Borodino, Site of two Big Wars

From the Battle of Borodino entry in Wikipedia:

The Battle of Borodino was a battle fought on 7 September 1812 in the Napoleonic Wars during the French invasion of Russia.

The fighting involved around 250,000 troops and left at least 70,000 casualties, making Borodino the deadliest day of the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon's Grande Armée launched an attack against the Russian army, driving it back from its initial positions but failing to gain a decisive victory. Both armies were exhausted after the battle and the Russians withdrew from the field the following day. Borodino represented the last Russian effort at stopping the French advance on Moscow, which fell a week later. However, the French had no clear way of forcing Czar Alexander to capitulate because the Russian army was not decisively defeated, resulting in the ultimate defeat of the French invasion following the retreat from Moscow in October.

From the Battle at Borodino Field entry in Wikipedia:

130 years later, the Battle at Borodino Field was a part of the Battle of Moscow, on the Eastern Front of World War II. While referring to the battle in Russian, the Borodino Field is actually more commonly applied rather than just Borodino, cf. Georgy Zhukov ("...this division [32^nd] was forced to cross the arms with the enemy on the Borodino Field...").

At noon on 13 October 1941, German Junkers and Messerschmidt aircraft appeared over the Borodino Field, site of the climactic 1812 French-Russian clash. On 16 October, severe fighting broke out in the center of Borodino Field. Subsequently, the Germans managed to take the field. The Spaso-Borodinsky Monastery was burnt and the Borodino Museum suffered damage. Borodino Field was freed by the 82^nd Soviet Rifle Division during the Russian counter offensive.

All pictures are © Dr. Günther Eichhorn, unless otherwise noted.