People in war and peace. Essay on the topic The image of the common people in the novel “War and Peace”

1867 L. M. Tolstoy finished work on the epoch-making novel of his work "". The author noted that in “War and Peace” he “loved the people’s thought,” poetizing the simplicity, kindness and morality of the Russian people. This “folk thought” is revealed by depicting the events of the Patriotic War of 1812. It is no coincidence that L. Tolstoy describes the war of 1812 only on the territory of Russia. The historian and realist artist L. Tolstoy showed that the Patriotic War of 1812 was a just war. In defense, the Russians raised their baton people's war, which punished the French until the invasion was stopped." The war radically changed the life of the entire Russian people.

The author introduces The novel contains many images of men, Soldiers, whose thoughts and considerations together make up the people's worldview. The irresistible power of the Russian people is fully felt in the heroism and patriotism of the residents of Moscow, forced to abandon their hometown, their treasure, but not conquered in their souls; peasants refuse to sell food and hay to enemies and create partisan detachments. Real heroes, persistent and firm in fulfilling their military duty, showed L. Tolstoy in the images of Tushin and Timokhin. The theme of the folk element is revealed more expressively in the image guerrilla warfare. Tolstoy creates bright image partisan Tikhon Shcherbatov, who arbitrarily joined Denisov’s detachment and was “the most useful person in the squad." - a generalized image of the Russian peasant. In the novel, he appears on those pages where Pierre's stay in captivity is depicted. The meeting with Karataev changes a lot of things in Pierre's attitude towards life. Deep folk wisdom as if concentrated in the image of Plato. This is calm, sensible wisdom, without tricks and cruelty. From her, Pierre changes, begins to experience life in a new way, and is renewed in his soul.

Hatred for the enemy representatives of all layers of Russian society felt equally, and the patriotism and closeness to the people most inherent in Tolstoy’s favorite heroes -,. The simple Russian woman Vasilisa, the merchant Feropontov, and the family of Count Rostov feel unity in their desire to help the country. The spiritual strength that the Russian people showed in Patriotic War 1812, this is the same force that supported the activities of a talented Russian and commander. He was elected commander-in-chief “against the will of the sovereign and in accordance with the will of the people.” This is why, Tolstoy believes, he was able to fulfill his great historical mission, since each person is worth something not on his own, but only when he is part of his people. Thanks to unity, high patriotic enthusiasm and moral strength, the Russian people won the war.

"People's Thought" – main idea novel "War and Peace". Tolstoy knew that simple life people, with their “personal” destinies, vicissitudes, joy, make up the fate and history of the country. “I tried to write the history of the people,” said Tolstoy, of the people in the broad sense of the word. Therefore, “people's thought” plays a huge role for the author, affirming the place of the people as a decisive force in history.

The people in the novel "War and Peace"

It is believed that wars are won and lost by generals and emperors, but in any war, a commander without an army is like a needle without a thread. After all, it is soldiers, officers, generals - people who serve in the army and take part in battles and battles - who become the very thread with which history is embroidered. If you try to sew with only one needle, the fabric will be pierced, perhaps even marks will remain, but there will be no result of the work. Likewise, a commander without his regiments is just a lonely needle, which is easily lost in the haystacks formed by time, if there is no string of his troops behind him. It is not sovereigns who fight, it is the people who fight. Sovereigns and generals are just needles. Tolstoy shows that the theme of the people in the novel “War and Peace” is main topic the entire work. The people of Russia are people of different classes, both the high society and those who make up middle class, and ordinary people. They all love their homeland and are ready to give their lives for it.

The image of the people in the novel

Two main storylines The novel reveals to readers how the characters are formed and the destinies of two families - the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys. Using these examples, Tolstoy shows how the intelligentsia developed in Russia; some of its representatives came to the events of December 1825, when the Decembrist uprising occurred.

The Russian people are represented in "War and Peace" different characters. Tolstoy seemed to have collected the features inherent in ordinary people, and created several collective images, embodying them in specific characters.

In Platon Karataev, met by Pierre in captivity, they embodied character traits serf peasants. Kind, calm, hard-working Plato, talking about life, but not thinking about it: “He, apparently, never thought about what he said and what he would say...”. In the novel, Plato is the embodiment of a part of the Russian people of that time, wise, submissive to fate and the tsar, loving their homeland, but going to fight for it only because they were caught and “given as soldiers.” His natural kindness and wisdom revive the “master” Pierre, who is constantly looking for the meaning of life and cannot find and comprehend it.

But at the same time, “When Pierre, sometimes amazed by the meaning of his speech, asked to repeat what was said, Plato could not remember what he said a minute ago.” All these searches and tossing are alien and incomprehensible to Karataev, he knows how to accept life as it is at this very moment, and he accepts death humbly and without grumbling.

Merchant Ferapontov, an acquaintance of Alpatych, typical representative merchants, on the one hand stingy and cunning, but at the same time burning their property so that it does not fall to the enemy. And he doesn’t want to believe that Smolensk will be surrendered, and he even beats his wife for her requests to leave the city.

And the fact that Ferapontov and other merchants themselves set fire to their shops and houses is a manifestation of patriotism and love for Russia, and it already becomes clear that Napoleon will not be able to defeat the people who are ready to do anything to save their Motherland.

The collective image of the people in the novel “War and Peace” is created by many characters. These are partisans like Tikhon Shcherbaty, who fought the French in their own way, and, as if playfully, destroyed small detachments. These are wanderers, humble and religious, such as Pelageyushka, who walked to holy places. The militia men, dressed in simple white shirts, “to prepare for death,” “with loud talking and laughter,” were digging trenches on the Borodino field before the battle.

In difficult times, when the country was in danger of being conquered by Napoleon foreground All these people had one main goal - the salvation of Russia. Before her, all other matters turned out to be petty and unimportant. At such moments, people show their true face, and in “War and Peace” Tolstoy shows the difference between the common people, ready to die for their country, and other people, careerists and opportunists.

This is especially evident in the description of the preparations for the battle on the Borodino field. A simple soldier with the words: “The whole people want to attack...”, some officers, for whom the main thing is that “for tomorrow big rewards should have been given out and new people brought forward,” soldiers praying in front of the Smolensk icon Mother of God, Dolokhov asking Pierre for forgiveness - all these are brush strokes big picture, who stood in front of Pierre after a conversation with Bolkonsky. “He understood that hidden... warmth of patriotism that was in all those people he saw, and which explained to him why all these people were calmly and seemingly frivolously preparing for death” - this is how Tolstoy describes the general state of people before the Battle of Borodino.

But the author does not at all idealize the Russian people; in the episode where the Bogucharov men, trying to preserve their acquired wealth, do not let Princess Marya out of Bogucharov, he clearly shows the meanness and baseness of these people. In describing this scene, Tolstoy shows the behavior of the peasants as alien to Russian patriotism.

Conclusion

In an essay on the topic “The Russian people in the novel “War and Peace”” I wanted to show Lev Nikolaevich Tolstov’s attitude towards the Russian people as a “whole and unified” organism. And I want to end the essay with a quote from Tolstov: “... the reason for our triumph was not accidental, but lay in the essence of the character of the Russian people and troops, ... this character should have been expressed even more clearly in an era of failures and defeats...”

Work test

1867 L. M. Tolstoy completed work on the epoch-making novel of his work, “War and Peace.” The author noted that in “War and Peace” he “loved the people’s thought,” poetizing the simplicity, kindness and morality of the Russian people. L. Tolstoy reveals this “folk thought” by depicting the events of the Patriotic War of 1812. It is no coincidence that L. Tolstoy describes the war of 1812 only on the territory of Russia. The historian and realist artist L. Tolstoy showed that the Patriotic War of 1812 was a just war. In defense, the Russians raised "the club of people's war, which would punish the French until the invasion was stopped." The war radically changed the life of the entire Russian people.

The author introduces into the novel many images of men, Soldiers, whose thoughts and considerations together make up the people's worldview. The irresistible power of the Russian people is fully felt in the heroism and patriotism of the residents of Moscow, forced to abandon their hometown, their treasure, but not conquered in their souls; peasants refuse to sell food and hay to enemies and create partisan detachments. L. Tolstoy showed real heroes, persistent and firm in fulfilling their military duties, in the images of Tushin and Timokhin. The theme of the people's element is revealed more expressively in the depiction of guerrilla warfare. Tolstoy creates a vivid image of the partisan Tikhon Shcherbatov, who voluntarily joined Denisov’s detachment and was “the most useful person in the detachment.” Platon Karataev is a generalized image of a Russian peasant. In the novel, he appears on those pages where Pierre's stay in captivity is depicted. The meeting with Karataev changes a lot of things in Pierre's attitude towards life. Deep folk wisdom seems to be concentrated in the image of Plato. This is calm, sensible wisdom, without tricks and cruelty. From her, Pierre changes, begins to experience life in a new way, and is renewed in his soul.

Hatred of the enemy was felt equally by representatives of all layers of Russian society, and patriotism and closeness to the people were most inherent in Tolstoy’s favorite heroes - Pierre Bezukhov, Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostova. The simple Russian woman Vasilisa, the merchant Feropontov, and the family of Count Rostov feel unity in their desire to help the country. The spiritual strength that the Russian people showed in the Patriotic War of 1812 is the same strength that supported Kutuzov’s activities as a talented Russian and commander. He was elected commander-in-chief “against the will of the sovereign and in accordance with the will of the people.” That is why, Tolstoy believes, Kutuzov was able to fulfill his great historical mission, since each person is worth something not on his own, but only when he is part of his people. Thanks to unity, high patriotic enthusiasm and moral strength, the Russian people won the war.

“People's thought” is the main idea of the novel “War and Peace”. Tolstoy knew that the simple life of people, with its “personal” destinies, vicissitudes, joy, constitutes the fate and history of the country. “I tried to write the history of the people,” said Tolstoy, of the people in the broad sense of the word. Therefore, “people's thought” plays a huge role for the author, affirming the place of the people as a decisive force in history.

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When describing the campaign of 1805 in Austria, Russian peasants appear as living people, dressed in soldiers' greatcoats, but without losing their special peasant appearance. They go to fight, not knowing exactly why, with whom and where. On a hike, people show their usual endurance, simplicity, good nature, and cheerfulness - a sign of great physical and moral strength. Making a tedious transition, they exchange separate phrases among themselves. At the command of the captain, the songwriters ran forward, sang a song, and after that the soldier ran forward and began to dance. But here the soldiers are shown in battle, in action, in hard work in a time of mortal danger hanging over Russia, and one immediately feels new feature folk character- perseverance and courage.

During the heroic battle of Shengraben, the battery that was left without cover continued to fire and was not taken by the French. Within an hour, out of forty servants, seventeen were killed,” but the soldiers, led by their officer, continued to bravely fight superior forces enemy. Over the course of several years of work on War and Peace, Tolstoy’s interest in the peasantry increased and the nature of his portrayal changed somewhat. It's becoming more and more bright difficult situation people. On Bezukhov’s estates and after his “reforms,” “the peasants continue to give with work and money everything that they give from others, that is, everything they can date.

The old Prince Bolkonsky orders his servant to be given up as a soldier because he mistakenly served coffee first to the prince’s daughter, and not to the French woman who was enjoying it. given time the old man's disposition. Such manifestations of lordly tyranny were not isolated occurrences, as is clear from Andrei Bolkonsky’s conversation with Pierre during their trip to Bald Mountains. Describing the Rostovs' hunt, Tolstoy introduces a new, episodic person - the landowner Ilagin, the owner of a wonderful hunting dog, for which the “representable, courteous gentleman” “a year ago gave three families of servants to his neighbor.”
The discontent of the peasants is manifested repeatedly in War and Peace. The dissatisfaction of the peasants with their situation, the awareness of the injustice of the existing system, is emphasized by such a small episode. When the wounded Prince Andrei was brought to the dressing station and the doctor ordered him to be immediately carried to the tent, “a murmur arose in the crowd of waiting wounded.

"It is seen. and in the next world the gentlemen will live alone. - said one." The proximity of the French shook the lordly power. and men begin to talk openly about it. that they have been sick for a long time. The hatred of the peasants for the landowners was so great. as well as “the last stay of Prince Andrei in Bogucharovo. with his innovations hospitals. schools and ease of rent. - did not soften their morals, but. against. strengthened those character traits in them. which old prince called it savagery." Princess Marya’s promises to give them bread and care in new places did not inspire confidence in them either. where she suggested they move.

However, the nobles do not feel calm either. The meaning of this concern is clearly expressed by Pierre. speaking in the epilogue to Nikolai Rostov. that it is necessary to prevent possible Pugachevism. But. despite his difficult situation. the peasants do not want to give up their homeland to the power of the French invaders and at the same time show boundless courage and fortitude. Before the Battle of Borodino, the mobilized militia men put on clean shirts: they prepared for death. but not to retreat. The expression of this simple and sincere. alien to any panache and theatricality of love for one’s homeland is unshakable perseverance. the courage of Russian soldiers. The valiant Russian warriors have nothing ostentatious. They stand in their places and that the French do not dare to attack anymore.” This incomprehensible strength of the Russian army was the strength of the Russian people. fighting for his homeland. And Tolstoy again leads the reader to the source of this strength of the Russian army - ordinary Russian people. peasants. dressed in soldiers' greatcoats.

The same Prince Andrei, who once spoke so contemptuously about the peasants in a conversation with Pierre from his aristocratic position, became imbued with deep respect for them as he came into close contact with the soldier-peasant mass in the common cause of defending the homeland. Not only that part of the people who were mobilized into the army took part in the fight against the invaders. After the Battle of Borodino, the French “had no fodder to feed horses and cattle. Nothing could help this disaster, because the surrounding men burned their hay and did not give it to the French.” The peasantry played a huge role in the final destruction of the enemy and by organizing partisan detachments that fearlessly exterminated Napoleon’s “great” army.

Peasants, including soldiers, perform in “War and Peace” prominently, vividly, convincingly truthfully, thanks to a huge number individual bright sketches, sometimes small strokes that characterize the overall appearance the masses. From time to time, individual artistically complete images emerge from the general mass for a more or less long period of time. Each of them has its own striking features. For example, Platon Karataev, who played such a important role in the life of Pierre Bezukhov. Complete indifference to deprivation, the “swarm principle”, simplicity, affection - all this struck Pierre as a sharp contrast with the need for luxury, careerism, gross selfishness and arrogance of the “high society”, the society of the Kuragins, Scherers and the like, which weighed so heavily on him. The humanity and compassion of this Russian peasant helped Pierre to re-enter the world of human relations after the terrible spectacle of the execution of innocent people in Moscow occupied by the enemy.

Peering into Karataev’s simple activities, his attitude towards people and life in general, Pierre, as it seemed to him at that time, found a solution to the dissatisfaction that tormented him. Reconciliation with all the suffering and hardships that befell him, confidence in the expediency of everything that was happening seemed to Pierre at this time greatest wisdom life. Karataev’s life, “as he himself looked at it, made no sense as separate life. It made sense only as a part of the whole, which he constantly felt.” Positive traits Karataev in Pierre’s eyes was not diminished by his thievery or lack of special attachments: “Platon Karataev remained forever in Pierre’s soul as the strongest and dearest memory and the personification of everything Russian, good and round.” The image of Karataev is not given by Tolstoy directly from himself, but only through the perception of Pierre, and in a special way state of mind, and this leaves a special imprint on him. What gives this image special significance is peculiar speech, containing very little of Karataev’s own, but in which centuries-old folk wisdom sounds. But these sayings do not always reflect his personal feelings and life rules. Along with speech characteristics Karataev's image is revealed through his labor activity and attitude towards other people. Tolstoy is touched by Karataev’s patience, humility, goodness, compassion and hard work. The author decorated his speech with wise sayings borrowed from centuries-old life experience a number of generations, but did not at all show him as the embodiment of the best traits of the people, although Karataev’s fatalism is to some extent consonant with the views of the author. Showing in the person of Karataev endless patience and all-encompassing kindness and benevolence, Tolstoy obscures the severity of class contradictions between landowners and peasants. A different type is given in the image of the partisan Tikhon Shcherbaty. At a time when the commanders of large detachments did not yet dare to think about invading the very center of the French army, “the Cossacks and men who climbed among the French believed that now everything was possible.”

Among these men, for whom “everything is possible,” Tikhon Shcherbaty stands out with his extraordinary prowess. At first he caught “miroders” while living in his village of Pokrovskoye near Gzhat, and then he accosted partisan detachment Denisova. There he performed all kinds of hard household work, and then, when he showed his fearlessness and dexterity, he was enlisted in the Cossacks. Tikhon was the most helpful and brave man in the squad. No one else discovered cases of French attacks. Tikhon was not proud of his exploits, but once he was wounded and since then he has not taken prisoners: apparently, the wound embittered him. One of the manifestations inner strength Shcherbaty is also his ability to humorously portray even the most dangerous situations in which he found himself. Along with love for the motherland, perseverance, simplicity and selfless courage, along with close comradeship and a sense of collectivity, Tolstoy shows a special feature of the Russian people - humanity. After the enemy was defeated, in the souls of the people “the feeling of insult and revenge” replaced the axis with “contempt and pity.”

When Kutuzov on November 5, the first day of the Battle of Krasnensky, rode with his “huge retinue of generals who were dissatisfied with him and whispering behind him,” he saw French prisoners disfigured by sores and tearing raw meat with their hands. The same good-natured attitude towards prisoners is also evident in the descriptions of the subsequent stages of the expulsion of the French army from Russia. Russian soldiers lift and carry the weakened Rambal to the officer's hut. So in Tolstoy’s great work it stands peasant Rus' in all its diversity, with all its contradictions, with its strength and weakness.

The folk theme is the main theme of War and Peace. It should be noted that the image of Karataev is in conflict with general image of the Russian people - fearless defenders of their homeland. Less attention than the peasantry is paid to the urban lower classes in War and Peace, but they are depicted with great artistic power and truth.

In Smolensk, the population sets fire to their houses so that the French do not get anything. The small merchant Ferapontov, in despair, shouts for the soldiers to take everything and that he himself will set fire to his house. These abandoned people do not believe in the possibility of leaving Moscow and, reading Rastopchin’s posters, go to Count Rastopchin for instructions on how and where to take part in the defense hometown. But Rostopchin, with his ostentatious, false patriotism, does not know the ordinary Russian people and is afraid of them. Having provoked the murder of Vereshchagin, he leaves Moscow from the back porch, reflecting in French that “the crowd of people is terrible, disgusting. They are like wolves: you can’t satisfy them with anything except meat.” And these “wolves,” the crowd that Rostopchin had pushed to kill, began to hastily move around the lying bloody corpse. These people then took upon themselves the entire burden of life in a city occupied by enemies, even to the point of executions for arson, for which they were not guilty. Thus, before us passes the Russian peasantry (and partly the urban lower classes) in all its diversity, with its selfless love to his homeland, with his fearlessness, endurance, hard work, with his deep humanity - traits that developed in the conditions working life. It was in this class, despite its weaknesses and shadow sides, noticed by the keen eye of the brilliant realist writer, that the strength of Russia at that time lay.

Common people in the novel War and Peace

5 (100%) 2 votes

The author of War and Peace pays a lot of attention to the depiction of ordinary people. The peasantry appears before us in the person of serfs, corvées and courtyard workers, and in the person of soldiers who retain their peasant traits, and in the person of partisans.
As Tolstoy's worldview changes, he is interested in different aspects of the external and internal life of the peasants, but he always draws them unusually truthfully and vividly. The crowd scenes with their diversity of behavior and relationships of individual characters are amazing in their skill; speech characteristics amaze with their life truth.
When describing the campaign of 1805 in Austria, Russian peasants appear as living people, dressed in soldiers' greatcoats, but without losing their special peasant appearance. They go to fight, not knowing exactly why, with whom and where. On a hike, people show their usual endurance, simplicity, good nature, cheerfulness - a sign of great physical and moral strength. Making a tedious transition, they exchange separate phrases among themselves. At the command of the captain, the songwriters ran forward, sang a song, and after that the soldier ran forward and began to dance. But now the soldiers are shown in battle, in action, in hard work in a year of mortal danger hanging over Russia, and a new feature of the people’s character is immediately felt - perseverance and courage.

During the heroic battle of Shengraben, the battery that was left without cover continued to fire and was not taken by the French. Within an hour, seventeen out of forty servants were killed,” but the soldiers, led by their officer, continued to courageously fight against the superior forces of the enemy. Over the course of several years of work on War and Peace, Tolstoy’s interest in the peasantry increased and the nature of his portrayal changed somewhat. The plight of the people is becoming increasingly clearer. On Bezukhov’s estates and after his “reforms,” “the peasants continue to give with work and money everything that they give from others, that is, everything they can date.

The old Prince Bolkonsky orders his servant to be handed over to the soldiers because he mistakenly served coffee first to the prince’s daughter, and not to the Frenchwoman who was currently enjoying the old man’s favor. Such manifestations of lordly tyranny were not isolated
phenomena, as is clear from Andrei Bolkonsky’s conversation with Pierre during their trip to Bald Mountains. Describing the Rostovs' hunt, Tolstoy introduces a new, episodic person - the landowner Ilagin, the owner of a wonderful hunting dog, for which the “representable, courteous gentleman” “a year ago gave three families of servants to his neighbor.”
The discontent of the peasants is manifested repeatedly in War and Peace. The dissatisfaction of the peasants with their situation, the awareness of the injustice of the existing system, is emphasized by such a small episode. When the wounded Prince Andrei was brought to the dressing station and the doctor ordered him to be immediately carried into the tent, “a murmur arose in the crowd of waiting wounded.

"It is seen. and in the next world the gentlemen will live alone. – said one.”

The proximity of the French shook the lordly power. and men begin to talk openly about it. that they have been sick for a long time. The hatred of the peasants for the landowners was so great. as well as “the last stay of Prince Andrei in Bogucharovo. with his innovations hospitals. schools and relief of rent. – did not soften their morals, but... against. strengthened those character traits in them. which the old prince called savagery."

Princess Marya’s promises to give them bread and care in new places did not inspire confidence in them either. where she suggested they move.