Retreat from Moscow - the generals confer

Wait a minute? Didn't the Russians win the battle of Borodino, routing the French army? But winning a battle isn't enough. Gereral Kutozov knew that his forces were too depleted to attack the French the day after the battle. He begins a retreat, not just back to Moscow but beyond. Does this make any sense? It certainly gives Tolstoy the opportunity to further expound on his theory of history (beginning now 3rd section of volume 3), the most didactic single chapter in the book (and yes, here, oddly, he does use metaphors, or at least analogies - turning fiction on its head and being more "literary" in style in the expository sections of War and Peace than in the descriptive narratives). History is not made by great leaders, nor by single decisive events. The forces of history are the thousands, millions of forces at work in the lives of all citizens. Tolstoy obviously stands at the beginning of contemporary methods in historical studies - lives of workers, serfs, popular culture, etc. My sense is this movement was already well afoot (Marx's own historical writings touch on this, although my memory of books like Marx's 18th Brumaire is that they did still focus on great men). Tolstoy was probably popularizing a movement that was just then nascent in academia and is now, I think, dominant - for good reason. War and Peace is the literary demonstration of its principles. The generals confer in the rather large but rudimentary home of a peasant or serf. Kutozov, as is his way, says very little, sighs and moans, lets the others fight it out, then tells them of his decision: They have to abandon Moscow and retreat farther east. Tactically, it may be smart move, but it seems a very tough call for a general, especially after a victory. This scene is observed by a little peasant girl - she thinks of Kutozov as "grampa," in another strange but signature Tolstoy techniques. He doesn't exactly use these "outsiders" as the POV, in that we don't enter the girl's (or, earlier for example, Pierre's consciousness - we are outside, godlike), but the outsider represents a point of reference, they help us to feel that others could gain entry to these scenes, whether private meeting, a party, a battle, a duel, and see the events much as we might. These characters are standins not for the author but for the reader.