Eve of the Russian Campaign. According to some historians (including the Russian Dominic Lieven), Napoleon entered the Russian Campaign with an advantage over the Tsar. He was defeated narrowly and by chance. It could have been otherwise. The American historian Paul Schroeder described Napoleon as someone who “when he saw an exposed throat, couldn’t help but attack it.” And the Russian Lieven described him as someone “with an often crude conception of economics and a limited understanding of naval matters. Napoleon’s empire was primarily the result of the sudden increase in power of an already powerful France brought about by the Revolution of 1789, which had taken everyone by surprise.” Napoleon’s misfortune was also that his adversaries in Europe were not tranquil democratic states simply wishing to stay at home, but rapacious expansionist empires like Russia and Great Britain. Furthermore, the French Revolution extolled concepts such as popular sovereignty and nationalism, which were the antithesis of the Empire Napoleon sought to create in Europe.
