Canvas, oil. 270 x 180 cm.
Vasilisa Kozhina - heroine of the Patriotic War of 1812. By origin, she was a peasant woman who lived in the village of Gorshkov, Sychevsky district, Smolensk province.
In 1812, an article entitled “Starostika Vasilisa” appeared in the magazine “Son of the Fatherland”: “One local merchant, who recently traveled out of curiosity to Moscow and its environs, tells the following anecdote, which he witnessed. The headman of a village in Sychevsky district led a party of prisoners into the city. In his absence, the peasants brought several more French people captured by them, and gave them to their elder Vasilisa to be sent to their destination. Vasilisa gathered the peasants, sat astride her horse, took the scythe in her hands and, riding around the prisoners, shouted in an important voice: “Well, the French villains!” To hell! Go, march!” One of the captured officers, irritated that the woman decided to command him, did not listen to her. Vasilisa immediately hit him on the head with her scythe, he fell dead at her feet, and she cried out: “It will be the same for all of you, thieves, dogs, who just move a little!” I’ve already torn off the heads of twenty-seven of your mischief makers! March to the city!’”
Later they wrote about Vasilisa Kozhina as an activist in the partisan movement, who organized a detachment of teenagers and women in Sychevsky district, guarding villages and inflicting great damage on the French. During the retreat of Bonaparte's army, Vasilisa Kozhina's detachment near Smolensk captured a large number of French. For her courage and assistance in conducting hostilities against Napoleon's forces, the peasant woman Kozhina was awarded a medal and a cash prize, which was a unique phenomenon of that time.
LVOV I.M. "Memories of 1812. Starostih Vasilisa." Postcard. Publishing house E.I. Selina, Moscow.
In the history of Russia there were many heroes, the details of their lives are practically unknown. This rule will extend not only to 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 series.
photo: Portrait of Vasilisa Kozhina.” Artist A. Smirnov
The Patriotic War of 1812 gave the world a large number of heroic names. This is due to the fact that for the first time in a very long time, bloodshed took place directly on Russian territory. It was protected not only by the regular army, but also by the people's militia. One way or another, but from the War of 1812, descendants were left with two famous female names. These are Nadezhda Durova and Vasilisa Kozhina, whose biography is practically unknown.
Moreover, the first of them served in the cavalry, thanks to which there is a lot of documentary evidence about her. Kozhina was a peasant by birth, which, of course, could not but influence her image. For example, in the USSR people knew it only from a small footnote in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
A short biography of Vasilisa Kozhina contains the following facts. She was a native of Sychevsky district in the Smolensk province. The peasant woman was the elder (the wife of the elder) of a local farm called Gorshkov. Her life, in fact, determined the scarcity of sources about her early peaceful life. It is not even known exactly when the folk heroine Kozhina was born (approximately 1780).
The Smolensk province was on the path of Napoleon, who was going to Moscow. The French army burned many villages. She used scorched earth tactics. There were many settlements behind the front line. Residents of this region mainly joined the partisans to fight the aggressors. Vasilisa Kozhina was among these volunteers. The elder's biography contains many blank spots, but there is still information about her active role in organizing the local militia.
Kozhina’s detachment consisted mainly of women and teenagers. The men who inhabited the villages had already joined the army. After the French occupied the western provinces, the previous state power here became untenable. There was no one to organize the partisans. This was not done by authorized people, but by ordinary people - residents of towns and villages. Vasilisa Kozhina was among these leaders. The biography of the peasant woman before this was nothing remarkable. However, by nature the elder had a lively and stubborn character. These qualities helped her gather people.
However, simply grouping was not enough for the partisan detachment. People needed weapons. Usually these were scythes, axes, pitchforks - tools of ordinary rural implements. The active phase of the actions of Kozhina’s detachment began with the retreat of the French from Moscow.
Napoleon “overstayed his welcome” in the capital and unwittingly gave the strategic initiative into the hands of the Russians. Soon the Grand Army set off on a hasty journey home. The return route ran through the devastated Smolensk province, of which Vasilisa Kozhina was a native. Biography, children, previous relationships - all these circumstances from peaceful life have lost their meaning. Now the woman had to become harsh and merciless.
The French lost their famous discipline in retreat. The army began to suffer from epidemics, hunger and cold. Russia's harsh winter climate hit hard on strangers who crossed the border of the empire in the summer in thin overcoats. In addition, the soldiers had to return along roads that they themselves had destroyed several months earlier.
Often suffering from malnutrition, French troops were separated from the main army and sent into the outback to find food. They hoped to find at least some food in the abandoned peasant farms. Instead, close-knit groups of partisans were waiting for the interventionists in the villages. One of the largest such gangs was led by Vasilisa Kozhina. Biography, people's memory of heroin - researchers began to study all these questions much later. At the time, hardly anyone knew about her.
Very quickly, rumors spread throughout the French army about the leader of the partisan detachment, mercilessly dealing with 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 resistance movement against the French. When historians of subsequent generations realized it, it was already too late.
This fact partly 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 customary to hush up people’s exploits among ordinary residents of the country.
In Russia at the beginning of the 19th century, serfdom reigned. The wealth and splendor of the aristocracy with its balls and parties was based on it. The peasants were treated as second-class citizens, so it never occurred to anyone to highlight the exploits of ordinary villagers. When the war ended, the heroically fighting partisans returned to the lordly estates and continued their slave labor.
Of all the popular images of the war of 1812, Vasilisa Kozhina became the most famous. Biography, family and other facts of her life are almost unknown. The researchers estimated the woman's age to be between 30 and 40 years old. Vasilisa had a husband who worked as the headman of a rural settlement. When the French intervention began, he was killed.
Apparently, it was precisely because of the feeling of revenge that Kozhina embarked on the path of a merciless war with uninvited guests. This happened when the French were already retreating to their homeland. In the first months of the war, peasant resistance to them was rather passive. The serfs mostly hid in the forests and burned their farms so that they would not fall to the enemy.
The French and their allies did not deal with the poor at first either. They only took food or fodder for the horses. However, when Napoleon began to suffer defeats, the atmosphere in his army became noticeably tense. The soldiers were embittered due to lost battles, inconveniences, a disgusting climate and poor campaign management. Their rage was taken out on the peasants who fell under the hot hand.
Mutual hatred grew, and with it the size of the partisan detachments, one of which was led by Vasilisa Kozhina. Biography, film incarnations in modern TV series and many other interesting facts related to the starostika 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 she is now. It was time that made Kozhina a folk heroine and a character in folklore.
At first, Kozhina only organized ambushes on the roads. When the Russian army began to advance west, Vasilisa managed to contact 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 short article in the magazine “Son of the Fatherland” in the same 1812. The material was called "Starostika". It is this definition that is imprinted in people's memory. It has become synonymous with the image of Kozhina.
The note told the story of a small French detachment being captured by partisans. They were going to take the strangers to a neighboring town to hand them over to the Russian army. The main guard was Kozhina. One of the French was irritated that a woman, and even a peasant, was trying to lead him. He refused to carry out the elder's order. Then Kozhina hit the disobedient man on the head with her scythe, and he fell dead at her feet.
Today, a photo and biography of Vasilisa Kozhina is in every Russian history textbook dedicated to the 19th century. She became the head of the peasant partisan movement, and this despite the fact that at that time 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 Cossacks and the regular army often suffered from the same peasants. Villagers could 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 style. The leader of the partisans and Cossacks, Denis Davydov, even refused his uniform. He changed into ordinary peasant clothes and grew a beard to make it easier for him to find a common language with the villagers.
photo: Denis Davydov
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. Her personal life and detailed facts of her biography were almost unknown. Nevertheless, officials found the elder and presented her with a medal, as well as a cash allowance.
Such isolated 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 lasted 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.
With the advent of peace, Vasilisa Kozhina returned to her native province. She died in 1840 at the age of approximately 60 years. In the 19th century, several lubok (lubok picture or amusing sheet) were dedicated to her, which became popular works of art. Today, city streets and railway stations are named after Kozhina.
In the history of Russia there were many heroes, the details of whose lives are practically unknown. This rule will apply not only to distant epic times, but also to a very recent era. Vasilisa Kozhina, whose biography is just an example of such a “blank spot,” belongs to this glorious series.
Folk heroes of 1812
The year gave the world a large number of heroic names. This is due to the fact that for the first time in a very long time, bloodshed took place directly on Russian territory. It was protected not only by the regular army, but also by the people's militia. One way or another, but from the War of 1812, descendants were left with two famous female names. This is Vasilisa Kozhina, whose biography is practically unknown.
Moreover, the first of them served in the cavalry, thanks to which there is a lot of documentary evidence about her. Kozhina was a peasant by birth, which, of course, could not but influence her image. For example, in the USSR people knew it only from a small footnote in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
Personality of Vasilisa Kozhina
A short biography of Vasilisa Kozhina contains the following facts. She was a native of Sychevsky district in the Smolensk province. The peasant woman was the elder (the wife of the elder) of a local farm called Gorshkov. Her life, in fact, determined the scarcity of sources about her early peaceful life. It is not even known exactly when the folk heroine Kozhina was born (approximately 1780).
The Smolensk province was on the path of Napoleon, who was going to Moscow. The French army burned many villages. She used scorched earth tactics. There were many settlements behind the front line. Residents of this region mainly joined the partisans to fight the aggressors. Vasilisa Kozhina was among these volunteers. The elder's biography contains many blank spots, but there is still information about her active role in organizing the local militia.
Kozhina's partisan detachment
Kozhina’s detachment consisted mainly of women and teenagers. The men who inhabited the villages had already joined the army. After the French occupied the western provinces, the previous state power here became untenable. There was no one to organize the partisans. This was not done by authorized people, but by ordinary people - residents of towns and villages. Vasilisa Kozhina was among these leaders. The biography of the peasant woman before this was nothing remarkable. However, by nature the elder had a lively and stubborn character. These qualities helped her gather people.
However, simply grouping was not enough for the partisan detachment. People needed weapons. Usually these were scythes, axes, pitchforks - tools of ordinary rural implements. The active phase of the actions of Kozhina’s detachment began with the retreat of the French from Moscow.
Napoleon “overstayed his welcome” in the capital and unwittingly gave the strategic initiative into the hands of the Russians. Soon the Grand Army set off on a hasty journey home. The way back ran through the ruined village of which Vasilisa Kozhina was a native. Biography, children, previous relationships - all these circumstances from 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. Russia's harsh winter climate hit hard on strangers who crossed the border of the empire in the summer in thin overcoats. In addition, the soldiers had to return along roads that they themselves had destroyed several months earlier.
Often suffering from malnutrition, French troops were separated from the main army and sent into the outback to find food. They hoped to find at least some food in the abandoned peasant farms. Instead, close-knit groups of partisans were waiting for the interventionists in the villages. One of the largest such gangs was led by Vasilisa Kozhina. Biography, people's memory of heroin - researchers began to study all these questions much later. At the time, hardly anyone knew about her.
Attitude to the peasant partisan movement
Very quickly, rumors spread throughout the French army about the leader of the partisan detachment, mercilessly dealing with 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 resistance movement against the French. When historians of subsequent generations realized it, it was already too late.
This fact partly 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 customary to hush up people’s exploits among ordinary residents of the country.
In Russia at the beginning of the 19th century, serfdom reigned. The wealth and splendor of the aristocracy with its balls and parties was based on it. The peasants were treated as second-class citizens, so it never occurred to anyone to highlight the exploits of ordinary villagers. When the war ended, the heroically fighting partisans returned to the lordly estates and continued their slave labor.
Revenge for husband
Of all the popular images of the war of 1812, Vasilisa Kozhina became the most famous. Biography, family and other facts of her life are almost unknown. The researchers estimated the woman's age to be between 30 and 40 years old. Vasilisa had a husband who worked in the settlement. When the French intervention began, he was killed.
Apparently, it was precisely because of the feeling of revenge that Kozhina embarked on 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. The serfs mostly hid in the forests and burned their farms so that they would not fall to the enemy.
Active resistance
The French and their allies did not deal with the poor at first either. They only took food or fodder for the horses. However, when Napoleon began to suffer defeats, the atmosphere in his army became noticeably tense. The soldiers were embittered due to lost battles, inconveniences, a disgusting climate and poor campaign management. Their rage was taken out on the peasants who fell under the hot hand.
Mutual hatred grew, and with it the size of the partisan detachments, one of which was led by Vasilisa Kozhina. Biography, film incarnations in modern TV series and many other interesting facts related to the starostika 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 she is now. It was time that made Kozhina a folk heroine and a character in folklore.
Note in “Son of the Fatherland”
At first, Kozhina only organized ambushes on the roads. When the Russian army began to advance west, Vasilisa managed to contact 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 short article in the magazine “Son of the Fatherland” in the same 1812. The material was called "Starostika". It is this definition that is imprinted in people's memory. It has become synonymous with the image of Kozhina.
The note told the story of a small French detachment being captured by partisans. They were going to take the strangers to a neighboring town to hand them over to the Russian army. The main guard was Kozhina. One of the French was irritated that a woman, and even a peasant, was trying to lead him. He refused to carry out the elder's order. Then Kozhina hit the disobedient man on the head with her scythe, and he fell dead at her feet.
Two wings of the partisan movement
Today, a photo and biography of Vasilisa Kozhina is in every Russian history textbook dedicated to the 19th century. She became the head of the peasant partisan movement, and this despite the fact that at that time 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 Cossacks and the regular army often suffered from the same peasants. Villagers could 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 style. The leader of the partisans and Cossacks even refused to wear a uniform. He changed into ordinary peasant clothes and grew a beard to make it easier for him to find a common 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. Her personal life and detailed facts of her biography were almost unknown. Nevertheless, officials found the elder and presented her with a medal, as well as a cash allowance.
Such isolated 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 lasted 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.
With the advent of peace, Vasilisa Kozhina returned to her native province. She died in 1840 at the age of approximately 60 years. In the 19th century, several popular prints were dedicated to her and became popular works of art. Today, city streets and railway stations are named after Kozhina.
There are many heroes in Russian history about whose lives there is very little reliable information. We are talking not only about the times of Ancient Rus', but also about an era much closer to us.
The history of the Patriotic War of 1812 has preserved the names of two female heroines - Nadezhda Durova And Vasilisa Kozhina. But if there is quite extensive information about the life of the cavalry maiden Durova, then information about Vasilisa Kozhina is extremely scanty.
Here is what was written about her in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia: “Kozhina Vasilisa (years of birth and death unknown), partisan of the Patriotic War of 1812, peasant woman, elder of the Gorshkov farm, Sychevsky district, Smolensk province. Having organized a detachment of partisans from teenagers and women, armed with scythes, pitchforks, axes, etc., K. destroyed and captured soldiers of the Napoleonic army during their retreat from Russia. She was awarded a medal and a cash prize."
It’s an amazing thing - in Soviet times it was customary not only to exalt the names of national heroes, but sometimes to exaggerate their significance. And here suddenly there is such condensation and stinginess.
In school history textbooks of the Soviet era, the picture is the same: in the paragraphs dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812, the name of Vasilisa Kozhina is there, but there are no details.
The reason for this phenomenon is simple - there is actually very little information about the peasant resistance to Napoleon’s army because immediately after the Patriotic War no one thought to collect this data.
Two worlds in one Russia
Famous Russian Soviet historian Evgeniy Tarle in his work “Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia” he described this situation as follows: “No one bothered to systematically and carefully preserve for history the memory of these national heroes, and they themselves did not pursue glory. Peasant woman from the village of Sokolovo, Smolensk province of Praskovya, who defended herself alone against six Frenchmen, killed three of them (including the colonel) with a pitchfork, wounded and put to flight the other three, and remained Praskovya for posterity, without a surname.”
Vasilisa Kozhina was lucky in this regard - her name and small information about her deeds remained in history.
But why were the names of the peasant partisans not preserved?
Here it is worth remembering what Russia was like at the beginning of the 19th century. The luxury of high society, the beauty of balls, the splendor of palaces, the “crunch of French bread” - all this stood on the basis of serfdom. The idea of treating peasants as equals was the lot of individual eccentrics, infected with advanced European ideas, recognized as harmful in Russia.
The Russian people and the Russian nobility spoke different languages in the literal sense of the word. Among the nobility before the War of 1812, the main language of communication was French; some representatives of high Russian society could neither read nor write in Russian.
When Napoleon's invasion began, the attitude of the Russian authorities towards the peasantry was wary, to say the least. If they didn’t expect betrayal from him, they certainly didn’t expect help.
Moreover, from the point of view of the highest circles, including Emperor Alexander I, an armed peasant posed a danger almost greater than the French army.
Avengers from the highway
As a result, the “club of the people’s war” that he wrote about Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, arose on the initiative from below.
The Russian peasantry categorically did not like the visits of detachments of the French army to buy food for soldiers and fodder for horses. In Russia, for a long time, armed strangers were not welcomed, and even more so, those who tried to take away the last things from the villagers.
At first, the resistance was rather passive in nature: fodder and food were hidden from the French, and when this was not possible, they were burned. When the French appeared, the peasants acted according to centuries-old tradition - hiding in the forest.
When the French, irritated by the first failures, began to use force against the peasants, hanging and shooting those who disobeyed orders, the fight against them began to take on a different character.
The impetus for active action was the thirst for revenge - for oneself, for relatives, for friends, for neighbors who suffered from the French.
The peasants had almost no weapons, but this did not bother anyone. Dashing people with flails had been perfecting the technology of highway robberies for centuries, and in the villages there were enough people who were familiar with this style first-hand.
Just as they had previously ambushed rich merchants, so in 1812 they began to hunt French convoys and small detachments that lagged behind the main forces.
Woman with a braid
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 killers was shared by her 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 set up ambushes on 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 units of the Russian regular army, to whose location the prisoners were transferred.
The main mention of the actions of Vasilisa Kozhina is the note “Starostika Vasilisa” in the magazine “Son of the Fatherland” in 1812: “The headman of a village in Sychevsky district led a party of prisoners to the city. In his absence, the peasants brought several more French people captured by them, and gave them to their elder Vasilisa to be sent to their destination. Vasilisa gathered the peasants, sat astride her horse, took the scythe in her hands and, riding around the prisoners, shouted in an important voice: “Well, the villains of the French! To hell! Go, march!” One of the captured officers, irritated that the woman decided to command him, did not listen to her. Vasilisa immediately hit him on the head with her scythe, he fell dead at her feet, and she cried out: “It will be the same for all of you, thieves, dogs, who just move a little!” I’ve already torn off the heads of twenty-seven of your mischief makers! 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.
“The French, hungry rats, are on the team of elder Vasilisa.” Wood engraving by Alexey Venetsianov. 1812 Source: Public Domain
As a partisan Davydov earned the trust of the people
Oddly enough, this story is all we know about Vasilisa Kozhina for sure. Later accounts of her actions are questionable, as historians consider them to be fictitious. In 1812-1813, a series of popular prints was dedicated to Vasilisa Kozhina, and new stories about battles with the French are associated precisely with their appearance.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, two partisan movements existed in parallel - the official one, the most prominent representative of which was Denis Davydov, and peasant.
The relationship between the “regular” partisans and the peasant partisans was complex. At the very beginning of his partisan activity, Denis Davydov himself almost became a victim of his “colleagues”.
“How many times have I asked the inhabitants after the conclusion of peace between us: “Why did you think we were French?” Each time they answered me: “Look, my dear (pointing to my hussar’s cap), this, they say, is similar to their clothes.” - “Don’t I speak Russian?” - “But they have all sorts of people!” Then I learned from experience that in a People’s War one must not only speak the language of the mob, but also adapt to it both in customs and in clothing. I put on a man's caftan, began to grow a beard, instead of the Order of St. Anna hung an image of St. Nicholas and spoke to them in the language of the people,” Davydov himself described what was happening in his “Diary of Partisan Actions.”
“A nickel for vodka”
Peasant partisans, such as Vasilisa Kozhina, fought not for rewards, but because they could not tolerate the invaders in their native land.
Ultimately, the contribution of the people's partisan units to the fight against Napoleon was noted. A number of particularly distinguished commanders received state awards. According to one version, Vasilisa Kozhina was among the recipients. However, it has not yet been possible to find reliable confirmation of the fact of such an award.
The peasants actually dreamed of a different reward. There were rumors among them that at the end of the war, Emperor Alexander I would give “freedom” - he would abolish serfdom in Russia.
This, however, did not happen. Immediately after the expulsion of Napoleon from Russia, the authorities issued a decree on the voluntary surrender of weapons that ended up in the hands of the mob.
For the majority of participants in the peasant partisan movement, there were either no awards at all, or they were in the style of “a nickel for vodka.”
Marveling at Vasilisa Kozhina’s feat, the Russian nobility very soon forgot about her. Nothing is known about how the folk heroine lived for another quarter of a century of her life (there is information that she died around 1840).
USSR postage stamp, 1962.
“A feeling of resentment for the tormented homeland, a thirst for revenge for destroyed cities and burned villages<…>the desire to defend Russia and punish the daring conqueror - all these feelings gradually gripped the entire people. The peasants gathered in small groups, caught the French lagging behind and mercilessly killed them. When French soldiers appeared for bread and hay, the peasants almost always put up fierce armed resistance, and if the French detachment turned out to be too strong for them, they fled into the forests and burned the bread and hay themselves before escaping."
Tarle E. V.,
"Napoleon"
Curriculum Vitae
Vasilisa Kozhina(dates of birth and death unknown), heroine of the Patriotic War of 1812, partisan. She was a peasant woman by origin, and was the wife of the headman of the Gorshkovo farm, Sychevsky district, Smolensk province. During the invasion of Napoleonic troops in Russia, she organized a partisan detachment of teenagers and women, which destroyed and captured French soldiers during their retreat. For her exploits, Kozhina was awarded a medal and a cash prize. A portrait of Vasilisa Kozhina, painted after the end of the war with Napoleon.
Chronology
| 70-80 XVIII century | The birth of Vasilisa Kozhina can be attributed to approximately this period. Almost nothing is known about her life before the War of 1812. Based on her single portrait, only some rough conclusions can be drawn. It is known that the portrait was painted around 1913. On it Vasilisa is 35-40 years old. |
| IV quarter XVIII century — I quarter XIX century | the marriage of Vasilisa Kozhina and the birth of her children, of whom, according to some information, she had five. |
| 1812 | Napoleon's invasion of Russia. War. The partisan movement in which Vasilisa Kozhina took part. |
| OK. 1813 | Painting a portrait of Vasilisa Kozhina by an artist Alexander Smirnov. |
| after 1813 | after 1813 there is no mention of Vasilisa Kozhina. |
Quotes
“...The bravest of the inhabitants who remained in the vicinity of their homeland mounted horses and began to destroy the enemy to the best of their ability.”
(A. I. Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky)
“In just one Sychevsky district of this province (Smolensk - A.V.), from August to the end of October, peasant partisan detachments destroyed or captured over four thousand enemy soldiers. Here a detachment was formed mainly of women under the command of Vasilisa Kozhina, a peasant woman from the Gorshkovo farm.”
(It’s not for nothing that all of Russia remembers. /Album/.
M., “Soviet Russia”, 1986., p. 213.)
“The very peasants from the villages adjacent to the theater of war inflict the greatest harm on the enemy... burning with love for their homeland, they organize militias among themselves. It happens that several neighboring villages post sentries on elevated places and bell towers, who, upon seeing the enemy, sound the alarm. At this sign, the peasants gather, attack the enemy with desperation, and do not leave the battlefield without achieving final victory. They kill the enemy in large numbers, and take those captured to the army. Every day they come to the Main Apartment, convincingly asking for firearms and ammunition for protection from enemies. The requests of these respectable peasants, true sons of the fatherland, are satisfied as far as possible and they are supplied with guns, pistols and gunpowder.”
(“News about the Army” about the training of troops in the Tarutino camp
to the upcoming battles and successes of peasant partisan detachments.
- In the book: Leaflets of the Patriotic War of 1812.
Sat. documents. M., 1962., p. 50.
/ Quote. by: No wonder all of Russia remembers. /Album/.
(Compiled by: Ezerskaya I. A., Prudnikov Yu. F.).
M., “Soviet Russia”, 1986., p. 199.)
“In the Smolensk province, the elder Vasilisa Kozhina became widely known. Her husband, the headman of a village in Sychevsky district, led a party of prisoners taken by peasants to the city. In his absence, the villagers caught several more Frenchmen and immediately brought them to the elder Vasilisa for departure to their destination. This latter, not wanting to distract the adults from their most important task of beating and catching villains, gathered a small convoy of children and, mounting a horse, set off as a leader to see off the French herself.”
(“A complete collection of anecdotes from the most memorable war between the Russians and the French”)
“The villagers of one Kaluga province from the time the enemy touched their borders, being helped by the Cossacks,<…>killed and captured more than 6,000 enemy people; Every day they come to ask for weapons, beg the commanders of the detachments to give them an opportunity to defeat the enemy, and their requests are fulfilled if possible.”
“There are many famous feats performed by our venerable villagers; but they cannot be made public at first, because the names of the brave ones are still unknown; measures have been taken to find out about them and hand them over to the fatherland for due respect.”
(“News about the army.”, 1812
/ Quote. from: Reader on the history of the USSR., XIX century., M., 1991.)
“Very little is known about Kozhina’s life. She was the elder of the Gorshkovo farm, Sychevsky district, Smolensk province. Kozhina organized a detachment, mainly consisting of women and teenagers, armed with scythes, pitchforks, and axes. They fought mercilessly against Napoleonic marauders. Resourcefulness and courage are the distinctive features of this brave patriotic peasant woman, worthy of the daughter of her Motherland. "
(1812. Borodino panorama: Album /
Author: I. A. Nikolaeva, N. A. Kolosov, P. M. Volodin.
M., “Fine Arts”, 1985.)
Literature
- Tarle E. V., Napoleon., M., 1957.
- Manfred A. Z., Napoleon Bonaparte., M., 1980.
- Partisan movement in the Patriotic War of 1812., Yoshkar-Ola, 1941.
- Reader on the history of the USSR, XIX century., M., 1991.
- Russian history., Ed. M. N. Zueva., M., 1994.
- No wonder all of Russia remembers the Patriotic War of 1812. /Album/. M., “Soviet Russia”, 1986.