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Abramov Aitmatov Astafyev Akhmadulina Akhmatova
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Balmont Belov Bitov Blok Brodsky Bulgakov Bunin Bykov
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Vasiliev Voznesensky Vysotsky
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Gogol Homer Goncharov Gorky Griboyedov Goethe
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Derzhavin Dovlatov Dostoevsky
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Yevtushenko Yesenin USE Online
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Zhukovsky
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Zabolotsky Zamyatin Zoshchenko
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Iskander
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Karamzin Kondratyev Kuznetsov Kuprin
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Lermontov Leskov
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Mandelstam Martynov Mayakovsky
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V. Nekrasov N. Nekrasov Nosov
About
Okudzhava Ostrovsky
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Pasternak Platonov Prishvin Pushkin
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Radishchev Rasputin Rubtsov
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Saltykov Shchedrin Solzhenitsyn Soloukhin
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Tarkovsky Tvardovsky Tendryakov A. Tolstoy L. Tolstoy Trifonov Turgenev Tyutchev
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Fadeev Fet Fonvizin
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Tsvetaeva
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Chernyshevsky Chekhov
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Home "Works" Russian literature "Analysis of the epic novel by L. N. Tolstoy" War and Peace"
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Analysis of the epic novel by L. N. Tolstoy " War and Peace"
L. N. Tolstoy argued that " War and Peace "(1863-1869) is not a novel, not a poem, not a historical chronicle.
Referring to the entire experience of Russian prose, he wanted to create and created a literary work of a completely unusual type.
The definition of "War and Peace" as an epic novel has taken root in literary studies.
This is a new genre of prose, which after Tolstoy received wide distribution in Russian and world literature.
Fifteen years of the country's history (1805-1820) will be baked by the writer on the pages of the epic in the following chronological order:
Volume I - 1805
Volume II - 1806-1811.
Volume III - 1812
Volume IV - 1812-1813.
Epilogue - 1820
Tolstoy created hundreds of human characters.
The novel depicts a monumental picture of Russian life, full of events of great historical significance.
Readers will learn about the war with Napoleon, which the Russian army waged in alliance with Austria in 1805, about the battles of Schoengraben and Austerlitz, about the war in alliance with Prussia in 1806 and the Peace of Tilsit.
Tolstoy draws the events of the Patriotic War of 1812: the passage of the French army through the Neman, the retreat of the Russians into the interior of the country, the surrender of Smolensk, the appointment of Kutuzov as commander in chief, the Battle of Borodino, the council in Fili, the abandonment of Moscow.
The writer depicts the events that testified to the invincible power of the national spirit of the Russian people, which destroyed the French invasion: the flank march of Kutuzov, the Battle of Tarutino, the growth of the partisan movement, the collapse of the invading army and the victorious end of the war.
The novel reflects the largest phenomena of the political and public life of the country, various ideological trends (Freemasonry, the legislative activity of Speransky, the birth of the Decembrist movement in the country).
The pictures of great historical events are combined in the novel with everyday scenes drawn with exceptional skill.
These scenes reflect the essential characterization of the social reality of the epoch.
Tolstoy depicts high society receptions, entertainment of secular youth, ceremonial dinners, balls, hunting, Yule amusements of gentlemen and domestic servants.
The pictures of Pierre Bezukhov's anti serf transformations in the countryside, scenes of the revolt of Bogucharovsky peasants, episodes of indignation of Moscow artisans reveal to the reader the nature of the relations between landowners and peasants, the life of the serf village and the urban lower classes.
The action of the epic develops in St. Petersburg, then in Moscow, then in the estates of Bald Mountains and Otradnoye.
The military events described in volume I take place abroad, in Austria.
The events of the Patriotic War (Volumes III and IV) take place in Russia, and the place of action depends on the course of military operations (Drissky camp, Lensk, Borodino, Moscow, Krasnoe, etc.).
"War and Peace" reflects all the diversity of Russian life at the beginning of the XIX century, its historical, social, everyday and psychological features.
The main characters of the novel Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov stand out noticeably among the heroes of Russian literature by their moral originality, intellectual wealth.
According to the nature of their character, they are sharply different, almost polar opposites.
But there is something in common in the ways of their ideological searches.
Like many thinking people in the first years of the XIX century, and not only in Russia, Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky are fascinated by the complex of "Napoleonism".
Bonaparte, who has just proclaimed himself Emperor of France, by inertia retains the aura of a great man who is shaking the foundations of the old feudal monarchical world.
For the Russian state, Napoleon is a potential aggressor.
For the ruling elite of tsarist Russia, he is an audacious plebeian, an upstart, even an "Antichrist", as Anna Pavlovna Scherer calls him.
And the young prince Bolkonsky, like the illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov, has a semi instinctive attraction to Napoleon — an expression of the spirit of opposition towards the society to which they belong by generation.
It will take a long way of searching and testing before both former admirers of Napoleon will feel their unity with their own people, find a place among those fighting on the field of Borodin.
It will take an even longer and more difficult path for Pierre before he becomes a member of a secret society, one of the future Decembrists.
With the conviction that his friend, Prince Andrew, if he were alive, would be on the same side.
The image of Napoleon in War and Peace is one of Tolstoy's genial artistic discoveries.
In the novel, the French writer acts during the period when he turned from a bourgeois revolutionary into a despot and conqueror.
Tolstoy's diary entries during his work on "War and Peace" show that he followed a conscious intention — to remove the halo of false greatness from Napoleon.
The writer was an opponent of artistic exaggeration both in the depiction of good and in the depiction of evil.
And his Napoleon is not the Antichrist, not a miracle of vice, there is nothing demonic about him.
The debunking of the imaginary superman is carried out without violating everyday authenticity: the emperor is simply removed from the pedestal, shown to his normal human height.
The image of the Russian nation, victoriously resisting the Napoleonic invasion, is given by the author with realistic sobriety, penetration, and breadth unprecedented in world literature.
Moreover, this breadth is not in the expression of all classes and strata of Russian society (Tolstoy himself wrote that he did not strive for this), but in the fact that the picture of this society includes many types, variants of human behavior in peace and war conditions.
In the last parts of the epic novel, a grandiose picture of popular resistance to the invader is created.
It is attended by soldiers and officers who heroically give their lives in the name of victory, and ordinary residents of Moscow who, despite Rostopchin's calls, leave the capital, and the peasants Karp and Vlas, who do not sell hay to the enemy.
But at the same time, in the" greedy crowd standing at the throne", the usual game of intrigue is going on.
Tolstoy's principle of removing the halo is directed against all carriers of unlimited power.
This principle is expressed by the author in the formula that brought upon him the angry attacks of loyal criticism: "The king is the slave of history."
In the epic novel, the psychological characteristics of the practical characters differ from the strict certainty of moral assessments.
Careerists, money grubbers, court drones who live a ghostly, unreal life, in the days of peace can still come to the forefront, involve naively noble people (like Prince Vasily — Pierre) into the orbit of their influence, they can, like Anatole Kuragin, charm and deceive women.
But in the days of the national trial, people like Prince Vasily, or career minded officials like Berg, are erased and are unexpectedly excluded from the circle of action: the writer does not need them, just as Russia does not need them.
The only exception is the rake Dolokhov, whose cold cruelty and reckless courage are useful in the extreme conditions of partisan struggle.
For the writer, the war itself was, and is, "an event contrary to human reason and to all human nature."
But in certain historical conditions, the war in defense of the native country becomes a severe necessity and can contribute to the manifestation of the best human qualities.
So, the nondescript captain Tushin decides the outcome of a major battle with his bravery; so, the feminine charming, generous soul Natasha Rostova performs a truly patriotic deed, persuading her parents to devour the family's property and save the wounded.
Tolstoy was the first in world literature to show the importance of the moral factor in war through the use of an artistic word.
The Battle of Borodino was a victory for the Russians because for the first time "the hand of the strongest enemy was laid on Napoleon's army".
Kutuzov's strength as a commander is based on the ability to feel the spirit of the army, to act in accordance with it.
It is the feeling of inner connection with the people, with the mass of soldiers, that determines the way of their actions.
Tolstoy's philosophical and historical reflections are directly connected with Kutuzov.
In his Kutuzov, both the mind and the will of a proven commander, who does not succumb to the elements, wisely takes into account such factors as patience and time, are revealed with complete clarity.
Kutuzov's willpower and sobriety of mind are especially evident in the scene of the council in Fili, where he — in spite of all the generals makes a responsible decision to leave Moscow.
With high innovative art, the image of war is given in the epic.
In various scenes of military life, in the actions and remarks of the characters, the vigilance of the soldier's mass, its steadfastness in battles, irreconcilable hatred of enemies and a good naturedly condescending attitude towards them when they are defeated and captured is revealed.
In the military episodes, the author's thought is concretized: "A new force unknown to anyone is being created — the people, and our heritage is dying."
Platon Karataev occupies a special place in the circle of the actors of the epic.
In the naively enthusiastic perception of Pierre Bezukhov, he is the embodiment of everything "Russian, kind and round"; sharing the misfortunes of captivity with him, Pierre is introduced to folk wisdom and folk share in a new way.
Karataev seems to concentrate the properties developed in the Russian peasant by centuries of serfdom — endurance, meekness, passive submission to fate, love for all people — and for no one in particular.
However, an army consisting of such Platons could not have defeated Napoleon.
The image of Karatayev is somewhat conventional, partly woven from the motives of proverbs and epics.
"War and Peace", the result of Tolstoy's long term research work on historical sources, represented at the same time the artist's response to the urgent problems that modernity posed to him.
The social contradictions of Russia at that time are touched upon by the author only in passing and indirectly.
But the episode of the peasant revolt in Bogucharovo, the pictures of popular unrest in Moscow on the eve of the arrival of the French there, speak of class antagonisms.
And it is not at all natural that the action ends (does not "unravel") together with the denouement of the main plot conflict — the defeat of Napoleon.
The sharp political dispute between Pierre Bezukhov and his brother — in law Nikolai Rostov, the dream prophecy of the young Nikolenka Bolkonsky, who wants to be worthy of his father's memory, unfolding in the epilogue, all this reminds of the new upheavals that Russian society is destined to experience.
The philosophical meaning of the epic is not confined to Russia.
The opposite of war and peace is one of the central problems of the entire history of mankind.
"Peace" for Tolstoy is a multi valued concept: not only the absence of war, but also the absence of enmity between people and peoples, harmony, commonwealth — that norm of life to which we must strive.
The system of images of "War and Peace" refracts the idea that Tolstoy formulated much later in his diary: "Life is all the more life, the closer its connection with the lives of others, with the common life.
This is the connection that art creates in its broadest sense."
This is the special, deeply humanistic nature of Tolsov art, which resonated in the souls of the main characters of "War and Peace" and caused the attractive power of the novel for readers of many countries and generations.
The main thing in today's reading of Tolstoy remains his magical power, about which he wrote in a letter in 1865: "The artist's goal is not to unquestionably solve the question, but to make him love life in its innumerable, never exhausting manifestations.
If they had told me that I could write a novel with which I would inexplicably establish a view that seems to me correct on all social issues, I would not have devoted even two hours of work to such a novel, but if they had told me that what I would write would be read by today's children in 20 years and would cry and laugh over it and love life, I would have devoted my whole life and all my strength to it."
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06.21.2011 / 14: 53 Works of " Russian literature
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Reviews of stoballnikov
Ekaterina Rozhkova
All works contained in the codifier are mandatory for reading.
And even if such large scale epics as "War and Peace" or "The Quiet Don" do not come across in the test part, knowledge of their content and problems will be very useful when performing tasks C2 and C4, because you can find examples on almost any topic in them.
But, to be honest, I did not reread anything specifically for the exam, but only refreshed my memory with the help of the analyses given on this site.
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Anastasia Dontsova
For the tasks of part C (C4 especially), I classified poems on various topics (patriotism, love, etc.), many of them are better to know by heart, if not completely, then at least a few lines in order to include quotes from them in my compositions.
And prose should be read carefully, paying attention to even the most insignificant characters, because they can be useful when comparing prose.
Well, I solved the tests.
I didnot buy any special task books, I had enough tasks on the site.
In general, a lot of things on the exam depend on luck, but you should not rely on it too much, but it is better to prepare and read more, then any option will seem easy.
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Maria Malysheva
I learned all the criteria for evaluating essays and tried to follow each of them on the exam in order to lose as few points as possible.
I admit, I did not expect at all that my work would be appreciated so highly.
My composition was not unusual or super clever, I just wrote in fact, did not pour water, followed the composition, logic.
But the main thing is that I was interested in writing, reading, teaching, I love literature.
I think this is the main reason for my success.
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Daria Ivanova
You can find answers to all common questions about the content of classical Russian works on the Internet, in textbooks, in cheat sheets.
But it's not a fact that you will get 100 points for these answers.
I was preparing for the last year at school myself.
I didnot hire any tutors, I started solving tests a month before the exam.
In fact, this year I didnot really prepare in any way.
But if you look deeper, I was preparing.
However, in slightly different ways.
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