The Nazis used the 1812 burning of Moscow as a blueprint for their own destruction during WWII

The Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, and set about burning down homes, hospitals, and factories in cities like Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and Moscow. The Nazis wanted to defeat the Soviet people by destroying their livelihood, their homes and their economy. Exactly 130 years before this, Napoleon had done the same, when he invaded the Russian heartland. He had also hoped to destroy the Russian economy, and had planned to occupy Moscow. However, this was never meant to be, and in 1812 he was forced to retreat. Fast forward to 1942, and the Nazis found themselves in a similar predicament. The burning of the cities and homes was intended to destroy the Russian will to fight, but in actuality it had the opposite effect. The burning of homes meant the population would be forced to live in bombed out buildings, often with no access to heat, food or running water. This caused the spread of diseases, starvation, and hypothermia. In the long run, it was the Nazis who were weakened. The destruction of homes, industries and infrastructure meant they had to work with and through the rubble to govern. They had to allocate troops to prevent looting, and troops to hunt down partisans. The Soviet Union also received much more material, financial and logistical support from other nations as they were forced to flee their ruined cities. <br><br>The French invasion of 1812 led to a prolonged period of civil war in Russia, and the same was true for the Nazi invasion. In 1816, a civil war still raged in Russia, between those who wanted to fight against the French (or in 1941, the Nazis) and those who had surrendered. The French occupation lasted from 1812 to 1814, with only short periods of retreat. This was partly due to the fact that Napoleon had planned to occupy Moscow, not pillage it. This meant that he only destroyed homes and buildings in the outskirts of the city, before retreating. <br><br>The Nazis, however, had pillaged and destroyed much of the cities they had invaded. In Leningrad, the Nazis starved over a million civilians to death in what was once one of the wealthiest cities in the world. They also bombed Moscow constantly, in an effort to break the Soviet spirit. The bombing campaign against Moscow began in August 1941, and lasted until the Nazi defeat in 1943. <br><br>In 1813, the French army was weakened, and the Russians were able to drive them back out of Russia. In 1943, the Nazis were also weakened, and they would never recover from the destruction they had wrought. The 1812 burning of Moscow was a blueprint for the destruction of the Third Reich.