1806-1807 - Tsar Alexander's Second War with Napoleon

The Russian official history of the second war between Emperor Alexander and Napoleon, in 1806 and 1807, using original military and diplomatic documents and the testimonies of witnesses and participants from the war.

First published in 1846, the history considers the reasons for the war undertaken by Emperor Alexander in alliance with Prussia, the disaster that befell Prussia at Jena and Auerstedt, and Alexander’s mobilization when, after the destruction of the Prussians, Napoleon moved to the borders of Russia.

Following Napoleon’s crossing to the right bank of the Vistula, the narrative describes the subsequent Russian military operations against Napoleon in both the winter and spring campaigns. The winter campaign culminated with the Battle of Eylau, with consideration to the exhaustion of the fighting armies, frosts, impassable roads, and political factors that stopped the bloodshed in the main theater of war until May.

The narrative then considers the inactivity of the armies, and exhaustion of all possible resources in anticipation of the spring campaign, before concluding with Napoleon’s repulse at Heilsberg, the Russian defeat at Freidland, retreat to the right bank of the Neman and peace at Tilsit.