The personality of Marshal Davout in the Russian Campaign of 1812 on the basis of his memoires and documents of personal nature: an analysis of the electronic resources on the topic

Abstract

Louis Nicolas Davout is still one of the most famous and admired marshals of the First French Empire. His qualities as a great commander and brilliant tactician have been the subject of many historiographical works amongst researchers from all over the world. The aim of this work is to examine the personality of Davout according to electronic documents of personal nature and the historiography about the Russian Campaign of 1812. Specific attention deserve several online documents of Russian works analyzed in the article, which have never been translated from Russian, and whose point of view revealed very interesting information, both concordant and discordant, to cross with that of many European analogues. Historical research requires further translation and analysis of the many and still unknown Russian sources on the topic.