher, 14 Dec. 1813 (OS). For reasons of space this is an abbreviated account: for a fuller one, see Leggiere, Fall of Napoleon, chs. 10–16, and Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 60–72.

39 These points are covered by Leggiere, Fall of Napoleon, and Friederich, Feldzug, but on the running down of conscription see Isser Woloch, The New Regime: Transformations of the French Civil Order, 1789–1820s, London, 1994, ch. 13, pp. 380–426.

40 For accounts of the battle, see Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 89–95; Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 108–13; James Lawford, Napoleon: The Last Campaigns. 1813–15, London, 1976, pp. 68–101. Sacken’s own rather laconic report on the battle is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 34ii–35ii, Sacken to Barclay, 17 Jan. 1814 (OS).

41 Quotation from Friederich, Feldzug, p. 103. See Sacken’s letter to Barclay de Tolly of 27 Jan. 1814 (OS), in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fo. 37i.

42 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 36i–ii, Sacken to Barclay, 21 Jan. 1814 (OS). Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, p. 128.

43 F. von Schubert, Unter dem Doppeladler, Stuttgart, 1962, p. 343, on Blücher and the wine cellar.

44 See Alexander’s letter to Blücher of 26 Jan. 1814 (OS) in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fos. 121ii–122i.

45 Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, pp. 276–300.

46 Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 81–2. Burghersh, Operations, pp. 91–103, 250–52.

47 Fournier, Congress, pp. 42–4, 58–63; see above all Francis II’s reply (p. 277) to Schwarzenberg’s letter of 8 Feb. (pp. 272–3). Schwarzenberg was clearly asking for instructions to stand still and these the emperor supplied. Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, pp. 276–9, 293–9.

48 Fournier, Congress, pp. 105–14. The text of Metternich’s memorandum is in SIRIO, 31, 1881, pp. 349–55.

49 Alexander’s response to Metternich’s questions is in SIRIO, 31, 1881, pp. 355–60. A summary of the British, Austrian and Prussian views is in Fournier, Congress, pp. 285–9.

50 For Madame de Staël’s view on Alexander, see her Ten Years’ Exile, Fontwell, 1968, pp. 377–82. On Alexander’s view of Louis, see Philip Mansel, Louis XVIII, London, 2005, p. 164. On Bernadotte’s candidacy, see F. D. Scott, ‘Bernadotte and the Throne of France 1814’, Journal of Modern History, 5, 1933, pp. 465–78. There is nothing in the Russian military or diplomatic correspondence of 1814 which suggests more than a passing interest in Bernadotte’s candidature. In 1813 Alexander had written that Bernadotte’s private hopes for the French crown could be indulged so long as they did not impede his contribution to the allied cause. In 1814 the emperor may even have encouraged Bernadotte’s hopes as a way of luring him back from his campaign against Denmark.

51 Baron de Vitrolles, Mémoires et relations politiques, 3 vols., Paris, 1884, vol. 1, pp. 115–20.

52 For the conversation with Castlereagh, see T. von Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben des kaiserlichen russischen Generals der Infanterie Carl Friedrich Grafen von Toll, 5 vols., Leipzig, 1858, vol. 4ii, p. 58.

53 Fournier, Congress, pp. 105–37; Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 156–64.

54 See e.g. Karl von Clausewitz, Der Feldzug von 1812 in Russland, der Feldzug von 1813 bis zum Waffenstillstand und der Feldzug von 1814 in Frankreich, Berlin, 1862, pp. 361–71. Müffling, Memoirs, pp. 115–45. Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 117–47, is as always admirably fair and balanced.

55 Major-General Kornilov was the senior officer of Olsufev’s corps who escaped: his report on the battle is in M. Galkin, Boevaia sluzhba 27-go pekhotnago Vitebskago polka 1703–1903, Moscow, 1908, pp. 223–4. On Olsufev’s losses, see: Napoleon to Joseph, 10 Feb. 1814, in A. du Casse (ed.), Mémoires et correspondance politique et militaire du Roi Joseph, Paris, 1854, p. 85.

56 The basic narrative is from Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 129–34, and Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 186–96. Sacken’s official report to Barclay, dated 3 Feb. 1814 (OS), is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Ed. Khr. 3403, fos. 37ii–39i. The description of Sacken the day after the battle is from Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 4i, p. 393. There is a good description of the retreat in the history of the Pskov Infantry Regiment: Captain Geniev, Istoriia Pskovskago pekhotnago general-fel’dmarshala kniazia Kutuzova-Smolenskago polka: 1700–1831, Moscow, 1883, pp. 233–6.

57 Koch, Mémoires, vol. 1, pp. 267–8. There is a good description of this retreat in Müffling, Memoirs, pp. 128–36.

58 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 206–8. Du Casse, Mémoires…du Roi Joseph, Napoleon to Joseph, 11 Feb. 1814, pp. 88 ff. Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, 32 vols., Paris, 1858–70, vol. 27, Paris, 1869, no. 21295, Napoleon to Eugéne, 18 Feb. 1814, pp. 192–3.

59 Fain, Manuscrit de Mil Huit Cent Quatorze, nos. 12 and 13, Bassano to Caulaincourt, 5 Feb. and Caulaincourt to Bassano, 6 Feb. 1814, pp. 253–7.

60 Ibid., no. 26, Napoleon to Caulaincourt, 17 Feb. 1814, pp. 284–5. Correspondance de Napoléon, vol. 27, no. 21344, Napoleon to Francis II, 21 Feb. 1814, pp. 224–7; no. 21295, Napoleon to Eugéne, 18 Feb. 1814, pp. 192–3. Du Casse, Mémoires…du Roi Joseph, Napoleon to Joseph, 18 Feb. 1814, pp. 133 ff.

61 For Alexander’s warning to Wittgenstein, see RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fo. 125ii, Alexander to Wittgenstein, 4 February 1814 (OS). On Pahlen and Wittgenstein, see M. Bogdanovich, ‘Graf Petr Petrovich fon der Pahlen i ego vremiia’, VS, 7/8, 1864, pp. 411–26, at pp. 418–19.

62 For Wittgenstein, see the previous note. On the Estland Regiment, see S. A. Gulevich, Istoriia 8go pekhotnago Estliandskago polka, SPB, 1911, p. 208.

63 Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, pp. 281–8, for his comments about Blücher. Fournier, Congress, no. 14, pp. 277–8, for his letter to Francis II of 20 Feb. and no. 13, p. 277, for Francis’s instructions to remain south of the Seine until it was clear whether or not the peace negotiations would succeed. Count Münster’s letter to the Prince Regent of 23 Feb. describes allied suspicions of Austrian ‘bleeding’ tactics: Fournier, Congress, no. 9, p. 302.

64 On frustration in the ranks, see Sabaneev’s letter to P. M. Volkonsky of 20 Feb. (OS): RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 4166, fo. 65i, and on orders to Oertel and the Evdokimov case his letters of 28 Jan. (OS) to Major-General Oldekop (fo. 40i) and to the Grand Duke Constantine of 24 Jan. (fo. 42i).

65 The voluminous correspondence above all between Barclay and Kankrin in RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 18, Delo 17, gives a detailed sense of the army’s efforts to feed itself and the problems they encountered: see in particular fos. 128i–ii, Barclay to Kankrin, 29 Jan. 1814 (OS); fos. 153i–ii, Barclay to Kankrin, 9 Feb. 1814 (OS); fos. 160i–ii, Kankrin to Barclay, 14 Feb. 1814 (OS). M. Dandevil’, Stoletie 5-go dragunskago Kurliandskago Imperatora Aleksandra III-go polka, SPB, 1903, p. 105.

66 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/120, Sv. 18, Delo 17, fos. 109–10, Kankrin to Barclay, 17 Jan. 1814 (OS); fos. 172–5, Kankrin to Barclay, 20 Feb. 1814 (OS); fo. 218, Barclay to Oertel, 7 March 1814 (OS). V. von Löwenstern, Mémoires du Général-Major Russe Baron de Löwenstern, 2 vols., Paris, 1903, vol. 2, pp. 315–20.

Chapter 14: The Fall of Napoleon

1 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/120, Sv. 18, Delo 17, fos. 68–70, Kankrin to Barclay (enclosing Lisanevich’s own report: fos. 70–71), 14 Jan. 1814 (OS); fos. 73–5, Barclay to Kankrin, 15 Jan. 1814 (OS) (on how the mobile magazine should be used); fo. 127, Kankrin to Barclay, 27 Jan. 1814 (OS) (on the magazines’ survival almost intact); fo. 160, Kankrin to Barclay, 15 Feb. 1814 (OS) (on how the mobile magazines had already supplied biscuit rations for one month); fo. 204, Kankrin to Barclay, 27 Feb. 1814 (OS) (on the dispatch of Kondratev’s magazine to Joinville).

2 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 18, Delo 17, fos. 50–52: Stein’s letter to Barclay explaining the arrangements to administer occupied territory and defining the districts, dated 25 Jan. (NS) 1814. For Alopaeus’s initial responses see: fos. 188–9, Kankrin to Barclay, 22 Feb. 1814 (OS), and fos. 201–3, Alopaeus to Barclay, 23 Feb. 1814 (OS). See also Peter Graf von Kielmansegg, Stein und die Zentralverwaltung 1813/14, Stuttgart, 1964, part 4, pp. 98 ff.

3 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 12, Delo 126, fos. 52–3, Kankrin to Barclay, 22 Jan. 1814 (OS).

4 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 18, Delo 17, fo. 204, Kankrin to Barclay, 27 Feb. 1814 (OS); fos. 205–7, Alopaeus to Kankrin, 25 Feb. (OS).

5 A. Fournier, Der Congress von Chatillon: Die Politik im Kriege von 1814, Vienna, 1900, no. 27, Metternich to Stadion, 9 March 1814, pp. 334–5. Lord Burghersh, The Operations of the Allied Armies in 1813 and 1814, London, 1822, pp. 177–85, for a retrospective, ‘sanitized’ view.

6 Dispatch from Lieven to Nesselrode, 26 Jan. 1814, enclosed in a letter from Castlereagh to Liverpool, 18 Feb. 1814: Marquess of Londonderry (ed.), Correspondence, Despatches, and Other Papers of Viscount Castlereagh, 12 vols., vol. 9, London, 1853, pp. 266–73.

7 F. Martens (ed.), Sobranie traktatov i konventsii, zakliuchennykh Rossiei s inostrannymi derzhavami, vol. 3: Traktaty s Avstrieiu, SPB, 1876, no. 73, pp. 148–65.

8 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fos. 131ii–132i. SIRIO, 31, 1881, pp. 364–5, has the protocol of the meeting of 25 February. M. Bogdanovich, Istoriia voiny 1814 goda vo Frantsii, 2 vols., SPB, 1865, vol. 1, pp. 268–70.

9 K. von Clausewitz, Der Feldzug von 1812 in Russland, der Feldzug von 1813 bis zum Waffenstillstand und der Feldzug von 1814 in Frankreich, Berlin, 1862, pp. 375–7; Baron Karl von Müffling, The Memoirs of Baron von Müffling: A Prussian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars, ed. P. Hofschroer, London, 1997, pp. 146–71; V. von Löwenstern, Mémoires du Général-Major Russe Baron de Löwenstern, 2 vols., Paris, 1903, vol. 2, pp. 325–34. Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, 32 vols., Paris, 1858–70, vol. 27, no. 21439, Napoleon to Joseph, 5 March 1814, pp. 288–9. Henri Houssaye, Napoleon and the Campaign of 1814: France, Uckfield, 2004, pp. 116–41, tends to be an uncritical apologist for the Bonapartist line. Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 299–307.

10 For the basic narrative from rival sides, see Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 309–29; Houssaye, Napoleon, pp. 142–59. R. von Friederich, Die Befreiungskriege 1813–1815, vol. 3: Der Feldzug 1814, Berlin, 1913, pp. 214–22, is semi-neutral and accurate. On Heurtebise, and the battle of the Russian jaegers, see S. I. Maevskii, ‘Moi vek, ili istoriia generala Maevskogo, 1779–1848’, RS, 8, 1873, pp. 268–73. He commanded the 13th Jaeger Regiment during the battle.

11 Apart from the works cited in the previous note, see specifically on the Russian retreat, Ivan Ortenberg, ‘Voennyia vospominaniia starykh vremen’, Biblioteka dlia chteniia, 24/6, 1857, pp. 18–33, at pp. 18–19.

12 Burghersh, Operations, p. 196. Clausewitz, Feldzug, 1862, p. 379.

13 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 324–5; Captain Koch, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la campagne de 1814, 3 vols., Paris, 1819, vol. 1, pp. 399–400. Houssaye, Napoleon, p. 157. Alain Pigeard, Dictionnaire de la Grande Armée, Paris, 2002, pp. 648–9. Friederich, Feldzug, writes that 15,000 Russians actually fought 21,000 French soldiers on the battlefield of Craonne.

14 There is a good description of meeting Blücher at this time in F. von Schubert, Unter dem Doppeladler, Stuttgart, 1962, pp. 345–6.

15 Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 243–8; Müffling, Memoirs, pp. 167–76.

16 I. I. Shelengovskii, Istoriia 69-go Riazanskago polka, 3 vols., Lublin, 1911, vol. 2, pp. 251–75. Skobelev was actually an odnodvorets, in other words the descendant of free peasant colonists who had manned the southern frontier regions of Muscovy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. By Alexander’s reign the burdens and constraints on odnodvortsy were roughly the same as those of the state peasantry.

17 Alexander’s correspondence in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, contains a mass of letters expressing these worries: see e.g. fos. 147ii and 151i for letters of 28 Feb. (OS) to Schwarzenberg urging him to press forward more quickly, and of 5 March (OS) to Nikolai Raevsky, who had replaced Wittgenstein, warning him not to become isolated and to expect an attack by Napoleon at any moment. For the scenes at GHQ, see Karl Fürst Schwarzenberg, Feldmarschall Fürst Schwarzenberg: Der Sieger von Leipzig, Vienna, 1964, pp. 306–8, 483–4. Mémoires de Langeron, Général d’Infanterie dans l’Armée Russe: Campagnes de 1812, 1813, 1814, Paris, 1902, p. 423.

18 Langeron, Mémoires, pp. 434–7, has a good discussion of these two options.

19 T. von Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben des kaiserlichen russischen Generals der Infanterie Carl Friedrich Grafen von Toll, 5 vols., Leipzig, 1858, vol. 4ii, pp. 292–4, cites Napoleon’s own subsequent conversations on this point.

20 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fo. 154ii, Volkonsky to Gneisenau, 10 March 1814 (OS). The basic narrative of events is the same in Friederich, Feldzug, and in Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814.

21 Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 281–2. On previous criticism of Oertel, see RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/120, Sv. 12, Delo 126, fo. 71: Barclay to Oertel, 16 Feb. 1814 (OS). A. Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Opisanie pokhoda vo Frantsii v 1814 godu, SPB, repr. 1841, pp. 284–5.

22 The only witness of this discussion to leave a detailed account is Toll: see Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 4ii, pp. 310–14. Bernhardi is right to dismiss Austrian claims to authorship of the plan, for which there is no evidence and which make a nonsense of Schwarzenberg’s actions. One cannot rule out Volkonsky’s role so easily, however. According to Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, Alexander himself told him of Volkonsky’s advice. If Mikhailovsky had merely recorded Volkonsky’s role in his published history one could easily dismiss it as one of his many efforts to please still-living grandees of Nicholas’s reign by praising their role in the war. But he says the same in a manuscript not intended for publication in which in general he is critical of his former boss: Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Memuary 1814–1815, SPB, 2001, pp. 33–5. See also, however, Diebitsch’s brief account in a letter to Jomini of 9 May 1817, published in Langeron, Mémoires, pp. 491–3.

23 Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, p. 323.

24 Ibid., pp. 308–9. RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 18, Delo 17, fos. 227–8, 235, 238–9, Kankrin to Barclay: 12, 13, 17 March 1814 (OS).

25 An interesting letter of 17 March from Count Latour to Radetsky states that the Austrian army had lost prestige because it was generally blamed for twice doing nothing and leaving the Army of Silesia to its fate: Fournier, Congress, no. 17, pp. 281–2. For Barclay’s compliment to Kankrin, see his letter of 10 March 1814 (OS), in RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 210/4, Sv. 17, Delo 17.

26 For the Russian angle, see the excellent and detailed account by Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 456 ff. For the French view – on this occasion not too dissimilar – see Houssaye, Napoleon, pp. 296–311. Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 287–90, is fair and intelligent as always. There is a recent account in English by Digby Smith, Charge: Great Cavalry Charges of the Napoleonic Wars, London, 2003, pp. 207 ff., but as with most of the English-language literature on 1813–14 it very much underestimates the Russian impact, in this respect following its German-language sources. This chapter, for example, gives the impression that Württemberg’s cavalry played the leading role at Fére-Champenoise, which is far from true.

27 Langeron, Mémoires, pp. 446–8.

28 See n. 26 above for the main sources. See Ch. 5, pp. 162–4, for the battle of Krasnyi. Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky was present at Fére-Champenoise and gives a good description of the final stages of the battle: Opisanie 1814, pp. 294–313. P. Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, SPB, 1896, pp. 300–310, has interesting details on the role of the Guards horse artillery.

29 For an excellent and succinct interpretation of Talleyrand’s views and role in 1814, see Philip Dwyer, Talleyrand, Harlow, 2002, pp. 124–40. For Napoleon’s movements and the Council of Regency, Houssaye, Napoleon, pp. 317–70.

30 Count A. de Nesselrode (ed.), Lettres et papiers du Chancelier Comte du Nesselrode 1760–1850, Paris, n.d., vol. 5, pp. 183–4, 28 March 1814.

31 Löwenstern, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 376. I. Burskii, Istoriia 8-go gusarskago Lubenskago polka, Odessa, 1913, pp. 115–17. I. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s 1812 po 1816 god, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 3, pp. 109–10.

32 Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Opisanie 1814, p. 327.

33 There is a detailed narrative of the battle in Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 506–60, and Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 301–10.

34 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 534–7. Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 3, pp. 278–90.

35 Langeron, Mémoires, pp. 465–73.

36 See e.g. his orders to Langeron: RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fo. 160ii, 16 March 1814 (OS), and his plea to Wrede, in Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Opisanie 1814, p. 324. M. F. Orlov, ‘Kapitulatsiia Parizha 1814 g.’, VS, 37/6, 1864, pp. 287–309.

37 See e.g. Castlereagh’s comment to the Prince Regent that the Russian Guards were ‘the most splendid that can be imagined’: Castlereagh, vol. 9, 30 Jan. 1814, pp. 210–12.

38 Burghersh, Operations, pp. 250–52. Baron de Vitrolles, Mémoires et relations politiques, 3 vols., Paris, 1884, vol. 1, p. 316.

39 Orlov, ‘Kapitulatsiia’, p. 300. Vitrolles, Mémoires, vol. 1, pp. 311–12.

40 On Talleyrand, see n. 29 above. J. Hanoteau (ed.), Mémoires du Général de Caulaincourt, Duc de Vicenze, 3 vols., Paris, 1933, vol. 3, pp. 207–30. Houssaye, Napoleon, pp. 470–99. For Talleyrand’s own account of these days, see Mémoires du Prince de Talleyrand, Paris, 1891, pp. 156–67.

41 All the key documents of these days are reproduced between pp. 403 and 416 of SIRIO, 31, 1881: these include the various allied declarations, senatorial resolutions, Marmont’s statements and a short commentary by Nesselrode.

42 For Alexander’s letter to Louis XVIII of 17 April, see SIRIO, 31, 1881, pp. 411–12. Castlereagh, vol. 9, pp. 450–51, reproduces Charles Stewart’s letter to Bathurst of 7 April denouncing the offer of Elba but there is no mention of his brother’s letter to Bathurst of 13 April: this is published as no. 4, pp. 420–3, in Baron Fain, Manuscrit de Mil Huit Cent Quatorze, Paris, 1825. Since there is nothing that is implausible in the content of the letter and no reason to think that Fain invented it, the likeliest interpretation is that it was not included in the collection by Lord Londonderry because he did not think it reflected well on his brother. He does include many other letters to Bathurst. In Castlereagh’s defence, he was seeking to sustain a fait accompli created by others.

43 Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, p. 337.

44 Löwenstern, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 342, 419–23. A. Zaitsev, Vospominaniia o pokhodakh 1812 goda, Moscow, 1853, pp. 29–34. P. Nazarov, ‘Zapiski soldata Pamfila Nazarova’, RS, 9/8, 1878, pp. 539–40. RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fo. 172ii, Volkonsky to Barclay, 2 April 1814 (OS), on the immediate departure of the irregular cavalry. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski, vol. 3, pp. 236–7, on the tremendous reception given to the returning Russian troops in Silesia, thanks partly to the king, who had given 3 million talers for parties and meals in their honour. Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina, Leningrad, 1987, pp. 166–73, on the Guards’ journey home.