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“Indian Campaign” of the Don Army

210 years ago, on January, 12, 1801, Pavel I signed a rescript about one and all muster of the Don Army for “conquering India”. This document set out realization of the secret Russian-French scheme, the well-known “Indian Campaign”.

This campaign was also actively joined by Cossacks of Vyoshenskaya. One of the campaign leaders was general-major Gavriil Agapovich Bokov, from Vyoshenskaya, the first Cossack who made a general.

The campaign was grounded on the fact that Emperor Pavel I, irritated by the provocative proceeding of his allies, England and Austria, dropped out of the coalition against France, and in December, 1800, he entered into a Russian-French alliance. Aiming at striking a blow against the English supremacy Napoleon proposed to Emperor Pavel a scheme of joint land campaign to India.

According to the scheme the 35-thousand French army corps of general Moreau was to be conveyed by the Danube and the Black Sea to Taganrog, then to the southern coast of the Caspian Sea to Astrabad to join with the 35-thousand Russian Army corps. The joined allied forces were to reach the right bank of the Indus. The Don Cossacks and light cavalry were supposed to go in advance guard. However, delays of the French because of the started Italian campaign brought about Pavel’s decision to realize that scheme by his own forces, and on January, 12, 1801, he signed a rescript about the one and all muster of the Don Army.

The rescript presented a scheme according to which the Don Cossacks were to advance toward Orenburg and then “straight through Bukharia and Khiva to the River Indus and the English establishments lying along it. The emperor was generous to promise the Cossacks a prize of all the riches of India, fame and his special blessings…”

Soon M.I. Platov arrived to the Don having been released from imprisonment on a false accusation of treason. Pavel I reckoned him useful for realization of his affair as a general, loved and respected by Cossacks. Platov got detailed instructions from the emperor about the coming campaign.

The Don Army was allotted a sum of 1670285 roubles from the State Exchequer, on credit for the future booty. The sum was supposed for a year, just within this period, that the emperor schemed to conquer India.

Late in February the Cossack Army was mustered. The campaign was joined by 23017 Don men, while only wounded, sick, old men, woman and children were left on the Don.

The Army was constituted of four corps commanded by general-majors M.I. Platov, I.N. Buzin, G.A. Bokov, A.K. Denisov, V.P. Orlov. There were many would-be heroes of the Patriotic war of 1812.

On February, 27, 1801, the Army set out. None of them knew the route to India, their hopes were set on local guides, but those, having learned about the coming journey scattered in fear. The campaign from the very outset looked like a venture menacing a catastrophe.

Having crossed the Don on ice the Cossacks got into many troubles. The steppe was covered with deep snow, the cannons stuck in it. The steppe snow-storms overtook the warriors, severe wind and snow beat in the face. They had to sleep on the snow in the barren steppe. To “encourage” the campaigners emperor Pavel sent them a map, where the rout from Orenburg to India was marked in a thin line. Nobody was aware of what the line meant. Ataman Orlov had to discover the rout to the unknown oriental countries at a guess.

The early March thaw brought great troubles in crossing the Volga, needs in provision with food, hay and oats. The people fell ill with scurvy, exhausted horses fell dead. A murmur rose in the Army with demands to return to the Don, even cases of open defiance took place.

At last, on March, 23, near a village of Mechotnoye the Saratov Region, the Army learned about the decease of Pavel I and throning of Alexander I, who ordered the Don Army to return to their country. On April, 9-17, the Army turned back to their territory having covered 1668 kilometres within a period of a month and a half.

The absurdity of the campaign was obvious, and the contemporaries of Pavel I realized that. According to the memoirs of duchess Liven, the wife of Pavel’s general-adjutant, the affair was undertaken to annihilate the Cossack Army suspected by the emperor of a freedomloving air.

In those years the Don country was really troublous. In the autumn of 1800 in Cherkassk a Cossack colonel Evgraf Gruzinov and his brother Pyotr, a retired colonel, were executed “for rebellious plots”. The emperor must have wanted “to rouse the Cossacks” and sent them “their way” on purpose of “teaching them a military lesson”.

For the Don Army the campaign finished successfully. Owing to skilled command of Orlov, Platov, Bokov and other generals and officers, military experience and Cossack fortitude the Cossack Army returned to the Don without men losses, with few horse losses. The campaign turned to be a good rehearsal before the Patriotic war of 1812, and the generals M.I. Platov and A.K. Denisov gained even greater respect among the Cossacks and became the Army atamans afterwards.

Valeriy Emeliyanov