Battle of Tarutino
Part of French invasion of Russia (1812)
Battle of Tarutino, by Piter von Hess
Date October 6, 1812 Location Tarutino, Russia Result Russian victory
Combatants
Russian Empire	First French Empire
Commanders
Count Levin August von Bennigsen	Vice-King Joachim Murat
Strength
97,000 present, only 36,000 of whom actually participated in the battle.	26,000
Casualties
1,200	2,500 dead, 2000 captured

The Battle of Tarutino (Russian: Тарутинo) was a part of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The battle is sometimes called the Battle of Vinkovo or the Battle of Chernishnya after the local river. Many historians claim that the latter name is more fit because the village of Tarutino was 8 km from the described events. In the battle Russian troops under the command of Bennigsen defeated French troops under the command of Joachim Murat. Combatants First French Empire Russian Empire Commanders Napoleon Eugène de Beauharnais Jérôme Bonaparte Jaques MacDonald Karl Philipp Alexander I of Russia Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly Pyotr Bagration Strength 771,500 troops 900,000 troops Casualties 300,000 French 70,000 Poles 50,000 Italians 80,000... October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years). ... 1812 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start... The First French Empire, commonly known as the French Empire or the Napoleonic Empire, covers the period of the domination of France and much of continental Europe by Napoleon I of France. ... Levin August Gottlieb Theophil (Russian: Leonty Leontyevich), count von Bennigsen (February 10, 1745 - December 3, 1826) was a Russian general. ... Joachim Murat, King of Naples, Marshal of France Murat portrait, by François Pascal Simon, Baron Gérard, c. ... Kazan Cathedral in St Petersburg and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow were built to commemorate the Russian victory against Napoleon. ... Combatants Russian Empire First French Empire Commanders General Ostermann-Tolstoy Joachim Murat, King of Naples Strength 14,000 - 20,000 troops 22,000 to 28,000 Casualties 2,500 3,300 The Battle of Ostrowno took place on July 25 and 26 1812, between the French corps of Marshal Ney... Combatants Russian Empire First French Empire Commanders Prince Peter Wittgenstein Nicolas Oudinot Strength 17,000–22,000 23,000–28,000 Casualties 3,500–4,500 5,500 dead, 1000 prisoners The Battle of Klyastitsy is a relatively minor engagement which took place near the village of Klyastitsy (Russian: Клястицы) (Drissa... The First Battle of Smolensk took place on August 17, 1812, between 175,000 French under Napoleon Bonaparte and 130,000 Russians under Prince Bagration, of whom about 50,000 and 60,000 respectively were actually engaged. ... The Battle of Valutino took place on August 9, 1812, between Marshal Neys corps, about 30,000 strong, and a strong rear-guard of General Barclay de Tollys army of about 40,000, commanded by the General himself. ... Combatants First French Empire Russian Empire Commanders Napoleon Bonaparte Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov Strength 130,000 600 cannon[1] 154,000 624 cannon[1] Casualties 35,000[1] 44,000[1] The Battle of Borodino (Russian: , French: ) (September 7, 1812, or August 26 in the Julian calendar then used in Russia... The Battle of Maloyaroslavets took place on October 24, 1812, between the Russians, under Marshal Kutuzov, and part of the corps of Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleons son_in_law, under General Delzons with numbered about 20,000 strong. ... Combatants Russian Empire First French Empire Commanders Prince Peter Wittgenstein Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr Strength 31,000 regular troops, 9,000 militia, 9,000 regular troops operating independently; total of 49,000 23,000 to 27,000 Casualties 8,000-12,500 8,000 At the Second Battle of Polotsk... Combatants Russian Empire First French Empire Commanders Prince Peter Wittgenstein Marshal Victor Strength 30,000, of whom 11,000 were involved 36,000, of whom 10,000 to 18,000 were involved Casualties 400 1200 The Battle of Czasniki was fought during Napoleons invasion of Russia, on 31 October... Combatants Russian Empire First French Empire Commanders General Mikhail Miloradovich Louis Nicolas Davout, Eugene de Beauharnais, Józef Antoni Poniatowski, and Michel Ney Strength 26,500 troops, 37,000, of whom 24,000 took part in the battle Casualties 1,800 killed and wounded 8,000, including 4,000 taken... Combatants Russian Empire First French Empire Commanders Prince Peter Wittgenstein Marshal Claude Victor and Marshal Nicholas Oudinot Strength 30,000 troops approximately 25,000 troops available; 6,000 involved on the 1st day; 5,000 involved on the 2nd day Casualties 3000 3000 At the Battle of Smoliani (November 13... The Battle of Krasnoi was fought during Napoleons invasion of Russia on November 16 and November 17 of 1812 at Krasnoi, 67 km south-west of Smolensk. ... Battle of Berezina was held on November 26-29, 1812 between the French army of Napoleon retreating after his invasion of Russia and crossing the Berezina, and Russian army under Kutuzov. ... Kazan Cathedral in St Petersburg and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow were built to commemorate the Russian victory against Napoleon. ... KM, Km, or km may stand for: Khmer language (ISO 639 alpha-2, km) Kilometre Kinemantra Meditation Knowledge management KM programming language KM Culture, Korean Movie Maker. ... Levin August Gottlieb Theophil (Russian: Leonty Leontyevich), count von Bennigsen (February 10, 1745 - December 3, 1826) was a Russian general. ... Joachim Murat, King of Naples, Marshal of France Murat portrait, by François Pascal Simon, Baron Gérard, c. ...

Preceding events

After the battle of Borodino, Kutuzov realized that the Russian army would not survive one more large engagement and ordered the army to leave Moscow and retreat. At first it retreated in the south-east direction along the Ryazanskaya road. When the army reached the Moskva it crossed it and turned to the west to the Old Kaluzhskaya road. The army pitched camp in a village of Tarutino near Kaluga. At the same time small units of Cossacks continued moving along the Ryazanskaya road misleading French troops under the command of Murat. When he discovered his error he did not retreat but made camp not far from Tarutino in order to keep his eye on the Russian camp. Combatants First French Empire Russian Empire Commanders Napoleon Bonaparte Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov Strength 130,000 600 cannon[1] 154,000 624 cannon[1] Casualties 35,000[1] 44,000[1] The Battle of Borodino (Russian: , French: ) (September 7, 1812, or August 26 in the Julian calendar then used in Russia... Prince Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov (September 16, 1745 – April 28, 1813 (n. ... Saint Basils Cathedral Moscow (Russian/Cyrillic: Москва́, pronounciation: Moskva), capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva, and encompassing 878. ... Konstantin Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga, built in 1967 Kaluga (Калу́га in Russian) is a city in central Russia on the Oka River 188 km southwest of Moscow, administrative center of Kaluga Oblast. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

The battle

On October 6, 1812 Kutuzov ordered Bennigsen and Miloradovich to attack Murat's corps (26000 men) with two columns stealthily crossing the forest in the dead of night. Bennigsen's main column included three columns led by Vasily Orlov-Denisov, Karl Baggovut and Alexander Osterman-Tolstoy respectively. The other column was supposed to play an auxiliary role. In the darkness most of the troops got lost. By the morning only Cossack troops under the command of general Orlov-Denisov reached the original destination, suddenly attacked the French troops and captured the French camp with transports and cannons. Since other Russian units came late the French were able to recover. When the Russians emerged from the forest they came under French fire and suffered casualties (among others the commander of the 2nd Corps, General Baggovut, was killed). Finally Murat had to retreat but he escaped being surrounded. The French forces suffered 2500 dead and 2000 prisoners, the Russians lost 1200 dead. This Russian victory is considered to have hastened Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years). ... Count Mikhail Andreyevich Miloradovich (October 1 (O.S.), 1771 - December 14 (O.S.), 1825) was a Russian general prominent during the Napoleonic wars. ... Joachim Murat, King of Naples, Marshal of France Murat portrait, by François Pascal Simon, Baron Gérard, c. ... Alexander Ivanovich Count Ostermann-Tolstoy (1772 – 12 February 1857) was a Russian nobleman and soldier in the era of the French Revolutionary Wars. ... A General is an officer of high military rank. ... For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation). ... Location Position of Moscow in Europe Government Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Geographical characteristics Area  - City 1,081 km² Population  - City (2005)    - Density 10,415,400   8537. ...

The total number of cannon captured by the Russians at Tarutino -- 38 pieces in all -- was noteworthy because until this point in the war, neither side had lost nearly as many guns in a single encounter. This was regarded by the Russian rank-and-file as a sign that the tide of the war was finally turning in their favor.

The battle of Tarutino is depicted in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. Tolstoy, who frequently argued throughout the novel that an individual cannot change history or manage historical processes, described the battle as nothing but a chain of accidents and coincidences. Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: , Lev Nikolaevič Tolstoj), commonly referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy (September 9, 1828 [O.S. August 28] – November 20, 1910 [O.S. November 7]) was a Russian novelist, writer, essayist, philosopher, Christian anarchist, pacifist, educational reformer, vegetarian, moral thinker and an influential member of... War and Peace (Russian: Война и мир, Vojna i mir; in original orthography: Война и миръ, Vojna i mir) is an epic novel by Leo Tolstoy, first published from 1865 to 1869 in Russki Vestnik, which tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. ...

References

• От Тарутино до Малоярославца (к 190-летию Малоярославецкого сражения). Kaluga, Zolotaya Alleya, 2002.