The thought of the people in the epic novel “War and Peace. Thought "people's What does Tolstoy put into the concept of people's war

"His hero is a whole country fighting against the onslaught of Braga."
V.G. Korolenko

Tolstoy believed that the decisive role in the outcome of the war is played not by military leaders, but by soldiers, partisans, Russian people. That is why the author tried to portray not individual heroes, but characters who are in close connection with the whole people.

The novel shows an extensive time period, but 1805 and 1812 become decisive. These are the years of two completely different wars. In the war of 1812, the people knew what they were fighting for, why these bloodsheds and deaths were needed. But in the war of 1805, people did not understand why their relatives, friends, and themselves give their lives. Therefore, at the beginning of the novel, Tolstoy asks the question:

“What is the force that moves the nations? Who is the creator of history - the individual or the people?

Looking for answers to them, we notice: with what accuracy the author depicts individual characters and portraits of the masses, battle paintings, scenes of folk heroism and we understand that the people - the protagonist epics.

We see that the soldiers have different views on life, communication with people, but they all have one thing in common - a great love for the Fatherland and a willingness to do anything just to protect the Motherland from invaders. This is manifested in the images of two ordinary soldiers: Platon Karataev and Tikhon Shcherbaty.

Tikhon Shcherbaty hates the invaders with all his heart, while being "the most helpful and brave man" in Denisov's detachment. He is a brave and determined partisan volunteer, "Rebel" willing to sacrifice himself for the cause. It embodies the spirit of the people: revenge, courage, resourcefulness of the Russian peasant. He does not care for any difficulties.

“When it was necessary to do something especially difficult - to turn a wagon out of the mud with a shoulder, to pull a horse out of the swamp by the tail, to bite into the very middle of the French, to walk 50 miles a day, everyone pointed, chuckling, at Tikhon:

What the hell is going to happen to him!”

Platon Karataev is the exact opposite of this energetic, unloving enemy person. He is the embodiment of everything round, good and eternal. In general, he loves everyone around him, even the French, and is imbued with a feeling of universal love unity of people. But he has one not very good trait - he is ready to suffer for nothing, he lives by the principle "Everything that is done, everything is for the better." If it were his will, he would not interfere anywhere, but would simply be a passive contemplator.

In Tolstoy's novel, readers get to see how soldiers treat their opponents.

During the battle - mercilessly to achieve victory. Shcherbaty's demeanor.

During the halt, the attitude towards the prisoners changes to generosity, which makes the soldiers related to Karataev.

Soldiers understand the difference between two situations: in the first, the one who forgets about humanity and compassion will win and survive; in the second, discarding stereotypes, they forget that they are soldiers of the warring armies, realizing only that the prisoners are also people and they also need warmth and food. This shows the purity of the soul and heart of the soldiers.

In every Russian person in 1812 is manifested "hidden warmth of patriotism", including in the Rostov family, who donated carts and a house for the wounded. The merchant Ferapontov, who before the war was distinguished by incredible greed, now gives everything when fleeing from Smolensk. All the people of Russia in that difficult period were united, united, in order to protect their homeland from foreign invaders. Napoleon does not achieve his goal, because the courage of the Russian regiments inspires superstitious horror in the French.

The main conflict of the novel is not determined by a private collision historical figures or fictional characters. The conflict of the novel lies in the struggle of the Russian people, the whole nation, with the aggressor, the outcome of which determines the fate of the entire people. Tolstoy created the poetry of the greatest feats of ordinary people, showing how the great is born in the small.

- a novel that gradually transformed from a once conceived work about a Decembrist into a brilliant epic about the courageous feat of the nation, about the victory of the Russian spirit in the battle with the Napoleonic army. As a result, a masterpiece was born, where, as he himself wrote, the main idea was the folk thought. Today, in an essay on the topic: “The Thought of the People,” we will try to prove this.

The author believed that the work would be good if the author fell in love with the main idea. Tolstoy was interested in people's thought in the work War and Peace, where he depicted not just the people and their way of life, but showed the fate of the nation. At the same time, the people for Tolstoy are not only a peasant, a soldier and a peasant, they are also nobles, and officers, and generals. In a word, the people are all people taken together, all of humanity, which was driven by a common goal, one thing, one destiny.

In his work, the writer remembers that history is most often written as the history of individual personalities, but few people think about the driving force in history, which is the people, nation, spirit and will of people that come together.

In the novel War and Peace, folk thought

For each hero, the war with the French became a test, where Bolkonsky, and Pierre Bezukhov, and Natasha, and Petya Rostov, and Dolokhov, and Kutuzov, and Tushin, and Timokhin all played their role the best way. And most importantly, ordinary people showed themselves, who organized separate small partisan detachments and smashed the enemy. People who burned everything so that the enemy did not get anything. People who gave their last to Russian soldiers to support them.

The offensive of the Napoleonic army revealed in people best qualities where the peasants, forgetting about their grievances, fought side by side with their masters, defending their homeland. It was the thought of the people in the novel War and Peace that became the soul of the work, uniting the peasantry with the best part of the nobility in one thing - the struggle for the freedom of the Motherland.

Patriotically minded people, among whom were poor peasants, and nobles, and merchants - this is the people. Their will clashed with the French will. It collided and showed real strength, because people fought for their land, which could not be given to the enemy. The people and the formed partisan detachments became the club of the people's war, which did not give a single chance of victory to Napoleon and his army. Tolstoy wrote about this in his brilliant novel War and Peace, where the main idea was the folk one.

The writing. "People's Thought" in Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace"

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Composition on the topic: The image of Napoleon in Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" True and false in L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace" The Patriotic Theme in Leo Tolstoy's Novel "War and Peace"

The novel by L. N. Tolstoy was created in the 1860s. This time became in Russia the period of the highest activity of the peasant masses, the rise of the social movement.
The central theme of the literature of the 60s of the XIX century was the theme of the people. To consider it, as well as to highlight many major problems of our time, the writer turned to the historical past: the events of 1805-1807 and the war of 1812.
Researchers of Tolstoy's work disagree on what he meant by the word "people": peasants, the nation as a whole, merchants, bourgeoisie, patriotic patriarchal nobility. Of course, all these layers are included in Tolstoy's understanding of the word "people", but only when they are the bearers of morality. Everything that is immoral is excluded by Tolstoy from the concept of “people”.
With his work, the writer asserted the decisive role of the masses in history. In his opinion, the role of an outstanding personality in the development of society is negligible. No matter how brilliant a person is, he cannot, at his will, direct the movement of history, dictate his will to it, dispose of the actions of a huge mass of people living a spontaneous, swarming life. History is created by people, the masses, the people, and not by a person who rises above the people and takes upon himself the right to foresee the course of events at his own will.
Tolstoy divides life into an ascending current and a descending one, centrifugal and centripetal. Kutuzov, to whom the natural course of world events is open within his national-historical limits, is the embodiment of the centripetal, ascending forces of history. The writer emphasizes the moral height of Kutuzov, since this hero is associated with the mass ordinary people joint goals and actions, love for the motherland. He receives his strength from the people, experiences the same feelings as the people.
The writer also focuses on the merits of Kutuzov as a commander, whose activities were invariably directed towards one goal that had national significance: “It is difficult to imagine a goal more worthy and more in line with the will of the whole people.” Tolstoy emphasizes the purposefulness of all Kutuzov's actions, the concentration of all forces on the task that has confronted the entire Russian people in the course of history. The spokesman for the people's patriotic feeling, Kutuzov also becomes the guiding force of popular resistance, raises the spirit of the troops he commands.
Tolstoy portrays Kutuzov as folk hero who achieved independence and freedom only in alliance with the people and the nation as a whole. In the novel, the personality of the great commander is opposed to the personality of the great conqueror Napoleon. The writer exposes the ideal of unlimited freedom, which leads to the cult of a strong and proud personality.
So, the author sees the significance of a great personality in the feeling of the ongoing history as the will of providence. Great people like Kutuzov, who have a moral sense, their experience, mind and consciousness, guess the requirements of historical necessity.
The “thought of the people” is also expressed in the images of many representatives of the noble class. The path of ideological and moral growth leads goodies to get closer to the people. Heroes are tested by the Patriotic War. The independence of private life from the political game of the tops emphasizes the inextricable connection of the heroes with the life of the people. The viability of each of the characters is tested by the "people's thought".
She helps Pierre Bezukhov discover and show his best qualities; Andrey Bolkonsky is called “our prince” by the soldiers; Natasha Rostova takes out carts for the wounded; Marya Bolkonskaya rejects Mademoiselle Bourienne's offer to remain in Napoleon's power.
The closeness to the people is most clearly manifested in the image of Natasha, in whom Russian was originally laid down. national character. In the scene after the hunt, Natasha listens with pleasure to the game and singing of her uncle, who “sang like the people sing”, and then she dances “Lady”. And everyone around her is amazed at her ability to understand everything that was in every Russian person: “Where, how, when did she suck in herself from this Russian air that she breathed - this countess, brought up by a French emigrant, this spirit?”
If Natasha is completely characteristic of the features of the Russian character, then in Prince Andrei Russian beginning interrupted by the Napoleonic idea; however, it is precisely the features of the Russian character that help him understand all the deceit and hypocrisy of Napoleon, his idol.
Pierre enters the peasant world, and the life of the villagers leads him to serious thoughts.
The hero is aware of his equality with the people, even recognizes the superiority of these people. The more he knows the essence and strength of the people, the more he admires them. The strength of a people lies in its simplicity and naturalness.
According to Tolstoy, patriotism is a property of the soul of any Russian person, and in this respect the difference between Andrei Bolkonsky and any soldier of his regiment is insignificant. War forces everyone to act and act in a way that is impossible not to act. People act not on orders, but in obedience to an inner feeling, a sense of the significance of the moment. Tolstoy writes that they united in their aspirations and actions when they sensed the danger hanging over the whole of society.
The novel shows the grandeur and simplicity of swarm life, when everyone does their part of the common cause, and a person is driven not by instinct, but by laws. public life as Tolstoy understands them. And such a swarm, or world, does not consist of an impersonal mass, but of individuals who do not lose their individuality in merging with the swarm. This is the merchant Ferapontov, who burns his house so that the enemy does not get it, and the Moscow residents who leave the capital simply from the consideration that it is impossible to live in it under Bonaparte, even if no danger threatens. The peasants Karp and Vlas, who do not give hay to the French, and that Moscow lady who left Moscow with her black-tailed dogs and pugs back in June because of the consideration that “she is not Bonaparte’s servant” become participants in the swarm life. All these people are active participants in the folk, swarm life.
Thus, the people for Tolstoy is a complex phenomenon. The writer did not consider the common people an easily controlled mass, since he understood them much deeper. In the work, where the “folk thought” is in the foreground, a variety of manifestations of the national character are depicted.
Close to the people is Captain Tushin, whose image combines “small and great”, “modest and heroic”.
The theme of the people's war sounds in the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty. This hero is certainly useful in guerrilla warfare; cruel and ruthless to enemies, this character is natural, but Tolstoy has little sympathy. The image of this character is ambiguous, as is the image of Platon Karataev.
When meeting and getting to know Platon Karataev, Pierre is struck by the warmth, good nature, comfort, calmness emanating from this person. It is perceived almost symbolically, as something round, warm and smelling of bread. Karataev is characterized by amazing adaptability to circumstances, the ability to “settle down” in any circumstances.
The behavior of Platon Karataev unconsciously expresses the true wisdom of the folk, peasant philosophy of life, over the comprehension of which the main characters of the epic are tormented. This hero sets out his reasoning in a parable-like form. This, for example, is a legend about an innocently condemned merchant suffering “for his own and for human sins”, the meaning of which is that one must humble oneself and love life, even when one suffers.
And yet, unlike Tikhon Shcherbaty, Karataev is hardly capable of decisive action; its goodness leads to passivity. He is opposed in the novel by Bogucharov's peasants, who rose to rebellion and spoke out for their interests.
Along with the truth of nationality, Tolstoy also shows pseudo-nationality, a fake for it. This is reflected in the images of Rostopchin and Speransky - specific historical figures who, although they are trying to assume the right to speak on behalf of the people, have nothing in common with them.
In the work itself fictional storytelling at times interrupted by historical and philosophical digressions, in style close to journalism. The pathos of Tolstoy's philosophical digressions is directed against liberal-bourgeois military historians and writers. According to the writer, "the world denies war." So, on the reception of the antithesis, a description of the dam is built, which the Russian soldiers see during the retreat after Austerlitz - ruined and ugly. In peacetime, however, she was buried in greenery, was neat and rebuilt.
Thus, in Tolstoy's work, the question of man's moral responsibility before history is particularly acute.
So, in Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" people from the people come closest to spiritual unity, since it is the people, according to the writer, who are the bearers of spiritual values. The heroes, embodying the “people's thought”, are in constant search for the truth, and therefore, in development. In spiritual unity, the writer sees a way to overcome the contradictions of contemporary life. The war of 1812 was a real historical event, where the idea of ​​spiritual unity came true.

The novel "War and Peace" was conceived as a novel about a Decembrist returning from an amnesty in 1856. But the more Tolstoy worked with archival materials, the more he realized that without telling about the uprising itself, and, more deeply, about the war of 1812, this novel cannot be written. Thus, the idea of ​​the novel was gradually transformed, and Tolstoy created a grandiose epic. In the center of the novel L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is an image of the Patriotic War of 1812, which stirred up the entire Russian people, showed the whole world its power and strength, put forward simple Russian heroes and the great commander - Kutuzov. At the same time, great historical upheavals revealed the true essence of each individual person, showed his attitude towards the Fatherland. Tolstoy portrays the war as a realist writer: in hard work, blood, suffering, death. Also, L. N. Tolstoy sought in his work to reveal the national significance of the war, which united the whole society, all Russian people in a common impulse, to show that the fate of the campaign was decided not in headquarters and headquarters, but in the hearts ordinary people: Platon Karataev and Tikhon Shcherbaty, Petya Rostov and Denisov ... Can you list everyone? In other words, the author-battle painter draws a large-scale image of the Russian people, who raised the "club" of the liberation war against the invaders. Later, speaking of the novel, Tolstoy wrote that the main idea novel -\"folk thought\". It lies not only in the depiction of the people themselves, their way of life, but in the fact that every positive hero of the novel ultimately connects his fate with the fate of the people. Here it makes sense to recall the historical concept of the writer. On the pages of the novel, and especially in the second part of the epilogue, Tolstoy says that until now the whole history has been written as the history of individuals, as a rule, tyrants, monarchs, and no one has yet thought about what is the driving force of history. According to Tolstoy, this is the so-called "swarm principle", the spirit and will of not one person, but the people as a whole. And how strong the spirit and will of the people is, how likely these or those historical events are. So win in Patriotic War Tolstoy explains that two wills clashed: the will of the French soldiers and the will of the entire Russian people. This war was fair for the Russians, they fought for their homeland, so their spirit and will to win turned out to be stronger than the French spirit and will. Therefore, the victory of Russia over France was predetermined. The war of 1812 became a milestone, a test of all the positive characters in the novel: for Prince Andrei, who feels an unusual upsurge before the Battle of Borodino, faith in victory for Pierre Bezukhov, whose all thoughts are aimed at helping exile invaders, he even develops a plan to kill Napoleon, for Natasha, who gave the carts to the wounded, because it was impossible not to give them away, it was shameful and disgusting not to give them up, for Petya Rostov, who takes part in the hostilities of a partisan detachment and dies in a fight with the enemy, for Denisov and Dolokhov. All these people, having discarded everything personal, become a single whole, participate in the formation of the will to win. This will to win is especially evident in mass scenes: in the scene of the surrender of Smolensk, let us recall the merchant Ferapontov, who, succumbing to some unknown, inner strength, orders all his goods to be distributed to the soldiers, and what cannot be endured - set on fire, in the scene of preparation for Borodino the battle, the soldiers put on white shirts, as if preparing for the last battle, in the scene of the battle between the partisans and the French. In general, the topic guerrilla war occupies a special place in the novel. Tolstoy
emphasizes that the war of 1812 was a people's war, because the people themselves rose to fight against the invaders.
The detachments of the elder Vasilisa Kozhina and Denis Davydov were already active, and the heroes of the novel, Vasily Denisov and Dolokhov, are creating their own detachments. The theme of the people's war finds its vivid expression in the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty. The image of this hero is ambiguous; in the Denisov detachment, he performs the most "dirty" and dangerous work. He is merciless to his enemies, but it was largely thanks to such people that Russia won the war against Napoleon. The image of Platon Karataev is also ambiguous, in conditions of captivity he again turned to his origins. Watching him, Pierre Bezukhov realizes that living life the world is beyond all speculation and that happiness is in itself. However, unlike Tikhon Shcherbaty, Karataev is hardly capable of decisive action, his good looks lead to passivity.
Showing the heroism of the Russian people, Tolstoy in many chapters of the novel speaks of the plight of the peasants, oppressed by serfdom. The progressive people of their time, Prince Bolkonsky and Count Bezukhov, are trying to alleviate the peasant lot. In conclusion, we can say that L.N. Tolstoy in his work, tries
to prove to the reader the idea that the people played and will play a decisive role in the life of the state. And that it was the Russian people who were able to defeat Napoleon's army, which was considered invincible

If suddenly the ants attack together,

They will overpower the lion, no matter how fierce he is.

The epic novel "War and Peace" is the largest work of Leo Tolstoy, covering the life of all sectors of society before and after the war of 1812. It shows the ups and downs of the characters, but the main character is the people. Of the many themes of the novel, the author pays special attention to “folk thought”.

L.N. Tolstoy asked the question: “What drives history: the people or the individual?” And throughout the novel history is created and influenced by the people. It is the unity of the Russian people, based on love and affection for native land helped them defeat the French army. Anger for disturbed peace and peaceful life, killed relatives and the ruin of the country moved them during the battles. People tried in every possible way to help, to prove themselves, forgetting about everything that holds them, and were ready to stand up for the Fatherland to the death. War is made up of small deeds that matter a lot.

By doing them, they show the most important quality of the people - patriotism, which, according to Leo Tolstoy, can be true and false. Owners true patriotism is the Rostov family, Tikhon Shcherbaty, Kutuzov, Tushin, Pierre Bezukhov, Marya Bolkonskaya. The author also contrasts them with other heroes of the novel, whose society is filled with hypocrisy and falsehood.

For example, during the move of the Rostov family from besieged Moscow, all things were collected on carts. At this moment, the wounded soldiers ask for help. And Natasha, begging her parents, asked to leave carts for the needy wounded. Of course, they could take the chance and save their property, but a sense of duty, compassion and responsibility took over.

But there are people who are not at all interested in the life of the suffering population. The careerist Berg was only interested in fashion and craved money. Even during a fire in Smolensk, he does not think about what to put out, but is looking for a profit in buying new furniture.

Pierre Bezukhov, who became the heir to the wealthy Count Bezukhov, equips the regiment entirely with inherited money. He could squander them for personal purposes: at festivities and balls, but he acted nobly, helping the people. And the salon of A.P. Sherer, on the other hand, does nothing. As usual, their conversations are full of gossip and empty talk about the war. A fine for using French words in speech could not help the people in any way. Therefore their patriotism is false.

During the rebellion of the Bogucharov peasants, Marya Bolkonskaya did not succumb to the temptation to remain under the wing of the French: she did not want to feel like a traitor. Helen Kuragina performs a completely different act. In a difficult time for the country, she changes her faith and wants to marry Napoleon, an enemy of the people.

Not only the upper strata of society contributed to the victory. For example, the peasant Tikhon Shcherbaty voluntarily enters into partisan detachment Denisov, which speaks of his indifference. Becomes the most active, catching the most "tongues" and doing the hardest work. Boris Drubetskoy, on the other hand, shows cowardice, remaining at the headquarters of Kutuzov's opponent, Benigsen. Despite all the hatred of the enemies, the Russians show humanism towards the captured French. “They are people too,” says Tikhon Shcherbaty.

The state of the troops and the course of the war depend on the supreme commander-in-chief - Kutuzov. Unlike the narcissistic and indifferent Napoleon, Kutuzov is a very simple person and close to the people. He only follows the spirit of the troops, inspires them only with news of victorious battles. He treats the army like his own children and acts as a "father" who takes care. He sincerely feels sorry for the people. It is with a good commander that the army has an interest in winning with all its might.

War, bursting into peaceful life, shows the true face of every person, tears off the masks. Possessing false patriotism and generally insensitivity, someone will run and hide, make a hero out of himself only in words. And someone with a real desire to help is eager to fight, no matter what. Each of them invests something of his own in order to achieve the national goal. The charmers of true patriotism do this not for show, but for the sake of the land that their fathers and grandfathers once defended. And to give it away without a fight is shameful. All these people become a single whole, the people's "club", which only wages a war of liberation. Because a foreign land is useless - you need to defend your Fatherland. And this can only be done by uniting, having real feelings and concern for the future of the people and the country.

Thus, L. N. Tolstoy believes that the driving force is the people, and the most important guarantee of victory is the common national spirit.