Merkurov Sergei Dmitrievich, Soviet muralist, People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). Member of the CPSU since 1945. Studied at the Academy of Arts (1902-05) in Munich. Until 1909 he worked in Paris. M. went through a difficult creative path. But his early works are also sublimely symbolic, sometimes not devoid of stylization features in the spirit of the “Modern” style. ,
and more adequately recreating the appearance of a person, the works of the mature period are marked by a search for great social content in art. In an effort to create a heroic image, M. turned to monolithic volumes and sometimes a somewhat static composition, enhancing the monumentality of generalized forms. Works: a statue of F. M. Dostoevsky (granite, 1911-13, installed in 1918; see. ill.
) and a monument to K. A. Timiryazev (granite, 1922-23) - installed in Moscow according to the Leninist plan for monumental propaganda (See. Monumental propaganda) ;
high relief "The shooting of 26 Baku commissars" (granite, 1924-46, installed in 1958 in Baku); the Death of a Leader group (granite, 1927-1947, installed in Gorki Leninskie in 1958); a monument to Stepan Shaumyan in Yerevan (granite, 1931); a statue of V. I. Lenin on the Moscow Canal (granite, 1937); statues of V. I. Lenin in the Conference Hall in the Grand Kremlin Palace (marble, 1939) and I. V. Stalin at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (granite, 1939-40) - both in Moscow, State Prize of the USSR, 1941; statue for the monument to I. V. Stalin in Yerevan (forged copper, 1950; State Prize of the USSR, 1951). Director of the Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin in Moscow (since 1944). He was awarded the Order of Lenin, 2 other orders, as well as medals. Cit.: Notes of a sculptor, M., 1953. Lit.:[Tikhanova V.], S. D. Merkurov. [Album], M., 1958.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .
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Merkurov, Sergey Dmitrievich Sergey Merkurov Sergey Merkurov at work Date of birth: October 26 (7 ... Wikipedia
Sergei Dmitrievich (1881 1952), sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). A laconically generalized form of Merkurov's early works (a monument to K. A. Timiryazev in Moscow, 1922-23) in the 30s and 50s. transformed into ... Russian history
Sergey Merkurov Date of birth: November 7 (October 26), 1881 Place of birth: Alexandropol, Russian Empire Date of death: June 8, 1952 ... Wikipedia
MERKESHIN MERKULOV MERKULYEV MERKUROV MERKURYEV MERKUKHIN MERKUSHEV MERKUSHIN MERKIN These purely Russian surnames, oddly enough, go back to the ancient Roman god, the patron of trade, Mercury, depicted with wings on his feet. Ancient Romans ... ... Russian surnames
Merkurov S. D.- MERKUROV Sergey Dmitrievich (18811952), sculptor, Nar. thin USSR (1943), Ph.D. Academy of Arts of the USSR (1947). Laconically generalized form of early products. M. (memorial to K.A. Timiryazev in Moscow, 192223) in the 3050s. transformed into... Biographical Dictionary
Soviet muralist sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). Member of the CPSU since 1945. Studied at the Academy of Arts (1902–05) in Munich. Before 1909... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- (1881 1952), Soviet sculptor muralist. People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). He studied at the Academy of Arts in Munich (1902-05), until 1909 he worked in Paris. Member of the AHRR (since 1925). Director of the Pushkin Museum (1945-50). Participated in… … Art Encyclopedia
- (1881 1952) Russian sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). He embodied heroic images in monumental, generalized forms (monument to K. A. Timiryazev, 1922 23, Moscow; high relief Execution of 26 Baku ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Books
- Mausoleum of Scythian Naples, P. Schultz. The discovery and excavation of the mausoleum of Scythian Naples with its numerous burials of representatives of the Scythian nobility was carried out by the Taurus-Scythian archaeological expedition, organized in ...
Merkurov Sergey Dmitrievich- Sergey Merkurov Date of birth: November 7 (October 26), 1881 Place of birth: Alexandropol, Russian Empire Date of death: June 8, 1952 ... Wikipedia
Merkurov Sergey Dmitrievich- , Soviet muralist sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). Member of the CPSU since 1945. Studied at the Academy of Arts (1902–05) in Munich. Before 1909... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Merkurov Sergey Dmitrievich- (1881 1952), Soviet sculptor muralist. People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). He studied at the Academy of Arts in Munich (1902-05), until 1909 he worked in Paris. Member of the AHRR (since 1925). Director of the Pushkin Museum (1945-50). Participated in… … Art Encyclopedia
MERKUROV Sergey Dmitrievich- (1881 1952) Russian sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). He embodied heroic images in monumental, generalized forms (monument to K. A. Timiryazev, 1922 23, Moscow; high relief Execution of 26 Baku ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Merkurov Sergey Dmitrievich- (1881 1952), sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). A laconically generalized form of Merkurov's early works (a monument to K. A. Timiryazev in Moscow, 1922-23), in the 30s and 50s. transformed into... encyclopedic Dictionary
Merkurov Sergey Dmitrievich- (1881, Alexandropol, Armenia, 1952, Moscow), muralist sculptor, full member (1947), People's Artist of the USSR (1943). Member (since 1925). He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (190205). In Moscow since 1910. He took off his death mask ... Moscow (encyclopedia)
Merkurov, Sergey Dmitrievich- Genus. 1881, mind. 1952. Sculptor muralist. The author of the monument to K. A. Timiryazev (1922 23, Moscow), the high relief "The shooting of 26 Baku commissars" (1924 46, Baku), the monument to V. I. Lenin on the canal named after. Moscow (1937) and others. Twice laureate ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia
36 pp. Paper, watercolor. 18.5x24.5 cm. The so-called "Soviet erotic alphabet" of the monumental sculptor Sergei Dmitrievich Merkurov (1881-1952) - the author of numerous monuments to I.V. Stalin (including the three largest in 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" was most likely politically motivated. If Lavrenty Beria himself can be called the successor of Grigory Rasputin's "sex machine", then, on the contrary, a respectable Soviet citizenSergei Dmitrievich Merkurov, winner of several Stalinist prizes, - "highly classified Russian Byros". 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 it mattered to 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 he was director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Laureate of two Stalin Prizes of the first degree (1941, 1951). He brought the technique of the death mask to a high art. He was also a member of the AHRR. Cousin of the mystic philosopher George Gurdjieff. Sergey 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 Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, but was soon expelled for participating in political unrest. In the autumn 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, he 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 Ryuman (Wilghelm von Ruman). From autumn 1905 to 1907 Merkurov lived and worked in Paris. During this period, Merkurov got 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 autumn of 1910, Merkurov moved to Moscow and on November 7 he was invited to make the death mask of Leo Tolstoy. On April 12, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree "On the Monuments of the Republic", and on July 30, 1918 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 the millionaire Sharov, and L. N. Tolstoy, made in 1912. The sculpture of Dostoevsky was conceived by Merkurov in 1905 , then he sculpted about 20 busts of the writer, before moving on to the material of the statue - Swedish granite. The model for the statue of Dostoevsky was A. N. Vertinsky. This is evidenced by the hands of the statue, clasped in passionate impotence, like those of Piero Vertinsky. Merkurov offered these ready-made statues to the Moscow City Council and a special commission headed by A. V. Lunacharsky approved them on the proposal of N. Vinogradov, assistant people's commissar of property of the republic. This was Merkurov's first big success under the new government. Contemporaries took the monument to F. M. Dostoevsky critically:
Deeper and lower, to the steep rise,
where is given with a bouquet in hand
Trubnaya Square to 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 state orders for statues of Lenin and Stalin. He created a huge number of these monuments. He holds the first place in the creation of the three most gigantic in size: a monument in Yerevan with a height of 49 m, along with a pedestal; in Dubna, monuments to Lenin and Stalin on two sides of the entrance to the Moscow Canal; and at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow. The art historians of the era respectfully noted the "Assyro-Babylonian" power of these monuments. All of them were demolished during Khrushchev's "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 (plot No. 2).
Russian alphabet of 36 letters from A to Izhitsa. Album of erotic drawings. Drawn by S.D. Merkurov. 17-X-1931.
36 pp. Paper, watercolor. 18.5x24.5 cm. The so-called "Soviet erotic alphabet" of the monumental sculptor Sergei Dmitrievich Merkurov (1881-1952) - the author of numerous monuments to I.V. Stalin (including the three largest in 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" was most likely politically motivated. If Lavrenty Beria himself can be called the successor of the "sex machine" Grigory Rasputin, then, on the contrary, the respectable Soviet citizen Sergei Dmitrievich Merkurov, winner of several Stalinist awards, is "a strictly classified Russian Bairos." 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 it mattered to 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 he was director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Laureate of two Stalin Prizes of the first degree (1941, 1951). He brought the technique of the death mask to a high art. He was also a member of the AHRR. Cousin of the mystic philosopher George Gurdjieff. Sergey 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 Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, but was soon expelled for participating in political unrest. In the autumn 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, he 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 Ryuman (Wilghelm von Ruman). From autumn 1905 to 1907 Merkurov lived and worked in Paris. During this period, Merkurov got 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 autumn of 1910, Merkurov moved to Moscow and on November 7 he was invited to make the death mask of Leo Tolstoy. On April 12, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree "On the Monuments of the Republic", and on July 30, 1918 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 the millionaire Sharov, and L. N. Tolstoy, made in 1912. The sculpture of Dostoevsky was conceived by Merkurov in 1905 , then he sculpted about 20 busts of the writer, before moving on to the material of the statue - Swedish granite. The model for the statue of Dostoevsky was A. N. Vertinsky. This is evidenced by the hands of the statue, clasped in passionate impotence, like those of Piero Vertinsky. Merkurov offered these ready-made statues to the Moscow City Council and a special commission headed by A. V. Lunacharsky approved them on the proposal of N. Vinogradov, assistant people's commissar of property of the republic. This was Merkurov's first big success under the new government. Contemporaries perceived the monument to F. M. Dostoevsky critically:
Deeper and lower, to the steep rise,
where is given with a bouquet in hand
Trubnaya Square to 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 state orders for statues of Lenin and Stalin. He created a huge number of these monuments. He holds the first place in the creation of the three most gigantic in size: a monument in Yerevan with a height of 49 m, along with a pedestal; in Dubna, monuments to Lenin and Stalin on two sides of the entrance to the Moscow Canal; and at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow. The art historians of the era respectfully noted the "Assyro-Babylonian" power of these monuments. All of them were demolished during Khrushchev's "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 (plot No. 2).
P.S. You can browse the entire album here!
Sergei Dmitrievich Merkurov(arm. 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 Chalcedonite 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)
"monumental propaganda" plan
Some contemporaries took the monument to F. M. Dostoevsky critically:Deeper and lower, to the steep rise,
where it is given with a bouquet in hand
Trubnaya Square to Tsvetnoy Boulevard,
where Dostoevsky froze in tetanus ...
The period of the cult of personality
Merkurov became one of the first monumental sculptors who regularly received state orders for statues of Lenin and Stalin. He created a huge number of these monuments. He owns the championship in the creation of the three most gigantic in size: a monument in Yerevan with a height of 49 meters along with a pedestal; in Dubna, monuments to Lenin and Stalin on two sides of the entrance to the Moscow Canal; and at the VSHV in Moscow. The art historians of the era respectfully noted the "Assyro-Babylonian" power of these monuments. But from the mid-1940s, the sculptural images of the leaders gave way to the works of other authors - Tomsky, Vuchetich and others.
In 1952, during the reconstruction of the All-Union 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. Sculptor's Notes, Moscow, Publishing House of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, 1953. 100 pages
Books about the sculptor
- Sergei Dmitrievich Merkurov, author of the introductory article by R. Abolin, series "Masters of Soviet Art", - M. - L., - "Soviet Artist", - 1950, 78 p.
- Sergei 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.
- « Sergei Dmitrievich Merkurov. Memories. Letters. Articles. Notes. Judgments of contemporaries”, compiled by G. S. Merkurov, 1991, author of the introductory article by I. G. Merkurova, - 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, call him here!Kutuzov sat with one leg down from the bed and leaning his big belly on the other, bent leg. He squinted his sighted eye in order to better examine the messenger, as if he wanted to read in his features what interested him.
“Tell me, tell me, my friend,” he said to Bolkhovitinov in his quiet, old voice, closing the shirt that was open on his chest. - Come, come closer. What news did you bring me? BUT? Did Napoleon leave Moscow? Is it really so? BUT?
Bolkhovitinov reported in detail at first everything that he was ordered to.
“Speak, speak quickly, do not torment your soul,” Kutuzov interrupted him.
Bolkhovitinov told everything and fell silent, waiting for the order. Tol began to say something, but Kutuzov interrupted him. He wanted to say something, but suddenly his face narrowed, wrinkled; he, waving his hand at Tolya, 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. - Saved Russia. Thank you Lord! And he cried.
From the time of this news until the end of the campaign, Kutuzov’s entire activity consists only in using power, cunning, and requests to keep his troops from useless offensives, maneuvers and clashes with a dying enemy. Dokhturov goes to Maloyaroslavets, but Kutuzov hesitates with the whole army and gives orders to clear Kaluga, a retreat beyond which seems to him very possible.
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 on Tarutino and Maloyaroslavets and make assumptions about what would have happened if Napoleon had managed to penetrate into the rich midday provinces.
But apart from the fact 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 this army, which found abundant food in Moscow and could not keep it, but trampled it underfoot, this army, which, having come to Smolensk, did not sort out 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 is lit?
The army could not recover anywhere. She, from the battle of Borodino and the robbery of Moscow, already carried in herself, as it were, the chemical conditions of decomposition.
The people of this former army fled with their leaders not knowing where, desiring (Napoleon and every soldier) only one thing: to get out personally as soon as possible from that hopeless situation, which, although unclear, they were all aware of.
Only for this reason, at the council in Maloyaroslavets, when, pretending that they, the generals, were conferring, giving different opinions, the last opinion of the simple-hearted soldier Mouton, who said that everyone thought that they only had to leave as soon as possible, all mouths were closed, 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 to overcome this shame. And this impulse came at the right time. It was the so-called French le Hourra de l "Empereur [imperial cheer].
The next day after the council, Napoleon, early in the morning, pretending to want to inspect the troops and the field of the past and future battle, with a retinue of marshals and an escort, rode in the middle of the line of troops. The Cossacks, snooping about the prey, stumbled upon the emperor himself and almost caught him. If the Cossacks did not catch Napoleon this time, then he was saved by the same thing that ruined the French: prey, on which both in Tarutino and here, leaving people, the Cossacks rushed. They, not paying attention to Napoleon, rushed to the prey, and Napoleon managed to get away.
When les enfants du Don [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 run as soon as possible along the nearest familiar road. Napoleon, with his forty-year-old belly, not feeling in himself the former agility and courage, understood this hint. And under the influence of fear, which 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 it, 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 the purpose of this movement. In order to walk a thousand miles, a person needs to think that there is something good behind these thousand miles. You need a vision of the promised land in order to have the strength to move.
The promised land during the French offensive was Moscow, during the retreat was the homeland. But the motherland was too far away, and for a person walking a thousand miles, one must certainly say to oneself, 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 transition this place of rest obscures the final goal and concentrates all desires and hopes. Those aspirations that are expressed in an individual are always increased in a crowd.
For the French, who went back along the old Smolensk road, the ultimate goal of the homeland was too distant, and the nearest goal, the one to which, in a huge proportion, strengthening in the crowd, all desires and hopes aspired, was Smolensk. Not because people knew that there were 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 were few provisions), but because this alone could give them the strength to move and endure real hardships. They, and those who knew, and those who did not know, equally deceiving themselves, as if to the promised land, strove for Smolensk.
Coming out on the main road, the French with amazing energy, with unheard-of speed, ran towards their fictitious goal. In addition to this reason for the common striving, which connected the crowds of the French into one whole and gave them some energy, there was another reason that connected them. The reason for this was their number. The very huge mass of them, as in the physical law of attraction, attracted individual atoms of people to itself. They moved with their one hundred thousandth mass as a whole state.
Each of them wanted only one thing - to surrender to captivity, to get rid of all the horrors and misfortunes. But, on the one hand, the strength of the common desire for the goal of Smolensk carried everyone in the same direction; on the other hand, it was impossible for a corps to surrender to a company, and, despite the fact that the French used every opportunity to get rid of each other and surrender to captivity at the slightest decent pretext, these pretexts did not always happen. Their very number and their close, rapid movement deprived them of this opportunity and made it not only difficult but impossible for the Russians to stop this movement, to which all the energy of the mass of the French was directed. The mechanical tearing of the body could not hasten the ongoing process of decomposition beyond a certain limit.
A lump of snow cannot be melted instantly. There is a certain time limit before which no effort of heat can melt the snow. On the contrary, the more heat, the stronger the remaining snow.
Of the Russian military leaders, no one except Kutuzov understood this. When the direction of the 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 higher ranks of the army wanted to distinguish themselves, cut off, intercept, captivate, overturn the French, and everyone demanded an offensive.
Kutuzov alone used all his forces (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 fight, and block the road, and lose his people, and inhumanly finish off the unfortunate? Why all this, when one third of this army melted away from Moscow to Vyazma without a fight? But he spoke to them, deducing from his senile wisdom what they could understand - he spoke to them about the golden bridge, and they laughed at him, slandered him, and tore, and threw, and swaggered over the killed beast.
Near Vyazma, Yermolov, Miloradovich, Platov and others, being close to the French, could not resist the desire to cut off and overturn two French corps. Kutuzov, informing 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 keep the troops, our troops attacked, trying to block the road. The infantry regiments, as they say, with music and drumming went on the attack and beaten and lost thousands of people.
But cut off - no one was cut off or knocked over. And the French army, pulling closer from danger, continued, evenly melting, all the same disastrous path to Smolensk.
The battle of Borodino, followed by the occupation of Moscow and the flight of the French, without new battles, is one of the most instructive phenomena of history.
All historians agree that the external activity of states and peoples, in their clashes with each other, is expressed by wars; that directly, as a result of greater or lesser military successes, the political strength of states and peoples increases or decreases.
No matter how strange the historical descriptions of how some king or emperor, having quarreled with another emperor or king, gathered an army, fought with the army of the enemy, won a victory, killed three, five, ten thousand people and, as a result, conquered the state and the whole people in several million; no matter how incomprehensible 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) 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 causes or, according to at least essential signs of an increase or decrease in the strength of the peoples. The army won, and immediately the rights of the victorious people increased to the detriment of the defeated. The army has suffered a defeat, and immediately, according to the degree of defeat, the people are deprived of their rights, and with the complete defeat of their army, they completely submit.
So it has been (according to history) from ancient times to the present. All the wars of Napoleon 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 forces of France increase. The victory of the French at Jena and Auerstet 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 an army of 600,000 ceased to exist, then Napoleonic France. It is impossible to force facts on the rules of history, to say that the battlefield in Borodino was left to the Russians, that after Moscow there were battles that destroyed Napoleon's army - it is impossible.
After the Borodino victory of the French, there was not a single not only general, but any significant battle, 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 of historians when something does not fit their standard); if it were a case of a short-term clash in which small numbers of troops would participate, we could take this phenomenon as an exception; but this event took place before the eyes of our fathers, for whom the question of life and death of the fatherland was decided, and this war was the greatest of all known wars ...
The period of the campaign of 1812 from the Battle of Borodino to the expulsion of the French proved that a won battle is not only not the cause of conquest, but not even a permanent sign of conquest; proved that the power that decides the fate of peoples lies not in the conquerors, even in armies and battles, but in something else.
French historians, describing the position of the French army before leaving Moscow, argue that everything in the Great Army was in order, except for cavalry, artillery and carts, but there was no fodder for horses and cattle. Nothing could help this disaster, because the surrounding peasants burned their hay and did not give it to the French.
The battle won did not bring the usual results, because the peasants Karp and Vlas, who, after the French had come to Moscow with carts to rob the city, did not personally show heroic feelings at all, and all the countless number of such peasants did not bring hay to Moscow for the good money that they offered, but burned it.
Let's imagine two people who went out to a duel with swords according to all the rules of fencing art: fencing went on for quite a long time; suddenly one of the opponents, feeling wounded - realizing that this was not a joke, but about his life, threw down his sword and, taking the first club that came across, began to turn it around. But let us imagine that the enemy, having so wisely used the best and simplest means to achieve the 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 obscurity would result from such a description of the duel that took place.
The fencer who demanded the fight according to the rules of the art was the French; his opponent, who dropped 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 has begun that does not fit under any previous legends of wars. The burning of cities and villages, the retreat after battles, the blow of Borodin and the retreat again, the abandonment and fire of Moscow, the catching of marauders, the capture of transports, the guerrilla war - all these were deviations from the rules.
Napoleon felt this, and from the very time when he stopped in Moscow in the correct posture of a swordsman and saw a cudgel raised above him instead of the enemy’s sword, he did not stop complaining to Kutuzov and Emperor Alexander that the war was being waged against all the rules (as if there were what are the rules for killing people). Despite the complaints of the French about non-compliance with the rules, despite the fact that for some reason the Russians, the highest in position, seemed ashamed to fight with a cudgel, but they wanted by all the rules to become en quarte or en tierce [fourth, third], to make a skillful fall into prime [first], etc., - the cudgel 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 analyzing anything, rose, fell and nailed the French to those until the whole invasion has perished.