(From Russkaya Starina, Volume XX, 1877, pgs. 351-52.)

 

Notes by P. A. Urusov and A. A. Panaev

 

I.

 

            In Russkaya Starina, 1877, Volume XIX, on page 310, in A. A. Panaev’s description of our force’s actions at Eupatoria, the author wrote the following words, supposed to have been spoken by me to General Khrulev regarding the dispositions he had made for battle, “Hold on, brother Stepan Aleksandrovich, you forgot that I’m senior to you. Rewrite it, otherwise I have no wish to listen!”

            It was also written that no amount of urging by General Khrulev could influence my, that I inflexibly stood on my seniority, and that such sensitivity on my part appeared out of place to everyone present, but that I finally relented. Furthermore, Panaev ascribes to Khrulev a very unceremonious answer to the suggestion which I actually did make—to send my remaining two columns into the assault after the unsuccessful attack by the first. General Khrulev was always especially courteous with all his subordinates, and his answer to me was not at all that written down by Mr. Panaev. In this I refer to one present then, who was at that time an aide-de-camp to the tsar, a colonel and chief of staff to the force, now a general-adjutant—Peter Nikolaevich Volkov. I always fully acknowledge, and do so now, the special qualities which the late Stepan Aleksandrovich Khrulev possessed, but I have never been on an informal “thee” and “brother” basis with him—and only very rarely with anyone else. As for that which Mr. Panaev attributes to me, namely that “out of place” (as he himself expressed it) question supposedly raised by me about seniority at that moment when we were about to lead troops into battle, that story is also totally a product of Mr. Panaev’s imagination, since at the affair at Eupatoria on 5 February, 1855, I held the rank of major general, while A. S. Khrulev had been promoted to lieutenant general two years before, in 1853 to be exact.

 

Prince Pavel Aleksandrovich Urusov
General-Adjutant, General-of-Infantry
St. Petersburg, 9 September 1877.

 

 

II.

 

            In response to Prince P. A. Urusov’s note I hurry to respond that in my “Stories” I am, of course, unable to regenerate with absolute accuracy conversations which I heard over twenty years ago. But the fact itself that for a long time Prince Urusov did not deign to read Khrulev’s dispositions because they were set down in the form of a written order is indeed well preserved in my memory due to its singularity, as undoubtedly is the case with other persons who were present, of whom I can recall: aide-de-camp Colonel Volkov, Colonel Scheideman, Captain Lindener, Captain Tsytovich, and Staff-Captain Martynov. If this incident did not actually occur, there was no reason for me to invent it, nor to wrap the conversation in question in a familiar tone, which aspect—as often happens with trivial accessories to an event—is vividly preserved in my memory.

            Regarding the unpleasantness on seniority, although I was a witness of what occurred, I acknowledge that I did not attach any significance to whether it was motivated by Prince Urusov’s rank as commander of an independent division, or was based on the fact that Khrulev, although a lieutenant general, was actually junior to the prince in date of commissioning as an officer and in promotion to general officer rank. In my relation I therefor spoke not of seniority in rank, but simply of seniority.

            Finally, I sincerely agree with the note’s author that the late Khrulev was always especially considerate in speaking with his subordinates. Nevertheless, I cannot in good conscience erase from my memory the exclamation that Khrulev let forth right after Prince Urusov rode away from him, which more or less was “So he didn’t want to lead his division onto the fortifications until the last cannon in them has been destroyed (see “Stories” page 310), but now he hurries into the assault when it’s obvious that it isn’t going to be allowed to happen!”

 

A. A. Panaev
Pavlovsk

   

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[Note: P.A. Urusov was commissioned as an officer in 1825 and was promoted to major general on 7 August 1849. S.A. Khrulev was commissioned in 1826 and was promoted to major general on 1 September 1849. Source: Spisok generalam, 1855. – M.C.]

 

Translated by Mark Conrad, 2000.