The main idea of ​​the work is war and peace. The idea of ​​a heroic life in the novel "War and Peace"

And peace ”the key word is“ peace ”. It is also contained in the title of the work itself. In what sense did you use it in the title? The question arises because in the modern Russian language there are two concepts of "peace". In the work, episodes are replaced by the world, that is, peacetime. And at first glance it seems that the word "peace" should be understood as the opposite of the word war. But with Tolstoy everything is much more complicated.

The title of the novel reflects the basic meanings of the word "peace". In addition, even these above meanings do not exhaust the use of the word "peace" in the novel. First of all, it was important for Tolstoy to show that he is not only a representative of this or that national-historical, social, professional world. Man, according to Tolstoy, is the world itself. The brightness and plasticity of the image of a person in War and Peace are based on the principle “a person is a special world”. Most of all in Tolstoy's novel he is interested in the inner world of Natasha Rostova, Prince Andrei, Pierre, Princess Marya and other heroes close to the author. Describing their internal, he uses his favorite technique, which Chernyshevsky called "the dialectic of the soul."

Each Tolstoyan has his own world, and even the closest relationship between two people cannot unite the individual worlds. Ideally close are shown in the novel the relationship between Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya, and yet each of them had something of their own in life, inaccessible to the other. Princess Marya could not understand Nikolai's relationship with the peasants and his love for the farm.

"She felt that he had a special world, passionately loved by him, with some laws that she did not understand." But Nikolai, in turn, felt a sense of surprise at her spiritual purity, before that “almost inaccessible to him sublime moral world where his wife has always lived ”. Image inner peace Tolstoy combines a person with the image of another, large world, of which his heroes are a part.

In the novel, we see a whole palette of composition from allsoch 2005 worlds: the Rostov world, the Lysogorsky world, the world high society, the world of staff life, the world of the front-line army, the world of the people. This understanding of the world is associated in the novel with the image of a ball. In Tolstoy's work, heroes are influenced different worlds with their own requirements. One world is often hostile to the other. In one case, a person, merging with the world, remains free and happy, in the other - the world, alien to the human essence of the hero, suppresses him, deprives him of freedom and makes him unhappy.

An example of this is the episode with Natasha in the opera. Arriving at the opera, Natasha found herself in a world of light alien to her. At first everything that happened around her and on the stage seemed to her "so pretentious, false and unnatural." She was not interested in opera, not interested in the people around her, everything seemed unnatural and feigned to her. But then Anatol Kuragin appeared, he drew attention to her.

And then the world, alien to Natasha, began to put pressure on her, to subordinate her will. After the third act “Natasha didn’t find it strange anymore. She was happy, smiling happily, looking around her. "

Natasha was introduced to Anatol, she felt that he liked him very much, and she began to like him. Here the world of light has already completely captured her feelings and desires. "Natasha returned to her father in the box, already completely subordinated to the volume)" the world in which she was. " After that, all the sorrows and sufferings began in Natasha's life.

Natasha's submission to the world of light did not happen by itself, everything happened not without the participation of Helen Bezukhova and, of course, Anatol Kuragin, the main and at the same time typical representatives of this world. In general, all the heroes of the novel are divided into people of peace and people of war. The people of the world are Prince Andrey, Princess Marya, Pierre Bezukhov, Rostovs, others are drawn to them, and they are able to unite people around them.

The soldiers loved Prince Andrey in the regiment very much and called him "our prince". During the Battle of Borodino at the Rayevsky battery, the soldiers became attached to Pierre, took him into their friendly family and called him "our master." Together, the people of the world constitute the force of unification, which is opposed by the force of separation. It consists of Anatol Kuragin, Vasily, Helen, Drubetsky. These characters cannot create their own worlds.

Each of them is for itself. And in times of peace, these people are at war. They are constantly fighting for their interests. Often people of war destroy the round worlds of other people. Intrigues, adventures, the struggle for profit, the desire for destruction on a global scale, they lead to the war of peoples.

Napoleonic Wars 1805 and 1812 are caused by the forces of separation, headed by Napoleon, an evil genius, for personal gain, glory, his pride, he sacrifices millions human lives... The main meaning of the word "peace" in Tolstoy is the idea of ​​universal unity. , according to Tolstoy, can be found only in harmony with the whole world: with other people, with nature, with the Universe.

A person who feels connected to the universe can be truly happy. Suffice it to recall Pierre, his feelings held captive by the French. In my opinion, the most important human need, according to the views of the author of the novel, is to overcome his limitations and merge his “I” with the whole infinite world. This need manifests itself in a persistent search life sense Prince Andrew, Pierre. It is important to emphasize that the unity of the heroes of the novel with the world, their search for the meaning of life, not only does not destroy the separate human "I", but, on the contrary, expands and affirms the true meaning of being.

The wider the world, the more joyful the existence of the hero. A person feels like a person only because he is in contact with other personalities. “If a person were alone, he would not be a person,” writes Tolstoy. But how can this unity be achieved?

First of all, it is necessary to learn to understand each other, other people, as Prince Andrey understood and felt them, as Natasha Rostova understood and shared suffering with all people. The idea of ​​peace in Tolstoy's novel is multifaceted and multifaceted. With his work, the author proves that, on the one hand, each person is a unique and individual world, but on the other hand, a particle of the universal world, the Earth, the Universe.

But also individual world, and universal peace can exist only when people are united with each other and with nature. Disunity, war are destroying these worlds, and this, in my opinion, is the most terrible evil on Earth. Tolstoy in his diaries defined evil as "disunity of people." his novel warns all of us against this evil, shows the way to happiness through the unification of people from all over the Earth.

"It is necessary ... that my life was not for me alone ..."

L.N. Tolstoy.

In the novel "War and Peace" L.N. Tolstoy appears before us not only as a genius writer. An important place in the plot is occupied by his original historical views and ideas. A writer, who in Russia is always more than a writer, creates his own philosophy of history: an integral system of views on the paths, reasons and goals social development... Hundreds of pages of the book are devoted to their presentation.

Each of Tolstoy's heroes is looking for his own path in life, each strives for something personal, but all heroes are very different people, and therefore each of them has his own idea of ​​happiness. For someone, this is a profitable marriage, success in secular society, military or court career, as for Boris Drubetsky or Berg. And for some, the meaning of life is completely different.

From his father, a participant in overseas campaigns of the times Patriotic War L. Tolstoy inherited self-esteem, independence of judgment, pride. Having entered Kazan University, he showed extraordinary abilities in studying foreign languages, however, quickly became disillusioned with student life... At nineteen, he leaves the university and goes to Yasnaya Polyana deciding to devote himself to improving the lives of his peasants.

For Tolstoy, the time begins to search for a goal in life. In a painful search, Tolstoy comes to the main business of his life - literary creation.

The spiritual beauty of Tolstoy's favorite heroes - Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov - manifests itself in the tireless search for the meaning of life, in dreams of activities useful for the whole people. Their path in life is the path of passionate seeking, leading to truth and goodness. Prince Andrew, for example, dreams of glory, like glory Napoleon himself, dreams of performing a feat.

But these dreams do not look like the dreams of the staff careerist Zherkov, because glory for Andrei Bolkonsky is “the same love for others. The desire to do something for them. " For the sake of his dream, he goes to the active Russian army, takes a direct part in the battles. But this path turned out to be false, it leads Prince Andrew to deep disappointment and spiritual crisis... Yes, he accomplishes his feat during the Battle of Austerlitz. Picking up the banner, Andrei Bolkonsky drags the retreating soldiers into the attack. But this attack could not save the already lost battle, the hero doomed the soldiers to a senseless death and he himself is seriously wounded.

And there, on the field of Austerlitz, Andrei comes to understand the insignificance of his former dream. He understands that one cannot live only by one's own dream, one must live in the name of people, relatives and strangers. In the soul of Prince Andrei, a turning point occurs, and after returning home he devotes his whole life to raising his son and caring for the peasants, becomes good father and an exemplary landowner. Andrei seems to be closed in himself, and only a meeting with Pierre, their conversation on the ferry again awakens him to life. He again returns to society, takes part in the activities of the Speransky commission, again a dream of happiness arises in front of him, this time it is a dream of personal, family happiness with Natasha Rostova.

But these dreams were not destined to come true. Andrei returns to the army, but not in search of glory, but to defend the Fatherland. And there, in the regiment, Andrei finally finds his calling - to serve the Motherland, takes care of his soldiers and officers. The path of Prince Andrei ends with what he dreamed of at the beginning of the novel - the glory, the glory of a real hero, defender of the Fatherland. This is a worthy end to it life path, his search for the meaning of life.

The fate of Pierre Bezukhov is different. He does not know. Which way to go. rushes about, makes mistakes, but always his actions are guided by one desire - "to be quite good." The search for the meaning of life leads Pierre to join the Masonic lodge. He strives to become different and help other people change for the better. This desire for the good of others leads Pierre to the idea of ​​sacrificing himself and killing Napoleon, as the main source of all troubles and suffering.

Two months spent in captivity allowed Pierre to get to know and understand the Russian people, his outlook on life changed. He realized that no charity can feed all the poor. Pierre takes a direct part in the Decembrist uprising and then goes to long years to Siberia, from where he will return thirty years later as an old man, but who has not changed his views and ideals.

This is how Pierre Bezukhov's search for the meaning of life ends. And, perhaps, the plot of the novel is built around the search for the meaning of life of the heroes and the author himself. The object that allows you to find out "Why?" becomes a war. It is in war that life and death are intertwined and the line between them almost disappears, only there a person can feel like a real person.

Problems and tests on the topic "The plot, heroes, problems of the novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy"

• Spelling - Important topics for repeating the exam in Russian

  Lessons: 5 Assignments: 7

• Basics of past tense verbs. Spelling of the letter before the suffix -л - Verb as part of speech grade 4

  Lessons: 1 Assignments: 9 Tests: 1

In Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace, the key word is peace. It is also contained in the title of the work itself. In what meaning did the author use it in the title? The question arises because in the modern Russian language there are two homonymous words "mir". At the time of Tolstoy, they also differed in writing. The main meanings of the word "mip", according to the dictionary of V. Dahl, were: 1) the universe; 2) Earth; 3) all people, the human race. "Peace" was used to denote the absence of war, enmity, quarrel. In the work, episodes of war are replaced by episodes of peace, that is, peacetime. And at first glance it seems that the title contains one antithesis: war is peacetime and that the word "peace" should be understood only as an antithesis to the word "war". But with Tolstoy everything is much more complicated. The title of the novel reflects the basic meanings of the word "peace". In addition, even these above meanings do not exhaust the use of the word "peace" in the novel.

First of all, it was important for Tolstoy to show that a person is not only a representative of this or that national-historical, social, professional world; man, according to Tolstoy, is the world itself. The brightness and plasticity of the image of a person in War and Peace are based on the principle “a person is a special world”. Most of all in the novel Tolstoy is interested in the inner world of Natasha Rostova, Prince Andrei, Pierre, Princess Marya and other heroes close to the author. Describing them inner life, Tolstoy uses his favorite method, called by N. G. Chernyshevsky "dialectics of the soul." Each Tolstoyan hero has his own world, and even the closest relationship between two people cannot unite the individual worlds. Ideally close are shown in the epilogue of the relationship between Princess Marya and Nikolai Rostov, and yet each of them had something of their own in life, inaccessible to the other. Princess Marya could not understand Nikolai's relationship with the peasants and his love for the farm. "She felt that he had a special world, passionately loved by him, with some laws that she did not understand." But Nikolai, in turn, felt a sense of surprise at her spiritual purity, at that "almost inaccessible" to him "sublime moral world, in which his wife always lived."

Tolstoy's depiction of a person's inner world is combined with the depiction of another, large world, of which his heroes are a part. In the novel, we see a whole palette of worlds: the world of the Rostovs, the Lysogorsky world, the world of high society, the world of staff life, the world front life armies, peace of the people. This understanding of the world is associated in the novel with the image of a ball. The sphere-world appears as a closed sphere; it has its own laws, which are optional in other worlds. In Tolstoy's work, the characters are influenced by different worlds with their own requirements. One world is often hostile to the other. In one case, a person, merging with the world, remains free and happy (in captivity, Pierre falls into the world of the people, unites with him and becomes better and cleaner; true life values, he finally finds for himself an explanation of life and its meaning), in another - the world, alien to the human essence of the hero, suppresses him, deprives him of freedom and makes him unhappy. An example of this is the episode with Natasha in the opera.

Arriving at the opera, Natasha found herself in a world of light alien to her. At first everything that happened around her and on the stage seemed to her "so pretentious, false and unnatural." She was not interested in the opera, not interested in the people around her, everything seemed unnatural and feigned to her. But then Anatol Kuragin appeared, he drew attention to her. And then a world alien to Natasha began to put pressure on her, to subordinate her will. After the third act, “Natasha did not find this (what was happening around her) strange any more. She looked around her with pleasure, smiling happily. " Natasha was introduced to Anatol, she felt that he liked him very much and she began to like him. Here the world of light has already completely captured her feelings and desires. "Natasha returned to her father in the box, already completely subordinated to the world in which she was." After that, all the sorrows and sufferings in Natasha's life began.

Natasha's submission to the world of light did not happen by itself, everything happened not without the participation of Helen Bezukhova and, of course, Anatol Kuragin, the main and at the same time typical representatives of this world.

In general, all the heroes of "War and Peace" are divided into people of peace and people of war. People of the world - this is Prince Andrey, Princess Marya, Pierre, Rostovs - others are drawn to them, and they are able to unite people around them. The soldiers loved Prince Andrey in the regiment very much and called him "our prince". During the Battle of Borodino at the Rayevsky battery, the soldiers also became attached to Pierre, let him into their friendly family and called him "our master." Together, the people of the world make up the force of unification, which is opposed by the force of separation, which consists of people of war, such as Anatol, Vasily and Helen Kuragin, Drubetskoy, and others. These characters of Tolstoy are unable to create their own worlds. Each of them is for himself, everyone is used to only using the people around him, everyone is always trying to grab something, everyone is busy only with their own interests, intrigues, and he does not care about the rest. And in peacetime, these people are at war. They are constantly fighting for their interests. Often people of war destroy the round worlds of other people. They burst in and bring a lot of grief and suffering to the people of the world. Suffice it to recall how many unpleasant moments and disappointments Helene brought to Pierre's life and how Anatole fatally influenced the lives of Natasha and Prince Andrew. The forces of separation are also capable of acting on a larger scale. Intrigues, adventures, the struggle for profit, the desire to snatch something for themselves lead to destruction on a global scale, they lead to a war of nations, which destroys not only the small worlds of people, but also destroys Big world... The Napoleonic Wars of 1805 and 1812 were caused by the forces of separation, headed by Napoleon himself, an evil genius, for the sake of personal glory, his pride, to satisfy his selfishness, able to sacrifice other people's lives, kill innocent people, wipe cities off the face of the earth, and whole nations. Captured by the "Napoleonic idea" Russia was drawn into the 1805 campaign because of the struggle of interests in the upper government strata of society. The war of 1805 was absolutely unnecessary and incomprehensible for the Russian people, for the Russian soldier. V Battle of Austerlitz ordinary soldiers did not know for what purpose they were fighting, did not understand for whom they were dying, so the forces of the Russian people did not unite, and the battle was shamefully lost.

War is always destruction, but, paradoxically, unification is also possible in war. The Patriotic War of 1812 is an example of the unification of the entire nation, of the entire people in the face of the greatest danger. Soldiers unite with each other, officers with soldiers, and then the battles are sure to be won. After all, only all together can you defeat the enemy. Prince Andrey's regiment, Raevsky's battery are perceived as large friendly families where one for all and all for one. All Russia united and defeated Napoleon.

Yes, people are able to unite in extreme situations, in the face of danger. But the danger passes, and again the struggle of people begins with each other for inheritance, for a career, for power; war separates them. This is the reason for Tolstoy's pessimism. People have not yet learned to unite in peace, quiet time, do not know how to live "with the whole world." From the world of an individual through unification with close people to the universal unity of people and then to unity with nature, with everyone. The idea of ​​the world for Tolstoy is ONE of the main ideas in the novel. The main meaning of the word "peace" here is the idea of ​​universal unity.

Happiness, according to Tolstoy, can only be found in harmony with the whole world: with other people, with nature, with the universe, From the world of an individual person through unification with close people to the universal unity of people and then to unity with nature, with the universe - this is the idea Tolstoy on the idea of ​​peace in the novel. A person who feels a connection with the universe can be truly happy, calm, peaceful, he is not afraid of death. Suffice it to recall the thoughts and descriptions of Pierre's feelings in a very important and difficult period of his life in captivity with the French, when he begins to feel himself part of an infinite world.

“Pierre looked at the sky, deep into the departing, playing stars. “And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me! thought Pierre. - And they all caught it and put it in a booth, enclosed by boards! " He smiled and went to bed with his comrades. " Feeling like a particle vast world manifests itself in the dream that Pierre sees after the murder of Karataev.

"A living, vibrating ball that does not have dimensions" is the Earth, the universe; the surface of the sphere "consisted of drops tightly compressed among themselves" - these are small worlds of people. These drops "sometimes merged from several into one, then from one they split into many." But they remained inseparable particles of this vibrating ball. To separate was to die.

The deepest, most important human need, according to the views of the author of "War and Peace", is to overcome one's limitations and merge one's "I" with the whole infinite world. This need manifests itself in persistent life quest Prince Andrew and Pierre. Prince Andrey is constantly tormented by a burning interest in what they live with, how other people are happy, he feels bitterness that they do not care about him, he longs to influence their fate.

Prince Andrew says: “Not only do I know everything that is in me, it is necessary that everyone knows it: both Pierre and this girl who wanted to fly into the sky, it is necessary that everyone knows me, so that not for one my life went on for me, so that they would not live so independently of my life, that it would be reflected on everyone, and that they would all live with me together! " - That's what it is main idea"War and Peace", put into the mouth of Tolstoy's favorite hero - Prince Andrew.

It is important to emphasize that the unity of the heroes of the novel with the world not only does not destroy the separate human "I" in the impersonality of the universal, but, on the contrary, expands the personality and affirms the true meaning of her life. The wider the world with which the hero feels his connection, the brighter and more joyful his existence. “A person feels like a person only because he comes into contact with other personalities. If a person were alone, he would not be a person, ”Tolstoy wrote in his diary. But how to achieve this unity, life "with the whole world"? Tolstoy answers this question with the images of his heroes. First of all, one must learn to understand other people, as Prince Andrey understood and felt them. "Pierre was always amazed at the ability of Prince Andrew to calmly deal with all kinds of people."

You also need to be able to share with another person not only joy, but also suffering, like Natasha. At the beginning of the novel, Natasha could only convey to others joy, fun, good mood, but she did not know how to share suffering, to sympathize. “No, I’m too fun to spoil my fun with the sympathy of someone else’s grief,” she thought at the beginning of the novel. And only in the end, having gone through a lot of suffering, she learned to share the grief of another. "My friend, mamma," she said, straining all the forces of love to somehow remove from her the excess of grief that pressed her. "

In his novel, Tolstoy attaches great importance to the sudden and unreasonable sympathy between the heroes, for example, Tushin for Prince Andrei, old Bolkonsky for Pierre, Prince Andrei for the Rostov family, soldiers and militias for Prince Andrei and Pierre. The sympathies that Prince Andrew, Pierre, Natasha and others feel have a very wide range, they sympathize with many people in different reasons... And most often on those that could not themselves be named.

"Yes, best remedy to true happiness in life - this: without any reason to let out of itself in all directions, like a spider, a tenacious web of love and to catch everything that got there, and the old woman, and the child, and the woman, and the quarter ", - wrote L. N Tolstoy in his diary.

The “web of love”, of the heroes' disinterested sympathy for each other, enmeshes the entire book. It is impossible to live "with the whole world" without love. It is noteworthy that in the epilogue Nikolenka dreams of this "web of love", "the thread of the Mother of God", it entangles him, and he feels "the weakness of love."

Thus, the idea of ​​peace in Tolstoy's novel War and Peace is multifaceted and multifaceted. With his novel, Tolstoy proves that, on the one hand, each person is a unique, individual world, but on the other hand, a particle of the universal world, the Earth, the universe. But both the individual world and the universal world can exist only when people are united with each other and with nature. The separation of all that exists, and war destroys these worlds, according to Tolstoy, is the most terrible evil. In his diaries, he defined evil as "disunity of people." Leo N. Tolstoy, with his novel, warns people against this evil, showing the way to happiness through the unity of people.

The main idea of ​​the novel "War and Peace" can be expressed in the following words the author himself: "There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth." This idea was expressed not only in the oppositions between Kutuzov and Napoleon, but also in all the smallest details of the struggle between the Russians and the French. Tolstoy elevates the Russian people in every possible way, who fought a defensive war and were strong in their spirit, faith in truth and goodness; the French were defeated because they were not convinced of the rightness of their cause. All scenes privacy, outlined by Tolstoy, have the same goal - to show how those people suffer and rejoice, love and die, lead family and personal life, the highest ideal of which is simplicity, goodness and truth. The voice for the simple and kind against the false and predatory makes Tolstoy condemn not only the French, blinded by the False idea of ​​greatness, but also the majority of the upper class of the Russian people, who concealed in themselves under the graceful forms of external decency an abyss of cunning, frivolity and insignificance.

The main idea of ​​"War and Peace" is a philosophical and religious idea. It consists in the recognition of the complete submission of man to the highest leading principle, to Providence, which disposes of his destiny according to its predestinations, determines all of his life relationships... Although this
the idea is nowhere expressed by the author openly, in the form of an abstract formula, but it clearly appears in all parts of the novel, as where Tolstoy touches historical events of the greatest importance, and where he tells about the life of his heroes, individuals. Above all the confusion of human relations, over the entire motley kaleidoscope of individual episodes of the novel, one can feel the gravitation of some mysterious force, the presence of an invisible hand leading people along paths unknown to them to a predetermined goal. The good of a person consists in conscious or senseless submission to this higher guiding principle, in renouncing his own will, in humility before the inscrutable ways of Providence.

Only in this way can a person achieve inner peace, agreement with oneself, a clear, bright view of life and people. This is precisely the conclusion that Pierre comes to the end of the novel after all the trials he has endured: he assimilates the bright, optimistic fatalism of Karataev, refuses (although not completely) the self-directed "searches" that led him only to painful doubts and disappointments, and affirms in faith in the Deity leading the destinies of people and leading them to the good. “Before the terrible question that destroyed all his mental structures: why? did not exist for him now. Now the question is - why? a simple answer was always ready in his soul: then, that there is God, that God, without whose will no hair will fall from a person's head.

The connection between everything and everything in War and Peace is not only stated and demonstrated in the most diverse forms. It is actively asserted as a moral, generally life ideal.

"Natasha and Nikolai, Pierre and Kutuzov, Platon Karataev and Princess Marya are mentally disposed towards all people without exception and expect reciprocal benevolence from everyone," writes V.Ye. Khalizev. For these characters, such a relationship is not even an ideal, but a norm. Much more closed in himself and focused on his own, not devoid of stiffness, constantly reflecting Prince Andrew. First, he thinks about his personal career and fame. But he understands fame as the love of many strangers for him. Later, Bolkonsky tries to participate in state reforms in the name of benefits for the same people unknown to him, for the whole country, now not for the sake of his career. One way or another be together with others is extremely important for him, he thinks about this at the moment of spiritual enlightenment after visiting the Rostovs in Otradnoye, after accidentally overhearing Natasha's enthusiastic words about a wonderful night, addressed to Sonya, much colder and indifferent than she (here almost pun: Sonya is asleep and wants to sleep), and two "meetings" with an old oak tree, which at first does not succumb to spring and sun, and then transformed under the fresh foliage. Not so long ago, Andrei told Pierre that he was trying only to avoid illness and remorse, that is, directly concerning only him personally. This was the result of disappointment in life after he had to experience injury and captivity in return for the expected glory, and his return home coincided with the death of his wife (he did not love her much, but that is why he knows remorse). "No, life is not over at thirty-one," Prince Andrew suddenly decided finally, without fail. I wanted to fly into the sky, it is necessary that everyone knows me, so that my life does not go on for me alone, so that they do not live like this girl, regardless of my life, so that it reflects on everyone and that they all live with me! " (vol. 2, part 3, chapter III ). In the foreground in this inner monologue - I, mine, but the main, summing up word - "together."

Among the forms of unity of people, Tolstoy especially distinguishes two: family and national. Most Rostovs are to a certain extent united collective image... Sonya turns out to be ultimately alien to this family, not because she is only the niece of Count Ilya Andreich. She is loved in the family as himself a loved one... But both her love for Nicholas and the sacrifice - the rejection of the claims to marry him - are more or less tortured, constructed in a limited mind, far from poetic simplicity. And for Vera, it becomes quite natural to marry a calculating, nothing like the Rostov Berg. In fact, the Kuragin family is an imaginary family, although Prince Vasily cares about his children, arranges a career or marriage for them in accordance with secular ideas of success, and they in their own way are in solidarity with each other: the story of an attempt to seduce and kidnap Natasha Rostova by an already married Anatol dispensed with Helene. "Oh, mean, heartless breed!" - exclaims Pierre at the sight of Anatole's "timid and vile smile", whom he asked to leave, offering money for the trip (vol. 2, part 5, chapter XX). The Kuraginsky "breed" is not at all the same as the family, Pierre knows this too well. Platon Karataev, who is married to Helene Pierre, first of all asks about his parents - the fact that Pierre does not have a mother makes him especially upset - and hearing that he has no "children" either, again upset, he resorts to purely popular consolation: "Well, young people, God willing, they will. If only they live in council ... "(vol. 4, part 1, ch. XII). There is no "council" at all.

V artistic world Tolstoy, such complete egoists as Helene with her debauchery or Anatole, cannot and should not have children. And after Andrei Bolkonsky, a son remains, although his young wife died in childbirth and the hope for a second marriage turned around personal disaster... The plot of "War and Peace", opened straight into life, ends with young Nikolenka's dreams of the future, whose dignity is measured by the high criteria of the past - the authority of his father who died from a wound: "Yes, I will do whatever he was pleased ... "(Epilogue, Part 1, Ch. XVI).

Exposing the main anti-hero of "War and Peace", Napoleon., carried out with the help of "family" themes. Before the Battle of Borodino, he receives a gift from

Empress - an allegorical portrait of a son playing in a bilbock ("The ball represented the globe, and the wand in the other hand represented the scepter"), "a boy born of Napoleon and the daughter of the Austrian emperor, whom for some reason everyone called the king of Rome." For the sake of "history" Napoleon, "with his greatness", "showed, in contrast to this greatness, the simplest paternal tenderness", and Tolstoy sees in this only a feigned "kind of pensive tenderness" (vol. 3, part 2, ch. XXVI ).

For Tolstoy, "family" relationships are not necessarily kinship. Natasha, dancing to the guitar of a poor landowner, "uncle" who plays "On the street pavement ...", is mentally close to him, as well as to everyone present, regardless of the degree of kinship. She, the countess, "brought up by an emigrant Frenchwoman" "in silk and velvet", "knew how to understand everything that was in Anisya, and Anisya's father, and in her aunt, and in her mother, and in every Russian person" (t . 2, part 4, ch. VII). The previous hunting scene, during which Ilya Andreevich Rostov, who missed the wolf, endured the emotional abuse of the hunter Danila, is also proof that the "kindred" atmosphere for the Rostovs sometimes overcomes very high social barriers. According to the law of "conjugation", this ramified scene turns out to be an artistic prelude to the depiction of the Patriotic War. “Isn't the image of the" club people's war"? On the hunt, where he was the main figure, her success depended on him, the peasant-hunter just for a moment became master over his master, who was useless on the hunt," S.G. Bocharov notes, further using the image of the Moscow commander-in-chief Count Rostopchin revealing the weakness and uselessness of the actions of the "historical" character.

On Raevsky's battery, where Pierre falls during the Battle of Borodino, before the outbreak of hostilities "one felt the same and common to everyone, like a family revival" (vol. 3, part 2, chapter XXXI). The soldiers immediately christened the stranger "our master", like the soldiers of the regiment of Andrei Bolkonsky, their commander - "our prince "." A similar atmosphere is at the Tushin battery during the Shengraben battle, as well as in the partisan detachment when Petya Rostov arrives there, "V.E. wounded: she "liked these, outside the usual living conditions, relations with new people" ... the similarity between the family and similar "swarm" communities is also important: both unity is non-hierarchical and free ... The readiness of Russian people, primarily peasants and soldier, to a non-coercive-free unity is most of all similar to the "Rostov" nepotism. "

Tolstoy's unity by no means signifies the dissolution of individuality in the masses. The forms of uniting people approved by the writer are opposite to the disordered and impersonal, inhuman crowd. The crowd is shown in scenes of a soldier's panic, when the defeat of the allied army in the Battle of Austerlitz became obvious, the arrival of Alexander I in Moscow after the start of World War II (an episode with biscuits that the tsar throws from the balcony to his subjects, seized by literally wild delight), the abandonment of Moscow by Russian troops, when Rostopchin gives it to residents to be torn apart

Vereshchagin, allegedly the culprit of what happened, etc. The crowd is chaos, most often destructive, and the unity of people is profoundly beneficial. “During the Shengraben battle (Tushin battery) and Borodino battle (Raevsky battery), as well as in partisan units Denisov and Dolokhov, each knew his "business, place and purpose." The true order of a just, defensive war, according to Tolstoy, inevitably arises every time anew from human actions unintentional and unplanned: the will of the people in 1812 was realized regardless of any military-state requirements and sanctions. " In the same way, immediately after the death of the old prince Bolkonsky, Princess Marya did not need to make any orders: “God knows who and when took care of this, but everything seemed to happen by itself” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter VIII).

Folk character war of 1812. clear to the soldiers. From one of them, on the way from Mozhaisk towards Borodin, Pierre hears a tongue-tied speech: "They want to pile on all the people, one word - Moscow. They want to make one end." The author comments: "Despite ambiguity of words

soldier, Pierre understood everything he wanted to say ... "(vol. 3, part 2, chapter XX). After the battle, shocked, this purely non-military man belonging to the secular elite seriously thinks about the absolutely impossible. "Be a soldier, just a soldier! thought Pierre, falling asleep. - Enter this common life with the whole being, to be imbued with what makes them so "(vol. 3, part 3, chapter IX). This, however, led to the idea of ​​performing an absolutely individual romantic feat - to stab Napoleon with a dagger, whose supporter Pierre declared himself at the beginning of the novel, when for Andrei Bolkonsky the newly-minted French emperor was an idol and a model at all. Bezukhov in Moscow occupied by the French in search of a conqueror, but instead of carrying out his impossible plan, he saves a little girl from a burning house and with fists attacks the looters who robbed the Armenian woman. how this aimless lie burst out of him "(vol. 3, part 3, ch. XXXIV). Childless Pierre feels like a father, a member of some superfamily.

The people are the army, the partisans, and the Smolensk merchant Ferapontov, who is ready to set fire to own house so that the French do not get it, and the men who did not want to bring hay to the French for good money, but burned it, and the Muscovites who leave their homes, hometown simply because they do not think of themselves under the rule of the French, these are Pierre, and the Rostovs, abandoning their property and giving carts for the wounded at Natasha's demand, and Kutuzov with his "popular feeling". Although, as counted, episodes involving common people, “only eight percent of the book is dedicated to the topic of the people” (Tolstoy admitted that he mainly described the environment that he knew well), “these percentages will increase sharply if we consider that, from Tolstoy's point of view, the soul of the people and the spirit no less than Platon Karataev or Tikhon Shcherbaty is expressed by Vasily Denisov and Field Marshal Kutuzov, and finally - and most important of all - by himself, the author. "11 At the same time, the author does not idealize the common people. the arrival of French troops (however, these are men who were especially restless before, and Rostov managed to pacify them very easily with the young Ilyin and the savvy Lavrushka.) After the French left Moscow, the Cossacks, men from neighboring villages and returning residents, "found her plundered, they began to plunder too. They continued what the French were doing "(vol. 4, part 4, ch. XIV). Formed by Pierre and Mamonov (a characteristic association fictional character and historical person) regiments of militiamen plundered Russian villages (vol. 4, part 1, ch. IV). The scout Tikhon Shcherbaty is not only "the most useful and brave person in the party", that is, in Denisov's partisan detachment, but also capable of killing a captured Frenchman because he was "completely unjust" and "rude". When he said this, "his whole face stretched out into a shining stupid smile," the next murder he committed does not mean anything to him (therefore, it is "embarrassing" for Petya Rostov to listen to him), he is ready, when he "darkens," , at least three "(vol. 4, part 3, chap. V, VI). Nevertheless, the people as a whole, the people as a huge family are a moral guideline for Tolstoy and his beloved heroes.

The most extensive form of unity in the epic novel is humanity, people, regardless of nationality and belonging to a particular community, including armies at war with each other. Even during the war of 1805, Russian and French soldiers were trying to talk to each other, showing mutual interest.

In the "German" village, where the cadet Rostov stopped with his regiment, the German he met near the cowshed exclaims after his toast to the Austrians, Russians and Emperor Alexander: "Long live the whole world!" Nikolay, too, in German, a little differently, picks up this exclamation. "Although there was no reason for particular joy neither for the German who was cleaning his cowshed, nor for Rostov, who drove with a platoon for hay, these two people looked at each other with happy delight and brotherly love, shook their heads as a sign of mutual love and, smiling , dispersed ... "(vol. 1, part 2, ch. IV), Natural cheerfulness makes" brothers "strangers, in every sense, far from each other people. In burning Moscow, when Pierre rescues the girl, he is helped by a Frenchman with a spot on his cheek, who says: “Well, we must

for humanity. All people "(vol. 3, ch. 3, ch. XXXIII). This is Tolstoy's translation of French words. In a literal translation, these words (" Faut etre humain. Nous sommes tous mortels, voyez-vous ") would be much less significant for the author's idea: "You have to be humane. We are all mortal, you see. "The arrested Pierre and the cruel Marshal Davout interrogating him for a few seconds" looked at each other, and this look saved Pierre. In this view, in addition to all the conditions of war and judgment, human relations were established between these two people. Both of them at that moment vaguely felt an innumerable number of things and realized that they are both children of humanity, that they are brothers "(vol. 4, part 1, ch. X).

Russian soldiers willingly sit down Captain Rambal and his orderly Morel who have come out of the forest to their campfire, feed them, try together with Morel, who "sat on the best location"(v, 4, p. 4, ch. IX), to sing a song about Henri the Fourth. The French drummer boy Vincent fell in love not only with Petya Rostov, who was close to him in age; : Cossacks - to Spring, and men and soldiers - to Visenya "(vol. 4, part 3, ch. VII). Kutuzov after the battle near Krasnoye tells the soldiers about the ragged prisoners:" While they were strong, we did not spare ourselves, and now you can regret them. They are people too. So, guys? "(Vol. 4, part 3, ch. VI). This violation of external logic is indicative: before they did not feel sorry for themselves, but now you can feel sorry for them. the uninvited French got it "rightly", and ends the speech with "old man's, good-natured curse," met with laughter. the later Tolstoy will preach, she, this pity, is condescending and contemptuous. But after all, the French fleeing from Russia themselves "all ... felt that they were pitiful and disgusting people who had done a lot of evil, for which they now had to pay" (i.e. 4, ch. 3, ch. XVI).

On the other hand, Tolstoy has a completely negative attitude towards the state-bureaucratic elite of Russia, people of light and career. And if Pierre, who experienced the severity of captivity, survived a spiritual upheaval, "Prince Vasily, now especially proud of receiving a new place and a star, seemed ... a touching, kind and pitiful old man" (vol. 4, part 4, ch. XIX), then it comes about a father who lost two children and rejoices out of habit of success in the service. This is about the same condescending pity that the soldiers have for the masses of the French. People who are not capable of unity with their own kind, are deprived even of the ability to strive for true happiness, they take tinsel for life.