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Some historical facts on the subject…
The Patriotic War of 1812, or Napoleon's Russian
Campaign as it was called in the West, occupies one of the most
remarkable places in Russian history. Many events took place during this
desperate, heroic campaign. The most significant event was the principal
battle of the Patriotic War, the battle of September 7th, 1812 the village of Borodino 124 km from
Moscow. The Russians call this battle Borodino battle or just “Borodino”,
whereas French sources name it the battle of Moscow.
This memorable battle finds a detailed description in
many historical sources.
Christian Wilhelm
von Faber du Faur (1780-1857), who was the
Wuerttemberg
artillery officer, made some sketches of the fight for Bagration’s
fleches - one of the crucial points of Borodino battle. (Later, the
series of lithographs were created by his sketches.) Primarily the
Russian artillery was located on the Bagration’s fleches. And during the
action this position was occupied either by the French or by the
Russians. The situation changed several times. The engraving shows the
Russian cuirassiers, making an attack against the Wuerttemberg Infantry,
which occupied the fleches. The French Reserve Cavalry commander Marshal
Murat is in the centre of the composition. He has been almost captured
by Russian cuirassiers. Next moment he will manage to escape in the
ranks of Wuerttemberg Infantry.
In Faber du Faur’s collection this picture is one of
the most expressive ones and it inspired me on creating a set of flat
tin figures. Thirteen figures have been made by now. All of them are
displayed on this site.
Russian Cuirassiers from 2d Cuirassier Division (Gluhovskoy,
Ekaterinoslavskiy and Novgorodskiy regiments) took part in the fight for
the Bagration’s fleches. With the same
cuirassier uniform they had different facings:
Gluhovskoy – dark blue,
Ekaterinoslavskiy-orange,
Novgorodskiy – pink.
From the other side there may be the Wuerttemberg Line Infantry
of 1st, 2nd , 4th or 6th Infantry Regiments, and the Light Infantry of 1st
Light and 1st Chasseur Regiments.
My special gratitude to Sergey
Barishnikov for providing the information about uniform.
Alexander Mitelev |
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