Leo Tolstoy′s anti-war perspective

The article considers the representation of war in Leo Tolstoy s artistic and journalistic work. The concept of War is a key notion in the writer s works. The paper describes the lexicon embodying the topic. To express the essence of the concept, Leo Tolstoy uses such words as sumasshestviye (madness), zlo (evil), and nasiliye (violence). The article analyzes the evolution of attitudes towards war. It studies linguistic ways of argumentation by Leo Tolstoy. Peculiarities of Leo Tolstoy s thesaurus are regarded in the aspect of war conceptualization. Tolstoy s creativity is characterized by condemnation of war. However, if early on, Tolstoy makes exceptions for people s liberating war, later Tolstoy believes any war to be a manifestation of evil and violence. The author s evaluation of the reality of militar patriotism has changed. The article presents a model of the writer s fragment concept sphere, where the war is the result of power and state institutions.