Battle of Ostrovno - Context

Context

With the beginning of the Russian campaign in late June 1812, Emperor Napoleon I launched with his Grande Armée, in a series of envelopment maneuvers of the Russian Imperial armies before him, with the first such maneuver failing before the city of Vilna, virtually without any engagement taking place. Napoleon then launched a second such attempt towards Vitebsk, in a bid to turn the main Russian army under Barclay de Tolly. With French forces moving through different routes in the direction of Vitebsk, a first major engagement took place on 25 July near Ostrowno, 30 kilometers west of Vitebsk, when General Etienne de Nansouty's 1st Cavalry Reserve Corps encountered the forces of Russian General Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy.

Read more about this topic:  Battle Of Ostrovno

Famous quotes containing the word context:

    The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.
    Susan Sontag (b. 1933)

    Among the most valuable but least appreciated experiences parenthood can provide are the opportunities it offers for exploring, reliving, and resolving one’s own childhood problems in the context of one’s relation to one’s child.
    Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)

    The hippie is the scion of surplus value. The dropout can only claim sanctity in a society which offers something to be dropped out of—career, ambition, conspicuous consumption. The effects of hippie sanctimony can only be felt in the context of others who plunder his lifestyle for what they find good or profitable, a process known as rip-off by the hippie, who will not see how savagely he has pillaged intricate and demanding civilizations for his own parodic lifestyle.
    Germaine Greer (b. 1939)