SMOLENSK (Part three)

The war of 1812 caused a lot of damage to Smolensk. Alexander I, who arrived in Smolensk from Polotsk in the morning on July 9, announced to Smolensk dwellers that peace treaty with Turkey and alliance with Sweden were signed against Napoleon, who crossed the Neman river and was approaching Smolensk. The leader of Smolensk noblemen S. I. Lesli proposed to give 20,000 militia men from Smolensk region to strengthen the regular troops. This proposal was enthusiastically welcomed. All people stood up to fight the invaders.

On July 22, two Russian armies under Barclay de Tolly and Bagration joined under Smolensk. Thus, Napoleon’s plans to defeat them separately and open the way to Moscow were ruined. On August 4-5 of 1812, a fierce battle took place at Smolensk. The French exerted all their efforts to enter the city on August 4, on Napoleon’s birthday, but they failed to do it. In the dawn of August 6, united Russian armies under Bagration and Barclay de Tolly left the city and retreated on the road to Moscow, deciding not to confront the French in a major battle. Napoleon, who ordered the unyielding city to be ruthlessly burned by shelling it with bombs, grenades and stuffed cannon balls, watched the fire from one of the suburbs. Later, he described his impressions in his diary, “On a wonderful August night Smolensk presented to the French a spectacle similar to that witnessed by Naples dwellers who observed the eruption of Vesuvius.”

As they were leaving the city, Russian troops took the miraculous icon of Hodegetria with them.
On the eve of Borodino Battle, during the prayer service, by the order of field marshal Kutuzov, the icon of Smolensk Holy Virgin Hodegetria was solemnly carried along the lines of the Russian troops. An eyewitness of this event, Fyodor Glinka, wrote in his memoirs, “The priests were walking in their vestments, censers were burning, the air was filled with singing and the holy icon swept by itself; urged in their heart, 100,000 army fell on their knees and bowed their foreheads to the ground, which they were willing to drench with their blood. Signs of the cross were done everywhere; random weeping was heard. The chief commander, accompanied by his staff, received the icon and bowed to it to the ground.”

The miraculous icon stayed in the Third Grenadiers Division and then, on November 6, 1812, by the instruction of M. I. Kutuzov, it was returned to Smolensk (after spending three months in the Russian troops).

Smolensk burned twice during the war: when the city was stormed and when the French troops were retreating. Although there were 55 stone and 2,500 wooden buildings in Smolensk before the war, only 10 stone and around 700 wooden constructions were left after the war. The city lay in ruins, among which six hundred dwellers were taking shelter (out of 15,000, who lived in Smolensk before the “1812 thunderstorm”). Fyodor Glinka wrote, “The whole city is transparent: houses are without roofs, windows, doors. Emptiness is scaring, the wind is whishing among burned walls; at nights it seems that the ruins are weeping.”
For days and nights corpses of those who died during the retreat of French soldiers were burned. At Guriev cemetery they were stacked into graves: every three rows were dusted with lime…

In these conditions the city required urgent government help. While visiting Smolensk in 1816, future emperor Nicholas I saw such bewildering poverty that he was forced to give alms in the city. Having come back to Saint Petersburg, he informed his reigning brother of the wretched situation of Smolensk dwellers, and the latter appropriated necessary funds to distribute among the neediest families. But the situation of the townspeople did not change much by 1829, according to the report of Smolensk governor N. I. Khmelnitsky to Nicholas I, who visited the city again. This time the emperor helped the city with necessary means again. Years were passing by and Smolensk residents revived the city by their labor.

Construction of railways and highways played a significant role in the development of the city. Railway lines Riga-Orel (1868), Moscow –Brest (1870) and Ryazan-Urals (1899) turned Smolensk into an important transportation hub.

In 1901, Belgian company “Union” built the first power station in Smolensk designed for 375 kilowatt, and on October 7 of the same year a grand ceremony took place and the first Smolensk tram was put into operation. The tram net of 6 versts long connected the behind the Dnepr area (train station and Pokrovskaya mountain) to the city’s center (Blonjer Garden).

The Smolensk dwellers took pride in electric illumination of their main streets. In the beginning of XX century in Smolensk there were eight secondary schools (for males and for females), in which 2,880 pupils studied. In the city with the population of 52,000 people there were three public libraries and three museums: museum of history of agriculture founded by a famous local lore specialist S. P. Pisarev in 1888 in the building of the city council, museum of history of ethnography of M. K. Tenisheva opened in 1905 in a specially built building “the Russian old life” and natural history museum.

An annual anniversary of war against Napoleon was celebrated in Smolensk in 1912 on a large scale. By this date refurbishment of the city had taken place and new building in Neo-Russian style had been erected. During the festive ceremonies a new boulevard was opened in memory of the 1812 war (now the Heroes Square) and several monuments were set.

On the eve of the WWI 13 Military Corps was dislocated in Smolensk; its headquarters was accommodated in Smolensk itself. Three infantry regiments – 2nd Sofiyisky, 3rd Narvsky and 4th Koporsky as well as 13th sap battalion and 1st artillery brigade were accommodated here. First Nevsky infantry regiment was accommodated in Roslavl. Heavy artillery – a division with 12 howitzers – was based in Vyazma. Since 1913, a big military quartermaster base was dislocated in Smolensk. In the case of war it was supposed to supply the troops of the south-western front with victuals, forage and equipment.

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