Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich (28.08. (09.09.) 1828-07(20.11.1910)

Russian writer, philosopher. Born in Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, in a wealthy aristocratic family. Entered Kazan University, but then left it. At the age of 23 he went to war with Chechnya and Dagestan. Here he began to write the trilogy "Childhood", "Boyhood", "Youth".

In the Caucasus, he participated in hostilities as an artillery officer. During the Crimean War, he went to Sevastopol, where he continued to fight. After the end of the war, he left for St. Petersburg and published Sevastopol Tales in the Sovremennik magazine, which clearly reflected his outstanding writing talent. In 1857 Tolstoy went on a journey through Europe, which disappointed him.

From 1853 to 1863 wrote the story "Cossacks", after which he decided to interrupt his literary activity and become a landowner, doing educational work in the village. To this end, he left for Yasnaya Polyana, where he opened a school for peasant children and created his own system of pedagogy.

In 1863-1869. wrote his fundamental work "War and Peace". In 1873-1877. wrote the novel Anna Karenina. In the same years, the writer's worldview, known as "Tolstoyism", was fully formed, the essence of which can be seen in the works: "Confession", "What is my faith?", "The Kreutzer Sonata".

The doctrine is set forth in the philosophical and religious works "Study of dogmatic theology", "Combining and translating the four Gospels", where the main emphasis is on the moral improvement of a person, denunciation of evil, non-resistance to evil by violence.
Later, a dilogy was published: the drama "The Power of Darkness" and the comedy "The Fruits of Enlightenment", then a series of stories-parables about the laws of being.

From all over Russia and the world, admirers of the writer's work came to Yasnaya Polyana, whom they treated as a spiritual mentor. In 1899, the novel "Resurrection" was published.

The last works of the writer are the stories "Father Sergius", "After the Ball", "The Posthumous Notes of the Elder Fyodor Kuzmich" and the drama "The Living Corpse".

Tolstoy's confessional journalism gives a detailed idea of ​​his spiritual drama: drawing pictures of social inequality and the idleness of the educated strata, Tolstoy in a harsh form posed questions of the meaning of life and faith to society, criticized all state institutions, reaching the denial of science, art, court, marriage, achievements of civilization.

Tolstoy's social declaration is based on the idea of ​​Christianity as a moral doctrine, and the ethical ideas of Christianity are comprehended by him in a humanistic key, as the basis of the universal brotherhood of people. In 1901, the reaction of the Synod followed: the world famous writer was officially excommunicated, which caused a huge public outcry.

On October 28, 1910, Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana from his family, fell ill on the way and was forced to leave the train at the small Astapovo railway station of the Ryazan-Ural Railway. Here, in the stationmaster's house, he spent the last seven days of his life.

Do you know Leo Tolstoy? The short and complete biography of this writer is studied in detail during his 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. This work has earned worldwide fame. This is a classic that every educated person should read. But first things first.

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

"The world, perhaps, did not know another artist in whom the eternally epic, Homeric beginning would be as strong as that of Tolstoy. The element of the epic lives in his works, its majestic monotony and rhythm, like the measured breath of the sea, its tart, powerful freshness , its burning spice, indestructible health, indestructible realism"

Thomas Mann

Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, in the family of a landowner. Tolstoy's parents belonged to the highest nobility, even under Peter I, Tolstoy's paternal ancestors received the title of count. Lev Nikolaevich's parents died early, leaving him only a sister and three brothers. Tolstoy's aunt, who lived in Kazan, took care of the children. The whole family moved in with her.

In 1844, Lev Nikolaevich entered the university at the oriental faculty, and then studied at the law faculty. Tolstoy knew more than fifteen foreign languages ​​at the age of 19. He was seriously interested in history and literature. Studying at the university did not last long, Lev Nikolaevich left the university and returned home to Yasnaya Polyana. Soon he decides to leave for Moscow and devote himself to literary activity. His older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, leaves for the Caucasus, where the war was going on, as an artillery officer. Following the example of his brother, Lev Nikolaevich enters the army, receives an officer's rank and goes to the Caucasus. During the Crimean War, L. Tolstoy was transferred to the active Danube army, fought in the besieged Sevastopol, commanding a battery. Tolstoy was awarded the Order of Anna ("For Courage"), medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol", "In Memory of the War of 1853-1856".

In 1856 Lev Nikolayevich retired. After a while he goes abroad (France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany).

Since 1859, Lev Nikolayevich has been actively engaged in educational activities, opening a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, and then contributing to the opening of schools throughout the district, publishing the pedagogical magazine Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy became seriously interested in pedagogy, studied foreign teaching methods. In order to deepen his knowledge in pedagogy, he went abroad again in 1860.

After the abolition of serfdom, Tolstoy actively participated in resolving disputes between landlords and peasants, acting as a mediator. For his activities, Lev Nikolaevich receives a reputation as an unreliable person, as a result of which a search was carried out in Yasnaya Polyana in order to find a secret printing house. Tolstoy's school is closed, the continuation of pedagogical activity becomes almost impossible. By this time, Lev Nikolaevich had already written the famous trilogy "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth.", The story "Cossacks", as well as many stories and articles. A special place in his work was occupied by "Sevastopol stories", in which the author conveyed his impressions of the Crimean War.

In 1862, Lev Nikolaevich married Sofya Andreevna Bers, the daughter of a doctor, who became his faithful friend and assistant for many years. Sofya Andreevna took care of all the household chores, and besides, she became her husband's editor and his first reader. Tolstoy's wife manually rewrote all of his novels before being sent to the editorial office. It is enough to imagine how difficult it was to prepare War and Peace for publication in order to appreciate the dedication of this woman.

In 1873, Lev Nikolayevich finished work on Anna Karenina. By this time, Count Leo Tolstoy became a well-known writer who received recognition, corresponded with many literary critics and authors, and actively participated in public life.

In the late 70s - early 80s, Lev Nikolayevich was going through a serious spiritual crisis, trying to rethink the changes taking place in society and determine his position as a citizen. Tolstoy decides that it is necessary to take care of the welfare and enlightenment of the common people, that a nobleman has no right to be happy when the peasants are in distress. He is trying to start the change from his own estate, from the restructuring of his attitude towards the peasants. Tolstoy's wife insists on moving to Moscow, as the children need to get a good education. From this moment, conflicts in the family begin, since Sofya Andreevna tried to ensure the future of her children, and Lev Nikolaevich believed that the nobility was over and it was time to live modestly, like the entire Russian people.

During these years, Tolstoy wrote philosophical essays, articles, participated in the creation of the Posrednik publishing house, which dealt with books for the common people, wrote the novels The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The History of the Horse, and The Kreutzer Sonata.

In 1889 - 1899 Tolstoy finished the novel "Resurrection".

At the end of his life, Lev Nikolayevich finally decides to break the connection with the well-to-do noble life, is engaged in charity, education, changes the order in his estate, giving freedom to the peasants. Such a life position of Lev Nikolaevich became the cause of serious domestic conflicts and quarrels with his wife, who looked at life differently. Sofya Andreevna was worried about the future of her children, was against the unreasonable, from her point of view, expenses of Lev Nikolaevich. The quarrels became more and more serious, Tolstoy more than once made an attempt to leave home forever, the children experienced conflicts very hard. The former mutual understanding in the family disappeared. Sofya Andreevna tried to stop her husband, but then the conflicts escalated into attempts to divide property, as well as property rights to the works of Lev Nikolayevich.

Finally, on November 10, 1910, Tolstoy leaves his home in Yasnaya Polyana and leaves. Soon he falls ill with pneumonia, is forced to stop at the Astapovo station (now the Lev Tolstoy station) and dies there on November 23.

Control questions:
1. Tell the biography of the writer, mentioning the exact dates.
2. Explain how the connection between the biography of the writer and his work is manifested.
3. Summarize the biographical data and determine the features of it
creative heritage.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy(August 28 (September 9), 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire - November 7 (20), 1910, Astapovo station, Ryazan province, Russian Empire) - one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers, revered as one of the greatest world writers.

Born in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana. Among the ancestors of the writer on the paternal side is an associate of Peter I - P. A. Tolstoy, one of the first in Russia to receive the title of count. Member of the Patriotic War of 1812 was the father of the writer gr. N. I. Tolstoy. On the maternal side, Tolstoy belonged to the family of the princes Bolkonsky, related by kinship with the princes Trubetskoy, Golitsyn, Odoevsky, Lykov and other noble families. On his mother's side, Tolstoy was a relative of A. S. Pushkin.
When Tolstoy was in his ninth year, his father took him to Moscow for the first time, the impressions of meeting with which were vividly conveyed by the future writer in the children's essay "Kremlin". Moscow is here called "the greatest and most populous city in Europe", whose walls "saw the shame and defeat of the invincible Napoleonic regiments." The first period of young Tolstoy's life in Moscow lasted less than four years. He was orphaned early, having lost first his mother and then his father. With his sister and three brothers, young Tolstoy moved to Kazan. Here lived one of the father's sisters, who became their guardians.
Living in Kazan, Tolstoy spent two and a half years preparing to enter the university, where he studied from 1844, first at the Oriental Faculty, and then at the Faculty of Law. He studied Turkish and Tatar languages ​​with the famous Turkologist Professor Kazembek. In his mature life, the writer was fluent in English, French and German; read in Italian, Polish, Czech and Serbian; knew Greek, Latin, Ukrainian, Tatar, Church Slavonic; studied Hebrew, Turkish, Dutch, Bulgarian and other languages.
Classes in government programs and textbooks weighed heavily on Tolstoy the student. He became interested in independent work on a historical topic and, leaving the university, left Kazan for Yasnaya Polyana, which he received under the division of his father's inheritance. Then he went to Moscow, where at the end of 1850 he began his writing activity: an unfinished story from the gypsy life (the manuscript has not been preserved) and a description of one day lived ("The History of Yesterday"). Then the story "Childhood" was started. Soon Tolstoy decided to go to the Caucasus, where his older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, an artillery officer, served in the army. Entering the army as a cadet, he later passed the exam for a junior officer rank. The writer's impressions of the Caucasian War were reflected in the stories "The Raid" (1853), "Cutting the Forest" (1855), "Degraded" (1856), and in the story "Cossacks" (1852-1863). In the Caucasus, the story "Childhood" was completed, which was published in 1852 in the journal Sovremennik.

When the Crimean War began, Tolstoy was transferred from the Caucasus to the Danube army, which acted against the Turks, and then to Sevastopol, besieged by the combined forces of England, France and Turkey. Commanding a battery on the 4th bastion, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of Anna and the medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol" and "In Memory of the War of 1853-1856." More than once Tolstoy was presented for the award of the military St. George Cross, but however, he never received the “George”. In the army, Tolstoy wrote a number of projects - on the reorganization of artillery batteries and the creation of battalions armed with rifled rifles, on the reorganization of the entire Russian army. Together with a group of officers of the Crimean army, Tolstoy intended to publish the magazine "Soldier's Bulletin" ("Military List"), but its publication was not allowed by Emperor Nicholas I.
In the autumn of 1856 he retired and soon went on a six-month trip abroad, visiting France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. In 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, and then helped open more than 20 schools in the surrounding villages. In order to direct their activities along the right path, from his point of view, he published the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana (1862). In order to study the organization of school affairs in foreign countries, the writer went abroad for the second time in 1860.
After the manifesto of 1861, Tolstoy became one of the world's mediators of the first call, who sought to help the peasants resolve their land disputes with the landowners. Soon in Yasnaya Polyana, when Tolstoy was away, the gendarmes searched for a secret printing house, which the writer allegedly started after talking with A. I. Herzen in London. Tolstoy had to close the school and stop publishing the pedagogical journal. In total, he wrote eleven articles on school and pedagogy ("On Public Education", "Upbringing and Education", "On Public Activities in the Field of Public Education" and others). In them, he described in detail the experience of his work with students ("Yasnopolyanskaya school for the months of November and December", "On the methods of teaching literacy", "Who should learn to write from whom, peasant children from us or us from peasant children"). Tolstoy the teacher demanded that the school be closer to life, sought to put it at the service of the needs of the people, and for this to intensify the processes of education and upbringing, to develop the creative abilities of children.
At the same time, already at the beginning of his creative path, Tolstoy became a supervised writer. One of the first works of the writer were the stories "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth", "Youth" (which, however, was not written). As conceived by the author, they were to compose the novel "Four Epochs of Development".
In the early 1860s for decades, the order of Tolstoy's life, his way of life, is established. In 1862, he married the daughter of a Moscow doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers.
The writer is working on the novel "War and Peace" (1863-1869). After completing War and Peace, Tolstoy spent several years studying materials about Peter I and his time. However, after writing several chapters of the "Petrine" novel, Tolstoy abandoned his plan. In the early 1870s the writer was again fascinated by pedagogy. He put a lot of work into the creation of the ABC, and then the New ABC. Then he compiled "Books for reading", where he included many of his stories.
In the spring of 1873, Tolstoy began and four years later completed work on a great novel about modernity, naming it after the name of the main character - "Anna Karenina".
The spiritual crisis experienced by Tolstoy in the late 1870s - early. 1880, ended with a turning point in his worldview. In "Confession" (1879-1882), the writer speaks of a revolution in his views, the meaning of which he saw in the break with the ideology of the noble class and the transition to the side of the "simple working people."
At the beginning of 1880s. Tolstoy moved with his family from Yasnaya Polyana to Moscow, taking care to educate his growing children. In 1882, a census of the Moscow population took place, in which the writer took part. He saw the inhabitants of the city's slums up close and described their terrible life in an article on the census and in the treatise "So what shall we do?" (1882-1886). In them, the writer made the main conclusion: "... You can't live like that, you can't live like that, you can't!" "Confession" and "So what shall we do?" were works in which Tolstoy acted both as an artist and as a publicist, as a deep psychologist and a bold sociologist-analyst. Later, this kind of works - in the genre of journalistic, but including artistic scenes and paintings, saturated with elements of imagery - will take a large place in his work.
In these and subsequent years, Tolstoy also wrote religious and philosophical works: "Criticism of dogmatic theology", "What is my faith?", "Combination, translation and study of the four Gospels", "The kingdom of God is within you". In them, the writer not only showed a change in his religious and moral views, but also subjected to a critical revision of the main dogmas and principles of the teaching of the official church. In the middle of 1880s. Tolstoy and his like-minded people created the Posrednik publishing house in Moscow, which printed books and pictures for the people. The first of Tolstoy's works, printed for the "simple" people, was the story "What makes people alive." In it, as in many other works of this cycle, the writer widely used not only folklore plots, but also the expressive means of oral creativity. Tolstoy's folk stories are thematically and stylistically related to his plays for folk theaters and, most of all, the drama "The Power of Darkness" (1886), which depicts the tragedy of the post-reform village, where centuries-old patriarchal orders collapsed under the "power of money".
In the 1880s Tolstoy's novels "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and "Kholstomer" ("History of a Horse"), "Kreutzer Sonata" (1887-1889) appeared. In it, as well as in the story "The Devil" (1889-1890) and the story "Father Sergius" (1890-1898), the problems of love and marriage, the purity of family relationships are raised.
On the basis of social and psychological contrast, Tolstoy's story "The Master and the Worker" (1895) is built, stylistically connected with the cycle of his folk stories written in the 80s. Five years earlier, Tolstoy wrote the comedy Fruits of Enlightenment for a "home performance". It also shows the "owners" and "workers": the noble landowners living in the city and the peasants who came from the hungry village, deprived of land. The images of the first are given satirically, the second is portrayed by the author as reasonable and positive people, but in some scenes they are also "presented" in an ironic light.
All these works of the writer are united by the thought of the inevitable and close in time "decoupling" of social contradictions, of replacing the obsolete social "order". “What the outcome will be, I don’t know,” wrote Tolstoy in 1892, “but that things are coming to it and that life cannot go on like this, in such forms, I am sure.” This idea inspired the largest work of all the work of the "late" Tolstoy - the novel "Resurrection" (1889-1899).
Less than ten years separate Anna Karenina from War and Peace. "Resurrection" is separated from "Anna Karenina" by two decades. And although much distinguishes the third novel from the two previous ones, they are united by a truly epic scope in the depiction of life, the ability to “match” individual human destinies with the fate of the people in the narrative. Tolstoy himself pointed to the unity that exists between his novels: he said that Resurrection was written in the "old manner", referring primarily to the epic "manner" in which War and Peace and Anna Karenina were written. ". "Resurrection" was the last novel in the writer's work.
In the early 1900s Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church by the Holy Synod.
In the last decade of his life, the writer worked on the story "Hadji Murad" (1896-1904), in which he sought to compare "two poles of imperious absolutism" - the European, personified by Nicholas I, and the Asian, personified by Shamil. At the same time, Tolstoy creates one of his best plays - "The Living Corpse". Her hero - the kindest soul, soft, conscientious Fedya Protasov leaves the family, breaks relations with his usual environment, falls to the "bottom" and in the courthouse, unable to bear the lies, pretense, hypocrisy of "respectable" people, shoots himself with a pistol accounts with life. An article written in 1908, "I Can't Be Silent", in which he protested against the repressions of participants in the events of 1905-1907, sounded sharp. The stories of the writer "After the ball", "For what?" belong to the same period.
Burdened by the way of life in Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy more than once intended and for a long time did not dare to leave it. But he could no longer live according to the "together-apart" principle, and on the night of October 28 (November 10) he secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, he fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to make a stop at the small station Astapovo (now Leo Tolstoy), where he died. On November 10 (23), 1910, the writer was buried in Yasnaya Polyana, in the forest, on the edge of a ravine, where, as a child, he and his brother searched for a "green stick" that kept the "secret" of how to make all people happy.

September 23, 1862 Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy married Sofia Andreevna Bers. She was 18 years old at that time, the count was 34. They lived together for 48 years, until the death of Tolstoy, and this marriage cannot be called easy or uncloudedly happy. Nevertheless, Sofya Andreevna bore the count 13 children, published both a lifetime collection of his works and a posthumous edition of his letters. Tolstoy, in the last message written to his wife after a quarrel and before leaving home, on his last journey to the Astapovo station, admitted that he loved her, no matter what - only that he could not live with her. AiF.ru recalls the love story and life of Count and Countess Tolstykh.

Reproduction of "Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy and Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya at the Table" by artist Ilya Repin. Photo: RIA Novosti

Sofya Andreevna, both during her husband's lifetime and after his death, was accused of not understanding her husband, not sharing his ideas, being too mundane and far from the count's philosophical views. He himself accused her of this, and this, in fact, became the cause of numerous disagreements that darkened the last 20 years of their life together. Nevertheless, Sofya Andreevna cannot be reproached for being a bad wife. Having devoted her whole life not only to the birth and upbringing of numerous children, but also to taking care of the house, household, solving peasant and economic problems, as well as preserving the creative heritage of her great husband, she forgot about dresses and social life.

Writer Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy with his wife Sophia. Gaspra. Crimea. Reproduction of a 1902 photograph. Photo: RIA Novosti

Before meeting his first and only wife, Count Tolstoy, a descendant of an ancient noble family, in which the blood of several noble families was mixed at once, had already managed to make both a military and a teaching career, was a famous writer. Tolstoy was familiar with the Bersov family even before his service in the Caucasus and travel around Europe in the 50s. Sophia was the second of three daughters of a doctor in the Moscow Palace Office. Andrey Bers and his wife Lubov Bers, nee Islavina. The Berses lived in Moscow, in an apartment in the Kremlin, but often visited the Tula estate of the Islavins in the village of Ivitsy, not far from Yasnaya Polyana. Lyubov Alexandrovna made friends with the sister of Lev Nikolaevich Mary, her brother Konstantin with the Count himself. He saw Sophia and her sisters for the first time as children, they spent time together both in Yasnaya Polyana and in Moscow, played the piano, sang and even once staged an opera house.

Writer Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy with his wife Sofia Andreevna, 1910. Photo: RIA Novosti

Sophia received an excellent home education - her mother instilled in her children a love of literature from childhood, and later a diploma as a home teacher at Moscow University and wrote short stories. In addition, the future Countess Tolstaya from her youth was fond of writing stories and kept a diary, which would later be recognized as one of the outstanding examples of the memoir genre. Returning to Moscow, Tolstoy found no longer a little girl with whom he once staged home performances, but a charming girl. The families again began to visit each other, and the Berses clearly noticed the count's interest in one of their daughters, but for a long time they believed that Tolstoy would marry the elder Elizabeth. For a while, as you know, he doubted himself, but after another day spent with the Bers in Yasnaya Polyana in August 1862, he made a final decision. Sophia conquered him with her spontaneity, simplicity and clarity of judgment. They parted for a few days, after which the count himself came to Ivitsy - to the ball, which was arranged by the Berses and at which Sophia danced so that there was no doubt left in Tolstoy's heart. It is even believed that the writer conveyed his own feelings at that moment in War and Peace, in the scene where Prince Andrei is watching Natasha Rostova at her first ball. On September 16, Lev Nikolayevich asked the Bers for the hand of their daughter, after sending Sophia a letter to make sure she agreed: “Tell me, as an honest person, do you want to be my wife? Only if with all your heart, you can boldly say: yes, otherwise you’d better say: no, if there is a shadow of self-doubt in you. For God's sake, ask yourself well. It will be terrible for me to hear: no, but I foresee it and find the strength in myself to bear it. But if I will never be loved by my husband the way I love, it will be terrible! Sophia immediately agreed.

Wanting to be honest with his future wife, Tolstoy gave her his diary to read - this is how the girl learned about the fiancé's turbulent past, about gambling, about numerous novels and passionate hobbies, including a relationship with a peasant girl Aksinya who was expecting a child from him. Sofya Andreevna was shocked, but she hid her feelings as best she could, nevertheless, she will carry the memory of these revelations through her whole life.

The wedding was played just a week after the engagement - the parents could not resist the pressure of the count, who wanted to get married as soon as possible. It seemed to him that after so many years he had finally found the one he had dreamed of as a child. Having lost his mother early, he grew up listening to stories about her, and thought that his future wife should also be a faithful, loving companion, mother and assistant who fully shares his views, simple and at the same time able to appreciate the beauty of literature and the gift her husband. This is exactly how Sofya Andreevna saw him - an 18-year-old girl who abandoned city life, secular receptions and beautiful outfits for the sake of living next to her husband in his country estate. The girl took care of the household, gradually getting used to rural life, so different from the one to which she was accustomed.

Leo Tolstoy with his wife Sophia (center) on the porch of the Yasnaya Polyana house on Trinity Day, 1909. Photo: RIA Novosti

Seryozha Sofya Andreevna gave birth to her first child in 1863. Tolstoy then took up the writing of War and Peace. Despite the difficult pregnancy, his wife not only continued to do household chores, but also helped her husband in his work - she rewrote drafts cleanly.

Writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and his wife Sofya Andreevna drink tea at home in Yasnaya Polyana, 1908. Photo: RIA Novosti

For the first time, Sofya Andreevna showed her character after the birth of Seryozha. Unable to feed him herself, she demanded that the count bring a nurse, although he was categorically against it, saying that then the children of this woman would be left without milk. Otherwise, she completely followed the rules set by her husband, solved the problems of the peasants in the surrounding villages, even treated them. She taught and raised all the children at home: in total, Sofya Andreevna gave birth to 13 children to Tolstoy, five of whom died at an early age.

Russian writer Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (left) with his grandchildren Sonya (right) and Ilya (center) in Krekshino, 1909. Photo: RIA Novosti

The first twenty years passed almost cloudlessly, but resentment accumulated. In 1877, Tolstoy finished working on Anna Karenina and felt a deep dissatisfaction with life, which upset and even offended Sofya Andreevna. She, who sacrificed everything for him, in return received dissatisfaction with the life that she so diligently arranged for him. Tolstoy's moral searches led him to the formation of commandments, according to which his family now had to live. The count called, among other things, for the simplest existence, the rejection of meat, alcohol, and smoking. He dressed in peasant clothes, he made clothes and shoes for himself, his wife and children, he even wanted to give up all his property in favor of the villagers - Sofya Andreevna had to work hard to dissuade her husband from this act. She was sincerely offended that her husband, who suddenly felt guilty before all of humanity, did not feel guilty towards her and was ready to give everything she had acquired and protected for so many years. He expected from his wife that she would share not only his material, but also his spiritual life, his philosophical views. For the first time, after a major quarrel with Sofya Andreevna, Tolstoy left home, and when he returned, he no longer trusted her manuscripts - now the duty to copy drafts fell on her daughters, for whom Tolstaya was very jealous. Knocked her down and the death of the last child, Vani, born in 1888 - he did not live up to seven years. This grief at first brought the spouses together, but not for long - the abyss that separated them, mutual insults and misunderstanding, all this prompted Sofya Andreevna to seek solace on the side. She took up music, began to travel to Moscow to take lessons from a teacher Alexandra Taneeva. Her romantic feelings for the musician were not a secret either for Taneyev himself or for Tolstoy, but the relationship remained friendly. But the count, who was jealous and angry, could not forgive this "half-treason."

Sofya Tolstaya at the window of the house of the head of the Astapovo station I. M. Ozolin, where the dying Leo Tolstoy lies, 1910. Photo: RIA Novosti.

In recent years, mutual suspicions and resentments have grown almost into a manic obsession: Sofya Andreevna reread Tolstoy's diaries, looking for something bad that he could write about her. He scolded his wife for being too suspicious: the last, fatal quarrel took place on October 27-28, 1910. Tolstoy packed his things and left home, leaving Sofya Andreevna a farewell letter: “Don’t think that I left because I don’t love you. I love you and pity you with all my heart, but I can’t do otherwise than I do. According to the stories of the family, after reading the note, Tolstaya rushed to drown herself - miraculously managed to pull her out of the pond. Soon information came that the count, having caught a cold, was dying of pneumonia at the Astapovo station - the children and his wife, whom he even did not want to see then, came to the sick man in the stationmaster's house. The last meeting between Lev Nikolaevich and Sofya Andreevna took place just before the death of the writer, who died on November 7, 1910. The Countess outlived her husband by 9 years, was engaged in publishing his diaries and until the end of her days listened to reproaches that she was a wife not worthy of a genius.

LEV NIKOLAEVICH TOLSTOY (1828-1910), Russian writer. Born August 28, 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate in the Tula province. His parents, well-born Russian nobles, died when he was a child. At the age of 16, raised at home ... ... Collier Encyclopedia

Graf, Russian writer. Father T. Count ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (1828 1910), Russian. writer. Diaries, letters, conversations recorded by contemporaries T. contain numerous. judgments about L. The first acquaintance of T. with L. directly. youthful perception of his work. ("Hadji Abrek", "Ismail Bey", "Hero of Our Time"). ... ... Lermontov Encyclopedia

Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich- (18281910), count, writer. Tolstoy's connections with the literary, social and cultural life of St. Petersburg (which the writer visited about 10 times, for the first time in 1849) were especially intense in the 50s; Here he first appeared in literature in ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

- (1828 1910) Russian. writer, publicist, philosopher. In 1844-1847 he studied at the Kazan University (did not graduate). T.'s artistic work is largely philosophical. In addition to reflections on the essence of life and the purpose of man, expressed in ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

- (1828 1910) count, Russian writer, corresponding member (1873), honorary academician (1900) of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Starting with the autobiographical trilogy Childhood (1852), Adolescence (1852-54), Youth (1855-57), an exploration of the fluidity of the inner world, ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1828 1910), count, writer. T.'s connections with the literary, social, and cultural life of St. Petersburg (which the writer visited about 10 times, for the first time in 1849) were especially intense in the 50s; here he first appeared in literature in a magazine ... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Tolstoy, Lev Nikolaevich- L.N. Tolstoy. Portrait by N.N. Ge. TOLSTOY Lev Nikolaevich (1828-1910), Russian writer, Count. Starting with the autobiographical trilogy "Childhood" (1852), "Boyhood" (1852-54), "Youth" (1855-57), the study of the "fluidity" of the inner world, ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1828 1910), count, Russian writer, corresponding member (1873), honorary academician (1900) of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Starting with the autobiographical trilogy "Childhood" (1852), "Boyhood" (1852-54), "Youth" (1855-57), an exploration of the "fluidity" of the inner ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Tolstoy (Count Lev Nikolaevich) is a famous writer who has reached an unprecedented level in the history of literature of the 19th century. glory. In his face, a great artist and a great moralist were powerfully united. Tolstoy's personal life, his stamina, indefatigability, ... ... Biographical Dictionary

Books

• Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich. Collected works in 12 volumes (number of volumes: 12), Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) is a writer whose name is known all over the world, a writer whose novels have been and are being read by many generations. Tolstoy's works have been translated into more than 75...
• My second Russian book to read. Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich, Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich. Informative, entertaining and instructive works for teaching children to read were specially collected by Leo Tolstoy into several `Russian books for reading`. The first one is our…