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to the invader. He was torn to the quick by hisfailure to save Moscow. He was inflexibly determinedsomehow to eject the French from Russia, but he mustsave his army the terrible losses suffered at Borodino(43,000 out of 110,000). Hence his much-criticizeddelaying, 'parallel' strategy during the French retreat.Twice, at Krasnoe and at the passage of the Berezina,the Russians failed to inflict a mortal blow. But Kutuzovsensed that, once the retreat was under way, the cumulativemomentum of disorder in so composite an army,strung out along an already ravaged route, might causeits complete disintegration when the Cossacks, guerrillas,and winter destroyed cohesion. Russia might be freedwithout a major battle and therefore major casualties.Even so, the pursuit was costly enough for the Russians;for the time being Kutuzov lost two-thirds of his men,including sick and stragglers.But for the French the retreat was a catastrophe.That year the great cold came six weeks earlier than forforty years past, and thereby ruined the reckoning ofNapoleon's experts. The horses succumbed first, leavingguns and transport immobilized. Then the tighteninggrip of winter, lack of supplies, and the harassing of theRussians broke morale, and the Grand Army dwindledand dwindled, in the end to mere bunches of crushedfugitives. The spell was broken for all Europe. Russiahad destroyed the greatest army that Napoleon ever putinto the field.Kutuzov and others highly placed wanted to stand onthe frontier. Russia had been saved; she was fearfullyexhausted; it was not her task to save Europe. Alexanderthought it was; or at least his; and for the time beinghe probably had the bulk of Russian opinion with him.Later, his prolonged absences in the West, his immersionin its affairs, and above all his policy towards the Poles(see pp. 215-216) led to much criticism that Russianinterests were being sacrificed to some vague entity calledthe concert of powers or to Alexander's " philanthropicand Christian Utopias,'' as a Russian critic latercomplained.At least there could be no complaint that Russia was404