Works of Leo Tolstoy war and peace. "War and Peace": a masterpiece or "wordy rubbish"? The main idea of ​​the novel

War, peace... and some details. On the eve of the start of online readings of the great novel by Leo Tolstoy, we decided to recall some details

Text: Mikhail Wiesel/Year of Literature.RF
Collage: watercolor by N. N. Karazin; portrait of Leo Tolstoy. 1873, I. N. Kramskoy (State Tretyakov Gallery)

1. The volume of the novel "War and Peace" is 1300 pages of the usual book format. This is not the largest novel in world literature, but one of the largest included in the canon of European literature of the 19th century. Initially, in the first two publications, it was divided not into four parts, as we are used to, but into six. Only in 1873, when the novel was being prepared for publication for the third time as part of the Works of L. N. Tolstoy, did the author change the distribution of the text by volume and allot him exactly half of the 8-volume collection.

2. We confidently call "War and Peace" a "novel", but the author himself categorically objected to such a genre definition. In an article dedicated to the release of the first separate edition, he wrote: This is not a novel, even less a poem, even less a historical chronicle. "War and Peace" is what the author wanted and could express in the form in which it was expressed. … History since time not only presents many examples of such a departure from the European form, but does not even give a single example of the contrary. Starting from Gogol's "Dead Souls" and up to Dostoevsky's "Dead House", in the new period of Russian literature there is not a single artistic prose work that is a little out of mediocrity, which would fit perfectly into the form of a novel, poem or short story.". Nevertheless, now "War and Peace" is certainly considered one of the pinnacles of world romance.

3.
Initially, in 1856, Tolstoy was going to write a novel not about the Napoleonic wars, but about the old one, which finally, thirty years later, is allowed to return from Siberia. But he quickly realized that he would not be able to reveal the motives for the hero’s participation in the December uprising if he did not describe his youthful participation in the Napoleonic wars. In addition, he could not help but take into account that when describing the events of December 14, 1825, he would begin to have problems with censorship. In the 1890s, Tolstoy would not have paid any attention to this, but in the 1860s, for an author who was not yet forty years old, it mattered. So the idea of ​​"the story of the Decembrist" was transformed into "an epic novel about the Napoleonic wars in Russia."

4.
For censorship reasons, as well as at the insistent request of his wife, Tolstoy cut out fairly frank descriptions of Pierre and Helen's wedding night. Sofya Andreevna managed to convince her husband that the church censorship department would not let them through. With Helen Bezukhova, who, obviously, acted for Tolstoy as the bearer of the "dark sexual beginning", the most scandalous plot twist is also connected. Helen, a flourishing young woman, suddenly dies just in 1812, untying Pierre's hands to marry Natasha Rostova. Russian schoolchildren, studying the novel at the age of 15, perceive this unexpected death as a convention necessary for the development of the plot. And only those of them who reread the novel as adults understand, to their embarrassment, from Tolstoy's dull hints that Helen is dying ... from the consequences of an unsuccessful pharmacological abortion, which she went for, entangled between two supposed husbands, a Russian nobleman and a foreign prince - she intended to marry one of them, having received a divorce from Pierre.

5. The Russian word "mir" means "absence of war" and "society". Until the reform of Russian spelling in 1918, this difference was also fixed graphically: “lack of war” was written “mir”, and “society” - “mir”. Tolstoy, of course, implied this ambiguity when he gave the name of the novel, but, contrary to the well-established misconception, he called the novel precisely "War and Peace" - which is clearly visible on the covers of all lifetime publications. On the other hand, Mayakovsky called his 1916 poem "War and Peace", in defiance of Lev Nikolaevich, and this difference has now become invisible.

6. The novel was written in 1863–69. Tolstoy himself acknowledged that

« an essay on which I have assigned five years of unceasing and exceptional labor, under the best conditions of life».

A year before the start of this work, the 34-year-old Tolstoy married, and his wife, 18-year-old Sonya Bers, took over, in particular, the duties of a secretary. In the course of working on the novel, Sofya Andreevna rewrote the text completely from beginning to end at least eight times. Individual episodes were rewritten up to 26 times. During this time, she gave birth to the first four children (out of thirteen).

7. In the same article, Tolstoy assured that the names of the characters - Drubetskoy, Kuragin - resemble real Russian aristocratic surnames - Volkonsky, Trubetskoy, Kurakin - only because it was more convenient for him to enter his characters in the historical context and "allow" them to talk with real Rostopchin and Kutuzov. In reality, this is not entirely true: describing the Rostov and Bolkonsky families, Tolstoy described his own ancestors quite closely. In particular, Nikolai Rostov is to a large extent his own father, Nikolai Tolstoy (1794–1837), hero of the war of 1812 and lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd (!) Regiment, and Marya Bolkonskaya is his mother, Marya Nikolaevna, nee Princess Volkonskaya (1790– 1830). The circumstances of their wedding are described quite closely, and Bald Mountains are similar to Yasnaya Polyana. Immediately after the release of the novel, in the absence of the Internet and the "gossip column" in the modern sense, this, of course, could only be guessed by people close to Tolstoy. But everyone immediately recognized three characters: Vaska Denisov, Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova and Ivan Dolokhov. Under these transparent pseudonyms, famous people were designated then: the poet and hussar Denis Vasilyevich Davydov, the eccentric Moscow lady Nastasya Dmitrievna Ofrosimova. As for Dolokhov, it turned out to be more difficult with him: it seems that General Ivan Dorokhov (1762–1815), the hero of the Napoleonic wars, is meant, but in fact Tolstoy quite accurately described his son with the strange name Rufin (1801–1852), a hussar and a breter, repeatedly demoted to the soldiers for riot and again, with courage, he sought the officer's epaulettes. Tolstoy met Rufin Dorokhov in his youth in the Caucasus.

8.
The protagonist of "War and Peace" - - has no exact prototype. At the same time, it is not difficult to point out the prototype of his father, Catherine's nobleman, who recognized his illegitimate son only before his death - this is one of the richest and most influential people in Russia in the 18th century, Chancellor Alexander Bezborodko. But in the character of Pierre, the youthful features of Tolstoy himself and the collective "thinking young man" from the nobles of the early 19th century are combined - in particular, Prince Peter Vyazemsky, the future poet and closest friend

9.
Georges Nivat, the greatest contemporary French Slavist, who speaks fluent Russian, confirms that the French language of War and Peace is not a conditional “international French”, like modern “international English”, but a real aristocratic French language of the 19th century. True, still closer to the middle of the century, when the novel was written, and not the beginning, when the action takes place. Tolstoy himself compares French blotches with "shadows in the picture", giving sharpness and bulge to faces. It's easier to say this: refined French allows you to convey the flavor of an era when all of Europe spoke French. It is better to read these phrases out loud, even if you do not quite understand their meaning, and not to read the translation. The narrative is constructed in such a way that at its key moments all the characters, even the French, switch to Russian.

10. To date, "War and Peace" has served as the basis for ten cinematographic and television films, including the grandiose four-part epic by Sergei Bondarchuk (1965), for the filming of which a special cavalry regiment was created in the Soviet army. However, before the end of the year, the 11th project will be added to this list - an 8-episode television series BBC one. And, probably, it will not spoil the reputation of the "historical British series", which has now become a global brand.

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 languishes 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 is wasted" 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 “the best person in the world”, then “on his knees he would ask for her hands 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 laid a new garden and a new building on his estate. 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, at the 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

"War and Peace"(“War and Peace”) is an epic novel by Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, describing the events of the wars against Napoleon: 1805 and the Patriotic War of 1812.

History of writing a novel

The idea of ​​the epic was formed long before the start of work on the text known as "War and Peace". In a draft of the preface to War and Peace, Tolstoy wrote that in 1856 he began to write a story, “whose hero was supposed to be a Decembrist returning with his family to Russia. Involuntarily, I moved from the present to 1825 ... But even in 1825, my hero was already a mature, family man. To understand him, I had to go back to his youth, and his youth coincided with ... the era of 1812 ... If the reason for our triumph was not accidental, but lay in the essence of the character of the Russian people and army, then this character should have been expressed even brighter in the era failures and defeats ... "Thus Tolstoy gradually came to the need to start the story from 1805.

Tolstoy returned to work on the story several times. In early 1861, he read chapters from the novel The Decembrists, written in November 1860 - early 1861, to Turgenev and reported on work on the novel to Herzen. However, the work was postponed several times, until in 1863-1869. The novel "War and Peace" was not written. For some time, the epic novel was perceived by Tolstoy as part of a narrative that was supposed to end with the return of Pierre and Natasha from Siberian exile in 1856 (this is what is being discussed in the 3 surviving chapters of the novel The Decembrists). Attempts to work on this idea were made by Tolstoy for the last time in the late 1870s, after the end of Anna Karenina.

The novel "War and Peace" was a great success. An excerpt from the novel entitled "1805" appeared in the "Russian Messenger" in 1865. In 1868, three of its parts were published, followed soon by the other two (four volumes in total).

Recognized by the critics of the whole world as the greatest epic work of new European literature, "War and Peace" amazes already from a purely technical point of view with the size of its fictional canvas. Only in painting can one find some parallel in the huge paintings by Paolo Veronese in the Doge's Palace in Venice, where hundreds of faces are also written out with amazing distinctness and individual expression. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron In Tolstoy's novel, all classes of society are represented, from emperors and kings to the last soldier, all ages, all temperaments and in the space of the whole reign of Alexander I. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron What further elevates his dignity as an epic is this them the psychology of the Russian people. With striking penetration, Tolstoy portrayed the mood of the crowd, both high and the most vile and bestial (for example, in the famous scene of the murder of Vereshchagin).

• Pierre Bezukhov- one of the most beloved characters of the author, who lives a busy life throughout the novel. After the death of Count Bezukhov, he becomes a very rich heir. Because of his indecision and inability to resist the opinion of secular society, he makes a fatal mistake by marrying Helen Kuragina, an insidious and unfaithful woman.
• Anna Pavlovna Sherer- maid of honor and close associate of the empress, mistress of the fashionable high-society "political" salon in St. Petersburg. Guests often gather in her house.
• Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya- the mother of Boris Drubetskoy, a woman who is very worried about her son, in connection with which she is trying to influence his fate: she asks to put in a good word before the sovereign, Prince Vasily; plays a decisive role in deciding on the division of the inheritance of Count Bezukhov, who is on his deathbed.
• Boris Drubetskoy - the son of the poor Princess Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya, whose character changes from better to worse throughout the novel. If at first he is a promising, firm and purposeful young man, then later he appears before the reader as a prudent person and looking for profitable acquaintances.
• Count Ilya Andreevich Rostov- the father of a large family, a self-confident elderly man who loves to arrange feasts.
• Natalia Rostova- the wife of Ilya Andreevich, a woman of about forty-five, who has many children. The Countess lives in luxury and is not accustomed to saving.
• Nikolai Rostov- the son of Count Ilya Rostov, a young man with a cheerful and sociable character. Wanting to be useful to the Fatherland, he decides to go to war. In the second and third parts of the first volume, he appears before the reader as a brave and courageous officer who has trembling feelings towards the sovereign and is ready to give his life for the Motherland without hesitation.
• Natasha Rostova- the main character of the work. At first, this is a childishly direct teenage girl, but with age her character changes, and she turns into a charming woman who is sensitive to ongoing events.
• Sonya Rostova- Natasha's cousin, who lives in the Rostov family; a kind girl in love with her older brother, Nikolai Rostov.
• Vera Rostova- the unloved daughter of Countess Rostova, who, despite her beauty and intelligence, makes an unpleasant impression because she has a proud and arrogant character.
• Nikolai Bolkonsky- a retired general, the father of the Bolkonsky family, an intelligent man with a tough character, who strictly brings up his daughter Marya, wanting to instill good qualities in her.
• Maria Bolkonskaya- a noblewoman, the daughter of Nikolai Bolkonsky, a kind and gentle, believing girl who loves people and tries to act in such a way as not to upset anyone. In addition, she is smart and educated.
• Mademoiselle Bourienne- lives in the Bolkonsky family as a companion. This is a woman who does not value her kind attitude and betrays Marya by flirting with Anatole Kuragin.
• Andrey Bolkonsky- son of Nikolai Bolkonsky. The behavior of this character changes throughout the novel. At first, this is an ambitious young man seeking fame and recognition and therefore going to war, but later his character, having been hardened, changes for the better. Andrei, being Kutuzov's adjutant, fulfills orders with joy and devotion, wishes to serve his native Fatherland.
• Little princess, Elizabeth- Andrei's wife, a woman who is not indifferent to secular society, sweet, beautiful, smiling. Bolkonsky goes into the army, leaving his wife in a difficult position, because Lisa is pregnant. Later, the heroine of the novel dies in childbirth.
• Prince Vasily Kuragin- a very influential person, an important official who is personally acquainted with the empress. A relative of Count Kirill Bezukhov, who at first claims his inheritance, but when the wealth goes to the illegitimate son Pierre, decides to marry his daughter Helen to him and comes up with a plan on how to do this.
• Helen Kuragina- the daughter of Prince Vasily, who has natural beauty. Despite this, she is a cynical, vile and vulgar girl who, having married Pierre Bezukhov for convenience, ruined his life.
• Anatole Kuragin, son of Vasily Kuragin- an extremely negative character in the novel "War and Peace". He commits obscene acts, behaves cheekily and meanly.
• Commander-in-Chief Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov- a wise commander who worries about the Russian army and selflessly fights the enemy.
• Napoleon Bonaparte- a real historical figure, the French emperor, who fought with the Russian army, an extremely egocentric, narcissistic and self-satisfied person who made war his craft.

Part one

"War and Peace" is a work in which the main characters live a rich life - each his own. From the first pages of the novel, we meet Anna Scherer, who was close to the Empress and maid of honor. Guests gathered in her house - Prince Vasily, who paid the first visit, Helen Kuragina, little princess Lisa Bolkonskaya.

Anna Pavlovna talks at ease with Prince Vasily, various topics are discussed. Suddenly, Pierre Bezukhov appears, who, not knowing how to stay in society, with his ridiculous conclusions and reasoning, creates an unpleasant impression of himself among others. This unexpected visit causes concern to Anna Pavlovna, who, after a brief conversation with Pierre, concludes about him as a young man who does not know how to live. Yes, and Bezukhov himself feels extremely uncomfortable in such an environment.

But who is really admired is Helen Kuragina, whose beauty and grace immediately catches the eye.

Finally, Andrei Bolkonsky, the prince, appears in the living room, who, unlike his wife, the little princess Lisa, does not like to appear in secular society, but does it out of necessity.

He is a purposeful and ambitious person, but, nevertheless, he is friends with Pierre Bezukhov, whose clumsiness and absent-mindedness are striking. And now Bolkonsky, seeing a friend and greeting them, took the opportunity and invited Pierre to visit.

Meanwhile, a conversation is taking place between Prince Vasily and Princess Anna Pavlovna Drubetskaya. The woman tearfully asks Prince Vasily to intercede with the sovereign to transfer her son Boris to the guards. Princess Drubetskaya is persistent, and, finally, the prince yields to her pleas, promising to do the impossible.

When Pierre Bezukhov crosses the threshold of the house of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, he feels at ease with a friend. A casual conversation ensued, but Andrei Bolkonsky made it clear that he was not interested in his friend's childish reasoning about Napoleon. However, when asked why he was going to war, the prince replied: “I am going because this life that I lead here, this life is not for me!”

The promise given to Princess Drubetskaya was fulfilled. Prince Vasily asked the sovereign about Boris, and he was transferred to the Semenovsky regiment as an ensign.

The Rostovs were planning a birthday party. The culprits of the event were Natalia - mother and daughter. This friendly family, headed by Count Ilya Andreevich, was distinguished by hospitality. So many guests gathered on this significant day. Many representatives of the nobility were here, including Maria Dmitrievna, a woman famous for her directness of mind and simplicity of address, who was known both in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and also in royal circles. The assembled guests talked mainly on the military topic. Natasha Rostova felt at ease and simply in this society: she consoled her niece Sonya, who was offended by her older sister Vera, who uttered sharp and unpleasant words; sitting at the table, contrary to decency, she asked if there would be a cake, but no one condemned the girl for her spontaneity - in a word, she was happy with what was happening around.

At the same time, very sad events were taking place in the Bezukhovs' house - the approach of an imminent loss: the sixth blow happened to Count Cyril. People gathered in the reception room, including the confessor, who was ready to give unction to the dying.

Anna Mikhailovna turned out to be a far-sighted woman. Assuming that a fight over the inheritance would flare up, she went to the Bezukhovs, urgently calling Pierre. Young Pierre, although he was afraid of the upcoming meeting with his dying father, however, understood that this was necessary.

Princess Katerina, following the advice of Prince Vasily, secretly takes away a mosaic briefcase containing a valuable will. There is a struggle between her and Anna Mikhailovna, but, fortunately, the middle princess intervenes, and the briefcase falls out of Katish's hands. He is immediately picked up by Anna Mikhailovna. At the same time, it is reported that Kirill Bezukhov died.

Meanwhile, in the Bald Mountains, where the estate of Prince Nikolai Andreevich was located, they were waiting for the arrival of Prince Andrei and his wife. The demanding and captious prince kept his daughter in strictness, and was not too happy with the arrival of the guests. Princess Mary, on the contrary, was happy when her beloved brother arrived. The meeting promised to be wonderful, however, it was overshadowed by the news of Andrei's call for military service. The prince was about to part with his wife, the little princess Elizabeth. Saying goodbye to her husband, she faints. She now had to live in the country without her husband and the secular society to which she was accustomed.

Part two

The theme of war develops throughout the entire work of Leo Tolstoy. In the second part, the military events and the participation of the heroes of the novel in them occupy a special place. First, the preparation for the check of the regiment by the commander-in-chief Mikhail Kutuzov is described. Finally, the show began. Among the close associates of the commander-in-chief was Andrei Bolkonsky, who became his adjutant.

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It is obvious that in this young man, who put the defense of his native Fatherland above all else, great changes took place: “In the expression of his face, in his movements, in his gait, there was almost no noticeable former pretense, fatigue and laziness.”

After checking, the commander and his retinue went to the city.

Austria, Prussia and Russia begin a campaign against Napoleon. Kutuzov uses a cunning tactical move and does everything to avoid the participation of Russian troops in the battle. The Russians retreat, leaving several thousand soldiers under the command of Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration near the village of Shingraben. It should cover the withdrawal of the rest of the army and enable the combined forces of the three states to deliver a decisive blow. A temporary truce with the French Marshal Joachim Murat also allows you to win some time, however, Napoleon, realizing that the Russians benefit from this and seeing the catch, orders an immediate attack on the enemy.

The battle near the Austrian village showed that the fighting is not a beautiful sight, but an unsightly, chilling horror: the groans of the wounded, the neighing of horses, the screams of the dying. All this was experienced by young Nikolai Rostov, who served as a cadet in the Hussar Pavlograd regiment. The count could not stand the tension of the battle, and, being wounded, showed some cowardice. He was not condemned: on the contrary, the soldiers who had been in a military meat grinder understood the state of the young officer, who suffered greatly from pain in his arm, and from loneliness and the realization that he was useless to anyone, and from his own delusions. In this state, Nicholas was most tormented by the question: did he do the right thing by going to war.

And what about the prince - Andrei Bolkonsky? He lives in anticipation of a feat, being ridiculed by colleagues. After the Battle of Shingraben, the prince meets Captain Tushin, who accomplished a real feat: his battery continued to shell the French without waiting for orders. As a result, a fire broke out from the shells, and the enemy army, unsuccessfully trying to extinguish it, was late for the general offensive. Russian troops managed to approach the prepared dispositions. Thus, this, at first glance, clumsy man managed to turn the tide of the battle. However, Bolkonsky, oddly enough, was disappointed. He could not imagine that the heroic feat and military glory would go to Silence, who was so timid in front of Marshal Bagration. However, he admitted that "the success of the day they owe most of all to the action of this battery and the heroic stamina of Captain Tushin with his company."

Part Three

Prince Vasily was such a type of secular person who did not seem to wish harm to anyone, but at the same time he wanted to succeed in life at all costs, for this purpose approaching the necessary and useful people. Since Pierre Bezukhov suddenly became a very rich man, the prince had a plan to marry his beloved daughter Helen to him. Unfortunately, this intention, not without the help of cunning and seduction, was brought to life, and the naive Pierre, unable to resist the opinion of secular society, soon became the groom, and then the husband of the insidious Helen Kuragina.

But the next plan of Prince Vasily about marrying his son Anatole to the ugly, but very rich Marya Bolkonskaya, failed. The visit of these people to the estate of Nikolai Bolkonsky was received by the owner with great displeasure. Nikolai raised his daughter in strictness and zealously protected from any bad influence, however, having learned about the intentions of Prince Vasily, he decided to let Marya make such a serious choice in life herself, although he saw that Anatole was by no means a good match for her. A chance helped save the girl from the fatal mistake of an unsuccessful marriage: the princess saw Anatole and Bourien hugging. The reaction of the failed bride was amazing: instead of being offended by her rival, she began to console her, promising that she would do everything for the happiness of her friend, who “loves him so passionately”, “repents so passionately”.

Meanwhile, good news came to the Rostovs' house: a letter from his son Nikolai, who was at war. The delighted count, having entered his room, began to read the long-awaited news - and began to sob and laugh at the same time. Finally, the news that Nikolai was wounded and then promoted to officer was recognized by all the household members - and they reacted violently to it.

Nikolai Rostov was informed that his relatives had given him letters and money, and he was going to receive them at the appointed place from Boris Drubetskoy.

On November 12, the Kutuzov military army, which stood near Olmutz, was preparing for the review of two emperors - Austrian and Russian. Nikolai Rostov reacted emotionally to this event: the arrival of Emperor Alexander aroused joyful feelings in him: “He experienced “a feeling of self-forgetfulness, a proud consciousness of power and a passionate attraction to the one who was the cause of this celebration” and was ready without hesitation, if necessary, to give life for the native Fatherland, for the king.

Boris Drubetskoy decided to go to Olmutz to Andrei Bolkonsky in order to be promoted to adjutant under his patronage. It is not surprising that the young man wanted to make a career, because, unlike Nikolai Rostov, he did not have a lot of money.

The Russian army fought the enemy in the battle to occupy the city of Vishau and as a result won a brilliant victory. However, the impressionable Emperor Alexander, when he saw the wounded and killed, fell ill.

On November 17, a French officer named Savary arrived in Vishau to meet with the Russian emperor. However, the sovereign refused a personal meeting and Dolgorukov was sent to negotiate with Napoleon, who, returning, reported that the French emperor was most afraid of a general battle.

The Russian army begins to prepare for the battle of Austerlitz, however, Mikhail Kutuzov is sure that this military operation is doomed to failure in advance. But, contrary to his personal conviction, he participates in the battle and is wounded in the cheek.

Andrei Bolkonsky, fighting in battle, at some point feels that he was wounded. Here is how the author describes the emotional state of his hero during these ordeals: “There was nothing above him but the sky. Peering into it, Andrey finally realized that everything that happened earlier was empty. “How could I not have seen this lofty sky before?” he wondered.

Paradoxically, Napoleon saved Bolkonsky from death, who, passing by, stopped and at first thought that the young man was already dead. However, looking more closely, the emperor realized that life was still glimmering in him. Assessing the situation, Napoleon ordered the wounded man to be taken to the dressing station, instructing his doctor Larrey to examine him, whose conclusions were disappointing. In the end, Andrei Bolkonsky was placed in the care of the villagers.

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Lev Tolstoy
War and Peace. Volume 1

© Gulin A.V., introductory article, 2003

© Nikolaev A.V., illustrations, 2003

© Design of the series. Publishing house "Children's Literature", 2003

War and peace of Leo Tolstoy

From 1863 to 1869, not far from the ancient Tula, in the silence of the Russian province, perhaps the most unusual work in the history of Russian literature was created. Already well-known by that time, the writer, a prosperous landowner, the owner of the Yasnaya Polyana estate, Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, worked on a huge fiction book about the events of half a century ago, about the war of 1812.

Russian literature had previously known stories and novels inspired by the people's victory over Napoleon. Their authors were often participants, eyewitnesses of those events. But Tolstoy - a man of the post-war generation, the grandson of a general of the Catherine era and the son of a Russian officer at the beginning of the century - as he himself believed, wrote not a story, not a novel, not a historical chronicle. He strove to capture with a glance, as it were, the entire past era, to show it in the experiences of hundreds of actors: fictional and real. Moreover, when starting this work, he did not at all think of limiting himself to any one time period and admitted that he intended to lead many, many of his heroes through the historical events of 1805, 1807, 1812, 1825 and 1856. “I do not foresee the outcome of the relations of these persons,” he said, “in any of these eras.” The story of the past, in his opinion, should have ended in the present.

At that time, Tolstoy more than once, including himself, tried to explain the inner nature of his year-by-year growing book. He sketched out options for a preface to it, and finally, in 1868, he published an article where he answered, as it seemed to him, those questions that his almost incredible work could cause readers. And yet the spiritual core of this titanic work remained unnamed to the end. “That is why a good work of art is important,” the writer noted many years later, “that its main content in its entirety can be expressed only by it.” It seems that only once he managed to reveal the very essence of his plan. “The goal of the artist,” said Tolstoy in 1865, “is not to undeniably resolve the issue, but to make you love life in its countless, never exhausted all its manifestations. If I were told that I could write a novel by which I would undeniably establish what seems to me the right view of all social questions, I would not devote even two hours of work to such a novel, but if I were told that what I will write what today's children will read in 20 years and will cry and laugh over him and love life, I would devote my whole life and all my strength to him.

Exceptional fullness, joyful force of attitude was characteristic of Tolstoy throughout all six years when a new work was created. He loved his heroes, these “both young and old people, and men and women of that time”, loved in their family life and events of universal scope, in home silence and the thunder of battles, idleness and labor, ups and downs ... He loved the historical era , to which he dedicated his book, loved the country inherited from his ancestors, loved the Russian people. In all this, he did not get tired of seeing the earthly, as he believed - divine, reality with its eternal movement, with its appeasement and passions. One of the main characters of the work, Andrei Bolkonsky, at the moment of his mortal wound on the Borodino field, experienced a feeling of the last burning attachment to everything that surrounds a person in the world: “I can’t, I don’t want to die, I love life, I love this grass, earth, air…” These thoughts were not just an emotional outburst of a person who saw death face to face. They largely belonged not only to the hero of Tolstoy, but also to his creator. In the same way, he himself infinitely cherished at that time every moment of earthly existence. His grandiose creation of the 1860s was permeated from beginning to end with a kind of faith in life. This very concept - life - became truly religious for him, received a special meaning.

The spiritual world of the future writer took shape in the post-Decembrist era in the environment that gave Russia an overwhelming number of outstanding figures in all areas of her life. At the same time, they were passionately carried away by the philosophical teachings of the West, assimilating new, very shaky ideals under various guises. Remaining ostensibly Orthodox, representatives of the chosen class were often already very far from primordially Russian Christianity. Baptized in childhood and brought up in the Orthodox faith, Tolstoy for many years treated his father's shrines with respect. But his personal views were very different from those professed by Holy Rus' and ordinary people of his era.

Even from a young age, he believed with all his soul in some impersonal, foggy deity, goodness without boundaries, which pervades the universe. Man, by nature, seemed to him sinless and beautiful, created for joy and happiness on earth. Not the last role here was played by the writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau, his favorite French novelist and thinker of the 18th century, although they were perceived by Tolstoy on Russian soil and quite in Russian. The internal disorder of an individual, wars, disagreements in society, more - suffering as such looked from this point of view a fatal mistake, the product of the main enemy of primitive bliss - civilization.

But this, in his opinion, lost perfection Tolstoy did not consider once and for all lost. It seemed to him that it continues to be present in the world, and is very close, nearby. He probably would not have been able to clearly name his god at that time, he found it difficult to do this much later, already definitely considering himself the founder of a new religion. Meanwhile, even then, wild nature and the emotional sphere in the human soul, which is involved in the natural principle, became his real idols. A palpable heart tremor, his own pleasure or disgust seemed to him an unmistakable measure of good and evil. They, the writer believed, were echoes of a single earthly deity for all living people - a source of love and happiness. He idolized direct feeling, experience, reflex - the highest physiological manifestations of life. It was in them that, in his opinion, the only true life was contained. Everything else belonged to civilization - a different, lifeless pole of being. And he dreamed that sooner or later humanity would forget its civilized past and find boundless harmony. Perhaps then a completely different “civilization of feeling” will appear.

The era when the new book was being created was alarming. It is often said that in the 60s of the 19th century Russia faced a choice of historical path. In fact, the country made such a choice almost a millennium earlier, with the adoption of Orthodoxy. Now the question was being decided whether it would stand in this choice, whether it would be preserved as such. The abolition of serfdom and other government reforms reverberated in Russian society with real spiritual battles. The spirit of doubt and discord visited the once united people. The European principle "how many people, so many truths", penetrating everywhere, gave rise to endless disputes. A multitude of "new people" have appeared, ready, at their own whim, to rebuild the life of the country to the ground. Tolstoy's book contained a peculiar answer to such Napoleonic plans.

The Russian world during the Patriotic War with Napoleon was, according to the writer, the complete opposite of modernity, poisoned by the spirit of discord. This clear, stable world concealed in itself the strong spiritual guidelines necessary for the new Russia, largely forgotten. But Tolstoy himself was inclined to see in the national celebration of 1812 the victory of precisely the religious values ​​of "living life" dear to him. It seemed to the writer that his own ideal was the ideal of the Russian people.

He sought to cover the events of the past with an unprecedented breadth. As a rule, he also made sure that everything he said strictly to the smallest detail corresponded to the facts of real history. In the sense of documentary, factual reliability, his book noticeably pushed the previously known boundaries of literary creativity. It absorbed hundreds of non-fictional situations, real statements of historical figures and details of their behavior; many of the original documents of the era were placed in the artistic text. Tolstoy knew the works of historians well, he read notes, memoirs, diaries of people from the beginning of the 19th century.

Family traditions, childhood impressions also meant a lot to him. Once he said that he was writing "about that time, whose smell and sound are still heard and dear to us." The writer remembered how, in response to his childhood inquiries about his own grandfather, the old housekeeper Praskovya Isaevna sometimes took out fragrant smoking “out of the closet” - tar; it was probably incense. “According to her, it turned out,” he said, “that my grandfather brought this tinder from near Ochakov. He will light a piece of paper near the icons and light the tar, and it smokes with a pleasant smell. On the pages of a book about the past, a retired general, a participant in the war with Turkey in 1787-1791, the old prince Bolkonsky in many ways resembled this relative of Tolstoy - his grandfather, N. S. Volkonsky. In the same way, the old Count Rostov resembled another of the writer's grandfathers, Ilya Andreevich. Princess Marya Bolkonskaya and Nikolai Rostov, with their characters, some circumstances of life, brought to mind his parents - nee Princess M. N. Volkonskaya and N. I. Tolstoy.

Other actors, be it the modest artilleryman Captain Tushin, the diplomat Bilibin, the desperate soul of Dolokhov, or the Rostovs' relative Sonya, the little princess Liza Bolkonskaya, also had, as a rule, not one, but several real prototypes. What can we say about the hussar Vaska Denisov, so similar (the writer, it seems, did not hide this) to the famous poet and partisan Denis Davydov! Thoughts and aspirations of real people, some features of their behavior and life turns, it was not difficult to discern in the fates of Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov. But still, it turned out to be completely impossible to put an equal sign between a real person and a literary character. Tolstoy brilliantly knew how to create artistic types, characteristic of his time, environment, for Russian life as such. And each of them, to one degree or another, obeyed the author's religious ideal hidden in the very depths of the work.

A year before the start of work on the book, thirty-four years old, Tolstoy married a girl from a prosperous Moscow family, the daughter of the court physician Sofya Andreevna Bers. He was happy with his new position. In the 1860s, the Tolstoys had sons Sergei, Ilya, Lev, and a daughter Tatyana. Relations with his wife brought him previously unknown strength and fullness of feeling in its most subtle, changeable, sometimes dramatic shades. “I used to think,” Tolstoy remarked six months after the wedding, “and now, married, I am even more convinced that in life, in all human relations, the basis of everything is work - the drama of feeling, and reasoning, thought, not only does not guide feeling and deed. , but imitates feeling. In his diary dated March 3, 1863, he continued to develop these new thoughts for him: “The ideal is harmony. One art feels it. And only the present, which takes itself as a motto: there is no one to blame in the world. Who is happy is right!” His large-scale work of subsequent years became a comprehensive statement of these thoughts.

Even in his youth, Tolstoy struck many who happened to know him with a sharply hostile attitude towards any abstract concepts. The idea, not verified by feeling, incapable of plunging a person into tears and laughter, seemed to him stillborn. Judgment, free from direct experience, he called "phrase". General problems posed outside of everyday, sensually distinguishable specifics, he ironically called "questions". He liked to "catch on a phrase" in a friendly conversation or on the pages of printed publications of his famous contemporaries: Turgenev, Nekrasov. To himself in this respect, too, he was merciless.

Now, in the 1860s, when starting a new job, he was all the more careful that there were no “civilized abstractions” in his story about the past. Tolstoy therefore spoke at that time with such irritation about the writings of historians (among them, for example, the works of A. I. Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, adjutant Kutuzov in 1812 and a brilliant military writer), that they, in his opinion, distorted their own " scientific" tone, too "general" assessments of the true picture of being. He himself strove to see bygone cases and days from the side of a home-like tangible private life, it doesn’t matter - a general or a simple peasant, to show the people of 1812 in that only environment dear to him, where the “shrine of feeling” lives and manifests itself. Everything else looked far-fetched and non-existent in Tolstoy's eyes. On the basis of real events, he created, as it were, a new reality, where there was his own deity, his own universal laws. And he believed that the artistic world of his book is the most complete, finally acquired truth of Russian history. “I believe,” said the writer, completing his titanic work, “that I have discovered a new truth. In this conviction, I am confirmed by that painful and joyful perseverance and excitement, independent of me, with which I worked for seven years, step by step discovering what I consider to be the truth.

The name “War and Peace” appeared in Tolstoy in 1867. It was put on the cover of six separate books, which were published over the next two years (1868-1869). Initially, the work, according to the will of the writer, later revised by him, was divided into six volumes.

The meaning of this title is not immediately and not fully revealed to the man of our time. The new spelling, introduced by the revolutionary decree of 1918, violated a lot in the spiritual nature of Russian writing, making it difficult to understand. Before the revolution in Russia there were two words "peace", although related, but still different in meaning. One of them - "Mip"- corresponded to material, objective concepts, meant certain phenomena: the Universe, the Galaxy, the Earth, the globe, the whole world, society, community. Other - "Mir"- covered moral concepts: the absence of war, harmony, harmony, friendship, kindness, calmness, silence. Tolstoy used this second word in the title.

The Orthodox tradition has long seen in the concepts of peace and war a reflection of eternally irreconcilable spiritual principles: God - the source of life, creation, love, truth, and His hater, the fallen angel Satan - the source of death, destruction, hatred, lies. However, war for the glory of God, to protect oneself and one's neighbors from God-fighting aggression, no matter what form this aggression takes, has always been understood as a righteous war. The words on the cover of Tolstoy's work could also be read as "consent and enmity", "unity and disunity", "harmony and discord", in the end - "God and human enemy - the devil." They apparently reflected the predetermined in its outcome (Satan is only allowed to act in the world for the time being) the great universal struggle. But Tolstoy still had his own deity and his own hostile force.

The words in the title of the book reflected precisely the earthly faith of its creator. "Mir" And "Mip" for him, in fact, were one and the same. The great poet of earthly happiness, Tolstoy wrote about life, as if it had never known the fall, a life that itself, in his opinion, was fraught with the resolution of all contradictions, gave a person eternal undoubted good. “Wonderful are your works, Lord!” generations of Christians have said for centuries. And prayerfully repeated: “Lord, have mercy!” “Long live the whole world! (Die ganze Welt hoch!) ”- Nikolai Rostov exclaimed after the enthusiastic Austrian in the novel. It was difficult to express more precisely the innermost thought of the writer: "There is no one to blame in the world." Man and the earth, he believed, are by nature perfect and sinless.

Under the angle of such concepts, the second word, “war”, also received a different meaning. It began to sound like a "misunderstanding", "mistake", "absurdity". The book about the most general ways of the universe seems to have reflected in its entirety the spiritual laws of true existence. And yet it was a problem, largely generated by the great creator's own faith. The words on the cover of the work in the most general terms meant: "civilization and natural life." Such a belief could only inspire a very complex artistic whole. Difficult was his attitude to reality. His secret philosophy concealed great internal contradictions. But, as often happens in art, these complexities and paradoxes became the key to creative discoveries of the highest standard, formed the basis of unparalleled realism in everything that concerned the emotionally and psychologically distinguishable aspects of Russian life.

* * *

There is hardly another work in world literature that so widely embraces all the circumstances of man's earthly existence. At the same time, Tolstoy always knew how not only to show changeable life situations, but also to imagine in these situations to the last degree truthfully the “work” of feeling and reason in people of all ages, nationalities, ranks and positions, always unique in their nervous structure. Not only waking experiences, but the shaky realm of dreams, daydreams, semi-forgetfulness was depicted in War and Peace with consummate art. This gigantic "cast of being" was distinguished by some exceptional, hitherto unseen verisimilitude. Whatever the writer was talking about, everything seemed to be alive. And one of the main reasons for this authenticity, this gift of “clairvoyance of the flesh,” as the philosopher and writer D. S. Merezhkovsky once put it, consisted in the invariable poetic unity on the pages of “War and Peace” of inner and outer life.

The mental world of Tolstoy's heroes, as a rule, was set in motion under the influence of external impressions, even stimuli that gave rise to the most intense activity of feeling and the thought that followed it. The sky of Austerlitz, seen by the wounded Bolkonsky, the sounds and colors of the Borodino field, which so struck Pierre Bezukhov at the beginning of the battle, the hole on the chin of the French officer captured by Nikolai Rostov - large and small, even the smallest details seemed to tip over into the soul of one or another character, became "acting" facts of his innermost life. In "War and Peace" there were almost no objective pictures of nature shown from the outside. She, too, looked like an "accomplice" in the experiences of the characters in the book.

In the same way, the inner life of any of the characters, through unmistakably found features, echoed in the outer, as if returning to the world. And then the reader (usually from the point of view of another hero) followed the changes in the face of Natasha Rostova, distinguished the shades of Prince Andrei's voice, saw - and this seems to be the most striking example - the eyes of Princess Marya Bolkonskaya during her farewell to her brother, who was leaving for the war , her meetings with Nikolai Rostov. Thus, as if illuminated from within, eternally permeated with feeling, a picture of the Universe based only on feeling arose. This the unity of the emotional world, reflected and perceived, Tolstoy looked like the inexhaustible light of an earthly deity - the source of life and morality in War and Peace.

The writer believed that the ability of one person to "be infected" by the feelings of another, his ability to listen to the voice of nature are direct echoes of all-pervading love and kindness. With his art, he also wanted to "wake up" the emotional, as he believed, divine, receptivity of the reader. Creativity was for him a truly religious occupation.

Approving the "sanctity of feelings" with almost every description of "War and Peace", Tolstoy could not ignore the most difficult, painful theme of his whole life - the theme of death. Neither in Russian nor in world literature, perhaps, there is an artist who would think so constantly, persistently about the earthly end of everything that exists, peer so intensely into death and show it in different guises. Not only the experience of early loss of relatives and friends forced him again and again to try to lift the veil over the most significant moment in the fate of all living things. And not only a passionate interest in living matter in all its manifestations without exception, including its deathbed manifestations. If the basis of life is feeling, then what happens to a person at the hour when his sensory faculties die along with the body?

The horror of death, which Tolstoy, both before and after "War and Peace", undoubtedly had to experience with extraordinary, overwhelming force, was obviously rooted precisely in his earthly religion. It was not the fear inherent in every Christian for the future fate in the afterlife. It cannot be explained by such an understandable fear of dying suffering, sadness from the inevitable parting with the world, with dear and loved ones, with short joys released to man on earth. Here we inevitably have to remember Tolstoy, the ruler of the world, the creator of the “new reality”, for whom his own death in the end should have meant nothing less than the collapse of the whole world.

The religion of feeling in its origins did not know "the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come." The expectation of personal existence beyond the grave, from the point of view of Tolstoy's pantheism (this word has long been used to refer to any deification of earthly, sensual being), should have seemed inappropriate. So he thought then, and so he thought later in his life. It remained to believe that feeling, dying in one person, does not disappear completely, but merges with its absolute beginning, finds continuation in the feelings of those who remained alive, in all nature.

Pictures of death in "War and Peace" belonged to a large place. The old Count Bezukhov was dying, the little princess Lisa was dying, further along the story - the elder Bolkonsky, Prince Andrei was dying from a Borodino wound, Petya Rostov was dying in battle, Platon Karataev was dying. Each of these deaths was depicted in unusual harmony with the character of the dying person, with Tolstoy alone's ability to shock the reader's imagination with the simplest external signs of death in their great, mysterious sense.

Meanwhile, death on the pages of the great book was invariably associated with pictures of an eternally living life. The description of the events around the dying Count Bezukhov ran parallel to the story of the celebration of the name day of Natasha Rostova and her mother, the tragic death of the little princess, the wife of Andrei Bolkonsky, directly side by side with poetic scenes full of joyful excitement in the Rostovs' house. The departure of one hero seemed to be replaced by the life of others. His death became a fact of their future existence. Princess Mary, having lost her father, without whom, it seemed, her life should have ended, feeling guilty, she suddenly realized that a new, previously unknown, disturbing and exciting world was opening up ahead. But most strikingly, this unity of life and death declared itself in the description of the death during childbirth of the little princess Lisa and the birth of Nikolenka Bolkonsky. The cry of death and the cry of new life merged, separated by only an instant. The death of a mother and the birth of a baby formed an inextricable thread of "divine" being.

The concept of happiness, which was at the origins of War and Peace, would be wrong to reduce to worldly well-being. For the creator of the book, for all its truly living characters, happiness meant full contact with the mysterious beginning of the Universe. The unconstrained life of feeling led the heroes to him. And it was also revealed as an eternal "core of life" to the dying person through the last fading of emotions. Happiness, as Tolstoy's heroes experienced it, meant "recognition" in oneself - through misfortune, grief, and maybe joy, intoxication with life - particles of a common moral principle for everyone who inhabited the space of a huge book, dear to Tolstoy.

An invisible, hidden connection connected the characters of the work, those of them who retained the ability to participate in life in accordance with nature. The rich world of feeling, it seemed to Tolstoy, contained an indestructible, ever-living "instinct of love." In "War and Peace" he found a diverse, but almost always physically tangible manifestation. Tears and laughter, restrained or bursting sobs, a smile of happiness, an instant expression of a joyfully lit face were depicted in a thousand shades by Tolstoy. The moments of the “calling of souls”, shown in such dazzlingly bright or barely perceptible “natural impulses”, in fact, constituted the very core of the work. Always in a unique, unique way, they reflected the dream that never left the writer about some natural law of the universal brotherhood of people. The sentimental Austrian and Nikolai Rostov did not just glorify the world in different voices. “Both these people,” Tolstoy says, “looked at each other with happy delight and brotherly love, shook their heads as a sign of mutual love, and, smiling, dispersed ...”

Meanwhile, there was an area of ​​life that looked, from the point of view of the writer, the most constant, stable center of unity. His statement is widely known: “In Anna Karenina, I love the thought family, in "War and Peace" loved the thought folk, as a result of the war of the 12th year ... ”Written down in March 1877 by his wife Sofya Andreevna (who singled out the key words in it), it began to be perceived as a complete formula. Nevertheless, Tolstoy's "thought of the people" could not, even to a small extent, develop outside of the "thought of the family," which is just as essential for "War and Peace" as for the later, perhaps the most perfect, work of the writer. Only on the pages of these two works did it develop differently.

Pictures of family life constituted the strongest, eternally unfading side of War and Peace. The Rostov family and the Bolkonsky family, new families that arose as a result of the long journey traveled by the heroes - Pierre Bezukhov and Natasha, Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya - captured the truth of the Russian way of life as fully as it was possible within the limits of Tolstoy's philosophy.

The family appeared here both as a connecting link in the fate of generations, and as the environment where a person receives the first “experiences of love”, discovers elementary moral truths, learns to reconcile his own will with the desires of other people; whence it emerges into an incomparably larger common life, and where it returns to find peace and harmony. In the family, not only the current, momentary, reality was revealed to the heroes, but their ancestral memory came to life. The stunning hunting scenes of the Rostovs looked like an “echo” of an ancient hunting ritual that has not died since the days of distant ancestors.

Family descriptions have always had a deeply Russian character in War and Peace. Whatever of the truly living families fell into Tolstoy's field of vision, it was a family where moral values ​​meant much more than earthly temporary success, an open family, connected with the world by hundreds of threads, ready to "take" into the number of home, "their own", not one blood relatives, but the entire "population" of the noble house, to respond with love to everyone who, with a pure heart, came into contact with her. No family selfishness, turning the house into an impregnable fortress in the European manner, no indifference to the fate of those who are behind its walls.

This, of course, is primarily about the Rostov family. But the Bolkonsky family, which is completely different, at times it seems - a “heavy” and closed family, also included, only in its own way, “in the Bolkonsky way”, a variety of people: from the architect Mikhail Ivanovich to the teacher of little Nikolushka, the Frenchman Desal, and even (what can you do with it?) the "quick" m-lle Bourienne. The Russian latitude and openness of the Bolkonskys, of course, was not for everyone without exception. But, say, Pierre Bezukhov recognized her completely during his stay in the house. “It was only now that Pierre, on his visit to the Bald Mountains,” said Tolstoy, “appreciated all the strength and charm of his friendship with Prince Andrei. This charm was expressed not so much in his relations with himself, but in relations with all relatives and household. Pierre, with the old, stern prince and with the meek and timid Princess Mary, despite the fact that he hardly knew them, immediately felt like an old friend. They all already loved him. Not only Princess Mary ‹…› looked at him with the most radiant eyes; but the little, one-year-old Prince Nikolai, as his grandfather called him, smiled at Pierre and went into his arms. Mikhail Ivanovich, m-lle Bourienne looked at him with joyful smiles when he talked with the old prince.

And yet this great truth of human relations must be distinguished from that philosophical "family thought" that Tolstoy himself had in mind when he started writing his book. Family happiness was for him a comprehensive phenomenon of natural, "natural" love. In the description of the reception given by the Bolkonskys to Pierre, who was barely familiar with them, the most important, “key” ones, it was not by chance that the simple words turned out to be: “They all already loved him.”

Earthly life appears in the family, it flows in the family, and in the family, in the hands of relatives and friends (as it should be!), it ends. In the family, she receives generic unique features, always brilliantly "captured" in "War and Peace". This, Tolstoy believed, is morality in the flesh, which expresses itself in tears and laughter, in thousands of other signs. The spiritual tradition, assimilated with mother's milk, transmitted by upbringing, strengthened by civic principles, was of little importance for Tolstoy. The family seemed to him a kind of "crossroads" of living emotions. In it, he believed, responsiveness, not overshadowed by reason, always abides, which, without any “general” truths, will itself tell a person what is good in the world and what is bad, merge relatives and even strangers into one loving whole. Such concepts of the creator of the great book were most fully reflected in the most important image of Natasha Rostova in War and Peace.

For all its specificity, development as we move towards the epilogue, this image is primarily ideal. In relation to Natasha as a kind of center of the work, the hidden essence of all the main characters was revealed. In contact with her fate, Pierre Bezukhov, Andrei Bolkonsky found a foothold independent of their “reasoning”. To a certain extent, Natasha in War and Peace served as a measure of the authenticity of everything and everyone.

Outlining the preliminary characteristics of the future heroes of the book, Tolstoy wrote: "Natalia. 15 years. Generous insanely. Believes in himself. Capricious, and everything works out, and bothers everyone, and is loved by everyone. Ambitious. Music possesses, understands and feels to madness. Suddenly sad, suddenly insanely happy. Dolls.

Even then, in the character of Natasha, one could easily guess the very quality that, according to Tolstoy's philosophy, met the requirement of true being to the greatest extent - complete ease. Starting from the first appearance of the little heroine in front of the guests of the Rostovs' house, she was all movement, impulse, the incessant beating of life. This eternal restlessness only manifested itself in different ways. Tolstoy saw here not just the childish mobility of Natasha the teenager, the enthusiasm and willingness to fall in love with the whole world of Natasha the girl, the fear and impatience of Natasha the bride, the anxious chores of the mother and wife, but the endless plasticity of feeling, manifested in its purest, unclouded form. The exceptional gift of direct feeling determined, according to the internal laws of the work, Natasha's moral perfection. Her experiences, moreover, any external echo of these experiences looked in War and Peace as natural morality itself, freed from all artificiality and falsehood in Tolstoy's understanding of them.