The War of 1812: The Foreign Campaign

What did a soldier experience as he retreated along the Smolensk Road? What did Napoleon’s officers write about in letters home? And why do events from two centuries ago unexpectedly resonate with today?

In her book, Marina Bandilenko, Candidate of Historical Sciences, has brought together an accurate historical narrative and the vivid testimony of participants.

In this latest installment of the popular series «Dokudramas,» the author tells about one of the most important turning points in Russian history — the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Russian army’s Foreign Campaign of 1813–1814. The results of this campaign determined the future course not only of Russia, but of all of Europe.

Marina Bandilenko, Candidate of Historical Sciences, prepared the literary version of the Star Media science-popular series: she preserved the dramatic storyline and vivid dialogue, and also supplemented the plot with a great deal of material that did not make it into the on-screen version.

Numerous quotations — excerpts from rescripts, letters, coded dispatches, and memoirs of witnesses from both the Russian and French sides — help you feel the pulse of the era. Reference inserts with intriguing details link the past to the present and highlight unexpected facets of those formidable years. Biographical notes and statistics will be useful for readers who want to delve more deeply into the subject of 1812. Different interpretations and versions of events give the reader room to draw their own conclusions.

The book’s central figure is Emperor Alexander I, portrayed in depth and from multiple angles — through the perspectives of different people. He appears as a subtle architect of international politics, calculating decisions many moves ahead, and the creator of Europe’s first practical model of collective security, one capable of protecting the continent from new wars for decades to come.