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17362 - KUTUZOV, MIKHAIL ILLARIONOVICH
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| The son of a lieutenant general, who had
served in Peter the Great's army, Kutuzov attended the military engineering
school at age 12. By the age of 14 he was a corporal in the Russian
army. He gained combat experience fighting in Poland (1764-69) and
the Turks (1770-74), and he learned strategic and tactical techniques
from General Alexander Suvorov, whom he served for six years in the
Crimea War. He was promoted to colonel in 1777 and by 1784 had become
a major general.
Although he had received a severe head wound and lost an eye in 1774, he actively participated in the Russia-Turkish War of 1787-91, in which he was again severely wounded. After the war he held a variety of high diplomatic and administrative posts, but he fell into disgrace in 1802 and entered into a short retirement to his country estate. In 1812, Napoleon entered Russia with the largest army assemble up to that point in history. Kutuzov could not realistically hope to defeat him in a direct confrontation. Instead, the Russian employed his now famous defensive campaign of strategic retreat, devastating the land as they fell back and harassing the flanks of the French. As Napoleon's army marched forward his massive supply lines were being stretched thinner and thinner. By September the French Army had been reduced by more than two thirds from fatigue, hunger, desertion, and raids by Russian forces. The W.W.II German Generals warned Hitler about likelihood of Russia using the "Kutuzov defense strategy". Russia had been saved from Napoleon but Tsar Alexander saw a need to "save" Europe. Kutuzov pushed to make peace with Napoleon and let European states fight for their freedom. Alexander ignored Kutuzov and pushed into Poland, Prussia and Germany. Shortly after liberation of Russia Kutuzov became seriously ill. Just before his death Alexander I came to him and asked his pardon for his bad attitude to the old general. Kutuzov said "Of course, I forgive you, but will Russia forgive you, Your Majesty?" On April 28, 1813 Kutuzov died in the city of Bunzlau. His body was eventually taken to the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg where he was buried. |
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