On March 30, 1814, Allied troops began to storm the French capital. The very next day the city capitulated. Since the troops, although they were allied, consisted mainly of Russian units, Paris was flooded with our officers, Cossacks and peasants.
1. Checkmate
In early January 1814, Allied forces invaded France, where Napoleon gained superiority. Excellent knowledge of the terrain and his strategic genius allowed him to constantly push back the armies of Blucher and Schwarzenberg to their original positions, despite the numerical superiority of the latter: 150-200 thousand against 40 thousand Napoleonic soldiers.
In the 20th of March, Napoleon went to the northeastern fortresses on the border of France, where he hoped to strengthen his army at the expense of local garrisons and force the allies to retreat. He did not expect further advance of the enemies towards Paris, counting on the slowness and intractability of the allied armies, as well as the fear of his attack from the rear. However, here he miscalculated - on March 24, 1814, the allies urgently approved a plan for an attack on the capital. And all because of rumors about the fatigue of the French from the war and unrest in Paris. To distract Napoleon, a 10,000-strong cavalry corps under the command of General Wintzingerode was sent against him. The detachment was defeated on March 26, but this no longer affected the course of further events. A few days later the assault on Paris began. It was then that Napoleon realized that he had been fooled: “This is an excellent chess move,” he exclaimed, “I would never have believed that any Allied general was capable of doing this.” With a small army, he rushed to save the capital, but it was already too late.
2. All Paris
Major General Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov, one of those who signed the surrender, recalled his first trip through the captured city: “We rode on horseback and slowly, in the deepest silence. All that could be heard was the sound of the horses’ hooves, and from time to time several faces with anxious curiosity appeared in the windows, which quickly opened and quickly closed.” The streets were deserted. It seemed that the entire population of Paris had fled the city. Most of all, citizens feared the revenge of foreigners. There were stories that Russians loved to rape and play barbaric games, for example, in the cold, driving people naked for flogging. Therefore, when a proclamation of the Russian Tsar appeared on the streets of houses, promising the residents special patronage and protection, many residents rushed to the north-eastern borders of the city to get at least a glimpse of the Russian Emperor. “There were so many people in the Place Saint-Martin, the Place Louis XV and the avenue that the divisions of the regiments could hardly pass through this crowd.” Particular enthusiasm was expressed by the Parisian young ladies who grabbed the hands of foreign soldiers and even climbed onto their saddles in order to get a better look at the conqueror-liberators entering the city.
The Russian emperor fulfilled his promise to the city, Alexander suppressed any robbery, punished looting, and any attacks on cultural monuments, in particular the Louvre, were especially strictly prohibited.
3. Scary forecasts
Young officers were gladly accepted into the aristocratic circles of Paris. Among other pastimes were visits to the fortune-telling salon of the fortune-teller known throughout Europe - Mademoiselle Lenormand. One day, eighteen-year-old Sergei Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol, famous in battle, came to the salon with his friends. Addressing all the officers, Mademoiselle Lenormand twice ignored Muravyov-Apostol. In the end, he asked himself: “What will you tell me, madam?” Lenormand sighed: “Nothing, Monsieur...” Muravyov insisted: “At least one phrase!”
And then the fortune teller said: “Okay. I’ll say one phrase: you will be hanged!” Muravyov was taken aback, but did not believe it: “You are mistaken! I am a nobleman, and in Russia they don’t hang nobles!” - “The emperor will make an exception for you!” - Lenormand said sadly.
This “adventure” was heatedly discussed among officers until Pavel Ivanovich Pestel went to see a fortune teller. When he returned, he said, laughing: “The girl has lost her mind, afraid of the Russians, who occupied her native Paris. Imagine, she predicted a rope with a crossbar for me!” But Lenormand’s fortune-telling came true in full. Both Muravyov-Apostol and Pestel did not die a natural death. Together with other Decembrists, they were hanged to the beat of a drum.
4. Cossacks in Paris
Perhaps the brightest pages of those years in the history of Paris were written by the Cossacks. During their stay in the French capital, Russian cavalrymen turned the banks of the Seine into a beach area: they swam themselves and bathed their horses. “Water procedures” were taken as in our native Don - in underwear or completely naked. And this, of course, attracted considerable attention from the locals.
The popularity of the Cossacks and the great interest of Parisians in them is evidenced by the large number of novels written by French writers. Among those that have survived to this day is the novel by the famous writer Georges Sand, which is called “Cossacks in Paris.”
The Cossacks themselves were captivated by the city, although mostly by beautiful girls, gambling houses and delicious wine. The Cossacks turned out to be not very gallant gentlemen: they squeezed the hands of Parisian women like bears, ate ice cream at Tortoni's on the Boulevard of Italians and stepped on the feet of visitors to the Palais Royal and the Louvre. The Russians were seen by the French as gentle, but also not very delicate giants in their treatment. Although the brave warriors still enjoyed popularity among ladies of simple origin. So the Parisians taught them the basics of gallant treatment of girls: do not squeeze the handle too much, take it under the elbow, open the door.
5. New experiences
The French, in turn, were frightened by the Asian cavalry regiments in the Russian army. For some reason they were horrified at the sight of the camels that the Kalmyks brought with them. French young ladies fainted when Tatar or Kalmyk warriors approached them in their caftans, hats, with bows over their shoulders, and with a bunch of arrows on their sides. But the Parisians really liked the Cossacks. If Russian soldiers and officers could not be distinguished from Prussians and Austrians (only by uniform), then the Cossacks were bearded, wearing trousers with stripes, exactly the same as in the pictures in French newspapers. Only real Cossacks were kind. Delighted flocks of children ran after the Russian soldiers. And Parisian men soon began to wear beards “like the Cossacks”, and knives on wide belts, like the Cossacks.
6. Quickly at the Bistro
The Parisians were amazed by their communication with the Russians. French newspapers wrote about them as scary “bears” from a wild country where it is always cold. And the Parisians were surprised to see tall and strong Russian soldiers, who in appearance did not differ at all from the Europeans. And the Russian officers, moreover, almost all spoke French. There is a legend that soldiers and Cossacks entered Parisian cafes and hurried food peddlers - quickly, quickly! This is where a network of eateries in Paris called “Bistros” later appeared.
7. What did the Russians bring from Paris?
Russian soldiers returned from Paris with a whole baggage of borrowed traditions and habits. In Russia, it has become fashionable to drink coffee, which was once brought along with other colonial goods by the reformer Tsar Peter I. For a long time, the aromatic drink remained unrecognized among the boyars and nobles, but after seeing enough of the sophisticated French who began their day with a cup of invigorating drink, Russians officers found the tradition extremely elegant and fashionable. From that moment on, drinking the drink in Russia began to be considered one of the signs of good manners.
The tradition of removing an empty bottle from the table also came from Paris in 1814. Only this was done not because of superstition, but because of banal economy. In those days, Parisian waiters did not take into account the number of bottles given to the client. It is much easier to issue a bill - to count the empty containers left on the table after the meal. One of the Cossacks realized that they could save money by hiding some of the bottles. From there it went - “if you leave an empty bottle on the table, there will be no money.”
Some lucky soldiers managed to get French wives in Paris, who in Russia were first called “French”, and then the nickname turned into the surname “French”.
The Russian emperor also did not waste time in the pearl of Europe. In 1814, he was presented with a French album containing drawings of various designs in the new Empire style. The emperor liked the solemn classicism, and he invited some French architects to his homeland, including Montferrand, the future author of St. Isaac's Cathedral.
Elena Pankratova, Tatyana Shingurova
On March 9 (31), 1814, Russian troops led by Emperor Alexander I triumphantly entered Paris. The capture of the French capital was the final battle of the Napoleonic campaign of 1814, after which the French Emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte abdicated the throne.
The Napoleonic army, defeated near Leipzig in October 1813, could no longer offer serious resistance. At the beginning of 1814, Allied forces, consisting of Russian, Austrian, Prussian and German corps, invaded France with the aim of overthrowing the French emperor. The Russian Guard, led by Emperor Alexander I, entered France from Switzerland, in the Basel region. The Allies advanced in two separate armies: the Russian-Prussian Silesian Army was led by Prussian Field Marshal G.L. von Blücher, and the Russian-German-Austrian army was placed under the command of the Austrian Field Marshal K. F. zu Schwarzenberg.
In battles on French territory, Napoleon won victories more often than his allies, but none of them became decisive due to the numerical superiority of the enemy. At the end of March 1814, the French emperor decided to march to the northeastern fortresses on the border of France, where he hoped to break the blockade of enemy troops, liberate the French garrisons, and, strengthening his army, force the allies to retreat, threatening their rear communications. However, the allied monarchs, contrary to Napoleon's expectations, approved the plan for an attack on Paris on March 12 (24), 1814.
On March 17 (29), the allied armies approached the front line of defense of Paris. The city at that time numbered up to 500 thousand inhabitants and was well fortified. The defense of the French capital was led by Marshals E.A.K. Mortier, B.A.J. de Moncey and O.F.L.V. de Marmont. The supreme commander of the city's defense was Napoleon's elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte. The Allied troops consisted of three main columns: the right (Russian-Prussian) army was led by Field Marshal Blücher, the central one by Russian General M.B. Barclay de Tolly, the left column was led by the Crown Prince of Württemberg. The battle for Paris became one of the bloodiest battles for the allied forces, which lost more than 8 thousand soldiers in one day, 6 thousand of whom were soldiers of the Russian army.
The offensive began on March 18 (30) at 6 a.m. At 11 o'clock, Prussian troops with the corps of M.S. Vorontsov approached the fortified village of Lavilette, and the Russian corps of General A.F. Langeron launched an attack on Montmartre. Seeing the gigantic size of the advancing troops from Montmartre, the commander of the French defense, Joseph Bonaparte, left the battlefield, leaving Marmont and Mortier with the authority to surrender Paris.
During March 18 (30), all suburbs of the French capital were occupied by the Allies. Seeing that the fall of the city was inevitable and trying to reduce losses, Marshal Marmont sent a truce to the Russian emperor. However, Alexander I presented a harsh ultimatum to surrender the city under the threat of its destruction. On March 19 (31), at 2 a.m., the surrender of Paris was signed. By 7 a.m., according to the terms of the agreement, the French regular army was supposed to leave Paris. At noon, the Russian guard, led by Emperor Alexander I, solemnly entered the capital of France.
"THE SWEEP WILL END EVERYTHING"
Military critics find the campaign of 1814 one of the most remarkable parts of the Napoleonic era from the point of view of the emperor's strategic creativity.
The Battle of Chateau-Thierry on February 12 ended in another great victory for Napoleon. If it had not been for the erroneous movement and delay of Marshal MacDonald, the matter would have ended in the complete extermination of the allied forces fighting at Chateau-Thierry. On February 13, Blucher defeated and drove back Marshal Marmont. But on February 14, Napoleon, who came to the aid of Marmont, defeated Blucher again at the Battle of Vauchamps. Blucher lost about 9 thousand people. Reinforcements approached Napoleon, and the allies suffered a series of defeats, and yet the emperor’s position remained critical; the allies had much more forces available than he did. But these unexpected victories of Napoleon, which followed each other every day, so embarrassed the allies that Schwarzenberg, who was considered the commander-in-chief, sent an adjutant to Napoleon’s camp asking for a truce. Two new battles - at Morman and at Villeneuve, which also ended in victory for the French - prompted the allies to take this unexpected step - a request for a truce. Napoleon refused Schwarzenberg's envoy (Count Parr) a personal meeting, and accepted Schwarzenberg's letter, but postponed his response. “I took from 30 to 40 thousand prisoners; I took 200 guns and a large number of generals,” he wrote to Caulaincourt and declared that he could reconcile with the coalition only on the basis of leaving France with its “natural borders” (Rhine, Alps, Pyrenees). He did not agree to a truce.
On February 18, a new battle took place at Montero, and again the allies lost 3 thousand killed and wounded, and 4 thousand prisoners, and were driven back.
Napoleon, according to even enemy observers and memoirists, surpassed himself in this seemingly completely hopeless campaign of 1814. But there were few soldiers, and the marshals (Victor, Augereau) were extremely tired and made a number of mistakes, so Napoleon could not make full use of your unexpected and brilliant victories at that moment. Napoleon angrily and impatiently reprimanded the marshals and hurried them. “What pathetic excuses you give me, Augereau! I destroyed 80 thousand enemies with the help of recruits who were barely dressed... If your 60 years are a burden to you, give up command!..” “The Emperor did not want to understand that not all of his subordinates were Napoleons,” he later said, remembering about this time, one of his generals.<…>
On March 20, the Battle of Arcy-sur-Aube took place between Napoleon, who at that moment had about 30 thousand people on the battlefield, and the Allies (Schwarzenberg), who had up to 40 thousand at the beginning of the battle and up to 90 thousand at the end. Although Napoleon considered himself the winner and indeed drove back the enemy at several points, in fact the battle should be considered undecided based on its results: Napoleon could not pursue Schwarzenberg with his army after the battle; he crossed back across the Ob River and blew up the bridges. Napoleon lost 3 thousand people in the battle of Arcy-sur-Aube, his allies up to 9 thousand, but Napoleon, of course, this time failed to achieve the defeat of the allied armies. The Allies were afraid of a people's war, a general militia, like the one that, in the heroic times of the French Revolution, saved France from the interventionists and from the Bourbon restoration... Alexander, Friedrich Wilhelm, Franz, Schwarzenberg and Metternich would have calmed down if they had overheard what they were talking about in the evening after the battle of Arcy-sur-Aube, Napoleon with General Sebastiani. “Well, general, what do you say about what’s happening?” - “I will say that Your Majesty undoubtedly has new resources that we do not know.” - “Only those that you see before your eyes, and no others.” - “But then why don’t Your Majesty think about raising nation? - “Chimeras! Chimeras borrowed from memories of Spain and the French Revolution. To raise a nation in a country where the revolution destroyed the nobles and clergy and where I myself destroyed the revolution!<…>
After the Battle of Arcy-sur-Aube, Napoleon tried to go behind the Allies' rear and attack their communications with the Rhine, but the Allies had already finally decided to go straight to Paris. From letters accidentally intercepted by Russian Cossacks from Empress Marie-Louise and Minister of Police Savary to Napoleon, Alexander became convinced that the mood in Paris was such that popular resistance could not be expected and that the arrival of the allied army in Paris would immediately decide the whole war and end it with the overthrow of Napoleon.<…>The only people blocking the path were Marshals Marmont and Mortier and Generals Pacteau and Ame; they had a total of about 25 thousand people. Napoleon with his main forces was far behind Allied lines. The Battle of Fer-Champenoise on March 25 ended in an Allied victory over the marshals. They were driven back to Paris, and the 100,000-strong Allied army approached the capital. Already on March 29, Empress Marie-Louise with her little heir, the Roman king, left Paris for Blois.
The French had about 40 thousand people to defend Paris. The mood in Paris was panicky, and the troops were also in decline. Alexander did not want bloodshed near Paris and generally played the magnanimous winner. “Paris, deprived of its defenders and its great leader, is unable to resist; I am deeply convinced of this,” the Tsar told M.F. Orlov, authorizing him to stop the battle whenever there was hope for the peaceful surrender of the capital. The fierce battle lasted several hours; The allies lost 9 thousand people during these hours, of which about 6 thousand Russians, but, oppressed by the fear of defeat, under the influence of Talleyrand, Marshal Marmont capitulated on March 30 at 5 pm. Naroleon learned of the unexpected Allied movement towards Paris in the midst of the fighting he was waging between Saint-Dizier and Bar-sur-Aube. “This is an excellent chess move. Now, I would never have believed that any Allied general was capable of doing this,” Napoleon praised when he learned about what was happening on March 27. The specialist strategist showed in him primarily in this praise. He immediately rushed with the army to Paris. On the night of March 30, he arrived in Fontainebleau and then learned about the battle that had just taken place and the capitulation of Paris.
He was always full of energy and determination. Having learned about what had happened, he was silent for a quarter of an hour and then outlined a new plan to Caulaincourt and the generals who were around him. Caulaincourt will go to Paris and, on behalf of Napoleon, offer peace to Alexander and his allies on the terms they set at Chatillon. Then Caulaincourt, under various pretexts, will spend three days traveling from Paris to Fontainebleau and back, during these three days all the forces that still exist (from Saint-Dizier) with which Napoleon has just operated behind Allied lines will arrive, and then the Allies will be thrown out from Paris. Caulaincourt hinted: maybe not in the form of a military stratagem, but in fact offer peace to the allies on Chatillon terms? "No no! - the emperor objected. - It is enough that there was a moment of hesitation. No, the sword will end everything. Stop humiliating me!”
MEDAL "FOR THE CAPTURE OF PARIS"
On the first day of the new year, 1814, Russian troops crossed the Rhine River near the city of Basel (in Switzerland) and, having entered the lands of France, began to fight their way (through Beliyar, Vesoul, Langres) into the interior of the country, to its heart - Paris. K.N. Batyushkov, who was destined to reach Paris with his troops, wrote to N.I. on March 27, 1814. Gnedich: “...We fought between Nanjins and Provins... from there we went to Arsis, where there was a fierce battle, but not long, after which Napoleon disappeared with the entire army. He went to cut off our road from Switzerland, and we, wishing him a good journey, moved towards Paris with all our might from the city of Vitry. On the way we met several buildings covering the capital and... swallowed it. The spectacle is wonderful! Imagine a cloud of cavalry crashing into the infantry on both sides on an open field, and the infantry in a thick column retreating with quick steps without firing shots, occasionally releasing battalion fire. In the evening the French were persecuted. Guns, banners, generals, everything went to the winners, but even here the French fought like lions.”
On March 19, the Allied troops entered Paris in a solemn march. The French were quite surprised by the humane treatment of the Russians who came from the east. They expected Russian revenge for Moscow, for the blood shed in this war by the destruction of the French capital. But instead we were met with Russian generosity. The life of Paris continued in the same measured rhythm as before the arrival of Russian troops - shops were trading, theatrical performances were taking place; Crowds of smartly dressed townspeople filled the streets, they looked at the bearded Russian soldiers and tried to communicate with them.
The Allied forces behaved completely differently. A striking example of this is given by the future Decembrist K.N. Ryleev, reporting on his conversation with a French officer in Paris: “...We are as calm as we can, but your allies will soon drive us out of patience... - I am Russian (says Ryleev) , and you are in vain telling me. - That's why I say that you are Russian. I tell my friend, your officers, your soldiers treat us this way... But the allies are bloodsuckers!
But be that as it may, the war is over. Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea, and the power of the Bourbons, overthrown by the French Revolution, was again restored.
Summer was coming. Russian troops were returning to Russia on a march. And on August 30 of the same 1814, by the manifesto of Emperor Alexander I, an award silver medal was established, on the front side of which there is a chest-length, right-facing image of Alexander I in a laurel wreath and in the radiance of the radiant “all-seeing eye” located above him. On the reverse side, along the entire circumference of the medal, in a laurel wreath, there is a straight five-line inscription: “FOR - THE TAKEN - OF PARIS - MARCH 19 - 1814.”
The medal was intended to reward all participants in the capture of the French capital - from soldier to general. But it was not given to them. With the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, the Russian emperor considered it inhumane to issue this medal, which would remind France of the former collapse of its capital. And only 12 years later it was distributed to participants in the 1814 campaign at the behest of the new Emperor Nicholas I, who “... on the eve of the anniversary of the Russians’ entry into Paris, March 18, 1826, ordered this medal to be consecrated on the tomb of his brother (Alexander 1).”
The issuance of its participants began on March 19, 1826 and lasted until May 1, 1832. In total, more than 160 thousand medals were issued. Naturally, in the portraits of the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812, which were painted before 1826, this medal is absent among other awards.
There were basically three varieties of it in size: combined arms - with a diameter of 28 and 25 mm and for rewarding cavalrymen - 22 mm. There was a transverse eyelet with a ring threaded through it for hanging the award on a ribbon. A similar medal, belonging to the famous 1812 partisan Denis Davydov, is kept in the Leningrad Military History Museum.
There are also many varieties of this medal in reduced sizes - 12, 15, 18 mm. These are tails medals for wearing on civilian clothes. They wore a medal on the chest on the first introduced combined St. Andrew's and St. George's ribbon. It was of normal width, but consisted of two narrow ribbons: St. Andrew's - blue and St. George's - orange with three black stripes.
Kuznetsov A., Chepurnov N. Award medal. in 2 vols. 1992
A RUSSIAN OFFICER'S VIEW OF PARIS IN 1814
The solemn day for all of Europe, March 19, 1814, the day of the entry of the allied, fraternal troops into Paris, will divulge the glory of the Russians to later descendants, and the Chroniclers will put Russian invincibility, crowned with patriotic unanimity and immovable firmness, in the first row of monuments. The very slanderous, gnashing envy petrified at the sounds of the immortal glory of the Russians, who accomplished the most important era in History with unfading laurels. They proved to the universe the power of the strength of the people's spirit and raised the price of the courage of the ancient Slavs.
The most magnificent entrance of our troops into Paris was illuminated by the purest radiance of the sun - an image of the righteousness of the Russians! He was accompanied by a countless crowd of people.
As soon as Emperor ALEXANDER and the Prussian King Frederick William with their invincible Heroes approached the walls of the city, loud exclamations were heard from all sides: “Long live ALEXANDER and Wilhelm, liberators of Europe!” Millions of voices filled the air, joyful echoes were repeated everywhere; the sun's rays represented the Finger of the Divine, blessing the solemn procession of the Kings, who trampled upon the arrogant pride of treachery! Everyone was intoxicated with lively delight: some tried to outshout others, crowded under the horses, as if they considered it a blessing to be trampled by the horses of the victorious army!
A thousand questions: Where is the Russian Emperor? drowned out the whole city! Humility and attractive meekness were the hallmarks of the majesty of our Monarch. Everyone greedily fixed their eyes on the Emperor and devoured the tenderness of his glances; they threw hats and caps into the air; blocked the streets; they grabbed onto His horse, which, apparently, was proud of such a sacred burden and, suppressing stones with arrogant steps, looked around in all directions, without causing the slightest harm to the surrounding crowded space! Bucephalus himself would have given way to his important step - just like Alexander the Great, of course, would have given the advantage to ALEXANDER of Russia!
The houses were filled and the rooftops were dotted with spectators! From the windows, decorated with the richest carpets, the streets were strewn with flowers, they splashed their hands, fluttered scarves and exclaimed with delight: “Long live the Emperor ALEXANDER, resurrector of the Bourbons!” The peace-loving color of Lily, with its purest whiteness, finally eclipsed the bloody banner of the tyrant’s vanity! Many brave French women persistently begged for horses - they took off on them and rushed after the Emperor!
This unlimited frenzy is hardly characteristic of a great people. How long ago was Buonaparte, revered by them as God, greeted with similar exclamations during his brazen escape from Russia? Rash transitions from one emergency to another mean frivolity of character. Everyone was in amazement, seeing the extraordinary freshness and perfect order in our army, which, according to Napoleon, was all broken, scattered, and only the remnants of it wandered around France! The cleanliness of weapons, ammunition, clothing and order in the ranks amazed everyone to the point of madness.
No one could believe that this most wonderful army from the Russian borders, fighting at every step, passing over the corpses of daring enemies with forced marches, rushed like an eagle's flight across the entire space from Moscow to Paris without any exhaustion! We can say that nature itself was a participant in our victories... God be upon the begetter! A king cannot be saved by much strength, and a giant cannot be saved by the abundance of his strength.
With astonished gazes, everyone exclaimed: “This brave army is like Angels sent down from God to free us from the yoke of an autocratic tyrant!”
Cockades in honor of the natural Kings were painted white everywhere! The bloody cypress has turned into a humble Lily! The idol of Napoleon, erected in honor of his greedy love of fame on an obelisk 133 in height and 12 pounds in diameter on Place Vendome - was entangled in ropes in the blink of an eye! - The frenzied people were already trying to overthrow her from the heights; but by the will of our magnanimous Monarch, such frantic impudence was stopped! The white banner has taken the place of the colossal Giant!
Everyone congratulated each other on the resurrection of the descendants of Henry IV and exclaimed with applause: “Long live Louis XVIII!” The old song in honor of Henry (Vive Henri IV) was revived on the lips of milestones! Music was booming everywhere! The imaginary amusements in all the streets became agitated! Everyone's desires turned to a friendly alliance. God Himself overshadowed with pure joy the happy successes of general prosperity!
The exemplary piety of our Orthodox Tsar was not in the least shaken by His brilliant glory. Dreaminess is characteristic of some atheists. He places the radiant crown placed on Him by all nations before the foot of the throne of God; He gives his glory to the Almighty and recognizes the All-Seeing Eye as a companion in all His undertakings, imprinting this God-inspired thought on the chests of the sons of the Fatherland in memory of the unforgettable year 1812. Let those who seek my soul be ashamed and disgraced; may they turn back and be ashamed of those who think evil!..
At the end of the thanksgiving service with kneeling, the Sovereign Emperor went to the Palace, where the most noble nobles had the happiness of being presented to him.
At noon on March 31, 1814, the cavalry led by Tsar Alexander I triumphantly entered Paris. The city was overrun by Russians. The Cossacks turned the banks of the Seine into a beach area. “Water procedures” were taken as in their native Don - in underwear or completely naked.
Chess move
On the 20th of March, Napoleon, after successful actions against the allies in France, went to the northeastern fortresses to strengthen the army and force the allies to retreat. He did not expect an attack on Paris, counting on the well-known intractability of the allied armies. However, on March 24, 1814, the Allies urgently approved a plan to attack the capital. To distract Napoleon, a 10,000-strong cavalry corps under the command of General Wintzingerode was sent against him. Meanwhile, the Allies, without waiting for the concentration of troops, began an attack on Paris. 6,000 soldiers were lost due to lack of preparedness. The city was taken within a day.
Having defeated a small detachment, Napoleon realized that he had been tricked: “This is an excellent chess move! I would never have believed that any Allied general was capable of doing this.”
All Paris
Most of all, the Parisians feared Russian revenge. There were stories about soldiers loving violence and playing barbaric games. For example, driving people naked for flogging in the cold.
Major General Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov, one of those who signed the surrender, recalled his first trip around the captured city:
“We rode on horseback and slowly, in the deepest silence. All that could be heard was the sound of the horses’ hooves, and from time to time several faces with anxious curiosity appeared in the windows, which quickly opened and quickly closed.”
When a proclamation of the Russian Tsar appeared on the streets of houses, promising residents special patronage and protection, many townspeople rushed to the north-eastern borders of the city to get at least a glimpse of the Russian Emperor. “There were so many people in the Place Saint-Martin, the Place Louis XV and the avenue that the divisions of the regiments could hardly pass through this crowd.” Particular enthusiasm was expressed by the Parisian young ladies who grabbed the hands of foreign soldiers and even climbed onto their saddles in order to get a better look at the conqueror-liberators entering the city. The Russian emperor fulfilled his promise to the city, stopping the slightest crimes.
Cossacks in Paris
If Russian soldiers and officers could not be distinguished from Prussians and Austrians (except perhaps by their uniform), then the Cossacks were bearded, wearing trousers with stripes - the same as in the pictures in French newspapers. Only real Cossacks were kind. Delighted flocks of children ran after the Russian soldiers. And Parisian men soon began to wear beards “like the Cossacks”, and knives on wide belts, like the Cossacks.
During their stay in the French capital, the Cossacks turned the banks of the Seine into a beach area: they swam themselves and bathed their horses. “Water procedures” were taken as in their native Don - in underwear or completely naked. The popularity of the Cossacks and the great interest of Parisians in them is evidenced by the large number of references to them in French literature. George Sand's novel is even called: "Cossacks in Paris."
The Cossacks were captivated by the city, especially the beautiful girls, gambling houses and delicious wine. The Cossacks turned out to be not very gallant gentlemen: they squeezed the hands of Parisian women like bears, ate ice cream at Tortoni's on the Boulevard of Italians and stepped on the feet of visitors to the Palais Royal and the Louvre.
The Russians were seen by the French as gentle, but also not very delicate giants in their treatment. Parisian women gave the soldiers their first lessons in etiquette.
The French were frightened by the Asian cavalry regiments in the Russian army. For some reason they were horrified at the sight of the camels that the Kalmyks brought with them. French young ladies fainted when Tatar or Kalmyk warriors approached them in their caftans, hats, with bows over their shoulders, and with a bunch of arrows on their sides.
Once again about the bistro
The Parisians were amazed by their interactions with the Russians. French newspapers wrote about them as scary “bears” from a wild country where it is always cold. And the Parisians were surprised to see tall and strong Russian soldiers, who in appearance did not differ at all from the Europeans. And the Russian officers, moreover, almost all spoke French. There is a legend that soldiers and Cossacks entered Parisian cafes and hurried food peddlers: “Quickly, quickly!”, which is why eateries in Paris began to be called bistros.
However, this version is confirmed by French linguists. The first mention of the use of the word "bistrot" in French dates back to the 1880s. In addition, there are similar dialect and colloquial words, for example, bist(r)ouille, bistringue or bistroquet. The French etymological dictionary "Robert" associates bistro with dialect bistouille - "swill, bad alcohol." The Russian version qualifies it as “pure fantasy.”
The commander of the Russian occupation corps, Count Mikhail Vorontsov, paid everyone’s debts in 1818, when the last soldiers were leaving France. To do this, he had to sell the Krugloye estate.
Exactly 200 years ago, on March 19 (31), 1814, Russian troops entered Paris in a solemn march.
Jubilant crowds of townspeople greeted them as liberators. Unlike the “civilized French” who ruined Moscow, the Russians brought peace and hope for a better life to the Parisians.
This was the end of the adventure begun by Napoleon in June 1812. Before the invasion of Russia, he told the French envoy to the King of Saxony, Abbot Dominique Dufour Pradt: “In five years I will be the master of the world: only Russia remains, but I will crush it!” Less than two years had passed before the contender for world domination found himself on the Elbe, and the Russians in Paris.
"Invasion twelve languages"
To appreciate what happened on the last day of March 1814 on the banks of the Seine, it is necessary to remember the summer of 1812, when Russia suffered a terrible blow. The “Great Army” of the hitherto invincible Napoleon invaded Russia.
We had to fight almost all of continental Europe. French historians Ernest Lavisse and Alfred Rambaud calculated that of the 678 thousand soldiers in Napoleon's army, the French made up 355,913 thousand. “The Grand Army is not a French project, but an international one, later similar to NATO,” emphasizes historian Kirill Serebrenitsky. “The Grande Armée is a unique instrument created by Napoleon: whoever commands the pan-continental armed forces controls Europe.”
It would not be an exaggeration to note that in 1812 the fate of Europe was decided on the battlefields of Russia. The Russian poet Pyotr Vyazemsky thought so too. He wrote: “The invasion of Russia was a European event, almost a global one. The suffering, misfortunes of the people during the war, the donations generously made by them... were aimed not only at ensuring the independence of the Russian state, but also at pacifying Europe.”
Emperor Alexander I, who understood the threat looming over the Russian Empire, immediately sent his emissary to Napoleon - Adjutant General Alexander Balashov. While he was looking for Napoleon, the French were moving deeper into Russia. Ironically, Balashov’s meeting with the French emperor took place in Vilna in the very office where just a few days earlier he had received an assignment from the Russian emperor. Having rejected the offer to make peace, Bonaparte, according to Balashov’s memoirs, allegedly asked what roads led to Moscow. And he proudly replied that they were different, but the Swedish king Charles XII preferred the one passing through Poltava. However, historians doubt that these words were actually spoken by Balashov.
Be that as it may, Napoleon chose his path to Moscow. It ran past the village of Borodino. A grandiose battle took place there, about which Napoleon said in his declining years: “Of all my battles, the most terrible was the one I fought near Moscow. The French showed themselves worthy of winning, and the Russians showed themselves worthy of being called invincible.”
After the Battle of Borodino, our commander-in-chief Mikhail Golenishchev-Kutuso decided to leave Moscow. When Napoleon went to Poklonnaya Hill on September 1 (13), 1812, the view of Moscow that opened from it delighted him - the Russian city shining in the sun was so magnificent. The mood of the French emperor was spoiled by the fact that the Moscow “boyars” never brought him the keys to the throne.
Europeans in Moscow
When the French entered the city, it amazed them with its beauty. “My surprise upon entering Moscow was mixed with admiration. The mansions of private individuals were like palaces, and everything was rich and delightful,” the commissariat official Prosper noted in a letter.
The admiration for Moscow among the Europeans who entered it quickly gave way to a desire to plunder. The taking of the throne was celebrated by the soldiers and officers of the “Great Army” with a drinking party. However, very soon the unbridled joy of the invaders was overshadowed by the outbreak of an unprecedented fire.
Over its centuries-old history, Moscow has burned several times (Ivan the Terrible’s grandfather, Grand Duke Ivan III, personally participated in putting out fires more than once), but this is the first time this has happened. The fire broke out at different ends almost simultaneously. Then there were persistent rumors that the city in different parts of it was set on fire by the Muscovites themselves. The fire was so strong that in a few days three-quarters of the buildings burned down, and with them supplies of firewood and hay. On September 4 (16), Napoleon had to leave the Kremlin for the Petrovsky Palace for 4 days.
The Parisian newspaper Moniteur wrote on October 14 about the Moscow fire: “With great difficulty, one might still believe that the arson of Moscow was a fit of despair from the inability to stop the advance of the French army and that this is why the Russians were forced to do this, leaving their capital...
Now we can confidently say that this very fire was planned in advance and that the devastation of the city was carefully calculated. Thus, the feelings that can be expressed about this are surprise and annoyance. Never before have we encountered such a cold-blooded devastation of the capital. Rostopchin's assistants, namely the five thousand bandits whom he released from prison, passed torches from hand to hand and carried them throughout all quarters of the city to light a fire everywhere. In order for the fire to spread with great speed, the arsonists observed which direction the wind was blowing from and set the fire so that the fire would immediately spread to neighboring buildings with the help of the wind. In most houses, tow moistened with resin and tar was found, as well as sulfur, which was placed under wooden stairs, in carriage houses, stables, and other outbuildings. To create fire from the outside of houses, sheaves of straw and haystacks tied with ropes were used, as well as cannon wicks.
Our soldiers also found fire flares, which were made with such care that once they were lit, it was impossible to extinguish them... But what seems completely incredible and implausible is that the French, wanting to stop the fire, could not find a single suitable item , suitable for extinguishing fire. The firefighters themselves were forced to leave this unfortunate city, which was condemned with cold blood to destruction. And such composure outrages humanity.”
French journalists, true to the principle of double standards, did not consider it necessary to inform “humanity” that the “Grand Army”, having barely crossed the threshold of the ancient capital of our Motherland, began to drink, rob, kill and rape. “Half of this city was burned by the Russians themselves, but robbed by us,” General L. J. Grando admitted in a letter.
French newspapers did not write about the melting down of church utensils to extract precious metals. They also did not report that after the rain put out the fire, for more than a month Napoleon’s soldiers burned everything they could get their hands on in the streets and squares of the capital. They cooked food over fires, throwing icons, books, expensive furniture and paintings into them. The soldiers burned everything that burned! The fire destroyed “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” which was in the collection of the Moscow collector, Count Alexei Musin-Pushkin. And the French generals, in order not to freeze in the mansions of the Russian nobles they captured, heated the stoves with parquet.
“Everywhere large fires were lit from mahogany furniture, window frames and gilded doors, around these fires, on a thin bed of wet and dirty straw, under the protection of several boards, soldiers and officers, stained in mud and blackened by smoke, sat or lay in armchairs and on sofas covered with silk. At their feet lay piles of cashmere fabrics, precious Siberian furs, woven with gold from Persian mothers, and in front of them were silver dishes on which they had to eat cakes made of black dough, baked under ashes, and half-roasted and still bloody horse meat,” recalled the brigadier general from the retinue of the French emperor, Count Philippe Paul de Segur.
The order of September 23 for the guards division of F.B.J.F. Curial also confirms the savagery of the Napoleonic army. It says, in particular: “The marshal of the court was animatedly indignant that, despite repeated prohibitions, the soldier continues to relieve himself in all corners and even under the windows of the emperor.”
In the altar of the main temple in the Kremlin Miracle Monastery, Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout built himself a bedroom. Cathedral of the TransfigurationOn Bor, the occupiers used it as stables and a warehouse for storing loot. In the Church of the Resurrection of the Word, they damaged the cross, roof and iconostasis, and stole some of the utensils and icons. In the Verkhospassky Cathedral, the Europeans plundered and desecrated everything that was not taken away by the Muscovites. The royal doors were burned, and the vestments were torn from the icons. After the expulsion of the French, bones were found on the throne in the cathedral (it served as a dining table), empty bottles were lying on the floor, and there were beds in the dining room.
On September 16 (28), a second fire started in the city. This time the arson was carried out by soldiers from the so-called “civilized Europe”, maddened by robberies.
The list of atrocities committed by the “Great Army” in Moscow can be continued for a long time. Needless to say, it was not only the Mother See that suffered, but the entire territory through which the invaders from Europe passed.
On October 6 (18), Golenishchev-Kutuzov’s troops suddenly struck the corps of Marshal Joachim Murat, stationed on the Chernishna River near Tarutin. Having lost 5 thousand people, Murat retreated. This defeat was the last straw that broke Napoleon's patience. The Emperor decided to leave Moscow.
The picture of the French flight from Moscow on the morning of October 7 (19) was drawn by academician Evgeniy Tarle: “An endless string of diverse crews and carts with provisions and property looted in Moscow followed the army. Discipline was so weakened that even Marshal Davout stopped shooting disobedient people who, under various pretexts and all sorts of tricks, tried to put valuable things captured in the city into carts, although there were not enough horses even for artillery. The leaving army with this endless convoy was a colossally stretched line... After a whole day of continuous marches, by the evening of October 7 (19), the army and convoy, walking along the wide Kaluga road, where eight carriages moved freely side by side, had not yet completely left the city.”
Retreating, annoyed by the unsuccessful course of the war, Napoleon gave the order to Marshal Edouard Adolphe Casimir Mortier to blow up the Kremlin. The subsequent events of the 19th century historian Mikhail Fabritius outlined in his “History of the Moscow Kremlin,” which was published more than 130 years ago:
“On the night of October 11-12, Mortier left Moscow and, moving a short distance from it, gave the signal for the explosion of the Kremlin with a cannon shot. The earth shook, all the buildings trembled; even at a great distance from the Kremlin, glass in the windows broke; in many houses in the city, ceilings and walls collapsed... The consequences of the explosions were, however, not as devastating for the Kremlin as might have been expected. Part of the Arsenal and the adjacent eastern Kremlin wall and the top of the tower at the Nikolsky Gate were destroyed... A part of the southern wall of the Kremlin with three towers was blown up: Petrovskaya with the abolished Church of Moscow St. Peter the Metropolitan, Rozhdestvenskaya with its former church and Filaretovskaya, which is near Ivanovo Bell Tower. The Ivanovo Bell Tower itself cracked from top to bottom and shook at its foundation, but stood firm and has stood unshakable ever since. The Coal Water Tower flew into the air and with its remains covered the embankment and the river; in its place a column of dust and smoke rose high up. To everyone's surprise and joy, all the palaces, cathedrals, churches and monasteries in the Kremlin survived. The rain that poured in during the time flooded several mines and tunnels in the Kremlin ... "
Foreign campaign of the Russian army
It did not take the heroic Russian army even six months to defeat the “invincible” Napoleonic “Great Army” and throw it out of the Russian Empire. Abandoning the remnants of his troops on the Berezina, Bonaparte fled to France. French newspapers, like the press of the states that fought on Napoleon's side, reported the whereabouts of the emperor only after his arrival in Paris. The emperor himself admitted: “In the current state of affairs, I can only inspire respect in Europe from the palace in the Tuileries.” However, Napoleon would cease to be himself if he took energetic measures to form a new army. By the spring of 1813, he had solved this problem.
Russia was not going to stop at expelling the enemy from its territory. It was necessary to liberate the peoples of Europe from the yoke of the French enslavers. Noteworthy is Kutuzov’s warning contained in his order: “We will cross the borders and succeed in completing the defeat of the enemy on his own fields. But let us not follow the example of our enemies in their violence and frenzy, which humiliates the soldier. They burned our houses, cursed at the holy things, and you saw how the right hand of the Most High righteously noted their wickedness. Let us be generous and make a distinction between the enemy and the civilian.”
On January 1 (13), 1813, the Main Russian Army under the command of Field Marshal Kutuzov crossed the western border of the Russian Empire along the ice of the Neman. During January, the eastern part of Prussia was liberated from the French occupiers.
The beginning of the campaign was overshadowed by the death of the commander-in-chief. Russian patriot Field Marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuso died on April 16 (28) at 21:35 in Bunzlau (now Polish Boleslawiec). His adjutant Alexander Mikhailovsky-Dan Ilevsky, who was present at the death of the famous military leader and diplomat, wrote: “The sunset of his days was beautiful, like the sunset of a luminary that illuminated a magnificent day during its course; but it was impossible to watch without particular sorrow how our famous leader was fading away, when, during his illnesses, the deliverer of Russia gave me orders, lying in bed, in such a weak voice that it was hardly possible to hear his words. However, his memory was very fresh, and he repeatedly dictated several pages to me non-stop.”
Trouble does not come alone. On May 2, at the Battle of Lutzen (near Leipzig), Napoleon defeated the Russian-Prussian army. A week later, history repeated itself at the Battle of Bautzen. Russian-Prussian troops had to withdraw to the eastern bank of the Elbe.
Fortunately, in the spring of 1813, the hero of the War of 1812, General Barclay de Tolly, returned to duty. He led the 3rd Army and took the Thorn fortress. And after the battle of Bautzen, Barclay de Tolly again received the post of commander-in-chief.
"Battle of the Nations"
In the summer of 1813, the military campaign continued with varying degrees of success. In August, Austria went over to the side of the anti-Napoleonic coalition (although Emperor Franz II was Bonaparte’s father-in-law). The balance of power changed not in Napoleon's favor. According to military historians, on the eve of the decisive battles, Russia had a group of 175 thousand people (including 107 thousand infantry, 28 thousand cavalry, 26 thousand Cossacks) with 648 guns. In addition, near Danzig, which was defended by the French corps of General Rap, there were another 30 thousand bayonets with 59 guns. The active forces of the allied Prussia numbered 170 thousand soldiers and officers with 376 guns. Austria fielded 110 thousand, Sweden - 28 thousand, small German states - 13 thousand people. Summing up, we get 525 thousand soldiers and officers. For comparison, Napoleon at that time had approximately 420 thousand people and more than a thousand guns.
At the end of September, Napoleon concentrated his main forces at Leipzig. It was in the vicinity of this German city that the famous “Battle of the Nations” took place, which lasted from October 4 (16) to October 7 (19), 1813. Half a million Russians, French, Germans, Austrians, Swedes, Poles, Italians, Swiss, Dutch, Hungarians, Croats, Belgians, etc. took part in it.
The Allied armies approached Leipzig separately, which gave Napoleon the opportunity to do what he loved - beat the enemy piece by piece. Austrian Field Marshal Karl Philipp von Schwarzenberg was appointed commander-in-chief of the coalition forces. It is noteworthy that a year ago he commanded a corps in Napoleonic army, and a few weeks before the “Battle of the Nations” he was defeated by the French near Dresden.
Schwarzenberg commanded the Bohemian Army (133 thousand people, 578 guns), which found itself in the Leipzig area in early October. The Silesian Army of Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht Blucher (60 thousand people, 315 guns) also came there. These two armies opposed Napoleon on the first day of the battle of Leipzig.
On the morning of October 4 (16), Schwarzenberg launched an attack on the southern approaches to the city, attacking Russian troops under the command of Barclay de Tolly. A stubborn battle ensued, which at first went with varying degrees of success. But by 15 o'clock Napoleon threw the cavalry of Marshal Joachim Murat into battle. Having crushed the defenses, she found herself close to the hill on which the headquarters of the allied monarchs was located. To prevent their capture, the personal guard of Alexander I rushed into the attack - His Imperial Majesty’s Own convoy under the command of Lieutenant General Vasily Orlov-Denisov.
The first day of the battle did not bring decisive success to either side. Napoleon only managed to push back the Bohemian army. But Blucher's Silesian army came close to Leipzig.
The opponents spent October 5 (17) inactive. More precisely, they collected the wounded, received reinforcements and ammunition. However, if Napoleon received 25 thousand soldiers and officers, then two more armies approached the allies - the Northern, commanded by the Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johan (aka the former Napoleonic Marshal Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte) consisting of 58 thousand people and 256 guns, and Polish - under the command of Russian general Leonty Bennigsen (54 thousand soldiers and 186 guns).
The next day, the largest battle in the history of the Napoleonic wars unfolded, in which half a million people took part on both sides. The opponents showed extreme tenacity in the battle, but at the decisive moment of the battle, the Saxons, who fought on the side of Napoleon, went over to the side of the allies with unfurled banners. And although the troops loyal to Napoleon continued to fight, they could no longer count on success.
On the morning of October 19 - the anniversary of the French withdrawal from Moscow - it became finally clear to Napoleon that he had lost the battle. Bonaparte gave the order to withdraw troops across the bridge over the Elster River. The retreat was covered by units of Marshals Jozef Poniatowski and Jacques Etienne Joseph Alexander MacDonald. The French failed to retreat in an organized manner. Hearing the painfully familiar Russian “hurray!”, panicked French sappers blew up the bridge. About 20 thousand French were abandoned to their fate. Even Marshals MacDonald and Poniatowski had to cross the river on horseback. If the first of them managed to cross the river, then the Pole, who had only been promoted to marshal by Napoleon the day before, drowned. Many French did not risk their lives and surrendered.
In the battle, Russian troops showed steadfastness and massive heroism. Historian Nikolai Shefov writes: “For example, the feat of the corporal of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment L.L. Korenny, who, after the death of his comrades, alone fought off the French surrounding him, is known. The guardsman received 18 wounds, but did not surrender. As a sign of respect for his courage, the French took the wounded hero to the hospital, where Napoleon ended up at that moment. Having learned about the brave Russian, the emperor ordered not only to release him, but also to mark him in the army order as an example to his soldiers. This was the only case when a Russian soldier was noted in Napoleon’s order.”
Special mention must be made about the role of Russian soldiers, officers and generals in the “Battle of the Nations”. They were the ones who fought in the most difficult areas and suffered heavy losses. Nine of our generals laid down their lives in the “Battle of the Nations.” Among them is the favorite of the soldiers, the hero of the Smolensk and Borodino battles, Dmitry Neverovsky. During the battle, the commander of the 27th division was wounded in the leg, but remained in the saddle until the last opportunity. The Russian patriot was operated on, but doctors were unable to save him from gangrene. In the last minutes of his life, being unconscious, Neverovsky called the soldiers to attack: “Forward! On bayonets!
The road from Leipzig to Paris
After the defeat at Leipzig, Napoleon lost all his conquests in Germany and went to France. And the anti-Napoleonic coalition was replenished by the accession of Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and other German states that had previously fought on the side of France.
In early 1814, two Allied armies invaded France. The main (formerly Bohemian) army, consisting of Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian units, was commanded by the Austrian field marshal Schwarzenberg. The Russian-Prussian Silesian Army was led by Prussian Field Marshal Blücher.
True to his strategy of hitting the enemy piecemeal, Napoleon inflicted sensitive blows on his allies and quickly escaped pursuit. And then the Corsican Count Charles Andre Pozzo di Borgo, who hated Napoleon, gave the allies advice: “We must strive to end the war not by military means, but by political means... Touch Paris with just your finger, and Napoleon will be overthrown, you will break his sword...”
Information from the French capital also prompted the same decision. From there they reported that Parisians were tired of the war. As a result, the decision was made to march on Paris. In order to mislead Napoleon, a 10,000-strong cavalry corps under the command of General Ferdinand Winzengerode was sent against him. Napoleon defeated him and at the same time... lost Paris.
As presented by historian Oleg Airapetov, the course of events appears as follows: “On March 13 (25), 12 thousand Russian cavalrymen with 94 guns defeated a barrier of two French corps (23 thousand with 84 guns) near Fer-Champenoise. The Allied armies (100 thousand people, 64 thousand of them Russians) moved towards Paris. On March 29 they reached the city and on March 30 they stormed the Belleville Heights and Montmartre. The garrison of the city put up stubborn resistance, but with the loss of the heights dominating the city it was doomed. Having learned about this, Napoleon moved to the rescue of his capital, but it was too late. On March 30, 1814, its 45,000-strong garrison surrendered.”
The surrender was signed at 2 a.m. on March 19 (31) in the village of Lavilette. During the capture of Paris, the allied forces lost 9 thousand soldiers and officers, more than 6 thousand of them were Russian. In honor of the capture of the capital of France, Russia issued a medal “For the Capture of Paris.” Barclay de Tolly received the field marshal's baton, and generals A.I. Gorchakov, A.P. Ermolov, P.P. Palen 2nd, N.N. Raevsky, A.Ya. Rudzevich were awarded the Order of St. George of the second degree.
A few days after the capitulation of Paris, Napoleon signed an abdication for himself and his heirs.
The grandiose victories of 1812–1814 ensured Russia a leading role in Europe and the security of its own borders for forty years.
Yes, Russian troops occupied Paris not once, but twice: many know and remember the capture of Paris by Russian and allied troops in 1814, but few know that already in the next 1815, Russian troops again entered the capital of defeated France.
As you know, on July 7, 1815, the troops of the Seventh Anti-French Coalition - mainly the British, Prussians, Dutch and soldiers of various German principalities - led by Wellington and Blucher entered Paris without a fight (a year ago the armies of Europe took Paris in battle); Without a fight, the capital of France was surrendered to the enemies by the clever intriguer Joseph Fouché, who headed the French government after Napoleon's abdication - Fouché hoped (in vain he counted) that this kind of betrayal would help him gain the favor of the victorious powers and the new-old king Louis XVIII. But not fully trusting the British and Prussians, Fouche deliberately delayed the capitulation of Paris so that the Russian detachment could join the victorious armies. And indeed, among the victors who occupied Paris on July 7, 1815, was a Russian cavalry detachment led by Lieutenant General Alexander Chernyshev.
Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev (1785-1857), from 1827 general of the cavalry, in 1832-1852 minister of war of the Russian Empire. Since 1841, holder of the princely title.
It is usually believed that the Russian army did not participate in the Military Campaign of 1815, which was allegedly limited to only a few battles on the territory of modern Belgium and Napoleon’s grandiose defeat at Waterloo; sometimes the 1815 campaign is even called an exclusively English victory, although in the same Battle of Waterloo the British ( among whom, by the way, there were many Irish) constituted only one-sixth of the anti-French forces. In fact, Russian troops set out on the campaign immediately after the news of Bonaparte’s return to power: already in April 1815, the 1st Western Army of Barclay de Tolly set out from Poland to the west, followed by troops led by Wittgenstein from Lithuania, from St. Petersburg The Guard, led by Miloradovich, spoke out. Barclay de Tolly's army advanced as quickly as possible and already on June 14 (26) besieged the French border fortress of Metz, and on June 27 (15th old style) captured the large city of Nancy. Next, Chernyshev’s vanguard detachment, separated from the First Western Army, joined the armies of Wellington and Blucher; On July 2 (June 20), Chernyshev captured the city of Chalons-on-Marne by storm (six French cannons were captured during the assault), after which he united with the Anglo-Prussian troops and together with them on July 7, 1815, entered defeated Paris. True, the main part of the Russian army (to whose location Tsar Alexander had already arrived from Vienna) continued to remain far to the west of Paris, since there the French still continued to weakly resist - the Russians besieged the Longwy fortress, the detachment of P.N. Ushakov captured Soissons; in Strasbourg, the French garrison first capitulated to the coalition troops, then then rebelled. But despite individual clashes, overall the 1815 campaign for Russian troops turned out to be almost bloodless.
Meanwhile, in Paris, the Anglo-Prussians, in comparison with the winners of 1814, did not behave in the best way: the Prussians were openly engaged in robbery and looting, and the vindictive commander Field Marshal Blucher was going to blow up the Jena Bridge over the Seine in order to erase the memory of the Prussian disgrace of nine years ago from the map of Paris. Many Parisians, remembering Tsar Alexander’s favorable treatment of them last year, asked Chernyshev to speed up the arrival of the Russian emperor. Tsar Alexander heeded Chernyshev’s alarming letter, quickly covering the distance of 200 miles that separated him from Paris, and already on July 10, 1815, accompanied by a small Cossack detachment, arrived in the capital of France; Together with Alexander, the Austrian Emperor Franz and Chancellor Metternich arrived in Paris.
Emperor Alexander I Pavlovich
Finard David Noel DieudonnéAlexander I and Russian officers (1815)
The Parisians enthusiastically greeted the Russian monarch, even the elderly King Louis XVIII, throwing away conventions, personally arrived at the Elysee Palace, where Alexander was located, in order to greet him. Alexander did not disappoint the expectations of the Parisians and stopped the atrocities committed by the victors - the indemnity imposed on the Parisians was reduced several times, the Jena Bridge was ordered to be left alone. And exactly a month after the arrival of Tsar Alexander. On August 10 (July 29), 1815, parts of the main Russian army, also located in Champagne, entered Paris: one grenadier and one cuirassier division - they entered, among other things, in order to put pressure on the arrogant British and Prussians with their presence. 
Having gradually settled all the issues, the troops of the victorious countries began to leave Paris. But before leaving Paris, Russia decided to once again show its European allies the strength and power of the Russian army. At the end of August 1815, the entire Russian army in France, preparing for the return campaign, was gathered in Champagne on the plain near Vertu. And then on September 10 (August 29), Emperor Alexander Pavlovich showed it in all its grandeur and splendor to his allies and recent opponents. The review was attended by 150,000 people and 600 guns. The spectacle of 132 battalions marching in step at once, and out of 107,000 infantrymen not one lost their footing, caused amazement and delight of foreigners. As Anton Kersnovsky wrote, "nand Russia has never had a better army than the one that, having defeated Europe, brought it into admiration and awe on the fields of Vertue. For the troops of Ermolov, Dokhturov, Raevsky, Denis Davydov and Platov, the impossible did not exist. These regiments raised the glory of Russian weapons in Europe to the skies, and their prestige stood high in their homeland."
Russian soldiers and beautiful Parisian women in the Palais Royal
Finard David Noel DieudonnéCossack bivouac (1815)
However, not all Russian soldiers left France: according to the Treaty of Paris of 1815, the victorious powers divided France into several occupation zones, and Mikhail Vorontsov’s corps (2 divisions, 27,000 people) remained in France for another three years. Having imposed an indemnity of 700 million francs on France (of which Russia accounted for 100 million) and leaving 150,000 occupation troops by the winter of 1815-1816, the armies of the victorious countries left France. The great Franco-European War of 1792-1815, which had lasted for a generation, was over.
Borders of occupation zones according to the Treaty of Paris of November 20, 1815 
