I have been reading Commodore Hornblower, in which Captain Hornblower sails the Baltic and hinders Boney's invasion of Russia in 1812. Why didn't St Petersburg fall? Well, that was down to Hornblower. Something I learnt that I did not gather from War and Peace was that Russia invaded Finland and some Baltic states a year or two before Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Another thing I did not know was that Tzar Alexander's father and grandfather were both assassinated. Hornblower thinks Tzar Alexander will be assassinated by his own officers if he is unsuccessful at defending Russia. I certainly did not get the impression that Tzar Alexander was in danger of being assassinated by Russian nobility. I got the impression the Tzar was adored by the Russian nobility. Nikolai Rostov adores him.