We continue our new program series ahead of the bicentenary of Russia’s victory over Napoleon. Today’s story is about the sixth anti-Napoleon coalition.
France’s aggressive ambitions as it strove for control over western and central Europe in the late 18th-early 19th centuries complicated the political situation on the continent, giving birth to anti-French coalitions, of which seven were formed from 1799 to 1813, nearly each of them involving Russia. The sixth coalition emerged after Napoleon’s Grande Armee suffered a crushing defeat during the Russian campaign of 1812. The beginning of 1813 saw Russia fighting Napoleon in central Europe all alone before being joined by Prussia in March the same year, and later by Britain, Austria and Sweden, and still later by the German states of Wurttemberg and Bavaria after the Battle of Nations in October.
On January 13, 1813, the Russian army commanded by Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov crossed the Polish border near the river Neman and moved out towards the city of Polck north of Warsaw. On February 8, 1813, Kutuzov entered Warsaw. Austria pulled out its troops southward to Krakow in breach of its war deal with France. Meanwhile, Napoleon recruited a new army in France, 130,000 strong, and moved it to Saxony to rebuff the Russians and calm down the rebellious Prussia. In Germany, he had 180,000 men overall. They were confronted by 69,000 Russian and 54,000 Prussian soldiers.
From Warsaw, Kutuzov led his army westward to Germany. In March 1813, combined Russian-Prussian troops marched into Saxony and took Dresden and Leipzig. Saxony was the shortest way from Prussia to Paris, and in April 1813, it became the scene of bitter clashes between Napoleon and the coalition.Kutuzov, who was seriously ill, did not live to see his men parading victoriously into Paris. He died on October 28. Cavalry General Pyotr Vitgenshtein, who distinguished himself during the Patriotic War of 1812 and had the trust of Emperor Alexander I, was appointed to take over as the allied forces’ commander.
After a series of failures in Prussia, Napoleon thought he needed a respite and proposed a brief truce, known as the Armistice of Poischwitz. Later, historians would call it a fatal mistake. The truce enabled the coalition to win over more allies and build up strength. When the armistice expired, the Russian-Prussian army set out from Silezia to Bohemia and, after merging with Austrian and Swedish armies, won important victories at Dresden, Kulm, Dennevitz, before dealing the French a final blow in the crucial battle at Leipzig, the so-called Battle of Nations, fought in October 1813. Within weeks, Napoleon was pushed out of Germany.
By the time the frontline had moved into France, Napoleon only had 70,000 men against the more than 200,000-strong coalition army. After losing several major battles, he eventually capitulated on March 31, 1814. The same day, at noon, Russian and Prussian guards led by Emperor Alexander I entered Paris. A couple of days later, the French Senate proclaimed the deposition of Bonaparte and reinstated the Bourbons.
On April 4, Napoleon signed an act of abdication to the French throne for himself and his heirs, and retired into honorary exile to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean. The follow-up peace treaty signed in late May, 1814, returned France within the pre-1792 borders and confirmed the restoration of monarchy. The sixth coalition had thus fulfilled its mission.
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