2255 | Medals

Automatically generated translation

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, Empire (1804-1815). Withdrawal of the French Army from Russia. (Ae. 44.99g/40mm). 1812. Engraver: Andrieu and Galle. (Bramsen 1168). Good Very Fine. Scratch.

It is hard to believe that until just one year before, 1811, Russia and France were allies. The cooling of relations between the two nations gave way, after knowing the wishes of Tsar Alexander I to conquer Constantinople and the need to achieve a rapprochement with Great Britain, to a direct confrontation between the two superpowers that ended with a disastrous French defeat on Russian soil. On December 14, 1812, the withdrawal of the barely twenty-two thousand survivors of that “Grande Armée” was completed, leaving almost half a million soldiers between dead and prisoners along the way.