The Battle of Berezina (or Beresina) took place November 26-29, 1812 between the French army of Napoleon, retreating after his invasion of Russia and crossing the Berezina (near Borisov, Belarus), and the Russian armies under Mikhail Kutuzov, Peter Wittgenstein and Admiral Pavel Chichagov. The battle ended with a victory for the Russians. The French suffered very heavy losses. Since then "Bérézina" has been used in French as a synonym for "disast...
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The Battle of Berezina (or Beresina) took place November 26-29, 1812 between the French army of Napoleon, retreating after his invasion of Russia and crossing the Berezina (near Borisov, Belarus), and the Russian armies under Mikhail Kutuzov, Peter Wittgenstein and Admiral Pavel Chichagov. The battle ended with a victory for the Russians. The French suffered very heavy losses. Since then "Bérézina" has been used in French as a synonym for "disaster."
As the surviving masses of the Grande Armee struggled on for the perceived safety of the west, the Russian armies closed in on them.
The French had suffered a defeat just two weeks earlier during the Battle of Krasnoi. However, reinforcements who had been stationed near the Berezina during Napoleon's initial advance through Russia brought the numerical strength of the Grande Armée back up to some 30,000 to 40,000 French soldiers capable of fighting, as well as 40,000 non-combatants. The Russians had approximately 61,000 troops at the...
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