We are accustomed to largely perceive the partisan war of 1812 from War and Peace. But the great Leo Tolstoy created an artistically impeccable, but in many ways idealized idea of the cudgel of the people's war. In reality, everything was not so simple and truly scary. How the partisan movement actually began in 1812, the reader can learn from this book. It is based on the once high-profile story of Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Engelhardt, who created a partisan detachment from his peasants, with whom he caught and destroyed soldiers and officers of the “Great Army”. The peasants did not want to fight and expected benefits from the new French authorities. They reported to the occupation authorities in Smolensk that the master was forcing them to kill the French. Engelhardt was captured, tried and executed. Emperor Alexander I declared him a national hero. The monument at the site of Engelhardt’s execution, erected by personal order of Nicholas I, was destroyed after the revolution. All that remains are old postcards and facts that should not be forgotten.