This article examines the perceptions of French soldiers of the campaign of 1812, and of the Russian army. Letters from participants of Napoleon’s Russian campaign constituted the main source for this research. This source is especially interesting, because such letters contain first-hand impressions of French soldiers about their enemies and about the war itself. Napoleonic propaganda, especially bulletins of Grande Armée, made an appreciable impact on how soldiers represented the campaign of 1812 in their letters, themes about the Russian army and campaign as a whole that were echoed and confirmed by the private correspondence of soldiers.