Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a little over twenty years old when he began teaching literacy to peasant children on his estate. He continued to work at the Yasnaya Polyana school intermittently until the end of his life; he worked long and enthusiastically on compiling educational books. In 1872, “Azbuka” was published - a book set containing the alphabet itself, texts for initial Russian and Church Slavonic reading, arithmetic and a teacher’s manual. Three years later, Tolstoy published The New ABC. When teaching, he used proverbs, sayings, and riddles. He composed many “proverb stories”: in each, the proverb unfolded into a short story with a moral. The “New Alphabet” was supplemented by “Russian Books for Reading” - several hundred works: stories and stories, retellings folk tales and classical fables, natural history descriptions and reasoning.
Tolstoy strove for extremely simple and precise language. But to the modern child It is difficult to understand even the simplest texts about ancient peasant life.
So what? The works of Leo Tolstoy for children become literary monument and leave Russian children's reading, the basis of which they have been for a whole century?
There is no shortage of modern publications. Publishers are trying to make books interesting and understandable to today's children.
1. Tolstoy, L. N. Stories for children / Leo Tolstoy; [preface V. Tolstoy; comp. Yu. Kublanovsky] ; drawings by Natalia Parent-Chelpanova. - [Yasnaya Polyana]: L.N. Tolstoy Museum-Estate “Yasnaya Polyana”, 2012. - 47 p. : ill.
Children's stories by Leo Tolstoy, illustrated by the Russian artist in exile Natalya Paren-Chelpanova, translated into French were published in Paris by Gallimard in 1936. In the Yasnaya Polyana booklet they are, of course, printed in Russian. There are both stories usually included in modern collections and undisputed in children's reading(“Fire Dogs”, “Kitten”, “Filipok”), and rare, even amazing. For example, the fable “The Owl and the Hare” - how a arrogant young owl wanted to catch a huge hare, grabbed his back with one paw, the other into a tree, and he “rushed and tore the owl apart”. Read on?
What is true is true: literary devices Tolstoy's strong; The impressions after reading will remain deep.
Natalia Parent’s illustrations brought the texts closer to the little readers of her time: the characters in the stories were drawn as if they were the artist’s contemporaries. There are French inscriptions: for example, “Pinson” on the grave of a sparrow (for the story “How my aunt talked about how she had a pet sparrow - Zhiwchik”).
2. Tolstoy, L. N. Three Bears / Leo Tolstoy; artist Yuri Vasnetsov. - Moscow: Melik-Pashaev, 2013. - 17 p. : ill.
In the same 1936, Yuri Vasnetsov illustrated the story retold in Russian by Leo Tolstoy English fairy tale. At first the illustrations were in black and white, but the later colorful version is reproduced here. The fairy-tale bears of Yu. Vasnetsov, although Mikhail Ivanovich and Mishutka are in vests, and Nastasya Petrovna with a lace umbrella, are quite scary. The child understands why “one girl” was so afraid of them; but she managed to escape!
Illustrations have been color corrected for the new edition. You can see the first edition, as well as reprints that differ from one another, in the National Electronic Children's Library (books are protected by copyright, registration is required to view).
3. Tolstoy, L. N. Lipunyushka: stories and fairy tales / Leo Tolstoy; illustrations by A. F. Pakhomov. - St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2011. - 47 p. : ill.- (Library of a junior school student).
Many adults have retained in their memory “The ABC” by Leo Tolstoy with illustrations by Alexei Fedorovich Pakhomov. The artist knew the peasant way of life very well (he himself was born in a pre-revolutionary village). He painted peasants with great sympathy, children - sentimentally, but always with a firm, confident hand.
The St. Petersburg “Amphora” more than once published small collections of stories from L. N. Tolstoy’s “ABC” with illustrations by A. F. Pakhomov. This book contains several stories from which peasant children learned to read. Then the fairy tales - “How a man divided the geese” (about a cunning man) and “Lipunyushka” (about a resourceful son who "came out in cotton").
4. Tolstoy, L. N. About animals and birds / L. N. Tolstoy; artist Andrey Brey. - Saint Petersburg; Moscow: Rech, 2015. - 19 p. : ill. - (Mom’s favorite book).
Stories “Eagle”, “Sparrow and Swallows”, “How Wolves Teach Their Children”, “What Mice Are for”, “Elephant”, “Ostrich”, “Swans”. Tolstoy is not sentimental at all. Animals in his stories are predators and prey. But, of course, a moral must be read in a basic story; Not every story is straightforward.
Here is “Swans” - a genuine prose poem.
It must be said about the artist that he painted animals expressively; among his teachers was V. A. Vatagin. “Stories about Animals” with illustrations by Andrei Andreevich Brey, published by Detgiz in 1945, are digitized and available in the National Electronic Children's Library (registration is also required to view).
5. Tolstoy, L. N. Kostochka: stories for children / Leo Tolstoy; drawings by Vladimir Galdyaev. - Saint Petersburg; Moscow: Rech, 2015. - 79 p. : ill.
The book contains mainly the most frequently published and read children's stories by L. N. Tolstoy: “Fire”, “Fire Dogs”, “Filipok”, “Kitten”...
“The Bone” is also a widely known story, but few people are ready to agree with the radical educational method shown in it.
The contents of the book and the layout are the same as in the collection “Stories and Were”, published in 1977. More texts and drawings by Vladimir Galdyaev were in L. N. Tolstoy’s “Book for Children,” published by the Moskovsky Rabochiy publishing house in the same 1977 (the publications, of course, were preparing for the writer’s 150th anniversary). The rigor of the drawing and the specific character of the characters correspond well to Tolstoy's literary style.
6. Tolstoy, L. N. Children: stories / L. Tolstoy; drawings by P. Repkin. - Moscow: Nigma, 2015. - 16 p. : ill.
Four stories: “The Lion and the Dog”, “Elephant”, “Eagle”, “Kitten”. They are illustrated by Peter Repkin, a graphic artist and animator. It is interesting that the lion, eagle, elephant and his little owner depicted by the artist obviously resemble the characters of the cartoon “Mowgli”, the production designer of which was Repkin (together with A. Vinokurov). This cannot harm either Kipling or Tolstoy, but it does make one think about the differences and similarities in the views and talents of the two great writers.
7. Tolstoy, L. N. The Lion and the Dog: a true story / L. N. Tolstoy; drawings by G. A. V. Traugot. - St. Petersburg: Rech, 2014. - 23 p. : ill.
On the flyleaf there is a drawing depicting Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy in London in 1861 and as if confirming: this story is true. The story itself is given in the form of captions to the illustrations.
First line: “Wild animals were shown in London...” An ancient multi-colored, almost fairy-tale Western European city, townspeople and townswomen, curly-haired children - all in a manner that has long been characteristic of the artists “G. A. V. Traugot." Meat thrown into a lion's cage does not look naturalistic (like Repkin's). A lion yearning for a dead dog (Tolstoy honestly writes that she “died”) is drawn very expressively.
I told you more about the book “Biblioguide”.
8. Tolstoy, L. N. Filipok / L. N. Tolstoy; artist Gennady Spirin. - Moscow: RIPOL classic, 2012. -: ill. - (Masterpieces of book illustration).
“Filipok” from “The New ABC” is one of the most famous stories Leo Tolstoy and all Russian children's literature. The figurative meaning of the word “textbook” here coincides with the direct one.
The RIPOL Classic publishing house has already reprinted the book with illustrations by Gennady Spirin several times and included it in the New Year's gift collection. This “Filipok” was previously published on English language(see on the artist’s website: http://gennadyspirin.com/books/). In the drawings of Gennady Konstantinovich there is a lot of affection for the ancient peasant life and winter Russian nature.
It is noteworthy that in “The New Alphabet” behind this story (at the end of which Filipok “he began to speak to the Mother of God; but every word he spoke was wrong") followed by “Slavic letters”, “Slavic words under titles” and prayers.
9. Tolstoy, L. N. My first Russian book for reading / Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. - Moscow: White City, . - 79 s. : ill. - (Russian books for reading).
"White City" has undertaken a complete publication of "Russian books for reading". The second, third and fourth books were published in the same way. There are no abbreviations here. Stories, fairy tales, fables, descriptions and reasoning are given in the order in which Lev Nikolaevich arranged them. There are no comments on the texts. Illustrations are used instead of verbal explanations. Basically, these are reproductions of paintings, famous and not so famous. For example, to the description of “The Sea” - “The Ninth Wave” by Ivan Aivazovsky. To the discussion “Why does the wind happen?” - “Children running from a thunderstorm” by Konstantin Makovsky. To the story “Fire” - “Fire in the Village” by Nikolai Dmitriev-Orenburgsky. To the story " Prisoner of the Caucasus" - landscapes by Lev Lagorio and Mikhail Lermontov.
The range of ages and interests of readers of this book can be very wide.
10. Tolstoy, L. N. Sea: description / Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy; artist Mikhail Bychkov. - St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2014. - p. : ill. - (Good and eternal).
Of the books listed, this one seems to belong most to our time. Artist Mikhail Bychkov says: “A few lines by L. N. Tolstoy gave me a wonderful opportunity to draw the sea”. On large-format spreads, the artist depicted the southern and northern sea, calm and stormy, day and night. To Tolstoy's short text he made a drawn appendix about all kinds of sea vessels.
The work fascinated Mikhail Bychkov, and he illustrated three stories from Tolstoy’s “ABC”, combining them with a fictional trip around the world on a sailing warship. In the story "The Jump" such a journey is mentioned. The story "Shark" begins with the words: "Our ship was anchored off the coast of Africa." The story “Fire Dogs” takes place in London - and the artist painted a Russian corvette flying the St. Andrew’s flag against the backdrop of the construction of the Tower Bridge (built from 1886 to 1894; “ABC” was compiled earlier, but in the same era, especially if viewed from our time) .
The book “Were” was published by the Rech publishing house in 2015. In the spring of 2016 in State Museum L. N. Tolstoy on Prechistenka hosted an exhibition of illustrations by Mikhail Bychkov for these two children's books.
“The sea is wide and deep; there is no end in sight to the sea. The sun rises at sea and sets at sea. No one has reached or knows the bottom of the sea. When there is no wind, the sea is blue and smooth; when the wind blows, the sea will stir up and become uneven..."
"Sea. Description"
“...Water from the sea rises in fog; the fog rises higher, and clouds become from the fog. The clouds are driven by the wind and spread across the ground. Water falls from the clouds to the ground. It flows from the ground into swamps and streams. From streams it flows into rivers; from rivers to sea. From the sea again the water rises into the clouds, and the clouds spread across the earth...”
“Where does the water go from the sea? Reasoning"
Leo Tolstoy's stories from "ABC" and "Russian Books for Reading" are laconic, even lapidary. In many ways, they are archaic, in today's opinion. But the essential thing about them is this: what is now rare is not game, serious attitude by the way, a simple, but not simplified attitude towards everything around.
Svetlana Malaya
This is a large-scale work that tells about the life of Russian noble society during the years Patriotic War, includes many storylines. Here you can find and love stories, And battle scenes, and morally difficult situations, and several human types that time. The work is very multifaceted, it contains several ideas characteristic of Tolstoy, and all are written out with amazing accuracy.It is known that work on the work lasted about 6 years, and its original volume was not 4, but 6 volumes. Leo Tolstoy used a huge amount sources so that events appear reliable. He read the works of Russian and French historians, privately for the period from 1805 to 1812. However, Tolstoy himself regarded his work with a certain degree of skepticism. So, he wrote in his diary: “People love me for those trifles - “War and Peace”, etc., which seem very important to them.”
Researchers counted 559 heroes in the novel “War and Peace”.
"Anna Karenina" - a tragic love story
Not everyone has read this famous novel, but everyone knows its tragic ending. The name Anna Karenina has already become a household name in conversations about unhappy love. Meanwhile, Tolstoy shows in the novel not so much the tragedy of events, as, for example, in Shakespeare, but a psychological tragedy. This novel is dedicated not to pure and sublime love, which does not care about all conventions, but to the breaking psyche of a secular woman who suddenly finds herself abandoned by everyone because of an “indecent” relationship.Tolstoy's work is popular because it is relevant at any time. Instead of the discussions of earlier authors about enthusiastic and bright feelings, it shows the underside of blinding love and the consequences of relationships that are dictated by passion rather than reason.
One of the heroes of the novel "Anna Karenina", Konstantin Levin, is an autobiographical character. Tolstoy put his thoughts and ideas into his mouth.
"Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" - autobiographical trilogy
Three stories, united by one hero, are partly based on the memoirs of Tolstoy himself. These are a kind of growing boy. Despite good upbringing and care from his elders, the hero faces problems characteristic of his age.As a child, he experiences his first love, prepares with fear, and encounters injustice for the first time. The teenage hero, growing up, learns betrayal, and also finds new friends and experiences the breaking of old stereotypes. In the story "Youth" the hero faces social problems, acquires his first mature judgments, enters university and thinks about his future fate.
Count Leo Tolstoy, a classic of Russian and world literature, is called a master of psychologism, the creator of the epic novel genre, an original thinker and teacher of life. Works brilliant writer- Russia's greatest asset.
In August 1828, a classic was born on the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Tula province Russian literature. Future author"War and Peace" became the fourth child in a family of eminent nobles. On his father's side, he belonged to the old family of Count Tolstoy, who served and. On the maternal side, Lev Nikolaevich is a descendant of the Ruriks. It is noteworthy that Leo Tolstoy also has a common ancestor - Admiral Ivan Mikhailovich Golovin.
Lev Nikolayevich’s mother, nee Princess Volkonskaya, died of childbirth fever after the birth of her daughter. At that time, Lev was not even two years old. Seven years later, the head of the family, Count Nikolai Tolstoy, died.
Caring for the children fell on the shoulders of the writer’s aunt, T. A. Ergolskaya. Later, the second aunt, Countess A. M. Osten-Sacken, became the guardian of the orphaned children. After her death in 1840, the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian - their father’s sister P. I. Yushkova. The aunt influenced her nephew, and the writer called his childhood in her house, which was considered the most cheerful and hospitable in the city, happy. Later, Leo Tolstoy described his impressions of life at the Yushkov estate in his story “Childhood.”
Silhouette and portrait of Leo Tolstoy's parents Elementary education the classic received at home from German and French teachers. In 1843, Leo Tolstoy entered Kazan University, choosing the Faculty of Oriental Languages. Soon, due to low academic performance, he transferred to another faculty - law. But he did not succeed here either: after two years he left the university without receiving a degree.
Lev Nikolaevich returned to Yasnaya Polyana, wanting to establish relations with the peasants in a new way. The idea failed, but the young man regularly kept a diary, loved social entertainment and became interested in music. Tolstoy listened for hours, and...
Disappointed with the life of the landowner after spending the summer in the village, 20-year-old Leo Tolstoy left the estate and moved to Moscow, and from there to St. Petersburg. The young man rushed between preparing for candidate exams at the university, studying music, carousing with cards and gypsies, and dreams of becoming either an official or a cadet in a horse guards regiment. Relatives called Lev “the most trifling fellow,” and it took years to pay off the debts he incurred.
Literature
In 1851, the writer’s brother, officer Nikolai Tolstoy, persuaded Lev to go to the Caucasus. For three years Lev Nikolaevich lived in a village on the banks of the Terek. Nature of the Caucasus and patriarchal life Cossack village later appeared in the stories “Cossacks” and “Hadji Murat”, the stories “Raid” and “Cutting the Forest”.
In the Caucasus, Leo Tolstoy composed the story “Childhood,” which he published in the magazine “Sovremennik” under the initials L.N. Soon he wrote the sequels “Adolescence” and “Youth,” combining the stories into a trilogy. The literary debut turned out to be brilliant and brought Lev Nikolaevich his first recognition.
The creative biography of Leo Tolstoy is developing rapidly: an appointment to Bucharest, a transfer to besieged Sevastopol, and command of a battery enriched the writer with impressions. From the pen of Lev Nikolaevich came the cycle “ Sevastopol stories" The works of the young writer amazed critics with their bold psychological analysis. Nikolai Chernyshevsky found in them a “dialectic of the soul,” and the emperor read the essay “Sevastopol in December” and expressed admiration for Tolstoy’s talent.
In the winter of 1855, 28-year-old Leo Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg and entered the Sovremennik circle, where he was warmly welcomed, calling him “the great hope of Russian literature.” But over the course of a year, I got tired of the writing environment with its disputes and conflicts, readings and literary dinners. Later in Confession Tolstoy admitted:
“These people disgusted me, and I disgusted myself.”
In the fall of 1856, the young writer went to the Yasnaya Polyana estate, and in January 1857 he went abroad. Leo Tolstoy traveled around Europe for six months. Visited Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland. He returned to Moscow, and from there to Yasnaya Polyana. On the family estate, he began arranging schools for peasant children. In the vicinity of Yasnaya Polyana, with his participation, twenty educational institutions. In 1860, the writer traveled a lot: in Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium he studied pedagogical systems European countries to apply what we saw in Russia.
A special niche in Leo Tolstoy’s work is occupied by fairy tales and works for children and teenagers. The writer has created hundreds of works for young readers, including good and cautionary tales“Kitten”, “Two Brothers”, “Hedgehog and Hare”, “Lion and Dog”.
Leo Tolstoy wrote the school textbook “ABC” to teach children writing, reading and arithmetic. The literary and pedagogical work consists of four books. The writer included instructive stories, epics, fables, as well as methodological advice for teachers. The third book includes the story “Prisoner of the Caucasus.”
Leo Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina" In the 1870s, Leo Tolstoy, while continuing to teach peasant children, wrote the novel Anna Karenina, in which he contrasted the two storylines: family drama Karenins and home idyll young landowner Levin, with whom he identified himself. The novel only at first glance seemed to be a love affair: the classic raised the problem of the meaning of existence of the “educated class”, contrasting it with the truth of peasant life. "Anna Karenina" was highly appreciated.
The turning point in the writer’s consciousness was reflected in the works written in the 1880s. Life-changing spiritual insight occupies a central place in the stories and stories. “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”, “Father Sergius” and the story “After the Ball” appear. A classic of Russian literature paints pictures social inequality, castigates the idleness of the nobles.
In search of an answer to the question about the meaning of life, Leo Tolstoy turned to the Russian Orthodox Church, but didn’t find satisfaction there either. The writer came to the conclusion that the Christian Church is corrupt, and under the guise of religion, priests are promoting false teaching. In 1883, Lev Nikolaevich founded the publication “Mediator,” where he outlined his spiritual beliefs and criticized the Russian Orthodox Church. For this, Tolstoy was excommunicated from the church, and the writer was monitored by the secret police.
In 1898, Leo Tolstoy wrote the novel Resurrection, which received favorable reviews from critics. But the success of the work was inferior to “Anna Karenina” and “War and Peace”.
For the last 30 years of his life, Leo Tolstoy, with his teachings on non-violent resistance to evil, was recognized as the spiritual and religious leader of Russia.
"War and Peace"
Leo Tolstoy disliked his novel War and Peace, calling the epic “wordy rubbish.” The classic writer wrote the work in the 1860s, while living with his family in Yasnaya Polyana. The first two chapters, entitled “1805,” were published by Russkiy Vestnik in 1865. Three years later, Leo Tolstoy wrote three more chapters and completed the novel, which caused heated controversy among critics.
Leo Tolstoy writes "War and Peace" The novelist took the features of the heroes of the work, written during the years of family happiness and spiritual elation, from life. In Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, the features of Lev Nikolaevich’s mother are recognizable, her penchant for reflection, brilliant education and love of art. The writer awarded Nikolai Rostov with his father’s traits - mockery, love of reading and hunting.
When writing the novel, Leo Tolstoy worked in the archives, studied the correspondence of Tolstoy and Volkonsky, Masonic manuscripts, and visited the Borodino field. His young wife helped him, copying his drafts out clean.
The novel was read avidly, striking readers with the breadth of its epic canvas and subtle psychological analysis. Leo Tolstoy characterized the work as an attempt to “write the history of the people.”
According to the calculations of literary critic Lev Anninsky, by the end of the 1970s, the works of the Russian classic were filmed 40 times abroad alone. Until 1980, the epic War and Peace was filmed four times. Directors from Europe, America and Russia have made 16 films based on the novel “Anna Karenina”, “Resurrection” has been filmed 22 times.
“War and Peace” was first filmed by director Pyotr Chardynin in 1913. The most famous film was made by a Soviet director in 1965.
Personal life
Leo Tolstoy married 18-year-old in 1862, when he was 34 years old. The count lived with his wife for 48 years, but the couple’s life can hardly be called cloudless.
Sofia Bers is the second of three daughters of the Moscow palace office doctor Andrei Bers. The family lived in the capital, but in the summer they vacationed on a Tula estate near Yasnaya Polyana. For the first time Leo Tolstoy saw his future wife as a child. Sophia was educated at home, read a lot, understood art, and graduated from Moscow University. The diary kept by Bers-Tolstaya is recognized as an example of the memoir genre.
At the beginning of his married life, Leo Tolstoy, wanting there to be no secrets between him and his wife, gave Sophia a diary to read. The shocked wife found out about her husband's turbulent youth, his passion gambling, wild life and the peasant girl Aksinya, who was expecting a child from Lev Nikolaevich.
The first-born Sergei was born in 1863. In the early 1860s, Tolstoy began writing the novel War and Peace. Sofya Andreevna helped her husband, despite her pregnancy. The woman taught and raised all the children at home. Five of the 13 children died in infancy or early childhood childhood.
Problems in the family began after Leo Tolstoy finished working on Anna Karenina. The writer plunged into depression, expressed dissatisfaction with the life that Sofya Andreevna so diligently arranged in the family nest. The count's moral turmoil led to Lev Nikolayevich demanding that his relatives give up meat, alcohol and smoking. Tolstoy forced his wife and children to dress in peasant clothes, which he made himself, and wished to give the acquired property to the peasants.
Sofya Andreevna made considerable efforts to dissuade her husband from the idea of distributing goods. But the quarrel that occurred split the family: Leo Tolstoy left home. Upon returning, the writer entrusted the responsibility of rewriting drafts to his daughters.
Death last child– seven-year-old Vanya – brought the spouses closer together for a short time. But soon mutual grievances and misunderstandings alienated them completely. Sofya Andreevna found solace in music. In Moscow, a woman took lessons from a teacher for whom romantic feelings developed. Their relationship remained friendly, but the count did not forgive his wife for “half-betrayal.”
The couple's fatal quarrel occurred at the end of October 1910. Leo Tolstoy left home, leaving Sophia Farewell letter. He wrote that he loved her, but could not do otherwise.
Death
82-year-old Leo Tolstoy, accompanied by his personal doctor D.P. Makovitsky, left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, the writer fell ill and got off the train. railway station Astapovo. Lev Nikolaevich spent the last 7 days of his life in the house stationmaster. The whole country followed the news about Tolstoy’s health.
The children and wife arrived at the Astapovo station, but Leo Tolstoy did not want to see anyone. The classic died on November 7, 1910: he died of pneumonia. His wife survived him by 9 years. Tolstoy was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.
Quotes by Leo Tolstoy
- Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one thinks about how to change themselves.
- Everything comes to those who know how to wait.
- All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
- Let everyone sweep in front of his own door. If everyone does this, the whole street will be clean.
- It's easier to live without love. But without it there is no point.
- I don't have everything I love. But I love everything I have.
- The world moves forward because of those who suffer.
- The greatest truths are the simplest.
- Everyone is making plans, and no one knows whether he will survive until the evening.
Bibliography
- 1869 – “War and Peace”
- 1877 – “Anna Karenina”
- 1899 – “Resurrection”
- 1852-1857 – “Childhood”. "Adolescence". "Youth"
- 1856 – “Two Hussars”
- 1856 – “Morning of the Landowner”
- 1863 – “Cossacks”
- 1886 – “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
- 1903 – “Notes of a Madman”
- 1889 – “Kreutzer Sonata”
- 1898 – “Father Sergius”
- 1904 – “Hadji Murat”
Information sheet:
The wonderful, cute fairy tales of Leo Tolstoy make an indelible impression on children. Little readers and listeners make unusual discoveries about living nature, which are given to them in a fairy-tale form. At the same time, they are interesting to read and easy to understand. For better perception, some of the author's previously written fairy tales were later released in processing.
Who is Leo Tolstoy?
It was famous writer of its time and remains so today. He had an excellent education and knew foreign languages, was keen classical music. Traveled extensively throughout Europe and served in the Caucasus.
His original books were always published in large editions. Great novels and novellas, short stories and fables - the list of published works amazes with the richness of the author's literary talent. He wrote about love, war, heroism and patriotism. Personally participated in military battles. I saw a lot of grief and complete self-denial of soldiers and officers. He often spoke with bitterness not only about the material, but also about the spiritual poverty of the peasantry. And completely unexpected against the backdrop of his epic and social works became wonderful creations for children.
Why did you start writing for children?
Count Tolstoy did a lot of charity work. On his estate he opened a free school for peasants. The desire to write for children arose when the first few poor children came to study. To open up the world around them, to teach them in simple language what is now called natural history, Tolstoy began to write fairy tales.
Why do they love the writer these days?
It turned out so well that even now, children of a completely different generation, enjoy the works of the 19th century count, learning love and kindness towards the world around us and animals. As in all literature, Leo Tolstoy was also talented in fairy tales and is loved by his readers.
The great Russian writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828–1910) loved children very much, and even more he loved talking to them.
He knew many fables, fairy tales, stories and stories that he enthusiastically told to children. Both his own grandchildren and peasant children listened to him with interest.
Having opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, Lev Nikolaevich himself taught there.
He wrote a textbook for the little ones and called it "ABC". The author's work, consisting of four volumes, was “beautiful, short, simple and, most importantly, clear” for children to understand.
Lion and mouse
The lion was sleeping. The mouse ran over his body. He woke up and caught her. The mouse began to ask him to let her in; She said:
If you let me in, I will do you good.
The lion laughed that the mouse promised to do good to him, and let it go.
Then the hunters caught the lion and tied it to a tree with a rope. The mouse heard the lion's roar, came running, chewed the rope and said:
Remember, you laughed, you didn’t think that I could do you any good, but now you see, sometimes good comes from a mouse.
How a thunderstorm caught me in the forest
When I was little, I was sent to the forest to pick mushrooms.
I reached the forest, picked mushrooms and wanted to go home. Suddenly it became dark, it began to rain and there was thunder.
I got scared and sat down under a large oak tree. Lightning flashed so brightly that it hurt my eyes and I closed my eyes.
Something crackled and rattled above my head; then something hit me in the head.
I fell and lay there until the rain stopped.
When I woke up, trees were dripping all over the forest, birds were singing and the sun was playing. A large oak tree broke and smoke came out of the stump. Oak secrets lay around me.
The dress I was wearing was all wet and sticking to my body; there was a bump on my head and it hurt a little.
I found my hat, took the mushrooms and ran home.
There was no one at home, I took out some bread from the table and climbed onto the stove.
When I woke up, I saw from the stove that my mushrooms had been fried, put on the table and were already ready to eat.
I shouted: “What are you eating without me?” They say: “Why are you sleeping? Go quickly and eat.”
Sparrow and swallows
Once I stood in the yard and looked at a nest of swallows under the roof. Both swallows flew away in front of me, and the nest was left empty.
While they were away, a sparrow flew from the roof, jumped onto the nest, looked around, flapped its wings and darted into the nest; then he stuck his head out and chirped.
Soon after that, a swallow flew to the nest. She poked her head into the nest, but as soon as she saw the guest, she squeaked, beat her wings in place and flew away.
Sparrow sat and chirped.
Suddenly a herd of swallows flew in: all the swallows flew up to the nest - as if to look at the sparrow, and flew away again.
The sparrow was not shy, he turned his head and chirped.
The swallows again flew up to the nest, did something, and flew away again.
It was not for nothing that the swallows flew up: they each brought dirt in their beaks and little by little covered the hole in the nest.
Again the swallows flew away and came again, and covered the nest more and more, and the hole became tighter and tighter.
At first the sparrow's neck was visible, then only its head, then its nose, and then nothing became visible; The swallows completely covered him in the nest, flew away and began circling around the house whistling.
Two comrades
Two comrades were walking through the forest, and a bear jumped out at them.
One ran, climbed a tree and hid, while the other stayed on the road. He had nothing to do - he fell to the ground and pretended to be dead.
The bear came up to him and began to sniff: he stopped breathing.
The bear sniffed his face, thought he was dead, and walked away.
When the bear left, he climbed down from the tree and laughed.
Well, he says, did the bear speak into your ear?
And he told me that bad people those who run away from their comrades in danger.
Liar
The boy was guarding the sheep and, as if he saw a wolf, began to call:
Help, wolf! Wolf!
The men came running and saw: it’s not true. As he did this two and three times, it happened that a wolf actually came running. The boy began to shout:
Come here, come quickly, wolf!
The men thought that he was deceiving again as always - they did not listen to him. The wolf sees that there is nothing to be afraid of: he has slaughtered the entire herd in the open.
Hunter and Quail
A quail got caught in a hunter's net and began to ask the hunter to let him go.
Just let me go,” he says, “I’ll serve you.” I'll lure you other quails into the net.
Well, the quail,” said the hunter, “wouldn’t have let you in anyway, and now even more so.” I’ll turn my head for wanting to hand over your own people.
Girl and mushrooms
Two girls were walking home with mushrooms.
They had to cross the railway.
They thought the car was far away, so they climbed up the embankment and walked across the rails.
Suddenly a car made noise. The older girl ran back, and the younger girl ran across the road.
The older girl shouted to her sister: “Don’t go back!”
But the car was so close and made such a loud noise that the smaller girl did not hear; she thought that she was being told to run back. She ran back across the rails, tripped, dropped the mushrooms and began to pick them up.
The car was already close, and the driver whistled as hard as he could.
The older girl shouted: “Throw away the mushrooms!”, and the little girl thought that she was being told to pick mushrooms, and crawled along the road.
The driver could not hold the cars. She whistled as hard as she could and ran into the girl.
The older girl screamed and cried. All the passengers looked from the windows of the cars, and the conductor ran to the end of the train to see what had happened to the girl.
When the train passed, everyone saw that the girl was lying head down between the rails and not moving.
Then, when the train had already moved far, the girl raised her head, jumped on her knees, picked mushrooms and ran to her sister.
Old grandfather and grandson
(Fable)
Grandfather became very old. His legs did not walk, his eyes did not see, his ears did not hear, he had no teeth. And when he ate, it flowed backwards from his mouth.
His son and daughter-in-law stopped sitting him at the table and let him dine at the stove. They brought him lunch in a cup. He wanted to move it, but he dropped it and broke it.
The daughter-in-law began to scold the old man for ruining everything in the house and breaking cups, and said that now she would give him dinner in a basin.
The old man just sighed and said nothing.
One day a husband and wife are sitting at home and watching - their little son is playing on the floor with planks - he is working on something.
The father asked: “What are you doing this, Misha?” And Misha said: “It’s me, father, who’s making the tub. When you and your mother are too old to feed you from this tub.”
The husband and wife looked at each other and began to cry.
They felt ashamed for having offended the old man so much; and from then on they began to sit him at the table and look after him.
Little mouse
The mouse went out for a walk. She walked around the yard and came back to her mother.
Well, mother, I saw two animals. One is scary and the other is kind.
Mother asked:
Tell me, what kind of animals are these?
The mouse said:
One is scary - his legs are black, his crest is red, his eyes are protruding, and his nose is hooked. When I walked past, he opened his mouth, raised his leg and began screaming so loudly that out of fear I did not know where to go.
This is a rooster, said the old mouse, he does no harm to anyone, don’t be afraid of him. Well, what about the other animal?
The other was lying in the sun and warming himself. His neck was white, his legs were gray and smooth. He was licking his white chest and moving his tail slightly, looking at me.
The old mouse said:
Stupid, you are stupid. After all, it's the cat himself.
Two guys
Two men were driving: one to the city, the other from the city.
They hit each other with their sleds. One shouts:
Give me the way, I need to get to the city quickly.
And the other shouts:
Give me the way. I need to go home soon.
And the third man saw and said:
Whoever needs it quickly, put it back.
Poor man and rich man
In one house they lived: upstairs was a rich gentleman, and downstairs was a poor tailor.
The tailor kept singing songs while working and disturbed the master's sleep.
The master gave the tailor a bag of money so that he would not sing.
The tailor became rich and kept his money safe, but he no longer began to sing.
And he became bored. He took the money and brought it back to the master and said:
Take your money back, and let me sing the songs. And then melancholy came over me.