"Russia’s Wars with Napoleon, 1805–1815" Topic

"The wars Russia fought against Napoleon transformed the armed forces, the foreign policy, the society, and even the structure of the Russian state. Most dramatically, Russia stopped being a semi-European state that could choose to involve itself in Europe's problems or to ignore them, and became a critical part of the new European political order. In the eighteenth century, Russia had faced threats for the most part from Sweden in the north and from the Ottoman Empire to the south. Military operations to the west against Prussia and Poland had been more opportunistic than dangerous and had been completed by 1796 in any case. The wars with Napoleon completely reversed this orientation. After 1815, Russia's primary security focus would be to the west, with the threats to north and south either removed or relegated to a secondary role. This reorientation had profound implications for the size, structure, and deployment of the Russian armed forces, and for the organization of the Russian state to support war."
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Amicalement
Armand

An interesting aspect of the French and Russian conflicts is that Russia was the aggressor as part of a coalition in 1805-1807.

And the above happened before the 1812 Russian campaign.

On a formal note, I still don't get how 'academics' can arbitrarily divide what was a continuum from the Revolutionary period (choose your own cut-off) as if anything before 1805 didn't matter.

As a subject it started before N. was in power, so that is relevant to what happened when he was.
I read Alexanders naive attempts to gain glory [and status] in the martial arena as a way to 'insulate' his popularity and maintain his position, staving off his dubious rise to Emperor.≠

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand