War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [804]
4. Bazdeev…Martinists…Novikov’s time: Tolstoy based his portrayal of Osip (later Iosif) Alexeevich Bazdeev on the actual figure of the well-known Moscow Mason Osip Alexeevich Pozdeev (d. 1811). The Martinists were followers of the theosophist and Rosicrucian teachings of the French writers Martines de Pasqually (1727–73) and his disciple, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin (1743–1803), who were both closely connected with Masonry. N. I. Novikov (1744–1818) was a Russian journalist, publisher, and devoted Mason, who spent time in prison for his beliefs. In 1785 he published Saint-Martin’s first work, Des Erreurs et de la vérité (“On Errors and the Truth”).
5. Thomas à Kempis: A German mystical writer and Benedictine monk (1379–1471), author of the De Imitatione Christi (“Of the Imitation of Christ”), one of the most widely read Christian devotional works.
6. In the beginning…God: The first words of the Gospel of John.
7. kill the fatted calf: In Christ’s parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15: 11–32), the father kills the fatted calf in celebration of his son’s return.
8. our second war with Napoleon: See note 17 to Volume I, Part Two. The Prussian army was virtually annihilated at the battles of Jena and Auerstädt, and well-supplied fortresses were surrendered one after another without resistance as the French army moved east into Poland. In November 1806, the vanguard of the Russian army, under the command of General Bennigsen, entered Warsaw.
9. Tu l’as voulu…: A line spoken by the protagonist in Molière’s comedy Georges Dandin, ou Le mari confondu (see note 12 to Volume II, Part One), which has become proverbial.
10. Vienne…Vienne: A slight anachronism. The treaty of Bartenstein between Prussia, Austria, and Russia on the one side and France on the other was being negotiated in April 1807, after Napoleon’s army fought several indecisive battles. Friedrich-Wilhelm III, who felt somewhat encouraged by Napoleon’s unsuccess, found the French conditions too stiff.
11. l’homme à l’esprit profond: Tolstoy’s mistake. Shitov is l’homme de beaucoup de mérite; the Danish envoy himself is the esprit profond.
12. pour le Roi de Prusse: In French, to do something pour le Roi de Prusse is to go to a lot of trouble for nothing.
13. Preussisch-Eylau: The battle of Preussisch-Eylau took place on 8 February 1807. On the Russian side, Bennigsen lost more than a third of his men, but there were also heavy losses on the French side. Both claimed the victory.
14. bread and salt: The meeting of guests (including sovereigns) with an offering of bread and salt was traditional in Russia, bread being the staff of life and salt, which had to be imported, being a luxury.
15. Peter and Paul: Pierre’s patron saint is Peter, but the Orthodox Church gives the same feast day to Peter and Paul (29 June), who are often portrayed together on icons, and therefore they are both his patron saints.
16. marshal: Marshal of the nobility was the highest elective office in a Russian province before the reforms of the 1860s. Governors and administrators were appointed by the sovereign.
17. freed of state…fetters: The Russian Orthodox Church was traditionally headed by the patriarch of Moscow, who was elected by the bishops of the Church. In 1700, at the death of the patriarch Adrian, Peter the Great stopped the election of a new patriarch, and in 1721 he issued a decree effectively making himself the head of the Church, which was administered by a synod of bishops under a lay “procurator” appointed by the emperor. This “synodal” period lasted until the 1917 revolution.
18. Herder’s teaching: See note 18 to Volume I, Part Two.
19. wanderers: In Russian popular religious life, “wanderers” were people who left home and and went on a sort of perpetual pilgrimage to various holy places, praying and living on charity.
20. to partake of the holy, heavenly mysteries: A naïvely ornate way of saying that she took