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War and Peace vocabulary
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Berezina
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tags: [geography]
► definition
Definition:A river in Belarus that feeds the Dnieper. Napoleon's army suffered very heavy losses (around 36,000 soldiers) while crossing this river during his retreat from Russia [Nov. 1812]the word is an eponym for "catastrophe" in French
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photo: By Paju - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9421742
► uses
Uses:
also spelled Biarezina
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We thrill, for example, with the most intense of "pleasurable pain" over the accounts of the Passage of the Beresina, of the Earthquake at Lisbon, of the Plague at London, of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew,
Edgar Allan Poe. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2
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The Pike, in this fable, represents Admiral Tchichakof, who, although a naval officer, was entrusted with the command of the troops intended to prevent Napoleon from crossing the Berezina during the retreat from Moscow. With this view he was stationed at Borisof; but the French surprised him there, and drove him out of the place, thereby securing the passage of the river.
Ivan Krylov. The Pike and the Cat (footnote) (Ralston translation, 1869)
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What Napoleon apparently did not realize was the fact that the Russians were aware of the importance of stopping Napoleon before he reached the Beresina River. At that point they would be able to destroy his remaining forces, prior to crossing the river.
C. Carl Pegels. FRENCH REVOLUTION, NAPOLEON AND RUSSIAN WAR OF 1812
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then suddenly, with no fresh reason, fled back: they made a dash for the Kaluga road, and (after a victory— for at Malo-Yaroslavets the field of conflict again remained theirs) without undertaking a single serious battle, they fled still more rapidly back to Smolensk, beyond Smolensk, beyond the Berezina, beyond Vilna, and farther still.
Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace: With bonus material from Give War and Peace A Chance by Andrew D. Kaufman
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