Why did Napoleon wait for the keys to the Kremlin on Poklonnaya Hill?

To understand why Napoleon waited for the keys from the Kremlin as an offering from the defeated people, and did not take them himself, it is worthwhile to highlight the events that took place earlier on September 2, 1812.

At one of the auctions in Fontainebleau for 187 thousandEuro was sold a lot with a unique letter of 1812. It is dated the twentieth of October. Its author is Napoleon, and he writes about the intention to blow up the Kremlin. But just a month ago he could not imagine after so many victories in Europe that the Russian savages not only put an end to his triumphal wars, but for the sake of victory even the holy capital will not regret. Moscow was burned, so the emperor only had to blow up the Kremlin, which survived the fire. But why did he make such a decision when his army had already left a lifeless city and the inevitability of defeat was obvious?

Maybe because he did not experience itin the palms of the sweet weight of weighty keys from the Kremlin? But it's more like an act in revenge. Unfair for the emperor with claims to the world crown. Simply the Kremlin for him is that last straw, for which the drowning man grabs. He believed that, leaving Russia without a heart, ie. without the Kremlin, thus breaking the Russian spirit, he can still subjugate this barbaric country and return to France again as a winner.

Why is an exceptionally clever person and ingeniouscommander so easily succumbed to self-deception? And why did Napoleon wait for the keys to the Kremlin six weeks earlier? For the same reason that he so naively and smugly expected the Russian delegation not just with the keys, but with bread and salt and a traditional Russian bow. He wanted not just obedience to the vanquished, he needed recognition.

This was the second self-deception. No one except the crows, flocking from all sides to the place of the conflagration. But the ravens tell what the city expects Napoleon, could not. And the delegation did not appear. But why did Napoleon wait for the keys to the Kremlin, and the Russians did not bring them? The importance for Russians of Poklonnaya Gora, explains why. Napoleon was waiting for the keys from the Kremlin there. But in fact the more inconvenient place he could not be advised even by a Russian scout. The name of the mountain is not accidental. Since ancient times, it was worshiped as the holy place of dwelling of the gods. To come here with a bow to Napoleon would be to betray not the city, not the country, but faith, and the usurper to recognize almost as a god. No Russian blasphemy could ever come to mind.

Perhaps this is not the only explanation,why Napoleon was waiting for keys from the Kremlin, but he did not wait. This man was remembered not only as a war-loser warlord and a disgraced emperor. He entered into eternity as a great personality, capable of creating history and changing its course. And if you can say so, then on the brand "Napoleon" France has no exclusive right today. There is no country where there would not be at least one bust of Napoleon. Lovers of historical reconstruction again and again recreate episodes of battles, which this ruler had a lot.

Napoleonic death masks continue to appearin museums around the world. Bronze, copper, gypsum ... At the majority of them the authenticity is doubtful. And outwardly they sometimes differ not only in small details. For museum staff, for historians this annoying phenomenon. On the other hand, this is an eloquent testimony to the fact that Napoleon's role in history is enormous, that he still managed to conquer the world. Not geographically, not politically, but in the minds of people. He will not be forgotten, because his name has acquired a nominal value. And it is hardly possible to find in the history of mankind another such person whose great name was not detracted even by a great defeat, similar to that which Napoleon suffered in Russia.