French invasion of Russia: Moscow, the great fire, and the destruction of the Grande Armée

Background. Napoleon initiated the invasion of Russia to force the Russian Empire to comply with the continental blockade of the United Kingdom. After the Battle of Borodino on 7 September 1812, Russian troops and most remaining civilians abandoned Moscow on 14 September, just ahead of Napoleon's entering troops. The city was mostly deserted: of roughly 270,184 inhabitants recorded at the start of 1812, only some 6,200 to 10,000 civilians remained, alongside 10,000 to 15,000 sick or wounded Russian soldiers.

The Fire of Moscow. During the French occupation, a fire persisted from 14 to 18 September 1812 and destroyed the city. The supplied passages do not state who set the fire; the legacy claim that Muscovites acted on orders of Fyodor Rostopchin is therefore treated as disputed and is not asserted here. Napoleon had taken Moscow, but the Russians refused to acknowledge defeat and prepared to fight on through the winter, so the capture counted for little.

Retreat and Destruction of the Grande Armée. On 19 October 1812 Napoleon retreated from Moscow, marching south-west toward Kaluga with Eugène de Beauharnais leading the advance. The inconclusive Battle of Maloyaroslavets on 24 October led Napoleon to retreat along the same line as his advance, with disastrous results. Kutuzov then attacked the remnants of the Grande Armée at Krasnoi beginning 15 November, though he preferred to give the enemy a golden bridge rather than face a desperate blow, declining to seek the French army's outright destruction.