Russians in Paris 1813 memories. The Russian army enters Paris

On March 19 (31), 1814, Russian troops led by Emperor Alexander I triumphantly entered Paris. The capture of the French capital was the final battle of the Napoleonic campaign of 1814, after which the French Emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte abdicated the throne.
The Napoleonic army, defeated near Leipzig in October 1813, could no longer offer serious resistance. At the beginning of 1814, Allied forces, consisting of Russian, Austrian, Prussian and German corps, invaded France with the aim of overthrowing the French emperor. The Russian Guard, led by Emperor Alexander I, entered France from Switzerland, in the Basel region. The Allies advanced in two separate armies: the Russian-Prussian Silesian Army was led by Prussian Field Marshal G. L. von Blücher, and the Russian-German-Austrian Army was placed under the command of the Austrian Field Marshal K. F. Schwarzenberg.

In battles on French territory, Napoleon won victories more often than his allies, but none of them became decisive due to the numerical superiority of the enemy. At the end of March 1814, the French emperor decided to march to the northeastern fortresses on the border of France, where he hoped to break the blockade of enemy troops, liberate the French garrisons, and, having strengthened his army, force the allies to retreat, threatening their rear communications. However, the allied monarchs, contrary to Napoleon's expectations, approved the plan for an attack on Paris on March 12 (24), 1814.
On March 17 (29), the allied armies approached the front line of defense of Paris. The city at that time numbered up to 500 thousand inhabitants and was well fortified. The defense of the French capital was led by Marshals E. A. C. Mortier, B. A. J. de Moncey and O. F. L. V. de Marmont. The supreme commander of the city's defense was Napoleon's elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte. The Allied troops consisted of three main columns: the right (Russian-Prussian) army was led by Field Marshal Blucher, the central one by Russian General M.B. Barclay de Tolly, the left column was led by the Crown Prince of Württemberg.
The total number of defenders of Paris at this time, together with the National Guard (militia), did not exceed 45 thousand people. The Allied armies numbered about 100 thousand people, including 63.5 thousand Russian troops.
The battle for Paris became one of the bloodiest battles for the allied forces, which lost more than 8 thousand soldiers in one day, 6 thousand of whom were soldiers of the Russian army.
French losses are estimated by historians at more than 4 thousand soldiers. The allies captured 86 guns on the battlefield and another 72 guns went to them after the capitulation of the city; M. I. Bogdanovich reports 114 captured guns.
The offensive began on March 18 (30) at 6 a.m. At 11 a.m., Prussian troops with the corps of M. S. Vorontsov approached the fortified village of Lavilette, and the Russian corps of General A. F. Langeron began an attack on Montmartre. Seeing the gigantic size of the advancing troops from Montmartre, the commander of the French defense, Joseph Bonaparte, left the battlefield, leaving Marmont and Mortier with the authority to surrender Paris.

During March 18 (30), all suburbs of the French capital were occupied by the Allies. Seeing that the fall of the city was inevitable and trying to reduce losses, Marshal Marmont sent an envoy to the Russian emperor. However, Alexander I presented a strict ultimatum to surrender the city under the threat of its destruction.
On March 19 (31), at 2 a.m., the surrender of Paris was signed. By 7 a.m., according to the terms of the agreement, the French regular army was supposed to leave Paris. The act of surrender was signed by Marshal Marmont. At noon, the Russian guard, led by Emperor Alexander I, solemnly entered the capital of France.

Napoleon learned of the capitulation of Paris at Fontainebleau, where he awaited the approach of his lagging army. He immediately decided to gather all available troops to continue the fight, but under pressure from the marshals, who took into account the mood of the population and soberly assessed the balance of forces, Napoleon abdicated the throne on April 4, 1814.
On April 10, after Napoleon's abdication, the last battle of this war took place in the south of France. Anglo-Spanish troops under the command of the Duke of Wellington attempted to capture Toulouse, which was defended by Marshal Soult. Toulouse capitulated only after news from Paris reached the city's garrison.
In May, a peace was signed, returning France to the borders of 1792 and restoring the monarchy there. The era of the Napoleonic Wars ended, only breaking out in 1815 with Napoleon's famous brief return to power.

RUSSIANS IN PARIS

At noon on March 31, 1814. columns of the allied armies with drumming, music and unfurled banners began to enter Paris through the Saint-Martin gate. One of the first to move was the Life Guards Cossack Regiment, which formed the imperial convoy. Many contemporaries recalled that the Cossacks took the boys in their arms, put their horses on the rumps and, to their delight, drove them around the city.
Then a four-hour parade took place, in which the Russian army shone in all its glory. Poorly equipped and battle-worn units were not allowed to enter Paris. The inhabitants, who were not without trepidation expecting a meeting with the “Scythian barbarians,” saw a normal European army, not much different from the Austrians or Prussians. In addition, most of the Russian officers spoke French well. The Cossacks became a real exotic for Parisians.

The Cossack regiments pitched bivouacs right in the city garden on the Champs Elysees, and bathed their horses in the Seine, attracting the curious gaze of Parisians and especially Parisian women. The fact is that the Cossacks took “water procedures” exactly as in their native Don, that is, in a partially or completely exposed form. For two months, the Cossack regiments turned into perhaps the main attraction of the city. Crowds of curious people flocked to watch them roast meat, cook soup over a fire, or sleep with a saddle under their heads. Very soon, “steppe barbarians” became fashionable in Europe. Cossacks became a favorite subject for artists, and their images literally flooded Paris.
The Cossacks, it must be said, never missed an opportunity to profit at the expense of the local population. In the famous ponds of the Fontainebleau Palace, for example, the Cossacks caught all the carp. Despite some "pranks", the Cossacks had great success with the French, especially with commoners.

It should be noted that at the end of the war, desertion flourished among the lower ranks of the Russian army, who were mostly recruited from serfs. Moscow Governor-General F. Rostopchin wrote: “What a decline our army has come to if old non-commissioned officers and ordinary soldiers remain in France... They go to farmers who not only pay them well, but also give their daughters for them.” It was not possible to find such cases among the Cossacks, people who were personally free.
Spring Paris was capable of spinning anyone in its joyful whirlpool. Especially when three years of bloody war were left behind, and the feeling of victory was filling my chest. This is how F. Glinka recalled about Parisian women before leaving for his homeland: “Farewell, dear, lovely charmers for whom Paris is so famous... The big-bodied Cossack and the flat-faced Bashkir became the favorites of your hearts - for money! You have always respected the ringing virtues!” And the Russians had money: the day before, Alexander I ordered the troops to be given triple their salaries for 1814!
Paris, which the Decembrist S. Volkonsky called “the moral Babylon of modern times,” was famous for all the temptations of a riotous life.

The Russian officer A. Chertkov described the most important of the hot spots, the Palais Royal: “On the third floor there is a gathering of public girls, on the second there is a game of roulette, on the mezzanine there is a loan office, on the first floor there is a weapons workshop. This house is a detailed and true picture of what rampant passions lead to.”
Many Russian officers had a blast at the card table. General Miloradovich (the same one who would be killed 11 years later during the Decembrist uprising) begged the tsar for a salary for 3 years in advance. And he lost everything. However, even unlucky players always had a chance. Russian officers easily made money in Paris. It was enough to come to any Parisian banker with a note from the corps commander, which said that the bearer of this was a man of honor and would certainly return the money. Naturally, not all of them were returned. In 1818, when the Russians were leaving Paris forever, Count Mikhail Vorontsov paid the officer's debts out of his own pocket. True, he was a very rich man.
Of course, not all Russians spent their lives at the Palais Royal. Many preferred Parisian theaters, museums and especially the Louvre. Culture lovers greatly praised Napoleon for bringing a wonderful collection of ancient antiquities from Italy. Emperor Alexander was praised for allowing her not to be returned.

So, the foreign campaign of the Russian army and the capture of Paris!

Colleagues, a short excursion into history!
We must not forget that we took not only Berlin (a couple of times), but also Paris!

The capitulation of Paris was signed at 2 a.m. on March 31 in the village of Lavillette on the terms drawn up by Colonel Mikhail Orlov, who was left hostage by the French during the truce. The head of the Russian delegation, Karl Nesselrode, followed the instructions of Emperor Alexander, which required the surrender of the capital with its entire garrison, but Marshals Marmont and Mortier, finding such conditions unacceptable, negotiated the right to withdraw the army to the northwest.

By 7 o'clock in the morning, according to the terms of the agreement, the French regular army was supposed to leave Paris. At noon on March 31, 1814, cavalry squadrons led by Emperor Alexander I triumphantly entered the capital of France. “All the streets along which the allies had to pass, and all the streets adjacent to them, were filled with people who occupied even the roofs of the houses,” recalled Mikhail Orlov.

The last time enemy (English) troops entered Paris was in the 15th century during the Hundred Years' War.

Storm!

On March 30, 1814, Allied troops began to storm the French capital. The very next day the city capitulated. Since the troops, although they were allied, mainly consisted of Russian units, Paris was flooded with our officers, Cossacks and peasants.

Checkmate to Napoleon

In early January 1814, Allied forces invaded France, where Napoleon gained superiority. Excellent knowledge of the terrain and his strategic genius allowed him to constantly push back the armies of Blucher and Schwarzenberg to their original positions, despite the numerical superiority of the latter: 150-200 thousand against 40 thousand Napoleonic soldiers.

In the 20th of March, Napoleon went to the northeastern fortresses on the border of France, where he hoped to strengthen his army at the expense of local garrisons and force the allies to retreat. He did not expect further advance of the enemies towards Paris, counting on the slowness and intractability of the allied armies, as well as the fear of his attack from the rear. However, here he miscalculated - on March 24, 1814, the allies urgently approved a plan for an attack on the capital. And all because of rumors about the fatigue of the French from the war and unrest in Paris. To distract Napoleon, a 10,000-strong cavalry corps under the command of General Wintzingerode was sent against him. The detachment was defeated on March 26, but this no longer affected the course of further events. A few days later the assault on Paris began. It was then that Napoleon realized that he had been fooled: “This is an excellent chess move,” he exclaimed, “I would never have believed that any Allied general was capable of doing this.” With a small army, he rushed to save the capital, but it was already too late.

In Paris

Major General Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov, one of those who signed the surrender (while still a colonel), recalled his first trip around the captured city: “We rode on horseback and slowly, in the deepest silence. All that could be heard was the sound of the horses’ hooves, and from time to time several faces with anxious curiosity appeared in the windows, which quickly opened and quickly closed.”

The streets were deserted. It seemed that the entire population of Paris had fled the city. Most of all, citizens feared the revenge of foreigners. There were stories that Russians loved to rape and play barbaric games, for example, in the cold, driving people naked for flogging. Therefore, when a proclamation of the Russian Tsar appeared on the streets of houses, promising residents special patronage and protection, many residents rushed to the north-eastern borders of the city to get at least a glimpse of the Russian Emperor. “There were so many people in the Place Saint-Martin, the Place Louis XV and the avenue that the divisions of the regiments could hardly pass through this crowd.” Particular enthusiasm was expressed by the Parisian young ladies who grabbed the hands of foreign soldiers and even climbed onto their saddles in order to get a better look at the conqueror-liberators entering the city.
The Russian emperor fulfilled his promise to the city; Alexander suppressed any robbery, punished looting, and any attacks on cultural monuments, in particular the Louvre, were especially strictly prohibited.

(The mood is just like during the Second World War, when everyone was afraid of the Red Army and revenge from its soldiers and officers, then the current lampoons about the allegedly raped 2,000,000 German women)

About future Decembrists

Young officers were gladly accepted into the aristocratic circles of Paris. Among other pastimes were visits to the fortune-telling salon of the fortune-teller known throughout Europe - Mademoiselle Lenormand. One day, eighteen-year-old Sergei Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol, famous in battle, came to the salon with his friends. Addressing all the officers, Mademoiselle Lenormand twice ignored Muravyov-Apostol. In the end, he asked himself: “What will you tell me, madam?” Lenormand sighed: “Nothing, Monsieur...” Muravyov insisted: “At least one phrase!”

And then the fortune teller said: “Okay. I’ll say one phrase: you will be hanged!” Muravyov was taken aback, but did not believe it: “You are mistaken! I am a nobleman, and in Russia they don’t hang nobles!” - “The emperor will make an exception for you!” – Lenormand said sadly.

This “adventure” was heatedly discussed among officers until Pavel Ivanovich Pestel went to see a fortune teller. When he returned, he said, laughing: “The girl has lost her mind, afraid of the Russians, who occupied her native Paris. Imagine, she predicted a rope with a crossbar for me!” But Lenormand’s fortune-telling came true in full. Both Muravyov-Apostol and Pestel did not die a natural death. Together with other Decembrists, they were hanged to the beat of a drum.

Cossacks

Perhaps the brightest pages of those years in the history of Paris were written by the Cossacks. During their stay in the French capital, Russian cavalrymen turned the banks of the Seine into a beach area: they swam themselves and bathed their horses. “Water procedures” were taken as in their native Don - in underwear or completely naked. And this, of course, attracted considerable attention from the locals.

The popularity of the Cossacks and the great interest of Parisians in them is evidenced by the large number of novels written by French writers. Among those that have survived to this day is the novel by the famous writer Georges Sand, which is called “Cossacks in Paris.”

The Cossacks themselves were captivated by the city, although mostly by beautiful girls, gambling houses and delicious wine. The Cossacks turned out to be not very gallant gentlemen: they squeezed the hands of Parisian women like bears, ate ice cream at Tortoni's on the Boulevard of Italians and stepped on the feet of visitors to the Palais Royal and the Louvre.

The Russians were seen by the French as gentle, but also not very delicate giants in their treatment. Although the brave warriors still enjoyed popularity among ladies of simple origin. So the Parisians taught them the basics of gallant treatment of girls: do not squeeze the handle too much, take it under the elbow, open the door.

Impressions from Parisians!

The French, in turn, were frightened by the Asian cavalry regiments in the Russian army. For some reason they were horrified at the sight of the camels that the Kalmyks brought with them. French young ladies fainted when Tatar or Kalmyk warriors approached them in their caftans, hats, with bows over their shoulders, and with a bunch of arrows on their sides.

But the Parisians really liked the Cossacks. If Russian soldiers and officers could not be distinguished from Prussians and Austrians (only by uniform), then the Cossacks were bearded, wearing trousers with stripes, exactly the same as in the pictures in French newspapers. Only real Cossacks were kind. Delighted flocks of children ran after the Russian soldiers. And Parisian men soon began to wear beards “like the Cossacks”, and knives on wide belts, like the Cossacks.

About "bistro", or more precisely about "fast"

The Parisians were amazed by their communication with the Russians. French newspapers wrote about them as scary “bears” from a wild country where it is always cold. And the Parisians were surprised to see tall and strong Russian soldiers, who in appearance did not differ at all from the Europeans. And the Russian officers, moreover, almost all spoke French. There is a legend that soldiers and Cossacks entered Parisian cafes and hurried food peddlers - quickly, quickly! This is where a network of eateries in Paris called “Bistros” later appeared.

What did you bring home from Paris?

Russian soldiers returned from Paris with a whole baggage of borrowed traditions and habits. In Russia, it has become fashionable to drink coffee, which was once brought by the reformer Tsar Peter I along with other colonial goods. For a long time, the aromatic drink remained unrecognized among the boyars and nobles, but after seeing enough of the sophisticated French who started their day with a cup of invigorating drink, Russians officers found the tradition extremely elegant and fashionable. From that moment on, drinking the drink in Russia began to be considered one of the signs of good manners.

The tradition of removing an empty bottle from the table also came from Paris in 1814. Only this was done not because of superstition, but because of banal economy. In those days, Parisian waiters did not take into account the number of bottles given to the client. It is much easier to issue a bill - to count the empty containers left on the table after the meal. One of the Cossacks realized that they could save money by hiding some of the bottles. That’s where it came from: “If you leave an empty bottle on the table, there will be no money.”

Some lucky soldiers managed to get French wives in Paris, who in Russia were first called “French”, and then the nickname turned into the surname “French”.

The Russian emperor also did not waste time in the pearl of Europe. In 1814, he was presented with a French album containing drawings of various designs in the new Empire style. The emperor liked the solemn classicism, and he invited some French architects to his homeland, including Montferrand, the future author of St. Isaac's Cathedral.

Results and consequences of the capture of Paris

Campaigner and historian Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, in his work on the foreign campaign of 1814, reported the following losses of the allied troops near Paris: 7,100 Russians, 1,840 Prussians and 153 Württembergers, a total of over 9 thousand soldiers.

On the 57th wall of the military glory gallery of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, more than 6 thousand Russian soldiers who were out of action during the capture of Paris are indicated, which corresponds to the data of the historian M. I. Bogdanovich (more than 8 thousand allies, of which 6100 were Russian).

French losses are estimated by historians at more than 4 thousand soldiers. The allies captured 86 guns on the battlefield and another 72 guns went to them after the capitulation of the city; M. I. Bogdanovich reports 114 captured guns.

The decisive victory was generously celebrated by Emperor Alexander I. The commander-in-chief of the Russian troops, General Barclay de Tolly, received the rank of field marshal. 6 generals were awarded the Order of St. George, 2nd degree. An exceptionally high rating, considering that for the victory in the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars near Leipzig, 4 generals received the Order of St. George, 2nd degree, and only one general was awarded for the Battle of Borodino. In just 150 years of the order’s existence, the 2nd degree was awarded only 125 times. Infantry General Langeron, who distinguished himself during the capture of Montmartre, was awarded the highest Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.

Napoleon learned of the capitulation of Paris at Fontainebleau, where he awaited the approach of his lagging army. He immediately decided to gather all available troops to continue the fight, but under pressure from the marshals, who took into account the mood of the population and soberly assessed the balance of forces, Napoleon abdicated the throne on April 4, 1814.

On April 10, after Napoleon's abdication, the last battle of this war took place in the south of France. Anglo-Spanish troops under the command of the Duke of Wellington attempted to capture Toulouse, which was defended by Marshal Soult. Toulouse capitulated only after news from Paris reached the city's garrison.

In May, a peace was signed, returning France to the borders of 1792 and restoring the monarchy there. The era of the Napoleonic Wars ended, only breaking out in 1815 with Napoleon's famous short-lived return to power (the Hundred Days).

On board the Bellerophon (en route to Saint Helena)

Napoleon's last refuge!

On March 9 (31), 1814, Russian troops led by Emperor Alexander I triumphantly entered Paris. The capture of the French capital was the final battle of the Napoleonic campaign of 1814, after which the French Emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte abdicated the throne.

The Napoleonic army, defeated near Leipzig in October 1813, could no longer offer serious resistance. At the beginning of 1814, Allied forces, consisting of Russian, Austrian, Prussian and German corps, invaded France with the aim of overthrowing the French emperor. The Russian Guard, led by Emperor Alexander I, entered France from Switzerland, in the Basel region. The Allies advanced in two separate armies: the Russian-Prussian Silesian Army was led by Prussian Field Marshal G.L. von Blücher, and the Russian-German-Austrian army was placed under the command of the Austrian Field Marshal K. F. zu Schwarzenberg.

In battles on French territory, Napoleon won victories more often than his allies, but none of them became decisive due to the numerical superiority of the enemy. At the end of March 1814, the French emperor decided to march to the northeastern fortresses on the border of France, where he hoped to break the blockade of enemy troops, liberate the French garrisons, and, having strengthened his army, force the allies to retreat, threatening their rear communications. However, the allied monarchs, contrary to Napoleon's expectations, approved the plan for an attack on Paris on March 12 (24), 1814.

On March 17 (29), the allied armies approached the front line of defense of Paris. The city at that time numbered up to 500 thousand inhabitants and was well fortified. The defense of the French capital was led by Marshals E.A.K. Mortier, B.A.J. de Moncey and O.F.L.V. de Marmont. The supreme commander of the city's defense was Napoleon's elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte. The Allied troops consisted of three main columns: the right (Russian-Prussian) army was led by Field Marshal Blücher, the central one by Russian General M.B. Barclay de Tolly, the left column was led by the Crown Prince of Württemberg. The battle for Paris became one of the bloodiest battles for the allied forces, which lost more than 8 thousand soldiers in one day, 6 thousand of whom were soldiers of the Russian army.

The offensive began on March 18 (30) at 6 a.m. At 11 o'clock, Prussian troops with the corps of M.S. Vorontsov approached the fortified village of Lavilette, and the Russian corps of General A.F. Langeron launched an attack on Montmartre. Seeing the gigantic size of the advancing troops from Montmartre, the commander of the French defense, Joseph Bonaparte, left the battlefield, leaving Marmont and Mortier with the authority to surrender Paris.

During March 18 (30), all suburbs of the French capital were occupied by the Allies. Seeing that the fall of the city was inevitable and trying to reduce losses, Marshal Marmont sent a truce to the Russian emperor. However, Alexander I presented a harsh ultimatum to surrender the city under the threat of its destruction. On March 19 (31), at 2 a.m., the surrender of Paris was signed. By 7 a.m., according to the terms of the agreement, the French regular army was supposed to leave Paris. At noon, the Russian guard, led by Emperor Alexander I, solemnly entered the capital of France.

"THE SWEEP WILL END EVERYTHING"

Military critics find the campaign of 1814 one of the most remarkable parts of the Napoleonic era from the point of view of the emperor's strategic creativity.

The Battle of Chateau-Thierry on February 12 ended in another great victory for Napoleon. If it had not been for the erroneous movement and delay of Marshal MacDonald, the matter would have ended in the complete extermination of the allied forces fighting at Chateau-Thierry. On February 13, Blucher defeated and drove back Marshal Marmont. But on February 14, Napoleon, who came to the aid of Marmont, defeated Blucher again at the Battle of Vauchamps. Blucher lost about 9 thousand people. Reinforcements approached Napoleon, and the allies suffered a series of defeats, and yet the emperor’s position remained critical; the allies had much more forces available than he did. But these unexpected victories of Napoleon, which followed each other every day, so embarrassed the allies that Schwarzenberg, who was considered the commander-in-chief, sent an adjutant to Napoleon’s camp asking for a truce. Two new battles - at Morman and at Villeneuve, which also ended in victory for the French - prompted the allies to take this unexpected step - a request for a truce. Napoleon refused Schwarzenberg's envoy (Count Parr) a personal meeting, and accepted Schwarzenberg's letter, but postponed his response. “I took from 30 to 40 thousand prisoners; I took 200 cannons and a large number of generals,” he wrote to Caulaincourt and declared that he could reconcile with the coalition only on the basis of leaving behind France its “natural borders” (Rhine, Alps, Pyrenees). He did not agree to a truce.

On February 18, a new battle took place at Montero, and again the allies lost 3 thousand killed and wounded, and 4 thousand prisoners, and were driven back.

Napoleon, according to even enemy observers and memoirists, surpassed himself in this seemingly completely hopeless campaign of 1814. But there were few soldiers, and the marshals (Victor, Augereau) were extremely tired and made a number of mistakes, so Napoleon could not make full use of your unexpected and brilliant victories at that moment. Napoleon angrily and impatiently reprimanded the marshals and hurried them. “What pathetic excuses you give me, Augereau! I destroyed 80 thousand enemies with the help of recruits who were barely dressed... If your 60 years are a burden to you, give up command!..” “The Emperor did not want to understand that not all of his subordinates were Napoleons,” he later said, remembering about this time, one of his generals.<…>

On March 20, the Battle of Arcy-sur-Aube took place between Napoleon, who at that moment had about 30 thousand people on the battlefield, and the Allies (Schwarzenberg), who had up to 40 thousand at the beginning of the battle and up to 90 thousand at the end. Although Napoleon considered himself the winner and indeed drove back the enemy at several points, in fact the battle should be considered undecided based on its results: Napoleon could not pursue Schwarzenberg with his army after the battle; he crossed back across the Ob River and blew up the bridges. Napoleon lost 3 thousand people in the battle of Arcy-sur-Aube, his allies up to 9 thousand, but Napoleon, of course, this time failed to achieve the defeat of the allied armies. The Allies were afraid of a people's war, a general militia, like the one that, in the heroic times of the French Revolution, saved France from the interventionists and from the Bourbon restoration... Alexander, Friedrich Wilhelm, Franz, Schwarzenberg and Metternich would have calmed down if they had overheard what they were talking about in the evening after the battle of Arcy-sur-Aube, Napoleon with General Sebastiani. “Well, general, what do you say about what’s happening?” - “I will say that Your Majesty undoubtedly has new resources that we do not know.” - “Only those that you see before your eyes, and no others.” - “But then why don’t Your Majesty think about raising nation? - “Chimeras! Chimeras borrowed from memories of Spain and the French Revolution. To raise a nation in a country where the revolution destroyed the nobles and clergy and where I myself destroyed the revolution!<…>

After the Battle of Arcy-sur-Aube, Napoleon tried to go behind the Allies' rear and attack their communications with the Rhine, but the Allies had finally decided to go straight to Paris. From letters accidentally intercepted by Russian Cossacks from Empress Marie-Louise and Minister of Police Savary to Napoleon, Alexander became convinced that the mood in Paris was such that popular resistance could not be expected and that the arrival of the allied army in Paris would immediately decide the whole war and end it with the overthrow of Napoleon.<…>The only people blocking the path were Marshals Marmont and Mortier and Generals Pacteau and Ame; they had a total of about 25 thousand people. Napoleon with his main forces was far behind Allied lines. The Battle of Fer-Champenoise on March 25 ended in an Allied victory over the marshals. They were driven back to Paris, and the 100,000-strong Allied army approached the capital. Already on March 29, Empress Marie-Louise with her little heir, the Roman king, left Paris for Blois.

The French had about 40 thousand people to defend Paris. The mood in Paris was panicky, and the troops were also in decline. Alexander did not want bloodshed near Paris and generally played the magnanimous winner. “Paris, deprived of its defenders and its great leader, is unable to resist; I am deeply convinced of this,” the Tsar told M.F. Orlov, authorizing him to stop the battle whenever there was hope for the peaceful surrender of the capital. The fierce battle lasted several hours; The allies lost 9 thousand people during these hours, of which about 6 thousand Russians, but, oppressed by the fear of defeat, under the influence of Talleyrand, Marshal Marmont capitulated on March 30 at 5 pm. Naroleon learned of the unexpected Allied movement towards Paris in the midst of the fighting he was waging between Saint-Dizier and Bar-sur-Aube. “This is an excellent chess move. Now, I would never have believed that any Allied general was capable of doing this,” Napoleon praised when he learned about what was happening on March 27. The specialist strategist showed in him primarily in this praise. He immediately rushed with the army to Paris. On the night of March 30, he arrived in Fontainebleau and then learned about the battle that had just taken place and the capitulation of Paris.

He was always full of energy and determination. Having learned about what had happened, he was silent for a quarter of an hour and then outlined a new plan to Caulaincourt and the generals who were around him. Caulaincourt will go to Paris and, on behalf of Napoleon, offer peace to Alexander and his allies on the terms they set at Chatillon. Then Caulaincourt, under various pretexts, will spend three days traveling from Paris to Fontainebleau and back, during these three days all the forces that still exist (from Saint-Dizier) with which Napoleon has just operated behind Allied lines will arrive, and then the Allies will be thrown out from Paris. Caulaincourt hinted: maybe not in the form of a military stratagem, but in fact offer peace to the allies on Chatillon terms? "No no! - the emperor objected. - It is enough that there was a moment of hesitation. No, the sword will end everything. Stop humiliating me!”

MEDAL "FOR THE CAPTURE OF PARIS"

On the first day of the new year, 1814, Russian troops crossed the Rhine River near the city of Basel (in Switzerland) and, having entered the lands of France, began to fight their way (through Beliyar, Vesoul, Langres) into the interior of the country, to its heart - Paris. K.N. Batyushkov, who was destined to reach Paris with his troops, wrote to N.I. on March 27, 1814. Gnedich: “...We fought between Nanjins and Provins... from there we went to Arsis, where there was a fierce battle, but not long, after which Napoleon disappeared with the entire army. He went to cut off our road from Switzerland, and we, wishing him a good journey, moved towards Paris with all our might from the city of Vitry. On the way we met several buildings covering the capital and... swallowed it. The spectacle is wonderful! Imagine a cloud of cavalry crashing into the infantry on both sides on an open field, and the infantry in a thick column retreating with quick steps without firing shots, occasionally releasing battalion fire. In the evening the French were persecuted. Guns, banners, generals, everything went to the winners, but even here the French fought like lions.”

On March 19, the Allied troops entered Paris in a solemn march. The French were quite surprised by the humane treatment of the Russians who came from the east. They expected Russian revenge for Moscow, for the blood shed in this war by the destruction of the French capital. But instead we were met with Russian generosity. The life of Paris continued in the same measured rhythm as before the arrival of Russian troops - shops were trading, theatrical performances were taking place; crowds of smartly dressed townspeople filled the streets, they looked at the bearded Russian soldiers and tried to communicate with them.

The Allied forces behaved completely differently. A striking example of this is given by the future Decembrist K.N. Ryleev, reporting on his conversation with a French officer in Paris: “...We are as calm as we can, but your allies will soon drive us out of patience... - I am Russian (says Ryleev) , and you are in vain telling me. - That's why I say that you are Russian. I tell my friend, your officers, your soldiers treat us like this... But the allies are bloodsuckers!

But be that as it may, the war is over. Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea, and the power of the Bourbons, overthrown by the French Revolution, was again restored.

Summer was coming. Russian troops were returning to Russia on a march. And on August 30 of the same 1814, by the manifesto of Emperor Alexander I, an award silver medal was established, on the front side of which there is a chest-length, right-facing image of Alexander I in a laurel wreath and in the radiance of the radiant “all-seeing eye” located above him. On the reverse side, along the entire circumference of the medal, in a laurel wreath, there is a straight five-line inscription: “FOR - THE TAKEN - OF PARIS - MARCH 19 - 1814.”

The medal was intended to reward all participants in the capture of the French capital - from soldier to general. But it was not given to them. With the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, the Russian emperor considered it inhumane to issue this medal, which would remind France of the past collapse of its capital. And only 12 years later it was distributed to participants in the 1814 campaign at the behest of the new Emperor Nicholas I, who “... on the eve of the anniversary of the Russians’ entry into Paris, March 18, 1826, ordered this medal to be consecrated on the tomb of his brother (Alexander 1).”

The issuance of its participants began on March 19, 1826 and lasted until May 1, 1832. In total, more than 160 thousand medals were issued. Naturally, in the portraits of the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812, which were painted before 1826, this medal is absent among other awards.

There were basically three varieties of it in size: general-arms - with a diameter of 28 and 25 mm and for rewarding cavalrymen - 22 mm. There was a transverse eyelet with a ring threaded through it for hanging the award on a ribbon. A similar medal, belonging to the famous 1812 partisan Denis Davydov, is kept in the Leningrad Military History Museum.

There are also many varieties of this medal in reduced sizes - 12, 15, 18 mm. These are tails medals for wearing on civilian clothes. They wore a medal on the chest on the first introduced combined St. Andrew's and St. George's ribbon. It was of normal width, but consisted of two narrow ribbons: St. Andrew's - blue and St. George's - orange with three black stripes.

Kuznetsov A., Chepurnov N. Award medal. in 2 vols. 1992

A RUSSIAN OFFICER'S VIEW OF PARIS IN 1814

The solemn day for all of Europe, March 19, 1814, the day of the entry of the allied, fraternal troops into Paris, will divulge the glory of the Russians to later descendants, and the Chroniclers will put Russian invincibility, crowned with patriotic unanimity and immovable firmness, in the first row of monuments. The very slanderous, gnashing envy petrified at the sounds of the immortal glory of the Russians, who accomplished the most important era in History with unfading laurels. They proved to the universe the power of the strength of the people's spirit and raised the price of the courage of the ancient Slavs.

The most magnificent entrance of our troops into Paris was illuminated by the purest radiance of the sun - an image of the righteousness of the Russians! He was accompanied by a countless crowd of people.

As soon as Emperor ALEXANDER and the Prussian King Frederick William with their invincible Heroes approached the walls of the city, loud exclamations were heard from all sides: “Long live ALEXANDER and Wilhelm, liberators of Europe!” Millions of voices filled the air, joyful echoes were repeated everywhere; the sun's rays represented the Finger of the Divine, blessing the solemn procession of the Kings, who trampled upon the arrogant pride of treachery! Everyone was intoxicated with lively delight: some tried to outshout others, crowded under the horses, as if they considered it a blessing to be trampled by the horses of the victorious army!

A thousand questions: Where is the Russian Emperor? drowned out the whole city! Humility and attractive meekness were the hallmarks of the majesty of our Monarch. Everyone greedily fixed their eyes on the Emperor and devoured the tenderness of his glances; they threw hats and caps into the air; blocked the streets; they grabbed onto His horse, which, apparently, was proud of such a sacred burden and, suppressing stones with arrogant steps, looked around in all directions, without causing the slightest harm to the surrounding crowded space! Bucephalus himself would have given way to his important step - just like Alexander the Great, of course, would have given the advantage to ALEXANDER of Russia!

The houses were filled and the rooftops were dotted with spectators! From the windows, decorated with the richest carpets, the streets were strewn with flowers, they splashed their hands, fluttered scarves and exclaimed with delight: “Long live Emperor ALEXANDER, resurrector of the Bourbons!” The peace-loving color of Lily, with its purest whiteness, finally eclipsed the bloody banner of the tyrant’s vanity! Many brave French women persistently begged for horses - they took off on them and rushed after the Emperor!

This unlimited frenzy is hardly characteristic of a great people. How long ago was Buonaparte, revered by them as God, greeted with similar exclamations during his brazen escape from Russia? Rash transitions from one emergency to another mean frivolity of character. Everyone was in amazement, seeing the extraordinary freshness and perfect organization in our army, which, according to Napoleon, was all broken, scattered, and only the remnants of it wandered around France! The cleanliness of weapons, ammunition, clothing and order in the ranks amazed everyone to the point of madness.

No one could believe that this most wonderful army from the Russian borders, fighting at every step, passing over the corpses of daring enemies with forced marches, rushed like an eagle's flight across the entire space from Moscow to Paris without any exhaustion! We can say that nature itself was a participant in our victories... God forbid! A king cannot be saved by much strength, and a giant cannot be saved by the abundance of his strength.

With astonished gazes, everyone exclaimed: “This brave army is like Angels sent down from God to free us from the yoke of an autocratic tyrant!”

Cockades in honor of the natural Kings were painted white everywhere! The bloody cypress has turned into a humble Lily! The idol of Napoleon, erected in honor of his greedy love of fame on an obelisk 133 in height and 12 pounds in diameter on Place Vendome - was entangled in ropes in the blink of an eye! - The frenzied people were already trying to overthrow her from the heights; but by the will of our magnanimous Monarch, such frantic impudence was stopped! The white banner has taken the place of the colossal Giant!

Everyone congratulated each other on the resurrection of the descendants of Henry IV and exclaimed with applause: “Long live Louis XVIII!” The old song in honor of Henry (Vive Henri IV) was revived on the lips of milestones! Music was booming everywhere! The imaginary amusements in all the streets became agitated! Everyone's desires turned to a friendly alliance. God Himself overshadowed with pure joy the happy successes of general prosperity!

The exemplary piety of our Orthodox Tsar was not in the least shaken by His brilliant glory. Daydreaming is characteristic of some atheists. He places the radiant crown placed on Him by all nations before the foot of the throne of God; He gives his glory to the Almighty and recognizes the All-Seeing Eye as a companion in all His undertakings, imprinting this God-inspired thought on the chests of the sons of the Fatherland in memory of the unforgettable year 1812. Let those who seek my soul be ashamed and disgraced; Let them turn back and be ashamed of those who think evil!..

At the end of the thanksgiving service with kneeling, the Sovereign Emperor went to the Palace, where the most noble nobles had the happiness of being presented to him.

Exactly 200 years ago, the Russian army led by Emperor Alexander I entered Paris. The drawings of the artist Georg-Emmanuel Opitz, an eyewitness to those “terrible” events, tell us how the “occupiers” behaved in the captured French capital. events...

On January 7 (19), 1813, Ataman Platov reported to the commander of the 3rd Western Army about the blockade by his Cossacks of the Danzig fortress, located at the mouth of the Vistula, with the forces of his flying corps and about the location of the Cossacks around the city.. Vanguard of the main Russian army under the command of an infantry general Milorado Vicha arrived in Radzilovo. The main forces of the main army under the command of cavalry general Tormasov continue to move towards Polotsk and are located near the village of Kalinovits.

The 7th Army (Saxon) Corps, under the command of Divisional General Reinier, was in Okunev, as part of a corps with 6,000 Saxons, 2,000 Poles and 1,500 French.

The Battle of Paris became one of the bloodiest for the Allied army in the 1814 campaign. In one day of fighting on March 30, the Allies lost more than 8 thousand soldiers, of which more than 6 thousand were Russian soldiers. This was the bloodiest battle of the French campaign of 1814, which determined the fate of the French capital and the entire Napoleon empire. Within a few days, the French emperor, under pressure from his marshals, abdicated the throne.

This is how General Muravyov-Karsky recalled the capture of Paris: « The troops began some plundering and got hold of some glorious wines, which I also had a chance to taste; but the Prussians were more involved in this. The Russians did not have so much will and spent the whole night cleaning their ammunition in order to enter the city in parade the next day. By morning, our camp was filled with Parisians, especially Parisian women, who came to sell vodka à boire la goutte, and hunted... Our soldiers soon began to call vodka berlagut, believing that this word is the real translation of fusel in French. They called red wine vine and said that it was much worse than our green wine. Their love walks were called backgammon, and with this word they achieved the fulfillment of their desires.

Sergei Ivanovich Mayevsky also recalled some relaxation in the troops on the eve of entering Paris: “The Prussians, faithful followers of their teachers, the French, in robbery, had already managed to rob the suburb, break into the cellars, break away the barrels and no longer drink, but walk knee-deep in wine. For a long time we adhered to Alexander’s philanthropic rule; but temptation is stronger than fear: our people went for firewood and brought barrels. I got a box, of course, of 1000 bottles of champagne. I distributed them to the regiment and, not without sin, I myself had fun in the pattern of life, believing that this pattern would wither tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. In the morning a procession to Paris was announced for us. We were ready; but our soldiers were more than half drunk. We spent a long time trying to get their children out and settled.”

Decembrist Nikolai Alexandrovich Bestuzhev this is how he describes it in his story, although fictional, but based on real events "Russian in Paris 1814» the beginning of the entry of Russian troops into Paris: “Finally the Saint-Martin gate has appeared. The music was thundering; the columns, passing through the narrow gates in sections, suddenly began to form platoons, protruding onto the wide boulevard. One must imagine the amazement of the soldiers when they saw countless crowds of people, houses on both sides, strewn with people on the walls, windows and roofs! The bare trees of the boulevard, instead of leaves, broke under the weight of the curious. Colored fabrics were lowered from every window; thousands of women waved scarves; exclamations drowned out the military music and the very drums. Here the real Paris had just begun - and the gloomy faces of the soldiers revealed unexpected pleasure.”

It is interesting that although calls for resistance to the Allies were spread among the crowd of Parisians, they found no response. One Frenchman, pushing through the crowd towards Alexander, declared: “ We have been waiting for Your Majesty’s arrival for a long time!” To this the emperor replied: “I would have come to you earlier, but the bravery of your troops delayed me.” Alexander's words were passed from mouth to mouth and quickly spread among the Parisians, causing a storm of delight. The allies began to feel as if they were seeing some kind of amazing fantastic dream. There seemed to be no end to the delight of the Parisians.

Hundreds of people crowded around Alexander, kissing everything they could reach: his horse, clothes, boots. Women grabbed his spurs, and some clung to the tail of his horse. Alexander patiently endured all these actions. The young Frenchman Charles de Roseaure plucked up courage and said to the Russian emperor: “I’m surprised at you, Sovereign! You allow every citizen to approach you with affection.” "This is the duty of sovereigns"- answered Alexander I.

Some of the French rushed to the statue of Napoleon on the Place Vendôme to destroy it, but Alexander hinted that this was undesirable. The hint was understood, and the assigned guard completely cooled down the hotheads. A little later, on April 8, it was carefully dismantled and taken away.

By evening, a large number of women of a very ancient profession appeared on the streets. Although, according to one author, many of them expressed disappointment in the decorous behavior of the Allied officers, there was clearly no shortage of cavaliers.

The day after the capture of Paris, all government offices opened, the post office began operating, banks accepted deposits and issued money. The French were allowed to leave and enter the city at will.

In the morning there were many Russian officers and soldiers on the street, looking at the city's sights. This is how artillery officer Ilya Timofeevich Radozhitsky remembers Parisian life: “ If we stopped for any questions, the French warned each other with their answers, surrounded us, looked at us with curiosity and hardly believed that the Russians could speak to them in their language. Nice French women, looking out of the windows, nodded their heads and smiled at us. The Parisians, imagining the Russians, according to the description of their patriots, as barbarians feeding on human flesh, and the Cossacks as bearded cyclops, were extremely surprised to see the Russian guard, and in it handsome officers, dandies, not inferior both in dexterity and flexibility of language and degree of education, the first Parisian dandies. (...) Right there, in the crowd of men, smartly dressed French women were not ashamed to crowd together, who lured our youth to them with their eyes, and pinched those who did not understand this painfully... (...) But since our pockets were empty, we did not attempt to go into any one restaurant; but our guards officers, having tasted all the sweetness of life in the Palais Royal, left a noble indemnity there.”

There is also other evidence of how the Russian “occupiers” behaved in Paris: watercolors by the French artist Georg-Emmanuel Opitz. Here are some of them:

Cossacks and fish and apple traders.

Cossacks walk through the gallery with benches and shops.

France was exhausted, bleeding, and even the military genius of its emperor could no longer save the situation. There was a catastrophic shortage of soldiers, and Bonaparte now had to enlist almost teenagers under the battle banner.

On March 29, 1814, Russians and Prussians, under the general leadership of Emperor Alexander I, reached Paris. The next day a fierce battle took place. Allied troops captured the suburbs, installed artillery batteries on commanding heights and began shelling residential areas.

At 5 pm, the commander of the city’s defense, Marshal Marmont, sent envoys to Alexander. Long after midnight, the act of surrender was signed. The capital of France surrendered “to the generosity of the allied sovereigns.” On the morning of March 31, the Allies occupied the city.

After 11 days, under pressure from his own marshals, completely demoralized by the fall of the capital, Napoleon signed his abdication and agreed to go into exile on the island of Elba. War is over. The occupation of Paris lasted two months until the monarchy was restored in France and its new king, Louis XVIII, signed a peace treaty with the victorious countries.

Heroes of the North
Alexander won the Battle of Paris twice. Once during the assault, the second time - the next day, when he solemnly entered the city at the head of the allied troops. The Parisians apparently experienced what today would be called a “break of the pattern.”

Fairly intimidated by Bonaparte's propaganda, they waited with trepidation for the rude northern barbarians, terrible both outside and inside. But they saw a disciplined, well-equipped European army, whose officers spoke fluently their own language. And this army was led by the most beautiful of sovereigns: courteous, enlightened, merciful to the vanquished, and fashionably dressed. The French rejoiced as if their own troops were entering the city, having won the most glorious of their victories.

This is how the poet Konstantin Batyushkov, who then served as an adjutant to General Nikolai Raevsky, described this “meeting on the Seine”: “The windows, fences, roofs, trees of the boulevard, everything, everything is covered with people of both sexes. Everyone is waving their hands, nodding their heads, everyone is in convulsions, everyone is shouting: “Long live Alexander, long live the Russians!” Long live Wilhelm, long live the Austrian Emperor! Long live Louis, long live the king, long live the world!” He screams, no, howls, roars: “Show us the beautiful, generous Alexander! (...) And holding me by the stirrup, he shouts: “Long live Alexander! Down with the tyrant! How good these Russians are! But, sir, you might be mistaken for a Frenchman. (...) Long live the Russians, these heroes of the North! (...) The people were in admiration, and my Cossack, nodding his head, told me: “Your Honor, they have gone crazy.”

Alexander really behaved kindly and nobly. He spoke French as if it were his native language. He did not remember the evil done to his country. He placed all the blame solely on Napoleon, while paying tribute to the courage of the French soldiers.

He sincerely admired French culture. He ordered the immediate release of one and a half thousand prisoners taken during the battle for Paris. He guaranteed the residents of the city personal safety and inviolability of property, and stationed only guard units within the city limits. When grateful Parisians suggested that he rename the Austerlitz Bridge, the name of which could bring unpleasant memories to the Russian emperor, Alexander politely but with dignity refused, noting that it was enough that people would remember how he crossed this bridge with his troops.

Give us the Bourbons!
Napoleon was still the Emperor of France, but Paris no longer wanted to know him and bowed before his main enemy. Rouget de Lisle, the author of the grandiose "La Marseillaise", fascinated, like many, by the personality of Alexander and the splendor of the Russian grenadiers, gave birth to an artless counter-revolutionary ode:

“Be the hero of the century and the pride of Creation!
The tyrant and those who carry evil are punished!
Give the people of France the joy of deliverance,
Give back the throne to the Bourbons and beauty to the lilies!”

However, many Russian officers were shocked by how quickly the political sympathies of the Parisian masses changed. Ensign of the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment Ivan Kazakov subsequently admitted: “I was a fan of Napoleon I, his intelligence and great comprehensive abilities; and France, like an empty woman and a coquette, betrayed him, forgetting his services - that he, having destroyed anarchy, revived the entire nation, exalted and glorified it with his amazing victories and reorganization of the administration.

And the already mentioned Batyushkov was amazed, seeing how “the same frantic one who shouted several years ago: “Crush the king with the guts of the priests,” that same frantic one is now shouting: “Russians, our saviors, give us the Bourbons!” Depose the tyrant! (...) Such miracles surpass all understanding.”

In the capital of the world
Nevertheless, almost all Russian officers recalled life in Paris with pleasure. An officer of the General Staff under His Imperial Majesty, Alexander Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky (later a general, senator and military historian), describing the offensive of the Russian army on the capital of France, wrote: “Everyone was eager to enter the city, which for a long time gave regulations in taste, fashion and enlightenment , a city in which the treasures of science and art were kept, which contained all the refined pleasures of life, where they recently wrote laws for the peoples and forged chains for them, (...) which, in a word, was revered as the capital of the world.”

The chief of the 17th Jaeger Regiment, Sergei Mayevsky, expressed himself even more enthusiastically: “Some kind of special prejudice, absorbed with my mother’s milk, told me that in Paris everything is supernatural and that, I’m ashamed to say, that people there walk and live differently from We; in a word, they are creatures above the ordinary.”

True, having reached this “supernatural” place with his huntsmen, Mayevsky was somewhat disappointed with Parisian architecture. The Tuileries Palace seemed to him just a hut compared to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. But the information saturation of Parisian life shocked Mayevsky: “the passion for news is so great that there is no walkabout, not even a tavern, no matter where there are their own posters, their own problems and their own newspapers!”

At the beginning of the 19th century. Paris was the largest and most luxurious city in Europe. He could offer his conquerors a wide variety of ways to spend their time, depending on their nobility, wealth and cultural needs.

Batyushkov, for example, admired Apollo Belvedere: “This is not marble - God! All copies of this priceless statue are weak, and anyone who has not seen this miracle of art cannot have any idea about it. To admire him, you don’t need to have deep knowledge of the arts: you need to feel. Strange affair! I saw ordinary soldiers who looked at Apollo in amazement. Such is the power of genius!”

Guards officers became regulars at Parisian salons, where they enjoyed great success. “It never even occurred to us that we were in an enemy city,” wrote Ensign Kazakov. - The French ladies clearly showed preference for the Russian officers over the Napoleonic ones and talked about the latter out loud, qu"ils sentent la caserne [that they reek of barracks]; and indeed I happened to see how most of them enter the room in a shako or helmet, where the ladies sit."

Pleasures and their consequences

Of course, there were those who preferred simpler and more sensual pleasures to sublime pleasures.

“Around 11 o’clock at night, Parisian sirens burst out of their cellars and beckon hunters to pleasure. Knowing that the Russians are very greedy and generous, they almost forcefully drag our young officers into their holes,” Mayevsky complained. And then, apparently based on his own experience, he shared “technical” details: “the woman who lured you into a hole, into a house, into the attic of the 3-4th floor, will never decide to rob you, rob you, or rob you; on the contrary, she values ​​the reputation of the house and gives you a ticket to where to find her in the future. The mistress of the house and the doctor are responsible for her health, but in this regard you cannot always and not everyone can be relied upon.”

Ivan Kazakov, who was not yet 18 years old at the time of the capture of Paris, was assigned to stay with the famous Parisian surgeon, director of the oldest Parisian hospital, the Hotel-Dieu, Guillaume Dupuytren. They quickly became close, and the doctor took the young guardsman under his wing.

Caring for the moral and physical health of his guest, Dupuytren once almost forcibly dragged him into his establishment and took him to the ward of patients with syphilis. Kazakov was shocked: “What I saw here affected me so strongly that I wanted to leave, but Dupuytren grabbed my hand: “No, no, my dear, you need to know that the same will happen to you if you you will run around public places; and that’s why I forced you to come here with me. Give me your word that you will not go to these vile dens.”

The Russian ensign promised not to even think about it, and in general developed the warmest feelings for the French doctor: “In this way he subjugated me to his will, and I fell in love with him and obeyed him like a father.” After leaving Paris, Kazakov maintained correspondence with Dupuytren for 20 years, until the latter’s death.

Defectors

However, not everything in Paris happened amicably. Lieutenant Nikolai Muravyov (in the future - Muravyov-Karssky, general and military governor of the Caucasus) noted that during the two months of occupation, duels often occurred in the city: “Our Russians also fought and more with the French officers of Napoleon’s army, who could not see us indifferently in Paris."

In addition, among the lower-ranking military personnel, irritation gradually began to accumulate, caused by insufficiently well-established supplies and the costs of Alexander’s Francophile policy. “During our entire stay in Paris, parades were often held, so the soldier had more work in Paris than on the campaign. The winners were starved and kept under arrest in barracks. The Emperor was partial to the French to such an extent that he ordered the Paris National Guard to arrest our soldiers when they were met on the streets, which resulted in many fights, in which for the most part ours remained victorious. But such treatment of the soldiers partly inclined them to escape, so that when we left Paris, many of them remained in France,” we read in Muravyov’s notes, published only in the time of Alexander II, after the death of the author himself.

However, it was not only resentment towards their superiors that pushed Russian soldiers to desertion. They say that once French marshals asked an English general what he liked most about Paris. “Russian grenadiers,” he answered. The French also liked the “Russian grenadiers”. Artillery officer Ilya Radozhitsky recalled: “The French are persuading our soldiers to stay with them, promising mountains of gold, and already 32 people fled from the 9th Corps in two nights.”

At the same time, life in the French service was apparently not bad. The ensign Kazakov, known to us, met in Paris a French grenadier who bore the surname Fedorov and was from the Oryol province. Having been captured by the French at Austerlitz, he was later accepted into service in the “old guard”. Fedorov did not participate in the campaign of 1812: “Before the campaign in Russia, the colonel sent me to the cadres so that I would not have to fight against my fatherland,” he explained to Kazakov. Fedorov was pleased with the salary and attitude from his superiors. In addition, in France he managed to start a family, and, despite Kazakov’s entreaties, he categorically refused to return to Russia.

Fragment of the painting “Cossack Dance at Night on the Champs Elysees”, Opitz Georg-Emmanuel

Troop withdrawal

Russian units began to leave Paris at the end of May. “We spent three weeks there, which were a lot of fun for us. A whole chaos of new impressions, pleasures and delights of all kinds, which are impossible to describe. (...) Then we became satiated with all the pleasures, and we were even happy when the time came to leave Paris,” this is how captain Ivan Dreyling summarized his life in the French capital.

After a year and a half spent abroad, many began to feel homesick. Even La Belle France no longer seemed so beautiful. “Paris is an amazing city; but I boldly assure you that St. Petersburg is much more beautiful than Paris, that although the climate here is warmer, it is no better than Kiev, in a word, that I would not want to spend my life in the French capital, and even less so in France,” he reported in private correspondence of Batyushkov.

In general, the occupation regime turned out to be quite humane. When the Russians left, what remained in the memory of Parisians was not so much individual excesses, which, of course, could not have happened without them, but rather Emperor Alexander, the brilliance of his army and the “Russian exotica”, represented mainly by the Cossacks. By French standards, the latter turned out to be wild: they dressed bizarrely, bathed horses naked in the Seine, burned bonfires on the Champs-Elysees - but not so scary.

What do Russians and Frenchmen have in common?

Major General Mikhail Orlov, “The Surrender of Paris”:
“At this time and for a long time after that, the Russians enjoyed much greater favor among the French than other nations. The reason for this was sought in the supposed similarity of characters and tastes; but I, on the contrary, attribute it to a confluence of special circumstances. We loved the language, literature, civilization and courage of the French, and with conviction and enthusiasm we paid them a just tribute of wonder in all these respects. We did not, like the English and Germans, have literature that could be opposed to French literature; our emerging civilization could not boast of its discoveries in the sciences or successes in the arts. As for courage, both nations famously and more than once met each other on the battlefield and learned to mutually respect themselves. (...)

But, strictly speaking about the character of nations, it seems to me that nothing resembles a true Frenchman as little as a true Russian. These two creatures are completely different, converging only in two points: instinctive sharpness of mind and careless contempt for danger. But even in this they do not come into close contact. The Frenchman grasps the idea itself better, manages it more deftly, embellishes it more skillfully, and draws more witty conclusions from it. But, on the other hand, he is easily blinded by the brightness of his most brilliant assumptions, carried away by his penchant for utopias, wanders into abstract details and often neglects practical conclusions (...).

The Russian, on the contrary, uses his reason differently. His horizon is narrower, but his view is more true; he suddenly sees fewer things, but sees better and more clearly the goal he wants to achieve. (...) The main shortcoming of the Russian is carelessness, a sterile element, the action of which often destroys the efforts of our minds, returning our abilities to life only at the temperature of extreme necessity. The Frenchman's main drawback, on the contrary, is his frantic activity, which constantly draws him into exaggeration. What can be common between these two organizations, of which one, anxious, fiery, constantly launches all compatriot vanities at full speed on the path to success, and the other, concentrated, patient, returns to life, strength and movement only by repeated blows of extreme need? »