Next year it will have been 220 years since the start of the War of 1812. Most authors who write about this war centre on the battles at Smolensk and Borodino, Napoleon’s presence in Moscow, him being driven out of Russia. In short, they centre on events in Smolensk and Moscow Gubernias (regions). But it was on Belarusian soil that the initial and final actions of this campaign ensued. How did the population of Belarus react to Napoleon? Why was it that the first army division which entered Vilnius was under the command of Domenic Radzivill? Why did Napoleon decide to terminate his 1812 Campaign in the middle of July at Vitsebsk? In the course of three articles (“Belarus, 1812; People and Events,” “Two Rivers. Nioman. The Beginning,” and “Vilnius. Summer. Patriotic or Civil War?”) author Tatyana Kenko bypasses any attempt to retell the course of battles and struggles so as to tire out her readers with a multiplicity of dates and numbers. Rather, she exposes pertinent information in the form of an excursion and one’s viewing of exhibits along the way which serve to reproduce scenes, moments of sculptural and architecture importance, also histories of towns and cities involved.

Categories: Асьвета, Гісторыя, Культура