Yakov Kulnev - Assessment

Assessment

Although he didn't live to take part in the Battle of Borodino and other famous battles of the Patriotic War, Kulnev was long remembered as a tough, impetuous, hot-tempered fighter. In 1830, the spot of his death was marked by a monument, with Zhukovsky's epitaph inscribed on it. In 1909, a hussar regiment was given his name.

A typical Romantic hero of the Napoleonic Wars, he emancipated his serfs and was reputed to live in poverty, in order to emulate the soldiers of Roman antiquity that were his ideal. It has been suggested that Dubrovsky, a protagonist of Pushkin's eponymous novel, was modeled on Kulnev: Dubrovsky is described in the text as "a dark, swarthy 35-year-old, with a moustache and a beard, a genuine portrait of Kulnev". The Russian general is also the subject of Runeberg's poem Kulneff (1848), which is part of The Tales of Ensign Stål:

There were names in the Russian army,

which wrote their names in history,

who were brought here at the bosom of reputation,

long before the war was on.

Barclay, Kamensky, Bagration,

Every son of Finland knew them,

and hard battles there were,

where these men came forth.

But Kulnev no-one knew,

Before the flame of war was alight;

Then he came like the storm at sea,

Hardly even thought of, before he was known,

Then he broke loose like the lightning in the sky,

So great, and likewise so new,

And not forgotten in our land

from the first blow he gave.

/ translated by Göran Frilund /