Who hosts the opening salon party in War and Peace?

Anna Pavlovna Scherer hosts the opening salon party in War and Peace.

The novel begins in July 1805 at a soirée in Anna Pavlovna’s Saint Petersburg salon. She is described as a maid of honor and favorite of the dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, placing her close to the imperial court and making her gathering an important meeting place for the Russian aristocracy.

The party introduces several central characters, including Prince Vasili Kuragin, Pierre Bezukhov, and Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. Conversation quickly turns to Napoleon, European politics, and the possibility of war, so the social event establishes both the novel’s setting and its political tension.

Anna Pavlovna is more than a hostess: she manages the room, guides conversations, and maintains social boundaries. Readers sometimes confuse her with Anna Mikhaylovna Drubetskaya, another character who appears in the early chapters, or with Julie Karagina, a later society figure. The opening gathering belongs specifically to Anna Pavlovna’s salon.