Completed the life and creative path of L. Tolstoy. Creative and life path of Leo Tolstoy (lecture)
Count L.N. Tolstoy - a descendant of two noble noble families: Counts Tolstoy and princes Volkonsky (on the maternal side) - was born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate. Here he lived most of his life, wrote most of the works, including novels that were included in the golden fund of world literature: "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina" and "Resurrection".
The most important events of Tolstoy's "pre-writing" biography are early orphanhood, moving with his brothers from Moscow to Kazan to live with his father's sister, who was appointed their guardian, a short and not very successful study at Kazan University, first at the Eastern, and then at the Faculty of Law (from 1844 . to 1847). After leaving the university, Tolstoy went to Yasnaya Polyana, inherited from his father.
From childhood, the future writer was fascinated by the idea of self-knowledge and moral self-determination. From 1847 until the end of his life, he kept a diary, which reflected his intense moral quest, painful doubts about the correctness of his life decisions, joyful moments of finding the meaning of existence and a bitter parting with what until recently seemed to be an unshakable truth ... Entries in Tolstoy! diary became "human documents" that prepared the appearance of his autobiographical books. Cognition human soul, which lasted a lifetime, Tolstoy began with himself.
Tolstoy's first literary experiments date back to 1850. Arriving from Yasnaya Polyana to Moscow, he began work on autobiographical story"Childhood", a story from the life of gypsies (remained unfinished), wrote "The History of Yesterday" - a psychological "report" about one of the days lived. Soon Tolstoy's life changed drastically: in 1851 he decided to go to the Caucasus and become a cadet in one of the army units. Important role this decision was played by one of the most authoritative people for the young Tolstoy - the elder brother Nikolai, an artillery officer who served in the army.
In the Caucasus, the story "Childhood" was completed, which became Tolstoy's literary debut (published in Nekrasov's Sovremennik in 1852). This work, together with the stories "Boyhood" (1852-1854) and "Youth" (1855-1857) created later, became part of the famous autobiographical trilogy, in which Tolstoy, while still studying at Kazan University, became interested in pedagogical ideas French educator J.-J. Rousseau, explores the psychology of the child, teenager and youth Nikolai Irteniev.
In 1851-1853. former student and the novice writer participated in the war with the highlanders. During the Crimean War, he was transferred to the Danube army, which fought with the Turks, and then to Sevastopol, besieged by the Allied troops. Army life and episodes of the Crimean War served as a source unforgettable experience, gave abundant material for military works - the stories "Raid" (1852), "Cutting the Forest" (1853-1855), " Sevastopol stories» (1855). For the first time they show the "non-dress" side of the war. "trench" truth and inner world man in the war - that's what interested the writer-warrior. For courage and courage shown during the defense of Sevastopol, he was awarded the Order of Anna and the medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol" and "In Memory of the War of 1853-1856." The experience of a participant in the bloodiest war mid-nineteenth V. and artistic discoveries made in the war stories of the 1850s, Tolstoy used a decade later in his work on his main "war" work - the novel "War and Peace".
Tolstoy's first publications evoked sympathetic responses from critics and readers. Perhaps the most insightful description of the young writer's work belongs to the pen of N.G. Chernyshevsky. In the article “Childhood and adolescence. Military stories c. Tolstoy" (1856), the critic was the first to define with classical clarity the most important features of Tolstoy's work: "purity of moral feeling" and psychologism - attention to the most complex side of human existence, which Chernyshevsky called "the dialectics of the soul."
In 1855, Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg, and in the fall of 1856 he retired, disappointed in military career. Work began on the previously conceived "Roman of the Russian Landowner". This work remained unfinished, only one of its fragments has survived - the story "The Morning of the Landowner", the "echo" of which is felt in all Tolstoy's novels.
In 1857, during his first trip to Europe (France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany), Tolstoy wrote the story "Lucerne". Having created in it the image of Western "civilization", he set serious moral and philosophical problems. For the first time, the theme of human alienation was touched upon, which was continued in the late works of the writer and in the works of his followers - writers of the 20th century. Tolstoy bitterly wrote about how people, generally kind and humane, showed unusual spiritual callousness in relation to a particular person, but ended the story with an abstract philosophical conclusion about the “reasonableness” of the universe: “Infinite is the goodness and wisdom of the One who allowed and commanded all these contradictions exist.
In the works of the 1850s. Tolstoy the artist avoided criticism of reality, touching, but not merging with the critical trend in Russian realistic literature. The writer deliberately went against the current, believing that "the tendency to pay attention only to what disturbs is a great vice, and precisely of our time." He followed the moral maxim, which he formulated as follows: "Deliberately seek all that is good, good, turn away from the bad." Tolstoy sought to combine the accuracy of the realistic characteristics of the characters, a deep analysis of their psychology with the search for philosophical and moral foundations life. Moral truth, according to Tolstoy, is concrete and achievable - it can be revealed to a person who is searching, restless, dissatisfied with himself.
The story "The Cossacks" (1853-1863) is an artistic "manifesto" of Tolstoy's "Russoism". Despite the "literary" plot, which goes back to the "Caucasian" works of Pushkin ("Gypsies") and Lermontov ("A Hero of Our Time"), the story was the result of the writer's creative development over ten years. There was a significant convergence of three themes, important for the subsequent work on the novel "War and Peace": "natural man", folk life and the traditional theme for Tolstoy moral quest nobleman (image of Olenin). In "Cossacks" "false" secular society opposed to the harmonious community of people close to nature. "Natural" for Tolstoy - the main criterion for evaluation moral qualities and behavior of people. The "true" life, in his opinion, can only be a "free" life, based on an understanding of the wise laws of nature.
In the late 1850s, Tolstoy experienced an acute spiritual crisis. Dissatisfied with his work, disappointed in the secular and literary environment, he refused to actively participate in literary life and settled in the Yasnaya Polyana estate, where he took up housekeeping, pedagogy and family (in 1862 Tolstoy married the daughter of a Moscow doctor S. A. Bers).
A new turn in the life of the writer significantly corrected his literary plans. However, having retired from the literary "vanity", he did not leave work on new works. Since 1860, when the novel The Decembrists was conceived, the idea of Tolstoy's largest work of the 1860s was gradually taking shape. - epic novel "War and Peace". This work accumulated not only vital and artistic experience accumulated by Tolstoy in the 1850s, but also reflected his new interests. In particular, pedagogical activity, marriage and the construction of his own family led the writer to pay close attention to the problems of family and education. “Family thought” in a work dedicated to the events of half a century ago turned out to be just as important as “people's thought”, philosophical, historical and moral problems.
Selfless work - the creation of "War and Peace" - was completed in 1869. For several years, Tolstoy hatched the idea of a new work on the "nodal", in his opinion, historical theme- the theme of Peter I. However, work on the novel about the Petrine era did not progress beyond a few chapters. Only in 1873, having gone through a new passion for pedagogy (the ABC and Books for Reading were written), did he come to grips with the implementation of a new idea - a novel about modernity.
The novel "Anna Karenina" (1873-1877), the central work of the 1870s, - new stage V creative development Tolstoy. In contrast to the epic novel "War and Peace", dedicated to the depiction of the "heroic" era in the life of Russia, in the problems of "Anna Karenina" the "family thought" turned out to be in the foreground. The novel became a real "family epic": Tolstoy believed that it was in the family that one should look for the knot of modern social and moral problems. The family in his image is a sensitive barometer, reflecting the changes in public morality caused by the change in the entire post-reform way of life. Anxiety for the fate of Russia dictated the famous words of Konstantin Levin: “Now we, ... when all this has turned upside down and is just getting laid, the question of how these conditions will fit, there is only one important question in Russia.” The hero understands that his fragile family happiness also depends on the well-being of the country.
Love and marriage, according to Tolstoy, cannot be considered only as a source of sensual pleasure. The most important thing is the moral obligations to the family and loved ones. The love of Anna Karenina and Vronsky is based only on the need for pleasure, and therefore leads to the spiritual separation of the characters, making them unhappy. The tragedy of Anna's fate is predetermined not only by the callousness of the person whom she married not out of love, but out of calculation, the cruelty and hypocrisy of the world, Vronsky's frivolity, but also by the very nature of her feelings. The conflict between the pleasure obtained at the cost of the destruction of the family, and the duty to the son turned out to be insoluble. The supreme judge for Anna Karenina is not the "empty light", but the son of Seryozha: "he understood, he loved, he judged her." The meaning of the relationship between Kitty and Levin is different: the creation of a family, understood as a spiritual union of loving people. The love of Kitty and Levin not only connects them with each other, but also connects them with the outside world, brings them true happiness.
Each turning point in Tolstoy's worldview was reflected both in the way of life of his life and in his work. Obeying the new moral imperatives, he began to follow them in practice: he left literary activity, cooling off towards it, and even "renounced" the works written earlier. But after a while Tolstoy returned to literature - a new turn took place in his work. This was the case in the late 1870s.
Tolstoy came to the conclusion that the life of the society to which he belonged by birth and upbringing was deceitful and empty. The sharpness of social criticism was combined in his works with the desire to find simple and clear answers to the "eternal" philosophical and moral questions. A sharp sense of evanescence human life, the defenselessness of man in the face of inevitable death prompted Tolstoy to search for new foundations of life, such a meaning that would not be destroyed by death. These searches were reflected in the "Confession" (1879-1882) and in the religious and philosophical treatise "What is my faith?" (1882-1884). In "Confession" Tolstoy concluded that it is faith that gives meaning to life, helping to get rid of a false, meaningless existence, and in the treatise "What is my faith?" expounded in detail his religious and moral teaching, called by his contemporaries "Tolstoyism".
The change in moral and aesthetic guidelines led to the appearance of the treatise "What is art?" (begun in 1892, completed in 1897-1898). In the work, with the directness and categoricalness characteristic of the late Tolstoy, two problems are posed and solved: the author sharply criticizes modern Art, considering it not just useless, but destructive for people, and expresses his ideas about what should be genuine art. Tolstoy's main idea: art should be useful, the writer's task is to shape the moral character of people, to help them in the search for the truths of life.
The story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (1884-1886) - Tolstoy's masterpiece, which influenced several generations of Russian and foreign writers - the first piece of art, written after a turning point in his worldview. Tolstoy put his hero, a successful Petersburg official, in the face of death, that is, in a “boundary situation”, when a person must reconsider his previous attitude to service, career, family, and think about the meaning of his life.
The life of the protagonist of the story, Ivan Ilyich, is “the most ordinary and the most terrible,” although everything that he wanted was realized in it. A reassessment of the past that opened up to him from a new angle, moral self-criticism and a mercilessly sober look at the lies and hypocrisy of those around him helped Ivan Ilyich overcome his fear of death. In the moral enlightenment of the hero, Tolstoy showed the victory of true spirituality. Unlike the works of the 1850s-1870s, Ivan Ilyich's insight was not the result of a long search for truth. In the story, a feature of Tolstoy's late prose was clearly manifested: the writer was no longer interested in the process of the moral development of the characters, but in a sudden spiritual transformation, the "resurrection" of a person.
The story "The Kreutzer Sonata", written in 1887-1889, reflected the late Tolstoy's ideas about the destructive power of sensual love, "lust". family drama Pozdnyshev, in the interpretation of the author, is a consequence of the "power of darkness", that is, unhealthy, inflamed passions that displace the true basis of family and marriage relations - spiritual intimacy. In the afterword to the Kreutzer Sonata, Tolstoy declared chastity and celibacy to be the ideal of life.
For ten years (1889-1899) Tolstoy worked on latest novel"Resurrection", the plot of which arose on the basis of a genuine court case. The main idea of this novel, unprecedented in its power of social criticism, is the spiritual "resurrection" of man. Social institutions, religion, morality and law - all modern life disfiguring people, the writer showed from the standpoint of his religious and moral philosophy. Reflecting on the "end of the century", Tolstoy summed up disappointing results 19th century in which material civilization took precedence over spirituality, forcing people to worship false values. However, the writer is convinced that just as the unrighteous, meaningless life of Prince Nekhlyudov ended with his insight and moral “resurrection”, the true prospect of the existence of all people should be the overcoming of lies, falsehood and hypocrisy. On the eve of the XX century. Tolstoy thought about the coming "spring" of mankind, about the triumph of life, which will break through, like the first spring grass, through "slabs of stones."
While working on Resurrection, Tolstoy simultaneously wrote the novels Father Sergius (1890-1898) and Hadji Murad (1896-1904). Both works were first published (with censored notes) only in 1912. In 1903, the story “After the Ball” was written (published in 1911). A striking phenomenon in the late work of Tolstoy was the play "The Power of Darkness", "The Fruits of Enlightenment" to "The Living Corpse".
Despite the fact that in the 1880s - 1890s. Tolstoy devoted much of his time and energy to work on journalistic works, believing that writing "artistic" is "shameful", his literary activity did not stop. The very presence of the patriarch of Russian literature had a beneficial effect on the artistic and public life Russia. His works turned out to be consonant with the ideological and creative searches of young writers of the early XX
V. Many of them (I.A. Bunin, M. Gorky, A.I. Kuprin, M.P. Artsybashev and others), like thousands of people on different continents, went through the passion for “Tolstoyism”.
Tolstoy was not only a true artistic authority, but also a "teacher of life", an example of an ascetic attitude to the moral duties of a person. His religious and moral teaching, which did not coincide with Orthodox dogma (in the early 1900s, the Holy Synod excommunicated Tolstoy from the church), was perceived as clear program life.
Tolstoy's departure from Yasnaya Polyana on October 27 (November 10), 1910 was not only the end of an acute family crisis. This was the result of the painful reflections of the writer, who had long ago abandoned property, about the falsity of his position as a preacher in the conditions of life in a manor's estate. Tolstoy's death is symbolic: he died on the way to a new life, having failed to take advantage of the fruits of his "liberation". Having fallen ill with pneumonia, Tolstoy died at the small Astapovo railway station on November 7 (20) and on November 10 (23), 1910, he was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.
Plan
I. Introduction. Rationale for the choice of topic.
II. Main part. The creative path of L. N. Tolstoy.
1. The emergence of the writer in the literary world.
2. “Childhood”, “Boyhood”, “Youth”.
3. Sevastopol stories.
4. Artistic originality story "Cossacks".
5. The epic novel “War and Peace”.
a) the creation of a work;
b) the statement in the novel of “the thought of the people”;
c) the path of ideological and moral quest goodie Tolstoy;
d) depiction of the truth of war in the novel.
e) “War and Peace” is a book about the great renewal of life caused by formidable historical events.
6. "ABC" Tolstoy.
7. "Anna Karenina" - a novel about modernity.
a) reflection of family life and the life of the world in the book;
b) connection in the development of the fates of Anna and Levin;
c) “Signs of the times” in the content and art form"Anna Karenina".
8. The method of Tolstoy's knowledge and embodiment of the world through psychological analysis in "The Death of Ivan Ilyich".
9. Review novel “Resurrection”.
10. The theme of the fight against autocratic despotism in the story "Hadji Murad".
III. Conclusion. The value of the artistic heritage of the writer.
“The goal of the artist is not to undeniably resolve the issue, but to make you love life in countless, never exhausted all its manifestations. If I were told that I could write a novel by which I would incontrovertibly establish what seems to me the right view of all social questions, I would not devote even two hours of labor to such a novel, but if I were told that what I write will be read today's children in 20 years and will cry and laugh over him and love life, I would devote my life and all my strength to him ... "
L.N. Tolstoy.
Introduction
I chose the topic of L.N. Tolstoy, since his personality, deeply epoch-making, life-affirming, historical and philosophical literature, his attitude to life, to the search for his place in it, are closest to me. The study of his life and work is an ideal way of self-education. In a painful search for answers to the innumerable questions that every sane person asks himself at a certain stage of his life, Leo Tolstoy wrote: who calmly and, without mistakes, without remorse, without confusion, live quietly for himself and do everything without haste, carefully, only good. Ridiculous!... To live honestly, you have to tear, get confused, fight, make mistakes, start and quit, and always fight and lose. And peace is spiritual meanness.”
At the beginning of the 20th century, Leo Tolstoy was called "a teacher in life and art." In the following decades, up to the present day, the legacy brilliant artist continues to amaze with both vital and creative discoveries. Readers of all ages will find answers to their questions here. And he will not just explain to himself what he does not understand, but will “submit” to Tolstoy’s rare living heroes, perceive them as real people. Here it is - the phenomenon of the writer. The wisdom of his comprehension of a person, an era, a country of all things comes to us in experiences close to everyone.
The desire for moral perfection, the preaching of love for one's neighbor, kindness, the search for the meaning of life are the leading ideological motives of the writer's work. They represent the true path, the road to the reasonable, good, eternal. All these are universal values.
Reading other famous, wonderful, Russian writers, such as A. S. Griboedov, N. V. Gogol, N. A. Nekrasov, A. N. Ostrovsky, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, F. M. Dostoevsky ... you feel some desperation. It seems that there is no way out of the network of endless problems both at the state and at the everyday human level.
Lev Nikolaevich not only angrily protests, denounces or stigmatizes the injustice, vices and imperfections of this world in general and the reality in Russian society in particular, but tries to understand the Russian people. This is a philosopher. Writer, loving people and able to see bright sides life.
Tolstoy paints a picture of an entire era in the life of Russia. Writer's works - reflection the smallest details real life at the time. And he gives us the right to evaluate events.
L. N. Tolstoy was 24 years old when the story “Childhood” appeared in the best, leading magazine of those years, Sovremennik. At the end of the printed text, readers saw only the initials that did not tell them anything then: L.N.
Sending his first creation to the editor of the journal, N.A. Nekrasov, Tolstoy invested money in case the manuscript was returned. The editor's response, more than positive, delighted the young author "to the point of stupidity." Tolstoy's first book - "Childhood" - along with the subsequent two stories, "Boyhood" and "Youth", became his first masterpiece. Novels and stories created at the time creative flourishing, did not obscure this peak.
“This is a new talent and, it seems, reliable,” N.A. Nekrasov wrote about the young Tolstoy. “Here, finally, is Gogol's successor, not at all like him, as it should be ...”, - I.S. Turgenev echoed Nekrasov. When “Boyhood” appeared, Turgenev wrote that the first place among writers belongs to Tolstoy by right and is waiting for him, that soon “Tolstoy alone will be known in Russia”.
The outwardly uncomplicated narration about childhood, adolescence and the moral character of the hero, Nikolenka Irtenyev, opened up new horizons for all Russian literature. The leading critic of those years, .G. Chernyshevsky, reviewing the first collections of Tolstoy (“Childhood and Adolescence”, “Military Stories”), defined the essence of the young writer’s artistic discoveries in two terms: “dialectics of the soul” and “purity of moral feeling”.
Psychological analysis existed in realistic art to Tolstoy. In Russian prose - in Lermontov, Turgenev, the young Dostoevsky. Tolstoy's discovery was that for him the tool for the study of mental life - the microscope of psychological analysis became the main one among others. artistic means. N.G. Chernyshevsky wrote in this regard: “Psychological analysis can take various directions: one poet is occupied by the outlines of characters; the other is influence public relations and clashes on the characters; third - the connection of feelings with actions; fourth, the analysis of passions; Count Tolstoy most of all - the mental process itself, its forms, its laws, the dialectics of the soul, to put it in a definitive term.
An unprecedented keen interest in spiritual life is of fundamental importance for Tolstoy the artist. In this way, the writer opens up in his characters the possibility of change, development, internal renewal, confrontation with the environment.
According to the researcher’s fair opinion, “the ideas of the revival of a person, a people, humanity ... constitute the pathos of Tolstoy’s creativity ... Starting from their early stories, the writer deeply and comprehensively explored the possibilities of the human personality, its ability for spiritual growth, the possibility of its familiarization with the lofty goals of human existence” .
“Details of feelings,” spiritual life in its inner course come to the fore, pushing aside the “interest of events.” The plot is deprived of any external eventfulness and entertainment and is simplified to such an extent that in retelling it can be put into several lines. It is not the events in themselves that are interesting, the contrasts and contradictions of feelings are interesting, which, in fact, are the subject, the theme of the story.
"People are like rivers" - famous aphorism from the novel Resurrection. While working on his last novel, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “One of the greatest misconceptions in judging a person is what we call, we define a person as smart, stupid, kind, evil, strong, weak, and a person is everything: all possibilities, there are fluid substance." This judgment almost literally repeats the entry made in July 1851, i.e., just at the time of “Childhood”: “To speak about a person: he is an original, kind, intelligent, stupid, consistent person, etc. ... words that do not give any concept of a person, but have a claim to describe a person, while often only confusing.
To capture and embody the “fluid substance” of spiritual life, the very formation of a person - this is the main thing. artistic task Tolstoy. The idea of his first book is determined by the characteristic title: “Four epochs of development”. It was assumed that the internal development of Nikolenka Irtenyev, and in essence of any person in general, would be traced from childhood to youth. And it cannot be said that the last, fourth part remained unwritten. She was embodied in other stories of the young Tolstoy - "Morning of the landowner", "Cossacks".
One of Tolstoy's most beloved and sincere thoughts is connected with the image of Irtenyev - the idea of the enormous possibilities of a person born for movement, for moral and spiritual growth. What is new in the hero and in the world that opens up to him day after day especially occupies Tolstoy. The ability of Tolstoy's beloved hero to overcome the usual limits of being, to constantly change and renew himself, to "flow" conceals a premonition and a guarantee of change, gives him a moral support for confronting negative and inert elements in his environment. In "Youth" Tolstoy directly connects this "power of development" with the belief "in the omnipotence of the human mind."
The poetry of childhood - “happy, happy, irretrievable time” is replaced by the “desert of adolescence”, when the assertion of one’s “I” occurs in continuous conflict with people around, so that in new age- youth - the world was divided into two parts: one, illuminated by friendship and spiritual closeness; another - morally hostile, even if it sometimes attracts to itself. At the same time, the fidelity of the final assessments is ensured by the “purity of the moral feeling” of the author.
Life and creative way L. N. Tolstoy Completed the work: Pupil of the 10th grade Korchinskaya Ivanna
"joyful period childhood "Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich was born on August 28 (September 9), 1828, the estate of Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province - count, Russian writer. Tolstoy was the fourth child in a large noble family. His mother, nee Princess Volkonskaya, died when Tolstoy was not yet two years old , but according to the stories of family members, he had a good idea of \u200b\u200b"her spiritual appearance": some features of the mother ( brilliant education, sensitivity to art, a penchant for reflection and even a portrait resemblance Tolstoy gave to Princess Marya Nikolaevna Bolkonskaya ("War and Peace"). Tolstoy's father, member Patriotic War, remembered by the writer for his good-natured and mocking character, love for reading, for hunting (served as the prototype for Nikolai Rostov), also died early (1837). The upbringing of children was carried out by a distant relative T. A. Ergolskaya, who had a huge influence on Tolstoy: "she taught me the spiritual pleasure of love." Childhood memories have always remained the most joyful for Tolstoy: family traditions, first impressions of life noble estate served as a rich material for his works, reflected in the autobiographical story
Kazan University When Tolstoy was 13 years old, the family moved to Kazan, to the house of P. I. Yushkova, a relative and guardian of the children. In 1844 Tolstoy entered Kazan University in the Department of Oriental Languages of the Faculty of Philosophy, then transferred to the Faculty of Law, where he studied for less than two years: classes did not arouse keen interest in him and he passionately indulged social entertainment. In the spring of 1847, having submitted a letter of resignation from the university "due to poor health and domestic circumstances", Tolstoy left for Yasnaya Polyana with the firm intention of studying the entire course of legal sciences (in order to pass the exam as an external student), "practical medicine", languages, agriculture, history, geographical statistics, write a dissertation and "achieve the highest degree of perfection in music and painting."
"Fast paced life youthful period" After a summer in the countryside, disappointed by the unsuccessful experience of managing on new, favorable conditions for serfdom (this attempt is captured in the story "Morning of the Landowner", 1857), in the fall of 1847 Tolstoy left first for Moscow, then for St. University.The way of his life during this period often changed: either he prepared for days and passed exams, then passionately devoted himself to music, then he intended to start a bureaucratic career, then he dreamed of becoming a cadet in a horse guard regiment.Religious moods, reaching asceticism, alternated with revelry, cards , trips to the gypsies. In the family he was considered "the most trifling fellow", and he managed to repay the debts he made then only many years later. However, it was these years that were colored by intense introspection and struggle with oneself, which is reflected in the diary that Tolstoy kept throughout At the same time, he had a serious desire to write and the first unfinished art sketches appeared.
"War and Freedom" In 1851, elder brother Nikolai, an officer in the army, persuaded Tolstoy to go together to the Caucasus. For almost three years, Tolstoy lived in a Cossack village on the banks of the Terek, traveling to Kizlyar, Tiflis, Vladikavkaz and participating in hostilities (at first voluntarily, then he was hired). The Caucasian nature and the patriarchal simplicity of the Cossack life, which struck Tolstoy in contrast with the life of the noble circle and with the painful reflection of a man of an educated society, provided material for the autobiographical story "The Cossacks" (1852-63). Caucasian impressions were also reflected in the stories "The Raid" (1853), "Cutting the Forest" (1855), as well as in the later story "Hadji Murad" (1896-1904, published in 1912). Returning to Russia, Tolstoy wrote in his diary that he fell in love with this "wild land, in which two most opposite things - war and freedom - are so strangely and poetically combined." In the Caucasus, Tolstoy wrote the story "Childhood" and sent it to the journal "Sovremennik" without revealing his name (published in 1852 under the initials L. N.; together with later stories "Boyhood", 185254, and "Youth", 1855-57 , compiled an autobiographical trilogy). Literary debut
Creativity The first work of Tolstoy, which appeared in print, was the story "Childhood", which was highly appreciated by N. Nekrasov and published in Sovremennik. The "Childhood" was followed by the story "Boyhood". "Youth", which made up the trilogy. The main character Nikolenka Irteniev has many autobiographical features. His childhood, like the childhood of the author himself, takes place in a noble estate. He is smart, observant, has an unusually vivid imagination, constantly analyzes his thoughts and actions. Nikolenka's soul is open to all the impressions of life, but in childhood, children are limited to a narrow circle of the family and do not go beyond the boundaries of the noble estate. Nikolenka begins to notice the shortcomings of the people of his circle and comes to the idea of the need to correct human vices, and first of all he will correct himself. But real life every now and then destroys his dreams, and Nikolenka gradually succumbs to the bad influence of his environment, with its vanity, hypocrisy, contempt for humble people, indifferent, and more often cruel attitude towards servants and serfs. The author of "Childhood" and "Adolescence" proved to be a deep and subtle master, a psychologist, critics noted his exceptional ability to convey the secret, innermost thoughts and feelings of a person. In "Youth" are shown student years the hero of the trilogy, his first disagreement with the lordly environment and the desire to get closer to students who came out of an environment close to the people. Subsequently, L. N. Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, then on 20 primary schools in the surrounding villages, wrote articles on pedagogy, created "Books for reading", compiled the "ABC".
The writer was offended that this. And he reworked them dozens of times, achieving the utmost simplicity and clarity. Throughout his life he studied the works of oral folk art - songs, fairy tales, epics, legends, he was sure that in "songs, fairy tales, epics - everything is simple - they will read as long as there is a Russian language." The appearance of the novels "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina" and other works of Leo Tolstoy caused a large number of reviews, books, articles. The well-known Russian critic V. V. Stasov wrote: “Leo Tolstoy rose to such a high note, which Russian literature has never taken before ...” The name of Tolstoy gained worldwide fame during the life of the writer. In our time, Tolstoy occupies one of the first places among writers of all countries and peoples in terms of the number of translations of his works into foreign languages. With his life and work, Tolstoy linked and connected "two centuries" of Russian literature. M. Gorky said: "Without knowing Tolstoy, one cannot consider oneself knowing one's country, one cannot consider oneself a cultured person."
Departure and death The years of change abruptly changed the writer's personal biography, turning into a break with the social environment and leading to family discord (the refusal to own private property proclaimed by Tolstoy caused sharp discontent among family members, especially his wife). The personal drama experienced by Tolstoy is reflected in his diary entries. In the late autumn of 1910, at night, secretly from his family, 82-year-old Tolstoy, accompanied only by his personal doctor D.P. Makovitsky, left Yasnaya Polyana. The road turned out to be unbearable for him: on the way, Tolstoy fell ill and had to get off the train at the small Astapovo railway station. Here, in the stationmaster's house, he spent the last seven days of his life. Behind reports about the health of Tolstoy, who by this time had already acquired world fame not only as a writer, but as religious thinker, preacher new faith, watched the whole of Russia. Tolstoy's funeral in Yasnaya Polyana became an event of all-Russian scale.
MOU school number 10
Literature project
Topic: “Life and work of L.N. Tolstoy".
Completed:
10th grade students
Kazantseva Yu.
Shtykova A.
Checked:
Baldina O.A.
g.o. Zhigulevsk
Introduction. 3
1. Life of L.N. Tolstoy. 5
1.1 Family nest. 5
1.2 Childhood. 7
1.3 Adolescence. 10
1.4 Youth. eleven
1.5 Youth in the Caucasus. 13
1.6 The second birth of Leo Tolstoy. 14
1.7 Departure and death of Leo Tolstoy. 17
2. The creative path of L.N. Tolstoy. 21
2.1 "Childhood". "Adolescence". "Youth". 21
2.2 "Cossacks". 23
2.3 "War and Peace". 27
2.4 "Anna Karenina". 32
2.5 "Resurrection". 38
Conclusion. 43
List of used literature.. 45
We chose the topic for writing the project: “The life and work of L. N. Tolstoy”, because we found his personality and his works interesting, and we wanted to study his biography and his creative path in detail.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Leo Tolstoy was called "a teacher in life and art." In the following decades, up to the present day, the legacy of the brilliant artist continues to amaze with both life and creative discoveries. Readers of all ages will find answers to their questions here. And he will not just clarify the incomprehensible to himself, but will “submit” to Tolstoy's rare living heroes, perceive them as real people. This is the phenomenon of the writer. The wisdom of his comprehension of a person, an era, a country of all things comes to us in experiences close to everyone.
Everything is found in our project: reasoning, praise, and even criticism, but you definitely will not see here indifference towards Lev Nikolayevich and his works.
Our goal: to study the biography and works of Tolstoy, as well as to understand his thoughts and feelings that he experienced when he worked on his works.
Our task: to tell people about greatness and talent famous writer, confirming it with reliable facts.
Problems:
When we were working on the project, we had the following problems: every person who has read at least some of Tolstoy's novels perceives them differently, and therefore we could not come to a common opinion about his novels for a long time; and also in different sources the biography of Lev Nikolaevich and the criticism of his works are interpreted in different ways, and we had enough for a long time look for reliable information.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9, new style), 1828. in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, in one of the most distinguished Russian noble families.
The Tolstoy family existed in Russia for six hundred years. Leo Tolstoy's great-grandfather, Andrei Ivanovich, was the grandson of Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, one of the main instigators of the Streltsy rebellion under Princess Sophia. After the fall of Sophia, he went over to the side of Peter. P. A. Tolstoy in 1701, during a period of sharp aggravation of Russian-Turkish relations, was appointed by Peter I to the important and difficult post of envoy in Constantinople. He twice had to sit in the Seven-Tower Castle, depicted on the Tolstoy family coat of arms in honor of the special diplomatic merits of the noble ancestor. In 1717 P. A. Tolstoy rendered the tsar a particularly important service by persuading Tsarevich Alexei to return to Russia from Naples. For participation in the investigation, trial and secret execution of Tsarevich, recalcitrant to Peter, P. A. Tolstoy was awarded estates and placed at the head of the Secret Government Chancellery.
On the day of the coronation of Catherine I, he received the title of count, since, together with Menshikov, he energetically contributed to her accession. But under Peter II, the son of Tsarevich Alexei, P. A. Tolstoy fell into disgrace and at the age of 82 was exiled to the Solovetsky Monastery, where he soon died. Only in 1760, during the reign of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, the dignity of count was returned to the offspring of Peter Andreevich.
The writer's grandfather, Ilya Andreevich Tolstoy, was a cheerful, trusting, but careless man. He squandered all his fortune and was forced, with the help of influential relatives, to secure the position of governor in Kazan. The patronage of the all-powerful Minister of War Nikolai Ivanovich Gorchakov helped, to whose daughter Pelageya Nikolaevna he was married. As the eldest in the Gorchakov family, Lev Nikolaevich’s grandmother enjoyed their special respect and honor (Leo Tolstoy himself would later try to restore these connections, seeking the post of adjutant under the commander-in-chief of the Southern Army, Mikhail Dmitrievich Gorchakov-Sevastopolsky).
In the family of I. A. Tolstoy lived a pupil, a distant relative of P. N. Gorchakova Tatyana Alexandrovna Ergolskaya and was secretly in love with his son Nikolai Ilyich. In 1812 Nikolai Ilyich, a seventeen-year-old youth, despite the horror, fear and useless persuasions of his parents, decided to enter military service as an adjutant to Prince Andrei Ivanovich Gorchakov, participated in military campaigns of 1813-1814, was captured by the French and in 1815 was liberated by Russian troops who entered in Paris.
After World War II, he retired, came to Kazan, but the death of his father left him a beggar with his old mother, accustomed to luxury, sister and cousin T. A. Yergolskaya in her arms. Then on family council and a decision was made: Pelageya Nikolaevna blessed her son for marriage with the rich and noble Princess Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya, and the cousin, with Christian humility, made this decision. So the Tolstoy moved to live in the estate of the princess - Yasnaya Polyana.
The image of Tolstoy's maternal great-grandfather Sergei Fedorovich Volkonsky was surrounded by a legend in family memories. As a Major General, he served in Seven Years' War. His yearning wife once dreamed that a certain voice commanded her to send her husband a wearable icon. Through Field Marshal Apraksin, the icon was immediately delivered. And in the battle, an enemy bullet hits Sergei Fedorovich in the chest, but the icon saves his life. Since then, the icon as a sacred relic was kept by the grandfather of L. Tolstoy, Nikolai Sergeevich. The writer will use a family tradition in "War and Peace", where Princess Marya begs Andrei, who is leaving for the war, to put on a scapular: "Think what you want," she says, "but do it for me. Do it, please! He is still my father's father, our grandfather, wore in all wars ... ".
Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, the writer's grandfather, was statesman, close to Empress Catherine II. But, faced with her favorite Potemkin, the proud prince paid with his court career and was exiled by the governor to Arkhangelsk. After retiring, he married Princess Ekaterina Dmitrievna Trubetskoy and settled in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana. Ekaterina Dmitrievna died early, leaving him his only daughter, Maria. With his beloved daughter and her French companion, the disgraced prince lived in Yasnaya Polyana until 1821 and was buried in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Peasants and yards respected their important and reasonable master, who cared about their well-being. He built a rich manor house on the estate, laid out a park, and dug out a large Yasnaya Polyana pond.
In 1822, the orphaned Yasnaya Polyana came to life, new owner Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy. Family life it was happy at first. Medium height, lively, with a friendly face and always sad eyes, N. I. Tolstoy spent his life in farming, in gun and dog hunting, in litigation inherited from a careless father. The children went: in 1823, the first-born Nikolai, then Sergey (1826), Dmitry (1827), Lev and, finally, the long-awaited daughter Maria (1830). However, her birth turned into an inconsolable grief for N.I. Tolstoy: Maria Nikolaevna died during childbirth, and the Tolstoy family became orphaned.
Levushka was not even two years old then, as he lost his mother, but according to the stories of close people, Tolstoy carefully preserved her spiritual appearance all his life. "She seemed to me such a high, pure, spiritual being that often ... I prayed to her soul, asking her to help me, and this prayer always helped a lot." Tolstoy's beloved brother Nikolenka was very similar to his mother: "indifference to the judgments of other people and modesty, reaching the point that they tried to hide the mental, educational and moral advantages that they had over other people. They seemed to be ashamed of these advantages." And another amazing feature attracted Tolstoy in these expensive creatures - they never condemned anyone. Once, in the "Lives of the Saints" by Dimitry of Rostov, Tolstoy read a story about a monk who had many shortcomings, but after death ended up among the saints. He deserved it by the fact that in his entire life he never condemned anyone. The servants recalled that, faced with injustice, Maria Nikolaevna used to "blush all over, even cry, but she would never say a rude word."
The mother was replaced by an extraordinary woman, Aunt Tatyana Alexandrovna Ergolskaya, who was a person of a decisive and selfless character. She, according to L. Tolstoy, still loved her father, "but did not marry him because she did not want to spoil her pure, poetic relations with him and with us." Tatyana Aleksandrovna had the greatest influence on the life of L. Tolstoy: “This influence was, firstly, in the fact that even in childhood she taught me the spiritual pleasure of love. She did not teach me this with words, but with her whole being she infected me with love. I saw, I felt how good it was to love, and I understood the happiness of love.
Until the age of five, Leo Tolstoy was brought up with girls - his sister Masha and adopted daughter Tolstykh Dunechka. The children had a favorite game of "cutie". The "cutie" who played the role of a child was almost always the impressionable and sensitive Leva-reva. The girls caressed him, treated him, put him to bed, and he meekly obeyed. When the boy was five years old, he was transferred to the nursery, to his brothers.
As a child, Tolstoy was surrounded by a warm, family atmosphere. Here they valued kindred feelings and willingly gave shelter to loved ones. In the Tolstoy family lived, for example, the father's sister Alexandra Ilyinichna, who experienced a difficult drama in her youth: her husband went crazy. She was, according to Tolstoy's memoirs, "a truly religious woman." "Her favorite activities" are "reading the lives of the saints, talking with strangers, holy fools, monks and nuns, some of whom always lived in our house, and some only visited my aunt." Alexandra Ilyinichna "lived a truly Christian life, trying not only to avoid all luxury and services, but trying as much as possible to serve others. She never had any money, because she distributed everything she had to those who asked."
Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the Tula province into a family belonging to the noble class. In the 1860s he wrote his first great novel, War and Peace.
In 1873 Tolstoy began work on one of his most famous books, Anna Karenina. One of his most successful late works- Death of Ivan Ilyich.
One day, Tolstoy's older brother, Nikolai, came to visit Leo during his army leave, and convinced his brother to join the army as a cadet in the south, in Caucasian mountains where he served. After serving as a cadet, Leo Tolstoy was transferred to Sevastopol in November 1854, where he fought in the Crimean War until August 1855.
During his Junker years in the army, Tolstoy had a lot of free time. During calm periods he worked on autobiographical story titled "Childhood". In it, he wrote about his favorite childhood memories. In 1852 Tolstoy submitted the story to Sovremennik, the most popular magazine of the day.
After completing the story "Childhood", Tolstoy began to write about his daily life in an army outpost in the Caucasus. The work "Cossacks" begun in the army years, he finished only in 1862, after he had already left the army.
Surprisingly, Tolstoy managed to continue writing during active battles in the Crimean War. During this time he wrote Boyhood, the sequel to Childhood, the second book in Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy. At the height of the Crimean War, Tolstoy expressed his opinion about the striking contradictions of the war through the trilogy of works "Sevastopol Tales". In the second book of the Sevastopol Tales, Tolstoy experimented with relatively new technology: part of the story is presented in the form of a narration from the perspective of a soldier.
After the end of the Crimean War, Tolstoy left the army and returned to Russia. Arriving home, the author enjoyed great popularity on the literary scene of St. Petersburg.
Stubborn and arrogant, Tolstoy refused to belong to any particular philosophical school. Declaring himself an anarchist, he left for Paris in 1857. Once there, he lost all his money and was forced to return home to Russia. He also succeeded in publishing Youth, the third part of an autobiographical trilogy, in 1857.
Returning to Russia in 1862, Tolstoy published the first of 12 issues of the thematic magazine Yasnaya Polyana. In the same year, he married the daughter of a doctor named Sofya Andreevna Bers.
Living in Yasnaya Polyana with his wife and children, Tolstoy spent most of the 1860s working on his first famous novel"War and Peace". Part of the novel was first published in Russkiy Vestnik in 1865 under the title "1805". By 1868 he had produced three more chapters. A year later, the novel was completely finished. Both critics and the public have debated the historical validity of the novel's Napoleonic Wars, coupled with the development of the stories of its thoughtful and realistic yet fictional characters. The novel is also unique in that it includes three long satirical essays on the laws of history. Among the ideas that Tolstoy also tries to convey in this novel is the conviction that the position of a person in society and the meaning of human life are mainly derivatives of his daily activities.
