French Invasion of Russia - Alternative Names

Alternative Names

Napoleon's invasion is better known in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 (Russian Отечественная война 1812 года, Otechestvennaya Vojna 1812 goda), not to be confused with the Great Patriotic War (Великая Отечественная война, Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna) which refers to Hitler's, rather than Napoleon's, invasion of Russia. The Patriotic War of 1812 is also occasionally referred to as the "War of 1812", which is not to be confused with the conflict of the same name between the United Kingdom and the United States. It was also termed the "Fatherland War", and later the "First Fatherland War", with both World Wars later being termed the "Second Fatherland War". In pre-revolutionary Russian literature, the war was occasionally described as "an invasion of twelve languages" (Russian: нашествие двунадесяти языков). In an attempt to gain increased support from Polish nationalists and patriots, Napoleon in his own words termed this war the "Second Polish War" (the first Polish war being the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw from parts of the Prussian and Austrian partitions), because one of the stated goals of the war was the resurrection of the Polish state on the territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (modern territories of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine).