The partisan movement in the Patriotic War of 1812 significantly influenced the outcome of the campaign. The French met fierce resistance from the local population. Demoralized, deprived of the opportunity to replenish their food supplies, ragged and frozen, Napoleon's army was brutally beaten by flying and peasant partisan detachments of Russians.
Squadrons of flying hussars and detachments of peasants
The greatly stretched Napoleonic army, pursuing the retreating Russian troops, quickly became a convenient target for partisan attacks - the French often found themselves far removed from the main forces. The command of the Russian army decided to create mobile detachments to carry out sabotage behind enemy lines and deprive him of food and fodder.
During World War II, there were two main types of such detachments: flying squadrons of army cavalrymen and Cossacks, formed by order of the commander-in-chief Mikhail Kutuzov, and groups of peasant partisans, united spontaneously, without army leadership. In addition to the actual sabotage actions, the flying detachments were also engaged in reconnaissance. Peasant self-defense forces basically fought off the enemy from their villages and villages.
Denis Davydov was mistaken for a Frenchman
Denis Davydov is the most famous commander of a partisan detachment in the Patriotic War of 1812. He himself drew up a plan of action for mobile partisan formations against the Napoleonic army and offered it to Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration. The plan was simple: to annoy the enemy in his rear, to capture or destroy enemy warehouses with food and fodder, to beat small groups of the enemy.
Under the command of Davydov there were over one and a half hundred hussars and Cossacks. Already in September 1812 they were in the area Smolensk village Tsarevo-Zaimishche captured a French caravan of three dozen carts. More than 100 Frenchmen from the accompanying detachment were killed by Davydov's cavalrymen, another 100 were captured. This operation was followed by others, also successful.
Davydov and his team did not immediately find support from the local population: at first, the peasants mistook them for the French. The commander of the flying detachment even had to put on a peasant's caftan, hang an icon of St. Nicholas on his chest, grow a beard and switch to the language of the Russian common people - otherwise the peasants did not believe him.
Over time, the detachment of Denis Davydov increased to 300 people. The cavalry attacked the French units, sometimes having a fivefold numerical superiority, and defeated them, taking the carts and freeing the prisoners, it even happened to capture enemy artillery.
After leaving Moscow, on the orders of Kutuzov, flying partisan detachments were created everywhere. Mostly these were Cossack formations, each numbering up to 500 sabers. At the end of September, Major General Ivan Dorokhov, who commanded such a formation, captured the city of Vereya near Moscow. The combined partisan groups could withstand the large military formations of Napoleon's army. So, at the end of October, during a battle near the Smolensk village of Lyakhovo, four partisan detachments completely defeated the more than one and a half thousandth brigade of General Jean-Pierre Augereau, capturing him himself. For the French, this defeat was a terrible blow. On the contrary, this success encouraged the Russian troops and set them up for further victories.
Peasant Initiative
A significant contribution to the destruction and exhaustion of the French units was made by the peasants who organized themselves into combat detachments. Their partisan units began to form even before Kutuzov's instructions. While willingly helping the flying detachments and units of the regular Russian army with food and fodder, the peasants at the same time harmed the French everywhere and in every possible way - they exterminated enemy foragers and marauders, often at the approaches of the enemy they themselves burned their houses and went into the forests. Fierce resistance on the ground intensified as the demoralized French army became more and more a crowd of robbers and marauders.
One of these detachments was assembled by the dragoons Yermolai Chetvertakov. He taught the peasants how to use captured weapons, organized and successfully carried out many sabotage against the French, capturing dozens of enemy carts with food and livestock. At one time, up to 4 thousand people entered the Chetvertakov compound. And such cases when peasant partisans, led by military personnel, noble landowners, successfully operated in the rear of the Napoleonic troops, were not isolated.
Russian partisans in 1812
Victor Bezotosny
The term "partisans" in the minds of every Russian person is associated with two periods of history - the people's war that unfolded in the Russian territories in 1812 and the mass partisan movement during the Second World War. Both of these periods were called the Patriotic Wars. A long time ago, a stable stereotype arose that partisans first appeared in Russia during the Patriotic War of 1812, and their ancestor was the dashing hussar and poet Denis Vasilyevich Davydov. His poetic works were almost forgotten, but all school course remember that he created the first partisan detachment in 1812.
The historical reality was somewhat different. The term itself existed long before 1812. Partisans were called in the Russian army back in the 18th century military personnel who were sent as part of independent small separate detachments, or parties (from Latin word partis, from the French parti) for actions on the flanks, in the rear and on enemy communications. Naturally, this phenomenon cannot be considered a purely Russian invention. Both the Russian and the French armies experienced the irritating actions of the partisans even before 1812. For example, the French in Spain against the Guerillas, the Russians in 1808–1809. during the Russo-Swedish war against detachments of Finnish peasants. Moreover, many, both Russian and French officers, who adhered to the rules of the medieval knightly code of conduct in war, considered partisan methods (sudden attacks from the back on a weak enemy) not entirely worthy. Nevertheless, one of the leaders of Russian intelligence, Lieutenant Colonel P. A. Chuikevich, in an analytical note submitted to the command before the start of the war, proposed to deploy active partisan operations on the flanks and behind enemy lines and use Cossack units for this.
The success of the Russian partisans in the campaign of 1812 was facilitated by the vast territory of the theater of operations, their length, stretch and weak cover of the communication line. great army.
And of course, huge forests. But still, I think the main thing is the support of the population. Partisan actions were first used by the commander-in-chief of the 3rd Observation Army, General A.P. Tormasov, who in July sent a detachment of Colonel K.B. Knorring to Brest-Litovsk and Bialystok. A little later, M. B. Barclay de Tolly formed the “flying corps” of Adjutant General F. F. Winzingerode. By order of the Russian commanders, the raiding partisan detachments began to actively operate on the flanks of the Great Army in July-August 1812. Only on August 25 (September 6), on the eve of the Battle of Borodino, with the permission of Kutuzov, was the party (50 Akhtyr hussars and 80 Cossacks) of Lieutenant Colonel D.V. Davydov, the Davydov to whom Soviet historians attributed the role of initiator and founder of this movement, sent to the “search” .
The main purpose of the partisans was considered to be actions against the operational (communication) line of the enemy. The party commander enjoyed great independence, receiving only the most general instructions from the command. The actions of the partisans were almost exclusively offensive in nature. The key to their success was stealth and speed of movement, surprise attack and lightning retreat. This, in turn, determined the composition of the partisan parties: they included mainly light regular (hussars, lancers) and irregular (Don, Bug and other Cossacks, Kalmyks, Bashkirs) cavalry, sometimes reinforced with several horse artillery guns. The size of the party did not exceed a few hundred people, this ensured mobility. Infantry was rarely attached: at the very beginning of the offensive, detachments of A. N. Seslavin and A. S. Figner received one jaeger company each. The longest - 6 weeks - the party of D.V. Davydov acted behind enemy lines.
Even on the eve of the Patriotic War of 1812, the Russian command was thinking about how to attract huge peasant masses to resist the enemy, to make the war truly popular. It was obvious that religious-patriotic propaganda was needed, an appeal to the peasant masses was needed, an appeal to them. Lieutenant Colonel P. A. Chuikevich believed, for example, that the people "should be armed and set up, as in Spain, with the help of the clergy." And Barclay de Tolly, as a commander in the theater of operations, without waiting for anyone's help, turned on August 1 (13) to the inhabitants of the Pskov, Smolensk and Kaluga provinces with calls for "universal armament".
Earlier, armed detachments began to be created at the initiative of the nobility in the Smolensk province. But since the Smolensk region was completely occupied very soon, the resistance here was local and episodic, as in other places where the landlords fought off marauders with the support of army detachments. In other provinces bordering the theater of operations, “cordons” were created, consisting of armed peasants, whose main task was to fight marauders and small detachments of enemy foragers.
During the stay of the Russian army in the Tarutino camp, the people's war reached its highest proportions. At this time, enemy marauders and foragers are rampant, their outrages and robberies become massive, and partisan parties, separate parts of the militias and army detachments begin to support the cordon chain. The cordon system was created in the Kaluga, Tver, Vladimir, Tula and part of the Moscow provinces. It was at this time that the extermination of marauders by armed peasants acquired a massive scale, and among the leaders of peasant detachments, G. M. Urin and E. S. Stulov, E. V. Chetvertakov and F. Potapov, and the elder Vasilisa Kozhina gained fame throughout Russia. According to D.V. Davydov, the extermination of marauders and foragers "was more the work of the villagers than of parties rushed to communicate the enemy with the goal of a much more important one, which consisted only in protecting property."
Contemporaries distinguished people's war from guerrilla warfare. Partisan parties, consisting of regular troops and Cossacks, acted offensively in the territory occupied by the enemy, attacking his carts, transports, artillery parks, and small detachments. Cordons and people's squads, consisting of peasants and townspeople, led by retired military and civil officials, were located in a strip not occupied by the enemy, defending their villages from plunder by marauders and foragers.
The partisans became especially active in the autumn of 1812, during the stay of Napoleon's army in Moscow. Their constant raids caused irreparable harm to the enemy, kept him in constant tension. In addition, they delivered operational information to the command. Particularly valuable was the information promptly reported by Captain Seslavin about the French withdrawal from Moscow and the direction of the movement of Napoleonic units to Kaluga. These data allowed Kutuzov to urgently transfer the Russian army to Maloyaroslavets and block the path of Napoleon's army.
With the beginning of the retreat of the Great Army, the partisan parties were strengthened and on October 8 (20) received the task of preventing the enemy from retreating. During the pursuit, the partisans often acted together with the vanguard of the Russian army - for example, in the battles of Vyazma, Dorogobuzh, Smolensk, Krasny, Berezina, Vilna; and were active right up to the borders Russian Empire where some of them were disbanded. Contemporaries appreciated the activities of the army partisans, gave her full credit. As a result of the campaign of 1812, all the commanders of the detachments were generously awarded ranks and orders, and the practice of partisan warfare was continued in 1813–1814.
There is no doubt that the partisans became one of those important factors (hunger, cold, heroic actions of the Russian army and the Russian people) that ultimately led Napoleon's Grand Army to disaster in Russia. It is almost impossible to count the number of enemy soldiers killed and captured by partisans. In 1812, there was an unspoken practice - do not take prisoners (with the exception of important persons and "languages"), since the commanders were not interested in separating the convoy from their few parties. The peasants, who were under the influence of official propaganda (all the French are “infidels”, and Napoleon is “a fiend and the son of Satan”), destroyed all the prisoners, sometimes in savage ways (buried alive or burned, drowned, etc.). But, I must say that among the commanders of army partisan detachments, according to some contemporaries, only Figner used cruel methods in relation to prisoners.
IN Soviet time the concept of "guerrilla war" was redefined in accordance with the Marxist ideology, and under the influence of the experience of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, it began to be interpreted as "the armed struggle of the people, mainly the peasants of Russia, and detachments of the Russian army against the French invaders in the rear of the Napoleonic troops and on their communications." Soviet authors began to consider the guerrilla war "as a struggle of the people, generated by the creativity of the masses", they saw in it "one of the manifestations of the decisive role of the people in the war." The initiator of the "people's" partisan war, which allegedly began immediately after the invasion of the Great Army into the territory of the Russian Empire, was declared the peasantry, it was argued that it was under its influence that the Russian command later began to create army partisan detachments.
Do not correspond to the truth and the statements of a number Soviet historians that a "partisan" people's war began in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, that the government forbade arming the people, that peasant detachments attacked enemy reserves, garrisons and communications, and partially merged into army partisan detachments. The significance and scale of the people's war were unreasonably exaggerated: it was alleged that the partisans and peasants "kept under siege" the enemy army in Moscow, that "the cudgel of the people's war nailed the enemy" right up to the very border of Russia. At the same time, the activities of the army partisan detachments turned out to be obscured, and it was they who made a tangible contribution to the defeat of Napoleon's Great Army in 1812. Today, historians are reopening archives and reading documents, already without the ideology and instructions of the leaders that dominate them. And reality opens up in an unvarnished and uncomplicated form.
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Patriotic War of 1812. Partisan movement
Introduction
The partisan movement was a vivid expression of the national character of the Patriotic War of 1812. Having flared up after the invasion of Napoleonic troops into Lithuania and Belarus, it developed every day, took on more and more active forms and became a formidable force.
At first partisan movement It was spontaneous, it was a performance of small, scattered partisan detachments, then it captured entire areas. Large detachments began to be created, thousands of folk heroes appeared, talented organizers of the partisan struggle came to the fore.
Why, then, did the disenfranchised peasantry, mercilessly oppressed by the feudal landlords, rise to fight against their seemingly "liberator"? Napoleon did not even think about any liberation of the peasants from serfdom or improvement of their disenfranchised position. If at first promising phrases were uttered about the emancipation of the serfs, and even there was talk of the need to issue some kind of proclamation, then this was only a tactical move with which Napoleon hoped to intimidate the landowners.
Napoleon understood that the liberation of the Russian serfs would inevitably lead to revolutionary consequences, which he feared most of all. Yes, this did not meet his political goals when entering Russia. According to Napoleon's comrades-in-arms, it was "important for him to strengthen monarchism in France and it was difficult for him to preach the revolution in Russia."
The purpose of the work is to consider Denis Davydov as a hero of the partisan war and a poet. Tasks to consider:
Causes of partisan movements
Partisan movement of D. Davydov
Denis Davydov as a poet
1. Reasons for the emergence of partisan detachments
The beginning of the partisan movement in 1812 is associated with the manifesto of Alexander I of July 6, 1812, as if allowing the peasants to take up arms and actively join the struggle. In reality, things were different. Without waiting for orders from their superiors, when the French approached, the inhabitants went into the forests and swamps, often leaving their homes to be looted and burned.
The peasants quickly realized that the invasion of the French conquerors put them in an even more difficult and humiliating position, something in which they were before. The peasants also associated the struggle against foreign enslavers with the hope of liberating them from serfdom.
At the beginning of the war, the struggle of the peasants took on the character of mass abandonment of villages and villages and the departure of the population to forests and areas remote from hostilities. And although it was still a passive form of struggle, it created serious difficulties for the Napoleonic army. The French troops, having a limited supply of food and fodder, quickly began to experience an acute shortage of them. This was not long in affecting the general condition of the army: horses began to die, soldiers starved, looting intensified. Even before Vilna, more than 10 thousand horses died.
The actions of the peasant partisan detachments were both defensive and offensive. In the region of Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, detachments of peasants - partisans made frequent day and night raids on enemy carts, destroyed his foragers, and captured French soldiers. Napoleon was forced more and more often to remind the chief of staff Berthier about the heavy losses in people and strictly ordered that an increasing number of troops be allocated to cover the foragers.
2. Partisan detachment of Denis Davydov
Along with the formation of large peasant partisan detachments and their activities, army partisan detachments played an important role in the war. The first army partisan detachment was created on the initiative of M. B. Barclay de Tolly.
Its commander was General F.F. Vintsengerode, who led the combined Kazan Dragoon, Stavropol, Kalmyk and three Cossack regiments, which began to operate in the area of Dukhovshchina.
After the invasion of the Napoleonic troops, the peasants began to go into the forests, the partisan heroes began to create peasant detachments and attack individual French teams. With particular force, the struggle of the partisan detachments unfolded after the fall of Smolensk and Moscow. Partisan troops boldly marched on the enemy and captured the French. Kutuzov singled out a detachment for operations behind enemy lines under the leadership of D. Davydov, whose detachment violated the enemy's communication routes, freed prisoners, and inspired the local population to fight the invaders. Following the example of the Denisov detachment, by October 1812, there were 36 Cossack, 7 cavalry, 5 infantry regiments, 3 battalions of rangers and other units, including artillery.
Residents of the Roslavl district created several partisan detachments on horseback and on foot, arming them with pikes, sabers and guns. They not only defended their county from the enemy, but also attacked marauders who made their way to the neighboring Yelnensky county. Many partisan detachments operated in the Yukhnovsky district. Having organized the defense along the Ugra River, they blocked the enemy's path in Kaluga, provided significant assistance to the army partisans to the detachment of Denis Davydov.
A real thunderstorm for the French was the detachment of Denis Davydov. This detachment arose on the initiative of Davydov himself, lieutenant colonel, commander of the Akhtyrsky hussar regiment. Together with his hussars, he retreated as part of Bagration's army to Borodin. A passionate desire to be even more useful in the fight against the invaders prompted D. Davydov "to ask for a separate detachment." In this intention, he was strengthened by Lieutenant M.F. Orlov, who was sent to Smolensk to clarify the fate of the seriously wounded General P.A. Tuchkov, who was captured. After returning from Smolensk, Orlov spoke about the unrest, the poor protection of the rear in the French army.
While driving through the territory occupied by Napoleonic troops, he realized how vulnerable the French food warehouses, guarded by small detachments. At the same time, he saw how difficult it was to fight without an agreed plan of action for the flying peasant detachments. According to Orlov, small army detachments sent behind enemy lines could inflict great damage on him and help the actions of the partisans.
D. Davydov asked General P.I. Bagration to allow him to organize a partisan detachment for operations behind enemy lines. For a "test" Kutuzov allowed Davydov to take 50 hussars and -1280 Cossacks and go to Medynen and Yukhnov. Having received a detachment at his disposal, Davydov began bold raids on the rear of the enemy. In the very first skirmishes near Tsarev - Zaymishch, Slavsky, he achieved success: he defeated several French detachments, captured a wagon train with ammunition.
In the autumn of 1812, partisan detachments surrounded the French army in a continuous mobile ring.
Between Smolensk and Gzhatsk, a detachment of Lieutenant Colonel Davydov, reinforced by two Cossack regiments, operated. From Gzhatsk to Mozhaisk, a detachment of General I. S. Dorokhov operated. Captain A. S. Figner with his flying detachment attacked the French on the road from Mozhaisk to Moscow.
In the Mozhaisk region and to the south, a detachment of Colonel I. M. Vadbolsky operated as part of the Mariupol Hussar Regiment and 500 Cossacks. Between Borovsk and Moscow, the roads were controlled by the detachment of Captain A.N. Seslavin. Colonel N. D. Kudashiv was sent to the Serpukhov road with two Cossack regiments. On the Ryazan road there was a detachment of Colonel I. E. Efremov. From the north, Moscow was blocked by a large detachment of F. F. Vintsengerode, who, separating small detachments from himself to Volokolamsk, on the Yaroslavl and Dmitrov roads, blocked access to Napoleon's troops in the northern regions of the Moscow region.
Partisan detachments operated in difficult conditions. At first, there were many difficulties. Even the inhabitants of villages and villages at first treated the partisans with great distrust, often mistaking them for enemy soldiers. Often the hussars had to change into peasant caftans and grow beards.
Partisan detachments did not stand in one place, they were constantly on the move, and no one except the commander knew in advance when and where the detachment would go. The actions of the partisans were sudden and swift. To fly like snow on the head, and quickly hide became the basic rule of the partisans.
Detachments attacked individual teams, foragers, transports, took away weapons and distributed them to the peasants, took tens and hundreds of prisoners.
On the evening of September 3, 1812, Davydov's detachment went to Tsarev-Zaimishch. Short of 6 miles to the village, Davydov sent reconnaissance there, which established that there was a large French convoy with shells, guarded by 250 horsemen. The detachment at the edge of the forest was discovered by French foragers, who rushed to Tsarevo-Zaimishche to warn their own. But Davydov did not let them do this. The detachment rushed in pursuit of the foragers and almost broke into the village with them. The baggage train and its guards were taken by surprise, and an attempt by a small group of Frenchmen to resist was quickly crushed. 130 soldiers, 2 officers, 10 wagons with food and fodder ended up in the hands of the partisans.
3. Denis Davydov as a poet
Denis Davydov was a wonderful romantic poet. He belonged to such a genre as romanticism.
It should be noted that almost always in human history, a nation that has been subjected to aggression creates a powerful layer of patriotic literature. So it was, for example, during the Mongol-Tatar invasion of Rus'. And only some time later, having recovered from the blow, overcoming pain and hatred, thinkers and poets think about all the horrors of the war for both sides, about its cruelty and senselessness. This is very clearly reflected in the poems of Denis Davydov.
In my opinion, Davydov's poem is one of the bursts of patriotic militancy caused by the invasion of the enemy.
What made up this unshakable strength of the Russians?
This force was made up of patriotism not in words, but in deeds. the best people from the nobility, poets and just the Russian people.
This force was made up of the heroism of the soldiers and the best officers of the Russian army.
This invincible force was made up of the heroism and patriotism of Muscovites who are leaving hometown no matter how sorry they are to leave their property to perish their property.
The invincible power of the Russians was made up of the actions of partisan detachments. This is the Denisov detachment, where the most right person- Tikhon Shcherbaty, people's avenger. Partisan detachments destroyed the Napoleonic army in parts.
So, Denis Davydov in his works depicts the war of 1812 as a national, Patriotic war, when all the people rose to defend the Motherland. And the poet did this with great artistic power, creating a grandiose poem - an epic that has no equal in the world.
You can illustrate the work of Denis Davydov as follows
Dream
Who could cheer you up so much, my friend?
Laughter makes you almost unable to speak.
What joys delight your mind, Or lend you money without a bill?
Ile happy waist came to you
And did you take a deuce of trantels for endurance?
What happened to you that you don't answer?
Ay! let me rest, you don't know anything!
I'm really beside myself, I almost lost my mind:
I found Petersburg completely different today!
I thought the whole world had completely changed:
Imagine - he paid off his debt;
No more pedants, fools,
And even wiser Zoya, Owls!
There is no courage in the unfortunate rhymers of old,
And our dear Marin does not stain papers,
And, delving into the service, he works with his head:
How, starting a platoon, to shout in time: stop!
But what surprised me the most was:
Koev, who so pretended to be Lycurgus,
For our happiness, he wrote us laws,
Suddenly, fortunately for us, he stopped writing them.
In everything there was a happy change,
Theft, robbery, treason disappeared,
No more complaints, no more grievances,
Well, in a word, the city took on a completely nasty look.
Nature gave beauty to the fate of the freak,
And Ll himself stopped looking askance at nature,
Bna the nose has become shorter,
And Ditch scared people with beauty,
Yes, I, who myself, from the beginning of my century,
He bore with a stretch the name of a person,
I look, I rejoice, I do not recognize myself:
Where does beauty come from, where does growth come from - I look;
What a word - then bon mot * what a look - then I inspire passion,
I wonder how I manage to change intrigues!
Suddenly, O wrath of heaven! suddenly rock struck me:
Among the blessed days Andryushka woke up,
And all that I saw, what had so much fun -
I saw everything in a dream, I lost everything with sleep.
Burtsov
In a smoky field, on a bivouac
By the blazing fires
In a beneficent arrack
I see the savior of people.
Gather round
Orthodox all reckoning!
Give me a golden bowl
Where fun lives!
Pour vast bowls
In the noise of joyful speeches,
How our ancestors drank
Among spears and swords.
Burtsev, you are the hussar of the hussars!
You are on a wild horse
The most cruel of fumes
And a rider in the war!
Let's knock the bowl with the bowl together!
Today it is still leisure to drink;
Tomorrow the trumpets will sound
Tomorrow the thunder will roll.
Let's drink and swear
What a curse we indulge
If we ever
Let's give up a step, turn pale,
Pity our chest
And in misfortune we are timid;
If we ever give
Left side on the flank,
Or let's rein the horse,
Or a pretty little cheat
Let's give a heart!
Let not a saber blow
My life will end!
Let me be a general
How many have I seen!
Let among the bloody battles
I will be pale, fearful,
And in the assembly of heroes
Sharp, brave, talkative!
May my mustache, the beauty of nature,
Black-brown, in curls,
Excised at a young age
And disappear like dust!
Let fortune for vexation
To the multiplication of all troubles,
Give me a rank for watch parades
And "George" for the advice!
Let ... But chu! no time to walk!
To the horses, brother, and a foot in the stirrup,
Saber out - and in the battle!
Here is another Feast God gives us,
Noisier and more fun...
Well, shako on one side,
And - cheers! Happy day!
V. A. Zhukovsky
Zhukovsky, dear friend! The debt is red by payment:
I read poems dedicated to me by you;
Now read mine, fumigated bivy
And sprinkled with wine!
For a long time I did not chat with either the muse or you,
Was it up to my feet? ..
.........................................
But even in the storms of war, still on the battlefield,
When the Russian camp went out,
You were greeted with a huge glass
A cheeky guerrilla roaming the steppes!
Conclusion
It was not by chance that the War of 1812 was called the Patriotic War. folk character of this war was most clearly manifested in the partisan movement, which played a strategic role in the victory of Russia. Responding to reproaches of "a war against the rules," Kutuzov said that such were the feelings of the people. In response to a letter from Marshal Berte, he wrote on October 8, 1818: “It is difficult to stop a people who have been hardened by everything they have seen, a people who have not known war on their territory for so many years, a people ready to sacrifice themselves for the Motherland... ". Activities aimed at attracting the masses of the people to active participation in the war proceeded from the interests of Russia, correctly reflected the objective conditions of the war and took into account the broad possibilities that emerged in the national liberation war.
During the preparation of the counteroffensive, the combined forces of the army, militias and partisans fettered the actions of the Napoleonic troops, inflicted damage on the enemy's manpower, and destroyed military property. The Smolensk-10 road, which remained the only guarded postal route leading from Moscow to the west, was constantly subjected to partisan raids. They intercepted French correspondence, especially valuable ones were delivered to the Headquarters of the Russian army.
The partisan actions of the peasants were highly appreciated by the Russian command. “Peasants,” Kutuzov wrote, “from the villages adjacent to the theater of war, inflict the greatest harm on the enemy ... They kill the enemy in large numbers, and deliver those taken prisoner to the army.” The peasants of the Kaluga province alone killed and captured more than 6,000 French.
And yet, one of the most heroic actions of 1812 remains the feat of Denis Davydov and his detachment.
Bibliographic list
Zhilin P.A. The death of the Napoleonic army in Russia. M., 1974. History of France, vol. 2. M., 2001.-687p.
History of Russia 1861-1917, ed. V. G. Tyukavkina, Moscow: INFRA, 2002.-569p.
Orlik O.V. Thunderstorm of the twelfth year .... M .: INFRA, 2003.-429p.
Platonov S.F. Textbook of Russian history for high school M., 2004.-735p.
Reader on the History of Russia 1861-1917, ed. V. G. Tyukavkina - Moscow: DROFA, 2000.-644p.
The partisan movement of 1812 (partisan war) is an armed conflict between Napoleon's army and detachments of Russian partisans that broke out during the time with the French.
The partisan troops consisted mainly of Cossacks and detachments of the regular army located in the rear. Gradually they were joined by released prisoners of war, as well as volunteers from the civilian population (peasants). Partisan detachments were one of the main military forces of Russia in this war and offered significant resistance.
Creation of partisan detachments
Napoleon's army very quickly advanced inland, pursuing the Russian troops, who were forced to retreat. As a result of this, quite soon Napoleon's soldiers spread over a large territory of Russia and created communication networks with the border, through which weapons, food and prisoners of war were delivered. To defeat Napoleon, it was necessary to interrupt these networks. The leadership of the Russian army decided to create numerous partisan detachments throughout the country, which were supposed to be engaged in subversive work and prevent the French army from getting everything they needed.
The first detachment was formed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel D. Davydov.
Cossack partisan detachments
Davydov presented to the leadership a plan for the partisans to attack the French, which was quickly approved. To implement the plan, the army leadership gave Davydov 50 Cossacks and 50 officers.
In September 1812, Davydov's detachment attacked a French detachment that was secretly transporting additional manpower and provisions to the camp of the main army. Due to the effect of surprise, the French were captured, some were killed, and the entire cargo was destroyed. This attack was followed by several more of the same, which turned out to be extremely successful.
Davydov's detachment began to gradually replenish with released prisoners of war and volunteers from the peasants. At the very beginning of the guerrilla war, the peasants were wary of soldiers conducting subversive activities, but soon they began to actively help and even participated in attacks on the French.
However, the height of the guerrilla war began after Kutuzov was forced to leave Moscow. He gave the order to start an active partisan activity in all directions. By that time, partisan detachments had already been formed throughout the country and numbered from 200 to 1,500 people. The main force was the Cossacks and soldiers, but the peasants also actively participated in the resistance.
Several factors contributed to the success of the guerrilla war. Firstly, the detachments always attacked suddenly and acted in secret - the French could not predict where and when the next attack would occur and could not prepare. Secondly, after the capture of Moscow, discord began in the ranks of the French.
In the middle of the war, the guerrilla attack was at its most acute stage. The French were exhausted by military operations, and the number of partisans had increased so much that they could already form their own army, not inferior to the detachments of the emperor.
Peasant partisan detachments
The peasants also play an important role in the resistance. Although they did not join the detachments very actively, they actively helped the partisans. The French, deprived of food supplies from their own, in the rear constantly tried to get food from the peasants, but they did not give up and did not conduct any trade with the enemy. Moreover, the peasants burned their own warehouses and houses, if only the grain did not go to the enemies.
When the guerrilla war grew, the peasants became more actively involved in it and often attacked the enemy themselves, armed with whatever they could. The first peasant partisan detachments appeared.
Results of the partisan war of 1812
The role of the partisan war of 1812 in the victory over the French is difficult to overestimate - it was the partisans who were able to undermine the enemy's forces, weaken him and allow the regular army to drive Napoleon out of Russia.
After the victory, the heroes of the guerrilla war were duly rewarded.
The Patriotic War of 1812 gave birth to a new phenomenon in history - the mass partisan movement. During the war with Napoleon, Russian peasants began to unite in small detachments to defend their villages from foreign invaders. The brightest figure among the partisans of that time was Vasilisa Kozhina, a woman who became a legend in the war of 1812.
partisan
At the time of the invasion of French troops into Russia, Vasilisa Kozhina, according to historians, was about 35 years old. She was the wife of the headman of the Gorshkov farm in the Smolensk province. According to one version, she was inspired to participate in the peasant resistance by the fact that the French killed her husband, who refused to provide food and fodder for the Napoleonic troops. Another version says that Kozhina's husband was alive and led a partisan detachment himself, and his wife decided to follow her husband's example.
In any case, to fight the French, Kozhina organized her own detachment of women and teenagers. The partisans wielded what was available in the peasant economy: pitchforks, scythes, shovels and axes. The Kozhina detachment cooperated with the Russian troops, often handing over captured enemy soldiers to them.
Merit recognition
In November 1812, the Son of the Fatherland magazine wrote about Vasilisa Kozhina. The note was devoted to how Kozhina escorted prisoners to the location of the Russian army. One day, when the peasants brought in some captured Frenchmen, she gathered her detachment, mounted her horse, and ordered the prisoners to follow her. One of the captured officers, not wanting to obey "some peasant woman", began to resist. Kozhina immediately killed the officer with a scythe on the head. Kozhina shouted to the remaining prisoners that they should not dare to be impudent, because she had already cut off the heads of 27 “such mischievous people”. This episode, by the way, was immortalized in a lubok picture by the artist Alexei Venetsianov about the “old man Vasilisa”. In the first months after the war, such pictures were sold throughout the country as a memory of a national feat.
It is believed that for her role in the liberation war, the peasant woman was awarded a medal, as well as a cash prize personally from Tsar Alexander I. The State Historical Museum in Moscow has a portrait of Vasilisa Kozhina, painted by the artist Alexander Smirnov in 1813. A medal on the St. George ribbon is visible on Kozhina's chest.
And the name of the brave partisan is immortalized in the names of many streets. So, on the map of Moscow, not far from the Park Pobedy metro station, you can find Vasilisa Kozhina Street.
folk rumor
Vasilisa Kozhina died around 1840. Almost nothing is known about her life after the end of the war, but the fame of Kozhina's military exploits spread throughout the country, acquiring rumors and fictions. According to such folk legends, Kozhina once lured 18 Frenchmen into a hut by cunning, and then set it on fire. There are also stories about Vasilisa's mercy: according to one of them, a partisan once took pity on a captured Frenchman, fed him and even gave him warm clothes. Whether at least one of these stories is true, unfortunately, is not known - there is no documentary evidence.
It is not surprising that over time, many tales began to appear around the brave partisan - Vasilisa Kozhina turned into a collective image of the Russian peasantry who fought against the invaders. A folk heroes often become characters in legends. Modern Russian directors could not resist myth-making either. In 2013, the mini-series "Vasilisa" was released, later remade into a full-length film. The title character in it was played by Svetlana Khodchenkova. And although the fair-haired actress does not at all look like the woman depicted in the portrait by Smirnov, and the historical assumptions in the film sometimes look completely grotesque (for example, the fact that the simple peasant woman Kozhina speaks fluent French), nevertheless, such films say that that the memory of the brave partisan is alive even two centuries after her death.
