Why does Napoleon lost during the Russian Campaign?

Answer 1

Napoleon's Russian Campaign. (Paperback)
by Count Phillipe-Paul de Segur (Author), J. David Townsend

Check out this book on Amazon. Great, detailed accounting of Napoleon's Russian Campaign.

Now for my opinion (for what ever it's worth). After Borodino, Napoleon's chances for eventual victory were clouded. Keep in mind that his army was a coalition of French, Polish, German, etc. troops and would have been logitstically difficult to keep together under the best circumstances, not to mention in the brutal winter conditions they had to contend with.

Russia was simply too vast to be conquered by the army available to Napoleon. The Russians led him deep into the country and he outdistanced his supplies. Plain and simple. Winter set in and it was one of the worst in 150 years and it laid his army low. The mobile, better clothed Cossacks added to the despair by harrying Napoleon's troops all the way back to Lithuania and Poland.

Weather, hunger, and disease did the rest to ensure the destruction of the Grande Army.

It's interesting to read the the defensive actions cobbled together by Marshall Ney. It is doubtful if any of Napoleon's troops would have survived had it not been for Ney.

What other interesting fact had to do with French enlisted men's uniforms. The buttons were made of zinc, which corroded in the intense cold, leaving the men without a means of securing their coats. French officers had silver buttons.

Ok, grab some good books on the subject and enjoy the journey.
Too good movies to watch would be War and Peace and The Duellists.

Answer 2

Inadequate ratio of force to space. Napoleon entered Russia with 750,000 soldiers and left with less than 60,000.

Russia is just plain too big to be conquered. Napoleon's problem was the opposite of R.E. Lee's. Lee would meet Grant in battle and win and Grant would keep coming forcing Lee to withdraw. Napoleon would meet the Russians in battle win, and still have no leverage to force a favorable peace treaty on the Russians.

Answer 3

The Russians had an advantage, Napoleon and his army were not used to the harsh Russian weather, but the Russians were. When Napoleon's army was marching, they either died of the brutal conditions, or became traitors and ran. By the time Napoleon got to St. Petersburg, he had almost no men for the attack.

Answer 4

Don't forget the Russian summer was just as bad as the Winter. The heat and the summer conditions combined with over crowded camps, poor sanitary conditions, etc... lead to a lot of the French army falling sick.

Napolean also sought to destroy the Russian army early and force the Czar to either come to terms or risk losing a great part of Russian. The Maneuver on the Niemen was brilliant, except that it failed to trap the Russians as they retreated. So napolean invaded and later when he had a chance to trap and wipe out large force of Russians under Bagration retreating east, he left the job to his younger brother jerome who moved to slowly to do anything.

Also it needs to be mentioned the battle of Borodino. In this pivotal battle the Russians put up their last great fight outside of Moscow. The Battle was one of the bloodiest the French ever fought with heavy losses on both sides. After the French had forced the Russians out of their positions and the Russians began to withdraw, Napoleon could have sent his much feared Old Guard into the Battle to complete the victory. yet he choose to keep them out of the battle. never again would he have that chance to destroy the Russians and in the course of weeks, he'd be in Moscow with powerful Russian forces all around him.

Answer 5

Three words--The Russian Winter. Napolean didn't take into account how terrible Russian winters are, and the year he tried to invade was particularly horrible. Plus, the Russians followed a scorched Earth policy--before they left, they'd burn their homes and fields, so the French had nothing to eat along the way. They were so desparate that they started eating their own horses. When Napolean finally made it to Moscow, he couldn't believe it--the Russians had burned it too, so he had a hollow victory. Disease ran rampant, to the point that finally, when the army reached one of the northern areas (I think Lithuania), they were pressing buildings into service as hospitals. Soldiers were dying everywhere, and bodies were tossed into mass graves. Only a small percentage of the soldiers to went to Moscow ever returned.

Answer 6

the Russian troops used the tactic of the burned soil, this in combination with the hard winter in Russia was a real killer fore the french troops. Napoleon was forced to retried because his army was dying

Answer 7

Two reasons - supply and weather. The French supply lines became unmanageably long as they progressed into Russia. When they finally reached Moscow the Russians burned much of the city to deny any winter quarters to the french who subsequently froze to death or starved to death in the hundreds of thousands. Ultimately, only 10,000 of the force of 500,000 made it back to France.

Answer 8

Cold winter

Answer 9

He was defeated by the weather and the difficulty of keeping his supply chain up because of that and the expanse of land involved.

Answer 10

he couldn't tough out the Russian winter