Lived by Tolstoy. The last journey, death and funeral. Biography test

A classic of Russian literature, Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 into the noble family of Nikolai Tolstoy and his wife Maria Nikolaevna. The father and mother of the future writer were nobles and belonged to revered families, so the family lived comfortably in their own Yasnaya Polyana estate, located in the Tula region.

Leo Tolstoy spent his childhood in the family estate. In these places he first saw the course of life of the working people, heard an abundance of old legends, parables, fairy tales, and here his first attraction to literature arose. Yasnaya Polyana- this is the place to which the writer returned at all stages of his life, drawing wisdom, beauty, inspiration.

Despite his noble origin, Tolstoy had to learn the bitterness of orphanhood from childhood, because the future writer’s mother died when the boy was only two years old. His father passed away not much later, when Leo was seven years old. The grandmother first took custody of the children, and after her death, Aunt Palageya Yushkova, who took the four children of the Tolstoy family with her to Kazan.

Growing up

The six years of living in Kazan became the informal years of the writer’s growing up, because during this time his character and worldview were formed. In 1844, Leo Tolstoy entered Kazan University, first to the eastern department, then, not finding himself in the study of Arabic and Turkish, to the Faculty of Law.

The writer did not show significant interest in studying law, but he understood the need to obtain a diploma. After passing the external exams, in 1847 Lev Nikolaevich received the long-awaited document and returned to Yasnaya Polyana, and then to Moscow, where he began to engage in literary creativity.

Military service

Not having time to finish two planned stories, in the spring of 1851 Tolstoy went to the Caucasus with his brother Nikolai and began military service. The young writer takes part in military operations of the Russian army and is among the defenders Crimean peninsula, frees native land from Turkish and Anglo-French troops. Years of service gave Leo Tolstoy invaluable experience, knowledge of the life of ordinary soldiers and citizens, their characters, heroism, and aspirations.

The years of service are vividly reflected in Tolstoy’s stories “Cossacks”, “Hadji Murat”, as well as in the stories “Demoted”, “Cutting Wood”, “Raid”.

Literary and social activities

Returning to St. Petersburg in 1855, Leo Tolstoy was already well-known in literary circles. Remembering the respectful attitude towards serfs in his father’s house, the writer strongly supports the abolition of serfdom, clarifying this question in the stories “Polikushka”, “Morning of the Landowner”, etc.

In an effort to see the world, in 1857 Lev Nikolaevich went on a trip abroad, visiting countries Western Europe. Getting acquainted with cultural traditions peoples, the master of words records information in his memory in order to later display the most important points in his creativity.

Actively engaged social activities, Tolstoy opens a school in Yasnaya Polyana. The writer criticizes in every possible way corporal punishment, which were widely practiced at that time in educational institutions in Europe and Russia. In order to improve the educational system, Lev Nikolaevich publishes a pedagogical magazine called “Yasnaya Polyana”, and in the early 70s he compiled several textbooks for primary schoolchildren, including “Arithmetic”, “ABC”, “Books for Reading”. These developments were effectively used in teaching several more generations of children.

Personal life and creativity

In 1862, the writer cast his lot with the daughter of doctor Andrei Bers, Sophia. The young family settled in Yasnaya Polyana, where Sofya Andreevna diligently tried to provide an atmosphere for her husband’s literary work. At this time, Leo Tolstoy was actively working on the creation of the epic “War and Peace”, and also, reflecting life in Russia after the reform, wrote the novel “Anna Karenina”.

In the 80s, Tolstoy moved with his family to Moscow, seeking to educate his growing children. Watching the hungry life ordinary people, Lev Nikolaevich contributes to the opening of about 200 free tables for those in need. Also at this time, the writer published a number of topical articles about the famine, strongly condemning the policies of the rulers.

The period of literature of the 80-90s includes: the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, the drama “The Power of Darkness”, the comedy “Fruits of Enlightenment”, the novel “Sunday”. For his strong attitude against religion and autocracy, Leo Tolstoy was excommunicated from the church.

Last years of life

In 1901 - 1902 the writer became seriously ill. For the purpose of a speedy recovery, the doctor strongly recommends a trip to Crimea, where Leo Tolstoy spends six months. Last trip the prose writer to Moscow took place in 1909.

Beginning in 1881, the writer strives to leave Yasnaya Polyana and retire, but remains, not wanting to hurt his wife and children. On October 28, 1910, Leo Tolstoy nevertheless decided to take a conscious step and live the rest of his years in a simple hut, refusing all honors.

An unexpected illness on the road becomes an obstacle to the writer’s plans and he spends his last seven days of life in the house of the station master. The day of death of an outstanding literary and public figure became November 20, 1910.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is one of the most famous and great writers in the world. During his lifetime he was recognized as a classic of Russian literature; his work paved a bridge between the flow of two centuries.

Tolstoy proved himself not just as a writer, he was an educator and humanist, thought about religion, and took a direct part in the defense of Sevastopol. The writer's legacy is so great, and his life itself is so ambiguous, that they continue to study him and try to understand him.

Tolstoy himself was a complex person, for which evidence is at least his family relationships. So numerous myths appear, both about Tolstoy’s personal qualities, his actions, and about his creativity and the ideas put into it. Many books have been written about the writer, but we will try to debunk at least the most popular myths about him.

Tolstoy's flight. It is a well-known fact that 10 days before his death, Tolstoy ran away from his home in Yasnaya Polyana. There are several versions about why the writer did this. They immediately began to say that this was how the elderly man tried to commit suicide. The communists developed the theory that Tolstoy expressed his protest against the tsarist regime in this way. In fact, the reasons for the writer’s flight from his native and beloved home were quite everyday. Three months earlier, he wrote a secret will, according to which he transferred all copyrights to his works not to his wife, Sofya Andreevna, but to his daughter Alexandra and his friend Chertkov. But the secret became clear - the wife learned about everything from the stolen diary. A scandal immediately broke out, and Tolstoy’s life became a real hell. His wife's hysterics prompted the writer to do something he had planned 25 years ago - to escape. During these difficult days, Tolstoy wrote in his diary that he could no longer tolerate this and hated his wife. Sofya Andreevna herself, having learned about Lev Nikolaevich’s escape, became even more furious - she ran to drown herself in the pond, beat herself in the chest with thick objects, tried to run somewhere and threatened to never let Tolstoy go anywhere in the future.

Tolstoy had a very angry wife. From the previous myth, it becomes clear to many that only his evil and eccentric wife is to blame for the death of a genius. In fact, Tolstoy’s family life was so complex that numerous studies are still trying to understand it today. And the wife herself felt unhappy in it. One of the chapters of her autobiography is called “Martyr and Martyr.” Little was known about Sofia Andreevna’s talents; she found herself completely in the shadow of her powerful husband. But the recent publication of her stories has made it possible to understand the depth of her sacrifice. And Natasha Rostova from War and Peace came to Tolstoy straight from his wife’s youthful manuscript. In addition, Sofya Andreevna received an excellent education, she knew a couple foreign languages and even translated it myself complex work her husband. The energetic woman still managed to manage the entire household, the accounting of the estate, as well as sheathing and tying up the entire considerable family. Despite all the hardships, Tolstoy’s wife understood that she was living with a genius. After his death, she noted that for almost half a century of marriage, she could not understand what kind of person he was.

Tolstoy was excommunicated and anathematized. Indeed, in 1910 Tolstoy was buried without a funeral service, which gave rise to the myth of excommunication. But in the commemorative act of the Synod of 1901, the word “excommunication” is not present in principle. Church officials wrote that with his views and false teachings the writer had long ago placed himself outside the church and was no longer perceived by it as a member. But society understood the complex bureaucratic document with ornate language in its own way - everyone decided that it was the church that abandoned Tolstoy. And this story with the definition of the Synod was actually a political order. This is how Chief Prosecutor Pobedonostsev took revenge on the writer for his image of the man-machine in “Resurrection.”

Leo Tolstoy founded the Tolstoyan movement. The writer himself was very cautious, and sometimes even disgusted, towards those numerous associations of his followers and admirers. Even after escaping from Yasnaya Polyana, the Tolstoy community turned out to be not the place where Tolstoy wanted to find shelter.

Tolstoy was a teetotaler. As you know, in adulthood the writer gave up alcohol. But he did not understand the creation of temperance societies throughout the country. Why do people gather if they are not going to drink? After all, big companies mean drinking.

Tolstoy fanatically adhered to his own principles. Ivan Bunin wrote in his book about Tolstoy that the genius himself was sometimes very cool about the tenets of his own teaching. One day, the writer with his family and close family friend Vladimir Chertkov (he was also the main follower of Tolstoy’s ideas) were eating on the terrace. It was a hot summer and mosquitoes were flying everywhere. One particularly annoying one sat on Chertkov’s bald head, where the writer killed him with the palm of his hand. Everyone laughed, and only the offended victim noted that Lev Nikolaevich took the life of a living creature, shaming him.

Tolstoy was a big womanizer. The writer’s sexual adventures are known from his own notes. Tolstoy said that in his youth he led a very bad life. But most of all he is confused by two events since then. The first is a relationship with a peasant woman before marriage, and the second is a crime with his aunt’s maid. Tolstoy seduced an innocent girl, who was then driven out of the yard. That same peasant woman was Aksinya Bazykina. Tolstoy wrote that he loved her as never before in his life. Two years before his marriage, the writer had a son, Timofey, who over the years became a huge man, like his father. In Yasnaya Polyana, everyone knew about the master’s illegitimate son, about the fact that he was a drunkard, and about his mother. Sofya Andreevna even went to look at her husband’s former passion, not finding anything interesting in her. And Tolstoy’s intimate stories are part of his diaries of his youth. He wrote about the voluptuousness that tormented him, about the desire for women. But something like this was commonplace for Russian nobles of that time. And remorse for their past relationships never tormented them. For Sofia Andreevna, the physical aspect of love was not at all important, unlike her husband. But she managed to give birth to Tolstoy 13 children, losing five. Lev Nikolaevich was her first and only man. And he was faithful to her throughout their 48 years of marriage.

Tolstoy preached asceticism. This myth appeared thanks to the writer’s thesis that a person needs little to live. But Tolstoy himself was not an ascetic - he simply welcomed a sense of proportion. Lev Nikolaevich himself thoroughly enjoyed life, he simply saw joy and light in simple things that were accessible to everyone.

Tolstoy was an opponent of medicine and science. The writer was not an obscurantist at all. On the contrary, he spoke about the fact that one should not return to the plow, about the inevitability of progress. At home Tolstoy had one of Edison's first phonographs and an electric pencil. And the writer rejoiced like a child at such achievements of science. Tolstoy was a very civilized man, understanding that humanity pays for progress with hundreds of thousands of lives. And the writer fundamentally did not accept such a development associated with violence and blood. Tolstoy was not cruel to human weaknesses; he was outraged that vices were justified by the doctors themselves.

Tolstoy hated art. Tolstoy understood art, he simply used his own criteria to evaluate it. And didn't he have the right to do this? It is difficult to disagree with the writer that a simple man is unlikely to understand Beethoven's symphonies. For unprepared listeners, much of classical music sounds like torture. But there is also art that is excellently perceived by both simple rural residents and sophisticated gourmets.

Tolstoy was driven by pride. They say that it was this inner quality that was manifested in the author’s philosophy, and even in everyday life. But should the non-stop search for truth be considered pride? Many people believe that it is much easier to join some teaching and serve it. But Tolstoy could not change himself. And in everyday life, the writer was very attentive - he taught his children mathematics, astronomy, and conducted physical education classes. When they were little, Tolstoy took children to the Samara province so that they learned and fell in love with nature better. It’s just that in the second half of his life the genius was preoccupied with a lot of things. This includes creativity, philosophy, and work with letters. So Tolstoy could not give himself, as before, to his family. But this was a conflict between creativity and family, and not a manifestation of pride.

Because of Tolstoy, a revolution occurred in Russia. This statement appeared thanks to Lenin’s article “Leo Tolstoy, as a mirror of the Russian revolution.” In fact, one person, be it Tolstoy or Lenin, simply cannot be to blame for the revolution. There were many reasons - the behavior of the intelligentsia, the church, the king and the court, the nobility. It was all of them who gave old Russia to the Bolsheviks, including Tolstoy. They listened to his opinion as a thinker. But he denied both the state and the army. True, he was precisely against the revolution. The writer generally did a lot to soften morals, calling on people to be kinder and serve Christian values.

Tolstoy was an unbeliever, denied faith and taught this to others. Statements that Tolstoy was turning people away from the faith greatly irritated and offended him. On the contrary, he stated that the main thing in his works is the understanding that there is no life without faith in God. Tolstoy did not accept the form of faith that the church imposed. And there are many people who believe in God, but do not accept modern religious institutions. For them, Tolstoy’s quest is understood and not at all scary. Many people generally come to church after being immersed in the writer’s thoughts. This was observed especially often in Soviet times. Even before, Tolstoyans turned towards the church.

Tolstoy constantly taught everyone. Thanks to this deep-rooted myth, Tolstoy appears as a self-confident preacher, telling whom and how to live. But when studying the writer’s diaries, it becomes clear that he spent his whole life sorting himself out. So where could he teach others? Tolstoy expressed his thoughts, but never imposed them on anyone. Another thing is that a community of followers, Tolstoyans, formed around the writer, who tried to make the views of their leader absolute. But for the genius himself, his ideas were not fixed. He considered the presence of God absolute, and everything else was the result of trials, torment, and searches.

Tolstoy was a fanatical vegetarian. At a certain point in his life, the writer completely abandoned meat and fish, not wanting to eat the disfigured corpses of living beings. But his wife, taking care of him, added meat to his mushroom broth. Seeing this, Tolstoy was not angry, but only joked that he was ready to drink meat broth every day, if only his wife did not lie to him. Other people's beliefs, including in the choice of food, were above all else for the writer. At their house there were always those who ate meat, the same Sofya Andreevna. But there were no terrible quarrels over this.

To understand Tolstoy, it is enough to read his works and not study his personality. This myth prevents a real reading of Tolstoy's works. Without understanding how he lived, one cannot understand his work. There are writers who say everything in their texts. But Tolstoy can only be understood if you know his worldview, his personal traits, relationships with the state, church, and loved ones. Tolstoy's life is a fascinating novel in itself, which sometimes spilled over into paper form. An example of this is “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”. On the other hand, the writer’s work influenced his life, including his family life. So there is no escape from studying Tolstoy’s personality and interesting aspects of his biography.

Tolstoy's novels cannot be studied at school - they are simply incomprehensible to high school students. Modern schoolchildren generally find it difficult to read long works, and “War and Peace” is also filled with historical digressions. Give our high school students shortened versions of novels tailored to their intelligence. It’s difficult to say whether this is good or bad, but in any case they will at least get an idea of ​​Tolstoy’s work. Thinking that it is better to read Tolstoy after school is dangerous. After all, if you don’t start reading it at that age, then later the children will not want to immerse themselves in the writer’s work. So the school works proactively, deliberately teaching more complex and intelligent things than the child’s intellect can perceive. Perhaps later there will be a desire to return to this and understand it to the end. And without studying at school, such a “temptation” will definitely not appear.

Tolstoy's pedagogy has lost its relevance. Tolstoy the teacher is treated differently. His teaching ideas were perceived as the fun of a master who decided to teach children according to his original method. In fact, the spiritual development of a child directly affects his intelligence. The soul develops the mind, and not vice versa. And Tolstoy’s pedagogy works in modern conditions. This is evidenced by the results of the experiment, during which 90% of children achieved excellent results. Children learn to read according to Tolstoy's ABC, which is built on many parables with their own secrets and archetypes of behavior that reveal human nature. Gradually the program becomes more complicated. A harmonious person with a strong moral principle emerges from the walls of the school. And today about a hundred schools in Russia practice this method.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. The works of this brilliant writer are Russia’s greatest asset.

In August 1828, a classic of Russian literature was born on the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Tula province. The future author of 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

The classic received his primary education 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 the pedagogical systems of European countries in order to apply what he 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 “ Caucasian prisoner».

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 two storylines: the family drama of the Karenins and the home idyll of the 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. The classic of Russian literature paints pictures of social inequality and 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 hobby 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 his work 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 himself made, 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 a 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 similar to each other, 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”

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Date of birth:
Place of birth:	Yasnaya Polyana, Tula Governorate, Russian Empire
Date of death:
Place of death:	Astapovo station, Tambov province, Russian Empire
Type of activity:	Prose writer, publicist, philosopher
Nicknames:	L.N., L.N.T.
Citizenship:	Russian Empire
Years of creativity:
Direction:
Autograph:

Biography

Origin

Education

Military career

Traveling around Europe

Pedagogical activity

Family and offspring

Creativity flourishes

"War and Peace"

"Anna Karenina"

Other works

Religious quest

Excommunication

Philosophy

Bibliography

Translators of Tolstoy

World recognition. Memory

Film adaptations of his works

Documentary

Movies about Leo Tolstoy

Portrait gallery

Translators of Tolstoy

Graph Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy(August 28 (September 9) 1828 - November 7 (20), 1910) - one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers. Participant in the defense of Sevastopol. Educator, publicist, religious thinker, whose authoritative opinion provoked the emergence of a new religious and moral movement - Tolstoyism.

The ideas of nonviolent resistance, which L. N. Tolstoy expressed in his work “The Kingdom of God is Within You,” influenced Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

Biography

Origin

Came from noble family, known, according to legendary sources, since 1353. His paternal ancestor, Count Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, is known for his role in the investigation of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, for which he was put in charge of the Secret Chancellery. The traits of Pyotr Andreevich’s great-grandson, Ilya Andreevich, are given in “War and Peace” to the good-natured, impractical old Count Rostov. The son of Ilya Andreevich, Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy (1794-1837), was the father of Lev Nikolaevich. In some character traits and biographical facts, he was similar to Nikolenka’s father in “Childhood” and “Adolescence” and partly to Nikolai Rostov in “War and Peace.” However, in real life, Nikolai Ilyich differed from Nikolai Rostov not only in his good education, but also in his convictions, which did not allow him to serve under Nikolai. Participant foreign trip Russian army, including participating in the “Battle of the Nations” near Leipzig and being captured by the French; after peace was concluded, he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment. Soon after his resignation, he was forced to go into bureaucratic service in order not to end up in debtor's prison because of the debts of his father, the Kazan governor, who died under investigation for official abuses. For several years, Nikolai Ilyich had to save. The negative example of his father helped Nikolai Ilyich develop his ideal of life - a private, independent life with family joys. To put his upset affairs in order, Nikolai Ilyich, like Nikolai Rostov, married an ugly and no longer very young princess from the Volkonsky family; the marriage was happy. They had four sons: Nikolai, Sergei, Dmitry and Lev and a daughter Maria.

Tolstoy's maternal grandfather, Catherine's general, Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, had some resemblance to the stern rigorist - the old Prince Bolkonsky in War and Peace, however, the version that he served as the prototype of the hero of War and Peace is rejected by many researchers of Tolstoy's work. Lev Nikolaevich's mother, similar in some respects to Princess Marya depicted in War and Peace, had a remarkable gift for storytelling, for which, with her shyness passed on to her son, she had to lock herself with the large number of listeners who gathered around her in a dark room.

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

Childhood

Born on August 28, 1828 in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province, on his mother’s hereditary estate - Yasnaya Polyana. Was the 4th child; his three older brothers: Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergei (1826-1904) and Dmitry (1827-1856). In 1830, Sister Maria (1830-1912) was born. His mother died when he was not yet 2 years old.

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

The Yushkov house, somewhat provincial in style, but typically secular, was one of the most cheerful in Kazan; all family members highly valued external shine. "My good aunt, - says Tolstoy, - the purest being, always said that she would like nothing more for me than for me to have a connection with married woman: rien ne forme un jeune homme comme une liaison avec une femme comme il faut" (« Confession»).

He wanted to shine in society, to earn a reputation young man; but he did not have the external qualities for this: he was ugly, it seemed to him awkward, and, in addition, he was hampered by natural shyness. Everything that is told in " adolescence" And " Youth"about the aspirations of Irtenyev and Nekhlyudov for self-improvement, Tolstoy took from the history of his own ascetic attempts. The most varied, as Tolstoy himself defines them, “philosophies” about the most important questions of our existence - happiness, death, God, love, eternity - painfully tormented him in that era of life when his peers and brothers were completely devoted to the cheerful, easy and carefree pastime of the rich and noble people. All this led to the fact that Tolstoy developed a “habit of constant moral analysis,” which, as it seemed to him, “destroyed the freshness of feeling and clarity of reason” (“ Youth»).

Education

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

At the age of 15, in 1843, following his brother Dmitry, he became a student at Kazan University, where Lobachevsky and Kovalevsky were professors at the Faculty of Mathematics. Until 1847, he was preparing here to enter the only Oriental Faculty in Russia at that time in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. In the entrance exams, in particular, he showed excellent results in the compulsory “Turkish-Tatar language” for admission.

Because of a conflict between his family and his teacher Russian history and German, a certain Ivanov, based on the results of the year, had poor performance in the relevant subjects and had to re-take the first-year program. To avoid repeating the course completely, he transferred to the Faculty of Law, where his problems with grades in Russian history and German continued. The latter was attended by the outstanding civil scientist Meyer; Tolstoy at one time became very interested in his lectures and even took on a special topic for development - a comparison of Montesquieu’s “Esprit des lois” and Catherine’s “Order”. However, nothing came of this. Leo Tolstoy spent less than two years at the Faculty of Law: “It was always difficult for him to have any education imposed by others, and everything that he learned in life, he learned himself, suddenly, quickly, with intense work,” writes Tolstaya in her “Materials for biography of L. N. Tolstoy."

It was at this time, while in a Kazan hospital, that he began to keep a diary, where, imitating Franklin, he sets goals and rules for self-improvement and notes successes and failures in completing these tasks, analyzes his shortcomings and train of thoughts and motives for his actions. In 1904 he recalled: “... for the first year... I did nothing. In the second year I started studying. .. there was Professor Meyer, who ... gave me a work - a comparison of Catherine’s “Order” with Montesquieu’s “Esprit des lois”. ... this work fascinated me, I went to the village, began to read Montesquieu, this reading opened up endless horizons for me; I started reading Rousseau and dropped out of university precisely because I wanted to study.”

Beginning of literary activity

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

I followed journalism very little; although his attempt to somehow attenuate the guilt of the nobility before the people dates back to the same year when Grigorovich’s “Anton the Miserable” and the beginning of Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter” appeared, this is a simple accident. If there were literary influences here, they were of much older origin: Tolstoy was very fond of Rousseau, a hater of civilization and a preacher of a return to primitive simplicity.

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

Having left for St. Petersburg, in the spring of 1848 he began to take the exam for a candidate of rights; He passed two exams, from criminal law and criminal proceedings, successfully, but he did not take the third exam and went to the village.

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

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

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

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

This is how 4 years passed after leaving the university, when Tolstoy’s brother Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, came to Yasnaya Polyana and began inviting him there. Tolstoy did not give in to his brother’s call for a long time, until a major loss in Moscow helped the decision. In order to pay off, it was necessary to reduce his expenses to a minimum - and in the spring of 1851, Tolstoy hastily left Moscow for the Caucasus, at first without any specific purpose. Soon he decided to enter military service, but obstacles arose in the form of a lack of necessary papers, which were difficult to obtain, and Tolstoy lived for about 5 months in complete solitude in Pyatigorsk, in a simple hut. He spent a significant part of his time hunting, in the company of the Cossack Epishka, the prototype of one of the heroes of the story “Cossacks”, who appears there under the name Eroshka.

In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy, having passed the exam in Tiflis, entered the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladov, on the banks of the Terek, near Kizlyar, as a cadet. With a slight change in details, she is depicted in all her semi-wild originality in “Cossacks”. The same “Cossacks” will also give us a picture of the inner life of Tolstoy, who fled from the capital’s whirlpool. The moods that Tolstoy-Olenin experienced were of a dual nature: here is a deep need to shake off the dust and soot of civilization and live in the refreshing, clear bosom of nature, outside the empty conventions of urban and, especially, high society life, here and the desire to heal the wounds of pride, brought out of the pursuit of success in this “empty” life, there is also a grave consciousness of transgressions against the strict requirements of true morality.

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

The relatively late start of his career is very characteristic of Tolstoy: he was never a professional writer, understanding professionalism not in the sense of a profession that provides a means of living, but in the less narrow sense of the predominance of literary interests. Purely literary interests always stood in the background for Tolstoy: he wrote when he wanted to write and the need to speak out was ripe, and in usual time he is a secular man, an officer, a landowner, a teacher, a peace mediator, a preacher, a teacher of life, etc. He never took the interests of literary parties to heart, was far from willing to talk about literature, preferring conversations about issues of faith, morals, public relations. Not a single work of his, in the words of Turgenev, “stinks of literature,” that is, did not come out of a bookish mood, out of literary isolation.

Military career

Having received the manuscript of “Childhood,” the editor of Sovremennik, Nekrasov, immediately recognized its literary value and wrote a kind letter to the author, which had a very encouraging effect on him. He sets about continuing the trilogy, and plans for “The Morning of the Landowner,” “The Raid,” and “The Cossacks” are swarming in his head. “Childhood,” published in Sovremennik in 1852, signed with the modest initials L.N.T., was extremely successful; the author immediately began to be ranked among the luminaries of the young literary school, along with Turgenev, Goncharov, Grigorovich, Ostrovsky, who already enjoyed great literary fame. Criticism - Apollo Grigoriev, Annenkov, Druzhinin, Chernyshevsky - also appreciated the depth psychological analysis, and the seriousness of the author's intentions, and the bright salience of realism with all the truthfulness of the vividly captured details of real life, alien to any vulgarity.

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

Tolstoy lived for a long time on the terrible 4th bastion, commanded a battery in the battle of Chernaya, and was during the hellish bombardment during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan. Despite all the horrors of the siege, Tolstoy at this time wrote a battle story from Caucasian life, “Cutting Wood,” and the first of three “Sevastopol stories,” “Sevastopol in December 1854.” This last story he sent it to Sovremennik. Immediately printed, the story was eagerly read throughout Russia and made a stunning impression with its picture of the horrors that befell the defenders of Sevastopol. The story was noticed by Emperor Nicholas; he ordered to take care of the gifted officer, which, however, was impossible for Tolstoy, who did not want to become the hated “staff officer.”

For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anne with the inscription “For bravery” and the medals “For the defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855” and “In memory of the war of 1853-1856.” Surrounded by the brilliance of fame and enjoying the reputation of a very brave officer, Tolstoy had every chance of a career, but he “ruined” it for himself. Almost the only time in my life (except for the “Connection” made for children different options epics in one" in his pedagogical works), he dabbled in poetry: he wrote a satirical song, in the manner of soldiers, about the unfortunate case 4 (August 16, 1855, when General Read, misunderstanding the order of the commander-in-chief, unwisely attacked the Fedyukhinsky heights. Song (As the fourth numbers, we had a hard time carrying mountains to take away), touching a whole series important generals, was a huge success and, of course, harmed the author. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (September 8), Tolstoy was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he completed “Sevastopol in May 1855.” and wrote “Sevastopol in August 1855.”

“Sevastopol Stories” finally strengthened his reputation as a representative of a new literary generation.

Traveling around Europe

In St. Petersburg he was warmly welcomed both in high society salons and in literary circles; He became especially close friends with Turgenev, with whom he lived in the same apartment for a while. The latter introduced him to the circle of Sovremennik and other literary luminaries: he became on friendly terms with Nekrasov, Goncharov, Panaev, Grigorovich, Druzhinin, Sologub.

“After the hardships of Sevastopol, life in the capital had a double charm for a rich, cheerful, impressionable and sociable young man. Tolstoy spent whole days and even nights on drinking and gambling, carousing with gypsies” (Levenfeld).

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

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

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

In the interval between the first and second trips, he continued to work on “Cossacks”, wrote Three Deaths and Family Happiness. It was at this time that Tolstoy almost died while on a bear hunt (December 22, 1858). He has an affair with the peasant woman Aksinya, and at the same time the need for marriage matures.

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

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

Pedagogical activity

He returned to Russia soon after the liberation of the peasants and became a peace mediator. At that time they looked at the people as a younger brother who needed to be lifted up; Tolstoy thought, on the contrary, that the people are infinitely higher than the cultural classes and that the gentlemen need to borrow the heights of spirit from the peasants. He actively began setting up schools in his Yasnaya Polyana and throughout the Krapivensky district.

The Yasnaya Polyana school is one of the original pedagogical attempts: in the era of boundless admiration for the latest German pedagogy, Tolstoy resolutely rebelled against any regulation and discipline in school; the only method of teaching and education that he recognized was that no method was needed. Everything in teaching should be individual - both the teacher and the student, and their mutual relationships. At the Yasnaya Polyana school, the children sat where they wanted, as much as they wanted, and as they wanted. There was no specific teaching program. The teacher's only job was to get the class interested. The classes were going great. They were led by Tolstoy himself with the help of several regular teachers and several random ones, from his closest acquaintances and visitors.

Since 1862, he began publishing the pedagogical magazine “Yasnaya Polyana”, where he, again, was the main employee. In addition to theoretical articles, Tolstoy also wrote a number of stories, fables and adaptations. Combined together, Tolstoy's pedagogical articles made up an entire volume of his collected works. Hidden away in a very rarely circulated special magazine, they remained little noticed at the time. On the sociological basis of Tolstoy’s ideas about education, on the fact that Tolstoy saw only easier and improved ways of exploiting the people in education, science, art and technological success upper classes, no one paid attention. Moreover, from Tolstoy’s attacks on European education and on the concept of “progress” that was favorite at that time, many seriously concluded that Tolstoy was a “conservative.”

This curious misunderstanding lasted for about 15 years, bringing closer to Tolstoy such a writer as organically opposed to him as N. N. Strakhov. Only in 1875, N. K. Mikhailovsky, in the article “The Hand and Shuytsa of Count Tolstoy,” which is striking in the brilliance of his analysis and prediction of Tolstoy’s future activities, outlined the spiritual appearance of the most original of Russian writers in the present light. The little attention that was paid to Tolstoy's pedagogical articles is partly due to the fact that little attention was paid to it at that time.

Apollo Grigoriev had the right to title his article about Tolstoy (Time, 1862) “Phenomena modern literature, missed by our criticism." Having extremely cordially greeted Tolstoy’s debits and credits and “Sevastopol Tales”, recognizing in him the great hope of Russian literature (Druzhinin even used the epithet “genius” in relation to him), critics then 10-12 years before the appearance of “War and Peace” not only ceases to recognize him as a very important writer, but somehow grows cold towards him.

The stories and essays he wrote in the late 1850s include “Lucerne” and “Three Deaths.”

Family and offspring

At the end of the 1850s, he met Sofia Andreevna Bers (1844-1919), the daughter of a Moscow doctor from the Baltic Germans. He was already in his fourth decade, Sofya Andreevna was only 17 years old. On September 23, 1862, he married her, and the fullness of family happiness fell to his lot. In his wife, he found not only his most faithful and devoted friend, but also an irreplaceable assistant in all matters, practical and literary. For Tolstoy, the brightest period of his life begins - the rapture of personal happiness, very significant thanks to the practicality of Sofia Andreevna, material well-being, outstanding, easily given tension literary creativity and in connection with him unprecedented all-Russian and then worldwide glory.

However, Tolstoy's relationship with his wife was not cloudless. Quarrels often arose between them, including in connection with the lifestyle that Tolstoy chose for himself.

• Sergei (July 10, 1863 - December 23, 1947)
• Tatiana (October 4, 1864 - September 21, 1950). Since 1899 she has been married to Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin. In 1917-1923 she was the curator of the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate. In 1925 she emigrated with her daughter. Daughter Tatyana Mikhailovna Sukhotina-Albertini 1905-1996
• Ilya (May 22, 1866 - December 11, 1933)
• Leo (1869-1945)
• Maria (1871-1906) Buried in the village. Kochety Krapivensky district. Since 1897 married to Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (1872-1934)
• Peter (1872-1873)
• Nicholas (1874-1875)
• Varvara (1875-1875)
• Andrey (1877-1916)
• Mikhail (1879-1944)
• Alexey (1881-1886)
• Alexandra (1884-1979)
• Ivan (1888-1895)

Creativity flourishes

During the first 10-12 years after his marriage, he created War and Peace and Anna Karenina. At the turn of this second era of Tolstoy’s literary life stand the works conceived back in 1852 and completed in 1861-1862. "Cossacks", the first of the works in which Tolstoy's great talent reached the proportions of a genius. For the first time in world literature, the difference between brokenness and cultured person, the absence of strong, clear moods in it - and the spontaneity of people close to nature.

Tolstoy showed that the peculiarity of people close to nature is not that they are good or bad. Can't be named good heroes the works of Tolstoy, the dashing horse thief Lukashka, a kind of dissolute girl Maryanka, and the drunkard Eroshka. But they cannot be called bad either, because they do not have the consciousness of evil; Eroshka is directly convinced that “there is no sin in anything”. Tolstoy's Cossacks are simply living people, in whom not a single mental movement is clouded by reflection. "Cossacks" were not assessed in a timely manner. At that time, everyone was too proud of “progress” and the success of civilization to be interested in how a representative of culture gave in to the force of the immediate spiritual movements of some semi-savages.

"War and Peace"

Unprecedented success befell War and Peace. Excerpt from a novel entitled "1805" appeared in the Russian Messenger of 1865; in 1868 three of its parts were published, which were soon followed by the remaining two.

Recognized by critics around the world as the greatest epic work new European literature, “War and Peace” amazes from a purely technical point of view with the size of its fictional canvas. Only in painting can one find some parallel in the huge paintings of Paolo Veronese in the Venetian Doge's Palace, where hundreds of faces are also painted with amazing clarity and individual expression. In Tolstoy's novel all classes of society are represented, from emperors and kings to the last soldier, all ages, all temperaments and throughout the entire reign of Alexander I.

"Anna Karenina"

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other works

In March 1879, in the city of Moscow, Leo Tolstoy met Vasily Petrovich Shchegolenok and in the same year, at his invitation, he came to Yasnaya Polyana, where he stayed for about a month and a half. The Goldfinch told Tolstoy many folk tales and epics, of which more than twenty were written down by Tolstoy, and Tolstoy, if he didn’t write them down on paper, remembered the plots of some (these notes are published in Volume XLVIII of the Anniversary Edition of Tolstoy’s Works). Six works written by Tolstoy are based on legends and stories of Shchegolenok (1881 - “ How people live", 1885 - " Two old men" And " Three elders", 1905 - " Korney Vasiliev" And " Prayer", 1907 - " Old man in church"). In addition, Count Tolstoy diligently wrote down many sayings, proverbs, individual expressions and words told by the Goldfinch.

Literary criticism of Shakespeare's works

In his critical essay “On Shakespeare and Drama,” based on a detailed analysis of some of the most popular works Shakespeare, in particular: “King Lear”, “Othello”, “Falstaff”, “Hamlet”, etc. - Tolstoy sharply criticized Shakespeare’s abilities as a playwright.

Religious quest

To find an answer to the questions and doubts that tormented him, Tolstoy first of all took up the study of theology and wrote and published in 1891 in Geneva his “Study of Dogmatic Theology,” in which he criticized the “Orthodox Dogmatic Theology” of Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov). He had conversations with priests and monks, went to the elders in Optina Pustyn, and read theological treatises. To know the original sources in the original Christian teaching studied ancient Greek and Hebrew (the Moscow rabbi Shlomo Minor helped him in studying the latter). At the same time, he looked closely at the schismatics, became close to the thoughtful peasant Syutaev, and talked with the Molokans and Stundists. Tolstoy also sought the meaning of life in the study of philosophy and in becoming familiar with the results of the exact sciences. He made a number of attempts at greater and greater simplification, striving to live a life close to nature and agricultural life.

Gradually he gives up whims and conveniences rich life, does a lot of physical labor, dresses in simple clothes, becomes a vegetarian, gives his entire large fortune to his family, and renounces literary property rights. On this basis of unalloyed pure impulse and desire for moral improvement, the third period of Tolstoy’s literary activity is created, distinctive feature which is the denial of all established forms of state, social and religious life. A significant part of Tolstoy’s views could not receive open expression in Russia and were presented in full only in foreign editions of his religious and social treatises.

No unanimous attitude was established even in relation to Tolstoy’s fictional works written during this period. Thus, in a long series of short stories and legends, intended primarily for folk reading(“How People Live,” etc.), Tolstoy, in the opinion of his unconditional admirers, reached the pinnacle of artistic power - that elemental mastery that is given only to folk tales, because they embody the creativity of an entire people. On the contrary, according to people who are indignant at Tolstoy for turning from an artist into a preacher, these artistic teachings, written for a specific purpose, are grossly tendentious. High and terrible truth“The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” according to fans, placing this work along with the main works of the genius of Tolstoy, according to others, is deliberately harsh, deliberately sharply emphasizes the soullessness of the upper strata of society in order to show the moral superiority of the simple “kitchen man” Gerasim. The explosion of the most opposite feelings, caused by the analysis of marital relations and the indirect demand for abstinence from married life, in the “Kreutzer Sonata” made us forget about the amazing brightness and passion with which this story was written. Folk drama“The Power of Darkness,” according to Tolstoy’s admirers, is a great manifestation of his artistic power: within the tight framework of an ethnographic reproduction of Russian peasant life, Tolstoy was able to fit so many universal human traits that the drama went around all the stages of the world with tremendous success.

In his last major work, the novel “Resurrection,” he condemned judicial practice and high society life, and caricatured the clergy and worship.

Critics of the last phase of Tolstoy’s literary and preaching activity find that artistic power he certainly suffered from the predominance of theoretical interests and that creativity is now only needed by Tolstoy in order to propagate his socio-religious views in a publicly accessible form. In his aesthetic treatise (“On Art”) one can find enough material to declare Tolstoy an enemy of art: in addition to the fact that Tolstoy here in part completely denies, in part significantly belittles artistic value Dante, Raphael, Goethe, Shakespeare (at the performance of Hamlet he experienced “special suffering” for this “false likeness of works of art”), Beethoven and others, he directly comes to the conclusion that “the more we surrender to beauty, the more The more we move away from good.”

Excommunication

Belonging by birth and baptism to the Orthodox Church, Tolstoy, like most representatives of the educated society of his time, was indifferent to religious issues in his youth and youth. In the mid-1870s, he showed increased interest in the teachings and worship of the Orthodox Church. The turning point for him from the teachings of the Orthodox Church was the second half of 1879. In the 1880s, he took a position of unambiguously critical attitude towards church doctrine, the clergy, and official church life. The publication of some of Tolstoy's works was prohibited by spiritual and secular censorship. In 1899, Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection” was published, in which the author showed the life of various social strata contemporary Russia; the clergy were depicted mechanically and hastily performing rituals, and some took the cold and cynical Toporov for a caricature of K. P. Pobedonostsev, Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod.

In February 1901, the Synod finally decided to publicly condemn Tolstoy and declare him outside the church. Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky) played an active role in this. As it appears in the Chamber-Fourier journals, on February 22, Pobedonostsev visited Nicholas II in the Winter Palace and talked with him for about an hour. Some historians believe that Pobedonostsev came to the Tsar directly from the Synod with a ready-made definition.

On February 24 (Old Art.), 1901, in the official organ of the Synod, “Church Gazette published under the Holy Governing Senod” was published “Decree of the Holy Synod of February 20-22, 1901 No. 557, with a message to the faithful children of the Greek Orthodox Church about Count Leo Tolstoy”:

A world-famous writer, Russian by birth, Orthodox by baptism and upbringing, Count Tolstoy, in the seduction of his proud mind, boldly rebelled against the Lord and against His Christ and against His holy property, clearly before everyone renounced the Mother who fed and raised him, the Church. Orthodox, and devoted his literary activity and the talent given to him from God to the dissemination among the people of teachings contrary to Christ and the Church, and to the destruction in the minds and hearts of people of the fatherly faith, the Orthodox faith, which established the universe, by which our ancestors lived and were saved, and by which Until now, Holy Rus' had held out and was strong. In his writings and letters, scattered in large numbers by him and his disciples all over the world, especially within our dear Fatherland, he preaches, with the zeal of a fanatic, the overthrow of all the dogmas of the Orthodox Church and the very essence of the Christian faith; denies the personal living God, glorified in the Holy Trinity, the Creator and Provider of the universe, denies the Lord Jesus Christ - the God-man, Redeemer and Savior of the world, who suffered for us for the sake of men and ours for the sake of salvation and rose from the dead, denies the seedless conception of Christ the Lord for humanity and virginity until Christmas and after the Nativity of the Most Pure Theotokos, Ever-Virgin Mary, does not recognize the afterlife and reward, rejects all the sacraments of the Church and the grace-filled action of the Holy Spirit in them and, swearing at the most sacred objects of faith Orthodox people, did not shudder to mock the greatest of sacraments, the holy Eucharist. Count Tolstoy preaches all this continuously, in word and in writing, to the temptation and horror of the entire Orthodox world, and thus undisguisedly, but clearly before everyone, he consciously and intentionally rejected himself from all communication with the Orthodox Church. The previous attempts, to his understanding, were not crowned with success. Therefore, the Church does not consider him a member and cannot consider him until he repents and restores his communion with her. Therefore, testifying to his falling away from the Church, we pray together that the Lord will grant him repentance into the mind of truth (2 Tim. 2:25). We pray, merciful Lord, do not want the death of sinners, hear and have mercy and turn him to Your holy Church. Amen.

In his “Response to the Synod,” Leo Tolstoy confirmed his break with the Church: “The fact that I renounced the church, which calls itself Orthodox, is absolutely fair. But I renounced it not because I rebelled against the Lord, but on the contrary, only because I wanted to serve him with all the strength of my soul.” However, Tolstoy objected to the charges brought against him in the resolution of the synod: “The resolution of the synod in general has many shortcomings. It is illegal or deliberately ambiguous; it is arbitrary, unfounded, untruthful and, in addition, contains slander and incitement to bad feelings and actions.” In the text of his “Response to the Synod,” Tolstoy reveals these theses in detail, recognizing a number of significant discrepancies between the dogmas of the Orthodox Church and his own understanding of the teachings of Christ.

The Synodal definition caused outrage among a certain part of society; Numerous letters and telegrams were sent to Tolstoy expressing sympathy and support. At the same time, this definition provoked a flow of letters from another part of society - with threats and abuse.

At the end of February 2001, the count's great-grandson Vladimir Tolstoy, manager of the writer's museum-estate in Yasnaya Polyana, sent a letter to Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' with a request to revise the synodal definition; in an unofficial interview on television, the Patriarch said: “We cannot reconsider now, because after all, it is possible to reconsider if a person changes his position.” In March 2009, Vl. Tolstoy expressed his opinion about the significance of the synodal act: “I studied documents, read newspapers of that time, and became acquainted with the materials of public discussions around excommunication. And I had the feeling that this act gave a signal for a total split Russian society. The reigning family, the highest aristocracy, and landed nobility, and the intelligentsia, and the common strata, and ordinary people. A crack has passed through the body of the entire Russian, Russian people.”

Moscow census of 1882. L. N. Tolstoy - census participant

The 1882 census in Moscow is famous for the fact that he took part in it great writer Count L.N. Tolstoy. Lev Nikolaevich wrote: “I proposed to use the census in order to find out poverty in Moscow and help it with deeds and money, and make sure that there are no poor people in Moscow.”

Tolstoy believed that the interest and significance of the census for society is that it gives it a mirror into which, like it or not, the whole society and each of us can look. He chose one of the most difficult and difficult sites, Protochny Lane, where the shelter was located; among the Moscow chaos, this gloomy two-story building was called “Rzhanova Fortress.” Having received the order from the Duma, Tolstoy, a few days before the census, began to walk around the site according to the plan that was given to him. Indeed, the dirty shelter, filled with beggars and desperate people who had sunk to the very bottom, served as a mirror for Tolstoy, reflecting the terrible poverty of the people. Under the fresh impression of what he saw, L. N. Tolstoy wrote his famous article “On the Census in Moscow.” In this article he writes:

The purpose of the census is scientific. The census is a sociological survey. The goal of the science of sociology is the happiness of people." This science and its methods differ sharply from other sciences. The peculiarity is that sociological research is not carried out through the work of scientists in their offices, observatories and laboratories, but is carried out by two thousand people from society. Another feature , that the research of other sciences is carried out not on living people, but here on living people. The third feature is that the goal of other sciences is only knowledge, but here the good of people can be explored alone, but to study Moscow you need 2000 people. of the foggy spots is only to find out everything about the foggy spots, the purpose of the study of the inhabitants is to derive the laws of sociology and, on the basis of these laws, to establish a better life for the people. The foggy spots do not care whether they are studied or not, they have waited and are ready to wait for a long time, but for the residents. Moscow cares, especially to those unfortunate people who make up the most interesting subject of the science of sociology. The accountant comes to the shelter, to the basement, finds a man dying from lack of food and politely asks: title, name, patronymic, occupation; and after a slight hesitation about whether to add him to the list as alive, he writes it down and moves on.

Despite the good goals of the census declared by Tolstoy, the population was suspicious of this event. On this occasion, Tolstoy writes: “When they explained to us that people had already learned about the bypass of the apartments and were leaving, we asked the owner to lock the gate, and we ourselves went into the yard to persuade the people who were leaving.” Lev Nikolaevich hoped to arouse sympathy for urban poverty among the rich, collect money, recruit people who wanted to contribute to this cause and, together with the census, go through all the dens of poverty. In addition to fulfilling the duties of a copyist, the writer wanted to enter into communication with the unfortunate, find out the details of their needs and help them with money and work, expulsion from Moscow, placing children in schools, old men and women in shelters and almshouses.

According to the census results, the population of Moscow in 1882 was 753.5 thousand people and only 26% were born in Moscow, and the rest were “newcomers”. Of the Moscow residential apartments, 57% faced the street, 43% faced the courtyard. From the 1882 census we can find out that in 63% the head of the household is a married couple, in 23% it is the wife, and only in 14% it is the husband. The census noted 529 families with 8 or more children. 39% have servants and most often they are women.

Last years of life. Death and funeral

In October 1910, fulfilling his decision to live his last years in accordance with his views, he secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. He began his last journey at Kozlova Zaseka station; On the way, he fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to make a stop at the small station of Astapovo (now Lev Tolstoy, Lipetsk region), where he died on November 7 (20).

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

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

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

Philosophy

Tolstoy's religious and moral imperatives were the source of the Tolstoyanism movement, one of the fundamental theses of which is the thesis of “non-resistance to evil by force.” The latter, according to Tolstoy, is recorded in a number of places in the Gospel and is the core of the teachings of Christ, as well as Buddhism. The essence of Christianity, according to Tolstoy, can be expressed in simple rule: « Be kind and do not resist evil with force».

The position of non-resistance, which gave rise to controversy in the philosophical community, was opposed, in particular, by I. A. Ilyin in his work “On Resistance to Evil by Force” (1925)

Criticism of Tolstoy and Tolstoyism

• Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod Pobedonostsev in his private letter dated February 18, 1887 to the emperor Alexander III wrote about Tolstoy’s drama “The Power of Darkness”: “I just read L. Tolstoy’s new drama and I can’t come to my senses from horror. And they assure me that they are preparing to perform it at the Imperial Theaters and are already learning the roles. I don’t know anything like this in any literature. It is unlikely that Zola himself reached the level of crude realism that Tolstoy reaches here. The day on which Tolstoy's drama will be presented at the Imperial Theaters will be the day decisive fall our scene, which has already fallen very low.”

• The leader of the extreme left wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin), after the revolutionary unrest of 1905-1907, wrote, while in forced emigration, in the work “Leo Tolstoy as a Mirror of the Russian Revolution” (1908): “Tolstoy ridiculous, like a prophet who discovered new recipes for the salvation of mankind - and therefore the foreign and Russian “Tolstoyites” who wanted to turn into dogma the very weak side his teachings. Tolstoy is great as an exponent of those ideas and those sentiments that had developed among millions of the Russian peasantry at the time of the onset of the bourgeois revolution in Russia. Tolstoy is original, because the totality of his views, taken as a whole, expresses precisely the features of our revolution, as a peasant bourgeois revolution. The contradictions in Tolstoy's views, from this point of view, are a real mirror of the contradictory conditions in which the historical activity of the peasantry was placed in our revolution. "
• Russian religious philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev wrote at the beginning of 1918: “L. Tolstoy must be recognized as the greatest Russian nihilist, the destroyer of all values ​​and shrines, the destroyer of culture. Tolstoy triumphed, his anarchism triumphed, his non-resistance, his denial of the state and culture, his moralistic demand for equality in poverty and non-existence and subordination to the peasant kingdom and physical labor. But this triumph of Tolstoyism turned out to be less meek and beautiful-hearted than Tolstoy imagined. It is unlikely that he himself would have rejoiced at such a triumph. The godless nihilism of Tolstoyism, its terrible poison that destroys the Russian soul, is exposed. To save Russia and Russian culture, Tolstoy’s morality, low and destructive, must be burned out of the Russian soul with a hot iron.”

His article “Spirits of the Russian Revolution” (1918): “There is nothing prophetic in Tolstoy, he did not foresee or predict anything. As an artist, he is drawn to the crystallized past. He did not have that sensitivity to the dynamism of human nature, which in highest degree was at Dostoevsky's. But in the Russian revolution, it is not Tolstoy’s artistic insights that triumph, but his moral assessments. There are few Tolstoyans in the narrow sense of the word who share Tolstoy’s doctrine, and they represent an insignificant phenomenon. But Tolstoyism in the broad, non-doctrinal sense of the word is very characteristic of Russian people; it determines Russian moral assessments. Tolstoy was not a direct teacher of the Russian left-wing intelligentsia; Tolstoy’s religious teaching was alien to them. But Tolstoy grasped and expressed the peculiarities of the moral make-up of the majority of the Russian intelligentsia, perhaps even the Russian intellectual, perhaps even the Russian person in general. And the Russian revolution represents a kind of triumph of Tolstoyism. It is imprinted both by Russian Tolstoy's moralism and Russian immorality. This Russian moralism and this Russian immorality are interconnected and are two sides of the same disease moral consciousness. Tolstoy managed to instill in the Russian intelligentsia a hatred of everything historically individual and historically divergent. He was an exponent of that side of Russian nature that had an aversion to historical force and historical glory. It was he who taught us to moralize over history in an elementary and simplified way and to transfer the moral categories of individual life to historical life. By this he morally undermined the opportunity for the Russian people to live historical life, fulfill its historical destiny and historical mission. He morally prepared the historical suicide of the Russian people. He clipped the wings of the Russian people as a historical people, morally poisoned the sources of every impulse towards historical creativity. The world war was lost by Russia because Tolstoy's moral assessment of the war prevailed. The Russian people, in a terrible hour of world struggle, were weakened by Tolstoy’s moral assessments, in addition to betrayals and animal egoism. Tolstoy’s morality disarmed Russia and gave it into the hands of the enemy.”

• V. Mayakovsky, D. Burliuk, V. Khlebnikov, A. Kruchenykh, called for “throwing L.N. Tolstoy and others from the ship of modernity” in the 1912 Futurist manifesto “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste”
• George Orwell defended W. Shakespeare against criticism of Tolstoy

• Researcher of the history of Russian theological thought and culture Georgy Florovsky (1937): “There is one decisive contradiction in Tolstoy’s experience. He undoubtedly had the temperament of a preacher or a moralist, but he had no religious experience at all. Tolstoy was not religious at all, he was religiously mediocre. Tolstoy did not derive his “Christian” worldview from the Gospel. He already checks the Gospel with his own view, and that is why he cuts it down and adapts it so easily. For him, the Gospel is a book compiled many centuries ago by “poorly educated and superstitious people,” and it cannot be accepted in its entirety. But Tolstoy does not mean scientific criticism, but simply personal choice or selection. In some strange way, Tolstoy seemed to be mentally late in the 18th century, and therefore found himself outside of history and modernity. And he deliberately leaves modernity for some far-fetched past. All his work is in this regard some kind of continuous moralistic Robinsonade. Annenkov also called Tolstoy's mind sectarian. There is a striking discrepancy between the aggressive maximalism of Tolstoy's socio-ethical denunciations and denials and the extreme poverty of his positive moral teaching. For him, all morality comes down to common sense and everyday prudence. “Christ teaches us exactly how we can get rid of our misfortunes and live happily.” And this is what the whole Gospel boils down to! Here Tolstoy’s insensibility becomes terrible, and “common sense” turns into madness... The main contradiction of Tolstoy is precisely that for him the untruths of life can be overcome, strictly speaking, only abandonment of history, only by leaving the culture and simplifying, that is, by removing questions and abandoning tasks. Tolstoy's moralism turns around historical nihilism.»

• The holy righteous John of Kronstadt sharply criticized Tolstoy (see “Response of Father John of Kronstadt to Count L.N. Tolstoy’s appeal to the clergy”), and in his dying diary (August 15 - October 2, 1908) he wrote:

"24 August. How long, O Lord, do you tolerate the worst atheist who has confused the whole world, Leo Tolstoy? How long do you not call him to Thy Judgment? Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward will be with Me, and will He reward everyone according to his deeds? (Rev. 22:12) Where, the earth is tired of tolerating his blasphemy. -»
"September 6. Where, do not allow Leo Tolstoy, the heretic who surpassed all heretics, to reach before the Christmas holiday Holy Mother of God, which he blasphemed terribly and blasphemes. Take him from the ground - this stinking corpse, which stinks the whole earth with its pride. Amen. 9pm."

• In 2009, as part of a court case regarding the liquidation of the local religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses "Taganrog", a forensic examination was carried out, in the conclusion of which Leo Tolstoy's statement was cited: "I am convinced that the teaching of the [Russian Orthodox] Church is theoretically an insidious and harmful lie, practically “the same collection of the grossest superstitions and witchcraft, completely hiding the entire meaning of Christian teaching,” which was characterized as forming a negative attitude towards the Russian Orthodox Church, and L.N. Tolstoy himself was described as “an opponent of Russian Orthodoxy.”

Expert assessment of individual statements of Tolstoy

• In 2009, as part of a court case on the liquidation of the local religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses "Taganrog", a forensic examination of the organization's literature was carried out to determine whether it contained signs of inciting religious hatred, undermining respect and hostility towards other religions. The expert report noted that the Awake! contains (without specifying the source) a statement by Leo Tolstoy: “I am convinced that the teaching of the [Russian Orthodox] Church is theoretically an insidious and harmful lie, practically a collection of the grossest superstitions and witchcraft, hiding the entire meaning of Christian teaching,” which was characterized as formative a negative attitude and undermining respect for the Russian Orthodox Church, and L.N. Tolstoy himself - as an “opponent of Russian Orthodoxy.”

• In March 2010, in the Kirov Court of Yekaterinburg, Leo Tolstoy was accused of “inciting religious hatred against the Orthodox Church.” An expert on extremism, Pavel Suslonov, testified: “Leo Tolstoy’s leaflets “Preface to the “Soldier’s Memo” and “Officer’s Memo”,” directed to soldiers, sergeant majors and officers, contain direct calls to incite interreligious hatred directed against the Orthodox Church.”

Bibliography

Translators of Tolstoy

• In Azerbaijani language - Dadash-zade, Mammad Arif Maharram oglu
• On English language— Constance Garnett, Leo Wiener, Aylmer and Louise Maude
• Into Bulgarian - Sava Nichev, Georgi Shopov, Hristo Dosev
• On Spanish— Selma Ansira
• On Kazakh language— Ibray Altynsarin
• Into Malay - Viktor Pogadaev
• In Norwegian - Martin Gran, Olaf Broch, Marta Grundt
• On French— Michel Aucouturier, Vladimir Lvovich Binshtok
• In Esperanto - Valentin Melnikov, Viktor Sapozhnikov
• On Japanese— Konishi Masutaro

World recognition. Memory

Museums

In the former Yasnaya Polyana estate there is a museum dedicated to his life and work.

The main literary exhibition about his life and work is in State Museum L. N. Tolstoy, in former house Lopukhinykh-Stanitskaya (Moscow, Prechistenka 11); its branches also: at Lev Tolstoy station (former Astapovo station), memorial museum-estate of L. N. Tolstoy “Khamovniki” (Lva Tolstoy Street, 21), exhibition hall on Pyatnitskaya.

Scientists, cultural figures, politicians about L. N. Tolstoy

Film adaptations of his works

• "Resurrection"(English) Resurrection, 1909, UK). A 12-minute silent film based on the novel of the same name (filmed during the writer’s lifetime).
• "Power of Darkness"(1909, Russia). Silent film.
• "Anna Karenina"(1910, Germany). Silent film.
• "Anna Karenina"(1911, Russia). Silent film. Dir. - Maurice Maitre
• "Living Corpse"(1911, Russia). Silent film.
• "War and Peace"(1913, Russia). Silent film.
• "Anna Karenina"(1914, Russia). Silent film. Dir. - V. Gardin
• "Anna Karenina"(1915, USA). Silent film.
• "Power of Darkness"(1915, Russia). Silent film.
• "War and Peace"(1915, Russia). Silent film. Dir. - Y. Protazanov, V. Gardin
• "Natasha Rostova"(1915, Russia). Silent film. Producer - A. Khanzhonkov. Starring: V. Polonsky, I. Mozzhukhin
• "Living Corpse"(1916). Silent film.
• "Anna Karenina"(1918, Hungary). Silent film.
• "Power of Darkness"(1918, Russia). Silent film.
• "Living Corpse"(1918). Silent film.
• "Father Sergius"(1918, RSFSR). Silent film film by Yakov Protazanov, in leading role Ivan Mozzhukhin
• "Anna Karenina"(1919, Germany). Silent film.
• "Polikushka"(1919, USSR). Silent film.
• "Love"(1927, USA. Based on the novel “Anna Karenina”). Silent film. As Anna - Greta Garbo
• "Living Corpse"(1929, USSR). Starring: V. Pudovkin
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1935, USA). Sound film. As Anna - Greta Garbo
• « Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1948, UK). As Anna - Vivien Leigh
• "War and Peace"(War & Peace, 1956, USA, Italy). As Natasha Rostova - Audrey Hepburn
• "Agi Murad il diavolo bianco"(1959, Italy, Yugoslavia). As Hadji Murat - Steve Reeves
• "People too"(1959, USSR, based on a fragment of “War and Peace”). Dir. G. Danelia, starring V. Sanaev, L. Durov
• "Resurrection"(1960, USSR). Dir. - M. Schweitzer
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1961, USA). As Vronsky - Sean Connery
• "Cossacks"(1961, USSR). Dir. - V. Pronin
• "Anna Karenina"(1967, USSR). In the role of Anna - Tatiana Samoilova
• "War and Peace"(1968, USSR). Dir. - S. Bondarchuk
• "Living Corpse"(1968, USSR). In ch. roles - A. Batalov
• "War and Peace"(War & Peace, 1972, UK). Series. As Pierre - Anthony Hopkins
• "Father Sergius"(1978, USSR). Feature film by Igor Talankin, starring Sergei Bondarchuk
• « Caucasian story» (1978, USSR, based on the story “Cossacks”). In ch. roles - V. Konkin
• "Money"(1983, France-Switzerland, based on the story “False Coupon”). Dir. - Robert Bresson
• "Two Hussars"(1984, USSR). Dir. - Vyacheslav Krishtofovich
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1985, USA). As Anna - Jacqueline Bisset
• "A Simple Death"(1985, USSR, based on the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”). Dir. - A. Kaidanovsky
• "Kreutzer Sonata"(1987, USSR). Starring: Oleg Yankovsky
• "For what?" (Za co?, 1996, Poland / Russia). Dir. - Jerzy Kawalerowicz
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1997, USA). In the role of Anna - Sophie Marceau, Vronsky - Sean Bean
• "Anna Karenina"(2007, Russia). In the role of Anna - Tatiana Drubich

For more details, see also: List of film adaptations of “Anna Karenina” 1910-2007.

• "War and Peace"(2007, Germany, Russia, Poland, France, Italy). Series. In the role of Andrei Bolkonsky - Alessio Boni.

Documentary

• "Leo Tolstoy." Documentary. TsSDF (RTSSDF). 1953. 47 minutes.

Movies about Leo Tolstoy

• "The Passing of the Great Elder"(1912, Russia). Director - Yakov Protazanov
• "Leo Tolstoy"(1984, USSR, Czechoslovakia). Director - S. Gerasimov
• "The Last Station"(2008). In the role of L. Tolstoy - Christopher Plummer, in the role of Sofia Tolstoy - Helen Mirren. A film about the last days of the writer's life.

Portrait gallery

Translators of Tolstoy

• Into Japanese - Konishi Masutaro
• In French - Michel Aucouturier, Vladimir Lvovich Binshtok
• In Spanish - Selma Ancira
• Into English - Constance Garnett, Leo Wiener, Aylmer and Louise Maude
• In Norwegian - Martin Gran, Olaf Broch, Marta Grundt
• Into Bulgarian - Sava Nichev, Georgi Shopov, Hristo Dosev
• Into Kazakh - Ibray Altynsarin
• Into Malay - Viktor Pogadaev
• In Esperanto - Valentin Melnikov, Viktor Sapozhnikov
• Into Azerbaijani - Dadash-zade, Mammad Arif Maharram oglu