claimed a victory, but it was a Russian strategi-
cal success, for now wishing to avoid battle, Na-
poleon changed his line of march to the north,
through Mozhaisk and Smolensk, the route of
his advance that he had wished to avoid. French
casualties were about 5,000, including Delzons
who was killed; Russian [casualties] were 6,000.However, at Krasnoi (17 November 1812), the Russian
force under Kutuzov, having inflicted several days of
horrific losses on the French, were surprised by a fresh
force under Marshal Davout, who defeated them but
suffered a loss of some 5,000 French killed. Much of
Marshal Peter Ney’s army was wiped out in an attempt
to shield the main French force from further losses. Rus-
sian losses are unknown.
On 27 November 1812, a force of nearly 150,000
Russians held the heights over the Berezina River, forc-
ing the French under General Claude-Victor Perrin, duc
de Bellune, to fight their way over a bridge and shield
the main French army under Napoleon, enabling them
to continue their retreat. In January 1813, Kutuzov
led the Russians into Poland and Prussia to harass the
French, but he became ill and died on 28 April 1813
at Bunzlau, Germany (now Boleslawiec, Poland), at the
age of 68.
Kutuzov’s legacy is mixed, as is his record. Although
he assisted in driving the hated French out of Russia just
prior to his death, leaving tens of thousands of French
dead in the snows of retreat, he was responsible for the
deaths of an equal number of Russian forces at Austerlitz
and Borodino, just two of the battles he commanded.
The editors of the The Wordsworth Dictionary of Military
Biography, write of this mixed legacy:
Although widely credited, as the Commander-
in-Chief of all Russian forces, with the Russianvictory over Napoleon in 1812, Kutusov never
won a wholly decisive battle against that legend-
ary conqueror; indeed, one is left to speculate
whether he possessed any real qualities as a su-
preme commander. It is true that he managed his
commands skillfully and conserved his armies in-
tact in circumstances of great tribulation before
Moscow; but in view of the extreme exhaustion
of Napoleon’s army, one must doubt whether
Kutusov displayed any outstanding generalship
when the enemy lay at his mercy. But he occu-
pied high office in the Russian army for twenty
years, and will be remembered, if for no other
achievements, for his handling of the Turkish
campaign.References: Schweizer, Karl W., “Kutusov, Mikhail Illari-
onovich,” in The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and So-
viet History, 55 vols., edited by Joseph L. Wieczynski (Gulf
Breeze, Florida: Academic International Press, 1976–93),
18:213–216; Parkinson, Roger, The Fox of the North: The
Life of Kutusov, General of War and Peace (New York: D.
McKay Company, 1976); Bruce, George, “Austerlitz,”
“Borodino,” “Hollabrunn,” and “Maloyaroslavets,” in
Collins Dictionary of Wars (Glasgow, Scotland: HarperCol-
lins Publishers, 1995), 25, 39, 111, 152; Holmes, Edward
Richard, Borodino, 1812 (London: C. Knight, 1971);
Tarle, Professor Evgenii, How Kutuzov Defeated Napoleon
(Moscow, USSR: Soviet War News, 1943?); “Kutusov,
Mikhail,” in Command: From Alexander the Great to Zhu-
kov—The Greatest Commanders of World History, edited
by James Lucas (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1988),
78; Windrow, Martin, and Francis K. Mason, “Kutusov,
Prince Mikhal Ilarionovich,” in The Wordsworth Diction-
ary of Military Biography (Hertfordshire, U.K.: Word-
sworth Editions Ltd., 1997), 155–157.kutuzov, mikhAil illARionovich goleniShchev