Volume III, Part 2, Chapter 26-29
Napoleon at Borodino — Tolstoy's devastating portrait of him issuing meaningless orders, suffering a cold, fancying himself the engine of history.
Read in Books4Free →Napoleon and Kutuzov: Tolstoy's Theory of History
From War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Tolstoy systematically demolishes the "great man" theory of history: Napoleon is a vain, self-deceived actor while the sleepy, fatalistic Kutuzov embodies true wisdom by knowing he controls nothing.
Volume IV, Part 4, Chapter 5
Tolstoy's encomium to Kutuzov: "the simple, modest, and therefore truly great figure" who understood the popular spirit.
Read in Books4Free →Volume III, Part 3, Chapter 1
The famous "king is history's slave" passage on how rulers are the least free of beings.
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