Kneeling Firing

Preobrajenski Regiment

5th Army Corps Division of The Guard

Russian Army circa 1812

The French invasion of Russia in 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. The campaign reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength. Napoleon's invasion is better known in Russia as the Patriotic War .

On June 24, 1812, the Grande Armée of 691,501 men, the largest army assembled up to that point in European history, crossed the river Neman and headed towards Moscow.