Russian Winter

In June of 1812, Napoleon marched 420,000 men into Russia.  He thought he could quickly defeat the Russians, thus forcing the British to surrender to his dominance of Europe.  Soon his forces in the Russian invasion numbered nearly 700,000 men.  


Early in October he reached Moscow, having fought several battles and looted several Russian towns.  But when he neared Moscow, he found it burning; the forces of Tsar Aleksander I had retreated from the city and lit it on fire to rob Napoleon of his prize.  Napoleon had no choice but to return to Western Europe.  But the Russian winter was beginning.  


















By December when Napoleon's army made its way out of Russia, his forces had been decimated.  Only around 22,000 troops, or 3% of those who entered, made it out of Russia alive.  Napoleon went on to lose to the British at Waterloo, and was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba, and then to the island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic Ocean where he died a few years later.  
As Vizzini said in the Princes Bride, "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia!"