Tolstoy says historic events are predetermined from on high – and depend on the combined wills of all the participants, ( not just the wills of a few great men).
Tolstoy says historic events are predetermined from on high – and depend on the combined wills of all the participants, ( not just the wills of a few great men).
Book 10, Chapter 28
Tolstoy says historic events are predetermined from on high – and depend on the combined wills of all the participants, ( not just the wills of a few great men).
Summary:
In this chapter, Tolstoy uses the example of the French defeat in the battle of Borodinó to develop his philosophy of history. According to Tolstoy, many people have the mistaken idea that the course of history is determined by a few great men, like Napoleon. So, for example, people say things like “The French lost at Borodinó because Napoleon had a cold that day”. Tolstoy says this kind of thinking is all wrong! According to Tolstoy, the course of human events, (like the French loss at Borodinó, for example) are predetermined from on high – and depend on the coincidence of the wills of all the people who take part in the events. It’s wrong to think that history is determined by the influence of a few great men like Napoleon, as people often incorrectly believe.
quote from the chapter:
So it was not because of Napoleon’s commands that they killed their fellow men. And it was not Napoleon who directed the course of the battle, for none of his orders were executed and during the battle he did not know what was going on before him. So the way in which these people killed one another was not decided by Napoleon’s will but occurred independently of him, in accord with the will of hundreds of thousands of people who took part in the common action. It only seemed to Napoleon that it all took place by his will.
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