The first complete edition of Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' was published in 1869. It followed several years of serial publication and a major process of rewriting that transformed the earlier draft.
Tolstoy began working on the novel in 1863. An early version, titled '1805', appeared in the periodical Russkiy Vestnik from 1865 onward. Tolstoy became dissatisfied with that version and revised the manuscript heavily between 1866 and 1869, producing the work known as 'War and Peace'.
The novel was issued as a six-volume Russian edition, with the first edition's title page dated 1869. It was substantially longer and more philosophically expansive than the serialised draft, combining fictional stories about Russian families with accounts of the Napoleonic Wars.
The year 1812 is often associated with the book because Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the Battle of Borodino are central episodes. However, 1812 is a setting within the novel, not its publication date. The serial years 1865–1867 likewise describe earlier magazine publication rather than the first complete book edition.