Tolstoy's initials. Late fiction

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy- outstanding Russian prose writer, playwright and public figure. Born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate Tula region. On his mother's side, the writer belonged to the eminent family of princes Volkonsky, and on his father's side - to old family Count Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy's great-great-grandfather, grandfather and father were military men. Representatives of the ancient Tolstoy family served as governors in many cities of Rus' even under Ivan the Terrible.

The writer’s maternal grandfather, “descendant of Rurik,” Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, was enlisted in military service at the age of seven. He was a participant in the Russian-Turkish war and retired with the rank of general-in-chief. The writer's paternal grandfather, Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, served in the navy and then in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. The writer's father, Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, voluntarily entered military service at the age of seventeen. He participated in Patriotic War 1812, was captured by the French and was liberated by Russian troops who entered Paris after the defeat of Napoleon's army. On his mother's side, Tolstoy was related to the Pushkins. Their common ancestor was boyar I.M. Golovin, an associate of Peter I, who studied shipbuilding with him. One of his daughters is the poet's great-grandmother, the other is the great-grandmother of Tolstoy's mother. Thus, Pushkin was Tolstoy’s fourth cousin.

The writer's childhood passed in Yasnaya Polyana- an old family estate. Tolstoy's interest in history and literature arose in his childhood: while living in the village, he saw how the life of the working people proceeded, from them he heard many folk tales, epics, songs, and legends. The life of the people, their work, interests and views, oral creativity- everything living and wise - Yasnaya Polyana revealed to Tolstoy.

Maria Nikolaevna Tolstaya, the writer’s mother, was a kind and sympathetic person, an intelligent and educated woman: she knew French, German, English and Italian languages, played the piano, was engaged in painting. Tolstoy was not even two years old when his mother died. The writer did not remember her, but he heard so much about her from those around him that he clearly and vividly imagined her appearance and character.

Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, their father, was loved and appreciated by children for his humane attitude towards serfs. In addition to taking care of the house and children, he read a lot. During his life, Nikolai Ilyich collected a rich library, consisting of rare books of French classics, historical and natural history works at that time. It was he who first noticed his inclination youngest son to a living perception of the artistic word.

When Tolstoy was nine years old, his father took him to Moscow for the first time. The first impressions of Lev Nikolaevich’s Moscow life served as the basis for many paintings, scenes and episodes of the hero’s life in Moscow Tolstoy's trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth". Young Tolstoy saw not only the open side of big city life, but also some hidden, shadow sides. With his first stay in Moscow, the writer connected the end of the earliest period of his life, childhood, and the transition to adolescence. The first period of Tolstoy's Moscow life did not last long. In the summer of 1837, while traveling to Tula on business, his father died suddenly. Soon after the death of his father, Tolstoy and his sister and brothers had to endure a new misfortune: their grandmother, whom everyone close to them considered the head of the family, died. Sudden death her son was a terrible blow for her and less than a year later carried her to the grave. A few years later, the first guardian of the orphaned Tolstoy children, their father’s sister, Alexandra Ilyinichna Osten-Saken, died. Ten-year-old Lev, his three brothers and sister were taken to Kazan, where their new guardian, Aunt Pelageya Ilyinichna Yushkova, lived.

Tolstoy wrote about his second guardian as a “kind and very pious” woman, but at the same time very “frivolous and vain.” According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Pelageya Ilyinichna did not enjoy authority with Tolstoy and his brothers, therefore the move to Kazan is considered to be a new stage in the writer’s life: his upbringing ended, a period of independent life began.

Tolstoy lived in Kazan for more than six years. It was the time of formation of his character and choice life path. Living with his brothers and sister with Pelageya Ilyinichna, young Tolstoy spent two years preparing to enter Kazan University. Having decided to enter the eastern department of the university, he paid special attention to preparing for exams in foreign languages. In exams in mathematics and Russian literature, Tolstoy received fours, and in foreign languages ​​- fives. Lev Nikolayevich failed in the exams in history and geography - he received unsatisfactory grades.

Failure in the entrance exams served as a serious lesson for Tolstoy. He devoted the entire summer to a thorough study of history and geography, passed additional exams on them, and in September 1844 he was enrolled in the first year of the eastern department of the Faculty of Philosophy of Kazan University in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. However, the study of languages ​​did not captivate Tolstoy, and after summer holidays in Yasnaya Polyana he transferred from the Faculty of Oriental Studies to the Faculty of Law.

But in the future, university studies did not awaken Lev Nikolaevich’s interest in the sciences he was studying. Most of the time he independently studied philosophy, compiled “Rules of Life” and carefully wrote notes in his diary. By the end of the third year of studies, Tolstoy was finally convinced that the then university order only interfered with independent creative work, and he decided to leave the university. However, he needed a university diploma to obtain the license to enter the service. And in order to receive a diploma, Tolstoy passed university exams as an external student, spending two years of living in the village preparing for them. Having received university documents from the chancellery at the end of April 1847, former student Tolstoy left Kazan.

After leaving the university, Tolstoy again went to Yasnaya Polyana, and then to Moscow. Here at the end of 1850 he began literary creativity. At this time, he decided to write two stories, but did not finish either of them. In the spring of 1851, Lev Nikolaevich, together with his older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, who served in the army as an artillery officer, arrived in the Caucasus. Here Tolstoy lived for almost three years, being mainly in the village of Starogladkovskaya, located on the left bank of the Terek. From here he traveled to Kizlyar, Tiflis, Vladikavkaz, and visited many villages and villages.

It started in the Caucasus military service Tolstoy. He took part in military operations of Russian troops. Tolstoy's impressions and observations are reflected in his stories “The Raid”, “Cutting Wood”, “Demoted”, and in the story “Cossacks”. Later, turning to the memories of this period of his life, Tolstoy created the story “Hadji Murat”. In March 1854, Tolstoy arrived in Bucharest, where the office of the chief of artillery troops was located. From here, as a staff officer, he traveled throughout Moldavia, Wallachia and Bessarabia.

In the spring and summer of 1854, the writer took part in the siege of the Turkish fortress of Silistria. However, the main place of hostilities at this time was the Crimean Peninsula. Here Russian troops under the leadership of V.A. Kornilov and P.S. Nakhimov heroically defended Sevastopol for eleven months, besieged by Turkish and Anglo-French troops. Participation in the Crimean War is an important stage in Tolstoy’s life. Here he got to know ordinary Russian soldiers, sailors, and residents of Sevastopol closely, and sought to understand the source of the heroism of the city’s defenders, to understand the special character traits inherent in the defender of the Fatherland. Tolstoy himself showed bravery and courage in the defense of Sevastopol.

In November 1855, Tolstoy left Sevastopol for St. Petersburg. By this time he had already earned recognition in advanced literary circles. During this period, the attention of Russian public life was focused around the issue of serfdom. Tolstoy's stories of this time ("Morning of the Landowner", "Polikushka", etc.) are also devoted to this problem.

In 1857 the writer committed foreign travel. He visited France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Traveling to different cities, the writer became acquainted with the culture and social system of Western European countries with great interest. Much of what he saw was subsequently reflected in his work. In 1860, Tolstoy made another trip abroad. A year earlier, in Yasnaya Polyana, he opened a school for children. Traveling through the cities of Germany, France, Switzerland, England and Belgium, the writer visited schools and studied the features of public education. In most of the schools that Tolstoy visited, caning discipline was in effect and corporal punishment was used. Returning to Russia and visiting a number of schools, Tolstoy discovered that many teaching methods that were in effect in Western European countries, in particular Germany, had penetrated into Russian schools. At this time, Lev Nikolaevich wrote a number of articles in which he criticized the public education system both in Russia and in Western European countries.

Arriving home after a trip abroad, Tolstoy devoted himself to working at school and publishing the pedagogical magazine Yasnaya Polyana. The school founded by the writer was located not far from his home - in an outbuilding that has survived to this day. In the early 70s, Tolstoy compiled and published a number of textbooks for primary schools: “ABC”, “Arithmetic”, four “Books for Reading”. More than one generation of children learned from these books. The stories from them are read with enthusiasm by children even today.

In 1862, when Tolstoy was away, landowners arrived in Yasnaya Polyana and searched the writer’s house. In 1861, the Tsar's manifesto announced the abolition of serfdom. During the implementation of the reform, disputes broke out between landowners and peasants, the settlement of which was entrusted to the so-called peace intermediaries. Tolstoy was appointed as a peace mediator in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province. When examining controversial cases between nobles and peasants, the writer most often took a position in favor of the peasantry, which caused discontent among the nobles. This was the reason for the search. Because of this, Tolstoy had to stop working as a peace mediator, close the school in Yasnaya Polyana and refuse to publish a pedagogical magazine.

In 1862 Tolstoy married Sofya Andreevna Bers, daughter of a Moscow doctor. Arriving with her husband in Yasnaya Polyana, Sofya Andreevna tried with all her might to create an environment on the estate in which nothing would distract the writer from his hard work. In the 60s, Tolstoy led a solitary life, completely devoting himself to work on War and Peace.

At the end of the epic War and Peace, Tolstoy decided to write a new work - a novel about the era of Peter I. However, social events in Russia caused by the abolition of serfdom so captured the writer that he left work on historical novel and began to create a new work, which reflected the post-reform life of Russia. This is how the novel Anna Karenina appeared, to which Tolstoy devoted four years to work.

In the early 80s, Tolstoy moved with his family to Moscow to educate his growing children. Here the writer, well acquainted with rural poverty, witnessed urban poverty. In the early 90s of the 19th century, almost half of the central provinces of the country were gripped by famine, and Tolstoy joined the fight against the national disaster. Thanks to his appeal, the collection of donations, purchase and delivery of food to the villages was launched. At this time, under the leadership of Tolstoy, about two hundred free canteens were opened in the villages of the Tula and Ryazan provinces for the starving population. A number of articles written by Tolstoy about the famine date back to the same period, in which the writer truthfully portrayed the plight of the people and condemned the policies of the ruling classes.

In the mid-80s Tolstoy wrote drama "The Power of Darkness", which depicts the death of the old foundations of patriarchal-peasant Russia, and the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” dedicated to the fate of a man who only before his death realized the emptiness and meaninglessness of his life. In 1890, Tolstoy wrote the comedy “The Fruits of Enlightenment,” which shows the true situation of the peasantry after the abolition of serfdom. In the early 90s it was created novel "Sunday", on which the writer worked intermittently for ten years. In all his works relating to this period of creativity, Tolstoy openly shows whom he sympathizes with and whom he condemns; depicts the hypocrisy and insignificance of the “masters of life.”

The novel “Sunday” was subject to censorship more than other works of Tolstoy. Most of the novel's chapters were released or abridged. The ruling circles launched an active policy against the writer. Fearing popular outrage, the authorities did not dare to use open repression against Tolstoy. With the consent of the tsar and at the insistence of the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Pobedonostsev, the synod adopted a resolution to excommunicate Tolstoy from the church. The writer was under police surveillance. The world community was outraged by the persecution of Lev Nikolaevich. The peasantry, advanced intelligentsia and ordinary people were on the side of the writer and sought to express their respect and support to him. The love and sympathy of the people served as reliable support for the writer in the years when the reaction sought to silence him.

However, despite all the efforts of reactionary circles, every year Tolstoy denounced the noble-bourgeois society more sharply and boldly and openly opposed the autocracy. Works of this period ( “After the Ball”, “For What?”, “Hadji Murat”, “Living Corpse”) are imbued with deep hatred for royal power, a limited and ambitious ruler. In journalistic articles dating back to this time, the writer sharply condemned the instigators of wars and called for a peaceful resolution of all disputes and conflicts.

In 1901-1902, Tolstoy suffered a serious illness. At the insistence of doctors, the writer had to go to Crimea, where he spent more than six months.

In Crimea, he met with writers, artists, painters: Chekhov, Korolenko, Gorky, Chaliapin, etc. When Tolstoy returned home, hundreds warmly greeted him at the stations ordinary people. In the fall of 1909, the writer last time made a trip to Moscow.

In Tolstoy's diaries and letters last decades His life was reflected by difficult experiences that were caused by the writer’s discord with his family. Tolstoy wanted to transfer the land that belonged to him to the peasants and wanted his works to be published freely and free of charge by anyone who wanted. The writer’s family opposed this, not wanting to give up either the rights to the land or the rights to the works. The old landowner way of life, preserved in Yasnaya Polyana, weighed heavily on Tolstoy.

In the summer of 1881, Tolstoy made his first attempt to leave Yasnaya Polyana, but a feeling of pity for his wife and children forced him to return. Several more attempts by the writer to leave his native estate ended with the same result. On October 28, 1910, secretly from his family, he left Yasnaya Polyana forever, deciding to go south and spend the rest of his life in a peasant hut, among the common Russian people. However, on the way, Tolstoy became seriously ill and was forced to get off the train at the small Astapovo station. The last seven days of my life great writer spent in the station master's house. The news of the death of one of the outstanding thinkers, a wonderful writer, a great humanist deeply struck the hearts of everyone advanced people this time. Tolstoy's creative heritage is of great importance for world literature. Over the years, interest in the writer’s work does not wane, but, on the contrary, grows. As A. France rightly noted: “With his life he proclaims sincerity, directness, purposefulness, firmness, calm and constant heroism, he teaches that one must be truthful and one must be strong... Precisely because he was full of strength, he always was truthful!”

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 highest stratum 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's childhood and adolescence passed between Moscow and Yasnaya Polyana, in big family, where there were several brothers. He left unusually vivid memories of his early environment, his relatives and servants, in wonderful autobiographical notes that 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. IN 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 his 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 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 origin). The 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 unburdened 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 on 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 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 Crimean War, Tolstoy communicated 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 the 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). IN family life he was extremely happy. 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 an 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 it seven times War and Peace from start to finish. She gave birth to Tolstoy many sons and daughters. She had no personal life: she was all lost in 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 about public education, on the basis of which an astute critic Mikhailovsky was able to predict the further development of his ideas.

Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the Tula province (Russia) into a family belonging to the noble class. In the 1860s, he wrote his first great novel, War and Peace. In 1873, Tolstoy began work on the second of his most famous books, Anna Karenina.

He continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. One of his most successful later works is “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.” Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910 in Astapovo, Russia.

First years of life

On September 9, 1828, the future writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born in Yasnaya Polyana (Tula province, Russia). He was the fourth child in a large noble family. In 1830, when Tolstoy’s mother, née Princess Volkonskaya, died, cousin father took over the care of the children. Their father, Count Nikolai Tolstoy, died seven years later, and their aunt was appointed guardian. After the death of his aunt, Leo Tolstoy, his brothers and sisters moved to their second aunt in Kazan. Although Tolstoy experienced many losses in early age, he later idealized his childhood memories in his work.

It is important to note that the primary education in Tolstoy’s biography was received at home, lessons were given to him by French and German teachers. In 1843 he entered the Faculty of Oriental Languages ​​at the Imperial Kazan University. Tolstoy failed to succeed in his studies - low grades forced him to transfer to an easier law faculty. Further difficulties in his studies led Tolstoy to eventually leave the Imperial Kazan University in 1847 without a degree. He returned to his parents' estate, where he planned to start farming. However, this endeavor also ended in failure - he was absent too often, leaving for Tula and Moscow. What he really excelled at was keeping his own diary - it was this lifelong habit that inspired much of Leo Tolstoy's writing.

Tolstoy was fond of music; his favorite composers were Schumann, Bach, Chopin, Mozart, and Mendelssohn. Lev Nikolaevich could play their works for several hours a day.

One day, Tolstoy’s elder brother, Nikolai, came to visit Lev during his army leave, and convinced his brother to join the army as a cadet in the south, in Caucasus mountains where he served. After serving as a cadet, Leo Tolstoy was transferred to Sevastopol in November 1854, where he fought in the Crimean War until August 1855.

Early publications

During his years as a cadet in the army, Tolstoy had a lot of free time. During quiet periods, he worked on an autobiographical story called Childhood. In it, he wrote about his favorite childhood memories. In 1852, Tolstoy sent a story to Sovremennik, the most popular magazine of the time. The story was happily accepted, and it became Tolstoy's first publication. From that time on, critics put him on a par with already famous writers, among whom were Ivan Turgenev (with whom Tolstoy became friends), Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Ostrovsky and others.

After completing his story “Childhood,” Tolstoy began writing about his daily life at an army outpost in the Caucasus. The work “Cossacks”, which he began during his army years, was completed only in 1862, after he had already left the army.

Surprisingly, Tolstoy managed to continue writing while actively fighting in the Crimean War. During this time he wrote Boyhood (1854), a sequel to Childhood, the second book in Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy. At the height of the Crimean War, Tolstoy expressed his views on the startling contradictions of the war through a trilogy of works, Sevastopol Tales. In the second book of Sevastopol Stories, Tolstoy experimented with a relatively new technique: part of the story is presented as a narration from the point of view of a soldier.

After the end of the Crimean War, Tolstoy left the army and returned to Russia. Arriving home, the author enjoyed great popularity on the literary scene of St. Petersburg.

Stubborn and arrogant, Tolstoy refused to belong to any particular school of philosophy. Declaring himself an anarchist, he left for Paris in 1857. Once there, he lost all his money and was forced to return home to Russia. He also managed to publish Youth, the third part of an autobiographical trilogy, in 1857.

Returning to Russia in 1862, Tolstoy published the first of 12 issues of the thematic magazine Yasnaya Polyana. That same year he married the daughter of a doctor named Sofya Andreevna Bers.

Major Novels

Living in Yasnaya Polyana with his wife and children, Tolstoy spent much of the 1860s working on his first famous novel“War and Peace.” Part of the novel was first published in “Russian Bulletin” in 1865 under the title “1805”. By 1868 he had published three more chapters. A year later, the novel was completely finished. Both critics and the public debated the historical justice of the Napoleonic Wars in the novel, coupled with the development of stories of its thoughtful and realistic, but still fictional characters. The novel is also unique in that it includes three long satirical essays on the laws of history. Among the ideas that Tolstoy also tries to convey in this novel is the belief that a person’s position in society and the meaning human life are mainly derivatives of his daily activities.

After the success of War and Peace in 1873, Tolstoy began work on the second of his most famous books, Anna Karenina. It was based in part on real events period of the war between Russia and Turkey. Like War and Peace, this book describes some of the biographical events in Tolstoy's own life, most notably in the romantic relationship between the characters Kitty and Levin, which is said to be reminiscent of Tolstoy's courtship with his own wife.

The first lines of the book “Anna Karenina” are among the most famous: “Everyone happy families are similar to each other, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Anna Karenina was published in installments from 1873 to 1877, and was highly acclaimed by the public. The royalties received for the novel quickly enriched the writer.

Conversion

Despite the success of Anna Karenina, after the completion of the novel, Tolstoy experienced a spiritual crisis and was depressed. The next stage of Leo Tolstoy's biography is characterized by the search for the meaning of life. The writer first turned to the Russian Orthodox Church, but did not find answers to his questions there. He concluded that Christian churches were corrupt and, instead of organized religion, promoted their own beliefs. He decided to express these beliefs by founding a new publication in 1883 called The Mediator.
As a result, for his unconventional and controversial spiritual beliefs, Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church. He was even watched by the secret police. When Tolstoy, driven by his new conviction, wanted to give away all his money and give up everything unnecessary, his wife was categorically against this. Not wanting to escalate the situation, Tolstoy reluctantly agreed to a compromise: he transferred the copyright and, apparently, all royalties on his work until 1881 to his wife.

Late fiction

In addition to his religious treatises, Tolstoy continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. The genres of his later work included morality tales and realistic fiction. One of the most successful of his later works was the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” written in 1886. Main character struggling to fight the death looming over him. In short, Ivan Ilyich is horrified by the realization that he wasted his life on trifles, but the realization of this comes to him too late.

In 1898, Tolstoy wrote the story “Father Sergius”, work of art, in which he criticizes the beliefs he developed after his spiritual transformation. IN next year he wrote his third voluminous novel, “Resurrection.” Got the job good reviews, but it is unlikely that this success corresponded to the level of recognition of his previous novels. Other late works Tolstoy are essays about art, this satirical play entitled “The Living Corpse,” written in 1890, and a story called “Hadji Murat” (1904), which was discovered and published after his death. In 1903, Tolstoy wrote a short story, “After the Ball,” which was first published after his death, in 1911.

Old age

During it later years, Tolstoy reaped the benefits of international recognition. However, he still struggled to reconcile his spiritual beliefs with the tensions he created in his family life. His wife not only did not agree with his teachings, she did not approve of his students, who regularly visited Tolstoy on the family estate. In an effort to avoid his wife's growing discontent, Tolstoy and his youngest daughter Alexandra went on pilgrimage in October 1910. Alexandra was the doctor for her elderly father during the trip. Trying not to show off your privacy, they traveled incognito, hoping to evade unnecessary questions, but sometimes this was to no avail.

Death and legacy

Unfortunately, the pilgrimage proved too onerous for the aging writer. In November 1910, the head of the small Astapovo railway station opened the doors of his house to Tolstoy so that the ailing writer could rest. Shortly after this, on November 20, 1910, Tolstoy died. He was buried in the family estate, Yasnaya Polyana, where Tolstoy lost so many people close to him.

To this day, Tolstoy's novels are considered one of the best achievements literary art. “War and Peace” is often cited as greatest novel ever written. In the modern scientific community, Tolstoy is widely recognized as having a gift for describing the unconscious motives of character, the subtlety of which he championed by emphasizing the role of everyday actions in determining the character and goals of people.

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September 23, 1862 Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy married Sofya Andreevna Bers. She was 18 years old at that time, the count was 34. They lived together for 48 years, until Tolstoy’s death, and this marriage cannot be called easy or cloudlessly happy. Nevertheless, Sofya Andreevna gave birth to 13 children to the count, published both his lifetime collection of his works, and posthumous edition his letters. Tolstoy, in his last message, written to his wife after a quarrel and before leaving home for his last path to the Astapovo station, he admitted that he loved her, no matter what - but he couldn’t live with her. The love story and life of Count and Countess Tolstoy is recalled by AiF.ru.

Reproduction of the painting by artist Ilya Repin “Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya at the table.” Photo: RIA Novosti

Sofya Andreevna, both during her husband’s life and after his death, was accused of never understanding her husband, not sharing his ideas, and being too down-to-earth and far from the count’s philosophical views. He himself blamed her for this; this, in fact, became the cause of numerous disagreements that overshadowed the last 20 years of their life together. And yet, one cannot blame Sofya Andreevna for being a bad wife. Having devoted her entire life not only to the birth and upbringing of numerous children, but also to caring for the house, housekeeping, solving peasant and economic problems, as well as preserving the creative heritage of her great husband, she forgot about dresses and social life.

Writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy with his wife Sophia. Gaspra. Crimea. Reproduction of a photograph from 1902. Photo: RIA Novosti Before meeting his first and only wife, Count Tolstoy, a descendant of an ancient noble family in which the blood of several noble families was mixed, had already managed to make both a military and a teaching career, was famous writer. Tolstoy was familiar with the Bersov family even before his service in the Caucasus and his travels around Europe in the 50s. Sophia was the second three daughters doctor of the Moscow palace office Andrey Bers and his wife Lyubov Bers, maiden name Islavina. The Bers lived in Moscow, in an apartment in the Kremlin, but often visited the Islavins’ Tula estate in the village of Ivitsy, not far from Yasnaya Polyana. Lyubov Alexandrovna was friends with Lev Nikolaevich’s sister Maria, her brother Konstantin- with the count himself. He saw Sophia and her sisters for the first time as children; they spent time together both in Yasnaya Polyana and in Moscow, played the piano, sang and even staged an opera theater once.

Writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy with his wife Sofya Andreevna, 1910. Photo: RIA Novosti

Sophia received an excellent education at home - her mother instilled in her children a love of literature from childhood, and later received a diploma as a home teacher at Moscow University and wrote short stories. In addition, the future Countess Tolstaya from her youth was fond of writing stories and kept a diary, which would later be recognized as one of the outstanding examples memoir genre. Returning to Moscow, Tolstoy no longer discovered the little girl with whom he had once staged home plays, but charming girl. The families began to visit each other again, and the Berses clearly noticed the count’s interest in one of his daughters, but for a long time they believed that Tolstoy would marry the eldest Elizabeth. For some time, as is known, he himself doubted, but after next day, held with the Bers in Yasnaya Polyana in August 1862, made the final decision. Sophia captivated him with her spontaneity, simplicity and clarity of judgment. They parted for several days, after which the count himself came to Ivitsy - to a ball organized by the Bers and at which Sophia danced so that there was no doubt left in Tolstoy’s heart. It is even believed that the writer conveyed his own feelings at that moment in War and Peace, in the scene where Prince Andrei watches Natasha Rostova at her first ball. On September 16, Lev Nikolaevich asked the Bersovs for the hand of their daughter, having previously sent Sophia a letter to make sure that she agreed: “Tell me how honest man, do you want to be my wife? Only if with all your heart, you can boldly say: yes, otherwise it’s better to say: no, if you have a shadow of self-doubt. For God's sake, ask yourself well. I will be scared to hear: no, but I foresee it and will find the strength to bear it. But if I’m never loved by my husband the way I love, it will be terrible!” Sophia immediately agreed.

Wanting to be honest with future wife, Tolstoy gave her his diary to read - this is how the girl learned about the groom’s turbulent past, about gambling, about numerous novels and passions, including a relationship with a peasant girl Aksinya, who was expecting a child from him. Sofya Andreevna was shocked, but hid her feelings as best she could, nevertheless, she will carry the memory of these revelations throughout her life.

The wedding took place just a week after the engagement - the parents could not resist the pressure of the count, who wanted to get married as soon as possible. It seemed to him that after so many years he had finally found the one he had dreamed of as a child. Having lost his mother early, he grew up listening to stories about her, and thought that his future wife should be a faithful, loving companion, mother and assistant who fully shared his views, simple and at the same time able to appreciate the beauty of literature and the gift of her husband. This is exactly how he saw Sofya Andreevna - an 18-year-old girl who abandoned city life, social events and beautiful outfits for the sake of living next to her husband on his country estate. The girl took care of the household, gradually getting used to rural life, so different from the one to which she was accustomed.

Leo Tolstoy with his wife Sophia (center) on the porch of a Yasnaya Polyana house on Trinity Day, 1909. Photo: RIA Novosti

Sofya Andreevna gave birth to her first child, Seryozha, in 1863. Tolstoy then began writing War and Peace. Despite the difficult pregnancy, his wife not only continued to do household chores, but also helped her husband in his work - she rewrote drafts completely.

Writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and his wife Sofya Andreevna drink tea at home in Yasnaya Polyana, 1908. Photo: RIA Novosti

Sofya Andreevna first showed her character after the birth of Seryozha. Unable to feed him herself, she demanded that the count bring a wet nurse, although he was categorically against it, saying that then the woman’s children would be left without milk. Otherwise, she completely followed the rules established by her husband, solved the problems of peasants in the surrounding villages, even treated them. She taught and raised all the children at home: in total, Sofya Andreevna gave birth to Tolstoy 13 children, five of whom died at an early age.

Russian writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (left) with his grandchildren Sonya (right) and Ilya (center) in Krekshino, 1909. Photo: RIA Novosti The first twenty years passed almost cloudlessly, but grievances accumulated. In 1877, Tolstoy finished work on Anna Karenina and felt deep dissatisfaction with life, which upset and even offended Sofya Andreevna. She, who sacrificed everything for him, in return received dissatisfaction with the life that she had so diligently arranged for him. Moral quest Tolstoy led him to formulate the commandments by which his family was now to live. The Count called, among other things, for the simplest existence, giving up meat, alcohol, and smoking. He dressed in peasant clothes, made clothes and shoes for himself, his wife and children, and even wanted to give up all his property in favor of the villagers - Sofya Andreevna had to work hard to dissuade her husband from this act. She was sincerely offended that her husband, who suddenly felt guilty before all of humanity, did not feel guilty before her and was ready to give away everything he had acquired and protected by her for so many years. He expected from his wife that she would share not only his material, but also his spiritual life, his philosophical views. Having had a big quarrel with Sofia Andreevna for the first time, Tolstoy left home, and when he returned, he no longer trusted her with the manuscript - now the responsibility for rewriting the drafts fell on his daughters, of whom Tolstaya was very jealous. Death also brought her down last child, Vani, born in 1888, did not live to be seven years old. This grief initially brought the spouses closer together, but not for long - the abyss that separated them, mutual grievances and misunderstandings, all this pushed Sofya Andreevna to seek consolation on the side. She took up music and began traveling to Moscow to take lessons from a teacher. Alexandra Taneyeva. Her romantic feelings for the musician were no secret either to Taneyev himself or to Tolstoy, but the relationship remained friendly. But the count, jealous and angry, could not forgive this “half-betrayal.”

Sofya Tolstaya at the window of the house of the head of the Astapovo station I.M. Ozolin, where the dying Leo Tolstoy lies, 1910. Photo: RIA Novosti. IN recent years mutual suspicions and resentments grew into almost manic obsession: Sofya Andreevna re-read Tolstoy’s diaries, looking for something bad that he could write about her. He scolded his wife for being too suspicious: the last, fatal quarrel took place on October 27-28, 1910. Tolstoy packed his things and left home, leaving Sofya Andreevna farewell letter: “Don’t think that I left because I don’t love you. I love you and feel sorry for you with all my heart, but I cannot act differently from what I am doing.” According to the stories of her family, after reading the note, Tolstaya rushed to drown herself - they miraculously managed to pull her out of the pond. Soon information came that the count, having caught a cold, was dying of pneumonia at the Astapovo station - his children and wife, whom he did not want to see even then, came to the sick man’s house stationmaster. The last meeting of Lev Nikolaevich and Sofia Andreevna took place just before the death of the writer, who passed away on November 7, 1910. The Countess outlived her husband by 9 years, was involved in the publication of his diaries, and until the end of her days listened to reproaches that she was a wife unworthy of a genius.

In his lectures, Vladimir Nabokov used the following technique. He closed all the curtains in the room, achieving complete darkness. “In the firmament of Russian literature, this is Gogol,” and at the end of the hall a lamp flashed. “This is Chekhov,” another star lit up on the ceiling. “This is Dostoevsky,” Nabokov flipped the switch. “But this is Tolstoy!” - the lecturer threw open the drapery of the window, and the room was flooded with blinding sunlight.
He was the first to renounce copyright, was an opponent state system, and for rejecting religious authorities was excommunicated. He refused Nobel Prize, hated money and took the side of the peasants. No one had ever known him like this. His name is Leo Tolstoy.
Lev Nikolaevich left us 165,000 sheets of manuscripts, a complete collection of works in 90 volumes, and wrote 10 thousand letters. Throughout his life, he searched for the meaning of life and universal happiness, which he found in a simple word - good.
Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one thinks about how to change themselves.
Everything comes to those who know how to wait.
All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Strong people are always simple.
The strength of the government rests on the ignorance of the people, and it knows this and therefore will always fight against enlightenment. It's time for us to understand this.
Here are collected for you the most interesting facts from the life and quotes of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy on the 185th anniversary of his birth.

Tolstoy plays Russian folk game towns

[Gambler]

From his youth, the future genius of Russian literature was quite passionate. Once upon a time in card game with his neighbor, the landowner Gorokhov, Leo Tolstoy lost the main building of the inherited estate - the Yasnaya Polyana estate. The neighbor dismantled the house and took it 35 miles away as a trophy. It is worth noting that this was not just a building - it was here that the writer was born and spent his childhood years, it was this house that he remembered warmly all his life and even wanted to buy it back, but for one reason or another he did not.

Lev Nikolaevich with his wife Sofya Andreevna

Tolstoy with his family at a tea table in the park

[Big love]

Leo Tolstoy met his future wife Sophia Bers when she was seventeen and he was thirty-four years old. They lived together for 48 years and gave birth to 13 children. Sofya Andreevna was not only a wife, but also a faithful devoted friend, an assistant in all matters, including literary ones. For the first twenty years they were happy. However, later they often quarreled, mainly because of the beliefs and lifestyle that Tolstoy defined for himself. 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.

Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi

[Mentor Gandhi]

The great writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy had a huge interest in India and Vedic philosophy, much deeper than what was accepted by his contemporaries. Tolstoy’s ideas of non-resistance to evil through violence, set out in the writer’s works, such as “The Kingdom of God is within you,” had a strong influence on the young Mahatma Gandhi, who later led the nationalist movement of India and achieved its peaceful separation from England in 1947.

Lev Nikolaevich at work, Yasnaya Polyana

[War and Peace]

Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" was initially called "1805", then "All's Well That Ends Well" and "Three Times". According to researchers, the novel was rewritten 8 times, and its individual episodes more than 25 times. At the same time, the author himself was skeptical about the work. In correspondence with the poet Afanasy Fet, the writer spoke about his book in the following way: “How happy I am... that I will never write verbose rubbish like “War” again.”

With grandchildren Sonya and Ilya in Krekshino

[Great Enlightener]

Tolstoy traveled abroad twice, in 1857 and 1860–1861, partly out of curiosity, but also with the aim of studying Western European educational methods. He came to the conclusion that Russian things were fundamentally wrong, especially the education of the peasantry. Tolstoy left literary work and established a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana. He also began publishing a pedagogical magazine, where he preached his educational theories, and compiled several textbooks for primary education. Lev Nikolaevich is also known as the author of “The ABC”, “ New alphabet" and "Books to Read", from which more than one generation of children learned to read.

Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky and Anton Chekhov

[Tolstoy and other writers]

Tolstoy communicated with Chekhov and Gorky. He also knew Turgenev, but the writers failed to become friends - after a quarrel based on their beliefs, they did not speak for many years, and it almost came to a duel.

Lev Nikolaevich with his wife at the table

[Vegetarian]

In October 1885 L.N. Tolstoy was visited by William Frey, a writer, vegetarian, follower of the teachings of Auguste Comte. While communicating with V. Frey, Tolstoy first learned about the preaching of vegetarianism - the statement that the structure of a person, his teeth and intestines, proves that a person is not a predator. Lev Nikolaevich immediately accepted this teaching and, after realizing the knowledge he had gained, Tolstoy immediately abandoned meat and fish. Soon his daughters, Tatyana and Maria Tolstoy, followed his example.

Lev Nikolaevich in Crimea

[Tolstoyism]

Leo Tolstoy called himself a Christian until the end of his days, although by resolution of the Synod he was excommunicated Orthodox Church. This did not prevent him from becoming seriously interested in the occult in the 70s. Having disagreements with the church, Tolstoy created his own Christian teaching, which was called “Tolstoyism.” The teaching had many associates, one of whom was M. Bulgakov, author of the novel “The Master and Margarita.”

Tolstoy plays chess with M. S. Sukhotin

Quotes from Lev Nikolaevich:

Respect was invented in order to hide the empty place where love should be.

Shame and disgrace! The only thing you're afraid of is meeting Russians abroad.

Digging into our souls, we often unearth things that would lie there unnoticed.

If good has a cause, it is no longer good; if it has a consequence - a reward, it is also not good. Therefore, good is outside the chain of cause and effect.

There are no conditions to which a person cannot get used, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives the same way.

People who cannot do anything should make people, and the rest should contribute to their enlightenment and happiness.

I know only two real misfortunes in life: remorse and illness. And happiness is only the absence of these two evils.

We think how we will be thrown out of our usual path, that everything is lost; and here something new and good is just beginning. As long as there is life, there is happiness.

It’s amazing how complete the illusion that beauty is good can be. Beautiful woman says nonsense, you listen and don’t see the stupidity, but see the smart. She talks, does nasty things, and you see something cute. When she says neither nonsense nor nasty things, but is beautiful, then you are now convinced that she is a miracle, how smart and moral

There is no more or less in love.

Seize moments of happiness, force yourself to love, fall in love yourself! This is the only real thing in the world - the rest is all nonsense.

Simple life in Yasnaya Polyana

Leo Tolstoy with his granddaughter Tatyana Sukhotina

In the last years of his life, L.N. Tolstoy collected the most important thoughts of the greats and systematized them in the form of aphorisms for every day. Quotes from the book “Thoughts for Every Day” are a real treasure of eternal truths and brilliant thoughts.

Death of Leo Tolstoy

[The truth about death]

Tolstoy died during a trip, which he went on after breaking up with his wife in a very old age. During the move, Lev Nikolaevich fell ill with pneumonia, got off at the nearest large station (Astapovo), where he died in the house of the station master on November 7, 1910.
This was the first public funeral in Russia famous person who did not follow the Orthodox rite (without priests and prayers, without candles and icons)
A few days ago, the “official website” of the writer was opened - it provides scientifically verified information about his life and work and, for the first time, rich stock materials were published. At the moment, 90 volumes of his works are being digitized, some of which can already be downloaded.