Jomini, Henry

Heinrich Veniaminovich Zhomini was born in the family of a petty official in the Swiss town of Payerne, Benjamin Zhomini (1746-1818). He began his working life as a clerk at a bank in Paris ^[2] .

During the revolutionary wars he became commander of the battalion by 1801, in peacetime he returned to commerce.

Studying later in one of the Parisian business offices, Jomini studied military science and published in 1804 the famous work of his time, “Traité des grandes opérations militaires” (“A Treatise on Major Military Operations”), which contained a comparative study of the campaigns of Frederick the Great and General Bonaparte .

In 1804, Jomini volunteered for the French Army. Napoleon, after reading the work of Jomini, made him in colonel in 1805. In 1806, Jomini published the essay "Mémoire sur la probabilité de la guerre de Prusse" ("Memo on the likelihood of war with Prussia"), where he outlined his views on the war with Prussia. Napoleon took the talented author to his headquarters.

For the campaign of 1806-1807, Jomini was awarded the baronial title, and in 1808 he went with Marshal Ney to Spain as the chief of his staff, but was soon removed from there on slander of ill-wishers who managed to restore the marshal against him. Napoleon ordered him to write the history of the Italian campaigns of 1796-1800, before conferring on him the rank of brigadier general.

In the Russian campaign of 1812, Jomini did not participate in hostilities, he served as governor of Vilna , then - commandant of Smolensk . Thanks to the information he collected about the terrain, the crossing of the retreating French army across the Berezina River was relatively successful ^[3] .

In the campaign of 1813, Jomini, being the chief of staff of the 3rd Army Corps of Marshal Ney , made a great contribution to the victory at Bautzen , but was not promoted to division generals because of Bertier's hostility. Offended by this, Jomini on the day of the ceasefire (August 14, 1813) passed to the camp of the anti-French coalition .

Accepted by the emperor Alexander I with the rank of lieutenant general and the rank of adjutant general , Jomini was given command of a division. Keeping secret the French operational plan that he knew, Jomini, with his advice, kept the Allies from being too risky. But overly cautious advice began to seem suspicious to the allies, and then Jomini left the allied forces and settled in Weimar .

In 1815, in the retinue of Alexander I, Jomini entered Paris , participated in all congresses of that time ( Vienna , Aachen , Verona ) and, when his former commander, Marshal Ney, was threatened with the death penalty, Jomini made every effort to save him, but in vain .

In 1822, Zhomini settled in Russia and under Emperor Nicholas I took part in the development of military projects, in particular, the project on the establishment of a higher military educational institution for education by officers of the General Staff (later - Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff ).

Jomini took part in the war of 1828 between Russia and Turkey , accompanying the emperor on a campaign, and for this was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky .

In 1837, Jomini was appointed professor of strategy to the heir to the Tsarevich . For this purpose he wrote "Précis de l'art de la guerr" ("Summary of Military Art").

Having reached an old age, Jomini retired and retired to Brussels , but during the Crimean War , at the request of Nicholas I, returned to Russia, took part in military meetings and only in 1855 finally left Russia.

Interestingly, in the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace there is a portrait of Jomini, although he himself was on the opposite side during the 1812 campaign , in the service of Napoleon's army.

The essay "Tableau analytique des principales combinaisons de la guerre ou précis de l'art de la guerre" ("An analytical table of the main combinations of war, or a summary of the art of war") contains a number of Jomini's thoughts on various subjects related to military art. Regarding the theory of strategy, Jomini acknowledges the existence of eternal basic principles of military art, the application of which has always been successful, and deviation from them has led to failure.

Jomini claims that the basic rule for all military operations in general is: firstly, to concentrate the greatest possible forces on the decisive point of the theater of war, or the battlefield; secondly, in the use of these forces in the most skillful way.

Coming to the presentation of thoughts "On the objects of action", Jomini first compares offensive actions with defensive ones. Recognizing the danger that the army is invading in too large a space, Jomini, however, gives preference to an offensive war, "because it gives preemptive action" (initiative des mouvements), and this helps to concentrate forces on a decisive point. A defensive war, according to Jomini, can only be appropriate when, not limited to passive defense, it is accompanied from time to time by a transition to the offensive (défensive-offensive). In general, the top of the commander’s art, according to Jomini, is “to move on time from offensive to defense and vice versa”.

"The subject of action" should be one of the decisive points of the theater of war; therefore, to select it, it is necessary to determine decisive points earlier. Such points can be of two kinds: geographical and maneuverable. Jomini considers the geographical decisive point: 1) a point located at the junction of several valleys and many communications, such as Leipzig ; 2) the course of the river, a number of fortresses, or a chain of significant mountains, such as the Danube Valley. He determines the maneuverable decisive points by the relative position of forces on both sides: usually the decisive point is that of the enemy’s flanks, acting on which, you can cut off the army from the base and reinforcements, or press it against any important natural barrier; but if the enemy army is too long, the decisive point will be in the center, since in this case it is possible to divide the enemy’s forces and completely destroy them.

Jomini deduced all of his basic principles of warfare from the consideration and comparison of the actions of Frederick II and Napoleon I : from the consideration of the actions of the first, he drew the thought of the benefits of internal lines , and in the actions of the second he saw a constant desire to forestall the enemy in the offensive and act with concentrated forces, directing them towards decisive points of the theater of war. Comparing the actions of both of these commanders, he noticed in them the similarity that both of them were looking for a decisive battle; but Frederick, following a system of internal lines, divided his forces, and Napoleon acted as a combined force, and Jomini came to the conclusion that concentrated forces should be directed to the decisive points of the theater of war; in those cases where this is not possible, prefer internal lines to external.

The strategic views of Jomini had an important influence on the way of thinking of the military and the development of strategy as a science. The drawbacks of Jomini’s writings are that they overlooked many factors that often have a primary influence on the success of the war, such as the importance of protecting communications and acting on enemy communications, the area of ​​the theater of war, and others ^[2] .

• Histoire critique et militaire des guerres de la revévolution, de 1792 à 1801
• Vie politique et militaire de Napoleon, racontée par lui-même au tribunal de César, d'Alexandre et de Frédéric (1827)
• Tableau analytique des principales combinaisons de la guerre et de leurs rapports avec la politique des Etats (1837 edition);
• Observations sur l'histoire militaire et sur les écrivains militaires depuis Louis XIV jusqu'à nos jours
• Observations sur la campagne de 1828 , par un officier d'état-major russe.

• Order of St. Anne 1st Art. (08/10/1813);
• Order of St. Vladimir , 2nd art. (May 29, 1817);
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (09/30/1828);
• Snuffbox with a portrait of the Emperor (1829);
• Diamond signs for the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (1839);
• Insignia for XXV years of immaculate service (1843);
• Order of St. George 4th Art. for 25 years of service (1854);
• Snuffbox with a portrait of the Sovereign Emperor (1855);
• Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (05/25/1867).

Foreign:

• French Order of St. Louis , Grand Cross (1841);
• Bavarian Military Order of Maximilian Joseph (1841).

• Editorial Board General Jomini // World Illustration : Journal. - 1869. - T. 1 , No. 18 . - S. 278 .
• Ryabov A.N. Jomini Dynasty in the service of Russia. - Nizhny Novgorod, Saransk. Printing house "Red October", 2015. - 200 p.
• Vovsi E. M. Swiss for the French, French for the Russians: the military and writing activities of Antoine-Henri Baron de Jomini in 1805-1812. ( Electronic publication )
• Jomini, Henry // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• H. Z. Zhomini, Anton-Genrikh Veniaminovich // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• A list of seniority generals . St. Petersburg 1869
• Dictionary of Russian generals, participants in the hostilities against the army of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1812-1815. // Russian archive. The history of the Fatherland in the evidence and documents of the XVIII — XX centuries. : Collection. - M .: TRITE studio N. Mikhalkova , 1996. - T. VII . - S. 396 . - ISSN 0869-20011 . (Comm. A. A. Podmazo )
• Obituary of General Jomini . // " World Illustration ", No. 18, April 26, 1869.
• Shevchenko P. G. V. Zhomini and preparation for the reorganization of military education in Russia in the late 1820s. // Russian history. - 2017. - No. 6. - S. 94-105.

• Jomini, Henry, Baron // Military Encyclopedia : [in 18 vol.] / Ed. V.F. Novitsky [et al.]. - SPb. ; [ M. ]: Type. t-va I. D. Sytin , 1911-1915.
• Jomini, Henry , An analytical review of the main considerations of military art and its relations with the politics of states. SPb., 1833 on the website of the Russian State Library
• Jomini, Henry , Atlas to the drawings for the science of large military operations on the website " Runivers "
• Jomini, Henry , A brief outline of military art or a new analytical review of the main considerations of strategy, higher tactics and military policy on the Runivers website
• Observations strategiques sur Quelques uns des principes presentes dans le traite des grandes operations militares du general Jomini. Par un officier russe. - Krzemieniec, 1822. - 35 p.
• Jomini, Henry , website in Russian, Jomini’s book “Political and military life of Napoleon”, dedicated to Napoleon’s military campaigns until 1812, original title “Vie politique et militaire de Napoléon, racontée par lui-même au tribunal de César, d'Alexandre et de Frédéric "(1827) .