MINSK, Belarus — Belarus held a burial ceremony yesterday for 110 Napoleonic soldiers who died in a major battle in 1812 against the Russian army.
Tens of thousands of French troops died in November 1812 when the Russians attacked French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s army as it fled across the Berezina River on a retreat from Moscow.
The remains were excavated by a Belarusian Defense Ministry unit that searches for soldiers’ remains. They were buried at a cemetery in the village of Studenka, 60 miles east of the capital of Minsk.