The feat of the basilisa's skin is brief. Vasilisa Kozhin. the woman whom Napoleon himself feared. Soviet and modern textbooks about the folk heroine

... The alarm sounded. The peasants ran out of the huts, armed with pitchforks, spears, scythes and clubs on the move. Everyone knew that the bell warned of the approach of the French. In the summer they already passed here and the villagers did not expect anything good from the new autumn visit. Hiding in some where, the partisans allowed a detachment of foragers to enter the village. On stunted horses with haggard and embittered faces, in tattered clothes, the French looked little like those proud soldiers of the Great Army that a few months ago passed through these places.

At the signal, the peasants rushed to the attack. The forage party did not resist for long. Of the 30 people, 7 were killed, the rest surrendered. Imagine the surprise of the prisoners when they saw that the head of the detachment of guards was a woman, 35-40 years old, who looked like a simple villager. The situation for a soldier of the XIX century is almost unthinkable, especially since the image, despite the winter peasant clothes, was not devoid of belligerence. The leader of the partisans sat on a horse, and in her hands she held a scythe, impaled on a shortened shaft.

A. Smirnov. "Portrait of Vasilisa Kozhina" (1813)

The head of the detachment, composed mainly of women and adolescents, was named Vasilisa Kozhina. Very little is known about her life until 1812, she only retained that she was the wife of the headman of the Gorshkovo farm in the Sychevsky district of the Smolensk province. The date of her birth is attributed to the 70-80 years of the 18th century. According to one of the versions, her husband was killed by French soldiers, possibly from a party stocking food, even at a time when the Russian army was retreating to Moscow. Wanting to take revenge on the murderers, Vasilisa Kozhina gathered a partisan detachment from local residents in the fall of 1812, organized attacks on foraging teams and French marauders who were simply scattering in search of food.

The partisans often escorted captured prisoners to the location of the regular units of the Russian army. Vasilisa Kozhina became famous thanks to one of these episodes with an escort. One of the French officers, apparently from the nobility, refused to obey some "peasant girl" and tried to escape. The attempt was unsuccessful, the wife of the widow of the village headman hacked the officer with a scythe.

Some historians consider only this episode to be reliable, everything else is propaganda stories that were quite deliberately composed in a field printing house. Russian army... In general, this is not surprising. As the head of the army printing house A.S. Kaisarov, "one leaflet can sometimes be more useful than several battalions." One of the editors of the Sons of the Fatherland magazine spoke in the same spirit in his memoirs, mentioning that often stories like the stories about the partisan Vasilisa Kozhina were composed to support the people's spirit. It was very important to emphasize that the nobility and the common people rallied in the fight against an external aggressor.

On the other hand, there is information that the feat of Vasilisa Kozhina did not go unnoticed, reaching the commander-in-chief and even the emperor Alexander. The sovereign, according to one of the versions, awarded the brave villager with 500 rubles and a special medal. This gives reason to believe that she was not rewarded for escorting frostbitten prisoners and was remembered by contemporaries not only thanks to the incident with the hacked Frenchman, although for the worldview of that time, the fact is really outrageous.

It is difficult to say which version is correct. But be that as it may, the story of Vasilisa Kozhina became one of the symbols of the people's and liberation war, in which broad strata of the peasantry were involved. The second half of 1812 was the period when a sense of patriotic unity arose among the people. The 19th century in general is a time when the concept of patriotism and national community becomes an integral part of the political and spiritual life of European states. In Russia, this process took on a special character. Literally in one year, having changed the minds of a huge number of people. Fighting and dying shoulder to shoulder for spiritual values, and not political interests, the nobles and the peasantry, perhaps for the first time, acutely felt their belonging to a single people, and not to two different and non-contiguous class worlds.

This feeling was especially clearly manifested in the mixed partisan detachments, which consisted of regular troops, Cossacks, and peasants. In the "Diaries of Partisan Actions" Denis Davydov wrote that when entering Russian villages he and his detachment had to first prove their belonging to the Russian people: the peasants saw no difference in the similar uniforms of Russian and French regular troops. Subsequently, Davydov changed into a peasant caftan, let go of his beard and wore an icon of St. Nicholas instead of the Order of St. Anna, other partisans who belonged to the regular troops followed his example.

After the burning of Moscow people's war from passive - sabotaging foraging and food procurement - grew into an active one, the peasants got down to it. And on the example of Vasilisa Kozhina, it is clear that not only men. The Frenchman began to be beaten, as they say, by the whole world.

Napoleon, in the end, was defeated, the campaign of 1812 was won, and the most logical reward, which made the peasantry so much for this victory, would be liberation from serfdom. However, the emperor judged differently, suggesting that the peasants voluntarily surrender their weapons, forget that for several months they were not only his subjects, but citizens of their Fatherland, and obediently disperse to the stalls. Alexander did not feel or did not want to feel the very popular power that put weapons even in women's hands.

After 1813, nothing is known about Vasilisa Kozhina. In 1812-13 a series of popular prints was dedicated to her, at the same time her portrait was painted by the artist Alexander Smirnov. The author deliberately darkened the background, drawing the viewer's attention to the heroine's face. A neutral expression devoid of any belligerence and lips compressed into a thin line speak of determination and the ability to stand up for oneself, children and fellow villagers, if necessary. In her personal fate, as in a mirror, the dark side of the war was reflected, making cruel those who, by definition, should not be.

Unfortunately, there is very little information about the national heroes of the Patriotic War. No one deliberately documented their exploits or recorded biographies.

No formal lists have survived, similar to those used to restore the biographies of officers of the Russian army.

All the more valuable for posterity are those bits of information about heroes from ordinary peasants that rarely make it to the pages of history textbooks.

Biography

A peasant woman of the Gorshkov farm in the Sychevsky district of the Smolensk province, the headman (headman's wife).

During the Patriotic War of 1812, helping men, she several times participated in the escort of captured French prisoners to the city of Sychevka and once killed an obstinate prisoner with a scythe. Information about the elder Vasilisa Kozhina appeared in newspapers and magazines in 1812 and was reprinted in 1814 in the “Complete collection of anecdotes of the memorable war between Russians and the French”: “The headman of a village in the Sychevsky district led a party of prisoners taken by the peasants into the city. In his absence, the villagers caught a few more Frenchmen and immediately brought them to the elder Vasilisa to go where they should go. This latter, not wanting to distract the adults from their main occupation of hitting and catching the villains, gathered a small convoy of children, and, getting on a horse, set off in the form of a leader to escort the French herself ... , villains are French! Into the frunt! Line up! Go, march! “One of the captured officers, annoyed at the fact that a simple woman took it into her head to command them, did not obey her. Vasilisa, seeing this, jumped up to him instantly and, hitting the head with her scythe, threw him dead at her feet, shouting: “All of you thieves, dogs, it will be the same who only dares to move a little! I've already blown their heads off to such mischievous people! March to the city! "And after that who will doubt that the prisoners have recognized the authority of the elder Vasilisa over themselves."

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the memory of Vasilisa Kozhina was preserved as a tragic curiosity, as a bitter reminder of the perverse nature of war, which turns a woman into a murderer, and a soldier of a great army into marauders who perish under a peasant scythe.

In the popular literature about the Patriotic War of 1812, a myth was created about Vasilisa Kozhina, an activist of the partisan movement, who allegedly organized a detachment of teenagers and women in the Sychevsky district, guarding villages and causing great damage to the French. It was also said that Vasilisa Kozhin was awarded a medal and a cash allowance for the feat. This information is even contained in encyclopedic publications.

In reality, there are no documents or other reliable evidence of the awarding of Vasilisa Kozhina or the actions of her "squad". Apart from the episode with the murder of a prisoner, no actions of Vasilisa Kozhina against the French have been recorded.

"The French are hungry rats in the command of the elder Vasilisa." Woodcut by Alexey Venetsianov. 1812 year

The episode with the murder of a prisoner received a well-known public response due to the complete improbability of such a situation: for the consciousness of the people of that time, the participation of a woman in escorting prisoners, the murder of a soldier by a woman was beyond comprehension, seemed absolutely impossible. A series of popular prints of 1812–1813 was dedicated to Vasilisa Kozhina, a stern prisoner escort. The popular print of A.G. Venetsianov of 1813 "The French - hungry rats in the command of the elder Vasilisa" with the inscription "Illustration of the episode in the Sychevsky district, where the wife of the village head Vasilisa, captured enemies, one of whom was killed for disobedience ”. In 1813, the artist Alexander Smirnov painted a portrait of Vasilisa Kozhina.

Memory

Notes (edit)

Literature

• Pushkin V.A., Kostin B.A. Women of 1812 / From a united love for the Fatherland. - M .: "Young Guard", 1988 (Library of the magazine of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, No. 17 (332)) pp. 107-109. - Circulation 75,000 copies.
• Garnich N.F. 1812 - M., 1956.
• Kozhina, Vasilisa // Patriotic War of 1812: Encyclopedia. - M., 2004.

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• Born in 1780
• Dead in 1840
• Born in the Smolensk province
• Partisans of 1812
• Women in wars
• Women of the Russian Empire

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See what "Kozhina, Vasilisa" is in other dictionaries:

Russian peasant woman, headman. During the Patriotic War of 1812 she led a peasant partisan detachment in the Sychevsky district of the Smolensk province ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (years of birth and death unknown), a partisan of the Patriotic War of 1812, a peasant woman, headman of the Gorshkov farm in the Sychevsky district of the Smolensk province. Having organized a detachment of partisans from teenagers and women armed with scythes, pitchforks, axes, etc., ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Russian peasant woman, headman. During the Patriotic War of 1812 she headed a peasant partisan detachment in the Sychevsky district of the Smolensk province. * * * KOZHINA Vasilisa KOZHINA Vasilisa (elder Vasilisa), a peasant woman from the village of Gorshkovo, Sychevsky district ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Kozhina Vasilisa- Biography KOZHINA Vasilisa (years of birth and death unknown), a peasant woman, wife of the headman of the farm Gorshkov Sychevsky near the Smolensk province. Helping the men, she several times escorted the French forager marauders captured by them to Sychevka ... ... Military biographical dictionary

Vasilisa Kozhina (circa 1780 1840) hero patriotic war 1812 Biography During the French invasion in 1812, Vasilisa Kozhina organized a partisan detachment of teenagers and women in the Sychevsky district of the Smolensk province. Everything ... Wikipedia

Kozhina Vasilisa- partisan, heroine Otech. war of 1812. Was the wife of the head of the village. Sychevka Porechensky u. Smolensk lips. After the murder of her husband by the French at stake. summer 1812 led the partisans. a detachment of their fellow villagers. The detachment fought with small groups of the French, ... ... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary

Russian partisan, heroine of the Patriotic War of 1812, peasant woman, headman of the farm Gorshkov Sychevsky u. Smolensk lips. She organized a partisan detachment from women and adolescents, armed with scythes, pitchforks and axes. Partisans destroyed and took ... Russian history

Kozhin, Vasilisa Vasilisa Kozhina (circa 1780 1840) hero of the Patriotic War of 1812. Biography During the French invasion in 1812, Vasilisa Kozhina organized a partisan detachment from ... ... Wikipedia

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Vasilisa, the leader of a peasant partisan detachment in the Sychevsky district of the Smolensk province during the Patriotic War of 1812. A peasant woman, an elder.

Here's what about Vasilisa Kozhina was written in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia: “Kozhina Vasilisa, a partisan of the Patriotic War of 1812, a peasant woman, headman of the Gorshkov farm in the Sychevsky district of the Smolensk province. Having organized a detachment of partisans from teenagers and women, armed with scythes, pitchforks, axes, etc., Kozhina destroyed and captured the soldiers of the Napoleonic army during their retreat from Russia. She was awarded a medal and a cash prize ”.

Vasilisa Kozhina in 1812 was approximately 30 to 40 years old. Most likely, Vasilisa's husband died at the hands of the French during their next expedition in search of food. The woman's hatred of the murderers was shared by fellow villagers and residents of nearby villages, since Kozhina's husband was far from the only victim of the French foragers.
Armed with axes, scythes and other similar equipment, the detachment began to ambush the road. The French, completely unprepared for such a reception, began to suffer losses from the actions of the decisive Vasilisa.
Kozhina managed to contact the units of the Russian regular army, to the location of which the prisoners were transferred.
The main mention of the actions of Vasilisa Kozhina is a note by “Elder Vasilisa” in the magazine “Son of the Fatherland” in 1812: “The elder of a village in the Sychevsky district led a party of prisoners into the city. In his absence, the peasants brought in several more French people, captured by them, and gave them to their elder Vasilisa to be sent where they should. Vasilisa gathered the peasants, mounted a horse, picked up a scythe and, riding around the prisoners, shouted in an important voice: “Well, the villains are French! Into the frunt! Go, march! " One of the captured officers, annoyed that the woman decided to command them, did not obey her. Vasilisa immediately hit him on the head with a scythe, he fell dead at her feet, and she cried out: “To all of you thieves, dogs, it will be the same who only moves a little! I have already blown off the heads of twenty-seven of your mischievous people! March to the city! "".
From the point of view of ideas about the war of that time, such an event seemed completely incredible and therefore, of course, was preserved in history. There is little information about Vasilisa Kozhina. But there are even fewer of them about other peasants who fought with Napoleon.

Vasilisa Kozhina(c. 1780-1840) - Russian peasant woman, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812.

Biography

A peasant woman of the Gorshkov farm in the Sychevsky district of the Smolensk province, the headman (wife of the village headman).

During World War II, helping the men, she several times participated in the escort of captured French prisoners to the city of Sychevka and once killed an obstinate prisoner officer with a scythe.

In 1812, the journal "Son of the Fatherland" published a note "Elder Vasilisa":

The note was reprinted with changes in 1814 in the "Complete collection of anecdotes of the most memorable war between Russians and the French":

Later, they wrote about Vasilisa Kozhina as an activist of the partisan movement, who organized a detachment of teenagers and women in the Sychevsky district that guarded the villages and inflicted great damage on the French. It was also said that Vasilisa Kozhin was awarded a medal and a cash allowance for the feat.

In 1813, the artist Alexander Smirnov painted a portrait of Vasilisa Kozhina, with a medal on the left lapel of her cloak. The portrait was exhibited at the State Historical Museum in Moscow, with the signature under the painting: “Partisan of 1812. I did a great favor for Russia. She was awarded a medal and a cash prize of 500 rubles. "

However, some historians in Russian Federation question the existence of documents or other reliable evidence of the awarding of Vasilisa Kozhina or the actions of her squad. They believe that apart from the episode with the murder of a prisoner, no actions of Vasilisa Kozhina against the French have been recorded.

A series of popular prints from 1812-1813 was dedicated to Vasilisa Kozhina. The popular print of A.G. Venetsianov (1813) "The French - hungry rats in the command of the elder Vasilisa" with the inscription: "Illustration of the episode in the Sychevsky district, where the wife of the village head Vasilisa, a few captured enemies, one of whom was killed for disobedience. "

There have been many heroes in the history of Russia, the details of whose life are practically unknown. This rule will apply not only to the distant epic times, but also to a very recent era. Vasilisa Kozhina, whose biography is just an example of such a "white spot", belongs to this glorious row.

People's heroes of 1812

Years gave the world a large number of heroic names. This is due to the fact that the bloodshed for the first time in a very long time passed directly through the territory of Russia. It was defended not only by the regular army, but also by the people's militia. One way or another, but from the war of 1812, the descendants left two famous female names... This is Vasilisa Kozhina, whose biography is practically unknown.

At the same time, the first of them served in the cavalry, thanks to which a lot of documentary evidence remained about her. Kozhina, on the other hand, was a peasant by birth, which, of course, could not but affect her image. For example, in the USSR, the people knew her only by a small footnote in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

The personality of Vasilisa Kozhina

A short biography of Vasilisa Kozhina contains the following facts. She was a native of the Sychevsky district in the Smolensk province. The peasant woman was the headman (wife of the headman) of a local farm called Gorshkov. Her life, in fact, determined the scarcity of sources about the early peaceful life. It is not even known exactly when the folk heroine Kozhina was born (approximately in 1780).

The Smolensk province found itself on the path of Napoleon on his way to Moscow. The French army burned many villages. She used scorched earth tactics. There were many settlements behind the front line. The inhabitants of this region mainly went to the partisans to fight the aggressors. Vasilisa Kozhina was among these volunteers. The biography of the elder contains many blank spots, but there is still information about her active role in organizing the local militia.

Partisan detachment Kozhina

Kozhina's detachment consisted mainly of women and adolescents. The men who inhabited the villages had gone into the army even before that. After the French occupied the western provinces, the former state power here became bankrupt. There was no one to organize the partisans. It was not authorized people who were engaged in this, but the most ordinary people - residents of townships and farms. Vasilisa Kozhina was among these leaders. Before that, the biography of a peasant woman was not distinguished by anything remarkable. However, by nature, the elder had a lively and stubborn character. These qualities helped her to gather people.

However, it was not enough just to group up for the partisan detachment. People needed weapons. Usually, scythes, axes, pitchforks - tools of ordinary rural implements acted in its capacity. The active phase of Kozhina's detachment began with the retreat of the French from Moscow.

Napoleon "sat out" in the capital and unwittingly gave the strategic initiative into the hands of the Russians. Soon Great army”Set off on a hurried journey home. The way back ran through the devastated native of which was Vasilisa Kozhina. Biography, children, former relationships - all these circumstances from a peaceful life have lost their meaning. Now the woman had to become harsh and merciless.

Traps for the French

The French lost their famous discipline in retreat. The army began to suffer from epidemics, hunger and cold weather. The Russian harsh winter climate hurt the strangers who crossed the border of the empire in the summer in thin greatcoats. In addition, the soldiers had to return to the roads, which they themselves had destroyed a few months before.

Often malnourished, French troops separated from the main army and went into the hinterland to find food. They hoped to find at least some food in the abandoned peasant farms. Instead, cohesive groups of partisans awaited the invaders in the villages. One of the largest such gangs was led by Vasilisa Kozhina. Biography, the memory of the people about the heroin - researchers began to study all these questions much later. Then hardly anyone knew about her.

Attitude towards the peasant partisan movement

Very quickly, rumors spread in the French army about the leader of the partisan detachment, mercilessly cracking down on the invaders. That is why there are so many legends and so few facts around Kozhina's personality. After World War II, no one collected or systematized data on the peasant movement of resistance to the French. When the historians of the next generations woke up, it was too late.

In part, this fact explains the stinginess with which Kozhina was spoken of in Soviet textbooks. For the USSR, with its experience of the Great Patriotic War, it was not accepted to keep silent about people's exploits among ordinary residents of the country.

Serfdom reigned in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. The wealth and splendor of the aristocracy with its balls and parties were based on it. The peasants were treated as second-class people, so it never occurred to anyone to emphasize the exploits of ordinary villagers. When the war ended, the guerrillas who fought heroically returned to the lordly estates and continued their slave labor.

Revenge for her husband

Of all the popular images of the war of 1812, it was Vasilisa Kozhina that became most famous. Biography, family and other facts of her life are almost unknown. Researchers have charted the woman's age to be between 30 and 40 years old. Vasilisa had a husband who worked for the settlement. When the French intervention began, he was killed.

Apparently, it was because of a sense of revenge that Kozhina entered the path of a merciless war with uninvited guests. This happened when the French were already retreating to their homeland. In the first months, resistance to them was rather passive. Serfs mostly hid in the forests and burned their farms so that they would not fall into the hands of the enemy.

Active resistance

The French and their allies, at first, also did not crack down on the poor. They only took food or fodder for the horses. However, when Napoleon began to suffer defeat, the atmosphere in his army became noticeably tense. The soldiers were embittered by the lost battles, the inconvenience, the disgusting climate, and poor campaign organization. Their rage was taken out on the peasants who fell under the hot hand.

Mutual hatred grew, and with it the size partisan units, one of which was led by Vasilisa Kozhina. Biography, film incarnations in modern TV series and many others Interesting Facts associated with the elder, are now of interest to many citizens of our country. However, in 1812 she was just a simple Russian woman. And even after the war, during her lifetime, she was not as famous as it is now. It was time that made Kozhina a folk heroine and a character of folklore.

Note in "Son of the Fatherland"

At first, Kozhina only organized ambushes on the roads. When the Russian army began to move westward, Vasilisa managed to contact the headquarters. She began to take the French prisoners and hand them over to the regular troops.

The biography of Vasilisa Kozhina was first publicly mentioned in a small note of the "Son of the Fatherland" magazine in the same 1812. The material was called "Starostikha". It was this definition that was imprinted in the people's memory. It has become synonymous with Kozhina's image.

The note told about a case of a small French detachment being captured by partisans. They gathered to lead the strangers to a neighboring town to hand them over to the Russian army. The chief escort was Kozhina. One of the French was annoyed that a woman, and even a peasant woman, was trying to lead him. He refused to obey the order of the elder. Then Kozhina hit the disobedient on the head with a scythe, and he fell dead at her feet.

Two wings of the guerrilla movement

Today, a photo and biography of Vasilisa Kozhina is in every Russian history textbook dedicated to XIX century... She became the head of the peasant partisan movement, and this despite the fact that then there was another "official" army of partisans, led by the no less famous Denis Davydov.

The relationship between these two different formations was extremely complex. Detachments of the Cossacks and the regular army often suffered from the same peasants. The villagers could mistakenly mistake their compatriots for the French and attack them from a road ambush. The reason for this was the military suits sewn in the European manner. The leader of the partisans and Cossacks even gave up his uniform. He changed into ordinary peasant clothes and grew a beard to make it easier for him to find mutual language with the villagers.

Kozhina's awards and memory of her

After the end of the war, the leaders of the partisan movement were awarded state awards. The special commission was then interested in the biography of Vasilisa Kozhina. Personal life and detailed facts of her biography were almost unknown. Nevertheless, the officials found the elder and presented her with a medal, as well as a cash allowance.

Such single awards could not please the peasants. At the end of the war, rumors became popular among them that Tsar Alexander I would soon abolish serfdom. For the long-awaited liberation, it was only necessary to complete the defeat of Napoleon. However, serfdom existed for another 50 years. In his youth, Alexander Pavlovich was a liberal. He wanted to carry out reforms, but was afraid of the resistance of the nobility.

Vasilisa Kozhina returned to her native province with the onset of peace. She died in 1840 at the age of about 60. In the 19th century, several popular prints were dedicated to her. Today, the streets of cities and railway stations are named after Kozhina.