To understand why Napoleon was waiting for the keys to the Kremlin as an offering from the defeated people, and did not take them himself, it is worth highlighting the events that occurred earlier on September 2, 1812.
At one of the auctions in Fontainebleau for 187 thousand euros, a lot with a unique letter of 1812 was sold. It is dated October 20th. Its author is Napoleon, and he writes about his intention to blow up the Kremlin. But a month ago, he could not have imagined after so many victories in Europe that the Russian savages would not only put an end to his triumphal wars, but even for the sake of victory they would not regret. Moscow was burned, so the emperor only had to blow up the Kremlin, which had survived the fire. But why did he make such a decision when his army had already left the lifeless city and the inevitability of defeat was obvious?
Maybe because he never had the chance to experience in the palms of the sweet weight of the weighty keys to the Kremlin? But this is more like an act of revenge. It is not solid for the emperor with claims to the world crown. It’s just that the Kremlin for him is that last straw for which the drowning man grabs. He believed that leaving Russia without a heart, i.e. without the Kremlin, having thus broken the Russian spirit, he will still be able to subjugate this barbaric country and return to France again as a winner.
Why is it that an exceptionally intelligent person and a genius commander so easily succumbed to self-deception? And why did Napoleon wait for the keys to the Kremlin six weeks earlier? For the same reason that he so naively and smugly expected the Russian delegation not just with keys, but with bread and salt and a traditional Russian bow. He wanted not just the humility of the vanquished, he needed recognition.
This was the second self-deception. None but ravens flocking from all sides to the place of conflagration. But the crows could not tell what Napoleon expects in the city. But the delegation did not appear. But why was Napoleon waiting for the keys to the Kremlin, but the Russians did not bring them? The importance of Poklonnaya Gora for the Russians explains why. Napoleon was waiting for the keys to the Kremlin there. But even a Russian scout could not advise him of a more inappropriate place. The name of the mountain is not accidental. Since ancient times, it has been worshiped as the holy habitat of the gods. To come here with a bow to Napoleon would mean to betray not a city, not a country, but faith, but to recognize the usurper as almost a god. Such blasphemy could not have occurred to any Russian.
Perhaps this is not the only explanation for why Napoleon was waiting for the keys to the Kremlin, but he did not wait. This man was remembered not only as a war loser and a disgraced emperor. He entered eternity as a great personality, capable of creating history and changing its course. And so to speak, France has no
exclusive right to the Napoleon brand today
. There is no country where there would not be at least one bust of Napoleon. Fans of historical reconstruction recreate episodes of battles over and over again, of which this ruler had many.
Napoleonic death masks continue to appear in museums around the world. Bronze, copper, plaster ... For most of them, the authenticity is doubtful. And outwardly they sometimes differ not only in small details. For museum staff, for historians, this is an annoying phenomenon. On the other hand, this is eloquent evidence that the role of Napoleon in history is huge, that he still managed to conquer the world. Not geographically, not politically, but in the minds of people. He will no longer be forgotten, because his name has become a household name. And it is hardly possible to find another such person in the history of mankind , whose great name did not detract even from the great defeat, similar to that which Napoleon suffered in Russia.