Read the novel war and peace in full. "War and Peace": a masterpiece or "wordy rubbish"? "war and peace" from a military point of view
American poster for the film "War and Peace"
Volume One
Petersburg, summer 1805. Among other guests, Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a wealthy nobleman, and Prince Andrei Bolkonsky are present at the evening at the maid of honor Scherer. The conversation turns to Napoleon, and both friends try to defend the great man from the condemnations of the hostess of the evening and her guests. Prince Andrei is going to war because he dreams of glory equal to that of Napoleon, and Pierre does not know what to do, participates in the revelry of St. Petersburg youth (Fyodor Dolokhov, a poor, but extremely strong-willed and determined officer, occupies a special place here); for another mischief, Pierre was expelled from the capital, and Dolokhov was demoted to the soldiers.
Further, the author takes us to Moscow, to the house of Count Rostov, a kind, hospitable landowner, who arranges a dinner in honor of the name day of his wife and youngest daughter. A special family structure unites the Rostovs' parents and children - Nikolai (he is going to war with Napoleon), Natasha, Petya and Sonya (a poor relative of the Rostovs); only the eldest daughter, Vera, seems to be a stranger.
At the Rostovs, the holiday continues, everyone is having fun, dancing, and at this time in another Moscow house - at the old Count Bezukhov - the owner is dying. An intrigue begins around the count's will: Prince Vasily Kuragin (a Petersburg courtier) and three princesses - all of them are distant relatives of the count and his heirs - are trying to steal a portfolio with Bezukhov's new will, according to which Pierre becomes his main heir; Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya, a poor lady from an aristocratic old family, selflessly devoted to her son Boris and seeking patronage for him everywhere, interferes with stealing the portfolio, and Pierre, now Count Bezukhov, gets a huge fortune. Pierre becomes his own person in Petersburg society; Prince Kuragin tries to marry him to his daughter - the beautiful Helen - and succeeds in this.
In Bald Mountains, the estate of Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, the father of Prince Andrei, life goes on as usual; the old prince is constantly busy - either writing notes, or giving lessons to his daughter Marya, or working in the garden. Prince Andrei arrives with his pregnant wife Lisa; he leaves his wife in his father's house, and he himself goes to war.
Autumn 1805; the Russian army in Austria takes part in the campaign of the allied states (Austria and Prussia) against Napoleon. Commander-in-Chief Kutuzov does everything to avoid Russian participation in the battle - at the review of the infantry regiment, he draws the attention of the Austrian general to the poor uniforms (especially shoes) of Russian soldiers; right up to the battle of Austerlitz, the Russian army retreats in order to join the allies and not accept battles with the French. In order for the main Russian forces to be able to retreat, Kutuzov sends a detachment of four thousand under the command of Bagration to detain the French; Kutuzov manages to conclude a truce with Murat (French marshal), which allows him to gain time.
Junker Nikolai Rostov serves in the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment; he lives in an apartment in the German village where the regiment is stationed, along with his squadron commander, captain Vasily Denisov. One morning, Denisov lost his wallet with money - Rostov found out that Lieutenant Telyanin had taken the wallet. But this offense of Telyanin casts a shadow on the entire regiment - and the regiment commander demands that Rostov admit his mistake and apologize. The officers support the commander - and Rostov concedes; he does not apologize, but retracts his accusations, and Telyanin is expelled from the regiment due to illness. Meanwhile, the regiment goes on a campaign, and the junker's baptism of fire takes place during the crossing of the Enns River; the hussars must be the last to cross and set fire to the bridge.
During the battle of Shengraben (between the detachment of Bagration and the vanguard of the French army), Rostov is wounded (a horse was killed under him, he concussed his hand when he fell); he sees the French approaching and "with the feeling of a hare running away from the dogs", throws his pistol at the Frenchman and runs.
For participation in the battle, Rostov was promoted to cornet and awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross. He comes from Olmutz, where the Russian army is encamped in preparation for the review, to the Izmailovsky regiment, where Boris Drubetskoy is stationed, to see his childhood friend and collect letters and money sent to him from Moscow. He tells Boris and Berg, who lives with Drubetsky, the story of his injury - but not in the way it really happened, but in the way they usually tell about cavalry attacks (“how he chopped right and left”, etc.) .
During the review, Rostov experiences a feeling of love and adoration for Emperor Alexander; this feeling only intensifies during the battle of Austerlitz, when Nicholas sees the king - pale, crying from defeat, alone in the middle of an empty field.
Prince Andrei, right up to the Battle of Austerlitz, lives in anticipation of the great feat that he is destined to accomplish. He is annoyed by everything that is discordant with this feeling of his - and the trick of the mocking officer Zherkov, who congratulated the Austrian general on the next defeat of the Austrians, and the episode on the road when the doctor's wife asks to intercede for her and Prince Andrei is confronted by a convoy officer. During the Battle of Shengraben, Bolkonsky notices Captain Tushin, a “small round-shouldered officer” with an unheroic appearance, who is in command of the battery. The successful actions of Tushin's battery ensured the success of the battle, but when the captain reported to Bagration about the actions of his gunners, he became more shy than during the battle. Prince Andrei is disappointed - his idea of \u200b\u200bthe heroic does not fit either with the behavior of Tushin, or with the behavior of Bagration himself, who essentially did not order anything, but only agreed with what the adjutants and superiors who approached him offered him.
On the eve of the battle of Austerlitz there was a military council at which the Austrian General Weyrother read the disposition of the upcoming battle. During the council, Kutuzov openly slept, not seeing any use in any disposition and foreseeing that tomorrow's battle would be lost. Prince Andrei wanted to express his thoughts and his plan, but Kutuzov interrupted the council and suggested that everyone disperse. At night, Bolkonsky thinks about tomorrow's battle and about his decisive participation in it. He wants glory and is ready to give everything for it: “Death, wounds, loss of family, nothing is scary to me.”
The next morning, as soon as the sun came out of the fog, Napoleon signaled to start the battle - it was the day of the anniversary of his coronation, and he was happy and confident. Kutuzov, on the other hand, looked gloomy - he immediately noticed that confusion was beginning in the allied troops. Before the battle, the emperor asks Kutuzov why the battle does not begin, and hears from the old commander in chief: “That’s why I don’t start, sir, because we are not at the parade and not on Tsaritsyn Meadow.” Very soon, the Russian troops, finding the enemy much closer than expected, break up the ranks and flee. Kutuzov demands to stop them, and Prince Andrei, with a banner in his hands, rushes forward, dragging the battalion with him. Almost immediately he is wounded, he falls and sees a high sky above him with clouds quietly crawling over it. All his former dreams of glory seem to him insignificant; insignificant and petty seems to him and his idol, Napoleon, circling the battlefield after the French utterly defeated the allies. “Here is a beautiful death,” says Napoleon, looking at Bolkonsky. Convinced that Bolkonsky is still alive, Napoleon orders him to be taken to the dressing station. Among the hopelessly wounded, Prince Andrei was left in the care of the inhabitants.
Volume two
Nikolai Rostov comes home on vacation; Denisov goes with him. Rostov is everywhere - both at home and by acquaintances, that is, by all of Moscow - is accepted as a hero; he becomes close to Dolokhov (and becomes one of his seconds in a duel with Bezukhov). Dolokhov proposes to Sonya, but she, in love with Nikolai, refuses; at a farewell feast hosted by Dolokhov for his friends before leaving for the army, he beats Rostov (apparently not quite honestly) for a large sum, as if taking revenge on him for Sonin's refusal.
An atmosphere of love and fun reigns in the Rostovs' house, created primarily by Natasha. She sings and dances beautifully (at the ball with Yogel, the dance teacher, Natasha dances a mazurka with Denisov, which causes general admiration). When Rostov returns home in a depressed state after a loss, he hears Natasha's singing and forgets about everything - about the loss, about Dolokhov: "all this is nonsense‹...› but here it is - the real one." Nikolai admits to his father that he lost; when he manages to collect the required amount, he leaves for the army. Denisov, admired by Natasha, asks for her hand in marriage, is refused and leaves.
In December 1805, Prince Vasily visited the Bald Mountains with his youngest son, Anatole; Kuragin's goal was to marry his dissolute son to a wealthy heiress, Princess Marya. The princess was extraordinarily excited by the arrival of Anatole; the old prince did not want this marriage - he did not love the Kuragins and did not want to part with his daughter. By chance, Princess Mary notices Anatole, embracing her French companion, m-lle Bourienne; to her father's delight, she refuses Anatole.
After the battle of Austerlitz, the old prince receives a letter from Kutuzov, which says that Prince Andrei "fell a hero worthy of his father and his fatherland." It also says that Bolkonsky was not found among the dead; this allows us to hope that Prince Andrei is alive. Meanwhile, Princess Lisa, Andrey's wife, is about to give birth, and on the very night of the birth, Andrey returns. Princess Lisa dies; on her dead face, Bolkonsky reads the question: “What have you done to me?” - the feeling of guilt before the deceased wife no longer leaves him.
Pierre Bezukhov is tormented by the question of his wife's connection with Dolokhov: hints from acquaintances and an anonymous letter constantly raise this question. At a dinner in the Moscow English Club, arranged in honor of Bagration, a quarrel breaks out between Bezukhov and Dolokhov; Pierre challenges Dolokhov to a duel, in which he (who does not know how to shoot and has never held a pistol in his hands before) wounds his opponent. After a difficult explanation with Helen, Pierre leaves Moscow for St. Petersburg, leaving her a power of attorney to manage his Great Russian estates (which makes up most of his fortune).
On the way to St. Petersburg, Bezukhov stops at the post station in Torzhok, where he meets the famous Freemason Osip Alekseevich Bazdeev, who instructs him - disappointed, confused, not knowing how and why to live on - and gives him a letter of recommendation to one of the St. Petersburg Masons. Upon arrival, Pierre joins the Masonic lodge: he is delighted with the truth that has been revealed to him, although the ritual of initiation into Masons confuses him somewhat. Filled with a desire to do good to his neighbors, in particular to his peasants, Pierre goes to his estates in the Kyiv province. There he very zealously embarks on reforms, but, having no "practical tenacity", turns out to be completely deceived by his manager.
Returning from a southern trip, Pierre visits his friend Bolkonsky at his estate, Bogucharovo. After Austerlitz, Prince Andrei firmly decided not to serve anywhere (in order to get rid of active service, he accepted the position of collecting the militia under the command of his father). All his worries are focused on his son. Pierre notices the "faded, dead look" of his friend, his detachment. Pierre's enthusiasm, his new views contrast sharply with Bolkonsky's skeptical mood; Prince Andrei believes that neither schools nor hospitals are needed for the peasants, and serfdom should be abolished not for the peasants - they are used to it - but for the landlords, who are corrupted by unlimited power over other people. When friends go to the Bald Mountains, to the father and sister of Prince Andrei, a conversation takes place between them (on the ferry during the crossing): Pierre sets out to Prince Andrei his new views (“we do not live now only on this piece of land, but we lived and will live forever there, in everything"), and Bolkonsky for the first time after Austerlitz sees the "high, eternal sky"; “something better that was in him suddenly woke up joyfully in his soul.” While Pierre was in the Bald Mountains, he enjoyed close, friendly relations not only with Prince Andrei, but also with all his relatives and household; for Bolkonsky, a new life (internally) began from a meeting with Pierre.
Returning from vacation to the regiment, Nikolai Rostov felt at home. Everything was clear, known in advance; True, it was necessary to think about how to feed people and horses - the regiment lost almost half of the people from hunger and disease. Denisov decides to recapture the food transport assigned to the infantry regiment; summoned to the headquarters, he meets Telyanin there (in the position of chief provisions officer), beats him and for this he must stand trial. Taking advantage of the fact that he was slightly wounded, Denisov goes to the hospital. Rostov visits Denisov in the hospital - he is struck by the sight of sick soldiers lying on straw and overcoats on the floor, the smell of a rotting body; in the officers' chambers, he meets Tushin, who has lost his arm, and Denisov, who, after some persuasion, agrees to submit a request for pardon to the sovereign.
With this letter, Rostov goes to Tilsit, where the meeting of two emperors, Alexander and Napoleon, takes place. At the apartment of Boris Drubetskoy, enlisted in the retinue of the Russian emperor, Nikolai sees yesterday's enemies - French officers, with whom Drubetskoy willingly communicates. All this - both the unexpected friendship of the adored tsar with yesterday's usurper Bonaparte, and the free friendly communication of the retinue officers with the French - all irritates Rostov. He cannot understand why battles were needed, arms and legs torn off, if the emperors are so kind to each other and reward each other and the soldiers of the enemy armies with the highest orders of their countries. By chance, he manages to pass a letter with Denisov's request to a familiar general, and he gives it to the tsar, but Alexander refuses: "the law is stronger than me." Terrible doubts in Rostov's soul end with the fact that he convinces familiar officers, like him, who are dissatisfied with the peace with Napoleon, and most importantly, himself that the sovereign knows better what needs to be done. And “our business is to cut and not think,” he says, drowning out his doubts with wine.
Those enterprises that Pierre started at home and could not bring to any result were executed by Prince Andrei. He transferred three hundred souls to free cultivators (that is, he freed them from serfdom); replaced corvée with dues on other estates; peasant children began to be taught to read and write, etc. In the spring of 1809, Bolkonsky went on business to the Ryazan estates. On the way, he notices how green and sunny everything is; only the huge old oak "did not want to submit to the charm of spring" - it seems to Prince Andrei in harmony with the sight of this gnarled oak that his life is over.
On guardian affairs, Bolkonsky needs to see Ilya Rostov, the district marshal of the nobility, and Prince Andrei goes to Otradnoye, the Rostov estate. At night, Prince Andrei hears the conversation between Natasha and Sonya: Natasha is full of delight from the charms of the night, and in the soul of Prince Andrei "an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes arose." When - already in July - he passed the very grove where he saw the old gnarled oak, he was transformed: “juicy young leaves made their way through the hundred-year-old hard bark without knots.” “No, life is not over at thirty-one,” Prince Andrei decides; he goes to St. Petersburg to "take an active part in life."
In St. Petersburg, Bolkonsky becomes close to Speransky, the state secretary, an energetic reformer close to the emperor. For Speransky, Prince Andrei feels a feeling of admiration, "similar to the one he once felt for Bonaparte." The prince becomes a member of the commission for drafting the military regulations. At this time, Pierre Bezukhov also lives in St. Petersburg - he became disillusioned with Freemasonry, reconciled (outwardly) with his wife Helen; in the eyes of the world, he is an eccentric and kind fellow, but in his soul "the hard work of inner development" continues.
The Rostovs also end up in St. Petersburg, because the old count, wanting to improve his money matters, comes to the capital to look for places of service. Berg proposes to Vera and marries her. Boris Drubetskoy, already a close friend in the salon of Countess Helen Bezukhova, begins to go to the Rostovs, unable to resist Natasha's charm; in a conversation with her mother, Natasha admits that she is not in love with Boris and is not going to marry him, but she likes that he travels. The countess spoke with Drubetskoy, and he stopped visiting the Rostovs.
On New Year's Eve there should be a ball at the Catherine's grandee. The Rostovs are carefully preparing for the ball; at the ball itself, Natasha experiences fear and timidity, delight and excitement. Prince Andrei invites her to dance, and "the wine of her charms hit him in the head": after the ball, his work in the commission, the speech of the sovereign in the Council, and the activities of Speransky seem insignificant to him. He proposes to Natasha, and the Rostovs accept him, but according to the condition set by the old prince Bolkonsky, the wedding can take place only after a year. This year Bolkonsky is going abroad.
Nikolai Rostov comes on vacation to Otradnoye. He is trying to put the household affairs in order, trying to check the accounts of Mitenka's clerk, but nothing comes of it. In mid-September, Nikolai, the old count, Natasha and Petya, with a pack of dogs and a retinue of hunters, go out on a big hunt. Soon they are joined by their distant relative and neighbor ("uncle"). The old count with his servants let the wolf through, for which the hunter Danilo scolded him, as if forgetting that the count was his master. At this time, another wolf came out to Nikolai, and the dogs of Rostov took him. Later, the hunters met the hunt of a neighbor - Ilagin; the dogs of Ilagin, Rostov and the uncle chased the hare, but his uncle's dog Rugay took it, which delighted the uncle. Then Rostov with Natasha and Petya go to their uncle. After dinner, uncle began to play the guitar, and Natasha went to dance. When they returned to Otradnoye, Natasha admitted that she would never be as happy and calm as now.
Christmas time has come; Natasha is languishing from longing for Prince Andrei - for a short time she, like everyone else, is entertained by a trip dressed up to her neighbors, but the thought that “her best time' torments her. During Christmas time, Nikolai especially acutely felt love for Sonya and announced her to his mother and father, but this conversation upset them very much: the Rostovs hoped that Nikolai's marriage to a rich bride would improve their property circumstances. Nikolai returns to the regiment, and the old count with Sonya and Natasha leaves for Moscow.
Old Bolkonsky also lives in Moscow; he has visibly aged, become more irritable, relations with his daughter have deteriorated, which torments the old man himself, and especially Princess Marya. When Count Rostov and Natasha come to the Bolkonskys, they receive the Rostovs unfriendly: the prince - with a calculation, and Princess Marya - herself suffering from awkwardness. Natasha is hurt by this; to console her, Marya Dmitrievna, in whose house the Rostovs were staying, took her a ticket to the opera. In the theater, the Rostovs meet Boris Drubetskoy, now fiancé Julie Karagina, Dolokhov, Helen Bezukhova and her brother Anatole Kuragin. Natasha meets Anatole. Helen invites the Rostovs to her place, where Anatole pursues Natasha, tells her about his love for her. He secretly sends her letters and is going to kidnap her in order to secretly marry (Anatole was already married, but almost no one knew this).
The kidnapping fails - Sonya accidentally finds out about him and confesses to Marya Dmitrievna; Pierre tells Natasha that Anatole is married. Arriving Prince Andrei learns about Natasha's refusal (she sent a letter to Princess Marya) and about her affair with Anatole; through Pierre, he returns Natasha her letters. When Pierre comes to Natasha and sees her tear-stained face, he feels sorry for her and at the same time he unexpectedly tells her that if he were “ best person in the world”, then “on my knees I would ask for her hand and love”. In tears of "tenderness and happiness" he leaves.
Volume three
In June 1812, the war begins, Napoleon becomes the head of the army. Emperor Alexander, having learned that the enemy had crossed the border, sent Adjutant General Balashev to Napoleon. Balashev spends four days with the French, who do not recognize the importance he had at the Russian court, and finally Napoleon receives him in the very palace from which the Russian emperor sent him. Napoleon listens only to himself, not noticing that he often falls into contradictions.
Prince Andrei wants to find Anatole Kuragin and challenge him to a duel; for this he goes to St. Petersburg, and then to the Turkish army, where he serves at the headquarters of Kutuzov. When Bolkonsky learns about the beginning of the war with Napoleon, he asks for a transfer to the Western Army; Kutuzov gives him an assignment to Barclay de Tolly and releases him. On the way, Prince Andrei calls in the Bald Mountains, where outwardly everything is the same, but the old prince is very annoyed with Princess Mary and noticeably brings m-lle Bourienne closer to him. A difficult conversation takes place between the old prince and Andrey, Prince Andrey leaves.
In the Drissa camp, where the main apartment of the Russian army was located, Bolkonsky finds many opposing parties; at the military council, he finally understands that there is no military science, and everything is decided "in the ranks." He asks the sovereign for permission to serve in the army, and not at court.
The Pavlograd regiment, in which Nikolai Rostov still serves, already a captain, retreats from Poland to the Russian borders; none of the hussars think about where and why they are going. On July 12, one of the officers tells in the presence of Rostov about the feat of Raevsky, who brought two sons to the Saltanovskaya dam and went on the attack next to them; This story raises doubts in Rostov: he does not believe the story and does not see the point in such an act, if it really happened. The next day, at the town of Ostrovne, the Rostov squadron hit the French dragoons, who were pushing the Russian lancers. Nikolai captured a French officer "with a room face" - for this he received the St. George Cross, but he himself could not understand what confuses him in this so-called feat.
The Rostovs live in Moscow, Natasha is very ill, doctors visit her; at the end of Peter's Lent, Natasha decides to go to fast. On Sunday, July 12, the Rostovs went to mass at the Razumovskys' home church. Natasha is very impressed by the prayer (“Let us pray to the Lord in peace”). She gradually returns to life and even begins to sing again, which she has not done for a long time. Pierre brings the sovereign's appeal to the Muscovites to the Rostovs, everyone is touched, and Petya asks to be allowed to go to war. Having not received permission, Petya decides the next day to go to meet the sovereign, who is coming to Moscow to express to him his desire to serve the fatherland.
In the crowd of Muscovites meeting the tsar, Petya was nearly crushed. Together with others, he stood in front of the Kremlin Palace, when the sovereign went out onto the balcony and began to throw biscuits to the people - Petya got one biscuit. Returning home, Petya resolutely announced that he would certainly go to war, and the next day the old count went to find out how to attach Petya somewhere safer. On the third day of his stay in Moscow, the tsar met with the nobility and merchants. Everyone was in awe. The nobility donated the militia, and the merchants donated money.
The old Prince Bolkonsky is weakening; despite the fact that Prince Andrei informed his father in a letter that the French were already at Vitebsk and that his family's stay in the Bald Mountains was unsafe, the old prince mortgaged in his estate new garden and a new building. Prince Nikolai Andreevich sends the manager Alpatych to Smolensk with instructions, he, having arrived in the city, stops at the inn, at the familiar owner - Ferapontov. Alpatych gives the governor a letter from the prince and hears advice to go to Moscow. The bombardment begins, and then the fire of Smolensk. Ferapontov, who previously did not want to even hear about the departure, suddenly begins to distribute bags of food to the soldiers: “Bring everything, guys! ‹…› I made up my mind! Race!" Alpatych meets Prince Andrei, and he writes a note to his sister, offering to urgently leave for Moscow.
For Prince Andrei, the fire of Smolensk "was an epoch" - a feeling of anger against the enemy made him forget his grief. He was called in the regiment "our prince", they loved him and were proud of him, and he was kind and meek "with his regimental officers." His father, having sent his family to Moscow, decided to stay in the Bald Mountains and defend them "to the last extremity"; Princess Mary does not agree to leave with her nephews and stays with her father. After the departure of Nikolushka, the old prince has a stroke, and he is transported to Bogucharovo. For three weeks, the paralyzed prince lies in Bogucharovo, and finally he dies, asking for forgiveness from his daughter before his death.
Princess Mary, after her father's funeral, is going to leave Bogucharovo for Moscow, but the Bogucharovo peasants do not want to let the princess go. By chance, Rostov turns up in Bogucharovo, easily pacified the peasants, and the princess can leave. Both she and Nikolai think about the will of providence that arranged their meeting.
When Kutuzov is appointed commander in chief, he calls on Prince Andrei to himself; he arrives in Tsarevo-Zaimishche, on main apartment. Kutuzov listens with sympathy to the news of the death of the old prince and invites Prince Andrei to serve at the headquarters, but Bolkonsky asks for permission to remain in the regiment. Denisov, who also arrived at the main apartment, hurries to present Kutuzov with a plan for a guerrilla war, but Kutuzov listens to Denisov (as well as the report of the general on duty) clearly inattentively, as if “by his life experience” despising everything that was said to him. And Prince Andrei leaves Kutuzov completely reassured. “He understands,” Bolkonsky thinks about Kutuzov, “that there is something stronger and more significant than his will, this is the inevitable course of events, and he knows how to see them, knows how to understand their meaning‹…› And the main thing is that he is Russian ".
This is what he says before the battle of Borodino to Pierre, who came to see the battle. “While Russia was healthy, a stranger could serve it and there was a wonderful minister, but as soon as it is in danger, you need your own, dear person,” Bolkonsky explains the appointment of Kutuzov as commander-in-chief instead of Barclay. During the battle, Prince Andrei was mortally wounded; they bring him to the tent to the dressing station, where he sees Anatol Kuragin on the next table - his leg is being amputated. Bolkonsky is seized with a new feeling - a feeling of compassion and love for everyone, including his enemies.
The appearance of Pierre on the Borodino field is preceded by a description of the Moscow society, where they refused to speak French (and even take a fine for a French word or phrase), where Rostopchinsky posters are distributed, with their pseudo-folk rude tone. Pierre feels a special joyful "sacrificial" feeling: "everything is nonsense in comparison with something," which Pierre could not understand to himself. On the way to Borodino, he meets militiamen and wounded soldiers, one of whom says: "They want to pile on all the people." On the field of Borodin, Bezukhov sees a prayer service before the miraculous icon of Smolensk, meets some of his acquaintances, including Dolokhov, who asks for forgiveness from Pierre.
During the battle, Bezukhov ended up on Raevsky's battery. The soldiers soon get used to him, call him "our master"; when the charges run out, Pierre volunteers to bring new ones, but before he could reach the charging boxes, there was a deafening explosion. Pierre runs to the battery, where the French are already in charge; the French officer and Pierre simultaneously grab each other, but the flying cannonball makes them unclench their hands, and the Russian soldiers who run up drive the French away. Pierre is horrified by the sight of the dead and wounded; he leaves the battlefield and walks three miles along the Mozhaisk road. He sits on the side of the road; after a while, three soldiers make a fire nearby and call Pierre to supper. After dinner, they go together to Mozhaisk, on the way they meet the bereator Pierre, who takes Bezukhov to the inn. At night, Pierre has a dream in which a benefactor (as he calls Bazdeev) speaks to him; the voice says that one must be able to unite in one's soul "the meaning of everything." “No,” Pierre hears in a dream, “not to connect, but to match.” Pierre returns to Moscow.
Two more characters are given in close-up during the Battle of Borodino: Napoleon and Kutuzov. On the eve of the battle, Napoleon receives a gift from the Empress from Paris - a portrait of his son; he orders the portrait to be taken out to show it to the old guard. Tolstoy claims that Napoleon's orders before the battle of Borodino were no worse than all his other orders, but nothing depended on the will of the French emperor. Near Borodino, the French army suffered a moral defeat - this, according to Tolstoy, is the most important result of the battle.
Kutuzov did not make any orders during the battle: he knew that "an elusive force called the spirit of the army" decides the outcome of the battle, and he led this force "as far as it was in his power." When the adjutant Wolzogen arrives at the commander-in-chief with news from Barclay that the left flank is upset and the troops are fleeing, Kutuzov violently attacks him, claiming that the enemy has been beaten off everywhere and that tomorrow there will be an offensive. And this mood of Kutuzov is transmitted to the soldiers.
After the battle of Borodino, Russian troops retreat to Fili; the main issue that the military leaders are discussing is the question of protecting Moscow. Kutuzov, realizing that there is no way to defend Moscow, gives the order to retreat. At the same time, Rostopchin, not understanding the meaning of what is happening, ascribes to himself the leading role in the abandonment and fire of Moscow - that is, in an event that could not have happened by the will of one person and could not have happened in the circumstances of that time. He advises Pierre to leave Moscow, reminding him of his connection with the Masons, gives the crowd to be torn apart by the merchant's son Vereshchagin and leaves Moscow. The French enter Moscow. Napoleon is standing on Poklonnaya Hill, waiting for the deputation of the boyars and playing generous scenes in his imagination; he is told that Moscow is empty.
On the eve of leaving Moscow, the Rostovs were getting ready to leave. When the carts were already laid, one of the wounded officers (the day before several wounded were taken into the house by the Rostovs) asked permission to go further with the Rostovs in their cart. The countess at first objected - after all, the last fortune was lost - but Natasha convinced her parents to give all the carts to the wounded, and leave most of the things. Among the wounded officers who traveled with the Rostovs from Moscow was Andrei Bolkonsky. In Mytishchi, during another stop, Natasha entered the room where Prince Andrei was lying. Since then, she has looked after him on all holidays and overnight stays.
Pierre did not leave Moscow, but left his home and began to live in the house of Bazdeev's widow. Even before the trip to Borodino, he learned from one of the Masonic brothers that the Apocalypse predicted the invasion of Napoleon; he began to calculate the meaning of the name of Napoleon ("the beast" from the Apocalypse), and this number was equal to 666; the same amount was obtained from the numerical value of his name. So Pierre discovered his destiny - to kill Napoleon. He remains in Moscow and prepares for a great feat. When the French enter Moscow, officer Rambal comes to Bazdeev's house with his batman. The insane brother of Bazdeev, who lived in the same house, shoots at Rambal, but Pierre snatches the pistol from him. During dinner, Rambal frankly tells Pierre about himself, about his love affairs; Pierre tells the Frenchman the story of his love for Natasha. The next morning he goes to the city, no longer believing his intention to kill Napoleon, saves the girl, stands up for the Armenian family, which is robbed by the French; he is arrested by a detachment of French lancers.
Volume Four
Petersburg life, "preoccupied only with ghosts, reflections of life," went on in the old way. Anna Pavlovna Scherer had an evening at which Metropolitan Platon's letter to the sovereign was read and Helen Bezukhova's illness was discussed. The next day, news was received about the abandonment of Moscow; after some time, Colonel Michaud arrived from Kutuzov with the news of the abandonment and fire of Moscow; during a conversation with Michaud, Alexander said that he himself would stand at the head of his army, but would not sign peace. Meanwhile, Napoleon sends Loriston to Kutuzov with an offer of peace, but Kutuzov refuses "any kind of deal." The tsar demanded offensive actions, and, despite Kutuzov's reluctance, the Tarutino battle was given.
One autumn night, Kutuzov receives news that the French have left Moscow. Until the very expulsion of the enemy from the borders of Russia, all the activities of Kutuzov are aimed only at keeping the troops from useless offensives and clashes with the dying enemy. The French army melts in retreat; Kutuzov, on the way from Krasnoe to the main apartment, addresses the soldiers and officers: “While they were strong, we did not feel sorry for ourselves, but now you can feel sorry for them. They are people too." Intrigues do not stop against the commander-in-chief, and in Vilna the sovereign reprimands Kutuzov for his slowness and mistakes. Nevertheless, Kutuzov was awarded George I degree. But in the upcoming campaign - already outside of Russia - Kutuzov is not needed. “There was nothing left for the representative of the people's war but death. And he died."
Nikolai Rostov goes for repairs (to buy horses for the division) to Voronezh, where he meets Princess Marya; he again has thoughts of marrying her, but he is bound by the promise he made to Sonya. Unexpectedly, he receives a letter from Sonya, in which she returns his word to him (the letter was written at the insistence of the Countess). Princess Mary, having learned that her brother is in Yaroslavl, near the Rostovs, goes to him. She sees Natasha, her grief and feels closeness between herself and Natasha. She finds her brother in a state where he already knows that he will die. Natasha understood the meaning of the turning point that occurred in Prince Andrei shortly before her sister's arrival: she tells Princess Marya that Prince Andrei is "too good, he cannot live." When Prince Andrei died, Natasha and Princess Marya experienced "reverent emotion" before the sacrament of death.
The arrested Pierre is brought to the guardhouse, where he is kept along with other detainees; he is interrogated by French officers, then he gets interrogated by Marshal Davout. Davout was known for his cruelty, but when Pierre and the French marshal exchanged glances, they both vaguely felt that they were brothers. This look saved Pierre. He, along with others, was taken to the place of execution, where the French shot five, and Pierre and the rest of the prisoners were taken to the barracks. The spectacle of the execution had a terrible effect on Bezukhov, in his soul "everything fell into a heap of senseless rubbish." A neighbor in the barracks (his name was Platon Karataev) fed Pierre and reassured him with his affectionate speech. Pierre forever remembered Karataev as the personification of everything "Russian kind and round." Plato sews shirts for the French and several times notices that there are different people among the French. A party of prisoners is taken out of Moscow, and together with the retreating army they go along the Smolensk road. During one of the crossings, Karataev falls ill and is killed by the French. After that, Bezukhov has a dream at a halt in which he sees a ball, the surface of which consists of drops. Drops move, move; “Here he is, Karataev, spilled over and disappeared,” Pierre dreams. The next morning, a detachment of prisoners was repulsed by Russian partisans.
Denisov, the commander of the partisan detachment, is about to join forces with a small detachment of Dolokhov to attack a large French transport with Russian prisoners. From the German general, the head of a large detachment, a messenger arrives with a proposal to join in joint action against the French. This messenger was Petya Rostov, who remained for a day in Denisov's detachment. Petya sees Tikhon Shcherbaty returning to the detachment, a peasant who went to "take his tongue" and escaped the chase. Dolokhov arrives and, together with Petya Rostov, goes on reconnaissance to the French. When Petya returns to the detachment, he asks the Cossack to sharpen his saber; he almost falls asleep, and he dreams of the music. The next morning, the detachment attacks the French transport, and Petya dies during the skirmish. Among the captured prisoners was Pierre.
After his release, Pierre is in Orel - he is ill, the physical hardships he has experienced are affecting, but mentally he feels freedom he has never experienced before. He learns about the death of his wife, that Prince Andrei was alive for another month after being wounded. Arriving in Moscow, Pierre goes to Princess Mary, where he meets Natasha. After the death of Prince Andrei, Natasha closed herself in her grief; from this state she is brought out by the news of the death of Petya. She does not leave her mother for three weeks, and only she can ease the grief of the countess. When Princess Marya leaves for Moscow, Natasha, at the insistence of her father, goes with her. Pierre discusses with Princess Mary the possibility of happiness with Natasha; Natasha also awakens love for Pierre.
Epilogue
Seven years have passed. Natasha marries Pierre in 1813. The old Count Rostov is dying. Nikolai retires, accepts an inheritance - the debts turn out to be twice as much as the estates. He, along with his mother and Sonya, settled in Moscow, in a modest apartment. Having met Princess Marya, he tries to be restrained and dry with her (the thought of marrying a rich bride is unpleasant to him), but an explanation takes place between them, and in the fall of 1814 Rostov marries Princess Bolkonskaya. They move to the Bald Mountains; Nikolai skillfully manages the household and soon pays off his debts. Sonya lives in his house; “She, like a cat, took root not with people, but with the house.”
In December 1820, Natasha and her children stayed with her brother. They are waiting for Pierre's arrival from Petersburg. Pierre arrives, brings gifts to everyone. In the office between Pierre, Denisov (he is also visiting the Rostovs) and Nikolai, a conversation takes place, Pierre is a member of a secret society; he talks about bad government and the need for change. Nikolai disagrees with Pierre and says that he cannot accept the secret society. During the conversation, Nikolenka Bolkonsky, the son of Prince Andrei, is present. At night, he dreams that he, along with Uncle Pierre, in helmets, as in the book of Plutarch, are walking ahead of a huge army. Nikolenka wakes up with thoughts of her father and the future glory.
retold
197. All Moscow only talks about the war. One of my two brothers is already abroad, the other is with the guards, who are marching to the border. Our dear sovereign is leaving Petersburg and, as is supposed, he intends to expose his precious existence to the accidents of war. May God grant that the Corsican monster, which disturbs the calmness of Europe, be overthrown by an angel, whom the almighty in his goodness has placed as ruler over us. Not to mention my brothers, this war has robbed me of one of the relationships closest to my heart. I'm talking about the young Nikolai Rostov, who, with his enthusiasm, could not stand inactivity and left the university to join the army. I confess to you, dear Marie, that in spite of his extraordinary youth, his departure for the army was a great sorrow for me. In the young man of whom I spoke to you last summer, there is so much nobility, true youth, which is so rare in our age between our twenty-year olds! He especially has so much frankness and heart. He is so pure and full of poetry that my relationship with him, for all its fleetingness, was one of the sweetest joys of my poor heart, which had already suffered so much. Someday I will tell you our parting and everything that was said at parting. All this is still too fresh ... Ah! dear friend, you are happy that you do not know these burning pleasures, these burning sorrows. You are happy because the latter are usually stronger than the former. I know very well that Count Nicholas is too young to be anything but a friend to me. But this sweet friendship, this relationship so poetic and so pure was the need of my heart. But enough about that. The main news that occupies all of Moscow is the death of the old Count Bezukhov and his inheritance. Imagine, the three princesses received some little, Prince Vasily nothing, and Pierre is the heir to everything and, moreover, is recognized as a legitimate son and therefore Count Bezukhov and the owner of the largest fortune in Russia. They say that Prince Vasily played a very nasty role in this whole story and that he left for Petersburg very embarrassed. I confess to you that I understand very little all these matters of spiritual wills; I only know that since the young man, whom we all knew simply as Pierre, became Count Bezukhov and the owner of one of the best fortunes in Russia, I am amused by observations of the change in tone of mothers who have bride-daughters, and the young ladies themselves in relation to this gentleman, who (in parentheses, say) always seemed to me very insignificant. Since for two years now everyone has been amused by looking for suitors for me, whom I mostly do not know, the marriage chronicle of Moscow makes me Countess Bezukhova. But you understand that I do not want this at all. Speaking of marriages. Do you know that recently the universal aunt Anna Mikhailovna entrusted me, under the greatest secrecy, with the plan to arrange your marriage. This is nothing more, nothing less than the son of Prince Vasily, Anatole, who they want to attach by marrying him to a rich and noble girl, and the choice of your parents fell on you. I don't know how you look at this case, but I felt it my duty to warn you. He is said to be very good and a big rake. That's all I could find out about him.
Tolstoy's rejection of traditional history, in particular the interpretation of the events of 1812, developed gradually. The beginning of the 1860s was a time of a surge of interest in history, in particular, in the era of Alexander I and the Napoleonic Wars. Books dedicated to this era are published, historians give public lectures. Tolstoy does not stand aside: just at this time he approaches the historical novel. After reading the official work of the historian Alexander Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, who painted Kutuzov as a faithful executor of the strategic ideas of Alexander I, Tolstoy expressed a desire to "compile a true true history of Europe of the present century"; work Adolphe Thiers Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877) French historian and politician. He was the first to write a scientific history of the French Revolution, which was very popular - about 150,000 copies were sold in half a century. Released "History of the Consulate and the Empire" - a detailed coverage of the era of Napoleon I. Thiers was a major political figure: he headed the government twice under July Monarchy and became the first president of the Third Republic. forced Tolstoy to devote entire pages of War and Peace to such pro-Napoleonic historiography. Extensive discussions about the causes, the course of the war and, in general, about the force that moves peoples, begin with the third volume, but are fully crystallized in the second part of the epilogue of the novel, its theoretical conclusion, in which there is no longer a place for Rostov, Bolkonsky, Bezukhov.
Tolstoy's main objection to the traditional interpretation historical events(not only the Napoleonic Wars) - that the ideas, moods and orders of one person, largely due to chance, cannot be the true causes of large-scale phenomena. Tolstoy refuses to believe that the murder of hundreds of thousands of people can be caused by the will of one person, however great he may be; he is rather ready to believe that some natural law, like those in the animal kingdom, governs these hundreds of thousands. Russia’s victory in the war with France was led by the combination of many wills of the Russian people, which individually can even be interpreted as selfish (for example, the desire to leave Moscow, which the enemy is about to enter), but they are united by the unwillingness to submit to the invader. By shifting the emphasis from the activities of rulers and heroes to the “uniform inclinations of people,” Tolstoy anticipates the French Annalov school, A group of French historians close to the Annals of Economic and social theory". In the late 1920s, they formulated the principles of the "new historical science": history is not limited to political decrees and economic data, it is much more important to study the private life of a person, his worldview. The "Annalists" first formulated the problem, and only then proceeded to search for sources, expanded the concept of the source and used data from disciplines related to history. which made a revolution in the historiography of the XX century, and develops the ideas Mikhail Pogodin Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin (1800-1875) - historian, prose writer, publisher of the Moskvityanin magazine. Pogodin was born into a peasant family, and by the middle of the 19th century he had become such an influential figure that he gave advice to Emperor Nicholas I. Pogodin was considered the center of literary Moscow, he published the almanac Urania, in which he published poems by Pushkin, Baratynsky, Vyazemsky, Tyutchev, in his "Moskvityanin" was published by Gogol, Zhukovsky, Ostrovsky. The publisher shared the views of the Slavophiles, developed the ideas of pan-Slavism, and was close to the philosophical circle of philosophers. Pogodin studied history professionally Ancient Russia, defended the concept according to which the Scandinavians laid the foundations of Russian statehood. He collected a valuable collection of ancient Russian documents, which was later bought by the state. and partly Henry Thomas Buckle Henry Thomas Buckle (1821-1862), English historian. His main work is The History of Civilization in England, in which he creates his own philosophy of history. According to Buckle, the development of civilization has general principles and patterns, and even the most seemingly random event can be explained objective reasons. The scientist builds the dependence of the progress of society on natural phenomena, analyzes the influence of climate, soil, food on it. The History of Civilization in England, which Buckle did not have time to finish, had a strong influence on historiosophy, including Russian philosophy. (both wrote in their own way about the unified laws of history and states). Another source of Tolstoy's historiosophy is the ideas of his friend, mathematician, chess player and amateur historian Prince Sergei Urusov, obsessed with discovering the "positive laws" of history and applying these laws to the war of 1812 and the figure of Kutuzov. On the eve of the release of the sixth volume of War and Peace (initially the work was divided into six, not four volumes), Turgenev wrote about Tolstoy: get pissed off- and instead of muddy philosophizing, he will give us a drink of pure spring water of his great talent. Turgenev's hopes were not justified: just the sixth volume contained the quintessence of Tolstoy's historiosophical doctrine.
Andrei Bolkonsky is a nobody, like any person of a novelist, and not a writer of personalities or memoirs. I would be ashamed to publish if all my work consisted in writing off a portrait, finding out, remembering
Lev Tolstoy
To some extent Tolstoy's ideas are contradictory. While refusing to regard Napoleon or any other charismatic leader as a world-changing genius, Tolstoy at the same time acknowledges that others do so—and devotes many pages to this view. According to Efim Etkind, “the novel is driven by the actions and conversations of people who are all (or almost all) mistaken about their own role or the role of someone who seems ruler" 27 Etkind E. G. "Inner Man" and External Speech. Essays on the psychopoetics of Russian literature of the 18th-19th centuries. M .: School "Languages of Russian Culture", 1998. C. 290. . Tolstoy suggests that historians “leave tsars, ministers, and generals alone, and study homogeneous, infinitesimal elements that lead the masses,” but he himself does not follow this instruction: a significant part of his novel is devoted specifically to tsars, ministers, and generals. However, in the end, Tolstoy makes judgments about these historical figures according to whether they were spokesmen for a popular movement. Kutuzov in his delay, unwillingness to risk the lives of soldiers in vain, leaving Moscow, realizing that the war had already been won, coincided with the people's aspirations and understanding of the war. Ultimately, Tolstoy is interested in him as a "representative of the Russian people", and not as a prince or commander.
However, Tolstoy also had to defend himself against criticism of the historical authenticity of his novel, so to speak, from the other side: he wrote about reproaches that War and Peace did not show “the horrors of serfdom, the laying of wives in walls, the beating of adult sons, Saltychikha, etc.” Tolstoy objects that he did not find evidence of a special revelry of “violence” in numerous diaries, letters and legends studied by him: “In those days, they also loved, envied, sought truth, virtue, were carried away by passions; the same was a complex mental and moral life, sometimes even more refined than now, in the upper class. The “horrors of serfdom” for Tolstoy are what we would now call “cranberries”, stereotypes about Russian life and history.
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
WAR AND PEACE
PART ONE
I
Eh bien, mon prince. Gênes et Lucques ne sont plus que des apanages, des estates, de la famille Buonaparte. Non, je vous préviens, que si vous ne me dites pas, que nous avons la guerre, si vous vous permettez encore de pallier toutes les infamies, toutes les atrocités de cet Antichrist (ma parole, j "y crois) - je ne vous connais plus, vous n "êtes plus mon ami, vous n" êtes plus my faithful slave, comme vous dites. [Well, prince, Genoa and Lucca have become no more than estates of the Bonaparte family. No, I warn you if you will not tell me that we are at war, if you still allow yourself to defend all the nasty things, all the horrors of this Antichrist (really, I believe that he is the Antichrist) - I don’t know you anymore, you are no longer my friend, you are no longer mine faithful slave, as you say.] Well, hello, hello, Je vois que je vous fais peur, [I see that I scare you,] sit down and tell.
So said in July 1805 the famous Anna Pavlovna Sherer, maid of honor and close associate of Empress Maria Feodorovna, meeting the important and bureaucratic Prince Vasily, who was the first to come to her evening. Anna Pavlovna coughed for several days, she had flu as she said flu was then a new word, used only by rare people). In the notes sent out in the morning with the red footman, it was written without distinction in all:
"Si vous n" avez rien de mieux à faire, M. le comte (or mon prince), et si la perspective de passer la soirée chez une pauvre malade ne vous effraye pas trop, je serai charmée de vous voir chez moi entre 7 et 10 heures Annette Scherer".
[If you, count (or prince), have nothing better in mind, and if the prospect of an evening with a poor patient does not scare you too much, then I will be very glad to see you today between seven and ten o'clock. Anna Scherer.]
Dieu, quelle virulente sortie [Oh! what a cruel attack!] - answered, not at all embarrassed by such a meeting, the prince entered, in a court, embroidered uniform, in stockings, shoes, with stars, with a bright expression of a flat face. He spoke that exquisite French, which our grandfathers not only spoke, but also thought, and with those quiet, patronizing intonations that are characteristic of a significant person who has grown old in society and at court. He went up to Anna Pavlovna, kissed her hand, offering her his perfumed and shining bald head, and calmly sat down on the sofa.
Avant tout dites moi, comment vous allez, chere amie? [First of all, how is your health?] Calm down your friend, - he said, without changing his voice and in a tone in which, due to decency and participation, indifference and even mockery shone through.
How can you be healthy ... when you suffer morally? Is it possible to remain calm in our time, when a person has a feeling? Anna Pavlovna said. - You're with me all evening, I hope?
And the holiday of the English envoy? Today is Wednesday. I need to show myself there, - said the prince. - My daughter will pick me up and take me.
I thought this holiday was cancelled. Je vous avoue que toutes ces fêtes et tous ces feux d "artifice commencent à devenir insipides. [I confess that all these holidays and fireworks are becoming unbearable.]
If they knew that you want this, the holiday would be canceled, ”said the prince, out of habit, like a wound clock, saying things that he didn’t want to be believed.
Ne me tourmentez pas. Eh bien, qu "a-t-on décidé par rapport à la dépêche de Novosiizoff? Vous savez tout. [Don't torment me. Well, what did you decide on the occasion of Novosiltsov's dispatch? You all know.]
How can you tell? - said the prince in a cold, bored tone. - Qu "a-t-on décidé? On a décidé que Buonaparte a brûlé ses vaisseaux, et je crois que nous sommes en train de brûler les nôtres. [What did you decide? We decided that Bonaparte burned his ships; and we, too, seem to be ready burn ours.] - Prince Vasily always spoke lazily, as an actor speaks the role of an old play.Anna Pavlovna Sherer, on the contrary, despite her forty years, was full of animation and impulses.
Being an enthusiast became her social position, and sometimes, when she didn’t even want to, she, in order not to deceive the expectations of people who knew her, became an enthusiast. The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna's face, although it did not go to her obsolete features, expressed, like in spoiled children, the constant consciousness of her sweet shortcoming, from which she does not want, cannot and does not find it necessary to correct herself.
In the middle of a conversation about political actions, Anna Pavlovna got excited.
Oh, don't tell me about Austria! I don't understand anything, maybe, but Austria never wanted and doesn't want war. She betrays us. Russia alone must be the savior of Europe. Our benefactor knows his high calling and will be faithful to it. Here's one thing I believe in. Our good and wonderful sovereign has the greatest role in the world, and he is so virtuous and good that God will not leave him, and he will fulfill his calling to crush the hydra of the revolution, which is now even more terrible in the person of this murderer and villain. We alone must atone for the blood of the righteous... Whom shall we hope for, I ask you?... England with its commercial spirit will not and cannot understand the whole loftiness of the soul of Emperor Alexander. She refused to clear Malta. She wants to see, looking for the back thought of our actions. What did they say to Novosiltsov?... Nothing. They did not understand, they cannot understand the selflessness of our emperor, who wants nothing for himself and wants everything for the good of the world. And what did they promise? Nothing. And what they promised, and that will not happen! Prussia has already declared that Bonaparte is invincible and that all of Europe can do nothing against him... And I do not believe in a single word either Hardenberg or Gaugwitz. Cette fameuse neutralité prussienne, ce n "est qu" un piège. [This notorious neutrality of Prussia is only a trap.] I believe in one God and in the high destiny of our dear Emperor. He will save Europe! ... - She suddenly stopped with a smile of mockery at her ardor.
The novel "War and Peace" by L.N. Tolstoy devoted six years of intense and hard work. September 5, 1863 A.E. Bers, the father of Sofya Andreevna, Tolstoy's wife, sent a letter from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana with the following remark: "Yesterday we talked a lot about 1812 on the occasion of your intention to write a novel relating to this era." It is this letter that researchers consider "the first accurate evidence" dating the beginning of Tolstoy's work on War and Peace. In October of the same year, Tolstoy wrote to his relative: “I have never felt my mental and even all my moral forces so free and so capable of work. And I have this job. This work is a novel from the time of 1810 and the 20s, which has completely occupied me since the autumn ... I am now a writer with all the strength of my soul, and I write and think, as I have never written and thought before.
The manuscripts of "War and Peace" testify to how one of the world's largest creations was created: over 5,200 finely written sheets have been preserved in the writer's archive. From them you can trace the entire history of the creation of the novel.
Initially, Tolstoy conceived a novel about a Decembrist who returned after a 30-year exile in Siberia. The action of the novel began in 1856, shortly before the abolition of serfdom. But then the writer revised his plan and moved on to 1825 - the era of the Decembrist uprising. Soon the writer abandoned this beginning and decided to show the youth of his hero, which coincided with the formidable and glorious times of the Patriotic War of 1812. But Tolstoy did not stop there, and since the war of 1812 was inextricably linked with 1805, he began his entire work from that time. Having moved the beginning of the action of his novel half a century into history, Tolstoy decided to lead not one, but many heroes through the most important events for Russia.
Tolstoy called his idea - to capture in art form the half-century history of the country - "Three pores". The first time is the beginning of the century, its first decade and a half, the time of youth of the first Decembrists who passed through Patriotic war 1812. The second time is the 20s with their main event - the uprising on December 14, 1825. The third time is the 50s, the end of the Crimean War, unsuccessful for the Russian army, the sudden death of Nicholas I, the amnesty of the Decembrists, their return from exile and the time of waiting for changes in the life of Russia. However, in the process of working on the work, the writer narrowed the scope of his original idea and focused on the first period, touching only on the beginning of the second period in the epilogue of the novel. But even in this form, the idea of the work remained global in scope and demanded the exertion of all forces from the writer. At the beginning of his work, Tolstoy realized that the usual framework of the novel and historical story would not be able to accommodate all the richness of the content he had conceived, and he began to persistently look for a new artistic form, he wanted to create a literary work of a completely unusual type. And he succeeded. "War and Peace", according to L.N. Tolstoy is not a novel, not a poem, not a historical chronicle, this is an epic novel, a new genre of prose, which, after Tolstoy, became widespread in Russian and world literature.
"I LOVE PEOPLE'S THOUGHT"
“In order for a work to be good, one must love the main main idea in it. So in Anna Karenina I loved family thought, in War and Peace I love folk thought as a result of the war of 1812” (Tolstoy). The war that decided the issue national independence, opened before the writer the source of the strength of the nation - the social and spiritual power of the people. The people make history. This thought illuminated all events and faces. "War and Peace" became a historical novel, received the majestic form of an epic ...
The appearance of "War and Peace" in the press caused the most contradictory criticism. Radical-democratic magazines of the 60s. met the novel with fierce attacks. In "Iskra" for 1869 appears "Literary and drawing medley" M. Znamensky [V. Kurochkin], parodying the novel. N. Shelgunov speaks of him: "an apology for a well-fed nobility." T. is attacked for the idealization of the lordly environment, for the fact that the position of the serf peasantry turned out to be bypassed. But the novel did not receive recognition in the reactionary-noble camp either. Some of its representatives went so far as to accuse Tolstoy of being anti-patriotic (see P. Vyazemsky, A. Narov, and others). A special place is occupied by N. Strakhov's article, which emphasized the accusatory aspect of War and Peace. A very interesting article by Tolstoy himself “A Few Words on War and Peace” (1868). Tolstoy, as it were, justified himself in some of the accusations when he wrote: “In those days, they also loved, envied, looked for truth, virtue, were carried away by passions; the same was a complex mental and moral life ... "
"WAR AND PEACE" FROM A MILITARY PERSPECTIVE
Roman gr. Tolstoy is interesting for the military in a twofold sense: by describing the scenes of military and military life and by striving to draw some conclusions regarding the theory of military affairs. The first, that is, the scenes, are inimitable and, in our extreme conviction, can constitute one of the most useful additions to any course in the theory of military art; the latter, that is, the conclusions, do not stand up to the most condescending criticism because of their one-sidedness, although they are interesting as a transitional stage in the development of the author's views on military affairs.
HEROES ABOUT LOVE
Andrei Bolkonsky: “I would not believe someone who would tell me that I can love like that. It's not at all the same feeling I had before. The whole world is divided for me into two halves: one is she and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other half - everything where it is not, there is all despondency and darkness ... I cannot but love the light, I am not to blame for this. And I'm very happy..."
Pierre Bezukhov: “If there is a God and there is a future life, then there is truth, there is virtue; and the highest happiness of man is to strive to achieve them. We must live, we must love, we must believe ... "
"THE MOTHER HUMAN"
Already in the years of Soviet power, Lenin more than once expressed his feeling of great pride in the genius of Tolstoy, he knew and loved his works well. Gorky recalled how, on one of Lenin's visits, he saw a volume of "War and Peace" on his desk. Vladimir Ilyich immediately started talking about Tolstoy: “What a block, huh? What a hardened human being! Here, this, my friend, is an artist ... And, you know, what else is amazing? Prior to this, there was no real muzhik in literature.
Who in Europe can be put next to him?
He answered himself:
Nobody"
"MIRROR OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION"
On the one hand, a brilliant artist who not only provided incomparable pictures of Russian life, but also first-class works of world literature. On the other hand, there is a landowner who is foolish in Christ.
On the one hand, there is a remarkably strong, direct and sincere protest against public lies and falsehood, - on the other hand, a “Tolstoyan”, that is, a worn, hysterical squib, called a Russian intellectual, who, publicly beating his chest, says: “ I am bad, I am ugly, but I am engaged in moral self-improvement; I don’t eat meat anymore and now eat rice cakes.”
On the one hand, a ruthless critique of capitalist exploitation, exposure of government violence, court comedies and government controlled revealing the entire depth of the contradictions between the growth of wealth and the gains of civilization and the growth of poverty, savagery and torment of the working masses; on the other hand, the foolish preaching of "non-resistance to evil" by violence.
REVALUATION
“In January 1871, Tolstoy sent a letter to Fet: “How happy I am ... that I will never write verbose rubbish like “War” again”
On December 6, 1908, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “People love me for those trifles - War and Peace, etc., which seem very important to them”
“In the summer of 1909, one of the visitors to Yasnaya Polyana expressed his delight and gratitude for the creation of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Tolstoy replied: "It's like someone came to Edison and said:" I respect you very much because you dance the mazurka well. I attribute meaning to very different books of mine."
TOLSTOY AND THE AMERICANS
The Americans declared Leo Tolstoy's four-volume work "War and Peace" the main novel of all times and peoples. Newsweek magazine experts have compiled a list of one hundred books declared by the publication to be the best of all that have ever been written. As a result of the selection, in addition to the novel by Leo Tolstoy, the top ten included: "1984" by George Orwell, "Ulysses" by James Joyce, "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov, "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner, "The Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison, "Na Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf, “Iliad” and “Odyssey” by Homer, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen and “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri.
