In early September, a couple of thousand soldiers representing the
armies of Napoleon and the Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov,
reenacted the battle of Borodino just outside Moscow. Meanwhile, several
dozen Cossacks are riding from Moscow to Paris to celebrate what the
Russians call their “Patriotic War.” This saw Kutuzov’s retreat from
Borodino, Napoleon’s entry in Moscow, the great fire that virtually
destroyed the Russian capital, and the French
Grande Armée’s
unhappy march back to the Russian border, during which it nearly
perished. The war in Russia lasted exactly six months, and was followed
by Russian forces campaigning in Europe for another eighteen months
during which time they eventually reached Paris. The Cossacks camped on
the Champs-Elysées and endowed the French language with the word bistro,
literally meaning quick. They were constantly on the move.
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