During the Second World War, the Soviet Union finally defeated the mighty Germany after paying a huge price; but before the Second World War, Russia actually experienced a more dangerous Patriotic War, which was the "Russian-French War of 1812"; at that time, France was ruled by the famous Napoleon, who targeted Russia after basically completing the European strategy.
In order to defeat Russia, Napoleon gathered a total of 1.2 million troops, of which the French army accounted for about half, and the other half were French allied and vassal countries; it can be said that this was a war between Russia and most of the European countries, but Russia did not submit to Napoleon, and when Napoleon gathered his army, Russia was also actively acting, such as allying with Sweden and Britain, and temporarily ending the protracted "Russo-Turkish War" with the help of Britain.
In 1812, Napoleon led an army of 610,000 to officially launch an attack on Russia, but Russia only gathered about 200,000 troops, and the strength of the two sides was very different, not to mention that the commander of the French army was the genius military napoleon, of which 50,000 of the 610,000 troops were the most elite imperial guards. In short, in any way, Russia has no chance of winning.
And it is also true that in the early days of the war, while the Russian army was gradually defeated, it was constantly looking for opportunities to counterattack, but there was no effect, and this unfavorable situation was maintained until the "one-eyed general" Kutuzov took the throne. Speaking of which, this Kutuzov is really a legend, he was born into a military family, and when he was a student, he showed excellent learning ability.
In addition to Russian, he was fluent in French, German, Latin, and later Polish, English, Swedish, and Ottoman Turkish, that is, he was fluent in eight Chinese; many may ask, what is the use of this? He was not a translator or a diplomat, and if he understood it only that way, he would have been underestimated, and Kutuzov had learned so many foreign languages, mainly to learn the military ideas and art of these countries.
His military career was very smooth, except that he was seriously wounded in the head and lost his right eye in 1774 when he participated in the Fifth Russo-Turkish War. Thanks to his rich combat experience and constantly improving military theory, by the end of the eighteenth century Kutuzov had become one of the most prestigious Russian military commanders in Russia. He abandoned outdated strategies and linear tactics that excluded the initiative of his subordinates, and made extensive use of maneuverable and flexible tactics in combat.
But Kutuzov's success also ended here, and after several ups and downs, although he won the "Seventh Russo-Turkish War" before Napoleon's invasion and freed Russia from the unfavorable situation of two-sided war, he was removed from his leadership position in the army by the Russian Tsar Alexander I without giving a reason; it is speculated that it may be because of his high merits, or it may be that Alexander I did not like him.
But when the Russian army was really unable to resist Napoleon, Alexander I was forced to use Kutuzov; as a gesture of goodwill, Alexander I not only promoted Kutuzov to field marshal, but also made Kutuzov the commander-in-chief of the Russian army. This experienced and erudite one-eyed general gradually formed a set of advanced military ideological systems in the process of continuously integrating knowledge with actual combat.
Many people now know his military ideological system, and it is very simple to say, that is, "eliminating the enemy's living forces as the main goal, concentrating superior forces in the main direction of attack, actively forming and using reserves, paying attention to encouraging and mobilizing the enthusiasm of soldiers, and creating strategic defensive ideas." Many people will say, isn't this the core operational idea of the Soviet Union during World War II? Indeed, in fact, the essence of war is like this, but how to do it is not something that ordinary people can do.
Although the Russian army was only more than 200,000 people, Kutuzov's final mobilization of troops through the continuous mobilization of reserves and militias may be as many as 900,000; and how to use these people is a science, he constantly sent small forces to harass Napoleon's army, making Napoleon's army progress slowly, and then in the Battle of Borodino, he fiercely frustrated the French army, and finally persuaded everyone to abandon Moscow.
Abandoning the capital Moscow was a very risky thing to do, but Kutuzov did, and Tsar Alexander I was persuaded by him. In fact, what Kutuzov had to do was to avoid a direct confrontation with Napoleon, he wanted to use the depth of Russia to "trap" Napoleon, and for this he also implemented "scorched earth tactics" so that Napoleon's army could not get supplies from the occupied areas; in general, Kutuzov's strategy was very successful, more perfect than what the Soviet Union had completed during World War II.
Under his command, Napoleon's army was constantly weakened by skirmishes, and the morale of the French army continued to decline due to the departure from the base, coupled with the lack of food and winter clothing; Napoleon already knew that victory was hopeless, so he wanted to sign a peace treaty with Alexander I, but Alexander I knew that Napoleon could not hold out any longer, so he did not agree; and when Napoleon's army was exhausted, Kutuzov launched several deadly attacks.
In the end, the large and elite French army was defeated by Kutuzov's "shameless" tactics, if it were not for the Russian army's early losses, the war was simply perfect; in the end, after statistics, the Russian army lost about 210,000, the French army lost about 400,000, but Napoleon finally led only 30,000 people to withdraw from Russia, and where the more than 100,000 people in the middle went, I don't know.
After the war, Alexander I personally awarded him the George Medal of the First Class (the highest medal of merit of the Russian army); but only the Great Patriotic War ended, the Russo-French War did not end there, Kutuzov led his army in pursuit, successively attacked the Prussian capital Berlin and the Polish capital Warsaw; it seems that Napoleon was not exhausted, and when everything was going well, Kutuzov died of an old disease caused by wind and cold; before his death, Tsar Alexander I also rushed to visit and was buried in the Kazan Cathedral in Petersburg.
Kutuzov was a truly great general of genius, and although he was nicknamed "One-Eyed General", it was this "One-Eyed General" who defeated Napoleon, who claimed to be "invincible and invincible"; although his tactics were indeed a little "shameless", they were obviously very effective, why did Stalin establish the "Eastern Front" and establish "great depth" during the Second World War? In essence, it is to replicate Kutuzov's tactics of defeating Napoleon.