Work on the epic novel was completed in 1867. The work has become one of the most significant creations of world classics. In it, Leo Tolstoy touched upon moral problems and issues relating to the meaning of life and the role of the individual in history.

Having depicted the society of that time, the author divided the characters into two opposite camps: those who are guided by instincts and go with the flow, and those who are constantly working on themselves, improving their souls.

This can be seen in the example of such heroes as Andrei and Maria Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha and Nikolai Rostov, who are opposed to the Kuragin family, Boris Drubetskoy and other persons who see the meaning of life in increasing wealth.

The “noble estate” is selfish, in a difficult time for their country, they are not able not only to protect their homeland, but also to protect themselves . The best representatives have a different attitude to life noble society. For example, Natasha Rostova. She looks fragile, tender, but capable of self-sacrifice and exerts her strength to make life easier for her loved ones.

Pierre Bezukhov is also a positive hero, he turned from a timid, shy young man into a real man who cares about people who depend on him. He makes mistakes, but continues to move forward towards his true destiny.

Plot

At the heart of the plot is the Patriotic War with Napoleon . All episodes and problems are built around this historical events. In digressions and comments, Leo Tolstoy gives his vision of the forces that influence historical processes.

According to the author, historical events occur spontaneously, they are not influenced by the will of individuals. They are made up of common interests and intentions. Also in the book "War and Peace" Tolstoy is skeptical about politics and military affairs.

It's interesting that He portrays the Russian commander Kutuzov as a person close to his people, who appreciates every soldier. He strives to win with the least losses. In contrast, Napoleon is presented as devoid of moral feelings.

Tolstoy also draws attention to the fact that this hero is still aware of his sad role as the "executioner of peoples." This man sincerely believed his mission to make others happier, albeit by force.

In addition to real historical figures, fictional characters are involved in the novel. Through the whole plot passes before our eyes life of four families: Rostovs, Bolkonskys, Kuragins and Bezukhovs . In addition, 559 characters are described in the book.

Why should you read the novel?

1. Peaceful times did not last long in the history of mankind. One generation after another experienced the horrors of war. Leo Tolstoy in his work is trying to figure out why this is happening, he does his best to opposes war, against violence against a person.
2. Only a man of genius could create a large-scale event in terms of the scope of events and consideration of the characters' characters. ! Pure Russian language, philosophical discussions about life, love lines There is more than enough in this book! It should be read by everyone who considers himself an educated person.
3. This is our history to know . Those who were not lucky enough to read this work can fill this gap by reading War and Peace in its entirety. Novel on our website

PART ONE

Eh bien, mon prince. Gknes et Lucques ne sont plus que des apanages, des estates, de la famille Buonaparte. Non, je vous préviens, que

Si vous ne me dites pas, que nous avons la guerre, si vous vous permettez encore de pallier toutes les infamies, toutes les atrocités de cet

Antichrist (ma parole, j "y crois) - je ne vous connais plus, vous n" ktes plus mon ami, vous n "ktes plus my faithful slave, comme vous dites. 1 (See.

Footnotes at the end of the part) Well, hello, hello. Je vois que je vous fais peur, 2 sit down and tell.
So spoke in July 1805 the famous Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and close associate of Empress Maria Feodorovna, meeting an important and

Official Prince Vasily, the first to arrive at her evening. Anna Pavlovna coughed for several days, she had the flu, as she said (the flu was

Then a new word, used only by rare people). In the notes sent out in the morning with the red footman, it was written without distinction in all:
"Si vous n" avez rien de mieux a faire, M. le comte (or mon prince), et si la perspective de passer la soire chez une pauvre malade ne

Vous effraye pas trop, je serai charme de vous voir chez moi entre 7 et 10 heures. Annette Scherer".3
- Dieu, quelle virulente sortie 4 - answered, not at all embarrassed by such a meeting, the prince entered, in a court, embroidered uniform, in stockings,

Shoes, with stars, with a bright expression of a flat face. He spoke in that refined French language, which was not only spoken, but also

Our grandfathers thought, and with those quiet, patronizing intonations that are characteristic of a significant person who has grown old in society and at court

Man. He went up to Anna Pavlovna, kissed her hand, offering her his perfumed and shining bald head, and calmly sat down on the sofa.
- Avant tout dites moi, comment vous allez, chire amie? 5 Calm down your friend, - he said, without changing his voice and in a tone in which, due to decency

And participation shone through indifference and even mockery.
- How can you be healthy ... when you suffer morally? Is it possible to remain calm in our time, when a person has a feeling? -

Anna Pavlovna said. - You're with me all evening, I hope?
- And the holiday of the English envoy? Today is Wednesday. I need to show myself there, - said the prince. - My daughter will pick me up and take me.
- I thought this holiday was cancelled. Je vous avoue que toutes ces fktes et tous ces feux d "artifice commencent a devenir insipides. 6
“If they knew that you wanted this, the holiday would be canceled,” said the prince, out of habit, like a wound clock, saying things that he did not

I wanted to be believed.
- Ne me tourmentez pas. Eh bien, qu "a-t-on décidé par rapport a la dépkche de Novosiizoff? Vous savez tout. 7
- How do you say? - said the prince in a cold, bored tone. - Qu "a-t-on décidé? On a décidé que Buonaparte a brylé ses vaisseaux, et je

Crois que nous sommes en train de bryler les n'tres. 8 - Prince Vasily always spoke lazily, as an actor speaks the role of an old play. Anna Pavlovna

Scherer, on the contrary, despite her forty years, was full of animation and impulses.
Being an enthusiast has become her social status, and sometimes, when she didn’t even want to, she, in order not to deceive people’s expectations,

Those who knew her became an enthusiast.

Volume One

Part one

- Eh bien, mon prince. Gênes et Lucques ne sont plus que des apanages, des estates, de la famille Buonaparte. Non, je vous préviens que si vous ne me dites pas que nous avons la guerre, si vous vous permettez encore de pallier toutes les infamies, toutes les atrocités de cet Antichrist (ma parole, j'y crois) - je ne vous connais plus , vous n'êtes plus mon ami, vous n'êtes plus my faithful slave, comme vous dites. Well, hello, hello. Je vois que je vous fais peur, sit down and tell me.

So said in July 1805 the famous Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and close associate of Empress Maria Feodorovna, meeting the important and bureaucratic Prince Vasily, who was the first to come to her evening. Anna Pavlovna coughed for several days, she had flu, as she said (flu was then a new word, used only by rare people). In the notes sent out in the morning with the red footman, it was written without distinction in all:

"Si vous n'avez rien de mieux a faire, Monsieur le comte (or mon prince), et si la perspective de passer la soirée chez une pauvre malade ne vous effraye pas trop, je serai charmée de vous voir chez moi entre 7 et 10 heures. Annette Scherer"

Dieu, quelle virulente sortie! - answered, not at all embarrassed by such a meeting, the prince entered, in a court, embroidered uniform, in stockings, shoes and stars, with a bright expression of a flat face.

He spoke in that exquisite French language, which our grandfathers not only spoke, but also thought, and with those quiet, patronizing intonations that are characteristic of a significant person who has grown old in society and at court. He went up to Anna Pavlovna, kissed her hand, offering her his perfumed and shining bald head, and calmly sat down on the sofa.

– Avant tout dites-moi, comment vous allez, chèe amie? Calm me down,” he said, without changing his voice and in a tone in which, due to decency and participation, indifference and even mockery shone through.

- How can you be healthy ... when you suffer morally? Is it possible, having a feeling, to remain calm in our time? Anna Pavlovna said. “You’ve been with me all evening, I hope?”

- And the holiday of the English envoy? Today is Wednesday. I need to show myself there,” said the prince. - My daughter will pick me up and take me.

I thought this holiday was cancelled. Je vous avoue que toutes ces fêtes et tons ces feux d'artifice commencent a devenir insipides.

“If they knew that you wanted it, the holiday would be canceled,” the prince said, out of habit, like a wound clock, saying things that he did not want to be believed.

– Ne me tourmentez pas. Eh bien, qu'a-t-on décidé par rapport and la dépêche de Novosilzoff? Vous savez tout.

- How can I tell you? said the prince in a cold, bored tone. - Qu'a-t-on decide? On a décidé que Buonaparte a brûlé ses vaisseaux, et je crois que nous sommes en train de brûler les nôtres.

Prince Vasily always spoke lazily, as an actor speaks the role of an old play. Anna Pavlovna Sherer, on the contrary, despite her forty years, was full of animation and impulses.

Being an enthusiast became her social position, and sometimes, when she didn’t even want to, she, in order not to deceive the expectations of people who knew her, became an enthusiast. The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna's face, although it did not go to her obsolete features, expressed, like in spoiled children, the constant consciousness of her sweet shortcoming, from which she does not want, cannot and does not find it necessary to correct herself.

In the middle of a conversation about political actions, Anna Pavlovna got excited.

“Ah, don’t tell me about Austria! I don't understand anything, maybe, but Austria never wanted and doesn't want war. She betrays us. Russia alone must be the savior of Europe. Our benefactor knows his high calling and will be faithful to it. Here's one thing I believe in. Our kind and wonderful sovereign will have to greatest role in the world, and he is so virtuous and good that God will not leave him, and he will fulfill his calling to crush the hydra of the revolution, which is now even more terrible in the face of this murderer and villain. We alone must atone for the blood of the righteous. Whom shall we rely on, I ask you?.. England with her commercial spirit will not and cannot understand the whole loftiness of the soul of Emperor Alexander. She refused to clear Malta. She wants to see, looking for the back thought of our actions. What did they say to Novosiltsev? Nothing. They did not understand, they cannot understand the selflessness of our emperor, who wants nothing for himself and wants everything for the good of the world. And what did they promise? Nothing. And what they promised, and that will not happen! Prussia has already declared that Bonaparte is invincible and that the whole of Europe can do nothing against him... And I do not believe a single word of either Hardenberg or Gaugwitz. Cette fameuse neutralité prussienne, ce n'est qu'un pièe. I believe in one God and in the high destiny of our dear emperor. He will save Europe!.. - She suddenly stopped with a smile of mockery at her ardor.

“I think,” said the prince, smiling, “that if you were sent instead of our dear Winzengerode, you would take the consent of the Prussian king by storm. You are so eloquent. Will you give me tea?

- Now. A propos,” she added, calming down again, “today I have two very interesting person, le vicomte de Mortemart, il est allié aux Montmorency par les Rohans, one of the best surnames in France. This is one of the good emigrants, of the real ones. And then l'abbe Morio; do you know this deep mind? He was received by the sovereign. You know?

- BUT? I will be very glad, - said the prince. “Tell me,” he added, as if he had just remembered something and especially carelessly, while what he was asking about was main goal his visit, is it true that the I'impératrice-merè desires the appointment of Baron Funke as first secretary in Vienna? C'est un pauvre sire, ce baron, and her qu'il paraît. - Prince Vasily wanted to assign his son to this place, which they tried to deliver to the baron through Empress Maria Feodorovna.

Anna Pavlovna almost closed her eyes as a sign that neither she nor anyone else can judge what the Empress likes or likes.

“Monsieur le baron de Funke a été recommandé a l’impératrice-mèe par sa soeur,” she said only in a sad, dry tone. While Anna Pavlovna named the empress, her face suddenly presented a deep and sincere expression of devotion and respect, combined with sadness, which happened to her every time she mentioned her high patroness in a conversation. She said that Her Majesty had deigned to give Baron Funke a beaucoup d'estime, and again her eyes turned sad.

The prince was indifferently silent. Anna Pavlovna, with her courtly and feminine agility and quickness of tact, wanted to snap the prince for daring to speak in such a way about the person recommended by the empress, and at the same time console him.

“Mais a propos de votre famille,” she said, “do you know that your daughter, since she leaves, has been fait les délices de tout le monde.” On la trouve belle comme le jour.

© 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 entire history of Russian literature was created. By that time already well-known writer, prosperous landowner, owner of the estate Yasnaya Polyana Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy worked on a huge art 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's why it's important good work art, - the writer noted many years later, - that its main content in its entirety can be expressed only by him. 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 unquestionably 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 domestic silence and the thunder of battles, idleness and labor, ups and downs ... He loved 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 fond of philosophical teachings West, assimilated under different guise new, very shaky ideals. Remaining ostensibly Orthodox, representatives of the chosen class were often already very far from primordially Russian Christianity. Baptized as a child and raised in Orthodox faith, Tolstoy long years respectfully treated the patristic shrines. But his personal views were very different from those professed by Holy Russia and simple people 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, his real idols were even then the wild nature and the complicity of the natural principle. emotional sphere in the soul of man. 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 it was created A new book, was worrisome. 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. 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.

Russian world of times 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 literary creativity. She absorbed hundreds of non-fictional situations, real statements historical persons and details of their behavior, artistic text many of the original documents of the era were placed. 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 fragrant incense “out of the cupboard” - 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 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 characters, whether it be the modest artilleryman Captain Tushin, the diplomat Bilibin, the desperate soul of the Dolokhovs or the relative of the Rostovs 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 put an equal sign between the real person and literary character turned out to be completely impossible. Tolstoy was brilliant at creating artistic types, characteristic of their 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 Sergey, Ilya, Lev, and a daughter Tatiana. Relations with his wife brought him a 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". Common problems posed outside the everyday, sensually distinguishable specifics, 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. That is why Tolstoy at that time spoke with such irritation about the works of historians (among them, for example, the works of A. I. Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, Kutuzov’s adjutant 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 thought that art world his books are 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, Earth, 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. great poet 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 in 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 have become the key to creative discoveries. the highest standard, formed the basis of unparalleled realism in everything related to the emotionally and psychologically distinguishable aspects of Russian life.

* * *

There is hardly any other work in world literature that so broadly 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 system. Not only waking experiences, but the shaky realm of dreams, daydreams, semi-forgetfulness was depicted in War and Peace with unsurpassed 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 arose, as if illuminated from within, eternally permeated with feeling, a picture of the Universe based only on feeling. it 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, is there 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 beloved, 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 " resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century. The expectation of personal existence beyond the grave, from the point of view of Tolstoy's pantheism (this word long time ago it is customary to call any deification of earthly, sensual being) should have seemed out of place. 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 to live, in all nature.

L. N. Tolstoy "War and Peace". Volume 1 Part 1 Chapter 1

“If they knew that you wanted this, the holiday would have been canceled,” the prince said out of habit, like a wound clock, saying things that he did not want to be believed.

– Ne me tourmentez pas. Eh bien, qu "a-t-on décidé par rapport à la dépêche de Novosilzoff? Vous savez tout.

- How can I tell you? said the prince in a cold, bored tone. - Qu "a-t-on décidé? On a décidé que Buonaparte a brûlé ses vaisseaux, et je crois que nous sommes en train de brûler les nôtres.

Prince Vasily always spoke lazily, as an actor speaks the role of an old play. Anna Pavlovna Sherer, on the contrary, despite her forty years, was full of animation and impulses.

Being an enthusiast became her social position, and sometimes, when she didn’t even want to, she, in order not to deceive the expectations of people who knew her, became an enthusiast. The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna's face, although it did not go to her obsolete features, expressed, like in spoiled children, the constant consciousness of her sweet shortcoming, from which she does not want, cannot and does not find it necessary to correct herself.

In the middle of a conversation about political actions, Anna Pavlovna got excited.

“Ah, don’t tell me about Austria! I don't understand anything, maybe, but Austria never wanted and doesn't want war. She betrays us. Russia alone must be the savior of Europe. Our benefactor knows his high calling and will be faithful to it. Here's one thing I believe in. Our kind and wonderful sovereign has the greatest role in the world, and he is so virtuous and good that God will not leave him, and he will fulfill his calling to crush the hydra of the revolution, which is now even more terrible in the face of this murderer and villain. We alone must atone for the blood of the righteous. Whom shall we rely on, I ask you?.. England with her commercial spirit will not and cannot understand the whole loftiness of the soul of Emperor Alexander. She refused to clear Malta. She wants to see, looking for the back thought of our actions. What did they say to Novosiltsev? Nothing. They did not understand, they could not understand the selflessness of our emperor, who wants nothing for himself and wants everything for the good of the world. And what did they promise? Nothing. And what they promised, and that will not happen! Prussia has already declared that Bonaparte is invincible and that all of Europe can do nothing against him... And I do not believe in a single word either Hardenberg or Gaugwitz. Cette fameuse neutralité prussienne, ce n "est qu" un piège. I believe in one God and in the high destiny of our dear emperor. He will save Europe!.. - She suddenly stopped with a smile of mockery at her ardor.

“I think,” said the prince, smiling, “that if you were sent instead of our dear Winzengerode, you would take the consent of the Prussian king by storm. You are so eloquent. Will you give me tea?

- Now. A propos,” she added, calming down again, “today I have two very interesting people, le vicomte de Mortemart, il est allié aux Montmorency par les Rohans, one of the best surnames in France. This is one of the good emigrants, of the real ones. And then l "abbé Morio; do you know this deep mind? He was received by the sovereign. Do you know?

- BUT! I will be very glad, - said the prince. “Tell me,” he added, as if he had just remembered something and especially casually, while what he asked about was the main purpose of his visit, “it is true that l" impératrice-mère wants the appointment of Baron Funke as first secretary to Vienna? C "est un pauvre sire, ce baron, à ce qu" il paraît. - Prince Vasily wanted to assign his son to this place, which they tried to deliver to the baron through Empress Maria Feodorovna.

Anna Pavlovna almost closed her eyes as a sign that neither she nor anyone else can judge what the Empress likes or likes.

- Monsieur le baron de Funke a été recommandé à l "impératrice-mère par sa sœur," she only said in a sad, dry tone. While Anna Pavlovna called the empress, her face suddenly presented a deep and sincere expression of devotion and respect, combined with sadness, which happened to her every time she mentioned her high patroness in a conversation. She said that Her Majesty had deigned to give Baron Funke a beaucoup d "estime, and again her eyes turned sad.

The prince fell silent indifferently, Anna Pavlovna, with her courtly and feminine dexterity and quickness of tact, wanted to snap the prince for daring to speak in such a way about the person recommended by the empress, and at the same time console him.

“Mais à propos de votre famille,” she said, “you know that your daughter, since she leaves, has been fait les délices de tout le monde. On la trouve belle comme le jour.

The prince leaned in as a sign of respect and gratitude.

“I often think,” Anna Pavlovna continued after a moment’s silence, moving closer to the prince and smiling affectionately at him, as if showing by this that political and secular conversations were over and heartfelt conversations were now beginning, “I often think how sometimes the happiness of life is unfairly distributed. Why did fate give you such two glorious children (with the exception of Anatole, your younger one, I don’t love him, - she put in peremptorily, raising her eyebrows), - such lovely children? And you really value them least of all, and therefore you are not worthy of them.

And she smiled her delighted smile.

– Que voulez vous? Lafater aurait dit que je n "ai pas la bosse de la paternité," said the prince.

- Stop joking. I wanted to have a serious talk with you. You know, I'm not happy with your younger son. Between us, be it said (her face took on a sad expression), they talked about him at her majesty and pity you ...

The prince did not answer, but she silently, looking at him significantly, waited for an answer. Prince Vasily grimaced.

- What should I do? he said at last. - You know, I did everything a father can for their education, and both came out des imbéciles. Hippolyte is at least a dead fool, while Anatole is restless. Here is one difference,” he said, smiling more unnaturally and animatedly than usual, and at the same time showing especially sharply something unexpectedly coarse and unpleasant in the wrinkles that had formed around his mouth.

“And why would children be born to people like you?” If you weren't a father, I wouldn't be able to reproach you with anything," said Anna Pavlovna, raising her eyes thoughtfully.

- Je suis votre faithful slave, et à vous seule je puis l "avouer. My children are ce sont les entraves de mon existence. This is my cross. I explain it to myself. Que voulez-vous? .. - He paused, gesturing their resignation to a cruel fate.

Anna Pavlovna thought for a moment.

Have you ever thought about marrying your prodigal son Anatole. They say, she said, that old maids are ont la manie des mariages. I do not yet feel this weakness behind me, but I have one petite personne who is very unhappy with her father, une parente à nous, une princesse Bolkonskaya. - Prince Vasily did not answer, although with a characteristic secular people by quickness of thought and memory, by the movement of his head, he showed that he had taken this information into consideration.

“No, do you know that this Anatole costs me forty thousand a year,” he said, apparently unable to restrain the sad train of his thoughts. He paused.

- What will happen in five years, if it goes like this? Voilà l "avantage d" être père. Is she rich, your princess?

“My father is very rich and stingy. He lives in the village. You know, this well-known prince Bolkonsky, who was retired under the late emperor and nicknamed the Prussian king. He is very clever man but odd and heavy. La pauvre petite est malheureuse comme les pierres. She has a brother, that's what recently married Lise Meinen, Kutuzov's adjutant. He will be with me today.

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Well, the prince, Genoa and Lucca are the estates of the Bonaparte family. No, I’m telling you ahead of time, if you don’t tell me that we are at war, if you still allow yourself to defend all the nasty things, all the horrors of this Antichrist (really, I believe that he is the Antichrist), I don’t know you anymore, you no longer my friend, you are no longer my faithful slave, as you say (French).