Character guide

Pierre Bezúkhov

major

Also known as Monsieur Pierre, Bezúkhov, Count Pyotr Kirílych Bezúkhov, Comte Pierre Besouhoff

An illegitimate son suddenly thrust into wealth and society, Pierre stumbles through drawing rooms and debauchery, hungry for a purpose he cannot name.

Prince Andrei Bolkónski

major

Also known as Prince Andréy Nikoláevich Bolkónski, Andréy, Prince Andr√ © y

A brilliant, restless prince who finds drawing-room chatter unbearable, Andrei chases glory on the battlefield while his young wife waits at home.

Natásha Rostóva

major

Also known as Natásha, Countess Natásha, Nat√ ° sha

The Rostovs' youngest daughter, all impatience and song, Natasha feels everything at full volume and hides among flower tubs to catch a first kiss.

Nikoláy Rostóv

major

Also known as Count Nikoláy Ilyítch Rostóv, Nikoláy, young Rostóv, Nicolas Rostóv

A goodhearted young hussar who tips generously and rides home from foraging grinning, Nikolai chases honor and horses with equal boyish delight.

Princess Márya Bolkónskaya

major

Also known as Princess Márya Nikoláevna Bolkónskaya, Princess Márya, Márya, Princess MГЎrya

Devout, plain-faced, and quietly luminous, Princess Marya endures her father's cruelty at Bald Hills while her radiant eyes betray an inner life of striving.

Napoleon Bonaparte

supporting

Also known as Bonaparte, the Emperor Napoleon, Buonaparte

The Emperor of France, whose shadow falls across every Russian drawing room and battlefield, Napoleon looms as the age's unstoppable, feared, and admired force.

Mikhail Kutúzov

supporting

Also known as General Mikháil Ilariónovich Kutúzov, Kutúzov, Field Marshal Kutúzov, Count Kutúzov

Kutúzov commands the Russian forces against Napoleon in 1812, a veteran of Catherine's wars now mocked in foreign dispatches as dissolute and weak. Where younger officers crave decisive glory, he trusts time, attrition, and the stubborn endurance of ordinary soldiers. His refusal to fight on anyone else's terms becomes the quiet hinge on which the campaign's middle turns.

Count Ilyá Rostóv

supporting

Also known as Count Ilyá Andréevich Rostóv, Ilyá Andréevich, Count Rostóv, old Count Rostóv

Count Ilyá presides over the Rostóv household with generous dinners, Turkish pipes, and an inability to say no to anyone. His affection for his children is genuine and his finances are a slow disaster, a tension his wife feels more sharply than he does. He matters because the Rostóv warmth — and its fragility — gives the novel its emotional center of gravity.

Sónya

supporting

Also known as dear Sónya, the portionless Sónya

Sónya grows up in the Rostóv house as a dependent whose only dowry is devotion, and she gives it entirely to Nikoláy. Her constancy is both her beauty and her trap: she knows the family's fortunes need a rich match, and she cannot release him. Her silent sacrifice shadows the Rostóv children's romances through the middle of the book.

Vasíli Denísov

supporting

Also known as Váska Denísov, Major Denísov, Monsieur Denísov

Denísov arrives at the Rostóv house in a cloud of sabers, pipes, and tobacco, instantly kissed by Natásha and embraced by the old count. He is a soldier's soldier — gallant, profane, hopeless with money and paperwork — whose warmth masks how badly the army will treat him. His friendship with Nikoláy anchors the hussar thread of the war sections.

Fyódor Dólokhov

supporting

Also known as Dólokhov, Mr. Dólokhov

Dólokhov moves through Petersburg drawing rooms and army camps with the same cold, deliberate nerve, whether ruining a man at cards or riding past a sentinel on a night raid. He is capable of real tenderness — he kisses young Pétya in the dark without mockery — and of calculated destruction. His presence keeps the novel's glamour and its violence uncomfortably close together.

Borís Drubetskóy

supporting

Also known as Prince Borís Drubetskóy, Borís, the Drubetskóys

Borís rises through society and the army by knowing exactly whom to flatter and when to smile, listening to Nikoláy's plea for Denísov as a general listens to a subordinate. He is not villainous so much as frictionless, and that is precisely what makes him unsettling beside the impulsive Rostóvs. His cool ambition measures how much the world around him rewards calculation over feeling.

Anatole Kurágin

supporting

Also known as Anatole, Prince Anatole, Kurágin

Anatole drifts through Petersburg drawing rooms on his looks and his sister's connections, cheerfully spending money he has not earned and pursuing married women with the same blank enthusiasm he brings to everything. Dólokhov, who finds him useful and amusing, arranges his pleasures and quietly despises him; Anatole barely notices. His pursuit of Natásha Rostóva, undertaken with no plan beyond the pleasure of the chase, becomes one of the novel's most destructive acts — a scandal that reveals how much harm a man incapable of reflection can do.

Prince Vasíli Kurágin

supporting

Also known as Prince Vasíli, Prince Vasíli Sergéevich

Prince Vasíli moves through Petersburg society with the ease of a man who has spent decades learning exactly which doors open for charm and which for persistence. His chief project is securing advantageous marriages for his children — particularly the beautiful Hélène and the feckless Anatole — and he pursues these aims with a courtier's patience and a courtier's indifference to the damage done along the way. He is the novel's clearest portrait of aristocratic self-interest dressed as paternal concern, and his schemes set in motion some of the book's most consequential entanglements.

Anna Pávlovna Schérer

minor

Also known as Anna Pávlovna, Anna Schérer, Annette Schérer

A well-connected St. Petersburg hostess whose soirées open the novel.

Pétya Rostóv

supporting

Also known as Pétya, Pétya Rostóv

Pétya is the baby of the Rostóv family, doted on and restless, forever trying to insert himself into the adult world of officers and campaigns he has only heard about. His eagerness is both touching and dangerous: he wants to be a hussar the way other boys want to be heroes, with no real sense of what war asks of a person. His determination to serve, against his mother's pleas, places him at the edge of the 1812 campaign and makes him a quiet emblem of how the war consumed Russia's youngest and most hopeful.

Hélène Bezúkhova

supporting

Also known as Elèn, Princess Elèn, Countess Bezúkhova, Elèna Vasílievna

Hélène enters every room as an event, her beauty so complete that it seems to require no effort and no thought. She marries Pierre for his fortune, manages her affairs with a calm that scandalizes society without ever quite touching her, and treats her husband with a polite contempt that she never bothers to disguise. She is the novel's great study in beauty as power — a woman who has learned that her face opens every door and who has never needed to develop anything behind it.

Platón Karatáev

supporting

Also known as Platón, Karatáev, And Karatáev

Platón appears in the novel's later movement, a Russian peasant taken up into the army and then into French captivity alongside Pierre. He speaks in proverbs, moves with a round, unhurried cheerfulness, and accepts each day as it comes without complaint or ambition. For Pierre, who has spent the book searching for meaning in philosophy, Freemasonry, and love, Platon is a revelation: goodness that does not argue with itself, a way of being that requires no theory. He is the moral center of the captivity chapters and one of the novel's most enduring images of Russian peasant life.

Prince Nikoláy Bolkónski

supporting

Also known as Prince Nikoláy Andréevich Bolkónski, Old Bolkónski, Prince Bolkónski

Prince Nikoláy Bolkónski is a man of the eighteenth century stranded in the nineteenth, brilliant, exacting, and incapable of softening. He drills his daughter Márya in mathematics, keeps his household on a schedule of his own devising, and treats his son Andréy's independence as a personal affront. His tyranny is real, but so is his integrity: he is honest, hardworking, and contemptuous of the courtiers he once served. His refusal to bless Andréy's marriage to Natásha, and his slow decline as the war approaches, make him one of the novel's most complex portraits of a difficult old man.

Alpátych

minor

Also known as Yákov Alpátych

The faithful old steward of the Bolkónski estate at Bald Hills.

Mademoiselle Bourienne

minor

Also known as Bourienne, the smiling Mademoiselle Bourienne

A French companion to Princess Márya, whose flirtatious nature causes tension in the Bolkónski household.

Prince Ippolit Kurágin

minor

Also known as Ippolit, Prince Ippolit, the delightful Prince Ippolit

The foolish, awkward brother of Anatole and Hélène, often the butt of jokes in society.

Countess Natálya Rostóva

supporting

Also known as Countess Natálya Ilyníchna Rostóva, Natálya Rostóva, Mamma

She presides over the Rostóv family's warm, improvident world of name days, sleigh rides, and mounting debts, where her tenderness and her social vanity pull in opposite directions. Her devotion to her children is total, but so is her dread of losing them to war, marriage, or ruin. In the novel's early-middle stretch, her anxious scheming over Nikoláy's prospects and Natásha's happiness makes her the emotional barometer of a family learning that love alone cannot pay its bills.

Osip Bazdéev

minor

Also known as Osip Alexéevich Bazdéev, Bazdéev, Osip Alexéevich

A Mason who initiates Pierre into Freemasonry.

Captain Timókhin

minor

Also known as Timókhin, Captain Timókhin

A brave, dependable infantry company commander under Bagratión.

Ilyín

minor

Also known as Ilyín

A young, enthusiastic officer in Nikoláy Rostóv's hussar regiment.

Princess Liza Bolkónskaya

minor

Also known as Liza, Princess Liza, angel Liza, Madame Elizabeth

The charming, superficial wife of Prince Andrei, who dies in childbirth.

Gerásim

minor

Also known as Gerásim

The old servant who tends to Count Bezúkhov on his deathbed.

Anna Mikháylovna Drubetskáya

minor

Also known as Princess Anna Mikháylovna Drubetskáya, Anna Mikháylovna, Princess Drubetskáya

A poor but determined princess and mother of Borís, who tirelessly schemes for her son's advancement.

Count Rostopchín

minor

Also known as Rostopchín, Count Rostopchín

The Governor-General of Moscow during the 1812 French invasion.

Emperor Alexander I

minor

Also known as the Emperor Alexander, Alexander, Alexander I

The Tsar of Russia during the Napoleonic Wars.

Prince Bagratión

minor

Also known as Bagratión, Prince Pyotr Ivánovich Bagratión

A revered Russian infantry commander during the early campaigns against Napoleon.

Alphonse Berg

minor

Also known as Alphonse Kárlovich Berg, Berg, Colonel Berg

A pedantic, socially climbing officer who marries Véra Rostóva.

Véra Rostóva

minor

Also known as Countess Véra Rostóva, Véra, The handsome Véra

The eldest, somewhat cold and correct Rostóv daughter, who marries Berg.

Márya Dmítrievna Akhrosímova

minor

Also known as Márya Dmítrievna, Márya Dmítrievna Akhrosímova

A forthright and respected Moscow lady known for speaking her mind.

Captain Túshin

minor

Also known as Túshin, Little Túshin, The short, round-shouldered Captain Túshin

A modest but heroic artillery captain whose bravery is crucial at the Battle of Schön Grabern.

Prince Dolgorúkov

minor

Also known as Dolgorúkov, Prince Yúri Vladímirovich Dolgorúkov

A confident adjutant to Tsar Alexander I at the Austrian headquarters.

Bilíbin

minor

Also known as IX Bilíbin

A witty Russian diplomat stationed in Austria, known for his clever phrases.

Julie Karágina

minor

Also known as Julie, Karágina, Julie Drubetskáya, the smiling Julie

A wealthy heiress and friend of the Rostóvs, who becomes involved with Borís Drubetskóy.

Nikólenka Bolkónski

minor

Also known as Nikólenka, little Nikólenka, Nikolúshka

The young son of Prince Andrei, who appears in the novel's epilogue.

Zherkóv

minor

Also known as Hussar cornet Zherkóv, the wag Zherkóv

A mischievous hussar officer and friend of Dólokhov.

Prince Nesvítski

minor

Also known as Nesvítski, Prince, the stout Nesvítski

A good-natured, stout staff officer who serves as a liaison.

Speránski

minor

Also known as Messrs. Speránski

The influential state secretary and reformer whom Pierre and Andrei admire for a time.

Marshal Davout

minor

Also known as Davout

A feared marshal of Napoleon, known for his severity.

Barclay de Tolly

minor

Also known as Barclay, General Barclay, General Barclay de Tolly

A Russian commander of Baltic German origin, initially in command in 1812.

Lieutenant Telyánin

minor

Also known as Telyánin

An officer who steals money from Nikoláy Rostóv, causing a scandal in the regiment.

Lavrúshka

minor

Also known as Lavrúshka

Denísov's (and later Rostóv's) clever, roguish Cossack orderly.

Count Arakchéev

minor

Also known as Arakchéev

The Tsar's powerful, harsh Minister of War.

Danílo

minor

Also known as Danílo Teréntich, Old Danílo Teréntich

The Rostóvs' dedicated and skilled huntsman.

General Ermólov

minor

Also known as Ermólov

A bold, outspoken Russian general on Kutúzov's staff.

General Bennigsen

minor

Also known as Bennigsen, Count Bennigsen

A senior Russian general who often clashes with Kutúzov.

General Dokhtúrov

minor

Also known as Dokhtúrov, Chubby little Dokhtúrov

A modest, reliable Russian general who performs crucial duties at Borodinó and after.

Morel

minor

Also known as Morel

A French drummer boy taken prisoner by the Russians and cared for by Pétya Rostóv.

Mávra Kuzmínichna

minor

Also known as old Mávra Kuzmínichna, Mávra Kuzmínichna

The Rostóvs' kind housekeeper in Moscow.

Ferapóntov

minor

Also known as Ferapóntov

A merchant in Smolénsk whose shop is looted as the French approach.

Mikháil Ivánovich

minor

Also known as the taciturn Mikháil Ivánovich, old Mikháil Ivánovich

The architect and companion of old Prince Bolkónski.

Tíkhon

minor

Also known as Old Tíkhon, Tíkhon Shcherbáty

A peasant servant of old Prince Bolkónski, known for his grimaces and loyalty.

Dron

minor

Also known as Dron Zakhárych, Drónushka

The village elder (starosta) of the Bolkónski estate at Boguchárovo.

Shinshín

minor

Also known as Uncle Shinshín

A sarcastic cousin of Countess Rostóva.

Márya Perónskaya

minor

Also known as Perónskaya, Márya Ignátevna Perónskaya

A relative and chaperone for Natásha at her first grand ball in St. Petersburg.

Pelagéya Melyukóva

minor

Also known as Pelagéya Danílovna Melyukóva, Melyukóva

A neighbor of the Rostóvs known for her festive Christmas parties.

Balagá

minor

Also known as Balagá

A famous, reckless troika driver in Moscow.

Mítenka

minor

Also known as Mítenka

The Rostóv family's steward, involved in their financial troubles.

Anísya Fëdorovna

minor

Also known as Anísya Fëdorovna, Anísya

The Rostóvs' housekeeper at their Otradnoe estate.

Dunyásha

minor

Also known as Dunyásha, DunyГЎsha

A maid in the Rostóv household, later involved with the valet Fëdor.

Malásha

minor

Also known as Malásha

A young peasant girl present during the council of war at Fili.

Vereshchágin

minor

Also known as Vereshchágin

A young merchant's son wrongly accused of treason and executed by a Moscow mob.

Márya Bogdánovna

minor

Also known as Márya Bogdánovna

The midwife present for the birth of Princess Liza Bolkónskaya's child.

Monsieur Dessalles

minor

Also known as Dessalles, M. Dessalles

The Swiss tutor for Prince Andrei's son, Nikólenka.

Count Willarski

minor

Also known as Willarski, Count Willarski

A Polish count who introduces Pierre to the Masonic lodge in St. Petersburg.

Zakhár

minor

Also known as Zakhár

Prince Andrei's old, devoted valet.

Prince Murat

minor

Also known as Murat, the French!’ Murat

The flamboyant French cavalry commander, King of Naples.

General Weyrother

minor

Also known as Weyrother, the Austrian General Weyrother

The Austrian chief of staff who presents the battle plan before Austerlitz.

Mademoiselle George

minor

Also known as Mademoiselle George, George

A famous French actress who performs in Moscow and is admired by Anatole.

Milorádovich

minor

Also known as Milorádovich

A flamboyant Russian general known for his bravery and showmanship.

Count Langeron

minor

Also known as Langeron, Count Langeron

One of the allied commanders at the Battle of Austerlitz.

Praskóvya

minor

A maid in the Rostóv household, mentioned in passing.