The Austerlitz battle between the allied army of Russia and Austria and the French army during the Russo-Austro-French War took place in 1805, on November 20. The Allied Army, in which the Russian and Austrian emperors were located, was commanded by M.I. Kutuzov, the army of the French is the Emperor Napoleon, so the battle has another historical name: “The Battle of the Three Emperors”.
Contrary to Kutuzov’s objections, the monarch Alexander I insisted that the Russian army stop retreating and, not waiting for the army of Buxgevden that had not yet approached, enter the battle of Austerlitz with the French. The allied forces suffered a heavy defeat in him and were forced to retreat in disarray.
The Battle of Austerlitz was used by writer Leo Tolstoy as a key episode of the first volume of the novel War and Peace. It carries a large and very important load for revealing the characters of the heroes.
One of the main characters of the novel (Andrei Bolkonsky) has high hopes for the upcoming Battle of Austerlitz, he thinks of him as "his Toulon", by analogy with the beginning of the dizzying military career of the current adversary - the emperor of France. The desire for fame and human recognition is the only goal of his life, in addition, 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 a person can have a significant influence on the course of history.
The Austerlitz battle in War and Peace, the reader sees through the eyes of Prince Andrew, who serves at the headquarters of Commander Kutuzov. The entire environment of the commander in chief is concerned about receiving money and ranks. The enemy troops were much closer than expected, which led to a panic and shameful flight of Russian troops. Prince Andrew, wanting to maintain military morale, raises the fallen banner and carries the soldiers of the regiment behind him.
The writer psychologically faithfully conveys the internal state of a person in a deadly situation. During a heroic attack, the prince sees absolutely no lofty, but everyday scene of a fight between an officer and a soldier over a banner. Following this, Andrei finally felt that he was wounded and was falling. When falling, the scene of the fight suddenly gave way to a picture of a high, boundless piercing blue sky with quietly creeping clouds. It was so fascinated and completely captured his attention that the approaching French emperor took him for heroically dead.
Emperor Napoleon always traveled around the battlefield to enjoy victory and his own greatness. He could not help but notice the prince lying, Andrei heard the emperor's words about a glorious death, but he perceived them as an empty and annoying sound. In one second, everything changed in consciousness, the pettiness and insignificance of glory, recognition, greatness became clear, ceased to interest the outcome of the battle. Everything that happened turned out to be so far from everything that Prince Bolkonsky dreamed that the view of a calm, deep, clear and eternal sky allowed him to realize the futility and futility of earthly battles, flight and everything that he had dreamed of the day before.
The hero began a new life from the sky of Austerlitz , it became a symbol of renewal and began to personify for him the cold and unattainability of the ideal.
Description of the Battle of Austerlitz - one of the plot and compositional nodes of the novel, its first volume. The battle plays an important role in the fate of all the main characters, their life is changing. The most fundamental changes occur in the life of Andrei Bolkonsky: the death of his wife, the birth of a son, an attempt to make a career in the civil field, love for Natalia Rostova. All these ups and downs will lead him to the main event in life - participation in the Battle of Borodino, in which he is destined to perform a real, not romantic feat, and not for the sake of ephemeral greatness, but for the glory of the Motherland and life on Earth.