World history: Napoleon letters on the 1812 war published

A collection of letters of Napoleon about the events of the war of 1812 has been published in Paris. The book includes papers from the archives of France and Russia. The book has been presented at a ceremony in the residence of the Russian ambassador in France, Alexander Orlov.

"This collection allows tracing of the history of Napoleon's campaign day by day, said the president of the Napoleon Foundation, Victor- Andre Massen. - We are grateful to the Russian side that provided for the publication a series of letters of the French Emperor from the archives of Russia. "

"Correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte for 1812," has been prepared for publication by a group of prominent French historians, headed by Thierry Lenz jointly with over 50 volunteer researchers. The letters cover all aspects of the Russian campaign. More than half of the 2.500 documents - in addition to letters of the emperor himself these are reports of his military commanders - are first published.

"We started publishing the correspondence of Napoleon ten years ago, - noted professor Lentz. - The Russian campaign is an outlier in the history of the Napoleonic campaigns, it does not fit into the usual canons of war. The invasion of Russia was disastrous for the Grand Army, which had never before known defeat."

The reception in the Russian Embassy in Paris was attended by leaders of the Army Museum and the Legion of Honor, the heads of the French publishing houses, non-governmental organizations. Joint address of the two countries to the events of two centuries-old is quite natural, says Countess Colette Tolstaya. The head of the French "Society of Friends of Leo Tolstoy," said that the events of 1812 "had not alienated Russia and France, with the advent of peace relations between the two countries have steadily developed, there was a real mutual attraction."