Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Patriotic War of 1812

The date of Napoleon's invasion of Russia is one of the dramatic dates in the history of our country. This event gave rise to many myths and points of view regarding the causes, plans of the parties, the strength of the troops and other important aspects. Let's try to understand this issue and to objectively illuminate Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 as objectively as possible. And start with the background.

Background to the conflict

Napoleon's invasion of Russia was not an accidental and unexpected event. This is in the novel LN. Tolstoy "War and Peace" it is presented as "treacherous and unexpected." In fact, everything was natural. Russia by its military actions brought upon itself trouble. First, Catherine II, fearing the revolutionary events in Europe, helped the First Anti-French Coalition. Then Paul the First could not forgive Napoleon the capture of Malta - the island, which was under the personal protection of our emperor.

The main military confrontations between Russia and France began with the Second Anti-French Coalition (1798-1800), in which Russian troops, together with Turkish, British and Austrian forces, tried to defeat the Directory army in Europe. It was during these events that Ushakov's famous Mediterranean expedition and the heroic crossing of the Russian army of many thousands across the Alps under the command of Suvorov took place.

Our country then first became acquainted with the "loyalty" of the Austrian allies, thanks to which the Russian army of many thousands were surrounded. This, for example, happened with Rimsky-Korsakov in Switzerland, who lost about 20 thousand of his soldiers in an unequal battle against the French. It was the Austrian troops that left Switzerland and left the 30,000-strong corps of Russians one-on-one with the 70,000-strong corps of the French. And Suvorov's famous campaign was also forced, as all the same Austrian advisers pointed to our commander-in-chief the wrong way in the direction where roads and crossings were completely absent.

As a result, Suvorov was surrounded, but with determined maneuvers he could get out of the stone trap and save the army. However, between these events and the Patriotic War, a decade has passed. Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 would not have taken place had it not been for further events.

The Third and Fourth Anti-French Coalitions. Violation of the Peace of Tilsit

Alexander the First also launched a war with France. According to one version, thanks to the British there was a coup d'état in Russia, which led to the throne of young Alexander. This circumstance, perhaps, caused the new emperor to fight for the British.

In 1805, the Third Anti-French Coalition was formed. It includes Russia, England, Sweden and Austria. Unlike the previous two, the new union was decorated as defensive. No one was going to restore the Bourbon dynasty in France. Most of all the union was needed in England, since 200 thousand French soldiers were already under the Channel, ready to land on Foggy Albion, but the Third Coalition prevented these plans.

The culmination point of the alliance was "The Battle of Three Emperors" on November 20, 1805. This name was given because all three emperors of the warring armies-Napoleon, Alexander First and Franz II-were present on the battlefield at Austerlitz. Military historians believe that it was the presence of "high officials" that gave rise to the utter confusion of allies. The battle ended with the complete defeat of the troops of the Coalition.

We try to briefly explain all the circumstances, without understanding which Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 will be incomprehensible.

In 1806, the Fourth Anti-French Coalition appeared. Austria no longer took part in the war against Napoleon. The new union included England, Russia, Prussia, Saxony and Sweden. The brunt of the fighting was to be borne out to our country, since England helped, mainly, only financially, and also at sea, and the other participants did not have strong land armies. In one day the entire Prussian army was destroyed in the battle of Jena.

On June 2, 1807, our army was defeated at Friedland, and retreated beyond the Niemen, a border river in the western possessions of the Russian Empire.

After that, Russia signed with the Napoleon Tilsit peace on June 9, 1807 in the middle of the Neman river, which was officially treated as equal rights of the parties in the signing of peace. It was the violation of the Peace of Tilsit that became the reason for Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Let's take a look at the contract itself, so that the reasons for what happened later are clear.

Conditions of the Peace of Tilsit

The Treaty of Tilsit proposed the annexation of Russia to the so-called blockade of the British Isles. This decree was signed by Napoleon on November 21, 1806. The essence of the "blockade" was that France was creating a zone on the European continent where it was forbidden to trade in England. Napoleon could not block the island physically, since France did not even have a tenth of the fleet that was at the disposal of the British. Therefore, the term "blockade" is conditional. In fact, Napoleon came up with what is today called economic sanctions. England actively traded with Europe. From Russia, it exported grain, so the "blockade" threatened the food security of Albion. In fact, Napoleon even helped England, as the latter urgently found new trading partners in Asia and Africa, making good money in this in the future.

Russia in the XIX century was an agrarian country, which sold grain for export. The only major buyer of our products at that time was just England. Those. The loss of the sales market completely ruined the ruling elite of the nobles in Russia. We see something like this in our country today, when counter-sanctions and sanctions hit hard on the oil and gas industry, as a result of which the ruling elite incurs huge losses.

In fact, Russia joined the anti-English sanctions in Europe, initiated by France. The latter itself was a large agricultural producer, so there was no possibility of replacing a trading partner for our country. Naturally, our ruling elite could not fulfill the conditions of the Tilsit world, as this would lead to the complete destruction of the entire Russian economy. The only way to get Russia to comply with the "blockade" requirement was through the use of force. Therefore, there was an invasion of Napoleon's "Great Army" in Russia. The French emperor himself was not going to go deeper into our country, wanting to just force Alexander to perform the Tilsit peace. However, our armies forced the French emperor to move farther from the western borders to Moscow.

date

The date of Napoleon's invasion of the territory of Russia - June 12, 1812. On that day, the enemy's troops crossed the border river Neman.

The myth of the invasion

There was a myth that Napoleon's invasion of Russia occurred unexpectedly. The emperor spent the ball, and all the courtiers were having fun. In fact, the balls of all European monarchs of that time occurred very often, and they did not depend on the events of politics, but, on the contrary, were its integral part. This was an unchanging tradition of monarchical society. It was they who actually held public hearings on the most important issues. Even during the First World War, gentry celebrations were held in the residences of the nobles. However, it is worth noting that Alexander the first ball in Vilno all the same left and retired to Petersburg, where he stayed throughout the Patriotic War.

Forgotten Heroes

The Russian army was preparing to invade the French long before that. War Minister Barclay de Tolly did everything possible to make the army of Napoleon come to Moscow at the limit of its capabilities and with huge losses. The military minister himself kept his army in full combat readiness. Unfortunately, the history of the Patriotic War unfairly treated Barclay de Tolly. By the way, it was he who in fact created the conditions for the future French catastrophe, and the invasion of Napoleon's army into Russia eventually ended in the complete rout of the enemy.

The tactics of the War Minister

Barclay de Tolly used the famous "Scythian tactics". The distance between the Neman and Moscow is huge. Without supplies of food, provisions for horses, drinking water, the "Great Army" turned into a huge prisoner of war camp, in which natural death was much higher than the losses from the battles. The French did not expect the horror that Barclay de Tolly had created for them: the peasants left for the woods, taking with them cattle and burning provisions, the wells along the army's path were poisoned, resulting in periodic epidemics in the French army. Horses and people fell from hunger, mass desertion began, but there was nowhere to run in unfamiliar terrain. In addition, partisan detachments from the peasants destroyed individual French groups of soldiers. The year of Napoleon's invasion of Russia is the year of an unprecedented patriotic rise of all Russian people united with the goal of destroying the aggressor. This point was also reflected by L.N. Tolstoy in the novel "War and Peace", in which his characters defiantly refuse to speak French, as this is the language of the aggressor, and also sacrifices all their savings for the needs of the army. Russia has not known such an invasion for a long time. The last time before our country was attacked by the Swedes almost a hundred years ago. Shortly before this, the entire secular world of Russia was admired by the genius of Napoleon, considered him the greatest man on the planet. Now this genius threatened our independence and turned into a sworn enemy.

Number and feature of the French army

The number of Napoleon's army during the invasion of Russia was about 600 thousand people. Its feature was that it resembled a patchwork quilt. The composition of Napoleon's army during the invasion of Russia consisted of Polish lancers, Hungarian dragoons, Spanish cuirassiers, French dragoons, etc. From all over Europe, Napoleon assembled his "Great Army". She was motley, speaking different languages. Sometimes, the commanders and soldiers did not understand each other, did not want to shed blood for Great France, therefore, at the first signs of the difficulties caused by our tactics of "scorched earth", they deserted. However, there was a force that held the entire Napoleonic army in fear - the personal guard of Napoleon. This was the elite of the French troops, which passed with the brilliant generals all difficulties from the first days. It was very difficult to get into it. Guardsmen were paid a huge salary, they got the best supplies of food. Even in the Moscow famine, these people received a good ration, when the rest were forced to look for dead rats for food. The Guard was something like Napoleon's modern security service. She followed the signs of desertion, and put things in order in a motley Napoleonic army. She was also thrown into battle in the most dangerous sectors of the front where the retreat of even one soldier could lead to tragic consequences for the entire army. Guardsmen never retreated and showed unprecedented steadfastness and heroism. However, they were too few in percentage terms.

In all, Napoleon's army had about half of the French themselves, who manifested themselves in battles in Europe. But now this was another army - aggressive, occupational, which reflected on its morale.

Army Composition

The "Great Army" was deployed in two echelons. The main forces - about 500 thousand people and about 1 thousand guns - consisted of three factions. The right wing under the command of Jerome Bonaparte - 78 thousand people and 159 guns - was to move to Grodno and divert the main forces of the Russians. The central grouping led by Bogarne - 82 thousand people and 200 guns - was to prevent the connection of the two main Russian armies Barclay de Tolly and Bagration. Napoleon himself with new forces moved to Vilna. His task was to split the Russian armies separately, but he also admitted their connection. In the rear, there remained a reserve army of 170,000 men and about 500 guns of Marshal Augerot. According to the calculations of the military historian Clausewitz, Napoleon in total employed in the Russian campaign up to 600 thousand people, of whom less than 100 thousand people crossed the border river Neman back from Russia.

Napoleon planned to impose battles at the western borders of Russia. However, Baklai de Tolly imposed on him a game of "cat and mouse." The main Russian forces all the time evaded the battle and retreated into the interior of the country, dragging the French further away from the Polish reserves, and depriving him of food and supplies on his own territory. That is why Napoleon's invasion of Russia led to a further catastrophe of the "Great Army".

The forces of the Russians

At the time of the aggression, Russia had about 300,000 people with 900 guns. However, the army was divided. The first Western army was commanded by the Minister of War himself. The Barclay de Tolly grouping was about 130 thousand people with 500 guns. It stretched from Lithuania to Grodno in Belarus. The second Western army of Bagration consisted of about 50 thousand people - it occupied a line east of Bialystok. The third army of Tormasov - also about 50 thousand people with 168 guns - was stationed in Volyn. Also large groups were in Finland - not long before there was a war with Sweden - and in the Caucasus, where Russia traditionally waged wars with Turkey and Iran. Also there was a grouping of our troops on the Danube under the command of Admiral P.V. Chichagov in the number of 57 thousand people with 200 guns.

Napoleon's invasion of Russia: the beginning

In the evening of June 11, 1812, the departure of the Life Guards Cossack Regiment found a suspicious movement on the Neman River. With the onset of darkness, the enemy sappers began building crossings three versts up the river from Kovno (modern Kaunas, Lithuania). The crossing of the river of all forces took 4 days, but the vanguard of the French was already in Kovno on the morning of June 12. Alexander the First at this time was at a ball in Vilna, where he was informed of the attack.

From Neman to Smolensk

Back in May 1811, assuming Napoleon's possible invasion of Russia, Alexander the First said to the French ambassador about the following: "We'd better get to Kamchatka, rather than sign peace in our capitals." For frost and territory will be at war. "

This tactic was put into practice: the Russian troops quickly retreated from the Neman to Smolensk by two armies, unable to unite. Both armies were constantly chased by the French. Several battles took place, in which the Russians frankly sacrificed whole groups of the rear guard with the aim of keeping the main force of the French as long as possible in order to prevent them from catching up with our main forces.

On August 7, a battle took place near Valutina Mountain, which was called the battle for Smolensk. Barclay de Tolly united by this time with Bagration and even made several attempts to counterattack. However, all these were only false maneuvers that made Napoleon think about the future general battle near Smolensk and regroup the columns from the marching order to the attacker. But the Russian commander-in-chief remembered the Emperor's order "I have no more army," and did not dare to give a general battle, justly predicting the future defeat. Under Smolensk, the French suffered huge losses. Barclay de Tolly himself was a supporter of further retreat, but the entire Russian public unfairly considered him a coward and a traitor for his retreat. And only the Russian emperor, who had already escaped once from Austerlitz from Napoleon, still continued to trust the minister. While the armies were divided, Barclay de Tolly could still cope with the general's wrath, but with the unification of the army near Smolensk he still had to counterattack Murat's corps. This attack was needed more to calm Russian commanders, rather than to give a decisive battle to the French. But, despite this, the minister was accused of indecisiveness, procrastination, cowardice. There was a final breakdown with Bagration, who zealously attacked, but could not give the order, since he formally submitted to Barkal de Tolly. Napoleon himself expressed his vexation that the Russians did not give a general battle, since his ingenious roundabout maneuver by the main forces would lead to a blow to the rear of the Russians, as a result of which our army would be completely defeated.

Change of commander in chief

Under pressure from the public, Barkalja de Tolly was still dismissed as commander-in-chief. Russian generals in August 1812 already openly sabotaged all his orders. However, the new commander-in-chief M.I. Kutuzov, whose authority was enormous in Russian society, also gave the order for further retreat. And only on August 26 - also under public pressure - still gave the general battle near Borodino, as a result of which the Russians were defeated and left Moscow.

Results

Let's sum up. The date of Napoleon's invasion of Russia is one of the tragic events in the history of our country. However, this event contributed to the patriotic rise in our society, its consolidation. Napoleon was mistaken in that a Russian peasant would choose to abolish serfdom in exchange for supporting the occupiers. It turned out that for our citizens military aggression was much worse than internal social and economic contradictions.