War and Peace: Volume 4, Part 2: Chapters 15–19 Summary & Analysis

In early October, Napoleon sends Kutuzov another peace offer. The letter is addressed from Moscow, even though Napoleon is ahead of Kutuzov on the Kaluga road. Again, Kutuzov rejects the offer. Soon after, a small detachment is sent to Fominskoe to fight Broussier’s division. Kutuzov doesn’t want to do this, but the rest of the staff, energized by the victory at Tarutino, insists. Dokhturov, a humble, quiet general, is sent there—as indeed he appears at most of the war’s major engagements, though history records little of him.

On October 10th, the entire French army joins Broussier at Fominskoe for no apparent reason. In other words, where Dokhturov had expected to meet one division, he now faces Napoleon’s full force. Refusing to act on his own orders, Dokhturov sends an officer galloping to Kutuzov’s headquarters.

Kutuzov sleeps poorly that night. He’s lying awake thinking about the battle of Tarutino and wishing his generals could understand that the French army is likely mortally wounded, and that the Russians just need patience and time. He thinks they behave like children, maneuvering restlessly as if fighting is an amusement in itself. Yet, even though he reproaches the younger generals for it, Kutuzov also lies awake picturing different scenarios by which the French might be conclusively beaten.

As Kutuzov is lying in bed thinking about all this, Toll, another general, and Bolkhovitinov (Dokhturov’s messenger) come in. Kutuzov listens to Bolkhovitinov’s report and suddenly bursts into tears. He turns to the icons in the corner and thanks God for saving Russia.

From now on, Kutuzov leads his army on retreat, while Napoleon’s army retreats in the opposite direction. The army already contains the seeds of its own destruction. Still, they need a final push in that direction, and that push comes in the form of what the French call le Hourra de l’Empereur. The day after the council of war that decided to retreat, Napoleon rides along his line of troops. Some Cossacks, searching for booty, stumbled across Napoleon and could easily have captured him if they weren’t distracted. After this, there’s nothing left to do but flee—even Napoleon sees that. Soon the French army marches down the Smolensk road.

Because France is so far away, the defeated French long for Smolensk as if it’s the promised land. Each individual soldier longs to surrender himself as a prisoner and be done with the whole business; but the whole body of the army moves too quickly and inexorably toward its goal to disintegrate. All the generals except Kutuzov want to go on the offensive and demolish the French. Kutuzov opposes this with all his strength. But at Vyazma, the generals, including Ermolov and others, can no longer restrain themselves, and they inform Kutuzov of their intentions by sending him a blank sheet of paper. All they succeed in doing is losing thousands of men. The French draw together tightly, avoid being overrun, and march determinedly toward Smolensk.