The concept of ritual and cult actions in Leo Tolstoy's novel-epic “War and peace”

The present article examines the customs, rituals and superstitions of the Russian people, which can be found on the pages of the novel-epic “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy. With the development of scientific and technological progress, conditions of the folk customs existence are changing, in connection with this many of them disappear from our lives or lose their original meaning. The concept of ritual and cult actions is necessary for understanding national culture, for defining the Russian mentality. Since outstanding works are always cultural examples, this article explores “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy on the subject of identifying references to customs, rituals and superstitions and reveals their semantic essence. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that knowledge of the deep layers of folk culture is important not only for the correct understanding of the work, but also for uniting the people into a single, cohesive community.