Mikhail Kutuzov portraying in the Presidential Library’s materials: soldier, diplomat, governor and teacher of literature

"It's hard to imagine a historical person whose activities have so constantly been directed to the same goal. It is difficult to imagine a goal that is more worthy and more consistent with the will of the whole people. It is even more difficult to find another example in history where the goal that a historical person has set himself would be so perfectly achieved as the goal that all Kutuzov's activities were directed toward achieving in 1812", - wrote Leo Tolstoy in "War and Peace".

September 16 (September 5 in the Julian calendar) in 1745 (according to other sources in 1747) in St. Petersburg was born future grand general, the winner of Napoleon Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov. The Presidential Library portal presents a large number of materials devoted to the activities of this outstanding war leader.

From these sources one can learn that Mikhail Illarionovich was "not only an outstanding commander, but also the largest Russian diplomat", - says N. M. Korobkov in the book "Field Marshal Kutuzov" - In 1792 he was appointed extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador in Constantinople. <...> Kutuzov was to consolidate the art of the diplomat with what had been won on the battlefields".

His complaisance and courtesy "immediately acquired him Sultan’s grace, the Vizier and the Turkish dignitaries". And then he again returned to diplomatic activities more than once. Thus, at moments of aggravation of relations between Russia and Sweden, he was entrusted to accompany the Swedish king; To achieve an alliance with Prussia, Kutuzov was sent to Berlin.

He also held high administrative positions. He was governor general in Kazan, Vyatka, Kiev, Lithuania, St. Petersburg military governor and commander-in-chief of the Land Forces, the flotilla and fortresses of Finland. Supervised the Landed Gentry Corps - the main educational institution that trained officers, he taught there himself, in particular literature.

In this case, according to the authors of the book "Kutuzov in 1812" by M. A. Bulatov and N. M. Korobkov, the military commander "had to act in extremely difficult conditions and, moreover, to wage a stubborn struggle against the palace camarilla ...". Kutuzov’s merits tried to belittle some other military figures of the early XIX century. His relations with Emperor Alexander I were also difficult.

"When, tired of rivalry and wiles, the venerable leader thought of peace and oblivion, suddenly thunder broke out: death threatened the Fatherland, everyone looked at Kutuzov: "The voice of the people's faith appealed to his holy gray hair - go, save!", and the leader, with his usual tranquility, justified Russia's general hopes", - writes I. G. Butovsky in the 1858 book "Field-Marshal Prince Kutuzov at the End and Beginning of His Military Field".

The English envoy Wilson calls Kutuzov "a hilarious, very courteous and cunning, Greek of the times of the decline of the Roman Empire, combining a flexible eastern mind with European education, and preferring the successes of diplomacy to the risk of military accidents", - we read in the 1912 edition “Rostopchin and Kutuzov. Russia in 1812".

It was such a man who took over the leadership of Russian troops at the most difficult moment and became the savior of the Fatherland. Departing to the army in 1812, to the question of one of his relatives: "Do you, Uncle, hope to break Napoleon?" - he replied: "Smash? No! But to deceive - I hope, yes" (E. D. Zhelyabuzhsky "The Patriotic War of 1812 and Kutuzov").

The Presidential Library has an extensive collection dedicated to the war with Napoleon, and Mikhail Kutuzov is one of its main characters.

Following these materials we learn that an important role in shaping the character of Kutuzov as a commander was played by his service under the leadership of Alexander Suvorov, as written by Grigory Pisarevsky in his work "Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov" "Order one, give a hint to another, and Kutuzov does not need to talk - he understands everything himself", - Suvorov said about his subordinate.

About the war with Napoleon, Kutuzov's letters to the family - wife and five daughters - are presented on the portal of the Presidential Library in the edition Kutuzov in Correspondence with His Family by Grigory Georgievsky. "We have been standing for more than a week in one place and with Napoleon we are looking at each other, each waiting for time. In the meantime, we fight every little day with small parts, and now it is always successful. Every day we take three hundred person, and we lose so little that almost nothing", - Kutuzov said in a letter to his relatives in October 1812.

Mikhail Kutuzov died on April 16 (28), 1813, on the way to Paris. "There is no other person like Kutuzov, but the whole of Europe is still full of his great deeds; Hailstones and weights do not cease to give praise to his name, "S. P. Potemkin wrote in "Reflections at the tomb of General-Field Marshal of the Most Serene Prince Mikhail Golenishchev-Kutuzov-Smolensky".