Category: Scorched Earth

• The 1812 "Russian Fire" Plot

  This theory held that the burning of Moscow in 1812 was not chiefly the work of Russian scorched-earth policy, local arson, or chaotic looting, but part of a deeper anti-Napoleonic design linked to British money and British strategic interests. In this view, Britain—already the great financier of continental resistance—had helped underwrite or encourage the destruction of Moscow in order to trap Napoleon in a ruined city and ensure the destruction of the Grande Armée. The historical record clearly shows that British subsidies and anti-Napoleonic coalition-building were central to the wider war, and that there is real evidence linking Governor Rostopchin and Russian authorities to the city’s burning. What remains unproven is the claim of British funding or direction in the Moscow fire itself.