‘Here is the greatest novel ever written’—so major novelists of the past two centuries, from Ivan Turgenev to Virginia Woolf, hailed Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece, War and Peace. Yet Tolstoy himself saw it differently. ‘It is not a novel,’ he wrote, ‘even less is it an epic poem, and still less an historical chronicle.’1 In an assertive claim for the primacy of artistic form, the author insisted that ‘War and Peace is what the author wished and was able to express in the form in which it is expressed’.2 Tolstoy began his project with great joy and fear, and only discovered the courage of artistic freedom as part of his writing process. While preparing drafts of a novel about the Decembrist uprising against Tsar Nicholas I in 1825, Tolstoy ‘became absorbed in reading the history of Napoleon and Alexander’. As he described it: ‘In a cloud of joy and awareness of the possibility of doing great work, the idea caught me up of writing a psychological history of Alexander and Napoleon. All the meanness, all the phrases, all the madness, all the contradictions of the people around them and in themselves . . . I must write my novel and work for this.’
wa r a nd p eac e This page intentionally left blank LEO TOLSTOY ��������������������������� WA R A N D PEAC E ��������������������������� Translated with Notes by LOUISE ��� AYLMER MAUDE Revised and Edited with an Introduction by AMY MANDELKER Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Amy Mandelker 2010 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as an Oxford World’s Classics paperback and in hardback 2010 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Data available Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Clays Ltd., St Ives plc ISBN 978–0–19–923276–5 pbk ISBN 978–0–19–958914–2 hbk 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 CONTENTS Introduction vii Note on the Text and Translation xxi Select Bibliography A Chronology of Leo Tolstoy Principal Characters and Guide to Pronunciation Historical Characters in War and Peace xxiii xxv xxvii xxx Dates of Principal Events xxxiii Maps xxxiv WAR AND PEACE BOOK ONE Part One Part Two 119 Part Three 214 BOOK TWO 315 Part One 317 Part Two 371 Part Three 447 Part Four 522 Part Five 574 BOOK THREE 645 Part One 647 Part Two 732 Part Three 881 BOOK FOUR 1003 Part One 1005 Part Two 1062 Part Three 1109 Part Four 1157 vi Contents EPILOGUE 1213 Part One 1215 Part Two 1270 Appendix: ‘Some Words about War and Peace’ 1309 Explanatory Notes 1319 Introduction Readers unfamiliar with the plot may prefer to treat the Introduction as an Afterword ‘Here is the greatest novel ever written’—so major novelists of the past two centuries, from Ivan Turgenev to Virginia Woolf, hailed Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece, War and Peace Yet Tolstoy himself saw it differently ‘It is not a novel,’ he wrote, ‘even less is it an epic poem, and still less an historical chronicle.’1 In an assertive claim for the primacy of artistic form, the author insisted that ‘War and Peace is what the author wished and was able to express in the form in which it is expressed’.2 Tolstoy began his project with great joy and fear, and only discovered the courage of artistic freedom as part of his writing process While preparing drafts of a novel about the Decembrist uprising against Tsar Nicholas I in 1825, Tolstoy ‘became absorbed in reading the history of Napoleon and Alexander’ As he described it: ‘In a cloud of joy and awareness of the possibility of doing great work, the idea caught me up of writing a psychological history of Alexander and Napoleon All the meanness, all the phrases, all the madness, all the contradictions of the people around them and in themselves I must write my novel and work for this.’3 His wife, who served as his secretary, famously transcribed his almost illegible drafts into fair copies, seven times over Yet she describes her task and Tolstoy’s creative energy with rapture: ‘I spend my whole time copying out Lyova’s novel This is a great delight to me As I copy, I live through a whole world of new ideas and impressions Nothing has such an effect upon me as his ideas and his genius.’ And she leaves us this image of Tolstoy at work: ‘All this winter, L has kept on writing, wrought up, the tears starting to his eyes and his heart swelling I believe his novel is going to be wonderful.’ Tolstoy felt himself to be ‘never more fit for his work’ than he was at this time of his life: in his thirties, recently married and settled on his estate, the father of four children (by the time the book was finished), and a literary figure of some success, although by no means the titanic presence he was to become in the eyes of his countrymen and ultimately the world 1 ‘Some Words about War and Peace’, first published in Russian Archive, 1868 See Appendix, p 1309 2 Ibid 3 Diary entry, 19 March 1865 viii Introduction The task of writing an account of ‘The Year 1812’, as one early draft was titled, quickly assumed inhuman proportions and challenged the young author’s talent beyond his available skills: ‘I wanted to capture everything I knew and felt about that time and yet, I felt either that it was impossible to express everything, or it seemed to me that the simple, banal, literary devices common to novels were inconsistent with the majestic, deep and many-sided content [so that] I threw away what I had begun to write and despaired ’ In tackling a historical and military subject, Tolstoy was armed with the confidence of his early successes in writing about war He began his literary career with the early story ‘The Raid’ (1852), which was written while serving in his brother’s regiment in the Caucasus, that land of mountainous landscapes made romantic in the writings of Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov His Sevastopol sketches were composed during his military service at the siege of Sevastopol (1854) These stories, together with his early novels, Childhood (1852) and The Cossacks (1864), were published to immediate critical acclaim We can already glimpse the future author of War and Peace in the first paragraph of ‘The Raid’, where he writes that he is ‘more interested to know in what way and under the influence of what feeling one soldier kills another than to know how the armies were arranged at Austerlitz and Borodino’ The patriotism and excitement of his Sevastopol sketches secured his status as one of Russia’s major authors But despite the encouragement of these early successes, Tolstoy was still a fledgling in comparison to established authors like Ivan Turgenev or Fyodor Dostoevsky In 1863, when Tolstoy began work on the early drafts of War and Peace, Turgenev was already regarded in Europe as Russia’s greatest living author A Sportsman’s Sketches, a work credited with inspiring public sentiment in favour of the abolition of serfdom, was published in 1852, and his masterpiece, Fathers and Sons, appeared ten years later Dostoevsky had burst upon the literary scene with his epistolary novel Poor Folk in 1845, followed by a series of novels culmin ating in his Notes from the House of the Dead (1862), which drew upon his experiences as a prisoner in Siberia and deeply impressed the young Tolstoy, who held the work in the highest regard until the end of his life The first instalments of War and Peace, then titled The Year 1805, would appear side by side with the opening chapters of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1866) in the same issue of The Russian Messenger This was one of several ‘thick’ journals, so called because of their substantive content In the climate of heavy censorship in Russian letters, political 4 First draft of the Introduction to War and Peace Introduction ix ideas and pointed critiques of the government had to be expressed cautiously, and literary fiction was one way of doing this The risk was by no means insignificant, as evidenced in the case of Dostoevsky, who, for his participation in a political group, was arrested, lined up to be shot by a firing squad, forgiven, and exiled to Siberia for a lengthy decade of imprisonment Russian literature of the nineteenth century became a means of speaking to what were termed the ‘accursed questions’ of the reform period of Russian history: the liberation of the serfs, the education and social status of women, and so on To win a place in such company it was not enough to write well; it was essential to have something of urgent importance to say Tolstoy was also writing within a European tradition in which the Napoleonic war had already acquired mythopoetic grandeur in such vast and imposing works as Stendhal’s The Charterhouse of Parma (1839), William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (1848), and Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (1862) By Tolstoy’s own account, the anxiety of influence and the pressure of literary precedent and convention was unendurable: ‘time and my strength were flowing away with every hour, and I knew that nobody would ever tell what I had to tell Above all, traditions both of form and content oppressed me I was afraid to write in a language different from that in which everybody writes I was afraid that my writing would fall into no existing genre, neither novel, nor tale, nor epic, nor history ’5 The key to artistic freedom was to reject any formal or stylistic requirements of literary genres, which Tolstoy happily found could be accomplished through an appeal to his own native Russian literary tradition, noted for its experimental character and flouting of literary convention ‘We Russians don’t know how to write novels in the European sense of the word,’ he announced, proudly and provocatively: The history of Russian literature since the time of Pushkin not merely affords many examples of such deviation from European forms, but does not offer a single example of the contrary From Gogol’s Dead Souls to Dostoevsky’s House of the Dead, in the recent period of Russian literature there is not a single artistic prose work rising at all above mediocrity, which quite fits into the form of a novel, epic, or story.7 Experimenting with genre was a signature of the Russian literary tradition from its inception Pushkin’s long narrative masterpiece Eugene Onegin (1825–32) was famously subtitled a ‘Novel in Verse’ (roman v 5 ‘Second Draft for an Introduction to War and Peace’, G Gibian, trans 6 Ibid 7 ‘Some Words’, see Appendix, p 1309 1336 Notes to Pages 667–679 at Borodino and defeated Murat at Tarutino, but had to retire from the service after quarrelling with Kutuzov After Kutuzov’s death he again obtained a command, and led one of the columns which decided the victory at Leipzig (1813), for which service he was made a count See the earlier note to p on Wintzingerode 667 Pfuel: Baron Carl Ludwig August Pfuel (1751–1826), a Prussian general who entered Russian service after the battle of Jena (1806) and formulated the first Russian plan for the campaign of 1812 You are cut in two: the Russian forces were in fact separated Bagration’s and Barclay’s armies only succeeded in uniting with great difficulty and after falling back as far as Smolensk 668 Bernadotte: Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (1764–1844) was a lawyer’s son, born at Pau He entered the French army as a private, rising to become a marshal, and in 1810 was elected heir to the throne of the Swedes After Napoleon had seized Swedish Pomerania he fought against him In 1818 he became Charles XIV, King of Sweden, and founded a dynasty 670 Bessières, Caulaincourt, and Berthier: Jean-Baptiste Bessières (1768–1813) was a Marshal of France He served under Napoleon from the time of the Italian campaign of 1796, and was made Duke of Istria in 1799 He and his Guard routed the famous charge of the Russian Chevalier Guards at Austerlitz (mentioned in Tolstoy’s description of that battle) He took an active part in the Peninsular War, and in 1812 commanded the Guard cavalry at Borodino and during the retreat from Moscow In 1813 he was appointed to the command of Napoleon’s entire cavalry, but was killed three days after the campaign began See the earlier notes to p 469 on Caulaincourt, and to p 653 on Berthier recent defeats of the French in Spain: in the previous year (1811) Wellington won the battles of Fuentes de Oñoro, Beresford, and Albuera; the Spanish defeated the French at Ximena, and in 1812 both Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz were captured from the French 671 the road through Poltawa: the reference is to the invasion of Russia a hundred years previously (1709) by Charles XII of Sweden Peter the Great defeated the Swedes so thoroughly at Poltava that Charles himself and his ally, the Cossack hetman Mazeppa, barely succeeded in escaping to Turkey 679 Tsarevich Constantine Pavlovich: the correct title in Russian for the heirapparent is Tsesarevich (the shorter form Tsarevich applying to any son of the Tsar) The incorrect use of Tsarevich for the heir-apparent has become so common in English that it is followed here Paulucci: Marquis F O Paulucci passed in 1809 from French to Russian service In 1812 he was for a time head of the staff of the first army, but owing to disagreements with Barclay de Tolly was transferred to the post of Governor-General of Livonia and Courland Wolzogen: Baron Ludwig Julius Wolzogen (1771–1845), a Prussian Notes to Pages 681–795 1337 general who was from 1807 to 1815 on the Russian General Staff In 1812 he served with Barclay de Tolly and subsequently with Kutuzov His Memoirs were published in 1851, and were among the historical mater ials at Tolstoy’s disposal when writing War and Peace He is mentioned in Chapter 11 below, acting as spokesman for Pfuel at the military council Later on, in a letter to Arakcheev, Bagration refers to him as traitorous 681 as he did in Finland: in 1809 Barclay de Tolly, commanding the army in the Finnish war, effected a daring two days’ march on the ice across the Gulf of Bothnia, surprised and seized Umea, and secured peace with Sweden 684 Toll: Karl Fyodorovich von Toll (1778–1842), a Russian general of German origin, was made a count in gratitude for his service He was a quartermaster-general of the main army in the war of 1812 711 skufya: a type of biretta worn in the Russian Orthodox Church by married priests to distinguish them from the celibate clergy [AM] 723 the Tsar-cannon: the Tsar-cannon (Tsar-pushka), a very large cannon which was too large to fire, was cast in 1488 It is preserved as a curiosity in the Moscow Kremlin along with the Tsar-bell, a massive bell which was too enormous to hang and therefore was never rung [AM] 729 the editor of the ‘Russian Messenger’: S N Glinka (1776–1864), a prolific and patriotic writer, founded the Russian Messenger in 1808 to counteract French cultural influences In 1812 he was resident and active in Moscow 731 otkupshchik: a merchant who possessed a special licence for the sale of liquor PART TWO 758 Rumyantsev: Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev (1754–1826) had been Minister of Foreign Affairs since 1807, and in 1809 became Chancellor The famous Rumyantsev Museum in Moscow was formed from collections presented by him 760 Joconde: one of the Contes, racy fables in verse by the French fabulist and poet Jean de la Fontaine (1621–95) 789 Dron Zakharych: the use of Dron’s patronymic, Zakharych, indicates that the peasants wished to be as formal and ceremonious as possible 791 his sister to refuse my brother: canon law prohibited marriage between brothers and sisters-in-law, so that if Natasha had married Prince Andrei, it would have prevented Nikolai from marrying Marya 792 reviewing the troops for the first time: after abandoning Smolensk, the Russian army continued to retreat, passing Vyazma on 17 August and stopping at the village of Tsarevo-Zaymishche near Gzhatsk, with intent to give battle It was here that Kutuzov reached the army, having been appointed commander-in-chief He left Petersburg on 11 August and reached Gzhatsk on the seventeenth 795 between Smolensk and Vyazma: the soldier-poet Denis Davydov proposed 1338 Notes to Pages 801–828 guerilla warfare to cut Napoleon’s lines of communication Kutuzov consented to his making the attempt with a party of 130 Cossacks and hussars, but in the historical event Davydov had to wait until after the battle of Borodino to begin his operations 801 Vasili Lvovich Pushkin’s bouts-rimés: V L Pushkin (1779–1830) was an uncle of the great poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, and the author of lyric and didactic verses See the note to p 589 on bouts-rimés 803 Madame da Souza: see the note to p 372 806 the great balloon Leppich was constructing: this refers to an early and very unsuccessful attempt to utilize an air-force in warfare A German, Leppich, was the designer, but his balloon was not ready until November, when the French were in retreat The balloon would not rise due to leakage of gas Lobnoe Place: the place of execution in Moscow, formerly situated on Red Square facing the Kremlin, had been relocated by 1812 The name lobnoe mesto literally means ‘forehead place’; it consisted of a smooth stone on which the forehead of the miscreant would be positioned prior to decapitation [AM] 818 Iberian Mother of God: the reference is to an icon of Mary, the Mother of God Russian history contains many instances of wonder-working icons of the Theotokos (Mother of God) securing victories for the Russian side The Smolensk Mother of God is one of the most famous of the wonder-working icons, said to have aided in the defeat of the Mongols in 1238 and of the retaking of Smolensk from the Lithuanians in 1414 To commemorate the latter event, the Novodevichii (New Convent of the Virgin) Monastery was built in Moscow and a copy of the Smolensk Mother of God icon was displayed there, the original having been returned to Smolensk It was actually a second copy of the original icon which was carried into the camps before the battle of Borodino and later credited with the Russian victory As a result, the icon is one of the most venerated in the Russian Orthodox Church and has its own feast day, 28 July, commemorating the return of Smolensk to Russia The icon known as the Iberian Mother of God, also a wonder-working icon with its own chapel in Moscow, is mentioned later by Rastopchin [AM] 822 those verses of Marin’s: S N Marin was an aide-de-camp of Alexander I’s, well known for his parodies and amusing verses G V Gerakov was a captain in the army, a teacher in the military school, and the author of numerous patriotic works of very poor quality Marin’s verse about him was in the form of prophecy: ‘You will always go on writing | And to death your readers bore: | Lectures for the corps inditing— | Be a captain evermore.’ 823 flèches: a kind of entrenchment [LNT] 828 his Serenity has been appointed: this is an untranslatable play on words Kutuzov was addressed as ‘Serenity’, svetleyshi, the first syllable of which in Russian means light Notes to Pages 830–887 1339 so he would get it all: the enemy was always ‘he’ to the Russians 830 Clausewitz: Karl von Clausewitz (1780–1831), a Prussian general and celebrated writer on the theory and history of war In 1812, like many other Prussian officers, he entered the Russian service although Prussia was officially in alliance with Napoleon He first served as adjutant to Pfuel His greatest work is Vom Kriege (‘On War’), an exposition of the philosophy of war In his volumes on military history he treats of the war of 1812 as well as of Napoleon’s other campaigns 835 The result of that battle had been deplorable: Marshal Marmont was roundly defeated by the combined forces of the English, Portuguese, and Spanish on 10 July 1812, NS [AM] 839 The viceroy will occupy the village: the viceroy or vice-king referred to is Murat, whom Napoleon had made King of Naples 6th September 1812: the date of this French proclamation is New Style, corresponding to 25 August, Old Style 844 Corvisart: Baron J N Corvisart des Marets (1755–1821), a famous French doctor, Napoleon’s private physician 860 Belliard: A D Belliard (1769–1832) was a French general who distinguished himself in the wars of the Republic and the Empire 862 Lodi . Wagram: these were some of Napoleon’s most remarkable victor ies Lodi and Marengo are northern Italian locations where Napoleon defeated the Austrians in 1800 Arcole is a village near Verona, where Napoleon won a victory in 1796 despite being outnumbered by the Austrians At Jena in 1806 Napoleon heavily defeated the Prussians and Saxons Wagram is a village near Vienna, where the decisive victory over the Austrians in 1809 won the war 864 A huit cent lieues: the French lieue, or league, is about two-and-a-half miles, so Napoleon calculates that he is 2,000 miles’ march from home 865 The Duke of Würtemberg: Duke Alexander Frederick of Würtemberg (1771–1833), brother of the Empress Marie Fyodorovna, wife of the Emperor Paul, entered the Russian service in 1800 Murat had been taken prisoner: this report turned out to be false It was General Bonami who had been captured Seeing a Russian grenadier’s bayonet at his breast, he cried out, ‘I am the King!’ and was taken alive to Kutuzov The false rumour was spread by a major who spoke in a thick voice and rode along the line indistinctly shouting the news of the capture 877 de la 32-e division militaire: the Thirty-second Military Division was Marshal Davout’s division, mainly recruited from the Hamburg–Bremen region PART THREE 887 the siege of Saragossa: the Spaniards defended the hastily entrenched city of Saragossa successfully for two months from June to August 1808, and again for another month when the siege was renewed in December 1340 Notes to Pages 891–897 Even after the French entered the town, they had to storm it house by house, and the desperate resistance continued for another month before the city capitulated 891 battle of Friedland: Napoleon defeated the Russians and Prussians under Bennigsen at the battle of Friedland in East Prussia in 1807 Both armies suffered heavy losses and Prussia was dismembered 894 to fight the French: Rastopchin’s broadcast proclamation ran: ‘Arm yourselves with what you can, horse and foot; take bread only for three days; go with a cross and take banners from the churches and under that sign assemble at the Three Hills I shall be with you, and together we will annihilate the malefactor.’ now wrote French verse in albums: ‘Je suis né tartare | Je voulus ờtre romain | Les franỗais mappelốrent barbare | Les russes—George Dandin.’ (‘I was born a Tartar | I wanted to be a Roman | The French called me a Barbarian | The Russians—George Dandin’) See note to p 390 on George Dandin 896 un Jesuit robe courte: a lay member of the Society of Jesus The Pope suppressed the Society of Jesus in 1773, and for some years it was allowed to operate only in Russia and Prussia Catherine the Great became its active protector, and Pius VII sanctioned the reconstruction of the Order in Russia in 1801 It was eventually expelled from Petersburg and Moscow in 1813, and from Russia altogether in 1820 In France in the time of Louis XIV and XV un Jésuite robe courte was a term applied to lay members of the Jesuit order, [that is, those who took only limited vows of the order appropriate to their continued work and activity in secular life, AM] a box containing the Sacred Host: leaving a box of consecrated hosts for an individual to take at their convenience is not, and never was, a typ ical practice for any order of the Roman Catholic Church Until the last three decades of the twentieth century communion wafers could be handled only by a priest, and would be placed on the tongue of the communicant only during Mass or the last rites There was, however, a practice of reserving hosts in a tabernacle in the private chapels of the wealthy families of Europe for purposes of veneration and private Masses [AM] 897 Péché veniel or péché mortel?: the distinction is that ‘mortal’ sin constitutes a serious violation of moral law if committed with full consent, while ‘venial’ sins are usually minor and not need to be confessed or absolved The Jesuit spiritual director in Tolstoy’s satirical account is more interested in theological hair-splitting or in impressing his new convert than in correct catechesis, and departs rather significantly from doctrine in his account of her marital predicament Sacrilege (entering on marriage without correct intention), divorce, and remarriage would necessarily be considered mortal sins (and hardly venial, as the Jesuit suggests) Furthermore, Hélène’s sin—of separation from her husband— could not be forgiven through remarriage with the intent of having children Catholic doctrine holds that sins may only be remitted through Notes to Pages 913–1005 1341 the sacrament of confession, and absolution is only administered if the penitent demonstrates genuine contrition and the intention to amend their life Finally, unlike the Russian Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church does not grant divorces under any circumstances The most Hélène could hope for would be an annulment, which would be a declaration that her previous marriage was invalid She apparently learns this fact, as later she tells her mother she will obtain a papal dispensation to dissolve her marriage to Pierre [AM] 913 Augustin: A V Vinogradsky (1766–1818), who took the monastic name of Augustin, was a celebrated preacher and the Archbishop of Moscow 936 I will make generations of boyars: in ancient and medieval Russia the boyars were the chief assistants of the Tsars The class and title were abolished by Peter the Great, and the last of the boyars died in 1750 Napoleon does not seem to realize this 939 burns it clean: Russian beehives were usually made of hollowed-out tree trunks, which were cleansed by charring 944 a white twenty-five ruble assignat: a silver ruble was worth three paper rubles 966 the student had been shot: while Napoleon was reviewing his guard in front of the palace of Schönbrunn, 12 October 1809, a young man, Friedrich Staps, under pretext of presenting a petition, drew a dagger and attempted to kill him He was seized, imprisoned, and executed the next day 971 decoré pour l’affaire du Septembre 7: the French refer to the battle of Borodino as ‘la Moskowa’, and the date is given as September, NS 972 la Moskowa: see the previous note 974 c’est Talma la Sorbonne, les boulevards: Captain Ramballe, in enumerating the attractions of Paris, indiscriminately mentions the famous tragedian Talma (a favourite of Napoleon), the actress Duchénois, the comedian Potier, the Sorbonne (the University of Paris), and the boulevards 982 which was making for Troitsa: Troitsa, where the famous Sergeevo-Troitsky Monastery is situated, lies 44 miles north-east of Moscow 987 the noisome smell of mortifying flesh: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860– 1904), Russian writer and doctor, observed that he would have been able to cure Prince Andrei thanks to advances in medical science in the course of the century BO OK FOUR PART ONE 1005 the two Empresses: the Dowager Empress Marya Fyodorovna, widow of Paul, and the Empress Elizabeth Alexeevna, wife of Alexander I, a princess of Baden 1342 Notes to Pages 1007–1045 1007 Austrian banners captured from the French by Wittgenstein: the banners were taken at Klystitsy in a successful action on 18 and 19 June against a French corps under Oudinot The dispatch (with its scriptural phrase from Peter 2: 15) alludes to the recent alliance of Russia with Austria, whose troops were now fighting on Napoleon’s side 1008 Tatarinova: Tolstoy, as rarely happens, here makes a mistake in the dates Kutuzov sent his report from Tatarinova on 25 August, after the 24 August action at the Shevardino He could not have known of the death of Bagration, Tuchkov, and Kutaysov, who fell on the twenty-sixth, nor could news of the battle of Borodino possibly reach Petersburg on the morning of the twenty-seventh Tolstoy also confuses Alexander’s birthday (12 December) with his name-day, 30 August This slip would be corrected if Anna Pavlovna’s soirée was to take place on 29 August, for Kutuzov’s report was actually received on the thirtieth during a church service held in honour of the Tsar’s name-day 1010 news of the surrender of Moscow to the French: as mentioned in the previous note, Kutuzov’s report was received on 30 August Rastopchin’s letter, quoted in the text, refers to a letter received from Kutuzov on the night of 1–2 September; it could hardly have reached Petersburg before September 1015 Matryoshka-markitantshe: literally, Matryoshka-the-Cantinière The cantinière was a licensed camp-follower, usually a woman of the lower classes, who travelled with the troops selling wine or brandy and provisions of various kinds The cantinière, also known as a vivandière, was a particular feature of the French army, each regiment possessing its own The life of the vivandière was romanticized in the 1844 ballet of that name One of the eyewitness accounts Tolstoy read of the Napoleonic wars was written by a woman who accompanied a regiment as a soldier: Nadezhda Durova, Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars (also published as The Cavalry Maid: Memoirs of a Woman Soldier of 1812), whose account of the war of 1812 was published by Pushkin She was decorated with the Cross of St George and received special recognition and support from Alexander I [AM] 1025 The dreadful news . reached Voronezh in the middle of September: that news of the battle fought on 26 August only reached Voronezh (about 175 miles south of Moscow) nearly three weeks later indicates how slow communication was at that time in Russia He stood: at a Russian Orthodox church service the congregation stands or kneels, and does not sit 1030 turn for aid to God and His Saint: the saint referred to was Saint Sergius, who had founded the monastery 1045 Frola and Lavra: Florus and Laurus, brothers who were martyred under Diocletian, are numbered among the saints of the Russian Orthodox Church, and are accounted the patron saints of horses by the peasants, who mispronounce their names (The result is humorous, as the name Frola evokes the picaresque folk hero Frol Skobeev, and ‘lavra’ in Russian Notes to Pages 1046–1079 1343 means market I retain the Russian form of St Nicholas’s name here to convey the quaint, folk-Russian quality of Karataev’s language [AM]) 1046 a shirt outside the breeches: Russian peasants wore their shirts over their pants and belted, whereas a soldier’s shirt is tucked inside 047 his peasant existence: the Russian word for peasant is krest’yanin and originally meant ‘one who has been christened’ A Christian is khristianin—in Karataev’s pronunciation the distinction is lost PART TWO 1063 If Murat had not lost sight of the Russians: leaving Moscow by the Ryazan highway, Kutuzov followed it only till he reached the river Moskva (on September, OS) He then turned to the right and, following the banks of the Pakhra river, came out on the Tula high-road at Podolsk (5–6 September), crossed the river, and continued in the same westerly direction to the village of Krasnaya Pakhra which is on the old Kaluga highroad (7 September) He intended to give battle, but decided to withdraw farther along the Kaluga road and chose a strong position on the river Nara at Tarutino, where the first engagement with Murat occurred on October the retreat from Fili: Murat, following the Russian army from Moscow, was misled Kutuzov, when he turned off to the right, let two regiments of Cossacks continue the retreat along the Ryazan road, and Murat followed them as far as the town of Bronnitz, believing himself to be following the whole Russian army On discovering his error he had to set to work to find out where Kutuzov was It was not until 14 September that Napoleon, in Moscow, learned where the Russian army had gone the council at Fili: Fili was the last village reached by the Russian army in its retreat from Moscow, and was where Kutuzov’s council of war took place 1064 cannot be crossed early in winter: because the river is then covered with thin ice 1070 torban: a rarely encountered Ukrainian stringed instrument resembling a large lute, but with the addition of many sympathetic strings Because it was complicated and expensive to manufacture, it was not widely played as a folk instrument It was known to have been played by Mazeppa and Count Razumovsky [AM] 1073 gold pieces: the gold piece in question was the chervonets, which equalled three rubles 1079 Captain Yakovlev: Yakovlev, an ex-captain of the Guards, was the father of (the illegitimate) Alexander Herzen, the radical Russian author and political philosopher Yakovlev was a wealthy Moscow gentleman who found himself burnt out, stranded, and destitute in Moscow when the French invaded Herzen was only a few months old when Napoleon entered Moscow, but we read in his Memoirs that his father, thanks to a knowledge of Italian, attracted the interest of an Italian officer who 1344 Notes to Pages 1082–1115 gave him and his family something to eat The Italian officer mentioned Yakovlev to General Mortier, a former acquaintance, who reported his condition to Napoleon Napoleon ‘ordered him to be presented the next day And so my father . presented himself, at the Emperor’s summons, in the throne room of the Kremlin, wearing an old blue shooting jacket with brass buttons, no wig, boots which not been cleaned for several days, grimy linen, and a beard of two days’ growth . My father asked for a safe conduct to leave Moscow ‘ “I have ordered that no passes be given Why you want to go? What are you afraid of? I have ordered the markets to be opened.” ‘Apparently the Emperor did not realize that, though open markets are a convenience, so is a closed house, and that to live in the open street amid French soldiers was not an attractive prospect for a Russian gentleman and his family ‘When my father pointed this out, Napoleon thought for a little and then asked abruptly: ‘ “Will you undertake to hand to the Tsar a letter from me? On that condition I will order a pass to be made out for you and all your family.” . . .’ When Yakovlev reached Petersburg he was ‘taken straight to Arak cheev’s house and detained there’ (After Speransky’s dismissal Arakcheev had succeeded him as Alexander’s chief minister.) ‘Arakcheev took the letter to give to the Tsar For about a month my father was under arrest in Arakcheev’s house; no friend might see him and his only visitor was S Shishkov, whom the Tsar sent to ask details about the burning of Moscow, the entry of the French, and the interview with Napoleon.’ 1082 M Fain: Baron Agathon Jean Franỗois Fain (17781837) was Napoleons private secretary and the author of a Manuscript about the Year 1812 1103 Medyn and Yukhnov: Medyn and Yukhnov lie to the north-west of Kaluga, on a road running well to the south of the Mozhaisk–Smolensk road by which Napoleon eventually retreated westward 1104 Madame de Staël: Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, author of sentimental literature and the leading hostess of Europe’s finest salons, was a bitter enemy of Napoleon His admiration for her was expressed in the comment, ‘she teaches people to think who never thought before, or had forgotten how’ Madame de Staël’s vocal opposition to Napoleon was called her ‘duel’ by her admirers; the result of her outspokenness was exile to Switzerland and Germany [AM] In 1812 she visited Petersburg, where she was well received by Alexander I When Kutuzov was appointed commander-in-chief she was one of the first to offer him warm congratulations and to predict that he would be victorious PART THREE 1115 I have gwown moustaches myself: equivalent to ‘I was not born yesterday’ command of the Polish general: this incident is recorded in Davydov’s Diary of Guerilla Operations Notes to Pages 1116–1183 1345 1116 Esaul Lovaysky: after Davydov’s first successes, Kutuzov gave him two Cossack regiments to strengthen his force Lovaysky is a familiar form of the well-known Don family name Ilovaysky An ‘esaul’ is a captain of Cossacks 1120 plastun: an unmounted sharpshooter among the Black Sea Cossacks The plastuns were special detachments of Black Sea Cossacks in the wars with the Caucasian hill tribes Their speciality was to track down the enemy among the forests of the Kuban In the present case Denisov uses the word to indicate a man with the skills of the plastuns 1142 Pierre had long been familiar with that story: the tale Karataev tells was a particular favourite of Tolstoy’s He wrote it out much more fully under the title ‘God Sees the Truth but Waits’ (the full Russian title is ‘God Sees the Truth but Speaks Not Soon’) In What is Art? Tolstoy refers to it as one of the two stories he wrote which would meet his high artistic standards 1153 defeated at Krasnoe and the Beryozina: on 15–18 November, OS, Napoleon found himself unable to break out of the Russian encirclement in order to cross the river; significant numbers of men were lost in this effort [AM] 1154 Joseph de Maistre: (1754–1821), author and Sardinian ambassador at Petersburg from 1803 to 1817, noted for his works On the Pope (1819) and The Soirées of St Petersburg (1821) (which Tolstoy consulted while writing War and Peace), and for his passionate defence of ‘throne and altar’ conservativism His energetic writing style and forceful, ardently held royalist beliefs made him a compelling counter-cultural figure in the aftermath of the French Revolution In his study of War and Peace, The Hedgehog and the Fox, Sir Isaiah Berlin discusses de Maistre’s view of the action of divine Providence in human events as a major influence on Tolstoy’s own emergent philosophy of history In a separate essay, Berlin discusses De Maistre as a forerunner of modern fascism, while other historians have lambasted him as ‘a dark figure out of the Middle Ages’ Some commentators suggest that the ‘man of merit’ in Anna Scherer’s salon is based on De Maistre [AM] PART FOUR 1167 had been bribed by him: Wilson’s Diary [LNT] Sir Robert Thomas Wilson (1774–1849), after helping to train the Portuguese army in the Peninsula, was British military commissioner at the Russian headquarters in 1812–14 His Private Diary was published posthumously in 1861 Kutuzov was a cunning court liar: History of the Year 1812: The character of Kutuzov and reflections on the unsatisfactory results of the battles at Krasnoe, by Bogdanovich [LNT] 1168 forty centuries looking down from the Pyramids: the reference is to Napoleon’s famous address to his army in Egypt before the battle at the foot of the Pyramids 1183 Constantine Pavlovich: Constantine (1779–1831) was Alexander I’s brother 1346 Notes to Pages 1184–1216 He has already been mentioned by Berg He was to some extent respons ible for the disaster at Austerlitz Constantine later renounced his throne after marrying a Polish lady The hesitation and confusion caused by the fact that this was not made public delayed the accession of Nicholas I to the throne and provided the opportunity for the Decembrist revolt of 1825 with which Nicholas I’s reign inauspiciously began 1184 its peaks to the sides: the cocked hat, called a ‘three-cornered’ hat, had by Alexander’s time become a cocked hat with two peaks It was worn according to circumstances either with the peaks fore and aft or, as on this occasion, turned sideways 1185 The Order of St George of the First Class: the Order of St George was founded by Catherine the Great in 1769 for distinguished exploits in war The First Class—a very high honour, seldom given—is a star and cross attached to a ribbon 1191 a young Italian: an Italian officer, Emilio Poncini, appears in the early drafts of the novel Captain Ramballe is all that is left of Poncini In earlier drafts Poncini visits Pierre in prison in Moscow and tries to help him EPILOGUE PART ONE 1215 Photius, Schelling, Fichte, Chateaubriand: Photius (1792–1838) was head of the Novgorod Monastery In 1820, in the name of reactionaryOrthodox principles and in conjunction with an influential lady, OrlovaChesmenskaya, he instigated a persecution of ‘Masons and mystics’, the Bible Society, and any other movements he considered tainted with liberalism or out of conformity with the Russian state and the Orthodox Church His movement promptly became a personal struggle against Prince A N Golitsyn, Minister of Education and of Spiritual Affairs and head of the Bible Society As a result, Golitsyn was dismissed in 1824 Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854) was a German idealist philosopher who influenced affairs by his revolutionary love of liberty Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), a German philosopher, created a systematic and rigorous form of transcendental idealism, building on his understanding of the work of Immanuel Kant [AM] Franỗois-Renộ de Chateaubriand (1764–1848) was a French writer and politician, who drifted towards a moderate liberal position after a substantive career of pamphlet-writing against Napoleon [AM] 1216 a constitution to Poland: the Congress of Vienna in 1815 created a ‘Kingdom of Poland’ (containing about three-quarters of Napoleon’s ‘Grand Duchy of Warsaw’) This Polish Kingdom would be forever united with Russia, but would have its own constitution Although ruled ostensibly by the Russian Emperor, the immediate authority would be a deputy, either a Pole or a member of the Russian Imperial family Alexander I and his Notes to Pages 1220–1254 1347 successor Nicholas I each took an oath of fidelity to this constitution, which ended with the Polish insurrection of 1830 the Holy Alliance: this was signed by the Emperors of Russia and Austria and the King of Prussia Shishkov: Alexander Shishkov (1754–1841) has already been mentioned as writing the rescript Alexander issued at the start of Napoleon’s invasion He occupied many positions, from that of Admiral to Secretary to the Emperor and Minister of Education He considered that to teach the peasants to read was ‘more harmful than useful’ disbanding the Semyonov regiment: the Semyonov Guards were disbanded in 1820 for protesting against the cruelty and barbarity of their new German commander, Schwarz, and refusing to obey his orders Alexander I suppressed the outbreak, which was later seen to have been a prelude to the more serious Decembrist revolt of 1825 The officers and men were dispersed among other regiments and were only allowed to regroup as a regiment in 1823 1220 the appointment he seeks in Turkey: in August 1795 Bonaparte applied to a commission of the French government to be sent to Constantinople to reform the Turkish artillery service he is no longer there: Bonaparte sailed for Egypt in 1798 Suvorov led a Russian army into Italy in 1799 and successively defeated Moreau at Cassano, Macdonald on the Trebbia, and Joubert at Novi 1224 Not unto us . but unto Thy Name: by Alexander’s order a medal with these words was struck as a memorial of the defeat of the French in 1812 of my soul and of God: there was a widespread belief in Russia (strengthened by the fact that Alexander I’s sarcophagus was found to be empty when it was opened in 1927) that Alexander did not die at Taganrog in 1825, but retired secretly to Siberia and lived there as a recluse till 1866 The story is told in Tolstoy’s posthumously published sketch ‘Fyodor Kuzmich’ 1235 Laocoön’s head: Laocoön is the Trojan high priest who, along with his sons, is devoured by serpents, as told in Virgil’s Aeneid, Book The Hellenistic marble group depicting their deaths was widely copied, and the representation of Laocoön’s agony serves as the basis for Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s famous treatise on aesthetics In brief, Lessing’s point is that Laocoön’s face, contorted in agony and surrounded by snakes, retains its Hellenic beauty due to the artist’s employment of the golden mean The subject seems an uncomfortable choice of image for a cameo ring; however, prominent jewellers’ and museum collections of antique cameo rings depicting classical scenes indicate that cameos copying the Laocoön head and the group were popular throughout the century [AM] 1254 the Bible Society: a Russian Bible Society was founded by A N Golitsyn in December 1812, and had political influence (see note to p 1215 on 1348 Notes to Pages 1255–1258 Photius) The Society produced the first translations of the Bible into the Russian vernacular [Previously the Bible and liturgical texts were available only in Old Church Slavonic The Finnish Bible Society first began to publish editions of the Bible to which Alexander I contributed 5,000 rubles from his private funds He further designated the same amount to be allocated for the same purpose for five years, beginning in 1812 When Photius secured the dismissal of Golitsyn from his posts as Minister of Education and President of the Bible Society, the Society declined, and was finally suppressed by Nicholas I in 1826 AM] 1255 Gossner and Tatawinova: Johann Gossner (1773–1858) was a Catholic priest and mystic around whom a pietistic group formed in Munich After being compelled to leave Munich he obtained the post of Director of the Bible Society in Petersburg (1820–4), and there wrote his book Geist des Lebens und der Lehre Jesu (‘Spirit of the Life and Teachings of Jesus’), whose publication began the break-up of the Bible Society The book was condemned to be burned and Gossner was expelled from Russia Ekaterina Filippovna Tatarinova (née Buxhöwden, 1783–1856) founded a mystical charismatic sect, the ‘Spiritual Union’, in Petersburg in 1817 In addition to faith-healing and divination, they borrowed the Skoptsy practice of inducing ecstasy and a spirit of prophecy by violent whirling dances The Skoptsy were a sect of castrates who emphasized mortification of the body Due to her influence with Alexander I, Tatarinova managed to maintain her ‘Union’ even after the accession of Nicholas I It did not break up until 1837, when Tatarinova was dispatched under guard to a distant convent 1257 Madame Kwüdener: Baroness Juline Krüdener (1766–1824) was born in Riga She abandoned fashionable society in 1807 and devoted herself to mysticism, convinced that she was destined to bring the world to a new birth She was active in Baden in 1815 and made the acquaintance of Alexander I, on whom she had some influence She came to Russia in 1817 affairs with Prince Fyodor: the aims Pierre mentions for Prince Fyodor’s circle are those of the Decembrist conspiracy By Tolstoy’s own account, War and Peace emerged from plans to write a novel about a Decembrist and his wife returning from Siberia: ‘In 1856 I started writing a tale with a certain direction, the hero of which was to be a Decembrist returning with his family to Russia Without intending to so, I moved from the present time to the year 1825, a period of error and unhappiness for my hero, and I abandoned what I had begun But even in the year 1825 my hero was already a grown-up family man In order to understand him, I had to move once again back to his youth, and his youth coincided with the period of 1812, so glorious for Russia I abandoned for a second time what I had started and began to write about the year 1812.’ (‘Second Draft of the Introduction’) [AM] 1258 Military Settlements: Arakcheev introduced these to make the army appear self-supporting Besides being under military discipline, the Notes to Pages 1259–1284 1349 soldiers were forced to live in settlements and cultivate the land around them 1259 Pugachov: Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachov (1742–75) was the Cossack leader of a great peasant uprising in Catherine the Great’s time After achieving considerable success and capturing several towns, he was executed in 1775 Tugenbund: the Tugendbund (‘League of Virtue’) was a German association founded in 1808 with the acknowledged purpose of cultivating patriotism, reorganizing the army, and encouraging education Its unstated aim was to throw off the French yoke Dissolved on Napoleon’s command in 1809, it continued to exist secretly and exerted great influence in 1812 It was suspected of having revolutionary tendencies and was under suspicion by the Russian government at the time of the Holy Alliance let us have a bunt of our own: Denisov makes a bilingual pun: the German word bund—due to word final de-voicing—is pronounced bunt, which in Russian means an uprising or rebellion [AM] 1261 educational methods: these quotations from Countess Marya’s diary very closely resemble similar notes written by Tolstoy’s mother about her children PART TWO 1271 Gibbon to Buckle: Edward Gibbon’s multi-volume Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1766–89) is considered one of the magisterial works of modern history Thomas Henry Buckle (1821–62) is known primarily for his History of Civilization in England, which, although unfinished, represents a landmark in philosophy of history and theory of historical method [AM] 1274 Lanfrey: Pierre Lanfrey (1828–77) His Histoire de Napoléon Ier began to appear when Tolstoy was finishing War and Peace Gervinus, Schlosser: Dr C G Gervinus (1805–71) was a German historian and Shakespearean commentator with whom Tolstoy disagreed on both counts F C Schlosser (1776–1861) was Professor of History at Heidelberg and author of a nineteen-volume Weltgeschichte (‘World History’) 1280 taken prisoner at Boulogne: Napoleon III, who reigned from 1852 to 1871, made two unsuccessful attempts to seize the throne before he succeeded—first in 1836 at Strasbourg, after which he was deported to America, and again in 1840 at Boulogne, where he was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for life Six years later he escaped to England, where he was living as War and Peace was being written 1284 correspondence with Kurbsky: Prince Andrei Kurbsky was one of Ivan the Terrible’s principal boyars He escaped to Lithuania to make a political protest, and from there wrote harsh letters to Ivan reproaching him for his cruelty, untruthfulness, and despotism Ivan replied with equal 1350 Notes to Pages 1284–1316 harshness, developing a theory of autocratic power and the duty of slavish submission to authority ‘according to the law of God’ 1284 Godfreys: Godfrey of Boulogne was a leader of the First Crusade at the end of the eleventh century Peter the Hermit: an ascetic French monk who, tradition says, inspired the First Crusade Minnesingers: wandering minstrel troubadors, often of knightly rank, who in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries travelled chiefly in Swabia and Austria, singing love lyrics as well as crusading songs 1286 the French go to Mexico: in 1864, aided by French forces, Maximilian secured the throne of Mexico, but after the conclusion of the American Civil War the French had to leave Mexico as the United States would not tolerate European interference on American soil Maximilian was shot by the Mexicans in 1867, when Tolstoy was writing the last part of War and Peace an army enters Bohemia: this refers to the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 1308 miracle of Joshua the son of Nun: a reference to the staying of the sun and moon in their orbits in order to allow the devastation of enemy troops (Joshua 10: 12–13) [AM] APPENDIX 1309 Saltykova: Darya Nikolaevna Saltykova, popularly called ‘Saltychikha’ (1730–1801), was a landed proprietress who owned 600 serfs and in seven years tortured 139 of them to death By bribery and family influence she escaped punishment for a while, but in 1776 a complaint reached Catherine the Great, and after a trial that lasted six years Saltykova was sentenced to death; this sentence, however, was commuted to exposure in the pillory and confinement for life in a convent 1312 how untrue that is: after the description of the battle of Schön Grabern had appeared in the first part of my novel, I was told of Nikolai Nikolaevich Muravyov Karsky’s remark about that description—a remark which confirmed my conviction He, a commander-in-chief, remarked that he had never read a truer account of a battle, and that his own experience had convinced him of the impossibility of a commander-in-chief’s orders being carried out during a battle [LNT] 1313 Mikhailovsky-Danilievsky, Glinka: the chief Russian writers on the campaign of 1812 1316 predetermination: it is noteworthy that almost all those who have written of the campaign of 1812 have seen something special and fateful in the event [LNT]