How was Russia's harsh weather a first weapon of defense against European invasions

Weather of Arabia - When we talk about weather and climatic events, we find that their effects are not limited only to our daily lives, our land, air and sea movements, and the occurrence of limited deaths in a particular country due to natural disasters caused by the weather.

Rather, the impact of the climate extends to events that changed the course of history, thanks to which countries achieved victories and empires collapsed. In the following, we review how Russia’s weather was a reason for its victory, and also contributed to the fall of great empires.

Swedish King Charles XII facing the Russian winter

In 1709, Charles XII was the first European ruler to lead his forces against Russia during the winter. This winter was the most brutal of the eighteenth century, and was so severe that the port of Venice froze during the Great Frost of 1709.

The Great Frost of 1709 was the coldest winter in Europe from the beginning of the fifteenth century AD until today. Millions of people died across the continent as a result, fish froze in rivers, millions of little birds died and trees died, while the wheat harvest was disastrous, and meanwhile Charles was still in the depths of Russia - the harshest place in winter.

(Map showing very low temperatures in Europe during the winter of 1708 / 1709)

Swedish King Charles XII led his army on a long march of death and exhaustion during the Russian winter that drained their strength during the Great Northern War.

The length of the journey and the extreme cold conditions played an important role in the defeat of the Swedish forces. Before reaching Ukraine, more than 20,000 soldiers (sometimes as many as 2,000 men died in one night) were also suffering from a lack of supplies due to their distance from the northern shores. . By spring there were only 19,000 soldiers left. The Battle of Poltava in late June 1709 marked the end of the Swedish Empire.

The Russian winter contributed to the fall of Napoleon's empire

In 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte was about to invade Russia with an army described as the largest that Europe had seen, consisting of over 600,000 strong soldiers. The Russian army refused to engage Napoleon's great army, and they simply withdrew into the Russian interior. However, the difficulty of getting supplies to Napoleon's large army due to the poor condition of Russian roads, and the failure of the large army to prepare for the harsh winter in Russia, as soldiers were not properly dressed and were not trained for the kind of weather they faced, resulted in the large army losing more than 300,000 men. The invasion of Russia effectively halted Napoleon's march through Europe, heralding the beginning of the end of Napoleon's empire, and his first exile to the Mediterranean island of Elba.

Russian winter prevents the German army from advancing

In 1941, during World War II, Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union with a military operation called "Barbarossa" that was the largest in history, with 3 million soldiers and 3,500 tanks belonging to the "Axis" countries.

Having advanced nearly 50 miles into Soviet territory, he decided to advance further, but the weather did not allow Hitler and his army to advance more than 90 miles.

Winter conditions and lack of supplies hindered the German advance and forced them to retreat, especially with the increase of Soviet resistance, which turned into counterattacks against the Germans. This process was a fateful turning point in the Second World War, which ended with the defeat of Germany.