Senyavin, seven battleships and one frigate, battered by storms and battles that had been repaired for the Baltic Sea after the end of the Russo-Turkish war. She is now confronted by 15 battleships, 10 frigates and a Portuguese coastal battery. The diplomatic Russian admiral is making concessions – the fleet is, as it were, transferred to storage; without changing crews, with raised flags, the year stands in British Portsmouth, and, after the end of the military conflict, September 9, 1809, returns to the port of Riga.
The military conflict with Sweden begins in fact, on February 9, 1808, when Russian troops cross the Finnish border (Finland at the time – part of Sweden). Formally, the war is declared on March 16. It is not popular either in Russia or Sweden, and it is developing rather sluggishly. The Swedes are smashing several small Russian detachments; helping them in this Finnish population. The Russian army will be anchored in Ostrobothnia, the middle part of Finland.
In accordance with the Napoleonic plan of the Russian command, the army, taking advantage of the rare phenomenon of the freezing of the Gulf of Bothnia, must pass to Stockholm by ice, capture it and destroy the Swedish fleet standing in the roadstead. The bold idea, in general, succeeds: off the coast Russian troops smash the vanguard of the Swedish army, seize 2,000 prisoners, 150 military and merchant ships, pose an immediate threat to Stockholm. The Swedes sit down at the negotiating table, sign a truce, the Russian army withdraws from the shores of Sweden.
In 1809, after the change of the ruler, the Swedes send additional forces to Finland, but attempts to restore the state of things are not at all effective. The Finns themselves are imbued with the idea of broad autonomy, which Alexander the First offers them and they stop their guerrilla war. Eventually, on September 17, 1809, a peace treaty was signed in Friedrichsham. The Swedes are taking the continental blockade of England, giving way to Finland and the Åland Islands to the eternal possession of the Russian Empire. Losses are almost equal; about seven thousand people on each side.
In 1808 and 1810, Napoleon, wishing to become recognized as a European court by the monarch, sends the Russian royal house proposals for marriage with the sisters of Alexander, respectively, first with Catherine, then Anna. This request is politely rejected. However, Bonaparte is deeply offended. He still marries, now on the Austrian princess, thereby, among other things, provides the French Empire with a strong rear, and military support.
Meanwhile, Russia is holding the continental blockade of Great Britain. The export of food stops, the price of bread falls by half. The domestic light industry is rising from its knees, in particular, the production of technically complex luxury goods. But, the nobility is already accustomed to the goods produced in England and therefore Russia trades with the «Lady of the Seas» through neutral countries. The French government knows this.
Napoleon proclaims the idea of expanding the Duchy of Warsaw to the borders of the Commonwealth, which is impossible without the rejection of part of Russia’s ancestral lands from Russia. The French emperor views the advance of Russian army units to the borders of the Duchy as an immediate threat to his vassal.
The main plan of Bonaparte is a huge allied (or, more accurately, dependent) Poland, which includes Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. A world with a diminished Russia. Full-fledged continental blockade of England, then the occupation of the whole of Great Britain. Theoretically, a trip to India, the return and increment of French colonial possessions (the First Empire), hypothetically – Napoleon becomes the ruler of the whole world. It is not so impossible – England owns 27% of the earth’s land, which, together with the colonies of France itself, as well as the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, which is included in the composition of the suzerain by the Commonwealth, is more than half the territory of the Earth.
This plan, however, does not fit the liberation of Russian peasants from serfdom. At the beginning of his career, Bonaparte is forced to serve the Convention and the Republic, introduces the progressive Civil Code, destroys the basis of the feudal system. However, he despises «ordinary people», and tries not to resort to their assistance, if possible. He is not at all a revolutionary and a benefactor of the people, rather, a French chauvinist. In parts of Belarus and Lithuania, at the beginning of the summer of 1812, Napoleon abolished serfdom. Peasants, first of all, are taken to plunder and destroy their former oppressors, landlords, and their families. To the French army at the same time, they do not become much more loyal. First of all, Napoleon is interested in supplying his troops. Three weeks later he returns the peasants to the landlords, provides protection, so that the grateful nobles themselves collect provisions and pass it to the French foragers. So, in general, it happens, although it should be taken into account that the aristocracy of the county counted on the revival of the Commonwealth, therefore it was quite hospitable to the conquerors. Counting his experience with the liberation of serfs unsuccessful, Napoleon projected his conclusions to the whole of Russia, not paying attention to the fact that the Russian nobles with their high position are quite satisfied. Yes, there is autocracy here, but it is limited, to the extreme case of landowner discontent, with an apoplectic blow (a snuffbox in the temple). Gold, saved during the expropriation of peasant stocks (it had enough in Bonaparte), the inclination to plunder churches and monasteries, arrogance, will subsequently turn into rivers of blood of French soldiers.
Napoleon’s army consists of: 20,000 Prussian soldiers-Prussia is offered some territories of the present Baltic states, 30,000 Austrians, 100,000 Poles, 21,000 Italians, 300,000 French, 8,000 former Russian prisoners of war who believe that they are liberating the country from serfdom, and also parts from other subordinate countries of the French Empire – only about 608,000 people (there are also large figures). The Russian army is divided into three parts, totaling 420,000 people.
Food stocks are calculated only for 50 days. Bonaparte expects to win a frontier general battle, after which his troops would almost seamlessly enter Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The invasion begins on the Neman river, near the city of Kaunas of present-day Lithuania, on the evening of June 23, 1812. In the north, the Prussian troops storm Riga. After the capture of this city, they would have to go to Petersburg, but the recent allies of Russia in the fighting are not particularly zealous.
The border battle is not impossible: on the eve of the war a huge fortified Drais camp is being built, in which Russian troops would have to restrain the 600,000th enemy army. Alexander the First declines to such a decision, but the higher officers urge the emperor to first abandon this plan, then leave the headquarters and go to St. Petersburg.
September 7 near the village of Borodino, 125 kilometers south of Moscow, there is a general battle. The number of the French army at this stage is 135,000 men, with 587 cannon, 15,000 non-combatants (helping to endure wounded, etc.) Russian – 120,000 people, 624 guns, plus 20,000 militias without firearms, usually performing a supporting role.
Napoleon’s plan is drawing a distracting blow to the center of enemy positions, an attack by the main forces on the left flank of the Russian army, its encirclement and destruction. M. Kutuzov, on the whole, all this foresees, and the troops on this site strengthens. The chief of staff, Bennigsen, somewhat distorts the commander’s intention, removing the reserve corps from the shelter too early, practically, under the fire of French artillery.
At noon, Russian troops on the left flank very successfully counterattack, while in the front ranks there is Marshal Bagration himself. A fragment of the core hurts the commander, the news of this instantly demoralizes the army. The retreat begins. The onslaught of the French is somewhat weakened after the raid on their rear by 2500 Cossacks General Platov. The troops regroup, Napoleon leaves the left flank of the Russians, rushes to the center, beats redoubts, at the cost of almost all the heavy cavalry, and stops. At seven o’clock in the evening the French emperor takes his troops from the battlefield.
At night, having collected almost all of his wounded, the Russian army departs to Mozhaisk, 105 kilometers west of Moscow.
Losses of the parties; Russian army 42 000 killed (30% of the composition), the army of Napoleon –