A brief biography of the fat lion Nikolaevich - childhood and youth, the search for his place in life. Leo Tolstoy A detailed biography of Tolstoy

Biography

Origin

Education

Military career

Travel Europe

Pedagogical activity

Family and offspring

The heyday of creativity

"War and Peace"

"Anna Karenina"

Other works

religious quest

Excommunication

Philosophy

Bibliography

Tolstoy's translators

World recognition. Memory

Screen versions of his works

Documentary

Movies about Leo Tolstoy

Gallery of portraits

Tolstoy's translators

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

The ideas of nonviolent resistance that L. N. Tolstoy expressed in his work “The Kingdom of God is within you” influenced Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

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 appointed head of the Secret Chancellery. The features of the great-grandson of Peter Andreevich, Ilya Andreevich, are given in War and Peace to the most 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 biography facts, he was similar to Nikolenka's father in "Childhood" and "Boyhood" and partly to Nikolai Rostov in "War and Peace". However, in real life, Nikolai Ilyich differed from Nikolai Rostov not only in his good education, but also in his convictions, which did not allow him to serve under Nikolai. A participant in the foreign campaign of the Russian army, including participating in the “battle of the peoples” 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 to official service so as not to end up in a debtor's prison because of the debts of his father, the Kazan governor, who died under investigation for official abuse. For several years, Nikolai Ilyich had to save money. The negative example of his father helped Nikolai Ilyich work out his life ideal - a private independent life with family joys. To put his frustrated 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", but 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, possessed a wonderful gift for storytelling, for which, with her shyness passed on to her son, she had to lock herself with a large number of listeners who gathered around her in a dark room.

In addition to the Volkonskys, Leo Tolstoy was closely related to some other aristocratic families: the princes Gorchakov, Trubetskoy and others.

Childhood

Born on August 28, 1828 in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province, in the hereditary estate of his mother - 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 upbringing of orphaned children. In 1837, the family moved to Moscow, settling on Plyushchikha, because the eldest son had to prepare for entering the university, but soon his father died suddenly, leaving his affairs (including some litigation related to the family's property) in an unfinished state, and the three younger children again settled in Yasnaya Polyana under the supervision of Yergolskaya and her paternal aunt, Countess A. M. Osten-Saken, who was appointed guardian of the children. Here Lev Nikolaevich remained until 1840, when Countess Osten-Saken died and the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian - the father's sister P. I. Yushkova.

The Yushkovs' house, somewhat provincial in style, but typically secular, was one of the most cheerful in Kazan; all members of the family highly valued external brilliance. "My good aunt- says Tolstoy, - the purest being, always said that she would want nothing more for me than that I 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 the reputation of a young man; but he had no external data for that: he was ugly, as it seemed to him, awkward, and, moreover, he was hampered by natural shyness. Everything that is said in adolescence" And " Youth” about the aspirations of Irtenyev and Nekhlyudov for self-improvement, taken by Tolstoy from the history of his own ascetic attempts. The most diverse, as Tolstoy himself defines them, "thinking" about the main issues of our existence - happiness, death, God, love, eternity - painfully tormented him in that era of life, when his peers and brothers devoted themselves entirely to the fun, 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", as it seemed to him, "destroying the freshness of feeling and clarity of mind" (" Youth»).

Education

Did his education go at 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 of Karl Ivanovich.

At the age of 15, in 1843, following his brother Dmitry, he entered the number of students of Kazan University, where Lobachevsky was a professor at the mathematical faculty, and Kovalevsky was a professor at the Vostochny. Until 1847, he was preparing to enter the Oriental Faculty, the only one in Russia at that time, in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. At the entrance exams, in particular, he showed excellent results in the obligatory "Turkish-Tatar language" for admission.

Due to a conflict between his family and a teacher of Russian history and German, a certain Ivanov, according to the results of the year, he had poor progress in the relevant subjects and had to re-take the first-year program. In order to avoid a complete repetition of the course, he moved to the Faculty of Law, where his problems with grades in Russian history and German continued. The last one was attended by the eminent 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". Nothing came of this, however. Leo Tolstoy spent less than two years at the Faculty of Law: “It was always difficult for him to have any education imposed by others, and everything he learned in life, he learned himself, suddenly, quickly, with hard work,” Tolstaya writes in her “Materials to biographies of L. N. Tolstoy”.

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

The beginning of literary activity

Having left 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 relations with the peasants in a new way.

I followed journalism very little; although his attempt to somehow smooth over the guilt of the nobility before the people dates back to the same year when Grigorovich's "Anton Goremyk" and the beginning of Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter" appeared, but this is a mere accident. If there were literary influences here, they were of a 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; managed to follow only a small number of them. Among the successful ones are serious studies in English, music, and jurisprudence. In addition, neither the diary nor the letters reflected the beginning of Tolstoy's studies in pedagogy and charity - in 1849 he opened a school for peasant children for the first time. 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 an exam for a candidate of rights; he passed two exams, from criminal law and criminal proceedings, but he did not take the third exam and went to the village.

Later, he traveled to Moscow, where he often succumbed to the passion for the game, which greatly upset 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). Exaggerated in relation to most people, the description of the effect that “passionate” music produces, the author of the Kreutzer Sonata, drew 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 he performed in the early 1900s with the composer Taneyev, 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 misguided German musician, whom he later described in Alberta. Tolstoy had the idea to save him: he took him to Yasnaya Polyana and played a lot with him. A lot of time was also spent on carousing, playing and hunting.

In the winter of 1850-1851 began to write "Childhood". In March 1851 he wrote The History of Yesterday.

So 4 years passed after leaving the university, when Tolstoy's brother, Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, came to Yasnaya Polyana and began to call 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. To pay off, it was necessary to reduce their expenses to a minimum - and in the spring of 1851 Tolstoy hurriedly left Moscow for the Caucasus, at first without any specific goal. Soon he decided to enter the military service, but there were obstacles in the form of a lack of necessary papers that were difficult to obtain, and Tolstoy lived for about 5 months in complete seclusion 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 "The Cossacks", appearing there under the name Eroshka.

In the autumn of 1851, having passed an exam in Tiflis, Tolstoy entered the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladovo, on the banks of the Terek, near Kizlyar, as a cadet. With a slight change in detail, she is depicted in all her semi-wild originality in The Cossacks. The same "Cossacks" will 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 is the desire to heal the wounds of pride, taken out of the pursuit of success in this "empty" way of life, there is also a heavy consciousness of misdeeds against the strict requirements of true morality.

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

The relatively late beginning of the career is very characteristic of Tolstoy: he was never a professional writer, understanding professionalism not in the sense of a profession that provides a livelihood, but in a 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 quite ripe, but in ordinary times he is a secular person, 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, he 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, it did not come out of a book 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 takes up the continuation of the trilogy, and plans for “Morning of the landowner”, “Raid”, “Cossacks” are swarming in his head. Published in Sovremennik in 1852, Childhood, signed with the modest initials L. N. T., was an extraordinary success; the author immediately began to be ranked among the luminaries of the young literary school, along with Turgenev, Goncharov, Grigorovich, Ostrovsky, who already enjoyed loud literary fame at that time. Criticism - Apollon Grigoriev, Annenkov, Druzhinin, Chernyshevsky - appreciated the depth of psychological analysis, the seriousness of the author's intentions, and the bright convexity of realism, with all the veracity of the vividly grasped details of real life, alien to any kind of vulgarity.

Tolstoy remained in the Caucasus for two years, participating in many skirmishes with the highlanders and being exposed to all the dangers of a military life in the Caucasus. He had the rights and claims to the St. George Cross, but did not receive it, which, apparently, was upset. 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 was in Sevastopol.

Tolstoy lived for a long time on the terrible 4th bastion, commanded a battery in the battle of Chernaya, was during the hellish bombardment during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan. Despite all the horrors of the siege, Tolstoy wrote at that time a combat story from the Caucasian life "Cutting down the forest" and the first of the three "Sevastopol stories" "Sevastopol in December 1854". He sent this last story to Sovremennik. Immediately printed, the story was eagerly read by all of Russia and made a stunning impression with a 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 Courage" 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, using the reputation of a very brave officer, Tolstoy had every chance of a career, but he “spoiled” it for himself. Almost the only time in his life (except for the “Combining different versions of epics into one” made for children in his pedagogical writings) he indulged in poetry: he wrote a satirical song, in the manner of soldiers, about an unfortunate deed 4 (August 16, 1855, when General Read, having misunderstood the order of the commander-in-chief, imprudently attacked the Fedyukhin Heights, the song (Like on the fourth day, it was not easy to take the mountains off us), which offended a number of important generals, was a huge success and, of course, damaged the author. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (8 September) Tolstoy was sent by courier to 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.

Travel 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 at one time he lived in the same apartment. The latter introduced him to the Sovremennik circle 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 parties and cards, carousing with gypsies” (Levenfeld).

At this time, "Snowstorm", "Two Hussars" were written, "Sevastopol in August" and "Youth" were completed, the writing of future "Cossacks" was continued.

A cheerful life was not slow to leave a bitter aftertaste in Tolstoy's soul, especially since he began to have a strong discord with a circle of writers close to him. As a result, "people got sick of him and he got sick of himself" - and at the beginning of 1857 Tolstoy, without any regret, left Petersburg and went abroad.

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

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

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 the issues of public education in Germany and France, both theoretically and practically, and through conversations with specialists. Of the outstanding people of Germany, he was most interested in Auerbach, as the author of the Black Forest Tales dedicated to folk life and the publisher of folk calendars. Tolstoy paid him a visit and tried to get close to him. During his stay in Brussels, Tolstoy met Proudhon and Lelewel. In London he visited Herzen, was at 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 shortly after the liberation of the peasants and became a 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 masters must borrow the heights of spirit from the peasants. He was actively engaged in organizing schools in his Yasnaya Polyana and in the entire Krapivensky district.

The Yasnaya Polyana school belongs to the number of original pedagogical attempts: in an era of boundless admiration for the latest German pedagogy, Tolstoy resolutely rebelled against any regulation and discipline in the 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 relationship. In the Yasnaya Polyana school, the children sat where they wanted, for as long as they wanted, and for as long as they wanted. There was no specific curriculum. The teacher's only job was to keep the class interested. The classes were going great. They were led by Tolstoy himself with the help of several permanent teachers and a few random ones, from the closest acquaintances and visitors.

Since 1862, he began to publish the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana, where again he himself was the main employee. In addition to theoretical articles, Tolstoy also wrote a number of stories, fables and adaptations. Put together, Tolstoy's pedagogical articles made up an entire volume of his collected works. Hidden in a very little-spread special magazine, they at one time remained little noticed. No one paid attention to the sociological basis of Tolstoy's ideas about education, to the fact that Tolstoy saw in education, science, art, and the successes of technology only facilitated and improved ways of exploiting the people by the upper classes. Not only that: from Tolstoy's attacks on European education and on the concept of “progress”, which was beloved at that time, many seriously concluded that Tolstoy was a “conservative”.

This curious misunderstanding lasted for about 15 years, bringing together with Tolstoy such a writer, for example, as organically opposed to him, as N. N. Strakhov. Only in 1875, N. K. Mikhailovsky, in the article “The Right Hand and Schuytsa of Count Tolstoy”, striking with the brilliance of analysis and foreseeing Tolstoy’s future activities, described the spiritual image of the most original of Russian writers in a real light. The little attention that was paid to Tolstoy's pedagogical articles is partly due to the fact that little attention was paid to him at that time.

Apollon Grigoriev had the right to title his article on Tolstoy (Vremya, 1862) "Phenomena of Modern Literature Missed by Our Criticism." Having extremely cordially met Tolstoy's debits and credits and "Sevastopol Tales", recognizing in him the great hope of Russian literature (Druzhinin even used the epithet "brilliant" in relation to him), criticism then for 10-12 years, until the appearance of "War and Peace", not only ceases to recognize him as a very important writer, but somehow grows cold towards him.

Among the stories and essays he wrote in the late 1850s are "Lucerne" and "Three Deaths".

Family and offspring

In the late 1850s, he met Sophia 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 the person of his wife, he found not only the most faithful and devoted friend, but also an indispensable assistant in all matters, practical and literary. For Tolstoy, the brightest period of his life is coming - an intoxication with personal happiness, very significant thanks to the practicality of Sofya Andreevna, material well-being, an outstanding, easily given tension of literary creativity and, in connection with it, unprecedented fame all-Russian, and then worldwide.

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 of Krapivensky district. From 1897 married to Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (1872-1934)
• Peter (1872-1873)
• Nicholas (1874-1875)
• Barbara (1875-1875)
• Andrei (1877-1916)
• Mikhail (1879-1944)
• Alexey (1881-1886)
• Alexandra (1884-1979)
• Ivan (1888-1895)

The heyday of creativity

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

Tolstoy showed that it is not at all the peculiarity of people close to nature that they are good or bad. It is impossible to call good heroes of the works of the fat dashing horse thief Lukashka, a kind of dissolute girl Maryanka, a drunkard Eroshka. But they cannot be called bad either, because they have no consciousness of evil; Eroshka is directly convinced that "nothing is wrong". Tolstoy's Cossacks are simply living people, in whom not a single spiritual movement is obscured by reflection. "Cossacks" were not evaluated in a timely manner. At that time, everyone was too proud of the “progress” and success of civilization to be interested in how a representative of culture gave in to the power of direct spiritual movements of some semi-savages.

"War and Peace"

Unprecedented success fell to the lot of "War and Peace". An excerpt from a novel entitled "1805" appeared in the "Russian Messenger" in 1865; in 1868, three of its parts were published, followed soon by the other two.

Recognized by the critics of the whole world as the greatest epic work of new European literature, "War and Peace" amazes already 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 by Paolo Veronese in the Doge's Palace in Venice, where hundreds of faces are also painted with amazing distinctness 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 infinitely joyful intoxication with the bliss of being is no longer in Anna Karenina, dating from 1873-1876. There is still much gratifying experience in the almost autobiographical novel by Levin and Kitty, but there is already so much bitterness in the depiction of Dolly's family life, in the unfortunate end of the love of Anna Karenina and Vronsky, so much anxiety in Levin's spiritual life that in general this novel is already a transition to the third period. literary activity of Tolstoy.

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 like someone came to Edison and said:“ I really respect you for the fact that you are good at dancing the mazurka. I attribute meaning to my very different books (religious ones!)”.

In the sphere of material interests, he began to say to himself: “Well, well, you will have 6,000 acres in the Samara province - 300 heads of horses, and then?”; in the field of literature: “Well, well, you will be more glorious than Gogol, Pushkin, Shakespeare, Moliere, all the writers in the world - so what!”. Starting 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 “felt that what he stood on had given way, that what he lived by was gone”. The natural result was the thought of suicide.

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

Other works

In March 1879, in the city of Moscow, Leo Tolstoy met Vasily Petrovich Shchegolyonok and in the same year, at his invitation, he came to Yasnaya Polyana, where he stayed for about a month and a half. The dandy told Tolstoy many folk tales and epics, of which more than twenty were written down by Tolstoy, and Tolstoy, if he did not write down the plots on paper, then remembered them (these records are printed in vol. XLVIII of the Anniversary edition of Tolstoy's works). Six works written by Tolstoy are based on the legends and stories of Schegolyonok (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 Shchegolyonok.

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 of Shakespeare, in particular: "King Lear", "Othello", "Falstaff", "Hamlet", etc. - Tolstoy sharply criticized Shakespeare's abilities like a playwright.

religious quest

In order 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 conducted conversations with priests and monks, went to the elders in Optina Pustyn, read theological treatises. In order to get to know the original sources of Christian teaching in the original, he studied the ancient Greek and Hebrew languages ​​(in the study of the latter he was helped by the Moscow Rabbi Shlomo Minor). At the same time, he kept an eye on the schismatics, became close to the thoughtful peasant Syutaev, and talked with Molokans and Stundists. Tolstoy also sought the meaning of life in the study of philosophy and in acquaintance with the results of the exact sciences. He made a series of attempts at greater and greater simplification, striving to live a life close to nature and agricultural life.

Gradually, he gives up the whims and comforts of a rich life, does a lot of physical labor, dresses in the simplest clothes, becomes a vegetarian, gives his family all his large fortune, renounces literary property rights. On this basis of an unalloyed pure impulse and striving for moral improvement, the third period of Tolstoy's literary activity is created, the distinguishing 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 be openly expressed in Russia and are fully presented 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 popular reading (“How do people live”, etc.), Tolstoy, in the opinion of his unconditional admirers, reached the pinnacle of artistic power - that elemental skill that is given only to folk tales, because that they embody the creativity of an entire nation. On the contrary, in the opinion of 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 high and terrible truth of The Death of Ivan Ilyich, according to fans, which puts this work along with the main works of the genius of Tolstoy, according to others, is deliberately harsh, deliberately sharply emphasizes the soullessness of the upper strata of society in order to show the moral superiority of a 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. The folk drama “The Power of Darkness”, according to Tolstoy’s admirers, is a great manifestation of his artistic power: in the narrow framework of the ethnographic reproduction of Russian peasant life, Tolstoy managed to fit so many universal features that the drama went around all the stages of the world with tremendous success.

In the last major work, the novel "Resurrection" condemned judicial practice and high society life, caricatured the clergy and worship.

Critics of the last phase of Tolstoy's literary and preaching activity find that his artistic power has certainly suffered from the predominance of theoretical interests and that now Tolstoy needs creativity only to propagate his socio-religious views in a generally 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 partly completely denies, partly significantly diminishes the artistic significance of Dante, Raphael, Goethe, Shakespeare (at the performance of Hamlet, he experienced "special suffering" for this "false semblance of works of art"), Beethoven and others, he directly comes to the conclusion that "the more we surrender to beauty, 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 an increased interest in the teaching and worship of the Orthodox Church. The second half of 1879 became a turning point in the direction of the teachings of the Orthodox Church for him. In the 1880s, he took the position of an unambiguously critical attitude towards church doctrine, the clergy, and official churchness. The publication of some of Tolstoy's works was banned by spiritual and secular censorship. In 1899, Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection" was published, in which the author showed the life of various social strata of 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, the chief procurator of the Holy Synod.

In February 1901, the Synod finally inclined to the idea of ​​publicly condemning Tolstoy and declaring him outside the church. Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky) played an active role in this. As it appears in the camera-Fourier magazines, 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 definition.

February 24 (old style), 1901, in the official organ of the Synod "Church Gazette, published under the Holy Governing Senod" was published “Determination of the Holy Synod of February 20-22, 1901 No. 557, with a message to the faithful children of the Orthodox Greco-Russian 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 completely just. But I denied 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 accusations brought against him in the ruling of the synod: “The resolution of the synod in general has many shortcomings. It is illegal or deliberately ambiguous; it is arbitrary, unfounded, untrue and, moreover, contains slander and incitement to bad feelings and actions. In the text of the Answer to the Synod, Tolstoy elaborates on these theses, 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 aroused the indignation of 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 flood of letters from another part of society - with threats and abuse.

At the end of February 2001, the great-grandson of Count Vladimir Tolstoy, who manages the museum-estate of the writer 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 informal interview on television, the Patriarch said: “We cannot revise now, because after all, you can revise if a person changes his position.” In March 2009, Vl. Tolstoy expressed his opinion on the meaning of the synodal act: “I studied documents, read the newspapers of that time, got acquainted with the materials of public discussions around the excommunication. And I got the feeling that this act gave a signal for a total split in Russian society. The royal family, and the highest aristocracy, and the local nobility, and the intelligentsia, and the raznochinsk strata, and ordinary people also split. The crack went through the body of the entire Russian, Russian people.

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

The 1882 census in Moscow is famous for the fact that the great writer Count L. N. Tolstoy took part in it. Lev Nikolayevich wrote: “I suggested using the census in order to find out poverty in Moscow and help her with business and money, and make sure that there were no poor in Moscow.”

Tolstoy believed that the interest and significance of the census for society is that it gives it a mirror in which you want it, you don’t want it, the whole society and each of us will look. He chose for himself one of the most difficult and difficult sections, Protochny Lane, where there was a rooming house, among the Moscow squalor, this gloomy two-story building was called the Rzhanov Fortress. Having received an order from the Duma, a few days before the census, Tolstoy began to walk around the site according to the plan that he was given. Indeed, the dirty rooming house, filled with destitute, 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 Tolstoy's declared good intentions of the census, 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 rounds of the apartments and were leaving, we asked the owner to lock the gates, and we ourselves went to the yard to persuade the people who were leaving.” Lev Nikolaevich hoped to arouse sympathy for urban poverty in the rich, to raise money, to recruit people who wanted to contribute to this cause, and together with the census to 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 results of the census, the population of Moscow in 1882 amounted to 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 yard. From the 1882 census, one can find out that in 63% the head of the household is a married couple, in 23% - the wife, and only in 14% - the husband. The census recorded 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 the Kozlova Zasek station; on the way, he fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to make a stop at the small station 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 kept the “secret” of how to make all people happy.

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

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

Philosophy

The religious and moral imperatives of Tolstoy were the source of the Tolstoy 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, indeed, of Buddhism. The essence of Christianity, according to Tolstoy, can be expressed in a simple rule: Be kind and do not resist evil by force».

In particular, Ilyin I. A. spoke out against the position of non-resistance, which gave rise to disputes in the philosophical environment, in his work “On Resistance to Evil by Force” (1925)

Criticism of Tolstoy and Tolstoyism

• The Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod of Victorious 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 a new drama by L. Tolstoy and cannot recover from horror. And they assure me that they are preparing to give it at the Imperial Theaters and are already learning the roles. I do not know anything like this in any literature. It is unlikely that Zola himself reached such a degree of rough realism, which Tolstoy becomes 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 upheavals of 1905-1907, wrote, being in forced emigration, in his work “Leo Tolstoy as a Mirror of the Russian Revolution” (1908): “Tolstoy he is ridiculous, like a prophet who discovered new recipes for the salvation of mankind - and therefore the foreign and Russian "Tolstoyans" who wished to turn into a dogma just the weakest side of his teaching are completely miserable. Tolstoy is great as a spokesman for those ideas and those moods 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 peculiarities of our revolution, as a peasant bourgeois revolution. The contradictions in the views of Tolstoy, from this point of view, are a real mirror of those contradictory conditions in which the historical activity of the peasantry was placed in our revolution. ".
• The Russian religious philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev wrote in early 1918: “L. Tolstoy must be recognized as the greatest Russian nihilist, destroyer of all values ​​and shrines, destroyer of culture. Tolstoy triumphed, his anarchism triumphed, his non-resistance, his denial of the state and culture, his moralistic demand for equality in poverty and non-existence and subordination to the peasant kingdom and physical labor. 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 with a red-hot iron, Tolstoy's morality, low and exterminating, must be burned out of the Russian soul.

His own article “The 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, which was in the highest degree in Dostoevsky. But it is not Tolstoy's artistic insights that triumph in the Russian revolution, 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 a Russian person; it determines Russian moral assessments. Tolstoy was not a direct teacher of the Russian left intelligentsia; Tolstoy's religious teaching was alien to her. But Tolstoy captured and expressed the peculiarities of the moral make-up of most of the Russian intelligentsia, perhaps even a Russian intellectual, perhaps even a Russian person in general. And the Russian revolution is a kind of triumph of Tolstoyism. It imprinted both Russian Tolstoy 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 was able to instill in the Russian intelligentsia a hatred for everything historically individual and historically different. He was the spokesman for that side of Russian nature that abhorred historical power and historical glory. This he taught in an elementary and simplified way to moralize over history and transfer to historical life the moral categories of individual life. By this he morally undermined the opportunity for the Russian people to live a historical life, to fulfill their 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 to historical creativity. The World War was lost by Russia because Tolstoy's moral assessment of the war prevailed in it. In the terrible hour of the world struggle, the Russian people were weakened, apart from betrayal and animal egoism, by Tolstoy's moral assessments. Tolstoy's morality disarmed Russia and handed her over to the enemy.

• V. Mayakovsky, D. Burliuk, V. Khlebnikov, A. Kruchenykh, called for "to throw Tolstoy L. N. and others from the steamer of modernity" in the 1912 Futurist manifesto "Slap in the face of public taste"
• George Orwell defended W. Shakespeare against Tolstoy's criticism

• Researcher of the history of Russian theological thought and culture Georgy Florovsky (1937): “There is one decisive contradiction in Tolstoy's experience. He certainly 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 at all. He already compares the gospel with his own view, and therefore he cuts and adapts it so easily. The gospel for him 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. Tolstoy, in some strange way, seemed to be mentally late in the 18th century, and therefore found himself outside of history and modernity. And he deliberately leaves the present for some far-fetched past. All his work is in this respect 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. All morality comes down to him to common sense and worldly prudence. “Christ teaches us exactly how we can get rid of our misfortunes and live happily.” And that's what the Gospel is all about! Here Tolstoy's insensitivity becomes eerie, and "common sense" turns into madness... rejection of history, only a way out of culture and simplification, that is, through the removal of questions and the rejection of tasks. Moralism in Tolstoy turns around historical nihilism.»

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

"24 August. How long, O Gdy, do you tolerate the worst atheist who has confused the whole world, Leo Tolstoy? How long do you call him to Your Judgment? Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward with Me will repay anyone according to his deeds? (Rev. Apoc 22:12) Gd, the earth is tired of enduring his blasphemy. -»
"6 September. Where, do not allow Leo Tolstoy, a heretic who surpassed all heretics, to reach the Blessed Virgin Mary before the feast of the Nativity, whom he terribly blasphemed and blasphemes. Take him from the earth - this fetid corpse, stinking the whole earth with its pride. Amen. 9pm."

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

Expert evaluation of individual statements of Tolstoy

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

• In March 2010, in the Kirov Court of Yekaterinburg, Leo Tolstoy was charged with "inciting religious hatred against the Orthodox Church." Pavel Suslonov, an expert on extremism, testified: "Leo Tolstoy's leaflets 'Foreword to the Soldier's Memo' and 'Officer's Memo'" addressed to soldiers, sergeants and officers contain direct calls to incite inter-religious hatred directed against the Orthodox Church.

Bibliography

Tolstoy's translators

World recognition. Memory

Museums

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

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

Figures of science, culture, politicians about L. N. Tolstoy

Screen versions 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).
• "The Power of Darkness"(1909, Russia). Silent movie.
• "Anna Karenina"(1910, Germany). Silent movie.
• "Anna Karenina"(1911, Russia). Silent movie. Dir. - Maurice Meter
• "Living Dead"(1911, Russia). Silent movie.
• "War and Peace"(1913, Russia). Silent movie.
• "Anna Karenina"(1914, Russia). Silent movie. Dir. - V. Gardin
• "Anna Karenina"(1915, USA). Silent movie.
• "The Power of Darkness"(1915, Russia). Silent movie.
• "War and Peace"(1915, Russia). Silent movie. Dir. - Y. Protazanov, V. Gardin
• "Natasha Rostova"(1915, Russia). Silent movie. Producer - A. Khanzhonkov. Cast - V. Polonsky, I. Mozzhukhin
• "Living Dead"(1916). Silent movie.
• "Anna Karenina"(1918, Hungary). Silent movie.
• "The Power of Darkness"(1918, Russia). Silent movie.
• "Living Dead"(1918). Silent movie.
• "Father Sergius"(1918, RSFSR). Silent film film by Yakov Protazanov, starring Ivan Mozzhukhin
• "Anna Karenina"(1919, Germany). Silent movie.
• "Polikushka"(1919, USSR). Silent movie.
• "Love"(1927, USA. Based on the novel "Anna Karenina"). Silent movie. Anna as Greta Garbo
• "Living Dead"(1929, USSR). Cast - V. Pudovkin
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1935, USA). Sound film. Anna as Greta Garbo
• « Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1948, UK). Anna as Vivien Leigh
• "War and Peace"(War & Peace, 1956, USA, Italy). In the role of Natasha Rostova - Audrey Hepburn
• Agi Murad il diavolo bianco(1959, Italy, Yugoslavia). As Hadji Murat - Steve Reeves
• "Too people"(1959, USSR, based on a fragment of "War and Peace"). Dir. G. Danelia, cast - V. Sanaev, L. Durov
• "Resurrection"(1960, USSR). Dir. - M. Schweitzer
• "Anna Karenina"(Anna Karenina, 1961, USA). Vronsky as Sean Connery
• "Cossacks"(1961, USSR). Dir. - V. Pronin
• "Anna Karenina"(1967, USSR). In the role of Anna - Tatyana 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. Pierre - Anthony Hopkins
• "Father Sergius"(1978, USSR). Feature film by Igor Talankin, starring Sergei Bondarchuk
• "Caucasian story"(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). Anna as Jacqueline Bisset
• "Simple Death"(1985, USSR, based on the story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"). Dir. - A. Kaidanovsky
• "Kreutzer Sonata"(1987, USSR). Cast - Oleg Yankovsky
• "For what?" (Za co?, 1996, Poland / Russia). Dir. - Jerzy Kavalerovich
• "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 - Tatyana Drubich

For more details, see: 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 Departure of the Great Old Man"(1912, Russia). Director - Yakov Protazanov
• "Lev Tolstoy"(1984, USSR, Czechoslovakia). Director - S. Gerasimov
• "Last Station"(2008). In the role of L. Tolstoy - Christopher Plummer, in the role of Sophia Tolstoy - Helen Mirren. A film about the last days of the writer's life.

Gallery of portraits

Tolstoy's translators

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

Biography and episodes of life Lev Tolstoy. When born and died Leo Tolstoy, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. writer quotes, Photo and video.

Years of Leo Tolstoy's life:

born September 9, 1828, died November 20, 1910

Epitaph

"I hear the sound of his speeches...
In the midst of all the confusion
Great old man of our days
Calls to the path of non-resistance.
Simple, clear words -
And who was imbued with their rays,
How to touch the deity
And speaks through his mouth.
From a poem by Arkady Kots dedicated to the memory of Tolstoy

Biography

The biography of Leo Tolstoy is a biography of the most famous Russian writer, whose works are still read all over the world. Even during Tolstoy's lifetime, his books were translated into many languages, and today his immortal works are included in the golden fund of world literature. But no less interesting is the personal, non-writer's biography of Tolstoy, who all his life tried to understand what the essence of a person's destiny is.

He was born on the Yasnaya Polyana estate, which today houses the Tolstoy Museum. The writer, who comes from a rich and noble count family, lost his mother as a child, and when it came time to enter the university, his father, who left the family's financial affairs in poor condition. Before entering Kazan University, Leo Tolstoy was brought up by relatives in Yasnaya Polyana. Studying Tolstoy was easy, after Kazan University he studied Arabic-Turkish literature, but a conflict with one of the teachers forced him to quit his studies and return to Yasnaya Polyana. Already in those years, Tolstoy began to think about what his purpose was, who he should become. In his diaries, he set himself goals for self-improvement. He continued to keep diaries all his life, trying to answer important questions in them, analyzing his actions and judgments. Then, in Yasnaya Polyana, he began to feel guilty towards the peasants - for the first time he opened a school for serf children, where he himself often conducted classes. Soon Tolstoy again left for Moscow to prepare for candidate exams, but the young landowner was carried away by social life and card games, which inevitably led to debts. And then, on the advice of his brother, Lev Nikolaevich left for the Caucasus, where he served for four years. In the Caucasus, he began to write his famous trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth", which later brought him great fame in the literary circles of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Despite the fact that Tolstoy was warmly received after his return and he was well received in all the secular salons of both capitals, over time the writer began to experience disappointment in his environment. Did not bring him pleasure and a trip to Europe. He returned to Yasnaya Polyana and began to improve it, and soon married - a girl who was much younger than him. And at the same time he finished his story "The Cossacks", after which Tolstoy's talent as a brilliant writer was recognized. Sofya Andreevna Bers bore Tolstoy 13 children, and over the years he wrote Anna Karenina and War and Peace.

In Yasnaya Polyana, surrounded by his family and his peasants, Tolstoy again began to think about the destiny of man, about religion and theology, about pedagogy. His desire to get to the very core of religion and human existence, and the theological writings that followed, caused a backlash in the Orthodox Church. The spiritual crisis of the writer was reflected in everything - both in his relationship with his family and in his success in writing. The well-being of Count Tolstoy ceased to bring him joy - he became a vegetarian, walked barefoot, engaged in physical labor, renounced the rights to his literary works, gave all his property to his family. Before his death, Tolstoy quarreled with his wife and, wanting to live the last years of his life in accordance with his spiritual views, secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, the writer fell seriously ill and died.

The funeral of Leo Tolstoy was held in Yasnaya Polyana, several thousand people came to say goodbye to the great writer - friends, admirers, peasants, students. The ceremony was not held according to the Orthodox rite, since the writer was excommunicated from the church in the early 1900s. Tolstoy's grave is located in Yasnaya Polyana - in the forest where once, as a child, Lev Nikolayevich was looking for a "green stick" that kept the secret of universal happiness.

life line

September 9, 1828 Date of birth of Leo Tolstoy.
1844 Admission to Kazan University in the Department of Oriental Languages.
1847 Dismissal from the university.
1851 Departure for the Caucasus.
1852-1857 Writing an autobiographical trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth".
1855 Moving to St. Petersburg, joining the Sovremennik circle.
1856 Retirement, return to Yasnaya Polyana.
1859 The opening of a school for peasant children by Tolstoy.
1862 Marriage to Sophia Bers.
1863-1869 Writing the novel "War and Peace".
1873-1877 Writing the novel "Anna Karenina".
1889-1899 Writing the novel "Resurrection".
November 10, 1910 Secret departure of Tolstoy from Yasnaya Polyana.
November 20, 1910 Date of Tolstoy's death.
November 22, 1910 Farewell ceremony for the writer.
November 23, 1910 Funeral of Tolstoy.

Memorable places

1. Yasnaya Polyana, the estate of Leo Tolstoy, the state memorial and natural reserve where Tolstoy is buried.
2. Museum-estate of Leo Tolstoy in Khamovniki.
3. Tolstoy's house in childhood, the first Moscow address of the writer, where he was brought at the age of 7 and where he lived until 1838.
4. Tolstoy's house in Moscow in 1850-1851, where his literary activity began.
5. The former Chevalier Hotel, where Tolstoy stayed, including shortly after his marriage with Sophia Tolstaya.
6. State Museum of Leo Tolstoy in Moscow.
7. Tolstoy Center on Pyatnitskaya, the former home of Vargin, where Tolstoy lived in 1857-1858.
8. Monument to Tolstoy in Moscow.
9. Kochakovsky necropolis, Tolstoy family cemetery.

Episodes of life

Tolstoy married Sofya Bers when she was 18 years old and he was 34. Before they got married, he confessed to his bride in his premarital affairs - the hero of his work Anna Karenina, Konstantin Levin, did the same later. Tolstoy admitted in his letters to his grandmother: “I constantly have the feeling that I have stolen undeserved happiness that was not assigned to me. Here she comes, I hear her, and so well. For many years, Sophia Tolstaya was a friend and colleague of her husband, they were very happy, but with Tolstoy's passion for theology and spiritual quest, omissions began to arise between the spouses.

Leo Tolstoy did not like War and Peace, his largest and most significant work. Once, in a correspondence with Fet, the writer even called his famous epic "wordy rubbish."

It is known that the last years of his life Tolstoy refused meat. He believed that meat-eating was not humane, and he hoped that one day people would look at him with the same disgust that they now look at cannibalism.

Tolstoy believed that education in Russia was fundamentally wrong, and tried to contribute to its change: he opened a school for peasant children, published a pedagogical magazine, wrote the ABC, New ABC and Books for Reading. Despite the fact that he wrote these textbooks primarily for peasant children, more than one generation of children, including noble ones, learned from them. According to the ABC, Tolstoy was taught letters by the Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova.

Covenant

"Everything comes to those who know how to wait."

"Beware of everything that your conscience disapproves of."

Documentary "Living Tolstoy"

condolences

“On November 7, 1910, not only the life of one of the most extraordinary people who ever lived in the world ended at the Astapovo station, but also some extraordinary human feat ended, an extraordinary struggle in its strength, longitude and difficulty ...”
Ivan Bunin, writer

“It is remarkable that not a single one, not only from Russians, but also from foreign writers, had and still does not have such world significance as Tolstoy. None of the writers abroad was as popular as Tolstoy. This one fact in itself points to the significance of this man's talent."
Sergei Witte, statesman

“I sincerely regret the death of the great writer, who, during the heyday of his talent, embodied in his works the images of one of the glorious years of Russian life. May the Lord God be his merciful judge.”
Nicholas II Alexandrovich, Russian Emperor

In 1828, on August 26, the future great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy was born in the Yasnaya Polyana estate. The family was well-born - his ancestor was a noble nobleman, who received the title of count for his service to Tsar Peter. Mother was from the ancient noble family of the Volkonskys. Belonging to a privileged stratum of society influenced the behavior and thoughts of the writer throughout his life. A brief biography of Tolstoy Leo Nikolayevich does not fully reveal the entire history of the ancient family family.

Serene life in Yasnaya Polyana

The writer's childhood was quite prosperous, despite the fact that he lost his mother early. Thanks to family stories, he kept her bright image in his memory. A brief biography of Leo Tolstoy testifies that his father was the embodiment of beauty and strength for the writer. He instilled in the boy a love for dog hunting, which was later described in detail in the novel War and Peace.

He also had a close relationship with his older brother Nikolenka - he taught little Levushka different games and told him interesting stories. Tolstoy's first story - "Childhood" - contains many autobiographical memories of the childhood of the writer himself.

Youth

The serene joyful stay in Yasnaya Polyana was interrupted due to the death of his father. In 1837, the family was under the care of an aunt. In this city, according to a short biography of Leo Tolstoy, the youth of the writer passed. Here he entered the university in 1844 - first at the philosophical, and then at the faculty of law. True, studies attracted him little, the student preferred various amusements and revels.

In this biography of Tolstoy, Leo Nikolayevich characterizes him as a person who disdainfully treated people of the lower, non-aristocratic class. He denied history as a science - in his eyes it had no practical use. The writer retained the sharpness of his judgments throughout his life.

As a landlord

In 1847, without graduating from the university, Tolstoy decides to return to Yasnaya Polyana and try to arrange the life of his serfs. Reality sharply diverged from the ideas of the writer. The peasants did not understand the intentions of the master, and a brief biography of Leo Tolstoy describes the experience of his management as unsuccessful (the writer shared it in his story “The Morning of the Landowner”), as a result of which he leaves his estate.

The path of becoming a writer

The next few years spent in St. Petersburg and Moscow were not in vain for the future great prose writer. From 1847 to 1852, diaries were kept in which Leo Tolstoy carefully verified all his thoughts and reflections. A brief biography tells that while serving in the Caucasus, work is being carried out in parallel on the story "Childhood", which will be published a little later in the Sovremennik magazine. This marked the beginning of the further creative path of the great Russian writer.

Ahead of the writer is the creation of his great works "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina", but for now he is honing his style, being published in Sovremennik and basking in favorable reviews from critics.

Later years of creativity

In 1855, Tolstoy came to St. Petersburg for a short time, but literally a couple of months later he left it and settled in Yasnaya Polyana, opening a school for peasant children there. In 1862 he married Sophia Bers and was very happy in the early years.

In 1863-1869, the novel "War and Peace" was written and revised, which bore little resemblance to the classical version. It lacks the traditional key elements of the time. Or rather, they are present, but they are not key.

1877 - Tolstoy completed the novel "Anna Karenina", in which the technique of internal monologue is repeatedly used.

Starting from the second half of the 60s, Tolstoy is experiencing which he managed to overcome only at the turn of the 1870s and 80s by completely rethinking his former life. Then Tolstoy appears - his wife categorically did not accept his new views. The ideas of the late Tolstoy are similar to the socialist doctrine, with the only difference being that he was an opponent of the revolution.

In 1896-1904, Tolstoy finished the story, which was published after his death, which occurred in November 1910 at the Astapovo station on the Ryazan-Ural road.

Leo Tolstoy - Russian writer and thinker, participated in the defense of Sevastopol, was engaged in educational and journalistic activities. He stood at the origins of Tolstoyism - a new religious trend.

Once the leader of the proletariat said about this man: “What a lump! What a hardened human!". These words applied to Leo Tolstoy, the world's greatest novelist. But he showed himself not only in the field of literature, he is an outstanding philosopher, educator, religious thinker. He promoted a healthy lifestyle. He never abused alcohol, did not smoke, by the age of forty he refused coffee, and by old age he stopped eating meat. He became the author of a set of exercises that are relevant for today. He was a real role model, although not everything in his biography was smooth and smooth.

Childhood and youth

Leo Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9 according to the new style), 1828, in the family estate of his mother, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province. His father is Count Nikolai Tolstoy, a descendant of the ancient family of Tolstoy, who were also in the service of Peter I. Mom belonged to the Volkonsky family, descendants of Ruriks. Leo Tolstoy and the poet had a common ancestor - Ivan Golovin, admiral of the tsarist fleet.

Leo's mother died shortly after giving birth to a daughter, Leo at that time was not even two years old. Leo was the fourth child in a noble family. The father did not much survive the mother, he died 7 years after her death.

The children were orphaned, and their aunt, T.A. Ergolskaya, took up their upbringing. After some time, the duties of the guardian passed to the second aunt - A.M. Osten-Saken, who bore the title of count. When she died, the children settled in Kazan in the family of their paternal sister P.I. Yushkova, who became their new guardian. It was 1840. Auntie had a great influence on Leo Tolstoy; he called the years spent with her the happiest period of his life. Her house was always full of guests, it was considered the most hospitable and cheerful in Kazan. Childhood impressions of living in this family are reflected in his work "Childhood".

Leo Tolstoy went through the elementary school program at home. He was taught by French and German teachers. In 1843 Tolstoy became a student at the Faculty of Oriental Languages ​​at Kazan University. He was not particularly interested in languages, so his academic performance was very low. This served as an incentive to change faculty. Tolstoy preferred the legal one. However, this change did not give a result, two years later he left the university altogether, and was left without a degree.

Tolstoy returned to his family home - Yasnaya Polyana. He had a plan to set up his life in a new way, to live in harmony with the peasantry. Nothing came of this idea, but during this period he wrote down all the observations in a diary, drew conclusions. In addition, the young Count Tolstoy was often seen at social events and playing music. He could listen to his favorite composers for hours, among which were Frederick, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Leo spent the summer in his native estate, he realized that he did not like the life of the landowner. He left the village and immediately settled in Moscow, and then moved to St. Petersburg. At this time, he was trying to decide in life, so he was diligently preparing to take candidate exams at the university, studied music, played cards and caroused with gypsies. At the same time, he wanted to become an official, then a cadet of a cavalry regiment. Relatives saw him as an exceptionally "fluffy fellow", who is good for nothing, and barely had time to pay off his debts.

Literature

In 1851, Lev heeded the advice of his brother Nikolai, who at that time already had the rank of an officer, and left for the Caucasus. For three years he lived in a village that stretched along the Terek River. Tolstoy then colorfully described the local nature and way of life of the Cossacks in his works - “Hadji Murad”, “Cossacks”, “Cutting the Forest”, “Raid”.

It was during his stay in the Caucasus that his story called “Childhood” was born, which was published by the Sovremennik magazine. Tolstoy did not sign with his last name; the initials of L.N. were under the publication. Following this, the young writer created a continuation of the story, which was called "Boyhood" and "Youth". These stories were combined into a trilogy. The debut in literature was a success, and gave a powerful impetus to the development of a creative biography. Leo Tolstoy became a famous writer.

Soon Leo Tolstoy was assigned to Bucharest, then ended up in the besieged Sevastopol, where he commanded a battery. These events in life did not go unnoticed, the writer reflected them in his writings. Sevastopol Tales was published, which received high praise from critics. They found a bold psychological analysis in the story cycle. According to Nikolai Chernyshevsky, these stories were characterized by a "dialectic of the soul". Emperor Alexander II himself admired the creative abilities of the writer, he especially liked the story "Sevastopol in the month of December."

In 1855, Leo Tolstoy again settled in St. Petersburg and became a member of a circle called Sovremennik. The 28-year-old writer was received very cordially, he was called only "the great hope of Russian literature." Throughout the year, Leo attended all meetings of the circle, attended literary readings, entered into disputes and conflicts, attended literary dinners. Until he realized that these people were disgusting to him, and he himself was no longer happy.

In 1856 he left St. Petersburg and settled again in Yasnaya Polyana. But he stayed there only until January 1857, and went abroad. For six months he visited Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France. Upon his return, Tolstoy lived briefly in Moscow, and then settled again in Yasnaya Polyana. He had the idea to teach the children of the peasants, and Lev, with great zeal, set about opening educational institutions for them. Thanks to the efforts of the writer, two dozen schools soon started operating in the vicinity of his estate.

In 1860 Tolstoy went abroad again. He visited Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, studied the intricacies of the pedagogy of these countries, so that later he could use what he saw at home.

Tolstoy loved children, and created for them many instructive tales and stories that breathed kindness. From under his pen came fairy tales called "Two Brothers", "Kitten", "Lion and Dog", "Hedgehog and Hare".

Leo Tolstoy became the author of the ABC school manual, which included four books. From them, children could easily learn to write, count and read. The manual consists of epics, stories, fables. In addition, there are also tips for teachers. The third book contains the story "Prisoner of the Caucasus".

In addition to teaching the children of peasants, Tolstoy continued his literary activities. In 1870, he sat down to write the novel Anna Karenina, which consisted of two main storylines. Against the background of the family drama of the Karenins, the idyll of the landowner Levin, whom the writer wrote practically from himself, looked very striking. At first glance, it may seem that the novel is just a love story. In fact, it touches upon the theme of the meaning of the life of the rich and educated, especially in comparison with the life of the common people. The novel "Anna Karenina" was highly appreciated.

Gradually, the writer's worldview changes, he increasingly begins to talk about social inequality, about the idleness of the life of the ruling class - the nobles. This is evident from the works that Tolstoy wrote in the 1880s. Among them, I would especially like to highlight the "Kreutzer Sonata", "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", "After the Ball", "Father Sergius".

Leo Tolstoy increasingly began to think about the meaning of human life, he tried to find an answer from Orthodox priests, but he was completely disappointed. He decided that corruption rules the church, and that the priests only cover themselves with faith, but in fact they are engaged in the promotion of false doctrine. In 1883, Tolstoy became the founder of the publication Posrednik, in which he detailed his beliefs, and where he mercilessly criticized the Russian Orthodox Church. This was the reason for excommunicating him from the church and placing him under close surveillance by the secret police.

In 1898, another novel by Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection, was released, which was also highly appreciated by critics. However, this work did not make such a splash as Anna Karenina and War and Peace.

Subsequently, Tolstoy developed the doctrine of non-violent resistance to evil, and for the last three decades of his life he was revered as a spiritual and religious leader.

"War and Peace"

The writer himself was not enthusiastic about his novel War and Peace. He called it none other than verbose rubbish, although readers liked the work. The novel was written in the 1860s when Tolstoy and his family were living in Yasnaya Polyana. In 1865, the first two chapters, called "1805", were printed on the pages of the Russkiy Vestnik. In 1868, the writer was able to present three more chapters that completed the novel. The novel was written in those years when the writer himself lived a happy family life and felt a surge of spiritual strength. Many of the heroes of his work had prototypes in real life, or corresponded to at least some of the characteristics of Tolstoy's relatives and friends. So the writer accurately “copied” Princess Marya Bolkonskaya from his mother - a woman with a brilliant education and creative inclinations. The character Nikolai Rostov was very reminiscent of Lev Nikolayevich's father, he turned out to be just as mocking, a lover of hunting and reading.

While working on the novel, Tolstoy did a titanic work. He had to study the archives, read the correspondence between the Tolstoys and the Volkonskys, even travel to the Borodino field. Lev also attracted a young wife to the process - her duties included rewriting drafts cleanly.

It was impossible to stop reading the novel, the readers were simply amazed by the description of mass scenes and the disclosure of the intricacies of human souls. The writer himself said that he was trying to write the history of the Russian people.

A century later, literary critic Lev Anninsky made an attempt to calculate how many times Tolstoy's works were filmed. It turned out that by the end of the 70s of the twentieth century, forty film adaptations had been released abroad alone. Until 1980, the novel "War and Peace" was released four times. Sixteen films were based on Anna Karenina, and Resurrection was filmed twenty-two times. Moreover, these films were released not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders.

In Russia, the first time the picture "War and Peace" was released in 1913. The director of the tape was Pyotr Chardynin. In 1965, director Sergei Bondarchuk set about making a large-scale film adaptation of the novel, and this tape is still popular today.

Personal life

The wife of Leo Tolstoy was an 18-year-old girl Sofya Bers. Their marriage took place in 1862, when the writer was already 34. The family life of the spouses lasted almost half a century, but cloudless happiness in the writer's personal life did not work out.

Sophia's father was a doctor Andrei Bers, who served at the Moscow Palace Office. They constantly lived in the capital, but every summer they went on vacation to the Tula estate, located near Yasnaya Polyana. Leo knew Sophia since childhood. She immediately studied at home, then at Moscow University, knew a lot about art and was a fairly well-read girl.

Shortly after the wedding, Tolstoy gave his wife to read his diary - he wanted his wife to know everything about him. Sophia was struck by the descriptions of her husband's adventures, his wild life and passion for playing cards. She also learned about the existence of the peasant woman Aksinya, who was pregnant by Tolstoy.

In 1863, their first child, son Sergei, was born. When Tolstoy began work on the novel "War and Peace", Sophia, although she was pregnant, did her best to help him work. In total, the couple had thirteen children, but five of them died in infancy. Sofya Andreevna gave all of them home schooling.

The first crisis in family relations began after Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina. He became depressed, he was dissatisfied with everything. He was annoyed by the well-established life, which his wife lovingly arranged. The depression was expressed in the fact that he quit smoking, drinking and eating meat, and he demanded this from his family. Tolstoy forced his relatives to dress like a peasant, and he made the outfits for everyone with his own hands. Lev Nikolaevich was going to distribute all the property of the family to the peasants, and only God knows what efforts it took Sophia to dissuade him from a rash step.

Tolstoy agreed, but the couple quarreled, and he left home. After returning, he forced his daughters to rewrite drafts of his manuscript.

The couple briefly reconciled when their last child, son Vanya, died. However, full mutual understanding in the family did not come. Sophia tried to console herself with music, and even went to lessons with a Moscow teacher. Sympathy arose between them, but things did not go beyond this. They remained friends, but Tolstoy called it "half-treason" and did not forgive his wife.

The couple finally quarreled in October 1910. The writer left, leaving a farewell message for his wife, in which he confessed his love to her, but said that he was forced to leave her.

Death

At the end of October, Tolstoy and his personal doctor D. Makovitsky, who accompanied him, left Yasnaya Polyana. The writer at that time was 82 years old. On the train, he fell ill and had to get off at a station called Astapovo. The last shelter before his death was the house of the stationmaster, in which he lay for seven days.

The wife and children came to Tolstoy, but he refused to meet with them. Leo Tolstoy died on November 7, 1910. The cause of death was pneumonia. The resting place of the writer was Yasnaya Polyana. Sofia Andreevna died nine years later.

stories

• 1851 - History of yesterday
• 1853 - Foray
• 1853 - Christmas night
• 1854 - How Russian soldiers die
• 1855 - Notes of a marker
• 1855 - Woodcutting
• 1855-1856 - Sevastopol stories
• 1856 - Blizzard
• 1856 - Demoted
• Lucerne
• 1859 - Three deaths
• 1860-1862 - Fragments of stories from village life
• 1863-1885 - Strider
• 1872 - God sees the truth, but will not tell soon
• 1872 - Prisoner of the Caucasus
• 1880 - Two horses
• 1880 Jump
• 1880 Aeronaut's Tale
• 1887 - Surat coffee house
• 1890 - Expensive
• 1891 - Francoise
• 1891-1893 - Who is right?
• 1894 - Karma
• 1894 - Dream of a young king
• 1903 - After the ball
• 1905 - Alyosha Pot
• 1905 - Poor people
• 1906 - Divine and Human
• 1906 - For what?
• 1906 - Korney Vasiliev
• 1906 - Berries
• 1906 - What I saw in a dream
• 1906 - Father Vasily
• 1908 - The power of childhood
• 1909 - Conversation with a passerby
• 1909 Traveler and peasant
• 1909 - Songs in the village
• 1909 - Three days in the countryside
• 1910 - Khodynka
• 1910 - Unintentionally
• 1910 - Grateful soil

Links

The relevance and reliability of information is important to us. If you find an error or inaccuracy, please let us know. Highlight the error and press keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Enter .

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

Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich- Count, Russian writer. Father T. Count ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Books

• Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich. Collected works in 12 volumes (number of volumes: 12), Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) is a writer whose name is known all over the world, a writer whose novels have been and are being read by many generations. Tolstoy's works have been translated into more than 75… Buy for 5579 rubles
• My second Russian book to read. Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich, Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich. Informative, entertaining and instructive works for teaching children to read were specially collected by Leo Tolstoy into several `Russian books for reading`. The first one is our…