The event of a fire in Moscow in 1812 refers to a fire that occurred in the capital from September 14-18. At that time, the city was occupied by French troops. Fire covered almost the entire central part and reached the outskirts. Three quarters of the wooden buildings were destroyed.
There is more than one version of why the fire began in Moscow in the war of 1812. According to the one that was voiced by the tsarist government at the official level, it occurred due to the actions of the invaders. Some historians believe that the Moscow head Fedor Rostopchin is involved in this. Be that as it may, this incident became the largest of the fires that occurred in Russian cities in the 19th century. Briefly about the fire in Moscow in 1812 will be discussed in the article.
Start and distribution
According to eyewitnesses, the fire in Moscow in 1812 began on September 14 in the evening. The first of its places of origin were Kitay-Gorod, Solyanka, the territory beyond the Yauz bridge. The fighters of the retreating Russian army from afar watched an ominous glow.
At night, the fire intensified much, covering most of the capital. This was because almost all of the buildings in it were wooden. Including noble estates, which externally looked like stone. In fact, they consisted of a wooden skeleton covered with a thick layer of plaster. Moreover, such buildings managed to burn even faster than the two-story huts of old Moscow.
In Kitay-Gorod, the only building that was not touched by the fire was the Orphanage . Chief Overseer I.A. Tutolmin together with his subordinates saved him, having managed to put out the fire around. As for other places, they could not stop the fire in any way. On the contrary, it only intensified. And the inhabitants of the city, who were in it at that time, trying to escape from the disaster that befell them, moved from one house to the next.
From the memories of the nanny of Herzen
One of the "eyewitnesses" of the fire was A.I. Herzen. Since he was not even a year old then, in his memoirs, the writer cites the story of the nanny about what was happening in the city. After their house caught fire, the Herzen family decided to go to friends, the Golokhvastovs. All together, gentlemen and servants, went to Tverskaya Boulevard and here they saw that the trees began to burn. When they reached the desired house, fire was already breaking out of all its windows.
In addition to the fire, being persecuted and other dangers (these were drunken soldiers who sought to take possession of money and take away the last horse or sheepskin coat), a family with all the children and household members tried to find a new refuge. Hungry and completely exhausted people got to some surviving house and stayed to rest in it. However, less than an hour later, there were shouts from the street that this building had already engulfed fire.
In the royal chambers
One of the interesting facts about the fire of 1812 in Moscow is the “good” night spent by Napoleon in the Kremlin. On the night of September 15, the French emperor found out about the fire raging in the Russian capital. As diplomat Kolenkur wrote, it was impossible to stop him. There was absolutely no means at hand, and it was not known where to get the fire pumps.
The French believed that the necessary fire-fighting equipment was removed from the city in accordance with the order of Rostopchin. Marshal Merthier was appointed Governor General of Moscow, and Bonaparte ordered him to put out the fire at all costs. In full, this could not be done, but on Red Square the fire was still held back. This "good" night, Napoleon spent in the chambers of the Russian tsars.
Gigantic stove
At first, the French did not understand that almost the entire city was covered by fire . It seemed to them that only a few buildings were burning. The soldiers and officers were sure that the fire would soon be put out. All the destruction they attributed to the Cossacks. However, the fire in Moscow in 1812 was becoming larger. Gostiny Dvor, according to an eyewitness, began to resemble a gigantic stove with thick puffs of smoke and flames bursting out of it.
Marshal Murat with his retinue is located in the house of Batashev, an industrialist and philanthropist. This building also engulfed a fire. Along with the French, the people of Batashev also extinguished the fire. Although it was possible to defend the house itself, the estate was badly damaged: all the wooden buildings burned to the ground.
On a terrible night, a strong wind blew from September 15 to 16, escalating into a real storm. His impulses spread flame to all parts of the city. In just a few hours, the ocean of fire consumed Solyanka, Mokhovaya, Arbat and Prechistenka.
Fantastic view
Another eyewitness to the fire in Moscow in 1812, who observed it from a somewhat remote village, described it as follows. The picture was scary. A huge sky was flooded with bright purple light, which seemed to be the background for the whole picture. Bright white jets resembling snakes coiled and twisted on it.
Burning bunts of various sizes, which had a bizarre shape, and a strange, fantastic appearance, red-hot objects first mass rose up and then fell back, scattering with fiery spray.
It seemed that a whole field of enormous size was suddenly dotted with many continuous volcanoes that spewed out combustible substances and streams of flame. Even the most skilled of the pyrotechnics could not have invented a more fanciful firework than Moscow - the heart of Russia, engulfed in flames.
Departure of Napoleon
The fire in Moscow in 1812 again threatened the Kremlin. Bonaparte did not fully understand the full extent of what was happening. Being absorbed in his thoughts, he watched the capital from a high terrace. It is possible that he did this with a feeling of deep sorrow. After all, the destruction of the city entailed the collapse of his hopes.
As contemporaries recalled, once during this lesson he began to regret that Moscow no longer exists. That he lost the reward promised by him to his army. However, the emperor refused to leave the Kremlin, despite the conviction of others to do so. The emperor succumbed to the persuasion at the last moment, when the Trinity Tower had already begun to burn - it was extinguished by the French guard.
But now getting out of the Kremlin was not at all easy. All the gates of the fortress were blocked by fire. Finally, they managed to find the underground passage leading to the Moscow River, through which the emperor and his retinue escaped. However, now they could not move forward, as they came close to the fire. It was impossible to stay in place. As a result, Napoleon and his people were only able to get to the Peter's Palace only late at night.
Moscow after the fire of 1812
On September 17th, the flame continued to rage, but heavy rain began in the evening, and the wind began to subside. On the 18th, the fires mostly stopped. Rain poured non-stop, and now Moscow was a spectacle of a very sad nature.
It was no longer the same splendor. An extensive conflagration with protruding chimneys, piles of stones, ruins and clumps of earth crumbled by explosions came off. It was impossible to look at all this without a shudder.
Who set fire to the city?
To date, the question of the causes of the fire of 1812 in Moscow remains open. There are three main versions.
- This was done by the French military, in order to make it easier to rob the capital. The mayor of Moscow, Rostopchin, insisted on this version.
- The French and some Russians blamed Rostopchin and his followers for arson. They believed that on his orders they made rockets and other flammable substances, fireballs. The capital supposedly was to become a huge hellish machine, which, suddenly exploded at night, will absorb the emperor together with his army.
- The version of spontaneous combustion is also not excluded, which in the conditions of confrontation of armies in wooden Moscow looks quite real.
Moscow's recovery after the fire of 1812
After the destruction, the capital had to be restored for more than 20 years.
Emperor Alexander I in 1813, in February, established a special commission for this, which was abolished only after 30 years. It was headed by F. Rostopchin. O. Bove was responsible for the architecture, and E. Cheliev was responsible for the engineering part.
In the years 1813-14 reconstructed Red Square. Here, the destroyed towers and walls were restored. In the years 1821-22 beside them, in memory of the victory over the French, the Alexander Garden was defeated. In accordance with the new plan, the Kremlin was to surround a ring of squares, one of which is Bolotnaya.
The fire ravaged many homeowners: after it there was a redistribution of Moscow lands on a massive scale. For example, plots located on Maroseyka became the property of merchants. To help the victims, they created a commission to consider petitions from those who went bankrupt during the enemy invasion.
The housing stock of Moscow was almost completely restored by the beginning of 1816. During the reconstruction a specific Moscow classicism was formed. Specialists note the special plasticity of the architectural forms of newly built mansions.
Many streets, including the Garden Ring, have expanded. Due to lack of funds and building materials, wooden houses continued to be erected. Some of these buildings with an empire decor have survived to this day.
The Moscow fire is described in many literary works, for example, in “War and Peace” by L. N. Tolstoy.