In the 1812, there was a period
of the French invasion into the Russian territories. This war is mainly known
as the period of French invasion of Russia. The Russian forces was led by
Napoleon Bonaparte and they started their march into Russia on 24 June 1812.
The first Russian place they have entered is the River Neman, where they
planned to go further into Russian territories.
The aim for Napoleon to bring his
army into Russia was to force Russia to cut off its business relationship with
England as England was the enemy of France. However, it could be that French’s
main political intention was to actually seized Poland from Russia. So, because
of these reasons, Napoleon came into Russia together with his Grand Army
consisting about 680,000 soldiers.
During the early invasion, the
Russian army did not really fight the French but they took decision to just
keep retreating into deeper Russia, while the French army keep following them. In
the meantime, the Russian Cossacks were given orders to destroy all villages
and crops in their way to cut the food supply for the French who were following
them. In 7 September 1812, French and Russia met at Borodino, a place near
Moscow. So, there was a battle between the two forces. This battle was known to
be the biggest and bloodiest battle in the history of Napoleonic war, resulted
with 70,000 deaths in just one day.
Later, French managed to enter
Moscow. However, Moscow was already destroyed and left deserted under the
command of the governor Count Fyodor Rostopchin. Napoleon waited for a month, hoping Tsar Alexander I
would come to Moscow for peace negotiation. But his wait was unfruitful. So,
Napoleon decided to move forward until Kaluga. As usual, the Russian army keep
on retreating into deeper Russian territories. As the French followed them, the
weather had changed. Now it came the winter time.
The French army was now
exhausted. They did not have enough food supply to equip them for further
movements. What more was terrible is that it was winter but they were not
equipped with winter clothings. So, Napoleoen decided to pull back his forces
to go out of Russia. Thus, with the end of the Russian invasion, it marked the
end of the Napoleonic war. French lost about 300,000 men from the war and
100,000 were captured by the Russian, left only about 27,000 who were with
Napoleon during their withdrawal.
The reason for the Russian
victory was they were well-planned to confront the French army. In the
battlefield, the Russian keep on retreating its army into deeper Russia and it
might be one of their strategies to exhaust the enemy’s force. By doing so,
they have the chance to cut supply of food for the enemy by destroying the villages
in their way and they could kill the small groups of the French soldiers who
were responsible to go out to search for food.
Besides, the Russians also was
well adapted to the Russian lands. It would be easier for them to move from one
place to another without so much difficulties as they understand their land.
Unlike the French, they were from another place and they might be not well
adapted to the Russian geographical characteristics. This factor became one of the
help to Russian victory in the war.
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