With regard to the military, the plan of campaign, this work of genius – on which subject Thiers claims that ‘his genius never devised anything more profound, skilful or admirable’, and goes on to take issue with Monsieur Fain over the date of this work of genius, which was not the 4th, but the 15th of October – this plan never was and never could have been put into practice, because it was utterly remote from reality. The idea of fortifying the Kremlin, which would have entailed pulling down ‘the Mosque’ (as Napoleon called the Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed), turned out to be quite useless. The mining of the Kremlin was merely to satisfy the Emperor’s desire on leaving Moscow to have the Kremlin blown up, which was like having the floor beaten because a child has hurt himself on it. The pursuit of the Russian army, one of Napoleon’s major preoccupations, gave rise to an incredible phenomenon. The French generals managed to lose sight of the sixty-thousand-strong Russian army, and it took what Thiers refers to as the ‘skill’, nay the ‘genius’, of Murat for them to rediscover this sixty-thousand-strong needle in a haystack.
With regard to diplomacy, all Napoleon’s insistence on magnanimity and justice when speaking to Tutolmin and Yakovlev (whose main concern was to find himself a greatcoat and a carriage to travel in) came to nothing. Alexander refused to receive these envoys, and did not respond to the messages they brought.
With regard to law and order, the execution of the so-called incendiaries was followed by the other half of Moscow burning down.
The establishment of a municipal council did not stop the looting, and benefited nobody beyond the few people who sat on it, and were able to use the maintenance of public order as a pretext for plundering Moscow for themselves, or protecting their own property against other plunderers.
With regard to religion, Napoleon’s simple trick in Egypt of making a personal appearance in a mosque cut no ice when it was attempted here. Two or three priests picked up in Moscow made an attempt to carry out Napoleon’s wishes; but one of them was hit in the face by a French soldier during the service, and another was referred to as follows by a French official: ‘The priest whom I had discovered and invited to resume saying Mass cleaned the church and then closed it. During the night the doors were forced open, padlocks were smashed, books were torn to pieces and other desecrations occurred.’
With regard to commerce, the proclamation to ‘hard-working artisans and peasants’ fell on deaf ears. There were no hard-working artisans left in Moscow, and the peasants seized any messengers who ventured too far out of the town with this proclamation and killed them.
With regard to entertainment, attempts to provide theatres for the people and the troops were equally unsuccessful. Theatres set up in the Kremlin and in Poznyakov’s house were immediately closed down, because the actors and actresses were being stripped of their possessions.
Even philanthropy failed to achieve the desired results. Moscow was full of paper money, genuine and counterfeit, and the notes were valueless. The French were assiduously piling up their loot, and they cared for nothing but gold. It was not only Napoleon’s generously bestowed banknotes that lost their value; even silver went down in relation to gold.
But the most striking example of the ineffectiveness of all the authorities’ efforts was Napoleon’s vain attempt to stop the looting and restore discipline.
Here are some reports submitted by the military authorities:
‘Looting goes on in the city despite all the orders to stop it. Public order has not yet been restored, and there isn’t a single merchant trading within the law. Only the canteen-keepers venture to sell things, and they are dealing in stolen goods.’
‘Part of my district continues to be a prey to looting by the soldiers of the Third Corps, who, not satisfied with going down into the cellars and stripping the poor wretches of what little they have left, are vicious enough to stab them in the process, as I have seen on more than one occasion.’
‘Nothing new to report, apart from further stealing and looting by the soldiers. October 8th.’
‘Stealing and looting continue. A gang of robbers is operating in our district, and they will have to be stopped, though it will take strong guards to do it. October 11th.’
