Chapter 5 chapter Five

Rastoptchin, who was at odds with Kutuzov at that time, was the one who opposed Kutuzov on matters more important than retreat without a fight, namely, the abandonment of Moscow and the burning of Moscow (He is the leader of the event), took the exact opposite action. This event—the abandonment and burning of Moscow—was as inevitable as the evacuation of Moscow after the Battle of Borodino without a fight. Every Russian, not by reason, but by the feelings handed down from his ancestors, can foresee what will happen next. From Smolensk, in all the towns and villages of the Russian land, without the participation of Count Rastoptchin and his leaflets, the same thing happened in Moscow.The people waited indifferently for the enemy, there were no troublemakers, philosophers, historians, literary critics.The Communist Party of Germany created no commotion, did not tear anyone to pieces, but calmly resigned itself to its fate, feeling within itself the strength to find something to do when the hard times came.Therefore, when the enemy was about to arrive, the wealthiest inhabitants left, leaving behind their possessions; but the poorest did not leave, but burned and destroyed what remained.

Premonitions of what will happen, and indeed will happen, are passed down in the Russian psyche from generation to generation.This premonition, especially the premonition that Moscow would be taken, existed in Russian Moscow society in 1812.Those who started leaving Moscow in June and early August showed that they had expected this step.Those who drive away take what they can, leave the house and half the property, and they do so out of a latent patriotism, which needs no words, not in the way of giving their children to try to Salvation of the nation and other similar unnatural ways are expressed unconsciously, simply, and vigorously, so it always produces the most powerful effect.

"It is shameful to avoid danger; it is a coward who flees from Moscow," they were told.Rastoptchin instilled in them in the proclamation that it would be disgraceful to leave Moscow.They were ashamed of being called cowards, and of walking away, but they went anyway, knowing that was the way to go.Why did they go?It must not be assumed that it was Rastoptchin who frightened them with Napoleon's atrocities in the occupied territories.They all left, first of all the rich and educated, well aware that Vienna and Berlin remained intact, that during the Napoleonic occupation the inhabitants had a good time with the charming French, the Russian gentlemen of the time, especially It's ladies who love the French very much.

They left because the Russians never thought about whether Moscow was good or bad under the French.Never to be ruled by the French: it is the worst.They were leaving before the Battle of Borodino, and then went faster, a kind of secular cultural movement established in spite of the call of the defenders.Humanists use "humanity" against "God", ignoring the statement of the commander of the Moscow garrison that he intends to carry the statue of the Madonna of Yver to fight, ignoring the existence of air balloons that are sure to destroy the French army, and also ignoring the presence of Rastoptchin in They know that the army should fight; if the army does not fight, it is even more impossible to go to the three mountains with the ladies and slaves to fight Napoleon; they should go, no matter how painful it is to destroy the property. They are gone, not thinking about the great value of the magnificent metropolis, which has been abandoned and burned (such a huge wooden city that has been evacuated, someone must set it on fire); they are all gone, everyone For himself, and precisely because of their departure, a great event has been made forever the honor of the Russian people. The nobleman who set off from Moscow with his slaves and companions in June to the Saratov countryside The woman, vaguely aware that she was not serving Bonaparte, and was afraid of being left behind at the count's orders, was doing the great work of saving Russia, simply and sincerely. And Count Rastoptchin, he Now humiliating the fleeing people, now evacuating the government offices, now distributing weapons that could not be used there to a crowd of drunks, now carrying icons in procession, now prohibiting the removal of relics and icons from Archbishop Augustine, and now seizing all private vehicles in Moscow , now with a hundred and thirty-six wagons to pull away the balloons that Leebich was making, now to suggest that he was going to burn Moscow down, now to tell that he had burned down his own house, and to send a manifesto to the French, solemnly condemning They burned his orphanage; now they credited him with the honor of burning Moscow, now denied it, now ordered the people to seize all the spies and bring them to him, now blamed the people for it, now sent all the French, told them to leave Moscow, sometimes leaving Madame Auber-Sharm, who made her the nucleus of all the French population, but impunity ordered the arrest and deportation of the venerable postmaster Klyucharyov. exile; now conscripted people to go to the three hills to fight the French army, sometimes to get rid of these people, ordered them to kill, but slipped out through the back door; One's own sympathy for this great event,—a person who does not understand the significance of what is happening, wants to do something, to make a splash, to perform some heroic act of patriotism, in the face of the great and inevitable Moscow evacuation And the fire incident, playing like a child, struggling to use his little hands to push and hold back the torrent of the people that was swept away with him.

-------- ①The general idea is: I was born a Tartar and wanted to be a Roman, the French call me a barbarian, and the Russians call me Georges Dandin, (Dandan is the protagonist in Molière's "Georges Dandan") .