Download or read book In the Service of the Tsar Against Napoleon written by Denis Davydov and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only available Russian Napoleonic memoir conveying the victor's perspective on a cataclysmic conflict.
Download or read book In the service of the Tsar against Napoleon written by Denis Vasil'evič Davydov and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Napoleon s Invasion of Russia 1812 written by Eugene Tarlé and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) is one of the most illustrated political and military figures of the last two millennia. He has remained in the memory of the world as a legend that the passage of the years has failed to blur. On the contrary, Napoleon Bonaparte widely continues to be considered the personification of human genius. Originally published in this English translation in 1942, leading Russian historian Evgeny Tarle details Napoleon’s military campaign to invade Russia in the early nineteenth century. “The campaign of 1812 was more frankly imperialistic than any other of Napoleon’s wars; it was more directly dictated by the interests of the French upper middle class. The war of 1796-7, the conquest of Egypt in 1798-9, the second Italian campaign, and the recent defeat of the Austrians could still be justified as necessary measures of defence against the interventionists. The Napoleonic press called the Austerlitz campaign ‘self-defence’ against Russia, Austria, and England. The average Frenchman considered even the subjugation of Prussia in 1806-7 no more than a just penalty inflicted on the Prussian court for the arrogant ultimatum sent by Frederick-William III to the ‘peace-loving’ Napoleon, constantly harried by troublesome neighbours. Napoleon never ceased to speak of the fourth conquest of Austria in 1809 as a ‘defensive’ war, provoked by Austrian threats. Only the invasion of Spain and Portugal was passed over in discreet silence. “The War of 1812 was a struggle for survival in the full sense of the word—a defensive struggle against the onslaughts of the imperialist vulture.”—E. V. Tarle
Download or read book Russia Against Napoleon written by Dominic Lieven and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2009-10-01 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A compulsive page-turner ... a triumph of brilliant storytelling ... an instant classic that is an awesome, remarkable and exuberant achievement' Simon Sebag Montefiore Winner of the Wolfson History Prize and shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize In the summer of 1812 Napoleon, the master of Europe, marched into Russia with the largest army ever assembled, confident that he would sweep everything before him. Yet less than two years later his empire lay in ruins, and Russia had triumphed. This is the first history to explore in depth Russia's crucial role in the Napoleonic Wars, re-creating the epic battle between two empires as never before. Dominic Lieven writes with great panache and insight to describe from the Russians' viewpoint how they went from retreat, defeat and the burning of Moscow to becoming the new liberators of Europe; the consequences of which could not have been more important. Ultimately this book shows, memorably and brilliantly, Russia embarking on its strange, central role in Europe's existence, as both threat and protector - a role that continues, in all its complexity, into our own lifetimes.
Download or read book With Napoleon in Russia written by Armand de Caulaincourt and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-03-09 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born into a noble family with a strong military tradition, Armand de Caulaincourt had been Napoleon’s Ambassador to Russia; Minister for Foreign Affairs; political advisor; and during the disastrous Russian campaign, his personal aide. In this unique document—the first English translation of the original French manuscript—the French statesman presents a comprehensive picture of the supreme crisis of Napoleon’s career, with graphic accounts of the French army’s advance into Russia, the occupation of Moscow, and the horrors of retreat. “By far the most important addition to Napoleonic documentation published in modern times.”—The London Times “When General de Caulaincourt laid down his pen he had completed, whether he knew it or not, a masterpiece.”—The New York Times A superb biography, history, and memoir in one unforgettable volume, the work will fascinate students, teachers, scholars, and history buffs alike.
Download or read book Wars Against Napoleon written by General Michel Franceschi and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2008-02-04 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular and scholarly history presents a one-dimensional image of Napoleon as an inveterate instigator of war who repeatedly sought large-scale military conquests. General Franceschi and Ben Weider dismantle this false conclusion in The Wars Against Napoleon, a brilliantly written and researched study that turns our understanding of the French emperor on its head. Avoiding the simplistic clichés and rudimentary caricatures many historians use when discussing Napoleon, Franceschi and Weider argue persuasively that the caricature of the megalomaniac conqueror who bled Europe white to satisfy his delirious ambitions and insatiable love for war is groundless. By carefully scrutinizing the facts of the period and scrupulously avoiding the sometimes confusing cause and effect of major historical events, they paint a compelling portrait of a fundamentally pacifist Napoleon, one completely at odds with modern scholarly thought. This rigorous intellectual presentation is based upon three principal themes. The first explains how an unavoidable belligerent situation existed after the French Revolution of 1789. The new France inherited by Napoleon was faced with the implacable hatred of reactionary European monarchies determined to restore the ancient regime. All-out war was therefore inevitable unless France renounced the modern world to which it had just painfully given birth. The second theme emphasizes Napoleon’s determined efforts (“bordering on an obsession,” argue the authors) to avoid this inevitable conflict. The political strategy of the Consulate and the Empire was based on the intangible principle of preventing or avoiding these wars, not on conquering territory. Finally, the authors examine, conflict by conflict, the evidence that Napoleon never declared war. As he later explained at Saint Helena, it was he who was always attacked—not the other way around. His adversaries pressured and even forced the Emperor to employ his unequalled military genius. After each of his memorable victories Napoleon offered concessions, often extravagant ones, to the defeated enemy for the sole purpose of avoiding another war. Lavishly illustrated, persuasively argued, and carefully illustrated with original maps and battle diagrams, The Wars Against Napoleon presents a courageous and uniquely accurate historical idea that will surely arouse vigorous debate within the international historical community.
Download or read book Alexander I written by Marie-Pierre Rey and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander I was a ruler with high aspirations for the people of Russia. Cosseted as a young grand duke by Catherine the Great, he ascended to the throne in 1801 after the brutal assassination of his father. In this magisterial biography, Marie-Pierre Rey illuminates the complex forces that shaped Alexander's tumultuous reign and sheds brilliant new light on the handsome ruler known to his people as "the Sphinx." Despite an early and ambitious commitment to sweeping political reforms, Alexander saw his liberal aspirations overwhelmed by civil unrest in his own country and by costly confrontations with Napoleon, which culminated in the French invasion of Russia and the burning of Moscow in 1812. Eventually, Alexander turned back Napoleon's forces and entered Paris a victor two years later, but by then he had already grown weary of military glory. As the years passed, the tsar who defeated Napoleon would become increasingly preoccupied with his own spiritual salvation, an obsession that led him to pursue a rapprochement between the Orthodox and Roman churches. When in exile, Napoleon once remarked of his Russian rival: "He could go far. If I die here, he will be my true heir in Europe." It was not to be. Napoleon died on Saint Helena and Alexander succumbed to typhus four years later at the age of forty-eight. But in this richly nuanced portrait, Rey breathes new life into the tsar who stood at the center of the political chessboard of early nineteenth-century Europe, a key figure at the heart of diplomacy, war, and international intrigue during that region's most tumultuous years.
Download or read book 1806 1807 Tsar Alexander s Second War with Napoleon written by Alexander Ivanovich Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky and published by . This book was released on 2023-02-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Crisis in the Snows written by James R. Arnold and published by . This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outlines the pivotal winter campaign of 1806-1807, culminating at Eylau, where Russian forces stemmed the tide of French imperial expansion. Analyzes the strategies employed by both French and Russian armies, and their leaders, Napoleon and Alexander, during this decisive campaign. Also outlines the organization of the French and Russian forces and includes orders of battle for each side.
Download or read book Napoleon s Army in Russia written by Albrecht Adam and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1812 Napoleon's magnificent army invaded Russia. Among the half a million men who crossed the border was Albrecht Adam, a former baker, a soldier and, most importantly for us, a military artist of considerable talent. As the army plunged ever deeper into a devastated Russia Adam sketched and painted. In all he produced 77 colour plates of the campaign and they are as fresh and dramatic as the day they were produced. They show troops passing along dusty roads, bewildered civilians, battles and their bloody aftermath, burning towns and unchecked destruction. The memoirs which accompany the plates form a candid text describing the war Adam witnessed. Attached to IV Corps, composed largely of Italians, he was present at all the major actions and saw the conquerors march triumphantly into Moscow. But, from then on, the invading army's fate was sealed and the disastrous outcome of the war meant that the year 1812 would become legendary as one of the darkest chapters in history.
Download or read book 1812 Napoleon I in Russia written by Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The following pages are not offered to the reader as a history of the invasion of Russia by Napoleon. They are but the statement of the basis of observation on which M. Verestchagin has founded his great series of pictures illustrative of the campaign. These pictures are now to be exhibited in this country, and the painter has naturally desired to show us from what point of view he has approached the study of his subject—one of the greatest subjects in the whole range of history—especially for a Russian artist. The point of view is—inevitably in his case—that of the Realist; and this consideration gives unity to the conception of his whole career and endeavour. He has ever painted war as it is, and therefore in its horrors, as one of its effects, though not necessarily as an effect sought in and for itself. He has tried to be “true” in all his representations of the battle-field. His work may thus be said to constitute a powerful plea in support of the Tsar’s Rescript to the Nations in favour of peace. My meaning will be best illustrated by a short sketch of M. Verestchagin and his work, as painter, as soldier, and as traveller. He was born in the province of Novgorod, in 1842, of a well-to-do family of landowners. The son wished to be an artist; the father wished to make him an officer of marines. As the shortest way out of the difficulty, he became both. He passed his work-hours at the naval school, and his play-hours at a school of design, working at each so well that he left the naval school as first scholar, and eventually won a silver medal at the Academy of Fine Arts. He entered the service, but only for a short time, and he was still three years under twenty when he quitted it to devote himself wholly to art. He was a hard-working student, though he always showed a strong disposition to insist on working in his own way. WhenGérôme sent him to the antique, he was half the time slipping away to nature. He played truant from the Athenian marbles to flesh and blood. In the meantime he was true to the instinct—as yet you could hardly call it a principle—of wandering from the beaten track in search of subjects. Every vacation was passed, not at Asnières or Barbizon, but in the far east of Europe, or even in Persia, among those ragged races not yet set down in artistic black and white. He had been on the borders of a quite fresh field of observation in these journeys; and he was soon to enter it for a full harvest of new impressions. It was in 1867; Russia was sending an army into Central Asia, to punish the marauding Turkomans for the fiftieth time, and General Kauffman, who commanded it, invited the painter to accompany him as an art volunteer. He was not to fight, but simply to look on. It was the very thing; Verestchagin at once took service on these terms with the expedition, and in faithfully following its fortunes, with many an artistic reconnaissance on his own account, he saw Asia to its core. He returned from a second Asiatic journey to settle at Munich for three years; and here he built his first “open-air studio.” “If you are to paint out-door scenes,” he says, “your models must sit in the open;” and so he fashioned a movable room on wheels, running on a circular tramway, and open to sun and air on the side nearest the centre of the circle, where the model stood. The artist, in fact, worked in a huge box with one side out, while the thing he saw was in the full glare of day; and by means of a simple mechanical contrivance he made his room follow the shifting light.
Download or read book Napoleon in Russia written by Alan Warwick Palmer and published by Running PressBook Pub. This book was released on 2003 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Napoleon is a torrent which as yet we are unable to stem,” said Field-Marshal Prince Mikhail Kutuzov in September 1812, and then he predicted, “Moscow will be the sponge that will suck him dry.” Three months earlier, on June 24, 1812, Napoleon had made his fateful crossing of the Niemen River into Lithuania with an army of 500,000 men, which by December would be depleted by war, the weather, starvation, and disease to a mere 10,000. Sucked dry, indeed. The final six months of 1812 made of Napoleon’s boldest imperial dream his most disastrous military campaign, which historian and biographer Alan Palmer recounts here with narrative immediacy, colorful detail, analytic skill, and striking insight. He follows the French forces in their long, dusty haul from Vilna to Vitebsk to Viasma; from the frightful slaughter at Borodino to Moscow’s deserted, burning streets—and then the horrors of the grueling winter retreat. But Palmer also looks beyond the savagery of blizzards and battles to bring to his vast canvas an overall picture of a campaign that tragically cost Napoleon nearly half a million men and shaped the greatest catastrophe of his career. Illustrations and maps are included.
Download or read book 1805 Tsar Alexander s First War with Napoleon The Russian Official History written by Alexander Ivano Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky and published by From Reason to Revolution. This book was released on 2022-07-15 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The official history of the first war between Tsar Alexander I and Napoleon in 1805, using original military and diplomatic documents, and the testimonies of witnesses and participants from the war.First published in 1844, the history describes:The causes of hostilities; the situation in Europe in 1802. The French war with Britain. The death of the Duc d'Enghien. Austrian mobilization.Russian mobilization; The state of the armed forces of Russia. The state of the armed forces of Austria. Deployment of the Austrians into Bavaria. The state of the armed forces of France.Kutuzov's march to Austria; the entry into Austrian territory. Kutuzov's stay in Vienna. Departure for Braunau. Rumors of Austrian defeat.The Battle of Ulm; Napoleon's advance to the Middle Rhine and Main. Austrian dispositions. Napoleon's advance across the Danube. The initial failures of the Austrians. The investment and capitulation of Ulm.Kutuzov in Braunau; the arrival of Austrian and Russian troops. Kutuzov's encounter with Mack.The Tsar's diplomatic efforts; Emperor Alexander's journey abroad. Prussia's changing relationship with Napoleon. The Treaty of Potsdam. The Tsar's relations with Britain and Sweden.Kutuzov's retreat from Braunau to Krems; Napoleon's plans. Action at Lambach. Action at Amstetten.Battle of Krems; Mortier's advance. Miloradovich's operations. Dokhturov's outflanking movement. Mortier's withdrawal. Dokhturov's operations. The Battle of Dürnstein. The Battle of Krems.Kutuzov's retreat from Krems; Napoleon's decision to cut off Kutuzov. The French at Vienna. Kutuzov's march from Braunau to Znaim. Bagration's march to Hollabrun. Action at Schöngrabern.Operations in Tyrol and Italy; the French offensive. Battle of Caldiero. Archduke Charles' withdrawal from Italy. The situation of the Austrians in the Tyrol.The camp at Olmütz; Buxhoeveden's corps. The Olmütz position. The Austrians assume command of the coalition army.The coalition offensive; the action at Wischau. Manoeuvres by the allies. Napoleon's operations. Deployments for the Battle of Austerlitz.The Battle of Austerlitz; Napoleon's dispositions. Initial operations by Dokhturov, Langeron and Przhibyshevsky. The defeat of the coalition centre. Kamensky's battle. The exploits of Prince Volkonsky. The actions of the coalition cavalry. The defeat of the Russian Guard. Bagration's operations. The defeat of Langeron and Przhibyshevsky. Dokhturov's exploits. The coalition withdrawal.Aftermath of Austerlitz; casualties of the coalition and French armies.The withdrawal to Hungary. Concentration of the Russians at Czeitsch. The arrival of Essen's corps. The truce. The Emperor's return to Russia. The Peace of Pressburg. Napoleon's return to Paris. The march of the Russians through Hungary and Galicia.The Russian expedition to Hanover; the composition of Tolstoy's corps and the fleet. Tolstoy's advance from Pomerania to the Weser. The arrival of the British and Swedes. The return of Bennigsen and Tolstoy to Russia.The Russian expedition to Naples; General Lacy's departure to Naples. The situation in Naples. The Russians and British arrive. The coalition offensive. The return of the Russians to Corfu and Russia.
Download or read book Napoleon s Invasion of Russia written by Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-02-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the campaign written by French soldiers *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "The thunderstorms of the 24th turned into other downpours, turning the tracks--some diarists claim there were no roads in Lithuania--into bottomless mires. Wagon sank up to their hubs; horses dropped from exhaustion; men lost their boots. Stalled wagons became obstacles that forced men around them and stopped supply wagons and artillery columns. Then came the sun which would bake the deep ruts into canyons of concrete, where horses would break their legs and wagons their wheels." - Richard K. Riehn French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was not a man made for peacetime. By 1812, he had succeeded in subduing most of his enemies - though in Spain, the British continued to be a perpetual thorn in his flank that drained the Empire of money and troops - but his relationship with Russia, never more than one of mutual suspicion at best, had now grown downright hostile. At the heart of it, aside from the obvious mistrust that two huge superpowers intent on dividing up Europe felt for one another, was Napoleon's Continental blockade. Russia had initially agreed to uphold the blockade in the Treaty of Tilsit, but they had since taken to ignoring it altogether. Napoleon wanted an excuse to teach Russia a lesson, and in early 1812 his spies gave him just that: a preliminary plan for the invasion and annexation of Poland, then under French control. Napoleon wasted no time attempting to defuse the situation. He increased his Grande Armee to 450,000 fighting men and prepared it for invasion. On July 23rd, 1812, he launched his army across the border, despite the protestations of many of his Marshals. The Russian Campaign had begun, and it would turn out to be Napoleon's biggest blunder. Russia's great strategic depth already had a habit of swallowing armies, a fact many would-be conquerors learned the hard way. Napoleon, exceptional though he was in so many regards, proved that even military genius can do little in the face of the Russian winter and the resilience of its people. From a purely military standpoint, much of the campaign seemed to be going in Napoleon's favor since he met with little opposition as he pushed forwards into the interior with his customary lightning speed, but gradually this lack of engagements became a hindrance more than a help; Napoleon needed to bring the Russians to battle if he was to defeat them. Moreover, the deeper Napoleon got his army sucked into Russia, the more vulnerable their lines of supply, now stretched almost to breaking point, became. The Grande Armee required a prodigious amount of material in order to keep from breaking down, but the army's pace risked outstripping its baggage train, which was constantly being raided by Cossack marauders. Moreover, Napoleon's customary practice of subsisting partially off the land was proving to be ineffective: the Russians were putting everything along his line of advance, including whole cities, to the torch rather than offer him even a stick of kindling or sack of flour for his army. Napoleon was sure that taking Moscow would prompt the Russians to surrender. Instead, with winter on the way, the Russians appeared more bellicose than ever. Napoleon and his army lingered for several weeks in the burnt shell of Moscow but then, bereft of supplies and facing the very real threat of utter annihilation, Napoleon gave the order to retreat. By the time the Grande Armee had reached the Berezina, it had been decimated: of the over 450,000 fighting men that had invaded Russia that autumn, less than 40,000 remained. Napoleon's Invasion of Russia details the background leading up to the campaign, the fighting, and the aftermath of France's catastrophic defeat. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the French invasion of Russia like never before.
Download or read book Borodino 1812 written by Philip Haythornthwaite and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-09-20 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A highly illustrated account of the battle of Borodino, the most crucial action in Napoleon's 1812 campaign in Russia. The battle of Borodino was one of the greatest encounters in European history, and one of the largest and most sanguinary in the Napoleonic Wars. Following the breakdown of relations between Russia and France, Napoleon assembled a vast Grande Armée drawn from the many states within the French sphere of influence. They crossed the river Neimen and entered Russian territory in June 1812 with the aim of inflicting a sharp defeat on the Tsar's forces and bringing the Russians back into line. In a bloody battle of head-on attacks and desperate counter-attacks in the village of Borodino on 7 September 1812, both sides lost about a third of their men, with the Russians forced to withdraw and abandon Moscow to the French. However, the Grande Armée was harassed by Russian troops all the way back and was destroyed by the retreat. The greatest army Napoleon had ever commanded was reduced to a shadow of frozen, starving fugitives. This title covers the events of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812 in its entirety, with the set-piece battle of Borodino proving the focal point of the book.
Download or read book Fighting Terror after Napoleon written by Beatrice de Graaf and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-10 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Europe was forged out of the ashes of the Napoleonic wars by means of a collective fight against revolutionary terror. The Allied Council created a culture of in- and exclusion, of people that were persecuted and those who were protected, using secret police, black lists, border controls and fortifications, and financed by European capital holders.
Download or read book At Napoleon s Side in Russia written by Armand de Caulaincourt and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction by Dr Jacques Oliver Boudin. Armand de Caulaincourt was one of the highest officials in the French Empire, riding constantly at Napoleon's side.
