The painting depicts an important episode of the Patriotic War of 1812. It was the end of the first stage of the war when under the onslaught of Napoleon, the army of Alexander I retreated from the borders of the Russian Empire. After the Battle of Borodino, in the early morning of September 1, Russian troops were positioned near Moscow, between the village of Fili and the Sparrow Hills, which was ill-suited for a grand battle.

In the evening of the same day, Commander-in-Chief Mikhail Kutuzov convened a military council in the house of the peasant Mikhail Frolov. Generals Barclay de Tolly, Leonty Bennigsen, Alexander Osterman-Tolstoy, Karl Tol, Nikolay Raevsky, Dmitry Dokhturov, Alexey Yermolov, Pyotr Konovnitsyn and Paisiy Kaysarov were invited. They faced the main question: to take on the French army here or surrender Moscow without a fight?

Just a month and a half later, Kutuzov’s reinforced army together with a powerful people’s militia turned the tide of war and Napoleon’s army fled Russia. In his novel “War and Peace”, Leo Tolstoy described in detail the military council in Fili. Based on this episode, the artist Aleksey Kishenko created two paintings for the 70^thanniversary of the Council. One is kept in the Russian Museum, the other in the Tretyakov Gallery.

Alexey Danilovich Kivshenko graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts, and received gold medals for his works “Samson and Delilah” and “The Marriage in Cana of Galilee”. After an internship abroad, Kishenko received the title of Academician and was commissioned by Emperor Alexander III to work on paintings of the Russo–Turkish war in the Caucasus Viceroyalty. Among his works are a series of paintings about the vocation of the Varangians, the Christianization of Rus’, the Battle on the Neva river, the siege of Kazan and other key episodes of Russian history.

“The Military Council in Fili” is one of Kishenko’s most successful works in terms of design, composition and expressiveness. The red corner — a home altar with icons and the place of worship in Russian huts — occupies a prominent place in the painting. The figure of Mikhail Kutuzov is shown on the left, isolated from the rest and turned to the viewer. His “popular” decision to surrender Moscow was not supported by the majority of generals, but Kutuzov had the courage to go through with it.