Tolstoy's War and Peace: Beyond Military Genius

Fans of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace all have their own reasons for loving the epic novel. Some read it as a story of personal growth, reflected in Prince Andrei’s spiritual quest. Others favour its portrayal of the Russian aristocracy in the early 19th century.

As for myself, the novel punctured the myth of the military genius – not just Napoleon’s. The book’s final section on Tolstoy’s philosophy of history presented the most significant challenge to G.W.F. Hegel – specifically regarding French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte as weltgeist (world-soul) on horseback – and Clausewitz, who proposed Napoleonic warfare could be generalised as universal military principles

“Who defeated Napoleon during his Russian campaign?” a professor once asked our class when I was in college. It was a trick question to check who had read their assignments. Unlike dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler in the next century, Napoleon didn’t lose; he actually won most of the major battles in Russia, much like the Americans did in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. But it was also a very deep question, the answer to which gets to the heart of the novel – and Mother Russia herself.

One answer was Russia’s General Kutuzov. Technically, he lost the crucial Battle of Borodino, which, however, sealed the fate of the Grande Armée. Overextended and without looted provisions from a burned down Moscow, Napoleon’s army that was once the terror of Europe retreated and disintegrated.