Book Eleven: 1812 - Chapter XXIV

by Leo Tolstoy

　　On the evening of the first of September, after his interview withKutuzov, Count Rostopchin had returned to Moscow mortified andoffended because he had not been invited to attend the council of war,and because Kutuzov had paid no attention to his offer to take part inthe defense of the city; amazed also at the novel outlook revealedto him at the camp, which treated the tranquillity of the capitaland its patriotic fervor as not merely secondary but quiteirrelevant and unimportant matters. Distressed, offended, andsurprised by all this, Rostopchin had returned to Moscow. After supperhe lay down on a sofa without undressing, and was awakened soonafter midnight by a courier bringing him a letter from Kutuzov. Thisletter requested the count to send police officers to guide the troopsthrough the town, as the army was retreating to the Ryazan road beyondMoscow. This was not news to Rostopchin. He had known that Moscowwould be abandoned not merely since his interview the previous daywith Kutuzov on the Poklonny Hill but ever since the battle ofBorodino, for all the generals who came to Moscow after that battlehad said unanimously that it was impossible to fight another battle,and since then the government property had been removed every night,and half the inhabitants had left the city with Rostopchin's ownpermission. Yet all the same this information astonished and irritatedthe count, coming as it did in the form of a simple note with an orderfrom Kutuzov, and received at night, breaking in on his beauty sleep.

　　When later on in his memoirs Count Rostopchin explained hisactions at this time, he repeatedly says that he was then actuatedby two important considerations: to maintain tranquillity in Moscowand expedite the departure of the inhabitants. If one accepts thistwofold aim all Rostopchin's actions appear irreproachable. "Whywere the holy relics, the arms, ammunition, gunpowder, and stores ofcorn not removed? Why were thousands of inhabitants deceived intobelieving that Moscow would not be given up- and thereby ruined?""To presence the tranquillity of the city," explains Count Rostopchin."Why were bundles of useless papers from the government offices, andLeppich's balloon and other articles removed?" "To leave the townempty," explains Count Rostopchin. One need only admit that publictranquillity is in danger and any action finds a justification.

　　All the horrors of the reign of terror were based only on solicitudefor public tranquillity.

　　On what, then, was Count Rostopchin's fear for the tranquillity ofMoscow based in 1812? What reason was there for assuming anyprobability of an uprising in the city? The inhabitants were leavingit and the retreating troops were filling it. Why should that causethe masses to riot?

　　Neither in Moscow nor anywhere in Russia did anything resemblingan insurrection ever occur when the enemy entered a town. More thanten thousand people were still in Moscow on the first and second ofSeptember, and except for a mob in the governor's courtyard, assembledthere at his bidding, nothing happened. It is obvious that there wouldhave been even less reason to expect a disturbance among the people ifafter the battle of Borodino, when the surrender of Moscow becamecertain or at least probable, Rostopchin instead of exciting thepeople by distributing arms and broadsheets had taken steps toremove all the holy relics, the gunpowder, munitions, and money, andhad told the population plainly that the town would be abandoned.

　　Rostopchin, though he had patriotic sentiments, was a sanguine andimpulsive man who had always moved in the highest administrativecircles and had no understanding at all of the people he supposedhimself to be guiding. Ever since the enemy's entry into Smolensk hehad in imagination been playing the role of director of the popularfeeling of "the heart of Russia." Not only did it seem to him (as toall administrators) that he controlled the external actions ofMoscow's inhabitants, but he also thought he controlled their mentalattitude by means of his broadsheets and posters, written in acoarse tone which the people despise in their own class and do notunderstand from those in authority. Rostopchin was so pleased with thefine role of leader of popular feeling, and had grown so used to it,that the necessity of relinquishing that role and abandoning Moscowwithout any heroic display took him unawares and he suddenly feltthe ground slip away from under his feet, so that he positively didnot know what to do. Though he knew it was coming, he did not till thelast moment wholeheartedly believe that Moscow would be abandoned, anddid not prepare for it. The inhabitants left against his wishes. Ifthe government offices were removed, this was only done on thedemand of officials to whom the count yielded reluctantly. He wasabsorbed in the role he had created for himself. As is often thecase with those gifted with an ardent imagination, though he hadlong known that Moscow would be abandoned he knew it only with hisintellect, he did not believe it in his heart and did not adapthimself mentally to this new position of affairs.

　　All his painstaking and energetic activity (in how far it was usefuland had any effect on the people is another question) had beensimply directed toward arousing in the masses his own feeling ofpatriotic hatred of the French.

　　But when events assumed their true historical character, whenexpressing hatred for the French in words proved insufficient, when itwas not even possible to express that hatred by fighting a battle,when self-confidence was of no avail in relation to the one questionbefore Moscow, when the whole population streamed out of Moscow as oneman, abandoning their belongings and proving by that negative actionall the depth of their national feeling, then the role chosen byRostopchin suddenly appeared senseless. He unexpectedly felt himselfridiculous, weak, and alone, with no ground to stand on.

　　When, awakened from his sleep, he received that cold, peremptorynote from Kutuzov, he felt the more irritated the more he felt himselfto blame. All that he had been specially put in charge of, the stateproperty which he should have removed, was still in Moscow and itwas no longer possible to take the whole of it away.

　　"Who is to blame for it? Who has let things come to such a pass?" heruminated. "Not I, of course. I had everything ready. I had Moscowfirmly in hand. And this is what they have let it come to! Villains!Traitors!" he thought, without clearly defining who the villains andtraitors were, but feeling it necessary to hate those traitors whoeverthey might be who were to blame for the false and ridiculousposition in which he found himself.

　　All that night Count Rostopchin issued orders, for which people cameto him from all parts of Moscow. Those about him had never seen thecount so morose and irritable.

　　"Your excellency, the Director of the Registrar's Department hassent for instructions... From the Consistory, from the Senate, fromthe University, from the Foundling Hospital, the Suffragan has sent...asking for information.... What are your orders about the FireBrigade? From the governor of the prison... from the superintendent ofthe lunatic asylum..." All night long such announcements werecontinually being received by the count.

　　To all these inquiries he gave brief and angry replies indicatingthat orders from him were not now needed, that the whole affair,carefully prepared by him, had now been ruined by somebody, and thatthat somebody would have to bear the whole responsibility for all thatmight happen.

　　"Oh, tell that blockhead," he said in reply to the question from theRegistrar's Department, "that he should remain to guard his documents.Now why are you asking silly questions about the Fire Brigade? Theyhave horses, let them be off to Vladimir, and not leave them to theFrench."

　　"Your excellency, the superintendent of the lunatic asylum has come:what are your commands?"

　　"My commands? Let them go away, that's all.... And let thelunatics out into the town. When lunatics command our armies Godevidently means these other madmen to be free."

　　In reply to an inquiry about the convicts in the prison, CountRostopchin shouted angrily at the governor:

　　"Do you expect me to give you two battalions- which we have not got-for a convoy? Release them, that's all about it!"

　　"Your excellency, there are some political prisoners, Meshkov,Vereshchagin..."

　　"Vereshchagin! Hasn't he been hanged yet?" shouted Rostopchin."Bring him to me!"