The Battle of Borodino Trivia Quiz

Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte

Louis XVIII was not in Russia, but he became King of France in 1814. The other two incorrect answers were commanders at Borodino. But of course, the invasion of Russia was probably Napoleon's worst decision.

Answer: Battle of the Somme

Determining total casualties in any battle is problematic, and sources differ in different battles. One source I found listed Borodino as the bloodiest one-day battle in all of history. Several sources count Borodino's casualties at 74,000, and the French alone lost over 1,900 officers and 49 generals.

Of the choices given, only the Somme was a World War I battle. Cannae was a Roman and Carthaginian battle, Antietam was in the American Civil War, and Stalingrad was in World War II.

Answer: Prince Mikhail Kutuzov

Considered one of Russia's historically greatest generals, Kutuzov held high position for three rulers, Catherine the Great, Paul I, and Alexander I.

By the time of the Battle of Borodino, Prince Alexander Romanov was the tsar. His victory over Napoleon brought him great renown in Europe.

It was Barclay de Tolly, a member of the Scottish clan Barclay, whom Kutuzov replaced as the head of Russian troops prior to the Battle of Borodino.

Zhukov was the leading Soviet general during World War II.

Answer: Alexander I

Alexander served as tsar from 1801 to 1825. Sometimes called Alexander the Blessed, he was also the first Russian King of Poland and the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland, both lands he gained as a result of the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte. He also wielded a strong hand at the Congress of Vienna.

Ivan ruled from 1533 (as Grand Prince of Moscow until 1547) to 1584, having taken the title Tsar of All the Russias in 1547. Peter ruled from 1682 to 1725. Nicholas II, the last (actual ruling) tsar of Russia, reigned from 1894 to 1917.

Answer: The Imperial Guard

By the time of the Russian invasion, the Imperial Guard had grown from 8,000 men in 1804 to just under 100,000 men. It was composed of three echelons: the Old Guard, the Middle Guard, and the Young Guard. The Old Guard had served the emperor since his earliest campaigns, while the Middle Guard was composed of those who had joined from the campaigns between 1805 to 1809. The Imperial Guard had its own artillery, infantry, and cavalry.

The Grande Armee was the name of the total French force of the Russian campaign. The Ten Thousand Immortals were the elite units of the Achaemenian Persian armies, a name ascribed to them by Herodotus. Janissaries were elite soldiers of the Ottoman Empire, originally composed of Christian boys taken as a tax.

Answer: The Cossacks

Although the action by the Don Cossacks did not engage French troops, their activity caused a shifting of Viceroy Eugène's IV Corps, which delayed it from conducting an assault on the Raevski redoubt. This delay would cause a loss of time by the French in their progress, which would have beneficial results for Russian forces later in the day.

Berserkers were Viking warriors, Winged Hussars were elite Hungarian horsemen, and the Numidian cavalry were African horsemen, all of earlier eras.

Answer: German

One of France's client states under the First French Empire was the Confederation of the Rhine, which included states in Austria, Germany, Poland, Italy, and Liechtenstein. Among Saxon states were the Kingdom of Saxony and seven "Saxon Duchies" which included Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Saxe-Weimar, and Saxe-Gotha, among others.

Answer: Moscow

Moscow was often thought of as Russia's "Second Capital" in the Nineteenth Century, since St. Petersburg was the nation's actual capital between 1712 and 1917.

The Grande Armee found itself in the area of Moscow as it continued pursuing the Russian Army in an attempt to engage it in battle, to punish the tsar and force him to surrender. Although the French occupied Moscow for about five weeks, they were forced to return to France, thus ending the invasion of Russia.

Answer: A Pyrrhic Victory

The term "Pyrrhic victory" is a reference to a Third Century BC king of Epirus named Pyrrhus, who led an army which defeated the Romans in the 280 BC Battle of Heraclea and the 279 BC Battle of Asculum in the Pyrrhic War. According to Plutarch's "Life of Pyrrhus," the king is quoted as saying, "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined."

Answer: Scorched earth policy

The scorched earth policy, carried out by Cossacks under orders of the tsar, resulted in the destruction of all foodstuffs and other resources that could have been used by the Grande Armee as they traveled across the Russian countryside. Even as the French entered Moscow, the Cossacks had fired the city.

But the Russians were not the first to employ the technique. Others to use it included the Scythians against the Persian King Darius the Great in 513 BC, the Sassanid Persians against the invading Roman Emperor Julian in AD 363, and Mercians under the rule of Alfred the Great against the invading Viking chief Hastein in AD 893. Wikipedia cites a number of other examples.