Following the tactical victory at Soltsy, the French army occupied Novgorod, believing the Russian Empire was beaten and French dominance over Europe was permanently secured against an isolated Britain. However, the Russians refused to surrender, treating the loss of their capital as immaterial. Realizing the futility of the invasion, Gaspard Lefebvre fell into a fatalistic despair, isolating himself within the Tsar's Palace while his army and generals descended into uncontrolled looting and anarchy. As November approached, the food stores in Novgorod were rapidly depleted. Warned by General Dubois of the impending starvation, Gaspard initially remained paralyzed by indecision until the sight of a butchered horse, eaten by his desperate men, finally broke his lethargy. On November 8th, 1810, he ordered the Army of the Republic to abandon Novgorod and begin its retreat.

The withdrawal quickly devolved into a catastrophic nightmare as an early and brutal winter set in. Harassed continuously by Cossack raids and Russian probing attacks, the retreating columns suffered immense losses from hypothermia, disease, and starvation. When the vanguard finally reached the designated winter quarters at Pskov, they consumed what little food remained, leaving the rest of the arriving army to starve and slaughter their surviving horses. On November 27th, the main Russian army unexpectedly trapped the French at Pskov, inflicting heavy casualties on the defending Polish Legion with a massive artillery bombardment. A sudden, severe blizzard halted the fighting but froze countless soldiers to death overnight, prompting Gaspard to abandon Pskov entirely and order a desperate march toward the Lithuanian hinterland.

During the ensuing retreat, Gaspard contracted a severe illness and vanished into his command tent, effectively abandoning his leadership duties during a brutal multi-day skirmish at the town of Walk. Soon after his retreat from ever-present, active command, he disappeared in totality, shattering the remaining morale of the French forces, sparking mass desertions that completely dissolved the Polish and Wurttemberger corps. By the time the rearguard crossed into Lithuania on Christmas Eve, the Army of the Republic had been reduced from 205,000 men to a mere 29,000 starving survivors. With General Breard’s Army of the East similarly annihilated and Breard himself dead, the French invasion force was utterly eviscerated.

The destruction of the French army in Russia triggered an immediate geopolitical collapse for the Republic. The disorganized French remnants abandoned Poland to the advancing Russians, whilst Eastern Rome broke its alliance with France and made peace with Britain. Seizing the opportunity, Britain heavily funded the creation of the Fourth Coalition, bringing Polabia and Bavaria back into the war alongside Russia and Madjrit. As the retreating French forces scrambled to cross the Rhine to safety, a pursuing Polabian army ambushed their rearguard at Bonn. In the chaotic evacuation, the bridge over the Rhine was prematurely destroyed, trapping hundreds of Polish soldiers on the eastern bank and temporarily halting the Polabian advance, leaving a battered France to face a united and vengeful Europe.