Lavrushka
A valet assigned first to Denisov and then to Nikolai Rostov
BOOK ONE
Book One, Part Two
29 Jan: Chapter 4
He’s a sulky servant, but you’d be too if you had to put up with Denisov drinking hard and losing at cards every night. His master threatened to flog him if he doesn’t find the purse stolen by Telyanin.
BOOK TWO
Book Two, Part Two
7 April: Chapter 16
Lavrushka takes part in Denisov’s raid on the infantry supplies.
BOOK THREE
Book Three, Part One
Chapter 13
In 1812, Lavrushka is now Nikolai’s orderly.
Book Three, Part Two
Chapter 7
Lavrushka is captured by the French and brought before Napoleon. The French historian Thiers gave an account of this conversation between a cossack and the emperor. Tolstoy revises it to switch the roles and make Lavrushka cunning and Napoleon a dupe. The emperor lets him go, and he returns to Rostov, thinking up new and better stories to tell.
Chapter 13
Nikolai Rostov is camped ten miles from Bogucharovo and rides out with Ilyin and Lavrushka to take the estate’s provisions before the French arrive. The soldiers encounter drunk peasants, Alpatych and the maids from the house.
Chapter 14
Nikolai Rostov first takes out his rage on Alpatych, but the overseer masters his offended feelings and helps subdue the uprising.