On this day, Sept. 14, 213 years ago, Napoleon entered Moscow. It was not a city he expected:
"When [Field Marshall] Kutuzov decided to surrender Moscow, he said, ‘Napoleon is a torrent but Moscow is the sponge that will soak him up.’ Moscow was deserted when the French arrived. Out of 250,000 inhabitants, only around 15,000 stayed on, many of them non-Russian. On September 13 Napoleon received the president of the Moscow University and the delegation of French Muscovites, who told him that no deputation of notables would be coming to surrender the city keys and offer the traditional gifts of bread and salt. Instead, an enterprising old peasant offered the Emperor a guided tour of the city, which Napoleon declined. ‘There at last is that famous city. It’s about time,’ exclaimed Napoleon when he sighted the city walls."
Not to mention that Moscow was burned down. With no food and winter approaching fast, by Oct. 19, the Grande Armée began to abandon the city and started its retreat. Of the almost 600K army, only about 50K returned to west Europe. (And they still say that leaving Kiev in 2022 was a big deal.)
An interesting note about FM Kutuzov: In 1757, at the age of 12, Kutuzov entered an elite military-engineering school as a cadet private. As Andrei Martyanov would likely agree, a winning war is also an engineering marvel.
