November 20 (November 7, old style) marks exactly one hundred years since the death of the Russian writer Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
The great Russian writer, playwright, publicist, Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on September 9 (August 28, old style) 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate of the Krapivensky district of the Tula province (now Shchekinsky district of the Tula region) into one of the most notable Russian noble families. He was the fourth child in the family. The future writer spent his childhood in Yasnaya Polyana. He was orphaned early, losing first his mother, who died when the boy was two years old, and then his father.
In 1837, the family moved from Yasnaya Polyana to Moscow. The guardian of the orphaned children was their aunt, their father’s sister Alexandra Ilyinichna Osten-Saken. In 1841, after her death, young Tolstoy with his sister and three brothers moved to Kazan, where another aunt lived, Pelageya Ilyinichna Yushkova, who became their guardian.
Tolstoy spent his youth in Kazan. In 1844, he entered Kazan University at the Department of Oriental Languages of the Faculty of Philosophy, then transferred to the Faculty of Law, where he studied for less than two years: his studies did not arouse his interest and he indulged in secular entertainment. In the spring of 1847, disappointed in his university education, he submitted a request for dismissal from the university “due to poor health and domestic circumstances” and left for Yasnaya Polyana, which he received as property under the division of his father’s inheritance.
In Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy engaged in self-education; tried to reorganize the life of the peasants, however, disappointed by the unsuccessful management experience, in the fall of 1847 he first went to Moscow, where he led a social life, and in the spring of 1849 he went to St. Petersburg to take exams at the university for the degree of candidate of law. His lifestyle during this period often changed: either he was preparing and passing exams, then he was passionately devoted to music, then he intended to begin an official career, having decided in the fall of 1849 to serve as a clerical employee in the Tula Noble Deputy Assembly, then he dreamed of joining a horse guards regiment as a cadet. Tolstoy's religious sentiments during this period, reaching the point of asceticism, alternated with revelry, cards, and trips to the gypsies. In the family he was considered “the most trifling fellow,” and he was able to repay the debts he incurred then only many years later. However, it was during these years that he developed a serious desire to write and his first unfinished artistic sketches appeared.
In the spring of 1851, on the advice of his older brother Nikolai, Lev Nikolaevich entered military service in the Caucasus. In the fall of 1851, he became a cadet of the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, and then, having passed the junior officer rank exam, became an officer.
In 1851-1853, Tolstoy took part in military operations in the Caucasus (first as a volunteer, then as an artillery officer), and in 1854 he went to the Danube Army. Soon after the start of the Crimean War, at his personal request, he was transferred to Sevastopol.
From November 1854 to August 1855 he took part in the defense of Sevastopol (in the besieged city he fought on the famous 4th bastion). He was awarded the Order of Anna and medals “For the Defense of Sevastopol” and “In Memory of the War of 1853-1856.” More than once he was nominated for the military Cross of St. George, but he never received the “St. George”.
The writer's impressions of the Caucasian War were reflected in the stories "Raid" (1853), "Cutting Wood" (1855), "Demoted" (1856), in the story "Cossacks" (1852 -1863), artistic essays "Sevastopol in December" (1855 ), "Sevastopol in May" (1855) and "Sevastopol in August 1855" (1856). These essays, called “Sevastopol Stories,” made a huge impression on Russian society. In the Caucasus, the story “Childhood” was completed, which was published under the title “The History of My Childhood” in the magazine “Sovremennik” in 1852 and brought Tolstoy great success and fame as one of the most talented Russian writers. Two years later, a continuation appeared in Sovremennik - the story "Adolescence", and in 1857 the story "Youth" was published.
In November 1855, Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg and immediately joined the Sovremennik circle (Nikolai Nekrasov, Ivan Turgenev, Alexey Ostrovsky, Ivan Goncharov, etc.).
In the fall of 1856, Leo Tolstoy, having retired with the rank of lieutenant, left for Yasnaya Polyana, and at the beginning of 1857 he went abroad. He visited France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany (Swiss impressions are reflected in the story “Lucerne”), in the fall he returned to Moscow, then to Yasnaya Polyana, where he began improving schools.
In 1859, he opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, and then helped open more than 20 schools in the surrounding villages. To direct their activities along the right path, from his point of view, he published the pedagogical magazine Yasnaya Polyana (1862). Tolstoy wrote eleven articles about school and pedagogy (“On Public Education”, “Upbringing and Education”, “On Social Activities in the Field of Public Education”, etc.).
In order to study the organization of school affairs in foreign countries, the writer went abroad for the second time in 1860.
In May 1861 (the year of the abolition of serfdom) he returned to Yasnaya Polyana, where, having accepted the position of peace mediator, he actively defended the interests of the peasants, resolving their disputes with the landowners about land. Soon the Tula nobility, dissatisfied with his actions, demanded his removal from office, and in 1862 the Senate issued a decree dismissing Tolstoy. Secret surveillance of him began from Section III.
In the summer of 1862, after a police search, Tolstoy had to close the Yasnaya Polyana school and stop publishing a pedagogical magazine. The reason was the authorities' suspicions that students teaching at the school were engaged in anti-government activities.
In September 1862, Tolstoy married the daughter of a Moscow doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers, and immediately after the wedding, he took his wife from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana, where he devoted himself entirely to family life and household concerns. During their 17 years of marriage, they had 13 children.
From the autumn of 1863 to 1869, Leo Tolstoy worked on the novel War and Peace.
In the early 1870s, the writer was again fascinated by pedagogy and he created “ABC” and “New ABC” and compiled a “Book for Reading”, where he included many of his stories.
In the spring of 1873, Tolstoy began and four years later finished work on a great novel about modernity, calling it after the name of the main character - Anna Karenina.
The spiritual crisis experienced by Tolstoy in the late 1870s and early 1880s culminated in a turning point in his worldview. In “Confession” (1879-1882), the writer talks about a revolution in his views, the meaning of which he saw in a break with the ideology of the noble class and a transition to the side of the “simple working people.”
In the early 1880s, the Tolstoy family moved to Moscow to educate their growing children. From this time on, Tolstoy spent winters in Moscow.
In the 1880s, Tolstoy's stories "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and "Kholstomer" ("The Story of a Horse"), "The Kreutzer Sonata", the story "The Devil", the story "Father Sergius" appeared.
In 1882, he took part in the census of the Moscow population and became closely acquainted with the life of the inhabitants of the city slums, which he described in the treatise “So what should we do?” (1882-1886).
In simplification, in likening himself to people from the people, Tolstoy saw the purpose and duty of nobles, intellectuals - everyone who is part of the privileged classes. During this period, the writer comes to a complete denial of his previous literary activity, engages in physical labor, plows, sews boots, and switches to vegetarian food.
In the 1880s, a conflict arose between Tolstoy and Sofya Andreevna over property and income from publishing the writer’s works. On May 21, 1883, he granted his wife full power of attorney to manage all property affairs, and two years later he divided all his property between his wife, sons and daughters. He wanted to distribute all his property to the needy, but he was stopped by his wife’s threat to declare him crazy and establish guardianship over him. Sofya Andreevna defended the interests and well-being of the family and children. Tolstoy granted all publishers the right to freely publish all his works published after 1881 (Tolstoy considered this year to be the year of his own moral turning point). But Sofya Andreevna demanded the privilege for herself to publish her husband’s collected works. Mutual alienation is growing in the relationship between Tolstoy and his wife and sons.
The writer’s new worldview is also reflected in his articles “On the census in Moscow”, “On hunger”, “What is art?”, “Slavery of our time”, “On Shakespeare and drama”, “I cannot remain silent”. In these and subsequent years, Tolstoy also wrote religious and philosophical works: “Criticism of Dogmatic Theology”, “What is My Faith?”, “Connection, Translation and Study of the Four Gospels”, “The Kingdom of God is Within You”. In them, the writer not only showed a change in his religious and moral views, but also subjected to a critical revision of the main dogmas and principles of the teaching of the official church.
Social, religious and philosophical quests led Tolstoy to the creation of his own religious and philosophical system (Tolstoyism). Tolstoy preached in his life and works of art the need for moral improvement, universal love, non-resistance to evil through violence, for which he was attacked both by revolutionary democratic figures and by the church. At the beginning of 1900, he wrote a series of articles exposing the entire system of public administration. The government of Nicholas II issues a resolution according to which the Holy Synod (the highest church institution in Russia) in February 1901 excommunicates Tolstoy from the Orthodox Church as a “heretic.”
In 1901, the writer lived in Crimea, recovering from a serious illness.
In the last decade of his life, he wrote the story "Hadji Murat", the plays "The Living Corpse", "The Power of Darkness", "The Fruits of Enlightenment", the stories "After the Ball", "For What?", and the novel "Sunday".
In the last years of his life, Tolstoy found himself at the center of intrigue and contention between the “Tolstoyites,” on the one hand, and his wife, who defended the well-being of her family and children, on the other.
On July 22, 1910, Tolstoy drew up a will in which he granted all publishers the right to publish his works - both those written after 1881 and earlier. The new will strained relations with his wife.
On November 10 (October 28, old style), 1910, at five o’clock in the morning, Leo Tolstoy, accompanied only by his personal physician Dushan Makovitsky, left Yasnaya Polyana secretly from his family. On the way, Tolstoy fell ill, his temperature rose and he was forced to get off the train en route to Rostov-on-Don. At the small Astapovo railway station of the Ryazan-Ural Railway, in the house of the station master, the writer spent the last seven days of his life. Doctors diagnosed pneumonia.
On November 20 (November 7, old style), 1910, at Astapovo station (now Lev Tolstoy station), Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy died. His funeral in Yasnaya Polyana became a nationwide event.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
Born into the noble family of Maria Nikolaevna, nee Princess Volkonskaya, and Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy in the Yasnaya Polyana estate in Krapivensky district of the Tula province, he was the fourth child. The happy marriage of his parents became the prototype of the heroes in the novel “War and Peace” - Princess Marya and Nikolai Rostov. Parents died early. The future writer was educated by Tatyana Aleksandrovna Ergolskaya, a distant relative, and educated by tutors: the German Reselman and the Frenchman Saint-Thomas, who became the heroes of the writer’s stories and novels. At the age of 13, the future writer and his family moved to the hospitable house of his father’s sister P.I. Yushkova in Kazan.
In 1844, Leo Tolstoy entered the Imperial Kazan University at the Department of Oriental Literature of the Faculty of Philosophy. After the first year, he failed the transition exam and transferred to the Faculty of Law, where he studied for two years, plunging into secular entertainment. Leo Tolstoy, naturally shy and ugly, acquired a reputation in secular society for “thinking” about the happiness of death, eternity, and love, although he himself wanted to shine. And in 1847, he left the university and went to Yasnaya Polyana with the intention of pursuing science and “reaching the highest degree of perfection in music and painting.”
In 1849, the first school for peasant children was opened on his estate, where Foka Demidovich, his serf and former musician, taught. Yermil Bazykin, who studied there, said: “There were about 20 of us boys, the teacher was Foka Demidovich, a yard man. Under father L.N. Tolstoy he performed the position of musician. The old man was good. He taught us the alphabet, counting, sacred history. Lev Nikolaevich also came to us, also studied with us, showed us his diploma. I went every other day, every other day, or even every day. He always ordered the teacher not to offend us...”
In 1851, under the influence of his older brother Nikolai, Lev left for the Caucasus, having already begun to write “Childhood”, and in the fall he became a cadet in the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladovskaya on the Terek River. There he finished the first part of “Childhood” and sent it to the magazine “Sovremennik” to its editor N.A. Nekrasov. On September 18, 1852, the manuscript was published with great success.
Leo Tolstoy served for three years in the Caucasus and, having the right to the most honorable St. George Cross for bravery, “ceded” it to a fellow soldier, as giving a lifelong pension. At the beginning of the Crimean War of 1853-1856. transferred to the Danube Army, participated in the battles of Oltenitsa, the siege of Silistria, and the defense of Sevastopol. Then the story “Sevastopol in December 1854” was written. was read by Emperor Alexander II, who ordered to take care of the talented officer.
In November 1856, the already recognized and famous writer left military service and went to travel around Europe.
In 1862, Leo Tolstoy married seventeen-year-old Sofya Andreevna Bers. Their marriage produced 13 children, five died in early childhood, and the novels “War and Peace” (1863-1869) and “Anna Karenina” (1873-1877), recognized as great works, were written.
In the 1880s Leo Tolstoy experienced a powerful crisis, which led to the denial of official state power and its institutions, the awareness of the inevitability of death, faith in God and the creation of his teaching - Tolstoyism. He lost interest in the usual lordly life, he began to have thoughts about suicide and the need to live correctly, become a vegetarian, engage in education and physical labor - he plowed, sewed boots, taught children at school. In 1891 he publicly renounced copyright on his literary works written after 1880.
During 1889-1899 Leo Tolstoy wrote the novel “Resurrection,” whose plot is based on a real court case, and scathing articles about the system of government - on this basis, the Holy Synod excommunicated Count Leo Tolstoy from the Orthodox Church and anathematized him in 1901.
On October 28 (November 10), 1910, Leo Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana, setting off on a journey without a specific plan for the sake of his moral and religious ideas of recent years, accompanied by the doctor D.P. Makovitsky. On the way, he caught a cold, fell ill with lobar pneumonia and was forced to get off the train at Astapovo station (now Lev Tolstoy station in the Lipetsk region). Leo Tolstoy died on November 7 (20), 1910 in the house of the station chief I.I. Ozolin and was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy- an outstanding Russian prose writer, playwright and public figure. Born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Tula region. On his mother’s side, the writer belonged to the eminent family of Princes Volkonsky, and on his father’s side, to the ancient family of Count Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy's great-great-grandfather, grandfather and father were military men. Representatives of the ancient Tolstoy family served as governors in many cities of Rus' even under Ivan the Terrible.
The writer’s maternal grandfather, “a descendant of Rurik,” Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, was enlisted in military service at the age of seven. He was a participant in the Russian-Turkish war and retired with the rank of general-in-chief. The writer's paternal grandfather, Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, served in the navy and then in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. The writer's father, Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, voluntarily entered military service at the age of seventeen. He took part in the Patriotic War of 1812, was captured by the French and was freed by Russian troops who entered Paris after the defeat of Napoleon's army. On his mother's side, Tolstoy was related to the Pushkins. Their common ancestor was boyar I.M. Golovin, an associate of Peter I, who studied shipbuilding with him. One of his daughters is the poet’s great-grandmother, the other is the great-grandmother of Tolstoy’s mother. Thus, Pushkin was Tolstoy’s fourth cousin.
The writer's childhood took place in Yasnaya Polyana - an ancient family estate. Tolstoy's interest in history and literature arose in his childhood: while living in the village, he saw how the life of the working people proceeded, from them he heard many folk tales, epics, songs, and legends. The life of the people, their work, interests and views, oral creativity - everything alive and wise - was revealed to Tolstoy by Yasnaya Polyana.
Maria Nikolaevna Tolstaya, the writer’s mother, was a kind and sympathetic person, an intelligent and educated woman: she knew French, German, English and Italian, played the piano, and studied painting. Tolstoy was not even two years old when his mother died. The writer did not remember her, but he heard so much about her from those around him that he clearly and vividly imagined her appearance and character.
Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, their father, was loved and appreciated by children for his humane attitude towards serfs. In addition to taking care of the house and children, he read a lot. During his life, Nikolai Ilyich collected a rich library, consisting of rare books of French classics, historical and natural history works at that time. It was he who first noticed his youngest son’s inclination towards a vivid perception of the artistic word.
When Tolstoy was nine years old, his father took him to Moscow for the first time. The first impressions of Lev Nikolaevich’s Moscow life served as the basis for many paintings, scenes and episodes of the hero’s life in Moscow Tolstoy's trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth". Young Tolstoy saw not only the open side of big city life, but also some hidden, shadow sides. With his first stay in Moscow, the writer connected the end of the earliest period of his life, childhood, and the transition to adolescence. The first period of Tolstoy's Moscow life did not last long. In the summer of 1837, while traveling to Tula on business, his father died suddenly. Soon after the death of his father, Tolstoy and his sister and brothers had to endure a new misfortune: their grandmother, whom everyone close to them considered the head of the family, died. The sudden death of her son was a terrible blow for her and less than a year later it took her to the grave. A few years later, the first guardian of the orphaned Tolstoy children, their father’s sister, Alexandra Ilyinichna Osten-Saken, died. Ten-year-old Lev, his three brothers and sister were taken to Kazan, where their new guardian, Aunt Pelageya Ilyinichna Yushkova, lived.
Tolstoy wrote about his second guardian as a “kind and very pious” woman, but at the same time very “frivolous and vain.” According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Pelageya Ilyinichna did not enjoy authority with Tolstoy and his brothers, therefore the move to Kazan is considered to be a new stage in the writer’s life: his upbringing ended, a period of independent life began.
Tolstoy lived in Kazan for more than six years. This was the time of formation of his character and choice of life path. Living with his brothers and sister with Pelageya Ilyinichna, young Tolstoy spent two years preparing to enter Kazan University. Having decided to enter the eastern department of the university, he paid special attention to preparing for exams in foreign languages. In exams in mathematics and Russian literature, Tolstoy received fours, and in foreign languages - fives. Lev Nikolayevich failed in the exams in history and geography - he received unsatisfactory grades.
Failure in the entrance exams served as a serious lesson for Tolstoy. He devoted the entire summer to a thorough study of history and geography, passed additional exams on them, and in September 1844 he was enrolled in the first year of the eastern department of the Faculty of Philosophy of Kazan University in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. However, Tolstoy was not interested in studying languages, and after the summer holidays in Yasnaya Polyana he transferred from the Faculty of Oriental Studies to the Faculty of Law.
But in the future, university studies did not awaken Lev Nikolaevich’s interest in the sciences he was studying. Most of the time he independently studied philosophy, compiled “Rules of Life” and carefully wrote notes in his diary. By the end of the third year of studies, Tolstoy was finally convinced that the then university order only interfered with independent creative work, and he decided to leave the university. However, he needed a university diploma to obtain the license to enter the service. And in order to receive a diploma, Tolstoy passed university exams as an external student, spending two years of living in the village preparing for them. Having received university documents from the chancellery at the end of April 1847, former student Tolstoy left Kazan.
After leaving the university, Tolstoy again went to Yasnaya Polyana, and then to Moscow. Here, at the end of 1850, he took up literary creativity. At this time, he decided to write two stories, but did not finish either of them. In the spring of 1851, Lev Nikolaevich, together with his older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, who served in the army as an artillery officer, arrived in the Caucasus. Here Tolstoy lived for almost three years, being mainly in the village of Starogladkovskaya, located on the left bank of the Terek. From here he traveled to Kizlyar, Tiflis, Vladikavkaz, and visited many villages and villages.
It began in the Caucasus Tolstoy's military service. He took part in military operations of Russian troops. Tolstoy's impressions and observations are reflected in his stories “The Raid”, “Cutting Wood”, “Demoted”, and in the story “Cossacks”. Later, turning to the memories of this period of his life, Tolstoy created the story “Hadji Murat”. In March 1854, Tolstoy arrived in Bucharest, where the office of the chief of artillery troops was located. From here, as a staff officer, he traveled throughout Moldavia, Wallachia and Bessarabia.
In the spring and summer of 1854, the writer took part in the siege of the Turkish fortress of Silistria. However, the main place of hostilities at this time was the Crimean Peninsula. Here Russian troops under the leadership of V.A. Kornilov and P.S. Nakhimov heroically defended Sevastopol for eleven months, besieged by Turkish and Anglo-French troops. Participation in the Crimean War is an important stage in Tolstoy’s life. Here he got to know ordinary Russian soldiers, sailors, and residents of Sevastopol closely, and sought to understand the source of the heroism of the city’s defenders, to understand the special character traits inherent in the defender of the Fatherland. Tolstoy himself showed bravery and courage in the defense of Sevastopol.
In November 1855, Tolstoy left Sevastopol for St. Petersburg. By this time he had already earned recognition in advanced literary circles. During this period, the attention of Russian public life was focused around the issue of serfdom. Tolstoy's stories of this time ("Morning of the Landowner", "Polikushka", etc.) are also devoted to this problem.
In 1857 the writer committed foreign travel. He visited France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Traveling to different cities, the writer became acquainted with the culture and social system of Western European countries with great interest. Much of what he saw was subsequently reflected in his work. In 1860, Tolstoy made another trip abroad. A year before, he opened a school for children in Yasnaya Polyana. Traveling through the cities of Germany, France, Switzerland, England and Belgium, the writer visited schools and studied the features of public education. In most of the schools that Tolstoy visited, caning discipline was in effect and corporal punishment was used. Returning to Russia and visiting a number of schools, Tolstoy discovered that many teaching methods that were in effect in Western European countries, in particular Germany, had penetrated into Russian schools. At this time, Lev Nikolaevich wrote a number of articles in which he criticized the public education system both in Russia and in Western European countries.
Arriving home after a trip abroad, Tolstoy devoted himself to working at school and publishing the pedagogical magazine Yasnaya Polyana. The school founded by the writer was located not far from his home - in an outbuilding that has survived to this day. In the early 70s, Tolstoy compiled and published a number of textbooks for primary schools: “ABC”, “Arithmetic”, four “Books for Reading”. More than one generation of children learned from these books. The stories from them are read with enthusiasm by children even today.
In 1862, when Tolstoy was away, landowners arrived in Yasnaya Polyana and searched the writer’s house. In 1861, the Tsar's manifesto announced the abolition of serfdom. During the implementation of the reform, disputes broke out between landowners and peasants, the settlement of which was entrusted to the so-called peace intermediaries. Tolstoy was appointed as a peace mediator in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province. When examining controversial cases between nobles and peasants, the writer most often took a position in favor of the peasantry, which caused discontent among the nobles. This was the reason for the search. Because of this, Tolstoy had to stop working as a peace mediator, close the school in Yasnaya Polyana and refuse to publish a pedagogical magazine.
In 1862 Tolstoy married Sofya Andreevna Bers, daughter of a Moscow doctor. Arriving with her husband in Yasnaya Polyana, Sofya Andreevna tried with all her might to create an environment on the estate in which nothing would distract the writer from his hard work. In the 60s, Tolstoy led a solitary life, completely devoting himself to work on War and Peace.
At the end of the epic War and Peace, Tolstoy decided to write a new work - a novel about the era of Peter I. However, social events in Russia caused by the abolition of serfdom so captured the writer that he left work on the historical novel and began creating a new work, in which reflected the post-reform life of Russia. This is how the novel Anna Karenina appeared, to which Tolstoy devoted four years to work.
In the early 80s, Tolstoy moved with his family to Moscow to educate his growing children. Here the writer, well acquainted with rural poverty, witnessed urban poverty. In the early 90s of the 19th century, almost half of the central provinces of the country were gripped by famine, and Tolstoy joined the fight against the national disaster. Thanks to his appeal, the collection of donations, purchase and delivery of food to the villages was launched. At this time, under the leadership of Tolstoy, about two hundred free canteens were opened in the villages of the Tula and Ryazan provinces for the starving population. A number of articles written by Tolstoy about the famine date back to the same period, in which the writer truthfully depicted the plight of the people and condemned the policies of the ruling classes.
In the mid-80s Tolstoy wrote drama "The Power of Darkness", which depicts the death of the old foundations of patriarchal-peasant Russia, and the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” dedicated to the fate of a man who only before his death realized the emptiness and meaninglessness of his life. In 1890, Tolstoy wrote the comedy “The Fruits of Enlightenment,” which shows the true situation of the peasantry after the abolition of serfdom. In the early 90s it was created novel "Sunday", on which the writer worked intermittently for ten years. In all his works relating to this period of creativity, Tolstoy openly shows whom he sympathizes with and whom he condemns; depicts the hypocrisy and insignificance of the “masters of life.”
The novel “Sunday” was subject to censorship more than other works of Tolstoy. Most of the novel's chapters were released or abridged. The ruling circles launched an active policy against the writer. Fearing popular outrage, the authorities did not dare to use open repression against Tolstoy. With the consent of the tsar and at the insistence of the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Pobedonostsev, the synod adopted a resolution to excommunicate Tolstoy from the church. The writer was under police surveillance. The world community was outraged by the persecution of Lev Nikolaevich. The peasantry, advanced intelligentsia and ordinary people were on the side of the writer and sought to express their respect and support to him. The love and sympathy of the people served as reliable support for the writer in the years when the reaction sought to silence him.
However, despite all the efforts of reactionary circles, every year Tolstoy denounced the noble-bourgeois society more sharply and boldly and openly opposed the autocracy. Works of this period ( “After the Ball”, “For What?”, “Hadji Murat”, “Living Corpse”) are imbued with deep hatred of the royal power, the limited and ambitious ruler. In journalistic articles dating back to this time, the writer sharply condemned the instigators of wars and called for a peaceful resolution of all disputes and conflicts.
In 1901-1902, Tolstoy suffered a serious illness. At the insistence of doctors, the writer had to go to Crimea, where he spent more than six months.
In Crimea, he met with writers, artists, artists: Chekhov, Korolenko, Gorky, Chaliapin, etc. When Tolstoy returned home, hundreds of ordinary people warmly greeted him at the stations. In the fall of 1909, the writer made his last trip to Moscow.
Tolstoy's diaries and letters of the last decades of his life reflected difficult experiences that were caused by the writer's discord with his family. Tolstoy wanted to transfer the land that belonged to him to the peasants and wanted his works to be published freely and free of charge by anyone who wanted. The writer’s family opposed this, not wanting to give up either the rights to the land or the rights to the works. The old landowner way of life, preserved in Yasnaya Polyana, weighed heavily on Tolstoy.
In the summer of 1881, Tolstoy made his first attempt to leave Yasnaya Polyana, but a feeling of pity for his wife and children forced him to return. Several more attempts by the writer to leave his native estate ended with the same result. On October 28, 1910, secretly from his family, he left Yasnaya Polyana forever, deciding to go south and spend the rest of his life in a peasant hut, among the common Russian people. However, on the way, Tolstoy became seriously ill and was forced to get off the train at the small Astapovo station. The great writer spent the last seven days of his life in the house of the station master. The news of the death of one of the outstanding thinkers, a wonderful writer, a great humanist deeply struck the hearts of all progressive people of this time. Tolstoy's creative heritage is of great importance for world literature. Over the years, interest in the writer’s work does not wane, but, on the contrary, grows. As A. France rightly noted: “With his life he proclaims sincerity, directness, purposefulness, firmness, calm and constant heroism, he teaches that one must be truthful and one must be strong... It is precisely because he was full of strength that he always was truthful!”
Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the Tula province (Russia) into a family belonging to the noble class. In the 1860s, he wrote his first great novel, War and Peace. In 1873, Tolstoy began work on the second of his most famous books, Anna Karenina.
He continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. One of his most successful later works is “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.” Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910 in Astapovo, Russia.
First years of life
On September 9, 1828, the future writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born in Yasnaya Polyana (Tula province, Russia). He was the fourth child in a large noble family. In 1830, when Tolstoy's mother, née Princess Volkonskaya, died, his father's cousin took over the care of the children. Their father, Count Nikolai Tolstoy, died seven years later, and their aunt was appointed guardian. After the death of his aunt, Leo Tolstoy, his brothers and sisters moved to their second aunt in Kazan. Although Tolstoy experienced many losses at an early age, he later idealized his childhood memories in his work.
It is important to note that the primary education in Tolstoy’s biography was received at home, lessons were given to him by French and German teachers. In 1843 he entered the Faculty of Oriental Languages at the Imperial Kazan University. Tolstoy failed to succeed in his studies - low grades forced him to transfer to an easier law faculty. Further difficulties in his studies led Tolstoy to eventually leave the Imperial Kazan University in 1847 without a degree. He returned to his parents' estate, where he planned to start farming. However, this endeavor also ended in failure - he was absent too often, leaving for Tula and Moscow. What he really excelled at was keeping his own diary - it was this lifelong habit that inspired much of Leo Tolstoy's writing.
Tolstoy was fond of music; his favorite composers were Schumann, Bach, Chopin, Mozart, and Mendelssohn. Lev Nikolaevich could play their works for several hours a day.
One day, Tolstoy’s elder brother, Nikolai, during his army leave, came to visit Lev, and convinced his brother to join the army as a cadet in the south, in the Caucasus mountains, where he served. After serving as a cadet, Leo Tolstoy was transferred to Sevastopol in November 1854, where he fought in the Crimean War until August 1855.
Early publications
During his years as a cadet in the army, Tolstoy had a lot of free time. During quiet periods, he worked on an autobiographical story called Childhood. In it, he wrote about his favorite childhood memories. In 1852, Tolstoy sent a story to Sovremennik, the most popular magazine of the time. The story was happily accepted, and it became Tolstoy's first publication. From that time on, critics put him on a par with already famous writers, among whom were Ivan Turgenev (with whom Tolstoy became friends), Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Ostrovsky and others.
After completing his story “Childhood,” Tolstoy began writing about his daily life at an army outpost in the Caucasus. The work “Cossacks”, which he began during his army years, was completed only in 1862, after he had already left the army.
Surprisingly, Tolstoy managed to continue writing while actively fighting in the Crimean War. During this time he wrote Boyhood (1854), a sequel to Childhood, the second book in Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy. At the height of the Crimean War, Tolstoy expressed his views on the startling contradictions of the war through a trilogy of works, Sevastopol Tales. In the second book of Sevastopol Stories, Tolstoy experimented with a relatively new technique: part of the story is presented as a narration from the point of view of a soldier.
After the end of the Crimean War, Tolstoy left the army and returned to Russia. Arriving home, the author enjoyed great popularity on the literary scene of St. Petersburg.
Stubborn and arrogant, Tolstoy refused to belong to any particular school of philosophy. Declaring himself an anarchist, he left for Paris in 1857. Once there, he lost all his money and was forced to return home to Russia. He also managed to publish Youth, the third part of an autobiographical trilogy, in 1857.
Returning to Russia in 1862, Tolstoy published the first of 12 issues of the thematic magazine Yasnaya Polyana. That same year he married the daughter of a doctor named Sofya Andreevna Bers.
Major Novels
Living in Yasnaya Polyana with his wife and children, Tolstoy spent much of the 1860s working on his first famous novel, War and Peace. Part of the novel was first published in “Russian Bulletin” in 1865 under the title “1805”. By 1868 he had published three more chapters. A year later, the novel was completely finished. Both critics and the public debated the historical accuracy of the novel's Napoleonic Wars, coupled with the development of the stories of its thoughtful and realistic, yet still fictional, characters. The novel is also unique in that it includes three long satirical essays on the laws of history. Among the ideas that Tolstoy also tries to convey in this novel is the belief that a person’s position in society and the meaning of human life are mainly derived from his daily activities.
After the success of War and Peace in 1873, Tolstoy began work on the second of his most famous books, Anna Karenina. It was partly based on real events during the war between Russia and Turkey. Like War and Peace, this book describes some of the biographical events in Tolstoy's own life, most notably in the romantic relationship between the characters Kitty and Levin, which is said to be reminiscent of Tolstoy's courtship with his own wife.
The first lines of the book “Anna Karenina” are among the most famous: “All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Anna Karenina was published in installments from 1873 to 1877, and was highly acclaimed by the public. The royalties received for the novel quickly enriched the writer.
Conversion
Despite the success of Anna Karenina, after the completion of the novel, Tolstoy experienced a spiritual crisis and was depressed. The next stage of Leo Tolstoy's biography is characterized by the search for the meaning of life. The writer first turned to the Russian Orthodox Church, but did not find answers to his questions there. He concluded that Christian churches were corrupt and, instead of organized religion, promoted their own beliefs. He decided to express these beliefs by founding a new publication in 1883 called The Mediator.
As a result, for his unconventional and controversial spiritual beliefs, Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church. He was even watched by the secret police. When Tolstoy, driven by his new conviction, wanted to give away all his money and give up everything unnecessary, his wife was categorically against this. Not wanting to escalate the situation, Tolstoy reluctantly agreed to a compromise: he transferred the copyright and, apparently, all royalties on his work until 1881 to his wife.
Late fiction
In addition to his religious treatises, Tolstoy continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. The genres of his later work included morality tales and realistic fiction. One of the most successful of his later works was the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” written in 1886. The main character tries his best to fight the death hanging over him. In short, Ivan Ilyich is horrified by the realization that he wasted his life on trifles, but the realization of this comes to him too late.
In 1898, Tolstoy wrote the story “Father Sergius,” a work of fiction in which he criticizes the beliefs he developed after his spiritual transformation. The following year he wrote his third voluminous novel, Resurrection. The work received good reviews, but it is unlikely that this success matched the level of recognition of his previous novels. Tolstoy's other late works are essays on art, a satirical play called The Living Corpse, written in 1890, and a story called Hadji Murad (1904), which was discovered and published after his death. In 1903, Tolstoy wrote a short story, “After the Ball,” which was first published after his death, in 1911.
Old age
During his later years, Tolstoy reaped the benefits of international recognition. However, he still struggled to reconcile his spiritual beliefs with the tensions he created in his family life. His wife not only did not agree with his teachings, she did not approve of his students, who regularly visited Tolstoy on the family estate. In an effort to avoid his wife's growing discontent, Tolstoy and his youngest daughter Alexandra went on pilgrimage in October 1910. Alexandra was the doctor for her elderly father during the trip. Trying not to expose their private lives, they traveled incognito, hoping to evade unnecessary questions, but sometimes this was to no avail.
Death and legacy
Unfortunately, the pilgrimage proved too onerous for the aging writer. In November 1910, the head of the small Astapovo railway station opened the doors of his house to Tolstoy so that the ailing writer could rest. Shortly after this, on November 20, 1910, Tolstoy died. He was buried in the family estate, Yasnaya Polyana, where Tolstoy lost so many people close to him.
To this day, Tolstoy's novels are considered one of the best achievements of literary art. War and Peace is often cited as the greatest novel ever written. In the modern scientific community, Tolstoy is widely recognized as having a gift for describing the unconscious motives of character, the subtlety of which he championed by emphasizing the role of everyday actions in determining the character and goals of people.
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The great Russian writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is known for the authorship of many works, namely: War and Peace, Anna Karenina and others. The study of his biography and creativity continues to this day.
The philosopher and writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born into a noble family. As an inheritance from his father, he inherited the title of count. His life began on a large family estate in Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, which left a significant imprint on his future fate.
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Life of L. N. Tolstoy
He was born on September 9, 1828. While still a child, Leo experienced many difficult moments in life. After his parents died, he and his sisters were raised by their aunt. After her death, when he was 13 years old, he had to move to Kazan to be under the care of a distant relative. Lev's primary education took place at home. At the age of 16 he entered the philological faculty of Kazan University. However, it was impossible to say that he was successful in his studies. This forced Tolstoy to transfer to an easier, law faculty. After 2 years, he returned to Yasnaya Polyana, having never fully mastered the granite of science.
Due to Tolstoy's changeable character, he tried himself in different industries, interests and priorities often changed. The work was interspersed with protracted sprees and revelry. During this period, they incurred a lot of debts, which they had to pay off for a long time. The only passion of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, which remained stable throughout his life, was keeping a personal diary. From there he later drew the most interesting ideas for his works.
Tolstoy was partial to music. His favorite composers are Bach, Schumann, Chopin and Mozart. At a time when Tolstoy had not yet formed a main position regarding his future, he succumbed to his brother’s persuasion. At his instigation, he went to serve in the army as a cadet. During his service he was forced to participate in 1855.
Early works of L. N. Tolstoy
Being a cadet, he had enough free time to begin his creative activity. During this period, Lev began to study history of an autobiographical nature called Childhood. For the most part, it contained facts that happened to him when he was still a child. The story was sent for consideration to Sovremennik magazine. It was approved and released into circulation in 1852.
After the first publication, Tolstoy was noticed and began to be equated with significant personalities of that time, namely: I. Turgenev, I. Goncharov, A. Ostrovsky and others.
During those same army years, he began work on the story Cossacks, which he completed in 1862. The second work after Childhood was Adolescence, then Sevastopol Stories. He was engaged in them while participating in the Crimean battles.
Euro-trip
In 1856 L.N. Tolstoy left military service with the rank of lieutenant. I decided to travel for a while. First he went to St. Petersburg, where he was given a warm welcome. There he established friendly contacts with popular writers of that period: N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Goncharov, I. I. Panaev and others. They showed genuine interest in him and took part in his fate. The Blizzard and Two Hussars were written at this time.
Having lived a cheerful and carefree life for 1 year, having ruined relations with many members of the literary circle, Tolstoy decides to leave this city. In 1857, his journey through Europe began.
Leo did not like Paris at all and left a heavy mark on his soul. From there he went to Lake Geneva. Having visited many countries, he returned to Russia with a load of negative emotions. Who and what amazed him so much? Most likely, this is too sharp a polarity between wealth and poverty, which was covered by the feigned splendor of European culture. And this could be seen everywhere.
L.N. Tolstoy writes the story Albert, continues to work on the Cossacks, wrote the story Three Deaths and Family Happiness. In 1859 he stopped collaborating with Sovremennik. At the same time, Tolstoy began to notice changes in his personal life, when he planned to marry the peasant woman Aksinya Bazykina.
After the death of his older brother, Tolstoy went on a trip to the south of France.
Homecoming
From 1853 to 1863 his literary activity was suspended due to his departure to his homeland. There he decided to start farming. At the same time, Lev himself carried out active educational activities among the village population. He created a school for peasant children and began teaching according to his own methods.
In 1862, he himself created a pedagogical magazine called Yasnaya Polyana. Under his leadership, 12 publications were published, which were not appreciated at the time. Their nature was as follows: he alternated theoretical articles with fables and stories for children at the primary level of education.
Six years from his life from 1863 to 1869, went to write the main masterpiece - War and Peace. Next on the list was the novel Anna Karenina. It took another 4 years. During this period, his worldview was fully formed and resulted in a movement called Tolstoyism. The foundations of this religious and philosophical movement are set out in the following works of Tolstoy:
- Confession.
- Kreutzer Sonata.
- A Study of Dogmatic Theology.
- About life.
- Christian teaching and others.
Main accent they focus on the moral dogmas of human nature and their improvement. He called for forgiveness of those who bring us harm and renunciation of violence when achieving our goals.
The flow of admirers of L.N. Tolstoy’s work did not stop coming to Yasnaya Polyana, looking for support and a mentor in him. In 1899, the novel Resurrection was published.
Social activity
Returning from Europe, he received an invitation to become the bailiff of the Krapivinsky district of the Tula province. He actively joined the active process of protecting the rights of the peasantry, often going against the tsar's decrees. This work broadened Leo's horizons. Closer encounter with peasant life, he began to understand all the subtleties better. The information received later helped him in his literary work.
Creativity flourishes
Before starting to write the novel War and Peace, Tolstoy began writing another novel, The Decembrists. Tolstoy returned to it several times, but was never able to complete it. In 1865, a small excerpt from War and Peace appeared in the Russian Bulletin. After 3 years, three more parts were released, and then all the rest. This created a real sensation in Russian and foreign literature. The novel describes in the most detailed way different segments of the population.
The writer's latest works include:
- stories Father Sergius;
- After the ball.
- Posthumous notes of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich.
- drama Living Corpse.
The character of his latest journalism can be traced conservative attitude. He harshly condemns the idle life of the upper strata, who do not think about the meaning of life. L.N. Tolstoy harshly criticized state dogmas, rejecting everything: science, art, court, and so on. The Synod itself reacted to such an attack and in 1901 Tolstoy was excommunicated from the church.
In 1910, Lev Nikolaevich left his family and fell ill on the way. He had to get off the train at the Astapovo station of the Ural Railway. He spent the last week of his life in the house of the local station master, where he died.
