Biography of Tolstoy, personal life. See what “Tolstoy, Lev Nikolaevich” is in other dictionaries

Biography

Origin

Education

Military career

Traveling around Europe

Pedagogical activity

Family and offspring

Creativity flourishes

"War and Peace"

"Anna Karenina"

Other works

Religious quest

Excommunication

Philosophy

Bibliography

Translators of Tolstoy

World recognition. Memory

Film adaptations of his works

Documentary

Movies about Leo Tolstoy

Portrait gallery

Translators of Tolstoy

Graph Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy(August 28 (September 9) 1828 - November 7 (20), 1910) - one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers. Participant in the defense of Sevastopol. Educator, publicist, religious thinker, whose authoritative opinion provoked the emergence of a new religious and moral movement - Tolstoyism.

The ideas of nonviolent resistance, which L. N. Tolstoy expressed in his work “The Kingdom of God is Within You,” influenced Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

Biography

Origin

He came from a noble family, known, according to legendary sources, since 1353. His paternal ancestor, Count Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, is known for his role in the investigation of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, for which he was put in charge of the Secret Chancellery. The traits of Pyotr Andreevich’s great-grandson, Ilya Andreevich, are given in “War and Peace” to the good-natured, impractical old Count Rostov. The son of Ilya Andreevich, Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy (1794-1837), was the father of Lev Nikolaevich. In some character traits and biographical facts, he was similar to Nikolenka’s father in “Childhood” and “Adolescence” and partly to Nikolai Rostov in “War and Peace.” However, in real life, Nikolai Ilyich differed from Nikolai Rostov not only in his good education, but also in his convictions, which did not allow him to serve under Nikolai. A participant in the foreign campaign of the Russian army, including participating in the “Battle of the Nations” near Leipzig and being captured by the French, after the conclusion of peace he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment. Soon after his resignation, he was forced to go into bureaucratic service in order not to end up in debtor's prison because of the debts of his father, the Kazan governor, who died under investigation for official abuses. For several years, Nikolai Ilyich had to save. The negative example of his father helped Nikolai Ilyich develop his ideal of life - a private, independent life with family joys. To put his upset affairs in order, Nikolai Ilyich, like Nikolai Rostov, married an ugly and no longer very young princess from the Volkonsky family; the marriage was happy. They had four sons: Nikolai, Sergei, Dmitry and Lev and a daughter Maria.

Tolstoy's maternal grandfather, Catherine's general, Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, had some resemblance to the stern rigorist - the old Prince Bolkonsky in War and Peace, however, the version that he served as the prototype of the hero of War and Peace is rejected by many researchers of Tolstoy's work. Lev Nikolayevich's mother, similar in some respects to Princess Marya depicted in War and Peace, had a remarkable gift for storytelling, for which, with her shyness passed on to her son, she had to lock herself with the large number of listeners who gathered around her in a dark room.

In addition to the Volkonskys, L.N. Tolstoy was closely related to several other aristocratic families: the princes Gorchakovs, Trubetskoys and others.

Childhood

Born on August 28, 1828 in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province, on his mother’s hereditary estate - Yasnaya Polyana. Was the 4th child; his three older brothers: Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergei (1826-1904) and Dmitry (1827-1856). In 1830, Sister Maria (1830-1912) was born. His mother died when he was not yet 2 years old.

A distant relative, T. A. Ergolskaya, took up the task of raising orphaned children. In 1837, the family moved to Moscow, settling on Plyushchikha, because the eldest son had to prepare to enter university, but soon his father suddenly died, leaving affairs (including some litigation related to the family’s property) in an unfinished state, and the three younger ones The children again settled in Yasnaya Polyana under the supervision of Ergolskaya and their paternal aunt, Countess A. M. Osten-Sacken, who was appointed guardian of the children. Here Lev Nikolaevich remained until 1840, when Countess Osten-Sacken died and the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian - their father's sister P. I. Yushkova.

The Yushkov house, somewhat provincial in style, but typically secular, was one of the most cheerful in Kazan; All family members highly valued external shine. "My good aunt, - says Tolstoy, - the purest being, always said that she would like nothing more for me than for me to have a relationship with a married woman: rien ne forme un jeune homme comme une liaison avec une femme comme il faut" (« Confession»).

He wanted to shine in society, to earn a reputation as a young man; but he did not have the external qualities for this: he was ugly, it seemed to him awkward, and, in addition, he was hampered by natural shyness. Everything that is told in " adolescence" And " Youth"about the aspirations of Irtenyev and Nekhlyudov for self-improvement, Tolstoy took from the history of his own ascetic attempts. The most varied, as Tolstoy himself defines them, “philosophies” about the most important questions of our existence - happiness, death, God, love, eternity - painfully tormented him in that era of life when his peers and brothers were completely devoted to the cheerful, easy and carefree pastime of the rich and noble people. All this led to the fact that Tolstoy developed a “habit of constant moral analysis,” which, as it seemed to him, “destroyed the freshness of feeling and clarity of reason” (“ Youth»).

Education

Was his education first under the guidance of the French tutor Saint-Thomas? (Mr. Jerome "Boyhood"), who replaced the good-natured German Reselman, whom he portrayed in "Childhood" under the name Karl Ivanovich.

At the age of 15, in 1843, following his brother Dmitry, he became a student at Kazan University, where Lobachevsky and Kovalevsky were professors at the Faculty of Mathematics. Until 1847, he was preparing here to enter the only Oriental Faculty in Russia at that time in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. In the entrance exams, in particular, he showed excellent results in the compulsory “Turkish-Tatar language” for admission.

Due to a conflict between his family and a teacher of Russian history and German, a certain Ivanov, at the end of the year, he had poor performance in the relevant subjects and had to re-take the first-year program. To avoid repeating the course completely, he transferred to the Faculty of Law, where his problems with grades in Russian history and German continued. The latter was attended by the outstanding civil scientist Meyer; Tolstoy at one time became very interested in his lectures and even took on a special topic for development - a comparison of Montesquieu’s “Esprit des lois” and Catherine’s “Order”. However, nothing came of this. Leo Tolstoy spent less than two years at the Faculty of Law: “It was always difficult for him to have any education imposed by others, and everything that he learned in life, he learned himself, suddenly, quickly, with intense work,” writes Tolstaya in her “Materials for biography of L.N. Tolstoy."

It was at this time, while in a Kazan hospital, that he began to keep a diary, where, imitating Franklin, he sets goals and rules for self-improvement and notes successes and failures in completing these tasks, analyzes his shortcomings and his train of thoughts and motives for his actions. In 1904 he recalled: “... for the first year... I did nothing. In the second year I started studying. .. there was Professor Meyer, who ... gave me a work - a comparison of Catherine’s “Order” with Montesquieu’s “Esprit des lois”. ... this work fascinated me, I went to the village, began to read Montesquieu, this reading opened up endless horizons for me; I started reading Rousseau and dropped out of university precisely because I wanted to study.”

Beginning of literary activity

Having dropped out of the university, Tolstoy settled in Yasnaya Polyana in the spring of 1847; his activities there are partly described in “The Morning of the Landowner”: Tolstoy tried to establish a new relationship with the peasants.

I followed journalism very little; although his attempt to somehow attenuate the guilt of the nobility before the people dates back to the same year when Grigorovich’s “Anton the Miserable” and the beginning of Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter” appeared, but this is a simple accident. If there were literary influences here, they were of much older origin: Tolstoy was very fond of Rousseau, a hater of civilization and a preacher of a return to primitive simplicity.

In his diary, Tolstoy sets himself a huge number of goals and rules; Only a small number of them were able to follow. Among those who succeeded were serious studies in English, music, and law. In addition, neither the diary nor the letters reflected the beginning of Tolstoy's studies in pedagogy and charity - in 1849 he first opened a school for peasant children. The main teacher was Foka Demidych, a serf, but L.N. himself often conducted classes.

Having left for St. Petersburg, in the spring of 1848 he began to take the exam for a candidate of rights; He passed two exams, from criminal law and criminal proceedings, successfully, but he did not take the third exam and went to the village.

Later he came to Moscow, where he often succumbed to his passion for gambling, greatly upsetting his financial affairs. During this period of his life, Tolstoy was especially passionately interested in music (he played the piano quite well and was very fond of classical composers). The author of the “Kreutzer Sonata” drew an exaggerated description in relation to most people of the effect that “passionate” music produces from the sensations excited by the world of sounds in his own soul.

Tolstoy's favorite composers were Bach, Handel and Chopin. In the late 1840s, Tolstoy, in collaboration with his acquaintance, composed a waltz, which in the early 1900s he performed under the composer Taneev, who made a musical notation of this musical work (the only one composed by Tolstoy).

The development of Tolstoy’s love for music was also facilitated by the fact that during a trip to St. Petersburg in 1848, he met in a very unsuitable dance class setting with a gifted but lost German musician, whom he later described in Alberta. Tolstoy came up with the idea of ​​saving him: he took him to Yasnaya Polyana and played a lot with him. A lot of time was also spent on carousing, gaming and hunting.

In the winter of 1850-1851. started writing "Childhood". In March 1851 he wrote “The History of Yesterday.”

This is how 4 years passed after leaving the university, when Tolstoy’s brother Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, came to Yasnaya Polyana and began inviting him there. Tolstoy did not give in to his brother’s call for a long time, until a major loss in Moscow helped the decision. In order to pay off, it was necessary to reduce his expenses to a minimum - and in the spring of 1851, Tolstoy hastily left Moscow for the Caucasus, at first without any specific purpose. Soon he decided to enlist in military service, but obstacles arose in the form of a lack of necessary papers, which were difficult to obtain, and Tolstoy lived for about 5 months in complete solitude in Pyatigorsk, in a simple hut. He spent a significant part of his time hunting, in the company of the Cossack Epishka, the prototype of one of the heroes of the story “Cossacks”, who appears there under the name Eroshka.

In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy, having passed the exam in Tiflis, entered the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladov, on the banks of the Terek, near Kizlyar, as a cadet. With a slight change in details, she is depicted in all her semi-wild originality in “Cossacks”. The same “Cossacks” will also give us a picture of the inner life of Tolstoy, who fled from the capital’s whirlpool. The moods that Tolstoy-Olenin experienced were of a dual nature: here is a deep need to shake off the dust and soot of civilization and live in the refreshing, clear bosom of nature, outside the empty conventions of urban and, especially, high society life, here and the desire to heal the wounds of pride, brought out of the pursuit of success in this “empty” life, there is also a grave consciousness of transgressions against the strict requirements of true morality.

In a remote village, Tolstoy began to write and in 1852 he sent the first part of the future trilogy: “Childhood” to the editors of Sovremennik.

The relatively late start of his career is very characteristic of Tolstoy: he was never a professional writer, understanding professionalism not in the sense of a profession that provides a means of living, but in the less narrow sense of the predominance of literary interests. Purely literary interests always stood in the background for Tolstoy: he wrote when he wanted to write and the need to speak out was ripe, and in ordinary times he is a secular man, an officer, a landowner, a teacher, a world mediator, a preacher, a teacher of life, etc. He he never took the interests of literary parties to heart, and was far from willing to talk about literature, preferring to talk about issues of faith, morality, and social relations. Not a single work of his, in the words of Turgenev, “stinks of literature,” that is, did not come out of a bookish mood, out of literary isolation.

Military career

Having received the manuscript of “Childhood”, the editor of Sovremennik Nekrasov immediately recognized its literary value and wrote a kind letter to the author, which had a very encouraging effect on him. He sets about continuing the trilogy, and plans for “The Morning of the Landowner,” “The Raid,” and “The Cossacks” are swarming in his head. “Childhood,” published in Sovremennik in 1852, signed with the modest initials L.N.T., was extremely successful; the author immediately began to be ranked among the luminaries of the young literary school, along with Turgenev, Goncharov, Grigorovich, Ostrovsky, who already enjoyed great literary fame. Criticism - Apollo Grigoriev, Annenkov, Druzhinin, Chernyshevsky - appreciated the depth of psychological analysis, the seriousness of the author's intentions, and the bright prominence of realism with all the truthfulness of the vividly captured details of real life, alien to any vulgarity.

Tolstoy remained in the Caucasus for two years, participating in many skirmishes with the mountaineers and being exposed to all the dangers of combat life in the Caucasus. He had rights and claims to the St. George Cross, but did not receive it, which apparently upset him. When the Crimean War broke out at the end of 1853, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube Army, participated in the battle of Oltenitsa and the siege of Silistria, and from November 1854 to the end of August 1855 he was in Sevastopol.

Tolstoy lived for a long time on the terrible 4th bastion, commanded a battery in the battle of Chernaya, and was during the hellish bombardment during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan. Despite all the horrors of the siege, Tolstoy at this time wrote a battle story from Caucasian life, “Cutting Wood,” and the first of three “Sevastopol stories,” “Sevastopol in December 1854.” He sent this last story to Sovremennik. Immediately printed, the story was eagerly read throughout Russia and made a stunning impression with its picture of the horrors that befell the defenders of Sevastopol. The story was noticed by Emperor Nicholas; he ordered to take care of the gifted officer, which, however, was impossible for Tolstoy, who did not want to go into the category of the “staff” he hated.

For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anne with the inscription “For bravery” and the medals “For the defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855” and “In memory of the war of 1853-1856.” Surrounded by the brilliance of fame and enjoying the reputation of a very brave officer, Tolstoy had every chance of a career, but he “ruined” it for himself. Almost the only time in his life (except for the “Combination of different versions of epics into one” made for children in his pedagogical works) he dabbled in poetry: he wrote a satirical song, in the manner of soldiers, about an unfortunate case 4 (August 16, 1855, when General Read, misunderstanding the order of the commander-in-chief, unwisely attacked the Fedyukhin Heights. The song (As on the fourth, the mountains were not easy to take away from us), which affected a number of important generals, was a huge success and, of course, harmed the author. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (8 September) Tolstoy was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he completed “Sevastopol in May 1855” and wrote “Sevastopol in August 1855.”

“Sevastopol Stories” finally strengthened his reputation as a representative of a new literary generation.

Traveling around Europe

In St. Petersburg he was warmly welcomed both in high society salons and in literary circles; He became especially close friends with Turgenev, with whom he lived in the same apartment for a while. The latter introduced him to the circle of Sovremennik and other literary luminaries: he became on friendly terms with Nekrasov, Goncharov, Panaev, Grigorovich, Druzhinin, Sologub.

“After the hardships of Sevastopol, life in the capital had a double charm for a rich, cheerful, impressionable and sociable young man. Tolstoy spent whole days and even nights on drinking and gambling, carousing with gypsies” (Levenfeld).

At this time, “Blizzard”, “Two Hussars” were written, “Sevastopol in August” and “Youth” were completed, and the writing of the future “Cossacks” continued.

The cheerful life was not slow to leave a bitter aftertaste in Tolstoy’s soul, especially since he began to have a strong discord with the circle of writers close to him. As a result, “people became disgusted with him and he became disgusted with himself” - and at the beginning of 1857, Tolstoy left St. Petersburg without any regret and went abroad.

On his first trip abroad, he visited Paris, where he was horrified by the cult of Napoleon I (“The idolization of a villain, terrible”), at the same time he attends balls, museums, and is fascinated by the “sense of social freedom.” However, his presence at the guillotine made such a grave impression that Tolstoy left Paris and went to places associated with Rousseau - to Lake Geneva. At this time, Albert was writing a story and a story by Lucerne.

In the interval between the first and second trips, he continued to work on “Cossacks”, wrote Three Deaths and Family Happiness. It was at this time that Tolstoy almost died while on a bear hunt (December 22, 1858). He has an affair with the peasant woman Aksinya, and at the same time the need for marriage matures.

On his next trip, he was mainly interested in public education and institutions aimed at raising the educational level of the working population. He closely studied issues of public education in Germany and France, both theoretically and practically, and through conversations with specialists. Of the outstanding people in Germany, he was most interested in Auerbach, as the author of the “Black Forest Stories” dedicated to folk life and the publisher of folk calendars. Tolstoy paid him a visit and tried to get closer to him. During his stay in Brussels, Tolstoy met Proudhon and Lelewell. In London he visited Herzen and attended a lecture by Dickens.

Tolstoy’s serious mood during his second trip to the south of France was also facilitated by the fact that his beloved brother Nikolai died of tuberculosis in his arms. The death of his brother made a huge impression on Tolstoy.

Pedagogical activity

He returned to Russia soon after the liberation of the peasants and became a peace mediator. At that time they looked at the people as a younger brother who needed to be lifted up; Tolstoy thought, on the contrary, that the people are infinitely higher than the cultural classes and that the gentlemen need to borrow the heights of spirit from the peasants. He actively began setting up schools in his Yasnaya Polyana and throughout the Krapivensky district.

The Yasnaya Polyana school is one of the original pedagogical attempts: in the era of boundless admiration for the latest German pedagogy, Tolstoy resolutely rebelled against any regulation and discipline in school; the only method of teaching and education that he recognized was that no method was needed. Everything in teaching should be individual - both the teacher and the student, and their mutual relationships. At the Yasnaya Polyana school, the children sat where they wanted, as much as they wanted, and as they wanted. There was no specific teaching program. The teacher's only job was to get the class interested. The classes were going great. They were led by Tolstoy himself with the help of several regular teachers and several random ones, from his closest acquaintances and visitors.

Since 1862, he began publishing the pedagogical magazine “Yasnaya Polyana”, where he, again, was the main employee. In addition to theoretical articles, Tolstoy also wrote a number of stories, fables and adaptations. Combined together, Tolstoy's pedagogical articles made up an entire volume of his collected works. Hidden away in a very rarely circulated special magazine, they remained little noticed at the time. Nobody paid attention to the sociological basis of Tolstoy’s ideas about education, to the fact that Tolstoy saw only simplified and improved ways of exploiting the people by the upper classes in education, science, art and technological successes. Moreover, from Tolstoy’s attacks on European education and on the concept of “progress” that was favorite at that time, many seriously concluded that Tolstoy was a “conservative.”

This curious misunderstanding lasted for about 15 years, bringing closer to Tolstoy such a writer as organically opposite to him as N. N. Strakhov. Only in 1875, N.K. Mikhailovsky, in the article “The Hand and Shuyts of Count Tolstoy,” striking with the brilliance of his analysis and prediction of Tolstoy’s future activities, outlined the spiritual appearance of the most original of Russian writers in the present light. The little attention that was paid to Tolstoy's pedagogical articles is partly due to the fact that little attention was paid to it at that time.

Apollo Grigoriev had the right to title his article about Tolstoy (Time, 1862) “Phenomena of modern literature missed by our criticism.” Having extremely cordially greeted Tolstoy’s debits and credits and “Sevastopol Tales”, recognizing in him the great hope of Russian literature (Druzhinin even used the epithet “genius” in relation to him), critics then 10-12 years before the appearance of “War and Peace” not only ceases to recognize him as a very important writer, but somehow grows cold towards him.

The stories and essays he wrote in the late 1850s include “Lucerne” and “Three Deaths.”

Family and offspring

At the end of the 1850s, he met Sofia Andreevna Bers (1844-1919), the daughter of a Moscow doctor from the Baltic Germans. He was already in his fourth decade, Sofya Andreevna was only 17 years old. On September 23, 1862, he married her, and the fullness of family happiness fell to his lot. In his wife, he found not only his most faithful and devoted friend, but also an irreplaceable assistant in all matters, practical and literary. For Tolstoy, the brightest period of his life begins - the intoxication of personal happiness, very significant thanks to the practicality of Sofia Andreevna, material well-being, outstanding, easily given tension of literary creativity and, in connection with it, unprecedented all-Russian and then worldwide fame.

However, Tolstoy's relationship with his wife was not cloudless. Quarrels often arose between them, including in connection with the lifestyle that Tolstoy chose for himself.

• Sergei (July 10, 1863 - December 23, 1947)
• Tatiana (October 4, 1864 - September 21, 1950). Since 1899 she has been married to Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin. In 1917-1923 she was the curator of the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate. In 1925 she emigrated with her daughter. Daughter Tatyana Mikhailovna Sukhotina-Albertini 1905-1996
• Ilya (May 22, 1866 - December 11, 1933)
• Leo (1869-1945)
• Maria (1871-1906) Buried in the village. Kochety Krapivensky district. Since 1897 married to Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (1872-1934)
• Peter (1872-1873)
• Nicholas (1874-1875)
• Varvara (1875-1875)
• Andrey (1877-1916)
• Mikhail (1879-1944)
• Alexey (1881-1886)
• Alexandra (1884-1979)
• Ivan (1888-1895)

Creativity flourishes

During the first 10-12 years after his marriage, he created War and Peace and Anna Karenina. At the turn of this second era of Tolstoy’s literary life stand the works conceived back in 1852 and completed in 1861-1862. "Cossacks", the first of the works in which Tolstoy's great talent reached the proportions of a genius. For the first time in world literature, the difference was shown with such clarity and certainty between the brokenness of a cultured person, the absence of strong, clear moods in him - and the spontaneity of people close to nature.

Tolstoy showed that the peculiarity of people close to nature is not that they are good or bad. The heroes of Tolstoy’s works, the dashing horse thief Lukashka, a kind of dissolute girl Maryanka, and the drunkard Eroshka, cannot be called good. But they cannot be called bad either, because they do not have the consciousness of evil; Eroshka is directly convinced that “there is no sin in anything”. Tolstoy's Cossacks are simply living people, in whom not a single mental movement is clouded by reflection. "Cossacks" were not assessed in a timely manner. At that time, everyone was too proud of “progress” and the success of civilization to be interested in how a representative of culture gave in to the force of the immediate spiritual movements of some semi-savages.

"War and Peace"

Unprecedented success befell War and Peace. Excerpt from a novel entitled "1805" appeared in the Russian Messenger of 1865; in 1868 three of its parts were published, which were soon followed by the remaining two.

Recognized by critics all over the world as the greatest epic work of new European literature, War and Peace amazes from a purely technical point of view with the size of its fictional canvas. Only in painting can one find some parallel in the huge paintings of Paolo Veronese in the Venetian Doge's Palace, where hundreds of faces are also painted with amazing clarity and individual expression. In Tolstoy's novel all classes of society are represented, from emperors and kings to the last soldier, all ages, all temperaments and throughout the entire reign of Alexander I.

"Anna Karenina"

The endlessly joyful rapture of the bliss of existence is no longer present in Anna Karenina, dating back to 1873-1876. There is still a lot of joyful experience in the almost autobiographical novel of Levin and Kitty, but there is already so much bitterness in the depiction of Dolly’s family life, in the unhappy ending of the love of Anna Karenina and Vronsky, so much anxiety in Levin’s mental life that in general this novel is already a transition to the third period Tolstoy's literary activity.

In January 1871, Tolstoy sent a letter to A. A. Fet: “How happy I am... that I will never write verbose rubbish like “War” again”.

On December 6, 1908, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “People love me for those trifles - “War and Peace”, etc., which seem very important to them.”

In the summer of 1909, one of the visitors to Yasnaya Polyana expressed his delight and gratitude for the creation of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Tolstoy replied: “It’s the same as if someone came to Edison and said: “I really respect you because you dance the mazurka well.” I attribute meaning to completely different books of mine (religious ones!).”.

In the sphere of material interests, he began to say to himself: “Well, okay, you will have 6,000 acres in the Samara province - 300 heads of horses, and then?”; in the literary field: “Well, okay, you will be more famous than Gogol, Pushkin, Shakespeare, Moliere, all the writers in the world - so what!”. As he began to think about raising children, he asked himself: "For what?"; reasoning “about how the people can achieve prosperity,” he “suddenly said to himself: what does it matter to me?” In general, he “I felt that what he stood on had given way, that what he had lived on was no longer there”. The natural result was thoughts of suicide.

“I, a happy man, hid the cord from myself so as not to hang myself on the crossbar between the cabinets in my room, where I was alone every day, undressing, and stopped going hunting with a gun so as not to be tempted by too easy a way to rid myself of life. I myself didn’t know what I wanted: I was afraid of life, I wanted to get away from it and, meanwhile, I hoped for something else from it.”

Other works

In March 1879, in the city of Moscow, Leo Tolstoy met Vasily Petrovich Shchegolenok and in the same year, at his invitation, he came to Yasnaya Polyana, where he stayed for about a month and a half. The Goldfinch told Tolstoy many folk tales and epics, of which more than twenty were written down by Tolstoy, and Tolstoy, if he didn’t write them down on paper, remembered the plots of some (these notes are published in Volume XLVIII of the Anniversary Edition of Tolstoy’s Works). Six works written by Tolstoy are based on legends and stories of Shchegolenok (1881 - “ How people live", 1885 - " Two old men" And " Three elders", 1905 - " Korney Vasiliev" And " Prayer", 1907 - " Old man in church"). In addition, Count Tolstoy diligently wrote down many sayings, proverbs, individual expressions and words told by the Goldfinch.

Literary criticism of Shakespeare's works

In his critical essay “On Shakespeare and Drama”, based on a detailed analysis of some of Shakespeare’s most popular works, in particular: “King Lear”, “Othello”, “Falstaff”, “Hamlet”, etc. - Tolstoy sharply criticized Shakespeare’s abilities as a playwright.

Religious quest

To find an answer to the questions and doubts that tormented him, Tolstoy first of all took up the study of theology and wrote and published in 1891 in Geneva his “Study of Dogmatic Theology,” in which he criticized the “Orthodox Dogmatic Theology” of Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov). He had conversations with priests and monks, went to the elders in Optina Pustyn, and read theological treatises. In order to understand the original sources of Christian teaching in the original, he studied ancient Greek and Hebrew (the Moscow rabbi Shlomo Minor helped him in studying the latter). At the same time, he looked closely at the schismatics, became close to the thoughtful peasant Syutaev, and talked with the Molokans and Stundists. Tolstoy also sought the meaning of life in the study of philosophy and in becoming familiar with the results of the exact sciences. He made a number of attempts at greater and greater simplification, striving to live a life close to nature and agricultural life.

Gradually, he abandons the whims and comforts of a rich life, does a lot of manual labor, dresses in simple clothes, becomes a vegetarian, gives his entire large fortune to his family, and renounces literary property rights. On this basis of unalloyed pure impulse and desire for moral improvement, the third period of Tolstoy’s literary activity is created, the distinctive feature of which is the denial of all established forms of state, social and religious life. A significant part of Tolstoy’s views could not receive open expression in Russia and were presented in full only in foreign editions of his religious and social treatises.

No unanimous attitude was established even in relation to Tolstoy’s fictional works written during this period. Thus, in a long series of short stories and legends intended primarily for popular reading (“How people live”, etc.), Tolstoy, in the opinion of his unconditional admirers, reached the pinnacle of artistic power - that elemental mastery that is given only to folk tales, because that they embody the creativity of an entire people. On the contrary, according to people who are indignant at Tolstoy for turning from an artist into a preacher, these artistic teachings, written for a specific purpose, are grossly tendentious. The lofty and terrible truth of “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, according to fans, placing this work along with the main works of the genius of Tolstoy, according to others, is deliberately harsh, deliberately sharply emphasizes the soullessness of the upper strata of society in order to show the moral superiority of the simple “kitchen peasant” Gerasim. The explosion of the most opposite feelings, caused by the analysis of marital relations and the indirect demand for abstinence from married life, in the “Kreutzer Sonata” made us forget about the amazing brightness and passion with which this story was written. The folk drama “The Power of Darkness,” according to Tolstoy’s admirers, is a great manifestation of his artistic power: within the tight framework of an ethnographic reproduction of Russian peasant life, Tolstoy was able to accommodate so many universal human traits that the drama with tremendous success went around all the stages of the world.

In his last major work, the novel “Resurrection,” he condemned judicial practice and high society life, and caricatured the clergy and worship.

Critics of the last phase of Tolstoy’s literary and preaching activity find that his artistic power certainly suffered from the predominance of theoretical interests and that creativity is now only needed by Tolstoy in order to propagate his socio-religious views in a publicly accessible form. In his aesthetic treatise (“On Art”) one can find enough material to declare Tolstoy an enemy of art: in addition to the fact that Tolstoy here in part completely denies, in part significantly belittles the artistic significance of Dante, Raphael, Goethe, Shakespeare (at the performance of “Hamlet” he experienced “special suffering” for this “false likeness of works of art”), Beethoven and others, he directly comes to the conclusion that “the more we surrender to beauty, the more we move away from goodness.”

Excommunication

Belonging by birth and baptism to the Orthodox Church, Tolstoy, like most representatives of the educated society of his time, was indifferent to religious issues in his youth and youth. In the mid-1870s, he showed increased interest in the teachings and worship of the Orthodox Church. The turning point for him from the teachings of the Orthodox Church was the second half of 1879. In the 1880s, he took a position of unambiguously critical attitude towards church doctrine, the clergy, and official church life. The publication of some of Tolstoy's works was prohibited by spiritual and secular censorship. In 1899, Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection” was published, in which the author showed the life of various social strata in contemporary Russia; the clergy were depicted mechanically and hastily performing rituals, and some took the cold and cynical Toporov for a caricature of K. P. Pobedonostsev, Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod.

In February 1901, the Synod finally decided to publicly condemn Tolstoy and declare him outside the church. Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky) played an active role in this. As it appears in the Chamber-Fourier journals, on February 22, Pobedonostsev visited Nicholas II in the Winter Palace and talked with him for about an hour. Some historians believe that Pobedonostsev came to the Tsar directly from the Synod with a ready-made definition.

On February 24 (Old Art.), 1901, in the official organ of the Synod, “Church Gazette published under the Holy Governing Senod” was published “Definition of the Holy Synod of February 20-22, 1901 No. 557, with a message to the faithful children of the Greek Orthodox Church about Count Leo Tolstoy”:

In his “Response to the Synod,” Leo Tolstoy confirmed his break with the Church: “The fact that I renounced the church, which calls itself Orthodox, is absolutely fair. But I renounced it not because I rebelled against the Lord, but on the contrary, only because I wanted to serve him with all the strength of my soul.” However, Tolstoy objected to the charges brought against him in the resolution of the synod: “The resolution of the synod in general has many shortcomings. It is illegal or deliberately ambiguous; it is arbitrary, unfounded, untruthful and, in addition, contains slander and incitement to bad feelings and actions.” In the text of his “Response to the Synod,” Tolstoy reveals these theses in detail, recognizing a number of significant discrepancies between the dogmas of the Orthodox Church and his own understanding of the teachings of Christ.

The Synodal definition caused outrage among a certain part of society; Numerous letters and telegrams were sent to Tolstoy expressing sympathy and support. At the same time, this definition provoked a flow of letters from another part of society - with threats and abuse.

At the end of February 2001, the count's great-grandson Vladimir Tolstoy, manager of the writer's museum-estate in Yasnaya Polyana, sent a letter to Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' with a request to revise the synodal definition; in an unofficial interview on television, the Patriarch said: “We cannot reconsider now, because after all, it is possible to reconsider if a person changes his position.” In March 2009, Vl. Tolstoy expressed his opinion about the significance of the synodal act: “I studied documents, read newspapers of that time, and became acquainted with the materials of public discussions around excommunication. And I had the feeling that this act gave a signal for a total split in Russian society. The reigning family, the highest aristocracy, the local nobility, the intelligentsia, the common strata, and the common people split. A crack has passed through the body of the entire Russian, Russian people.”

Moscow census of 1882. L. N. Tolstoy - census participant

The 1882 census in Moscow is famous for the fact that the great writer Count L.N. Tolstoy took part in it. Lev Nikolaevich wrote: “I proposed to use the census in order to find out poverty in Moscow and help it with deeds and money, and make sure that there are no poor people in Moscow.”

Tolstoy believed that the interest and significance of the census for society is that it gives it a mirror into which, like it or not, the whole society and each of us can look. He chose one of the most difficult and difficult sites, Protochny Lane, where the shelter was located; among the Moscow chaos, this gloomy two-story building was called “Rzhanova Fortress.” Having received the order from the Duma, Tolstoy, a few days before the census, began to walk around the site according to the plan that was given to him. Indeed, the dirty shelter, filled with beggars and desperate people who had sunk to the very bottom, served as a mirror for Tolstoy, reflecting the terrible poverty of the people. Under the fresh impression of what he saw, L. N. Tolstoy wrote his famous article “On the Census in Moscow.” In this article he writes:

Despite the good goals of the census declared by Tolstoy, the population was suspicious of this event. On this occasion, Tolstoy writes: “When they explained to us that the people had already learned about the bypass of the apartments and were leaving, we asked the owner to lock the gate, and we ourselves went into the yard to persuade the people who were leaving.” Lev Nikolaevich hoped to arouse sympathy among the rich for urban poverty, collect money, recruit people who wanted to contribute to this cause and, together with the census, go through all the dens of poverty. In addition to fulfilling the duties of a copyist, the writer wanted to enter into communication with the unfortunate, find out the details of their needs and help them with money and work, expulsion from Moscow, placing children in schools, old men and women in shelters and almshouses.

According to the census results, the population of Moscow in 1882 was 753.5 thousand people and only 26% were born in Moscow, and the rest were “newcomers”. Of the Moscow residential apartments, 57% faced the street, 43% faced the courtyard. From the 1882 census we can find out that in 63% the head of the household is a married couple, in 23% it is the wife, and only in 14% it is the husband. The census noted 529 families with 8 or more children. 39% have servants and most often they are women.

Last years of life. Death and funeral

In October 1910, fulfilling his decision to live his last years in accordance with his views, he secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. He began his last journey at Kozlova Zaseka station; On the way, he fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to make a stop at the small station of Astapovo (now Lev Tolstoy, Lipetsk region), where he died on November 7 (20).

On November 10 (23), 1910, he was buried in Yasnaya Polyana, on the edge of a ravine in the forest, where as a child he and his brother were looking for a “green stick” that held the “secret” of how to make all people happy.

In January 1913, a letter from Countess Sophia Tolstoy dated December 22, 1912 was published, in which she confirms the news in the press that his funeral service was performed at the grave of her husband by a certain priest (she refutes rumors that he was not real) in her presence. In particular, the countess wrote: “I also declare that Lev Nikolaevich never once before his death expressed a desire not to be buried, and earlier he wrote in his diary in 1895, as if a will: “If possible, then (bury) without priests and funeral services. But if this will be unpleasant for those who will bury, then let them bury as usual, but as cheaply and simply as possible."

There is also an unofficial version of the death of Leo Tolstoy, stated in emigration by I.K. Sursky from the words of a Russian police official. According to it, the writer, before his death, wanted to reconcile with the church and came to Optina Pustyn for this. Here he awaited the order of the Synod, but, feeling unwell, was taken away by his arriving daughter and died at the Astapovo post station.

Philosophy

Tolstoy's religious and moral imperatives were the source of the Tolstoyanism movement, one of the fundamental theses of which is the thesis of “non-resistance to evil by force.” The latter, according to Tolstoy, is recorded in a number of places in the Gospel and is the core of the teachings of Christ, as well as Buddhism. The essence of Christianity, according to Tolstoy, can be expressed in a simple rule: “ Be kind and do not resist evil with force».

The position of non-resistance, which gave rise to controversy in the philosophical community, was opposed, in particular, by I. A. Ilyin in his work “On Resistance to Evil by Force” (1925)

Criticism of Tolstoy and Tolstoyism

• Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod Pobedonostsev, in his private letter dated February 18, 1887, to Emperor Alexander III, wrote about Tolstoy’s drama “The Power of Darkness”: “I have just read L. Tolstoy’s new drama and cannot come to my senses from horror. And they assure me that they are preparing to perform it at the Imperial Theaters and are already learning the roles. I don’t know anything like this in any literature. It is unlikely that Zola himself reached the level of crude realism that Tolstoy reaches here. The day on which Tolstoy's drama will be presented at the Imperial Theaters will be the day decisive fall our scene, which has already fallen very low.”

• The leader of the extreme left wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin), after the revolutionary unrest of 1905-1907, wrote, while in forced emigration, in the work “Leo Tolstoy as a Mirror of the Russian Revolution” (1908): “Tolstoy ridiculous, like a prophet who discovered new recipes for the salvation of mankind - and therefore the foreign and Russian “Tolstoyites” who wanted to turn into dogma precisely the weakest side of his teaching are completely miserable. Tolstoy is great as an exponent of those ideas and those sentiments that had developed among millions of the Russian peasantry at the time of the onset of the bourgeois revolution in Russia. Tolstoy is original, because the totality of his views, taken as a whole, expresses precisely the features of our revolution, as a peasant bourgeois revolution. The contradictions in Tolstoy's views, from this point of view, are a real mirror of the contradictory conditions in which the historical activity of the peasantry was placed in our revolution. "
• Russian religious philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev wrote at the beginning of 1918: “L. Tolstoy must be recognized as the greatest Russian nihilist, the destroyer of all values ​​and shrines, the destroyer of culture. Tolstoy triumphed, his anarchism, his non-resistance, his denial of state and culture, his moralistic demand for equality in poverty and non-existence and subordination to the peasant kingdom and physical labor triumphed. But this triumph of Tolstoyism turned out to be less meek and beautiful-hearted than Tolstoy imagined. It is unlikely that he himself would have rejoiced at such a triumph. The godless nihilism of Tolstoyism, its terrible poison that destroys the Russian soul, is exposed. To save Russia and Russian culture, Tolstoy’s morality, low and destructive, must be burned out of the Russian soul with a hot iron.”

His article “Spirits of the Russian Revolution” (1918): “There is nothing prophetic in Tolstoy, he did not foresee or predict anything. As an artist, he is drawn to the crystallized past. He did not have that sensitivity to the dynamism of human nature that Dostoevsky had to the highest degree. But in the Russian revolution, it is not Tolstoy’s artistic insights that triumph, but his moral assessments. There are few Tolstoyans in the narrow sense of the word who share Tolstoy’s doctrine, and they represent an insignificant phenomenon. But Tolstoyism in the broad, non-doctrinal sense of the word is very characteristic of Russian people; it determines Russian moral assessments. Tolstoy was not a direct teacher of the Russian left-wing intelligentsia; Tolstoy’s religious teaching was alien to them. But Tolstoy grasped and expressed the peculiarities of the moral make-up of the majority of the Russian intelligentsia, perhaps even the Russian intellectual, perhaps even the Russian person in general. And the Russian revolution represents a kind of triumph of Tolstoyism. It is imprinted both by Russian Tolstoy's moralism and Russian immorality. This Russian moralism and this Russian immorality are interconnected and are two sides of the same disease of moral consciousness. Tolstoy managed to instill in the Russian intelligentsia a hatred of everything historically individual and historically divergent. He was an exponent of that side of Russian nature that had an aversion to historical power and historical glory. It was he who taught us to moralize over history in an elementary and simplified way and to transfer the moral categories of individual life to historical life. By doing this, he morally undermined the opportunity for the Russian people to live a historical life, to fulfill their historical destiny and historical mission. He morally prepared the historical suicide of the Russian people. He clipped the wings of the Russian people as a historical people, morally poisoned the sources of any impulse towards historical creativity. The world war was lost by Russia because Tolstoy's moral assessment of the war prevailed. In the terrible hour of world struggle, the Russian people were weakened by Tolstoy’s moral assessments, in addition to betrayals and animal egoism. Tolstoy’s morality disarmed Russia and gave it into the hands of the enemy.”

• V. Mayakovsky, D. Burliuk, V. Khlebnikov, A. Kruchenykh, called for “throwing L.N. Tolstoy and others from the ship of modernity” in the 1912 Futurist manifesto “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste”
• George Orwell defended W. Shakespeare against criticism of Tolstoy

• Researcher of the history of Russian theological thought and culture Georgy Florovsky (1937): “There is one decisive contradiction in Tolstoy’s experience. He undoubtedly had the temperament of a preacher or a moralist, but he had no religious experience at all. Tolstoy was not religious at all, he was religiously mediocre. Tolstoy did not derive his “Christian” worldview from the Gospel. He already checks the Gospel with his own view, and that is why he cuts it down and adapts it so easily. For him, the Gospel is a book compiled many centuries ago by “poorly educated and superstitious people,” and it cannot be accepted in its entirety. But Tolstoy does not mean scientific criticism, but simply personal choice or selection. In some strange way, Tolstoy seemed to be mentally late in the 18th century, and therefore found himself outside of history and modernity. And he deliberately leaves modernity for some far-fetched past. All his work is in this regard some kind of continuous moralistic Robinsonade. Annenkov also called Tolstoy's mind sectarian. There is a striking discrepancy between the aggressive maximalism of Tolstoy's socio-ethical denunciations and denials and the extreme poverty of his positive moral teaching. For him, all morality comes down to common sense and everyday prudence. “Christ teaches us exactly how we can get rid of our misfortunes and live happily.” And this is what the whole Gospel boils down to! Here Tolstoy’s insensibility becomes terrible, and “common sense” turns into madness... The main contradiction of Tolstoy is precisely that for him the untruths of life can be overcome, strictly speaking, only abandonment of history, only by leaving the culture and simplifying, that is, by removing questions and abandoning tasks. Tolstoy's moralism turns around historical nihilism.»

• The holy righteous John of Kronstadt sharply criticized Tolstoy (see “Response of Father John of Kronstadt to Count L.N. Tolstoy’s appeal to the clergy”), and in his dying diary (August 15 - October 2, 1908) he wrote:

"24 August. How long, O Lord, do you tolerate the worst atheist who has confused the whole world, Leo Tolstoy? How long do you not call him to Thy Judgment? Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward will be with Me, and will He reward everyone according to his deeds? (Rev. 22:12) Where, the earth is tired of tolerating his blasphemy. -»
"6 September. Where, do not allow Leo Tolstoy, the heretic who surpassed all heretics, to reach the feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, whom he terribly blasphemed and blasphemes. Take him from the ground - this stinking corpse, which stinks the whole earth with its pride. Amen. 9pm."

• In 2009, as part of a court case regarding the liquidation of the local religious organization Jehovah’s Witnesses “Taganrog,” a forensic examination was carried out, in the conclusion of which Leo Tolstoy’s statement was cited: “I was convinced that the teaching of the [Russian Orthodox] Church is theoretically an insidious and harmful lie, practically “the same collection of the grossest superstitions and witchcraft, completely hiding the entire meaning of Christian teaching,” which was characterized as forming a negative attitude towards the Russian Orthodox Church, and L. N. Tolstoy himself was described as “an opponent of Russian Orthodoxy.”

Expert assessment of individual statements of Tolstoy

• In 2009, as part of a court case on the liquidation of the local religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses "Taganrog", a forensic examination of the organization's literature was carried out to determine whether it contained signs of inciting religious hatred, undermining respect and hostility towards other religions. The expert report noted that the Awake! contains (without specifying the source) a statement by Leo Tolstoy: “I am convinced that the teaching of the [Russian Orthodox] Church is theoretically an insidious and harmful lie, practically a collection of the grossest superstitions and witchcraft, hiding the entire meaning of Christian teaching,” which was characterized as formative a negative attitude and undermining respect for the Russian Orthodox Church, and L.N. Tolstoy himself - as an “opponent of Russian Orthodoxy.”

• In March 2010, in the Kirov Court of Yekaterinburg, Leo Tolstoy was accused of “inciting religious hatred against the Orthodox Church.” An expert on extremism, Pavel Suslonov, testified: “Leo Tolstoy’s leaflets “Preface to the “Soldier’s Memo” and “Officer’s Memo”,” directed to soldiers, sergeant majors and officers, contain direct calls to incite interreligious hatred directed against the Orthodox Church.”

Bibliography

Translators of Tolstoy

World recognition. Memory

Museums

In the former Yasnaya Polyana estate there is a museum dedicated to his life and work.

The main literary exhibition about his life and work is in the State Museum of L. N. Tolstoy, in the former house of the Lopukhins-Stanitskaya (Moscow, Prechistenka 11); its branches also: at the Lev Tolstoy station (former Astapovo station), the memorial museum-estate of L. N. Tolstoy “Khamovniki” (Lva Tolstoy Street, 21), an exhibition hall on Pyatnitskaya.

Scientists, cultural figures, politicians about L. N. Tolstoy

Film adaptations of his works

• "Resurrection"(English) Resurrection, 1909, UK). A 12-minute silent film based on the novel of the same name (filmed during the writer’s lifetime).
• "Power of Darkness"(1909, Russia). Silent film.
• "Anna Karenina"(1910, Germany). Silent film.
• "Anna Karenina"(1911, Russia). Silent film. Dir. - Maurice Maitre
• "Living Dead"(1911, Russia). Silent film.
• "War and Peace"(1913, Russia). Silent film.
• "Anna Karenina"(1914, Russia). Silent film. Dir. - V. Gardin
• "Anna Karenina"(1915, USA). Silent film.
• "Power of Darkness"(1915, Russia). Silent film.
• "War and Peace"(1915, Russia). Silent film. Dir. - Y. Protazanov, V. Gardin
• "Natasha Rostova"(1915, Russia). Silent film. Producer - A. Khanzhonkov. Starring: V. Polonsky, I. Mozzhukhin
• "Living Dead"(1916). Silent film.
• "Anna Karenina"(1918, Hungary). Silent film.
• "Power of Darkness"(1918, Russia). Silent film.
• "Living Dead"(1918). Silent film.
• "Father Sergius"(1918, RSFSR). Silent film film by Yakov Protazanov, starring Ivan Mozzhukhin
• "Anna Karenina"(1919, Germany). Silent film.
• "Polikushka"(1919, USSR). Silent film.
• "Love"(1927, USA. Based on the novel “Anna Karenina”). Silent film. As Anna - Greta Garbo
• "Living Dead"(1929, USSR). Starring: V. Pudovkin
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1935, USA). Sound film. As Anna - Greta Garbo
• « Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1948, UK). As Anna - Vivien Leigh
• "War and Peace"(War & Peace, 1956, USA, Italy). As Natasha Rostova - Audrey Hepburn
• "Agi Murad il diavolo bianco"(1959, Italy, Yugoslavia). As Hadji Murat - Steve Reeves
• "People too"(1959, USSR, based on a fragment of “War and Peace”). Dir. G. Danelia, starring V. Sanaev, L. Durov
• "Resurrection"(1960, USSR). Dir. - M. Schweitzer
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1961, USA). As Vronsky - Sean Connery
• "Cossacks"(1961, USSR). Dir. - V. Pronin
• "Anna Karenina"(1967, USSR). In the role of Anna - Tatiana Samoilova
• "War and Peace"(1968, USSR). Dir. - S. Bondarchuk
• "Living Dead"(1968, USSR). In ch. roles - A. Batalov
• "War and Peace"(War & Peace, 1972, UK). Series. As Pierre - Anthony Hopkins
• "Father Sergius"(1978, USSR). Feature film by Igor Talankin, starring Sergei Bondarchuk
• "Caucasian Tale"(1978, USSR, based on the story “Cossacks”). In ch. roles - V. Konkin
• "Money"(1983, France-Switzerland, based on the story “False Coupon”). Dir. - Robert Bresson
• "Two Hussars"(1984, USSR). Dir. - Vyacheslav Krishtofovich
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1985, USA). As Anna - Jacqueline Bisset
• "A Simple Death"(1985, USSR, based on the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”). Dir. - A. Kaidanovsky
• "Kreutzer Sonata"(1987, USSR). Starring: Oleg Yankovsky
• "For what?" (Za co?, 1996, Poland / Russia). Dir. - Jerzy Kawalerowicz
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1997, USA). In the role of Anna - Sophie Marceau, Vronsky - Sean Bean
• "Anna Karenina"(2007, Russia). In the role of Anna - Tatiana Drubich

For more details, see also: List of film adaptations of “Anna Karenina” 1910-2007.

• "War and Peace"(2007, Germany, Russia, Poland, France, Italy). Series. In the role of Andrei Bolkonsky - Alessio Boni.

Documentary

• "Lev Tolstoy". Documentary. TsSDF (RTSSDF). 1953. 47 minutes.

Movies about Leo Tolstoy

• "The Departure of the Great Elder"(1912, Russia). Director - Yakov Protazanov
• "Lev Tolstoy"(1984, USSR, Czechoslovakia). Director - S. Gerasimov
• "The Last Station"(2008). In the role of L. Tolstoy - Christopher Plummer, in the role of Sofia Tolstoy - Helen Mirren. A film about the last days of the writer's life.

Portrait gallery

Translators of Tolstoy

• Into Japanese - Konishi Masutaro
• In French - Michel Aucouturier, Vladimir Lvovich Binshtok
• In Spanish - Selma Ancira
• Into English - Constance Garnett, Leo Wiener, Aylmer and Louise Maude
• In Norwegian - Martin Gran, Olaf Broch, Martha Grundt
• Into Bulgarian - Sava Nichev, Georgi Shopov, Hristo Dosev
• Into Kazakh - Ibray Altynsarin
• Into Malay - Viktor Pogadaev
• In Esperanto - Valentin Melnikov, Viktor Sapozhnikov
• Into Azerbaijani - Dadash-zade, Mammad Arif Maharram oglu

Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich (28.08. (09.09.) 1828 - 07 (20).11.1910)

Russian writer, philosopher. Born in Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, into a wealthy aristocratic family. He entered Kazan University, but then left it. At the age of 23 he went to war with Chechnya and Dagestan. Here he began to write the trilogy “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth”.

In the Caucasus he took part in hostilities as an artillery officer. During the Crimean War he went to Sevastopol, where he continued to fight. After the end of the war, he went to St. Petersburg and published “Sevastopol Stories” in the Sovremennik magazine, which clearly reflected his outstanding writing talent. In 1857, Tolstoy went on a trip to Europe, which disappointed him.

From 1853 to 1863 wrote the story “Cossacks”, after which he decided to interrupt his literary activity and become a landowner, doing educational work in the village. For this purpose, he went to Yasnaya Polyana, where he opened a school for peasant children and created his own system of pedagogy.

In 1863-1869. wrote his fundamental work “War and Peace”. In 1873-1877. created the novel Anna Karenina. During these same years, the writer’s worldview, known as Tolstoyism, was fully formed, the essence of which is visible in the works: “Confession”, “What is my faith?”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”.

The teaching is set forth in the philosophical and religious works “Study of Dogmatic Theology”, “Connection and Translation of the Four Gospels”, where the main emphasis is on the moral improvement of man, the denunciation of evil, and non-resistance to evil through violence.
Later, a duology was published: the drama “The Power of Darkness” and the comedy “The Fruits of Enlightenment,” then a series of stories and parables about the laws of existence.

Admirers of the writer’s work came to Yasnaya Polyana from all over Russia and the world, whom they treated as a spiritual mentor. In 1899, the novel “Resurrection” was published.

The writer's latest works are the stories "Father Sergius", "After the Ball", "Posthumous Notes of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich" and the drama "The Living Corpse".

Tolstoy's confessional journalism gives a detailed idea of ​​his spiritual drama: painting pictures of social inequality and idleness of the educated strata, Tolstoy harshly posed questions of the meaning of life and faith to society, criticized all state institutions, going so far as to deny science, art, court, marriage, achievements of civilization.

Tolstoy's social declaration is based on the idea of ​​Christianity as a moral teaching, and he interpreted the ethical ideas of Christianity in a humanistic manner, as the basis of the universal brotherhood of man. In 1901, the reaction of the Synod followed: the world famous writer was officially excommunicated from the church, which caused a huge public outcry.

On October 28, 1910, Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana from his family, fell ill on the way and was forced to get off the train at the small Astapovo railway station of the Ryazan-Ural Railway. Here, in the station master's house, he spent the last seven days of his life.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is a great Russian writer, by origin a count from a famous noble family. He was born on August 28, 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate located in the Tula province, and died on October 7, 1910 at the Astapovo station.

The writer's childhood

Lev Nikolaevich was a representative of a large noble family, the fourth child in it. His mother, Princess Volkonskaya, died early. At this time, Tolstoy was not yet two years old, but he formed an idea of ​​​​his parent from the stories of various family members. In the novel "War and Peace" the image of the mother is represented by Princess Marya Nikolaevna Bolkonskaya.

The biography of Leo Tolstoy in his early years is marked by another death. Because of her, the boy became an orphan. Leo Tolstoy's father, a participant in the War of 1812, like his mother, died early. This happened in 1837. At that time the boy was only nine years old. Leo Tolstoy's brothers, he and his sister, were entrusted to the upbringing of T. A. Ergolskaya, a distant relative who had enormous influence on the future writer. Childhood memories have always been the happiest for Lev Nikolaevich: family legends and impressions of life in the estate became rich material for his works, reflected, in particular, in the autobiographical story “Childhood”.

Study at Kazan University

The biography of Leo Tolstoy in his youth was marked by such an important event as studying at the university. When the future writer turned thirteen years old, his family moved to Kazan, to the house of the children’s guardian, a relative of Lev Nikolaevich P.I. Yushkova. In 1844, the future writer was enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy at Kazan University, after which he transferred to the Faculty of Law, where he studied for about two years: study did not arouse keen interest in the young man, so he devoted himself passionately to various social entertainments. Having submitted his resignation in the spring of 1847, due to poor health and “domestic circumstances,” Lev Nikolaevich left for Yasnaya Polyana with the intention of studying a full course of legal sciences and passing an external exam, as well as learning languages, “practical medicine,” history, and rural studies. economics, geographical statistics, study painting, music and write a dissertation.

Years of youth

In the fall of 1847, Tolstoy left for Moscow and then to St. Petersburg in order to pass candidate exams at the university. During this period, his lifestyle often changed: he either studied various subjects all day long, then devoted himself to music, but wanted to start a career as an official, or dreamed of joining a regiment as a cadet. Religious sentiments that reached the point of asceticism alternated with cards, carousing, and trips to the gypsies. The biography of Leo Tolstoy in his youth is colored by the struggle with himself and introspection, reflected in the diary that the writer kept throughout his life. During the same period, interest in literature arose, and the first artistic sketches appeared.

Participation in the war

In 1851, Nikolai, Lev Nikolayevich’s older brother, an officer, persuaded Tolstoy to go to the Caucasus with him. Lev Nikolaevich lived for almost three years on the banks of the Terek, in a Cossack village, traveling to Vladikavkaz, Tiflis, Kizlyar, participating in hostilities (as a volunteer, and then was recruited). The patriarchal simplicity of the life of the Cossacks and the Caucasian nature struck the writer with their contrast with the painful reflection of representatives of educated society and the life of the noble circle, and provided extensive material for the story “Cossacks,” written in the period from 1852 to 1863 on autobiographical material. The stories “Raid” (1853) and “Cutting Wood” (1855) also reflected his Caucasian impressions. They also left a mark in his story “Hadji Murat,” written between 1896 and 1904, published in 1912.

Returning to his homeland, Lev Nikolayevich wrote in his diary that he really fell in love with this wild land, in which “war and freedom,” things so opposite in their essence, are combined. Tolstoy began to create his story “Childhood” in the Caucasus and anonymously sent it to the magazine “Sovremennik”. This work appeared on its pages in 1852 under the initials L.N. and, along with the later “Adolescence” (1852-1854) and “Youth” (1855-1857), formed the famous autobiographical trilogy. His creative debut immediately brought real recognition to Tolstoy.

Crimean campaign

In 1854, the writer went to Bucharest, to the Danube Army, where the work and biography of Leo Tolstoy were further developed. However, soon a boring staff life forced him to transfer to besieged Sevastopol, to the Crimean Army, where he was a battery commander, showing courage (awarded with medals and the Order of St. Anne). During this period, Lev Nikolaevich was captured by new literary plans and impressions. He began writing "Sevastopol stories", which were a great success. Some ideas that arose even at that time allow one to discern in the artillery officer Tolstoy the preacher of later years: he dreamed of a new “religion of Christ,” purified of mystery and faith, a “practical religion.”

In St. Petersburg and abroad

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg in November 1855 and immediately became a member of the Sovremennik circle (which included N. A. Nekrasov, A. N. Ostrovsky, I. S. Turgenev, I. A. Goncharov and others). He took part in the creation of the Literary Fund at that time, and at the same time became involved in conflicts and disputes among writers, but he felt like a stranger in this environment, which he conveyed in “Confession” (1879-1882). Having retired, in the fall of 1856 the writer left for Yasnaya Polyana, and then, at the beginning of the next year, 1857, he went abroad, visiting Italy, France, Switzerland (impressions from visiting this country are described in the story “Lucerne”), and also visited Germany. In the same year in the fall, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy returned first to Moscow and then to Yasnaya Polyana.

Opening of a public school

In 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in the village, and also helped establish more than twenty similar educational institutions in the Krasnaya Polyana area. In order to get acquainted with the European experience in this area and apply it in practice, the writer Leo Tolstoy again went abroad, visited London (where he met with A.I. Herzen), Germany, Switzerland, France, and Belgium. However, European schools somewhat disappoint him, and he decides to create his own pedagogical system based on personal freedom, publishes textbooks and works on pedagogy, and applies them in practice.

"War and Peace"

Lev Nikolaevich in September 1862 married Sofya Andreevna Bers, the 18-year-old daughter of a doctor, and immediately after the wedding he left Moscow for Yasnaya Polyana, where he devoted himself entirely to household concerns and family life. However, already in 1863, he was again captured by a literary idea, this time creating a novel about the war, which was supposed to reflect Russian history. Leo Tolstoy was interested in the period of our country's struggle with Napoleon at the beginning of the 19th century.

In 1865, the first part of the work “War and Peace” was published in the Russian Bulletin. The novel immediately evoked many responses. Subsequent parts provoked heated debate, in particular, the fatalistic philosophy of history developed by Tolstoy.

"Anna Karenina"

This work was created in the period from 1873 to 1877. Living in Yasnaya Polyana, continuing to teach peasant children and publish his pedagogical views, Lev Nikolaevich in the 70s worked on a work about the life of contemporary high society, building his novel on the contrast of two storylines: the family drama of Anna Karenina and the domestic idyll of Konstantin Levin , close both in psychological pattern, and in beliefs, and in the way of life of the writer himself.

Tolstoy strove for an externally non-judgmental tone of his work, thereby paving the way for a new style of the 80s, in particular, folk stories. The truth of peasant life and the meaning of existence of representatives of the “educated class” - these are the range of questions that interested the writer. “Family thought” (according to Tolstoy, the main one in the novel) is translated into a social channel in his work, and Levin’s self-exposures, numerous and merciless, his thoughts about suicide are an illustration of the author’s spiritual crisis experienced in the 1880s, which had matured even while working on this novel.

1880s

In the 1880s, Leo Tolstoy's work underwent a transformation. The revolution in the writer’s consciousness was reflected in his works, primarily in the experiences of the characters, in the spiritual insight that changes their lives. Such heroes occupy a central place in such works as “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” (years of creation - 1884-1886), “The Kreutzer Sonata” (a story written in 1887-1889), “Father Sergius” (1890-1898), drama "The Living Corpse" (left unfinished, begun in 1900), as well as the story "After the Ball" (1903).

Tolstoy's journalism

Tolstoy’s journalism reflects his spiritual drama: depicting pictures of the idleness of the intelligentsia and social inequality, Lev Nikolayevich posed questions of faith and life to society and himself, criticized the institutions of the state, going so far as to deny art, science, marriage, court, and the achievements of civilization.

The new worldview is presented in “Confession” (1884), in the articles “So what should we do?”, “On hunger”, “What is art?”, “I cannot remain silent” and others. The ethical ideas of Christianity are understood in these works as the foundation of the brotherhood of man.

As part of a new worldview and a humanistic understanding of the teachings of Christ, Lev Nikolaevich spoke out, in particular, against the dogma of the church and criticized its rapprochement with the state, which led to him being officially excommunicated from the church in 1901. This caused a huge resonance.

Novel "Sunday"

Tolstoy wrote his last novel between 1889 and 1899. It embodies the entire range of problems that worried the writer during the years of his spiritual turning point. Dmitry Nekhlyudov, the main character, is a person internally close to Tolstoy, who goes through the path of moral purification in the work, ultimately leading him to comprehend the need for active good. The novel is built on a system of evaluative oppositions that reveal the unreasonable structure of society (the deceit of the social world and the beauty of nature, the falsehood of the educated population and the truth of the peasant world).

last years of life

The life of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy in recent years was not easy. The spiritual turning point turned into a break with one’s environment and family discord. The refusal to own private property, for example, caused discontent among the writer’s family members, especially his wife. The personal drama experienced by Lev Nikolaevich was reflected in his diary entries.

In the fall of 1910, at night, secretly from everyone, 82-year-old Leo Tolstoy, whose life dates were presented in this article, accompanied only by his attending physician D.P. Makovitsky, left the estate. The journey turned out to be too much for him: on the way, the writer fell ill and was forced to disembark at the Astapovo railway station. Lev Nikolaevich spent the last week of his life in a house that belonged to her boss. The whole country was following reports about his health at that time. Tolstoy was buried in Yasnaya Polyana; his death caused a huge public outcry.

Many contemporaries came to say goodbye to this great Russian writer.

Born (August 28 (September 9), 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire - November 7 (20), 1910, Astapovo station, Ryazan province, Russian Empire) - one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers, revered by many as one one of the world's greatest writers. Participant in the defense of Sevastopol. Educator, publicist, religious thinker, whose authoritative opinion caused the emergence of a new religious and moral movement - Tolstoyism. Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1873), honorary academician in the category of fine literature (1900). A writer recognized during his lifetime as the head of Russian literature, whose work marked a new stage in the development of Russian and world realism, becoming a kind of bridge between the traditions of the classic novel of the 19th century and the literature of the 20th century. Leo Tolstoy had a huge influence on the evolution of European humanism, as well as on the development of realistic traditions in world literature. The works of Leo Tolstoy have been numerously filmed and staged in the USSR and abroad; his plays have been staged many times on stages all over the world. He is best known for his works such as the novel “War and Peace”, the novel “Anna Karenina”, the trilogy “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth”, the story “The Kreutzer Sonata”, the cycle of stories “Sevastopol Stories”, etc.

Origin

He came from a noble family, known, according to legendary sources, since 1351. His paternal ancestor, Count Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, is known for his role in the investigation of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, for which he was put in charge of the Secret Chancellery. The traits of Pyotr Andreevich’s great-grandson, Ilya Andreevich, are given in “War and Peace” to the good-natured, impractical old Count Rostov. The son of Ilya Andreevich, Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy (1794-1837), was the father of Lev Nikolaevich. In some character traits and biographical facts, he was similar to Nikolenka’s father in “Childhood” and “Adolescence” and partly to Nikolai Rostov in “War and Peace.” However, in real life, Nikolai Ilyich differed from Nikolai Rostov not only in his good education, but also in his convictions, which did not allow him to serve under Nikolai. A participant in the foreign campaign of the Russian army against Napoleon, including participating in the “Battle of the Nations” near Leipzig and being captured by the French, but was able to escape, after the conclusion of peace he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment. Soon after his resignation, he was forced to go into bureaucratic service in order not to end up in debtor's prison because of the debts of his father, the Kazan governor, who died under investigation for official abuses. The negative example of his father helped Nikolai Ilyich develop his ideal of life - a private, independent life with family joys. To put his upset affairs in order, Nikolai Ilyich, like Nikolai Rostov, married a no longer very young princess from the Volkonsky family; the marriage was happy. They had four sons: Nikolai, Sergei, Dmitry, Lev and daughter Maria. Tolstoy's maternal grandfather, Catherine's general, Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, bore some resemblance to the stern rigorist old Prince Bolkonsky in War and Peace. Lev Nikolaevich's mother, similar in some respects to Princess Marya depicted in War and Peace, had a remarkable gift for storytelling. In addition to the Volkonskys, L.N. Tolstoy was closely related to several other aristocratic families: the princes Gorchakovs, Trubetskoys and others.

Childhood

The writer's father. Unknown artist. Paper, watercolor. 1820s Leo Tolstoy was born on August 28, 1828 in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province, on his mother’s hereditary estate - Yasnaya Polyana. Was the fourth child; he had three older brothers: Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergei (1826-1904) and Dmitry (1827-1856). In 1830, Sister Maria (1830-1912) was born. His mother died with the birth of her last daughter, when he was not yet 2 years old. A distant relative, T. A. Ergolskaya, took up the task of raising orphaned children. In 1837, the family moved to Moscow, settling on Plyushchikha, as the eldest son had to prepare to enter the university. Soon, the father, Nikolai Ilyich, suddenly died, leaving affairs (including some related to family property, litigation) in an unfinished state, and the three youngest children again settled in Yasnaya Polyana under the supervision of Ergolskaya and their paternal aunt, Countess A. M. Osten -Saken, the appointed guardian of the children. Here Lev Nikolaevich remained until 1840, when Countess Osten-Sacken died, and the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian - their father's sister P. I. Yushkova. The Yushkov house was considered one of the most fun in Kazan; All family members highly valued external shine. “My good aunt,” says Tolstoy, “a pure being, always said that she would want nothing more for me than for me to have a relationship with a married woman.” Lev Nikolaevich wanted to shine in society, but his natural shyness and lack of external attractiveness hampered him. The most diverse, as Tolstoy himself defines them, “philosophies” about the most important questions of our existence - happiness, death, God, love, eternity - left an imprint on his character in that era of life. What he told in “Adolescence” and “Youth” about the aspirations of Irtenyev and Nekhlyudov for self-improvement was taken by Tolstoy from the history of his own ascetic attempts of this time. All this, as he wrote in his story “Adolescence,” led to Tolstoy creating “the habit of constant moral analysis,” which, as it seemed to him, “destroyed the freshness of feeling and clarity of mind.”

Education

1898 In 1854, the house was sold by order of the writer for removal to the village of Dolgoe. Broken in 1913. His education was initially carried out by the French tutor Saint-Thomas (the prototype of St.-Jérôme in the story “Boyhood”), who replaced the good-natured German Reselman, whom he portrayed in the story “Childhood” under the name of Karl Ivanovich. In 1843, P.I. Yushkova, taking on the role of guardian of her minor nephews (only the eldest, Nikolai, was an adult) and niece, brought them to Kazan. Following the brothers Nikolai, Dmitry and Sergei, Lev decided to enter the Imperial Kazan University, where Lobachevsky worked at the Faculty of Mathematics, and Kovalevsky worked at the Eastern Faculty. On October 3, 1844, Leo Tolstoy was enrolled as a student of the category of oriental literature as a student. In the entrance exams, in particular, he showed excellent results in the compulsory “Turkish-Tatar language” for admission.

The only image of the writer's mother. 1810s According to the results of the year, he had poor performance in the relevant subjects, did not pass the transition exam and had to re-take the first-year program. To avoid repeating the course completely, he transferred to law school, where his problems with grades in some subjects continued. The transitional May 1846 exams were passed satisfactorily (received one A, three Bs, and four Cs; the average result was three), and Lev Nikolaevich was awarded a transfer to the second year. Leo Tolstoy spent less than two years at the Faculty of Law: “Every education imposed by others was always difficult for him, and everything he learned in life, he learned himself, suddenly, quickly, with intense work,” writes Tolstaya in her “Materials for biography of L.N. Tolstoy." In 1904, he recalled: “... for the first year... I did nothing. In the second year I began to study... there was Professor Meyer, who... gave me a work - a comparison of Catherine’s “Order” with Montesquieu’s “Esprit des lois”. ... this work fascinated me, I went to the village, began to read Montesquieu, this reading opened up endless horizons for me; I started reading Rousseau and dropped out of university precisely because I wanted to study.” While in the Kazan hospital, he began to keep a diary, where, imitating Franklin, he set goals and rules for self-improvement and noted successes and failures in completing these tasks, analyzed his shortcomings and train of thoughts, the motives of his actions.

Beginning of literary activity

Yasnaya Polyana, where the writer lived most of his life. In 1847, after completing Catherine’s “Order” and moving on to writing philosophical articles, Lev Nikolaevich became so carried away by this activity that, in order for nothing to interfere with him, he left his studies at the university and went to the village of Yasnaya Polyana, which he received under division; his activities there are partly described in “The Landowner’s Morning”: Tolstoy tried to establish a new relationship with the peasants. His attempt to somehow atone for the guilt of the nobility before the people dates back to the same year when Grigorovich’s “Anton the Miserable” and the beginning of Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter” appeared. In his diary, Tolstoy sets himself a huge number of goals and rules; Only a small number of them were able to follow. Among those who succeeded were serious studies in English, music, and law. In addition, neither his diary nor his letters reflected the beginning of Tolstoy’s involvement in pedagogy and charity, although in 1849 he first opened a school for peasant children. The main teacher was Foka Demidych, a serf, but Lev Nikolaevich himself often taught classes. In mid-October 1848, Tolstoy left for Moscow, settling in the area where many of his relatives and acquaintances lived - in the Arbat area. He stayed at Ivanova’s house on Nikolo-Peskovsky Lane. In Moscow, he was going to begin preparing for the candidate exams, however, classes never started. Instead, he was attracted to a completely different side of life - social life. In addition to his passion for social life, in Moscow, in the winter of 1848-1849, Lev Nikolaevich first developed a passion for playing cards. But, since he played very hotly, impetuously, and not always thinking about his moves, he often lost. Having left for St. Petersburg in February 1849, he spends time in revelry with K. A. Islavin, the uncle of his future wife (“My love for Islavin ruined 8 whole months of my life in St. Petersburg for me”). In the spring, Tolstoy began taking the exam to become a candidate of rights; He passed two exams, from criminal law and criminal proceedings, successfully, but he did not take the third exam and went to the village. L.N. Tolstoy in his youth, maturity, old age.

Later he came to Moscow, where he often spent time gambling, which often had a negative impact on his financial situation. During this period of his life, Tolstoy was especially passionately interested in music (he himself played the piano quite well and greatly appreciated his favorite works performed by others). His passion for music prompted him to write the Kreutzer Sonata. Tolstoy's favorite composers were Bach, Handel and Chopin. The development of Tolstoy’s love for music was also facilitated by the fact that during a trip to St. Petersburg in 1848, he met in a very unsuitable dance class setting with a gifted but lost German musician, whom he later described in Alberta. In 1849, Lev Nikolaevich settled the musician Rudolf in his Yasnaya Polyana, with whom he played four hands on the piano. Having become interested in music at that time, he played Schumann, Chopin, Mozart, and Mendelssohn for several hours a day. In the late 1840s, Tolstoy, in collaboration with his acquaintance, Zybin, composed a waltz, which in the early 1900s he performed with the composer Taneev, who made a musical notation of this musical work (the only one composed by Tolstoy). A lot of time was also spent on carousing, gaming and hunting. L.N. Tolstoy kept his diary from a young age until the end of his life. Notebook entries from 1891-1895. In the winter of 1850-1851. started writing "Childhood". In March 1851 he wrote “The History of Yesterday.”

4 years after he left the university, Lev Nikolayevich’s brother Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, came to Yasnaya Polyana and invited his younger brother to join military service in the Caucasus. Lev did not immediately agree, until a major loss in Moscow accelerated the final decision. The writer’s biographers note the significant and positive influence of brother Nikolai on the young and inexperienced Leo in everyday affairs. In the absence of his parents, his older brother was his friend and mentor. To pay off his debts, it was necessary to reduce his expenses to a minimum - and in the spring of 1851, Tolstoy hastily left Moscow for the Caucasus without a specific goal. Soon he decided to enlist in military service, but obstacles arose in the form of a lack of necessary papers, which were difficult to obtain, and Tolstoy lived for about 5 months in complete solitude in Pyatigorsk, in a simple hut. He spent a significant part of his time hunting, in the company of the Cossack Epishka, the prototype of one of the heroes of the story “Cossacks”, who appears there under the name Eroshka. Tolstoy and his brother Nikolai, 1851.

In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy, having passed the exam in Tiflis, entered as a cadet the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladovskaya, on the banks of the Terek, near Kizlyar. With a slight change in details, she is depicted in all her semi-wild originality in “Cossacks”. The same “Cossacks” also convey a picture of the inner life of a young gentleman who fled from Moscow life. In the Cossack village, Tolstoy began to write and in July 1852 he sent to the editors of the most popular magazine at that time, Sovremennik, the first part of the future autobiographical trilogy - Childhood, signed only with the initials L N. Leo Tolstoy also attached a letter to the manuscript, which said: “... I look forward to your verdict. He will either encourage me to continue my favorite activities, or force me to burn everything I started.” Having received the manuscript of “Childhood,” the editor of Sovremennik, Nekrasov, immediately recognized its literary value and wrote a kind letter to the author, which had a very encouraging effect on him. In a letter to I. S. Turgenev, he noted: This talent is new and seems reliable. - N. A. Nekrasov, Complete. collection op. and letters, vol. 10, Moscow “Pravda” 1952, p. 179. The manuscript of an as yet unknown author was published in September of the same year. Meanwhile, the aspiring and inspired author sets about continuing the tetralogy “Four Epochs of Development,” the last part of which, “Youth,” never materialized. He is considering writing “Morning of the Landowner” (the completed story was only a fragment of “The Romance of a Russian Landowner”), “Raid”, “Cossacks”. “Childhood,” published in Sovremennik on September 18, 1852, signed with the modest initials L.N., was extremely successful; After publication, the author immediately began to be ranked among the luminaries of the young literary school, along with Turgenev, Goncharov, Grigorovich, Ostrovsky, who already enjoyed great literary fame. Critics Apollo Grigoriev, Annenkov, Druzhinin, Chernyshevsky appreciated the depth of psychological analysis, the seriousness of the author's intentions, and the bright salience of realism. The relatively late start to his career is very characteristic of Tolstoy: he never considered himself a professional writer, understanding professionalism not in the sense of a profession that provides a means of living, but in the sense of the predominance of literary interests. He did not take the interests of literary parties to heart, and was reluctant to talk about literature, preferring to talk about issues of faith, morality, and social relations.

Military career

As a cadet, Lev Nikolaevich remained for two years in the Caucasus, where he participated in many skirmishes with the mountaineers and was exposed to the dangers of military Caucasian life. He had rights to the St. George Cross, but never received it. During the Crimean War, which broke out at the end of 1853, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube Army, participated in the battle of Oltenitsa and the siege of Silistria, and from November 1854 to the end of August 1855 he was in Sevastopol.

Stele in memory of a participant in the defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855. L.N. Tolstoy at the fourth bastion For a long time he lived on the 4th bastion, which was often attacked, commanded a battery in the battle of Chernaya, and was during the bombardment during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan. Tolstoy, despite all the everyday hardships and horrors of the siege, at this time wrote the story “Cutting Wood,” which reflected Caucasian impressions, and the first of the three “Sevastopol stories” - “Sevastopol in December 1854.” He sent this story to Sovremennik. The story was quickly published and read with interest throughout Russia, making a stunning impression with the picture of horrors that befell the defenders of Sevastopol. The story was noticed by Russian Emperor Alexander II; he ordered to take care of the gifted officer. For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anne with the inscription “For Honor,” medals “For the Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855” and “In Memory of the War of 1853-1856.” Subsequently, he was awarded two more medals “In memory of the 50th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol.” Tolstoy, enjoying the reputation of a brave officer and surrounded by the brilliance of fame, had every chance of a career. Nevertheless, he managed to ruin everything for himself by writing several satirical songs, stylized as soldiers' songs. One of these songs was dedicated to the failure of the military operation on August 4, 1855, when General Read, misunderstanding the order of the commander-in-chief, attacked the Fedyukhin Heights. The song entitled “Like the fourth, the mountains carried us hard to take away,” which affected a number of important generals, was a huge success. For her, Lev Nikolaevich had to answer to the assistant chief of staff A. A. Yakimakh. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (September 8), Tolstoy was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he completed “Sevastopol in May 1855.” and wrote “Sevastopol in August 1855,” published in the first issue of Sovremennik for 1856 with the author’s full signature. “Sevastopol Stories” finally strengthened his reputation as a representative of a new literary generation, and in November 1856 the writer left military service forever.

Traveling around Europe

In St. Petersburg, Lev Nikolaevich was warmly welcomed in high society salons and in literary circles. He became closest friends with Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, with whom they lived in the same apartment for some time. Turgenev introduced him to the Sovremennik circle, after which Tolstoy established friendly relations with such famous writers as Nekrasov, Goncharov, Panaev, Grigorovich, Druzhinin, Sollogub. At this time, “Blizzard”, “Two Hussars” were written, “Sevastopol in August” and “Youth” were completed, and the writing of the future “Cossacks” continued. However, a cheerful and eventful life leaves a bitter aftertaste in Tolstoy’s soul, and at the same time he began to have a strong discord with the circle of writers close to him. As a result, “people became disgusted with him and he became disgusted with himself” - and at the beginning of 1857, Tolstoy left St. Petersburg without any regret and went abroad. On his first trip abroad, he visited Paris, where he was horrified by the cult of Napoleon I (“The idolization of a villain, terrible”), at the same time he attends balls, museums, and is fascinated by the “sense of social freedom.” However, his presence at the guillotine made such a grave impression that Tolstoy left Paris and went to places associated with the French writer and thinker Rousseau - Lake Geneva. In the spring of 1857, I. S. Turgenev described his meetings with Leo Tolstoy in Paris after his sudden departure from St. Petersburg as follows: “Indeed, Paris is not at all in harmony with its spiritual system; He’s a strange person, I’ve never met anyone like him and I don’t quite understand him. A mixture of poet, Calvinist, fanatic, baric - something reminiscent of Rousseau, but more honest than Rousseau - a highly moral and at the same time unsympathetic creature.” - I. S. Turgenev, Complete. collection op. and letters. Letters, vol. III, p. 52.

Trips to Western Europe - Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Italy (in 1857 and 1860-61) made a rather negative impression on him. He expressed his disappointment in the European way of life in the story “Lucerne.” Tolstoy's disappointment was caused by the sharp contrast between wealth and poverty, which he was able to see through the magnificent outer veneer of European culture. Lev Nikolaevich writes the story “Albert”. At the same time, his friends never cease to be amazed at his eccentricities: in his letter to I. S. Turgenev in the fall of 1857, P. V. Annenkov tells of Tolstoy’s project to plant forests throughout Russia, and in his letter to V. P. Botkin, Leo Tolstoy reports how very happy he was the fact that he did not become only a writer, contrary to Turgenev’s advice. However, in the interval between the first and second trips, the writer continued to work on “Cossacks”, wrote the story “Three Deaths” and the novel “Family Happiness”.

His last novel was published in “Russian Bulletin” by Mikhail Katkov. Tolstoy's collaboration with the Sovremennik magazine, which lasted from 1852, ended in 1859. In the same year, Tolstoy took part in organizing the Literary Fund. But his life was not limited to literary interests: on December 22, 1858, he almost died on a bear hunt. Around the same time, he began an affair with the peasant woman Aksinya Bazykina, and plans for marriage were ripening. On his next trip, he was mainly interested in public education and institutions aimed at raising the educational level of the working population. He closely studied issues of public education in Germany and France, both theoretically and practically, and through conversations with specialists. Of the outstanding people in Germany, he was most interested in Auerbach as the author of the “Black Forest Stories” dedicated to folk life and as a publisher of folk calendars. Tolstoy paid him a visit and tried to get closer to him. In addition, he also met with the German teacher Disterweg. During his stay in Brussels, Tolstoy met Proudhon and Lelewell. In London he visited Herzen and attended a lecture by Dickens. Tolstoy’s serious mood during his second trip to the south of France was also facilitated by the fact that his beloved brother Nikolai died of tuberculosis in his arms. The death of his brother made a huge impression on Tolstoy. The stories and essays he wrote in the late 1850s include “Lucerne” and “Three Deaths.” Gradually, criticism towards Leo Tolstoy cooled down for 10-12 years, until the very appearance of “War and Peace”, and he himself did not strive for rapprochement with writers, making an exception only for Afanasy Fet. One of the reasons for this alienation was the quarrel between Leo Tolstoy and Turgenev, which occurred while both prose writers were visiting Fet on the Stepanovka estate in May 1861. The quarrel almost ended in a duel and ruined the relationship between the writers for 17 long years.

Treatment in the Bashkir nomadic camp Karalyk

In May 1862, Lev Nikolaevich, suffering from depression, on the recommendation of doctors, went to the Bashkir farm of Karalyk, Samara province, for a new and fashionable method of therapy for that time - kumis treatment. Initially, I wanted to be treated at Postnikov’s kumiss hospital not far from Samara, but, having learned that many high-ranking officials were supposed to arrive at the same time (secular society, which the young count could not stand), he went to the Bashkir nomadic camp of Karalyk, on the Karalyk River, 130 versts from Samara. There Tolstoy lived in a Bashkir tent (yurt), ate lamb, took sunbathing, drank kumiss, tea, and also had fun with the Bashkirs playing checkers. The first time he stayed there for a month and a half. In 1871, when he had already written “War and Peace,” Lev Nikolaevich came again due to deteriorating health. Lev Nikolaevich lived not in the village itself, but in a tent near it. He wrote: “The melancholy and indifference have passed, I feel myself returning to the Scythian state, and everything is interesting and new... Much is new and interesting: the Bashkirs, who smell of Herodotus, and Russian men, and villages, especially charming in the simplicity and kindness of the people.” . In the same year, fascinated by Karalyk, Tolstoy decided to build his new estate in these places. He buys from Colonel N.P. Tuchkov estates in the Buzuluk district of the Samara province, near the villages of Gavrilovka and Patrovka (now Alekseevsky district), in the amount of 2,500 acres for 20,000 rubles. Lev Nikolaevich spent the summer of 1872 on his estate with his entire family. A few fathoms from the house there was a felt tent in which lived the family of the Bashkir Muhammad Shah, who made kumiss for Lev Nikolaevich and his guests. On his new estate, Tolstoy created many chapters of the famous novel Anna Karenina, which he completed in 1877.

Pedagogical activity

Main article: Pedagogical teaching of L.N. Tolstoy

Tolstoy returned to Russia shortly after the liberation of the peasants and became a peace mediator. Unlike those who looked at the people as a younger brother who needed to be raised to their level, Tolstoy thought, on the contrary, that the people were infinitely higher than the cultural classes and that the gentlemen needed to borrow the heights of spirit from the peasants. He actively began setting up schools in his Yasnaya Polyana and throughout the Krapivensky district. The Yasnaya Polyana school belonged to the number of original pedagogical attempts: in the era of admiration for the German pedagogical school, Tolstoy resolutely rebelled against any regulation and discipline in the school. In his opinion, everything in teaching should be individual - both the teacher and the student, and their mutual relationships. At the Yasnaya Polyana school, the children sat where they wanted, as much as they wanted, and as they wanted. There was no specific teaching program. The teacher's only job was to get the class interested. The classes went well. They were led by Tolstoy himself with the help of several regular teachers and several random ones, from his closest acquaintances and visitors. Since 1862, he began publishing the pedagogical magazine “Yasnaya Polyana”, where he himself was the main employee. In addition to theoretical articles, Tolstoy also wrote a number of stories, fables and adaptations. Combined together, Tolstoy's pedagogical articles made up an entire volume of his collected works. At one time they went unnoticed. Nobody paid attention to the sociological basis of Tolstoy’s ideas about education, to the fact that Tolstoy saw only simplified and improved ways of exploiting the people by the upper classes in education, science, art and technological successes. Moreover, from Tolstoy’s attacks on European education and “progress,” many concluded that Tolstoy was a “conservative.”

Soon Tolstoy left teaching. Marriage, the birth of his own children, plans related to writing the novel “War and Peace” push back his pedagogical activities by ten years. Only in the early 1870s did he begin to create his own “ABC” and publish it in 1872, and then release the “New ABC” and a series of four “Russian books for reading”, approved as a result of long ordeals by the Ministry of Public Education as manuals for primary educational institutions. Classes at the Yasnaya Polyana school resume briefly. It is known that the Yasnaya Polyana school had a certain influence on other domestic teachers. For example, it was S. T. Shatsky who initially took it as a model when creating his own school “Cheerful Life” in 1911.

Acting as a defense attorney in court

In July 1866, Tolstoy appeared at a military court as a defender of Vasil Shabunin, a company clerk stationed near Yasnaya Polyana of the Moscow Infantry Regiment. Shabunin hit the officer, who ordered him to be punished with canes for being drunk. Tolstoy argued that Shabunin was insane, but the court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Shabunin was shot. This case made a great impression on Tolstoy, since in this terrible case he saw the merciless force that the state, based on violence, represented. On this occasion, he wrote to his friend, publicist P.I. Biryukov: “This incident had much more influence on my entire life than all the seemingly more important events in life: loss or recovery of a condition, success or failure in literature, even the loss of loved ones.”

Creativity flourishes

During the first 12 years after his marriage, he created War and Peace and Anna Karenina. At the turn of this second era of Tolstoy’s literary life stands “Cossacks,” conceived back in 1852 and completed in 1861-1862, the first of the works in which Tolstoy’s talent was most realized. The main interest of creativity for Tolstoy manifested itself “in the “history” of characters, in their continuous and complex movement and development.” His goal was to show the individual’s ability for moral growth, improvement, and resistance to the environment, relying on the strength of his own soul.

Cover of the 1873 edition The release of War and Peace was preceded by the novel The Decembrists (1860-1861), to which the author returned several times, but which remained unfinished. And “War and Peace” experienced unprecedented success. An excerpt from the novel entitled "1805" appeared in the Russian Messenger of 1865; in 1868 three of its parts were published, soon followed by the remaining two. The first four volumes of War and Peace quickly sold out, and a second edition was needed, which was released in October 1868. The fifth and sixth volumes of the novel were published in one edition, printed in an already increased edition. “War and Peace” has become a unique phenomenon in both Russian and world literature. This work has absorbed all the depth and intimacy of a psychological novel with the scope and diversity of an epic fresco. The writer depicted the role of the Russian people in decisive epochs of national life, revealed the special state of national consciousness in the heroic time of 1812, a time when people from various segments of the population were able to unite in resistance to foreign invasion, which created the basis for the epic. The author showed national Russian traits in the “hidden warmth of patriotism,” in aversion to ostentatious heroism, in a calm faith in justice, in the modest dignity and courage of ordinary soldiers. He portrayed Russia's war with Napoleonic troops as a nationwide war. The epic style of the work is conveyed through the completeness and plasticity of the image, the branching and crossing of destinies, and incomparable pictures of Russian nature. In Tolstoy's novel all classes of society are represented, from emperors and kings to soldiers, all ages and all temperaments throughout the entire reign of Alexander I.

« Anna Karenina“A more dramatic and serious work was the novel about tragic love “Anna Karenina” (1873-1876). Unlike the previous work, there is no place in it for an endlessly happy rapture in the bliss of existence. In the almost autobiographical novel of Levin and Kitty, there are still joyful experiences, but in the depiction of Dolly’s family life there is already more bitterness, and in the unhappy ending of the love of Anna Karenina and Vronsky, there is so much anxiety in mental life that in general this novel is essentially a transition to the third period of literary Tolstoy's dramatic activities. There is less simplicity and clarity of mental movements characteristic of the heroes of War and Peace, but more heightened sensitivity, inner alertness and anxiety. And the characters of the main characters are more complex and subtle. The psychological state of the main character, the subtlest nuances of her feelings, love, disappointment, jealousy, despair and spiritual enlightenment are shown more subtly. The problematics of this work directly led Tolstoy to the ideological “turning point” of the late 1870s.

One of the most famous writers and philosophers of the Russian Empire, considered an influential thinker in world history.

Childhood and youth

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the Tula province into a family of nobles. In early childhood, Leo lost his mother and all the children were raised by his father and nannies. But seven years after the loss of their mother, all the children became orphans, having also lost their father. Their closest relative, their aunt, became their guardian. Leo's noble origins obliged him to study various languages ​​and science; he received his education from private teachers. In 1843, the young man entered the Imperial Kazan University at the Faculty of Oriental Philology. However, Lev did not have success in studying another culture; he was forced to switch to the legal field. However, despite the change of faculty, the difficulties in studying the material that the educational institution provided did not go away. Ultimately, Leo Tolstoy left the university in 1847 without receiving his diploma.

Passion for gambling

The young man’s diary, which he carefully filled out until the last days of his life, can be considered his first experience as a writer. After leaving the university, the writer went to Moscow, where he planned to improve his knowledge of jurisprudence and re-test his strength in obtaining a diploma. However, having gotten involved in gambling, he was distracted from the primary task and spent long hours at the card table. Deciding to change the situation, the young man went to St. Petersburg, where the situation did not change, but only worsened. Having finally pulled himself together, Tolstoy takes exams for various types of law and passes them successfully, however, abandoning everything, he returns to his father’s house. In 1849, Tolstoy opened a school for poor children where he taught students to read and write using a primer he himself created.

Change of scenery, military service

Until 1851, the writer spent his time gambling, studying at his school, and doing a little work on the novel “Childhood.” In the same year, his brother returned from military service, who, seeing his relative’s not the most worthy lifestyle, suggested that he become a military man. Hastily collecting his things, Lev Nikolaevich set off for the Caucasus. Having passed the exams, he entered the service and spent a lot of time with local residents. Some of the people who were especially close to him in spirit in the future became prototypes for the heroes of the story “Cossacks”. Having decided to put everything on the line, Tolstoy sent the still unfinished manuscript “Childhood” to the editors of one of the most popular magazines of that time, Sovremennik. The editor-in-chief was deeply amazed by the talent of the young writer. The resulting material was sent for printing immediately after correction and soon appeared on the shelves of many bookstores. It is noteworthy that “Childhood” was an autobiographical work of the writer and despite the tragedy of his early losses, he described his early years of life as sunny and joyful moments.

Service in Crimea. End of military career

All this time, Lev served in the Caucasus and worked on new masterpieces of literature. After the war began in Crimea, the young man went to the front line and devoted himself entirely to serving his fatherland. During the period spent in the thick of hostilities, the writer created such works as “Cutting Wood” and “Sevastopol in December 1854.” Great success in military affairs and a talent for writing good war stories created an ideal combination for moving up the military ladder. Despite this, the writer’s character and his special humor played a bad joke on him, and after writing several unsuccessful satirical poems, he left the service. Although everything was over with his military career, Lev Nikolaevich was not sad and completely devoted himself to literary work. The literary community happily welcomed the new generation of writers, and Tolstoy was no exception. He wrote “Two Hussars” and “Youth”, which evoked an enthusiastic reaction from the public and critics.

The beginning of a dark streak in life

The writer got tired of the excessive attention and sometimes outright impudence, and he decided to take a break and went on a journey. The first city the writer visited was Paris. Filled with freedom and an extraordinary creative atmosphere, this city helped Lev Nikolaevich open up and fall in love with literature again. However, his stay in this city was overshadowed by the political situation; Tolstoy did not accept the blind worship of Napoleon and soon left Paris. His wanderings extended throughout Europe: Germany, Italy, France inspired the creator to new exploits. In the winter of 1858, the writer surprised everyone with a new brilliant story, “Three Deaths.” Soon the writer's life was darkened by the bitterness of loss; his beloved brother died of tuberculosis. This loss led to a deep and prolonged depression and as a result Tolstoy went to a sanatorium to improve his health. The distance from social life, delicious food and friendly locals contributed to the recovery of the writer’s health.

Creating world masterpieces

In 1863, one of the writer’s most famous works, “War and Peace,” was created. Readers happily accept this unique masterpiece, and the community of writers enthusiastically calls Tolstoy the harbinger of a new era. There was surprisingly huge public interest not only within the Russian Empire, but also beyond its borders; many public figures spoke flatteringly about Lev’s work. The writer's success was greatly influenced by his marriage to Sofya Andreevna. A practical and often more mature-minded spouse has more than once prevented stupid and reckless decisions from being made. The next stunning and tragic novel was Anna Karenina. In this work, changes were felt that took place in the most remote corners of the writer’s subconscious. Courage and unusual perception of the world around him allowed Tolstoy to become the first representative of the literary world to criticize Shakespeare.

Renunciation of Orthodoxy

Towards the end of the 70s, the writer began to experience a creative crisis. Everything he did did not bring him any moral satisfaction. Raising children and writing new novels took a back seat. Even his wife, who had always been an outlet for him, began to irritate him and cause attacks of anger. In search of truth and a solution to his inner gravity, Tolstoy comes to religion. He is deeply interested in the study of the Bible and writes A Study in Dogmatic Theology. His interest gradually moves from the study of religion to the study of religious art. Raphael, Michelangelo, as well as Dante and Beethoven fall under a wave of criticism and misunderstanding from the writer. Such deep penetration into religion led to a complete denial of the judgments that the Bible carried. Church leaders condemned Tolstoy's highly negative behavior, and he was eventually excommunicated. In an attempt to explain his decision to others, the writer created “Answer to the Synod,” in which he describes his thoughts about church beliefs. The public, being deeply religious, reacted very negatively to this type of activity and many insults were sent to the writer.

last years of life

Not wanting to stay in his homeland any longer, Tolstoy went on a journey. He didn’t have a destination, he just decided to take the train and go, stopping by the Caucasus and Bulgaria along the way. However, his plans were interrupted by illness, which worsened due to stress caused by long hours spent on the road. When the highest circles of society and his relatives learned about Lev Nikolaevich’s illness, a commotion began in the country. In an attempt to return the writer to Orthodoxy, a priest was sent, who was not allowed to see the dying man. The family was also not allowed to see Tolstoy because of their religious views. Until the end, the writer was true to himself and continued to make plans. He conceived many ideas for creativity, some of which he mentioned in his diary while still able to write. In 1910, on November 20, Lev Nikolaevich died from a lack of air reaching his heart. The world was plunged into mourning, thousands of people mourned the great man, not only at home, but also abroad. Many admirers of his work organized demonstrations and marches in memory of the great writer.

• As a child, Tolstoy heard from his brother Nikolai the legend of the “green stick” - if it had been found on the edge of a ravine in Yasnaya Polyana, there would have been no more wars and deaths on earth. This children's game greatly influenced Tolstoy's personality. The idea of ​​universal happiness and love can be traced throughout the writer’s work, philosophical works and publications. In his declining years, Lev Nikolaevich asked to be buried without any honors on the edge of a ravine - where, as a child, he and his brother were looking for a “green stick”.
• An interesting fact is that Sofya Andreevna (Tolstoy’s wife) rewrote almost all of her husband’s works in order to send manuscripts to the publishing house. This was necessary because not a single editor could decipher the handwriting of the great writer.
• He had an excellent command of English, French and German. I read in Italian, Polish, Serbian and Czech. He studied Greek and Church Slavonic, Latin, Ukrainian and Tatar, Hebrew and Turkish, Dutch and Bulgarian.
• An interesting fact about Tolstoy is also that the count, towards the end of his life, developed several serious principles of his worldview. The main ones boil down to non-resistance to evil through violence, denial of private property and complete disregard for any authority, be it church, state or any other.

Awards:

• Order of Saint Anne
• Medal "For the Defense of Sevastopol"
• Medal "In Memory of the War of 1853-1856"
• Medal "In memory of the 50th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol"