Napoleonic Wars: Invasion of Russia

Napoleonic Wars: Invasion of Russia

I chose to do the review on Napoleon's invasion of Russia. I chose this because Russian history has always fascinated me and I decided to use this as an opportunity to learn more about "Mother Russia." I started off by reading the reference article in The Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars Vol. 3. The article in the encyclopedia entitled "Russian Campaign (1812)" centers on Napoleon's invasion of Russia and his subsequent defeat.

The encyclopedia's article begins by explaining that after the Treaty of Tilsit of 1807 relations between Russia and France had become tense and that the possibility of another war was possible. The piece states that the relationship between Napoleon and Alexander seemed to improve, but when Russia took no action to help support France in the War of the Fifth Coalition their relationship began degrading. This event along with many others had Napoleon preparing for war in early 1811.

The article goes on to explain Napoleon's strategy and his military preparations. It begins to give us detailed reports of the all the Corps and their commanders in the Grande Armée which was under the direct command of Napoleon. We are given the details of each corps' force size and the amount of guns in that corps. It relates to us the deployment orders and army movements.

As the article progresses it becomes very detail oriented, giving us the exact battle descriptions including the number of men involved in the battles, the amount of casualties, and what the circumstances of the battles were. We begin to learn of Napoleon's eventual retreat out of Russia and his subsequent defeat. The article is very linear and progresses along a clear timeline from the events leading up to the start of the invasion all the way to Napoleon's retreat and defeat and the breaking of allegiance with France by Austria and Prussia. Even when the Decembrist Revolts happen 12 years later the rebels called themselves "The children of 1812" because their ideology was influenced by the invasion and its following events. 1

The article in the encyclopedia was written by Alexander Mikaberidze. He is an associate professor of European history at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. He holds a degree in international law from Tbilisi State University (Republic of Georgia, 1999) and a Ph.D. in history from Florida State University (2003). He has been awarded the International Napoleonic Society's Legion of Merit Award for his contributions to the Napoleonic studies.2

The second part of this paper is the assessment of the Wikipedia article, "French Invasion of Russia." This article