Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is based on Book Two, Part Five of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, a section that spans the years 1811-1812. Europe at the time was in the grip of the Napoleonic Wars, and Russia was emerging as a player on the world stage like never before. 

Beginning in the late 17th century, Russia had rapidly transformed from a fringe backwater to a major European power. The transformation began with Peter the Great becoming Tsar in 1682. Having traveled Europe and become enamored with Western customs, Peter returned to Russia and required the nobility to shave their beards and adopt European dress. A critical issue for the new leader was that Russia’s only ports were on the Arctic Ocean, which meant they were frozen half the year. Peter fixed this problem by defeating in battle the Ottoman Empire to gain access to the Black Sea and the Swedish Empire for access to the Baltic Sea. On land recently seized from the Swedes, he founded a new city, St. Petersburg, which became the capital of the newly declared Russian Empire. By the end of Peter I’s reign in 1725, Russia was a military power to be reckoned with in Europe, and Russian arts, culture and sciences would flourish further under the reign of Catherine the Great (1762-1796). In order to better engage with the Enlightenment ideals coming out of Europe, Russian nobles studied and spoke foreign languages, with French obtaining particular prominence in upper class society. 

Alexander I became Tsar in 1801 and continued Russia’s foreign military campaigns, expanding his country’s territory in the Caucuses and Ukraine. However, a greater adversary to Russia’s steady rise emerged in 1804: Napoleon I of France. As the French Emperor began expanding his territory eastward on the European continent, Russia joined a military alliance with Great Britain and Austria to resist his forces. The Austrians and Russians were decisively defeated by the French during the Ulm campaign in 1805, which Leo Tolstoy depicted in Book One of War and Peace with the characters Andrey Bolkonsky and Nikolai Rostov serving in the Russian military forces at the Battle of Austerlitz. The devastating loss forced Austria out of the war and wounded Russia’s sense of military confidence, having been previously undefeated in war for a century. Prussia joined the coalition against Napoleon in 1806, but were quickly defeated and occupied by French forces who continued to chase the Russians back to the Russian frontier until the Alexander had no choice but to sue for peace in 1807. Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw out of formerly Prussian territory, putting a French client state on Russia’s western border. Then, as a further insult, the French Emperor chose to marry an Austrian princess, Marie Louise, instead of Tsar Alexander’s sister Anna Pavlolvna as was originally proposed. Although the French were technically their allies, the Tsar and the Russian people feared it was only a matter of time before Napoleon renewed hostilities. 

Russia’s population of 21 million people at the beginning of the 19th century was predominantly poor. Peasants were decreed attached to the estates at which they lived and worked in 1649, establishing serfdom on a national scale. The other three socio-economic classes in Russian society were urban dwelling tradesmen, clergy, and the nobility. Peter the Great had replaced the Russian noble title boyar with the more traditional European titles of prince, count and baron, in descending order of prestige.  

Like other Eastern Slavic languages, the Russian language shares a traditional naming custom where a person’s full name consists of three parts: their given name, their patronymic name, and their family name. For example, Andrey Nikolayivech Bolkonsky is the full name of a main character in War and Peace—the one who “isn’t here” as sung in the prologue of Great Comet. Andrey is his given name; Nikolayivech is his patronymic name because his father’s given name is Nikolay; and Bolkonsky is his family name. Patronymic and family names are also adjusted based on gender. For example, Andrey’s sister’s full name is Marya Nikolaevna Bolkonskaya. 

As the predominant religion in the country for centuries, the Eastern Orthodox Church and its Byzantine customs had historically been the main influence on Russian arts and culture. This also began to change under the rule of Peter the Great as secular art and music from the West began to arrive in the country. Operas were performed for the first time in Russia starting in the 1730s, but the pieces and performers all came from abroad. Within twenty years, the Russian love of opera had grown so strong that Russian performers and even works written in Russian were becoming common. Opera houses were built in Russia’s major cities in the traditional U-shaped style, with private seating boxes ringing the sides and rear of the theaters for the nobility and rows of seats on the main floor called stalls for the lower classes. 

Appearing in the night sky as early as March 1811, the Great Comet of 1811 was visible to the naked eye for 269 days, a record not surpassed by another comet until 1997. The comet was at its brightest in October 1811 but would still have been visible in early 1812. For dramatic effect, Tolstoy noted the comet’s appearance in War and Peace as 1812, as a portent for the significant events ahead for Russia that year, most notably Napoleon’s invasion of the country which would begin that June. Dave Malloy preserved 1812 as the comet’s year in the title of his musical. When Tolstoy decides something sounds better, you’re wise to follow his lead.