Napoleon's Invasion of Russia
Also called: Battle of Borodino, Russian campaign of 1812
Napoleon led a vast army to punish Russia for breaking the Continental System and reached Moscow, but scorched-earth tactics and the winter cold destroyed most of his army on the retreat.
Adolph Northen · Public domain · Source
On 24 June 1812 Napoleon crossed the Neman with a multinational army of around 600,000. The Russians avoided battle and fell back, burning villages and crops as they went (scorched earth). After a bloody battle at Borodino on 7 September, Kutuzov abandoned Moscow. The city Napoleon entered was largely destroyed by fire, and Alexander I refused to negotiate.
Leaving Moscow in October, the army suffered hunger, bitter cold and attacks by Russian troops and peasant partisans, with heavy losses at the crossing of the Berezina in November. Only some tens of thousands made it back. The disaster brought Prussia and Austria back to Russia’s side (the War of Liberation), and Napoleon’s empire began to fall apart.
