Russia Against Napoleon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

48 T. von Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben des kaiserlichen russischen Generals der Infanterie Carl Friedrich Grafen von Toll, 5 vols., Leipzig, 1858, vol. 4, p. 307.

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

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

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

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