Tanais Gallery
Vasily Vereshchagin. Bayonet Charge. "Hurrah! Hurrah!"
1887-1895.
Oil on canvas. 200 x 150.
The State Historical Museum, Moscow, Russia.
Napoleon in Russia
The moment shown on this picture goes back to the last period of the campaign when it was near to the end. The French were forced to retreat along the old Smolensk road, the same way they came to Moscow... On October,28 the French entered Smolensk and on November,2 the main forces of the French army left Smolensk and moved towards Krasny. And somewhere on the way to Krasny the episode shown on the picture happened.
A Russian regiment lay in ambush in the middle of the thick forest in the deep snow waiting for the enemy. At last the scouts reported the French under the Vice King were moving along the big road. And all Russians from the commander to privates rushed to the bayonet attack with shouts "Hurra!" as quickly as it was possible in the deep snow. You can easily imagine how difficult it was to ran on the snow with arms atilt. Looking at this picture you can see that this part of the campaign was very hard not only for the French but for the Russians too...
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