Field Marshal Kutuzov

Kutuzov dies shortly after the French retreat from Russia, having fulfilled his historical purpose as presented by Tolstoy. He does not die in battle or from a specific illness detailed by Tolstoy; instead, the novel frames his death as a quiet completion—once Russia is saved and further killing avoided, the old marshal simply has nothing left to do.

At the Fili council, Kutuzov overrules his generals and surrenders Moscow to preserve the Russian army, reasoning as Tolstoy records that "to save Russia we must lose Moscow." He believes that the army's survival matters more than the city, and that Napoleon, cut off and overextended, will lead to his own destruction. This decision costs Kutuzov public favor but is validated by the ensuing French catastrophe.

Andrei serves on Kutuzov's staff and is one of the few officers whom the marshal genuinely respects, affectionately calling him "my dear boy." Kutuzov weeps upon learning of Andrei's mortal wounding at Borodino, recognizing the loss of one of Russia's finest. Their bond reflects the novel's central tension between Andrei's restless desire for Napoleonic glory and Kutuzov's serene acceptance of circumstances.

Kutuzov insists that Russia is already victorious and that further bloodshed is unnecessary and wrong. He resists intense pressure from subordinates like Bennigsen, arguing that allowing the Grande Armée to destroy itself through winter and starvation achieves the same end without further loss of Russian lives. This humane restraint alienates ambitious colleagues but, in Tolstoy's view, confirms his moral and strategic superiority.

Tolstoy presents Kutuzov's dozing as a deliberate philosophical statement rather than senility. By falling asleep at councils — most famously while the Austrian general Weyrother reads the Austerlitz battle plan — Kutuzov signals his contempt for strategy that is disconnected from human and spiritual reality. His trust lies in the collective spirit of the army, not in any general's diagram, and sleep serves as his wordless refusal to act otherwise.

Kutuzov is clearly heroic in Tolstoy's presentation — the novel's moral and philosophical ideal of leadership. He stands in direct contrast to Napoleon: while Napoleon imposes his ego on events, Kutuzov interprets events and yields to them. His physical decay — obese, half-blind, and seemingly narcoleptic — is Tolstoy's ironic device to illustrate that true far-sightedness has nothing to do with conventional martial vigor.

At Austerlitz, Kutuzov commands under allied constraints, his skepticism of the imposed plan overruled by the Austrian staff; the Russian-Austrian defeat vindicates his grim silence. By 1812, he is appointed commander-in-chief despite court opposition, exercising full authority by surrendering Moscow, allowing the French to exhaust themselves, and resisting pursuit — implementing on a grand scale the patient philosophy he could only witness being ignored in 1805.

Kutuzov embodies Tolstoy's central argument against the "great man" theory of history: that vast events are shaped by the collective human spirit, not by individual genius. He succeeds because he does not try to impose his will, instead reading the true current of events and refusing to obstruct it. His greatness, according to Tolstoy, lies in knowing when not to act — a radical reversal of conventional heroism.