Introduction

The concept of “people's war” includes the main lexical core – “people”. And the people, that is, peasants, men, people who did not belong high class. That is, a people's war is a struggle of the masses without the involvement of generals and colonels, without certain clearly planned actions (more often these are spontaneous decisions), without specific ideas. But the people's war in the novel “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy. - This is not a war of one people, but a war of an entire nation. Here nobles, peasant partisans, officers, and militias howl together. Tolstoy shows everyone with a single goal - to win victory over the French troops at any cost.

Heroes of the People's War

Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace describes in sufficient detail the actions of commanders-in-chief, officers, and ordinary soldiers during battles. We can watch how the enemy moves, hear the whistle of bullets, smell the smoke from cannonballs flying out of a cannon. Everyone takes part in the Patriotic War of 1812. “The whole people want to rush in; one word - Moscow. They want to make one end,” says one of the novel’s heroes to Pierre Bezukhov.

We see on the battlefield the commander-in-chief of the Russian army - Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, Count Nikolai Rostov, little Petya Rostov, commanders of the troops Bagration, Barclay de Tole, Captain Tushin, Denisov and many other military people. They are joined by partisan detachments, sometimes formed independently by peasant peasants. But people from the invisible front are fighting next to them. This is Natasha Rostova, Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, residents of Moscow who left the city only because they did not want to obey French Emperor, merchant Ferapontov, who gave all his property to the soldiers: “Drag, otherwise I’ll burn it all myself!..” Now we can say with confidence that L.N. Tolstoy really described the people’s war in his novel “War and Peace.” Only together, with common efforts, thoughts, feelings, the Russian people remained invincible.

People's War Guerrilla Movement

According to Leo Tolstoy, a special role, one might even say the main one, was played by the partisan movement. After leaving Moscow, the French moved a huge army along the roads of retreat. But every day their army was melting not only from cold, hunger and disease, the worst thing for them were the partisans, who were actively involved at that time. They waited everywhere, and in the end the French army was completely defeated. The pitiful remnants of the enemy army (about 10,000 soldiers in total) were captured. The partisans did their job well. They helped the Russian army survive, helped hold its positions, and helped defeat the enemy.

The partisans were different: “there were parties that adopted all the techniques of the army, with infantry, artillery, headquarters, with the conveniences of life; there were only Cossacks and cavalry; there were small ones, teams, on foot and on horseback, there were peasants and landowners... there was a sexton... who took several hundred prisoners. There was the elder Vasilisa, who killed hundreds of French...” Tolstoy connects them together. Yes, they are different, but they have one goal - to save the Russian land, and in this they are all together. The people of war in the work “War and Peace” experience a single feeling of patriotism, the feeling of a Russian person who wants to win.

The writer gives us a detailed description of some of the partisans, such as, for example, Tikhon Shcherbaty. Having joined Denisov’s detachment, Tikhon led active partisan activities. He “was the most needed person” in the squad. His cunning, dexterity, dexterity, fearlessness, good physical strength, and accuracy in fulfilling his goals gave the Russian army results. But there were many like Tikhon. Tolstoy describes them briefly, or simply does not give any description. This is not important, something else is important: the feeling of unity of all people, no matter what social class they belonged to.

About the people in the novel “War and Peace”

“Blessed are those people who, in a moment of trial, without asking how others acted according to the rules in similar cases, with simplicity and ease, pick up the first club they come across and nail it with it until in their soul the feeling of insult and revenge is replaced by contempt and pity,” says Leo Tolstoy himself in the novel. The writer shows his sincere attitude towards the Russian people through his heroes. Commander-in-Chief Kutuzov exclaimed: “Wonderful, incomparable people!” His unity with the people is emphasized by Tolstoy in his characterization, in his fatherly attitude towards his soldiers, in the tears that Kutuzov often gave vent to in various situations.

Nikolai Rostov recognizes the strength of “our Russian people,” without which he can no longer imagine himself. Andrei Bolkonsky explains to Bezukhov what the success of a military campaign depends on: “Success has never depended and will not depend on position, weapons, or even numbers; and least of all from the position... From the feeling that is in me, in him, in every soldier.” And this feeling of true patriotism, and not the feeling of “his Toulon” (which Prince Andrei initially thinks about), comes to Bolkonsky with an understanding of the strength of the people, faith in the people, unity with the people.

Conclusion

In my essay on the topic “People's War in the novel “War and Peace””, Leo Tolstoy’s idea is expressed that the Russian people are strong in their unity, and it was this unity that helped to win the Patriotic War of 1812. This is confirmed in his great work - the novel War and Peace.

Work test

To love a people means to see with complete clarity both their merits and their shortcomings, their great and small, their ups and downs. Writing for the people means helping 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 example of which is Homer’s “Iliad,” and the achievements of the European novel of the 18th-19th centuries. The subject of the epic is the national character, in other words, the people with their everyday life, a view of the world and a person, an assessment of good and bad, prejudices and misconceptions, with his behavior in critical situations.

The people, according to Tolstoy, are not only the men and soldiers who act in the novel, but also nobles who have a people's view of the world and spiritual values. Thus, a people is 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 his 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 Patriotic War aristocrats Bolkonskys, Pierre Bezukhov, Rostovs feel in themselves the same “warmth of patriotism” as ordinary men and soldiers. Moreover, the very meaning of personal development, 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 exploits for the sake of the fatherland, but are guided in all actions by selfish considerations.

War and Peace presents the bigger picture folk life both in peace 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 resilience, unostentatious (internal) patriotism and generosity. However, a 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 novel.

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

There is complete confusion among the allied forces. The Russian army is actually starving, since the Austrians do not deliver the promised food. Vasily Denisov's hussars pull out some edible roots from the ground and eat them, which makes everyone's stomachs hurt. As an honest officer, Denisov could not calmly look at this disgrace and decided to commit a crime of office: by force he recaptured part of the provisions from another regiment (1, 2, XV, XVI). This action reflected badly on him military career: Denisov is put on trial for arbitrariness (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 their positions, believing the talk of peace, and left Bagration’s four-thousand-strong detachment without cover, which now stood face to face with Murat’s hundred-thousand-strong French army (1, 2, XIV). But at Shengraben, Russian soldiers do not flee, but fight calmly and skillfully, because they know that they are covering the retreat of the Russian army.

On the pages of the first two volumes, Tolstoy creates individual images of soldiers: Lavrushka, Denisov’s rogue orderly (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, significantly more heroes from the people are shown in a peaceful environment. Tolstoy does not depict the hardships of serfdom, although he, being an honest artist, could not completely avoid this topic. The writer says that Pierre, while touring his estates, decided to make the life of the serfs easier, but nothing came of it, because the chief manager easily deceived the naive Count Bezukhov (2, 1, X). Or another example: old Bolkonsky gave the barman Philip as a soldier because he forgot the prince’s order and, according to an old habit, served coffee first to Princess Marya, and then to the companion Burien (2, 5, II).

The author masterfully, with just a few strokes, draws heroes from the people, their peaceful life, their work, worries, and all these heroes receive brightly individual portraits, just like the characters from the nobility. The Rostov Counts' traveller, Danila, takes part in a wolf hunt. He selflessly devotes himself to hunting and understands this fun no less than his masters. Therefore, without thinking about anything else but the wolf, he angrily cursed the old Count Rostov, who decided to “snack” during the rut (2.4, IV). Uncle Rostov's housekeeper Anisya Fedorovna, a fat, rosy-cheeked, beautiful housekeeper, lives with her. The writer notes her warm hospitality and homeliness (how many different 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 old Bolkonsky, is remarkable: the servant understands his paralyzed master without words (3, 2, VIII). Bogucharov's elder Dron has an amazing character - a strong, cruel man, “whom the men feared more than the master” (3, 2, IX). Some vague ideas, dark dreams are wandering in his soul, incomprehensible neither to himself nor to his enlightened masters - the princes Bolkonsky. In peacetime, the best nobles and their serfs live a common life, understand each other, Tolstoy does not find insoluble contradictions between them.

But then 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 who appeared only in the third volume, are united by one common feeling, which Pierre calls “the inner warmth of patriotism” (3, 2, XXV). This trait becomes not individual, but national, that is, inherent to many Russian people - peasants and aristocrats, soldiers and generals, merchants and city bourgeoisie. The events of 1812 demonstrate 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 completely differently 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 Marya, in a letter to her friend Julie Karagina, talks about seeing off recruits for the war of 1805: mothers, wives, children, and the 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 seemingly frivolously preparing for death” (3, 2, XXV), since tomorrow they will “fight for Russian land” (ibid.). The feeling of the army is expressed by Prince Andrei in last conversation with Pierre: “For me, this is what for tomorrow: a hundred thousand Russian and a hundred thousand French troops agreed 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 is the true truth. Why feel sorry for yourself now!” (ibid.). Prince Andrei's words 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 tirelessly firing at Russian positions, but that the Russians did not flinch, did not run, but “still stand as they did at the beginning of the battle” (3, 2, XXXVIII).

Tolstoy does not idealize the people and paints scenes showing the inconsistency and spontaneity of peasant sentiments. This is, first of all, the Bogucharov riot (3, 2, XI), when the men refused to give Princess Marya carts for her property and did not even want to let her out of the estate, because French leaflets (!) called not to leave. Obviously, the Bogucharov men were flattered by French money (fake, as it later turned out) for hay and food. The men display the same self-interest as the noble staff officers (like Berg and Boris Drubetsky), who see war as a means to make a career, achieve material well-being and even home comfort. However, having decided at the meeting not to leave Bogucharovo, for some reason the men immediately went to a tavern and got drunk. And then the entire peasant gathering obeyed one decisive master - Nikolai Rostov, who shouted at the crowd in a wild voice and ordered the instigators to be tied up, which the peasants obediently did.

Starting from Smolensk, some kind of difficult-to-define, from the French point of view, feeling awakens in the Russians: “The people were carelessly waiting for the enemy... And as soon as the enemy approached, all the rich left, leaving their property, while the poor stayed and lit and destroyed what what remained” (3, 3, V). An illustration for 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. The Austrians and Germans, conquered by Napoleon several years ago, dance with the invaders at balls and are completely enchanted by 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 rule 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 maintained high human qualities, which indicates the mental health of the people. The greatness of a nation, according to Tolstoy, does not lie in the fact that it conquers all neighboring peoples by force of arms, but in the fact that the nation, even in the most brutal 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. Rambal first appears on the pages of the novel when French troops enter Moscow after Borodin. He receives quarters in the house of the widow of the freemason Joseph Alekseevich Bazdeev, where Pierre has been living 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 have dinner together; they talk quite peacefully over a bottle of wine, which the valiant captain, by right of the winner, had already grabbed in some Moscow house. The talkative Frenchman praises the courage of the 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 orderly, hungry, frostbitten, abandoned by their beloved emperor to the mercy of fate, came out of the forest to a soldier’s fire near the village of Krasny. The Russians fed both of them, and then took Rambal to the officer’s hut to warm up. Both Frenchmen were touched by this 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. This is Platon Karataev - a dreamy, complacent soldier, meekly submitting to fate, and Tikhon Shcherbaty - an active, skillful, decisive 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, more than anyone else in Denisov’s detachment, killed the French and brought the “tongues”. In the Patriotic War, as follows from the content of the novel, the “Shcherbatov” active character of the Russians was more manifested, although the “Karataev” wise patience and humility in the face of adversity also played a role. The self-sacrifice of the people, the courage and steadfastness of the army, the spontaneous partisan movement - this is what determined Russia’s victory 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 in an epic. According to the philosophy of history, which Tolstoy sets out in the second part of the epilogue, the driving force of any event is not an individual great person (king or hero), but the people directly participating in the event. The people are both 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 specific hero person could influence history with orders from army headquarters or a beautiful feat, therefore, during the foreign campaign of 1805, he sought to serve on Kutuzov’s headquarters and looked everywhere for his “Toulon.” After analyzing the historical events in which he personally participated, Bolkonsky came to the conclusion that history is made not by headquarters orders, but by direct participants in the events. Prince Andrey 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 of serving 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 a “polishing” test in the heads of a huge number of people and only after that is established as national (community) sight. Goodness, simplicity, truth - these are the real truths that have been developed popular consciousness and to which Tolstoy’s favorite heroes strive.

A short essay-reasoning on literature for grade 10 on the topic: “War and Peace: Popular Thought”

The tragic war of 1812 brought many troubles, suffering and torment, L.N. Tolstoy did not remain indifferent to the turning point of his people and reflected it in the epic novel “War and Peace”, and its “grain”, according to L. Tolstoy, is Lermontov’s poem “Borodino”. The epic is also based on the idea of ​​reflecting the national spirit. The writer admitted that in “War and Peace” he loved “popular thought.” Thus, Tolstoy reproduced the “swarm life”, proving that history is made not by one person, but by the whole people together.

According to Tolstoy, it is useless to resist the natural course of events, it is useless to try to play the role of the arbiter of the destinies of mankind. Otherwise, the participant in the war will fail, as was the case with Andrei Bolkonsky, who tried to take control of the course of events and conquer Toulon. Or fate will doom him to loneliness, as happened to Napoleon, who fell in love with power too much.

During the Battle of Borodino, on the outcome of which much depended for the Russians, Kutuzov “did not make any orders, but only agreed or disagreed with what was offered to him.” This seemingly passivity reveals the deep intelligence and wisdom of the commander. Kutuzov’s connection with the people was a victorious feature of his character; this connection made him the bearer of “people's thought.”

Tikhon Shcherbaty is also a popular image in the novel and a hero of the Patriotic War, although he is a simple man not at all connected with military affairs. He himself voluntarily asked to join Vasily Denisov’s detachment, which confirms his dedication and willingness to sacrifice for the sake of the Fatherland. Tikhon fights off four Frenchmen with only one ax - according to Tolstoy, this is the image of the “club of the people’s war.”

But the writer does not stop at the idea of ​​heroism, regardless of rank, he goes further and wider, revealing the unity of all humanity in the War of 1812. In the face of death, all class, social, and national boundaries between people are erased. Everyone is afraid to kill; Everyone as one does not want to die. Petya Rostov is worried about the fate of the French boy who was captured: “It’s great for us, but what about him? Where did they take him? Did you feed him? Did you offend me?" And it seems like this is the enemy of the Russian soldier, but at the same time, even in war, you need to treat your enemies humanely. French or Russian - we are all people in need of mercy and kindness. In the War of 1812, such a thought mattered as never before. It was adhered to by many heroes of “War and Peace” and, first of all, L.N. himself. Tolstoy.

Thus, the Patriotic War of 1812 entered the history of Russia, its culture and literature as a significant and tragic event for the entire people. It showed true patriotism, love for the Motherland and the national spirit, which did not break under anything, but only grew stronger, giving impetus to the great victory, for which we still feel pride in our hearts.

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According to Tolstoy himself, he loved “folk thought” in the novel most of all. Reflections on this topic became the most important thing for the writer that he wanted to convey to the reader. What did he mean?

“People's thought” in the novel is not in the depiction of the Russian people as a community and not in the abundance of crowd scenes, as it may seem to an inexperienced reader. It is in the point of view of the writer, the system of moral assessments that he gives to both historical events and his heroes.

  1. Don't confuse this!

Mass scenes in the novel are associated with the depiction of battle scenes of 1805, scenes of the Battle of Borodino, the defense and abandonment of Smolensk, and partisan warfare. In the depiction of the War of 1805 devoted to two battles: Austerlitz and Schöngraben. Tolstoy's goal is to show why the army wins or loses. Shengraben is a “forced” battle, 4 thousand soldiers must cover the retreat of the forty thousand strong Russian army. The battle is observed by Kutuzov’s envoy, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. He sees how the soldiers show heroism, but not the way this quality was imagined by the prince: Captain Timokhin and his squad with skillful actions force the French to retreat, Captain Tushin, an inconspicuous modest man, “does his job”, cheerfully and quickly, his battery smashes the main positions of the French, sets fire to the village and forces them to retreat, and they do not even suspect that they are “ordinary heroes.”

On the contrary, the Battle of Azsterlitz is a “battle of three emperors”, with unclear goals and an unclear plan. It is no coincidence that at the military council, Kutuzov dozed off like an old man to the measured muttering of the Austrian general. Kutuzov wants to save soldiers who do not understand what they are fighting for; it is not for nothing that the landscape of the beginning of the battle is symbolic: the fog covering the battlefield. The author comes to the conclusion: it is not the generals who win the battle, the soldiers win the battle, or rather, the spirit of the army, the understanding of what they are doing.

The same thing happens at Borodino: Kutuzov almost does not participate in the leadership of the battle, unlike Napoleon, who believes that the outcome depends on the will of the emperor. No, the outcome depends on the soldiers getting ready for the last battle, as if for a holiday, putting on clean shirts. According to Kutuzov, the Battle of Borodino was neither won nor lost in terms of consequences, but the Russians won, suppressing the French with fortitude and unprecedented unity of all against a single enemy.

This is how “popular thought” manifested itself in crowd scenes.

  1. The partisan war that spontaneously unfolded during the invasion also testifies to the unity of the Russian people. In different places under the French, landowners and peasants took up pitchforks and axes to drive out the enemy from native land. The “club of the people’s war” rose and “nailed ... the Frenchman until the invasion itself perished.” Drawing pictures of guerrilla warfare, Tolstoy depicts some peasant heroes. One of them is Tikhon Shcherbaty, like a wolf attacking the enemy, “the most useful person in the squad,” cruel and merciless. According to Tolstoy, this is a folk type that manifests itself in difficult times for the Motherland. The second folk type is Platon Karataev, from whom Pierre learned to live simply and harmoniously, to accept everything that happens on a person’s path, he realized “that ballet shoes squeeze just like peasant bast shoes,” and therefore a person needs little to be happy. So moral values ​​for Tolstoy become the measure of everything else: peace, war, people, actions.
  2. While in captivity, Pierre has a dream. In a dream Earth It seems to him like a ball of drops that tremble, shimmer, separate somewhere, merge somewhere. And every drop reflects God. This metaphor is Tolstoy’s own idea of ​​the people’s life: a person lives his “swarm life”, is busy with his problems and thoughts, but he must “conjugate” (the writer’s word) his life with the lives of others. And if the desires and needs of many people coincide at one point, history makes its movement there. This is another aspect of “folk thought in the novel.”
  3. And Tolstoy “measures” his heroes with this yardstick. If they are far from common interests, common aspirations, if they do not understand what is common, they put their own interests above others or try to interfere in the natural course of life, then they sink lower and lower and fall into a spiritual crisis. This happens with Prince Andrey, when he raises soldiers in a senseless attack at Austerlitz, and with Pierre, trying to kill Napoleon. Some of the heroes never realize own life, more precisely, existence - such is Helen, Rostopchin with his “posters”, Napoleon. Pierre, trying to somehow help Russia, equips a regiment with his own money, Natasha gives carts to the wounded, without thinking about the well-being of the family, and Berg is trying to “buy a shelf that Verochka likes so much.” Which of them lives according to popular laws?

So, “People's Thought,” according to Tolstoy, is the thought of the need to connect one’s life with common interests, life according to the moral laws that have existed in the world for centuries, life together.

Peak creative activity Leo Tolstoy dates back to the mid-19th century. Russia shuddered from the indignation of the peasant masses, so the idea of ​​popular consciousness in the process of social development became a key theme in literary works many writers of that time. “People's Thought” in the novel “War and Peace” reveals the heroic image of the Russian people against the backdrop of the events of the Patriotic War of 1812.

What did Tolstoy mean by the word people?

Writers of the nineteenth century showed the people either in the form of the peasantry oppressed by the tsar or the entire Russian nation, or in the form of the patriotic nobility or the social stratum of the merchants. Tolstoy lovingly says “people” every time he talks about moral people. The author deprives anyone who behaves immorally, is laziness, greed and cruelty of the right to be involved in this community of citizens.

People living within one state represent its basis and are the material of history, regardless of class and education. Do we have a genius, a great man? His role in the development of mankind is insignificant, Tolstoy claims, a genius is a product of his society, wrapped in a bright package of talent.

No one single-handedly can control millions of people, create the history of an entire state, or, according to his plan, provoke the vector of events, especially their consequences. In the novel “War and Peace,” the author assigned the role of the creator of history to the people, guided by rational life desires and instincts.

Popular thought in the image of Kutuzov

The Russian classic calls decisions made behind the scenes of power, at the legislative level, the upward trend in the development of society. This, in his opinion, is the centrifugal force of history. Events taking place among the common population are a process of downward development of history, a centripetal force in the development of social ties.

Therefore, the image of Kutuzov is endowed with high moral qualities. Events show that the general finds himself connected with the people by one chain of state problems. He is close to the problems he is experiencing ordinary people, located much lower than Kutuzov on the social ladder. The legendary commander feels anxiety, the bitterness of defeat and the joy of victory as naturally as his soldiers. They have one task, they move along the same path of events, defending their homeland.

In the novel, Kutuzov is a prominent representative of the people, because his personal goals absolutely coincide with the goals of the Russian population. The author in every possible way focuses the reader's attention on the merits of the commander-in-chief of the Russian army. His authority in the eyes of soldiers and officers is indestructible. The spirit of the army he commands depends on his mood, health, and his physical presence on the battlefield.

Popular thought in the images of nobles

Can a count or prince be considered a people? Was it typical for representatives of the Russian nobility to meet the demands of historical necessity? Story line The novel clearly reflects the moral development of positive characters, their merging with the masses during the Patriotic War of 1812.

Leo Tolstoy emphasizes that the will to victory, to get rid of the presence of an enemy army on the territory of one’s land is tested by the people’s thought. Pierre Bezukhov, in the same stream as the refugees, ends his search for the meaning of life, seeing it in the very idea of ​​worthy survival in the face of danger.

Natasha Rostova cannot remain indifferent and leave the wounded soldiers. The young countess rushes to find additional carts to take the wounded out of burning Moscow. Along the Smolensk road she tries to help soldiers suffering and dying from wounds.

Marya Bolkonskaya, the sister of Prince Andrei, almost paid with her life for her desire to escape from enemy-occupied territory. The girl does not pester Madame Burien to wait for the French at her estate, and enters into an open conflict with the men for the opportunity to be with her compatriots on Russian soil.

From the beginning of the story, Prince Bolkonsky reveres Napoleon as an advanced contemporary who brings new ideas of equality and brotherhood. On the battlefield of Austerlitz, his delusion dissipates when he sees the morbid admiration of Bonaparte, looking at the bodies of many killed soldiers of both armies.

Andrei Bolkonsky dies, remaining a little man, faithful to his oath, his people and the emperor.

Patriotism is a Russian principle

Leo Tolstoy refers to patriotism as a clear sign of nationality, uniting all social classes in moments of danger. Captain Tushin, heroically defending artillery positions, endowed as a simple person with “small and great.” Tikhon Shcherbaty enters into the same ambiguous character, merciless to his enemies, but a cruel person in his soul in general.

Young Peter Rostov dies while taking part in the partisan movement, which became an important factor in the victory. Platon Karataev, having been captured, shows courageous calm, professing love of life in testing situations as the main idea of ​​Christianity. Leo Tolstoy values ​​good nature and humble patience above all else in a Russian person.

History knows hundreds of examples of heroic deeds, sometimes the names of the heroes are not known. All that remains is memory and glory to the patriotic, unbending spirit of the Russian people, who in peaceful days remains a jealous guardian and bearer of spiritual values.