Characteristics of heroes war and peace 1 part. The main characters of the novel "War and Peace"
Tolstoy's favorite characters in War and Peace are Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky. They are united by the quality that the writer himself most valued in people. In his opinion, to be a real person, you need to “torn, fight, get confused, make mistakes, start and quit” all your life, and “peace is spiritual meanness.” That is, a person should not calm down and stop, he should search for meaning all his life and strive to find an application for his strengths, talents, mind.
In this article we will consider what are the characteristics of the main characters of Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace". Pay attention to why Tolstoy endowed these characters with such features and what he wanted to say to his readers.
Pierre Bezukhov in the novel "War and Peace"
As we have already noted, speaking about the main characters of the novel "War and Peace" by Tolstoy, it is definitely worth discussing the image of Pierre Bezukhov. For the first time the reader sees Pierre in the aristocratic Petersburg salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. The hostess treats him somewhat condescendingly, because he is just the illegitimate son of a rich nobleman of Catherine's times, who has just returned from abroad, where he received an education.
Pierre Bezukhov differs from other guests in his spontaneity and sincerity. Drawing a psychological portrait of his protagonist, Tolstoy points out that Pierre was a fat, absent-minded person, but all this was redeemed by "an expression of good nature, simplicity and modesty." The hostess of the salon was afraid that Pierre would say something wrong, and indeed, Bezukhov passionately expresses his opinion, argues with the viscount and does not know how to follow the rules of etiquette. At the same time, he is kind and smart. The qualities of Pierre, shown in the first chapters of the novel, will be inherent in him throughout the entire story, although the hero himself will go through a difficult path of spiritual evolution. Why can Pierre Bezukhov be safely attributed to the main characters of Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace"? Consideration of the image of Pierre Bezukhov helps to understand this.
Pierre Bezukhov is so loved by Tolstoy because this protagonist of the novel is tirelessly looking for the meaning of life, asking himself painful questions: “What is wrong? What well? What should you love, what should you hate? Why live, and what am I? What is life, what is death? What power governs everything?
Pierre Bezukhov goes through a difficult path of spiritual quest. He is not satisfied with the St. Petersburg revelry of golden youth. Having received an inheritance and becoming one of the richest people in Russia, the hero marries Helen, but he blames himself for the failures of family life and even his wife's infidelities, since he made an offer without feeling love.
For a time he finds meaning in Freemasonry. He is close to the idea of spiritual brothers about the need to live for the sake of others, to give to others as much as possible. Pierre Bezukhov is trying to change and improve the situation of his peasants. But disappointment soon sets in: the protagonist of Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" understands that most of the Masons are trying to make acquaintances with influential people in this way. Further, the image and characteristics of Pierre Bezukhov are revealed in an interesting aspect.
The most important stage on the path of spiritual development of Pierre Bezukhov is the war of 1812 and captivity. On the Borodino field, he understands that the truth is in the universal unity of people. In captivity, the peasant philosopher Platon Karataev reveals to the main character the realization of how important it is to “live with people” and stoically accept everything that fate brings.
Pierre Bezukhov has an inquisitive mind, thoughtful and often ruthless introspection. He is a decent person, kind and a little naive. He asks himself and the world philosophical questions about the meaning of life, God, the purpose of existence, not finding an answer, he does not dismiss painful thoughts, but tries to find the right path.
In the epilogue, Pierre is happy with Natasha Rostova, but personal happiness is not enough for him. He becomes a member of a secret society preparing reforms in Russia. So, discussing who are the main characters of the novel "War and Peace" by Tolstoy, we focused on the image of Pierre Bezukhov and his characteristics. Let's move on to the next key character of the novel - Andrei Bolkonsky.
Andrei Bolkonsky in the novel "War and Peace"
The Bolkonsky family is united by common generic features: a sharp analytical mind, nobility, the highest sense of honor, an understanding of one's duty in serving the Fatherland. It is no coincidence that, seeing off his son to the war, the father, admonishing him, says: “Remember one thing, Prince Andrei: if they kill you, it will hurt me, an old man ... And if I find out that you behaved not like the son of Nikolai Bolkonsky, I will be ... ashamed!" Undoubtedly, Andrei Bolkonsky is a bright character and one of the main characters in Tolstoy's novel War and Peace.
During military service, Bolkonsky is guided by considerations of the common good, and not his own career. He heroically rushes forward with a banner in his hands, because it hurts him to see the flight of the Russian army on the Austerlitz field.
Andrey, like Pierre, is waiting for a difficult path of searching for the meaning of life and disappointments. At first, he dreams of the glory of Napoleon. But after the Austerlitz sky, in which the prince saw something infinitely high, beautiful and calm, the former idol seems to him small, insignificant with his vain aspirations.
Comprehends the protagonist of the novel "War and Peace" Tolstoy and disappointment in love (Natasha betrays him, deciding to run away with the fool Anatoly Kuragin), in life for the sake of the family (he understands that this is not enough), in public service (Speransky's activities turn out to be meaningless fuss, without real benefit).
Field Marshal General Prince, adjutant wing Count, son-in-law of commander Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov. All three led the soldiers into the attack under heavy fire with a battle banner in their hands. All three were wounded, only Prince Volkonsky survived. 1
Tolstoy about the hero: “There I will be sent,” he thought, “with a brigade or division, and there, with a banner in my hand, I will go forward and break everything that is in front of me.”
"At this time, a new face entered the living room. The new face was the young Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, the husband of the little princess. Prince Bolkonsky was short, a very handsome young man with definite and dry features. ... He, apparently, was all not only did they know each other, but they bored him so much that it was very boring for him to look at them and listen to them.
Take a look at Adolf Ladurner's painting "The Armorial Hall of the Winter Palace", where Prince Peter Volkonsky is in the center. See how accurate Tolstoy is.
All photographs of the heroes of the novel are taken from the film "War and Peace" (1965).
Count Nikolai Rostov
Prototype: the writer's father, Count.
Tolstoy about the hero: "... So much nobility, true youth, which you meet so rarely in our age between our twenty-year-old old people! .."
Count Pierre Bezukhov
Tolstoy about the hero:"... When moments of cruelty were found on him, like those in which he connected a quarterly with a bear and let him into the water, or when he challenged a person to a duel for no reason, or killed a coachman's horse with a pistol ..."; "... Dolokhov (also a partisan with a small party)."
Princess Helen Kuragina (Countess Bezukhova)
Prototype: H; beloved of Chancellor Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, who became the morganatic wife of Duke Nikolai Maximilianovich of Leuchtenberg, grandson of Nicholas I (Tolstoy has "a young blond man with a long face and nose") 3 .
Tolstoy about the heroine: "In Petersburg, Helen enjoyed the special patronage of a nobleman who occupied one of the highest positions in the state. In Vilna, she became close to a young foreign prince. When she returned to Petersburg, the prince and nobleman<>both claimed their rights, and Helen presented a new task in her career: to maintain her close relationship with both without offending either.
Vasily Denisov
Prototype:, a participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, a hussar who, like the hero of the novel, fought in a partisan detachment.
Tolstoy about the hero: "... Denisov, to the surprise of Rostov, in a new uniform, pomaded and perfumed, appeared in the living room in the same dandy that he used to be in battles ..."
Artillery Staff Captain Tushin
Prototypes: Major General of Artillery Ilya Timofeevich Radozhitsky and Staff Captain of Artillery Yakov Ivanovich Sudakov. In character, he resembled the brother of the writer Nikolai Nikolaevich.
Tolstoy about the hero:"... Tushin appeared on the threshold, timidly making his way from behind the backs of the generals. Bypassing the generals in a cramped hut, embarrassed, as always, at the sight of his superiors ..."
Baron Alfons Karlovich Berg
Prototype: field marshal general, baron, then count 4. In the rank of lieutenant of the Life Guards of the Semenovsky Regiment, he was wounded at Austerlitz in his right hand, but, having shifted his sword to his left hand, he remained in the ranks until the end of the battle. For this, he was awarded the Golden Sword "For Bravery" 5 .
Tolstoy about the hero: “It was not for nothing that Berg showed everyone his right hand wounded in the battle of Austerlitz and held a completely unnecessary sword in his left. He told everyone this concealment so stubbornly and with such significance that everyone believed in the expediency and dignity of this act, and Berg received two awards for Austerlitz ".
Anna Pavlovna Sherer
Prototype: maid of honor to Empress Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of the great poet.
Tolstoy about the heroine:"... The famous Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and close associate of Empress Maria Feodorovna ..."
Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova
Prototype: who had a scandalous reputation in high society. “She was depicted with photographic accuracy, down to her last name and rolling up her sleeves, as is well known, by L.N. Tolstoy in War and Peace 6 .
Tolstoy about the heroine:Akhrosimova is known "not for wealth, not for honors, but for her directness of mind and frank simplicity of address."
Lyovochka MAYBE WILL DESCRIBE US WHEN HE WILL BE 50 YEARS OLD. S. A. TOLSTAYA - TO SISTER. NOVEMBER 11, 1862
1. Patriotic war of 1812 and the liberation campaign of the Russian army in 1813-1814. Encyclopedia: In 3 volumes. T. 1. M .: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 2012. S. 364; There. T. 3. S. 500.
2. Patriotic war of 1812 and the liberation campaign of the Russian army in 1813-1814. Encyclopedia: In 3 volumes. T. 1. M .: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 2012. S. 410.
3. Ekshtut S.A. Nadine, or the novel of a high society lady through the eyes of the secret political police. M.: Consent, 2001. S. 97-100.
4. Patriotic war of 1812 and the liberation campaign of the Russian army in 1813-1814. Encyclopedia: In 3 volumes. T. 1. M .: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 2012. S. 623.
5. Ekshtut S.A. Daily life of the Russian intelligentsia from the era of the Great Reforms to the Silver Age. M.: Molodaya Gvardiya, 2012. S. 252.
6. Gershenzon M.O. Griboedovskaya Moscow. M.: Moskovsky Rabochiy, 1989. S. 83.
Andrei Bolkonsky.
One of the main characters in the novel is Andrei Bolkonsky. A prince of handsome appearance who dreams of military glory. For Andrei, the most important thing in life is duty to the Motherland. The mature prince was in love with the young Countess Natasha Rostov. He suffered a lot of emotional experiences, as well as betrayal by Natasha. But when a lot of time passed, and fate brought them together with Natasha again, but this time life turned out to be unfair. The hero's life ends tragically, he dies from a bullet wound received in battle.
Natasha Rostov.
The young heroine, who is surrounded by wealth, is loved by her parents. The girl is very lively, cheerful, sincere. She is educated. She was in love with Andrei Bolkonsky. But life has prepared them many trials. Her fate was brought down by the war. The lovers were never meant to be together. She later married Pierre Bezukhov, gave birth to children and found peace in family life. But it was no longer such a bright and active Natasha as several years ago.
Pierre Bezukhov.
Another important hero who inherited a valuable fortune from his father after his death. The hero is kind and naive, he was of a strong physique. Previously married to a beautiful woman Helen, this led to bad consequences. Later, he married the young Natalya Rostova. Pierre's personality changed over time and later he became a confident man who is able to achieve his goal and has his own outlook on life.
Ilya Andreevich Rostov.
He is a count, he is a kind and sympathetic person. He loves to live in luxurious conditions. Often arranged chic balls. He loves his wife and children very much.
Nikolay Rostov.
He is the eldest son of the Rostovs. He is honest, kind and responsive. He was married to Maria Bolkonskaya. And he found personal happiness and peace with her.
Sonya.
A fragile, slender girl, she is kind and smart. She was in love with Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky, but after learning that his heart belongs to another woman, she decided not to interfere with his happiness.
Ellen Kuragina.
The heroine is the first wife of Pierre. The woman was not particularly intelligent, but thanks to her bright appearance and sociability, she was able to open her own salon in St. Petersburg.
Anatoly Kuragin.
He is Ellen's brother. Outwardly, he is also charming, like his sister. I preferred to live for my own pleasure. Being married, you want to steal Natasha and marry her.
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), the French invasion of Russia, the battle of Borodino and the capture of Moscow, the entry of allied troops into Paris; the end of the novel is attributed to 1820. The author re-read many historical books and memoirs of his contemporaries; he understood that the task of the artist does not coincide with the task of the historian and, not striving for complete accuracy, he wanted to create the spirit of the era, the originality of her life, the picturesqueness of her style.
Lev Tolstoy. War and Peace. The main characters and themes of the novel
Of course, Tolstoy's historical figures are somewhat modernized: they often speak and think like the author's contemporaries. But this renewal of the old is inevitable in the creative perception of the historian of any process as a continuous, vital stream. Otherwise, the result is not a work of art, but a dead archeology. The author did not invent anything - he only chose what seemed to him the most significant. “Everywhere,” writes Tolstoy, “wherever only historical figures speak and act in my novel, I did not invent, but used materials from which I formed a whole library of books during my work.”
For "family chronicles" placed within the historical framework of the Napoleonic Wars, he used family memoirs, letters, diaries, and unpublished notes. The complexity and richness of the "human world" depicted in the novel can only be compared with the gallery of portraits of Balzac's multivolume Human Comedy. Tolstoy gives more than 70 detailed descriptions, outlines with a few strokes many minor persons - and all of them live, do not merge with each other, remain in memory. One sharply grasped detail determines the figure of a person, his character and behavior. In the waiting room of the dying Count Bezukhov, one of the heirs, Prince Vasily, walks on tiptoe in confusion. "He couldn't walk on tiptoe and jumped awkwardly with his whole body." And in this bouncing, the whole nature of the dignitary and imperious prince is reflected.
The external feature acquires a deep psychological and symbolic sound from Tolstoy. He has incomparable visual acuity, brilliant observation, almost clairvoyance. By one turn of the head or movement of the fingers, he guesses the person. Every feeling, even the most fleeting, is immediately embodied for him in a bodily sign; The movement, posture, gesture, expression of the eyes, the line of the shoulders, the trembling of the lips are read by him as a symbol of the soul. Hence the impression of spiritual and bodily wholeness and completeness that his characters produce. In the art of creating living people with flesh and blood, breathing, moving, casting a shadow, Tolstoy has no equal.
Princess Mary
In the center of the action of the novel are two noble families - Bolkonsky and Rostov. The eldest Prince Bolkonsky, general-in-chief of Catherine's time, a Voltairian and an intelligent gentleman, lives in the Bald Mountains estate with his daughter Marya, ugly and no longer young. Her father loves her passionately, but brings her up harshly and torments her with algebra lessons. Princess Mary "with beautiful radiant eyes", with a shy smile - an image of high spiritual beauty. She meekly bears the cross of her life, prays, accepts "God's people" and dreams of becoming a wanderer... He is God. What did she care about the justice or injustice of other people? She had to suffer and love herself, and she did it.
And yet she is sometimes worried about the hope of personal happiness; she wants to have a family, children. When this hope comes true and she marries Nikolai Rostov, her soul continues to strive for "infinite, eternal perfection."
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky
Princess Mary's brother, Prince Andrei, does not look like his sister. This is a strong, intelligent, proud and disappointed person, feeling his superiority over others, burdened by his chirping, frivolous wife and looking for practically useful activities. He cooperates with Speransky in the commission for the drafting of laws, but soon gets tired of this abstract office work. He is seized by a thirst for glory, he goes on a campaign in 1805 and, like Napoleon, awaits his "Toulon" - exaltation, greatness, "human love". But instead of the Toulon, the Austerlitz field awaits him, on which he lies wounded and looks into the bottomless sky. “Everything is empty,” he thinks, “everything is a lie, except for this endless sky. Nothing, nothing but him. But even that is not even there, there is nothing but silence, calmness.
Andrey Bolkonsky
Returning to Russia, he settles in his estate and plunges into the "longing of life." The death of his wife, the betrayal of Natasha Rostova, who seemed to him the ideal of girlish charm and purity, plunge him into gloomy despair. And only slowly dying from a wound received in the Battle of Borodino, in the face of death, he finds that “truth of life”, which he always so unsuccessfully sought: “Love is life,” he thinks. Everything, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love it. Love is God, and to die means for me, a particle of love, to return to the common and eternal source.
Nikolai Rostov
Complicated relations connect the Bolkonsky family with the Rostov family. Nikolai Rostov is a whole, spontaneous nature, like Eroshka in The Cossacks or Volodya's brother in Childhood. He lives without questions and doubts, he has a "common sense of mediocrity." Direct, noble, brave, cheerful, he is surprisingly attractive, despite his limitations. Of course, he cannot understand the mystical soul of his wife Marya, but he knows how to create a happy family, raise kind and honest children.
Natasha Rostova
His sister Natasha Rostova is one of the most charming female images of Tolstoy. She enters the life of each of us as a beloved and close friend. From her lively, joyful and spiritualized face, a radiance emanates, illuminating everything around her. When she appears, everyone becomes cheerful, everyone starts smiling. Natasha is full of such an excess of vitality, such a "talent of life" that her whims, frivolous hobbies, selfishness of youth and thirst for the "pleasures of life" - everything seems charming.
She is constantly on the move, intoxicated with joy, inspired by feeling; she does not reason, “does not deign to be clever,” as Pierre says about her, but the clairvoyance of the heart replaces her mind. She immediately “sees” a person and accurately defines him. When her fiancé Andrei Bolkonsky leaves for the war, Natasha becomes infatuated with the brilliant and empty Anatole Kuragin. But the break with Prince Andrei and then his death turn her whole soul upside down. Her noble and truthful nature cannot forgive herself for this guilt. Natasha falls into hopeless despair and wants to die. At this time, news comes of the death of her younger brother Petya in the war. Natasha forgets about her grief and selflessly takes care of her mother - and this saves her.
“Natasha thought,” writes Tolstoy, “that her life was over. But suddenly love for her mother showed her that the essence of her life - love - was still alive in her. Love woke up and life woke up. Finally, she marries Pierre Bezukhov and turns into a child-loving mother and devoted wife: she refuses all the "pleasures of life" that she loved so passionately before, and devotes herself wholeheartedly to her new, difficult duties. For Tolstoy, Natasha is life itself, instinctive, mysterious and holy in its natural wisdom.
Pierre Bezukhov
The ideological and compositional center of the novel is Count Pierre Bezukhov. All complex and numerous lines of action are drawn to it, coming from two "family chronicles" - the Bolkonskys and the Rostovs; he clearly enjoys the greatest sympathy of the author and is closest to him in terms of his mental disposition. Pierre belongs to the "searching" people, reminds Nikolenka, Nekhludova, Venison but most of all Tolstoy himself. Before us are not only the external events of life, but also the consistent history of his spiritual development.
The path of searching for Pierre Bezukhov
Pierre was brought up in an atmosphere of Rousseau's ideas, he lives by feeling and is prone to "dreamy philosophizing". He is looking for the "truth", but due to weakness of will he continues to lead an empty secular life, go on a spree, play cards, go to balls; an absurd marriage to the soulless beauty Helen Kuragina, a break with her and a duel with a former friend Dolokhov produce a profound upheaval in him. He's interested in freemasonry, thinks to find in him "inner peace and harmony with himself." But disappointment soon sets in: the philanthropic activity of the Masons seems to him insufficient, their addiction to uniforms and magnificent ceremonies outrages him. Moral stupor, panicky fear of life finds on him.
"The tangled and terrible knot of life" strangles him. And now, on the Borodino field, he meets the Russian people - a new world opens up to him. The spiritual crisis was prepared by amazing impressions that suddenly fell upon him: he sees the fire of Moscow, is taken prisoner, spends several days awaiting the death sentence, is present at the execution. And then he meets "Russian, kind, round Karataev." Joyful and bright, he saves Pierre from spiritual death and leads him to God.
“First, he sought God for the goals that he set for himself,” writes Tolstoy, and suddenly he recognized in his captivity, not by words, not by reasoning, but by direct feeling, what his nanny had long told him; that God is here, here, everywhere. He learned in captivity that God in Karataev is greater, infinite and incomprehensible than in the Architecton of the universe recognized by the Masons.
Religious inspiration covers Pierre, all questions and doubts disappear, he no longer thinks about the "meaning of life", because the meaning has already been found: love for God and selfless service to people. The novel ends with a picture of the complete happiness of Pierre, who married Natasha Rostova and became a devoted husband and loving father.
Platon Karataev
The soldier Platon Karataev, whose meeting in Moscow occupied by the French made a revolution in Pierre Bezukhov, who seeks the truth, is conceived by the author as a parallel to the "people's hero" Kutuzov; he, too, is a person without a personality, passively surrendering to events. This is how Pierre sees him, i.e., the author himself, but he appears to the reader differently. It is not the impersonality, but the extraordinary originality of his personality that strikes us. His well-aimed words, jokes and sayings, his constant activity, his bright cheerfulness of spirit and sense of beauty (“goodness”), his active love for his neighbors, humility, cheerfulness and religiosity are formed in our view not in the image of an impersonal “part of the whole”, but into the amazingly whole face of the people's righteous man.
Platon Karataev is the same "great Christian" as the holy fool Grisha in "Childhood". Tolstoy intuitively felt its spiritual originality, but his rationalistic explanation glided over the surface of this mystical soul.
Leo Tolstoy in the article “A few words about the book “War and Peace”” says that the names of the epic characters are consonant with the names of real people, because he “felt awkward” using the names of historical figures next to fictitious ones. Tolstoy writes that he "would be very sorry" if readers thought that he was deliberately describing the characters of real people, because all the characters are fictitious.
At the same time, there are two characters in the novel, to whom Tolstoy "unwittingly" gave the names of real people - Denisov and M. D. Akhrosimova. He did this because they were "characteristic faces of the time". Nevertheless, in the biographies of other characters in War and Peace, one can notice similarities with the stories of real people, which probably influenced Tolstoy when he worked on the images of his characters.
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky
Nikolay Tuchkov. (wikimedia.org)
The surname of the hero is consonant with the surname of the Volkonsky princely family, from which the writer's mother came, however, Andrei is one of those characters whose image is more fictional than borrowed from specific people. As an unattainable moral ideal, Prince Andrei, of course, could not have a definite prototype. Nevertheless, in the facts of the character's biography, one can find a lot in common, for example, with Nikolai Tuchkov. He was a lieutenant general and, like Prince Andrei, was mortally wounded in the Battle of Borodino, from which he died in Yaroslavl three weeks later.
Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya - the writer's parents
The scene of the wounding of Prince Andrei in the Battle of Austerlitz is probably borrowed from the biography of Staff Captain Fyodor (Ferdinand) Tizenhausen, Kutuzov's son-in-law. He, with a banner in his hands, led the Little Russian Grenadier Regiment in a counterattack, was wounded, captured and died three days after the battle. Also, the act of Prince Andrei is similar to the act of Prince Peter Volkonsky, who, with the banner of the Phanagoria regiment, led the brigade of grenadiers forward.
It is possible that Tolstoy gave the image of Prince Andrei the features of his brother Sergei. At least this applies to the story of the failed marriage of Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova. Sergei Tolstoy was engaged to Tatyana Bers, the elder sister of Sophia Tolstaya (the writer's wife). The marriage never took place, because Sergei had been living with the gypsy Maria Shishkina for several years, whom he eventually married, and Tatyana married lawyer A. Kuzminsky.
Natasha Rostova
Sofya Tolstaya is the writer's wife. (wikimedia.org)
It can be assumed that Natasha has two prototypes at once - Tatyana and Sofya Bers. In the comments to War and Peace, Tolstoy says that Natasha Rostova turned out when he "reworked Tanya and Sonya."
Tatyana Bers spent most of her childhood in the writer's family and managed to make friends with the author of War and Peace, despite the fact that she was almost 20 years younger than him. Moreover, under the influence of Tolstoy, Kuzminskaya herself took up literary work. In her book “My Life at Home and in Yasnaya Polyana”, she wrote: “Natasha - he directly said that I didn’t live with him for nothing, that he was writing me off.” This can be found in the novel. The episode with Natasha's doll, which she offers Boris to kiss, is really written off from the real case, when Tatyana offered her friend to kiss Mimi's doll. She later wrote: "My big Mimi doll got into a novel!" The appearance of Natasha Tolstoy also wrote from Tatiana.
For the image of the adult Rostova - wife and mother - the writer probably turned to Sophia. Tolstoy's wife was devoted to her husband, gave birth to 13 children, she herself was engaged in their upbringing, housekeeping, and indeed rewrote War and Peace several times.
Rostov
In the drafts of the novel, the family's surname is first the Tolstoys, then the Simples, then the Plokhovs. The writer used archival documents to recreate the life of his family and depict it in the life of the Rostov family. There are similarities in names with Tolstoy's paternal relatives, as in the case of the old Count Rostov. This name hides the writer's grandfather Ilya Andreevich Tolstoy. This man, in fact, led a rather wasteful lifestyle and spent enormous sums on entertainment events. Leo Tolstoy in his memoirs wrote about him as a generous but limited person who constantly arranged balls and receptions on the estate.
Even Tolstoy did not hide the fact that Vasily Denisov is Denis Davydov
And yet this is not the good-natured Ilya Andreevich Rostov from War and Peace. Count Tolstoy was the governor of Kazan and a bribe taker known throughout Russia, although the writer recalls that his grandfather did not take bribes, and his grandmother took them secretly from her husband. Ilya Tolstoy was removed from his post after the auditors discovered the theft of almost 15 thousand rubles from the provincial treasury. The reason for the shortage was called "lack of knowledge in the position of the governor of the province."
Nikolai Tolstoy. (wikimedia.org)
Nikolai Rostov is the father of the writer Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy. There are more than enough similarities between the prototype and the hero of War and Peace. Nikolai Tolstoy at the age of 17 voluntarily joined the Cossack regiment, served in the hussars and went through all the Napoleonic wars, including the Patriotic War of 1812. It is believed that the descriptions of military scenes with the participation of Nikolai Rostov were taken by the writer from the memoirs of his father. Nikolai inherited huge debts, he had to get a job as an educator in the Moscow military orphanage department. To remedy the situation, he married the ugly and withdrawn Princess Maria Volkonskaya, who was four years older than him. The marriage was arranged by the relatives of the bride and groom. Judging by the memoirs of contemporaries, the arranged marriage turned out to be very happy. Maria and Nikolai led a solitary life. Nikolai read a lot and collected a library on the estate, was engaged in farming and hunting. Tatyana Bers wrote to Sofya that Vera Rostova was very similar to Lisa Bers, Sophia's other sister.
Sisters Bers: Sophia, Tatyana and Elizabeth. (tolstoy-manuscript.ru)
Princess Mary
There is a version that the prototype of Princess Marya is the mother of Leo Tolstoy, Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya, by the way, also the full namesake of the book heroine. However, the writer's mother died when Tolstoy was less than two years old. There were no portraits of Volkonskaya, and the writer studied her letters and diaries in order to create her image for himself.
Unlike the heroine, the writer's mother had no problems with the sciences, in particular with mathematics and geometry. She learned four foreign languages, and, judging by Volkonskaya's diaries, she had a fairly warm relationship with her father, she was devoted to him. Maria lived for 30 years with her father in Yasnaya Polyana (Bald Mountains from the novel), but never married, although she was a very enviable bride. She was a closed woman and rejected several suitors.
Dolokhov's prototype probably ate his own orangutan
Princess Volkonskaya even had a companion - Miss Hanessen, somewhat similar to Mademoiselle Bourienne from the novel. After the death of her father, the daughter began to literally give away property. She gave part of the inheritance to her companion's sister, who had no dowry. After that, her relatives intervened in the matter, arranging the marriage of Maria Nikolaevna with Nikolai Tolstoy. Maria Volkonskaya died eight years after the wedding, having managed to give birth to four children.
Old Prince Bolkonsky
Nikolay Volkonsky. (wikimedia.org)
Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky - an infantry general who distinguished himself in several battles and received the nickname "King of Prussia" from his colleagues. In character, he is very similar to the old prince: proud, self-willed, but not cruel. He left the service after the accession of Paul I, retired to Yasnaya Polyana and took up raising his daughter. For days on end he improved his household and taught his daughter languages and sciences. An important difference from the character from the book: Prince Nikolai perfectly survived the war of 1812, and died nine years later, a little before reaching seventy. In Moscow, he had a house at Vozdvizhenka, 9. Now it has been rebuilt.
The prototype of Ilya Rostov is Tolstoy's grandfather, who ruined his career
Sonya
The prototype of Sonya can be called Tatyana Yergolskaya - the second cousin of Nikolai Tolstoy (the writer's father), who was brought up in his father's house. In their youth, they had an affair that never ended in marriage. Not only Nikolai's parents opposed the wedding, but Yergolskaya herself. The last time she rejected a marriage proposal from her cousin was in 1836. The widowed Tolstoy asked for the hand of Yergolskaya so that she would become his wife and replace the mother of five children. Ergolskaya refused, but after the death of Nikolai Tolstoy, she really took up the education of his sons and daughter, devoting the rest of her life to them.
Leo Tolstoy appreciated his aunt and maintained a correspondence with her. She was the first to collect and store the writer's papers. In his memoirs, he wrote that Tatyana was loved by everyone and “her whole life was love,” but she herself always loved one person - the father of Leo Tolstoy.
Dolokhov
Fedor Tolstoy is an American. (wikimedia.org)
Dolokhov has several prototypes. Among them, for example, lieutenant general and partisan Ivan Dorokhov, the hero of several major campaigns, including the war of 1812. However, if we talk about character, then Dolokhov has more similarities with the writer's cousin Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy, nicknamed "The American". He was famous in his time as a breter, gambler and lover of women. Dolokhov is also compared with officer A. Figner, who commanded a partisan detachment, participated in duels and hated the French.
Tolstoy is not the only writer to include the American in his work. Fedor Ivanovich is also considered the prototype of Zaretsky, Lensky's second from Eugene Onegin. Tolstoy got his nickname after he made a trip to America, during which he was put off the ship. There is a version that then he ate his own monkey, although Sergei Tolstoy wrote that this is not true.
Kuragins
In this case, it is difficult to talk about the family, because the images of Prince Vasily, Anatole and Helen are borrowed from several people who are not related by kinship. Kuragin Sr. is undoubtedly Alexei Borisovich Kurakin, a prominent courtier during the reigns of Paul I and Alexander I, who made a brilliant career at court and made a fortune.
Alexey Borisovich Kurakin. (wikimedia.org)
He had three children, exactly like those of Prince Vasily, of whom his daughter brought him the most trouble. Alexandra Alekseevna really had a scandalous reputation, especially her divorce from her husband made a lot of noise in the world. Prince Kurakin in one of his letters even called his daughter the main burden of his old age. Looks like a character from War and Peace, doesn't it? Although Vasily Kuragin spoke a little differently.
On the right is Alexandra Kurakina. (wikimedia.org)
Prototypes of Helen - the wife of Bagration and the mistress of a classmate of Pushkin
Anatoly Lvovich Shostak, the second cousin of Tatiana Bers, who courted her when she came to St. Petersburg, should be called the prototype of Anatol Kuragin. After that, he came to Yasnaya Polyana and annoyed Leo Tolstoy. In the draft notes of War and Peace, Anatole's surname is Shimko.
As for Helen, her image is taken from several women at once. In addition to some similarities with Alexandra Kurakina, she has much in common with Ekaterina Skvaronskaya (Bagration's wife), who was known for her careless behavior not only in Russia, but also in Europe, where she left five years after the wedding. At home, she was called the "Wandering Princess", and in Austria she was known as the mistress of Clemens Metternich, the empire's foreign minister. From him, Ekaterina Skavronskaya gave birth - of course, out of wedlock - a daughter, Clementine. Perhaps it was the "Wandering Princess" that contributed to the entry of Austria into the anti-Napoleonic coalition.
Another woman from whom Tolstoy could borrow Helen's traits is Nadezhda Akinfova. She was born in 1840 and was very famous in St. Petersburg and Moscow as a woman of scandalous reputation and riotous temper. She gained wide popularity thanks to an affair with Chancellor Alexander Gorchakov, a classmate of Pushkin. By the way, he was 40 years older than Akinfova, whose husband was the Chancellor's great-nephew. Akinfova also divorced her first husband, but she already married the Duke of Leuchtenberg in Europe, where they moved together. Recall that in the novel itself, Helen never divorced Pierre.
Ekaterina Skavronskaya-Bagration. (wikimedia.org)
Vasily Denisov
Denis Davydov. (wikimedia.org)
Every schoolchild knows that the prototype of Vasily Denisov was Denis Davydov - a poet and writer, lieutenant general, partisan. Tolstoy used the works of Davydov when he studied the Napoleonic Wars.
Julie Karagina
There is an opinion that Julie Karagina is Varvara Alexandrovna Lanskaya, the wife of the Minister of Internal Affairs. She is known exclusively for the fact that she had a long correspondence with her friend Maria Volkova. From these letters Tolstoy studied the history of the war of 1812. Moreover, they almost completely entered War and Peace under the guise of correspondence between Princess Marya and Julie Karagina.
Pierre Bezukhov
Peter Vyazemsky. (wikimedia.org)
Pierre has no obvious prototype, since this character has similarities both with Tolstoy himself and with many historical figures who lived during the time of the writer and during the Patriotic War.
However, some similarities can be seen with Peter Vyazemsky. He also wore glasses, received a huge inheritance, and participated in the Battle of Borodino. In addition, he wrote poetry, published. Tolstoy used his notes in his work on the novel.
Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova
In Akhrosimov's novel, she is the guest that the Rostovs are waiting for on Natasha's name day. Tolstoy writes that all of St. Petersburg and all of Moscow knows Marya Dmitrievna, and for her frankness and rudeness they call her "le terrible dragon."
The similarity of the character can be seen with Nastasya Dmitrievna Ofrosimova. This is a lady from Moscow, the niece of Prince Volkonsky. Prince Vyazemsky wrote in his memoirs that she was a strong, powerful woman who was very respected in society. The Ofrosimovs' estate was located in Chisty lane (Khamovniki district) in Moscow. It is believed that Ofrosimova was also the prototype of Khlestova in Griboyedov's Woe from Wit.
Estimated portrait of N. D. Ofrosimova by F. S. Rokotov. (wikimedia.org)
Lisa Bolkonskaya
Tolstoy wrote the appearance of Lisa Bolkonskaya from Louise Ivanovna Truson, the wife of his second cousin. This is evidenced by Sophia's signature on the back of her portrait in Yasnaya Polyana.
