Towards the issue of understanding the statements about history in Leo Tolstoy’s "War and peace"

The article attempts to consider historiographical methods of understanding Tolstoy’s statements on history expressed in «War and peace», basing on the works of N.I. Kareev, E. V Tarle and other Russian historians. The author points out that in the modem context it is difficult to continue the discussion about what was postulated in the book and that the substantive and sematic aspects of it systematically slip away.