56

The activity of Napoleon’s information services on Russian territory was an integral part of the preparation of the campaign of 1812. Apart from the military information, topographical and statistical information about the Russian governments where combats could potentially occur was also collected. Such French information gathering attached considerable importance to the Baltic provinces because of their strategic significance and the large quantity of materiel in these territories. The documents studied in this article contain geographical descriptions of Estonia, Livonia, Courland, and information about the economy, population, history, and traditions of the region. The authors of this article examine the question of the origins of these documents to illuminate which sources they were taken from. Generally, these documents reveal rather well the level of knowledge and the notions about the Baltic governments that the Grand Armee had on the eve of the war of 1812.