How Russia Broke Napoleon

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]It's the 14th of September 1812 and French Emperor Napoleon Bonapart is nearing the city of Moscow. It's been a brutal journey with one of the largest armies ever assembled at the time bearing down on the capital of the Russian Empire. Napoleon thought that this would surely be the end of what he hoped to be a short decisive campaign.

[00:00:23]He expected to be welcomed into Moscow with good graces and decorum by a delegation of the city's highest officials, assembled in recognition of his victory and ready to negotiate a peace. Except, of course, there were no officials. In fact, there was almost nobody at all. of Moscow's roughly 200,000 inhabitants from before the war, only 2% remained, predominantly wounded soldiers and some remaining to pillage the homes of those who had fled. All that was left was the capital city of the Russian Empire in flames, set ablaze by its fleeing occupants.

[00:01:02]There was nothing left, no food, and very little plunder. Nothing but a burning city and the bitter taste of ash floating in the air.

[00:01:12]Bonapart's greatest prize and cherished victory was literally going up in smoke.

[00:01:19]It would be an omen for what was to come. The fire would end up burning for 6 days, and with little shelter and supplies, the Grand Dane had little choice but to turn back. So many had already suffered and died just for the army to even get here. But the story was now far from over because the Russian winter was on its way and alongside it some of the greatest horrors in French military history would blow in on those icy winds. This is the story of Napoleon's savage retreat from Russia.

[00:01:59]Okay. So to understand what happened to Napoleon's grand when fleeing Moscow, we need to understand why it was there in the first place. Napoleon Bonapart was a rockstar general, having shot to the top of French society following the kingdom's revolution into a republic.

[00:02:15]And Napoleon then turned it into the dominant military power on the continent in the years that followed. Successful military campaign after military campaign had left much of Europe under French control, transforming Mr. Bonapart from general to emperor. That glosses over a lot of interesting history about Napoleon's rise. But that's not what this video is about. All you need to know is that by 1807, Mons Napoleon was the big dog on the block.

[00:02:42]And to many across Europe, his armies and tactics appeared invincible. But there were dissenting voices mainly from the east. The treaty of tilicid was signed by France, Russia and Prussia in 1807 to avoid further conflict following crushing defeats for both Eastern European players. Prussia was neutered taking a major military power off the table and Russia was forced to join an alliance of convenience and Napoleon's continental system which was attempting to economically blockade Britain. The maps of Europe had been redrawn and a fragile peace broke out but not without grumbling from the Russian side.

[00:03:19]Napoleon had created the duche of Warsaw in 1807 which concerned Russian s Alexander I of the possibility of invasion especially now with Prussia gone and fears of growing anti-Russian sentiment in Poland and despite Napoleon historically seeing Russia as an ally due to its lack of territorial conflicts with France this stance changed as the SAR moved against Napoleon in 1810 Russia stopped complying with Napoleon's trade embargo with Britain because it was hampering the Russian Russian economy. The duchy of Warsaw was a flash point as the SAR potentially saw it as the reformation of Poland which would lead to territorial losses. Russia also imposed heavy taxes on French luxury items and even denied Napoleon's request to marry one of the SARS sisters. All of this shocked Napoleon who for his part expected total obedience as part of this so-called alliance. And so a mutual distrust started to make war look inevitable as both empires prepared for conflict. By 1812, peace wasn't really an option and neither side could accept a position that would make them strategically weaker in the long run.

[00:04:25]Napoleon's enormous army amassed on the border of the Russian Empire, the Nean River in present day Lithuania. When diplomacy broke down, Napoleon is reported to have said, "Russia now breaks her vows and refuses to give any explanation of her strange conduct.

[00:04:41]Russia is hurried away by a fatality.

[00:04:44]Her destinies will be fulfilled. Let us then march forward. Let us cross the non and carry the fight into her country.

[00:04:53]And so this huge force crossed the river. The French invasion of Russia had begun. And when we say huge, by the way, we mean it. Numbers vary on the source, but good estimates come from Encyclopedia Britannica as well as the World History Encyclopedia. According to them, around 615,000 soldiers would eventually find their way into Russia as part of the Grand. There were also roughly 200,000 horses, 1,300 guns, and a supply train of nearly 8,000 vehicles. This would be one of the largest European military forces ever assembled, and a seriously diverse one at that, with soldiers from all over the continent taking part. But this might actually be where the cracks first started to appear in Napoleon's plans.

[00:05:39]While French and Polish officers marched with further for Napoleon, officers from other regions of the empire were a lot less enthusiastic. Hailing from nations subjugated by Napoleon. Many fought out of fear or obligation rather than loyalty, which is never a good basis for a military campaign. Russia, by comparison, had closer to a quarter of a million men ready to defend the motherland. Napoleon, contrary to popular belief, was aware of the dangers of the Russian winter and the damage that could be done in a prolonged excursion. He knew that he had to win decisively and quickly as stretched supply trains would leave his army hungry. He said, quote, "We can hope for nothing in that countryside." To sustain the colossal force, Napoleon organized 20 train battalions equipped with nearly 8,000 vehicles, providing a 40-day supply to the front lines. Following closely on the hills of the Grand Army was a staggering 50,000 heads of cattle supplying dairy and meat to the soldiers. In total, the army's trained battalions hauled over 8,000 tons of supplies via heavy and light wagons into Russian territory. It was a seriously ambitious move, one on a scale that had never really been tried before in open warfare. It was a shaky foundation for such a crucial campaign, and it did not start well. As Napoleon's forces poured across the Neon, a startled rabbit spooked his horse, throwing the French emperor to the ground. Many shrugged it off, the more superstitious saw it as an omen of things to come. Despite this, Napoleon marched on, eager to engage the Russians in a decisive battle. But the Ruskies had other plans. You see, Russia is big. It's it's gigantic, actually.

[00:07:23]Nobody said that the Russians had to fight there and then, and so they didn't. They retreated to more defensible positions within the empire's interior, and they destroyed everything in sight as they went. The bitter Russian army in perpetual retreat employed a scorched earth tactic. They were not about to allow the French to forage locally as they had done in previous campaigns to keep their large army afloat. Even the peasants slashed and burned their own crops to deny them to the invaders. As the Grand pushed further into Russian territory, supplies were already starting to dwindle as lines were stretched thin. Soldiers began to pillage from local areas in an attempt to keep the army fed, but little avail. Some had even started to desert in search of food, and others were starting to catch diseases like dissentry and typhus. The summer heat bared down on the French-led forces, so they continued to speed ahead of their supply trains. In late June, a reprieve came from the heat, but it only made the situation worse. A massive thunderstorm rolled in, turning Lithuania's roads into impossible mud pits. Horses collapsed, wagons sank, soldiers struggled to march forward without losing their boots. The French artillery commander, Jean Frasabula, described the horrific storm as a terrible tempest.

[00:08:40]Thunder and lightning burst from every side. Amidst the growing chaos, the Grand Armes desperation reached a new low. Napoleon's adviser, Amand D Kalenor, grimly recounted scenes of men descending on fallen horses for food.

[00:08:57]Many of the soldiers in those moments must have thought that this was rock bottom, but all too often during this campaign, they would find themselves hearing a knock from below. Soldiers and horses began to die in their thousands, as most settlements offered little more than a pile of ashes to the invading army. But still, Napoleon marched on.

[00:09:15]There would not be a true battle until Napoleon's forces trapped a large number of Russians at the village of Boredino, a little over 70 mi or 115 km west of Moscow. The engagement would prove to be the bloodiest of the war and is said to have involved well over 200,000 troops in total. Both armies fought with overwhelming firepower for the age, expelling thousands of cannonballs and hundreds of thousands of musk balls towards their enemy. After 12 hours of brutal warfare and bloodshed, the battle ended in a costly French tactical victory following a Russian retreat. At the end of it, all 70,000 soldiers from both armies were dead. A terrible glimpse into the future of a greater industrialized warfare centuries to come. But regardless, the road to Moscow was at least now wide open. All Napoleon had to do was waltz in, declare victory, negotiate a peace that benefited him, and everyone could go home happy. Except the Russians had other plans in mind because as we said when they arrived at the gates of Moscow, the city was empty and burning. The jewel in the crown of the Russian Empire was a smoldering wreckage. Napoleon even had to evacuate the Kremlin after initially setting up there because the fires were spreading so fast. And if the rabbit causing him to fall off his horse wasn't an omen, this certainly was. Nonetheless, Napoleon spent his time in Moscow doing two things. Firstly, he turned his attention to Russian maneuvers. hoping to crush any resistance, but they failed to drive out the small number of Ksak bands that stayed behind. Secondly, he tried to secure peace negotiations.

[00:10:46]Napoleon know that his position was weak, having lost hundreds of thousands of troops to even get to this point through a mix of battle, starvation, desertion, and disease. He was unsure how to continue the campaign. He could choose to overwinter safely in nearby Smalinsk and start up again in spring.

[00:11:03]He could try and push on to defeat the Russians now or he could pack his bags up and go home. So he sent a letter to Prince Mikuel Cutoovv Marshall of the Russian Empire who was out commanding troops against him. And it read, "Prince Cout, I send one of my aid to you in order to discuss several important matters. I hope that your highness will believe what he is to say to you. above all when he expresses the high esteem and particular respect I have for a long time held for your person Moscow 3rd October 1812 signed Napoleon upon reading this letter Cuzv did agree to a secret meeting with Napoleon's aids sar Alexander was furious at this as he had explicitly decreed that there would be no negotiations with the French whilst they stood on Russian land in reality it appears that even Even if he was sending out fearless, Gurisv never really intended to negotiate a peace and simply wanted to buy some time when Napoleon would stick about without attacking anybody. Keeping French hopes for peace alive allowed him precious time to organize Russian forces for the next stage of the campaign whilst the Grand Army remained in the ashes of Moscow. And it was early October which meant that winter was on its way.

[00:12:23]Eventually, Napoleon realized that he was being strung along and that peace was never coming. It must have been one of the only times in Napoleon's military career that he wasn't sure what to do.

[00:12:34]Staying put in Moscow would be a thumb in the eye of the Russians, but would weaken his position in terms of having enough supplies over winter, so that wasn't really feasible. Smealinsk was a still safer option that was available as a relatively large, currently French controlled settlement with supplies. So if Napoleon could make it there, he might be able to reorganize and rearm his forces, better for a push come spring. Except of course the road from Spalinsk was the one Napoleon took to arrive at Moscow with the army having plundered and paged everything it could along the way. Everything else was burnt to cinders. So not ideal. Meanwhile, heading all the way back to France would mean that all of this was essentially for nothing and would be an acceptance of defeat. Given the circumstances, Napoleon actually came up with a decent plan. He made the decision on the 14th of October to leave Moscow and the army would start withdrawing around the 80.

[00:13:31]The plan was simple. First, head southwest to the small settlement of Caliga. The land there was more fertile and the territory had not been exhausted of supplies by his troops. This would then allow the army to subsist a little easier as it made its way back up to Smelenk to regroup. The wounded were sent ahead straight to Smealinsk first and the Grand Army would soon evacuate the city as well. But it had taken a lot of loss to arrive here. So by the time it left Moscow, that once great force of 600,000 soldiers had been whittleled down to around 100,000 men. And what's more, remember Napoleon had planned for a short campaign. What that meant was that his forces were pretty unprepared for a rough winter. The horses didn't have horseshoes, which would allow them to cross the ice safely, and the men were not appropriately equipped for the bitter cold to come with things like fur coats and winter boots. The weather in October was unseasonably mild, too, which also seemed to lure Napoleon into a false sense of security and got him to stay longer in the city than he really ought to have done. The decision to leave Moscow ultimately came a bit too late. Still, there was a chance going south would give the army the supplies and space it needed to make it back safely to French occupied territory. So that's what the army set out to do. But the army were only five or six days into their trek to Caluga when disaster struck. Kurazov had realized that the Grand Dame would flee south to less harsh territory and sought to cut them off. On the 24th of October 1812, Russian forces commanded by Kusovv blocked Napoleon's path at the settlement of Mallayor Slavets, a key stepping point on the way to Kuga. This meant that the route south was severed and so Napoleon's army was forced to march north all along that lengthy road back to Smullings, the very same one that they had already stripped bare mere months before. There was nothing for it.

[00:15:34]They had to march on or they would all die. Napoleon attempted a controlled retreat over the coming days and weeks, traversing various settlements on the way back to safety. But the Russians were also in hot pursuit. Ksacans continuously harassed the French forces at every turn, attacking when small groups would break off to try and forage for supplies and food and targeting weak points in the supply trains to further sap the Grand Army of its resources.

[00:16:00]Morale was plummeting and then it got worse. What was left of the army's morale was shot to pieces upon being forced to march back through Boradino, where they had fought a costly battle around 7 weeks prior. Thousands of rotting corpses lay partially buried, whilst some were left where they were slain, collecting flers and maggots.

[00:16:20]Some had been devoured by wolves, others were bloated and baked by the sun as they slowly started to decay in the elements. Sergeant Adrian Bon was there on the day and stated that quote after passing over a little river we arrived at the famous battlefield of Boradino covered all over with the dead and with debris of all kinds. Legs, arms, and heads lay on the ground. Most of the bodies were Russians as ours had been buried as far as possible, but as everything had been very hastily done, the heavy rain had uncovered many of them. It was a sad spectacle. The dead bodies hardly retaining a human resemblance. The battle had been fought 52 days before. An apt description, but French General Phipe de more appropriately captured that feeling, stating that on this desolate spot lay 30,000 halfdevoured corpses, while a pile of skeletons on the summit of one of the hills overlooked the hole. It seems as though death had here fixed his throne. friend, foe, even horses, none of who fell at the battle were saved at such a gruesome fate, and the Grand Bame had to march past it all. It surely must have had some of them questioning what it was all for. Little did they know, though, that soon they would be envying their fallen comrades, because in early November, the first heavy snowfall arrived. Russian winter was here, and Napoleon's Grand Army was far from home.

[00:17:47]The winter of 1812 would be historically understood as a particularly brutal, cold, and bitter season. It was like the landscape itself rejected Napoleon's presence within it. And this is where the true horror would begin. Beyond the fear of a burning Moscow, beyond the lack of supplies, beyond being cut off from their safe route back to Sinsk, it was the cold that brought real terror.

[00:18:11]Soldiers campfires burned out during the night, leaving many to freeze to death.

[00:18:15]Once the snow compacted into a hard, slippery surface, men and horses would fall constantly without proper equipment to traverse the terrain. Carriages and guns had to be controlled on slopes using ropes held by dozens of soldiers.

[00:18:29]When they slipped, the guns crashed into vehicles ahead of them, wounding and killing scores of soldiers among the chaos. Many of these guns, wagons, and even horses would slowly be left behind as the Grand Dame left the trail of the broken and dead as they fled.

[00:18:44]So many men crowded inside shelters that some suffocated in the crush whilst wooden huts often caught fire as the men tried in vain to stay warm inside. The army was running out of food and the bitter cold left them without much water either. As a result, horses started to fall in droves, meaning even fewer supplies could be carried and so more and more men would succumb to the frigid wastes. Kalenor stated at the time that one constantly found men who overcome by the cold had been forced to drop out and had fallen to the ground too weak or too numb to stand. Various accounts from here delve into the kind of visceral horror that you would find in books like Butcher's Crossing or Blood Meridium.

[00:19:29]Some accounts describe men splitting open the carcasses of dead horses in order to crawl inside them for warmth.

[00:19:35]The carcasses of fallen comrades were allegedly used to insulate windows and block the icy winds from entering dilapidated structures. Reports emerged of soldiers converging on dead horses for food. In one of the most chilling accounts, officers are said to have eaten the flesh of horses while they were still alive. It was reportedly so cold the horses became rock solid in minutes after dying and so it was very difficult to cut them up for food. This allegedly led to horses being sliced open as they were still walking. When the owner looked away, a steak could be sliced from the numbed flank of a horse.

[00:20:11]The cold froze the blood and the horse would survive a few days longer before it would collapse and die. They ate the horse meat flavored with gunpowder for the salt. Although personally, I'm not sure I totally believe that account. It was so cold that men reportedly died whilst trudging through the unending frozen landscape. Blood would start streaming from their noses, mouths, and sometimes ears before they would stagger a few steps and collapse in the snow.

[00:20:36]Many soldiers suffered from snow blindness. Some developed a kind of dementia and was so disorientated they would walk into lit fires barefoot and lay down. One gunner allegedly froze to death standing behind his cannon, hand still on the brereech and facing towards Moscow, fulfilling his duty even in death. Some men, seeing no way out of their suffering, turned their musketss on themselves, whilst others turned on each other. As temperatures reached glacial levels, the soldiers would start charging each other gold coins to share a fire, whilst elsewhere fights broke out over the little food and water that could be scavenged. The once disciplined Grand Army had long descended into a chaotic and bloodthirsty mob, where it really was every man for himself.

[00:21:21]Soldiers who fell had their boots pulled off before they'd even died, whilst others were murdered for their fur coats. Soldiers shoes had disintegrated and the frostbite was so bad that skin and muscle peeled away from the bones of their feet. One imagines they were largely too numb to notice. Extreme reports even emerged of cannibalism breaking out amongst soldiers driven mad by the cold and hunger. A final act of desperation in a campaign defined by the horror of the Russian wildness. No matter what the soldiers might have imagined before setting off for Smelinsk, they could never have imagined this. These kinds of details appear in eyewitness and later narrative accounts.

[00:22:00]And even if individual stories are difficult to verify, the broader horrific reality behind them is in no doubt. On November the 9th, Napoleon and his forces finally reached Smealinsk, but only about 60,000 men remained.

[00:22:15]That's just 10% of the force that had once marched triumphantly into the monthland just months ago. Nearly all of the horses had perished and the artillery had just been left behind. The men were battered, starving, frostbitten, and losing their sanity.

[00:22:30]But Sminsk was not the reprieve that Napoleon had hoped it would be. The city was stripped bare very quickly, and the already depleted Grand Bet wasn't looking so grand anymore. They left Smealinsk in multiple scattered columns fleeing west as the Russians continued to harass them at every turn. The retreating French were caught at Krasnner come mid November enduring several days of brutal fighting. They crossed the Nappa and reached Osha several days later when Napoleon had his important documents burned to stop them falling into Russian hands. This was likely a part of the little emperor's own acceptance that the campaign was a lost cause. Anything non-essential was abandoned or destroyed. All the while the bodies piled up in the cold and the Russians refused to let up. And that's because they weren't just behind the French. They had also raised ahead of them as well. Around this time, the Russians had entered Minsk and later they captured the bridges at Borisov over the Berazina River, threatening to cut off the retreat entirely. Around the 23rd of November, Napoleon knew that he had to find a way across during the fighting retreat or they would surely all be cut down by the encircling Russians. At Studianka, a settlement northwest of Minsk, he ordered his engineers to build makeshift pontoon bridges so that his army could cross and simply had to pray that they could accomplish this task before the Russians arrived. And they did, but only barely.

[00:23:54]By the 26th, the majority of the army was across the Berzina River, but that army was forced to burn the makeshift bridges so that the Russians couldn't follow behind them. A move that saw some 10,000 stragglers left on the other side, just abandoned to their fates for the greater good of the Grand Army's desperate escape. They went northwest towards Vnius, hoping that it would be a safe zone away from the advancing Russians. But guess what? It wasn't.

[00:24:20]Napoleon at this time had actually himself fled Russia, handing over control to the army officer Wakim Murat, the marshall of the French Empire. There had been a coup attempt back in Paris that was put down, but Napoleon was spooked enough by the political situation that he raced back to Paris as fast as he could, likely slightly relieved at the thought of finally exiting Russian territory. However, upon his departure, morale hit a new low.

[00:24:44]Bonapart had always been known for being a soldiers's general, a man who looked after his troops as if they were his own flesh and blood. So to abandon his army in the middle of a disastrous retreat that he himself had caused, it wasn't a good look. Disease then ravaged the few survivors that remained of the Grand Army. Typhus has long been associated with the retreat. But modern DNA studies from Vnius suggest an even more complex disease environment including paratyphoid fever and lousborn relapsing fever. The hospital in Vius was overflowing with the dead and dying.

[00:25:18]General Robert Wilson visited a monastery that was being used as a makeshift hospital by the French where he would later report that the hospital at St. Basil presented the most awful and hideous sight. 7,500 bodies were piled like pigs of lead over one another in the corridor. And all the broken windows and walls were stuffed with feet, legs, arms, hands, trunks, and heads to fit the apertures and keep the air from the yet living. Mora, upon seeing the state which his army was in, and knowing the Russians were still applying pressure, decided to abandon Napoleon's plan and evacuate as soon as possible in order to limp the army back into French territory. On the 12th of December, the Russian commander Kudisovv made his triumphant entrance into Vius as the Grand Army sculpted away best it could. Two days later on the 14th, what was left of Napoleon's greatest force staggered back across the Neal into French controlled territory. Their tails well and truly between their legs after having suffered a catastrophic defeat across the entire campaign. The Russians actually didn't fail that well either, losing men in droves either to the elements or battle. But it would surely be seen as an overwhelming victory for them given the circumstances. After all, Moscow could always be rebuilt. Napoleon himself finally got back to Paris around the 18th of December, looking disheveled and near unrecognizable.

[00:26:42]Between all of the soldiers, staff, and civilians, around a million people died as a result of Napoleon's barely six monthlong campaign. That's over 160,000 deaths per month. that equates to around 5,700 deaths per day. The Russian campaign shattered the illusion that Napoleon's armies were invincible behemoths wrapped in the cloth of a grand strategy genius. They were vulnerable and Bonapart was defeatable.

[00:27:10]That arguably mattered more than Napoleon's material losses themselves, at least in the eyes of his enemies. And soon after Europe would turn on him.

[00:27:19]Prussia broke away in early 1813. Sweden joined the coalition and Austria eventually abandoned neutrality after failed mediation. By late 1813, much of Europe was fighting against Napoleon.

[00:27:31]Whilst he still managed to muster up another large army to fight, the devastating losses in Russia meant he was short on experienced troops and cavalry. The battle of Leipzig in October of 1813 ended in a loss for Napoleon, further weakening French control. Paris was captured in March 1814 and Napoleon was forced into exile on the island of Ela. He attempted to regain power once more a year later but was ultimately finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and sent to St. Helena where he would spend the rest of his life.

[00:28:04]What this means in context is that the Russian campaign was the beginning of the end for Napoleon's reign. Going from the highest of highs and controlling much of Europe to being ousted into exile within just a few years. Many today state that Napoleon's failure in Russia was that he arrogantly assumed that the Russian winter would be no match for the Grand Arme. But this wasn't true. As we mentioned, Napoleon was well aware of the bleak Russian landscape and the frigid winter potentially hampering his campaign. It had happened to King Charles the 12th of Sweden when he invaded Russia just a century before. So, it wasn't ignorance that hampered Napoleon, and it was instead a mixture of ambition, logistics, and Russian strategic decisions.

[00:28:50]Napoleon had wanted to fight a short and decisive campaign during the summer and autumn. And if the Russians had come out to fight and defend their territory, this may as well have been the case. But Napoleon didn't count on one key factor.

[00:29:02]In war, the enemy gets a vote. Napoleon was drawn further into Russia when his army encountered little resistance, which stretched his supply lines too thin to keep them adequately fed and supplied. Remember, most of Napoleon's forces died on the way to Moscow amidst the sheer lack of supplies, not during the horrific retreat. The phrase, "An army marches on its stomach," exists for a reason, and the reality was that Napoleon's massive army was gluttonous.

[00:29:30]In order for it to survive the harsh Russian winter, and maintain its supplies, it likely would have needed industrialized supply chains and infrastructure like railways, which are around a century away from being reliable, expansive, and widespread. And when you put it that way, the campaign was doomed to fail from the start.

[00:29:47]Napoleon could race towards Moscow.

[00:29:49]There was no question about his tactical acumen or the strength of his whiff of grapeshot. But he couldn't outrun what all future modern wars would be fought on logistics. And his failure to properly account for that factor leaves this story as a cautionary tale of starvation, frostbite, and unimaginable suffering. One that continues to make old adage true to this day. If you are going to invade Russia, don't be there by the time winter arrives, or you too may face the motherlands frozen wrath.