The French invasion of Russia matched the two largest armies of Europe. The French were undoubtedly the best led and had the best generals and equipment. The Russians on the other hand, were large in numbers. The officer corps was average at the best, with poor equipment, poor supply and poor troops. One of the troops that you hear about and yet not many people know much about is the Russian militia or "Opolchenie". During the French invasion over a quarter of a million Russian peasants was called up to help fight the French invaders The Russian militia can be traced to the early 1500's. Throughout their history when the militia was called up, they were to serve for the duration of the campaign or when the threat to the state was over. After this they left to go home. There were no uniform regulations for the militia. In the early 1700's the militia had uniforms of gray coats and they were armed with surplus weapons. By the 1750's the militia uniforms were a mixture of peasant clothes and military uniforms ftom Russia and its enemies. During this time the Russian militia system continued in a haphazard way. There are very little records of the militia organization and the service record. During the Napoleonic wars, this militia system remained as it was until 1806. At this time, the Tsar issued an Imperial decree ordering the enrollment and training of over 700,000 serfs. With the large amount of causalities in the battles, the Russian army had a never ending supply on poorly trained militia to call up and rebuild the army back to strength. When Napoleon invaded Russia with the Grand Armee, the Russians was able to raise over 250,000 militia troops. Very few of these troops actually saw service. They were used to build entrenchments, patrol the outlying areas, help the wounded to the aid stations and do whatever was expected of them. The combat effectiveness of the Russian militia is summed up very easily. The majority of these units were poorly armed, had little or no military training and were inexperienced. There are several cases of the militia going into battle with no guns. They went in with pikes, pitchforks, axes and clubs. If they were lucky enough to have a musket, they would have very little ammunition if any to use. Back to MWAN #104 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com