Even though Napoleon won the battle at Borodino, he still lost a good amount of men and supplies. This combined with the French army waiting for Russia’s surrender made them suffer during the winter. The same can be summed up for Hitler’s armies during Operation Barbarossa and Typhoon.

Now aside from tactics varying from 130 years between the two wars, it really comes down to logistics. Germany’s supply lines were stretched to its very limit. It’s men near Moscow was low on ammo, equipment, and fuel. Without enough fuel to supply the tanks and trucks, those Panzer divisions are going nowhere. It didn’t help that Germany was going in a fuel crisis at the time which meant petrol was in short supply. The supply lines of both Napoleon and Hitler were stretched to their very limit and they couldn’t resupply the troops in time.

But here’s the question you should be asking: does taking Moscow actually make the Russians surrender? And that’s a big no, there is no way this would force Russia to surrender. Even if The German armies could reach Moscow, there would be fierce resistance. Stalin would not let this city go without a fight. And with troops coming back from the Far East, with a lot Soviet industry located now east as well. Germany was going to have a hard time getting to Moscow, let alone taking the city.