Briggs: Bennigsen explains the army position; it is all beyond Pierre.
Maude: Pierre rides to the left flank with Bennigsen who explains the 'position' in a way Pierre does not understand, and changes one of Kutuzov's dispositions
Pevear and Volokhonsky: The Russian disposition from Gorki to the extreme left flank.
Translation:
XXIII.
Bennigsen from Gorky came down by the big road to the bridge, at which Pierre was pointed out by the officer from the mound, as at the center of positions, and at which the guard lied ranks of beveled smelling hay grass. Across the bridge they drove through the village of Borodino, from there turning to the left and past a huge quantity of troops and guns left of the high mound, at which the militias dug the land. This was the redoubt, still not having a title, then receiving the name of the redoubt of Raevsky or the barrow battery.
Pierre did not turn particular attention to this redoubt. He did not know that this place would for him be more memorable than all the places of the Borodino field. Then they went across the ravine to Semenovsky, at which the soldiers pulled away the last logs of the huts and barns. Then under the mountain and at the mountain they drove forward across the break, knocked out as by hail rye, again paved by the artillery the thorns of arable land the road in flushes,669 also then digging still.
Bennigsen had stopped at the flushes and began to look forward at the Shevardin redoubt (formerly, still yesterday, ours), at which could be seen a few riders. The officers said that there was Napoleon or Murat. And all greedily looked at this bunch of riders. Pierre also watched there, trying to guess which of these a little bit seen people was Napoleon. Finally the horsemen moved out from the mound and hid.
Bennigsen turned to an approaching to him general and began to explain all the position of our troops. Pierre listened to the words of Bennigsen, straining all his mental forces so to understand the essence of the lying ahead battle, but with chagrin felt that his mental abilities for this were insufficient. He understood nothing. Bennigsen ceased to speak and, noticing the figure of the listening Pierre, spoke suddenly to him.
— You, I think, are not interested?
— Ah, the opposite, very interested, — repeated Pierre, not really truly.
From the flush they went more to the dear left, curly by the often low, birch wood. In the middle of this forest jumped out before them at the road a brown with white feet hare, and, scared by the stomp of the quantity of horses, it was so confused that it for long hopped by the road ahead of them, exciting common attention and laughing, and only when a few voices shouted at it, it rushed to the side and hid more often. Driving two versts by the wood, they left to the clearing, at which were standing the troops of the corps of Tuchkov, who should protect the left flank.
Here, at the extreme left flank, Bennigsen much and hotly spoke and did, as it seemed to Pierre, the majority in the military regarding the disposition. Ahead of the location the troops of Tuchkov were found in elevation. This elevation was not occupied by troops. Bennigsen loudly criticized this mistake, saying that it was crazy to leave unoccupied the commander of the terrain at this height and put troops below it. Some generals expressed that same opinion. One in particular with military fervor spoke about how they were put here to be slaughtered. Bennigsen ordered by his name to move the troops at the height.
This disposition at the left flank still more made Pierre doubt in his abilities to understand military business. Listening to Bennigsen and the generals, condemning the position of the troops below the mountain, Pierre quite understood them and shared their opinion; but owing to this he could not understand in what way could that who put them here below the mountain could make such an obvious and brutal mistake.
Pierre did not know that these troops were delivered not for the defense of the positions, as thought Bennigsen, but were delivered in a hidden place for ambush, i.e. so that to be unnoticed and to suddenly hit at the moving forward enemy. Bennigsen did not know this and moved the troops forward by special considerations, not telling about this to the commander in chief.
669
A kind of strengthening. [Note. L.N. Tolstoy]
Locations: Gorki, Borodino, Raevski redoubt (also called the Mound Battery. battery of the barrow in Pevear and Volokhonsky. battery on the mound in Briggs. Knoll Battery in Maude, Dunnigan, and Mandelker (who uses a hyphen).), Semenovskoe, Shevardino redoubt
Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: Tolstoy gives us dramatic historic irony by pointing out the Raevsky redoubt that would become famous, only for the characters, especially Pierre, to gloss over it in preparation for the battle. Tolstoy adds a footnote to clarify "fleches" rather than just using "a kind of fortification" for some reason. There is a clear disconnect between Bennigsen and Pierre. For the most part, the chapter lays out the positioning of the troops. Pierre does not understand any of it. The most important part however (and in a subversion of the usual Tolstoyian trope of the simple seeing the flaws in the complicated) comes at the end of the chapter, where Bennigsen moves troops Kutuzov had placed for an ambush and not telling him, highlighting the problem of lack of communication and agreement in the Russian military.
Characters (characters who do not appear, but are mentioned are placed in italics. First appearances are in Bold. First mentions are underlined. Final appearance denoted by *):
Abridged Versions: End of Chapter 1 in Bell. Edmonds, Briggs, and Garnett do not put the footnote.
Gibian: Chapter 23.
Fuller: Chapter ends, with a line break, after the horses they see while trying to look for Napoleon, ride out of sight. This leaves out the movement of the troops by Benigsen.
Komroff: Entire chapter is cut.
Kropotkin: Entire chapter is cut.
Bromfield: Pierre is chewing meatballs while lying about the positions being interesting, which adds some humor. After the episode with Bennigsen, Pierre goes back to Kutaisov and Kutuzov. Here is where Dolokhov appears and he takes Boris's role in the last chapter in the latter version by talking about how they need to beef up the left flank. End of chapter 10.
Simmons: Chapter 23: entire chapter is cut and replaced with "Bennigsen shows Pierre the position of the Russian forces before the battle of Borodino and also alters one of Kutuzov's dispositions without understanding its purpose."
Additional Notes:
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