Alexander Nikitich Vilboa (Villebois)(fr. Alexander Guillemot de Villebois), (1716 - January 29 (February 9), 1781 Dorpat), Russian general, hero Seven Years' War, the eighth Feldzeugmeister General of the Russian Army.

Biography

The youngest son of Rear Admiral Nikita Petrovich Vilboa (fr. Francois Guillemot de Villebois, 1681-1760 Dorpat), former commandant of the Kronstadt port, participant in the Peter's wars. In August 1739, he was enlisted in the Life Guards bombardment company as a sergeant. In 1742 he took part in the war with Sweden, in 1744 he was granted, with the rank of colonel, chamber junker to the court of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. In 1755 he was promoted to major general, in 1758 to lieutenant general.

Since the beginning of the Seven Years' War in the army, he distinguished himself at Gross-Jägersdorf, where he was seriously wounded. For Gross-Egersdorf he was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky. Member of the siege of Kustrin, the battle of Palzig. In the Battle of Kunersdorf, he commanded the vanguard of the Russian army, occupied Frankfurt (Oder).

In January 1762, the Velikolutsky Infantry Regiment was named after him, in February of the same year he was appointed Feldzeugmeister General, that is, the head of the artillery department, and a month later, a member of the Military Collegium. According to the biographer, the abundance and volume of resolutions with which he supplied all the submissions that came to him in all four departments entrusted to him as a general feldzeugmeister: artillery, engineering, weapons and cadet corps, are amazing. Many of them contain "whole instructions and regulations, most of them extremely useful and completely resolving all difficulties." Vilboa's activities as Feldzekhmeister General promised to be very fruitful, however, in 1765 he was forced to ask for his resignation for health reasons: the consequences of a severe wound affected him.

After retiring, he lived in Livonia, was later a deputy from the Livonian province in the Legislative Commission of 1767. Commanding artillery, he was a member of the campaign of Catherine II in the "Raniboom" on June 28 (July 8), 1762. He died on his estate in Livonia and was buried there.

The house of Alexander Nikitich Vilboa in St. Petersburg was located at Nevsky Prospekt, house 30, sold to Prince A. M. Golitsin, he was rented in 1774 by the French entrepreneur Lyon for arranging masquerades and balls. Since 1802, this house (since 1799 - the house of Kusovnikov, named after the new owner) hosted and gave concerts to the Philharmonic Society, until 1839 the provincial Nobility Assembly was also located there.

Source: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilboa,_Alexander_Nikitich

Little has been preserved of historical materials about Alexander Nikitich Seslavin. We do not even know the day or month of his birth. Only the year 1780 is known. True, the general himself repeatedly claimed that he was born in 1785. Perhaps he was sincerely mistaken, but it is possible that he deliberately misled - it is flattering to become a guards officer at thirteen, and a general at 28. It is quite tempting to accept Seslavin's version, but in this case the general would be younger than his younger brother Fyodor, who was born in 1782 (a fact that has been reliably established).

In the surviving letters of Alexander Nikitich Seslavin to his elder brother Nikolai dated August 1845 and September 1850, there is one seemingly meaningless detail: they contain words of gratitude for heartfelt congratulations. “I thank you for remembering me, I also thank Sofya Pavlovna, congratulate her on the coming day of the angel from me,” Alexander Nikitich wrote on August 12, 1845. “Dear brother Nikolai Nikitich! I had the incomparable pleasure to receive your letter of August 29. I thank you for all your desires and memory of me, ”we read in the next letter dated September 15, 1850.

These letters of Nikolai Nikitich, unfortunately, have not been preserved, but, obviously, they dealt with some kind of heartfelt wishes to his brother, which are usually expressed on major holidays or name days. There were no such holidays at the end of August. It remains the last - name day. Indeed, August 30 was celebrated as the day of Alexander. It is known that in those days, newborns were often given a name according to the holy calendar. The Seslavin family also adhered to this rule: son Nikolai, born on May 1, celebrated the day of his “angel” on the 9th.

Therefore, there is every reason to believe that Alexander Seslavin was born in August 1780. The first cry of a newborn was heard in the family estate - the village of Yesemov, located on the banks of the Sishka River in the Rzhevsky district of the Tver province. Here Seslavin spent his childhood, learned to read and write, and here he was destined to complete his life. His father, Lieutenant Seslavin Nikita Stepanovich, belonged to the poor small estate nobility. His entire fortune consisted of 20 souls of serfs. In 1795, he retired and decided to enter the civil service, where he received the position of mayor of Rzhev, which at that time numbered about 3 thousand inhabitants. He guarded the "peace and tranquility" of the county town of Seslavin Sr. until the end of his life. “... In 1816, at the wedding of Anna Pavlovna (Grand Duchess. - A.V.), at dinner, Empress Elizabeth ... coming up behind me and shrugging my shoulders, she said quietly: “Having learned about the death of your father, the sovereign turned his salary into a pension of all your sisters for merits that Russia cannot yet appreciate ... "" - wrote Alexander to his brother Fedor. As a legacy to the children, the father left the only estate, by that time "consisting of 41 souls of peasants and 750 acres of land."

“August 1798, on the 27th day of the Rzhevsky mayor Nikita Stepanovich, the son of Seslavin, the spouse Agapia Petrovna, introduced herself to the eternal cloisters; her life was 43 years and was buried in this place (Rzhev, cemetery at the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God) - that's all the information that has come down to us about Seslavin's mother. It is sad to realize that such an undeserved fate of this woman, in addition to the epitaph, which left no other memory in the offspring, was shared by many mothers of the heroes of 1812.

In addition to Alexander, the Seslavin family had four more sons and six daughters.

1789 - the beginning of the French Revolution, the year of the fall of the Bastille, the year of Suvorov's victories at Focsani and Rymnik, the year Seslavin's path to glory began.

In March, Alexander, together with his brothers Peter and Nikolai, accompanied by his father and the serf "uncle", arrived in tents in St. Petersburg. Not without hassle, Lieutenant Seslavin, who had no funds, managed to assign his eldest sons to the state kosht in the Artillery and Engineering gentry corps. This is one of the oldest military educational institutions in Russia, preparing officers and non-commissioned officers for artillery and engineering troops. In the classes of the corps, M.I. Kutuzov, I.S. Dorokhov, V.G. Kostenetsky, A.P. Nikitin and other heroes of the Patriotic War. A.A. also studied here. Arakcheev, who entered as a reactionary and temporary worker. He is less known as a converter of Russian artillery.

The director of the corps is an enlightened and experienced artillery general P.I. Melissino showed truly paternal care in the upbringing and education of the cadets. Thanks to him, the teaching of general education disciplines expanded here, much attention began to be paid to the study foreign languages, as well as practical and physical training for the future . The teachers of the corps, according to the testimony of their pupil, General N.V. Vokhin, were "respectable people who know their subject and pass it on to their students with love." According to A.P. Yermolov, who served as a corps officer in 1793-1794, “in the artillery corps, a military man could acquire, if not extensive, then thorough information; the library (apparently, she instilled in Seslavin that love of reading, which eventually grew into a “single passion”), the museum and practical exercises were a great help.” Corps officers were obliged to "inspire the cadets with the rules of morality, subordination, forbid indecent games for noble children and instill in them a desire to engage in science." For laziness and negligence, as well as excessive pranks, pupils were usually flogged with rods. Quite characteristic in this case is the remark of the already mentioned General Vokhin that the corps officers "did not use cruel punishments, but they did not give them to the guilty."

"Undergrown from the nobility", recorded as cadets (about 400 people in total), were divided by age into three companies. They lived in cells (living quarters) and studied in classes in the wooden buildings of the corps on Petersburg Island. Here Alexander was to spend nine years.

The annual maintenance of one cadet was 100 rubles. Of this amount, 20 kopecks were spent on food per day. “Until now, I have not forgotten,” recalled one of the pupils of the corps, “with what envy we, the cadets, looked at the lucky ones who enjoyed the patronage of the head cook Pronka. He used to send them a good piece of meat or an extra spoonful of hot butter to go with buckwheat porridge, which was one of the Cadet's favorite dishes. The Cadets stood up for nothing more than this coveted porridge! It happened once that instead of it they served us pies with ganders, that is, with a lung and a liver. The whole body went into a commotion and the untouched parts of the pies flew<…>from all sides<…>into an observer of hull economy. Fortunately, the pies were soft and not so well-baked, which is why the target cake remained intact.<…>At that time, we did not understand the reasons for the Kadet patronage of porridge, but later this reason was explained to me at the hungry table, at which buckwheat porridge, as a nutritious dish, was supposed to take precedence over skinny pies with the fragrant insides of long-slaughtered cattle ... "At the same time" they gathered at the corps yard every day, except for the heterogeneous cadet servants (with young gentlemen who entered the cadets, their courtyard people consisted for services. - A.V.), confectioners, ice cream makers, hawkers and merchants, with all sorts of things to eat, which they traded freely from morning to evening,<…>during non-training hours. It was impossible not to be surprised at the gullibility of these merchants to the Cadets, who often paid off their debts for promotion to officers.

The life of the pupils of the corps was arranged in a certain sense in the Spartan spirit and was strictly regulated: in the summer they got up at 6 o'clock, at 7 - prayer and breakfast, then morning classes until 11 o'clock, lunch at 12, the continuation of lessons from 15 to 18 o'clock. They had supper at 19, and after breaking through the evening dawn (on a signal from the Peter and Paul Fortress) at 21 o'clock they went to bed. In winter, they got up an hour later and, accordingly, the daily routine shifted by an hour, however, going to bed was earlier - at 20:00.

The course of sciences in the building was designed for 7 years. During the first four years, cadets of younger ages (on average from 8 to 12 years old) were taught in "preparatory classes" arithmetic and practical geometry, mother tongue, as well as French and German, the "initial foundations" of history and geography, drawing, dancing, fencing and swimming. In subsequent years, the matured and strengthened pupils continued to study mathematics, Russian and foreign languages, history, geography and studied special sciences necessary for future artillery and engineering officers Key words: physics, chemistry, artillery, fortification, architecture, tactics, drafting. This course also included drill exercises held on the corps parade ground, and horseback riding training in the arena. For practical training in artillery and engineering, the cadets went to a camp on the Vyborg side, where they fired cannons at a target, built fortifications and mastered the basics of minecraft.

On Wednesdays and Saturdays afternoons were set aside for classes in the dance class - “dances make the student slim”, in the fencing class, where the cadet “was brought into a state of necessary save life and defend your honor "and in the arena. On Sundays and holidays pupils who received approving certifications from teachers were allowed to walk on the islands and in the Summer Garden. Often, accompanied by them, they went to inspect the "curious places" of St. Petersburg.

Every year, in order “so that there would not be any weakness in the sciences, and through that the highest interest of her imperial majesty would not be wasted, but rather, the student youth would receive the desired success in the sciences from time to time,” all cadets were subjected to a general exam. Those of them “who prove to be excellent in the sciences” were promoted to non-commissioned officers at the corps or appointed for graduation as officers, and those “who were careless or weak in the sciences, so as not to waste money on them in vain” , were assigned to the artillery and engineering corps as non-commissioned officers or privates.

According to the results of the general exam for July 1795, 15-year-old Alexander Seslavin (certified "good behavior, understandable and diligent in the sciences") achieved the following successes in teaching: "Russian grammar - reads; arithmetic - knows; and geography - continues; French and German- weak; clean writing in Russian, French and German - mediocre; draw - good; dance - dancing. His 18-year-old brother Nikolai had a similar assessment, and he did somewhat better in Russian calligraphy. By this time, their older brother Peter (produced in 1794 to sergeant for success in teaching) "turned out to have graduated from science." A year later, in July 1796, he was released as a junker bayonet to the army horse artillery.

It was then that the newly formed horse artillery companies aroused interest not only among artillerymen, but, as Yermolov recalled, “horse artillery aroused the attention of the entire capital. Feldzeugmeister General (head of all artillery. - A.V.), Prince Platon Alexandrovich Zubov showed her as the fruits of his cares about Russian artillery. Melissino, too, for his part, fussed about her and thought out a uniform for her for a long time ... Horse artillery became a fashionable army; Petersburg beau monde came to look at the horse-artillery formation<…>. Officers who acquired a military reputation, St. George Knights, people with patronage and handsome men were appointed to the horse artillery.

Therefore, the joy that the younger brothers Seslavins experienced at the sight of Peter in a smart red uniform with black velvet lapels was natural. with a gold aiguillette, in a hat with a white plume, leggings and hussar boots with spurs. Obviously, then Alexander's desire to serve only in horse artillery was determined.

... In November 1796, with the sudden death of the 68-year-old Empress, Catherine's century ended. Her son Paul, an enthusiastic admirer of Frederick II and his obsolete military system, came to the throne. Everyone knows Pavel's passion for "frut, for braids, curls, over the knee boots." Contemporaries most often bestowed on him the epithets "crazy emperor", "tyrant" and "despot". The strictest regulation of clothes and hairstyles introduced by Paul I was especially burdensome for the subjects, even “children wore triangular hats, braids, boucles, shoes with buckles. These are trifles, of course; but they tormented and irritated people more than any oppression.

By eradicating the hated Catherine spirit in the army, Pavel also eradicated Suvorov. The troops were dressed in uncomfortable Prussian-style uniforms, which hampered the movement of soldiers in battle, but facilitated the achievement of the “German stance and bearing”, necessary for the beauty of the watch parade so beloved by the emperor. Shagistics and frentomania brought to exhaustion equally both soldiers and. However, along with this, the innovations of Paul I had their positive aspects. He, in particular, managed to restore discipline in the army, which had fallen into decay by the end of the reign of Catherine II. The life of the military has definitely improved, the artillery has changed: "the bulky guns of Catherine's times" were replaced by more advanced guns, "lighter and more agile than before."

In the life of the Artillery and Engineering Cadet Corps, which the new monarch took under his "highest" patronage, naturally, changes also occurred: the cadets, who received new uniforms à la prussien and braids with curls, began to intensively teach frunt art. In addition, due to the aggravation of relations with revolutionary France, the French language was expelled from the course of sciences (probably not without the joy of many Cadets).

For the Seslavin brothers, who were finishing their studies, the day of graduation was approaching. The years spent in the corps, common joys and hardships, sometimes a common blanket, made friends with the hot, quick-tempered Alexander and the restrained, cold-blooded Nikolai. The joint service in the future further strengthened the cordial mutual affection of the brothers. It was this feeling, almost 20 years after the end of the corps, that caused Seslavin to tears when he met abroad with a man who was strikingly similar to his brother. “Here the military commissar is a rather significant person,” he wrote to him from France in 1817, “resembles you like two drops of water ... The first time I saw him, I stopped suddenly, looked at him for a long time, different thoughts were born in my head, I remembered our youth, and tears rolled involuntarily from my eyes. Since then, every time I see him, I feel a languid and sweet pleasure ... "

February 1798 - the time of graduation of the Seslavin brothers. On the 16th, Paul I arrived in Artillery Corps. “This day is memorable for me because it is the beginning of my happiness in the first half of the seething activity of my life,” Alexander Seslavin later recalled, “... Sovereign Pavel Petrovich, a few days after the birth of His Highness Mikhail, came to our corps. It was at two o'clock, after dinner, when the cadets were playing in the yard and skating. The headquarters and chief officers went home for dinner. Upon learning of the arrival of the sovereign, all the Cadets fled. Always brave, I went up to the sovereign and kissed his hand. I was then 13 years old, I was beautiful as a cherub. After kissing me, the emperor announced that he had come to congratulate the cadets on the new feldzeugmeister, and when he learned that I was the nephew of that Seslavin who served with him in Gatchina, he asked me if I would like to serve in his guard? I answered that I wished, but only with my brother. A few days later we were already officers in the guards artillery ... "The highest order of February 18, 1798 read:" ... the cadets of the artillery cadet corps are most graciously produced in the guards artillery battalion as second lieutenants: Seslavin 1st and 2nd ... "Let's clarify that 1 Nikolai became the 2nd, and Alexander became the 2nd. Seslavin 1st was assigned to the cavalry company, and the 2nd - to the first foot company. After reading the order, the brothers congratulated each other on promotion to officers. Of course, there were kisses, and hugs, and tears of joy, and a sleepless night before graduation, on which Alexander and Nikolai indulged in dreams of their undoubtedly brilliant life as guards officers. There were troubles with equipment, and, finally, delight when they put on officer uniforms and received swords. This beginning of military service corresponded to their most secret desires.

However, the outwardly brilliant life of a guards officer in the reign of Paul I was not easy. Every day passed in divorces, exercises, reviews "in the highest presence." The emperor especially valued in officers knowledge of the charter and the ability to deftly and beautifully perform tricks with an esponton (a kind of spear) and a sword, as well as compliance with regulated clothing and hairstyles. “The slightest mistake against the form, too short a braid, a crooked curl, etc. aroused his anger and subjected the guilty person to the strictest punishment.” The memoirs of contemporaries report that a minor mistake by an officer during a watch parade in the presence of the emperor was enough to arrest him and even expel him from service. “Paul’s long and hoarse cry:“ Under arrest him! ”- many of the guards remembered.

Alexander Seslavin, always dressed in uniform and carefully combed, with his serious attitude to the performance of official duties, won the favor of the king. “By order of His Majesty, with two guns, being always with the life battalion, I went to Gatchina, Pavlovsk and Peterhof. Soon afterwards they appointed me adjutant (of a battalion. - A.V.), and during the maneuvers I came to His Majesty's tent with a report to the feldzeugmeister. Seeing me, my boss hid his face on the chest of his august mother. It cost a lot of work for the august parent to persuade the stubborn feldzeugmeister, who was crying, shouting and thrashing his legs, to accept a report from me, and then only turning away from me and holding out the pen in which I put the report ... "

The proper performance of his adjutant duties by the Guards, Lieutenant Alexander Seslavin, was soon appreciated: “Your diligent and zealous service drew Our Imperial attention to you, why, in an expression of Our special goodwill towards you, we granted you an honorary cavalier of the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem ... Dan in Gatchina September 9th day 1800.

Alexander's chest was adorned with the first order in his life - an eight-pointed Maltese cross made of white enamel, which he was obviously especially proud of, since none of his peers-colleagues (with the exception of his brother Nikolai) was awarded.

Six months later, Paul I, who favored Seslavin, was killed. The reign of Alexander I began.

The news of the death of Paul and the accession to the throne of Alexander in the capital was received, according to contemporaries, with joy. However, "this enthusiasm was manifested mainly among the nobility, the rest of the estates accepted this news rather indifferently."

The coming time of autocratic "constitutionalism" gave rise to many illusions in the enlightened part of the nobility. But the “days of Alexander, a wonderful beginning” ended with the Arakcheevshchina - 1825.

The kings change, but the service remains ... As usual, at 6 o'clock in the morning, the adjutant of the guards artillery battalion Seslavin 2nd gave a drill report to the inspector of all artillery and the battalion commander Arakcheev, who strictly monitored the performance of this adjutant duty. Having accepted orders from the general, Seslavin wrote them down in the book of orders and delivered them to the companies. After the morning divorce, the day passed in the conduct of official correspondence, the execution of instructions for the inspection of guards, mouths. Each subsequent day was similar to the previous one. The monotony of the service was depressing. In the evenings off duty, Seslavin read books on military history, carried away, and sometimes sat out the night.

He became friends with his colleague, a young Estonian baron, second lieutenant Roman Taube, who became his good friend. Later, in 1809, Taube, promoted to captain for his distinction in the Russian-Swedish war, will receive the following verse message from the retired Seslavin:

I congratulate the young hero on his rank
And I wish you a degree of great dignity;
I wish you to be useful to the Fatherland,
To be so sweet to everyone, as much as he is kind to me,
So that society has a friend, glorious on the battlefield
And so that Seslaven is not forgotten by you.

Often spending time together, friends went out into the world to parties, balls. The young, handsome Guards officer Seslavin is received in St. Petersburg drawing rooms, where he often meets the gentle smiles of women. But the scattered way of life demanded money. Naturally, the lieutenant's salary was not enough. It was not necessary to count on the poor father of the mayor. There remained the only means, quite common among the youth of the Guards, - to live in debt. In an effort not to be among the last, Seslavin gets into debt, every year more and more burdening him.

... In January 1805, Seslavin retired as a lieutenant and left St. Petersburg. We do not know the reason that prompted him to leave the service, but probably not the last role in this decision was played by the monotony of service, lack of money, which began to burden him, and hence the inability to lead the generally accepted life of a guards officer in the capital, as well as a protracted stay in one rank.

In 1805, Russia, worried about the expansion of Napoleonic France at the expense of neighboring states, joined the anti-French coalition. To a certain extent, this decision was facilitated by Napoleon's well-known response to Alexander's protest about the execution of the Duke of Enghien. The note, drawn up by order of the first consul, contained a frank allusion to the participation of his son (Alexander) in the murder of his father (Paul). The tsar never forgave Napoleon this insult, according to the participants in the conspiracy, well deserved.

In July, Austria and Russia signed a military convention on joint action against France. The war was decided.

In August, Seslavin, who learned about the imminent start of the campaign, returned to duty again. In St. Petersburg, he was assigned to the landing corps of Count P. A. Tolstoy, intended for action in Hanover, captured by Napoleon's troops. Guards Lieutenant Alexander Seslavin - the commander of the horse artillery of the corps, he is in charge of four guns (two of them were purchased at the personal expense of Tsarevich Konstantin).

The commander of the landing corps, Lieutenant General Tolstoy, was more of a courtier than a military man. This dignitary, according to his contemporaries, was distinguished by kindness and generosity. With such a commander, the service was spared from rudeness, petty guardianship and nit-picking. By the nature of his duties, Seslavin, who often met with the general, managed to win his full favor.

... On September 12, from Kronstadt, on one of the ships of the navy with a landing corps, Seslavin set off for the shores of Swedish Pomerania. The first sea voyage in his life lasted a week. By the end of the voyage, the storm scattered the ships: several Cossacks drowned, “a platoon of cuirassiers was thrown to a distant island, where it wintered; several guns and ammunition boxes were lost. The guns entrusted to Seslavin survived. Having gathered in Stralsund, the Russian landing force soon moved to Hanover. But, contrary to the hopes of Seslavin, who was eager to test his courage in battle, the corps did not have to fight the enemy. It simply didn't show up. Napoleon, who concentrated his forces in Bavaria, cleared Hanover.

The military campaign turned into a walk. Local residents “crowded in droves to look at the Russians ... Everywhere they treated our soldiers; in big cities they gave us balls.

During the expedition, Seslavin met two Preobrazhensky officers: Captain Count Mikhail Vorontsov and Lieutenant Lev Naryshkin. Both new comrades belonged to wealthy aristocratic families. Vorontsov, a 23-year-old blue-eyed brunette, already had a military award - the St. George Cross of the 4th degree. The appointment at such a young age to the responsible position of chief of staff of the corps was based not only on his personal qualities. The nobility of the family, the post of the father, the envoy of Russia in England, largely predetermined the brilliant life of Vorontsov. The acting adjutant of the corps commander, his cousin, 20-year-old Naryshkin, affable and pleasant in communication (in the near future, a happy rival of Alexander I in love with the “queen” of St. Petersburg salons, Maria Chetvertinskaya), especially endeared Seslavin. The friendship that arose in their first campaign they kept for life. It was Lev Naryshkin that Seslavin later gave as a keepsake a Turkish bullet that wounded him during the assault on Ruschuk.

young people spend together free time, visiting the sights of North German cities, in the evenings they often make up a game of whist for the corps commander.

At the end of November, English troops joined the Russian landing force that liberated Hanover. In anticipation of the arrival of the Swedish corps, the Allies are developing a plan for further movement to Holland. The unexpected news of the French victory in the general battle of Austerlitz stopped these preparations.

Seslavin, like other officers of the corps, who were proud of the well-deserved glory of Russian weapons, considered this news a fiction. But the order that soon followed to return the landing force to Russia finally destroyed his hopes. Joyless was the way of the Russian corps home through the Prussian possessions ...

Seslavin's first campaign is over. In July 1806, he arrived in Strelna, where he entered the Guards Cavalry Artillery Company. “His Imperial Majesty declares his pleasure to the Life Guards artillery battalion to Lieutenant Seslavin 2nd for maintaining during the campaign in perfect order and serviceability the command and guns entrusted to him.”

Returning to Russia, Alexander met with his brother Nikolai and Roman Taube, who participated in the Battle of Austerlitz. He listened with interest to their stories of the battle and looked forward to the opportunity to avenge the defeat of the enemy. In May 1807, this opportunity finally presented itself to him.

In 1807, the Russian-Prussian-French war continued, which began in the autumn of 1806. In February, a campaign was announced to the Guards, on the 16th, Alexander, together with his company, set out from St. Petersburg. In March, they crossed the border of the Prussian kingdom and “then they learned,” one of Seslavin’s colleagues recalled, “the fifth element” - dirt! The roads from the spring thaw blossomed to such an extent that artillery could not go ... more than 2 or 3 miles a day, and one of ours ... on the high road, with a horse, almost drowned ... ".

At the end of May, interrupted hostilities resumed. On the 29th, in the battle of Heilsberg, Seslavin received a baptism of fire. In the morning, with two horse guns, together with a detachment of General A. B. Fok, he was sent to reinforce the vanguard of P. I. Bagration, attacked by the French. The Russian avant-garde stubbornly defended itself. Seslavin with guns at a trot was taken to a combat position. Here, for the first time, he heard the whistle of bullets and the squeal of enemy nuclei, saw the gleam of the blades of the attacking enemy cavalry. By order of Seslavin, the gunners, having taken off their limbers at the closest distance from the enemy, when the faces of the French cavalrymen were already distinguished, opened shot fire. The guardsmen habitually, deftly and cheerfully loaded and aimed the guns. At the command of the lieutenant, the gunners brought smoking overcoats to the seeders. A deafening shot rang out, and through the scattered smoke Seslavin saw the enemy retreating in confusion, leaving the bodies of dead and wounded people and horses on the field. All his attention was focused on the action of the guns. Each successful shot evoked jubilation in the soul. He was happy... At the most critical moments of the battle, Seslavin remained cool and calmly gave orders. The equanimity of the lieutenant was transmitted to his soldiers.

The enemy, reinforced by fresh troops, continued to press on, and the vanguard battle turned into a battle.

During the battle, under circumstances unknown to us, Seslavin's chest was injured, throat bleeding began. This did not allow him to take part in further hostilities. Seslavin's annoyance from such bad luck was somewhat dispelled by a meeting in a field hospital with Lev Naryshkin, who was wounded in the arm in the same "case".

Soon after the unsuccessful battle for the Russian army at Friedland, the Peace of Tilsit was concluded and the guards returned to St. Petersburg in August. The Prussian campaign is over. She brought Seslavin combat experience, a reputation as an officer of excellent courage, the Order of Vladimir of the 4th degree and ... upset health. The latter, as well as the constant need for money and some kind of displeasure experienced by him in the service, forced Seslavin to retire again in December. At the same time, his brother Nikolai also left military service.

The retired lieutenant Seslavin is carried away by the idea of ​​traveling to India, conquered by England, after the Peace of Tilsit, which became an enemy of Russia. Namely, “since 1807, when I was forced to leave the service due to displeasure, I decided to take a trip to the East Indies, collecting in advance the necessary information about the countries that I had to go through. Often arguing about England and the reasons for her rise, he became firmly convinced that it was not in Europe that means should be sought to weaken England's influence on solid ground, but in the East Indies. Russia is closest to her; Russia alone is able to destroy the dominion of the British in India and seize all the sources of her wealth and power ... ". Apparently, the lack of funds did not allow Seslavin to carry out this risky enterprise, which attracted him, among other things, with special romance and oriental exoticism. But the thought of traveling to India did not leave him, and in a few years he would return to this plan again.

In retirement, Seslavin continues to study military literature with the same enthusiasm. He studied the work of Jomini, which was especially popular at that time, “Discourses on Great Military Actions” and other books on military art, paying special attention to the description of the campaigns of Hannibal, Caesar, Napoleon and Suvorov. Such reading enriched Seslavin's mind and broadened his military horizons. In addition to military writings, he reads Bossuet's Discourses on General History, Rousseau's Confession, and rereads Fenelon's The Adventures of Telemachus.

The experience gained by Seslavin in the last campaign prompted him to take up the pen. In June 1808, he submitted to the Artillery Department of the Ministry of War "Opinion on the need for shell packs for flying artillery." In it, Seslavin expressed an interesting view on the appointment of horse artillery, characterizing him as a mature and, undoubtedly, gifted artilleryman: “Horse artillery is made, like cavalry, to carry out sudden attacks on the enemy; to deliver emergency reinforcements to remote places; to strike through quick and hasty movements<…>; to cover the retreat and the crossing of troops ... Finally, to pursue and finally defeat the defeated, frustrated and fleeing enemy. In all cases where it is necessary to increase the fire, whether to set fire to a remote village in which the enemy has settled down, in a word - where haste is needed, horse or flying artillery is used there. Based on the position that “the lighter the horse artillery and the less it has a convoy with it, the more capable it acts against the enemy,” Seslavin further writes: “Having examined all the cases that may occur in the campaign and in action against the enemy with horse artillery, I find that chargers boxes in many cases are inconvenient ... ”Therefore, he proposed introducing shell packs on combat artillery horses. Seslavin's "opinion" was taken into account in the department and filed into the file. This is limited...

The active nature of Seslavin could not withstand prolonged inactivity. In March 1810, he returned to the guards horse artillery and volunteered for the Moldavian army, which fought against the Turks.

In the new campaign across the Danube that began in May, Seslavin operates as part of the corps of General F.P. Uvarov. The first adjutant general of the tsar and the chief of the cavalry guards knew the lieutenant of the guards not only from his service, but also from the Prussian campaign. Uvarov well remembered his excellent actions at Heilsberg. This provided Seslavin with a good attitude as a corps commander and an enviable position as an officer for special assignments.

After crossing the Danube, the Moldavian army of Count N. M. Kamensky moved to the Turkish fortress of Silistria and laid siege to it. Here Seslavin, with the vanguard of Uvarov, participated in repulsing the enemy's sortie and first got acquainted with the action of siege artillery.

On June 1, a guards lieutenant, commanding a half company of batteries, fights near Razgrad. Skillful shots from his guns "forced the enemy, who was in large numbers on the shaft, to retreat and hide from it." The garrison of the fortress, together with the three-bunch pasha, surrendered, Razgrad was occupied by Russian troops, Seslavin was awarded a new order - Anna of the 2nd degree.

The hike continued. During the exhausting marches under the southern sun, Seslavin consoled himself with the fact that he finally sees the places where Suvorov became famous.

On June 11, the Russian army reached Shumla. Divided into columns, the Russian troops attacked the heights in front of the city, defended by the army of Grand Vizier Yusuf. Seslavin, who was during the stubborn battle at Uvarov, "in the most cruel fire showed all kinds of courage and quickness of an excellent officer." On this day, for the first time, he repelled the attacks of the Turkish Janissaries, who, with crooked scimitars and daggers, shouting “Alla!”, Frantically rushed at the Russian squares.

The next morning, another unsuccessful attempt was made to take the city by storm. Without taking Shumla on the move, they proceeded to its blockade. Redoubts are being erected opposite the Turkish fortifications. The enemy, preventing their device, makes desperate sorties. For the difference shown in the reflection of one of them, Seslavin was promoted to staff captain.

The siege of Shumla dragged on. After the successful start of the campaign, these unsuccessful actions of the commander-in-chief made an unfavorable impression in St. Petersburg. Wanting to improve his reputation, Kamensky decides to storm Ruschuk, previously besieged by part of his troops. Leaving the blockade corps at Shumla, the Russian troops moved towards Ruschuk. On July 9 they approached this fortress, lying among steep mountains on the banks of the Danube. Hoping that the appearance of the Russian army would intimidate the Ruschuk garrison, Kamensky ordered the troops that arrived from near Shumla to go to the fortress in a parade march, with drumming and music. Then he demanded surrender. The demonstration was not successful: "the Turks calmly looked at our movement from the fortress walls, refused to surrender and strengthened the defense."

Russian troops began to prepare for the assault, knitting fascines and making assault ladders. In the midst of this preparation, news was received in the camp near Ruschuk about the appearance of Turkish troops in the rear on the banks of the Yantra. A detachment of General A.N. Bakhmetev set out to meet them, with whom Seslavin also volunteered to go. On July 12, after a stubborn battle, the Russian detachment defeated the enemy and pursued the fleeing Turks for several miles. "Distinguished by his courage and skill in battle," Captain Seslavin was noted for "the highest favor."

On July 18, Kamensky, who was impatient to report to the tsar as soon as possible about the capture of a new Turkish fortress, without waiting for a breach to be broken, gave the order to storm. The beginning of the rains forced to postpone this venture for several days. One night, during a forced inaction, two volunteers, risking their lives, measured out the moat. One of the brave men was 23-year-old artillery lieutenant Alexander Figner. His name became famous in the Moldavian army, and, apparently, it was then that Seslavin met Figner. None of them imagined that in two years they would have to partisan together in the vicinity of Moscow ...

The rains stopped, the ground dried up. Wanting to please Emperor Alexander, Kamensky scheduled the assault for July 22, the name day of Empress Maria Feodorovna. The troops were divided into five columns. Called "hunters" who were supposed to capture the ramparts. Seslavin was among them, he was to lead the column of Uvarov. At night, assault columns set out from the camp. They walked, keeping silence, trying in the dark to approach the moat unnoticed. Approaching the moat, they lay down, waiting for a signal. Shortly before dawn, at the beginning of the fourth hour, a signal flare announced the beginning of the assault. The columns rose, lined up and silently moved forward. Suddenly, a flurry of fire fell on Uvarov's column from the side of the fortress. The Turks, having learned in advance about the impending assault, opened the movement of the column and began to fire. Despite the cannon and rifle fire, the attackers threw fascinators into the moat, put ladders against the rampart. Many of them were short. Leaning on bayonets, helping each other, the hunters climbed up. Seslavin was one of the first to climb the ramparts. The first hurdle has been overcome. It remained to go down to the fortress ... Another volley rang out. Seslavin was hit hard in the crook of his right shoulder, he staggered and fell into the moat...

The assault continued. The Russian columns, overcoming the desperate resistance of the Turkish garrison, stubbornly climbed the rampart. The Turks stepped up the fire and made a sortie. “The columns were in fierce fire, showered from all sides with a rain of bullets, buckshot and cannonballs,” reports a participant in the assault. “The Turks… rolled logs along the walls, poured boiling water and metal… threw the wounded grenadiers into a deep ditch with scythes and stakes, where they were all put to death…” The assault bogged down. Having suffered heavy losses, the Russian troops were forced to retreat.

The assault on Ruschuk brought Seslavin the rank of captain and ... a new injury. A Turkish bullet, marked with a cross, pierced his right shoulder and crushed the bone. From that time on, Seslavin could no longer fully raise his arm - he only bent it at the elbow. The severity of the wound was increased by the newly discovered strong throat bleeding caused by a fall from the rampart into the ditch. Together with other wounded, Seslavin is sent to the Bucharest hospital for treatment. Not until February next year, he was able to return to St. Petersburg.

Seslavin's health was seriously undermined. In May 1811, having received leave to continue treatment, he went to the Caucasian mineral waters. Six months later, Seslavin, having restored his strength, returned to the northern capital. On December 12, 1811, the "highest order" reported that "Captain Seslavin 2nd of the Life Guards Horse Artillery ... is appointed adjutant to the Minister of War."

The generals, as Yermolov noted, divided their adjutants into two categories: those whom they took as adjutants, and those who took them as generals. Seslavin belonged to the first. Unlike some who, with the help of the patronage of the Minister of War's wife (he did not know how to refuse her), managed to achieve this flattering appointment, M. B. Barclay de Tolly himself chose A. N. Seslavin, who has a well-deserved reputation as an excellent officer, as adjutant.

The new adjutant, with a conscientious attitude to his duties, first earned the full favor, and then the trust of the Minister of War. During his adjutant service under Barclay de Tolly, Seslavin was able to better understand this silent, rather dry person in communication, wholly occupied with preparations for the inevitable war with France. “He was the first to introduce a system of defensive warfare in Russia, hitherto unknown,” Seslavin later wrote. - Long before 1812, it was already decided in the event of an enemy offensive to retreat, yielding everything to him until the armies concentrated, approached their sources, the militia was formed and formed and, thus luring inside Russia, we would force him to stretch his operational line, and through that weaken, losing people and horses from a lack of food supplies ... "

The year 1812 has come. “Napoleon, expecting an offensive war from the Russians for a long time, and at the same time the certain death of the army and the slavery of our beloved Fatherland, he himself came,” Seslavin later wrote in his memoirs.

With the beginning of the war, some of the adjutants of the Minister of War (at the same time the commander in chief of the 1st Western Army) and the tsar's adjutant wing were sent from Vilna to the corps commanders with instructions on the direction of their movement. Due to a misunderstanding, the vanguard of the 4th Infantry Corps of General I.S. Dorokhov, located in Orany, not far from the western border, did not receive this order.

On the morning of June 16, as the numerically superior enemy forces approached, the 1st Western Army left Vilna. Barclay de Tolly, alarmed by the lack of news from Dorokhov, sent one of his best adjutants Seslavin to him with a small detachment of Cossacks. This was the first responsible assignment of the captain of the Guards during the Patriotic War of 1812. Seslavin's path ran west through territory already occupied by the enemy and was fraught with a certain risk. In the evening of the same day, Seslavin, having made a tense march, bypassing the enemy troops, met the retreating detachment of Dorokhov, who was almost cut off by the French ...

The retreat continued. After a few rainy days, the heat has set in. Terrible dust rose from numerous columns of troops. Dust and heat caused unbearable thirst. Seslavin, accompanying Barclay de Tolly at the crossings, saw soldiers greedily drinking dirty water from puddles ...

The service of adjutants to the commander-in-chief was not easy. Day and night, driving horses, they carried urgent orders and dispositions, carried out various orders from Barclay de Tolly: they monitored the order of the troops on the marches, went to the rearguard leading the battle, and carried out reconnaissance of the enemy. The commander-in-chief used his best adjutants most often. Short break and back on the road...

Seslavin haggard, lost weight, but was pleased with the service, which allowed him to be in the thick of things. An example for adjutants was Barclay de Tolly himself, who worked constantly, without rest, even at night.

On June 23, Seslavin, who was in the rear guard by order of the commander-in-chief, had a chance to fight the enemy for the first time since the start of hostilities. In the morning, near the village of Kochergishki on the banks of the Desna, the Russian rearguard of General F.K. Korf was attacked by the French vanguard of Marshal I. Murat. Seslavin took part in the ensuing hot cavalry battle and was noted for his bravery with "the highest goodwill."

On the evening of the 27th, the troops 1st Western Army entered the fortified camp at Drissa. Here they were supposed to stop and give battle. The Drissa camp was built according to the plan of the Prussian general Ful, who had transferred to the Russian service and enjoyed the special confidence of the tsar. But a detailed examination of the fortified camp showed its complete unsuitability, and at the military council it was decided to leave this ill-fated camp.

The 1st Western Army moved through Polotsk to Vitebsk, where it hoped to unite with the 2nd Western Army of Bagration, separated from it by superior enemy forces.

On July 6, at noon, Seslavin, together with the retinue of Barclay de Tolly, entered Polotsk. The city seemed dead. On the deserted streets, only the noise from the passing columns of troops, the neighing and clatter of horses was heard. Seslavin listened to the conversation of the gunners. One of them said: “It can be seen that he has a lot of power, damn it; look how much they gave away for free, and this city will also go to him. ” “We’ll see,” another answered, “maybe they’re taking him so far on purpose.” - “On purpose or not, but all this is something unprecedented. Is it a thing to go so far without a fight and give everything away for nothing! - “Explain,” the old non-commissioned officer interrupted the conversation. “It looks like they didn’t ask you why they went!” There was laughter in the ranks of the soldiers.

A few days later the army came to Vitebsk. In anticipation of the arrival of Bagration's troops, they were preparing for battle. “The soldiers became more cheerful,” a contemporary reported, “everyone was eager to fight, to assure the French that we were leaving them undefeated. Realizing the danger to which the fatherland was exposed, no one thought about his own life, but everyone wanted to die or wash in the blood of enemies the humiliation inflicted on Russian weapons by an endless retreat.

Towards the advancing enemy, Barclay de Tolly moved the 4th Infantry Corps of General A.I. Osterman-Tolstoy with several regiments of cavalry and horse artillery, which was supposed to delay the movement of the enemy and gain time before the campaign of the 2nd Western Army. Together with this detachment, the commander-in-chief sent his adjutant Seslavin, who enjoys his full confidence and is endowed with special powers.

At dawn on July 13, a stubborn and bloody battle began near the town of Ostrovno, in which Seslavin, according to his comrade V.I. Levenshtern (also adjutant to the commander in chief), took an active part. “Count Osterman instructed us to lead the action on his flanks, deciding to command the center himself ... Seslavin commanded the left wing, and I commanded the right.”

During the day, the Russian troops courageously repulsed the attacks of twice the enemy forces, and only with the onset of darkness, at the end of the case, retreated in order for a certain distance. Seslavin, who for the first time had the opportunity to influence the course of hostilities, passed the test with honor. The artillery, which was favorably located by him, inflicted sensitive damage on the enemy.

The next day, the detachment of General P.P. Konovnitsyn, who replaced Osterman's corps, in a new position near the village of Kakuvyachino, again successfully repelled the attacks of the enemy, rushing to Vitebsk, until night. And again Seslavin was on fire...

We won two days. Napoleon, judging by the stubbornness with which the Russians fought these days, concluded that the hour of decisive battle was approaching. Finally, taking advantage of the overwhelming numerical superiority of his forces, he will be able to defeat the Russian army.

Barclay de Tolly was really preparing for battle, but the unfavorable position at Vitebsk and the news received from the 2nd Western Army forced him to change his decision and retreat to Smolensk. Bagration reported that he could not break through and took the direction to this city.

On July 15, the Russian army, in view of the enemy, left the camp at Vitebsk. This dangerous movement was covered by the rearguard of General P.P. Palen, in which Seslavin was also. The rear guard fought all day and allowed the army to make this maneuver in surprising order. Napoleon, confident that these movements in the position of the Russians were related to the upcoming battle, was deceived ...

Guards captain Seslavin, who fought valiantly during these three days, was introduced by Barclay de Tolly to the next rank of colonel, but he received this promotion only in late autumn.

The long retreat caused discontent among the Russian troops. “... From the first step of the retreat of our army, the short-sighted demanded a general battle,” Seslavin recalled. Barclay was adamant. The army grumbled, the commander-in-chief was subjected to daily ridicule and abuse from his subordinates, and slander at the court. As a granite rock contemptuously looks at the fury of the waves crashing against its sole, so Barclay, despising the undeserved grumbling, was like her, unshakable.

One night Seslavin arrived from the rear guard with another report. Barclay de Tolly was sitting thoughtfully at the table, studying something on a spread out map. After listening to the report, he asked the adjutant: “And what is the spirit in the army? How do they fight, what do they say? - “They scold you until the thunder of guns and the whistle of bullets drown out their murmur. Having entered the case, everything is forgotten, they fight, as the Russians should, ”Seslavin sincerely answered. Frowning, the commander-in-chief said: “I have heard abuse with my own ears, and I do not respect it. I look at the benefit of the fatherland, posterity looks at me. Everything that I do and will do is the result of deliberate plans and great considerations, the fruit of many years of work.

... July 22 came the long-awaited connection of the Russian armies near Smolensk. Napoleon's plan to disunite and separately defeat the 1st and 2nd Western armies failed.

On August 4, the corps of Marshal M. Ney, marching at the forefront of the Napoleonic army, tried to take Smolensk on the move. The corps of N. N. Raevsky and the detachment of D. P. Neverovsky, who defended the ancient Russian city, repulsed the attacks of numerous enemy columns.

In the evening, the commanders-in-chief decided that the 1st Army would continue to hold Smolensk, and the 2nd Army would cover the Moscow road. The army of Barclay de Tolly was located behind the Petersburg suburb on the heights of the right bank of the Dnieper opposite the city. The defense of Smolensk was entrusted to the corps of D.S. Dokhturov and the division of Konovnitsyn. At night, they replaced the troops of Raevsky, who belonged to the army of Bagration, who marched on the road to Moscow.

The morning was sunny. There was gunfire outside the city. Barclay de Tolly, together with the headquarters, left the Petersburg suburb to inspect a combat position on the left bank of the Dnieper. Passing through the city, Seslavin noticed that, despite the noise of the battle, the city was animated. Ice cream was sold on the streets. At 10 o'clock in the morning, Barclay de Tolly with his retinue drove up to the Malakhov Gate - the center of the position occupied by Dokhturov's troops, and, stopping on their terrace, stayed here for about an hour. From here you have a good view of the surroundings. Seslavin saw in the distance dense enemy columns that surrounded the city. Closer, among the bushes, the enemy rifle chains, thickening, were engaged in a lively exchange of fire with our rangers ...

Having completed the detour of the position, the commander-in-chief settled down on the left flank, on a battery placed on a hill opposite the Rachen suburb. At 4 o'clock the assault on Smolensk began. Until late in the evening, fierce attacks of the enemy continued, courageously repelled by Russian troops. The fortress walls contributed to the success of the defense. Having failed to capture Smolensk, Napoleon gave the order to bombard him. Killing fire from 150 battery guns fell upon the city. Smolensk was on fire in many places, the cannonballs and exploding grenades smashed both the inhabitants and the soldiers going into battle. During the assault, Seslavin took part in repulsing an unexpected attack by the enemy cavalry, which managed to ford the Dnieper and tried to capture the battery and capture the commander in chief. The convoy of Barclay de Tolly, along with adjutants and orderlies, rushed towards the enemy and, after a short hand-to-hand fight, put him to flight.

Shortly after this fight, Barclay de Tolly sent Seslavin to Smolensk to learn more about the state of affairs. Having crossed the shelled bridge on the Dnieper, Seslavin visited the city for the second time that day. What he saw was strikingly different from the morning picture. Smolensk was on fire. Grenades exploded over the city, cannonballs ricocheted through the streets. The walls collapsed, the dead lay everywhere, the wounded were carried, the inhabitants rushed about in horror. Evening Smolensk was filled with thunder, crackling, fire, smoke, moaning and screaming. The outskirts of the city were engulfed in fire. A heated battle was in full swing around the walls of Smolensk, and only the darkness of the night stopped the fighters. But the cannonade, without ceasing, continued until late at night.

The enemy failed to break the resistance of the Russian troops. The successful defense of Smolensk raised the morale of the armies to a high degree. Those who did not participate in the battle envied those who fought. The general opinion was the continuation of the battle in Smolensk. But the commander-in-chief considered it expedient to resume the retreat. At one in the morning, Dokhturov received an order to leave Smolensk and, having withdrawn troops to the right bank of the Dnieper, to destroy the bridges ...

Returning to the main apartment at night, Seslavin stopped his horse at the height of the right bank of the Dnieper. She was occupied by a group of generals and who were looking at Smolensk, which was burning below. “This huge bonfire of churches and houses was amazing,” recalled Seslavin’s comrade Pavel Grabbe. Everyone couldn't take their eyes off him in silence. Through the closed eyelids, the brilliance of a dazzling fire penetrated.

Columns of retreating troops walked along the road, carrying the seriously wounded. Crowds of residents who were leaving Smolensk wandered nearby. The sobs of women, the cry of children tore apart the soul. The sight of a national disaster evoked in Seslavin a new, previously untested feeling. He remembered his relatives, his father's house on Sishka and thought that, being in the ranks of the army, he could be useful to the Fatherland ...

... At dawn on August 6, the advanced enemy troops managed to push back the Russian rearguard and enter the Petersburg suburbs. Barclay de Tolly sent Seslavin to Konovnitsyn with orders to stop the enemy. The general, together with Seslavin and other adjutants, led one of the Jaeger battalions in a bayonet attack. The enemy was overthrown and thrown into the Dnieper, the suburb was cleared. “So successful and quick reflection of the enemy,” Konovnitsyn reported to the commander-in-chief, “I lent the most quartermaster unit to Colonel Gaverdovsky ... Guards Artillery Captain Seslavin, my divisional adjutant ... staff captain Akhsharumov and who is with the chief of the main headquarters ... lieutenant Fonvizin, who, assisting me examples of personal courage, sent the soldiers to the enemy and were the culprits of all success.

The next morning, Seslavin participated in a new rearguard action at the village of Gedeonovo, not far from the Petersburg suburbs. Here, his friend Naryshkin, who served as a captain in the Izyum Hussar Regiment, especially distinguished himself. At one of the critical moments of the battle, Naryshkin with his squadron attacked the enemy on the flank, crushed him and forced him to retreat. Seslavin was glad to send his comrade in charge with a brilliant attack.

In the afternoon, the commander-in-chief sent Seslavin with the cavalry detachment of Count V. V. Orlov-Denisov to the left flank of the position near the village of Lubino. Here the adjutant of the commander-in-chief fought until the evening, together with the hussars participating in attacks on the enemy cavalry.

Seslavin's award for successful actions near Smolensk was a golden saber with the inscription "for courage".

Russian armies continued to retreat along the Moscow road. “Our troops,” a contemporary reported, “burned all the cities and villages everywhere ... so as to deprive the French of all means of peace. Local residents everywhere fled from their homes, hiding in the forests ... everyone armed with whatever they could to attack and destroy the enemy. The flames of the people's war flared up ...

Soon after the battle at Lubino, Seslavin was again assigned to the rear guard, where he spent two weeks, fighting the enemy almost every day. He participated with honors in 11 hot battles, and the commanding generals gave him the most flattering characteristics. In particular, Konovnitsyn spoke about the adjutant of the commander-in-chief: “... he was ... used to establish our batteries, which, under his supervision, always acted with great success ... the first in all dangers and out of the strongest fire came out ... the last ... "

The rearguard service was not easy. “Our rear guard suffered the greatest need ... there was not even straw left for bivouacs and firewood for making fire,” recalled Alexander Muravyov, who served in the rear guard along with Seslavin. For the camp life of Seslavin and his comrades, it was usual after a battle to settle down hungry for the night in a field, often in the rain, or in a surviving chicken hut filled with insects, to sleep without undressing for weeks. It was necessary to have his characteristic unpretentiousness and the ability to be content with little in order to endure such conditions.

Joint service in the rear guard brought Seslavin closer to his peer Yakov Gaverdovsky, one of the best staff and closest assistant to Konovnitsyn. Mutual sympathy was established between them, and often, sitting by the campfire, the officers had friendly conversations ...

On August 23, near Gridnev, Seslavin, repelling an attack by enemy cavalry, was wounded by a bullet in the leg. But the very next day, overcoming pain, he took part in fierce battles at the Kolotsky Monastery and near the village of Borodino, in view of the Russian army located in a combat position. Here the rear guard joined the main forces, and Seslavin returned to the headquarters of Barclay de Tolly. The commander-in-chief of all the armies, Prince Golenishchev-Kutuzov, who had recently arrived at the troops, decided to give the battle on the fields of Borodino, which everyone had long been waiting for.

... On August 26, at dusk, Seslavin on horseback with the headquarters of Barclay de Tolly settled down on a battery built on a slope near Gorki. All orders for the battle were made, the troops formed up in battle formations. The captain of the guard was looking forward to the dawn. The dampness of the night disturbed the fresh wound in his leg. The pain didn't subside. It became clear to Seslavin that he could hardly fight on foot with a shot through his leg. One hope that fortune will be merciful to his faithful Circassian.

Dawn broke. In the east, there were sparse clouds. The bright sun was rising. Heavy fog still lingered near the village of Borodino, with its white church, visible below. There was silence. At six o'clock in the morning a muffled cannon shot came from the left. "Howitzer", - defined Seslavin. Silence again. A few minutes later, a second, third, fourth shot followed, and now the cannonade thundered along the entire battle line. The battle has begun.

Ahead of Borodin, gunfire crackled, drums scattered. Taking advantage of the fog, the French suddenly attacked the village, occupied by the guards rangers and separated from the position by the Kolocheya River. Seslavin could hardly distinguish in the smoke of shots and the rising dust a dark column moving rapidly along the road leading to the village. "Will ours hold out?" Barclay de Tolly gave a short order to Colonel Gaverdovsky, recently appointed Quartermaster General of the 1st Army. Gaverdovsky touched the horse. Leaving the battery, he nodded to Seslavin and galloped to Borodino, shrouded in smoke and fog. Seslavia looked after his friend and involuntarily thought: "See you?"

After some time, Gaverdovsky's horse with a bloody saddle will return to his own, and the body of the murdered colonel will never be found ...

The battle in the village was short-lived. A quarter of an hour later, the French managed to drive out the guards, who had lost half of their strength, and break into the bridge over the Kolocha. A counterattack by a brigade of army chasseurs stopped the movement of the enemy. The enemy was driven back, the bridge was on fire below. Looking to the left, Seslavin saw high columns of smoke, accompanied by a terrible roar of artillery. "Semyonov flushes!" As Seslavin expected, it was on the left flank that one of the main actions of the bloody drama unfolded.

Barclay de Tolly got down from the battery and headed for the center of the position. Seslavin, along with other adjutants and orderlies, accompanied the commander-in-chief of the 1st Army. The whole area ahead was covered with moving troops and the smoke of cannon shots. The rays of the sun played on the weapons and ammunition of the columns going into battle. The fire intensified on both sides. Rifle shots and artillery cannonade merged into one continuous rumble. “The shots were so frequent that there was not even a gap in the blows ... - a participant in the battle testifies. - Thick clouds of smoke, swirling from the batteries, ascended to the sky and eclipsed the sun ... "" Cannonballs and grenades literally blew up the earth throughout the space, "comrade Seslavina Levenshtern adds.

Under fire, Barclay de Tolly and his retinue rode in front of the front of the guards brigade, standing in reserve at the edge of the grove. The Preobrazhenians and Semyonovites greeted the commander-in-chief. The cores, screeching, flew up to their ranks, killing and maiming all living things. The command "Close up!" was incessantly heard, and the guards, silently closing ranks, continued to stand with a gun at their feet.

The headquarters noticed the enemy's concentration of significant forces against the Central Battery. Barclay de Tolly turned to his retinue: "Mr. Seslavin!" Seslavin drove up. "Bring two cavalry companies from the reserve and set them up at your discretion at the Central Battery." Seslavin saluted, and the Circassian trotted behind the village of Semyonovskaya, where the general horse-artillery reserve was located. Artillerymen, rushing into battle and already having losses from flying nuclei and grenades, gladly met the adjutant who brought the order to "go to work."

The time was approaching 11 o'clock. Seslavin, leading two cavalry companies at a trot, saw the limbers of the artillery moving down from the Central Battery covered with powder smoke and the covering infantry retreating in disorder. He inwardly went cold: “The key of the position is in the hands of the enemy!” Having indicated to the gunners a place to deploy guns, Seslavin sent his horse to the quarry. The mound was getting closer. On the left side was an infantry column. Seslavin reined in the horse in front of her front. At this decisive moment, the main thing is initiative. Adjutant Barclay de Tolly uttered the words that had a magical effect on the infantry headquarters officer: “by order of the commander-in-chief” and, drawing his Turkish saber, led the column into a bayonet counterattack. At the same time, Levenshtern with the battalion struck on the right side, and Yermolov, who arrived at the Central Battery, led the counterattack in the center. A rain of buckshot and bullets rained down from above. One of them shot down Seslavin's shako.

Thundered "hurrah!". Seslavin quickened his pace and was the first to cut into the ranks of the French infantry. After a terrible hand-to-hand fight, the enemy was thrown from the battery, the captured guns were returned, the height was covered with enemy bodies, Brigadier General Bonami was taken prisoner. The battle line in the center was restored.

Barclay de Tolly, who arrived at the battery during the fight, approved of Seslavin's actions and soon sent him to the head of artillery, Count A.I. Kutaisov, who was seen nearby. Seslavin was supposed to learn more from the general about the location of the artillery positions and bring fresh companies to the center. Officers sent from different parts of the army had long been looking for the chief of artillery. All the efforts of Seslavin and orderly Kutaisov, Guards ensign Nikolai Divov, to find the general were also unsuccessful. Finally, near the mound, they noticed Kutaisov's brown horse. “Together with ... Seslavin,” Divov recalled, “we approached the horse and saw that it was doused with blood and spattered with the brain, which convinced us of the irretrievable loss of its worthy chief for all Russian artillery.”

Almost simultaneously, Seslavin met the seriously wounded Prince Bagration, who was being carried to the dressing station. The general was pale and often turned towards the burning village of Semyonovskaya, where the battle of his army with superior enemy forces continued. Flashes were lost. Bagration's face expressed suffering. Seslavin darkened. Later, he learns that his old comrade Colonel Roman Taube also fought on the left flank. The ball tore off his leg...

Reporting to the commander-in-chief of the 1st Army about what had happened, Seslavin, following his order, rushed to the main artillery reserve near Psarev. Soon he again brought artillery companies and placed them at the Central Battery. The enemy, who had taken possession of the Semenov heights, built numerous batteries on them and near Borodin. Preparing a decisive attack on the center, more than a hundred guns opened a deadly crossfire. No sooner had the gunners brought by Seslavin taken position and fired the first shot than they were bombarded with cannonballs and grenades. “People and horses literally began to be distorted, and wood chips flew from carriages and boxes ...” - an eyewitness testifies. Artillerymen were dying, guns were knocked off their gun carriages, charging boxes were blown into the air. But the broken guns were replaced by others, and the survivors continued to fight.

Around two o'clock in the afternoon, when Napoleon gave the order to attack the Central Battery again, Seslavin returned to Barclay de Tolly. The commander-in-chief, on horseback, stood on a hillock not far from the battery and watched the movement of the enemy. The general's white horse was an excellent target, and the place was continuously bombarded. Ricocheting cannonballs showered Barclay de Tolly and his greatly thinned retinue with earth. Many of the adjutants and those accompanying the commander-in-chief and orderlies were wounded, some were killed. Having whistled, another shot hit the general's horse. Rising, without changing his face, Barclay demanded another.

Eugene Beauharnais, supported from the flanks by cavalry, led his infantry divisions to the Central Battery. The masses of the enemy cavalry swept up the hill and rushed to the nearby infantry. Formed in a square, the Russian regiments repulsed the frantic attacks of the enemy cavalry with battle fire. Almost simultaneously, three French infantry divisions stormed the Central Battery, defended by the division of P. G. Likhachev. After the massacre, the fortification was taken.

At the foot of the mound, the enemy cavalry resumed attacks on the Russian infantry. The Cavalier Guards and Horse Guards regiments hurried to help her at a trot. Barclay de Tolly, accompanied by Seslavin and the few remaining adjutants, led the charge of the elite cavalry. A bright mass of Russian cuirassiers came out to meet the enemy. Pistol shots rang out. Discharging a pistol at the nearest enemy, Seslavin inflicted and repelled the blows of enemy cavalrymen. “The battle began to boil, general, fierce, disorderly, where everything was mixed up, infantry, cavalry and artillery,” recalled a participant in the battle. “They fought as if everyone was defending the victory.” There was a terrible rumble over the battlefield, in which the cries of the fighters, the clanging of blades, the sounds of shots, the neighing of colliding horses and the groan of the wounded merged. Commands and curses were given in Russian, Polish, German and French. “Horses from under the dead people ran in whole herds,” an eyewitness reports. Finally, about five o'clock, the enemy cavalry, unable to stand it, retreated. Only gunners from both sides continued their terrible duel until late in the evening ...

The sun had already set when Seslavin, accompanying Barclay de Tolly with his comrades, returned to the same battery at Gorki, where he met the morning of that terrible day. Of the 12 adjutants who were with the commander-in-chief from the beginning of the battle, only three remained: A. A. Zakrevsky, the wounded Levenshtern and Seslavin. Of the rest, one was killed, several wounded, others lost their horses in the battle. In the great battle, Seslavin and his Circassian remained unharmed. The activity of the intrepid captain of the guards during the 15-hour battle was appreciated: Seslavin was among the few generals who especially distinguished themselves and became a knight of one of the most honorable orders - George 4th degree. The letter of order read: “... despite the bullet wound you received, they participated in the battle ... on the 26th, being used to order and move artillery under fierce enemy fire, and then, when the Central Battery was taken away, they rushed at it from the first and before the very end of the battle showed excellent bravery and courage everywhere.

Ahead were the road to Moscow and the famous Tarutinsky march-maneuver ...

At the end of September, after the departure of the ill Barclay de Tolly from the army, the former adjutant of the commander-in-chief Seslavin was seconded to Konovnitsyn, who was appointed general on duty and actually acting as chief of the main headquarters of Kutuzov.

The field marshal, preparing for a counteroffensive in the Tarutinsky camp, launched a guerrilla war. Light army "parties", supporting the actions of detachments of peasants from the surrounding villages, surrounded Moscow, occupied by the enemy. The outbreak of a people's war engulfed the Napoleonic army with its destructive fire. Every day cost the enemy several hundred people, dozens of recaptured transports with weapons, ammunition and food. Reports about successful activity behind enemy lines, the partisan detachments of Davydov, Dorokhov and Figner brought many prisoners. The number of army partisans increased.

Seslavin decided that in the current situation, it was at the head of the "flying" detachment that he could bring the greatest benefit to the fatherland. The captain of the guard turned to the general on duty for assistance. Konovnitsyn, who sincerely respected the enterprising and courageous officer, recommended Seslavin to Kutuzov. He was invited to dinner with the field marshal, where he received a warm welcome. In the afternoon conversation, apparently, the issue of appointing Seslavin as commander of the party being formed was decided. On September 30, the captain of the guards received an order from the commander-in-chief of all armies: “You are on a mission, your honor, with a party consisting of 250 Don Cossacks of the military foreman Grevtsov and the 1st squadron of the Sumy Hussar Regiment, in the direction along the road from Borovsk to Moscow, and you mean to act more on flank and rear of the enemy army. Not far from you, artillery captain Figner is operating with a special detachment, with whom you can be in close contact. Arm the peasants with weapons taken from the enemy, which can make your detachment very strong, bring prisoners as quickly as possible, giving them cover from regular troops and using, in addition to them, peasants armed with pitchforks or clubs. To encourage the peasants with the exploits that they performed in other places, most in Borovsky district.

Seslavin was pleased to receive command of a separate detachment and, most importantly, complete independence in his actions. True, he hoped for a larger party, but for a start, this is not bad. Seslavin was sure that, having justified Kutuzov's trust, he would be able to count on its increase. There was no doubt that he would pass the test with honor. The Sumy hussars, who had more than one campaign and experience in outpost service, gave special confidence. With the commander of the squadron, the brave staff captain Alexander Alferov, Seslavin was familiar with rearguard affairs. Using the right of choice, he also took into the party the 22-year-old lieutenant of the Elizavetgrad hussars, Nikolai Redkin, who had already partisaned in the Dorokhov detachment with honors and was also known to Seslavin in the rear guard. The duties of a staff officer of the detachment were entrusted to the young ensign of the Life Guards of the Lithuanian Regiment Alexander Gabbe. who received the cards. In the future, Gabbe is Seslavin's faithful adjutant. The Don Cossacks of Grevtsov, appointed to the party, arrived in the army recently, among several regiments called by Platov from the Don. Many of the Cossacks were young and untrained, but all had a burning desire to fight the enemy.

On the night of October 1, Seslavin ordered the assembled detachment: “On the right, three marches!”, And the partisans, together with the peasant guides, left the Tarutinsky camp. Having passed the last patrols, the party, observing silence, went through forests and ravines to the north, to Moscow. The dark October night, the first snowfall, dense forests and the expectation of danger made the expedition especially attractive to Seslavin.

The first major action of the new partisan detachment, not counting the skirmish on October 2 with enemy foragers, took place on the 4th near the village of Bykasovo on the New Kaluga road. From the prisoners taken the day before, we learned that a detachment of General Ornano (4 cavalry regiments, 2 infantry battalions and 8 guns), covering a large convoy, stopped in the village of Vyazemy on the Mozhaisk road. Despite the significant superiority of the enemy, Seslavin decided to attack the detachment at dawn the next day. The main thing is to attack suddenly and decisively. Hunters from the peasants who joined the party, who knew the area well, volunteered to lead the partisans along the dense forest paths. Seslavin divided the detachment into three parts. Ahead with the guides was the vanguard of the Cossack hundreds with Redkin at the head, then - the main part of the party, the movement of which was covered by the rearguard. The march was night, long and difficult. People dozed off on horseback… “Having made 55 versts,” Seslavin reported to Konovnitsyn, “I didn’t find him in Vezyumovo, and found out that in a few hours I set out on the Borovsk road in order to march through Fominsky, Vereya and Smolensk… I walked with him in parallel , passing at night the villages in which the enemy was ... Being always surrounded by strong enemy parties, I hid in the forests on the Borovskaya road. As soon as the enemy showed up, I let the infantry and part of the cavalry through the village. in order to make them unable to mutually reinforce themselves. I attacked swiftly, overturned the cavalry and the shooters. In this case, up to 300 people were killed by the enemy, including one general ... one colonel and several. After this, General Ornani arranged a battery, infantry and cavalry on the heights, opened a cannonade and gunfire ... Sumy hussars and Grevtsov's Cossacks, before buckshot, shots and bullets, pierced all the horses and spoiled the harness under the rest of the artillery, wagons and boxes. When the infantry threatened to cut off our retreat, I ordered to retreat to the forest. Stop outside the shot, I showed that I had the intention to attack again ... But when the enemy, being reinforced by cavalry, led a decisive attack, I retreated through the forests to Nara ... and stopped three miles from Fominsky, where the enemy settled down to spend the night. Losses on our side were about forty people ... The business was decent and hot.

After a successful search, Seslavin settled his detachment for the night in a small village in the forest, abandoned by the inhabitants and surrounded by swamps. Soon several dozen bearded peasants appeared from the forest. "What do you need guys?" Seslavin asked. “Your Excellency, perhaps we should use guns and cartridges to beat the adversary,” the peasants answered, bowing from the waist. Seslavin ordered to give each of the trophies captured in battle. Having received weapons, the peasants warmly thanked the partisan commander. Seslavin instructed them, without losing sight of his detachment, to immediately report the enemy. "We can do it, Your Excellency!" the peasants said.

On the next cloudy morning, Seslavin's party set off on a new expedition and unexpectedly met Figner's detachment near the village of Oteptsovo. Lieutenant Biskunsky, who partisand with Figner, recalled that “at the crossing through an empty village and an open meadow, suddenly through the fog we saw a detachment of cavalry ... coming from the flank right at us. In the suddenness of this, Figner ordered to stop and build up to the attack as soon as possible ... But as this blackening cavalry in the fog came closer and closer, peaks and darts appeared to us. In such doubt, by surprise there were Russians here, one of ours galloped up to get to know them better, and in about three minutes we saw Russian Cossacks, and Seslavin galloped up to us. This was the first clash between two detachments of real partisans, and I saw him for the first time ... We have now noticed that Seslavin is pleasant, cheerful in his manner, smart, reasonable, like an “old man”. After conferring, the partisans decided together at dawn to again attack Ornano's detachment, which remained in Fominsky. On a cold autumn night, picking up their sabers under their hips to maintain complete silence, the partisans went through the forests to the village and set up in ambush along the road leading from Fominsky through a forest clearing.

At dawn on October 6, part of the Ornano detachment set out from the village. First came the vanguard of the cavalry, closing the march of the infantry. The partisans, having missed the first columns, tried to cut off the tail. The enemy infantry met them with a volley. Bullets rattled the trees and wounded several people. A shootout ensued. From the vanguard, the cavalry was returning at a trot, preparing to attack. The enemy artillery, which had stopped on the road, aimed its cannons and opened fire. Unable to resist the superior numbers of the enemy with infantry and artillery with insignificant forces, the cavalry detachments of Seslavin and Figner were forced to retreat and hide in the forests. The cannonballs flying after them broke trees ...

On the same day, the Battle of Tarutino took place, in which the Russian troops defeated the vanguard of Murat. This event hastened the exit of Napoleon from Moscow. On October 7, the enemy army left the ancient capital of Russia and moved along the Old Kaluga road leading to the Tarutinsky camp. Having undertaken this movement, Napoleon was going to attack Kutuzov in the event of Murat being pursued by the Russian army. But, making sure that after the battle the Russians returned to the fortified camp, Napoleon turned to the New Kaluga road. What was the emperor's purpose in making such a maneuver? He strove secretly, avoiding a decisive battle, to go around the Tarutinsky camp on the left and along the land not devastated by the war, through Maloyaroslavets and Kaluga, to pass to Smolensk.

It was obvious to Kutuzov that the enemy would soon have to leave Moscow. But when and where will the enemy retreat? This question most of all occupied the field marshal in these autumn days and sometimes sleepless nights. Many of the partisan detachments sent by Kutuzov to the enemy's messages were looking for an answer. But only Seslavin, who, according to the figurative expression of a contemporary, was the “eyes and ears” of the army, was the first to establish the truth. The enterprising partisan believed that timely reconnaissance would most of all contribute to the success of the actions of our troops. Therefore, Seslavin considered one of his main tasks to be continuous monitoring of enemy movements, widely using the local population for this purpose.

... After searching at Fominsky, Seslavin returned to the Tarutinsky camp to ask for an increase in his party. In the camp, he stayed in the hut of Yermolov, the chief of staff of the 1st Army, who took a lively part in coordinating the activities of the detachments of Seslavin and Figner, his fellow artillerymen. In the main apartment of Kutuzov, the captain of the guards found the most affectionate welcome. The field marshal approved all his ideas about those who distinguished themselves for the award and ordered the detachment to be reinforced with two squadrons of the Akhtyrsky hussars and a company of the 20th Chasseur Regiment. A little later, Seslavin will receive two more horse guns. Now a detachment consisting of three types of weapons could act more effectively against the enemy.

On October 7, the day Seslavin arrived at the camp, Dorokhov reported the appearance of Broussier's infantry division at Fominsky (where Ornano's detachment was still stationed). Not knowing that Napoleon's army was following her, Dorokhov intended to attack the enemy and asked for reinforcements. Kutuzov sent two infantry regiments to him. A day later, on the 9th, Dorohov, reporting on the concentration of these enemy detachments in the Fominsky area, suggested that "this action of the enemy may be a preliminary movement of his entire army to Borovsk." Having received this report, Kutuzov on the same day sent the parties of Seslavin and Figner to Fominsky to learn more about the forces and disposition of the enemy. On the morning of the next rainy day, the infantry corps of Dokhturov, reinforced by cavalry, artillery and Cossacks, set out from the Tarutinsky camp on a secret expedition against the detachments of Ornano and Broussier. Meanwhile, the main forces of Napoleon, who crossed the country roads from Old Kaluga to New, were concentrated near Fominsky. But Kutuzov's headquarters did not yet know about this. The decisive moment on which the outcome of the war depended was approaching. If Napoleon manages, bypassing the Russian army, to go to Kaluga (where the main military and food reserves of Kutuzov were located), the retreat of the French army will take place in more favorable conditions ...

It was raining all day long. Late in the evening, Dokhturov's troops, having made a difficult transition along a washed-out country road, bivouacked near the village of Aristovo, halfway to Fominsky. At dawn, they were to attack and exterminate the enemy detachments, which, as they believed, had mistakenly moved away from the main forces of Napoleon. As a precaution, so as not to alarm the enemy, fires were not lit. People, wrapping themselves in wet overcoats, tried to keep warm, gathering in heaps. Dorokhov arrived at about seven o'clock. He told Dokhturov that near Fominsky and beyond the Nara River (which flowed near the village), the lights of enemy bivouacs, but the wooded places did not allow him to determine the enemy's forces. Dokhturov decided to wait for news from Seslavin and Figner.

It was nearly nine o'clock when there was a clatter of horses at the forward pickets and a few riders appeared. The sentry's call was followed by the answer: "ours." It was Seslavin with five or six Cossacks and hussars. On one of the horses sat two, the last of them was in a high bearskin hat of an Old Guard grenadier. The information that the partisans brought was so important and unexpected that they forced them to completely change the plan of action.

Despite the enemy posts set up near Nara, carefully guarding the crossings over it, Seslavin managed to cross the river and approach the New Kaluga road. Not reaching four miles to Fominsky, the brave partisan, leaving his detachment in a forest hollow, hiding behind the trees, approached the road. Above it was the rumble that usually accompanied the movement of large masses of troops. Seslavin, at the risk of being seen, climbed a tree that still had leaves. What he saw made his heart beat faster: the whole road was filled with dense enemy columns. “I was standing on a tree,” Seslavin recalled, “when I discovered the movement of the French army, which stretched at my feet, where Napoleon himself was in a carriage. Several people separated from the edge of the forest and the road, were captured and delivered to the Most Serene in a certificate of such an important discovery for Russia, deciding the fate of the Fatherland, Europe and Napoleon himself ... "

Seslavin, mortally tired from the long race, his eyes sparkling with excitement, sitting at the table in the hut, told Dokhturov about what he had seen. Unexpectedly for himself, he noticed that the general was receiving his message with an incredulous look. With his characteristic vehemence, Seslavin, offended by distrust, suggested that Dokhturov put on a “white shirt” (that is, shoot) if he falsely reported. The partisan called a Cossack orderly and ordered him to bring a captured non-commissioned officer of the Guards. During interrogation, the Frenchman testified: “It has been four days since we left Moscow ... Tomorrow is the emperor’s main apartment in the city of Borovsk. Further direction to Maloyaroslavets. The situation was clear. In such emergency circumstances, it was impossible to delay. Dokhturov immediately sent his duty staff officer Dmitry Bolgovsky with a report to Kutuzov, and the tireless Seslavin rushed to his detachment to continue monitoring the movement of Napoleon's army.

Seslavin's merit was not only that he saved Dokhturov's troops from death by a timely notice, which at dawn would not have attacked individual detachments, but stumbled upon the entire enemy army. His main merit to the fatherland was that the discovery of an enterprising partisan made it possible for Kutuzov to stop the enemy at Maloyaroslavets and force him to retreat along the devastated Smolensk road. It was along the same road that Napoleon came to Moscow.

Kutuzov’s reaction to Seslavin’s message is known from Bolgovsky’s memoirs: “... His appearance at that time was majestic, and a feeling of joy sparkled already in his eyes. “Tell me, my friend,” he said to me, what is this event about which you brought news to me? Has Napoleon really left Moscow and is retreating? Speak quickly, do not torment the heart, it is trembling. I informed him in detail about all of the above, and when my story was over, then suddenly this venerable old man did not cry, but sobbed and ... rivers: “... from this moment Russia has been saved ... "”

From that time on, the field marshal calls the captain of the guards none other than "Alexander Nikitich" and, having given him complete independence, more than once entrusted the most important assignments. Contemporaries also highly appreciated the feat of Seslavin. The already mentioned Bolgovsky wrote that "hardly anyone had the happiness to render a more brilliant service to the state, if not he, Seslavin." The name of the brave partisan gained all-Russian fame, and then all-European.

Later, in 1813, an engraved portrait of the hero will be published in Russia with the caption: “He was the first to inform the commander-in-chief of the armies of the enemy’s intention to go from Moscow to Kaluga, and thereby contributed to warning him near Maloyaroslavets, which resulted in a shameful and disastrous retreat for the French” . The opinion of Seslavin himself: "The enemy has been warned at Maly Yaroslavets, the French army has been exterminated, Russia has been saved, Europe has been liberated, and universal peace is a consequence of this important discovery." October 10, 1812 - a decisive day in the life of Seslavin. On this day he gained immortality ...

Napoleon's "Great Army" was retreating. “The enemy is advancing with great haste, having with him lanterns for night marches, which the enemy took in Moscow ... - M.A. Miloradovich reported to the field marshal from the vanguard. - The army is in great disorder and continues to feed on horse meat, has no bread, all the villages are burned ... tired prisoners are pinned.

With the beginning of the retreat of the enemy, army partisan detachments marched on its flanks, disturbing the enemy with constant raids and impeding movement. Outstripping the enemy, the partisans destroyed bridges and crossings on his way, destroyed the stocks of food and fodder he had made, and exterminated individual detachments. The actions of light parties exhausted the enemy's forces, doomed him to deprivation and hunger.

The most important task of the partisans at that time was to monitor the direction of the enemy's movement, to collect information about his numbers and combat capability. Seslavin played an indispensable role in this, submitting the most detailed and reliable reports to Kutuzov's headquarters. The energetic and enterprising partisan commander, like no one else, organically combined the actions of his detachment with the strategic and tactical plans of the high command. “Today on the 19th in the morning at dawn,” Seslavin reported to Konovnitsyn, “Platov defeated Ney’s vanguard in Kolotskoye ... I think that our army will not have time to forestall the enemy in Vyazma if it does not go on a forced march ... The enemy marches more than 30 miles a day, destroys everything that can impede his march ... Miloradovich spends the night in Semenovsky. He wants to go in the morning to Gzhat, he will not find the enemy there, he has to go from Semenovsky to Teplukha or directly to Vyazma. Sim can cut his way, make it difficult to march, so that the army has time to come. This minute I'm going to Miloradovich with this proposal... Figner and I want to get ahead of the enemy army and try to harm as much as possible: Your Excellency! A wonderful opportunity to exterminate the enemy ... Leave all the hardships, lighten the soldiers, take off their satchels and go light, calculate the marches, maybe ahead of the enemy in Vyazma ... "

On October 22, the detachments of Seslavin and Figner, together with the advanced units of the Russian army, fight in the vicinity of Vyazma. Evening came. The battle with the enemy, who retreated under the blows of the Russians to the city, continued. “Wishing for a speedy end to the battle ... - Seslavin recalled, - I went to Vyazma, occupied by the enemy. Overturned trucks, charging boxes prevented the retreat of infantry and artillery. The turmoil was great, I rode towards (the enemy. - A.V.) and no one paid any attention to me. Leaving the city, I found the infantry and artillery, still in a formidable form, occupying the heights. I spurred on my gray Circassian and, galloping between the columns and batteries, stopped outside the range of a rifle shot. Taking off his cap, he waved it with a white handkerchief to our troops, who held their guns at their feet ... A few bullets fired from enemy columns did no harm to me. Without a command or command, all the troops took up their guns and moved straight towards me. When they reached me, they shouted: “Here is our brave George on a white horse!” The enemy faltered and the Pernovians, in whose head I was ... overtook the enemy in the street, stopped by overturned wagons. Ours went forward over the corpses of the enemies ... "

After the defeat at Vyazma, the enemy army lost heart. Hundreds and thousands of Napoleon's soldiers, exhausted by hunger and cold, tired of fighting, wandered along the snowy road behind the corps that still preserved order ...

The enemy continued to retreat to Smolensk. The detachments of Seslavin and Figner marched in close proximity to the left flank of the enemy, preventing him from looking for food from this side. Several times a day, the partisans, bypassing the enemy columns, crossed their path and suddenly attacked. While the enemy was taking measures to repulse the attack, they “paved the way for the French with bullets, pikes, sabers and, worst of all, grapeshot from guns. All this is a matter of a few minutes, and they only turn to us, we are in spurs, from the roads to the forest or over the mountain to the field, and of course, we start forward .... and again we will destroy the bridges, we will attack towards the heads, tails, day and night ... ”- testifies Xavier Biskupsky.

On October 27, the detachments of Seslavin and Figner united with the Davydov party, located in the village of Dubosishchi. It was the first meeting of famous partisans. Later, Davydov, recalling her, writes: “I put Seslavin incomparably higher than Figner both as a warrior and as a person, because to Figner’s military qualities he combined the strictest morality and elegant nobility of feelings and thoughts. In personal courage ... he is Achilles, that Ulysses. “Seslavin is worthier than me,” Figner agreed.

... After cordial greetings, Davydov informed his comrades-in-arms that on the road leading from Yelna to Smolensk, in the villages of Yazvin, Lyakhovo and Dolgomost, there were detachments from the fresh division of General Barage d'Ilye. After discussing the situation, the partisans decided to take advantage of the disunity of the enemy forces and attack one of the detachments - the 2,000th brigade of General Augereau in Lyakhovo. But since the united parties had a little more than 1200 people, another detachment of Orlov-Denisov, who was nearby, was invited to participate in the attack.

At dawn, the partisans resolutely attacked the enemy, who unfortunately noticed their appearance too late. The battle at Lyakhov, in which Seslavin's hussars and artillerymen especially distinguished themselves, ended with the surrender of Augereau's detachment. The brigadier general himself, 60 and 2000 soldiers surrendered.

A frosty night has come. Disarmed columns of the enemy walked along the road past the rows of mounted partisans, illuminated by the glow of Lyakhov, lit during the battle. The prisoners scolded "frost, their general, Russia, us," Davydov recalled, "but Figner's words: filez, filez (go! go!) covered their immodest expressions."

Figner delivered the prisoners to Kutuzov's main apartment. Satisfied, the field marshal sent the fearless partisan to St. Petersburg to report to the emperor about the brilliant deed under Lyakhov. In the report taken away by Figner, Kutuzov wrote: "This victory is all the more famous because it was the first time ... the enemy corps surrendered to us."

After Figner's departure, his detachment entered Seslavin's team. In this composition, the partisans were to reach Vilna and take part in ten "cases" with the enemy.

The 3rd Western Army of P. V. Chichagov and the separate corps of P. X. Wittgenstein, operating against the enemy’s flank groupings, were approaching the retreat path of the Napoleonic army pursued by Kutuzov’s troops. It became necessary to coordinate their joint efforts for the complete defeat of the enemy. One of the important tasks - establishing a connection with Wittgenstein, the field marshal entrusted to Seslavin. The assignment was difficult and dangerous: the path passed through places still occupied by enemy troops. In addition, Kutuzov's headquarters did not have accurate information about the whereabouts of a separate corps. But the field marshal had no doubt that Seslavin, known to him as one of the most excellent army, would be able to do this with honor. difficult task. “Based on the deeds you have performed so far with excellent zeal, and knowing your personal merits. I’m sure in advance, ”Seslavin read in Kutuzov’s order dated October 30,“ that you and the detachment ... will be of great benefit to the general actions of the main army and do not miss doing all sorts of harm to the enemy on the roads. Seslavin turned over the sheet and reread to the officers surrounding him the beginning of the command of the commander-in-chief: “Although the main objective your detachment should be to open an emergency communication with Count Wittgenstein, but this enterprise, being ... still in great danger, I present it solely to your discretion ... "" Last words, - Seslavin later recalls, - they made them flare up and shout: “Let's go!” “Let's go!” everyone repeated, and we hit the road ... "

In anticipation of news from the scouts sent by Seslavin to the enemy rear, who were supposed to establish the location of Wittgenstein, as well as the direction of the enemy’s movement, the detachment operates in the vicinity of Krasnoe. It was at this town that Kutuzov intended to block Napoleon's retreat.

Seslavin's party, which was in front of all the "flying" detachments, made a daring search on the communications of the enemy army, which was leaving Smolensk. The partisans dispersed individual enemy columns, took prisoners, intercepted couriers with important dispatches, captured stores (warehouses) with food, which was valued by the enemy at that time literally worth its weight in gold. Day and night the enemy did not know peace. “Napoleon with the guards came yesterday to Lyady,” Seslavin reported on November 5 to Konovnitsyn. - ... I disturbed them at night, surrounded Lyady, shot and made them scream (partisans. - A.V.), which did not let Napoleon sleep, and therefore forced them to be in readiness and fear ... A herd of prisoners will be delivered to you today ... "

Skillfully organizing reconnaissance, Seslavin continued to provide Kutuzov's headquarters with operational information about the position and direction of the enemy's movement, which was so necessary for successful preparation and carrying out the Krasnenskaya operation. When reading the reports, Seslavin is struck by his deep understanding of the situation that has developed in the theater of operations. The considerations contained in them of the captain of the guards about the possible movement of the Russian army to exterminate enemy troops testify to his outstanding military talent. “It would not be bad if, during the attack on Krasnoye, some corps moved by force, through Zverovichi, Boevo, Chirino to Dubrovna,” Seslavin wrote in another report to the general on duty on November 5. - There they will be caught at the crossing of the enemy. The French troops stationed in Krasnoye, being held up by the attack of our troops, must disappear on this side of the Dnieper. After the defeat of the French, I think it will be necessary to pursue them to Lyady with a small part, and the rest to also go to Zverovichi ... to Dubrovna. The road is good and the places open, our cavalry has a place to roam. However, you are knowledgeable and smarter than me. If I have lied, then this comes from ardor and a strong desire to destroy the enemy.

According to some military historians, the implementation of the action plan proposed by Seslavin would lead to the complete destruction of the enemy army.

Kutuzov highly appreciated the reports of Seslavip. The correspondence of his headquarters with the partisan is full of words of gratitude for the communication of "very important news", with which he "contributed a lot to the common good."

After a three-day battle near Krasnoe, the Napoleonic army, having suffered heavy losses, losing an entire corps and almost all artillery, rushed to the Berezina. Here the enemy intended to cross and continue the retreat to Vilna. On the Berezina, according to Kutuzov's plan, the troops of Wittgenstein and Chichagov were to complete the defeat of the enemy.

Seslavin, following the order of the field marshal, on the morning of November 15 opened a message with Wittgenstein, who was on the left bank of the Berezina near the village of Kostritsy. On the same day, the tireless partisan was sent as a general to Borisov. Seslavin had to take the city at all costs and, having established contact with Chichagov (located on the right bank), notify him of Wittgenstein's plan the next day to attack the enemy, who was crossing at Studyanki. The new order is also brilliantly executed. On the night of the 15th to the 16th, Seslavin's detachment liberated Borisov, captured 3,000 people, and opened contact with Chichagov's army.

On November 16, Russian troops attacked the enemy on both banks of the Berezina and completed the destruction of the "great army". However, Napoleon, together with its insignificant part (9 thousand), managed to slip away.

On the evening of November 23, the emperor left the wreckage of his army in Smorgon and went to Paris. On the night of the same day, near the county town of Oshmyany, on the Vilna road, the paths of Napoleon and Seslavin almost crossed.

There was a severe frost. “I don’t remember such a terrible cold in my life,” a participant in the campaign reports. - ... It was difficult to talk to each other: the thick air almost stopped a person's breathing. The infantry division of Loison, marching from Vilna to meet their defeated army, stopped in Oshmyany and hurried to take refuge from the cold in the houses. In the evening, Seslavin's detachment broke into the city. The partisans, taking the enemy by surprise, cut down the guard and set fire to the food store. The enemy in confusion rushed from Oshmyany, but, noticing that only the cavalry was attacking, he stopped, settled down and opened fire. Seslavin left the city. An hour later, the emperor's carriage drove into Oshmyany. “Napoleon safely reached Oshmyany,” wrote the French historian Shambray, “but easily, however, he could fall into the hands of Seslavin, which would undoubtedly happen if this partisan knew about his passage.”

The frost intensified and reached 33 degrees. On November 27, Seslavin's detachment approached Vilna. The entire road to the city was covered with the corpses of frozen people, scorched horses, abandoned cannons, ammunition boxes and trucks. At about two o'clock in the afternoon, a cannonade was heard at the outpost of Vilna - the partisans attacked the rearguard of the enemy. - “My guns scattered the crowded column at the gates of the city,” Seslavin reported to Konovnitsyn. - At this moment, the enemy put up several squadrons against me: we prevented this attack with our own and drove his cavalry into the streets; the infantry supported the cavalry and pushed us back; ... made a secondary onslaught, which brought me six guns and one eagle (banner. - A.V.). Meanwhile, Major General Lanskoy approached me, with whom we pushed the enemy to the very city walls ... I ventured on the last attack, which I could not bring to an end, being severely wounded in left hand; the bullet crushed the bone and went right through ... ”Seslavin concluded the report with the words:“ I recommend my entire detachment, which in all matters from Moscow to Vyazma was inspired by zeal for the common good and did not spare blood for the fatherland.

The next day, the vanguard of the Russian army approached and drove the enemy out of Vilna. In the liberated capital of Lithuania, Seslavin learned about his promotion to colonel "for excellent deeds", appointment as commander of the Sumy hussars and adjutant wing of the king. Seslavin was happy. High awards are proof of his undoubted services to the fatherland in the war of liberation.

The severe wound did not heal for a long time. The hardships suffered during the campaign affected. Hussar Colonel Seslavin returned to the army, already operating in Germany, only in the second half of 1813.

V

When and where Seslavn joined the army, we do not know. But the surviving sources find him on August 10, 1813, going, as usual, at the head of a "flying" detachment (consisting of the Sumy Hussar Regiment) to Dresden. The detachment was supposed to "illuminate" the march of the Bohemian Allied Army to the capital of Saxony and observe the movement of the enemy. On the same day, Seslavin opened the enemy (3 thousand infantry and 450 cavalry) on the way to the village of Geppersdorf. Two squadrons of Sumy hussars scattered a regiment of enemy dragoons with a dashing attack and forced the infantry to retreat. One of the episodes of this fight, as it were, anticipated famous novel Mayne Reid. The killed French dragoon remained in the saddle and, without losing his landing, continued to rush in front of the fighting front ...

On August 13, Seslavin, having successfully completed his task, joined the vanguard of Wittgenstein's corps, which approached Dresden. At about four in the afternoon, a vanguard battle took place near the city, in which Seslavin's regiment distinguished itself. The Sumy men, together with the Grodno hussars, upset the French dragoons of Murat with a swift attack and repulsed four guns. The colonel was pleased with the actions of his hussars. The regiment also noted the rare composure, fearlessness and diligence of the new commander under fire.

On a sunny morning on August 14, the Bohemian army surrounded Dresden, fortified by the enemy. At the beginning of the fifth hour, three cannon shots were fired. At this signal, the allied artillery opened fire and the columns went on the assault. The attack of the infantry units on the extreme right flank, by order of Wittgenstein, was led by Hussar Colonel Seslavin.

Napoleon, taking advantage of the indecision in the actions of the commander-in-chief of the Bohemian army, Prince Schwarzenberg, concentrated his forces and repelled the Allied attacks on Dresden. With the onset of night, the cannonade subsided, and thousands of campfires lit up in the vicinity of the city. Seslavin, setting up outposts, settled down with a regiment in the open air next to the battlefield. Weary people, content with a meager supper, longed for sleep. Suddenly, a cold rain poured down that lasted all night. Hastily made huts did not save from the downpour. Streams of rainwater rolled down behind the neck, flowed all over the body, filled the boots. Wet to the bone, chilled, the hussars unsuccessfully tried to rest. For Seslavin, this sleepless night was especially painful because of the wounds disturbed by dampness.

Morning has come. The rain fell non-stop. At the seventh hour, the cannonade opened and the battle resumed. In the battle of Dresden, the allies, who had virtually no unity of command, failed.

In the evening, the army began to retreat back to Bohemia. It rained all day long. The battlefield turned into a swamp, the roads blurred and became impassable, people and horses got stuck in the mud. Entire battalions of Austrians, having lost their "boots" in the black earth, refused to fight and surrendered. Exhausted and frustrated, the Allied troops retreated in the darkness, in the pouring rain. Screams of the wounded and curses were heard everywhere ...

During the retreat of the Bohemian army, Seslavin, together with the regiment holding back the French offensive, participated with honors in the rearguard battles. After a series of victories for the allied troops at Gross-Beeren, Katzbach and Kulm, the situation in the theater of operations changed for the better for them. At the end of August, the Bohemian army launched a new offensive into Saxony. The Sumy hussars are again fighting in the vanguard of Wittgenstein.

Colonel Seslavin, who shared with the regiment all the hardships of camp life, always kept a cheerful and cheerful look, a demanding but fair commander, won the love and respect of his hussars.

Meanwhile, tireless marches, often in bad weather, along uncomfortable mountain roads, long marches and counter-marches, and a lack of food exhausted Wittgenstein's advanced corps. The command decided to give him a break. In mid-September, Wittgenstein's troops stopped to rest at Teplitz, located in a beautiful valley among the mountains. Here Seslavin, who had recently suffered especially from wounds, was able to use the famous healing mineral springs. Bathing in the Teplice hot baths brought him some relief. In the same place, in Teplice, our ambitious hero read with satisfaction the "highest" order given to the troops on the day of the king's coronation - September 15th. Seslavin, among other distinguished colonels, was promoted to major general. It was probably then that the French graphic artist Louis Saint-Aubin made one of the first and best portraits of the famous hero. A beautiful, courageous, slightly tired face. Curly hair, small mustache, sideburns in fashion. Thoughtful look of intelligent eyes ...

So, at 33, Alexander Nikitich became a general. Not the patronage of those in power, but numerous military merit and outstanding abilities allowed him in a very short time (a little over two years) to go from a captain of the guards to a major general. The first general appeared in the Seslavin family.

At the end of September, the allied armies went on the offensive and, slowly squeezing the ring around the main enemy forces, approached Leipzig. On the plain near this Saxon city, a grandiose battle took place that decided the fate of Napoleon's empire. The prelude to the battle was the cavalry "case" on October 2, which unfolded near the town of Libertvolkwitz to the south of Leipzig.

The day was overcast and cold. A strong gusty wind blew. By order of Seslavin, the hussars put the mentiki in their sleeves. The Sumy stood on the right flank of Palen's column next to General Nikitin's cavalry company. Horse artillerymen moved far ahead and opened fire on Murat's cavalry, located near Libertwolkwitz. The French horse artillery, which advanced from the enemy line, responded to the Russian. Almost simultaneously, several regiments of French dragoons, veterans of Spain - Napoleon's best cavalry, rushed to the Russian battery, which had so riskily moved away from cover.

Seslavin noticed the danger threatening the gunners and instantly assessed the situation. He gave a short command "to attack!", repeated by squadron commanders. The hussar general, accompanied by the regimental adjutant and trumpeters, rode out and stood in front of the middle of the regiment. With a deployed front, the hussars moved towards the enemy. Seslavin heard behind him the steady rumble of the hooves of several hundred horses. The first tens of meters went at a walk, then habitually switched to a trot. Seslavin looked back. Some hussars, breaking alignment, with flushed faces, pulled ahead. The general shouted cheerfully: “Easier, easier, equalize, hussars!”

The regiment took 500 steps when, at the command of Seslavin, the trumpeters blew the signal “gallop!”. The hussars, keeping close lines, increased their gait. The enemy cavalry was rapidly approaching. Ahead, the elite dragoons in bearskin hats were clearly visible, rushing to the battery in loose order. The cannons roared and doused them with grapeshot. The volley caused havoc in the ranks of the dragoons, but they continued their attack. A little more and the enemy will take the battery. “Hold on, brothers, now we will help out!” thought Seslavin. He drew his saber from its scabbard, spurred his horse, and pointing the direction with his blade, loudly and loudly commanded: “Regiment! Platoon left march-march! Pipes lost "attack!". The voices of the squadron commanders echoed: "Pikes to attack!" Seslavin turned around for a moment. The first rank of hussars, crouching over the galloping horses, was fringed with the cold glare of the tips of their heavy black pikes. Rows of arms wielding bright blades shot up behind her. The people, seized by the general heady feeling of the attack, shouted "Hurrah!" at once.

Skillfully delivered by Seslavin, the blow fell on the left flank and rear of the enemy cavalry. The lances of the first line of the regiment knocked out of the saddle many dragoons, who fell under the hooves of the flown horses. The enemy was overturned, Nikitin's battery was saved.

The pursuit of the enemy, retreating in disorder, upset the ranks of the hussars. A counter attack by other enemy regiments drove the Sumy men back. Prussian dragoons, lancers and cuirassiers moved to help the Russian hussars. The enemy could not withstand the simultaneous flank attacks of the allied cavalry and fled. The disorganized units were replaced by new French regiments. Seslavin, having collected at the signal "appel!" his squadrons, again led them to the attack ...

The bloody carousel continued for several hours. By evening, Murat's cavalry, upset by the fire of the allied horse artillery and overturned by the attacks of the allied cavalry, retreated.

In this one of the largest cavalry battles in history, about 14 thousand horsemen fought on both sides. They fought with the greatest ferocity, until the end, until a blow from a stronger one knocked the enemy off his horse. Contemporaries compared the battle at Libertwolkwitz with the "slashes of the ancients."

On that day, Seslavin's regiment suffered minor losses. The lives of many hussars were saved by ... mentiki. These jackets, trimmed with fur and embroidered on the chest with numerous cords with three rows of metal buttons, weakened the dangerous blows of enemy broadswords and sabers.

A day later, Seslavin, at the head of the Sumy regiment, participated in the "battle of the peoples." The battle of Leipzig, which brought the liberation of Germany, lasted three days. “Major General Seslavin showed in all cases exemplary fearlessness and excellent enterprise, caused great harm to the enemy, and the more danger was, the more he showed presence of mind and prudence,” wrote Barclay de Tolly, commander-in-chief of the Russian-Prussian troops, in his presentation about the distinguished Russian-Prussian troops. .

The general's new award was diamond jewelry for the previously received Order of Anna, 2nd class.

The defeated Napoleonic troops retreated to Erfurt, and then beyond the Rhine. The road to France lay ahead. “Damn it, we threw out a good thing,” they said in the ranks of the retreating soldiers of Napoleon. “Send for the Russians to Moscow to bring them to France…”

A new year has come, 1814. Allied armies - in France!

In a campaign that lasted three months, General Seslavin again acts at the head of separate detachment. He received a similar appointment due to his fame. famous partisan and knowledge French. Under the command of the general, in addition to three squadrons of Sumy hussars (including the squadron with which he partisaned in 1812), four Cossack regiments and a platoon of Don horse artillery. In total, about 1,500 people with three guns.

Seslavin's constant companion in this campaign, as before, was the brave and efficient guards lieutenant - Alexander Gabbe 1st, who sincerely loved the general and acted as adjutant with him. Together with Alexander, his younger brother, 18-year-old Guard Lieutenant Peter Gabbe 3rd, was in the detachment, in the future - a poet and publicist, close to the Decembrists.

Seslavin's detachment, making raids behind enemy lines, went into battle almost daily and constantly provided the command of the Bohemian army with detailed information about the enemy. In February, successfully acting on the communications of Napoleon's troops between Paris and Orleans, the detachment managed to capture the Orleans Canal. “Major General Seslavin occupied ... Montargis, took possession of the canal connecting the Loire with the Seine, burned all the ships captured on it, broke the locks and thus deprived Paris of the means of food from the south ...” - reports the journal of military operations. “Soon,” Seslavin recalled, “I received a hypocritical rescript from B (blessed) th: “try not to harm civilians !! But his heart (king. - A.V.) trembled with joy ... ""

The detachment of the hussar general also repeatedly took part in many battles and battles. On January 17, Seslavin, together with the Russian troops of the Silesian army of Blucher, fights with the enemy at the city of Brienne - the first battle of this campaign. Two days later, he fights near the village of La Rotier, where, having overturned the French cavalry, he takes three guns. February 15 and 16 - near La forte-sur-Aube. On March 9, he takes part in the battle of the Bohemian army with the troops of Napoleon at Arcy. Finally, during the movement of the allied armies to Paris, on March 13, he fights near the village of Fer-Champenoise.

The unexpected appearance of Seslavin’s detachment on the retreat path of the corps of marshals Marmont and Mortier caused panic in the ranks of the enemy: “artillery, cavalry, infantry, everything ran headlong to Fer-Champenoise,” reports the French historian Koch. Despite the small number of his detachment, Seslavin fearlessly attacked Napoleon's Young Guard, which had kept order, took away 9 guns and took many prisoners.

After the battle, the allies continued to march in the capital of France, and Seslavin went to Provins, where, without leaving his "search", he watched the movement of Napoleon's troops.

On the sunny morning of March 19, the Allied troops solemnly entered Paris. A few days later, on March 25, Napoleon abdicated. The campaign was over, the war was over. “Seslavin went a long way from Fominsky into the depths of France with the same honor with which the banner of the bravest of the Russian regiments made this way: the shaft was cut with sabers, the coat of arms was pierced with a bayonet, but the touch of enemy fingers did not desecrate either the shaft or the coat of arms,” wrote one from the general's contemporaries.

Seslavin's new exploits were noted the highest degree Order of Anna, as well as foreign orders: Austrian - Maria Theresa and Prussian - Red Eagle. The Sumy Hussar Regiment, which successfully operated under the command of a general, received insignia for a shako and St. George standards.

In May, Seslavin, taking advantage of a two-month leave to heal his wounds (which increased by two more in the last campaign), went to Teplitz, whose healing waters attracted many wounded Russians. Among them was the 29-year-old lieutenant colonel of the Grodno hussars Yevgeny Nazimov, a well-deserved and dashing cavalryman, distinguished by his courage and straightforwardness. Obviously, it was then that Nazimov met Seslavin and soon, having found mutual language got close to him.

The course of treatment brought tangible benefits, and in the second half of the year the hussar general arrived in his regiment, which had returned from France to Russia.

The winners were greeted with rejoicing in the fatherland. The name of Seslavin, like the names of other heroes of the 12th year, was on everyone's lips. “On the walls of inns, at stations, in huts - everywhere, along with portraits of Kutuzov, Bagration, Kulnev and others, a portrait of the partisan Seslavin appeared,” reported his first biographer M. I. Semevsky.

The young Count Dmitry Sheremetev gave a sumptuous dinner in honor of the hero. A toast was raised to Seslavin's health. Everyone in the audience raised their glasses of bubbly champagne. Suddenly, a curtain moved from the wall opposite the general, and a huge picture appeared before the eyes of the astonished guests, depicting a partisan at the moment of opening the movement of Napoleon's army to Maloyaroslavets.

In the spring of the following year, 1815, Seslavia was assigned to be under the head of the 1st Hussar Division - his health, upset by wounds, required lengthy treatment. In May, the general, having said goodbye to the Sumy hussars, took a new vacation "until the wounds are healed."

... In the winter of 1816, Alexander Nikitich arrived in St. Petersburg. On Sunday, February 13, in the midst of the festivities on the occasion of the marriage of Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna with Crown Prince William of Orange, Seslavin attended the ball, which was given in the Bright Gallery of the Winter Palace. A handsome general with his arm in a sling attracted the attention of high society ladies. Seslavin, trying to maintain an impassive air, looked at the northern beauties, in exquisite toilets, easily sliding to the sound of music. But the shot through legs (a bullet remained in one of them) did not allow him to take part in the dances.

At dinner, laid out for more than 500 people in the Great Marble Hall, Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, "courting and treating the guests", was especially affectionate with the wounded hero. “After dinner, dozens crowded around me, curious to find out what the Empress was talking about so graciously and unparalleled,” Seslavin later recalled. The reader already knows the significant words of the royal person about the merits of the general, "which Russia cannot yet appreciate." It was these merits of the illustrious partisan that aroused the favor of the emperor and his lovely wife.

In May, as a sign of royal favor, Seslavin, like many honored generals, received a state estate on lease for 12 years. This rent was supposed to bring him a thousand silver rubles annually, starting in 1818. In the summer he, among the few selected guests, rests with the imperial family in Tsarskoye Selo.

In September, the tsar allowed Seslavin, still suffering from wounds, as well as from renewed throat bleeding, to go to France for treatment. Before Seslavin left Petersburg, Alexander I gave him an audience: “the sovereign called me to his office,” the general told his brother Nikolai, “and, thanking me for my service, he hugged me, kissed me, and when I, being touched by his benevolence, told him that there is no sacrifice that he would not dedicate to him, he shed a tear and, pressing me to his chest, said that I demanded from him what I needed ... I answered the sovereign that I had no need for anything. “At least ahead, if you have a need, write directly to me, informing about your health ...”

So everything worked out for Seslavin the best way: his name is covered with glory in Russia, he enjoys the patronage of the triumphant monarch. But nothing was more fickle than the mercy of Alexander I...

Arriving in France, Seslavin first of all went to the Maubeuge fortress - the headquarters of the Russian separate corps of Count Vorontsov, left here under the terms of the Paris Peace of 1815. Seslavin's old friend, Lev Alexandrovich Naryshkin, who also became a major general and commanded a Cossack brigade in the corps, was in Maubeuge. Friends who had not seen each other for a long time were glad to meet and spent the night talking. Reporting on the new in Russia, Seslavin told Naryshkin that Arakcheev was in great power under the tsar, that military service was becoming more and more similar to dance master science. “In his passion for the beauty of the front, the tsar surpassed his father,” Alexander Nikitich told a friend. “His Majesty wants all the regiments to walk the same way and at an even number of steps per minute. When the guards march, the chief of the guards headquarters stands next to the sovereign, holding a second watch in his hands and calculating steps from them. Wounded in the battles, the veterans who saved Russia are forced to give way to the “exerciermeisters”, who have mastered the art of equalizing socks to the subtleties.

Having said goodbye to his friend, Seslavin, having traveled through all of France, stopped at Barege, famous for its healing springs. In this southern town, located in a narrow valley of the Pyrenees, he spent several months.

Moving from one end of Europe to the other, the high cost in foreign lands, as well as the desire to live abroad in conditions worthy of the title of a Russian general, pretty soon emptied his wallet, which, however, was never full. “At one time I was 27 days without lunch, eating only tea,” Seslavin later told Count P. A. Tolstoy, “at another time, I didn’t have a gold coin to pay the doctor for the operation, who refused to accept, knowing that I didn’t pay several months for an apartment, and waiting for the end of life from hour to hour, only l'instinct de sa conservation, as Rousseau says, inspired me with a remedy that saved me. To continue the necessary course of treatment, the general was forced to incur new debts. The tsar, having learned from Vorontsov about the plight of Seslavin, "condescending to the excellent service and the painful condition resulting from the wounds he received in battle," granted him 8 thousand rubles. This amount was very helpful.

In Barezh, Seslavin learned that brother Nikolai, who had held the position of mayor in Vyshny Volochek and had recently married, had become a father. Sharing the joy of his brother, he wrote to him in August 1817: “... How happy you are, Nikolasha! I have never had such a strong desire to marry, as now ... I feel the need to have a friend and an everlasting comrade. Everywhere they give due justice to my merits; True, this flatters my vanity, but I always feel an emptiness in myself. So that the memory of my deeds is not destroyed, I must get married, give birth to a son, to whom, having transferred my deeds, I will not die, I will live in him.

At this time, Seslavin's thoughts often turn to the image of the young and sweet Katenka (the sister of Sofya Pavlovna's daughter-in-law), whom he met while visiting his brother Nikolai. Communication with a charming girl, childishly rejoicing at the attention of the famous general, led to the fact that our hero was seriously carried away by her. “Write to Katinka,” Seslavin asks his daughter-in-law, “... that I very often recall those moments that I spent with her. I would like to find her as frisky as before, but I'm afraid that she will remember that it is not decent for her to frolic at 18 years old. In another letter from 1819, he laments: “I don’t have a single line from Katinka, I would like her to love me half as much as I love her.”

However, his desire in the person of his wife to find a "friend and constant comrade" was not destined to come true. He remained single.

After undergoing a full course of treatment in Barege, the general felt strong enough to continue sightseeing in France. This journey was not without adventure. Robbers attacked him near Toulouse. In a letter to his relatives, Seslavin said that “at dusk, one robber, stopping in the middle of the road and taking aim, planned to kill the postman if he did not stop. The postman obeyed. Then, approaching my carriage, he demanded money. I gave him a few, he demanded more; I gave more. But when he demanded 10,000 francs from me and ordered me to get out of the carriage, threatening to kill me ... I rushed at him, snatched the club from his hands ... hit him on the temple so that he fell into the ditch, forgetting to shoot from the pistol I was holding in right hand". The frightened comrades of the robber did not dare to attack the enraged foreigner, and he continued on his way unhindered.

“There is nothing left in France that I have not seen,” the inquisitive and tireless traveler reported to his brother Nikolai in the autumn of 1818. - ... I examined all the fortresses and ports on the Mediterranean Sea, all the establishments and factories of southern France. There he withstood two fevers, after which wounds opened, and one is still open and throws out bones ... In the spring I left accursed France. After spending some time in Geneva, I rented a manor in Switzerland, near Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva. The view is the most beautiful ... Here I spent the summer, treating my wound in my right shoulder. Tomorrow I’m going to inspect the road along which the glorious Annibal walked, crossing the Alps, as well as narrow passages and Mount Saint Bernard, where Bonaparte passed and S. Gotthard, where Suvorov passed ... "

Seslavin, despite the unhealed wound and the fever that arose from this, completed the planned strenuous route of travel through the Alps. On the way back, not far from the source of the Rhone, where the glacier cascades down from a great height in an ice cascade, he almost died. “My feet have already begun to slip on the ice, and if it weren’t for a stick with a sharp nail, which I stuck into the ice and thereby held on, I would have fallen into an abyss up to 8000 feet. The conductor helped me with the danger of life, - the general wrote to his brother Nikolai in May 1819. - ... You know that for several years I was engaged in military books, sometimes sitting through the night. Since then, I have had an irresistible desire to examine the three paths that forever glorified Annibal, Bonaparte and Suvorov, in order to make a comparison of these sins of the great commanders. A curiosity that nearly cost him his life is satisfied…”

Seslavin spent the autumn and winter of 1818 on the advice of doctors (who feared serious consequences from prolonged throat bleeding) in Italy, famous for its mild climate. During this time, he examined all the fortresses, as well as all the battlefields of the 1799 campaign, which immortalized the name of Suvorov and the Russians. There is almost no significant city left in this wonderful country, where Seslavin would not have been.

In the spring of 1819, our traveler, having hired a small ship in Livorno, returns by sea to France, on the way "looking at the island of Elba." During the storm, his life was again in danger due to the negligence of the captain of the ship, but fate kept Seslavin.

Stopping for a few months in Marseille, he continued to be treated in the local waters and proceeded to "describe and note everything" that he "saw and learned during the journey."

A long stay away from Russia caused in Seslavin longing for the fatherland. The most beautiful landscapes, the azure sea do not please his eyes anymore. “Having traveled through Europe, I dare to assure you,” he writes to his relatives from Marseilles, “that there is no better Russian people, no better place like Yesemovo and Fedorovskoye, where I would like to spend some time in the circle of those dear to my heart.

But his forced inaction was especially burdensome. A restless and courageous nature, over the years of military anxiety, accustomed to a life full of dangers, accustomed to strong sensations, demanded activity, and activity useful to the fatherland. Seslavin decides to take a risky journey to India. The general intends to implement the plan that he carefully thought out while still being a lieutenant. Such an enterprise, according to his plan, would allow "to solve the question of European politicians: can Russia bring its weapons into the East Indian English possessions ... and destroy the rule of the British in India." In August 1819, Seslavin, with the right opportunity, sent a letter to St. Petersburg, in which he asked the tsar's permission to go incognito to Calcutta for this purpose, and from there, through Delhi, Lahore, Kabul, Samarkand, Khiva and the Kyrgyz steppes, arrive in Orenburg.

Seslavin had no doubt that his proposal would be approved and he would be able to provide "the greatest service to the fatherland." In anticipation of permission, the general booked a place on a ship that sailed to Calcutta in the autumn. But, contrary to all hopes, there was no answer.

Seslavin considered. Two months later, the general, driving away disturbing thoughts, writes a new letter to the Chief of the General Staff P. M. Volkonsky. Pointing in it to his desire to serve and be useful to the fatherland, Seslavin asks to entrust him with a position, “if he Imperial Majesty don't want to travel to India." Again, he received no answer.

Seslavin's peace of mind is broken, pride is cruelly wounded: he, a well-deserved general, is neglected. “Assuming that my service and ardent zeal for the throne have become unnecessary, I humbly ask,” the offended hero writes to Prince Volkonsky in December, “... to apply for permission to stay in Italy: you will save me from costs that could upset me completely, returning to Russia, because the tenant does not pay money, responding with crop failure, and, moreover, the warm climate contributes a lot to stopping hemoptysis and curing the chest ... If you would consider this impossible, dismiss me from service: ... I do not want to take the place of another who has, maybe more abilities than I, despite my continuous studies, which made me want to be used solely in order to bear the fruits of these for the benefit of the service ... ”Next, Seslavin, no longer having the strength to restrain himself, asks the tsar’s confidant a question that has been tormenting him lately: “tell me frankly whether I have lost the mercy and favor of the sovereign ... or do they not find in me the abilities inherent in General’s rank?”

In vain did the general wait for an answer to this letter as well. Usually cheerful and cheerful, Seslavin has since become increasingly gloomy and irritable. He cannot explain to himself what caused such a dismissive attitude towards him.

At the beginning of 1820, Seslavin went by sea to England, where, continuing treatment on the waters in Bath, he was going to write memoirs about his actions in 1812-1814. On the way, a new blow of fate awaited the general. “During the disaster that the ship suffered in the ocean, my stroller, all things, even to the last shirt, papers are the fruits of five years of work, in a word, everything is thrown into the sea to free the boat ... in order to save people from inevitable death,” said Seslavin Volkonsky in February 1820.

Seslavin's position was unenviable. “In Russia, I lost my family estate, the tenant does not pay money, responding with a crop failure, I have accumulated unpayable debts in the course of twenty-two years of officer service, from which my honest name suffers, there is nothing to buy books - my only passion, and there is nothing to live with: this is my fortune ".

The general's salary (1,800 rubles a year) was clearly not enough even to pay interest on debts approaching 40,000. Driven to the extreme, Seslavin is forced to ask the emperor, taking into account his service, battle wounds, as well as the example of others, to ensure his condition, to save the honor of the general. Having received no answer and having no means to continue treatment, he returns to Russia, hoping to personally explain himself to the tsar.

VI

In St. Petersburg, Seslavin did not find Alexander I. The Blessed One went on another voyage through his empire. Reaction reigned in the country, parade shagistics and cruel stick drill flourished in the army. Honored generals, distinguished by a humane attitude towards the soldiers, were not honored, they were pushed aside by soulless and zealous executors of the "highest" will.

In the capital, Seslavin learned that influential enemies, taking advantage of his long absence, were able to shake the flattering opinion of the king about the famous hero. It was dully mentioned that the monarch's particular displeasure was caused by Seslavin's public statements about the excessive passion for "combat perfection" in the troops.

Offended by the cold reception at court, on August 4, 1820, Seslavin filed a petition for dismissal from service. Under the conditions of Arakcheevshchina, the words written by an independent general in this official paper acquired a special meaning: “I cannot continue military service due to the harsh climate here.” Apparently, the north was harmful not only to Pushkin. The resignation was not slow to be accepted, and on August 17, 40-year-old Seslavin was dismissed from service "for wounds" on honorable terms - with a uniform and a full pension.

The general summed up his almost twenty years of service: “74 battles, large and small, in which he was mostly from the first bullet to the last”, 6 wounds, the same number of orders and a golden saber “for courage”. Still - a rent of a thousand rubles a year and numerous debts, some of which, however, the tsar, mindful of the merits of Seslavin, took upon himself.

"Health, circumstances and some obligations" again called Seslavin to foreign lands. In the autumn of the same year, he left Russia and spent more than a year and a half abroad, continuing the interrupted treatment.

In May 1822 he returned to Petersburg. The retired general is full of energy and hopes that he can still be useful to the fatherland. Seslavin is still passionate about the idea of ​​an expedition to India and believes that he will be able to convince the king of its expediency.

He did not yet know that Alexander I, having removed someone once, never brought him closer to himself. Moreover, Seslavin had no idea that an order had been given for secret surveillance of him. The famous partisan, distinguished by his independence of opinion and popular among the youth of the Guards, was suspicious of the authorities. An agent of the secret police who observed Seslavin's behavior reported in his report: “Major General Alexander Nikitich Seslavin, dismissed from service, lives in the Demut hotel in the most secluded way. He pays for an apartment and a table 300 rubles a month. He writes a lot and, judging by the maps and books laid out on the table, it must be assumed that he is busy with some kind of military essay.

He almost does not accept anyone, often refuses to meet young officers. The person who mainly visits him, and with whom he spends time, is Major General Leonty Ivanovich Depreradovich, dismissed from the service. Judging by the way they spend time together (always sending a servant away), one must assume and judge that they are not only close friends, but quite possibly discussing something secret. Seslavin also often visits Depreradovich in the evenings, who lives on Liteinaya, in the house of the merchant Krebolkin.<…>

Another close and often visiting person is Colonel Nazimov, who is with the chief police chief on special assignments. He often spends evenings with him. The servant says that he is often visited by officials of the College of Foreign Affairs, but I have not yet been able to establish who they are. The servant says: "The master has important business in a foreign college."

Seslavin told several people that His Majesty the Emperor ordered 40,000 rubles to be allocated to him. from the treasury, but that he will not accept them until he is assigned to the service, and that he will serve no other way than "as on special assignments for the person of His Majesty"».

However, they note that Mr. Seslavin has an extremely free manner of expressing himself, especially with regard to military service, and especially when he talks about himself and about his merits. Seslavin still talks a lot about military expedition to India, of which he hopes to be head. However, Seslavin's hopes were not destined to come true.

“In respect of his excellent service in the last war and the wounds received,” the tsar granted the retired general 50 thousand to pay his debts. But the offer of Alexander I to return to the service and "to be in the cavalry" did not suit Seslavin, and the honorary appointment he desired in the retinue of the emperor did not follow. Convinced that he is still being neglected, and people less worthy are going uphill, the offended Seslavin leaves Petersburg and breaks contact with the court. Apparently, this happened in the autumn of 1823.

For some time he lives on the estate of his elder brother Nikolai near Vyshny Volochok. Not having his own family, Seslavin devotes himself entirely to the care of his brother's large family, transferring all his love to his nieces and nephews.

Years passed ... The year 1827 came, which became for Seslavin the year of resurrected hopes. In the spring, he goes to St. Petersburg to petition for the appointment of two older nieces in the Catherine's Institute for Noble Maidens - one of the privileged educational institutions in Russia. “The daughters of Seslavin belong to the state - they are accepted,” Nicholas I wrote, according to legend, at the request of the famous hero. Inspired by success, Seslavin immediately submits a new irrigation - on the enrollment of two older nephews in the Corps of Pages. And this request was granted: they were accepted, like their sisters, with maintenance from the treasury. Seslavin is happy - his merits are not forgotten!

In the same year, Seslavin, having sold the lease and "satisfied the other heirs with money," took over family estate. Finally, his old dream came true - to return to his home and live under his father's roof.

Arriving in Yesemovo, the new landowner found the estate in ruins. Most of the peasants were in poverty and destitution. “Everything needs to be changed. The peasant is naked, the economy is unprofitable, ”Seslavin thought, looking at the rickety huts and empty peasant yards.

But the appearance in a village estate, with well-established patriarchal customs, of a new owner, brought up in army order and discipline, in itself concealed the germ of an inevitable conflict between the serfs and the landowner.

Seslavin built a new house, added land to the peasants in the wasteland, gave everyone a forest for a hut, and was going to rebuild his villages according to the new plan of the city architect. To facilitate field work, he brought in rare, at that time in Russia, cars. “The introduction of machines for corvée is replaced by every 14 people ... threshing is going on faster, hard work has been destroyed at prices,” Seslavin informed the Rzhev leader of the nobility, “harvest machines have been ordered, the difficult work of the harvest will also be destroyed.” Taking advantage of the proximity of the commercial city of Rzhev, the Esemov landowner introduced latrine crafts for his serfs. Going to work in their free time from field work, the peasants should, according to Seslavin, undoubtedly improve their condition and, accordingly, increase the income of the landowner. In addition, he, as a man who does not tolerate idleness, obliged the serfs to work on local holidays, which he did not recognize. It is worth noting that while Russian Empire there were only more than 30 official holidays per year.

The new order, introduced by the imperious self-will of the soul-owner, caused discontent among the serfs, who were least interested in improving the economy of the master and got used to their own poverty. Some of the peasants, in the form of protest, refused to go to work, often did not go out to corvee and dragged out time with the harvest on the landlords' lands. Many carelessly ran their households and, finally, having gone bankrupt, switched to the maintenance of the master. A few years later, out of 10 peasant households, only 3 remained, the rest sat on the landowners' bread.

Unsuccessful relations with the peasants nullified all Seslavin's undertakings. He had to wage a stubborn struggle with his serfs for quite a long time before the desired order of housekeeping was established. There were no coercive measures. The disobedient were beaten with rods, and the most "daring" Seslavin gave in recruits or exiled to the settlement. Our hero was a son of his time...

Renaming his village Seslavino, the retired general lived in solitude, making almost no acquaintances with local landowners and rarely leaving. He rarely even appeared in church.

In the 30s, on the occasion of the anniversary celebrations arranged in honor of the 12th year, Seslavin violated his seclusion. In August 1834, he attended the opening of the Alexander Column on Palace Square in St. Petersburg, and a few years later, in 1839, he participated in the Borodino celebrations.

After 27 years, Seslavin again had a chance to visit the field of Russian glory. Many of the surviving generals and veterans of the great battle gathered to participate in the opening ceremony of the monument. On Saturday, August 26, on the anniversary of the battle on the Borodino field, the 120,000th “Hurrah!” gathered troops and the thunder of artillery salute: the descendants paid tribute to the memory of the fallen heroes.

On that sultry August day, Seslavin, obviously, experienced not only strong excitement from the flood of memories. Painful pride and resentment, awakened in him at the sight of his comrades-in-arms, who did not have his fame and merit, but who occupied a prominent official position, poisoned him the whole holiday. The retired general thought bitterly that he, the illustrious warrior, was still out of work, still not appreciated.

After the ceremonial march, Seslavin, without waiting for the end of the festivities, left Borodino and returned to the estate. An independent and original-minded general was doomed to inaction in the “prosaic, autumn reign of Nicholas I”, who, according to Herzen, “needed agents, not assistants; performers, not advisers; messengers, not warriors.

Since then, Seslavin has become even more withdrawn and almost never left his estate. He completely immersed himself in the cares of housekeeping. “You want to know about my life? - he wrote in May 1845 to his beloved niece Maria Nikolaevna. - Excuse me, I will satisfy your desire. Agriculture, in accordance with the current state of science, the division of lands from spring to autumn, and the struggle against ignorance, more cruel than any struggle, are my constant occupations.

Seslavin's life in the village was monotonous. He got up early and went for a constant walk through his reserved grove. In the summer, in extreme heat, he could often be seen sitting by the Sishka River in a specially arranged place with cold spring water. Old wounds hurt unbearably in the heat, and he sought refuge in the coolness. During field work, he mounted a horse and traveled around his possessions, which he significantly increased. “... The weather here is beautiful, it calls in the field for viewing work,” the zealous landowner reported to his relatives in St. loved farming.

In addition to his passion for arable farming, Seslavin still reads a lot. He has collected an excellent library and constantly replenishes it with new editions. Of particular interest to him are books related to the events of the 12th year. In the quiet of his office, he indulged in memories of the past, often took up a pen, began to write, and the more he remembered, the more his soul stirred up the thought: he saved Russia, Europe, but is not appreciated, others are intriguers, worthless in honor, their ranks, awards, and he is in the village, forgotten by everyone ...

At one time, Seslavin suffered from an eye disease that threatened blindness, but his iron health here also prevailed over the disease. In 1850, the seventy-year-old general wrote to his brother Nikolai: “Do you want to know about my health? I will say that I am so healthy that I could go to sea for the benefit of the Fatherland, to serve, but I was always afraid of the opposite winds that constantly blow me from the north. Again, an analogy with Pushkin's - "but the north is harmful for me."

Keeping the "flame of youth" in his chest, Seslavin was still fresh and cheerful. He attributed such a state to an abstemious lifestyle and "to use every Saturday a bath of 32-33 degrees, which prevents diseases and destroys even the germ of them." And in his old age, he could tirelessly gallop 60 miles a day on horseback, arousing the admiration of his neighbor-landlords: “That's what the old hussars are!”

Seslavin was destined to live a long life. He survived his friend Lev Naryshkin, who died in 1846 in Naples, and his beloved brother Nikolai, who died in 1856. The death of his brother deprived Seslavin of his last friend and doomed him to complete loneliness. Acute mental pain was also caused to him by the news of the failures of the Russian army during Crimean War. Before his eyes, a shadow fell on the glory of Russian weapons ...

In the last years of his life, he more and more often retired to the office, into which "he did not let anyone in, but only gave orders through the half-open door, where a pipe of tobacco stuffed by a footman was served to him."

On April 25, 1858, in his seventy-eighth year of life, Alexander Nikitich Seslavin died on his estate from a stroke (as a stroke used to be called). The general was buried at the Nikolaevsky churchyard in Sishki. In 1873, his nephews erected a monument on his grave, which has survived to this day.

Official Russia has forgotten the national hero. “None of our magazines, none of the newspapers honored the memory of Seslavin,” noted his first biographer. Even death did not arouse interest in this outstanding personality. For contemporaries, the glory of the famous partisan existed in isolation from the retired general, who lived out his days in the silence of the Tver province.

After himself, Seslavin left several illegitimate children from a serf mistress, a manor plundered by serfs and ... the immortal glory of the hero of 1812.

Alexander Valkovich

According to federal law dated July 25, 2002 (Article No. 13) The Ministry of Justice of Russia is obliged to maintain, publish and place on the Internet the Federal List of Extremist Materials. They can be recognized as such on the basis of a court decision on the presence or absence of extreme views in them.

Instead of an introduction

The federal list of extremist materials, according to the law, is formed on the basis of copies of court decisions that have entered into force and are received by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. The law also establishes responsibility for the distribution, production and storage of materials that are included in the published Federal List.

Among the prohibited works fiction, placed in constantly growing lists, include books authored by Alexander Nikitich Sevastyanov, a well-known political and public figure in Russia. About him and will be discussed in the article.

Acquaintance

Sevastyanov Alexander Nikitich is popular in certain circles in Russian public and politician, a former co-chairman of the National Power Party of Russia (NDPR), banned in 2003, the author of fiction and journalistic works of an extremist nature. Two of them are included in the Federal lists.

Alexander Sevastyanov: biography, early years

A. N. Sevastyanov was born on April 11, 1954 in Moscow in the family of a world-famous philologist. After the birth of their son, the family moved to Kaliningrad. When Alexander was 13, his father left the family, and difficult days came for the boy and his mother. From the age of 14, the young man had to get acquainted with hard physical labor: on someone else's passport, he had to earn extra money as a laborer, painter, carpenter, loader. He learned to play billiards, which became an additional source of income.

Marriage

In 1972, the family returned to Moscow, where Alexander transferred to extramural Moscow State University and began working as an elevator conductor in scientific library university. He married a half Jewish woman. The marriage was very unsuccessful, lasting only five years. But he gave, according to Alexander, invaluable experience: having studied the environment of his wife, he comprehended the peculiarities of Jewish national psychology and the subtleties, as he believes, of the incompatibility of Russian and Jewish characters.

Having met a girl with whom he truly fell in love, Alexander leaves his wife without hesitation. The first reckless marriage cost the young man the family apartment, which remained to his wife.

A family

With his second wife, whom he affectionately calls Lucy, Alexander Nikitich lived for more than thirty years. Sevastyanov calls the new marriage surprisingly happy. Thanks to this union, as he believes, his life took place. His wife Lyudmila Sevastyanov calls a reliable support, a person who shares his views. Thanks to his wife, her tireless care of the house and children, he is free from the need to deal with everyday problems. The “Russian spirit” is deliberately cultivated in the family, the Russian cultural atmosphere, which he absorbed from his ancestors, is maintained in it.

Children and grandchildren

Six children grew up in the family, three grandchildren are growing up. The couple live in a five-room state apartment. The eldest son worked as a lawyer, died under unclear circumstances. Left a widow and a son. The eldest daughter works as a fabric artist, she lives at her husband's place of service with her husband, an officer and children.

The middle son is an architect, the middle daughter, who has become a generalist artist and designer, married a businessman. The two younger children of the Sevastyanovs live with their parents. The schoolboy son is only a year older than their first grandson.

All members of the family love each other dearly and live very friendly. Their parents raised them in the belief that the strongest and most reliable support in the world is the family.

Education

In 1977, Sevastyanov Alexander Nikitich graduated from Moscow State University (philological faculty), in 1983 - postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Journalism. He is a candidate of philological sciences.

Creation

In the early 90s, Sevastyanov Alexander Nikitich presented his works for the first time to the judgment of the Russian reader. His books were distinguished by a bright nationalist orientation. The author promoted national-democratic, anti-Semitic, anti-liberal and anti-Soviet ideas in them.

Sevastyanov Alexander Nikitich is a member of creative organizations: the Union of Writers, the Union of Journalists, the Union of Writers, the Slavic Union of Journalists, the Association of Art Critics.

Activity

As Sevastyanov himself said in his autobiography, there was a time when he dreamed of making a career as a film director. But he soon realized that he would not be able to combine this profession with family life. Therefore, he decided in principle not to make any career, preferring to engage in creativity - to write books and articles. He studied in absentia in graduate school, because he did not want to join the CPSU. Three and a half years worked as a mechanic on duty. As Alexander Nikitich admits, he did not amass any wealth through his activities: he has neither a car nor a summer house.

Sevastyanov Alexander Nikitich is the author and co-author of several draft laws: “a draft constitution”, “on the divided position of the Russian nation”, “on the Russian people”. In 2002, he was elected by the participants of the founding congress of the NDPR as co-chairman of the party. Sevastyanov Alexander Nikitich is also one of the organizers of the "Russian Marches", held annually on November 4 in different cities of Russia. It is known that in 2004 he published a list that included the names of journalists, political and public figures, whom the author classified as "not friends of the Russian people."

Interests

The Sevastyanovs' house has a library, which he collects throughout his life. Alexander Nikitich regrets that his children read little: either because of lack of time, or just such a generation - not reading.

He also has some good guitars (seven-string). This instrument, by its nature exclusively Russian, Sevastyanov considers completely and undeservedly forgotten, supplanted by the "six-string". Playing the seven-string guitar is no longer taught in Russia. Alexander Nikitich knows a considerable number of Russian romances and songs. Somehow I even recorded a disc of my favorite romances. Occasionally sings them in a circle of friends.

Alexander Sevastyanov complains about the lack of free time, but if he still has it, he spends it with his family: he plays with children, visits museums. His interest as an art historian has always been riveted to graphics, ceramics, edged weapons. A favorite vacation spot for Alexander Nikitich is the Crimea, which he considers a Russian shrine.

Unfortunately, he has few close friends. The politician considers his happiness and grief that he has always been friends with people much older than himself. He has already led many to the other world.

Accusation of antisemitism

In 2007, after the 20th Moscow International Book Fair, where books by Y. Mukhin, A. Savelyev and A. Sevastyanov were shown, the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights sent a statement to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. The authors of the books were accused of promoting "blatant anti-Semitism".

"Russian Nationalism: Its Friends and Enemies"

In accordance with the decision of Meshchansky district court Moscow, held in August 2013, Sevastyanov's book, the title of which is placed in the title of the section, is banned in Russia and included in the Federal List.

The first edition of the book about nationalists was published in 2001. The work was published by Russkaya Pravda with a circulation of 3,000 copies. According to the annotation to the book, readers were offered a principled, fascinating, important and very timely discussion that unfolded on the pages of the leading Russian media on the problems of Russian nationalism. This edition is already considered a bibliographic rarity.

The second edition of the book (significantly supplemented) was also published by the Russkaya Pravda publishing house. A. N. Sevastyanov acted as editor and author of the preface, in which he presented the background to the birth of this fascinating collection and emphasized its enduring informative value.

On Russian-Jewish Relations

Another banned and included in the Federal List is the work of A. N. Sevastyanov - "What the Jews want from us." The book was published by Russkaya Pravda in 2001 and aroused great interest.

The second, significantly supplemented and revised, edition was published in 2008. In the annotation to the book, readers are invited to familiarize themselves with the results of a “scientific” study of Jewish origin, supposedly based on a wide base of documentary sources. The purpose of the publication was to initiate a public discussion on the difficult and important problem of the relationship between the two ethnic groups, Jewish and Russian, on the territory of Russia.

The main conclusion of the author is the assertion that there are two options for the development of relations between the two peoples that are favorable for Russians. One of them is to ensure the total assimilation of Jews with Russians, the second - in the complete emigration of all Jews from the country.

, Acting State Councilor, Head of the 1st Department of the Imperial Moscow Society Agriculture, owner of the Dugino estate. Older brother of Viktor Panin.

Biography

Born in Moscow in the Panin family. Eldest son of Count Nikita Petrovich Panin and Countess Sofia Vladimirovna Orlova, grandson of Counts P. I. Panin and V. G. Orlov. He was brought up first at home, then under the supervision of Abbot Makart, and finally - in one of the St. Petersburg boarding houses. On May 15, 1809, he began serving as an actuary in the Moscow Archive of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, from where he resigned on August 17, 1812 and after 4 days, at the request of his father, entered the Moscow militia as an ensign.

Having taken a direct part in many battles of 1812-1814, Panin was promoted to lieutenant for distinction near Borodino on August 26, 1812, and received the Order of Anna 3rd degree for the battle at Maly Yaroslavets; then, transferred on June 15, 1813 to the Pskov cuirassier regiment, he distinguished himself near Leipzig and was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 4th class. with a bow, and in 1814 for participating in night sorties against the enemy near Hamburg he was promoted to staff captain. Then Count Panin was transferred to the Yekaterinoslav (1816) and Glukhovsky (1820) cuirassier regiments, on May 1, 1825, he retired with the rank of colonel.

After spending five years out of service, on April 27, 1830, Panin, at the suggestion of Emperor Nicholas I, took the place of an official for special assignments under the newly appointed trustee of the Moscow educational district, Prince S. M. Golitsyn, with the renaming of collegiate advisers; the prince entrusted him with the supervision of the Moscow University with its printing house and over private men's boarding schools and repeatedly sent him to inspect the schools of the district under his jurisdiction.

A family

From April 29, 1823, he was married to Alexandra Sergeevna Tolstaya (1800-1873), sister of the Decembrist V. S. Tolstoy, granddaughter of Prince P. P. Dolgorukov and niece of those Dolgorukovs who enjoyed the favor of the young Alexander Pavlovich. The wedding took place in Moscow in the house church of grandfather V. G. Orlov on Nikitskaya Street. According to a relative, in her youth Alexandra Sergeevna was very friendly, cheerful and brought a lot of animation to her family circle with cute and funny ideas. After her husband retired, from 1839 she lived with her family in Moscow. Last years her life she was an assistant to the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Poor. Married had children:

• Sofya Alexandrovna (1825-1905), was married to a real state councilor, Prince G. A. Shcherbatov.
• NN (d. 02/19/1828).
• Maria Alexandrovna (1830-1903), was married to the Privy Councilor, chamberlain Prince Nikolai Petrovich Meshchersky (1829-1901), grandson of the historian N. Karamzin.
• NN (05/17/1832-01/29/1833).
• Aglaida Alexandrovna (08/09/1840-20/02/1843).

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Notes

Sources

• . Ed. Vel. Book. Nikolai Mikhailovich. SPb. 1906. V. 5, issue 4. No. 192.
• Russian portraits of the XVIII-XIX centuries. Ed. Vel. Book. Nikolai Mikhailovich. SPb. 1906. V. 5, issue 4. No. 193.

An excerpt characterizing Panin, Alexander Nikitich

Not only from the place below where he stood, not only from the mound on which some of his generals were now standing, but also from the very fleches, on which were now together and alternately now Russians, now French, dead, wounded and alive, frightened or distraught soldiers, it was impossible to understand what was happening in this place. In the course of several hours, in this place, amid the incessant shooting, rifle and cannon, either Russians, or French, or infantry, or cavalry soldiers appeared; appeared, fell, shot, collided, not knowing what to do with each other, shouted and ran back.
From the battlefield, his sent adjutants and orderlies of his marshals constantly jumped to Napoleon with reports on the progress of the case; but all these reports were false: both because in the heat of battle it is impossible to say what is happening at a given moment, and because many adjutants did not reach the real place of the battle, but transmitted what they heard from others; and also because while the adjutant was passing those two or three versts that separated him from Napoleon, circumstances changed and the news he was carrying was already becoming false. So an adjutant rode up from the vice king with the news that Borodino was occupied and the bridge on Kolocha was in the hands of the French. The adjutant asked Napoleon if he would order the troops to leave? Napoleon ordered to line up on the other side and wait; but not only while Napoleon was giving this order, but even when the adjutant had just left Borodino, the bridge had already been recaptured and burned by the Russians, in the very battle in which Pierre participated at the very beginning of the battle.
The aide-de-camp, galloping from the flush with a pale, frightened face, reported to Napoleon that the attack was repulsed and that Compan was wounded and Davout was killed, and meanwhile the flushes were occupied by another part of the troops, while the adjutant was told that the French were repulsed, and Davout was alive and only slightly contused. Considering such necessarily false reports, Napoleon made his orders, which either had already been executed before he made them, or could not be and were not executed.
The marshals and generals, who were at a closer distance from the battlefield, but, like Napoleon, did not participate in the battle itself and only occasionally drove under the fire of bullets, without asking Napoleon, made their orders and gave their orders about where and where to shoot, and where to ride horseback, and where to run foot soldiers. But even their orders, just like those of Napoleon, were carried out to the smallest extent and rarely carried out. For the most part, the opposite of what they ordered came out. The soldiers, who were ordered to go forward, having fallen under the shot of a grape shot, fled back; the soldiers, who were ordered to stand still, suddenly, seeing Russians suddenly appearing in front of them, sometimes ran back, sometimes rushed forward, and the cavalry galloped without orders to catch up with the fleeing Russians. So, two regiments of cavalry galloped across the Semyonovsky ravine and just drove up the mountain, turned around and galloped back with all their might. The infantry soldiers moved in the same way, sometimes running not at all where they were ordered to. All the orders about where and when to move the guns, when to send foot soldiers - to shoot, when horsemen - to trample on Russian foot soldiers - all these orders were made by the nearest unit commanders who were in the ranks, without asking even Ney, Davout and Murat, not only Napoleon. They were not afraid of punishment for non-fulfillment of an order or for an unauthorized order, because in the battle it is the most precious thing for a person - his own life, and sometimes it seems that salvation lies in running back, sometimes in running forward, and these people acted in accordance with the mood of the moment. who were in the heat of battle. In essence, all these forward and backward movements did not facilitate or change the position of the troops. All their running and jumping on each other did almost no harm to them, and harm, death and injury were caused by cannonballs and bullets flying everywhere in the space through which these people rushed. As soon as these people left the space through which the cannonballs and bullets were flying, their superiors, standing behind, immediately formed them, subjected them to discipline and, under the influence of this discipline, brought them back into the area of ​​\u200b\u200bfire, in which they again (under the influence of the fear of death) lost discipline and rushed about the random mood of the crowd.

Napoleon's generals - Davout, Ney and Murat, who were in the vicinity of this area of ​​\u200b\u200bfire and even sometimes called into it, several times introduced slender and huge masses of troops into this area of ​​\u200b\u200bfire. But contrary to what was invariably done in all previous battles, instead of the expected news of the flight of the enemy, slender masses of troops returned from there in disordered, frightened crowds. They organized them again, but there were fewer and fewer people. At noon, Murat sent his adjutant to Napoleon demanding reinforcements.
Napoleon was sitting under the mound and drinking punch, when Murat's adjutant galloped up to him with assurances that the Russians would be defeated if His Majesty gave another division.
- Reinforcements? - said Napoleon with stern surprise, as if not understanding his words and looking at the handsome adjutant boy with long curled black hair (just like Murat wore hair). "Reinforcements! thought Napoleon. “What kind of reinforcements do they ask for when they have half of the army in their hands, aimed at the weak, unfortified wing of the Russians!”
“Dites au roi de Naples,” Napoleon said sternly, “qu "il n" est pas midi et que je ne vois pas encore clair sur mon echiquier. Allez... [Tell the Neapolitan king that it is not yet noon and that I still do not see clearly on my chessboard. Go…]
A handsome adjutant boy with long hair, without letting go of his hat, with a heavy sigh, galloped again to where people were being killed.
Napoleon got up and, calling Caulaincourt and Berthier, began to talk with them about matters not related to the battle.
In the middle of the conversation, which was beginning to interest Napoleon, Berthier's eyes turned to the general with his retinue, who, on a sweaty horse, galloped to the mound. It was Belliard. Dismounting from his horse, he approached the emperor with quick steps and boldly, in a loud voice, began to prove the need for reinforcements. He swore on his honor that the Russians would die if the emperor gave another division.

Seslavin, Alexander Nikitich ()

BIOGRAPHY Major General, famous for his partisan actions during wars 181 Father Nikita Stepanovich Seslavin (). He was brought up in the 2nd Cadet Corps and served in the guard. horse artillery; participated with honors in the wars of 1805 and 1807 with the French and in 1810 in the Turkish war.

Little has been preserved of historical materials about Alexander Nikitich Seslavin. We do not even know the day or month of his birth. Only the year is known. True, the general himself repeatedly claimed that he was born in 1785. Perhaps he was sincerely mistaken, but it is possible that he deliberately misled - it is flattering to become a guards officer at the age of thirteen, and a general. It is quite tempting to accept Seslavin's version, but in this case the general would be younger than his younger brother Fyodor, who was born in 1782 (a fact that has been reliably established). HE….

Role in the Battle of Borodino At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, he was adjutant to General MB Barclay de Tolly. Alexander Seslavin showed special courage in the Battle of Borodino, and with the start of partisan operations he was given command of a separate light detachment. He was the first to open the speech of Napoleon from Moscow and his movement to the Kaluga road, thanks to which Russian troops managed to block the path of the enemy at Maloyaroslavets. Then, relentlessly following the French, Seslavin delivered very important information about them to the commander in chief and inflicted all kinds of harm on them.

Other Battles In 1813, while in Wittgenstein's army, Seslavin frequently commanded the advance detachments. For distinction in the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, he was promoted to major generals. In 1814, he supported the communication of the main army with the army of Blucher and stopped the supply of food to Paris. At the end of the war, Seslavin, covered with wounds, was treated abroad for a long time. At the end of his life, considering his merits insufficiently rewarded, he fell into misanthropy and died alone in his estate.

Lines to Seslavin, I congratulate the young hero on his rank, And I wish you a degree of great dignity; I wish you to be useful to the Fatherland, To be so sweet to everyone, as much as you are kind to me, To be a friend to society, glorious on the battlefield And so that Seslaven is not forgotten by you.