To Be Russian

To Be Russian

Paulucci and Michaud both attacked Wolzogen simultaneously in French. Armfeldt addressed Pfuel in German. Toll explained to Volkonski in Russian. Prince Andrew listened and observed in silence.
--Bk. 9 ch. 11, Gibian 571

One thing that has interested me throughout the novel is the significance of the use of language, as exemplified here among the army leadership and especially by the aristocracy's on-again off-again approval of "Frenchified Russian" (cf. Bk. 10 ch. 2, Gibian 612 and footnote, and the like). In these three chapters we've seen more German and French characters than what came before; this, for me, had a contrasting effect such that it led me to consider what Tolstoy is saying about Russia and Russians (cf. the passage comparing why each country's men are self-assured, Bk. 9 ch. 10, Gibian 568).

Up until these chapters we'd mostly dealt with soirees and soldiers; but now, for whatever reason, we are presented with "real life," that is, the undercurrents rumbling among the peasants. Three instances come to mind. First, the peasants at Bogucharovo refuse to accept grain from the confused and vaguely naive Mary (Antoinette?). cf. Bk. 10, ch. 9, footnote 9 and its referent, Gibian 641, as well as the end of ch. 11 in the same book. This scene is, of course, followed by the peasant's refusal to allow the princess to leave; but I call attention to the former because of its similarity to the following passage, which occurs at the end of chapter 11, Book 11, Gibian 785, wherein the Muscovites are not happy to hear that Moscow has been given up:

The crowd halted, pressing around those who had heard what the superintendent had said, and looking at the departing trap.
The superintendent of police turned around at that moment with a scared look, said something to his coachman, and his horses increased their speed.
"It's a fraud, lads! Lead the way to him, himself!" shouted the tall youth. "Don't let him go, lads! Let him answer us! Keep him!" shouted different voices, and the people dashed in pursuit of the trap.
Following the superintendent of police and talking loudly the crowd went in the direction of the Lubyanka Street.
"There now, the gentry and merchants have gone away and left us to perish. Do they think we're dogs?" voices in the crowd were heard saying more and more frequently.

In these two scenes, a member of the upper class realizes with horror that the peasants aren't quite so submissive as apparently they could have been expected to be. Compare this with the murder of Vereschagin, which spans Gibian 790-794 (Bk. 11 ch. 12), particularly the scene's end with Rostopchin being chased by the apparent madman.

Tolstoy has Russian identity on the mind: every now and then Tolstoy will say something like "something something is distinctly Russian." For the most part, the characters we know and love from the story are either engulfed in the frenchified world of parties or the german-fied world of military theory, with possible exceptions being the time we spent among the troops, God's Folk, and at "Uncle's." What does it mean to be Russian? Are the primary characteristics of the main characters we've been encountering (cleverness in social situations, introspection, adherence to social mores, enthusiasm in war, the ability to intimate full sentences by facial expressions, etc.) Russian characteristics or just characteristics of the upper class? Is something happening to the peasantry that can be said to be changing Russia for Tolstoy?