At the end of June 1812, the 220 thousandth army of Napoleonic France crossed the Neman River and invaded the territory of Russia. This is how the war began, which went down in history as the Patriotic War of 1812.
The beginning of the war
The main reasons for the war were: the policy of Napoleon, which he pursued in Europe, ignoring the interests of Russia and the latter's unwillingness to tighten the continental blockade of Great Britain. Bonaparte himself preferred to call this war the 2nd Polish War or the "Russian Company", since he considered the revival of the Polish independent state to be the main goal of the military invasion. In addition, Russia demanded the withdrawal of French troops from Prussia, which were there contrary to the Treaty of Tilsit, and twice rejected Napoleon's proposals for marriages with Russian princesses.
After the invasion, the French quite quickly, from June to September 1812, managed to advance deep into the territory of Russia. The Russian army fought back to Moscow itself, giving the famous Borodino battle on the outskirts of the capital.
The transformation of the war into a patriotic
At the first stage of the war, it certainly could not be called domestic, and even more so national. The offensive of the Napoleonic army was perceived by the ordinary Russian people rather ambiguously. Thanks to rumors that Bonaparte intends to free the serfs, give him land and give him freedom, serious collaborationist sentiments arose among ordinary people. Some even gathered in detachments, attacked Russian government troops and caught landowners hiding in the forests.
The advance of the Napoleonic army inland was accompanied by an increase in violence, a drop in discipline, fires in Moscow and Smolensk, looting and robberies. All this led to the fact that the common people rallied in resistance to the invaders, the formation of the militia and partisan formations began. Peasants everywhere began to refuse to supply the enemy with provisions and fodder. With the emergence of peasant detachments, guerrilla warfare began to be accompanied by unparalleled cruelty and violence on both sides.
The battle for Smolensk, which destroyed a large city, marked the unfolding of a nationwide war between the Russian people and the enemy, which was immediately felt by both ordinary French supply officers and Napoleon's marshals.
By that time, flying army partisan detachments were already actively operating in the rear of the French troops. They consisted of ordinary people, both nobles and the military, these units seriously annoyed the invaders, interfered with supplies and destroyed the highly stretched lines of communication of the French.
As a result, in the struggle against the invaders, all representatives of the Russian people rallied: peasants, military men, landowners, nobles, which led to the fact that the war of 1812 began to be called patriotic.
During its stay in Moscow alone, the French army lost more than 25 thousand people from the actions of the partisans.
The war ended with the defeat and almost complete destruction of the Napoleonic troops, with the liberation of the Russian lands and the transfer of the theater of operations to the territory of Germany and the Duchy of Warsaw. The main reasons for Napoleon's defeat in Russia were: participation in the war of all segments of the population, the courage and heroism of Russian soldiers, the complete unwillingness of the French troops to conduct hostilities over a large territory, the harsh Russian climate, and the military leadership skills of the generals and commander-in-chief Kutuzov.
