Why did Napoleon invade Russia?
- Oliver Harflett
- Dec 4
- 10 min read
Many know of the notorious and disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812, but few understand why it happened to begin with. Why did Napoleon choose war? How did Russia and France go from sharing Europe as equals to slaughtering each other in just 5 years? This essay aims to uncover some of the causes of the French-led, European invasion of Russia, some of which aren’t discussed much. Feel free to skip to topics which interest you more than others. The last topic is the most important and most overlooked factor of all.
Russia hated the Grand Duchy of Warsaw on their border (which Napoleon created)
Napoleon created what I call a ‘miniature Poland’ after defeating Russia at the Battle of Friedland in 1807. Russia was anxious over France’s growing imperial power and tried to contain it - they lost at Friedland and sued for peace. France and Russia soon signed the Treaty of Tilsit and made a formal alliance. France made no territorial demands on Russia, but decided to create a Polish client state called the Grand Duchy of Warsaw.
Russia hated this. Poland had always been a thorn in their side and an enormous obstacle to Russian influence in Europe. The Grand Duchy of Warsaw might not have been called ‘Poland’ on a map, but it was Poland in all but name. Many Poles hoped Napoleon would fully reinstate a Polish commonwealth or kingdom later down the line. After all, a grand duchy is only one step below a full-fledged kingdom. Russia would absolutely not tolerate a resurgent Poland on its border, yet Russia was in no position to bargain with France after the Battle of Friedland. The fact Napoleon recruited Polish soldiers, stoked Polish national pride and had an affair with a Polish noblewoman was disconcerting to say the least. The fact French soldiers were stationed right on the Russian border added insult to injured pride.
Russia broke the Treaty of Tilsit and traded with Britain
One condition of the Treaty of Tilsit between France and Russia was that Russia joined France’s economic system dubbed the ‘Continental System.’ This was politician’s speak for a complete embargo against Britain. Every nation that participated in the Continental System was forbidden to trade with Britain. All of Europe (except Portugal) was part of the Continental System. Russia agreed to join this economic system and assumed it would not be much of an issue.
They were wrong. Russia depended heavily on exporting oak to Britain which was used to build Royal Navy ships. Russia’s economy suffered enormously. Exports decreased by at least 40%. Debt increased tenfold. Revenue declined. The Russian people felt the squeeze. Tsar (Emperor) Alexander of Russia decided to smuggle goods to Britain, then openly violated the Continental System. Napoleon was furious. Alexander felt deceived by French trade promises. Tensions flared.
Napoleon wanted to contain Russian designs for the Balkans
Russia had ambitions to crush the Turkish Ottoman Empire on its southern border and control the Balkans to liberate Orthodox Christians from Islamic Turkish rule. The ultimate prize was Constantinople (now called Istanbul.) Napoleon deliberately and openly undermined these ambitions. He set up a French government in Illyria (now Croatia and Bosnia) to control access to the Mediterranean. Napoleon did not want a dominant Russia to surround the French Empire - it was more useful to have Russia and Turkey compete with one another, allowing France to play one off the other. Russia was insulted and humiliated.
It is worth noting that at Tilsit, France promised to aid Russia against the Ottoman Empire in future wars. But when push came to shove, France did absolutely nothing. It was salt on a wound for Russia.
France annexed territory that belonged to the Tsar’s family (the Duchy of Oldenburg)
At Tilsit, one condition was France promised not to annex the Duchy of Oldenburg. It was a German territory ruled by the Tsar’s brother in-law. Russia wanted a puppet state in Germany. France wanted peace in Europe - it was not a very contentious issue at the negotiating table. But only 3 years later, to Russia’s shock, Napoleon decided to annex Oldenburg into the French Empire. This was to enforce his Continental System. His blockade was not very effective due to continent-wide smuggling and skullduggery. He wanted direct control over the harbours and borders. He suspected Russia used Oldenburg as an enclave to trade with Britain. Tsar Alexander was incandescent with rage at Napoleon for cutting off access and insulting his family.
Russia was concerned that Napoleon’s former Marshal ruled Sweden
In Northern Europe, France had direct control or influence over Scandinavia. Russia became alarmed at France’s ever-expanding control and influence. In 1809, the King of Sweden died without an heir. The Swedes made an interesting decision - because of his humane treatment of Swedish prisoners and familial ties to Napoleon, they wanted Jean Bernadotte, a French Marshal and ‘frenemy’ of Napoleon to become King of Sweden. Napoleon was taken aback and unsure, saying he could think of better options, but he later agreed. He thought Marshal Bernadotte would be a puppet in Sweden and contain Russia. Bernadotte was married to Napoleon’s sister, so France’s ties to Sweden would now be familial.
It is not hard to understand why Russia was angered by this. They were surrounded by French client states.
To the south, France’s ‘Illyrian Provinces’ in the Balkans.
To the West, a French-aligned Poland, with Prussia and Austria under France’s wings.
And to the north, a French-aligned Sweden, a Franco-Norwegian alliance and French control over Denmark. The Baltic was all but inaccessible to them.
(In time, Russian worries about Sweden proved unnecessary - Bernadotte’s Sweden turned against Napoleonic France. Bernadotte’s descendants still reign in Sweden to this day.)
Napoleon nearly married the Tsar’s sister, but chose another wife instead
There was even more family drama than Oldenburg. When Napoleon knew his beloved wife Josephine would never produce an heir to his throne, he painfully divorced her and searched for another wife. In his words, he ‘intended to marry a womb.’ He cast his eye on Anna Pavlovna, the Russian Tsar’s sister. The evidence is mixed, murky and contradictory, but the best guess is this - Tsar Alexander was initially in favour of having a Eurasian super-alliance with France, but their mother, former Empress of Russia Maria Feodorovna overruled him. She hated the notion of being tied to the Bonapartes ruling Europe and was uncertain whether Anna could practice Orthodox Christianity in Paris. Tsar Alexander was swayed and politely refused Napoleon’s offer.
Yet Napoleon dreamt of a familial alliance with Russia and wanted a Russian princess or duchess as his bride. He plucked the courage to propose to another of Tsar Alexander’s sisters, Catherine. He was politely rejected once more. His dreams were shattered. He soon married Marie Louise of Austria, the daughter of the Emperor of Austria. She was a Hapsburg, a rival house to the Romanov dynasty who ruled Russia. Napoleon and Marie had a son and heir, who Napoleon ennobled as the King of Rome. He was in love with his new, non-Russian family.
Russia felt left out in the lurch. Both sides felt they had lost a dream. The flames of war were being stoked.
Napoleon had a peculiar psychology which led to war
Napoleon Bonaparte was a person who found it difficult to accept anything that was contrary to his wishes. If something fell out of place, he instinct was to put it back. This mindset, this underlying psychology is an important factor. In my view, not many historians, analysts, writers nor enthusiasts account for it.
Napoleon wanted to kick Russia back into line. Though Napoleon mentioned vague notions of pushing his borders to the river Dnieper in Ukraine for ‘security’ reasons, it is wrong to say Napoleon wanted to conquer Russia. He almost certainly did not want to occupy Russia and stay there. He did not want to flatten Moscow, exterminate the Slavs and settle the land like a certain Austrian did over a century later. Napoleon simply wanted to bully Russia into peace. He had done this several times before. Crush a citadel, an army or a nation - then negotiate from a position of strength. In a bizarre attempt to avoid war, Napoleon assimilated the largest army in recorded history on Russia’s border to cajole and intimidate Russia into suing for peace. 800,000 people from across Europe were mobilised. He logically assumed Russia would not gamble on a war against an imperial army of 20 nations - surely Russia would simply stop the war before it started? We know how that went.
There was another factor in Napoleon’s mind - he wanted to punish Russia for defying him. It was not just politics, territory, economics or even lost love. It was a loss of faith in an alliance he desperately wanted. It was a loss of face. A loss of prestige. A lost dream. And such pain demanded a price. He wanted to hurt Russia for hurting him and his beloved empire. If soldiers had to die to exact his vengeance, it was a price he would pay. The Corsicans have a notorious history of long-lasting, bloody vendetta. Napoleon might have been banished from his native Corsica, but Corsica never left him.
There is one more psychological factor. Napoleon was experiencing an unusual type of depression. What psychologists might classify as ‘dysthymia.’ Chronic, subtle, mild to moderate depressive symptoms that last for a prolonged period. But his depression was much more nuanced. He was at the height of his powers. He ruled an empire stretching from the Atlantic to the steppes of Russia. He married a Hapsburg. His son was the King of Rome. He was virtually undefeated in war.. but something was off.
AI brilliantly described it as the ‘fatigue of the titan.’ He was chronically overworked, overstimulated, exhausted and crushed by 15 years of war, conquest and rule. His extraordinary work ethic was catching up with him. He couldn’t sleep. He became irritable - a far cry from the bundle of charisma he was. He refused to see ministers. He ate robotically and without pleasure. He withdrew from people. Even his closest advisors, adjutants and generals noticed a change from 1810 - 1812. He became more detached, more insular and more fatalistic. He believed he was following fate to its zenith. Despite achieving a political system unmatched in scope, prestige and achievement since Ancient Rome, he was not its true arbiter - fate was. And it was his fate to be the inheritor of the ancient world. He was the successor to Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Charlemagne. Not mere bureaucrats or generals, but lawgivers and founders of civilisations. One could argue Napoleon was those things. But it was a colossal weight to carry. And that weight affected his judgement. Napoleon never lost his brilliance - but his self-correcting system inside himself weakened. His judgement shifted. He had always been right, so why did others have anything to give? Why should he not follow his destiny into Russia? Was he not the embodiment of the French Revolution? Was it not time to spread its values to the East? Which leads to the final point:
France and Russia hated each other’s values
This might be the biggest factor and the most overlooked. France grew from the chaos of the Revolution to controlling the continent. From its hellish origins under Ivan the Terrible, Russia become the largest country on Earth, spreading all the way from Poland to the Pacific. They were both titans in their own right.
In spite of the wars, each nation had a strange admiration for the other. Napoleon and Alexander got on extremely well when they first met at Tilsit. Napoleon admired Alexander’s intelligence, politeness and dignity. Alexander was in awe of Napoleon’s sheer brilliance and power. They awarded each others’ soldiers medals. They dined at banquets together. They even kissed in public! This was not just pomp and ceremony. France and Russia genuinely believed they should share Eurasia together because they had earned it. They had bled each other dry through war and had gained respect for one another through it - now it was time for peace.
A Franco-Russian alliance would destroy Britain’s trade networks across the seas. It would crush any Islamic incursions from the Ottoman Empire into Europe. They could free the repressed peoples of the Balkans and Greece from the Ottoman Turks. Perhaps Constantinople would become Christian again. To France, Russia was an exotic opportunity for access to the east. For Russia, France was a worthy opponent that could stabilise their western frontier and contain their mortal enemy, Ottoman Turkey. They were beautiful dreams they shared.
The snag was France and Russia were radically different nations based upon irreconcilable values.
Napoleonic France was modern, liberal, rational, secular, tolerant, anti-feudal, egalitarian and most of all, meritocratic. Napoleon’s unofficial motto was ‘without distinction of birth or fortune.’ He was the embodiment of meritocracy and so was his realm. He had risen from humble origins to becoming the emperor of almost all of Europe, based upon his grit, intelligence, determination and willpower. Upon the basis of merit. He believed that opportunity should be shared by all.Russia had very different values. Russia was deeply Christian, orthodox, spiritual, traditional, feudal, hierarchical and historical. Tsar Alexander’s family, the Romanovs, had ruled Russia since 1613. They believed they were destined to uphold and protect Orthodox Christianity across the world. That Moscow was the bastion of Christendom - the Third Rome. They believed body and soul that Russia was a chosen nation. And any attempt to undermine this beautiful, familial, divine order was sacrilege.
The Treaty of Tilsit was a beautiful dream, but a fragile one. And as time passed, as both nations matured, it became clearer how different their worldviews were. The failure of Napoleon’s intrigues with Russian women was more than a personal insult - it was a symbol. A symbol of the fracture that had quietly cracked between Napoleon’s Europe and Tsarist Russia. And when each side realised there was no space for both their civilisation’s values at the same time, the crack became a rift. War was an inevitability from that point.
Nations do not go to war over tariffs or treaty violations. Soldiers do not stand in the line of fire and experience the hell of war over Swedish succession policies. In the final analysis, I believe nations go to war over broken dreams and opposed values. The Napoleonic project threatened to destroy Russia’s values from the inside (and very nearly did later on in the 1825 revolt.) Russia’s values could not tolerate a ‘God-denying’, secular and untrustworthy empire like Napoleonic France. Its insistence on reason above everything else had proven to be extremely violent and destructive to all of Europe. And Russia would not accept it. Perhaps Monsieur Caulaincourt, the French ambassador to Russia under Napoleon and a personal friend of Tsar Alexander put it best when he said:
“The alliance was a dream. But dreams do not survive the morning.”
