Chapter 24
This chapter is about Count Rostopchin. I can't remember who he is. I looked it up, and apparently he is a real person and the mayor of Moscow. He's offended that he's not been asked to be part of the council of war and because Kutuzov wasn't interested in his plan to defend Moscow. No one seems interested in patriotism at all, being more interested in not-dying, and no one wants to fight another battle, leaving Rostopchin very confused. Rostopchin has just been woken from his beauty sleep with orders from Kutuzov regarding the abandonment of Moscow. Tolstoy now refers to Rostopchin's later memoirs regarding what he was thinking. Apparently, his goals were to "maintain tranquility in Moscow and expedite the departure of the inhabitants". Tolstoy does not believe him, and also claims that Rostopchin "had no understanding at all of the people he supposed himself to be guiding". Basically, he's been putting on the equivalent of a Cockney accent, saying "apples and pears" and then being really pleased with himself for communicating so well with the commoners. Tolstoy posits that Rostopchin didn't want to lose that feeling of power when Moscow was emptied, since his whole position - and the one he's been pushing on the city - is about standing up to the French. In sulking over this, he's failed to do his actual job, which is to remove state property from Moscow, and now he's mad at Kutuzov about that. He's shouting out the few orders he can be bothered to give, including that all the prisoners should immediately be freed from the prisons, except Vereshchagin, who should be brought to him, since he's not been hanged yet. Vereshchagin is also a real person.
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