1812

The Crossing

On the night of June 23–24, 1812, Napoleon's Grande Armée — 600,000 men, 1,200 cannon, 50,000 horses — crossed the Niemen River at Kovno (modern Kaunas, Lithuania). The invasion of Russia had begun. Napoleon expected a short campaign: smash the Russian army in a decisive battle, march on Moscow or St. Petersburg, and force Alexander to surrender. Instead, the Russians simply retreated. General Barclay de Tolly, the commander of the Russian First Army, refused to give battle. He withdrew into the interior, burning supplies and destroying bridges behind him. The French followed — and shrank.

The retreat was a strategy, not a cowardice. The Russians understood what Napoleon did not: that Russia's greatest weapon was its size. Every mile the French advanced stretched their supply lines thinner. Every day they marched without fighting cost them men — to desertion, disease, heat, hunger, and Cossack raids. By the time they reached Smolensk in mid-August, the Grande Armée had already lost 150,000 men without fighting a major battle.

Kutuzov Takes Command

The Russian retreat was deeply unpopular. Officers, nobles, and the Tsar himself demanded that Barclay fight. In August, Barclay was replaced (officially) by Prince Mikhail Kutuzov — a 67-year-old, one-eyed, fat, veteran general who had served under Suvorov and been wounded twice in the head. Kutuzov continued the retreat — he agreed with Barclay's strategy — but he knew that at some point, for political reasons, Russia would have to fight.

In Tolstoy's portrayal, Kutuzov is the novel's wisest figure. He understands what no one else does: that battles are not won by genius or plans, but by the “spirit of the army.” He sleeps through councils, ignores maps, and trusts his instinct. He allows Borodino to happen because he must — but he does not believe it will decide anything. And when Moscow must be abandoned, he makes the decision that saves Russia: he retreats, sacrifices the city, and lets the French destroy themselves.

Borodino · September 7, 1812

The Battle of Borodino was the bloodiest day of the Napoleonic Wars. On a field about 120 kilometers west of Moscow, 120,000 Russian troops faced 130,000 French. The battle lasted twelve hours. By the end, both armies were shattered. The French held the field, but the Russian army escaped intact. Casualties were staggering: roughly 44,000 Russians and 35,000 French — a total of nearly 80,000 men in a single day.

In War and Peace, Pierre Bezukhov — a civilian who has wandered onto the battlefield to observe — watches the battle in horrified fascination. He sees men running, artillery shells decapitating soldiers, and a battlefield that looks like “a scene from hell.” Prince Andrei's regiment is held in reserve under devastating artillery fire. Andrei is struck by a shell fragment in the abdomen and carried off the field, mortally wounded. He will die weeks later, in Moscow, as the city burns.

The Burning of Moscow

After Borodino, Kutuzov made the most controversial decision of his career: he abandoned Moscow. “With the loss of Moscow,” he told his officers, “Russia is not lost.” The army marched east, leaving the city undefended. On September 14, Napoleon rode into Moscow expecting to find a delegation offering surrender. He found an empty city. The population — 250,000 people — had fled.

That night, fires broke out. By the second day, most of the city was ablaze. Moscow was largely built of wood, and the fire raged for five days, destroying three-quarters of the city. Whether the fire was deliberate (set by the Russians as a scorched-earth tactic) or accidental (started by looting French soldiers) is still debated. In the novel, Pierre Bezukhov wanders through the burning city in a daze, rescues a child from a fire, attempts to assassinate Napoleon, and is arrested by the French as an arsonist.

For Napoleon, the burning of Moscow was a catastrophe. He had expected to winter in the city, resupply, and negotiate. Instead, he had a ruin. He stayed for five weeks, hoping Alexander would sue for peace. Alexander did not respond. On October 19, with winter approaching and supplies running out, Napoleon ordered the retreat.

The Great Retreat

The retreat from Moscow is one of the great catastrophes of military history. The Grande Armée — now reduced to about 100,000 men — marched west through a country that had been stripped of food and shelter. The weather turned. In early November, the first major snow fell. Temperatures dropped to -20°C, then -30°C. Men froze to death standing up. Horses died by the thousands. Discipline collapsed. The army became a mob.

At the Berezina River (November 26–29), the retreating army was nearly trapped. Russian forces attacked from three sides while the French tried to cross on makeshift bridges. Thousands drowned or were killed. Napoleon escaped, but his army was destroyed. By the time the survivors crossed the Niemen back into Poland in December, fewer than 30,000 men remained of the 600,000 who had crossed six months earlier. The Grande Armée had ceased to exist.

In the novel, this is the backdrop for Pierre's captivity and escape. He marches with the retreating French as a prisoner, watches the army disintegrate, meets Platon Karataev — the peasant soldier who teaches him how to live — and is finally freed when the French abandon their prisoners during the final chaotic days. Pierre emerges from captivity a changed man: no longer searching, but found.