HSE Develops Interactive Web Version of Tolstoy’s War and Peace

The HSE School of Linguistics, along with Samsung Electronics and experts from the group Tolstoy Digital, has launched the web version of the project ‘Living Pages,’ which offers users a new visual and linguistic analysis of Leo Tolstoy’s iconic novel War and Peace.

‘The web version provides us with an outlet for the ideas that couldn’t be implemented in the mobile application Living Pages. We have detailed and expanded the functional capabilities of our infographic,’ notes Anastasiya Bonch-Osmolovskaya, an Associate Professor in the School of Linguistics. ‘There are now dynamic maps of the characters’ locations, and we’re able to look at the route they take and see where each of the main characters are at a certain point in the novel. We have added interactive graphs that allow the user to see how relationships among the novel’s main characters developed.’

This version is available online. The site is dedicated to the 60-hour online marathon reading of War and Peace that took place on December 8-11. Several participants used the Living Pages app to read the novel for the marathon, which lasted for 60 hours and took place in more than 25 cities in Russia and countries around the world, including Austria, Belgium, Germany, China, Serbia, the U.S., France, the Czech Republic, and South Korea. The event was also streamed on the project’s website.