Composition ““The Thought of the People” in the novel “War and Peace. Thought "people's image of the life of ordinary soldiers

“The subject of history is the life of peoples and mankind,” this is how Leo Tolstoy begins the second part of the epilogue of the epic novel War and Peace. He then asks the question: "What is the power that moves the nations?" Arguing over these “theories”, Tolstoy comes to the conclusion that: “The life of peoples does not fit into the lives of several people, because the connection between these several people and peoples has not been found ...” In other words, Tolstoy says that the role of the people in history is undeniable, and the eternal truth that history is made by the people is proved by him in his novel. "The thought of the people" in Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" is indeed one of the main themes of the epic novel.

The people in the novel "War and Peace"

Many readers understand the word "people" not quite the way Tolstoy understands it. Lev Nikolaevich means by "people" not only soldiers, peasants, peasants, not only that "huge mass" driven by some force. For Tolstoy, “the people” are officers, generals, and the nobility. This is Kutuzov, and Bolkonsky, and the Rostovs, and Bezukhov - this is all of humanity, embraced by one thought, one deed, one destiny.
All the main characters of Tolstoy's novel are directly connected with their people and are inseparable from them.

Heroes of the novel and "folk thought"

The fates of the favorite characters of Tolstoy's novel are connected with the life of the people. The "thought of the people" in "War and Peace" runs like a red thread through the life of Pierre Bezukhov. Being in captivity, Pierre learned his truth of life. Platon Karataev, a peasant peasant, opened it to Bezukhov: “In captivity, in a booth, Pierre learned not with his mind, but with his whole being, with his life, that man was created for happiness, that happiness is in himself, in satisfying natural human needs, that all misfortune occurs not from lack, but from excess. The French offered Pierre to transfer from a soldier's booth to an officer's, but he refused, remaining faithful to those with whom he suffered his fate. And after a long time he recalled with rapture this month of captivity, as “about the complete peace of mind, about perfect inner freedom, which he experienced only at that time.

Andrei Bolkonsky in the battle of Austerlitz also felt his people. Grabbing the staff of the banner and rushing forward, he did not think that the soldiers would follow him. And they, seeing Bolkonsky with a banner and hearing: “Guys, go ahead!” rushed to the enemy after their leader. The unity of officers and ordinary soldiers confirms that the people are not divided into ranks and ranks, the people are one, and Andrei Bolkonsky understood this.

Natasha Rostova, leaving Moscow, dumps family property on the ground and gives her carts to the wounded. This decision comes to her immediately, without deliberation, which indicates that the heroine does not separate herself from the people. Another episode that speaks of the true Russian spirit of Rostova, in which L. Tolstoy himself admires his beloved heroine: spirit, where did she get these techniques… But these spirit and techniques were the same, inimitable, unlearned, Russian.”

And Captain Tushin, who donated own life for the sake of victory, for the sake of Russia. Captain Timokhin, who rushed at the Frenchman with "one skewer." Denisov, Nikolai Rostov, Petya Rostov and many other Russian people who stood with the people and knew true patriotism.

Tolstoy created collective image people - a single people, invincible, when not only soldiers, troops, but also militias are fighting. Civilians they help not with weapons, but with their own methods: the peasants burn hay so as not to take it to Moscow, people leave the city only because they do not want to obey Napoleon. This is the “folk idea” and the ways of its disclosure in the novel. Tolstoy makes it clear that in a single thought - not to surrender to the enemy - the Russian people are strong. For all Russian people, a sense of patriotism is important.

Platon Karataev and Tikhon Shcherbaty

The novel also shows the partisan movement. bright representative here appeared Tikhon Shcherbaty, who, with all his disobedience, dexterity, and cunning, is fighting the French. His active work brings success to the Russians. Denisov is proud of his partisan detachment thanks to Tikhon.

Contrasted with the image of Tikhon gapped image Platon Karataev. Kind, wise, with his worldly philosophy, he calms Pierre and helps him survive captivity. Plato's speech is filled with Russian proverbs, which emphasizes his nationality.

Kutuzov and people

The only commander in chief of the army who never separated himself from the people was Kutuzov. “He knew not with his mind or science, but with his whole Russian being he knew and felt what every Russian soldier felt ...” The disunity of the Russian army in an alliance with Austria, the deception of the Austrian army, when the allies abandoned the Russians in battles, for Kutuzov were unbearable pain. Kutuzov replied to Napoleon’s letter about peace: “I would be damned if they looked at me as the first instigator of any deal: such is the will of our people” (italics by L.N. Tolstoy). Kutuzov did not write from himself, he expressed the opinion of the whole people, all Russian people.

The image of Kutuzov is opposed to the image of Napoleon, who was very far from his people. He was only interested in personal interest in the struggle for power. The empire of world subordination to Bonaparte - and the abyss in the interests of the people. As a result, the war of 1812 was lost, the French fled, and Napoleon was the first to leave Moscow. He abandoned his army, abandoned his people.

findings

In his novel War and Peace, Tolstoy shows that the power of the people is invincible. And in every Russian person there is "simplicity, goodness and truth." True patriotism does not measure everyone by rank, does not build a career, does not seek glory. At the beginning of the third volume, Tolstoy writes: “There are two aspects of life in every person: personal life, which is all the more free, the more abstract its interests, and spontaneous, swarming life, where a person inevitably fulfills the laws prescribed for him.” Laws of honor, conscience, common culture, general history.

This essay on the topic “The Thought of the People” in the novel “War and Peace” reveals only a small fraction of what the author wanted to tell us. The people live in the novel in every chapter, in every line.

"People's Thought" in the novel "War and Peace" by Tolstoy - an essay on the topic |

Introduction

The people in the novel "War and Peace"

Many readers understand the word "people" not quite the way Tolstoy understands it. Lev Nikolaevich means by "people" not only soldiers, peasants, peasants, not only that "huge mass" driven by some force. For Tolstoy, “the people” are officers, generals, and the nobility. This is Kutuzov, and Bolkonsky, and the Rostovs, and Bezukhov - this is all of humanity, embraced by one thought, one deed, one destiny. All the main characters of Tolstoy's novel are directly connected with their people and are inseparable from them.

Heroes of the novel and "folk thought"

The fates of the favorite characters of Tolstoy's novel are connected with the life of the people. The "thought of the people" in "War and Peace" runs like a red thread through the life of Pierre Bezukhov. Being in captivity, Pierre learned his truth of life. Platon Karataev, a peasant peasant, opened it to Bezukhov: “In captivity, in a booth, Pierre learned not with his mind, but with his whole being, with his life, that man was created for happiness, that happiness is in himself, in satisfying natural human needs, that all misfortune occurs not from lack, but from excess. The French offered Pierre to transfer from a soldier's booth to an officer's, but he refused, remaining faithful to those with whom he suffered his fate. And after that, for a long time, he recalled with rapture this month of captivity, as "about complete peace of mind, about perfect inner freedom, which he experienced only at that time."

And Captain Tushin, who sacrificed his own life for the sake of victory, for the sake of Russia. Captain Timokhin, who rushed at the Frenchman with "one skewer." Denisov, Nikolai Rostov, Petya Rostov and many other Russian people who stood with the people and knew true patriotism.

Tolstoy created a collective image of the people - a single, invincible people, when not only soldiers, troops, but also militias are fighting. Civilians help not with weapons, but with their own methods: the peasants burn hay so as not to take it to Moscow, people leave the city only because they do not want to obey Napoleon. This is the “folk idea” and the ways of its disclosure in the novel. Tolstoy makes it clear that in a single thought - not to surrender to the enemy - the Russian people are strong. For all Russian people, a sense of patriotism is important.

Platon Karataev and Tikhon Shcherbaty

The novel also shows the partisan movement. A prominent representative here was Tikhon Shcherbaty, who, with all his disobedience, dexterity, and cunning, is fighting the French. His active work brings success to the Russians. Denisov is proud of his partisan detachment thanks to Tikhon.

Opposite to the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty is the image of Platon Karataev. Kind, wise, with his worldly philosophy, he calms Pierre and helps him survive captivity. Plato's speech is filled with Russian proverbs, which emphasizes his nationality.

Kutuzov and people

findings

Artwork test

To love a people means to see with complete clarity both its virtues and its shortcomings, its greatness and its smallness, its ups and downs. To write for the people means to help them understand their strengths and weaknesses.
F.A.Abramov

In terms of genre, "War and Peace" is an epic of modern times, that is, it combines the features of a classical epic, the model of which is Homer's Iliad, and the achievements of the European novel of the 18th-19th centuries. The subject of the depiction in the epic is the national character, in other words, the people with their everyday life, outlook on the world and man, assessment of good and bad, prejudices and delusions, with their behavior in critical situations.

The people, according to Tolstoy, are not only peasants and soldiers who act in the novel, but also nobles who have a people's view of the world and spiritual values. Thus, the people are people united by one history, language, culture, living in the same territory. In the novel " Captain's daughter» Pushkin noted: the common people and the nobility are so divided in the process historical development Russia, that they cannot understand each other's aspirations. In the epic novel "War and Peace", Tolstoy argues that at the most important historical moments, the people and the best nobles do not oppose each other, but act in concert: during the Patriotic War, the aristocrats Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Rostov feel the same "warmth of patriotism" in themselves as ordinary men and soldiers. Moreover, the very meaning of the development of the individual, according to Tolstoy, lies in the search for a natural fusion of the individual with the people. The best nobles and people are together opposed to the ruling bureaucratic and military circles, who are not capable of high sacrifices and feats for the sake of the fatherland, but in all actions are guided by selfish considerations.

"War and Peace" presents a broad picture of people's life both in peacetime and in war time. The most important test event national character is the Patriotic War of 1812, when the Russian people most fully demonstrated their steadfastness, unostentatious (internal) patriotism and generosity. However, the description of folk scenes and individual heroes from the people appears already in the first two volumes, that is, one might say, in a huge exposition to the main historical events of the novel.

Mass scenes of the first and second volumes make a sad impression. The writer depicts Russian soldiers on foreign campaigns, when the Russian army is fulfilling its allied duty. For ordinary soldiers, this duty is completely incomprehensible: they are fighting for foreign interests on foreign soil. Therefore, the army is more like a faceless, submissive crowd, which, at the slightest danger, turns into a stampede. This is confirmed by the scene at Austerlitz: “... a naively frightened voice (...) shouted: “Well, brothers, the Sabbath!”. And as if this voice was a command. At this voice, everything rushed to run. Mixed, ever-increasing crowds fled back to the place where five minutes ago they passed by the emperors ”(1, 3, XVI).

Complete confusion reigns in the allied forces. The Russian army is actually starving, as the Austrians do not deliver the promised food. Hussars of Vasily Denisov pull out some edible roots from the ground and eat them, which makes everyone's stomach hurt. As an honest officer, Denisov could not calmly look at this disgrace and decided on an malfeasance: he forcibly recaptured part of the provisions from another regiment (1, 2, XV, XVI). This act did not reflect well on him. military career: for arbitrariness Denisov is put on trial (2, 2, XX). Russian troops constantly find themselves in difficult situations due to the stupidity or betrayal of the Austrians. So, for example, near Shengraben, General Nostitz with his corps left the position, believing the talk of peace, and left Bagration's four thousandth detachment without cover, which now stood face to face with Murat's hundred thousandth French army (1, 2, XIV). But under Shengraben, Russian soldiers do not flee, but fight calmly, skillfully, because they know that they are covering the retreat of the Russian army.

On the pages of the first two volumes, Tolstoy creates separate images of soldiers: Lavrushka, Denisov's rogue batman (2, 2, XVI); the cheerful soldier Sidorov, who deftly imitates French speech (1,2, XV); Transfiguration Lazarev, who received the Order of the Legion of Honor from Napoleon in the scene of the Peace of Tilsit (2, 2, XXI). However, much more heroes from the people are shown in a peaceful setting. Tolstoy does not depict the hardships of serfdom, although he, being an honest artist, could not completely bypass this topic. The writer says that Pierre, going around his estates, decided to make life easier for the serfs, but nothing came of it, because the chief manager easily deceived the naive Count Bezukhov (2, 1, X). Or another example: the old Bolkonsky sent Philip the bartender to the soldiers because he forgot the order of the prince and, according to an old habit, served coffee first to Princess Marya, and then to her companion Bourienne (2, 5, II).

The author skillfully, with just a few strokes, draws heroes from the people, their peaceful life, their work, worries, and all these heroes receive vividly individual portraits, like the characters from the nobility. The arrival of Counts Rostovs Danila takes part in the hunt for a wolf. He selflessly surrenders to hunting and understands this fun no less than his masters. Therefore, without thinking about anything else but the wolf, he angrily scolded the old Count Rostov, who decided to "snack" during the rut (2,4, IV). Anisya Fyodorovna, a stout, ruddy, beautiful housekeeper, lives with Uncle Rostovs. The writer notes her cordial hospitality and homeliness (how many treats were on the tray that she herself brought to the guests!), Her kind attention to Natasha (2,4, VII). The image of Tikhon, the devoted valet of the old Bolkonsky, is remarkable: the servant without words understands his paralyzed master (3, 2, VIII). The Bogucharov elder Dron, a strong, cruel man, “whom the peasants feared more than the master” (3, 2, IX), has an amazing character. Some vague ideas, dark dreams, roam in his soul, incomprehensible neither to himself nor to his enlightened masters - the Bolkonsky princes. In peacetime, the best nobles and their serfs live common life understand each other, Tolstoy does not find insoluble contradictions between them.

But now the Patriotic War begins, and the Russian nation faces a serious danger of losing its state independence. The writer shows how different heroes, familiar to the reader from the first two volumes or appearing only in the third volume, are united by one common feeling, which Pierre will call "the inner warmth of patriotism" (3, 2, XXV). This feature becomes not individual, but national, that is, inherent in many Russian people - peasants and aristocrats, soldiers and generals, merchants and urban philistines. The events of 1812 show the sacrifice of the Russians, incomprehensible to the French, and the determination of the Russians, against which the invaders can do nothing.

During the Patriotic War, the Russian army behaves in a completely different way than in the Napoleonic Wars of 1805-1807. Russians do not play war, this is especially noticeable when describing the Battle of Borodino. In the first volume, Princess Mary, in a letter to her friend Julie Karagina, tells about seeing off recruits for the war of 1805: mothers, wives, children, recruits themselves are crying (1,1, XXII). And on the eve of the Battle of Borodino, Pierre observes a different mood of the Russian soldiers: “The cavalrymen go to battle and meet the wounded, and do not think for a minute about what awaits them, but walk past and wink at the wounded” (3, 2, XX). Russian "people are calmly and as if thoughtlessly preparing for death" (3, 2, XXV), since tomorrow they will "fight for the Russian land" (ibid.). The feeling of the troops is expressed by Prince Andrei in his last conversation with Pierre: “For me, this is what tomorrow is: a hundred thousandth Russian and a hundred thousandth French troops have come together to fight, and whoever fights angrier and feels less sorry for himself will win” (3,2, XXV). Timokhin and other junior officers agree with their colonel: “Here, Your Excellency, the truth, the truth is true. Why feel sorry for yourself now! (ibid.). The words of Prince Andrei came true. Towards the evening of the battle of Borodino, an adjutant came to Napoleon and said that, on the orders of the emperor, two hundred guns were firing tirelessly at Russian positions, but that the Russians did not flinch, did not run, but “everyone is still standing, as at the beginning of the battle” (3, 2, XXXVIII).

Tolstoy does not idealize the people and draws scenes showing inconsistency, spontaneity peasant sentiment. First of all, this is the Bogucharov rebellion (3, 2, XI), when the peasants refused to give Princess Mary carts for her property and did not want to let even her out of the estate, because French leaflets (!) urged not to leave. Obviously, the Bogucharov peasants were seduced by French money (false, as it turned out later) for hay and food. The peasants display the same selfishness as noble staff officers (like Berg and Boris Drubetskoy), who see war as a means to make a career, achieve material well-being and even home comfort. However, having made a decision at the meeting not to leave Bogucharov, for some reason the peasants immediately went to a tavern and got drunk. And then the entire peasant gathering obeyed one decisive gentleman - Nikolai Rostov, who shouted at the crowd in a wild voice and ordered to knit the instigators, which the peasants obediently complied with.

Starting from Smolensk, some kind of difficult-to-define feeling, from the point of view of the French, wakes up in the Russians: “The people waited with carelessness for the enemy ... And as soon as the enemy approached, all the rich left, leaving their property, while the poor remained and set fire to and destroyed what what was left” (3, 3, V). An illustration of this reasoning is the scene in Smolensk, when the merchant Ferapontov himself set fire to his shop and flour barn (3,2, IV). Tolstoy notes the difference in the behavior of "enlightened" Europeans and Russians. Austrians and Germans, conquered by Napoleon a few years ago, dance with the invaders at balls and are completely enamored with French gallantry. They seem to forget that the French are enemies, but the Russians do not forget this. For Muscovites, “there could be no question whether it would be good or bad under the control of the French in Moscow. It was impossible to be under the control of the French: it was the worst of all” (3, 3, V).

In the irreconcilable struggle against the aggressor, the Russians retained high human qualities, which indicates mental health people. The greatness of a nation, according to Tolstoy, is not in the fact that it conquers all neighboring peoples by force of arms, but in the fact that a nation, even in the most cruel wars, knows how to preserve a sense of justice and humanity in relation to the enemy. The scene that reveals the generosity of the Russians is the rescue of the boastful captain Rambal and his batman Morel. The first time Rambal appears on the pages of the novel, when the French troops enter Moscow after Borodino. He gets to stay in the house of the widow of the freemason Joseph Alekseevich Bazdeev, where Pierre has lived for several days, and Pierre saves the Frenchman from the bullet of the crazy old man Makar Alekseevich Bazdeev. In gratitude, the Frenchman invites Pierre to dine together, they are quite peacefully talking over a bottle of wine, which the valiant captain, by right of the winner, has already taken in some Moscow house. The talkative Frenchman praises the courage of Russian soldiers on the Borodino field, but the French, in his opinion, are still the bravest warriors, and Napoleon is “the most great person past and future centuries” (3, 3, XXIX). The second time Captain Rambal appears in the fourth volume, when he and his batman, hungry, frostbitten, abandoned by their beloved emperor to their fate, came out of the forest to a soldier's fire near the village of Red. The Russians fed both of them, and then Rambal was taken to the officer's hut to warm himself. Both Frenchmen were touched by such an attitude of ordinary soldiers, and the captain, barely alive, kept repeating: “Here are the people! O my good friends!” (4, 4, IX).

In the fourth volume, two heroes appear who, according to Tolstoy, demonstrate opposite and interconnected sides of the Russian national character. These are Platon Karataev, a dreamy, benevolent soldier, meekly submitting to fate, and Tikhon Shcherbaty, an active, skillful, determined and courageous peasant who does not resign himself to fate, but actively intervenes in life. Tikhon came to Denisov's detachment not on the orders of the landowner or military commander, but on his own initiative. He killed the French most of all in Denisov's detachment and brought "tongues". AT Patriotic war, as follows from the content of the novel, the “Shcherbatovsky” active character of the Russians manifested itself more, although the “Karataevsky” wise long-suffering-humility in the face of adversity also played a role. The self-sacrifice of the people, the courage and steadfastness of the army, the unauthorized partisan movement - this is what determined the victory of Russia over France, and not the mistakes of Napoleon, Cold winter the genius of Alexander.

So, in "War and Peace" folk scenes and characters occupy an important place, as they should be in the epic. According to the philosophy of history, which Tolstoy outlines in the second part of the epilogue, the driving force behind any event is not an individual great person (king or hero), but the people directly involved in the event. The people are at the same time the embodiment of national ideals and the bearer of prejudices; they are the beginning and the end of state life.

This truth was understood by Tolstoy's favorite hero, Prince Andrei. At the beginning of the novel, he believed that a particular hero could influence history with orders from the army headquarters or a beautiful feat, so during the foreign campaign of 1805 he sought to serve in Kutuzov's headquarters and looked for his Toulon everywhere. After analyzing the historical events in which he personally participated, Bolkonsky came to the conclusion that history is not made by headquarters orders, but by direct participants in the events. Prince Andrei tells Pierre about this on the eve of the battle of Borodino: “... if anything depended on the orders of the headquarters, then I would be there and make orders, but instead I have the honor to serve here, in the regiment, with these gentlemen, and I believe that tomorrow will really depend on us, and not on them ... ”(3, 2, XXV).

The people, according to Tolstoy, have the most correct view of the world and man, since the people’s view is not formed in one head of some sage, but undergoes “polishing” - a test in the heads of a huge number of people, and only after that it is approved as a national (communal) sight. Kindness, simplicity, truth - these are the real truths that have been worked out by the people's consciousness and to which Tolstoy's favorite heroes strive.

“I tried to write the history of the people,” the words of L.N. Tolstoy about his novel War and Peace. It's not just a phrase: great writer really depicted in the work not so much individual heroes as the whole people as a whole. "People's thought" defines in the novel and philosophical views Tolstoy, and the depiction of historical events, specific historical figures, and the moral assessment of the actions of the heroes.
"War and Peace", as Yu.V. 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 Rostov-Bolkonsky family spheres and in the events of the 1805 war, lost by the Russians. Then another historical stage in Russia opens, according to Tolstoy, in 1812, when the unity of people triumphs, "the thought of the people." "War and Peace" is a multi-component and integral narrative about how the beginnings of egoism and disunity lead to disaster, but they meet with opposition from the elements of "peace" and "unity" rising from the depths people's Russia". Tolstoy urged "to leave alone the kings, ministers and generals", and to study the history of peoples, "infinitely small elements", since they play a decisive role in the development of mankind. What is the power that drives the 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 with the whole course of the story.
The great Russian writer argues in the novel with the cult of an outstanding historical personality, which was very widespread at that time in Russia and abroad. This cult relied heavily on the teachings German philosopher Hegel. According to Hegel, the closest conductors of the World Reason, which determines the fate 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 understand the human mass, the passive material of history. These views of Hegel were directly reflected in the inhumane theory of Rodion Raskolnikov ("Crime and Punishment"), who divided all people into "rulers" and "trembling creatures." Leo Tolstoy, like Dostoevsky, “saw in this teaching something godlessly inhuman, fundamentally contrary to Russian moral ideal. Tolstoy is not an exceptional personality, but folk life as a whole, turns out to be the most sensitive organism that responds to hidden meaning historical movement. The vocation of a great man lies in the ability to listen to the will of the majority, to the "collective subject" of history, to the people's life.
Therefore, the attention of the writer is attracted primarily by the life of the people: peasants, soldiers, officers - those who make up 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 on the pages of the novel shows that the historical process does not depend on whim or bad mood one man. It is impossible to predict or change the direction of historical events, since they depend on everyone and no one in particular.
It can be said that the will of the commander does not affect the outcome of the battle, because not a single 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 on which 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, Napoleon did not lose battle of Borodino or Kutuzov won it, and the Russian people won this battle, because the "spirit" of the Russian army was immeasurably higher than the French.
Tolstoy writes that Kutuzov was able to "guess so correctly the meaning of the people's meaning of events", i.e. "guess" the whole pattern of historical events. And the source of this brilliant insight was the "popular feeling" that he carried in his soul great commander. It is understanding folk character historical processes allowed Kutuzov, according to Tolstoy, to win not only the Battle of Borodino, but the entire military campaign and fulfill his mission - to save Russia from the Napoleonic invasion.
Tolstoy notes that not only the Russian army opposed Napoleon. “The feeling of revenge that lay in the soul of every person” and of the entire Russian people gave rise to a guerrilla war. The partisans destroyed great army in parts. There were small, prefabricated, foot and horse parties, there were peasant and landowner parties, unknown to anyone. He was the head of the party, a deacon who took several hundred prisoners a month. There was an elder, Vasilisa, who beat a hundred Frenchmen. "Cudgel people's war” rose and fell on the heads of the French until the entire invasion died.
This people's war originated shortly after the Russian troops left Smolensk and continued until the very end of hostilities in Russia. Napoleon was not expected by a solemn reception with the keys to the surrendered cities, but by fires and peasant pitchforks. " Latent heat 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 the moment of a terrible test, 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 that reflects human destinies and the fate of the people, which have become the main object of study for the writer in this great work.

Tolstoy believed that a work can be good only when the writer loves his main idea. In War and Peace, the writer, by his own admission, loved "people's thought". It lies not only and not so much in the depiction of the people themselves, their way of life, but in the fact that every positive hero of the novel ultimately connects his fate with the fate of the nation.

The crisis situation in the country, caused by the rapid advance of the Napoleonic troops into the depths of Russia, revealed in people their best qualities, made it possible to take a closer look at that peasant, who was previously perceived by the nobles only as an obligatory attribute of the landowner's estate, whose lot was hard peasant labor. When a serious threat of enslavement hung over Russia, the peasants, dressed in soldier's greatcoats, forgetting their long-standing sorrows and grievances, together with the "masters", courageously and staunchly defended their homeland from a powerful enemy. Commanding a regiment, Andrei Bolkonsky for the first time saw patriotic heroes in the serfs, ready to die for the sake of the fatherland. These main human values, in the spirit of "simplicity, goodness and truth", according to Tolstoy, represent the "people's thought", which is the soul of the novel and its main meaning. It is she who unites the peasantry with the best part nobility with a single goal - the struggle for the freedom of the Fatherland. The peasantry, organizing partisan detachments, fearlessly exterminating French army in the rear, played a huge role in the final destruction of the enemy.

By the word "people" Tolstoy meant the entire patriotic population of Russia, including the peasantry, the urban poor, the nobility, and the merchant class. The author poetizes the simplicity, kindness, morality of the people, contrasts them with falsehood, the hypocrisy of the world. Tolstoy shows the dual psychology of the peasantry on the example of two of its typical representatives: Tikhon Shcherbaty and Platon Karataev.

Tikhon Shcherbaty stands out in the Denisov detachment with his unusual prowess, dexterity and desperate courage. This peasant, who at first fought alone with the "world leaders" in his native village, having attached himself to Denisov's partisan detachment, soon became the most useful person in the squad. Tolstoy concentrated in this hero typical features Russian folk character. The image of Platon Karataev shows a different type of Russian peasant. With his humanity, kindness, simplicity, indifference to hardships, a sense of collectivism, this inconspicuous "tidy" peasant managed to return to Pierre Bezukhov, who was in captivity, faith in people, goodness, love, justice. His spiritual qualities are opposed to the arrogance, selfishness and careerism of the highest St. Petersburg society. Platon Karataev remained for Pierre the most precious memory, "the personification of everything Russian, kind and round."

In the images of Tikhon Shcherbaty and Platon Karataev, Tolstoy concentrated the main qualities of the Russian people, who appear in the novel in the person of soldiers, partisans, courtyards, peasants, and the urban poor. Both heroes are dear to the writer's heart: Plato as the embodiment of "everything Russian, kind and round", all those qualities (patriarchy, gentleness, humility, non-resistance, religiosity) that the writer highly valued in the Russian peasantry; Tikhon - as the embodiment of a heroic people who rose to fight, but only at a critical, exceptional time for the country (Patriotic War of 1812). Tolstoy treats the rebellious moods of Tikhon in peacetime with condemnation.

Tolstoy correctly assessed the nature and goals of the Patriotic War of 1812, deeply understood the decisive role of the people defending their homeland from foreign invaders in the war, rejecting official assessments of the war of 1812 as the war of two emperors - Alexander and Napoleon. On the pages of the novel, and especially in the second part of the epilogue, Tolstoy says that until now the whole history has been written as the history of individuals, as a rule, tyrants, monarchs, and no one has thought about what is the driving force of history. According to Tolstoy, this is the so-called “swarm principle”, the spirit and will of not one person, but of the nation as a whole, and how strong the spirit and will of the people are, how likely these or those historical events. In Tolstoy's Patriotic War, two wills clashed: the will of the French soldiers and the will of the entire Russian people. This war was fair for the Russians, they fought for their homeland, so their spirit and will to win turned out to be stronger than the French spirit and will. Therefore, the victory of Russia over France was predetermined.

The main idea determined not only art form works, but also characters, an assessment of his heroes. The War of 1812 became a frontier, a test for all goodies in the novel: for Prince Andrei, who feels an unusual upsurge before the Battle of Borodino, believes in victory; for Pierre Bezukhov, all of whose thoughts are aimed at helping to expel the invaders; for Natasha, who gave the carts to the wounded, because it was impossible not to give them away, it was shameful and disgusting not to give them back; for Petya Rostov, who takes part in the hostilities of a partisan detachment and dies in a fight with the enemy; for Denisov, Dolokhov, even Anatole Kuragin. All these people, having discarded everything personal, become a single whole, participate in the formation of the will to win.

The theme of guerrilla warfare occupies a special place in the novel. Tolstoy emphasizes that the war of 1812 was indeed a people's war, because the people themselves rose up to fight the invaders. The detachments of the elder Vasilisa Kozhina and Denis Davydov were already active, and the heroes of the novel, Vasily Denisov and Dolokhov, are creating their own detachments. Tolstoy calls the cruel, life-and-death war "the club of the people's war": "The club of the people's war rose with all its formidable and majestic strength, and, without asking anyone's tastes and rules, with stupid simplicity, but with expediency, without analyzing nothing, rose, fell and nailed the French until the whole invasion died. In the actions of the partisan detachments of 1812, Tolstoy saw the highest form of unity between the people and the army, which radically changed the attitude towards the war.

Tolstoy glorifies the "club of the people's war", glorifies the people who raised it against the enemy. "Karpy and Vlasy" did not sell hay to the French even for good money, but burned it, thereby undermining the enemy army. The small merchant Ferapontov, before the French entered Smolensk, asked the soldiers to take away his goods for free, because if "Raseya decided", he would burn everything himself. The inhabitants of Moscow and Smolensk did the same, burning their houses so that they would not get to the enemy. The Rostovs, leaving Moscow, gave up all their carts for the removal of the wounded, thus completing their ruin. Pierre Bezukhov invested huge amounts of money in the formation of a regiment, which he took on his support, while he himself remained in Moscow, hoping to kill Napoleon in order to decapitate the enemy army.

“And the benefit of that people,” wrote Lev Nikolayevich, “who, not like the French in 1813, having saluted according to all the rules of art and turned the sword over with the hilt, gracefully and courteously hand it over to the generous winner, but the benefit of that people who, in a moment of trial, without asking about how others acted according to the rules in similar cases, with simplicity and ease, picks up the first club that comes across and nails it until in his soul the feeling of insult and revenge is replaced by contempt and pity.

The true feeling of love for the Motherland is contrasted with the ostentatious, false patriotism of Rostopchin, who, instead of fulfilling his duty - to take everything of value out of Moscow - excited the people with the distribution of weapons and posters, as he liked the "beautiful role of the leader of the people's feelings." At an important time for Russia, this false patriot only dreamed of a "heroic effect." When a huge number of people sacrificed their lives to save their homeland, the Petersburg nobility wanted only one thing for themselves: benefits and pleasures. A bright type of careerist is given in the image of Boris Drubetskoy, who skillfully and deftly used connections, sincere goodwill of people, pretending to be a patriot, in order to move up the career ladder. The problem of true and false patriotism, posed by the writer, allowed him to paint a broad and comprehensive picture of military everyday life, to express his attitude to the war.

Aggressive, predatory war was hateful and disgusting to Tolstoy, but, from the point of view of the people, it was just, liberating. The views of the writer are revealed both in realistic paintings saturated with blood, death and suffering, and in contrasting the eternal harmony of nature with the madness of people killing each other. Tolstoy often puts his own thoughts about the war into the mouths of his favorite heroes. Andrei Bolkonsky hates her, because he understands that her main goal is murder, which is accompanied by treason, theft, robbery, and drunkenness.