NAPOLEON'S INVASION OF RUSSIA 1812

The object lesson of today, Napoleon's attempt and failure to take Russia, recorded by one of the most assiduous and authoritative of Napoleonic biographers. Thorough, based on source material, it emerges as a well-paced and dramatic account. With words which have a familiar ring today --""I do not want war with Russia"" -- Napoleon launched the invasion, only to find the elusive Russian army never gave battle, just retreated leaving ""scorched earth"" to the invader. The bloddy battle of Borodino -- then Moscow, the ghost town, soon fired -- Russia's rejection of peace offers, and Napoleon's retreat as his army, enduring hunger, cold, famine, the guerilla harassment of the pursuing Russians, was finally destroyed, essentially defeated by the unflinching resistance of the Russian people.