French invasion of Russia (1812)

French Invasion of Russia
Part of the Napoleonic Wars
Clockwise from top left: The Battle of Borodino by Louis Lejeune; The Fire of Moscow by Albrecht Adam; Marshal Ney at the battle of Kaunas by Auguste Raffet; French retreat by Illarion Pryanishnikov
Date 24 June 1812 – 14 December 1812 (5 months, 2 weeks and 6 days) Location Russian Empire Result Decisive Russian victory Start of the War of the Sixth Coalition
Belligerents
French Empire Duchy of Warsaw Kingdom of Italy  Naples Confederation of the Rhine  Baden Bavaria Berg Saxony  Westphalia Swiss Confederation Napoleonic Spain Allies:  Austria  Prussia Denmark–Norway	Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Napoleon I Louis Alexandre Berthier Louis-Nicolas Davout Michel Ney Jacques MacDonald Nicolas Oudinot Jerome I Józef Poniatowski Joachim Murat Eugène de Beauharnais Prince of Schwarzenberg Johann Yorck Julius von Grawert	Alexander I Mikhail Kutuzov Barclay de Tolly Mikhail Miloradovich Pyotr Bagration † Peter Wittgenstein Levin von Bennigsen Alexander Tormasov Pavel Chichagov
Strength
Grande Armée: c. 685,000 1,393 guns 180,000–200,000 horses	Imperial Russian Army: 20 June: 488,000 1,372 guns Peak: 900,000 (soldiers and militia)
Casualties and losses
470,000–530,000 340,000–400,000 dead 50,000 wounded 80,000 deserted	410,000 210,000 dead 150,000 wounded 50,000 deserted
1,000,000 soldiers and civilians dead

Decisive Russian victory

French Empire

470,000–530,000

410,000

The French invasion of Russia, known in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 (Russian: Отечественная война 1812 года Otechestvennaya Voyna 1812 Goda) and in France as the Russian Campaign (French: Campagne de Russie), began on 24 June 1812 when Napoleon's Grande Armée crossed the Neman River in an attempt to engage and defeat the Russian army. Napoleon hoped to compel Tsar Alexander I of Russia to cease trading with British merchants through proxies in an effort to pressure the United Kingdom to sue for peace. The official political aim of the campaign was to liberate Poland from the threat of Russia. Napoleon named the campaign the Second Polish War to gain favor with the Poles and provide a political pretext for his actions.

The Grande Armée was a very large force, numbering 680,000 soldiers (including 300,000 of French departments). It was the largest army ever assembled in the history of warfare up to that point. Through a series of long marches Napoleon pushed the army rapidly through Western Russia in an attempt to bring the Russian army to battle, winning a number of minor engagements and a major battle at Smolensk in August. Napoleon hoped the battle would win the war for him, but the Russian army slipped away and continued the retreat, leaving Smolensk to burn. French plans to quarter at Smolensk were abandoned, and Napoleon pressed his army on after the Russians. As the Russian army fell back, the Cossacks applied scorched-earth tactics, burning down villages, towns and crops and forcing the French to rely on a supply system that was incapable of feeding the large army in the field.

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Wikipedia