Welcome to Russian History Retold.

Episode 266 Mikhail Kutuzov, military genius and Napoleon's nemesis Part 2.

Last time we talked about the early life of Mikhail Kutuzov up until the spring of 1772.

Today, we take up the story with an incident that would almost cost Mikhail his life.

The peace treaty of Kukuk Kanyarka had been signed between the Ottomans and the Russians

on July 21st, 1774, supposedly ending the Russo-Turkish War of 1768 to 74.

Unfortunately for Kutuzov, his men, and a large contingent of Ottoman soldiers,

no one bothered to tell them about the treaty signing. On August 4th, led by Lieutenant General

Valentin Musin Pushkin, he led his men along with Kutuzov against a well-fortified Ottoman position.

The fighting was fierce, with the Turks showing surprising resistance.

As Musin Pushkin put it, quote,

as soon as our troops launched the attack, they encountered for Russia's artillery and musket fire.

Mikhail was leading the attack on the left flank, with his men performing with, quote,

great discipline, composure, and gallantry under fire, and Kutuzov was later praised for having

trained them to perform as well as veteran soldiers. As the men were advancing,

Mikhail stood on the edge of the ditch, when a musket ball struck him between his eye and his left

temple, exiting the side of his skull. He fell into the ditch, landing on dead and injured bodies.

But as Mikhail bared the right, quote, he was extremely lucky. The odds of surviving a half-inch

lead projectile smashing the sphenoid or temple bone, passing through the human cranium,

and exiting on the other side are astonishingly small. He was also fortunate that as the troops

pushed forward to secure victory, some grenadiers carried their unconscious and bleeding commander

off the battlefield into the care of the physicians, who rushed to tend him as well as they could

...