# Prince Nikoláy Bolkónski — War and Peace character guide

> Prince Nikoláy Bolkónski in War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

**Role:** supporting

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

**First appearance:** 0022-xix

## Snapshot

A retired general of ferocious intellect and temper, who rules Bald Hills like a fortress and his children like subordinates.

## Who they are

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.

## In the story

### [XXVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/war_and_peace/chapters/xxvi)

Andrei's father. Irascible, intellectually sharp, and dismissive of modern military strategy and religion. He dominates the conversation with his son, interrupting with non sequiturs and singing a cynical song about war.

### [Anatole's Visit to Bald Hills](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/war_and_peace/chapters/iv)

Openly hostile and mocking; insults Márya's appearance, interrogates Anatole, and agrees to the marriage only if Márya consents, all while displaying his tyrannical principles.

### [The Death of the Little Princess](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/war_and_peace/chapters/ix)

Deeply affected by his daughter-in-law's death, he embraces his son and weeps, but later turns away angrily from her coffin.

### [The Death of the Little Princess](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/war_and_peace/chapters/ix)

Grieves deeply for his daughter-in-law, embracing his son and weeping, and later serves as godfather at the baptism.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/war_and_peace/characters/old_prince_bolkonsky
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/war_and_peace
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/war_and_peace/characters