Today in Ukraine there are more than 800 universities, among which special place occupies one of the oldest higher educational institutions of Eastern Europe− Lviv National University named after Ivan Franko.
general information
As of 2014, almost 14,000 students study at LNU, of which just over 10,000 daily form training and about 3.5 thousand in correspondence. In addition, 812 graduate students are preparing for the defense of dissertations. As for the scientific and teaching staff, out of 1,500 teachers, 536 are associate professors, 157 are professors, 612 are candidates of science and 131 are doctors of science.
Lviv Ivan Franko: how to get there
Main building LNU is housed in a building where last quarter In the 19th century, the regional Galician Seim met. the building in the style of classicism is plastered in light yellow and decorated with columns, and on its pediment and portico you can see the allegorical sculptural compositions "Work", "Education", etc. Also on its facade one cannot fail to notice the ancient motto of Lviv University in Latin, which translated as "Educated citizens - the decoration of the Motherland." Address of the main building of LNU: st. Sich Riflemen, 14, a legal address university - Universitetskaya street, 1. In addition, on Dragomanova street, house 50, the Faculty of Electronics is located. To get to the street, you can use the trams running on routes 1 and 9, or fixed-route taxis number 29 and number 29a.
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv: history
LNU has such an interesting and eventful history that even for her summary more than one page is required. Suffice it to say that it was founded on the basis of the Jesuit Collegium, which has been operating in Lviv since 1608. In 1661, King Jan II Casimir signed an act granting this educational institution the rights of a university. Thus, until 1773 Lviv University was under the leadership of the Jesuits, and theology, philosophy and Latin were considered the main subjects. After the entry of Galicia into the Habsburg Empire, the activities of the Jesuit society, as well as other Catholic orders, were discontinued, and teaching began to be conducted in Ukrainian. A century later, within the walls of Lviv University, he studied famous writer and political figure Ivan Franko, whose name was given to LNU (then Leningrad State University) in 1940. AT recent decades In the 20th century, as part of the modernization of the university, modern and several new departments were introduced here, which cannot but please teachers and students.
Faculties of Lviv University
At the LNU Ivan Franko there are 17 faculties, including biological, geological, geographical, applied mathematics and informatics, economic, electronics, journalism, historical, foreign languages, culture and art, international relations, physical, philosophical, legal, chemical, philological and mechanical and mathematical. They include 112 departments, and some of them have museums. For example, as part of the Faculty of Biology, there is a Zoological Museum, based on the office natural history, opened in 1784, and at the Faculty of History - the Archaeological Museum, which is considered one of the famous sights of the city of Lviv.
Scientific and educational institutions operating at the LNU
In addition to those mentioned above, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv has more whole line scientific institutions. For example, it works with: Botanical Garden, astronomical observatory, museum of the history of the university, centers information technologies countries Northern Europe and humanities studies, scientific institutes French studies, Slavic studies, European integration and many others. From educational institutions LNU deserve special mention Pedagogical and Law colleges, Centre Italian and Classical High School.
Rules for admission to LNU
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv accepts applicants for undergraduate studies. To do this, it is necessary to submit to the university certificates of ZNO in 3 subjects, determined by the admission conditions in 2014, depending on the specific specialty chosen by the applicant. At the same time, since the Lviv National University, named after I. Franko, is classified as a research one, it has the right to independently determine the list of competitive subjects.
International cooperation and training of foreign citizens
LNU named after I. Franko has been actively participating in teaching staff for more than a year. Every year more than a hundred students listen to a course of lectures on a wide range disciplines in foreign universities. Moreover, students of the historical and geographical faculties take educational practice at the universities of Poland, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic, and employees of the Philological, Mechanics and Mathematics, chemical departments, the Faculty of International Relations, as well as the faculties of Applied Mathematics and Informatics are trained in educational institutions in Poland, France, Colombia, Switzerland and Austria. Concerning foreign students, then annually (under a grant from the United States government and with the assistance of the University of Kansas) summer school for US students undergoing a six-week internship at LNU in the history of Ukraine and the Ukrainian language.
Notable alumni and professors
Lviv National University. I. Franko, who will soon celebrate his 350th birthday, is the alma mother for hundreds of thousands of graduates. Among those who graduated from this university, there are many scientists, artists, politicians and businessmen who are known far beyond the borders of Ukraine. For example, in addition to Ivan Franko, it was graduated from: the famous Ukrainian poet Bogdan Lepky, the creator of the first effective anti-typhoid vaccine Rudolf Weigl, the author of the term "genocide" - Rafael Lemkin, one of the pioneers modern theory probabilities - Mark Katz and many others. No less "stellar" is the professorial staff of the LNU. AT different years taught at the university: outstanding mathematician Stefan Banach, Poland's representative in the League of Nations - Shimon Ashkenazy, famous linguist- Jerzy Kurilovich, famous Polish physicist - Marian Smoluchowski and many others.
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv is one of the oldest university s of Ukraine, January 20, 2011 marked the 350th anniversary of its foundation.
It all started with a fraternal school, which was reorganized into a Jesuit college, which King Jan II Casimir on January 20, 1661 granted "the dignity of an academy and the title of a university" with the right to teach all the then university disciplines, awarding degrees bachelor, licentiate, master and doctorate.
After the dissolution of the Jesuit Order in 1773, Lviv University was closed. However, soon a number of divisions of the Jesuit Academy became the basis of the Joseph University in Lviv, with the entry of Galicia into Austrian Empire. supreme body The university was governed by the senate (consistory). It consisted of the rector, deans and seniors (the oldest professors in terms of age and experience). The Senate decided critical issues concerning general guidance university. All other matters were decided by the deans, who were also directors of the faculties. From 1787 to 1806, the studium Ruthenum functioned at the theological faculty - Ukrainian ("Russian") courses with two-year education in the Ukrainian language.
During the second half of XIX in. the struggle for the right to visit university studios by women continued. In 1897, women were allowed to study at the Faculty of Philosophy, and in 1900 - at medical faculty and the pharmaceutical department. Women have repeatedly demanded to be allowed to study at law faculty but the government did not go along with them.
1917, same Galician Seim 
Education at the university for the vast majority of students was paid. Students of the theological faculty did not pay for their education at all. In secular faculties, only a part of the students used such benefits (students who submitted a certificate of poverty and successfully completed semester colloquia). In addition to tuition fees, students paid a fee for immatriculation (ceremonial acceptance into students), paid for exams, colloquia, seminars, for the right to use the library, etc. There were student scholarships. The scholarship fund consisted mainly of donations from individuals. The most famous were scholarship funds named after Karol Ludwik, Yu. Slovatsky, Tsalevich, Gaetsky and others. Students had hostels, but the number of places in them was limited.
At the same house from 1851 to 1920 Lviv University, Faculty of Biology at the same time 
After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Galicia was captured by Poland. The Ministry of Religions and Education of Poland already on November 18, 1918, by a special order, announced that it was taking Lviv University under its guardianship, and gave it the name Polish king Yana Casimir. Only Polish became the language of instruction in the educational institution, only at the theological faculty were certain disciplines read in English. Latin. Departments with the Ukrainian language of instruction were closed. Within two or three years, all professors and associate professors of Ukrainian nationality were fired from their jobs, and Ukrainian youth had limited access to university education.
Articles secret protocol By the agreement between the USSR and Germany on August 23, 1939, Western Ukraine fell into the zone of influence of the Soviet Union. September 22 entered Lviv Soviet troops. On October 26, 1939, a puppet group gathered in Lvov. People's Assembly Western Ukraine, which proclaimed the introduction Soviet power. During this period, Lviv University also underwent radical changes. According to the Charter of the Higher School of the USSR, a radical organizational restructuring of the university was carried out as the highest educational institution with free and free education for all citizens. The theological faculty was liquidated, and the medical faculty with the pharmaceutical department was reorganized into a medical institute. In October 1939, new departments were created: the history of Marxism-Leninism, dialectical and historical materialism, political economy, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian literature, Russian language, Russian literature, history of the USSR, history of Ukraine, physical education. Along with providing high vocational training they were supposed to educate young people on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist ideology and materialistic worldview.
By a decree of January 8, 1940, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR awarded Lvovsky state university the name of the outstanding Ukrainian writer and thinker Ivan Franko, who studied at the Faculty of Philosophy in the 70s XIX years in.
The work of the university was brought to a halt by the German attack on Soviet Union and the invasion of June 30, 1941 Nazi troops to Lviv. In the early days of 70 known university scientists, polytechnic and medical institutes were arrested, and after beatings and bullying, they were shot in the area of \u200b\u200bthe current Sakharov Street. In 1942, the German occupation authorities closed universities in Ukraine. The invaders looted and destroyed university property. The equipment of classrooms and laboratories of the Physics and Mathematics and chemical faculties, the library of the department of folklore and ethnography, which consisted of 15 thousand volumes. 20 thousand volumes were removed from the scientific library of the university, where the main reading room was destroyed the most valuable books, about 5 thousand early printed and incunabula, 500 valuable manuscripts.
The restoration of the university's activities began immediately after the liberation of Lviv from the Nazi troops. On July 30, 1944, a meeting was held at the university, the participants of which - 127 teachers and technical workers - turned to the intelligentsia with a call to accept Active participation in the restoration of the economy, educational, cultural and educational institutions of Lviv. During 1944 - 1945, mainly by students and teachers, the premises on the street were streamlined. Shcherbakov (now Grushevsky), 4 ( Department of Biology), on st. Lomonosov (now Cyril and Methodius), 6 and 8 (chemical and physical buildings), renovated scientific library and a hostel on the street. Herzen, 7, an astronomical observatory and a botanical garden were partially rebuilt. After a break of more than three years, on October 15, 1944, the University accepted students again.
Declaration of Independence of Ukraine - new page in the history of the University. In 1990, Professor Ivan Vakarchuk, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, headed the University. The opening of new faculties and divisions is the implementation of a large-scale program of reforms in the organization of studies at Lviv University. The Faculty of International Relations, the Faculty of Philosophy, the Faculty of Pre-University Training, the Institute historical research headed by Dr. historical sciences Ya.Grytsak. On October 11, 1999, by the Decree of the President of Ukraine, Ivan Franko Lviv State University was given the status of "national".
On the pediment of the main building of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv there is a slogan: "Patriae decori civibus educandis" ("Educated citizens are the decoration of the Motherland"). The University team is working hard to realize this idea. 
Reader's room of the scientific library. M. Dragomanova.
Rector of the University Professor, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Ivan Vakarchuk welcomes freshmen.
Graduates
solemn dedication into students.
Celebration of the 350th anniversary of the University
And these are the teachers of the Ukrainian language department))))))))) I remember you, my dear teachers))))))))
Students presented Ivan Franko with a mantle...
Students dance...
Dear friends! Come to study at Ivan Franko Lviv National State University!
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv is one of the oldest universities in Ukraine, January 20, 2011 marks 350 years since its foundation.
It all started with a fraternal school, which was reorganized into a Jesuit college, which King Jan II Casimir on January 20, 1661 granted "the dignity of the academy and the title of university" with the right to teach all the then university disciplines, to award academic degrees of bachelor, licentiate, master and doctor.
After the dissolution of the Jesuit Order in 1773, Lviv University was closed. However, soon a number of divisions of the Jesuit Academy became the basis of the Joseph University in Lviv, with the entry of Galicia into the Austrian Empire. The supreme governing body of the university was the senate (consistory). It consisted of the rector, deans and seniors (the oldest professors in terms of age and experience). The Senate decided on the most important issues related to the overall management of the university. All other matters were decided by the deans, who were also directors of the faculties. From 1787 to 1806, the studium Ruthenum functioned at the theological faculty - Ukrainian ("Russian") courses with a two-year education in the Ukrainian language.
During the second half of the XIX century. the struggle for the right to visit university studios by women continued. In 1897, women were allowed to study in the Faculty of Philosophy, and in 1900 in the Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Pharmacy. Women repeatedly demanded to be allowed to study at the Faculty of Law, but the government did not meet them.
Education at the university for the vast majority of students was paid. Students of the theological faculty did not pay for their education at all. In secular faculties, only a part of the students used such benefits (students who submitted a certificate of poverty and successfully completed semester colloquia). In addition to tuition fees, students paid a fee for immatriculation (ceremonial admission to students), paid for exams, colloquia, seminars, for the right to use the library, etc. There were also student scholarships. The scholarship fund consisted mainly of donations from individuals. The most famous were scholarship funds named after Karol Ludwik, Yu. Slovatsky, Tsalevich, Gaetsky and others. Students had hostels, but the number of places in them was limited.
After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Galicia was captured by Poland. On November 18, 1918, the Ministry of Religions and Education of Poland announced by a special order that it was taking Lviv University under its guardianship and named it after the Polish King Jan Casimir. Only Polish became the language of instruction in the educational institution, only at the theological faculty were certain disciplines read in Latin. Departments with the Ukrainian language of instruction were closed. Within two or three years, all professors and associate professors of Ukrainian nationality were fired from their jobs, and Ukrainian youth were limited access to university education.
According to the articles of the secret protocol to the agreement between the USSR and Germany of August 23, 1939, Western Ukraine fell into the zone of influence of the Soviet Union. On September 22, Soviet troops entered Lvov. On October 26, 1939, the puppet People's Assembly of Western Ukraine met in Lvov, which proclaimed the introduction of Soviet power. During this period, Lviv University also underwent radical changes. According to the Charter of the Higher School of the USSR, a radical organizational restructuring of the university was carried out as a higher educational institution with free and free education for all citizens. The theological faculty was liquidated, and the medical faculty with the pharmaceutical department was reorganized into a medical institute. In October 1939, new departments were created: the history of Marxism-Leninism, dialectical and historical materialism, political economy, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian literature, Russian language, Russian literature, history of the USSR, history of Ukraine, physical education. Along with providing high professional training of specialists, they had to educate young people on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist ideology and materialistic worldview.
By a decree of January 8, 1940, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR named Lviv State University after the outstanding Ukrainian writer and thinker Ivan Franko, who studied at the Faculty of Philosophy in the 70s of the 19th century.
The work of the university was stopped with the German attack on the Soviet Union and the invasion of Lvov on June 30, 1941 by the Nazi troops. In the first days, 70 well-known scientists of the university, polytechnic and medical institutes were arrested, and after beatings and bullying, they were shot in the area of \u200b\u200bthe current Sakharov Street. In 1942, the German occupation authorities closed universities in Ukraine. The invaders looted and destroyed university property. The equipment of the classrooms and laboratories of the Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry Faculties, the library of the Department of Folklore and Ethnography, which consisted of 15 thousand volumes, were taken to Germany. From the scientific library of the university, where the main reading room was destroyed, 20 thousand volumes of the most valuable books, about 5 thousand early printed and incunabula, 500 valuable manuscripts were taken out.
The restoration of the university's activities began immediately after the liberation of Lviv from the Nazi troops. On July 30, 1944, a meeting was held at the university, the participants of which - 127 teachers and technical workers - appealed to the intelligentsia to take an active part in the restoration of the economy, educational, cultural and educational institutions of Lviv. During 1944 - 1945, mainly by students and teachers, the premises on the street were streamlined. Shcherbakova (now Grushevskogo), 4 (biological faculty), on the street. Lomonosov (now Cyril and Methodius), 6 and 8 (chemical and physical buildings), the scientific library and the hostel on the street were renovated. Herzen, 7, an astronomical observatory and a botanical garden were partially rebuilt. After a break of more than three years, on October 15, 1944, the University accepted students again.
The declaration of independence of Ukraine is a new page in the history of the University. In 1990, Professor Ivan Vakarchuk, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, headed the University. The opening of new faculties and divisions is the implementation of a large-scale program of reforms in the organization of studies at Lviv University. The Faculty of International Relations, the Faculty of Philosophy, the Faculty of Pre-University Training, the Institute of Historical Research was founded, headed by Doctor of Historical Sciences J. Hrytsak.
On October 11, 1999, by the Decree of the President of Ukraine, Ivan Franko Lviv State University was given the status of "national".
On the pediment of the main building of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv there is a slogan: "Patriae decori civibus educandis" ("Educated citizens are the decoration of the Motherland"). The University team is working hard to realize this idea.
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv(Jan Casimir University in 1918-1939) is one of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe and the oldest university in Ukraine. One of the most prestigious universities Ukraine. Lviv Academy with the rights of the university was created. In 1773, the Jesuit order was banned, the university closed. Restored in 1784, it was called Joseph University. In 1805-1817 the Lyceum. In 1817 it was re-established as the Franz I University.
1. Foundation and early history of the University
Former main building of the university (1851-1923)
1.1. background
During the Renaissance, Lviv was famous educational city Central Europe, in which the educational and religious society "Lviv Brotherhood" (1439) and the printing house of Stepan Dropan (1460) operated. If the first university in Central Europe - Karlov (Prague, Czech Republic) originates from a secular school (1348), then Lviv University (now named after I. Franko), similarly, begins its chronology with the creation in November 1372 of a monastic school, which he founded Russian prince Vladislav, together with the Order of the Franciscans, who, along with missionary work, also carried out educational activities.
In the XVI - XVII centuries. centers cultural life on the Ukrainian lands were church brotherhoods. Using the support of the townspeople and the clergy, they contributed to the spread of the ideas of humanism, the development of science and schools. The most ancient in Ukraine was the Assumption Stavropegian Brotherhood in Lviv, which became an outstanding Ukrainian brotherhood. cultural center. A fraternal school operated in Lvov, which was a secondary educational institution. Church Slavonic, Greek, Latin and Polish languages, mathematics, grammar, rhetoric, astronomy, philosophy and other disciplines. Members of the Lviv Brotherhood even planned to turn their "gymnasium" (as they called this school) into a higher educational institution. Worked and got an education in the Lviv fraternal school eminent figures Ukrainian culture late XVI- first half of XVII Art.: Lavrenty Zizaniy (Kukol) and his brother Stepan, Kirill Stavrovetsky, Ivan Boretsky and others.
To mid-seventeenth century. there was not a single higher educational institution in Ukraine. Noble Poland resisted the establishment here high school, which could become a dangerous political and cultural center. Ukrainian youth is forced to receive higher education within the walls of Krakow and others European universities.
1.2. Base
3. Ratings and reputation
| Rating | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compass | 9 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 6 |
| Mirror of the Week / UNESCO | 41 | 32 | 30 | 28 | |
| Money | 3 | 4 | 5 | - | |
| Webometrics | - | - | - | 3 | 1 (1409 in the world) |
| 4 International Colleges & Universities | - | - | - | 13 | 11 |
| Scopus | - | - | 3 | 3 | 3 |
4. Structure
4.1. Faculties
4.2. All-university departments
- Life safety
- General and social pedagogy
- Physical education and sports
4.2.1. Department of General and Social Pedagogy
Higher Teacher Education in Lvov was founded in the year when curriculum a course called "Pedagogy" or "The Science of Education" appeared. It was part of the theological training and was based on the Austrian textbooks by A. G. Nemaer and E. ice. The first lectures on pedagogy for students of the faculties of philosophy and theology were read by Vaclav (Venzel) Michal Voigt, a graduate of the University of Prague, who was the first teacher of this discipline also at the University of Krakow. During the first half of the XIX century. professors of pedagogy were the Vice-Rector of the Greek Catholic Theological Seminary Jan Frederovich, theologian and religious leader Iosif Yarina, a specialist in aesthetics and oratory Ignacy Pollak, the future Greek Catholic Metropolitan Grigory Yakhimovich, theologians Franz Amtmann and Ludwig Malinovsky, and the same Greek Catholic clergyman Franz Kostek.
Pedagogy was taught at the Faculty of Philosophy: Professor Evsevy Cherkavsky ( - ), Professor Alexander Skursky ( - ), Associate Professor Anthony Danish ( - ), Professor Boleslav Mankovsky. ( - ), Associate Professor Zygmunt Kukulsky ( - ), Associate Professor Kazimir Sosnitsky ( - ), Professor Bogdan Suchodolsky ( - ), Associate Professor Stefan Truch (). Subject training courses: "General Pedagogy", "Practical Pedagogy", "Pedagogical exercises", " Pedagogical psychology"," Gymnasium Pedagogy", "Fundamentals of Didactics" and others. Academic disciplines Associate Professor Yulian Okhorovich ( - ) and Professor Kazimir Tvardovsky ( - ) taught the psychological and pedagogical cycle.
At the theological faculty in the city, students listened to lectures on pedagogy and catechism and methodology, from the year - separately Ukrainian (Joseph Delkevich and Ivan Bartoshevsky) and Polish (Marcel Palivoda and Blazhey Yashovsky) languages. Operated a seminary with catechism and methodology.
Today, the rector of the university is a professor at the Department of Theoretical Physics
| Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (LNU named after I. Franko) |
|
 Main building of Lviv University ( former building Galician Seim) |
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| original name |
Lviv National University named after Ivan Franko |
|---|---|
| international title |
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv |
| Former names |
Jan Casimir Lviv University |
| Motto |
Patriae decori cіvibus educandis |
| Year of foundation | |
| Rector | |
| Legal address |
Ukraine Ukraine, 79000, Lviv, st. University 1 |
| Website | |
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv(ukr. Lviv National University named after Ivan Franko listen)) is one of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe and the oldest university in Ukraine. In the past, it was called the Jan Casimir University of Lviv.
Story
| The object is included in the state register of monuments of Ukraine. Monument to the history of Ukraine national importance. Security number: 130004-N |
The founding date of the University is January 20, 1661, when the decree of the Polish king Jan II Casimir granted the status of an academy and the “title of the university” to the Jesuit Collegium. Formal confirmation of the rights of the academy and the university followed in -.
Architecture of the main building
The current building of the main building of Lviv University on Universitetskaya Street, 1 was built in -1881 (architect J. Hochberger). Initially, it housed the Regional Seim of Galicia and Lodomeria. The facade is decorated with a majestic portico with columns and a loggia, sculptural allegorical groups "Work" and "Education" at the entrance, "Galicia, Vistula and Dniester" - on the attic (sculptor T. Rieger). In 1920, the building was transferred to Jan Casimir Lviv University.
Modernity
In the 1997/1998 academic year, 11,649 students studied full-time, including 2,980 on the terms of full reimbursement of tuition costs, on in absentia 3680 students study, 2543 of them are paying students. Full course training lasted 5 years. The University has 112 departments, four of which were opened in 2001. The main form of training of scientific personnel is postgraduate studies, for 1997/1998 academic year trained specialists in 89 specialties of the humanities and natural sciences, 505 full-time postgraduate students, 206 part-time students.
Faculties
- Biological
- Geographical
- Geological
- Economic
- Electronics
- Pre-university preparation
- journalism
- foreign languages
- Historical
- culture and arts
- International relations
- Mechanics and Mathematics
- Applied Mathematics and Computer Science
- Physical
- Philological
- Philosophical
- Chemical
- Legal
University ranking
Notable teachers
see also
- Astronomical Observatory of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv
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Notes
Links
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An excerpt characterizing Ivan Franko National University of Lviv
- But what about, - Plato answered quickly, - a horse festival. And you need to feel sorry for the cattle, - said Karataev. - Look, the rogue, curled up. You've warmed up, you son of a bitch," he said, feeling the dog at his feet, and, turning again, immediately fell asleep.Outside, weeping and shouting were heard somewhere in the distance, and fire was visible through the cracks of the booth; but it was quiet and dark in the booth. Pierre did not sleep for a long time and open eyes lay in the darkness in his place, listening to the measured snoring of Plato, who lay beside him, and felt that the previously destroyed world was now new beauty, on some new and unshakable foundations, was erected in his soul.
In the booth, which Pierre entered and in which he stayed for four weeks, there were twenty-three captured soldiers, three officers and two officials.
All of them then appeared to Pierre as if in a fog, but Platon Karataev remained forever in Pierre's soul the strongest and dearest memory and personification of everything Russian, kind and round. When the next day, at dawn, Pierre saw his neighbor, the first impression of something round was completely confirmed: the whole figure of Plato in his French overcoat belted with a rope, in a cap and bast shoes, was round, his head was completely round, back, chest, shoulders, even the arms that he wore, as if always about to embrace something, were round; a pleasant smile and large brown gentle eyes were round.
Platon Karataev must have been over fifty years old, judging by his stories about the campaigns in which he participated as a longtime soldier. He himself did not know and could not in any way determine how old he was; but his teeth, bright white and strong, which all rolled out in their two semicircles when he laughed (as he often did), were all good and whole; no one gray hair was not in his beard and hair, and his whole body had the appearance of flexibility and especially hardness and endurance.
His face, despite the small round wrinkles, had an expression of innocence and youth; his voice was pleasant and melodious. But main feature his speech was immediacy and argumentative. He apparently never thought about what he said and what he would say; and from this there was a special irresistible persuasiveness in the speed and fidelity of his intonations.
His physical strength and agility were such during the first time of captivity that he did not seem to understand what fatigue and illness were. Every day in the morning and in the evening, lying down, he said: “Lord, put it down with a pebble, raise it up with a ball”; in the morning, getting up, always shrugging his shoulders in the same way, he would say: "Lie down - curled up, get up - shake yourself." And indeed, as soon as he lay down to immediately fall asleep like a stone, and as soon as he shook himself, in order to immediately, without a second of delay, take up some business, the children, having risen, take up toys. He knew how to do everything, not very well, but not badly either. He baked, steamed, sewed, planed, made boots. He was always busy and only at night allowed himself to talk, which he loved, and songs. He sang songs, not like songwriters sing, knowing that they are being listened to, but he sang like birds sing, obviously because it was just as necessary for him to make these sounds, as it is necessary to stretch or disperse; and these sounds were always subtle, tender, almost feminine, mournful, and his face was very serious at the same time.
Having been captured and overgrown with a beard, he, apparently, threw away everything that was put on him, alien, soldierly, and involuntarily returned to the former, peasant, people's warehouse.
“A soldier on leave is a shirt made of trousers,” he used to say. He reluctantly spoke about his time as a soldier, although he did not complain, and often repeated that he had never been beaten during his entire service. When he told, he mainly told from his old and, apparently, dear memories of the "Christian", as he pronounced, peasant life. The sayings that filled his speech were not those for the most part indecent and glib sayings that soldiers say, but these were those folk sayings, which seem so insignificant, taken separately, and which suddenly acquire significance deep wisdom when they are said by the way.
Often he said the exact opposite of what he had said before, but both were true. He loved to talk and spoke well, embellishing his speech with endearing and proverbs, which, it seemed to Pierre, he himself invented; but the main charm of his stories was that in his speech the simplest events, sometimes the very ones that, without noticing them, Pierre saw, took on the character of solemn decorum. He liked to listen to the tales that one soldier told in the evenings (all the same), but most of all he liked to listen to stories about real life. He smiled joyfully as he listened to such stories, inserting words and asking questions that tended to make clear to himself the beauty of what was being told to him. Attachments, friendship, love, as Pierre understood them, Karataev did not have any; but he loved and lived lovingly with everything that life brought him, and especially with a person - not with some famous person, but with those people who were before his eyes. He loved his mutt, loved his comrades, the French, loved Pierre, who was his neighbor; but Pierre felt that Karataev, in spite of all his affectionate tenderness for him (with which he involuntarily paid tribute to Pierre's spiritual life), would not have been upset for a minute by parting from him. And Pierre began to experience the same feeling for Karataev.
Platon Karataev was for all the other prisoners the most ordinary soldier; his name was falcon or Platosha, they good-naturedly mocked him, sent him for parcels. But for Pierre, as he presented himself on the first night, an incomprehensible, round and eternal personification of the spirit of simplicity and truth, he remained so forever.
Platon Karataev knew nothing by heart, except for his prayer. When he spoke his speeches, he, starting them, seemed not to know how he would end them.
When Pierre, sometimes struck by the meaning of his speech, asked to repeat what was said, Plato could not remember what he had said a minute ago, just as he could not in any way tell Pierre his favorite song with words. There it was: “dear, birch and I feel sick,” but the words did not make any sense. He did not understand and could not understand the meaning of words taken separately from the speech. Every word of his and every action was a manifestation of an activity unknown to him, which was his life. But his life, as he himself looked at it, had no meaning as a separate life. It only made sense as a part of the whole, which he constantly felt. His words and actions poured out of him as evenly, as necessary and immediately, as a scent separates from a flower. He could not understand either the price or the meaning of a single action or word.
