. . Villeneuve: At this time Napoleon was gathering his forces at Boulogne, on the English Channel, in preparation for an invasion of England. Admiral Pierre-Charles de Villeneuve (1763 - 1806) was ordered to leave the Mediterranean and join them. In the event Villeneuve was blockaded, and Napoleon's navy was destroyed at the Battle of Trafalgar.
27 a thousand roubles to get Taras: Even by Count Rostov's extravagant standards this is a very large sum of money, which suggests that the serf, Taras, must have had special training under a French chef.
28 boston: A popular variation of whist.
29 Cossack: The Cossacks were free peasants living in southern Russia, renowned for their wild behaviour. The countess is virtually (and affectionately) calling her a little savage.
30 Suvorov: A. S. Suvorov (1729--1800), a Russian general who, after many successful campaigns, ended his career in ignominious retreat over the Alps from Italy into Austria (1799).
31 'The Spring': A song dubiously attributed to Mozart that Tolstoy used to sing to his pupils.
32 Nikolay's my cousin: The Russian Orthodox Church normally prohibited marriage between first cousins, though this prohibition could sometimes be circumvented by obtaining special permission.
33 ecossaise . . . Daniel Cooper . . . anglaise: The 'ecossaise' is a lively country dance (not to be confused with the 'schottische' (German - both mean 'Scottish'), which is a round dance akin to the polka) in which the performers stand opposite each other, often in couples. 'Anglaise' is a vague term often applied in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to country dances of putative English character. It allowed for many variations, of which the 'Daniel Cooper' was one.
34 'Our eagle!': Peasant language, and Russian folklore, often used birds - eagle, falcon, dove, etc. - as terms of endearment or pride in family members.
35 Voltaire armchair: A deep chair with a high back associated with the French writer and historian F. M. Arouet (Voltaire) (1694 - 1778).
36 the reign of Paul: Catherine was succeeded by her son Paul. His short reign (1796--1801) ended by his being murdered in a palace coup.
37 'From your Heloise?': An ironical reference to the heroine of Rousseau's novel, Julie, ou La Nouvelle Heloise, which the prince regards as romantic nonsense. The ensuing correspondence between Princess Marya and Julie Karagin is based on 'a whole volume' of similar letters exchanged between two friends, M. A. Volkova and V. I. Lanskaya, which Tolstoy read in manuscript in 1863.
38 a new book with uncut pages: The book has come from the publisher with the folded leaves untrimmed. Thus the first reader uses a page-knife to slit them open.
39 A Key to the Mystery: K. Eckartshausen's mystical work, A Key to the Mysteries of Nature, was popular in Russia at the time, and widely read by freemasons.
40 the Great Century: The French term 'Le Grand Siecle' meant the age of Louis XIV (1638--1715), King of France (1643--1715). Here it is loosely applied by the Russians to the age of Catherine the Great.
41 it is easier for a camel . . . kingdom of God: Quoted from Matthew 19:24 and Mark 10:25.
42 a Dussek sonata: Jan Ladislav Dussek, born in Bohemia in 1760 and died near Paris in 1812, enjoyed great popularity in Europe as a first-rate pianist and composer of piano pieces.
43 Mikhelson's army, and Tolstoy's: The old prince refers to a plan for attacking the French from three sides at once, Generals Mikhelson and Tolstoy commanding two of the armies involved.
44 Marlborough . . . God knows when we'll see him: A French comic song that became popular early in the eighteenth century, when the Duke of Marlborough led the English army in several campaigns against the French.
45 Rurik: A Scandinavian prince, who, according to legend, came down to Novgorod in the ninth century and founded the Russian state.
46 Potyomkins: G. A. Potyomkin (1739 - 91) was a famous Russian army commander of the late eighteenth century.
47 Hofs-kriegs-wurst-schnapps-rath: Court-war-sausage-schnapps-council (German). This is the prince's ironical version of the name bestowed on the Austrian War Council.
48 Ochakov: A fortress, at the mouth of the Dnieper, successfully stormed by General Suvorov during the Russo-Turkish war of 1787 - 91.
49 Zubov . . . false teeth: There is an easy pun here on the Russian word zub, which means tooth.
PART II
1 11th of October 1805: Until 1918 Russia used the Julian Calendar, as opposed to the Gregorian Calendar universally accepted today. At this period Julian (or 'Old Style') dates lagged behind Gregorian (or 'New Style') dates by a difference of twelve days. The dates used throughout War and Peace are predominantly Old Style.
2 Tsaritsyn Field: Tsar's Field, soon to be renamed 'The Field of Mars', was in Petersburg.
3 Bacchus: The Roman god of wine.
4 leg-bands: Soldiers, like peasants, did not wear socks; they were issued with strips of cloth for use as foot-bindings.
5 Got a move on then, didn't we?: Neither the Russian nor the Austrian army had hurried into position, believing Napoleon to be busy with preparations for the invasion of England. When the news came through that Napoleon was already at the Rhine it was essential to speed up the movement of the Russians, so they were supplied with carts, which doubled the rate of their advance.
6 doppel-kummel: A strong liqueur flavoured with cumin and caraway seeds (German).
7 shakos: Tall, nearly cylindrical military caps with plumes.
8 sabretache: Flat ornamental bag slung from a cavalry officer's sword belt.
9 Campo Formio: The little town where the French and the Austrians signed the peace treaty (17 October 1797) which ended Napoleon's successful campaign in Italy.
10 Demosthenes . . . golden mouth: According to legend the Greek orator Demosthenes (383 - 322 BC) corrected a speech impediment by practising oratory with a pebble in his mouth.
11 all three are Gascons: The Gascons were renowned for their clever talk and boasting.
12 Napoleon rose from obscurity at Toulon: During the siege of Toulon, a royalist stronghold, in 1793, Napoleon commanded the republican artillery with distinction and gained his first significant promotion to brigadier-general, at the age of twenty-four.
13 Chasseurs: Cavalry.
PART III
1 state councillor: The Russian civil service was divided into eleven ranks, the top eight of which conferred hereditary nobility. A state councillor occupied the fifth rank and was entitled to be addressed as 'your Worship'.
2 Emperor Alexander's visit to Potsdam: In October 1805 Alexander I had gone to Berlin to solicit Friedrich Wilhelm III's support in opposing Napoleon. Their secret agreement signed at Potsdam was overtaken by events on the battlefield.
3 Paris possessing his Helen: In Greek legend Paris, the son of Priam (King of Troy), precipitated the siege of Troy by abandoning his wife, Oenone, and abducting the beautiful Helen.
4 petizanfan, alley cooshey dormir: Phonetic version of the French 'petits enfants, allez coucher dormir' ('off you go to bed, little children').
VOLUME II
PART I
1 Will you call her 'tu' or 'vous': Russian is like French in using the second person plural in a formal situation and the second person singular between intimates. Sonya and Nikolay are at that delicate stage when it might, or might not, be appropriate to advance their relationship from the former to the latter.
2 Duport: Louis Duport (1782 - 1853), a celebrated French ballet-master currently enjoying great popularity in Russia.
3 the Arkharovs' ball: The Arkharovs were a real-life Moscow family, very rich and famed for their lavish hospitality.
4 Sing hymns . . . fight us: These execrable verses by N. P. Nikolev were declaimed at a real-life banquet in honour of Bagration.
5 Pavel Ivanovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov: Golenishchev-Kutuzov was present at the real-life occasion, handing out copies of his verses, no less execrable than those of Nikolev.
6 How the devil . . . mess like that?: Geronte's repeated question in Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671), 'Mais que diable allait-il faire dans cette galere?', had become proverbial in Russia.
7 frustik: Fruhstuck is German for breakfast.
8 when they had dropped . . . surface of the water: At baptism in the Russian Orthodox Church a little of the child's hair is cut off and pressed into wax. If it floats rather than sinks in the font this is regarded as a good omen.
9 the talk was of war with Napoleon . . . last year: During the autumn of 1806 Napoleon, with two major victories behind him at Jena and Auerstadt, appeared to pose a direct threat to the borders of Russia. More than half a million men were conscripted into the army.
10 piquet: A two-handed card game played with a reduced pack of thirty-two cards.
11 corner there: Dolokhov and Rostov are adversaries in the game of faro (the game played by Herman in Pushkin's and Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades). Bending down the corner of a card indicated a doubling of the stake.
PART II
1 Madame de Souza: Adelaide Filleul de Souza (1761--1836), a writer of sentimental romances set in eighteenth-century aristocratic French society.
2 freemasonry: Freemasonry on the Anglo-Scottish model was introduced into Russia in 1761. Although seen as subversive and frequently suppressed, it was undergoing a period of prosperity under Alexander I.
3 a leading freemason and Martinist since the days of Novikov: The Martinists were a branch of Russian freemasonry founded in 1780, taking their name from L. C. de Saint Martin, a noted theosophist. N. I. Novikov (1744--1818) was a satirical journalist and freemason who had been imprisoned under Catherine the Great for his outspoken anti-government opinions.
4 a volume of Thomas a Kempis: This would have been Imitation of Christ (1426), a highly influential religious treatise commonly attributed to Thomas a Kempis (c. 1380 - 1471). Mystical in tone, it explores the inner life and the value of contemplation.
5 Sic transit gloria mundi: Thus the glory of the world passes away.
6 Marat: Jean-Paul Marat (1743 - 93) was a Swiss-born French politician, active in republican and revolutionary circles.
7 Hard luck . . . George Dandin: A well-known quotation from Moliere's comedy George Dandin (1668).
8 a joke he had heard in Vienna: According to a current French idiom 'to do something for the King of Prussia' meant 'to get nothing but trouble for your pains'.
9 Count Buxhowden: The Russian general left in charge of the allied forces after the battle of Austerlitz.
10 complete liberation of his peasants from serf rule: Pierre is an early reformer in freeing his serfs; the serf system would survive officially in Russia until 1861.
11 this is Herder's doctrine: J. G. Herder (1744--1803) was a German historian and philosopher who argued the merits of intuition and irrationalism.
12 Platov's division: General M. I. Platov (1751--1818) was a distinguished Cossack commander who had served alongside Suvorov and Kutuzov.
13 the battle of Friedland: This was fought in East Prussia on 14 June 1807. The French, with their superior artillery, defeated the Russians.
PART III
1 Speransky: Count M. M. Speransky (1772 - 1839) was a close adviser toto Alexander I on home affairs. He was a would-be reformer, but his ideas offended the conservative aristocracy, and he was dismissed in 1812.
2 Montesquieu: Baron de la Brede et de Charles Louis de Secondat (1689-1755) was a French lawyer, philosopher and man of letters whose most famous work, L'Esprit des lois (1748), analyses the relationship between human and natural law.
3 Illuminism: A secret, pseudoscientific movement of the late eighteenth century founded in Germany. Among its wide-ranging beliefs was a clear strain of republicanism, which led to its suppression.
4 Finnish campaign: Russia occupied Finland in February-May 1808. At home the war was unpopular.
5 'ein Mann zu sein': 'Being a man'.
6 a brother killed in Turkey: Russia had been at war with Turkey on and off since 1806 and hostilities would continue until 1812.
PART IV
1 pas de chale: A French shawl dance, given here as an example of Natasha's training in western formal dance routines.
2 fetch me a cockerel . . . oats: This would be for fortune-telling based on the way the fowl pecked up the oats.
3 The Water-Carrier: This is a reference to Cherubini's opera Les Deux Journees (1804).
4 my favourite nocturne, the one by Mr Field: Born in Dublin in 1782, John Field settled in Russia and died in Moscow 1837. A composer of piano music, he devised the style and name of the nocturne, handing it on to its greatest exponent, Chopin.
PART V
1 the Astraea lodge . . . the 'Manna Seekers': Masonic lodges in Petersburg.
2 Napoleon's seizure . . . sent to every European court: The seizure of the Duchy of Oldenburg in north-west Germany in 1810 was a breach of the Tilsit agreement. Tsar Alexander circulated a strong protest against it.
3 Peter the Great's old cudgel: Peter the Great, Tsar 1682--1725, oversaw Russia's emergence as a major European power. Despite introducing many reforms, Peter was an authoritarian ruler who imposed swift, often cruel, punishments on all wrongdoers.
4 Mademoiselle George: A French actress, whose real name was Marguerite-Josephine Weimer (1787 - 1867), celebrated for her beauty and accomplished performances on stage.
5 they all sat down: It is still a Russian tradition to sit down for a few moments of reflection before starting out on a journey.
VOLUME III
PART I
1 Continental System: An embargo on trade with England announced by Napoleon in 1806 and imposed on all of Europe.
2 Metternich, Rumyantsev or Talleyrand: Prince Clemens von Metternich (1773--1859) was the Austrian Foreign Minister; Count N. P. Rumyantsev (1754--1826) was a Russian diplomat; Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Perigord (1754--1838) was a French statesman and Foreign Minister (1797--1807), who opposed Napoleon's Russian campaign.
3 Each of the three armies: The western army under Barclay de Tolly (1761--1818), the southern one under Bagration (1765--1812) and a reserve force being built up near the Austrian frontier.
4 Shishkov: The conservative Admiral Shishkov had replaced Speransky as Foreign Secretary.
5 The King of Naples: General Joachim Murat had been appointed King of Naples by Napoleon in 1808.
6 Bal-macheve: This mispronunciation of Balashev's not-too-difficult name has an amusing ring, suggesting 'a ball (bullet) that finishes me off' ('balle m'acheve').
7 Bernadotte: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte (1763--1844) founded the Swedish royal family in 1818 as Karl XIV. In 1812 he was crown prince.
8 the road to Poltava chosen by Charles XII: A century before, in 1709, Charles XII of Sweden had invaded Russia only to be roundly defeated by Peter the Great.
9 Thermopylae: A narrow pass in eastern Greece, the scene of a famous defence by Leonidas during the Persian invasion of 480 BC.
10 champignon . . . German toadstool: Champignon is French for mushroom.
11 Tsar-Cannon: A huge cannon (Tsar'-Pushka), which still stands in the Kremlin.
PART II
1 Lyubomirsky, Bronnitsky, Wlocki: Polish adjutants-general serving in the Russian army during 1812.
2 Dessalles looked in amazement . . . already at the Dnieper: Vitebsk and the river Dnieper are 300 miles east of the Niemen.
3 Vasily Pushkin: (1779 - 1837), a poetaster of average merit, is not to be confused with his nephew, Alexander Pushkin (1799 - 1837), Russia's greatest poet.
4 Charon's ferry: In classical Greek myth Charon ferried the dead over the river Styx into Elysium, the abode of the blessed.
5 a huge balloon that was being built by Leppich: Franz Leppich was the constructor of an expensive balloon intended for use against the French, which failed while being tested.
6 here that the whole battle . . . took place: Tolstoy drew up his own sketch map after consulting Russian and French historians, and also visiting the actual territory at Borodino, and included it here in his text.
7 Marin . . . Gerakov: S. N. Marin and G. V. Gerakov were two minor writers. Here, the former adds to the many parodies of the latter's work.
PART III
1 Columbus's egg: A trick that is easy once you know how to do it. Legend has it that Columbus, riled by the charge that anyone could have discovered America, once asked the company how to make an egg stand on end. When nobody could do it he tapped one end of an egg against the table and stood it up, showing how easy things can be once a pioneer has led the way.
2 boyars: The boyars had been the Tsar's right-hand men in medieval Russia. The title had been abolished almost a century before, and Napoleon's repeated use of the term is an ironic indicator of his ignorance.
3 attempt on Napoleon's life in Vienna in 1809: Friedrich Staps failed in an attempt to stab Napoleon outside the Schonbrunn Palace in October 1809, and was summarily executed.
4 the business of the 7th of September: That is, the battle of Borodino. Ramballe is using the New Style date.
5 Talma, la Duchenois, Potier, the Sorbonne: Talma was a celebrated tragedienne, la Duchenois a popular actress and Potier a well-known comedian. The Sorbonne, the University of Paris, founded in the mid-thirteenth century, had been closed down in 1792.
VOLUME IV
PART I
1 the possible implications of the words, 'Natasha is nursing him': Under Russian Church law a man could not marry his sister-in-law; Nikolay and Princess Marya would therefore be unable to get married if Prince Andrey were to survive and marry Natasha.
2 Fraula and Laura: The martyred brothers Florus and Laurus (third century AD), beatified in the Russian Orthodox Church, became the patron saints of horses for the peasants, who mispronounced their names.
PART IV
1 Sir Robert Wilson's Diary: Sir Robert Wilson (1774--1849) was Britain's military commissioner in Russia during the period 1812 - 14. His Private Diary was fresh in Tolstoy's mind, having been