Introduction
“The subject of history is the life of peoples and mankind,” this is how Leo Tolstoy begins the second part of the epilogue of the epic novel War and Peace. He then asks the question: "What is the power that moves the nations?" Arguing over these “theories”, Tolstoy comes to the conclusion that: “The life of peoples does not fit into the lives of several people, because the connection between these several people and peoples has not been found ...” In other words, Tolstoy says that the role of the people in history is undeniable, and the eternal truth that history is made by the people is proved by him in his novel. "The thought of the people" in Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" is indeed one of the main themes of the epic novel.
The people in the novel "War and Peace"
Many readers understand the word "people" not quite the way Tolstoy understands it. Lev Nikolaevich means by "people" not only soldiers, peasants, peasants, not only that "huge mass" driven by some force. For Tolstoy, “the people” are officers, generals, and the nobility. This is Kutuzov, and Bolkonsky, and the Rostovs, and Bezukhov - this is all of humanity, embraced by one thought, one deed, one destiny. All the main characters of Tolstoy's novel are directly connected with their people and are inseparable from them.
Heroes of the novel and "folk thought"
The fates of the favorite characters of Tolstoy's novel are connected with the life of the people. The "thought of the people" in "War and Peace" runs like a red thread through the life of Pierre Bezukhov. Being in captivity, Pierre learned his truth of life. Platon Karataev, a peasant peasant, opened it to Bezukhov: “In captivity, in a booth, Pierre 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 satisfying natural human needs, that all misfortune occurs not from lack, but from excess. The French offered Pierre to transfer from a soldier's booth to an officer's, but he refused, remaining faithful to those with whom he suffered his fate. And after that, for a long time, he recalled with rapture this month of captivity, as "about complete peace of mind, about perfect inner freedom, which he experienced only at that time."
Andrei Bolkonsky in the battle of Austerlitz also felt his people. Grabbing the staff of the banner and rushing forward, he did not think that the soldiers would follow him. And they, seeing Bolkonsky with a banner and hearing: “Guys, go ahead!” rushed to the enemy after their leader. The unity of officers and ordinary soldiers confirms that the people are not divided into ranks and ranks, the people are one, and Andrei Bolkonsky understood this.
Natasha Rostova, leaving Moscow, dumps family property on the ground and gives her carts to the wounded. This decision comes to her immediately, without deliberation, which indicates that the heroine does not separate herself from the people. Another episode that speaks of the true Russian spirit of Rostova, in which L. Tolstoy himself admires his beloved heroine: spirit, where did she get these techniques… But these spirit and techniques were the same, inimitable, unlearned, Russian.”
And Captain Tushin, who sacrificed his own life for the sake of victory, for the sake of Russia. Captain Timokhin, who rushed at the Frenchman with "one skewer." Denisov, Nikolai Rostov, Petya Rostov and many other Russian people who stood with the people and knew true patriotism.
Tolstoy created a collective image of the people - a single, invincible people, when not only soldiers, troops, but also militias are fighting. Civilians help not with weapons, but with their own methods: the peasants burn hay so as not to take it to Moscow, people leave the city only because they do not want to obey Napoleon. This is the “folk idea” and the ways of its disclosure in the novel. Tolstoy makes it clear that in a single thought - not to surrender to the enemy - the Russian people are strong. For all Russian people, a sense of patriotism is important.
Platon Karataev and Tikhon Shcherbaty
The novel also shows the partisan movement. A prominent representative here was Tikhon Shcherbaty, who, with all his disobedience, dexterity, and cunning, is fighting the French. His active work brings success to the Russians. Denisov is proud of his partisan detachment thanks to Tikhon.
Opposite to the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty is the image of Platon Karataev. Kind, wise, with his worldly philosophy, he calms Pierre and helps him survive captivity. Plato's speech is filled with Russian proverbs, which emphasizes his nationality.
Kutuzov and people
The only commander in chief of the army who never separated himself from the people was Kutuzov. “He knew not with his mind or science, but with his whole Russian being he knew and felt what every Russian soldier felt ...” The disunity of the Russian army in an alliance with Austria, the deception of the Austrian army, when the allies abandoned the Russians in battles, for Kutuzov were unbearable pain. Kutuzov replied to Napoleon’s letter about peace: “I would be damned if they looked at me as the first instigator of any deal: such is the will of our people” (italics by L.N. Tolstoy). Kutuzov did not write from himself, he expressed the opinion of the whole people, all Russian people.
The image of Kutuzov is opposed to the image of Napoleon, who was very far from his people. He was only interested in personal interest in the struggle for power. The empire of world subordination to Bonaparte - and the abyss in the interests of the people. As a result, the war of 1812 was lost, the French fled, and Napoleon was the first to leave Moscow. He abandoned his army, abandoned his people.
conclusions
In his novel War and Peace, Tolstoy shows that the power of the people is invincible. And in every Russian person there is "simplicity, goodness and truth." True patriotism does not measure everyone by rank, does not build a career, does not seek glory. At the beginning of the third volume, Tolstoy writes: “There are two aspects of life in every person: personal life, which is all the more free, the more abstract its interests, and spontaneous, swarming life, where a person inevitably fulfills the laws prescribed for him.” Laws of honor, conscience, common culture, common history.
This essay on the topic “The Thought of the People” in the novel “War and Peace” reveals only a small fraction of what the author wanted to tell us. The people live in the novel in every chapter, in every line.
Artwork test
Tolstoy believed that a work can be good only when the writer loves his main idea in it. In War and Peace, the writer, by his own admission, loved "people's thought". It lies not only and not so much in the depiction of the people themselves, their way of life, but in the fact that every positive hero of the novel ultimately connects his fate with the fate of the nation.
The crisis situation in the country, caused by the rapid advance of the Napoleonic troops into the depths of Russia, revealed their best qualities in people, made it possible to take a closer look at that peasant, who was previously perceived by the nobles only as an obligatory attribute of the landowner's estate, whose lot was hard peasant labor. When a serious threat of enslavement loomed over Russia, the peasants, dressed in soldier's greatcoats, forgetting their long-standing sorrows and grievances, together with the "masters", courageously and staunchly defended their homeland from a powerful enemy. Commanding a regiment, Andrei Bolkonsky for the first time saw patriotic heroes in the serfs, ready to die for the sake of the fatherland. These main human values, in the spirit of "simplicity, goodness and truth", according to Tolstoy, represent the "people's thought", which is the soul of the novel and its main meaning. It is she who unites the peasantry with the best part of the nobility with a single goal - the struggle for the freedom of the Fatherland. The peasantry, organizing partisan detachments fearlessly exterminating the French army in the rear, played a huge role in the final destruction of the enemy.
By the word "people" Tolstoy understood the entire patriotic population of Russia, including the peasantry, the urban poor, the nobility, and the merchant class. The author poetizes the simplicity, kindness, morality of the people, contrasts them with falsehood, the hypocrisy of the world. Tolstoy shows the dual psychology of the peasantry on the example of two of its typical representatives: Tikhon Shcherbaty and Platon Karataev.
Tikhon Shcherbaty stands out in the Denisov detachment with his unusual prowess, dexterity and desperate courage. This peasant, who at first fought alone with the "world leaders" in his native village, having attached himself to Denisov's partisan detachment, soon became the most useful person in the detachment in it. Tolstoy concentrated in this hero the typical features of the Russian folk character. The image of Platon Karataev shows a different type of Russian peasant. With his humanity, kindness, simplicity, indifference to hardships, a sense of collectivism, this inconspicuous "round" peasant managed to return to Pierre Bezukhov, who was captured, faith in people, goodness, love, justice. His spiritual qualities are opposed to the arrogance, selfishness and careerism of the highest St. Petersburg society. Platon Karataev remained for Pierre the most precious memory, "the personification of everything Russian, kind and round."
In the images of Tikhon Shcherbaty and Platon Karataev, Tolstoy concentrated the main qualities of the Russian people, who appear in the novel in the person of soldiers, partisans, courtyards, peasants, and the urban poor. Both heroes are dear to the writer's heart: Plato as the embodiment of "everything Russian, kind and round", all those qualities (patriarchy, gentleness, humility, non-resistance, religiosity) that the writer highly valued in the Russian peasantry; Tikhon - as the embodiment of a heroic people who rose to fight, but only at a critical, exceptional time for the country (Patriotic War of 1812). Tolstoy treats the rebellious moods of Tikhon in peacetime with condemnation.
Tolstoy correctly assessed the nature and goals of the Patriotic War of 1812, deeply understood the decisive role of the people defending their homeland from foreign invaders in the war, rejecting official assessments of the war of 1812 as the war of two emperors - Alexander and Napoleon. On the pages of the novel, and especially in the second part of the epilogue, Tolstoy says that until now the whole history has been written as the history of individuals, as a rule, tyrants, monarchs, and no one has thought about what is the driving force of history. According to Tolstoy, this is the so-called “swarm principle”, the spirit and will of not one person, but of the nation as a whole, and how strong the spirit and will of the people are, certain historical events are so likely. In Tolstoy's Patriotic War, two wills clashed: the will of the French soldiers and the will of the entire Russian people. This war was fair for the Russians, they fought for their homeland, so their spirit and will to win turned out to be stronger than the French spirit and will. Therefore, the victory of Russia over France was predetermined.
The main idea determined not only the artistic form of the work, but also the characters, the assessment of its heroes. The war of 1812 became a milestone, a test for all the positive characters in the novel: for Prince Andrei, who feels an unusual upsurge before the Battle of Borodino, believes in victory; for Pierre Bezukhov, all of whose thoughts are aimed at helping to expel the invaders; for Natasha, who gave the carts to the wounded, because it was impossible not to give them away, it was shameful and disgusting not to give them back; for Petya Rostov, who takes part in the hostilities of a partisan detachment and dies in a fight with the enemy; for Denisov, Dolokhov, even Anatole Kuragin. All these people, having discarded everything personal, become a single whole, participate in the formation of the will to win.
The theme of guerrilla warfare occupies a special place in the novel. Tolstoy emphasizes that the war of 1812 was indeed a people's war, because the people themselves rose up to fight the invaders. The detachments of the elder Vasilisa Kozhina and Denis Davydov were already active, and the heroes of the novel, Vasily Denisov and Dolokhov, are creating their own detachments. Tolstoy calls the cruel, life-and-death war "the club of the people's war": "The club of the people's war rose with all its formidable and majestic strength, and, without asking anyone's tastes and rules, with stupid simplicity, but with expediency, without analyzing nothing, rose, fell and nailed the French until the whole invasion died. In the actions of the partisan detachments of 1812, Tolstoy saw the highest form of unity between the people and the army, which radically changed the attitude towards the war.
Tolstoy glorifies the "club of the people's war", glorifies the people who raised it against the enemy. "Karpy and Vlasy" did not sell hay to the French even for good money, but burned it, thereby undermining the enemy army. The small merchant Ferapontov, before the French entered Smolensk, asked the soldiers to take away his goods for free, because if "Raseya decided", he would burn everything himself. The inhabitants of Moscow and Smolensk did the same, burning their houses so that they would not get to the enemy. The Rostovs, leaving Moscow, gave up all their carts for the removal of the wounded, thus completing their ruin. Pierre Bezukhov invested heavily in the formation of a regiment, which he took on his support, while he himself remained in Moscow, hoping to kill Napoleon in order to decapitate the enemy army.
“And the benefit of that people,” wrote Lev Nikolayevich, “who, not like the French in 1813, having saluted in accordance with all the rules of art and turned the sword over with the hilt, gracefully and courteously hand it over to the generous winner, but the benefit of that people who, in a moment of trial, without asking about how others acted according to the rules in similar cases, with simplicity and ease he picks up the first club that comes across and nails it until in his soul the feeling of insult and revenge is replaced by contempt and pity.
The true feeling of love for the Motherland is contrasted with the ostentatious, false patriotism of Rostopchin, who, instead of fulfilling his duty - to take everything of value out of Moscow - excited the people with the distribution of weapons and posters, since he liked the "beautiful role of the leader of the people's feelings." At an important time for Russia, this false patriot only dreamed of a "heroic effect." When a huge number of people sacrificed their lives to save their homeland, the Petersburg nobility wanted only one thing for themselves: benefits and pleasures. A bright type of careerist is given in the image of Boris Drubetskoy, who skillfully and deftly used connections, sincere goodwill of people, pretending to be a patriot, in order to move up the career ladder. The problem of true and false patriotism, posed by the writer, allowed him to paint a broad and comprehensive picture of military everyday life, to express his attitude to the war.
Aggressive, predatory war was hateful and disgusting to Tolstoy, but, from the point of view of the people, it was just, liberating. The writer's views are revealed both in realistic paintings saturated with blood, death and suffering, and in contrasting the eternal harmony of nature with the madness of people killing each other. Tolstoy often puts his own thoughts about the war into the mouths of his favorite heroes. Andrei Bolkonsky hates her, because he understands that her main goal is murder, which is accompanied by treason, theft, robbery, and drunkenness.
"His hero is a whole country fighting against the onslaught of Braga."
V.G. Korolenko
Tolstoy believed that the decisive role in the outcome of the war is played not by military leaders, but by soldiers, partisans, Russian people. That is why the author tried to portray not individual heroes, but characters who are in close connection with the whole people.
The novel shows an extensive time period, but 1805 and 1812 become decisive. These are the years of two completely different wars. In the war of 1812, the people knew what they were fighting for, why these bloodsheds and deaths were needed. But in the war of 1805, people did not understand why their relatives, friends, and themselves give their lives. Therefore, at the beginning of the novel, Tolstoy asks the question:
“What is the force that moves the nations? Who is the creator of history - the individual or the people?
Looking for answers to them, we notice: with what accuracy the author depicts individual characters and portraits of the masses, battle paintings, scenes of folk heroism and we understand that the people are the main character of the epic.
We see that the soldiers have different views on life, communication with people, but they all have one thing in common - a great love for the Fatherland and a willingness to do anything just to protect the Motherland from invaders. This is manifested in the images of two ordinary soldiers: Platon Karataev and Tikhon Shcherbaty.
Tikhon Shcherbaty hates the invaders with all his heart, while being "the most helpful and brave man" in Denisov's detachment. He is a brave and determined partisan volunteer, "Rebel" willing to sacrifice himself for the cause. It embodies the spirit of the people: revenge, courage, resourcefulness of the Russian peasant. He does not care for any difficulties.
“When it was necessary to do something especially difficult - to turn a wagon out of the mud with a shoulder, to pull a horse out of the swamp by the tail, to jam in the very middle of the French, to walk 50 miles a day, everyone pointed, chuckling, at Tikhon:
What the hell is going to happen to him!”
Platon Karataev is the exact opposite of this energetic, unloving enemy person. He is the embodiment of everything round, good and eternal. In general, he loves everyone around him, even the French, and is imbued with a feeling of universal love unity of people. But he has one not very good trait - he is ready to suffer for nothing, he lives by the principle "Everything that is done, everything is for the better." If it were his will, he would not interfere anywhere, but would simply be a passive contemplator.
In Tolstoy's novel, readers get to see how soldiers treat their opponents.
During the battle - mercilessly to achieve victory. Shcherbaty's demeanor.
During the halt, the attitude towards the prisoners changes to generosity, which makes the soldiers related to Karataev.
Soldiers understand the difference between two situations: in the first, the one who forgets about humanity and compassion will win and survive; in the second, discarding stereotypes, they forget that they are soldiers of the warring armies, understanding only that the prisoners are also people and they also need warmth and food. This shows the purity of the soul and heart of the soldiers.
In every Russian person in 1812 is manifested "hidden warmth of patriotism", including in the Rostov family, who donated carts and a house for the wounded. The merchant Ferapontov, who before the war was distinguished by incredible greed, now gives everything when fleeing from Smolensk. All the people of Russia in that difficult period were united, united, in order to protect their homeland from foreign invaders. Napoleon does not achieve his goal, because the courage of the Russian regiments inspires superstitious horror in the French.
The main conflict of the novel is not determined by a private clash of historical figures or fictional characters. The conflict of the novel lies in the struggle of the Russian people, the whole nation, with the aggressor, the outcome of which determines the fate of the entire people. Tolstoy created the poetry of the greatest feats of ordinary people, showing how the great is born in the small.
I wanted to write the history of the people.
L. N. Tolstoy
It is difficult to overestimate the significance of Leo Tolstoy's epic novel "War and Peace". He had a special influence on the development of all subsequent generations, rereading the novel many times, each time understanding it in their own way. World literature has not yet known such a large-scale scope of the material of a literary work.
Tolstoy himself called the main main theme of the novel "folk soap". It is traditionally believed that before him the "folk thought" was affected by such works as Gogol's "Dead Souls", Pushkin's "The Captain's Daughter", Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" and others. Moreover, Pushkin and Gogol put the intelligentsia above the people, while Dostoevsky and Nekrasov, on the contrary, elevated the people above everyone else. Tolstoy also introduced the concept of "swarm". This "swarm" is clearly shown in Pierre's dream of a ball covered with millions of small drops representing people. In the second part of the epilogue, Tolstoy, discussing what drives history, leads the reader to the conclusion that the course of history is controlled both by a general law and by the wills of individuals. This means that life is subject not only to the will of fate, but also to the actions of some people, such as Napoleon, Alexander, Kutuzov, Bagration ...
And yet, reading the novel, you are convinced that for the author it is the people, in the broadest sense of the word, that is the bearer of the main spiritual values. On the pages of the novel, we meet with a number of characters from the people. For example, “the feeling of revenge that lay in the soul of every person” and of the whole people gave rise to guerrilla warfare. Ordinary people burned their own houses in cities and villages (the merchant Ferapontov), ordinary peasants went to the partisans. The War of 1812 appears before the readers as a truly national one. The guerrillas destroyed the great army piecemeal. Poorly organized detachments, consisting of peasants and landlords, were united by the common goal of defending the homeland. The author mentions such partisan heroes as the headman Vasilisa, who beat a hundred Frenchmen, as a sexton, who captured several hundred Frenchmen in a month.
But only one of the partisan men, Tikhon Shcherbaty, is described in more detail. He was "the most useful and brave man" in Denisov's detachment. In the image of Tikhon, the writer showed the spirit of the people of the avenger, the resourcefulness and prowess of the Russian peasantry. He is filled with hatred for uninvited guests, and with an ax in his hands he goes to the enemy at the behest of his heart.
“The personification of the spirit of simplicity and truth” appears before us in the eyes of Pierre, the captured Russian soldier Platon Karataev. Plato is the exact opposite of Tikhon Shcherbaty. He loves all people, including the French. If Tikhon is rude and his humor is combined with cruelty, then Karataev strives to see “solemn goodness” in everything. In Plato lives the spirit of truth-seeking, so characteristic of the Russian peasantry, and the eternal love of work. Tolstoy does not tell us which of the two "Russian peasants" he likes better, since they both personify the Russian national character.
The manifestation of the folk principle in the main characters of the novel can be found in the episode of the hunt, where all the characters behave naturally, simply, like the people. The viability of each of the heroes is tested by the "thought of the people." She helps Pierre and Andrey discover and show their best qualities.
Tolstoy creates a unity of spirit from a multitude of folk characters. Each of them influences the course of historical events in its own way. Together, they are, according to Tolstoy, that single driving force of being.
- a novel that gradually transformed from a once conceived work about a Decembrist into a brilliant epic about the courageous feat of the nation, about the victory of the Russian spirit in the battle with the Napoleonic army. As a result, a masterpiece was born, where, as he himself wrote, the main idea was the folk thought. Today, in an essay on the topic: “The Thought of the People,” we will try to prove this.
The author believed that the work would be good if the author fell in love with the main idea. Tolstoy was interested in people's thought in the work War and Peace, where he depicted not just the people and their way of life, but showed the fate of the nation. At the same time, the people for Tolstoy are not only a peasant, a soldier and a peasant, they are also nobles, and officers, and generals. In a word, the people are all people taken together, all of humanity, which was driven by a common goal, one thing, one destiny.
In his work, the writer remembers that history is most often written as the history of individual personalities, but few people think about the driving force in history, which is the people, nation, spirit and will of people that come together.
In the novel War and Peace, folk thought
For each hero, the war with the French became a test, where Bolkonsky, and Pierre Bezukhov, and Natasha, and Petya Rostov, and Dolokhov, and Kutuzov, and Tushin, and Timokhin all played their role in the best possible way. And most importantly, ordinary people showed themselves, who organized separate small partisan detachments and smashed the enemy. People who burned everything so that the enemy did not get anything. People who gave their last to Russian soldiers to support them.
The offensive of the Napoleonic army revealed the best qualities in people, where the peasants, forgetting about their grievances, fought side by side with their masters, defending their homeland. It was the thought of the people in the novel War and Peace that became the soul of the work, uniting the peasantry with the best part of the nobility in one thing - the struggle for the freedom of the Motherland.
Patriotically minded people, among whom were poor peasants, and nobles, and merchants - this is the people. Their will clashed with the French will. It collided and showed real strength, because people fought for their land, which could not be given to the enemy. The people and the formed partisan detachments became the club of the people's war, which did not give a single chance of victory to Napoleon and his army. Tolstoy wrote about this in his brilliant novel War and Peace, where the main idea was the folk one.
