Napoleon moves into Moscow that has been evacuated by the Russians.
Tattered, hungry, worn out, and reduced to a third of their original number, the French entered the city.
For several hours the emperor was happy and proud - he was in Moscow, in the Kremlin, in the palace of the tsars! He thought that the aim of the campaign was achieved. Here, in the Kremlin he would sign a peace treaty with the Russian Emperor on his own conditions.

The morning of the next day turned into a horrible tragedy as told by a french solder:
“On Wednesday in the morning the hurricane of wind started and the fire began to spread with enormous speed. Within an hour the whole city was on fire, a sea of fire, waves rising sky-high, spreading desolation and horror throughout. The air over the city was a burning mass, spitting embers in all directions, and the firestorm was still growing. Never did our Lord in His anger, present a spectacle more horrible than this: fire everywhere, looters trying to escape with nowhere to run. Churches burning, houses burning. It was like the boiling of Hell, everything breaking, collapsing. Burning logs rolling through the streets and embers cascading, red-hot sheet metal falling from roofs, the intense heat makes it impossible to breathe, and impossible to run: the cobbles of the street are hot as a frying pen. Belltowers are all aflame, the bells breaking loose, tumbling, falling…

We thought that looters from among us set the fires unintentionally… We didn't think the Russians were so barbaric that they would set fire to their property and destroy one of the most beautiful cities of the world!”

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Time consumed: three days non stop
Software used: Photoshop CS
Hardware used: Wacom Intuos 6x8 tablet
Real size: 4'350x5'585 pixels