Have Begun Reading Tolstoy's War and Peace

I am currently in the process of reading Leo Tolstoy's classic novel War and Peace, often cited over the years by many for its length.  Yes, this is a very big book, but if you consider that the average book I've been reading is 500-1000 pages long, then this 1386-page book really isn't that big a deal.  Still, it's probably going to take a while for me to finish it: I'm a little over a fourth of the way through...

War and Peace is about what happens to a small number of Russian noble families during that tumultuous period in European history known as the Napoleonic Wars.  Napoleon Bonaparte, the self-proclaimed Emperor of France, is traipsing through Europe conquering country after country and out-maneuvering his opponents on the battlefields.  In 1805, Russia stands with Great Britain and Austria (formerly known as the Holy Roman Empire) in opposition to Napoleon, and the Russo-Austrian alliance is put to the test late that year in the decisive Battle of Austerlitz.  That's where the timeline is right now in my reading.  But I know what happens next: Napoleon crushes his foes and Austria switches sides to become his ally and Russia and Britain's enemy.  But also, I know that in 1807 even Russia will change its allegiances to France against Great Britain.  Ultimately, though, that alliance with Napoleon won't last and he will decide to invade Russia on June 23, 1812...and I'm confident that War and Peace is going to cover much if not all of these developments.

There is a curious parallel between Napoleon's temporary alliance with Russia and his subsequent invasion and Hitler's non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union's Stalin in 1939 and the German dictator's decision to treacherously invade it...on June 22, 1941.  With Napoleon, Moscow was occupied but had already been evacuated and was set afire while Hitler's Nazis never quite got there.  Neither of them could conquer St. Petersburg/Leningrad. And the combination of harsh winters, logistics nightmares due to the sheer scope of the distance covered, and an effective Russian resistance under occupation were involved in both cases. 

I didn't anticipate a heavy history lesson with War and Peace, but I should have known it was coming with a book sporting such a title...