The Heliopolis battle, or Forgotten Victory
Tchoudinov Alexander
The victory of the French troops under command of the general Kléber over the Turkish army of the Grand Vizier Yusouf-pasha in the Heliopolis battle on March 20, 1800, became the largest triumph of the French weapon during the Egyptian campaign of 1798-1801. However from all battles of that campaign it was the least studied by historians and was practically not fixed by the French historical memory. The author of article analyzes the reasons of a similar situation, explaining it by the propaganda policy of Bonaparte which had an aim to glorify his own successes and to belittle achievements of his rivals among whom Kléber was one of the most outstanding. The author of article presents also to attention of readers the most detailed reconstruction of the course of Heliopolis battle made on the basis of documents of the French military archive in Vincennes and memoirs of participants of these events.