The General Tuchkov memorial chapel at Borodino

This chapel was commissioned by General Tuchkov's wife. At the very end of 1812, Margarita Michailovna, a widow of the Russian General-major A.A.Tuchkov of the 2nd Army of the West desperately tried to find the body of her husband. She was so devastated by what she saw, she sold all her estates and property and in 1817 used the money to build a little wooden house, right near the Bagration 'fleches' where, according to an eyewitness account, her husband had been killed. Later, she built the Church of the Image of the Saviour Not Made By Hands. This Church, which is still well preserved today, became the first monument on the Borodino battlefield to all those who died in the battle. Margarita Tuchkova initiated a tradition of celebrating each anniversary of the battle with a procession and the last rites near the common graves.