Napoleon, who considered Russia a natural ally since it had no territorial conflicts with France, soon moved to teach Alexander a lesson. “Down to the present day, the love affair between the French and Polish is pretty permanent,” Sutherland said. Sutherland, a history professor at the University of Maryland who has authored two books on the Napoleonic era.
Though Napoleon created that state from Prussian, not Russian, lands, Alexander worried that it would incite a hostile Polish nationalism, according to D.M.G. Exacerbating tensions was the 1807 formation of the Duchy of Warsaw.
