Tolstoy on History

I’ve been reading War and Peace and one theme that Tolstoy constantly revisits is the great man theory of history vs. the trends and forces theory of history. Time and again, he seems to favour the latter theory. Especially through Prince Andrei’s monologues to Pierre before the Battle of Borodino, and then while talking about all those defeats to Napoleon at Austerlitz, and Borodino. The writing is so inspired and I wanted to quote some of the writing here in the hope that you will be encouraged to pick up the book and read it. This is Chapter 28 from Book Three, Part Two of War and Peace.

Many historians say that the French did not win the battle of Borodino because Napoleon had a cold, and that if he had not had a cold the orders he gave before and during the battle would have been still more full of genius and Russia would have been lost and la face du monde eût été changée¹.

To historians who believe that Russia was shaped by the will of one man—Peter the Great—and that France from a republic became an empire and French armies went to Russia at the will of one man—Napoleon—to say that Russia remained a power because Napoleon had a bad cold on the 24th of August may seem logical and convincing.

If it had depended on Napoleon’s will to fight or not to fight the battle of Borodino, and if this or that other arrangement depended on his will, then evidently a cold affecting the manifestation of his will might have saved Russia, and consequently the valet who omitted to bring Napoleon his waterproof-boots on the 24th would have been the saviour of Russia.

Along that line of thought such a deduction is indubitable, as indubitable as the deduction Voltaire made in jest (without knowing what he was jesting at) when he said that the Massacre of St. Bartholomew was due to Charles IX’s stomach being deranged.

But to men who do not admit that Russia was formed by the will of one man, Peter I, or that the French Empire was formed and the war with Russia begun by the will of one man, Napoleon, that argument seems not merely untrue and irrational, but contrary to all human reality. To the question of what causes historic events, another answer presents itself, namely, that the course of human events is predetermined from on high—depends on the coincidence of the wills of all who take part in the events, and that a Napoleon’s influence on the course of these events is purely external and fictitious.

Strange as at first glance it may seem to suppose that the Massacre of St. Bartholomew was not due to Charles IX’s will, though he gave the order for it and thought it was done as a result of that order; and strange as it may seem to suppose that the slaughter of eighty thousand men at Borodino was not due to Napoleon’s will, though he ordered the commencement and conduct of the battle and thought it was done because he ordered it; strange as these suppositions appear, yet human dignity—which tells me that each of us is, if not more, at least not less a man than the great Napoleon—demands the acceptance of that solution of the question, and historic investigation abundantly confirms it.

At the battle of Borodino Napoleon shot at no one and killed no one. That was all done by the soldiers. Therefore it was not he who killed people.

The French soldiers went to kill and be killed at the battle of Borodino not because of Napoleon’s orders, but by their own volition. The whole army—French, Italian, German, Polish, and Dutch—hungry, ragged, and weary of the campaign, felt at the sight of an army blocking their road to Moscow, that le vin est tiré et qu’il faut le boire².

Had Napoleon then forbidden them to fight the Russians, they would have killed him and have proceeded to fight the Russians because it was inevitable.

When they heard Napoleon’s proclamation offering them, as compensation for mutilation and death, the words of posterity about their having been in the battle before Moscow, they cried ‘Vive l’Empereur!’ just as they had cried ‘Vive l’Empereur!’ at the sight of the portrait of the boy piercing the terrestrial globe with a toy stick, and just as they would have cried ‘Vive l’Empereur!’ at any nonsense that might be told them. There was nothing left for them to do but cry ‘Vive l’Empereur!’ and go to fight in order to get food and rest as conquerors in Moscow. So it was not because of Napoleon’s commands that they killed their fellow men.