Book 2 Part 5 Chapter 5 (Chapter 147 overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: Boris in Moscow. The Karagins. Julie Karagina's character. Capping verses. Boris's sentimentality. The colossal estates turn the scale. Julie's diplomacy. Boris proposes to Julie.
Briggs: Boris empathizes with Julie in her 'melancholy'. His proposal is accepted.
Maude: Boris and Julie. Their melancholy. Boris proposes and is accepted
Pevear and Volkhonsky: Boris proposes to Julie.

Translation:

V.

Marriage to a rich bride in Petersburg failed Boris and he with this same purpose had arrived in Moscow. In Moscow Boris was found in indecision between two very rich brides— Juli and Princess Marya. Although Princess Marya, despite her ugliness, seemed to him more attractive than Juli, for some reason it was awkward for him to look at Bolkonskaya. In his last appointment with her, at the name day of the old prince, in all his attempts to begin talking with her about his feelings, she answered him out of place and obviously did not listen to him.

Juli was the opposite, although in her special, peculiar way, willingly accepting his courting.

Juli was 27 years-old. After the death of her brothers, she had become extremely rich. She was now completely ugly; but thought that she not only was so the same good, but still much more attractive than she was before. In this delusion she was supported by how first she had become a very rich bride, but second that the older she became, by that she was safer for men, by that freer were men to handle her and, not taking on themselves any obligation, use her for dinners, evenings and busy society gathered at her. A man, which nine years backwards was afraid to ride every day at a house where there was a 17 year-old young lady, so that not to compromise her and bundle up himself, now drove to her boldly every day and approached her not as with a young lady and bride, but as with a familiar, not having sex.

The house of the Karagins was in this winter in Moscow a very enjoyable and hospitable house. Besides called evenings and dinners, every day at the Karagins was going a great society, in particular of men, dining at the 12th hour of the night and lingering to the 3rd hour. There was not a ball, walk, or theatre, which would omit Juli. Her toilette was always the most fashionable. Yet, despite this, Juli seemed disappointed to all, saying to everyone that she did not believe in friendship, in love, or in the joys of life, and awaited reassurance only there. She learned herself the tone of girls, carrying great disappointment, girls, as if losing their favorite man or were cruelly deceived by them. Although nothing like that with her had happened, on her was a look, as if such had, and she even believed that she had much suffered in life. This melancholy, not interfering with her having fun, did not hinder the arriving at her young people from nicely spending their time. Every guest, coming by her, gave back their duty to the melancholic mood of the mistress and then occupied with worldly conversations, dancing, mental games, and tournaments of rhyming games, which were in fashion at the Karagins. Only some young people, in the number of which was Boris, more deepened in the melancholic mood than Juli, and with these young people she had more long and solitary conversations about the vain and mundane, and they opened their albums, inscribed sad images, sayings and poems.

Juli was especially affectionate to Boris: pitied about his early disappointment in life, offered him that consolation of friendship which she could propose, herself so much suffering in life, and opened to him her album. Boris painted in her album two woods and wrote: Rural woods, your dark twigs shake off my gloom and melancholy.528

In another location he painted a tomb and wrote:

Death saving and death calm;

Oh! Against misery there is no other asylum.529

Juli said that this was lovely.

— There is something infinitely charming in the smile of melancholy,530 — she told Boris word for word written from this place of the book.

— This beam light in shadows, a shade between sadness and despair which indicates the opportunity of consolation.531

On this Boris wrote her poems:

Poisonous food for too sensitive a soul,

you, without which happiness would for me be impossible,

tender melancholy, oh, come to console me,

come, calm the torment of my gloomy solitude

and annex the secret sweet treat

by these tears which I feel during.532

Juli played Boris on the harp the saddest nocturnes. Boris was reading to her out loud Poor Lise and not a time interrupted his reading from excitement, exciting his breathing. Meeting in big society, Juli and Boris looked at each other as at the only people in the world indifferent, understanding one another.

Anna Mihaylovna, often traveling to the Karagins, formed a party with the mother, and between that directed a faithful reference about what would be given back for Juli (given back were both the Penza estates and the Nizhny Novgorod forest). Anna Mihaylovna, with dedication of will, providence, and affection, watched on the sophisticated sadness which tied her son with the rich Juli.

— All so the same lovely and melancholic, our pretty Juli,533 — she said of the daughter. — Boris says that he has a resting soul in your house. He has so many carried disappointments and is so sensitive, — she said to the mother.

— Ah, my friend, how I have gotten attached to Juli in the latter time, — she said to her son, — you cannot describe! Yes, and who may not love her? This is such an unearthly being! Ah, Boris, Boris! — she fell silent in a moment. — And how I pity her maman (mama), — she continued, — now she showed me reports and letters from Penza (at their huge estate) and she is poor all alone herself: she is so deceived!

Boris a little bit noticeably smiled, listening to his mother. He meekly laughed above her ingenuous cunning, but listened and sometimes asked her carefully about the Penza and Nizhny Novgorod estates.

Juli now for a long time awaited a proposal from her melancholic adorer and was ready to accept him; but some secret sense of disgust to her, and to her passionate wish to exit to get married, to her unnaturalness, and a sense of horror before the abdication of an opportunity of present love still stopped Boris. His term of holiday was now finished. The whole day and every single day he spent at the Karagins, and every day, reasoning  with myself, Boris spoke to himself that tomorrow he will make a proposal. Yet in the presence of Juli, looking at her red face and chin, almost always showered in powder, at her wet eyes and at the expression of her face, expressing the usual readiness from melancholy immediately and already to cross to the unnatural delight of conjugal happiness, Boris could not say the decisive words; despite that, he already for a long time in his imagination counted himself the owner of the Penza and Nizhny Novgorod estates and distributed use with their income. Juli saw the hesitation of Boris and sometimes to her came the idea that she was disgusting to him; but immediately again the female self-delusion presented her comfort, and she said to herself that he was shy only from love. Her melancholy however began to go over into irritability, and not long before the departure of Boris, she took a resolute plan. In that very time, as finished the term of holiday for Boris, in Moscow and, himself of course being in the living room of the Karagins, appeared Anatole Kuragin, and Juli, suddenly leaving melancholy, had become very fun and attentive to Kuragin.

— My dear,— said Anna Mihaylovna to her son, — I know from faithful sources that Prince Vasiliy sends his son so that to marry him to Juli.534 I so love Juli that it would pity me and her. How do you think, my friend? — said Anna Mihaylovna.

The idea of staying foolish and for nothing lose all this month of heavy melancholic service at Juli’s and seeing all painted now and used as it should be by his imagination the income from the Penza estates in the hands of another — in particular in the hands of the stupid Anatole, insulted Boris. He went to the Karagins with a solid intention to make a proposal. Juli met him with a fun and carefree look, carelessly told about how funny she was at yesterday’s ball, and asked when he would ride. Despite that Boris had arrived with the intention to speak about his love and because of it contemplated being gentle, he irritably started to speak about female impermanence: about how a woman easily may go over from sadness to joy and how their location of spirit depends only on those who they care for. Juli was offended and said that this really is that a woman needs variety, that all one and the same bother each.

— For this I would advise you... — was starting Boris, wishing to say a jab to her; but at that same moment to him had come an offensive idea that he may leave from Moscow, not having reached his goals and for nothing having lost his proceedings (what with him had never happened). He stopped in the middle of his speech, lowered his eyes so that to not see her unpleasant, annoyed and indecisive face and said: — I am really not with you, so that to argue with you. The opposite... — he looked at her, so to make sure, whether or not he could continue. All her irritation suddenly disappeared, and her anxiously, asking eyes were with greed waiting and directed at him. "I always can settle down so that to seldom see her," thought Boris. "But the business began and must be done!" he flared up blushing, raised to her eyes and said to her: — You know my feelings to you! — to speak more was not needed: the face of Juli shone with triumph and complacency; but she forced Boris to say to her everything that one says in these cases, to say that he loves her, and had never loved one woman more than her. She knew that for the Penza estates and Nizhny Novgorod forest she could require this and she received what she demanded.

The fiance with the bride, not remembering more about woods or sprinkling their gloom and melancholy, made plans about the future brilliant home in Petersburg, making a visit and prepared everything for a brilliant wedding.

528 Arbres rustiques, vos sombres rameaux secouent sur moi les ténèbres et la mélancolie. (Rustic trees, your dark twigs are shaking darkness and melancholy over me.)

529 "La mort est secourable et la mort est tranquille.

"Ah! contre les douleurs il n’y a pas d’autre asile". ("Death is helpful and death is calm. "Ah! Against pain there is no other asylum.")

530 Il y a quelque chose de si ravissant dans le sourire de là mélancolie, (There is something so lovely in the smile of that melancholy,)

531 C’est un rayon de lumière dans l’ombre, une nuance entre la douleur et le désespoir, qui montre la consolation possible. (It's a ray of light in the shadow, a nuance between pain and despair, which shows the possible consolation.)

532 "Aliment de poison d’une âme trop sensible,

"Toi, sans qui le bonheur me serait impossible,

"Tendre mélancolie, ah, viens me consoler,

"Viens calmer les tourments de ma sombre retraite

"Et mêle une douceur secrète

"A ces pleurs, que je sens couler". 

("Poisonous food of a too sensitive soul,

"You, without whom happiness for me would be impossible,

"Tender melancholy, ah, come to console me,

"Come calm the torments of my dark retreat

"And mixes a secret sweetness

"To these tears, which I feel flowing".)

533 Toujours charmante et mélancolique, cette chère Julie, (Always charming and melancholy, this dear Julie,)

534 Mon cher, je sais de bonne source que le Prince Basile envoie son fils à Moscou pour lui faire épouser Julie. (My dear, I know from a good source that Prince Basil is sending his son to Moscow to have him marry Julie.)

Time: undefined.
Mentioned: the name day of the prince, winter, midnight, three o'clock, to-day

Locations: Moscow, house of the Karagins
Mentioned: St. Petersburg, Penza estates, Nizhni-Novgorod forests (no hyphen in Pevear and Volkhonsky or Dunnigan. Nizhny Novgorod in Briggs. Nizhegorod in Maude and Mandelker. Nizhnigorod in Garnett.)

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: Switch to Boris' point of view, confirming Pierre's suspicions that he is there to marry either Julie or Marya. At 27, Julie "was by now utterly plain", but doesn't realize it, again confirming Tolstoy's obvious belief that women are only really attractive when they are very young. The way age affects how people treat women is interesting and comes back to chapter 1 of the novel and Pavlovna's thoughts about being "an old maid".

"Julie seemed disappointed in everything, said to everyone that she believed neither in friendship, nor in love, nor in any of the joys of life, and expected peace only there. She adopted the tone of a girl who has lived through
a great disappointment, a girl who, as it were, has lost a beloved man or been cruelly deceived by him. Though none of it had happened to her..."

Boris and Julie's French verses to each other occupy a lot of space.

Boris reads Poor Liza, note: "A novel by the Russian writer and historian Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766-1826), published in 1792. It marked the shift in Russian literature from classicism to "sensibility."'

Boris keeps resolving to propose to her and have her estates and money. However, he can't or doesn't do it and Anatole walks into the picture. Boris eventually proposes:

"She made Boris say everything that is said on such occasions, that he loved her and had never loved any woman more than her. She knew she could demand that in exchange for the Penza estates and the Nizhni Novgorod
woodlands, and she got what she demanded."

Characters (characters who do not appear, but are mentioned are placed in italics. First appearances are in Bold. First mentions are underlined. Final appearance denoted by *):

Boris

Julie Karagina (her brothers are referenced and undifferentiated.)

Marya Lvovna Karagin (just “Julie’s mother”)

Princess Mariya (also “Bolkonsky’s daughter”)

Prince Nikolai (“old prince”)

Anna Mikhailovna

Anatol Kurgain

Prince Vasili

Abridged Versions: Chapter 17 in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 5

Fuller: Entire Chapter is cut.

Komroff: All of the poems and songs are cut. However, the rest of the chapter is preserved and followed by a line break.

Kropotkin: Chapter 3: All the poems and songs are removed, but rest of chapter is preserved.

Bromfield: Chapter 10: Julie is the daughter of Marya Dmitrievna, who has lost her sons and is ready to get rid of Julie. The courting and the poetry of Julie and Boris is severely shortened. Natasha still considered Boris
“her property” and is annoyed by the proposal. Boris’s delay and berating of her before he proposes, as well as the conversations with his mother, is not here.
Simmons: Chapter 5: cut and replaced with "Boris, though he prefers the heiress Princess Mary, who is uninterested, woos her friend, the rich and unattractive Julie Karagina, prompted by his doting mother. His hesitancy
because of her repulsiveness is cured by Anatole Kuragin's suit. Boris proposes and is joyfully accepted."

Additional Notes: Mandelker: (Poor Liza): “It describes the misfortunes of a peasant girl who falls in love with a nobleman, is abandoned by him, and drowns herself in a pond”.

The Peasant in Literature by Donald Fanger Page 239: “‘Poor Liza” (and the vogue it inspired) did soften the hearts of readers--for what that may have been worth. A whole generation was moved to exclaim with Karamzin:

“Ah, I love those objects which move my heart and force me to shed tears of tender grief.” (As late as 1876 an edition of 12,000 copies was printed.)”

Komroff: He never surprises you. All his characters are recognizable, most of them are normal. Even his villain, Anatole Kuragin, seems merely an impetuous fool compared to the monsters of labyrinthine viciousness that

our Southern novelists can create with a touch of the pen. He isn’t even a good story-teller, if by a good story-teller one means a master of suspense. You do not read War and Peace in order to see “how it comes out”, any

more than you live your life in order to see how it will end…

The Devil (Maude): "she did not feel much anxiety about Eugene's position, because she was confident that he would make a brilliant marriage which would put everything right and he could make a very brilliant marriage:

she knew a dozen families who would be glad to give their daughters to him. And she wished to arrange the matter as soon as possible."

Chapter 1 of The Kingdom of God is Within You: The Enforced Silence Towards Non-Resisters

The Kingdom of God is Within You is perhaps Leo Tolstoy's most famous non-fiction work. Published in 1894, the book lays out Tolstoy's religious position in combination with his political positions (making it a complex and larger version of a combination of Confessions, though the focus here on is the external actions of the religion, and What is to be Done?).

I've decided to write this review like I wrote the one to The Slavery of Our Times, relying heavily on commentary of quotations, allowing the reader to read sections of the work and then some thoughts on it so the reader can decide what they want to focus on the most when reading the blog posts. Since the the length of both the chapters and the book overall is so much longer, I've decided to break up the review into chapters, publishing each chapter as I get done with them. This is the post for Chapter 1: THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE TO EVIL BY FORCE HAS BEEN PROFESSED BY A MINORITY OF MEN FROM THE VERY FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY.

The audiobook version (which is of Constance Garnett's translation, which you can read here) I listened to here. The printed version I used was: The Kingdom of God is Within You, Wilder Publications, Radford Va, 2008 It is horribly printed with many errors and bad formatting so I used the link above more, as well as another translation, as mentioned below.

While The Slavery of Our Times is mostly secular in its argumentation, The Kingdom of God is Within You a religious foundation that needs to be discussed. The book itself is a sequel of sorts, and the first of the book deals with the way his book What I Believe (or My Religion) was received. Tolstoy lays out his interpretation of Jesus's teachings in that book, so while I currently have some notes on the book, I'd like to make a future post on it at some time.

The way Tolstoy sets up the opening chapter of the book is to establish that nothing he is saying is new (in fact, his arguments throughout the book can veer towards the somewhat specious in suggesting that they are basically already accepted and established. He also will appeal to the authority of Christ, as mentioned above, so you just have to accept that as you move through the book) but the culmination of earlier arguments that helped him discover the truth.

“The work of (William Lloyd) Garrison, the father, in his foundation of the Society of Non-resistants and his Declaration, even more than my correspondence with the Quakers, convinced me of the fact that the departure of the ruling form of Christianity from the law of Christ on non-resistance by force is an error that has long been observed and pointed out, and that men have labored, and are still laboring, to correct. (Adin) Ballou’s work confirmed me still more in this view. But the fate of Garrison, still more that of Ballou, in being completely unrecognized in spite of fifty years of obstinate and persistent work in the same direction, confirmed me in the idea that there exists a kind of tacit but steadfast conspiracy of silence about all such efforts.”

However, for various reasons, these arguments and teachings of true anarchist and pacifist Christianity are being suppressed, not necessarily by strict state censorship (there are some examples he mentions that were forgotten for these reasons) but by just being ignored, particularly by those who hold the (especially the intellectual) power in the various churches. The motivation for why this is is because of the connection churches have with political power, which has deformed the purpose of Christianity.

“(Petr) Helchitsky’s (also can be spelled Chelcicky) fundamental idea is that Christianity, by allying itself with temporal power in the days of Constantine, and by continuing to develop in such conditions, has become completely distorted, and has ceased to be Christian altogether.”

It doesn't take a scholar to understand that the Christianity set forth in the "Gospels" in their portrayal of Jesus Christ (or even the Apostle Paul, who is not really discussed in the book) is much different than the institutions of religion and churches in our or Tolstoy's time, and the conversion of Constantine and the conversion of the Roman Empire into "a Christian empire" is a pretty obvious and convenient time to mark where this change happened (though Tolstoy has his problems with the group usually considered "the Church Fathers" and their systematization of doctrine). The connection of the Christian doctrine and political structures weds the two and has changed the former much more than the latter. And this leads to an intellectual dishonesty by those who write and think for the institutions.

“Works of this kind, dealing with the very essence of Christian doctrine, ought, one would have thought, to have been examined and accepted as true, or refuted and rejected. But nothing of this kind has occurred, and the same fate has been repeated with all these works. Men of the most diverse views, believers, and, what is surprising, unbelieving liberals also, as though by agreement, all preserve the same persistent silence about them, and all that has been done by people to explain the true meaning of Christ’s doctrine remains either ignored or forgotten.”

Tolstoy spends the early chapters in the book defending the doctrine of Christ-like non-violence from religious and then non-religious critiques (then later defining what the non-violence looks like in sort of a reversal in the structure you might expect), but the main thread of critiques from both the religious and non-religious sides are non-engagement. According to Tolstoy, they simply throw their hands up, say that non-violence and non-resistance is impossible and do not debate or even acknowledge Christian pacifism, seeing it as a fringe minority not worth spilling ink over. Tolstoy, on the other hand, does acknowledge that Christian pacifism is a minority view that is contrary to the teachings of the churches in power, but that it is the original, correct teaching and that it has always been held by some Christians throughout history.

“(Daniel) Musser’s book is called “Non-resistance Asserted,” or “Kingdom of Christ and Kingdoms of this World Separated.” This book is devoted to the same question, and was written when the American Government was exacting military service from its citizens at the time of the Civil War. And it has, too, a value for all time, dealing with the question how, in such circumstances, people should and can refuse to enter military service.”

Throughout the book, refusing military service and compulsory military service, are the key symbols of tyranny and the object of Tolstoy's derision (sometimes in a comic sense). I've discussed before how Tolstoy's view of American slavery and the American civil war is somewhat unorthodox and can leave a very uncomfortable feeling in a modern day reader (Tolstoy's un-answer to the problem of American racial slavery and opposition to the Civil War sounds a lot to me like Mahatma Gandhi's problematic view on World War 2 and the Jews in the Holocaust), so his highlighting of Musser is not particularly surprising. We, of course, who are glad that the war was fought, the Union won, and the slaves were liberated (though regretting the premature ending of Reconstruction failing to fully reform society and Jim Crow segregation of society) can still recognize the utter horror of America's most violent war and wonder if there could have been a better way. We'll come back to this question as Tolstoy reveals his answers for societal change throughout the book and discuss whether or not they are adequate for such real world problems.

“The author (Musser) concludes his book by saying: “Christians do not need government, and therefore they cannot either obey it in what is contrary to Christ’s teaching nor, still less, take part in it.”

While Tolstoy occasionally clarifies what he means when he says Christian, imagine that he means, unless otherwise stated, that Christians are those who follow non-violent and non-resistant principles, while the Church or churches are the institutions that masquerade under the name of Christianity while supporting political power. As in The Slavery of Our Times, the answer for a Christian or the non-resistant is non-participation. The non-resistant should not need government, should not use government, and should not participate in government or the protection of government. The problem of the non-universality of self-reliance was discussed in my post on The Slavery of Our Times, but here Tolstoy combats this by looking at different communities that have made themselves self-reliant and peaceful.

“There are people, hundreds of thousands of Quakers, Mennonites, all our Douhobortsi, Molokani, and others who do not belong to any definite, who consider that the use of force-and, consequently, military service-is inconsistent with Christianity. Consequently there are every year among us in Russia some men called upon for military service who refuse to serve on the ground of their religious convictions. Does the government let them off then? No. Does it compel them to go, and in case of disobedience punish them? No. This was how the government treated them in 1818. Here is the extract from the diary of Nicholas Myravyov of Kars, which was not passed by the censor and is not known in Russia…”In the morning the commandment told me that five peasants belonging to a landowner in the Tamboff government had lately been sent to Georgia. These men had been sent for soldiers, but they would not serve; they had been several times flogged and made to run the gauntlet, but they would submit readily to the cruelest tortures, and even to death, rather than serve. ‘Let us go,” they said, ‘And leave us alone; we will not hurt anyone; all men are equal, and the Tzar is a man like us; why should we pay him tribute; why should I expose my life to danger to kill in battle some man who has done me no harm? You can cut us to pieces and we will not be soldiers. He who has compassion on us will give us charity, but as for the government rations, we have not had them and we do not want to have them’ These were the words of those peasants, who declare that there are numbers like them Russia. They brought them four times before the Committee of Ministers, and at last decided to lay the matter before the Tzar who gave orders that they should be taken to Georgia for correction, and commanded the commander-in-chief to send him a report every month of their gradual success in bringing these peasants to a better mind.” How the correction ended is not known, as the whole episode indeed was unknown, having been kept in profound secrecy.”

The "Douhobortsi", also spelled as Doukhobors, were the driving force behind the novel Resurrection and are discussed in more detail in Tolstoy and His Problems by Aylmer Maude. Much like Mennonites in Germany or the Quakers in America, they were an off-shoot sect that believed in rejection of society and peace (they differ from the religious wanders, "the people of God", in War and Peace in that they do form their own society rather than going from place to place and begging or asking for places to stay while travelling from icon to icon). Their Luddism, which is tied to their rejection of the political life and structure, is something Tolstoy doesn't emphasize in this book but something you can tell he admires. However, since the biggest argument against pacifism is its impracticability, Tolstoy does concern himself, here and later in the book, with the consequences for those who do not participate in the political structure and do not allow themselves to be subjected to military service. Of course, in this example of 1818, we are in the middle of Alexander's rightward turn with Arakcheev taking charge of the government. The end result of the peasants rising up against the government, the argument against the government so to speak, is virtually the same as how the arguments or pacifism in the church work, they are ignored or put in secret. In an observation that George Orwell (who, despite the his devastating critique of Tolstoy's opinions on art and Shakespeare, has quite a bit in common from a political critique standpoint) famously made in 1984, inspired mainly by the Soviet Union, in which political dissidence is best dealt with in secrecy and kept away form the public eye rather than public spectacle (though with the hangings and show trials, there was still a role for this), avoiding making them into martyrs that can inspire others. As we'll see throughout the book, the government isn't sure how to deal with non-resisters and instead just wants them to go away, since they can't/won't dispose of them like they do violent resisters.

Starting here and, unless otherwise stated, in all the posts on this book, I will be using the Leo Wiener translation that you can see here. Wiener's translation can be a little more mouthy, but I trust it a little more and it seems less simplistic. 

“In the late cases of refusal to do military service in consequence of religious convictions, other than those of the Mennonites, the authorities have acted as follows: At first they use all means of violence employed in our time for the purpose of "mending" them and bringing them back to "the proper ideas," and the whole matter is kept a profound secret. I know that in the case of one man in Moscow, who in 1884 refused to serve, they wrote up voluminous documents two months after his refusal, and these were kept in the ministry as the greatest secret.”

Again, non-resistance and rejection of governmental duties, particularly military service is met with by the government by confusion, consulting of laws, and the hushing up of inconvenient facts. And this is because, while the vast majority of people go along with governmental service, most people experience revulsion at the thought of prosecuting non-violence, so much so that the government can be swayed into non-prosecution. The most famous example in our country (again, apologies for the Americentrism) of non-violence resistance to compulsory military service is Muhammad Ali, who was able to use his celebrity and boxing talents to be a spokesman against the war and for his own religion. Because of his unique situation, the government was unable to make him go away or keep it a secret and were forced to confront it head on. Since Ali stood his ground and could not be bribed (bribery or money and opportunities provided by the government comes up later in the book), the government essentially lost the argument because it was a war and a political structure, like all wars and political structures according to Tolstoy, that could not survive argument and when confronted head-on and challenged, crumbled without violence (though the Vietnam war dragged on for political reasons and eighteen-year-olds are still required to sign up for Selective Service and could be theoretically subject to compulsory military service, this has not happened since Vietnam and the United States military has relied on what Tolstoy would call a combination of bribery and hypnotism to maintain its numbers). This is how governmental power is eroded, gradually and by voluntary rejection of governmental service. So how can the government combat this voluntary rejection of government?

"The most convenient thing for the government to do would be to have the refuser executed, beaten to death with sticks, as they used to do of old, or executed in some other manner. But it is impossible openly to execute a man for being true to a teaching which we all profess, and it is equally impossible to let a man alone, who refuses to serve. And so the government tries either through suffering to compel the man to renounce Christ, or in some way imperceptibly to get rid of the man, with out having him publicly executed, — in some way to conceal this man's act and the man himself from other people. And so there begin all kinds of devices and cunning and tortures of this man. Either he is sent to some outlying region, or he is provoked to commit some act of insubordination, and then he is tried for breach of discipline and is locked up in prison, in a disciplinary battalion, where he is freely tortured in secret, or he is declared insane and is locked up in an insane asylum."

Russia is famous for, no matter what kind of government it has, sending people to Siberia as a punishment, though they would also send people to other outliers of the empire such as the Caucuses, the Turkish border, or Poland. And of course, declaring dissenters as having a mental illness or something wrong with their brain and a need for reeducation is something authoritarian Communist governments would perfect (again, see 1984). Tolstoy's honest look at prisons and its applicability today is something that pops up in spurts throughout the book and I wish he concentrated on it a little more because it really anticipates a lot of postmodern critiques of prison systems. The key thread of these three punishments of course lie in their uprooting of the life of the non-resister's life and this is why, though he doesn't use the phrase, non-attachment is key to the non-resister. The non-resister or refuser cannot just refuse to be uprooted for military service or governmental duties, because either way, when the government comes knocking, it will be impossible to maintain the life they are used to. They will have to either consent to the governmental service or face the different consequences the government throws at them (this process will be elaborated on in Chapter 9). In this, non-resistance and what Tolstoy calls Christianity has to exist outside of an individual's connection to the life they are used to. Instead, in the sense that Christianity is "not of this world", a Christian has to be completely unattached from their material possessions and their relation to a comfortable life. When looking at what Tolstoy is advocating for, it cannot be lost that Tolstoy is advocating for something he knows that could get people killed, tortured, or imprisoned. Non-resistance doesn't necessarily come without consequences. In fact, it most likely will come with negative consequences, as he'll discuss more in the book. However, we'll see reasons for why Tolstoy believes this is the only route to societal and worldly change (as with the review of The Slavery of Our Times it should be emphasized that Tolstoy is not advocating martyrdom for the sake of post-world rewards, but instead believing it as an instrument of social and political change, by getting rid of the need of politics altogether).

"Thus the information which I received concerning the extent to which the true significance of Christ's teaching has been elucidated and is being elucidated more and more, and concerning the attitude which the highest ruling classes, not only in Russia, but also in Europe and in America, take toward this elucidation and execution of the teaching, convinced me that in these ruling classes there existed a consciously hostile relation toward true Christianity, which found its expression mainly in the silence observed concerning all its manifestations."

The ruling classes suppress radical pacifism because they find it threatening and thus most people's engagement with Christianity comes through churches, which teach the people that follow them violence rather than non-violence and defines Christianity as violence for those who do not believe in Christianity, making it easier for those who do not wish to engage with Christianity to reject it. And this is the problem Tolstoy will address in the next two chapters as he will combat the conception of Christianity by those who call themselves Christians and by those who reject Christianity. And today, it is clear that Tolstoy still has a point. Christianity, while possessing moderate sects, has had its liberal and pacifist sects almost completely eroded and its conservative and violently patriotic forms define it to those both inside of it and outside of it. 

Book 2 Part 5 Chapter 4 (Chapter 146 overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: Pierre informs Princess Mariya of Boris Drubetskoi's flattering attentions. Her surprise. Her tears. Discussion of Natasha.
Briggs: Pierre and Marya discuss Boris Drubetskoy and Natasha.
Maude: Pierre and Princess Mary discuss Boris and Natasha

Translation:

IV.

Princess Marya, sitting in the living room and listening to this talk and gossip of old people, understood nothing of what she heard; she thought only about whether or not all the visitors noticed the hostile relationship of her father to her. She even did not notice the particular attention and courtesies that to her in all the time of this dinner were manifested by Drubetskoy, now for the third time arriving at their house.

Princess Marya with a scattered, interrogative look turned to Pierre, who last of the guests, with a hat in hand and with a smile on his face, came up to her after the prince got out, and they alone stayed in the living room.

— Can I still sit? — he said, his thick body lying on a chair beside Princess Marya.

— Ah yes, — she said. "Did you not notice?" said her look.

Pierre was found in the pleasant, after dinner condition of spirit. He looked before himself and quietly smiled.

— For a long time have you known this young man, princess? — he said.

— Which one?

— Drubetskoy?

— No, recently...

— How do you like him?

— Yes, he is an agreeable young person... from what do you ask me this? — said Princess Marya, thinking about her morning conversation with her father.

— Because of how I made the observation, — young people of Petersburg usually come to Moscow on vacation only with the purpose to marry to a rich bride.

— You have made this observation? — said Princess Marya.

— Yes, — continued Pierre with a smile, — and this young person now holds himself so where there is a rich bride, — there it is. I as a book read him. He is now in indecision, whom he will attack: you or mademoiselle Juli Karagin. He is very attentive to her.525

— He rides to her?

— Yes, very often. And do you know the new manner to look after? — with a fun smile said Pierre, apparently found in this fun spirit of good-natured ridicule, for which he so often in his diary reproached himself.

— No, — said Princess Marya.

— Now so that to like Moscow girls — you need to be melancholic. He is very melancholic with her,526 — said Pierre.

—  Really?527 — said Princess Marya, looking at the good face of Pierre and not ceasing to think about her grief. —”It would be easier for me, — she thought, — should I decide to believe in someone everything that I feel. And I would want to Pierre to say all. He is so nice and noble. I would become easier. He would give me advice!"

— Would you go for him to get married? — asked Pierre.

— Ah, my God, count! There are such minutes that I would go for any, — suddenly unexpectantly for mostly herself, with tears in her voice, said Princess Marya. — Ah, how heavy it is to be in love with a human closely and feel that... nothing (she continued in a trembling voice) can be done for him besides grief, when you know that you cannot change this. Then only — to leave, but where am I to leave?

— What is with you, what is with you, princess?

Yet the princess, not finishing talking, cried.

— I do not know what is with me now. Do not listen to me, forget what I to you have said.

All the hilarity of Pierre disappeared. He was concerned and asked the princess, requesting her to express everything, believe in him her grief; but she only repeated that she asked him to forget what she said, that she did not remember what she said, and that in her was no grief, besides what he knows — the grief about how the marriage of Prince Andrey threatens to quarrel father with son.

— Whether you have heard about the Rostovs? — she asked, so that to change the conversation. — It was said to me that they soon will be here. André too I wait for everyday. I would want for them to be seen here.

— But how does he now watch this business? — asked Pierre, he concerning the old prince. Princess Marya shook her head.

— But what again is there to do? To the year stays only a few months. And this may not be. I would only want to rid my brother of the first minutes. I would want for them to rather have arrived. I hope to come together with her... You for a long time have known them, — said Princess Marya, — Say to me, putting hand on heart, all the truth, what is behind this girl and how do you find her? But all the truth; because of how you understand that Andrey risks so much, doing this is against the commitment of father, that I would want to know...

An obscure instinct said to Pierre that in these reservations and repeated requests to say all the truth, expressed a grudge of Princesses Marya to her future sister-in-law, that she wanted, so that for Pierre to not approve of the choice of Prince Andrey; but Pierre said what he felt rather than thought.

— I do not know how to respond to your question, — he said, blushing, himself not knowing from what. — I resolutely do not know what is behind this girl; I in no way can analyze her. She is charming. But from what, I do not know: here is all that I can say about her. — Princess Marya sighed and the expression of her face said: "Yes, this I awaited and was afraid."

— Is she smart? — asked Princess Marya. Pierre thought.

— I think no, — he said, — but however, yes. She does not honor being smart... yes, no, she is charming, and nothing more. — Princess Marya again disapprovingly shook her head.

— Ah, I so want to love her! To her say this, if you see her before me.

— I hear that they will be here in another day, — said Pierre.

Princess Marya reported to Pierre her plan about how she, only when the Rostovs come, will get closer with her future sister-in-law and will try to accustom the old prince to her.

525 Il est très assidu auprès d’elle. (He is very assiduous with her.)

526 il faut être mélancolique. Et il est très mélancolique auprès de m-lle Karagin (one must be melancholy. And he is very melancholy with Miss Karagin)

527 Vraiment? (Really?)

Time: see previous chapter

Locations: see previous chapter
Mentioned: St. Petersburg. Moscow

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: Marya's response to these political conversations, not understanding them. "she was thinking only of whether the guests had noticed her father's hostile attitude towards her."

Pierre informs her that Boris' intention must be to come try to marry her.

"Nowadays, in order to please Moscow girls, one must be melancholy."

"Pierre said what he felt rather than what he thought."

Characters (characters who do not appear, but are mentioned are placed in italics. First appearances are in Bold. First mentions are underlined. Final appearance denoted by *):

Princess Mariya

Boris Drubetskoi (only by last name. Could argue he is just mentioned.)

Prince Nikolai (“father” and “old prince”)

Pierre

Mademoiselle Julie Karaguine (Garnett, Weiner, and Maude keep “Karagin” while Briggs puts “Karagina”. Edmonds keeps “Karagin” but drops “Julie”. Bell uses “Mlle. Karaguine” and “Mlle. Julie”.)

Prince Andrei (also “Andre” and “brother”)

Natasha (not by name. “prospective sister-in-law”. Rostofs are also referenced in general.)

(the guests and men of last chapter are mentioned in general, but I’ve only put the ones that were specifically referenced above)

Abridged Versions: End of Chapter 16 in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 4.

Fuller: Entire chapter is cut

Komroff: Almost the entire chapter is preserved, it breaks off when Mary says “that’s what I expected and feared.” Followed by a break.

Kropotkin: Entire chapter is cut.

Bromfield: Pierre and Marya do not talk about Natasha and chapter 9 ends with Marya thinking angry thoughts about her father.
Simmons: Chapter 4: The intro of the chapter is removed to get to the Mary and Pierre conversation quicker.

Additional Notes:

Speirs Page 17: The struggle, the war that War and Peace is about, is that between two fundamental attitudes which may be adopted

to the world -- that of the Westernised Prince Andrew, a product of Petersburg, and that of Pierre, Count Bezukhov, a product of Russia’s

ancient oriental capital,”

Page 41: Book Eight...also concludes the first half of the novel, Every one of the main characters appears, and every one of them has become a bit older and a bit dull. The city is Moscow, a city about which everything is known. War and Peace has been filled exclusively with disappointments...We know so much that we are getting world-weary. Tolstoy never stops creating new acquaintances, though by now the circle of people who are intimately known will not be enlarged.”

 

Richard F. Gustafson (States of Human Awareness): This consciousness does not stop at the boundary of his personal interest...

Natasha in both her knowing and loving, Princess Mary in her lack of anything personal...Knowledge through affective awareness

is a way of knowing the reality in which one exists...Such knowledge is knowledge by participation….