29 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos.
29 and 32, Dolgorukov to Lobanov, 6 Aug. and 3 Sept. 1812 (OS).
30 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 19, fos. 2–4, Gorchakov to Lobanov, 20 Aug. 1812 (OS); fos. 134–40, ‘Spisok o vsekh shtab i ober ofitserakh postupivshikh na sluzhbu’.
31 Kutuzov, vol 4ii, Kutuzov to Alexander, 9 October 1812 (OS), pp. 62–3. Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, pp. 224–7. RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos. 100–101, Shter to Lobanov, 18 July 1812 (OS).
32 Beskrovnyi, Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 3, 18 July 1812 (OS), pp. 15–16, is the text of this manifesto.
33 The statistic comes from an article by V. I. Babkin, the leading Soviet-era expert on the militia: ‘Organizatsiia i voennye deistviia narodnogo opolcheniia v otechestvennoi voine 1812 goda’, in K stopiatidesiatiletiiu otechestvennoi voiny, Moscow, 1962, pp. 134–62, at p. 145.
34 Beskrovnyi, Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 117, pp. 137–9: regulations of the Kaluga militia committee, 25 July 1812 (OS).
35 Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, p. 228. A few of these men did receive new uniforms produced abroad: see Ch. 10. The minister added that even in wartime not all wool could be assigned for uniforms.
36 Beskrovnyi, Narodnoe opolchenie, no. 354, Tolstoy to Alexander, 28 Sept. 1812 (OS), p. 368.
37 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1812 goda, vol. 2, p. 56.
38 Apart from Babkin and Bezotosnyi, the fullest source on the militia is the many volumes compiled by V. R. Apukhtin for the centenary of 1812: see e.g. Narodnaia voennaia sila: Dvorianskiia opolcheniia v otechestvennoi voine, Moscow, 1912. Apukhtin is as determined to sing the nobles’ glory as Babkin is to downplay their contribution. Prokhodtsev, Riazanskaia, pp. 229–621, is an immensely informative study of the Riazan militia.
39 Speranskii, Voenno-ekonomicheskaia podgotovka, pp. 381, 392, 407–23. Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 18: memorandum by Müller-Zakomel’sky, 10 July 1812 (OS), p. 20.
40 SIM, 1, no. 81, Alexander to Kutuzov, 24 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 64–5.
41 A. I. Ulianov, ‘Tarutinskii lager: “neudobnye” fakty’, in Ot Tarutino do Maloiaroslavtsa: K 190-letiiu Maloiaroslavetskogo srazheniia, Kaluga, 2002, pp. 23–36.
42 Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski, vol. 1, p. 172. Viazemskii, ‘Zhurnal’, p. 215. Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre, nos. 33 and 37, Catherine to Alexander, 6 Sept. and 23 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 107–8, 119–22.
43 Meshetich, ‘Istoricheskie zapiski’, p. 50. L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Dnevnik Aleksandra Chicherina, 1812–1813, Moscow, 1966, pp. 14–16.
44 On Tishchenko, see MVUA 1812, 19, pp. 335–6. Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka za sto let 1796–1896, SPB, 1896, p. 88. V. Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god v dnevnikakh, zapiskakh i vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, 4 vols., Vilna, 1900–1907, vol. 2, p. 200: ‘Opisanie srazhenii’.
45 Dnevnik Chicherina, pp. 18–19, 28. Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina, Leningrad, 1987, pp. 61–2.
46 ‘Edling’, pp. 172–3, makes this point about mutual distrust.
47 E. F. Komarovskii, Zapiski grafa E. F. Komarovskago, SPB, 1914, p. 195. Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr, vol. 3, pp. 88–90.
48 Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr, pp. 90–92. ‘Edling’, pp. 174–5.
49 Sir Robert Wilson, The French Invasion of Russia, Bridgnorth, 1996, pp. 115–16.
50 Ibid., pp. 116–17.
51 Ibid.
52 ‘Edling’, pp. 178–9.
53 Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre, nos. 33, 38, 39, Catherine to Alexander, 6, 23 and 28 Sept., 1812 (OS), pp. 83–4, 93–6 and 98–9; nos. 73 and 74, Alexander to Catherine, 18 and 24 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 86–93, 96–8.
54 Elizabeth to the Margravine of Baden, 7 and 9 Sept. 1812, in Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, L’Impératrice Élisabeth, épouse d’Alexandre Ier, 4 vols., SPB, 1908–9, vol. 2ii, pp. 443–5.
55 Quoted in F. Ley, Alexandre Ier et sa Sainte-Alliance (1811–1825), Paris, 1975, pp. 49–55; ‘Edling’, pp. 176–9.
56 See Michaud’s account of the conversation in Shil’der, Imperator Aleksandr, vol. 3, prilozheniia, document VII, pp. 509–10.
Chapter 8: The Advance from Moscow
1 Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 187, Kutuzov to Alexander, 27 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 154–5; no. 241, Alexander to Kutuzov, 31 Aug. 1812 (OS), pp. 194–5.
2 The plans were set out in Alexander’s letter of 31 Aug. (OS) and also in the draft instructions to Chichagov, Tormasov, Wittgenstein and Steinhel which Chernyshev brought with him to Kutuzov’s headquarters. For the latter see prilozheniia 6, 7, 8 and 9 in Kutuzov, vol. 4i, pp. 463–70.
3 Kutuzov, vol. 4i, no. 322, Chernyshev to Alexander, 10 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 265–8.
4 Chernyshev’s own account of these actions is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3386, fos. 2ii–3ii: ‘Zhurnal voennykh deistvii General Adiutanta Chernysheva’. MVUA 1812, 20, no. 1, Wittgenstein to Alexander, 6 Nov. 1812 (OS), p. 4.
5 Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 2, pp. 169, 173. A. Brett-James (ed.), General Wilson’s Journal 1812–1814, London, 1964, p. 75.
6 A good translation of Davydov’s memoirs was recently published in English: In the Service of the Tsar against Napoleon: The Memoirs of Denis Davydov, trans Prince G. Trubetskoy, London, 2006.
7 T. J. Binyon, Pushkin: A Biography, London, 2002, p. 130.
8 I. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s 1812 po 1816 god, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 1, pp. 205–6. On Figner, see an anonymous article entitled ‘Uverennost’ v zvezde svoego schastiia’, Rodina, 8, 2002, pp. 47–50.
9 MVUA 1812, 18, no. 124, Davydov to Konovnitsyn, 21 Sept. 1812 (OS), p. 101.
10 P. Grabbe, Iz pamiatnykh zapisok: Otechestvenniaia voina, Moscow, 1873, pp. 97–8; V. von Löwenstern, Mémoires du Général-Major Russe Baron de Löwenstern, 2 vols., Paris, 1903, vol. 1, p. 296.
11 S. G. Volkonskii, Zapiski Sergeia Grigorovicha Volkonskogo (dekabrista), SPB, 1902, pp. 170–71, 189–94; Löwenstern, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 7, 182. Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 163, Kutuzov to Alexander, 20 Oct. 1812 (OS), p. 175. For Arakcheev’s efforts to reduce his own contributions, see his angry correspondence with Governor Sumarokov of Novgorod in the summer and autumn of 1812 and his appeals for help to Balashev: P. I. Shchukin (ed.), Bumagi otnosiashchiiasia do otechestvennoi voiny 1812 goda, vol. 4, Moscow, 1899, pp. 118–27.
12 See, above all, G. Bibikov, ‘Aleksandr Khristoforovich Benkendorf (1781–1844): Istoricheskii ocherk’, Vestnik MGU, 1, 2007, pp. 36–60. Also an informative letter from Johann to Christoph Lieven, dated 5 Jan. 1811 (OS): BL Add. Mss 47410, p. 56.
13 Zapiski Benkendorfa, 1812 god: Otechestvennaia voina. 1813 god. Osvobozhdenie Niderlandov, Moscow, 2001, pp. 70–71.