The name of the writer, educator, Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is known to every Russian person. During his lifetime, 78 works of art were published, and another 96 were preserved in archives. And in the first half of the 20th century, a complete collection of works was published, numbering 90 volumes and including, in addition to novels, stories, stories, essays, etc., numerous letters and diary entries of this great man, distinguished by his enormous talent and extraordinary personal qualities. In this article we will recall the most interesting facts from the life of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy.

Selling a house in Yasnaya Polyana

In his youth, the count was known as a gambling man and loved, unfortunately, not very successfully, to play cards. It so happened that part of the house in Yasnaya Polyana, where the writer spent his childhood, was given away for debts. Subsequently, Tolstoy planted trees in the empty space. Ilya Lvovich, his son, recalled how he once asked his father to show him the room in the house where he was born. And Lev Nikolaevich pointed to the top of one of the larches, adding: “There.” And he described the leather sofa on which this happened in the novel “War and Peace.” These are interesting facts from the life of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy related to the family estate.

As for the house itself, its two two-story wings have been preserved and have grown over time. After marriage and the birth of children, the Tolstoy family grew larger, and at the same time new premises were added.

Thirteen children were born into the Tolstoy family, five of whom died in infancy. The Count never spared time for them, and before the crisis of the 80s he loved to play pranks. For example, if jelly was served during lunch, my father noticed that it was good for them to glue the boxes together. The children immediately brought table paper to the dining room, and the creative process began.

Another example. Someone in the family became sad or even cried. The count who noticed this instantly organized the “Numidian Cavalry”. He jumped up from his seat, raised his hand and rushed around the table, and the children rushed after him.

Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich has always been distinguished by his love of literature. He regularly held evening readings in his house. Somehow I picked up a Jules Verne book without pictures. Then he began to illustrate it himself. And although he was not a very good artist, the family was delighted with what they saw.

The children also remembered the humorous poems of Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich. He read them in the wrong German for the same purpose: home. By the way, few people know that the writer’s creative heritage includes several poetic works. For example, “Fool”, “Volga the Hero”. They were mainly written for children and were included in the well-known “ABC”.

Thoughts of suicide

The works of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy became for the writer a way to study human characters in their development. Psychologism in the image often required great emotional effort from the author. So, while working on Anna Karenina, trouble almost happened to the writer. He was in such a difficult mental state that he was afraid to repeat the fate of his hero Levin and commit suicide. Later, in “Confession,” Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy noted that the thought of this was so persistent that he even took a lace out of the room where he was changing clothes alone and gave up hunting with a gun.

Disappointment in the Church

Nikolaevich’s story is well studied and contains many stories about how he was excommunicated from the church. Meanwhile, the writer always considered himself a believer, and from 1977, for several years, he strictly observed all fasts and attended every church service. However, after visiting Optina Pustyn in 1981, everything changed. Lev Nikolaevich went there with his footman and school teacher. They walked, as expected, with a knapsack and bast shoes. When we finally found ourselves in the monastery, we discovered terrible dirt and strict discipline.

The arriving pilgrims were accommodated on a general basis, which outraged the footman, who always treated the owner as a gentleman. He turned to one of the monks and said that the old man was Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. The writer’s work was well known, and he was immediately transferred to the best hotel room. After returning from Optina Hermitage, the count expressed his dissatisfaction with such veneration, and from then on he changed his attitude towards church conventions and its employees. It all ended with him taking a cutlet for lunch during one of the posts.

By the way, in the last years of his life the writer became a vegetarian, completely giving up meat. But at the same time, I ate scrambled eggs in different forms every day.

Physical work

In the early 80s - this is reported in the biography of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy - the writer finally came to the conviction that an idle life and luxury do not make a person beautiful. For a long time he was tormented by the question of what to do: sell off all his property and leave his beloved wife and children, unaccustomed to hard work, without funds? Or transfer the entire fortune to Sofya Andreevna? Later, Tolstoy would divide everything between family members. During this difficult time for him - the family had already moved to Moscow - Lev Nikolaevich loved to go to the Sparrow Hills, where he helped the men cut wood. Then he learned the craft of shoemaking and even designed his own boots and summer shoes from canvas and leather, which he wore all summer. And every year he helped peasant families in which there was no one to plow, sow and harvest grain. Not everyone approved of Lev Nikolaevich’s life. Tolstoy was not understood even in his own family. But he remained adamant. And one summer all of Yasnaya Polyana broke up into artels and went out to mow. Among those working was even Sofya Andreevna, raking the grass.

Help for the hungry

Noting interesting facts from the life of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, we can recall the events of 1898. Famine once again broke out in Mtsensk and Chernen districts. The writer, dressed in an old retinue and props, with a knapsack on his shoulders, together with his son, who volunteered to help him, personally toured all the villages and found out where the situation was truly miserable. Within a week, they compiled lists and created approximately twelve canteens in each district, where they fed, first of all, children, the elderly and the sick. Food was brought from Yasnaya Polyana and two hot meals were prepared a day. Tolstoy's initiative caused negativity from the authorities, who established constant control over him, and local landowners. The latter considered that such actions of the count could lead to the fact that they themselves would soon have to plow the fields and milk the cows.

One day a police officer entered one of the dining rooms and started a conversation with the count. He complained that although he approved of the writer’s action, he was a forced person, and therefore did not know what to do - they were talking about permission for such activities from the governor. The writer’s answer turned out to be simple: “Do not serve where you are forced to act against your conscience.” And this was the whole life of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.

Serious illness

In 1901, the writer fell ill with a severe fever and, on the advice of doctors, went to Crimea. There, instead of being cured, he also contracted inflammation and there was practically no hope that he would survive. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, whose work contains many works describing death, prepared mentally for it. He was not at all afraid of losing his life. The writer even said goodbye to his loved ones. And although he could only speak in a half-whisper, he gave each of his children valuable advice for the future, as it turned out, nine years before his death. This was very helpful, since nine years later, none of the family members - and almost all of them gathered at the Astapovo station - were not allowed to see the patient.

Writer's funeral

Back in the 90s, Lev Nikolaevich spoke in his diary about how he would like to see his funeral. Ten years later, in “Memoirs,” he tells the story of the famous “green stick,” buried in a ravine next to the oak trees. And already in 1908 he dictated a wish to the stenographer: to bury him in a wooden coffin in the place where the brothers searched for the source of eternal goodness in childhood.

Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich, according to his will, was buried in the Yasnaya Polyana park. The funeral was attended by several thousand people, among whom were not only friends, admirers of creativity, writers, but also local peasants, whom he treated with care and understanding all his life.

History of the will

Interesting facts from the life of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy also concern his expression of will regarding his creative heritage. The writer drew up six wills: in 1895 (diary entries), 1904 (letter to Chertkov), 1908 (dictated to Gusev), twice in 1909 and in 1010. According to one of them, all his records and works came into general use. According to others, the right to them was transferred to Chertkov. Ultimately, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy bequeathed his work and all his notes to his daughter Alexandra, who became her father’s assistant at the age of sixteen.

Number 28

According to his relatives, the writer always had an ironic attitude towards prejudice. But he considered the number twenty-eight special for himself and loved it. What was it - a mere coincidence or fate? It is unknown, but many of the most important events in life and the first works of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy are connected precisely with her. Here is their list:

• August 28, 1828 is the date of birth of the writer himself.
• On May 28, 1856, censorship gave permission to publish the first book of stories, “Childhood and Adolescence.”
• On June 28, the first child, Sergei, was born.
• On February 28, the wedding of Ilya’s son took place.
• On October 28, the writer left Yasnaya Polyana forever.

“The world, perhaps, did not know another artist in whom the eternally epic, Homeric principle would be as strong as Tolstoy. The element of the epic lives in his works, its majestic monotony and rhythm, similar to the measured breath of the sea, its tart, powerful freshness , its burning spice, indestructible health, indestructible realism"

Thomas Mann

Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Tula province in the family of a landowner. Tolstoy's parents belonged to the highest nobility; even under Peter I, Tolstoy's paternal ancestors received the title of count. Lev Nikolaevich's parents died early, leaving him only with a sister and three brothers. Tolstoy's aunt, who lived in Kazan, took custody of the children. The whole family moved in with her.

In 1844, Lev Nikolaevich entered the university at the oriental faculty, and then studied law. Tolstoy knew more than fifteen foreign languages ​​at the age of 19. He was seriously interested in history and literature. His studies at the university did not last long; Lev Nikolaevich left the university and returned home to Yasnaya Polyana. Soon he decides to leave for Moscow and devote himself to literary activity. His older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, leaves for the Caucasus, where the war was going on, as an artillery officer. Following the example of his brother, Lev Nikolaevich enlists in the army, receives an officer rank and goes to the Caucasus. During the Crimean War, L. Tolstoy was transferred to the active Danube Army, fighting in besieged Sevastopol, commanding a battery. Tolstoy was awarded the Order of Anna ("For Bravery"), medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol", "In Memory of the War of 1853-1856".

In 1856, Lev Nikolaevich retired. After some time, he goes abroad (France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany).

Since 1859, Lev Nikolaevich has been actively involved in educational activities, opening a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, and then promoting the opening of schools throughout the district, publishing the pedagogical magazine "Yasnaya Polyana". Tolstoy became seriously interested in pedagogy and studied foreign teaching methods. In order to deepen his knowledge in pedagogy, he went abroad again in 1860.

After the abolition of serfdom, Tolstoy actively participated in resolving disputes between landowners and peasants, acting as a mediator. For his activities, Lev Nikolaevich gains a reputation as an unreliable person, as a result of which a search was carried out in Yasnaya Polyana in order to find a secret printing house. Tolstoy's school is closed, and the continuation of teaching activities becomes almost impossible. By this time, Lev Nikolaevich had already written the famous trilogy “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth.”, the story “Cossacks”, as well as many stories and articles. “Sevastopol Stories” occupied a special place in his work, in which the author conveyed his impressions of the Crimean War.

In 1862, Lev Nikolaevich married Sofya Andreevna Bers, the daughter of a doctor, who became his faithful friend and assistant for many years. Sofya Andreevna took on all the household chores, and in addition, she became her husband’s editor and his first reader. Tolstoy's wife rewrote all his novels by hand before sending them to the editor. It is enough to imagine how difficult it was to prepare War and Peace for publication to appreciate the dedication of this woman.

In 1873, Lev Nikolaevich finished work on Anna Karenina. By this time, Count Leo Tolstoy became a famous writer who received recognition, corresponded with many literary critics and authors, and actively participated in public life.

In the late 70s - early 80s, Lev Nikolaevich was experiencing a serious spiritual crisis, trying to rethink the changes taking place in society and determine his position as a citizen. Tolstoy decides that it is necessary to take care of the well-being and education of the common people, that a nobleman has no right to be happy when the peasants are in distress. He is trying to start changes from his own estate, from restructuring his attitude towards the peasants. Tolstoy's wife insists on moving to Moscow, as the children need to get a good education. From this moment, conflicts began in the family, as Sofya Andreevna tried to ensure the future of her children, and Lev Nikolaevich believed that the nobility was over and the time had come to live modestly, like the entire Russian people.

During these years, Tolstoy wrote philosophical works and articles, participated in the creation of the Posrednik publishing house, which dealt with books for the common people, and wrote the stories “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” “The History of a Horse,” and “The Kreutzer Sonata.”

In 1889 - 1899, Tolstoy completed the novel "Resurrection".

At the end of his life, Lev Nikolaevich finally decides to break ties with the wealthy life of the nobility, engages in charity work, education, and changes the order of his estate, giving freedom to the peasants. This life position of Lev Nikolaevich became the cause of serious domestic conflicts and quarrels with his wife, who looked at life differently. Sofya Andreevna was worried about the future of her children and was against Lev Nikolaevich’s unreasonable spending, from her point of view. The quarrels became more and more serious, Tolstoy more than once made an attempt to leave home forever, the children experienced conflicts very hard. The former mutual understanding in the family disappeared. Sofya Andreevna tried to stop her husband, but then the conflicts escalated into attempts to divide property, as well as ownership rights to the works of Lev Nikolaevich.

Finally, on November 10, 1910, Tolstoy leaves his home in Yasnaya Polyana and leaves. He soon falls ill with pneumonia, is forced to stop at Astapovo station (now Lev Tolstoy station) and dies there on November 23.

Control questions:
1. Tell the biography of the writer, mentioning exact dates.
2. Explain the connection between the writer’s biography and his work.
3. Summarize his biographical data and determine his features
creative heritage.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy(August 28 (September 9), 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire - November 7 (20), 1910, Astapovo station, Ryazan province, Russian Empire) - one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers, revered as one of the greatest writers of the world.

Born in the Yasnaya Polyana estate. Among the writer's paternal ancestors is an associate of Peter I - P. A. Tolstoy, one of the first in Russia to receive the title of count. A participant in the Patriotic War of 1812 was the father of the writer, Count. N.I. Tolstoy. On his mother's side, Tolstoy belonged to the family of the Bolkonsky princes, related by kinship to the Trubetskoy, Golitsyn, Odoevsky, Lykov and other noble families. On his mother's side, Tolstoy was a relative of A.S. Pushkin.
When Tolstoy was in his ninth year, his father took him to Moscow for the first time, the impressions of his meeting with which were vividly conveyed by the future writer in his children's essay "The Kremlin." Moscow is here called “the greatest and most populous city in Europe,” the walls of which “saw the shame and defeat of Napoleon’s invincible regiments.” The first period of young Tolstoy's Moscow life lasted less than four years. He was orphaned early, losing first his mother and then his father. With his sister and three brothers, young Tolstoy moved to Kazan. One of my father’s sisters lived here and became their guardian.
Living in Kazan, Tolstoy spent two and a half years preparing to enter the university, where he studied from 1844, first at the Oriental Faculty and then at the Faculty of Law. He studied Turkish and Tatar languages ​​from the famous Turkologist Professor Kazembek. In his mature years, the writer was fluent in English, French and German; read in Italian, Polish, Czech and Serbian; knew Greek, Latin, Ukrainian, Tatar, Church Slavonic; studied Hebrew, Turkish, Dutch, Bulgarian and other languages.
Classes on government programs and textbooks weighed heavily on Tolstoy the student. He became interested in independent work on a historical topic and, leaving the university, left Kazan for Yasnaya Polyana, which he received through the division of his father's inheritance. Then he went to Moscow, where at the end of 1850 his writing activity began: an unfinished story from gypsy life (the manuscript has not survived) and a description of one day he lived (“The History of Yesterday”). At the same time, the story “Childhood” was begun. Soon Tolstoy decided to go to the Caucasus, where his older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, an artillery officer, served in the active army. Having entered the army as a cadet, he later passed the exam for junior officer rank. The writer's impressions of the Caucasian War were reflected in the stories "Raid" (1853), "Cutting Wood" (1855), "Demoted" (1856), and in the story "Cossacks" (1852-1863). In the Caucasus, the story “Childhood” was completed, published in 1852 in the magazine “Sovremennik”.

When the Crimean War began, Tolstoy was transferred from the Caucasus to the Danube Army, which was operating against the Turks, and then to Sevastopol, which was besieged by the combined forces of England, France and Turkey. Commanding the battery on the 4th bastion, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of Anna and the medals “For the Defense of Sevastopol” and “In Memory of the War of 1853-1856.” More than once Tolstoy was nominated for the military Cross of St. George, but he never received the “George.” In the army, Tolstoy wrote a number of projects - about the reformation of artillery batteries and the creation of artillery battalions armed with rifled guns, about the reformation of the entire Russian army. Together with a group of officers of the Crimean Army, Tolstoy intended to publish the magazine "Soldier's Bulletin" ("Military Leaflet"), but its publication was not authorized by Emperor Nicholas I.
In the fall of 1856, he retired and soon went on a six-month trip abroad, visiting France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. In 1859, Tolstoy 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). In order to study the organization of school affairs in foreign countries, the writer went abroad for the second time in 1860.
After the manifesto of 1861, Tolstoy became one of the world mediators of the first call who sought to help peasants resolve their disputes with landowners about land. Soon in Yasnaya Polyana, when Tolstoy was away, the gendarmes carried out a search in search of a secret printing house, which the writer allegedly opened after communicating with A. I. Herzen in London. Tolstoy had to close the school and stop publishing the pedagogical magazine. In total, he wrote eleven articles on school and pedagogy (“On Public Education”, “Upbringing and Education”, “On Social Activities in the Field of Public Education” and others). In them, he described in detail the experience of his work with students (“Yasnaya Polyana school for the months of November and December”, “On methods of teaching literacy”, “Who should learn to write from whom, the peasant children from us or us from the peasant children”). Tolstoy the teacher demanded that school be brought closer to life, and sought to put it at the service of the needs of the people, and for this purpose, to intensify the processes of teaching and upbringing, and to develop the creative abilities of children.
At the same time, already at the beginning of his creative career, Tolstoy becomes a supervised writer. Some of the writer's first works were the stories "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth", "Youth" (which, however, was not written). According to the author's plan, they were supposed to compose the novel "Four Epochs of Development."
In the early 1860s. For decades, the order of Tolstoy’s life, his way of life, is established. In 1862, he married the daughter of a Moscow doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers.
The writer is working on the novel "War and Peace" (1863-1869). Having completed War and Peace, Tolstoy spent several years studying materials about Peter I and his time. However, after writing several chapters of Peter’s novel, Tolstoy abandoned his plan. In the early 1870s. The writer was again fascinated by pedagogy. He put a lot of work into the creation of the ABC, and then the New ABC. At the same time, he compiled “Books for Reading”, where he included many of his stories.
In the spring of 1873, Tolstoy began and four years later completed work on a great novel about modernity, calling it after the name of the main character - “Anna Karenina”.
The spiritual crisis experienced by Tolstoy at the end of 1870 - beginning. 1880, ended with 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."
At the beginning of the 1880s. Tolstoy moved with his family from Yasnaya Polyana to Moscow, caring about providing an education to his growing children. In 1882, a census of the Moscow population took place, in which the writer took part. He saw the inhabitants of the city's slums up close and described their terrible lives in an article on the census and in the treatise "So What Should We Do?" (1882-1886). In them, the writer made the main conclusion: “...You can’t live like that, you can’t live like that, you can’t!” "Confession" and "So What Should We Do?" were works in which Tolstoy acted simultaneously as an artist and as a publicist, as a profound psychologist and a courageous sociologist-analyst. Later, this type of work - journalistic in genre, but including artistic scenes and paintings, saturated with elements of imagery - will occupy a large place in his work.
In these and subsequent years, Tolstoy also wrote religious and philosophical works: “Criticism of Dogmatic Theology”, “What is My Faith?”, “Combination, 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. In the mid-1880s. Tolstoy and his like-minded people created the Posrednik publishing house in Moscow, which printed books and paintings for the people. The first of Tolstoy's works, published for the "common" people, was the story "How People Live." In it, as in many other works of this cycle, the writer made extensive use not only of folklore plots, but also of the expressive means of oral creativity. Thematically and stylistically related to Tolstoy’s folk stories are his plays for folk theaters and, most of all, the drama “The Power of Darkness” (1886), which depicts the tragedy of a post-reform village, where under the “power of money” the centuries-old patriarchal order collapsed.
In 1880 Tolstoy's stories "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and "Kholstomer" ("The Story of a Horse"), and "The Kreutzer Sonata" (1887-1889) appeared. In it, as well as in the story “The Devil” (1889-1890) and the story “Father Sergius” (1890-1898), the problems of love and marriage, the purity of family relationships are posed.
Tolstoy’s story “The Master and the Worker” (1895), stylistically connected with the cycle of his folk stories written in the 80s, is based on social and psychological contrast. Five years earlier, Tolstoy wrote the comedy “The Fruits of Enlightenment” for a “home performance.” It also shows the “owners” and “workers”: noble landowners living in the city and peasants who came from a hungry village, deprived of land. The images of the former are given satirically, the author portrays the latter as reasonable and positive people, but in some scenes they are “presented” in an ironic light.
All these works of the writer are united by the idea of ​​the inevitable and close in time “denouement” of social contradictions, of the replacement of an obsolete social “order”. “I don’t know what the outcome will be,” Tolstoy wrote in 1892, “but that things are approaching it and that life cannot continue like this, in such forms, I am sure.” This idea inspired the largest work of all the creativity of the “late” Tolstoy - the novel “Resurrection” (1889-1899).
Less than ten years separate Anna Karenina from War and Peace. "Resurrection" is separated from "Anna Karenina" by two decades. And although the third novel differs in many ways from the previous two, they are united by a truly epic scope in the depiction of life, the ability to “pair” individual human destinies with the fate of the people in the narrative. Tolstoy himself pointed out the unity that existed between his novels: he said that "Resurrection" was written in the "old manner", meaning, first of all, the epic "manner" in which "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" were written ". "Resurrection" became the last novel in the writer's work.
At the beginning of 1900 The Holy Synod excommunicated Tolstoy from the Orthodox Church.
In the last decade of his life, the writer worked on the story “Hadji Murat” (1896-1904), in which he sought to compare “the two poles of imperious absolutism” - the European, personified by Nicholas I, and the Asian, personified by Shamil. At the same time, Tolstoy created one of his best plays, “The Living Corpse.” Its hero - the kindest soul, gentle, conscientious Fedya Protasov leaves his family, breaks off relations with his usual environment, falls to the "bottom" and in the courthouse, unable to bear the lies, pretense, pharisaism of "respectable" people, shoots himself with a pistol. scores with life. The article “I Can’t Be Silent” written in 1908, in which he protested against the repression of participants in the events of 1905–1907, sounded sharply. The writer’s stories “After the Ball”, “For What?” belong to the same period.
Weighed down by the way of life in Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy more than once contemplated and for a long time did not dare to leave it. But he could no longer live according to the principle of “together and apart,” and on the night of October 28 (November 10) he secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, he fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to stop at the small station of Astapovo (now Leo Tolstoy), where he died. On November 10 (23), 1910, the writer was buried in Yasnaya Polyana, in the forest, on the edge of a ravine, where as a child he and his brother were looking for the “green stick” that held the “secret” of how to make all people happy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy- 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, “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 earlier, in Yasnaya Polyana, he opened a school for children. 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!”

Do you know Leo Tolstoy? The short and complete biography of this writer is studied in detail during his school years. However, like great works. The first association every person who hears the name of a famous writer is the novel “War and Peace.” Not everyone dared to overcome laziness and read it. And in vain. This work has earned worldwide fame. This is a classic that every educated person should read. But first things first.

The biography of Leo Tolstoy says that he was born in the 19th century, namely in 1828. The surname of the future writer is the oldest aristocratic one in Russia. Lev Nikolaevich received his education at home. When his parents died, he, his sister and three brothers moved to the city of Kazan. P. Yushkova became Tolstoy's guardian. At the age of 16 he entered the local university. He studied first at the Faculty of Philosophy and then at the Faculty of Law. But Tolstoy never graduated from the university. He settled on the Yasnaya Polyana estate - where he was born.

The biography of Leo Tolstoy says that the next 4 years became years of quest for him. First, he reorganized the life of the estate, then went to Moscow, where a social life awaited him. He received a candidate of law degree from St. Petersburg University, and then got a job - he became a clerical employee in the noble parliamentary assembly of Tula.

The biography of Leo Tolstoy describes his trip to the Caucasus in 1851. There he even fought with the Chechens. Episodes of this particular war were later described in various stories and the story “Cossacks”. Next, Lev passed the cadet exam in order to become an officer in the future. And already in this rank in 1854, Tolstoy served in the Danube Army, which was operating at that time against the Turks.

Lev Nikolaevich began to seriously engage in literary creativity during a trip to the Caucasus. His story “Childhood” was written there and then published in the Sovremennik magazine. The story “Adolescence” subsequently appeared in the same publication.

Leo also fought in Sevastopol during the war. There he showed real fearlessness, participating in the defense of the city under siege. For this he was awarded the Order of Bravery. The writer recreated the bloody picture of the war in his “Sevastopol Stories.” This work made an indelible impression on the entire Russian society.

Since 1855, Tolstoy lived in St. Petersburg. There he often communicated with Chernyshevsky, Turgenev, Ostrovsky and other legendary personalities. And a year later he retired. Then the writer traveled, he opened a school for peasant children on his native estate and even taught classes there himself. With his help, two dozen more schools were opened nearby. This was followed by a second trip abroad. The works that immortalized the writer’s name throughout the world were created by him in the 70s. This is, of course, “Anna Karenina” and the novel “War and Peace” described at the beginning of the article.

The biography of Leo Tolstoy says that he got married in 1862. He and his wife subsequently raised nine children. The family moved to the capital in 1880.

Leo Tolstoy (his biography tells interesting facts about this) spent the last years of his life torn apart by intrigue and squabbles in the family over the inheritance that would remain after him. At the age of 82, the writer leaves the estate and goes on a journey, away from the lordly way of life. But his health was too weak for this. On the way, he caught a cold and died. He was buried, of course, in his homeland - in Yasnaya Polyana.