How many men did Napoleon lose when he invaded Russia?

Answer 1

The massive losses of the Grande Armee were caused by the retreat from Moscow in the winter of 1812. From an army of say 1/2 a million men, less than 100,000 crossed the Berezina river. Notable battles include Smolensk, Borodino & Maloslavorets.

When Napoleon decided to attack Russia to force them to accept the Napoleonic Economic System, he had already beatne Austria, Prussia, and a lot of small states in-between. Part of their peace terms were to provide a small army to participate in wars as napoleon saw fit. In the north, a Prussian Corps invaded. In the South, an Austrian Corps slowly marched into russia. They avoided combat and waited for a chance to switch sides. Borodino was fought with french, German and polish units.

The 650,000 or so Grand Armee that invaded russia included 200,000 that didn't fight and were "lost" when the french retreated. The french lost 150,000 casualties getting to Moscow, had to leave 200,000 in garrisons along the way, and walked into an abandoned Moscow with about 100,000 men. They waited 30-45 days for the Russians to surrender and then started walking back to Poland. Vicious little battles broke out everywhere. Ney's single rearguard corps was attacked repeatedly. Many men deserted or died in the intense cold. There was little or no food as the "garrison" troops abandoned their posts and ran for their lives. By the time the French army marched back into Poland, there were about 100,000 stragglers and 20,000 effectives. Napoleon was already raising another 800,000 conscript army to fight the newly aligned Prussian, Austrian, Russian, English, Spanish, Portugese armies attacking him. He held them off for two more years, abdicated, came back for 100 days, and was then "imprisoned" on a remote island and poisened. The only battles that the "Allies" won against Napoleon were won by the british at Waterloo and the Dresden/Leipzig attacks. In the last two cases, they outnumbered Napoleon 3 to 1. He should have cut off russia from Europe, withdrew from Spain (he lost 500,000 men there too), and negotitated a peace. He had his chance at Tilsit in 1810 but refused to give up Germany and the Nederlands. He wanted them to be part of France!

Answer 2

Nobody will ever be able to say with any precision. It depends on what you mean by "invasion" also. The entire period from the first German attacks until they were all driven back off of Russian soil (about two years), or, just the first six months or so, until the initial onslaught was halted just short of victory? Several million, at any rate. The Germans weren't bothering to count and the Russians, if they did count, weren't saying for morale reasons, but they didn't care much more than the Germans. Almost the entire Russian Red Army in the west was destroyed, with around three million taken prisoner. The Germans treated Russian POWs barbarically, unlike the treatment afforded POWs of every other nation. They were used for slave labor and died by the tens of thousands from starvation and disease. The small remnant still alive when liberated by the Red Army three years later had guns shoved into their hands and got to fight in the last weeks of the war, tottering with weakness from their ordeal - THEN they were packed off to the gulag in Siberia or labor battalions in the frozen north, for having been contaminated by the decadent western lifestyle they had enjoyed in POW camp, and for letting themselves get captured instead of fighting to the death for Stalin. They didn't get released until after Stalin was dead, in the mid-50s. Very, very few were still alive by then. The best guess is that around 27 million Russians died in the war, military and civilian. But the Russians kept killing some off for years after the official end of the war, for things done during the war. As late as 1998 Russians filling out some official applications had to certify that no member of their family had been in a POW camp.

Answer 3

An estimated 200,000.

Answer 4

450000

Answer 5

600000