Is a trolley load a freight trolleybus? Exactly! These cars are also called trolley cars and trolley cars, and in front of us is a duobus - a hybrid of a trolleybus and a gasoline truck, which was produced in the sixties. It was restored by Mosgortrans enthusiasts - and I got acquainted with this car.

O Once, when I was still a child, they drove me through the evening Moscow, I saw a strange trolleybus without windows. So this memory would have remained on the far shelf, if not for the current trolleybus parade of Mosgortrans. On it, among the numerous passenger models, I saw this one, a cargo one, which, as it turned out, had just been restored. For many years she worked in one of the trolleybus fleets, then stood "at the fence" ... The car was lucky: it was not cut into scrap metal, but was restored at the Sokolniki Railway Car Repair and Construction Plant (SVARZ) - where it was actually produced in 1963 ...

And now, Mosgortrans has restored the TG-3 serial duobus, which was produced by the SVARZ plant from 1963 to 1970. Its design is completely original, but with "cargo" components: a 70-horsepower gasoline engine and gearbox from GAZ-51. Steering, cardan shafts(only shortened) and rear axle - from MAZ-200.

At the back - swing doors, on the sides - sliding doors. Just like modern vans!

Under the hatches in the floor - the compressor (left), the electric motor (right) and the main gearbox (behind it)

Electric motor and main gearbox

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A DK-202B electric motor is connected to the "lawn" motor by a shaft (exactly the same ones were installed, for example, on MTB-82B trolleybuses), installed under the floor of the cargo compartment. Both engines work alternately: when the car is running on electricity, the gasoline engine is stopped, and if the internal combustion engine is on, the shaft of the electric motor rotates idle.

A trolley car is a cargo vehicle powered by an overhead wire through a trolley device.
The name "freight trolleybus" is not entirely correct, since the prefix "bus" means that we are dealing with passenger transport. It is more correct to call him a trolley car, or a trolley car. Nevertheless, this name stuck by analogy with a freight tram.
There is a subspecies (duobus) with an additional engine internal combustion that rotates electric generator supplying the traction motor. For example, the KTG model was equipped with an internal combustion engine from a ZIL-157 truck with a capacity of 102 liters. with. Trolley vehicles were used in industry: in mining and construction for the delivery of equipment and goods, in cities they were used for towing faulty passenger trolleybuses, for providing technical assistance and for repairing trolleybus power grids.
Practice of use in the USSR freight trolleybuses has shown that they have a significantly higher cost of ownership than trucks.
The first Soviet freight trolleybuses began to appear in the 30s. last century. They were handicraft converted passenger cars YATB. Such trucks were used for the own needs of the trolleybus depots. Gradually, the scope of such machines began to expand, and the operators began to think about using "horned" machines in those places where there was no contact network. This problem became especially urgent in the context of a shortage of fuel during the war. In particular, in the capital of the USSR, on the initiative of the director of the 2nd trolleybus fleet I.S. Efremov, the first real cargo trolleycars were built - trolleybuses equipped with an additional set of batteries, thanks to which they could deviate long distances from the contact network. According to some reports, such machines operated in Moscow until 1955.

The next step was the creation of trolleybuses equipped, in addition to an electric motor, and internal combustion engines. Such machines could deviate from the wires for even greater distances, although they did this very rarely. Experiments with such machines in the late 1950s. at first, it was built by the Uritsky plant - the main manufacturer of trolleybuses in the USSR, but its freight trolleybuses remained isolated prototypes. Freight trolleybuses were introduced to the masses by another plant - the Sokolnichy car repair plant, better known as SVARZ. They were equipped with two parallel drive systems - from an internal combustion engine and from an electric motor. The basis of the first 5-ton version of the TG was an original spar frame, on which a tall van body was installed with two side sliding and rear double doors, four skylights and a spacious double cab. The TG-4 variant had an onboard platform. The trolleys were equipped with a 70-horsepower gasoline engine, a gearbox, a radiator lining from a GAZ-51 car, bridges and wheels from a MAZ-200, electrical equipment from an MTB-82D trolleybus with a 78 kW DK-202 traction electric motor. Since 1964, the TG-3M trolley car was produced with the electrical equipment of the ZiU-5 trolleybus and the DK-207 motor (95 kW). Externally, it was distinguished by a radiator grill and the absence of windows in the cargo compartment. Full mass machines was about 12 tons. They developed a speed of up to 50 km / h. Until 1970, SVARZ produced about 400 freight trolleybuses, including 55 examples with an onboard platform. 260 of these machines operated in Moscow. The latter was "retired" in 1993. 140 SVARZ freight trolleybuses operated in other cities of the USSR, including Minsk.
In the 1970s. the initiative of SVARZ was intercepted by the Kiev plant of electric transport named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky, aka KZET. The circulation of his cargo trolleybuses of the KTG family significantly exceeded those of SVARZ, and many of those vehicles are still in operation. Initially, KZET was supposed to produce not only a van and a flatbed truck, but also a whole family of trolley cars, including a water washer, a refrigerator van, a dump truck, and even truck tractor... But the projectors have remained projectiles.


We have figured out the trolleybuses that have become trucks, but trucks that have become trolleybuses cannot be excluded from our story!
In 1952, thanks to the efforts of the Institute of Mining of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, the Kharkov trolleybus depot and the Soyuznerud trust, a new type of transport was born. On the chassis of the MAZ-205 and YaAZ-210E dump trucks, and two years later, the 25-ton MAZ-525, electric trolley trucks were created, the use of which was supposed to significantly increase the efficiency of the operation of dump trucks of this class. The trolley car on the chassis of the open-pit MAZ-525 was equipped with two trolleybus electric motors of the DK-202 type with a total power of 172 kW, controlled by one controller and four contact panels. The electric motor also operated the power steering and the tipper platform lifting device. The transmission of electricity from the power plant to the electric motors was carried out in the same way as in ordinary trolleybuses: wires were pulled along the route of their operation, which the electric dump trucks touched with two arcs installed on their roof. The work of drivers on such vehicles was easier than on traditional dump trucks, the productivity of trolley-electric dump trucks compared to them was 76% higher, and the cost per ton-kilometer was 39% lower.
However, there was also a “reverse side of the coin”. Excavators were constantly moving, and almost daily rearranging the poles with wires was not easy. The problem could be solved by trolley cars, in addition to the electric motor, which also had a diesel engine.
The first domestic diesel trolley car was built in 1964 at the Belarusian Automobile Plant. A tipper road train, which was driven as if diesel engine and from electric motors, received the BelAZ-7524-792 index and had a carrying capacity of 65 tons.


The chassis of a 40-ton dump truck with all the main components and assemblies was used as a tractor. An experienced diesel engine YaMZ-240N with a power of 520 hp was installed on it. The semitrailer body capacity was 34 "cubes". The traction generator DK-508B with a capacity of 280-300 kW and modernized ones removed from the heavy crawler tractor traction motors DK-708A with a power of 200 kW.
In 1965, factory tests of this road train began. They were carried out in diesel mode in the area of ​​the plant for the transportation of sand. The tests in trolley mode were carried out at night in Minsk, since the trolley network closest to Zhodino was only in the capital.
In July 1966, the trolley car was sent to the Krasnogorsky open-pit mine in Kuzbass. In 1968, two more diesel trolley vehicles were built. After the completion of the tests, the state commission came to the conclusion that "the use of trolley cars in the conditions of open pit mines with inclined coal seams without the presence of protracted rises is NOT APPROPRIATE."


Twenty years later, they remembered about diesel trolleys again. In 1986, the Belarusian Automobile Plant returned to this problem. Two diesel trolley vehicles were manufactured on the basis of BelAZ-75191 dump trucks with a carrying capacity of 110 tons with an electromechanical transmission. From February 1987 to November 1988, they underwent operational tests at the Kurzhunkul mine of the Sokolovsko-Sarbaisky mining and processing plant (Rudny).
The main conclusion drawn on the basis of the operating experience of all domestic diesel trolley vehicles ever built was that the economic efficiency of the use of diesel trolley vehicles can be achieved in a quarry, the depth of which is at least 300 m, in the presence of a permanent technological road without a large number of turns.


Today, freight trolleybuses have not been mass-produced for more than ten years, therefore, today the need for such transport, which is available in trolleybus farms, is satisfied only at the expense of overhaul old cars. For such a repair, and at the same time for a deep modernization, up to giving the machines a new look, the Moscow Trolleybus Repair Plant has recently undertaken.

A trolley car at the KrAZ base on the Simferopol-Yalta highway, 1964.

Trolleybus systems of the world

Currently, there are more than 400 cities with trolleybus services in the world (see List of urban trolleybus systems).

In Boston, Massachusetts (USA), in addition to the usual street service, there is an underground high-speed trolleybus system (the so-called silver line).

A similar system also operates in the cities of Kurobe and Tateyama (China).

The southernmost trolleybus system is located in Wellington, New Zealand.

The only African city with a trolleybus system is Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). Currently, the trolleybus system belongs to the Russian-Ethiopian joint venture RusAfroTroll (with 70% of Ethiopian businessmen and 30% of Russians).

In Shanghai (China), in addition to the usual trolleybus, there is also an electric bus with supercapacitors, which is connected by a special pantograph to the compressor station only at stops.

In Europe (Except for the Russian Federation and the CIS). The available trolleybus systems in England are museum-owned. In 2011, the city trolleybus system was commissioned in Leeds. It should be noted that it was Leeds that was one of the first cities in England, where in 1911 the trolleybus service was launched.

The largest trolleybus system in Europe (excluding CIS) is located in Athens (Greece). The length of the contact network is more than 350 km, more than 350 vehicles are in operation.

In addition, in Europe there are trolleybuses in Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden and in Estonia.

In Russia, there are 87 trolleybus systems in 88 cities (the cities of Saratov and Engels had a common network, in 2004 the trolleybus networks of Saratov and Engels were separated due to the fall of the supports that held the contact network on the Saratov bridge, the restoration of these supports was postponed until the bridge was overhauled).

The world's largest trolleybus system, the oldest in Russia, is located in Moscow.

The world's northernmost trolleybus system is located in Murmansk.

The Kachkanar trolleybus is the only trolleybus system in Russia that was closed during the Soviet era.

In the CIS. In addition to Russia, there are 80 more trolleybus systems in the CIS.

The second largest trolleybus system after Moscow is located in Minsk.

The longest trolleybus route in the world is the intercity route Simferopol - Alushta (52 km) - Yalta (86 km) in Crimea (Ukraine).

An intercity trolleybus Urgench - Khiva operates in Uzbekistan, the length of the route is about 35 km.

An intercity trolleybus Tiraspol - Bendery has been operating in Transnistria since 1993, with a length of more than 13 km.

Intercity trolleybus

Intercity trolleybus is a trolleybus line connecting two or more cities.

The term “suburban trolleybus” is practically not used despite the fact that there are many trolleybus lines, which, according to the rules for buses, would be called suburban.

Intercity lines in the countries of the former USSR:

• Tiraspol - Bender.
• Moscow, st. Metro Planernaya - Novye Khimki. Since this route passes entirely through an urbanized area, it is actually an urban one.
• Saratov - Engels.
• Ivanovo - Kokhma. This line mostly falls under the definition of a suburban line, since Kokhma is a small town near Ivanovo.
• Urgench - Khiva.
• Namangan - Turakurgan
• Simferopol - Alushta - Yalta - The most famous line in Crimea, 86 kilometers long, is the longest trolleybus system in the world. There are several routes on the line, and it is connected to the city trolleybus networks of Simferopol and Yalta.
• Donetsk - Makeevka. In fact, it was closer to the suburban service. The overhead network (about 50 m) was removed in the early 90s in connection with the construction of a bypass road around Donetsk. Currently, the trolleybus systems of the two cities are not interconnected. However, there is one route connecting the center of Donetsk city with the center of Chervono-Gvardeevsky district.
• Alchevsk - Perevalsk. Also, rather, it should be attributed to the suburban. The fare in different periods was the same or slightly higher than on the intracity routes of Alchevsk. Previously, it was route No. 3 from the railway station of Kommunarsk station in Alchevsk to mine 25 in Perevalsk, later the route was somewhat extended through the city of Perevalsk and divided into 2 parts - No. 3 from the railway station of Kommunarsk station to Alchevsk bus station, which is located between the cities of Alchevsk and Perevalsk, and No. 2 from the bus station to mine 5 in Perevalsk, so it can now be classified as intercity only conditionally. From October 1, 2008, the operation of the route was officially stopped due to the unprofitability and unwillingness of Perevalsk to pay compensation for the reduced fare. In fact, the movement of trolleybuses on the route was stopped back in July 2008).
• Krasnodon - Molodogvardeysk. Lugansk region. Routes number 1 ("Pervomaika", Krasnodon - Molodogvardeysk), number 3 ("Barakova quarter", Krasnodon - Molodogvardeysk) operate.

Double decker trolleybus

Double-decker trolleybuses also traveled along the streets of Moscow. These were YATB-3 vehicles. On the ground floor, the saloon was 32 seating, on the second 40. For access to the second floor served a staircase of two flights of 10 steps. The height of the cabin (1780 mm) was determined by the contact network (for its operation, it was necessary to raise the contact network per meter (up to 5.8 m) on Gorky Street (now Tverskaya) and on the entire suburban section of the first route), and it was not very convenient to stand in the aisle , especially in winter, in high headdresses.

When passengers gathered on the landing at the front door, the car went with a noticeable roll to the right. Trolleybus: length - 9.4 m, height - 4.7 m. The salons had 72 seats, 28 passengers. could drive in the aisle of the first floor. They first took to the streets of the city in 1937. In total, 10 cars were made, however, the difficulties of management and cases of overturning of cars (especially on a snow-covered pavement and in ice), as well as problems with dimensions on the streets led to the decommissioning of trolleybuses immediately after the solution of post-war problems with the release of new equipment.

In the GDR, double-deck trolleybuses of the road train type were also produced.

Freight trolleybus

Freight trolleybus is a type of electric transport used for freight transport.

The name "freight trolleybus" is not entirely correct, because the prefix "bus" means that we are dealing with passenger transport. It is more correct to call him a trolley car, or a trolley car. Nevertheless, this name stuck by analogy with a freight tram.

The practice of using freight trolleybuses in the USSR has shown that they have a significantly higher operating cost than trucks.

The main advantage of many duobus freight trolleybuses is the presence of a diesel internal combustion engine. For example, the KTG model was equipped with an internal combustion engine from a ZIL-157K truck with a capacity of 102 liters. with. The internal combustion engine is connected to a generator that can power a traction motor.

They are not used in large quantities in Russia, some of them have survived as mobile laboratories for overhead technical supervision in trolleybus fleets.

Models in the USSR. A freight trolleybus based on the passenger nuclear fuel tanker-1 with an onboard platform.

A trolleybus truck based on truck YAG-3.

Freight trolleybus TG-3 / TG-3M / TG-4, manufactured by the SVARZ plant.

Freight trolleybus KTG, built at the Kiev Electric Transport Plant named after F.E.Dzerzhinsky.

SVARZ. In 1957, the Plant named after. Uritskiy made two trolleys: TBU-2 with a closed van body and TBU-3 with a loading platform. Unfortunately, the short term of their operation did not allow to fully reveal their advantages and disadvantages.

In 1960, SVARZ manufactured an experimental political party of 12 TG1 trolleys with a carrying capacity of 7 tons with a closed van body. The autonomous course was provided by an accumulator battery charged with current when working on the line from the rods. The power reserve was only 6 km. The trolleys were operated at the Filyovskiy TP. The car appeared very bulky, and in 1966 - 1967. TG1 trolleys were excluded from the inventory and transferred to other cities (one of them remained in Simferopol until 2006, but then was cut, although they wanted to take it to the MGT Museum).

In 1961, the production of 5-ton TG3 trolley cars began, on which a gas-11 engine was used as an autonomous drive, installed in the front part of the cab between the driver's and passenger seats... The trolleybus had a front and rear axles from the MAZ-200 truck and electrical equipment from the MTB-82D trolleybus. On the basis of the TG3, a modification of the TG4 with an onboard platform was produced.

In 1964, the TG3 was modernized and received the TG3M index. The main difference from its predecessor is the electrical equipment from the ZIU-5 and the increased power of the electric motor to 95 kW. Externally, the modernized version can be distinguished by the new radiator lining (on the TG3 there was a grill from the gas-51A truck) and the absence of windows in the side curves of the roof. Until 1970, SVARZ produced a total of 400 trolley vehicles, incl. 55 with an onboard platform. 260 machines worked in Moscow (the last were written off in 1993), and the rest - in other cities of the USSR. The MGT Museum has trolley cars SVARZ TG3M and SVARZ TG4.

During the Soviet era, freight trolleybuses were widely used in cities that had a trolleybus economy. Most often, freight trolleybuses belonged to trolleybus fleets. Large urban enterprises (especially light industry) ordered freight trolleybuses for the transportation of finished products from enterprises to city warehouses or commodity railway stations... A cargo trawler, in contrast to a truck, was cheaper to operate, because worked on electricity. Most of the freight trolleybuses, in addition to the electric motor, also had a cabriorator internal combustion engine for short-term operation in places without a contact network (territory of enterprises, warehouses, freight stations). In the USSR, freight trolleybuses were most widespread in the 60s and 80s.

Currently not used in large quantities. The surviving vehicles are in most cases used as tractors for towing faulty trolleybuses to the depot, but there are exceptions: for example, in Moscow, KTGs operate mainly for their intended purpose. KTGs operate in many trolleybus systems of the former USSR. There are cars (on the move) in the following cities:

Moscow - 19;

St. Petersburg - 5;

Samara - 5;

Rostov-on-Don - 1;

Saratov - 1;

Odessa - 1.

Trolleybus manufacturers.

Trolza

LiAZ

Belkommunmash

LAZ

Solaris

Urban transport, complex different types transport carrying out the transportation of the population and goods on the territory of the city and the nearest suburban area, as well as performing work related to the improvement of the city. If there are satellite cities and public recreation areas in the city system, remote from residential areas and industrial areas, urban transport serves the entire metropolitan area.

Urban transport is an important branch of the urban economy.

Public transport includes: vehicles(rolling stock); track devices (railways, tunnels, overpasses, bridges and overpasses, stations, stopping points and parking lots); marinas and boat stations; power supply facilities (traction electrical substations, cable and contact networks, petrol stations - gas stations); repair shops and factories; depot and garages; stations Maintenance, car rental points; linear devices (communication, signaling, blocking); dispatch control. By designation, urban transport is subdivided into passenger, freight and special transport.

Urban passenger transport unites: mass public transport carrying passengers on certain routes and subdivided into street (tram, trolleybus, bus) and off-street high-speed (metro, high-speed tram, monorail, conveyor transport); passenger automobile transport (taxis, departmental and personal cars); two-wheeled transport (motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and bicycles); water transport (river "tram", motor and rowing boats, ferry crossings); air Transport (helicopters).

In 1970, all cities in the USSR were served by mass passenger transport. All its types (metro, tram, trolleybus and bus) are available in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Tbilisi, Baku; tram, trolleybus and bus - in 56 cities, tram and bus - in 54, trolley and bus - in 55 cities. The rest of the cities are served by bus only. The total volume of traffic by mass public transport in cities of the USSR in 1970 amounted to about 36 billion passengers and, in addition, on suburban lines by buses and by rail carried about 7 billion passengers. The share of certain types of urban transport in passenger traffic was (1970): metro 6.4%, tram 22.2%, trolleybus 17.0% and bus 54.4%. The length of urban passenger transport lines reached by the end of 1970: metro 214.5 km(double track), tram 8261 km, trolleybus 8142 km(single path). The length of bus routes in cities was 87,800 km.

I. A. Molodykh

Great Soviet Encyclopedia (TSB, 1969-1978)

We do not talk in detail about public transport, because it is not part of the trade in the first place. And secondly, there are many specialized Internet resources that will help you much more competently.

But we also like city transport. And you can't ignore it. We draw his past. For fun.

Public transport

Urban transport of the USSR (refillable icon series). Trolleybuses.

Trolleybus LK-1, trolleybus YATB-1, trolleybus YATB-3, trolleybus MTB-82,trolleybus TBES-VSHV, trolleybus Kiev-2 (KTB-1,Kiev-2 ), trolleybus SVARZ-TS, trolleybus ZIU-5,trolleybus ZIU-9 , G trolleybus TG-3,trolleybus Kiev-6 (Kiev-6),

trolleybus "Kiev-5LA" (Kiev-5LA)

Trolleybus "Kiev-6" (1966)

Trolleybus "Kiev-2" KTB-1 (1960)

Trolleybus "Kiev-5LA" (1963)

Bus "LAZ-695B" (1959)

Trolleybus "TG-3M" (1964)

- two doors for passengers

Trolleybus "Škoda 9Tr" (Czechoslovakia, 1961) - "Skoda 9Tr" - three doors for passengers

Trolleybus "Škoda 9Tr" (Czechoslovakia, 1961) - "Skoda 9Tr"

Trolleybus "Škoda 9Tr" (Czechoslovakia, 1961) - "Skoda 9Tr"

Trolleybus "Škoda 9Tr" (Czechoslovakia, 1961) - "Skoda 9Tr"

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Trolley vehicles were used in industry: in mining and construction for the delivery of equipment and goods, in cities they were used for towing faulty passenger trolleybuses, for providing technical assistance and for repairing trolleybus power grids.

Freight trolleybuses were most of all used in the countries of the former USSR, although at one time they were common in Germany, Italy and the USA. The main period of production and use of freight trolleybuses was the 1930-1970s. In the military 1940s. to save gasoline in trolleybuses converted serial dump trucks, tractors and other freight vehicles... In the post-war period, such cars were no longer necessary, but they could still be seen on the streets of large cities even in the 1960s-1970s.

Before World War II

A similar model, built in 1964 under the name "diesel trolley", received the index "BelAZ-7524-792". This duobus was assembled at BelAZ: it worked both from a diesel engine and from electric motors; weighed 20 tons and had a carrying capacity of 65 tons. In 1965, testing of such machines began: they transported sand in diesel mode, and in nearby cities Byelorussian SSR moved in trolleybus mode.

Almost simultaneously in the state of California in 1956, the Riverside Cement Company purchased four similar 30-ton duobus trucks for the transport of liquid cement. They had two braking systems which reduced maximum speed from 35 to 17 km / h. Only one system worked in diesel mode, and the speed in diesel mode increased to 29 km / h. The lines had a voltage of 550 V, and the generator - 24 V (for comparison, the Skoda-TP14 trolleybus had 32 V, and the ElectroLAZ-183 had 40 V).

Modernity

The United States also recently used freight trolleybuses in Nevada to serve various functions at the Goldstrike mine. These cargo models "Komatsu E685" were especially heavy: they weighed 160 tons and had a carrying capacity of up to 190 tons. Overall, the line was approximately 5 kilometers in length (as of October 1994) and served in 2001 until the commission decided to write off the contact line in early 2001.

Use of freight trolleybuses outside the USSR

1. USA... In the United States of America, trolley cars have been operating from until 2001. More often, trolley cars or trucks powered by electric motors were used in mining, in the extraction of minerals and in repair work on the roads. They were deployed in four states:
2. Switzerland- trolley trucks were used
3. Italy- were used in the construction of the dams of San Giacomo (-) and Cancano (-). In total were in use from 1962.
4. Austria- were used in San Lambrecht by Nobel Industries in a dynamite factory from November 16 to April 21, 1951. After World War II, some trucks were abandoned or converted into passenger trams that still operate in Kapfenberg today.
5. Canada- Freight trolleybuses were used in the iron ore mines of Quebec from 1977 until the iron reserves were depleted and the mines were closed.
6. South Africa- used in copper mines in 1980.
7. Zambia- involved in the Nchang Consolidated Copper Mine from 1988 to 1988.
8. Namibia- worked at uranium mines in - years.
9. Bulgaria- worked in Pleven in 1987. They are not used now.

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Notes (edit)

see also

Literature

• "Polytechnical Dictionary" Moscow. 1980
• "Trolleybus electric car" // "Technology for the youth"

Links

• A short course on the history of Moscow trolleybuses, 2005.
• (unavailable link)
• - "Public transport of the Samara region"

An excerpt characterizing the Freight trolleybus

- Qu "est ce qui est la fable de tout Moscou? [What does all of Moscow know?] - Pierre said angrily, getting up.
- Completeness, Count. You know!
“I don’t know anything,” said Pierre.
- I know that you were friends with Natalie, and therefore ... No, I am always friendlier with Vera. Cette chere Vera! [This dear Vera!]
- Non, madame, [No, madam.] - Pierre continued in an unhappy tone. - I did not take on the role of Rostova's knight at all, and I have not been with them for almost a month. But I don't understand the cruelty ...
- Qui s "excuse - s" accuse, [Who apologizes, he blames himself.] - smiling and waving lint, Julie said and, so that she had the last word, she immediately changed the conversation. - What is it, today I found out: poor Marie Volkonskaya arrived in Moscow yesterday. Did you hear she lost her father?
- Really! Where is she? I would very much like to see her, - said Pierre.
- I spent the evening with her yesterday. She is going to the Moscow Region with her nephew this morning or tomorrow.
- Well, how is she? - said Pierre.
- Nothing, sad. But do you know who saved her? It's a whole novel. Nicolas Rostov. They surrounded her, wanted to kill her, wounded her people. He rushed and rescued her ...
“Another novel,” the militia said. - Decisively, this general escape is made so that all old brides marry. Catiche is one, Princess Bolkonskaya is another.
“You know that I really think she is un petit peu amoureuse du jeune homme. [a little in love with a young man.]
- Fine! Fine! Fine!
- But how can I say it in Russian? ..

When Pierre returned home, he was handed two posters of Rostopchin brought that day.
The first said that the rumor that Count Rostopchin was forbidden to leave Moscow was unfair and that, on the contrary, Count Rostopchin was glad that ladies and merchant wives were leaving Moscow. "Less fear, less news," said the poster, "but I answer with my life that there will be no villain in Moscow." These words for the first time clearly showed Pierre that the French would be in Moscow. The second billboard said that our headquarters was in Vyazma, that Count Wittgstein defeated the French, but that since many residents want to arm themselves, there are weapons prepared in the arsenal for them: sabers, pistols, guns, which residents can receive at a cheap price. The tone of the posters was no longer as playful as in the previous Chigirin conversations. Pierre pondered over these posters. Obviously, that terrible thundercloud, which he summoned with all the forces of his soul and which at the same time aroused involuntary horror in him - obviously, this cloud was approaching.
“To enter military service and go to the army or wait? - Pierre asked himself this question for the hundredth time. He took the deck of cards that were on his table and began to play solitaire.
“If this solitaire comes out,” he said to himself, mixing the deck, holding it in his hand and looking up, “if it comes out, then ... what does it mean?” the senior princess asking if it was possible to enter.
“Then it will mean that I have to go to the army,” Pierre said to himself. “Come in, come in,” he added, addressing the princess.
(One older princess, with a long waist and a petrified lid, continued to live in Pierre's house; the two smaller ones got married.)
“Forgive me, mon cousin, that I have come to you,” she said in a reproachfully worried voice. - After all, we must finally decide on something! What will it be? All have left Moscow, and the people are revolting. Why are we staying?
“On the contrary, everything seems to be all right, ma cousine,” said Pierre with that habit of playfulness which Pierre, who always embarrassedly endured his role as benefactor in front of the princess, had assimilated himself in relation to her.
- Yes, it's good ... well-being! Today Varvara Ivanovna told me how our troops differ. Certainly you can attribute honor. Yes, and the people completely rebelled, they stop listening; my girl and she became rude. So soon they will start beating us too. You can't walk the streets. And most importantly, tomorrow the French will be there, so what can we expect! I ask about one thing, mon cousin, "said the princess," order them to take me to Petersburg: whatever I am, I cannot live under Bonaparte rule.
- Yes, fullness, ma cousine, where do you get your information? Against…
- I will not submit to your Napoleon. Others as they want ... If you do not want to do this ...
- Yes, I will, I will now order.
The princess was evidently annoyed that there was no one to be angry with. She, whispering something, sat down on a chair.
“But you are not being told this correctly,” said Pierre. “Everything is quiet in the city, and there is no danger. So I just read ... - Pierre showed the princess the posters. - The count writes that he answers with his life that the enemy will not be in Moscow.
“Oh, this count of yours,” the princess spoke angrily, “is a hypocrite, a villain who himself set the people up to rebel. Didn't he write in these stupid posters that whatever it was, drag him by the crest to the exit (and how stupid)! Whoever takes, says, to him both honor and glory. So I didn’t care. Varvara Ivanovna said that the people almost killed her because she spoke French ...
- Why, this is so ... You take everything to heart very much, - said Pierre and began to play solitaire.
Despite the fact that the solitaire came together, Pierre did not go to the army, but remained in empty Moscow, still in the same anxiety, indecision, in fear and together in joy, expecting something terrible.
The next day, the princess left in the evening, and Pierre was visited by his general manager with the news that he could not get the money he needed to equip the regiment, if not sell one estate. The general manager generally imagined to Pierre that all these undertakings of the regiment were supposed to ruin him. Pierre could hardly hide his smile, listening to the words of the manager.
“Well, sell it,” he said. - What can I do, I cannot refuse now!
The worse the state of affairs, and especially his affairs, was, the more pleasant it was for Pierre, the more obvious it was that the catastrophe he was waiting for was approaching. Almost no one of Pierre's acquaintances was in the city. Julie left, Princess Marya left. Of the close acquaintances, only the Rostovs remained; but Pierre did not visit them.
On this day, in order to have fun, Pierre went to the village of Vorontsovo to see a large balloon that Leppikh was building for the destruction of the enemy, and a test balloon that was to be launched tomorrow. This ball was not yet ready; but, as Pierre learned, it was built at the request of the sovereign. The sovereign wrote the following to Count Rostopchin about this ball:
"Aussitot que Leppich sera pret, composez lui un equipage pour sa nacelle d" hommes surs et intelligents etdepechez un courrier au general Koutousoff pour l "en prevenir. Je l "ai instruit de la chose.
Recommandez, je vous prie, a Leppich d "etre bien attentif sur l" endroit ou il descendra la premiere fois, pour ne pas se tromper et ne pas tomber dans les mains de l "ennemi. Il est indispensable qu" il combine ses mouvements avec le general en chef ".
[As soon as Leppich is ready, make a crew for his boat of loyal and intelligent people and send a courier to General Kutuzov to warn him.
I informed him about it. Please inspire Leppiha to pay good attention to the place where he will descend for the first time, so as not to make a mistake and not fall into the hands of the enemy. It is necessary that he understands his movements with the movements of the commander-in-chief.]
Returning home from Vorontsov and passing through Bolotnaya Square, Pierre saw a crowd at the Execution Ground, stopped and got off the droshky. It was the execution of a French chef accused of espionage. The execution had just ended, and the executioner was untied from the mare a piteously groaning fat man with red sideburns, in blue stockings and a green jacket. Another criminal, thin and pale, was standing there. Both, judging by their faces, were French. With a frightened, sickly look similar to that of a thin Frenchman, Pierre pushed his way through the crowd.
- What is it? Who? For what? He asked. But the attention of the crowd - officials, petty bourgeois, merchants, peasants, women in cloaks and fur coats - was so eagerly focused on what was happening in Execution Ground that no one answered him. The fat man got up, frowning, shrugged his shoulders and, obviously wishing to express firmness, began to put on a doublet without looking around him; but suddenly his lips trembled, and he began to cry, angry with himself, as grown-up sanguine people cry. The crowd began to speak loudly, as it seemed to Pierre, in order to drown out the feeling of pity in itself.
- Someone's prince's cook ...
- That, musyu, it is obvious that the Frenchman had a sour taste of Russian sauce ... he made him sore, - said the wrinkled clerk, who was standing next to Pierre, while the Frenchman began to cry. The clerk looked around him, apparently expecting an assessment of his joke. Some laughed, some continued to look in dismay at the executioner, who was undressing the other.
Pierre sniffled, frowned, and, turning quickly, walked back to the droshky, not ceasing to mutter something to himself as he walked and sat down. During the journey he shuddered several times and cried out so loudly that the coachman asked him:
- What do you want?
- Where are you going? - Pierre shouted at the coachman who was leaving for the Lubyanka.
"They ordered the commander-in-chief," answered the coachman.
- Fool! beast! - Pierre shouted, which rarely happened to him, scolding his coachman. - I ordered home; and hurry up, you fool. We have to leave today, ”Pierre said to himself.
Pierre, seeing the punished Frenchman and the crowd surrounding the Execution Grounds, decided so completely that he could not stay in Moscow any longer and was going to the army today, that it seemed to him that he either told the coachman about this, or that the coachman himself should have known this. ...
Arriving home, Pierre gave the order to his coachman Evstafievich, who knows everything, who knows everything, who knows all about Moscow, that he would go to Mozhaisk to the army at night and that his riding horses should be sent there. All this could not be done on the same day, and therefore, according to Evstafievich's proposal, Pierre had to postpone his departure until another day in order to give time for the frames to leave for the road.
On the 24th it cleared up after the bad weather, and on that day after dinner Pierre left Moscow. At night, changing horses at Perkhushkovo, Pierre learned that that evening there was a big battle. They said that here, in Perkhushkovo, the earth trembled from the shots. To Pierre's questions about who won, no one could give him an answer. (It was a battle on the 24th at Shevardin.) At dawn Pierre drove up to Mozhaisk.
All the houses of Mozhaisk were occupied by troops, and at the inn, where Pierre was met by his master and coachman, there was no room in the upper rooms: everything was full of officers.
In Mozhaisk and beyond Mozhaisk, troops stood and marched everywhere. Cossacks, foot, horse soldiers, wagons, boxes, cannons could be seen from all sides. Pierre was in a hurry to drive forward, and the farther he rode away from Moscow and the deeper he plunged into this sea of ​​troops, the more he was seized by anxiety of uneasiness and a new joyful feeling he had not yet experienced. It was a feeling similar to that which he experienced in the Sloboda Palace when the emperor arrived - a feeling of the need to undertake something and sacrifice something. He was now experiencing a pleasant feeling of consciousness that everything that makes up people's happiness, the comforts of life, wealth, even life itself, is nonsense, which is pleasant to dismiss in comparison with something ... With which, Pierre could not give himself an account, and he tried to figure it out for himself for whom and for what he found a special charm to sacrifice everything. He was not interested in what he wanted to sacrifice for, but the sacrifice itself constituted a new joyful feeling for him.

On the 24th there was a battle at the Shevardinsky redoubt, on the 25th not a single shot was fired from either side, on the 26th the Borodino battle took place.
For what and how were the battles at Shevardin and at Borodino given and accepted? Why was the Battle of Borodino given? It didn't make the slightest sense to either the French or the Russians. The closest result was and should have been - for the Russians, that we were close to the death of Moscow (which we feared most in the world), and for the French, that they were close to the death of the entire army (which they also feared the most in the world) ... This result was obvious at the same time, and meanwhile Napoleon gave, and Kutuzov accepted this battle.
If the generals were guided by reasonable reasons, it seemed how clear it should have been for Napoleon that, having gone two thousand miles and taking battle with the probable accident of losing a quarter of the army, he was going to certain death; and it should have seemed just as clear to Kutuzov that by accepting the battle and also risking losing a quarter of the army, he would probably lose Moscow. For Kutuzov it was mathematically clear, how clear is that if I have less than one checker in checkers and I change, I will probably lose and therefore should not change.
When the opponent has sixteen checkers, and I have fourteen, then I am only one-eighth weaker than him; and when I exchange thirteen pieces, he will be three times stronger than me.
Before the Battle of Borodino, our forces were approximately five to six of the French, and after the battle as one to two, that is, before the battle of one hundred thousand; one hundred and twenty, and after the battle fifty to a hundred. At the same time, the clever and experienced Kutuzov took up the battle. Napoleon, the genius commander, as he is called, gave battle, losing a quarter of his army and further stretching his line. If they say that, having occupied Moscow, he thought how to end the campaign by occupying Vienna, then there is a lot of evidence against this. The historians of Napoleon themselves say that he also wanted to stop from Smolensk, knew the danger of his extended position, knew that the occupation of Moscow would not be the end of the campaign, because from Smolensk he saw in what position the Russian cities were left to him, and did not receive a single answer to their repeated statements about the desire to negotiate.
Giving and accepting the Battle of Borodino, Kutuzov and Napoleon acted involuntarily and senselessly. And historians, under the accomplished facts, only later summed up cunning evidence of the foresight and genius of the commanders, who of all the involuntary instruments of world events were the most slavish and involuntary figures.
The ancients left us samples of heroic poems, in which heroes constitute the entire interest of history, and we still cannot get used to the fact that for our human time, this kind of story does not make sense.
On another question: how the Borodino and the Shevardinskoye battles that preceded it were given - there is also a very definite and well-known, completely false idea. All historians describe the case as follows:
The Russian army allegedly, in its retreat from Smolensk, was looking for the best position for a general battle, and such a position was allegedly found at Borodino.
The Russians allegedly fortified this position forward, to the left of the road (from Moscow to Smolensk), at an almost right angle to it, from Borodino to Utitsa, in the very place where the battle took place.
Ahead of this position, a fortified forward post on the Shevardinsky kurgan was supposedly set up to observe the enemy. On the 24th, it was as if Napoleon attacked an advanced post and took it; On the 26th, he attacked the entire Russian army, which was stationed at the Borodino field.
That is what the stories say, and all this is completely unfair, as anyone who wants to understand the essence of the matter will easily see.
The Russians weren't looking for a better position; but, on the contrary, in their retreat they passed many positions that were better than Borodinskaya. They did not stop at any of these positions: both because Kutuzov did not want to accept the position he had not chosen, and because the demand for a popular battle had not yet been expressed strongly enough, and because Miloradovich had not yet approached with the militia, and also because other reasons that are incalculable. The fact is that the previous positions were stronger and that the Borodino position (the one on which the battle was given) is not only not strong, but for some reason is not at all a position more than any other place in the Russian Empire, which, guessing, would be pointed with a pin on the map.