The Russian official history of the second war between Emperor Alexander and Napoleon, in 1806 and 1807. First published in 1846, it is based on original military and diplomatic documents and is backed up with references to official decrees from Russian state archives. It includes extracts from notes made by participants at the time and quotes from interviews with surviving (in 1846) veterans. It begins with the reasons for the war undertaken by Emperor Alexander in alliance with Prussia, the disaster that befell Prussia at Jena and Auerstedt, and Alexander's mobilization when, after the destruction of the Prussians, Napoleon moved to the borders of Russia. This is followed by a description of Russian military operations against Napoleon, which are divided into two periods, the winter and spring campaigns. The winter campaign began in December 1806, after Napoleon crossed to the right bank of the Vistula, and ended in February 1807, with the Battle of Eylau, when the exhaustion of the fighting armies, frosts, impassable roads and political reasons stopped the bloodshed in the main theater of war until May. During this inactivity of the armies, Alexander and Napoleon exhausted all possible resources in anticipation of the spring campaign. At the end of May, the fighting flared up. At first, fortune favored Alexander's forces: his army repelled Napoleon at Heilsberg, but four days later it failed at Friedland, and had to retreat to the right bank of the Neman. Alexander saw no more reason to continue the war, not being supported by friendly Powers in the cause undertaken by him for the independence of Europe: he made a truce with Napoleon and soon afterwards peace in Tilsit.
AUTHOR: Born in Russia in 1789, after the death of his father, Alexander Ivanovich Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky used his inheritance to study in Göttingen from 1808-11, on returning to Russia he became a civil servant. During the War of 1812, he joined the militia and participated in the Battle of Borodino, after which he served in the Quartermasters Department and was present at many battles from 1813-14. From 1815-20, he was head of the General Staff library but returned to military service until 1832, when he was commissioned to write Russia's official military histories. He died in 1848 during a cholera epidemic in St. Petersburg.
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