Translated material
1812
Victor Cheretsky: Napoleon was almost 4 thousand Spaniards in the army of Napoleon. These were mainly the former fighters who were in Denmark of the Spanish so -called Northern Division. At first, they were allies of France, but when in 1808 the Spaniards became clear that the French had turned into enslavers, and a popular uprising broke out in Madrid, they refused a similar union. Spanish military historian Lieutenant Colonel Jose Manuel Herrero:
Jose M. Herrero: In Denmark, under the command of the Marquis de la Roman, 18 thousand people were located. About 80 percent of the composition of this corps returned in October 1808 on English ships to Spain in order to fight with the French - to confront the invasion.
Victor Cheretsky: Well, the remaining 20 percent were captured by the French, becoming a victim of confusion in the relationship between Paris and Madrid. Unlike Russia, Napoleon did not formally attack Spain. The Spanish King Charles IV was a faithful ally of France and voluntarily let in French troops into the territory of Spain in October 1807. The official goal of the French campaign was the struggle against Portugal, which was the ally of the main enemy of Napoleon - Britain. However, the French troops were stuck in Spain and engaged in robberies, dragged for women, drunk and arranged fights with local residents. The Spanish government turned a blind eye to arbitrariness, which, of course, did not like the people who began to resist the French, and at the same time raised the rebellion against the hated prime minister of the country Manuel Hod, the favorite of the queen, the intriguer and the embezzle. Napoleon thought that the time came to put his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain, replacing them with the inactive Karl, in general, according to historians, unable to rule the country. Rafael Sanchez Montero, Professor of the University of Madrid:
R. SANCHECH MONTEROO: Starting to implement his plans in Spain, Napoleon was mistaken in calculations. He himself recognized this fact, already in exile on the island of St. Helena. He made a mistake, considering that it would be easy to take Spain to his hands. He was aware of the rebellion when the crowd beat the Prime Minister of the year. The Emperor thought that the Spaniards were tired of their monarchy, backwardness and religious obscurantism that reigned in their country, that, in the end, they would accept Joseph as a liberator, the bearer of the ideas of the French Revolution for that time, and that Spain joining the empire would be painless.
Victor Cheretsky: Napoleon's mistake turned into a war. She raged in Spain from 1808 to 1814. Both troops and partisans were involved in it - almost all the people, men, women, children, old people. It was in Spain, according to historians, that a new type of military operation arose - a partisan war, the experience of which was later used in Russia. In the notes of such a prominent figure in the partisan movement as Denis Davydov, we find direct links to Spanish experience. Ricardo History Professor Garcia Karsel:
R. Garcia Sanchez: The Spanish Royal Dynasty has completely decomposed, mired in debauchery and financial debts. Both the monarch and the heir, who actually threw the country to the mercy of fate, could only cause contempt. But the fact is that they were “their own” for the Spanish people, the symbols of their homeland, and the French were foreigners, robbers, whose people did not believe in the good intentions. Hence his desperate resistance to the invaders.
Victor Cheretsky: captured Spanish soldiers who were in Denmark experienced similar feelings for the French, many of whom wanted to return to their homeland at all costs to join in the fight against Napoleon. The French understood this, and therefore they were silent about the campaign in Russia when recording to the regiment of Joseph Bonaparte - they said that the Spaniards would immediately be sent to their homeland. The deception, of course, did not add love to the French emperor to the Spaniards. Says a biography of Napoleon, Professor Manuel Moreno:
Manuel Moreno: the country had a large patriotic rise. Moreover, for the first time in the new history of Spain, the enemy simultaneously hated all its peoples: the Castilet, and the Galicians, the Basques, and the Catalans, and the Andalusians. They did not need to be agitated. People were united by hatred of those whom they considered the enemies of their homeland.
Victor Cheretsky: Napoleon himself was fully aware that representatives of Spain fighting against him, with the exception of the few so -called “crushed” liberal officers, supporters of the ideas of the French revolution, are opposed to him. He wrote to Marshal Dava: "I am sending you Spanish battalions, but you know - they can not trust any important missions." After the start of the campaign against Russia, the emperor divided the Spanish regiment and sent in parts to various divisions - under the command of French officers. Napoleon’s anxiety was justified. The Spaniards began to desert immediately after the invasion of Russia. Lieutenant Colonel Jose Manuel Herrero:
Jose M. Herrero: The incidents began from the very beginning of the campaign and continued constantly - the Spaniards used any convenient case to escape. Save the memories of the young officer Gaglardo de Mendos. He describes that the soldiers only thought about desertion: at the slightest opportunity, they killed French commanders and hid in the forest. By the end of the campaign, desertion was of a general character - almost everyone surrendered.
Victor Cheretsky: Russian academician Tarle noted that "the Spaniards could not help but look at his desertion ... as on their patriotic duty to their distant homeland, tormented by Napoleon." So, near Borodin, a tragicomic story occurred, which later formed the basis of the novel by the writer Arturo Peres Reverte “The Shadow of the Eagle”. The soldiers of the two Spanish battalions from the Dava Corps decided to use the storm of the Shevardinsky Redut to desert. They stabbed French officers and rushed to the redoubt. The Russians, without suspecting anything, opened fire. The Spaniards, grabbing the wounded and even dead, continued, without shooting, to run to the redoubt. All this was observed by Napoleon. The attack of the Spaniards introduced him as a manifestation of courage and loyalty to his person, and therefore he sent them a cavalry to help them. The Spaniards lost 350 people and ... against their will, took the redut. Lieutenant Colonel Jose Manuel Herrero:
Jose Manuel Herrero: shots of Russian batteries caused a lot of losses. Napoleon, inspired by the capture of the Redut, even awarded many Spaniards - participants in the assault - the Order of the Legion of Honor. In powder smoke, he obviously did not understand the behavior of Spanish soldiers. However, the Spaniards were only cannon fodder for him.
Viktor Cheretsky: At the main apartment of the Russian army, from the very beginning of the campaign of 1812, a marching printing house worked, printing leaflets addressed to Spanish soldiers, in which they were called to “return to their homeland or find asylum in Russia,” that is, desert or surrender. Systematically, news of the successes of partisans in Spain was printed in them. Here is what was written in the leaflet dating from August: “The Spaniards! Finally, leave the banners of your deadly enemy, from now on only the work of your homeland and religion, follow the example of the noble efforts of your compatriots, and Providence will bless your glorious enterprise. Emperor Alexander, a friend of all oppressed peoples, offers you funds, crossing the sea, again to see the native land and free it from foreign enslavement. ” Professor Rafael Sanchez Montero notes that the French command carefully hid everything that was happening in their homeland from Spanish soldiers. So Russian leaflets in Spanish, who communicated reliable information, were read by the Spaniards with great interest:
R. SANCHECH MONTERRO: It was the most terrible and destructive war in the history of Spain. There was no front line. The Napoleonic army was opposed by the whole country. The front was everywhere. Opponents were sophisticated in atrocities that the artist Francisco Goya artist in his works of “Disaster of War” testified in their works. Spain almost did not have a regular army: the French opposed the French who fought as best he could, without any rules.
Victor Cheretsky: At the end of 1812, the number of Spanish soldiers and officers who surrendered in Russia increased so much that it was decided to form a separate regiment from them to participate in the war against Napoleon. In November, the manager of the military ministry, Prince Gorchakov, wrote to Kutuzov: “The emperor, wanting to maintain a connection with the restored Spanish power, deigns that all captured Spaniards are collected in St. Petersburg. They are upon arrival here ... will be formed in battalions and will remain until spring, and with the opening of the communication they will be sent from here to their fatherland ... On the that basis, I humbly ask for your lordship ... to send all prisoners to St. Petersburg. ” Napoleon’s defeat in Russia was of great importance for Spain, which by that time had been fighting for four years with the invaders. Historian Herrero:
Jose Manuel Herrero: the meaning of this victory is difficult to overestimate. Napoleon was defeated for the first time, lost a whole military campaign. Of course, this instantly affected the situation throughout Europe and, especially, in Spain. She added to the forces of our people - both the army and the partisans opposing the invaders.
Victor Cheretsky: May 2, 1813, on the fifth anniversary of the Madrid uprising, the newly formed Spanish Imperial Alexander Regiment took the oath of loyalty to the Cadissa Cortes, the Spanish parliament. In St. Petersburg, they were then considered the only legal authority in Spain, while the new king - Ferdinand VII was still in French captivity. Historian Professor Madrid University Horche Vilchch:
Jorge Vilch: the Cadissal Cortes appeared as a result of the revolutionary process in Spain, which was characterized, on the one hand, by the inaction of the former power monarchical structures, and on the other, by the manifestation of folk initiative in the Spanish provinces. The task was to form a new government that could lead the struggle for national liberation from the Napoleonic invaders, and to rule the country in a new way, adopting new laws united into the Constitution. In any case, that was the idea of liberals who set the tone in the Cadissa Cortes.
Victor Cheretsky: The banner handed by the Spanish military unit was special. It depicted the emblem of Spain, as well as the St. Andrew's Cross and the initials of the Russian emperor Alexander Pavlovich. The banner and battalion standards were solemnly consecrated on July 19 in the Palace Church in Tsarskoye Selo in the presence of the wife of Alexander - Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna and the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna. The banner personally embroidered the mother of the emperor. The regiment commander was appointed Lieutenant Colonel O'Donnell, who crossed the side of the Russians along with the three hundred Spaniards in December 1812 in Vilna. Three battalions included nine officers, 115 non-commissioned officers and 1908 lower ranks. All of them received Russian weapons and green Russian uniforms. In August 1813, the regiment in Kronstadt was loaded into seven English transports for transfer to Spain. By parting compatriots, the Spanish ambassador to Russia said: "Go, rush and complete the expulsion of the enemy, which tramples another part of our beautiful land." Professor Jorge Vilchch:
Jorge Wilch: it seemed to the Spaniards that they participated in the global mission, which consisted in destroying, together with other European peoples, a common enemy - a usurper. So the entry of the Spanish soldiers into the Russian army, which was considered an allied, did not cause anyone to condemn. The Spanish newspapers of that time write about this. The performances of politicians-patriots are devoted to this. After all, everyone had one task - to end a tyrant.
Viktor Cheretsky: However, King Ferdinand VII, who returned from France in 1814, issued a decree, according to which all the Spaniards were subject to life exile from the country, who once recognized the power of Joseph Bonaparte. Therefore, the Alexander Regiment was subject to disbandment, and all officers are above the title of lieutenant - the expulsion. However, thanks to the intervention of the Russian ambassador to Madrid Tatishchev, who was part of the King of the Persons close to the king and having a certain influence on him, the O'Donnell and other officers made an exception, the regiment was restored and became a regular military unit of the royal army. He wore the name of Aleksandrovsky until 1823.