Treasures of the nation: where to look for Napoleon's gold. Where Napoleon's treasures are hidden Where is Napoleon's gold
Treasures of the "great army"
For the first time, the story that Napoleon "buried" the goods stolen in Moscow at the bottom of the lake was told by the French general de Segur and the English writer Walter Scott. Like, when the "great army" retreated, numerous wagon trains with precious metals and stones trailed behind it. According to the estimates of specialists who conducted an “inventory” some time after Napoleon captured Moscow, the French took out of the city about 20 pounds of gold, more than 300 pounds of silver, countless precious stones, church supplies, furs and weapons. Moreover, the disappearance of the gilded cross from the bell tower of Ivan the Great, as well as the disappearance of the Kremlin double-headed eagle, were also hung on them.
According to legend, the treasures of Napoleon are flooded in Semlevsky Lake
It is known for sure that the caravan left the burnt and devastated Moscow. But all this goodness never reached Paris - it disappeared somewhere. On this they calmed down.
True, not for long. The fact is that already in 1824, General de Segur published memoirs about the Russian campaign. By themselves, they were nothing interesting. But! There was one phrase that firmly stuck in the minds of lovers to profit from treasures: “I had to throw booty taken from Moscow into Semlevsky Lake: cannons, ancient weapons, Kremlin decorations and a cross from the bell tower of Ivan the Great.” Added fuel to the fire and Scott, who wrote the following in the biography of the French emperor: “He ordered that Moscow booty - ancient armor, cannons and a large cross from Ivan the Great - be thrown into Lake Semlevsky as trophies ... which he was not able to carry with him. "
Scott's creation in 1835 ended up in the hands of the then governor of the Smolensk region, Nikolai Khmelnitsky. And the official, of course, decided to look for treasures. Interestingly, he did not initiate anyone into his plans, he went in search of one. For about a month, the official floundered in a forest lake near the village of Semlevo, but could not find anything.
mission Impossible
The failure of Khmelnytsky forced for some time to forget about the treasures of Napoleon. They were remembered only in 1911. Then the members of the Vyazemsky Committee decided how best to perpetuate the memory of the Patriotic War of 1812. And they came up with - to find the treasures hidden by the aggressor. The whole delegation studied the lake up and down. They found the remains of rotted carts, horse bones, even a rusty saber of that era ... In general, anything but jewelry.
Then, in the search, there was a break again, stretching for half a century - it was corny not that time. First the Civil War, then the Second World War. When the situation in the country stabilized, the treasure was again remembered.
In Soviet times, two scientific expeditions were organized
First, in 1960, and then in 1979, two scientific expeditions set off in turn to Semlevsky Lake. Specialists of various stripes, having shown meticulousness, studied everything. Starting from the coastal soil, ending with the chemical composition of the water. But they also failed. And in the finds there were only stones and garbage. And then a completely logical question appeared on the agenda: was there a boy, in the sense of a treasure?
You can, of course, take the word of the French general, but who can guarantee that he did not lie or mix it up? After all, he could call Semlevsky Lake another body of water, which at the beginning of the 19th century was quite a lot on the territory of the Smolensk province. It is possible that de Segur meant some kind of swamp or pond. In addition, he certainly did not have time to determine his location with absolute accuracy - the Russian troops literally breathed in the back. Therefore, the French could throw off the loot as they retreated.
De Segur and Scott could be wrong
By the way, Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov indirectly confirms this in his memoirs: “The enemy leaves the carts in his flight, blows up the boxes with shells and leaves the treasures stolen from the temples of God.” According to historians, the frightened, tired French in a panic threw the loot on the territory from Maloyaroslavets to the Berezina. The field marshal again pushed them to this opinion: “The old Smolensk road was strewn with valuables, a lot of good was dumped into the rivers. All of Russia was turning into a huge, boundless "Semlevsky lake", dragging the "great army" and its hitherto invincible emperor to the bottom.
But Scott's words, according to many historians, should not be taken seriously at all. The Scottish writer did not come to Russia hand in hand with Napoleon, but wrote a book based on archival documents and memoirs of soldiers. Therefore, he, most likely, simply rewrote de Segur's version - it is beautiful and romantic.
Treasures could have been looted in the same 1812
By the way, according to Viktor Mikhailovich Bezotosny, a military historian, Doctor of Historical Sciences, there were never any treasures in that lake. In his opinion, most of the good was recaptured by the Cossacks during their numerous raids on the battered French army. And what was left, Napoleon, quite possibly, buried somewhere in the region of the Belarusian Orsha. He also has a second version, also quite viable - this is the Ponar Mountain, which is not far from modern Vilnius. There, the French, together with the Russian soldiers who came to the rescue, forgot that they were fighting and began to jointly plunder the carts. Here is what the encyclopedia “Patriotic War and Russian Society” of 1911 says about this incident: “The persecutors at the same time joined the persecuted and took part in the robbery. We saw the Russians and the French, who forgot about the war and robbed the same box together. Missing 10,000,000 gold and silver!” So, it is quite possible that Napoleon's treasures disappeared even then. And treasure hunters have been looking for just a beautiful legend for two hundred years.
The mystery of "innumerable treasures" haunts enthusiasts and adventurers to this day. According to legend, trophies from the burned Moscow were taken out in huge convoys. No one knows where the trophies looted by French troops in Russia in the 19th century disappeared.
Creation of a myth The convoy, built in four rows, stretched from Moscow for several tens of miles. “One might think that you see some kind of caravan in front of you ... ... Or an ancient army returning after a big raid with prisoners and booty,” Napoleon’s adjutant Philippe Segur wrote in his memoirs. Where did all the looted wealth go? This question still haunts treasure hunters. One of the versions says that the treasures stolen in Moscow, by order of Napoleon, were dumped into Lake Semlevsky near Vyazma. Segur was the first to announce this: “... We had to leave the booty taken from Moscow in Semlevsky Lake: cannons, ancient weapons, Kremlin decorations and the cross of Ivan the Great. Trophies began to weigh us down.” Then the writer Walter Scott repeated the legend in his essay “On the Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French.” The myth was created. The search for the "treasure of Napoleon" began, continuing to this day. Unsuccessful searches The very first to try to uncover the secret of the "treasure of Napoleon" Smolensk civilian
Governor Nikolay Khmelnitsky. In January 1836, expensive survey and engineering work was carried out in Semlevsky Lake, but they were unsuccessful. The next attempt was made in 1911 by archaeologist Ekaterina Kletnova. She drew attention to the fact that there were two lakes in Semlevo. According to Kletnova, the convoy was most likely flooded in a dam or in the Osma River. The dammed lake was drained, but its examination yielded nothing. In the 30s of the 19th century, a landowner from the Mogilev province, Gurko, who visited Paris, achieved a meeting with the French minister Tuno, who served as a lieutenant in Napoleon's army in 1812. Tuno said that the treasures were thrown into another lake - between Smolensk and Orsha or Orsha and Borisov. Gurko, regardless of expenses, examined all the lakes along the Smolensk - Orsha - Borisov road, but to no avail. In Soviet times, there were also several expeditions to Semlevo. In 1979, 45 people arrived there, equipped with modern technology. However, they also failed: the lake turned out to be deep - up to 24 meters, at the bottom there is a layer of silt 15 meters thick, which makes any searches impossible. Although it turned out that Semlev water also had a high content of the precious metal. Is there no more treasure? There is also a version that the French deliberately planted misinformation in Russia in order to divert attention from the real place of the treasure. This version is confirmed by the sensational story of Orest Petrovich Nikitin, a researcher from Krasnoyarsk who lived during the Great Patriotic War in the Smolensk region. According to Nikitin, about 40 kilometers from Semlevo, on the banks of the Ugra River, near the village of Voznesenye, there was a cemetery called Kurganniki. Here, at different times, the French guards were buried, who remained in Ascension after the war of 1812. One guardsman fell in love with a peasant woman from Ascension and married her. A few years later he died and was buried at Kurganniki. His wife erected a monument to him - a large stone. This stone could be seen even before the Great Patriotic War. The Frenchman's wife lived a very long time and died at the age of more than a hundred years. Before her death, she told her fellow villagers that her husband asked to be buried in the indicated place, and a monument to be erected from a large stone. Treasures are supposedly hidden near this stone. None of the villagers believed this, because they thought that the grandmother had simply lost her mind. Before the war, a strange German named Moser appeared in these places, posing as a representative of the famous Singer company. As it turned out later, he was a classic spy - an employee of the Abwehr. Moser collected various information and, apparently, accidentally learned the legend about treasures hidden somewhere in Ascension. In 1942, he led a Gestapo detachment during the encirclement of the 33rd Army of General Efremov near Vyazma. Then, with a team of sappers, he began searching for valuables stolen by Napoleon. “Once Moser,” recalls Nikitin, “visited our house in the city of Gzhatsk, now Gagarin, and boasted: Napoleon’s valuables were found a few meters from the stone - a monument to the Napoleonic guardsman. I saw the found values personally. Gold coins of various denominations in 4 leather bags, several (no more than 20) different gold dishes, bowls, goblets, a lot of gold and silver church utensils, among which a large gold cross stood out. Maybe the Germans showed only some of the valuables, while all the others hid from the eyes of unnecessary witnesses. ”Therefore, Nikitin claims that the secrets of the Napoleonic treasure since 1942 no longer exist. Like it or not, it's hard to say. But it seems that, regardless of the results of the search, "Napoleon's treasure" will be searched for by more than one generation of Russians. It's just the way people are. Text: Dmitry Tikhonov
Among the many legends about large treasures, the story of Napoleon's gold stands apart, and this is not surprising, because unlike other vague legends, it is most clearly described by contemporaries, and not so far in time from the modern era. However, even now there is no solution to this mystery of the beginning of the 19th century, forcing people to stubbornly search for lost treasures ...
Almost two hundred years have passed since the time when Napoleon, who conquered Moscow, was in a hurry to take valuables out of the city, for which several large convoys were organized. The fate of the treasures that were supposed to be delivered to France, in the third in a row, the so-called "Golden Carriage", is still of the greatest interest. Information about the items that were actually tried to be taken out is contradictory. Of course, treasure hunters and adventurers would like to think that it was gold that was in it, but no one can, with sufficient accuracy, either confirm or deny this information. At the same time, data on time, movement routes, stops, on those points where skirmishes with Russian troops took place, look complete and exhaustive! Why, then, has not been found so far any of those innumerable riches that were taken out of Moscow, but did not reach the goal set by Napoleon?
On October 16, 1812, the convoy was formed and in a hurry moved out of Moscow, escorted by Viceroy Eugene Beauharnais. According to existing and known data, the convoy consisted of 350 wagons, a giant "train" in those days! Napoleon set a completely clear and precise task: Beauharnais had to make an accelerated march to Smolensk, from where treasures and valuables had to be transported further to Saxony. The plan was simple, but Napoleon failed to fully implement it, since he could not control the movements of Russian troops, including non-regular, partisan detachments, and fatal accidents began to happen very soon, long before the string of wagons was supposed to get to Smolensk.
Near the village of Kutasovo, the convoy was attacked by partisans led by Seslavin. The guards of the convoy, which were the soldiers of the corps of Viceroy Beauharnais, gave a decisive rebuff to the attackers, and the partisans were forced to retreat. Both the French and Russian partisans suffered serious losses in this battle.
On October 17, the convoy was 12 versts from the village of Bykasova, which is on the Borovsk road, from where it was supposed to proceed further to Fominskoye-Vereya (Fominskoye is the old name of the present Naro-Fominsk). But at that moment it became known that Vereya had already been liberated from the French by General Dorokhov, so the plans had to be urgently changed and instead of a quick march, it turned out to be a painful wait. Napoleon himself did not move as part of the convoy, he would leave Moscow three days later, on October 19, and together with a group of troops rush to Vereya to open the way for the convoy waiting in the vicinity of Bykasov.
On October 21 and 22, significant forces of the Napoleonic army were drawn to Vereya, which could not but affect the Russian defenders of the city. Dorokhov has to pull up the cavalry to himself, and thus a direct road to Mozhaisk opens up for the French, which they did not fail to take advantage of.
On October 27, the convoy under the command of the Viceroy stops in the village of Alferovo, which is located 6 versts from Borovsk. The soldiers are tired and catastrophically lacking food. The horses are also exhausted. To feed them, you often have to use straw from the roofs of houses, there is simply no other food! The French come to the vision that in the original composition it will not be possible to carry out further movement forward, it is necessary to reduce the composition of the convoy. It is from this moment that the French begin to throw guns and blow up the charging boxes. Cannons are buried in the ground, spoiled. So, later, the Russians will find and remove from the ground cannons spoiled by French soldiers near the Kolotsk Monastery.
On October 29, the convoy passed Borisov and ended up on the Smolensk road. On October 30 we passed the Kolotsk Monastery. On October 31, the Golden Convoy stopped for the night in Gzhatsk, while it was reported about the loss of horses in the amount of five hundred pieces and that the French "got rid" of eight hundred cuirasses. Considering these figures, it becomes clear how difficult it was for them to maintain the speed of movement and, in general, to maintain the volume of transported that was originally equipped from Moscow.
On November 3, 1812, the wagon train reaches Vyazma, where it is attacked by Miloradovich, and, having entered the battle, the viceroy takes the wagon train in the opposite direction, to Novoselki. At night, he makes an attempt to move towards Smolensk, covered by Napoleon's forces. In this area, near the Protasov Bridge, the French were forced to abandon a lot of heavy guns, which made it possible to free up 500 horses, so necessary for the successful advance of the convoy forward in late autumn and thaw conditions. On November 5, the convoy catches up with the main Napoleonic detachments and, together with them, moves towards Dorogobuzh. But a fatal accident again intervenes in the movement. On the night of November 5-6, severe frost hit and in the morning the French did not count many soldiers and horses who had frozen to death, so on November 6, Napoleon, seeing that the movement of the convoy was becoming more and more difficult, and fearing to lose all valuables, decides to divide the convoy in order to ensure the delivery of at least part of the valuables.
Beauharnais with a wagon train is moving towards Zasizhye. The condition of the soldiers guarding the convoy becomes catastrophic. Despite the fact that Napoleon specifically sent a convoy along the road where it was supposed to find provisions for the soldiers and food for the horses, the forces of both were running out. Extreme discontent grows among the soldiers. Weapons, including many cannons, are thrown away because the roads did not allow them to be transported further. I had to throw away everything that prevented moving forward, leaving only the most necessary. It was from this moment that the looting of the convoy began by the soldiers themselves, who, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, pulled valuables out of the carts and hid them in the ground. The latter seems rather strange, because it is not entirely clear how they were going to subsequently extract treasures from the caches, when there was no possibility of returning to these places in the near future? Apparently, driven to despair, the soldiers at least tried to distract themselves from the difficult fate that befell them. And apparently it was this that saved the convoy from the soldier's rebellion at that time, which had been brewing from the very beginning of the unsuccessful journey.
In Zasizhye, Beauharnais realizes that further advancement of the convoy in the current composition is not possible: the horses are exhausted, not shod, and there is no way to feed them or shoe them. He decides to hide some of the valuables. November 9, the French throw 62 guns. When on the morning of November 10, 1812, in the morning, Beauharnais went to Vopi, part of the convoy was no longer with him. It is likely that at night the soldiers were engaged in hiding part of Moscow's wealth, but historians and researchers find it difficult to say exactly where this happened.
The events that followed the crossing of the Vop River were the last in the fate of the Golden Carriage. The French built a bridge overnight, but it was swept away by the morning, so a new one had to be built. They were already awaited by Russian Cossack detachments led by Platov. Under the onslaught of the Russian troops, the French were forced to retreat, abandoning their guns and the convoy itself. The Cossacks did not fail to take advantage of this and began to steal valuables. According to the testimony of the peasants of the surrounding villages, the Cossacks repeatedly returned to the carts, took away the contents and hid them nearby, and then returned again for the next part. Platov, wanting to stop looting and unrest, ordered the carts to be burned along with the contents, which was done! But if there were gold and silver in the carts, then the fire could not destroy it irrevocably. According to many historians, the burned wagons could contain other kinds of valuables - paintings, clothes. This means that other valuables hidden before burning, which could just be the most expensive, were buried or drowned by the French in advance. The 3rd convoy (and this is 300 trucks!) disappeared between Zasizhye and Ulkhova Sloboda.
Beauharnais, fleeing from the Russian troops, on November 13 unites in Smolensk with Napoleon's troops lightly, the convoy disappeared, as if it had never existed. So the story of the export of valuables from Moscow ended ingloriously. And it is not known what values are in question. Until now, history keeps this secret. No evidence has been found that the French hid some of the valuables, and the treasures themselves have not yet been found. One can only guess where such significant masses of precious objects that Napoleon tried to take out of the walls of Moscow devastated by him could have gone. There are various assumptions about this. For example, they suspect that Napoleon took the most valuable items with him, thereby diverting attention from his progress and creating the appearance of exporting valuables precisely by the third, Golden convoy. In this case, it is useless to look for mythical treasures, they simply were not there! There are also versions that the valuables were hidden at the very beginning of the journey, when it became clear that it would be difficult to move on and the journey was doomed to failure.
But the most enduring legend is about treasures flooded and hidden in the ground, which Beauharnais decided to preserve in this way, feeling that he could not deliver them to Smolensk. And it is quite clear that in this case, he could only betray the earth that which can be safely preserved in it - gold, in the first place. After all, it is impossible to imagine that paintings, expensive clothes and other things would be buried in the ground, which would inevitably deteriorate and in the shortest possible time!
There are a great many versions, but which one is true remains a mystery to this day. Many expeditions, excavations and underwater searches did not give an intelligible answer to the questions posed regarding the fate of the valuables transported by the Beauharnais convoy. The controversy does not subside and from time to time there are bursts of interest in this historical mystery of the Patriotic War of 1812.
Perhaps, over time, there will be not only flooded (buried) wealth, but also those crumbs that the French soldiers buried during the movement, as well as small Cossack caches made during the looting of the convoy after the battle near the Vop River. The history of Napoleon's treasures continues to live and excites the minds of history lovers and treasure hunters who are looking for and hoping to make one of the most interesting scientific and historical discoveries ...
In 1812, Napoleon, leaving Moscow, took away
a few convoys with gold and valuables. There were several golden wagons
plus a convoy with a collection of ancient weapons and armor. Next, consider
the fate of the 2nd golden convoy of 200 wagons and an iron convoy with armor and an old
weapons.
October 19, 1812 Napoleon
leaves Moscow and with it two convoys (715 horses) with trophies:
- golden convoy (precious things of the Kremlin)
- iron convoy (collection of ancient weapons)
in which the soldiers and officers of the French army transport the loot. And this is not
counting army convoys.
October 20, 1812 Napoleon
army in Chirikovo, Troitsky, Ignatovo, Rudnevo. Throughout its
following the army makes a laying of treasures. This was done in different
reasons.
The first treasure was made on October 20
not far from Moscow, on the Desna River, in the village of Martemyanovo. It happened when
the French were attacked by the Cossacks. The French resisted, but were forced to
withdraw when reinforcements approached the Russians. After the French retreat,
found many open empty chests. And on the banks of the Nara River in the bushes was
small amount of silverware was found.
October 22, 1812 Napoleon
Fominsky, Small Vyazemy, Kubinskoye, Ozhigovo, Bekasovo. The convoy is not far away
from Borovsk. There are fights for Maloyaroslavets. Near the village of Kolodezi, a small part
the convoy with church silver was recaptured by the Cossacks. After that, Napoleon splits the convoy
on 2:
- 200 wagons with gold and silver are ahead of the army for 2-3 crossings under guard
500 rangers and 2 regiments of the old guard - the rest with the army
In the Malechkino area, it is exposed
attack by the Cossacks. The Cossacks do not notice Napoleon, but are busy with trophies. Russians
were repulsed by the dragoons who came to the rescue, but the Cossacks carried away rich booty with money.
Here Napoleon decides to retreat to the old Smolensk road. From
Borovsk to the Smolensk road there are no good roads. All along the way
By order of Napoleon, the wagons that interfere with the movement are destroyed. Besides,
there is an order from Napoleon not to leave anything to the Russians. Accordingly, for everything
Treasures appear along the way.
October 26, 1812 Napoleon
moves to Borovsk, where he spends the night. Ney approaches Borovsk from Chirikovo. Whole
the path of the army is littered with abandoned and destroyed wagons.
On the way, the French have to
overcome several full-flowing rivers with steep banks.
October 28, 1812 Napoleon
Mozhaisk. Freezing continues at night. Many carts are damaged and abandoned.
Accordingly, you have to make bookmarks (treasures). Napoleon himself stands in the village
Uspensky.
Along the way from Vereya to
Mozhaisk Napoleon had several water barriers with narrow bridges: 2 tributaries
Protva, the Istma River, the Protva River, after a while the Protva River again. IN
in these most narrow and inconvenient places, wagons were destroyed and hidden
loot. At this moment, the French hope to return to Russia and
because good is buried. But some are drowned in the crossing points.
In addition, “unloading” touched
and directly satchels of soldiers. Many historians quote contemporaries,
that the army was exhausted under the weights. So, General Gerard demanded from the soldiers
lighten the packs, because the pace of movement of the column was too low. So
Thus, the active laying of treasures occurs on the way between Borovsk and
Mozhaisk.
November 1, 1812 Napoleon - in
Vyazma. Here the carts are destroyed, but not Napoleon himself, but others
parts of the French to free the horses. In particular, not far from Velichev
there was a convoy of the Italian guard. Due to him (and not only) produced
reduction.
November 2, 1812 Napoleon
moved from Vyazma. The French are constantly attacked by Russian troops. Yes, 2
November, after the attack, Napoleon's office was captured, 40 carts of luggage and 1
tool.
By November 3, 1812, the French
passed Tsarevo-Zaimishche and stood 30 versts from the city of Vyazma on the Osma River near
Protasov bridge. Napoleon - in Semlevo, the Württemberg division - in Yurenevo, Ney -
in Vyazma, the viceroy - in Fedorovsky, Davout - not reaching Fedorovsky. To Semlevo
Napoleon reduces his convoy (until the reduction affected the convoys with
jewels), we are talking about household carts.
November 3, 1812 French
continue retreat. They have to get rid of burdens. At 12-16 miles
from Vyazma, Davout was forced to bury 8 heavy guns, since the horses were no longer
was. At this time there is a massive concealment of treasures. Yes, close to the village.
Lukyanovo, in a pine grove 12 km west of the city of Vyazma, a treasure was made. IN
In 1830, the French secretly dug it up.
By the end of the day November 3, 1812
Junot and guards - in Slavkovo, Emelyanovo, Vasino, Napoleon - in Zhashkovo,
Poniatowski and Davout - on the road to Semlevo.
By the end of the day on November 4, 1812, Junot
and the Young Guard - in Dorogobuzh. The Old Guard - between Zhashkovo and Slavkovo,
viceroy - in the area of Rybkok, Ney and Poniatowski - near Semlevo, Napoleon in
Zhashkovo. It was on November 4, 1812 in Zhashkovo that Napoleon gave the order to hide
iron convoy. By order of Napoleon, it was flooded into the lake.
November 5, 1812 (morning) -
Napoleon in Zhashkovo, Nei - near Semlevo. Viceroy - in Zhashkovo. When Ney has
the charges for the guns ran out, he crossed the Protasov bridge and moved to
Slavkovo. Further, Napoleon's army moves to Dorogobuzh.
November 6, 1812 Ney is already in
Boldin Monastery, Napoleon - in Dorogobuzh. Also, Ney's corps occupies not far
(2 versts) from the village of Chobotovo and at the crossroads in the village of Prudishche. IN
Chobotovo is also Ney's convoy itself.
November 7, 1812 Ney, covering
retreat of the army, defending itself from Miloradovich in Dorogobuzh. Viceroy Eugene
Beauharnais goes to Bizyukovo, Zasizhye and further to Dukhovshchina.
From
Vyazma to Dorogobuzh, the French suffer heavy losses. Not so much from Russians,
how much from cold and hunger. Between Vyazma and Dorogobuzh, the Russians saw about
10,000 dead horses and about 4,000 dead Frenchmen.
November 8, 1812 Junot is already in
Smolensk. Further, the French troops are steadily moving towards the border, leaving
small treasures all along the way. But we are now interested in the golden convoy
Napoleon. To do this, you need to trace the path of its movement.
On the night of November 21-22, 1812
the Russians cut off the road to Napoleon on the banks of the Berezina and captured the city
Borisov, including all bridges. At this time, the 2nd golden convoy was still moving
together with the Napoleonic troops to the Berezina. Oudinot must recapture the city of Borisov,
so that the troops can cross. He went from Krupki and Beaver to Loshnitsy 22
November 1812.
From eyewitness accounts, it is known
that the 2nd golden convoy had already passed Tolochin at that time and was approaching the village
Malyavka. Having passed the village of Trostyanka, around 14.00 the convoy was heavily attacked.
Cossacks. The French repulsed the attack. But since the number of guards was not large
(before the battle - 400 people), it became obvious that further there could be more powerful
attacks and convoy at some point can be lost. At that time, there was no convoy around
other strong French formations. Oudinot and Poniatowski in a hurry
went to Loshnitsa, and the guards and rangers fell behind and were in the area of \u200b\u200bvillages
Matievo and Romanovka. It was at this moment that the head of the 2nd golden convoy
makes a decision to conceal the cargo. He starts looking for a place. convoy through
for some time it turns left onto a country road, and after 1 km one of the trucks
overturns into a deep ravine with a stream that flowed into the Plis River. wagon
left under the protection of the rangers, and the convoy itself went on and turned left again.
After some time, the huntsmen left to guard the wagon and moved to the side.
big road. And the cargo was looted by marauders. The convoy moved to the side
distant forest, halfway to it there was another deep ravine, further along the edge
forests to the east, so up to the lake and around it from the side of the forest. Further traces of convoy
are lost. It may have been submerged in this lake. According to eyewitnesses,
there was a huge hole in the middle of the lake, where several
riders. I must also say that in the distance there was some kind of village (presumably
Khimets). It should be noted that in this area there are no rivers nearby where one could
to flood the whole convoy. From this day forward, there is more evidence of the existence of the 2nd
there is no golden wagon. Everything suggests that the convoy was drowned in the lake, because.
there was no way to bury it because of the winter and frost and the large volume
cargo. There were 200 wagons in the convoy and it weighed about 80 tons.
NOT A ONE TREASURE OF NAPOLEON HAS BEEN FOUND YET!
October 8th. Saturday. Today I became a treasure hunter. I was sorting out my grandmother's bookcase and found an old book about Napoleon. I read so much that I almost forgot to go to bed. From this book, I learned that when Napoleon retreated from Moscow in 1812 and winter caught up with him, he decided to get rid of the treasures that he was carrying from the Kremlin ... The French found deep Lake Semlevsky in the forest and dumped all the boxes into it ... "
This is an excerpt from the diary of Alice, the young heroine of Kir Bulychev's fantastic story "Napoleon's Treasure". The girl remembered that a year earlier she had visited Semlevsky Lake in the Smolensk region with her father. That she sat on the shore and imagined how this remote corner looked in fabulous times: “A mermaid could live in the lake, and the old goblin admired how she swims from the shore. I was not at all surprised that a treasure could be hidden here. And I wanted to find it."
The childish, bookish, naive-romantic look of Bulychev's Alice has nothing to do with reality. It is clear that the search for treasures, their very origin, the formidable personalities who buried them - all this is a priori associated with mystery, with distant wanderings, with free wind. It is clear that the very word “treasure” reflexively evokes the dear to heart images of the heroes of Stevenson, Defoe, Verne, Twain, the Soviet writer Andrei Nekrasov with his captain Vrungel and the ship “Trouble”.
"The infantrymen were exhausted under the weight of their satchels"
However, with the treasures of Bonaparte, the situation is different. And not just different, this is the other pole: no romance, no tropical islands, no Captain Flint cards. However, there are enough secrets - they, unsolved for 200 years, are dotted with the entire path along which the imperial army went from Moscow to the west, to the border. The history of the Napoleonic treasures is the history of retreat, or rather, flight. Tragic, shameful. Retreats are not so much in a geographical sense, but in a human one. Departure from yourself, from your greatness, from valor, from integrity.
Napoleon left Moscow at noon on October 19, 1812. His adjutant, Brigadier General Philippe-Paul Segur, quotes the commander's exclamation: “Let's go to Kaluga! And woe to those who stand in my way!”
Moving along the wide Kaluga road in a row of eight carriages, the army was not able to completely leave the city by evening. At that time, Napoleon's army numbered more than 14 thousand horsemen, 90 thousand foot soldiers and 12 thousand non-combatant soldiers. A convoy with “Moscow booty” followed, which, according to the official certificate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, amounted to about 18 pounds of gold, 325 pounds of silver and an indefinite amount of church utensils, icons in gold settings, ancient weapons, furs ... Some of the items made of precious metals were poured into ingots with the letter N in honor of the emperor. For this, melting furnaces were equipped in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin.
“Napoleon ordered to take out all the Kremlin trophies, pick up diamonds, pearls, gold and silver from churches. He even ordered to remove the gilded cross from the dome of Ivan the Great, - wrote officer Vien Marengone. - We dragged everything that escaped the fire. The most elegant and luxurious carriages rode interspersed with wagons, droshkys, and carts full of provisions. The spectacle reminded me of the wars of the Asiatic conquerors.”
Marshals Beauharnais, Davout, Ney, Mortier, Murat had their own convoys with booty. Here is the testimony of the British military agent in the Russian army, Robert Wilson: “Throughout the entire transitions, artillery pieces, hospital and food carts, and even droshky loaded with loot were pulled in three or four rows; the infantrymen were exhausted under the weight of their satchels.
In the first days after the French left Moscow, the weather was relatively clear, but on October 23 it started to rain, instantly washing out the roads. Approaching Maloyaroslavets, Bonaparte's army met a fortified and replenished Russian army under the command of Kutuzov. During the day of October 24, the town changed hands eight times, and by nightfall remained with Napoleon. Kutuzov withdrew three kilometers to the south, blocking the enemy's path to Kaluga and the southern regions of Russia. The emperor ordered that part of the wagons be abandoned, and the abandoned wagons be burned. Only the least valuable and compact flew into the fire: clothes, antiques, paintings. No one was in a hurry to part with gold and silver - yet. But the lagging behind soldiers from the rearguard had - at the behest of General Gerard, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division of the 1st Corps of Marshal Davout - unload their packs, throwing their contents into rivers, lakes, ditches with water.
The Napoleonic army began to advance towards Smolensk. On October 27, Bonaparte was in Vereya, on the 28th - in Mozhaisk, on the 30th - in Gzhatsk, on November 1 - in Vyazma, on the 2nd - in Semlevo, on the 3rd - in Slavkov, on the 5th - in Dorogobuzh, on November 7 - in the village of Mikhailovo. However, contrary to Napoleon's order to speed up the march, the troops and carts were greatly stretched. The entire 200-kilometer campaign was accompanied by continuous attacks by the Cossacks and partisans, but so far they have not caused serious harm to the retreating units. The road after Smolensk turned into a continuous French churchyard, however, without crosses, names and graves.
false trail
The concept of "Napoleon's treasure" is often associated with a single geographical name. By what sounds from the lips of the heroine of the work of Kira Bulychev.
Philippe-Paul Segur writes: “From Gzhatsk to Mikhailov, a village between Dorogobuzh and Smolensk, nothing remarkable happened in the imperial column, except for the fact that booty taken from Moscow had to be thrown into Semlevsky (“Standing”) Lake: cannons, ancient weapons, decorations of the Kremlin and the cross from Ivan the Great were sunk here. Trophies, fame, all the blessings for which we sacrificed everything, became a burden to us; now the question was not how to decorate your life, but how to save it.
The famous Scotsman Walter Scott also relies on these lines. In 1835, 14 volumes of his work "The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French" were published in St. Petersburg. Scott, following the original source in the person of Segur, states: “Napoleon ordered that Moscow booty: ancient armor, cannons and a large cross from Ivan the Great were thrown into Semlevsky Lake as trophies, which he did not want to give back and which he did not have the opportunity to carry with him.”
After reading this, the then Governor-General of Smolensk, Nikolai Khmelnitsky, immediately, in winter, began prospecting work with four thousand rubles allocated from the state treasury. Hundreds of peasants made holes in the ice, with the help of hooks they ransacked the bottom, but, alas, they stumbled upon only stones. The search was interrupted. But since then and to this day, generations of enthusiasts literally live on the lake. Searchers either try to dive, trying to find valuables under water, or search the shores in the hope of stumbling upon some sign of a treasure. In vain.
And it’s worth considering: why did Napoleon’s adjutant, who, by the way, did not suffer from painful altruism, give out the exact burial place of the “Moscow booty”, to which the French were going to return sooner or later? And why, on the other hand, not to put the treasure hunters on the wrong track? Actually, the emperor did not have sufficient reason to drown the carts in Lake Semlevsky. At the end of October, the convoy was not yet so disturbing, the cold was not yet so tormenting. From the reservoir lost in the forest to the Old Smolensk road - about a kilometer. Theoretically, the French could use it, although dragging heavy trucks through swampy lands, through a quagmire that sometimes does not freeze through even in winter, is not a trivial task.
Yes, in 1813, the Semlevsky landowner Biryukov presented to the Zemstvo court about 40 cannon carriages found in his lands. This means that the French guns were not really taken out further than this area. But what about the lake?
In XX century here repeatedly - for example, in 1912, in 1961 and in 1980 - amateur expeditions left. They found only half-rotted uniforms, fragments of wagons, horse bones, individual coins, buttons, and the like. On a voluntary basis, in the design bureau and research institutes, special devices were even developed for enthusiasts to help in the search for treasures. In particular, geophysicists have measured the magnetic field above the surface of the water. The results indicate the presence of significant masses of metal at the bottom. But whether there are "Napoleonic treasures" or the wreckage of an aircraft that fell in the Great Patriotic War, the instruments are not able to determine. True, the chemical analysis of water is eloquent: silver in it is a hundred times more than the norm! The percentage of gold, copper, tin and zinc is also abnormally high.
But the visual reconnaissance that the scuba divers tried to conduct did not give anything, since at a maximum depth of 21 meters the last 14-15 meters fall on silt. Because of it, visibility in the lake from a mark of five or six meters is already zero. The work was carried out in winter, and divers plunged into water with zero temperature in military diving suits, warming themselves from the inside with one hundred grams of alcohol.
There are no other lakes nearby, according to the new maps that the latest wave of searchers are checking against. It is clear that over 200 years the local geographical landscapes have changed beyond recognition. And if you take an old card? The detailed “Plan of the Vyazemsky district of 1803”, in addition to Lake Semlevsky, indicates at least eight more dams that existed in the area. And all of them are not only five or ten times larger than Standing, but are located much closer to the Old Smolensk road. Philippe-Paul Segur, by the way, could confuse a lake with a dam - in the turmoil of war, and even according to unreliable, primitive maps of his era.
In 1933-1938, most of the dams were lowered. Now there are hollows in these places, and according to an elementary calculation, from 1812 to the 1930s, about one and a half to two meters of bottom sediments could have been deposited on the treasure. Let's add other cultural layers and the peculiarity of the "dead man's chests" to go into the ground and get a maximum of three meters. Maybe you should not look in the water, but on land?
The secret of the "sharp stone"
But back to the harsh autumn of 1812. Starting from Smolensk, where Napoleon entered on November 8 and left on November 13, the situation for his army changed dramatically. In a dead, half-burnt city, the retreating regiments were waiting for a blow that finally broke the spirit of the troops. Smolensk gave neither food nor rest. Almost all of the horses fell, as fodder could not be obtained. Discipline collapsed like a house of cards, even executions did not help. French officers in private letters reported that at dusk and at night a man with bread in his hands was subjected to an inevitable attack in the street.
In Smolensk, Bonaparte had up to 50 thousand soldiers under arms, including five thousand cavalrymen, and about the same number of unfit soldiers, wounded. Then the first frosts hit, it began to snow.
The emperor did not know whether he would winter and how long he would remain in the Russian city, but then he was overtaken by news from Paris about the “conspiracy of General Male”, a republican who, later arrested and shot, had managed to make a fuss before that - escape from prison, wound the Minister of War. I had to change my plans...
When departing from Smolensk, Bonaparte divided the army into four columns. What did General Miloradovich take advantage of, who attacked the French near the village of Krasnoye on November 15, capturing two thousand people.
The cavalrymen of the Life Guards of the Ulansky Regiment captured the convoy of the 1st Corps of Marshal Davout with Moscow trophies, including gold and silver in the amount of 31 thousand rubles. Without waiting for the rearguard of Ney, Napoleon with the Old Guard and the remnants of Davout's corps broke through the barriers of General Tormasov's troops to Orsha on the territory of present-day Belarus. Here he reviewed the army and revealed horrendous losses. The wounded and stragglers accounted for up to 70 percent in each battalion. The number of combat-ready soldiers barely reached 20 thousand.
As for treasures, researchers in XIX and early XX centuries pointed to a lake south of Orsha, near the town of Beaver, Senno district, Mogilev province. “There is evidence from many “military persons” that the trophies of 1812 and the great flight of the French lie at the bottom there,” wrote the Novoye Vremya newspaper in 1911.
During the tragic crossing of the Berezina on November 26-27, part of the "Moscow booty" was, again, according to rumors, buried and flooded in several places. It is known that after the war, the surrounding landowners forced their serfs to dive into the waters of the river and look for jewels abandoned by the French.
After the Berezina, when Napoleon's army was moving along the road from Borisov to Molodechno, frosts intensified sharply: the temperature dropped by 15-16 degrees - to minus 25-28 Celsius. The soldiers froze to death along the way, at the bivouacs, by the fires. Kutuzov wrote to his wife that 117 frozen Frenchmen were counted on one verst from pillar to pillar. According to legend, near the village of Motygol, the completely exhausted emperor stopped for the night at the Selishche estate. He was accompanied by a battalion of the Old Guard, who escorted a wagon loaded with oak barrels of gold. In Selishche, those close to him reported that it was impossible to carry the cargo further: the horses had fallen, and there was nowhere to get fresh ones. And then Napoleon ordered to bury the gold. The staff officers carried out the command under the cover of night, choosing a huge pointed stone as a guide.
Nothing was known about the treasure until 1840. Then a new master's house began to be built on the estate. Under the foundation, the peasants brought stones from the fields. Soon a man arrived from France with a plan and announced that he was looking for casks buried in 1812. But after 28 years, the area did not match the plan. The “sharp stone”, with a horseshoe-shaped sign carved on it, was discovered after a long search - on the right side of the porch in the corner foundation of the house. However, persistent inquiries about where the stone was taken from did not lead to anything - no one remembered this. The Frenchman left...
“To me, friends! Let's loot the convoy!"
The territory of the former Vilna and Kovno provinces - the south and west of Lithuania - the area where 1812 left a great many traces. And the most tragic for the Napoleonic army. For decades, peasants have found here guns, sabers, cleavers, fragments of uniforms and ammunition, buttons, buckles, coins, including gold 20-franc ones. And - bones, bones, bones ... Many thousands of remains in mass graves.
Traditions also point to places where treasures can be hidden. For example, near the village of Evie, on the Old Vilna road, the French flooded a truck with money and documents. Gold ingots were allegedly thrown into a lake near Zakret, a suburb of Vilna. It's gold in the middle XIX century unsuccessfully searched for the German Miller. And in May 1826, the Frenchman Jean Petit appeared at the Russian mission in Karlsruhe and declared that he knew the location of the treasure buried in the vicinity of Vilna. He asked for a passport and assistance. He claimed to know about other valuables hidden "in hollow trees and caves." At that time, the Russian government was already very reluctant to issue licenses for exploration. And the proposal of Jean Petit was considered not worthy of attention.
The following semi-fantastic but real case is reliable. In November 1812, on the 14th verst of the Polotsk Highway, under the bridge over the Vileyka River, a peasant from the village of Mitskuny, Yuri Makovsky, was hiding. The retreating French unit was moving along the bridge. Makovsky noticed how the soldiers threw a heavy object from the bridge. When the French passed, the villager was not afraid to dive into the icy water. And he pulled a barrel of gold ashore, which was enough for him and his family for 30 years.
The fate of the "Moscow booty" and the imperial treasury was decided only by Vilna. By that time, Napoleon had handed over command to Murat and left for Paris. On December 10, on the road between Vilna and Kovno, carts drawn by exhausted horses stopped helplessly before the icy climb to the Ponar Mountain. “Your Majesty, you know that there is a gorge and a very steep hill a league and a half from Vilna,” Marshal Bertier reported from Kovno on December 12. - Arriving there by five o'clock in the morning, all the artillery, the entire military convoy was a terrible sight. Not a single carriage could pass, the gorge was cluttered with guns, and the wagons were overturned.
The moment has come for the final death of all artillery and convoy. “The vans with the treasury, the trophies taken in Moscow, the Russian banners, the tableware of the marshals - all this was abandoned. I could have a bag of gold, with 50 thousand in napoleons. But I found its weight too heavy and contented myself with a few handfuls, which I put in the pockets of my trousers, ”recalled the anonymous Belgian grenadier.
The Frenchman Lemonnier reproduced in his memoirs the following scene: “Come to me, friends! Let's loot the convoy! Immediately, crowds of fugitives join this cry and rush to the precious wagons. They rush to the locks and break them with everything that is at hand. Soldiers of all types of weapons, lackeys, officials, even officers draw handfuls of gold and dishonor in them ... They neglect five franc coins - they are thrown far into the snow.
“People dying of hunger stooped under the weight of riches they could not carry,” wrote Officer Labom.
“In Vilna, my troops plundered twelve million,” Napoleon himself admitted. Platov's Cossacks completed the defeat of the "golden convoy", recapturing some of the valuables from the French. However, Marshal Berthier, with the help of the soldiers of the Old Guard, managed to save things that belonged personally to the emperor. “Your silver and the money of the treasurer of your cabinet were sacked and transported on our horses. We reached the top of the mountain, making our way through the forest, right and left, ”Berthier Bonaparte informed. The remaining wagons with gold entered Kovno, where the money was deposited. About three to four thousand tired and frozen soldiers gathered here - all that was left of the 1st and 4th infantry corps and of the army cavalry.
Robbery of trucks with gold continued even after the French crossed the Neman on December 13th. Many of the wagons were abandoned in the fields. Traces of Napoleon's treasures can also be traced south of the route Berezina - Vilna - Kovno - East Prussia. There is evidence of treasures hidden in the vicinity of Grodno and Bialystok.
Five or seven years after the end of the war, former Napoleonic officers and soldiers were drawn to the Russian embassies. The French, Austrians, Germans, Italians, Poles, Spaniards, Dutch, Portuguese, Lithuanians, who once represented the army of twelve languages, asked to be allowed into Russia to find treasures abandoned, buried, drowned along the way of retreat. Individual requests were granted. But the treasures scattered over numerous caches have disappeared.It seems that time has erased all traces.
