The Patriotic War of 1812 is perhaps the most famous for the Russians thanks to its famous Battle of Borodino. However, in the course of it there were other battles that together decided the outcome of the war.
Napoleon, without a doubt, was one of the greatest conquerors in world history, who managed to capture a significant number of European territories during his military campaigns at the beginning of the XIX century. However, Russia managed to thwart his plans to seize complete world domination.
Attack on Russia
On the morning of June 1812, Napoleon’s troops crossed the Neman River and, without an official announcement of the start of hostilities, invaded the territory of the Russian Empire. The commander was well prepared for the implementation of his plans: he had at his disposal an army of more than 600 thousand people, as well as almost 1.5 thousand guns: all this gave him reasonable hope for a quick victory and the seizure of Russian territory, just like before that captured many European countries.
Battle of Borodino
Indeed, in the first few months the military campaign was very successful, in full accordance with Napoleon's plans: from June to September 1812 he managed to advance from the border that he crossed at the beginning of the war to the capital of Russia - Moscow. Here, 110 kilometers from the city, near the village of Borodino, the commander of the Russian army Kutuzov set out to conduct a decisive battle for the capital.
The battle of Borodino began on the morning of September 6. During this battle, both sides suffered huge losses - the death toll reached many tens of thousands of people, one of the largest Russian military leaders, Prince Bagration, was mortally wounded. The commander of the Russian army Mikhail Kutuzov decided to retreat to Moscow, and then, realizing that he could not defend the city with the rest of his strength, he left the capital of the French army.
