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 the ratio of 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, they were indignant that “mir” 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 land globe, light; || all people, the whole world, the human race; || community, society of peasants; || gathering. In the last meaning The world can be rural or rural. 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. World 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. There is a feast in the day, and peace in the night 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 occurs 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 a publisher's mistake had crept into modern publications. 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.
Candidate of Philological Sciences N. Eskova
I think many people don’t even suspect that there is such a “problem”: they believe in their simplicity that Tolstoy’s novel is about war and the absence of war. Some even dare to admit that they are more willing to read “the world.”
However, in lately a version arose that such an understanding simplifies the meaning of the great epic, that everything is much deeper, that by the word “world” the author meant the people, society and even the universe. This version did not arise entirely out of nowhere (one of its “sources” will be discussed further).
Nowadays, with his desire to revise everything and everyone, this version has even become “fashionable”. No, no, yes, and you will meet in periodicals a statement in favor of a “deeper” understanding of Tolstoy’s novel. I will give two examples.
In an article dedicated to new production Prokofiev's opera "War and Peace" at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, the author incidentally notes: "... let us remember that the world in the title of the novel is not at all the antonym of war, but society and more broadly, the Universe" ("Literary Newspaper"). That’s what it says: “let’s remember”!
But interesting confession. “When I learned (probably as a student) about the meaning that Tolstoy put into the title “War and Peace” and was lost due to the new spelling, I was kind of wounded, it was so common to perceive it precisely as the alternation of war and non-war.” (S. Borovikov. In the Russian genre. Above the pages of “War and Peace” // “New World”, 1999, No. 9.) The author of this statement would get rid of the feeling of vulnerability if at least once in his life he “held in his hands” a pre-revolutionary publication of the novel!
We have come to what we will talk about next. It is well known that two homonym words, now spelled the same, differed in pre-revolutionary orthography: spelling peace- With And(the so-called “octal”) conveyed a word that had the meaning “absence of quarrel, enmity, disagreement, war; harmony, agreement, unanimity, affection, friendship, goodwill; silence, peace, tranquility” (see V. I. Dahl’s Explanatory Dictionary ). Writing world- With i(“decimal”) corresponded to the meanings “universe, globe, human race.”
It would seem that the question of which “world” appears in the title of Tolstoy’s novel should not arise: it is enough to find out how this name was printed in pre-revolutionary editions of the novel!
But an incident happened that I want to tell you about, without skimping on the details, in order to put an end to the “problem” forever.
Back in 1982 (when the TV show “What? Where? When?” was not yet an “intellectual casino” with millions in bets), “experts” were asked a question related to the great novel. The first page of the first volume appeared on the screen, at the top of which was the title: “WAR AND PEACE.” It was asked to answer how the meaning of the second word in the title of the novel should be understood. The answer was that, judging by the writing world, Tolstoy did not mean “the absence of war,” as naive readers assume. The stern voice-over of the presenter V. Ya. Voroshilov summarized that until now many did not understand deeply enough philosophical meaning great work.
In a word, everything was explained “exactly the opposite.” According to the old spelling, the title of the novel was written through and (mir). The “incident” with the title of Mayakovsky’s poem “War and Peace” is well known, which he had the opportunity to contrast spellingly with the title of Tolstoy’s novel. After the spelling reform of 1917-1918, this had to be reported in a note.
Let us return, however, to what was said above: on the TV screen, millions of viewers saw the writing “WAR and PEACE”. What edition of the novel was demonstrated? There was no answer to this question from television, but in the commentary to the novel in the 90-volume full meeting works contains an indication of this edition of 1913, edited by P.I. Biryukov - the only one in which the title was printed with i (see vol. 16, 1955, pp. 101-102).
Having turned to this publication, I discovered that the writing world is presented in it only once, despite the fact that in four volumes the title is reproduced eight times: on the title page and on the first page of each volume. The world was printed seven times and only once - on the first page of the first volume - the world (see illustration). It was this page, shown on television, that was intended to revolutionize the understanding of the meaning of the great novel!
My attempt at that time to expose the mistake of the “experts” on the pages of the Literary Gazette failed. And on December 23, 2000, in a program dedicated to the 25th anniversary of " intellectual club" "What? Where? When?”, a question was asked, labeled “retro.” The same page with the inscription “WAR and PEACE” appeared on the screen, the same question was repeated and the same answer was given.
The TV viewer who sent this page to the “experts” might not have known that the world was printed on the title of the same volume! But experts did not bother to check the question. And with an interval of twenty years the same mistake was repeated.
In conclusion, I will make one assumption. In the popular book by S. G. Bocharov “L. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” (M., 1987) there is a statement: “The title of Tolstoy’s future book was as if predicted in the words of Pushkin’s chronicler:
Describe without further ado,
All that you will witness in life:
War and peace, the rule of sovereigns,
Holy miracles for the saints..."
(P. 146, footnote.)
Perhaps these words of the great poet suggested to Tolstoy the name of his great epic?
17.12.2013145 years ago, a major literary event took place in Russia - the first edition of Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” was published. Separate chapters of the novel had been published earlier - Tolstoy began publishing the first two parts in Katkov’s Russky Vestnik several years earlier, but the “canonical”, complete and revised version of the novel was published only a few years later. Over the century and a half of its existence, this world masterpiece and bestseller has acquired both a mass of scientific research and reader legends. Here are a few interesting facts about the novel that you may not have known.
How did Tolstoy himself evaluate War and Peace?
Leo Tolstoy was very skeptical about his “main works” - the novels “War and Peace” and Anna Karenina.” So, in January 1871, he sent Fet a letter in which he wrote: “How happy I am... that I will never write verbose rubbish like “War” again.” Almost 40 years later, he has not changed his mind. On December 6, 1908, an entry appeared in the writer’s diary: “People love me for those trifles - “War and Peace”, etc., which seem very important to them.” There is even more recent evidence. In the summer of 1909, one of the visitors to Yasnaya Polyana expressed his delight and gratitude to the then generally recognized classic for the creation of “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina”. Tolstoy’s answer was: “It’s the same as if someone came to Edison and said: “I respect you very much because you dance the mazurka well.” I attribute meaning to completely different books.”
Was Tolstoy sincere? Perhaps there was some authorial coquetry here, although the whole image of Tolstoy the Thinker strongly contradicts this guess - he was too serious and unfeigned a person.
"War and Peace" or "War and Peace"?
The name “War Peace” is so familiar that it has already become ingrained into the subcortex. If you ask anyone in the slightest educated person, what is the main work of Russian literature of all times, a good half will say without hesitation: “War and Peace.” Meanwhile, the novel had different options titles: “1805” (an excerpt from the novel was even published under this title), “All’s well that ends well” and “Three Times”.
Associated with the name of Tolstoy's masterpiece famous legend. Often they try to play off the title of the novel. Claiming that the author himself put some ambiguity into it: either Tolstoy meant the opposition of war and peace as the antonym of war, that is, peace, or he used the word “peace” in the meaning of community, society, land...
But the fact is that at the time when the novel was published, such ambiguity could not exist: two words, although pronounced the same, were written differently. Before the spelling reform of 1918, in the first case it was written “mir” (peace), and in the second - “mir” (Universe, society).
There is a legend that Tolstoy allegedly used the word “world” in the title, but all this is the result of a simple misunderstanding. 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.” How could the word “peace” sneak into the name? Here the story bifurcates. According to one version, this very name was handwritten on a document submitted by Leo Tolstoy to M. N. Lavrov, an employee of Katkov’s printing house at the first full publication novel. It is very possible that there really was a typo by the author. This is how the legend arose.
According to another version, the legend could have appeared later due to a typo made during the publication of the novel under the editorship of P. I. Biryukov. In the edition published in 1913, the title of the novel is reproduced eight times: on the title page and on the first page of each volume. “World” was printed seven times and “mir” only once, but on the first page of the first volume.
About the sources of "War and Peace"
When working on the novel, Leo Tolstoy took his sources very seriously. He read a lot of historical and memoir literature. In Tolstoy’s “list of used literature” there were, for example, such academic publications as: the multi-volume “Description of the Patriotic War in 1812”, the history of M. I. Bogdanovich, “The Life of Count Speransky” by M. Korf, “Biography of Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov” by M. . P. Shcherbinina. The writer used materials from French historians Thiers, A. Dumas Sr., Georges Chambray, Maximelien Foix, Pierre Lanfré. There are also studies about Freemasonry and, of course, memoirs of direct participants in the events - Sergei Glinka, Denis Davydov, Alexei Ermolov and many others; there was also a solid list of French memoirists, starting with Napoleon himself.
559 characters
Researchers have calculated the exact number of heroes of War and Peace - there are exactly 559 of them in the book, and 200 of them are completely historical figures. Many of the remaining ones have real prototypes.
In general, working on surnames fictional characters(to come up with first and last names for half a thousand people is already a lot of work), Tolstoy used the following three main ways: he used real names; modified real names; created completely new surnames, but based on real models.
Many episodic characters In the novel, the surnames are quite historical - the book mentions the Razumovskys, Meshcherskys, Gruzinskys, Lopukhins, Arkharovs, etc. But the main characters, as a rule, have quite recognizable, but still fake, encrypted surnames. The reason for this is usually cited as the writer’s reluctance to show the connection of the character with any specific prototype, from which Tolstoy took only some features. These are, for example, Bolkonsky (Volkonsky), Drubetskoy (Trubetskoy), Kuragin (Kurakin), Dolokhov (Dorokhov) and others. But, of course, Tolstoy could not completely abandon fiction - so, on the pages of the novel appear quite noble-sounding, but still not associated with a specific family surnames - Peronskaya, Chatrov, Telyanin, Desalles, etc.
The real prototypes of many of the novel's heroes are also known. So, Vasily Dmitrievich Denisov is a friend of Nikolai Rostov, his prototype was the famous hussar and partisan Denis Davydov.
An acquaintance of the Rostov family, Maria Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, was copied from the widow of Major General Nastasya Dmitrievna Ofrosimova. By the way, she was so colorful that she appeared in another famous work— Alexander Griboyedov portrayed her almost portraitally in his comedy “Woe from Wit.”
Her son, raider and reveler Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov, and later one of the leaders of the partisan movement, embodied the features of several prototypes at once - the war heroes of the partisans Alexander Figner and Ivan Dorokhov, as well as the famous duelist Fyodor Tolstoy the American.
Old Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, an elderly nobleman of Catherine, was inspired by the image of the writer’s maternal grandfather, a representative of the Volkonsky family.
But Tolstoy saw Princess Maria Nikolaevna, the daughter of the old man Bolkonsky and the sister of Prince Andrei, in Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya (in Tolstoy’s marriage), his mother.
Film adaptations
We all know and appreciate the famous Soviet film adaptation of “War and Peace” by Sergei Bondarchuk, released in 1965. The 1956 production of War and Peace by King Vidor is also known, for which the music was written by Nino Rota, and the main roles were played by Hollywood stars first magnitude Audrey Hepburn (Natasha Rostova) and Henry Fonda (Pierre Bezukhov).
And the first film adaptation of the novel appeared just a few years after the death of Leo Tolstoy. The silent film by Pyotr Chardynin was published in 1913; one of the main roles (Andrei Bolkonsky) played in the film famous actor Ivan Mozzhukhin.
Some numbers
Tolstoy wrote and rewrote the novel over the course of 6 years, from 1863 to 1869. As researchers of his work have calculated, the author manually rewrote the text of the novel 8 times, and rewrote individual episodes more than 26 times.
First edition of the novel: twice as long and five times more interesting?
Not everyone knows that in addition to the generally accepted one, there is another version of the novel. This is the very first edition that Leo Tolstoy brought to Moscow to the publisher Mikhail Katkov in 1866 for publication. But Tolstoy was unable to publish the novel this time.
Katkov was interested in continuing to publish it in pieces in his “Russian Bulletin”. Other publishers did not see any commercial potential in the book at all - the novel seemed too long and “irrelevant” to them, so they offered the author to publish it at his own expense. There were other reasons: returning to Yasnaya Polyana Sofya Andreevna demanded from her husband, who could not cope alone with running a large household and looking after children. In addition, in the Chertkovo Library, which had just opened for public use, Tolstoy found a lot of materials that he certainly wanted to use in his book. Therefore, having postponed the publication of the novel, he worked on it for another two years. However, the first version of the book did not disappear - it was preserved in the writer’s archive, was reconstructed and published in 1983 in the 94th volume of “Literary Heritage” by the Nauka publishing house.
Here is what the head of the famous publishing house Igor Zakharov, who published it in 2007, wrote about this version of the novel:
"1. Twice shorter and five times more interesting.
2. There are almost no philosophical digressions.
3. It’s a hundred times easier to read: the entire French text has been replaced by Russian in Tolstoy’s own translation.
4. Much more peace and less war.
5. Happy ending...”
Well, it's our right to choose...
Elena Veshkina
Lev Nikolaevich's novel was called "War and Peace". When the commies came, they simplified the language, removing the “extra”, in their proletarian opinion, letter from the alphabet - here the “mirror of the Russian revolution” became distorted, since the meaning of the name changed. But still, what was it like for Tolstoy?
Once upon a time I heard a version that the word “mir” meant “society” in contrast to “peace” - the absence of war. And this means that L.N. Tolstoy’s novel describes the behavior of Russian society during the war with Napoleon, and not the difference in life during war and during peace. The emphasis has shifted, although the time span there is large - before, during the war and after, so the “new” name seems appropriate.
But today in M. Zadornov’s blog () I read: “... When Tolstoy wrote “War and Peace”, in the word “peace” (few people know this now), instead of our “and” there was the letter “i”, which is still in Belarusian and Ukrainian. “World” meant approximately what the word “Cosmos” means today. Something that has always existed. Universe. ... When the Bolsheviks carried out a reform and replaced the “i” with our “and”, the title of the novel “War and Peace” was simplified. Because the word “peace”, in contrast to “peace”, meant a signed treaty of friendship between peoples after the war. And the greatest literary work, which meant war and the Universe, (if translated into today’s flatter language), turned simply into war and truce."He doesn't explain what secret meaning hidden in the novel with this interpretation.
I went online. I find on the website of the “L.N. Tolstoy School” () confirmation of the words of Mikhail Zadorny:
World
Universe; our Earth, globe; the whole world, all people, the whole human race; community - a society of peasants, their gathering,
Examples: The world is a golden mountain, On the world even death is red. Live in the world (in light, in vanity). In the world that is in the sea. Peace, God help!
World
Absence of quarrel, hostility, disagreement, war; harmony, agreement, unanimity, affection, friendship, silence, peace, tranquility.
Examples: Peace be to your house. Accept in peace. Peace in the soul. Peaceful conversation. Conclude a peace treaty, etc.
But still, the word “mir” has the meaning of “community”. And the fact that the worldly (secular), in contrast to the religious, means for us what is happening in society. I search further and find a sample school essay exactly on this topic (), where it is written: " The fact is that, unlike the modern Russian language, in which the word “peace” is a homonymous pair and denotes, firstly, the state of society opposite to war, and, secondly, human society in general, in the Russian language of the 19th century There were two spellings of the word “peace”: “peace” - the state of absence of war and “peace” - human society, community. The title of the novel in the old spelling included precisely the form “world”. From this one could conclude that the novel is devoted primarily to a problem that is formulated as follows: “War and Russian society.”
And then what I didn’t know: “However, as researchers of Tolstoy’s work have established, the title of the novel did not come into print from the text written by Tolstoy himself. However, the fact that Tolstoy did not correct the spelling that was not agreed with him suggests that the writer was satisfied with both versions of the title.”
The final part seems to reconcile two points of view:
“And finally, “world” for Tolstoy is a synonym for the word “universe,” and it is no coincidence that the novel contains large number general philosophical reasoning. Thus, the concepts of “world” and “mir” in the novel merge into one. That is why the word “peace” in the novel takes on an almost symbolic meaning."
This is the riddle the classic asked us in a three-letter word...
P.S. religious people exclude compromise in the interpretation of these words (): "... It is also no coincidence that the words “peace” and “mir” were written differently before the post-revolutionary reform. Now this spelling has been preserved only in Church Slavonic. They have been washed away radically opposite: “the world” is the same worldly sea on which the ship of salvation – the Church – sails. And “peace” is the peace of Christ, the Kingdom of God..."
Dmitry Bykov
Russian writer, poet, publicist, journalist, literary critic, literature teacher, radio and television presenter.
Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" is included in most world ratings best books: Newsweek ranked it number one NEWSWEEK'S TOP 100 BOOKS. place, BBC - 20th The Big Read. TOP 100 books., and Norwegian book club turned on The top 100 books of all time. novel to the list of the most significant works of all times.
In Russia a third "War and Peace" is the main book for schoolchildren. residents consider “War and Peace” a work that forms “the worldview that holds the nation together.” At the same time the President Russian Academy education Lyudmila Verbitskaya stated that 70% President of the Russian Academy of Education: more than 70% of school literature teachers have not read War and Peace. school teachers Haven't 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”. "Odyssey" is a novel about wanderings. He tells how the country works. In Russia, this is Nikolai Gogol’s “Dead Souls”.
"War and Peace" is a Russian "Iliad". It tells you how to behave in the country in order to survive.
Dmitry Bykov
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 identical to victory, where people win irrationally. This is exactly what the novel is about.
Dmitry Bykov
The key episode of the book, according to Bykov, is not Battle of Borodino, and the duel between Pierre Bezukhov and Fedor 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 recognizes himself, who admires 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. In each plane there is a character who performs a certain role, is endowed with special qualities and has a corresponding destiny.
* The life of the Russian nobility - an everyday plan with dramas, relationships, suffering.
** Macrohistorical plan - events " great 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 on 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 better understand the idea of the novel, but also make reading easier, turning it into an exciting game of finding matches.
