[wobbleblob]

That's a cliche that's not historically accurate.

Napoleon's army occupied Moscow by late summer. They started their retreat in early fall, and got stuck in the mud. His army had been mostly destroyed before winter even started.

In the first world war, the German army fought through 3 winters in Russia before Russia surrendered.

In the second world war, the German army fought through 3 winters before they were defeated.

In the February 2022 Russian invasion in to Ukraine, the Russian army got stuck in the mud and was forced to abandon their siege of Kiev under heavy losses.

The Russian winter isn't necessarily any more pleasant for the Russians than for their enemies. I'm sure they made use of the climatic circumstances, but the weather didn't do the work for them. Napoleon and the nazis were both defeated by an opponent with a better grand strategy and logistics.

[jollyllama]

>the German army fought through 3 winters

That's true, but the winter was famously the inflection point in WWII. It's no coincidence.

[wobbleblob]

All the sources I've read agree that this had more to do with the complete absence of a long term strategy on the German side, not the weather. They had resources for 6 months, and went into the USSR with everything they had, no reserves. When that wasn't enough, there was no plan B.