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KUTUZOV

                                                         WAR_AND_PEACE

Quoting from Tolstoy's
"War and Peace" (1865-1869):

     About Kutúzov, commander-in-chief    
     of the Russian forces against Napoleon.

                                                   Question: is he a
                                                   hero of conservatism?


     He evidently listened only because he had ears which,
     though there was a piece of tow in one of them, could
     not help hearing; but it was evident that nothing the
     general could say would surprise or even interest him,
     that he knew all that would be said beforehand, and
     heard it all only because he had to, as one has to
     listen to the chanting of a service of prayer.  All
     that Denísov had said was clever and to the
     point.  What the general was saying was even more
     clever and to the point, but it was evident that
     Kutúzov despised knowledge and cleverness, and
     knew of something else that would decide the matter --
     something independent of cleverness and knowledge.
     Price Andrew watched the commander-in-chief's face
     attentively, and the only expression he could see
     there was one of boredom [...]

        Book X, Chapter XV, p. 443 (WC)



     'He will not bring in any plan of his own.  He will
     not devise or undertake anything,' thought Prince
     Andrew, 'but he will hear everything, remember
     everything, and put everything in its place.  He will
     not hinder anything useful nor allow anything harmful.
     He understands that there is something stronger and
     more important than his own will -- the inevitable
     course of events, and he can see them and grasp their
     significance, and seeing that significance can refrain
     from meddling and renounce his personal wish directed
     to something else. [...]

       Book X, Chapter XVI, p. 447 (WC)



     "Kutúzov never talked of 'forty centuries
     looking down from the Pyramids', of the sacrifices he
     offered for the Fatherland, or of what he intended to
     accomplish or had accomplished: in general he said
     nothing about himself, adopted no pose, always  
     appeared to be the simplest and most ordinary of men,
     and said the simplest and most ordinary things. ..."
                                                     
     "... Not merely in these cases, but continually, did
     that old man -- who by experience of life had reached
     the conviction that thoughts, and the words serving as
     their expression, are not what move people -- use
     quite meaningless words that happened to enter his
     head."
     
     "But that man, so heedless of his words, did not once
     during the whole time of his activity utter one word
     inconsistent with the single aim towards which he
     moved throughout the whole war.  Obviously in spite
     of himself, in very diverse circumstances, he
     repeatedly expressed his real thoughts with the
     bitter conviction that he would not be understood."

        Book XV, Chapter V, p.361-362 (WC)


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