Russia Withstands Napoleon's Attack
While America was engaged in another war with the British, Adams was a witness to the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in June 1812. In a letter to his mother Abigail, Adams argued that in the course of human history since the creation of the world, he could not think of a greater, more sudden, and more total reversal of fortune ever experienced by man that what Napoleon faced as a result of his attack on Russia. Over the course of twenty years he had been a leader with unparalleled success. Then, on June 24th, he entered Russia at the head of an army of 300,000. On September 15, he took possession of Moscow, while the Russian armies retreated before him, but not without a fight. Of the two battles between French and Russian soldiers, one “was perhaps the bloodiest that has been fought for many ages.”

Adams’ First Meeting with Alexander I
Adams was a brilliant intellectual whose father, John Adams, one of America’s founders, insisted that his son be studious. As a result of his father’s strict discipline and his mother’s encouragement, he developed an amazing appetite for learning. His travel diaries were famous and his memoirs were published in nine volumes. His journal entries from his time in Russia are to be found in Chapter VII of his memoirs, a chapter of 495 pages. From the first day he arrived in St. Petersburg, he was studying the Russian alphabet and making notes about stoves, kitchens, double windows and “the construction of houses generally.”