French occupation of Moscow

• 1. The Borodino Retreat

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  Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov's Russian army suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Borodino on the 7th of September 1812. Before dawn of the 8th of September, Kutuzov ordered a retreat from Borodino eastwards to preserve the army. They camped outside Mozhaysk. On the 10th of September, the main quarter of the Russian army was situated in Bolshiye Vyazyomy, in whose manor house Kutuzov stayed the night sleeping on a sofa in the library. Napoleon and his army entered Moscow on the 14th of September. To Napoleon's surprise, Kutuzov had abandoned the city, and it fell without a fight. Hundreds of thousands of civilians fled along with the retreating Russian army, leaving the city nearly empty. A week of close escapes followed as the French chased the Russians down. Napoleon and Kutuzov even slept on the same bed in the manor of Bolshiye Vyazyomy just one night apart.

• 2. Napoleon's Hollow Entry

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  On the morning of the 14th of September, Akinfov and a trumpeter from Miloradovich's convoy arrived at the French line just as the French were resuming their attack with cavalry. At 14:00, Napoleon arrived at Poklonnaya Gora, 3 miles from the limits of 1812 Moscow. Accompanying him was the French vanguard, arrayed in battle formation by Murat's orders. Napoleon waited for half an hour; when there was no Russian response he ordered a cannon fired to signal the advance on the city. The streets were deserted. On Arbat Street, Napoleon saw only a pharmacist and his family attending to a wounded French general at a stand. It was not until an hour later that Napoleon resumed his procession into the city, followed by the first French cavalry into Moscow. He passed the Dorogomilovskaya Yamskaya Sloboda and stopped on the banks of the Moscow River. The news of abandonment was met by bewilderment, and then despondency and grief.

• 3. The Great Fire Of 1812

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  Arson occurred around the city when the French entered on the 14th of September. Strong winds, starting on the night of 15, the 16th of September and persisting for more than a day, fanned the flames across the city. The fire raged until the 18th of September and destroyed most of Moscow; the flames were reportedly visible over 215 km, or 133 miles, away. Eventually, the intensity of the fire forced Napoleon to escape the Kremlin and relocate to the Petrovsky Palace early in the morning of the 16th of September as the fire surrounded him and his entourage. One eyewitness recalled that the Emperor said the following about the fire: What a terrible sight! And they did this themselves! So many palaces! What an incredible solution! What kind of people! These are Scythians!. A French military court shot up to 400 citizens on suspicion of arson.

• 4. Life Under The Occupation

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  The frequency of looting by the French army and the local population increased as the occupation continued. Initially, looting was driven by wealth but later it was for food. Civilians were killed by troops. Attempts by French commanders to maintain discipline failed and soldiers would openly disobey the orders of their officers. The locals sometimes called the French pagans or basurmans which depicted the French as godless. For comparison, the city was calculated to host more than 270,000 inhabitants: a police survey from the beginning of 1812 found 270,184 residents. In addition to them around 10,000 to 15,000 wounded and sick Russian soldiers also remained. Napoleon returned to the Kremlin on the 18th of September where he announced his intention to remain in Moscow for the winter; he believed the city still offered better facilities and provisions.

• 5. Churches And Desecration

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  Churches were not afforded special protections. Some housed stables, wood components were used as fuel, and others had their gold and silver items melted down. After the occupation, the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin was closed to the public to hide the damage. According to Shakhovskoy, the only case of desecration deliberately meant to insult was a dead horse being left in place of the throne on the altar of the Kazan Cathedral. Rumors exaggerated the damage to churches as most of the cathedrals, monasteries and churches were turned into guard barracks. The Russians hid some items before abandoning the city; Alexander Shakhovskoy writes: In the Miracle Monastery there was no shrine of Saint Alexei, it was taken out and hidden by Russian piety, as well as the relics of Saint Tsarevich Demetrius, and I found only one cotton paper in the tomb.

• 6. The Voluntary Abandonment

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  On the 19th of October, the main French army began moving along the Old Kaluga Road. Only Marshal Édouard Mortier's corps remained in Moscow; Mortier was the city's Governor General. Napoleon intended to attack and defeat the Russian army, and then break out into unforaged country for provisions; however, short on supplies and seeing the fall of the first snows on Moscow, the French abandoned the city voluntarily that same night. Also that night, he made camp in the village of Troitsky on the Desna River and ordered Mortier to destroy Moscow and then rejoin the main army. Gunpowder was to be placed under the Kremlin walls, which would explode after the French left the city. There was only time to partially destroy the Kremlin. The Vodovzvodnaya Tower was completely destroyed, while the Nikolskaya, 1st Bezymyannaya and Petrovskaya Towers, the Kremlin wall, and part of the arsenal were badly damaged.

• 7. Reoccupation And Aftermath

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  The Russian army's cavalry vanguard, commanded by General Ferdinand von Wintzingerode, was the first to re-enter the city. Wintzingerode was captured by Mortier's troops, and command fell to General Alexander von Benckendorff. Other accounts also reported crowds of peasants engaged in drunkenness, robbery and vandalism. In a report to Rostopchin dated the 16th of October from Ivashkin, the chief of the Moscow police, estimated that 11,959 human and 12,546 horse corpses were removed from the streets. Upon returning to the city, Rostopchin announced that looters could keep their goods but that victims should be compensated. According to Vladimir Gilyarovsky, the next Sunday market near the Sukharev Tower was filled with looted goods. The city for its part would need at least half a century for it to be fully rebuilt and repopulated back to its pre-war levels.