Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” is set in two Russian cities, Moscow and St Petersburg. RIA Novosti's project www.riarealty.ru offers a tour of the Moscow sites where Tolstoy's characters dwelled.
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© RIA Novosti . Kseniya Sidorova
The "Rostov House" is based on the mansion at 53 Povarskaya Street. Dating from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, it is now an architectural monument of the Muscovite Classicism style.
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© RIA Novosti . Kseniya Sidorova
The prototype of the "Bolkonsky House" is the mansion at 9 Vozdvizhenka Street, which in real life belonged to the author’s grandfather, Nikolai Volkonsky. This 18th century structure is not an official architectural heritage site, but all Moscow guidebooks mention it by its literary name, the “Bolkonsky House.”
The English Club, frequented by many of the novel's characters, was housed in the Gagarin mansion at 15/29 Strastnoi Boulevard, built by the famous architect Matvei Kazakov in 1776. The building was damaged in the 1812 fire, and it was later reconstructed by the no-less-famous architect Osip Bove.
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© RIA Novosti . Kseniya Sidorova
Maria Dmitriyevna Akhrosimova’s real-life prototype was Anastasia Dmitriyevna Ofrosimova, and Tolstoy also borrowed the latter’s Moscow address, 5 Chisty Pereulok. Count Rostov with Natasha and Sonya come to stay at Akhrosimova’s home at one point, and Pierre Bezukhov arrives later on. It is from this mansion that Natasha and Anatole Kuraghin planned to elope.
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© RIA Novosti . Kseniya Sidorova
Count Rostopchin’s house at 14 Bolshaya Lubyanka is one of Moscow’s oldest and most beautiful mansions. Fyodr Rostopchin was Moscow's mayor during Napoleon’s Russian campaign of 1812. He had bought his Lubyanka home a year earlier. In the novel, Pierre Bezukhov frequents this house.
The Novodevichy Convent serves as the setting for the execution of the "Moscow arsonists," witnessed by Pierre Bezukhov. In 2004, this monastery was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
The Sloboda Palace was where Emperor Alexander I addressed Moscow’s nobility and merchants in 1812 in Tolstoy’s novel. Until the 1812 fire, the Sloboda Palace served as the emperor's main residence in Moscow.
The famous Fili Conference, where Russian Commander in Chief Mikhail Kutuzov decided to surrender Moscow to Napoleon’s army, took place in an "izba" (a peasant's log hut), which later became known as the "Kutuzov izba." The real-life prototype, which stood nearby, burned down in 1868. Through subsequent restoration the cabin lost much of its original design; today it houses an affiliate of the Borodino Panorama Museum, showcasing a bench and icons that survived the 1868 fire.
