When Napoleon decided to invade Russia in 1812, it became the event that would lead to his downfall. Setting off on his invasion on June 24th with a force numbering about 600,000–the largest army ever gathered up to that time–the military operation ended six months later with the last French soldiers stumbling out of Russia in total defeat.

But it was not the Russian army that destroyed Napoleon. It was a combination of vast distances, time, and weather. Instead of launching a pitched battle, the crafty Russians slowly retreated into the vast interior of their country, stubbornly resisting all the way to the gates of Moscow. There, within 50 miles of the Kremlin, the Russian army stood its ground near the little village of Borodino. By the end of the day on September 7th, more than 80,000 soldiers on both sides lay dead on the field. Though it was a tactical victory for Napoleon, leaving the way open for his troops to occupy Moscow, the victory was hollow. The Russians retreated in good order and revictualled.

Meanwhile, winter struck with full fury, and the starving French, after spending a futile month in Moscow waiting for a surrender that never came, were forced to evacuate the city. The closest supplies were in Lithuania. The retreat turned into a death march in freezing conditions amid daily attacks by Cossack horsemen. After weeks of relentless cold, hunger, and enemy attacks, the retreat became a rout. Napoleon himself barely escaped capture when he abandoned the Grand Army on December 5th just inside the Polish border. The remnants of the French forces left Russian territory on December 14th, 1812. In less than six months, almost a million soldiers and civilians from a dozen nations on both sides were dead. And a year later, Napoleon abdicated.

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