Editing Russia (section)

====Great power and development of society, sciences, and arts====
[[File:Napoleons retreat from moscow.jpg|thumb|''[[Napoleon]]'s retreat from Moscow'' by [[Albrecht Adam]] (1851)]]
During the [[Napoleonic Wars]], Russia joined alliances with various European powers, and fought against France. The [[French invasion of Russia]] at the height of Napoleon's power in 1812 reached Moscow, but eventually failed as the obstinate resistance in combination with the bitterly cold [[Russian winter]] led to a disastrous defeat of invaders, in which the pan-European [[Grande Armée]] faced utter destruction. Led by [[Mikhail Kutuzov]] and [[Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly]], the [[Imperial Russian Army]] ousted Napoleon and drove throughout Europe in the [[War of the Sixth Coalition]], ultimately entering Paris.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kroll |first1=Mark J. |last2=Toombs |first2=Leslie A. |last3=Wright |first3=Peter |title=Napoleon's Tragic March Home from Moscow: Lessons in Hubris |date=February 2000 |journal=The Academy of Management Executive |jstor=4165613 |pages=117–128 |publisher=[[Academy of Management]] |volume=14 |number=1}}</ref> [[Alexander I of Russia|Alexander I]] controlled Russia's delegation at the [[Congress of Vienna]], which defined the map of post-Napoleonic Europe.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ghervas |first=Stella |title=The Long Shadow of the Congress of Vienna |jstor=26266203 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishers]] |journal=Journal of Modern European History |volume=13 |number=4 |pages=458–463 |year=2015|doi=10.17104/1611-8944-2015-4-458 |s2cid=151713355 }}</ref>

The officers who pursued Napoleon into Western Europe brought ideas of liberalism back to Russia, and attempted to curtail the tsar's powers during the abortive [[Decembrist revolt]] of 1825.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Grey |first=Ian |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/decembrists-russia%E2%80%99s-first-revolutionaries |title=The Decembrists: Russia's First Revolutionaries |magazine=[[History Today]] |date=9 September 1973 |volume=23 |issue=9 |access-date=23 November 2021 |archive-date=30 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220330122946/https://www.historytoday.com/archive/decembrists-russia%E2%80%99s-first-revolutionaries |url-status=live }}</ref> At the end of the conservative reign of [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]] (1825–1855), a zenith period of Russia's power and influence in Europe, was disrupted by defeat in the [[Crimean War]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Vincent |first=J.R. Vincent |title=The Parliamentary Dimension of the Crimean War |journal=[[Transactions of the Royal Historical Society]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=37–49 |volume=31 |year=1981 |jstor=3679044 |doi=10.2307/3679044|s2cid=153338264 }}</ref>