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The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign (French: Campagne de Russie), the Second Polish War, and in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 (Russian: Оте́чественная война́ 1812 го́да, romanized: Otéchestvennaya voyná 1812 góda), was initiated by Napoleon with the aim of compelling the Russian ...
Napoleon was retreating from his failed invasion of Russia in 1812. With the Russian armies following up victory, the Sixth Coalition was formed with Russia, Austria, Prussia, Portugal, Great Britain, Sweden, Spain and other nations hostile to the French Empire.
The day after the battle of Paris on March 30, in which 18,000 soldiers were killed and wounded on either side, the coalition entered the French capital, and on April 6 Napoleon had to abdicate.
Napoleon organized the Grande Armée the largest army assembled up to that point in European history. After a whole day of preparation by Morand and Eblé, the invasion commenced on Midsummer, 24 June 1812 with Napoleon's army crossing the river.
Napoleon remained in exile on Elba for ten months. On 1 March, 1815, he landed at Golfe Juan with a hundred or so soldiers with the aim of returning to power. His spectacular twenty-day return to Paris and his throne astounded Europe. But that is another story…
French invasion of Russia, (June 24–December 5, 1812), invasion of the Russian Empire by Napoleon I’s Grande Armée. The Russians adopted a Fabian strategy, executing a prolonged withdrawal that largely denied Napoleon a conclusive battle. Although the French ultimately captured Moscow, they could.
Following Napoleon’s retreat from Russia and the subsequent defeat of his army by the Sixth Coalition at Leipzig (1813), the armies of the Sixth Coalition invaded France and advanced toward Paris, which capitulated on March 31, 1814.
