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The famous flank movement merely consisted in this: after
the advance of the French had ceased, the Russian army, which
had been continually retreating straight back from the invaders,
deviated from that direct course and, not finding itself pursued,
was naturally drawn toward the district where supplies were abundant.
If instead of imagining to ourselves commanders of genius
leading the Russian army, we picture that army without any leaders,
it could not have done anything but make a return movement toward
Moscow, describing an arc in the direction where most provisions
were to be found and where the country was richest.
That movement from the Nizhni to the Ryazan, Tula, and Kaluga
roads was so natural that even the Russian marauders moved in
that direction, and demands were sent from Petersburg for Kutuzov
to take his army that way. At Tarutino Kutuzov received what was
almost a reprimand from the Emperor for having moved his army
along the Ryazan road, and the Emperor's letter indicated to him
the very position he had already occupied near Kaluga.
Having rolled like a ball in the direction of the impetus
given by the whole campaign and by the battle of Borodino, the
Russian army- when the strength of that impetus was exhausted
and no fresh push was received- assumed the position natural to
it.
Kutuzov's merit lay, not in any strategic maneuver of genius,
as it is called, but in the fact that he alone understood the
significance of what had happened. He alone then understood the
meaning of the French army's inactivity, he alone continued to
assert that the battle of Borodino had been a victory, he alone-
who as commander in chief might have been expected to be eager
to attack- employed his whole strength to restrain the Russian
army from useless engagements.
The beast wounded at Borodino was lying where the fleeing
hunter had left him; but whether he was still alive, whether he
was strong and merely lying low, the hunter did not know. Suddenly
the beast was heard to moan.
The moan of that wounded beast (the French army) which betrayed
its calamitous condition was the sending of Lauriston to Kutuzov's
camp with overtures for peace.
Napoleon, with his usual assurance that whatever entered his
head was right, wrote to Kutuzov the first words that occurred
to him, though they were meaningless.
MONSIEUR LE PRINCE KOUTOUZOV: I am sending one of my adjutants-general
to discuss several interesting questions with you. I beg your
Highness to credit what he says to you, especially when he expresses
the sentiment of esteem and special regard I have long entertained
for your person. This letter having no other object, I pray God,
monsieur le Prince Koutouzov, to keep you in His holy and gracious
protection!
NAPOLEON
MOSCOW, OCTOBER 30, 1812
Kutuzov replied: "I should be cursed by posterity were
I looked on as the initiator of a settlement of any sort. Such
is the present spirit of my nation." But he continued to
exert all his powers to restrain his troops from attacking.
During the month that the French troops were pillaging in
Moscow and the Russian troops were quietly encamped at Tarutino,
a change had taken place in the relative strength of the two armies-
both in spirit and in number- as a result of which the superiority
had passed to the Russian side. Though the condition and numbers
of the French army were unknown to the Russians, as soon as that
change occurred the need of attacking at once showed itself by
countless signs. These signs were: Lauriston's mission; the abundance
of provisions at Tarutino; the reports coming in from all sides
of the inactivity and disorder of the French; the flow of recruits
to our regiments; the fine weather; the long rest the Russian
soldiers had enjoyed, and the impatience to do what they had been
assembled for, which usually shows itself in an army that has
been resting; curiosity as to what the French army, so long lost
sight of, was doing; the boldness with which our outposts now
scouted close up to the French stationed at Tarutino; the news
of easy successes gained by peasants and guerrilla troops over
the French, the envy aroused by this; the desire for revenge that
lay in the heart of every Russian as long as the French were in
Moscow, and (above all) a dim consciousness in every soldier's
mind that the relative strength of the armies had changed and
that the advantage was now on our side. There was a substantial
change in the relative strength, and an advance had become inevitable.
And at once, as a clock begins to strike and chime as soon as
the minute hand has completed a full circle, this change was shown
by an increased activity, whirring, and chiming in the higher
spheres.
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