War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [805]
21. a holy fool: A “holy fool” (or “fool in God,” or “fool for Christ’s sake”—yurodivyi in Russian) could be a harmless village idiot, but there are also saintly persons or ascetics whose saintliness is expressed as “folly.” Holy fools of that sort were known from early in Orthodox tradition.
22. the Mother of God of the Caves: That is, the icon of the Mother of God from the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev, founded in the eleventh century by St. Anthony of the Caves, which became the most important cultural center of the Kievan period of Russian history. The relics of many saints are venerated there, as Pelageyushka mentions in the next chapter.
23. the battle of Friedland: The Russian advance, begun with successful actions by Bagration and Platov, ended with defeat in June 1807 at the battle of Friedland in East Prussia.
24. lint: Noble ladies would get together and contribute to the war effort by shredding lint, which was used for dressing wounds.
25. Tilsit: Napoleon and Alexander I met at Tilsit on 25 June (13 June by the Julian calendar, used in Russia until 1917) to conclude a peace. The negotiations, to which the king of Prussia was not invited, took place during the night in a pavilion on a raft in the middle of the Niemen River. The peace lasted for five years.
26. The emperors exchanged decorations…Preobrazhensky battalion: The order of the Légion d’honneur was instituted by Napoleon in 1802 in recognition of military and civil services. The first class of the order of St. Andrew (the patron saint of Russia) was the highest award given in Russia. The Russian emperor traditionally held the rank of colonel in his Preobrazhensky regiment, which is why that specific battalion was honored by the French emperor’s guards.
Part Three
1. Erfurt…meeting: In September 1808, Alexander I, Napoleon, and some German monarchs met in Erfurt to confirm the validity of the Tilsit treaty and make a public show of the strength of the Franco-Russian alliance. Napoleon wanted assurance of Russia’s support in case of a new war with Austria, but did not obtain it.
2. free plowmen…quitrent: The status of “free plowmen” was introduced by law in Russia in 1803, but only a few landowners released their peasants from serfdom. Serfs owed their masters a certain amount of labor on the land (the corvée), but some landowers allowed them to pay rent in place of the services required of them.
3. the young Speransky: Speransky was head of the Ministry of the Interior from 1803 to 1807. In 1808 he became the closest associate of Alexander I on questions of internal policy. In 1809 Speransky developed a plan for reform, An Introduction to the Code of State Law, only part of which was implemented.
4. Peterhof: A splendid complex of palaces, gardens, and fountains southwest of Petersburg, planned as a summer residence by Peter the Great and considerably enhanced in the mid-eighteenth century by the empress Elizaveta I, who employed the Italian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700–71) on her building projects.
5. court ranks…state councillor: In 1809 Speransky issued a decree abolishing the privilege of the nobility to have court rank from childhood and obliging courtiers to be in government service, and another decree on examinations for administrative ranks: for the eighth rank (collegiate assessor) a university diploma was required; for the fifth rank (state councillor), in addition to that, ten years of government service were required. As a result, many old officials had to retire, and others bought themselves diplomas.
6. comité de salut publique: See note 11 to Volume II, Part One.
7. Sila Andreich: A jocular name for Arakcheev. “Andreich” is the familiar form of his patronymic Andreevich; “Sila” is Russian for “strength” or “power.”
8. an insignificant seminarian: Russian seminary education was open to poorer people who could not afford private tutors or expensive schools, and did not necessarily mean that the student was preparing for a church career. Speransky was of