French invasion of Russia French invasion of Russia The French invasion of Russia, known in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 () and in France as the Russian Campaign (), began on 24 June 1812 when Napoleon's crossed the Neman River in an attempt to engage and defeat the Russian army. Napoleon hoped to compel Tsar Alexander I of Russia to cease trading with British merchants through proxies in an effort to pressure the United Kingdom to sue for peace. The official political aim of the campaign was to liberate Poland from the threat of Russia. Napoleon named the campaign the Second Polish
Monument to Leo Tolstoy on Prechistenka years of Soviet power, and in 1928 the monument was erected in the square of the Maiden Field in the framework of the Leninist plan for monumental propaganda. In 1972, it was replaced by a more monumental monument of the sculptor A. M. Portyanko, and the sculpture of S. D. Merkurov was moved to the present place — to the museum of Leo Tolstoy. In addition to these two, in Moscow there is a third monument to L. N. Tolstoy — before the so-called "House of Rostov" on Povarskaya. The monument is quite generalized in its forms, which is typical