Two-to-three thousand soldiers from Napoleon's army were found in a mass grave in the northern suburbs of Vilnius, Lithuania in 2001. (Michel Signoli / UMR 6578 Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, EFS) By ...

In the winter of 1812, Napoleon’s once-mighty army left Russia battered, frostbitten, and starving. The infamous retreat claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, but until recently, no one could say ...

When Napoleon’s once invincible army limped out of Russia in winter 1812, frostbite and hunger were merely half the story. Historians have debated for more than two centuries over which diseases ...

French officials from French embassy in Moscow arrange remains of Russian and French soldiers who died during Napoleon's 1812 retreat, in communal coffins during a ceremony in a small church in the ...

Mixing pot of disease When Napoleon and his troops reached Moscow, they weren’t met with Russian soldiers. Instead, the city was abandoned, with burnt crops and no supplies available, such as safe ...

Scientists from the Institut Pasteur have genetically analyzed the remains of former soldiers who retreated from Russia in 1812. They detected two pathogens, those responsible for paratyphoid fever ...

When Russia resumed trading with England, Napoleon prepared to invade Russia. Napoleon amassed an army of 600,000, the largest army Europe had ever seen. After a failed invasion of Moscow, the French ...