“Napoleon facing Russia, peace and wars” by Vladimir Fédorovski

Vladimir Fédorovski is the guest of José-Manuel Lamarque, for his latest work: “Napoleon facing Russia”, peace and wars, published by Balland.

“Beyond myths and romantic fictions, what was the authentic story of the confrontation of the West and Russia in 1812, described by Tolstoy?” Vladimir Fedorovksi was a diplomat, promoter of perestroika and then spokesperson for one of the first Russian democratic parties – the Democratic Reform Movement. He has just published with Balland, Napoleon facing Russia, peace and wars. He is the guest of “Micro Européen” for a historical and geopolitical focus on his work.

franceinfo: Your book is very dense, you explain Russia to us through its history, starting with Catherine II, up to Tolstoy, “War and Peace”. And you deliver us a message…

Vladimir Fedorovsky: The West versus Russia. It’s a book that I’ve been writing for 30 years, as you can imagine. This time, it may be even more important than that. I am of Russian-Ukrainian origin. For me, what is happening is a huge tragedy. And I consider that we are now living perhaps the most dangerous moment in the history of Europe, perhaps in the history of humanity. We are sleepwalking towards world war.

But why this book then?

Because the trigger is a phrase from Napoleon. He reflected after his failure why he did not succeed. He teaches lessons to all of us. He said first of all: the climate. Second thing: the great Russian spaces, he uses the word, geography. “I underestimated all that.” And then he says a sentence that is a lesson for all of us: “I took my desires for reality”, I call it a vertigo of illusion. It’s a trigger to simply analyze the situation today, I am convinced that we can learn from Napoleon’s thinking, even from his mistakes.

But there is one thing that directly concerns what is happening before our eyes. He said : “I underestimated the logistics”, all this made me think about analyzing this situation in relation to today. He also used an exquisite Napoleonic phrase: You should never underestimate your opponent.”, it is necessary to understand this. But there is my writer side too, because in this book, there are unexpected, sentimental things. The enigmatic relationships between Tsar Alexander I and Napoleon, to tell the transversal things. But when I’m in distress…

We are in a tragedy!

Exactly. But the historical tragedy, the Greek tragedy, was also the tragedy that Napoleon experienced. And I think that its message, which comes to us from the guts of history, is eminently important in trying to reflect on this current situation which puts us in disarray. But there is also a slightly hidden message.

But in the face of all this and with your book, you deliver a message of hope…

Sometimes I am in disarray, but I am absolutely convinced that we are now in the pivotal moment. Ultimately, things are not going so well militarily in Ukraine, and I fear that to save the day, the West will be faced with the fateful choice, either it goes to coal, it goes directly there, it participates. Now it’s proxy war, proxy war as they say. But we may have to go there completely. And in this case, we are sleepwalking towards the end of civilization.

And I would like to stop that. Not for us, I lived well, but for our children, for our grandchildren, I hope that this book gives a little hope. Napoleon thought about this. And then there was a sort of unexpected comeback. There was Balzac, Stendhal. I use a lot of Stendhal who accompanied Napoleon, who were eminently known in Russia, you know that Stendhal and Balzac, they are published in Russia more than in France, since the print runs are enormous.