French invasion of Russia

The French Invasion of Russia in 1812, also known as the Russian Campaign in France (French: Campagne de Russiecode: fr is deprecated ) and the Patriotic War of 1812 in Russia (Russian: Отечественная война 1812 годаcode: ru is deprecated ), was Napoleon I leading the French Empire to invade Russia. That was the turning point during the Napoleonic Wars, because it was the first major defeat for Napoleon.

French invasion of Russia
Part of the Napoleonic Wars
Top to bottom, left to right: Italian soldiers struggling with thirst and heat by Albrecht Adam The end of Borodino battle by Vasily Vereshchagin Moscow burning by Viktor Mazurovsky French soldiers attacked by Russian Cossacks Crossing the Berezina River by Victor Adam Marshal Ney at the Kowno redoubt by Auguste Raffet
Date 24 June – 24 December 1812 (6 months) Location Russian Empire Result Russian victory
Belligerents
French Empire Duchy of Warsaw Italy Naples Template:Country data Old Swiss Confederacy Swiss Confederacy Rhine Confederation Saxony Bavaria Template:Country data Westphalia Westphalia Template:Country data Kingdom of Württemberg Württemberg Template:Country data Grand Duchy of Hesse Hesse Berg Baden Frankfurt Würzburg Template:Country data Denmark–Norway Austrian Empire Prussia	Russia
Commanders and leaders
Napoleon I other commanders: List Pierre Augereau Eugène de Beauharnais Jean-Baptiste Bessières Jérôme Bonaparte Louis-Nicolas Davout Jean-Andoche Junot François Joseph Lefebvre Étienne Macdonald Édouard Mortier Joachim Murat Michel Ney Nicolas Oudinot Józef Poniatowski Jean Reynier Laurent Saint-Cyr Ambroży Mikołaj Skarżyński Karl von Schwarzenberg Claude Victor Johann Yorck	Alexander I other commanders: List Aleksey Arakcheyev Pyotr Bagration  † Alexander Balashov Mikhail Barclay de Tolly Alexander von Benckendorff Levin von Bennigsen Pavel Chichagov Eufemiusz Czaplic Dmitry Dokhturov Dmitry Golitsyn Yakov Kulnev  † Mikhail Kutuzov Charles de Lambert Mikhail Miloradovich Vasily Orlov-Denisov Alexander Osterman-Tolstoy Fabian Osten-Sacken Peter von der Pahlen Matvei Platov Nikolay Raevsky Pavel Stroganov Alexander Tormasov Nikolay Tuchkov  † Peter Wittgenstein Aleksey Yermolov
Strength
600,000–685,000 total: 440,000–449,000 – First wave 134,000 – Borodino 108,000 – Maloyaroslavets 33,000 – Berezina	571,000–713,000 total: 198,000 – First wave 118,000 – Borodino 129,000 – Maloyaroslavets 126,000 – Berezina
Casualties and losses
500,000 300,000–350,000 dead 100,000 killed in combat 200,000 died from other causes 50,000 died in captivity 180,000–212,800 wounded (including those who died, deserted or captured) 50,000 deserted 100,000 prisoners (including those who died)	410,000 210,000 dead 150,000 wounded 50,000 deserted
Total military and civilian deaths: c. 1,000,000

French soldiers in Russia

It greatly reduced the French and allied invasion forces (the Grande Armée). It started a major change in European politics by greatly weakened the French power over Europe. French allies, at first Prussia and then Austria, broke their alliance with France. They fought France instead, which started the War of the Sixth Coalition.

French Invasion Of Russia Media

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  Europe in 1812. Political situation before Napoleon's Russian Campaign.

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  Image Caption: Nous marchames l'arme au bras. Written on board: "Feb. 1896" "Russian campaign."

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  Napoleon stopped at Castle Malbork, a large military warehouse

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  On the border of Neman 1812 by Christian Wilhelm von Faber du Faur

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  Napoleon's army crossing the Neman river on 24 June [O.S. 12 June (Julian Calendar)] 1812.

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  27 June 1812. Quartier Général at Mykoliškiai

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  Italian corps of Eugène de Beauharnais crossing the Neman on 30 June 1812

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  Cossacks feigning retreat against Polish uhlans at the Battle of Mir

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  General Raevsky leading a detachment of the Russian Imperial Guard at the Battle of Saltanovka

Other websites

• History of the Expedition to Russia Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812, by the count de Ségur (Gutenberg Project ebook)
• Napoleon's Invasion of Russia 1812 + color maps
• Alternative version of Minard's map (using modern country boundaries)
• Alternative version of Minard's map (zoomed-out, to show area in relationship to the rest of Europe)
• French invasion of 1812, view from Russia Archived 2013-05-21 at the Wayback Machine
• Patriotic War of 1812, Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior, 1-22 Archived 2014-05-02 at the Wayback Machine