Russia Against Napoleon

English-language secondary literature on the Napoleonic wars as a whole is vast. As regards military operations the bible is David Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon, London, 1993, and, as regards diplomacy, Paul W. Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics, 1763–1848, Oxford, 1994. Charles Esdaile, Napoleon’s Wars: An International History 1803–15, London, 2007, is a good recent book on European international relations in this era. On the 1812 campaign an excellent recent work is Adam Zamoyski, 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow, London, 2004. Paul Austen’s 1812: Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia, London, 2000 is based on French and allied memoirs and is extremely readable and moving. The 1813 campaign is less well covered in English, perhaps in part because German nationalism – the year’s traditional theme – has not evoked much enthusiasm in anglophone circles since 1914. Jonathan Riley, Napoleon and the World War of 1813: Lessons in Coalition Warfighting, London, 2000, is thought-provoking. M. Leggiere, Napoleon and Berlin, Stroud, 2002; the three volumes by George Nafziger on 1813 (Napoleon at Lutzen and Bautzen; Napoleon at Dresden; Napoleon at Leipzig, Chicago, 1992, 1994, 1996); and Digby Smith, 1813 – Leipzig. Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations, London, 2001, are also useful. As regards the 1814 campaign, the place to start for the English-speaking reader is James Lawford, Napoleon: The Last Campaigns. 1813–15, London, 1976, not least because of its excellent maps. Much the fullest account is M. V. Leggiere, The Fall of Napoleon: The Allied Invasion of France 1813–1814, whose first volume was published in Cambridge in 2008.

* This does not include the Reserve Army, Duke Alexander of Wrttemberg’s Army Corps besieging Danzig, or other detachments blockading enemy fortresses.