The Presidential Library marking Denis Davydov’s birthday: "To a singer, to a hero!"

Denis Vasilyevich Davydov, a military writer and poet, lieutenant general, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, was born into a military noble family on July 27 (16 according to the old style), 1784 in Moscow. The very birth predetermined Davydov's military career. His father is a brigadier, he served under the command of Alexander Suvorov. Denis Vasilyevich recalled that once, while examining the Poltava Light-Horse Regiment, which was then under the command of Father Davydov, the great commander noticed a brisk child and said: "You will win three battles!"

The extensive collection "The Patriotic War of 1812" on the Presidential Library's portal tells about the greatest military events themselves, and about their participants, outstanding commanders of that time. A separate collection is devoted to the guerilla movement, the initiator and theorist of which was Denis Davydov. The electronic reading room of the library provides his research "Experience of the theory of partisan action" (1821), where the author says: "...I am not content with examples of the past war, but go further. ...Positive rules on how to adjust the direction of the parties to a mutual direction, or the position of the two belligerent armies, have not been set forth anywhere else: I am setting them out", and the book of the officer, military writer Victor Gervais "Partisan-poet Denis Vasilyevich Davydov" (1913) will tell the reader about the creation of a partisan detachment by Davydov.

Details of the rich military biography of the "famous poet-partisan" are available in the article "Encyclopedic Dictionary" (1893) by the publishers Friedrich Brockhaus and Ilya Efron, as well as the essay by the military historian Vasily Potto "D[enis] V[asilyevich] Davydov on the Erivan border" in the book "The Caucasian War in Selected Essays, Episodes, Legends and Biographies" (1900), available on the Presidential Library portal. In addition, detailed information about the hussar and the poet is contained in On This Day section.

Denis Davydov received an excellent education at home, but then the young cavalry guard realized that this knowledge was not enough for an officer. Case decided the matter. “Brother Denis,” Kokhovsky, a man of great intelligence and extensive education, once told him: “what a soldier who does not hope to be a field marshal, and you don’t even know what a headquarters officer needs to know.” The youth's pride was greatly affected. With ardor he took up books and soon became one of the most educated officers at that time - an expert on Russian military history. At the same time, the first glimpses of poetic talent were reflected in him”, - wrote Vasily Potto.

Davydov demonstrated the ability of a historian, wit and the ability to show the domestic inside out of historical events, for example, in the book "Some extracts from the papers of Denis Vasilyevich Davydov, not missed by the censorship in Russia", published in 1906 and available in the electronic fund of the Presidential Library. As noted in the "Encyclopedic Dictionary", "D.'s prose articles are divided into two categories: articles that are in the nature of personal memories, and articles of historical and polemical nature". The article "Remarks on the obituary of N. N. Raevsky, published under Invalid in 1829, with the addition of his own notes on some events of the war of 1812, in which he participated" (1832) and "Notes of the partisan Denis Davydovich: memories of the Polish war of 1831 ", Published in the magazine "Russian Starina" in 1872, available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Denis Davydov created an original genre of "hussar lyrics". The volume of his poetic creativity is small, but it left a distinct mark in poetry.

At the same time, "wine and love", hussar feasts and entertainment were not the main ones in the poetry of the partisan poet. "Glory" came out on top. Davydov gave a new motivation for heroism, outlined the internal prerequisites for the formation of a heroic character: from within an active, life-loving, selfless nature, impulses of courage and daring go forth.

There is a well-known joke by Alexander Pushkin about Denis Davydov: "The military are sure that he is an excellent writer, and writers think about him that he is an excellent general". “D.'s poetic works differ neither in the depth of content, nor in the processing of style, but they have one merit - originality. Pushkin himself gave great strength to the originality of D. - considered the author of the article in the "Encyclopedic Dictionary". Vasily Potto, meanwhile, wrote that “Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Yazykov, Vyazemsky and many representatives of Russian literature were in friendly correspondence with Davydov.

One can get an opinion on the work of Denis Davydov, "father and commander" of Pushkin, by reading the book "Poems and Articles" (1942) on the Presidential Library’s portal.

On August 26, 1839, on the 25th anniversary of the entry of the Russian army into Paris, the grand opening of the monument to the heroes of the Battle of Borodino was to take place. Denis Davydov gave Nicholas I a note, in which he proposed to transfer to the foot of the monument the ashes of the commander Pyotr Bagration, who died from a wound received on the Borodino field.

According to Vasily Potto's story, “Emperor Nicholas fully appreciated this idea and ordered the transfer of Bagration's ashes to the banks of the Kolocha, to the place where the hero was destined to face off against the enemies of Russia for the last time. Davydov was entrusted with accompanying the prince's coffin to the Borodino field. But Providence did not judge him, however, to live up to this solemn moment. A few months before the opening of the monument, on April 22, 1839, he unexpectedly died on his estate in Upper Maza, Syzran district, Simbirsk province". The ashes of Denis Davydov were transported to Moscow and buried in the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent.