Article Menu
Main characters:
- Pierre Bezukhov- a young man, the illegitimate son of Count Kirill Bezukhov. The author's favorite positive character, who lives a life full of changes and trials throughout the novel. After the death of Count Bezukhov, according to his father's will, he receives a huge fortune and suddenly, unexpectedly even for himself, becomes very rich.
- Anna Pavlovna Sherer- the maid of honor and close associate of the Empress Maria Feodorovna, the mistress of the fashionable high-society "political" salon in St. Petersburg, in whose house guests often gather. A woman with established opinions and traditions.
- Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya- a princess who was very worried about her son Boris. She asked Prince Vasily to put in a word to the sovereign so that he would be transferred to the guards, and he went to meet her. She played a decisive role in the decision to divide the inheritance of Count Kirill Bezukhov, who was dying.
- Boris Drubetsky- the son of Anna Mikhailovna. In the first chapter, he is shown as a decent young man, by the grace of the sovereign, transferred to the guard. For a long time he lived and was educated by the Rostovs.
- Count Ilya Andreevich Rostov- the father of a large family, a lively, cheerful, self-confident old man. He likes to live in a big way, arrange feasts.
- Natalia Rostova- the wife of Ilya Andreevich, a woman with an oriental type of thin face, forty-five years old, apparently exhausted by her children, of whom she had twelve people ... ”The countess was used to living in luxury and did not know how to save.
- Nikolay Rostov- the son of Count Ilya Rostov, a man with a cheerful and sociable character, who is alien to despondency. Wanting to be useful to the Motherland, he decides to go to war.
- Natasha Rostova is the main character of the novel. In the first part of the first volume - a thirteen-year-old, childlike, cheerful girl with a perky character, cousin and good friend of Sophia.
- Sonya Rostova- Natasha's cousin and friend, a kind girl who is in love with her friend's older brother, Nikolai Rostov, and worries about the fact that he is leaving for the army.
- Vera Rostova- the unloved daughter of Countess Rostova. The girl is beautiful and smart, but despite this, she produces an annoying, unpleasant effect on everyone around her. In her family, Vera behaves proudly and arrogantly, points out to her sisters their shortcomings and deliberately creates trouble for them. Vera gives the impression of a cold, soulless and heartless girl.
- Nikolai Bolkonsky- retired general, father of the Bolkonsky family. In the first part, he appears as an intelligent person who prefers accuracy in all his actions. He loves his daughter Maria, but brings her up in excessive severity.
- Maria Bolkonskaya- the daughter of Nikolai Bolkonsky, a very rich and noble noblewoman, a kind and gentle, believing girl who loves people and tries to act in such a way as not to upset anyone. In addition, she is smart and educated, because the lessons of algebra and geometry were taught to her by her father himself.
- Andrey Bolkonsky- son of Nikolai Bolkonsky. This hero, unlike his father, does not have such a tough character. His behavior changes throughout the novel. In the first part of the first volume, he appears to the reader as an ambitious and proud young man who goes to war, despite the requests of his pregnant wife. Andrei is a sincere friend of Pierre Bezukhov, who wants to help him in everything.
- Little princess, Elizabeth- Andrei's wife, a woman who loves secular society. She is a sweet, smiling, beautiful woman, however, she is very worried about the fact that her husband is leaving for the army and leaving her in a difficult position. After all, Lisa is expecting a baby.
- Prince Vasily Kuragin- an important official, an aristocrat, an influential person who serves at the imperial court and is personally acquainted with the empress. A relative of Count Kirill Bezukhov, who claims his inheritance, which, according to the plot of the story, was received not by him, but by Pierre Bezukhov.
- Helen Kuragina- daughter of Prince Vasily. The brilliant beauty of St. Petersburg with an unchanging smile. She makes great strides in society, acquires a reputation as a smart woman, however, among her relatives she reveals such character traits as vulgarity, rudeness and cynicism.
- Anatole Kuragin, son of Vasily Kuragin - a negative character in the novel "War and Peace". He behaves cheekily, often commits obscene acts, although he belongs to aristocrats.
- Marya Dmitrievna- a woman famous for her directness of mind. She says what she thinks. She is known in Moscow, and in St. Petersburg, and in royal circles. The reader first meets this heroine at the name day of the Rostovs, who perceive her as a long-awaited guest.
Chapter first
The first chapter of Leo Tolstoy's story "War and Peace" shows a secular society. Events begin in 1805. Guests often gather in the house of the maid of honor and close empress Anna Pavlovna Scherer. And now, Prince Vasily, a very influential person, was the first to visit her. A conversation begins between them, in which they touch on various topics: they discuss military events, politics, and do not forget to mention how to arrange the future of children. Anna Pavlovna does not hide that she is dissatisfied with the eldest son of the prince - Anatole.
Chapter Two
Anna Pavlovna's drawing room is gradually filling up. The author shows people of different temperaments, including Vasily's daughter, Helen Kuragina, "in cipher and a ball gown"; the little princess Liza Bolkonskaya, who got married last year; as well as Pierre Bezukhov, presented by the writer as “a massive, fat young man with a cropped head, glasses, light trousers in the fashion of the time ...”, who neither by his appearance nor behavior fit into a spoiled secular society. This unexpected visit even aroused the anxiety of Anna Pavlovna, who, after a brief conversation with Pierre, concluded that he was a young man who did not know how to live. However, Bezukhov himself felt uncomfortable among such high society.
Chapter Three
The hostess herself shows the guests the viscount, a young man who considered himself a celebrity, and the abbot who visited her, as "something supernaturally refined." Various topics are again discussed, of which preference is given to the coming war with Bonaparte. Suddenly, a new guest enters the living room - Andrei Bolkonsky, the husband of the little princess, whom Leo Tolstoy characterizes as the complete opposite of his wife. Andrey is surprised to see Pierre Bezukhov in a big light.
Chapter Four
Prince Vasily is about to leave. He is stopped by one of the elderly ladies who were present at the evening at Anna Pavlovna’s, and begins, expressing alarm and anxiety, to beg for her son Boris: “What do you need to say a word to the sovereign, and he will be directly transferred to the guards?” The prince tries to object, saying that it is difficult to ask the sovereign himself, but Princess Drubetskaya (that was the name of the elderly lady) is persistent. And Vasily finally gives in to the pleas, promising to do the impossible.
We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the novel by Leo Tolstoy "War and Peace".
Meanwhile, Pierre Bezukhov, who intervened in the conversation of the viscount about the execution of the Duke of Enghien, in the eyes of Anna Pavlovna, commits an extremely indecent act. Expressing his opinion that Bonoparte did the right thing in this case, and excitedly proving his case, Pierre does not notice how more and more he causes discontent of the hostess and bewilderment of those around him. 
Prince Ippolit involuntarily tries to defuse the situation, deciding to tell the public a very funny anecdote. And he succeeds.
Chapter Five
In this chapter, after the first sentence, which mentions that the guests began to disperse, the author proceeds to describe one of the main characters - Pierre Bezukhov. So, what adjectives does he use to show the nature of this extraordinary personality? First, clumsy. Secondly, scattered. But these seemingly negative qualities became insignificant in the light of the good nature, simplicity and modesty that this young man possessed.
Anna Pavlovna went up to Pierre and softly spoke of her hope that he would change his mind after all. Andrei Bolkonsky, passing by, reminded his friend that he was waiting for him at home.
After a short time, Bezukhov and Bolkonsky met again - already within the walls of Prince Andrei's dwelling. According to the author's description, it is clear that Pierre felt at home here. A casual conversation ensued, but Andrei Bolkonsky made it clear that he was not interested in his friend's childish reasoning about Napoleon.
However, the question followed, why did he go to war, to which the prince replied: “I am going because this life that I lead here, this life is not for me!”
Chapter six
The wife of Andrei Bolkonsky, the little princess Liza, entered the room. A dialogue immediately took place between her and Pierre. Pierre, with his childish spontaneity, did not fail to express his opinion that he was perplexed why Andrei should go to war. He touched on the sore subject of Bolkonsky's wife, and therefore found support in her face. Lisa was afraid of parting with her husband - especially now, during pregnancy. Despair and fears took over, and she, not embarrassed by Pierre, began to tell her husband everything she thought about his desire to join the army and leave her at such a difficult time. Bezukhov, who involuntarily witnessed the beginning of the scandal, tried to calm Lisa as best he could, but he was not very successful. Finally, Bolkonsky's wife calmed down and resigned herself. Friends went to dinner.
And here, at the table, Andrey taught Pierre a valuable lesson on how to choose your life partner. “Do not marry until you tell yourself that you have done everything you could, and until you stop loving the woman you have chosen, until you see her clearly, otherwise you will be cruelly mistaken and irreparable,” he said with conviction to a friend. And these words are worth considering for those who decide to marry.
Andrei looked at Pierre with kind eyes, but still realized his superiority over him. He strongly advised a friend to leave "all these revels", saying that secular society was not suitable for such a nature as his. And he took a word of honor from a friend that he would not go to the Kuragins.
However, Pierre Bezukhov broke it immediately, leaving Andrey. The young man again went to Anatole to once again experience the taste of a dissolute life. They played cards and drank a lot. Pierre could not resist and got drunk to the point that he also began to do unworthy deeds, bordering on insanity.
Chapter Seven
The promise made to Princess Drubetskaya was fulfilled. Prince Vasily put in a word to the sovereign about her son, and he was transferred to the Semenovsky regiment as an ensign.
The princess herself turned out to be a distant relative of the Rostovs, from whom she temporarily rented housing and where her son Boris was brought up.
The Rostovs had a big holiday - the birthday of mother and daughter. Both of them were named Natalia. This was the occasion for the upcoming noisy fun.
In a conversation with the guests, some details were clarified. For example, the fact that Pierre Bezukhov, the son of the wealthy count Kirill Bezukhov, turned out to be illegitimate, however, the most beloved of the children, and since the count was already very ill, those around him guessed who would get his huge fortune - Prince Vasily or all the same Pierre.
They did not fail to talk about the unworthy behavior of Pierre, who, having contacted a bad company, Dolokhov and Kuragin, compromised himself even more than at the evening at Anna Pavlovna, when he argued with the abbot about Napoleon's actions. The story of the bear, on which the brawlers tied the quarterly and threw him to swim in the Moika, caused a contradictory reaction from those around him - some were indignant, while others could not help laughing.
Chapter Eight
In this chapter, the reader for the first time has the opportunity to get acquainted with Natasha Rostova, one of the main characters in the novel War and Peace. At the beginning of the novel, she appears as a thirteen-year-old girl, cheerful and carefree. The author describes her as "black-eyed, with a large mouth, ugly, but alive."
Finally, in view of the name day, all the young people - both Natalya, and Anna Mikhailovna's son Boris, and the eldest son of Countess Natalya, Nikolai, and the Rostovs' niece Sofia, and the youngest son Petya - were accommodated in the living room.
At the end of the chapter, the author mentions that Boris Drubetsky and Nikolai Rostov were childhood friends.
Chapter Nine
At the beginning of this chapter, the Rostovs' niece Sonya is described, who lives with them and with whom Natalya is very friendly.
The count-father complains that his son Nikolai Rostov, imitating his friend Boris, goes to war, to which the young man objects: “It’s not friendship at all, but I just feel called to military service ...”
However, Sonya, who is in love with Nikolai, can hardly hold back her tears. The conversation turns again to children, and Countess Natalya mentions her eldest daughter, Vera, who is not stupid, well-mannered, with a pleasant voice, to whom she was stricter than her younger one, but who, unlike Natalya Rostova, does not make such a pleasant impression on others. . This girl plays a minor role in the plot of the novel.
Chapter Ten
Natasha Rostova, hiding between tubs of flowers, becomes an involuntary witness to the scene that took place between Sofia and Nikolai, who, having confessed his love to the girl, kisses her. Natasha herself, at that time thinking that she loved Boris, called the young man to her, “she hugged him with both arms, so that her thin bare arms bent above his neck, and, throwing her hair back with a movement of her head, kissed ... on the very lips.”
Chapter Eleven
Countess Natalya, who has not seen her friend Anna Mikhailovna for a long time, wants to talk to her alone. However, her daughter Vera is in the room. We have to tell her directly that she is superfluous and offer to go to the sisters.
Two couples are sitting in the next sofa room - Boris and Natasha, as well as Nikolai and Sophia. Vera does not understand the feelings of young people, and a verbal skirmish occurs between the sisters. However, the self-confident Vera does not feel that she has spoken trouble, on the contrary, she considers herself right in all her actions.
Meanwhile, the dialogue between Anna Mikhailovna and Countess Natalya continues in the living room. The conversation first goes about serving in the army of Nikolai Rostov, then the princess decides to go to Count Kirill Bezukhov in order to petition for maintenance for his godson Boris before it's too late - and informs the countess about this. Count Rostov proposes to invite Pierre Bezukhov to dinner, which will take place on the occasion of the name day at four o'clock in the afternoon.
Chapter Twelve
Anna Mikhailovna and her son drove into the wide courtyard of Count Kirill, and then went into the house. The porter reported to Prince Vasily about their arrival. An atmosphere of sadness reigned in the room, because the elder Bezukhov was terminally ill, already dying. Having given short instructions to Boris about serving in the army, Prince Vasily began to listen to Anna Mikhailovna. “It must be cooked if it is so bad,” she urged, and the prince again realized that this woman, who insists on her own, is not so easy to get rid of. And Princess Anna Mikhailovna, having asked Boris to talk to Pierre Bezukhov and give him an invitation to the Rostovs' name day, settled down in an armchair. She made a firm decision - "to help walk for her uncle."
Chapter Thirteen
Pierre Bezukhov stayed at his father's house. The story told about his obscene behavior was fair, and therefore the attitude towards the illegitimate son of Count Kirill Bezukhov was not friendly. To the question: “Can I see the count?” an unfriendly, negative answer followed, and Pierre, who did not receive what he expected, had to go to his room.
When Boris unexpectedly paid a visit to Bezukhov, he was surprised at first, although he met him friendly and simply. “Count Rostov asked you to come and dine with him today,” the guest said after an awkward silence that seemed long.
Young people began to talk, and Drubetskoy managed to refute the assumption that he and his mother want to "get something from the rich man."
Pierre liked Boris Drubetsky very much, he settled down with his heart for this smart and strong-willed young man.
Anna Mikhailovna informed the prince about the decision to prepare the dying Kirill Bezukhov.
Chapter Fourteen
Countess Rostova, after Anna Mikhailovna's departure, sat for a long time by herself, and then called the maid and ordered her husband to be called. Taking pity on her poor friend, she decided to help her financially, and for this purpose she asked her husband for five hundred rubles. He, being generous, gave seven hundred. When Anna Mikhailovna returned, brand new banknotes were already lying under a scarf on the table.
Here's Boris from me, for sewing a uniform - the countess said, taking out the money and giving it to her friend.
Chapter fifteen
Finally, the guests began to arrive for the name day. Many of those who had come to congratulate the heroes of the occasion were already sitting in the living room, but most of all they were expecting Marya Dmitrievna, a woman famous for her directness of mind and simplicity of address, who was known both in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as in royal circles.
The assembled guests preferred to talk on a military topic. At first, they listened to the conversation that took place between an old bachelor named Shinshin, who was the countess's cousin and lieutenant Berg, an officer in the Semenov regiment. Then Pierre Bezukhov arrived, and the hostess, having told him a few meaningless phrases, asked Anna Mikhailovna with a look to take the young man.
Finally, Maria Dmitrievna arrived, who “took out yakhont earrings with pears from a huge reticule and, giving them to the birthday-radiant and flushed Natasha,” suddenly turned to Pierre and began to scold him for the obscene behavior that the young man allowed himself recently. In the end, the guests were seated at the tables. “The sounds of the count’s home music were replaced by the sounds of knives and forks, the voices of guests, the quiet steps of waiters ...”
Chapter Sixteen
On the men's side of the table the conversation was getting more and more lively. One of the guests - a colonel - claimed that the manifesto declaring war had already been issued in St. Petersburg and insisted: "We must fight to the last drop of blood," Shinshin was perplexed why fight Bonoparte at all.
Count Nikolai noticed that his son was also joining the army. “And I have four sons in the army, but I don’t grieve. Everything is the will of God: you will die lying on the stove, and God will have mercy in battle, ”Maria Dmitrievna said loudly. Suddenly, the childish voice of Natasha Rostova was heard: “Mom! what kind of cake will it be?
Surprisingly, even Maria Dmitrievna did not get angry when she saw such tactlessness, but laughed at the girl's spontaneity, and after her - all the guests.
Chapter Seventeen
The holiday was in full swing. Suddenly, Natasha discovered the absence of her cousin and beloved friend Sonya and, leaving the guests, went to look for her. She saw the girl lying "face down on a dirty striped nanny's featherbed, on a chest" and weeping bitterly. The reason for the tears was that her Nikolenka was leaving for the army, but not only that. It turned out that Sonya was hurt to the core by the words of Vera, the elder sister of Natasha Rostova, who threatened that she would show Nikolai's poems to her mother and called her ungrateful.
Kind Natasha reassured her friend, and she became cheerful again. The girls returned to the hall. The guests danced a lot, joked, rejoiced at such a wonderful event held in honor of the name day of dear Natalia the elder and Natalia the younger. From everything it was clear that the holiday was a success.
Chapter Eighteen
While joy reigned in the Rostovs' house, the Bezukhov family experienced heavy grief, the approach of an imminent loss: the sixth blow happened to Count Kirill. People gathered in the reception room, including the confessor, who was ready to give unction to the dying.
“Meanwhile, Prince Vasily opened the door to the princess’s room,” where, according to the author’s description, “it was dark and smelled good of smoking and flowers.”
Vasily called the girl, whom he called Katish (it was his cousin Katerina Sergeevna), for a serious conversation. They discussed the will of Count Cyril and were very afraid that the entire inheritance might go to his illegitimate son Pierre.
Prince Vasily rightly feared this, but Catherine at first objected: “You never know he wrote wills, but he could not bequeath to Pierre! Pierre is illegal,” but then, having learned that, by virtue of the count’s written request, the sovereign could satisfy his request for adoption, she was also seriously alarmed.
Vasily and Katish began to think over a plan to destroy the will in the name of Pierre, moreover, they wanted to create such a situation that Kirill Bezukhov himself would annul it. The paper lay under the pillow of the dying man, in a mosaic briefcase, and Princess Catherine and Prince Vasily so desired to get to it.
Chapter Nineteen
Anna Mikhailovna turned out to be a far-sighted woman. She assumed that a struggle would flare up over the inheritance and went to the Bezukhovs, urgently calling Pierre. Young Bezukhov was afraid of the upcoming meeting with his dying father, but he understood that it was necessary.
The princess and the son of Count Kirill entered the reception room. Pierre, obeying his leader, sat down on the sofa. The eyes of everyone in the room turned to this young man. But there was participation, even respect, in them, and young Bezukhov felt “that on this night he is a person who is obliged to perform some kind of terrible and expected by all ceremony, and that therefore he had to accept services from everyone.”
“The mercy of God is inexhaustible. The assembly will begin now. Let's go, ”Anna Mikhailovna called Pierre resolutely, and he entered the room where his dying father lay.
Chapter Twenty
A sad picture appeared before the eyes of Pierre, who knew the furnishings of his father’s room well: the father lying under the images “with the same gray mane of hair resembling a lion, over a wide forehead and with the same characteristically noble large wrinkles on a beautiful red-yellow face”; confessors who are ready to unction the one who departs for the other world; two younger princesses, Katish with an evil expression on his face; Anna Mikhailovna, some unknown lady; Prince Vasily, who was constantly baptized with his right hand, and others.
Pierre approached his father's bed. “He looked at the count. The count looked at the place where Pierre's face was, while he stood. Anna Mikhailovna showed in her expression an awareness of the touching importance of this last minute of a meeting between father and son.
Chapter twenty one
There was no one in the reception room, except for Prince Vasily with the eldest princess, who, at the sight of Anna Mikhailovna entering with Pierre, whispered that she could not see this woman.
Katerina already held in her hands a mosaic briefcase, which Anna Mikhailovna wanted to take away, persistently and feigningly affectionately convincing the princess not to resist. Two women tried to snatch the controversial item from each other. The struggle continued until the middle princess ran out of the room where the count was dying. Katerina dropped her briefcase, which Anna Mikhailovna immediately grabbed and went with it into the bedroom.
Very soon she informed Pierre that his father had died.
Chapter twenty two
In the estate of the old Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky, the arrival of the young Prince Andrei and his wife, the princess, was impatiently awaited. Nikolai himself was distinguished by a difficult character, recognizing only activity and intelligence as virtues. He was engaged in the upbringing of the youngest daughter Marya himself, distributing her life in such a way that the girl did not spend time in idleness. Her father himself taught her lessons in algebra and geometry. The main feature of this elderly man was precision, taken to the extreme.
On the day of the arrival of the young, Prince Nikolai gave his daughter a letter from Julie Karagina, a friend of the princess, in which it was reported that Pierre Bezukhov had become a count, having received both the title and almost the entire inheritance from his father, becoming the owner of one of the largest fortunes in Russia. In addition, she spoke about the plan of Anna Mikhailovna to arrange the marriage of Marya with Anatole Kuragin. In turn, the princess wrote a letter in response, in which she expressed pity for both Pierre Bezukhov, who had suddenly become rich, and Prince Vasily, who was left with nothing.
The girl also lamented about the wars that people wage among themselves and was sad that this was happening. “... Mankind has forgotten the laws of its Divine Savior, who taught us love and forgiveness of insults, and considers its main dignity in the art of killing each other,” she sincerely expressed her opinion in a letter to her friend.
Chapter twenty three
Finally, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and his wife crossed the threshold of their parents' house. However, at this time, the father, Prince Nikolai, was sleeping, and even the arrival of such dear guests could not be a reason to break such a familiar daily routine.
The father had twenty minutes to rest, and so he suggested that his wife go first to Princess Marya.
Apparently, the little princess was in the house of her husband's parents for the first time, therefore, seeing the luxurious furnishings, she could not help exclaiming: “This is a palace!”
Seeing that Maria was practicing playing the piano, the guests wanted to quietly leave, but then they were noticed by Mademoiselle Bourienne, Princess Bolkonskaya's companion, and began to express delight that the long-awaited relatives had finally arrived.
Maria also saw her brother and his wife and joined in the joy of their visit. Prince Nikolai did not stand aside either, and although he expressed his emotions more sparingly, nevertheless, due to the arrival of his son, he was in a good mood. And again there was talk of military subjects, which so worried people at that time.
Chapter twenty four
Finally, dinner time came, and Prince Nikolai went to the dining room, where Princess Maria, Mademoiselle Bourrienne, and the prince's architect were already waiting for him, for some reason allowed to the table, although he was not at all from the nobility. Everyone sat down, and again the conversation turned "about the war, about Bonaparte and the current generals and statesmen ..."
chapter twenty five
The next day, Prince Andrei was about to leave. He was worried. Here is how the author describes the mood of a young man at that difficult time: “He, with his hands folded back, quickly walked around the room from corner to corner, looking ahead of himself, and thoughtfully shook his head. Was he afraid to go to war, was it sad to leave his wife - maybe both ... "
Suddenly, the footsteps of Princess Mary were heard. She was upset, because she so wanted to talk to her brother alone. She looked at him - and did not recognize her formerly playful little brother in this strong and courageous young man.
The sister admitted that she immediately fell in love with his wife Lisa, who, in her opinion, was still a child, but suddenly saw a contemptuous and ironic expression that flashed across Andrei's face. However, he was very happy to be with his sweet sister. The conversation proceeded peacefully, and when Mary mentioned Mademoiselle Bourienne, the brother did not fail to notice that he did not like her very much. However, the kind princess tried to justify her companion in his eyes, because she is an orphan and so needs a good attitude towards herself.
Suddenly, a question followed, discouraging Mary. It was about how her father treats her, because it was clear that Andrei's sister suffered from the heavy and tough character of her beloved dad. Most of all, the girl was depressed that her father did not believe in God. “... How can a person with such a huge mind not see what is clear as day, and can be so deluded?” she lamented about his religious outlook.
Finally, Maria expressed her request to Andrei, which consisted in the fact that his brother would never take off the icon that she wants to give.
The heart of Prince Bolkonsky also grieved that his son was leaving for the war, although he tried not to show it. “Remember one thing, Prince Andrei: if they kill you, it will hurt me, an old man ...” said Nikolai.
Finally, saying goodbye to his loved ones, much to the chagrin of his wife, whom he left in the care of his father-in-law and daughter-in-law, Andrei left. Princess Liza was very upset, because she was pregnant. However, life went on.
GENRE PROBLEM. Tolstoy found it difficult to determine the genre of his main work. “This is not a novel, even less a poem, even less a historical chronicle,” he wrote in the article “A few words about the book War and Peace” (1868), adding that in general “in the new period of Russian literature there is not a single artistic a prose work, a little out of mediocrity, which would fit perfectly into the form of a novel, poem or short story. The poem was meant, of course, prose, Gogol, focused on ancient epics and at the same time on a picaresque novel about modernity. The novel, as it developed in the West, has traditionally been understood as a multi-event, with a developed plot, a story about what happened to one person or several people who receive much more attention than others - not about their usual, regular life, but about more or a less prolonged incident with a beginning and an end, most often happy, consisting in the marriage of the hero to his beloved, less often unfortunate when the hero died. Even in the problematic Russian novel that preceded War and Peace, there is a “monocracy” of the hero and the endings are relatively traditional. In Tolstoy, as in Dostoevsky, “the autocracy of the central person is practically absent”, and the novel plot seems to him artificial: “... I can’t and I don’t know how to put certain boundaries on fictional persons of mine - such as marriage or death, after which interest narrative would be destroyed. It involuntarily seemed to me that the death of one person only aroused interest in other persons, and marriage seemed for the most part a plot, and not a denouement of interest.
"War and Peace" is certainly not a historical chronicle, although Tolstoy pays great attention to history. It has been calculated: “Episodes from history and reasoning in which historical questions are developed occupy 186 chapters out of 333 chapters of the book”, while only 70 chapters are related to the line of Andrei Bolkonsky. There are especially many historical chapters in the third and fourth volumes. So, in the second part of the fourth volume, four of the nineteen chapters are associated with Pierre Bezukhov, the rest are entirely military history. Philosophical-journalistic and historical discussions occupy four chapters at the beginning of the first part of the epilogue and the entire second part of it. However, reasoning is not a sign of a chronicle; a chronicle is, first of all, a presentation of events.
There are signs of a chronicle in War and Peace, but not so much historical as family history. Characters are rarely represented in literature by entire families. Tolstoy, on the other hand, talks about the families of the Bolkonskys, Bezukhovs, Rostovs, Kuragins, Drubetskys, mentions the Dolokhov family (although outside the family this hero behaves as an individualist and egoist). The first three families, true to the family spirit, finally find themselves in a relationship, which is very important, and the official relationship of Pierre, who through weakness of will married Helen, with the soulless Kuragins is eliminated by life itself. But even War and Peace cannot be reduced to the family chronicle.
Meanwhile, Tolstoy compared his book with the Iliad, i.e. with an ancient epic. The essence of the ancient epic is “the primacy of the common over the individual”. He talks about the glorious past, about events that are not just significant, but important for large human communities, peoples. The individual hero exists in him as an exponent (or antagonist) of the common life.
Obvious signs of an epic beginning in "War and Peace" are a large volume and problem-thematic encyclopedia. But, of course, ideologically Tolstoy was very far from the people of the "age of heroes" and the very concept of "hero" considered unacceptable for the artist. His characters are self-sufficient individuals who by no means embody any impersonal collective norms. In the XX century. War and Peace is often called an epic novel. This sometimes raises objections, statements that “the leading genre-forming beginning of Tolstoy’s“ book ”should still be recognized as a “personal” thought, basically not epic, but romantic”, in particular “the first volumes of the work, devoted primarily to family life and personal destinies heroes, dominate not the epic, but the novel, albeit unconventional. Of course, the principles of the ancient epic are not literally used in War and Peace. And yet, along with the novel, there is also the epic, which is primordially opposed to it, only they do not complement each other, but turn out to be mutually permeable, creating a new quality, an unprecedented artistic synthesis. According to Tolstoy, the individual self-affirmation of a person is detrimental to his personality. Only in unity with others, with “common life” can he develop and improve himself, receive a truly worthy reward for his efforts and searches in this direction. V.A. Nedzvetsky rightly noted: “The world of the novels of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy for the first time in Russian prose is built on the mutually directed movement and interest in each other of the individual and the people.” In Tolstoy, the synthesis of the novel and the epic began to roam. Therefore, there is still reason to call "War and Peace" a historical epic novel, meaning that both components in this synthesis are radically updated and transformed.
The world of the archaic epic is closed in itself, absolute, self-sufficient, cut off from other epochs, “rounded”. For Tolstoy, the personification of “everything Russian, kind and round” (vol. 4, part 1, ch. XIII) is Platon Karataev, a good soldier in the ranks and a typical peasant, an absolutely peaceful person in captivity. His life is harmonious in all situations. After Pierre Bezukhov, who himself was awaiting death, saw the execution, “this is a terrible murder committed by people who did not want to do this,” in him, although he did not realize it, faith in the improvement of the world, and in human, and into your soul, and into God." But, having talked with Plato, falling asleep beside him reassured, he “felt that the previously destroyed world was now being erected in his soul with new beauty, on some new and unshakable foundations” (vol. 4, part 1, ch. XII) . The orderliness of the world is characteristic of its epic state. But in this case, ordering occurs in one soul, absorbing the world. This is absolutely not in the spirit of the ancient epics.
Internally related to the epic picture of the world is the image-symbol of the water ball that Pierre dreamed of. It has a stable solid shape and no corners. “The idea of a circle is akin to the peasant world-community with its social isolation, mutual responsibility, specific limitations (which is reflected through the influence of Karataev in limiting Pierre's outlook to the immediate business). At the same time, the circle is an aesthetic figure, with which the idea of achieved perfection is associated from time immemorial” (1, p. 245), writes one of the best researchers of “War and Peace” S. G. Bocharov. In Christian culture, the circle symbolizes the sky and at the same time the highly aspiring human spirit.
However, firstly, the ball dreaming of Pierre is not only constant, but also distinguished by the inescapable variability of the liquid (drops merging and again separating). The stable and the changeable appear in an indissoluble unity. Secondly, the ball in "War and Peace" is a symbol not so much of the actual, as of the ideal, desired reality. The searching heroes of Tolstoy never rest on the path that introduces them to eternal, permanent spiritual values. As S. G. Bocharov notes, in the epilogue, the conservative landowner and limited person Nikolai Rostov, and not Pierre, are close to the peasant world-community and to the land. Natasha closed herself in the circle of her family, but admires her husband, whose interests are much wider, while Pierre and 15-year-old Nikolenka Bolkonsky, the true son of their father, experience acute dissatisfaction, in their aspirations they are ready to go far beyond the surrounding, stable life circle. Bezukhov’s new activity “would not have been approved by Karataev, but he would have approved of Pierre’s family life; Thus, in the end, the small world, the domestic circle, where the acquired goodness is preserved, and the big world, where the circle opens again into a line, a path, the “world of thought” and endless striving are renewed. Pierre cannot become like Karataev, because the Karata-ev world is self-sufficient and impersonal. “Call me Plato; Karataev’s nickname, ”he introduces himself to Pierre, immediately including himself in a community, in this case a family one. Love for all for him excludes the high price of individuality. “Affections, friendship, love, as Pierre understood them, Karataev did not have any; but he loved and lived lovingly with everything that life brought him, and especially ... with those people who were before his eyes. He loved his mutt, loved his comrades, the French, loved Pierre, who was his neighbor; but Pierre felt that Karataev, in spite of all his affectionate tenderness for him ... would not have been upset for a minute by parting from him. And Pierre began to feel the same feeling for Karataev ”(vol. 4, part 1, ch. XIII). Then Pierre, like all the other prisoners, does not even try to support and save Plato, who fell ill on the way, leaves him, who will now be shot by the guards, acts as Plato himself would have done. Karataev's “roundness” is the momentary fullness and self-sufficiency of existence. For Pierre with his spiritual search, in his natural environment, such a fullness of being is not enough.
In the epilogue, Pierre, arguing with the unreasoning Rostov, closed in his circle, not only confronts Nicholas, but is also concerned about his fate, as well as the fate of Russia and humanity. “It seemed to him at that moment that he was called to give a new direction to the whole of Russian society and the whole world,” Tolstoy writes, not without condemning “his self-satisfied reasoning” (epilogue, part 1, ch. XVI). The “new direction” turns out to be inseparable from conservatism. Criticizing the government, Pierre also wants to help him by creating a secret society. “The society may not be secret, if the government allows it. Not only is it not hostile to the government, but it is a society of true conservatives. Society of gentlemen in the full sense of the word. We are only so that tomorrow Pugachev does not come to slaughter both my and your children, - says Pierre to Nikolai, - and so that Arakcheev does not send me to a military settlement, - we only take hand in hand, with one goal of the common good and general security” (epilogue, part 1, ch. XIV).
The wife of Nikolai Rostov, who is much deeper than her husband, has her own internal problems. “The soul of Countess Marya always aspired to the infinite, eternal and perfect, and therefore could never be at peace” (epilogue, part 1, ch. XV). This is very Tolstoyan: eternal restlessness in the name of the absolute.
The world of the epic novel as a whole is stable and defined in its outlines, but not closed, not completed. The war subjects this world to cruel trials, brings suffering and heavy loss (the best die: Prince Andrei, who has just begun to live and loves everyone Petya Rostov, who also loves everyone, although otherwise, Karataev), but trials strengthen what is really strong, but evil and the unnatural is defeated. “Until the twelfth year broke out,” writes S.G. Bocharov, - it might seem that intrigue, the play of interests, the Kuragin principle prevail over the deep necessity of life; but in the atmosphere of the twelfth year, the intrigue is doomed to failure, and this is shown in the most diverse facts, between which there is an internal connection - and that poor Sonya must lose and innocent tricks will not help her, and in a miserable death entangled in the intrigues of Helen, and in the inevitable defeat of Napoleon, his grandiose intrigue, his adventure, which he wants to impose on the world and turn into world law. The end of the war is the restoration of the normal flow of life. Everything is settled. The heroes of Tolstoy with honor stand the test, come out of them purer and deeper than they were. Their sorrow for the dead is peaceful, bright. Of course, such an understanding of life is akin to epic. But this is not an epic heroic in the original sense, but an idyllic one. Tolstoy accepts life as it is, despite his sharply critical attitude towards everything that separates people, makes them individualists, despite the fact that in the trials of the idyllic world there is a lot of both dramatic and tragic. The epilogue promises the heroes new trials, but the tonality of the finale is bright, because life in general is good and indestructible.
For Tolstoy there is no hierarchy of life events. Historical and personal life in his understanding are phenomena of the same order. Therefore, "every historical fact must be explained humanly ...". Everything is connected to everything. The impressions of the Battle of Borodino leave in Pierre's subconscious the feeling of precisely this universal connection. “The most difficult thing (Pierre continued to think or hear in a dream) is to be able to combine in his soul the meaning of everything. Connect everything? Pierre said to himself. - No, do not connect. You can’t connect thoughts, but to connect all these thoughts is what you need! Yes, you need to match, you need to match!” It turns out that at this time someone's voice repeats several times that it is necessary, it's time to harness (vol. 3, part 3, ch. IX), i.e. the key word is prompted to Pierre's subconscious by a similar word that his bereytor pronounces, waking up the master. Thus, in the epic novel, the global laws of being and the subtlest movements of individual human psychology “merge”.
MEANINGS OF THE WORD "WORLD". Although in Tolstoy’s time the word “peace” was printed in the title of his book as “peace”, and not “peace”, thus meaning only the absence of war, in fact, in the epic novel, the meanings of this word, going back to one original, are numerous and varied. This is the whole world (the universe), and humanity, and the national world, and the peasant community, and other forms of uniting people, and what is outside of this or that community - so, for Nikolai Rostov, after losing 43 thousand to Dolokhov, “the whole world was divided into two uneven departments: one - our Pavlograd regiment, and the other - everything else. Certainty is always important to him. She is in the regiment. He decided to “serve well and be a completely excellent comrade and officer, that is, a wonderful person, which seemed so difficult in the world, and so possible in the regiment” (vol. 2, part 2, ch. XV). Natasha at the beginning of the war of 1812 in the church was deeply disturbed by the words “let us pray to the Lord in peace”, she understands this both as the absence of enmity, as the unity of people of all classes. “World” can mean both a way of life and a worldview, a type of perception, a state of consciousness. Princess Marya, on the eve of her father’s death, forced to live and act independently, “was seized by another world of worldly, difficult and free activity, completely opposite to the moral world in which she was imprisoned before and in which prayer was the best consolation” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter VIII). The wounded Prince Andrei “wanted to return to the former world of pure thought, but he could not, and delirium drew him into his own area” (vol. 3, part 3, ch. XXXII). In the words, tone, and look of her dying brother, Princess Mary “felt a terrible alienation from everything worldly for a living person” (vol. 4, part 1, ch. XV). In the epilogue, Countess Marya is jealous of her husband for his household chores, because she cannot “understand the joys and sorrows brought to him by this separate, alien world” (Part 1, Chapter VII). And then it says: “As in every real family, several completely different worlds lived together in the Bald Mountain house, which, each holding its own peculiarity and making concessions to one another, merged into one harmonious whole. Every event that happened in the house was equally - joyful or sad - important for all these worlds; but each world had completely its own, independent of the others, reasons to rejoice or grieve at any event” (ch. XII). Thus, the range of meanings of the word “peace” in “War and Peace” is from the universe, space to the inner state of an individual hero. Macrocosm and microcosm are inseparable in Tolstoy. Not only in the Lysogorsk house of Marya and Nikolai Rostovs - throughout the book, many and diverse worlds merge "into one harmonious whole" in accordance with an unprecedented genre.
THE IDEA OF UNITY. The connection of everything with everything in "War and Peace" is not only stated and demonstrated in the most diverse forms. It is actively affirmed as a moral, in general life ideal.
“Natasha and Nikolai, Pierre and Kutuzov, Platon Karataev and Princess Mary are sincerely disposed towards all people without exception and expect goodwill from everyone,” writes V.E. Khalizev. For these characters, such relationships are not even ideal, but the norm. Much more closed in on himself and focused on his own, not devoid of stiffness, constantly reflecting Prince Andrei. At first, he thinks about his personal career and fame. But he understands fame as the love of many strangers for him. Later, Bolkonsky tries to participate in state reforms in the name of benefit for the same people unknown to him, for the whole country, now not for the sake of his career. One way or another, being together with others is extremely important for him too, he thinks about this at a moment of spiritual enlightenment after visiting the Rostovs in Otradnoye, after he accidentally overheard Natasha's enthusiastic words about a beautiful night, addressed to a much colder and indifferent than she , Sonya (here is almost a pun: Sonya sleeps and wants to sleep), and two “meetings” with an old oak, at first not succumbing to spring and the sun, and then transformed under fresh foliage. Not so long ago, Andrei told Pierre that he was only trying to avoid illness and remorse, i.e. directly related to him personally. This was the result of disappointment in life after, in return for the expected glory, he had to experience injury and captivity, and returning home coincided with the death of his wife (he loved her little, but that’s why he knows remorse). “No, life is not over at thirty-one,” Prince Andrei suddenly decided definitively, without fail. - Not only do I know everything that is in me, it is necessary that everyone knows this: both Pierre and this girl who wanted to fly into the sky, it is necessary that everyone knows me, so that my life goes not for me alone. life, so that they do not live like this girl, regardless of my life, so that it is reflected in everyone and so that they all live with me together!” (vol. 2, part 3, ch. III). In the foreground in this internal monologue is me, mine, but the main, summing up word is “together”.
Among the forms of unity of people, Tolstoy especially singles out two - family and nationwide. Most of the Rostovs are, to a certain extent, a single collective image. Sonya turns out to be ultimately a stranger to this family, not because she is only the niece of Count Ilya Andreich. She is loved in the family as the most dear person. But both her love for Nikolai and the sacrifice - the renunciation of claims to marry him - are more or less forced, constructed in a limited and far from poetic mind. And for Vera, marriage with the prudent Berg, who is nothing like the Rostovs, becomes quite natural. In fact, the Kuragins are an imaginary family, although Prince Vasily takes care of his children, arranges a career or marriage for them in accordance with secular ideas of success, and they are in solidarity with each other in their own way: the story of the attempt to seduce and kidnap Natasha Rostova by the already married Anatole is not did without the participation of Helen. “Oh, vile, heartless breed!” - Pierre exclaims at the sight of Anatole's "timid and vile smile", whom he asked to leave, offering money for the journey (vol. 2, part 5, ch. XX). The Kuragin “breed” is not at all the same as the family, Pierre knows this too well. Married to Helen Pierre, Platon Karataev first of all asks about his parents - the fact that Pierre does not have a mother makes him especially upset - and when he hears that he does not have “children”, again upset, he resorts to purely popular consolation: “Well, young people, God willing, they will. If only we could live in council...” (vol. 4, part 1, ch. XII). “Council” is just not in sight. In the artistic world of Tolstoy, such complete egoists as Helen with her debauchery or Anatole cannot and should not have children. And after Andrei Bolkonsky, a son remains, although his young wife died in childbirth and the hope for a second marriage turned into a personal disaster. The plot of “War and Peace”, opened right into life, ends with the dreams of young Nikolenka about the future, whose dignity is measured by the high criteria of the past - the authority of his father, who died from a wound: “Yes, I will do something that even he would be pleased with ...” (epilogue, Part 1, Chapter XVI).
The exposure of the main anti-hero of "War and Peace", Napoleon, is also carried out with the help of the "family" theme. Before the Battle of Borodino, he receives a gift from the Empress - an allegorical portrait of a son playing in a bilbock ("The ball represented the globe, and the wand in the other hand depicted a scepter"), "a boy born from Napoleon and the daughter of the Austrian emperor, whom for some reason everyone called the king Rome." For the sake of “history”, Napoleon, “with his greatness”, “showed, in contrast to this greatness, the simplest paternal tenderness”, and Tolstoy sees in this only an feigned “view of thoughtful tenderness” (vol. 3, part 2, ch. XXVI ).
“Family” relationships for Tolstoy are not necessarily related. Natasha, dancing to the guitar of a poor landowner, “uncle”, who plays “On the pavement street ...”, is spiritually close to him, like to everyone present, regardless of the degree of kinship. She, the countess, “brought up by a French emigrant” “in silk and velvet”, “knew how to understand everything that was in Anisya, and in Anisya’s father, and in her aunt, and in her mother, and in every Russian person” (t 2, part 4, chapter VII). The previous hunting scene, during which Ilya Andreich Rostov, having missed the wolf, endured the emotional scolding of the hunter Danila, is also proof that the “kindred” atmosphere for the Rostovs sometimes overcomes very high social barriers. According to the law of “conjugation”, this branched scene turns out to be an artistic preview of the depiction of the Patriotic War. “Isn’t the image of the “club of the people’s war” close to Danilin’s appearance? On the hunt, where he was the main figure, her success depended on him, the peasant hunter only for a moment became master over his master, who was useless on the hunt, ”notes S.G. Bocharov, further on the example of the image of the Moscow commander-in-chief, Count Rostopchin, revealing the weakness and futility of the actions of the “historical” character.
On the Raevsky battery, where Pierre ends up during the Battle of Borodino, before the start of hostilities, “there was a sense of the same and common to everyone, as if family revival” (vol. 3, part 2, ch. XXXI). The soldiers immediately dubbed the stranger "our master", as the soldiers of Andrei Bolkonsky's regiment of their commander - "our prince". “A similar atmosphere is on the Tushin battery during the Shengraben battle, as well as in the partisan detachment when Petya Rostov arrives there,” points out V.E. Khalizev. - In this regard, let us recall Natasha Rostova, who, on the days of her departure from Moscow, helps the wounded: she “liked these, outside the usual conditions of life, relations with new people” ... the similarity between the family and similar “swarm” communities is also important: both unity is non-hierarchical and free... The readiness of the Russian people, primarily peasants and soldiers, for non-coercive-free unity is most similar to the "Rostov" nepotism.
Tolstoy's unity by no means means the dissolution of individuality in the mass. The forms of people's unity approved by the writer are opposite to the disordered and impersonal, inhuman crowd. The crowd is shown in the scenes of soldiers' panic, when the defeat of the allied army in the battle of Austerlitz became obvious, the arrival of Alexander I in Moscow after the outbreak of the Patriotic War (an episode with biscuits that the tsar throws from the balcony to his subjects, seized with literally wild delight), the abandonment of Moscow by Russian troops, when Rastop Chin gives it to the inhabitants to be torn to pieces by Vereshchagin, allegedly the culprit of what happened, etc. The crowd is chaos, most often destructive, and the unity of people is deeply beneficial. “During the Battle of Shengraben (Tushin’s battery) and the Battle of Borodino (Raevsky’s battery), as well as in the partisan detachments of Denisov and Dolokhov, everyone knew his “business, place and purpose”. The true order of a just, defensive war, according to Tolstoy, inevitably arises anew each time from unintentional and unplanned human actions: the will of the people in 1812 was realized regardless of any military state requirements and sanctions. In the same way, immediately after the death of the old Prince Bolkonsky, Princess Mary did not need to make any orders: “God knows who and when took care of this, but everything seemed to happen by itself” (vol. 3, part 2, ch. VIII).
The popular character of the war of 1812 is clear to the soldiers. From one of them, at the exit from Mozhaisk in the direction of Borodino, Pierre hears a tongue-tied speech: “They want to pile on all the people, one word - Moscow. They want to make one end.” The author comments: “Despite the vagueness of the soldier’s words, Pierre understood everything that he wanted to say ...” (vol. 3, part 2, ch. XX). After the battle, shocked, this purely non-military man, belonging to the secular elite, seriously thinks about the completely impossible. “To be a soldier, just a soldier! thought Pierre, falling asleep. - To enter this common life with the whole being, to be imbued with what makes them so” (vol. 3, part 3, ch. IX). Count Bezukhov, of course, will not become a soldier, but along with the soldiers he will be captured and will experience all the horrors and hardships that have befallen them. True, the plan to accomplish an absolutely individual romantic feat led to this - to stab Napoleon with a dagger, whose supporter Pierre declared himself at the beginning of the novel, when for Andrei Bolkonsky the newly-appeared French emperor was an idol and a model. In the clothes of a coachman and wearing glasses, Count Bezukhov wanders around Moscow occupied by the French in search of a conqueror, but instead of carrying out his impossible plan, he saves a little girl from a burning house and attacks the marauders who robbed an Armenian woman with his fists. Arrested, he passes off the saved girl as his daughter, “not knowing how this aimless lie broke out of him” (vol. 3, part 3, ch. XXXIV). Childless Pierre feels like a father, a member of some superfamily.
The people are the army, and the partisans, and the Smolensk merchant Ferapontov, who is ready to set fire to his own house so that the French do not get it, and the peasants who did not want to bring hay to the French for good money, but burned it, and Muscovites leaving their homes, their native city simply because they do not imagine themselves under the rule of the French, these are Pierre and the Rostovs, who abandon their property and give carts for the wounded at the request of Natasha, and Kutuzov with his “people's feeling”. Although it is estimated that “only eight percent of the book is devoted to episodes involving the common people” (Tolstoy admitted that he described mainly the environment that he knew well), “these percentages will increase dramatically if we consider that, from the point of view of Vasily Denisov, Field Marshal Kutuzov, and finally - and most importantly - himself, the author, express Tolstoy, the people's soul and spirit no less than Platon Karataev or Tikhon Shcherbaty. At the same time, the author does not idealize the common people. The rebellion of the Bogucharov peasants against Princess Marya before the arrival of the French troops is also shown (however, these are the peasants who were especially restless before, and Rostov with the young Ilyin and the savvy Lavrushka managed to pacify them quite easily). After the French left Moscow, the Cossacks, peasants from neighboring villages and returning residents, “having found it plundered, began to rob too. They continued what the French were doing” (vol. 4, part 4, ch. XIV). The militia regiments formed by Pierre and Mamonov (a characteristic combination of a fictional character and a historical person) plundered Russian villages (vol. 4, part 1, ch. IV). Scout Tikhon Shcherbaty is not only “the most useful and brave man in the party”, i.e. in the partisan detachment of Denisov, but also capable of killing the captured Frenchman because he was “completely incompetent” and “rude”. When he said this, “his whole face stretched into a radiant stupid smile”, the next murder he committed means nothing to him (that’s why it’s “embarrassing” for Petya Rostov to listen to him), he is ready, when it “darkens”, to bring more “whatever you want at least three” (vol. 4, part 3, ch. V, VI). Nevertheless, the people as a whole, the people as a huge family, are a moral guide for Tolstoy and his favorite heroes.
The most extensive form of unity in the epic novel is humanity, people regardless of nationality and belonging to one or another community, including armies fighting each other. Even during the war of 1805, Russian and French soldiers were trying to talk to each other, showing mutual interest.
In the “German” village, where Junker Rostov stopped with his regiment, the German he met near the barn exclaims after his toast to the Austrians, Russians and Emperor Alexander: “And long live the whole world!” Nikolay, also in German, a little differently, picks up this exclamation. “Although there was no reason for special joy either for the German who was cleaning out his cowshed, or for Rostov, who went with a platoon for hay, both of these people looked at each other with happy delight and brotherly love, shook their heads in a sign of mutual love and, smiling , dispersed...” (vol. 1, part 2, ch. IV). Natural cheerfulness makes “brothers” unfamiliar, in every sense distant from each other people. In burning Moscow, when Pierre saves a girl, he is helped by a Frenchman with a spot on his cheek, who says: “Well, it’s necessary for humanity. All people” (vol. 3, part 3, ch. XXXIII). This is Tolstoy's translation of French words. In a literal translation, these words (“Faut etre humain. Nous sommes tous mortels, voyez-vous”) would be much less significant for the author's idea: “One must be humane. We are all mortal, you see.” The arrested Pierre and the cruel Marshal Davout, who was interrogating him, “looked at each other for several seconds, and this look saved Pierre. In this view, in addition to all the conditions of war and judgment, a human relationship was established between these two people. Both of them at that moment vaguely felt countless things and realized that they were both children of mankind, that they were brothers” (vol. 4, part 1, ch. X).
Russian soldiers willingly seat Captain Rambal and his batman Morel, who came out to them from the forest, by their fire, feed them, try, together with Morel, who “sat in the best place” (vol. 4, part 4, ch. IX), to sing a song about Henry the Fourth. The French drummer boy Vincent fell in love not only with Petya Rostov, who was close to him in age; good-natured partisans thinking about spring “already changed his name: the Cossacks into Spring, and the peasants and soldiers into Visenya” (vol. 4, part 3, ch. VII). Kutuzov, after the battle near Krasnoye, tells the soldiers about the ragged prisoners: “While they were strong, we did not spare ourselves, but now you can feel sorry for them. They are also people. So guys?” (vol. 4, part 3, ch. VI). This violation of the external logic is indicative: before they did not feel sorry for themselves, but now you can feel sorry for them. However, having met with the bewildered looks of the soldiers, Kutuzov recovers, says that the uninvited French got "deservedly", and ends the speech with an "old man's, good-natured curse", met with laughter. Pity for the defeated enemies, when there are many of them, in "War and Peace" is still far from "non-resistance to evil by violence" in the form in which the late Tolstoy will preach it, she, this pity, is condescendingly contemptuous. But after all, the French themselves, fleeing Russia, “everyone ... felt that they were miserable and vile people who had done a lot of evil, for which they now had to pay” (vol. 4, part 3, ch. XVI).
On the other hand, Tolstoy has a completely negative attitude towards the state-bureaucratic elite of Russia, people of light and career. And if Pierre, who experienced the hardships of captivity, survived a spiritual upheaval, “Prince Vasily, now especially proud of receiving a new place and a star, seemed ... a touching, kind and pitiful old man” (vol. 4, part 4, ch. XIX), then we are talking about a father who has lost two children and rejoices out of habit at success in the service. This is about the same as that of the soldiers to the masses of the French, condescending pity. People who are incapable of unity with their own kind are deprived even of the ability to strive for true happiness, they mistake tinsel for life.
NATURALITY AS NORM AND ITS DISTORTIONS. The existence of characters condemned by Tolstoy is artificial. Their behavior is the same, usually subject to ritual or conventional order. Everything is predetermined and marked out in the Petersburg salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer (official Petersburg and the more patriarchal Moscow are contrasted in War and Peace), each visitor, for example, must first of all greet the old aunt, so as not to pay any attention to her later. It's like a parody of family relationships. This style of life is especially unnatural during the Patriotic War, when people of the world play patriotism, collecting fines for using the French language by inertia. In this case, it is very significant that this happens in Moscow when the enemy approaches it, before the Battle of Borodino, when Julie Drubetskaya, about to leave the city, “made a farewell party” (vol. 3, part 2, ch. XVII).
"Historical" figures, such as numerous generals, speak pathetically and assume solemn poses. Emperor Alexander, at the news of the surrender of Moscow, utters a French phrase: “Did they really betray my ancient capital without a fight?” (vol. 4, part 1, ch. III). Napoleon constantly poses. When he is waiting for the delegation of the "boyars" on Poklonnaya Hill, his majestic pose becomes ridiculous and comical. All this is infinitely far from the behavior of Tolstoy's favorite heroes, from the behavior of not only Russian soldiers and peasants, but also soldiers of the Napoleonic army, when they are not subdued by a false idea. And submission to such an idea can be not only absurd, but tragically absurd. When crossing the Viliya River, in front of Napoleon's eyes, the Polish colonel floats his subordinate lancers to demonstrate their loyalty to the emperor. “They tried to swim forward to the other side and, despite the fact that there was a crossing half a verst away, they were proud that they were swimming and drowning in this river under the gaze of a man sitting on a log and not even looking at what they were doing” ( vol. 3, part 1, chapter II). Earlier, at the end of the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon circled the field littered with corpses and, at the sight of the wounded Bolkonsky, next to whom lies the flagpole of the already torn down banner, says: “Here is a beautiful death.” For the bleeding Prince Andrei, there can be no beautiful death. “He knew that it was Napoleon - his hero, but at that moment Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant person in comparison with what was now happening between his soul and this high, endless sky with clouds running across it” (vol. 1, part 3, chapter XIX). On the verge of life and death, Bolkonsky discovered naturalness in its purest form, the beauty and infinity of being as such, which for him symbolizes, as if for the first time, the sky. The writer does not condemn the beautiful, heroic deed of Bolkonsky, he only shows the futility of an individual feat. Later, he does not condemn the 15-year-old Nikolenka, who sees himself and Uncle Pierre in a dream “in helmets - such as were drawn in Plutarch's edition ... in front of a huge army” (epilogue, part I, ch. XVI). Enthusiasm is not contraindicated in youth. But those who try to present themselves as something like Roman heroes (for example, Rostopchin), especially during a people's war, far from the rules and official military aesthetics, Tolstoy more than once subjected to severe and uncompromising criticism. Tolstoy's ethics are universal and therefore unhistorical. For real participants in the war of 1812 the heroic posture, the imitation of the ancients, was natural, did not in the least exclude sincerity and genuine enthusiasm, and, of course, did not determine their entire behavior.
The unnatural people in War and Peace do not always consciously construct their behavior either. “False naturalness, “sincere lies” (as it is said in “War and Peace” about Napoleon), are hated by Tolstoy, perhaps even more than conscious pretense ... Napoleon and Speransky, Kuragin and Drubetskaya possess such a cunning “methodology "Positioning that she amusingly deceives them." The scene of the unction of the dying old Count Bezukhov with a panorama of the faces of the contenders for his inheritance (the three princesses, Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya, Prince Vasily) is indicative, among which the confused, understanding and clumsy Pierre stands out. It is quite natural that Anna Mikhailovna and Princess Katish, pulling out a briefcase with a will from each other in the presence of Prince Vasily with “jumping cheeks” (vol. 1, part 1, ch. XXI), already forget about all decency. So then Helen, after Pierre's duel with Dolokhov, shows her anger and cynicism.
Even revelry - the reverse side of secular propriety - for Anatole Kuragin and Dolokhov is largely a game, a pose. The “restless fool” Anatole thus realizes his ideas about what a guards officer should be like. A gentle son and brother, the poor nobleman Dolokhov, in order to lead among the rich guards officers, becomes a particularly dashing reveler, gambler and breter. He undertakes to arrange for Anatole to kidnap Natasha Rostova, he is not stopped by the story of being demoted for riot, when Anatole was rescued by his father, and there was no one to rescue Dolokhov. The very heroism of Dolokhov - both during the revelry, when he drinks a bottle of rum on a bet, sitting on the sloping outer window sill of a high house, and in the war, when he goes to reconnaissance under the guise of a Frenchman, taking young Petya Rostov with him and risking his life in such a way the same as his own - demonstrative heroism, invented and entirely aimed at self-affirmation. He will not fail to recall his differences during the battle of Austerlitz to the general, who is not up to him, since the defeat of the Russian army is inevitable. The rampant Dolokhov is cured in exactly the same way as the cold careerist Berg, although he is much less concerned about his official success and is ready to risk it for the sake of self-affirmation. Their conventions exist in the military environment, it would seem, quite artless. Young Nikolai Rostov, having caught the thief Telyanin, himself turned out to be to blame for the fact that, without keeping silent, he tarnished the honor of the regiment. In his first battle, Nikolai ran away from the Frenchman, throwing a pistol at him (and received a soldier's St. George's Cross for courage), then he lost 43 thousand to Dolokhov, knowing that the family was going bankrupt, and on the estate he yelled at the manager to no avail. Over time, he becomes both a good officer and a good master of his wife's estate. This is a normal evolution, the natural maturation of a person. Nikolai is shallow, but honest and natural, like almost all Rostovs.
Count Ilya Andreevich, Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova are the same in their treatment of all, important and unimportant persons, which sharply differ from Anna Pavlovna Sherer. Always natural, except perhaps under the stern look of the authorities, is the little staff captain of a completely non-military appearance, Tushin, first shown by Tolstoy in the tent of a scribbler without boots, unsuccessfully justifying himself to the staff officer: “The soldiers say: wiser more dexterously” (vol. 1, part 1). 2, ch. XV). But natural are Kutuzov, who falls asleep during the military council before the battle of Austerlitz, and his closest assistant during the war of 1812, Konovnitsyn, singled out by the author from among other generals. The brave Bagration, having appeared at a gala dinner arranged in his honor at the Moscow English Club after the campaign of 1805, is embarrassed and ridiculously awkward. “He walked, not knowing where to put his hands, shyly and awkwardly, along the reception parquet: it was more familiar and easier for him to walk under bullets on a plowed field, as he walked in front of the Kursk regiment in Shengraben” (vol. 2, part 1, ch. .III). So that counts and generals can behave as naturally as soldiers, be embarrassed by everything artificial and pompous. The behavior of a person depends on the person himself, on what he is in character. At the same time, the simplest things in life, like the same dance of Natasha in the house of “uncle”, like the whole family atmosphere at the Rostovs, are fanned with genuine poetry. “In “War and Peace” ... everyday life with its stable way of life is poeticized,” notes V.E. Khalizev.
Rationalistic intervention in this way of life, attempts to improve it in a volitional way, turn out to be fruitless and in any case ineffective, like Pierre's philanthropic measures. Masonic education, writes S.G. Bocharov, "endows Pierre with the idea of a well-organized world order, which he did not see when he was entangled" in the world "". A well-known parallel to Pierre’s charitable activities is the theoretical development of military and state reforms by Prince Andrei, when nothing repels him in Speransky (and Pierre generally calls Bazdeev, who introduced him to Freemasonry, a “benefactor”). Both friends are disappointed in their plans and hopes. Bolkonsky, struck by a new meeting with Natasha Rostova at the ball, for a long time cannot forget Speransky's “neat, sad laugh”. “He remembered his legislative work, how he anxiously translated articles of the Roman and French code into Russian, and he felt ashamed of himself. Then he vividly pictured to himself Bogucharovo, his activities in the countryside, his trip to Ryazan, remembered the peasants, Dron the headman, and, applying to them the rights of persons, which he divided into paragraphs, he wondered how he could have been engaged in such an idle task for so long. work” (vol. 2, part 3, ch. XVIII). Pierre in captivity “learned not with his mind, but with his whole being, with his life, that man was created for happiness, that happiness is in himself, in the satisfaction of natural human needs, and that all misfortune comes not from lack, but from excess ...” ( vol. 4, part 3, chapter XII). After his release, in Orel, “alone in a strange city, without acquaintances,” he rejoices in the satisfaction of the simplest, natural needs. “Oh, how good! How nice!” - he said to himself when a cleanly laid table with fragrant broth was moved to him, or when he lay down at night on a soft clean bed, or when he remembered that his wife and the French were no more ”(vol. 4, part 4, ch. XII ). He is not embarrassed by the fact that Helen's death is also "glorious", and puts his liberation from a painful marriage on a par with the liberation of his homeland from the conquerors. “He didn’t make any plans now” (vol. 4, part 4, ch. XIX), indulging himself for the time being in a spontaneous flow of life controlled by no one and nothing.
The norm (natural behavior) allows some deviations. “The free-open behavior of heroes and heroines close to Tolstoy often crosses the boundaries of the generally accepted and established ... In the Rostovs' house, it is difficult for young people to keep animation and fun within the boundaries of decency; Natasha violates household etiquette more often than others. This is a small problem. However, momentary egoism, which Tolstoy's most beloved heroes are not alien to, may also turn out to be natural. Healthy flees from the sick, happiness from misfortune, living from the dead and dying, although not always. Natasha, with her subtle intuition, guesses about the state of her brother Nikolai when he returns home after a terrible card loss, “but she herself had so much fun at that moment, she was so far from grief, sadness, reproaches that she (as often happens with young people) deliberately deceived herself” (vol. 2, part 1, ch. XV). The captive Pierre at the stage was not only exhausted himself and unable to help the weakened Karataev - he was “too scared for himself. He acted as if he had not seen his gaze, and hastily departed” (vol. 4, part 3, ch. XIV). Natasha's naturalness is subjected to a cruel test when, at the behest of the old Prince Bolkonsky, her wedding to Prince Andrei is postponed for a year and the groom must go abroad. “- A whole year! Natasha suddenly said, now only realizing that the wedding was postponed for a year. - Why is it a year? Why is it a year? .. - It's terrible! No, it's terrible, terrible! Natasha suddenly spoke up and sobbed again. “I will die waiting for a year: this is impossible, this is terrible” (vol. 2, part 3, ch. XXIII). Loving Natasha does not understand any conditions, and even the conventions of art are unbearable for her. After the village (with hunting, Christmas time, etc.) in her “serious mood” “it was wild and surprising for her” to see the opera stage, “she saw only painted cardboard and strangely dressed men and women, in bright light moving strangely, talking and those who sang; she knew what all this was supposed to represent, but it was all so pretentiously false and unnatural that she felt ashamed of the actors, then funny at them ”(vol. 2, part 5, ch. IX). Here she begins to experience the physiological, i.e. physically natural attraction to the handsome Anatole, introduced to her by his sister Helen. “They talked about the simplest things, and she felt that they were close, as she had never been with a man” (vol. 2, part 5, ch. X). Soon, Natasha, in bewilderment, admits to herself that she loves two at once - both the distant fiancé, and, as it seems to her, such a close Anatole, then agrees to run away with Anatole. This obscuration, by the will of Tolstoy, comprehends precisely his most beloved heroine. She must cruelly repent, go through a terrible time for her (this time also coincides with the yet unrealized beginning of her future love for Pierre, who helps resolve the situation and confesses to Natasha his love for her) and get out of her crisis in the days of the most difficult trials for her. country and family, when she demands the release of carts for the wounded, she will meet with the dying Prince Andrei, be convinced of his love and forgiveness, endure his death and, finally, help her mother endure a huge shock - the death of a teenager Petya. Natural self-will with such grave consequences for Natasha, Prince Andrei, Pierre, and others, is one of those forms of naturalness that, of course, are not accepted by the author as an apologist for “common life”, human unity. Prince Andrei forgives Natasha before his death, but after his mortal wound, he no longer feels hostility towards Anatole, whose leg is amputated next to him. And his father, nicknamed the “Prussian king”, who brought up Princess Mary so strictly, before his death, touchingly, with tears, asks her forgiveness. In the images of the father and son of the Bolkonsky, the aristocrat L.N. Tolstoy overcame his own strictness and stiffness: his son Ilya recalled that during the period of War and Peace he looked not like Pierre Bezukhov or Konstantin Levin from Anna Karenina, but like Prince Andrei and even more like old Bolkonsky.
Prince Andrei cannot, until he has renounced everything “worldly”, overcome his pride and aristocracy. Pierre, recalling his own words that a fallen woman must be forgiven, he replies: “... but I did not say that I could forgive. I can't". He is incapable of following “in the footsteps of this gentleman” (vol. 2, part 5, ch. XXI).
Denisov, getting to know him, is recommended: “Lieutenant Colonel Denisov, better known as Vaska” (vol. 3, part 2, ch. XV). Colonel Bolkonsky is never Andryushka under any circumstances. Having decided to serve only in the ranks of the active army (which is why he “lost himself forever in the court world, without asking to stay with the person of the sovereign”, - vol. 3, part 1, ch. XI), beloved by the soldiers of his regiment, he still never could to plunge into the pond where they bathed in the heat, and, pouring themselves in the shed, shudders “from incomprehensible disgust and horror to himself at the sight of this huge number of bodies rinsing in a dirty pond” (vol. 3, part 2, ch. V ). He dies because he cannot afford to fall to the ground in front of a spinning grenade in front of the soldiers standing under fire, as the adjutant did - this is “shameful” (vol. 3, part 2, ch. XXXVI). According to Natasha, told to Princess Mary, “he is too good, he cannot, cannot live ...” (vol. 4, part 1, ch. XIV). But Count Pyotr Kirillovich Bezukhov can run in horror and fall on the Borodino field, after the battle, hungry, posing as a "militia officer", sit down by a soldier's fire and eat "kavardachka": the soldier "gave Pierre, having licked it, a wooden spoon", and he eats in large gulps a simple meal, “which seemed to him the most delicious of all the foods he had ever eaten” (vol. 3, part 3, ch. VIII). Then His Excellency, along with the captured soldiers, paddles barefoot through the frozen puddles under escort. Here he is, according to Tolstoy, and can live and eventually marry his beloved Natasha.
Of course, Andrei and Pierre have much in common in their spiritual quests. But in the artistic system of the epic novel, which poeticizes the flow of life, their destinies turn out to be opposite. Bolkonsky, along with Lermontov's Pechorin, is one of the most talented characters in Russian literature and, like him, is unhappy. Unsuccessful marriage, disappointment in social life encourage him to look for "his Toulon" in imitation of Napoleon. This leads to another disappointment, and he arrives home at the time of the birth and death of his wife. Having awakened over time to a new life, he tries to realize himself in the service of the state and is again disappointed. Love for Natasha gives him hope for personal happiness, but he turns out to be terribly deceived and offended: he was preferred to an immoral nonentity, similar to a beautiful animal. His father dies during the war, the estate is occupied by the French. He is mortally wounded in the rear of the Russian troops by a stray grenade and dies at 34, knowing that, having reconciled with Natasha, he will never be with her.
Pierre, the illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov, awkward, ugly, much less gifted than Prince Andrei, inherited the title and all his father's vast fortune. For debauchery, in fact, he was not punished. He married even more unsuccessfully than his older friend, but he successfully parted with his wife after a duel with a brether, whom, for the first time holding a pistol in his hands, he accidentally shot and who missed in response, aiming at a fat enemy who was not hiding behind a pistol. He also experienced a number of disappointments, at first unrequitedly, while still married, he fell in love with the “fallen” Natasha. During the Battle of Borodino he was in the thick of it and survived. He did not die in Moscow, captured by the French, although he got involved with them, armed, in a fight. He could have been shot like the others, but because of a casual look, the cruel marshal took pity on him. He did not die at the stage, like, it would seem, to everything adapted to the soldier-peasant Karataev. After captivity, he fell ill. “Despite the fact that the doctors treated him, bled him and gave him medicines to drink, he nevertheless recovered” (vol. 4, part 4, ch. XII). The sudden death of Helen and the death of Andrei Bolkonsky made it possible for Pierre to marry Natasha, who, having experienced a lot, recognized his soul in him and fell in love with him, despite the fact that the pain of her loss was still fresh. Ultimately, life itself arranged everything for the better for them, no matter how difficult the path they had traveled.
IMAGE OF WAR. For Tolstoy, war is “an event contrary to human reason and all human nature” (vol. 3, part 1, ch. I). Contemporaries disputed this opinion of the writer, citing the fact that humanity in its history fought much more than stayed at peace. But Tolstoy's words mean that humanity, in fact, is still not human enough if strangers, often good-natured, having nothing against each other, are forced by some irrational force to kill each other. In Tolstoy's descriptions of battles, as a rule, confusion reigns on the battlefield, people are not aware of their actions, and the orders of the commanders are not carried out, because they are delivered to the place when the situation there has already changed. The writer, especially persistently - in the last two volumes of the epic novel, denies the art of war, mocks military terms such as "cut off the army" and even rejects the usual designations of military operations and accessories: not "fight", but "kill people", not banners, and sticks with pieces of cloth, etc. (in the first volume, where it was not yet about the Patriotic War, in these cases the usual, neutral vocabulary was used). The officer, regiment commander Andrei Bolkonsky, before the battle of Borodino, already quite in the spirit of the late Tolstoy, angrily says to Pierre: “War is not a courtesy, but the most disgusting thing in life ... The purpose of war is murder, the weapons of war are espionage, treason and encouragement of it, the ruin of the inhabitants , robbing them or stealing for the food of the army; deceit and lies, called stratagems; morals of the military class - lack of freedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, debauchery, drunkenness. And despite that - this is the highest class, revered by all. All kings, except for the Chinese, wear a military uniform, and the one who killed the most people is given a big reward ... They will converge, like tomorrow, to kill each other, kill, maim tens of thousands of people, and then they will serve thanksgiving prayers for that they beat many people (whose number is still being added), and they proclaim victory, believing that the more people are beaten, the greater the merit ”(vol. 3, part 2, ch. XXV).
Those who are not directly involved in the murder also make a career in the war. People like Berg receive ranks and awards thanks to the ability to “submit” their imaginary exploits. Among the officers and generals of the 1st Army and the courtiers who were with it, at the beginning of the war of 1812, Prince Andrei distinguishes nine different parties and trends. Of these, “the largest group of people, which, by its huge number, related to others like 99 to 1st, consisted of people ... wanting only one thing, and the most essential: the greatest benefits and pleasures for themselves” (vol. 3, Part 1, Chapter IX). Tolstoy is critical of most of the famous generals, and even lesser-ranking officers known from history, he deprives them of their recognized merits. Thus, the most successful actions during the Battle of Shengraben (1805) are attributed to fictional characters, modest officers Tushin and Timokhin. The first of them, who was not awarded anything, saved from official scolding by Andrei Bolkonsky, we later see without a hand in a stinking hospital, the second, Izmail comrade Kutuzov (Izmail was taken in 1790), in 1812 only “because of the loss of officers” ( vol. 3, part 2, chapter XXIV) received a battalion. With a plan for a guerrilla war, it is not Denis Davydov who comes to Kutuzov, but Vasily Denisov, who only partly resembles his prototype.
Tolstoy's goodies can't get used to professional murder. In the case near Ostrovnaya, Nikolai Rostov, already an experienced squadron commander, and not an unfired cadet, as he was near Shengraben, during his successful attack does not even kill, but only wounds and captures a Frenchman, and after that, in confusion, he wonders why he presented to the George Cross. In "War and Peace" in general, in contrast to the ancient epics, the author avoids showing the direct killing of man by man. The personal experience of Tolstoy the officer, who was an artilleryman in besieged Sevastopol, and not an infantryman or a cavalryman, and did not see his victims close by (in the detailed descriptions of the Shengraben, Austerlitz, Borodino battles, artillery is given special attention), but most importantly, he clearly hated to show people killing. In a huge work with many military scenes, the title of which begins with the word "War", there are only two more or less detailed descriptions of face-to-face murders. This is the murder by a crowd of Vereshchagin on a Moscow street at the behest of Rastopchin and the execution, also in Moscow, of five people by the French, who are frightened and carry out the sentence, not wanting it. In both cases, non-military people are killed and not at all on the battlefields. Tolstoy managed to show the war as such in all inhumanity, without depicting any of the characters killing their own kind: neither Andrei Bolkonsky (who is still a true hero), nor Nikolai Rostov, nor Timokhin, nor the dashing hussar Denisov, nor even the cruel Dolokhov. They talk about the murder of the Frenchman by Tikhon Shcherbaty, but it is not directly presented, we do not see exactly how it happened.
Avoids Tolstoy and detailed display of mutilated corpses, streams of blood, terrible wounds, etc. Figurativeness in this respect gives way to expressiveness, the unnaturalness, inhumanity of war is affirmed with the help of the impression that it can make. About the end of the Battle of Borodino, for example, it is said: “Clouds gathered, and it began to rain on the dead, on the wounded, on the frightened, and on the exhausted, and on the doubting people. It was as if he was saying, “Enough, enough, people. Stop... Come to your senses. What are you doing?” (vol. 3, part 2, ch. XXXIX).
THE CONCEPT OF HISTORY. Tolstoy's work is polemical in relation to official historiography, which glorified the exploits of heroes and ignored the decisive role of the people in such events as the Patriotic War of 1812. Its elderly participants and contemporaries found the era dear to them incorrectly depicted, devoid of a halo of majesty. But Tolstoy understood the events of more than half a century ago better than those who forgot their immediate impressions of that time and believed in myths that posed as historical reality. The writer knew that a person is inclined to tell others what they want and expect to hear from him. So, the “truthful young man” Nikolai Rostov, telling Boris Drubetsky and Berg about his first (very unsuccessful) participation in the battle, began “with the intention of telling everything exactly how it was, but imperceptibly, involuntarily and inevitably for himself turned into a lie. If he had told the truth to these listeners, who, like himself, had already heard stories of attacks many times ... and expected exactly the same story - either they would not believe him, or, worse, would think that Rostov himself was to blame for the fact that what usually happens to the narrators of cavalry attacks did not happen to him ... They were waiting for a story about how he was on fire, not remembering himself, how a storm flew into a square; how he cut into him, chopped right and left; how the saber tasted the meat and how he fell exhausted, and the like. And he told them all this ”(vol. 1, part 3, ch. VII), In the article“ A few words about the book War and Peace ”Tolstoy recalled how, after the loss of Sevastopol, he was instructed to bring twenty reports into one report officers who "by order of the authorities wrote what they could not know." From such reports, "finally, a general report is drawn up, and on this report a general opinion of the army is drawn up." Later, the participants in the events spoke not from their impressions, but from a report, believing that everything was exactly like that. History is written on the basis of such sources.
Tolstoy contrasted the "naive, necessary military lie" with artistic penetration into the depths of things. Thus, the abandonment of Moscow to the French in 1812 was the salvation of Russia, but the participants in the historical event were far from conscious of this, captured by their current marching life: “... in the army that retreated behind Moscow, they hardly spoke or thought about Moscow, and, looking at her conflagration, no one swore to take revenge on the French, but thought about the next third of the salary, about the next parking lot, about the Matryoshka-marketer and the like ... ”(vol. 4, part 1, ch. IV). Tolstoy's psychological intuition allowed him to make genuine artistic and historical discoveries,
In historical figures, he was mainly interested in their human, moral appearance. The portraits of these people do not claim to be complete and are often very conditional, far from what is known about them from various sources. Napoleon "War and Peace", of course, is precisely Tolstoy's Napoleon, an artistic image. But the writer reproduced the behavior and moral side of the personality of the French emperor accurately. Napoleon possessed extraordinary abilities, and Tolstoy does not deny them, even speaking of them ironically. However, the intentions of the conqueror are contrary to the normal course of life - and he is doomed. Tolstoy "was not interested in what Napoleon was, and not even in what he seemed to his contemporaries, but only in what he turned out to be in the end, as a result of all his wars and campaigns."
In historical and philosophical digressions, Tolstoy speaks of predestination and the diagonal of a parallelogram - the resultant of multidirectional forces, the actions of many people, each of whom acted according to his will. It's a rather mechanistic concept. At the same time, “in the situation of 1812, the artist Tolstoy shows not the resultant, not the diagonal, but the general direction of various individual human forces” . Kutuzov guessed this general direction with his instinct, who became the spokesman for the cumulative aspirations and played a huge role in the people's war even with external inaction. He himself is aware of this role, speaking of the French: “... I will have horse meat!” - “I have”, and not by predestination. Tolstoy's denial of military art is a polemical extreme characteristic of him, but his emphasis on the moral factor (rather than the number and disposition of troops, commanders' plans, etc.) is largely justified. In the epic novel, the image of the war of 1812 is comparable only to the image of the campaign of 1805, which took place on foreign territory in the name of goals unknown to the soldiers. In both cases, the armies were led by Napoleon and Kutuzov, at Austerlitz the Russians and Austrians had a numerical superiority. But the results of the two wars were opposite. The war of 1812 was to end in victory, since it was a Patriotic, people's war.
PSYCHOLOGISM. Another reproach addressed to Tolstoy is the reproach of modernizing the psychology of the characters, of attributing to people the beginning of the 19th century. thoughts, feelings and experiences characteristic of spiritually more developed contemporaries of the writer. Tolstoy's favorite heroes are indeed portrayed psychologically in depth. Although Nikolai Rostov is far from being an intellectual, the sentimental ditty he sings (vol. 1, part 1, ch. XVII) seems too primitive for him. But it is a sign of historical time. In the spirit of this time, and Nicholas' letter to Sonya (vol. 3, part 1, ch. XII), Dolokhov's reasoning about women (vol. 2, part 1, ch. X), Pierre's Masonic diary (vol. 2, part 3, ch. VIII, X). When, however, the inner world of the characters is directly reproduced, this should not be taken literally. It is clear to the clever and subtle Bolkonsky: thought, feeling and their expression do not coincide. “It was clear that Speransky had never been able to come up with that common thought for Prince Andrei that it is impossible to express everything that you think ...” (vol. 2, part 3, ch. VI).
Inner speech, especially unconscious sensations and experiences, are not amenable to literal logical design. And yet Tolstoy does this conventionally, as if translating the language of experiences into the language of concepts. Internal monologues and quotation marks are just such a translation, sometimes outwardly contradicting logic. Princess Mary suddenly realizes that the French will soon come to Bogucharovo and that she cannot stay: “So that Prince Andrei knows that she is in the power of the French! So that she, the daughter of Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, asked Mr. General Ramo to protect her and enjoy his blessings! (vol. 3, part 2, ch. X). Outwardly - direct speech, but Princess Mary does not think of herself in the third person. Such “inner speech”, understood literally, was not characteristic not only of people at the beginning of the 19th century, but also of no one afterwards. No person could ever have time to think about his love for life, grass, earth, air, like Prince Andrei two steps away from a grenade that is about to explode. This is how the perception of everything that catches the eye, sharpened on the verge of life and death, is conveyed.
Tolstoy retells in his author's speech the delirium of Prince Andrei, describes the "world" of the mortally wounded: and delirium in which something special happened. Everything in this world was still being erected, without collapsing, the building, something was still stretching, the same candle was burning with a red circle, the same sphinx shirt was lying by the door; but besides all this, something creaked, smelled of fresh wind, and a new white sphinx, standing, appeared before the door. And in the head of this sphinx there was a pale face and shining eyes of that same Natasha, about whom he was now thinking” (vol. 3, part 3, ch. XXXII). The chain of visions and associations closes on reality, it was really Natasha who entered the door, and Prince Andrei did not even suspect that she was close, very close. The philosophical reflections of the dying man (sometimes framed in a defiantly logical way) and his dying symbolic dream are also retold. Even an uncontrollable psyche appears in concrete, clear images. “Tolstoy's work is the highest point of the analytical, explanatory psychologism of the 19th century,” emphasizes L.Ya. Ginzburg.
Tolstoy's psychologism extends only to characters close to and dear to the author. From the inside, even the seemingly absolutely whole Kutuzov is shown, to whom the truth is known in advance, but by no means Napoleon, not the Kuragins. Dolokhov can reveal his experiences in words, wounded in a duel, but such a world of sounds and visions, which is open to Petya Rostov’s inner gaze and hearing on his last night at a partisan bivouac, is inaccessible, by Tolstoy’s will, to characters occupied mainly with self-affirmation.
COMPOSITION OF THE EPIC NOVEL AND THE ORIGINALITY OF STYLE. The main action of War and Peace (before the epilogue) spans seven and a half years. This material is unevenly distributed over the four volumes of the epic novel. The first and third-fourth volumes cover half a year, two wars, 1805 and 1812, are correlated compositionally. The second volume is the most "novel". War with the French 1806-1807 is no longer covered in such detail, despite the fact that in terms of political consequences (the Peace of Tilsit) it was more important than the campaign of 1805: politics as such is less interesting to Tolstoy (although he shows the meeting of two emperors in Tilsit) than the moral meaning of one or another wars with Napoleon. Even more briefly, they talk about the long Russian-Turkish war, in which Kutuzov brought a quick and bloodless victory, quite casually - about the war with Sweden (“Finland”), which became the next step in Berg’s career. The war with Iran that dragged on in those years (1804-1813) is not even mentioned. In the first volume, the Shengraben and Austerlitz battles, which are incomparable in scale, are clearly correlated. Bagration's detachment covered the retreat of Kutuzov's army, the soldiers saved their brothers, and the detachment was not defeated; under Austerlitz there is nothing to die for, and this brings a terrible defeat to the army. The second volume describes the predominantly peaceful life of a number of characters over the course of several years, which has its own difficulties.
In the last volumes, people like the Kuragins disappear one by one from the novel, the epilogue does not say a word about Prince Vasily and his son Ippolit, Anna Pavlovna Sherer, the Drubetskys, Berg and his wife Vera (although she is in the past of Rostov), even about Dolokhov. St. Petersburg secular life continues to flow even at the time of the battle of Borodino, but the author now has no time to describe in detail those who live such a life. Unnecessary are Nesvitsky, Zherkov, Telyanin. Helen's death is dealt with briefly and in summary in the fourth volume, in contrast to her characterization in the first volumes. After the scene on Poklonnaya Gora, Napoleon is only mentioned, in “illustrative” scenes, he no longer appears as a full-fledged literary character. In part, the same thing happens with the characters that did not cause the author's rejection. For example, Bagration, one of the most significant heroes of the war of 1812, is practically not represented as a character in the third volume, he is only told about him, and even then not in too much detail, now, apparently, Tolstoy seems to be mainly a figure in official history. In the third and fourth volumes, there is more direct depiction of the common people and historical episodes proper, criticism, analyticism, and, at the same time, pathos are intensified.
Real-life faces and fictional characters are drawn by the same means. They act in the same scenes and are even mentioned together in Tolstoy's discourses. The writer willingly uses the point of view of a fictional character in depicting historical events. The battle of Shengraben was seen through the eyes of Bolkonsky, Rostov and the author himself, Borodino - through the eyes of the same Bolkonsky, but mostly Pierre (a non-military, unusual person) and again the author, and the positions of the author and the hero here seem to be equalized; The Tilsit meeting of the emperors is given from the points of view of Rostov and Boris Drubetskoy with the presence of the author's commentary; Napoleon is seen by both Prince Andrei on the Field of Austerlitz, and the Cossack Lavrushka after the French invasion of Russia, etc.
The “pairing” into a single whole of different thematic layers and points of view of the characters corresponds to the “pairing” of different forms of narration (in the broad sense of the word) - plastically representable pictures, overview reports on events, philosophical and journalistic reasoning. The latter belong only to the second half of the epic novel. Sometimes they are present in the story chapters. Transitions from pictures to reasoning do not entail noticeable changes in the author's speech. In one Tolstoy phrase, they can be combined as completely related words of high and low, figuratively expressive and logical-conceptual series, for example, at the end of the second volume: “... Pierre joyfully, eyes wet with tears, looked at this bright star, which seemed to , having flown immeasurable spaces along a parabolic line with inexpressible speed, suddenly, like an arrow piercing the ground, stuck here in one place it had chosen in the black sky and stopped, vigorously raising its tail upwards ... ”The life stream is complex, contradictory, and just as complex and sometimes the composition of “War and Peace” is naturally contradictory at all levels: from the arrangement of chapters and parts, plot episodes to the construction of one phrase. The focus on “conjugation” gives rise to a typical Tolstoyan extended and cumbersome phrase, sometimes with the same syntactic constructions, as if striving to cover all the shades of a given subject, including those that contradict one another - hence the oxymoron epithets: out of curiosity, the Shengraben field turns out to be "civilian official, auditor" "with a radiant, naive and at the same time a cunning smile ..." (vol. 1, part 2, ch. XVII), as it seems to Pierre, the comet above his head "fully corresponded to what was in his. .. softened and encouraged soul” (vol. 2, part 5, ch. XXII), etc. A branched phrase, for example, about Kutuzov, the exhaustion of his historical role after the expulsion of the French from Russia, can be set off by a short, lapidary one: “And he died” (vol. 4, part 4, ch. XI).
The historical originality of the speech of the characters is ensured by the names of the realities of the time and the abundant use of the French language, moreover, the use is diverse: French phrases are often given as directly depicted, sometimes (with the proviso that the conversation is in French, or without it, if the French speak) them immediately replaces the Russian equivalent, and sometimes the phrase more or less conventionally combines the Russian and French parts. The author's translation is sometimes inadequate, in Russian the French phrase is given some new shade. Common speech is carefully distinguished from the speech of the nobles, but the main characters speak in general the same language, which is indistinguishable from the author's speech. Other means are enough to individualize the characters.
On the eve of the 1960s, the creative thought of Leo Tolstoy struggled to solve the most significant problems of our time, directly related to the fate of the country and people. At the same time, by the 60s, all the features of the art of the great writer, deeply "innovative in essence, were determined. Wide communication with the people as a participant in two campaigns - the Caucasian and Crimean, and also as a school figure and a world mediator enriched Tolstoy- artist and ideologically prepared for the solution of new, more complex tasks in the field of art.In the 60s, a period of his broad epic creativity began, marked by the creation of the greatest work of world literature - "War and Peace".
Tolstoy did not come to the idea of "War and Peace" immediately. In one version of the preface to War and Peace, the writer said that in 1856 he began to write a story, the hero of which was supposed to be a Decembrist returning with his family to Russia. However, no manuscripts of this story, no plans, no notes have been preserved; Tolstoy's diary and correspondence are also devoid of any mention of work on the story. In all likelihood, in 1856 the story was only conceived, but not started.
The idea of a work about the Decembrist came to life again with Tolstoy during his second trip abroad, when in December 1860 in Florence he met his distant relative, the Decembrist S. G. Volkonsky, who served in part as a prototype for the image of Labazov from the unfinished novel.
S. G. Volkonsky in his spiritual appearance resembled the figure of that Decembrist, which Tolstoy sketches in a letter to Herzen on March 26, 1861, shortly after meeting him: “I started a novel about 4 months ago, the hero of which should be the returning Decembrist. I wanted to talk to you about this, but I never had time. - My Decembrist must be an enthusiast, a mystic, a Christian, returning to Russia in 1956 with his wife, son and daughter and trying on his strict and somewhat ideal view of the new Russia. — Tell me, please, what do you think about the decency and timeliness of such a plot. Turgenev, to whom I read the beginning, liked the first chapters.
Unfortunately, we do not know Herzen's answer; apparently, it was meaningful and significant, since in the next letter, dated April 9, 1861, Tolstoy thanked Herzen for "good advice about the novel"1 2.
The novel opened with a broad introduction, written in a sharply polemical way. Tolstoy expressed his deeply negative attitude towards the liberal movement that unfolded in the first years of the reign of Alexander II.
In the novel, events unfolded exactly as Tolstoy reported in the above-quoted letter to Herzen. Labazov with his wife, daughter and son returns from exile to Moscow.
Pyotr Ivanovich Labazov was a good-natured, enthusiastic old man who had the weakness to see his neighbor in every person. The old man is removed from active interference in life (“his wings have become badly worn”), he is only going to contemplate the affairs of the young.
Nevertheless, his wife, Natalya Nikolaevna, who accomplished the “feat of love”, followed her husband to Siberia, and spent many years of exile with him inseparably, believes in the youth of his soul. And indeed, if the old man is dreamy, enthusiastic, able to get carried away, then the youth is rational and practical. The novel was left unfinished, so it is difficult to judge how these so different characters would have unfolded.
Two years later, Tolstoy again returned to work on a novel about the Decembrist, but, wanting to understand the socio-historical causes of Decembristism, the writer comes to 1812, to the events that preceded the Patriotic War. In the second half of October 1863, he wrote to A. A. Tolstoy: “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 occupied me completely 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.
However, for Tolstoy, much in the planned work remained unclear. Only since the autumn of 1864 the idea of the novel has been refined? and defines the boundaries of the historical narrative. The creative searches of the writer are captured in a short and detailed synopsis, as well as in numerous versions of introductions and beginnings of the novel. One of them, referring to the most initial sketches, is called “Three Pores. Part 1. 1812". At this time, Tolstoy still intended to write a novel-trilogy about the Decembrist, in which 1812 was supposed to be only the first part of an extensive work covering "three pores", that is, 1812, 1825 and 1856. The action in the passage was dated to 1811 and then changed to 1805. The writer had a grandiose idea to depict half a century of Russian history in his multi-volume work; he intended to "lead" many of his "heroines and heroes through the historical events of 1805, 1807, 1812, 1825 and 1856"1. Soon, however, Tolstoy limits his plan, and after a series of new attempts to start the novel, among which was "A Day in Moscow (name day in Moscow, 1808)", he finally creates a sketch of the beginning of the novel about the Decembrist Pyotr Kirillovich B., entitled " From 1805 to 1814. The novel of Count L. N. Tolstoy, 1805, part I, chapter I. There is still a trace of Tolstoy's extensive plan, but already from the trilogy about the Decembrist, the idea of \u200b\u200ba historical novel from the era of the war between Russia and Napoleon stood out, in which several parts were supposed. The first, titled "Year 1805", was published in No. 2 of Russkiy Vestnik in 1865.
Tolstoy later said that he, “intentioning to write about the Decembrist who had returned from Siberia, first returned to the era of the December 14th rebellion, then to the childhood and youth of the people involved in this matter, became carried away by the war of 12, and since the war of 12 th was in connection with the year 1805, then the whole composition began from that time.
Tolstoy's idea by this time had become much more complicated. Historical material, exceptional in its richness, did not fit into the framework of a traditional historical novel.
Tolstoy, as a true innovator, is looking for new literary forms and new visual means to express his idea. He argued that Russian artistic thought does not fit into the framework of the European novel, it is looking for a new form for itself.
Tolstoy was captured by such searches as the greatest representative of Russian artistic thought. And if earlier he called "Year 1805" a novel, now he was worried by the thought that "writing would not fit under any form, neither a novel, nor a short story, nor a poem, nor a story." Finally, after much torment, he decided to put aside "all these fears" and write only what "needs to be said," without giving the work "any name."
However, the historical plan immeasurably complicated the work on the novel in yet another respect: it became necessary to deeply study new historical documents, memoirs, and letters from the era of 1812. The writer seeks in these materials, first of all, such details and touches of the era that would help him historically truthfully recreate the characters of the characters, the originality of the life of people at the beginning of the century. The writer widely used, especially to recreate peaceful pictures of life at the beginning of the century, in addition to literary sources and handwritten materials, direct oral stories of eyewitnesses in 1812.
As we approached the description of the events of 1812, which aroused great creative excitement in Tolstoy, work on the novel went at a faster pace.
The writer was full of hope for a speedy completion of the novel. It seemed to him that he would be able to finish the novel in 1866, but this did not happen. The reason for this was the further expansion and ". deepening of the plan. The wide participation of the people in the Patriotic War required the writer to rethink the nature of the entire war of 1812, sharpened his attention to the historical laws that "govern" the development of mankind. The work decisively changes its original appearance: from family -historical novel of the type "One thousand eight hundred and fifth year", as a result of ideological enrichment, it turns into an epic of a huge historical scale at the final stages of work. The writer widely introduces philosophical and historical reasoning into the novel, creates magnificent pictures of the people's war. He re-examines everything so far written parts, abruptly changes the original plan for its ending, corrects the lines of development of all the main characters, introduces new characters, gives the final title to his work: “War and Peace” 1. Preparing the novel for a separate edition in 1867, the writer reworks whole chapters, throws out large chunks of text, carries out stylistic corrections “why, according to Tolstoy, the essay wins in all respects” * 2. He continues this work to improve the work in proofreading; in particular, the first part of the novel underwent significant cuts in proofs.
Working on the proofreading of the first parts, Tolstoy simultaneously continued to finish the novel and approached one of the central events of the entire war of 1812 - the battle of Borodino. On September 25-26, 1867, the writer makes a trip to the Borodino field in order to study the site of one of the greatest battles, which created a sharp turning point in the course of the entire war, and with the hope of meeting eyewitnesses of the Borodino battle. For two days he walked and traveled around the Borodino field, made notes in a notebook, drew a battle plan, and looked for old contemporaries of the war of 1812.
During 1868, Tolstoy, along with historical and philosophical "digressions", wrote chapters on the role of the people in the war. The main merit belongs to the people in the expulsion of Napoleon from Russia. This conviction is imbued with pictures of the people's war, magnificent in their expressiveness.
In assessing the war of 1812 as a people's war, Tolstoy agreed with the opinion of the most advanced people of both the historical era of 1812 and his time. In particular, some of the historical sources that he used helped Tolstoy to realize the popular character of the war against Napoleon. F. Glinka, D. Davydov, N. Turgenev, A. Bestuzhev and others speak about the national character of the war of 1812, about the greatest national upsurge in their letters, memoirs, notes. Denis Davydov, who, according to the correct definition of Tolstoy, was the first to understand the great importance of guerrilla warfare with “his Russian instinct”, in the “Diary of Partisan Actions of 1812” spoke with a theoretical understanding of the principles of its organization and conduct.
Davydov's "Diary" was widely used by Tolstoy not only as material for creating pictures of the people's war, but also in its theoretical part.
The line of advanced contemporaries in assessing the nature of the war of 1812 was continued by Herzen, who wrote in the article "Russia" that Napoleon raised against himself a whole people who resolutely took up arms.
This historically correct assessment of the war of 1812 was further developed by the revolutionary democrats Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov.
Tolstoy, in his assessment of the people's war of 1812, which sharply contradicted all officious interpretations of it, relied to a large extent on the views of the Decembrists and was in many respects close to the statements of the revolutionary democrats about it.
Throughout 1868 and a significant part of 1869, the writer's hard work continued on completing War and Peace.
And only in the autumn of 1869, / in mid-October, he sends the last proofs of his work to the printing house. Tolstoy the artist was a true ascetic. He put almost seven years of "continuous and exceptional labor, under the best conditions of life" into the creation of "War and Peace"2. A huge number of rough drafts and variants, exceeding the main text of the novel in their volume, dotted with corrections, proofreading additions quite eloquently testify to the colossal work of the writer, who tirelessly searched for the most perfect ideological and artistic embodiment of his creative idea.
Before the readers of this unparalleled work in the history of world literature, an extraordinary wealth of human images, an unprecedented breadth of coverage of the phenomena of life, the deepest image of the most important events in the history of the whole were revealed.
people. , J
The pathos of "War and Peace" is in the affirmation of the great zest for life and the great love of the Russian people for the motherland.
There are few works in literature that, in terms of the depth of ideological problems, the strength of artistic expression, the enormous social and political resonance, and educational impact, could be close to Voija and the World. Hundreds of human images pass through a huge work, the life paths of some come into contact and intersect with the life paths of others, but each image is unique, retains its inherent individuality. The events depicted in the novel begin in July 1805 and end in 1820. Dyahaadd years of Russian history, full of dramatic events, are captured on pages J of War and Peace.
From the very first pages of the epic, Prince Andrei and his friend Pierre Bezukhov appear before the reader. Both of them have not yet finally determined their role in life, both have not found the work to which they are called to devote all their strength. Their life paths and searches are different.
We meet Prince Andrei in the drawing room of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. Everything in his behavior - a tired, bored look, a quiet measured step, a grimace that spoiled his handsome face, and a manner of squinting when looking at people - expressed his deep disappointment in secular society, fatigue from visiting drawing rooms, from empty and deceitful social conversations. Such a T~ attitude to light makes Prince Andrei related to Onegin and partly to Pechorin. Prince Andrei is natural, simple and good only with his friend Pierre. A conversation with him evokes in Prince Andrei healthy feelings of friendship, cordial affection, and frankness. In a conversation with Pierre, Prince Andrei appears as a serious, thinking, well-read person, sharply condemning the lies and emptiness of secular life and striving to satisfy serious intellectual needs. So he was with Pierre and with people to whom he was cordially attached (father, sister). But as soon as he entered the secular environment, everything changed dramatically: Prince Andrei hid his sincere impulses under the guise of cold secular courtesy.
In the army, Prince Andrei has changed: pretense, // fatigue and laziness have disappeared. Energy appeared in all his movements, in his face, in his gait. Prince Andrei takes the course of military affairs to heart.
The defeat of the Austrians in Ulm and the arrival of the defeated Mack arouse in him alarming worries about the difficulties the Russian army will face. Prince Andrei proceeds from a lofty idea of military duty, from an understanding of the responsibility of each for the fate of the country. He is aware of the inseparability of his fate with the fate of the fatherland, rejoices at the "common success" and is sad about the "common failure".
Prince Andrei strives for fame, without which, according to his concepts, he cannot live, he envies the fate of "Natto-Leon, his imagination is disturbed by dreams of his" Toulon ", of his" Arcole Bridge "Prince Andrei in Shengrabensky. he did not find his "Tulon" in battle, but on Tushin's battery he gained true concepts of heroism. This was the first step on the way of his rapprochement with ordinary people.
Du?TL£d.?.ZZ. Prince Andrey again dreamed of glory and of accomplishing a feat under some special circumstances. On the day of the Battle of Austerlitz, in an atmosphere of general panic, oh-4-- vativiv troops, he. in front of Kutuzov. with ... a banner in his hands v drags an entire battalion into the attack. He gets hurt. He lies alone, abandoned by everyone, in the middle of the field and "quietly, childishly groans. In this state, he saw the sky, and it caused him sincere and deep surprise. The whole picture of his majestic calmness and solemnity was sharply set off by the vanity of people , their petty, selfish thoughts.
Prince Andrey, after the “heaven” opened to him, condemned his false aspirations for glory and began to look at life in a new way. Glory is not the main incentive for human activity, there are other, more lofty ideals. There is a debunking of the "hero", who was worshiped not only by Prince Andrei, but also by many of his contemporaries.
■ After the Austerlitz campaign, Prince Andrei decided never i j | no longer serve in the military. He returns home. The wife of Prince Andrei is dying, and he concentrates all his interests on raising his son, trying to convince himself that "this is one thing" is left for him in life. Thinking that a person must live for himself, he manifests extreme detachment from all external social forms of life.
At the beginning, the views of Prince Andrei on contemporary political issues were in many respects a pronounced noble-estate character. Speaking with Pierre about the liberation of the peasants, he shows aristocratic contempt for the people, believing "that the peasants do not care what condition they are in. Serfdom must be abolished because, according to Prince Andrei, it is the source of the moral death of many nobles corrupted by the cruel system of serfdom .
His friend Pierre looks at the people differently. He has also been through a lot over the years. The illegitimate son of a prominent Catherine nobleman, after the death of his father, he became the richest man in Russia. The dignitary Vasily Kuragin, pursuing selfish goals, married him to his daughter Helen. This marriage with an empty, stupid and depraved woman brought Pierre deep disappointment. " hostile secular society with its deceitful morality, gossip and intrigue. He is not like any other representative of the world. Pierre had a broad outlook, was distinguished by a lively mind ^ sharp observation, courage and freshness of judgment. A free-thinking spirit was developed in him. In the presence of royalists he praises the French Revolution, calls Napoleon the greatest man in the world, and admits to Prince Andrei that he would be ready to go to war if it were a "war for freedom". with a pistol in his pocket, among the conflagrations of Moscow, he will seek a meeting with the emperor of the French in order to kill him and thereby avenge the suffering of the Russian people.
“A man of stormy temperament and great physical strength, terrible in moments of rage, Pierre was at the same time gentle, timid and kind; when he smiled, a meek, childish expression appeared on his face. He devotes all his extraordinary spiritual strength to the search for truth and the meaning of life Pierre thought about his wealth, "about" money, which cannot change anything in life, cannot save from evil and inevitable death. In such a state of mental confusion, he became an easy prey for one of the Masonic lodges.
In the religious and mystical spells of the Freemasons, Pierre's attention was attracted primarily by the idea that it was necessary "with all our might to oppose the evil that reigns in the world." And Pierre "imagined the oppressors from whom he saved their victims."
In accordance with these convictions, Pierre, having arrived at the Kyiv estates, immediately informed the managers of his intentions to free the peasants; he outlined before them a broad program of assistance to the peasants. But his trip was so arranged, so many “Potemkin villages” were created on his way, deputies from the peasants were so skillfully selected, who, of course, were all happy with his innovations, that Pierre already “reluctantly insisted” on the abolition of serfdom. He did not know the true state of affairs. In the new phase of his spiritual development, Pierre was quite happy. He presented his new understanding of life to Prince Andrei. He spoke to him about Freemasonry as a teaching of Christianity, freed from all state and official ritual foundations, as a teaching of equality, brotherhood and love. Prince Andrei believed and did not believe in the existence of such a doctrine, but he wanted to believe, because it brought him back to life, opened the way for him to rebirth.
The meeting with Pierre left a deep mark on Prince Andrei. With his characteristic energy, he carried out all those measures that Pierre planned and did not complete: he listed one estate of three hundred souls as free cultivators - “this was one of the first examples in Russia”; in other estates he replaced the corvée with dues.
However, all this transformative activity did not bring satisfaction to either Pierre or Prince Andrei. There was an abyss between their ideals and the unattractive social reality.
Pierre's further communication with the Masons led to deep disappointment in Freemasonry. The order was made up of people far ■ j not disinterested. From under the Masonic aprons one could see the uniforms and crosses that the members of the lodge had achieved in life. Among them were people who were completely unbelievers, who joined the lodge for the sake of rapprochement with influential "brothers". Thus, the deceitfulness of Freemasonry was revealed to Pierre, and all his ^ attempts to call on the "brothers" to more actively interfere in life ended in nothing. Pierre said goodbye to the Masons.
Dreams of a republic in Russia, of a victory over Napoleon, of the liberation of the peasants are in the past. Pierre lived in the position of a Russian master who loved to eat, drink and sometimes slightly scold the government. From all his young freedom-loving impulses, there seemed to be no trace left.
At first glance it was already the end, spiritual death. But the fundamental questions of life continued to disturb his consciousness as before. His opposition to the existing social order remained, his condemnation of the evil and lies of life did not weaken at all - this was the foundation of his spiritual rebirth, which later came in the fire and storms of the Patriotic War. l ^ The spiritual development of Prince Andrei in the years before the Patriotic War was also marked by an intense search for the meaning of life. Overwhelmed by gloomy experiences, Prince Andrei looked hopelessly at his life, not expecting anything for himself in the future, but then comes a spiritual rebirth, a return to the fullness of all life's feelings and experiences.
Prince Andrei condemns his egoistic life, limited by the boundaries of the family nest and isolated from the lives of other people, he is aware of the need to establish connections, spiritual community between himself and other people.
He strives to take an active part in life and in August 1809 he arrives in St. Petersburg. It was the time of the greatest glory of the young Speransky; in many committees and commissions, legislative reforms were being prepared under his leadership. Prince Andrei takes part in the work of the Law Drafting Commission. At first, Speransky makes a great impression on him with the logical turn of his mind. But in the future, Prince Andrei is not only disappointed, but also begins to despise Speransky. He loses all interest in the ongoing Speran transformations.
Speransky as a statesman and as an official. the reformer was a typical representative of bourgeois liberalism and a supporter of moderate reforms within the framework of the constitutional monarchy.
Prince Andrey also feels the deep separation of all Speransky's reformatory activity from the living demands of the people. While working on the section "Rights of Persons", he mentally tried to apply these rights to the Bogucharov peasants, and "it became surprising to him how he could do such idle work for so long."
Natasha returned Prince Andrei to a genuine and real life with its joys and excitements, he gained the fullness of life, sensations. Under the influence of a strong, yet unexperienced by him, Her feelings, the whole external and internal appearance of Prince Andrei was transformed. Where Natasha was, everything lit up for him with sunlight, there was happiness, hope, love.
But the stronger the feeling of love for Natasha, the more acutely he experienced the pain of her loss. Her passion for Anatole Kuragin, her consent to run away from home with him dealt a heavy blow to Prince Andrei. Life in his eyes has lost its "endless and bright horizons".
Prince Andrei is experiencing a spiritual crisis. The world in his view has lost its expediency, life phenomena have lost their natural connection.
He turned entirely to practical activity, trying to drown out his moral torments with work. Being on the Turkish front as a general on duty under Kutuzov, Prince Andrei surprised him with his willingness to work and accuracy. So, on the path of his complex moral and ethical quest, Prince Andrei reveals the bright and dark sides of life 1, so he undergoes ups and downs, approaching the comprehension of the true meaning of life. t
IV
Next to the images of Prince Andrei and Pierre Bezukhov in the novel are the images of the Rostovs: a good-natured and hospitable father, embodying the type of an old gentleman; touchingly loving children, a little sentimental mother; prudent Vera and captivating Natasha; enthusiastic and limited Nikolai^; playful Petya and quiet, colorless Sonya, completely gone into self-sacrifice. Each of them has his own interests, his own special spiritual world, but on the whole they constitute the "world of the Rostovs", deeply different from the world of the Bolkonskys and the world of the Bezukhovs.
The youth of the Rostov house brought revival, fun, the charm of youth and love into the life of the family - all this gave the atmosphere that reigned in the house a special poetic charm.
Of all the Rostovs, the most striking and exciting is the image of Natasha - the embodiment of the joy and happiness of life. The novel reveals the captivating image of Natasha, the extraordinary liveliness of her character, the impetuosity of her nature, her courage in expressing feelings and her truly poetic charm. At the same time, in all phases of spiritual development, Natasha shows her vivid emotionality.
Tolstoy invariably notes the closeness of his heroine to the common people, the deep national feeling inherent in her. Natasha “knew how to understand everything that was in Anisya, and in Anisya’s father,” and in her aunt, and in her mother, and in every Russian person. unconscious chant and was so good.
On the images of the Rostovs, undoubtedly, lies the stamp of Tolstoy's idealization of the "good" mores of the patriarchal landlord antiquity. At the same time, it is in this environment, where patriarchal customs reign, that the traditions of nobility and honor are preserved.
The full-blooded world of the Rostovs is opposed by the world of secular revelers, immoral, shaking the moral foundations of life. Here, among the Moscow revelers led by Dolokhov, a plan arose to take Natasha away. This is the world of gamblers, duelists, out-and-out rake who often committed criminal offenses. gentlemen! But Tolstoy not only does not admire the violent revelry of aristocratic youth, he mercilessly removes the halo of youth from these "heroes", shows the cynicism of Dolokhov and the extreme depravity of the stupid Anatoly Kuragin. And the "real gentlemen" appear in all their unsightly guise.
The image of Nikolai Rostov emerges gradually throughout the novel. At first, we see an impetuous, emotionally responsive, courageous and ardent young man leaving the university and leaving for military service.
Nikolai Rostov is an average person, he is not inclined to deep reflection, he was not disturbed by the contradictions of a complex life, so he felt good in the regiment, where you don’t have to invent and choose anything, but only obey the long-established way of life, where everything was clear, simple and definitely. And that suited Nikolai just fine. His spiritual development stopped at the age of twenty. The book in the life of Nikolai, and, in fact, in the life of other members of the Rostov family, does not play a significant role. Nikolai is not concerned about public issues, serious spiritual requests are alien to him. Hunting - the usual entertainment of the landowners - completely satisfied the unpretentious needs of the impulsive, but spiritually poor nature of Nikolai Rostov. He is alien to the original creativity. Such people do not bring anything new into life, are not able to go against its current, they recognize only the generally accepted, easily capitulate to circumstances, humble themselves before the spontaneous course of life. Nikolai thought of arranging life "according to his own mind", marrying Sonya, but after a short, albeit sincere internal struggle, he humbly submitted to "circumstances" and married Marya Bolkonskaya.
The writer consistently reveals'1 two principles in the character of Rostov: on the one hand, conscience - hence the inner honesty, decency, chivalry of Nicholas, and, on the other hand, intellectual limitations, poverty of mind - hence ignorance of the circumstances of the political and military situation of the country, inability to think, rejection of reasoning. But ^ Princess Mary attracted him precisely with her high spiritual organization: nature generously endowed her with those "spiritual gifts" that Nikolai was completely deprived of.
The war brought decisive changes to the life of the entire Russian people. All the usual conditions of life were shifted, everything was now evaluated in the light of the danger that hung over Russia. Nikolai Rostov returns to the army. Volunteer goes to war and Petya.
Tolstoy in "War and Peace" historically correctly reproduced the atmosphere of a patriotic upsurge in the country.
In connection with the war, Pierre is experiencing great excitement. He donates about a million to organize a militia regiment.
Prince Andrei from the Turkish army moves to the western one and decides to serve not in the headquarters, but directly in command of the regiment, to be closer to ordinary soldiers. In the first serious battles for Smolensk, seeing the misfortunes of his country, he finally gets rid of his former admiration for Napoleon; he observes all the flaring up patriotic enthusiasm in the troops, which was transmitted to the inhabitants of the city. (
Tolstoy depicts the patriotic feat of the Smolensk merchant Ferapontov, in whose mind an alarming thought about the “death” of Russia arose when he learned that the city was being surrendered. He no longer sought to save property: what was his shop with goods, when "Rasseya decided!" And Ferapontov shouts to the soldiers crowding into his shop to drag everything - "do not get to the devils." He decides to burn everything.
But there were other merchants as well. During the passage of Russian troops through Moscow, one merchant of the Gostiny Dvor “with red pimples on his cheeks” and “with a calm, unshakable expression of calculation on his well-fed face” (the writer even expressed a sharply negative attitude towards this type of self-serving people even in scanty portrait details) asked the officer to protect his goods from robbing soldiers.
Even in the years preceding the creation of "Warriors and Peace", Tolstoy came to the conclusion that the fate of the country is determined by the people. Historical material about the Patriotic War of 1812 only strengthened the writer in the correctness of such a conclusion, which in the conditions of the 60s had a particularly progressive significance. The deep comprehension by the writer of the very foundations of the national life of the people allowed him to historically correctly determine its enormous role in the fate of the Patriotic War of 1812. This war was by its nature a people's war with a widespread partisan movement. And precisely because Tolstoy, as a great artist, managed to understand the very essence, the nature of the war of 1812, he was able to reject and expose its false interpretation in official historiography, and his "War and Peace" became the epic of the glory of the Russian people, majestic chronicle of his heroism and patriotism. Tolstoy said: “In order for a work to be good, one must love the main, main idea in it. So in Anna Karenina I love family thought, in War and Peace I loved folk thought...”1.
This main ideological task of the epic, the very essence of which is the depiction of the historical destinies of the people, is artistically realized in the pictures of the growing patriotic upsurge of the people, in the thoughts and feelings of the main characters of the novel, in the struggle of numerous partisan detachments, in the decisive battles of the army, also embraced by patriotic enthusiasm. The idea of a people's war penetrated into the very thick of the masses of soldiers, and this decisively determined the morale of the troops, and, consequently, the outcome of the battles of the Patriotic War of 1812.
On the eve of the Shengraben battle, in full view of the enemy, the soldiers behaved just as calmly, "as if somewhere in their homeland." On the day of the battle, there was a general revival at Tushin's battery, although the gunners fought with extreme selflessness and self-sacrifice. Russian cavalrymen and Russian infantrymen fight bravely and bravely. On the eve of the Battle of Borodino, an atmosphere of general animation reigned among the soldiers of the militia. “They want to pile on all the people; one word - Moscow. They want to make one end, ”says the soldier, deeply and truly expressing in his ingenuous words the patriotic upsurge that engulfed the masses of the Russian army, preparing for the decisive Battle of Borodino.
The best representatives of the Russian officers were also deeply patriotic. The writer shows this in relief, revealing the feelings and experiences of Prince Andrei, in whose spiritual appearance significant changes took place: the features of a proud aristocrat receded into the background, he fell in love with ordinary people - Timokhin and others, was kind and simple in Relations with the people of the regiment, and he was called "our prince". The squeaks of the natives transformed Prince Andrei. In his reflections on the eve of "Borodin, gripped" by the Premonition of inevitable death, he sums up his life. In this connection, his deepest patriotic feelings, his hatred for the enemy, who is robbing and ruining Russia, are revealed with the greatest force.
Hi>ep fully shares the feelings of anger and hatred of Prince Andrei. Afterwards, everything that had been seen that day, all the majestic pictures of the preparations for the battle, seemed to illumine for Pierre with a new light, everything became clear and understandable to him: it was clear that the actions of many thousands of people were imbued with a deep and pure patriotic feeling. He I now understood the whole meaning and all the significance of this war and the upcoming battle, and the words of the soldier about the repulse of the whole people and Moscow acquired for him a deep and significant meaning.
On the Borodino field, all the streams of the patriotic feeling of the Russian people flow into a single channel. The bearers of the patriotic feelings of the people are both the soldiers themselves and people close to them: Timokhin, Prince Andrey, Kutuzov. Here the spiritual qualities of people are fully revealed.
How much courage, courage and selfless heroism are shown by the gunners of the Raevsky and Tushino batteries! All of them are united by the spirit of a single team, I work harmoniously and cheerfully! -
current. Tolstoy gives a high moral and ethical assessment to the Russian i (soldier. These simple people are the embodiment of spiritual vigor and strength. In the depiction of Russian soldiers, Tolstoy invariably notes their endurance, good spirits, and patriotism.
All this is observed by Pierre. Through his perception, a majestic picture of the famous battle is given, which only a civilian who had never participated in battles could feel so keenly. Pierre saw the war not in its ceremonial form, with prancing generals and fluttering banners, but in its terrible real form, in blood, suffering, death.
Assessing the enormous significance of the Battle of Borodino during the Patriotic War of 1812, Tolstoy points out that the myth of Napoleon's invincibility was dispelled on the Borodino field, and that the Russians, despite heavy losses, showed unprecedented fortitude. The moral strength of the French attacking army was exhausted. The Russians have found moral superiority over the enemy. A mortal wound was inflicted on the French army near Borodino, which ultimately led to its inevitable death. For the first time near Borodino, the hand of a strong-minded enemy was laid on Napoleonic France. The Russian victory at Borodino had important consequences; she created the conditions for the preparation and conduct of the "flank march" - the counter-offensive of Kutuzov, which resulted in the complete defeat of the Napoleonic army.
But on the way to the final victory, the Russians had to go through a series of difficult trials, military necessity forced them to leave Moscow, which the enemy set on fire with vengeful cruelty. The theme of “burned Moscow” occupies a very important place in the figurative system of “War and Peace”, and this is understandable, because Moscow is the “mother” of Russian cities, and the fire of Moscow responded with deep pain in the heart of every Russian.
Talking about the surrender of Moscow to the enemy, Tolstoy exposes the Moscow governor-general Rostopchin, shows his miserable role not only in organizing a rebuff to the enemy, but also in saving the material values of the city, confusion and contradictions in all his administrative orders.
Rostopchin spoke with contempt about the crowd, about the "rabble", about the "plebeians" and from minute to minute expected indignation and rebellion. He tried to rule over a people he did not know and feared. Tolstoy did not recognize this role of “steward” for him, he was looking for accusatory material and found it in the bloody story with Vereshchagin, whom Rostopchin, in animal fear for his life, gave to be torn to pieces by the crowd that had gathered in front of his house.
The writer with great artistic power conveys the inner turmoil of Rostopchin, who rushed in a carriage to his country house in Sokolniki and was pursued by the cry of a madman about the resurrection from the dead. The “blood trail” of the committed crime will remain for life – this is the idea of this picture.
Rostopchin was deeply alien to the people and therefore did not understand and could not understand the popular character of the war of 1812; he stands among the negative images of the novel.
* * *
After Borodin and Moscow, Napoleon could no longer recover, nothing could save him, since his army carried within itself "as if the chemical conditions of decomposition."
Already from the time of the fire of Smolensk, a partisan war began, accompanied by the burning of villages and cities, catching marauders, seizing enemy transports, and exterminating the enemy.
The writer compares the French with a swordsman who demanded "fight according to the rules of art." For the Russians, the question was different: the fate of the fatherland was being decided, so they threw down their sword and, "taking the first club that came across," began to nail the dandy tsuz with it. “And it’s good for that people,” Tolstoy exclaims, “... who, in a moment of trial, without asking how others acted according to the rules in such cases, with simplicity and ease picks up the first club that comes across and nails it until his soul the feeling of "insult and revenge will not be replaced by contempt and pity."
The guerrilla war arose from the very thick of the masses of the people, the people themselves spontaneously put forward the idea of guerrilla warfare, and before it was "officially recognized", thousands of Frenchmen were exterminated by peasants and Cossacks. Determining the conditions for the emergence and nature of guerrilla warfare, Tolstoy makes deep and historically correct generalizations, points out that it is a direct consequence of the popular nature of the war and the high patriotic spirit of the people._J
History teaches: where there is no genuine patriotic upsurge among the masses, there is not and cannot be guerrilla warfare. The war of 1812 was a patriotic war, which is why it stirred up the masses of the people to the very depths, raised them to fight the enemy until it was completely destroyed. For the Russian people there could be no question whether it would be good or bad under the control of the French. “It was impossible to be under the control of the French: that was the worst of all.” Therefore, during the entire war, "the goal of the people was one: to clear their land from invasion." ■ "The writer, in images and pictures, shows the techniques and methods of partisan struggle of the Denisov and Dolokhov detachments, creates a vivid image of a tireless partisan - the peasant Tikhon Shcherbaty, who adhered to the Denisov detachment. Tikhon was distinguished by good health, enormous physical strength and endurance; in the fight against the French, he showed dexterity, courage and fearlessness.
Among Denisov's partisans was Petya Rostov. He is full of youthful impulses; his fear of not missing something important in the partisan detachment and his desire to be sure to be in time / "to the most important place" are very touching and vividly express "the restless desires of youth."—J
-< В образе Пети Ростова писатель изумительно тонко запечатлел это особое психологическое состояние юноши, живого; эмоционально восприимчивого, любознательного, самоотверженного.
On the eve of the raid on the convoy of prisoners of war, Petya, who had been in an excited state all day, dozed off on the wagon. And the whole world around him is transformed, takes on a fantastic shape. Petya hears a harmonious choir of music performing a solemnly sweet anthem, and he tries to lead it. Romantically enthusiastic perception of reality1 Petey reaches its highest limit in this half-sleep-half-awake. This is the solemn song of a young soul rejoicing at its introduction to the life of adults. This is the anthem of life. And how disturbing are the half-childish ones on the left that arose in Denisov's memory when he looked at the murdered Petya: “I'm used to something sweet. Excellent raisins. Take all ... ". Denisov sobbed, Dolokhov also did not react indifferently to the death of Petya, he made a decision: do not take prisoners.
The image of Petya Rostov is one of the most poetic in War and Peace. On many pages of War and Peace, Tolstoy depicts the patriotism of the masses in sharp contrast to the complete indifference to the fate of the country on the part of the highest circles of society. Voina did not change the luxurious and calm life of the capital's nobility, which was still filled with a complex struggle of various "parties", drowned out "as always by the tdv-beat of the court drones." '
So, on the day of the Battle of Borodino, it was evening in the salon at AP Scherer, they were waiting for the arrival of "important persons" who had to be "shamed" for going to the French theater and "inspired to a patriotic mood." All this was just a game of patriotism, which was what the “enthusiast” A.P. Scherer and visitors to her salon were doing. Salon Helen Bezukhova, which was visited by Chancellor Rumyantsev, was considered French. Napoleon was openly praised there, rumors about the cruelty of the French were refuted, and the patriotic upsurge in the spirit of society was ridiculed. This circle thus included potential allies of Napoleon, friends of the enemy, traitors. The link between the two circles was the unprincipled Prince Vasily. With caustic irony, Tolstoy depicts how Prince Vasily got confused, forgot himself and said at Scherer what he should have said at Helen.
The images of the Kuragins in "War and Peace" vividly reflect the writer's sharply negative attitude towards the secular circles of the nobility in St. Petersburg, where duplicity and lies, unscrupulousness and meanness, immorality and corrupt morals prevailed.
The head of the family, Prince Vasily, a man of the world, important and bureaucratic, in his behavior reveals unscrupulousness and deceit, the cunning of a courtier and the greed of a greedy man. With merciless truthfulness, Tolstoy tears off the mask of a secularly amiable person from Prince Vasily, and a morally low predator appears before us. F
And “The corrupted Helen, and the stupid Hippolytus, and the vile cowardly and no less depraved Anatole, and the flattering hypocrite Prince Vasily - all of them are representatives of the vile, heartless, as Pierre says, Kuragin breed, carriers of moral corruption, moral and spiritual degradation
The Moscow nobility also did not differ in particular patriotism. The writer creates a vivid picture of the meeting of the nobles in the suburban palace. It was some kind of fantastic sight: uniforms of different eras and reigns - Catherine, Pavlov, Alexander. Poor-sighted, toothless, bald old men, far from political life, were not really aware of the state of affairs. Orators from among the young nobles were more amused by their own eloquence. After all the speeches
ononat “BeSaHHe: There was a question about my participation in the organization. The next day, when the tsar left and the nobles returned to their usual conditions, they, groaning, gave orders to the administrators about the militia and were surprised at what they had done. All this was very far from a genuine patriotic impulse.
It was not Alexander I who was the “savior of the fatherland”, as the state patriots tried to portray, and it was not among the tsar’s close associates that it was necessary to look for the true organizers of the fight against the enemy. Opposite at the court, in the immediate circle of the tsar, among the most senior statesmen, there was a group of outright traitors and defeatists, headed by chancellor Rumyantsev and the Grand Duke, who were afraid of Napoleon and stood for making peace with him. They, of course, did not have a grain of patriotism. Tolstoy also notes a group of servicemen, also devoid of any patriotic feelings and pursuing in their lives only narrowly selfish, selfish goals. This "drone population of the army" was occupied only by
that caught rubles, crosses, ranks.
Yo among the nobles were real patriots - they, in particular, include the old prince Bolkonsky. At parting with Prince Andrei, who was leaving for the army, he reminds him of honor and patriotic duty. In 1812, he energetically began to assemble a militia to fight the approaching enemy. But in the midst of this feverish activity, paralysis breaks him. Dying, the old prince thinks about his son and about Russia. In essence, his death was caused by the suffering of Russia in the first period of the war. Acting as the heir to the patriotic traditions of the family, Princess Marya is horrified at the thought that she could remain in the power of the French.
According to Tolstoy, the closer the nobles are to the people, the sharper and brighter their patriotic feelings, the richer and more meaningful their spiritual life. And on the contrary, the farther they are from the people, the drier and callous their souls, the more unattractive their moral character: these are most often false and false courtiers like Prince Vasily or seasoned careerists like Boris Drubetskoy.
Boris Drubetskoy is a typical embodiment of careerism, even at the very beginning of his career he firmly learned that success is brought not by work, not by personal virtues, but by “the ability to handle”
those who reward service.
The writer in this image shows how careerism distorts the nature of a person, destroys everything truly human in him, deprives him of the possibility of expressing sincere feelings, instills lies, hypocrisy, sycophancy and other disgusting moral qualities.
On the field of Borodino, Boris Drubetskoy appears in full armor of precisely these disgusting qualities: he is a subtle rogue, a court flatterer and a liar. Tolstoy reveals Bennigsen's intrigue and shows Drubetskoy's complicity in this; both of them are indifferent to the outcome of the upcoming battle, better yet - defeat, then power would have passed to Bennigsen.
Patriotism and closeness to the people to the greatest extent at-; exist to Pierre, Prince Andrei, Natasha. The people's war of 1812 contained that tremendous moral force that cleansed and reborn these heroes of Tolstoy, burned out class prejudices and selfish feelings in their souls. They have become more humane and nobler. Prince Andrei draws close to ordinary soldiers. He begins to see the main purpose of a person in serving people, the people, and only death interrupts his moral quest, but they will be continued by his son Nikolenka.
Ordinary Russian soldiers also played a decisive role in Pierre's moral renewal. He went through a passion for European politics, Freemasonry, charity, philosophy, and nothing gave him moral satisfaction. Only in communication with ordinary people did he understand that the goal of life is in life itself: as long as there is life, there is happiness. Pierre is aware of his community with the people and wants to share their suffering. However, the forms of manifestation of this feeling were still individualistic in nature. Pierre wanted to accomplish a feat alone, to sacrifice himself to the common cause, although he was fully aware of his doom in this individual act of struggle with Napoleon.
Being a prisoner to an even greater extent contributed to the rapprochement of Pierre with ordinary soldiers; in his own suffering and deprivation, he experienced the suffering and deprivation of his homeland. When he returned from captivity, Natasha noted striking changes in his entire spiritual appearance. Moral and physical composure and readiness for energetic activity were now visible in him. So Pierre Trishel to spiritual renewal, having gone through the sufferings of his homeland together with all the people.
And Pierre, and Prince Andrei, and Hajauia, and Marya Bolkonskaya, and many other heroes of "War and Peace" during the Patriotic War joined the basics of national life: the war made them think and feel on the scale of the whole Rossish, thanks to which their personal life was immeasurably enriched .
Let us recall the exciting scene of the Rostovs' departure from Moscow and the behavior of Natasha, who decided to take out the wounded as much as possible, although for this it was necessary to leave the family's property in Moscow for the plunder of the enemy. The depth of Natasha's patriotic feelings is compared by Tolstoy with the complete indifference to the fate of Russia of the mercenary Berg.
In a number of other scenes and episodes, Tolstoy mercilessly denounces and executes the stupid martinetism of various pfulls, Wolzogens and Bennigsens who are in the Russian service, exposes their contemptuous and arrogant attitude towards the people and the country in which they were. And this was reflected not only by the ardent patriotic feelings of the creator of War and Peace, but also by his deep understanding of the true ways of developing the culture of his people.
Throughout the epic, Tolstoy wages a passionate struggle for the very foundations of Russian national culture. The assertion of the identity of this culture, its great traditions, is one of the main ideological problems of War and Peace. The Patriotic War of 1812 very sharply raised the question of the national origins of Russian culture.
f in the Russian army, the traditions of the national military school, the traditions of Suvorov, were alive. The frequent mention of the name of Suvorov on the pages of War and Peace is natural because everyone still remembered his legendary Italian and Swiss campaigns, and in the ranks of the army there were soldiers and generals who fought with him. The military genius of Suvorov lived in the great Russian commander Kutuzov, in the illustrious General Bagration, who had a nominal saber from him.
The novel "War and Peace" is deservedly considered one of the most impressive and grandiose works of world literature. The novel was created by L. N. Tolstoy for seven long years. The work was a great success in the literary world.
The title of the novel is "War and Peace"
The very title of the novel is highly ambiguous. The combination of the words "war" and "peace" can be perceived in the meaning of war and peacetime. The author shows the life of the Russian people before the beginning of the Patriotic War, its regularity and calmness. Next comes a comparison with wartime: the absence of peace unsettled the usual course of life, forced people to change priorities.
Also, the word "peace" can be considered as a synonym for the word "people". This interpretation of the title of the novel tells about the life, exploits, dreams and hopes of the Russian nation in the conditions of hostilities. The novel has many storylines, which gives us the opportunity to delve into not only the psychology of one particular hero, but also see him in various life situations, evaluate his actions in the most diverse conditions, ranging from sincere friendship to his life psychology.
Features of the novel "War and Peace"
With unsurpassed skill, the author not only describes the tragic days of the Patriotic War, but also the courage, patriotism and irresistible sense of duty of the Russian people. The novel is full of many storylines, a variety of characters, each of which, thanks to the subtle psychological instinct of the author, is perceived as an absolutely real person, along with their spiritual searches, experiences, perception of the world and love, which is so characteristic of all of us. The heroes go through a difficult process of searching for goodness and truth, and, having gone through it, they comprehend all the secrets of the universal problems of being. Heroes have a rich, but rather contradictory inner world.
The novel depicts the life of the Russian people during the Patriotic War. The writer admires the indestructible majestic power of the Russian spirit, which was able to resist the invasion of the Napoleonic army. The epic novel masterfully combines pictures of grandiose historical events and the life of the Russian nobility, which also selflessly fought against opponents who were trying to capture Moscow.
The epic also inimitably describes elements of military theory and strategy. Thanks to this, the reader not only expands his horizons in the field of history, but also in the art of military affairs. In describing the war, Leo Tolstoy does not allow a single historical inaccuracy, which is very important in creating a historical novel.
Heroes of the novel "War and Peace"
The novel "War and Peace" first of all teaches to find the difference between real and false patriotism. The heroes of Natasha Rostova, Prince Andrei, Tushin are true patriots who, without hesitation, sacrifice a lot for the sake of their Motherland, while not demanding recognition for this.
Each hero of the novel, through long searches, finds his own meaning of life. So, for example, Pierre Bezukhov, finds his true calling only while participating in the war. The fighting revealed to him a system of real values and life ideals - what he had been looking for so long and uselessly in the Masonic lodges.
The first volume of the novel "War and Peace" describes the events of 1805. In it, Tolstoy sets the coordinate system of the entire work through the opposition of military and civilian life. The first part of the volume includes descriptions of the life of heroes in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Lysy Gory. The second is military operations in Austria and the Battle of Shengraben. The third part is divided into "peaceful" and, following them, "military" chapters, ending with the central and most striking episode of the entire volume - the battle of Austerlitz.
To get acquainted with the key events of the work, we recommend reading the online summary of the 1st volume of "War and Peace" in parts and chapters.
Important quotes are highlighted in gray, this will help to better understand the essence of the first volume of the novel.
Average page reading time: 12 minutes.
Part 1
Chapter 1
The events of the first part of the first volume of "War and Peace" take place in 1805 in St. Petersburg. The maid of honor and close associate of the Empress Maria Feodorovna Anna Pavlovna Scherer, despite her flu, receives guests. One of the first guests she meets is Prince Vasily Kuragin. Their conversation gradually moves from discussing the horrific actions of the Antichrist-Napoleon and secular gossip to intimate topics. Anna Pavlovna tells the prince that it would be nice to marry his son Anatole - "a restless fool". The woman immediately offers a suitable candidate - her relative, Princess Bolkonskaya, who lives with a stingy but rich father.
Chapter 2
Many prominent people of St. Petersburg come to Scherer: Prince Vasily Kuragin, his daughter, the beautiful Helen, known as the most charming woman in St. Petersburg, his son Ippolit, the wife of Prince Bolkonsky - the pregnant young princess Liza, and others.
Pierre Bezukhov also appears - "a massive, fat young man with a cropped head, wearing glasses" with an observant, intelligent and natural look. Pierre was the illegitimate son of Count Bezukhy, who was dying in Moscow. The young man had recently returned from abroad and was in society for the first time.
Chapter 3
Anna Pavlovna closely follows the atmosphere of the evening, which reveals in her a woman who knows how to keep herself in the light, skillfully "serving" rare guests to more frequent visitors as "something supernaturally refined." The author describes in detail the charm of Helen, emphasizing the whiteness of her full shoulders and external beauty, devoid of coquetry.
Chapter 4
Andrei Bolkonsky, the husband of Princess Liza, enters the living room. Anna Pavlovna immediately asks him about his intention to go to war, specifying where his wife will be at that time. Andrei replied that he was going to send her to the village to her father.
Bolkonsky is glad to see Pierre, informing the young man that he can come to visit them whenever he wants, without asking about it in advance.
Prince Vasily and Helen are about to leave. Pierre does not hide the admiration of the girl passing by him, so the prince asks Anna Pavlovna to teach the young man how to behave in society.
Chapter 5
At the exit, an elderly lady approached Prince Vasily - Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya, who had previously been sitting with the maid of honor's aunt. The woman, trying to use her former charm, asks the man to get her son Boris into the guard.
While talking about politics, Pierre speaks of the revolution as a great thing, in defiance of other guests who consider Napoleon's actions terrifying. The young man could not fully defend his opinion, but Andrei Bolkonsky supported him.
Chapters 6-9
Pierre at the Bolkonskys. Andrei invites Pierre, who has not decided on a career, to try his hand at military service, but Pierre considers the war against Napoleon, the greatest man, an unreasonable thing. Pierre asks why Bolkonsky goes to war, to which he replies: “I am going because this life that I lead here, this life is not for me!” .
In a frank conversation, Andrei tells Pierre that he never marry until he finally knows his future wife: “Otherwise, everything that is good and high in you will be lost. Everything will be spent on trifles. ” He is very sorry that he got married, although Lisa is a beautiful woman. Bolkonsky believes that the rapid rise of Napoleon happened only due to the fact that Napoleon was not bound by a woman. Pierre is struck by what Andrei said, because the prince is for him a kind of prototype of the ideal.
Leaving Andrey, Pierre goes to hang out with the Kuragins.
Chapters 10-13
Moscow. The Rostovs are celebrating the name day of their mother and youngest daughter - two Natalias. Women gossip about the illness of Count Bezukhov and the behavior of his son Pierre. The young man got involved in a bad company: his last revelry led to the fact that Pierre was sent from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Women wonder who will become the heir to Bezukhov's wealth: Pierre or the direct heir of the count - Prince Vasily.
The old Count Rostov says that Nikolai, their eldest son, is going to leave the university and his parents, deciding to go to war with a friend. Nikolai replies that he really feels drawn to military service.
Natasha (“black-eyed, with a big mouth, an ugly, but lively girl, with her childish open shoulders”), accidentally seeing the kiss of Sonya (the count’s niece) and Nikolai, calls Boris (Drubetskaya’s son) and kisses him herself. Boris confesses his love to the girl, and they agree on a wedding when she turns 16.
Chapters 14-15
Vera, seeing Sonya and Nikolai and Natasha and Boris cooing, scolds that it is bad to run after a young man, tries in every possible way to offend young people. This upsets everyone, and they leave, but Vera is satisfied.
Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya tells Rostova that Prince Vasily has placed her son in the guards, but she does not even have money for uniforms for her son. Drubetskaya hopes only for the mercy of Boris's godfather, Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov, and decides to hang him right away. Anna Mikhailovna asks her son to "be as nice as you can be" in relation to the count, but he believes that this will be like humiliation.
Chapter 16
Pierre was expelled from St. Petersburg for a brawl - he, Kuragin and Dolokhov, taking a bear, went to the actresses, and when the quarter appeared to calm them down, the young man participated in tying the quarter with the bear. Pierre has been living in his father's house in Moscow for several days, not fully understanding why he is there and how bad Bezukhov's condition is. All three princesses (Bezukhov's nieces) are not happy about Pierre's arrival. Prince Vasily, who soon arrived at the count, warns Pierre that if he behaves as badly here as in St. Petersburg, he will end up very badly.
About to convey an invitation from the Rostovs to a name day, Boris goes to Pierre and finds him doing a childish activity: a young man with a sword introduces himself as Napoleon. Pierre does not immediately recognize Boris, mistaking him for the son of the Rostovs. During the conversation, Boris assures him that he does not pretend (although he is the godson of the old Bezukhov) to the count's wealth and is even ready to refuse a possible inheritance. Pierre considers Boris an amazing person and hopes that they will get to know each other better.
Chapter 17
Rostova, upset by her friend's problems, asked her husband for 500 rubles, and when Anna Mikhailovna returned, she gives her the money.
Chapters 18-20
Holiday at the Rostovs. While they are waiting for Natasha's godmother, Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, a sharp and straightforward woman, in Rostov's office, the cousin of Countess Shinshin and the selfish guards officer Berg argue about the advantages and benefits of serving in the cavalry over the infantry. Shinshin makes fun of Berg.
Pierre arrived just before dinner, feels awkward, sits in the middle of the living room, preventing the guests from walking, from embarrassment he cannot carry on a conversation, constantly looking out for someone in the crowd. At this time, everyone is evaluating how such a lout could participate in an undertaking with a bear, which gossips were gossiping about.
At dinner, the men talked about the war with Napoleon and the manifesto that declared this war. The colonel claims that only thanks to the war can the security of the empire be preserved, Shinshin does not agree, then the colonel turns to Nikolai Rostov for support. The young man agrees with the opinion that “Russians must die or win,” but he understands the awkwardness of his remark.
Chapters 21-24
Count Bezukhov had a sixth stroke, after which the doctors announced that there was no more hope for recovery - most likely, the patient would die at night. Preparations began for the unction (one of the seven sacraments, which grants the forgiveness of sins if the patient is no longer able to confess).
Prince Vasily learns from Princess Ekaterina Semyonovna that the letter in which the count asks to adopt Pierre is in the count's mosaic briefcase under his pillow.
Pierre and Anna Mikhailovna arrive at Bezukhov's house. Heading to the dying man's room, Pierre does not understand why he is going there and why he should either appear in his father's chambers at all. During the unction of Count Vasily and Ekaterina quietly take away the briefcase with papers. Seeing the dying Bezukhov, Pierre finally realized how close his father was to death.
In the waiting room, Anna Mikhailovna notices that the princess is hiding something and is trying to take away the briefcase from Catherine. In the midst of a quarrel, the middle princess announced that the count had died. Everyone is upset by the death of Bezukhov. The next morning, Anna Mikhailovna tells Pierre that his father promised to help Boris and she hopes that the count's will will be fulfilled.
Chapters 25-28
The estate of Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, a strict man who considers “idleness and superstition” to be the main human vices, was located in Lysy Gory. He himself raised his daughter Marya and was demanding and harsh with everyone around him, so everyone was afraid of him and obeyed.
Andrei Bolkonsky and his wife Lisa arrive at the estate to Nikolai Bolkonsky. Andrei tells his father about the upcoming military campaign, in response he meets with obvious discontent. Senior Bolkonsky is against Russia's desire to participate in the war. He believes that Bonaparte is "an insignificant Frenchman who was successful only because there were no more Potemkins and Suvorovs." Andrei does not agree with his father, because Napoleon is his ideal. Angry at his son's stubbornness, the old prince shouts to him to go to his Bonaparte.
Andrew is about to leave. The man is tormented by mixed feelings. Marya, Andrey's sister, asks his brother to put on "an ancient icon of the Savior with a black face in a silver robe on a silver chain of fine work" and blesses him with the icon.
Andrei asks the old prince to take care of his wife Lisa. Nikolai Andreevich, although he seems strict, betrays the letter of recommendation to Kutuzov. At the same time, saying goodbye to his son, he is upset. After saying goodbye to Liza coldly, Andrey leaves.
Part 2
Chapter 1
The beginning of the second part of the first volume dates back to the autumn of 1805, the Russian troops are at the Braunau fortress, where the main apartment of the commander-in-chief Kutuzov is located. A member of the Hofkriegsrat (the court military council of Austria) from Vienna comes to Kutuzov with a demand to join the Russian army with Austrian troops led by Ferdinand and Mack. Kutuzov considers such a formation unprofitable for the Russian army, which is in a deplorable state after the march to Braunau.
Kutuzov orders to prepare the soldiers for inspection in marching uniforms. During a long campaign, the soldiers were pretty worn out, their shoes were broken. One of the soldiers was dressed in an overcoat different from all - it was Dolokhov, demoted (for the story with the bear). The general yells at the man to change his clothes immediately, but Dolokhov replies that he is "obliged to follow orders, but not obliged to endure insults." The general has to ask him to change.
Chapters 2-7
The news comes of the defeat of the Austrian army (an ally of the Russian Empire) led by General Mack. Upon learning of this, Bolkonsky is involuntarily glad that the arrogant Austrians are put to shame and soon he will be able to prove himself in battle.
Nikolai Rostov, a cadet of the hussar regiment, serves in the Pavlograd regiment, living with a German peasant (a nice man, whom they always happily greet for no particular reason) with squadron commander Vaska Denisov. One day Denisov lost money. Rostov finds out that Lieutenant Telyanin turned out to be the thief and exposes him in front of other officers. This leads to a quarrel between Nicholas and the regimental commander. The officers advise Rostov to apologize, otherwise the honor of the regiment will suffer. Nikolai understands everything, however, like a boy, he cannot, and Telyanin is expelled from the regiment.
Chapters 8-9
“Kutuzov retreated to Vienna, destroying the bridges on the rivers Inn (in Braunau) and Traun (in Linz). On October 23, Russian troops crossed the Enns River. The French begin shelling the bridge, and the head of the rear guard (the rear of the troops) orders the bridge to be set on fire. Rostov, looking at the flaming bridge, thinks about life: “And the fear of death and the stretcher, and the love of the sun and life - everything merged into one painfully disturbing impression.”
Kutuzov's army moves to the left bank of the Danube, making the river a natural barrier to the French.
Chapters 10-13
Andrei Bolkonsky stops in Brunn with a familiar diplomat Bilibin, who introduces him to other Russian diplomats - "his" circle.
Bolkonsky returns to the army. Troops are retreating in disorder and haste, wagons are scattered along the road, officers are driving aimlessly along the road. Watching this unorganized action, Bolkonsky thinks: “Here it is, dear, Orthodox army.” He is annoyed that everything around him is so unlike his dreams of a great feat that he must accomplish.
At the headquarters of the commander-in-chief, there is anxiety and anxiety, since it is not clear whether it is necessary to retreat or fight. Kutuzov sends Bagration and a detachment to Krems to delay the advance of the French troops.
Chapters 14-16
Kutuzov receives news that the position of the Russian army is hopeless and sends Bagration with a vanguard of four thousand to Gollabrunn to keep the French between Vienna and Znaim. He himself sends an army to Znaim.
French Marshal Murat offers Kutuzov a truce. The commander-in-chief agrees, because this is a chance to save the Russian army by advancing troops to Znaim during the truce. However, Napoleon reveals Kutuzov's plans and orders to break the truce. Bonaparte goes to Bagration's army to defeat him and the entire Russian army.
Having insisted on his transfer to Bagration's detachment, Prince Andrei appears before the commander-in-chief. Looking around the troops, Bolkonsky notices that the farther from the border with the French, the more relaxed the soldiers. The prince makes a sketch of the layout of the Russian and French troops.
Chapters 17-19
Shengraben battle. Bolkonsky feels a special revival, which was also read on the faces of soldiers and officers: “It has begun! Here it is! Scary and fun! .
Bagration is on the right flank. A close battle begins, the first wounded. Bagration, wishing to raise the morale of the soldiers, having descended from his horse, he himself leads them into the attack.
Rostov, being at the front, was glad that he would now be in battle, but his horse was killed almost immediately. Once on the ground, he cannot shoot at the Frenchman and simply throws a pistol at the enemy. Wounded in the hand, Nikolai Rostov ran to the bushes “not with the same feeling of doubt and struggle with which he went to the Ensky bridge, he ran, but with the feeling of a hare running away from dogs. One inseparable feeling of fear for his young, happy life dominated his whole being.
Chapters 20-21
The Russian infantry is taken by surprise by the French in the forest. The regimental commander is futilely trying to stop the soldiers fleeing in different directions. Suddenly, the French are pushed back by Timokhin's company, which turned out to be unnoticed by the enemy.
Captain Tushin (a "small round-shouldered officer" with an unheroic appearance), leading the troops on the front flank, is ordered to immediately retreat. The authorities and adjutants reproach him, although the officer showed himself to be a brave and reasonable commander.
On the way they pick up the wounded, including Nikolai Rostov. Lying on a wagon, "he looked at the snowflakes fluttering over the fire and recalled the Russian winter with a warm, bright house and family care." "And why did I come here!" he thought.
Part 3
Chapter 1
In the third part of the first volume, Pierre receives his father's inheritance. Prince Vasily is going to marry Pierre to his daughter Helen, as he considers this marriage beneficial, primarily for himself, because the young man is now very rich. The prince arranges for Pierre to be a chamber junker and insists that the young man go with him to Petersburg. Pierre stops at the Kuragins. Society, relatives and acquaintances completely changed their attitude towards Pierre after he received the inheritance of the count, now everyone found his words and actions cute.
At the evening at Scherrer's, Pierre and Helen are left alone, talking. The young man is fascinated by the marble beauty and lovely body of the girl. Returning home, Bezukhov thinks about Helen for a long time, dreaming, “how she will be his wife, how she can love him,” although his thoughts are ambiguous: “But she is stupid, I myself said she was stupid. There is something nasty in the feeling that she aroused in me, something forbidden.
Chapter 2
Despite his decision to leave the Kuragins, Pierre lives with them for a long time. In the "light" they are increasingly linking young people as future spouses.
On Helen's name day, they are left alone. Pierre is very nervous, however, pulling himself together, he confesses his love to the girl. A month and a half later, the young people got married and moved to the newly “decorated” house of the Bezukhovs.
Chapters 3-5
Prince Vasily and his son Anatole arrive in the Bald Mountains. Old Bolkonsky does not like Vasily, so he is not happy with the guests. Marya, about to get acquainted with Anatole, is very worried, fearing that she will not like him, but Liza calms her down.
Marya is fascinated by the beauty and masculinity of Anatole. The man does not think about the girl at all, he is more interested in the pretty French companion Bourienne. It is very difficult for the old prince to give permission for the wedding, because for him parting with Mary is unthinkable, but he still asks Anatole, studying him.
After the evening, Marya thinks about Anatole, but after learning that Bourrienne is in love with Anatole, she refuses to marry him. “My vocation is different,” Marya thought, “My vocation is to be happy with another happiness, the happiness of love and self-sacrifice.”
Chapters 6-7
Nikolai Rostov comes to Boris Drubetsky in the Guards camp, located nearby, for money and letters from his relatives. Friends are very happy to see each other and discuss military affairs. Nicholas, greatly embellishing, tells how he participated in the battle and was wounded. Andrei Bolkonsky joins them, Nikolai says in his presence that the staff, sitting in the rear, "receive awards without doing anything." Andrey correctly upsets his agility. On the way back, Nikolai is tormented by mixed feelings towards Bolkonsky.
Chapters 8-10
Emperors Franz and Alexander I conduct a review of the Austrian and Russian troops. Nikolai Rostov is in the forefront of the Russian army. Seeing Emperor Alexander passing by and welcoming the army, the young man feels love, adoration and delight in relation to the sovereign. For participation in the battle of Shengraben, Nicholas is awarded the St. George Cross and promoted to cornet.
The Russians won a victory at Vishau, capturing a French squadron. Rostov meets again with the emperor. Enraptured by the sovereign, Nikolai dreams of dying for him. Many people had similar moods before the Battle of Austerlitz.
Boris Drubetskoy goes to Bolkonsky in Olmutz. The young man becomes a witness to how dependent his commanders are on the will of other, more important people in civilian clothes: “These are the people who decide the fate of peoples,” Andrey tells him. “Boris was worried about the closeness to the highest power in which he felt himself at that moment. He was aware of himself here in contact with those springs that guided all those huge movements of the masses, of which he felt himself in his regiment to be a small, obedient and insignificant "part."
Chapters 11-12
The French truce Savary conveys a proposal for a meeting between Alexander and Napoleon. The emperor, refusing a personal meeting, sends Dolgoruky to Bonaparte. Returning, Dolgoruky says that after meeting with Bonaparte he was convinced that Napoleon was most afraid of a pitched battle.
Discussion about the need to start the battle of Austerlitz. Kutuzov offers to wait for now, but everyone is unhappy with this decision. After the discussion, Andrey asks Kutuzov's opinion about the upcoming battle, the commander-in-chief believes that the Russians will be defeated.
Meeting of the military council. Weyrother was appointed as the full manager of the future battle: “he was like a harnessed horse, running uphill with a cart. Whether he was driving or driven, he did not know "," he looked miserable, exhausted, confused and at the same time arrogant and proud. Kutuzov falls asleep during the meeting. Weyrother reads the disposition (disposition of troops before the battle) of the Battle of Austerlitz. Lanzheron argues that the disposition is too complex and would be difficult to implement. Andrei wanted to express his plan, but Kutuzov, waking up, interrupted the meeting, saying that they would not change anything. At night, Bolkonsky thinks that he is ready for anything for the sake of glory and must prove himself in battle: “Death, wounds, loss of a family, nothing is scary to me.”
Chapters 13-17
Beginning of the Battle of Austerlitz. At 5 am, the movement of Russian columns began. There was a heavy fog and smoke from the fires, behind which it was not possible to see the people around and the direction. There is chaos in the movement. Due to the displacement of the Austrians to the right, there was a lot of confusion.
Kutuzov becomes the head of the 4th column and leads it. The commander-in-chief is gloomy, as he immediately saw the confusion in the movement of the troops. Before the battle, the emperor asks Kutuzov why the battle has not yet begun, to which the old commander-in-chief replies: “That’s why I don’t start, sir, because we are not at the parade and not on Tsaritsyn Meadow.” Before the start of the battle, Bolkonsky is firmly convinced that "today was the day of his Toulon." Through the dissipating fog, the Russians see the French troops much closer than they expected, break the formation and flee from the enemy. Kutuzov orders them to be stopped and Prince Andrei, holding a banner in his hands, runs forward, leading a battalion behind him.
On the right flank, commanded by Bagration, nothing has yet begun at 9 o’clock, so the commander sends Rostov to the commanders-in-chief for an order to begin hostilities, although he knows that this is pointless - the distance is too great. Rostov, moving along the Russian front, does not believe that the enemy is practically in their rear.
Near the village of Pratsa, Rostov finds only upset crowds of Russians. Outside the village of Gostieradek, Rostov finally saw the sovereign, but did not dare to approach him. At this time, Captain Tol, seeing the pale Alexander, helps him cross the ditch, for which the emperor shakes his hand. Rostov regrets his indecision and goes to Kutuzov's headquarters.
At the fifth hour in the battle of Austerlitz, the Russians lost on all counts. The Russians are retreating. At the dam, Augesta, they are overtaken by the artillery cannonade of the French. The soldiers are trying to advance by walking over the dead. Dolokhov jumps from the dam onto the ice, others run after him, but the ice does not hold up, everyone drowns.
Chapter 19
The wounded Bolkonsky lies on the Pratsensky mountain, bleeding, and without noticing it, groans softly, falls into oblivion in the evening. Waking up from a burning pain, he again felt alive, thinking about the high Austerlitz sky and that “he knew nothing until now.”
Suddenly, the clatter of the approaching French is heard, among them Napoleon. Bonaparte praises his soldiers, looking at the dead and wounded. Seeing Bolkonsky, he says that his death is beautiful, while for Andrei all this did not matter: “He burned his head; he felt that he was bleeding, and he saw above him a distant, lofty and eternal sky. He knew that it was Napoleon - his hero, but at that moment Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant person in comparison with what was now happening between his soul and this high, endless sky with clouds running across it. Bonaparte notices that Bolkonsky is alive and orders him to be taken to the dressing station.
Veste with other wounded man remains in the care of the local population. In delirium, he sees quiet pictures of life and happiness in the Bald Mountains, which little Napoleon destroys. The doctor claims that Bolkonsky's delirium will end in death rather than recovery.
Results of the first volume
Even in a brief retelling of the first volume of War and Peace, the opposition between war and peace can be traced not only at the structural level of the novel, but also through events. So, the “peaceful” sections take place exclusively in Russia, the “military” ones - in Europe, while in the “peaceful” chapters we meet with the war of characters among themselves (the struggle for the Bezukhov inheritance), and in the “military” chapters - the world (friendly relations between a German peasant and Nicholas). The finale of the first volume - the Battle of Austerlitz - is not only the defeat of the Russian-Austrian army, but also the end of the heroes' faith in the higher idea of war.
Volume one test
The read summary will be remembered better if you try to answer all the questions of this test:
Retelling rating
Average rating: 4.4. Total ratings received: 21522.
