Austerlitz battle in the novel of Leo Tolstoy

The Austerlitz battle between the Allied army of Russia and Austria and the army of France in the course of the Russo-Austro-French war took place in 1805, on November 20. The Allied Army, which housed the Russian and Austrian emperors, commanded M.I. Kutuzov, the army of the French - Emperor Napoleon, so the battle has another historical name: "The Battle of Three Emperors."

Contrary to Kutuzov's objections, the monarch Alexander I insisted that the Russian army cease to retreat and, without waiting for the approaching army of Buxgaeveden, entered the Austerlitz battle with the French. Allied forces suffered a heavy defeat in him and were compelled to retreat in disorder.

The Austerlitz battle was used by writer Leo Tolstoy as a key episode of the first volume of the novel War and Peace. It carries a great and very important load for revealing the characters of the heroes.

One of the main heroes of the novel (Andrei Bolkonsky) places great hopes on the forthcoming Austerlitz battle, he thinks of him as "his Toulon", in analogy with the beginning of the dizzying military career of the current enemy - the Emperor of France. The desire for fame and human recognition becomes the sole purpose of his life, besides this, he wants to meet his idol - Napoleon on the battlefield. The prince admired him, the life of the former corporal who became emperor, served as proof that the personality can have a significant influence on the course of history.

Austerlitz battle in "War and Peace" the reader sees through the eyes of Prince Andrew, who serves under the command of the commander of Kutuzov. The entire entourage of the commander-in-chief is concerned with the receipt of money and ranks. Enemy troops were much closer than expected, which led to panic and the shameful flight of Russian troops. Prince Andrew, wishing to support the military morale, raises the fallen banner and carries soldiers of the regiment behind them.

The writer psychologically faithfully conveys the inner state of a person in a mortally dangerous situation. During the heroic attack, the prince sees an absolutely not exalted, but a domestic scene of a fight between an officer and a soldier for a bath. Then Andrew finally felt that he was wounded and falling. When the scene of the fight fell, it was suddenly replaced by a picture of a high, boundless piercing blue sky with quietly creeping clouds. It so fascinated and completely took possession of his attention, that the French emperor who had arrived, accepted him for the heroically deceased.

Emperor Napoleon always traveled around the battlefield to enjoy victory and his own greatness. He could not help but notice the lying prince, Andrei heard the emperor's words about the glorious death, but he perceived them as an empty and annoying sound. In one second everything changed in consciousness, the pettiness and insignificance of fame, recognition, greatness became clear, and the outcome of the battle ceased to interest. Everything that happened was so far from everything Prince Bolkonsky dreamed about, that the sight of the calm, deep, clear and eternal sky enabled him to realize the futility and vanity of earthly battles, flight and everything he dreamed of the day before.

From the sky of Austerlitz , the hero began a new life, it became a symbol of renewal and became the personification of the cold and unattainability of the ideal for him.

Description Austerlitskogo battle - one of the plot-compositional nodes of the novel, the first of his volume. The battle plays an important role in the fate of all the main characters, their lives are changing. The most radical changes occur in the life of Andrei Bolkonsky: the death of his wife, the birth of his son, an attempt to make a career in the civilian field, a love for Natalya Rostov. All these vicissitudes will lead him to the main event in life - participation in the Battle of Borodino, in which he is destined to perform a real and not a romantic feat, and no longer for the sake of ephemeral grandeur, but for the glory of the Motherland and life on Earth.