Virtually all of Europe was under his control. Britain was weakening from his blockade, and there were no immediate threats to his hegemony on the horizon..
Napoleon, however, was not satisfied. On 24 June 1812, he launched a massive and fateful invasion of Russia to carry both his power and the French Revolution to its logical conclusion. Nearly 700,000 men, comprised of more than 17 nationalities, traversed hundreds of miles into the Russian interior in a bid to re-establish Poland as a nation-state and overthrow the Tsar.
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Upon arriving in the capital of Moscow on 14 September, the Grande Armee found a city wholly abandoned. Rather than being a joyous occasion and a chance to reap the spoils of victory in procuring arms and food, Napoleon's army found its supply line stretched dangerously thin and with no concrete plan to take the battle to the departed enemy.
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As the Russian winter began to set in, and the Grande Armee began a strategic retreat. It was too late. Less than three weeks later, the first snowfall occurred (5 November), and the already logistically-challenged army was neither prepared for the cold nor the coming Russian counterattack. Commonly referred to as the 'Patriotic War' in Russia, Tsar Alexander's men surprised French commanders with their skill and tenacity. Between the Russians and the harsh winter, the once certain Napoleon watched his army lose ground and resort to cannibalism at times to survive.
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Alexander and Russia would emerge victorious. At the same time, Napoleon was entering the beginning of his end.
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The Great Patriotic War, June 1941
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Not to be mistaken with 'The Patriotic War' of 1812, 'The Great Patriotic War' was the epic struggle of the Russian army and the Russian people against the Nazi Empire between 22 June 1941 and April 1945.
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Similar to Napoleon, Adolf Hitler simply was unable to enjoy his conquest of the Continent. Ideologically, he was forced to carry out a campaign against Soviet Russia to defeat communism and eliminate its Jewish population.
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The signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which shocked the world two years earlier, accorded both Hitler and Stalin a sphere of influence inside Poland and seemed to have brokered a peace between natural enemies. However, it turned out to be calculated ruse by Hitler. When more than 4 million Nazi troops invaded Russia to carry out 'Operation Barbarossa' in June 1941, Stalin nearly had a nervous breakdown upon hearing the news and went into seclusion for days. Even if, as some historians now suggest, Hitler had acted only to foil an imminent, pre-emptive strike on Nazi Germany by Stalin, the launching of the greatest military force in history against Russia surprised and rattled both Stalin and his commanders.
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Once again, poor logistics on the German side and the onset of a particularly cold and snowy Russian winter (temperatures fell to -22 degrees F), caused the Nazi invasion force to halt, freeze and die in droves over the Russian heartland.
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After coming as close as 5 miles to Moscow, the Nazi armies had to turn back. Remembering 1812, the Russians employed the exact same strategy against Hitler as they had done against Napoleon a century earlier. After Nazi forces were allowed to march into the interior virtually unopposed, the Russians then preyed upon their vulnerable supply lines and threw waves of men into battle in a series of furious counterattacks. Upon defeating the Nazi armored division at Kursk in the summer of 1943, the might of Nazi Germany had been completely broken on the Eastern Front.
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When studying modern world history, it is important for students to recognize the contribution of Russia in upending two dictators bent on military conquest. Hence, if asked to name the nation most responsible for winning the European war of 1789-1815 and the Second World War (1939-1945), the answer should undoubtedly be Russia and their two brilliant 'Patriotic Wars' of June.
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J Roquen