Battle of Borodino

The Battle of Borodino (, Borodinskoe srazhenie; ), fought on September 7, 1812, was a major engagement in the Napoleonic Wars during the French invasion of Russia. The fighting involved around 250,000 troops and left at least 70,000 casualties, making Borodino the deadliest day of the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon's Grande Armée launched an attack against the Russian army, driving the latter back from their initial positions but failing to gain a decisive victory. Both armies were exhausted after the battle and the Russians withdrew from the field the following day. Borodino was the last Russian effort at stopping the French advance on Moscow, which fell a week later; because the Russian army was not decisively defeated, the French had no clear way of bringing Czar Alexander to peace, resulting ultimately in the retreat from Moscow and the defeat of the French invasion.