Mixail Zagoskin and Tolstoj's War and Peace: A Study of Influence
Jonathan
Perkins
In November of 1864, two days before sending off the first two
parts of War and Peace to his publisher, Tolstoj wrote in
a letter to his wife: I did not manage to write you yesterday
because I was engrossed in reading Roslavlev. You cannot
understand how necessary and interesting it is for me &ellipsis; I
read it all with a delight, which no one beside an author could
understand
(PSS, vol. 83, p. 58). In this letter
Tolstoj is writing about Roslavlev, or the Russians in
1812 (1831), a historical novel by Mixail Zagoskin
(1789–1852) set during the Napoleonic invasion of
Russia.
Despite this unstinting praise for a novel with obvious thematic
similarities to War and Peace, however, the influence of
Zagoskin on Tolstoj's masterpiece has been largely overlooked. Most
critics, if they choose to mention Zagoskin at all, do so only in
passing. Typical in this respect are Bayley, who refers to
Roslavlev only as a novel which Tolstoj had read
and enjoyed,
and Christian, who mentions Zagoskin among the
minor novelists
in Tolstoj's library while he was
composing War and Peace. The only critic to attempt an
extended study of the topic is I. P. &Shachek;&chachek;eblykin, who
concentrates on how both authors contrast the hypocritical gallomania
of Russian high society to the patriarchal love of the peasantry in
the countryside (Roslavlev M. N. Zagoskina i
Vojna i mir L. N. Tolstogo. Tolstovskij
sbornik. Vypusk 5, pp. 111–18).
My study will attempt to expand on the work of
&Shachek;&chachek;eblykin, by pointing out certain structural
similarities between the two novels, including parallel scenes and the
similar plot lines relating to the main heroines. In addition, I will
show that Tolstoj's hero, Pierre Bezuxov, holds a striking number of
similarities to Zagoskin himself, from his stout and incredibly strong
physique to his bespectacled and almost childlike face to his
loquacity, absentmindedness and unaffected manner in high
society. Thus, although Bezuxov expresses many of Tolstoj's own
thoughts, he seems to do so from behind the mask of Russia's first
and, until the publication of War and Peace, foremost
historical novelist.