The canvas Hush, Let Them Approach! is the leftmost picture of the Old Partisan triptych by Vasily Vereshchagin. The central part is represented by the picture Shoot Anyone Who is Armed, and the rightmost canvas is titled Fix Bayonets! Hurrah! Hurrah!

A group of partisans are hiding in the thicket of the winter forest. Their faces are sallow with cold and their lips are numb; they are dusted with snow from head to foot. These simple peasants are sternly watching the enemy approach.

Their faces cherish the memory of their comrades and brothers murdered by foreigners, of their dishonored wives and daughters, of their children who will never be able to grow up… And this memory heaves up a wave of righteous fury in the soul of each of the heroes depicted on the canvas.

How can they forgive the ‘Herods’ for trampling the holy places?! Churches are turned into stables, shops or barracks, or even worse, into cattle slaughterhouses! Silver icon frames are stripped and thrown out into the ditch like garbage, and the holy icons themselves are chopped for firewood! How can a Russian heart endure this?!

Hateful shakos and two-corner hats are flashing between the spruce paws! The peasant blood is pulsing, rushing through the veins! They are so eager to attack now… but not! Not yet! Suddenness of attack is the partisans’ main weapon. If they show themselves ahead of time, the French will regroup and rebuff the ambush team. And what can they oppose to the enemy musketoons and carbines? Only cleavers, spears and sticks with scythes nailed to them.

Of course, they have some good trophy rifles taken from the dead French. There are also flint rifles of the beginning of the last century. However, only those who know how to handle firearms are holding them. The rest have to content themselves on axes and scythes. Could they challenge superior enemy forces with such weapons?! No… All they can do is waiting.

“Hush! Let them approach! '” whispers the village headman Semyon Arkhipych, clutching an axe with his whitened fingers. He took this axe from a deck in the backyard this morning. “Let them pass. We”ll gang up in on their backs! ” And the men, obeying the elder villager, stand motionless, holding their breath. Only their leaden eyes betray the intention to get killed themselves, but not to allow the enemy to leave this forest today.

Semyon Arkhipovich, who became the prototype of the partisan depicted in the compositional center, is a historical figure. He was the headman in one of the villages of the Krasninsky district of Smolensk province located forty miles away from the provincial main road. The painter tells about him in the pages of his book Napoleon in Russia.

In the chapter Hush, Let Them Approach! the author tells about this man”s difficult fate during the war years. The French spread the rumor that the Smolensk lands would never be Russian again, and many began to help them, meet them with bread and salt, and give up their last supplies. The discontent people would no longer listen to the village chief.

However, with the news of the atrocities and blasphemy perpetrated by the interventionists, the moods quickly changed. Semyon, with the blessing of the local priest and the approval of the authorities, formed a partisan team of his fellow villagers and began to beat groups of Frenchmen approaching the village in search of provisions and fodder.

In total, during the war, the detachment of the headman Semyon sent about one and a half thousand invaders to the forefathers, and about two thousand were captured and handed over to the authorities.