Book Thirteen: 1812 - Chapter XV

by Leo Tolstoy

　　In the early days of October another envoy came to Kutuzov with aletter from Napoleon proposing peace and falsely dated from Moscow,though Napoleon was already not far from Kutuzov on the old Kalugaroad. Kutuzov replied to this letter as he had done to the oneformerly brought by Lauriston, saying that there could be noquestion of peace.

　　Soon after that a report was received from Dorokhov's guerrilladetachment operating to the left of Tarutino that troops ofBroussier's division had been seen at Forminsk and that beingseparated from the rest of the French army they might easily bedestroyed. The soldiers and officers again demanded action. Generalson the staff, excited by the memory of the easy victory at Tarutino,urged Kutuzov to carry out Dorokhov's suggestion. Kutuzov did notconsider any offensive necessary. The result was a compromise whichwas inevitable: a small detachment was sent to Forminsk to attackBroussier.

　　By a strange coincidence, this task, which turned out to be a mostdifficult and important one, was entrusted to Dokhturov- that samemodest little Dokhturov whom no one had described to us as drawingup plans of battles, dashing about in front of regiments, showeringcrosses on batteries, and so on, and who was thought to be and wasspoken of as undecided and undiscerning- but whom we find commandingwherever the position was most difficult all through theRusso-French wars from Austerlitz to the year 1813. At Austerlitz heremained last at the Augezd dam, rallying the regiments, saving whatwas possible when all were flying and perishing and not a singlegeneral was left in the rear guard. Ill with fever he went to Smolenskwith twenty thousand men to defend the town against Napoleon's wholearmy. In Smolensk, at the Malakhov Gate, he had hardly dozed off ina paroxysm of fever before he was awakened by the bombardment of thetown- and Smolensk held out all day long. At the battle of Borodino,when Bagration was killed and nine tenths of the men of our left flankhad fallen and the full force of the French artillery fire wasdirected against it, the man sent there was this same irresolute andundiscerning Dokhturov- Kutuzov hastening to rectify a mistake hehad made by sending someone else there first. And the quiet littleDokhturov rode thither, and Borodino became the greatest glory ofthe Russian army. Many heroes have been described to us in verse andprose, but of Dokhturov scarcely a word has been said.

　　It was Dokhturov again whom they sent to Forminsk and from thereto Malo-Yaroslavets, the place where the last battle with the Frenchwas fought and where the obvious disintegration of the French armybegan; and we are told of many geniuses and heroes of that period ofthe campaign, but of Dokhturov nothing or very little is said and thatdubiously. And this silence about Dokhturov is the clearesttestimony to his merit.

　　It is natural for a man who does not understand the workings of amachine to imagine that a shaving that has fallen into it by chanceand is interfering with its action and tossing about in it is its mostimportant part. The man who does not understand the construction ofthe machine cannot conceive that the small connecting cogwheel whichrevolves quietly is one of the most essential parts of the machine,and not the shaving which merely harms and hinders the working.

　　On the tenth of October when Dokhturov had gone halfway toForminsk and stopped at the village of Aristovo, preparingfaithfully to execute the orders he had received, the whole Frencharmy having, in its convulsive movement, reached Murat's positionapparently in order to give battle- suddenly without any reason turnedoff to the left onto the new Kaluga road and began to enterForminsk, where only Broussier had been till then. At that timeDokhturov had under his command, besides Dorokhov's detachment, thetwo small guerrilla detachments of Figner and Seslavin.

　　On the evening of October 11 Seslavin came to the Aristovoheadquarters with a French guardsman he had captured. The prisonersaid that the troops that had entered Forminsk that day were thevanguard of the whole army, that Napoleon was there and the whole armyhad left Moscow four days previously. That same evening a house serfwho had come from Borovsk said he had seen an immense army enteringthe town. Some Cossacks of Dokhturov's detachment reported havingsighted the French Guards marching along the road to Borovsk. From allthese reports it was evident that where they had expected to meet asingle division there was now the whole French army marching fromMoscow in an unexpected direction- along the Kaluga road. Dokhturovwas unwilling to undertake any action, as it was not clear to himnow what he ought to do. He had been ordered to attack Forminsk. Butonly Broussier had been there at that time and now the whole Frencharmy was there. Ermolov wished to act on his own judgment, butDokhturov insisted that he must have Kutuzov's instructions. So it wasdecided to send a dispatch to the staff.

　　For this purpose a capable officer, Bolkhovitinov, was chosen, whowas to explain the whole affair by word of mouth, besides delivering awritten report. Toward midnight Bolkhovitinov, having received thedispatch and verbal instructions, galloped off to the General Staffaccompanied by a Cossack with spare horses.