Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) is considered one of the greatest writers not only in Russia, but throughout the whole world. He created such masterpieces as “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”, “Resurrection”, “The Living Corpse”, etc. He came from a noble background noble family. This alone provided him with a prosperous and well-fed life. But, having crossed the 50-year mark, the writer began to think about the essence of existence.
He suddenly realized that material well-being not the main thing at all. That's why I started studying physical labor, began to dress in the clothes of commoners, refused to eat meat and declared himself a vegetarian. To top it off, he renounced the rights to his literary property and fortune in favor of his family. He also put forward the theory of non-resistance to evil, basing his statements on evangelical forgiveness. The views of the great writer very quickly became popular among people and found their followers.
In 1891, famine broke out in the Black Earth and Middle Volga regions as a result of crop failure. On the initiative of Lev Nikolaevich, institutions were organized whose task was to help people in need. The writer initiated donations, and for short term 150 thousand rubles were collected. About 200 canteens were opened there, feeding thousands of people. The victims were given seeds and horses. All these noble deeds perfectly characterize the personality of Leo Tolstoy.
However, the true essence of a person is known in the little things. In his fleeting statements, judgments and insignificant actions. It should be noted here that many people, whose lives are calm, satisfying and serene, sometimes dream of suffering at least a little, experiencing hardships and hardships. Most often this happens from satiety and boredom. In rare cases, such a desire is sincere, and then a person really radically changes his life. He distributes property to the poor, goes to a monastery or goes to war.
But the overwhelming majority of wealthy people never do this. Such gentlemen only tell others about their desire, but do not lift a finger to turn it into reality. It was precisely this audience that he belonged to great writer. But in order not to be unfounded, let's turn to the facts.
This is what Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko (1853-1921) recalled - famous writer, publicist and journalist who served 6 years of exile in Yakutia:
“Several months after my return from exile, I went to Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. It was necessary to publish a book, and I really wanted him to take part in this. Zlatovratsky introduced me to the writer. He said that Korolenko was in exile, and described the most its difficult and unpleasant moments.
“Come to me,” said Lev Nikolaevich, looking at me intently. - What a happy person you are. You were in Siberia, went through prisons. And I pray to God to let me suffer for my beliefs, but he doesn’t.
Soon I met a man who was introduced to me as Orlov. At first he was a Nechaevite, then he became a Tolstoyan. Lived on the outskirts of the city with big family, eked out a semi-poor existence. Lev Nikolaevich often came to visit him. He sat down on a chair and admired the wretched surroundings and the ragged and half-starved children. At the same time, he constantly repeated that he envied Orlov that he had amazingly good things in his house.”
Once the widow Uspenskaya met the great writer. Her husband died in hard labor, and the poor woman fought for survival, trying to bring her only son into the people. She lived in a tiny apartment, chopped wood herself, lit the stove, cooked, washed dishes, and wore cast-offs. Tolstoy sincerely admired this woman, and every time he was moved, he said that he had never met more happy person than her. However, the venerable writer never helped Uspenskaya even with a penny. And really, why - she’s happy.
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Posse (1864-1940), a journalist and participant in the revolutionary movement, recalled:
“Once Lev Nikolayevich asked me: “Have you been in prison?” To which I answered in the affirmative. The writer perked up and dreamily remarked: “What I miss is prison. How wonderful it is to fully experience hardship and torment! I would really like to sit in a real damp prison." I couldn’t find anything to say to that."
The personality of Leo Tolstoy is remarkable in one more way. This is what Nikolai Vasilyevich Davydov (1848-1920) - prosecutor, recalled public figure, a close friend of the writer's family and frequent guest Yasnaya Polyana:
“We gathered one evening in Yasnaya Polyana on the veranda. Someone from the family began to read a chapter from War and Peace. Lev Nikolayevich himself was not with us. He was unwell and was in his room. However, soon the writer appeared at the door, stood and listened to the reading. When they finished reading, he asked with interest what they were reading. It was very well and well written.”
The life path of the great classic undoubtedly deserves all respect. But sometimes he clearly played to the public, which put those around him in an awkward position.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born in 1828, on September 9. The writer's family belonged to the noble class. After his mother died, Lev and his sisters and brothers were raised by their father's cousin. Their father died 7 years later. For this reason, the children were given to their aunt to raise. But soon the aunt died, and the children went to Kazan, to their second aunt. Tolstoy's childhood was difficult, but, however, in his works he romanticized this period of his life.
Lev Nikolaevich received his basic education at home. Soon he entered the Imperial Kazan University at the Faculty of Philology. But he was not successful in his studies.
While Tolstoy was serving in the army, he would have had quite a lot of free time. Even then he began to write an autobiographical story “Childhood”. This story contains good memories from the publicist's childhood.
Lev Nikolaevich also took part in the Crimean War, and during this period he created a number of works: “Adolescence”, “ Sevastopol stories" and so on.
"Anna Karenina" is Tolstoy's most famous creation.
Leo Tolstoy fell asleep in eternal sleep in 1910, November 20th. He was interred in Yasnaya Polyana, in the place where he grew up.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is a famous writer who, in addition to recognized serious books, created works useful for children. These were, first of all, “ABC” and “Book for Reading”.
He was born in 1828 in the Tula province on the Yasnaya Polyana estate, where his house-museum is still located. Leva became the fourth child in this noble family. His mother (nee a princess) soon died, and seven years later his father too. These terrible events led to the fact that the children had to move to their aunt in Kazan. Lev Nikolaevich will later collect memories of these and other years in the story “Childhood,” which will be the first to be published in the Sovremennik magazine.
At first, Lev studied at home with German and French teachers; he was also interested in music. He grew up and entered the Imperial University. Tolstoy's older brother convinced him to serve in the army. Leo even took part in real battles. They are described by him in “Sevastopol Stories”, in the stories “Adolescence” and “Youth”.
Tired of wars, he declared himself an anarchist and went to Paris, where he lost all his money. Having changed his mind, Lev Nikolaevich returned to Russia and married Sophia Burns. Since then, he began to live on his native estate and engage in literary creativity.
His first major work was the novel War and Peace. The writer took about ten years to compose it. The novel was well received by both readers and critics. Next, Tolstoy created the novel Anna Karenina, which received even greater public success.
Tolstoy wanted to understand life. Desperate to find an answer in creativity, he went to church, but was disappointed there too. Then he renounced the church and began to think about his philosophical theory- “non-resistance to evil.” He wanted to give all his property to the poor... Even the secret police began to follow him!
Having gone on a pilgrimage, Tolstoy fell ill and died in 1910.
Biography of Leo Tolstoy
IN different sources, the date of birth of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, is indicated in different ways. The most common versions are August 28, 1829 and September 9, 1828. Born the fourth child in a noble family, Russia, Tula province, Yasnaya Polyana. There were only 5 children in the Tolstoy family.
His family tree starts with the Ruriks, his mother belonged to the Volkonsky family, and his father was a count. At the age of 9, Lev and his father went to Moscow for the first time. Young writer I was so impressed that this trip gave rise to such works as “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth”.
In 1830, Lev's mother died. After the death of the mother, their uncle, the father’s cousin, took over the upbringing of the children, after whose death the aunt became their guardian. When the guardian aunt died, a second aunt from Kazan began to take care of the children. In 1873, my father died.
Tolstoy received his first education at home, with teachers. In Kazan, the writer lived for about 6 years, spent 2 years preparing to enter the Imperial Kazan University and was enrolled in the Faculty of Oriental Languages. In 1844 he became a university student.
Studying languages was not interesting for Leo Tolstoy, after which he tried to connect his destiny with jurisprudence, but even here his studies did not work out, so in 1847 he dropped out of school and received documents from educational institution. After unsuccessful attempts to study, I decided to develop farming. In connection with this, he returned to his parents' house in Yasnaya Polyana.
I didn’t find myself in agriculture, but I wasn’t bad at it personal diary. Having finished working in farming, I went to Moscow to focus on creativity, but all my plans have not yet come true.
Very young, he managed to visit the war, together with his brother Nikolai. The course of military events had an impact on his work, this is noticeable in some works, for example, in the stories “Cossacks”, Hadji - Murat”, in the stories “Demoted”, Woodcutting”, “Raid”.
Since 1855, Lev Nikolaevich became a more skilled writer. At that time, the law of the serfs, which Leo Tolstoy wrote about in his stories: “Polikushka”, “Morning of the Landowner” and others, was relevant.
The years 1857-1860 were full of travel. Under their impression, I prepared school textbooks and began to pay attention to the publication of a pedagogical magazine. In 1862, Leo Tolstoy married young Sophia Bers, the daughter of a doctor. Family life, at first, did him good, then the most famous works were written, War and Peace, Anna Karenina.
The mid-80s were fruitful; dramas, comedies, and novels were written. The writer was concerned about the theme of the bourgeoisie, he was on the side common people To express his thoughts on this matter, Leo Tolstoy created many works: “After the Ball,” “For What,” “The Power of Darkness,” “Sunday,” etc.
Roman, Sunday”, deserves special attention. To write it, Lev Nikolaevich had to work hard for 10 years. As a result, the work was criticized. Local authorities, they were so afraid of his pen that they put him under surveillance and were able to remove him from the church, but despite this, ordinary people supported Leo as best they could.
In the early 90s, Leo began to get sick. In the fall of 1910, at the age of 82, the writer’s heart stopped. It happened on the road: Leo Tolstoy was traveling on a train, he became ill and had to stop at the Astapovo railway station. The station chief gave shelter to the patient at home. After 7 days of visiting, the writer died.
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Biography and episodes of life Leo Tolstoy. When born and died Leo Tolstoy, memorable places and dates important events his life. Writer quotes, photos and videos.
Years of Leo Tolstoy's life:
born September 9, 1828, died November 20, 1910
Epitaph
“I hear the sound of his speeches...
In the midst of general confusion
The Great Elder of Our Days
Calls you to the path of non-resistance.
Simple, clear words -
And who was imbued with their rays,
As if touched by a deity
And he speaks through his mouth.”
From a poem by Arkady Kots dedicated to the memory of Tolstoy
Biography
The biography of Leo Tolstoy is the biography of the most famous Russian writer, whose works are still read all over the world. Even during Tolstoy’s lifetime, his books were translated into many languages, and today his immortal works are included in the golden fund of world literature. But no less interesting is the personal, non-writer’s biography of Tolstoy, who spent his whole life trying to understand what the essence of man’s destiny was.
He was born on the Yasnaya Polyana estate, which today houses the Tolstoy Museum. The writer, who comes from a wealthy and noble count family, lost his mother as a child, and when it was time to go to university, he also lost his father, who left the family’s financial affairs in poor condition. Before entering Kazan University, Leo Tolstoy was raised by his relatives in Yasnaya Polyana. Studying was easy for Tolstoy; after Kazan University he studied Arabic-Turkish literature, but a conflict with one of the teachers forced him to quit his studies and return to Yasnaya Polyana. Already in those years, Tolstoy began to think about what his purpose was, what he should become. In his diaries, he set himself goals for self-improvement. He continued keeping diaries all his life, trying to answer his questions in them. important issues, analyzing your actions and judgments. Then, in Yasnaya Polyana, he began to develop a feeling of guilt towards the peasants - for the first time he opened a school for serf children, where he often taught classes himself. Soon Tolstoy went to Moscow again to prepare for his candidate exams, but young landowner fascinated by social life and card games, which inevitably led to debt. And then, on the advice of his brother, Lev Nikolaevich left for the Caucasus, where he served for four years. In the Caucasus, he began to write his famous trilogy “Childhood”, “Adolescence” and “Youth”, which later brought him great fame in the literary circles of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Despite the fact that Tolstoy was warmly received upon his return and was included in all the secular salons of both capitals, over time the writer began to experience disappointment in his surroundings. His trip to Europe did not bring him any pleasure either. He returned to Yasnaya Polyana and began to improve it, and soon married a girl who was much younger than him. And at the same time he finished his story “Cossacks”, after which Tolstoy’s talent was recognized as brilliant writer. Sofya Andreevna Bers gave birth to Tolstoy 13 children, and over the years he wrote Anna Karenina and War and Peace.
In Yasnaya Polyana, surrounded by his family and his peasants, Tolstoy again began to think about the purpose of man, about religion and theology, about pedagogy. His desire to get to the very essence of religion and human existence and the theological works that followed caused Orthodox Church negative reaction. Spiritual crisis the writer was reflected in everything - both on his relationships with his family and on his success in writing. Count Tolstoy's well-being ceased to bring him joy - he became a vegetarian, walked barefoot, did manual labor, and renounced the rights to his literary works, gave all his property to the family. Just before his death, Tolstoy quarreled with his wife and, wanting to live recent years life in accordance with his spiritual views, secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, the writer became seriously ill and died.
The funeral of Leo Tolstoy took place in Yasnaya Polyana, several thousand people came to say goodbye to the great writer - friends, fans, peasants, students. The ceremony did not take place according to the Orthodox rite, since the writer was excommunicated from the church in the early 1900s. Tolstoy's grave is located in Yasnaya Polyana - in the forest where once, as a child, Lev Nikolaevich was looking for the “green stick” that kept the secret of universal happiness.
Life line
September 9, 1828 Date of birth of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
1844 Admission to Kazan University at the Department of Oriental Languages.
1847 Dismissal from the university.
1851 Departure for the Caucasus.
1852-1857 Writing autobiographical trilogy"Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth".
1855 Moving to St. Petersburg, joining the Sovremennik circle.
1856 Resignation, return to Yasnaya Polyana.
1859 Tolstoy opens a school for peasant children.
1862 Marriage to Sophia Bers.
1863-1869 Writing the novel "War and Peace".
1873-1877 Writing the novel Anna Karenina.
1889-1899 Writing the novel "Resurrection".
November 10, 1910 Tolstoy's secret departure from Yasnaya Polyana.
November 20, 1910 Date of death of Tolstoy.
November 22, 1910 Farewell ceremony for the writer.
November 23, 1910 Tolstoy's funeral.
Memorable places
1. Yasnaya Polyana, estate of L.N. Tolstoy, state memorial and nature reserve where Tolstoy is buried.
2. Museum-estate of L. N. Tolstoy in Khamovniki.
3. Tolstoy’s house in childhood, the writer’s first Moscow address, where he was brought at the age of 7 and where he lived until 1838.
4. Tolstoy’s house in Moscow in 1850-1851, where his literary activity began.
5. The former Chevalier Hotel, where Tolstoy stayed, including shortly after his marriage with Sofia Tolstoy.
6. State Museum L.N. Tolstoy in Moscow.
7. Tolstoy Center on Pyatnitskaya, former house Vargina, where Tolstoy lived in 1857-1858.
8. Monument to Tolstoy in Moscow.
9. Kochakovsky necropolis, Tolstoy family cemetery.
Episodes of life
Tolstoy married Sofya Bers when she was 18 years old and he was 34. Before they got married, he confessed to his bride about his premarital affairs - the same thing that the hero of his work “Anna Karenina” Konstantin Levin later did. In letters to his grandmother, Tolstoy admitted: “I constantly feel as if I had stolen undeserved happiness that was not assigned to me. Here she comes, I hear her, and it’s so good.” For many years, Sophia Tolstaya was her husband’s friend and ally, they were very happy, but with Tolstoy’s passion for theology and spiritual quest, omissions began to arise more and more often between the spouses.
Leo Tolstoy did not like War and Peace, his greatest and most significant work. Once, in correspondence with Fet, the writer even called his famous epic “wordy rubbish.”
It is known that in the last years of his life Tolstoy gave up meat. He believed that meat-eating was not humane, and hoped that one day people would look at him with the same disgust as they now look at cannibalism.
Tolstoy believed that education in Russia was fundamentally wrong, and tried to contribute to changing it: he opened a school for peasant children, published a pedagogical magazine, wrote “ABC”, “New ABC” and “Books for Reading”. Despite the fact that he wrote these textbooks primarily for peasant children, more than one generation of children, including nobles, learned from them. The Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova taught Tolstoy letters using the ABC.
Covenant
“Everything comes to those who know how to wait.”
“Beware of everything that your conscience does not approve of.”
Documentary film "Living Tolstoy"
Condolences
“On November 7, 1910, not only the life of one of the most extraordinary people who ever lived in the world, a certain extraordinary human feat, a struggle extraordinary in its strength, length and difficulty..."
Ivan Bunin, writer
“The remarkable thing is that not one, not only of Russian, but also of foreign writers, had and now has such global significance as Tolstoy. None of the writers abroad was as popular as Tolstoy. This one fact in itself indicates the significance of this man’s talent.”
Sergei Witte, statesman
“I sincerely regret the death of the great writer, who, during the heyday of his talent, embodied in his works the images of one of the glorious times of Russian life. May the Lord God be his merciful judge.”
Nicholas II Alexandrovich, Russian Emperor
Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on August 28, 1828 on his father's estate Yasnaya Polyana, in the Tula province. Tolstoy is an old Russian noble family; one representative of this family, the head of Peter's secret police Peter Tolstoy, was promoted to count. Tolstoy's mother was born Princess Volkonskaya. His father and mother served as prototypes for Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya in War and peace(see summary and analysis of this novel). They belonged to the highest Russian aristocracy, and family affiliation to the upper stratum of the ruling class sharply distinguishes Tolstoy from other writers of his time. He never forgot about her (even when this realization of his became completely negative), always remained an aristocrat and kept aloof from the intelligentsia.
Leo Tolstoy spent his childhood and adolescence between Moscow and Yasnaya Polyana, in a large family with several brothers. He left unusually vivid memories of his early environment, his relatives and servants, in wonderful autobiographical notes that he wrote for his biographer P. I. Biryukov. His mother died when he was two years old, his father when he was nine years old. His further upbringing was in charge of his aunt, Mademoiselle Ergolskaya, who presumably served as the prototype for Sonya in War and peace.
Leo Tolstoy in his youth. Photo from 1848
In 1844, Tolstoy entered Kazan University, where he first studied oriental languages and then law, but in 1847 he left the university without receiving a diploma. In 1849, he settled in Yasnaya Polyana, where he tried to become useful to his peasants, but soon realized that his efforts were of no use because he lacked knowledge. IN student years and after leaving the university, he, as was common among young people of his class, led a chaotic life, filled with the pursuit of pleasure - wine, cards, women - somewhat similar to the life that Pushkin led before his exile to the south. But Tolstoy was unable to accept life as it is with a light heart. From the very beginning, his diary (existing since 1847) testifies to an unquenchable thirst for mental and moral justification of life, a thirst that forever remained the guiding force of his thought. This same diary was the first experience in developing that technique psychological analysis, which later became Tolstoy’s main literary weapon. His first attempt to try himself in a more purposeful and creative type of writing dates back to 1851.
The tragedy of Leo Tolstoy. Documentary
In the same year, disgusted with his empty and useless Moscow life, he went to the Caucasus to join the Terek Cossacks, where he joined the garrison artillery as a cadet (junker means a volunteer, a volunteer, but of noble birth). The next year (1852) he finished his first story ( Childhood) and sent it to Nekrasov for publication in Contemporary. Nekrasov immediately accepted it and wrote about it to Tolstoy in very encouraging tones. The story was an immediate success, and Tolstoy immediately rose to prominence in literature.
At the battery, Leo Tolstoy led a rather easy and unburdened life as a cadet with means; the place to stay was also nice. He had a lot of free time, most of which he spent hunting. In the few fights in which he had to participate, he performed very well. In 1854 he received an officer's rank and, at his request, was transferred to the army fighting the Turks in Wallachia (see Crimean War), where he took part in the siege of Silistria. In the autumn of the same year he joined the Sevastopol garrison. There Tolstoy saw real war. He took part in the defense of the famous Fourth Bastion and in the Battle of the Black River and ridiculed bad command in a satirical song - the only work of his in poetry known to us. In Sevastopol he wrote famous Sevastopol stories that appeared in Contemporary, when the siege of Sevastopol was still ongoing, which greatly increased interest in their author. Soon after leaving Sevastopol, Tolstoy went on vacation to St. Petersburg and Moscow, and the next year he left the army.
Only in these years, after Crimean War, Tolstoy communicated with literary world. The writers of St. Petersburg and Moscow greeted him as outstanding master and brother. As he later admitted, success greatly flattered his vanity and pride. But he did not get along with the writers. He was too much of an aristocrat for this semi-bohemian intelligentsia to please him. They were too awkward plebeians for him, and they were indignant that he clearly preferred the light to their company. On this occasion, he and Turgenev exchanged caustic epigrams. On the other hand, his very mentality was not to the heart of progressive Westerners. He did not believe in progress or culture. In addition, his dissatisfaction with the literary world intensified due to the fact that his new works disappointed them. Everything he wrote after childhood, did not show any movement towards innovation and development, and Tolstoy's critics failed to understand the experimental value of these imperfect works (see the article Tolstoy's Early Work for more details). All this contributed to his cessation of relations with the literary world. The culmination was a noisy quarrel with Turgenev (1861), whom he challenged to a duel, and then apologized for it. This whole story is very typical, and it revealed the character of Leo Tolstoy, with his hidden embarrassment and sensitivity to insults, with his intolerance for the imaginary superiority of other people. The only writers with whom he maintained friendly relations were the reactionary and “land lord” Fet (in whose house the quarrel with Turgenev broke out) and the Slavophile democrat Strakhov- people who were completely unsympathetic to the main trend of progressive thought of that time.
Tolstoy spent the years 1856–1861 between St. Petersburg, Moscow, Yasnaya Polyana and abroad. He traveled abroad in 1857 (and again in 1860–1861) and learned from there a disgust for the selfishness and materialism of the European bourgeois civilization. In 1859 he opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana and in 1862 began publishing a pedagogical magazine Yasnaya Polyana, in which he surprised the progressive world with the assertion that it is not the intellectuals who should teach the peasants, but rather the peasants who should teach the intellectuals. In 1861 he accepted the post of mediator, a post created to oversee the implementation of the emancipation of the peasants. But an unsatisfied thirst for moral strength continued to torment him. He abandoned the revelry of his youth and began to think about marriage. In 1856 he made the first unsuccessful attempt marry (Arsenyeva). In 1860, he was deeply shocked by the death of his brother Nicholas - this was his first encounter with the inevitable reality of death. Finally, in 1862, after much hesitation (he was convinced that since he was old - thirty-four years old! - and ugly, no woman would love him), Tolstoy proposed to Sofya Andreevna Bers, and it was accepted. They got married in September of that year.
Marriage is one of the two main milestones in Tolstoy's life; the second milestone was his appeal. He was always haunted by one concern - how to justify his life before his conscience and achieve lasting moral well-being. When he was a bachelor, he oscillated between two opposing desires. The first was a passionate and hopeless striving for that integral and unreasoning, “natural” state that he found among the peasants and especially among the Cossacks, in whose village he lived in the Caucasus: this state does not strive for self-justification, for it is free from self-consciousness, this justification demanding. He tried to find such an unquestioning state in conscious submission to animal impulses, in the lives of his friends and (and here he was closest to achieving it) in his favorite pastime - hunting. But he was unable to be satisfied with this forever, and another equally passionate desire - to find a rational justification for life - led him astray every time it seemed to him that he had already achieved contentment with himself. Marriage was his gateway to a more stable and lasting “state of nature.” It was a self-justification of life and a solution to a painful problem. Family life, its unreasoning acceptance and submission to it, henceforth became his religion.
For the first fifteen years of his married life, Tolstoy lived in a blissful state of contented vegetation, with a pacified conscience and a hushed need for higher rational justification. The philosophy of this plant conservatism is expressed with enormous creative force in War and peace(see summary and analysis of this novel). He was extremely happy in his family life. Sofya Andreevna, almost still a girl when he married her, easily became what he wanted to make her; he explained his new philosophy, and she was her indestructible stronghold and unchanging guardian, which ultimately led to the breakup of the family. The writer's wife turned out to be an ideal wife, mother and mistress of the house. In addition, she became a devoted assistant to her husband in literary work- everyone knows that she rewrote it seven times War and Peace from start to finish. She gave birth to Tolstoy many sons and daughters. She had no personal life: she was all lost in family life.
Thanks to Tolstoy's reasonable management of estates (Yasnaya Polyana was simply a place of residence; the large Trans-Volga estate brought in income) and the sale of his works, the family's fortune increased, as did the family itself. But Tolstoy, although absorbed and satisfied with his self-justifying life, although he glorified it with unsurpassed artistic power in his best novel, he was still not able to completely dissolve in family life, as his wife dissolved. “Life in Art” also did not absorb him as much as his brothers. The worm of moral thirst, although reduced to a tiny size, never died. Tolstoy was constantly concerned with questions and demands of morality. In 1866 he defended (unsuccessfully) before a military court a soldier accused of striking an officer. In 1873 he published articles on public education, on the basis of which the astute critic Mikhailovsky managed to predict further development his ideas.
Count, great Russian writer.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 in the estate of the Krapivensky district of the Tula province (now in) in the family of a retired captain-captain Count N. I. Tolstoy (1794-1837), participant Patriotic War 1812.
L.N. Tolstoy was educated at home. In 1844-1847 he studied at Kazan University, but did not complete the course. In 1851 he went to the Caucasus to the village - to the place military service elder brother N.N. Tolstoy.
Two years of living in the Caucasus turned out to be unusually significant for spiritual development writer. The story “Childhood” he wrote here is the first printed work of L. N. Tolstoy (published under the initials L. N. in the Sovremennik magazine in 1852) - together with the stories “Adolescence” (1852-1854) and “Youth” that appeared later "(1855-1857) was part of an extensive plan autobiographical novel"Four Epochs of Development", the last part of which - "Youth" - was never written.
In 1851-1853, L.N. Tolstoy took part in military operations in the Caucasus (first as a volunteer, then as an artillery officer), and in 1854 he was assigned to the Danube Army. Soon after the start of the Crimean War, at his personal request, he was transferred to Sevastopol, during the siege of which he participated in the defense of the 4th bastion. Army life and episodes of the war gave L. N. Tolstoy material for the stories “Raid” (1853), “Forest cutting” (1853-1855), as well as for artistic essays “Sevastopol in December”, “Sevastopol in May”, “ Sevastopol in August 1855" (all published in Sovremennik in 1855-1856). These essays, which traditionally received the name “Sevastopol Stories,” made a huge impression on Russian society.
In 1855, L. N. Tolstoy came to, where he became close to the staff of Sovremennik, met I. A. Goncharov, and others. The years 1856-1859 were marked by the writer’s attempts to find himself in the literary environment, to get comfortable among professionals, assert your creative position. The most striking work of this time is the story “Cossacks” (1853-1863), in which the author’s attraction to folk themes.
Dissatisfied with his work, disappointed in secular and literary circles, L. N. Tolstoy at the turn of the 1860s decided to leave literature and settle in the village. In 1859-1862, he devoted a lot of energy to the school he founded for peasant children, studied the organization of teaching in and abroad, published the pedagogical magazine “Yasnaya Polyana” (1862), preaching a free system of education and upbringing.
In 1862, L. N. Tolstoy married S. A. Bers (1844-1919) and began to live patriarchally and secludedly in his estate as the head of a large and ever-increasing family. During the years of peasant reform, he acted as a peace mediator for the Krapivensky district, resolving litigation between landowners and their former serfs.
The 1860s were the heyday of the artistic genius of L. N. Tolstoy. Living a sedentary, measured life, he found himself in intense, concentrated spiritual creativity. The original paths mastered by the writer led to a new rise in national culture.
L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” (1863-1869, beginning of publication in 1865) has become a unique phenomenon in Russian and world literature. The author managed to successfully combine depth and sincerity psychological novel with the scope and multi-figuredness of an epic fresco. With his novel, L.N. Tolstoy tried to give an answer to the desire of literature of the 1860s to understand the course of historical process, determine the role of the people in decisive epochs of national life.
In the early 1870s, L.N. Tolstoy again focused on his pedagogical interests. He wrote "ABC" (1871-1872), later - "New ABC" (1874-1875), for which the writer composed original stories and adaptations of fairy tales and fables, which made up four “Russian books for reading”. For a while, L.N. Tolstoy returned to teaching at the Yasnaya Polyana school. However, soon symptoms of a crisis in the writer’s moral and philosophical worldview began to appear, aggravated by the historical stoppage of the social turning point of the 1870s.
The central work of L. N. Tolstoy of the 1870s is the novel “Anna Karenina” (1873-1877, published in 1876-1877). Like the novels and, written at the same time, “Anna Karenina” is a highly problematic work, full of signs of the times. The novel was the result of the writer’s thoughts about fate modern society and are imbued with pessimistic sentiments.
By the beginning of the 1880s, L. N. Tolstoy formed the basic principles of his new worldview, which later received the name Tolstoyism. They found their most complete expression in his works “Confession” (1879-1880, published in 1884) and “What is my faith?” (1882-1884). In them, L. N. Tolstoy concluded that the foundations of existence are false upper strata societies with which he was connected by origin, upbringing and life experience. To the writer’s characteristic criticism of materialist and positivist theories of progress, to the apology of naive consciousness is now added a sharp protest against the state and the official church, against the privileges and way of life of his class. Your new ones social views L.N. Tolstoy put it in connection with moral and religious philosophy. The works “Study of Dogmatic Theology” (1879-1880) and “Connection and Translation of the Four Gospels” (1880-1881) laid the foundation for the religious side of Tolstoy’s teaching. Purified from distortions and church rituals, Christian teaching in its updated form, according to the writer, it was supposed to unite people with the ideas of love and forgiveness. L.N. Tolstoy preached non-resistance to evil through violence, considering the only reasonable means of combating evil to be its public denunciation and passive disobedience to authorities. He saw the path to the future renewal of man and humanity in individual spiritual work, moral improvement of the individual and rejected the importance political struggle and revolutionary explosions.
In the 1880s, L. N. Tolstoy noticeably cooled towards artistic work and even condemned his previous novels and stories as lordly “fun”. He became interested in simple physical labor, plowed, sewed his own boots, and switched to vegetarian food. At the same time, the writer’s dissatisfaction with the usual way of life of his loved ones grew. His journalistic works “So what should we do?” (1882-1886) and "Slavery of Our Time" (1899-1900) sharply criticized the vices modern civilization, but the author saw a way out of its contradictions primarily in utopian calls for moral and religious self-education. Actually artistic creativity the writer of these years is imbued with journalism, direct denunciations of an unfair trial and modern marriage, land ownership and the church, passionate appeals to the conscience, reason and dignity of people (the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” (1884-1886); “The Kreutzer Sonata” (1887-1889, published in 1891); "The Devil" (1889-1890, published in 1911).
During the same period, L.N. Tolstoy began to show serious interest in dramatic genres. In the drama “The Power of Darkness” (1886) and the comedy “The Fruits of Enlightenment” (1886-1890, published in 1891), he examined the problem of the pernicious influence of urban civilization on conservative rural society. L. N. Tolstoy’s desire to appeal directly to the reader from the people caused to life the so-called " folk stories"of the 1880s (“How do people live”, “Candle”, “Two old men”, “How much land does a man need”, etc.), written in the genre of parables.
L. N. Tolstoy actively supported the publishing house “Posrednik”, which emerged in 1884, which was led by his followers and friends V. G. Chertkov and I. I. Gorbunov-Posadov and whose goal was to distribute books among the people that served the cause of education and were close to Tolstoy’s teachings . Many of the writer’s works, under censorship conditions, were published first in Geneva, then in London, where, on the initiative of V. G. Chertkov, the Svobodnoe Slovo publishing house was founded. In 1891, 1893 and 1898, L. N. Tolstoy headed a wide social movement to provide assistance to peasants in starving provinces, he made appeals and articles on measures to combat hunger. In the 2nd half of the 1890s, the writer devoted a lot of effort to protecting religious sectarians - the Molokans and Doukhobors, and facilitated the relocation of the Doukhobors to Canada. (especially in the 1890s) became a place of pilgrimage for people from the farthest corners of Russia and from other countries, one of the largest centers of attraction for the living forces of world culture.
Home artistic work L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection” (1889-1899) appeared in the 1890s, the plot of which arose on the basis of a genuine court case. In an astonishing combination of circumstances (a young aristocrat, once guilty of seducing a peasant girl raised in a manor house, must now, as a juror, decide her fate in court), the writer expressed the alogism of a life built on social injustice. The cartoonish depiction of church ministers and its rituals in “Resurrection” became one of the reasons for the decision of the Holy Synod to excommunicate L. N. Tolstoy from the Orthodox Church (1901).
During this period, the alienation observed by the writer in his contemporary society makes the problem of personal moral responsibility extremely important for him, with the inevitable pangs of conscience, enlightenment, moral revolution and subsequent break with his environment. The plot of “departure”, a sharp and radical change in life, an appeal to a new faith in life becomes typical (“Father Sergius”, 1890-1898, published in 1912; “The Living Corpse”, 1900, published in 1911; “After the Ball” , 1903, published 1911; Posthumous notes Elder Fyodor Kuzmich...", 1905, published in 1912).
IN last decade life of L.N. Tolstoy became the recognized head of Russian literature. He maintains personal relationships with young contemporary writers V. G. Korolenko, A. M. Gorky. His social and journalistic activities continued: his appeals and articles were published, work was carried out on the book “The Reading Circle”. Tolstoyism became widely known as an ideological doctrine, but the writer himself at that time experienced hesitation and doubts about the correctness of his teaching. During the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, his protests against death penalty(article “I Can’t Be Silent”, 1908).
L.N. Tolstoy spent the last years of his life in an atmosphere of intrigue and discord between the Tolstoyans and members of his family. Trying to bring his lifestyle into agreement with his beliefs, on October 28 (November 10), 1910, the writer secretly left. On the way, he caught a cold and died on November 7 (20), 1910 at the Astapovo Ryazan-Uralskaya station railway(now a village in). The death of L.N. Tolstoy caused a colossal public outcry in and abroad.
The work of L. N. Tolstoy marked new stage in the development of realism in Russian and world literature, became a kind of bridge between the traditions of classical novel XIX century and literature of the twentieth century. The writer's philosophical views had a huge influence on the evolution of European humanism.
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Born in Yasnaya Polyana, Krapivensky district, Tula province, on August 28 (September 9), 1828. Lived in the estate in 1828-1837. Since 1849 he returned to the estate periodically, and since 1862 he lived permanently. He was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.
He first visited Moscow in January 1837. He lived in the city until 1841, subsequently visited several times and lived for a long time. In 1882 he bought a house on Dolgokhamovnichesky Lane, where from then on his family usually spent the winter. Last time came to Moscow in September 1909.
In February-May 1849 he visited St. Petersburg for the first time. Lived in the city in the winter of 1855-1856, visited annually in 1857-1861, and also in 1878. The last time I came to St. Petersburg was in 1897.
He visited Tula several times in 1840-1900. In 1849-1852 he served in the office of the noble assembly. In September 1858 he took part in the congress of the provincial nobility. In February 1868, he was elected as a juror for the Krapivensky district and attended sessions of the Tula District Court.
Owner of the Nikolskoye-Vyazemskoye estate in the Chern district of the Tula province since 1860 (previously belonged to brother N.N. Tolstoy). In the 1860-1870s, he conducted experiments on improving the economy on the estate. The last time I visited the estate was on June 28 (July 11), 1910.
In 1854, the wooden manor house in which L. N. Tolstoy was born was sold and transported from the village of Dolgoye, Krapivensky district, Tula province, which belonged to the landowner P. M. Gorokhov. In 1897, the writer visited the village to buy the house, but due to its dilapidated condition it was considered untransportable.
In the 1860s, he organized a school in the village of Kolpna, Krapivensky district, Tula province (now within the city of Shchekino). July 21 (August 2), 1894 visited the mine joint stock company"Partnership R. Gill" at Yasenki station. On October 28 (November 10), 1910, the day he left, he took the train at Yasenki station (now in Shchekino).
He lived in the village of Starogladovskaya, Kizlyar district, Terek region, the location of the 20th artillery brigade, from May 1851 to January 1854. In January 1852, he was enlisted as a fireworksman of the 4th class in battery No. 4 of the 20th artillery brigade. On February 1 (February 13), 1852, in the village of Starogladovskaya, with the help of his friends S. Miserbiev and B. Isaev, he wrote down the words of two Chechen folk songs with translation. The records of L. N. Tolstoy are recognized as “the first in time written monument Chechen language" and "the first experience of recording Chechen folklore in the local language."
I visited the Grozny fortress for the first time on July 5 (17), 1851. He visited the commander of the left flank of the Caucasian line, Prince A.I. Baryatinsky, to obtain permission to participate in hostilities. Subsequently he visited Grozny in September 1851 and February 1853.
First visited Pyatigorsk on May 16 (28), 1852. Lived in Kabardinskaya Slobodka. On July 4 (16), 1852, he sent the manuscript of the novel “Childhood” from Pyatigorsk to the editor of the Sovremennik magazine. On August 5 (17), 1852, he left Pyatigorsk for the village. He visited Pyatigorsk again in August - October 1853.
Visited Orel three times. On January 9-10 (21-22), 1856, he visited his brother D.N. Tolstoy, who was dying of consumption. On March 7 (19), 1885, I was passing through the city on my way to the Maltsev estate. On September 25-27 (October 7-9), 1898, he visited the Oryol provincial prison while working on the novel “Resurrection.”
In the period from October 1891 to July 1893, he came several times to the village of Begichevka, Dankovsky district, Ryazan province (now Begichevo), the estate of I. I. Raevsky. In the village he organized a center to help starving peasants of Dankovsky and Epifansky districts. The last time L.N. Tolstoy left Begichevka was on July 18 (30), 1893.