History of creation. "War and Peace" - novel-epic LN. Tolstoy

"War and Peace" is a great work. What is the history of the novel-epic? Leo Tolstoy himself often wondered why life happens this way, and not otherwise ... Indeed, why, for what and how was the creative process of creating the greatest work of all time and peoples? After all, his writing took seven long years ...

The history of the creation of the novel "War and Peace": the first evidence of the beginning of work

In September 1863 a letter was sent to Yasnaya Polyana from the father of Sophia Andreevna Tolstoy - A.E. Bersa. He writes that on the eve he and Lev Nikolayevich had a long conversation about the people's war against Napoleon and about that era as a whole - the Count intends to begin writing a novel dedicated to those great and memorable events in the history of Russia. The mention of this letter is not accidental, since it is considered "the first accurate evidence" of the beginning of the work of the great Russian writer on the novel "War and Peace". Another document confirms this, dated the same year a month later: Leo Nikolayevich writes to his relative about his new idea. He was already involved in work on an epic novel about the events of the beginning of the century and until the 1950s. How many moral forces and energy he needs to carry out his plans, he says, and how much he already possesses, he already writes and ponders everything as he "has never written or thought about it."

The first idea

The history of the creation of Tolstoy's novel War and Peace indicates that the writer's initial intention was to create a book about the difficult fate of the Decembrist who returned in 1865 (the time of abolishing serfdom) to his native land after years of exile in Siberia. However, soon Nikolaiovich revised his idea and turned to the historical events of 1825 - the time of the Decembrist uprising. As a result, this idea was rejected: the youth of the main hero was held against the backdrop of the Patriotic War of 1912, a formidable and glorious time for the entire Russian people, which, in turn, was another link in the inextricable chain of events of 1805. Telling Tolstoy decided to start from the very beginning - the beginning of the 19th century - and revitalized the half century of the Russian state with the help of not just one protagonist, but many bright images.

The history of the creation of the novel "War and Peace" or "Three Pores"

Continuing ... Undoubtedly, a vivid idea of the writer's work on the novel is given by his creation story ("War and Peace"). So, the time and place of action of the novel are defined. The author conducts the main actors - the Decembrists, through three historically significant time intervals, hence the original title of the work "Three Pores".

The first part covers the period from the beginning of the 19th century until 1812, when the youth of the heroes coincided with the war between Russia and Napoleonic France. The second is the 1920s, not without the inclusion of the most important thing - the Decembrist uprising in 1825. And, finally, the third and final part - the 50s - the time of the rebels' return from exile under the amnesty granted by the emperor against the backdrop of such tragic pages of Russian history as the inglorious defeat in the Crimean War and the death of Nicholas I.

Well, the novel in its design and scope promised to be global and required a different artistic form, and it was found. According to Lev Nikolaevich himself, "War and Peace" are not historical chronicles, and not a poem, and not just a novel, but a new genre in fiction - a novel-epic, where the fates of many people and the whole people are associated with grandiose historical events .

Tearing

Work on the work was very difficult. The history of the creation ("War and Peace") says that many times Leo Nikolayevich took his first steps and immediately stopped writing. In the writer's archive, there are fifteen versions of the first chapters of the work. What was in the way? What did not give rest to the Russian genius? The desire to fully express their thoughts, their religious and philosophical ideas, their research, their vision of history, give their assessments to those socio-political processes, the huge role of not the emperors, not the leaders, but the whole people in the history of the country. This required a colossal strain of all mental strength. More than once he lost and again got the hope to fulfill what he had planned to the end. Hence the idea of the novel, and the names of the early editions: "Three Pores", "All is Well that ends well," "1805". Apparently they have changed more than once.

Patriotic War of 1812

Thus, the artist's long creative throws ended with a narrowing of the time frame - Tolstoy focused all his attention on 1812, the war of Russia against the "Great Army" of the French Emperor Napoleon, and only in the epilogue touched on the origins of the Decembrist movement.

Smells and sounds of war ... For their transfer, a huge amount of material was required to be studied. This is the literature of the time, and historical documents, memoirs and letters of contemporaries of those events, plans for battles, orders and orders of military commanders ... The writer did not regret time or energy. From the very beginning, he rejected all those historical chronicles that sought to depict war as a battlefield of two emperors, extolling one or the other. The writer did not diminish their merit and their significance, but the people, his spirit, placed the main emphasis.

Apparently, the work has an incredibly interesting story of creation. "War and Peace" boasts another interesting fact. Between the manuscripts one more small, but nevertheless important document - a leaflet with notes of the writer himself, made during his stay in the Borodino field, was preserved . On it, he captured the horizon line, accurately indicating where the villages were located. Here you can see the line of sun movement during the battle itself. All this, you can say, bare sketches, sketches of what was to be turned into a true painting, depicting the great battle of Borodino, full of movement, life, extraordinary colors and sounds, under the pen of genius. It is incomprehensible and surprising, is not it?

The Case and the Genius

L. Tolstoy in the pages of his novel much talked about the laws of history. His conclusions are applicable to life, they contain much, as for the great work, in particular the history of creation. "War and Peace" has gone through many stages to become a real masterpiece.

Science says that to all the fault is the case and genius: the case suggested using artistic means to capture the half century history of Russia, and the genius - Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy - took advantage of it. But from this new questions arise about what is this case, what is such a genius. On the one hand, these are simply words designed to explain what is actually inexplicable, and on the other hand it is impossible to deny their suitability and utility, at least they mean "a certain degree of understanding of things."

From where and how the idea and the history of the novel "War and Peace" appeared, it is impossible to learn to the end, only bare facts are available, therefore we say "case". Further - more: we read the novel and we can not imagine that force, that human spirit, or rather superhuman, who managed to clothe the deepest philosophical thoughts and ideas in an amazing form - therefore we say "genius".

The longer the series of "events" that sweeps before us, the more the genius of the author shines, the closer we seem to be to revealing the secrets of the genius of Tolstoy and some incomprehensible truth contained in the work. But this is an illusion. What to do? Lev Nikolaevich believed in the only possible understanding of the world order - renunciation of knowledge of the ultimate goal. If we recognize that the ultimate goal of creating a novel is inaccessible to us, renounce all the reasons that are visible and invisible, which prompted the writer to take up the writing of the work, we will comprehend, or at least admire and enjoy in full its infinite depth, designed to serve the goals in common, not Always accessible to human understanding. As the writer himself said during his work on the novel, the ultimate goal of the artist is not to resolve the issues uncontradictably, but to lead and encourage the reader to love life in all its innumerable manifestations, so that he wept and laughed along with the main characters.