battle of Borodino
The general battle began on September 7 (August 26), 1812, early in the morning. Kutuzov successfully positioned his troops, stopping all attempts by the French to attack the army from the flanks. Napoleon had no choice but to throw his main forces head-on into well-fortified positions. The battle lasted 12 hours, there were huge losses on both sides - more than 58 thousand people for the French army and almost 46 thousand people for the Russians.
There were no winners in this battle. But the Russian army proved that it could fight on equal terms with Napoleon’s “invincible” army. Napoleon's confidence in victory over Russia was shaken.
Kutuzov understood that a new battle could completely destroy the army, so in the village of Fili on September 13 he decided to further retreat. I had to leave Moscow.
Collapse of Napoleonic Army
Even before the war, Napoleon claimed that if he took Moscow, he would strike Russia in the very heart. In fact, it was Moscow that defeated Napoleonic army. Having entered the city on September 14, Napoleon's army ceased to exist as a combat unit.
Total robbery and violence against the population turned the Grand Army into a bunch of marauders. The once invincible French army was disintegrating before our eyes; when Napoleon realized this, it was too late. He was trapped.
To save the army, Napoleon sent a letter to Emperor Alexander I with a proposal to make peace. But Alexander did not answer. Then Napoleon realized that he had lost. He had no choice but to leave Moscow. And he gave the order to his troops to leave the city.
The French army's communications lines, stretched over hundreds of kilometers, could not provide the troops with everything they needed; moreover, the fire that raged in Moscow for more than a week destroyed all possible food supplies. Napoleon gave the order to retreat, leaving Moscow; the French army was pulling behind it a huge convoy with looted goods, which greatly affected its maneuverability.
Taking advantage of this, Kutuzov cut off Napoleon's troops from the southern provinces and, with the help of auxiliary troops from the north, forced the French to retreat along the old Smolensk road. Napoleon's army was melting before our eyes, due to the lack of provisions, famine began, constant threats to the Russian army, moving in parallel, forced the French to abandon everything just to move forward faster.
At the end of November, the Great Army that reached the Berezina River was a pitiful sight. There was a complete absence of cavalry, all artillery was abandoned, about 40 thousand people were unarmed, wounded and frostbitten. To avoid complete destruction during the crossing from the attacking Russian army, Napoleon ordered the bridges to be burned, fled, and left the remnants of the army to the mercy of fate.
"Feat of the people"
Public electronic bank of documents “Feat of the people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.” (podvignaroda.ru), created with the support of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, contains reliable information about the progress and results of major combat operations, the exploits and awards of all WWII soldiers.
Sources of information are the funds of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (CA MO), including the Archive of Award Cases with documents on 30 million wartime awards and the Archive of Documents on the Operational Management of Combat Actions.
Among the stated goals of the podvignaroda.ru project is to perpetuate the memory of all heroes, regardless of rank, the scale of the feat and the status of the award, as well as the creation of a factual basis to counter attempts to falsify the history of the Second World War.
Thanks to this unique resource, everyone can find information about military operations, the geography of military operations, wartime awards, and also see historical documents with their own eyes. Here you can also get information about the storage location of paper originals of archival documents for each soldier.
"Winners"
The “Winners” project (pobediteli.ru), created for the 60th anniversary of the Victory, is a civil initiative of individuals and companies. The most important part of the project is a search system for lists of WWII veterans, which helps people find each other.
According to the creators of the project, literally from the first day they began to receive letters from site visitors who found their relatives and friends on the list who were considered dead. It turned out that, despite the fact that the war ended more than 60 years ago, not all relatives and friends found each other.
The creators of the project publish requests for searches for WWII veterans. People who find out that someone is looking for them, or their friends, provide the site administration with their contact information. This way, people who are looking for each other can contact directly and finally meet.
Another interesting part of the project is a multimedia map of the war with the memories of participants and archival chronicles. This is an interactive map that clearly presents the entire history of the military operations of the Second World War. Key points are accompanied by additional information with photographs and videos, as well as audio recordings of veterans' memories.
