As the year advanced, the Tsar Alexander made counter preparations. He
came to a formal understanding with Great Britain. Through British
mediation he made peace with the Turks and thus removed an enemy from
his flank. And a series of treaties between himself, Great Britain, and
Marshal Bernadotte, who was crown-prince of Sweden and tired of
Napoleonic domination, guaranteed him in possession of Finland, assured
him of a supporting Swedish army, and in return promised Norway as
compensation to Sweden. A well-trained Russian army of 400,000 men,
under the stubborn, taciturn veteran, General Kutusov, was put in the
field.
[Sidenote: Napoleon's Russian Campaign, 1812]
War seemed imminent by April, 1812. After leisurely completing his
preparations, Napoleon crossed the Niemen on 24 June, and the invasion
of Russia had begun. It was the plan of the French emperor either to
smash his enemy in a single great battle and to force an early
advantageous treaty, or, advancing slowly, to spend the winter in
Lithuania, inciting the people to insurrection, and then in the
following summer to march on to Moscow and there in the ancient capital
of the tsars to dictate terms of peace.
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