The famous Russian commander, Field Marshal, His Serene Highness Prince of Smolensk Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov died on April 28, 1813 (in a new style) in the small town of Bunzlau, now Boleslawiec in Poland. The 67-year-old conqueror of Napoleon caught a bad cold and, having been ill for 11 days, died. By order of Alexander I, Kutuzov's body was embalmed and transported to his homeland. On June 25, 1813, he was buried in St. Petersburg, in the Kazan Cathedral.
The internal organs of the deceased, left after embalming, were buried three kilometers from Bunzlau, in the village of Tillendorf. In 1945, after fierce battles for the liberation of these places, the remains of 141 Red Army soldiers were buried nearby.
A legend has been known since the 19th century that Kutuzov's heart was also buried near the village of Tillendorf. But back in 1933, the crypt in the Kazan Cathedral, where the remains of the field marshal lie, was opened by the Soviet authorities, and the embalmed heart was found there, in a special silver jar.
Author: Vladimir Ivanov