When Napoleon invaded Russia Alexander I had to pick between two factions from among his generals. The "German" faction led by Barclay de Tolly which advocated a slow retreat that would grind down the Grande Armée and the "Russian" faction led by Bagration who advocated fighting it out in one big battle.
IOTL Alexander went with the slow retreat and came out victorious, but what if he had decided to go with the generals (generally viewed as more competent than Barclay) and brought his 250,000 men to bear against Napoleon? As I understand it the battle would likely have occured in or around Vilnius in Lithuania.
Is there any chance of Russia winning that battle? And if Russia loses that battle would they be able to continue fighting? What would the aftermath be?
IOTL Alexander went with the slow retreat and came out victorious, but what if he had decided to go with the generals (generally viewed as more competent than Barclay) and brought his 250,000 men to bear against Napoleon? As I understand it the battle would likely have occured in or around Vilnius in Lithuania.
Is there any chance of Russia winning that battle? And if Russia loses that battle would they be able to continue fighting? What would the aftermath be?