Explanation: The French Emperor Napoleon, after a hard-fought campaign to get there, would reach the distant Russian capital of Moscow shortly before winter hit. Napoleon was looking forward to a final, climatic battle outside of the capital, which obviously needed to be defended to maintain control of the country, which he would obviously win and then be able to impose a favorable peace.
… he found Moscow burned and abandoned by the Russian Empire, leaving a strategically worthless husk shorn of supplies.
The Russian Empire of 1812 AD was very much a backwards country even by the standards of 1812 AD. It was still very feudal in its design… which meant that, unlike the other European countries that Napoleon had conquered, the capital was not the beating heart of its organizational system, and thus was not vital for Russia to defend. The boyars would continue to keep (brutal) control over the serfs regardless of what silence came from the central administration, and the fealty owed to the Tsar was owed regardless of any notion of ‘governance’ or ’nationhood’ - it was personal and divine, not contractual and rational.
Napoleon, in a severe lapse of judgement, attempted to wait a few weeks in Moscow, hoping that the Russian Tsar would be open to negotiating a peace.
The Tsar was not open to negotiating a peace.
The resulting winter retreat to French-friendly territory would obliterate Napoleon’s Grande Armee and allow his enemies to take advantage of Napoleon’s sudden losses to band together and exile him, for the first time, to the Mediterranean isle of Elba.
Sergio@piefed.social 15 hours ago
It’s warmer than the walk home!