The Power of Shared Purpose — War and Peace

Eighty thousand allied troops form before Olmütz as the Russian and Austrian emperors review Kutúzov's army and fresh arrivals from Russia. Every soldier feels both a drop in the ocean and part of an enormous whole; when Alexander approaches, silent regiments burst into deafening hurrahs.

Rostóv trembles at the Tsar's nearness and would die at one word. He forgives yesterday's quarrel with Bolkónski when he spots him in the suite, then rides Bedouin past the Emperor until Alexander calls the Pávlograds fine fellows.

After the review officers buzz with certainty that victory under the sovereign is inevitable. Tolstoy shows how pageantry binds devotion faster than argument, and how private grievances dissolve in collective rapture until romance meets war.