History creates heroes, the narrator suggests, because events influence the actions of those living through them. Random happenstance and chance encounters dictate the course of history far more than the will or the ambition of a single person. For example, a Russian soldier prompts the battle at Tarutino when he happens across the French encampment while hunting rabbits. Neither Kutuzov nor Napoleon instigates this important battle.

Before Tarutino, the French have twice as many men as the Russians, as well as all the wealth and supplies that they looted from the evacuated Moscow. However, the French do not attack the Russians, despite their many advantages, nor do they try to find winter supplies. The narrator believes that these decisions show the French do the most damage to themselves. For all Napoleon’s genius, he cannot overcome the random, inevitable course of history.

After being defeated at Tarutino, Napoleon leaves a small force in Moscow and moves the rest of the army out—all of Napoleon’s efforts to restore order in Moscow have failed. The maneuver becomes complicated as the entire French army flees the city, laden with ransacked treasure. Even Napoleon has a large collection of loot. The army passes out of Moscow and into the Russian countryside.