The land of Russia has given mankind a whole scattering of talented writers. In many parts of the world, people know and love the works of I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, N. V. Gogol and many other Russian authors. This publication aims to in general terms describe life and creative way remarkable writer L.N. Tolstoy as one of the most prominent Russians who covered himself and the Fatherland with world-wide glory with his labors.
Childhood
In 1828, or rather, on August 28, in the family estate of Yasnaya Polyana (at that time the Tula province), the fourth child was born in the family, who was named Leo. Despite the imminent loss of his mother - she died when he was not yet two years old - he will carry her image through his whole life and use it in the War and Peace trilogy as Princess Volkonskaya. Tolstoy lost his father before reaching the age of nine, and it would seem that he would perceive these years as a personal tragedy. However, brought up by relatives who gave him love and new family, the writer considered the years of childhood the happiest. This was reflected in his novel "Childhood".
It is interesting, but Leo began to transfer his thoughts and feelings to paper as a child. One of the first attempts at pen of the future literary classic became short story"Kremlin", written under the impression of visiting the Moscow Kremlin.
Adolescence and youth
Having received a great elementary education(he was taught by excellent teachers from France and Germany) and having moved with his family to Kazan, the young Tolstoy entered Kazan University in 1844. The study was not exciting. After less than two years, he, allegedly for health reasons, drops out of school and returns to family estate with the thought of completing their studies in absentia.
Having experienced all the delights of unsuccessful management, which will then be reflected in the story "The Morning of the Landowner", Lev moves first to Moscow, and later to St. Petersburg with the hope of getting a diploma at the university. The search for oneself during this period led to amazing metamorphoses. Preparation for exams, the desire to become a military man, religious asceticism, suddenly replaced by revelry and revelry - this is not a complete list of his activities at this time. But it is at this stage of life that a serious desire arises.
Adulthood
Heeding the advice of his older brother, Tolstoy becomes a cadet and goes to serve in the Caucasus in 1851. Here he takes part in hostilities, becomes close to the inhabitants of the Cossack village and realizes the huge difference between noble life and everyday reality. During this period, he writes the story "Childhood", which is published under a pseudonym and brings the first success. Having supplemented his autobiography to a trilogy with the stories Boyhood and Youth, Tolstoy gains recognition among writers and readers.
Participating in the defense of Sevastopol (1854), Tolstoy was awarded not only an order and medals, but also new experiences that became the basis of " Sevastopol stories". This collection finally convinced the critics of his talent.
After the war
Having finished with military adventures in 1855, Tolstoy returned to St. Petersburg, where he immediately became a member of the Sovremennik circle. He falls into the company of such people as Turgenev, Ostrovsky, Nekrasov and others. But Savor did not please him and, having been abroad and finally breaking with the army, he returned to Yasnaya Polyana. Here, in 1859, Tolstoy, mindful of the contrast between the common people and the nobles, opened a school for peasant children. With his assistance, 20 more such schools were created in the vicinity.
"War and Peace"
After the wedding with the 18-year-old daughter of a doctor Sophia Bers in 1862, the couple returned to Yasnaya Polyana, where they indulged in the joys of family life and household chores. But a year later, Tolstoy was carried away by a new idea. A trip to the Borodino field, work in the archives, a painstaking study of the correspondence of people from the era of Alexander I and spiritual uplift from family happiness led to the publication of the first part of the novel "War and Peace" in 1865. Full version trilogy was published in 1869 and still causes admiration and controversy regarding the novel.
"Anna Karenina"
The landmark novel known to the whole world was the result of a deep analysis of the life of Tolstoy's contemporaries and was published in 1877. In this decade, the writer lived in Yasnaya Polyana, teaching peasant children and defending his own views on pedagogy through the press. Family life, decomposed through a social prism, illustrates the entire spectrum of human emotions. Despite not the best, to put it mildly, relations between writers, even F.M. Dostoevsky.
Broken soul
Contemplating around you social inequality, now he considers the dogmas of Christianity as an impulse to humanity and justice. Tolstoy, understanding the role of God in people's lives, continues to denounce the corruption of his servants. This period of complete denial of the established way of life explains the criticism of the church and state institutions. It got to the point that he questioned art, denied science, the bonds of marriage and much more. As a result, he was officially excommunicated in 1901, and also caused discontent among the authorities. This period of the writer's life gave the world many sharp, sometimes controversial, works. The result of understanding the views of the author was his last novel "Sunday".
Care
Because of disagreements in the family and misunderstood secular society, Tolstoy, having decided to leave Yasnaya Polyana, but, having got off the train due to poor health, died at a small, godforsaken station. It happened in the autumn of 1910, and next to him was only his doctor, who turned out to be powerless against the writer's illness.
L. N. Tolstoy was one of the first who dared to describe human life without embellishment. His heroes possessed all, sometimes unattractive, feelings, desires and character traits. Therefore, they remain relevant today, and his works are rightfully included in the heritage of world literature.
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy brief information.
The outstanding Russian writer, philosopher and thinker Count is known all over the world. Even in the farthest corners of the world, as soon as it comes to Russia, they certainly remember Peter the Great, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and a few more from Russian history.
We decided to collect the most Interesting Facts from the life of Tolstoy to remind you of them, and maybe even surprise you with some things.
So let's get started!
- Tolstoy was born in 1828 and died in 1910 (he lived for 82 years). Married at 34 to 18-year-old Sofya Andreevna. They had 13 children, five of whom died in childhood.
Leo Tolstoy with his wife and children
- Before the wedding, the count gave his future wife to re-read his diaries, which described his many fornications. He considered it fair and just. According to the writer's wife, she remembered their content for the rest of her life.
- At the very beginning of family life, the young couple had complete harmony and mutual understanding, but over time, relations began to deteriorate more and more, reaching a peak shortly before the death of the thinker.
- Tolstoy's wife was a real housewife and exemplary conducted the household affairs.
- An interesting fact is that Sofya Andreevna (Tolstoy's wife) rewrote almost all the works of her husband in order to send manuscripts to the publishing house. This was necessary because no editor would have made out the handwriting of the great writer.
Diary of Tolstoy L.N. - Almost all her life, the thinker's wife rewrote her husband's diaries. However, shortly before his death, Tolstoy began to keep two diaries: one that his wife read, and the other personal. The elderly Sofya Andreevna was furious that she could not find him, although she searched through the whole house.
- All significant works("War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", "Resurrection") Leo Tolstoy wrote after his marriage. That is, until the age of 34, he did not engage in serious writing.
Tolstoy in his youth - The creative heritage of Lev Nikolaevich is 165 thousand sheets of manuscripts and ten thousand letters. complete collection works published in 90 volumes.
- An interesting fact is that in life Tolstoy could not stand when dogs bark, and also did not like cherries.
- Despite the fact that he was a count from birth, he always gravitated towards the people. Often the peasants saw him plowing the field on his own. On this occasion, there is a funny anecdote: “Leo Tolstoy is sitting in a canvas shirt and writing a novel. A footman in livery and white gloves enters. “Your Excellency, it’s time to plow!”
- From childhood it was incredible gambler and a gambler. However, like the other great writer – .
- Interestingly, once Count Tolstoy lost one of the buildings of his estate Yasnaya Polyana in cards. His partner dismantled the property that had passed to him to the carnation and took everything out. The writer himself dreamed of buying back this extension, but never did it.
- Excellent command of English, French and German. Read in Italian, Polish, Serbian and Czech. He studied Greek and Church Slavonic, Latin, Ukrainian and Tatar, Hebrew and Turkish, Dutch and Bulgarian.
Portrait of the writer Tolstoy - Anna Akhmatova as a child taught letters from the primer, which L.N. Tolstoy wrote for peasant children.
- All his life he tried to help the peasants in everything he had the strength to do.
Tolstoy with assistants makes lists of peasants in need of help - The novel "War and Peace" was written for 6 years, and then another 8 times corresponded. Separate fragments Tolstoy copied up to 25 times.
- The work “War and Peace” is considered the most significant in the work of the great writer, but he himself said the following in a letter to A. Fet: “I am happy that I will never write again verbose rubbish like War.
- An interesting fact about Tolstoy is also that the count, by the end of his life, developed several serious principles of his worldview. The main ones are reduced to non-resistance to evil by violence, denial private property and complete disregard for any authority, be it ecclesiastical, state or otherwise.
Tolstoy in the family circle in the park - Many believe that Tolstoy was excommunicated from Orthodox Church. In fact, the definition of the Holy Synod sounded literally like this:
- In fact, by the end of his life, Lev Nikolayevich really expressed his convictions that were very far from Christianity. Quote:
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emperor august and gay -
The cunning genius Laplace -
Stories of failure that turned around incredible success
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From the life of Ptolemy
“Therefore, testifying of his (Tolstoy’s) falling away from the Church, we pray together that the Lord grant him repentance into the mind of truth.”
That is, the Synod simply testified that Tolstoy "self-excommunicated" from the Church. In fact, it was so, if we analyze the writer's numerous statements addressed to the Church.
“I don’t want to be a Christian, just as I didn’t advise and wouldn’t want there to be Buddhists, Confucianists, Taoists, Mohammedans and others.”
“Pushkin was like a Kyrgyz. Everyone still admires Pushkin. And just think about the excerpt from his "Eugene Onegin", placed in all the readers for children: "Winter. Peasant, triumphant ... ". Whatever the stanza, then nonsense!
And, meanwhile, the poet, obviously, worked a lot and for a long time on the verse. "Winter. Peasant, triumphant ... ". Why "celebrating"? “Perhaps he is going to the city to buy himself salt or shag.
“On the firewood, it renews the path. His horse, smelling snow ... ". How can you "smell" the snow?! After all, she runs through the snow - so what does the flair have to do with it? Further: "Weaving at a trot somehow ...". This "somehow" is a historically stupid thing. And got into the poem only for the rhyme.
This was written by the great Pushkin, no doubt clever man, wrote because he was young and, like a Kyrgyz, sang instead of talking.
To this Tolstoy was asked a question: But what, Lev Nikolaevich, to do? Should you quit writing?
Tolstoy A: Of course quit! I say this to all beginners. This is my usual advice. Now is not the time to write. You need to do business, live exemplarily and teach others to live by your own example. Drop literature if you want to obey the old man. What do I do! I will die soon…"
“Over the years, Tolstoy expresses his opinions about women more and more often. These opinions are terrible.
“If you need a comparison, then marriage should be compared with a funeral, and not with a name day,” said Leo Tolstoy.
- The man walked alone - five pounds were tied to his shoulders, and he rejoices. What is there to say, that if I walk alone, then I am free, and if my foot is tied with the foot of a woman, then she will follow me and interfere with me.
- Why did you get married? the countess asked.
“But I didn’t know that then.”
Leo Tolstoy with his wife
Despite the interesting facts described above about Leo Tolstoy, he always declared that supreme value in society, it is the family.
“Indeed, Paris is not at all in harmony with its spiritual system; he is a strange man, I have never met such and do not quite understand him. A mixture of a poet, a Calvinist, a fanatic, a baric - something reminiscent of Rousseau, but more honest than Rousseau - a highly moral and at the same time unsympathetic creature.
If you want to get acquainted with more detailed information from Tolstoy's biography, then we recommend that you read it. own work"Confession". We are sure that some things from the personal life of an outstanding thinker will simply shock you!
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Do you know Leo Tolstoy? A short and complete biography of this writer is studied in detail in school years. However, like great works. The first association of 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 very in vain. The product deserves it. world fame. This is a classic that everyone should read. educated person. But first things first.
The biography of Leo Tolstoy tells that he was born in the 19th century, namely, in 1828. The surname of the future writer is the oldest aristocratic in Russia. Lev Nikolaevich received his education at home. When his parents died, he moved to the city of Kazan with his sister and three brothers. P. Yushkova became Tolstoy's guardian. At the age of 16, he entered the local university. He studied first in philosophy, and then in law school. But Tolstoy never graduated from the university. He settled in the Yasnaya Polyana estate - where he was born.
The biography of Leo Tolstoy tells that the next 4 years became years of searching for him. First, he reorganized the life of the estate, then went to Moscow, where social life awaited him. He received the degree of candidate of law at St. Petersburg University, and then got a job - he became an office worker in the noble deputy assembly of Tula.
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". Then Leo passed the exam for a cadet in order to be an officer in the future. And already in this rank in 1854, Tolstoy served in the Danube army, which acted in those days against the Turks.
Lev Nikolaevich began to seriously engage in literary work precisely during a trip to the Caucasus. His story "Childhood" was written there, and then published in the Sovremennik magazine. In the same edition, the story "Boyhood" subsequently appeared.
Leo also fought in Sevastopol during the time there and showed real fearlessness, participating in the defense of the city, which was under siege. For it was awarded the order"For Courage". The writer recreated the bloody picture of the war in his Sevastopol Tales. This work made an indelible impression on the entire Russian society.
From 1855 Tolstoy lived in St. Petersburg. There he often communicated with Chernyshevsky, Turgenev, Ostrovsky and other legendary figures. And a year later he retired. Then the writer traveled, he opened a school for the children of peasants on his native estate and even conducted classes there himself. With his help, another two dozen 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, of course, is "Anna Karenina" and the novel "War and Peace" described at the beginning of the article.
The biography of Leo Tolstoy tells that he married in 1862. With his wife, he subsequently raised nine children. The family moved to the capital in 1880.
Leo Tolstoy (biography reports interesting facts about this) last years spent his life torn apart by intrigues, squabbles in the family over the inheritance that will 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 that. On the way, he caught a cold and died. He was buried, of course, in his homeland - in Yasnaya Polyana.
Russian writer, Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on September 9 (August 28 according to the old style) in 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate of the Krapivensky district of the Tula province (now the Shchekino district of the Tula region).
Tolstoy was the fourth child in noble family. His mother, Maria Tolstaya (1790-1830), nee Princess Volkonskaya, died when the boy was not yet two years old. Father, Nikolai Tolstoy (1794-1837), participant Patriotic War also died early. The upbringing of children was carried out by a distant relative of the family, Tatyana Yergolskaya.
When Tolstoy was 13 years old, the family moved to Kazan, to the house of Pelageya Yushkova, his father's sister and guardian of the children.
In 1844, Tolstoy entered Kazan University in the Department of Oriental Languages of the Faculty of Philosophy, then transferred to the Faculty of Law.
In the spring of 1847, having filed a petition for dismissal from the university "due to frustrated health and domestic circumstances", he went to Yasnaya Polyana, where he tried to establish relations with the peasants in a new way. Disappointed by the unsuccessful experience of managing (this attempt is captured in the story "The Morning of the Landowner", 1857), Tolstoy soon left first for Moscow, then for St. Petersburg. His lifestyle changed frequently during this period. Religious moods, reaching asceticism, alternated with revelry, cards, trips to the gypsies. At the same time, he had his first unfinished literary sketches.
In 1851 Tolstoy left for the Caucasus with his brother Nikolai, an officer Russian troops. He took part in hostilities (at first voluntarily, then received an army post). Tolstoy sent the story "Childhood" written here to the journal "Contemporary", without revealing his name. It was published in 1852 under the initials L. N. and, together with the later stories Boyhood (1852-1854) and Youth (1855-1857), amounted to autobiographical trilogy. Literary debut brought recognition to Tolstoy.
Caucasian impressions were reflected in the story "Cossacks" (18520-1863) and in the stories "Raid" (1853), "Cutting down the forest" (1855).
In 1854 Tolstoy went to the Danube front. Shortly after the start Crimean War at his personal request, he was transferred to Sevastopol, where the writer happened to survive the siege of the city. This experience inspired him for the realistic Sevastopol Tales (1855-1856).
Shortly after the end of hostilities, Tolstoy left military service and lived for some time in St. Petersburg, where he had big success in literary circles.
He entered the Sovremennik circle, met Nikolai Nekrasov, Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Goncharov, Nikolai Chernyshevsky and others. Tolstoy took part in dinners and readings, in the establishment of the Literary Fund, became involved in disputes and conflicts of writers, but he felt like a stranger in this environment.
In the autumn of 1856 he left for Yasnaya Polyana, and at the beginning of 1857 he went abroad. Tolstoy visited France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, returned to Moscow in the autumn, then again to Yasnaya Polyana.
In 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in the village, and also helped establish more than 20 such institutions in the vicinity of Yasnaya Polyana. In 1860 he went abroad for the second time to familiarize himself with the schools of Europe. In London, he often saw Alexander Herzen, was in Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, studied pedagogical systems.
In 1862, Tolstoy began publishing the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana, with books for reading as an appendix. Later, in the early 1870s, the writer created the "ABC" (1871-1872) and "New ABC" (1874-1875), for which he composed original stories and transcriptions of fairy tales and fables, which made up four "Russian Books for Reading".
The logic of ideological and creative pursuits writer of the early 1860s - the desire to depict folk characters("Polikushka", 1861-1863), the epic tone of the narration ("Cossacks"), attempts to turn to history to understand the present (the beginning of the novel "The Decembrists", 1860-1861) - led him to the idea of the epic novel "War and Peace" (1863-1869). The time of the creation of the novel was a period of spiritual uplift, family happiness and quiet solitary work. At the beginning of 1865, the first part of the work was published in Russkiy Vestnik.
In 1873-1877 another one was written great romance Tolstoy - "Anna Karenina" (published in 1876-1877). The problematics of the novel led Tolstoy directly to the ideological "turn" of the late 1870s.
On the top literary glory the writer entered a period of deep doubts and moral quests. In the late 1870s and early 1880s, philosophy and journalism came to the fore in his work. Tolstoy condemns the world of violence, oppression and injustice, believes that it is historically doomed and must be radically changed in the near future. In his opinion, this can be achieved by peaceful means. Violence, on the other hand, must be excluded from social life; non-resistance is opposed to it. Non-resistance was not understood, however, as an exclusively passive attitude towards violence. A whole system of measures was proposed to neutralize violence state power: a position of non-participation in what supports the existing system - the army, courts, taxes, false teaching, etc.
Tolstoy wrote a number of articles reflecting his worldview: "On the census in Moscow" (1882), "So what should we do?" (1882-1886, published in full 1906), "On the Famine" (1891, published on English language in 1892, in Russian - in 1954), "What is art?" (1897-1898) and others.
Religious and philosophical treatises of the writer - "Study of dogmatic theology" (1879-1880), "Combination and translation of the four Gospels" (1880-1881), "What is my faith?" (1884), "The kingdom of God is within you" (1893).
At this time, such stories were written as "Notes of a Madman" (the work was carried out in 1884-1886, not completed), "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (1884-1886), etc.
In the 1880s, Tolstoy lost interest in artistic work and even condemned his previous novels and short stories as lordly "fun". He fell in love with the simple physical labor, plowed, sewed boots for himself, switched to vegetarian food.
Home artistic work Tolstoy in the 1890s became the novel "Resurrection" (1889-1899), which embodied the whole range of problems that worried the writer.
As part of the new worldview, Tolstoy opposed Christian dogma and criticized the rapprochement between church and state. In 1901, the reaction of the Synod followed: the world-renowned writer and preacher was officially excommunicated, this caused a huge public outcry. Years of change also led to family discord.
Trying to bring his way of life into line with his convictions and burdened by the life of the landowner's estate, Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana in the late autumn of 1910. The road turned out to be unbearable for him: on the way, the writer fell ill and was forced to make a stop at the Astapovo railway station (now the Lev Tolstoy station, Lipetsk region). Here, in the stationmaster's house, he spent the last few days of his life. Behind reports about the health of Tolstoy, who by this time had acquired world fame not only as a writer, but also as a religious thinker, the whole of Russia followed.
On November 20 (November 7, old style), 1910, Leo Tolstoy died. His funeral at Yasnaya Polyana became a nationwide event.
Since December 1873, the writer was a corresponding member of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (now - Russian Academy Sciences), since January 1900 - an honorary academician in the category of fine literature.
For the defense of Sevastopol, Leo Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anna IV degree with the inscription "For Courage" and other medals. Subsequently, he was also awarded medals "In memory of the 50th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol": silver as a participant in the defense of Sevastopol and bronze as the author of "Sevastopol stories".
Leo Tolstoy's wife was the doctor's daughter Sofya Bers (1844-1919), whom he married in September 1862. Sofya Andreevna for a long time was a faithful assistant in his affairs: a copyist of manuscripts, a translator, a secretary, a publisher of works. In their marriage, 13 children were born, five of whom died in childhood.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) is considered one of the greatest writers not only in Russia, but throughout the world. He created such masterpieces as "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", "Resurrection", "Living Corpse", etc. He came from a noble noble family. This already provided him with a prosperous and well-fed life. But, having crossed the 50-year milestone, the writer began to think about the essence of being.
He suddenly realized that material well-being not important at all. Therefore, he began to engage in 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, relying in 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 became the initiator of donations, and for short term 150 thousand rubles were collected. About 200 canteens were opened on them, in which thousands of people were fed. 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 details. 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 vast majority of wealthy people never do this. Such gentlemen only tell others about their desire, but do not lift a finger to make it a reality. It was to such an audience that the great writer belonged. 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 in exile in Yakutia:
“Several months after my return from exile, I went to Leo 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 difficult and embarrassing moments.
Come to me, - said Lev Nikolaevich, looking at me with a fixed look. - What a lucky person you are. You were in Siberia, went through prisons. And I pray to God to let me suffer for my convictions, but it doesn’t.
Soon I met a man who was introduced to me as Orlov. He was at first a Nechaev, then became a Tolstoyan. Lived on the outskirts of the city big family, eked out a semi-impoverished existence. Lev Nikolaevich often came to visit him. He sat down on a chair, admired the miserable situation, ragged and half-starved children. At the same time, he constantly repeated that he was jealous of Orlov, that he was surprisingly good at home.
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 to the people. She lived in a tiny apartment, she chopped wood, kindled the stove, cooked, washed dishes, wore cast-offs. Tolstoy sincerely admired this woman, and every time, on occasion, he said with emotion that he had never met her again. happy person than she. However, the venerable writer never helped Uspenskaya even with a penny. And indeed, why - she's happy.
Vladimir Alexandrovich Posse (1864-1940), a journalist and participant in the revolutionary movement, recalled:
“Once Lev Nikolaevich asked me: “Have you been in prison?” To which I answered in the affirmative. The writer perked up and dreamily remarked: “What I lack is prison. How great it is to fully know the hardships and experience the torment! I would really like to sit in a real damp prison. "I could not find anything to say to this."
The personality of Leo Tolstoy is remarkable from another side. This is what Nikolai Vasilievich Davydov (1848-1920) recalled - a prosecutor, public figure, close friend the writer's family and a frequent visitor to Yasnaya Polyana:
"We got together one evening at Yasnaya Polyana on the veranda. Someone in the family started reading a chapter from War and Peace. Lev Nikolayevich himself was not with us. He was unwell and was in his room. However, the writer soon appeared at the door, stood and listened to the reading. When they finished reading, they asked with interest what they were reading. It's painfully well-written."
The life path of the great classic undoubtedly deserves all respect. But sometimes he obviously played for the audience, which put others in an awkward position.
