On September 9, Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy turns 190 years old. Today his name is known even to those who have not read a single line of his. And everyone keeps in their head their own image of the great Leo, mainly formed in his later years.
Photo:
And this happened because in recent years In Tolstoy's life, photographers staged a real photo hunt for him. They began to film Tolstoy at his desk, in an open field, at a meal, and even in a wheelchair (as in the photo above), as was the case in Crimea in 1901-1902. and in Yasnaya Polyana during his 80th birthday in 1908. This anniversary was widely celebrated in Russia, but Tolstoy himself did not celebrate; he became seriously ill. This photo is also interesting because here we see Tolstoy in his permanent home clothes - a simple large knitted sweater, which to this day is kept in the Yasnaya Polyana house-museum.
Photo: State Museum of L. N. Tolstoy
This photo was taken in the summer of 1905 by his student Vladimir Chertkov, when the writer was returning from swimming on the Voronka River. Here Tolstoy is all in his humility and pride. Great man always alone on this earth. But to whom did he take his hat off? Before Russia? Before God? No, the old man just felt hot...
Photo: State Museum of L. N. Tolstoy
But in this photo, which was also taken by Chertkov, we see a formidable Leo. You can’t hide from his gaze, he sees right through you. You cannot lie, flirt, or pose in front of him. This old man will split at the first interrogation.
However, what else can you expect from the man who wrote “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina” and “Hadji Murat”?
Photo: State Museum of L. N. Tolstoy
In this photo we see Tolstoy in the most familiar position - at his desk. He's all about work. On the wall is Raphael’s favorite “Madonna,” a lithograph given by Aunt Alexandra Andreevna Tolstaya, a maid of honor at the imperial court. On the shelf there is a long row of spines of the Brockhaus and Efron Dictionary - Wikipedia of the early twentieth century. There are different books under it, but among them are the main ones: the Bible and the Koran.
Photo: State Museum of L. N. Tolstoy
In this photo we see Tolstoy at the most inopportune moment for filming. He just eats. The photo is blurry and amateurish, but that’s what’s good about it. This is a living Tolstoy, ordinary person. But even here it is not easy. A plate of porridge sits on a saucepan to keep it warm. However, a gravy boat... Or honey? Simple but tasteful!
Many tried to catch Leo in the camera lens in order to leave their picture for eternity. This hunt, of course, greatly irritated him.
By the way, she also became one of the reasons for the flight of the 82-year-old man from Yasnaya Polyana in the late autumn of 1910.
But what's interesting...
Photo: State Museum of L. N. Tolstoy
He was the first to “hunt” himself. This photo- this is probably the world's first selfie taken famous person. In 1862 (the year of his marriage), he bought what was then a rare invention in Russia - a camera. The device was so bulky and heavy that it had to be transported on a cart drawn by two horses; one horse could not pull the load across the Russian off-road. Tolstoy set up the “unit” himself, prepared the plate for photography (it was not an easy process) and “filmed himself” (as it is written in his hand in the left corner) using a special “pear”. “He removed himself” - that is, saying modern language, selfie.
Here's a retrograde for you!
Photo fund
IN State Museum L.N. Tolstoy
stored in Moscow about 26 thousand copies of photographs
main fund. The museum has not only the most full meeting photographs of L.N. Tolstoy (about 12 thousand copies), but also unique and diverse photographs of persons, places, events related to the life and work of the writer.
The foundation of the museum's photographic fund was the exhibits of the Tolstoy exhibition, which opened in 1911 on a voluntary basis in the Historical Museum in Moscow. The owners of the photographs (among them K.K. Bulla, F.T. Protasevich, the company “Scherer, Nabgolts and Co.”, who photographed Tolstoy) donated them to the permanent museum of Leo Tolstoy, which opened in 1911 in Moscow on Povarskaya Street, and in 1921 came under the control of the state. Based on the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR 1939 about concentration in the State. The Leo Tolstoy Museum in Moscow contains all materials related to his life and work; the photo collections have been replenished with new materials from various museums across the country. Of particular value among them are photographs and negatives by S.A. Tolstoy, the writer’s wife, received by the museum from Yasnaya Polyana, the Library named after. V.I. Lenin (former Rumyantsev Museum), Historical Museum: L.N. could have seen them. Tolstoy, hold in hands; they have inscriptions and notes from members of the writer's family.
In subsequent years, large and significant receipts came from archives V.G. Chertkova
, granddaughters Tolstoy S.A. Tolstoy-Yesenina
, son and grandson of the writer S.L. and S.S. Tolstykh
, great-grandson A.I. Tolstoy
, acquaintances of the Tolstoy family - H.N. Abrikosova, P.N. Boulanger, P.A. Sergeenko, N.N. Guseva,
and also from the archive K.S. Shokhor-Trotsky
and others.
The museum's photographic Tolstoyan culture is numerous and varied. This is a whole photographic chronicle of the writer’s life, which was created over 60 years - from the first daguerreotype image to photographs obtained as a result of instant shooting.
There are few images of the young Tolstoy. These are daguerreotypes (mirror prints on a silver plated metal plate) 1849 and 1854
(of the 4 daguerreotypes of the writer known to us, three are in our museum) and the first photographs in the modern meaning of the word, i.e. prints on paper, works S.L. Levitsky, M.B. Tulinova, I. Zheruzet
(1856, 1862). Subsequently, as photographic equipment improved and Tolstoy’s popularity grew, his photographs became more and more numerous, especially in the first decade of the twentieth century.
L.N. Tolstoy was photographed by representatives of well-known photographic firms, correspondents from newspapers and magazines, members of his family, relatives, friends, acquaintances and random visitors.
The first amateur images of the writer (with the exception of a self-photoportrait of 1862) were taken by a neighbor on the estate, Prince S.S. Abamelk-Lazarev (1884), a family friend of M.A. Stakhovich (1887) and wife S.A. Tolstoy (1887). The first two authors created entire photo collections - portraits of Tolstoy, his family, relatives and guests of Yasnaya Polyana; many pictures are genre character, conveying the emotional atmosphere of the Yasnaya Polyana estate.
L.N. Tolstoy next to his sculptural portrait by I.E. Repina. 1891 Yasnaya Polyana. Photo by E.S. Tomashevich. |
In the 1890s, in addition to the already mentioned S.S. Abameleka-Lazarev and S.A. Tolstoy, the writer was photographed by Adamson, E.S. Tomashevich, J. Stadling (Swedish journalist), P.F. Samarin, P.I. Biryukov, D.I. Chetverikov, artist N.A. Kasatkin, P.V. Preobrazhensky, the son of the writer Ilya Lvovich and others. They all captured important, significant moments. social activities the writer, his activities and interests: Tolstoy mowing with a Yasnaya Polyana peasant; compiles lists of starving people in Begichevka, Ryazan province; among like-minded people on a farm in Rusanov, Tula province; at the booths on Devichye Pole in Moscow... |
 |
The largest number of photographs of L.N. Tolstoy was made in the 1900s, when instant machines appeared. Among the authors are people close to the writer: his wife Sofya Andreevna, daughters Maria and Alexandra, son Ilya; friends and acquaintances: V.G. Chertkov, D.A. Olsufiev, P.I. Biryukov, D.V. Nikitin, I.M. Bodyansky, D.A. Khiryakov, P.A. Sergeenko and many others. In their photographs, Tolstoy appears to us in a relaxed, confidential atmosphere, with family and guests, like-minded people and acquaintances, at work and on a walk, in Yasnaya Polyana, Moscow and other places. Psychological intimate photographic portraits alternate with dynamic photographs that convey the expression of a moment or a separate scene. |
| L.N. Tolstoy.1903 Yasnaya Polyana. Photo by A.L. Tolstoy. |
| In 1901, in connection with the “Decree of the Holy Synod” on the fall of Count L.N. Tolstoy from Orthodox Church It was officially forbidden to take and distribute images of the writer, so there are few professional photographs of him from the 1900s. I still ordered portraits of my husband S.A. Tolstaya to the company "Scherer, Nabgolts and Co." In 1903, on the 75th anniversary of L.N. Tolstoy was invited by his son Ilya Lvovich to Yasnaya Polyana his friend, professional photographer F.T. Protasevich, who took many photographs of the hero of the day, his family and guests. On the eve of the writer’s 80th birthday (1908), St. Petersburg photographer from “New Time” K.K. came to Yasnaya Polyana. Bulla with her son. In two days they created an entire pre-anniversary collection, which still amazes viewers with its vital truth and technical brilliance: psychologically meaningful portraits of the writer, his family, guests, peasants, views and interiors of the estate and its surroundings. |
In the vicinity of Yasnaya Polyana. |
The last professional photograph of Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana was taken by photographers from the Otto Renard company, who in 1909 came to Yasnaya together with representatives of the Gramophone company, who wanted to record the voice of the “patriarch of Russian literature.”
Chronicle of L.N.’s trips Tolstoy in 1909 and 1910 to his friend V.G. Chertkov in Krekshino near Moscow, to his daughter T.L. Sukhotina in Kochety, the writer’s last visit to Moscow in September 1909 was reflected (in addition to photographs by V.G. Chertkov and T. Tapsel) in photographs of professional craftsmen S.G. Smirnova, A.I. Savelyev, the company “Yu.Mobius”, in film footage by A.O. Drankova, J. Meyer (Pate company); removed by them mourning days November 1920 in Astapov and Yasnaya Polyana, which were also captured by professionals T.M. Morozov, F.T. Protasevich and cameramen from A.A. Khanzhonkova.
The most significant collections of Tolstoy iconography are the works of the writer’s wife S.A. Tolstoy and his friend V.G. Chertkov - both in the number of photographs and in the variety of subjects.
| Photos by S.A. Tolstoy (about 1000 stories) is a kind of chronicle of the last twenty years of L.N.’s life. Tolstoy (1887-1910). Her camera recorded and important events, and everyday, prosaic. In her photographs we see Leo Tolstoy at work, on vacation, with his family and guests, with prominent cultural figures; other favorite subjects of her photographs are portraits of children and grandchildren, relatives, numerous guests, landscapes of her beloved Yasnaya Polyana, episodes everyday life. Many photographs show the work of S.A. Tolstoy was also captured by the author himself, since she filmed with a road camera, which she installed on a tripod. |
|
|
L.N. and S.A. Thick with sculptor I.Ya. Ginzburg (left) and critic V.V. Stasov. |
Among the photographs marked by a somewhat static composition, there are many in her photo collection that are bright and lively. |
| Friend and like-minded person of Tolstoy V.G. Chertkov created his photo collection (about 360 subjects) in just five years (1905-1910). First of all, he tried to express through photography the peculiarity and complexity of L.N.’s spiritual appearance. Tolstoy. Hence his predilection for close-up portraits, for the themes “Tolstoy and Nature”, “Tolstoy and the People”, through which, in his opinion, the writer’s personality was most revealed. Few amateurs, not to mention professional photographers, had access to the same extent as Chertkov, moments when it was possible to “spy” and shoot close up Tolstoy’s face during a casual conversation, alone with his thoughts, at the moment of creativity. Instant cameras made it possible for Chertkov to shoot whole series of simultaneous close-up portraits of Lev Nikolaevich. Each “tape” of such photographs (there are 10 such series in the museum) conveys Tolstoy’s face in motion, in the endless variety of his expressions. Some of Chertkov’s photographic portraits in their psychological capacity and degree of generalization can compete with even the best paintings and graphic images of the writer, delighting us with the perfection of technical execution (the photographs were developed and printed by professional T. Tapsel, specially invited by Chertkov from England). |
L.N. Tolstoy. 1907 Yasnaya Polyana. Photo by V.G. Chertkova |
The value of the photographic fund is represented by a unique collection of daguerreotypes (portraits of L.N. Tolstoy, his relatives, friends and acquaintances) from 1844-1856. works by V. Shenfeldt, K.P. Masera, A.Ya. Davignona, M.A. Abadi, N.A. Pashkov, Blumenthal brothers. All seventeen daguerreotypes have survived to this day in good condition, with the exception of the 18th, which has partially lost its image.
Among large quantity photos different persons from L.N.’s entourage Tolstoy's museum contains photo albums of representatives secular society 1850s-1870s from the archives of the Chertkovs, Panins, Levashovs, Vorontsovs-Dashkovs; albums of “photo portraits of august persons and persons famous in Russia” by G. Denyer (1865).
In the “Different Places” section, noteworthy are close-up photographs of views of the Caucasus taken by photographers and topographers of the General Staff of the Caucasian Army in the 1850s-1860s, an album of light paintings by Count Nostitz (1896) with views of Moscow and Crimea.
Photographs of people and places associated with the life and work of L.N. Tolstoy make up about 2/3 of the total number of photographs, but no matter how large this part of the main photographic fund is, the boundaries of its expansion are limitless - Tolstoy absorbed so much, so wide and varied were his connections.
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich (1828 - 1910) - count, famous writer, reaching unprecedented in history literature of the 19th century V. glory. Belongs to a rich and noble family that occupied high position back in the time of Peter the Great. Lev Nikolaevich's great-grandfather, Count Pyotr Andreevich, played a sad role in the history of Tsarevich Alexei. The great-grandson of Pyotr Andreevich, Ilya Andreevich, is described in “War and Peace” in the person of the old Count Rostov. Ilya Andreevich’s son, Nikolai Ilyich, was the father of Lev Nikolaevich (depicted in “Childhood” and “Adolescence” in the person of Nikolinka’s father). With the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment, he took part in the war of 1812 and retired after the conclusion of peace. Having spent his youth cheerfully, Nikolai Ilyich lost a huge fortune. The passion for the game passed on to his son. To put his upset affairs in order, Nikolai Ilyich, like Nikolai Rostov, married the ugly and no longer very young Princess Volkonskaya. They had four sons: Nikolai, Sergei, Dmitry and Lev and a daughter Maria. Tolstoy's maternal grandfather, Catherine's general, is brought onto the stage in War and Peace in the person of the old Prince Volkonsky, and Leo's mother is depicted in the person of Princess Marya. In addition to the Volkonskys, Tolstoy is closely related to a number of other aristocratic families - the princes Gorchakovs and Trubetskoys.
1854
1862
Editorial Board of the Sovremennik magazine, St. Petersburg. From left to right are L.N. Tolstoy, D.V. Grigorovich. I.A. Goncharov, I.S. Turgenev, A.V. Druzhinin, A.N. Ostrovsky are sitting.
1868
1885
1892, Yasnaya Polyana. Leo Tolstoy with his family at the tea table in the park.
1900, Yasnaya Polyana. L.N. Tolstoy and A.M. Gorky.
1901, Crimea
1901, Crimea. L.N. Tolstoy and A.P. Chekhov.
1905, Yasnaya Polyana. Leo Tolstoy returns from swimming on the Voronka River
1908, Yasnaya Polyana. L.N. Tolstoy and I.E. Repin.
1908, Yasnaya Polyana. L.N. Tolstoy plays chess with M.S. Sukhotin.
1908, Yasnaya Polyana. L.N. Tolstoy with his granddaughter Tanya
1908, Yasnaya Polyana. Leo Tolstoy with his favorite horse Delir
1908, Yasnaya Polyana. At the terrace of a Yasnaya Polyana house.
1908 House of Leo Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana.
August 28, 1908, Yasnaya Polyana. Leo Tolstoy on his 80th birthday.
Leo Tolstoy near the terrace of the Yasnaya Polyana house, May 11, 1908, Tula province, Krapivensky u., village. Yasnaya Polyana. Among the many visitors to Tolstoy on the eve of his 80th birthday, he came to Yasnaya Polyana folk teacher from Siberia I.P. Sysoev, who had previously visited America. He asked Lev Nikolayevich for permission to photograph him for the Americans. The photographer Baranov, brought by Sysoev, took these photographs on May 11 - the day when Tolstoy was strongly impressed by the report he read in the Rus newspaper about the execution of twenty Kherson peasants. On this day, Lev Nikolaevich dictated into the phonograph the beginning of an article on the death penalty - the original version of “I Can’t Be Silent.”
Photo by Baranov S.A.
Leo Tolstoy playing gorodki, 1909, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. In the background on the left is the grandson Ilya Andreevich Tolstoy, on the right is the son of the servant Alyosha Sidorkov. “In my presence,” recalls Valentin Fedorovich Bulgakov, “Lev Nikolaevich, at 82 years old, played gorodki with Alyosha Sidorkov... the son of the old Yasnaya Polyana servant Ilya Vasilyevich Sidorkov. There is a photograph depicting Tolstoy’s “blow”. Of course, he could no longer play for a long time and “seriously”: he just “tried his strength.” 1909
Tapsel Thomas
Leo Tolstoy with his family, 1892, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. From left to right: Misha, Leo Tolstoy, Lev, Andrey, Tatyana, Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, Maria. In the foreground are Vanechka and Alexandra.
Photo studio "Scherer, Nabholz and Kº"
Leo Tolstoy riding on Zorka, 1903, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. Many contemporaries of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy admired his skill as a rider, including Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov: “But as soon as he sat down, it’s just a miracle! He will gather himself together, his legs seem to have merged with the horse, his body is a real centaur, he will tilt his head a little, and the horse... just dances and knocks his feet under him, like a fly...”
Lev and Sophia Tolstoy, 1895, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. The first mention of Tolstoy riding a bicycle was in a letter to his daughter Tatyana Lvovna dated April 16, 1894: “We have a new hobby: cycling. Dad spends hours studying on it, riding and circling along the alleys in the garden... This is Alexei Maklakov’s bicycle, and tomorrow we will send it to him so as not to break it, otherwise this will probably end.”
Photo Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna
Leo Tolstoy with family and friends, including the artist Nikolai Ge, 1888, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. From left to right are: Alexander Emmanuilovich Dmitriev-Mamonov (son of the artist), Misha and Maria Tolstoy, M.V. Mamonov, Madame Lambert (governess); sitting: Sasha Tolstaya, Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, Alexander Mikhailovich Kuzminsky (husband of Tatyana Kuzminskaya), artist Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge, Andrey and Lev Tolstoy, Sasha Kuzminsky, Tatyana Andreevna Kuzminskaya (sister of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy), Mikhail Vladimirovich Islavin, Vera Aleksandrovna Kuzminskaya, Misha Kuzminsky, Miss Chomel (governess to the Kuzminsky children); in the foreground are Vasya Kuzminsky, Lev and Tatyana Tolstoy. During 12 years of friendship with Tolstoy, Ge painted only one picturesque portrait of Tolstoy. In 1890, at the request of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy, Ge sculpted a bust of Tolstoy - the first sculptural image of the writer, and even earlier, in 1886, he completed a series of illustrations for Tolstoy’s story “How People Live.”
Photo by Abamelek-Lazarev S.S.
Leo Tolstoy playing tennis, 1896, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. From left to right: Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Maria Lvovna Tolstaya, Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya, Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (son of Tolstoy’s niece Elizaveta Valeryanovna Obolenskaya, from June 2, 1897 - husband of Maria Lvovna Tolstoy).
Photo Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna
Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky, October 8, 1900, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. This was the second meeting of writers. “I was in Yasnaya Polyana. I took away from there a huge pile of impressions, which to this day I can’t sort out... I spent the whole day there from morning to evening,” wrote Alexei Maksimovich Gorky to Anton Pavlovich Chekhov in October 1900.
Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna
Leo Tolstoy, land surveyor and peasant Prokofy Vlasov, 1890, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village.
Yasnaya Polyana. Photo Adamson
Leo Tolstoy with his family under the “tree of the poor”, September 23, 1899, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. Standing: Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (son of Tolstoy’s niece Elizaveta Valeryanovna Obolenskaya, from June 2, 1897 - husband of Maria Lvovna Tolstoy), Sofya Nikolaevna Tolstaya (daughter-in-law of Leo Tolstoy, since 1888 the wife of his son Ilya) and Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya. From left to right are sitting: grandchildren Anna and Mikhail Ilyich Tolstoy, Maria Lvovna Obolenskaya (daughter), Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Sofya Andreevna Tolstoy with her grandson Andrei Ilyich Tolstoy, Tatyana Lvovna Sukhotina with Volodya (Ilyich) in her arms, Varvara Valeryanovna Nagornova (niece of Leo Tolstoy, eldest daughter his sisters Maria Nikolaevna Tolstoy), Olga Konstantinovna Tolstoy (wife of Andrei Lvovich Tolstoy), Andrei Lvovich Tolstoy with Ilya Ilyich Tolstoy (grandson of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy).
Photo Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna
Leo Tolstoy and Ilya Repin, December 17 - 18, 1908, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. The photograph refers to the last visit to Yasnaya Polyana by Ilya Efimovich Repin, taken at the request of his wife Natalya Borisovna Nordman-Severova. During their almost thirty-year friendship, Tolstoy and Repin were photographed together for the first time.
Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna
Leo Tolstoy on a bench under the “tree of the poor”, 1908, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. In the background is Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya and four peasant boys.
Photo by P. E. Kulakov
Leo Tolstoy and a peasant woman-petitioner, 1908, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. Ivan Fedorovich Nazhivin wrote down the words of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy: “Loving those who are distant, humanity, the people, wishing them well is not a tricky thing... No, you know how to love your neighbors, those you meet every day, who sometimes get boring, They irritate, they interfere, so love them, do good to them!.. The other day I was walking through the park and thinking. I hear some woman walking behind me and asking for something. And the idea I needed for work just came to my mind. “Well, what do you need?” I say impatiently to the woman. “Why are you bothering me?” But it’s good that he came to his senses and recovered now. And sometimes you realize it and it’s too late.”
Bulla Karl Karlovich
Leo Tolstoy, July 1907, Tula province, village. Yasenki. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was filmed on one of the hot July days of 1907 in the village of Yasenki, where the Chertkovs lived at that time. According to an eyewitness, Bulgarian Hristo Dosev, the photograph was taken after an intimate conversation between Tolstoy and one of his like-minded people. “At the same time,” writes Dosev, “Chertkov prepared his photographic camera in the yard, wanting to take a portrait of L.N. But when he asked him to pose for him, L.N., who almost always peacefully agrees to this, this time did not want to. He furrowed his eyebrows and could not hide his unpleasant feeling. "There's an interesting important conversation“, concerning a person’s life, and here we are doing nonsense,” he said irritably. But, giving in to V.G.’s requests, he went to stand. Apparently, having tamed himself, he joked with Chertkov. “He keeps shooting!” But I will take revenge on him. I'll take some kind of machine and when he starts shooting, I'll douse him with water! And he laughed merrily."
Lev and Sophia Tolstoy on their 34th wedding anniversary, September 23, 1896, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana
Photo Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna
Leo Tolstoy plays chess with Vladimir Chertkov, June 28 - 30, 1907, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. On the right you can see the back of the portrait of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, on which the artist Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov was working at that time. During his sessions, Tolstoy often played chess. Vladimir Chertkov’s eighteen-year-old son Dima (Vladimir Vladimirovich Chertkov) was one of his most “intractable” partners.
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich
Leo Tolstoy with his granddaughter Tanya Sukhotina, 1908, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. In his diary, Lev Nikolaevich wrote: “If I were given a choice: to populate the earth with such saints as I can imagine, but only so that there would be no children, or with such people as now, but with children constantly arriving fresh from God, “I would choose the latter.”
Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich
Leo Tolstoy with his family on his 75th birthday, 1903, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. From left to right are: Ilya, Lev, Alexandra and Sergei Tolstoy; sitting: Mikhail, Tatyana, Sofya Andreevna and Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Andrey.
Leo Tolstoy has breakfast on the terrace of a house in Gaspra, December 1901, Tavricheskaya province, village. Gaspra. From the diary of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy: “...it is terribly difficult, sometimes unbearable with his stubbornness, tyranny and complete lack of knowledge of medicine and hygiene. For example, doctors tell you to eat caviar, fish, broth, but he is a vegetarian and this is ruining himself...”
Photo Tolstaya Alexandra Lvovna
Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov in Gaspra, September 12, 1901, Tauride province, village. Gaspra. The writers met in 1895 in Yasnaya Polyana. The photo was taken on the terrace of Sofia Vladimirovna Panina’s dacha.
Photo by Sergeenko P. A.
Leo Tolstoy with his daughter Tatyana, 1902, Tauride province, village. Gaspar
Photo Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna
Leo Tolstoy with his daughter Alexandra on the seashore, 1901, Tauride province, village. Miskhor
Photo Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna
Leo Tolstoy and Dushan Makovitsky among patients and doctors of the Trinity District Psychiatric Hospital (talking to a patient who calls himself Peter the Great), June 1910, Moscow province, p. Trinity. Tolstoy became especially interested in issues of psychiatry after meeting in 1897 the famous criminologist and psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso. Living in Otradnoye next to the two best at that time, the Trinity District and Pokrovskaya Zemstvo psychiatric hospitals, he visited them several times. Tolstoy was in the Trinity Hospital twice: on June 17 and 19, 1910.
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich
Leo Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana, August 28, 1903, Tula province.., village. Yasnaya Polyana
Photo Protasevich Franz Trofimovich
Going to the opening of the People's Library in the village of Yasnaya Polyana: Leo Tolstoy, Alexandra Tolstaya, Chairman of the Moscow Literacy Society Pavel Dolgorukov, Tatyana Sukhotina, Varvara Feokritova, Pavel Biryukov, January 31, 1910, Tula province, Krapivensky u., village. Yasnaya Polyana. The black poodle Marquis belonged to Tolstoy’s youngest daughter Alexandra Lvovna.
Photo Savelyev A.I.
Lev and Sophia Tolstoy and their daughter Alexandra among the peasants of the village of Yasnaya Polyana on Trinity Day, 1909, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. On the left is Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya.
Photo by Tapsel Thomas
Leo Tolstoy walks from his house along the “Preshpekt” alley, 1903, Tula province, Krapivensky u., village. Yasnaya Polyana. From the diary of Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin, 1903: “Each time I am more and more surprised by the health and strength of L.N. He is getting younger, fresher, stronger. There is no mention of his previous fatal illnesses... He again acquired his youthful, fast, cheerful gait, very peculiar, with his toes turned outward.”
Photo Tolstaya Alexandra Lvovna
Leo Tolstoy among the peasants of the village of Krekshino, Moscow province, 1909, Moscow province, village. Krekshino. The peasants of the village of Krekshino came with bread and salt to welcome the arrival of Leo Tolstoy. He came out to them wearing a shirt with suspenders outside, since the day was very hot and, according to eyewitnesses, he talked with them for a long time. The conversation turned to land, and Lev Nikolaevich expressed his view of land ownership as a sin, all the evils of which he resolved again through moral improvement and abstinence from violence.
Photo by Tapsel Thomas
Leo Tolstoy in the office of a house in Yasnaya Polyana, 1909, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy was filmed in his office, in a chair intended for visitors. Lev Nikolaevich sometimes liked to sit in this chair in the evenings, reading a book by the light of a candle, which he placed next to it on the bookcase. The rotating bookcase was given to him by Pyotr Alekseevich Sergeenko. It contained books that Tolstoy would use in the near future and which therefore had to be “at hand.” Pinned to the bookcase is a note: “Required books.”
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich
Leo Tolstoy on a walk, 1908, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich
Leo Tolstoy tells a tale about a cucumber to his grandchildren Sonya and Ilyusha, 1909, Moscow province, village. Krekshino
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich
Leo Tolstoy at the station in Krekshino, September 4 - 18, 1909, Moscow province, village. Krekshino
Unknown author
Leo Tolstoy’s departure to Kochety to visit his daughter Tatyana Sukhotina, 1909, Tula province, Tula district, Kozlova Zaseka station. In the last two years of his life, Tolstoy often left Yasnaya Polyana - either to briefly visit his daughter Tatyana Lvovna in Kochety, or to Chertkov in Krekshino or to Meshcherskoye in the Moscow province.
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich
Leo Tolstoy, 1907, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. “Not a single photograph, not even portraits painted from him, can convey the impression that was obtained from his living face and figure. When Tolstoy looked closely at a person, he became motionless, concentrated, inquisitively penetrated inside him and as if sucked out everything that was hidden in him - good or bad. At these moments his eyes were hidden behind his overhanging eyebrows, like the sun behind a cloud. At other moments, Tolstoy responded to a joke like a child, burst into sweet laughter, and his eyes became cheerful and playful, coming out of his thick eyebrows and shining,” wrote Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky.
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich
In 1906, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy refused to consider his candidacy for Nobel Prize. The writer explained this by his attitude towards money, but the public perceived the refusal as another waywardness of the count. Below are a few more “quirks” of Leo Tolstoy...
One of the most colorful scenes of Anna Karenina is the description of haymaking, during which Konstantin Levin (whom Lev Nikolaevich, as you know, largely wrote from himself) works in the field along with the men. But physical labor Tolstoy glorified not only through his heroes, but also through his own example. Working in the fields side by side with peasants was not an extravagant lordly hobby for him; he sincerely loved and respected hard physical work.
In addition, Tolstoy, with pleasure and, what is important, with skill, sewed boots, which he then gave to relatives, mowed grass and plowed the land, surprising the local peasants who were watching him and upsetting his wife.
And not with anyone, but with Ivan Turgenev. It is worth saying that Tolstoy in his youth and even in adulthood was very far from the image of a wise and calm old man familiar to us today, calling for humility and lack of conflict. In his youth, the count was categorical in his judgments, straightforward, and sometimes even rude. An example of this is his conflict with Turgenev.
Rumor has it that one of the reasons for the discord was the “love affair” that ensued between Turgenev and Countess Maria Nikolaevna, Tolstoy’s beloved sister. But the final disagreement between them occurred when both writers were visiting the house of Afanasy Fet. Judging by the latter's memoirs, the reason for the squabble was Turgenev's story about his daughter's governess, who, for educational purposes, forced her to mend the torn clothes of beggars.
Tolstoy thought this manner was too ostentatious, which he told his interlocutor with straightforwardness and fervor. The verbal altercation almost led to a fight - Turgenev promised Tolstoy to “punch him in the face,” and he, in turn, challenged him to a duel. Fortunately, they did not start fighting - Turgenev apologized, Tolstoy accepted them, but a long-term discord ensued in their relationship. Only seventeen years later Turgenev came to Yasnaya Polyana to see Tolstoy, who had become enlightened and no longer so hot-tempered.
In 1882, a population census was held in Moscow. It is interesting that Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy took part in it on a voluntary basis. The count wanted to know the poverty in Moscow, to see how people live here, in order to somehow help the poor townspeople with money and business. For his purposes, he chose one of the most difficult and disadvantaged areas of the capital - near the Smolensky market on Protochny Lane, in which there were flophouses and shelters of poverty.
I.E. Repin. Leo Tolstoy in a room under the arches. 1891
In addition to social analysis, Tolstoy also pursued charitable goals; he wanted to raise money, help the poor with work, place their children in schools, and the elderly in shelters. Tolstoy personally visited the night shelters and filled out census cards, and in addition raised the problems of the poor people’s disorder in the press and the city duma. The result was his article “So what should we do?” and “About the census in Moscow” with calls for help and support for the poor.
Over the years, Tolstoy became increasingly obsessed with spiritual quests, and he paid less and less attention to everyday life, striving for asceticism and “simplification” in almost everything. The Count engages in hard peasant labor, sleeps on the bare floor and walks barefoot until the coldest weather, thereby emphasizing his closeness to the people. This is exactly how Ilya Repin captured him in his painting, barefoot, wearing a belted peasant shirt and simple trousers.
I.E. Repin. L.N. Tolstoy barefoot. 1901
He described it in the same way in a letter to his daughter: “No matter how this giant humiliates himself, no matter how mortal rags he covers his mighty body, Zeus is always visible in him, from the wave of whose eyebrows the whole Olympus trembles.”
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy plays Russian folk game towns, Yasnaya Polyana, 1909.
Lev Nikolaevich maintained physical vigor and fortitude until his very last days. The reason for this is the count’s passionate love for sports and all kinds of physical exercise, which in his opinion were mandatory, especially for those engaged in mental work.
Tolstoy’s favorite discipline was walking; it is known that already at the quite respectable age of sixty years, he made three walks from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana. In addition, the count was fond of speed skating, mastered cycling, horse riding, swimming, and began every morning with gymnastics.
Writer Leo Tolstoy learns to ride a bicycle in former building Manege (magazine "Cyclist" for 1895).
Tolstoy was ardently interested in pedagogy and even set up a school for peasant children on his estate in Yasnaya Polyana. It is interesting that a largely experimental approach to teaching was practiced there - Tolstoy did not put discipline at the forefront, but rather supported the theory of free education - children in his lessons sat as they wanted, there was no specific program, but the classes were very fruitful. Tolstoy not only personally taught his students, but also published children's books, including his own ABC.
The conflict between Tolstoy and the Orthodox Church became one of the strangest and saddest pages in the writer’s biography. The last two decades of Tolstoy's life were marked by his final disappointment in the church faith and rejection of Orthodox dogmas. The writer questioned the authority of the official church and spoke critically of the clergy, insisting on a broader understanding of religion. Thus, his break with the church was a foregone conclusion - in response to public criticism of Tolstoy and a series of publications devoted to the topic of religion, the Synod in 1901 excommunicated him from the church.
Already at the advanced age of 82 years, the writer decided to go wandering, leaving his estate, leaving his wife and children. IN farewell letter To his Countess Sophia, Tolstoy writes: “I can no longer live in the conditions of luxury in which I lived, and I do what old people of my age usually do: they leave worldly life to live in solitude and silence last days of your life."
Accompanied by his personal doctor Dusan Makovitsky, the count leaves Yasnaya Polyana and goes on a wanderings without a specific goal. Having stopped at Optina Pustyn and Kozelsk, he decides to go south to his niece, from where he plans to move further to the Caucasus. But last trip ended as soon as it began: on the road, Tolstoy caught a cold and contracted pneumonia - on November 7, Lev Nikolaevich died in the boss’s house railway station"Astapovo".
Dmitry Nazarov
: https://www.softmixer.com/2013/11/blog-post_9919.html#more