How does Tolstoy describe Freemasonry in War and Peace? and got the best answer
Answer from Alexey Khoroshev[guru]
Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" was published at a time when Masonic societies in Russia had long been banned. But the events of the novel take us to the first decades of the 19th century, when Freemasonry flourished in Russia. It is known that Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov was a Freemason, he was looking for an opportunity in the brotherhood to comprehend and comprehend the world. His Masonic history begins in 1779: in the German city of Regensburg, he became involved in the sacraments of the order. Later, traveling around Europe, Kutuzov entered the lodges of Frankfurt and Berlin, and upon his return to Russia in 1783, he was recognized by the lodges of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Mikhail Illarionovich enjoyed great prestige among Masons of various degrees. At the initiation into the seventh degree of Swedish Freemasonry, Kutuzov was given the order name Green Laurels and the motto “Glorify yourself with victories”. This motto was fully consistent with the life of the commander.
Kutuzov gave more than 30 years to the brotherhood, it was he who stopped Napoleon, the demon of violence and lust for power in the understanding of freemasons, thereby realizing the main goal of the order - to achieve peace and tranquility. In Tolstoy's novel, Kutuzov is already a person with established convictions, he is not tormented by doubts as it happens with Pierre Bezukhov, who is just worried about questions of moral self-improvement. The bearer of these ideas in the novel "War and Peace" is Iosif Alekseevich Bazdeev, who made a strong impression on Pierre with his passionate sermon. The image of Bazdeev is written from a real person - Joseph Alekseevich Pozdeev, very popular among Moscow Masons. This circumstance, apparently, forced us to leave the name and patronymic of the character unchanged and make minor changes to his surname.
Favorite heroes of Leo Tolstoy go through a difficult spiritual path in a painful search for truth. They are carried away by false ideas, they are mistaken, they change internally, and in the end they approach the ideal of simplicity.
The admission of Pierre Bezukhov to the Masonic society falls on a difficult period of his life associated with his marriage to Helen Kuragina. He suffers, realizing that not only was he deceived, but also deceived others. He considered himself guilty that he married without loving - this plunges Pierre into a deep crisis. “What's wrong? What well? What should you love, what should you hate? What is life for and what am I? What is life, what is death? What power controls everything? he asks himself. These reflections on the meaning of life are characteristic of Tolstoy's positive heroes.
Pierre's coming to Freemasonry was an important event, as it would help to find an outlet for his inner turmoil. He “thought and thought and thought and thought,” the author reports. But the more he thought, the “darker, more confused and hopeless the past, the future and, most importantly, the present seemed to him.”
During such reflections, when Pierre was immersed "in the highest warehouse of thoughts that a person can reach," at that moment an unfamiliar person entered the room. It was the old freemason Bazdeev, who came to Pierre to convert him. He immediately began a conversation about Freemasonry, offered to introduce Pierre into the “brotherhood of freemasons”, where he would find peace. In the penetrating look of the freemason, Pierre “felt hope and reassurance.” A week later, Bezukhov's reception was scheduled "to the St. Petersburg Lodge of the Northern Lights." Pierre was accepted into the lodge with all the rituals observed. The new life instilled new strength in Pierre, and after initiation into the Freemasons, he was “cheerful and restrained, as if joking at the whole world, knowing the truth.”
From the day of admission to the "brotherhood of Masons" for Pierre, "a new life began - activity and self-satisfaction." Soon, Pierre, supported by the Masonic brothers in his long-standing intentions, went to the estates "with a very clearly defined purpose: to benefit his twenty thousand souls of peasants."
Pierre finds the meaning of life in the philosophy of moral self-improvement as a means of eliminating evil in himself and the world.
Historians and literary critics have repeatedly raised the question of how reliable the image of Freemasonry in Tolstoy and the prototypes of the image of Bezukhov. To the second question, Tolstoy himself answered more than once that, with the exception of two characters (Denisov and Akhrosimova), all the other heroes of the novel are fictitious, or rather, collected from very many specific people according to the smallest lines. Even such historical figures as Bonaparte and Alexander are described by Tolstoy in a rather peculiar way. As for the first question, there is undoubtedly more reliable and accurate. Tolstoy used sources with extraordinary reliability, and he had many of them, and they were all excellent. In the closed funds of the main Russian Library, even today such inexhaustible riches are hidden, which no other book collection in the world can boast of. Special repositories for Masonic publications and manuscripts alone occupy many floors of a huge building and this is known to all. Not everyone, however, manages to look at them. In Tolstoy's time, all this was, of course, available. Therefore, speeches and individual words - always taken in quotation marks - as well as Pierre's diary, were copied verbatim in the library, where a collection of rituals with Tolstoy's autographs is still kept. However, some inaccuracies are also striking. Firstly, it is said that Pierre's heart "did not lie to the mystical side of Freemasonry", and Tolstoy also repeats this twice. But in this case, Pierre could not have been a student and admirer of Bazdeev (Pozdneev), who was one of the most profound mystics who did not recognize Freemasonry outside of Orthodox Christian mysticism ...
The improbability of a trip “for the purpose of Masonic secrets abroad at the beginning of the 19th century is also obvious. Such a trip could only take place during Catherine's time. It was inspired, obviously, by the trip of Schwartz or the journey of V.I. Zinoviev, but, of course, in the 19th century there was no need to go ...
However, all these inaccuracies are not significant compared to how accurately and penetratingly the great writer conveyed the main meaning and meaning of belonging to the brotherhood of freemasons. And this despite the fact that Tolstoy himself was rather wary of Freemasonry, because at the time when he lived and worked, Russian Freemasonry began to degenerate, acquiring more and more features of the political organizations of future extremists - the Bolsheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries. Tolstoy opposed the philosophical arguments of Platon Karataev to Masonic teachings. This opposition of "Karataev's truth to the Masonic labyrinth of lies, which Pierre, who was disillusioned with Freemasonry, felt," sounds like a condemnation of Freemasonry, which Tolstoy wanted to express, projecting, apparently, voluntarily or involuntarily, contemporary Russian Freemasonry to the entire history of the world order.
And yet, in the sense of popularizing the brotherhood of freemasons, Tolstoy's epic probably did no less than all historical literature, and made it so that in the circles of the intelligentsia they loved and appreciated the old Russian Freemasonry. A deep reader could always understand that Pierre's throwing and disappointments are connected with his personal drama, that he himself is partly to blame for the failures and blows of fate experienced. And more than once, as the author testifies, Freemasonry was for his hero not only a source of consolation, but also made it possible to rise to a great spiritual height. And these pages are written by Tolstoy with such brightness and persuasiveness that the impression from them does not fade despite subsequent hesitations and doubts. And even seventy With superfluous years of Soviet history, when official propaganda declared Freemasonry to be almost the main source of world evil, people continued to read War and Peace, and many began to believe, like Pierre, after a conversation with Bazdeev, “in the possibility of a brotherhood of people united in order to support each other on the path of virtue.
Based on the materials of the book by Yu. Vorobyevsky and E. Soboleva "The fifth angel sounded". Freemasonry in modern Russia. M: 2002.-500 p.
In the sense of popularizing the brotherhood of freemasons, L. Tolstoy's epic "War and Peace" probably did no less than all historical literature, and made it so that in the circles of the intelligentsia they loved and appreciated the old Russian Freemasonry. The reader could always understand that Pierre's throwing and disappointments are connected with his personal drama, that he himself is partly to blame for the failures and blows of fate he experienced. And more than once, as the author testifies, Freemasonry was for his hero not only a source of consolation, but also made it possible to rise to a great spiritual height. And these pages are written by Tolstoy with such brightness and persuasiveness that the impression from them does not fade, despite subsequent hesitations and doubts.
Leo Tolstoy is a cult character of the Russian intelligentsia.
At the age of 12, one of the authors was taken to Yamnaya Polyana to bow to the grave of the great writer. This grave, a mound without a cross, made a depressing impression. Of course, the pioneer did not know then that Tolstoy himself bequeathed to bury himself without "the so-called worship service, but to bury the body so that it does not stink." So they buried it. Like a dog. And, as if over a suicide, they did not put up a cross.
Well, he was a spiritual suicide. The grave became, of course, a place of worship. Found all the signs of a religious monument. Shortly after the death of the count, on August 28, 1911, his faithful disciple Biryukov and his comrades arrived here. They laid flowers. Biryukov's ten-year-old son bent down to correct them, and suddenly cried out loudly. The father saw with horror that the right arm of the child was entwined with a viper that had bitten the boy ... Vipers were not seen in these places, the investigation established, and the appearance of a gray snake three-quarters of a arshin long is a mystery. At the same time, a snake hole was discovered in the grave of the writer.
The creeping "wisdom" of this sinner will sting from the grave for a long time to come. No, it was not for nothing that Lenin almost affectionately called Tolstoy the mirror of the Russian revolution. In general, there is a curious connection between these two characters, woven from a whole series of coincidences (?). In Anna Karenina, the prototype of the revolutionary demons, the “new man,” the suicidal intellectual who finds the “anchor of salvation” in the revolution, bears the surname Levin. Such was one of Lenin's first pseudonyms. Too frank, pointing to Levitical roots (like the surname K, Marx - Levi). In the early version of the novel, this Levin called Nikolai Lenin. Such, as you know, is the next pseudonym of the "leader of the world proletariat" and the future "cadaver".
In school and college programs, it was always silent that Tolstoy was not just a writer. After all, he threatened to create his own religion. Allegedly Christian, but without Christ. What is the volume of various "teachings" he collected - from all religious traditions and from all kinds of philosophers worth. In these quite ecumenical "Four Menaions" it is prescribed what kind of "wisdom" should be read on this or that day of the year. And here is an entry in the writer's diary dated April 20, 1889: “A new worldview and movement is maturing in the world, and it seems that participation is required from me - its proclamation. As if for this purpose I was purposely made by what I am with my reputation - made by a bell.
Truly messianic ambition! They were developed in Tolstoy by a certain voice. Here is an entry dated May 25 of the same year: “At night I heard a voice demanding the denunciation of the errors of the world. This night, a voice told me that the time had come to expose the evil of the world ... We must not delay and delay. There is nothing to be afraid of, nothing to think about, how and what to say.
The blasphemer galloped around the Yasnaya Polyana neighborhood on a bay stallion, whom he called Bes. And an invisible demon sat behind the count. As on the ancient seal of the knights-templars - two riders on one horse. Well, the ancient ancestor of the writer belonged to the Templar family. Having shied away from the fire of the Inquisition, he arrived in Rus' in the fourteenth century. And the terrible cry of Jacques de Molay, his cry from the flame: "Vengeance, Adonai, vengeance!" - through the centuries sounded in the soul of the Templar descendant.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Lev Nikolayevich received specific intellectual training. It began with his desire to learn the Hebrew language. The Moscow rabbi Solomon Moiseevich Minor (real name Zalkind) became a teacher.
Tolstoy, whose family is considered to be the knight-templar Count Henri de Mons, archetypally accurately reproduced the Templar appeal to Judaism for "wisdom". After some time of study, Minor stated: “He (Tolstoy) also knows the Talmud. In his stormy striving for the truth, almost at every lesson he asked me about the moral views of the Talmud, about the interpretation of biblical legends by the Talmudists, and, in addition, he drew his information from the book “The Worldview of the Talmudists” written in Russian.
Tips from teachers are heard in many of Tolstoy's texts. For example, that it is not Christianity that truly lives, but “socialism, communism, political and economic theories, utilitarianism.” The spirit of Talmudic Christ-hatred, mundane practicality, Jewish messianism disguised as communism still wafts over these words.
About the demons of the future revolution, the murderers of Alexander II, Tolstoy speaks as follows: "the best, highly moral, selfless, kind people, such as Perovskaya, Osinsky, Lizogub and many others." About Freemasonry: "I have great respect for this organization and I believe that Freemasonry has done a lot of good for mankind." And here is about the “persecuted people”: From a letter to V.S. Solovyov, who drew up a “Declaration against anti-Semitism” in 1890: - “I know in advance that if you, Vladimir Sergeevich, express what you think about this subject, then you express my thoughts and feelings, because the basis of our disgust with the measures of oppression of the Jewish nationality is the same: the consciousness of fraternal ties with all peoples, and even more so with the Jews, among whom Christ was born and who suffered so much and continue to suffer from pagan ignorance so called Christians.
And more quotes:
- “The fact that I reject the incomprehensible trinity and ... the blasphemous theory of a god born of a virgin, redeeming the human race, is completely fair.” - “Look at the activities of the clergy among the people, and you will see that one idolatry is preached and intensively introduced: raising icons, blessing water, wearing miraculous icons from home, glorifying relics, carrying crosses, etc.”
- "In the consecration of the oil, as well as in the chrismation, I see the reception of gross witchcraft, as well as in the veneration of icons and relics, as well as in all those rites, prayers, spells."
He considered all this to be the "evil of the world." By the hand of the one who heard the “voices”, Tolstoy saw, apparently, the same character as in his time and by the hand of the Chief Procurator of the Synod Melissino, and later Lenin. Terrible words about God were written by the count. But what were the intonations! What annoyance with which all this was said! What were the eyes! In the memoirs of contemporaries, truly inhuman malice appears before us.
Talmudic sophistication is the main thing in Lev Nikolaevich's attitude to sacred texts. The method of creating a heresy is perfectly shown in his article How to Read the Gospel. He advises to pick up a blue-red pencil and cross out in blue the places with which you do not agree, and underline in red those that you like. According to the personal Gospel composed in this way, one must live.
Tolstoy himself cut off the beginning and end of the Gospel (Incarnation and Resurrection). And in the middle, Christ was compelled to humbly ask the permission of the Yasnaya Polyana teacher of all mankind for each of his words. Everything - including Jesus, whom, in fact, Tolstoy takes as his disciple. Miracles Lev Nikolayevich forbade Jesus to work at all.
Why are they all - from Tolstoy to Melissino - so infuriated by the very fact of God's miracle? Because they themselves are not involved in it? Because it is not subject to the proud human will? It is strange that Tolstoy, who affirmed universal human solidarity in matters of ethics, who insisted that a person closed in his individualism is flawed, persistently wrote that one must agree with the best moral thoughts expressed by the teachers of all mankind and all peoples, did not extend this solidarity to the area of faith . He could not trust the religious experience of people - even those people whom he included among his teachers - he could not.
Once Tolstoy arrived at Optina Pustyn, but, due to his pride, he never crossed the threshold of the elder's cell. After the death of the blasphemer, Rabbi Ya. I. Maze said: "We will pray for Tolstoy as for a Jewish righteous man." Kagal did not forget the words of the count: - “A Jew is a holy being who extracted eternal fire from heaven and enlightened the earth and those living on it with it. He is the spring and source from which all other peoples drew their religions and beliefs....
The Jew is the discoverer of freedom. Even in those primitive times, when the people were divided into two classes, into masters and slaves, Moses' teaching forbade keeping a person in slavery for more than six years.
The Jew is a symbol of civil and religious tolerance. In the matter of religious tolerance, the Jewish religion is not only far from recruiting adherents, but, on the contrary, the Talmud prescribes that if a non-Jew wants to convert to the Jewish faith, then he should explain to him how hard it is to be a Jew, and that the righteous of other peoples will also inherit the kingdom of heaven ... The Jew is eternal. He is the personification of eternity." Oh, soon, very soon, the "eternal Jew" will show Russia both his holiness, and his culture, and his religious tolerance...
