Nikolai Rostov

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Count Nikolai Ilyich Rostov (Russian: Николай Ильич Ростов) is a character in Leo Tolstoy's 1869 novel War and Peace. Count Nikolai is the brother of Vera Rostova, Natasha Rostova and Petya Rostov. At the start of the novel, Nikolai is aged 20 and a university student. He gives up his studies in a zealous desire to serve his country as a Hussar in the fight against Napoleon's French invading forces. He dreams of manly success and glory in battle, although these dreams are somewhat undermined after he falls and is injured in the Battle of Schöngrabern. Nikolai is initially easily influenced and acts out of emotional responses; unlike his childhood friend, the social climber Boris Drubetskoy, who writer Dimitri Pisarev regarded "as the complete antithesis". He refuses to use his family's contacts to improve his rank in the army, and comes under the influence of the libertine Dolokhov, losing large amounts of money to him at cards. Nikolai promises to marry his cousin Sonya but on his first...

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