Climate and geography have influenced warfare and military strategy since humans first armed themselves against their fellow man. Switzerland’s towering alpine peaks made their neutrality much more easy to secure than Belgium’s lowlands, the thick jungles of Vietnam aided the guerilla tactics that thwarted the powerful American army, and, of course, Russia’s freezing, brutal winters do not make for ideal conditions for an invasion.
There have been a few infamous attempts to attack Russia in the cold months, leading the Russian winter to be personified as “General Winter”, a force so great it could thwart Napoleon and Hitler. However, some of these winter skirmishes have been largely misunderstood, or in some cases, purposefully exaggerated to spare the blushes of some tactical mishaps.
Napoleon’s Moscow Gamble Works… Until it Doesn’t
In the summer of 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Russia, not with the intention of gaining land, but rather to force Russia’s hand in supporting the continental blockade of the United Kingdom, France’s fiercest rival. The march towards Moscow would end up being one of the most devastating military excursions of history, taking over one million souls, both soldier and civilian, across a six month period.
Napoleon wanted to move his troops swiftly, starting late enough to avoid the “rasputitsa” period where spring rains and rapid snowmelt create oceans of mud, but early enough to avoid the chilly autumnal rainy season and subsequent harsh winter. Napoleon also meticulously prepared his logistics on a scale never seen during his time, but ironically, the harsh summer heat brought disease that severely drained his troops as the Russian Army continuously retreated, burning crops along the way to starve out the French.
Napoleon eventually did conquer Moscow after the bloody Battle of Borodino, but when the Tsar was still unmoved, Napoleon retreated his gravely diminished army in December. Though the image of Napoleon’s troops trudging through the snow lives on, in truth the army suffered most of their losses before the first frosts fell.
Sweden’s Ambitious Invasion Was The Beginning of the End
A century before Napoleon’s botched Russian campaign, King Charles XII of Sweden attempted an even more bold, ambitious, and deadly campaign against the Russians. Morale was high in Sweden after significant victories in the Great Northern War between the Swedes, Russia, and all of their allies. Sweden had inflicted significant victories on Danish forces, enthroned a Swedish-backed king in Poland’s civil war, and forced Saxony out of the war following a successful invasion.
Inspired by an earlier surprise victory at Narva, where the Swedish army used a snow storm to their benefit against the larger Russian forces, Charles crossed the frozen Vistula river on New Year’s Day 1708, hoping to quickly surprise the Russians and expecting the support of Swedish reinforcements and the Cossacks.
However, the reinforcements were ambushed, the Cossacks severely weakened by a Russian demolition of their capital, and the same scorched earth policy that would later harm Napoleon’s troops left the Swedish ill-equipped to survive the winter. Charles would retreat to the Ottomans, but after they were bribed for peace, the invasion of Russia was truly dead, and the Swedish Empire would only shrink in the centuries to come.
Poland’s Successful Siege and the Impostor Tsars
In the early 16th century, Russia was experiencing the “Time of Troubles”, a period of political instability and famine. Sensing a prime opportunity to take advantage of their frail neighbors, The Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth began influencing Russian politics; there was such confusion that not one but three people claimed to be Dmitry, the lost son of Ivan the Terrible, including one Polish-backed “Dmitry” who would take the Russian throne. He would reign for two years before being killed, resparking the war between Russia and Poland-Lithuania.
After a brutal siege, Russia reclaimed Moscow, but the Poles retaliated by sieging the city of Smolensk in the winter and staying there for a grueling 20 months, forcing the Russians to survive not one but two winters; when the Poles found a weakness in the fortress’ defenses, Russian troops decided to blow themselves up with gunpowder storages rather than die at the hands of the invading Poles. While they would not achieve all their goals in the war, Poland-Lithuania did expand their territory at the cost of souring Polish-Russo relations for centuries.
The Mongols Used the Winter to their Advantage
“General Winter” was not always seen as an advantage to Russia; the Mongols actually used the cold weather to their invasion’s benefit. Led by Batu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, and with the aid of legendary general Subutai, the Golden Horde waited until the winter months of 1237 to invade Kievan Rus’, a then already-fragmenting association of Slavic states in what is now Western Russia.
The Rus preferred to fight in the summer months and were caught off guard by the Mongols, who used the frozen rivers as highways for their horses. For three years, the Mongols sacked their way toward the capital Kiev, with some cities pre-emptively surrendering to spare the lives of their civilians. In December 1240, Kiev would be ransacked, marking an end to the state of Kievan Rus’, their downfall aided by the harsh winter rather than thwarted.
Hitler’s Russian Failure
Perhaps the most infamous—and most misunderstood—example of “General Winter” was Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s plan to invade the Soviet Union during World War II. Hitler expressly wanted to avoid spending any time in Russia during the winter, and hoped that the ultra-fast blitzkrieg tactics that helped him conquer France and Belgium would cause the Soviets to similarly fall before the weather turned. This largely relied on the assumption that the Soviets could be destroyed in one campaign, which Hitler was confident following a purge of Soviet officers and Germany’s superior equipment.
After a promising start for the Germans, it became clear that Hitler had underestimated the Russians, and further micro-management only served to delay the Nazis until the dreaded winter months came. After failing at the Battle of Moscow, where weather conditions grounded Germany’s air force, the Soviets were battered but not defeated. German officers largely blamed their failings on “General Winter” to disguise Hitler’s tactical failings and the tenacity of the Soviets.
