Rulers and conquerors such as Napoleon and Hitler who became drunk on power and were blinded by their arrogance made serious errors of judgement which resulted in their downfall. Napoleon was not content with ruling almost the whole of continental Europe and had expansionist ambitions in Russia. His decision to attack Russia in 1812 was the turning point in the Napoleonic wars. What Napoleon did not anticipate was the scorched earth military tactics of Russia which caused his downfall.
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. It is a military strategy where all the assets that can be used by the enemy are targeted, such as food sources, transportation, communications, industrial resources, and the people in the area.
Since the Russians did not stand much of a chance against Napoleon in a direct confrontation, they decided to adopt a defensive campaign of strategic retreat while taking care to destroy everything that the French army could possibly need for their survival.
The more Napoleon advanced the further the Russians fell back, leaving in their wake a starving, exhausted and demoralised French army. Alexander I succeeded in rendering Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Russia useless by utilising this method. As the Russian forces withdrew from the advancing French army, they burned the countryside leaving nothing of value for the pursuing French army. Napoleon’s Grand Army was left with only desolate and useless land which prevented them from relying on their usual methods of living off the lands they conquered.
Advancing relentlessly despite dwindling numbers, the Grand Army met with disaster after disaster as the invasion progressed. While the Russians occasionally attacked the French using a light Cossack infantry, their main army kept retreating for the next three months. These tactics sapped the confidence of the French army. However, the Russians were well aware that unless they engaged the French in a direct confrontation, it was a matter of time before the French reached Moscow.
Finally, on September 7, the two armies met near Moscow in the bloody Battle of Borodino which involved more than 2,50,000 soldiers and resulted in at least 70,000 casualties. Although the French captured the battlefield it was a pyrrhic victory as they were unable to replace their losses as the Russians could.
On September 14, Napoleon entered Moscow after the Russian army had retreated again. The Russians had more or less abandoned the city and even released criminals from the prisons to make more trouble for the French. The governor had also ordered the city to be burnt.
On their arrival in Moscow, the French soldiers were confronted by a virtually abandoned city which was a tattered and starving shadow of its former self.
In October, with no sign of victory, Napoleon began his disastrous Great Retreat from Moscow, during the usual autumn Russian mud season. It was an unexpectedly severe winter, Cossacks were attacking isolated units and food was non existent. Horses and men dropped dead like flies. Around 10,000 men survived and the fatal campaign resulted in Napoleon’s downfall. Russia emerged as the leading power of post-Napoleonic Europe.
Remember that famous saying “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. More than a century later, Hitler also made the fatal mistake of trying to conquer Russia thereby ensuring the downfall of the Nazis.
In the next column, I will talk about Hitler’s ill-fated campaign in Russia.