War & Peace Podnotes, A Study Guide

At the Rostov dinner party at their Moscow estate, the genial Count Illya Rostov tell visitors that his son has joined the Hussars. A Colonel Schubert (fictional) is on leave, visiting the Rostovs, and is set to take their dear son away. The Count does not come across as overly worried. The intensity of the war to come is unknown and heavy engagement is not looked upon as realistic. There is always talk of war but Napoleon and his Grande Armée seem very far away.Though the Rostovs are fictional, the Pavlograd Hussars are not. They are a famed light calvary unit created by Peter the Great in 1723. They were based on the Serbian Hussars of the Habsburg dynasty. The officers were known for their distinctive uniforms as well as for carrying a sword and two pistols.The podcaster notes Pavlohrad is a city in Ukraine that wants nothing to do with Russia. Just as Napoleon invaded a people he could not defeat, the people of Pavlohrad overwhelmingly feel the same way about foreign encroachment. Pavlohrad (using the Ukr