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
Sonya (War and Peace) Sonya (War and Peace) Sofya Alexandrovna "Sonya" (; ) is a character in Leo Tolstoy's 1869 novel "War and Peace", and in Sergey Prokofiev's 1955 opera "War and Peace" and Dave Malloy's 2012 musical "Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812" based on it. She is the orphaned niece of Count and Countess Rostov. Although sometimes called "Sonya Rostova", it is not clear if that is her surname or not; the novel does not tell. "Alexandrovna" is a patronymic. At the start of the novel, 15-year-old Sonya is in love with her cousin, Nikolai Rostov, who initially reciprocates her