Sergey Merkurov. From death masks to monuments to leaders

Russian alphabet of 36 letters from A to Izhitsa. Album of erotic drawings. Drawing by S.D. Merkurov. 17-X-1931.
36 ll. Paper, watercolor. 18.5x24.5 cm. The so-called “Soviet erotic alphabet” by the monumental sculptor Sergei Dmitrievich Merkurov (1881-1952) - the author of numerous monuments to I.V. Stalin (including the three largest on the territory of the USSR) and V.I. Lenin. One can feel the strong influence of the French and South German schools of painting. The album is kept in a private collection. Here you can look through the alphabet!

The famous and catchphrase: “There is no sex in the USSR” most likely had a political background. If Lavrenty Beria himself can be called the successor of the work of the “sex machine” Grigory Rasputin, then, on the contrary, the respectable Soviet citizen Sergei Dmitrievich Merkurov, winner of several Stalin prizes, is “a strictly classified Russian Bayros.” He signed this folder on the cover: watercolor drawings by I.I. Ivanov (1886-1924) and even indicated the years of his life. As if this had any significance for the workers of the “punishing sword of the revolution.” He became a People's Artist of the USSR in 1943, at the height of the Great Patriotic War, and a Full Member of the USSR Academy of Arts in 1947. From February 1944 to 1949 - director of the A. S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Winner of two Stalin Prizes of the first degree (1941, 1951). He brought the technique of death mask to a high art. He was also a member of the AHRR. Cousin of the mystic philosopher George Gurdjieff. Sergei Merkurov was born on October 26 (November 7), 1881 in the city of Alexandropol (now Gyumri in Armenia) in the family of an entrepreneur. In 1901 he graduated from a real school in Tiflis and entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, but was soon expelled for participating in political unrest. In the fall of 1902, Merkurov continued his education in Switzerland at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zurich. At the same time, for the first time, I attended political debates with the participation of V.I. Lenin. Continuing to study philosophy, Merkurov became a student of the Swiss sculptor Adolf Mayer. Soon, on the advice of the latter, Merkurov entered the Munich Academy of Arts, where he studied until 1905 with Professor Wilhelm von Ruman. From the autumn of 1905 to 1907, Merkurov lived and worked in Paris. During this period, Merkurov became acquainted with the sculptural works of the Frenchman O. Rodin and the Belgian C. Meunier, which was reflected in his own works. In 1907, already a sculptor, Merkurov returned to Russia and lived in Tiflis and Yalta. In the fall of 1910, Merkurov moved to Moscow and on November 7 was invited to make the death mask of L. N. Tolstoy. On April 12, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree “On Monuments of the Republic,” and on July 30, 1918, it approved a list of names of historical figures whose monuments were to be erected in Russian cities. By this time, Merkurov’s workshop already had two finished granite statues from this list - F. M. Dostoevsky, made in 1914 by order of millionaire Sharov, and L. N. Tolstoy, made in 1912. Dostoevsky’s sculpture was conceived by Merkurov in 1905 , then he sculpted about 20 busts of the writer before moving on to the statue's material - Swedish granite. The model for the statue of Dostoevsky was A. N. Vertinsky. This is evidenced by the statue’s hands clasped together in passionate impotence, like Piero Vertinsky’s. Merkurov proposed these ready-made statues to the Moscow Soviet and a special commission, headed by A.V. Lunacharsky, approved them on the proposal of the assistant people's commissar of property of the republic N. Vinogradov. This was Merkurov's first great success under the new government. Contemporaries perceived the monument to F. M. Dostoevsky critically:

Deeper and lower, towards a steep ascent,

where it is given with a bouquet in hand

Trubnaya Square, Tsvetnoy Boulevard,

where Dostoevsky froze in tetanus...

wrote the poet Ivan Pribludny. In the 1920s, Sergei Dmitrievich was a member of the Masonic lodge “United Labor Brotherhood”. During the period of the personality cult of Stalin, Merkurov became one of the first monumental sculptors who regularly received government orders for statues of Lenin and Stalin. He created a huge number of these monuments. He took the lead in creating the three most gigantic in size: a monument in Yerevan with a height of 49 m along with a pedestal; in Dubna there are monuments to Lenin and Stalin on both sides of the entrance to the Moscow Canal; and at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow. Art historians of the era respectfully noted the “Assyrian-Babylonian” power of these monuments. All of them were demolished during the Khrushchev “thaw” (only the monument to Lenin in Dubna survived). Member of the CPSU(b) since 1945. S. D. Merkurov died on June 8, 1952. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (site No. 2).

P.S. You can browse the entire album here!

Author of numerous monuments to J.V. Stalin (including the three largest on the territory of the USSR) and V.I. Lenin. People's Artist of the USSR (1943). Full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). From February 1944 to 1949 - director of the A. S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Winner of two Stalin Prizes of the first degree (1941, 1951). Member of the CPSU(b) since 1945. He brought the technique of death mask to a high art. He was also a member of the AHRR. Cousin of the mystic philosopher George Gurdjieff.

Biography

early years

Sergei Merkurov was born on October 26 (November 7), 1881 in the city of Alexandropol (now Gyumri in Armenia) in the family of an entrepreneur.

In 1901 he graduated from a real school in Tiflis and entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, but was soon expelled for participating in political unrest. In the fall of 1902, Merkurov continued his education in Switzerland at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zurich. At the same time, for the first time, I attended political debates with the participation of V.I. Lenin. Continuing to study philosophy, Merkurov became a student of the Swiss sculptor Adolf Mayer. Soon, on the advice of the latter, Merkurov entered the Munich Academy of Arts, where he studied until 1905 with Professor Wilhelm von Ruman. From the autumn of 1905 to 1907, Merkurov lived and worked in Paris. During this period, Merkurov became acquainted with the sculptural works of the Frenchman O. Rodin and the Belgian C. Meunier, which was reflected in his own works.

Russia

In 1907, already a sculptor, Merkurov returned to Russia and lived in Tiflis and Yalta. In the fall of 1910, Merkurov moved to Moscow and on November 7 was invited to make the death mask of L. N. Tolstoy.

Plan for "monumental propaganda"

On April 12, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree “On Monuments of the Republic,” and on July 30, 1918, it approved a list of names of historical figures whose monuments were to be erected in Russian cities. By this time, Merkurov’s workshop already had two finished granite statues from this list - F. M. Dostoevsky, made in 1914 by order of millionaire Sharov, and L. N. Tolstoy, made in 1912. Dostoevsky’s sculpture was conceived by Merkurov in 1905 , then he sculpted about 20 busts of the writer before moving on to the statue's material - Swedish granite. The model for the statue of Dostoevsky was A. N. Vertinsky. This is evidenced by the statue’s hands clasped together in passionate impotence, like Piero Vertinsky’s. Merkurov proposed these ready-made statues to the Moscow Soviet and a special commission, headed by A.V. Lunacharsky, approved them on the proposal of the assistant people's commissar of property of the republic N. Vinogradov. This was Merkurov's first great success under the new government.

Some contemporaries perceived the monument to F. M. Dostoevsky critically:

wrote the poet Ivan Pribludny, the prototype of the famous character of “The Master and Margarita” - Ivan Bezdomny.

Sergei Merkurov in the twenties was a member of the Masonic lodge “United Labor Brotherhood”.

The period of Stalin's personality cult

Merkurov became one of the first monumental sculptors who regularly received government orders for statues of Lenin and Stalin. He created a huge number of these monuments. He took the lead in creating the three most gigantic in size: a monument in Yerevan with a height of 49 m along with a pedestal; in Dubna there are monuments to Lenin and Stalin on both sides of the entrance to the Moscow Canal; and at the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow. Art historians of the era respectfully noted the “Assyrian-Babylonian” power of these monuments. But since the mid-1940s. sculptural images of leaders gave way to works by other authors - Tomsky, Vuchetich and others. And in 1952, during the reconstruction of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow, the self-collapsing monument to Stalin was dismantled. During the era of Khrushchev’s “thaw”, many monuments to Stalin were dismantled or destroyed, of which only one remained in Moscow - in the Museum of Arts Park in Moscow. And right up to perestroika, Merkurov was known in the history of Soviet sculpture as an unsurpassed master of the image of “Lenin,” many of which have not survived. But the largest monument to Lenin remains in Dubna. In 2011, a “new” monument to Lenin was opened at UFE - an exact copy of a similar monument on Tverskaya Square.

Member of the CPSU(b) since 1945.

S. D. Merkurov died on June 8, 1952. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (site No. 2).

Awards and prizes

• Stalin Prize of the first degree (1941) - for the sculptures of V. I. Lenin in the Meeting Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace and I. V. Stalin at the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition.
• Stalin Prize of the first degree (1951) - for the monument to J.V. Stalin in Yerevan.
• People's Artist of the USSR (1943).
• The order of Lenin
• two other orders and medals.

Memory

• In 1984, the Merkurov Museum opened in Gyumri in a house built in 1869 by the sculptor’s grandfather Fedor Merkurov. Sergei Merkurov is considered one of the outstanding Armenian sculptors.[not in the source][unauthorized source?]
• There is a monument to Merkurov in Izmailovsky Park in Moscow.
• Postage stamps dedicated to Merkurov were issued in the USSR and Armenia.
• A symbolic figure, granite “Thought”, 1913, installed on the author’s grave in 1956.

Monument to Merkurov in Izmailovsky Park in Moscow

The figure “Thought”, created by S. Merkurov in 1913, was installed on the grave of S. Merkurov at the Novodevichy cemetery in 1956.

Armenian stamp dedicated to Merkurov

USSR stamp dedicated to Merkurov

Works

Statues and monuments

• The granite statue of L. N. Tolstoy, 1913, was installed in 1972 near the building of the Tolstoy Museum on Prechistenka in Moscow.
• Statue, granite of F. M. Dostoevsky, 1911-13
• Monument to K. Marx, 1921, Simbirsk
• Monument to A.V. Vishnevsky Installed in front of the institute that bears his name.
• High relief "Execution of 26 Baku commissars", 1924-46, unveiled in Baku in 1958. Demolished in the 1990s.
• Monument to Dzerzhinsky in Stalingrad (1936)
• Two granite monumental sculptures of V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin on the Moscow Canal, 1937 (During the construction, up to twenty trains of coarse-grained gray-pink granite were used, and the weight of individual blocks reached one hundred tons.)
• Marble statue of V. I. Lenin for the meeting room, Supreme Soviet of the USSR 1939
• Granite sculptural monument to Lenin near the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow. 1940
• Busts on the graves of Y. M. Sverdlov, M. V. Frunze, F. E. Dzerzhinsky, M. I. Kalinin (1947) and A. A. Zhdanov (1949) in the Necropolis near the Kremlin wall in Moscow.
• Marble sculpture of J.V. Stalin at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, 1940.
• Statue of J.V. Stalin made of wrought copper in Yerevan, 1950.
• Numerous, often gigantic, granite statues of Lenin and Stalin.
• Monument to V.I. Lenin in Kyiv (1949)

Bust of K. Marx made by S.D. Merkurov. Located in the Park of Arts in Moscow

Bust of V.I. Lenin made by S.D. Merkurov. Located in the Park of Arts in Moscow

Monument to Dzerzhinsky in Volgograd.

Death masks (more than 300 in total)

• Catholicos Mkrtich I Khrimyan (the first death mask made by Merkurov)
• Lev Tolstoy
• Michael Bulgakov
• Andrey Bely
• Vasily Surikov
• Vladimir Lenin (Ulyanov)
• Maria Ulyanova
• Felix Dzerzhinsky
• Sergo Ordzhonikidze
• Georgy Plekhanov
• Yakov Sverdlov
• Clara Zetkin
• Valerian Kuibyshev
• Mikhail Frunze
• Vladimir Mayakovsky
• Sergei Eisenstein
• Kote Marjanishvili
• Boris Shaposhnikov
• Valery Chkalov

Tombstones

Tombstones near the Kremlin wall

• F. E. Dzerzhinsky
• A. A. Zhdanov
• M. I. Kalinin
• To Y. M. Sverdlov
• M. V. Frunze

Author's books

• Merkurov S. D. Notes of a sculptor, Moscow, Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Arts, 1953, 100 p.

Books about the sculptor

• Sergey Dmitrievich Merkurov, author of the introductory article by R. Abolin, series “Masters of Soviet Art”, - M.-L., - “Soviet Artist”, - 1950, 78 p.
• Sergey Merkurov, compiler G. S. Merkurov, author of the introductory article by I. G. Merkurov, - M., - “Fine Arts”, - 1988, 159 p.
• "Sergei Dmitrievich Merkurov. Memoirs. Letters. Articles. Notes. Judgments of contemporaries", compiled by G. S. Merkurov, 1991, author of the introductory article by I. G. Merkurov, - M., - “Kremlin Multimedia”, - 2012, 528 p. .

Sergei Dmitrievich Merkurov (sometimes Merkulov) - Russian artist and sculptor - was born in Alexandropol (now Gyumri, Armenia) on October 26 (November 7), 1881 in the family of an entrepreneur. He studied at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute (1901–1902), then at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zurich, while simultaneously learning the art of sculpting in the workshop of the sculptor A. Meyer; later studied at the Munich Academy of Arts (1902–1905). Worked in Paris; was greatly influenced by the art of symbolism, as well as sculptural archaism (Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt). Returning to Russia (1909), he lived in Moscow. Was a member of the AHRR.

S.D. Merkurov at work on the statue of L. Tolstoy

In his mature manner, he adhered to a kind of “academic” modernism, not embarking on risky experiments, but retaining the characteristic features of this style: the cult of “eternal themes,” especially the theme of death, the dramatic contrast of figure and material (stone block). Intending to become a philosopher, Merkurov introduced the motif of heavy, painful thought into his early images (the statue of F.M. Dostoevsky, 1911–1913, erected as a monument as part of the “monumental propaganda” plan in 1918; the personification figure of Thought, 1913, now at the grave author at the Novodevichy Cemetery; both monuments are granite).

He removed death masks many times, including from famous writers and politicians (L.N. Tolstoy, V.I. Lenin, A. Bely and others). Among his post-revolutionary works, the majestic and stern monument to K.A. Timiryazev (1922–1923) is widely known.

However, the greatest fame was brought to him by the monuments of leaders, also majestically and sternly (the funeral group Death of a Leader, granite, 1927, Central Lenin Museum, Lenin Hills; the statue of Lenin that adorned the meeting room of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR before its perestroika, marble, 1939, Kremlin; monuments to Lenin in Volgograd, Magnitogorsk, Ulyanovsk and a number of other cities).

According to Merkurov’s sketches, the three largest monuments to I.V. Stalin on the territory of the USSR were created: the first largest was the monument in Yerevan, the other two stood at the entrance to the Moscow Canal and at VDNH).

In 1937, which became a symbol of repression in the minds of many, on the channel named after. In Moscow, according to Merkurov’s design, two granite monumental sculptures of Lenin and Stalin were installed. Their construction required about twenty trainloads of coarse-grained gray-pink granite, with individual blocks weighing up to one hundred tons. 670 granite workers and about five thousand workers were employed at work. Most of the builders were prisoners.

In 1939, a marble sculpture of Stalin designed by Merkurov adorned the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.

After the war, Merkurov created another statue of the leader, this time from forged copper, for the memorial in Yerevan (height 49 m including pedestal; 1951). The crude “Assyrian-Babylonian” power of these images (all of them were dismantled during the “Thaw”) in its own way accurately and frankly expressed the “superhuman” cruel spirit of the Stalin era, which recognized only one Hero. For “Lenin” for the Kremlin and “Stalins” for VDNH and Yerevan, the sculptor was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1941 and 1951.

But Merkurov’s main concern in the last decades of his life was the numerous, sometimes gigantic, statues of Lenin and Stalin. Most often, these are also powerful granite blocks, retaining their ponderous indivisibility, polished to a mirror gloss and competing with the monuments of ancient Eastern rulers with their superhuman pathos.

Merkurov’s works predetermined the style of the official Soviet tombstone (granite busts-herms of Y.M. Sverdlov, F.E. Dzerzhinsky, M.V. Frunze, M.I. Kalinin, A.A. Zhdanov on Red Square near the Kremlin wall, late 1940 -x – early 1950s).

"Thought". Gobbro, porphyry. 1911-13. In 1955 it was installed on the grave of S. D. Merkurov at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

In 1953 his “Notes of a Sculptor” were published. His museum was opened in the master’s hometown (1984).

After the master’s death, the high relief monument “Execution of 26 Baku Commissars” was erected in Baku, on the creation of which he worked for many years (1924-1946).

Monument-high relief of S. Merkurov "Execution of 26 tank commissars." Granite. Installed in 1958, dismantled in the mid-1990s.

36 ll. Paper, watercolor. 18.5x24.5 cm. The so-called “Soviet erotic alphabet” by the monumental sculptor Sergei Dmitrievich Merkurov (1881-1952) - the author of numerous monuments to I.V. Stalin (including the three largest on the territory of the USSR) and V.I. Lenin. One can feel the strong influence of the French and South German schools of painting. The album is kept in a private collection.

The famous and catchphrase: “There is no sex in the USSR” most likely had a political background. If Lavrenty Beria himself can be called a successor to the work of the “sex machine” Grigory Rasputin, then, on the contrary, he is a respectable Soviet citizenSergei Dmitrievich Merkurov, winner of several Stalin prizes, - "strictly classified Russian Bayros." He signed this folder on the cover: watercolor drawings by I.I. Ivanov (1886-1924) and even indicated the years of his life. As if this had any significance for the workers of the “punishing sword of the revolution.” He became a People's Artist of the USSR in 1943, at the height of the Great Patriotic War, and a Full Member of the USSR Academy of Arts in 1947. From February 1944 to 1949 - director of the A. S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Winner of two Stalin Prizes of the first degree (1941, 1951). He brought the technique of death mask to a high art. He was also a member of the AHRR. Cousin of the mystic philosopher George Gurdjieff. Sergei Merkurov was born on October 26 (November 7), 1881 in the city of Alexandropol (now Gyumri in Armenia) in the family of an entrepreneur. In 1901 he graduated from a real school in Tiflis and entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, but was soon expelled for participating in political unrest. In the fall of 1902, Merkurov continued his education in Switzerland at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zurich. At the same time, for the first time, I attended political debates with the participation of V.I. Lenin. Continuing to study philosophy, Merkurov became a student of the Swiss sculptor Adolf Mayer. Soon, on the advice of the latter, Merkurov entered the Munich Academy of Arts, where he studied until 1905 with Professor Wilhelm von Ruman. From the autumn of 1905 to 1907, Merkurov lived and worked in Paris. During this period, Merkurov became acquainted with the sculptural works of the Frenchman O. Rodin and the Belgian C. Meunier, which was reflected in his own works. In 1907, already a sculptor, Merkurov returned to Russia and lived in Tiflis and Yalta. In the fall of 1910, Merkurov moved to Moscow and on November 7 was invited to make the death mask of L. N. Tolstoy. On April 12, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree “On Monuments of the Republic,” and on July 30, 1918, it approved a list of names of historical figures whose monuments were to be erected in Russian cities. By this time, Merkurov’s workshop already had two finished granite statues from this list - F. M. Dostoevsky, made in 1914 by order of millionaire Sharov, and L. N. Tolstoy, made in 1912. Dostoevsky’s sculpture was conceived by Merkurov in 1905 , then he sculpted about 20 busts of the writer before moving on to the material for the statue - Swedish granite. The model for the statue of Dostoevsky was A. N. Vertinsky. This is evidenced by the statue’s hands clasped together in passionate impotence, like Piero Vertinsky’s. Merkurov proposed these ready-made statues to the Moscow Soviet and a special commission, headed by A.V. Lunacharsky, approved them on the proposal of the assistant people's commissar of property of the republic N. Vinogradov. This was Merkurov's first great success under the new government. Contemporaries perceived the monument to F. M. Dostoevsky critically:

Deeper and lower, towards a steep ascent,

where it is given with a bouquet in hand

Trubnaya Square, Tsvetnoy Boulevard,

where Dostoevsky froze in tetanus...

wrote the poet Ivan Pribludny. In the 1920s, Sergei Dmitrievich was a member of the Masonic lodge “United Labor Brotherhood”. During the period of the personality cult of Stalin, Merkurov became one of the first monumental sculptors who regularly received government orders for statues of Lenin and Stalin. He created a huge number of these monuments. He took the lead in creating the three most gigantic in size: a monument in Yerevan with a height of 49 m along with a pedestal; in Dubna there are monuments to Lenin and Stalin on both sides of the entrance to the Moscow Canal; and at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow. Art historians of the era respectfully noted the “Assyrian-Babylonian” power of these monuments. All of them were demolished during the Khrushchev “thaw” (only the monument to Lenin in Dubna survived). Member of the CPSU(b) since 1945. S. D. Merkurov died on June 8, 1952. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (site No. 2).

Awards:

Sergey Dmitrievich Merkurov(Armenian Մերկուրով Սերգեյ Դմիտրիի ), (1881-1952) - Russian, Soviet (Armenian) sculptor-monumentalist. Director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in 1949.

Biography

early years

Sergei Merkurov was born on October 26 (November 7), 1881 in the city of Alexandropol (now Gyumri in Armenia) in the family of an Armenian Chalcedonian entrepreneur.

Figure “Thought” on the grave of S. D. Merkurov.jpg

Figure “Thought” (1913, later installed on the sculptor’s grave)

Lev Tolstoy by Merkurov (Prechistenka) by shakko 01.jpg

Monument to Leo Tolstoy (1913)

Plan for "monumental propaganda"

Some contemporaries perceived the monument to F. M. Dostoevsky critically:

Deeper and lower, towards a steep ascent,
where it is given away with a bouquet in hand
Trubnaya Square, Tsvetnoy Boulevard,
where Dostoevsky froze in tetanus...

Period of the cult of personality

Merkurov became one of the first monumental sculptors who regularly received government orders for statues of Lenin and Stalin. He created a huge number of these monuments. He took the lead in creating the three most gigantic in size: a monument in Yerevan 49 meters high along with a pedestal; in Dubna there are monuments to Lenin and Stalin on both sides of the entrance to the Moscow Canal; and at the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow. Art historians of the era respectfully noted the “Assyrian-Babylonian” power of these monuments. But since the mid-1940s, sculptural images of leaders gave way to the works of other authors - Tomsky, Vuchetich and others.
In 1952, during the reconstruction of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow, the self-collapsing monument to Stalin was dismantled.

• V. A. Gilyarovsky

Tombstones near the Kremlin wall

Author's books

• Merkurov S. D. Notes of a sculptor, Moscow, Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Arts, 1953. 100 pp.

Books about the sculptor

• Sergey Dmitrievich Merkurov, author of the introductory article by R. Abolin, series “Masters of Soviet Art”, - M.-L., - “Soviet Artist”, - 1950, 78 p.
• Sergey Dmitrievich Merkurov(folder-album), author of the introductory article by V. Tikhanov, - M., - "Soviet artist", - 1958, 15 ill.
• Sergey Merkurov, compiled by G. S. Merkurov, author of the introductory article by I. G. Merkurov, - M., - “Fine Arts”, - 1988, 159 p.
• « Sergey Dmitrievich Merkurov. Memories. Letters. Articles. Notes. Judgments of contemporaries", compiled by G. S. Merkurov, 1991, author of the introductory article by I. G. Merkurov, - M., - "Kremlin Multimedia", - 2012, 528 p.

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Notes

Links

• Merkurov Sergey Dmitrievich- article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

An excerpt characterizing Merkurov, Sergey Dmitrievich

- Call him, call him here!
Kutuzov sat with one leg hanging off the bed and his big belly leaning on the other, bent leg. He squinted his seeing eye to better examine the messenger, as if in his features he wanted to read what was occupying him.
“Tell me, tell me, my friend,” he said to Bolkhovitinov in his quiet, senile voice, covering the shirt that had opened on his chest. - Come, come closer. What news did you bring me? A? Has Napoleon left Moscow? Is it really so? A?
Bolkhovitinov first reported in detail everything that was ordered to him.
“Speak, speak quickly, don’t torment your soul,” Kutuzov interrupted him.
Bolkhovitinov told everything and fell silent, awaiting orders. Tol began to say something, but Kutuzov interrupted him. He wanted to say something, but suddenly his face squinted and wrinkled; He waved his hand at Tolya and turned in the opposite direction, towards the red corner of the hut, blackened by images.
- Lord, my creator! You heeded our prayer...” he said in a trembling voice, folding his hands. - Russia is saved. Thank you, Lord! - And he cried.

From the time of this news until the end of the campaign, all of Kutuzov’s activities consisted only in using power, cunning, and requests to keep his troops from useless offensives, maneuvers and clashes with the dying enemy. Dokhturov goes to Maloyaroslavets, but Kutuzov hesitates with the entire army and gives orders to cleanse Kaluga, retreat beyond which seems very possible to him.
Kutuzov retreats everywhere, but the enemy, without waiting for his retreat, runs back in the opposite direction.
Historians of Napoleon describe to us his skillful maneuver at Tarutino and Maloyaroslavets and make assumptions about what would have happened if Napoleon had managed to penetrate the rich midday provinces.
But without saying that nothing prevented Napoleon from going to these midday provinces (since the Russian army gave him the way), historians forget that Napoleon’s army could not be saved by anything, because it already carried in itself the inevitable conditions death. Why is this army, which found abundant food in Moscow and could not hold it, but trampled it under its feet, this army, which, having come to Smolensk, did not sort out the food, but plundered it, why could this army recover in the Kaluga province, inhabited by those the same Russians as in Moscow, and with the same property of fire to burn what they light?
The army could not recover anywhere. Since the Battle of Borodino and the sack of Moscow, it already carried within itself the chemical conditions of decomposition.
The people of this former army fled with their leaders without knowing where, wanting (Napoleon and each soldier) only one thing: to personally extricate themselves as soon as possible from that hopeless situation, which, although unclear, they were all aware of.
That is why, at the council in Maloyaroslavets, when, pretending that they, the generals, were conferring, presenting different opinions, the last opinion of the simple-minded soldier Mouton, who said what everyone thought, that it was only necessary to leave as soon as possible, closed all their mouths, and no one , even Napoleon, could not say anything against this universally recognized truth.
But although everyone knew that they had to leave, there was still the shame of knowing that they had to run. And an external push was needed that would overcome this shame. And this push came at the right time. This was what the French called le Hourra de l'Empereur [imperial cheer].
The next day after the council, Napoleon, early in the morning, pretending that he wanted to inspect the troops and the field of the past and future battle, with a retinue of marshals and a convoy, rode along the middle of the line of troops. The Cossacks, snooping around the prey, came across the emperor himself and almost caught him. If the Cossacks did not catch Napoleon this time, then what saved him was the same thing that was destroying the French: the prey that the Cossacks rushed to, both in Tarutino and here, abandoning people. They, not paying attention to Napoleon, rushed to the prey, and Napoleon managed to escape.
When les enfants du Don [the sons of the Don] could catch the emperor himself in the middle of his army, it was clear that there was nothing more to do but to flee as quickly as possible along the nearest familiar road. Napoleon, with his forty-year-old belly, no longer feeling his former agility and courage, understood this hint. And under the influence of the fear that he gained from the Cossacks, he immediately agreed with Mouton and gave, as historians say, the order to retreat back to the Smolensk road.
The fact that Napoleon agreed with Mouton and that the troops went back does not prove that he ordered this, but that the forces that acted on the entire army, in the sense of directing it along the Mozhaisk road, simultaneously acted on Napoleon.

When a person is in motion, he always comes up with a goal for this movement. In order to walk a thousand miles, a person needs to think that there is something good beyond these thousand miles. You need an idea of ​​the promised land in order to have the strength to move.
The promised land during the French advance was Moscow; during the retreat it was the homeland. But the homeland was too far away, and for a person walking a thousand miles, he certainly needs to say to himself, forgetting about the final goal: “Today I will come forty miles to a place of rest and lodging for the night,” and on the first journey this place of rest obscures the final goal and concentrates on yourself all the desires and hopes. Those aspirations that are expressed in an individual always increase in a crowd.
For the French, who went back along the old Smolensk road, the final goal of their homeland was too distant, and the nearest goal, the one to which all desires and hopes strove, in enormous proportions intensifying in the crowd, was Smolensk. Not because people knew that there was a lot of provisions and fresh troops in Smolensk, not because they were told this (on the contrary, the highest ranks of the army and Napoleon himself knew that there was little food there), but because this alone could give them the strength to move and endure real hardships. They, both those who knew and those who did not know, equally deceiving themselves as to the promised land, strove for Smolensk.
Having reached the high road, the French ran with amazing energy and unheard-of speed towards their imaginary goal. In addition to this reason of common desire, which united the crowds of French into one whole and gave them some energy, there was another reason that bound them. The reason was their number. Their huge mass itself, as in the physical law of attraction, attracted individual atoms of people. They moved with their hundred-thousand-strong mass as an entire state.
Each of them wanted only one thing - to be captured, to get rid of all horrors and misfortunes. But, on the one hand, the strength of the common desire for the goal of Smolensk carried each one in the same direction; on the other hand, it was impossible for the corps to surrender to the company as captivity, and, despite the fact that the French took every opportunity to get rid of each other and, at the slightest decent pretext, to surrender themselves into captivity, these pretexts did not always happen. Their very number and close, fast movement deprived them of this opportunity and made it not only difficult, but impossible for the Russians to stop this movement, towards which all the energy of the mass of the French was directed. Mechanical tearing of the body could not accelerate the decomposition process beyond a certain limit.
A lump of snow cannot be melted instantly. There is a known time limit before which no amount of heat can melt the snow. On the contrary, the more heat there is, the stronger the remaining snow becomes.
None of the Russian military leaders, except Kutuzov, understood this. When the direction of flight of the French army along the Smolensk road was determined, then what Konovnitsyn foresaw on the night of October 11 began to come true. All the highest ranks of the army wanted to distinguish themselves, cut off, intercept, capture, overthrow the French, and everyone demanded an offensive.
Kutuzov alone used all his strength (these forces are very small for each commander in chief) to counteract the offensive.
He could not tell them what we are saying now: why the battle, and blocking the road, and the loss of his people, and the inhuman finishing off of the unfortunate? Why all this, when one third of this army melted away from Moscow to Vyazma without a battle? But he told them, deducing from his old wisdom something that they could understand - he told them about the golden bridge, and they laughed at him, slandered him, and tore him, and threw him, and swaggered over the killed beast.
At Vyazma, Ermolov, Miloradovich, Platov and others, being close to the French, could not resist the desire to cut off and overturn two French corps. To Kutuzov, notifying him of their intention, they sent in an envelope, instead of a report, a sheet of white paper.
And no matter how hard Kutuzov tried to hold back the troops, our troops attacked, trying to block the road. The infantry regiments are said to have charged with music and drums and killed and lost thousands of men.
But cut off - no one was cut off or knocked over. And the French army, pulled together tighter from danger, continued, gradually melting, its same disastrous path to Smolensk.

The Battle of Borodino, with the subsequent occupation of Moscow and the flight of the French, without new battles, is one of the most instructive phenomena in history.
All historians agree that the external activities of states and peoples, in their clashes with each other, are expressed by wars; that directly, as a result of greater or lesser military successes, the political power of states and peoples increases or decreases.
No matter how strange the historical descriptions are of how some king or emperor, having quarreled with another emperor or king, gathered an army, fought with the enemy army, won a victory, killed three, five, ten thousand people and, as a result, conquered the state and an entire people of several millions; no matter how incomprehensible it may be why the defeat of one army, one hundredth of all the forces of the people, forced the people to submit, all the facts of history (as far as we know it) confirm the justice of the fact that greater or lesser successes of the army of one people against the army of another people are the reasons or, according to at least significant signs of an increase or decrease in the strength of nations. The army was victorious, and the rights of the victorious people immediately increased to the detriment of the vanquished. The army suffered defeat, and immediately, according to the degree of defeat, the people are deprived of their rights, and when their army is completely defeated, they are completely subjugated.
This has been the case (according to history) from ancient times to the present day. All Napoleon's wars serve as confirmation of this rule. According to the degree of defeat of the Austrian troops, Austria is deprived of its rights, and the rights and strength of France increase. The French victory at Jena and Auerstätt destroys the independent existence of Prussia.
But suddenly in 1812 the French won a victory near Moscow, Moscow was taken, and after that, without new battles, not Russia ceased to exist, but the army of six hundred thousand ceased to exist, then Napoleonic France. It is impossible to stretch the facts to the rules of history, to say that the battlefield in Borodino remained with the Russians, that after Moscow there were battles that destroyed Napoleon’s army.
After the Borodino victory of the French, there was not a single general battle, but not a single significant one, and the French army ceased to exist. What does it mean? If this were an example from the history of China, we could say that this phenomenon is not historical (a loophole for historians when something does not fit their standards); if the matter concerned a short-term conflict, in which small numbers of troops were involved, we could accept this phenomenon as an exception; but this event took place before the eyes of our fathers, for whom the issue of life and death of the fatherland was being decided, and this war was the greatest of all known wars...
The period of the 1812 campaign from the Battle of Borodino to the expulsion of the French proved that a won battle is not only not the reason for conquest, but is not even a permanent sign of conquest; proved that the power that decides the fate of peoples lies not in the conquerors, not even in armies and battles, but in something else.
French historians, describing the position of the French army before leaving Moscow, claim that everything in the Great Army was in order, except for the cavalry, artillery and convoys, and there was no fodder to feed horses and cattle. Nothing could help this disaster, because the surrounding men burned their hay and did not give it to the French.
The won battle did not bring the usual results, because the men Karp and Vlas, who after the French came to Moscow with carts to plunder the city and did not personally show heroic feelings at all, and all the countless number of such men did not carry hay to Moscow for the good money that they They offered it, but they burned it.

Let's imagine two people who went out to duel with swords according to all the rules of fencing art: fencing lasted for quite a long time; suddenly one of the opponents, feeling wounded - realizing that this was not a joke, but concerned his life, threw down his sword and, taking the first club he came across, began to swing it. But let us imagine that the enemy, having so wisely used the best and simplest means to achieve his goal, at the same time inspired by the traditions of chivalry, would want to hide the essence of the matter and would insist that he, according to all the rules of art, won with swords. One can imagine what confusion and ambiguity would arise from such a description of the duel that took place.
The fencers who demanded fighting according to the rules of art were the French; his opponent, who threw down his sword and raised his club, were Russians; people who try to explain everything according to the rules of fencing are historians who wrote about this event.
Since the fire of Smolensk, a war began that did not fit any previous legends of war. The burning of cities and villages, retreat after battles, Borodin’s attack and retreat again, abandonment and fire of Moscow, catching marauders, rehiring transports, guerrilla warfare - all these were deviations from the rules.
Napoleon felt this, and from the very time when he stopped in Moscow in the correct pose of a fencer and instead of the enemy’s sword he saw a club raised above him, he never ceased to complain to Kutuzov and Emperor Alexander that the war was waged contrary to all the rules (as if there were some rules for killing people). Despite the complaints of the French about non-compliance with the rules, despite the fact that the Russians, the people of higher position, seemed for some reason ashamed to fight with a club, but wanted, according to all the rules, to take the position en quarte or en tierce [fourth, third], to make a skillful lunge in prime [the first], etc. - the club of the people's war rose with all its formidable and majestic strength and, without asking anyone's tastes and rules, with stupid simplicity, but with expediency, without considering anything, it rose, fell and nailed the French until those until the entire invasion was destroyed.

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