The 1812 Campaign

Russia played a decisive role in the Napoleonic wars, and its success in the struggle against Napoleonic France allowed the Russian leaders to shape the course of European history

The year 1812 saw the French Empire under Napoleon at its zenith. The French Army had on many occasions established and maintained its reputation. The borders of France had expanded to absorb Holland and other areas. Friendly Kingdoms were established by the French and the rest of continental Europe constrained militarily, commercially and politically directly or indirectly by Napoleon. Only with Britain, Spain and Portugal was there continuing conflict. Britain waged economic war and had its relatively small army in Spain and Portugal generally beating the French Army. At sea, the Royal Navy was the major force in the world.

The war between Russia and France did not come as a surprise since relations between them had become increasingly intense since the Treaty of Tilsit of 1807. Russian society and the army were irritated by what they perceived as the Russian submission to France. Although Napoleon and Emperor Alexander seemed to have reconciled again at Erfurt in 1808, the fissures became evident the following year, when Russia showed reluctance to support France fully against Austria. Crucially, Napoleon’s economic war with Britain (the so-called Continental Blockade), which Alexander was obliged to join under the terms of Tilsit, proved disadvantageous as Russia lost its lucrative trade with Britain, a major destination for its raw material. Without compensation for lost revenue, Russian merchants faced financial ruin. The Polish question further strained relations. The old Kingdom of Poland had been partitioned and swallowed up by Russia, Prussia and Austria between 1772 and 1795, Napoleon’s creation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, “a splinter in the body of Russia”, as Emperor Alexander described it, awakened Russian fears of a full reconstitution of Polish lands and national identity.

In the summer of 1811 Napoleon began preparing for the “Second Polish Campaign”, as he called it, attempting to ensure a rapid victory over Russia. The enormous Grande Armee of more than 600,000 soldiers and over 1,300 field guns was gathered in German and Polish lands. Approximately half its manpower consisted of troops from Napoleon’s allies, including Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Spain, Bavaria, Poland and Italy.

Napoleon’s plan was to destroy the Russian army in a decisive battle in 1812 and then force Emperor Alexander to sign a peace treaty to suit France. The French Grande Armee was split into three but by far the most important and largest part was the centre aimed at Moscow. The Russians were well aware of the impending invasion and although their forces were split into a number of formations the two largest, the First and Second Western Armies, faced Napoleon’s centre.

On 23-24 June, Napoleon’s army crossed the Russian border at the Niemen River while the Russian army considered a few strategic plans and adopted one from Lieutenant General Karl von Pfuel, which involved a withdrawal manoeuvre by the First Western Army to the Drissa camp on the Zapadnaia Dvina River, where it was supposed to contain the enemy while the Second Western Army struck the enemy in the flank and rear from Volkovysk-Slonim region. On 8 July the First Western Army reached the Drissa camp, where the flaws of Pfuel’s plan became evident. Emperor Alexander, urged by his advisers, left the army without appointing a commander-in-chief. On 14 July Barclay de Tolly abandoned the Drissa camp in the direction of Smolensk, leaving General Peter Wittgenstein with some twenty thousand men to protect the St Petersburg The first few weeks of the war direction. In the south, the Second Western Army withdrew first towards proved to be heartrending for Minsk, eluding Napoleon’s encircling manoeuvres and gaining minor the Russian soldiers. victories at Mir and Romanovo. Unable to break through at Mogilev, it Eager to fight, they had to fought the French to a draw at Saltanovka before crossing the Dnieper on retreat day after day its way to Smolensk, where the two Russian armies were united on 2 August.