Alexander Chernyshev was one of the richest and most noble aristocrats of the Russian Empire. However, his most spectacular successes were not achieved on the floor. He went down in the history of the Napoleonic era as a scout and saboteur.
The future superspy was born in January 1786 (Gregorian calendar – “new style”). His parents were wealthy aristocrats. Father is a senator, mother is a lady-in-waiting of Catherine II. So it would seem that a brilliant future for the young man was already guaranteed at birth.
He received a good education at home, and in 1801 he attended the coronation of Alexander I, where he acquainted himself with the emperor. Chernyshev made an excellent impression on Alexander and quickly became a page-chamber, and then a cornet in the elite Cavalry Regiment.
The cavalry cuirassier regiment was not a sinecure for the courtiers – in 1805 Chernyshev went to war and immediately found himself in a boiling cauldron: after a baptism of fire near Wieschau, he found himself on the battlefield at Austerlitz. He took part in several attacks, rushed around the battlefield with dispatches and ultimately performed well, despite the overall defeat.
In 1808, Chernyshev delivered letters from Alexander to Napoleon. For these travels he received the nickname Eternal Postman. There Chernyshev made a personal acquaintance with Bonaparte and it was then that he began to carry out some delicate missions.
Alexander was more than just a courier. He was interested in details: the situation in the empire, judgments about the real sincerity of Napoleon, rumors, analytics. As Alexander’s adjutant, Chernyshev revolved around the French monarch. In this capacity, of course, he became the object of close attention of the French police.
On the left – Alexander I, in the center – A. Chernyshev, on the right – Napoleon
Alexander Chernyshev, delivering letters from Alexander I to Napoleon, received the nickname Eternal Postman
The path to intelligence
In 1810, Barclay de Tolly, who had just received the post of Minister of War, played a completely unexpected role in Chernyshev’s life. Mikhail Bogdanovich brought a lot of useful things to Russian military affairs. In particular, he established the first regular intelligence service in the Russian army – the Special Chancellery of the War Ministry. It required field agents, and Barclay found them.
Residents traveled to Berlin, Madrid, Munich, Dresden and finally Paris. Paris went to Alexander Chernyshev as a person with connections at the French court and personally acquainted with Napoleon.
The method of agent infiltration wasn’t particularly sophisticated; it has survived to this day. Agents of the Russian military department received quite official appointments known to the receiving countries through embassies, but at the same time, they carried out tasks that weren’t entirely legal or even outright illegal.
Alexander Chernyshev charmed the Parisian court, and a tragic story played into his hands. Shortly after his arrival, a fire broke out at the ball of the Austrian ambassador, Prince Schwarzenberg. The young Russian officer showed a sea of composure and courage, leading the wives of Marshal Ney, the court chief marshal Duroc and Senator Beauharnais, a relative of Empress Josephine, from the fire. After this, the sociable, stately and courteous officer became a welcome guest everywhere.
Under the guise of a ladies’ man
Chernyshev consciously cultivated his own image. A brave, brilliant officer, but a frivolous ladies’ man who prefers balls, good drinks, hunting, receptions and romances, fortunately the ladies were more than supportive of him. Chernyshev was willingly received by Caroline, the sister of Emperor Napoleon, and he was often seen in the living room of this house. However, rumors, even more scandalous ones, circulated about his visits to another sister of the emperor, Pauline Borghese—not only in the drawing room but allegedly also in the bedroom.
This status of a cute and charming dandy gave Alexander Chernyshev many advantages for secret activities. He often had high-ranking guests in his house, who, without any hesitation, could discuss very sensitive topics. Moreover, Chernyshev was no fool when it came to alcohol: wine loosens tongues. When the very satisfied dignitaries and officers left, the hospitable host poured a jug of water on his head and sat down to work – writing dispatches to St. Petersburg.
A. I. Chernyshev, Russian military and statesman, adjutant general, cavalry general, count, His Serene Highness Prince
Portrait of A.I. Chernyshev. Artist J. Dow, 1820-1823.
Brilliant work
As expected in such a case, Chernyshev had his own network of agents who worked for Russian intelligence for modest financial incentives.
However, Chernyshev’s most valuable agent was not recruited by him. In 1804, diplomat Peter Oubry recruited an official of the French War Ministry named Michel. Michel interested the Russians in one aspect alone – albeit a crucial one! He had access to the biweekly battle schedule of the French forces. Michel passed on the information without hesitation to Chernyshev, who sent it to St. Petersburg.
Nobody canceled personal contacts either. So, Chernyshev conducted behind-the-scenes negotiations with Marshal Bernadotte, who in 1810 became the king of Sweden. Alexander was interested in the intentions and plans of the new ruler: the war with Sweden, which was successful for the Russians, had only recently ended, and in St. Petersburg they were keenly interested in how the new monarch planned to behave.
Chernyshev visited Stockholm and presented Alexander with a detailed report on the state of affairs in Sweden. This document, which was more the result of diplomatic than intelligence work, was extremely liked by the Russian emperor – both from the point of view of the development of relations with Sweden, which seriously warmed up after the war, and from the point of view of the quality of the work done.
Spy, diplomat and… partisan
However, nothing nothing stays good for too long. French counterintelligence soon put two and two together. Another thing is that in France many simply did not want to believe that everyone’s wonderful friend was an intelligence officer. Police Minister Savary was the first to suspect everything, but for a long time he simply clicked his teeth helplessly. He even organized… a press campaign. But transparent hints about Chernyshev’s activities rather discredited Savary himself.
However, a big war was approaching. In February 1812, Alexander Chernyshev left for Russia with letters from Napoleon. And then he made a cruel, simply scandalous mistake: while destroying documents, he lost one of Michel’s notes under the carpet. Literally immediately after his departure, the police raided Chernyshev’s apartment. The note was found, the author was traced by the handwriting, and Michel’s head was cut off by the guillotine.
Now, Chernyshev had to perform in a new incarnation.
He spent some time traveling, shuttling between St. Petersburg and the army headquarters with dispatches. However, using such a valuable asset simply as a courier was wasteful, and soon Alexander Chernyshev led a small partisan detachment.
The partisans of 1812 were often not peasants armed with pitchforks for a general harassing of the enemy but rather raiding parties that included Cossacks and regular cavalry units. This was the type of unit commanded by Chernyshyov
Unlike the famous detachments of Davydov, Seslavin and Figner, he acted relying on the Danube Army of Admiral Chichagov – in the deep of Napoleon’s rear. Thanks to this position, our hero managed to break into the Duchy of Warsaw, disrupting the recruitment of troops and capturing warehouses.
Among other things, Chernyshev accidentally rescued a convoy of Russian prisoners during these raids. Among those released was General Wintzingerode, who in the fall of 1812 tried to enter into negotiations with the French who occupied Moscow. In general, Alexander Chernyshev liked commanding the flying detachment.
He enjoyed it so much that at the beginning of 1813 he came to Kutuzov with a proposal to scale up the experience and fight not in small “parties”, but in detachments of several thousand sabers. The old commander liked this idea. The French lost many people in Russia, but – a nuance – they also lost almost all their horses. They were practically unable to oppose anything to the mobile units of light cavalry.
During the war with the French, A.I. Chernyshev commanded a partisan detachment
Portrait of A.I. Chernyshev. Engraving by G. Kieninger based on the original by L. Letron, 1815.
Military successes
Soon the idea was tested, notably – in Berlin. A whole scattering of flying detachments raided through the Oder, bypassing the French barriers. In February 1813, the detachments of Tettenborn, Chernyshev and Benckendorf carried out an operation worthy of tank forces of the industrial era – they were able to bypass, isolate and ultimately take Berlin.
But the partisan’s real finest hour was yet to come. In September, his detachment staged a raid on Westphalia. Napoleon created this puppet kingdom on German lands for his brother Jerome Bonaparte (the Russians called him King Erema). Chernyshev crossed the Elbe and, as usual, relied on speed and determination.
Since Napoleon’s support in Westphalia was weak, the Russian detachment was replenished with the help of Westphalian volunteers and even deserters. Of the thousand prisoners, Chernyshev added more than 250 people to his detachment. In the capital of the kingdom, Kassel, the Russians took the treasury and guns and left to the applause of the population. Since Chernyshev distributed part of the loot among the Cossacks, whowere ready to carry him in their arms.
“The first Cossacks in Berlin, February 20, 1813.”
From the collection of the Maloyaroslavets Military History Museum of 1812
Ministerial Position
It would seem that the biography is simply perfect. Alas, it’s not that simple.
The Napoleonic wars were ending, and now all their heroes had to find new places in life. Alexander Chernyshev worked for some time in military administrative positions, commanding a division.
In 1826 he became one of the most active participants in the investigation into the Decembrist case. He is often reproached with the “second hanging” – when, during the execution of five leaders of the uprising, some of the ropes broke, Chernyshev insisted on hanging them again, allegedly contrary to custom. This is a legend. In reality, except in exceptional cases, they were hanged “to the bitter end.”
However, the partisan hero has nothing to be proud of in the Decembrist cause. Many of the defendants were his comrades, some even relatives, but Alexander Ivanovich showed an excess of zeal in investigating the conspiracy.
Later Chernyshev served in the military department and in 1832 he reached the top of the career ladder – he became minister of war. History evaluates his successes in this post ambiguously. Nevertheless, Alexander Ivanovich was no longer the same young man who smashed Napoleon’s troops. Back then he became a general before he was even thirty, and now he was nearly fifty.
By this time, the brilliant partisan raider had become an inveterate conservative. Not all of his decisions were unsuccessful – for example, he reduced the terms of military service for recruits, created a military academy, developed regulations, significantly improved soldiers’ equipment – in a word, he was not a copper-headed retrograde. However, by the end of his tenure as minister, his ideas about tactics were already hopelessly outdated.
In 1832, A.I. Chernyshev reached the top of the career ladder – he became Minister of War
Portrait of A.I. Chernyshev. Artist Kruger Franz, 1851
The conservatism of the War Ministry became one of the problems of the Russian army in the Crimean War – however, Chernyshev had already left his position by that time. In 1852 he resigned as Minister of War. After a stroke, overall health deterioration, and retirement, the esteemed military leader went abroad to Italy.
Interestingly, that Chernyshev, a favorite of the ladies and a brilliant gentleman, was able to arrange his personal life with great difficulty. His first wife, Teofila Radziwill, a Polish beauty, ran away from her husband with a new boyfriend. The second, Elizaveta Beloselskaya-Belozerskaya, a young maid of honor, died in childbirth (the child also died). Only the third marriage of the already forty-year-old Chernyshev with Countess Elizaveta Zotova was successful. The couple had six children, of whom only three daughters and a son survived.
Well, achieving family happiness turned out to be more difficult for Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshev than defeating Napoleon. But as a result, he coped with this task.
by Evgeniy Norin