War and Peace - Principal Characters in War and Peace

Principal Characters in War and Peace

• Count Pyotr Kirillovich (Pierre) Bezukhov — The large-bodied, ungainly, and socially awkward illegitimate son of an old Russian grandee. Pierre, educated abroad, returns to Russia as a misfit. His unexpected inheritance of a large fortune makes him socially desirable. Pierre is the central character and often a voice for Tolstoy's own beliefs or struggles.
• Prince Andrei (Andrew) Nikolayevich Bolkonsky — A strong but cynical, thoughtful and philosophical aide-de-camp in the Napoleonic Wars.
• Princess Maria Nikolayevna Bolkonskaya — Sister of Prince Andrew, Princess Maria is a pious woman whose eccentric father attempted to give her a good education. The caring, nurturing nature of her large eyes in her otherwise thin and plain face are frequently mentioned.
• Count Ilya Andreyevich Rostov — The pater-familias of the Rostov family; terrible with finances, generous to a fault.
• Countess Natalya Rostova — Wife of Count Ilya Rostov, mother of the four Rostov children.
• Countess Natalia Ilyinichna (Natasha) Rostova — A central character, introduced as "not pretty but full of life" and a romantic young girl, she evolves through trials and suffering and eventually finds happiness. She is an accomplished singer and dancer.
• Count Nikolai Ilyich (Nicholas) Rostov — An hussar, the beloved eldest son of the Rostov family.
• Sofia Alexandrovna (Sonya) Rostova — Orphaned cousin of Vera, Nikolai, Natasha, and Petya Rostov.
• Countess Vera Ilyinichna Rostova — Eldest of the Rostov children, she marries the German career soldier, Berg.
• Pyotr Ilyich (Petya) Rostov — Youngest of the Rostov children.
• Prince Vasily Sergeyevich Kuragin — A ruthless man who is determined to marry his children well, despite having doubts about the character of some of them.
• Princess Elena Vasilyevna (Hélène) Kuragin — A beautiful and sexually alluring woman who has many affairs, including (it is rumoured) with her brother Anatole.
• Prince Anatol Vasilyevich Kuragin — Hélène's brother and a very handsome and amoral pleasure seeker who is secretly married yet tries to elope with Natasha Rostova.
• Prince Ipolit Vasilyevich — The eldest and perhaps most dim-witted of the Kuragin children.
• Prince Boris Drubetskoy — A poor but aristocratic young man driven by ambition, even at the expense of his friends and benefactors, who marries for money, rather than love, an heiress, Julie Karagina.
• Princess Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya — The mother of Boris.
• Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov — A cold, almost psychopathic officer, he ruins Nikolai Rostov by luring him into an outrageous gambling debt (by which he, Dolokhov, profits), he only shows love to his doting mother.
• Adolf Karlovich Berg — A young Russian officer, who desires to be just like everyone else.
• Anna Pavlovna Sherer — Also known as Annette, she is the hostess of the salon that is the site of much of the novel's action in Petersburg.
• Maria Dmitryevna Akhrosimova — An older Moscow society lady, she is an elegant dancer and trend-setter, despite her age and size.
• Amalia Evgenyevna Bourienne — A French woman who lives with the Bolkonskys, primarily as Princess Marya's companion.
• Vasily Dmitrich Denisov — Nikolai Rostov's friend and brother officer, who proposes to Natasha.
• Platon Krataev – The archetypal good Russian peasant, whom Pierre meets in the prisoner of war camp.
• Napoleon I of France — the Great Man, whose fate is detailed in the book.
• General Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov — Russian commander-in-chief.
• Osip Bazdeyev — the Freemason who interests Pierre in his mysterious group, starting a lengthy subplot.
• Tsar Alexander I of Russia — He signed a peace treaty with Napoleon in 1807 and then went to war with him.

Many of Tolstoy's characters in War and Peace were based on real-life people known to Tolstoy himself. His grandparents and their friends were the models for many of the main characters, his great-grandparents would have been of the generation of Prince Vasilly or Count Ilya Rostov. Some of the characters, obviously, are actual historic figures.