On January 12, 1801, Emperor Paul I deigned to command: to collect all the Don army. Where, why the campaign was conceived - no one knew about that. The orderly military chieftain Vasily Petrovich Orlov ordered all officers, non-commissioned officers and Cossacks to prepare. Everyone, to the last, had to be ready in six days for the performance of the o-two-horse with a month and a half provisions. The Cossacks were required to have guns and darts with them. And before it happened that the entire Don army rose. The old people remembered such cases. In 1737 and in 1741, the Donets rose without exception. But then there was a danger from the Tatars, the Tatars went to the Don, there was a need to defend their native villages. Now only old people spoke about the Tatar raids. In the Kuban stood firmly Black sea army... Don was not in danger from anywhere. Where will go the Don army - no one knew that. The army numbered 800 patients, but they were ordered to appear for a review. They walked sick, swollen from wounds, crippled. Orphans and helpless poor people were getting ready for the campaign; Many Cossacks did not have uniform khurtoks and chekmen, they were dressed in old dressing gowns, in a coarse robe. Nobody was given respect. Although the house burned down, although everything burned down - go, anyway, at the expense of the village. The rich Cossacks equipped the poor. In the Cherkasy village, six Cossacks raised 2,000 rubles and gave money for uniforms and equipment for foot Cossacks. Twenty souls of a family in one house were left without an owner and food. They did not look at the queue. The ataman ordered to take out of turn, and the last owner went, although his two brothers had already served in the regiments. The regiments that had just arrived from the Caucasian line, from the Italian campaign, were again enlisted. The churches were left without sextons, the stanitsa administrations were left without clerks, everyone was taken away. The militia was universal!

They also demanded the Kalmyks to serve. The landlord officers were not allowed to go to their farms. Wives did not say goodbye to their husbands, children to their fathers. The army was hastily assembled by tsarist decree.

The collective places were assigned to the following villages: Buzulutskaya, Medveditskaya, Ust-Medveditskaya and Kachalinskaya. In the winter cold, at the end of February, the Cossacks gathered for a review of the ataman. In total, 510 officers, 20947 Cossacks of cavalry regiments, 500 artillerymen and 500 Kalmyks were recruited from the troops. These people made up 41 cavalry regiment.

Orlov divided them into 4 parts. 1st, of 13 regiments, was led by Major General Platov; 2nd, of 8 regiments, Major General Buzin; 3rd, of 10 regiments, Major General Bokov and 4th, of 10 regiments, Major General Denisov, who had just returned from Italy. Ataman Orlov walked with General Platov's detachment, along with two companies of Don horse artillery and military engineers. The artillery was commanded by Colonel Karpov.

Nobody else, except for the chieftain and the leaders of the columns, knew anything.

What happened and why did they demanded such a terrible exertion of forces from the Donskoy army?

Emperor Paul I suddenly fell out with his allies, the British, and, in alliance with the French emperor Napoleon, decided to declare war on England. The main wealth of the English land was a huge, fertile, wooded rare trees India. Gemstones are also mined from Indian soil, and precious silk fabrics are prepared there. The works of India, its bread and materials are traded in England and she is rich in it. Emperor Paul decided to take India from England, and instructed the Don Cossacks to do this. They had to walk thousands of miles along the deserted steppe, then along sandy desert, cross the mountains and invade Indian lands.

“India,” wrote the Emperor Orlov, “where you are appointed, is governed by one main owner and many small ones. The British have their own establishments of trade, acquired either in money or in weapons. You need to ruin all this, liberate the oppressed owners and bring the land to Russia into the same dependence that the British have. Bargain it to turn to us. "

A map of India was also sent to the chieftain. On the way, the Don Cossacks had to occupy Bukhara, in Khiva to free our prisoners. All the wealth of India was promised to the Cossacks as a reward.

If the ataman Orlov and the Don Cossacks had time to fulfill this order, they would have glorified themselves more than Ermak, the conqueror of Siberia ... But the Lord did not judge to accomplish the great plan of the sovereign!

From the very first steps in the steppe beyond the Don Cossacks encountered terrible difficulties. The roads were covered with snow and the artillery was exhausted, pulling guns from deep snowdrifts. There were no apartments for heating anywhere, and people and horses froze and froze in the cold wind in the steppe. There was no fuel, there was not enough food, there was no hay or oats. Unfed horses barely plodded towards the cruel cold storms.

At the beginning of March, there was a sudden thaw. Streams began to play, the steppe got wet, the mud became impassable. Each beam became a terrible obstacle. The army sergeant major Papuzin barely made it across the usually empty Talovka river. For forty versts he walked knee-deep in mud, and through Talovka itself he crossed over a bridge he had made of brushwood, farm fences, gates and roofs.

Finally, we approached the Volga. The ice swelled and turned brown. The horses fell on it. In some places it has already started. Denisov with his column approached him and saw that the crossing was dangerous. He put men with ropes across the river and gave them several Cossacks to help them. They began to lead the horses, but they fell through and went to the bottom. However, Denisov knew that on big rivers the ice in the middle is always thicker, and so, he ordered to lead his tall and well-fed horses forward. At first they failed, but then they crossed over. The Cossacks also followed them. Up to 700 horses fell through, but the Cossacks pulled them all out. The crossing lasted five hours.

And again we went, first along the Volga, then along the course of the Irgiz River. The steppe became more and more deserted and deserted. The agent Terenin, who had undertaken to deliver bread and fodder, did not fulfill his obligation: on the Volga this summer was a poor harvest, and he could not collect food. Upon arrival for the night they did not find oats, and the hay was half and half with garbage. Horses fell from lack of food, and the path traversed by the Cossacks was marked by a long line of swollen horse corpses, and black flocks of crows.

In a huge crowd the Donets were drawn into the boundless steppes and were lost in them like a grain of sand. The daring songs fell silent. The Cossacks froze at night, and during the day they suffered in mud and puddles, into which the spring sun turned the steppe. There were already many sick Cossacks. Scurvy appeared.

And ahead was the same steppe and there was no end to it. And the sun rose there in a golden mist and the plain stretched all day, today, as yesterday, as it will be tomorrow.

It was hard for the Cossacks, but silently, without a murmur, they went to fight with an unknown enemy, to conquer distant India for Russia.

We walked from the Don about seven hundred miles across the desert. March 23, the day before Holy Sunday a Cossack detachment, located in the village of Mechetnoye, Volsk district, Saratov province, caught up with a courier from St. Petersburg. On the night of March 11-12, Emperor Paul I died and Emperor Alexander I Pavlovich ascended the throne. He commanded to return home. Now it was ordered to assemble the regiments. Ataman Orlov came out to them and said in an inspired voice, trembling with joyful excitement:

Compliments to you guys. God and the sovereign parental homes!

On the first day of Easter, the chieftain and some of the regiments listened to Mass in Old Believers monastery not far from Mechetnoye. It was fun that day in the Cossack camp. Cannons fired, guns fired, sang songs.

On the day of the Annunciation, we went back. The return trip was easier. Spring was coming. It was getting warmer, but in places the mud was still impassable. Between 9 and 17 April, the regiments returned home. The Khopersky, Medveditsky, Buzulutsky, Upper Don and Donetsk Cossacks were released directly from the border, the rest with the officers on the left side of the Don went to Cherkassk.

After Suvorov's passage through the Alps, the Orenburg campaign of the Don Cossacks was the most difficult of the marching movements. 1564 versts were made by a 20-thousand horse detachment in two months along the deserted steppe in the spring thaw. Made without loss of people and without backwardness. And the horses endured this campaign, despite the lack of fodder, well. The regiment had fallen horses from 62 (in the Ataman regiment) to 12 (in the Mironov regiment).

Many years have passed since then, none of the participants in this campaign is already dead, but the old people still remember the stories of the fathers about the mysterious campaign towards Orenburg, about the time when the Cossacks got away with it - no one was left, and the women worked all the work ... They remember this terrible, difficult time of eternal campaigns.

And young people, discussing this campaign to India, often ask the question - could the Cossacks reach India, could they ruin it? ..

Cossacks performed many great deeds. With only peaks, on foot, they took the Izmail strongholds, swam across the Black Sea in light boats, fought on their own, took Azov at their own expense, with Suvorov they crossed the sky-high heights of the Alps, but this command - to conquer distant India - was impracticable. Those who sent them did not know how far and difficult this path was and how many obstacles the Cossacks encountered on it. It was impossible to reach India through the deserted desert without food and fodder. But the Don army set off to carry out the will of the sovereign without reason - all the Cossacks would have perished in him. The trip to India is remarkable in that in it the Cossacks showed how great and excellent they had discipline and devotion to the sovereign, how they were hardened in the marching hardships.

In emotional admiration, you listen to the stories of old people about the crossing of the Volga. One horse is drowning in the icy water and a Cossack with it, but for the same scary place there is another, third. For hours, the Cossacks save horses and each other in water up to their chests in water, and then the hungry go, not knowing where, along the cold deserted steppe.

Our grandfathers, with all their valiant service, taught us to perform feats, and the campaign to India is an example of high courage, desperate determination, holy obedience to the sovereign's will! ..

The distant fabulous India has attracted merchants, travelers and conquerors since ancient times. And when it became an English colony, all the power of the British Empire was based on it. The enemies of Foggy Albion reasonably believed that victory over Britain was possible only with the capture of its Indian colonies.

Two hikes to India

Alliance of France and Russia

In 1800, the Russian emperor was seriously offended by his allies: the Austrians - for betraying the interests of Suvorov's army in the Alps and the British - for their contemptuous treatment in Holland. I did not fail to take advantage of this, not only great commander but also a talented politician and diplomat. He began to flatter and pay attention to the Russian emperor in every possible way. He sent him the sword of the Order of Malta, whose grandmaster Paul was considered, voluntarily returned all Russian prisoners of war, with new weapons and in excellent shape, tailored and sewn by skillful Lyons weavers.
This chivalrous attitude was impressive. Russia began to draw closer and closer to France. A project of a joint expedition to British India was discussed between the Russian emperor and the first consul. It was planned to use two infantry corps (Russian and French) for the campaign, each of 35 thousand people, not counting artillery and Cossack cavalry. At the insistence of Paul, the French general André Massena was supposed to command the combined forces, Russian emperor great impression skillful defense of Genoa besieged by the Austrians.
According to preliminary plans, the French troops in May 1801 were to descend on ships along the Danube to Izmail, cross, land in Taganrog, march through the southern regions of Russia and join the Russian corps at the mouth of the Volga. The combined army was to disembark from ships in the Persian port of Astrabad. The entire movement from France to Astrabad was planned to take 80 days. Then 50 days were allotted for the transition of the combined forces through Kandahar and Herat to the coveted India, where it was planned to break in in September. This plan was proposed by Napoleon and required careful refinement.

Indian campaign of the Don Cossacks

But Emperor Paul I was an eccentric person. Instead of instructing his military to agree on joint actions with the French, he hastily sent on a campaign to India in January 1801, ordering them, incidentally, in passing, to conquer the Khiva and Bukhara khanates.
Ataman Matvey Ivanovich Platov loved on the bivouac, under a glass of vodka, to tell how he went on a campaign to India.
« So what? I am sitting in the fortress. Petropavlovskaya of course. For what - I don't know myself ... Okay. We are staunch people, prized to everything. Sitting! Suddenly the doors were wide open. They say - to the unperator. And on me a shirt, a louse - in this. And they were lucky. Together with lice. They threw the current sheepskin over. I come in. Pavel with regalia. The nose is red. He was already good at using it. More than me! Anperator asks: "Ataman, do you know the way to the Ganges?" This is the first time I hear it. But who wants to sit in prison for nothing? I say: "Yes, in our Don, ask any girl about the Ganges, she will show the way at once ...". Here I have a Maltese cross on my shirt - bam! My agio lice were stunned. It was ordered to march as far as India and grab the British by the whips. We must support Massena ... ".
In February, 22 thousand set out on a campaign with artillery and a wagon train. Despite the difficulties - impassable roads, hunger, lack of forage and incipient scurvy - in March they crossed the Volga on the ice and reached the village of Mechetnaya (now the city of Pugachev, Saratov region). And here on March 23 (April 4) a messenger from St. Petersburg caught up with the news of Paul's death and the order to return home.

In 1797, Paul I ordered the creation of the Grand Priory of the Order of Malta in Russia. As a summer residence for the Prior of the Order of the Prince of Condé, the architect N.A. Lvov erected an earthen palace in Gatchina.

The Cossacks met this order with unprecedented enthusiasm. On the way back we started immediately. We got to the Volga when the ice had already broken down the river. Fortunately for the Cossack, a large ice field passed along the river and got stuck between the banks. We passed on it. Barely crossed the last, as the ice floes split and rushed to the Caspian Sea in fragments.
Many fans of alternative history believe that they could have made it to India, and then the history of the world would have taken a different course. But the White Guard general, a military specialist and an active commander, considered this task impracticable. Without maps, without preparation, breaking away from the supply bases, walk thousands of kilometers across the steppes and deserts, cross the mountains, etc. Moreover, pass through the territory inhabited by hostile and warlike peoples. This is an unrealistic adventure, doomed to failure.

Leon Trotsky's plan

The Bolsheviks were also haunted by the idea of ​​crushing the main imperialist on the path of the world revolution - the British Empire. The first of the Bolshevik leaders to speak about this. Back in the summer of 1919, he announced the plan of "a prominent military man" (MV Frunze). Trotsky suggested that the Central Committee consider the issue of creating a cavalry corps numbering 30-40 thousand soldiers and “ form somewhere in the Urals or Turkestan a revolutionary academy, the political and military headquarters of the Asian revolution", Noting that" the path to Paris and London lies through the cities of Afghanistan, Punjab and Bengal". Such a corps, according to Trotsky, having moved from Tashkent to Afghanistan, would have burst into India and made a lot of noise there.
The idea was good. But the timing was unfortunate. In the summer and autumn of 1919, he was on the Volga, Denikin's troops took Tsaritsyn, occupied the Ukraine, approached Moscow, Yudenich - at the gates of Petrograd. I had to think not about going to India, but about how to survive and withstand Soviet power... So the project was shelved. However, not for long.

Roy's failed campaign

In 1919, the Indian revolutionary Manabendra Roy (real name Narendranath Bhattacharya) appeared in Moscow. Radical revolutionary, founder communist party... Mexico (?!), In the opinion of the British special services, he was “the most dangerous conspirator, ambitious, energetic and indiscriminate in means.
Roy quickly became friends with the Bolshevik leaders, and especially with Nikolai Bukharin. Through him, the Indian went to Lenin and proposed his own plan for a march to India. There is no need for large armies - it is too costly and obviously. In addition, the appearance of a large army in Afghanistan will be perceived by local tribes as a foreign invasion and will cause armed resistance... A small mobile detachment (1.5-2 thousand people) is enough, but well-equipped and trained. Moreover, the core of the detachment will be made up of revolutionary-minded Indian immigrants, mostly Muslims. The highest commanders will also be from Indians, and the middle command staff, instructors and specialists - Russians. The presence of Muslims in the detachment will help to establish friendly relations s, and Roy hoped some of the tribes would join the squad. And if the expedition reaches India, support local population dreaming of throwing off British rule is guaranteed. Ordinary soldiers of the squad will turn into rebel commanders. And Russian specialists will create a military base in India for training Indian rebels.
Roy's idea received fundamental support from the head of the Comintern, Zinoviev. Tashkent was chosen as the base for the planned expedition. Roy formed the backbone of the expeditionary force in Moscow. In the summer of 1920, the headquarters and the base of the expeditionary detachment were created. The expedition had a significant arsenal of weapons: rifles, grenades, machine guns, small-caliber artillery pieces, three disassembled aircraft, several trucks and cars. In addition, the expeditions have allocated a compact but superbly equipped typography with Latin, Arabic and Persian scripts. In case of unforeseen expenses, the detachment was provided with a gold fund.
The personnel of the expedition consisted of military advisers, technicians, instructors, political workers and even teachers of the Russian language for teaching the natives. On September 14, 1920, the cargo-passenger crew of the expedition left Moscow and arrived in Tashkent on October 1. A secret military school was created there, which was supposed to train fighters for the expeditionary force. Roy succeeded in recruiting personnel among anti-British Muslim Hindus in Central Asia. In December 1920, two more echelons with weapons, ten airplanes, gold coins and military instructors arrived from Moscow to Tashkent.
The hike was planned to begin in the spring of 1921. It seemed a little more, and the red banner of the revolution would rise above. But, despite all the secrecy and thorough checks, among the Indian cadets there was an English secret agent named Maulana. He passed on through Indian merchants all the information about the upcoming expedition to the British special services. He was identified and shot, but the British knew about the upcoming campaign. They put pressure on official Kabul to refuse to provide its territory for a military-revolutionary base. But the main thing is the threat of Britain to withdraw from the just-signed trade agreement and recognition. Soviet Russia... The British declared that in the event of an Indian expedition, they would not only not withdraw their troops from Persia, but would also strike at Transcaucasia and Russia.
Before such a threat, the Bolsheviks had to abandon the plan. An order was sent to Tashkent to terminate preparations for the campaign and to disband the expeditionary detachment.
Indian hike The Red Army ended before it started. But everything could have turned out differently. And a red banner would flutter over the waters of the Ganges, and the weary would wash their horses in the Indian Ocean.

V early XIX century under the influence of Napoleon Bonaparte, who at that time maintained allied relations with Russia, the Russian Emperor Paul I (1754-1801) had a plan for a campaign in India, the most important English colony, source of income for Britain.

At the suggestion of the Russian emperor, it was planned to inflict a blow on British interests in India by the forces of a joint Russian-French corps.

The plan was to cross the entire Central Asia, cross the Afghan mountains and fall on the British. Ally Napoleon at this time was supposed to open a second front, land on the British Isles, strike from Egypt, where French troops were then stationed.

Pavel I entrusted the ataman of the Don Army, Vasily Orlov-Denisov, with the implementation of the secret operation. In support of the ataman, in view of his already advanced years, Paul I appointed officer Matvey Platov (1751-1818), the future ataman of the Don Army and hero of the war of 1812. Platov was mobilized directly from the cell of the Alekseevsky Ravelin, where he was imprisoned as accused of harboring fugitive serfs.

V short term 41 cavalry regiment and two companies of horse artillery were prepared for the Indian campaign. Matvey Platov commanded the largest column of thirteen regiments on the march.

In total, about 22 thousand Cossacks gathered. The treasury allocated more than 1.5 million rubles for the operation.

On February 20 (March 3 according to the new style) Orlov reported to the sovereign that everything was ready for the performance. The vanguard under the command of Andrian Denisov, who walked with Suvorov across the Alps, moved east. Esaul Denezhnikov set off to scout the way to Orenburg, Khiva, Bukhara and further to India.

On February 28 (March 11, new style), the approval of the emperor came to the Don, and Platov with the main forces set out from the village of Kachalinskaya to the east. The direction was to Orenburg, where local authorities hastily prepared camels and provisions for a journey through the desert.

The timing of the offensive was miscalculated. There was a muddy road, and the Cossack horses were drowning in the mud of the Russian off-road, and the artillery almost stopped moving.

Due to the flooding of the rivers, the Cossack regiments had to change routes so that the provisions warehouses organized along the route of the troops' movement remained far away. The commanders had to buy everything they needed from their own funds or issue receipts, according to which the treasury had to pay the money.

To all other troubles, it turned out that the local population, due to the purchases of food from which the expeditionary force was supposed to eat, had no food supplies. The previous year turned out to be dry and lean, so the troops began to starve along with the Volga peasants.

Having lost their way several times, the Cossacks reached the Mechetnaya settlement (now the city of Pugachev, Saratov region). Here, on March 23 (April 4, according to the new style), the army was overtaken by a courier from St. Petersburg with an order in view of sudden death Paul I immediately return home. Emperor Alexander I did not support his father's undertakings, and the campaign was no longer resumed.

The operation was highly classified. In Petersburg it was only known that the Cossacks had gone somewhere. The Cossacks themselves, except for the five senior officers, thought that they were going to "fight Bukharia." They found out about India when Paul I was already dead.

Vasily Orlov, upon returning home, died of a stroke, and Matvey Platov became the new chieftain.

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

In Russia, it is still customary even among historians to depict short period the reign of Paul I (1796-1801) a time of tyranny. The Emperor is represented by anyone - a neurotic, an ignoramus, a soldier, but not a statesman who laid down his life for the modernization of the country.

Paul I streamlined the system of succession to the throne, excluding the appearance on the throne random people, as it happened throughout the 18th century after the death of Peter I. He limited the rights of landowners to peasants - he prohibited their sale without land and even introduced a law according to which the peasant should not work for the owner more than three days a week (after the death of Paul I both of these laws were quietly buried). For the first time he swore allegiance to the king of the peasants, showing that they too are citizens The Russian state... The emperor extremely centralized public administration... Finally, by his example, he introduced the rule that the tsar is not just an autocrat (supreme feudal lord), but also a bureaucrat: over the four years of his reign, he issued 2,179 legislative acts (on average, 42 per month; under Catherine II, 12 were issued per month ). He opened the first state bank (the State Auxiliary Bank, which was supposed to issue loans to industrialists and landowners on preferential terms). Under him, favoritism was eradicated, and the measure of the activities of a bureaucrat or a military man was the result: during the short time of Paul's reign, about two thousand officials were imprisoned, sent to hard labor or exile for bribery, localism and other gross violations.

Militarily, his reforms were no less significant. Pavel sharply reduced the role of the guard (for which he later paid, since she became one of the participants in the conspiracy against him). He introduced a system of keeping soldiers in the barracks, refusing to stand (which at the same time ruined the peasants in whose houses the soldiers lived, and corrupted the latter). The "free work" of soldiers in the interests of the officers was prohibited.

But one of the most significant steps of Paul I was the attempt to make Russia's foreign policy independent. Despite the fact that until the end of his life he remained a Germanophile (even, more precisely, a Prussophile), the emperor realized that the whole previous century the country had been a pawn in other people's games, fighting for the interests of certain great powers. Paul I once said that Russia needs 20-25 years without wars in order to become the first among the great powers of the world. For the first time in a hundred years, under him, Russia ceased to conduct territorial expansion (only the consolidation of Alaska for Russia, as well as the voluntary entry of Eastern Georgia into the empire, which, however, took place without wars). The emperor believed that during this time of respite, the country should develop industry and trade, as well as science.

But later Paul I himself neglected this attitude and tried to get involved in one war, which cost him his life, and the country - hard trials in 1812. He decided to get involved in a war with England, the main action in which was to be a campaign of the Russian army in India.

Historians later tried to present this confrontation between Russia and England as another tyranny of the emperor. Paul I believed: England is the basis of instability in Europe, and until this country weakens, the life of not only the continent, but also the world will continue to go on in endless bloody wars. The next two centuries proved the correctness of the Russian emperor.

Unlike the overwhelming majority of European monarchs, Paul I belonged to the Great French revolution how to internal affairs France. The historian Klyuchevsky writes: “Pavel began his reign with a manifesto that proclaimed a peaceful policy; he gave up the fight with France, declaring that since the beginning of the Seven Years War, the empire has been in a continuous struggle, and that his subjects need rest. "

Nevertheless, English diplomacy in 1798 provoked him to aggravate relations with France. Russia entered the anti-French coalition, as a result of which the famous Italian and Swiss campaigns of Suvorov, the Mediterranean fleet campaign under the leadership of Ushakov, were carried out.

But very quickly Paul I realized that Russia was being used in British interests, and abruptly changed his foreign policy course: in 1800, rapprochement with France began. The final of this cooperation between the two countries was the plan of the campaign of the Russian-French detachment in British India... The emperor said about him: "To strike England in her very heart - to India."

Painting by Jean-Léon Jerome "Napoleon Bonaparte in front of the Sphinx". Photo: artgalleryartist.com

Around this campaign, again, there are many myths, the conclusion from which follows the traditional: "Another madness of Paul I." The Indian campaign is usually referred to, wishing to emphasize the military amateurism and adventurism of the emperor. But the plan for this campaign was developed personally by Napoleon, and for the first time Bonaparte spoke about the Indian campaign back in 1797, before the expedition to Egypt.

Historians Dmitry Kalyuzhny and Yaroslav Kesler describe this plan in the book "Another History of the Russian Empire".

No country in the world at that time had a fleet capable of dealing with the British. Nor could the combined fleet of France and Russia be able to do this. That is, there was no talk of an invasion of England from the continent. In addition to the blockade of England, the idea of ​​a military campaign to India arose, which then provided Britain's economic advantage. But since Turkey would not let anyone's army pass through its territory, in Napoleon's plan key role played by Russia.

Napoleon's plan was discussed with Paul I and received his approval. The essence of the expedition was as follows:

“The French army of 35 thousand infantry, with a full complement of light artillery, will move from the borders of France, with the consent of Austria, to Ulm, where it will board ships and sail on them along the Danube.

Upon her arrival in the Black Sea, the Russian fleet will transport her to Taganrog, from where she will go to Tsaritsyn on the Volga, where, equipped with ships, she will go down the river to Astrakhan. There, the Russian army of 35 thousand people (of which 15 thousand infantry, 10 thousand cavalry and 10 thousand Cossacks), with an enhanced set of artillery, will join French army, which will be delivered to the horses she needs to transport artillery and weights.

The united army will be transported by the Caspian Sea from Astrakhan to Astrabad (a city in Persia - RP), where depots of all kinds of supplies necessary for the army will be established.

Painting by Antoine-Jean Gros "André Massena, Duke of Rivoli, Prince of Essling, Marshal of France." Photo: musee-armee.fr

This trip from the French borders to Astrabad is calculated for about 80 days; it will take another 50 days for the main forces of the army to reach the right bank of the Indus, heading for Herat, Ferah and Kandahar; only 130 days of march and transportation for the French troops, which, like the Russians, will be under the main command of General Massena (at the request, definitely declared by Emperor Paul). "("Russian antiquity", Volume 15, January 1876, pp. 216-217).

That is, it was about a joint Franco-Russian military expedition under the leadership of divisional general (since 1804 - Marshal) Andre Massena to the very heart (more precisely, the wallet) of the British Empire. The arrival of the Russian fleet to India from Kamchatka and a separate campaign of the Russian Cossacks were also planned.

Could this detachment have conquered India? The French general Massena hoped that this could be done in a year. He was confident that in the semi-deserts bordering India (with the territory now occupied by Pakistan), it would be possible to attract to the campaign the shepherd tribes of the Baluchis, Pashtuns, and Turkmens, who feared an increase in the influence of England in the region. Massena planned that up to 100 thousand native troops would join them.

It was assumed that in case of victory, under the protectorate of Russia there would be northern India, approximately along the line of Bombay - the border of Nepal (Bombay would be a Russian port).

Engraving "Lord Charles Whitworth" by Thomas Lawrence. Photo: wikipedia.org

In January 1801, the Cossack ataman Orlov received an imperial decree, which explained the purpose of the military action:

“The British are preparing to attack me and my allies, the Danes and Swedes. I am ready to accept them, but we need to attack them ourselves, and where the blow can be more sensitive, and where it is less expected. An establishment in India is the best for this. Go with artillery through Bukhara and Khiva to the Indus River. Send your scouts to cook and inspect the roads. All the riches of India will be your reward for the expedition. I am attaching maps. "

Fulfilling the decree, Orlov mobilized 22 thousand Cossacks in a short time, which he informed the emperor about in a letter dated February 20, 1801. The expedition to India was led by Major General Platov, who had arrived from prison in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Their way lay to Orenburg. Further, it was necessary to occupy Bukhara, to free our prisoners in Khiva. “If Ataman Orlov and the Cossacks had time to fulfill this order, they would have glorified themselves more than Ermak,” wrote the Cossack general Pyotr Krasnov in 1909.

After eleven days of the campaign, on the night of March 12, 1801, Paul I was killed by the conspirators. As the head of the conspirators, it is customary to name the St. Petersburg Governor-General of Palen (the total number of conspirators was about 60 people). But in fact, both the conspiracy plan and its implementation were in the hands of the British ambassador to Russia, Whitworth. Paul I suspected of a conspiracy and the role of his sons Alexander and Constantine in it, and therefore demanded that they re-swear allegiance to the emperor on March 11 - literally a few hours before his assassination.

One of the first decrees of the new emperor Alexander I was the recall of the Cossacks who were marching to India, as well as the cancellation of the joint campaign with France to India. English diplomacy was able to change history with just one murder.

With the assassination of Paul I Russian society finally split into the people and the elite. The Tsar of all Russians was replaced by the Tsar Russian elite... On a March night in 1801, in the Mikhailovsky Castle in St. Petersburg, they killed not so much the emperor as the policy of changes in the state and society, a policy aimed at eliminating the nobility's omnipotence that hindered the country's modernization.

In the noble-bureaucratic Petersburg in March 1801, there was not enough champagne for those wishing to celebrate the murder of the legitimate sovereign. The joy of this murder is described in a letter from the English ambassador to Russia, Lord Whitworth. former ambassador To Russia in London, to the Anglophile Vorontsov:

“I ask you to accept my most my sincere congratulations... How to Express Everything I Feel About It happy chance sent down by Providence. The more I think about him, the more I thank heaven. "

According to popular literature, the Russian Emperor Paul I was half tyrant, half crazy. An attempt to organize a campaign is most often cited as an example of his madness. Russian troops to India. Indeed, what could Emperor Paul I have forgotten in a country located “across three seas” from Russia?
But if you take a closer look at the reasons for organizing the Indian campaign, it becomes clear that it is not at all a figment of the mad emperor's imagination, but a carefully designed strategic operation.

For the joint fight

The transfer of troops to capture India was conceived by Napoleon I and approved by Paul I. Both emperors wanted to compete with the common enemy - England. The ruler of the seas was a natural enemy of two states seeking to complement their powerful land forces sea. Therefore, it was necessary to undermine the economic power of England.

“Naturally, the thought of a close rapprochement of the two states for the sake of a joint struggle, in order to finally conquer India, suggested itself - main source wealth and military power England. This is how a great plan arose, the first thought of which, no doubt, belonged to Bonaparte, and the means of execution were studied and proposed by Paul I, "write the French professors Ernest Lavisse and Alfred Rambeau in their History of the 19th Century.
The Egyptian campaign of the first consul can be considered the beginning of the preparations for the campaign to India. On May 19, 1798, the army under the command of Bonaparte, which included 300 ships, 10 thousand people and a 35-thousand expeditionary force, left Toulon, and on June 30, its landing in Alexandria began. What did the French need in Egypt? After the collapse of the first anti-French coalition, the war against France was continued by England alone. The Directory intended to organize a landing of troops in the British Isles, but this had to be abandoned due to the lack of necessary forces and funds. Then there was a plan to strike at the communications linking England with India, a plan to capture Egypt.
The famous Russian historian and writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky wrote with admiration in his novel-biography Napoleon: "Through Egypt to India in order to deal a mortal blow to the world domination of England there — such is Bonaparte's gigantic plan."
But what can be read in the book “Napoleon, or the Myth of the“ Savior ”" by the modern French historian Jean Tularav: new colony... to take possession of an important beachhead that opens access to the main source of prosperity for England - India. "

Rak up the heat with your bare hands

But back to Russia. The time of the reign of Paul I was for the country a period of revaluation of enemies and friends. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Russia has become a decisive force in Europe. The Italian campaign of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov in three months canceled out all the victories and conquests of France.

It seemed that Napoleon would be done away with, but ... Russia suddenly went over to the side of France and confused all European "political cards".
Many historians accuse Paul I of the fact that his foreign policy was contradictory and inconsistent. They explain the reason for this by the imbalance of his character. But this is not the case. It is a real and effective policy, as opposed to a far-fetched and dogmatic one, that must reckon with changing circumstances. Therefore, it looks contradictory and inconsistent from the outside.
Drastic change foreign policy Paul I was not accidental. Historians studying the period when Napoleon Bonaparte came to power write according to at least about four reasons that contributed to the convergence of the interests of the Russian and French emperors.
The first reason can be called emotional. After the defeat of the Korsakov corps in the fall of 1789, Napoleon informed Paul I that he wanted to release all Russian prisoners to their homeland. In December 1800, in Paris, Bonaparte not only ordered the release of 6,000 Russian prisoners, but also ordered that new uniforms be sewn for all of them at the expense of the French treasury, new shoes issued, and weapons returned. Paul replied to Bonaparte with a message that he agreed to peace, since he would like to return "peace and quiet" to Europe.
The second reason for the change in the policy of Paul I was the desire of the allies in the anti-Napoleonic coalition to achieve their own benefits to the detriment of Russian interests. According to the historian Anastasia Golovanchenko, Russia needed the Russian-French union: "We would get rid of the need to rake in the heat with bare Russian hands for Austria."

The path to the southeast

In September 1799 Suvorov made the famous crossing of the Alps. However, in October of the same year, Russia broke off the alliance with Austria due to the failure of the Austrians to fulfill their allied obligations, and Russian troops were withdrawn from Europe.

But not only the treacherous behavior of the allies in the anti-French coalition influenced the decision of Paul I. The third and very serious reason was the long-standing close Russian-French relations that existed during the reigns of Elizabeth I and Catherine II.
The last reason was the organization of a joint Indian campaign, in the success of which both emperors were equally interested.
It should also be remembered that the rulers of the Russian Empire have already glanced in the direction of India more than once. Peter I began to "trace the road". True, this attempt ended tragically. Here is what Lieutenant General V.A. Potto in the book Caucasian war":" Peter transferred his thoughts to the Caspian coast and decided to undertake an exploration of the eastern shores of this sea, from where he was going to look for a trade route to India. Prince Bekovich-Cherkassky was chosen by him as the executor of this powerful thought. In 1716, Bekovich sailed from Astrakhan and began to concentrate a strong detachment near the very mouth of the Yaik. From the Caucasus, the five-hundredth cavalry regiment of the Greben and part of the Terek Cossacks were assigned to this campaign. " But the detachment of Prince Cherkassky died in battles with the Khivans.
Russian rulers continued to "torment" the path to the southeast. Catherine II tried to continue the business of Peter I.
Finally, the turn came to Paul I, who, even before the conclusion of an agreement with Napoleon on a joint campaign in India, tried to start "paving" his way there along the road outlined by the French emperor. The purpose of the occupation of Egypt by Napoleon's troops was to seize the Isthmus of Suez and block the shortest route for England to India. Paul I tried to get a sea fortress in the very center Mediterranean Sea, on one of the paths of the British to their richest colony of the East Indies. Some historians believe that the main reason that prompted the Russian Orthodox tsar to become the Grand Master of the Catholic Maltese Order of St. John of Jerusalem (Maltese) was not so much romantic dreams of the revival of chivalry, as the acquisition of the island of Malta without war - an important strategic object in the Mediterranean Sea.

New information changes the big picture

On January 12 (24), 1801, the chieftain of the Don army, General of the cavalry V.P. Orlov received an order from Emperor Paul I to move "straight through Bukharia and Khiva to the Indus River and to the English establishments that lie along it." V.P. Orlov did not have very large forces: about 22 thousand Cossacks, 12 cannons, 41 regiments and 2 cavalry companies. The path was not easy due to insufficient preparation, bad roads and weather conditions. According to the general opinion, prevailing among pre-revolutionary historians, "the campaign turned out to be incredible stupidity."
But in our time, after finding out additional data on the real actions of Paul I and Napoleon I for organizing a military campaign to India, the attitude to the "stupidity" of the Indian campaign of the ataman of the Don army V.P. Orlova began to change. In the book "Edge of the Century" historian Nathan Eidelman writes about the well-known plan for the conquest of India, from which it follows that the detachment of the ataman of the Don army was an insignificant part of the Russian-French troops: "35 thousand French infantry with artillery, led by one of the best French generals, Massena, must move along the Danube, across the Black Sea, Taganrog, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan ... At the mouth of the Volga, the French must unite with the 35-thousand-strong Russian army (of course, not counting the Cossack army, which goes its own way through Bukharia). The combined Russian-French corps will then cross the Caspian Sea and land at Astrabad. "
The reality of just such a development of events in Central Asia can be read in the book "Napoleon" by the famous historian E.V. Tarle: “Thoughts about India never left Napoleon, from the Egyptian campaign to recent years reign ... After the conclusion of peace with Russia, Napoleon pondered a combination based on the campaign of the French troops under his command in South Russia where they would have united with the Russian army, and he would have led both armies through Central Asia to India. "

Treacherous conspiracy

For England, unification in late XVII v. Russia and France could have a terrible result - the loss of India, which made Foggy Albion a prosperous maritime power. Therefore, England did everything possible to make plans for the conquest of India by Russian-French troops to collapse. British ambassador financed the head of the conspiracy against Paul I - Count of Palen - and gave him gold to organize the assassination attempt.
The assassination of the Russian emperor took place on the night of March 11-12, 1801.
Historical literature proves that the campaign of Russian troops in India was not a success. In fact, Alexander I, having ascended the throne, immediately ordered the withdrawal of the troops back.
The truth about the reign of Paul I is still distorted. Many believe in the insanity of the emperor, who tried to increase the glory of Russia. Meanwhile, it is high time to resurrect the forgotten events of the past and understand: who benefits from substituting fiction for the true pages of Russian history.