Love a book, it will make your life easier, it will help you sort out the colorful and stormy confusion of thoughts, feelings, events, it will teach you to respect a person and yourself, it inspires the mind and heart with a feeling of love for the world, for a person.
Maxim Gorky
Literary began in 1850 with a move to Moscow from his parent Yasnaya Polyana. It was then that the writer began his first work - autobiographical story"Childhood" - a work about the life of gypsies, which remained unfinished.
And in the same year, “The History of Yesterday” was written - a story about experiences in one day lived.
In 1851 Tolstoy went to serve as a cadet in the Caucasus. This happened under the influence of one of the most authoritative men for the young Lev Nikolaevich - brother Nikolai, who then served as an artillery officer. In the Caucasus, Tolstoy completed the story "Childhood" - his literary debut, which in 1852 was published in the journal "Contemporary". This story, together with the following "Adolescence" and "Youth", became part of the well-known autobiographical trilogy about the inner world of a child, teenager and young man Irtenyev.
In 1851-1853. once a student, now an aspiring writer, participated in Crimean War. army life and participation in hostilities left indelible impressions in the writer's memory and provided a huge amount of material for the military stories of 1852-1855: "Logging", "Raid" and "Sevastopol stories".
Here it was first described back side wars are a complex life and experiences of a person in a war. Participation in the bloodiest war of the XIX century. And artistic experience, acquired in military stories of 1852-1855, the writer used a decade later in his work on his main work - the novel "
The name of the writer, educator, Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy is known to every Russian person. During his lifetime, 78 works of art, 96 more were preserved in the archives. And in the first half of the 20th century, complete collection works, numbering 90 volumes and including, in addition to novels, short stories, essays, etc., numerous letters and diary entries of this great man, who was distinguished by his great talent and outstanding personal qualities. In this article, we recall the most Interesting Facts from the life of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
House for sale in Yasnaya Polyana
In his youth, the count was known gambler and liked, unfortunately, not very successfully, to play cards. It so happened that part of the house in Yasnaya Polyana, where the writer spent his childhood, was given away for debts. Subsequently, Tolstoy planted trees in an empty place. Ilya Lvovich, his son, recalled how he once asked his father to show him the room in the house where he was born. And Lev Nikolaevich pointed to the top of one of the larches, adding: "There." And he described the leather sofa on which this happened in the novel War and Peace. These are interesting facts from the life of Leo Tolstoy, connected with the family estate.
As for the house itself, two of its two-story outbuildings have been preserved and have grown over time. After the marriage and the birth of children, the Tolstoy family grew, and in parallel with this, new premises were added.
Thirteen children were born in the Tolstoy family, five of whom died in infancy. The count never spared time for them, and before the crisis of the 80s he liked to play pranks. For example, if jelly was served during dinner, the father noticed that it was good for them to glue the boxes together. Children immediately brought in table paper, and the process of creativity began.
Another example. Someone in the family became sad or even burst into tears. The count who noticed this instantly organized the Numidian cavalry. He jumped up from his seat, raised his hand and rushed around the table, and the children rushed after him.
Tolstoy Leo Nikolayevich was always distinguished by a love of literature. He regularly hosted evening readings in his home. Somehow I took up a Jules Verne book without pictures. Then he began to illustrate it himself. And although the artist did not turn out to be a very good artist, the family was delighted with what they saw.
The children also remembered the humorous poems of Leo Tolstoy. He read them in the wrong German for the same purpose: at home. By the way, few people know that in the creative heritage of the writer there are several poetry. For example, "Fool", "Volga-hero". They were mainly written for children and entered the well-known "ABC".
Thoughts of suicide
The works of Leo Tolstoy became for the writer a way of studying human characters in their development. Psychologism in the image often demanded great mental tension from the author. So, while working on Anna Karenina, trouble almost happened to the writer. He was in such a difficult state of mind that he was afraid to repeat the fate of his hero Levin and commit suicide. Later, in his Confession, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy noted that the thought of this was so insistent that he even took the cord out of the room where he changed clothes alone, and refused to hunt with a gun.
Disappointment in the Church
Nikolaevich is well studied and contains many stories about how he was excommunicated from the church. Meanwhile, the writer always considered himself a believer, and from the year 77, for several years, he strictly observed all fasts and attended every church service. However, after visiting Optina Pustyn in 1981, everything changed. Lev Nikolayevich went there with his footman and school teacher. They walked, as it should be, with a knapsack, in bast shoes. When they finally arrived at the monastery, they discovered terrible filth and strict discipline.
The pilgrims who came were settled on common grounds, which angered the lackey, who always treated the owner as a gentleman. He turned to one of the monks and said that the old man was Leo Tolstoy. The writer's work was well known, and he was immediately transferred to best number hotels. After returning from Optina Hermitage, the count expressed his dissatisfaction with such servility, and since then he changed his attitude towards church conventions and its employees. It all ended with the fact that in one of the posts he took a cutlet for lunch.
By the way, in last years In his lifetime, the writer became a vegetarian, completely abandoning meat. But at the same time, he ate scrambled eggs every day in different forms.
Physical work
In the early 80s - this is reported by the biography of Leo Tolstoy Nikolayevich - the writer finally came to the conclusion that an idle life and luxury do not paint a person. For a long time he was tormented by the question of what he should do: sell all his property and leave his beloved wife and children unaccustomed to hard work without funds? Or transfer the entire fortune to Sofya Andreevna? Later, Tolstoy would divide everything between family members. At this difficult time for him - the family had already moved to Moscow - Lev Nikolayevich liked to go to the Sparrow Hills, where he helped the peasants cut firewood. Then he learned the craft of shoemaking and even designed boots and summer shoes from canvas and leather, in which he walked all summer. And every year helped peasant families in which there was no one to plow, sow and harvest grain. Not everyone approved of such a life of Lev Nikolayevich. Tolstoy was not understood even in own family. But he remained adamant. And one summer, the whole of Yasnaya Polyana broke up into artels and went out for mowing. Among the workers there was even Sofya Andreevna, who was raking the grass with a rake.
Help for the starving
Noting interesting facts from the life of Leo Tolstoy, one can also recall the events of 1898. In Mtsensk and Chernenny districts in Once again famine broke out. The writer, dressed in an old retinue and props, with a knapsack over his shoulders, together with his son, who volunteered to help him, personally traveled all the villages and found out where the situation was really beggarly. In a week, lists were compiled and about twelve canteens were created in each county, where they fed, first of all, children, the elderly and the sick. Products were brought from Yasnaya Polyana, two hot meals a day were prepared. Tolstoy's initiative caused a negative response from the authorities, who established constant control over him, and from local landowners. The latter considered that such actions of the count could lead to the fact that they themselves would soon have to plow the field and milk the cows.
One day, the officer came into one of the dining rooms and started a conversation with the count. He complained that although he approves of the writer's act, he is a forced man, therefore he does not know what to do - it was about the permission for such activities of the governor. The writer's answer turned out to be simple: "Do not serve where they are forced to act against conscience." And such was the whole life of Leo Tolstoy.
Serious illness
In 1901, the writer fell ill with a severe fever and, on the advice of doctors, went to the Crimea. There, instead of a cure, he caught another inflammation and there was practically no hope that he would survive. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, whose work contains many works describing death, prepared himself mentally for it. He was not at all afraid to part with his life. The writer even said goodbye to loved ones. And although he could only speak in a half whisper, he gave each of his children valuable advice for the future, as it turned out, nine years before his death. This was very helpful, since nine years later none of the family members - and they almost all gathered at the Astapovo station - were not allowed to see the patient.
Writer's funeral
Back in the 90s, Lev Nikolaevich spoke in his diary about how he would like to see his funeral. Ten years later, in "Memoirs", he tells the story of the famous "green stick", buried in a ravine next to oaks. And already in 1908, he dictated a wish to the stenographer: to bury him in a wooden coffin at the place where the brothers were looking for a source of eternal goodness in childhood.
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich, according to his will, was buried in the park of Yasnaya Polyana. The funeral was attended by several thousand people, among whom were not only friends, admirers of creativity, writers, but also local peasants, whom he treated with care and understanding all his life.
The history of the testament
Interesting facts from the life of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy also relate to his will regarding creative heritage. The writer made six wills: in 1895 (diary entries), 1904 (letter to Chertkov), 1908 (dictated to Gusev), twice in 1909 and in 1010. According to one of them, all his recordings and works came into public use. According to others, the right to them was transferred to Chertkov. Ultimately, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy bequeathed his creativity and all his notes to his daughter Alexandra, who from the age of sixteen became her father's assistant.
Number 28
According to his relatives, the writer always treated prejudice ironically. But he considered the number twenty-eight special and loved it. What was it - a mere coincidence or rock of fate? unknown, but many major events life and the first works of Leo Tolstoy are associated with it. Here is their list:
- August 28, 1828 - the date of birth of the writer himself.
- On May 28, 1856, censorship gave permission for the publication of the first book with stories, Childhood and Adolescence.
- On June 28, the first-born, Sergey, was born.
- On February 28, the wedding of the son of Ilya took place.
- On October 28, the writer left Yasnaya Polyana forever.
Leo Tolstoy: The beginning of the journey. early prose
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9, new style), 1828, in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, into one of the most distinguished Russian noble families. “The Tolstoy Counts are an old noble family, descended, according to the genealogists, from the honest husband Indrik, who left “from the Germans, from the Caesar lands” [from the Holy Roman Empire, from Austria. - A. R.] to Chernigov in 1353, with two sons and with a squad of three thousand people; he was baptized, received the name Leontius and was the ancestor of several noble families. His great-grandson, Andrei Kharitonovich, who moved from Chernigov to Moscow and received from the leader.<икого>book.<язя>Vasily the Dark nicknamed Tolstoy, was the ancestor of the Tolstoy (in the count branch of the Tolstoy family, Count Lev Nikolayevich is listed from the ancestor Indris in the 20th knee) ”(Biryukov P.I. Biography of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy. Ed. 3rd, corrected and added. M.; Pg., 1923. T. 1. S. 3.) On the maternal side, Lev Nikolayevich belonged to the ancient family of the Volkonsky princes. Belonging to the aristocracy will determine the behavior and thoughts of Tolstoy throughout his life. In youth and mature years he will think a lot about the special vocation of the old Russian nobility, which preserves the ideals of naturalness, personal honor, independence and freedom. (The "archaic" social and literary position of Tolstoy in the 1850s was traced in detail by B. M. Eikhenbaum: Eikhenbaum B. M. Lev Tolstoy. L., 1928. Book 1. 50s. S. 261-291).
Tolstoy very early, at the age of one and a half years, lost his mother Maria Nikolaevna, a very emotional and determined woman. Father, Nikolai Ilyich, a retired colonel, was distinguished by pride and independence in relations with government officials. For Tolstoy the child, his father was the embodiment of beauty, strength, passionate, reckless love for the joys of life. From him, Lev Nikolaevich inherited a hobby canine hunting. Many years later, Tolstoy would express the beauty and excitement of hunting on the pages of the novel “War and Peace” in the description of the persecution of the wolf by the hounds of the old Count Rostov.
In 1844 he entered the Faculty of Philosophy of Kazan University. He studied unsystematically, skipped lectures, and as a result was not allowed to take transfer exams. Not having received admission to pass the exam in history, Tolstoy in 1845 moved to another faculty - law. But even at this faculty they taught history, the lessons of which were boring and unpleasant for him. Tolstoy again begins to skip lectures on history. He was even punished for missing classes: a negligent student was placed in a punishment cell. But he indulged with all passion in secular amusements and revels. His seeming laziness, dislike of history is not evidence of narrow-mindedness. Once, a student Tolstoy remarked in a conversation with an interlocutor: “History ... is nothing but a collection of fables and useless trifles, interspersed with a mass of unnecessary numbers and proper names ...”. As if this phrase of Tolstoy is a manifestation of militant ignorance. It seems that he sought only to shock his acquaintance. However, in reality, everything is much more complicated. In the sciences, the young Tolstoy sought, first of all, practical meaning. He was not interested in knowledge that could not be applied in Everyday life. And it is this kind of "useless" history that appears to Tolstoy. This view of science in general is characteristic of many people. new era formed in the 1840s. Not coincidentally, in the 1860s. Russian youth will survive the fascination with “nihilism”. The Nihilists believed practical benefit main value modern culture and despised abstract knowledge, not directly related to the daily needs of people. Tolstoy did not like "nihilism", first of all, he rejected the idea of revolution inherent in "nihilists". But he grew up in the same atmosphere of change, disillusionment with the old cultural property, as well as the ideologists of "nihilism". Rejection of traditional historical science Tolstoy-student with new force appear in the 1860s. in War and Peace.
During the years of study at Kazan University, Tolstoy carefully read the works French philosophers, especially the works of the thinker and writer of the 18th century. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau saw in the achievements of civilization: in the development of sciences, technology, arts - the decline, the destruction of the original simplicity, naturalness human life. Rousseau's ideas greatly influenced the young Tolstoy.
Rousseau for Tolstoy is not only a subtle artist-psychologist, but also a thinker, whose ideas about the primordial good nature of man and the corrupting influence of civilization, opposed to the uncorrupted “natural state of a savage or commoner, remained dear to Tolstoy throughout his life.
Another favorite writer of Tolstoy was Stendhal. Poetics battle scenes in Tolstoy's works - from early Caucasian stories ("Raid", etc.) and a cycle about the defense of Sevastopol to "War and Peace" (a look at what is happening from the point of view of "a hero who does not understand anything") - resembles the description of the battle of Waterloo in Stendhal's novel "Parma monastery".
Already in the youthful diaries and early letters of Tolstoy, a living contradiction is felt between attachment, a passionate attraction to “natural” life, intoxication with the fullness of being and the joys of the flesh, on the one hand, and moral rigorism, exactingness, on the other. "Religion of the flesh" and "religion of the spirit" (expressions of D. S. Merezhkovsky - Merezhkovsky D. S. L. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky: Life and work // Merezhkovsky D. S. L. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Eternal companions. M., 1995. S. 7-350) will later constitute two poles of Tolstoy's creativity. Tolstoy's path is to a large extent precisely the movement from one pole to another. But the writer did not completely renounce the "religion of the flesh" even in the last years of his life.
On April 12, 1847, Tolstoy, disillusioned with university education, filed a petition for expulsion from the university. He went to Yasnaya Polyana, hoping to try himself in a new field - to improve the life of his serfs. Reality shattered his plans. The peasants did not understand the master, refused his advice and help. Tolstoy for the first time acutely felt the huge, insurmountable abyss separating him - the landowner, the master - and the common people. Social and cultural barriers between the educated class and the people will become one of the constant themes of Tolstoy's fiction and articles. He will describe his first unsuccessful experience of managing a few years later in the story “The Morning of the Landowner” (1856), whose hero Nekhlyudov is endowed with the features of Tolstoy himself.
Returning from Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy spends several years in St. Petersburg and Moscow. He analyzes in detail his actions and experiences in diaries, strives to develop a program of behavior, achieve success in various sciences and spheres of life, in his career. From self-analysis in Tolstoy's diaries grows his fiction. Tolstoy in diaries 1847-1852 carefully captures various experiences and thoughts in their complex and contradictory chains. He coldly analyzes the manifestation of selfish moods in high and pure feelings, traces the movement, the flow of one emotional state into another. Self-observation alternates with descriptions of the appearance, gestures and character of acquaintances, with reflections on how to create literary work. Tolstoy focuses on experience psychological analysis writers of the XVIII V. Lawrence Stern and Rousseau, learns the methods of revealing experiences in the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov “A Hero of Our Time”. In March 1851, Tolstoy wrote "The History of Yesterday" - a passage in which he describes his feelings in detail. It's not easy anymore diary entry, but a work of art.
In April 1851 he traveled to the Caucasus and in January 1852 entered military service in the artillery. In the Caucasus, there was a war between Russian troops and Chechens. Tolstoy participates in battles and works on the story "Childhood". Dissatisfied with the story, he revised its text four times. In July 1852, she was sent to the St. Petersburg magazine Sovremennik to its editor, the poet N. A. Nekrasov. Nekrasov highly appreciated the talent of the author. “Childhood” was published under the title “The Story of My Childhood” (this title belonged to Nekrasov) in the 9th issue of Sovremennik for 1852 and brought Tolstoy big success and the glory of one of the most talented Russian writers. Two years later, also in the 9th issue of Sovremennik, a continuation appears - the story “Boyhood”, and in the 1st issue for 1857 the story “Youth” was published, completing the story about Nikolai Irteniev, the hero of “Childhood” and “Boyhood” ".
Tolstoy's three stories are not a consistent story of the upbringing and maturation of the protagonist and narrator, Nikolenka Irteniev. This is a description of a number of episodes of his life. B. M. Eikhenbaum drew attention to the fact that the events described in the story fit into two days, and a long period of time passes between these days (Eichenbaum B. M. Young Tolstoy // Eichenbaum B. M. On Literature. M. , 1987. S. 75-77). What others think is petty, unworthy of attention, and what others see as real events in Nikolenka's life, occupy an equal place in the mind of the hero-child himself. Tolstoy carefully captures the conflicting, opposing feelings of the hero. The immediate spiritual movements of Nikolenka Irtenyev are combined with a detached introspection, with observations of his own experiences. In "Childhood" Tolstoy discovers the multi-layered consciousness, in which opposing feelings, aspirations and thoughts coexist at the same time, sincerity coexists with the features of a kind of self-admiration, and sometimes pretense (The features of Tolstoy's psychologism are traced in detail by L. Ya. Ginzburg. - Ginzburg L. Ya. On Psychological Prose, 3rd edition, Moscow, 1999, pp. 267-293, 301-334, 372-394).
The depiction of the hero's feelings in "Childhood", "Boyhood" and "Youth" is reminiscent of the analysis of his own experiences in Tolstoy's diaries. The principles of depiction outlined in the diaries and embodied in these three stories inner world characters will be transferred to the novels "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina" and many other later works of Tolstoy.
At the same time as working on "Childhood", from May to December 1852, Tolstoy wrote the story "The Raid" about one of the minor episodes of the war in the Caucasus. Later, based on his impressions of the military events in the Caucasus, Tolstoy creates two more stories - "Cutting the Forest" and "How Russian Soldiers Die" (the first version of this story was called "Alarm"). In these stories, for the first time, a theme is expressed that will henceforth be unchanged, constant for Tolstoy. This theme: simplicity, naturalness as the highest value of true human life. “Always from a young age, and the older, the more, I appreciate one quality<...>above all - simplicity,” wrote Tolstoy in 1872. In the “Caucasian” stories, Tolstoy contrasted his mundane depiction of hostilities, confusion of battle and senseless deaths with romantic, poetic description battles as a majestic spectacle. Before Tolstoy, Russian literature was dominated by just such a romanticized perception of war and military exploits. This is how A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, a writer, whose works in the 1830s and early 1840s depicted battles in the Caucasus. enjoyed great fame. The simple, "everyday" depiction of war in Tolstoy's stories is the opposite of the romance of battles and exploits. It resembles a description of one of the battles Caucasian war in the poem by M. Yu. Lermontov “Valerik”. Genuine heroism in the portrayal of Tolstoy is devoid of any kind of romantic theatricality or artificiality. true hero never thinks he is doing a feat. He has no desire for fame. Calm acceptance own death for Tolstoy - a trait of a truly wise and worthy person.
The theme of simplicity and naturalness as highest value life and a dispute with the “front door”, beautiful picture Tolstoy continued the war in the essays “Sevastopol in December” (1855), “Sevastopol in May” (1855) and “Sevastopol in August 1855” (1856). The essays describe episodes of the heroic defense of Sevastopol from the Anglo-French troops in 1855. Tolstoy himself participated in the defense of Sevastopol and spent many days and nights in the most dangerous place - on the fourth bastion, which was mercilessly fired upon by enemy artillery. Tolstoy's Sevastopol stories are not a panoramic description of the entire months-long giant battle outside the city, but sketches of several days from the life of its defenders. It is in the details: in the depiction of everyday life of soldiers, sailors, sisters of mercy, officers, townspeople - Tolstoy is looking for the true truth of the war.
key motive Sevastopol stories- the unnaturalness and madness of war. Tolstoy shows the war with a third-party, "detached" look. In the essay "Sevastopol in December" Tolstoy describes not the beautiful correctness of the battle, but the terrible scenes of the suffering of the wounded in the hospital. The writer uses the technique of contrast, sharply confronting the world of the living and beautiful nature with the world of the dead - victims of the war. He describes a child picking wildflowers between decaying corpses and touching with his foot outstretched hand headless dead. Tolstoy acts as an accuser of people who violate the precepts of God, in self-blindness and in a frenzy shedding each other's blood. Tolstoy's Sevastopol stories are the grain of the future novel War and Peace.
In the autumn of 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana. He studied history with children, gave them topics for compositions. In 1862 the school was closed after a police raid. The reason for the search was the suspicion of the authorities that the students teaching at the Yasnaya Polyana school were engaged in anti-government activities. The writer formulated the conclusions from his activities in the Yasnaya Polyana school in an article with a “scandalous” title: “Who should learn to write from whom, peasant children from us or us from peasant children?” According to Tolstoy, folk art and culture is not inferior, but rather superior, to the culture and art recognized in an educated society. Peasant children keep the spiritual purity and naturalness lost in the educated estates. Their training in the values of "high" culture, Tolstoy believes, is hardly necessary. On the contrary, the writer himself, studying with them, found himself in the role not of a teacher, but of a student.
September 24 (old style), 1862 Tolstoy marries the daughter of a Moscow doctor Sofya Andreevna Bers. On September 25, Tolstoy writes in his diary: "Incredible happiness." Mutual misunderstanding, heavy quarrels, alienation from each other - all this is still in the distant future.
In 1863 Tolstoy published the story "The Cossacks", on which he began to work in the mid-1850s. The story, like many other works of Tolstoy, is autobiographical. It is based on the Caucasian memoirs of the writer, first of all - the history of his unrequited love to a Cossack woman who lived in the Starogladkovskaya village. Tolstoy chooses the traditional romantic literature plot: the love of a chilled, life-disillusioned runaway hero from the disgusting world of civilization for a “natural” and passionate heroine. On this plot, poems by A. S. Pushkin were written “ Prisoner of the Caucasus” and “Gypsies”. "Gypsy" Tolstoy re-read while working on "Cossacks". But Tolstoy gives this plot a completely new meaning. The young nobleman Dmitry Olenin only superficially resembles romantic hero: His fatigue from life is shallow. He is drawn to the natural simplicity, the elemental life of the Cossacks, but remains alien to them. Olenin's interests, upbringing, and social position alienate him from the inhabitants of the Cossack village. Olenin eagerly absorbs the simple and wise thoughts of the old Cossack, hunter and former thief Uncle Eroshka: happiness, the meaning of life - in rapture with all its joys, in carnal pleasures. But he will never be able to become as simple, carefree, kind and evil, pure and cynical at the same time as Uncle Eroshka.
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Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828. The family of the writer belonged to the nobility. After his mother died, Leo and his sisters and brothers were raised by their father's cousin. Their father died 7 years later. For this reason, the children were given to be raised by an aunt. But soon the aunt died, and the children went to Kazan, to the second aunt. Tolstoy's childhood was difficult, but, however, in his works he romanticized this period of his life.
Lev Nikolaevich received his basic education at home. Soon he entered the Imperial Kazan University at the Faculty of Philology. But in his studies, he was not successful.
While Tolstoy served in the army, he would have quite a lot of free time. Even then, he began to write an autobiographical story "Childhood". This story contains good memories from the publicist's childhood.
Lev Nikolayevich also participated in the Crimean War, and during this period he created a number of works: "Boyhood", "Sevastopol Stories" and so on.
Anna Karenina is the most famous creation Tolstoy.
Leo Tolstoy fell asleep forever on November 20, 1910. He was interred in Yasnaya Polyana, the place where he grew up.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy - famous writer, who created, in addition to recognized serious books, works useful for children. These were, first of all, "ABC" and "Book for reading".
He was born in 1828 in the Tula province in the Yasnaya Polyana estate, where his house-museum is still located. Lyova became the fourth child in this noble family. His mother (nee princess) soon died, and seven years later his father. These terrible events led to the fact that the children had to move to their aunt in Kazan. Later, Lev Nikolayevich will collect memories of these and other years in the story "Childhood", which will be the first to be published in the Sovremennik magazine.
At first, Lev studied at home with German and French teachers, he was also fond of music. He grew up and entered the Imperial University. Tolstoy's older brother convinced him to serve in the army. The lion even took part in real battles. They are described by him in Sevastopol stories”, in the stories “Boyhood” and “Youth”.
Tired of the wars, he declared himself an anarchist and went to Paris, where he lost all the money. Having changed his mind, Lev Nikolaevich returned to Russia, married Sophia Burns. Since then, he began to live in his native estate and engage in literary work.
His first great work was the novel "War and Peace". The writer wrote it for about ten years. The novel was well received by both readers and critics. Further, Tolstoy created the novel "Anna Karenina", which received even greater public success.
Tolstoy wanted to understand life. Desperate to find an answer in his work, he went to church, but was disappointed there too. Then he renounced the church, began to think about his philosophical theory - "non-resistance to evil." He wanted to give all his property to the poor… The secret police even began to follow him!
Going on a pilgrimage, Tolstoy fell ill and died - in 1910.
Biography of Leo Tolstoy
In different sources, the date of birth of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy is indicated in different ways. The most common versions are August 28, 1829 and September 09, 1828. Born as the fourth child in a noble family, Russia, Tula province, Yasnaya Polyana. There were 5 children in the Tolstoy family.
His family tree originates from the Ruriks, his mother belonged to the Volkonsky family, and his father was a count. At the age of 9, Leo and his father went to Moscow for the first time. Young Writer was so impressed that this trip gave rise to such works as "Childhood'', Boyhood'', Youth''.
In 1830, Leo's mother died. The upbringing of children, after the death of the mother, was taken over by their uncle - the cousin of the father, after whose death, the aunt became the guardian. When the guardian aunt died, the second aunt from Kazan began to take care of the children. In 1873 my father died.
Tolstoy received his first education at home, with teachers. In Kazan, the writer lived for about 6 years, spent 2 years preparing to enter the Imperial Kazan University and he was enrolled in the Faculty of Oriental Languages. In 1844 he became a university student.
Learning languages for Leo Tolstoy was not interesting, after that he tried to connect his fate with jurisprudence, but even here the training did not work out, so in 1847 he dropped out of school, received documents from educational institution. After failed attempts study, decided to develop farming. As a result, he returned to parental home in Yasnaya Polyana.
I didn’t find myself in agriculture, but I didn’t manage to behave badly Personal diary. Having finished working in the field of farming, he went to Moscow to focus on creativity, but all his plans have not yet been implemented.
Very young, he managed to visit the war, along with his brother Nikolai. The course of military events influenced his work, this is noticeable in some works, for example, in the stories, Cossacks '', Hadji - Murat '', in the stories, Degraded '', Woodcutting '', Raid ''.
From 1855, Lev Nikolaevich became a more skillful writer. At that time, the right of serfs was relevant, about which Leo Tolstoy wrote in his stories: “Polikushka”, “Morning of the landowner” and others.
1857-1860 fell on travel. Under their impression, he prepared school textbooks and began to pay attention to the publication of a pedagogical journal. In 1862, Leo Tolstoy married the young Sophia Bers, the daughter of a doctor. Family life, at first, benefited him, then the most famous works, War and the world'', Anna Karenina''.
The mid-80s were fruitful, dramas, comedies, and novels were written. The writer was worried about the topic of the bourgeoisie, he was on the side common people To express his thoughts on this matter, Leo Tolstoy created many works: “After the Ball”, “For what”, “The Power of Darkness”, “Sunday”, etc.
Roman, Sunday”, deserves special attention. To write it, Lev Nikolayevich had to work hard for 10 years. As a result, the work was criticized. The local authorities, so afraid of his pen that they installed surveillance on him, were able to remove him from the church, but despite this, the common people supported Leo as best they could.
In the early 90s, Leo began to get sick. In the autumn of 1910, at the age of 82, the writer's heart stopped. It happened on the road: Leo Tolstoy was on a train, he became ill, he had to stop at the Astapovo railway station. Sheltered the patient, at home, the head of the station. After 7 days of visiting, the writer died.
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On a September morning, a fourth child was born in a large noble family, in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province. They named him Leo. His mother, nee Princess Volkonskaya, had an excellent education, a penchant for reflection, and sensitivity to art. When the boy was two years old, she died. 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.
Tolstoy's father was a member Patriotic War 1812, had a good-natured and mocking character, loved to read and hunt. When Tolstoy was in his ninth year, his father took him to Moscow for the first time, the impressions of meeting with which were vividly conveyed by the future writer in the children's essay "Kremlin". Moscow is here called "the greatest and most populous city in Europe", whose walls "saw the shame and defeat of the invincible Napoleonic regiments." His father died in 1837 and Tolstoy became an orphan, now losing his father as well.
The upbringing of children was carried out by a distant relative T. A. Ergolskaya, who had a huge influence on Tolstoy: "she taught me the spiritual pleasure of love." he said. Childhood memories have always remained the most joyful for Tolstoy.
The first period of young Tolstoy's life in Moscow lasted less than four years. With his sister and three brothers, young Tolstoy moved to Kazan. Here lived one of the father's sisters, who became their guardians. When Tolstoy was 13 years old, the family moved to Kazan, to the house of the guardian P. I. Yushkova.
Living in Kazan, Tolstoy spent two and a half years preparing for
admission to the university, where he studied from 1844, first in the east, and then in law faculty. Studied Turkish and Tatar languages with Professor Kazembek. In his mature life, the writer was fluent in English, French and German. Read in Italian, Polish, Czech and Serbian. He knew Greek, Latin, Ukrainian, Tatar, Church Slavonic. Studied Hebrew, Turkish, Dutch, Bulgarian and other languages. There he studied for less than two years.
Classes in government programs and textbooks were a burden to Tolstoy - a student. He got carried away independent work above historical theme and, having left the university in 1847, having filed a letter of resignation from the university "due to frustrated health and domestic circumstances", Tolstoy went to Yasnaya Polyana with the firm intention of studying the entire course of legal sciences (in order to pass the exam as an external student), "practical medicine", languages, Agriculture, history, geographical statistics, write a dissertation and achieve the highest degree excellence in music and painting.
After a summer in the countryside, disappointed by the unsuccessful experience of managing in the fall of 1847, Tolstoy went first to Moscow, then to St. Petersburg to take candidate exams at the university. His way of life during this period often changed: either he prepared for days and passed exams, then he devoted himself passionately to music, then he intended to start a bureaucratic career, then he dreamed of becoming a cadet in a horse guard regiment. Religious moods, reaching asceticism, alternated with revelry, cards, trips to the gypsies.
In the family, he was considered "the most trifling fellow", and the debts made then, he managed to pay back only many years later. However, it was these years that were colored by intense introspection and struggle with oneself, which is reflected in the diary that Tolstoy kept throughout his life.
At the same time, he had a serious desire to write, and the first unfinished artistic sketches appeared.
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.
In 1851, his elder brother Nikolai persuaded Tolstoy to travel together to the Caucasus. For almost three years, Tolstoy lived in a Cossack village on the banks of the Terek, traveling to Kizlyar, Tiflis, Vladikavkaz and participating in hostilities (at first voluntarily, then he was hired). Caucasian nature and patriarchal simplicity Cossack life, which struck Tolstoy in contrast to everyday life
noble circle and with painful reflection of a man of an educated society, gave material for the autobiographical story "Cossacks" (1852-63). Caucasian impressions were also reflected in the stories "Foray"
(1853), "Cutting down the forest" (1855), as well as in the late story "Hadji Murad" (1896-1904, published in 1912). Returning to Russia, Tolstoy wrote in his diary that he fell in love with this "wild land, in which two most opposite things are combined so strangely and poetically
war and freedom". In the Caucasus, Tolstoy wrote the story "Childhood" and sent it to the journal "Contemporary", without revealing his name (published in 1852 under the initials L.N.; together with later stories "Boyhood", 1852-54, and "Youth", 1855-57, was autobiographical trilogy). The literary debut immediately brought real recognition to Tolstoy.
In 1854 Tolstoy was assigned to the Danube army, in Bucharest, which acted against the Turks.
Boring staff life soon forced him to transfer to Sevastopol, besieged by the combined forces of England, France and Turkey. Commanding a battery on the 4th bastion, Tolstoy was awarded the order Anna and medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol" and "In Memory of the War of 1853-1856." More than once Tolstoy was presented for the award of the military St. George Cross, but, however, he never received "George". In the Crimea, Tolstoy was captured by new impressions and literary plans(he was going to publish a magazine for soldiers), here he began to write a cycle of "Sevastopol stories", which were soon published and had a huge success (even Alexander II read the essay "Sevastopol in December"). The first works of Tolstoy struck literary critics boldness of psychological analysis and a detailed picture of the "dialectic of the soul" (N. G. Chernyshevsky). Some of the ideas that appeared in these years allow us to guess
in a young artillery officer of the late Tolstoy the preacher: he dreamed of "founding new religion"" the religion of Christ, but cleansed of faith and mystery, a practical religion. "In the army, Tolstoy writes a number of projects - on the reorganization of artillery batteries and the creation of rifle battalions armed with rifled guns, on the reorganization of the entire Russian army. Together with a group of officers of the Crimean army, Tolstoy intended publish the magazine "Soldier's Bulletin" ("Military List"), but its publication was not allowed by Emperor Nicholas I.
In November 1855, Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg and immediately entered the circle of ''Contemporary'', which already included N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Turgenev, A. N. Ostrovsky, I. A. Goncharov and others, where he was greeted as "the great hope of Russian literature". Tolstoy took part in the establishment of the Literary Fund and there he became involved in disputes and conflicts of writers, but he felt like a stranger in this environment, which he described in detail later in Confession (1879-82): “These people disgusted me, and I myself disgusted." In the autumn of 1856, having retired, Tolstoy left for Yasnaya Polyana and soon went on a six-month trip abroad (1857), visiting France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany (Swiss impressions are reflected in the story "Lucerne"), returned to Moscow in the autumn, then to Yasnaya Glade.
In 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, and then helped open more than 20 schools in the surrounding villages. In order to direct their activities along the right path, from his point of view, he published the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana (1862). In order to study the setting of school affairs in foreign countries the writer in 1860 went abroad for the second time to get acquainted with the schools of Europe. Tolstoy traveled a lot, spent a month and a half in London (where he often
met with A. I. Herzen), was in Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, studied popular pedagogical systems, which basically did not satisfy the writer. Tolstoy outlined his own ideas in special articles, arguing that the basis of education should be "the freedom of the student" and the rejection of violence in teaching.
After the manifesto of 1861, Tolstoy became one of the world's mediators of the first call, who sought to help the peasants resolve their land disputes with the landowners.
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, and immediately after the wedding, he took his wife from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana, where he completely devoted himself family life and economic concerns.
In 1862 he published the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana.
with books to read as an attachment,
which have become in Russia the same classic examples of children's and folk literature, as well as compiled by him in the early 1870s. "ABC" and "New ABC". In the same year, in the absence of Tolstoy, a search was carried out in Yasnaya Polyana (they were looking for a secret printing house), which the writer allegedly started after talking with A. I. Herzen in London.
Tolstoy had to close the school and stop publishing the pedagogical journal. In total, he wrote eleven articles on school and pedagogy ("On Public Education", "Upbringing and Education", "On social activities in the field of public education "and others). In them, he described in detail the experience of his work with students ("Yasnopolyanskaya school for the months of November and December", "On methods of teaching literacy", "Who should learn to write from whom, peasant children with us or we peasant children"). Tolstoy, the teacher, demanded that the school be closer to life, sought to put it at the service of the needs of the people, and for this to intensify the processes of education and upbringing, to develop Creative skills children.
