What Tolstoy did for children. Interesting facts from the life of Tolstoy

Lev Tolstoy- the most famous Russian writer, famous throughout the world for his works.

short biography

Born in 1828 in the Tula province into a noble family. He spent his childhood on the Yasnaya Polyana estate, where he received his primary education at home. He had three brothers and a sister. He was raised by his guardians, so in early childhood, at the birth of his sister, his mother died, and later, in 1840, his father, which is why the whole family moved to relatives in Kazan. There he studied at Kazan University in two faculties, but decided to quit his studies and return to his native place.

Tolstoy spent two years in the army in the Caucasus. Bravely participated in several battles and was even awarded an order for the defense of Sevastopol. He could have had a good military career, but he wrote several songs ridiculing the military command, as a result of which he had to leave the army.

At the end of the 50s, Lev Nikolaevich went to travel around Europe and returned to Russia after the abolition of serfdom. Even during his travels, he was disappointed with the European way of life, as he saw a very big contrast between the rich and the poor. That is why, when he returned to Russia, he was glad that the peasants had now risen.

He got married and had 13 children, 5 of whom died in childhood. His wife, Sophia, helped her husband by copying out all her husband’s creations in neat handwriting.

He opened several schools, in which he furnished everything according to his wishes. He himself compiled the school curriculum - or rather, the lack thereof. Discipline did not play a key role for him; he wanted children to strive for knowledge themselves, so the main task of the teacher was to interest students so that they wanted to learn.

He was excommunicated from the church because Tolstoy put forward his theories about what the church should be like. Just a month before his death, he decided to secretly leave his native estate. As a result of the trip, he became very ill and died on November 7, 1910. The writer was buried in Yasnaya Polyana near the ravine where he loved to play as a child with his brothers.

Literary contribution

Lev Nikolaevich began writing while still studying at the University - mainly it was homework comparing various literary works. It is believed that it was because of literature that he abandoned his studies - he wanted to devote all his free time to reading.

In the army he worked on his “Sevastopol Stories”, and also, as already mentioned, composed songs for his colleagues. Upon returning from the army, he took part in a literary circle in St. Petersburg, from where he went to Europe. He noticed the characteristics of people well and tried to reflect this in his works.

Tolstoy wrote many different works, but gained worldwide fame thanks to two novels - “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina”, in which he accurately reflected the life of people of those times.

The contribution of this great writer to world culture is enormous - it was thanks to him that many people learned about Russia. His works are still published to this day, plays are staged and films are made based on them.

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Count Leo Tolstoy, a classic of Russian and world literature, is called a master of psychologism, the creator of the epic novel genre, an original thinker and teacher of life. The works of this brilliant writer are Russia’s greatest asset.

In August 1828, a classic of Russian literature was born on the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Tula province. The future author of War and Peace became the fourth child in a family of eminent nobles. On his father's side, he belonged to the old family of Count Tolstoy, who served and. On the maternal side, Lev Nikolaevich is a descendant of the Ruriks. It is noteworthy that Leo Tolstoy also has a common ancestor - Admiral Ivan Mikhailovich Golovin.

Lev Nikolayevich’s mother, nee Princess Volkonskaya, died of childbirth fever after the birth of her daughter. At that time, Lev was not even two years old. Seven years later, the head of the family, Count Nikolai Tolstoy, died.

Caring for the children fell on the shoulders of the writer’s aunt, T. A. Ergolskaya. Later, the second aunt, Countess A. M. Osten-Sacken, became the guardian of the orphaned children. After her death in 1840, the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian - their father’s sister P. I. Yushkova. The aunt influenced her nephew, and the writer called his childhood in her house, which was considered the most cheerful and hospitable in the city, happy. Later, Leo Tolstoy described his impressions of life at the Yushkov estate in his story “Childhood.”

The classic received his primary education at home from German and French teachers. In 1843, Leo Tolstoy entered Kazan University, choosing the Faculty of Oriental Languages. Soon, due to low academic performance, he transferred to another faculty - law. But he did not succeed here either: after two years he left the university without receiving a degree.

Lev Nikolaevich returned to Yasnaya Polyana, wanting to establish relations with the peasants in a new way. The idea failed, but the young man regularly kept a diary, loved social entertainment and became interested in music. Tolstoy listened for hours, and...

Disillusioned with the life of the landowner after spending the summer in the village, 20-year-old Leo Tolstoy left the estate and moved to Moscow, and from there to St. Petersburg. The young man rushed between preparing for candidate exams at the university, studying music, carousing with cards and gypsies, and dreams of becoming either an official or a cadet in a horse guards regiment. Relatives called Lev “the most trifling fellow,” and it took years to pay off the debts he incurred.

Literature

In 1851, the writer’s brother, officer Nikolai Tolstoy, persuaded Lev to go to the Caucasus. For three years Lev Nikolaevich lived in a village on the banks of the Terek. The nature of the Caucasus and the patriarchal life of the Cossack village were later reflected in the stories “Cossacks” and “Hadji Murat”, the stories “Raid” and “Cutting the Forest”.

In the Caucasus, Leo Tolstoy composed the story “Childhood,” which he published in the magazine “Sovremennik” under the initials L.N. Soon he wrote the sequels “Adolescence” and “Youth,” combining the stories into a trilogy. The literary debut turned out to be brilliant and brought Lev Nikolaevich his first recognition.

The creative biography of Leo Tolstoy is developing rapidly: an appointment to Bucharest, a transfer to besieged Sevastopol, and command of a battery enriched the writer with impressions. From the pen of Lev Nikolaevich came the series “Sevastopol Stories”. The works of the young writer amazed critics with their bold psychological analysis. Nikolai Chernyshevsky found in them a “dialectic of the soul,” and the emperor read the essay “Sevastopol in December” and expressed admiration for Tolstoy’s talent.

In the winter of 1855, 28-year-old Leo Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg and entered the Sovremennik circle, where he was warmly welcomed, calling him “the great hope of Russian literature.” But over the course of a year, I got tired of the writing environment with its disputes and conflicts, readings and literary dinners. Later in Confession Tolstoy admitted:

“These people disgusted me, and I disgusted myself.”

In the fall of 1856, the young writer went to the Yasnaya Polyana estate, and in January 1857 he went abroad. Leo Tolstoy traveled around Europe for six months. Visited Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland. He returned to Moscow, and from there to Yasnaya Polyana. On the family estate, he began arranging schools for peasant children. With his participation, twenty educational institutions appeared in the vicinity of Yasnaya Polyana. In 1860, the writer traveled a lot: in Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium, he studied the pedagogical systems of European countries in order to apply what he saw in Russia.

A special niche in Leo Tolstoy’s work is occupied by fairy tales and works for children and teenagers. The writer has created hundreds of works for young readers, including good and instructive fairy tales “Kitten”, “Two Brothers”, “Hedgehog and Hare”, “Lion and Dog”.

Leo Tolstoy wrote the school textbook “ABC” to teach children writing, reading and arithmetic. The literary and pedagogical work consists of four books. The writer included instructive stories, epics, fables, as well as methodological advice for teachers. The third book includes the story “Prisoner of the Caucasus.”

In the 1870s, Leo Tolstoy, while continuing to teach peasant children, wrote the novel Anna Karenina, in which he contrasted two storylines: the family drama of the Karenins and the home idyll of the young landowner Levin, with whom he identified himself. The novel only at first glance seemed to be a love affair: the classic raised the problem of the meaning of existence of the “educated class”, contrasting it with the truth of peasant life. "Anna Karenina" was highly appreciated.

The turning point in the writer’s consciousness was reflected in the works written in the 1880s. Life-changing spiritual insight occupies a central place in the stories and stories. “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”, “Father Sergius” and the story “After the Ball” appear. The classic of Russian literature paints pictures of social inequality and castigates the idleness of the nobles.

In search of an answer to the question of the meaning of life, Leo Tolstoy turned to the Russian Orthodox Church, but even there he did not find satisfaction. The writer came to the conclusion that the Christian Church is corrupt, and under the guise of religion, priests are promoting false teaching. In 1883, Lev Nikolaevich founded the publication “Mediator,” where he outlined his spiritual beliefs and criticized the Russian Orthodox Church. For this, Tolstoy was excommunicated from the church, and the writer was monitored by the secret police.

In 1898, Leo Tolstoy wrote the novel Resurrection, which received favorable reviews from critics. But the success of the work was inferior to “Anna Karenina” and “War and Peace”.

For the last 30 years of his life, Leo Tolstoy, with his teachings on non-violent resistance to evil, was recognized as the spiritual and religious leader of Russia.

"War and Peace"

Leo Tolstoy disliked his novel War and Peace, calling the epic “wordy rubbish.” The classic writer wrote the work in the 1860s, while living with his family in Yasnaya Polyana. The first two chapters, entitled “1805,” were published by Russkiy Vestnik in 1865. Three years later, Leo Tolstoy wrote three more chapters and completed the novel, which caused heated controversy among critics.

The novelist took the features of the heroes of the work, written during the years of family happiness and spiritual elation, from life. In Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, the features of Lev Nikolaevich’s mother are recognizable, her penchant for reflection, brilliant education and love of art. The writer awarded Nikolai Rostov with his father's traits - mockery, love of reading and hunting.

When writing the novel, Leo Tolstoy worked in the archives, studied the correspondence of Tolstoy and Volkonsky, Masonic manuscripts, and visited the Borodino field. His young wife helped him, copying his drafts out clean.

The novel was read avidly, striking readers with the breadth of its epic canvas and subtle psychological analysis. Leo Tolstoy characterized the work as an attempt to “write the history of the people.”

According to the calculations of literary critic Lev Anninsky, by the end of the 1970s, the works of the Russian classic were filmed 40 times abroad alone. Until 1980, the epic War and Peace was filmed four times. Directors from Europe, America and Russia have made 16 films based on the novel “Anna Karenina”, “Resurrection” has been filmed 22 times.

“War and Peace” was first filmed by director Pyotr Chardynin in 1913. The most famous film was made by a Soviet director in 1965.

Personal life

Leo Tolstoy married 18-year-old in 1862, when he was 34 years old. The count lived with his wife for 48 years, but the couple’s life can hardly be called cloudless.

Sofia Bers is the second of three daughters of the Moscow palace office doctor Andrei Bers. The family lived in the capital, but in the summer they vacationed on a Tula estate near Yasnaya Polyana. For the first time Leo Tolstoy saw his future wife as a child. Sophia was educated at home, read a lot, understood art, and graduated from Moscow University. The diary kept by Bers-Tolstaya is recognized as an example of the memoir genre.

At the beginning of his married life, Leo Tolstoy, wanting there to be no secrets between him and his wife, gave Sophia a diary to read. The shocked wife learned about her husband’s stormy youth, passion for gambling, wild life and the peasant girl Aksinya, who was expecting a child from Lev Nikolaevich.

The first-born Sergei was born in 1863. In the early 1860s, Tolstoy began writing the novel War and Peace. Sofya Andreevna helped her husband, despite her pregnancy. The woman taught and raised all the children at home. Five of the 13 children died in infancy or early childhood.

Problems in the family began after Leo Tolstoy finished his work on Anna Karenina. The writer plunged into depression, expressed dissatisfaction with the life that Sofya Andreevna so diligently arranged in the family nest. The count's moral turmoil led to Lev Nikolayevich demanding that his relatives give up meat, alcohol and smoking. Tolstoy forced his wife and children to dress in peasant clothes, which he made himself, and wanted to give his acquired property to the peasants.

Sofya Andreevna made considerable efforts to dissuade her husband from the idea of ​​​​distributing goods. But the quarrel that occurred split the family: Leo Tolstoy left home. Upon returning, the writer entrusted the responsibility of rewriting drafts to his daughters.

The death of their last child, seven-year-old Vanya, briefly brought the couple closer together. But soon mutual grievances and misunderstandings alienated them completely. Sofya Andreevna found solace in music. In Moscow, a woman took lessons from a teacher for whom romantic feelings developed. Their relationship remained friendly, but the count did not forgive his wife for “half-betrayal.”

The couple's fatal quarrel occurred at the end of October 1910. Leo Tolstoy left home, leaving Sophia a farewell letter. He wrote that he loved her, but could not do otherwise.

Death

82-year-old Leo Tolstoy, accompanied by his personal doctor D.P. Makovitsky, left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, the writer fell ill and got off the train at the Astapovo railway station. Lev Nikolaevich spent the last 7 days of his life in the stationmaster's house. The whole country followed the news about Tolstoy’s health.

The children and wife arrived at the Astapovo station, but Leo Tolstoy did not want to see anyone. The classic died on November 7, 1910: he died of pneumonia. His wife survived him by 9 years. Tolstoy was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.

Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

• Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one thinks about how to change themselves.
• Everything comes to those who know how to wait.
• All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
• Let everyone sweep in front of his own door. If everyone does this, the whole street will be clean.
• It's easier to live without love. But without it there is no point.
• I don't have everything I love. But I love everything I have.
• The world moves forward because of those who suffer.
• The greatest truths are the simplest.
• Everyone is making plans, and no one knows whether he will survive until the evening.

Bibliography

• 1869 – “War and Peace”
• 1877 – “Anna Karenina”
• 1899 – “Resurrection”
• 1852-1857 – “Childhood”. "Adolescence". "Youth"
• 1856 – “Two Hussars”
• 1856 – “Morning of the Landowner”
• 1863 – “Cossacks”
• 1886 – “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
• 1903 – “Notes of a Madman”
• 1889 – “Kreutzer Sonata”
• 1898 – “Father Sergius”
• 1904 – “Hadji Murat”

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a little over twenty years old when he began teaching literacy to peasant children on his estate. He continued to work at the Yasnaya Polyana school intermittently until the end of his life; he worked long and enthusiastically on compiling educational books. In 1872, “Azbuka” was published - a book set containing the alphabet itself, texts for initial Russian and Church Slavonic reading, arithmetic and a teacher’s manual. Three years later, Tolstoy published The New ABC. When teaching, he used proverbs, sayings, and riddles. He composed many “proverb stories”: in each, the proverb unfolded into a short story with a moral. The “New Alphabet” was supplemented by “Russian Books for Reading” - several hundred works: short stories, retellings of folk tales and classical fables, natural history descriptions and reasoning.

Tolstoy strove for extremely simple and precise language. But it is difficult for a modern child to understand even the simplest texts about ancient peasant life.

So what? Are Leo Tolstoy’s works for children becoming a literary monument and disappearing from Russian children’s reading, of which they were the basis for a whole century?

There is no shortage of modern publications. Publishers are trying to make books interesting and understandable to today's children.

1. Tolstoy, L. N. Stories for children / Leo Tolstoy; [preface V. Tolstoy; comp. Yu. Kublanovsky] ; drawings by Natalia Parent-Chelpanova. - [Yasnaya Polyana]: Leo Tolstoy Museum-Estate “Yasnaya Polyana”, 2012. - 47 p. : ill.

Illustrated by the Russian artist in exile Natalya Parent-Chelpanova, Leo Tolstoy's children's stories, translated into French, were published in Paris by the Gallimard publishing house in 1936. In the Yasnaya Polyana booklet they are, of course, printed in Russian. Here there are both stories that are usually included in modern collections and undisputed in children's reading (“Fire Dogs,” “Kitten,” “Filipok”), as well as rare, even surprising ones. For example, the fable “The Owl and the Hare” - how a arrogant young owl wanted to catch a huge hare, grabbed his back with one paw, the other into a tree, and he “rushed and tore the owl apart”. Read on?

What is true is true: Tolstoy’s literary means are strong; The impressions after reading will remain deep.

Natalia Parent’s illustrations brought the texts closer to the little readers of her time: the characters in the stories were drawn as if they were the artist’s contemporaries. There are French inscriptions: for example, “Pinson” on the grave of a sparrow (for the story “How my aunt talked about how she had a pet sparrow - Zhiwchik”).

2. Tolstoy, L. N. Three Bears / Leo Tolstoy; artist Yuri Vasnetsov. - Moscow: Melik-Pashaev, 2013. - 17 p. : ill.

In the same 1936, Yuri Vasnetsov illustrated an English fairy tale retold in Russian by Leo Tolstoy. At first the illustrations were in black and white, but the later colorful version is reproduced here. The fairy-tale bears of Yu. Vasnetsov, although Mikhail Ivanovich and Mishutka are in vests, and Nastasya Petrovna with a lace umbrella, are quite scary. The child understands why “one girl” was so afraid of them; but she managed to escape!

Illustrations have been color corrected for the new edition. You can see the first edition, as well as reprints that differ from one another, in the National Electronic Children's Library (books are protected by copyright, registration is required to view).

3. Tolstoy, L. N. Lipunyushka: stories and fairy tales / Leo Tolstoy; illustrations by A. F. Pakhomov. - St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2011. - 47 p. : ill.- (Library of a junior school student).

Many adults have retained in their memory “The ABC” by Leo Tolstoy with illustrations by Alexei Fedorovich Pakhomov. The artist knew the peasant way of life very well (he himself was born in a pre-revolutionary village). He painted peasants with great sympathy, children - sentimentally, but always with a firm, confident hand.

The St. Petersburg “Amphora” more than once published small collections of stories from L. N. Tolstoy’s “ABC” with illustrations by A. F. Pakhomov. This book contains several stories from which peasant children learned to read. Then the fairy tales - “How a man divided the geese” (about a cunning man) and “Lipunyushka” (about a resourceful son who "came out in cotton").

4. Tolstoy, L. N. About animals and birds / L. N. Tolstoy; artist Andrey Brey. - Saint Petersburg; Moscow: Rech, 2015. - 19 p. : ill. - (Mom’s favorite book).

Stories “Eagle”, “Sparrow and Swallows”, “How Wolves Teach Their Children”, “What Mice Are for”, “Elephant”, “Ostrich”, “Swans”. Tolstoy is not sentimental at all. Animals in his stories are predators and prey. But, of course, a moral must be read in a basic story; Not every story is straightforward.

Here is “Swans” - a genuine prose poem.

It must be said about the artist that he painted animals expressively; among his teachers was V. A. Vatagin. “Stories about Animals” with illustrations by Andrei Andreevich Brey, published by Detgiz in 1945, are digitized and available in the National Electronic Children's Library (registration is also required to view).

5. Tolstoy, L. N. Kostochka: stories for children / Leo Tolstoy; drawings by Vladimir Galdyaev. - Saint Petersburg; Moscow: Rech, 2015. - 79 p. : ill.

The book contains mainly the most frequently published and read children's stories by L. N. Tolstoy: “Fire”, “Fire Dogs”, “Filipok”, “Kitten”...

“The Bone” is also a widely known story, but few people are ready to agree with the radical educational method shown in it.

The contents of the book and the layout are the same as in the collection “Stories and Were”, published in 1977. More texts and drawings by Vladimir Galdyaev were in L. N. Tolstoy’s “Book for Children,” published by the Moskovsky Rabochiy publishing house in the same 1977 (the publications, of course, were preparing for the writer’s 150th anniversary). The rigor of the drawing and the specificity of the characters correspond well to Tolstoy's literary style.

6. Tolstoy, L. N. Children: stories / L. Tolstoy; drawings by P. Repkin. - Moscow: Nigma, 2015. - 16 p. : ill.

Four stories: “The Lion and the Dog”, “Elephant”, “Eagle”, “Kitten”. They are illustrated by Peter Repkin, a graphic artist and animator. It is interesting that the lion, eagle, elephant and his little owner depicted by the artist obviously resemble the characters of the cartoon “Mowgli”, the production designer of which was Repkin (together with A. Vinokurov). This cannot harm either Kipling or Tolstoy, but it does make one think about the differences and similarities in the views and talents of the two great writers.

7. Tolstoy, L. N. The Lion and the Dog: a true story / L. N. Tolstoy; drawings by G. A. V. Traugot. - St. Petersburg: Rech, 2014. - 23 p. : ill.

On the flyleaf there is a drawing depicting Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy in London in 1861 and as if confirming: this story is true. The story itself is given in the form of captions to the illustrations.

First line: “Wild animals were shown in London...” An ancient multi-colored, almost fairy-tale Western European city, townspeople and townswomen, curly-haired children - all in a manner that has long been characteristic of the artists “G. A. V. Traugot." Meat thrown into a lion's cage does not look naturalistic (like Repkin's). The lion, yearning for the dead dog (Tolstoy honestly writes that she “died”), is drawn very expressively.

I told you more about the book “Biblioguide”.

8. Tolstoy, L. N. Filipok / L. N. Tolstoy; artist Gennady Spirin. - Moscow: RIPOL classic, 2012. -: ill. - (Masterpieces of book illustration).

“Filipok” from “The New ABC” is one of the most famous stories by Leo Tolstoy and all Russian children's literature. The figurative meaning of the word “textbook” here coincides with the direct one.

The RIPOL Classic publishing house has already republished the book with illustrations by Gennady Spirin several times and included it in the New Year's gift collection. This “Filipok” was previously published in English (see on the artist’s website: http://gennadyspirin.com/books/). In the drawings of Gennady Konstantinovich there is a lot of affection for the ancient peasant life and winter Russian nature.

It is noteworthy that in “The New Alphabet” behind this story (at the end of which Filipok “he began to speak to the Mother of God; but every word he spoke was wrong") followed by “Slavic letters”, “Slavic words under titles” and prayers.

9. Tolstoy, L. N. My first Russian book for reading / Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. - Moscow: White City, . - 79 s. : ill. - (Russian books for reading).

"White City" has undertaken a complete publication of "Russian books for reading". The second, third and fourth books were published in the same way. There are no abbreviations here. Stories, fairy tales, fables, descriptions and reasoning are given in the order in which Lev Nikolaevich arranged them. There are no comments on the texts. Illustrations are used instead of verbal explanations. Basically, these are reproductions of paintings, famous and not so famous. For example, to the description of “The Sea” - “The Ninth Wave” by Ivan Aivazovsky. To the discussion “Why does the wind happen?” - “Children running from a thunderstorm” by Konstantin Makovsky. To the story “Fire” - “Fire in the Village” by Nikolai Dmitriev-Orenburgsky. For the story “Prisoner of the Caucasus” - landscapes by Lev Lagorio and Mikhail Lermontov.

The range of ages and interests of readers of this book can be very wide.

10. Tolstoy, L. N. Sea: description / Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy; artist Mikhail Bychkov. - St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2014. - p. : ill. - (Good and eternal).

Of the books listed, this one seems to belong most to our time. Artist Mikhail Bychkov says: “A few lines by L. N. Tolstoy gave me a wonderful opportunity to draw the sea”. On large-format spreads, the artist depicted the southern and northern sea, calm and stormy, day and night. To Tolstoy's short text he made a drawn appendix about all kinds of sea vessels.

The work fascinated Mikhail Bychkov, and he illustrated three stories from Tolstoy’s ABC, uniting them with a fictional trip around the world on a sailing warship. In the story "The Jump" such a journey is mentioned. The story "Shark" begins with the words: "Our ship was anchored off the coast of Africa." The story “Fire Dogs” takes place in London - and the artist painted a Russian corvette flying the St. Andrew’s flag against the backdrop of the construction of the Tower Bridge (built from 1886 to 1894; “ABC” was compiled earlier, but in the same era, especially if viewed from our time) .

The book “Were” was published by the Rech publishing house in 2015. In the spring of 2016, the State Museum of Leo Tolstoy on Prechistenka hosted an exhibition of Mikhail Bychkov’s illustrations for these two children’s books.

“The sea is wide and deep; there is no end in sight to the sea. The sun rises at sea and sets at sea. No one has reached or knows the bottom of the sea. When there is no wind, the sea is blue and smooth; when the wind blows, the sea will stir up and become uneven..."

"Sea. Description"

“...Water from the sea rises in fog; the fog rises higher, and clouds become from the fog. The clouds are driven by the wind and spread across the ground. Water falls from the clouds to the ground. It flows from the ground into swamps and streams. From streams it flows into rivers; from rivers to sea. From the sea again the water rises into the clouds, and the clouds spread across the earth...”

“Where does the water go from the sea? Reasoning"

Leo Tolstoy's stories from "ABC" and "Russian Books for Reading" are laconic, even lapidary. In many ways, they are archaic, in today's opinion. But this is what is essential about them: a now rare, non-playful, serious attitude to words, a simple, but not simplified attitude towards everything around them.

Svetlana Malaya

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Russianwriter, philosopher, thinker, born in Tula province, in the family estate "Yasnaya Polyana" in 1828- m year. As a child, he lost his parents and was raised by his distant relative T. A. Ergolskaya. At the age of 16, he entered Kazan University at the Faculty of Philosophy, but the studies turned out to be boring for him, and after 3 years he dropped out. At the age of 23 he went to fight in the Caucasus, about which he subsequently wrote a lot, reflecting this experience in his works “Cossacks”, “Raid”, “Forest cutting”, “Hadji Murad”.
Continuing to fight, after the Crimean War Tolstoy went to St. Petersburg, where he became a member of a literary circle "Contemporary", together with the famous writers Nekrasov, Turgenev and others. Already having a certain fame as a writer, many greeted his entry into the circle with enthusiasm; Nekrasov called him “the great hope of Russian literature.” There he published his “Sevastopol Stories,” written under the influence of the experience of the Crimean War, after which he went on a trip to European countries, soon, however, becoming disillusioned with them.
At the end 1856 year, Tolstoy resigned and, returning to his native Yasnaya Polyana, became a landowner. Having moved away from literary activities, Tolstoy took up educational activities. He opened a school that practiced the pedagogy system he had developed. For these purposes, he went to Europe in 1860 to study foreign experience.
in autumn 1862 Tolstoy married a young girl from Moscow S. A. Bers, leaving with her for Yasnaya Polyana, choosing the quiet life of a family man. But in a year he was suddenly struck by a new idea, as a result of which the most famous work was born “ War and Peace" His no less famous novel “ Anna Karenina"was completed already in 1877 . Speaking about this period of the writer’s life, we can say that his worldview at that time was already fully formed and became known as “Tolstoyism.” His novel Sunday" was published in 1899 , the last works for Lev Nikolaevich were “Father Sergius”, “Living Corpse”, “After the Ball”.
Having worldwide fame, Tolstoy was popular with many people around the world. Being practically a spiritual mentor and authority for them, he often received guests at his estate.
In accordance with your worldview, in the end 1910 year, at night Tolstoy secretly leaves his house, accompanied by his personal doctor. Intending to travel to Bulgaria or the Caucasus, they had a long journey ahead of them, but due to a serious illness, Tolstoy was forced to stop at the small railway station of Astapovo (now named after him), where he died of a serious illness at the age of 82.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is one of the greatest novelists in the world. He is not only the world's greatest writer, but also a philosopher, religious thinker and educator. You will learn more about all this from this.

But what he really achieved success in was keeping a personal diary. This habit inspired him to write his novels and stories, and also allowed him to form most of his life goals and priorities.

An interesting fact is that this nuance of Tolstoy’s biography (keeping a diary) was a consequence of imitation of the great.

Hobbies and military service

Naturally, Leo Tolstoy had it. He loved music extremely much. His favorite composers were Bach, Handel and.

From his biography it is clear that sometimes he could play works by Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann on the piano for several hours in a row.

It is reliably known that Leo Tolstoy’s elder brother, Nikolai, had a great influence on him. He was a friend and mentor of the future writer.

It was Nikolai who invited his younger brother to join military service in the Caucasus. As a result, Leo Tolstoy became a cadet, and in 1854 he was transferred to, where he participated in the Crimean War until August 1855.

Creativity of Tolstoy

During his service, Lev Nikolaevich had quite a lot of free time. During this period, he wrote an autobiographical story “Childhood”, in which he masterfully described the memories of the first years of his life.

This work became an important event for the compilation of his biography.

After this, Leo Tolstoy writes the next story, “Cossacks,” in which he describes his army life in the Caucasus.

Work on this work continued until 1862, and was completed only after serving in the army.

An interesting fact is that Tolstoy did not stop his writing even while participating in the Crimean War.

During this period, the story “Adolescence”, which is a continuation of “Childhood,” as well as “Sevastopol Stories” came out from his pen.

After the end of the Crimean War, Tolstoy left service. Upon arrival home, he already has great fame in the literary field.

His outstanding contemporaries talk about a major acquisition for Russian literature in the person of Tolstoy.

While still young, Tolstoy was distinguished by arrogance and stubbornness, which is clearly visible in his. He refused to belong to one or another school of thought, and once publicly called himself an anarchist, after which he decided to leave for Russia in 1857.

He soon developed an interest in gambling. But it didn't last long. When he lost all his savings, he had to return home from Europe.

By the way, a passion for gambling is observed in the biographies of many writers.

Despite all the difficulties, he writes the last, third part of his autobiographical trilogy “Youth”. This happened in the same 1857.

Since 1862, Tolstoy began publishing the pedagogical magazine Yasnaya Polyana, where he himself was the main employee. However, not having the vocation of a publisher, Tolstoy managed to publish only 12 issues.

Leo Tolstoy's family

On September 23, 1862, a sharp turn took place in Tolstoy’s biography: he married Sofya Andreevna Bers, who was the daughter of a doctor. From this marriage 9 sons and 4 daughters were born. Five of the thirteen children died in childhood.

When the wedding took place, Sofya Andreevna was only 18 years old, and Count Tolstoy was 34 years old. An interesting fact is that before his marriage, Tolstoy confessed to his future wife about his premarital affairs.

For some time, the brightest period began in Tolstoy’s biography.

He is truly happy, largely thanks to the practicality of his wife, material wealth, outstanding literary creativity and, in connection with it, all-Russian and even worldwide fame.

In his wife, Tolstoy found an assistant in all matters, practical and literary. In the absence of the secretary, it was she who rewrote his drafts several times.

However, very soon their happiness is overshadowed by inevitable minor disagreements, fleeting quarrels and mutual misunderstandings, which only worsen over the years.

The fact is that for his family, Leo Tolstoy proposed a kind of “life plan”, according to which he intended to give part of the family income to the poor and schools.

He wanted to significantly simplify his family’s lifestyle (food and clothing), while he intended to sell and distribute “everything unnecessary”: pianos, furniture, carriages.

Naturally, his wife, Sofya Andreevna, was clearly not happy with such an ambiguous plan. Because of this, their first serious conflict broke out, which served as the beginning of an “undeclared war” to ensure the future of their children.

In 1892, Tolstoy signed a separate deed and, not wanting to be the owner, transferred all the property to his wife and children.

It must be said that Tolstoy’s biography is in many ways unusually contradictory precisely because of his relationship with his wife, with whom he lived for 48 years.

Works of Tolstoy

Tolstoy is one of the most prolific writers. His works are large-scale not only in volume, but also in the meanings that he touches on in them.

Tolstoy's most popular works are War and Peace, Anna Karenina and Resurrection.

"War and Peace"

In the 1860s, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and his entire family lived in Yasnaya Polyana. It was here that his most famous novel, War and Peace, was born.

Initially, part of the novel was published in “Russian Bulletin” under the title “1805”.

After 3 years, 3 more chapters appear, thanks to which the novel was completely finished. He was destined to become the most outstanding creative result in Tolstoy's biography.

Both critics and the public debated the work “War and Peace” for a long time. The subject of their disputes was the wars described in the book.

Thoughtful but still fictional characters were also hotly debated.

The novel also became interesting because it presented 3 informative satirical essays about the laws of history.

Among all other ideas, Leo Tolstoy tried to convey to the reader that a person’s position in society and the meaning of his life are derivatives of his daily activities.

"Anna Karenina"

After Tolstoy wrote War and Peace, he began work on his second, no less famous novel, Anna Karenina.

The writer contributed many autobiographical essays to it. This can be easily seen by looking at the relationship between Kitty and Levin, the main characters in Anna Karenina.

The work was published in parts between 1873-1877, and was very highly appreciated by both critics and society. Many have noticed that Anna Karenina is practically an autobiography of Tolstoy, written in the third person.

For his next work, Lev Nikolaevich received fabulous fees for those times.

"Resurrection"

In the late 1880s, Tolstoy wrote the novel “Resurrection.” Its plot was based on a true court case. It is in “Resurrection” that the author’s sharp views on church rituals are clearly outlined.

By the way, this work became one of the reasons that led to a complete break between the Orthodox Church and Count Tolstoy.

Tolstoy and religion

Despite the fact that the works described above were a colossal success, it did not bring any joy to the writer.

He was depressed and experienced deep inner emptiness.

In this regard, the next stage in Tolstoy’s biography was a continuous, almost convulsive search for the meaning of life.

Initially, Lev Nikolaevich looked for answers to his questions in the Orthodox Church, but this did not bring him any results.

Over time, he began to criticize in every possible way both the Orthodox Church itself and the Christian religion in general. He began to publish his thoughts on these pressing issues in the publication “Mediator”.

His main position was that Christian teaching is good, but Jesus Christ himself seems to be unnecessary. That is why he decided to make his own translation of the Gospel.

In general, Tolstoy's religious views were extremely complex and confusing. It was some incredible mixture of Christianity and Buddhism, seasoned with various Eastern beliefs.

In 1901, the Holy Governing Synod issued a ruling on Count Leo Tolstoy.

This was a decree that officially announced that Leo Tolstoy was no longer a member of the Orthodox Church, since his publicly expressed beliefs were incompatible with such membership.

The definition of the Holy Synod is sometimes mistakenly interpreted as excommunication (anathema) of Tolstoy from the church.

Copyrights and conflict with my wife

In connection with his new convictions, Leo Tolstoy wanted to give away all his savings and give up his own property in favor of the poor. However, his wife, Sofya Andreevna, expressed a categorical protest in this regard.

In this regard, a major family crisis emerged in Tolstoy’s biography. When Sofya Andreevna found out that her husband had publicly renounced the copyright to all his works (which, in fact, was their main source of income), they began to have fierce conflicts.

From Tolstoy's diary:

“She does not understand, and the children do not understand, spending money, that everyone they live and make money from books is suffering, my shame. It may be a shame, but why weaken the effect that the preaching of the truth could have.”

Of course, it is not difficult to understand Lev Nikolaevich’s wife. After all, they had 9 children, whom he, by and large, left without a livelihood.

Pragmatic, rational and active Sofya Andreevna could not allow this to happen.

Ultimately, Tolstoy drew up a formal will, transferring the rights to his youngest daughter, Alexandra Lvovna, who fully sympathized with his views.

At the same time, an explanatory note was attached to the will that in fact these texts should not become anyone’s property, and V.G. would assume the authority to monitor the processes. Chertkov is a faithful follower and student of Tolstoy, who was supposed to take all the writer’s works, right down to the drafts.

Tolstoy's later work

Tolstoy's later works were realistic fiction, as well as stories filled with moral content.

In 1886, one of Tolstoy’s most famous stories appeared, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.”

Its main character realizes that he wasted most of his life, and the realization came too late.

In 1898, Lev Nikolaevich wrote an equally famous work, “Father Sergius.” In it, he criticized his own beliefs that appeared to him after his spiritual rebirth.

The rest of the works are devoted to the theme of art. These include the play “The Living Corpse” (1890) and the brilliant story “Hadji Murat” (1904).

In 1903, Tolstoy wrote a short story called “After the Ball.” It was published only in 1911, after the death of the writer.

last years of life

The last years of his biography, Leo Tolstoy was better known as a religious leader and moral authority. His thoughts were aimed at resisting evil using a non-violent method.

During his lifetime, Tolstoy became an idol for the majority. However, despite all his achievements, there were serious flaws in his family life, which became especially aggravated in old age.

The writer's wife, Sofya Andreevna, did not agree with her husband's views and disliked some of his followers who often came to Yasnaya Polyana.

She said: “How can you love humanity and hate those who are next to you.”

All this could not last long.

In the fall of 1910, Tolstoy, accompanied only by his doctor D.P. Makovitsky leaves Yasnaya Polyana forever. However, he did not have any specific plan of action.

Death of Tolstoy

However, on the way, L.N. Tolstoy felt unwell. First he caught a cold, and then the illness turned into pneumonia, due to which he had to interrupt the trip and take the sick Lev Nikolaevich out of the train at the first large station near the settlement.

This station was Astapovo (now Leo Tolstoy, Lipetsk region).

Rumors about the writer’s illness instantly spread throughout the entire surrounding area and far beyond its borders. Six doctors tried in vain to save the great old man: the disease progressed inexorably.

On November 7, 1910, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy died at the age of 83. He was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.

“I sincerely regret the death of the great writer, who, during the heyday of his talent, embodied in his works the images of one of the glorious times of Russian life. May the Lord God be his merciful judge.”

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