War and Peace. History of creation

29.08.2019

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The history of the creation of the novel "War and Peace"

The novel "War and Peace" by L.N. Tolstoy devoted seven years of intense and persistent work. September 5, 1863 A.E. Bers, father of Sofia Andreevna, wife of L.N. Tolstoy, sent from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana a letter with the following remark: “Yesterday we talked a lot about 1812 on the occasion of your intention to write a novel relating to this era.” It is this letter that researchers consider “the first accurate evidence” dating the beginning of L.N.’s work. Tolstoy's "War and Peace". In October of the same year, Tolstoy wrote to his relative: “I have never felt my mental and even all moral forces so free and so capable of work. And I have this work. This work is a novel from the time of the 1810s and 20s, which has occupied me completely since the fall... I am now a writer with all the strength of my soul, and I write and think about it as I have never written or thought about it before.” The manuscripts of “War and Peace” testify to how one of the world’s largest works was created: over 5,200 finely written sheets have been preserved in the writer’s archive. From them you can trace the entire history of the creation of the novel.

Initially, Tolstoy conceived a novel about a Decembrist who returned after a 30-year exile in Siberia. The novel began in 1856, shortly before the abolition of serfdom. But then the writer revised his plan and moved on to 1825 - the era of the Decembrist uprising. But soon the writer abandoned this beginning and decided to show the youth of his hero, which coincided with the formidable and glorious times Patriotic War 1812. But Tolstoy did not stop there either, and since the war of 1812 was inextricably linked with 1805, he began his entire work from that time. Having moved the beginning of the action of his novel half a century into the depths of history, Tolstoy decided to take not one, but many heroes through the most important events for Russia.

Tolstoy called his plan - to capture in artistic form the half-century history of the country - “Three Times”. The first time is the beginning of the century, its first decade and a half, the time of youth of the first Decembrists who went through the Patriotic War of 1812. The second time is the 20s with their main event - the uprising of December 14, 1825. The third time - the 50s, an unfortunate end for the Russian army Crimean War, sudden death Nicholas I, the amnesty of the Decembrists, their return from exile and the time of waiting for changes in the life of Russia. At different stages of work, the author presented his work as a broad epic canvas. By creating his “semi-fictional” and “fictional” heroes, Tolstoy, as he himself said, was writing the history of the people, looking for ways to artistically comprehend the “character of the Russian people.”

However, in the process of working on the work, the writer narrowed the scope of his initial plan and focused on the first period, touching only on the beginning of the second period in the epilogue of the novel. But even in this form, the concept of the work remained global in scope and required the writer to exert all his strength. At the beginning of his work, Tolstoy realized that the usual framework of the novel and historical story would not be able to accommodate all the richness of the content he had planned, and began to persistently look for a new one. art form, he wanted to create literary work completely unusual type. And he succeeded. "War and Peace", according to L.N. Tolstoy - not a novel, not a poem, not historical chronicle, this is an epic novel, new genre prose, which after Tolstoy became widespread in Russian and world literature.

During the first year of work, Tolstoy worked hard on the beginning of the novel. The author still could not choose a title for the work: he abandoned the first option for the title of the novel - “Three Times”, since in this case the narrative was supposed to begin with the Patriotic War of 1812. Another option - "One thousand eight hundred and five" - also did not correspond to the author's intention. In 1866, a new title for the novel appeared: “All's well that ends well,” corresponding to the happy ending of the work. However, this option did not reflect the scale of the action in any way, and was also rejected by the author. According to Tolstoy himself, many times he started and gave up writing his book, losing and gaining hope of expressing in it everything that he wanted to express. Fifteen versions of the beginning of the novel have been preserved in the writer’s archive. The concept of the work was based on Tolstoy’s deep interest in history, philosophical and socio-political issues. The work was created in an atmosphere of boiling passions around the main issue of that era - the role of the people in the history of the country, about their destinies. While working on the novel, Tolstoy sought to find the answer to these questions. Contrary to the writer’s hopes for the speedy birth of his literary brainchild, the first chapters of the novel began to appear in print only in 1867. And for the next two years, work on it continued. They were not yet entitled “War and Peace”; moreover, they were subsequently subjected to cruel editing by the author.

In order to truthfully describe the events of the Patriotic War of 1812, the writer studied a huge amount of materials: books, historical documents, memoirs, letters. “When I write history,” Tolstoy pointed out in the article “A few words about the book “War and Peace,” “I like to be faithful to reality down to the smallest detail.” While working on the work, he collected a whole library of books about the events of 1812. In in the books of Russian and foreign historians he found neither a truthful description of events nor a fair assessment historical figures. Some of them uncontrollably praised Alexander I, considering him the conqueror of Napoleon, others exalted Napoleon, considering him invincible.

Having rejected all the works of historians who depicted the war of 1812 as a war of two emperors, Tolstoy set himself the goal of truthfully covering the events great era and showed the liberation war waged by the Russian people against foreign invaders. From the books of Russian and foreign historians, Tolstoy borrowed only genuine historical documents: orders, instructions, dispositions, battle plans, letters, etc. He introduced letters from Alexander I and Napoleon into the text of the novel, which Russian and french emperors exchanged before the outbreak of the War of 1812; the disposition of the Battle of Austerlitz, as well as the disposition of the Battle of Borodino, compiled by Napoleon. The chapters of the work also include letters from Kutuzov, which serve as confirmation of the characteristics given to the field marshal by the author.

When creating the novel, Tolstoy used the memoirs of his contemporaries and participants in the Patriotic War of 1812. The writer borrowed materials for scenes depicting Moscow, and included in the work partisan important information about the actions of Russian troops during their campaigns abroad. Tolstoy discovered a lot of valuable information about the Russians being captured by the French and a description of Moscow life at that time. While working on the work, Tolstoy also used materials from newspapers and magazines from the era of the Patriotic War of 1812. He spent a lot of time in the manuscript department Rumyantsev Museum and in the archives of the palace department, where he carefully studied unpublished documents (orders and instructions, reports and reports, Masonic manuscripts and letters historical figures). In letters not intended for publication, the writer found precious details depicting the life and characters of his contemporaries in 1812. Tolstoy Decembrist domestic link

Tolstoy stayed in Borodino for two days. Having traveled around the battlefield, he wrote to his wife: “I am very pleased, very pleased with my trip... If only God grants health and peace, and I will write this battle of Borodino, which has never happened before." Between the manuscripts of "War and Peace" there was preserved a piece of paper with notes made by Tolstoy at the time when he was on the Borodino field. "The distance is visible for 25 versts," he wrote down, sketching the horizon line and noting where the villages of Borodino, Gorki, Psarevo, Semenovskoye, Tatarinovo are located. On this sheet he noted the movement of the sun during the battle. While working on the work, these. short notes Tolstoy developed unique pictures of the Borodino battle, full of movement, colors and sounds.

Finally, at the end of 1867, the final title of the work, “War and Peace,” appeared. In the manuscript, the word "peace" was written with the letter "i". " Dictionary Great Russian language" V.I. Dalya broadly explains the word "mir": "Mir is the universe; one of the lands of the universe; our land, globe, light; all people, the whole world, the human race; community, society of peasants; gathering." Without a doubt, this is precisely the symbolic understanding of this word that Tolstoy had. Throughout the seven years of intense work that the writing of “War and Peace” required, the writer was never left by elation and creative fire, and that is why the work has not lost its meaning to this day More than a century has passed since the first part of the novel appeared in print, and War and Peace is invariably read by people of all ages - from young people to old people. During the years of working on the epic novel, Tolstoy stated that “the artist’s goal is not to... indisputably resolve the issue, but to make one love life in its countless, never-exhaustible manifestations." Then he admitted: "If they told me that what I write will be read by today's children in twenty years and will cry and laugh at him and love life, I would devote my whole life and all my strength to him." Quite a few such works were created by Tolstoy. "War and Peace", dedicated to one of the bloodiest wars of the 19th century, but affirming the idea of the triumph of life over death, occupies a place of honor among them.

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The idea of the novel

An artistic creation has a beginning, an impetus. Oddly enough, War and Peace in the history of its creation was not conceived at all as a novel about the War of 1812. Initially, Leo Tolstoy thought about the fate of the Decembrists and what causes and consequences this period of Russian history would have. However, later the writer, being at the same time a thinker, realized: the roots of the Decembrist speeches are hidden in the past. So the author returned – mentally – to 1812.

Since you are interested in Tolstoy’s books, then we offer you Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”

A. Bers (father of Sophia, Leo Tolstoy’s wife) is the author of letters to his son-in-law, which anticipate the history of the creation of War and Peace. The diligence with which the writer created a great work is easily equated to the level of effort that distinguishes the work of Tolstoy’s French colleague - albeit from a different time. M. Proust's manuscripts were compared to lace napkins: the papers were so finely written that they resembled lace rather than notes. Likewise, Leo Tolstoy’s manuscripts amount to no less than 5,200 sheets, covered with inscriptions and comments.

Novel about the Decembrist

As stated at the beginning, the first version of the novel “War and Peace” had a different plot: in the center of the story is the fate of the Decembrist, who returns from exile, which lasted as much as 30 years. The events of the novel take place in 1856. A little later, Lev Nikolaevich decides to return - literary, of course - to the past: this time the author is interested in 1825 - the time of the Decembrists. This corresponds to the logic of the author's idea.

However, turning to more early period life of Russia, the writer realizes that the roots of what happened are hidden in the layers of history more ancient. The writer turns into an archaeologist, revealing layer by layer of events of past years in order to understand what is happening in the present. Next, the author’s gaze dwells on 1812, the period when Russia fought in the war with Napoleon.

Dear readers! We bring to your attention chapter by chapter.

But this also did not bring Leo Tolstoy literary satisfaction: finally, the author turns to 1805. So, the events of “War and Peace” begin from here - from this point.

"Three Pores"

The novel mentioned above could have had this title. But later, in the course of work, the writer again rethought the concept of the work. But if this were the final version of the novel, then these are the pores I would write out:

The first time would be the first decades of the 19th century, the youth of the Decembrists, who in the future would fight in the Patriotic War with Napoleon ( we're talking about about the war of 1812).
The second period would be marked in the text by the events of 1825.
3. Finally, as a third period, the author would show readers the 1850s, the events of the Crimean Wars, the death of Emperor Nicholas I and the subsequent amnesty of the Decembrists. Here readers would get to know the main character better - also a Decembrist, returning home and rethinking the events of the past.

In fact, the novel “War and Peace” introduces readers to the first period, since, while working on the work, Lev Nikolaevich ultimately decided to focus on this period.

Genre "War and Peace"

Critics are already accustomed to calling “War and Peace” not just a novel. Rather, it is an epic novel: the history of the creation of War and Peace also implied some transformations of the genre.

The reader is not confronted with a documentary archive, not with a historical chronicle. Leo Tolstoy realized that neither the genre of a simple novel, much less a historical story, could help realize a great and large-scale plan.

Thus, with “War and Peace” a new genre enters the context of Russian literature - the epic novel. The work of Leo Tolstoy is two books containing four volumes. On the pages of the novel there are dozens of characters whose lives are intertwined and combined into separate storylines.

Leo Tolstoy writes a novel, first opening a draft notebook in 1863, and closing it in 1870.

"Hard labor" writing

Even when Lev Nikolayevich finally decided on the time frame in which he would place the heroes of the novel “War and Peace,” as well as the genre and specifics of the plot, the author still had doubts.

Working on the novel was difficult. Leo Tolstoy wanted to quit writing a novel many times and even did so, but then he picked up the pen again. The writer was supported by his wife, Sophia, who diligently rewrote drafts in finishing jobs, sometimes working at night. If we turn to Sophia’s memoirs, the woman writes how difficult it was to rewrite the same fragment of text many times. Leo Tolstoy loved to rework already written material.

Researchers count 15 versions of the novel—that’s how many drafts of the work have survived. Lev Nikolaevich, as a writer, was distinguished by constant dissatisfaction with himself, deepening into introspection and self-criticism. This explains a large number of transformations introduced into the original form of the novel.

To make the novel as believable as possible, the writer carefully studied archival data and historical documents. Leo Tolstoy sought to depict as accurately and in detail as possible the customs and foundations of that time, the philosophical and moral views dominant in society early XIX century.

Of course, not all literary critics believe that the writer managed to fully realize his plan: there is an opinion that Leo Tolstoy did a better job of depicting peace than depicting war.

But Lev Nikolaevich himself - as an archaeologist and archival researcher - did not limit himself to a contemplative, abstract study of documentary evidence of the events described. To feel the atmosphere of that time, as well as military operations, the writer traveled to the places where the battles of the War of 1812 took place.

Writer - about work

If the reader wants to better imagine the efforts and efforts of Lev Nikolaevich, he can turn to the Epilogue. It is known that the Prologue and Epilogue are read at the end, when readers hope to grab another piece of the work they liked, to prolong the enjoyment and enjoyment of the text.

But in the Prologue and Epilogue, Leo Tolstoy writes important things: firstly, the author says that he sought to express “people's thought” as main idea works, and, secondly, he says that he experienced excruciating excitement during the creation of “War and Peace.”

Thus, we can read about the history of the creation of the epic “War and Peace” even on the pages of the novel. Themes of the epic: reflection on the problems of the socio-political structure, war, peace and social life. Often literary critics, as well as textbooks on foreign literature(mediocre in their narrow-mindedness) call “War and Peace” a novel telling about a family. But family is one of the aspects of life that the author shows. The spiritual quest of the heroes also occupies a significant place here.

The title of the novel is ambiguous. The word mir in pre-revolutionary spelling had two forms: peace and mir. Leo Tolstoy included the variant “mir” in the title of his work, which meant: universe, earth, homeland. Thus, the reader sees how ambiguously this novel is perceived today, but to understand the real essence The text will only be helped by studying the history of the creation of War and Peace.

The history of the creation of the epic "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy

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The novel "War and Peace" L.N. Tolstoy devoted seven years of intense and persistent work. September 5, 1863 A.E. Bers, father of Sofia Andreevna, wife of L.N. Tolstoy, sent a letter from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana with the following remark: “Yesterday we talked a lot about 1812 on the occasion of your intention to write a novel relating to this era.” It is this letter that researchers consider “the first accurate evidence” dating the beginning of L.N.’s work. Tolstoy's "War and Peace". In October of the same year, Tolstoy wrote to his relative: “I have never felt my mental and even all my moral powers so free and so capable of work. And I have this job. This work is a novel from the time of 1810 and 20s, which has been occupying me completely since the fall... I am now a writer with all the strength of my soul, and I write and think about it as I have never written or thought about it before.”

The manuscripts of “War and Peace” testify to how one of the world’s largest works was created: over 5,200 finely written sheets have been preserved in the writer’s archive. From them you can trace the entire history of the creation of the novel.

Initially, Tolstoy conceived a novel about a Decembrist who returned after a 30-year exile in Siberia. The novel began in 1856, shortly before the abolition of serfdom. But then the writer revised his plan and moved on to 1825 - the era of the Decembrist uprising. But soon the writer abandoned this beginning and decided to show the youth of his hero, which coincided with the formidable and glorious times of the Patriotic War of 1812. But Tolstoy did not stop there either, and since the war of 1812 was inextricably linked with 1805, he began his entire work from that time. Having moved the beginning of the action of his novel half a century into the depths of history, Tolstoy decided to take not one, but many heroes through the most important events for Russia.

However, in the process of working on the work, the writer narrowed the scope of his initial plan and focused on the first period, touching only on the beginning of the second period in the epilogue of the novel. But even in this form, the concept of the work remained global in scope and required the writer to exert all his strength. At the beginning of his work, Tolstoy realized that the usual framework of the novel and historical story would not be able to accommodate all the richness of the content he had planned, and began to persistently search for a new artistic form; he wanted to create a literary work of a completely unusual type. And he succeeded. “War and Peace”, according to L.N. Tolstoy is not a novel, not a poem, not a historical chronicle, it is an epic novel, a new genre of prose, which after Tolstoy became widespread in Russian and world literature.

During the first year of work, Tolstoy worked hard on the beginning of the novel. According to the author himself, many times he started and gave up writing his book, losing and gaining hope of expressing in it everything that he wanted to express. Fifteen versions of the beginning of the novel have been preserved in the writer’s archive. The concept of the work was based on Tolstoy’s deep interest in history, philosophical and socio-political issues. The work was created in an atmosphere of boiling passions around the main issue of that era - the role of the people in the history of the country, about their destinies. While working on the novel, Tolstoy sought to find the answer to these questions.

In order to truthfully describe the events of the Patriotic War of 1812, the writer studied a huge amount of materials: books, historical documents, memoirs, letters. “When I write history,” Tolstoy pointed out in the article “A few words about the book “War and Peace,” “I like to be faithful to reality down to the smallest detail.” While working on the work, he collected a whole library of books about the events of 1812. In the books of Russian and foreign historians, he found neither a truthful description of events nor a fair assessment of historical figures. Some of them uncontrollably praised Alexander I, considering him the conqueror of Napoleon, others exalted Napoleon, considering him invincible.

Having rejected all the works of historians who portrayed the war of 1812 as a war of two emperors, Tolstoy set himself the goal of truthfully covering the events of the great era and showed the liberation war waged by the Russian people against foreign invaders. From the books of Russian and foreign historians, Tolstoy borrowed only genuine historical documents: orders, instructions, dispositions, battle plans, letters, etc. He included in the text of the novel letters from Alexander I and Napoleon, which the Russian and French emperors exchanged before the start of the war of 1812; the disposition of the Battle of Austerlitz, developed by General Weyrother, as well as the disposition of the Battle of Borodino, compiled by Napoleon. The chapters of the work also include letters from Kutuzov, which serve as confirmation of the characteristics given to the field marshal by the author.

When creating the novel, Tolstoy used the memoirs of his contemporaries and participants in the Patriotic War of 1812. Thus, from “Notes about 1812 by Sergei Glinka, the first warrior of the Moscow militia,” the writer borrowed materials for scenes depicting Moscow during the war; in “The Works of Denis Vasilyevich Davydov” Tolstoy found materials that served as the basis for the partisan scenes of “War and Peace”; in “The Notes of Alexei Petrovich Ermolov” the writer found a lot important information about the actions of Russian troops during their foreign campaigns of 1805-1806. Tolstoy also discovered a lot of valuable information in the notes of V.A. Perovsky about his time in captivity by the French, and in S. Zhikharev’s diary “Notes of a Contemporary from 1805 to 1819,” on the basis of which the novel describes Moscow life at that time.

While working on the work, Tolstoy also used materials from newspapers and magazines from the era of the Patriotic War of 1812. He spent a lot of time in the manuscript department of the Rumyantsev Museum and in the archives of the palace department, where he carefully studied unpublished documents (orders and instructions, dispatches and reports, Masonic manuscripts and letters from historical figures). Here he became acquainted with the letters of the maid of honor of the imperial palace M.A. Volkova to V.A. Lanskaya, letters from General F.P. Uvarov and other persons. In letters not intended for publication, the writer found precious details depicting the life and characters of his contemporaries in 1812.

Tolstoy stayed in Borodino for two days. Having traveled around the battlefield, he wrote to his wife: “I am very pleased, very pleased with my trip... If only God grants health and peace, and I will write a Battle of Borodino that has never happened before.” Between the manuscripts of “War and Peace” there is a piece of paper with notes made by Tolstoy while he was on the Borodino field. “The distance is visible for 25 miles,” he wrote, sketching the horizon line and noting where the villages of Borodino, Gorki, Psarevo, Semenovskoye, Tatarinovo are located. On this sheet he noted the movement of the sun during the battle. While working on the work, Tolstoy developed these brief notes into unique pictures of the Borodino battle, full of movement, colors and sounds.

Throughout the seven years of intense work that writing “War and Peace” required, Tolstoy’s elation and creative fire did not leave him, and that is why the work has not lost its significance to this day. More than a century has passed since the first part of the novel appeared in print, and War and Peace is invariably read by people of all ages - from young men to old people. During the years of work on the epic novel, Tolstoy stated that “the artist’s goal is not to undeniably resolve the issue, but to make one love life in its countless, never-exhaustible manifestations.” Then he admitted: “If they told me that what I write would be read by today’s children in twenty years and would cry and laugh over it and love life, I would devote my whole life and all my strength to it.” Many such works were created by Tolstoy. “War and Peace,” dedicated to one of the bloodiest wars of the 19th century, but affirming the idea of the triumph of life over death, occupies an honorable place among them.

The novel "War and Peace" is the highest achievement of Tolstoy's artistic genius. The book required enormous efforts from the author, commensurate with its merits.

Typically, the boundaries of Tolstoy’s work on a novel are defined as seven years: 1863–1869. This version has become so established that it has already migrated to the pages of school textbooks. However, it is unfair, confuses the essence of the matter, and gives rise to many misconceptions. Tolstoy himself, in the article “A few words about the book “War and Peace”,” wrote about the five years of creation of the novel. This was in 1868, and he did not imagine then that completing the text would require another two years of the same “incessant and exceptional labor under best conditions life."

The fact is that in 1862, an 18-year-old girl, Sonechka Bers, the daughter of a doctor in the court department, became Countess Tolstoy. Her husband was 34 years old at the time; he finally entered the quiet family backwater. Work became more fun. However, firstly, it began much earlier, and secondly, an important circumstance was forgotten: Tolstoy never continued it continuously, without frequent stops, especially in its early stages. This was the case with Anna Karenina, Resurrection, and other plans. The writer had to interrupt his work to think about the future development of the plot and, as he said, to prevent the “scaffolding” of the building of the work under construction from collapsing. In addition, Tolstoy himself claimed, while working on the supposed preface to the novel, that back in 1856 he began writing a story about a Decembrist returning with his family from exile to Russia. This is a very important recognition in many ways. Peculiarity creative process Tolstoy was that, despite the exceptional power of imagination, he always proceeded from fact. This, figuratively speaking, was the “stove” from which the dance of his imagination began, and then in the process of work he went far away from this fact, creating a fictitious plot and fictitious persons. The story of the Decembrist, which Tolstoy remembered, was the plan for the future novel “The Decembrists” (its manuscripts were preserved and were published later). 1856 was the year of the Decembrist amnesty, when the few surviving participants in the movement who had not taken firm roots in Siberia flocked to their homeland. Tolstoy met some of them, and his Pierre Labazov, the hero of the original story, then the novel, had real prototypes.

It was necessary to find out the history of these people, and Tolstoy moved on to 1825, to the “era of delusions and misfortunes” of his hero; then it turned out to be necessary to turn to the hero’s youth, and it coincided with the “glorious era of 1812 for Russia.” But for the third time, Tolstoy abandoned what he had started, because he believed that the character of the people and the Russian army “should have been expressed even more clearly in the era of failures and defeats.” The action of the novel "War and Peace" begins in 1805, when in skirmishes with Napoleon, Russian troops suffered severe losses until 1807 with the fatal Battle of Austerlitz.

Thus, the start of work on “War and Peace” was not 1863, but 1856. We can talk about the existence of a coherent plan: a story about the Decembrist, which turned into the novels “The Decembrists” and “War and Peace.” There is also evidence that Tolstoy worked on this gradually changing plan in 1860, 1861 and even in 1862-1863. In addition, the famous name itself - "War and Peace" - arose very late. It only appeared in a typesetting manuscript in 1856! Until that time, there were several titles of the novel: “Three Times”, “All’s Well That Ends Well”, “From 1805 to 1814”, “One Thousand Eight Hundred and Five” (this was not the title of the entire novel, but only its beginning, which appeared in the magazine version in "Russian Bulletin" 1865–1866). The title of the novel written by Tolstoy was originally as follows: “War and Mip.” Meaning of the word "mgr" completely different from the “world” that now structures the whole artistic system based on the principle of contrast with the concept of "war". "Mip" is a community, a people, a community, the working life of a mass of people. In one of the drafts of the novel, the author used the proverb: “The world reaps, but the army feeds,” i.e. the contrast was intended in a different way than it is now in the final, canonical text.

So, Tolstoy went into the past from modernity in order to return to it again, but at the end of a new novel, the contours of which became increasingly clearer for him. The writer was going to end with where he once began his work. “My task,” he notes in one of the rough drafts of the unpublished preface, “is to describe the lives and conflicts of certain individuals during the period from 1805 to 1856.”

“War and Peace,” thus, with all its majestic scope, which even now amazes the imagination, is only part of a grandiose and not fully realized plan. In the cursory epilogue of the novel, omitting events after 1812, Tolstoy sketched scenes from the early 1820s, i.e. close vestibule Decembrist uprising. However, even in this form, this block of novel, not fully processed, with many events and persons, serves as a grandiose example of great creative will and great work. It didn’t take the author seven years, but twice as long – 14 years! In this case, everything falls into place: never will a writer have to experience such a powerful creative impulse into the unattainable, into the unattainable. Although even now the author of this brilliant novel is almost like God, because he made a titanic effort: he led his heroes from 1805 through several eras of Russian life, sketched the approach to the December catastrophe of 1825 and recreated the events of 1856 in advance (in the romance "Decembrists", written long before work on "War and Peace" was completed). To fully realize the plan would require a series of novels like " Human Comedy"Balzac.

The ridiculous version of working for seven years appeared because textual critics who studied the manuscripts of the novel were let down by... textual criticism. They decided that since there were no surviving manuscripts reflecting the work of 1856 and subsequent years, then there was no work! The well-known idea of Tolstoy’s famous letter to Fet turned out to be forgotten, where the paradoxical nature of his work was especially clearly expressed: “I write nothing, but I work painfully... It’s terribly difficult to think over millions of possible combinations in order to choose from 1/1000000.”

However, the surviving drafts in many ways exceed the volume of War and Peace. At the same time, the manuscripts, this true chronicle of Tolstoy’s hard work, destroy some of the legends associated with his work on the famous novel, for example, the also firmly rooted version that Tolstoy seven times rewrote War and Peace. It is clear that even if the author seven spans in the forehead, he would not be able to do this. But our admiration for Tolstoy is endless, and since they say this about him, it means it is so, because he can do anything. Famous in the past Soviet writer and the functionary, now completely forgotten, lecturing his readers, says: “Just think, Tolstoy rewrote War and Peace seven times,” and after thinking a little, adds, “by hand!” He apparently understands that this is hardly possible, because every time in such cases there is a need for many inevitable amendments, revisions of the text at every step and in almost every phrase, a chain reaction of more and more changes that have no end. In a word, it is difficult for a writer not to write, but rather to rewrite what has been written. If this had happened to Tolstoy, he would have spent his entire life writing one novel without ever finishing it.

That is why it is appropriate to say here that the appearance of “War and Peace” is a consequence not only of the exceptional intensity of Tolstoy’s artistic genius, but also of the fact that he was truly brilliant in organizing his work. The writer left for himself only creative element at work. He never rewrote, but wrote from a whitewashed text, i.e. from a copy taken from an autograph or from a manuscript that had already been copied more than once before, and then the copy was again at hand, and the energetic creative search. Tolstoy firmly adhered to the rule he learned while working on Childhood: “We must forever discard the idea of writing without corrections.”

It is known how much stress it cost Tolstoy preliminary work, as he said, “deep plowing of the field” for a new work. A lot of concise characteristics of the characters were sketched out, the plot and its individual episodes were carefully thought out.

Even a solid system of rubrics was determined by which the idea of a particular character in War and Peace was formed: “property” (status), “social”, “love”, “poetic”, “mental”, “family”.

But now the plans seem to have been finally thought out, the heroes begin to show themselves directly in action, in clashes with each other, detailed descriptions of scenes, episodes, chapters appear - and everything to which so much effort was devoted collapses before the eyes of the author, and he is already pays little attention to pre-drawn notes and plans, following the logic of the characters emerging in his mind. That is why Tolstoy often noted with surprise that his heroes act as they tend to act, and not as he wants, and that, in fact, it is best when plans are developed by them, and not by the author.

How complex the process of creating an image was for Tolstoy is evidenced by the story of the appearance of one of the central figures in the novel - Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, told by Tolstoy himself. “In the Battle of Austerlitz,” the writer recalled, “I needed a brilliant young man to be killed; in the further course of my novel, I only needed the old man Bolkonsky and his daughter; but since it is awkward to describe a person who has nothing to do with the novel, I decided to make brilliant young man son of old Bolkonsky. Then he interested me, a role in the further course of the novel presented itself for him, and I pardoned him, only by severely wounding him instead of death.”

This story, however, does not exhaust the entire history of the creation of the image, which for Tolstoy himself, even in May 1865, when the letter was written, was still largely unclear. In one of the notes, Prince Andrei turned into a “rubbish russian”; in other drafts, the theme of a quarrel between father and son over Prince Andrei’s marriage to the “insignificant daughter of a landowner” was elaborated; a fragment of the manuscript was preserved, where he challenged Ippolit Kuragin, who persistently pursued him, to a duel wife, "little princess". The main difficulty was that the character of the hero was devoid of development, the play of light and shadows, the idea of an invariably cold, prim, arrogant aristocratic dandy was created, whose habits were ridiculed by those around him. Even after publishing “The Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Five” in the magazine “Russian Messenger,” Tolstoy wrote to Fet in November 1866 that Prince Andrei was “monotonous, boring and only un homme com me il faut,” and that the character of the hero “is worth and doesn't move." Only in the autumn of 1866, when work on the novel was finishing, the image of Prince Andrei was finally determined, and the previous interpretation of the hero was discarded. Returning to the magazine text “One Thousand Eight Hundred and Five” in 1867, when preparing the first edition of “War and Peace,” Tolstoy gradually erased the features of contemptuous negligence, coldness, swagger and laziness that had previously distinguished Prince Andrei. The author already sees his hero differently. But what a long way to go! And this is only one character, and there are more than 500 of them in the novel.

It often happened that in the process of work, some of the heroes turned out to be rethought, as was the case, for example, with Ippolit Kuragin (in the early drafts of Ivan Kuragin), in whom, according to the original plan, there was not even a shadow of those features of physical and mental degeneration that would later turn out to be This character is endowed with a representative, in the words of Prince Andrei, of “court lackeys and idiots.”

The image of Pierre Bezukhov is far from the final version, the same should be said about Anna Pavlovna Scherer, Princess Drubetskaya, who aroused the obvious sympathy of the author at the beginning of work on the novel. Even Natasha Rostova in the first drafts sometimes bears little resemblance to the “sorceress” who will eventually appear on the pages of the book. In numerous sketches with endless authorial amendments, the work looms before us greatest artist world literature.

“War and Peace” is the legendary epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy, who laid the foundation for a new genre of prose in world literature. The lines of the great work were created under the influence of history, philosophy and social disciplines, which he thoroughly studied great writer, because the historical works require the most accurate information. Having studied many documents, Tolstoy covered historical events with maximum accuracy, confirming the information with memoirs of eyewitnesses of the great era.

Prerequisites for writing the novel War and Peace

The idea of writing a novel arose as a result of impressions from a meeting with the Decembrist S. Volkonsky, who told Tolstoy about life in exile in the Siberian expanses. It was 1856. A separate chapter called “Decembrists” fully conveyed the spirit of the hero, his principles and political beliefs.

After some time, the author decides to return to the depths of history and highlight the events not only of 1825, but also the beginning of the formation of the Decembrist movement and their ideology. Covering the events of 1812, Tolstoy studies a lot of historical materials of that era - the records of V.A. Perovsky, S. Zhikharev, A.P. Ermolov, letters from General F.P. Uvarova, maids of honor M.A. Volkova, as well as a number of materials from Russian and French historians. An equally important role in the creation of the novel was played by genuine battle plans, orders and instructions. high ranks Imperial Palace during the War of 1812.

But the writer does not stop there either, returning to historical events beginning of the 19th century. Featured in the novel historical figures Napoleon and Alexander I, thereby complicating the structure and genre of the great work.

The main theme of the epic War and Peace

This ingenious historical work, which took about 6 years to write, represents the incredibly truthful mood of the Russian people, their psychology and worldview during the time of the imperial battles. The lines of the novel are imbued with the morality and individuality of each of the characters, of which there are more than 500 in the novel. Whole picture works lies in the ingenious reproduction artistic images representatives of all walks of life, from the emperor to the ordinary soldier. An incredible impression is made by the scenes where the author conveys both the high motives of the heroes and the base ones, thereby pointing to the life of a Russian person in its various manifestations.

Over the years, under the influence literary critics, Tolstoy makes some changes to some parts of the work - he reduces the number of volumes to 4, transfers some of the reflections to the epilogue, and makes some stylistic changes. In 1868, a work appeared in which the author sets out some of the details of writing the novel, sheds light on some details of the style and genre of writing, as well as the characteristics of the main characters.

Thanks to the restless and talented personality that was Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, the world saw a great book about self-improvement, which was, is and will be relevant among huge amount readers of all times and peoples. Here anyone will find answers to life’s most difficult questions, drawing on wisdom, philosophy and the brilliant historical experience of the Russian people.