1812 French declaration of war on Russia

French declaration of war on Russia

The First French Empire declared war on Russian Empire on 22 June [O.S. 10 June] 1812, starting Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The declaration of war was presented as an untitled diplomatic note by French ambassador Jacques Lauriston to the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltykov in Saint Petersburg. The note said, in particularly, that the request for passports by Russian ambassador Alexander Kurakin meant a severance of diplomatic relations and that Napoleon "from now on considers himself at war with Russia". The note is kept in the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire.

Mainstream Russian historiography often maintains that the French invasion of Russia was undeclared.

Background

According to contemporary Russian historian Alexander Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, Alexander I regarded Napoleon's refusal to withdraw from Prussia and Pomerania as an act of war and intended to proceed offensively in such case. In that scenario, according to the prepared plan, the Russian army would have crossed the border at Neman in Olita, Merecha and Grodno. In April 1812, as the French started to cross the Oder, Russian Field Marshal Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly asked for Alexander's I permission to start offensive actions under that plan, but Alexander I backtracked, replying that further decisions will be made upon his arrival to Vilnius.

Having arrived to Vilnius on 26 April [O.S. 14 April], Alexander I conducted a review of troops, finding them in good condition. At the end of April Alexander received the French diplomat Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara in Vilnius, to whom he presented the Russian rationale for taking defensive actions: the spread of French dominance in neighboring lands, approachment to the Russian borders and the French refusal to withdraw from Prussia and Swedish Pomerania.

Danilevsky further describes Russian defensive plans in the event of French invasion, but notes that Napoleon's entry point into Russia was impossible to predict. On 22 June [O.S. 10 June] 1812, Alexander I wrote to Saltykov: "We expect to be attacked every hour. With full hope in the Almighty and in the courage of the Russian troops, we are preparing to repel the enemy".

Russian historiography

Early and modern Russian historians often maintained that the French invasion of Russia was undeclared, despite Lauriston's note. Danilevsky stated that Napoleon regarded Kurakin's demand for passports and Russian refusal to receive Lauriston in Vilnius "as a sufficient rationale to invade Russia without the declaration of war". Similarly, Soviet historian Yevgeny Tarle did not mention Lauriston's note, considering instead Napoleon's appeal to the troops in Vilkaviškis Manor on 22 June as the declaration of war. The Research Institute of Military History at the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia regards the invasion as having occurred "without prior declaration of war" on the basis that the note was delivered to Russian Emperor Alexander I in Vilnius only three days later, after the start of the invasion.

Russian historian Konstantin Zalessky, however, acknowledges that Lauriston presented a "note on the declaration of war" to Saltykov on 22 June 1812.