Mikhail Kutuzov
Mikhail Kutuzov defeated Napoleon by refusing to fight him. Born in St Petersburg in 1745 into a family of military engineers, he was commissioned young and served under Suvorov against the Turks. He was shot through the head at Alushta in 1774 and again at Ochakov in 1788, losing the use of an eye — a wound almost nobody survives once, let alone twice. He commanded a column at the storming of Izmail in 1790, served as ambassador to Constantinople and governor of Lithuania, and was in and out of favour repeatedly. He was defeated at Austerlitz in 1805, having advised against giving battle and been overruled by Alexander I, who was present. He beat the Ottomans on the Danube in 1811 and negotiated the Treaty of Bucharest in May 1812, freeing an army weeks before Napoleon invaded. He was appointed commander-in-chief in August 1812, when the country demanded a Russian rather than Barclay de Tolly, and continued Barclay's strategy of withdrawal. He fought at Borodino in September because public opinion required a battle, losing perhaps forty-four thousand men, and then held a council at Fili and decided to abandon Moscow rather than risk the army — saying that with the army preserved the war could continue, and that losing Moscow was not losing Russia. Napoleon occupied a burning city, found no negotiation, and retreated. Kutuzov shadowed him rather than engaging, letting hunger, cold and Cossacks destroy the Grande Armée. He died in Silesia in April 1813. Tolstoy made him the embodiment of patience over cleverness.
- Lived: 1745 CE – 1813 CE
- Nationality: Russian
- Roles: military_leader, field_marshal, general
