Zapiski, p. 75. Ermolov quotes the first but not the second sentence in his memoirs and he was best placed to know exactly what Kutuzov said. Norov may have been embellishing his tale. But the words he ascribes to Kutuzov do sum up an attitude which comes across in many accounts, including Ermolov’s: see A. P. Ermolov, Zapiski A. P. Ermolova 1798–1826, Moscow, 1991, pp. 243–6.
57 Carl von Clausewitz, The Campaign of 1812 in Russia, London, 1992, pp. 213–14.
58 The basic narrative here comes from Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 2, ch. XXXI, pp. 442 ff. and vol. 3, ch. XL, pp. 205 ff. See RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3419: ‘Iskhodiashchii zhurnal Generala Sakena’, fos. 4i–ii, Sacken to Kutuzov, 21 Feb. 1813 for his complaint that he and his men had sacrificed themselves for the common good without hope of personal recognition.
59 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, pp. 206–35. A. G. Tartakovskii (ed.), Voennye dnevniki, Moscow, 1990, pp. 211–25, covers the advance to the Berezina.
60 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, p. 236.
61 See Oertel’s letter to Chichagov of 3 Nov. 1812 (OS): MVUA 1812, 21, pp. 115– 17; Chichagov to Alexander, 17 Nov. 1812 (OS): SIRIO, 6, 1871, pp. 56–8.
62 MVUA 1812, 19, Wittgenstein to Alexander, 19 Oct. 1812 (OS), p. 265.
63 Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Memoires pour servir a l’histoire militaire sous le Directoire, le Consulat et l’Empire, Paris, 1831, vol. 3, pp. 201–3.
64 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, pp. 198–204. MVUA 1812, 19, Wittgenstein to Alexander, 26 Oct. 1812 (OS), p. 268; Wittgenstein to Alexander, 31 Oct. 1812 (OS), pp. 270–72. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia, p. 163. See e.g. Alexander’s letter to Kutuzov of 30 Oct. 1812 (OS) in SIM, 2, no. 270, pp. 140–41, and Kutuzov’s letter to Wittgenstein of 3 Nov. (OS) on the same danger in Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 293, pp. 280–81.
65 V. Kriuchkov, 95-i pekhotnyi Krasnoiarskii polk: 1797–1897, SPB, 1897, p. 172. Gavrilov, Organizatsiia, p. 161, on requisitioning in Mogilev province.
66 Ermolov, Zapiski, pp. 244–8.
67 P. Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, SPB, 1896, pp. 207–10. (Norov), Zapiski, pp. 76–7; Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka za sto let 1796–1896, SPB, 1896, pp. 88–94.
68 S. Gulevich, Istoriia leib gvardii Finliandskago polka 1806–1906, SPB, 1906, pp. 256–61. (Norov), Zapiski, pp. 76–7.
69 Chichagov’s letters to Alexander constitute his first defence of his actions: see SIRIO, 6, 1871, pp. 51–67: 17 and 18 Nov. 1812 (OS). In the memoir material, perhaps the best defence comes in an article by General Ivan Arnoldi: ‘Berezinskaia pereprava’, VS, 53/9, 1910, pp. 8–20. The main recent defence is by I. N. Vasilev, Neskol’ko gromkikh udarov po khvostu tigra, Moscow, 2001.
70 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 363, Kutuzov to Chichagov, 10 Nov. 1812 (OS), pp. 344–5. Clausewitz, Campaign, p. 210.
71 Ermolov, Zapiski, p. 251.
72 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, pp. 255–61. Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, Opisanie 1812, p. 519.
73 Arnol’di, ‘Berezinskaia pereprava’, pp. 11–12.
74 The best Russian descriptions are Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, pp. 263– 76, and Vasil’ev, Neskol’ko gromkikh udarov, pp. 190–200, 248–68.
75 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, pp. 270–72, 277–84, 297. Vasil’ev, Neskol’ko gromkikh udarov, pp. 235–48, 268–85. Clausewitz, Campaign, pp. 204–8.
76 Ermolov, Zapiski, pp. 254–5.
77 Both Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812, vol. 3, p. 288, and Bernhardi, Denkwurdigkeiten, vol. 4, p. 319, make this point.
78 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 563, Kutuzov to Alexander, 19 Dec. 1812, pp. 551–4. N. Murav’ev, ‘Zapiski Murav’eva’, RA, 3, 1885, pp. 389–90. The numbers do not include Osten-Sacken’s corps.
79 I. I. Shelengovskii, Istoriia 69-go Riazanskago polka, 3 vols., Lublin, 1911, vol. 2, p. 192. Upravlenie General-Intendanta, pp. 108–16.
80 Upravlenie General-Intendanta, pp. 114–16.
81 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 516, Kutuzov to Alexander, 1 Dec. 1812 (OS), pp. 494– 5.
Chapter 9: 1813: The Spring Campaign
1 C. F. Adams (ed.), John Quincy Adams in Russia, New York, 1970, pp. 458–9. VPR, 7, no. 120, Rumiantsev to Alexander, 27 June/9 July 1813, pp. 293–4; no. 158, Rumiantsev to Alexander, 18/30 Sept. 1813, pp. 386–9.
2 Countess Choiseul-Gouffier, Historical Memoirs of the Emperor Alexander I and the Court of Russia, London, 1904, p. 148.
3 S. I. Maevskii, ‘Moi vek ili istoriia generala Maevskago’, RS, 8, 1873, p. 253.
4 ‘Grafinia Roksandra Skarlatovna Edling: Zapiski’, in A. Libermann (ed.), Derzhavnyi sfinks, Moscow, 1999, p. 181.
5 See e.g. the comments by Sir Charles Stewart, later Marquess of Londonderry, in his Narrative of the War in Germany and France in 1813 and 1814, London, 1830, pp. 33, 242–3.
6 On seduction, see e.g. V. von Lowenstern, Memoires du General-Major Russe Baron de Lowenstern, 2 vols., Paris, 1903, and Boris Uxkull, Arms and the Woman: The Intimate Journal of an Amorous Baltic Nobleman in the Napoleonic Wars, London, 1966. The Guards officers’ memoirs bear out David Bell’s point about the links between sex and war in aristocratic military culture: D. A. Bell, The First Total War, London, 2007, pp. 23–4.
7 For Shishkov’s conversation with Kutuzov, see N. Kiselev and Iu. Samarin (eds.), Zapiski, mneniia i perepiska Admirala A. S. Shishkova, 2 vols., Berlin, 1870, vol. 1, pp. 167–9. For Toll’s memorandum, see T. von Bernhardi, Denkwurdigkeiten aus dem Leben des kaiserlichen russischen Generals der Infanterie Carl Friedrich Grafen von Toll, 5 vols., Leipzig, 1858, vol. 3, book 5, pp. 469– 70.
8 VPR, 7, no. 12, Nesselrode to Alexander I, early Feb. 1813, pp. 33–4.
9 L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod russkoi armii protiv Napoleona v 1813 g. i osvobozhdenie Germanii: Sbornik dokumentov, Moscow, 1964: no. 24, Chernyshev to Kutuzov, 1/13 Jan. 1813, p. 23.
10 ‘Perepiska markviza Paulushi s imperatorom Aleksandrom, prusskim generalom Iorka i drugimi litsami’, in K. Voenskii (ed.), Akty, dokumenty i materialy dlia istorii 1812 goda, 2 vols., SPB, 1910–11, vol. 2, pp. 330–443.
11 See F. Martens (ed.), Sobranie traktatov i konventsii, zakliuchennykh Rossiei s inostrannymi derzhavami, vol. 7: Traktaty s Germaniei 1811–1824, SPB, 1885, no. 254, pp. 40–62.
12 See F. Reboul, Campagne de 1813: Les preliminaires, 2 vols., Paris, 1910, vol. 1, pp. 194–6, on Yorck’s numbers.
13 See Paulucci’s letter to Alexander I of 27 Dec. 1812 (OS), in Voenskii, Akty, vol. 2, pp. 400–402, and Wittgenstein’s angry letter to Chichagov about Paulucci’s idiotic behaviour: MVUA 1813, vol. 2, no. 24, Wittgenstein to Chichagov, 4 Jan. 1813 (OS).
14 Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 16, pp. 14–15.
