Military Invasion of Russia

In 1811, because of the pressing economic needs of his country, Tsar Alexander decided to defy the Continental System. He opened his ports to British shipping, resuming trade relations with France's greatest enemy. In December of that year, Napoleon Bonaparte started planning the invasion of Russia. It was to be the biggest military venture in history up to that time.

At this point in his career, Napoleon's image had become a little tarnished. No longer the lean and hard military commander of the old days, he managed nevertheless to inspire his troops, execersing all the skills of an actor. He assembled a huge army of half a million men, including contingents from Prussia, the Confederation of the Rhine, and all the other states under his control. Within months, he was ready.

On June 24, 1812, with the grandest Grand Army of all, Napoleon crossed the Niemen River and entered Russia. Napoleon had seriously underestimated the difficulty of moving such an enormous force across the vast territory of Russia. His men soon ate the food they had brought with them and wondered off in search of supplies. They found little, and many were killed or captured by Cossacks, the fierce cavalry of the Ukraine.

The summer heat was terrible. The horses ate green hay and corn from the fields, and 10,000 of them died in those first weeks. The transportation of artillery and supplies was almost impossible. Even worse, the Russian army was retreating ahead of Napoleon, filling in wells and burning fields and towns as they went.

On September 7, 1812, Napoleon finally caught up with the Russians at Borodino, 70 miles west of Moscow, some 400 miles into Russia. By now, death, desertion, illness, and Cossack ambushes had reduced his army to little more than half its original strenght. To make things worse, Napoleon had a bad cold and bladder infection. As the day wore on he took less interest in the battle and left his generals to conduct the fighting as they saw fit. The French did manage to force a Russian retreat, but only at great cost to themselves. Napoleon lost between 30,000 and 40,000 men, and the Russian army had merely fallen back. It had not conceded. Still the road to Moscow lay open at last.

On September 14, the Grand Army, now down to 100,000 men, marched through the gates of the ancient capital of the tsars. Napoleon expected to be handed the keys of the city and received as a conqueror. Then, with Moscow held hostage, he would force Alexander to negotiate.

But the golden spires and domes of the Kremlin, the city's mighty fortress, looked down on a ghost town. There was hardly a Muscovite to be seen. The French troops moved through the deserted streets into the empty houses, but no sooner had they settled in than mysterious fires began to break out everywhere. Soon Napoleon was the unchallenged master of a city reduced to little more than ashes. The tsar would not negotiate.

At the end of October, the cold set in with a vengeance. The temperature fell to 20 degrees below zero. Soldiers and horses dropped dead from starvation and cold.

On November 26, 1812, the Grand Army, now down to 26,000 troops, along with 40,000 army followers including women and children, reached the freezing Beresina River. Russian troops and Cossacks kept up a constant attack. Thousands of French troops were killed, drowned, or left behind to be massacred.

On one occassion, he himself was almost captured by Cossacks, and the Russian troops had been instructed to pay special attention to captured French soldiers "of small stature," Napoleon vowed that he would never be taken prisoner and began to wear a dose of poison around his neck in a pouch.When he learned of an attempted coup in France, he deserted what was left of his army and rushed back to Paris.

The disaster in Russia destroyed the original source of Napoleon's power, his army. Of the half million men who marched against the tsar, less than 10,000 survived. Any other general might have been utterly ruined by this staggering waste of life. Napoleon only said, "My army took some losses."

- Essay on Leadership
by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.