Napoleon's gold where to look. Napoleon's treasures (1812) - the second gold train

During a recent archaeological expedition that worked at the site of the crossing of Napoleon's Great Army across the Berezina in 1812, Znamenka correspondents tried to pick up the trail of imperial treasures (The Emperor's Treasure: new finds of Znamenka; The Emperor's Treasure: new finds of Znamenka-2 ; Jerome Bocourt: “The emperor’s treasure is the surroundings of the Berezina, which can be shown to tourists”). Unfortunately, we were unable to find “Bonaparte’s treasure.” But we do not lose hope that in the near future scientists will continue their research, and we will continue our search for “Moscow trophies.” In the meantime, we decided to weigh our chances of success by studying where Napoleon could have hidden treasures.

Exactly two hundred years ago, on October 16, a convoy of the retreating French army emerged from burning Moscow. The treasures taken by Bonaparte from the Mother See never made it to Paris - apparently, they were hidden somewhere along the way, most likely in Belarus. The search for these treasures began during the lifetime of the conqueror. Much of what had disappeared from the capital was discovered, but the bulk of the loot - items from the Moscow Kremlin, the Armory and a shrine of the Russian people, a cross from the bell tower of Ivan the Great - were never found.

Crossing on the Dnieper

The version of the Belarusian trace of “Napoleon's treasures” seems perhaps the most plausible. Today, researchers quite confidently name several main “addresses” of their possible burial. First of all, the place of one of the crossings on the Dnieper. Here a real threat was created of the complete defeat of the French army and even the capture of the emperor himself. Carts of goods turned into a heavy and deadly burden. When crossing the Dnieper in Orsha, Napoleon himself was engaged in selecting the most valuable carts, and ordered the rest to be destroyed. But most historians agree that this was more of a demonstration character, and the Moscow trophies safely continued their journey.

Lake Standing

“...I would rather eat with my hands than leave the Russians even one fork with my monogram...” said Napoleon in Tolochin during the retreat. Here, in Tolochin, Napoleon received news of the capture of Borisov and the crossing of the Berezina by Russian troops. This meant that a ring of strategic encirclement had closed around the French. The upcoming breakthrough required maximizing the army's mobility. There was no question of transporting the convoys completely, since the last pontoons were burned in Orsha. According to one version, a large number of carts were flooded near the town of Beaver in Lake Stoyachy. This version is supported by the fact that in the summer of 1942, German sappers examined the lake for two days. In the early 1980s, treasure hunters turned their attention to Stoyacheye. A hydrochemical survey was carried out here, which showed an increased content of metals in the samples, but a two-meter layer of silt prevented a detailed study of the bottom. All attempts to find the treasure (even powerful motor pumps were used, which almost destroyed the lake) were in vain.

Neighborhoods of Berezina

But, perhaps, the most attractive Belarusian “address” for treasure hunters is the area of ​​​​the crossing of the Berezina, where the main fiasco of the retreating Napoleonic army took place. The first attempts to find Napoleon's treasures on the Berezina were made immediately after the War of 1812 by order of the Russian Tsar Alexander I. But they did not give results. Subsequently, foreigners, accompanied by representatives of local authorities, came to the site of the former crossing more than once. When searching for treasures, they used maps and plans, but they rarely found anything. An interesting incident, by the way, occurred near Borisov in 1842. 16th-century gold coins were found in a magpie's nest. They began to look for where the bird could have dragged them away, but they found nothing.

The search for treasures on the Berezina resumed during the years of Soviet power. Special expeditions went there several times. The Berezina riverbed in the area of ​​Napoleon's former crossing was explored using a powerful dredge, divers and sappers with mine detectors. But here too there were no significant results.

Numerous legends and rumors connect the location of “Napoleon’s treasures” not only with the crossing site itself, but also with nearby villages.

Molodechno, Smorgon and Oshmyany

It is likely that Moscow trophies were transported across the Berezina and proceeded further with Napoleon. Two days later, the army stopped in the village of Motygol on the Borisov-Molodechno road. According to legend, it was there that the emperor was informed that due to the large loss of horses, further advancement of the treasure train was impossible. Having assessed the situation, he ordered them to be buried, and in this place to install a boulder with a horseshoe knocked out on it. When one of the French returned here thirty years later, he found this stone in the foundation of the new manor house. Residents could not remember where it was brought from.

The trophies could have been hidden somewhere near Smorgon, where Napoleon left the remnants of his Great Army and fled in one chaise, accompanied by a small detachment of horsemen. The “Oshmyany trace” of treasures also deserves attention - it was near Oshmyany, according to written reports of French officers, that General Kompan, responsible for the main convoy of the army, was forced to destroy it due to the impossibility of further movement along the icy hilly terrain.

And if not with us?

Lake Semlevskoye

It is quite possible to assume that the Moscow trophies did not end up on the territory of modern Belarus at all. According to one version, Napoleon sank the bulk of the valuables, including the cross from the bell tower of Ivan the Great, in Lake Semlyovskoe near Vyazma, in the Smolensk region. The convoy with jewelry slowed down the retreat. Kutuzov did not get involved in a general battle, moving parallel to the enemy army and threatening to encircle the enemy at any moment...

Later, search operations were carried out repeatedly on the lake, but nothing was found. In the 1970s of the last century, supporters of the hypothesis about the Semlyovskaya registration of the treasure conducted a chemical analysis of water from the lake. It turned out that the content of gold, silver and copper in it exceeds the usual values ​​by tens of times. The sonar detected several large objects at the bottom. However, it turned out that the bottom was covered with a fifteen-meter layer of silt. Over the course of a century and a half, the lake became shallow and turned into a swamp. The search continued for almost 20 years. But scientists were unable to find anything similar to Bonaparte’s trophies. Among the organizers of search expeditions to the lake in the 1970s and 80s were the newspapers “Banner of Youth” and “Komsomolskaya Pravda”.

Between Yelnya, Kaluga and Smolensk

But there are other versions of where Napoleon could have left his gold without leaving the territory of modern Russia. So, this year, Komsomolskaya Pravda published an article in which it said that it was not hidden at all where it was previously thought, but was buried about 300 kilometers from Moscow, in a triangle between Yelnya, Kaluga and Smolensk. There, in a dense impenetrable forest (there used to be a field in place of the forest), in a pit with a diameter of 40 meters there are approximately 80 tons of gold. The authors of the “discovery” have not yet named the exact coordinates, fearing competitors. But they promise to invite journalists to the excavations when they gather volunteers, acquire the necessary equipment and receive permission from the governors.

Ponar Mountain

Alternatively, the Great Army could take the treasures outside of Belarus. There are also references to a place near Vilna - present-day Vilnius. There the French were detained by the Ponar Mountain, with which a whole story is connected. The mountain itself was not large, but it was covered in ice. The French did not immediately think of getting around it. Fleeing, they climbed up, throwing away their guns and luggage. Including, possibly, the army treasury and loot from Moscow. The approaching Russian troops began to rob the convoy. The French also did not want to leave their spoils. Eyewitnesses say that they saw Russians and French who had forgotten about the war and robbed the same box together. The “Golden Convoy” could simply be stolen from Ponarskaya Mountain. But something, apparently, remains. Including valuables taken from the Kremlin.
Natalya URYADOVA, “ZN”

“The treasures of Bonaparte did not leave the borders of our country”

205 years ago, in mid-September 1812, Napoleon entered Moscow. Inspired, as he thought, by the victory at Borodino, what did the emperor dream of while waiting for the keys to the Russian capital?

Is it about the great - its place in world history, or the lowly - the plundered treasures of Muscovy, which could be taken to Paris?

“There is a very specific list of everything that Bonaparte took from Golden-Domed. And if for two hundred years not a single object from this list has surfaced anywhere, either in private collections or at auctions, this can only mean one thing: Napoleon’s treasures have not left the borders of Russia, they need to be looked for here,” Vladimir Poryvaev is convinced , head of the only treasure hunting organization in Russia.

A priceless cross from the bell tower of John the Great, gold icon frames melted into faceless and heavy ingots, silver cutlery and candelabra...

For two hundred years, professionals and amateurs have been trying in vain to discover the ends of Napoleon’s legendary “golden train”. Dozens of books and scientific studies are devoted to this historical mystery.

Moscow never fell to the enemy. A merciless frost drove the French west, forcing them to think only about saving their own skins, when a piece of stale bread became more valuable than all the jewels in the world. They threw the loot anywhere in the hope of returning. And to this day, the Smolensk road is generous with such finds: silver forks and spoons, gilded buttons... They will be happy to show you them in local school museums, including even rusted cannonballs from French cannons.

But the most important, priceless treasure was never found. Where is he?..

Lake Semlevskoye has kept its secrets for 250 years.

THE MYSTERY OF THE STANDING LAKE

The Smolensk village of Semlevo, near Vyazma, is several months older than Moscow: the first mention of it dates back to 1147, only in August. Semlevo is also famous for the fact that it was here that Napoleon spent the night, fleeing forever from the inhospitable Russian capital.

“Either he spent the night here, or he just wanted to spend the night, but changed his mind when he heard the roar of Russian cannons,” say local residents. And they are happy to demonstrate “the very place” where the great emperor’s camp bed stood.

However, nothing remained of the French commander-in-chief’s overnight stay—an ancient church in the center of the settlement. It, like many others, was demolished in 1937. Now a memorial wooden cross has been erected here, soldiers of the Great Patriotic War are also buried, and the earth is raised with thousands of unmarked graves. The now quiet village of Semlevo, seemingly extinct during the day, worn out by the last warm days, was once the epicenter of the insatiable Vyazemsky cauldron of another war - there was nothing left, no one...

Everything is mixed up. Past with present. That first Patriotic war, 1812, with the other, later, Great one.

It’s a pity that human memory is short, just like the human age, but Lake Semlevskoe remembers everything - ancient, dark, tightly keeping its own and other people’s secrets. One of which says that Napoleon’s treasure was sunk in its waters.

Once upon a time, Lake Semlevskoe was wider and fuller. Then it dried up, its banks became covered with mud, the surrounding area became overgrown with forest; The water squelches under your feet through the birch log bridges - it is still warm, almost like in summer, and if you want, you can even swim, but it’s just scary to somehow plunge into this bottomless mermaid blackness, into a quiet pool.

There are no fish here, and for some reason birds don’t build nests near the lake. Numerous studies have shown that the waters of the lake contain a huge amount of silver ions of unknown origin, as well as other precious metals. Where are they from?..

— One of the main assumptions is that Napoleon’s sunken treasures are located at the depths: everyone knows that he came to our Semlevo with a heavily loaded baggage train, and left here lighter. If you only knew how many expeditions came here in search of Napoleon’s treasure, even in my lifetime - everyone goes and goes... - Lyubov Grigorievna Strzhelbitskaya, the oldest teacher of the local school, a teacher of Russian language and literature, a lover of antiquity, waves her hands: to meet me she came with important notes on the history of her native land. The main part of which is dedicated to the emperor’s gold.

Rarities of the school museum of the village of Semlevo.

“Yes, if you know, Walter Scott wrote about this treasure,” says Lyubov Grigorievna. - In the Russian Empire, the search for it continued in the 19th century, it began under the leadership of the then Governor-General Khmelnitsky, and engineers from the capital also came to us, who were all trying to figure out a way to explore the bottom of the lake. But even at that time this turned out to be technically impossible, and even today.

The fact is that Lake Semlevskoe seems to have no bottom. It’s like a layer cake, in which each layer of water is mixed with a layer of sand and silt, and so on deeper and deeper... Water and muddy lake suspension, clay - and under it there’s water again...

— Already in the 60s of the 20th century, fifty years ago, I remember, I was still a student, a serious expedition from the Moscow Aviation Institute arrived here, the guys lived here all summer, took various samples, but nothing worked out for them either, they left unsettled having taken a sip,” sighs Lyubov Grigorievna. — Both geologists and archaeologists worked here. Even psychics once came about the treasure. It’s just all to no avail...

At the beginning of the 2000s, a whole French delegation arrived. They said that they wanted to visit memorial sites associated with the Napoleonic wars; Arriving at the shore of the lake, they tearfully begged to be allowed to explore it, but the authorities decided: it’s better not to do this - you never know, what if they succeed? It will be a shame. Don't let anyone get it...

CECORNATED HAT OF BAUHARNAIS

But historian Alexander Seregin from Barvikha near Moscow is sure that “Bonaparte’s gold” (although why Bonaparte? It’s ours, Russian gold!) should be looked for in a completely different place. At one time, he even created a Center for searching for Napoleon's treasure. And he headed it himself. He and his comrades set to work on this matter with great enthusiasm; Now, however, the enthusiasm has diminished, but this is not because they do not know where the countless treasures are buried, it’s just that, as they are convinced, there is no way to get them at the present stage. Neither physical nor moral.

“The land in which these relics are kept is state-owned, and even if we agree to conduct excavations there, almost everything found will have to be given to the treasury: you understand, this treasure is of enormous national and historical significance,” Seregin sighs. “But I’ll still tell you how we found out where it was kept.” This is a separate, very mysterious story. The fact is that one day an unknown person came to us and introduced himself as a mathematician...

At this place in 1812, after escaping from Moscow, Napoleon spent the night.

The stranger said that he had been studying archives in France like an obsessed man for many years in order to find at least some clues to Napoleon’s lost treasure. And then one day an old engraving fell into his hands, which depicted the son of Josephine Beauharnais, Napoleon’s stepson, Eugene. The landscape behind General Beauharnais is ours, Central Russian, somewhere between Kaluga, Moscow and Smolensk. Night, stars, and for some reason the cocked hat was thrown from Beauharnais’s head to the ground...

— It is known that Napoleon trusted his stepson very much, he even made him viceroy of Italy; he could well have entrusted him with a secret mission to bury Moscow gold,” explains Vladimir Poryvaev, a comrade-in-arms of Alexander Seregin and the head of the only office in Russia that searches for treasures—not just Napoleon’s, but any kind in general.

“Of course, the story of the disappearance of Moscow’s “Napoleon’s gold” is very fascinating,” he adds. “But other undiscovered treasures from that era are still kept in the capital. People fled from the war, took with them from home the most valuable and, if possible, bulky things, hid them in the walls, in attics, under the floor... Many such caches are still waiting in the wings. After all, what is a treasure? This is a regular safe deposit box. However, there were no banks, people kept their savings in little boxes: let’s say, a man came to Moscow in 1812, hid his money box somewhere, and then died unexpectedly, without having time to tell anyone anything - so his property became a treasure, and there may be hundreds of them in the capital...

The fact that Eugene Beauharnais could have been involved in the disappearance of the “Moscow gold” is also supported by the fact that he, the only one of Napoleon’s close associates, left the emperor’s headquarters for a short time, literally for a few days, and where he was, what he was doing at that time — historians don’t know for certain, and there’s no information in the archives either.

“It cannot be ruled out that it was precisely during these days that, on the instructions of his stepfather, he hid the treasures stolen from Moscow; this was his secret mission,” admits Vladimir Poryvaev.

Vladimir Poryvaev.

In that ancient engraving that the mysterious mathematician showed to professional treasure hunters, the night sky stretches over Beauharnais itself with a very skillful and detailed image of the stars. They are drawn surprisingly accurately, so experts suggested that perhaps their position indicates the coordinates of hidden treasures.

— We finally solved the mystery of the engraving. In fact, we are dealing with an encrypted map of the area, where even the cockade from the headdress of a French general served as a clue to the location of the discovery of the treasure - everything pointed to the same point in space, even after the past 205 years it cannot be confused with anything, there there are very important and unchangeable details, but I won’t tell you anything in more detail so as not to cause unnecessary excitement among adventurers and dreamers,” explains Alexander Seregin.

What was the matter? Can we dig it up ourselves?..

THE TREASURE WAS NOT GIVEN IN HANDS

“Alas, but no, any treasure, especially a priceless one, like Napoleonic’s, is revealed in due time, and only to those who deserve it,” Vladimir Poryvaev is sure. He regretfully admits that there was an attempt to visit that area and test the theory of the mysterious mathematician in practice, but it did not lead to anything good. “We barely survived that night,” says the treasure hunter. Although they were not driven by the thirst for profit, but, as they say, by the passion for research.

Alexander Seregin.

We left Moscow in November, on the same date when Eugene Beauharnais left the headquarters for an unknown purpose - all so that the astronomical coordinates indicated on the encrypted engraving coincided exactly. The road from Moscow was about four hours. The weather was cold but dry, typical for late autumn. “And suddenly snow began to fall, and after a few minutes everything was covered with it, so that you couldn’t see anything,” recalls Vladimir Poryvaev. When they arrived at the designated point, it turned out that the brand new, just purchased tools for searching for the treasure suddenly turned out to be broken. “We bought them in a good store, but didn’t check the packaging, and it’s never happened that they slipped a defective product, and then the parts fell out of the box...”

At the end of it all, as Alexander Seregin told MK, they were almost attacked by local bandits - they chased the car, apparently deciding that the strange Muscovites had gone crazy, deciding to dig frozen ground in an open field at night.

“This means that it’s not destiny to get it yet, we’ll come back here later, we thought then, but it hasn’t happened yet,” Seryogin sighs. “It’s as if everything is against it.” Even the mathematician who brought us the portrait of Eugene Beauharnais took it and disappeared somewhere, his phone did not answer, was turned off, and we never saw or heard from him again. It’s as if he didn’t exist at all...

Treasure hunters are confident that, unlike the canonical version of Napoleon’s treasure being found in the impassable swamp of Lake Semlevskoe, these treasures are actually located on land, under the roots of a two-hundred-year-old tree, but to get them, you need to use special explosive devices. “It’s clear that few people will dare to do this - to carry out such a difficult operation,” sighs Alexander Seregin. “But this is good, it means the treasure will definitely wait for us.”

He says that there can be no doubt that Napoleon's treasure is hidden in this very place. Here and during the Great Patriotic War, the bloodiest battles took place - and all because the Germans knew the exact coordinates where the treasures were hidden, and therefore tried to take possession of the height at any cost.

- This nameless height - remember how it is sung in the song? It seems that there was no special strategic significance in it, but how many people died here - and all because of gold, I’m sure! - exclaims Alexander Seregin.

Portrait of Eugene Beauharnais. But not the same one.

He is convinced that this treasure is worthy of state attention. Sapper troops are needed here: “My son is serving there right now.” But he himself says that he has moved away from this treasure-hunting business and is writing a global book about how we can all live further: “Project Russia.”

…If you travel through the Smolensk villages through which two hundred years ago exhausted French troops ingloriously returned home, driven by the Russian army, then in each village they will definitely tell you about Napoleon’s countless treasures buried somewhere in their vicinity. Whether this is true or idle fiction - who knows; as treasure hunter Vladimir Poryvaev says, the real treasure is not revealed to everyone. And only at the right time.

The mysterious Semlyovskoe Lake is drowning in the setting sun, the last September rays are reflected in it, sparkling - as if gold hidden at the very bottom, they blind the eyes.

Fallen soldiers sleep on the shore in fields dug with trenches and craters. They guard the peace of this land like permanent sentries. They, underground, know exactly where Napoleon’s untold riches are hidden. But they won’t tell anyone about it.

...After completing Napoleon's secret mission, General Beauharnais changed a lot. If before he was not a fool to drink and rob, now he calmed down and calmed down. They said that one day he accidentally fell asleep in one of the Orthodox village churches, from where literally everything had been taken away, down to the last priestly robe, and a saint appeared to him at night, the patron saint of this temple, who said that if Beauharnais did not come to his senses and stop looting in Russia, then he will inevitably die. “Stop misbehaving, general, otherwise you’ll die like a dog. If you behave normally, you will return home safe.”

Beauharnais chose the second - and for a long time he remembered that damned eastern campaign, which brought him nothing but shame and flight.

Among the many legends about large treasures, the story of Napoleonic gold stands apart, and this is not surprising, because unlike other vague legends, it is most clearly described by contemporaries, and is not so far in time from the modern era. However, even now there is no solution to this riddle of the early 19th century, forcing people to persistently search for missing treasures...

Almost two hundred years have passed since the time when Napoleon, who conquered Moscow, was in a hurry to remove valuables from the city, for which several large convoys were organized. The greatest interest is still aroused by the fate of the treasures that were to be delivered to France in the third, so-called “Golden Convoy”. Information about the items that were actually tried to be taken out is contradictory. Of course, treasure hunters and adventure lovers would like to think that it was gold that was in it, but no one can, with sufficient accuracy, either confirm or deny this information. At the same time, data on times, routes, stops, and points where clashes with Russian troops took place look complete and exhaustive! Why has nothing been found so far of the countless riches that were taken out of Moscow, but never reached the goal intended by Napoleon?

On October 16, 1812, the convoy was formed and quickly set out from Moscow, escorted by Viceroy Eugene Beauharnais. According to existing and known data, the convoy consisted of 350 carts, a gigantic “train” at that time! Napoleon set a completely clear and precise task: Beauharnais had to march at an accelerated pace to Smolensk, from where treasures and valuables had to be transported further to Saxony. The plan was simple, but Napoleon failed to implement it fully, since he could not control the movements of Russian troops, including irregular, partisan detachments, and fatal accidents began to happen very soon, long before the line of carts was supposed to get to Smolensk.

Near the village of Kutasovo, the convoy was attacked by partisans led by Seslavin. The security of the convoy, which consisted of soldiers from the corps of the Viceroy of Beauharnais, gave a decisive rebuff to the attackers, and the partisans were forced to retreat. Both the French and Russian partisans suffered serious losses in this battle.

On October 17, the convoy was 12 versts from the village of Bykasova, on the Borovskaya road, from where it was supposed to proceed further to Fominskoye-Vereya (Fominskoye is the old name of present-day Naro-Fominsk). But at that moment it became known that Vereya had already been liberated from the French by General Dorokhov, so the plans had to be urgently changed and instead of a quick march, it turned out to be a painful wait. Napoleon himself did not move as part of the convoy; he would leave Moscow three days later, on October 19, and together with a group of troops would rush to Vereya to open the way for the convoy waiting in the vicinity of Bykasov.

On October 21 and 22, significant forces of the Napoleonic army converged on Vereya, which could not but affect the Russian defenders of the city. Dorokhov has to pull up the cavalry and thus opens a direct road to Mozhaisk for the French, which they did not fail to take advantage of.

On October 27, the convoy under the command of the Viceroy stopped in the village of Alferovo, which is located 6 miles from Borovsk. The soldiers are tired and there is a catastrophic shortage of food. The horses are also exhausted. To feed them, you often have to use straw from the roofs of houses; there is simply no other food! The French come to the conclusion that it will not be possible to move forward with the original composition; it is necessary to reduce the composition of the convoy. It is from this moment that the French begin to throw their guns and blow up the charging boxes. The guns are buried in the ground and damaged. So, later, the Russians will find and remove from the ground guns damaged by French soldiers near the Kolotsky Monastery.

On October 29, the convoy passed Borisov and ended up on the Smolensk road. On October 30 we passed the Kolotsky Monastery. On October 31, the Golden Convoy stopped for the night in Gzhatsk, while it was reported that five hundred horses died and that the French “got rid of” eight hundred cuirasses. Considering these figures, it becomes clear how difficult it was for them to maintain the speed of movement and generally maintain the volume of transport that was originally equipped from Moscow.

On November 3, 1812, the convoy reaches Vyazma, where it is attacked by Miloradovich, and, having entered into battle, the viceroy withdraws the convoy in the opposite direction, to Novoselki. At night, he attempts to move towards Smolensk, covered by Napoleon's forces. In this area, near the Protasov Bridge, the French were forced to abandon many heavy guns, which freed up 500 horses, which were so necessary for the successful movement of the convoy forward in late autumn and muddy conditions. On November 5, the convoy catches up with the main Napoleonic detachments and moves with them to Dorogobuzh. But a fatal incident intervenes again in the movement. On the night of November 5-6, severe frost struck and in the morning the French were missing many soldiers and horses who had frozen to death, so on November 6 Napoleon, seeing that the movement of the convoy was becoming more and more difficult, and fearing to lose all valuables, decided to divide the convoy. to ensure delivery of at least part of the valuables.

Beauharnais with the convoy moves towards Zasizhye. The condition of the soldiers guarding the convoy becomes catastrophic. Despite the fact that Napoleon specifically sent the convoy along the road where it was supposed to find provisions for the soldiers and feed for the horses, the strength of both was running out. Extreme discontent is growing among the soldiers. Weapons, including many cannons, were thrown away because roads did not allow them to be transported further. I had to throw away everything that prevented me from moving forward, leaving only the essentials. It was from this moment that the looting of the convoy began by the soldiers themselves, who, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, pulled valuables out of the carts and hid them in the ground. The latter seems quite strange, because it is not entirely clear how they were going to subsequently extract treasures from the hiding places when there was no likelihood of returning to these places in the near future? Apparently driven to despair, the soldiers at least tried to distract themselves from the difficult fate that befell them. And apparently this is what saved the convoy at that time from a soldier’s revolt, which had been brewing from the very beginning of the unsuccessful journey.

In Zasizhye, Beauharnais understands that further advancement of the convoy in the current composition is not possible: the horses are exhausted, not shod, and there is no way to either feed them or shoe them. He decides to hide some of the valuables. On November 9, the French abandoned 62 cannons. When Beauharnais went out to Vopi on the morning of November 10, 1812, part of the convoy was no longer with him. It is likely that at night the soldiers were hiding part of Moscow’s wealth, but historians and researchers find it difficult to say where exactly this happened.

The events that followed the crossing of the Vop River were the last in the fate of the Golden Convoy. The French built a bridge overnight, but by morning it was carried away by the current, so they had to build a new one. Russian Cossack detachments led by Platov were already waiting for them. Under the pressure of Russian troops, the French were forced to retreat, abandoning their guns and the convoy itself. The Cossacks did not fail to take advantage of this and began to steal valuables. According to the testimony of peasants in the surrounding villages, the Cossacks repeatedly returned to the convoys, took away the contents and hid them nearby, and then returned again for the next part. Platov, wanting to stop the looting and unrest, ordered the carts to be burned along with their contents, which was done! But if the carts had contained gold and silver, the fire would not have been able to destroy it irrevocably. According to many historians, the burned carts could have contained other types of valuables - paintings, clothes. This means that the French buried or drowned other valuables hidden before the burning, which could have been the most expensive. The 3rd convoy (and this is 300 trucks!) disappeared between Zasizhye and Ulkhovaya Sloboda.

Fleeing from the Russian troops, Beauharnais, on November 13, united in Smolensk with Napoleon's troops lightly, the convoy disappeared, as if it had never existed. This is how the story of the removal of valuables from Moscow ended ingloriously. And it is still unknown what kind of values ​​we are talking about. Until now, history keeps this secret. No evidence has been found that the French hid some of the valuables, and the treasures themselves have not yet been found. One can only guess where such significant masses of precious objects that Napoleon tried to remove from the walls of Moscow, which he devastated, could have gone to. There are a variety of assumptions on this matter. For example, they suspect that Napoleon took the most valuable items with him, thereby diverting attention from his progress and creating the appearance of exporting valuables with the third, Golden Convoy. In this case, it is useless to look for mythical treasures, they simply weren’t there! There are also versions that the valuables were hidden at the very beginning of the journey, when it became clear that moving on would be difficult and the journey was doomed to failure.

But the most enduring legend is about treasures sunk and hidden in the ground, which Beauharnais decided to preserve in this way, feeling that he could not deliver them to Smolensk. And it is absolutely clear that in this case he could only consign to the ground what could be safely preserved in it - gold, first of all. After all, it is impossible to imagine that paintings, expensive clothes and other things that would inevitably deteriorate in the shortest possible time would be buried in the ground!

There are a great many versions, but which of them is true remains a mystery to this day. Many expeditions, excavations and underwater searches did not give an intelligible answer to the questions raised regarding the fate of the valuables transported by the Beauharnais convoy. The debate does not subside and from time to time there are surges of interest in this historical mystery of the Patriotic War of 1812.

Perhaps, over time, not only the flooded (buried) wealth will be found, but also those crumbs that the French soldiers buried during the movement, as well as small Cossack caches made during the looting of the convoy after the battle near the Vop River. The story of Napoleon's treasures continues to live and excites the minds of history buffs and treasure hunters who are looking for and hoping to make one of the most interesting scientific and historical discoveries...

Time: 1812

Place: Belarus, Berezina River (tributary of the Dnieper), retreat route of Napoleon’s army

The wars with Napoleon are one of the most serious tests for the Russian Empire. The Corsican lion, who tamed Europe and walked the earth like Genghis Khan, imagined himself in absentia as the ruler of the world. Having consigned Moscow to ashes, he very soon realized that he had outwitted himself. What seemed to the French emperor the last step on the path to global greatness turned out to be a long fall.

Fire during Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. V. V. Mazurovsky

"Given to the French..."

According to the inventories of Baron Saint-Didier, the army of Napoleon Bonaparte collected 5 tons of gold and silver in Moscow. Compatriots Rousseau and Diderot did not disdain to cut off silver buttons from other people's clothes and melt church utensils, as testified by the French officer Vien Marengone. They took everything out clean, filling not only the emperor's pockets, but also their own. On October 19, the French army retreated from the city the same way they came. The loot was placed on two convoys: one was sent along the old Smolensk road to join the main forces after Borovsk, the second accompanied the emperor to Maloyaroslavets. Troubles began to haunt Napoleon's retreating army from Moscow itself. The need to return through a devastated land, constantly feeling threatened and losing strength in hopeless battles with inhospitable nature and lack of provisions, turned the elite of the imperial Wu army into hungry and embittered marauders. As the French philosopher correctly noted

Voltaire: “War turns men born to live as brothers into wild beasts.” Napoleon saw that the patience and strength of the soldiers were melting away by leaps and bounds. The Russian cavalry kept unexpectedly attacking the marching army, and it became increasingly difficult to control the movement of the column and the defense of the convoy. This persuaded Bonaparte to think that he should get rid of ballast. We started with old carts and faulty artillery pieces. But after the suddenly attacking Cossacks managed to recapture part of the valuable cargo in the Malechkino area on October 25, the army moving west began to get rid of it too. One can only guess how much goods the soldiers carried on their shoulders, exhausted under its weight. To advance faster, Gerard's rearguard division received orders from the command to throw away their packs. As a result, golden candelabra, strings of pearls and coins sewn into belts flew into the swamps, the Protva River and other local bodies of water. Between Brovsk and Mozhaisk, Napoleon's exhausted army contained not only soldiers and horses, but also an impressive portion of personal trophies. On November 22, during the crossing of the Berezina, Russian troops defeated the French. It is in this area that traces of the imperial convoy are lost. According to a number of historiographers, all the wealth that Bonaparte managed to save by that time was buried near the river or, given that the soil was frozen and it was difficult to dig, flooded. In parallel with the main events, Marshal Victor Perrin, who was knocked out of Vitebsk on November 7, is in a hurry to get closer to the imperial troops, and with him the wealth and relics of another plundered city. But the French were not destined to take them away either.

Crossing the Berezina. P. von Hess. 1844

The ever-increasing pressure of the Russian army led to the fact that on November 24, near the towns of Chavry and Klen, the French barely managed to defend the trophies. Nevertheless, the marshal received Napoleon's personal order to get rid of the gold. Obviously, at that moment the issue of prestige faded into the background and all Bonaparte wanted was to escape from the inhospitable region with the least losses. Therefore, when Marshal Perren, who spent the night in Dokuchino, went out to the large highway in the Loshnitsa area the next day, he did not have a convoy with him.

Tracks of the Corsican lion

On the way from Dokuchino to Loshnitsa, there is only one section designated by experts as the burial place of Vitebsk gold: between the village of Batury (Volozhinsky district of the Minsk region), passed by Victor Perren on November 24, 1812, the town of Uznatsk (Krupsky district of the Minsk region) and Volkovysk (Grodno region). region). The territory is impressive - and the search requires a carefully calibrated methodology and considerable financial investments, which nevertheless will pay off with interest, if only the lost treasure is at least a quarter as impressive as historians say. And what happened to the other convoy - the one that was the first to leave along the Smolensk road? Was it hidden or recaptured by Russian troops, or maybe Napoleon still managed to take out some of the treasures? None of the assumptions have been confirmed. Having united at the end of October 1812 with the main forces in the Vereya area (since the French army was unable to get through to Kaluga), the frigate, which received a hole, stubbornly moved forward, losing its guard and leaving a golden trail right up to Vilno, until the last ones fell in December horses pulling carts.

Looking back, Bonaparte wrote with sadness that the remains of the once great treasures were greedily plundered by his own soldiers, completely out of control. Over time, “Napoleon’s gold” turned into a mirage, lost in the vastness of the Russian Empire. True, attempts were made to find gold, but all in vain. Searchers - from Russian landowners to British and French archaeologists - explored the shores of the Berezina and nearby lakes as far as Vilna, but their catch was limited to armorial buttons, small coins, gun carriages and sabers.