James Baquet

And now we turn to that Napoleonic Era and the Battle of Borodino, which Napoleon fought on his way to a victory in Moscow (the one which the weather turned to defeat, and the inspiration for Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture”).

The year was indeed 1812, and the month September, when, with 72,000 casualties on both sides, the French and the Russians engaged in what was until that time the bloodiest battle in history, not to be topped until nearly 100 years later, in 1914 at the First Battle of the Marne.

The French invasion of Russia, known in France as the Russian Campaign, had started in June of that year when Napoleon with 685,000 troops crossed the Neman River into Russia, instigating five and a half months of fighting. The strategy was to force Russia to stop trading with Napoleon’s archenemy the British, crippling their trade and forcing them into an unequal treaty with the French.

The Russians, beaten back by the French, had retreated repeatedly until reaching Borodino, a town just 120 kilometers from central Moscow, which the French reached a week later (only to find it deserted — and ablaze). Borodino was the Russians’ last-ditch effort to stop Napoleon’s Grande Armee.

However, it may have involved a tactical blunder on Napoleon’s part. The Imperial Guard was a hand-picked force reporting directly to Napoleon, serving largely as his bodyguard. But they could also be held in reserve to help turn the tide in battles. Historians reviewing the events at Borodino believe that, if Napoleon had committed the Imperial Guard in a timely manner, the French might have won the day. Instead, the Guard, while ready to fight at a moment’s notice, saw no fighting whatsoever.

Thus Borodino was not a clear and decisive victory; rather, it ended with both sides exhausted, and only the slightest advantage to the French — leaving them nothing to bargain with in attempting an armistice. If they had won decisively, their position would have been more secure, and the disastrous retreat in October may not have happened. Therefore, though the Russians were “defeated,” Borodin played a key role in the ultimate ousting of the French from Russia.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. empty, abandoned

2. starting, causing to happen

3. at all

4. mistake, error

5. on fire

6. exceeded, surpassed

7. kept back for later use

8. damaging beyond repair

9. evicting, getting rid of

10. final attempt