When the Gregorian and Julian calendar came into being. Gregorian calendar: history and main characteristics

Different ways calendar chronology... A new style of time reckoning was introduced by the Council of People's Commissars - the government Soviet Russia January 24, 1918 "Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic".

The decree was intended to facilitate "The establishment in Russia of the same reckoning of time with almost all cultural peoples"... After all, since 1582, when all over Europe Julian calendar in accordance with the recommendations of astronomers was replaced by the Gregorian, the Russian calendar turned out to be 13 days different from the calendars of civilized states.

The fact is that the new European calendar was born through the efforts of the Pope, but the Catholic Pope was not an authority or a decree for the Russian Orthodox clergy, and they rejected the innovation. So they lived for more than 300 years: in Europe, New year, in Russia as early as December 19.

By the decree of the Council of People's Commissars (abbreviation of the Council of People's Commissars) of January 24, 1918, it was ordered that February 1, 1918 be considered February 14 (in parentheses, we note that, according to long-term observations, Russian orthodox calendar, that is, "Old style", is more consistent with the climate of the European part Russian Federation... For example, on March 1, when, according to the old style, it is still deep February, there is no smell of spring, and the relative warming begins from mid-March or its first numbers according to the old style).

Not everyone liked the new style

However, not only Russia rested against the establishment of a Catholic day count, in Greece the "New Style" was legalized in 1924, Turkey - 1926, Egypt - 1928. At the same time, something is not heard that the Greeks or Egyptians celebrated, as in Russia, two holidays: New Year and Old New Year, that is, Old Style New Year.

It is interesting that the introduction of the Gregorian calendar was accepted without enthusiasm in those European countries where the leading religion was Protestantism. So in England, the time was changed only in 1752, in Sweden - a year later, in 1753.

Julian calendar

Introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. Started on January 1st. The year had 365 days. The year number divisible by 4 was recognized as a leap year. One day was added to it - February 29. The difference between the calendar of Julius Caesar and the calendar of Pope Gregory is that the first has every fourth year, without exception, a leap year, and the second only has leap years that are divisible by four, but not multiples of one hundred. As a result, the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars is gradually increasing and, for example, in 2101, Orthodox Christmas will be celebrated not on January 7, but on January 8.

The Russian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar in liturgical life (the so-called old style), developed by a group of Alexandrian astronomers led by the famous scientist Sozigen and introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. NS.

After the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia on January 24, 1918, the All-Russian Local Council decided that "during 1918 the Church in her daily life will be guided by the old style."

On March 15, 1918, at a meeting of the Department of Worship, Preaching and the Church, the following decision was made: “In view of the importance of the issue of calendar reform and the impossibility, from the independent decision his Russian Church, without preliminary communication on this issue with representatives of all autocephalous Churches, to leave the Julian calendar in its entirety in the Russian Orthodox Church. " In 1948, at the Moscow meeting of Orthodox Churches, it was established that Easter, like all rolling church holidays, should be calculated according to the Alexandrian Easter (Julian calendar), and non-rolling ones - according to the calendar adopted in the local church. According to the Gregorian calendar, Easter is celebrated only by the Finnish Orthodox Church.

Currently, the Julian calendar is used only by a few local Orthodox churches: Jerusalem, Russian, Georgian and Serbian. It is also adhered to by some monasteries and parishes in Europe and the United States, the monasteries of Athos and a number of monophysist churches. However, all Orthodox churches that have adopted the Gregorian calendar, except for the Finnish one, still calculate the day of the celebration of Easter and the holidays, the dates of which depend on the date of Easter, according to the Alexandrian Easter and the Julian calendar.

To calculate rolling dates church holidays the calculation is based on the date of Easter, determined by the lunar calendar.

The accuracy of the Julian calendar is low: every 128 years it accumulates an extra day. Because of this, for example, the Nativity of Christ, initially almost coinciding with the winter solstice, is gradually shifting towards spring. For this reason, in 1582 in Catholic countries, the Julian calendar was replaced by a more accurate decree by Pope Gregory XIII. Protestant countries gradually abandoned the Julian calendar.

The difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars is constantly increasing due to the different rules for determining leap years: in the XIV century it was 8 days, in the XX and XXI centuries- 13, and in the XXII century the gap will be equal to 14 days. Due to the growing change in the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, Orthodox churches using the Julian calendar, starting in 2101, will celebrate Christmas not on January 7 according to the civil (Gregorian) calendar, as in the XX-XXI centuries, but already on January 8, but , for example, since 9001 - already March 1 (according to the new style), although in their liturgical calendar this day will still be marked as December 25 (according to the old style).

For the above reason, one should not confuse the recalculation of real historical dates of the Julian calendar into the Gregorian calendar style with the conversion to new style dates of the Julian church month, in which all the days of the celebrations are fixed as Julian (that is, without taking into account which Gregorian date a particular holiday or memorable day corresponded to). Therefore, to determine the date, for example, of the Nativity of the Virgin according to the new style in the 21st century, it is necessary to add 13 by 8 (the Nativity of the Virgin is celebrated according to the Julian calendar on September 8), and in the XXII century already 14 days. The translation to the new style of civil dates is carried out taking into account the century of a specific date. So, for example, the events of the Battle of Poltava took place on June 27, 1709, which, according to the new (Gregorian) style, corresponds to July 8 (the difference between the Julian and Gregorian styles in the 18th century was 11 days), and, for example, the date of the Borodino battle is August 26, 1812 year, and according to the new style it is September 7, since the difference between the Julian and Gregorian styles in the 19th century is already 12 days. Therefore, civil historical events will always be celebrated according to the Gregorian calendar at the time of the year in which they occurred according to the Julian calendar (the Battle of Poltava in June, the Battle of Borodino in August, M.V. Lomonosov's birthday in November, etc.). ), and the dates of church holidays are shifting forward due to their rigid binding to the Julian calendar, which is quite intensively (on a historical scale) accumulating calculation errors (in several millennia, Christmas will no longer be a winter, but a summer holiday).

For quick and convenient translation of dates between different calendars, it is advisable to use

- notation system for large periods of time, based on the periodicity of the visible motions of celestial bodies.

The most common solar calendar, which is based on a solar (tropical) year - the time interval between two successive passages of the center of the Sun through the vernal equinox.

The tropical year is approximately 365.2422 solar mean days.

The solar calendar includes the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar, and some others.

The modern calendar is called Gregorian (new style), it was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and replaced the Julian calendar (old style), which was used from 45 century BC.

The Gregorian calendar is a further refinement of the Julian calendar.

In the Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar, the average length of a year in the interval of four years was 365.25 days, which is 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the tropical year. Over time, the onset of seasonal phenomena according to the Julian calendar accounted for more and more early dates... Particularly strong discontent was caused by the constant shift of the date of Easter, associated with the vernal equinox. In 325, the Council of Nicaea issued a decree on a single date for Easter for the entire Christian church.

© Public Domain

© Public Domain

In the centuries that followed, many proposals were made to improve the calendar. The proposals of the Neapolitan astronomer and physician Aloysius Lilia (Luigi Lilio Giraldi) and the Bavarian Jesuit Christopher Clavius ​​were approved by Pope Gregory XIII. He issued a bull (message) on February 24, 1582, introducing two important additions to the Julian calendar: 10 days were removed from the 1582 calendar - after October 4, October 15 immediately followed. This measure allowed to keep March 21 as the date of the vernal equinox. In addition, three out of every four secular years were to be considered normal, and only those divisible by 400 were leap years.

1582 was the first year of the Gregorian calendar called the New Style.

Gregorian calendar in different countries was introduced at various times. Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, Holland and Luxembourg were the first to adopt the new style in 1582. Then, in the 1580s, it was introduced in Austria, Switzerland, Hungary. In the 18th century, the Gregorian calendar began to be used in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden and Finland, in the 19th century - in Japan. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in China, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Turkey and Egypt.

In Russia, along with the adoption of Christianity (X century), the Julian calendar was established. Since the new religion was borrowed from Byzantium, the years were counted according to the Constantinople era "from the creation of the world" (for 5508 BC). By the decree of Peter I in 1700, the European chronology was introduced in Russia - "from the Nativity of Christ".

December 19, 7208 from the creation of the world, when the reformation decree was issued, in Europe corresponded to December 29, 1699 from the birth of Christ according to the Gregorian calendar.

At the same time, the Julian calendar was preserved in Russia. The Gregorian calendar was introduced after the October Revolution of 1917 - from February 14, 1918. The Russian Orthodox Church, keeping traditions, lives according to the Julian calendar.

The difference between the old and new styles is 11 days for the XVIII century, 12 days for the XIX century, 13 days for the XX and XXI centuries, 14 days for the XXII century.

Although the Gregorian calendar is quite consistent with natural phenomena, it is also not completely accurate. The length of the year in the Gregorian calendar is 26 seconds longer than the tropical year and accumulates an error of 0.0003 days per year, which is three days in 10 thousand years. The Gregorian calendar also does not account for the slowing of the Earth's rotation, lengthening the day by 0.6 seconds over 100 years.

The modern structure of the Gregorian calendar also does not fully meet the needs of public life. Chief among its disadvantages is the variability of the number of days and weeks in months, quarters and semesters.

There are four main problems with the Gregorian calendar:

- In theory, a civil (calendar) year should have the same duration as an astronomical (tropical) year. However, this is not possible, since the tropical year does not contain a whole number of days. Due to the need to add additional days to the year from time to time, there are two types of years - regular and leap years. Since the year can start on any day of the week, this gives seven types of regular and seven types of leap years - a total of 14 types of years. For their full reproduction, you need to wait 28 years.

- The length of months is different: they can contain from 28 to 31 days, and this unevenness leads to certain difficulties in economic calculations and statistics. |

- Neither regular nor leap years contain an integer number of weeks. Semi-years, quarters and months also do not contain a whole and equal number of weeks.

- From week to week, from month to month and from year to year, the correspondence of dates and days of the week changes, so it is difficult to establish the moments of various events.

In 1954 and 1956, the drafts of the new calendar were discussed at sessions of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), but the final resolution of the issue was postponed.

In Russia The State Duma was proposing to return the Julian calendar to the country from January 1, 2008. Deputies Viktor Alksnis, Sergei Baburin, Irina Savelyeva and Alexander Fomenko proposed to establish a transitional period from December 31, 2007, when, within 13 days, chronology will be carried out simultaneously according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars. In April 2008, the bill was rejected by a majority vote.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

We use the calendar our entire life. This seemingly simple table of numbers with days of the week has a very ancient and rich history... The civilizations we know already knew how to divide the year into months and days. For example, in ancient egypt based on the laws of motion of the moon and Sirius, a calendar was created. The year was approximately 365 days and was divided into twelve months, which, in turn, were divided into thirty days.

Julius Caesar innovator

Around 46 BC. NS. there was a transformation of chronology. The Roman emperor Julius Caesar created the Julian calendar. It was slightly different from the Egyptian: the fact is that the sun was taken as a basis, instead of the Moon and Sirius. The year was now 365 days and six hours. January 1 was considered the beginning of the new time, while Christmas was celebrated on January 7.

In connection with this reform, the Senate decided to thank the emperor by naming one month after him, which we know as "July". After the death of Julius Caesar, the priests began to confuse the months, the number of days - in a word, the old calendar was no longer like the new one. Every third year was considered a leap year. From 44 to 9 BC there were 12 leap years, which was not true.

After Emperor Octavian Augustus came to power, leap years did not exist for sixteen years, so everything fell into place, and the situation with chronology was corrected. In honor of Emperor Octavian, the eighth month was renamed from Sextilis to August.

When the question arose about the appointment of the celebration of the day of Easter, disagreements began. It was this question that was decided at the Ecumenical Council. The rules that were established at this Council, no one has the right to change to this day.

Innovator Gregory XIII

In 1582, Gregory XIII replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian... The shifting of the vernal equinox was the main reason for the change. It was according to him that the day of Easter was calculated. At the time when the Julian calendar was introduced, this day was considered March 21, but around the 16th century, the difference between the tropical and Julian calendar was about 10 days, therefore, March 21 was replaced by 11.

In 1853, the Council of Patriarchs in Constantinople criticized and condemned the Gregorian calendar, according to which the Catholic Holy Sunday was celebrated before the Jewish Passover, which was contrary to the established rules of the Ecumenical Councils.

Differences between old and new style

So what is the difference between the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar?

• Unlike the Gregorian, the Julian was adopted much earlier, and it is 1,000 years older.
• On this moment the old style (Julian) is used to calculate the celebration of Easter among Orthodox Christians.
• The chronology created by Gregory is much more accurate than the previous one and will not be subject to changes in the future.
• Old style leap years are every fourth year.
• In Gregorian, leap years are not those that are divisible by four and end in two zeros.
• All church holidays are celebrated in the new style.

As we can see, between the Julian calendar and Gregorian difference obvious not only in terms of calculations, but also in popularity.

Stands up interest Ask... What calendar are we living on now?

The Russian Orthodox Church uses Julian, which was adopted during the Ecumenical Council, while Catholics use the Gregorian. Hence the difference in the dates of the celebration of the Nativity of Christ and Easter. Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7, following the decision of the Ecumenical Council, and Catholics - on December 25.

These two chronology were named - the old and the new calendar style.

The area where the old style is applied is not very large: Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem Orthodox Churches.

As we can see, after the introduction of the new style, the life of Christians around the world has changed. Many happily accepted the changes and began to live by it. But there are also those Christians who remain faithful to the old style and live according to it now, albeit in very small numbers.

There will always be disagreements between Orthodox and Catholics, and this is not related to the old or new style of chronology. Julian and Gregorian calendars - the difference is not in faith, but in the desire to use one or another calendar.

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Gregorian calendar- a time reckoning system based on the cyclical revolution of the Earth around the Sun; the length of the year is taken to be 365.2425 days; contains 97 leap years for 400 years.

For the first time, the Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in Catholic countries on October 4, 1582, instead of the previous Julian calendar: the next day after Thursday, October 4, was Friday October 15.

The Gregorian calendar is used in most countries of the world.

Gregorian calendar structure

In the Gregorian calendar, the length of the year is taken to be 365.2425 days. The duration of a non-leap year is 365 days, a leap year - 366.

$365\; (,)\; 2425\; =\; 365\; +\; 0\; (,)\; 25\; -\; 0\; (,)\; 01\; +\; 0\; (,)\; 0025\; =\; 365\; +\; \backslash \; frac\; (1)\; (4)\; -\; \backslash \; frac\; (1)\; (100)\; +\; \backslash \; frac\; (1\; )\; (400).$ Hence the distribution of leap years:

• a year whose number is divisible by 400 is a leap year;
• the rest of the years, the number of which is a multiple of 100, are non-leap years;
• the rest of the years, the number of which is a multiple of 4, are leap years.

Thus, 1600 and 2000 were leap years, while 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years.

An error of one day compared to the year of the equinoxes in the Gregorian calendar will accumulate in about 10,000 years (in the Julian - in about 128 years). A frequently occurring estimate leading to a value of the order of 3000 years is obtained if one does not take into account that the number of days in a tropical year changes over time and, in addition, the ratio between the lengths of the seasons changes.

In the Gregorian calendar, there are leap years and non-leap years; the year can start on any of the seven days of the week. Taken together, this gives 2 × 7 = 14 calendar options per year.

Months

According to the Gregorian calendar, a year is divided into 12 months, ranging from 28 to 31 days:

The rule of remembering the number of days in a month

There is a simple rule for memorizing the number of days in a month - “ knuckle rule».

If you put your fists together in front of you so that you can see back sides palms, then by the "knuckles" (knuckles) on the edge of the palm and the intervals between them, you can determine whether any month is "long" (31 days) or "short" (30 days, except for February). To do this, you need to start counting the months from January, counting the knuckles and intervals. January will correspond to the first knuckle (long month - 31 days), February - the interval between the first and second knuckles ( short month), March - a knuckle, etc. Two consecutive long months - July and August - fall exactly on the adjacent knuckles different hands(the gap between the fists does not count).

There is also the mnemonic rule "Ap-yun-sen-no." The syllables of this word indicate the names of months consisting of 30 days. It is known that February, depending on the specific year, contains 28 or 29 days. All other months contain 31 days. The convenience of this mnemonic rule is that there is no need to “recount” the knuckles.

There is also an English-language school saying to memorize the number of days in months: Thirty days have september, april, june and november... Analog on German: Dreißig Tage hat September, April, Juni und November.

Difference between Julian and Gregorian calendars

At the time of the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, the difference between it and the Julian calendar was 10 days. However, this difference is gradually increasing due to different amounts leap years - in the Gregorian calendar, the final year of the century, if it is not divisible by 400, is not a leap year (see Leap year) - and today is 13 days.

History

Prerequisites for the transition to the Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar gives a much more accurate approximation to the tropical year. The reason for the adoption of the new calendar was the gradual shift in relation to the Julian calendar of the day of the vernal equinox, by which the date of Easter was determined, and the mismatch of the Easter full moons with the astronomical ones. Before Gregory XIII, Pope Paul III and Pius IV tried to implement the project, but they did not achieve success. The preparation of the reform at the direction of Gregory XIII was carried out by the astronomers Christopher Clavius ​​and Aloysius Lily. The results of their labor were recorded in the papal bull, signed by the pontiff at Villa Mondragone and named after the first line Inter gravissimas("Among the most important").

The transition to the Gregorian calendar brought about the following changes:

Over time, the Julian and Gregorian calendars diverge more and more, by three days every 400 years.

Dates of transition of countries to the Gregorian calendar

States switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian at different times:

Transition history

In 1582, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Rzeczpospolita (Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland), France, Lorraine switched to the Gregorian calendar.

By the end of 1583, they were joined by Holland, Belgium, Brabant, Flanders, Liege, Augsburg, Trier, Bavaria, Salzburg, Regensburg, part of Austria and Tyrol. There were some curiosities. For example, in Belgium and Holland, January 1, 1583 came immediately after December 21, 1582, and the entire population remained that year without Christmas.

In some cases, the transition to the Gregorian calendar was accompanied by serious unrest. For example, when the Polish king Stefan Batory introduced a new calendar in Riga in 1584, local merchants mutinied, claiming that a 10-day shift would disrupt their delivery times and result in significant losses. The rebels destroyed the Riga church and killed several municipal employees. It was only in the summer of 1589 that it was possible to cope with the "calendar disturbances".

In some countries that switched to the Gregorian calendar, the Julian chronology was subsequently resumed as a result of their accession to other states. In connection with the transition of countries to the Gregorian calendar at different times, actual errors of perception may occur: for example, it is sometimes said that Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare died on the same day - April 23, 1616. In fact, Shakespeare died 10 days later than Inca Garcilaso, since in Catholic Spain the new style was in effect from the very introduction of it by the pope, and Great Britain switched to the new calendar only in 1752, and 11 days later than Cervantes (who died on 22 April, but was buried on April 23).

The introduction of the new calendar also had serious financial implications for tax collectors. In 1753 - the first full year according to the Gregorian calendar, bankers refused to pay taxes, waiting for the prescribed 11 days after the usual end date of fees - March 25. As a result, the UK fiscal year did not begin until 6 April. This date has survived to today, as a symbol of the great changes that took place 250 years ago.

The transition to the Gregorian calendar in Alaska was unusual, since there it was combined with the transfer of the date line. Therefore, after Friday, October 5, 1867, the old style was followed by another Friday, October 18, 1867 in the new style.

Ethiopia and Thailand have not yet switched to the Gregorian calendar.

In the booth, into which Pierre entered and in which he spent four weeks, there were twenty-three prisoners of war, three officers and two officials.
All of them then seemed to be in a fog to Pierre, but Platon Karataev remained forever in Pierre's soul the most powerful and dear memory and the personification of everything Russian, kind and round. When the next day, at dawn, Pierre saw his neighbor, the first impression of something round was fully confirmed: the whole figure of Plato in his French overcoat belted with a rope, in a cap and bast shoes, was round, his head was completely round, his back, chest, shoulders, even the arms that he wore, as if always about to hug something, were round; a pleasant smile and large brown tender eyes were round.
Platon Karataev should have been over fifty years old, judging by his stories about campaigns in which he participated as a longtime soldier. He himself did not know and could not in any way determine how old he was; but his teeth, bright white and strong, which all rolled out in their two semicircles when he laughed (which he often did), were all good and whole; not a single gray hair was in his beard and hair, and his whole body had the appearance of suppleness, and especially firmness and endurance.
His face, in spite of the fine, round wrinkles, had an expression of innocence and youth; his voice was pleasant and melodious. But main feature his speech was spontaneous and controversial. He apparently never thought about what he said and what he would say; and from this there was a special irresistible persuasiveness in the speed and fidelity of his intonations.
His physical strength and agility were such at the beginning of his captivity that he did not seem to understand what fatigue and illness were. Every day in the morning and in the evening he, lying down, said: "Lay down, Lord, with a stone, lift it up with a ball"; in the morning, getting up, always shrugging his shoulders in the same way, said: "I lay down - curled up, got up - shook myself." And indeed, as soon as he lay down to immediately fall asleep with a stone, and it was worth shaking himself so that immediately, without a second of delay, to take up some business, as children, getting up, take up toys. He knew how to do everything, not very well, but not bad either. He baked, steamed, sewed, planed, made boots. He was always busy and only at night allowed himself to talk, which he loved, and songs. He sang songs, not like songwriters who know that they are being listened to, but he sang like birds sing, evidently because he needed to make these sounds just as it is necessary to stretch or disperse; and these sounds were always subtle, gentle, almost feminine, mournful, and his face was very serious at the same time.
Having been captured and overgrown with a beard, he apparently threw away from himself everything that was put on him, alien, soldier's and involuntarily returned to the old, peasant, folk way.
- A soldier on vacation - a shirt made of trousers, - he used to say. He was reluctant to talk about his time as a soldier, although he did not complain, and often repeated that he had never been beaten throughout his service. When he spoke, he mainly recounted from his old and, apparently, dear memories of the "Christian", as he pronounced, peasant life. The sayings that filled his speech were not those mostly indecent and glib sayings that the soldiers say, but they were those folk sayings that seem so insignificant, taken separately, and which suddenly acquire the meaning of deep wisdom when they are spoken by the way.
Often he said the exact opposite of what he had said before, but both were true. He loved to speak and spoke well, adorning his speech with affectionate and proverbs, which, it seemed to Pierre, he himself invented; but the main charm of his stories was that in his speech the events were the simplest, sometimes the very ones that Pierre saw without noticing them, acquired the character of solemn goodness. He loved to listen to tales that one soldier told in the evenings (all the same), but most of all he loved to hear stories about real life... He smiled happily, listening to such stories, inserting words and asking questions that tended to grasp the goodness of what he was told. Affection, friendship, love, as Pierre understood them, Karataev did not have any; but he loved and lived lovingly with everything with which life brought him, and especially with a person - not with some famous person, but with those people who were before his eyes. He loved his mongrel, loved his comrades, the French, loved Pierre, who was his neighbor; but Pierre felt that Karataev, in spite of all his affectionate tenderness towards him (with which he involuntarily paid tribute to Pierre's spiritual life), would not for a moment be upset at being separated from him. And Pierre began to feel the same feeling for Karataev.
Platon Karataev was an ordinary soldier for all the other prisoners; his name was Sokolik or Platosha, they good-naturedly mocked him, sent him for parcels. But for Pierre, as he presented himself on the first night, an incomprehensible, round and eternal personification of the spirit of simplicity and truth, so he remained forever.
Platon Karataev knew nothing by heart, except for his prayer. When he spoke his speeches, he, starting them, did not seem to know how he would end them.
When Pierre, sometimes struck by the meaning of his speech, asked to repeat what he had said, Plato could not remember what he had said a minute ago, just as he could not in any way tell Pierre his favorite song in words. There was: "darling, birch and nauseous to me", but the words did not come out any meaning. He did not understand and could not understand the meaning of words taken separately from speech. His every word and every action was a manifestation of an activity unknown to him, which was his life. But his life, as he himself saw it, had no meaning as a separate life. It made sense only as a part of the whole, which he constantly felt. His words and actions poured out of him as evenly, necessary and immediately, as the smell is separated from the flower. He could not understand either the price or the meaning of a single action or word.

Having received from Nicholas the news that her brother was with the Rostovs in Yaroslavl, Princess Marya, in spite of her aunt's admonitions, immediately prepared to go, and not only alone, but with her nephew. Whether it was difficult, not difficult, possible or impossible it was, she did not ask and did not want to know: her duty was not only to be near her, perhaps, her dying brother, but also to do everything possible to bring him a son, and she got up drive. If Prince Andrey himself did not notify her, then Princess Marya explained either by the fact that he was too weak to write, or by the fact that he considered this long journey too difficult and dangerous for her and for his son.
In a few days Princess Marya got ready for the journey. Her carriages consisted of a huge princely carriage, in which she arrived in Voronezh, chaise and carts. With her rode m lle Bourienne, Nikolushka with the tutor, an old nanny, three girls, Tikhon, a young footman and a haiduk, whom her aunt let go with her.
It was impossible to go by the usual route to Moscow, and therefore the roundabout route that Princess Marya had to make: to Lipetsk, Ryazan, Vladimir, Shuya, was very long, in the absence of post horses everywhere, it was very difficult and near Ryazan, where, as they said, the French showed themselves, even dangerous.
During this difficult journey, m lle Bourienne, Desalles and Princess Mary's servants were surprised by her firmness of spirit and activity. She went to bed later than everyone else, got up earlier than everyone else, and no difficulty could stop her. Thanks to her activity and the energy that excited her companions, by the end of the second week they drove up to Yaroslavl.
V recent times Princess Marya experienced her stay in Voronezh best happiness In my life. Her love for Rostov no longer tormented her, did not worry her. This love filled her whole soul, became an inseparable part of herself, and she no longer fought against her. Lately Princess Marya has become convinced - although she has never clearly said this to herself in words - she has become convinced that she was loved and loved. She was convinced of this during her last meeting with Nikolai, when he came to her to announce that her brother was with the Rostovs. Nicholas did not hint with a single word that now (if Prince Andrey recovered) the former relationship between him and Natasha could resume, but Princess Marya saw in his face that he knew and thought this. And, despite the fact that his relationship to her - careful, tender and loving - not only did not change, but he seemed to be glad that now the relationship between him and Princess Marya allowed him to more freely express his friendship to her, love, as he sometimes thought Princess Marya. Princess Marya knew that she had loved for the first and last time in her life, and felt that she was loved, and was happy, calm in this respect.
But this happiness of one side of the soul not only did not prevent her from feeling grief about her brother in all her might, but, on the contrary, it peace of mind in one respect it gave her a great opportunity to surrender completely to her feelings for her brother. This feeling was so strong in the first minute of leaving Voronezh that those who accompanied her were sure, looking at her exhausted, desperate face, that she would certainly fall ill on the way; but it was the difficulties and worries of the journey, for which Princess Marya undertook with such activity, that saved her for a while from her grief and gave her strength.
As always happens during a trip, Princess Marya thought of only one trip, forgetting what was his goal. But, approaching Yaroslavl, when again what might lie ahead of her was revealed, and not many days later, but this evening, Princess Mary's excitement reached extreme limits.
When a haiduk sent ahead to find out in Yaroslavl where the Rostovs were and what position Prince Andrei was in, met a large driving carriage at the outpost, he was horrified to see the princess's terribly pale face, which stuck out of the window.
- I found out everything, your Excellency: the Rostov people are on the square, in the house of the merchant Bronnikov. Not far away, just above the Volga, - said the hayduk.
Princess Marya looked frightened and questioningly at his face, not understanding what he was saying to her, not understanding why he did not answer main question: what brother? M lle Bourienne made this question for Princess Marya.
- What is the prince? She asked.
- Their Excellency stands with them in the same house.
"So he is alive," thought the princess and quietly asked: what is he?
- People said, everyone is in the same position.
What did it mean, “everything is in the same position,” the princess did not ask, and only briefly glanced at seven-year-old Nikolushka, who was sitting in front of her and rejoicing at the city, lowered her head and did not raise it until the heavy carriage rattled, shaking and swaying, did not stop somewhere. The reclining footrests thundered.
The doors opened. On the left was water — the river was large, on the right was a porch; on the porch there were people, a servant and some kind of rosy-faced girl with a large black braid who smiled unpleasantly, as it seemed to Princess Marya (it was Sonya). The princess ran up the stairs, the girl pretending to smile said: - Here, here! - and the princess found herself in the hall in front of old woman with an oriental type of face, who, with a moved expression, quickly walked towards her. It was the Countess. She hugged Princess Marya and began to kiss her.
- Mon enfant! - she said, - je vous aime et vous connais depuis longtemps. [My child! I love and know you for a long time.]
Despite all her excitement, Princess Marya realized that it was the countess and that she had to say something to her. She, not knowing how, uttered some polite French words, in the same tone as those that were spoken to her, and asked: what is he?
“The doctor says there is no danger,” the countess said, but while she was saying this, she raised her eyes with a sigh, and in this gesture there was an expression that contradicted her words.
- Where is he? Can I see him, can I? - asked the princess.
- Now, princess, now, my friend. Is this his son? - she said, referring to Nikolushka, who entered with Desal. - We can all fit, the house is big. Oh, what a lovely boy!
The countess ushered the princess into the drawing-room. Sonya talked to m lle Bourienne. The Countess caressed the boy. The old count entered the room, greeting the princess. The old count has changed tremendously since the last time the princess saw him. Then he was a lively, cheerful, self-confident old man, now he seemed a pitiful, lost person. As he spoke to the princess, he constantly looked around, as if asking everyone if he was doing what was needed. After the devastation of Moscow and his estate, knocked out of his usual rut, he apparently lost consciousness of his importance and felt that he had no place in life.
In spite of the excitement in which she was, in spite of one desire to see her brother as soon as possible and her annoyance that at that moment, when she only wanted to see him, she was occupied and pretended to praise her nephew, the princess noticed everything that was done around her, and felt the need for a while to submit to this new order into which she was entering. She knew that all this was necessary, and it was difficult for her, but she did not annoy them.
“This is my niece,” said the count, introducing Sonya. “You don’t know her, princess?”
The princess turned to her and, trying to extinguish the hostile feeling that had risen in her soul towards this girl, kissed her. But it became hard for her because the mood of everyone around her was so far from what was in her soul.
- Where is he? She asked again, addressing everyone.
"He's downstairs, Natasha is with him," Sonya answered, blushing. - Let's go find out. I think you are tired, princess?
Tears of annoyance came to the princess's eyes. She turned away and wanted to ask the countess again where to go to him, as light, swift, as if merry steps were heard in the doorway. The princess looked around and saw Natasha almost running in, that Natasha who had so disliked her on that long-standing meeting in Moscow.
But before the princess had time to look at the face of this Natasha, she realized that this was her sincere comrade in grief, and therefore her friend. She rushed to meet her and, embracing her, wept on her shoulder.
As soon as Natasha, who was sitting at the head of Prince Andrei, learned of the arrival of Princess Marya, she quietly left his room with those quick, as it seemed to Princess Marya, as if with merry steps and ran to her.
On her agitated face, when she ran into the room, there was only one expression - an expression of love, boundless love for him, for her, for everything that was close to a loved one, an expression of pity, suffering for others and a passionate desire to give all of herself for in order to help them. It was evident that at that moment not a single thought about herself, about her relationship to him was in Natasha's soul.
The sensitive Princess Marya understood all this from the first glance on Natasha's face and cried with sorrowful pleasure on her shoulder.
“Let's go, let's go to him, Marie,” Natasha said, leading her to another room.
Princess Marya raised her face, wiped her eyes and turned to Natasha. She felt that from her she would understand and learn everything.
“What…” she began the question, but suddenly stopped. She felt that words could neither ask nor answer. Natasha's face and eyes should have said more and more clearly.
Natasha looked at her, but seemed to be in fear and doubt - to say or not to say everything that she knew; she seemed to feel that before those radiant eyes that penetrated into the very depths of her heart, one could not help telling the whole, all the truth as she saw her. Natasha's lip suddenly trembled, ugly wrinkles formed around her mouth, and she, sobbing, covered her face with her hands.
Princess Marya understood everything.
But she still hoped and asked in words in which she did not believe:
- But how is his wound? In general, what position is he in?
- You, you ... will see, - only Natasha could say.
They sat for some time downstairs near his room in order to stop crying and enter him with calm faces.
- How did the whole illness go? How long has it gotten worse? When did it happen? - asked Princess Marya.
Natasha said that at first there was a danger from fever and suffering, but in Trinity this passed, and the doctor was afraid of one thing - Antonov's fire. But this danger, too, was over. When we arrived in Yaroslavl, the wound began to fester (Natasha knew everything about suppuration, etc.), and the doctor said that suppuration could go right. A fever developed. The doctor said that this fever was not so dangerous.
“But two days ago,” Natasha began, “all of a sudden it happened…” She held back her sobs. “I don’t know why, but you will see what he has become.
- Weakened? lost weight? .. - asked the princess.
- No, not that, but worse. You will see. Ah, Marie, Marie, he is too good, he cannot, he cannot live ... because ...

When Natasha, with her habitual movement, opened his door, letting the princess ahead of her, Princess Marya felt ready sobs in her throat. No matter how much she prepared herself or tried to calm down, she knew that she would not be able to see him without tears.
Princess Marya understood what Natasha understood in words: it happened two days ago. She understood that this meant that he had suddenly softened, and that these softening, these tenderness were signs of death. Approaching the door, she already saw in her imagination that face of Andryusha, which she had known from childhood, gentle, meek, tender, which he had so rarely had and therefore always had such a strong effect on her. She knew that he would say quiet to her, tender words like those that her father told her before she died, and that she could not bear it and burst into tears over him. But, sooner or later, it had to be, and she entered the room. The sobs came closer and closer to her throat, while with her short-sighted eyes she made out more clearly and more clearly his form and sought out his features, and so she saw his face and met his gaze.
He was lying on the sofa, covered with pillows, in a fur squirrel robe. He was thin and pale. One thin, transparent white hand held a handkerchief, with the other, with quiet movements of his fingers, he touched his thin, overgrown mustache. His eyes were looking at those who entered.
Seeing his face and meeting his gaze, Princess Marya suddenly moderated the speed of her step and felt that her tears had suddenly dried up and her sobs had stopped. Catching the expression on his face and look, she suddenly felt intimidated and felt guilty.
"But what am I to blame for?" She asked herself. "In the fact that you live and think about living things, and I! .." - answered his cold, stern look.
There was almost hostility in his deep, not out of himself, but in himself, when he slowly looked around at his sister and Natasha.
He kissed his sister hand in hand, according to their habit.
- Hello, Marie, how did you get there? - he said in a voice as even and alien as his gaze was. If he had screamed with a desperate cry, then this cry would have terrified Princess Mary less than the sound of this voice.
- And you brought Nikolushka? He said, also evenly and slowly, and with an obvious effort to remember.
- How is your health now? - said Princess Marya, herself surprised at what she was saying.
`` This, my friend, you have to ask the doctor, '' he said, and, apparently making another effort to be gentle, he said with one mouth (it was obvious that he did not think what he was saying): `` Merci, chere amie , d "etre venue. [Thank you dear friend for coming.]
Princess Marya shook his hand. He winced slightly at the squeeze of her hand. He was silent, and she did not know what to say. She understood what had happened to him in two days. In his words, in his tone, especially in this gaze - a cold, almost hostile gaze - there was a terrible alienation for a living person from everything worldly. He, apparently, had difficulty understanding now all living things; but at the same time it was felt that he did not understand the living, not because he was deprived of the power of understanding, but because he understood something else, something that the living did not understand and could not understand and that absorbed him in everything.
- Yes, that's how strange fate brought us together! He said, breaking the silence and pointing at Natasha. - She keeps following me.
Princess Marya listened and did not understand what he was saying. He, sensitive, gentle Prince Andrew, how could he say this with the one he loved and who loved him! If he had thought to live, he would have said it in a less coldly offensive tone. If he did not know that he was going to die, how could he not feel sorry for her, how could he say this in front of her! One explanation could only be for this, this is that he did not care, and all the same because something else, the most important, was revealed to him.
The conversation was cold, incoherent, and interrupted incessantly.
“Marie drove through Ryazan,” Natasha said. Prince Andrew did not notice that she was calling his sister Marie. And Natasha, when he called her that, for the first time noticed it herself.
- Well, what then? - he said.
- She was told that Moscow was all burnt down, completely, that as if ...
Natasha stopped: it was impossible to speak. He obviously made an effort to listen, and yet he could not.
“Yes, it’s burned out, they say,” he said. - This is very sorry, - and he began to look ahead, absentmindedly spreading his mustache with his fingers.