The original idea was war and peace. The history of the creation of “War and Peace”

Roman L.N.  Tolstoy's War and Peace was not easy to write and required enormous effort from the creator. As noted in 1869 in drafts by L.N.  Tolstoy, “painful and joyful persistence and excitement” accompanied him all seven for long years writing a novel. During the years of work on the work, Tolstoy practically did not keep a diary, making only occasional notes in

notebooks , and was not distracted by other plans - all the energy and strength went into writing the novel “War and Peace.” Back in 1856, Lev Nikolaevich decided to write a grandiose work telling the story of a Decembrist who returns home from exile. In 1861, Tolstoy read to I.S.  Turgenev the first chapters of this work. However, the writer soon moves from a story about the fate of one hero to a story about a whole generation of people who lived during the period of historical events that influenced the worldview of the Decembrists. “In 1856 I began to write a story with well-known destination

In 1867, the first chapters of L.N.’s most important work appeared in print. 

Tolstoy. However, a year later the author subjected them to cruel editing. By that time, the novel did not yet have the title “War and Peace.” Tolstoy refuses the first version of “Three Times,” since then the novel would have opened directly with the events of 1812. The second version of the title of the novel, “One Thousand Eight Hundred and Five,” did not correspond to the intent of the work. In 1866, the third version of “All’s well that ends well” appears, but this title does not satisfy Tolstoy, since it does not reflect the scale of what is depicted in the work and the tragedy of the era. And only in 1867 Tolstoy settled on the title “War and Peace.” The last three years of intense creative and exhausting work on the work (1867-1869) led to the fact that “War and Peace” becomes a historical novel, a large-scale canvas of “pictures of morals built on historical events,” and the original plan about the history of the fate of generations is embodied in an epic novel about the “history of the people.”

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Tolstoy's creative genius was in constant search for the best, the most optimal. There is a legend that the wife of the writer S.A.  Tolstaya rewrote War and Peace seven times. It is reliably known that Tolstoy created 15 versions of the beginning (beginnings) of the work, and the exact number of its editions is difficult to calculate. Thus, in the first completed edition there is still no huge panorama of the Battle of Borodino, and the description of the battle takes only 7 pages. Later, Tolstoy adds to his novel numerous philosophical digressions and a detailed story about the partisan war, introducing the image of Platon Karataev and other characters. Published in December 1869

last volume

epic "War and Peace". In fact, 13 long years have passed since Lev Nikolaevich realized his plan.

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based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy War and Peace Option 1

The history of the novel

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

The idea for War and Peace arose even earlier, when in 1856 Tolstoy began writing a novel about a Decembrist returning from Siberian exile to Russia. At the beginning of 1861, the author reads the first chapters of the new novel “The Decembrists” to I. S. Turgenev.

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

The year of birth of the novel "War and Peace" is considered to be 1863.

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

Contrary to the writer's hopes for imminent birth his literary brainchild, the first chapters of the novel began to appear in print only in 1867. And for the next two years, work on it continued.

They were not yet entitled “War and Peace”; moreover, they were subsequently subjected to cruel editing by the author.

Tolstoy called his plan to capture the half-century history of the country in artistic form “Three Times.” The first time is the beginning of the century, its first decade and a half, the time of the youth of the first Decembrists who went through the Patriotic War of 1812. The second time is the 20s with their main event - the uprising of December 14, 1825. The third time - the 50s, an unfortunate end for the Russian army Crimean War, sudden death Nicholas I, the amnesty of the Decembrists, their return from exile and the time of waiting for changes in the life of Russia.

Tolstoy abandoned the first version of the title of the novel - “Three Times”, since in this case the narrative should have begun with the Patriotic War of 1812. Another option - "One thousand eight hundred and five" - ​​also did not correspond to the author's intention. In 1866, a new title for the novel appeared: “All's well that ends well,” corresponding to the happy ending of the work. However, this option did not reflect the scale of the action in any way, and was also rejected by the author

Finally, at the end of 1867, the final title “War and Peace” appeared. In the manuscript, the word "peace" was written with the letter "i". " Dictionary Great Russian language" V. I. Dalya broadly explains the word "mir": "Mir is the universe; one of the lands of the universe; our land, globe, light; all people, the whole world, the human race; community, society of peasants; gathering." Without a doubt, this is exactly what symbolic understanding Tolstoy had this word in mind when he included it in the title.

The last volume of War and Peace was published in December 1869, thirteen years after the idea of ​​a work about the exiled Decembrist arose.

The second edition of the novel was published with minor copyright edits in 1868 - 1869, virtually simultaneously with the release of the first. In the third edition of War and Peace, published in 1873, the writer made significant changes. Some of his “military, historical and philosophical reflections,” according to the author, were taken outside the novel and included in the “Articles on the Campaign of 1812.” In the same publication, L. N. Tolstoy translated into Russian most French text. On this occasion, he said that “I sometimes felt sorry for the destruction of French.” The need for translation was caused by the bewilderment that arose among readers due to the excessive abundance of French speech. In the next edition of the novel, the previous six volumes were reduced to four.

In 1886, the last, fifth lifetime edition of War and Peace was published, which became a standard. In it, the writer restored the text of the novel according to the edition of 1868-1869, returning historical and philosophical considerations and the French text to it. The final volume of the novel was four volumes.

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

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

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

1. The history of the creation of the novel:

Created by the author over seven years (1863-1869);
the concept of the novel changed several times, as evidenced by the names of the early editions: “Three Times”, “All’s Well, Ends Well”, “1805”;
Initially, the plot was supposed to be based on the life story of the main character (Decembrist), who in 1856, together with his family, returns from exile;
to explain the reason for the hero’s stay in Siberia, the author is forced to turn to the history of 1825;
the hero's youth dates back to 1812, from where Tolstoy intends to begin the novel in a new way;
In order to talk about the victories of the Russian army in the war of 1812, Tolstoy considers it necessary to talk about the tragic pages of history that date back to 1805. “I was ashamed to write about our triumph without describing our failures and our shame.”

Thus, Tolstoy changed the concept of the novel several times and acquired the final version: “So, from 1856, returning to 1805, from now on I intend to take not one, but many heroines and heroes through historical events 1805, 1807, 1812, 1825, 1856." L. N. Tolstoy

Turning to the events of the Patriotic War between Russia and Napoleon in 1812, the writer, contrary to official data, showed that the true hero and defender of the Motherland was not the Tsar and his predecessors, but the Russian people. "I tried to write history of the people», - noted the author. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy considered Lermontov’s poem “Borodino”, glorifying the heroism of Russian soldiers, to be the “grain” of his novel.

On its topic “War and Peace” - historical novel . It conveys the very “smell and sound” of a distant era. Without violating historical truth, the author connects the past with the exciting issues of the present.
Four volumes cover the events of 1805-1814. The epilogue takes the reader to the 20s, when secret societies of future Decembrists were born in Russia.

In the novel there are more 500 characters. Many of them are traced over the course of a decade, appearing in military settings and peaceful domestic circles.

First two volumes talk about the wars with Napoleon, which were fought outside Russia on Austrian lands. The central episodes here are Shengrabensky and Battle of Austerlitz. (1805 – 1807)

In the third and fourth volumes talks about Napoleon's invasion of Moscow and the expulsion of the French from Russia. Of particular importance here is the famous Battle of Borodino (1812) - the “knot”, the culmination of the entire novel, according to Tolstoy, “The Russians fought for their land, this increased their strength tenfold and determined our moral victory.”

Showing decisive role people in historical events of national significance, Tolstoy created a special genre of the novel, a realistic epic grandiose in its scope of life and scale of storytelling.

2. Features of the genre.

“This is not a novel, much less a historical chronicle, “War and Peace” is what the author wanted and could express in the form in which it was expressed.”
L.N. Tolstoy.

In our time, historians and literary scholars have called “War and Peace” as an epic novel.

Epic novel - large, monumental form epic literature, reflecting the process in its universality, the “panoramic” image of events and human destinies.

Character traits:
a work of large volume;
multi-heroic character;
abundance of storylines.

3. The meaning of the novel's title.

History of the creation of the novel.ppt

History of the creation of the novel.ppt

Man, according to Tolstoy, is the world itself. L.N. In the novel, Tolstoy is more interested in the inner world of the characters close to him. Describing them inner life, the author uses his favorite technique “Dialectics of the Soul”. Image inner world of a person is combined with the image of another world, of which its heroes are a part. In the novel we see a whole palette of worlds. This understanding of the world is associated with the image of a ball. The world-ball appears as a closed sphere. It has its own laws, which are not binding in other worlds. One world is often hostile to another.

The idea of ​​peace is one of the main ones in the novel. From the world of the individual to universal unity with people, to unity with nature, with the Universe. And only such a person is truly happy

The idea to create epic work arose long before Leo Tolstoy wrote its first lines. Having started work on the next story in 1956, the author began to form the image of the main character. A courageous gray-haired man returns to Russia, he once had to flee abroad as a member Decembrist uprising 1825. What was this old man like in his youth, what did he have to endure? - the writer asked himself a question. I had to involuntarily plunge into the events of 1812, the history of the creation of the novel “War and Peace” began to develop.

Why did the writer shorten the work?

Tolstoy called the epic “Three Times,” dividing it initially into three parts. It was decided to squeeze in the events of the Patriotic War of 1812 into the first part. The second part, according to the primary plan, was main theme novel. Here the heroes of the Decembrists were displayed, their selfless idea to overthrow was revealed serfdom and the difficult fate of those exiled to hard labor.

The author tentatively called the last part “The Third Time.” The content includes the events of the Crimean War at the final stage, the accession of Alexander II to the throne and the return of the surviving Decembrists from exile. In the third part, the writer was going to focus on the experiences and aspirations of the advanced strata of society. Good changes were expected from the new emperor.

As soon as Tolstoy began working on the beginning of the story, he realized that he had stumbled upon a deep philosophical layer of questions related to the essence of the people and its heroic manifestations at critical, fateful moments. Lev Nikolaevich wanted to reveal in detail the nature of the unity and patriotism of the ordinary masses of people.

The author told friends in letters that he was experiencing the strain of all his creative powers. The work he did did not fit into the usual format of books published by his contemporaries. The storytelling style was different from works of art that time.

How the work progressed

The writer studied in detail the biographical data of historical figures Kutuzov, Alexander I and Napoleon. He himself wrote in the article that he likes to recreate the smallest details of actual situations depicted in the documents found. Over the years of work on the novel, the Tolstoy family formed a full-fledged library of books dedicated to the period of the Patriotic War of 1812.

The idea of ​​the novel was the liberation movement of the Russian people. Therefore, the author did not use orders, letters, documents and books telling about the war as a battle between two emperors. The author used memoirs with an objective assessment of the events of those times. These were the recordings of Zhikharev, Petrovsky, Ermolov. Tolstoy worked with newspapers and magazines published in 1812.

Description of the Battle of Borodino

Among the writer's manuscripts, bibliographers found technical notes that he scribbled while on the Borodino field. Tolstoy pointed out that the horizon can be seen 25 miles away. At the bottom of the note is a drawing of the horizon. On the same sheet, dots are drawn indicating the located villages that the author mentioned in the plot of the novel.

All day long Tolstoy watched exactly how the sun moved around the plain. At what time do the sun's rays play on the hills, how does the shadow fall? How the morning dawn rises, from where the evening glow appears.

For 6 long years, Leo Tolstoy worked on the creation of his brainchild, until 1869. The plot was redrawn and changed many times. The author rewrote the entire novel 8 times, working with pen and ink. The writer reworked some episodes more than 20 times.

Each of us in school years was fascinated by the story of the fate and love of the main characters of the brilliant creation of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy called “War and Peace”. Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov - we have known these names since childhood, because through these characters the author conveyed to us the problems of the nineteenth century and how people struggled with them. Let's trace the history of the creation of "War and Peace" together.

Tolstoy managed to create a work that became popular all over the world, which he created for many years by working hard. Many global events taking place in our country at the beginning of the nineteenth century prompted the writer to express his thoughts in this format. The uprisings of peasants and Decembrists, the abolition of serfdom, the victory in the Patriotic War with Napoleon, all this made it clear and understand how powerful and strong the unification of the entire people can be.

In each individual hero, in the depiction of the entire Russian people and in their character as a whole, which are indicated in the novel, we can catch the well-founded, thoughtful view of the writer and his conclusions that he made by studying the history of his homeland, visiting the places of battles described in his work. Tragic fates, spicy love lines, the experiences of the characters were able to convey the whole atmosphere that took place during that difficult period of time.

The main idea, the main plot line of the novel “War and Peace” briefly.

The work took a long time to be created; it is known that Tolstoy rewrote the first volume of his novel many times, the plot changed, and the main idea also changed. What did the author come to anyway?

"People's Thought". This favorite phrase of the author can characterize the work. He came to this idea based on studying history. What helped us defeat Napoleon in terrible war? It is the unification of all people into a single whole, such a strong wall that is difficult for the enemy to break. But delving into all the events of that time, you can find a lot of interesting things in the fate and character of everyone who went through that war.

Reference. Initially, the idea was to tell about the fate of one brave Decembrist, but during the writing several more storylines were added. The Rostov family, Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov are the main characters, watching whom we delve into the beginning of the 19th century and can feel at least a small part of what they experienced. Using their example, we see that despite military operations and what is happening around us, we must always have faith, love and simply live. Besides personal life heroes exist story line historical events.

The period of work on the novel.

The writer thought about writing a novel long before its publication. Back in 1856, he began work and only in 1861 he decided to read the first chapter to Turgenev. There were many different test titles, different plots. At first it was planned to describe completely different events, but soon Lev Nikolaevich abandoned his manuscripts and later began a completely different narrative, which was later recognized as brilliant and has survived to this day.

For six years Tolstoy worked on his legendary work. This lasted from 1863 to December 1869.

What sources were used to write the novel?

The author studied a huge amount of material, documents and chronicles that dated back to 1812. He was able to collect a large library of books describing the biography of both Alexander the Great and Napoleon. But all these sources only confused him and confused his thoughts. In view of this, Tolstoy began to develop his own opinion and attitude towards everyone historical figures and events. He decided to trust his inner voice and start collecting on his own historical facts, which found their place in the novel.

For his work, he began to use the notes of his contemporaries, collected information in newspaper and magazine articles, and read letters from generals. I personally visited the place where the tragic events took place and lived for a couple of days in Borodino. The trip inspired me to continue my work and gave me a special mood and elation.

Tolstoy's thoughts and experiences during the period of writing

The epic novel is imbued with the thoughts, experiences, feelings and thoughts of the author. Through text, he was able to convey everything that was inside him, his entire worldview on the events of those years. Philosophical thoughts in historical chapters form an integral part of that worldview, which is not in a simple way took shape in him and brought long-awaited peace and happiness.

The underlying idea is that historical moments in people's lives are governed by inexorable laws. Even the desire and will of individual outstanding personalities is not enough; they cannot influence the development of history. A person who sets goals for himself and goes to achieve them, directing all his strength, thinks that he is free in his actions. Not only is he not free, but he also does not always achieve the results he hopes to see. The historical process consists precisely of what it does a large number of people, regardless of their personal goals and aspirations.

Tolstoy knew that in all grandiose historical events, the people's unification was the decisive part. This awareness of the role of the masses in history forms the basis of the story of the historical past that War and Peace gives us. Understanding this made it easier for the author artistic creation image of the same national unity depicting his participation in the war. Describing the war, the writer draws attention to the properties of the Russian people - they do not bend before the most terrible invasion of the enemy, about their will and patriotism, they are ready to die, but will never surrender to the one who attacks them. Tolstoy also shows us more detailed image Kutuzov as a historical figure of that era. It was his image that helped Lev Nikolaevich very deeply and clearly reveal the character that the people had during the Patriotic War of 1812. It shows us the army's trust in its commander and makes him a truly popular historical figure. This deep and very true thought guided the author when he created the image of Kutuzov in “War and Peace.”

In the digressions and chapters where Tolstoy expressed his philosophical thoughts he often repeated that he thought that historical events happen only because they have to happen, and if we try to understand and explain these phenomena, then they immediately become even more incomprehensible.

The role of one person in the whole history is negligible. No matter how brilliant and outstanding person, he will still not be able to control the movement of history at will. History is created by all of humanity, by all the masses, and not by one person who put himself above others and took upon himself the right to control the course of events.

From all this it follows that Tolstoy did not deny the role of man in history and did not reduce it to zero. Anyone who participates in events, is gifted with intelligence and is able to delve into events, grasp the meaning of what is happening, who is close to the people, deserves the right to be called great and brilliant. There are very few of them, one of them is Kutuzov, but Napoleon is his complete opposite.

Conclusion

One of the greatest creations is rightfully called the epic novel “War and Peace.” This is Tolstoy’s most outstanding creation, which managed to occupy a special place in his work, as well as in the development artistic culture all people on earth. This book brought him fame all over the world and gave reason to recognize him as one of the most brilliant realist writers.