On October 24, 1812, one of the most dramatic battles of the Russian campaign took place at Maloyaroslavets. Although Napoleon formally claimed victory, this was the day his dreams of a triumphant end to the war were shattered. The clash, where the town changed hands eight times in eighteen hours of fierce fighting, became the turning point of the entire march on Moscow.
The Emperor’s Desperate Plan
Napoleon left Moscow with an army of 108,000 soldiers and 570 cannons. However, he had no intention of retracing his steps. Ahead lay the prospect of rich supply depots in Kaluga and the untouched lands of Ukraine, which could feed his starving troops. It was a plan worthy of a genius—to avoid the scorched earth and find a new way home through a land of milk and honey.
The problem was that Mikhail Kutuzov was well aware of his opponent’s intentions. The Russian commander boasted a numerical advantage—120,000 soldiers poised to block the French army. The race to Maloyaroslavets, a small town 103 kilometers southwest of Moscow, would decide the fate of the entire campaign.
On the evening of October 22, General Dmitry Dokhturov received news that changed everything. The French had altered their direction of march and were heading straight for his positions. For the next thirty-six hours, in driving rain and darkness, 70,000 Russian soldiers forced a grueling march, giving their all to reach the spot before the enemy.
Bloody Dawn by the River
At the head of the French column marched the IV Corps under Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s stepson. The Emperor used to say he was the only member of the family who never gave him cause for complaint. Now loyal Eugène led 22,000 soldiers into the unknown, unaware that his greatest trial was yet to come.
Exhausted battalions under General Delzons crossed the river’s bend in darkness. The Cossacks had already destroyed the bridge, but the French forced their way through a gorge lined with rocky banks. As they reached Maloyaroslavets, the town seemed dormant. The silence did not last.
Dokhturov arrived almost simultaneously with the enemy. He immediately threw in two rifle regiments with orders to push the French back across the river and destroy the bridge. Thus began eighteen hours of uninterrupted slaughter—so brutal that even Napoleonic veterans rarely witnessed anything so fierce.
A Fierce Battle
Maloyaroslavets was neither a fortress nor a strategic stronghold. It was an ordinary provincial town that, for one day, became the scene of apocalypse. Eight times it changed hands—eight desperate assaults and counter-assaults, eight waves of dying men rolling through the same streets.
General Delzons, veteran of Lodi, Rivoli, and the Pyramids, did not live to see the end. Colonel Seruzier, whose guns stood idle in reserve because of the steep terrain, watched his commander charge into the thick of the fight, trying to rally a scattered division. A salvo from Russian jaegers concealed behind a wall ended his life.
By afternoon, the battle seemed at a stalemate. More Russian divisions were on the way, but Kutuzov held back a decisive blow, waiting until his forces were fully deployed. This gave the French a slim chance. The newly arrived I Corps under Marshal Davout crossed the river and struck the right flank. The firefight raged until 9 p.m.
A Pyrrhic Victory
At dusk, Kutuzov ordered a regroup and moved his forces south. Maloyaroslavets remained in French hands. Victory? Formally yes. In practice, it marked the beginning of the end for the Grand Army.
The casualty count spoke volumes. The French lost between 5,000 and 6,000 killed and wounded; the Russians from 6,000 to 8,000. But the numbers weren’t what gave this battle its significance. Napoleon faced a wall. Kutuzov demonstrated that the road to Kaluga would lead through more such slaughter, with Russian superiority growing all the while.
The Emperor of the French now made the campaign’s toughest decision. He abandoned his plan to march through unspoiled Ukraine and ordered a retreat along the Smolensk road—the very route by which he had come, across a land long since stripped of supplies. This decision, made in the shadow of a Pyrrhic victory, sealed the fate of hundreds of thousands.
The Road to Disaster
The irony of history is that the battle of Maloyaroslavets was commemorated on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, alongside Napoleon’s great victories. The inscription MJAROSLAWIETZ on the monument’s north pillar serves as a reminder of a day that, in the official narrative, was a triumph but in reality opened the gates of hell for the Grand Army.
Napoleon’s army, retreating along the Smolensk road, entered the Russian winter without sufficient supplies, through barren lands, hounded by Cossacks and Kutuzov’s regulars. Of the more than 600,000 who had marched into Russia, only a few tens of thousands crossed back over the border.
Maloyaroslavets taught Napoleon a lesson he had failed to accept until then. Even a won battle can mean a lost campaign if your enemy is willing to pay a higher price than you. Kutuzov did not need to win—he only had to avoid losing.
Autor
Rory Thornfield
Rory's grandfather left behind a wartime diary filled with accounts of a minor Burma skirmish that history books never mentioned. Reading it, Rory realized: behind every famous battle are dozens of forgotten struggles, each with its own human drama.
His preferred topics: The overlooked corners of military history – secondary campaigns, shadow battalions, local conflicts that never made headlines. From medieval sieges to twentieth-century expeditions, he focuses on the soldiers, not the generals. The people who faced impossible choices and carried those experiences forever.
Rory strips away the romanticism without losing respect for those who served. He combines tactical analysis with personal stories, examining human endurance and moral complexity rather than celebrating warfare. His writing is balanced, thoughtful, and deeply researched.
Outside work, Rory visits forgotten battlefields (now quiet farmland), photographs war memorials nobody tends anymore, and interviews veterans' families.