An epic account of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and eventual retreat from Moscow, events that had a profound effect on the subsequent course of Russian and European history.• The saga of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and the catastrophic retreat from Moscow has fascinated not only military historians; Tolstoy’s War and Peace demonstrates the dramatic appeal of those events at a universal humal level. This is the story of how the most powerful man on earth met his doom, and how the greatest fighting force ever assembled was wiped out.
• By 1810 Napoleon was master of Europe, defied only by Britain, which he could not defeat because he had no navy. His intention was to destroy Britain through a total blockade, the Continental System. But Tsar Alexander of Russia now refused to apply the blockade, and Napoleon decided to bring him to heel.
• Napoleon quickly realised that nemesis awaited him, and the events of 1812 had a colossal impact on the fate of Europe: a great patriotic surge helped turn the Russians into a nation (hence Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812’ overture) and led them to reject Western values; the Germans began their fateful ‘Prussification’; the French lost their cultural dominance. And Napoleon’s legend – as man of destiny – began to exert its insidious fascination.
ISBN: 9780007123759
Author: Adam Zamoyski
Published by: Harper Collins Publishers India
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