Letters of Napoleon’s Soldiers from Russia: Reflections on the Publication of French Historians
The Russian Campaign occupies an important place in the historical studies of modern France, being a peculiar symbol of heroism of the Grande Armée and the main reason for the collapse of Napoleon’s European project. In recent years, the interpretation of these issues by historians has been carried...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Russian |
| Published: |
Ural Federal University Press
2019-06-01
|
| Series: | Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.urfu.ru/index.php/Izvestia2/article/view/3924 |
| Summary: | The Russian Campaign occupies an important place in the historical studies of modern France, being a peculiar symbol of heroism of the Grande Armée and the main reason for the collapse of Napoleon’s European project. In recent years, the interpretation of these issues by historians has been carried out in the sphere of historical and anthropological research. In this regard, it would be relevant to consider the scholarly work of French researcher F. Houdecek, leading archivist in the Foundation Napoléon. The historian relies on the publication of private sources. One of his first studies was From Neman to Berezina, a collection of private funds of the participants of the Russian Campaign from the archive of Vincennes. The publication of the source was an important event for specialists in the history of Napoleonic wars. In 2017, a new collection was published by François Houdecek and Patrick Le Carvése; it contained letters of the Grande Armée soldiers written between September and October 1812. This event demonstrated that French historians were ready to turn to private sources. Houdecek explains the choice of the chronological period limited by the stay of the Grande Armée in Moscow by the fact that discussions related to the reasons and the ones responsible for the fire of Moscow which made Napoleon stay in the city are still being discussed. This study is particularly valuable because it publishes French translations of letters of Polish and German soldiers which have not been studied previously due to difficulties in manuscript interpretations and translation. Indeed, the publishers of the letters were aware of the fact that separate impressions of the participants of the Russian Campaign would not be enough to create a collective model of ideas but thought that these little details could help draw a comprehensive picture of the way in which the campaign was perceived by its participants. Additionally, turning to memoirs enables scholars to understand how this picture transformed over time. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2227-2283 2587-6929 |