This, then, is the significance of the battle of Tarutino: It signifies the transition from retreat to attack for the Russians, it exposes the weakness of the French, and it provides the shock that puts the Grande Armée to flight.
Pierre is regenerated since that day of execution which killed the thoughts and feelings he felt were so important. Stripped of all the superfluities of civilization — his title, his conveniences, his search for self-sacrifice — he has found the inner harmony he has yearned for. His four weeks of hardship create only basic demands for food, cleanliness, and freedom. The men in the barracks like him and respect him. The very peculiarities that used to embarrass him in civilized society — his strength, his disdain for comforts, his absent-mindedness, his good nature — now give him the prestige of a hero among his comrades.
The night of October 6 begins the retreat of the French. Among the drumbeats that drown the groans of the sick prisoners, Pierre begins to feel afraid. It is here again — the mysterious, unsympathetic force that drives men, against their wills, to do their fellow creatures to death. It is the force he felt at the execution. At the end of the first day of a grueling march, Pierre walks among the campfires. Suddenly he laughs a hearty, good-humored laugh. He laughs at the imprisonment that has freed him, for his immortal soul is still his. Gazing at the sky, at the distant forests and boundless fields, he muses,"All that is mine, all that is in me, and all that is I." And all this they caught and shut up in a shed closed in with boards! He falls asleep still smiling.
When he receives the news that Napoleon has evacuated the entire army from Moscow, Kutuzov weeps for joy at the proof of what he suspected: The doomed French have fled from Moscow and recoil in blind panic from Russian soil. From now on his aim is to avoid losing his men unnecessarily and to avoid, as well, obstructing the French retreat out of Russia. On the other hand, Kutuzov knows he cannot prevent his men from attacking the helpless enemy, for he realizes how eager men and officers are to distinguish themselves in battle. Kutuzov is correct; from now on the French retreat with increasing rapidity. As the army goes along, troops melt away, each man desiring to be taken prisoner and escape the horrors and miseries of his position.
