Introduction
“The subject of history is the life of peoples and humanity,” this is how L.N. Tolstoy begins the second part of the epilogue of the epic novel “War and Peace.” He further asks the question: “What force moves nations?” Reflecting on these “theories,” Tolstoy comes to the conclusion that: “The life of peoples does not fit into the lives of a few people, because the connection between these several people and nations has not been found...” In other words, Tolstoy says that the role of the people in history is undeniable, and the eternal truth that history is made by the people was proven by him in his novel. “People's thought” in Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” is indeed one of the main themes of the epic novel.
The people in the novel "War and Peace"
Many readers understand the word “people” not quite the way Tolstoy understands it. Lev Nikolaevich means by “people” not only soldiers, peasants, men, not only that “huge mass” driven by some force. For Tolstoy, the “people” included officers, generals, and the nobility. This is Kutuzov, and Bolkonsky, and the Rostovs, and Bezukhov - this is all of humanity, embraced by one thought, one deed, one purpose. All the main characters of Tolstoy's novel are directly connected with their people and are inseparable from them.
Heroes of the novel and “folk thought”
The fates of the beloved heroes of Tolstoy’s novel are connected with the life of the people. “People's thought” in “War and Peace” runs like a red thread through the life of Pierre Bezukhov. While in captivity, Pierre learned his truth of life. Platon Karataev opened it to Bezukhov, peasant man: “In captivity, in a booth, Pierre learned not with his mind, but with his whole being, life, that man was created for happiness, that happiness is in himself, in the satisfaction of natural human needs, that all unhappiness comes not from lack, but from excess.” . The French offered Pierre to transfer from a soldier's booth to an officer's, but he refused, remaining faithful to those with whom he suffered his fate. And for a long time afterwards he recalled with ecstasy this month of captivity, as “a complete peace of mind, about the perfect inner freedom that he experienced only at this time.”
Andrei Bolkonsky also felt his people at the Battle of Austerlitz. Grabbing the flagpole and rushing forward, he did not think that the soldiers would follow him. And they, seeing Bolkonsky with a banner and hearing: “Guys, go ahead!” rushed at the enemy behind their leader. The unity of officers and ordinary soldiers confirms that the people are not divided into ranks and titles, the people are united, and Andrei Bolkonsky understood this.
Natasha Rostova, leaving Moscow, dumps her family property on the ground and gives away her carts for the wounded. This decision comes to her immediately, without thinking, which suggests that the heroine does not separate herself from the people. Another episode that speaks of the true Russian spirit of Rostova, in which L. Tolstoy himself admires his beloved heroine: “Where, how, when did she suck into herself from the Russian air that she breathed - this countess, raised by a French governess - this spirit, where she got these techniques from... But these spirits and techniques were the same, inimitable, unstudied, Russian.”
And Captain Tushin, who sacrificed own life for the sake of victory, for the sake of Russia. Captain Timokhin, who rushed at the Frenchman with “one skewer.” Denisov, Nikolai Rostov, Petya Rostov and many other Russian people who stood with the people and knew true patriotism.
Tolstoy created collective image people - a united, invincible people, when not only soldiers, troops, but also militias fight. Civilians they help not with weapons, but with their own methods: men burn hay so as not to take it to Moscow, people leave the city only because they do not want to obey Napoleon. This is what “folk thought” is and how it is revealed in the novel. Tolstoy makes it clear that single thought– not to surrender to the enemy – the Russian people are strong. A sense of patriotism is important for all Russian people.
Platon Karataev and Tikhon Shcherbaty
The novel also shows the partisan movement. A prominent representative here was Tikhon Shcherbaty, who fought the French with all his disobedience, dexterity, and cunning. His active work brings success to the Russians. Denisov is proud of his partisan detachment thanks to Tikhon.
Opposite to the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty is the image of Platon Karataev. Kind, wise, with his worldly philosophy, he calms Pierre and helps him survive captivity. Plato's speech is filled with Russian proverbs, which emphasizes his nationality.
Kutuzov and the people
The only commander-in-chief of the army who never separated himself and the people was Kutuzov. “He knew not with his mind or science, but with his whole Russian being, he knew and felt what every Russian soldier felt...” The disunity of the Russian army in the alliance with Austria, the deception of the Austrian army, when the allies abandoned the Russians in battles, were unbearable pain for Kutuzov. To Napoleon’s letter about peace, Kutuzov replied: “I would be damned if they looked at me as the first instigator of any deal: such is the will of our people” (italics by L.N. Tolstoy). Kutuzov did not write on his own behalf, he expressed the opinion of the entire people, all Russian people.
The image of Kutuzov is contrasted with the image of Napoleon, who was very far from his people. He was only interested in personal interest in the struggle for power. An empire of worldwide submission to Bonaparte - and an abyss in the interests of the people. As a result, the war of 1812 was lost, the French fled, and Napoleon was the first to leave Moscow. He abandoned his army, abandoned his people.
Conclusions
In his novel War and Peace, Tolstoy shows that people's power is invincible. And in every Russian person there is “simplicity, goodness and truth.” True patriotism does not measure everyone by rank, does not build a career, does not seek fame. At the beginning of the third volume, Tolstoy writes: “There are two sides of life in every person: personal life, which is the more free the more abstract its interests are, and spontaneous, swarm life, where a person inevitably fulfills the laws prescribed to him.” Laws of honor, conscience, general culture, general history.
This essay on the topic “People's Thought” in the novel “War and Peace” reveals only a small part of what the author wanted to tell us. The people live in the novel in every chapter, in every line.
Work test
“I tried to write the history of the people,” words of L.N. Tolstoy about his novel “War and Peace”. This is not just a phrase: great writer really depicted in the work not so much individual heroes, but the entire people as a whole. “People's thought” defines in the novel and philosophical views Tolstoy, and the depiction of historical events, specific historical figures, and a moral assessment of the actions of the heroes.
“War and Peace,” as Yu.V. rightly noted. Lebedev, “this is a book about different phases in historical life 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 family spheres of the Rostovs - Bolkonskys and in the events of the war of 1805, lost by the Russians. Then, according to Tolstoy, another historical stage of Russia opens in 1812, when the unity of people, “people's thought,” triumphs. “War and Peace” is a multi-part and integral narrative about how the principles of selfishness and disunity lead to disaster, but are met with opposition from the elements of “peace” and “unity” rising from the depths people's Russia" Tolstoy called for “leaving kings, ministers and generals alone,” and studying the history of peoples, “infinitesimal elements,” since they play a decisive role in the development of mankind. What force moves 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 throughout the course of the narrative.
The great Russian writer argues in the novel with the cult of the outstanding woman, which was very widespread at that time in Russia and abroad. historical figure. This cult relied heavily on the teachings of the German philosopher Hegel. According to Hegel, the closest guides of the World Mind, which determines the destinies of peoples and states, are great people who are the first to guess what is given to them to understand only and is not given to the mass of people, the passive material of history, to understand. These views of Hegel were directly reflected in the inhumane theory of Rodion Raskolnikov (“Crime and Punishment”), who divided all people into “lords” and “trembling creatures.” Leo Tolstoy, like Dostoevsky, “saw in this teaching something godless and inhuman, fundamentally contrary to Russian moral ideal. Tolstoy does not have an exceptional personality, but folk life in general it turns out to be the most sensitive organism that responds to hidden meaning historical movement. The calling of a great man lies in the ability to listen to the will of the majority, to the “collective subject” of history, to the life of the people.”
Therefore, the writer’s attention is drawn primarily to the life of the people: peasants, soldiers, officers - those who form the very basis of it. Tolstoy “poeticizes in “War and Peace” the people as a whole spiritual unity of people, based on strong, age-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 shows on the pages of the novel that the historical process does not depend on whim or bad mood one person. It is impossible to predict or change the direction of historical events, since they depend on everyone and no one individually.
We can say that the will of the commander does not affect the outcome of the battle, because no 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 where 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. That's why Napoleon didn't lose Battle of Borodino or Kutuzov won it, and the Russian people won 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 popular meaning of events,” i.e. “guess” the entire pattern of historical events. And the source of this brilliant insight was that “national feeling” that the great commander carried in his soul. It is understanding folk character historical processes allowed Kutuzov, according to Tolstoy, to win not only the Battle of Borodino, but also the entire military campaign and fulfill his destiny - to save Russia from the Napoleonic invasion.
Tolstoy notes that it was not only the Russian army that opposed Napoleon. “The feeling of revenge that lay in the soul of every person” and the entire Russian people gave rise to partisan warfare. “The partisans destroyed the great army piece by piece. There were small, prefabricated parties, on foot and on horseback, there were peasant and landowner parties, unknown to anyone. The head of the party was a sexton who took several hundred prisoners a month. There was an elder, Vasilisa, who killed a hundred Frenchmen.” The “club of the people’s war” rose and fell on the heads of the French until the entire invasion was destroyed.
This people's war arose soon after the Russian troops abandoned Smolensk and continued until the very end of hostilities on Russian territory. What awaited Napoleon was not a ceremonial reception with the keys to the surrendered cities, but 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 Marya, Pierre Bezukhov, Denisov, Dolokhov. All of them, in a moment of terrible trial, 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, which reflected human destinies and the people’s fate, which became the main object of study for the writer in this great work.
Tolstoy believed that a work can be good only when the writer loves his main idea in it. In War and Peace, the writer, as he admitted, loved "people's thought". It lies not only and not so much in the depiction of the people themselves, their way of life, their life, but in the fact that every positive hero of the novel ultimately connects his fate with the fate of the nation.
The crisis situation in the country, caused by the rapid advance of Napoleonic troops deep into Russia, revealed their best qualities, made it possible to take a closer look at the man who was previously perceived by the nobles only as an obligatory attribute of the landowner’s estate, whose lot was hard peasant labor. When a serious threat of enslavement loomed over Russia, men dressed in soldiers' greatcoats, forgetting their long-standing sorrows and grievances, together with the “gentlemen” courageously and steadfastly defended their homeland from a powerful enemy. Commanding a regiment, Andrei Bolkonsky for the first time saw patriotic heroes in the serfs, ready to die to save the fatherland. These are the main human values, in the spirit of “simplicity, goodness and truth,” according to Tolstoy, and represent “folk thought,” which constitutes the soul of the novel and its main meaning. It is she who unites the peasantry with the best part of the nobility with a single goal - the fight for the freedom of the Fatherland. The peasantry, which organized partisan detachments that fearlessly exterminated the French army in the rear, played a huge role in the final destruction of the enemy.
By the word “people” Tolstoy understood the entire patriotic population of Russia, including the peasantry, the urban poor, the nobility, and the merchant class. The author poetizes the simplicity, kindness, and morality of the people, contrasting them with the falsehood and hypocrisy of the world. Tolstoy shows the dual psychology of the peasantry using the example of two of its typical representatives: Tikhon Shcherbaty and Platon Karataev.
Tikhon Shcherbaty stands out in Denisov’s detachment for his unusual daring, agility and desperate courage. This man, who at first fought alone against the “miroders” in his native village, attached to Denisov’s partisan detachment, soon became the most useful person in the detachment. Tolstoy concentrated in this hero typical features Russian folk character. The image of Platon Karataev shows a different type of Russian peasant. With his humanity, kindness, simplicity, indifference to hardships, and a sense of collectivism, this inconspicuous “round” man was able to return to Pierre Bezukhov, who was in captivity, faith in people, goodness, love, and justice. His spiritual qualities are contrasted with the arrogance, selfishness and careerism of the highest St. Petersburg society. Platon Karataev remained the most precious memory for Pierre, “the personification of everything Russian, good and round.”
In the images of Tikhon Shcherbaty and Platon Karataev, Tolstoy concentrated the main qualities of the Russian people, who appear in the novel in the person of soldiers, partisans, servants, peasants, and the urban poor. Both heroes are dear to the writer’s heart: Plato as the embodiment of “everything Russian, good and round,” all those qualities (patriarchalism, gentleness, humility, non-resistance, religiosity) that the writer highly valued among the Russian peasantry; Tikhon is the embodiment of a heroic people who rose up to fight, but only at a critical, exceptional time for the country (the Patriotic War of 1812). Tolstoy condemns Tikhon’s rebellious sentiments in peacetime.
Tolstoy correctly assessed the nature and goals of the Patriotic War of 1812, deeply understood the decisive role of the people defending their homeland in the war from foreign invaders, rejecting official assessments of the war of 1812 as a war of two emperors - Alexander and Napoleon. On the pages of the novel and, especially in the second part of the epilogue, Tolstoy says that until now all history has been written as the history of individuals, as a rule, tyrants, monarchs, and no one thought about what is driving force history. According to Tolstoy, this is the so-called “swarm principle”, the spirit and will of not one person, but the nation as a whole, and how strong the spirit and will of the people are, so probable are certain historical events. IN Patriotic War Tolstoy’s two wills collided: 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 Motherland, so their spirit and will to win turned out to be stronger than the French spirit and will. Therefore, Russia's victory over France was predetermined.
The main idea determined not only art form works, but also characters, assessment of his heroes. The War of 1812 became a milestone, a test for everyone goodies in the novel: for Prince Andrei, who feels an extraordinary uplift before the Battle of Borodino, believes in victory; for Pierre Bezukhov, all of whose thoughts are aimed at helping to expel the invaders; for Natasha, who gave the carts to the wounded, because it was impossible not to give them back, it was shameful and disgusting not to give them back; for Petya Rostov, who takes part in the hostilities of a partisan detachment and dies in a battle with the enemy; for Denisov, Dolokhov, even Anatoly Kuragin. All these people, throwing away everything personal, become one and participate in the formation of the will to win.
Subject guerrilla warfare occupies a special place in the novel. Tolstoy emphasizes that the war of 1812 was truly a people's war, because the people themselves rose up to fight the invaders. The detachments of elders Vasilisa Kozhina and Denis Davydov were already operating, and the heroes of the novel, Vasily Denisov and Dolokhov, were also creating their own detachments. Tolstoy calls the brutal, life-and-death war “the club of the people’s war”: “The club of the people’s war rose with all its formidable and majestic force, and, without asking anyone’s tastes and rules, with stupid simplicity, but with expediency, without understanding nothing, rose, fell and nailed the French until the entire invasion was destroyed.” In the actions of the partisan detachments of 1812, Tolstoy saw the highest form of unity between the people and the army, which radically changed the attitude towards war.
Tolstoy glorifies the “club of the people’s war”, glorifies the people who raised it against the enemy. “Karps and Vlass” did not sell hay to the French even for good money, but burned it, thereby undermining the enemy army. The small merchant Ferapontov, before the French entered Smolensk, asked the soldiers to take his goods for free, since if “Raceya decided,” he himself would burn everything. Residents of Moscow and Smolensk did the same, burning their houses so that they would not fall to the enemy. The Rostovs, leaving Moscow, gave up all their carts to transport the wounded, thus completing their ruin. Pierre Bezukhov invested huge amounts of money in the formation of a regiment, which he took as his own support, while he himself remained in Moscow, hoping to kill Napoleon in order to behead the enemy army.
“And good for that people,” wrote Lev Nikolaevich, “who, not like the French in 1813, saluted according to all the rules of art and turned the sword over with the hilt, gracefully and courteously handing it over to the magnanimous winner, but good for those people who, in a moment of testing, without asking how others acted according to the rules similar cases, with simplicity and ease, picks up the first club he comes across and nails it until in his soul the feeling of insult and revenge is replaced by contempt and pity.”
The true feeling of love for the Motherland is contrasted with the ostentatious, false patriotism of Rostopchin, who, instead of fulfilling the duty assigned to him - to remove everything valuable from Moscow - worried the people with the distribution of weapons and posters, since he liked the “beautiful role of the leader of popular feeling.” At an important time for Russia, this false patriot dreamed only of a “heroic effect.” When huge amount people sacrificed their lives to save their homeland, the St. Petersburg nobility wanted only one thing for themselves: benefits and pleasures. A bright type of careerist is given in the image of Boris Drubetsky, who skillfully and deftly used connections and the sincere goodwill of people, pretending to be a patriot, in order to move up the career ladder. The problem of true and false patriotism, staged by the writer, allowed him to broadly and comprehensively paint a picture of military everyday life and express his attitude towards the war.
The aggressive, aggressive war was hateful and disgusting to Tolstoy, but, from the point of view of the people, it was fair and liberating. The writer's views are revealed both in realistic paintings, saturated with blood, death and suffering, and in the contrasting comparison of the eternal harmony of nature with the madness of people killing each other. Tolstoy often puts his own thoughts about the war into the mouths of his favorite heroes. Andrei Bolkonsky hates her because he understands that her main goal is murder, which is accompanied by treason, theft, robbery, and drunkenness.
Tolstoy believed that a work can be good only when the writer loves his main idea in it. In War and Peace, the writer, as he admitted, loved "people's thought". It lies not only and not so much in the depiction of the people themselves, their way of life, their life, but in the fact that every positive hero of the novel ultimately connects his fate with the fate of the nation.
The crisis situation in the country, caused by the rapid advance of Napoleonic troops into the depths of Russia, revealed their best qualities in people and made it possible to take a closer look at the man who was previously perceived by the nobles only as an obligatory attribute of the landowner’s estate, whose lot was hard peasant labor. When a serious threat of enslavement loomed over Russia, men dressed in soldiers' greatcoats, forgetting their long-standing sorrows and grievances, together with the “gentlemen” courageously and steadfastly defended their homeland from a powerful enemy. Commanding a regiment, Andrei Bolkonsky for the first time saw patriotic heroes in the serfs, ready to die to save the fatherland. These main human values, in the spirit of “simplicity, goodness and truth,” according to Tolstoy, represent “folk thought,” which constitutes the soul of the novel and its main meaning. It is she who unites the peasantry with the best part of the nobility with a single goal - the fight for the freedom of the Fatherland. The peasantry, which organized partisan detachments that fearlessly exterminated the French army in the rear, played a huge role in the final destruction of the enemy.
By the word “people” Tolstoy understood the entire patriotic population of Russia, including the peasantry, the urban poor, the nobility, and the merchant class. The author poetizes the simplicity, kindness, and morality of the people, contrasting them with the falsehood and hypocrisy of the world. Tolstoy shows the dual psychology of the peasantry using the example of two of its typical representatives: Tikhon Shcherbaty and Platon Karataev.
Tikhon Shcherbaty stands out in Denisov’s detachment for his unusual daring, agility and desperate courage. This man, who at first fought alone against the “miroders” in his native village, attached to Denisov’s partisan detachment, soon became the most useful person in the detachment. Tolstoy concentrated in this hero the typical features of the Russian folk character. The image of Platon Karataev shows a different type of Russian peasant. With his humanity, kindness, simplicity, indifference to hardships, and a sense of collectivism, this inconspicuous “round” man was able to return to Pierre Bezukhov, who was in captivity, faith in people, goodness, love, and justice. His spiritual qualities are contrasted with the arrogance, selfishness and careerism of the highest St. Petersburg society. Platon Karataev remained the most precious memory for Pierre, “the personification of everything Russian, good and round.”
In the images of Tikhon Shcherbaty and Platon Karataev, Tolstoy concentrated the main qualities of the Russian people, who appear in the novel in the person of soldiers, partisans, servants, peasants, and the urban poor. Both heroes are dear to the writer’s heart: Plato as the embodiment of “everything Russian, good and round,” all those qualities (patriarchalism, gentleness, humility, non-resistance, religiosity) that the writer highly valued among the Russian peasantry; Tikhon is the embodiment of a heroic people who rose up to fight, but only at a critical, exceptional time for the country (the Patriotic War of 1812). Tolstoy condemns Tikhon’s rebellious sentiments in peacetime.
Tolstoy correctly assessed the nature and goals of the Patriotic War of 1812, deeply understood the decisive role of the people defending their homeland in the war from foreign invaders, rejecting official assessments of the war of 1812 as a war of two emperors - Alexander and Napoleon. On the pages of the novel and, especially in the second part of the epilogue, Tolstoy says that until now all history was written as the history of individuals, as a rule, tyrants, monarchs, and no one 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 nation as a whole, and how strong the spirit and will of the people are, so probable are certain historical events. In Tolstoy’s Patriotic War, two wills collided: 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 Motherland, so their spirit and will to win turned out to be stronger than the French spirit and will. Therefore, Russia's victory over France was predetermined.
The main idea determined not only the artistic form of the work, but also the characters and the assessment of its heroes. The War of 1812 became a milestone, a test for all the good characters in the novel: for Prince Andrei, who feels an extraordinary uplift before the Battle of Borodino and believes in victory; for Pierre Bezukhov, all of whose thoughts are aimed at helping to expel the invaders; for Natasha, who gave the carts to the wounded, because it was impossible not to give them back, it was shameful and disgusting not to give them back; for Petya Rostov, who takes part in the hostilities of a partisan detachment and dies in a battle with the enemy; for Denisov, Dolokhov, even Anatoly Kuragin. All these people, throwing away everything personal, become one and participate in the formation of the will to win.
The theme of guerrilla warfare occupies a special place in the novel. Tolstoy emphasizes that the war of 1812 was truly a people's war, because the people themselves rose up to fight the invaders. The detachments of elders Vasilisa Kozhina and Denis Davydov were already operating, and the heroes of the novel, Vasily Denisov and Dolokhov, were also creating their own detachments. Tolstoy calls the brutal, life-and-death war “the club of the people’s war”: “The club of the people’s war rose with all its formidable and majestic force, and, without asking anyone’s tastes and rules, with stupid simplicity, but with expediency, without understanding nothing, rose, fell and nailed the French until the entire invasion was destroyed.” In the actions of the partisan detachments of 1812, Tolstoy saw the highest form of unity between the people and the army, which radically changed the attitude towards war.
Tolstoy glorifies the “club of the people’s war”, glorifies the people who raised it against the enemy. “Karps and Vlass” did not sell hay to the French even for good money, but burned it, thereby undermining the enemy army. The small merchant Ferapontov, before the French entered Smolensk, asked the soldiers to take his goods for free, since if “Raceya decided,” he himself would burn everything. Residents of Moscow and Smolensk did the same, burning their houses so that they would not fall to the enemy. The Rostovs, leaving Moscow, gave up all their carts to transport the wounded, thus completing their ruin. Pierre Bezukhov invested huge amounts of money in the formation of a regiment, which he took as his own support, while he himself remained in Moscow, hoping to kill Napoleon in order to behead the enemy army.
“And good for that people,” wrote Lev Nikolaevich, “who, not like the French in 1813, saluted according to all the rules of art and turned the sword over with the hilt, gracefully and courteously handing it over to the magnanimous winner, but good for those people who, in a moment of testing, without asking how others acted according to the rules in similar cases, with simplicity and ease he picks up the first club he comes across and nails it until in his soul the feeling of insult and revenge is replaced by contempt and pity.”
The true feeling of love for the Motherland is contrasted with the ostentatious, false patriotism of Rostopchin, who, instead of fulfilling the duty assigned to him - to remove everything valuable from Moscow - worried the people with the distribution of weapons and posters, since he liked the “beautiful role of the leader of popular feeling.” At an important time for Russia, this false patriot dreamed only of a “heroic effect.” When a huge number of people sacrificed their lives to save their homeland, the St. Petersburg nobility wanted only one thing for themselves: benefits and pleasures. A bright type of careerist is given in the image of Boris Drubetsky, who skillfully and deftly used connections and the sincere goodwill of people, pretending to be a patriot, in order to move up the career ladder. The problem of true and false patriotism posed by the writer allowed him to broadly and comprehensively paint a picture of military everyday life and express his attitude towards the war.
The aggressive, aggressive war was hateful and disgusting to Tolstoy, but, from the point of view of the people, it was fair and liberating. The writer's views are revealed both in realistic paintings, saturated with blood, death and suffering, and in the contrasting comparison of the eternal harmony of nature with the madness of people killing each other. Tolstoy often puts his own thoughts about the war into the mouths of his favorite heroes. Andrei Bolkonsky hates her because he understands that her main goal is murder, which is accompanied by treason, theft, robbery, and drunkenness.
The novel by L.N. Tolstoy was created in the 1860s. This time became in Russia a period of the highest activity of the peasant masses and the rise of the social movement.
The central theme of the literature of the 60s of the 19th 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, philistines, and patriotic patriarchal nobility. Of course, all these layers are included in Tolstoy’s understanding of the word “people,” but only when they are bearers of morality. Everything that is immoral is excluded by Tolstoy from the concept of “people”.
With his work, the writer affirmed the decisive role of the masses in history. In his opinion, the role of an outstanding personality in the development of society is insignificant. No matter how brilliant a person is, he cannot at will direct the movement of history, dictate his will to it, or control the actions of a huge mass of people living a spontaneous, swarm life. History is made by people, the masses, the people, and not by a person who has risen above the people and taken upon himself the right to predict the direction of events at his own request.
Tolstoy divides life into upward and downward, centrifugal and centripetal. Kutuzov, to whom the natural course of world events within its national-historical boundaries is open, is the embodiment of the centripetal, ascending forces of history. The writer emphasizes the moral height of Kutuzov, since this hero is associated with the masses ordinary people joint goals and actions, love for the homeland. He receives his strength from the people, he 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 was of national significance: “It is difficult to imagine a goal more worthy and more consistent with the will of the entire people.” Tolstoy emphasizes the purposefulness of all Kutuzov’s actions, the concentration of all forces on the task that confronted the entire Russian people in the course of history. An exponent of popular patriotic feeling, Kutuzov also becomes the guiding force of popular resistance, raising the spirit of the troops he commands.
Tolstoy portrays Kutuzov as 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 contrasted with 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 meaning great personality the author sees the feeling of history as the will of providence. Great people like Kutuzov, possessing a moral sense, their experience, intelligence and consciousness, guess the requirements of historical necessity.
“People's thought” 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. Independence privacy from the political game of the elite emphasizes indissoluble bond heroes with the life of the people. The viability of each character is tested by “popular thought.”
She helps Pierre Bezukhov discover and demonstrate his best qualities; The soldiers call Andrei Bolkonsky “our prince”; Natasha Rostova takes out carts for the wounded; Marya Bolkonskaya rejects Mademoiselle Burien's offer to remain in Napoleon's power.
Closeness to the people is most clearly manifested in the image of Natasha, in whom Russian was originally inherent national character. In the scene after the hunt, Natasha listens with pleasure to the playing and singing of her uncle, who “sang like the people sing,” and then she dances “The Lady.” And everyone around her is amazed at her ability to understand everything that was in every Russian person: “Where, how, when did this countess, raised by a French emigrant, suck into herself this spirit from this Russian air that she breathed?”
If Natasha is completely characterized by Russian character traits, then in Prince Andrei Russian beginning interrupted by the Napoleonic idea; however, it is precisely the peculiarities of the Russian character that help him understand all the deceit and hypocrisy of Napoleon, his idol.
Pierre gets into peasant world, and the life of the villagers gives him serious thoughts.
The hero realizes his equality with the people, even recognizes the superiority of these people. The more he understands the essence and strength of the people, the more he admires them. The strength of the 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 do things that are impossible not to do. People do not act according to orders, but obeying 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 looming over the entire society.
The novel shows the greatness and simplicity of the life of a swarm, when everyone does their part of the common cause, and a person is driven not by instinct, but by laws public life, as Tolstoy understands them. And such a swarm, or world, consists not of an impersonal mass, but of individual individuals who do not lose their individuality in merging with the swarm. This includes the merchant Ferapontov, who burns his house so that it does not fall to the enemy, and Moscow residents who leave the capital simply for the consideration that it is impossible to live in it under Bonaparte, even if there is no danger. Participants swarm life there are the peasants Karp and Vlas, who do not give the hay to the French, and that Moscow lady who left Moscow with her araps and pugs back in June out of the consideration that “she is not Bonaparte’s servant.” All these people are active participants in the people’s, swarm’s life.
Thus, the people for Tolstoy are a complex phenomenon. The writer did not consider the common people an easily controlled mass, since he understood them much more deeply. In a work where “folk thought” is in the foreground, a variety of manifestations of folk 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 merciless towards enemies, this character is natural, but Tolstoy has little sympathy. The image of this character is ambiguous, just as the image of Platon Karataev is ambiguous.
When meeting and getting to know Platon Karataev, Pierre is struck by the warmth, good nature, comfort, and calmness emanating from this man. It is perceived almost symbolically, as something round, warm and smelling of bread. Karataev is characterized by amazing adaptability to circumstances, the ability to “get used to” 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 presents his reasoning in parable form. This, for example, is the legend about an innocently convicted merchant suffering “for his own and for other people’s sins,” the meaning of which is that you must humble yourself and love life, even when you suffer.
And yet, unlike Tikhon Shcherbaty, Karataev is hardly capable of decisive action; his good looks lead to passivity. He is contrasted in the novel with Bogucharov’s men, who rebelled and spoke out for their interests.
Along with true nationality, Tolstoy also shows pseudo-nationality, a counterfeit of it. This is reflected in the images of Rostopchin and Speransky - specific historical figures who, although they are trying to assume the right to speak on behalf of the people, have nothing in common with them.
In the work itself artistic storytelling at times it is interrupted by historical and philosophical digressions, similar in style to journalism. Pathos philosophical digressions Tolstoy is directed against liberal-bourgeois military historians and writers. According to the writer, “the world denies war.” Thus, the device of antithesis is used to describe the dam that Russian soldiers see during the retreat after Austerlitz - ruined and ugly. In times of peace, it was surrounded by greenery, neat and well-built.
Thus, in Tolstoy’s work the question of man’s moral responsibility to history is especially acute.
So, in Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” people come closest to spiritual unity, since it is the people, according to the writer, who are the bearers of spiritual values. The heroes who embody “popular thought” are in a constant search for truth, and therefore, in development. In spiritual unity the writer sees the path to overcoming the contradictions of contemporary life. The War of 1812 was a real historical event where the idea spiritual unity came true.
The novel "War and Peace" was conceived as a novel about a Decembrist returning after an amnesty in 1856. But the more Tolstoy worked with archival materials, the more he realized that without telling about the uprising itself, and, more deeply, about the War of 1812, it was impossible to write this novel. Thus, the concept of the novel gradually transformed, and Tolstoy created a grandiose epic. At the center of the novel is L.N. Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” contains an image of the Patriotic War of 1812, which stirred up the entire Russian people, showed the whole world its power and strength, and brought forward ordinary Russian heroes and the great commander - Kutuzov. At the same time, great historical upheavals revealed the true nature of everyone individual person, showed his attitude towards the Fatherland. Tolstoy depicts war like a realist writer: in hard work, blood, suffering, death. Also L.N. Tolstoy sought to reveal in his work national significance war, which united the entire 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 ordinary people: Platon Karataev and Tikhon Shcherbaty, Petya Rostov and Denisov... Can you list them all? In other words, the battle painter paints 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 main idea novel - \"folk thought\". It lies not only in the depiction of the people themselves, their way of life, their 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 all 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 is the spirit and will of the people, so probable are certain historical events. So Tolstoy explains the victory in the Patriotic War by the fact that two wills collided: 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 Motherland, so their spirit and will to win turned out to be stronger than the French spirit and will. Therefore, Russia’s victory over France was predetermined. The War of 1812 became a milestone, a test for all the good characters in the novel: for Prince Andrei, who feels an extraordinary upsurge before the Battle of Borodino, faith in victory for Pierre Bezukhov, all of whose thoughts are aimed at helping the 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 back, it was shameful and disgusting not to give them, for Petya Rostov, who takes part in the hostilities of a partisan detachment and dies in a battle with the enemy, for Denisova and Dolokhova. All these people, throwing away everything personal, become one and participate in the formation of the will to win. This will to win is especially clearly manifested in crowd scenes: in the scene of the surrender of Smolensk, let us remember the merchant Ferapontov, who, succumbing to some unknown, inner strength, orders all his goods to be distributed to the soldiers, and what cannot be taken out - to be set on fire, in the scene of preparation for the Battle of Borodino, the soldiers put on white shirts, as if preparing for the last battle, in the scene of the battle of the partisans with 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 up to fight the invaders.
The detachments of elders Vasilisa Kozhina and Denis Davydov were already operating, and the heroes of the novel, Vasily Denisov and Dolokhov, were also creating their own detachments. Subject people's war finds its vivid expression in the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty. The image of this hero is ambiguous; in Denisov’s detachment he performs the most “dirty” and dangerous work. He is merciless towards his enemies, but it was largely thanks to such people that Russia won the war with Napoleon. The image of Platon Karataev, who, under conditions of captivity, again turned to his roots, is also ambiguous. Watching him, Pierre Bezukhov understands that the living life of the world is above all speculation and that happiness lies in himself. However, unlike Tikhon Shcherbatogo Karataev He 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 talks about the plight of peasants oppressed by serfdom. The leading people of their time, Prince Bolkonsky and Count Bezukhov, are trying to ease the lot of the peasants. In conclusion, we can say that L.N. Tolstoy in his work tries
to prove to the reader the idea that the people have 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
