Like many other countries, Russia has known many wars. Many times our country had to defend its territory. But only two wars entered Russian history under the name of the Patriotic.
The First Patriotic War began on June 24, 1812. Former revolutionary general Napoleon Bonaparte, who by that time had already managed to proclaim himself emperor and conquer half of Europe, crossed the border of the Russian Empire. As in many other cases, the main cause of the war was economic contradictions. The French emperor, who considered Great Britain to be his main enemy, tried to establish a continental blockade of this country. It was unprofitable for Russia, she tried in every possible way to counteract this. Napoleon saw no other way to force Alexander I to act in a way that was convenient for France. In addition, bourgeois France sought to establish in Europe, which remained for the most part feudal, a new capitalist order.
At the beginning of the war, the Russian army retreated. For a long time it was generally accepted that the reason for the retreat was the weakness of the Russian army in comparison with the Napoleonic army, which by that time was provided by almost all of Europe. Many historians believed that the division of the Russian army into three parts was wrong. Now a different view has been adopted - the Russian army fulfilled its primary task and stopped the enemy's advance towards the capital, which at that moment was St. Petersburg. The first stage lasted until November 1812 and ended with the Battle of Borodino and the surrender of Moscow.
At the second stage, the Russian army won back everything that had to be surrendered before. Under the blows of the Russian troops commanded by M. I. Kutuzov, the enemy was forced to retreat through the territory devastated by him. This stage ended with the complete victory of the Russian army, and the next period was the Foreign campaign, which ended with the capture of Paris and the fall of Napoleon. During this war, a powerful partisan movement developed. At the very beginning of the first stage, a significant militia was assembled. That is why the war was called the Patriotic War.
The Second Patriotic War, to which the epithet "Great" was added, began on June 22, 1941. The reasons were not only economic, but also political - two totalitarian systems clashed, ideologically incompatible. In Germany, the National Socialist Party came to power, which eventually dragged the country into war. Hitler was haunted by the laurels of Napoleon, he wanted to complete what the French commander failed, and even started the war in June, but two days earlier.
These two wars are similar in many ways. In the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army also initially retreated from the borders to Moscow. But the capital was defended, and from that moment the situation began to change. The turning point came after the victory of the Soviet troops at Stalingrad, and was consolidated by the Battle of Kursk. As in the Patriotic War of 1812, a powerful partisan movement developed in the territories occupied by the German fascist invaders. Numerous underground organizations worked in the cities temporarily abandoned by Soviet troops. The resistance was very strong and really nationwide, which made it possible to call the war Patriotic.
The Great Patriotic War ended with the battle for Berlin. The Second World War, of which the Great Patriotic War was a part, continued for another three months and ended in victory over Japan.
