History of the creation of the novel
"War and Peace"
L. N. Tolstoy worked on the novel "War and Peace" from 1863 to 1869. The creation of a large-scale historical and artistic canvas required enormous efforts from the writer. So, in 1869, in the drafts of the Epilogue, Lev Nikolayevich recalled the "painful and joyful perseverance and excitement" experienced by him in the process of work.
The manuscripts of "War and Peace" testify to how one of the world's largest creations was created: over 5,200 finely written sheets have been preserved in the writer's archive. From them you can trace the entire history of the creation of the novel.
The idea for "War and Peace" arose even earlier, when in 1856 Tolstoy began writing a novel about a Decembrist returning from Siberian exile to Russia. At the beginning of 1861, the author read the first chapters of the new novel "The Decembrists" to I. S. Turgenev.
The action of the novel began in 1856, shortly before the abolition of serfdom. But then the writer revised his plan and moved on to 1825, the era of the Decembrist uprising. But soon the writer abandoned this beginning and decided to show the youth of his hero, which coincided with the formidable and glorious times of the Patriotic War of 1812. But Tolstoy did not stop there, and since the war of 1812 was inextricably linked with 1805, he began his entire work from that time. Having moved the beginning of the action of his novel half a century into the depths of history, Tolstoy decided to lead not one, but many heroes through the most important events for Russia.
The year of birth of the novel "War and Peace" is considered to be 1863.
During the first year of work, Tolstoy worked hard on the beginning of the novel. According to the author himself, many times he started and stopped writing his book, losing and gaining hope to express in it everything that he wanted to express. Fifteen variants of the beginning of the novel have been preserved in the writer's archive. The idea of the work was based on Tolstoy's deep interest in history, in philosophical and socio-political issues. The work was created in an atmosphere of boiling passions around the main issue of that era - about the role of the people in the history of the country, about its destinies. While working on the novel, Tolstoy sought to find the answer to these questions.
Contrary to the writer's hopes for the imminent birth of his literary offspring, the first chapters of the novel began to appear in print only from 1867. And for the next two years, work on it continued.
They were not yet entitled "War and Peace", moreover, they were subsequently subjected to severe editing by the author.
Tolstoy called his idea - to capture in art form the half-century history of the country - "Three pores". The first time is the beginning of the century, its first decade and a half, the youth of the first Decembrists who went through the Patriotic War of 1812. The second time is the 20s with their main event - the uprising on December 14, 1825. The third time is the 50s, the end of the Crimean War, unsuccessful for the Russian army, the sudden death of Nicholas I, the amnesty of the Decembrists, their return from exile and the time of waiting for changes in the life of Russia.
However, in the process of working on the work, the writer narrowed the scope of his original idea and focused on the first period, touching only on the beginning of the second period in the epilogue of the novel. But even in this form, the idea of the work remained global in scope and demanded the exertion of all forces from the writer. At the beginning of his work, Tolstoy realized that the usual framework of the novel and historical story would not be able to accommodate all the richness of the content he had conceived, and he began to persistently look for a new artistic form, he wanted to create a literary work of a completely unusual type. And he succeeded. "War and Peace", according to L.N. Tolstoy is not a novel, not a poem, not a historical chronicle, it is an epic novel, a new genre of prose, which, after Tolstoy, became widespread in Russian and world literature.
Tolstoy refused the first version of the title of the novel - "Three Pores", since in this case the narrative should have begun with the Patriotic War of 1812. Another version - "One thousand eight hundred and fifth year" - also did not correspond to the author's intention. In 1866, a new title of the novel appeared: "All is well that ends well", corresponding to the happy ending of the work. However, this option did not reflect the scale of the action, and was also rejected by the author.
Finally, at the end of 1867, the final name "War and Peace" appeared. In the manuscript, the word "peace" was written with the letter "i". "The Explanatory Dictionary of the Great Russian Language" by V. I. Dal broadly explains the word "world": "The world is the universe; one of the lands of the universe; our earth, the globe, light; all people, the whole world, the human race; community, society of peasants; gathering". Without a doubt, it was precisely this symbolic understanding of this word that Tolstoy had in mind when he included it in the title.
The last volume of "War and Peace" was published in December 1869, thirteen years after the concept of the work about the exiled Decembrist arose.
The second edition of the novel was published with minor revisions by the author in 1868 - 1869, in fact, simultaneously with the release of the first. In the third edition of War and Peace, published in 1873, the writer made significant changes. Part of his "military, historical and philosophical discourses", according to the author, was taken out of the novel and included in the Articles on the Campaign of 1812. In the same edition, L. N. Tolstoy translated into Russian most of the French text. On this occasion, he said that "sometimes I felt sorry for the destruction of the French." The need for translation was caused by bewilderment that arose among readers due to the excessive abundance of French speech. In the next edition of the novel, the previous six volumes were reduced to four.
In 1886, the last, fifth lifetime edition of "War and Peace" was published, which became the standard. In it, the writer restored the text of the novel according to the edition of 1868-1869, returning to it historical and philosophical reasoning and the French text. The final volume of the novel was four volumes.
In order to truthfully describe the events of the Patriotic War of 1812, the writer studied a huge amount of materials: books, historical documents, memoirs, letters. “When I write history,” Tolstoy pointed out in the article “A few words about the book“ War and Peace ”, “I like to be true to reality to the smallest detail.” While working on the work, he collected a whole library of books about the events of 1812. In the books of Russian and foreign historians, he did not find any truthful description of events, nor a fair assessment of historical figures. Some of them unrestrainedly praised Alexander I, considering him the winner of Napoleon, others exalted Napoleon, considering him invincible.
Rejecting all the works of historians who portrayed the war of 1812 as a war of two emperors, Tolstoy set himself the goal of truthfully highlighting the events of the great era and showed the liberation war waged by the Russian people against foreign invaders. From the books of Russian and foreign historians, Tolstoy borrowed only authentic historical documents: orders, orders, dispositions, battle plans, letters, etc. He included letters from Alexander I and Napoleon, which the Russian and French emperors exchanged before the start of the 1812 war, into the text of the novel; the disposition of the battle of Austerlitz, developed by General Weyrother, as well as the disposition of the battle of Borodino, compiled by Napoleon. The chapters of the work also include letters from Kutuzov, which confirm the characterization given to the field marshal by the author.
When creating the novel, Tolstoy used the memoirs of contemporaries and participants in the Patriotic War of 1812. So, from "Notes on 1812 by Sergei Glinka, the first warrior of the Moscow militia", the writer borrowed materials for scenes depicting Moscow during the war; in the "Works of Denis Vasilyevich Davydov" Tolstoy found the materials underlying the partisan scenes of "War and Peace"; in the "Notes of Alexei Petrovich Yermolov" the writer found a lot of important information about the actions of Russian troops during their foreign campaigns of 1805-1806. Tolstoy also discovered a lot of valuable information in the notes of V.A. Perovsky about his stay in captivity by the French, and in the diary of S. Zhikharev "Notes of a Contemporary from 1805 to 1819", on the basis of which the Moscow life of that time is described in the novel.
While working on the work, Tolstoy also used materials from newspapers and magazines from the era of the Patriotic War of 1812. He spent a lot of time in the manuscript department of the Rumyantsev Museum and in the archives of the palace department, where he carefully studied unpublished documents (orders and instructions, reports and reports, Masonic manuscripts and letters from historical figures). Here he got acquainted with the letters of the maid of honor of the imperial palace M.A. Volkova to V.A. Lanskoy, letters from General F.P. Uvarov and others. In letters that were not intended for publication, the writer found precious details depicting the life and characters of his contemporaries in 1812.
Tolstoy spent two days in Borodino. Having traveled around the battlefield, he wrote to his wife: “I am very pleased, very much, with my trip ... If only God would give health and tranquility, and I will write such a Battle of Borodino as has never happened before.” Between the manuscripts of "War and Peace" there is a sheet with notes made by Tolstoy at the time when he was on the Borodino field. “The distance is visible for 25 miles,” he wrote, sketching the horizon line and noting where the villages of Borodino, Gorki, Psarevo, Semenovskoye, Tatarinovo are located. On this sheet, he noted the movement of the sun during the battle. While working on the work, Tolstoy unfolded these brief notes into unique pictures of the Battle of Borodino, full of movement, colors and sounds.
More than a century has passed since the first part of the novel appeared in print, and people of all ages, from young people to the elderly, invariably read War and Peace.
The sixties of the 20th century are the time of Tolstoy's work on the novel "War and Peace" (1864-1869). These years were a period of great public excitement, intense confrontation that unfolded around the peasant question. The reform of 1861 on the abolition of serfdom did not essentially resolve the issue of the peasant, of his relationship with the master.
A large number of uprisings, with which the peasantry responded to the reform, clearly showed the discontent and indignation caused by the reform in the peasant masses. The problem of the "muzhik" still stood at the center of public life. Publicism and fiction raised the problems of the peasantry and the future of Russia with particular poignancy and trepidation.
Novels and stories are saturated with journalism, the topical essay genre is becoming popular. Interest in history is growing: the most important issues of the era are considered in the light of the historical past; public lectures on history are becoming commonplace. Tolstoy planned to push two epochs together: the era of the first revolutionary movement in Russia - the era of the Decembrists, and the sixties - the era of revolutionary democrats.
In the summer of 1863, Tolstoy began writing a story about a Decembrist who returned in 1856 from Siberia. But he soon abandoned what he had begun and moved on to 1825, the era of his hero's "delusions and misfortunes". So, moving away from 1856 to 1805, Tolstoy intends to "lead not one, but many ... heroes and heroines through the historical events of 1805, 1807,1812, 1825 and 1856." Tolstoy did not realize this grandiose plan. Focusing first on the events of 1805-1814, Tolstoy intensively collects and studies the materials he needs.
At the same time, he pays special attention to the memoirs and letters of people of that time, which would give him the opportunity to show the social atmosphere of the era and the home life of his heroes. At this stage of the writer's work, the "world" was in the center of his attention, and historical events were supposed to serve only as stages and background for the unfolding of the life of noble families. Two years later, Tolstoy comes to the intention to push the limits of the life he depicts. He had an idea for a historical novel. Historical figures and social life now came to the fore in the novel.
Their depiction required a great knowledge of the era and an understanding of the causes of the major historical events of the early 19th century. To acquire this knowledge, the writer studies Russian and foreign works about the war of 1812. Deciding at first to show only landlord Russia, the nobility, Tolstoy in the final version of the novel painted a broad picture of the life and mentality of landlord and peasant Russia.
In 1862, Tolstoy began to create the most extensive in terms of size and at the same time the greatest in terms of artistic merit - the novel "War and Peace". He worked on it under the most favorable external conditions, living almost without a break in Yasnaya Polyana, in a calm and cheerful mood, supported in him by a happy family life. Only under such conditions was it possible to create such a colossal work, with a huge mass of large and small figures outlined with equal vitality. Tolstoy worked on his work slowly, reworking and rewriting several times. Starting your work
Tolstoy thoroughly got acquainted with the era that he wanted to portray: he re-read a lot of historical and other scientific works relating to the era, notes and memoirs of his contemporaries, etc. He borrowed something from family memories: he depicted, for example, his mother in the face of the princess Marya Bolkonskaya, gave the character of Nikolai Rostov the features of his father, and in Prince Andrei he gave a portrait of one of his cousin uncles. In addition, Tolstoy also used various private, unpublished documents: letters, diaries, notes entrusted to him to study the era.
On the basis of this diverse material, he created his enormous picture of Russian life at one of the most important moments in its history. This picture is striking in its breadth of size and richness of content. If Belinsky once called "Eugene Onegin" "an encyclopedia of Russian life", then with even greater right this name fits Tolstoy's work.
One of the most fundamental and highly artistic prose works in the history of Russian literature is the epic novel War and Peace. The high ideological and compositional perfection of the work is the fruit of many years of work. The history of the creation of Tolstoy's War and Peace reflects the hard work on the novel from 1863 to 1870.
Interest in the themes of the Decembrists
The work is based on the Patriotic War of 1812, its reflection on the fate of people, the awakening of moral and patriotic feelings, the spiritual unity of the Russian people. However, before starting to create a story about the Patriotic War, the author changed his plans many times. For many years he was worried about the topic of the Decembrists, their role in the development of the state and the outcome of the uprising.
Tolstoy decided to write a work reflecting the story of the Decembrist, who returned in 1856 after a 30-year exile. The beginning of the story, according to Tolstoy's plan, was to begin in 1856. Later, the author decides to start his story from 1825 in order to show what reasons led the hero to exile. But having plunged into the abyss of historical events, the author felt the need to depict not only the fate of one hero, but the very Decembrist uprising, its origins.
original intent
The work was conceived as a story, and later the novel "The Decembrists", on which he worked in 1860-1861. Over time, the author is not satisfied only with the events of 1825 and comes to the understanding that it is necessary to reveal in the work the earlier historical events that formed the wave of the patriotic movement and the awakening of civil consciousness in Russia. But the author did not stop there either, realizing the inseparable connection between the events of 1812 and their origins, which date back to 1805. Thus, the idea of creative recreation of artistic and historical reality is planned by the author into a half-century large-scale picture, reflecting the events from 1805 to the 1850s.
"Three pores" in the history of Russia
The author called this idea of recreating historical reality "Three pores". The first of them was supposed to reflect the historical realities of the 19th century, which personified the conditions for the formation of young Decembrists. The next time is the 1820s - the moment of the formation of civic activity and the moral position of the Decembrists. The culmination of this historical period, according to Tolstoy, was a direct description of the Decembrist uprising, its defeat and consequences. The third period was conceived by the author as a recreation of the reality of the 50s, marked by the return of the Decembrists from exile under an amnesty in connection with the death of Nicholas I. The third part was to become the personification of the time of the long-awaited changes in the political atmosphere of Russia.
Such a global intention of the author, which consists in depicting a very wide time period filled with numerous and significant historical events, required great effort and artistic strength from the writer. The work, in the final of which it was planned to return Pierre Bezukhov and Natasha Rostova from exile, did not fit into the framework of not only a traditional historical story, but even a novel. Understanding this and realizing the importance of a detailed reconstruction of the pictures of the war of 1812 and its starting points, Lev Nikolayevich decides to narrow the historical scope of the planned work.
final art plan
In the final idea of the author, the extreme time point is the 20s of the 19th century, which the reader learns about only in the prologue, while the main events of the work coincide with historical reality from 1805 to 1812. Despite the fact that the author decided to convey the essence of the historical era more briefly, the book could not correspond to any of the traditional historical genres. The work, which combines detailed descriptions of all aspects of wartime and peacetime, resulted in a four-volume epic novel,
Work on a novel
Despite the fact that the author established himself with the final version of the artistic concept, the work on the work was not easy. During the seven-year period of its creation, the author repeatedly abandoned work on the novel and returned to it again. Numerous manuscripts of the work, kept in the writer's archive, numbering more than five thousand pages, testify to the features of the work. According to them, the history of the creation of the novel "War and Peace" can be traced.
There were 15 draft versions of the novel in the archive, which testifies to the author's ultimate responsibility for working on the work, a high degree of introspection and criticism. Realizing the importance of the topic, Tolstoy wanted to be as close as possible to the true historical facts, the philosophical and moral views of society, and the civic moods of the first quarter of the 19th century. To write the novel "War and Peace", the writer had to study a lot of memoirs of eyewitnesses of the war, historical documents and scientific works, personal letters. “When I write history, I like to be true to reality to the smallest detail,” Tolstoy said. As a result, it turned out that the writer unwittingly collected a whole collection of books dedicated to the events of 1812.
In addition to working on historical sources, for a reliable depiction of the events of the war, the author visited the places of military battles. It was these trips that formed the basis of the unique landscape sketches that turn the novel from a historical chronicle into a highly artistic work of literature.
The title of the work chosen by the author embodies the main idea. Peace, which lies in spiritual harmony and in the absence of hostilities in one's native land, can make a person truly happy. L.N. Tolstoy, who during the creation of the work wrote: “The goal of the artist is not to undeniably resolve the issue, but to make you love life in countless, never exhausted all its manifestations,” undoubtedly managed to realize his ideological plan.
Artwork test
The epic novel by Leo Tolstoy "War and Peace" is the standard of Russian classical literature. The novel was written for about seven years, work on this titanic work requires a separate story.
L. N. Tolstoy began writing "War and Peace" in the autumn of 1863. Literary critics and historians studying War and Peace rely primarily on the 5,200-page manuscript stored in the archive. The history of the creation of the novel is very well traced through the pages of the manuscript. An interesting fact is that initially Tolstoy conceived a novel about a participant in the Decembrist uprising who returned home from exile. As conceived by the author, the plot of the plot began in 1856. Then L. N. Tolstoy rethought his original idea and decided to write about 1825 - about the Decembrist uprising. The author did not stop there either, and he sent his hero during the years of the Patriotic War of 1812, but since this war is directly connected with 1805, the story began from there, from the young years of the hero.
The original idea was as follows: to capture 50 years of the country's history, dividing them into three periods:
- The beginning of the century (the wars with Napoleon, the growing up of future Decembrists);
- 1920s (the main event is the Decembrist uprising);
- Middle of the century (defeat in the Crimean War, sudden death of Nicholas I, amnesty for the participants in the uprising on Senate Square and their return to their native lands).
While writing his masterpiece, L. N. Tolstoy decided to shorten it and leave only the first period, slightly touching the second at the end of the work. Several times the author gave up writing the novel, for a whole year he wrote only one beginning, about 15 variants of the plot's plot remained in Tolstoy's archive. When writing, the author used historical books, memoirs, archival documents - the author wanted to be accurate to the smallest detail, which cannot but cause respect. L. N. Tolstoy also visited the Borodino field, he stayed there for two days. The author finished writing his great work in 1869, having spent a huge amount of effort on this.
One of the main goals of the writer was to depict not the struggle of the two emperors, but to show the liberation struggle of the people, and he succeeded. Tolstoy very skillfully described the secular life of St. Petersburg and military operations, which are very closely interconnected. There was no work like "War and Peace" in our literature, and no. This work is a huge layer of Russian (and not only) classical literature.
The history of the creation of Tolstoy's novel War and Peace
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy is the greatest world writer who, through his works, could reveal the essence of Russia, the life of her life and fully open his feelings to everything that was happening at that time.
One of these works, in which you can feel what is happening, and understand what the author saw, is the work "War and Peace". This novel belongs to the works of world scale, depicting very subtly the character and feelings of its characters. Through many years of effort, this is a work of art. Conquered the world. The main goal of the novel was the events that took place during the invasion of Napoleon's army, which began their journey through the lands of Europe and reached the Russian lands. These events were reflected in the feelings of Lev Nikolaevich, and he expressed this in his letters, which he sent with experience to his relatives in other cities.
His literary skills made it possible to colorfully display in his work all the details of both the personal lives of the heroes of all these events, and to cover the scale of the grandiose battle. Thanks to his ability to express his thought beautifully, the reader is completely immersed in the thick of current events. To narrate the novel, Lev Nikolaevich, began in 1805, when a wave of emotions swept over him, about the suffering of the Russian people. The author himself felt the pain and torment that the Russian people felt.
The main character of the novel turned out to be Platon Karataev, on whom hopes were pinned. In it, the author displayed all the willpower and endurance of the people. The main female character was Natalia Rostova. She became a symbol of femininity and kindness in the novel. No less important heroes of this remarkable work were Kutuzov and Napoleon himself. In these two heroes, greatness and courage, thoughtful military tactics, and general human qualities are displayed, each of them. The author mentioned absolutely all classes of society, which brought the work under the discussion of world literary critics. Few of them understood that the work was written on real events, in disputes and discussions, there was a full discussion of the work of Lev Nikolayevich. A very striking moment in the novel was the murder of Vereshchagin.
The first part of the novel was strictly theoretical. It did not have a strong spiritual impression, and the turn of all events. Here, the author was not verbose, did not embellish the details. He simply did, general descriptions for readers of this work. At first glance, the novel could not interest the reader, but having reached the second part of the novel, the author introduces a pronounced heroine Natalya, which completely enlivens the action and the whole plot.
Natalya herself had a casual and simple look, which was combined with family life and fuss. Later, the author already draws the girl as a secular person, with the manners of a noble lady. She has a large circle of friends and admirers, which in the work elevates her to a higher status in society.
Ultimately, this great and grandiose work, in its content and design, became a historical narrative, both of the personal lives of different people with different classes, as well as military battles and the fate of ordinary people who took part in this battle.
The book has been a symbol of knowledge, knowledge and education since ancient times. It is not surprising, because it was in these written sources that information was sometimes really precious and most useful.
The creative history of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"
The novel "War and Peace" by L.N. Tolstoy devoted seven years of intense and hard work. September 5, 1863 A.E. Bers, father of Sofya Andreevna, wife of L.N. Tolstoy, sent a letter from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana with the following remark: “Yesterday we talked a lot about 1812 on the occasion of your intention to write a novel relating to this era.” It is this letter that the researchers consider to be the “first accurate evidence” dating the beginning of the work of L.N. Tolstoy over "War and Peace". In October of the same year, Tolstoy wrote to his relative: “I have never felt my mental and even all my moral forces so free and so capable of work. And I have this job. This work is a novel from the time of 1810 and the 20s, which has completely occupied me since the autumn ... I am now a writer with all the strength of my soul, and I write and think, as I have never written and thought before.
The manuscripts of "War and Peace" testify to how one of the world's largest creations was created: over 5,200 finely written sheets have been preserved in the writer's archive. From them you can trace the entire history of the creation of the novel. Initially, Tolstoy conceived a novel about a Decembrist who returned after a 30-year exile in Siberia. The action of the novel began in 1856, shortly before the abolition of serfdom. But then the writer revised his plan and moved on to 1825 - the era of the Decembrist uprising. But soon the writer left, and this was the beginning and decided to show the youth of his hero, which coincided with the formidable and glorious times of the Patriotic War of 1812. But Tolstoy did not stop there, and since the war of 1812 was inextricably linked with 1805, he began his entire work from that time. Having moved the beginning of the action of his novel half a century into the depths of history, Tolstoy decided to lead not one, but many heroes through the most important events for Russia.
Tolstoy called his idea - to capture in art form the half-century history of the country - "Three pores". The first time is the beginning of the century, its first decade and a half, the youth of the first Decembrists who went through the Patriotic War of 1812. The second time is the 20s with their main event - the uprising on December 14, 1825. The third time is the 50s, the end of the Crimean War, unsuccessful for the Russian army, the sudden death of Nicholas I, the amnesty of the Decembrists, their return from exile and the time of waiting for changes in the life of Russia. However, in the process of working on the work, the writer narrowed the scope of his original idea and focused on the first period, touching only on the beginning of the second period in the epilogue of the novel. But even in this form, the idea of the work remained global in scope and demanded the exertion of all forces from the writer. At the beginning of his work, Tolstoy realized that the usual framework of the novel and historical story would not be able to accommodate all the richness of the content he had conceived, and he began to persistently look for a new artistic form, he wanted to create a literary work of a completely unusual type. And he succeeded. "War and Peace", according to L.N. Tolstoy is not a novel, not a poem, not a historical chronicle, this is an epic novel, a new genre of prose, which, after Tolstoy, became widespread in Russian and world literature.
During the first year of work, Tolstoy worked hard on the beginning of the novel. According to the author himself, many times he started and stopped writing his book, losing and gaining hope to express in it everything that he wanted to express. Fifteen variants of the beginning of the novel have been preserved in the writer's archive. The idea of the work was based on Tolstoy's deep interest in history, in philosophical and socio-political issues. The work was created in an atmosphere of passions boiling over the main issue of that era - the role of the people in the history of the country, about its fate. While working on the novel, Tolstoy sought to find the answer to these questions.
In order to truthfully describe the events of the Patriotic War of 1812, the writer studied a huge amount of materials: books, historical documents, memoirs, letters. “When I write history,” Tolstoy pointed out in the article “A few words about the book“ War and Peace ”, “I like to be true to reality to the smallest detail.” While working on the work, he collected a whole library of books about the events of 1812. In the books of Russian and foreign historians, he did not find any truthful description of events, nor a fair assessment of historical figures. Some of them unrestrainedly praised Alexander I, considering him the winner of Napoleon, others exalted Napoleon, considering him invincible.
Rejecting all the works of historians who portrayed the war of 1812 as a war of two emperors, Tolstoy set himself the goal of truthfully highlighting the events of the great era and showed the liberation war waged by the Russian people against foreign invaders. From the books of Russian and foreign historians, Tolstoy borrowed only authentic historical documents: orders, instructions, dispositions, battle plans, letters, etc. While working on the work, Tolstoy also used materials from newspapers and magazines from the era of the Patriotic War of 1812. He spent a lot of time in the manuscript department of the Rumyantsev Museum and in the archives of the palace department, where he carefully studied unpublished documents (orders and instructions, reports and reports, Masonic manuscripts and letters from historical figures). Here he got acquainted with the letters of the maid of honor of the imperial palace M.A. Volkova to V.A. Lanskoy, letters from General F.P. Uvarov and others. In letters that were not intended for publication, the writer found precious details depicting the life and characters of his contemporaries in 1812.
Tolstoy spent two days in Borodino. Having traveled around the battlefield, he wrote to his wife: "I am very pleased, very, - with my trip ... If only God would give health and tranquility, and I will write such a battle of Borodino as has never been." Between the manuscripts of "War and Peace" there is a sheet with notes made by Tolstoy at the time when he was on the Borodino field. “The distance is visible for 25 miles,” he wrote, sketching the horizon line and noting where the villages of Borodino, Gorki, Psarevo, Semenovskoye, Tatarinovo are located. On this sheet, he noted the movement of the sun during the battle. While working on the work, Tolstoy unfolded these brief notes into unique pictures of the Battle of Borodino, full of movement, colors and sounds. Throughout the seven years of hard work that the writing of War and Peace required, Tolstoy did not leave his spiritual uplift and creative burning, and that is why the work has not lost its significance to this day. More than a century has passed since the appearance in print of the first part of the novel, and invariably "War and Peace" is read by people of all ages - from young people to the elderly.
Epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace" fifteen-year history of the country (1805-1820) captured by the writer on the pages of the epic in the following chronological order:
Volume I - 1805, Volume II - 1806-1811, Volume III - 1812, Volume IV - 1812-1813, Epilogue - 1820.
Tolstoy created hundreds of human characters. The novel depicts a monumental picture of Russian life, full of events of great historical significance. Readers will learn about the war with Napoleon, which the Russian army waged in alliance with Austria in 1805, the battles of Shengraben and Austerlitz, the war in alliance with Prussia in 1806 and the Peace of Tilsit. Tolstoy depicts the events of the Patriotic War of 1812: the passage of the French army across the Neman, the retreat of the Russians into the interior of the country, the surrender of Smolensk, the appointment of Kutuzov as commander-in-chief, the battle of Borodino, the council at Fili, the abandonment of Moscow. The writer depicts events that testified to the invincible power of the national spirit of the Russian people, which ruined the French invasion: the flank march of Kutuzov, the Battle of Tarutino, the growth of the partisan movement, the collapse of the army of invaders and the victorious end of the war. The novel reflects the largest phenomena of the country's political and social life, various ideological currents (Freemasonry, Speransky's legislative activity, the birth of the Decembrist movement in the country).
Pictures of great historical events are combined in the novel with everyday scenes drawn with exceptional skill. These scenes reflected the essential characterization of the social reality of the era. Tolstoy depicts high-society receptions, entertainment of secular youth, ceremonial dinners, balls, hunting, Christmastime fun of gentlemen and courtyards. Pictures of anti-serfdom transformations by Pierre Bezukhov in the countryside, scenes of rebellion by Bogucharovo peasants, episodes of indignation of Moscow artisans reveal to the reader the nature of the relationship between landowners and peasants, the life of a serf village and the urban lower classes. The action of the epic develops either in St. Petersburg, or in Moscow, or on the estates of Bald Mountains and Otradnoye. The military events described in Volume I take place abroad, in Austria. The events of the Patriotic War (Volumes III and IV) take place in Russia, and the place of action depends on the course of military operations (Dris camp, Smolensk, Borodino, Moscow, Krasnoe, etc.). The main characters of the novel - Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov - stand out noticeably among the heroes of Russian literature with their moral originality and intellectual wealth. In terms of character, they are sharply different, almost polar opposites. But in the ways of their ideological searches there is something in common.
Like many thinking people in the early years of the 19th century, and not only in Russia, Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky are fascinated by the "Napoleonism" complex. Bonaparte, who has just proclaimed himself emperor of France, by inertia retains the aura of a great man, shaking the foundations of the old feudal-monarchical world. For the Russian state, Napoleon is a potential aggressor. It will take a long way of searches and trials before both former admirers of Napoleon feel their unity with their own people, find a place for themselves among those fighting on the Borodino field. For Pierre, an even longer and more difficult path will be required before he becomes a member of a secret society, one of the future Decembrists. With the conviction that his friend, Prince Andrei, if he were alive, would be on the same side. The image of Napoleon in "War and Peace" is one of Tolstoy's brilliant artistic discoveries. In the novel, the emperor of the French takes place during the period when he has turned from a bourgeois revolutionary into a despot and conqueror. The writer was an opponent of artistic exaggeration, both in the depiction of good and in the depiction of evil. And his Napoleon is not the Antichrist, not the monster of vice, there is nothing demonic in him. The image of the Russian nation, victoriously resisting the Napoleonic invasion, is given by the author with a realistic sobriety, insight, and breadth unparalleled in world literature. Moreover, this breadth is not in the depiction of all classes and strata of Russian society (Tolstoy himself wrote that he did not strive for this), but in the fact that the picture of this society includes many types, variants of human behavior in conditions of peace and war.
In the last parts of the epic novel, a grandiose picture of popular resistance to the invader is created. It involves soldiers and officers who heroically give their lives in the name of victory, and ordinary residents of Moscow, who, despite the calls of Rostopchin, leave the capital, and the peasants Karp and Vlas, who do not sell hay to the enemy. The war itself for the writer both was and is "an event contrary to human reason and all human nature." But in certain historical conditions, a war in defense of one's native country becomes a severe necessity and can contribute to the manifestation of the best human qualities.
So, the unprepossessing captain Tushin decides the outcome of a major battle with his courage; so, feminine-charming, generous soul Natasha Rostova performs a truly patriotic deed, persuading her parents to donate family property and save the wounded. Tolstoy was the first in world literature to show through the artistic word the importance of the moral factor in war. The battle of Borodino was a victory for the Russians because for the first time "the hand of the strongest enemy in spirit" was laid on Napoleon's army. The strength of Kutuzov as a commander is based on the ability to feel the spirit of the army, to act in accordance with it. It is the feeling of inner connection with the people, with the mass of soldiers, that determines the mode of his actions. With high innovative art, the image of war is given in the epic. In various scenes of military life, in the actions and remarks of the characters, the mood of the soldier masses, their steadfastness in battles, implacable hatred of enemies and a good-natured and condescending attitude towards them when they are defeated and taken prisoner are revealed. In the military episodes, the author's thought is concretized: "A new force, unknown to anyone, is rising - the people, and the invasion is dying."
Platon Karataev occupies a special place among the characters of the epic. In the naive-enthusiastic perception of Pierre Bezukhov, he is the embodiment of everything “Russian, kind and round”; sharing with him the misfortunes of captivity, Pierre in a new way joins the wisdom of the people and the lot of the people. However, an army composed of such Platons could not have defeated Napoleon. The image of Karataev is to a certain extent conditional, partly woven from the motifs of proverbs and epics.
"War and Peace", the result of Tolstoy's long-term research work on historical sources, was at the same time the response of the artist-thinker to those urgent problems that modernity posed to him. The social contradictions of Russia at that time are touched upon by the author only in passing and indirectly. The philosophical meaning of the epic is not limited to Russia. The opposition between war and peace is one of the central problems of the entire history of mankind. "Peace" for Tolstoy is a multi-valued concept: not only the absence of war, but also the absence of enmity between people and nations, harmony, commonwealth - that norm of being, which one must strive for. The system of images in War and Peace refracts the thought that Tolstoy formulated much later in his diary: “Life is all the more life, the closer its connection with the lives of others, with the common life. It is this connection that is established by art in its broadest sense. This is the special, deeply humanistic nature of Tolstoy's art, which echoed in the souls of the main characters of "War and Peace" and determined the attractive power of the novel for readers of many countries and generations.
Composition of the epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace". War and Peace vividly reflects the life of Russia and partly of Western Europe in the first two decades of the 19th century. Great historical events shift the course of action from Russia to Austria, Prussia, Poland, the Balkans, from Smolensk to Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Russian and German villages, from the royal palace, the high society drawing room, the landowner's estate on the battlefield, to the hospital, to the barracks of prisoners of war. The reader hears the echoes of the bourgeois French Revolution, the European wars of 1805-1807 and 1812-1813 pass before him, the great battles of nations flare up, the empire of Napoleon collapses. Along with this, the author shows dissatisfaction with his position as serfs, Speransky's legislative activity, the general patriotic upsurge of 1812, the onset of reaction, and the organization of the first secret revolutionary society.
The culmination of "War and Peace" is the Battle of Borodino. This bloody battle, in which the forces of the belligerents were strained to the last limit, became the starting point for the salvation of Russia, on the one hand, the disastrous army of Napoleon and the collapse of his power, on the other. The epilogue, from which we learn about the organization of the secret society, is perceived as the beginning of a new novel. The heroes of the novel are both fictional characters and famous historical figures. In the light of all these historical events and phenomena, Tolstoy depicts the peasantry and the urban poor, the court and local nobility, and the advanced noble intelligentsia. The image of the life and characters of people is given liveliness and brightness by wide everyday canvases: the regimental life of soldiers and officers, a hospital, the life of a serf village, solemn dinner parties in Moscow, a reception and a ball in St. Petersburg, lordly hunting, mummers, etc.
The main characters of the novel are taken from the nobility, and the plot develops in the same direction. The story of four families runs through the whole novel: the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, the Kuragins, and the Bezukhov family, which changed its composition several times, except for the main character. These four narrative lines form the basis of the plot of War and Peace. However, not only the Rostovs, Bolkonskys, Kuragins, Bezukhovs, who are invariably in the author’s field of vision, not only such major historical figures as Kutuzov and Napoleon, attract his attention: all 559 characters find their definite place in the novel, their characters and behavior socially and historically determined. Some of them appear briefly and then are lost in the general mass, others pass through the entire work, but all of them are perceived by the reader as living people. It is impossible to forget or mix with each other if they are outlined even by a few features, such as, for example, Lavrushka, officer Telyanin, Princess Kuragina, headman Dron, a soldier dancing in the cold without a sole, and an infinite number of others.
But the main character here is the people, the focus of the author is his mass image. In "War and Peace" there are brightly defined characters, almost not protruding from the general mass background. They make themselves known with one or two lines, get a well-aimed but instant outline, sometimes in two or three strokes, appear on the stage only once within a few lines and then disappear, never to return. Showing with exceptional force and persuasiveness patriotism, humanity, a sense of truth and justice of the Russian people and the best part of the noble intelligentsia gravitating towards them, Tolstoy contrasts them with the court aristocracy that has become detached from the people and is in a state of hopeless moral decay. While the masses, experiencing severe suffering and deprivation, exert all their strength to fight the enemy, the courtiers are engaged in catching rubles, crosses and ranks; Countess Bezukhova negotiates with the Jesuits and enters the "bosom of the Catholic Church" in order to marry a foreign prince, etc. Thus, two social worlds appear before the reader in terms of antithesis.
The method of contrast is also used by Tolstoy when comparing the national commander Kutuzov and the conqueror Napoleon. This compositional technique is also of great importance when depicting other characters, such as Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre, as well as entire groups of various internal people (officers of various types, such as Tushin, Timokhin, Dokhturov, on the one hand, and Berg, Zherkov, Benigsen, etc. - on the other).
Reading the novel, you notice that the images that are accusatory in nature, like Kuragins, Dolokhov, Berg, Napoleon, Alexander I, are given statically; the characters of goodies, like Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha Rostova, Marya Bolkonskaya, are shown in development, in all the complexity and inconsistency of their inner life. This amazing art of depicting the inner life of a person in its incessant movement, this ingenious ability to penetrate into the very secrets of spiritual life, the equal of which we do not know before Tolstoy, was first noted by Chernyshevsky. He wrote about the works of L.N. Tolstoy, that the writer is interested in “most of all - the psychological process itself, its forms, its laws, the dialectics of the soul.” And further: “This depiction of an internal monologue must, without exaggeration, be called amazing ... that side of Count Tolstoy, which makes it possible for him to catch these mental monologues, constitutes in his talent a special, only inherent strength.”
During his stay in Yasnaya Polyana, V.G. Korolenko once said to Lev Nikolaevich: “You know how to grasp this moving thing in human nature and capture it, and this is the most difficult thing.” This internal dynamics of thoughts, feelings, aspirations of Tolstoy's favorite heroes throughout the novel is mainly determined by their search for those opportunities in which life would be filled with content, comprehended by broad useful activity, and although their path is uneven, their whole life is a movement forward.
war world creation tolstoy
