Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich (1828 - 1910) - count, famous writer, who achieved unprecedented achievements in the history of literature of the 19th century. glory. Belongs to a rich and noble family, which occupied a high position even in the time of Peter the Great. Lev Nikolaevich's great-grandfather, Count Pyotr Andreevich, played a sad role in the history of Tsarevich Alexei. The great-grandson of Pyotr Andreevich, Ilya Andreevich, is described in “War and Peace” in the person of the old Count Rostov. Ilya Andreevich’s son, Nikolai Ilyich, was the father of Lev Nikolaevich (depicted in “Childhood” and “Adolescence” in the person of Nikolinka’s father). With the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment, he took part in the War of 1812 and retired after the conclusion of peace. Having spent his youth cheerfully, Nikolai Ilyich lost a huge fortune. The passion for the game passed on to his son. To put his upset affairs in order, Nikolai Ilyich, like Nikolai Rostov, married the ugly and no longer very young Princess Volkonskaya. They had four sons: Nikolai, Sergei, Dmitry and Lev and a daughter Maria. Tolstoy's maternal grandfather, Catherine's general, is brought onto the stage in War and Peace in the person of the old Prince Volkonsky, and Lev's mother is depicted in the person of Princess Marya. In addition to the Volkonskys, Tolstoy is closely related to a number of other aristocratic families - the princes Gorchakovs and Trubetskoys.
1854
1862
Editorial Board of the Sovremennik magazine, St. Petersburg. From left to right are L.N. Tolstoy, D.V. Grigorovich. I.A. Goncharov, I.S. Turgenev, A.V. Druzhinin, A.N. Ostrovsky are sitting.
1868
1885
1892, Yasnaya Polyana. Leo Tolstoy with his family at the tea table in the park.
1900, Yasnaya Polyana. L.N. Tolstoy and A.M. Gorky.
1901, Crimea
1901, Crimea. L.N. Tolstoy and A.P. Chekhov.
1905, Yasnaya Polyana. Leo Tolstoy returns from swimming on the Voronka River
1908, Yasnaya Polyana. L.N. Tolstoy and I.E. Repin.
1908, Yasnaya Polyana. L.N. Tolstoy plays chess with M.S. Sukhotin.
1908, Yasnaya Polyana. L.N. Tolstoy with his granddaughter Tanya
1908, Yasnaya Polyana. Leo Tolstoy with his favorite horse Delir
1908, Yasnaya Polyana. At the terrace of a Yasnaya Polyana house.
1908 House of Leo Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana.
August 28, 1908, Yasnaya Polyana. Leo Tolstoy on his 80th birthday.
1888
From left to right are: Alexander Emmanuilovich Dmitriev-Mamonov (son of the artist), Misha and Maria Tolstoy, M.V. Mamonov, Madame Lambert (governess); sitting: Sasha Tolstaya, Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, Alexander Mikhailovich Kuzminsky (husband of Tatyana Kuzminskaya), artist Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge, Andrey and Lev Tolstoy, Sasha Kuzminsky, Tatyana Andreevna Kuzminskaya (sister of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy), Mikhail Vladimirovich Islavin, Vera Aleksandrovna Kuzminskaya, Misha Kuzminsky, Miss Chomel (governess to the Kuzminsky children); in the foreground are Vasya Kuzminsky, Lev and Tatyana Tolstoy. During 12 years of friendship with Tolstoy, Ge painted only one picturesque portrait of Tolstoy. In 1890, at the request of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy, Ge sculpted a bust of Tolstoy - the first sculptural image of the writer, and even earlier, in 1886, he completed a series of illustrations for Tolstoy’s story “How People Live.” 
August 1897
The photographs were taken at the request of Ilya Yakovlevich Ginzburg, during his stay in Yasnaya Polyana, when he was working on a full-length sculptural portrait of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy. Using these photographs, the sculptor sculpted a figurine of the writer and then sculpted it from life, correcting what had been previously done. 
Anton Chekhov at Leo Tolstoy's in Gaspra
1901 
Breakfast on the terrace of a house in Gaspra
December 1901 
Leo Tolstoy with his family on his 75th birthday
1903 Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana
From left to right are: Ilya, Lev, Alexandra and Sergei Tolstoy; sitting: Mikhail, Tatyana, Sofya Andreevna and Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Andrey. 
Leo Tolstoy with peasant children on Trinity Day. May 17, 1909 
Leo Tolstoy riding Zorka
1903 
Leo Tolstoy with his sister Maria Nikolaevna in Yasnaya Polyana
July 1908 
Leo Tolstoy near the terrace of the Yasnaya Polyana house
May 11, 1908 
Leo Tolstoy in his study at home in Yasnaya Polyana
1909 
1909 Tolstoy was photographed in the music store of Yuli Genrikhovich Zimmerman on Kuznetsky Most while listening to the new musical device “Minion”, which reproduces the performance of famous pianists. 
1909 In the background on the left is the grandson Ilya Andreevich Tolstoy, on the right is the son of the servant Alyosha Sidorkov. “In my presence,” recalls Valentin Fedorovich Bulgakov, “Lev Nikolaevich, at 82 years old, played gorodki with Alyosha Sidorkov... the son of the old Yasnaya Polyana servant Ilya Vasilyevich Sidorkov. There is a photograph depicting Tolstoy’s “blow”. Of course, he could no longer play for a long time and “seriously”: he just “tried his strength.” 
Lev and Sophia Tolstoy on their 48th wedding anniversary
September 25, 1910 
Going to the opening of the People's Library in the village of Yasnaya Polyana: Leo Tolstoy, Alexandra Tolstaya, Chairman of the Moscow Literacy Society Pavel Dolgorukov, Tatyana Sukhotina, Varvara Feokritova, Pavel Biryukov
January 31, 1910 
19 May 1910
One of the last portraits of the writer. Filmed by Vladimir Grigorievich Chertkov at a time when Tolstoy and his secretary Valentin Fedorovich Bulgakov were sorting out the mail. On the day of the shooting, May 19, 1910, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “Taking portraits. It’s unpleasant that I can’t refuse.” Lev Nikolayevich crossed out the last line, not wanting to upset Chertkov. 
Valeria Dmitrieva, a researcher at the traveling exhibitions department of the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate, talks about the family customs and traditions of the count’s family.
Valeria Dmitrieva
Before meeting Sofya Andreevna, Lev Nikolaevich, at that time a young writer and an enviable groom, had been trying to find a bride for several years. He was gladly received in houses where there were girls of marriageable age. He corresponded with many potential brides, looked, chose, evaluated... And then one day a happy occasion brought him to the house of the Berses, with whom he was familiar. This wonderful family raised three daughters at once: the eldest Lisa, the middle Sonya and the youngest Tanya. Lisa was passionately in love with Count Tolstoy. The girl did not hide her feelings, and those around her already considered Tolstoy to be the groom of the eldest of the sisters. But Lev Nikolaevich had a different opinion.
The writer himself had tender feelings for Sonya Bers, which he hinted at in his famous message.
On the card table, the count wrote with chalk the first letters of three sentences: “V. m. and p.s. With. and. n. m.m.s. and n. With. In the With. With. l. V. n. m. and v. With. L.Z.m.v. with v. With. T". Tolstoy later wrote that his entire future life depended on this moment.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, photo from 1868
According to his plan, Sofya Andreevna was supposed to unravel the message. If he deciphers the text, then she is his destiny. And Sofya Andreevna understood what Lev Nikolaevich meant: “Your youth and need for happiness remind me too vividly of my old age and the impossibility of happiness. There is a false view in your family about me and your sister Lisa. You and your sister Tanya will protect me.” She wrote that it was providence. By the way, Tolstoy later described this moment in the novel Anna Karenina. It was with chalk on the card table that Konstantin Levin encrypted Kitty’s marriage proposal.
Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, 1860s
Happy Lev Nikolaevich wrote a marriage proposal and sent it to the Bers. Both the girl and her parents agreed. The modest wedding took place on September 23, 1862. The couple got married in Moscow, in the Kremlin Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Immediately after the ceremony, Tolstoy asked his young wife how she wanted to continue her family life: whether to go on a honeymoon abroad, stay in Moscow with her parents, or move to Yasnaya Polyana. Sofya Andreevna replied that she immediately wanted to start a serious family life in Yasnaya Polyana. Later, the Countess often regretted her decision and how early her girlhood ended and that she never visited anywhere.
In the fall of 1862, Sofya Andreevna moved to live at her husband’s estate Yasnaya Polyana, this place became her love and her destiny. Both remember the first 20 years of their lives as very happy. Sofya Andreevna looked at her husband with adoration and admiration. He treated her with great tenderness, reverence and love. When Lev Nikolaevich left the estate on business, they always wrote letters to each other.
Lev Nikolaevich:
“I’m glad that I was entertained this day, otherwise my dear I was already feeling scared and sad for you. It’s funny to say: as soon as I left, I felt how terrible it was to leave you. - Goodbye, darling, be a good girl and write. 1865 July 27. Warrior."
“How sweet you are to me; how you are better to me, purer, more honest, dearer, dearer than anyone in the world. I look at your children's portraits and rejoice. 1867 June 18. Moscow."
Sofya Andreevna:
“Lyovochka, my dear darling, I really want to see you at this moment, and again drink tea together under the windows in Nikolskoye, and run off on foot to Alexandrovka and again live our sweet life at home. Goodbye, darling, darling, I kiss you warmly. Write and take care of yourself, this is my will. July 29, 1865"
“My dear Lyovochka, I have gone through a whole day without you, and with such a joyful heart I sit down to write to you. This is my real and greatest consolation, writing to you even about the most insignificant things. June 17, 1867"
“It’s such hard work to live in the world without you; everything is wrong, everything seems wrong and not worth it. I didn’t want to write you anything like that, but it just happened. And everything is so cramped, so petty, something better is needed, and this best is only you, and you are forever alone. September 4, 1869"
The fat people loved spending time with the whole big family. They were great inventors, and Sofya Andreevna herself managed to create a special family world with its own traditions. This was felt most of all on family holidays, as well as on Christmas, Easter, and Trinity. They were very loved in Yasnaya Polyana. The fat people went to liturgy at the parish St. Nicholas Church, located two kilometers south of the estate.
Turkey and the signature dish - Ankovsky pie - were served for the festive dinner. Sofya Andreevna brought his recipe to Yasnaya Polyana from her family, to whom the doctor and friend Professor Anke passed it on.
Tolstoy's son Ilya Lvovich recalls:
“Ever since I can remember, on all special occasions in life, on major holidays and name days, Ankovsky pie has always and invariably been served in the form of a cake. Without this, dinner would not be dinner and the celebration would not be a celebration.”
Summer at the estate turned into an endless holiday with frequent picnics, tea parties with jam and games in the fresh air. They played croquet and tennis, swam in the Funnel, and went boating. We organized musical evenings, home performances...
The Tolstoy family playing tennis. From the album of photographs of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy
We often dined in the courtyard and drank tea on the veranda. In the 1870s, Tolstoy brought children such fun as “giant steps.” This is a large pole with ropes tied at the top, with a loop on them. One foot was inserted into the loop, the other was pushed off the ground and thus jumped. The children loved these “giant steps” so much that Sofya Andreevna recalled how difficult it was to tear them away from the fun: the children did not want to eat or sleep.
At the age of 66, Tolstoy began riding a bicycle. The whole family was worried about him, wrote letters to him so that he would leave this dangerous occupation. But the count said that he was experiencing sincere childish joy and would never leave his bicycle. Lev Nikolaevich even learned to ride a bicycle at Manezh, and the city government gave him a ticket with permission to ride along the city streets.
Moscow city government. Ticket No. 2300, issued to Tolstoy for cycling on the streets of Moscow. 1896
In winter, the Tolstoys enthusiastically skated; Lev Nikolaevich loved this activity very much. He spent at least an hour at the skating rink, teaching his sons, and Sofya Andreevna - his daughters. Near the house in Khamovniki, I filled the skating rink myself.
Traditional home entertainment in the family: reading aloud and literary lotto. Excerpts from works were written on the cards, and you had to guess the name of the author. In his later years, Tolstoy was read an excerpt from Anna Karenina, he listened and, not recognizing his text, highly appreciated it.
The family loved to play mailbox. All week long, family members dropped pieces of paper into it with jokes, poems, or notes about what was bothering them. On Sunday, the whole family sat in a circle, opened the mailbox and read aloud. If they were humorous poems or stories, they tried to guess who could have written them. If there were personal experiences, we sorted it out. Modern families can take this experience into account, because now we talk so little to each other.
For Christmas, a Christmas tree was always put up in the Tolstoys' house. They prepared decorations for her themselves: gilded nuts, figures of animals cut out of cardboard, wooden dolls dressed in different costumes, and much more. A masquerade was held at the estate, in which Lev Nikolaevich, and Sofya Andreevna, and their children, and guests, and servants, and peasant children took part.
“On Christmas Day 1867, the Englishwoman Hannah and I were passionate about making a Christmas tree. But Lev Nikolaevich did not like either Christmas trees or any celebrations and then strictly forbade buying toys for children. But Hannah and I asked for permission to have a Christmas tree and to be allowed to buy Seryozha only a horse, and Tanya only a doll. We decided to invite both the courtyard and peasant children. For them, in addition to various sweet things, gilded nuts, gingerbread cookies and other things, we bought wooden naked skeleton dolls, and dressed them in a wide variety of costumes, to the great delight of our children... About 40 children from the yard and from the village gathered, and the children and I were It’s a joy to distribute everything from the Christmas tree to the kids.”
Skeleton dolls, English plum pudding (pudding doused in rum, lit while serving), masquerade are becoming an integral part of the Christmas holidays in Yasnaya Polyana.
Sofya Andreevna was mainly involved in raising children in the Tolstoy family. The children wrote that their mother spent most of the time with them, but they all respected their father very much and were quite afraid of them. His word was the last and decisive, that is, the law. The children wrote that if you needed a quarter for anything, you could go to your mother and ask. She will ask you in detail what you need, and with persuasion to spend it, she will carefully give you the money. Or you could approach your father, who would simply look straight at him, glare at him and say: “Take it from the table.” He looked so soulfully that everyone preferred to beg for money from their mother.
Lev Nikolaevich and Sofya Andreevna Tolstoy with family and guests. September 1-8, 1892
The Tolstoy family spent a lot of money on the education of their children. They all received a good primary education at home, and the boys then studied at Tula and Moscow gymnasiums, but only the eldest son, Sergei Tolstoy, graduated from the university.
The most important thing that the children in the Tolstoy family were taught was to be sincere, kind people and treat each other well.
In their marriage, Lev Nikolaevich and Sofia Andreevna had 13 children, but only eight of them survived to adulthood.
The most difficult loss for the family was the death of their last son, Vanechka. When the baby was born, Sofya Andreevna was 43 years old, Lev Nikolaevich was 59 years old.
Vanechka Tolstoy
Vanya was a real peacemaker and united the whole family with his love. Lev Nikolaevich and Sofya Andreevna loved him very much and experienced the untimely death of their youngest son, who did not live to be seven years old, from scarlet fever.
“Nature tries to give the best and, seeing that the world is not yet ready for them, takes them back...” These were the words Tolstoy said after Vanechka’s death.
In the last years of his life, Lev Nikolaevich did not feel well and often gave his family cause for serious concern. In January 1902, Sofya Andreevna wrote:
“My Lyovochka is dying... And I realized that my life cannot remain in me without him. I have been living with him for forty years. For everyone he is a celebrity, for me he is my whole existence, our lives went into each other, and, my God! How much guilt and remorse has accumulated... It’s all over, you can’t return it. Help, Lord! How much love and tenderness I gave him, but how much of my weaknesses upset him! Forgive me, Lord! I’m sorry, my dear, dear dear husband!”
But Tolstoy understood all his life what a treasure he had inherited. A few months before his death, in July 1910, he wrote:
“My assessment of your life with me is this: I, a depraved, deeply vicious sexually person, no longer in my first youth, married you, a pure, good, intelligent 18-year-old girl, and despite this, my dirty, vicious past, you She lived with me for almost 50 years, loving me, working a hard life, giving birth, feeding, raising, caring for children and me, not succumbing to those temptations that could so easily seize any woman in your position, strong, healthy, beautiful. But you lived in such a way that I have nothing to reproach you with.”
- "To love and be so happy"
- “Be content with little and do good to others”
Lev Tolstoy is one of the most famous writers and philosophers in the world. His views and beliefs formed the basis of an entire religious and philosophical movement called Tolstoyism. The writer's literary heritage amounted to 90 volumes of fiction and journalistic works, diary notes and letters, and he himself was more than once nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Do everything that you have determined to be done.”
Family tree of Leo Tolstoy. Image: regnum.ru
Silhouette of Maria Tolstoy (nee Volkonskaya), mother of Leo Tolstoy. 1810s. Image: wikipedia.org
Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Tula province. He was the fourth child in a large noble family. Tolstoy was orphaned early. His mother died when he was not yet two years old, and at the age of nine he lost his father. Aunt Alexandra Osten-Saken became the guardian of Tolstoy's five children. The two older children moved to their aunt in Moscow, while the younger ones remained in Yasnaya Polyana. It is with the family estate that the most important and dear memories of Leo Tolstoy’s early childhood are associated.
In 1841, Alexandra Osten-Sacken died, and the Tolstoys moved to their aunt Pelageya Yushkova in Kazan. Three years after moving, Leo Tolstoy decided to enter the prestigious Imperial Kazan University. However, he did not like studying, he considered exams a formality, and university professors as incompetent. Tolstoy did not even try to get a scientific degree; in Kazan he was more attracted to secular entertainment.
In April 1847, Leo Tolstoy's student life ended. He inherited his part of the estate, including his beloved Yasnaya Polyana, and immediately went home, never receiving a higher education. On the family estate, Tolstoy tried to improve his life and start writing. He drew up his education plan: study languages, history, medicine, mathematics, geography, law, agriculture, natural sciences. However, he soon came to the conclusion that it is easier to make plans than to implement them.
Tolstoy's asceticism was often replaced by carousing and card games. Wanting to start what he thought was the right life, he created a daily routine. But he didn’t follow it either, and in his diary he again noted his dissatisfaction with himself. All these failures prompted Leo Tolstoy to change his lifestyle. An opportunity presented itself in April 1851: the elder brother Nikolai arrived in Yasnaya Polyana. At that time he served in the Caucasus, where there was a war. Leo Tolstoy decided to join his brother and went with him to a village on the banks of the Terek River.
Leo Tolstoy served on the outskirts of the empire for almost two and a half years. He whiled away his time by hunting, playing cards, and occasionally participating in raids into enemy territory. Tolstoy liked such a solitary and monotonous life. It was in the Caucasus that the story “Childhood” was born. While working on it, the writer found a source of inspiration that remained important to him until the end of his life: he used his own memories and experiences.
In July 1852, Tolstoy sent the manuscript of the story to Sovremennik magazine and attached a letter: “...I look forward to your verdict. He will either encourage me to continue my favorite activities, or force me to burn everything I started.”. Editor Nikolai Nekrasov liked the work of the new author, and soon “Childhood” was published in the magazine. Inspired by the first success, the writer soon began the continuation of “Childhood”. In 1854, he published a second story, “Adolescence”, in the Sovremennik magazine.
“The main thing is literary works”
Leo Tolstoy in his youth. 1851. Image: school-science.ru
Lev Tolstoy. 1848. Image: regnum.ru
Lev Tolstoy. Image: old.orlovka.org.ru
At the end of 1854, Leo Tolstoy arrived in Sevastopol - the epicenter of military operations. Being in the thick of things, he created the story “Sevastopol in December.” Although Tolstoy was unusually frank in describing battle scenes, the first Sevastopol story was deeply patriotic and glorified the bravery of Russian soldiers. Soon Tolstoy began working on his second story, “Sevastopol in May.” By that time, there was nothing left of his pride in the Russian army. The horror and shock that Tolstoy experienced on the front line and during the siege of the city greatly influenced his work. Now he wrote about the meaninglessness of death and the inhumanity of war.
In 1855, from the ruins of Sevastopol, Tolstoy traveled to sophisticated St. Petersburg. The success of the first Sevastopol story gave him a sense of purpose: “My career is literature - writing and writing! Starting tomorrow, I work all my life or give up everything, rules, religion, decency - everything.”. In the capital, Leo Tolstoy finished “Sevastopol in May” and wrote “Sevastopol in August 1855” - these essays completed the trilogy. And in November 1856, the writer finally left military service.
Thanks to his true stories about the Crimean War, Tolstoy entered the St. Petersburg literary circle of the Sovremennik magazine. During this period, he wrote the story “Blizzard”, the story “Two Hussars”, and finished the trilogy with the story “Youth”. However, after some time, relations with the writers from the circle deteriorated: “These people disgusted me, and I disgusted myself.”. To unwind, at the beginning of 1857 Leo Tolstoy went abroad. He visited Paris, Rome, Berlin, Dresden: he got acquainted with famous works of art, met with artists, and observed how people live in European cities. The journey did not inspire Tolstoy: he created the story “Lucerne”, in which he described his disappointment.
Leo Tolstoy at work. Image: kartinkinaden.ru
Leo Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana. Image: kartinkinaden.ru
Leo Tolstoy tells a fairy tale to his grandchildren Ilyusha and Sonya. 1909. Krekshino. Photo: Vladimir Chertkov / wikipedia.org
In the summer of 1857, Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana. At his native estate, he continued to work on the story “Cossacks”, and also wrote the story “Three Deaths” and the novel “Family Happiness”. In his diary, Tolstoy defined his purpose for himself at that time: “The main thing is literary works, then family responsibilities, then farming... And living like this for yourself is a good deed a day and that’s enough.”.
In 1899, Tolstoy wrote the novel Resurrection. In this work, the writer criticized the judicial system, the army, and the government. The contempt with which Tolstoy described the institution of the church in his novel “Resurrection” provoked a response. In February 1901, in the journal “Church Gazette,” the Holy Synod published a resolution excommunicating Count Leo Tolstoy from the church. This decision only increased Tolstoy's popularity and attracted the public's attention to the writer's ideals and beliefs.
Tolstoy's literary and social activities became known abroad. The writer was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902 and 1909 and for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902–1906. Tolstoy himself did not want to receive the award and even told the Finnish writer Arvid Järnefelt to try to prevent the award from being awarded because, “if this happened... it would be very unpleasant to refuse” “He [Chertkov] took the unfortunate old man into his hands in every possible way, he separated us, he killed the artistic spark in Lev Nikolaevich and kindled condemnation, hatred, denial, which can be felt in Lev Nikolaevich’s recent articles years, which his stupid evil genius egged him on".
Tolstoy himself was burdened by the life of a landowner and family man. He sought to bring his life into line with his beliefs and in early November 1910 secretly left the Yasnaya Polyana estate. The road turned out to be too much for the elderly man: on the way he became seriously ill and was forced to stay in the house of the caretaker of the Astapovo railway station. Here the writer spent the last days of his life. Leo Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910. The writer was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.
109 years ago, on November 10 (new style), 1910, having collected only essential things, the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy left his own home. He left and couldn't come back. However, the whole life of this extraordinary man was filled with strange and sometimes unpredictable actions.
Gambled
The house where L.N. was born Tolstoy, 1828. In 1854, the house was sold by order of the writer for removal to the village of Dolgoe. Broken in 1913.
In his youth, Leo Tolstoy loved to play cards. The stakes were high, and the writer was not always lucky. One day, the gambling debt became so great that he had to pay off with part of his family nest - the estate in Yasnaya Polyana. The part of the house where Lev Nikolaevich was born and spent his childhood became a victim of the excitement.
Didn't want to receive the Nobel Prize
As soon as Tolstoy learned that he had been nominated for the Nobel Prize, he immediately wrote a message to the Finnish writer Järnefelt, asking him to tell the Swedes not to award him the prize. When the prize did not go to him, Tolstoy was very happy. He was sure that money is the embodiment of evil, he absolutely does not need it, it would be a huge difficulty for him to dispose of it. In addition, the writer liked to receive sympathy from many people who regretted that the prize did not go to him.
Gave his reward to a common soldier
With brother Nikolai before leaving for the Caucasus, 1851.
During his military service in the Caucasus, Leo Tolstoy gave up his award - the St. George's Cross - to a common soldier. His action was explained by the fact that the soldier was rootless and poor, and the presence of such an award gave the right to a lifelong pension in the amount of a standard soldier's salary.
He wanted to plant the entire territory of Russia with forests
Being a person close to nature and immensely loving his country, Lev Nikolaevich showed concern for the future. In 1857, he developed his own plan for landscaping Russia and was ready to take direct part in it. In a document addressed to the Ministry of State Property, he proposed to give him the lands located in the Tula region for 9 years, and was ready to plant them with trees himself. According to Tolstoy, the state treats natural resources immorally. However, officials called this project without any prospects and incurring losses.
I sewed boots “for gifts”
Lev Nikolaevich loved all kinds of manual labor. He enjoyed the process of creating things with his own hands, especially if it brought benefit and joy to friends and family. One of his hobbies was sewing boots. The writer gave the created pairs of shoes to relatives, friends and acquaintances with great pleasure. His son-in-law even wrote about such a gift in his memoirs, attaching great importance to the gift. He noted that he would store the boots on the same shelf with the publication of War and Peace.
Promoted physical labor and helped the hungry
Tolstoy in a photograph by court photographer S.L. Levitsky in the uniform of a participant in the Crimean War.
Being a wealthy man and having noble roots, Tolstoy was still an admirer of hard physical labor. He believed that an idle life does not make a person beautiful; it leads to the destruction of personality, both physical and moral. In difficult times, when thoughts about the future haunted the writer (he had already begun to think about giving up his property), Lev Nikolaevich went with ordinary men to cut wood. A little later, he began to sew birch bark shoes for general use, having perfectly mastered this difficult craft. Every year he helped peasant families in which, for one reason or another, there was no one to plow, sow or harvest. And despite the general disapproval among his noble circle, he constantly took part in mowing.
The writer always helped the hungry. In 1898, there was a crop failure in nearby counties, and there was no food left in the villages. Tolstoy personally toured the houses and found out where the situation was most difficult. After this, grocery lists were compiled and distributed to families. In Yasnaya Polyana itself, hot meals were prepared and lunches were distributed twice a day. The authorities did not like all this very much, and they even began to monitor Tolstoy’s actions.
He was treated with kumiss and walked long distances
Photo from 1876.
During one of the periods of reflection about his life, the writer found his condition not entirely healthy and diagnosed himself with “melancholy and indifference.” Following the fashion of that time, he began to be treated with kumiss. He liked the method, and he even bought himself a house next to the kumiss clinic. This place subsequently became an annual vacation spot for the whole family.
Three times Tolstoy undertook long-distance hikes. The road gave the count time to think, allowed him to focus on what was important and explore his inner world. He walked from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana. The distance between them was 200 kilometers. Tolstoy first went on such a journey in 1886, and he was 58 years old at that time.
Driven his wife to a mental breakdown
Sofia Tolstaya.
Peaceful life in the family of Lev Nikolaevich and Sofia Andreevna was under attack at the moment when the count became infected with the idea of renouncing copyrights to all his works and selling all his property. The spouses did not see eye to eye on life principles and foundations. Tolstoy sought to give away all the benefits and live a poor life, and his wife was very worried that their descendants would remain on the street and lead a miserable existence.
Because of her worries, she became not herself, constantly eavesdropping on the count’s conversations and spying on his actions. After Tolstoy announced to everyone his intentions to be closer to the common people, to distribute property and renounce the right to his works, Sofya Andreevna expected that Tolstoy would express these thoughts in his will, making them his last will. In addition to spying on the writer himself, at any convenient moment she checked his office, rummaged through documents and papers, trying to find confirmation of this expression of will. On this basis, she developed a persecution mania and developed obsessive ideas.
In the summer of 1910, the count's wife began to have hysterics and fits, and she had practically no control over herself. Doctors called to Yasnaya Polyana diagnosed her with “a degenerative double constitution: paranoid and hysterical, with a predominance of the first.”
Last trip of 10 days
Tolstoy tells a tale about a cucumber to his grandchildren Ilyusha and Sonya, 1909, Krekshino, photo by V.G. Chertkova.
The cold turned into pneumonia, Leo Tolstoy died three days later in the house of the head of the railway station.
Since then, the city of Leo Tolstoy has appeared in the Lipetsk region, and the time on the ancient clock of the station has stopped, it always shows 6 hours 5 minutes - it was at this time that the writer died on November 7 (20), 1910.
Sofya Andreevna was unable to say goodbye to her husband in a human way; she was allowed to see him only when the count was already unconscious.
Leaving home with a small suitcase, Leo Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana in a wooden coffin. His last journey lasted 10 days.
