Borodino

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In the article on the battle of Borodino (1812), which was a major event in Russia’s Patriotic War against Napoleon’s invasion, Engels gave an idea of the scale of the batde and of the stubbornness and staunchness displayed by the two belligerent armies, and presented a more objective picture than the authors of many West European works on military history, but he did not avoid inaccuracies in elucidating some of its aspects. Engels was influenced to a certain extent by the German historian Bernhardi’s book about General Toll, which he mentions at the end of the article and which contains a number of tendentious assertions emanating from Toll himself and from his biographer (Th. von Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben des ... Grafen von Toll, vols. 1-4, Leipzig, 1856. Engels’ notes from the second volume are extant). In the main the inaccuracies concern the evaluation of the results of the battle, which Engels was inclined to consider a victory for Napoleon’s army, according to the tradition in the West, and the role of Mikhail Kutuzov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army. Kutuzov was not passive during the battle but constantly influenced its course by countering and thwarting Napoleon’s plans. In particular, it was on his orders that the Russian cavalry made a successful raid into the rear of the French left wing. The outcome of the battle was highly Notes 589 unfavourable for Napoleon: he failed to destroy the main forces of the Russian army and himself sustained heavy losses. This led to a turn in the course of the war in favour of Russia and to the defeat of Napoleon’s army, despite the fact that the Russians had temporarily to leave Moscow.

Later researches led to substantial corrections concerning the correlation of forces and the losses sustained by the two armies. They showed that at the time of the battle the French had 135,000 men and 587 guns, and the Russians 120,000 men and 640 guns. French losses amounted to 58,000 killed and wounded, while the Russians lost about 44,000 men.

There is an entry in Marx’s notebook on the dispatch of this article to New York on January 29, 1858.

Borodino, a village on the left bank of the river Kolotcha, in Russia, about 2 miles above its junction with the Moskva. From this village the Russians name the great battle, in 1812, which decided the possession of Moscow; the French call it the battle of the Moskva, or of Mozhaisk. The battle-field is on the right bank of the Kolotcha. The Russian right wing was covered by that river from its junction with the Moskva to Borodino; the left wing was drawn back, en potence, behind a brook and ravine descending from the extreme left, at Utitsa, toward Borodino. Behind this ravine, 2 hills were crowned with incomplete redoubts, or lunettes, that nearest the centre called the Rayevski redoubt, those on the hill toward the left, 3 in number, called the Bagration lunettes. Between these 2 hills, another ravine, called from a village behind it that of Semionovskoye, ran down from the Russian left toward the former ravine, joining it about 1,000 yards before it reached the Kolotcha. The main road to Moscow runs by Borodino; the old road, by Utitsa, to Mozhaisk, in rear of the Russian position. This line, about 9,000 yards in extent, was held by about 130,000 Russians, Borodino being occupied in front of the centre. Gen. Kutusoff was the Russian commander-in-chief; his troops were divided into 2 armies, the larger, under Barclay de Tolly, holding the right and centre, the smaller, under Bagration, occupying the left. The position was very badly chosen; an attack on the left, if successful, turned the right and centre completely; and if Mozhaisk had been reached by the French before the Russian right had retreated, which was possible enough, they would have been hopelessly lost. But Kutusoff, having once rejected the capital position of Tsarevoye Zaimishtche, selected by Barclay, had no other choice.

The French, led by Napoleon in person, were about 125,000 strong: after driving the Russians, Sept. 5, 1812, N. S. (Aug. 24, O. S.), from some slight intrenchments on their left, they were arranged for battle on the 7th. Napoleon’s plan was based upon the errors of Kutusoff; merely observing the Russian centre, he concentrated his forces against their left, which he intended to force, and then cut his way through toward Mozhaisk. Prince Eugène was accordingly ordered to make a false attack upon Borodino, after which Ney and Davout were to assail Bagration and the lunettes named from him, while Poniatowski was to turn the extreme left of the Russians by Utitsa; the battle once well engaged, Prince Eugène was to pass the Kolotcha, and attack the Rayevski lunette. Thus the whole front actually attacked did not exceed in length 5,000 yards, which allowed 26 men to each yard of front, an unprecedented depth of order of battle, which accounts for the terrible losses of the Russians by artillery fire. About day-break Poniatowski advanced against Utitsa, and took it, but his opponent, Tutchkoff, again expelled him; subsequently, Tutchkoff having had to send a division to the support of Bagration, the Poles retook the village. At 6 o’clock Davout attacked the proper left of the Bagration intrenchments. Under a heavy fire from 12-pounders, to which he could oppose only 3 and 4-pounders, he advanced. Half an hour later, Ney attacked the proper right of these lunettes. They were taken and retaken, and a hot and undecided fight followed.

Bagration, however, well observed the great force brought against him, with their powerful reserves, and the French guard in the background. There could be no mistake about the real point of attack. He accordingly called together what troops he could, sending for a division of Rayevski’s corps, for another of Tutchkoff’s corps, for guards and grenadiers from the army reserve, and requesting Barclay to despatch the whole corps of Baggehufvud. These reenforcements, amounting to more than 30,000 men, were sent at once; from the army reserve alone, he received 17 battalions of guards and grenadiers, and 2 12-pound batteries. They could not, however, be made available on the spot before 10 o’clock, and before this hour Davout and Ney made their second attack against the intrenchments, and took them, driving the Russians over the Semionovskoye ravine. Bagration sent his cuirassiers forward; an irregular struggle of great violence followed, the Russians regaining ground as their reenforcements arrived, but again driven beyond the ravine as soon as Davout engaged his reserve division. The losses on both sides were immense; almost all the general officers were killed or wounded, and Bagration himself was mortally hit. Kutusoff now at last took some part in the battle, sending Dokhturoff to take the command of the left, and his own chief of the staff, Toll, to superintend the arrangements for defence on the spot. A little after 10 the 17 battalions of guards and grenadiers, and the division of Vasiltchikoff, arrived at Semionovskoye; the corps of Baggehufvud was divided, one division being sent to Rayevski, another to Tutchkoff, and the cavalry to the right. The French, in the mean time, continued their attacks; the Westphalian division advanced in the wood toward the head of the ravine, while Gen. Friant passed this ravine, without, however, being able to establish himself there. The Russians now were reenforced (1/2 past 10) by the cuirassiers of Borosdin from the army reserve, and a portion of Korff’s cavalry; but they were too much shattered to proceed to an attack, and about the same time the French were preparing a vast cavalry charge. On the Russian centre Eugène Beauharnais had taken Borodino at 6 in the morning, and passed over the Kolotcha, driving back the enemy; but he soon returned, and again crossed the river higher up in order to proceed, with the Italian guards, the division of Broussier (Italians), Gérard, Morand, and Grouchy’s cavalry, to the attack on Rayevski, and the redoubt bearing his name. Borodino remained occupied. The passage of Beauharnais’s troops caused delay; his attack could not begin much before 10 o’clock. The Rayevski redoubt was occupied by the division Paskiewitch, supported on its left by Vasiltchikoff, and having Dokhturoff’s corps for a reserve. By 11 o’clock, the redoubt was taken by the French, and the Paskiewitch division completely scattered, and driven from the field of battle. But Vasiltchikoff and Dokhturoff retook the redoubt; the division of Prince Eugene of Württemberg arrived in time, and now Barclay ordered the corps of Ostermann to take position to the rear as a fresh reserve. With this corps the last intact body of Russian infantry was brought within range; there remained now, as a reserve, only 6 battalions of the guard. Eugène Beauharnais, about 12 o’clock, was just going to attack the Rayevski redoubt a second time, when Russian cavalry appeared on the left bank of the Kolotcha.The attack was suspended, and troops were sent to meet them. But the Russians could neither take Borodino, nor pass the marshy bottom of the Voina ravine, and had to retreat by Zodock, without any other result than having to some extent crossed Napoleon’s intentions.

In the mea n time, Ney and Davout, posted on the Bagration hill, had maintained a hot fire across the Semionovskoye ravine on the Russian masses. All at once the French cavalry began to move. T o the right of Semionovskoye, Nansouty charged the Russian infantry with complete success, until Sievers’s cavalry took him in flank and drove him back. T o the left, Latour-Maubourg’s 3,000 hors e advanced in 2 columns; the first, headed by 2 regiments of Saxon cuirassiers, rode twice over 3 Russian grenadie r battalions just forming square, but they were also taken in flank by Russian cavalry; a Polish cuirassier regiment completed the destruction of the Russian grenadiers, but they too were driven back to the ravine, wher e the second column, 2 regiments of Westphalian cuirassiers, and 1 of Polish lancers, repelled the Russians. Th e groun d thus being secured, the infantry of Ney and Davout passed the ravine. Friant occupied Semionovskoye, and the remainde r of the Russians who had fought here , grenadiers, guards, and line, were finally driven back and their defeat completed by the French cavalry. The y fled in small disorderly bands toward Mozhaisk, and could only be collected late at night; the 3 regiments of guards alone preserved a little order. Thu s the French right, after defeating the Russian left, occupied a position directly in rea r of the Russian centre as early as 12 o’clock, and the n it was that Davout and Ney implored Napoleon to act u p to his own system of tactics, and complete the victory, by launching the guards by Semionovskoye on the Russian rear. Napoleon, however, refused, and Ney an d Davout, themselves dreadfully shattered, did not ventur e to advance without reenforcements.

On the Russian side, after Eugène Beauharnais had desisted from the attack on the Rayevski redoubt, Eugene of Württember g was sent to Semionovskoye, and Ostermann , too, had to change front in that direction so as to cover the rea r of the Rayevski hill toward Semionovskoye. Whe n Sorbier, the French chief of artillery, saw these fresh troops, he sent for 36 12-pounders from the artillery of the guard, and formed a battery of 85 guns in front of Semionovskoye. While these guns battered the Russian masses, Mura t drew forward the hitherto intact cavalry of Montbru n and the Polish lancers. The y surprised Ostermann’s troops in the act of deploying, and brough t them into great danger, until the cavalry of Kreutz repelled the French horse. Th e Russian infantry continued to suffer from the artillery fire; but neither party ventured to advance. It was now about 2 o’clock, and Eugèn e Beauharnais, reassured as to the hostile cavalry on his left, again attacked the Rayevski redoubt. While the infantry attacked it in front, cavalry was sent from Semionovskoye to its rear. After a hard struggle, it remained in the hands of the French; and a little before 3 o’clock the Russians retreated. A general cannonade from both sides followed, but the active fighting was over. Napoleon still refused to launch his guard, and the Russians were allowed to retreat as they liked. The Russians had all their troops engaged, excepting the 2 first regiments of the guards, and even these lost by artillery fire 17 officers and 600 men. Their total loss was 52,000 men, beside slightly wounded and scattered men who soon found their way back; but on the day after the battle their army counted only 52,000 men. The French had all their troops engaged, with the exception of the guards (14,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry and artillery); they thus beat a decidedly superior number. They were, beside, inferior in artillery, having mostly 3 and 4-pounders, while 1/4 of the Russian guns were 12-pounders, and the rest 6-pounders. The French loss was 30,000 men; they took 40 guns, and only about 1,000 prisoners. If Napoleon had launched his guard, the destruction of the Russian army, according to Gen. Toll, would have been certain. He did not, however, risk this last reserve, the nucleus and mainstay of his army, and thus, perhaps, missed the chance of having peace concluded in Moscow.

The above account, in such of its details as are at variance with those commonly received, is mainly based upon the “Memoirs of Gen. Toll,” whom we have mentioned as Kutusoff’s chief of the staff. This book contains the best Russian account of the battle, and is indispensable for its correct appreciation.