Family values. Genus Tolstoy Is Alexey Tolstoy a relative of a lion

Paradise for fat men with glasses The road from Lijiang to Dali goes through fields - first terraced on the slopes of the mountains, and then ordinary, flat ones. On those and on others, the harvest is harvested, straw is stacked, fertilizers are scattered mainly by women. Mini-tractors, mules and others

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The fate of Alexei Tolstoy

Ivan Tolstoy: Our program today is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the death of the prose writer, playwright, poet, storyteller, publicist, journalist Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy, who died on February 23, 1945, a little before Victory Day.

Controversial figure. There are perhaps as many admirers of his literary talent as there are opponents of his civic position. I hope that in today's program, our guest and I will try to sort out these contradictions and understand what place Aleksey Tolstoy occupies in the history of Russian literature. Our guest today is Inna Georgievna Andreeva, head of the Alexei Tolstoy Museum in Moscow.

First of all, there are several legends around Alexei Tolstoy that I would like to immediately dispel. Inna Georgievna, I'm counting on your help. Origin of the Tolstoy family. They say that the Tolstoys are namesakes - writers, artists, sculptors, etc. - and some say that this is one big family. What does science say about this through your mouth?

Inna Andreeva: A large clan, leading from the Lithuanian prince Indris or, as it sounds in ancient Lithuanian, Intrius, which means "boar". Indris had two sons - Litvinos and Zimonten. Zimonten was childless, and from Litvinos a very branched family had already gone - the Tolstoy family. Some of the historians believe that this same Indris - in baptism Leonty - was in fact not Indris, but one of the sons of the Mongol Khan Ten-Gri. In fact, the bulk of historians debunk this theory, so we will focus on Indris, the Lithuanian prince. Further, there is a very branched tree of Tolstoy, and let's approach, specifically, to Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy.

Ivan Tolstoy: Remind us, please, who this is.

Inna Andreeva: The same Pyotr Andreevich, the famous Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, a diplomat, a comrade-in-arms of Peter the Great, an envoy in Turkey from Russia, who rendered invaluable services to the fatherland and was awarded for this both the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called and the title of count - by the way, that's where the Counts Tolstoy come from.

Ivan Tolstoy: Could you clarify why exactly the Tolstoys received the title of count.

Inna Andreeva: There are already several versions here. One of the most stable versions is not for a very plausible act, that is, it was Peter Andreyevich Tolstoy who brought Tsarevich Alexei back to Russia. There is even such a legend that before his death, Tsarevich Alexei cursed the Tolstoy family to the twenty-sixth generation.

Inna Andreeva: No, it is from Pyotr Andreevich, unfortunately.

Ivan Tolstoy: Then it will be for a long time: What is the fate of Pyotr Andreevich?

Inna Andreeva: He ended badly. They say he was exiled, as Peter's closest associate, to Solovki. Solovki, it turns out, is not such a close past as it might seem.

Ivan Tolstoy: Is it true that he was exiled there with his son? By the way, he himself was then a very old man.

Inna Andreeva: Yes, definitely. I would like to return to procreation, since the family tree, I repeat, is branched, and this is a topic for a three-hour conversation, if not more. Therefore, we will focus on the next Tolstoys. This is Fedor Tolstoy, from whom more specific branches have already gone. Many people are interested in the question of whether Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy and Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Tolstoy the American, Fyodor Konstantinovich Tolstoy, medallist, etc. are relatives. Yes, of course, they are relatives. Look, they have a common ancestor, Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy. Peter Andreevich had two children. One is childless, and along the line of another son - Ivan - there are already Andrey, Ilya, etc., and from Ilya there are already Lev Nikolaevich, Alexei Konstantinovich - of the same branch. Ivan, who has two sons, Andrey and Fedor, then Fedor has Stepan, Peter, Alexander, etc., and we are already approaching Fedor. Nikolai Alexandrovich, who had five children, and the child of one of them was Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy. When they ask what specific family ties Lev Nikolayevich and Alexei Nikolayevich have, you begin to count clearly, and then it turns out that the relatives are very distant - the fourth cousin, grandchild, great-great-great-nephew of Lev Nikolayevich. It seems that this is, as they say, "the tenth water on jelly." In fact, they have a single ancestor, Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, and therefore, of course, all Tolstoy relatives.

Ivan Tolstoy: As Blok said, "nobles are all relatives to each other," well, and even more so the Tolstoys. There is a persistent legend that Alexei Tolstoy is not the son of his father. There after all was big family drama even before his birth. Please say a few words about this.

Inna Andreeva: Of course, this was a very popular version among the first Russian emigration in the 20s and 30s. Berberova wrote about it. In fact, this is not true at all. Alexei Nikolaevich was the fifth child of Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Tolstoy and his wife, Alexandra Leontievna Turgeneva. Alexandra Leontyevna Turgeneva, a fairly well-known children's writer in her time, a student, a woman of advanced views. She fell in love with a young commoner, a small estate nobleman, Alexei Bostrom and went to him, because Nikolai Alexandrovich Tolstoy was a typical, in her opinion, tyrant, and she, like all Russian women, tried to save Alexei Bostrom, and he was unhappy, he had poor health and there were many more terms.

Ivan Tolstoy: I loved it for pain.

Inna Andreeva: Of course of course. And she went to Bostrom, but Nikolai Alexandrovich, having met Bostrom on the train - this is known - almost shot him, found out the address of their whereabouts and returned, by force, Alexandra Leontyevna. They lived together again.

Ivan Tolstoy: Just a Brazilian series.

Inna Andreeva: What are you! At the same time, Bostrom wrote weeping letters, begging Alexandra Leontievna to return, arguing that without her he could not live, etc.

Ivan Tolstoy: So how do you figure out which one is the baby?

Inna Andreeva: In one of the letters, when she refuses to return for serious reasons, she writes that "unfortunately, this has become completely impossible, because I am pregnant and already in my fifth month." And, nevertheless, Bostrom nevertheless persuades her, and she nevertheless leaves for him, and when the court had already taken place, at which the Tolstoy spouses were bred, Alexandra Leontyevna swore that the child Alyosha - Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy had already been born - the son of Bostrom .

Ivan Tolstoy: And yet she knew she was breaking an oath?

Inna Andreeva: She commits perjury. This time. Secondly, understand her as a woman and as a mother. Count Tolstoy left three surviving children - the girl Praskovya died at the age of five - Alexander, Elizabeth and Mstislav for himself. He categorically forbade them to communicate with their mother. Therefore, in order to keep at least a small one for herself, she committed perjury. But here's what's interesting. Before his death, Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Tolstoy made a will in favor of his four children, bearing in mind Alyosha. This suggests that he knew perfectly well that Alexei was his son.

Ivan Tolstoy: A tyrant is a tyrant, and his head did not leave him at the last moment.

Inna Andreeva: You know, we often say, especially museum visitors, "well, what do you want, count after all." It sounds very nice.

Ivan Tolstoy: Little Alexei Tolstoy settled with his mother and stepfather on a farm near Samara, and what happened to him next? Which path did he take?

Inna Andreeva: You know, you don't become a writer all at once. In principle, he was very fond of reading different books with his mother, he read a lot, etc., but, nevertheless, he went to study at the famous St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. In fact, he graduated from it, only he did not receive a diploma, but, in principle, he completed the entire course of study.

Just in connection with this, always, when you talk about his works, especially those devoted to technology - and "Engineer Garin's Hyperboloid", and "Aelita", and "Riot of Machines" - you are not surprised at some things that Aleksey Tolstoy understood because he had a serious technical education. But in Russia at the beginning of the century, something unimaginable was happening. Someone became a poet, or it seemed to him that he was becoming a poet, someone a writer, someone an actor. Life was seething, and there was such madness, fear of the future, as of some kind of catastrophe. And on this wave, all sorts of literary, theatrical, philosophical associations arose, by which the young Alexei Tolstoy could not help but pass. Of course, he wandered into the famous "Tower" by Vyacheslav Ivanov, into all kinds of literary cabarets, etc. to work with the word, with the language, and began to write poetry. Leaving for Paris, he met Nikolai

Stepanovich Gumilyov, and from here his poetic activity began. Then there was an acquaintance with Bryusov, with Andrei Bely, with Vyacheslav Ivanov, etc. He released two poetry collections, "Lyric" and "Beyond the Blue Rivers". Yes, criticism can blaspheme them for some kind of imitation, for an attempt to coexist with symbolism. But, nevertheless, they were sincere. They came from the heart, and it was not for nothing that Valery Bryusov praised these verses. Even Gumilyov, who was very sensitive to versification, treated them on the verge of scolding them very much, sometimes praising them very much, and recommended Tolstoy as a rather amusing new poet who appeared on the horizon of Russian literature. "Another Tolstoy", as he said, and he was right, since Tolstoy's subsequent work proved that he was a writer by the grace of God.

Ivan Tolstoy: That is, we can say that the mother in him defeated both the father and the stepfather. You said that his mother, Alexandra Leontyevna, was born Turgeneva. And what is this Turgenev? What do they have to do with the writer Ivan Sergeevich?

Inna Andreeva: The Turgenevs also have a very branched tree, but if we talk closer, then she is a relative of Nikolai Turgenev, the same one who was a Decembrist.

Ivan Tolstoy: So, by the same token, Alexander, who was a friend of Pushkin and went to bury him in the Holy Mountains?

Inna Andreeva: Of course, and it must be said that in the biography of Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy, whose favorite poet, by the way, was Pushkin, there is a very clear connection with this beloved poet. And on the part of Tolstoy the American, who finally betrothed Goncharova for Pushkin, and on the part of Alexander Turgenev. That is, Alexey Nikolaevich has very serious connections with Pushkin. In general, I think there are biographical and creative connections, and, by the way, behavioral ones, which is very interesting, and this is a separate topic for discussion.

Ivan Tolstoy: But the relationship with Nikolai and Alexander Turgenev is also not direct, but cousin. Alexandra Leontievna was the granddaughter of Boris Turgenev, who was the cousin of the two. In their letters they called him "the vile serf-owner, brother Boris." So, Alexei Nikolaevich is still not from the Decembrist, and not from Pushkin's Alexander, but from "the vile serf-owner, brother Boris." Naturally, we do not choose our relatives. But what is the relationship with the writer, Ivan Sergeevich?

Inna Andreeva: Very far.

Ivan Tolstoy: I remember that in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron, in my opinion the author was Semevsky, it was said that Nikolai Turgenev (a Decembrist who was in exile and did not return because he was waiting for a death sentence pronounced by the commission of inquiry of Nicholas I) met with Ivan Sergeevich abroad, in Paris, and they considered themselves, the article says, relatives, but, says the dictionary entry, these family ties cannot be traced. Turgenev is the surname of a native of the Golden Horde, and, as far as I remember, the young Alexei Tolstoy used, somewhat altered, this surname in his early years and even signed this surname.

Inna Andreeva: You know, I don't remember it.

Ivan Tolstoy: Some of his stories are signed with the pseudonym "Mirza Turgen", and the village where some of his early stories take place is called Turenevo.

Inna Andreeva: Of course of course. He was proud of his ancestors.

Ivan Tolstoy: Alexey Tolstoy, for most people, is somehow not associated with the people of the Silver Age, although he sprouted all of it and was familiar with a huge number of people. Almost the name of the cabaret "Stray Dog" belongs to him. But still, it is not associated with the Silver Age. Maybe this is some kind of mass delusion, or is there something in it?

Inna Andreeva: You know, in my opinion, this is mass oblivion. Among experts, Alexei Tolstoy is very much associated with the Silver Age and its representatives. Nevertheless, you quite rightly said that Tolstoy was one of the founders of the cafe of poets "Stray Dog", and, accordingly, "Halt of Comedians". This time. Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy was friendly with Gumilyov. After they met in Paris, they even published the magazine "Island" - a famous magazine for those who are interested in the Silver Age.

Hope: I would like the program about such a wonderful person as Alexei Tolstoy to be multi-part! In my favorite children's book, Nikita's Childhood, one feels a certain isolation of a family living in the middle of the steppe. Is this somehow connected with the fact that his mother, Alexandra Leontyevna, was excluded from social life on a peculiar island of nature?

Inna Andreeva: I completely agree with our listener. On the one hand, it was. On the other hand, Alexandra Leontyevna wanted this. She wanted this dissolution in the family, nature, and in general "Nikita's Childhood" is a book of happiness. She distances herself from the world in which there are wars, blood, grief. In my opinion, this is the happiest book in the world.

Ivan Tolstoy: No wonder it has a subtitle - "A Tale of Many Excellent Things."

Inna Andreeva: Undoubtedly. And this distance, in my opinion, was intentional, and it was deliberately observed by Alexei Nikolaevich, because he wrote a book about many of the most excellent things - a book of happiness, and happiness cannot coexist with grief.

Ivan Tolstoy: Perhaps, we can add to this that he wrote it in a situation of isolation - in emigration, feeling his isolation from his homeland, and this, perhaps, greatly strengthened the feeling that was conveyed to the hero of this story and the whole atmosphere of this farm.

Inna Andreeva: Yes, and this is saving the child from all the troubles of insults - this is also felt: This, by the way, is my favorite book.

Alexander(Saint Petersburg): I love Tolstoy's "Childhood of Nikita" and "The Viper". I have three questions. First: it is clear that Blok and Tolstoy are antipodes, but why such a pathological hatred of Blok? Bunin understands this, but Tolstoy not quite. Second: Pushkin is everyone's idol, but among modern writers, who among Tolstoy's contemporaries was a "significant" writer? Proust, Joyce, Kafka - of course not - they are also antipodes. And third: features of Tolstoy's style. They say that he has an archaic style, and there are no innovations in it. What can you say about this?

Inna Andreeva: In fact, I believe that there was no "nature" of hatred. I understand what our listener means - this is the poet Bessonov in "Walking through the torments", Pierrot in "The Golden Key". There was no hatred. Simply, Alexey Nikolaevich, being a cheerful, warm, explosive person, did not understand Blok's coldness. But he certainly understood his poetry. Even if he turns to the diaries of Blok himself, to the diaries of Alexei Nikolayevich, he was Blok's guest, read his poetry, but it was not his. Like someone loves Dostoevsky, and someone likes Leo Tolstoy. There was no hatred as such - there was only petty hooliganism, if we talk about "Egor Abozov" and the literary part of "Sisters". He played - as with puppets, as with puppets. Perhaps, after all, having in mind a collective image, which Alexei Nikolayevich himself spoke about more than once when he was accused of dislike for Alexander Blok. Of course, he revered him as a poet, and one cannot even say that he was friendly, but he was received in Blok's house and spoke of him very positively. Apparently, he just did not understand him as a person. He seemed to him a very cold and distant person.

Ivan Tolstoy: I would extend what you said not only to Blok, but also to many characters of the Silver Age. In general, maybe to Petersburg. Here there was a profound difference in the nature of the psyche of Alexei Tolstoy and the people of the Silver Age. Alexei Nikolaevich, as far as I understand him as a writer, was generally alien to modernism as a whole. Mysticism, idealistic thinking, all kinds of - as he called it - "fog in literature" were alien to him. He was a writer, of course, of a strong and powerful realistic fold. No wonder Fyodor Sollogub uttered words about him that someone evaluates as offensive, but I consider them to be words that hit the mark, in the top ten; he said that "Alyoshka Tolstoy is talented with his belly," and these are rude words, but they are absolutely accurate. This characterizes the writer of a realistic direction. Alexei Tolstoy was alien to the whole of Petersburg; he escaped from it. You say that he was received at Blok's house. Sometime we accept; for a while, yes. But Blok wrote in his notebook that he was invited to read another play by Tolstoy - "I won't go," writes Blok. This is not accidental, and, of course, Tolstoy later ridiculed him a lot in some characters. And when Blok died, then, as often happens, the acceptance of a person and his whole world began, and it is known, from the recollections, that in the 40s, during the war, Tolstoy read Blok a lot - all three volumes of his poems, and how I would let you into my heart again. Listener Alexander had one more question. Who among contemporary writers Tolstoy was close to him?

Inna Andreeva: This needs to be thought about. Firstly, he loved Remizov, and this can be understood.

Ivan Tolstoy: But, again, that side of it, which was more rooted in the soil, was rooted in the people, in folklore, which Alexei Tolstoy himself perfectly felt. But he also did not tolerate Remizov's mysticism. That is, in Remizov he accepted only his part.

Inna Andreeva: Certainly. He liked Gumilyov.

Ivan Tolstoy: For the lack of mysticism.

Inna Andreeva: Quite right. He especially liked his travel cycles.

Ivan Tolstoy: Didn't he accept Bryusov only because he saw the rationalism of Bryusov's literary game? When Bryusov pretends to be a symbolist and puts on a “fog”, is this all a game of fog and a game of symbolism, a game of obscure, symbolic worlds? After all, in fact, Bryusov was a super-realistic person and wrote his poems simply as he played chess games.

Inna Andreeva: Alexei Tolstoy understood this perfectly. He even sometimes compared him with the unloved by him - for the time being, however, - Dostoevsky. Yes, he did not like Bryusov, although he revered and respected a professional in him.

Ivan Tolstoy: As far as I understand, he loved Bunin.

Inna Andreeva: Oh, how I forgot Ivan Alekseevich! He loved Bunin very much.

Ivan Tolstoy: Which, in turn, also could not stand the symbolists! And, in my opinion, for the same.

Inna Andreeva: Certainly. And who also, at the same time - say, until the 1920s - had great respect for the work of Alexei Nikolayevich, especially for his prose.

Ivan Tolstoy: As far as I understand, he loved Leskov and the realist writers of the 19th century; adored Chekhov; then, from the younger ones, Bulgakov. That is, the whole realistic line in literature.

Inna Andreeva: Yes, we are talking about contemporary writers. By the way, he absolutely could not stand Leonid Andreev, which is completely understandable and understandable.

Georgy Georgievich(Saint Petersburg): I would like to look at the work of Alexei Tolstoy from a much broader perspective. As you know, in the 17th year, Lenin established the world's first totalitarian state. The second, as you know, is Mussolini, and the third is Adolf Hitler. So, would it not be right to consider the work of Tolstoy, who, as you know, glorified Ivan the Terrible during the years of Stalin - and the Stalin era, this is tens of millions of people's lives, would it not be right to consider his work from the point of view of adaptation to this totalitarian state that brought so many troubles to the peoples of Russia. And to consider in this way not only the work of Alexei Tolstoy, but also writers who worked for the needs of the totalitarian regime. As for "Nikita's Childhood", everyone wrote this - both Aksakov and Lev Nikolaevich, it's too simple.

Inna Andreeva: I disagree with our listener. What will we say about Zoshchenko then? He wrote stories about Lenin. Bulgakov wrote "Batum". They all worked for the government. A well-known truth: "There is no prophet in his own country." For example, the novel "Peter the Great", a dilogy about Ivan the Terrible. Simply, knowing the work of the writer under discussion, if you follow him, then he began to write about Peter the Great even before the revolution. This topic always worried him, and Peter the Great was written not at all for the needs of the authorities.

And, in general, this can be approached from a completely different side. It's like an escape from reality. After all, look: Alexei Tolstoy did not write a single novel about the five-year plan, say, about the construction of a hydroelectric power station, about the White Sea Canal, about the decisions of party congresses. He has a continuous flight into the past.

Ivan Tolstoy: Well, not exactly in the past. For example, the novel "Bread" is not quite the past, but just yesterday, and so yesterday that they did not have time to sleep off, as it is already today. I would still like to say that there is some truth in the position of our listener. Alexei Tolstoy was a writer who adapted to his time. I absolutely would not want to hide this, and I would not want our program to turn the figure of Alexei Tolstoy. He really adapted to power. He was a man who wrote many dozens, perhaps hundreds, of infamous pages, which I am sure that in another era he would not have written, but he was, in his own way, forced to write them. He agreed to live in this era, exist, feed himself and his family. He was forced to write this, and this was his human weakness. He had a choice, like any person for whom there is honor, he chose this path.

I believe that he is quite rightly criticized and should be morally condemned. The writer cannot be applauded for the novel "Bread".

Another thing is that the whole story of his return from emigration to the USSR - then Soviet Russia - was connected with his natural need, and here he followed only the call of his heart, and listened to his inner voice. This whole story is connected with the fact that he wanted to be a "whole person", to remain one. In exile, he felt out of place, he felt without a reader, he saw how limited the audience abroad turned out to be. He saw how many emigrants struggled like spiders in a jar. Of course, there were wonderful, worthy people there, but, nevertheless, he saw a limited field for his artistic activity. He wanted to be with his people. Is it possible to reproach a person for such a call of the heart? I wouldn't.

And so, he returned to Soviet Russia. He knew what he was getting into. He, still in exile, made this compromise. He agreed - he sold his soul to the devil. Maybe not all. He left some piece of art for himself. Therefore, he got such wonderful lyrical things, which he later wrote in the Soviet Union. The same, after all, "Pinocchio". But having already once agreed to a deal with the devil, he was forced to dance according to the rules that were set. He wanted to remain a whole person, to sleep peacefully; he believed that he would sleep peacefully if his soul did not split in two - if he wrote what he thinks, thinks what the era orders him to think. Look, he did not write a single work "on the table." From almost every writer of the 20s and 30s, from the Stalin era, there are works written on the table, that is, written for themselves, for the soul, for God. Alexei Tolstoy, apparently, did not have a god. He had no need to speak out, as at the Last Judgment. He believed that he should only write what could be immediately printed. Almost all of his works were published. Nothing, not a line, except for private letters, was left.

But, of course, this man also had a civil position, and in those years when it was still "possible", he defended someone and there is a number of evidence that some people were saved, someone was returned to their professional activity, someone escaped arrest, someone corrected his fate, and this will also be counted for him at the Last Judgment.

During the war, Alexei Tolstoy happily surrendered to a patriotic position and wrote those works in which, of course, his clear, bold voice sounds; where it was not necessary to pretend, to listen to some circumstances. Inna Georgievna, I thank you for bringing a historical recording to our program - Alexei Tolstoy's speech to military personnel in 1943 in Barvikha. Let's listen. Alexey Tolstoy says:

Alexey Tolstoy: We Russians are optimists. With each phenomenon, we are looking for opportunities to turn it to the happiness of a person. So it is in this cruel war. We stubbornly see the other side - on the other side of victory; a shore where there will be rest and the beginning of a great, won happiness. Nazism, as in an Arab fairy tale, released a ferocious genie - the spirit of evil and vice - from an enchanted jug. But evil is a sign of imperfection and weakness, and you and I will drive the ferocious, Nazi gin back into the jug and throw it into the abyss of timelessness. So let's be friends and good fighters for everything good and beautiful on earth!

Ivan Tolstoy: "Do you have books by Alexei Tolstoy at home?" This question was asked by our correspondent in St. Petersburg, Alexander Dyadin, to passers-by. Let's listen to the answers.

Passerby: There is, for sure. This is a school program, and I have children. We now have all the historical impression of Peter from his novel and from the films based on it.

Passerby: I don't know what, but there are. Dad is into it.

Passerby: There fantasy, in my opinion, or something like that. I went through this at school.

Passerby: "Prince Silver", poems. I really liked it at the time. I read this mostly in my youth. Then - to his son, he is now a young man, but he liked it. "Prince Silver" made a great impression on him.

Passerby: Aelita, for example. I, when I read it - in my opinion, at school. Of course, his fantasy bribed.

Passerby: Yes, there is, but I can't say for sure. This is more of a question for my parents. I remember it was on a separate shelf, I distinguished it as a child.

Passerby: There are books. Four, it seems. But now I don't remember which ones.

Passerby: Eat. But I only remember "Aelita" - my grandfather forced me to read. But I perceived it differently, because it was written about the revolution and all that. I think it's out of date now. For the general development and increase in horizons, then yes. When reading a book, one sees one thing, the other sees another, and the third sees nothing at all. For example, I would force my children to read.

Passerby: Alexei Tolstoy, who wrote "Peter the Great", "Walking through the torments" - a wonderful novel. Pinocchio, of course. A normal writer, although some believe that he wrote somewhat ideologically. "Walking through the torments", after all, is a novel that raised the Soviet power: The most important thing is that it is easy to read. And then, sometimes, you take Dickens in translation - it is not readable.

Passerby: Eat. The last thing I read was "Blob". It's very soulful. Not a cognitive text, but it conveys emotions, the spirit of what he writes about. I think that it should be studied at school, that it is missed in vain. It's a classic, what can I say?

Passerby: Yes, but to be honest, I don't remember what. Parents have a library, only they read it all. I do not even read such books - I would like something simpler.

Passerby: Of course I have. I don’t even remember, maybe some school works. I read it, but it's not very interesting. Everything is clear, of course, but not everything is interesting. Now the youth is different.

Passerby: I don't remember. He probably made some contribution to literature, but I generally read the classics a little. Now this, in my opinion, few people are interested.

Passerby: Certainly, "Peter the Great". In my opinion, this is the first intelligent look at history. Well, in general, his historical and psychological description of any moments is brilliant. I think that he was in demand during his life, and will always be in demand.

Ivan Tolstoy: The last question is for you, as the head of the museum. Who comes to the writer's museum?

Inna Andreeva: A lot of children come, students come, a lot of foreigners. Again, I repeat, "there is no prophet in his own country." For example, the Swedes and the Japanese, we note, are very well versed in Tolstoy's novel "Peter the Great". They have a wild number of translations of this novel. Moreover, the translations are completely different, and different translators. The Swedes, in general, are very fond of Alexei Tolstoy, especially "Peter the Great", and, by the way, "The Golden Key", oddly enough. Children come to see the real Pinocchio, to see how the writer lived. They come with pleasure. Young people, unfortunately, very often confuse him with Alexei Konstantinovich. They say that "Prince Silver" was read, but the rest was not. When you try to explain to them that these are completely different writers, and to talk about the works of Alexei Nikolaevich, it turns out that they have not read anything. Grown-up people are very fond of "Walking through the torments", especially its first part. Many people come to Alexei Tolstoy in the museum, in his house, as the author of "Peter the Great", and very many claim that the "Golden Key" will last forever. Most, of course, come as the author of the "Golden Key".

The noble family of Tolstoy comes from an ancient Germanic surname. Their ancestor was Indris, who left Germany in the middle of the 14th century and settled in Chernigov together with his two sons. Here he was baptized and received the name Leonty. The ancestor of the Tolstoy was the great-grandson of Indris, Andrei Kharitonovich, who moved from Chernigov to Moscow and here already from Vasily the Dark received the nickname Tolstoy, which later began to be passed on to his descendants. The first of the representatives of this family were military. This tradition was preserved by all generations of the Tolstoys, however, subsequently, many Tolstoys glorified their family both as prominent government officials and as figures of art and literature.

Genealogical table Genus of Counts Tolstoy.

Family of Count Tolstoy(genealogical table).

Vasilchikovs, a noble and princely family, descending from the nephew of the ancestor of the Tolstoy - Vasily Fedorovich.

great-great-grandson of Tolstoy, journalist

Although many modern Tolstoys live abroad (they emigrated after the revolution), the descendants of the "block of Russian literature" remained in our country as well. For example, Pyotr Tolstoy, whose father returned from exile in 1944 with his brother. Thanks to his family, Peter knew about his great-great-grandfather from childhood: he repeatedly visited Yasnaya Polyana, got to know family relics closely. This representative of the Tolstoy family is a very famous Russian journalist and TV presenter who has been working on Channel One for many years. Now he hosts the programs "Politics" and "Time will show." About the famous great-great-grandfather in an interview, Peter said this:

Tolstoy remained honest with himself, always remained so, even when he was mistaken

Fekla Tolstaya

great-great-granddaughter of Tolstoy, journalist

Second cousin of Peter Tolstoy and also a very famous Russian journalist. The real name is Anna, but they know her mainly under the name Thekla - a childhood nickname, which later turned into a pseudonym. Tolstaya was born into a family of philologists and followed in the footsteps of her parents: she graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, speaks five languages. However, already in childhood, she was drawn to television: as a schoolgirl, Fekla began acting in minor roles in films, and in 1995 she entered GITIS at the directing department. Behind Fekla's back are many projects on radio and television, including author's programs about his own family tree "Tolstoy", as well as "War and Peace": Reading a novel. In a conversation with MK Bulvar, the journalist happily spoke about the advantages of her huge family, whose members are scattered all over the world:

If you have relatives in another country, you understand it completely differently. I can explore, for example, Rome with my beautiful niece, who, like a Roman, shows me places that I have loved since childhood - and this is an incomparable feeling. The same can be said about my relatives in Paris or New York. I get into the family, talk to their friends

Andrey Tolstoy

great-great-grandson of Tolstoy, reindeer breeder

Another descendant representing the Swedish branch of the family, Andrey Tolstoy, is a simple farmer who has been breeding deer for many years. He achieved great success: Andrei is one of the most famous reindeer herders in Scandinavia. He admitted that he could not read "War and Peace" at school. However, then he still mastered the four-volume book. A few years ago, Andrei visited Russia for the first time.

Vladimir Tolstoy

great-great-grandson of Tolstoy, adviser to the President of Russia

Vladimir Ilyich is a man without whom there would be no meetings of Tolstoy's descendants (which are held regularly today), and the fate of Leo Tolstoy's estate Yasnaya Polyana would remain in jeopardy. In the early 90s, they wanted to take away the estate's lands for new buildings, cut down the forests ... But in 1992, Vladimir Ilyich published a large amount of material about all the troubles in Komsomolskaya Pravda. Soon he was appointed director of the museum-reserve. Now Tolstoy is an adviser to the President of the Russian Federation, and his wife Ekaterina Tolstaya is in charge of the museum. Vladimir confessed to the Tula newspaper Molodoy Kommunar, speaking of his relatives:

Each of us has his own personality, each of us has his own view of the world. And everyone is talented in their own way. Fat people can do everything: they take pictures, draw, write. And at the same time they are embarrassed by their talents: modesty is another family quality ...

Victoria Tolstoy

great-great-granddaughter of Tolstoy, jazz singer

Yes, yes, she is Tolstoy, not Tolstaya: the Swede Victoria decided not to incline her last name, but to make it more “authentic”. How did the Swedish line of the Tolstoy family appear? The son of Lev Nikolaevich - Lev Lvovich, was forced for health reasons to turn to the Swedish doctor Westerlund. And then he fell in love with his daughter Dora ... The modern representative of this family branch, singer Victoria, is better known in her homeland under the pseudonym "Lady Jazz". By her own admission, Victoria does not know the Russian language and has not read the novels of Lev Nikolayevich, however, in her work she often turns to classical Russian composers. At the moment, the blonde has already 8 albums on her account, one of which is called My Russian Soul (“My Russian Soul”). JazzQuard told JazzQuard:

When I was in Moscow a few years ago, I visited the Tolstoy House Museum. I remember I saw a portrait of a lady from the Tolstoy family there and was amazed at how similar this young woman from past centuries was to me! Then for the first time I really felt my involvement in the Tolstoy family: how much connects and unites us at the deepest genetic level!

Ilaria Stieler-Timor

great-great-granddaughter of Tolstoy, teacher of Italian