1. Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration was a Russian general and prince of Georgian origin, prominent during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
65 Facts About Pyotr Bagration
1. 2.
In December 1805 the combined Russo-Austrian army suffered defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz, where Pyotr Bagration commanded the allied right wing against the French under Jean Lannes.
3.
Barclay had proposed a scorched-earth retreat that the emperor Alexander I of Russia had approved, although Pyotr Bagration preferred to confront the French in a major battle.
4.
Pyotr Bagration commanded the left wing around what became known as the Pyotr Bagration fleches at Borodino, where he was mortally wounded; he died a couple of weeks later.
5.
Pyotr Bagration studied Russian and German and was taught Persian, Turkish, Armenian, and Georgian by his father.
6.
Pyotr Bagration joined the Imperial Russian Army in 1782, enlisting as a sergeant in the Kavsansk Rifles of the Astrakhan Infantry Regiment.
7.
Pyotr Bagration served in the military campaign to suppress the Polish Kosciuszko Uprising of 1794.
8.
Pyotr Bagration received successive promotions to lieutenant-colonel, to colonel and to major-general.
9.
Pyotr Bagration's merits were recognized by Suvorov, whom he accompanied in the Italian and Swiss campaigns of 1799, winning particular distinction by the capture of the towns of Brescia and Bergamo and having fought well along the Adda River and in the Klon Valley.
10.
Pyotr Bagration was the alleged lover of Emperor Paul's daughter Catherine.
11.
Pyotr Bagration and Catherine had been casually involved, but the marriage was a failure.
12.
Pyotr Bagration was obliged by the emperor to claim their daughter, Marie-Clementine, as his own and to subsidize thousands of rubles of Catherine's debts.
13.
Pyotr Bagration had a reputation as a heavy gambler, as well, and was forced to sell estates to cover losses that rose as high as 80,000 roubles.
14.
When Kutuzov was overruled and forced into battle at Austerlitz, Pyotr Bagration commanded the advance guard of the Prince Liechtenstein's column and defended the allied right against Lannes while the left attacked Napoleon's deliberately undefended right flank.
15.
Pyotr Bagration was promoted to lieutenant-general in 1805, and in 1807 fought bravely and obstinately at the battles of Eylau, Heilsberg, and Friedland.
16.
Pyotr Bagration was successful as commander of both Russia's Finnish Campaign in 1808 and Turkish Campaign in 1809.
17.
In 1812, Pyotr Bagration commanded the 2nd Army of the West.
18.
Pyotr Bagration led the left wing at the Battle of Borodino where he constructed many fleches which, due to a shortage of engineer officers, were poorly built.
19.
When he finally heard the truth, Pyotr Bagration was so shocked that he rapidly stood up, totally forgetting about his grave wound.
20.
Pyotr Bagration then took command of the Russian army's rearguard to do so.
21.
Pyotr Bagration's combined Russo-Austrian force numbered less than 7,500 men facing a foe more than five times the size.
22.
Marshal Murat hesitated to attack and later even agreed to an offer from Pyotr Bagration to negotiate an armistice, halting the entire French advance without informing Napoleon.
23.
General Pyotr Bagration personally led some of the counter-attacks, which drove the French back.
24.
Pyotr Bagration's actions prevented the Russian army from being cut off and destroyed.
25.
General Pyotr Bagration demonstrated his skills as military commander particularly during the brutal Battle of Eylau which took place in East Prussia on 7 and 8 February 1807 during the War of the Fourth Coalition.
26.
Pyotr Bagration then informed Bennigsen, who immediately halted his offensive and retreated.
27.
Pyotr Bagration occupied high ground a mile in front of the town, facing Marshal Soult's IV Corps and Marshal Murat's cavalry.
28.
Under pressure from greatly superior numbers, Pyotr Bagration finally conducted an orderly retreat to join the main Russian army.
29.
Pyotr Bagration's delaying action and skilful withdrawal enabled the Russian army to escape destruction and consolidate for a decisive battle.
30.
Pyotr Bagration's men had to endure worst weather conditions, severe frost, snowstorms and forest debris.
31.
Nevertheless, Pyotr Bagration's division overcame those obstacles and took all objectives, Hameenlinna on 22 February, Tampere on 1 March and Pori on 6 March 1808.
32.
Pyotr Bagration correctly assessed the situation that the main Swedish force was in the north and intended to turn his division for an attack.
33.
In September 1808 Pyotr Bagration became ill and was forced to leave the theatre of operation.
34.
Pyotr Bagration was keenly interested in the events and hastily returned as soon as he became fit for service again.
35.
Pyotr Bagration made a timely response and quickly threw the Swedes back to the sea.
36.
Pyotr Bagration was carefully monitoring the enemy's activities and allowed the Swedish troops to set foot on shore before he commenced a full assault which destroyed the entire enemy force, leaving only a few who could escape with boats.
37.
Pyotr Bagration carefully planned his campaign and managed to supply his troops with fresh food, warm clothes, ammunition and weapons.
38.
Pyotr Bagration refused, convinced that the sole purpose of von Dobeln's offer was to delay his movements.
39.
Pyotr Bagration was highly praised for his conduct of the campaign and was promoted to full general of infantry.
40.
Davout thought Pyotr Bagration had some 60,000 men and Pyotr Bagration thought Davout had 70,000.
41.
Pyotr Bagration was getting orders from both Alexander's staff and Barclay and left Pyotr Bagration without a clear picture of what was expected of him and the general situation.
42.
Davout then mounted a counter assault which threw the 7th corps back, although Raevsky was able to fend them off repeatedly until Pyotr Bagration decided to order a general retreat when his army got struck by other French forces at the flanks and rear.
43.
Pyotr Bagration got further reinforced with the arrival of de Tolly's army.
44.
Pyotr Bagration approved the proposal but, when he presented the plans to Kutuzov, the commander in chief only allowed a very limited number of troops to be provided for such operations.
45.
Davydov gave his word that he would take full care and responsibility for the supplies and action of his troops, only dissatisfied about the resources he considered very insufficient, asking Pyotr Bagration to give him at least 1,000 Cossacks.
46.
Pyotr Bagration then wrote letters to General Vassilichikov and General Karpov regarding the allocations and general information about the best Cossack and Hussar units available.
47.
Pyotr Bagration became the author of the first real tactical instructions for such activities and one of the founders of the Russian guerrilla movement against Napoleon.
48.
Kutuzov, who observed the heavy fighting at the fleches, was sending the 2nd and parts of the 5th Infantry Corps with 100 guns from his artillery reserve, but their arrival would take one to two hours, which meant that Pyotr Bagration was on his own.
49.
Pyotr Bagration's troops were hit not only by musket fire but canister shot from artillery at close range.
50.
Pyotr Bagration decided to meet the attackers boldly in what led to a long and brutal melee, probably the bloodiest scene during the entire battle, described by the historian Buturlin as follows:.
51.
Pyotr Bagration ordered his entire force to counterattack, but was seriously outnumbered and slowly driven back.
52.
The Cuirassiers managed to defeat the forces of Marshal Ney but the news of Pyotr Bagration being hit quickly spread and brought confusion and morale collapse within the 2nd Army.
53.
The Pyotr Bagration fleches were abandoned and left to the French, but it had cost them a huge price.
54.
Pyotr Bagration was evacuated to Simy, a village in the Vladimir province and died there of his wound on 24 September 1812 at the age of 47.
55.
Pyotr Bagration, heavily influenced by Alexander Suvorov, was an innovative tactician who favoured mobile offensive warfare, even though many of the battles in which he was engaged with the French were of a defensive nature.
56.
Pyotr Bagration's applied doctrines were ahead of their time solid concepts for both offensive and defensive warfare, as even his retreats were conducted in equally good and impressive fashion, given the sometimes impossible odds he was facing.
57.
Pyotr Bagration recommended deployment of the forces in a battle array that was not too closely packed, but sufficiently so as to permit soldiers to feel each other's presence with their elbows.
58.
In case of counter-attacks by enemy cavalry, Pyotr Bagration advised the use of battalion masses and squares, or carres.
59.
Pyotr Bagration doggedly introduced advanced tactics; he dispensed with obsolete positional tactics and applied tactics of columns in a combination with separate lines.
60.
Pyotr Bagration creatively approached planning for his assigned tasks, applying such forms of combat as provided exactly the right answers to particular circumstances.
61.
Pyotr Bagration was the unsurpassed master of organization of these extremely complex kinds of action.
62.
Pyotr Bagration paid great attention to the training and education of troops to develop soldiers with courage and initiative, capable of carrying out orders quickly and skillfully.
63.
On 15 October 1800, Bagration was granted the hereditary title of a Prince of the Russian Empire by the Emperor Paul I He was awarded the Orders of St Andrew, of St Alexander Nevsky, of the St Vladimir, 1st class, of the St Anna, 1st class, the St George 2nd class and made a commander of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.
64.
Pyotr Bagration was further honoured with a gold sword of honour for bravery.
65.
Pyotr Bagration is a secondary character in Leo Tolstoy's epic 1869 novel War and Peace.