Russian writer, Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on September 9 (August 28 according to the old style) in 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate of the Krapivensky district of the Tula province (now the Shchekino district of the Tula region).
Tolstoy was the fourth child in a large noble family. His mother, Maria Tolstaya (1790-1830), nee Princess Volkonskaya, died when the boy was not yet two years old. Father, Nikolai Tolstoy (1794-1837), a participant in the Patriotic War, also died early. The upbringing of children was carried out by a distant relative of the family, Tatyana Yergolskaya.
When Tolstoy was 13 years old, the family moved to Kazan, to the house of Pelageya Yushkova, his father's sister and guardian of the children.
In 1844, Tolstoy entered Kazan University in the Department of Oriental Languages of the Faculty of Philosophy, then transferred to the Faculty of Law.
In the spring of 1847, having filed a petition for dismissal from the university "due to frustrated health and domestic circumstances", he went to Yasnaya Polyana, where he tried to establish relations with the peasants in a new way. Disappointed by the unsuccessful experience of managing (this attempt is captured in the story "The Morning of the Landowner", 1857), Tolstoy soon left first for Moscow, then for St. Petersburg. His lifestyle changed frequently during this period. Religious moods, reaching asceticism, alternated with revelry, cards, trips to the gypsies. At the same time, he had his first unfinished literary sketches.
In 1851 Tolstoy left for the Caucasus with his brother Nikolai, an officer in the Russian troops. He took part in hostilities (at first voluntarily, then received an army post). Tolstoy sent the story "Childhood" written here to the journal "Contemporary", without revealing his name. It was published in 1852 under the initials L. N. and, together with the later stories "Boyhood" (1852-1854) and "Youth" (1855-1857), made up an autobiographical trilogy. The literary debut brought recognition to Tolstoy.
Caucasian impressions were reflected in the story "Cossacks" (18520-1863) and in the stories "Raid" (1853), "Cutting down the forest" (1855).
In 1854 Tolstoy went to the Danube front. Shortly after the start of the Crimean War, he was transferred to Sevastopol at his personal request, where the writer happened to survive the siege of the city. This experience inspired him for the realistic Sevastopol Tales (1855-1856).
Shortly after the end of hostilities, Tolstoy left military service and lived for some time in St. Petersburg, where he had great success in literary circles.
He entered the Sovremennik circle, met Nikolai Nekrasov, Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Goncharov, Nikolai Chernyshevsky and others. Tolstoy took part in dinners and readings, in the establishment of the Literary Fund, became involved in disputes and conflicts of writers, but he felt like a stranger in this environment.
In the autumn of 1856 he left for Yasnaya Polyana, and at the beginning of 1857 he went abroad. Tolstoy visited France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, returned to Moscow in the autumn, then again to Yasnaya Polyana.
In 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in the village, and also helped establish more than 20 such institutions in the vicinity of Yasnaya Polyana. In 1860 he went abroad for the second time to familiarize himself with the schools of Europe. In London, he often saw Alexander Herzen, was in Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, studied pedagogical systems.
In 1862, Tolstoy began publishing the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana, with books for reading as an appendix. Later, in the early 1870s, the writer created the "ABC" (1871-1872) and "New ABC" (1874-1875), for which he composed original stories and transcriptions of fairy tales and fables, which made up four "Russian Books for Reading".
The logic of the ideological and creative searches of the writer of the early 1860s is the desire to depict folk characters ("Polikushka", 1861-1863), the epic tone of the narration ("Cossacks"), attempts to turn to history to understand modernity (the beginning of the novel "Decembrists" , 1860-1861) - led him to the idea of the epic novel "War and Peace" (1863-1869). The time of the creation of the novel was a period of spiritual uplift, family happiness and quiet solitary work. At the beginning of 1865, the first part of the work was published in Russkiy Vestnik.
In 1873-1877, another great novel by Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, was written (published in 1876-1877). The problematics of the novel led Tolstoy directly to the ideological "turn" of the late 1870s.
At the height of literary glory, the writer entered a period of deep doubts and moral quests. In the late 1870s and early 1880s, philosophy and journalism came to the fore in his work. Tolstoy condemns the world of violence, oppression and injustice, believes that it is historically doomed and must be radically changed in the near future. In his opinion, this can be achieved by peaceful means. Violence, on the other hand, must be excluded from social life; non-resistance is opposed to it. Non-resistance was not understood, however, as an exclusively passive attitude towards violence. A whole system of measures was proposed to neutralize the violence of state power: a position of non-participation in what supports the existing system - the army, courts, taxes, false doctrine, etc.
Tolstoy wrote a number of articles reflecting his worldview: "On the census in Moscow" (1882), "So what should we do?" (1882-1886, published in full in 1906), On the Famine (1891, published in English in 1892, in Russian in 1954), What is Art? (1897-1898) and others.
Religious and philosophical treatises of the writer - "Study of dogmatic theology" (1879-1880), "Combination and translation of the four Gospels" (1880-1881), "What is my faith?" (1884), "The kingdom of God is within you" (1893).
At this time, such stories were written as "Notes of a Madman" (the work was carried out in 1884-1886, not completed), "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (1884-1886), etc.
In the 1880s, Tolstoy lost interest in artistic work and even condemned his previous novels and short stories as lordly "fun". He became interested in simple physical labor, plowed, sewed boots for himself, switched to vegetarian food.
The main artistic work of Tolstoy in the 1890s was the novel "Resurrection" (1889-1899), which embodied the whole range of problems that worried the writer.
As part of the new worldview, Tolstoy opposed Christian dogma and criticized the rapprochement between church and state. In 1901, the reaction of the Synod followed: the world-renowned writer and preacher was officially excommunicated, this caused a huge public outcry. Years of change also led to family discord.
Trying to bring his way of life into line with his convictions and burdened by the life of the landowner's estate, Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana in the late autumn of 1910. The road turned out to be unbearable for him: on the way, the writer fell ill and was forced to make a stop at the Astapovo railway station (now the Lev Tolstoy station, Lipetsk region). Here, in the stationmaster's house, he spent the last few days of his life. The whole of Russia followed the reports about Tolstoy's health, who by this time had gained world fame not only as a writer, but also as a religious thinker.
On November 20 (November 7, old style), 1910, Leo Tolstoy died. His funeral at Yasnaya Polyana became a nationwide event.
Since December 1873, the writer was a corresponding member of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (now the Russian Academy of Sciences), since January 1900 - an honorary academician in the category of fine literature.
For the defense of Sevastopol, Leo Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anna IV degree with the inscription "For Courage" and other medals. Subsequently, he was also awarded medals "In memory of the 50th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol": silver as a participant in the defense of Sevastopol and bronze as the author of "Sevastopol stories".
Leo Tolstoy's wife was the doctor's daughter Sofya Bers (1844-1919), whom he married in September 1862. Sofya Andreevna for a long time was a faithful assistant in his affairs: a copyist of manuscripts, a translator, a secretary, a publisher of works. In their marriage, 13 children were born, five of whom died in childhood.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
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 (1828-1910) is one of the five most widely read writers. His work made Russian literature recognizable abroad. Even if you have not read these works, you probably know Natasha Rostova, Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky at least from films or jokes. The biography of Lev Nikolaevich can be of interest to every person, because the personal life of a famous person is always of interest, parallels are drawn with his creative activity. Let's try to trace the life of Leo Tolstoy.
The future classic came from a noble family known since the 14th century. Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, the writer's ancestor on his father's side, earned the favor of Peter I by investigating the case of his son, who was suspected of treason. Then Pert Andreevich headed the Secret Chancellery, his career went uphill. Nikolai Ilyich, the father of the classic, received a good education. However, it was combined with unshakable principles that did not allow him to advance at court.
The condition of the father of the future classic was upset because of the debts of his parent, and he married the middle-aged but wealthy Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya. Despite the initial calculation, they were happy in marriage and had five children.
Childhood
Lev Nikolayevich was born fourth (there was also the younger Maria and the elders Nikolai, Sergey and Dmitry), but he received little attention after birth: his mother died two years after the birth of the writer; the father briefly moved with the children to Moscow, but soon also died. The impressions from the trip were so strong that the young Leva created the first composition "Kremlin".
Several guardians brought up children at once: first, T.A. Ergolskaya and A. M. Osten-Saken. A. M. Osten-Saken died in 1840, and the children went to Kazan to P. I. Yushkova.
adolescence
Yushkova's house was secular and cheerful: receptions, evenings, outward brilliance, high society - all this was very important for the family. Tolstoy himself strove to shine in society, to be "comme il faut", but shyness did not allow him to turn around. Real entertainment to Lev Nikolaevich was replaced by reflection and introspection.
The future classic studied at home: first under the guidance of the German tutor Saint-Thomas, and then with the French Reselman. Following the example of the brothers, Lev decides to enter the Imperial Kazan University, where Kovalevsky and Lobachevsky worked. In 1844, Tolstoy began to study at the Oriental Faculty (the admission committee was amazed by the knowledge of the "Turkish-Tatar language"), and later transferred to the Faculty of Law.
Youth
The young man was in conflict with the home history teacher, so the grades in the subject were unsatisfactory, at the university it was necessary to take the course again. In order to avoid repeating what he had gone through, Lev switched to law school, but did not finish, left the university and went to Yasnaya Polyana, his parents' estate. Here he is trying to manage the economy using new technologies, he tried, but unsuccessfully. In 1849 the writer went to Moscow.
During this period, the diary begins, the entries will continue until the death of the writer. They are the most important document, in the diaries of Lev Nikolayevich and describes the events of his life, and is engaged in introspection, and argues. Also here were described the goals and rules that he tried to follow.
History of success
The creative world of Leo Tolstoy took shape as early as adolescence, in his emerging need for constant psychoanalysis. Systemically, this quality manifested itself in diary entries. It was as a result of constant introspection that Tolstoy's famous "dialectics of the soul" appeared.
First works
Children's work was written in Moscow, and real works were also written there. Tolstoy creates stories about gypsies, about his daily routine (unfinished manuscripts have been lost). In the early 50s, the story "Childhood" was also created.
Leo Tolstoy - a participant in the Caucasian and Crimean wars. Military service gave the writer many new plots and emotions, described in the stories "Raid", "Cutting the Forest", "Degraded", in the story "Cossacks". Here is completed and "Childhood", which brought fame. Impressions from the battle for Sevastopol helped to write the cycle "Sevastopol stories". But in 1856, Lev Nikolaevich parted ways with the service forever. The personal history of Leo Tolstoy taught him a lot: having seen enough bloodshed in the war, he realized the importance of peace and real values - family, marriage, his people. It was these thoughts that he later put into his works.
Confession
The story "Childhood" was created in the winter of 1850-51, and published a year later. This work and its sequels "Boyhood" (1854), "Youth" (1857) and "Youth" (was never written) were supposed to make up the novel "Four Epochs of Development" about the spiritual development of man.
The trilogies tell about the life of Nikolenka Irteniev. He has parents, an older brother Volodya and sister Lyubochka, he is happy in his home world, but suddenly his father announces his decision to move to Moscow, Nikolenka and Volodya go with him. Just as suddenly, their mother dies. A severe blow of fate ends childhood. In adolescence, the hero is in conflict with others and with himself, trying to comprehend himself in this world. Nikolenka's grandmother dies, he not only mourns for her, but also notes with bitterness that some care only about her inheritance. In the same period, the hero begins to prepare for the university and meets Dmitry Nekhlyudov. Having entered the university, he feels like an adult and rushes into the maelstrom of secular pleasures. This pastime does not leave time for study, the hero fails the exams. This event led him to think about the incorrectness of the chosen path, leading to self-improvement.
Personal life
It is always difficult for the families of writers: a creative person may be impossible in everyday life, and even he is always not up to earthly things, he is embraced by new ideas. But how did the family of Leo Tolstoy live?
Wife
Sofya Andreevna Bers was born in the family of a doctor, she was smart, educated, simple. The writer met his future wife when he was 34 and she was 18. A clear, bright and pure girl attracted the experienced Lev Nikolaevich, who had already seen a lot and was ashamed of his past.
After the wedding, the Tolstoys began to live in Yasnaya Polyana, where Sofya Andreevna took care of the household, children and helped her husband in all matters: she copied manuscripts, published works, was a secretary and translator. After the opening of the hospital in Yasnaya Polyana, she also helped there, examining the sick. Tolstoy's family rested on her worries, because it was she who conducted all the economic activities.
During a spiritual crisis, Tolstoy came up with a special charter of life and decided to renounce property, depriving children of their fortune. Sofya Andreevna opposed this, family life cracked. Nevertheless, Lev Nikolaevich's wife is the only one, and she made a great contribution to his work. He treated her ambivalently: on the one hand, he respected and idolized, on the other, he reproached her for the fact that she was engaged in material matters more than spiritual ones. This conflict was continued in his prose. For example, in the novel "War and Peace" the name of the negative hero, evil, indifferent and obsessed with hoarding, is Berg, which is very consonant with his wife's maiden name.
Children
Leo Tolstoy had 13 children, 9 boys and 4 girls, but five of them died in childhood. The image of the great father lived in his children, all of them were associated with his work.
Sergei was engaged in the work of his father (founded a museum, commented on works), and also became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Tatyana was a follower of her father's teachings and also became a writer. Ilya led a hectic life: he dropped out of school, did not find a suitable job, and after the revolution he emigrated to the United States, where he lectured on the worldview of Lev Nikolayevich. Lev, too, at first followed the ideas of Tolstoyism, but later became a monarchist, so he also emigrated and was engaged in creativity. Maria shared the ideas of her father, refused the world and was engaged in educational work. Andrei highly valued his noble origin, participated in the Russo-Japanese War, then took his wife away from the boss, and soon died suddenly. Mikhail was musical, but became a military man and wrote memoirs about life in Yasnaya Polyana. Alexandra helped her father in all matters, then she became the keeper of his museum, but due to emigration, her achievements in Soviet times were forgotten.
Creative crisis
In the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s, Tolstoy experienced a painful spiritual crisis. For several years, the writer was accompanied by panic attacks, thoughts of suicide, fear of death. Lev Nikolaevich could not find an answer to the questions of life that tormented him anywhere, and he created his own philosophical doctrine.
Change of outlook
The way of victory over the crisis was unusual: Leo Tolstoy created his own moral teaching. His thoughts were set forth by him in books and articles: "Confession", "So what should we do", "What is art", "I can not be silent."
The writer's teaching was anti-Orthodox in nature, since Orthodoxy, according to Lev Nikolaevich, perverted the essence of the commandments, his dogmas are not permissible, from the point of view of morality, and are imposed by centuries-old traditions, forcibly instilled in the Russian people. Tolstoyism resonated with the common people and the intelligentsia, and pilgrims from different classes began to come to Yasnaya Polyana for advice. The church reacted sharply to the spread of Tolstoyism: in 1901 the writer was excommunicated from it.
Tolstoyanism
Morality, morality and philosophy are combined in the teachings of Tolstoy. God is the best in man, his moral center. That is why it is impossible to follow dogmas and justify any violence (which the Church did, according to the author of the doctrine). The brotherhood of all people and the victory over world evil are the ultimate goals of mankind, which can be achieved through the self-improvement of each of us.
Lev Nikolaevich took a different look not only at his personal life, but also at his work. Only the common people are close to the truth, and art should only separate good and evil. And this role is played by one folk art. This leads Tolstoy to abandon past works and simplify new works to the maximum, adding edification to them (Kholstomer, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Master and Worker, Resurrection).
Death
Since the beginning of the 80s, family relations have been aggravated: the writer wants to give up copyright on his books, his property and distribute everything to the poor. The wife sharply opposed, promising to accuse her husband of being crazy. Tolstoy realized that the problem could not be solved peacefully, so he came up with the idea of leaving his home, going abroad and becoming a peasant.
Accompanied by Dr. D.P. Makovitsky, the writer left the estate (later his daughter Alexandra also joined). However, the plans of the writer were not destined to come true. Tolstoy had a fever, he stopped at the head of the Astapovo station. After ten days of illness, the writer died.
creative heritage
Researchers distinguish three periods in the work of Leo Tolstoy:
- Creativity of the 50s ("young Tolstoy")- during this period, the style of the writer, his famous "dialectics of the soul" develops, he accumulates impressions, military service also helps in this.
- Creativity of the 60s-70s (classical period)- it was at this time that the most famous works of the writer were written.
- 1880-1910 (Tolstoyan period)- bear the imprint of a spiritual upheaval: renunciation of past creativity, new spiritual beginnings and problems. The style is simplified, as are the plots of the works.
Leo Tolstoy is one of the most famous writers and philosophers in the world. His views and beliefs formed the basis of a whole religious and philosophical movement, which is called Tolstoyism. The literary heritage of the writer amounted to 90 volumes of fiction and journalistic works, diary notes and letters, and he himself was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize.
"Fulfill all that you have determined to be fulfilled"
Genealogical tree of Leo Tolstoy. Image: regnum.ru
Silhouette of Maria Tolstoy (nee Volkonskaya), mother of Leo Tolstoy. 1810s Image: wikipedia.org
Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province. He was the fourth child in a large noble family. Tolstoy was orphaned early. His mother died when he was not yet two years old, and at the age of nine he lost his father. The aunt, Alexandra Osten-Saken, became the guardian of the five Tolstoy children. The two older children moved in with their aunt in Moscow, while the younger ones stayed in Yasnaya Polyana. It is with the family estate that the most important and dearest memories of Leo Tolstoy's early childhood are connected.
In 1841 Alexandra Osten-Saken died and the Tolstoys moved in with their aunt Pelageya Yushkova in Kazan. Three years after the move, Leo Tolstoy decided to enter the prestigious Imperial Kazan University. However, he did not like to study, he considered exams a formality, and university professors - incompetent. Tolstoy did not even try to get a scientific degree, in Kazan he was more attracted to secular entertainment.
In April 1847, Leo Tolstoy's student life ended. He inherited his part of the estate, including his beloved Yasnaya Polyana, and immediately went home without receiving a higher education. In the family estate, Tolstoy tried to improve his life and start writing. He drew up his educational plan: to study languages, history, medicine, mathematics, geography, law, agriculture, natural sciences. However, he soon came to the conclusion that it is easier to make plans than to carry them out.
Tolstoy's asceticism was often replaced by revelry and card games. Wanting to start the right, in his opinion, life, he made a daily routine. But he did not observe it either, and in his diary he again noted dissatisfaction with himself. All these failures prompted Leo Tolstoy to change his lifestyle. The opportunity presented itself in April 1851: the elder brother Nikolai arrived in Yasnaya Polyana. At that time he served in the Caucasus, where the war was going on. Leo Tolstoy decided to join his brother and went with him to a village on the banks of the Terek River.
On the outskirts of the empire, Leo Tolstoy served for almost two and a half years. He whiled away the time hunting, playing cards, and occasionally participating in raids on enemy territory. Tolstoy liked such a solitary and monotonous life. It was in the Caucasus that the story "Childhood" was born. While working on it, the writer found a source of inspiration that remained important to him until the end of his life: he used his own memories and experiences.
In July 1852, Tolstoy sent the manuscript of the story to the Sovremennik magazine and attached a letter: “…I am looking forward to your verdict. He will either encourage me to continue my favorite activities, or make me burn everything I started. ”. Editor Nikolai Nekrasov liked the work of the new author, and soon "Childhood" was published in the magazine. Encouraged by the first success, the writer soon began to continue the "Childhood". In 1854, he published a second story, Boyhood, in the Sovremennik magazine.
"The main thing is literary works"
Leo Tolstoy in his youth. 1851. Image: school-science.ru
Lev Tolstoy. 1848. Image: regnum.ru
Lev Tolstoy. Image: old.orlovka.org.ru
At the end of 1854, Leo Tolstoy arrived in Sevastopol, the epicenter of hostilities. Being in the thick of things, he created the story "Sevastopol in the month of December." Although Tolstoy was unusually frank in describing battle scenes, the first Sevastopol story was deeply patriotic and glorified the bravery of Russian soldiers. Soon Tolstoy began to work on the second story - "Sevastopol in May". By that time, nothing was left of his pride in the Russian army. The horror and shock that Tolstoy experienced on the front line and during the siege of the city greatly influenced his work. Now he wrote about the meaninglessness of death and the inhumanity of war.
In 1855, from the ruins of Sevastopol, Tolstoy traveled to sophisticated Petersburg. The success of the first Sevastopol story gave him a sense of purpose: “My career is literature, writing and writing! From tomorrow I work all my life or I give up everything, rules, religion, decency - everything ”. In the capital, Leo Tolstoy completed "Sevastopol in May" and wrote "Sevastopol in August 1855" - these essays completed the trilogy. And in November 1856, the writer finally left military service.
Thanks to truthful stories about the Crimean War, Tolstoy entered the St. Petersburg literary circle of the Sovremennik magazine. During this period, he wrote the story "Snowstorm", the story "Two Hussars", finished the trilogy with the story "Youth". However, after some time, relations with writers from the circle deteriorated: “These people disgusted me, and I disgusted myself”. To unwind, in early 1857, Leo Tolstoy went abroad. He visited Paris, Rome, Berlin, Dresden: he got acquainted with famous works of art, met with artists, observed how people live in European cities. Travel did not inspire Tolstoy: he created the story "Lucerne", in which he described his disappointment.
Leo Tolstoy at work. Image: kartinkinaden.ru
Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana. Image: kartinkinaden.ru
Leo Tolstoy tells a fairy tale to his grandchildren Ilyusha and Sonya. 1909. Krekshino. Photo: Vladimir Chertkov / wikipedia.org
In the summer of 1857 Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana. In his native estate, he continued to work on the story "The Cossacks", and also wrote the story "Three Deaths" and the novel "Family Happiness". In his diary, Tolstoy defined his purpose for himself at that time as follows: “The main thing is literary works, then family obligations, then household chores ... And to live for yourself is enough for a good deed every day”.
In 1899 Tolstoy wrote the novel The Resurrection. In this work, the writer criticized the judicial system, the army, the government. The contempt with which Tolstoy described the institution of the church in Resurrection provoked a backlash. In February 1901, the Holy Synod published a resolution on the excommunication of Count Leo Tolstoy from the Church in the journal Tserkovnye Vedomosti. This decision only increased Tolstoy's popularity and drew public attention to the writer's ideals and beliefs.
Tolstoy's literary and social activities became known abroad as well. The writer was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902 and 1909 and for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902-1906. Tolstoy himself did not want to receive the award and even informed the Finnish writer Arvid Järnefelt to try to prevent the prize from being awarded, because, “if that happened… it would be very unpleasant to refuse” “He [Chertkov] took the unfortunate old man into his hands in every possible way, he separated us, he killed the artistic spark in Lev Nikolayevich and kindled condemnation, hatred, denial, which are felt in Lev Nikolayevich’s recent articles years his foolish evil genius urged him on".
Tolstoy himself was burdened by the life of a landowner and a family man. He sought to bring his life in line with his convictions, and in early November 1910 he secretly left the Yasnaya Polyana estate. The road turned out to be unbearable for an elderly person: on the way he fell seriously ill and was forced to stay at the house of the caretaker of the Astapovo railway station. Here the writer spent the last days of his life. Leo Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910. The writer was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 in the estate of his mother Yasnaya Polyana, Krapivensky district, Tula province. Among the ancestors of the writer on the paternal side is an associate of Peter I - P. A. Tolstoy, one of the first in Russia to receive the title of count. Member of the Patriotic War of 1812 was the father of the writer gr. N. I. Tolstoy. On the maternal side, Tolstoy belonged to the family of the princes Bolkonsky, related by kinship with the princes Trubetskoy, Golitsyn, Odoevsky, Lykov and other noble families. On his mother's side, Tolstoy was a relative of A. S. Pushkin. By the time Leo was born, the family already had three eldest sons: - Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergey (1826 -1904) and Dmitry (1827 - 1856), and in 1830 Lev's younger sister Maria was born.
When Tolstoy was in his ninth year, his father took him to Moscow for the first time, the impressions of meeting with which were vividly conveyed by the future writer in the children's essay "Kremlin". The first period of young Tolstoy's life in Moscow lasted less than four years. He was orphaned early, having lost first his mother and then his father. With his sister and three brothers, young Tolstoy moved to Kazan. Here lived one of the father's sisters, who became their guardians. In Tolstoy's autobiographical "Childhood" Irtenyev's mother dies when the boy is 10-12 years old and he is quite conscious. However, the portrait of the mother is described by the writer exclusively from the stories of his relatives. After the death of their mother, the orphaned children were taken in by a distant relative, T. A. Ergolskaya. She is represented by Sonya from War and Peace.
Living in Kazan, Tolstoy spent two and a half years preparing to enter the university, where he studied from 1844, first at the Oriental Faculty, and then at the Faculty of Law. He studied Turkish and Tatar languages with the famous Turkologist Professor Kazembek.
Classes in government programs and textbooks weighed heavily on Tolstoy the student. He became interested in independent work on a historical topic and, leaving the university, left Kazan for Yasnaya Polyana, which he received under the division of his father's inheritance. Then he went to Moscow, where at the end of 1850 he began his writing activity: an unfinished story from the gypsy life (the manuscript has not been preserved) and a description of one day lived ("The History of Yesterday"). Then the story "Childhood" was started. Soon Tolstoy decided to go to the Caucasus, where his older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, an artillery officer, served in the army. Entering the army as a cadet, he later passed the exam for a junior officer rank. The writer's impressions of the Caucasian War were reflected in the stories "The Raid" (1853), "Cutting the Forest" (1855), "Degraded" (1856), and in the story "Cossacks" (1852-1863). In the Caucasus, the story "Childhood" was completed, which was published in 1852 in the journal Sovremennik.
When the Crimean War began, Tolstoy was transferred from the Caucasus to the Danube army, which acted against the Turks, and then to Sevastopol, besieged by the combined forces of England, France and Turkey.
In the autumn of 1856 he retired and soon went on a six-month trip abroad, visiting France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. In 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, and then helped open more than 20 schools in the surrounding villages.
One of the first works of the writer were the stories "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth", "Youth" (which, however, was not written). As conceived by the author, they were to compose the novel "Four Epochs of Development".
In the early 1860s for decades, the order of Tolstoy's life, his way of life, is established. In 1862, he married the daughter of a Moscow doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers.
The writer is working on the novel "War and Peace" (1863-1869). After completing War and Peace, Tolstoy spent several years studying materials about Peter I and his time. However, after writing several chapters of the "Petrine" novel, Tolstoy abandoned his plan.
In St. Petersburg, L.N. Tolstoy met the staff of the Sovremennik magazine with N.A. Nekrasov, I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharov, N.G. Chernyshevsky.
At the beginning of 1857 Tolstoy went abroad. On the road in Germany, Switzerland, England, Italy, France, he spends a year and a half. Travel does not bring him pleasure. He expressed his disappointment with European life in the story "Lucerne". And returning to Russia, Lev Nikolaevich took up the improvement of schools in Yasnaya Polyana.
In the late 1850s, Tolstoy met Sophia Andreevna Bers, born in 1844, the daughter of a Moscow doctor from Baltic Germans. He was almost 40 years old, and Sophia was only 17. It seemed to him that this difference was too great and sooner or later Sophia would fall in love with a young guy who had not become obsolete. These experiences of Lev Nikolaevich are set forth in his first novel, Family Happiness.
In September 1862, Leo Tolstoy nevertheless married 18-year-old Sofya Andreevna Bers. For 17 years of marriage, they had 13 children. During the same period, "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" were created. In 1861-62. finishes his story "The Cossacks", the first of the works in which Tolstoy's great talent was recognized as a genius.
In the early 70s, Tolstoy again showed interest in pedagogy, wrote the ABC and the New ABC, composed fables and stories that made up four Russian books for reading.
In the spring of 1873, Tolstoy began and four years later completed work on a great novel about modernity, naming it after the name of the main character - "Anna Karenina".
At the beginning of 1880s. Tolstoy moved with his family from Yasnaya Polyana to Moscow, taking care to educate his growing children. In 1882, a census of the Moscow population took place, in which the writer took part. He saw the inhabitants of the city's slums up close and described their terrible life in an article on the census and in the treatise "So what shall we do?" (1882-1886).
On the basis of social and psychological contrast, Tolstoy's story "The Master and the Worker" (1895) is built, stylistically connected with the cycle of his folk stories written in the 80s.
In order to answer the questions and doubts of a religious nature that tormented him, Lev Nikolayevich began to study theology. In 1891, in Geneva, the writer writes and publishes a Study of Dogmatic Theology, in which he criticizes Bulgakov's Orthodox Dogmatic Theology. He first had conversations with priests and monarchs, read theological treatises, studied ancient Greek and Hebrew.
All the writer's works are united by the thought of the inevitable and close in time "decoupling" of social contradictions, of replacing the obsolete social "order". “What the denouement will be, I don’t know,” Tolstoy wrote in 1892, “but that things are coming to it and that life cannot go on like this, in such forms, I am sure.” This idea inspired the largest work of all the work of the "late" Tolstoy - the novel "Resurrection" (1889-1899).
Leo Tolstoy wrote: “The people of our world live without any faith. One part of the people, an educated, wealthy minority, freed from church suggestion, does not believe in anything, because they consider all faith either stupidity, or only a useful tool for dominating the masses. The vast poor, uneducated majority, with few exceptions of people who really believe, being under the influence of hypnosis, thinks that they believe in what is suggested to them under the guise of faith, but that it is not faith, because it not only does not explain to a person his position in world, but only obscures
his. From this position and the mutual relationship of the unbelieving, pretending minority and the hypnotized majority, the life of our world, called Christian, is composed. And this life, both of the minority holding the means of hypnotization in their hands, and of the hypnotized majority, is terrible both in terms of the cruelty and immorality of those in power, and in terms of the oppression and stupidity of the large working masses.
In the early 1900s By the Holy Synod, Lev Nikolayevich was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church. L. N. Tolstoy lost all interest in life, he was tired of enjoying the prosperity he had achieved. He is fond of simple physical labor, becomes a vegetarian, gives his family all his fortune, renounces literary property rights.
In the last decade of his life, the writer worked on the story "Hadji Murad" (1896-1904), in which he sought to compare the "two poles of imperious absolutism" - the European, personified by Nicholas I, and the Asian, personified by Shamil. article "I can not be silent", in which he protested against the repression of participants in the events of 1905-1907. The writer's stories "After the Ball" and "For What?" belong to the same period.
Burdened by the way of life in Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy more than once intended and for a long time did not dare to leave it. But he could no longer live according to the "together-apart" principle, and on the night of October 28 (November 10) he secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, he fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to make a stop at the small station Astapovo (now Leo Tolstoy), where he died. On November 10 (23), 1910, the writer was buried in Yasnaya Polyana, in the forest, on the edge of a ravine, where, as a child, he and his brother searched for a "green stick" that kept the "secret" of how to make all people happy.
