Through a series of long forced marches, Napoleon pushed his army of almost half a million people rapidly through Western Russia, now Belarus, in an attempt to destroy the separated Russian armies of Barclay de Tolly and Pyotr Bagration who amounted to around 180,000–220,000 at this time.
Flanked by Europe and Asia, Russia has experienced three major invasions in its history: by the Mongols in the 13th century, Napoleon in 1812, and Hitler in 1941.
Japan won a convincing victory over Russia, becoming the first Asian power in modern times to defeat a European power.
Russia has been defeated in war on several occasions in the modern era.
The Russian coastal fleet, led by Karl Heinrich von Nassau-Siegen started its attack against the Swedes on 9 July 1790, in what became known as the second Battle of Svensksund, which ended in a decisive Swedish victory.
Sweden emerged as a great European power under Axel Oxenstierna and King Gustavus Adolphus. As a result of acquiring territories seized from Russia and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as its involvement in the Thirty Years' War, Sweden found itself transformed into the leader of Protestantism.
Russo-Finnish War, also called Winter War, (November 30, 1939–March 12, 1940), war waged by the Soviet Union against Finland at the beginning of World War II, following the conclusion of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (August 23, 1939).
Thus, by pure diplomacy and only a few thousand troops, the Russians took advantage of Chinese weakness and the strength of the other European powers to annex 350,000 square miles (910,000 km2) of Chinese territory.
U.S. officials have said that Russia has lost between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in its misguided war on Ukraine. A soldier watches Ukrainian artillerymen fire an M109 tracked self-propelled howitzer at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, May 12, 2022.
However, the US was unable to get any significant victory in its wars abroad. America fought five major wars after 1945 including Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan in addition to some minor wars in Somalia, Yemen, and Libya. Except for the Gulf War in 1991, America lost all other wars.
The armies looted and razed the cities, slaughtered the people, and took many as prisoners and slaves. The Mongols eventually captured, sacked, and destroyed Kiev, the symbolic center of Kievan Russia.
Napoleon. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian army suffered two shameful defeats against French Emperor, Napoleon.
A century ago a British led intervention force landed in the far north of Russia. For 18 gruelling months, thousands of foreign troops under British command fought Russians on Russian soil.
Like most other Russian towns, Moscow was captured and burned by the Tatars (Mongols) in their great invasion of 1236–40, and its princes had to accept Mongol suzerainty. It soon recovered, though the Tatars sacked it once again in 1293.
The Germans mobilized there with great efficiency and completely defeated the two Russian armies that invaded.
In theory Russia has thousands of tanks waiting in giant warehouses and vehicles parks which can be reactivated. According to the Military Balance 2021, quoted in Kyiv Independent, Russia has over 10,000 battle tanks in storage, mainly T-72s and T-80s.
No, Russia's accelerating tank losses are the result of leadership and morale problems more than they are any technological imbalance on the battlefield. Half of the tanks the Russians have written off since early September were abandoned by their crews and seized by the Ukrainians.
There are currently over 16,000 ethnic Russians in China who have lived their entire life as Chinese citizens. In the census of 1957 there were 9,000 ethnic Russians. The 1978 census counted just 600 Russians, but the figure rose to 2,935 in the 1982 census and 13,504 in the 1990 census.
Starting with the Treaty of Aigun in 1858 and the Treaty of Peking in 1860, the Sino–Russian border was realigned in Russia's favour along the Amur and Ussuri rivers. As a result, China lost the region now known as Outer Manchuria (an area of more than 1 million km2) and access to the Sea of Japan.
The most serious border clash, which brought the world's two largest communist states to the brink of war, occurred in March 1969 near Zhenbao (Damansky) Island on the Ussuri (Wusuli) River in Manchuria. Clashes also took place in Xinjiang. The conflict resulted in a ceasefire, which led to a return to the status quo.
Finland, suspicious of Soviet motives, refused – the outcome was the Soviet war of aggression against Finland by the name of the Winter War in 1939–1940. The Soviet Union won this war and compelled Finland to cede sev- eral territories – about 10 per cent of Finland's area.
The Finns held Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov responsible for the outbreak of the Russo-Finnish War and named an improvised incendiary grenade after him. The 'Molotov Cocktail' proved to be a primitive but effective anti-tank weapon against Soviet forces.
Finland operates the 1 GW Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant with Soviet technology, and (until May 2022) planned the 1.2 GW Hanhikivi Nuclear Power Plant with Russian technology.