Author: Denis DavydovPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
The only available Russian Napoleonic memoir conveying the victor's perspective on a cataclysmic conflict.
In the Service of the Tsar Against Napoleon
Author: Denis DavydovPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
The only available Russian Napoleonic memoir conveying the victor's perspective on a cataclysmic conflict.
Wars Against Napoleon
Author: General Michel FranceschiPublisher: Savas Beatie
ISBN: 1611210291
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 238
Book Description
Popular and scholarly history presents a one-dimensional image of Napoleon as an inveterate instigator of war who repeatedly sought large-scale military conquests. General Franceschi and Ben Weider dismantle this false conclusion in The Wars Against Napoleon, a brilliantly written and researched study that turns our understanding of the French emperor on its head. Avoiding the simplistic clichés and rudimentary caricatures many historians use when discussing Napoleon, Franceschi and Weider argue persuasively that the caricature of the megalomaniac conqueror who bled Europe white to satisfy his delirious ambitions and insatiable love for war is groundless. By carefully scrutinizing the facts of the period and scrupulously avoiding the sometimes confusing cause and effect of major historical events, they paint a compelling portrait of a fundamentally pacifist Napoleon, one completely at odds with modern scholarly thought. This rigorous intellectual presentation is based upon three principal themes. The first explains how an unavoidable belligerent situation existed after the French Revolution of 1789. The new France inherited by Napoleon was faced with the implacable hatred of reactionary European monarchies determined to restore the ancient regime. All-out war was therefore inevitable unless France renounced the modern world to which it had just painfully given birth. The second theme emphasizes Napoleon’s determined efforts (“bordering on an obsession,” argue the authors) to avoid this inevitable conflict. The political strategy of the Consulate and the Empire was based on the intangible principle of preventing or avoiding these wars, not on conquering territory. Finally, the authors examine, conflict by conflict, the evidence that Napoleon never declared war. As he later explained at Saint Helena, it was he who was always attacked—not the other way around. His adversaries pressured and even forced the Emperor to employ his unequalled military genius. After each of his memorable victories Napoleon offered concessions, often extravagant ones, to the defeated enemy for the sole purpose of avoiding another war. Lavishly illustrated, persuasively argued, and carefully illustrated with original maps and battle diagrams, The Wars Against Napoleon presents a courageous and uniquely accurate historical idea that will surely arouse vigorous debate within the international historical community.
Russia Against Napoleon
Author: Dominic LievenPublisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141947446
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 952
Book Description
'A compulsive page-turner ... a triumph of brilliant storytelling ... an instant classic that is an awesome, remarkable and exuberant achievement' Simon Sebag Montefiore Winner of the Wolfson History Prize and shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize In the summer of 1812 Napoleon, the master of Europe, marched into Russia with the largest army ever assembled, confident that he would sweep everything before him. Yet less than two years later his empire lay in ruins, and Russia had triumphed. This is the first history to explore in depth Russia's crucial role in the Napoleonic Wars, re-creating the epic battle between two empires as never before. Dominic Lieven writes with great panache and insight to describe from the Russians' viewpoint how they went from retreat, defeat and the burning of Moscow to becoming the new liberators of Europe; the consequences of which could not have been more important. Ultimately this book shows, memorably and brilliantly, Russia embarking on its strange, central role in Europe's existence, as both threat and protector - a role that continues, in all its complexity, into our own lifetimes.
Napoleon's Army in Russia
Author: Albrecht AdamPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
In 1812 Napoleon's magnificent army invaded Russia. Among the half a million men who crossed the border was Albrecht Adam, a former baker, a soldier and, most importantly for us, a military artist of considerable talent. As the army plunged ever deeper into a devastated Russia Adam sketched and painted. In all he produced 77 colour plates of the campaign and they are as fresh and dramatic as the day they were produced. They show troops passing along dusty roads, bewildered civilians, battles and their bloody aftermath, burning towns and unchecked destruction. The memoirs which accompany the plates form a candid text describing the war Adam witnessed. Attached to IV Corps, composed largely of Italians, he was present at all the major actions and saw the conquerors march triumphantly into Moscow. But, from then on, the invading army's fate was sealed and the disastrous outcome of the war meant that the year 1812 would become legendary as one of the darkest chapters in history.
Alexander I
Author: Marie-Pierre ReyPublisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1609090659
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
Alexander I was a ruler with high aspirations for the people of Russia. Cosseted as a young grand duke by Catherine the Great, he ascended to the throne in 1801 after the brutal assassination of his father. In this magisterial biography, Marie-Pierre Rey illuminates the complex forces that shaped Alexander's tumultuous reign and sheds brilliant new light on the handsome ruler known to his people as "the Sphinx." Despite an early and ambitious commitment to sweeping political reforms, Alexander saw his liberal aspirations overwhelmed by civil unrest in his own country and by costly confrontations with Napoleon, which culminated in the French invasion of Russia and the burning of Moscow in 1812. Eventually, Alexander turned back Napoleon's forces and entered Paris a victor two years later, but by then he had already grown weary of military glory. As the years passed, the tsar who defeated Napoleon would become increasingly preoccupied with his own spiritual salvation, an obsession that led him to pursue a rapprochement between the Orthodox and Roman churches. When in exile, Napoleon once remarked of his Russian rival: "He could go far. If I die here, he will be my true heir in Europe." It was not to be. Napoleon died on Saint Helena and Alexander succumbed to typhus four years later at the age of forty-eight. But in this richly nuanced portrait, Rey breathes new life into the tsar who stood at the center of the political chessboard of early nineteenth-century Europe, a key figure at the heart of diplomacy, war, and international intrigue during that region's most tumultuous years.
Napoleon and Russia
Author: Michael AdamsPublisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826442129
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 629
Book Description
Napoleon and Russia tells, for the first time, the full story of Napoleon and his crucial relationship with Russia, from the 1790s and Bonaparte's rise to power, through the period of Austerlitz, Tilsit and the Russian invasion, to the Emperor's fall and its aftermath. In doing so, it not only puts the critical events of 1812 in their proper context as part of an even greater tale - of peace as well as war, friendship as well as enmity - but also provides fresh insight into the Napoleonic period as a whole, questioning many of the assumptions about the era prevalent in the English-speaking world. The tale boasts a cast of fascinating characters to rival any novel: the rulers, Napoleon himself, Catherine the Great, 'Mad' Tsar Paul and the enigmatic Alexander I; generals such as Ney, Murat, Davout, Suvorov, Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly; statesmen like Talleyrand, Caulaincourt, Czartoryski and Rumiantsev; and, of course, the ordinary soldiers who fought some of the most intriguing, bloody and important campaigns in history. This is an enthralling story of fundamental importance in the history of Europe and, indeed, the world.
The Girl Who Fought Napoleon
Author: Linda LaffertyPublisher: Lake Union Publishing
ISBN: 9781503937260
Category : Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
In a sweeping story straight out of Russian history, Tsar Alexander I and a courageous girl named Nadezhda Durova join forces against Napoleon. It's 1803, and an adolescent Nadya is determined not to follow in her overbearing Ukrainian mother's footsteps. She's a horsewoman, not a housewife. When Tsar Paul is assassinated in St. Petersburg and a reluctant and naive Alexander is crowned emperor, Nadya runs away from home and joins the Russian cavalry in the war against Napoleon. Disguised as a boy and riding her spirited stallion, Alcides, Nadya rises in the ranks, even as her father begs the tsar to find his daughter and send her home. Both Nadya and Alexander defy expectations--she as a heroic fighter and he as a spiritual seeker--while the battles of Austerlitz, Friedland, Borodino, and Smolensk rage on. In a captivating tale that brings Durova's memoirs to life, from bloody battlefields to glittering palaces, two rebels dare to break free of their expected roles and discover themselves in the process.
Narrative of Events During the Invasion of Russia by Napoleon Bonaparte and the Retreat of the French Army, 1812
Author: Sir Robert Thomas WilsonPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815
Languages : en
Pages : 490
Book Description
The Russian Army of the Napoleonic Wars
Author: Albert SeatonPublisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 9780882541679
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 48
Book Description
This book recounts the development of a standing Russian army from the END of the 16th century to the million strong force that resisted Napoleon. The Russians were heavily defeated at the battle of Austerliz but in the Armistice period that followed the Russians regrouped and several improvements were made. In1812 when Napoleon invaded this new army was protected at the cost of Moscow . The Russians faced Napoleon for the last time at the Battle of Leizig where together with their allies they inflicted a severe defeat. These battles are discussed in full and are accompanied by several contemporary illustrations. Eight colour plates accompany the text to show the uniforms and equipment used by the Rusian soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars.
At Napoleon's Side in Russia
Author: Armand de CaulaincourtPublisher:
ISBN: 9781929631476
Category : France
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Introduction by Dr Jacques Oliver Boudin. Armand de Caulaincourt was one of the highest officials in the French Empire, riding constantly at Napoleon's side.