War and peace is a popular thought. The idea of ​​"folk

The novel by L. N. Tolstoy was created in the 1860s. This time became in Russia the period of the highest activity of the peasant masses, the rise of the social movement.
The central theme of the literature of the 60s of the XIX century was the theme of the people. To consider it, as well as to highlight many major problems of our time, the writer turned to the historical past: the events of 1805-1807 and the war of 1812.
Researchers of Tolstoy's work disagree on what he meant by the word "people": peasants, the nation as a whole, merchants, bourgeoisie, patriotic patriarchal nobility. Of course, all these layers are included in Tolstoy's understanding of the word "people", but only when they are the bearers of morality. Everything that is immoral is excluded by Tolstoy from the concept of “people”.
With his work, the writer asserted the decisive role of the masses in history. In his opinion, the role of an outstanding personality in the development of society is negligible. No matter how brilliant a person is, he cannot direct the movement of history at will, dictate his will to it, control the actions of a huge mass of people living a spontaneous, swarming life. History is created by people, the masses, the people, and not by a person who rises above the people and takes upon himself the right to foresee the course of events at his own will.
Tolstoy divides life into an ascending current and a descending one, centrifugal and centripetal. Kutuzov, to whom the natural course of world events is open within his national-historical limits, is the embodiment of the centripetal, ascending forces of history. The writer emphasizes the moral height of Kutuzov, since this hero is connected with the mass of ordinary people by joint goals and actions, love for the motherland. He receives his strength from the people, experiences the same feelings as the people.
The writer also focuses on the merits of Kutuzov as a commander, whose activities were invariably directed towards one goal that had national significance: “It is difficult to imagine a goal more worthy and more in line with the will of the whole people.” Tolstoy emphasizes the purposefulness of all the actions of Kutuzov, the concentration of all forces on the task that has confronted the entire Russian people in the course of history. The spokesman for the people's patriotic feelings, Kutuzov also becomes the guiding force of popular resistance, raising the spirit of the troops he commands.
Tolstoy portrays Kutuzov as a folk hero who achieved independence and freedom only in alliance with the people and the nation as a whole. In the novel, the personality of the great commander is opposed to the personality of the great conqueror Napoleon. The writer exposes the ideal of unlimited freedom, which leads to the cult of a strong and proud personality.
So, the author sees the significance of a great personality in the feeling of the ongoing history as the will of providence. Great people like Kutuzov, who have a moral sense, their experience, mind and consciousness, guess the requirements of historical necessity.
The “thought of the people” is also expressed in the images of many representatives of the noble class. The path of ideological and moral growth leads positive heroes to rapprochement with the people. Heroes are tested by the Patriotic War. The independence of private life from the political game of the tops emphasizes the inextricable connection of the heroes with the life of the people. The viability of each of the characters is tested by the "people's thought".
She helps Pierre Bezukhov discover and show his best qualities; Andrey Bolkonsky is called “our prince” by the soldiers; Natasha Rostova takes out carts for the wounded; Marya Bolkonskaya rejects Mademoiselle Bourienne's offer to remain in Napoleon's power.
The closeness to the people is most clearly manifested in the image of Natasha, in which the Russian national character was originally laid down. In the scene after the hunt, Natasha listens with pleasure to the game and singing of her uncle, who “sang like the people sing”, and then she dances “Lady”. And everyone around her is amazed at her ability to understand everything that was in every Russian person: “Where, how, when she sucked into herself from this Russian air that she breathed, this Countess, brought up by a French emigrant, this spirit?”
If Natasha is completely characteristic of the features of the Russian character, then in Prince Andrei the Russian beginning is interrupted by the Napoleonic idea; however, it is precisely the features of the Russian character that help him understand all the deceit and hypocrisy of Napoleon, his idol.
Pierre enters the peasant world, and the life of the villagers leads him to serious thoughts.
The hero is aware of his equality with the people, even recognizes the superiority of these people. The more he knows the essence and strength of the people, the more he admires them. The strength of a people lies in its simplicity and naturalness.
According to Tolstoy, patriotism is a property of the soul of any Russian person, and in this respect the difference between Andrei Bolkonsky and any soldier of his regiment is insignificant. War forces everyone to act and act in a way that is impossible not to act. People act not on orders, but in obedience to an inner feeling, a sense of the significance of the moment. Tolstoy writes that they united in their aspirations and actions when they sensed the danger hanging over the whole of society.
The novel shows the grandeur and simplicity of swarm life, when everyone does their part of the common cause, and a person is driven not by instinct, but by the laws of social life, as Tolstoy understands them. And such a swarm, or world, does not consist of an impersonal mass, but of individuals who do not lose their individuality in merging with the swarm. This is the merchant Ferapontov, who burns his house so that the enemy does not get it, and the Moscow residents who leave the capital simply from the consideration that it is impossible to live in it under Bonaparte, even if no danger threatens. The peasants Karp and Vlas, who do not give hay to the French, and that Moscow lady who left Moscow with her black-tailed dogs and pugs back in June because of the consideration that “she is not Bonaparte’s servant” become participants in the swarm life. All these people are active participants in the folk, swarm life.
Thus, the people for Tolstoy is a complex phenomenon. The writer did not consider the common people an easily controlled mass, since he understood them much deeper. In the work, where the “folk thought” is in the foreground, a variety of manifestations of the national character are depicted.
Close to the people is Captain Tushin, whose image combines “small and great”, “modest and heroic”.
The theme of the people's war sounds in the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty. This hero is certainly useful in guerrilla warfare; cruel and ruthless to enemies, this character is natural, but Tolstoy has little sympathy. The image of this character is ambiguous, as is the image of Platon Karataev.
When meeting and getting to know Platon Karataev, Pierre is struck by the warmth, good nature, comfort, calmness emanating from this person. It is perceived almost symbolically, as something round, warm and smelling of bread. Karataev is characterized by amazing adaptability to circumstances, the ability to “settle down” in any circumstances.
The behavior of Platon Karataev unconsciously expresses the true wisdom of the folk, peasant philosophy of life, over the comprehension of which the main characters of the epic are tormented. This hero sets out his reasoning in a parable-like form. This, for example, is a legend about an innocently convicted merchant suffering “for his own and for human sins”, the meaning of which is that one must humble oneself and love life, even when one suffers.
And yet, unlike Tikhon Shcherbaty, Karataev is hardly capable of decisive action; its goodness leads to passivity. He is opposed in the novel by Bogucharov's peasants, who rose to rebellion and spoke out for their interests.
Along with the truth of nationality, Tolstoy also shows pseudo-nationality, a fake for it. This is reflected in the images of Rostopchin and Speransky - specific historical figures who, although they try to assume the right to speak on behalf of the people, have nothing in common with them.
In the work, the artistic narrative itself is interrupted at times by historical and philosophical digressions, which are close in style to journalism. The pathos of Tolstoy's philosophical digressions is directed against liberal-bourgeois military historians and writers. According to the writer, "the world denies war." So, on the reception of the antithesis, a description of the dam is built, which the Russian soldiers see during the retreat after Austerlitz - ruined and ugly. In peacetime, however, she was buried in greenery, was neat and rebuilt.
Thus, in Tolstoy's work, the question of man's moral responsibility before history is particularly acute.
So, in Tolstoy's novel “War and Peace”, people from the people come closest to spiritual unity, since it is the people, according to the writer, who are the bearers of spiritual values. The heroes, embodying the “people's thought”, are in constant search for the truth, and therefore, in development. In spiritual unity, the writer sees a way to overcome the contradictions of contemporary life. The war of 1812 was a real historical event, where the idea of ​​spiritual unity came true.

The novel "War and Peace" was conceived as a novel about a Decembrist returning from an amnesty in 1856. But the more Tolstoy worked with archival materials, the more he understood that without telling about the uprising itself, and, more deeply, about the war of 1812, this novel cannot be written. Thus, the idea of ​​the novel was gradually transformed, and Tolstoy created a grandiose epic. In the center of the novel L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is an image of the Patriotic War of 1812, which stirred up the entire Russian people, showed the whole world its power and strength, put forward simple Russian heroes and the great commander - Kutuzov. At the same time, great historical upheavals revealed the true essence of each individual person, showed his attitude towards the Fatherland. Tolstoy portrays the war as a realist writer: in hard work, blood, suffering, death. Also, L. N. Tolstoy sought in his work to reveal the national significance of the war, which united the whole society, all Russian people in a common impulse, to show that the fate of the campaign was decided not in headquarters and headquarters, but in the hearts of ordinary people: Platon Karataev and Tikhon Shcherbaty, Petya Rostov and Denisov... Can you name them all? In other words, the author-battle painter draws a large-scale image of the Russian people, who raised the "club" of the liberation war against the invaders. Later, speaking about the novel, Tolstoy wrote that the main idea of ​​the novel is "the thought of the people". It lies not only in the depiction of the people themselves, their way of life, but in the fact that every positive hero of the novel ultimately connects his fate with the fate of the people. Here it makes sense to recall the historical concept of the writer. On the pages of the novel, and especially in the second part of the epilogue, Tolstoy says that until now the whole history has been written as the history of individuals, as a rule, tyrants, monarchs, and no one has yet thought about what is the driving force of history. According to Tolstoy, this is the so-called "swarm principle", the spirit and will of not one person, but the people as a whole. And how strong the spirit and will of the people is, how likely these or those historical events are. So Tolstoy explains the victory in the Patriotic War by the fact that two wills clashed: the will of the French soldiers and the will of the entire Russian people. This war was fair for the Russians, they fought for their homeland, so their spirit and will to win turned out to be stronger than the French spirit and will. Therefore, the victory of Russia over France was predetermined. The war of 1812 became a milestone, a test of all the positive characters in the novel: for Prince Andrei, who feels an unusual upsurge before the Battle of Borodino, faith in victory for Pierre Bezukhov, whose all thoughts are aimed at helping exile invaders, he even develops a plan to kill Napoleon, for Natasha, who gave the carts to the wounded, because it was impossible not to give them away, it was shameful and disgusting not to give them up, for Petya Rostov, who takes part in the hostilities of a partisan detachment and dies in a fight with the enemy, for Denisov and Dolokhov. All these people, having discarded everything personal, become a single whole, participate in the formation of the will to win. This will to win is especially evident in mass scenes: in the scene of the surrender of Smolensk, let us recall the merchant Ferapontov, who, succumbing to some unknown, inner strength, orders all his goods to be distributed to the soldiers, and what cannot be endured - set on fire, in the scene of preparation for Borodino the battle, the soldiers put on white shirts, as if preparing for the last battle, in the scene of the battle between the partisans and the French. In general, the theme of guerrilla warfare occupies a special place in the novel. Tolstoy
emphasizes that the war of 1812 was a people's war, because the people themselves rose to fight against the invaders.
The detachments of the elder Vasilisa Kozhina and Denis Davydov were already active, and the heroes of the novel, Vasily Denisov and Dolokhov, are creating their own detachments. The theme of the people's war finds its vivid expression in the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty. The image of this hero is ambiguous; in the Denisov detachment, he performs the most "dirty" and dangerous work. He is merciless to his enemies, but it was largely thanks to such people that Russia won the war against Napoleon. The image of Platon Karataev is also ambiguous, in conditions of captivity he again turned to his origins. Watching him, Pierre Bezukhov understands that the living life of the world is beyond all speculation and that happiness is in himself. However, unlike Tikhon Shcherbaty, Karataev is hardly capable of decisive action, his good looks lead to passivity.
Showing the heroism of the Russian people, Tolstoy in many chapters of the novel speaks of the plight of the peasants, oppressed by serfdom. The progressive people of their time, Prince Bolkonsky and Count Bezukhov, are trying to alleviate the peasant lot. In conclusion, we can say that L.N. Tolstoy in his work, tries
to prove to the reader the idea that the people played and will play a decisive role in the life of the state. And that it was the Russian people who were able to defeat Napoleon's army, which was considered invincible

Before you is a magnificent essay on Russian literature on the topic “THOUGHT OF THE PEOPLE” in the novel by L. N. Tolstoy “WAR AND PEACE”. The essay is designed for students in grade 10, but it can also be used by students of other classes in preparation for the lessons of the Russian language and literature.

"THE PEOPLE'S THOUGHT" in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "WAR AND PEACE"

Tolstoy is one of the greatest Russian writers. He lived during peasant unrest, and therefore he was captured by all the most important questions of the era: about the development of Russia, about the fate of the people and their role in history, about the relationship between the people and the nobility. Tolstoy decided to look for answers to all these questions in the study of the events of the early 19th century.

According to Tolstoy, the main reason for the Russian victory in 1812 was this " folk thought ”, this is the unity of the people in the struggle against the conqueror, his huge unshakable strength that has risen, dormant for a time in the souls of people, which, with its bulk, overturned the enemy and forced him to flee. The reason for the victory was also in the justice of the war against the conquerors, in the readiness of every Russian to stand up for the defense of the Motherland, in the people's love for their fatherland. Historical figures and inconspicuous participants in the war, the best people of Russia and money-grubbers, careerists pass through the pages of the novel " War and Peace". It has more than five hundred actors. Tolstoy created many unique characters and showed us a lot of people. But these hundred people Tolstoy does not imagine as a faceless mass. All this huge material is connected by a single thought, which Tolstoy defined as “ folk thought «.

The Rostov and Bolkonsky families differ from each other in their class position and in the atmosphere that reigned in their homes. But these families are united by a common love for Russia. Let us recall the death of the old Prince Bolkonsky. His last words were about Russia: Russia is dead! Ruined!". He worried about the fate of Russia and the fate of all Russian people. All his life he served only Russia, and when his death came, all his thoughts, of course, were turned to the Motherland.

Consider Petya's patriotism. Petya went to war very young and did not spare his life for the fatherland. Let's remember Natasha, who is ready to give up all valuables only because she wants to help the wounded. In the same scene, Natasha's aspirations are contrasted with those of the careerist Berg. Only the best people of Russia could perform feats during the war. Neither Helen, nor Anna Pavlovna Sherer, nor Boris, nor Berg could perform feats. These people were not patriotic. All their motives were selfish. During the war, following the fashion, they stopped speaking French. But does this prove their love for Russia?

The Battle of Borodino is the culminating moment in Tolstoy's work. Tolstoy confronts almost all the heroes of the novel at the Battle of Borodino. Even if the characters are not on the Borodino field, their fates completely depend on the course of the war of 1812. The battle is shown through the eyes of a non-military man - Pierre. Bezukhov considers it his duty to be on the battlefield. Through his eyes we see the rallying of the troops. He is convinced of the correctness of the words of the old soldier: “ All the people want to pile on ". Unlike the battle of Austerlitz, the participants in the battle of Borodino understood the goals of the war of 1812. The writer believes that the coincidence of millions of reasons helps to win. Thanks to the desires of ordinary soldiers, commanders, militias and all other participants in the battle, the moral victory of the Russian people became possible.

Tolstoy's favorite heroes - Pierre and Andrei - are also participants in the Battle of Borodino. Bezukhov deeply feels the popular character of the war of 1812. The patriotism of the hero is cast in very concrete deeds: equipping the regiment, monetary donations. The turning point in Pierre's life is his stay in captivity and acquaintance with Platon Karataev. Communication with an old soldier leads Pierre to " agree with oneself “, simplicity and integrity.

The war of 1812 is the most important milestone in the life of Andrei Bolkonsky. Andrei abandons his military career and becomes the commander of a jaeger regiment. Deeply understands Andrei Kutuzov, a commander who sought to avoid unnecessary sacrifices. During the Battle of Borodino, Prince Andrei takes care of his soldiers and tries to get them out of the shelling. Andrey's dying thoughts are imbued with a sense of humility:

“Love your neighbors, love your enemies. Love everything, love God in all manifestations.

As a result of the search for the meaning of life, Andrei was able to overcome his selfishness and vanity. Spiritual searches lead the hero to moral enlightenment, to natural simplicity, to the ability to love and forgive.

Leo Tolstoy draws the heroes of the partisan war with love and respect. And Tolstoy showed one of them in a closer view. This man is Tikhon Shcherbaty, a typical Russian peasant, as a symbol of the avenging people fighting for their homeland. He was " the most helpful and brave man "in the detachment of Denisov," his weapons were a blunderbuss, a pike and an ax, which he owned as a wolf owns teeth ". In the joy of Denisov, Tikhon occupied an exceptional place, " when it was necessary to do something especially difficult and impossible - to turn a wagon out of the mud with a shoulder, to pull a horse out of the swamp by the tail, saddle it and climb into the very middle of the French, walk fifty miles a day - everyone pointed, chuckling, at Tikhon ". Tikhon feels a strong hatred for the French, so strong that he can be very cruel. But we understand his feelings and sympathize with this hero. He is always busy, always in action, his speech is unusually fast, even his comrades speak of him with affectionate irony: “ Well, slick », « eka beast ". The image of Tikhon Shcherbaty is close to Tolstoy, who loves this hero, loves all the people, highly appreciates "people's thought" . In the novel "War and Peace" Tolstoy showed us the Russian people in all its strength and beauty.

Tolstoy managed to reflect all aspects of the life of Russia in the 19th century in his epic War and Peace. The thought of the people in the novel is illuminated especially brightly. The image of the people in general is one of the main and meaningful. Moreover, it is the national character that is the subject of the depiction in the novel. And it can be understood only from the description of the everyday life of the people, their view of humanity and the world, moral assessments, delusions and prejudices.

image of the people

Tolstoy included in the concept of "people" not only soldiers and peasants, but also the nobility, which had a similar view of spiritual values ​​and the world. It is this idea that the author put at the basis of the epic "War and Peace". The idea of ​​the people in the novel is therefore embodied through all people united by language, history, culture and territory.

From this point of view, Tolstoy is an innovator, since before him in Russian literature there was always a clear line between the peasant class and the nobility. In order to illustrate his idea, the writer turned to very harsh times for all of Russia - the Patriotic War of 1812.

The only confrontation is the struggle of the best people of the nobility, united with people from the people, with military and bureaucratic circles, who are unable to perform feats or make sacrifices for the sake of defending the Fatherland.

Depiction of the life of ordinary soldiers

Pictures of the life of peoples in peacetime and wartime are widely represented in Tolstoy's epic "War and Peace". The idea of ​​the people in the novel, however, manifested itself most clearly during the Patriotic War, when all the inhabitants of Russia were required to demonstrate steadfastness, generosity and patriotism.

Despite this, descriptions of folk scenes appear already in the first two volumes of the novel. This is an image of Russian soldiers when they participated in foreign campaigns, fulfilling their duty to the allies. For ordinary soldiers who came out of the people, such campaigns are incomprehensible - why defend a land that is not their own?

Terrible pictures are painted by Tolstoy. The army is starving because the allies it supports are not supplying provisions. Unable to watch how the soldiers suffer, officer Denisov decides to recapture food from a foreign regiment, which has a detrimental effect on his career. In this act, the spiritual qualities of a Russian person are manifested.

"War and Peace": folk thought in the novel

As noted above, the fates of Tolstoy's heroes from among the best nobles are always connected with the life of the people. Therefore, the “folk thought” runs like a red thread through the entire work. So, Pierre Bezukhov, having been captured, learns the truth of life, which is revealed to him by an ordinary peasant peasant. And it lies in the fact that a person is unhappy only when there is a surplus in his life. Little is needed to be happy.

On the Field of Austerlitz, Andrei Bolkonsky feels his connection with the people. He grabs the staff of the banner, not hoping that they will follow him. But the soldiers, seeing the standard-bearer, rush into battle. The unity of ordinary soldiers and officers gives the army unprecedented strength.

The house in the novel "War and Peace" is of great importance. But we are not talking about decoration and furniture. The image of the house embodies family values. Moreover, the whole of Russia is home, all the people are one big family. That is why Natasha Rostova dumps her property from the cart and gives it to the wounded.

It is in this unity that Tolstoy sees the true strength of the people. The force that was able to win the war of 1812.

Images of people from the people

Even on the first pages of the novel, the writer creates images of individual soldiers. This is Denisov's batman Lavrushka with his roguish disposition, and the merry fellow Sidorov, hilariously mimicking the French, and Lazarev, who received an order from Napoleon himself.

However, the house in the novel "War and Peace" occupies a key place, so most of the heroes from among the common people can be found in descriptions of peacetime. Here another serious problem of the 19th century arises - the hardships of serfdom. Tolstoy depicts how the old Prince Bolkonsky, having decided to punish the barman Philip, who had forgotten the owner’s order, gave him to the soldiers. And Pierre's attempt to make life easier for his serfs ended in nothing, as the manager deceived the count.

People's Labor

Many problems characteristic of Tolstoy's work are raised by the epic "War and Peace". The theme of labor as one of the main ones for the writer was no exception. Labor is inextricably linked with the life of the people. Moreover, Tolstoy uses it to characterize the characters, as he attaches great importance to this. Idleness in the understanding of the writer speaks of a morally weak, insignificant and unworthy person.

But work is not just a duty, it is a pleasure. So, the arriving Danila, participating in the hunt, devotes himself to this matter to the end, he shows himself to be a real connoisseur and, in a fit of excitement, even shouts at Count Rostov.

The old valet Tikhon has grown so accustomed to his position that he understands his master without words. And the yard Anisya is praised by Tolstoy for housekeeping, playfulness and good nature. For her, the home of the owners is not a foreign and hostile place, but a native and close one. A woman loves her work.

Russian people and war

However, the quiet life ended, and the war began. All the images in the novel "War and Peace" are also transformed. All heroes, both low and high class, are united by a single feeling of "inner warmth of patriotism." This feeling becomes a national feature of the Russian people. It made him capable of self-sacrifice. The same self-sacrifice that decided the outcome of the war and so struck the French soldiers.

Another difference between the Russian troops and the French is that they do not play war. For the Russian people, this is a great tragedy, in which there can be nothing good. Unknown to Russian soldiers is the enjoyment of battle or the joy of the coming war. But at the same time, everyone is ready to give their life. There is no cowardice here, the soldiers are ready to die, because their duty is to protect their homeland. Only the one who will "pity himself less" can win - this is how Andrei Bolkonsky expressed the popular thought.

Peasant moods in the epic

The theme of the people sounds piercingly and vividly in the novel "War and Peace". At the same time, Tolstoy does not try to idealize the people. The writer depicts scenes that testify to the spontaneity and inconsistency of peasant sentiments. A good example of this is the Bogucharov rebellion, when the peasants, after reading French leaflets, refused to let Princess Marya leave the estate. The peasants are capable of the same self-interest as the nobles like or Berg, who are eager to get ranks thanks to the war. The French promised money, and now they have already obeyed them. However, when Nikolai Rostov ordered to stop the atrocities and tie up the instigators, the peasants dutifully carried out his order.

On the other hand, when the French began to advance, the people left their homes, destroying their acquired property so that it would not go to the enemies.

strength of the people

Nevertheless, the epic "War and Peace" revealed the best folk qualities. The essence of the work is precisely to depict the true strength of the Russian people.

In the fight against the French, the Russians, in spite of everything, were able to maintain high moral qualities. Tolstoy saw the greatness of a nation not in the fact that it can subjugate neighboring peoples with the help of weapons, but in the fact that, even in the most cruel times, it can preserve justice, humanity and a merciful attitude towards the enemy. An example of this is the episode of the rescue of the French captain Rambal.

and Platon Karataev

If you analyze the novel "War and Peace" chapter by chapter, then these two heroes will definitely attract attention. Tolstoy, including them in the narrative, wanted to show the interconnected and at the same time opposite sides of the national Russian character. Let's compare these characters:

Platon Karataev is a complacent and dreamy soldier who is used to meekly obeying fate.

Tikhon Shcherbaty is a smart, resolute, courageous and active peasant who will never accept fate and will actively resist it. He himself became a soldier and became famous for having killed the most Frenchmen.

These characters embodied two sides - humility, long-suffering on the one hand and an irrepressible desire to fight - on the other.

It is believed that Shcherbatov's beginning was most clearly manifested in the novel, however, Karataev's wisdom and long-suffering did not stand aside.

conclusions

Thus, the people are the main active force in "War and Peace". According to Tolstoy's philosophy, one person cannot change history, only the strength and desire of the people are capable of this. Therefore, Napoleon, who decided to reshape the world, lost to the power of an entire nation.

“I tried to write the history of the people,” the words of L.N. Tolstoy about his novel War and Peace. This is not just a phrase: the great writer really depicted in the work not so much individual heroes as the whole people as a whole. "The thought of the people" determines in the novel both Tolstoy's philosophical views, and the depiction of historical events, specific historical figures, and the moral assessment of the actions of the characters.
"War and Peace", as Yu.V. Lebedev, "this is a book about different phases in the historical life of Russia." At the beginning of the novel "War and Peace" there is a disunity between people at the family, state and national levels. Tolstoy shows the tragic consequences of such confusion in the Rostov-Bolkonsky family spheres and in the events of the 1805 war, lost by the Russians. Then another historical stage in Russia opens, according to Tolstoy, in 1812, when the unity of people triumphs, "the thought of the people." "War and Peace" is a multi-component and integral narrative about how the beginnings of egoism and disunity lead to disaster, but they meet with opposition from the elements of "peace" and "unity" rising from the depths of people's Russia. Tolstoy urged "to leave alone the kings, ministers and generals", and to study the history of peoples, "infinitely small elements", since they play a decisive role in the development of mankind. What is the power that drives the nations? Who is the creator of history - the individual or the people? The writer asks such questions at the beginning of the novel and tries to answer them with the whole course of the story.
The great Russian writer argues in the novel with the cult of an outstanding historical personality, which was very widespread at that time in Russia and abroad. This cult relied heavily on the teachings of the German philosopher Hegel. According to Hegel, the closest conductors of the World Reason, which determines the fate of peoples and states, are great people who are the first to guess what is given to understand only to them and is not given to understand the human mass, the passive material of history. These views of Hegel were directly reflected in the inhumane theory of Rodion Raskolnikov ("Crime and Punishment"), who divided all people into "rulers" and "trembling creatures." Leo Tolstoy, like Dostoevsky, “saw in this teaching something godlessly inhuman, fundamentally contrary to the Russian moral ideal. Tolstoy does not have an exceptional personality, but the life of the people as a whole turns out to be the most sensitive organism that responds to the hidden meaning of the historical movement. The vocation of a great man lies in the ability to listen to the will of the majority, to the "collective subject" of history, to the people's life.
Therefore, the attention of the writer is attracted primarily by the life of the people: peasants, soldiers, officers - those who make up the very basis of it. Tolstoy "poeticizes in "War and Peace" the people as a whole spiritual unity of people, based on strong, centuries-old cultural traditions ... The greatness of a person is determined by the depth of his connection with the organic life of the people."
Leo Tolstoy on the pages of the novel shows that the historical process does not depend on the whim or bad mood of one person. It is impossible to predict or change the direction of historical events, since they depend on everyone and no one in particular.
We can say that the will of the commander does not affect the outcome of the battle, because not a single commander can lead tens and hundreds of thousands of people, but it is the soldiers themselves (i.e. the people) who decide the fate of the battle. “The fate of the battle is decided not by the orders of the commander-in-chief, not by the place on which the troops stand, not by the number of guns and killed people, but by that elusive force called the spirit of the army,” writes Tolstoy. Therefore, Napoleon did not lose the battle of Borodino or Kutuzov won it, but the Russian people won in this battle, because the "spirit" of the Russian army was immeasurably higher than the French.
Tolstoy writes that Kutuzov was able to "guess so correctly the meaning of the people's meaning of events", i.e. "guess" the whole pattern of historical events. And the source of this brilliant insight was the "people's feeling" that the great commander carried in his soul. It was the understanding of the popular nature of historical processes that allowed Kutuzov, according to Tolstoy, to win not only the Battle of Borodino, but the entire military campaign and fulfill his mission - to save Russia from the Napoleonic invasion.
Tolstoy notes that not only the Russian army opposed Napoleon. “The feeling of revenge that lay in the soul of every person” and of the entire Russian people gave rise to a guerrilla war. “The guerrillas destroyed the great army in parts. There were small, prefabricated, foot and horse parties, there were peasant and landowner parties, unknown to anyone. He was the head of the party, a deacon who took several hundred prisoners a month. There was an elder, Vasilisa, who beat a hundred Frenchmen. The "club of the people's war" was raised and lowered on the heads of the French until the entire invasion died.
This people's war originated shortly after the Russian troops left Smolensk and continued until the very end of hostilities in Russia. Napoleon was not expected by a solemn reception with the keys to the surrendered cities, but by fires and peasant pitchforks. The "hidden warmth of patriotism" was in the soul not only of such people's representatives as the merchant Ferapontov or Tikhon Shcherbaty, but also in the soul of Natasha Rostova, Petya, Andrei Bolkonsky, Princess Mary, Pierre Bezukhov, Denisov, Dolokhov. All of them, in the moment of a terrible test, turned out to be spiritually close to the people and, together with them, ensured victory in the war of 1812.
And in conclusion, I would like to emphasize once again that Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" is not an ordinary novel, but an epic novel, in which human destinies and the fate of the people are reflected, which have become the main object of study for the writer in this great work.

- a novel that gradually transformed from a once conceived work about a Decembrist into a brilliant epic about the courageous feat of the nation, about the victory of the Russian spirit in the battle with the Napoleonic army. As a result, a masterpiece was born, where, as he himself wrote, the main idea was the folk thought. Today, in an essay on the topic: “The Thought of the People,” we will try to prove this.

The author believed that the work would be good if the author fell in love with the main idea. Tolstoy was interested in people's thought in the work War and Peace, where he depicted not just the people and their way of life, but showed the fate of the nation. At the same time, the people for Tolstoy are not only a peasant, a soldier and a peasant, they are also nobles, and officers, and generals. In a word, the people are all people taken together, all of humanity, which was driven by a common goal, one thing, one destiny.

In his work, the writer remembers that history is most often written as the history of individual personalities, but few people think about the driving force in history, which is the people, nation, spirit and will of people that come together.

In the novel War and Peace, folk thought

For each hero, the war with the French became a test, where Bolkonsky, and Pierre Bezukhov, and Natasha, and Petya Rostov, and Dolokhov, and Kutuzov, and Tushin, and Timokhin all played their role in the best possible way. And most importantly, ordinary people showed themselves, who organized separate small partisan detachments and smashed the enemy. People who burned everything so that the enemy did not get anything. People who gave their last to Russian soldiers to support them.

The offensive of the Napoleonic army revealed the best qualities in people, where the peasants, forgetting about their grievances, fought side by side with their masters, defending their homeland. It was the thought of the people in the novel War and Peace that became the soul of the work, uniting the peasantry with the best part of the nobility in one thing - the struggle for the freedom of the Motherland.

Patriotically minded people, among whom were poor peasants, and nobles, and merchants - this is the people. Their will clashed with the French will. It collided and showed real strength, because people fought for their land, which could not be given to the enemy. The people and the formed partisan detachments became the club of the people's war, which did not give a single chance of victory to Napoleon and his army. Tolstoy wrote about this in his brilliant novel War and Peace, where the main idea was the folk one.

Composition. "People's Thought" in Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace"

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