Russia
Silesia Campaign 1807
On 6 January 1807, Breslau finally falls to JĂ©rĂŽmeâs besieging army of Bavarians and WĂŒrttembergers (now fighting as âIX Corpsâ). After thirty-one days the Prussian garrison under General von Thiele capitulates and marches into captivity. Heartened by this development, Napoleon orders sieges of Danzig, Graudenz, and Kolberg to commence. He raises a new âX Corpsâ for the task: a medley…
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The Tsar Tank
The Tsar Tank, also known as the Netopyrâ or Lebedenko Tank, was an unusual Russian armored vehicle developed in 1916â1917 by Nikolai Lebedenko, Nikolai Zhukovsky, Boris Stechkin, and Alexander Mikulin. The project was scrapped after initial tests deemed the vehicle to be underpowered and vulnerable to artillery fire. It differed…
The Red? Army and the coup, 19â21 August 1991
T-80UD tanks in the red square during the 1991 coup dâetat attempt The centrifugal forces unleashed by glasnost and perestroika were unmistakably tearing apart the fabric of the Soviet Union, causing economic and social turmoil, and destroying the place of the army in politics and society. In response to Gorbachevâs…
Russian soldiers fighting prowess â Napoleonic Wars
Russian soldiers were notorious for their fighting capacity and staying power: prior to the campaign of 1812 Napoleonâs worst experience on the battlefield had come at the hands of General Bennigsen at the battle of Eylau, whilst in the Seven Yearsâ War Frederick the Great had repeatedly been very roughly…
Borodino, Battle of (7 September 1812) Part I
Borodino, the only major set-piece battle during Napoleonâs campaign in Russia, was fought between the Grande ArmĂ©e and the Russian armies of General Mikhail Kutuzov, around the village of Borodino, a small hamlet on the banks of the Kaluga River near the confluence with the Moskva, about 115 kilometers west…
Borodino, Battle of (7 September 1812) Part II
The Battle of Borodino. With both sides evenly matched and Napoleon unimaginatively content to launch his troops straight into the teeth of prepared positions, the battle was destined to be a costly and exhausting stalemate. Back at the flĂȘches, a Russian grenadier division struggled against overwhelming numbers of attackers until…
Inkerman
Even this romanticized depiction of the death of Lieutenant General Sir George Cathcart, who had rashly led his men into a ravine exposed to Russian fire, conveys something of the battleground confusion at Inkerman. The above map illustrates the narrow front of the engagement along the ridges, interspersed by ravines,…