the lion of the russian army - Florida State University

with a strong emphasis on the 1812 Campaign. These authors based their researches
on the above-mentioned Russian studies and repeated the same mistakes and
distortions. Most of them had no primary sources to support their arguments, not
mentioning access to the foreign archives and materials.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a new generation of scholars
began to work in the Napoleonic period. Historians like Professors N. Troitsky and A.
Tartarovsky published new and more objective descriptions of the Russian role in the
Napoleonic campaigns. 13 Unfortunately, Bagration was forgotten again. Among
numerous volumes published on the Napoleonic period in Russia, only two small
books were dedicated to Bagration. Colonel Zurab Tsintsadze of the Military
Humanitarian Academy of Russia published a balanced and well-written overview of
Bagration’s life. The author used Russian archival sources extensively for the opening
chapter of his study and described Bagration’s early career in the Caucasus in detail.
However, he failed to provide a detailed account for Bagration’s later career. The
Italian campaign is covered in only nineteen pages, events of 1805 in seventeen and
the 1812 in forty-two pages. In addition, he used no foreign sources as demonstrated
in his bibliography. Notwithstanding these flaws, Tsintsadze’s work is the best
general account available in Russian at the moment. 14 In 2003, Russia celebrated the
300 th anniversary of St. Petersburg by publishing a series of books related to the
history of this city. Grigorii Shenkman authored a concise volume (191 pages) on
12 A. Shervashidze, Bagrationi [Bagration], (Batum, 1976); Shalva Megrelidze,. Chveni
saxelovani samxedro tsinaprebi [Our Famous Ancestors], (Tbilisi, 1979); Mikhail.
Gonikishvili, Bagrationta dasaxleba da mogvatseoba rusetshi [Bagrations’ Resettlement and
Service in Russia], (Tbilisi, 1986); N. Nakashidze, Borodinos gmiri [Hero of Borodino],
(Tbilisi, 1961); K. Tsomaia, Kartveli mxedrebi 1812 tslis samamuli omshi Mnatobi, No. 11,
(Tbilisi, 1941); T. Lomouri, Petre Bagrationi, (Tbilisi, 1942), I. Kuchukhidze, Petre
Bagrationi, (Tbilisi, 1953).
13 Nikolay Troitsky, 1812: Velikii god Rossii [1812: The Glorious Year of Russia]
(Moscow, Nauka, 1988); A. G. Tartarovsky, Nerazgadannyi Barklai: legendy i byl’ 1812
goda, [Unknown Barclay: Legends and Tales of 1812], (Moscow, 1996)
14
Zurab Tsintsadze, Bagration Voennaia Deiatelnost General Petra Ivanovicha
Bagrationa, 1782-1812, [Military Career of General Peter Ivanovich Bagration, 1782-1812],
(Moscow, 1997). I would like to thank author for consultations and a copy of his manuscript.
xix