To Be Napoleon Each Wishes

Summary

This exhibition shows selected autographs of Napoleon Bonaparte from the collections of the Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Russia. Exhibited papers and letters date to different periods of the Napoleonic era. Some of them have been published, others are still unpublished. And although the collections of the National Library of Russia are not comparable in scale with huge French archives, they nevertheless deserve the attention of researchers who, two centuries after the death of Napoleon on the island of St. Helena, again and again return to the history of his unprecedented rise and fall.

Reference Literature

Catalogues

Mandrykina L. A. Katalog rukopisnykh materialov o voyne 1812 goda (Catalogue of handwritten materials about the war of 1812). Leningrad: GPB, 1961.

Voronova T. P. Dokumenty epokhi Velikoy frantsuzskoy revolyutsii (1789–1804) v sobranii P. K. Sukhtelena. Annotirovannyy katalog. (Documents of the era of the Great French Revolution (1789 – 1804) in the collection of P. K. Suchtelen. Annotated catalogue) St Petersburg.: GPB, 1992.

Otechestvennaya voyna 1812 g. i kampanii 1813–1815 gg. v sobranii Otdela rukopisey Rossiyskoy natsional'noy biblioteki. Katalog (Patriotic War of 1812 and campaigns of 1813–1815 in the collection of the Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Russia. Catalogue / comp. N. A. Zubkova, A. A. Bogdanov, S. O. Vyalova et al. St. Petersburg: RNB, 2015.)

Publications

Napoléon Bonaparte. Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, publiée par ordre de l’Empereur Napoléon III. Paris, Imprimerie impériale, 1858–1869. 32 vol.

Napoléon Bonaparte. Correspondance générale, publiée par la Fondation Napoléon. Paris: Fayard, 2004–2018. 15 vol.

Napoleon I. Pis'mo M. I. Kutuzovu. 3 oktyabrya 1812 g. Moskva (Letter to M. I. Kutuzov. October 3, 1812 Moscow // M. I. Kutuzov. Sbornik dokumentov i materialov / pod red. L. G. Beskrovnogo. M.: Voyennoye izd., 1954. Vol. IV. Part 1. Pp. 369-370.

Natalya Alekseevna Elagina