Russian Cossacks in Paris. The capture of Paris by the Russians! (10 photos) Russian soldiers knew how to surprise

200 years ago, the war against Napoleon was already on the territory of France itself. An ingenious commander, but an adventurer in international politics, Bonaparte was completing a streak of his many years of bloody European wars.

Alexander I and Napoleon

In the 20th of March (according to the new style) of 1814, Napoleon moved to the northeastern French fortresses, hoping to strengthen his army with local garrisons. The allies usually followed the main forces of Napoleon.

But then Emperor Alexander I received a note from Talleyrand. He strongly recommended sending allied troops directly to Paris, since the French capital would not be able to resist for a long time. Talleyrand, realizing that the collapse of the Napoleonic empire was inevitable, had long been "collaborating" with the Russian tsar. However, the risk of such a turn of the armies was great. Allied troops could be crushed in the suburbs of Paris, both from the front and from the rear. In that case, if Napoleon had time to the capital.

At that moment, a general of Corsican origin, Carl Pozzo di Borgo, appeared at the Russian headquarters. He managed to convince the vacillating allied command to immediately move troops to Paris, which was done on March 25. Fierce fighting broke out on the outskirts of the French capital.

In one day, only the allies (Russians, Austrians and Prussians) lost 8,000 people (of which more than 6,000 Russians).

But the numerical superiority of the Allied armies was so great that the French command in Paris decided to negotiate. Emperor Alexander gave the envoys the following answer: "He will order to stop the battle if Paris is surrendered: otherwise, by evening, they will not recognize the place where the capital was."

Surrender of the French

At 2 o'clock in the morning on March 31, the surrender was signed, and the French troops were withdrawn from the city. At noon on March 31, cavalry squadrons led by Emperor Alexander entered the French capital in triumph.

“All the streets along which the Allies had to pass, and all the streets adjacent to them, were packed with people who even occupied the roofs of houses,” Colonel Mikhail Orlov recalled.

Napoleon learned of the surrender of Paris at Fonteblo, where he was waiting for the approach of his lagging army. He was ready to continue the battle. But his marshals assessed the situation more soberly and abandoned further struggle.

As soon as the Russian troops entered the territory of France, Emperor Alexander I announced that he was fighting not with the inhabitants of this country, but with Napoleon. Before the ceremonial entry into Paris, he received a delegation from the municipal council and announced that he was taking the city under his personal protection.

Solemn march

On March 31, 1814, columns of the allied armies with drums and music, with unfolded banners, began to enter the city through the gates of Saint-Martin. One of the first to move was the Life Guards Cossack Regiment. Many recalled later that the Cossacks put the boys to their delight on the groats of their horses.

The Russian emperor stopped in front of the crowd and said in French:

“I am not the enemy. I bring peace and trade. " In response, there were applause and exclamations: “Long live the world! Long live Alexander! Long live the Russians! "

Then a four-hour parade took place. The inhabitants, not without trepidation expecting a meeting with the "Scythian barbarians", saw a normal European army. In addition, most of the Russian officers spoke French well.

The Russian Tsar fulfilled his promise. Any robbery or looting was severely punished. Measures were taken to protect cultural monuments, especially the Louvre. The French soldiers in Moscow behaved quite differently, often on the orders of Napoleon himself.

Half-naked Cossacks

Cossack regiments set up their bivouacs in the public garden on the Champs Elysees. The Cossacks bathed their horses and swam themselves right in the Seine, as a rule, half-naked. Crowds of curious Parisians flocked to watch them grill meat, cook soup on a fire, or sleep with a saddle under their heads. In the famous ponds of the Fontainebleau palace, the Cossacks overfished all the carp.

Very soon, the "steppe barbarians" came into great fashion in France. Some Frenchmen began to let go of long beards and even carry knives on wide belts.

The women were horrified at the sight of the camels that the Kalmyks brought with them. The young ladies fainted when Tatar or Bashkir warriors approached them in their caftans, high hats, with bows over their shoulders and a bundle of arrows on their sides.

Russian soldiers knew how to surprise

The French laughed at the Russians' habit of eating even noodles soup with bread, and the Russians were shocked at the sight of frog legs in restaurants. The Russians were also amazed at the abundance of street boys, at every corner begging for money for the "dying mother" or for the "crippled crippled father." In Russia, alms were then asked only in front of the churches, and there was no youth begging at all.

Coffee was known in Russia already in the 18th century, but before the campaign of our troops in France, its use was still not widespread. When our officers saw that the wealthy French could not do without him a day, they considered that this was a sign of good form. Upon the return of our officers to their homeland, coffee quickly entered the everyday life of Russians.

Note that many soldiers were mobilized from the serfs and had little idea what would happen to them next. Count F. Rostopchin wrote with indignation: "... what a fall our army has reached, if an old non-commissioned officer and a simple soldier remain in France ... They go to farmers who not only pay them well, but also give their daughters for them." This did not happen among the Cossacks, free people.

Parisians gave their preference to Russian soldiers

Three years of bloody war are left behind. Spring was gaining strength. This is how the future poet and publicist Fyodor Glinka recalled the Parisian woman before leaving for her homeland:

“Farewell, dear, lovely charming ladies, for which Paris is so famous ... Brad Cossack and flat-faced Bashkir became favorites of your hearts - for money! You have always respected the ringing virtues! "

And then the Russians had money: Alexander I ordered that the troops be given a threefold salary for 1814!

“Both us and the soldiers had a good life in Paris,” recalled I. Kazakov, ensign of the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment. "It never occurred to us that we were in an enemy city."

The brilliant military operation to capture Paris was worthily noted by Alexander I. The commander-in-chief of the Russian troops, General M. B. Barclay de Tolly received the rank of field marshal. Six generals were awarded the Order of St. George, 2nd class, a very high military decoration. General of Infantry A.F. Lanzheron, whose troops took Montmartre, was awarded the highest Russian order - St. Andrew the First-Called.

Russians in Paris again

After the Congress of Vienna learned in March 1815 that Napoleon had fled from the island of Elba, landed in the south of France and, without encountering resistance, was moving towards Paris, a new (seventh) anti-French coalition was quickly formed.

In April, a 170,000-strong Russian army under the command of Barclay de Tolly set out from Poland on a new campaign against Napoleon.

The vanguard of the Russian army had already crossed the Rhine when news came that on June 18 at Waterloo the main forces of Napoleon had been defeated by British and Prussian troops. On June 22, Bonaparte abdicated the throne for the second time.

On June 25, the allied Russian, British and Prussian troops entered Paris again. This time there was no military resistance from the French. The foreign campaigns of the Russian army in 1813-1815 ended. However, until 1818, the 27-thousandth Russian corps of General M.S. Vorontsov.

Exactly 200 years ago, the Russian army led by Emperor Alexander I entered Paris. Drawings of the artist Georg-Emmanuel Opitz, an eyewitness of those "terrible" events ...

On January 7 (19), 1813, Ataman Platov reported to the commander of the 3rd Western Army about the blockade by his Cossacks of the Danzig fortress, located at the mouth of the Vistula, by the forces of his flying corps and about the location of the Cossacks around the city .. The vanguard of the main Russian army under the command of the general from infantry Milorado Vicha arrived in Radzilovo. The main forces of the main army under the command of general from the cavalry Tormasov continue to move towards Polotsk and are located near the village of Kalinovits.

The 7th Army (Saxon) Corps, under the command of Divisional General Reynier, was in Okunevo, as part of a corps with 6,000 Saxons, 2,000 Poles and 1,500 French.

The battle for Paris became one of the bloodiest for the allied army in the 1814 campaign. The Allies lost more than 8 thousand soldiers in one day of fighting on March 30, of which more than 6 thousand were Russian soldiers. It was the bloodiest battle of the French campaign of 1814 and determined the fate of the French capital and the entire empire of Napoleon. Within a few days, the French emperor, under pressure from his marshals, abdicated the throne.

This is how General Muravyov-Karsky recalled the capture of Paris: « The troops engaged in a few plundering and got some glorious wines, which I also had a chance to taste; but the Prussians were more involved in this. The Russians did not have so much will and were engaged in cleaning the ammunition all night in order to enter the city the next day in a parade. By morning, our camp was filled with Parisians, especially Parisians, who came to sell vodka à boire la goutte, and hunted ... Our soldiers soon began to call vodka berlagut, believing that this word is a real translation of boire la goutte in French. They called red wine wine and said that it was much worse than our green wine. They called love walks backgammon, and with this word they achieved the fulfillment of their desires.

Sergei Ivanovich Maevsky also recalled a certain relaxation in the troops on the eve of entering Paris: “The Prussians, loyal followers of their teachers - the French in the robbery, have already managed to rob the forstadt, break into the cellars, beat off the barrels and no longer drink, but walk knee-deep in wine. We have long adhered to Alexander's charitable rule; but the temptation is stronger than fear: our people went for firewood, and brought the barrels. I got a box, of course, in 1000 bottles of champagne. I handed them out to the regiment and, not without sin, had fun myself on the canvas of life, believing that this pattern would fade tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. In the morning a procession was announced to us for Paris. We were ready; but our soldiers were more than half drunk. For a long time we tried to drive their children away and arrange them. "

Decembrist Nikolai Alexandrovich Bestuzhev so describes in his, albeit an artistic, but based on real events story "Russian in Paris in 1814»The beginning of the entry of Russian troops into Paris: “At last the gates of Saint-Martin appeared. The music thundered; the columns, passing through the cramped gates of the squads, suddenly began to line up their platoons, jutting out onto the wide boulevard. One must imagine the amazement of the soldiers when they saw countless crowds of people, houses on both sides, humiliated by people along the walls, windows and roofs! The naked trees of the boulevard, instead of leaves, burst under the weight of the curious. Colored fabrics were lowered from each window; thousands of women waved their headscarves; the exclamations drowned out the war music and the drums themselves. Here the real Paris had just begun - and the sullen faces of the soldiers emerged with unexpected pleasure. "

Interestingly, although calls for resistance to the Allies spread among the crowd of Parisians, they did not find a response. One Frenchman, squeezing through the crowd to Alexander, said: “ We have been waiting for Your Majesty's arrival for a long time! " To this the emperor replied: "I would have come to you earlier, but the courage of your troops delayed me." Alexander's words were passed from mouth to mouth and quickly spread among the Parisians, causing a storm of delight. The allies began to think that they were seeing some kind of amazing fantastic dream. The delight of the Parisians seemed to have no end.

Hundreds of people crowded around Alexander, kissing everything they could reach: his horse, clothes, boots. The women grabbed his spurs, and some clung to the tail of his horse. Alexander endured all these actions patiently. The young Frenchman Karl de Roseoar plucked up courage and said to the Russian emperor: “I am surprised at you, Emperor! You kindly allow every citizen to approach you. " "This is the duty of sovereigns"- answered Alexander I.

Some of the French rushed to the statue of Napoleon in the Place Vendome to destroy it, but Alexander hinted that this was undesirable. The hint was understood, and the sentry on guard completely cooled the hot heads. A little later, on April 8, she was carefully dismantled and taken away.

By evening, a large number of women of a very ancient profession appeared on the streets. Although, according to one author, many of them expressed disappointment with the decorous behavior of the Allied officers, there was clearly no shortage of cavaliers.

The day after the capture of Paris, all government offices were opened, the post office started working, banks accepted deposits and issued money. The French were allowed to leave and enter the city at will.

In the morning, there were many Russian officers and soldiers on the street, looking at the city's sights. This is how the Parisian life was remembered by the artillery officer Ilya Timofeevich Radozhitsky: “ If we stopped for any questions, then the French in front of each other warned us with their answers, surrounded us, looked with curiosity and hardly believed that the Russians could speak with them in their language. Lovely French women, looking out of the windows, nodded their heads and smiled at us. The Parisians, imagining the Russians, according to the descriptions of their patriots, as barbarians who eat human flesh, and the Cossacks as bearded cyclops, were extremely surprised to see the Russian guard, and in it handsome officers, dandies, not inferior both in dexterity and in flexibility of language and degree of education, the first Parisian dandies. (...) Right there, in the crowd of men, they were not ashamed to huddle around the smartly discharged French women who lured our youth with their eyes, and pinched those who did not understand it ... (...) But as our pockets were empty, we did not try to enter any one restaurant; but our guards officers, having tasted all the sweetness of life in the Palais Royal, left there a noble contribution. "

There is also another kind of evidence of how the Russian "occupiers" behaved in Paris: watercolors by the French artist Georg-Emmanuel Opitz. Here are some of them:

Cossacks and fish and apple traders.

Walk of the Cossacks through the gallery with shops and shops.

On March 31, 1814, the allied forces led by the Russian Emperor Alexander I entered Paris. It was a huge, motley, multi-colored army that united representatives of all countries of the Old World. The Parisians looked at them with fear and doubt. As eyewitnesses of those events recalled, most of all in Paris they feared the Prussians and, of course, the Russians. There were legends about the latter: to many, they seemed to be a sort of snarling beast-like monsters, either with clubs or with pitchforks at the ready. In fact, the Parisians saw tall, smart, tidy soldiers, in their European appearance indistinguishable from the native population of France (only the Cossacks and Asian units stood out with a special flavor). The Russian officer corps spoke flawlessly in French and instantly - in every sense - found a common language with the vanquished.

... The Russians left Paris in June 1814 - exactly two hundred years ago, following the main regular units withdrawn back in May, the city was left by the guards. The Russians in Paris are one of the greatest triumphs of Russian history, a glorious period, which in world and even our historiography is not quite rightly overshadowed by the events of 1812. Let us remember what it was.

Two hundred years ago

Let's start with the fact that the actual participants in the anti-Napoleonic campaign did not divide the events of those years into the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Foreign campaign of the Russian army in 1813-1814. They called this confrontation the Great Patriotic War and dated 1812-1814. Therefore, it is about the year 1814 that it is appropriate to speak of the time when Russia withdrew from the war with Napoleon, in contrast to the Anglo-Austrian and other allies, who still had fun in the format of the restoration of Bonaparte to the throne during the Hundred Days and by a miracle, only a miracle won the battle of Waterloo. (True, according to the 2nd Paris Treaty, signed after Waterloo in 1815, the 30,000th occupation corps of General VORONTSOV was introduced to France, but this is a completely different story.)

At the time of the entry of the allied armies into the capital of France, their master was no longer with the Parisians - Emperor Napoleon with an army of sixty thousand was in Fontainebleau, a castle 60 km from the French capital. A few days later, on April 6, he ceased to be the emperor: with one stroke of the pen in the act of abdication, he made himself just General Bonaparte ... For many it was a shock: “He abdicated the throne. It can ward off tears of molten metal from Satan's eyes! " - wrote the great BYRON.

Much to the surprise of Alexander I the Liberator, the French never dreamed of being "liberated" from the power of Napoleon. Both before and after the occupation of Paris by the allies, the French peasants united in partisan detachments and, with the support of the remnants of the regular French army and the National Guard, periodically attacked the rear of the allied coalition. However, the degree of this movement was significantly reduced by the vile behavior of other close associates of Napoleon (such as Marshal MARMON, who betrayed the head of state and earned many millions in one day due to a huge jump in the shares of the French Bank on the stock exchange after the abdication of the emperor). The pro-Napoleonic sentiments in society and the more than dignified behavior of the Russian troops in Paris were knocked down. There was no question of any "I give you three days to plunder the city"! Of course, there were isolated incidents, but they did not turn into a system: once the French city authorities complained about a number of relevant episodes to the Russian military governor, General Fabian Austin-Saken, and he stopped the already few outrages in the bud. It's funny that when the Russians finally left Paris, the general was presented with a golden sword, showered with diamonds, on which the inscription “City of Paris - to General Saken” was adorned with honor. In the definition, formulating the grounds for such an award, it was stated: "He established peace and security in Paris, the inhabitants, thanks to his vigilance, could indulge in their usual pursuits and considered themselves not in martial law, but enjoyed all the benefits and guarantees of peacetime." All this is extremely far from the horrors that appeared in the heads of the Parisians when the allied armies approached the capital.

In the fallen French capital, "Tsar of Kings" Alexander, the Emperor of All Russia, behaved mercifully. Although the participants in the capture of Moscow in 1812, who saw with their own eyes how other soldiers and officers of the “Great Army” behaved in the capital, had suspicions that the Russian autocrat would lift all the bans. He will show, so to speak, the French Kuzkin's mother: well, for example, he will set fire to the Louvre, in Notre-Dame-de-Paris he will arrange a stable or latrine, demolish the Vendôme column or cancel the Order of the Legion of Honor (for the last two points he was, by the way, directly called royalists - supporters of the overthrown dynasty of BOURBONS). Not at all. Alexander turned out to be, using the now popular vocabulary, a polite and tolerant person. Often, without security, he went for a walk in the center of Paris, talked with ordinary people, which greatly endeared them to him. Alexander was even more respected after he ordered the restoration of green spaces on the Champs Elysees, accidentally destroyed by the units of the Russian army located here.

Actually, in wartime, in curfew, Paris did not live almost a day: by the beginning of April, banks, post office, all public offices were working, you could safely leave the city, you could safely and safely enter the city. The general smooth picture was spoiled by the Prussians: they plundered wine cellars in one of the Parisian suburbs and got drunk. In the Russian army, such things did not work, and the "polite" soldiers in an undertone complained about the excessively strict discipline that prevented them from enjoying all the benefits of the "tour of Europe": they say, in Moscow, the "frogs" didn’t have a lot of morals ...

Information wars of the 19th century

As you know, the presence of Russian troops in Paris enriched both Russian and French culture, including everyday culture. Offhand, the "bistro" is immediately remembered. By the way - about the cuisine: there are everyday habits that are considered purely Russian, but in fact have a Parisian origin. We are talking, for example, about the sign of not putting empty bottles on the table - "there will be no money." The point is this: waiters in French drinking establishments did not take into account the number of bottles supplied to customers (yes, the soldiers also paid!), But simply counted the empty containers on the table. Savvy Cossacks noted this method of counting and some of the bottles were transported under the table. Certain savings were, indeed, evident.

As soon as we talked about the Cossacks, one cannot but mention them in more detail (although there were more exotic ingredients in the ranks of the Russian army, for example, Kalmyks on camels, at one glance at which - both Kalmyks and camels - sensitive Parisians fainted, sir. ). The Cossacks made a splash: they swam in the Seine completely without uniforms, bathed and watered their horses there. Remember how in the famous song about the Cossacks in Berlin-1945: “The horseman sings:“ Oh, guys, it's not the first time // We'll give the Cossack horses to drink // From a strange river ... ”Despite not being particularly delicate, the Cossacks left a good memory of themselves. Parisian boys in whole crowds ran after the "conquerors", begging for souvenirs as a keepsake.

The Cossacks were the main attraction of Paris for two months. On the eve of the capture of Paris, popular cartoon horror stories were pasted all over the city: the Cossacks were portrayed as monstrous creatures in shaggy hats, they were hung with nightmarish necklaces from human ears. Drunken scoundrels burned houses, and having done their dirty work, fell into a puddle in bestial unconsciousness, et cetera.

Real Cossacks were strikingly different from caricatures. Although initially they were afraid of them: bearded men made fires on the banks of the Seine and fried meat, and who knows whose meat was browned on the fire? .. So, the wife of Napoleon's general Andos JUNO in her memoirs cited the following episode: the famous Cossack ataman Matvey PLATOV took a girl in his arms one and a half years old, and her mother immediately began to shout and threw herself at his feet. For a long time General Platov could not understand what the distraught woman was shouting at him, and only a little later he realized that she was asking him “not to eat her daughter” (!).

On the one hand, this is comical, on the other, it is sad (especially when you consider that ours in Paris never allowed themselves such things as the allies in the 6th anti-Napoleonic coalition). And yet the ridiculous stilted horror stories about Russians survived the centuries and migrated into our time ...

Nevertheless, the stay of the Russians in Paris was overgrown with legends of a much more grateful sense, and the capture of the French capital finally secured the status of a superpower for Russia. The concept of "Russians in Paris" acquired an archetypal sound, and other historical jokes, such as the famous imperial one, were based on it: for example, in 1844 in Paris they were preparing to stage an openly anti-Russian play "Paul I", and Nicholas I, the son of "the main hero ”of the play, sent a letter to Paris. In it, he indicated that if the play is nevertheless published, he will send to the French capital "a million spectators in gray overcoats who will watch this performance" ...

Textbook behavior

After the final withdrawal of Russian troops from Paris, ours were still destined to return to France. True, for this Napoleon needed to triumphantly regain power and call upon himself the fire of all Europe, offended in the best feelings. (To get a feel for the dynamics of this truly great comeback, I will quote the headlines that appeared in the same French media as Napoleon approached Paris: “The Corsican monster has landed in the Bay of Juan” (not far from Cannes on the Mediterranean coast of France. - Author); “ The cannibal goes to Grasse ";" The usurper entered Grenoble ";" Bonaparte occupied Lyon ";" Napoleon is approaching Fontainebleau ", and finally the final and magnificent -" His imperial majesty is expected today in his faithful Paris. ")

Everyone knows what happened next. Napoleon lost to Waterloo and the Allied forces were stationed in France again. It should be noted that both the first and the second "occupation" of France little resembled the seizure of the country by the Nazis in 1940 and the next four years: in 1814 and 1815, all civil power on the ground belonged to the French themselves, the allies tried not to interfere in the internal the affairs of the country, and it was the Russians who behaved more tolerant than the others. Remarkable fact: the municipalities of French cities intended for the deployment of foreign troops remembered the behavior of the Russians in Paris in 1814 and asked that they accommodate non-“civilized” Englishmen and “disciplined” Germans (the latter, by the way, were especially distinguished in robberies , as later their great-great-grandchildren in the XX century), namely the Russian regiments.

P.S. Of course, our fellow countrymen then visited the banks of the Seine! Each of us has heard from childhood about a Saratov man who in 1814 drove into defeated Paris - even those who have little idea of ​​the details of that operation, as well as the geography of the participants in the capture of the French capital. "Tell me, uncle, it's not for nothing ..." Yeah, that one! This, of course, is about Afanasy STOLYPIN, the provincial leader of the Saratov nobility and LERMONTOV's grandchild uncle. He entered Paris with the rank of staff captain, and in 1817 resigned from the army, so that, at the behest of his genius nephew, he entered all the books ...

After a series of successes in February - March 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte decided to put pressure on the sore spot of the allies and, threatening communications, force them to leave France altogether. However, they, having received news of the troubled situation in Paris, made the opposite decision - to go to the enemy capital and try to decide the outcome of the war with one blow. Moving to Paris in the last days of March 1814, the Allies, of course, did not expect that the city would surrender without a fight, although the main forces of the French and Napoleon himself remained in their rear.

Approaching the outskirts from the north on March 29, the allies saw that the enemy was preparing for defense. Throughout the next day, stubborn battles were going on, the allies tried to capture the city as soon as possible, until Napoleon with the main forces approached from the rear.

As a result, the battle for Paris became one of the bloodiest in the entire campaign, but by the end of the day an armistice was signed, in accordance with which the French left the city. On March 31, the Allies entered the French capital in several columns. Fear and despondency reigned among the inhabitants. They were especially afraid of the Prussians and Russians, about whom there were terrible rumors, told by the survivors of the 1812 campaign against Moscow. In most cases, these stories concerned the Cossacks, so they were most feared.

Russian Cossack and French peasant

All the more striking was the contrast between the ideas of the Parisians and reality. Not all units of the allied armies entered the city, and there would be nowhere to place them. From the Russian army, this was a corps consisting of guards and grenadiers, as well as part of the Cossacks. On March 31st, a parade was held on the Champs Elysees, which many residents came to see. To the surprise of the allies, the Bourbon supporters made up an insignificant minority of them, no more than fifty people, but they indulged in outrageous antics like mockery of the Order of the Legion of Honor or promises to destroy the Vendome column. Neither the soldiers nor, moreover, the allied monarchs allowed themselves to do anything of the kind.

Moreover, Tsar Alexander, almost single-handedly resolving all issues, ordered the leaving of weapons with the Parisian National Guard and the gendarmerie, which could ensure order on the streets of the city, thus removing this difficult task from the allied armies. Alexander in general really wanted to make a good impression on the Parisians and to embarrass them as little as possible.

At the same time, they cared more about the impression made than even about the comforts of their own troops. After a difficult battle on March 30, the soldiers put their uniforms and equipment in order for the next day's parade almost all night, and received rations only by the evening of March 31. The situation was even more difficult with the fodder for the horses, which had to be requisitioned in neighboring villages. And where forage is requisitioned, there is nothing to robbery. The plunders to which peaceful inhabitants in all of Europe at that time were subjected by soldiers is a common thing.

This is not about the systematic plundering of cities and villages, not at all: a soldier could simply take from a peasant, in addition to fodder for his horse, at the same time a trinket he liked, which he needed more at the moment. This happened because the peasants for the soldier were another social stratum from which something could be taken. Indeed, if you take flour and hay from a peasant, why can't you grab his silverware?

In principle, in all armies they fought quite tough and even brutally against such petty robberies, imposing punishment up to execution, but it was completely impossible to stop them. The Cossacks, going for fodder for their horses, returned with trophies of a different plan - they set up on the New Bridge in Paris - the oldest of the modern bridges of the city - something like a market where they sold various things confiscated from the peasants. They began to come to the city and tried to take away their goods, as a result of which there were clashes and fights.

When the French city authorities complained about the behavior of the Cossacks to the Russian military governor, General Osten-Saken, he took harsh measures, and the cases of robberies did not happen again. At the same time, Emperor Alexander walked around the city without protection, which attracted the sympathy of the population, tried to delve into all the little things. Once, noticing that the Russian cavalry, bivouac on the Champs Elysees, destroyed the green spaces, ordered to restore everything as it was.

Russian Cossacks at the Louvre in 1814

The soldiers of the corps that entered the city were not placed in the apartments of residents, which was often practiced at that time, but in barracks and bivouacs right on the boulevards. This was done not only to make life easier for the townspeople, but also to protect their own soldiers from being infected by the revolutionary spirit of freedom, which was undoubtedly characteristic of the inhabitants of the French capital and extremely dangerous.

While the peace treaty was being prepared, and it was signed in Paris on May 30, the French troops left those fortresses and positions that they still held in Italy, Germany and Holland, and the allied forces gradually left the territory of France. The occupation of Paris soon ended. Even in early May, the main forces of the Russian army set off in marching order home through Germany, and on June 3, the Russian guard left Paris, the 1st division moved to Cherbourg, from where at the end of the month sailed to St. Petersburg, and the 2nd division on foot reached Berlin and Lubeck, from where she also sailed home on ships of the Baltic Fleet.

But less than a year passed, and Emperor Napoleon triumphantly returned to Paris and conquered France without firing a single shot. King Louis fled to Ghent, leaving his throne and his capital. To return to the throne, he again needed the intervention of foreign troops. Although Napoleon abdicated the throne just four days after the defeat at Waterloo, France continued to fight without him. The Prussians suffered a painful defeat at Paris, the fortresses held out. It took more than two months before the last of them opened their gates and the army retreated across the Loire River. Foreign regiments entered Paris again.

Seeing how quickly the power of the Bourbons collapsed, the Allies decided to occupy part of the country in order to support the new regime until it can stand on its own feet.

True, I must say that this occupation was not what we imagine in our time, and had nothing to do with the occupation of the country in 1940-1944. All local civilian power belonged to the French, and the country was ruled from Paris. Allied troops were only stationed in some areas, but did not interfere in the internal affairs of the French kingdom. Except, of course, for the major intervention that led to the change of regime in 1815.

In accordance with the Second Paris Peace Treaty, concluded on November 20, 1815, 150 thousand Allied troops were brought into France, including the 30-thousandth Russian corps, commanded by Count Vorontsov. In 1812, this general commanded a combined grenadier division in the army of Bagration and, defending the Semyonov flashes, lost 9/10 of his personnel.

The Duke of Wellington, victorious at Waterloo, was appointed commander-in-chief of the occupying army. The Russian corps was initially located in Nancy, and at the end of December 1815 went to its places of permanent deployment in the departments of the North and the Ardennes. Bearing in mind last year's experience, the municipalities of French cities, where foreign garrisons were to be deployed, asked them to send not German, but Russian regiments, since their behavior and discipline left good memories. However, the early months were disappointing.

Russian army of 1815

Not a day passed without any violent actions on the part of foreign troops noted, some even regretted that they were not Prussians! But after the personal intervention of the commander of the Russian corps, Count Vorontsov, the case was quickly and decisively corrected.

Order was maintained in the future by tough measures. During the entire time of the presence of the Russian troops, three cases of rape were noted, and each time the perpetrators suffered severe punishment: two received 3000 blows with ramrods, and one received 12000 (!) Gauntlets, in fact it was a painful death penalty. Once, for burglary, the culprit was shot.

The French were very surprised by some Russian traditions. First of all, this concerned a bath - as a contemporary noted, a Russian soldier can do better without a bed than without a bath. Local residents were amazed that after a hot bath the Russians jumped into cold water.

In general, the stay of the Russian troops, thanks to the efforts of the corps commander, took place in good conditions. The soldiers lived in barracks, schools were set up for them, where they were taught to read and write and some other sciences.

But relations with the local population still remained strained. The French still saw foreign troops as their enemies. And relations with the French in general turned out to be very hostile. The border with the Kingdom of the Netherlands was not far away - the present Belgium was part of it and became independent only in 1830, so smuggling in the area flourished, and the customs service had a lot of work.

Once the French tried to detain two Cossacks, and when they tried to escape, one of them was killed. After a while, in one of the taverns, a clash between Russian soldiers and French customs officers took place, in which Russian soldiers were also killed.

In accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Paris, soldiers of foreign powers were subject to their own military court, and French subjects to the French civilian court. In some cases, the jury was very lenient in dealing with the guilty French, just because the opposing side was foreign soldiers.

When the miller Berto and his servant severely wounded the Russians with a pitchfork, after a short consideration their case was dropped, and the blacksmith who beat the Russian soldier escaped with three days of arrest.

A jury in the city of Douai acquitted a certain Calais, who was accused of having inflicted several saber blows. The intervention of the central government of the country was required to smooth over the impression of such court sentences. There were many such cases, and although the perpetrators must have had serious extenuating circumstances, their large number speaks of very tense relations between the local residents and the occupation forces. Nevertheless, in many cases, the corps bosses got along well with the local authorities.

Russians took part in putting out fires, joint patrolling of city streets, and made donations. In the city of Rethele, with money raised by Russian officers, the local church was able to buy an organ, install a wrought iron grate and cast the largest of the bells.

After three years, the question arose of extending the presence of troops of foreign powers in France for another two years, or of their final withdrawal. No one was already interested in this, except for the French royalists, who feared for their power. Moreover, foreigners often treated the Bourbons with disdain.

Russian officers called Louis XVIII "king twice-nine", which in French sounds the same as "twice a new king", hinting at his double return on the bayonets of foreign armies.

In the end, a decision was made to withdraw troops, and at the Aachen Congress in October - November 1818, France became a full-fledged great power, along with Prussia, Russia, Austria and England. At the end of November 1818, the last foreign soldiers left the kingdom.

Upon arrival in Russia, the corps was disbanded, some of the regiments were sent to the Caucasus, some to the inner provinces. Surely, the stay in France did not pass unnoticed for the soldiers and officers of Vorontsov's corps, but it is unlikely to be accurate to say that this was the reason for the penetration of liberal sentiments into the officer environment. Most likely, the Napoleonic wars in general, close contact with the French, already deeply penetrated ideas of the Enlightenment, as well as the increased self-esteem of each officer who contributed to the victory in the great war, had an effect.

Was it not a shame to put up with tyrannical rule at home after they delivered a foreign power from tyranny?

This series of publications is a continuation. Cycle prepared