War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Meanwhile, following the disposition, 'Column Number One marches here . . .' and so on, the infantry regiments of the missing columns, under Bennigsen's command and Toll's direction, had set off in good order and, as always, arrived somewhere, but not where they were supposed to arrive. As always too, soldiers who had set off in high spirits began to drag their feet, there were murmurs of discontent, they knew they were in a mess, and they retraced some of their steps. Adjutants and generals galloped up and down, yelling furiously, arguing with each other, telling everybody they had come the wrong way and were going to be late, swearing at everybody, and so on, until eventually they gave up in despair, and marched on for the sake of it, just to get somewhere. 'We've got to arrive somewhere or other!' And yes, they did arrive somewhere, but it wasn't where they were needed; just a few managed to arrive in the right place, but so late they were utterly useless except as cannon-fodder. In this battle Toll played the part of Weierother at Austerlitz, galloping indefatigably all over the place, and everywhere he went he found everything at sixes and sevens. For instance, he came across Bagovut's corps in the forest in broad daylight when these men ought to have been miles away long ago, combining forces with Orlov-Denisov. Shocked and stung by this lapse, Toll could only think that somebody must be to blame, so he galloped over to the corps commander and tore strips off him, telling him he deserved to be shot. General Bagovut, a phlegmatic military man of the old school, had been just as worried by all the delays, chaos and contradictory orders. To everyone's amazement, he flew into a towering rage, quite out of character for him, and said some very nasty things to Toll.
'Nobody's telling me how to go about my own business, but I'm as ready as the next man to lay down my life with my men,' he said, and he marched ahead with one division. Emerging on to the battlefield under French fire, the valiant Bagovut was too worked up to wonder whether or not his sortie with a single division was likely to do any good at this point in the action. He marched his men straight ahead directly into the line of fire.
Danger, shells, bullets - this was what he was after in all his fury. One of the first bullets killed him; others followed, killing many of his men. And for quite some time his division stayed there under fire, serving no purpose.
CHAPTER 7
Meanwhile, another column was scheduled to mount a frontal attack on the French, but this column had Kutuzov in charge. He was only too aware that nothing but chaos would come out of this battle, which had been entered into without his approval, so he did all he could to hold his forces back. He made no move.
Kutuzov kept his own counsel, riding his little grey horse and giving leisurely responses to any proposals for the launching of an attack.
'Say what you will about attacking. What you can't see is that these complex manoeuvres are beyond us,' he said to Miloradovich, who was eager to advance.
'We missed taking Murat alive this morning, and we didn't get to our places in time, so now there's nothing we can do!' he said to somebody else.
When Kutuzov was informed there were now two battalions of Poles to the rear of the French, whereas earlier on the Cossacks had reported no one there, he glanced back over his shoulder at Yermolov (not having spoken to him since the previous day).
'They're dying to attack, they propose all sorts of ideas, but when you get down to it there's nothing ready, the enemy's had plenty of warning, and he knows what to do.'
Yermolov screwed up his eyes and gave a faint smile when he heard these words. He knew the storm had passed, and Kutuzov would be satisfied with that little hint.
'He's amusing himself at my expense,' Yermolov said quietly to Rayevsky at his side, digging him in the knee.
Shortly afterwards, Yermolov moved forward to Kutuzov and put in a polite proposition.
'There's still time, your Highness. The enemy is still here. A word from you and we could mount an attack . . . If we don't our guards won't have seen any smoke.'
Kutuzov said nothing, but when he received a report that Murat's troops were in retreat he gave the order to advance, but every hundred yards he halted for three-quarters of an hour.
The entire battle was limited to what had been achieved by Orlov-Denisov's Cossacks; the rest of the troops simply lost a few hundred men for no good reason.
This battle resulted in Kutuzov receiving a diamond decoration, Bennigsen being rewarded also with diamonds plus a hundred thousand roubles, and many other people getting many nice things, according to rank. It also resulted in lots more changes on the staff.
'That's our way of doing things, always the wrong way round!' said the Russian officers and generals after the battle of Tarutino. They still say it nowadays, on the assumption that some idiot has got everything the wrong way round, and that's something we would never have done. But people who say things like this either don't know what they are talking about, or they are deliberately fooling themselves. Every single battle - Tarutino, Borodino, Austerlitz - works out differently from the way it was scheduled by the planners. This is inevitable.
The course of a battle is affected by an infinite number of freely operating forces (there being no greater freedom of operation than on a battlefield, where life and death are at stake), and this course can never be known in advance; nor does it ever correspond with the direction of any one particular force.
If there are many forces acting simultaneously and from different directions on a given body, the direction of its motion can never correspond with any one of the forces; it will always turn out to be the middle way, the shortest route, the line defined in mechanics by the diagonal of a parallelogram of the forces involved.
If in the accounts provided by historians, especially the French ones, we find a claim that wars and battles tend to follow a predetermined plan, we can only conclude that the accounts are untrue.
The battle of Tarutino obviously failed to achieve Toll's purpose, which was to lead the army into action in strict accordance with his troop dispositions; or perhaps that of Count Orlov-Denisov, who wanted to capture Murat; or the destruction of the whole corps at a stroke, which was perhaps the purpose of Bennigsen and others; or the purpose of an individual officer eager to get into battle and cover himself with glory; or the Cossack who was hoping for more loot than he actually got, and so on. But if we regard the purpose of the battle as what was actually achieved, and what was the universal desire of every Russian (the expulsion of the French from Russian soil, and the destruction of their army), it will be perfectly clear that the battle of Tarutino, not in spite of, but because of, its inconsistencies, was exactly what was needed at that point in the campaign. It would be difficult, nay impossible, to imagine any outcome of that battle more expedient than the one that occurred. With only the slightest effort, despite maximum confusion, and at the cost of the most trifling losses, we got the best results of the whole campaign, we saw retreat turn into attack, we exposed the weakness of the French, and gave them a shock, the one thing needed to put Napoleon's army to flight.
CHAPTER 8
Napoleon enters Moscow after a brilliant triumph, the victory de la Moskowa; there can be no doubt about this since the French emerge as masters of the field. The Russians retreat, abandoning their capital city. Moscow, replete with provisions, arms, ammunition and untold riches, is in Napoleon's clutches. The Russian army, half the strength of the French, lets a whole month go by without making the slightest effort to attack. Napoleon's position couldn't be more brilliant. One would have thought it called for no great genius to fall upon a Russian army of half your strength and finish them off; or negotiate an advantageous peace; or, should they refuse, make a threatening move towards Petersburg; or, if that fails, go back to Smolensk or Vilna; or just stay on in Moscow - in other words, to maintain the brilliant position in which the French army now found themselves. To do all this it was only necessary to take the simplest and easiest of steps: prevent the soldiers from looting, prepare winter clothing, of which Moscow had enough for the whole army, and re
Not only did he fail to do any of these things, he did the opposite; he used all his powers to go through the full range of courses open to him and opt for the stupidest and most disastrous of them all. Of all the possibilities - wintering in Moscow, marching up to Petersburg, or over to Nizhny Novgorod, or back by a more northerly or southerly route, perhaps down the road eventually taken by Kutuzov - it would have been hard to imagine a more stupid and disastrous policy than the one adopted by Napoleon: staying on in Moscow until October, thus giving the troops every opportunity to rampage through the city, then vacillating for some time before leaving a well-fortified place and marching out of Moscow, advancing towards Kutuzov and then abstaining from battle, turning to the right and marching on to Maloyaroslavets, again making no attempt at a breakthrough, and finally retreating, not down the road taken by Kutuzov, but back up to Mozhaysk and down the Smolensk road through countryside that had been devastated. It would be hard to conceive of a more stupid course than this, anything more disastrous for the army, as events would show. It would have been a stiff challenge for any expert strategist, assuming Napoleon's object to be the destruction of his own army, to devise a series of actions which, without relying on any steps taken by the Russian forces, could have guaranteed the complete destruction of the whole French army with such certainty as the course taken by Napoleon.
This was done by Napoleon, the man of genius. And yet to say that Napoleon destroyed his own army because he wanted to, or because he was a very stupid man, would be just as wrong as claiming that Napoleon got his troops to Moscow because he wanted to, and because he was a very clever man and a great genius. In both cases his individual contribution, no stronger than the individual contribution of every common soldier, happened to coincide with the laws by which the event was being determined.
Historians utterly falsify the past when (simply because Napoleon's actions were not vindicated by subsequent events) they represent Napoleon in Moscow as a man whose powers were in decline. He was behaving exactly as before, and afterwards in 1813 - exerting all his strength and skill to do the best for himself and his army. Napoleon's actions at this time were no less spectacular than in Egypt, Italy, Austria and Prussia. We cannot say with any certainty what degree of real genius Napoleon showed in Egypt, where forty centuries looked down on him in his glory, because all his famous exploits in that country are described for us exclusively by Frenchmen. We can arrive at no certain judgement of his genius in Austria and Prussia, since any information about his achievements in those places has to be extracted from French and German sources. And the inexplicable surrender of entire formations without a fight, and fortresses without a siege, is bound to predispose the Germans towards the concept of genius as the sole explanation of the war as it was waged in Germany. But we, thank God, have no reason to invoke his genius to cover our shame. We have paid for the right to look the facts simply and squarely in the face, and we are not going to give up that right.
His actions in Moscow are as spectacular and redolent of genius as anywhere else. He never stops issuing order after order and plan after plan from the time he enters Moscow to the time he leaves. He is in no way inhibited by the absence of citizens and deputations, or even the burning of Moscow. He never loses sight of the welfare of his army, the actions of the enemy, the welfare of the peoples of Russia, the conduct of affairs in Paris or the diplomatic considerations involved in the anticipated peace.
CHAPTER 9
With regard to military matters, immediately after his arrival in Moscow Napoleon issues General Sebastiani with strict orders to keep a watch on all movements of the Russian army, sends detachments down all the various roads, and gives Murat the job of finding Kutuzov. He then gives meticulous instructions for the fortification of the Kremlin. Then he draws up the kind of plan for a future campaign over the whole map of Russia that only a genius could have conceived. On the diplomatic side, Napoleon sends for Captain Yakovlev, who has been robbed and reduced to rags and doesn't know how to get out of Moscow, outlines his whole policy in close detail and shows great magnanimity before writing a letter to the Emperor Alexander, in which he considers it his duty to inform his friend and brother that Rostopchin has managed affairs very badly in Moscow, and then sending Yakovlev with it to Petersburg.
After parading his views and his magnanimity in the same kind of detail to Tutolmin, he sends this little old fellow off to Petersburg as well, to open negotiations.
With regard to legal matters, orders are issued, as soon as the fires break out, for the guilty persons to be found and executed. And the villainous Rostopchin is punished by having his various houses burnt down.
With regard to administrative matters, Moscow is presented with a constitution. A municipal council is set up, and the following proclamation is issued to the populace: CITIZENS OF MOSCOW!
Your sufferings have been harsh, but his Majesty the Emperor and King wishes to stop them in their course. Terrible examples have shown you how he punishes disobedience and crime. Serious steps have been taken to put an end to civil disorder and to restore public security. A paternal administration, elected from your own numbers, will comprise your municipality or city council. It will look after you, and all your needs and interests. Its members will be distinguished by a red ribbon worn across the shoulder, and the city mayor will wear a white sash over it. But when they are not on duty they will wear only a red ribbon around the left arm.
A city police force has been re-established on its former footing, and its operations are already improving public order. The government has appointed two general commissioners, or police-chiefs, and twenty commissioners, or police inspectors, responsible for all the different districts. You will recognize them by a white ribbon worn around the left arm. Several churches of various denominations remain open, and divine service goes on unhindered. Your fellow citizens are returning daily to their homes, and orders have been issued for their assistance and protection once they are there, which is their entitlement in misfortune. The aforesaid are the steps which the government has taken to restore order and alleviate your condition, but for this to be achieved it is necessary for you to combine your efforts with those of the government, to forget, if possible, any misfortunes you have suffered, to look forward to a less cruel future, to be assured that a shameful death inevitably awaits anyone guilty of violating your persons or your surviving property, and by virtue of this entertain no doubt that they will be safeguarded, since this is the will of the greatest and most righteous of monarchs. Soldiers and citizens of whatever nation, restore public confidence, the source of all prosperity within the state. Live like brothers. Render aid and protection one to another. Combine to frustrate the intentions of the wicked in mind. Obey all authorities military and civil, and soon your tears shall cease to flow.
With regard to supplying the army, Napoleon issued orders for all troops to enter Moscow by rota and plunder all necessary supplies for the army to be properly provisioned for the immediate future.
With regard to religion, Napoleon issued an order for the priests to be brought back, and services held again in the churches.
With regard to commerce, and in order to guarantee supplies for the troops, the following notice was pasted up everywhere: PROCLAMATION
You peace-loving citizens of Moscow, artisans and working men who have been driven from the city by the troubles, and you, scattered sons of the soil kept in the fields by unwarranted fears, hear this! Calm is returning to this capital, and order is being restored. Your fellow countrymen are emerging confidently from their hiding-places and finding themselves treated with respect. Any violence perpetrated against them or their property meets with summary punishment. His Majesty the Emperor and King offers hi
Citizens and country people, and you, workmen and craftsmen of whatever nationality, you are called upon to realize the fatherly intentions of his Majesty the Emperor and King, and to work with him for the public good. Lay your respect and trust at his feet, and lose no time in joining with us!