French invasion of Russia part of the government. During the Cold War, many Western historians were inclined to see Russia as "the enemy", and there was a tendency to downplay and dismiss Russia's contributions to the defeat of Napoleon. As such, Napoleon's claim that the Russians did not defeat him and he was just the victim of fate in 1812 was very appealing to many Western historians. Russian historians tended to focus on the French invasion of Russia in 1812 and ignore the campaigns in 1813–1814 fought in Germany and France because a campaign fought on Russian soil was regarded as more important than
French invasion of Russia to 161,475 men. Napoleon lost at least 30,000 men in this battle, to gain a narrow and Pyrrhic victory almost into hostile territory. Napoleon's invasion of Russia is listed among the most lethal military operations in world history. Napoleon's invasion of Russia is better known in Russia as the "Patriotic War of 1812" (Russian , ). It should not be confused with the "Great Patriotic War" (, ), a term for Adolf Hitler's invasion of Russia during the Second World War. The "Patriotic War of 1812" is also occasionally referred to as simply the ""War of 1812"", a term which