Internet and culture: Drafts of “War and Peace” of Tolstoy posted on the Net

Drafts and versions of Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" are posted online. The materials to create works appeared on the web as part of the project "All Tolstoy in a single click". They are posted on the website dedicated to the life and work of the writer, - Tolstoy.ru. For this purpose were digitized 13, 14 and 15 volumes of 90- volume collected works of Tolstoy (Goslitizdat, 1928-1958).

Drafts with editorial revisions give the reader an opportunity to trace the history of the emergence and development of various characters in the novel, as well as find out which scenes were cut from the final edition of the novel.

In particular, the website provides different versions of the beginning of "War and Peace". It is known that Tolstoy rewrote the scene 15 times and start working on this for over a year. Only the 13th version of the author seemed satisfactory, and he gave it for correspondence. In the 14th version he threw historical introduction, and in the 15th appeared Salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer (in the draft it was called the maid of honor Annete D.).

Also by drafts it can be traced as Tolstoy gradually introduced in the novel the Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. Initially, the author needed the character, as he himself wrote in a letter to Louise Volkonskaya "that in the battle of Austerlitz <...> was killed a brilliant young man". But then the writer was "embarrassing to describe anything not related to the novel" and he made ​​a "brilliant young man" son of the old Prince Bolkonsky.

Thus, in the first draft of the novel Bolkonsky had only a daughter ("In 1811, the Princess was no longer in the world. From her left one daughter <17 years> 21 years and the prince lived alone with her and with the French..."); then in effect was introduced son ("left of her son and daughter. Prince lived alone with his daughter and a French m-lle Sillienne"). Later became the image of his son grow into details. Tolstoy originally portrayed him runaway youngster, served in the Hussars, but was decided that the young prince will be married ("married son is this God knows whom, as Prince and his father did not want to know, though now he allowed before the campaign to bring to his wife, not to throw her on the street, and most come to say goodbye").

The website Tolstoy.ru was launched in September 2013. The project was the result of joint work of ABBYY, the State Museum of Leo Tolstoy and the Museum-Estate "Yasnaya Polyana". In addition to the 90-volume edition of the works of the writer, the website also publishes information about his life and work, a map with a "Tolstoy" places and rare media.