Napoleon's invasion of Russia
- Date
- June–December 1812
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Russian Empire
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
In June 1812 Napoleon led a multinational Grande Armée of around 600,000 men across the Niemen River to compel Tsar Alexander I to return to the Continental System. The Russians refused a decisive engagement, retreating deep into their territory and devastating the land behind them.
After a bloody, indecisive clash at Borodino in September, the French occupied a largely abandoned and burning Moscow but found no surrender awaiting them. With supplies exhausted and winter approaching, Napoleon began a catastrophic retreat on 19 October. Harried by Cossacks, hunger, disease and bitter cold, his army disintegrated, suffering a perilous crossing of the Berezina in late November. Of the vast force that had invaded, only a small fraction recrossed the frontier; total deaths across the campaign are estimated in the hundreds of thousands. The disaster destroyed the myth of Napoleon's invincibility, emboldened his enemies, and marked the turning point that began the collapse of his European empire.
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Empires active in June–December 1812
- Russian Empire1721 CE – 1917 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Qing Dynasty1636 CE – 1912 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
Related military & conflict events
- Battle of Waterloo18 June 1815
- Haiti declares independence after a successful slave revolution1 January 1804
- First Opium War and the Treaty of Nanking1839–1842 (Treaty of Nanking, 29 August 1842)
- The Taiping Rebellion1850–1864
- American Civil War and the abolition of slavery1861–1865 (Emancipation Proclamation 1 January 1863; 13th Amendment ratified 6 December 1865)
- The Franco-Prussian War, German unification and the Paris Commune19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871; German Empire proclaimed 18 January 1871
Further reading
If you read one book
1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow
Harrowing narrative of the doomed 1812 campaign.
Get it on Amazon →Also worth reading
- Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace — Amazon →
Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace
Wolfson Prize-winning account of 1812 from the Russian side; superbly readable.
Get it on Amazon →
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