At the end of the 18th century, the Russian army could be replenished with a very promising officer, who in the future was destined to become one of the greatest commanders in world history. When a young French lieutenant, originally from Corsica, submitted a petition to the Russian imperial army, no one could have imagined that in a decade and a half he would make a campaign against Russia and reach Moscow. Napoleon Bonaparte was the name of that 19-year-old lieutenant.
In August 1787, another Russian-Turkish war began. This time it was caused by the desire of the Ottoman Empire to regain control over the Crimean Khanate and Georgia, which it had lost as a result of previous wars. The Sultan hoped that this time he would be able to take revenge, especially since the Ottoman Empire was promised diplomatic support by England, France and Prussia. On the side of Russia, in turn, the Holy Roman Empire acted. The war promised to be long and sluggish, since both the Russian troops on the border were not numerous enough and prepared for an offensive operation, and the Turkish army was not distinguished by good training and weapons. Russia did not abandon its previous strategy of recruiting foreign military specialists - officers from European armies.
A fairly large number of officers from almost all parts of Europe entered the Russian service at that time. The vector of accepting foreigners into the Russian military service was set by Peter the Great, although before him there were examples of inviting foreign military specialists and hired soldiers. But the maximum number of foreign officers served in the Russian service at the end of the 18th century. Catherine II continued the policy of Peter I on this issue, seeking to provide the Russian imperial army with the most qualified and trained personnel. German, French, Spanish, and British officers of the ground forces and navy began to come to the Russian Empire in large numbers and enter the sovereign's service. In the Russian service they paid well, especially for real specialists, and it was interesting for many officers to visit distant and mysterious Russia. The officers of the army and navy of the "Catherine's set" made a huge contribution to strengthening the defense capability of the Russian state, territorial administration, and the development of the economy and industry. Subsequently, they showed themselves not only in military service, but also in various spheres of state activity.
Back in the mid-1760s, for example, a British naval officer, Scotsman by birth, Samuel Greig, entered the service of Russia. In the British Royal Navy, he held the rank of lieutenant, but in Russia he quickly made a good career and in 1764, at the age of 29, received the rank of captain of the 1st rank. After winning the Battle of Chios in 1770, he received the rank of admiral, subsequently rising to the position of commander of the Baltic Fleet. In 1788, the year of Greig's death, another Scotsman entered the Russian service - Lieutenant of the British Navy Robert Crown, who was also destined to rise to the rank of admiral and become one of the outstanding Russian naval commanders.
Major of the Neapolitan Guard, Jose de Ribas, came to the Russian service from the Kingdom of Naples. In 1774 he was admitted to the Russian service with the rank of captain - with a demotion by one rank, which was mandatory for foreign officers who entered the Russian army. Subsequently, Jose de Ribas participated in the Russian-Turkish wars, in 1787 he received the rank of brigadier, and then moved to the fleet, where in 1793 he received the rank of vice admiral. Jose de Ribas is the legendary Deribas, the founder of Odessa and the Odessa port.
Franz de Livron, a Swiss by birth who served as a midshipman in the Austrian navy, also entered the Russian service in 1788 and made a good career in the Russian navy. He rose to the position of commander of the 2nd brigade of the Baltic Fleet's fins crews, received the rank of major general (at that time he was also assigned to the officers of the navy).
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The French Colonel Alexander Lanzheron (pictured) was lucky - he was accepted into the Russian service in the same rank in 1789, and in the Russian Empire he made a dizzying career for a foreign emigrant, rising to the rank of general from infantry and the posts of governor-general of Novorossiya and Bessarabia. chief of the Riga Infantry Regiment.
In 1788, the Spanish military engineer José Ramón de Urrutia was enlisted in the Russian service, by this time holding the rank of brigadier and thirty-three years of experience in military service and considered a very competent specialist in fortifications. He participated in the Russian-Turkish war, showed great heroism, but did not stay to serve Russia and returned to Spain, where he rose to the rank of captain-general and member of the military council.
This is just an incomplete list of famous foreign army and navy officers who entered the Russian service in the second half of the 18th century. In fact, there were hundreds of foreign officers serving in the Russian army, most of them officers of Greek origin. Russian-Turkish war 1787-1791 generally attracted many volunteers - officers from European countries who considered it their duty to help Christian Russia in the fight against the Ottoman Empire. That is, they were driven not only and not so much by career ones (after all, the majority were enlisted in the service in a rank lower than they served in previous armies), as by ideological considerations.
In 1788, Lieutenant-General Ivan Alexandrovich Zaborovsky arrived in Livorno. He was a prominent statesman - governor in Tula, then the governor-general of Vladimir and Kostroma, but he went to Europe on military, not administrative affairs. The Empress instructed Ivan Zaborovsky to organize another recruitment of foreign officers as volunteers to participate in the Russian-Turkish war. The emphasis was on officers from southern European countries, as there was a long tradition of war with the Ottoman Empire. They especially wanted to see in the Russian service the warlike Greek, Albanian and Corsican volunteers, known for their military skills and valor.
On September 28, 1785, the young Corsican nobleman Napoleon Buonaparte, the son of a lay judge, graduated from the Paris military school ahead of schedule, but he decided not to follow his father's path, but to become a professional military man. Napoleon was educated first at the cadet school in Brienne-le-Chateau, where he studied in 1779-1784. and showed great mathematical ability, and then - at the Paris Military School, where, as a good mathematician, he specialized in the direction of artillery.
On November 3, 1785, a month after graduating from military school, a junior lieutenant of artillery Napoleon Bonaparte began service in the de la Fere artillery regiment, stationed in Valence, in southeastern France. However, the beginning of the service for the young officer was not very successful. At this time, the family's financial affairs in Corsica were not going very well. On February 24, 1785, Napoleon's father Carlo Buonaparte died, and the debt for a government grant allocated to him to create a mulberry tree nursery hung on the family.
Napoleon, as a more active and proactive young man than his older brother Joseph, took over the responsibilities of the head of the family and was forced to go home, requesting a leave of absence from the service. Subsequently, he extended his leave twice more. Naturally, such a circumstance did not contribute to a successful career - what kind of officer who is constantly absent from the place of service. Yes, and a "hairy paw", as they would say now, the young Corsican did not have - no one promoted him and it is likely that Napoleon would have continued to serve in junior or middle officer positions until retirement, at best ending his service as a major.
Only in June 1788, two and a half years later, Napoleon Buonaparte returned to military service in the regiment, which by this time had been transferred to Auxon, in eastern France. Since Napoleon's mother, who became a widow, lived in poverty, the young officer was forced to send her part of his salary - already insignificant, which forced him to literally live from hand to mouth. Poverty and a seeming lack of prospects pushed the young and ambitious junior lieutenant of the French artillery to apply for enrollment in the Russian imperial army. Foreign officers were well paid for the participation in the Russian-Turkish war, and Napoleon hoped to earn a sufficient amount.
However, shortly before junior lieutenant Bonaparte submitted a petition to the Russian army, an order was issued by the Russian government that foreign officers entering service in the Russian imperial army would receive a military rank one step lower than that in which they served in their previous service. This young but very ambitious artillery junior lieutenant could not accept. Still what - he, Bonaparte, will serve in a rank lower than he received in the Paris military school itself? Ambitious and purposeful, Napoleon achieved a personal audience with Lieutenant-General Ivan Zaborovsky, who was in charge of a special commission for the recruitment of volunteers.
But the meeting with the general of the Russian army did not bring the desired result - Ivan Zaborovsky could not understand why he should make an exception for some young and unknown artillery junior lieutenant who had just recently begun his army service. Well, it would be an honored colonel or general, but a lieutenant? Frustrated, Bonaparte, not having achieved his goal, literally ran out of Zaborovsky's office, leaving on the move - “I will go to the Prussian army. The King of Prussia will give me a captain!"
This is how Napoleon Bonaparte's attempt to become a Russian officer ended. But Napoleon did not go to serve in the Prussian army either - most likely, this phrase was thrown in the hearts, out of a desire to hurt the Russian general, who did not take him into service in the proper rank.
Napoleon returned to his artillery regiment, and the Great French Revolution soon took place. But at first, large-scale political events had not yet had time to be reflected in Napoleon's career. He went on to serve as a junior lieutenant in an artillery regiment. Only in June 1791, Napoleon Bonaparte was promoted to lieutenant of artillery. Thus, in the rank of junior lieutenant, he served for six years after graduating from the Paris military school - not a very good start to a career for a professional military man. However, the rapid revolutionary events still played a role in the further career growth of the artillery officer.
In August 1791, Napoleon asked for leave to Corsica, where he joined the National Guard. Since there were few regular officers in Corsica, the artillery lieutenant was immediately elected lieutenant colonel of the National Guard. But when Napoleon returned to Paris in May 1792, the Ministry of War refused to confirm such a rapid jump in ranks to him and promoted a lieutenant - "lieutenant colonel" to captain. Which was also not bad, considering the length of the previous gap between titles in Napoleon's career. In October 1793, Captain Bonaparte was promoted to major and appointed battalion commander, and after a brilliant operation to capture Toulon, during which he commanded artillery, 24-year-old Major Bonaparte was promoted to brigadier general. It turned out that Napoleon went from junior lieutenant to lieutenant in six years,and the path of lieutenant to general took him only two years.
It is interesting that a distant relative and, as happens in Corsica, the fierce enemy of Napoleon, Count Charles-André Pozzo di Borgo, who was only five years older than Bonaparte, in 1804, many years after his enemy's attempt to become a Russian officer, nevertheless entered to the Russian service, though not in the military, but in the diplomatic one. The noble Corsican was an envoy in Vienna and Naples, in the Ottoman Empire, then ambassador in Paris and London. The ranks were awarded to him in the military, so in the end Pozzo di Borgo rose to the rank of General of Infantry (the rank was awarded in 1829) and Adjutant General.
It is not known what kind of military career Napoleon could have made in the Russian Empire if he had then agreed to enter the Russian service. Considering his personal and professional qualities, it is possible that he would become a general in the Russian service, like other foreign volunteers - Alexander Langeron, Jose de Ribas or Franz de Livron. But then he would not have become the very Napoleon who conquered all of Europe. And how the history of Russia, Europe and the world as a whole would have developed if it were not for the Patriotic War of 1812 is also unknown. Although it is possible that a man like Napoleon, if he got into the Russian service, would have been among the conspirators. Who knows, maybe he would be lucky.
Author: Ilya Polonsky