Napoleon

In article is considered one of episodes of history of Napoleonic propagation – use of an image of "Cossack ‑barbarian" in the anti-Russian rhetoric during military campaign of 1814 in France.

The author explores the problem of interaction between Napoleon and King Joseph in Spain on the basis of a wide range of published and unpublished sources such as memoirs, correspondence, reports. The article shows that Napoleon’s plan, whose goal was joining Spain to the Federal system was influenced by the growth of people’s movement that England helped and disappointment in the political course of the Spanish king. The studied sources allow to conclude that a clear division of brothers’ approaches on the line: reform and force is incorrect.

This article explores the irretrievable losses of the French army during the Napoleonic wars through analysis of the service records of soldiers stored in the French military archive (SHD, Vincennes, 20 YC). This source allows to estimate military losses much more accurately than individual reports, which help to sum up these losses. During the study, service records of the main part of the Napoleonic army, without guards and foreign regiments were reviewed. This is about 8,431 people.