I wanted to write the history of the people.

L. N. Tolstoy

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace. He had a special influence on the development of all subsequent generations, who reread the novel many times, each time understanding it in their own way. World literature has never known such a large-scale coverage of the material of a literary work.

Tolstoy himself called the main theme of the novel “folk soap.” It is traditionally believed that before him “popular thought” was touched upon by such works as Gogol’s “Dead Souls”, Pushkin’s “The Captain’s Daughter”, Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” and others. Moreover, Pushkin and Gogol placed the intelligentsia above the people, while Dostoevsky and Nekrasov, on the contrary, elevated the people above everyone. Tolstoy introduced the concept of “swarm”. This "swarm" is clearly shown in Pierre's dream of a ball covered with millions of small drops representing people. In the second part of the epilogue, Tolstoy, discussing what drives history, leads the reader to the conclusion that the course of history is controlled both by the general law and by the wills of individuals. This means that life is subject not only to the will of fate, but also to the actions of some people, such as Napoleon, Alexander, Kutuzov, Bagration...

And yet, reading the novel, you become convinced that for the author it is the people, in the broad sense of the word, who are the bearers of basic spiritual values. On the wanderings of the novel we meet a number of characters from the people. For example, “the feeling of revenge that lay in the soul of every person” and the entire people gave rise to guerrilla warfare. Ordinary people burned their own houses in cities and villages (merchant Ferapontov), ​​ordinary men joined the partisans. The War of 1812 appears before readers as truly popular. The partisans destroyed the great army piece by piece. Poorly organized detachments consisting of peasants and landowners were united by the common goal of defending their homeland. The author mentions such partisan heroes as the elder Vasilisa, who beat a hundred Frenchmen, and the sexton who captured several hundred Frenchmen in a month.

But only one of the male partisans, Tikhon Shcherbaty, is described in more detail. This was “the most useful and brave man” in Denisov’s detachment. In the image of Tikhon, the writer showed the spirit of the avenging people, the resourcefulness and prowess of the Russian peasantry. He is filled with hatred for uninvited guests, and with an ax in his hands he goes to the enemy at the behest of his heart.

“The personification of the spirit of simplicity and truth” appears before us in the eyes of Pierre, the captured Russian soldier Platon Karataev. Plato is the complete opposite of Tikhon Shcherbaty. He loves all people, including the French. If Tikhon is rude and his humor is combined with cruelty, then Karataev strives to see “solemn beauty” in everything. In Plato lives the spirit of truth-seeking, so characteristic of the Russian peasantry, and the eternal love of work. Tolstoy does not tell us which of the two “Russian men” he likes better, since they both personify the Russian national character.

The manifestation of the folk principle in the main characters of the novel can be found in the hunting episode, where all the characters naturally behave simply, like the people. The viability of each of the heroes is tested by “popular thought.” She helps Pierre and Andrey discover and show their best qualities.

Tolstoy creates a unity of spirit from many folk characters. Each of them influences the course of historical events in its own way. Together they are, according to Tolstoy, the single driving force of existence.

Question 25. Popular thought in L.N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace.” The problem of the role of the people and the individual in history.

L. N. Tolstoy

1. Genre originality of L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”.

2. The image of the people in the novel is Tolstoy’s ideal of “simplicity, goodness and truth.”

3. Two Russias.

4. “The Club of the People’s War.”

5. “People's Thought.”

6. Kutuzov is an exponent of the patriotic spirit of the people.

7. The people are the savior of Russia.

1. L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” in terms of genre is an epic novel, since it reflects historical events that cover a large period of time, from 1805 to 1821; There are over 200 people in the novel, there are real historical figures (Kutuzov, Napoleon, Alexander I, Speransky, Rostopchin, Bagration, etc.), all social strata of Russia of that time are shown: high society, noble aristocracy, provincial nobility, army, peasantry, merchants.

2. In the epic novel, the various elements of which are united by “folk thought,” the image of the people occupies a special place. This image embodies Tolstoy’s ideal of “simplicity, goodness and truth.” An individual person is valuable only when he is an integral part of a great whole, his people. “War and Peace” is “a picture of morals built on a historical event,” wrote L. N. Tolstoy. The theme of the feat of the Russian people in the War of 1812 became the main one in the novel. During this war, the unification of the nation took place: regardless of class, gender and age, everyone was embraced by a single patriotic feeling, which Tolstoy called “the hidden warmth of patriotism,” which manifested itself not in loud words, but in actions, often unconscious, spontaneous, but bringing victory closer . This unity based on moral feeling is deeply hidden in the soul of every person and manifests itself in difficult times for the homeland.

3. In the fire of the people’s war, people are being tested, and we clearly see two Russias: people’s Russia, united by common feelings and aspirations, the Russia of Kutuzov, Prince Andrei, Timokhin - and the Russia of “military and court drones”, at war with each other, absorbed in their careers and indifferent to the fate of the homeland. These people have lost touch with the people; they only pretend to have patriotic feelings. Their false patriotism is manifested in pompous phrases about love for the motherland and insignificant deeds. People's Russia is represented by those heroes who, in one way or another, linked their fate with the fate of the nation. Tolstoy speaks about the destinies of the people and the destinies of individual people, about popular feelings as a measure of human morality. All of Tolstoy’s favorite heroes are a part of the sea of ​​people that makes up the people, and each of them is spiritually close to the people in their own way. But this unity does not arise immediately. Pierre and Prince Andrei walk along difficult roads in search of the people's ideal of “simplicity, good and evil.” And only on the Borodino field does each of them understand that the truth is where “they” are, that is, ordinary soldiers. The Rostov family, with its strong moral foundations of life, with a simple and kind perception of the world and people, experienced the same patriotic feelings as the whole people. They leave all their property in Moscow and give all the carts to the wounded.

4. Russian people deeply, with all their hearts, understand the meaning of what is happening. The people's consciousness as a military force comes into action when the enemy approaches Smolensk. The “club of the people’s war” begins to rise. Circles were created, partisan detachments of Denisov, Dolokhov, spontaneous partisan detachments led by elder Vasilisa or some nameless sexton, who destroyed Napoleon’s great army with axes and pitchforks. The merchant Ferapontov in Smolensk called on the soldiers to rob his own shop so that the enemy would not get anything. Preparing for the Battle of Borodino, the soldiers look at it as a national cause. “They want to attack all the people,” the soldier explains to Pierre. The militia put on clean shirts, the soldiers do not drink vodka - “not such a day.” It was a sacred moment for them.

5. “People's Thought” is embodied by Tolstoy in a variety of individualized images. Timokhin and his company so unexpectedly attacked the enemy, “with such insane and drunken determination, with one skewer, he ran at the enemy that the French, without having time to come to their senses, threw down their weapons and ran.”

Those human, moral and military qualities that Tolstoy always considered the inalienable dignity of the Russian soldier and the entire Russian people - heroism, willpower, simplicity and modesty - are embodied in the image of Captain Tushin, who is a living expression of the national spirit, “people's thought.” Beneath the unattractive appearance of this hero lies inner beauty and moral greatness. - Tikhon Shcherbaty is a man of war, the most useful fighter in Denisov’s detachment. The spirit of rebellion and the feeling of love for his land, all that rebellious, courageous that the writer discovered in the serf peasant, he gathered together and embodied in the image of Tikhon. Platon Karataev brings peace to the souls of the people around him. He is completely devoid of egoism: he does not complain about anything, does not blame anyone, is meek, and kind to every person.

The high patriotic spirit and strength of the Russian army brought it a moral victory, and a turning point in the war came.

6. M. I. Kutuzov proved himself to be an exponent of the patriotic spirit and a true commander of the people's war. His wisdom lies in the fact that he understood the law that it is impossible for one person to control the course of history. His main concern is not to interfere with events to develop naturally, armed with patience, submit to necessity. “Patience and time” - this is Kutuzov’s motto. He senses the mood of the masses and the course of historical events. Prince Andrei, before the Battle of Borodino, says about him: “He will have nothing of his own. He won’t come up with anything, won’t do anything, but he will listen to everything, remember everything, put everything in its place, won’t interfere with anything useful and won’t allow anything harmful. He understands that there is something more significant than will... And the main thing why you believe him is that he is Russian...”

7. By telling the truth about the war and showing a person in this war, Tolstoy discovered the heroism of war, showing it as a test of all the spiritual strength of a person. In his novel, the bearers of true heroism were ordinary people, such as Captain Tushin or Timokhin, the “sinner” Natasha, who obtained supplies for the wounded, General Dokhturov and Kutuzov, who never spoke about his exploits - precisely those people who, forgetting about themselves, , saved Russia in times of difficult trials.

“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: the great writer really portrayed in the work not so much individual heroes, but the entire people as a whole. “People's Thought” defines in the novel Tolstoy’s philosophical views, the depiction of historical events, specific historical figures, and the moral assessment of the heroes’ actions.
“War and Peace,” as Yu.V. rightly noted. Lebedev, “this is a book about different phases in the historical life of 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-component 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 of 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 an outstanding historical figure, which was very widespread at that time in Russia and abroad. 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 understand only to them 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 the Russian moral ideal. In Tolstoy, it is not an exceptional personality, but the life of the people as a whole turns out to be the most sensitive organism, responding to the hidden meaning of the 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 the whim or bad mood of 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. Therefore, it was not Napoleon who lost the Battle of Borodino or Kutuzov who won it, but the Russian people who 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 was the understanding of the popular nature of historical processes that 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 the elder Vasilisa, who killed a hundred French.” 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.

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 connected with the mass of ordinary people through common 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 a 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 author sees the significance of a great personality in the feeling of history taking place as the will of providence. Great people like Kutuzov, who have 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. The independence of private life from the political game of the elite emphasizes the indissoluble connection of the 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 the Russian national character was originally embedded. In the scene after the hunt, Natasha listens with pleasure to the playing and singing of her uncle, who “sang as 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 from this Russian air that she breathed?”

If Natasha is completely characterized by Russian character traits, then in Prince Andrei the Russian beginning is 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 finds himself in the 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 swarm life, when everyone does their part of the common cause, and a person is driven not by instinct, but by the laws of social 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 in the swarm life are the men 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 one must humble oneself and love life, even when one suffers.

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, the artistic narrative itself is at times interrupted by historical and philosophical digressions, similar in style to journalism. The pathos of Tolstoy's philosophical digressions 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 of ​​spiritual unity came true.

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There are many works in literature known only to connoisseurs and gourmets, literary critics and philologists. But there are also a number of texts that every person who considers himself educated should know. Such works include Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace.”

Author's idea

Not everyone knows that L.N. Tolstoy initially intended to write a novel where the central character would be a certain Decembrist. The action was supposed to take place when he returns from amnesty. On the street - 1856. To create such a work, the writer plunged into the study of archival documents. In the process of this historical research, L.N. Tolstoy realized that he would not be able to fully realize his idea of ​​the Decembrist without turning to the origins of the uprising, and then even further - to 1812 itself and, accordingly, to Napoleon’s campaign against Russia.

War and Peace

As can be seen from the title of the epic, the plot can be divided into two themes: war and peace. If the world is a description of the daily life of the nobles, often joys, far from real spiritual uplift, then war is a demonstration of the heroism of the people in the fight against the invader, it is an image of the spiritual path, as well as victory and how and with what sacrifices this victory is achieved.

This idea is most clearly revealed precisely in the theme of war, which highlights not only the problems of society, but also shows that it is the people who win that are more united and holistic.

War eliminates the division between aristocrats and commoners; it equalizes people in the struggle for survival, for the safety of the lives of their loved ones, for their homes and, ultimately, for their country.

The image of the people in the novel by L. N. Tolstoy

At first glance, the reader may think that the people in the novel are peasants, serfs, soldiers, in a word, “ordinary people.” But in reality it turns out that this is not entirely true. The author considers everyone who participates in the life of the country to be the people. Both ordinary soldiers and princes (like, for example, Andrei Bolkonsky) fight Napoleon, that is, the nobles go in battle hand in hand with the sons of peasants. The people in the view of L. N. Tolstoy are integral.

“People's Thought” as a leitmotif

Perhaps all the central characters of the novel, and especially those who can be classified as “heroes on the road,” are inseparable from “popular thought.” She is an obligatory part of the unfolding of the storyline.

Pierre Bezukhov

For example, this leitmotif is clearly visible in the life of Pierre Bezukhov. We are interested in the moment when Pierre is captured: it is here that he finally finds the truth of life. But Bezukhov hears this truth not at all from the lips of a learned man, but from the lips of a simple peasant Platon Karataev. Everything turned out to be very simple: all people want happiness. The end of the novel for some readers appeared as a disappointment, but the ending is consistent with these reflections on happiness.

It is curious that the French allowed Pierre to go to prisoners equal to his status, but he wanted to stay with these simple people, who turned out to be wiser than a hundred scientists.

Andrey Bolkonsky

The same leitmotif haunts the spiritual quest of another hero - Andrei Bolkonsky. First of all, the reader witnesses the hero’s surprise, because he, having rushed forward in the pursuit of glory and exploits, did not at all expect that he would become an inspiring example for the rest of the soldiers. But they, seeing the fearless Andrei, rushed into battle after him.

Natasha Rostova

In fact, the nobles were raised quite harshly. There are many cases where noble girls survived in the most difficult conditions. This was possible because their upbringing prepared them for various challenges.

As for Natasha Rostova, the “folk thought” in her life is clearly visible in her actions during her flight from Moscow.

When the girl sees the wounded, she does not spare things and throws them out of her cart to make room for the wounded.

Thus, Natasha, an aristocrat, finds herself in the same carriage with ordinary wounded soldiers. This once again demonstrates to us that war equalizes everyone. But here, even more, the very contradictions of the Russian soul about which so many books have been written are suddenly laid bare.

Guerrilla movement

This part of the war also failed to hide from the attentive eye of the writer. The partisan movement is revealed in the novel through the example of the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty. He also fights with the invader, but his methods differ from the straightforwardness and openness of Andrei Bolkonsky.

Among Tikhon's methods of fighting the enemy are cunning, dexterity, surprise and disobedience. Here the image of Shcherbaty is the opposite of the image of Platon Karataev, already familiar to us. The latter demonstrates such traits as kindness and calmness, wisdom and simple philosophy, which we can call worldly.

Kutuzov

Perhaps Kutuzov is the most striking example, and sometimes it seems that he is the only example, of a commander-in-chief who really never extolled himself. He considered himself equal to the people, the soldiers with whom he fought hand in hand.

We bring to the attention of readers the description in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”.

The greatest pain for him was the lack of unity of the people, the lack of integrity of the army. This, in his opinion, was often the reason for the defeats of the Russians.

L. N. Tolstoy's view of history

“People's thought” in the novel is inseparable from the historical concept of L. N. Tolstoy, which he sets out here. Of particular importance in this regard is the second part of the epilogue, where the author reflects that history does not actually consist of a description of events, but rather of the stories of individuals who influence the course of these events.

The first thing we think of when we read these words is that the stories of personalities are equal to the stories of famous people. These are, as a rule, great rulers and generals, emperors and kings... But L.N. Tolstoy was able to show us that history is created by ordinary people with their lives. And it is the lives of these people that are at the heart of the set of “small” stories that make up the “big” story.

Simplicity, truth, goodness are the three pillars that support the invincibility of the national spirit. The author himself writes about this, but the reader can also draw his own conclusions. However, simple joys and conservative values ​​prevail - this is family and children, who ensure the reproduction of the people (as the French historian J. Dumezil would say).

So, the writer openly said that a work of literature is successful only when its author lives by the main idea written in this work. L.N. Tolstoy demonstrates, using the example of this epic, that a crisis situation awakens the most sincere qualities in people. Everyone gets what they deserve and according to their conscience: we see how Natasha Rostova changes, how Pierre Bezukhov suddenly finds the truth of life, how Prince Andrei Bolkonsky finally has an epiphany about the meaning of his path. But here we see how unforgiving the war is to people who believed that they had everything and could not lose anything: the handsome Anatol Kuragin loses his leg, and his sister Helen experiences a moral decline.