KUTUSOV, Michail Ilarionovitch Gole. niahtchev, PRINCE OF SMOLENSK, Russian field marshal : b. 16 Sept. 1745; d. Bunzlau, 28 April 1813. Entering the army in 1765 he fought against the Poles from 1769, against the Turks 1770; he lost an eye (1774) in the Crimean campaign, and then dwelt abroad for some years. He was made major-general (1784), and, at the sieges of Odessa (1790), Bender and battle of Rimnik, and of Ismail and Matchin (1791) under Suvarov, he gained fame. In 1793 he was appointed Ambassador to Con stantinople and later Ambassador at Berlin. After the tsar's assassination (1801) he was appointed governor-general of Saint Petersburg, for a while going thence to his estates in Volhynia. In 1805 he was given command of the First Army Corp. He gained a signal vic tory, on 18 and 19 November over Marshal Mortier at Diirrenstein, and commanded, under Tsar Alexander I, on 2 Dec. 1805, the allied armies in the battle of Austerlitz, where he was wounded for the third time. From 1806-11 he
was governor-general at Kiev, then at Vilna, to become (1811) commander-in-chief in the Russo-Turkish War, for which he was created a prince. After the Peace of Bucharest (May 1812) he succeeded Barclay de Tolly as com mander-in-chief in the army against Napoleon I. He fought the bloody battle of Borodino (7 Sept. 1812) and became field-marshal. He was granted the title Smolensky for his victory over Davout and Ney at Smolensk. Calling on all Europe by proclamation he carried on the campaign but died early at Bunzlau, where a monument was erected in his memciry, as also at Saint Petersburg. Consult Buchholz, Fried rich von, 'Der Feldmarschal, Fiirst Kutusov Smolenskoi> is Geschickte der europiiischen Staaten (Berlin 1814); Schnitzkr, J. H. Russie 1812: Rostoptchine et Koutousof' (Paris 1863).