thanks for the interesting response.
About Figner, he did not kill somebody on the battle field but rather murdered
a French pow - which drew some reprimands by other fellow Russian officers.

Well, that is one view. However, for certain it was on the larger battlefield of 1813 immediately after Bautzen. I am also certain that a lot more "murder" of French soldiers went on than was ever reported. For their invasion and devastation of the motherland and the burning of Moscow, many Russians had thoughts only of revenge. But, no question, Figner was one bad motherf**ker that no Frenchman wanted to meet on or off the battlefield.

I suspect that one source of Figner's hatred of the French was his experience of the French brutality in Calabria. In comparison to what the Calabrians did to their French prisoners, Figner was actually quite humane in the quick and relatively painless execution of French prisoners. The Calabrians, on the other hand, delighted in the slow roasting of their prisoners to inflict the maximum amount of pain and terror.