Napoleon's Invasion: the Patriotic War of 1812
Napoleon's Grande Armée takes Moscow, which burns, then is destroyed in retreat, and Russian troops end the war in Paris.
- Russia Against Napoleon: The Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814 — Dominic Lieven, Allen Lane (2009)
- A History of Russia — Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Mark D. Steinberg, Oxford University Press
In June 1812 Napoleon crossed the Neman River with the largest army Europe had seen, roughly 450,000–600,000 men in its first wave by most estimates, many of them Poles, Germans and other allies. The Russian armies retreated, fought a bloody draw at Borodino on 7 September, and abandoned Moscow, which burned soon after the French entered it. With no peace offer from Alexander I and winter coming, Napoleon retreated in October. Hunger, cold, disease and Cossack raids destroyed his army.
- Russia Against Napoleon: The Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814 — Dominic Lieven, Allen Lane (2009)
- A History of Russia — Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Mark D. Steinberg, Oxford University Press
Historian Dominic Lieven argues that the popular image of “General Winter” undersells Russia’s army, logistics and strategy, which carried the war on to Paris in 1814. The victory made Russia the arbiter of Europe. It also sent young officers home with Western ideas; some of them launched the failed Decembrist revolt of 1825.
- Russia Against Napoleon: The Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814 — Dominic Lieven, Allen Lane (2009)
Why it matters today
1812 is the original "Patriotic War", the template for a story Russians tell about themselves: a huge invader from the west, terrible sacrifice, the nation united, and final victory. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" made it part of everyone's mental furniture.
For France the Russian campaign was the beginning of the end of Napoleon's empire. Its memory survives in everyday speech: "c'est la Bérézina", after the desperate river crossing of November 1812, still means a complete disaster.