Remembering Armenians who fought Napoleon
by Georgiy Saakov
Published: Saturday September 29, 2012
Depictions of Pavel Melikov (left) and Valerian Madatov.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan – The 200th anniversary of the Battle of
Borodino, which became a pivotal point in Napoleon’s invasion of
Russia, is being celebrated with conferences and exhibits. New
biographies of the top Russian strategists of what is known in Russia
as the Patriotic War of 1812- Mikhail Kutuzov, Mikhael Barclay de
Tolly and Pyotr Bagration – have been published.
“There was a thunder of two thousand cannons and two hundred thousand
guns that shook the ground beneath our feet. It was spewing death with
such hellish speed that any rescue seemed impossible.” This is how Lev
Tolstoy famously described the Borodino battle in his novel “War and
Peace.”
The war brought out unprecedented unity to the Russian empire, at the
time strictly segregated by class, with high-ranking nobles, Cossacks
and large forces of popular militia fighting the invading army side by
side.
The war effort was also joined by non-Russian subjects of the empire.
Incidentally, Bagration came from the royal family of Georgia, which
was incorporated into Russia only a decade earlier, and Barclay de
Tolly was a German noble from Riga.
Among those who fought with Napoleon’s armies and shed blood in the
field of Borodino, were also Armenians, including General Pavel
Arapetov, colonels (later, generals) Dmitry Ashkharumov and David
Delianov, officers Pavel Melikov, Zoan Firalov, brothers Ivan and
David Abamelik, Don Armenian volunteers led by Nikita Abramov, and
others
Their merits were highly esteemed with ranks and even knighthood by
the highest will of the emperor, and today their portraits can be seen
in the series of 333 portraits exhibited in the War Gallery of St.
Petersburg’s Hermitage museum. The glorified military commanders of
the 1812 Patriotic War look down on us with their handsome and brave
faces “full of military courage,” as Alexander Pushkin wrote about
them.
Karabakhi prince Madatov
In that row there is a portrait of Valerian Madatov (1782-1829) in
hussar uniform. He was born in Karabakh’s Chanahchi (Avetaranots)
settlement not far from Shushi and at the age of 15 arrived in Russia.
In St. Petersburg the ambitious young man joined the military service.
Soon afterwards he became an ensign with the Preobrajensky Regiment of
Imperial Guards. His fist campaign was with Bagration’s regiment
during the Russian-Turkish War of 1807-1812. After the 26-year-old
officer with two squadrons of hussars routed the much larger cavalry
corps of Khosrov Pasha in the Balkan theater, Madatov was awarded with
the golden sword inscribed “For Bravery”. He was subsequently
decorated with a number of medals, including the Cross of St. George.
In years prior to his invasion of Russia, Napoleon defeated the armies
of Europe and his force appeared unstoppable. As the Patriotic War
began in June 1812, the Russian army was retreating. Madatov led a
battalion of hussars in the first Russian success of the war at Kobrin
in present-day Belarus.
Although his unit was not engaged in the Borodino battle, Madatov left
his mark in a number of other engagements of the 1812 war and Russian
army’s subsequent campaign against Napoleon in Poland and Germany.
Later, Madatov served in the Caucasus, including his native Karabakh
which was incorporated into Russia in 1813.
Following wars against Persia, Madatov fought he last campaign against
Turks in the Balkans. He succumbed to illness during the Russian
campaign in Bulgaria in 1829 and was buried with honors in St.
Petersburg. In 2007 sculptor Georgiy Frangulyan inaugurate a monument
to Madatov in Shumen, Bulgaria.
The old man of Borodino
When one visits the fields near the village of Borodino, which today
is an open air historical memorial complex, it is hard to imagine that
this verdant area was once a battlefield, where famous heroes stood in
face of artillery and musket fire.
On Borodino’s 25th anniversary, Mikhail Lermontov romanticized the
bloodiest single-day action of Napoleon’s invasion in a poem studied
to this day by Russian elementary school students. It famously begins
with:
“- HEY tell, old man, had we a cause
When Moscow, razed by fire, once was
Given up to Frenchman’s blow?
Old-timers talk about some frays,
And they remember well those days!
With cause all Russia fashions lays
About Borodino!”
The “old man” – whom Lermontov calls the “uncle” – in whose name the
rest of the poem is told is believed to be Lermontov family’s friend
Pavel Melikov, another Russian general with Karabakhi roots who lost
his arm at Borodino. Melikov subsequently commanded the Baku garrison
and served in Central Asia.
Upon retirement Melikov settled near the Armenian street in Moscow,
which at the time hosted the Lazarev Institute of Eastern Language
(and today houses the Armenian embassy). He shared his war time
memories with the young Lermontov, helping in the creation of one of
the most well known poems in the anthology of Russian literature.
The role of Armenians in the Patriotic War of 1812 foreshadowed the
role their descendants played in subsequent campaigns, culminating in
the World War II – known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.
Karabakh-born Hovhanes Bagramyan and Hamazasp Babajanyan, and
countless others, in effect walked in the footsteps of their
ancestors.
Today, Armenian-Russian relations are a subject of constant attack and
pressure and these crucial events may be fading in time.
But it is said that heroes remain alive as long as they are
remembered. Two centuries that passed since the battle of Borodino
have not erased the admiration and reverence for the heroism of those
days.
– Georgiy Saakov is editor in chief for “Depi Apaga,” a magazine of
Armenians in Uzbekistan
http://www.reporter.am/go/article/2012-09-29-remembering-armenians-who-fought-napoleon-