Lieutenant General Ilovaisky 3rd Alexei Vasilievich (1767–1841) A native of one of the most famous Cossack noble families on the Don. Father - Colonel V.I. Ilovaisky. On the military service entered in 1776 in the officer rank, captain, when he was not even ten years old. Such was

Chichagov(Pavel Vasilyevich, 1765-1849) - Admiral, son of Vasily Yakovlevich Ch. Fourteen years old, enrolled in military service, Ch. visited the Mediterranean with his father's squadron, and then took part in battles against the Swedes. In 1792-93, accompanied by his teacher, the well-known mathematician Guryev at that time, he lived in England, learning English and practically getting acquainted with maritime affairs. With the accession of Emperor Paul, who put Kushelev at the head of the fleet, who was shortly before that midshipman with Vasily Yakovlevich Chichagov, Ch. began to think about retiring, which Kushelev accelerated, slandering him before the emperor in unwillingness to serve on the orders of the latter. Pavel immediately deprived Ch. of his uniform and orders and ordered him to be put in the Peter and Paul Fortress, in the department of the state prison. Having visited Ch. in prison, the emperor found his premises too clean and bright and ordered him to be transferred to a casemate. In July 1799, Paul I released him and greeted him with the words: "Let's forget what happened and remain friends." Following this, Ch. was sent to Revel to take command of the squadron that was leaving for England, and then he was entrusted with the defense of Kronstadt. Alexander I brought Ch. closer to him, made him a naval minister and a member of the state council and committee of ministers, and after he left the post of minister, he left him with his person, in the rank of constantly on duty adjutant general. This created Ch. many enemies and envious people, especially when he began to ardently support the idea of ​​Alexander I about the liberation of the peasants. The time of management of his naval ministry was marked by wide transformations and improvements in the Russian fleet. In 1811, the emperor appointed Ch. commander-in-chief of Moldavia, Wallachia and the Black Sea Fleet, and the following year he instructed him to pursue the retreating troops of Napoleon I, who, due to some slowness of the pursuers, managed to safely cross the Berezina. This was the reason for accusing Ch. almost of treason both on the part of his contemporaries and on the part of many historians of the Patriotic War. In 1814, he went on an indefinite leave abroad and never returned to Russia from there, having lived all the time in Italy and France; 14 years before his death, he went blind and lived with his youngest daughter, Countess E. du Buzet. Since 1816, Ch. began to write his "Notes", then in Italian, then in French and English, starting with the year of his father's birth (1726) and finishing up to 1834, when he went blind. In them, he conveys a lot of valuable historical material for the eras of the reign of Catherine II, Paul I and Alexander the Blessed, makes apt descriptions of the most important statesmen and gives many details based on hitherto unknown documents and letters.

So far, L. M. Chichagov has published only a part of the “Notes”, under the title: “Notes of Admiral Chichagov, Concluding What He Saw and What, in His Opinion, He Knew” (in Russkaya Starina, 1886, vol. 50, 51 and 52, for 1887, vol. 55, and for 1888, vol. 58, 59 and 60). Earlier, the first issue of the Archive of Admiral P.V. Chichagov was published separately (St. Petersburg, 1885). Ch.’s “Notes” were preserved and put in order by the above-mentioned daughter Ch., whose husband, using several excerpts from them, printed in 1858 a pamphlet that made a lot of noise: “ Memoires de l'amiral Tchitchagoff”, where Ch. is exposed as a detractor of Russia. She managed to clear her father of this slander only by the court. Several letters to Ch. of Emperor Alexander I were published in Russian Antiquity (1902, No. 2).

According to many contemporaries, Ch. was smart and brilliant educated person, honest and "straight character"; to "court noble flatterers he treated with great inattention, and to others - even with disdain"; with the lower and subordinates was friendly.

See I. Glebov, "Paul I and Chichagov" ("Historical Bulletin", 1883, No. 1); A. Popov, "Patriotic War" ("Russian Antiquity", 1877, vol. XX); L. M. Chichagov, “Pavel Vasilyevich Chichagov” (“Russian Antiquity”, 1886, No. 5).

Chichagov belonged to the mournful list of Russian people who have done incomparably less for the fatherland than
what they were capable of and what they were called to do.

These words of Peter Bartenev are true in general, but only in part. It is sad that a few failures went down in history so strongly that they overshadowed the rest of the undoubted successes of this man, accomplished for the good of his Fatherland.

Unknown artist

I was born on June 27 - the day Battle of Poltava (in this century it is July 8), which in itself was a good sign., - the admiral later wrote in his memoirs. Hereditary sailor, son of the naval commander Vasily Yakovlevich Chichagov, who later became an admiral, an active participant in the Revel and Vyborg naval battles, the winner of the Swedish fleet. Educated, improving maritime sciences in England, wayward, fearless, not afraid to quarrel with Paul I's associates and made a lot of "sworn friends", which ultimately cost him his rank and position at court. This is how he described this statesman on the pages Russian Antiquities his former adjutant, famous medalist, comrade of the president of the Imperial Academy of Arts, Count Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy: Pavel Vasilyevich Chichagov was a very intelligent and educated man; being of a direct character, he was surprisingly free and, like no other minister, easy to handle and talk with the sovereign and the royal family. Knowing his advantage over the noble court flatterers, both in science, education, and in directness and firmness of character, Chichagov treated them with great inattention, and with others even with disdain, for which, of course, he was hated by almost all the court world and all empty, arrogant nobility; but Emperor Alexander Pavlovich and Empress Elisaveta Alekseevna loved him very much. With his lower self and with his subordinates and petitioners, whom he always accepted without distinction of rank and rank, Chichagov treated very affably and listened to the requests of the latter with great patience.

Portrait of Elizabeth Proby. About 1799. Watercolor on the bone. Private collection
Unknown artist

An amazing talent for getting into ridiculous and sometimes humiliating situations manifested itself even when Pavel Chichagov asked the emperor for permission to go abroad to marry his chosen Englishwoman Elizabeth Proby, to which he was refused with insulting wording: there are so many girls in Russia that there is no need to go to England to look for them. Moreover, the enemies of the admiral presented this intention in such a way that Chichagov allegedly intended to escape to the service of the British. Then for the first time he was called a traitor, undeservedly, unfairly, but not in last time. But the future admiral behaved with dignity and independence. When the emperor ordered the St. George Cross to be torn off from him, the officer in response threw off his entire uniform and began to argue. As a result, he was dismissed from service without a petition, uniform and pension and was transferred to the ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

True, soon, as was often the case with Paul, he changed his anger to mercy and returned the disgraced sailor to the ranks. Chichagov was reinstated in ranks and awards, promoted to rear admiral and appointed squadron commander for a joint Dutch expedition with Great Britain. Under Alexander I, Pavel Vasilyevich was known as a freethinker and a liberal, but enjoyed the favor of the emperor. The tsar introduced Chichagov to his retinue, then appointed him head of the Naval Office, which was soon transformed into the Ministry of Naval Forces, he was awarded the rank of vice admiral, and became a member of the State Council. After the resignation of the Minister of Naval Forces Mordvinov, he began to fulfill his duties. Chichagov enthusiastically set about transforming the Russian fleet. Among the main tasks of the ministry, he saw the improvement of work on training personnel in the fleet, educating them in the spirit of the glorious traditions of the Russian fleet, loyalty to the Sovereign and the Fatherland, made changes to the training system for cadets and midshipmen, providing for the possibility of their internships abroad to familiarize themselves with foreign experience, sought to strengthen discipline and order in the fleet, limit the arbitrariness of officers in relation to their subordinates. It was forbidden to subject the navigator's assistants of non-commissioned officers to corporal punishment and to shackle sailors in shackles. In addition, he brought the construction of new types of modern ships to a new level, began to strengthen ports and harbors, set up the production of navigation instruments, fought against embezzlement and bribery, and simplified the bureaucratic reporting system in the fleet. They fear him because he insists on order, and they hate him because he does not allow people to steal in his department..

Sloops Neva And Hope during circumnavigation
Sergey PEN

I.F. Kruzenshtern and Yu.F. Lisyansky
Pavel Pavlinov

It is important to know that the first trip around the world by Russian sailors was undertaken at the same time in 1803–1806 on ships Hope And Neva under the command of Ivan Kruzenshtern and Yuri Lisyansky. In the name of Chichagov, Kruzenshtern named an open beautiful harbor on the island of Nukagiva. Admiral Chichagov owned the initiative to transform Sevastopol from a commercial to a naval port on the Black Sea. And also on trifles: a new, more comfortable uniform for sailors was introduced, instead of swords, daggers became attributes of officer uniforms. This activity can be summed up in the words of another famous Russian admiral Mikhail Lazarev, written in 1831: The more I look at everything, the more I am convinced that the fleet will not reach the degree of perfection in which it was under Chichagov. Do not listen to those tales that we now have many ships, but meanwhile there is neither the spirit nor the ambition that we had then ...

Portrait of P.V. Chichagov. Copy from the original by James Saxon. hermitage Museum

For most Russian officers, the war of 1812 was a chance to distinguish themselves and go down in history. Many hitherto not very noticeable military leaders took full advantage of this and rightfully then rested on their laurels. Chichagov, on the contrary, did not gain anything, but only lost what he had. And he had a lot. 1812 was a particularly black year for him. It was Pavel Vasilyevich Chichagov, as the personification of order and opponent of chaos, who, by order of the emperor, was to replace the slow-moving general from infantry Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov in April 1812 at peace negotiations with the Ottoman Porte and acquire the laurels of the winner of the Turks. But the master of intrigue, the shot sparrow Kutuzov, could not be carried out on the chaff; sensing something was wrong, he managed, having made concessions, to conclude the Bucharest peace treaty before Chichagov arrived at the army. In the rescript on the appointment of the admiral as commander of the army, it was noted that he was given practically unlimited powers. Having taken command of the Danube army, Pavel Vasilyevich Chichagov revealed a number of serious violations: the collapse of discipline in the army, abuses in the hospital and financial sectors. I must tell Your Majesty about the gap made in the finances of the army. In one of the boxes they found 44 sacks of hryvnias instead of chervonets. The treasurer, since the time of Prince Prozorovsky ... has been stealing this money, and since no one is fulfilling his duties, then all those who have to check the boxes every month have never done this with due attention(from a report to Emperor Alexander I) The call of auditors from St. Petersburg became a strong insult for Kutuzov, the future field marshal hid, but did not forget anything.

Building a crossing over the Berezina in November 1812
Lawrence ALMA-TADEMA

This hostility was especially pronounced during the operation at the Berezina, when, according to the plan of Alexander I, Admiral Chichagov, together with the corps of General Wittgenstein, with the support of the main forces of Field Marshal Kutuzov, was to cut off the retreat of the swiftly fleeing remnants of Napoleon's Great Army. But this was the main failure of Pavel Vasilyevich.

I will not repeat myself, you can read about the ups and downs of the crossing at the Berezina

Bivouac in Molodechno, December 1812
Johann HARY

Like this once again light hand commander-in-chief Kutuzov, who put all the blame for his own carelessness on Chichagov, the admiral was known as a traitor. However, despite the offensive nicknames, the field marshal did not disdain to give amphibious general And Napoleon's guardian angel an order to further pursue the remnants of the Great Army, left to bathe in the rays of glory in beloved Vilna. Contemporaries also chimed in. It is impossible to portray the general indignation at him, all fortunes suspected him of treason.(F.F. Vigel), angry Vasily Zhukovsky threw away the entire text about Chichagov from his Singer in the camp of Russian soldiers. G.R. Derzhavin ridiculed Chichagov in an epigram, and Kutuzov's friend Ivan Krylov in a fable Pike and cat. The line of destruction of Admiral Chichagov was continued by later Russian historians, up to modern ...

At the end of January 1813, Emperor Alexander I finally granted the request for the resignation of Admiral Chichagov, stung by slander and accusations of treason, appointing Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly, who had been rejected by Kutuzov, as commander of the Third Western Army instead. Pavel Vasilyevich on February 2, having handed over command of the army, left the service and returned to St. Petersburg. A year later, he left for England, where three orphaned daughters of the admiral were brought up in the family of a relative of his wife: Adele, Yulia and Ekaterina. He took with him the ashes of his beloved wife Elizabeth, who was reburied in the English town of Beddington next to the village church, where their marriage ceremony took place in 1799.

Portrait of Pavel Vasilyevich Chichagov

Chichagov never returned to his homeland. He moved from one country to another, lived in England, France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland ... Finally, he settled in France, in the Parisian suburb of Co, having bought a mansion in 1822, which is still well known to local residents as Admiral's House. In addition to daughters and grandchildren, friends from Russia visited his house. Since 1816, Pavel Vasilievich wrote his Notes, covering the period from 1726 to 1834, that is, until he began to rapidly lose his sight. He lived on a pension and salary of a member of the State Council, in which he was listed until 1834.

In 1834, Pavel Vasilyevich refused to obey the decree of Emperor Nicholas I on a 5-year stay abroad and the demand to return to his homeland, on April 17 he was deprived of the title of member of the State Council, his few estates and order pensions, as well as benefits associated with membership in the State Council. But the proud spirit of the old and sick admiral was not broken, he remained true to himself. Having declared invalid his oath to Nicholas I, Pavel Vasilievich Chichagov sent all his orders and correspondence with Alexander I to the emperor in Russia. The admiral died in Paris in 1849.

IN Notes cavalry general Leonty Bennigsen, acting chief of the General Staff of the Russian armies, expressed the hope that: The most impartial judges will be forced to admit that Admiral Chichagov is less guilty than all the other commanding officers of the army, since he alone exactly carried out all the instructions and orders given to him, he alone was in his place, that is, on the Berezina, blocking the path French army... Therefore, I am quite sure that the accusation leveled against Admiral Chichagov will soon be refuted. To the best of my ability, I tried to help...

The statesman and military leader Pavel Vasilievich Chichagov was born on July 8 (June 27, old style) 1767 in St. Petersburg in the family of a naval officer Vasily Chichagov. He came from the nobility of the Smolensk province.

After graduating in 1776 from the Naval cadet corps Pavel Chichagov was enrolled in the Guards Regiment. In 1779 he entered active service as a sergeant in the Guards.

In 1782 he was promoted to lieutenant and appointed adjutant to his father, Vice-Admiral Vasily Chichagov, commander of the squadron of the Baltic Fleet. From May 1782 to October 1784, while in the squadron of ships of the Baltic Fleet, Pavel Chichagov participated in the voyage from Kronstadt to the Mediterranean Sea and back. In 1783, after the exam, he received the rank of lieutenant of the fleet.

From 1801 he was in the retinue of Emperor Alexander I, from 1802 he was a member of the Committee on the Education of the Fleet, then the manager of the affairs of the newly established Military Office for the Fleet, from December of the same year he was a comrade (deputy) of the naval minister, promoted to vice admiral . He took an active part in reforms to strengthen the fleet, improve marine sciences and train naval officers.

In July 1807, Pavel Chichagov received the rank of admiral and was appointed Minister of Naval Forces. In 1807, in case of war with England, he was entrusted with the defense of all the coasts of the empire. The time of Chichagov's management of the Naval Ministry was marked by extensive transformations and improvements in the Russian fleet.

In November 1811, Chichagov, for health reasons, was relieved of his post as minister and appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet. Since April 1812, he was the commander-in-chief of the Danube army, the chief commander of the Black Sea Fleet and the governor general of Moldavia and Wallachia (the historical name of the territory in southern Romania, between the Carpathian Mountains and the Danube River).

During the Patriotic War of 1812, the Danube Army and the 3rd Observational Reserve Army, which joined with it in September, under the general command of Chichagov, together with the corps of General Peter Wittgenstein, were supposed to cut off the retreat of Napoleon's army and prevent it from crossing the Berezina River. However, due to the lack of interaction between individual groups of troops, the plan was not implemented. Public opinion in Russia placed the blame for this entirely on the admiral.

In late 1812 - early 1813, Chichagov, commanding the 3rd Army, pursued the enemy.

In 1814, he was relieved of all posts, but remained a member of the State Council. Considering himself offended by the suspicion of treason, in 1814 he went abroad forever. He lived in Italy and France, where he compiled an extensive historical work on Russia in the period 1725-1834 and wrote memoirs about the Patriotic War of 1812.

In 1834, Chichagov was expelled from the State Council and dismissed from the Russian service as he did not want to return from a vacation abroad at the request of the government.

Pavel Chichagov was awarded the following orders: Russian - St. Vladimir 1st class, St. Alexander Nevsky, St. Anna 1st class with diamonds and 3rd class, St. George 4th class; Prussian - Black Eagle and Red Eagle; a golden weapon "For Courage", an English sword with diamonds.

An atoll on the Russian Islands (Takanea) and an atoll on the Marshall Islands (Ericube) in the Pacific Ocean were named after him.

Chichagov was married to the daughter of the Admiral of the English Navy, Elizabeth Proby, who died in 1811. From their marriage, concluded in 1799, three daughters were born.

Pavel Chichagov died on September 1 (August 20 according to the old style) 1849 in the city of So near Paris (France).

Three members of the Chichagov family are buried in the city cemetery in the Parisian suburb of So: Admiral Pavel Chichagov (1767-1849), his brother, a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812, General Vasily Chichagov (1772-1826) and the daughter of Admiral Ekaterina, by her husband Countess du Buse ( 1807-1882). Over time, the graves fell into disrepair.

In 2012, thanks to the efforts of the Chichagov Charitable Foundation of the Noble Family and the Russian Embassy in France, the Chichagov family burial was restored. The inscription on the monument reads "The Chichagovs lie here."

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

(Additional

Public opinion does not accept difficult circumstances, just as it does not accept failures on the battlefield, no matter how strong the enemy is. It learns well only the simple truth of victories.

Pavel Vasilyevich Chichagov - a talented naval commander, naval minister Russian Empire and a not-so-lucky general who was blamed entirely by the court community for the failure on the Berezina. In fact, public opinion put an end to the career of Pavel Vasilyevich after 1812, which was unlikely to benefit state affairs.

Pavel Vasilyevich Chichagov was born on July 8, 1767 in the family of a naval officer Vasily Chichagov. Soon, the family moved to Kronstadt - at the place of service of his father, and in 1776 returned to St. Petersburg, where Pavel Vasilyevich was educated at the German School of St. Peter.

In 1779, Chichagov was enrolled in military service as a sergeant of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. January 1782 was marked by the first sea campaign of Pavel Vasilyevich. He was assigned to the 1st Naval Battalion, adjutant to his father, then Vice Admiral, and under his command went from Kronstadt to Livorno and back.

In 1783, Pavel Chichagov was promoted to lieutenant of the fleet, and after 4 years he received the rank of senior officer on the ship Ezekiel, which, as part of a detachment under the command of Admiral T.G. Kozlyaninova participates in the raid to the island of Bornoholm. After, he receives an appointment to his father in St. Petersburg.
The Russian-Swedish war in 1788-1789 required the return of talented officers to the fleet.

In April 1789, Pavel Vasilyevich was promoted to captain of the 2nd rank and received command of the flagship battleship Rostislav.

In this rank, he was in battles near the island of Elanda in July 1789, and in the spring and summer of the following year near Vyborg and Revel. Under Revel, the battleship Chichagov was in the center of the battle line and took the brunt of the Swedish squadron. For this fight, Pavel Vasilyevich was awarded the order St. George IV degree. In the battle near Vyborg, Chichagov also proved to be an excellent commander, for which he was promoted to captain of the 1st rank by Empress Catherine II herself, and he was also granted a golden sword with the inscription "For Courage".

After the end of the war, Chichagov Jr., for 8 years of service, having assessed the depth of the problems of the Russian fleet, asks his father for permission to improve his education abroad. The latter forwards the request to the empress and she gives her consent. Peter and Pavel Chichagov, under the guidance of the famous mathematician Guryev, go to England. There, thanks to the Russian envoy in London, Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov, they enter the English naval school and work hard English language and ship sciences. After some time, Chichagov even tried with an English ship to get into New World, but for some reason the ship returned to Albion.

After staying in England for about a year and having enriched himself with knowledge of shipbuilding and the modern organization of the fleet of the most powerful maritime power in the world, Pavel Vasilyevich returned to Russia. In 1793 he was assigned to the captured ship, Sophia-Magdalena, in 1794 he was transferred to the command of the ship Retvizan, which, in the squadron of Vice Admiral Khanykov, cruises along the coast of England. During this trip, he meets the family of his future wife, Elizabeth.

In 1796, Pavel Chichagov was promoted to the rank of captain of the brigadier rank. In the same year, Emperor Paul I comes to power, and for Chichagov, who managed to make many enemies with wit and neglect of secular idlers, hard times come.

In 1797, Chichagov was dismissed, later, not satisfied with this, Paul I refused Chichagov to leave for England for a bride. Then, at the slander of Count Kushelev, in 1799 the emperor deprives Chichagov of the St. George Cross and sends him to the Peter and Paul Fortress, however, thanks to the intervention of the Governor-General Count von der Palen, the monarch changes his mind and returns Chichagov to the service, allowing him to marry Elizabeth. Soon, Pavel Vasilievich, in the rank of rear admiral, was in command of an expedition to the skeleton of Texel. For success in landing, he receives the Order of St. Anna 1st degree.
The reformist spirit that "captured" Russia from the accession of Alexander I did not allow Chichagov to get lost. In 1802, Pavel Vasilievich took an active part in the work of the committees of the Naval Ministry, and in 1807 he received the post of minister and the rank of admiral. Rapid career growth intensified the already unfriendly attitude of the courtiers. In this position, according to contemporaries, he did a great job of reorganizing the management of the fleet and port cities. The system created by Chichagov, with minor changes, will work until the twentieth century.

In 1809, due to constant conflicts with other ministers and officials within the department, Chichagov took a vacation abroad and, from that moment on, did not actually lead the ministry. Officially, he was relieved of his post only in 1811.

Even before Napoleon crossed the Neman, Alexander I sent Chichagov to command the Danube Army, the Black Sea Fleet, and at the same time appointed him to the post of Governor-General of Moldavia and Wallachia. The Emperor of Russia was not pleased with the slowness of Kutuzov and had his own plan. Chichagov arrived in Iasi already on May 11, but the slow Kutuzov had already made peace with Porta by that time, the emperor's plan remained a plan. The new commander-in-chief had nothing to do on the banks of the Danube.

The case was found with the beginning of the Patriotic War, when it became clear that the forces of the 3rd Army under the command of Tormasov would not be enough to defeat or force the combined forces of the battered corps of Rainier and the Austrians of Schwarzenberg to retreat. Tormasov's corps joined the Danube army in the town of Lutsk, bringing the total number of Russian troops in the south to 60 thousand. The command of the combined forces passed to Chichagov. After a series of maneuvers, Schwarzenberg retreated beyond the borders of the Russian Empire, and Chichagov's troops were freed up to act against the main forces of Napoleon, who were already retreating along the old Smolensk road.

According to the original plan, 160,000 Russian troops were to gather at the Berezina: Chichagov's army from the south, Wittgenstein's corps from the north, and Kutuzov's main forces pursuing the French. Chichagov was entrusted with the task of occupying the city of Borisov and creating a fortified camp on the side of the Beaver River. In fact, it turned out to be extremely difficult to follow these instructions, not only because of the lack of experience - Chichagov never commanded the land army, but also because of the departure of experienced and talented tactical commanders (Lambert, for example). Langeron, who took his place, did not conduct any tolerable reconnaissance. Sent for reconnaissance, Palen was ambushed by the French and, having lost 600 people, retreated, leaving the convoy. Court intriguers inflated this figure to 2000, in this form the data came from St. Petersburg.

Reproduction of "Napoleon's Crossing the Berezina River" by Peter von Hess

As a result, approaching the Berezina, Napoleon had a strength of 45 thousand with 250 guns versus 20-24 thousand with 36 guns from the Russians, who at the same time were stretched between the Berezina River and the village of Veseloe.

In addition, at a critical moment, Chichagov was not supported by General Wittgenstein, which ultimately played a decisive role. The question remains unanswered about the reasons for Wittgenstein's delay, who was distinguished by his decisiveness in the battles in the northern direction, having won several brilliant victories over Oudinot, Saint-Cyr and Victor.

On the other hand, the obvious strategic miscalculations of Chichagov himself cannot but be evident, among which, as Kutuzov noted, were: the wrong choice of tactical position, insufficient reconnaissance of the area, poor attention to guard duty and lack of initiative, manifested in the formal observance of the orders of the commander-in-chief, despite changing environment.

Be that as it may, success under the Berezina cost Napoleon dearly: 56,000 killed, including 21,000 combat-ready soldiers, against 6,000 Russian losses.

But the court community was not interested in such subtleties. They were also not interested in the fact that it was Chichagov who captured Minsk with a swift march - an important stronghold of the French, the loss of which forced Napoleon to decide to cross the river in 10 degrees below zero.

Recognizing his mistakes, Pavel Vasilyevich surrenders command to Barclay de Tolly at the first opportunity.

In 1814, Chichagov left for emigration, from which he would never return, even at the invitation of Nicholas I in 1834. The end of the Napoleonic wars did not lead to the beginning of reforms, Alexander I felt a taste of absolute power and brought one of the most prominent conservatives, General Arakcheev, closer to him, hammering the last nail into the coffin of hopes for reforms.

The rest of his life, Pavel Vasilyevich will live in Italy and France, mainly in the town of So, not far from Paris.

Pavel Vasilyevich died on August 20, 1849, before his death he sent letters from Alexander I and all his awards to Emperor Nicholas.