The Art of Political Survival — War and Peace

Among categories of human life one may distinguish those in which substance prevails and those in which form prevails. To the latter belongs Petersburg salon life, unchanging. Since 1805 peace and quarrel with Bonaparte have come and gone, constitutions have been made and unmade, but Anna Pavlovna's salon and Helene's remain as they were, seven and five years before. At Anna Pavlovna's they talk with perplexity of Bonaparte's successes as a malicious conspiracy against the court circle. In Helene's salon, which Rumyantsev honours, they speak with the same ecstasy as in 1808 of the great nation and the great man, and regret the rupture with France, which Bilibin says will be settled not by gunpowder but by those who invented it. Since the Emperor's return the camps show hostility, but each keeps its tendency. Anna Pavlovna admits only deep-rooted legitimists, says one ought not to go to the French theatre, and circulates only flattering army reports. Helene's circle contradicts reports of cruelty, discusses Napoleon's attempts at conciliation, and ridicules Moscow enthusiasm with caution. Anna Pavlovna's circle speaks of that enthusiasm as Plutarch of the ancients.

Prince Vasili, still in important posts, visits both his good friend Anna Pavlovna and his daughter's diplomatic salon, and often confuses talking points. Soon after the Emperor's return he condemns Barclay at Anna Pavlovna's but is undecided who should command. A man of great merit, having seen Kutuzov as chief of the Petersburg militia enrolling recruits, cautiously suggests him. Anna Pavlovna smiles melancholily that Kutuzov has done nothing but cause the Emperor annoyance. Vasili says he told the Assembly the election would not please the Emperor. They did not listen. Then, forgetting that at Helene's one ridicules Moscow enthusiasm and at Anna Pavlovna's one is ecstatic, he calls it aping Muscovites, retrieves the mistake, and asks how they can make commander in chief a decrepit, blind old man who cannot mount a horse, drops asleep at a council, and has the worst morals. A fine idea to play blindman's buff.

On the twenty-fourth of July that is correct. On the twenty-ninth Kutuzov receives the title of Prince, which might mean a wish to get rid of him, so Vasili's opinion still holds, though he is in no hurry to express it. On the eighth of August a committee of Field Marshal Saltykov, Arakcheev, Vyazmitinov, Lopukhin, and Kochubey concludes that failures come from want of unity in command. Despite the Emperor's dislike, they advise Kutuzov's appointment. That same day he is made commander in chief with full powers over the armies and the region they occupy. On the ninth Vasili at Anna Pavlovna's meets the man of great merit, who wants to be director of a girls' educational establishment. Vasili enters as a happy conqueror: Prince Kutuzov is field marshal! At last we have a man! The man of great merit cannot resist reminding him they say he is blind. Nonsense. He sees well enough. What pleases Vasili is that the sovereign has given powers no commander in chief ever had. He is a second autocrat. Anna Pavlovna says God grant it, and that perhaps the heart took no part in the Emperor's speech. Vasili will not now yield Kutuzov to anyone. He whispers that Kutuzov made it a condition the Tsarevich should not be with the army: I can neither punish him if he does wrong nor reward him if he does right. When the novice adds that his excellency made it a condition the sovereign himself should not be with the army, Vasili and Anna Pavlovna turn away and glance sadly at one another at his naivete.