Tolstoy was left without parents early on. Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich

Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on August 28, 1828 on his father's estate Yasnaya Polyana, in the Tula province. Thick - old Russian noble surname; one representative of this family, the head of Peter's secret police Peter Tolstoy, was promoted to count. Tolstoy's mother was born Princess Volkonskaya. His father and mother served as prototypes for Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya in War and Peace(see summary and analysis of this novel). They belonged to the highest Russian aristocracy, and their family affiliation with the upper stratum of the ruling class sharply distinguishes Tolstoy from other writers of his time. He never forgot about her (even when this realization of his became completely negative), always remained an aristocrat and kept aloof from the intelligentsia.

Leo Tolstoy spent his childhood and adolescence between Moscow and Yasnaya Polyana, in a large family with several brothers. He left unusually vivid memories of his early surroundings, of his relatives and servants, in wonderful autobiographical notes, which he wrote for his biographer P.I. Biryukov. His mother died when he was two years old, his father when he was nine years old. His further upbringing was in charge of his aunt, Mademoiselle Ergolskaya, who presumably served as the prototype for Sonya in War and Peace.

Leo Tolstoy in his youth. Photo from 1848

In 1844, Tolstoy entered Kazan University, where he first studied oriental languages ​​and then law, but in 1847 he left the university without receiving a diploma. In 1849, he settled in Yasnaya Polyana, where he tried to become useful to his peasants, but soon realized that his efforts were of no use because he lacked knowledge. During his student years and after leaving the university, he, as was common among young people of his class, led a chaotic life filled with the pursuit of pleasure - wine, cards, women - somewhat similar to the life that Pushkin led before exile to the south. But Tolstoy was unable to accept life as it is with a light heart. From the very beginning, his diary (existing since 1847) testifies to an unquenchable thirst for mental and moral justification of life, a thirst that forever remained the guiding force of his thought. This same diary was the first experience in developing that technique of psychological analysis, which later became Tolstoy’s main literary weapon. His first attempt to try himself in a more purposeful and creative kind writing dates back to 1851.

The tragedy of Leo Tolstoy. Documentary

In the same year, disgusted with his empty and useless Moscow life, he went to the Caucasus to join the Terek Cossacks, where he joined the garrison artillery as a cadet (junker means a volunteer, a volunteer, but of noble birth). On next year(1852) he finished his first story ( Childhood) and sent it to Nekrasov for publication in Contemporary. Nekrasov immediately accepted it and wrote about it to Tolstoy in very encouraging tones. The story was an immediate success, and Tolstoy immediately rose to prominence in literature.

At the battery, Leo Tolstoy led a rather easy and unburdensome life as a cadet with means; the place to stay was also nice. He had a lot of free time, most of which he spent hunting. In the few fights in which he had to participate, he performed very well. In 1854 he received an officer's rank and, at his request, was transferred to the army fighting the Turks in Wallachia (see Crimean War), where he took part in the siege of Silistria. In the autumn of the same year he joined the Sevastopol garrison. There Tolstoy saw a real war. He took part in the defense of the famous Fourth Bastion and in the Battle of the Black River and ridiculed bad command in a satirical song - the only work of his in verse known to us. In Sevastopol he wrote famous Sevastopol stories that appeared in Contemporary, when the siege of Sevastopol was still ongoing, which greatly increased interest in their author. Soon after leaving Sevastopol, Tolstoy went on vacation to St. Petersburg and Moscow, and the next year he left the army.

Only in these years, after the Crimean War, did Tolstoy communicate with literary world. The writers of St. Petersburg and Moscow greeted him as an outstanding master and brother. As he later admitted, success greatly flattered his vanity and pride. But he did not get along with the writers. He was too much of an aristocrat for this semi-bohemian intelligentsia to please him. They were too awkward plebeians for him, and they were indignant that he clearly preferred the light to their company. On this occasion, he and Turgenev exchanged caustic epigrams. On the other hand, his very mentality was not to the heart of progressive Westerners. He did not believe in progress or culture. In addition, his dissatisfaction with the literary world intensified due to the fact that his new works disappointed them. Everything he wrote after childhood, did not show any movement towards innovation and development, and Tolstoy's critics failed to understand the experimental value of these imperfect works (see the article Tolstoy's Early Work for more details). All this contributed to his cessation of relations with the literary world. The culmination was a noisy quarrel with Turgenev (1861), whom he challenged to a duel, and then apologized for it. This whole story is very typical, and it revealed the character of Leo Tolstoy, with his hidden embarrassment and sensitivity to insults, with his intolerance for the imaginary superiority of other people. The only writers with whom he maintained friendly relations were the reactionary and “land lord” Fet (in whose house the quarrel with Turgenev broke out) and the Slavophile democrat Strakhov- people who were completely unsympathetic to the main trend of progressive thought of that time.

Tolstoy spent the years 1856–1861 between St. Petersburg, Moscow, Yasnaya Polyana and abroad. He traveled abroad in 1857 (and again in 1860–1861) and learned from there disgust at the selfishness and materialism of European society. bourgeois civilization. In 1859 he opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana and in 1862 began publishing a pedagogical magazine Yasnaya Polyana, in which he surprised the progressive world with the assertion that it is not the intellectuals who should teach the peasants, but rather the peasants who should teach the intellectuals. In 1861 he accepted the post of mediator, a post created to oversee the implementation of the emancipation of the peasants. But an unsatisfied thirst for moral strength continued to torment him. He abandoned the revelry of his youth and began to think about marriage. In 1856, he made his first unsuccessful attempt to marry (Arsenyeva). In 1860, he was deeply shocked by the death of his brother Nicholas - this was his first encounter with the inevitable reality of death. Finally, in 1862, after much hesitation (he was convinced that since he was old - thirty-four years old! - and ugly, no woman would love him), Tolstoy proposed to Sofya Andreevna Bers, and it was accepted. They got married in September of that year.

Marriage is one of the two main milestones in Tolstoy's life; the second milestone was his appeal. He was always haunted by one concern - how to justify his life before his conscience and achieve lasting moral well-being. When he was a bachelor, he oscillated between two opposing desires. The first was a passionate and hopeless striving for that integral and unreasoning, “natural” state that he found among the peasants and especially among the Cossacks, in whose village he lived in the Caucasus: this state does not strive for self-justification, for it is free from self-consciousness, this justification demanding. He tried to find such an unquestioning state in conscious submission to animal impulses, in the lives of his friends and (and here he was closest to achieving it) in his favorite pastime - hunting. But he was unable to be satisfied with this forever, and another equally passionate desire - to find a rational justification for life - led him astray every time it seemed to him that he had already achieved contentment with himself. Marriage was his gateway to a more stable and lasting “state of nature.” It was a self-justification of life and a solution to a painful problem. Family life, its unreasoning acceptance and submission to it, henceforth became his religion.

For the first fifteen years of his married life, Tolstoy lived in a blissful state of contented vegetation, with a pacified conscience and a hushed need for higher rational justification. The philosophy of this plant conservatism is expressed with enormous creative force in War and Peace(see summary and analysis of this novel). He was extremely happy in his family life. Sofya Andreevna, almost still a girl when he married her, easily became what he wanted to make her; he explained his new philosophy to her, and she was its indestructible stronghold and unchanging guardian, which ultimately led to the disintegration of the family. The writer's wife turned out to be ideal wife, mother and mistress of the house. In addition, she became a devoted assistant to her husband in literary work - everyone knows that she rewrote seven times War and Peace from the beginning to the end. She gave birth to Tolstoy many sons and daughters. She didn't have personal life: she completely disappeared into family life.

Thanks to Tolstoy's prudent management of estates (Yasnaya Polyana was simply a place of residence; income was generated by a large Trans-Volga estate) and the sale of his works, the family's fortune increased, as did the family itself. But Tolstoy, although absorbed and satisfied with his self-justifying life, although he glorified it with unsurpassed artistic power in his best novel, was still not able to completely dissolve in family life, as his wife dissolved. “Life in Art” also did not absorb him as much as his brothers. The worm of moral thirst, although reduced to a tiny size, never died. Tolstoy was constantly concerned with questions and demands of morality. In 1866 he defended (unsuccessfully) before a military court a soldier accused of striking an officer. In 1873 he published articles on public education, on the basis of which the astute critic Mikhailovsky was able to predict the further development of his ideas.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is the greatest Russian writer, writer, one of the world's greatest writers, thinker, educator, publicist, corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Thanks to him, not only works appeared that are included in the treasury of world literature, but also an entire religious and moral movement - Tolstoyism.

Tolstoy was born on the Yasnaya Polyana estate, located in the Tula province, on September 9 (August 28, O.S.) 1828. Being the fourth child in the family of Count N.I. Tolstoy and Princess M.N. Volkonskaya, Lev was left an orphan early and was raised by a distant relative T. A. Ergolskaya. Childhood years remained in the memory of Lev Nikolaevich as a happy time. Together with his family, 13-year-old Tolstoy moved to Kazan, where his relative and new guardian P.I. lived. Yushkova. After receiving home education, Tolstoy became a student at the Faculty of Philosophy (Department of Oriental Languages) at Kazan University. Studying within the walls of this institution lasted less than two years, after which Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana.

In the fall of 1847, Leo Tolstoy moved first to Moscow, and later to St. Petersburg to take university candidate exams. These years of his life were special, priorities and hobbies replaced each other like in a kaleidoscope. Intense study gave way to revelry, gambling in cards, a passionate interest in music. Tolstoy either wanted to become an official, or saw himself as a cadet in a horse guards regiment. At this time, he incurred a lot of debts, which he managed to pay off only after many years. Nevertheless, this period helped Tolstoy better understand himself and see his shortcomings. At this time, for the first time he had a serious intention to engage in literature, he began to try himself in artistic creativity.

Four years after leaving the university, Leo Tolstoy succumbed to the persuasion of his older brother Nikolai, an officer, to leave for the Caucasus. The decision did not come immediately, but a large loss in cards contributed to its adoption. In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy found himself in the Caucasus, where for almost three years he lived on the banks of the Terek in Cossack village. Subsequently he was admitted to military service, participated in hostilities. During this period, the first published work appeared: the Sovremennik magazine published the story “Childhood” in 1852. It was part of a planned autobiographical novel, for which the stories “Adolescence” (1852-1854) and composed in 1855-1857 were subsequently written. "Youth"; Tolstoy never wrote the “Youth” part.

Having received an appointment in Bucharest, in the Danube Army, in 1854, Tolstoy, at his personal request, was transferred to the Crimean Army, fought as a battery commander in besieged Sevastopol, receiving medals and the Order of St. for valor. Anna. The war did not prevent him from continuing his studies in the literary field: it was here that he was written throughout 1855-1856. “Sevastopol Stories” were published in Sovremennik, which had enormous success and secured Tolstoy’s reputation as a prominent representative of the new generation of writers.

As the great hope of Russian literature, as Nekrasov put it, he was greeted in the Sovremennik circle when he arrived in St. Petersburg in the fall of 1855. Despite the warm welcome, active participation in readings, discussions, and dinners, Tolstoy did not feel like he belonged in the literary environment. In the fall of 1856, he retired and after a short stay in Yasnaya Polyana, he went abroad in 1857, but in the fall of that year he returned to Moscow, and then to his estate. Disappointment in the literary community social life, dissatisfaction creative achievements led to the fact that at the end of the 50s. Tolstoy decides to leave writing and gives priority to activities in the field of education.

Returning to Yasnaya Polyana in 1859, he opened a school for peasant children. This activity aroused such enthusiasm in him that he even made a special trip abroad to study advanced pedagogical systems. In 1862, the count began publishing the Yasnaya Polyana magazine with pedagogical content with supplements in the form of children's books for reading. Educational activities were suspended due to important event in his biography - his marriage in 1862 to S.A. Bers. After the wedding, Lev Nikolaevich moved his young wife from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana, where he was completely absorbed in family life and household chores. Only in the early 70s. he will briefly return to educational work, write “The ABC” and “The New ABC.”

In the fall of 1863, he conceived the idea of ​​a novel, which in 1865 would be published in the Russian Bulletin as “War and Peace” (the first part). The work caused a huge resonance; the skill with which Tolstoy painted a large-scale epic canvas, combining it with amazing accuracy with psychological analysis, and entered the private lives of the heroes into the outline did not escape the public. historical events. Lev Nikolaevich wrote the epic novel until 1869, and during 1873-1877. worked on another novel that was included in the golden fund of world literature - “Anna Karenina”.

Both of these works glorified Tolstoy as greatest artist words, but the author himself in the 80s. loses interest in literary work. A very serious change occurs in his soul and in his worldview, and during this period the thought of suicide comes to him more than once. The doubts and questions that tormented him led to the need to begin with the study of theology, and works of a philosophical and religious nature began to appear from his pen: in 1879-1880 - “Confession”, “Study of Dogmatic Theology”; in 1880-1881 - “Connection and translation of the Gospels”, in 1882-1884. - “What is my faith?” In parallel with theology, Tolstoy studied philosophy and analyzed the achievements of the exact sciences.

Outwardly, the change in his consciousness manifested itself in simplification, i.e. in refusing the opportunities of a prosperous life. The Count dresses in common clothes, refuses food of animal origin, the rights to his works and his fortune in favor of the rest of the family, and works a lot physically. His worldview is characterized by a sharp rejection of the social elite, the idea of ​​statehood, serfdom and bureaucracy. They are combined with the famous slogan of non-resistance to evil by violence, the ideas of forgiveness and universal love.

The turning point was also reflected in Tolstoy’s literary work, which takes on the character of denouncing the existing state of affairs with a call on people to act according to the dictates of reason and conscience. His stories “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”, “The Devil”, dramas “The Power of Darkness” and “Fruits of Enlightenment”, and the treatise “What is Art?” belong to this time. Eloquent evidence of a critical attitude towards the clergy, the official church and its teachings was the novel “Resurrection” published in 1899. Complete divergence from the position of the Orthodox Church resulted in Tolstoy’s official excommunication from it; this happened in February 1901, and the decision of the Synod led to a loud public outcry.

On turn of the 19th century and 20th centuries V works of art Tolstoy’s theme is dominated by the theme of radical life changes, departure from the previous way of life (“Father Sergius”, “Hadji Murat”, “The Living Corpse”, “After the Ball”, etc.). Lev Nikolaevich himself also came to the decision to change lifestyle, to live the way he wanted, in accordance with current views. Being the most authoritative writer, head national literature, he breaks with his environment, worsens relationships with his family and loved ones, experiencing a deep personal drama.

At the age of 82, secretly from his household, on an autumn night in 1910, Tolstoy left Yasnaya Polyana; his companion was his personal physician Makovitsky. On the way, the writer was overtaken by illness, as a result of which they were forced to get off the train at Astapovo station. Here he was sheltered by the station chief, and the last week of the life of a world-famous writer, known among other things as a preacher of a new teaching and a religious thinker, passed in his house. The whole country monitored his health, and when he died on November 20 (November 7, O.S.), 1910, his funeral turned into an all-Russian event.

The influence of Tolstoy, his ideological platform and artistic style on the development of the realistic trend in world literature is difficult to overestimate. In particular, its influence can be traced in the works of E. Hemingway, F. Mauriac, Rolland, B. Shaw, T. Mann, J. Galsworthy and other prominent literary figures.

Count, great Russian writer.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 in the estate of the Krapivensky district of the Tula province (now in) in the family of a retired captain-captain Count N. I. Tolstoy (1794-1837), participant Patriotic War 1812.

L. N. Tolstoy received home education. In 1844-1847 he studied at Kazan University, but did not complete the course. In 1851, he went to the Caucasus to the village - to the place of military service of his elder brother N.N. Tolstoy.

Two years of living in the Caucasus turned out to be unusually significant for spiritual development writer. The story “Childhood” he wrote here is the first printed work of L. N. Tolstoy (published under the initials L. N. in the Sovremennik magazine in 1852) - together with the stories “Adolescence” (1852-1854) and “Youth” that appeared later "(1855-1857) was part of the extensive plan of the autobiographical novel "Four Epochs of Development", the last part of which - "Youth" - was never written.

In 1851-1853, L.N. Tolstoy took part in military operations in the Caucasus (first as a volunteer, then as an artillery officer), and in 1854 he was assigned to the Danube Army. Soon after the start of the Crimean War, at his personal request, he was transferred to Sevastopol, during the siege of which he participated in the defense of the 4th bastion. Army life and episodes of the war gave L. N. Tolstoy material for the stories “Raid” (1853), “Forest cutting” (1853-1855), as well as for artistic essays “Sevastopol in December”, “Sevastopol in May”, “ Sevastopol in August 1855" (all published in Sovremennik in 1855-1856). These essays, traditionally called “Sevastopol Stories,” made a huge impression on Russian society.

In 1855, L. N. Tolstoy came to, where he became close to the staff of Sovremennik, met I. A. Goncharov, and others. The years 1856-1859 were marked by the writer’s attempts to find himself in the literary environment, to get comfortable among professionals, assert your creative position. The most striking work of this time is the story “Cossacks” (1853-1863), in which the author’s attraction to folk themes.

Dissatisfied with his work, disappointed in secular and literary circles, L. N. Tolstoy at the turn of the 1860s decided to leave literature and settle in the village. In 1859-1862, he devoted a lot of energy to the school he founded for peasant children, studied the organization of teaching in and abroad, published the pedagogical magazine “Yasnaya Polyana” (1862), preaching a free system of education and upbringing.

In 1862, L. N. Tolstoy married S. A. Bers (1844-1919) and began to live patriarchally and secludedly in his estate as the head of a large and ever-increasing family. During the years of peasant reform, he served as a peace mediator for the Krapivensky district, resolving disputes between landowners and their former serfs.

The 1860s were the heyday of the artistic genius of L. N. Tolstoy. Living a sedentary, measured life, he found himself in intense, concentrated spiritual creativity. The original paths mastered by the writer led to a new rise in national culture.

L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” (1863-1869, publication began in 1865) has become a unique phenomenon in Russian and world literature. The author managed to successfully combine depth and sincerity psychological novel with the scope and multi-figure nature of an epic fresco. With his novel, L.N. Tolstoy tried to give an answer to the desire of literature of the 1860s to understand the course of historical process, determine the role of the people in decisive epochs of national life.

In the early 1870s, L.N. Tolstoy again focused on his pedagogical interests. He wrote "ABC" (1871-1872), later - "New ABC" (1874-1875), for which the writer composed original stories and adaptations of fairy tales and fables, which made up four "Russian books for reading." For a while, L.N. Tolstoy returned to teaching at the Yasnaya Polyana school. However, soon symptoms of a crisis in the writer’s moral and philosophical worldview began to appear, aggravated by the historical stoppage of the social turning point of the 1870s.

The central work of L. N. Tolstoy of the 1870s is the novel “Anna Karenina” (1873-1877, published in 1876-1877). Like the novels and, written at the same time, “Anna Karenina” is a highly problematic work, full of signs of the times. The novel was the result of the writer’s thoughts about fate modern society and are imbued with pessimistic sentiments.

By the beginning of the 1880s, L.N. Tolstoy formed the basic principles of his new worldview, which later received the name Tolstoyism. They found their most complete expression in his works “Confession” (1879-1880, published in 1884) and “What is my faith?” (1882-1884). In them, L. N. Tolstoy concluded that the foundations of existence are false upper strata societies with which he was connected by origin, upbringing and life experience. To the writer’s characteristic criticism of materialist and positivist theories of progress, to the apology of naive consciousness is now added a sharp protest against the state and the official church, against the privileges and way of life of his class. Your new ones social views L.N. Tolstoy put it in connection with moral and religious philosophy. The works “Study of Dogmatic Theology” (1879-1880) and “Connection and Translation of the Four Gospels” (1880-1881) laid the foundation for the religious side of Tolstoy’s teaching. Purified from distortions and church rituals, Christian teaching in its updated form should, according to the writer, unite people with the ideas of love and forgiveness. L.N. Tolstoy preached non-resistance to evil through violence, considering the only reasonable means of combating evil to be its public denunciation and passive disobedience to authorities. He saw the path to the future renewal of man and humanity in individual spiritual work, moral improvement of the individual and rejected the importance political struggle and revolutionary explosions.

In the 1880s, L. N. Tolstoy noticeably cooled towards artistic work and even condemned his previous novels and stories as lordly “fun”. He became interested in simple physical labor, plowed, sewed his own boots, and switched to vegetarian food. At the same time, the writer’s dissatisfaction with the usual way of life of his loved ones grew. His journalistic works “So what should we do?” (1882-1886) and “Slavery of Our Time” (1899-1900) sharply criticized the vices of modern civilization, but the author saw a way out of its contradictions primarily in utopian calls for moral and religious self-education. Actually artistic creativity the writer of these years is imbued with journalism, direct denunciations of an unfair trial and modern marriage, land ownership and the church, passionate appeals to the conscience, reason and dignity of people (the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” (1884-1886); “The Kreutzer Sonata” (1887-1889, published in 1891); "The Devil" (1889-1890, published in 1911).

During the same period, L.N. Tolstoy began to show serious interest in dramatic genres. In the drama “The Power of Darkness” (1886) and the comedy “The Fruits of Enlightenment” (1886-1890, published in 1891), he examined the problem of the pernicious influence of urban civilization on conservative rural society. L. N. Tolstoy’s desire to appeal directly to the reader from the people caused the so-called “folk stories” of the 1880s (“How People Live,” “Candle,” “Two Old Men,” “How Much Land Does a Man Need,” etc.), written in the genre of parables, have come to life.

L. N. Tolstoy actively supported the publishing house “Posrednik”, which emerged in 1884, which was led by his followers and friends V. G. Chertkov and I. I. Gorbunov-Posadov and whose goal was to distribute books among the people that served the cause of education and were close to Tolstoy’s teachings . Many of the writer’s works, under censorship conditions, were published first in Geneva, then in London, where, on the initiative of V. G. Chertkov, the Svobodnoe Slovo publishing house was founded. In 1891, 1893 and 1898, L. N. Tolstoy led a broad social movement to help peasants in starving provinces, and issued appeals and articles on measures to combat hunger. In the 2nd half of the 1890s, the writer devoted a lot of effort to protecting religious sectarians - the Molokans and Doukhobors, and facilitated the relocation of the Doukhobors to Canada. (especially in the 1890s) became a place of pilgrimage for people from the farthest corners of Russia and other countries, one of the largest centers of attraction for the living forces of world culture.

The main artistic work of L. N. Tolstoy in the 1890s was the novel “Resurrection” (1889-1899), the plot of which arose on the basis of an authentic court case. In an astonishing combination of circumstances (a young aristocrat, once guilty of seducing a peasant girl raised in a manor house, must now, as a juror, decide her fate in court), the writer expressed the alogism of a life built on social injustice. The cartoonish depiction of church ministers and its rituals in “Resurrection” became one of the reasons for the decision of the Holy Synod to excommunicate L. N. Tolstoy from the Orthodox Church (1901).

During this period, the alienation observed by the writer in his contemporary society makes the problem of personal moral responsibility extremely important for him, with the inevitable pangs of conscience, enlightenment, moral revolution and subsequent break with his environment. The plot of “departure”, a sharp and radical change in life, an appeal to a new faith in life becomes typical (“Father Sergius”, 1890-1898, published in 1912; “The Living Corpse”, 1900, published in 1911; “After the Ball” , 1903, published in 1911; “Posthumous Notes of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich...”, 1905, published in 1912).

IN last decade life of L.N. Tolstoy became the recognized head of Russian literature. He maintains personal relationships with young contemporary writers V. G. Korolenko, A. M. Gorky. His social and journalistic activities continued: his appeals and articles were published, work was carried out on the book “The Reading Circle”. Tolstoyism became widely known as an ideological doctrine, but the writer himself at that time experienced hesitation and doubts about the correctness of his teaching. During the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, his protests against the death penalty became famous (article “I Can’t Be Silent”, 1908).

L.N. Tolstoy spent the last years of his life in an atmosphere of intrigue and discord between the Tolstoyans and members of his family. Trying to bring his lifestyle into agreement with his beliefs, on October 28 (November 10), 1910, the writer secretly left. On the way, he caught a cold and died on November 7 (20), 1910 at the Astapovo station of the Ryazan-Ural Railway (now a village in). The death of L.N. Tolstoy caused a colossal public outcry in and abroad.

The work of L. N. Tolstoy marked new stage in the development of realism in Russian and world literature, became a kind of bridge between the traditions of the classic novel of the 19th century and the literature of the 20th century. The writer's philosophical views had a huge influence on the evolution of European humanism.

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Born in Yasnaya Polyana, Krapivensky district, Tula province, on August 28 (September 9), 1828. Lived in the estate in 1828-1837. Since 1849 he returned to the estate periodically, and since 1862 he lived permanently. He was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.

He first visited Moscow in January 1837. He lived in the city until 1841, subsequently visited several times and lived for a long time. In 1882 he bought a house on Dolgokhamovnichesky Lane, where from then on his family usually spent the winter. Last time came to Moscow in September 1909.

In February-May 1849 he visited St. Petersburg for the first time. Lived in the city in the winter of 1855-1856, visited annually in 1857-1861, and also in 1878. The last time he came to St. Petersburg was in 1897.

He visited Tula several times in 1840-1900. In 1849-1852 he served in the office of the noble assembly. In September 1858 he took part in the congress of the provincial nobility. In February 1868, he was elected as a juror for the Krapivensky district and attended sessions of the Tula District Court.

Owner of the Nikolskoye-Vyazemskoye estate in Chernsky district, Tula province since 1860 (previously belonged to brother N.N. Tolstoy). In the 1860-1870s, he conducted experiments on improving the economy on the estate. The last time I visited the estate was on June 28 (July 11), 1910.

In 1854, the wooden manor house in which L. N. Tolstoy was born was sold and transported from the village of Dolgoye, Krapivensky district, Tula province, which belonged to the landowner P. M. Gorokhov. In 1897, the writer visited the village to buy the house, but due to its dilapidated condition it was considered untransportable.

In the 1860s, he organized a school in the village of Kolpna, Krapivensky district, Tula province (now within the city of Shchekino). On July 21 (August 2), 1894, he visited the mine of the joint-stock company “Partnership R. Gill” at the Yasenki station. On October 28 (November 10), 1910, the day he left, he took the train at Yasenki station (now in Shchekino).

He lived in the village of Starogladovskaya, Kizlyar district, Terek region, the location of the 20th artillery brigade, from May 1851 to January 1854. In January 1852, he was enlisted as a fireworksman of the 4th class in battery No. 4 of the 20th artillery brigade. On February 1 (February 13), 1852, in the village of Starogladovskaya, with the help of his friends S. Miserbiev and B. Isaev, he wrote down the words of two Chechen folk songs with the translation. The records of L. N. Tolstoy are recognized as “the first in time written monument Chechen language"and "the first experience of recording Chechen folklore in the local language."

I visited the Grozny fortress for the first time on July 5 (17), 1851. He visited the commander of the left flank of the Caucasian line, Prince A.I. Baryatinsky, to obtain permission to participate in hostilities. Subsequently he visited Grozny in September 1851 and February 1853.

First visited Pyatigorsk on May 16 (28), 1852. Lived in Kabardinskaya Slobodka. On July 4 (16), 1852, he sent the manuscript of the novel “Childhood” from Pyatigorsk to the editor of the Sovremennik magazine. On August 5 (17), 1852, he left Pyatigorsk for the village. He visited Pyatigorsk again in August - October 1853.

Visited Orel three times. On January 9-10 (21-22), 1856, he visited his brother D.N. Tolstoy, who was dying of consumption. On March 7 (19), 1885, I was passing through the city on my way to the Maltsev estate. On September 25-27 (October 7-9), 1898, he visited the Oryol provincial prison while working on the novel “Resurrection.”

In the period from October 1891 to July 1893, he came several times to the village of Begichevka, Dankovsky district, Ryazan province (now Begichevo), the estate of I. I. Raevsky. In the village he organized a center to help starving peasants of Dankovsky and Epifansky districts. The last time L.N. Tolstoy left Begichevka was on July 18 (30), 1893.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 on his mother’s estate Yasnaya Polyana, Krapivensky district, Tula province. Tolstoy's family belonged to a wealthy and noble count family. By the time Lev was born, the family already had three older sons: Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergei (1826 -1904) and Dmitry (1827 - 1856), and in 1830 Lev’s younger sister Maria was born.

A few years later, the mother died. In Tolstoy’s autobiographical “Childhood,” Irtenyev’s mother dies when the boy is 10–12 years old and is fully conscious. However, the portrait of the mother is described by the writer exclusively from the stories of his relatives. After the death of their mother, the orphaned children were taken in by a distant relative, T. A. Ergolskaya. She is represented by Sonya from War and Peace.

In 1837, the family moved to Moscow because... older brother Nikolai needed to prepare to enter university. But a tragedy suddenly occurred in the family - the father died, leaving affairs in poor condition. The three youngest children were forced to return to Yasnaya Polyana to be raised by T. A. Ergolskaya and their father’s aunt, Countess A. M. Osten-Saken. Here Leo Tolstoy remained until 1840. This year Countess A. M. Osten-Saken died and the children were moved to Kazan to live with their father’s sister P. I. Yushkova. L. N. Tolstoy quite accurately conveyed this period of his life in his autobiography “Childhood.”

At the first stage, Tolstoy received his education under the guidance of a rude French tutor, Saint-Thomas. He is depicted by a certain Mr. Jerome from Boyhood. He was later replaced by the good-natured German Reselman. Lev Nikolaevich lovingly portrayed him in “Childhood” under the name of Karl Ivanovich.

In 1843, following his brother, Tolstoy entered Kazan University. There, until 1847, Leo Tolstoy was preparing to enter the only Oriental Faculty in Russia in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. During his year of study, Tolstoy proved himself to be the best student of this course. However, between the poet’s family and the teacher Russian history and German, by a certain Ivanov, there was a conflict. This entailed that, according to the results of the year, L.N. Tolstoy had poor performance in the relevant subjects and had to re-take the first-year program. To avoid a complete repetition of the course, the poet is transferred to the Faculty of Law. But even there, problems with the German and Russian teacher continue. Soon Tolstoy loses all interest in studying.

In the spring of 1847, Lev Nikolaevich left the university and settled in Yasnaya Polyana. Everything that Tolstoy did in the village can be found out by reading “The Morning of the Landowner,” where the poet imagines himself in the role of Nekhlyudov. There a lot of time was spent on carousing, games and hunting.

In the spring of 1851, on the advice of his older brother Nikolai, in order to reduce expenses and pay off debts, Lev Nikolaevich left for the Caucasus.

In the fall of 1851, he became a cadet of the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladov near Kizlyar. Soon L.N. Tolstoy became an officer. When the Crimean War began at the end of 1853, Lev Nikolaevich transferred to the Danube Army and participated in the battles of Oltenitsa and Silistria. From November 1854 to August 1855 he took part in the defense of Sevastopol. After the assault on August 27, 1855, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was sent to St. Petersburg. A noisy life began there: drinking parties, cards and carousing with gypsies.

In St. Petersburg, L.N. Tolstoy met the staff of the Sovremennik magazine: N.A. Nekrasov, I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharov, N.G. Chernyshevsky.

At the beginning of 1857, Tolstoy went abroad. He spends a year and a half traveling around Germany, Switzerland, England, Italy, and France. Traveling does not bring him pleasure. He expressed his disappointment with European life in the story “Lucerne.” And returning to Russia, Lev Nikolaevich began improving schools in Yasnaya Polyana.

At the end of the 1850s, Tolstoy met Sofia Andreevna Bers, born in 1844, the daughter of a Moscow doctor from the Baltic Germans. He was almost 40 years old, and Sophia was only 17. It seemed to him that this difference was too great and sooner or later Sophia would fall in love with a young guy who had not outlived himself. These experiences of Lev Nikolaevich are set out in his first novel, “Family Happiness.”

In September 1862, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy nevertheless married 18-year-old Sofya Andreevna Bers. During their 17 years of marriage, they had 13 children. During the same period, War and Peace and Anna Karenina were created. In 1861-62 finishes his story “Cossacks”, the first of the works in which great talent Tolstoy was recognized as a genius.

In the early 70s, Tolstoy again showed interest in pedagogy, wrote “The ABC” and “The New ABC”, and composed fables and stories that made up four “Russian books for reading.”

To answer the questions and doubts of a religious nature that tormented him, Lev Nikolaevich began to study theology. In 1891 in Geneva, the writer writes and publishes “A Study of Dogmatic Theology,” in which he criticizes Bulgakov’s “Orthodox Dogmatic Theology.” He first began to have conversations with priests and monarchs, read Bogoslav tracts, and studied ancient Greek and Hebrew. Tolstoy meets schismatics and joins the sectarian peasants.

At the beginning of 1900 The Holy Synod excommunicated Lev Nikolaevich from the Orthodox Church. L.N. Tolstoy lost all interest in life, he was tired of enjoying the prosperity he had achieved, and the thought of suicide arose. He becomes interested in simple physical labor, becomes a vegetarian, gives his entire income to his family, and renounces literary property rights.

On November 10, 1910, Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana, but on the way he became very ill. On November 20, 1910, at the Astapovo station of the Ryazan-Ural Railway, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy died.

Biography, life story of Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich

Origin

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

Tolstoy's maternal grandfather, Catherine's general, Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, bore some resemblance to the stern rigorist old Prince Bolkonsky in War and Peace. Lev Nikolaevich's mother, similar in some respects to Princess Marya depicted in War and Peace, had a remarkable gift for storytelling.

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

CONTINUED BELOW

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

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

The Yushkov house was one of the most fun in Kazan; all family members highly valued external shine. “My good aunt,” says Tolstoy, “a pure being, always said that she would want nothing more for me than for me to have a relationship with a married woman.”

He wanted to shine in society, but his natural shyness and lack of external attractiveness hampered him. The most varied, as Tolstoy himself defines them, “philosophies” about the most important questions of our existence - happiness, death, God, love, eternity - painfully tormented him in that era of life. What he told in “Adolescence” and “Youth” about the aspirations of Irtenyev and Nekhlyudov for self-improvement was taken by Tolstoy from the history of his own ascetic attempts of this time. All this led to the fact that Tolstoy developed a “habit of constant moral analysis,” which, as it seemed to him, “destroyed the freshness of feeling and clarity of reason” (“Adolescence”).

Education

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

In 1841, P.I. Yushkova, taking on the role of guardian of her minor nephews (only the eldest, Nikolai, was an adult) and niece, brought them to Kazan. Following the brothers Nikolai, Dmitry and Sergei, Lev decided to enter the Imperial Kazan University, where Lobachevsky worked at the Faculty of Mathematics, and Kovalevsky worked at the Eastern Faculty. On October 3, 1844, Leo Tolstoy was enrolled as a student in the category of oriental literature as a student. In the entrance exams, in particular, he showed excellent results in the “Turkish-Tatar language” required for admission.

Due to a conflict between his family and a teacher of Russian and general history and history of philosophy, Professor N.A. Ivanov, at the end of the year had poor performance in the relevant subjects and had to re-take the first-year program. To avoid repeating the course completely, he transferred to the Faculty of Law, where his problems with grades in Russian history and German continued. Leo Tolstoy spent less than two years at the Faculty of Law: “Every education imposed by others was always difficult for him, and everything he learned in life, he learned himself, suddenly, quickly, with intense work,” writes Tolstaya in her “Materials for biography of L. N. Tolstoy." In 1904 he recalled: “ ...for the first year...I did nothing. In the second year I began to study... there was Professor Meyer, who... gave me a work - a comparison of Catherine’s “Order” with Montesquieu’s “Esprit des lois”. ... this work fascinated me, I went to the village, began to read Montesquieu, this reading opened up endless horizons for me; I started reading Rousseau and dropped out of university precisely because I wanted to study».

While in the Kazan hospital, he began to keep a diary, where, imitating, he set goals and rules for self-improvement and noted successes and failures in completing these tasks, analyzed his shortcomings and train of thoughts, the motives of his actions.

In 1845, L.N. Tolstoy had a godson in Kazan. On November 11 (23), according to other sources - November 22 (December 4), 1845, in the Kazan Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, the 18-year-old Jewish cantonist of the Kazan battalions of military cantonists Zalman was baptized under the name Luka Tolstoy ("Zelman") Kagan, godfather whose documents listed a student of the Imperial Kazan University, Count L.N. Tolstoy. Before this - on September 25 (October 7), 1845 - his brother, a student at the Imperial Kazan University, Count D. N. Tolstoy became the successor of the 18-year-old Jewish cantonist Nukhim (“Nokhim”) Beser, baptized (with the name Nikolai Dmitriev) archimandrite Kazan Assumption (Zilantov) Monastery by Gabriel (V.N. Voskresensky).

Start literary activity

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

His attempt to somehow atone for the guilt of the nobility before the people dates back to the same year when Grigorovich’s “Anton the Miserable” and the beginning of Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter” appeared.

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

Having left for St. Petersburg in February 1849, he spends time in revelry with K. A. Islavin, his uncle future wife(“My love for Islavin ruined 8 whole months of my life in St. Petersburg”); in the spring he began taking the exam to become a candidate of rights; He passed two exams, from criminal law and criminal proceedings, successfully, but he did not take the third exam and went to the village.

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

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

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

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

After leaving the university, 4 years passed when Lev Nikolayevich’s brother Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, came to Yasnaya Polyana and invited his younger brother to join military service in the Caucasus. Lev did not immediately agree, until a major loss in Moscow accelerated the final decision. The writer's biographers note significant and positive influence brother Nikolai on the young and inexperienced Leo in everyday affairs. In the absence of his parents, his older brother was his friend and mentor.

To pay off his debts, it was necessary to reduce his expenses to a minimum - and in the spring of 1851, Tolstoy hastily left Moscow for the Caucasus without a specific goal. Soon he decided to enlist in military service, but obstacles arose in the form of a lack of necessary papers, which were difficult to obtain, and Tolstoy lived for about 5 months in complete solitude in Pyatigorsk, in a simple hut. He spent a significant part of his time hunting, in the company of the Cossack Epishka, the prototype of one of the heroes of the story “Cossacks”, who appears there under the name Eroshka.

In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy, having passed the exam in Tiflis, entered the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladov, on the banks of the Terek, near Kizlyar, as a cadet. With a slight change in details, she is depicted in all her semi-wild originality in “Cossacks”. The same “Cossacks” also convey a picture of the inner life of a young gentleman who fled from Moscow life.

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

The relatively late start of his career is very characteristic of Tolstoy: he never considered himself a professional writer, understanding professionalism not in the sense of a profession that provides a means of living, but in the sense of the predominance of literary interests. He did not take the interests of literary parties to heart, and was reluctant to talk about literature, preferring to talk about issues of faith, morality, and social relations.

Military career

Having received the manuscript of “Childhood,” the editor of Sovremennik, Nekrasov, immediately recognized its literary value and wrote a kind letter to the author, which had a very encouraging effect on him.

Meanwhile, the encouraged author sets about continuing the tetralogy “Four Epochs of Development,” the last part of which, “Youth,” never materialized. Plans for “The Morning of the Landowner” (the completed story was only a fragment of “The Romance of a Russian Landowner”), “The Raid”, and “The Cossacks” are swarming in his head. “Childhood,” published in Sovremennik on September 18, 1852, signed with the modest initials L.N., was extremely successful; the author immediately began to be ranked among the luminaries of the young literary school along with Turgenev, Goncharov, Grigorovich, Ostrovsky, who already enjoyed great literary fame. Criticism - Apollo Grigoriev, Annenkov, Druzhinin, Chernyshevsky - appreciated the depth of psychological analysis, the seriousness of the author's intentions, and the bright salience of realism.

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

Tolstoy lived for a long time on the dangerous 4th bastion, commanded a battery at the Battle of Chernaya, and was present during the bombardment during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan. Despite all the horrors of the siege, Tolstoy wrote at this time the story “Cutting the Forest,” which reflected Caucasian impressions, and the first of three “ Sevastopol stories" - "Sevastopol in December 1854." He sent this story to Sovremennik. Immediately printed, the story was read with interest throughout Russia and made a stunning impression with the picture of the horrors that befell the defenders of Sevastopol. The story was noticed by Emperor Alexander II; he ordered to take care of the gifted officer.

For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anne with the inscription “For Honor,” medals “For the Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855” and “In Memory of the War of 1853-1856.” Surrounded by the brilliance of fame, enjoying the reputation of a brave officer, Tolstoy had every chance of a career, but he ruined it for himself by writing several satirical songs, stylized as soldiers' songs. One of them is dedicated to the failure of the military operation on August 4 (16), 1855, when General Read, misunderstanding the order of the commander-in-chief, attacked the Fedyukhin Heights. The song entitled “Like the fourth, the mountains carried us hard to take away,” which affected a number of important generals, was a huge success. Leo Tolstoy answered for her to the assistant chief of staff A. A. Yakimakh. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (September 8), Tolstoy was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he completed “Sevastopol in May 1855.” and wrote “Sevastopol in August 1855,” published in the first issue of Sovremennik for 1856 with the author’s full signature.

“Sevastopol Stories” finally strengthened his reputation as a representative of the new literary generation, and in November 1856 the writer parted with military service forever.

Traveling around Europe

In St. Petersburg he was warmly welcomed in high society salons and literary circles; He became especially close friends with Turgenev, with whom he lived in the same apartment for some time. The latter introduced him to the Sovremennik circle, after which Tolstoy established friendly relations with Nekrasov, Goncharov, Panaev, Grigorovich, Druzhinin, Sollogub.

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

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

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

Lev Nikolaevich writes the story “Albert”. At the same time, his friends never cease to be amazed at his eccentricities: in his letter to I. S. Turgenev in the fall of 1857, P. V. Annenkov tells of Tolstoy’s project to plant forests throughout Russia, and in his letter to V. P. Botkin, Leo Tolstoy reports how very happy he was the fact that he did not become only a writer, contrary to Turgenev’s advice. However, in the interval between the first and second trips, the writer continued to work on “Cossacks”, wrote the story “Three Deaths” and the novel “Family Happiness”.

His last novel was published in “Russian Bulletin” by Mikhail Katkov. Tolstoy's collaboration with the Sovremennik magazine, which lasted from 1852, ended in 1859. In the same year, Tolstoy took part in organizing the Literary Fund. But his life does not end literary interests: On December 22, 1858, he almost died on a bear hunt. Around the same time, he began an affair with the peasant woman Aksinya, and plans for marriage were ripening.

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

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

The stories and essays he wrote in the late 1850s include “Lucerne” and “Three Deaths.” Gradually, criticism for 10-12 years, before the appearance of “War and Peace,” cooled towards Tolstoy, and he himself did not strive for rapprochement with writers, making an exception for Afanasy Fet.

One of the reasons for this alienation was the quarrel between Leo Tolstoy and Turgenev, which occurred while both prose writers were visiting Fet on the Stepanovo estate in May 1861. The quarrel almost ended in a duel and ruined the relationship between the writers for 17 long years.

Treatment in the Bashkir nomadic camp Karalyk

In 1862, Lev Nikolaevich was treated with kumis in the Samara province. Initially, I wanted to be treated at Postnikov’s kumiss hospital near Samara, but due to the large number of vacationers, I went to the Bashkir nomadic camp Karalyk, on the Karalyk River, 130 versts from Samara. There he lived in a Bashkir tent (yurt), ate lamb, basked in the sun, drank kumiss, tea and played checkers with the Bashkirs. The first time he stayed there for a month and a half. In 1871, Lev Nikolaevich came again due to deteriorating health. Lev Nikolaevich lived not in the village itself, but in a tent near it. He wrote: “The melancholy and indifference have passed, I feel myself returning to the Scythian state, and everything is interesting and new... Much is new and interesting: the Bashkirs, who smell of Herodotus, and Russian men, and villages, especially charming in the simplicity and kindness of the people.” . In 1871, having fallen in love with this region, he bought from Colonel N.P. Tuchkov an estate in the Buzuluk district of the Samara province, near the villages of Gavrilovka and Patrovka (now Alekseevsky district), in the amount of 2,500 acres for 20,000 rubles. Lev Nikolaevich spent the summer of 1872 on his estate. A few fathoms from the house there was a felt tent in which lived the family of the Bashkir Muhammad Shah, who made kumiss for Lev Nikolaevich and his guests. In general, Lev Nikolaevich visited Karalyk 10 times in 20 years.

Pedagogical activity

Tolstoy returned to Russia shortly after the liberation of the peasants and became a peace mediator. Unlike those who looked at the people as a younger brother who needed to be raised to their level, Tolstoy thought, on the contrary, that the people were infinitely higher than the cultural classes and that the gentlemen needed to borrow the heights of spirit from the peasants. He actively began setting up schools in his Yasnaya Polyana and throughout the Krapivensky district.

The Yasnaya Polyana school belonged to the number of original pedagogical attempts: in the era of admiration for the German pedagogical school, Tolstoy resolutely rebelled against any regulation and discipline in the school. In his opinion, everything in teaching should be individual - both the teacher and the student, and their mutual relationships. At the Yasnaya Polyana school, the children sat where they wanted, as much as they wanted, and as they wanted. There was no specific teaching program. The teacher's only job was to get the class interested. The classes went well. They were led by Tolstoy himself with the help of several regular teachers and several random ones, from his closest acquaintances and visitors.

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

Soon Tolstoy left teaching. Marriage, the birth of his own children, plans related to writing the novel “War and Peace” push back his pedagogical activities by ten years. Only in the early 1870s did he begin to create his own “ABC” and publish it in 1872, and then release “ New alphabet"and a series of four "Russian books for reading", approved as a result of long ordeals by the Ministry of Public Education as aids for elementary educational institutions. Classes at the Yasnaya Polyana school resume briefly.

It is known that the Yasnaya Polyana school had a certain influence on other domestic teachers. For example, it was S. T. Shatsky who initially took it as a model when creating his own school “Cheerful Life” in 1911.

Acting as a defense attorney in court

In July 1866, Tolstoy appeared at a military court as a defender of Vasil Shabunin, a company clerk stationed near Yasnaya Polyana of the Moscow Infantry Regiment. Shabunin hit the officer, who ordered him to be punished with canes for being drunk. Tolstoy argued that Shabunin was insane, but the court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Shabunin was shot. This case made a great impression on Tolstoy.

Lev Nikolaevich with teenage years was acquainted with Lyubov Alexandrovna Islavina, married Bers (1826-1886), loved to play with her children Lisa, Sonya and Tanya. When the Bersov daughters grew up, Lev Nikolaevich thought about marrying his eldest daughter Lisa, he hesitated for a long time until he made a choice in favor of his middle daughter Sophia. Sofya Andreevna agreed when she was 18 years old, and the count was 34 years old. On September 23, 1862, Lev Nikolaevich married her, having previously admitted his premarital affairs.

For a certain period of time, the brightest period of his life begins for Tolstoy - the rapture of personal happiness, very significant thanks to the practicality of his wife, material well-being, outstanding literary creativity and in connection with it all-Russian and world-wide fame. It would seem that in his wife he found an assistant in all matters, practical and literary - in the absence of a secretary, she rewrote her husband’s drafts several times. But very soon happiness is overshadowed by inevitable petty disagreements, fleeting quarrels, mutual misunderstandings, which only worsened over the years.

The wedding of Sergei Nikolaevich Tolstoy’s elder brother was also planned with younger sister Sofia Andreevna - Tatyana Bers. But Sergei’s unofficial marriage to a gypsy woman made the marriage of Sergei and Tatyana impossible.

In addition, Sofia Andreevna’s father, physician Andrei Gustav (Evstafievich) Bers, even before his marriage to Islavina, had a daughter, Varvara, from V.P. Turgeneva, the mother of I.S. Turgenev. On her mother’s side, Varya was the sister of I. S. Turgenev, and on her father’s side, S. A. Tolstoy, thus, together with marriage, Leo Tolstoy acquired a relationship with I. S. Turgenev.

From the marriage of Lev Nikolaevich with Sofia Andreevna, a total of 13 children were born, five of whom died in childhood. Children:
- Sergei (July 10, 1863 - December 23, 1947), composer, musicologist.
- Tatiana (October 4, 1864 - September 21, 1950). Since 1899 she has been married to Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin. In 1917-1923 she was the curator of the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate. In 1925 she emigrated with her daughter. Daughter Tatyana Mikhailovna Sukhotina-Albertini (1905-1996).
- Ilya (May 22, 1866 - December 11, 1933), writer, memoirist
- Lev (1869-1945), writer, sculptor.
- Maria (1871-1906) Buried in the village. Kochaki of Krapivensky district (modern Tula region, Shchekinsky district, village of Kochaki). Since 1897 she has been married to Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (1872-1934).
- Peter (1872-1873).
- Nikolai (1874-1875).
- Varvara (1875-1875).
- Andrey (1877-1916), civil servant special assignments under the Tula governor. Participant Russo-Japanese War.
- Mikhail (1879-1944).
- Alexey (1881-1886).
- Alexandra (1884-1979).
- Ivan (1888-1895).

As of 2010, there were a total of more than 350 descendants of Leo Tolstoy (including both living and deceased), living in 25 countries around the world. Most of them are descendants of Lev Lvovich Tolstoy, who had 10 children, the third son of Lev Nikolaevich. Since 2000, once every two years, meetings of the writer’s descendants have been held in Yasnaya Polyana.

Creativity flourishes

During the first 12 years after his marriage, he created War and Peace and Anna Karenina. At the turn of this second era literary life Tolstoy are conceived back in 1852 and completed in 1861-1862. “Cossacks” is the first of the works in which Tolstoy’s talent was most realized.

"War and Peace"

Unprecedented success befell War and Peace. An excerpt from the novel entitled "1805" appeared in the Russian Messenger of 1865; in 1868, three of its parts were published, soon followed by the remaining two. The release of War and Peace was preceded by the novel The Decembrists (1860-1861), to which the author returned several times, but which remained unfinished.

In Tolstoy's novel all classes of society are represented, from emperors and kings to the last soldier, all ages and all temperaments throughout the entire reign of Alexander I.

"Anna Karenina"

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other works

In March 1879, in the city of Moscow, Leo Tolstoy met Vasily Petrovich Shchegolenok and in the same year, at his invitation, he came to Yasnaya Polyana, where he stayed for about a month and a half. The little goldfinch told Tolstoy many folk tales and epics, more than twenty of which were written down by Tolstoy, and the plots of some of them, Tolstoy, if he didn’t write down on paper, he remembered (these notes are published in volume XLVIII of the Anniversary edition of Tolstoy’s works). Six works written by Tolstoy are sourced from legends and stories of Shchegolenok (1881 - “How People Live”, 1885 - “Two Old Men” and “Three Elders”, 1905 - “Korney Vasiliev” and “Prayer”, 1907 - “An Old Man in the Church”) . In addition, Count Tolstoy diligently wrote down many sayings, proverbs, individual expressions and words told by the Goldfinch.

Last journey, death and funeral

On the night of October 28 (November 10), 1910, L.N. Tolstoy, fulfilling his decision to live last years in accordance with his views, he secretly left Yasnaya Polyana, accompanied by his doctor D.P. Makovitsky. He began his last journey at Shchekino station. On the same day, having transferred to another train at the Gorbachevo station, he reached the Kozelsk station, hired a coachman and headed to Optina Pustyn, and from there the next day to the Shamordino Monastery, where Tolstoy met his sister, Maria Nikolaevna Tolstoy. Later, Tolstoy’s daughter, Alexandra Lvovna, came to Shamordino with her friend.

On the morning of October 31 (November 13) L.N. Tolstoy and his entourage went from Shamordino to Kozelsk, where they boarded train No. 12, which had already arrived at the station, heading south. There was no time to buy tickets upon boarding; Having reached Belyov, we purchased tickets to Volovo station. According to the testimony of those accompanying Tolstoy, the trip had no specific purpose. After the meeting, we decided to go to Novocherkassk, where we would try to get foreign passports and then go to Bulgaria; if this fails, go to the Caucasus. However, on the way, L.N. Tolstoy fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to get off the train that same day at the first large station near the settlement. This station turned out to be Astapovo (now Leo Tolstoy, Lipetsk region), where on November 7 (20) L. N. Tolstoy died in the house of the station chief I. I. Ozolin.

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

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

Report of the head of the St. Petersburg security department, Colonel von Kotten, to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire:

« In addition to the reports of November 8th, I am reporting to Your Excellency information about the unrest of student youth that took place on November 9th... on the occasion of the burial day of the deceased L.N. Tolstoy. At 12 noon, a memorial service for the late L.N. Tolstoy was celebrated in the Armenian Church, which was attended by about 200 people praying, mostly Armenians, and a small part of students. At the end of the funeral service, the worshipers dispersed, but a few minutes later students and female students began to arrive at the church. It turned out that on entrance doors University and Higher Women's Courses posted announcements that a memorial service for L.N. Tolstoy would take place on November 9 at one o'clock in the afternoon in the above-mentioned church. The Armenian clergy performed a requiem service for the second time, by the end of which the church could no longer accommodate all the worshipers, a significant part of whom stood on the porch and in the courtyard of the Armenian Church. At the end of the funeral service, everyone on the porch and in the church yard sang “Eternal Memory”...»

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