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Special pages :
Barclay de Tolly
| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 15 September 1857 |
Reproduced from The New American Cyclopaedia
Source : Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 18
Engels’ letter to Marx of September 10, 1857 and his biographical sketches of Bennigsen and Barclay enclosed in it show that the article “Barclay de Tolly” was a joint work of Marx and Engels, though the final editing was done by Marx. Besides reference books the authors used the following sources when writing this article: Martens’ collected treatises and conventions, A. H. Jomini’s Vie politique et militaire de Napoléon (Vol. 4, Paris, 1827) and Th. von Bernhardi’s Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben des ... Grafen von Toll (Vol. 2, Leipzig, 1856). In these books Russia’s Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon’s invasion is described tendentiously, which was bound to tell on the elucidation of some of its aspects in the articles written by Marx and Engels, who did not have more objective sources to hand at the time. This article, for example, contains inaccuracies in explaining why Mikhail Kutuzov was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian army and why he abandoned the position at Gzhatsk (more precisely at Tsarevo-Zaimishche). His role in subsequent Russian military operations is also presented inaccurately. Barclay de Tolly is wrongly opposed to Kutuzov, for the former, though an outstanding Russian military leader and patriot, was far inferior to Kutuzov as regards strategic talent, the understanding of the character of the war, military experience and popularity among the army and the people. These were precisely the reasons why Kutuzov was appointed commander-in-chief under pressure from public opinion and despite Alexander I’s dislike for him.
On this article’s dispatch to New York see the previous note.
Barclay de Tolly, Michel, Russian prince and field-marshal, born in Livonia in I759,[1] died at Insterburg, in East Prussia, May 25, 1818. In 1769, when not yet 11, he entered the Russian army, and served during 29 years in its different campaigns against the Turks, Swedes, and Poles, but did not emerge from the inferior ranks before 1798. He distinguished himself in the campaign of 1806. His military reputation dates from the year 1807, when, at the head of the Russian vanguard, he most gallantly defended Prussian Eylau, making a prolonged stand in the streets, the church, and the churchyard of that town.[2] In 1808 he forced the Swedes back into Carelia, and, in 1809, as general of infantry, imitated, on a much larger scale, the celebrated march of Charles Gustavus over the frozen waters of the Little Belt, by marching 12,000 Russians with artillery, ammunition, provisions, and baggage, over the ice which covered the gulf of Bothnia. He took Umea, accelerated by his appearance the revolution preparing against Gustavus IV, and compelled the Swedes to sue for peace.[3] After 1810 he was intrusted with the direction of the Russian war ministry.
In 1812 he assumed the command of the 1st army of the west. Its principal corps, at the head of which he placed himself, and which official reports had swollen to 550,000 men, proved, in fact, to consist of 104,000 only, while the aggregate of the troops, stationed from the coasts of the Baltic to the banks of the Pruth, did not muster beyond 200,000. Thus the retreat of the Russian army, the original design of which Napoleon, in his memorials of St. Helena,[4] falsely attributed to Barclay de Tolly, and which, long before the rupture between Russia and France, had been elaborated by the Prussian general, Phull,[5] and after the declaration of war, was again pressed upon Alexander by Bernadotte, had now become not a thing of choice, but of dire necessity. While Barclay de Tolly had the great merit of resisting the ignorant clamors for battle which arose from the Russian rank and file, as well as from headquarters, he executed the retreat with remarkable ability, incessantly engaging some part of his troops in order to afford to Prince Bagration the means of effecting a junction with him, and to Admiral Tschitschagoff the facilities for falling in the rear of the enemy. When forced to a battle, as at Smolensk,[6] he took a position which prevented the battle from becoming decisive. When, not far from Moscow, a decisive battle was no longer to be avoided, he selected the strong position of Gzhatsk, hardly to be assailed in the front, and to be turned only by very extended roundabout ways.[7] He had already posted his army when Kutusoff arrived, in whose hands the intrigues of the Russian generals, and the murmurs of the Muscovite army against the foreigner heading the holy war, had placed the supreme command. Out of spite against Barclay de Tolly, Kutusoff abandoned the lines of Gzhatsk, in consequence of which the Russian army had to accept battle in the unfavorable position of the Borodino. During that battle, Aug. 26,[8] Barclay, commanding the right wing, was the only general who held his post, not retiring until the 27th, thus covering the retreat of the Russian army, which, but for him, would have been completely destroyed. After the retreat from the Borodino, beyond Moscow, it was Barclay de Tolly again who prevented any useless attempt at a defence of the holy city.
During the campaign of 1813, Barclay took the fortress of Thorn,[9] April 4,[10]1813, vanquished Lauriston at Königswartha, covered, after the defeat of Bautzen, May 8,[11] the retreat of the allied army, won the battle of Görlitz, contributed to Vandamme’s capitulation, and distinguished himself in the battle of Leipsic.[12] During the campaign of 1814 he commanded no independent corps, and acted in an administrative and diplomatical, rather than in a military character. By the stern discipline he imposed upon the troops under his immediate control, he won the good opinions of the French people. On Napoleon's return from Elba, he arrived too late from Poland to assist at the battle of Waterloo,[13] but partook in the second invasion of France. He died on a journey to the bath of Carlsbad. The last years of his life were darkened by calumny. He was, beyond question, the best of Alexander's generals, unpretending, persevering, resolute, and full of common sense.
- ↑ Barclay de Tolly was born in 1761.—Ed.
- ↑ A reference to the battle of Preussisch-Eylau (East Prussia) on February 7-8, 1807 between the French and the Russian army (which also included Prussian units) during the war of the fourth coalition (Britain, Russia, Prussia and Sweden) against France. After the defeat of the Prussian army by Napoleon in 1806 the main theatre of war shifted to East Prussia, where Napoleon came up against stubborn resistance from the allied army of Russia and Prussia. This battle was indecisive (see also Marx and Engels' article "Bennigsen", this volume, pp. 77-78).
- ↑ In March 1809 (during the Russo-Swedish war of 1808-09), Russian forces under Barclay de Tolly entered Swedish territory from Finland. This accelerated the carrying out of the Swedish aristocracy’s plot against Gustavus Adolphus to limit the King’s power in favour of the aristocratic oligarchy. In March 1809 Gustavus Adolphus was deposed and soon after his uncle, the Duke of Zudermanland, was proclaimed king under the name of Charles XIII. In September Sweden was compelled to sign the Frederickshamm Peace Treaty with Tsarist Russia (see Note 9). A similar operation had earlier been undertaken by the Swedes themselves during the Danish-Swedish war of 1657-58: in January 1658, the Swedish army under Charles X invaded Denmark across the ice-bound straits of the Little and the Great Belt and forced it to conclude a peace treaty advantageous to Sweden.
- ↑ Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de France, sous Napoléon, écrits à Sainte-Hélène.— Ed
- ↑ According to PhulFs plan, if Napoleon invaded Russia, the Russian armed forces were to be divided into three armies. One army was to repulse the enemy's main blow relying on an entrenched camp in Drissa built for the purpose in 1811-12, while the other two armies (protecting the southwestern frontier) were to manoeuvre on the enemy flanks and in his rear. This plan scattered the Russian forces and doomed them to piecemeal defeat by the superior enemy forces. However, the Russian command, including Barclay de Tolly, adopted a timely decision to leave the Drissa camp and withdraw to the interior so as to unite their armies.
- ↑ The battle of Smolensk between Napoleon's army and the Russian troops covering the withdrawal of the main forces of Bagration's and Barclay de Tolly's armies, which had united on August 3, 1812, took place on August 16-18, 1812. At the cost of heavy losses Napoleon captured the city which had been abandoned by the Russian rearguard after the withdrawal of the main Russian forces.
- ↑ Russian troops reached Tsarevo-Zaimishche (southwest of Gzhatsk) on August 29, 1812. This position was abandoned by the Russian army by decision of Kutuzov who had been appointed commander-in-chief shortly before. He intended to give decisive battle to the French when there was a more favourable alignment of forces, for which it was necessary to win time and bring up reinforcements. The Russians therefore retreated to Borodino, which on September 7 became the scene of a great battle, which was to bring about a turn of the tide in Russia's favour in the Patriotic War of 1812, despite the forced but expedient abandonment of Moscow.
- ↑ The date of this battle, as well as the dates of the military events mentioned below, is given according to the Old Style adopted in Russia at that time. According to the New Style the battle took place on September 7, 1812 (see this volume, pp. 251-55).—Ed.
- ↑ Polish name: Toruri.—Ed.
- ↑ April 16.—Ed.
- ↑ May 20.—Ed.
- ↑ Marx and Engels mention a number of battles between the armies of the sixth European coalition (Britain, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain and other states) and Napoleonic France. The siege of Thorn (Torun), a Polish fortress on the Vistula held by a French garrison, was begun by the Russians under Barclay de Tolly in the middle of February 1813. On April 16 the fortress ceased resistance and on April 18 an agreement was signed on its capitulation and transfer to Prussia, Russia’s ally. At the battle of Königswartha (Saxony) on May 19, 1813 the allied Russo-Prussian forces under Barclay de Tolly defeated the French. Lauriston’s Corps suffered most. At the battle of Bautzen (Saxony) on May 20-21, 1813 Napoleon’s army won a victory over the allied Russo-Prussian forces, who, however, withdrew in perfect order, covered by the Russian rearguard under Barclay de Tolly. The following day a rearguard battle took place at Görlitz between the French and the Russians retreating from Bautzen, who emerged victorious. On August 30, 1813, as a result of the battle at Kulm (Khlumec, Bohemia) between the Austro-Prusso-Russian forces under Barclay de Tolly and the French army, Vandamme’s Corps was cut off from the main body and was forced to capitulate. At the battle of Leipzig on October 16-19, 1813 (see Note 31), Barclay de Tolly commanded the central group of the allied forces.
- ↑ See Note 30.