The meaning of the title of the novel “War and Peace. Seven reasons to read "War and Peace" War and Peace - the main thing you need to know

Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" is included in most world ratings best books: Newsweek ranked it number one, the BBC ranked it number 20, and the Norwegian Book Club listed it as one of the most significant works of all times.In Russia, a third of the population considers “War and Peace” a work that forms “the worldview that holds the nation together.” At the same time, the President of the Russian Academy of Education, Lyudmila Verbitskaya, said that 70% of school teachers have not read War and Peace. There are no statistics for other Russians, but most likely they are even more deplorable.Bykov claims that even teachers do not understand everything that is written in the book, not to mention schoolchildren. “I think that Leo Tolstoy himself did not understand everything, did not realize what a gigantic force was guiding his hand,” he added.

Why read War and Peace

According to Bykov, every nation should have its own “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. "The Odyssey" is a novel about wanderings. He tells how the country works. In Russia it is " Dead Souls» Nikolai Gogol.

"War and Peace" is a Russian "Iliad". It tells you how to behave in the country in order to survive.

Tolstoy's work must be read to understand how to win the Russian way.

What is "War and Peace" about?

Tolstoy takes as his main theme the most irrational period in Russian history — Patriotic War 1812. Bykov notes that Napoleon Bonaparte achieved all his goals: he entered Moscow, did not lose the general battle, but the Russians won.

Russia is a country where success is not the same as victory, where people win irrationally. This is exactly what the novel is about.

The key episode of the book, according to Bykov, is not the Battle of Borodino, but the duel between Pierre Bezukhov and Fyodor Dolokhov. Dolokhov has all the advantages: society supports him, he is a good shooter. Pierre holds a pistol for the second time in his life, but it is his bullet that hits his opponent. This is an irrational victory. And Kutuzov wins in the same way.

Dolokhov - definitely negative character, but not everyone understands why. Despite his merits, he is an evil who is aware of himself, admiring himself, a “narcissistic reptile.” Just like Napoleon.

Tolstoy shows the mechanism of Russian victory: the one who gives more, who is more ready to sacrifice, who trusts in fate, wins. To survive you need:

• fear nothing;
• do not calculate anything;
• don't admire yourself.

How to read War and Peace

According to Bykov, this irrational novel was written by a rationalist, so it has a rigid structure. Getting to know her is what makes reading fun.

The action of War and Peace takes place in four planes simultaneously. Each plane has a character who fulfills a specific role, is endowed with special qualities and has a corresponding destiny.

*The life of the Russian nobility is an everyday plan with dramas, relationships, suffering.

** Macrohistorical plan - events of “big history”, state level.

*** The people are the key scenes for understanding the novel (according to Bykov).

**** The metaphysical plane is an expression of what is happening through nature: the sky of Austerlitz, the oak tree.

By moving along the rows of the table, you can see which characters correspond to the same plan. The columns will show the understudies at different levels. For example, the Rostovs are a line of a kind, fertile Russian family. Their strength is irrationality. They are the soul of the novel.

On the folk plane they correspond to the same ingenuous captain Tushin, on the metaphysical plane they correspond to the element of the earth, solid and fertile. At the state level there is neither soul nor kindness, therefore there are no correspondences.

The Bolkonskys and everyone who finds themselves in the same column with them is intelligence. Pierre Bezukhov personifies that same irrational winner who is ready to sacrifice, and Fyodor Dolokhov is a “narcissistic reptile”: he is the character who cannot be forgiven, since he puts himself above the rest, fancies himself a superman.

Armed with Bykov's table, you can not only understand the idea of ​​the novel more deeply, but also make reading easier, turning it into exciting game to find matches.

War and Peace

"War and Peace"- epic novel by Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, describing the events of the wars against Napoleon: 1805 and the Patriotic War of 1812.

History of the development of the novel

The novel "War and Peace" was a great success. An excerpt from the novel entitled “1805” appeared in the Russian Bulletin; three of its parts were published in the city, which were soon followed by the remaining two (four volumes in total).

Recognized by critics around the world as the greatest epic work new European literature, “War and Peace” amazes 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 of Paolo Veronese in the Venetian Doge's Palace, where hundreds of faces are also painted with amazing clarity and individual expression. In Tolstoy's novel all classes of society are represented, from emperors and kings to the last soldier, all ages, all temperaments and throughout the entire reign of Alexander I. What further enhances its dignity as an epic is the psychology of the Russian people it gives. With amazing penetration, Tolstoy depicted the mood of the crowd, both the highest and the most base and brutal (for example, in the famous scene of the murder of Vereshchagin).

Everywhere Tolstoy tries to capture the spontaneous, unconscious beginning of human life. The whole philosophy of the novel boils down to the fact that success and failure in historical life depend not on the will and talents of individual people, but on the extent to which they reflect the spontaneous lining in their activities historical events. Hence his loving relationship to Kutuzov, strong not in strategic knowledge or heroism, but in the fact that he understood that purely Russian, not spectacular and not bright, but the only true way by which it was possible to cope with Napoleon. Hence Tolstoy’s dislike for Napoleon, who so highly valued his personal talents; hence, finally, the elevation to the degree of the greatest sage of the humblest soldier Platon Karataev for the fact that he recognizes himself exclusively as a part of the whole, without the slightest claim to individual significance. Tolstoy's philosophical, or rather historiosophical, thought for the most part permeates his great novel- and this is what makes him great - not in the form of reasoning, but in brilliantly captured details and whole pictures, the true meaning of which is not difficult for any thoughtful reader to understand.

In the first edition of War and Peace there was a long series of purely theoretical pages that interfered with the integrity of the artistic impression; in later editions these discussions were highlighted and formed a special part. However, in “War and Peace” Tolstoy the thinker was far from being reflected in all of his aspects and not in his most characteristic aspects. There is not here what runs like a red thread through all of Tolstoy’s works, both those written before “War and Peace” and those later - there is no deeply pessimistic mood. And in “War and Peace” there are horrors and death, but here they are somehow, so to speak, normal. The death, for example, of Prince Bolkonsky belongs to the most stunning pages of world literature, but there is nothing disappointing or belittling in it; this is not like the death of the hussar in “Kholstomer” or the death of Ivan Ilyich. After War and Peace, the reader wants to live, because even an ordinary, average, drab existence is illuminated by that bright, joyful light that illuminated the author’s personal existence in the era of the creation of the great novel.

In Tolstoy's later works, the transformation of the graceful, gracefully flirtatious, charming Natasha into a blurry, sloppily dressed landowner, completely absorbed in caring for her home and children, would have made a sad impression; but in the era of his enjoyment of family happiness, Tolstoy elevated all this to the pearl of creation.

Tolstoy later became skeptical of his novels. In January 1871, Tolstoy sent a letter to Fet: “How happy I am... that I will never write verbose rubbish like “War” again.”

On December 6, 1908, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “People love me for those trifles - “War and Peace”, etc., which seem very important to them.”

In the summer of 1909, one of the visitors to Yasnaya Polyana expressed his delight and gratitude for the creation of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Tolstoy replied: “It’s the same as if someone came to Edison and said: “I really respect you because you dance the mazurka well.” I attribute meaning to completely different books.”

The central characters of the book and their prototypes

Rostov

• Count Ilya Andreevich Rostov.
• Countess Natalya Rostova (nee Shinshina) is the wife of Ilya Rostov.
• Count Nikolai Ilyich Rostov is the eldest son of Ilya and Natalya Rostov.
• Vera Ilyinichna Rostova is the eldest daughter of Ilya and Natalya Rostov.
• Count Pyotr Ilyich Rostov is the youngest son of Ilya and Natalya Rostov.
• Natasha Rostova (Natalie) - youngest daughter Ilya and Natalya Rostov, married Countess Bezukhova, Pierre's second wife.
• Sonya is the niece of Count Rostov.
• Andryusha Rostov is the son of Nikolai Rostov.

Bolkonsky

• Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky - old prince, according to the plot - a prominent figure of Catherine's era. The prototype is L. N. Tolstoy’s maternal grandfather, a representative of the ancient Volkonsky family
• Prince Andrei Nikolaevich Bolkonsky is the son of the old prince.
• Princess Maria Nikolaevna (Marie) is the daughter of the old prince, the sister of Prince Andrei, in marriage the princess of Rostov. The prototype can be called Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya (married Tolstoy), mother of L. N. Tolstoy
• Lisa is the wife of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky.
• Young Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky is the son of Prince Andrei.

Ryzhova Maria Andreevna

Bezukhovs

• Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov is Pierre's father.
• Count Pierre (Peter Kirillovich) Bezukhov is an illegitimate son.

Other characters

• Princess Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya, and her son Boris Drubetskoy.
• Platon Karataev is a soldier of the Absheron regiment who met Pierre Bezukhov in captivity.
• Captain Tushin is a captain of the artillery corps who distinguished himself during the Battle of Shengraben. Its prototype was artillery staff captain Ya. I. Sudakov.
• Dolokhov - at the beginning of the novel - a hussar - the ringleader, later one of the leaders partisan movement. The prototype was Ivan Dorokhov.
• Vasily Dmitrievich Denisov is a friend of Nikolai Rostov. Denisov's prototype was Denis Davydov.
• Maria Dmitrievna Akhrosimova is a friend of the Rostov family. The prototype of Akhrosimova was the widow of Major General Ofrosimova Nastasya Dmitrievna. A. S. Griboyedov almost portraiturely depicted her in his comedy Woe from Wit.

Name controversy

Cover of the 1873 edition

In modern Russian the word “world” has two different meanings, “peace” is an antonym to the words “war” and “peace” - in the sense of planet, community, society, surrounding world, habitat. (cf. “In the world and death is red”). Before the spelling reform of 1918, these two concepts had different spellings: in the first sense it was written “mir”, in the second - “mir”. There is a legend that Tolstoy allegedly used the word “mir” (Universe, society) in the title. However, all editions of Tolstoy’s novel during his lifetime were published under the title “War and Peace,” and he himself wrote the title of the novel in French as "La guerre et la paix". There are different versions of the origin of this legend.

It should be noted that the title of Mayakovsky’s “almost the same name” poem “War and Peace” () deliberately uses a play on words, which was possible before the spelling reform, but is not caught by today’s reader. Support for the legend was provided in the city when in the popular television program “What? Where? When? " a question was asked on this topic and the "wrong" answer was given. On December 23, 2000, in the anniversary game dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the program, the same retro question was repeated again. And again, the experts gave the wrong answer - none of the organizers bothered to check the question on its merits. See also: , .

Notes

Links

• Text of the novel in the Komarov Library

Once, during a literature lesson, the teacher told us that in the old spelling, when the Russian alphabet had 35 letters (see V.I. Dal, “ Dictionary living Great Russian language"), some words that were pronounced the same had different spellings, and this changed the meaning. So, the word “peace”, written as it is written now, really meant a time of peace, without war. And written through “and with a dot” (“i”) - the world in the sense of the universe and human society.

At that time, we were studying L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace,” and, continuing to discuss “and” with a period, the teacher told us that Lev Nikolaevich called his novel “War and Peace,” since he contrasted war and society, war and people.

This story struck my imagination so much that I remembered it, and all my life I was sure that it was so. And recently, wanting to get involved in a dispute to defend my point of view, I began to look for supporting facts on the Internet.

What was found there? A lot of abstracts that copy the above from each other (of course, great, but unreliable), chatter in forums (the opinion of the laity versus the civilians in relation to 10:1), a certificate on gramota.ru that changes its opinion, and - no facts! Well, purely opinions, that's all!

On one forum they wrote that it turns out that this novel is a study of the influence of war on human actions and destinies. On the other hand, they were indignant that “the world” is not human society, but a rural community, and Tolstoy could not call his novel “War and Peace”, since he was writing not about a rural community, but about high society.

I found the only reliable message on this topic from Artemy Lebedev with an image of the first page of the 1874 edition, commented with the words: “Well, what could be simpler than just taking it and seeing how it was?”

Let's follow this advice.

Firstly, let's look at V. I. Dahl's "Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language": what do the words “mir” and “mir” actually mean?

WORLD (written with i) (m.) universe; matter in space and force in time (Khomyakov). || One of the lands of the universe; esp. || our earth, globe, light; || all people, the whole world, the human race; || community, society of peasants; || gathering. In the last meaning The world is rural and volost. Lay down on the world, give a verdict at the meeting; in the rural world there is a man from every smoke, in the volost world or circle there are two owners from a hundred. Worlds, lands, planets. In ancient times, they counted the years from the creation of the world, our earth. To go into the world or in the world, with a bag. Death is red in the world, in people. Live in the world, in worldly worries, in vanity; in general in the world; prtvop. spiritual life, monastic life. Peace, God help! the call of barge haulers, along the Volga, when ships meet; answer: God help you! Peace wave. The world is a golden mountain. In the world that is at sea. In a world that is in a pool (no bottom, no tire). The world is in evil (in lies). No matter what the world hates, it also hates, about envy. A stupid mind lets you go around the world. Rich for the feast, poor for the world (throughout the world). We don’t go around the world and don’t give to the poor. She settled the children: she sent one around the world, and gave the other to a swineherd in science. To go into the world (around the world) and take it as dough. The baptized world, but a canvas bag: beg under one window, eat under another. The world is thin and long. The world has thin stomachs and debts. What the world does not fall on, the world will not lift up. You can’t bake a pie about the world; you can't get enough of the world of wine. You can't please the whole world (everyone). In a world that is at a drunken feast. from the world by thread, naked shirt. One cannot eat the world. The world is like a feast: there is a lot of everything (both good and bad). Both in the feast and in the world, all in one (about clothing). Neither in the feast, nor in the world, nor in good people. To live in the world is to live with the world. (full text of the article, image 1.2 MB.)

To reconcile someone, with whom, to reconcile, to agree, to eliminate a quarrel, to settle disagreement, enmity, forcing things to become amicable. Why put up with someone who doesn’t know how to swear! Going to make peace yourself is not good; If you send an ambassador, people will know. The mare made peace with the wolf but did not return home.<…>Peace is the absence of quarrel, hostility, disagreement, war; harmony, agreement, unanimity, affection, friendship, goodwill; silence, peace, tranquility. The world is concluded and signed. There is peace and grace in their home. Receive someone in peace, see them off in peace. Peace be with you! From greetings to the poor: peace to this house. Peace be with you, and I am with you! Good people they scold the world. In the day there is a feast, and in the night there is peace with walls and thresholds. The neighbor doesn't want it, so the world won't. Peace to the deceased, and a feast to the healer. Chernyshevsky (violent) peace (among the Kaluga residents, whose strife was stopped by Chernyshev, under Peter I). (full text of the article, image 0.6 Mb.)

Secondly- encyclopedias, as well as links and lists of works by L. N. Tolstoy, compiled by pre-revolutionary researchers of his work.

1. Encyclopedic Dictionary, volume XXXIII, publishers F. A. Brockhaus and I. A. Efron, St. Petersburg, 1901

The article about Count L.N. Tolstoy begins on page 448, and there the only time the title “War and Peace” appears, written with an “i”:

Brockhaus and Efron. L.N. Tolstoy, “War and Peace”

Notice that the second reference to the novel that appears at the end of the quote is typed with the letter “i.”

2. Bodnarsky B. S. “Bibliography of the works of Leo Tolstoy”, 1912, Moscow, p. 11:

3. ibid., page 18:

4. Bibliographic index of the works of L. N. Tolstoy, compiled by A. L. Bem, 1926 (started by typesetting in 1913 - finished printing in September 1926), p. 13:

5. Count L.N. Tolstoy in literature and art. Compiled by Yuri Bitovt. Moscow, 1903:

Please note on page 120:

In comparison with other references (full text pp. 116-125, image 0.8Mb) this looks like a typo.

Thirdly, title pages of pre-revolutionary editions of the novel:

I First edition: printing house T. Rees, at the Myasnitskie Gate, Voeikov’s house, Moscow, 1869:

II Edition for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino: published by I. D. Sytin, Moscow, 1912:

III Publishing house I. P. Ladyzhnikov, Berlin, 1920:

IV Edition of Vinnitsky, Odessa, 1915:

V PETROGRAD. Type. Peter. T-va Pech. and Ed. case “Trud”, Kavalergardskaya, 40. 1915:

It is easy to notice the difference in the spelling of the novel's title on the cover and on the first page.

And in conclusion, a quote from “Description of Manuscripts works of art L. N. Tolstoy", Moscow, 1955, (compiled by V. A. Zhdanov, E. E. Zaidenshnur, E. S. Serebrovskaya):

“The idea of ​​“War and Peace” is connected with the story about the Decembrist, begun in 1860. In a draft of the preface to the magazine publication of the first part of the future novel “War and Peace,” Tolstoy wrote that when he began the story about the Decembrist, in order to understand his hero, he needed to “be transported” to his youth, and “his youth coincided with the glorious for Russia in the era of 1812." Having begun to create a novel from the era of 1812, Tolstoy once again pushed back the action of his novel, starting it from 1805.”

To sum it up

L.N. Tolstoy called the novel “War and Peace”, the other version is beautiful, but - alas! - a legend generated by an unfortunate typo.

Other Internet sources:

My comment.

I would not so categorically declare that Leo Tolstoy, a Jew, did not know his own Hebrew language in order to make a mistake with the title of his book. We were told at school that modern publications the publishers made a mistake. Because the original version was called: “War and Peace.” War and Society. That is: Mir.

Because I saw live books on the Internet, where the title of the novel was written: “War and Peace.”

In another Jewish book, I read a phrase from a Jew to his fellow villagers:

Where are you driving me, World?

That is, the later modified spelling of “Mir”, as “Society”, began to be written with an error, as “World”. The followers and publishers of Leo Tolstoy were mistaken, but not Tolstoy himself, with the writing of the second word in the title of the novel: “War and Peace” - “War and Society” (State).

But... the Hebrew word: “Mir” has another interpretation, which in no way fits with the History of the Army (World) rewritten by the Cossacks (intelligentsia). It does not fit into the picture of the World (Army) that writers with their literary mystifications created for us. By the way, Leo Tolstoy was one of these literary hoaxers.

As I have already proven, in order to describe the stay of the Russian (Jewish) Cossacks in Paris with Alexander I Baron von Holstein, Leo Tolstoy had to write his novel after 1896, when power in Germany was seized by the Jews (London) group and the protege of this The London (Coburg) group, in St. Petersburg captured by the Cossacks, Nikolai Holstein (Kolya Pitersky) first appeared.

Yes, Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya rewrote the novel “War and Peace” eight (!) times. Of the eight versions of the novel “War and Peace,” the author of which is considered to be Leo Tolstoy, there was not a single page written by Tolstoy himself. All eight options are written by Sofia Andreevna’s hand.

Further, in the novel, dates are given according to three different Chronologies. According to the Army (Kondrusskaya), in which the war took place in 512 AD. According to the Elston (Cossack) Chronology, in which the war took place in 812, and according to the Jewish (Coburg) Chronology, when the war of 512 moved to 1812. Although Tolstoy says that he is writing about the war of 1864-1869. That is, the war dates back to 512 years.

And the Cossacks captured Paris from the Kondruses only during the next Kondrus-Cossack war of 1870-1871.

That is, we see reissues of books where the publication dates are indicated retroactively. Books were published after 1896, and the dates were set as if they were published in 1808, 1848, 1868, and so on.

We should not blindly trust our brothers the Slavs, the Jewish Christians, the Soviet old red (Prussian) guards of the Hohenzollerns, Holstein, Bronstein and Blank, lads, when they compose new and latest stories about Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad (Holstein) captured by them. Are our Red Army soldiers extremely criminally interested in ensuring that no one in occupied Russia learns the truth about what happened throughout occupied Russia up to 1922 inclusive?

We don’t even know the truth about what happened when Stalin was alive. And you are talking about the 19th century, which after the Bolsheviks was completely closed as a state secret.

During his last visit to China in September this year, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev puzzled a student of the Institute foreign languages city ​​of Dalian, immersed in reading Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace.” “It is very interesting, but voluminous. There are four volumes,” the Russian leader warned her.

Without a doubt, at almost 1,900 pages, War and Peace is somewhat overwhelming in its length, like a security guard at the entrance to a discotheque.

If in Russia this work is compulsory for study in secondary school, then in Spain it is read at best until the middle. But perhaps this is Dean from best novels of all times. “When you read Tolstoy, you read because you cannot leave the book,” said Vladimir Nabokov, convinced that the volume of the work should not at all conflict with its attractiveness

In connection with the centenary of the death of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, celebrated this year, his immortal novel has been republished in Spain (El Aleph publishing house, translated by Lydia Cooper), which many rightfully consider the Bible of literature. This is a real encyclopedia of Russian life of the nineteenth century, where the most intimate depths of the human soul are explored.

"War and Peace" captivates us because it explores the eternal philosophical problems that concern people: what love means and what evil is. These questions arise before Bezukhov when he thinks about why evil people unite so quickly, but good people do not,” said an expert on Tolstoy’s work, professor of literature at Moscow State University, in an interview with the El Mundo newspaper. Lomonosova Irina Petrovitskaya.

Ten years ago, Petrovitskaya was in Barcelona, ​​where she suffered an allergy attack, as a result of which she experienced a state of clinical death and ended up in one of the Tarragona hospitals. “When I was there, I was amazed by the Spanish doctors. Having learned that I was a teacher at Moscow University, they, fighting for my life, said: “Tolstoy, War and Peace, Dostoevsky... It was very touching,” she recalls.

While in a hospital bed, she experienced the same thing that Prince Andrei Bolkonsky experienced when he lay wounded on the battlefield after the Battle of Austerlitz, looking up at the sky and Napoleon approaching him. Then he suddenly realized the secret of height, the endless height of the sky and the short stature of the French emperor (“Bonaparte seemed to him a small and insignificant creature compared to what was happening in his soul and the high and endless sky along which the clouds floated”).

"War and Peace" is an electric shock to the soul. The pages of this novel are replete with hundreds of pieces of advice (“enjoy these moments of happiness, try to be loved, love others! There is no greater truth in the world than this”), thoughts, reflections (“I know only two real evils in life: torment and illness “, says Andrey), as well as live dialogues about death.

War and Peace is not only an excellent textbook on the history of the Napoleonic wars (in 1867, Tolstoy personally visited the Borodino field to familiarize himself with the place where the battle took place), but perhaps the book of the most useful tips of all those ever written, which is always ready to come to your aid.

“Who am I? Why do I live? Why was he born? Tolstoy and Dostoevsky asked themselves these questions about the meaning of life, explains Irina Petrovitskaya, returning to Tolstoy’s thought (reflected in “War and Peace”) about a person’s sense of responsibility for the fate of the world. This is one of characteristic features the Russian soul, to which many classical works are dedicated, in particular “Anna Karenina”, another masterpiece of Tolstoy.

“They do not strive only for personal well-being in this world, but want to understand what they can do for all humanity, for the world,” emphasizes Petrovitskaya.

His characters

Empowering your heroes eternal life, Tolstoy completes his miracle like the creator, the “Creator God” of literature. Because the heroes of his works come off the pages and flow into our lives with each new reading of the novel. It flows like a fountain vital energy when they love, think, duel, hunt hares or dance at social balls; they radiate life when they fight to the death with the French on the Borodino field, when they look in amazement at the vision of Tsar Alexander I (“My God! How happy I would be if he ordered me to throw myself into the fire right now,” thinks Nikolai Rostov), ​​or when they think about love or fame (“I will never admit this to anyone, but, my God, what can I do if I don’t want anything other than fame and the love of people?” Prince Andrei asks himself).

“In War and Peace, Tolstoy tells us that there are two levels of existence, two levels of understanding of life: war and peace, understood not only as the absence of war, but also as mutual understanding between people. Either we are opposed to ourselves, people and the world, or we are at peace with it. And in this case the person feels happy. It seems to me that this should attract any reader from any country,” says Irina Petrovitskaya, adding that she envies those who have not yet enjoyed this work, which is so Russian in spirit.

The heroes of War and Peace, who are constantly in search of themselves, always see life in their eyes (Tolstoy’s favorite technique). Even when their eyelids are closed, like, for example, Field Marshal Kutuzov, who appears before us as an ordinary person, falling asleep while laying out plans for the Battle of Austerlitz. However, in Tolstoy’s epic novel, not everything comes down to questions of existence and tragedy.

Humor

Humor hangs over the pages of War and Peace, like smoke over a battlefield. It is impossible not to smile when we see the father of Prince Andrei, who has fallen into senile dementia and every evening changing the position of his bed, or when we read the following paragraph: “They said that [the French] took with them everything from Moscow government agencies, and [...] at least for this alone Moscow should be grateful to Napoleon.”

“In the 21st century, this book should be considered as a cult book, as a touching bestseller, because first of all it is a book about love, about the love between such a memorable heroine as Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky, and then Pierre Bezukhov. This is a woman who loves her husband, her family. These are concepts that no one can live without. The novel is filled with tenderness, love, everything earthly, love for people, for each of us,” explains writer Nina Nikitina, head of the Yasnaya Polyana House Museum, where Leo Tolstoy, who died in 1910, was born, lived, worked and was buried. year in the boss's house railway station Astapovo.

According to Nikitina, all four volumes of War and Peace radiate optimism, because “this novel was written in the happy years of Tolstoy’s life, when he felt like a writer with all the strength of his soul, as he himself claimed, thanks to the help of his family, first of all his wife Sophia, who constantly rewrote drafts of his works.”

World work

Why is War and Peace considered such a global work? How was it possible that a handful of Russian counts, princes and princesses of the 19th century still owned the souls and hearts of the 21st century readership? “My 22-23 year old students are most interested in issues of love and family. Yes, in our time it is possible to create a family, and this is one of the thoughts embedded in Tolstoy’s work,” concludes Petrovitskaya.

“Don’t marry, never, never, my friend; I advise you. Do not marry until you can tell yourself that you have done everything to stop loving the woman you have chosen[...],” says Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, the prototype of the Russian hero, to Pierre Bezukhov, diametrically opposite character, clumsy and melancholy (his glasses keep slipping off, he constantly stumbles upon the dead on the battlefield). He was played by Henry Fonda in the 1956 film adaptation of the novel. The conversation between them takes place in one of the Moscow social salons shortly before Napoleonic invasion of Russia in 1812, but if you strain your ears, you can still hear it today on the bus on the way to work.

What does the title of the novel "War and Peace" mean?

The novel “War and Peace” was initially conceived by Tolstoy as a story about the Decembrists. The author wanted to talk about these wonderful people and their families.

But not just talk about what happened in December 1825 in Russia, but show how the participants in these events came to them, which pushed the Decembrists to revolt against the Tsar. The result of Tolstoy’s study of these historical events was the novel “War and Peace,” which tells about the birth of the Decembrist movement against the backdrop of the War of 1812.

What is the meaning of Tolstoy's War and Peace? Is it only to convey to the reader the moods and aspirations of people for whom the fate of Russia was important after the war against Napoleon? Or is it to show once again that “war... is an event contrary to human reason and all human nature”? Or maybe Tolstoy wanted to emphasize that our life consists of contrasts between war and peace, meanness and honor, evil and good.

One can now only guess about why the author named his work this way and what the meaning of the title “War and Peace” is. But, reading and re-reading the work, you are once again convinced that the entire narrative in it is built on the struggle of opposites.

Contrasts of the novel

In the work, the reader is constantly faced with the opposition of various concepts, characters, and destinies.

What is war? And is it always accompanied by the death of hundreds and thousands of people? After all, there are bloodless, quiet wars, invisible to many, but no less significant for one specific person. Sometimes it even happens that this person is not aware that military operations are taking place around him.

For example, while Pierre was trying to figure out how to behave correctly with his dying father, in the same house there was a war between Prince Vasily and Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya. Anna Mikhailovna “fought” on Pierre’s side only because it was beneficial to herself, but still, largely thanks to her, Pierre became Count Pyotr Kirillovich Bezukhov.

In this “battle” for the briefcase with the will, it was decided whether Pierre would be unknown, useless, a bastard thrown overboard of the ship of life, or become a rich heir, a count and an enviable groom. In fact, it was here that it was decided whether Pierre Bezukhov could eventually become what he became at the end of the novel? Perhaps if he had to survive from bread to water, his life priorities would be completely different.

Reading these lines, you clearly feel how contemptuously Tolstoy treats the “military actions” of Prince Vasily and Anna Mikhailovna. And at the same time, one can feel good-natured irony in relation to Pierre, who is absolutely unadapted to life. What is this if not the contrast between the “war” of meanness and the “peace” of good-natured naivety?

What is “world” in Tolstoy’s novel? The world is the romantic universe of young Natasha Rostova, the good nature of Pierre, the religiosity and kindness of Princess Marya. Even the old Prince Bolkonsky, with his paramilitary arrangement of life and nagging towards his son and daughter, is on the side of the author’s “peace”.

After all, in his “world” reigns decency, honesty, dignity, naturalness - all those qualities that Tolstoy endows with his favorite heroes. These are the Bolkonskys and Rostovs, and Pierre Bezukhov, and Marya Dmitrievna, and even Kutuzov and Bagration. Despite the fact that readers meet Kutuzov only on the battlefields, he is clearly a representative of the “world” of goodness and mercy, wisdom and honor.

What do soldiers protect in war when they fight against invaders? Why do completely illogical situations sometimes occur, when “one battalion is sometimes stronger than a division,” as Prince Andrei said? Because when defending their country, soldiers are defending more than just “space”. And Kutuzov, and Bolkonsky, and Dolokhov, and Denisov, and all the soldiers, militias, partisans, they all fight for the world in which their relatives and friends live, where their children grow up, where their wives and parents remain, for their country. This is precisely what causes that “warmth of patriotism that was in all... people... and which explained... why all these people were calmly and seemingly frivolously preparing for death.”

The contrast, emphasized by the meaning of the title of the novel “War and Peace,” is manifested in everything. Wars: the war of 1805, alien and unnecessary to the Russian people, and the Patriotic War people's war 1812.

The confrontation between honest and decent people - the Rostovs, Bolkonskys, Pierre Bezukhov - and the “drones”, as Tolstoy called them - the Drubetskys, Kuragins, Berg, Zherkov, is sharply revealed.

Even within each circle there are contrasts: the Rostovs are contrasted with the Bolkonskys. The noble, friendly, albeit bankrupt Rostov family - to the rich, but at the same time lonely and homeless, Pierre.

A very vivid contrast between Kutuzov, calm, wise, natural in his weariness from life, an old warrior and a narcissistic, decoratively pompous Napoleon.

It is the contrasts on which the plot of the novel is built that capture and lead the reader throughout the entire narrative.

Conclusion

In my essay “The meaning of the title of the novel “War and Peace”” I wanted to talk about these contrasting concepts. About Tolstoy’s amazing understanding of human psychology, his ability to logically build the history of the development of many personalities over such a long narrative. Lev Nikolaevich tells the history of the Russian state not just as a historian-scientist, the reader seems to live life along with the characters. And gradually he finds answers to eternal questions about love and truth.

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