Liveblogging Napoleon's Russian Invasion: Count Rostopchin Burns His Own House

By many (but not all) accounts, it was Count Rostopchin, mayor of Moscow and head of a distinguished old family, who ordered the burning of Moscow. Napoleon's chronicler believes that he really meant it:

The deviousa route that Kutuzov took, whether because of indecision or as a ruse, succeeded so well that Murat lost all trace of him for three days. The Russian took advantage of this respite to study the terrain and entrench himself. The head of his army was approaching Vorovno, one of Rostopchin's finest estates, when the governor of Moscow rode ahead of them. The soldiers believed that he wished to be alone to see his home for the last time; but suddenly the building disappeared in a cloud of smoke. They rushed to put the fire out; but it was Rostopchin himself who opposed them. They saw him in the midst of the fire he had set, smiling as the superb mansion crumbled around him, then in a firm hand tracing these words on the door of the chapel that was still standing--words which the French were to read with a shudder: "For eight years I have been improving this property, and have lived here happily with my family. The seventeen hundred tenants of my domain left their homes as you drew near, and I have set fire to my own house to save it from being defiled by your presence. Frenchmen, I abandoned to you my two homes in Moscow, with furnishings worth half a million rubles. Here you will find nothing but ashes!

--Philippe Paul, comte de Ségur, Defeat: Napoleon's s Russian Campaign 118

(NYRB Classics 2008)