War and Peace

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1867

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Book 2, Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-7 Summary

After distancing himself from his wife Helene, Pierre travels to Saint Petersburg. His journey brings him to a way station where he needs to change his horses. He uses the break to reflect on his life and his conception of morality. An old man appears and recognizes Pierre. They sit together and talk for a while. The man insists that Pierre must consider and understand religion: Pierre’s lavish way of life is a drain on society, so he must stop “receiving everything from society and giving nothing in return” (377), and purify his soul. The old man reveals that he is actually one of the most famous Freemasons in Russia, Iosif Alexeevich Bazdeev, a member of the Martinists—an especially mystical branch of Christianity. Bazdeev invites Pierre to join the Freemasons. Pierre happily accepts, thinking the organization might provide him with answers to his questions about existence.

Pierre spends a week alone in Saint Petersburg researching the Freemasons before undergoing an initiation ceremony at a Freemasons’ lodge. There, Pierre is blindfolded and led into a strange room. The experience leaves him awestruck and reverential, particularly when he hears the Freemasons describe the history of their organization: The Freemasons dedicate their lives to combating evil in the world by providing people with an example of virtuous and pious living. The ceremony is strange and confusing, but Pierre feels invigorated. He happily removes his blindfold to greet his new Masonic brothers, many of whom he recognizes from high society parties. Joining the Freemasons helps Pierre feel refreshed after his recent travails. He throws himself into studying books on the history of the organization. He wants to embark upon a career of good, moral works, which will help the poor peasants of Russia.

Vasili attempts to reconcile the marriage between Pierre and Helene. He tries to dictate a letter for Pierre to write to Helene but is shown out of the house. Saint Petersburg society sides with Helene over Pierre. They believe that Pierre has become strange and eccentric; they consider Helene to be the victim of a deranged, jealous husband.

Boris Drubetskoy comes back from an important commission in Central Europe. He has been promoted in the diplomatic corps and does not know the salacious rumors that have spread while he was away. He befriends Helene, and they spend time together.

Chapters 8-14 Summary

In the early months of 1807, Russia expects another attack along its western border. Life at Bald Hills changes. Strengthened by his son Andrei’s unexpected return, the elderly Prince Bolkonsky joins the war effort, spending time away from the house to drum up men for the military. His absence means that Marya does not have to attend her daily lessons. She is free to care for her nephew. Andrei retires from public life and moves 25 miles away from Bald Hills (at least a two-day journey back then), where he receives regular news and updates but rarely leaves his property. He learns from his father that the Germans have won an important victory over Napoleon. His father is sure that the Russians can be equally as successful against the French, but he hints that meddling politicians hamper the military’s effectiveness. Mainly, the war means soldiers pillaging the countryside and making life miserable for the local people. Andrei struggles to care about military matters. He reads letters and reports from his father and diplomats, but his main worry is his son, “the only thing left” (403) to him.

Pierre tours through his estates in Kiev to make good on his charitable intentions. He orders the construction of hospitals, schools, and churches. Little does he know that his efforts to help the peasants simply add to their oppression. Added to this, his lack of business sense means his staff cheats him out of vast sums of money. While Pierre believes that he has improved the conditions of the lives of the peasants on his land, his staff hides the people’s actual suffering from him. He returns to Saint Petersburg having failed to accomplish anything.

Pierre visits Andrei, whom he has not seen in years. He is struck by the lifeless expression on Andrei’s face, even though his old friend welcomes him. Pierre talks regretfully about the collapse of his marriage and the duel against Dolokhov. Andrei absolves him of his guilt. They discuss Pierre’s ambitions and his desire to help the peasants. Andrei warns him against such ideas of glory. His experience in war has taught him to only live for himself. He believes that living for other people is evil and wrong, which is why he refuses to rejoin the military.

Pierre accompanies Andrei to Bald Hills. He tells Andrei about the Freemasons and their ideas. Pierre talks for a long time about the religious concepts and philosophies that the Freemasons have taught him. Such ideas mean nothing to Andrei, however. Pierre tries to impart a sense of optimism to his old friend, and Andrei remembers the sight of the infinite sky over the battlefield. The sudden recollection reminds Andrei that he has the capacity for optimism and hope within him, even if he struggles to overcome his depressive thoughts.

Marya is in the middle of a meeting with religious friends when Andrei and Pierre arrive. These religious friends often come to her house to discuss miracles and the wonders of God, but she is ashamed that her brother always mocks their ideas. Pierre listens to the religious people, interested in their stories, even though Andrei dismisses faith. Marya confesses to Pierre that she worries about her brother’s health and the state of his soul.

Chapters 15-21 Summary

Nikolai rejoins the military. He feels a greater sense of peace than before, as though the army has become as welcoming and as important as his family home. He continues to room with Denisov. Denisov’s failed proposal and their shared love of Natasha bring them closer together. Their unit is stationed near a German village ruined by the war. Disease and hunger kill more people than the fighting. Denisov tries to feed his hungry men by diverting a food truck destined for a different part of the military, but he is caught. With the cloud of a court martial hanging over him, Denisov is wounded by a French sharpshooter. Nikolai visits him in the field hospital and discovers that Denisov has decided to swallow his pride. He writes to the emperor to request a pardon and asks Nikolai to deliver the letter.

The Russian and French armies seek a truce after the battle of Friedland. Tsar Alexander and Napoleon meet to sign an alliance. Boris Drubetskoy has risen through the ranks to become part of the Russian tsar’s entourage. He welcomes Nikolai, who arrives with the letter from Denisov. Boris introduces Nikolai to French and Russian officers. Nikolai is furious that the Russians are socializing with their former enemies. He tries to avoid Boris while searching for a way to deliver Denisov’s letter. Nikolai encounters a former commanding officer, whom he convinces to act as a sponsor for Denisov’s petition. Nikolai watches as the general delivers the letter to the tsar. However, the tsar rejects Denisov’s request after a brief glance at the letter’s contents. The tsar declares that he cannot grant the petition for a pardon because he is not above the law. The crowd cheers for the charismatic young tsar, and Nikolai cannot help but be swept up in the emotion. He cheers as well.

Tsar Alexander meets with Napoleon. A large battalion of smartly dressed guards flanks each man. Nikolai watches with disgust—he cannot believe that Napoleon considers himself the equal of Alexander. Napoleon awards an important medal to one of the Russian soldiers, a man chosen at random. The day after, Alexander will do the same—award a prestigious Russian medal to a random French soldier. Nikolai is disillusioned. He does not understand how his beloved emperor can be allies with Napoleon, a smug enemy whom he hates. He views this as a betrayal of the men who died or were mutilated in the war with France. Nikolai is shocked that a random Russian soldier would get a medal while Denisov is punished for attempting to feed his starving men.

At dinner that night, Nikolai cannot stop thinking about the issue. He decides that the tsar must have a better conception of morality than the common soldier. Men like Nikolai, Denisov, and the other soldiers must simply accept the orders given to them by men like Alexander. If people start to question this arrangement, he decides, the entire social order would collapse. People might even begin to reject God. Nikolai concludes that a soldier’s duty is simply to follow orders and kill whomever they are told to kill.

Book 2, Part 2 Analysis

Part 2 of Book 2 portrays the characters’ struggles with faith. Pierre joins the Freemasons in a desperate attempt to fill a void in his life. He has spent most of his adulthood searching for meaning and purpose but has so far found nothing. The Freemasons promise to reveal the hidden mysteries of the universe, suggesting that there is a secret, arcane knowledge that is not available to most people. Pierre fervently studies the society’s by-laws and history with a piety that illustrates his desperation. He feels like he is learning about the universe, which allows him to indulge in his favorite pastimes: reading and cutting himself off from his social obligations. Pierre actually wants purpose in his life. He devotes himself to his new passion relentlessly, blinkered to the fact that most of the Freemasons see the organization only as a social club. As soon as he tries to apply the Freemasons’ ideals to practical realities—a poorly planned desire to help his peasants—Pierre immediately makes the same predictably bad choices that have defined his life so far. The Freemasons, like all of Pierre’s obsessions, prove unsatisfying.

Pierre and Andrei reunite at Bald Hills, and the old friends have changed so much that they barely recognize one another. However, both are suffering a crisis of faith. Andrei once believed in military glory, but his experiences in war and the death of his wife in childbirth have devastated him. He now has nothing but his son to give his life meaning. The more hopeful Pierre leaps from obsession to obsession, but it is clear that his desperate clinging to the Freemasons and his willful blindness to their faults also comes from his broken psyche. The men commiserate that their youthful dreams were broken by reality, but Pierre’s optimistic self-delusion manages to rub off on Andrei, who recalls the moment of the sublime that he experienced under the infinite sky of the battlefield. This connection to something larger than himself is what Pierre seeks—and what Andrei realizes he has already found.

Like Andrei and Pierre, Nikolai is also trying to give his life purpose. He does this by committing himself to the military and the prospect of patriotic glory. Even when he doubts the morality of war—his shock at coming face-to-face with an enemy soldier trying to kill him, his disappointment that Tsar Alexander would give out a random medal just to please Napoleon—Nikolai refuses to give up his faith in the army. Instead, he submits even more to the cult of personality around Alexander, investing himself with an almost religious devotion to the tsar and forcing himself to believe that the tsar’s decisions are godlike in their adherence to a larger plan. Nikolai finds that the military’s strict structure gives him a sense of himself as a good man—and the ability to ignore his role in the diminishing status of his family. The Rostovs have not yet fallen on hard times, but with Count Rostov’s reckless borrowing and Nikolai’s gambling habit, they are teetering on the edge. Nikolai creates his own faith, one in which patriotism and devotion to the tsar are a religion unto themselves.

Marya Bolkonsky is the most traditionally religious character in the novel. While many characters talk about God or perform religious gestures, she is the only person who takes adherence to Russian Orthodox Christianity seriously. Marya is a true believer who attempts to live her life in accordance with religious doctrine—for example, she helps poor pilgrims even though her father does not approve and studies her Bible at every opportunity. For other characters, religion is a background force that makes itself apparent in times of crisis. For Marya, Christianity guides her decisions and provides her with a moral framework. Marya’s deep, abiding faith highlights the increasingly secular nature of Russian aristocracy.