The first reports from the battle of Borodinó cause celebration in Petersburg, but later learning of Moscow’s fall plunges the city into dismay. The Emperor sends for a full report from Kutúzov. Hélène dies around this time.
The first reports from the battle of Borodinó cause celebration in Petersburg, but later learning of Moscow’s fall plunges the city into dismay. The Emperor sends for a full report from Kutúzov. Hélène dies around this time.
Book 12, Chapter 2
The first reports from the battle of Borodinó cause celebration in Petersburg, but later learning of Moscow’s fall plunges the city into dismay. The Emperor sends for a full report from Kutúzov. Hélène dies around this time.
Summary:
Next day, in a quickly written letter before he had complete information, Kutúzov reported the good news from Borodinó that the Russians had not retreated, and that the French losses were much heavier than the Russian losses. Everyone took this to mean the Russians had trounced Napoleon. A joyously festive mood reigned in Petersburg. This happened on the Emperor’s birthday, which seemed a wonderful coincidence. It made Kutúzov a great Russian hero. But the next day no news arrived from the army and the public mood grew anxious. Also, that day, Countess Hélène suddenly died. It was rumored that Hélène, emotionally upset due to tension with her father and complete silence from Pierre, had died in agony after taking an overdose. Talk in Petersburg centered round three melancholy facts: the Emperor’s lack of news, the death of a popular general, and the death of Hélène. On the third day news of the surrender of Moscow to the French arrived and the mood in the city changed totally. As long as the reports were unofficial, it was possible to doubt it. But a letter from Count Rostopchín confirmed the bad news. Now, Kutúzov was seen as an incompetent old goat. Upon receiving Rostopchín’s letter, the astonished Emperor sent someone to find out from Kutúzov the situation of the army and why Kutúzov had not tried to stop the French from entering Moscow.
quote from the chapter:
On the third day after Kutúzov’s report a country gentleman arrived from Moscow, and news of the surrender of Moscow to the French spread through the whole town. This was terrible! What a position for the Emperor to be in! Kutúzov was a traitor, and Prince Vasíli during the visits of condolence paid to him on the occasion of his daughter’s death said of Kutúzov, whom he had formerly praised (it was excusable for him in his grief to forget what he had said), that it was impossible to expect anything else from a blind and depraved old man.
I only wonder that the fate of Russia could have been entrusted to such a man.
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