It's September 14th. 🇷🇺 On this day in 1812, the Great Fire of Moscow began. The Russians evacuated the city and set it ablaze in order to reduce its capture by the approaching French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte and his Grande Armée from what was to be a glorious victory to a hollow one. The fire burned for five days and reduced 3/4 of Moscow's buildings to ashes.
Earlier in the year, Napoléon launched his invasion of Russia with 400,000 to 450,000 men. He used scorched-earth tactics to frighten the Russians into submission, but the Russians weren't intimidated. Battles and skirmishes had whittled the Grande Armée down to 108,000 men by the time they entered Moscow on this day. The French cavalry had been nearly wiped out.
Napoléon waited in Moscow for a peace offer from Tsar Alexander I. After five weeks, Napoléon and his Grande Armée finally left Moscow – with no peace offer, no food, little ammunition, and few weapons and supplies. The French military position collapsed as the Grande Armée struggled on toward further disaster. With horses exhausted or dead, commanders redirected cavalrymen into infantry units, leaving French forces helpless against Cossack fighters. The Russians were able to easily force the Grande Armée to retreat along the same route they had earlier scorched. The French were forced to eat their remaining horses to survive. Napoléon himself made it back to France, but little of his Grande Armée did. Napoléon's final defeat came three years later at Waterloo. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet
