All language subtitles for 1812. Napoleonic Wars in Russia. Episode 3. Documentary Film. Russian History. (inglés)

August 26, 1812. The 124th km to the west of Moscow.

A field by Borodino village.

Two huge armies were finishing the last preparations

for the one of the bloodiest battles of the epoch.

A quarter million people. Over a thousand guns.

Borodino was to determine the fate of the entire

military campaign. The fate of Moscow.

The fate of the entire Russia.

NAPOLEONIC WARS IN RUSSIA

At the daybreak drums and trumpets were heard

in both the French and the Russian camps.

At half past five over 100 French guns opened artillery fire

at the left flank of the Russians

where Bagration’s positions were.

Napoleon carried out his first diversions at the right flank.

The first flank of the Russian positions by Borodino

was defended by the First Army of Barclay de Tolly –

76 thousand people and 480 guns.

The Koloch River separated it from the enemy.

Barclay’s troops were covering the Moscow direction.

In case of need they could attack flanks and rear

of the French troops.

The left flank was open country.

It was taken by the Second Army of Bagration –

34 thousand people and 156 guns.

After the loss of Shevardinskiy Redoubt Bagration’s units

were left with just three half-constructed flashes.

That’s why they built a fortification in the middle

which was handed over to General Rayevskiy’s battery.

Napoleon knew about the weakness of the Russian left flank.

He decided to deal it the hardest blow.

He wanted to divert the Russians’ attention

by seizing the village of Borodino and then

to send the main forces to the center, break through

Kuruzov’s defense lines, come out into the rear,

press his army to the Moscow River and devastate it.

Napoleon never used more than 20 thousand soldiers

for diversion maneuvers. The main forces of his troops,

about 115 thousand soldiers, attacked Bagration’s positions.

The total strength of the French army amounted to

135 thousand people and 587 guns.

Kutuzov had about 150 thousand soldiers including,

according to different estimates, up to 10 thousand Cossacks

and up to 20 thousand home guards.

The home guards were mostly armed with bayonets

and hardly took any part in the battle.

Holy Mother, save us!

The French delivered the main blow by the village

of Semenovskoye. They believed that their majority in numbers

would allow them to easily break through the Russians’ defense.

The Corps of Marshals Davout, Ney, Murat and General Junot

went forward.

The French were met with fierce fire. Losing dozens of killed

and wounded, they started to retreat.

Get ready!

Fire by the row!

Fire by the row!

In less than half an hour the second attack started.

Marshal Davout rode to his soldiers

and took a place among them.

Send someone to the Commander-in-Chief.

We need reinforcements.

Tell Rayevskiy to move the entire second line

of the Seventh Infantry Corps to the flashes.

Tell General Tuchkov to send Konovnitsin’s division here.

Headed by the Marshal the infantrymen stormed

one of the flashes and engaged into a furious battle.

Generals Dessaix and Compana and almost all brigade generals

were wounded. A horse was killed under Davout.

The Marshal himself was concussed.

Despite the losses the French managed

to capture the fortification.

Neverovskiy’s division came to the rescue

of the flashes’ defenders. His soldiers kicked the French

out of the positions with mere bayonets.

Guns and cannons never fell silent. The third attack started.

Kutuzov had already sent reinforcements to Bagration.

But they needed an hour to get to the place of battle.

30 thousand French were storming the flashes

defended by 16 thousand Russians. Three cavalry corps

of Murat engaged into the battle.

The French artillery force was 160 guns.

Two flashes were seized but later the Russians recaptured them.

Bagration moved his reserves to the flashes

and they counter-attacked the French.

Murat himself barely escaped captivity.

Grenadiers of General Vorontsov took the hardest blow

of the massive French attack. Almost all those brave warriors

died on the battlefield. Vorontsov himself was wounded

with a bayonet. Commander of the infantry division

General Neverovskiy was severely wounded too.

To support his infantry Napoleon sent in the cavalry

that took the flashes back.

Anrie, the cannon! Be quick! Be quick!

Konovnitsin’s division rushed into the battle right on approach.

Damn it! Stop it! Get back!

The Russian infantrymen, grenadiers and cuirassiers

were attacking the enemy from all sides.

Soldiers! Attack!

Columns of Revelskiy and Muromskiy Regiments

were headed by a 34-year old General Alexandra Tuchkov,

the youngest brother of Nicolay, Pavel and Sergey Tuchkovs.

Soldiers! Attack!

The soldiers failed to bring Tuchkov’s body from the battlefield.

They didn’t find it. The place of his death

was literally plowed with cannon balls.

After the end of the war General Tuchkov’s widow

Margarita Mikhaylovna built the Church of the Vernicle Image

of the Savior for her own money.

She opened a women’s parish that was later reformed

into the Spaso-Borodinskiy Women’s Monastery.

Tuchkov’s widow had been its Mother Superior Maria

for many years.

The battle had been raging for six hours.

A witness recalled: “The ground before the flashes

was covered with the bodies of the French

and behind the flashes – with the bodies of the Russians.

The soldiers were walking on blood

that the earth refused to swallow”.

Napoleon concentrated about 45 thousand of his soldiers

supported by 400 guns on a little stripe

less than one km wide. Bagration had to oppose

that devastative force with just 20 thousand people

and 300 cannons.

This is the end!

Play the attack!

Aye-aye!

Play the attack! Play the attack! Play the attack!

Get ready to attack!

Bagration’s positions withstood over six hours

of relentless storming. Generals, colonels, officers

and privates were fighting with bayonets, butts, cleaning rods,

stones and everything they could lay their hands on.

It seemed that the Russian troops were overpowering

the French. The reserves were on their way.

Then a grenade fragment hit Bagration’s leg.

The Prince is wounded!

Call the doctor! Call the doctor!

Lay him on the ground. Be careful. Be careful.

Tell… tell General Barclay that the fate and the survival

of the army now depend on him. It has been all right so far.

But let him watch over my army. Tell Barclay… Tell him

“Thank you” and “I’m sorry”. “I’m sorry”.

Prince Peter Ivanovitch Bagration died on September 12, 1812

in the village of Simy of Vladimir province

where he was buried. In 1839 his remains

were reburied on Borodino Field.

Repulsing fierce enemy attacks

the Russians who were now left with their commander

retreated behind the Semenovskiy Gorge.

The French took the flashes. But the price for them

was so high that they had no strength left

to pursue the remains of the Russian regiments.

Soon general Dokhturov who was appointed the commander

of the Second Army arrived. He organized a new defense line.

He positioned artillery on top of the gorge

and immediately opened fire.

Napoleon ordered to bring all the light cannons

to the Semenovskiy Gorge. A wall of fire fell

on approaching reserves of Life Guards

of Izmaylovskiy and Lithuanian Regiments.

Under the terrible fire of the Russian batteries

cuirassiers of Latour-Mobur and Nansutie engaged into battle.

The cuirassiers were the heavy cavalry.

They used to wear helmets and cuirasses for protection.

A cuirass consisted of two metal plates on the chest

and on the back connected with fasteners.

They were armed with broadswords –

a type of cold weapon with a long blade

weighting up to two kg. That weapon could cut an enemy

in half but demanded great strength and stamina

from a cuirassier. “The Iron Men”, as Napoleon called them,

easily plundered light cavalry and bravely attacked

close ranks of infantry squares.

The French cavalry crossed a stream

and soon met the regiments of the Russian cuirassiers.

Supported by the infantry and cavalry

they tried to encircle the French. The latter had to retreat.

In the beginning of the day

when the defenders of the flashes were repelling

the third attack Napoleon sent Beauharnais’s Corps

to storm the Mound Height. It was where the Russian battery

of General Rayevskiy was stationed.

They only managed to place 18 guns at the breastwork in time.

Before them were camouflaged ditches with stakes

dug into the earth at the bottom.

Beauharnais took his time to fire at the height from the guns.

When it seemed to him that the Russian battery

was devastated he sent his infantry into the attack.

But the trap ditches, Russian snipers in the shrubs

and cannon balls made the French retreat.

The artillery cannonade never fell silent.

All the slopes and approaches to the base station

were littered with dead bodies.

Fire! Fire the cannon! Give me the ball!

The cannon balls were used up at the battery,

so the cannons fell silent at last.

General Bonami’s Brigade crossed the ditch

and stormed the battery. A hand-to-hand combat started.

The head of the headquarters of the First Army

General Yermolov happened to be at the battery

in that critical moment. He saw that the height may be captured

so be threw three regiments of chasseurs

and an infantry battalion into the attack.

Yermolov took Crosses of St. George in his hand

and rushed to the battery inspiring the rest to follow him.

“Many soldiers ran after him and fought the enemy bravely”.

Yermolov Alexei Petrovitch, the Infantry General.

He headed the headquarters of Barclay de Tolly

during the Battle of Borodino.

The participant of the Foreign Campaign

and the Battles of Lutzen, Kulma and Leipzig.

In 1816 he was appointed the Commander-in-Chief

of the Russian forces in Georgia and Ambassador in Persia.

“A man of dignity, but a lying one and an intriguer” –

that is how Barclay de Tolly commented on him.

Denis Davidov called Yermolov “The Guardian Angel

of the Russian troops”.

Yermolov’s attack was supported by soldiers

of the two infantry divisions and a few dragoon regiments

that went round the Mound Height from both right and left.

The French found themselves encircled.

After recapturing the battery the Russian followed

the retreating regiments. The success was absolute.

The news about the captivity of a French general

whom they confused for Marshal Murat

strengthened the army’s battle spirit greatly.

Beauharnais threw all his infantry forces at Rayevskiy’s battery.

Artillery fire and hand-to-hand combat resumed.

Yermolov got wounded with case shot

and handed the command over to General Likhachov.

Beauharnais begged Napoleon for reinforcements.

The Mound Height was to be urgently reinforced with reserves.

To win some time and to help Bagration

Kutuzov ordered the Cossacks of Atamans Platov

and Uvarov’s cavalrymen to go to the French rear

and deliver an unexpected blow.

The attack of the Russian cavalry was so unexpected

that it spread panic in Napoleon’s headquarters.

The Emperor stopped the attack at the Rayevskiy’s battery

and turned his division around.

Waiting for the Russians’ general offensive

he was staying put till 3 p.m. The psychological effect

of that raid was huge. The Russian Army used the break

to reinforce its positions.

Beauharnais got reinforcements too – the regiments of Ney,

Murat’s cavalry and the Young Guard.

Napoleon ordered the Marshals to join efforts

to seize the Mound Height.

After the artillery fire Murat’s cuirassiers and uhlans

rushed at Rayevskiy’s battery.

The main tactical unit of the cavalry was a squadron.

It consisted of about 100 riders. After the start of the attack

the squadron would line up in two lines 35 to 40 m long each.

The riders used to sit knee-to-knee.

Other squadrons followed the first one.

The squadron would go into the attack at a trot.

It would attack the cavalry during the last 90 to 100 meters.

There the horses would be snapped into a gallop.

To faster overcome the artillery fire damage zone

or the enemy infantry positions the same tactic was used.

The horses loaded with the field kit got tired quickly.

It was impossible to make a horse gallop more than twice

or trice during one battle. A rider attacking at full speed

would hold his blade above his head point-first

as the statute ordered “to stab and not to cut”.

When cavalry was at a 60-step distance,

the Russian infantry opened fire. The cuirassiers’ armor

didn’t save from bullets. The riders had to retreat

to their infantry that was approaching the Mound Height

in closed ranks.

On getting the scattered regiments in order

the cuirassiers broke through the wall of the Russian infantry,

went round the Mound Height and stormed the battery.

The French infantry followed.

Several battalions of Likhachov were encircled.

A desperate fight, bloody and relentless

ensued at the Mound Height.

I’ll gladly die for the sake of my Motherland!

Likhachov led his soldiers into a bayonet fight.

The enemy learned a lot that day.

They saw what the Russian fight means,

our hand-to-hand combat…

The hand-to-hand bayonet fight is the scariest episode

of the battle. A soldier had less chances of surviving it

than under fire. The trihedral wide-bladed bayonets

inflicted terrible wounds maiming people.

Commanders tried to settle the battle with the artillery

or gun fire or the offensive with closed ranks.

It usually made the enemy retreat.

But the parties wanted to carry the fight through to victory

and rushed to fight hand-to-hand.

The Borodino Battle holds one of the first places

in quantity of the hand-to-hand combats of those times.

Thus, in a battle for Rayevskiy’s battery only 300 people

out of the 30th French Line Regiment 4100 strong survived.

The French officers managed to pull

blood-covered General Likhachov from the common heap.

He ran at an enemy with a lance in his hand

and was all stabbed with bayonets. They brought him

together with 15 surviving soldiers to Napoleon.

I value courage that failed too much, my Lord,

to deprive myself of a pleasure to give you back

your weapon of a brave man.

Captivity deprived me of my lance given to me by my Tsar

and given away against my will.

I may only take it back from him.

Likhachov Petr Gavrilovitch was the General Major.

He used to serve in the army since he was 14.

Being the commander of a regiment of chasseurs

in the Caucasian Mountains he demonstrated independence

in learning and battle preparation of his subordinates.

During the Borodino Battle he used to lead

the 24th Infantry Division. He was released from captivity

in December of 1812. He died of consequences

of battle wounds in his family estate.

The Mound Height was seized by the French.

But they failed to develop their success

due to inexhaustible persistence of the Russians,

great losses and physical tiredness of the troops.

Anrie! Your wound is bleeding.

You shall see the doctor!

To cover the Old Smolensk Road Kutuzov sent

the Third Infantry Corps of General Nicolay Tuchkov,

the eldest of the Tuchkovs brothers.

He also got a detachment of the Cossacks

and 15 thousand soldiers from the Moscow

and Smolensk volunteers’ units. The Corps was defending

the village of Utitsa. In case of necessity Tuchkov

was to retreat to a little elevation – the Utitskiy Mound.

The home guards that consisted of serfs, petty bourgeois

and city dwellers were armed with bayonets and axes.

There were no other weapons.

Forward!

A French officer recalled:

“A tall wood suddenly came into life.

Seven thousand beards ran out from an ambush.

Shouting madly they rushed at the enemy

with home-made bayonets and axes

chopping people like firewood”.

Who is there at the Mound?

Our people, Your Honor.

Thank you!

Nicolay Alexeyevitch Tuchkov died in Yaroslavl

in three weeks. General Baggovut took the command

over the left flank of the troops.

After the end of the battle Napoleon

started pulling his forces back. The Russian army

was ready to go on fighting. The Russian soldiers

shouted “Hurray!” on hearing the news

of the French attack the following day.

The battles started and ended.

The battles for life continued at the dressing stations,

in mobile and permanent hospitals

that were receiving more and more wounded.

As a rule experienced doctors and nurses were working

in the hospitals. They were using bandages, lint, spirit,

quinine, potions, ointments, lotions, different bandages,

plasters, surgical instruments, silk and many other materials.

The wounded’s fate depended on the first medical aid –

quick and skillful dressing and timely surgery.

The doctor would widen a bullet wound and clean it

from dirt, bones and powder, as they used to say,

“until the meat is red and the blood is clean’.

The doctors were trying to save damaged limbs.

Sepsis was treated with amputation.

Hacksaw was used to cut off limbs in field conditions.

The only anesthetics were spirit or vodka.

Dominique-Jean Larrey, the Chief Surgeon of the French Army

was for the early amputation of limbs.

He personally carried out 200 amputations at Borodino.

The wounded from Borodino were taken to Moscow by carts.

By the end of August of 1812 the hospitals

were overcrowded with up to 30 thousand wounded and sick.

According to some historians, that number was about

40 thousand people. When the decision to leave Moscow

was taken the wounded were evacuated to Kasimov, Yelatma,

Melenki, Ryazan and other settlements.

However a major part of them remained in the city.

One of the bloodiest battles of the first half of the 19th century,

the Borodino Battle, lasted for 12 hours and ended

right where it started. The historians estimate

Napoleon’s losses at about 35 to 50 thousand men.

49 of his generals died. The battle became a grave

for the French cavalry 60 per cent of which were lost.

According to different estimates, the Russian army lost

from 38 to 45 thousand people killed,

wounded and missing including 23 generals.

On getting fuller data about the quantity of killed

And wounded Kutuzov changed his mind

about a major battle. Closed to the midnight the troops

were divided into four columns and got an order to retreat.

The battle inflicted serious damage on the French Army too.

Napoleon now had no more than 80 thousand soldiers.

The Emperor believed that Kutuzov would lead

his army into a decisive battle the following day.

He had no doubts in his victory and was almost sure

that representatives of Alexander I would come to him

in Moscow with a peace mission.

But Kutuzov acted otherwise.

His army was retreating to Mozhaysk.

Napoleon got to know about that only at 10 a.m.

Who won the Borodino Battle?

In his letter to Emperor Alexander I Kutuzov wrote:

“The battle culminated so that the enemy failed to win

even one step of our land”.

But the French considered themselves victors.

However Napoleon failed to fulfill his main task –

to defeat Kutuzov’s army.

Napoleon recalled: “Out of all my battles

the one by Moscow was the worst.

The French proved themselves capable of achieving victory

while the Russians won the right to be invincible.

Out of 50 battles that I led we showed the greatest courage

and achieved the least success by Moscow”.

In a few versts from Moscow Kutuzov ordered

General Bennigsen to find a good place for a new battle.

If the battle is tomorrow he’ll get no Moscow for sure!

I hope so… So many people died.

The Second Grenadier Company is almost gone.

My brother-in-law died there.

They chose the Fili Hole in a few km from the Vorobyovy Hills.

This position was weak. However the army was ready to fight

anywhere not to let the enemy enter Moscow.

Kutuzov ordered to build a battery at the Poklonnaya Hill

showing that he was ready to fight. However,

according to General Yermolov’s words, the cunning old man

had no intentions of fighting there

and was looking for a suitable pretext to retreat.

On September 1, 1812 in 4 versts from Dragomilov post

at the edge of the village of Fili in peasant’s Frolov’s house

Kutuzov gathered the council of war.

He invited the War Minister Barclay de Tolly,

the head of the Chief Headquarters Bennigsen,

Commander of the Second Army Dokhturov,

General-Quartermaster Tol, the head of the headquarters

of the First Army Yermolov, Generals Uvarov,

Osterman-Tolstoy, Konovnitsin and Rayevskiy.

The events that happened in that house

continue to baffle historians to this day. Kutuzov prohibited

drawing minutes of the meeting. We only know about it

from the memoirs of its participants.

Kutuzov suggested that all the generals should share

their opinion on the main issue – what to do?

Should they fight or leave Moscow and retreat?

Sit down, gentlemen.

Bennigsen and Yermolov were for the fighting.

Barclay de Tolly, Osterman-Tolstoy and Tol were for

leaving Moscow. We don’t know for sure the opinions

of Uvarov, Konovnitsin and Dokhturov.

Rayevskiy was the last to speak.

“Russia is not in Moscow. It is among its sons.

The main thing is to save the army. My opinion is that

we shall leave Moscow without a fight.”

According to Bennigsen’s recollections, six generals

wanted to fight and four, including Kutuzov, were against it.

In Yermolov’s memoirs the exact opposite is true.

I order the retreat with powers entrusted upon me

by the Tsar and the Motherland!

People heard the Commander-in-Chief crying

in his room several times that night…

The decision of the council of war was announced to the troops.

The soldiers were upset. But at 10 p.m. on September 1

the army left Fili and moved towards Moscow.

At dawn first echelons of the Russian army entered the city,

The bridges and streets were crowded

with the carts of refugees, wounded and wagons.

The soldiers were walking silently, looking down.

Many of them were crying.

Kutuzov ordered General Miloradovitch

who was heading the rear guard to delay the enemy

until the Russian troops pass Moscow.

Marshal Murat was trying to cut Miloradovitch’s rear guard

from the city and encircle him.

Then Miloradovitch sent a letter to the Marshal.

“If you start the battle, the Russians will fight

for every street and every house

and will ultimately set Moscow on fire”.

Miloradovitch Mikhail Andreyevitch, the Infantry General.

He was heading the rear guard and during the offensive –

the vanguard of the Russian army.

Because of his courage he enjoyed endless authority

among his soldiers. In 1818 he was appointed

the General Governor of St.-Petersburg.

In 1825, on the day of rebellion at the Senate Square

he addressed the rebels and practical led talked the soldiers

into going back to the barracks.

He avoided wounds in 50 battles

only to get a mortal shot in his back from the retired

Lieutenant Kakhovskiy on December 14.

Murat agreed to wait until the last Russian soldier

left the capital. The partial reason for that noble compliance

was a sorry plight of his cavalry.

Thanks to the agreement between Miloradovitch and Murat

the Russian army and the majority of the city dwellers

managed to leave the city. By the evening of September 2

Moscow was almost empty.

Napoleon and his army approached Moscow.

Venice and Milan, Alexandria and Lisbon, Vienna, Berlin

and Rome succumbed to the Emperor of France.

However no other capital was as hugely, almost mystically

important for him as Moscow. Here he hoped to get a petition

from the Russian Emperor with an entreaty for truce.

Here his army was to get warm apartments, food and forage.

The French soldiers entered Moscow.

Behind them were endless marches in heat

without a drop of water, hungry nights under pouring rain.

Behind them were fire, blood and thousands of dead.

Ahead of them was peace promised by their Emperor.

They believed that they had already defeated

the Russian army, this country and its people…

The Emperor was impressed with a view of the city

from the Poklonnay Hill. He was waiting for a boyars’ delegation

with the keys from the city. The time was passing.

Nobody came. Napoleon was getting impatient.

He was reported that not only the authorities

but even common city dwellers are largely absent from the city.

That same evening Napoleon started getting disturbing reports:

fires began in Moscow. Napoleon decided

that the marauding soldiers were to blame.

He called for Marshall Mortier appointed the Governor of Moscow.

He demanded to immediately restore order

in the units and stop looting.

You’ll answer for that with your head!

"The fires already raged in Zaryadye; then Kitay-Gorod lit up. "

Soon fire claimed two more districts. There was nothing

to put the flames out with. Moreover the soldiers

who were looting the shops didn’t want to fight the fires.

They barely managed to put the Market Square out.

The next day Napoleon entered Moscow

half-hidden under thick clouds of smoke.

At last I’m in Moscow…

…in the palace of ancient tsars…

…in the Kremlin!

In the evening the fires resumed.

The fire caught the major part of the city.

It was light as during the day.

Strong wind was pushing the flames to the center of Moscow.

Fire approached the Kremlin by night.

The guards managed to put out the arsenal

where some stocks of powder and shells still remained.

But when one of the Kremlin’s towers caught fire

Marshals turned to Napoleon asking him to leave the Kremlin.

They are setting fires themselves.

What kind of people are they? They are real Scythians!

What decisiveness! The barbarians! What a terrible sight!

Napoleon was still lingering.

How could he come to the Kremlin as a winner

and run away without even spending a night there?

This is impossible! To burn their own cities!

What fierce decisiveness! What a people! What a people!

The fire intensified. It was hard to breathe because of smoke.

Sir…

Napoleon and his entourage barely made their way

to Petrovskoe along the Moscow River.

The country palace of the Russian Emperors

became Napoleon’s headquarters for three days.

Moscow was still in flames.

Historians still argue on the causes of the fires.

In his letter to Alexander I Napoleon blamed

“the death of a beautiful and great city”

on Governor Count Rostopchin.

Incendiaries detained by the French claimed

that they were acting on his orders. After the war

Rostopchin first confirmed and then disproved

his involvement in the fires.

There are also other versions including arson

by the Russian scouts, uncontrollable actions of the French,

and even accidents inevitable in the general war chaos.

According to some estimates, the fire destroyed 6,500 houses

out of over 9,000, 122 churches out of 329,

over 8,000 storehouses and shops. The University,

library of Buturlin, Petrovskiy and Arbatskiy Theatres

all perished in the flames.

Up to 2,000 wounded Russian soldiers died in the fire.

While the fire was raging

Moscow was being looted and destroyed.

On September 7, when Napoleon returned to the city,

he found scorched streets, looted shops and drunk soldiers.

The Emperor was worried by what he saw.

A burnt city is a bad place to spend the winter

for the army with shaken discipline.

However Napoleon was still energetic and active.

He continued to rule his empire from Moscow.

He was signing decrees, appointments and awards, orders.

Among them was the Statute of “Comedie Francais”,

that is still in full effect today. The time was passing.

Alexander I was keeping silence. Signing of truce

became a deed of honor for Napoleon, no matter what the price.

The Emperor sent two letters to St.-Petersburg

but got no answer.

The Russians still had a capable army

and Napoleon knew nothing of its whereabouts…

On leaving Moscow the Russian troops went to the Ryazan Road,

but then abruptly turned to the old Kaluga Road.

Barclay de Tolly who was against that decision

left for St.-Petersburg. The power now

fully concentrated in Kutuzov’s and Bennigsen’s hands.

The movement of the army to the south

was kept secret from the Frenchmen. The Cossack units

and Rayevskiy Corps were distracting Murat’s detachments

by continuing their retreat to Ryazan.

There they… disappeared in the woods.

Every time Murat was moving forward

a Russian Cossack would ride up to him

from the Russian units asking in the exquisite French:

“By what settlement is the Italian Vice-King going to stop”?

Murat found the Russian army only on September 14.

It stationed by the village of Tarutino.

85,000 people took a favorable position.

They were securely covering the southern provinces

that were supplying the army with recruits,

food, horses and ammunition.

Murat constructed his own fortified camp nearby.

After that a silent truce was established.

Officers of the enemy armies were meeting

on the neutral territory, communicating, joking

and even arranging joint picnics.

The generals didn’t lag behind.

The two main brave heroes of both armies,

Murat and Miloradovitch, got on especially well.

Yermolov recalled: “General Miloradovitch met with Murat

several times. Murat used to come either dressed

as a Spaniard, or in a silly attire with a sable hat

and in silk brocade pants. Miloradovitch would come

on top of a Cossack’s horse with a lance, in three shawls

of three different colors.

There was nobody like them in both armies”!

The officers became such good friends

that Murat was sure – the Russian army wouldn’t fight

with the French any more.

He reported to his Emperor accordingly.

So Napoleon was waiting for peaceful propositions

from Alexander I.

Alexander I was in a state of blissful ignorance

about the army affairs. Kutuzov informed his Tsar

on the situation only in nine days after the Borodino Battle

and in two days after the enemy had entered Moscow.

“Let me dare report to you, Your Highness,

that arrival of the enemy to Moscow doesn’t mean

Russia’s defeat”.

Kutuzov explained that they left Moscow

because the army was weakened after Borodino.

He sent Colonel Misho with an oral report to Petersburg.

The Tsar’s family, the nobles and the merchants were at a loss.

Some people were packing their things.

What if Napoleon goes from Moscow to Petersburg?

Some supported the idea of signing the peace treaty.

But the majority of the Russian society was implacable.

Tsar’s sister Ekaterina Pavlovna was begging his brother

not to sign the peace treaty.

“I better stop being who I am but not make a deal

with a monster who makes the entire world unhappy”.

Meanwhile guerilla units started appearing in the rear

and on the flanks of Napoleon’s army.

They were hunting the occupants down.

The first order on establishment of a guerilla unit

was given by Bagration just five days before

the Borodino Battle. It was the General’s former adjutant,

Lieutenant Colonel of the Akhtirskiy Hussar Regiment

Denis Davidov who suggested this idea.

The village of Borodino was his father’s estate.

In five days before the battle, when his native house

was being dismantled to build fortifications

Davidov addressed Bagration with a suggestion

to form a mobile detachment.

Davidov Denis Vasilyevitch was a General Lieutenant,

an author and a poet, a cousin of General Yermolov.

He participated in wars with France, Sweden and Turkey.

His first guerilla detachment consisted of 50 hussars

and 80 Cossacks. He was the participant

of the Foreign Campaign of 1813-1815.

He captured Dresden with his vanguard unit

without an order after which he was put under home arrest.

Davidov’s bravery was legendary throughout Europe.

Residents of towns that the Russian soldiers were passing

were asking about Davidov in the streets dreaming of seeing him.

During one little raid a small Davidov’s unit

released 200 Russian prisoners, seized a cart with bullets,

nine carts with food and took 370 Frenchmen prisoners.

Napoleon hated Davidov and ordered

to execute him on site in case of capture.

2,000 were sent to catch him. Davidov had twice less people.

However he managed to trap and capture his enemies.

On November 9 Davidov and other guerillas took 2,000

men of General Ajearaix prisoners by Lyahov.

He also eliminated the French cavalry depot by Kopis.

He defeated the enemy detachment by Belynitchi,

came up to the Neman and seized Grodno.

Right after the Russian army left Moscow

a few new guerilla units were formed.

They were headed by Captain Seslavin, Captain Figner,

Colonel Kudashev and other officers.

A real people’s war began in the Frenchmen’s rear.

Kutuzov and Bennigsen took all measures to prevent the French

from moving into the heart of Russia.

The Vladimir Home Guard occupied the road

from Moscow to Pokrovsk, the Ryazan Home Guard

stood on the Oka River, the Tula Home Guard was blocking

the road to Serpukhov and the Kaluga Home Guard

was controlling the roads to Yukhnov, Vyazma and Bryansk.

The burnt-down Moscow – this is all what Napoleon got in Russia.

Created by Valeriy Babitch, Directed by Pavel Tupik

Director of Photography – Dmitry Kiptiliy

Music by Boris Kukoba, Hosted by Sergey Chonishvili and Yevgeniy Sinchukov

Produced by Valeriy Babitch, Vlad Ryashin, Oleg Volnov and Konstantin Ernst