1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow - Tapa blanda

An epic account of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and subsequent retreat from Moscow, which had a profound effect on the subsequent course of Russian and European history.

· The saga of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and the catastrophic retreat from Moscow has fascinated not only military historians; Tolstoy’s War and Peace demonstrates the dramatic appeal of those events at a universal humal level. This is the story of how the most powerful man on earth met his doom, and how the greatest fighting force ever assembled was wiped out.
· By 1810 Napoleon was master of Europe, defied only by Britain, which he could not defeat because he had no navy. His intention was to destroy Britain through a total blockade, the Continental System. But Tsar Alexander of Russia now refused to apply the blockade, and Napoleon decided to bring him to heel.
· Napoleon quickly realised that nemesis awaited him, and the events of 1812 had a colossal impact on the fate of Europe: a great patriotic surge helped turn the Russians into a nation (hence Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812’ overture) and led them to reject Western values; the Germans began their fateful ‘Prussification’; the French lost their cultural dominance. And Napoleon’s legend – as man of destiny – began to exert its insidious fascination.

Adam Zamoyski was born in New York, was educated at Oxford, and lives in London. A full-time writer, he has written biographies of Chopin (Collins 1979), Paderewski, and The Last King of Poland, as well as a history of Poland and HOLY MADNESS: ROMANTICS, PATRIOTS AND REVOLUTIONARIES 1776–1871.