A MAN WHO SAW NAPOLEON THE GREAT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 205, 18 January 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

A MAN WHO SAW NAPOLEON THE GREAT

STILL LIVING IX RUSSIA,

A St. Petersburg writer, describing the celebrations in Russia of the centensij of Borodino, says: The veterans and contemporaries of 3812, who were invited to Borodino rnJ Moscow at the expense of the State, were eight in number, but not all of them, I believe, were able to answer to the roll-call. Their united ages amount to between 900 and 1000 years, and the average number of years of each is about 115. They are as follows: Retired Sergeant-Major Akim Voitvenvook, residing at Kishineff, Bessarabia, aged 122. According to another version, his age is 133. He served in the 53rd Infantry Regiment of Volhynia, and, strange to say, as stated in the Xovoe Vremya, he received no pension up till the time of the Borodino Jubilee, when he had granted to him for the first time a yearly allowance of 300 roubles. What a satire on old age pensions for an old man, and a veteran of the army besides, to have to wait until the age of 133 before getting relief! Then come — Peter Laptieff, of the village of Melakh, Svensian, near Vilna, aged 118, who witnessed the progress of Napoleo* and his army through that part of the country; Stephen Zhook, aged 110 ,a peasant, of the village of Shavelki, district of Driasen; Gvomoff, a peasant, from the village of Krasnoe, in the district of Momel, aged 112; Eugenie Zhernosenko, a peasant woman, from the village of Irinovka, in the same district, aged 115, whose father took part in the fighting; Mary Zholtiakova, aged 110 years, another female peasant, from the village of Podberioznoi, Bronitsky district; Maxim aged 120, a peasant, from the village of Zagumenstchin, near the town of Kirsanoff; and

| Epheme Kovuilox, a peasant, aged 109, from the village of Rogozin, in the district of Barnaul. One of the most interesting individuals in this group of Russian ancients is Peter Laptieff, who is 118 years old, having been born on June 29, 1794. He it the only one of these centenarians who was brought face to face with Napoleon, and it is said that he is the only man now alive in the world who can boa# of having seen the Emperor of the French in the flesh. In the reign of Catherine the Great a number of Cossacks belonging to the Old Believer sect of the Russian Church were transferred from the Don to the province of Vilna to strengthen the Russian element in that newly-annexed region of Poland, and Laptieff's father was one of those settlers. Laptieff's father related his remembrances of 1812 to his grandson as follows: "When we heard that the French were coming into Sventsian (a small district town in the province of Vilna), the whole of our family fled with what they could carry away with them into the Tsirkminsky Woods, about three miles off, and there we concealed ourselves from the enemy for three or four days. But I could not resist, a desire to see the French soldiery, and in order to get a sight of them I left the family and made my way through the forest to the Ekaterinsky road. My plan was to get into a tree and look on. The French at last noticed me, and I was taken prisoner and marched into Sventsian. "The next morning thoy conducted | me to the house where -Napoleon was lodged (Girutsia's house in Vilna street), i The Emperor was sitting on the balcony' and drinking coffee. He asked me through a Polish interpreter whether I knew well the road to Dunaburg, now Dvinsk. I replied that I knew it. Napoleon then ordered me to show the way to a vanguard detachment of his 1 army. We marehed, with short intervals of rest, for 35 hours. During one of the halts, when the watch over me was relaxed, I managed to escape and disappear into the forest, where I wandered about ior nearly a week until I found out my father near Sventsian." Subsequently Peter Laptieff took part in the general uprising against the in-! vaders, and served in the National Militia, He also took part in the Crimean campaign and in the suppression of Ttie ] Polish insurrection of 1801-63. In the I pacification of Poland he served, to- ; get.her with his sons. The services of the Laptieff family on this occasion were so much appreciated that Muraxieff, the Governor-General of Poland, made Peter a present of a brickworks which had been confiscated from one of the Polish rebels.

The old veteran continued to manage this concern until only 12 years ago. In spite of his great age, he still retains a remarkably clear memory. His son, Michael Laptieff, is in the public service of his native town by the free election of his fellow citizens, and he and his relatives the Peemonoffs, form the centre of the North-Western Old Believers, and the only support of Russian nationality in that outpost of the Empire. Another ancient woman of 1812 has since been discovered in the village of Mankovo-Kalikovskoi, in the Don Cossack territory. Her name is Mary Popoff, and age about 120 or 125. She was present" in Moscow when it was invaded by the French, and remembers having seen, the city in (lames. She is still actively engaged in house work.