The military campaign of 1812 remained in the people's memory as the Patriotic War. For the Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, going to Russia and back was just one of the unsuccessful military operations. And what did the leader of the nation say to the French, how did he explain his failure when he returned to France in December 1812? Has anyone ever read Napoleon's speech before the French Senate on December 20, 1812? It was then that the emperor spoke of the reasons why the campaign against Moscow did not add luster to his crown. In this speech, the military genius of Europe formulated the philosophy of the "countries of the European Union" in relation to both the Russian state and the Russian people. Philosophy, which apparently guides the European Union 200 years later.
Travel incognito
We know that in November 1812 the French emperor abandoned the remnants of his army on the eastern bank of the Berezina River and fled lightly to the West. At the same time, the official publication "Bulletin of the Emperor's Headquarters" announced that Napoleon was "traveling incognito throughout Europe."
The emaciated guardsmen of the Great Army who had broken through the Russian vanguards in battle were angry at the news that their commander-in-chief had become a "simple tourist". The French, who learned that their idol had abandoned the soldiers and arrived in Paris, were shocked. After all, the imperial mint had already prepared boxes filled with freshly minted bronze medals “For the capture of Moscow”. Napoleon ordered these awards to be made when his army entered the capital of Russia. But they did not have time to bring them to the "country of barbarians" and solemnly reward the soldiers of the valiant army.
Mysterious speech
And in the Senate they waited for the French emperor in complete bewilderment. On everyone's lips there were questions: what happened in Russia? What kind of war was the emperor waging there? For what? And why, forcing the Russians to retreat from Borodino and taking Moscow, Bonaparte fled from Russia? How could you lose the campaign by capturing the enemy's capital?
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By the way, the war with Alexander I was not over, and Napoleon had to justify the need to continue it.
Bonaparte returned to Paris on December 18, 1812, and two days later made a speech. Hardly anyone in Russia knew about it then and hardly any of the domestic historians analyzed it later. But in vain. Why - you will understand for yourself. The text of the speech was published in Russian only in 1888 in the journal Russkaya Starina. So what did their emperor say to the French senators?
Here is this speech. “The war I am waging with Russia is a political war. I fought without malice. I wanted to rid Russia of the evils that it had brought upon itself. I could arm most of her people against her by proclaiming the freedom of slaves. Many villages have asked me for this. But when I found out in what rudeness this large class of the Russian people was, I refused this measure, which so many families doomed to death and the most cruel torments. My army suffered losses, but this was due to the harsh winter that came prematurely.
Russian threat
That's all. Napoleon's speech to the senators was short. And it did not bring any clarity. It is unlikely that the Parisian politicians even remotely imagined that "measure of rudeness" in which the most "numerous class of the Russian people" resides. And what kind of class is this and what does the French care about it?
And what kind of families in Russia did the emperor save "from cruel torments"? Why did the French army have to bear gigantic losses and cover itself with shame for the sake of ridding a foreign country of some of its "evils"?
If you look deep into history, it will become clear: starting from the 16th century, every 100 years in Europe, suddenly began to worry about the "Russian threat". Every 100 years, the armies of Europe broke down to fight the "Russian barbarians", and this struggle always began on the territory of Muscovy itself. True, soon those of the "fighters" whom fate had mercy on and who avoided the terrible fate to forever lie in the Russian land, fled back. And the Russian army always accompanied them to their home. Before the start of the next campaign to "liberate from the Russian threat," the beaten Europeans licked their wounds, and demanded repentance from Russia … for the victory. "Russian barbarians"! They, by virtue of their savagery and thought, did not admit that cultured Europeans should have defeated them.
One among his own
Even among those who seriously studied the history of the Patriotic War of 1812, the question remained not completely clear: why did Napoleon invade Russia? Territorial and demographic reasons are excluded. At the beginning of the 19th century, the French were not interested in “living spaces in the east”. Bonaparte's maniacal idea to wipe out the Russian state from the face of the earth and destroy the Russians was completely out of sight …
But let's carefully reread his speech in the Senate. Much becomes clear from it if you translate it not only into Russian, but also into the language of common sense. The "political war" is not just a war with Russia, but above all with England's ally on the continent. Alexander I opened ports for British merchants, after which the French economic blockade against England became impossible. "Delivering Russia from evils" is getting rid of her trade with England, which Alexander I restored, barely ascending the throne. Napoleon could defeat the Russian Empire by turning the Patriotic War into a civil war - abolishing serfdom in fact and arming the peasantry as his allies. And since all the soldiers of the Russian army are former peasants, it was reasonable to start agitation in the army against the officers and the nobility. Napoleon in the war of 1812 deliberately refused such a move, remaining loyal to the aristocracy, even the foreign aristocracy. And this despite the fact that he risked losing the campaign and, in the long term, losing France. The owners of the lordly estates were his own for him, despite the war with their emperor.
Humanitarian aid
But here's the most offensive thing: it was after this speech that the whole Europe became convinced that only the climate saved Russia from defeat. Frost and snow. Because supposedly only this did not allow the ingenious emperor to defeat them.
An unusual look at the Patriotic War of 1812, isn't it? It turns out that Russian soldiers did not so much defend their country as the interests of British trading companies. This conclusion is supported by the fact that in December 1812 the British parliament made a decision: from the country's budget to provide "humanitarian aid" to those provinces in Russia that suffered the most from Napoleon's troops. Unheard of generosity from the stingy Anglo-Saxons. Or is it the payment of interest on the profits that British entrepreneurs received from trade with Russia, and from Russian blood that flowed in streams from Smolensk, Borodin, Maloyaroslavets?
Alexander SMIRNOV