The small town of Maloyaroslavets is located in the Kaluga region, 110 kilometers from Moscow. During the Patriotic War of 1812, it became the third place after Borodino and Smolensk, where battles took place that had a decisive influence on the course of the war. In the bloody Battle of Maloyaroslavets, Russian troops blocked to French army the way to Kaluga.
In 1812, Maloyaroslavets was a small town with a population of 1,500 people. It was located on the banks of the Luzha River on the New Kaluga Road. Napoleon chose this road to retreat from Moscow. By then, he realized that he was trapped. Despite the heavy battle of Borodino and the surrender of Moscow, Kutuzov retained the combat capability of the army, and it was actively replenished with new reserves.
At that time, Napoleon`s army was in Moscow. Most of the city was burned down. The supply of food to the huge army was extremely complicated by the actions of partisan detachments. The death of horses began, thus the French could lose all the artillery due to the inability to transport it. Napoleon asked for peace from Emperor Alexander I, but he ignored his letters. In this situation, Napoleon decided to retreat through Kaluga, where he intended to seize food warehouses.
Maloyaroslavets became the city where Russian troops blocked the way of Napoleon`s army to Kaluga. The battle began on October 12, 1812. The city of Maloyaroslavets changed hands 8 times, as new regiments of Russians and French approached. The battle subsided by nightfall and the city remained behind the French, but the Russian troops withdrew to the south, blocking further advance on Kaluga. Russian troops numbered 90 thousand people, Napoleon had 70 thousand people. Napoleon understood that without a new general battle he would not be able to break through to Kaluga. He decided to turn onto the ruined Smolensk Road to leave Russia.
The first memorial dedicated to the battle of Maloyaroslavets was a monument in the form of a cast-iron column, opened on October 29, 1844. Next to the Monument, cannons were installed and a small square was created.
Such cast-iron columns, on the initiative of Tsar Nicholas I, were installed in all cities on the sites of major battles: Smolensk, Maloyaroslavets, Klyastitsy, Krasnoe, Kovno, Polotsk. For the Memorial on the Borodino Field, the monument was made from cast iron separately. It was installed on the Rayevsky Battery.
On one side of the Heroes` Square of 1812 is the Kazan Cathedral, and on the other – the Assumption Cathedral. Kazan Cathedral was built in 1708, in the style of Peter the Great Baroque. The Assumption Cathedral was built in 1912 in the traditional Byzantine style, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the battle. In 2014, a monument to the Regimental Priest was erected in the square next to the Monument. It is dedicated to the regimental priest Vasily Vasilkovsky, a hero of the war of 1812.
The second memorial dedicated to the Battle of Maloyaroslavets is located on the bank of the Luzha River. Russian graves. One of the three mass graves of Russian soldiers who died in 1812 near Maloyaroslavets was located here. In 1859, Major Maximov appealed to the city authorities with a request to build a chapel on the grave at his own expense. This chapel was erected in 1860.
Now the Major Maksimov Chapel houses the Museum of the War of 1812. There you can see a diorama of the battle of Maloyaroslavets. In 1912, a monument to the fallen soldiers was erected over the mass grave. In 1987, a bust of Kutuzov was installed in the park next to the mass grave.
