"Napoleon’s Lost Legions. The Grande Armée Prisoners..." Topic

…of War in Russia.

"Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 was a calamitous event that shook the French Empire to its foundation and led to its eventual collapse just a year and half later. Much has been written about this subject and the recently held bicentennial celebrations once again showcased continued interest in this campaign. One of the widely used documents related to the Russian Campaign is Charles Joseph Minard's famous 1869 flow map that graphically demonstrates Napoleon's fiasco in Russia. Yet, as we follow the gradually shrinking band representing the Grande Armée, one cannot but wonder what had happened to tens of thousands of men (and women) who so "simply" disappeared from the graph. It is usually acknowledged that Napoleon had entered Russia with some half a million men and, loosing tens of thousands of men, fled six month later with less than 50,000. There is still no recent study in English or French exploring the fate of numerous prisoners of war that Napoleon left behind. The purpose of this paper is to offer a glimpse into what happened to them

Despite popular misperceptions, Russian treatment of prisoners was not markedly different from that of other European States but it was, nevertheless, characterized by certain peculiarities. Prior to the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Russia had conducted wars on three main fronts: against the Ottoman Turks, Crimean Tatars and other non-Christian peoples in south and southeast; Poles in the west; and Swedes in the Baltic region. These conflicts profoundly shaped Russian treatment of the prisoners of war. Dealing with non-Christian opponents, Russia, for example, adopted a practice of purchasing and retaining POWs who converted to Orthodox Christianity. Throughout 1770s and 1790s, the Russian government adopted laws that regulated …"
See here
link

Alexander is one of my favourite writters…

Amicalement
Armand

Armand,

That was extremely interesting. Many thanks.

Jim

Yes, very interesting. Thank you.

Yes in 2012 was an article about 1000s who settled there. Often russified names, not always easy to follow afterwards.
Seems not nearly as savage as the Spaniards and brits poontoons etc.

Happy you enjoyed it my friends!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand