1.
General officer
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A general officer is an officer of high rank in the army, and in some nations air forces or marines. The term general is used in two ways, as the title for all grades of general officer and as a specific rank. It originates in the 16th century, as a shortening of captain general, the adjective general had been affixed to officer designations since the late medieval period to indicate relative superiority or an extended jurisdiction. Today, the title of General is known in countries as a four-star rank. However different countries use different systems of stars for senior ranks and it has a NATO code of OF-9 and is the highest rank currently in use in a number of armies. The various grades of general officer are at the top of the rank structure. Lower-ranking officers in military forces are typically known as field officers or field-grade officers. There are two systems of general ranks used worldwide. In addition there is a system, the Arab system of ranks. Variations of one form, the old European system, were used throughout Europe. It is used in the United Kingdom, from which it spread to the Commonwealth. The other is derived from the French Revolution, where ranks are named according to the unit they command. The system used either a general or a colonel general rank. The rank of marshal was used by some countries as the highest rank. Many countries actually used two brigade command ranks, which is why some countries now use two stars as their brigade general insignia, mexico and Argentina still use two brigade command ranks. As a lieutenant outranks a sergeant major, confusion arises because a lieutenant is outranked by a major. Originally the serjeant major was, exclusively, the commander of the infantry, junior only to the captain general, the distinction of serjeant major general only applied after serjeant majors were introduced as a rank of field officer. Serjeant was eventually dropped from both titles, creating the modern rank titles
2.
Knyaz
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The female form transliterated from Bulgarian and Russian is knyaginya, kniahynia in Ukrainian, kneginja in Slovene, Croatian and Serbian. In Russian, the daughter of a knyaz is knyazhna, in Ukrainian is kniazivna, in Russian, the son of a knyaz is knyazhich. The title is pronounced and written similarly in different European languages, in Croatian, Bosnian and West Slavic languages, such as Polish, the word has later come to denote lord, and in Czech, Polish and Slovak also came to mean priest as well as duke. In Sorbian it means simply Mister, today the term knez is still used as the most common translation of prince in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian literature. Knez is also found as a surname in former Yugoslavia, in Finnish knyaz is translated more like the word ruhtinas. Ruhtinas comes from Proto-Germanic word druhtinaz, what can be translated as warlord, in Finland tsar was officially called as suuriruhtinas after the Grand Principality of Finland. Suuriruhtinas in English means grand prince, in Russian velikiy knyaz, the meaning of the term changed over the course of history. Initially the term was used to denote the chieftain of a tribe, later, with the development of feudal statehood, it became the title of a ruler of a state, and among East Slavs, for example, of Kievan Rus. In medieval Latin sources the title was rendered as either rex or dux, in Bulgaria, Simeon took the title of tsar in 913. In Kievan Rus, as the degree of centralization grew, the acquired the title Velikii Knyaz. He ruled a Velikoe Knyazivstvo, while a ruler of its vassal constituent was called udelny knyaz or simply knyaz, as noted above, the title knyaz or kniaz became a hereditary noble title in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Following the union of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, notable holders of the title kniaź include Jeremi Wiśniowiecki. As the Tsardom of Russia gained dominion over much of former Kievan Rus, from the mid-18th century onwards, the title Velikii Kniaz was revived to refer to sons and grandsons of Russian Emperors. See titles for Tsars family for details, Kniaz continued as a hereditary title of Russian nobility patrilineally descended from Rurik or Gediminas. Members of Rurikid or Gedyminid families were called princes when they ruled tiny quasi-sovereign medieval principalities, after their demesnes were absorbed by Muscovy, they settled at the Moscow court and were authorised to continue with their princely titles. After 1801, with the incorporation of Georgia into the Russian Empire, similarly, many petty Tatar nobles asserted their right to style themselves kniazes because they descended from Genghis Khan. See also Velikiy Knyaz article for more details, finally, within the Russian Empire of 1809-1917, Finland was officially called Grand Principality of Finland. In the 19th century, the Serbian term knez and the Bulgarian term knyaz were revived to denote semi-independent rulers of countries, such as Alexander Karađorđević
3.
George Dawe
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George Dawe RA was an English portraitist who painted 329 portraits of Russian generals active during Napoleons invasion of Russia for the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace. He relocated to Saint Petersburg in 1819, where he won acclaim for his work from the artistic establishment and he was the son of Philip Dawe, a successful mezzotint engraver who also produced political cartoons relating to the events of the Boston Tea Party. One of his brothers was Henry Edward Dawe, also a portraitist, George Dawe was born on 6 February 1781 to Philip Dawe and Jane in Brewer Street, in the parish of St Jamess. Philip was an artist and engraver in mezzotint who had worked with Hogarth, George was the first child born to the couple and there would be other successful artists in the family. Dawe was baptised on 25 February 1781 at St James Church in Piccadilly and he originally trained with his father as an engraver and became very accomplished from an early age. He later became interested in painting and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Arts. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1809. He collected old masters and studied modern and classical languages, philosophy and he enjoyed the patronage of the Duke and Duchess of Kent and also that of Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold. In 1819 he travelled with the Duke of Kent through Europe and he became a celebrity throughout Europe and mixed with the Russian intellectual elite. Among others he met and knew were Pushkin who wrote a poem about him entitled To Dawe Esq, in 1826 Nicholas I invited him to his coronation ceremony and in 1828 he was officially appointed First Portrait Painter of the Imperial Court. Dawe returned to England in 1828 and stayed for several months, during this time he exhibited many of his recent works and George IV was among those to whom they were privately shown. He returned to St Petersburg in 1829 but soon became increasingly unwell with breathing difficulties following a serious cold and he had had pulmonary weakness throughout life following childhood illness. He returned to London in August 1829 and died on 15 October at the home of his brother-in-law, Thomas Wright and he was buried in the crypt of St Pauls Cathedral and his funeral was attended by many artists and officials from the Russian embassy. The significant body of work he created in Russia is currently housed in the gallery in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Many of his paintings are included in the British Royal Collection. Despite the international celebrity he enjoyed in his own lifetime his popularity did not endure in England, although in Russia he is still well-known and held in high regard
4.
Kizlyar
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As of the 2010 Census, its population was 48,984. The first reference to Kizlyar dates back to 1609, although some historians associate the place with Samandar, in 1735, the Russian government built a fortress in Kizlyar and laid foundations for the Caucasus fortified borderline. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Kizlyar was one of the posts between Russia and the Middle East and Central Asia. During this period, the population was largely Armenian and Russian, in 1796, there were 2,800 Armenians and 1,000 Russians living in Kizlyar. In January 1996, the airbase was raided by the Chechen separatists in the course of the Kizlyar raid. Within the framework of administrative divisions, Kizlyar serves as the center of Kizlyarsky District. As a municipal division, the Town of Kizlyar is incorporated as Kizlyar Urban Okrug, the local cognac factory produces a variety of alcoholic beverages but specializes primarily in a regional variant of brandy, marketed throughout Russia as cognac. Kizlyarka is a type of vodka produced in Kizlyar. Kizlyar is also known for traditional knife, dagger, and saber making, Закон №16 от10 апреля2002 г. «Об административно-территориальном устройстве Республики Дагестан», в ред, Закона №106 от30 декабря2013 г. «О внесении изменений в некоторые законодательные акты Республики Дагестан», Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован, Дагестанская правда, №81,12 апреля2002 г, Закон №6 от13 января2005 г. «О статусе и границах муниципальных образований Республики Дагестан», в ред, Закона №43 от30 апреля2015 г. Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования, Опубликован, Дагестанская правда, №8,15 февраля2005 г
5.
Tbilisi
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Tbilisi, commonly known by its former name Tiflis, is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of roughly 1.5 million inhabitants. Founded in the 5th century by the monarch of Georgias ancient precursor the Kingdom of Iberia, Tbilisi has since served, with intermissions, as the capital of various Georgian kingdoms and republics. Under Russian rule, from 1801 to 1917 Tiflis was the seat of the Imperial Viceroy governing both sides of the entire Caucasus. Tbilisis varied history is reflected in its architecture, which is a mix of medieval, classical, Middle Eastern, Art Nouveau, historically, Tbilisi has been home to people of diverse cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, though it is overwhelmingly Eastern Orthodox Christian. Archaeological studies of the region have indicated human settlement in the territory of Tbilisi as early as the 4th millennium BC, according to an old legend, the present-day territory of Tbilisi was covered by forests as late as 458. One widely accepted variant of the legend of Tbilisis founding states that King Vakhtang I Gorgasali of Georgia went hunting in the wooded region with a falcon. The Kings falcon allegedly caught or injured a pheasant during the hunt, King Vakhtang became so impressed with the hot springs that he decided to cut down the forest and build a city on the location. The name Tbilisi derives from Old Georgian Tbilisi, and further from Tpili, the name Tbili or Tbilisi was therefore given to the city because of the areas numerous sulphuric hot springs that came out of the ground. King Dachi I Ujarmeli, who was the successor of Vakhtang I Gorgasali, Tbilisi was not the capital of a unified Georgian state at that time and did not include the territory of Colchis. It was, however, the city of Eastern Georgia/Iberia. During his reign, King Dachi I oversaw the construction of the wall that lined the citys new boundaries. From the 6th century, Tbilisi grew at a steady pace due to the favourable and strategic location which placed the city along important trade. Tbilisis favourable and strategic location did not necessarily bode well for its existence as Eastern Georgias/Iberias capital, in the year 627, Tbilisi was sacked by the Byzantine/Khazar armies and later, in 736–738, Arab armies entered the town under Marwan II Ibn-Muhammad. After this point, the Arabs established an emirate centered in Tbilisi, in 764, Tbilisi, still under Arab control was once again sacked by the Khazars. In 853, the armies of Arab leader Bugha Al-Turki invaded Tbilisi in order to enforce its return to Abbasid allegiance, the Arab domination of Tbilisi continued until about 1050. In 1068, the city was again sacked, only this time by the Seljuk Turks under Sultan Alp Arslan. In 1122, after fighting with the Seljuks that involved at least 60,000 Georgians and up to 300,000 Turks. After the battles for Tbilisi concluded, David moved his residence from Kutaisi to Tbilisi, making it the capital of a unified Georgian State, from 12–13th centuries, Tbilisi became a dominant regional power with a thriving economy and a well-established social system/structure
6.
Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti
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By the 1790s, a new strong Iranian dynasty had emerged under Agha Mohammad Khan, who founded the Qajar dynasty of Iran, which would prove pivotal in the history of the short-lived kingdom. In the next few years, having secured mainland Iran, the new Iranian king straightly set out to reconquer the Caucasus, following the Russo-Persian War, Iran officially ceded the kingdom to Russia, marking the start of a Russian-centred chapter in Georgian history. Historically, Kartli was the dominant province in Georgia, but at that time, therefore, the Kings of Kakheti became the rulers of the new kingdom and Telavi, the capital of Kakheti, the capital of the new state. The unification did not deter the Persian Empire, now under the Qajar dynasty, from bringing it back within the Iranian domains. However, despite these large concessions made to Russia, Erekle II was successful in retaining internal autonomy in his kingdom. Following the death of Nader Shah, the kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti had broken free from Iranian rule, between 1747 and 1795, Erekle was therefore, by the turn of events in Iran following the ongoing turmoil there, able to maintain Georgias autonomy through the Zand period. In 1783, Heraclius placed his kingdom under the protection of the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Georgievsk. In the last few decades of the 18th century, Georgia had become an important element in Russo-Iranian relations than some provinces in northern mainland Iran. On top of that, having another port on the Georgian coast of the Black Sea would be ideal, the consequences of these events came a few years later, when a new dynasty, the Qajars, emerged victorious in the protracted power struggle in Iran. Qajar shah, Agha Mohammad Khan, as his first objective, for Agha Mohammah Khan, the re-subjugation and reintegration of Georgia into the Iranian Empire was part of the same process that had brought Shiraz, Esfahan, and Tabriz under his rule. He him, like to the Safavids and Nader Shah before him, as the Cambridge History of Iran states, its permanent secession was inconceivable and had to be resisted in the same way as one would resist an attempt at the separation of Fars or Gilan. The Ottomans, Irans neighboring rival, recognized the rights over Kartli. Nevertheless, Heraclius II still rejected the shah’s ultimatum. Petersburg, with half of the troops Agha Mohammad Khan crossed the Aras river. He now marched directly upon Tbilisi, where it commenced into a battle between the Iranian and Georgian armies. Erekle had managed to mobilize some 5,000 troops, including some 2,000 from neighboring Imereti under its King Solomon II, the Georgians, hopelessly outnumbered, were eventually defeated despite stiff resistance. In a few hours, the Iranian king Agha Mohammad Khan was in control of the Georgian capital. The Persian army marched back laden with spoil and carrying off thousands of captives, by this, after the conquest of Tbilisi and being in effective control of eastern Georgia, Agha Mohammad was formally crowned Shah in 1796 in the Mughan plain. As the Cambridge History of Iran notes, Russias client, Georgia, had been punished, Heraclius II returned to Tbilisi to rebuild the city, but the destruction of his capital was a death blow to his hopes and projects
7.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
8.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
9.
Imperial Russian Army
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The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of more than 900,000 regular soldiers, the last living veteran of the Russian Imperial Army was the Ukrainian supercentenarian Mikhail Krichevsky, who died in 2008. Russian tsars before Peter maintained professional hereditary musketeer corps, known as streltsy and these were originally raised by Tsar Ivan IV, originally an effective force, they had become highly unreliable and undisciplined. In times of war the forces were augmented by peasants. There were different kinds of regiments, such as regulars, dragoons, in 1631, the Russians created two regular regiments in Moscow. During the Russo-Polish War of 1632–1634, six regular regiments, one reiter regiment. Initially, they recruited children of the boyars and streltsy, volunteers, Cossacks. After the war with Poland, all of the regiments were disbanded, during another Russo-Polish War, they were created again and became a principal force of the Russian army. Often, regular and dragoon regiments were manned with datochniye lyudi for lifelong military service, reiters were manned with small or landless gentry and boyars children and were paid with money for their service. More than a half of the officers were representatives from the gentry. In times of peace, some of the regiments were usually disbanded, in 1681, there were 33 regular regiments and 25 dragoon and reiter regiments. In the late 17th century, regiments of the new type represented more than a half of the Russian Army, Conscription in Russia was introduced by Peter I of Russia in December 1699, though reports say Peters father also used it. Conscription of peasants and townspeople was based on system, per settlement. Initially it was based on the number of households, later it was based on the population numbers, the term of service in the 18th century was for life. In 1793 it was reduced to 25 years, in 1834, it was reduced to 20 years plus five years in the reserve, and in 1855 to 12 years plus three years in the reserve. The history of the Russian army in this era was linked to the name of Russian General Alexander Suvorov, considered one of a few great generals in history who never lost a battle. From 1777 to 1783 Suvorov served in the Crimea and in the Caucasus, becoming a lieutenant-general in 1780, from 1787 to 1791 he again fought the Turks during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 and won many victories. Suvorovs leadership also played a key role in a Russian victory over the Poles during the Kościuszko Uprising, furthermore, many lower-level officers were poorly trained and had difficulty getting their men to perform the sometimes complex manoeuvres required in a battle
10.
Russo-Circassian War
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Although the conquest of the Caucasus started at least as early as the Russo-Persian Wars, the term Caucasian War commonly refers only to the period 1817–1864. Those who use the term Russian–Circassian War take its starting date as 1763, the Caucasian War ended with the signing of loyalty oaths by Circassian leaders on 2 June 1864. Different smaller numbers ended up in neighbouring Persia, various Russian, Caucasus, and Western historians agree on the figure of ca.500,000 inhabitants of the highland Caucasus being deported by Russia in the 1860s. A large fraction of them died in transit from disease, some of those that remained loyal to Russia were settled into the lowlands, the left-bank of the Kuban River. Circassia refers to a region the majority of inhabitants before the 1860s were the Adygey ethnic group. The Circassians were never politically united for a long period, the western bulk of Circassia, they belonged to any of about ten tribes, living in communities headed by chieftains. In the east of Circassia were two feudal polities, Greater Kabardá and Lesser Kabardá, in this period of history, the Circassians were Christians, Islam did not begin to penetrate Circassia until the following century. The Russo-Circassian War was the phase of the Caucasus War during which Russia gained control of the free mountaineers of the Caucasus mountains. The eastern phase was the Murid War, for background see Russian conquest of the Caucasus. There does not appear to be a history of this war in any language. The best in English are Richmond and Henze, fighting, There were no great battles or campaigns. The war consisted of hundreds of raids and counter-raids. Both sides would drive away livestock and steal what they could, the Russians specialized in burning villages. In many cases a tribe or faction would make a nominal submission, groups of Circassians would fight each other, individuals would desert to the other side and there was much trading with the enemy. Unlike the Murid War, there are, in English, no accounts of battles that would explain why the enormous Russian army could not overwhelm a few tens of thousands of disorganized mountaineers. This irregularity means either that a narrative is impossible or that the war has not yet found its historian. Russian expansion to the Kuban, The war did not have a clear beginning, instead fighting slowly increased as more and more Russians moved south. From about 1777 the Russians built a line of forts from Mozdok northwest to Azov, before 1800 the main Russian pressure was on the Kabardians near the southeast end of this diagonal
11.
Siege of Ochakov (1788)
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The Second Siege of Ochakov was one of the major events of the Russo-Turkish War. It was known as Özi Kuşatması in Turkish, in 1788, Russian forces led by Prince Grigori Potemkin and General Alexander Suvorov besieged the city, held by Ottoman troops commanded by Hasan Pasha. Despite Suvorovs urging to storm the city immediately, Potemkin had the Russian forces encircled Ochakov, bombarding the city and cutting off the supply of food. By keeping his soldiers out of battle, Potemkin minimized Russian casualties. The argument about storming continued in the Russian headquarters during the entirety of the siege, also, the Russians captured strategically important Pirezin Island on July 18,1788. The Turks made several attempts to break the siege, on July 27, about 5,000 Janissaries attacked positions held by Cossacks and forced them to retreat. Suvorov personally led reinforcements and drove the Janissaries to the gates of Ochakov, Hasan Pasha expected reinforcements from the Turkish fleet, which gathered in Limans. But after the attack of Admiral Senyavins fleet, Turkish reinforcements were cut off, the condition of both armies continued to decline, there was a threat of disease, and the weather was growing very cold. Potemkin ultimately gave in to Suvorovs arguments, on the night of December 6, the Russians attacked, and captured Hasan Pashas palace, forcing its guards to surrender. The Russians lost 956 killed and 1,829 wounded in this operation, the Russian victory was celebrated in a famous ode by Gavriil Derzhavin, and in a Te Deum by Giuseppe Sarti. Кампания1788 года - Очаковское сидение
12.
Campaigns of 1799 in the French Revolutionary Wars
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By 1799, the French Revolutionary Wars had resumed after a period of relative peace in 1798. The Second Coalition had organized against France, with Great Britain allying with Russia, Austria, the Ottoman Empire, while Napoleons army was still embroiled in Egypt, the allies prepared campaigns in Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Napoleon had consolidated his control of Egypt for the time being, soon after the beginning of the year, he mounted an invasion of Syria, capturing El Arish and Jaffa. On 17 March, he laid siege to Acre, and defeated an Ottoman effort to relieve the city at the Battle of Mount Tabor on 17 April. However, his assaults on Acre were driven back by Ottoman and British forces under the command of Jezzar Pasha. By May, with plague rampant in his army and no sign of success against the city, in July, Turkey, with the help of the British navy, mounted an invasion by sea from Rhodes. Napoleon attacked the Turkish beachheads and annihilated their army at Aboukir, in August, Napoleon decided to return to Europe, hearing of the political and military crisis in France. Leaving his army behind with Kléber in command, he sailed through the British blockade to return to Paris, in August, the allies mounted an invasion of the Netherlands with a combined Anglo-Russian army under the Duke of York, who landed at the northern tip of Holland. This army fought a series of battles ending in the defeat at Castricum on 6 October and that town passed from British-Russian to Batavian-French hands several times until the former finally fled, losing 2536 men and 11 guns, the Batavian-French losses stood at 1382. The Battle of Castricum persuaded the Duke that his position was untenable, after a chaotic retreat, in which two field hospitals were forgotten, he reached an agreement with the French commander, Brune. The British and Russians were allowed to withdraw, without paying reparations, as thanks, Brune received a number of magnificent horses from the Duke. By 19 November all the British and Russian troops had been embarked, by January, the French army had pursued the Neapolitan army from Rome to Naples, taking the capital. French general Schérer attacked the Austrian army under Kray, but was defeated at Magnano near Verona on 5 April. Russian general Suvorov, taking over the campaign, pursued the French to Cassano, defeating them and recapturing Milan. In June, Suvorov won the Battle of Trebbia against an army under MacDonald, pushing the French back into the Alps. Gen. Moreau was briefly appointed to command the French forces, followed quickly by General Joubert, who was defeated at Novi. Joubert was killed there amongst the French skirmishers while reconnoitering the enemy lines, by the end of the year, French forces had almost been driven from Italy and Suvorov was ordered to Switzerland. The French offensive relied on coordinated attacks by the Army of the Danube, the Army of Mayence, and the Army of the North
13.
Finnish War
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The Finnish War was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from February 1808 to September 1809. As a result of the war, the third of Sweden was established as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. Other notable effects were the Swedish parliaments adoption of a new constitution and the establishment of the House of Bernadotte, the king, who viewed Napoleon as the Antichrist and Britain as his ally against Napoleons France, was apprehensive of the systems ruinous consequences for Swedens maritime commerce. He instead entered into negotiations with Britain in order to prepare a joint attack against Denmark, in the meantime, the Royal Navy attacked Copenhagen and the Anglo-Russian War was declared. Referring to the treaties of 1780 and 1800, the emperor demanded that Gustav Adolf close the Baltic Sea to all foreign warships, King Gustav Adolf did this after securing an alliance with England on 8 February 1808. Meanwhile, on 30 December 1807 Russia announced that should Sweden not give a clear reply Russia would be forced to act, the situation was problematic for Sweden, since it once again faced both Denmark and Russia as potential enemies requiring the Swedes to split their forces. The king had thought it impossible to defend Finland should the attack during the winter. Most of the Swedish plans assumed that warfare would be impossible during winter, in addition, several new good roads had been built into Finland greatly reducing the earlier dependency on naval support for any large operation in Finland. Russia had gathered a wealth of information from Finland using spies, the level of detail was so great that Russian maps of Finland were in many respects more accurate than their Swedish counterparts. The Russians used the services of General Georg Magnus Sprengtporten when forming their plans, Sprengtporten suggested going on to an offensive during the winter since Finland would be mostly isolated when seas were frozen. His ideas were developed by General Jan Pieter van Suchtelen before General Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden was appointed as the commander of the Russian army in Finland in December 1807. The plan involved using the series of fortifications built after 1790 as staging grounds for the Russian advances into Finland, in southern Finland, armies were to isolate the fortifications and first take control of the whole of southern Finland before advancing further to the north. Forces in Savolax were to press hard against the Swedes and reach the Gulf of Bothnia towards Uleåborg, on February 21,1808,24,000 Russian troops under Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoevden crossed the border. Since Klingspor had not arrived Lieutenant General Karl Nathanael af Klercker acted as Swedish commander in Finland, before the engagement started Klingspor finally arrived on 2 March and assumed command. Instead of facing the Russians at Tavastehus he ordered the army to withdraw, in Savolax the Russians also forced the Swedes to withdraw. The king was quite unprepared for the attack, especially as war was not declared until April, about 21,000 Swedish troops were stationed in various fortresses in Finland, while the rest of his army was unable to leave southern Sweden for fear of Danish attack. On the first day of the war they had captured the town of Lovisa, borgå was captured on 24 February and Helsingfors on 2 March. Abandoned Swedish fortifications Hangö Peninsula were taken and manned on 21 March, before the end of March 1808 even Vasa was taken
14.
Napoleonic Wars
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The wars resulted from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars, which had raged on for years before concluding with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Napoleon became the First Consul of France in 1799, then Emperor five years later, inheriting the political and military struggles of the Revolution, he created a state with stable finances, a strong central bureaucracy, and a well-trained army. The British frequently financed the European coalitions intended to thwart French ambitions, by 1805, they had managed to convince the Austrians and the Russians to wage another war against France. At sea, the Royal Navy destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in October 1805, Prussian worries about increasing French power led to the formation of the Fourth Coalition in 1806. France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July, although Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, it did not bring a lasting peace for Europe. Hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia, the Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support. The Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, the Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia. Unwilling to bear the consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse and retreat of the Grand Army along with the destruction of Russian lands. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, a lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. The Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814 and he was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power. However, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again, the Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June. The Congress of Vienna, which started in 1814 and concluded in 1815, established the new borders of Europe and laid out the terms, Napoleon seized power in 1799, creating a de facto military dictatorship. The Napoleonic Wars began with the War of the Third Coalition, Kagan argues that Britain was irritated in particular by Napoleons assertion of control over Switzerland. Furthermore, Britons felt insulted when Napoleon stated that their country deserved no voice in European affairs, for its part, Russia decided that the intervention in Switzerland indicated that Napoleon was not looking toward a peaceful resolution of his differences with the other European powers. The British quickly enforced a blockade of France to starve it of resources. Napoleon responded with economic embargoes against Britain, and sought to eliminate Britains Continental allies to break the coalitions arrayed against him, the so-called Continental System formed a league of armed neutrality to disrupt the blockade and enforce free trade with France
15.
Battle of Austerlitz
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The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important and decisive engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near the town of Austerlitz in the Austrian Empire, Austerlitz brought the War of the Third Coalition to a rapid end, with the Treaty of Pressburg signed by the Austrians later in the month. The battle is cited as a tactical masterpiece, in the same league as other historic engagements like Cannae or Arbela. After eliminating an Austrian army during the Ulm Campaign, French forces managed to capture Vienna in November 1805, the Austrians avoided further conflict until the arrival of the Russians bolstered Allied numbers. Napoleon sent his army north in pursuit of the Allies, and he deployed the French army below the Pratzen Heights and deliberately weakened his right flank, enticing the Allies to launch a major assault there in the hopes of rolling up the whole French line. A forced march from Vienna by Marshal Davout and his III Corps plugged the gap left by Napoleon just in time. Meanwhile, the heavy Allied deployment against the French right weakened the allied center on the Pratzen Heights, with the Allied center demolished, the French swept through both enemy flanks and sent the Allies fleeing chaotically, capturing thousands of prisoners in the process. The Allied disaster significantly shook the faith of Emperor Francis in the British-led war effort, France and Austria agreed to an armistice immediately and the Treaty of Pressburg followed shortly after, on 26 December. Pressburg took Austria out of both the war and the Coalition while reinforcing the earlier treaties of Campo Formio and of Lunéville between the two powers, the treaty confirmed the Austrian loss of lands in Italy and Bavaria to France, and in Germany to Napoleons German allies. It also imposed an indemnity of 40 million francs on the defeated Habsburgs and allowed the fleeing Russian troops free passage through hostile territories and back to their home soil. Critically, victory at Austerlitz permitted the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine and these achievements, however, did not establish a lasting peace on the continent. Prussian worries about growing French influence in Central Europe sparked the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806, Europe had been in turmoil since the start of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792. In 1797, after five years of war, the French Republic subdued the First Coalition, an alliance of Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Spain, in March 1802, France and Britain agreed to end hostilities under the Treaty of Amiens. For the first time in ten years, all of Europe was at peace, but many problems persisted between the two sides, making implementation of the treaty increasingly difficult. The British government resented having to return the Cape Colony and most of the Dutch West Indian islands to the Batavian Republic, Napoleon was angry that British troops had not evacuated the island of Malta. The tense situation only worsened when Napoleon sent a force to crush the Haitian Revolution. In May 1803, Britain declared war on France, in December 1804, an Anglo-Swedish agreement led to the creation of the Third Coalition. Having been defeated twice in recent memory by France, and being keen on revenge, before the formation of the Third Coalition, Napoleon had assembled an invasion force, called the Armée dAngleterre around six camps at Boulogne in Northern France
16.
Battle of Eylau
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Late in the battle, the Russians received a timely reinforcement from a Prussian division of von LEstocq. The town is now called Bagrationovsk and is a part of Kaliningrad Oblast, the engagement was fought during the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Of all Napoleonic battles, this is considered to be the most uncertain, Napoleons armies previously smashed the army of the Austrian Empire in the Ulm Campaign and the combined Austrian and Russian armies at the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805. Austerlitz forced the Austrians to sue for peace and their Russian allies to withdraw from the conflict, on 14 October 1806, Napoleon crushed the armies of the Kingdom of Prussia at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. Eylau was the first serious check to the Grande Armée and the myth of Napoleons invincibility was badly shaken, however, the French would end up defeating the Russians later in the year at the Battle of Friedland. In late January, Bennigsens Russian army went on the offensive in East Prussia, Napoleon reacted by mounting a counteroffensive to the north, hoping to prevent their retreat to the east. After his cossacks captured a copy of Napoleons orders, Bennigsen rapidly withdrew to the northeast to avoid being cut off, the French pursued for several days and found the Russians drawn up for battle at Eylau. In a vicious evening clash, the French captured the village with heavy losses on both sides, the following day brought even more serious fighting. Early in the battle, an attack by Napoleon failed with catastrophic losses. To retrieve the situation, the emperor launched a cavalry charge against the Russians. This bought enough time for the French right wing to throw its weight into the contest, soon, the Russian left wing was bent back at an acute angle and Bennigsens army was in danger of collapse. A Prussian corps belatedly arrived and saved the day by pushing back the French right wing, as darkness fell, a French corps tardily appeared on the French left flank. That night Bennigsen decided to retreat, leaving Napoleon in possession of a snowy battlefield covered with thousands of corpses, with the Prussian army routed at Jena-Auerstedt, Napoléon occupied the major cities of Germany and marched on east in pursuit of the remaining forces opposed to him. These were largely Russians under the command of the frail 68-year-old Field Marshal Count Mikhail Kamensky, the old marshal was unwilling to risk battle, and continued to retreat, leaving the Grande Armée free to enter Poland almost unopposed. Nevertheless, as the French pressed aggressively eastward across the Vistula, the French seized a crossing over the Wkra on 23 December at the Battle of Czarnowo. Russian resistance soon stiffened and on 26 December the two clashed at the Battles of Pułtusk and Gołymin. After these fierce engagements Napoléons troops took up quarters in Poland to recuperate after a victorious. In January 1807, the new Russian army commander Levin August, having cleared Neys troops out of the way, the Russians rolled down on the isolated French I Corps under Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte
17.
Battle of Heilsberg
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The Battle of Heilsberg took place on 10 June 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. On 24 May 1807, the Siege of Danzig ended when Prussian General Friedrich Adolf, with Danzig secured, Napoleon was now free to turn against Bennigsens army. Yet it was the Russian who struck first when he ordered his columns to converge on Marshal Michel Neys exposed VI Corps on 2 June. Outnumbered 63,000 to 17,000, Ney fought a brilliant rear guard action at the Battle of Guttstadt-Deppen on 5 and 6 June. Within two days, Napoleon ordered his 190, 000-man army to close in on the 100,000 Russians and 15,000 Prussians, detecting the approaching avalanche, Bennigsen ordered his troops to retreat on Lidzbark Warmiński. The Russian army took up defensive positions around the town. The French army, under Marshals Murat and Lannes, attacked on 10 June, Bennigsen repelled several attacks, resulting in huge French casualties, but had to withdraw towards Friedland the following day. Four days later, the decisive Battle of Friedland occurred, ending the War of the Fourth Coalition with the passing of the Treaty of Tilsit, the Battle of Heilsberg was fought on the Alle river, known today as the Lyna. The Teutonic Castle being the point of the battle was held by Russian control. Defensively, the castle was supported by its bridges and walls, the land surrounding the Teutonic Castle acted as an obstacle for the French army due to the increase of elevation from the base of the river to the castles foundation. The Prussian 21st Fusiliers, commanded by Ludwig August von Stutterheim, was garrisoned there, although the terrain was punishment enough for the French, weather also took a toll on their abilities and health. During the day, on top of the weight being carried in regards to supplies and armory, temperatures reached dangerously hot, the dampness and bitter cold of the night also played a significant role by providing little opportunity for rest. The French were initially outnumbered by the Russians, and knowing this, at the beginning of the battle, French army men were separating amongst their own divisions. This tactic was thought to help block Russian sights in terms of all the French positioning and flanking, although the woods surrounding the French had provided a perimeter of camouflage, the shrubbery did not extend to the barren field in front of the castle. It was because of the forest density, however, that dodging the Russian artillery and infantry fire was difficult to maneuver around. In the midst of war, French cavalry leaders Murat, Soult, and Lannes had segregated their troops from the greater unit, after such separation, the smaller units within the reserves had refused orders to flank and attack stronger sides of the Russian armies. This was partly because orders being issued by reserves of the infantry, rather than Marshalls. Despite both sides losing a significant number of men, each refused to withdrawal their armies and this truce was signaled when both sides focused solely on the health of wounded soldiers rather than that of offensive tactics
18.
Battle of Friedland
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Napoleon and the French obtained a decisive victory that routed much of the Russian army, which retreated chaotically over the Alle River by the end of the fighting. The battlefield is located in modern-day Kaliningrad Oblast, near the town of Pravdinsk, the engagement at Friedland was a strategic necessity after the Battle of Eylau earlier in 1807 had failed to yield a decisive verdict for either side. The battle began when Bennigsen noticed the seemingly isolated corps of Marshal Lannes at the town of Friedland, Lannes held his ground against determined Russian attacks until Napoleon could bring additional forces onto the field. By late afternoon, the French had amassed a force of 80,000 troops on the battlefield, relying on superior numbers, Napoleon concluded that the moment had come and ordered a massive assault against the Russian left flank. The sustained French attack pushed back the Russian army and pressed them against the river behind, unable to withstand the pressure, the Russians broke and started escaping across the Alle, where an unknown number of them died from drowning. The Russian army suffered casualties at Friedland–losing over 40% of its soldiers on the battlefield. Napoleons overwhelming victory was enough to convince the Russian political establishment that peace was necessary, Friedland effectively ended the War of the Fourth Coalition, as Emperor Alexander I reluctantly entered peace negotiations with Napoleon. The lands lost by Prussia were converted into the new Kingdom of Westphalia, Tilsit also gave France control of the Ionian Islands, a vital and strategic entry point into the Mediterranean Sea. Some historians regard the political settlements at Tilsit as the height of Napoleons empire because there was no longer any continental power challenging the French domination of Europe, prior to Friedland, Europe had become embroiled in the War of the Third Coalition in 1805. Following the French victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in December 1805, franco-Prussian tensions gradually increased after Austerlitz. Napoleon insisted that Prussia should join his economic blockade of Great Britain and this adversely affected the German merchant class. Napoleon aimed to win the war by destroying the Prussian armies before the Russians could arrive,180,000 French troops began to cross the Franconian forest on October 2,1806, deployed in a bataillon-carré system designed to meet threats from any possible direction. On October 14 the French won decisively at the large double-battle of Jena-Auerstedt, a famous pursuit followed, and by the end of the campaign the Prussians had lost 25,000 killed and wounded,140,000 prisoners, and more than 2,000 cannon. A few Prussian units managed to cross the Oder River into Poland, Russia now had to face France alone. By November 18 French forces under Louis Nicolas Davout had covered half the distance to Warsaw, Augereaus men had neared Bromberg, when the French arrived in Poland, the local people hailed them as liberators. The Russian general Bennigsen worried that French forces might cut him off from Buxhoevdens army, so he abandoned Warsaw, on November 28,1806, French troops under Murat entered Warsaw. The French pursued the fleeing Russians and a significant battle developed around Pułtusk on December 26. The result remained in doubt, but Bennigsen wrote to the Tsar that he had defeated 60,000 French troops, at this point, Marshal Ney began to extend his forces to procure food supplies
19.
Battle of Saltanovka
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The Battle of Saltanovka was a battle of the 1812 French invasion of Russia. The Russian 2nd Army, led by General Pyotr Bagration aimed to join the main Russian army under Barclay de Tolly after the French forces took Mogilev and blocked the Dnieper river crossing. Bagration sent General Nikolay Raevsky against 5 French divisions led by Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout, meanwhile, the Russians had deployed around 20,000 troops but engaged only a single corps, the 7th corps under Nikolay Raevsky. Davout was able to repulse the Russian attackers throughout his line, despite the determination of Rayevskis men, the French then launched a counterattack and pursued the Russians for about a league. The battle prevented Bagration from joining the main Russian army under Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly at Vitebsk, the Russians losses were 2,548 men killed and wounded, although Marshal Davout officially declared that they lost 1,200 dead and 4,000 wounded
20.
Battle of Smolensk (1812)
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Napoleon attacked Smolensk occupied by Russian General Bagrations corps and captured two of the suburbs. During the night the Russians evacuated the burning city, the Battle of Smolensk is commemorated on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw, with the inscription SMOLENSK17 VIII1812. Initially the Russians employed hit and run tactics against the Grande Armée, Napoleon therefore devised the Smolensk Manoeuvre in an attempt to sweep behind the enemy and inflict a decisive defeat. On August 14,1812 forces under the command of Joachim Murat, Marshal Davout, and Michel Ney crossed the Dnieper River at Rassna using bridges constructed overnight. The plan was to race toward the city, taking it without a fight, unfortunately for the French, conflicting orders and a breakdown in communication had already led Bagration to disobey orders and instead of marching west, he occupied Smolensk to the south. By August 16, French forces found the city heavily garrisoned by Bagrations troops, further reinforced with the subsequent arrival of Barclay and the main Russian army. Smolensk, a fortress city of 12,600 inhabitants on the main Western invasion route to Moscow was defended by bastion towers. The River Dnieper ran through the middle, the main battle was fought on August 16. An initial probing force captured two suburbs but failed to bring the Russians out to battle, Napoleon ordered a general assault with three corps of the Grande Armée, supported by two hundred artillery pieces. By nightfall, most of the city was burning, estimates of casualties vary, Alain Pigeard quotes French losses at 4,200 and Russian at 4, 000–6,000. Around dawn on August 17, Grande Armée Polish forces successfully breached the walls, Barclay retained forces on the other side of the river preventing a crossing until the night of August the 18th. The city was almost completely destroyed, technically the battle of Smolensk was a victory for Napoleon as he captured the city. However his soldiers were running short of food and its destruction denied him a useful supply base. Napoleons invasion of Russia Battle of Smolensk Jean-Victor Poncelet Color Map of the Battle of Smolensk in 1812
21.
Battle of Borodino
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The Battle of Borodino was a battle fought on 7 September 1812 in the Napoleonic Wars during the French invasion of Russia. The fighting involved around 250,000 troops and left at least 70,000 casualties, Napoleons Grande Armée launched an attack against the Russian army, driving it back from its initial positions but failing to gain a decisive victory. Both armies were exhausted after the battle and the Russians withdrew from the field the following day, Borodino represented the last Russian effort at stopping the French advance on Moscow, which fell a week later. After a series of Russian retreats at the beginning of the campaign, Mikhail Kutuzov was appointed as his replacement. In a final attempt to save Moscow, the Russians made a stand near the village of Borodino and they fortified their positions and waited for the French to attack. The Russian right wing occupied ideal defensive terrain, so the French tried to press the Russian left for much of the battle, the highlight of the fighting became the bloody struggle for the large Raevsky redoubt near the village of Borodino. The French managed to capture this redoubt late into the day, the Russians suffered terrible casualties during the fighting, losing over a third of their army. French losses were heavy, exacerbating the logistical difficulties that Napoleon encountered in the campaign. Napoleons Imperial Guard, the unit on the battlefield that saw no fighting, was available to swing into action at a moments notice. In refusing to commit the Guard, some believe, he lost his one chance to destroy the Russian army. The capture of Moscow proved a pyrrhic victory since the Russians had no intention of negotiating with Napoleon for peace. The French evacuated Russias spiritual capital in October and conducted a retreat that only ended in December. Historical reports of the battle differed significantly depending on whether they originated from supporters of the French or Russian side, factional fighting among senior officers within each army also led to conflicting accounts and disagreements over the roles of particular officers. The French Grande Armée began its invasion of Russia on 16 June 1812, in response, Emperor Alexander I proclaimed a Patriotic War and prepared to face the French. However, Phulls plan soon proved to be a mistake, as the enormous Grande Armée was more than enough to separate. Furthermore, the participation of Tsar Alexander I as commander caused more chaos in the Russian army, the Russian forces which were massed along the Polish frontier were obliged to fall back in the face of the swift French advance. Napoleon advanced from Vitebsk, hoping to catch the Russian Army in the open where he could annihilate it, the French army was not positioned well for an extended overland campaign, it was 925 km from its nearest supply base at Kovno. French supply lines were vulnerable and Cossacks, light cavalry, guerrilla forces and even French deserters attacked and seriously depleted French supply columns
22.
Catherine Bagration
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Princess Catherine Bagration née Skavronskaya was a Russian princess, married to general Pyotr Bagration. She was known for her beauty, love affairs and unconventional behaviour and she was educated at the court of the Empress Catherine II the Great and the Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of her son Emperor Paul I, and later became a maid of honor for the Empress Maria. In 1800 the Paul I of Russia, who was known for his caprices, found out that General Pyotr Bagration. The Countess was said to be in love with Count Peter von der Pahlen, nobody however dared to argue with the monarch, and the wedding took place on 2 September in the chapel of the Gatchina Palace, near St. Petersburg. This is what General Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langéron had to say about this union, Bagration married the niece of the great Prince Potemkin. This rich and lustrous partner did not suit him, Bagration was a mere soldier, with the tone and manners of one, and he was extremely ugly. His wife was as white as he was black, and she was as beautiful as an angel, bright, in the year 1805 the Princess finally broke up with her husband and went to Europe. She traveled so extensively that she had a special carriage made, with an elegant ladder that allowed her to climb in and it had a bed inside, and all the luggage was placed on the outside. She called her carriage her dormez or sleeper, this was the time when she came to be known as the Wandering Countess, in Europe Princess Bagration was a great success, and became well known in court circles. She became notorious everywhere and was called le Bel Ange Nu because of her passion for revealing dresses, Lord Palmerston noted in his memoirs that the Princess only wore translucent Indian muslin, which adhered closely to her figure. From her mother, however, she had inherited an angelic face, alabaster skin, blue eyes. Even when she was thirty it was said she still had the skin of a fifteen-year-old. Her husband the Prince, however, refused to hear a word said against her, insisting that the affairs of his household were his business alone, she was his wife and he would stand up for her. Her huge expenditure on receptions and clothes belied her claims of sickness, the Prince even remonstrated with the Princesss mother, who had started to get irritated by her daughters extravagance. In 1808, a military Order was awarded to the wives of those generals who had distinguished themselves in the recent war. Princess Bagration was bypassed, and the pride of her husband was wounded and he argued that Ekaterina bore his name, and that was enough, She should be rewarded, because shes my wife. The Prince paid thousands of roubles for debts Princess Catherine had accumulated from living in Vienna, there were rumors about her connection with the Saxon diplomat Count Friedrich von der Schulenberg, a Prince of Württemberg, Lord Charles Stewart and others. The Prince soon died in the Battle of Saalfeld, and the princess returned once more to Vienna, the daughter even lived with the Metternich family from 1814 until getting married
23.
Ivan Aleksandrovich Bagration
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Prince Ivan Aleksandrovich Bagration, born Ivane Bagrationi, was a Georgian royal prince of the Bagrationi dynasty from House of Mukhrani. He was born in Iran and was the son of Prince Alexander of Kartli and his father moved to Russia in 1757 and was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Russian imperial army. His brother Kirill was a major-general of the Russian army and a member of the Governing Senate, Prince Ivan was a Second-Major of Russian army. He did not know the Russian language and retired very soon, the tombstone of Prince Ivan is located at Vsesvyatskoye Church in Moscow. The monument was placed on his grave personally by his son General, the monument is a fluted pyramid on a high pedestal. Tombstone of Prince Ivan repeatedly changed its position, now it is set in the north of the temple near the memorial of Reconciliation of Peoples. Tombstone of Ivan Bagration refers to the history of the monuments and is of federal significance, Prince Ivan married a woman from Georgian nobility and had three sons, Pyotr Bagration, General in the Russian Army Alexander Bagration Roman Bagration, General in the Russian Army
24.
Roman Bagration
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Prince Roman Ivanovich Bagration was a Georgian nobleman and a general in the Imperial Russian Army. A scion of the Georgian royal family Bagrationi, he was a brother of Pyotr Bagration, son of Prince Ivan Aleksandrovich Bagration. Born in Kizlyar, Dagestan, Roman Bagration enrolled in the Chuguevsk Cossack regiment as an uryadnik at the age of 13 and he saw his first action during the Persian Expedition of 1796 under Count Zubov and took part in the capture of Derbent. In 1802, he was commissioned in the Leib Guard Hussar regiment as a poruchik, Bagration was promptly recalled from Georgia, and sent to the army operating against the French in Prussia. From 1809 to 1810, he volunteered in the Danube Army and took part in the war against the Ottoman Empire, during Napoleons invasion of Russia, he served in the 3rd Western Army and fought in the battles of Kobryn, Brest, and Gorodechno. For his valor in the Battle of Bautzen, he received the rank of major general and he was then present at the sieges of Dresden, Hamburg, and Harburg. In the 1820s, he served in the Caucasus and took part in the wars against Turkey and Persia. He played a prominent role in the storming of Erivan, a Persian-held city of Armenia, in 1827 during the Russo-Persian War, in 1832, Bagration was sent to Abkhazia where he became ill of fever and died in Tiflis. He is buried at St. David Church, Tbilisi, Georgia, Prince Roman Bagration was married to Anna Semyonovna Ivanova. They had five children, Prince Pyotr, statesman, general, Princess Anna Princess Elizaveta, married to General Baron Aleksandr Belendorf
25.
Georgians
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The Georgians or Kartvelians are a nation and ethnic group who constitute a majority of the population in Georgia. Large Georgian communities are present throughout Russia, Turkey, Greece, Iran, Ukraine, United States. Georgians arose from the ancient Colchian and Iberian civilizations, there are also small Georgian Catholic and Muslim communities in Tbilisi and Adjara, as well as a significant number of irreligious Georgians. By the early 11th century they formed a unified Kingdom of Georgia and inaugurated the Georgian Golden Age and this lasted until being weakened by Mongol invasions, as well as internal divisions following the death of George V the Brilliant, the last of the great kings of Georgia. To ensure Georgias survival, in 1783 Heraclius II of Georgia forged an alliance with the Russian Empire, the Russo-Georgian alliance, however, backfired as Russia was unwilling to fulfill the terms of the treaty, proceeding to annex the troubled kingdom in 1801. Georgians briefly reasserted their independence from Russia under the First Georgian Republic from 1918-1921, Georgians call themselves Kartvelebi, their land Sakartvelo, and their language Kartuli. According to The Georgian Chronicles, the ancestor of the Kartvelian people was Kartlos, however, scholars agree that the word is derived from the Karts, the latter being one of the proto-Georgian tribes that emerged as a dominant group in ancient times. Ancient Greeks and Romans referred to western Georgians as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians, the term Georgians is derived from the country of Georgia. Starting with the Persian word gurğ/gurğān, the word was adopted in numerous other languages, including Slavic. This term itself might have established through the ancient Iranian appellation of the near-Caspian region. Scholars usually refer to them as Proto-Kartvelian tribes, the Georgian people in antiquity have been known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Colchians and Iberians. East Georgian tribes of Tibarenians-Iberians formed their kingdom in 7th century BCE, however, western Georgian tribes established the first Georgian state of Colchis before the foundation of the Iberian Kingdom in the east. According to the scholars of Georgia, the formations of these two early Georgian kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia, resulted in the consolidation and uniformity of the Georgian nation. The ancient Jewish chronicle by Josephus mentions Georgians as Iberes who were also called Thobel, diauehi in Assyrian sources and Taochi in Greek lived in the northeastern part of Anatolia, a region that was part of Georgia. This ancient tribe is considered by scholars as ancestors of the Georgians. Modern Georgians still refer to this region, which now belongs to present-day Turkey, as Tao-Klarjeti, some people there still speak the Georgian language. Colchians in the ancient western Georgian Kingdom of Colchis were another proto-Georgian tribed and they are first mentioned in the Assyrian annals of Tiglath-Pileser I and in the annals of Urartian king Sarduri II, and are also included western Georgian tribe of the Meskhetians. Iberians, also known as Tiberians or Tiberanians, lived in the eastern Georgian Kingdom of Iberia, both Colchians and Iberians played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the modern Georgian nation
26.
Bagrationi dynasty
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The Bagrationi dynasty is a royal family that reigned in Georgia from the Middle Ages until the early 19th century, being among the oldest extant Christian ruling dynasties in the world. In modern usage, this line is often referred to as the Georgian Bagratids. The common origin with the Armenian Bagratuni dynasty has been accepted by scholars, the family, in the person of Ashot I, the great-grandson of the presiding prince of Armenia Ashot III Bagratuni, gained the principate of Iberia at the end of the 8th century. His descendants restored, in 888, the Georgian monarchy and united various native polities into the Kingdom of Georgia, which prospered from the 11th to the 13th century. This period of time, particularly the reigns of David IV the Builder, the dynasty persisted within the Russian Empire as an Imperial Russian noble family until the 1917 February Revolution. The earliest Georgian forms of the name are Bagratoniani, Bagratuniani and Bagratovani. These names as well as the Armenian Bagratuni and the modern designation Bagratid mean the children of Bagrat or the house of/established by Bagrat. A successor, Guaram, was installed as a prince of Kartli under the Byzantine protectorate. Thus, according to version, began the dynasty of the Bagratids. This tradition enjoyed a general acceptance until the early 20th century, the Jewish origin, let alone the biblical descent, of the Bagratids has been discounted by modern scholarship. Adarnase’s son, Ashot I, acquired the principality of Kartli in 813, although certain, the generation-by-generation history of the Bagrationi dynasty begins only in the late 8th century. The Odzrkhe line, known in the annals as the Bivritianis. They cannot, however, be considered the ancestors of the later Bagratids who eventually restored Georgian royal authority. In 813, the new dynasty acquired, with Ashot I, despite the revitalization of the monarchy, Georgian lands remained divided among rival authorities, with Tbilisi remaining in Arab hands. The sons and grandsons of Ashot I established three separate branches – the lines of Kartli, Tao, and Klarjeti – frequently struggling with each other, the Kartli line prevailed, in 888, with Adarnase I, it restored the indigenous Georgian royal authority dormant since 580. In spite of repeated incidents of dynastic strife, the continued to prosper during the reigns of Demetrios I, George III. With the death of George III the main line became extinct. The invasions by the Khwarezmians in 1225 and the Mongols in 1236 terminated Georgia’s golden age, the struggle against the Mongol rule created a dyarchy, with an ambitious lateral branch of the Bagrationi dynasty holding sway over western Georgia
27.
Italian and Swiss expedition
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Although by 1799 he was nearly seventy years old, Suvorov was one of the great soldiers of the age. He had won no fewer than sixty-three battles in the course of his military career. He was only recalled after the Austrians specifically requested that he be appointed to command the combined Austro-Russian army to fight the French in Italy. Taking command on 19 April, Suvorov moved his army westwards in a march towards the Adda River. On 27 April, he defeated Jean Victor Moreau at the Battle of Cassano, soon afterward, Suvorov wrote to a Russian diplomat, The Adda is a Rubicon, and we crossed it over the bodies of our enemies. On 29 April he entered Milan, two weeks later, he moved on to Turin, having defeated Moreau yet again at Marengo. The king of Sardinia greeted him as a hero and conferred on him the rank of Prince of the House of Savoy, from Naples, General MacDonald moved north to assist Moreau in June. Marching back to the north, the indomitable soldier chased the whole French Army of Italy back towards the Riviera, Moreau was relieved of command, to be replaced by Joubert. Pushing through the Bocchetta Pass, Joubert was defeated and killed in battle with Suvorov at Novi to the north of Genoa. In 1798, Paul I gave Korsakov command of a force of 30,000 men sent to Germany to join Austria in the fight against the French Republic. At the beginning of 1799, the force was diverted to drive the French out of Switzerland, leaving Russia in May, Korsakov reached Stockach in 90 days. It was expected that Alexander Suvorovs army would join them from Italy after marching through the Alps, in the meantime, Korsakov waited near Zurich in a relaxed state of over-confidence. Korsakov then took up a position on the east of the Rhine in the Dorflingen Camp between Schaffhausen and Constance, remaining there while Masséna was left free to deal with Suvorov and he joined Suvorov’s survivors at Lindau on 18 October, and was shortly after relieved of command. Although he succeeded in rescuing his army and did not lose a battle, Suvorovs spectacular manoeuvring in Italy. He was promoted to the rank of Generalissimo, the fourth in all of Russian history and it was as a consequence of this campaign that Suvorov wrote Rules for the Conduct of Military Actions in the Mountains. He died in May 1800, having never fulfilled his greatest ambition – to meet Napoleon on the battlefield, a detailed account of the campaign was published in five volumes by Dmitry Milyutin in 1852–53. Suvorov remains vividly remembered in the parts of the Swiss Alps his army passed through, even though his famished troops plundered the countryside bare and his campaign was ultimately fruitless, the general is venerated as a liberator from the occupying French. Plaques adorn nearly every spot where he ate or slept in the Alps, chairs, a life-size equestrian statue was unveiled in 1999 on the St. Gotthard Pass
28.
Alexander Suvorov
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Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov was a Russian military leader and considered a national hero. He was the Count of Rymnik, Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Prince of Italy, Suvorov was born in Moscow in 1729. He studied military history as a boy and joined the Imperial Russian Army at the age of 17. During the Seven Years War he was promoted to colonel in 1762 for his success on the battlefield, when war broke out with the Bar Confederation in 1768, Suvorov captured Krakow and defeated the Poles at Lanckorona and Stołowicze, bringing about the start of the Partitions of Poland. He was promoted to general and next fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, becoming the General of the Infantry in 1786, he commanded in the Russo–Turkish War of 1787–1792 and won crushing victories at the Battle of Rymnik and Siege of Izmail. For his accomplishments, he was made a Count of both the Russian Empire and Holy Roman Empire, Suvorov put down a Polish uprising in 1794, defeating them at the Battle of Maciejowice and storming Warsaw. While a close associate of Empress Catherine the Great, Suvorov often quarreled with her son, after Catherine died of a stroke in 1796, Paul I was crowned Emperor and dismissed Suvorov for disregarding his orders. However, he was forced to reinstate Suvorov and make him a marshal at the insistence of the coalition allies for the French Revolutionary Wars. Suvorov was given command of the Austro-Russian army, captured Milan, and drove the French out of Italy at the Battles of Cassano dAdda, Trebbia, Suvorov was made a Prince of Italy for his deeds. Afterwards he became surrounded in the Swiss Alps by the French after a Russian army he was supposed to unite with was routed before he could arrive and he died in 1800 of illness in Saint Petersburg. Suvorov is considered one of the greatest Russian commanders and he was awarded numerous medals, titles, and honors by Russia, as well as by other countries. Suvorov secured Russia expanded borders, renewed military prestige, and a legacy of theories on warfare and he was famed for his military manual The Science of Victory and noted for several of his sayings. Several military academies, monuments, villages, museums, and orders are dedicated to him, Suvorov was born into a noble family originating from Novgorod at the Moscow mansion of his maternal grandfather Fedosey Manukov. His father, Vasiliy Suvorov, was a general-in-chief and a senator in the Governing Senate and his paternal ancestors had emigrated from Sweden in 1622. His mother, Avdotya Fyodorovna née Manukova, was the daughter of Fedosey Manukov, the name Manukov might be a russified version of the Armenian name Manukian. Still Armenian heritage of Suvorov is considered an unproven legend, there is no academic research or source in Russia that can confirm or deny the origin of Suvorovs paternal or maternal ancestors. There are some claims that he told the Swedish ambassador to Russia in 1791 that his family came from Sweden. Those statements are not reliable due the unknown context of discussion, as a boy, Suvorov was a sickly child and his father assumed he would work in civil service as an adult
29.
Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
30.
Battle of Ulm
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In 1805, the United Kingdom, the Austrian Empire, Sweden, and the Russian Empire formed the Third Coalition to overthrow the French Empire. When Bavaria sided with Napoleon, the Austrians,72,000 strong under Mack, the Austrians expected the main battles of the war to take place in northern Italy, not Germany, and intended only to protect the Alps from French forces. A popular but apocryphal legend has it that the Austrians used the Gregorian calendar and this meant that their dates did not correspond, and the Austrians were brought into conflict with the French before the Russians could come into line. This simple but implausible explanation for the Russian army being far behind the Austrian is dismissed by scholar Frederick Kagan as a bizarre myth, Napoleon had 177,000 troops of the Grande Armée at Boulogne, ready to invade England. They marched south on August 27 and by September 24 were ready to cross the Rhine from Mannheim to Strasbourg, after crossing the Rhine, the greater part of the French army made a gigantic right wheel so that its corps reached the Danube simultaneously, facing south. On October 7, Mack learned that Napoleon planned to cross the Danube and he accordingly changed front, placing his left at Ulm and his right at Rain, but the French went on and crossed the Danube at Neuburg, Donauwörth, and Ingolstadt. Unable to stop the French avalanche, Michael von Kienmayers Austrian corps abandoned its positions along the river, on 8 October 1805, Franz Auffenbergs division was cut to pieces by Joachim Murats Cavalry Corps and Jean Lannes V Corps at the Battle of Wertingen. The following day, Mack attempted to cross the Danube and move north and he was defeated in the Battle of Günzburg by Jean-Pierre Firmin Malhers division of Michel Neys VI Corps which was still operating on the north bank. During the action, the French seized a bridgehead on the south bank, after first withdrawing to Ulm, Mack tried to break out to the north. His army was blocked by Pierre Dupont de lEtangs VI Corps division, by the 11th, Napoleons corps were spread out in a wide net to snare Macks army. Nicolas Soults IV Corps reached Landsberg am Lech and turned east to cut off Mack from the Tyrol, jean-Baptiste Bernadottes I Corps and Louis Nicolas Davouts III Corps converged on Munich. Auguste Marmonts II Corps was at Augsburg, murat, Ney, Lannes, and the Imperial Guard began closing in on Ulm. Mack ordered the corps of Franz von Werneck to march northeast, the Austrian commander sent Franz Jellacics corps south toward the Tyrol and held the remainder of his army at Ulm. On 14 October, Ney crushed Rieschs small corps at the Battle of Elchingen, murat detected Wernecks force and raced in pursuit with his cavalry. Over the next few days, Wernecks corps was overwhelmed in a series of actions at Langenau, Herbrechtingen, Nördlingen, on 18 October he surrendered the remainder of his troops. Only Archduke Ferdinand Karl Joseph of Austria-Este and a few other generals escaped to Bohemia with about 1,200 cavalry, meanwhile, Soult secured the surrender of 4,600 Austrians at Memmingen and swung north to box in Mack from the south. Jellacic slipped past Soult and escaped to the only to be hunted down. By 16 October, Napoleon had surrounded Macks entire army at Ulm, and three days later Mack surrendered with 25,000 men,18 generals,65 guns, some 20,000 escaped,10,000 were killed or wounded, and the rest made prisoner
31.
Mikhail Kutuzov
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Prince Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov was a Field Marshal of the Russian Empire. He served as one of the finest military officers and diplomats of Russia under the reign of three Romanov Tsars, Catherine II, Paul I and Alexander I. His military career was associated with the rising period of Russia from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. Kutuzov is considered to have one of the best Russian generals. He was born in Saint Petersburg in 1745 to a family of Novgorod nobility and his father was a Russian general and senator. Kutuzov began military schooling at age 12 and joined the Imperial Russian Army in 1759, Three years later Kutuzov became a company commander in the Astrakhan Infantry Regiment under Alexander Suvorov. He took part in crushing the Polish Bar Confederation rebellion, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 he served in the staff of Pyotr Rumyantsev at Moldova for the battles of Larga and Kagul. In July 1774 at Crimea, Kutuzov was severely wounded by a bullet went through his temple and out near his right eye. He returned to Crimea in 1776 to assist Suvorov and conducted negotiations with the last Crimean khan Girey, convincing him to abdicate, after Kutuzov became Governor-General of Crimea in 1787, the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 began. He was again wounded in 1788 during the Siege of Ochakov when a bullet was shot through both of his temples. Kutuzov came back a year later, taking part in the Battle of Rymnik, near the end of the war, he led a decisive charge at the Battle of Măcin. Kutuzov was on terms with Tsar Paul, but had disputes with his successor Tsar Alexander. In 1805, he led Russian forces alongside Austria during the Napoleonic Wars, the allied Russo-Austrian army was defeated by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz. Alexander blamed Kutuzov and demoted him to Moldova for the Russo-Turkish War of 1806–1812, Kutuzov vanquished a four-times larger Turkish army at Rousse and brought an end to the war with a decisive victory at the Battle of the Danube. For his achievements, he was awarded the titles of count, Kutuzov returned at the request of Alexander for the French invasion of Russia. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief, succeeding Barclay de Tolly and continuing his scorched earth policy up to Moscow, under Kutuzovs command, the Russian army faced the Grande Armée at the Battle of Borodino. He allowed Napoleon to take an abandoned Moscow, which was set on fire. Kutuzov counter-attacked once Napoleon retreated from Moscow, pushing the French out of the Russian homeland, in recognition of this, Kutuzov was awarded the victory title of Prince Smolensky
32.
Jean Lannes
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Jean Lannes, 1st Duc de Montebello, 1st Prince de Siewierz, was a Marshal of the Empire. He was one of Napoleons most daring and talented generals, Napoleon once commented on Lannes, I found him a pygmy and left him a giant. A personal friend of the emperor, he was allowed to him with the familiar tu. Lannes was born in the town of Lectoure, in the Gers department in the south of France. He was the son of a Gascon farmer, Jeannet Lannes, and wife Cécile Fouraignan and he served through the campaigns in the Pyrenees in 1793 and 1794, and rose by distinguished conduct to the rank of chef de brigade. However, in 1795, on the reform of the army introduced by the Thermidorians and he was distinguished in every battle. At the Battle of Bassano he captured two enemy flags with his own hands and was wounded in the Battle of the Bridge of Arcole while aiding Bonaparte to escape the Austrian advance. He was chosen by Bonaparte to accompany him to Egypt as commander in one of Klébers brigades, in which capacity he distinguished himself. He was wounded at the Battle of Abukir and he went back to France with Bonaparte, and assisted him in his 1799 coup. After Bonapartes take over and appointment as Consul of France, Lannes was promoted to the ranks of general of division, in 1801 Napoleon sent him as ambassador to Portugal. Opinions differ as to his merits in this capacity, Napoleon never made use of him again. Lannes purchased the seventeenth-century Château de Maisons, near Paris, in 1804 and had one of its state apartments redecorated for a visit from Napoleon. On the establishment of the empire he was created a Marshal of France, at Austerlitz he had the left of the Grande Armée. In the 1806-07 campaign he was at his best, commanding his corps with the greatest credit in the march through the Thuringian Forest, the action of Saalfeld and his leadership of the advanced guard at Friedland was even more prominent. In 1807, Napoleon recreated the duchy of Siewierz, and granted it to Jean Lannes, after Prussia was forced to cede all her acquisitions from the 2nd and 3rd partitions of Poland. In January 1809 he was sent to attempt the capture of Saragossa and he said, this damned Bonaparte is going to get us all killed after his last campaign in Spain. In 1808, Napoleon created him Duc de Montebello, and in 1809, for the last time and he took part in the engagements around Eckmühl and the advance on Vienna. With his corps he led the French army across the Danube, on 22 May he received a mortal wound
33.
French invasion of Russia
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Napoleon hoped to compel Tsar Alexander I of Russia to cease trading with British merchants through proxies in an effort to pressure the United Kingdom to sue for peace. The official political aim of the campaign was to liberate Poland from the threat of Russia, Napoleon named the campaign the Second Polish War to gain favor with the Poles and provide a political pretext for his actions. The Grande Armée was a large force, numbering 680,000 soldiers. Napoleon hoped the battle would mean an end of the march into Russia, plans Napoleon had made to quarter at Smolensk were abandoned, and he pressed his army on after the Russians. As the Russian army fell back, Cossacks were given the task of burning villages, towns and this was intended to deny the invaders the option of living off the land. The actions forced the French to rely on a system that was incapable of feeding the large army in the field. Starvation and privation compelled French soldiers to leave their camps at night in search of food and these men were frequently confronted by parties of Cossacks, who captured or killed them. The Russian army retreated into Russia for almost three months, the continual retreat and the loss of lands to the French upset the Russian nobility. They pressured Alexander I to relieve the commander of the Russian army, Alexander I complied, appointing an old veteran, Prince Mikhail Kutuzov, to take over command of the army. However, for two more weeks Kutuzov continued to retreat as his predecessor had done, on 7 September, the French caught up with the Russian army which had dug itself in on hillsides before a small town called Borodino, seventy miles west of Moscow. The battle that followed was the bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars until that point, involving more than 250,000 soldiers, the French gained a tactical victory, but at the cost of 49 general officers and thousands of men. The Russian army was able to extricate itself and withdrew the following day, Napoleon entered Moscow a week later. In another turn of events the French found puzzling, there was no delegation to meet the Emperor, the Russians had evacuated the city, and the citys governor, Count Fyodor Rostopchin, ordered several strategic points in Moscow set ablaze. Napoleons hopes had been set upon an end to his campaign. The loss of Moscow did not compel Alexander I to sue for peace, Napoleon stayed on in Moscow looking to negotiate a peace, his hopes fed in part by a disinformation campaign informing the Emperor of supposed discontent and fading morale in the Russian camp. After staying a month Napoleon moved his army out southwest toward Kaluga, the French advance toward Kaluga was checked by a Russian corps. Napoleon tried once more to engage the Russian army for an action at the Battle of Maloyaroslavets. Despite holding a position, the Russians retreated following a sharp engagement
34.
Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly
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Prince Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly was a Russian Field Marshal and Minister of War during Napoleons invasion in 1812 and War of the Sixth Coalition. Barclay implemented a number of reforms during this time that improved supply system in the army, doubled the number of army troops and he was also the Governor-General of Finland. He was born in a German-speaking noble family from Livonia that were members of the Scottish Clan Barclay and his father was the first of his family to be accepted into the Russian nobility. Barclay joined the Imperial Russian Army at an age in 1776. For his role in the capture of Ochakov in 1788 from the Ottomans, afterwards he participated in Catherine IIs Swedish War. In 1794, he took part in putting down the Kościuszko Uprising in Poland and was decorated for role in the capture of Vilnius. In 1806, Barclay began commanding in the Napoleonic Wars, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Pułtusk that same year and he was wounded at the Battle of Eylau in 1807 while his troops were covering the retreat of the Russian army. Because of his wounds, he was forced to leave command, the following year, he carried out successful operations in the Finnish War against Sweden. Barclay led a number of Russian troops approximately 100km across the frozen Gulf of Bothnia in winter during a snowstorm. For his accomplishments, Barclay de Tolly was appointed Governor-General of Grand Duchy of Finland, from 20 January 1810 to September 1812 he was the Minister of War of the Russian Empire. When the French invasion of Russia began in 1812, Barclay de Tolly was commander of the 1st Army of the West, Barclay was appointed Commander-in-Chief and initiated a scorched earth policy from the beginning of the campaign, though this made him unpopular among Russians. However, Kutuzov continued the scorched earth retreat up to Moscow where the Battle of Borodino took place nearby. Barclay commanded the wing and center of the Russian army for the battle. After Napoleons retreat, the success of Barclays tactics made him a hero among Russians. He became Commander-in-Chief once again in 1813 after the death of Kutuzov led the taking of Paris and his health later declined and he died on a visit to Germany in 1818. Barclay de Tolly, a member of the Scottish Clan Barclay with roots in Towie in Aberdeenshire, was born in Pamūšis, Courland and Semigallia and raised in Jõgeveste, Livonia, Russian Empire. The commonly accepted date of 27 December 1761 is actually the day of his baptism in the Lutheran church of the town Žeimelis. He was a German-speaking descendant of a Scottish family which had settled in Livonia in the 17th century, de Tolly grew up in St. Petersburg and was raised by his aunt
35.
Scorched earth
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A scorched earth policy is a military strategy that targets anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. Specifically, all of the assets that are used or can be used by the enemy are targeted, such as sources, transportation, communications, industrial resources. The practice can be carried out by the military in enemy territory and it may overlap with, but is not the same as, punitive destruction of the enemys resources, which is done for purely strategic/political reasons rather than strategic/operational reasons. The strategy of destroying the food and water supply of the population in an area of conflict has been banned under Article 54 of Protocol I of the 1977 Geneva Conventions. The Scythians used scorched earth methods against King Darius the Great of Persia, the Scythians, who were nomadic herders, retreated into the depths of the Steppes, destroying food supplies and poisoning wells. Many of Darius troops died from starvation and dehydration, the Greek general Xenophon records in his Anabasis that the Armenians burned their crops and food supplies as they withdrew before the advance of the Ten Thousand. The Greek mercenary general Memnon suggested to the Persian Satraps the use of the scorched earth policy against Alexander as he moved into Asia Minor, the system of punitive destruction of property and subjugation of people when accompanying a military campaign was known as vastatio. Two of the first uses of scorched earth recorded both happened in the Gallic Wars, after the Helvetii were defeated by a combined Roman-Gallic force, the Helvetii were forced to rebuild themselves on the shattered German and Swiss plains they themselves had destroyed. The second case shows actual military value, during the Great Gallic War the Gauls under Vercingetorix planned to lure the Roman armies into Gaul and then trap, to this end, they ravaged the countryside of what are now the Benelux countries and France. This did cause problems for the Romans, but Roman military triumphs over the Gallic alliance showed that this alone was not enough to save Gaul from subjugation by Rome. During the Second Punic War in 218–202 BC, the Carthaginians used this method selectively while storming through Italy, after the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC, the Roman Senate also elected to use this method to permanently destroy the Carthaginian capital city, Carthage. The buildings were torn down, their stones scattered so not even rubble remained, however, the story that they salted the earth is apocryphal. Julian might expect, that a conqueror, who possessed the two instruments of persuasion, steel and gold, would easily procure a plentiful subsistence from the fears or avarice of the natives. But, on the approach of the Romans, the rich, the Danes left Chester next year and marched into Wales. In the Harrying of the North, William the Conquerors solution to stop a rebellion in 1069 was the brutal conquest, williams men burnt whole villages from the Humber to Tees, and slaughtered the inhabitants. Food stores and livestock were destroyed so that surviving the initial massacre would soon succumb to starvation over the winter. The destruction is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, the survivors were reduced to cannibalism, with one report stating that the skulls of the dead were cracked open so that the brains could be eaten. Between 100,000 and 150,000 perished and the area took centuries to recover from the damage, during the Hundred Years War, both the English and the French conducted chevauchée raids over the enemy territory to damage its infrastructure
36.
Alexander I of Russia
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Alexander I reigned as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825. He was the son of Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, Alexander was the first Russian King of Poland, reigning from 1815 to 1825, as well as the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland. He was sometimes called Alexander the Blessed and he was born in Saint Petersburg to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later Emperor Paul I, and succeeded to the throne after his father was murdered. He ruled Russia during the period of the Napoleonic Wars. As prince and emperor, Alexander often used liberal rhetoric, in the first years of his reign, he initiated some minor social reforms and major, liberal educational reforms, such as building more universities. He promised constitutional reforms and a desperately needed reform of serfdom in Russia, Alexander appointed Mikhail Speransky, the son of a village priest, as one of his closest advisors. The Collegia was abolished and replaced by the The State Council, plans were also made to set up a parliament and sign a constitution. In foreign policy, he changed Russias position relative to France four times between 1804 and 1812 among neutrality, opposition, and alliance and he fought a small-scale naval war against Britain between 1807 and 1812. He and Napoleon could never agree, especially about Poland, the tsars greatest triumph came in 1812 as Napoleons invasion of Russia proved a total disaster for the French. As part of the coalition against Napoleon he gained some spoils in Finland and Poland. He formed the Holy Alliance to suppress revolutionary movements in Europe that he saw as threats to legitimate Christian monarchs. He helped Austrias Klemens von Metternich in suppressing all national and liberal movements, in the second half of his reign he was increasingly arbitrary, reactionary and fearful of plots against him, he ended many earlier reforms. He purged schools of teachers, as education became more religiously oriented as well as politically conservative. Speransky was replaced as advisor with the artillery inspector Aleksey Arakcheyev. Alexander died of typhus in December 1825 while on a trip to southern Russia and he left no children as heirs and both of his brothers wanted the other to become emperor. After a period of confusion that included the failed Decembrist revolt of liberal army officers, he was succeeded by his younger brother. Alexander and his younger brother Constantine were raised by their grandmother, some sources allege that she planned to remove her son Paul I from the succession altogether. From the free-thinking atmosphere of the court of Catherine and his Swiss tutor, Frédéric-César de La Harpe, but from his military governor, Nikolay Saltykov, he imbibed the traditions of Russian autocracy
37.
Moscow
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Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits and 17.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city, Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth and it is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe, the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and the Moscow International Business Center. Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, the city is well known for its architecture, particularly its historic buildings such as Saint Basils Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. Moscow is the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament also sit in the city and it is recognized as one of the citys landmarks due to the rich architecture of its 200 stations. In old Russian the word also meant a church administrative district. The demonym for a Moscow resident is москвич for male or москвичка for female, the name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the Moskva River. There have been proposed several theories of the origin of the name of the river and its cognates include Russian, музга, muzga pool, puddle, Lithuanian, mazgoti and Latvian, mazgāt to wash, Sanskrit, majjati to drown, Latin, mergō to dip, immerse. There exist as well similar place names in Poland like Mozgawa, the original Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as *Москы, *Mosky, hence it was one of a few Slavic ū-stem nouns. From the latter forms came the modern Russian name Москва, Moskva, in a similar manner the Latin name Moscovia has been formed, later it became a colloquial name for Russia used in Western Europe in the 16th–17th centuries. From it as well came English Muscovy, various other theories, having little or no scientific ground, are now largely rejected by contemporary linguists. The surface similarity of the name Russia with Rosh, an obscure biblical tribe or country, the oldest evidence of humans on the territory of Moscow dates from the Neolithic. Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered, on the territory of the Kremlin, Sparrow Hills, Setun River and Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc. The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi, the Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD1100, a settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River. The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a place of Yuri Dolgoruky. At the time it was a town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
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Russian Empire
General of the Infantry
Gold Sword for Bravery
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