73,000 French troops at his command. However, Na-
poleon then brought in a reserve unit under Marshal
Louis-Nicolas daVout, which helped to swing the
battle for the French. When it was over, the coalition
had lost 30,000 dead—more than one third of their en-
tire force—with only 9,000 French killed. This battle is
sometimes known as “the battle of the Three Emperors,”
as it involved Napoleon, Czar Alexander I of Russia, and
Holy Roman Emperor Francis II of Austria. Kutuzov’s
loss—he was wounded during the battle—forced the
Russians to withdraw, and on 26 December 1805, the
Austrians signed the Treaty of Pressburg with France.
Although he was still considered the premier Rus-
sian military leader, Kutuzov was removed from com-
mand because of Austerlitz. He served from 1806 to
1811 as military governor of Lithuania and Kiev, now in
the Ukraine, and he did command Russian forces in the
Third Russo-Turkish War (1806–12). In this conflict, he
helped to defeat the entire Ottoman army at Bessarabia,
now called Moldova, and for his services, he was given
the title of Prince Kutuzov.
Napoleon was still a threat, however, and when the
French invaded Russia in 1812, Kutuzov was named
to succeed Prince Mikhail barclay de tolly as com-
mander of all Russian forces in Europe. He immediately
left the war against Turkey and returned north to aid the
resistance to the invasion. It was during this period that
he utilized his scheme of delaying withdrawals, forcing
the French to fight a series of minor battles that wore
them down. After three months of French advances, Ku-
tuzov made a stand at the village of Borodino. It was
here, on 7 September 1812, that one of the greatest
battles in the Napoleonic Wars occurred.
Russian troops under Kutuzov and French forces
under Napoleon met near the small village of Borodino,
about 80 miles southwest of Moscow. In using this last
stand to halt the French advance into Moscow, Kutuzov
had formed a force of approximately 125,000 Russian
soldiers who built a series of fortifications and earth-
works around the village’s fields. Napoleon, commanding
his Grand Armeé, composed of approximately 130,000
men, reached Borodino and the Russian defenses on 6
September 1812 and ordered his large guns to soften
up the Russians with heavy bombardment. During the
battle, Napoleon reportedly suffered a stroke, an event
that caused a turn in the war and had great repercussions
later. The heavy French cannonade enabled their cavalry
to move forward, forcing the Russians to slowly retreat.
This led to the massive battle on 7 September in which
Napoleon’s forces broke the back of the Russian army
and forced Kutuzov’s forces to hastily retreat. Borodino’s
death toll was horrific: 42,000 Russians lay dead, along
with 32,000 French—a total of nearly 75,000 dead in
just two days of battle. Napoleon, possibly because of
the stroke he had suffered, hesitated to follow Kutuzov’s
retreating troops, although he did eventually march on
Moscow and occupied the city. But allowing Kutuzov to
escape would be Napoleon’s undoing.
The Russians had burned Moscow and anything of
value in it, making occupation of the city of little use to
the French. Forced to retreat by the cruel Russian win-
ter and a lack of supplies, Napoleon’s army soon found
itself the subject of a series of guerrilla-style attacks from
Russian forces. The French leader tried to fend off these
attacks by quickly withdrawing his army southward
through the city of Kaluga, but this set up another major
land battle. At Maloyaroslavets on 23 October 1812, the
Russians under Kutuzov met a French army commanded
by General Alexis-Joseph Delzons and Eugène de Beau-
harnais, Napoleon’s son-in-law. Historian George Bruce
writes:On 19 October, Napoleon evacuated Moscow
and marched southwest to Kaluga, de Beau-
harnais leading the advance. Unaware of this,
and believing the force sighted at Forminskoie,
40 miles southwest of Moscow, was a foraging
party, Kutuzov sent General [Sergeievich] Doc-
turov with 12,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, and 84
guns to surprise it. While on the road, Docturov
learned this force was the [French] Grand Armeé
and decided to hold out until reinforcements
came at the road junction and town of Maloyaro-
slavets, on the Lutza River.
Docturov entered the town from the south
and found the French spearhead had seized a
bridgehead. Fierce fighting began; the town
changed hands five times. General [Nikolai]
Raevski arrived with 10,000 more Russians; once
more they took the town, though not the bridge-
head. De Beauharnais threw in his 15th (Italian)
Division, under General [Domenico] Pino, and
by evening they had again expelled the Rus-
sians. Marshal Kutuzov arrived, decided against
a pitched battle with the Grand Armeé next
day, and to retire instead to Kaluga. The French kutuzov, mikhAil illARionovich goleniShchev