What is the world of adults in Tolstoy’s work? Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

TOLSTOY LEV NIKOLAEVICH (BIOGRAPHY)

TOLSTOY Lev Nikolaevich, count, Russian writer.

TOLSTOY Lev Nikolaevich - 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), the study of the “fluidity” of the inner world, the moral foundations of the individual became the main theme of Tolstoy’s works. A painful search for the meaning of life, a moral ideal, hidden general laws of existence, spiritual and social criticism, revealing the “untruth” of class relations, runs through all of his work. In the story “Cossacks” (1863), the hero, a young nobleman, seeks a way out by connecting with nature, with the natural and integral life of a common man. The epic “War and Peace” (1863-69) recreates the life of various layers of Russian society during the Patriotic War of 1812, the patriotic impulse of the people that united all classes and determined victory in the war with Napoleon. Historical events and personal interests, the paths of spiritual self-determination of a reflective personality and the elements of Russian folk life with its “swarm” consciousness are shown as equivalent components of natural-historical existence. In the novel “Anna Karenina” (1873-77) - about the tragedy of a woman in the grip of a destructive “criminal” passion - Tolstoy exposes the false foundations of secular society, shows the collapse of the patriarchal structure, the destruction of family foundations. He contrasts the perception of the world by an individualistic and rationalistic consciousness with the intrinsic value of life as such in its infinity, uncontrollable variability and material concreteness (“the seer of the flesh” - D.S. Merezhkovsky). From the end 1870s experiencing a spiritual crisis, later captured by the idea of ​​moral improvement and “simplification” (which gave rise to the “Tolstoyism” movement), Tolstoy came to an increasingly irreconcilable criticism of the social structure - modern bureaucratic institutions, the state, the church (in 1901 he was excommunicated from Orthodox Church), civilization and culture, total way of life“educated classes”: the novel “Resurrection” (1889-99), the story “The Kreutzer Sonata” (1887-89), the drama “The Living Corpse” (1900, published in 1911) and “The Power of Darkness” (1887). At the same time, attention to the themes of death, sin, repentance and moral rebirth is increasing (the stories “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, 1884-86, “Father Sergius”, 1890-98, published in 1912, “Hadji Murat”, 1896-1904, published in 1912). Journalistic works of a moralizing nature, incl. “Confession” (1879-82), “What is my faith?” (1884), where Christian teachings about love and forgiveness are transformed into preaching non-resistance to evil through violence. The desire to harmonize the way of thought and life leads to Tolstoy’s departure from Yasnaya Polyana; died at Astapovo station.

“The joyful period of childhood”

Tolstoy was the fourth child in a large noble family. His mother, nee Princess Volkonskaya, died when Tolstoy was not yet two years old, but according to the stories of family members, he had a good idea of ​​“her spiritual appearance”, some of his mother’s features (brilliant education, sensitivity to art, a penchant for reflection) and even a portrait resemblance Tolstoy gave Princess Marya Nikolaevna Bolkonskaya (“War and Peace”). Tolstoy's father, a participant in the Patriotic War, who was remembered by the writer for his good-natured, mocking character, love of reading, and hunting (served as the prototype for Nikolai Rostov), ​​also died early (1837). A distant relative T.A. was involved in raising the children. Ergolskaya, who had a huge influence on Tolstoy: “she taught me the spiritual pleasure of love.” Childhood memories always remained the most joyful for Tolstoy: family legends, first impressions of life noble estate served as rich material for his works and were reflected in the autobiographical story “Childhood.” Kazan University. When Tolstoy was 13 years old, the family moved to Kazan, to the house of a relative and guardian of the children, P.I. Yushkova. In 1844, Tolstoy entered Kazan University at the Department of Oriental Languages ​​of the Faculty of Philosophy, then transferred to the Faculty of Law, where he studied for less than two years: his studies did not arouse any keen interest in him and he passionately indulged in secular entertainment. In the spring of 1847, having submitted a request for dismissal from the university “due to poor health and home circumstances,” Tolstoy left for Yasnaya Polyana with the firm intention of studying the entire course of legal sciences (in order to pass the exam as an external student), “practical medicine,” languages, agriculture, history, geographical statistics, write a dissertation and “achieve the highest degree of excellence in music and painting.”

“The stormy life of the youthful period” After a summer in the village, disappointed by the unsuccessful experience of managing on new, favorable terms for the serfs (this attempt is captured in the story “The Morning of the Landowner”, 1857), in the fall of 1847 Tolstoy left first for Moscow, then to St. Petersburg to keep candidate exams at the university. His lifestyle during this period often changed: he spent days preparing and passing exams, he devoted himself passionately to music, he intended to start an official career, he dreamed of joining a horse guards regiment as a cadet. Religious sentiments, reaching the point of asceticism, alternated with carousing, cards, and trips to the gypsies. In the family he was considered “the most trifling fellow,” and he was able to repay the debts he incurred then only many years later. However, it was precisely these years that were colored by intense introspection and struggle with oneself, which is reflected in the diary that Tolstoy kept throughout his life. At the same time, he had a serious desire to write, and the first unfinished artistic sketches appeared.

“War and Freedom”

In 1851, his elder brother Nikolai, an officer in the active army, persuaded Tolstoy to go together to the Caucasus. For almost three years, Tolstoy lived in a Cossack village on the banks of the Terek, traveling to Kizlyar, Tiflis, Vladikavkaz and participating in military operations (at first voluntarily, then he was recruited). The Caucasian nature and the patriarchal simplicity of Cossack life, which struck Tolstoy in contrast with the life of the noble circle and with the painful reflection of a person in an educated society, provided material for the autobiographical story “Cossacks” (1852-63). Caucasian impressions were also reflected in the stories “Raid” (1853), “Cutting Wood” (1855), as well as in the later story “Hadji Murat” (1896-1904, published in 1912). Returning to Russia, Tolstoy wrote in his diary that he fell in love with this “wild land, in which the two most opposite things - war and freedom - are so strangely and poetically combined.” In the Caucasus, Tolstoy wrote the story “Childhood” and sent it to the magazine “Sovremennik”, without revealing his name (published in 1852 under the initials L.N.; together with the later stories “Adolescence”, 1852-54, and “Youth”, 1855 -57, compiled an autobiographical trilogy). Tolstoy's literary debut immediately brought real recognition.

Crimean campaign

In 1854, Tolstoy was assigned to the Danube Army in Bucharest. Boring life at the headquarters soon forced him to transfer to the Crimean Army, to besieged Sevastopol, where he commanded a battery on the 4th bastion, showing rare personal courage ( awarded the order St. Anna and medals). In Crimea, Tolstoy was captivated by new impressions and literary plans (he was planning, among other things, to publish a magazine for soldiers); here he began writing a series of “Sevastopol stories”, which were soon published and had enormous success (even Alexander II read the essay “Sevastopol in December” ). Tolstoy's first works amazed literary critics with their boldness psychological analysis and a detailed picture of the “dialectics of the soul” (N.G. Chernyshevsky). Some of the ideas that appeared during these years make it possible to discern in the young artillery officer the late Tolstoy the preacher: he dreamed of “founding a new religion” - “the religion of Christ, but purified of faith and mystery, a practical religion.”

Among writers and abroad

In November 1855, Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg and immediately entered the Sovremennik circle (N.A. Nekrasov, I.S. Turgenev, A.N. Ostrovsky, I.A. Goncharov, etc.), where he was greeted as a “great hope of Russian literature” (Nekrasov). Tolstoy took part in dinners and readings, in the establishment of the Literary Fund, became involved in disputes and conflicts among writers, but felt like a stranger in this environment, which he later described in detail in “Confession” (1879-82): “These people disgusted me, and I was disgusted with myself.” In the fall of 1856, Tolstoy, having retired, went to Yasnaya Polyana, and at the beginning of 1857 he went abroad. He visited France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany (Swiss impressions are reflected in the story “Lucerne”), returned to Moscow in the fall, then to Yasnaya Polyana.

Folk school

In 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in the village, helped to establish more than 20 schools in the vicinity of Yasnaya Polyana, and this activity fascinated Tolstoy so much that in 1860 he went abroad for the second time to get acquainted with the schools of Europe. Tolstoy traveled a lot, spent a month and a half in London (where he often saw A.I. Herzen), was in Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, studied popular pedagogical systems, which generally did not satisfy the writer. Tolstoy outlined his own ideas in special articles, arguing that the basis of education should be “the freedom of the student” and the rejection of violence in teaching. In 1862 he published the pedagogical magazine “ Yasnaya Polyana” with reading books as an appendix, which in Russia have become the same classic examples of children's and folk literature, as well as those compiled by him in the early 1870s. “ABC” and “New ABC”. In 1862, in the absence of Tolstoy, a search was carried out in Yasnaya Polyana (they were looking for a secret printing house).

“War and Peace” (1863-69) In September 1862, Tolstoy married the eighteen-year-old daughter of a doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers, and immediately after the wedding he took his wife from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana, where he devoted himself completely to family life and economic concerns. However, already in the autumn of 1863 he was captured by a new literary idea, which for a long time was called “One thousand eight hundred and five.” The time of creation of the novel was a period of spiritual elation, family happiness and calm, solitary work. Tolstoy read memoirs and correspondence of people of the Alexander era (including materials from Tolstoy and Volkonsky), worked in archives, studied Masonic manuscripts, traveled to the Borodino field, moving forward in his work slowly, through many editions (his wife helped him a lot in copying manuscripts, refuting this friends joked that she was still so young, as if she were playing with dolls), and only at the beginning of 1865 he published the first part of “War and Peace” in “Russian Bulletin”. The novel was read avidly, evoked many responses, striking with its combination of a broad epic canvas with subtle psychological analysis, with a living picture of private life, organically inscribed in history. Heated debate provoked the subsequent parts of the novel, in which Tolstoy developed a fatalistic philosophy of history. There were accusations that the writer “entrusted” the intellectual demands of his era to the people of the beginning of the century: the idea of ​​a novel about the Patriotic War was indeed a response to the problems that worried Russian post-reform society. Tolstoy himself characterized his plan as an attempt to “write the history of the people” and considered it impossible to determine its genre nature (“will not fit any form, no novel, no story, no poem, no history”).

“The great writer of the Russian land,” Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 in the village of Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province. His father, a hussar lieutenant colonel, and his mother, nee Princess Volkonskaya, are described partly in “Childhood” and “Adolescence”, partly in “War and Peace”. The boy was one and a half years old when his mother died, and nine years old when his father died; an orphan, he remained in the care of his aunt, Countess Osten-Sacken; The boy's upbringing was entrusted to a distant relative, T. A. Ergolskaya. Tolstoy later recalled touchingly this kind and meek woman, who had a beneficial influence on the children entrusted to her upbringing. Being 24 years old, he wrote to her from the Caucasus: “The tears that I shed, thinking about you and your love for us, are so joyful that I let them flow without any false shame.”

Having received a home education, which was common at that time for the children of landowners, Tolstoy in 1844 entered Kazan University at the Faculty of Oriental Languages; a year later he switches to law school. A precocious young man, prone to introspection and a critical attitude towards everything around him, Tolstoy remains extremely dissatisfied with the composition of professors and university teaching. At first, he set to work quite diligently and began writing an essay in which he drew a parallel between Catherine the Great’s “Order” and the works of Montesquieu; but soon these studies were abandoned, and Tolstoy was temporarily taken over by the interests of social life: brilliant outer side the secular world and its eternal festivities, picnics, balls, receptions, captivated the impressionable young man; he devoted himself to the interests of this world with all the passion of his nature. And, as in everything in his life, he was consistent here to the end, denying at that time everything that was not included in the circle of interests of a secular person.

But, as shown in “Childhood, Adolescence and Youth,” which contains a lot of autobiographical material, Tolstoy even in childhood showed traits of self-absorption, some kind of persistent moral and mental quest; the boy was always haunted by questions from his still vague inner world. We can say, judging by the artistic material the writer left us, that he almost did not know a carefree childhood, with its unconscious joy. Proud, always subordinating everything to his thoughts, he, like most great people, spent a painful childhood, suppressed by various questions of external and internal life, which were beyond his childhood strength to resolve.

It was this feature of the nature of the young Tolstoy that took over in him after a certain period of time spent in secular pleasures. Under the influence of his own thoughts and reading, Tolstoy decided to dramatically change his life. What he decided was immediately carried out. Convinced of the emptiness of social life, disappointed with his university studies, Tolstoy returns to his constant ideals of life. In “Childhood” and Adolescence” we read more than once about how the boy, the hero of the story, draws up programs for a future pure and reasonable life that meets some vague requirements of conscience. It was as if an unknown voice was always heard in his soul, the voice of moral dictates, and forced him to follow him. The same thing happened in Kazan. Tolstoy gives up secular entertainment, stops attending university, becomes interested in Rousseau and spends days and nights reading the books of this writer, who had a great influence on him.

In his books, Tolstoy seeks not mental pleasures or knowledge in themselves, but practical answers to questions How live and how to live, that is, to see the meaning and true content of life. Influenced by these reflections and reading Rousseau’s books, Tolstoy writes the essay “On the Purpose of Philosophy,” in which he defines philosophy as “the science of life,” that is, as one that clarifies the goals and way of life of a person. Already at this time, Rousseau's books posed before the young Tolstoy a problem that irresistibly attracted his mental gaze: about moral improvement. Tolstoy, through increased spiritual tension, determines the plan for his future life: it should take place in the implementation of good and in actively helping people. Having come to this conclusion, Tolstoy quits the university and goes to Yasnaya Polyana to take care of the life of the peasants and improve their situation. Here, many failures and disappointments awaited him, described in the story “The Morning of the Landowner”: with the help of one person it was impossible to solve such a large task at once, especially since the work was hampered by many unnoticed little things and interference.

Leo Tolstoy in his youth. Photo from 1848

In 1851, Tolstoy left for the Caucasus; here a lot of impressions await him, strong and fresh, which the heroic nature of the 23-year-old Tolstoy longed for. Hunts for wild boars, elk, birds, grandiose pictures of Caucasian nature, and finally, skirmishes and battles with the mountaineers (Tolstoy enlisted as a cadet in the artillery) - all this made a great impression on the future writer. In battles he was calm and courageous, he was always in the most dangerous places and was presented with a reward more than once. Tolstoy’s lifestyle at that time was Spartan, healthy and simple; composure and courage did not leave him in the most dangerous moments, such as when, while hunting a bear, he missed the animal and was crushed by it, rescued a minute later by other hunters and miraculously escaping with two harmless wounds. But he led a life not only of combat and hunting - he also had hours for literary work, which few knew about yet. At the end of 1851, he informed Ergolskaya that he was writing a novel, not knowing whether it would ever be published, but working on it gave him deep pleasure. Characteristic of the young Tolstoy is a lack of ambition and endurance in leisurely and hard work. “I remade the work that I started a long time ago three times,” he writes to Ergolskaya, “and I expect to redo it again in order to be satisfied; I write not out of vanity, but out of passion; it is pleasant and useful for me to work, and I work.”

The manuscript that Tolstoy was working on at that time was the story “Childhood”; Among all the impressions of the Caucasus, the young writer loved to revive childhood memories with sadness and love, reviving every feature past life. Life in the Caucasus did not coarse his impressionable and childishly tender soul. In 1852, Tolstoy’s first story was published in Nekrasov’s magazine “Sovremennik” with the modest signature of L.N.; only a few close people knew the author of this story, noted in critical literature. After “Childhood” appeared “Adolescence” and a number of stories from Caucasian military life: “Raid”, “Cutting Wood” and the major story “Cossacks”, outstanding in its artistic merit and reflecting the features of a new worldview. In this story, Tolstoy for the first time emphasized the negative attitude towards urban cultural life and the superiority over it of a simple and healthy life in the fresh bosom of nature, in proximity to the simple and spiritually pure masses of the people.

Tolstoy's military wandering life continued during the Crimean War that had then begun. He took part in the unsuccessful siege of Silistria on the Danube and observed life with curiosity southern peoples. Promoted to officer in 1854, Tolstoy arrived in Sevastopol, where he survived its siege until the city’s surrender in 1855. Here Tolstoy tried to start a magazine for soldiers, but did not receive permission. Brave, as always, and here in the most dangerous places, Tolstoy reproduced his rich observations of this siege in three stories “Sevastopol in December, May and August.” These stories, which also appeared in Sovremennik, attracted everyone's attention.

After the fall of Sevastopol, Tolstoy retired, moved to St. Petersburg and devoted himself primarily to literary interests; he becomes close to the circle of writers of that time - Turgenev, Goncharov, Ostrovsky, Nekrasov, Druzhinin, is friends with Fet. But Tolstoy’s new views on life, on culture, on the goals and objectives of a person’s personal life, which were largely determined during his solitary life in the Caucasian wilderness, were alien to the general views of writers and alienated Tolstoy from them: he remained generally closed and alone.

After several years of self-absorbed and lonely life, having reached several certain points of his own worldview, created by great spiritual tension, Tolstoy now, with some kind of mental greed, strives to embrace the entire property of the spiritual culture of the West. After studying agriculture and school in Yasnaya Polyana, he travels abroad, visits Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland, takes a closer look at the life and institutions of the Western world, absorbs a lot of books on philosophy, sociology, history, public education, etc. Everything he sees and everything he heard, everything he read, everything that strikes his mind and soul, becomes material for internal processing in the process of achieving the solid foundations of the worldview, which Tolstoy’s thought tirelessly seeks.

A great event for his inner life was the death of his brother, Nicholas; Questions about the purpose and meaning of life, questions about death took hold of his soul with even greater force, temporarily inclining him to extremely pessimistic conclusions. But soon a burning thirst for mental work and activity again embraces him. Studying the organization of school affairs in Western European countries, Tolstoy came to his own pedagogical theory, which he tried to implement upon returning to Yasnaya Polyana. He starts a school there for peasant children and a pedagogical magazine called Yasnaya Polyana. Education, as a powerful tool for social reforms, seems to him to be the most important task in life. In Yasnaya Polyana, he wanted to do in miniature something that could then be adopted throughout the world. The basis of Tolstoy's theory was the same point of view of the need for personal improvement of a person, not through forcible inoculation of views and beliefs, but in accordance with the basic properties of his nature.

Having married S.A. Bers and having established a calm family life, Tolstoy devoted himself to the study of philosophy, ancient classics, his own literary works, not forgetting either school or agriculture. The period from the sixties to the eighties of the last century is distinguished for Tolstoy by exceptional artistic productivity: during these years he wrote the most important works artistic value and his works are outstanding in volume. From 1864 to 1869, he was busy with the huge historical epic “War and Peace” (see summary and analysis of this novel). From 1873 to 1876 he worked on the novel Anna Karenina. In this novel, in the history of Levin’s inner life, the turning point in the spiritual life of Tolstoy himself is already reflected. The desire to implement in his personal life the ideas of goodness and truth that he recognized, which manifested itself in him from his youth, finally takes over in him. Religious, moral and philosophical interests take precedence over literary and artistic interests. He depicted the history of this spiritual turn in “Confession,” written in 1881.

Portrait of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Artist I. Repin, 1901

From then on, Tolstoy subordinated his literary activity to accepted moral ideas, becoming a preacher and moralist (see Tolstoyism), denying his past artistic activity. His mental productivity is still enormous: in addition to a number of religious, philosophical and social treatises, he writes dramas, stories and novels. Since the end of the eighties, stories for the people have appeared: “How people live,” “Two old men,” “Candle,” “If you let the fire go, you won’t put it out”; stories: “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”, “Master and Worker”, dramas “The Power of Darkness” and “Fruits of Enlightenment”, and the novel “Resurrection”.

Tolstoy's fame in these years became worldwide, his works were translated into the languages ​​of all countries, his name enjoyed great honor and respect among the entire educated world; In the West, special societies are organized dedicated to the study of the works of the great writer. Yasnaya Polyana, where he lived, was visited by people from all countries, driven by the desire to talk with the great writer. Until the very end of his life, an unexpected end that amazed the whole world, Tolstoy, an 80-year-old man, tirelessly devoted himself to mental pursuits, creating new philosophical and artistic works.

Wishing to retire before the end of his life and live in complete harmony with the spirit of his teaching, which was always his cherished aspiration, Tolstoy went to last days October 1910 from Yasnaya Polyana, but on the way to the Caucasus he fell ill and had to stop at the Astapovo station, where he died 11 days later - November 7 (20), 1910.

on the topic: "The life and work of L.N. Tolstoy"

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Tula province into an aristocratic family. On his father's side, he belonged to an ancient family that dated back six hundred years and gave Russia famous political and statesmen, and on the mother’s side - to the Volkonsky family, who also became famous in serving the Fatherland. Tolstoy's father, Nikolai Ilyich, as a seventeen-year-old youth in 1812, decided to enlist in military service and fought with Napoleon. He retired after World War II and married Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya. The life of Yasnaya Polyana was shrouded in numerous family traditions and legends, which are rich in the stories of both families. These legends would later find a place in Tolstoy's works, especially in the epic novel War and Peace. Leo Tolstoy had three brothers - Nikolai, Sergei, Dmitry, and also a sister Maria. The girl was only two years old when her mother died, and in 1837 Nikolai Ilyich also died, and the children were orphaned. In 1841, they were taken in by their father’s sister, Pelageya Ilyinichna Yushkova, who lived in Kazan.

In 1844, Tolstoy entered the Faculty of Oriental Languages ​​at Kazan University, but did not take his studies seriously and failed his first-year exams. Thanks to his aunt’s patronage, he was transferred to the Faculty of Law, but soon left the university and went to Yasnaya Polyana. There he passionately reads the works of Rousseau and comes to the idea of ​​​​correcting the world through the moral self-improvement of each person. Inspired by this idea, he starts a diary where he analyzes the negative aspects of his character. This was the beginning of the spiritual work that Tolstoy would do throughout his life. He believes that understanding one’s own weaknesses and shortcomings leads to overcoming them and liberation from them.

In the summer of 1851, Tolstoy's life changed dramatically. Older brother Nikolai comes on leave from his officer service and takes Lev with him to the Caucasus. In the Cossack village of Starogladkovskaya, Tolstoy first encountered the world of free Cossacks, who had never known serfdom. This free spirit charmed Tolstoy; he felt a desire to leave everything and live as simple and natural life, like the Cossacks. Subsequently, he will write the story “Cossacks” (1863), in which he will tell about how difficult it is for a person of civilization to return to patriarchal simplicity, and the very opposition of the natural, natural way of life of ordinary people to civilization, borrowed from Rousseau, will pass through almost all of Tolstoy’s works.

In the Caucasus, Tolstoy begins to work on an artistic autobiography and writes the story “Childhood,” which he sends to St. Petersburg to the then most popular magazine “Sovremennik,” where it was enthusiastically received by Nekrasov himself and published in 1852. “Childhood” was the first part of the planned tetralogy “ Four eras of development." Two more parts were realized - the stories "Adolescence" and "Youth", and the idea of ​​the fourth was only partially realized in the story "The Morning of the Landowner". The story "Adolescence" was published in 1854, and "Youth" - in 1857. The name of Tolstoy became one with the names of the best Russian writers of that time. In his trilogy, Tolstoy displayed a new artistic view of the world. His hero looks at his surroundings not through the eyes of an adult assessing his childhood and childhood spiritual experience, but through the eyes of a child with his unclouded consciousness, free from the prejudices of the adult world and therefore capable of impeccable moral assessments. Tolstoy claims that this childhood experience always lives in a person and is not canceled by the everyday experience of an adult. This view of the development of man and his spiritual world was a genuine discovery and brought Tolstoy the fame of an artist-psychologist. Tolstoy made the subject of his psychological research not the formed character of the hero, but the most complex combination in the human soul of various time slices, reflecting the stages of the formation of his personality and creating the unique appearance of each person. The childhood experience present in the soul of an adult can sometimes serve as an unmistakable criterion for him in choosing the exact behavior and even contribute to a person’s self-improvement. A child’s soul has the property, dear to Tolstoy, of restoring harmony with the world around him due to its purity and spontaneity, but the adult world clouds a child’s perception of the world and extinguishes this ability, thereby leading a person to discord with the world and himself. This discord is especially painful in adolescence, difficult period personality development. The soul of the youth, having lost the immediate purity of moral feeling, becomes open only to perception negative aspects life and bad emotions. Having lost trust in the world, a person focuses on himself, and therefore his spiritual ties with those around him are severed.

But even in these circumstances, the moral sense does not completely fade away in a person. The awakening of the soul is facilitated by the emergence of friendship and the ability for it. Youth, from Tolstoy’s point of view, is like spring with its awakening, and therefore a person is born with the desire to restore lost connections with the world, a feeling of unity with it. But this is by no means a cloudless path. On the contrary, walking along it, a person is forced to overcome various obstacles, primarily associated with mental contradictions.

In 1853, the Russian-Turkish war began, and in 1854, Tolstoy, at his request, was transferred to the active army. While in besieged Sevastopol, Tolstoy observes the behavior of ordinary soldiers and sailors and becomes convinced of the colossal spiritual strength of the people, of their high patriotic feelings. Tolstoy tries to look at events through the eyes of a simple soldier. The experience gained at this time gave him great material for the epic novel "War and Peace", in addition, he wrote three stories that reflected his aesthetic and ethical ideal: "Sevastopol in December", "Sevastopol in May", "Sevastopol in August 1855" (1855 , 1856). At the end of the story “Sevastopol in May,” Tolstoy formulates his artistic credo: “The hero of my story, whom I love with all the strength of my soul, whom I tried to reproduce in all his beauty and who has always been, is and will be beautiful, is true.”

At the end of 1855, Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg, already famous writer. His creative manner took shape in the works of the 50s. “The peculiarity of Count Tolstoy’s talent,” wrote N.G. Chernyshevsky, “is that he is not limited to depicting the results of the mental process: he is interested in the process itself, its forms, laws, dialectics of the soul, to put it in a definitive term.” Tolstoy sought to show the process of the emergence of a feeling or thought, their modification as a result of coupling with other feelings and thoughts, the entire complex path of their formation and design. At the same time, he constantly emphasizes the inaccuracy and approximateness of any final definitions. Such an image of mental life also determined a new understanding of character. The most subtle psychological analysis leads Tolstoy to the idea that man is a much more complex phenomenon than it appears at first glance, and that he always conceals within himself the possibility of spiritual renewal. This ability for renewal and self-development is always the focus of Tolstoy the artist. He saw opportunities for development and renewal of the world in the movement of man to moral heights, and not in changes in social or political systems. A person’s ability for moral self-improvement, according to Tolstoy, is life, and the task of literature is to teach “to love life,” as he wrote in one of his letters.

Epic novel "War and Peace" (1863-1869). In the early 60s. Tolstoy conceives a novel about a Decembrist who returns after an amnesty from Siberia to Russia, renewed by the reform of 1861. The idea is gradually expanding. Tolstoy wrote: “Involuntarily, I moved from the present to 1825, the era of errors and misfortunes of my hero, and left what I started. But even in 1825, my hero was already mature, family man. To understand him, I needed to travel back to his youth, and his youth coincided with the glorious era of 1812 for Russia. Another time I abandoned what I had started and began to write from the time of 1812, the smell and sound of which are still audible and dear to us... The third time I returned back out of a feeling that may seem strange... I was ashamed to write about our triumph in the fight against Bonaparte's France, without describing our failures and our shame... If the reason for our triumph was not accidental, but lay in the essence of the character of the Russian people and troops, then this character should have been expressed even more clearly in the era of failures and defeats. So, having returned from 1856 to 1805, from now on I intend to take not one, but many of my heroines and heroes through the historical events of 1805, 1807, 1812, 1825 and 1856."

Immersing himself in history, Tolstoy came closer and closer to modern times. He was looking for a moment in the historical past of Russia similar to what the country experienced after 1861. The Patriotic War of 1812 caused an unprecedented unity of the entire people, which was so necessary in the post-reform era - the era of breaking the foundations of life. Tolstoy was occupied with an artistic exploration of this unity and the ways to achieve it in War and Peace. History became a tool with the help of which modernity was explored. Work on the novel lasted six years, and in the process the time frame of the work was limited to 1812-1824.

The book, published in parts in the Russian Bulletin, was a huge success. It immediately became obvious that the work did not fit into the usual forms of the genre. The traditional novel, with its storyline based on the fate of the hero, could not accommodate the life of the entire country, which Tolstoy strived for. It was necessary to overcome the main distinction that seemed eternal and unshakable - the distinction between private and historical life. Tolstoy shows that people's lives are united and flow according to general laws in any sphere, be it family or public, private or historical. Everyday life people are entangled in a whole network of conventions that subjugate a person, forcing him to be guided in his actions not by principles or feelings, but by generally accepted norms; a person is dependent on these conventions, which obscure and even replace the absolute and true values ​​of life. The most important value, from Tolstoy’s point of view, is the universal human connection, undermined in the modern world by enmity between people.

Just as unusual as the genre of the work was the composition. The lack of a single storyline forced Tolstoy to look for new methods of holding together the colossal edifice of the epic into a single whole. He changed the role of the episode. In a traditional novel, an episode was one of the links in a chain of events, united by cause-and-effect relationships; being the result of previous events, it simultaneously became a prerequisite for subsequent ones. By retaining this role of an episode in the autonomous plot lines of his novel, Tolstoy endowed it with a new property. The episodes in War and Peace were held together not only by a plot, cause-and-effect relationship, but also entered into a special connection, which Tolstoy himself, speaking about the novel Anna Karenina, called the connection of “linkages.” It is from these endless connections that the artistic fabric of War and Peace consists. It brings together episodes not only from different parts, but even from different volumes, episodes in which completely different characters take part (for example, an episode from the first volume, which tells about the meeting of General Mak at the headquarters of Kutuzov’s army, and an episode from the third volume - about the meeting of the envoy of Alexander I, General Balashov, with Marshal Murat). And there are a huge number of such episodes, united not by plot, but by another connection, the connection of “links,” in “War and Peace,” which provides artistic unity and integrity to a work with several hundred characters and many completely autonomous storylines.

In addition, in addition to the usual characters, who are full-fledged realistic characters, Tolstoy created images of two characters who, also being realistic characters, carry a special burden, becoming almost symbolic images. These are the images of Kutuzov and Napoleon, personifying two opposite principles of life - the beginning that unites and the beginning that separates. And to one degree or another, almost all the characters in “War and Peace” gravitate towards these images, thereby divided into people of “war” and people of “peace”. Thus, Tolstoy’s “War” and “peace” are two universal states of human existence, the life of society.

Napoleon, according to Tolstoy, embodies the essence of modern civilization, expressed in the cult of personal initiative and a strong personality. It is this cult that brings disunity and general hostility into modern life. In Tolstoy he is opposed by the principle embodied in the image of Kutuzov, a man who has renounced everything personal, does not pursue any personal goal and, because of this, is able to guess historical necessity and through his activities contributes to the course of history, while to Napoleon it only seems that he is in control. historical process. But history develops according to its own laws, regardless of the will of people.

Tolstoy's Kutuzov personifies the beginning of the people, while the people represent a spiritual integrity, poeticized by the author of War and Peace. This integrity arises only on the basis of cultural legends and traditions. Their loss turns the people into an angry and aggressive crowd, the unity of which is based not on a common principle, but on an individualistic principle. Such a crowd is represented by the Napoleonic army marching on Russia, as well as the people who tore Vereshchagin to pieces, whom Rostopchin dooms to death.

The society in which the beginning of the “war” has triumphed disintegrates, loses its unity, its representatives live in selfish interests. This is exactly how Tolstoy portrays high society Petersburg, the embodiment of which is the Kuragin family. General chaos is painful for the heroes of the novel. The situation of “peace,” on the contrary, brings meaning and unity to life, bringing personal interest into harmony with the general interest. This situation arose in Russia in 1812.

This universal unity will be what Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov were looking for. Their life paths testify to the search for overcoming personal and social discord, the desire for a reasonable and harmonious life. However, this does not eliminate the most important differences between them.

At the beginning of his life, Prince Andrei, having found an idol in Napoleon, isolates himself from other people. His dream of the glory of a hero corresponds to the spirit of Russian culture of the 18th century, when the hero was certainly thought of on a pedestal. Little by little, Tolstoy is preparing the revolution in the soul of Prince Andrei that will take place on the Field of Austerlitz. During military operations, lofty dreams will collide with the real life and everyday life of war, and Andrey will discover the heroic beginning in the homely captain Tushin. Bolkonsky, who is isolated in a limited family world, will be brought out of a state of mental apathy by Pierre Bezukhov, who will visit his friend at a happy time in his life. Pierre, at the zenith of his passion for Masonic ideas, is confident that he has found the meaning of life. His inspiration will be passed on to Andrei, who will again feel a taste for active work (two meetings of Prince Andrei with an old oak tree on the way to Otradnoye and back are symbolic). However, Andrei’s new life, taking place in the highest spheres of the state bureaucracy, is artificial. This will be revealed to Andrey thanks to his meeting with Natasha Rostova at the ball. Natasha seems to bring the prince closer to earthly life, but Tolstoy immediately makes the reader feel that they are not meant for each other, that simple happiness is not for Bolkonsky.

The year 1812 would turn out to be a turning point in the lives of both Natasha and Andrei Bolkonsky. During the Patriotic War, the prince will feel and understand the legitimacy of the existence of the interests of other people. This understanding will manifest itself in his vision of the reasons for success in war, which, as he believes, is determined not by the number of troops and its location, not by the number of guns, but by the feeling that will be in every soldier. This will change Andrei Bolkonsky’s ideas about the driving forces of history. But Prince Andrei is still unable to fully comprehend the worldview of ordinary soldiers. At the moment of his mortal wound, he experiences a passionate outburst of love for life. It is significant that on the Field of Austerlitz the sky becomes a symbol of universal unity for him, and on Borodino - the earth. But the land was never given to Andrey. The sky with its universal love triumphed, and not the earth, which manifested itself in specific love for Natasha.

IN life quests For Pierre Bezukhov, 1812 will also be a turning point. But Pierre, in his desire to live a common life, will cross the line where Prince Andrei stopped. The soldiers will accept him into their family, and he will feel like one of them. Spiritual rebirth Pierre is completed by captivity and acquaintance with Platon Karataev. In Karataev, Pierre will be conquered by the love of the world without the slightest admixture of selfish feelings. Karataev will become for Tolstoy a symbol of the “peaceful” properties of the Russian peasant character, the personification of simplicity and truth. Communication with him will give Pierre a deeper understanding of the meaning of life, based on the love of God, who is life, and life is God.

Having gone through the hardships of captivity and having adopted Karataev’s view of the world, Pierre concludes that misfortunes on earth come not from a lack, but from an excess, including the overwhelming predominance of the intellectual principle in modern civilization, as a result of which a person loses spontaneity in the perception of earthly existence.

Natasha Rostova has a renewing influence on the intellectual heroes of War and Peace. Natasha never thinks about the meaning of life and does not try to comprehend it in a rationalistic way. For her, this meaning is hidden in the very process of life and does not exist outside of it. Her image embodies the best properties of female nature, the harmony of the spiritual and physical. Natasha's moral sense is natural, not abstract; she has the gift of intuition. Natasha's liveliness and spontaneity, her intuitive understanding of the true values ​​of life attract people to her. Countess Natasha has a truly Russian soul, which helps her feel natural in a variety of situations (remember her Russian dance in her uncle’s house and the desire to help the wounded in the Battle of Borodino, which was passed on to all the Rostovs).

At the same time, Natasha’s spontaneity is fraught with danger and can push her to rash actions. Free from external conventions, she is capable of transgressing moral boundaries - this is the reason for her rapprochement with Kuragin. Both an excess of intellect, which dampens a person’s immediate sense of life, and a spontaneous vital force, not controlled by the mind, are harmful. In the union of Natasha and Pierre, Tolstoy tries to find a harmonious combination of these qualities.

The epilogue of "War and Peace" is a combination under the roof of the Lysogorsk house in one family of previously separate principles, personified in the Rostov, Bolkonsky and Bezukhov families. The epilogue sounds like a hymn to the family, which, according to Tolstoy, is the highest form of unity between people.

The novel "War and Peace" became Tolstoy's response to the cultural and spiritual situation that had developed in post-reform Russia, which required, as in 1812, the unity of all the forces of the people to overcome the crisis in which the country found itself.

The novel Anna Karenina, on which Tolstoy worked in 1873-1877, is devoted to the study of the loss of spiritual ties between family members and, as a consequence, the disintegration of the family itself. Two storylines lie at the heart of this work: the story of the broken family of Anna Karenina and the born family of Konstantin Levin. Anna's marriage with the spiritually alien dignitary Karenin was not built on the basis of love and is inevitably doomed to collapse. Tolstoy condemns public morality that forgives adultery, but does not forgive free and sincere love. The life of a family without love is dramatic, but the breakdown of the family is no less dramatic.

The collapse of the Karenin family, which, according to Tolstoy, marks the spiritual crisis of modern civilization, the collapse of spiritual values, as well as the drama of Anna’s love for Vronsky are shown against the backdrop of the relationship between Kitty Shcherbatskaya and Levin, built on the basis of spiritual unity. Konstantin Levin is an autobiographical hero. For him, the fundamental principle of life is agricultural work, to which he is devoted. He sees salvation from the lies of modern civilization in the moral regeneration of humanity.

Tolstoy outlined his views on the foundations of the modern social and state system of Russia and criticism of this system in a number of philosophical and religious works of the 80-90s: “Confession”, “So what should we do?”, “The Kingdom of God is within us”, "What is my faith?" and others. In these works, he subjected a devastating criticism to all official social institutions, including the church. He created his own religious and ethical teaching, which found followers who were called “Tolstyans.” They left the cities, organized agricultural colonies and spread Tolstoy's teachings. Followers of Tolstoy appeared in many countries.

In 1899, the novel "Resurrection" was published - one of the largest works of world realistic literature, reflecting the broadest social and moral issues. Through the image of Prince Nekhlyudov, who broke with his class, the author shows the conflict of two worlds - the haves and the have-nots, and raises the topic of a person’s moral responsibility for his actions. The story of Nekhlyudov’s spiritual fall, associated with the renunciation of the sense of shame and the transformation of a person into an impersonal, rude and selfish creature, as well as his slow and painful “resurrection”, i.e. acquiring a truly human essence is plot basis novel. Nekhlyudov’s feeling of guilt before Katyusha Maslova gradually develops into a feeling of guilt before the disadvantaged and suffering people, shame for himself into shame for all the people in his circle. His own guilt seems to him to be part of the general guilt of the entire noble class. Tolstoy advocates the inevitability of a radical transformation of all Russian life, but he sees this transformation only as non-violent.

Genius L.N. Tolstoy, an artist and thinker, reflected life processes of universal importance in all their complexity and contradictions. And he himself was not an outside observer, striving to combine his own teaching with his way of life. The spiritual drama he experienced prompted him to secretly leave Yasnaya Polyana at the end of his days. On the way, he contracted pneumonia and died. Tolstoy's death was an event that shocked not only Russia, but the whole world.

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Russian writer and philosopher Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, the fourth child in a wealthy aristocratic family. Tolstoy lost his parents early; his further upbringing was carried out by his distant relative T. A. Ergolskaya. In 1844, Tolstoy entered Kazan University at the Department of Oriental Languages ​​of the Faculty of Philosophy, but because... classes did not arouse any interest in him, in 1847. submitted his resignation from the university. At the age of 23, Tolstoy, together with his older brother Nikolai, left for the Caucasus, where he took part in hostilities. These years of the writer's life were reflected in the autobiographical story "Cossacks" (1852-63), in the stories "Raid" (1853), "Cutting Wood" (1855), as well as in the later story "Hadji Murat" (1896-1904, published in 1912). In the Caucasus, Tolstoy began to write the trilogy “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth”.

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 immediately joined the Sovremennik circle (N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Turgenev, A. N. Ostrovsky, I. A. Goncharov, etc.), where he was greeted as " the great hope of Russian literature" (Nekrasov), published " Sevastopol stories”, which clearly reflected his outstanding writing talent. In 1857, Tolstoy went on a trip to Europe, which he was later disappointed with.

In the fall of 1856, Tolstoy, having retired, decided to interrupt his literary activity and become a landowner, went to Yasnaya Polyana, where he was engaged in educational work, opened a school, and created his own system of pedagogy. This activity fascinated Tolstoy so much that in 1860 he even went abroad to get acquainted with the schools of Europe.

In September 1862, Tolstoy married the eighteen-year-old daughter of a doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers, and immediately after the wedding, he took his wife from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana, where he completely devoted himself to family life and household concerns, but by the fall of 1863 he was captured by a new literary plan, as a result of which the world was born. the fundamental work “War and Peace” appeared. In 1873-1877 created the novel Anna Karenina. During these same years, the writer’s worldview, known as Tolstoyism, was fully formed, the essence of which is visible in the works: “Confession”, “What is my faith?”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”.

Admirers of the writer’s work came to Yasnaya Polyana from all over Russia and the world, whom they treated as a spiritual mentor. In 1899, the novel “Resurrection” was published.

The writer’s latest works were the stories “Father Sergius”, “After the Ball”, “Posthumous Notes of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich” and the drama “The Living Corpse”.

In the late autumn of 1910, at night, secretly from his family, 82-year-old Tolstoy, accompanied only by his personal doctor D.P. Makovitsky, left Yasnaya Polyana, fell ill on the way and was forced to get off the train at the small Astapovo Ryazan-Uralskaya railway station railway. Here, in the house of the station chief, he spent the last seven days of his life. November 7 (20) Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy died.

Biography

Origin

Education

Military career

Traveling around Europe

Pedagogical activity

Family and offspring

Creativity flourishes

"War and Peace"

"Anna Karenina"

Other works

Religious quest

Excommunication

Philosophy

Bibliography

Translators of Tolstoy

World recognition. Memory

Film adaptations of his works

Documentary

Movies about Leo Tolstoy

Portrait gallery

Translators of Tolstoy

Graph Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy(August 28 (September 9) 1828 - November 7 (20), 1910) - one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers. Participant in the defense of Sevastopol. Educator, publicist, religious thinker, whose authoritative opinion provoked the emergence of a new religious and moral movement - Tolstoyism.

The ideas of nonviolent resistance, which L. N. Tolstoy expressed in his work “The Kingdom of God is Within You,” influenced Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

Biography

Origin

He came from a noble family, known, according to legendary sources, since 1353. His paternal ancestor, Count Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, is known for his role in the investigation of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, for which he was put in charge of the Secret Chancellery. The traits of Pyotr Andreevich’s great-grandson, Ilya Andreevich, are given in “War and Peace” to the good-natured, impractical old Count Rostov. The son of Ilya Andreevich, Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy (1794-1837), was the father of Lev Nikolaevich. In some character traits and biographical facts, he was similar to Nikolenka’s father in “Childhood” and “Adolescence” and partly to Nikolai Rostov in “War and Peace.” However, in real life, Nikolai Ilyich differed from Nikolai Rostov not only good education, but also with convictions that did not allow him to serve under Nicholas. A participant in the foreign campaign of the Russian army, including participating in the “Battle of the Nations” near Leipzig and being captured by the French, after the conclusion of peace he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment. Soon after his resignation, he was forced to go into bureaucratic service in order not to end up in debtor's prison because of the debts of his father, the Kazan governor, who died under investigation for official abuses. For several years, Nikolai Ilyich had to save. The negative example of his father helped Nikolai Ilyich develop his ideal of life - private independent living with family joys. To put his upset affairs in order, Nikolai Ilyich, like Nikolai Rostov, married an ugly and no longer very young princess from the Volkonsky family; the marriage was happy. They had four sons: Nikolai, Sergei, Dmitry and Lev and a daughter Maria.

Tolstoy's maternal grandfather, Catherine's general, Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, had some resemblance to the stern rigorist - the old Prince Bolkonsky in War and Peace, however, the version that he served as the prototype of the hero of War and Peace is rejected by many researchers of Tolstoy's work. Lev Nikolayevich's mother, similar in some respects to Princess Marya depicted in War and Peace, had a remarkable gift for storytelling, for which, with her shyness passed on to her son, she had to lock herself with the large number of listeners who gathered around her in a dark room.

In addition to the Volkonskys, L.N. Tolstoy was closely related to several other aristocratic families: the princes Gorchakovs, Trubetskoys and others.

Childhood

Born on August 28, 1828 in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province, on his mother’s hereditary estate - Yasnaya Polyana. Was the 4th child; his three older brothers: Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergei (1826-1904) and Dmitry (1827-1856). In 1830, Sister Maria (1830-1912) was born. His mother died when he was not yet 2 years old.

A distant relative, T. A. Ergolskaya, took up the task of raising orphaned children. In 1837, the family moved to Moscow, settling on Plyushchikha, because the eldest son had to prepare to enter university, but soon his father suddenly died, leaving affairs (including some litigation related to the family’s property) in an unfinished state, and the three younger ones The children again settled in Yasnaya Polyana under the supervision of Ergolskaya and their paternal aunt, Countess A. M. Osten-Sacken, who was appointed guardian of the children. Here Lev Nikolaevich remained until 1840, when Countess Osten-Sacken died and the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian - their father's sister P. I. Yushkova.

The Yushkov house, somewhat provincial in style, but typically secular, was one of the most cheerful in Kazan; All family members highly valued external shine. "My good aunt, - says Tolstoy, - the purest being, always said that she would like nothing more for me than for me to have a relationship with a married woman: rien ne forme un jeune homme comme une liaison avec une femme comme il faut" (« Confession»).

He wanted to shine in society, to earn a reputation young man; but he did not have the external qualities for this: he was ugly, it seemed to him awkward, and, in addition, he was hampered by natural shyness. Everything that is told in " adolescence" And " Youth"about the aspirations of Irtenyev and Nekhlyudov for self-improvement, Tolstoy took from the history of his own ascetic attempts. The most varied, as Tolstoy himself defines them, “philosophies” about the most important questions of our existence - happiness, death, God, love, eternity - painfully tormented him in that era of life when his peers and brothers were completely devoted to the cheerful, easy and carefree pastime of the rich and noble people. All this led to the fact that Tolstoy developed a “habit of constant moral analysis,” which, as it seemed to him, “destroyed the freshness of feeling and clarity of reason” (“ Youth»).

Education

Was his education first under the guidance of the French tutor Saint-Thomas? (Mr. Jerome "Boyhood"), who replaced the good-natured German Reselman, whom he portrayed in "Childhood" under the name Karl Ivanovich.

At the age of 15, in 1843, following his brother Dmitry, he became a student at Kazan University, where Lobachevsky and Kovalevsky were professors at the Faculty of Mathematics. Until 1847, he was preparing here to enter the only Oriental Faculty in Russia at that time in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. In the entrance exams, in particular, he showed excellent results in the compulsory “Turkish-Tatar language” for admission.

Due to a conflict between his family and a teacher of Russian history and German, a certain Ivanov, at the end of the year, he had poor performance in the relevant subjects and had to re-take the first-year program. To avoid repeating the course completely, he transferred to the Faculty of Law, where his problems with grades in Russian history and German continued. The latter was attended by the outstanding civil scientist Meyer; Tolstoy at one time became very interested in his lectures and even took on a special topic for development - a comparison of Montesquieu’s “Esprit des lois” and Catherine’s “Order”. However, nothing came of this. On Faculty of Law Leo Tolstoy stayed for less than two years: “any education imposed by others was always difficult for him, and everything he learned in life, he learned on his own, suddenly, quickly, with intense work,” writes Tolstaya in her “Materials for the biography of L. N. Tolstoy."

It was at this time, while in a Kazan hospital, that he began to keep a diary, where, imitating Franklin, he sets goals and rules for self-improvement and notes successes and failures in completing these tasks, analyzes his shortcomings and his train of thoughts and motives for his actions. In 1904 he recalled: “... for the first year... I did nothing. In the second year I started studying. .. there was Professor Meyer, who ... gave me a work - a comparison of Catherine’s “Order” with Montesquieu’s “Esprit des lois”. ... this work fascinated me, I went to the village, began to read Montesquieu, this reading opened up endless horizons for me; I started reading Rousseau and dropped out of university precisely because I wanted to study.”

Beginning of literary activity

Having dropped out of the university, Tolstoy settled in Yasnaya Polyana in the spring of 1847; his activities there are partly described in “The Morning of the Landowner”: Tolstoy tried to establish a new relationship with the peasants.

I followed journalism very little; although his attempt to somehow attenuate the guilt of the nobility before the people dates back to the same year when Grigorovich’s “Anton the Miserable” and the beginning of Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter” appeared, but this is a simple accident. If there were literary influences here, they were of much older origin: Tolstoy was very fond of Rousseau, a hater of civilization and a preacher of a return to primitive simplicity.

In his diary, Tolstoy sets himself a huge number of goals and rules; Only a small number of them were able to follow. Among those who succeeded were serious studies in English, music, and law. In addition, neither the diary nor the letters reflected the beginning of Tolstoy's studies in pedagogy and charity - in 1849 he first opened a school for peasant children. The main teacher was Foka Demidych, a serf, but L.N. himself often conducted classes.

Having left for St. Petersburg, in the spring of 1848 he began to take the exam for a candidate of rights; He passed two exams, from criminal law and criminal proceedings, successfully, but he did not take the third exam and went to the village.

Later he came to Moscow, where he often succumbed to his passion for gambling, greatly upsetting his financial affairs. During this period of his life, Tolstoy was especially passionately interested in music (he played the piano quite well and was very fond of classical composers). The author of the “Kreutzer Sonata” drew an exaggerated description in relation to most people of the effect that “passionate” music produces from the sensations excited by the world of sounds in his own soul.

Tolstoy's favorite composers were Bach, Handel and Chopin. In the late 1840s, Tolstoy, in collaboration with his acquaintance, composed a waltz, which in the early 1900s he performed under the composer Taneev, who made a musical notation of this musical work (the only one composed by Tolstoy).

The development of Tolstoy’s love for music was also facilitated by the fact that during a trip to St. Petersburg in 1848, he met in a very unsuitable dance class setting with a gifted but lost German musician, whom he later described in Alberta. Tolstoy came up with the idea of ​​saving him: he took him to Yasnaya Polyana and played a lot with him. A lot of time was also spent on carousing, gaming and hunting.

In the winter of 1850-1851. started writing "Childhood". In March 1851 he wrote “The History of Yesterday.”

This is how 4 years passed after leaving the university, when Tolstoy’s brother Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, came to Yasnaya Polyana and began inviting him there. Tolstoy did not give in to his brother’s call for a long time, until a major loss in Moscow helped the decision. In order to pay off, it was necessary to reduce his expenses to a minimum - and in the spring of 1851, Tolstoy hastily left Moscow for the Caucasus, at first without any specific purpose. Soon he decided to enlist in military service, but obstacles arose in the form of a lack of necessary papers, which were difficult to obtain, and Tolstoy lived for about 5 months in complete solitude in Pyatigorsk, in a simple hut. He spent a significant part of his time hunting, in the company of the Cossack Epishka, the prototype of one of the heroes of the story “Cossacks”, who appears there under the name Eroshka.

In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy, having passed the exam in Tiflis, entered the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladov, on the banks of the Terek, near Kizlyar, as a cadet. With a slight change in details, she is depicted in all her semi-wild originality in “Cossacks”. The same “Cossacks” will also give us a picture of the inner life of Tolstoy, who fled from the capital’s whirlpool. The moods that Tolstoy-Olenin experienced were of a dual nature: here is a deep need to shake off the dust and soot of civilization and live in the refreshing, clear bosom of nature, outside the empty conventions of urban and, especially, high society life, here and the desire to heal the wounds of pride, brought out of the pursuit of success in this “empty” life, there is also a grave consciousness of transgressions against the strict requirements of true morality.

In a remote village, Tolstoy began to write and in 1852 he sent the first part of the future trilogy: “Childhood” to the editors of Sovremennik.

The relatively late start of his career is very characteristic of Tolstoy: he was never a professional writer, understanding professionalism not in the sense of a profession that provides a means of living, but in the less narrow sense of the predominance of literary interests. Purely literary interests always stood in the background for Tolstoy: he wrote when he wanted to write and the need to speak out was ripe, and in ordinary times he is a secular man, an officer, a landowner, a teacher, a world mediator, a preacher, a teacher of life, etc. He he never took the interests of literary parties to heart, and was far from willing to talk about literature, preferring to talk about issues of faith, morality, and social relations. Not a single work of his, in the words of Turgenev, “stinks of literature,” that is, did not come out of a bookish mood, out of literary isolation.

Military career

Having received the manuscript of “Childhood”, the editor of Sovremennik Nekrasov immediately recognized its literary value and wrote a kind letter to the author, which had a very encouraging effect on him. He sets about continuing the trilogy, and plans for “The Morning of the Landowner,” “The Raid,” and “The Cossacks” are swarming in his head. “Childhood”, published in Sovremennik in 1852, signed with the modest initials L.N.T., was extremely successful; the author immediately began to be ranked among the luminaries of the young literary school along with Turgenev, Goncharov, Grigorovich, Ostrovsky, who already enjoyed great literary fame. Criticism - Apollo Grigoriev, Annenkov, Druzhinin, Chernyshevsky - appreciated the depth of psychological analysis, the seriousness of the author's intentions, and the bright prominence of realism with all the truthfulness of the vividly captured details of real life, alien to any vulgarity.

Tolstoy remained in the Caucasus for two years, participating in many skirmishes with the mountaineers and being exposed to all the dangers of combat life in the Caucasus. He had rights and claims to the St. George Cross, but did not receive it, which apparently upset him. When the Crimean War broke out at the end of 1853, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube Army, participated in the battle of Oltenitsa and the siege of Silistria, and from November 1854 to the end of August 1855 he was in Sevastopol.

Tolstoy lived for a long time on the terrible 4th bastion, commanded a battery in the battle of Chernaya, and was during the hellish bombardment during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan. Despite all the horrors of the siege, Tolstoy wrote at this time a battle story from Caucasian life “Cutting Wood” and the first of three “ Sevastopol stories"Sevastopol in December 1854." He sent this last story to Sovremennik. Immediately printed, the story was eagerly read throughout Russia and made a stunning impression with its picture of the horrors that befell the defenders of Sevastopol. The story was noticed by Emperor Nicholas; he ordered to take care of the gifted officer, which, however, was impossible for Tolstoy, who did not want to go into the category of the “staff” he hated.

For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anne with the inscription “For bravery” and the medals “For the defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855” and “In memory of the war of 1853-1856.” Surrounded by the brilliance of fame and enjoying the reputation of a very brave officer, Tolstoy had every chance of a career, but he “ruined” it for himself. Almost the only time in my life (except for the “Connection” made for children different options epics in one" in his pedagogical works) he dabbled in poetry: he wrote a satirical song, in the manner of soldiers, about the unfortunate case 4 (August 16, 1855, when General Read, misunderstanding the order of the commander-in-chief, unwisely attacked the Fedyukhinsky heights. Song (As the fourth numbers, it was not easy for us to take away the mountains), which affected a number of important generals, was a huge success and, of course, harmed the author. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (September 8), Tolstoy was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he finished “Sevastopol in May 1855.” " and wrote "Sevastopol in August 1855."

“Sevastopol Stories” finally strengthened his reputation as a representative of a new literary generation.

Traveling around Europe

In St. Petersburg he was warmly welcomed both in high society salons and in literary circles; He became especially close friends with Turgenev, with whom he lived in the same apartment for a while. The latter introduced him to the circle of Sovremennik and other literary luminaries: he became on friendly terms with Nekrasov, Goncharov, Panaev, Grigorovich, Druzhinin, Sologub.

“After the hardships of Sevastopol, life in the capital had a double charm for a rich, cheerful, impressionable and sociable young man. Tolstoy spent whole days and even nights on drinking and gambling, carousing with gypsies” (Levenfeld).

At this time, “Blizzard”, “Two Hussars” were written, “Sevastopol in August” and “Youth” were completed, and the writing of the future “Cossacks” continued.

The cheerful life was not slow to leave a bitter aftertaste in Tolstoy’s soul, especially since he began to have a strong discord with the circle of writers close to him. As a result, “people became disgusted with him and he became disgusted with himself” - and at the beginning of 1857, Tolstoy left St. Petersburg without any regret and went abroad.

On his first trip abroad, he visited Paris, where he was horrified by the cult of Napoleon I (“The idolization of a villain, terrible”), at the same time he attends balls, museums, and is fascinated by the “sense of social freedom.” However, his presence at the guillotine made such a grave impression that Tolstoy left Paris and went to places associated with Rousseau - to Lake Geneva. At this time, Albert was writing a story and a story by Lucerne.

In the interval between the first and second trips, he continued to work on “Cossacks”, wrote Three Deaths and Family Happiness. It was at this time that Tolstoy almost died while on a bear hunt (December 22, 1858). He has an affair with the peasant woman Aksinya, and at the same time the need for marriage matures.

On his next trip, he was mainly interested in public education and institutions aimed at raising the educational level of the working population. He closely studied issues of public education in Germany and France, both theoretically and practically, and through conversations with specialists. Of the outstanding people in Germany, he was most interested in Auerbach, as the author of the “Black Forest Stories” dedicated to folk life and the publisher of folk calendars. Tolstoy paid him a visit and tried to get closer to him. During his stay in Brussels, Tolstoy met Proudhon and Lelewell. In London he visited Herzen and attended a lecture by Dickens.

Tolstoy’s serious mood during his second trip to the south of France was also facilitated by the fact that his beloved brother Nikolai died of tuberculosis in his arms. The death of his brother made a huge impression on Tolstoy.

Pedagogical activity

He returned to Russia soon after the liberation of the peasants and became a peace mediator. At that time they looked at the people as a younger brother who needed to be lifted up; Tolstoy thought, on the contrary, that the people are infinitely higher than the cultural classes and that the gentlemen need to borrow the heights of spirit from the peasants. He actively began setting up schools in his Yasnaya Polyana and throughout the Krapivensky district.

The Yasnaya Polyana school is one of the original pedagogical attempts: in the era of boundless admiration for the latest German pedagogy, Tolstoy resolutely rebelled against any regulation and discipline in school; the only method of teaching and education that he recognized was that no method was needed. Everything in teaching should be individual - both the teacher and the student, and their mutual relationships. At the Yasnaya Polyana school, the children sat where they wanted, as much as they wanted, and as they wanted. There was no specific teaching program. The teacher's only job was to get the class interested. The classes were going great. They were led by Tolstoy himself with the help of several regular teachers and several random ones, from his closest acquaintances and visitors.

Since 1862, he began publishing the pedagogical magazine “Yasnaya Polyana”, where he, again, was the main employee. In addition to theoretical articles, Tolstoy also wrote a number of stories, fables and adaptations. Combined together, Tolstoy's pedagogical articles made up an entire volume of his collected works. Hidden away in a very rarely circulated special magazine, they remained little noticed at the time. Nobody paid attention to the sociological basis of Tolstoy’s ideas about education, to the fact that Tolstoy saw only simplified and improved ways of exploiting the people by the upper classes in education, science, art and technological successes. Moreover, from Tolstoy’s attacks on European education and on the concept of “progress” that was favorite at that time, many seriously concluded that Tolstoy was a “conservative.”

This curious misunderstanding lasted for about 15 years, bringing closer to Tolstoy such a writer as organically opposite to him as N. N. Strakhov. Only in 1875, N.K. Mikhailovsky, in the article “The Hand and Shuyts of Count Tolstoy,” striking with the brilliance of his analysis and prediction of Tolstoy’s future activities, outlined the spiritual appearance of the most original of Russian writers in the present light. The little attention that was paid to Tolstoy's pedagogical articles is partly due to the fact that little attention was paid to them at that time.

Apollo Grigoriev had the right to title his article about Tolstoy (Time, 1862) “Phenomena modern literature, missed by our criticism." Having extremely cordially greeted Tolstoy’s debits and credits and “Sevastopol Tales”, recognizing in him the great hope of Russian literature (Druzhinin even used the epithet “genius” in relation to him), critics then 10-12 years before the appearance of “War and Peace” not only ceases to recognize him as a very important writer, but somehow grows cold towards him.

The stories and essays he wrote in the late 1850s include “Lucerne” and “Three Deaths.”

Family and offspring

At the end of the 1850s, he met Sofia Andreevna Bers (1844-1919), the daughter of a Moscow doctor from the Baltic Germans. He was already in his fourth decade, Sofya Andreevna was only 17 years old. On September 23, 1862, he married her, and the fullness of family happiness fell to his lot. In his wife, he found not only his most faithful and devoted friend, but also an irreplaceable assistant in all matters, practical and literary. For Tolstoy, the brightest period of his life begins - the intoxication of personal happiness, very significant thanks to the practicality of Sofia Andreevna, material well-being, outstanding, easily given tension of literary creativity and, in connection with it, unprecedented all-Russian and then worldwide fame.

However, Tolstoy's relationship with his wife was not cloudless. Quarrels often arose between them, including in connection with the lifestyle that Tolstoy chose for himself.

• Sergei (July 10, 1863 - December 23, 1947)
• Tatiana (October 4, 1864 - September 21, 1950). Since 1899 she has been married to Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin. In 1917-1923 she was the curator of the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate. In 1925 she emigrated with her daughter. Daughter Tatyana Mikhailovna Sukhotina-Albertini 1905-1996
• Ilya (May 22, 1866 - December 11, 1933)
• Leo (1869-1945)
• Maria (1871-1906) Buried in the village. Kochety, Krapivensky district. Since 1897 married to Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (1872-1934)
• Peter (1872-1873)
• Nicholas (1874-1875)
• Varvara (1875-1875)
• Andrey (1877-1916)
• Mikhail (1879-1944)
• Alexey (1881-1886)
• Alexandra (1884-1979)
• Ivan (1888-1895)

Creativity flourishes

During the first 10-12 years after his marriage, he created War and Peace and Anna Karenina. At the turn of this second era of Tolstoy’s literary life stand the works conceived back in 1852 and completed in 1861-1862. "Cossacks", the first of the works in which Tolstoy's great talent reached the proportions of a genius. For the first time in world literature, the difference was shown with such clarity and certainty between the brokenness of a cultured person, the absence of strong, clear moods in him - and the spontaneity of people close to nature.

Tolstoy showed that the peculiarity of people close to nature is not that they are good or bad. The heroes of Tolstoy’s works, the dashing horse thief Lukashka, a kind of dissolute girl Maryanka, and the drunkard Eroshka, cannot be called good. But they cannot be called bad, because they do not have the consciousness of evil; Eroshka is directly convinced that “there is no sin in anything”. Tolstoy's Cossacks are simply living people, in whom not a single mental movement is clouded by reflection. "Cossacks" were not assessed in a timely manner. At that time, everyone was too proud of “progress” and the success of civilization to be interested in how a representative of culture gave in to the force of the immediate spiritual movements of some semi-savages.

"War and Peace"

Unprecedented success befell War and Peace. Excerpt from a novel entitled "1805" appeared in the Russian Messenger of 1865; in 1868 three of its parts were published, which were soon followed by the remaining two.

Recognized by critics around the world as the greatest epic work new European literature, “War and Peace” amazes from a purely technical point of view with the size of its fictional canvas. Only in painting can one find some parallel in the huge paintings of Paolo Veronese in the Venetian Doge's Palace, where hundreds of faces are also painted with amazing clarity and individual expression. In Tolstoy's novel all classes of society are represented, from emperors and kings to the last soldier, all ages, all temperaments and throughout the entire reign of Alexander I.

"Anna Karenina"

The endlessly joyful rapture of the bliss of existence is no longer present in Anna Karenina, dating back to 1873-1876. There are still many gratifying experiences in almost autobiographical novel Levin and Kitty, but there is already so much bitterness in the depiction of Dolly’s family life, in the unhappy ending of the love of Anna Karenina and Vronsky, so much anxiety in Levin’s mental life that in general this novel is already a transition to the third period of Tolstoy’s literary activity.

In January 1871, Tolstoy sent a letter to A. A. Fet: “How happy I am... that I will never write verbose rubbish like “War” again”.

On December 6, 1908, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “People love me for those trifles - “War and Peace”, etc., which seem very important to them.”

In the summer of 1909, one of the visitors to Yasnaya Polyana expressed his delight and gratitude for the creation of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Tolstoy replied: “It’s the same as if someone came to Edison and said: “I really respect you because you dance the mazurka well.” I attribute meaning to completely different books of mine (religious ones!).”.

In the sphere of material interests, he began to say to himself: “Well, okay, you will have 6,000 acres in the Samara province - 300 heads of horses, and then?”; in the literary field: “Well, okay, you will be more famous than Gogol, Pushkin, Shakespeare, Moliere, all the writers in the world - so what!”. As he began to think about raising children, he asked himself: "For what?"; reasoning “about how the people can achieve prosperity,” he “suddenly said to himself: what does it matter to me?” In general, he “I felt that what he stood on had given way, that what he had lived on was no longer there”. The natural result was thoughts of suicide.

"I, happy man, hid the cord from myself so as not to hang myself on the crossbar between the closets in my room, where I was alone every day, undressing, and stopped going hunting with a gun so as not to be tempted by too easy a way to rid myself of life. I myself didn’t know what I wanted: I was afraid of life, I wanted to get away from it and, meanwhile, I hoped for something else from it.”

Other works

In March 1879, in the city of Moscow, Leo Tolstoy met Vasily Petrovich Shchegolenok and in the same year, at his invitation, he came to Yasnaya Polyana, where he stayed for about a month and a half. The Goldfinch told Tolstoy many folk tales and epics, of which more than twenty were written down by Tolstoy, and Tolstoy, if he didn’t write them down on paper, remembered the plots of some (these notes are published in Volume XLVIII of the Anniversary Edition of Tolstoy’s Works). Six works written by Tolstoy are based on legends and stories of Shchegolenok (1881 - “ How people live", 1885 - " Two old men" And " Three elders", 1905 - " Korney Vasiliev" And " Prayer", 1907 - " Old man in church"). In addition, Count Tolstoy diligently wrote down many sayings, proverbs, individual expressions and words told by the Goldfinch.

Literary criticism of Shakespeare's works

In his critical essay “On Shakespeare and Drama,” based on a detailed analysis of some of the most popular works Shakespeare, in particular: “King Lear”, “Othello”, “Falstaff”, “Hamlet”, etc. - Tolstoy sharply criticized Shakespeare’s abilities as a playwright.

Religious quest

To find an answer to the questions and doubts that tormented him, Tolstoy first of all took up the study of theology and wrote and published in 1891 in Geneva his “Study of Dogmatic Theology,” in which he criticized the “Orthodox Dogmatic Theology” of Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov). He had conversations with priests and monks, went to the elders in Optina Pustyn, and read theological treatises. To know the original sources in the original Christian teaching studied ancient Greek and ancient Hebrew (the Moscow rabbi Shlomo Minor helped him in studying the latter). At the same time, he looked closely at the schismatics, became close to the thoughtful peasant Syutaev, and talked with the Molokans and Stundists. Tolstoy also sought the meaning of life in the study of philosophy and in becoming familiar with the results of the exact sciences. He made a number of attempts at greater and greater simplification, striving to live a life close to nature and agricultural life.

Gradually, he abandons the whims and comforts of a rich life, does a lot of manual labor, dresses in simple clothes, becomes a vegetarian, gives his entire large fortune to his family, and renounces literary property rights. On this basis of unalloyed pure impulse and desire for moral improvement, the third period of Tolstoy’s literary activity is created, the distinctive feature of which is the denial of all established forms of state, social and religious life. A significant part of Tolstoy’s views could not receive open expression in Russia and were presented in full only in foreign editions of his religious and social treatises.

No unanimous attitude was established even in relation to Tolstoy’s fictional works written during this period. Thus, in a long series of short stories and legends, intended primarily for folk reading(“How people live”, etc.), Tolstoy, in the opinion of his unconditional admirers, reached the pinnacle of artistic power - that elemental mastery that is given only to folk tales, because they embody the creativity of an entire people. On the contrary, according to people who are indignant at Tolstoy for turning from an artist into a preacher, these artistic teachings, written for a specific purpose, are grossly tendentious. The lofty and terrible truth of “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, according to fans, placing this work along with the main works of the genius of Tolstoy, according to others, is deliberately harsh, deliberately sharply emphasizes soullessness upper strata society to show the moral superiority of the simple “kitchen man” Gerasim. The explosion of the most opposite feelings, caused by the analysis of marital relations and the indirect demand for abstinence from married life, in the “Kreutzer Sonata” made us forget about the amazing brightness and passion with which this story was written. Folk drama“The Power of Darkness,” according to Tolstoy’s admirers, is a great manifestation of his artistic power: within the tight framework of an ethnographic reproduction of Russian peasant life, Tolstoy was able to accommodate so many universal human traits that the drama with tremendous success went around all the stages of the world.

In his last major work, the novel “Resurrection,” he condemned judicial practice and high society life, and caricatured the clergy and worship.

Critics of the last phase of Tolstoy’s literary and preaching activity find that his artistic power certainly suffered from the predominance of theoretical interests and that creativity is now only needed by Tolstoy in order to propagate his socio-religious views in a publicly accessible form. In his aesthetic treatise (“On Art”) one can find enough material to declare Tolstoy an enemy of art: in addition to the fact that Tolstoy here in part completely denies, in part significantly belittles artistic value Dante, Raphael, Goethe, Shakespeare (at the performance of Hamlet he experienced “special suffering” for this “false likeness of works of art”), Beethoven and others, he directly comes to the conclusion that “the more we surrender to beauty, the more The more we move away from good.”

Excommunication

Belonging by birth and baptism to the Orthodox Church, Tolstoy, like most representatives of the educated society of his time, was indifferent to religious issues in his youth and youth. In the mid-1870s, he showed increased interest in the teachings and worship of the Orthodox Church. The turning point for him from the teachings of the Orthodox Church was the second half of 1879. In the 1880s, he took a position of unambiguously critical attitude towards church doctrine, the clergy, and official church life. The publication of some of Tolstoy's works was prohibited by spiritual and secular censorship. In 1899, Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection” was published, in which the author showed the life of various social strata in contemporary Russia; the clergy were depicted mechanically and hastily performing rituals, and some took the cold and cynical Toporov for a caricature of K. P. Pobedonostsev, Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod.

In February 1901, the Synod finally decided to publicly condemn Tolstoy and declare him outside the church. Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky) played an active role in this. As it appears in the Chamber-Fourier journals, on February 22, Pobedonostsev visited Nicholas II in the Winter Palace and talked with him for about an hour. Some historians believe that Pobedonostsev came to the Tsar directly from the Synod with a ready-made definition.

On February 24 (Old Art.), 1901, in the official organ of the Synod, “Church Gazette published under the Holy Governing Senod” was published “Definition of the Holy Synod of February 20-22, 1901 No. 557, with a message to the faithful children of the Greek Orthodox Church about Count Leo Tolstoy”:

In his “Response to the Synod,” Leo Tolstoy confirmed his break with the Church: “The fact that I renounced the church, which calls itself Orthodox, is absolutely fair. But I renounced it not because I rebelled against the Lord, but on the contrary, only because I wanted to serve him with all the strength of my soul.” However, Tolstoy objected to the charges brought against him in the resolution of the synod: “The resolution of the synod in general has many shortcomings. It is illegal or deliberately ambiguous; it is arbitrary, unfounded, untruthful and, in addition, contains slander and incitement to bad feelings and actions.” In the text of his “Response to the Synod,” Tolstoy reveals these theses in detail, recognizing a number of significant discrepancies between the dogmas of the Orthodox Church and his own understanding of the teachings of Christ.

The Synodal definition caused outrage among a certain part of society; Numerous letters and telegrams were sent to Tolstoy expressing sympathy and support. At the same time, this definition provoked a flow of letters from another part of society - with threats and abuse.

At the end of February 2001, the count's great-grandson Vladimir Tolstoy, manager of the writer's museum-estate in Yasnaya Polyana, sent a letter to Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' with a request to revise the synodal definition; in an unofficial interview on television, the Patriarch said: “We cannot reconsider now, because after all, it is possible to reconsider if a person changes his position.” In March 2009, Vl. Tolstoy expressed his opinion about the significance of the synodal act: “I studied documents, read newspapers of that time, and became acquainted with the materials of public discussions around excommunication. And I had the feeling that this act gave a signal for a total split Russian society. The reigning family, the highest aristocracy, and landed nobility, and the intelligentsia, and the common strata, and ordinary people. A crack has passed through the body of the entire Russian, Russian people.”

Moscow census of 1882. L. N. Tolstoy - census participant

The 1882 census in Moscow is famous for the fact that the great writer Count L.N. Tolstoy took part in it. Lev Nikolaevich wrote: “I proposed to use the census in order to find out poverty in Moscow and help it with deeds and money, and make sure that there are no poor people in Moscow.”

Tolstoy believed that the interest and significance of the census for society is that it gives it a mirror into which, like it or not, the whole society and each of us can look. He chose one of the most difficult and difficult sites, Protochny Lane, where the shelter was located; among the Moscow chaos, this gloomy two-story building was called “Rzhanova Fortress.” Having received the order from the Duma, Tolstoy, a few days before the census, began to walk around the site according to the plan that was given to him. Indeed, the dirty shelter, filled with beggars and desperate people who had sunk to the very bottom, served as a mirror for Tolstoy, reflecting the terrible poverty of the people. Under the fresh impression of what he saw, L. N. Tolstoy wrote his famous article “On the Census in Moscow.” In this article he writes:

Despite the good goals of the census declared by Tolstoy, the population was suspicious of this event. On this occasion, Tolstoy writes: “When they explained to us that the people had already learned about the bypass of the apartments and were leaving, we asked the owner to lock the gate, and we ourselves went into the yard to persuade the people who were leaving.” Lev Nikolaevich hoped to arouse sympathy among the rich for urban poverty, collect money, recruit people who wanted to contribute to this cause and, together with the census, go through all the dens of poverty. In addition to fulfilling the duties of a copyist, the writer wanted to enter into communication with the unfortunate, find out the details of their needs and help them with money and work, expulsion from Moscow, placing children in schools, old men and women in shelters and almshouses.

According to the census results, the population of Moscow in 1882 was 753.5 thousand people and only 26% were born in Moscow, and the rest were “newcomers”. Of the Moscow residential apartments, 57% faced the street, 43% faced the courtyard. From the 1882 census we can find out that in 63% the head of the household is a married couple, in 23% it is the wife, and only in 14% it is the husband. The census noted 529 families with 8 or more children. 39% have servants and most often they are women.

Last years of life. Death and funeral

In October 1910, fulfilling his decision to live his last years in accordance with his views, he secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. He began his last journey at Kozlova Zaseka station; On the way, he fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to make a stop at the small station of Astapovo (now Lev Tolstoy, Lipetsk region), where he died on November 7 (20).

On November 10 (23), 1910, he was buried in Yasnaya Polyana, on the edge of a ravine in the forest, where as a child he and his brother were looking for a “green stick” that held the “secret” of how to make all people happy.

In January 1913, a letter from Countess Sophia Tolstoy dated December 22, 1912 was published, in which she confirms the news in the press that his funeral service was performed at the grave of her husband by a certain priest (she refutes rumors that he was not real) in her presence. In particular, the countess wrote: “I also declare that Lev Nikolaevich never once before his death expressed a desire not to be buried, and earlier he wrote in his diary in 1895, as if a will: “If possible, then (bury) without priests and funeral services. But if this will be unpleasant for those who will bury, then let them bury as usual, but as cheaply and simply as possible."

There is also unofficial version death of Leo Tolstoy, described in exile by I.K. Sursky from the words of a Russian police official. According to it, the writer, before his death, wanted to reconcile with the church and came to Optina Pustyn for this. Here he awaited the order of the Synod, but, feeling unwell, was taken away by his arriving daughter and died at the Astapovo post station.

Philosophy

Tolstoy's religious and moral imperatives were the source of the Tolstoyanism movement, one of the fundamental theses of which is the thesis of “non-resistance to evil by force.” The latter, according to Tolstoy, is recorded in a number of places in the Gospel and is the core of the teachings of Christ, as well as Buddhism. The essence of Christianity, according to Tolstoy, can be expressed in a simple rule: “ Be kind and do not resist evil with force».

The position of non-resistance, which gave rise to controversy in the philosophical community, was opposed, in particular, by I. A. Ilyin in his work “On Resistance to Evil by Force” (1925)

Criticism of Tolstoy and Tolstoyism

• Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod Pobedonostsev, in his private letter dated February 18, 1887, to Emperor Alexander III, wrote about Tolstoy’s drama “The Power of Darkness”: “I have just read L. Tolstoy’s new drama and cannot come to my senses from horror. And they assure me that they are preparing to perform it at the Imperial Theaters and are already learning the roles. I don’t know anything like this in any literature. It is unlikely that Zola himself reached the level of crude realism that Tolstoy reaches here. The day on which Tolstoy's drama will be presented at the Imperial Theaters will be the day decisive fall our scene, which has already fallen very low.”

• The leader of the extreme left wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin), after the revolutionary unrest of 1905-1907, wrote, while in forced emigration, in the work “Leo Tolstoy as a Mirror of the Russian Revolution” (1908): “Tolstoy ridiculous, like a prophet who discovered new recipes for the salvation of mankind - and therefore the foreign and Russian “Tolstoyites” who wanted to turn into dogma precisely the weakest side of his teaching are completely miserable. Tolstoy is great as an exponent of those ideas and those sentiments that had developed among millions of the Russian peasantry at the time of the onset of the bourgeois revolution in Russia. Tolstoy is original, because the totality of his views, taken as a whole, expresses precisely the features of our revolution, as a peasant bourgeois revolution. The contradictions in Tolstoy’s views, from this point of view, are a real mirror of the contradictory conditions in which historical activity peasantry in our revolution. "
• Russian religious philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev wrote at the beginning of 1918: “L. Tolstoy must be recognized as the greatest Russian nihilist, the destroyer of all values ​​and shrines, the destroyer of culture. Tolstoy triumphed, his anarchism, his non-resistance, his denial of state and culture, his moralistic demand for equality in poverty and non-existence and subordination to the peasant kingdom and physical labor triumphed. But this triumph of Tolstoyism turned out to be less meek and beautiful-hearted than Tolstoy imagined. It is unlikely that he himself would have rejoiced at such a triumph. The godless nihilism of Tolstoyism, its terrible poison that destroys the Russian soul, is exposed. To save Russia and Russian culture, Tolstoy’s morality, low and destructive, must be burned out of the Russian soul with a hot iron.”

His article “Spirits of the Russian Revolution” (1918): “There is nothing prophetic in Tolstoy, he did not foresee or predict anything. As an artist, he is drawn to the crystallized past. He did not have that sensitivity to the dynamism of human nature that Dostoevsky had to the highest degree. But in the Russian revolution, it is not Tolstoy’s artistic insights that triumph, but his moral assessments. There are few Tolstoyans in the narrow sense of the word who share Tolstoy’s doctrine, and they represent an insignificant phenomenon. But Tolstoyism in the broad, non-doctrinal sense of the word is very characteristic of Russian people; it determines Russian moral assessments. Tolstoy was not a direct teacher of the Russian left-wing intelligentsia; Tolstoy’s religious teaching was alien to them. But Tolstoy grasped and expressed the peculiarities of the moral make-up of the majority of the Russian intelligentsia, perhaps even the Russian intellectual, perhaps even the Russian person in general. And the Russian revolution represents a kind of triumph of Tolstoyism. It is imprinted both by Russian Tolstoy's moralism and Russian immorality. This Russian moralism and this Russian immorality are interconnected and are two sides of the same disease of moral consciousness. Tolstoy managed to instill in the Russian intelligentsia a hatred of everything historically individual and historically divergent. He was an exponent of that side of Russian nature that had an aversion to historical power and historical glory. It was he who taught us to moralize over history in an elementary and simplified way and to transfer the moral categories of individual life to historical life. By doing this, he morally undermined the opportunity for the Russian people to live historical life, fulfill its historical destiny and historical mission. He morally prepared the historical suicide of the Russian people. He clipped the wings of the Russian people as a historical people, morally poisoned the sources of any impulse towards historical creativity. World War Russia lost because Tolstoy’s moral assessment of the war prevailed. The Russian people, in a terrible hour of world struggle, were weakened by Tolstoy’s moral assessments, in addition to betrayals and animal egoism. Tolstoy’s morality disarmed Russia and gave it into the hands of the enemy.”

• V. Mayakovsky, D. Burliuk, V. Khlebnikov, A. Kruchenykh, called for “throwing L.N. Tolstoy and others from the ship of modernity” in the 1912 Futurist manifesto “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste”
• George Orwell defended W. Shakespeare against criticism of Tolstoy

• Researcher of the history of Russian theological thought and culture Georgy Florovsky (1937): “There is one decisive contradiction in Tolstoy’s experience. He undoubtedly had the temperament of a preacher or a moralist, but he had no religious experience at all. Tolstoy was not religious at all, he was religiously mediocre. Tolstoy did not derive his “Christian” worldview from the Gospel. He already checks the Gospel with his own view, and that is why he cuts it down and adapts it so easily. For him, the Gospel is a book compiled many centuries ago by “poorly educated and superstitious people,” and it cannot be accepted in its entirety. But Tolstoy does not mean scientific criticism, but simply personal choice or selection. In some strange way, Tolstoy seemed to be mentally late in the 18th century, and therefore found himself outside of history and modernity. And he deliberately leaves modernity for some far-fetched past. All his work is in this regard some kind of continuous moralistic Robinsonade. Annenkov also called Tolstoy's mind sectarian. There is a striking discrepancy between the aggressive maximalism of Tolstoy's socio-ethical denunciations and denials and the extreme poverty of his positive moral teaching. For him, all morality comes down to common sense and everyday prudence. “Christ teaches us exactly how we can get rid of our misfortunes and live happily.” And this is what the whole Gospel boils down to! Here Tolstoy’s insensibility becomes creepy, and “ common sense“ turns into madness... The main contradiction of Tolstoy is precisely that for him the untruth of life can be overcome, strictly speaking, only abandonment of history, only by leaving the culture and simplifying, that is, by removing questions and abandoning tasks. Tolstoy's moralism turns around historical nihilism.»

• The holy righteous John of Kronstadt sharply criticized Tolstoy (see “Response of Father John of Kronstadt to Count L.N. Tolstoy’s appeal to the clergy”), and in his dying diary (August 15 - October 2, 1908) he wrote:

"24 August. How long, O Lord, do you tolerate the worst atheist who has confused the whole world, Leo Tolstoy? How long do you not call him to Thy Judgment? Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward will be with Me, and will He reward everyone according to his deeds? (Rev. 22:12) Where, the earth is tired of tolerating his blasphemy. -»
"6 September. Where, do not allow Leo Tolstoy, the heretic who surpassed all heretics, to reach the feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, whom he terribly blasphemed and blasphemes. Take him from the ground - this stinking corpse, which stinks the whole earth with its pride. Amen. 9 pm."

• In 2009, as part of a court case regarding the liquidation of the local religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses "Taganrog", a forensic examination was carried out, in the conclusion of which Leo Tolstoy's statement was cited: "I am convinced that the teaching of the [Russian Orthodox] Church is theoretically an insidious and harmful lie, practically “the same collection of the grossest superstitions and witchcraft, completely hiding the entire meaning of Christian teaching,” which was characterized as forming a negative attitude towards the Russian Orthodox Church, and L. N. Tolstoy himself was described as “an opponent of Russian Orthodoxy.”

Expert assessment of individual statements of Tolstoy

• In 2009, as part of a court case on the liquidation of the local religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses "Taganrog", a forensic examination of the organization's literature was carried out to determine whether it contained signs of inciting religious hatred, undermining respect and hostility towards other religions. The expert report noted that the Awake! contains (without specifying the source) a statement by Leo Tolstoy: “I am convinced that the teaching of the [Russian Orthodox] Church is theoretically an insidious and harmful lie, practically a collection of the grossest superstitions and witchcraft, hiding the entire meaning of Christian teaching,” which was characterized as formative a negative attitude and undermining respect for the Russian Orthodox Church, and L.N. Tolstoy himself - as an “opponent of Russian Orthodoxy.”

• In March 2010, in the Kirov Court of Yekaterinburg, Leo Tolstoy was accused of “inciting religious hatred against the Orthodox Church.” An expert on extremism, Pavel Suslonov, testified: “Leo Tolstoy’s leaflets “Preface to the “Soldier’s Memo” and “Officer’s Memo”,” directed to soldiers, sergeant majors and officers, contain direct calls to incite interreligious hatred directed against the Orthodox Church.”

Bibliography

Translators of Tolstoy

• In Azerbaijani language - Dadash-zade, Mammad Arif Maharram oglu
• Into English - Constance Garnett, Leo Wiener, Aylmer and Louise Maude
• On Bulgarian language— Sava Nichev, Georgi Shopov, Hristo Dosev
• In Spanish - Selma Ancira
• Into Kazakh - Ibray Altynsarin
• Into Malay - Viktor Pogadaev
• In Norwegian - Martin Gran, Olaf Broch, Marta Grundt
• In French - Michel Aucouturier, Vladimir Lvovich Binshtok
• In Esperanto - Valentin Melnikov, Viktor Sapozhnikov
• On Japanese— Konishi Masutaro

World recognition. Memory

Museums

In the former Yasnaya Polyana estate there is a museum dedicated to his life and work.

Main literary exhibition about his life and work - in State Museum L.N. Tolstoy, in the former house of the Lopukhins-Stanitskaya (Moscow, Prechistenka 11); its branches also: at the Lev Tolstoy station (former Astapovo station), the memorial museum-estate of L. N. Tolstoy “Khamovniki” (Lva Tolstoy Street, 21), an exhibition hall on Pyatnitskaya.

Scientists, cultural figures, politicians about L. N. Tolstoy

Film adaptations of his works

• "Resurrection"(English) Resurrection, 1909, UK). A 12-minute silent film based on the novel of the same name (filmed during the writer’s lifetime).
• "Power of Darkness"(1909, Russia). Silent film.
• "Anna Karenina"(1910, Germany). Silent film.
• "Anna Karenina"(1911, Russia). Silent film. Dir. - Maurice Maitre
• "Living Dead"(1911, Russia). Silent film.
• "War and Peace"(1913, Russia). Silent film.
• "Anna Karenina"(1914, Russia). Silent film. Dir. - V. Gardin
• "Anna Karenina"(1915, USA). Silent film.
• "Power of Darkness"(1915, Russia). Silent film.
• "War and Peace"(1915, Russia). Silent film. Dir. - Y. Protazanov, V. Gardin
• "Natasha Rostova"(1915, Russia). Silent film. Producer - A. Khanzhonkov. Starring: V. Polonsky, I. Mozzhukhin
• "Living Dead"(1916). Silent film.
• "Anna Karenina"(1918, Hungary). Silent film.
• "Power of Darkness"(1918, Russia). Silent film.
• "Living Dead"(1918). Silent film.
• "Father Sergius"(1918, RSFSR). Silent film film by Yakov Protazanov, starring Ivan Mozzhukhin
• "Anna Karenina"(1919, Germany). Silent film.
• "Polikushka"(1919, USSR). Silent film.
• "Love"(1927, USA. Based on the novel “Anna Karenina”). Silent film. As Anna - Greta Garbo
• "Living Dead"(1929, USSR). Starring: V. Pudovkin
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1935, USA). Sound film. As Anna - Greta Garbo
• « Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1948, UK). As Anna - Vivien Leigh
• "War and Peace"(War & Peace, 1956, USA, Italy). As Natasha Rostova - Audrey Hepburn
• "Agi Murad il diavolo bianco"(1959, Italy, Yugoslavia). As Hadji Murat - Steve Reeves
• "People too"(1959, USSR, based on a fragment of “War and Peace”). Dir. G. Danelia, starring V. Sanaev, L. Durov
• "Resurrection"(1960, USSR). Dir. - M. Schweitzer
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1961, USA). As Vronsky - Sean Connery
• "Cossacks"(1961, USSR). Dir. - V. Pronin
• "Anna Karenina"(1967, USSR). In the role of Anna - Tatiana Samoilova
• "War and Peace"(1968, USSR). Dir. - S. Bondarchuk
• "Living Dead"(1968, USSR). In ch. roles - A. Batalov
• "War and Peace"(War & Peace, 1972, UK). Series. As Pierre - Anthony Hopkins
• "Father Sergius"(1978, USSR). Feature film by Igor Talankin, starring Sergei Bondarchuk
• "Caucasian Tale"(1978, USSR, based on the story “Cossacks”). In ch. roles - V. Konkin
• "Money"(1983, France-Switzerland, based on the story “False Coupon”). Dir. - Robert Bresson
• "Two Hussars"(1984, USSR). Dir. - Vyacheslav Krishtofovich
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1985, USA). As Anna - Jacqueline Bisset
• "A Simple Death"(1985, USSR, based on the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”). Dir. - A. Kaidanovsky
• "Kreutzer Sonata"(1987, USSR). Starring: Oleg Yankovsky
• "For what?" (Za co?, 1996, Poland / Russia). Dir. - Jerzy Kawalerowicz
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1997, USA). In the role of Anna - Sophie Marceau, Vronsky - Sean Bean
• "Anna Karenina"(2007, Russia). In the role of Anna - Tatiana Drubich

For more details, see also: List of film adaptations of “Anna Karenina” 1910-2007.

• "War and Peace"(2007, Germany, Russia, Poland, France, Italy). Series. In the role of Andrei Bolkonsky - Alessio Boni.

Documentary

• "Lev Tolstoy". Documentary. TsSDF (RTSSDF). 1953. 47 minutes.

Movies about Leo Tolstoy

• "The Passing of the Great Elder"(1912, Russia). Director - Yakov Protazanov
• "Lev Tolstoy"(1984, USSR, Czechoslovakia). Director - S. Gerasimov
• "The Last Station"(2008). In the role of L. Tolstoy - Christopher Plummer, in the role of Sofia Tolstoy - Helen Mirren. A film about the last days of the writer's life.

Portrait gallery

Translators of Tolstoy

• Into Japanese - Konishi Masutaro
• In French - Michel Aucouturier, Vladimir Lvovich Binshtok
• In Spanish - Selma Ancira
• Into English - Constance Garnett, Leo Wiener, Aylmer and Louise Maude
• In Norwegian - Martin Gran, Olaf Broch, Marta Grundt
• Into Bulgarian - Sava Nichev, Georgi Shopov, Hristo Dosev
• Into Kazakh - Ibray Altynsarin
• Into Malay - Viktor Pogadaev
• In Esperanto - Valentin Melnikov, Viktor Sapozhnikov
• Into Azerbaijani - Dadash-zade, Mammad Arif Maharram oglu