Ln Tolstoy was born. Brief biography of Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich - childhood and adolescence, search for his place in life

The land of Russia has given humanity a whole scattering of talented writers. In many parts of the world, people know and love the works of I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, N. V. Gogol and many other Russian authors. This publication aims to general outline describe the life and creative path of the wonderful writer L.N. Tolstoy as one of the most outstanding Russians, who covered himself and the Fatherland with worldwide fame with his works.

Childhood

In 1828, or more precisely, on August 28, in the family estate of Yasnaya Polyana (at that time Tula province), the fourth child in the family was born, who was named Leo. Despite the quick loss of his mother - she died when he was not yet two years old - he will carry her image throughout his life and uses it in the War and Peace trilogy as Princess Volkonskaya. Tolstoy lost his father before he reached the age of nine, and it would seem that he would perceive these years as a personal tragedy. However, raised by relatives who gave him love and a new family, the writer considered his childhood years the happiest. This was reflected in his novel “Childhood”.

It’s interesting, but Leo began transferring his thoughts and feelings onto paper as a child. One of the first attempts at writing by the future literary classic was the short story “The Kremlin,” written under the impression of a visit to the Moscow Kremlin.

Adolescence and youth

Having received a magnificent elementary education(he was taught by excellent teachers from France and Germany) and having moved with his family to Kazan, young Tolstoy entered Kazan University in 1844. I wasn't interested in studying. Less than two years later, he, allegedly due to health reasons, quits his studies and returns to the family estate with the idea of ​​finishing his studies in absentia.

Having experienced all the delights of unsuccessful management, which is then reflected in the story “The Morning of the Landowner,” Lev moves first to Moscow, and later to St. Petersburg with the hope of getting a diploma at the university. The search for oneself during this period led to amazing metamorphoses. Preparation for exams, the desire to become a military man, religious asceticism, suddenly giving way to revelry and revelry - this is not a complete list of his activities at this time. But it is precisely at this stage of life that a serious desire arises.

Adulthood

Heeding the advice of his older brother, Tolstoy became a cadet and went to serve in the Caucasus in 1851. Here he takes part in hostilities, becomes close to the inhabitants of the Cossack village and realizes the enormous difference between noble life and everyday reality. During this period, he wrote the story “Childhood,” which was published under a pseudonym and brought his first success. Having expanded his autobiography into a trilogy with the stories “Adolescence” and “Youth,” Tolstoy gained recognition among writers and readers.

Participating in the defense of Sevastopol (1854), Tolstoy was awarded not only an order and medals, but also new experiences that became the basis of the “Sevastopol stories.” This collection finally convinced critics of his talent.

After the war

Having finished his military adventures in 1855, Tolstoy returned to St. Petersburg, where he immediately became a member of the Sovremennik circle. He finds himself in the company of people such as Turgenev, Ostrovsky, Nekrasov and others. But social life did not please him and, having been abroad and finally breaking with the army, he returned to Yasnaya Polyana. Here in 1859, Tolstoy, mindful of the contrast between the common people and the nobles, opened a school for peasant children. With his assistance, 20 more such schools were created in the surrounding area.

"War and Peace"

After the wedding with the 18-year-old daughter of a doctor, Sophia Bers, in 1862, the couple returned to Yasnaya Polyana, where they indulged in the joys of family life and household chores. But a year later Tolstoy became interested in the new idea. A trip to the Borodino field, work in the archives, a painstaking study of the correspondence of people from the era of Alexander I and the elation of family happiness led to the publication of the first part of the novel “War and Peace” in 1865. Full version The trilogy was published in 1869 and still causes admiration and controversy regarding the novel.

"Anna Karenina"

The iconic novel, known throughout the world, was the result of a deep analysis of the lives of Tolstoy’s contemporaries and was published in 1877. In this decade, the writer lived in Yasnaya Polyana, teaching peasant children and defending his own views on pedagogy through the press. Family life, viewed through a social lens, illustrates the full range of human emotions. Despite not the best, to put it mildly, relations between the writers, even F.M. admired the work. Dostoevsky.

Broken soul

Contemplating social inequality around him, he now views the dogmas of Christianity as an incentive to humanity and justice. Tolstoy, understanding the role of God in people's lives, continues to expose the corruption of his servants. This period of complete denial of the established way of life explains the criticism of the church and state institutions. It got to the point where he questioned art, denied science, marriage, and much more. He was eventually officially excommunicated in 1901 and also displeased the authorities. This period of the writer’s life gave the world many sharp, sometimes controversial, works. The result of understanding the author’s views was his last novel, “Sunday.”

Care

Due to disagreements in the family and not understood by secular society, Tolstoy decided to leave Yasnaya Polyana, but after getting off the train due to deteriorating health, he died at a small, godforsaken station. This happened in the fall of 1910, and next to him was only his doctor, who turned out to be powerless against the writer’s illness.

L.N. Tolstoy was one of the first who dared to describe human life without embellishment. His heroes had all, sometimes unsightly, feelings, desires and character traits. Therefore, they remain relevant today, and his works have rightfully entered the heritage of world literature.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy brief information.

Leo Tolstoy is a unique writer in Russian literature. It is very difficult to describe Tolstoy's work briefly. The writer’s large-scale thought was embodied in 90 volumes of works. The works of L. Tolstoy are novels about the life of the Russian nobility, war stories, short stories, diary entries, letters, and articles. Each of them reflects the personality of the creator. Reading them, we discover Tolstoy - a writer and a person. Throughout his 82-year-old life, he pondered what the purpose of human life was and strived for spiritual improvement.

We briefly became acquainted with the work of L. Tolstoy at school, reading his autobiographical stories: “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth” (1852 - 1857). In them, the writer outlined the process of forming his character, his attitude towards the world around him and himself. The main character, Nikolenka Irtenyev, is a sincere, observant, truth-loving person. Growing up, he learns to understand not only people, but also himself. The literary debut was successful and brought recognition to the writer.

Leaving his studies at the university, Tolstoy began to transform the estate. This period is described in the story Morning of the Landowner (1857).

In his youth, Tolstoy was also prone to making mistakes (his social entertainment while studying at the university), and repentance, and the desire to eradicate vices (self-education program). There was even an escape to the Caucasus from debts and social life. Caucasian nature, the simplicity of Cossack life contrasted with the conventions of the nobility and the enslavement of an educated person. The richest impressions of this period were reflected in the story “Cossacks” (1852-1963), the stories “Raid” (1853), “Cutting the Forest” (1855). Tolstoy's hero of this period is a seeking man who is trying to find himself in unity with nature. The story "Cossacks" is based on an autobiographical love story. The hero, disillusioned with civilized life, is drawn to a simple, passionate Cossack woman. Dmitry Olenin resembles a romantic hero; he seeks happiness in the Cossack environment, but remains alien to it.

1854 - service in Sevastopol, participation in hostilities, new impressions, new plans. At this time, Tolstoy was captivated by the idea of ​​publishing literary magazine for soldiers, worked on the cycle of Sevastopol Stories. These essays became sketches of several days lived among his defenders. Tolstoy used the technique of contrast in his description beautiful nature and the everyday life of the city’s defenders. War is terrifying in its unnatural essence, this is its true truth.

In 1855-1856, Tolstoy had great fame as a writer, but did not become close to anyone from the literary community. Life in Yasnaya Polyana and classes with peasant children fascinated him more. He even wrote “The ABC” (1872) for classes at his school. It consisted of the best fairy tales, epics, proverbs, sayings, and fables. Later, 4 volumes of “Russian books for reading” were published.

From 1856 to 1863, Tolstoy worked on a novel about the Decembrists, but when analyzing this movement, he saw its origins in the events of 1812. So the writer moved on to describe the spiritual unity of the nobility and the people in the fight against the invaders. This is how the idea of ​​the novel - the epic "War and Peace" - arose. It is based on the spiritual evolution of the heroes. Each of them goes their own way to comprehend the essence of life. Scenes of family life are intertwined with the military. The author analyzes the meaning and laws of history through the prism of consciousness common man. It is not commanders, but the people who are able to change history, and the essence of human life is family.

Family is the basis of another Tolstoy novel, Anna Karenina.

(1873 - 1977) Tolstoy described the story of three families, whose members treated their loved ones differently. Anna, for the sake of passion, destroys both her family and herself, Dolly tries to save her family, Konstantin Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya strive for a pure and spiritual relationship.

By the 80s, the worldview of the writer himself had changed. He is concerned about issues of social inequality, poverty of the poor, idleness of the rich. This is reflected in the stories “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” (1884-1886), “Father Sergius” (1890-1898), the drama “The Living Corpse” (1900), and the story “After the Ball” (1903).

The writer's last novel is Resurrection (1899). In the late repentance of Nekhlyudov, who seduced his aunt’s pupil, is Tolstoy’s thought about the need to change the entire Russian society. But the future is possible not in the revolutionary, but in the moral, spiritual renewal life.

Throughout his life, the writer kept a diary, the first entry in which was made at the age of 18, and the last 4 days before his death in Astapov. Diary entries The writer himself considered the most important of his works. Today they reveal to us the writer’s views on the world, life, and faith. Tolstoy revealed his perception of existence in the articles “On the Census in Moscow” (1882), “So what should we do?” (1906) and in “Confession” (1906).

The last novel and the writer’s atheistic writings led to a final break with the church.

Writer, philosopher, preacher Tolstoy was firm in his position. Some admired him, others criticized his teaching. But no one remained calm: he raised questions that worried all of humanity.

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Count, great Russian writer.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 in the estate of the Krapivensky district of the Tula province (now in) in the family of a retired captain-captain Count N. I. Tolstoy (1794-1837), participant Patriotic War 1812.

L.N. Tolstoy was educated at home. In 1844-1847 he studied at Kazan University, but did not complete the course. In 1851 he went to the Caucasus to the village - to the place military service elder brother N.N. Tolstoy.

Two years of life in the Caucasus turned out to be unusually significant for the spiritual development of the writer. The story “Childhood” he wrote here is the first printed work of L. N. Tolstoy (published under the initials L. N. in the Sovremennik magazine in 1852) - together with the stories “Adolescence” (1852-1854) and “Youth” that appeared later "(1855-1857) was part of the extensive plan of the autobiographical novel "Four Epochs of Development", the last part of which - "Youth" - was never written.

In 1851-1853, L.N. Tolstoy took part in military operations in the Caucasus (first as a volunteer, then as an artillery officer), and in 1854 he was assigned to the Danube Army. Soon after the start of the Crimean War, at his personal request, he was transferred to Sevastopol, during the siege of which he participated in the defense of the 4th bastion. Army life and episodes of the war gave L. N. Tolstoy material for the stories “Raid” (1853), “Forest cutting” (1853-1855), as well as for artistic essays “Sevastopol in December”, “Sevastopol in May”, “ Sevastopol in August 1855" (all published in Sovremennik in 1855-1856). These essays, which traditionally received the name “Sevastopol Stories,” made a huge impression on Russian society.

In 1855, L. N. Tolstoy came to, where he became close to the staff of Sovremennik, met I. A. Goncharov, and others. The years 1856-1859 were marked by the writer’s attempts to find himself in the literary environment, to get comfortable among professionals, assert your creative position. The most striking work of this time is the story “Cossacks” (1853-1863), in which the author’s attraction to folk themes was manifested.

Dissatisfied with his work, disappointed in secular and literary circles, L. N. Tolstoy at the turn of the 1860s decided to leave literature and settle in the village. In 1859-1862, he devoted a lot of energy to the school he founded for peasant children, studied the organization of teaching in and abroad, published the pedagogical magazine “Yasnaya Polyana” (1862), preaching a free system of education and upbringing.

In 1862, L. N. Tolstoy married S. A. Bers (1844-1919) and began to live patriarchally and secludedly in his estate as the head of a large and ever-increasing family. During the years of peasant reform, he served as a peace mediator for the Krapivensky district, resolving disputes between landowners and their former serfs.

The 1860s were the heyday of the artistic genius of L. N. Tolstoy. Living a sedentary, measured life, he found himself in intense, concentrated spiritual creativity. The original paths mastered by the writer led to a new rise in national culture.

L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” (1863-1869, publication began in 1865) became a unique phenomenon in Russian and world literature. The author managed to successfully combine the depth and sincerity of a psychological novel with the scope and multi-figure nature of an epic fresco. With his novel, L.N. Tolstoy tried to give an answer to the desire of literature of the 1860s to understand the course of historical process, determine the role of the people in decisive epochs of national life.

In the early 1870s, L.N. Tolstoy again focused on his pedagogical interests. He wrote "ABC" (1871-1872), later - "New ABC" (1874-1875), for which the writer composed original stories and adaptations of fairy tales and fables, which made up four "Russian books for reading." For a while, L.N. Tolstoy returned to teaching at the Yasnaya Polyana school. However, soon symptoms of a crisis in the writer’s moral and philosophical worldview began to appear, aggravated by the historical stoppage of the social turning point of the 1870s.

The central work of L. N. Tolstoy of the 1870s is the novel “Anna Karenina” (1873-1877, published in 1876-1877). Like the novels and, written at the same time, “Anna Karenina” is a highly problematic work, full of signs of the times. The novel was the result of the writer’s thoughts about the fate of modern society and is imbued with pessimistic sentiments.

By the beginning of the 1880s, L.N. Tolstoy formed the basic principles of his new worldview, which later received the name Tolstoyism. They found their most complete expression in his works “Confession” (1879-1880, published in 1884) and “What is my faith?” (1882-1884). In them, L.N. Tolstoy concluded that the foundations of the existence of the upper strata of society, with which he was connected by origin, upbringing and life experience, were false. To the writer’s characteristic criticism of materialist and positivist theories of progress, to the apology of naive consciousness is now added a sharp protest against the state and the official church, against the privileges and way of life of his class. L.N. Tolstoy connected his new social views with moral and religious philosophy. The works “Study of Dogmatic Theology” (1879-1880) and “Connection and Translation of the Four Gospels” (1880-1881) laid the foundation for the religious side of Tolstoy’s teaching. Purified from distortions and church rituals, Christian teaching in its updated form should, according to the writer, unite people with the ideas of love and forgiveness. L.N. Tolstoy preached non-resistance to evil through violence, considering the only reasonable means of combating evil to be its public denunciation and passive disobedience to authorities. He saw the path to the future renewal of man and humanity in individual spiritual work, moral improvement of the individual, and rejected the significance of political struggle and revolutionary explosions.

In the 1880s, L. N. Tolstoy noticeably cooled towards artistic work and even condemned his previous novels and stories as lordly “fun”. He became interested in simple physical labor, plowed, sewed his own boots, and switched to vegetarian food. At the same time, the writer’s dissatisfaction with the usual way of life of his loved ones grew. His journalistic works “So what should we do?” (1882-1886) and “Slavery of Our Time” (1899-1900) sharply criticized the vices of modern civilization, but the author saw a way out of its contradictions primarily in utopian calls for moral and religious self-education. The actual artistic work of the writer of these years is imbued with journalism, direct denunciations of an unfair trial and modern marriage, land ownership and the church, passionate appeals to the conscience, reason and dignity of people (the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” (1884-1886); “The Kreutzer Sonata” (1887- 1889, published 1891); "The Devil" (1889-1890, published 1911).

During the same period, L. N. Tolstoy began to show serious interest in dramatic genres. In the drama “The Power of Darkness” (1886) and the comedy “The Fruits of Enlightenment” (1886-1890, published in 1891), he examined the problem of the pernicious influence of urban civilization on conservative rural society. L. N. Tolstoy’s desire to appeal directly to the reader from the people caused the so-called “folk stories” of the 1880s (“How People Live,” “Candle,” “Two Old Men,” “How Much Land Does a Man Need,” etc.), written in the genre of parables, have come to life.

L. N. Tolstoy actively supported the publishing house “Posrednik”, which emerged in 1884, which was led by his followers and friends V. G. Chertkov and I. I. Gorbunov-Posadov and whose goal was to distribute books among the people that served the cause of education and were close to Tolstoy’s teachings . Many of the writer’s works, under censorship conditions, were published first in Geneva, then in London, where, on the initiative of V. G. Chertkov, the Svobodnoe Slovo publishing house was founded. In 1891, 1893 and 1898, L. N. Tolstoy headed a wide social movement to provide assistance to peasants in starving provinces, he made appeals and articles on measures to combat hunger. In the 2nd half of the 1890s, the writer devoted a lot of effort to protecting religious sectarians - the Molokans and Doukhobors, and facilitated the relocation of the Doukhobors to Canada. (especially in the 1890s) became a place of pilgrimage for people from the farthest corners of Russia and other countries, one of the largest centers of attraction for the living forces of world culture.

The main artistic work of L. N. Tolstoy in the 1890s was the novel “Resurrection” (1889-1899), the plot of which arose on the basis of an authentic court case. In an astonishing combination of circumstances (a young aristocrat, once guilty of seducing a peasant girl raised in a manor house, must now, as a juror, decide her fate in court), the writer expressed the alogism of a life built on social injustice. The cartoonish depiction of church ministers and its rituals in “Resurrection” became one of the reasons for the decision of the Holy Synod to excommunicate L. N. Tolstoy from the Orthodox Church (1901).

During this period, the alienation observed by the writer in his contemporary society makes the problem of personal moral responsibility extremely important for him, with the inevitable pangs of conscience, enlightenment, moral revolution and subsequent break with his environment. The plot of “departure”, a sharp and radical change in life, an appeal to a new faith in life becomes typical (“Father Sergius”, 1890-1898, published in 1912; “The Living Corpse”, 1900, published in 1911; “After the Ball” , 1903, published in 1911; “Posthumous Notes of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich...”, 1905, published in 1912).

In the last decade of his life, L. N. Tolstoy became the recognized head of Russian literature. He maintains personal relationships with young contemporary writers V. G. Korolenko, A. M. Gorky. His social and journalistic activities continued: his appeals and articles were published, work was carried out on the book “The Reading Circle”. Tolstoyism became widely known as an ideological doctrine, but the writer himself at that time experienced hesitation and doubts about the correctness of his teaching. During the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, his protests against the death penalty became famous (article “I Can’t Be Silent”, 1908).

L. N. Tolstoy spent the last years of his life in an atmosphere of intrigue and discord between the Tolstoyans and members of his family. Trying to bring his lifestyle into agreement with his beliefs, on October 28 (November 10), 1910, the writer secretly left. On the way, he caught a cold and died on November 7 (20), 1910 at the Astapovo station of the Ryazan-Ural Railway (now a village in). The death of L.N. Tolstoy caused a colossal public outcry in and abroad.

The work of L. N. Tolstoy marked a new stage in the development of realism in Russian and world literature, and became a kind of bridge between the traditions of the classical novel of the 19th century and the literature of the 20th century. The writer's philosophical views had a huge influence on the evolution of European humanism.

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Born in Yasnaya Polyana, Krapivensky district, Tula province, on August 28 (September 9), 1828. Lived in the estate in 1828-1837. Since 1849 he returned to the estate periodically, and since 1862 he lived permanently. He was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.

He first visited Moscow in January 1837. He lived in the city until 1841, subsequently visited several times and lived for a long time. In 1882 he bought a house on Dolgokhamovnichesky Lane, where from then on his family usually spent the winter. The last time I came to Moscow was in September 1909.

In February-May 1849 he visited St. Petersburg for the first time. Lived in the city in the winter of 1855-1856, visited annually in 1857-1861, and also in 1878. The last time he came to St. Petersburg was in 1897.

He visited Tula several times in 1840-1900. In 1849-1852 he served in the office of the noble assembly. In September 1858 he took part in the congress of the provincial nobility. In February 1868, he was elected as a juror for the Krapivensky district and attended sessions of the Tula District Court.

Owner of the Nikolskoye-Vyazemskoye estate in Chernsky district, Tula province since 1860 (previously belonged to brother N.N. Tolstoy). In the 1860-1870s, he conducted experiments on improving the economy on the estate. The last time I visited the estate was on June 28 (July 11), 1910.

In 1854, the wooden manor house in which L. N. Tolstoy was born was sold and transported from the village of Dolgoye, Krapivensky district, Tula province, which belonged to the landowner P. M. Gorokhov. In 1897, the writer visited the village to buy the house, but due to its dilapidated condition it was considered untransportable.

In the 1860s, he organized a school in the village of Kolpna, Krapivensky district, Tula province (now within the city of Shchekino). On July 21 (August 2), 1894, he visited the mine of the joint-stock company “Partnership R. Gill” at the Yasenki station. On October 28 (November 10), 1910, the day he left, he took the train at Yasenki station (now in Shchekino).

He lived in the village of Starogladovskaya, Kizlyar district, Terek region, the location of the 20th artillery brigade, from May 1851 to January 1854. In January 1852, he was enlisted as a fireworksman of the 4th class in battery No. 4 of the 20th artillery brigade. On February 1 (February 13), 1852, in the village of Starogladovskaya, with the help of his friends S. Miserbiev and B. Isaev, he wrote down the words of two Chechen folk songs with the translation. The recordings of L. N. Tolstoy are recognized as “the first written monument of the Chechen language” and “the first experience of recording Chechen folklore in the local language.”

I visited the Grozny fortress for the first time on July 5 (17), 1851. He visited the commander of the left flank of the Caucasian line, Prince A.I. Baryatinsky, to obtain permission to participate in hostilities. Subsequently he visited Grozny in September 1851 and February 1853.

First visited Pyatigorsk on May 16 (28), 1852. Lived in Kabardinskaya Slobodka. On July 4 (16), 1852, he sent the manuscript of the novel “Childhood” from Pyatigorsk to the editor of the Sovremennik magazine. On August 5 (17), 1852, he left Pyatigorsk for the village. He visited Pyatigorsk again in August - October 1853.

Visited Orel three times. On January 9-10 (21-22), 1856, he visited his brother D.N. Tolstoy, who was dying of consumption. On March 7 (19), 1885, I was passing through the city on my way to the Maltsev estate. On September 25-27 (October 7-9), 1898, he visited the Oryol provincial prison while working on the novel “Resurrection.”

In the period from October 1891 to July 1893, he came several times to the village of Begichevka, Dankovsky district, Ryazan province (now Begichevo), the estate of I. I. Raevsky. In the village he organized a center to help starving peasants of Dankovsky and Epifansky districts. The last time L.N. Tolstoy left Begichevka was on July 18 (30), 1893.

Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich (28.08. (09.09.) 1828 - 07 (20).11.1910)

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

In the Caucasus he took part in hostilities as an artillery officer. During the Crimean War he went to Sevastopol, where he continued to fight. After the end of the war, he went to St. Petersburg and published “Sevastopol Stories” in the Sovremennik magazine, which clearly reflected his outstanding writing talent. In 1857, Tolstoy went on a trip to Europe, which disappointed him.

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

In 1863-1869. wrote his fundamental work “War and Peace”. In 1873-1877. created the novel Anna Karenina. During these same years, the writer’s worldview, known as Tolstoyism, was fully formed, the essence of which is visible in the works: “Confession”, “What is my faith?”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”.

The teaching is set out in the philosophical and religious works “Study of Dogmatic Theology”, “Connection and Translation of the Four Gospels”, where the main emphasis is on the moral improvement of man, the denunciation of evil, and non-resistance to evil through violence.
Later, a duology was published: the drama “The Power of Darkness” and the comedy “The Fruits of Enlightenment,” then a series of stories and parables about the laws of existence.

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

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

Tolstoy's confessional journalism gives a detailed idea of ​​his spiritual drama: painting pictures of social inequality and idleness of the educated strata, Tolstoy harshly posed questions of the meaning of life and faith to society, criticized all state institutions, going so far as to deny science, art, court, marriage, and the achievements of civilization. Tolstoy's social declaration is based on the idea of ​​Christianity as a moral teaching, and he interpreted the ethical ideas of Christianity in a humanistic manner, as the basis of the universal brotherhood of man. In 1901, the reaction of the Synod followed: the world famous writer was officially excommunicated from the church, which caused a huge public outcry.

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

✍  Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich(August 28 (September 9), 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire - November 7, 1910, Astapovo station, Ryazan province, Russian Empire) - one of the most famous Russian writers and thinkers, one of the greatest writers in the world. Participant in the defense of Sevastopol. An educator, publicist, religious thinker, his authoritative opinion caused the emergence of a new religious and moral movement - Tolstoyism. Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1873), honorary academician in the category of fine literature (1900).

A writer who was recognized during his lifetime as the head of Russian literature. The work of Leo Tolstoy marked a new stage in Russian and world realism, acting as a bridge between the classic novel of the 19th century and the literature of the 20th century. Leo Tolstoy had a strong influence on the evolution of European humanism, as well as on the development of realistic traditions in world literature. The works of Leo Tolstoy have been filmed and staged many times in the USSR and abroad; his plays have been staged on stages all over the world.

The most famous works of Tolstoy are the novels “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”, “Resurrection”, the autobiographical trilogy “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth”, the stories “Cossacks”, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, “Kreutzerova” sonata”, “Hadji Murat”, a series of essays “Sevastopol Stories”, dramas “The Living Corpse” and “The Power of Darkness”, autobiographical religious and philosophical works “Confession” and “What is my faith?” and etc.

§ Biography

¶ Origin

A representative of the count branch of the Tolstoy noble family, descended from Peter's associate P. A. Tolstoy. The writer had extensive family ties in the world of the highest aristocracy. Among my father's cousins ​​are the adventurer and brute F. I. Tolstoy, the artist F. P. Tolstoy, the beauty M. I. Lopukhina, the socialite A. F. Zakrevskaya, the maid of honor A. A. Tolstaya. The poet A.K. Tolstoy was his second cousin. Among the mother's cousins ​​are Lieutenant General D. M. Volkonsky and the wealthy emigrant N. I. Trubetskoy. A.P. Mansurov and A.V. Vsevolozhsky were married to their mother’s cousins. Tolstoy was related by property with ministers A. A. Zakrevsky and L. A. Perovsky (married to cousins ​​of his parents), generals of 1812 L. I. Depreradovich (married to his grandmother’s sister) and A. I. Yushkov (brother-in-law of one of aunts), as well as with Chancellor A.M. Gorchakov (brother of another aunt’s husband). The common ancestor of Leo Tolstoy and Pushkin was Admiral Ivan Golovin, who helped Peter I create the Russian fleet.

The features of Ilya Andreevich’s grandfather are given in “War and Peace” to the good-natured, impractical old Count Rostov. The son of Ilya Andreevich, Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy (1794-1837), was the father of Lev Nikolaevich. In some character traits and biographical facts, he was similar to Nikolenka’s father in “Childhood” and “Adolescence” and partly to Nikolai Rostov in “War and Peace.” However, in real life Nikolai Ilyich differed from Nikolai Rostov not only in his good education, but also in his convictions, which did not allow him to serve under Nicholas I. Participant foreign trip Russian army against Napoleon, including participating in the “Battle of the Nations” near Leipzig and was captured by the French, but was able to escape, after the conclusion of peace he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment. Soon after his resignation, he was forced to go into bureaucratic service in order not to end up in debtor's prison because of the debts of his father, the Kazan governor, who died under investigation for official abuses. The negative example of his father helped Nikolai Ilyich develop his ideal of life - a private, independent life with family joys. To put his upset affairs in order, Nikolai Ilyich (like Nikolai Rostov) married the no longer very young Princess Maria Nikolaevna from the Volkonsky family in 1822, the marriage was happy. They had five children: Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergei (1826-1904), Dmitry (1827-1856), Lev, Maria (1830-1912).

Tolstoy's maternal grandfather, Catherine's general, Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, had some similarities with the stern rigorist old Prince Bolkonsky in War and Peace. Lev Nikolayevich's mother, similar in some respects to Princess Marya depicted in War and Peace, had a remarkable gift as a storyteller.

¶ Childhood

Leo Tolstoy was born on August 28, 1828 in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province, on his mother’s hereditary estate - Yasnaya Polyana. He was the fourth child in the family. The mother died in 1830, six months after the birth of her daughter, from “childbirth fever,” as they said then, when Leo was not yet 2 years old.

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

The Yushkov house was considered one of the most fun in Kazan; All family members highly valued external shine. “My good aunt,” says Tolstoy, “a pure being, always said that she would want nothing more for me than for me to have a relationship with a married woman.”

Lev Nikolaevich wanted to shine in society, but his natural shyness and lack of external attractiveness hampered him. The most diverse, as Tolstoy himself defines them, “philosophies” about the most important questions of our existence - happiness, death, God, love, eternity - left an imprint on his character in that era of life. What he told in “Adolescence” and “Youth”, in the novel “Resurrection” about the aspirations of Irtenyev and Nekhlyudov for self-improvement, was taken by Tolstoy from the history of his own ascetic attempts of this time. All this, wrote the critic S.A. Vengerov, led to the fact that Tolstoy developed, in the words of his story “Adolescence,” “the habit of constant moral analysis, which destroyed the freshness of feelings and clarity of reason.” Giving examples of introspection of this period, he ironically speaks of the exaggeration of his adolescent philosophical pride and greatness, and at the same time notes the insurmountable inability to “get used to not being ashamed of his every simplest word and movement” when confronted with real people, whose benefactor he considered himself then seemed.

¶ Education

His education was initially carried out by the French tutor Saint-Thomas (the prototype of St.-Jérôme in the story “Boyhood”), who replaced the good-natured German Reselman, whom Tolstoy portrayed in the story “Childhood” under the name of Karl Ivanovich.

In 1843, P.I. Yushkova, taking on the role of guardian of her minor nephews (only the eldest, Nikolai, was an adult) and niece, brought them to Kazan. Following the brothers Nikolai, Dmitry and Sergei, Lev decided to enter the Imperial Kazan University (the most famous at that time), where Lobachevsky worked at the Faculty of Mathematics, and Kovalevsky worked at the Eastern Faculty. On October 3, 1844, Leo Tolstoy was enrolled as a student of the category of Eastern (Arabic-Turkish) literature as a self-paid student - paying for his studies. On entrance exams In particular, he showed excellent results in the “Turkish-Tatar language” required for admission. According to the results of the year, he had poor performance in the relevant subjects, did not pass the transition exam and had to re-take the first-year program.

To avoid repeating the course completely, he transferred to law school, where his problems with grades in some subjects continued. The transitional May 1846 exams were passed satisfactorily (received one A, three Bs and four Cs; the average result was three), and Lev Nikolaevich was transferred to the second year. Leo Tolstoy spent less than two years at the Faculty of Law: “Every education imposed by others was always difficult for him, and everything he learned in life, he learned himself, suddenly, quickly, with intense work,” writes S. A. Tolstaya in his “Materials for the biography of L. N. Tolstoy.” In 1904, he recalled: “... for the first year... I did nothing. In the second year I began to study... there was Professor Meyer, who... gave me a work - a comparison of Catherine’s “Order” with Montesquieu’s Esprit des lois (“The Spirit of Laws” (French) Russian). ... this work fascinated me, I went to the village, began to read Montesquieu, this reading opened up endless horizons for me; I started reading Rousseau and dropped out of university precisely because I wanted to study.”

¶  Beginning of literary activity

From March 11, 1847, Tolstoy was in the Kazan hospital; on March 17, he began to keep a diary, where, imitating Benjamin Franklin, he set goals and objectives for self-improvement, noted successes and failures in completing these tasks, analyzed his shortcomings and train of thoughts, motives for their actions. He kept this diary with short breaks throughout his life.

Having completed his treatment, in the spring of 1847 Tolstoy left his studies at the university and went to Yasnaya Polyana, which he inherited under the division; his activities there are partly described in the work “The Morning of the Landowner”: Tolstoy tried to establish a new relationship with the peasants. His attempt to somehow smooth out the young landowner’s feeling of guilt before the people dates back to the same year when “Anton the Miserable” by D. V. Grigorovich and the beginning of “Notes of a Hunter” by I. S. Turgenev appeared.

In his diary, Tolstoy formulated for himself a large number of life rules and goals, but managed to follow only a small part of them. Among those who succeeded were serious studies in English, music, and law. In addition, neither his diary nor his letters reflected the beginning of Tolstoy’s involvement in pedagogy and charity, although in 1849 he first opened a school for peasant children. The main teacher was Foka Demidovich, a serf, but Lev Nikolaevich himself often taught classes.

In mid-October 1848, Tolstoy left for Moscow, settling where many of his relatives and acquaintances lived - in the Arbat area. He stayed at Ivanova’s house on Nikolopeskovsky Lane. In Moscow, he was going to begin preparing for the candidate exams, but classes never started. Instead, he was attracted to a completely different side of life - social life. In addition to his passion for social life, in Moscow, in the winter of 1848-1849, Lev Nikolaevich first developed a passion for playing cards. But since he played very recklessly and did not always think through his moves, he often lost.

Having left for St. Petersburg in February 1849, he spent time in revelry with K. A. Islavin, the uncle of his future wife (“My love for Islavin ruined 8 whole months of my life in St. Petersburg for me”). In the spring, Tolstoy began to take the exam to become a candidate of rights; He passed two exams, from criminal law and criminal proceedings, successfully, but he did not take the third exam and went to the village.

Later he came to Moscow, where he often spent time gambling, which often had a negative impact on his financial situation. During this period of his life, Tolstoy was especially passionately interested in music (he himself played the piano quite well and greatly appreciated his favorite works performed by others). His passion for music prompted him later to write the Kreutzer Sonata.

Tolstoy's favorite composers were Bach, Handel and Chopin. The development of Tolstoy’s love for music was also facilitated by the fact that during a trip to St. Petersburg in 1848, he met in a very unsuitable dance class setting with a gifted but lost German musician, whom he later described in the story “Albert.” In 1849, Lev Nikolaevich settled the musician Rudolf in Yasnaya Polyana, with whom he played four hands on the piano. Having become interested in music at that time, he played works by Schumann, Chopin, Mozart, and Mendelssohn for several hours a day. At the end of the 1840s, Tolstoy, in collaboration with his friend Zybin, composed a waltz, which in the early 1900s he performed with the composer S.I. Taneyev, who made a musical notation of this musical work (the only one composed by Tolstoy). The waltz is heard in the film Father Sergius, based on the story by L. N. Tolstoy.

A lot of time was also spent on carousing, gaming and hunting.

In the winter of 1850-1851. started writing "Childhood". In March 1851 he wrote “The History of Yesterday.” 4 years after he left the university, Lev Nikolayevich’s brother Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, came to Yasnaya Polyana and invited his younger brother to join military service in the Caucasus. Lev did not immediately agree, until a major loss in Moscow accelerated the final decision. The writer's biographers note significant and positive influence brother Nikolai against the young and inexperienced Lev in everyday affairs. In the absence of his parents, his older brother was his friend and mentor.

To pay off his debts, it was necessary to reduce his expenses to a minimum - and in the spring of 1851, Tolstoy hastily left Moscow for the Caucasus without a specific goal. Soon he decided to enter military service, but for this he lacked necessary documents, left in Moscow, in anticipation of which Tolstoy lived for about five months in Pyatigorsk, in a simple hut. He spent a significant part of his time hunting, in the company of the Cossack Epishka, the prototype of one of the heroes of the story “Cossacks”, who appears there under the name Eroshka.

In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy, having passed the exam in Tiflis, entered as a cadet in the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in Cossack village Starogladovskaya on the banks of the Terek, near Kizlyar. With some changes in details, she is depicted in the story “Cossacks”. The story reproduces a picture of the inner life of a young gentleman who fled from Moscow life. In the Cossack village, Tolstoy began to write again and in July 1852 he sent the first part of the future to the editors of the most popular magazine at that time, Sovremennik. autobiographical trilogy- “Childhood”, signed only with the initials “L. N.T.” When sending the manuscript to the magazine, Leo Tolstoy attached a letter that said: “...I look forward to your verdict. He will either encourage me to continue my favorite activities, or force me to burn everything I started.”

Having received the manuscript of “Childhood,” the editor of Sovremennik, N. A. Nekrasov, immediately recognized its literary value and wrote a kind letter to the author, which had a very encouraging effect on him. In a letter to I. S. Turgenev, Nekrasov noted: “This is a new talent and, it seems, reliable.” The manuscript of an as yet unknown author was published in September of the same year. Meanwhile, the novice and inspired author began to continue the tetralogy “Four Epochs of Development”, the last part of which - “Youth” - never took place. He pondered the plot of “The Landowner’s Morning” (the completed story was only a fragment of “The Roman of a Russian Landowner”), “The Raid,” and “The Cossacks.” Published in Sovremennik on September 18, 1852, “Childhood” was extremely successful; After publication, the author immediately began to be ranked among the luminaries of the young literary school, along with I. S. Turgenev, Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, Ostrovsky, who already enjoyed great literary fame. Critics Apollo Grigoriev, Annenkov, Druzhinin, Chernyshevsky appreciated the depth of psychological analysis, the seriousness of the author's intentions and the bright salience of realism.

The relatively late start of his career is very characteristic of Tolstoy: he never considered himself a professional writer, understanding professionalism not in the sense of a profession that provides a means of living, but in the sense of the predominance of literary interests. He did not take the interests of literary parties to heart, and was reluctant to talk about literature, preferring to talk about issues of faith, morality, and social relations.

¶ Military service

As a cadet, Lev Nikolaevich remained for two years in the Caucasus, where he participated in many skirmishes with the highlanders led by Shamil, and was exposed to the dangers of military Caucasian life. He had the right to the St. George Cross, but in accordance with his convictions, he “gave it” to a fellow soldier, considering that a significant improvement in the conditions of service of a colleague was higher than personal vanity. With the beginning of the Crimean War, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube Army, participated in the battle of Oltenitsa and the siege of Silistria, and from November 1854 to the end of August 1855 he was in Sevastopol.

For a long time he lived on the 4th bastion, which was often attacked, commanded a battery in the battle of Chernaya, and was during the bombardment during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan. Tolstoy, despite all the everyday hardships and horrors of the siege, at this time wrote the story “Cutting Wood,” which reflected Caucasian impressions, and the first of the three “Sevastopol stories” - “Sevastopol in December 1854.” He sent this story to Sovremennik. It was quickly published and read with interest throughout Russia, making a stunning impression with the picture of horrors that befell the defenders of Sevastopol. The story was noticed by Russian Emperor Alexander II; he ordered to take care of the gifted officer.

Even during the life of Emperor Nicholas I, Tolstoy intended to publish, together with artillery officers, the “cheap and popular” magazine “Military Leaflet”, but Tolstoy failed to implement the magazine project: “For the project, my Sovereign Emperor most graciously deigned to allow our articles to be published in “Invalid”.” , - Tolstoy bitterly ironized about this.

For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 4th degree with the inscription “For courage,” medals “For the defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855” and “In memory of the war of 1853-1856.” Subsequently, he was awarded two medals “In memory of the 50th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol”: a silver one as a participant in the defense of Sevastopol and a bronze medal as the author of “Sevastopol Stories”.

Tolstoy, enjoying the reputation of a brave officer and surrounded by the brilliance of fame, had every chance of a career. However, his career was spoiled by writing several satirical songs, stylized as soldiers' songs. One of these songs was dedicated to the failure during the battle near the Chernaya River on August 4 (16), 1855, when General Read, misunderstanding the order of the commander-in-chief, attacked Fedyukhin Heights. The song entitled “Like the fourth, the mountains carried us hard to take away,” which affected a number of important generals, was a huge success. For her, Lev Nikolaevich had to answer to the assistant chief of staff A. A. Yakimakh. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (September 8), Tolstoy was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he completed “Sevastopol in May 1855.” and wrote “Sevastopol in August 1855,” published in the first issue of Sovremennik for 1856 with the author’s full signature. “Sevastopol Stories” finally strengthened his reputation as a representative of the new literary generation, and in November 1856 the writer left military service forever with the rank of lieutenant.

¶  Traveling around Europe

In St. Petersburg, the young writer was warmly welcomed in high society salons and literary circles. He became closest friends with I. S. Turgenev, with whom they lived in the same apartment for some time. Turgenev introduced him to the Sovremennik circle, after which Tolstoy established friendly relations with such famous writers, like N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Goncharov, I. I. Panaev, D. V. Grigorovich, A. V. Druzhinin, V. A. Sollogub.

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

However, cheerful and rich life left a bitter aftertaste in Tolstoy’s soul, at the same time he began to have a strong discord with the circle of writers close to him. As a result, “people became disgusted with him, and he became disgusted with himself” - and at the beginning of 1857, Tolstoy left St. Petersburg without any regret and went abroad.

On his first trip abroad, he visited Paris, where he was horrified by the cult of Napoleon I (“The idolization of the villain, terrible”), while at the same time he attended balls, museums, and admired the “sense of social freedom.” However, his presence at the guillotine made such a grave impression that Tolstoy left Paris and went to places associated with the French writer and thinker J.-J. Rousseau - to Lake Geneva. In the spring of 1857, I. S. Turgenev described his meetings with Leo Tolstoy in Paris after his sudden departure from St. Petersburg as follows:

Trips to Western Europe - Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Italy (in 1857 and 1860-1861) made a rather negative impression on him. Your disappointment in European image he expressed his life in the story “Lucerne”. Tolstoy's disappointment was caused by the deep contrast between wealth and poverty, which he was able to see through the magnificent outer veneer of European culture.

Lev Nikolaevich writes the story “Albert”. At the same time, his friends never cease to be amazed at his eccentricities: in his letter to I. S. Turgenev in the fall of 1857, P. V. Annenkov told Tolstoy’s project to plant forests throughout Russia, and in his letter to V. P. Botkin, Leo Tolstoy reported how very happy he was the fact that he did not become only a writer, contrary to Turgenev’s advice. However, in the interval between the first and second trips, the writer continued to work on “Cossacks”, wrote the story “Three Deaths” and the novel “Family Happiness”.

His last novel was published in “Russian Bulletin” by Mikhail Katkov. Tolstoy's collaboration with the Sovremennik magazine, which lasted from 1852, ended in 1859. In the same year, Tolstoy took part in organizing the Literary Fund. But his life was not limited to literary interests: on December 22, 1858, he almost died on a bear hunt.

Around the same time, he began an affair with the peasant woman Aksinya Bazykina, and plans for marriage were brewing.

On his next trip, he was mainly interested in public education and institutions aimed at raising the educational level of the working population. He carefully studied issues of public education in Germany and France, both theoretically and practically - in conversations with specialists. From outstanding people In Germany, he was most interested in Berthold Auerbach as the author of dedicated people's life"Black Forest Stories" and as a publisher of folk calendars. Tolstoy paid him a visit and tried to get closer to him. In addition, he also met with the German teacher Disterweg. During his stay in Brussels, Tolstoy met Proudhon and Lelewell. In London he visited A. I. Herzen and attended a lecture by Charles 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 almost in his hands. The death of his brother made a huge impression on Tolstoy.

Gradually, criticism towards Leo Tolstoy cooled down for 10-12 years, until the very appearance of “War and Peace”, and he himself did not strive for rapprochement with writers, making an exception only for Afanasy Fet. One of the reasons for this alienation was the quarrel between Leo Tolstoy and Turgenev, which occurred while both prose writers were visiting Fet on the Stepanovka estate in May 1861. The quarrel almost ended in a duel and ruined the relationship between the writers for 17 long years.

¶  Treatment in the Bashkir nomadic camp Karalyk

In May 1862, Lev Nikolaevich, suffering from depression, on the recommendation of doctors, went to the Bashkir farm of Karalyk, Samara province, to be treated with a new and fashionable method of kumis treatment at that time. Initially, he was going to stay at Postnikov’s kumiss hospital near Samara, but upon learning that many high-ranking officials were supposed to arrive at the same time ( secular society, which the young count could not stand), went to the Bashkir nomadic camp Karalyk, on the Karalyk River, 130 versts from Samara. There Tolstoy lived in a Bashkir tent (yurt), ate lamb, took sunbathing, drank kumiss, tea, and also had fun with the Bashkirs playing checkers. The first time he stayed there for a month and a half. In 1871, when he had already written War and Peace, he returned there again due to deteriorating health. He wrote about his impressions like this: “The melancholy and indifference have passed, I feel like I am entering a Scythian state, and everything is interesting and new... Much is new and interesting: the Bashkirs, who smell of Herodotus, and Russian men, and villages, especially charming in their simplicity and the kindness of the people."

Fascinated by Karalyk, Tolstoy bought an estate in these places, and already spent the summer of the next year, 1872, with his whole family in it.

¶ Pedagogical activities

In 1859, even before the liberation of the peasants, Tolstoy was actively involved in setting up schools in his Yasnaya Polyana and throughout the Krapivensky district.

The Yasnaya Polyana school was one of the original pedagogical experiments: in the era of admiration for the German pedagogical school Tolstoy resolutely rebelled against any regulation and discipline in school. In his opinion, everything in teaching should be individual - both the teacher and the student, and their mutual relationships. At the Yasnaya Polyana school, the children sat where they wanted, as much as they wanted, and as they wanted. There was no specific teaching program. The teacher's only job was to get the class interested. The classes went well. They were led by Tolstoy himself with the help of several regular teachers and several random ones, from his closest acquaintances and visitors.

Since 1862, Tolstoy began publishing the pedagogical magazine Yasnaya Polyana, where he himself was the main employee. Not feeling the vocation of a publisher, Tolstoy managed to publish only 12 issues of the magazine, the last of which appeared with a delay in 1863. In addition to theoretical articles, he also wrote a number of stories, fables and adaptations, adapted for elementary school. Combined together, Tolstoy's pedagogical articles made up an entire volume of his collected works. At one time they went unnoticed. No one paid attention to the sociological basis of Tolstoy’s ideas about education, to the fact that Tolstoy saw only simplified and improved ways of exploiting the people by the upper classes in education, science, art and technological successes. Moreover, from Tolstoy’s attacks on European education and “progress,” many concluded that Tolstoy was a “conservative.”

Soon Tolstoy left teaching. Marriage, the birth of his own children, and plans related to writing the novel “War and Peace” pushed back his pedagogical activities by ten years. Only in the early 1870s did he begin to create his own “ABC” and published it in 1872, and then released “ New alphabet"and a series of four "Russian books for reading", approved as a result of long ordeals by the Ministry of Public Education as aids for elementary educational institutions. In the early 1870s, classes at the Yasnaya Polyana school were restored for a short time.

The experience of the Yasnaya Polyana school subsequently came in handy for some domestic teachers. Thus, S. T. Shatsky, creating his own school-colony “Vigorous Life” in 1911, started from Leo Tolstoy’s experiments in the field of cooperation pedagogy.

¶ Leo Tolstoy’s social activities in the 1860s

Upon returning from Europe in May 1861, L.N. Tolstoy was offered to become a peace mediator on the 4th section of the Krapivensky district of the Tula province. Unlike those who looked at the people as a younger brother who needed to be raised up to themselves, Tolstoy thought on the contrary that the people are infinitely higher than the cultural classes and that the masters need to borrow the heights of spirit from the peasants, so he, having accepted the position of mediator, actively defended land interests of the peasants, often violating royal decrees. “Mediation is interesting and exciting, but the bad thing is that all the nobility hated me with all the strength of their souls and are thrusting des bâtons dans les roues (French spokes in my wheels) from all sides.” Working as an intermediary expanded the writer’s circle of observations on the life of peasants, giving him material for artistic creativity.

In July 1866, Tolstoy appeared at a military court as a defender of Vasil Shabunin, a company clerk stationed near Yasnaya Polyana of the Moscow Infantry Regiment. Shabunin hit the officer, who ordered him to be punished with canes for being drunk. Tolstoy argued that Shabunin was insane, but the court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Shabunin was shot. This episode made a great impression on Tolstoy, since he terrible phenomenon saw the merciless force that the state, based on violence, represented. On this occasion, he wrote to his friend, publicist P.I. Biryukov:

¶ Flourishing creativity

During the first 12 years after his marriage, he created War and Peace and Anna Karenina. At the turn of this second era of Tolstoy’s literary life stands “Cossacks,” conceived back in 1852 and completed in 1861-1862, the first of the works in which the talent of the mature Tolstoy was most realized.

The main interest of creativity for Tolstoy manifested itself “in the “history” of characters, in their continuous and complex movement and development.” His goal was to show the individual’s ability for moral growth, improvement, and resistance to the environment, relying on the strength of his own soul.

✓ “War and Peace”

The release of War and Peace was preceded by work on the novel The Decembrists (1860-1861), to which the author returned several times, but which remained unfinished. And “War and Peace” experienced unprecedented success. An excerpt from the novel entitled "1805" appeared in the Russian Messenger of 1865; in 1868 three of its parts were published, soon followed by the remaining two. The first four volumes of War and Peace quickly sold out, and a second edition was needed, which was released in October 1868. The fifth and sixth volumes of the novel were published in one edition, printed in an already increased edition.

“War and Peace” has become a unique phenomenon both in Russian and foreign literature. This work has absorbed all the depth and intimacy of a psychological novel with the scope and diversity of an epic fresco. The writer, according to V. Ya. Lakshin, turned “to a special state of national consciousness in the heroic time of 1812, when people from different segments of the population united in resistance to foreign invasion,” which, in turn, “created the basis for the epic.”

The author showed national Russian traits in the “hidden warmth of patriotism,” in aversion to ostentatious heroism, in a calm faith in justice, in the modest dignity and courage of ordinary soldiers. He portrayed Russia's war with Napoleonic troops as a nationwide war. The epic style of the work is conveyed through the completeness and plasticity of the image, the branching and crossing of destinies, and incomparable pictures of Russian nature.

In Tolstoy's novel, the most diverse layers of society are widely represented, from emperors and kings to soldiers, all ages and all temperaments throughout the reign of Alexander I.

Tolstoy was pleased with his own work, but already in January 1871 he sent a letter to A. A. Fet: “How happy I am... that I will never write verbose rubbish like “War” again.” However, Tolstoy hardly underestimated the importance of his previous creations. To the question of Tokutomi Rock (English) Russian. in 1906, which of his works Tolstoy loves most, the writer answered: “The novel War and Peace.”

✓ “Anna Karenina”

No less dramatic and serious work was the novel about tragic love"Anna Karenina" (1873-1876). Unlike the previous work, there is no place in it for an endlessly happy rapture in the bliss of existence. In the almost autobiographical novel of Levin and Kitty, there are still joyful experiences, but in the depiction of Dolly’s family life there is already more bitterness, and in the unhappy ending of the love of Anna Karenina and Vronsky there is so much anxiety mental life that this novel is essentially a transition to the third period of Tolstoy’s literary activity, the dramatic one.

There is less simplicity and clarity of mental movements characteristic of the heroes of War and Peace, more heightened sensitivity, inner alertness and anxiety. The characters of the main characters are more complex and subtle. The author sought to show the subtlest nuances of love, disappointment, jealousy, despair, and spiritual enlightenment.

The problematics of this work directly led Tolstoy to the ideological turning point of the late 1870s.

✓ Other works

In March 1879, in Moscow, Leo Tolstoy met Vasily Petrovich Shchegolenok, and in the same year, at his invitation, he came to Yasnaya Polyana, where he stayed for about a month and a half. The Goldfinch told Tolstoy many folk tales, epics and legends, of which more than twenty were written down by Tolstoy (these notes were published in volume XLVIII of the Anniversary edition of Tolstoy’s works), and Tolstoy, if he did not write down the plots of some of them, then remembered them: six written by Tolstoy works are sourced from the stories of Shchegolenok (1881 - “How People Live”, 1885 - “Two Old Men” and “Three Elders”, 1905 - “Korney Vasiliev” and “Prayer”, 1907 - “An Old Man in the Church”). In addition, Tolstoy diligently wrote down many sayings, proverbs, individual expressions and words told by the Goldfinch.

Tolstoy’s new worldview was most fully expressed in his works “Confession” (1879-1880, published in 1884) and “What is My Faith?” (1882-1884). Tolstoy dedicated the story “The Kreutzer Sonata” (1887-1889, published in 1891) and “The Devil” (1889-1890, published in 1911) to the theme of the Christian principle of love, devoid of all self-interest and rising above sensual love in the fight against the flesh. In the 1890s, trying to theoretically substantiate his views on art, he wrote the treatise “What is Art?” (1897-1898). But the main artistic work of those years was his novel “Resurrection” (1889-1899), the plot of which was based on a real court case. The sharp criticism of church rituals in this work became one of the reasons for the excommunication of Tolstoy by the Holy Synod from the Orthodox Church in 1901. The highest achievements of the early 1900s were the story “Hadji Murat” and the drama “The Living Corpse”. In “Hadji Murad,” the despotism of Shamil and Nicholas I is equally exposed. In the story, Tolstoy glorified the courage of struggle, the power of resistance and love of life. The play “The Living Corpse” became evidence of Tolstoy’s new artistic quests, which were objectively close to Chekhov’s drama.

✓ Literary criticism of Shakespeare’s works

In his critical essay“On Shakespeare and Drama,” based on a detailed analysis of some of Shakespeare’s most popular works, in particular, “King Lear,” “Othello,” “Falstaff,” “Hamlet,” etc., Tolstoy sharply criticized Shakespeare’s abilities as a playwright. At the performance of Hamlet, he experienced “special suffering” for this “false likeness of works of art.”

¶ Participation in the Moscow census

L.N. Tolstoy took part in the Moscow census of 1882. He wrote about it this way: “I proposed to use the census in order to find out poverty in Moscow and help it with deeds and money, and make sure that there are no poor people in Moscow.”

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

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

¶  Leo Tolstoy in Moscow

As Moscow expert Alexander Vaskin writes, Leo Tolstoy came to Moscow more than one hundred and fifty times.

The general impressions he gained from his acquaintance with Moscow life were, as a rule, negative, and the reviews about the social situation in the city were sharply critical. So, on October 5, 1881, he wrote in his diary:

Many buildings associated with the life and work of the writer have been preserved on the streets of Plyushchikha, Sivtsev Vrazhek, Vozdvizhenka, Tverskaya, Nizhny Kislovsky Lane, Smolensky Boulevard, Zemledelchesky Lane, Voznesensky Lane and, finally, Dolgokhamovnichesky Lane (modern Leo Tolstoy Street) and others. The writer often visited the Kremlin, where the family of his wife, Bersa, lived. Tolstoy loved to walk around Moscow, even in winter. The last time the writer came to Moscow was in 1909.

In addition, on Vozdvizhenka Street, 9, there was the house of Lev Nikolaevich’s grandfather, Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, which he bought in 1816 from Praskovya Vasilyevna Muravyova-Apostol (daughter of Lieutenant General V.V. Grushetsky, who built this house, the wife of the writer Senator I.M. Muravyov-Apostol, mother of three Decembrist brothers Muravyov-Apostol). Prince Volkonsky owned the house for five years, which is why the house is also known in Moscow as the main house of the estate of the Volkonsky princes or as the “Bolkonsky house”. The house is described by L.N. Tolstoy as the house of Pierre Bezukhov. Lev Nikolayevich knew this house well - he often came here as a young man to balls, where he courted the lovely princess Praskovya Shcherbatova: “With boredom and drowsiness, I went to the Ryumins, and suddenly I was overwhelmed. P[raskovya] Sh[erbatova] is lovely. This hasn’t been fresher for a long time.” He endowed Kitya Shcherbatskaya with the features of the beautiful Praskovya in Anna Karenina.

In 1886, 1888 and 1889, L. N. Tolstoy walked from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana three times. On the first such journey his companions were political figure Mikhail Stakhovich and Nikolai Ge (son of the artist N. N. Ge). In the second - also Nikolai Ge, and from the second half of the journey (from Serpukhov) A. N. Dunaev and S. D. Sytin (the publisher’s brother) joined. During the third journey, Lev Nikolaevich was accompanied by a new friend and like-minded person, 25-year-old teacher Evgeny Popov.

¶ Spiritual crisis and preaching

In his work “Confession,” Tolstoy wrote that from the late 1870s he often began to be tormented by insoluble questions: “Well, okay, you will have 6,000 dessiatines in the Samara province - 300 heads of horses, and then?”; in the literary sphere: “Well, okay, you will be more famous than Gogol, Pushkin, Shakespeare, Moliere, all the writers in the world - so what!” Starting to think about raising children, he asked himself: “why?”; arguing “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 had lived on was no longer there.” The natural result was thoughts of suicide:

To find an answer to the questions and doubts that constantly worried him, Tolstoy first of all took up the study of theology and wrote and published in 1891 in Geneva his “Study of Dogmatic Theology,” in which he criticized the “Orthodox Dogmatic Theology” of Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov). He had conversations with priests and monks, went to the elders in Optina Pustyn (in 1877, 1881 and 1890), read theological treatises, talked with the elder Ambrose, K. N. Leontyev, an ardent opponent of Tolstoy’s teachings. In a letter to T.I. Filippov dated March 14, 1890, Leontyev reported that during this conversation he told Tolstoy: “It’s a pity, Lev Nikolaevich, that I have little fanaticism. But I should write to St. Petersburg, where I have connections, so that you are exiled to Tomsk and that neither the countess nor your daughters are allowed to even visit you, and that little money is sent to you. Otherwise you are positively harmful.” To this, Lev Nikolaevich exclaimed passionately: “Darling, Konstantin Nikolaevich! Write, for God's sake, to exile me. This is my dream. I do everything possible to compromise myself in the eyes of the government, and I get away with it. Please write." To study the original sources in the original Christian teaching, studied ancient Greek and Hebrew (the Moscow rabbi Shlomo Minor helped him in studying the latter). At the same time, he looked closely at the Old Believers, became close to the peasant preacher Vasily Syutaev, and talked with the Molokans and Stundists. Lev Nikolaevich sought the meaning of life in the study of philosophy, in getting to know the results of the exact sciences. He tried to simplify as much as possible, to live a life close to nature and agricultural life.

Gradually, Tolstoy abandons the whims and comforts of a rich life (simplification), does a lot of physical labor, dresses in simple clothes, becomes a vegetarian, gives his entire large fortune to his family, and renounces literary property rights. On the basis of a sincere desire for moral improvement, the third period of Tolstoy’s literary activity was created, distinctive feature which is the denial of all established forms of state, social and religious life.

At the beginning of the reign of Alexander III, Tolstoy wrote to the emperor with a request to pardon the regicides in the spirit of evangelical forgiveness. Since September 1882, secret surveillance has been established over him to clarify relations with sectarians; in September 1883 he refused to serve as a juror, citing incompatibility with his religious worldview. At the same time, he received a ban on public speaking in connection with the death of Turgenev. Gradually, the ideas of Tolstoyism begin to penetrate society. At the beginning of 1885, a precedent was set in Russia for refusing military service with reference to Tolstoy’s religious beliefs. A significant part of Tolstoy’s views could not receive open expression in Russia and were presented in full only in foreign editions of his religious and social treatises.

There was no unanimity regarding Tolstoy's artistic works written during this period. Thus, in a long series of short stories and legends intended primarily for popular reading (“How People Live,” etc.), Tolstoy, in the opinion of his unconditional admirers, reached the pinnacle of artistic power. At the same time, according to people who reproach Tolstoy for turning from an artist into a preacher, these artistic teachings, written for a specific purpose, were grossly tendentious. The lofty and terrible truth of “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” according to fans, placing this work on a par with the main works of Tolstoy’s genius, according to others, is deliberately harsh, it sharply emphasized the soullessness of the upper strata of society in order to show the moral superiority of a simple “kitchen peasant” » Gerasima. “The Kreutzer Sonata” (written in 1887-1889, published in 1890) also aroused opposite reviews - the analysis of marital relations made one forget about the amazing brightness and passion with which this story was written. The work was banned by censorship, but it was published thanks to the efforts of S. A. Tolstoy, who achieved a meeting with Alexander III. As a result, the story was published in a censored form in the Collected Works of Tolstoy with the personal permission of the Tsar. Alexander III was pleased with the story, but the queen was shocked. But the folk drama “The Power of Darkness,” according to Tolstoy’s admirers, became a great manifestation of his artistic power: in the tight framework of an ethnographic reproduction of Russian peasant life, Tolstoy managed to fit so many universal human traits that the drama with tremendous success went around all the stages of the world.

During the famine of 1891-1892. Tolstoy organized institutions to help the hungry and needy in the Ryazan province. He opened 187 canteens, which fed 10 thousand people, as well as several canteens for children, distributed firewood, provided seeds and potatoes for sowing, bought and distributed horses to farmers (almost all farms became horseless during the famine year), and donated Almost 150,000 rubles were collected.

The treatise “The Kingdom of God is within you...” was written by Tolstoy with short breaks for almost 3 years: from July 1890 to May 1893. The treatise aroused the admiration of the critic V.V. Stasov (“the first book of the 19th century”) and I.E. Repin (“this thing of terrifying power”) could not be published in Russia due to censorship, and it was published abroad. The book began to be distributed illegally in huge numbers of copies in Russia. In Russia itself, the first legal publication appeared in July 1906, but even after that it was withdrawn from sale. The treatise was included in the collected works of Tolstoy, published in 1911, after his death.

In his last major work, the novel “Resurrection,” published in 1899, Tolstoy condemned judicial practice and high society life, portrayed the clergy and worship as secularized and united with secular power.

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

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

Some critics of the last stage of Tolstoy's literary activity stated that artistic power he suffered from the predominance of theoretical interests and that creativity is now only needed by Tolstoy in order to promote his socio-religious views in a publicly accessible form. On the other hand, Vladimir Nabokov, for example, denies the presence of preaching specifics in Tolstoy and notes that the power and universal meaning of his work have nothing to do with politics and simply crowd out his teaching: “In essence, Tolstoy the thinker was always occupied with only two topics: Life and death. And no artist can avoid these themes.” It has been suggested that in his work “What is Art?” Tolstoy completely denies and in part significantly belittles the artistic significance of Dante, Raphael, Goethe, Shakespeare, Beethoven and others; he directly comes to the conclusion that “the more we surrender to beauty, the more we move away from goodness,” asserting the priority of the moral component creativity over aesthetics.

¶ Excommunication

After his birth, Leo Tolstoy was baptized into Orthodoxy. However, despite his attitude towards the Orthodox Church, he, like most representatives of the educated society of his time, was indifferent to religious issues in his youth and youth. But in the mid-1870s, he showed an increased interest in the teachings and worship of the Orthodox Church: “he read everything he could about the teachings of the church, ... strictly followed, for more than a year, all the instructions of the church, observing all fasts and attending all church services.” , the consequence of which was complete disappointment in the church faith. Turning away from teaching Orthodox Church The time for him was the second half of 1879. In the 1880s, he took a position of unambiguously critical attitude towards church doctrine, the clergy, and official church life. The publication of some of Tolstoy's works was prohibited by both spiritual and secular censorship. In 1899, Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection” was published, in which the author showed the life of various social strata in contemporary Russia; the clergy were depicted mechanically and hastily performing rituals, and some took the cold and cynical Toporov for a caricature of K. P. Pobedonostsev, Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod.

Leo Tolstoy applied his teaching primarily to his own way of life. He denied church interpretations of immortality and rejected church authority; he did not recognize the rights of the state, since it is built (in his opinion) on violence and coercion. He criticized the church teaching, according to which “the life that exists here on earth, with all its joys, beauties, with all the struggle of the mind against darkness, is the life of all the people who lived before me, my whole life with my inner struggle and victories of the mind there is not true life, but fallen life, hopelessly spoiled; true, sinless life is in faith, that is, in the imagination, that is, in madness.” Leo Tolstoy did not agree with the teaching of the church that man from his birth, in his essence, is vicious and sinful, since, in his opinion, such a teaching “undercuts at the root everything that is best in human nature.” Seeing how the church was quickly losing its influence on the people, the writer, according to K. N. Lomunov, came to the conclusion: “Everything living is independent of the church.”

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

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

According to theologians, including Dr. historical sciences, candidate of theology, doctor of church history priest Georgy Orekhanov, the decision of the Synod regarding Tolstoy is not a curse of the writer, but a statement of the fact that he, of his own free will, is no longer a member of the Church. In addition, the synodal act of February 20-22 stated that Tolstoy could return to the Church if he repented. Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky), who was at that time the leading member of the Holy Synod, wrote to Sofya Andreevna Tolstoy: “All of Russia mourns for your husband, we mourn for him. Don’t believe those who say that we are seeking his repentance for political purposes.” However, the writer, his entourage and the Russian public considered that this definition was an unjustifiably cruel act. For example, when Tolstoy arrived in Optina Pustyn, when asked why he did not go to the elders, he replied that he could not go because he was excommunicated.

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

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

In November 1909, he wrote down a thought that indicated his broad understanding of religion:

At the end of February 2001, the count's great-grandson Vladimir Tolstoy, manager of the writer's museum-estate in Yasnaya Polyana, sent a letter to Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' with a request to reconsider the synodal definition. In response to the letter, the Moscow Patriarchate stated that the decision to excommunicate Leo Tolstoy from the Church, made exactly 105 years ago, cannot be reviewed, since (according to Church Relations Secretary Mikhail Dudko), it would be wrong in the absence of the person who the action of the ecclesiastical court applies. In March 2009, Vladimir Tolstoy expressed his opinion on the significance of the synodal act: “I studied documents, read newspapers of that time, got acquainted with the materials of public discussions around excommunication. And I had the feeling that this act gave a signal for a total split in Russian society. The reigning family, the highest aristocracy, and landed nobility, and the intelligentsia, and the common strata, and ordinary people. A crack has passed through the body of the entire Russian, Russian people.”

¶ Leaving Yasnaya Polyana, death and funeral

On the night of October 28 (November 10), 1910, L. N. Tolstoy, fulfilling his decision to live his last years in accordance with his views, secretly left Yasnaya Polyana forever, accompanied only by his doctor D. P. Makovitsky. At the same time, Tolstoy did not even have a definite plan of action. He began his last journey at Shchekino station. On the same day, having transferred to another train at the Gorbachevo station, I reached the city of Belyov, Tula province, after which, in the same way, but on another train to the Kozelsk station, I hired a coachman and headed to Optina Pustyn, and from there the next day to Shamordinsky monastery, where he met his sister, Maria Nikolaevna Tolstoy. Later, Tolstoy’s daughter Alexandra Lvovna secretly came to Shamordino.

On the morning of October 31 (November 13), L.N. Tolstoy and his entourage set off from Shamordino to Kozelsk, where they boarded train No. 12, Smolensk - Ranenburg, which had already arrived at the station, heading east. There was no time to buy tickets upon boarding; Having reached Belyov, we purchased tickets to the Volovo station, where we intended to transfer to some train heading south. Those accompanying Tolstoy later also testified that the trip had no specific purpose. After the meeting, they decided to go to his niece E. S. Denisenko, in Novocherkassk, where they wanted to try to get foreign passports and then go to Bulgaria; if this fails, go to the Caucasus. However, on the way, L. N. Tolstoy felt worse - the cold turned into lobar pneumonia and the accompanying people were forced to interrupt the trip that same day and take the sick Tolstoy out of the train at the first large station near populated area. This station was Astapovo (now Leo Tolstoy, Lipetsk region).

The news of Leo Tolstoy's illness caused a great stir both in high circles and among members of the Holy Synod. Encrypted telegrams were systematically sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Moscow Gendarmerie Directorate of Railways about his state of health and the state of affairs. An emergency secret meeting of the Synod was convened, at which, on the initiative of Chief Prosecutor Lukyanov, the question was raised about the attitude of the church in the event of a sad outcome of Lev Nikolaevich’s illness. But the issue was never resolved positively.

Six doctors tried to save Lev Nikolaevich, but to their offers to help, he only replied: “God will arrange everything.” When they asked him what he himself wanted, he said: “I want no one to bother me.” His last meaningful words, which he uttered a few hours before his death to his eldest son, which he was unable to understand due to excitement, but which the doctor Makovitsky heard, were: “Seryozha... the truth... I love a lot, I love everyone...”.

On November 7 (20), at 6:55 a.m., after a week of severe and painful illness (he was suffocating), Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy died in the house of the station chief, I. I. Ozolin.

When L.N. Tolstoy came to Optina Pustyn before his death, Elder Barsanuphius was the abbot of the monastery and the monastery commander. Tolstoy did not dare to enter the monastery, and the elder followed him to the Astapovo station to give him the opportunity to reconcile with the Church. He had spare Holy Gifts, and he received instructions: if Tolstoy whispers in his ear just one word, “I repent,” he has the right to give him communion. But the elder was not allowed to see the writer, just as his wife and some of his closest relatives from among the Orthodox believers were not allowed to see him.

On November 9, 1910, several thousand people gathered in Yasnaya Polyana for the funeral of Leo Tolstoy. Among those gathered were the writer's friends and admirers of his work, local peasants and Moscow students, as well as government officials and local police sent to Yasnaya Polyana by the authorities, who feared that the farewell ceremony for Tolstoy could be accompanied by anti-government statements, and perhaps even will result in a demonstration. In addition, in Russia this was the first public funeral of a famous person, which was not supposed to take place according to the Orthodox rite (without priests and prayers, without candles and icons), as Tolstoy himself wished. The ceremony was peaceful, as noted in police reports. The mourners, observing complete order, accompanied Tolstoy's coffin from the station to the estate with quiet singing. People lined up and silently entered the room to say goodbye to the body.

On the same day, the newspapers published the resolution of Nicholas II on the report of the Minister of Internal Affairs on the death of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy: “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.”

On November 10 (23), 1910, L. N. Tolstoy was buried in Yasnaya Polyana, on the edge of a ravine in the forest, where as a child he and his brother were looking for a “green stick” that held the “secret” of how to make all people happy. When the coffin with the deceased was lowered into the grave, everyone present reverently knelt.

In January 1913, a letter from Countess S.A. Tolstoy dated December 22, 1912 was published, in which she confirmed the news in the press that a funeral service had been performed at her husband’s grave by a certain priest in her presence, while she denied rumors about that the priest was not real. In particular, the countess wrote: “I also declare that Lev Nikolayevich never once before his death expressed a desire not to be buried, and earlier he wrote in his diary in 1895, as if a will: “If possible, then (bury) without priests and a funeral service.” . But if this will be unpleasant for those who will bury them, then let them bury them as usual, but as cheaply and simply as possible.” A priest who voluntarily wished to break the will Holy Synod and secretly performing the funeral service for the excommunicated count was Grigory Leontievich Kalinovsky, a priest of the village of Ivankova, Pereyaslavsky district, Poltava province. Soon he was removed from office, but not for the illegal funeral of Tolstoy, but “due to the fact that he is under investigation for the drunken murder of a peasant, and the said priest Kalinovsky’s behavior and moral qualities rather disapproving, that is, a bitter drunkard and capable of all sorts of dirty deeds,” as reported in gendarmerie intelligence reports.

✓ Report of the head of the St. Petersburg security department, Colonel von Kotten, to the Minister of Internal Affairs Russian Empire

The death of Leo Tolstoy was reacted not only in Russia, but throughout the world. In Russia, student and worker demonstrations with portraits of the deceased took place, which became a response to the death of the great writer. To honor the memory of Tolstoy, workers in Moscow and St. Petersburg stopped the work of several plants and factories. Legal and illegal gatherings and meetings took place, leaflets were issued, concerts and evenings were cancelled, theaters and cinemas were closed at the time of mourning, bookstores and shops suspended trade. Many people wanted to take part in the writer’s funeral, but the government, fearing spontaneous unrest, prevented this in every possible way. People could not carry out their intentions, so Yasnaya Polyana was literally bombarded with telegrams of condolences. The democratic part of Russian society was outraged by the behavior of the government, which for many years bullied Tolstoy, banned his works, and, finally, prevented the celebration of his memory.

§ Family

From his youth, Lev Nikolaevich knew Lyubov Alexandrovna Islavina, married to Bers (1826-1886), and loved to play with her children Lisa, Sonya and Tanya. When the Bersov daughters grew up, Lev Nikolaevich thought about marrying his eldest daughter Lisa, he hesitated for a long time until he made a choice in favor of his middle daughter Sophia. Sofya Andreevna agreed when she was 18 years old, and the count was 34 years old, and on September 23, 1862, Lev Nikolaevich married her, having previously admitted his premarital affairs.

For some time, the brightest period begins in his life - he is truly happy, largely thanks to the practicality of his wife, material well-being, outstanding literary creativity and, in connection with it, all-Russian and world-wide fame. In his wife, he found an assistant in all matters, practical and literary - in the absence of a secretary, she rewrote his drafts several times. However, very soon happiness is overshadowed by inevitable minor disagreements, fleeting quarrels, and mutual misunderstandings, which only worsened over the years.

For his family, Leo Tolstoy proposed a certain “life plan”, according to which he proposed giving part of his income to the poor and schools, and significantly simplifying his family’s lifestyle (life, food, clothing), while also selling and distributing “everything extra”: piano, furniture, carriages. His wife, Sofya Andreevna, was clearly not happy with this plan, which is why their first serious conflict broke out and the beginning of her “undeclared war” for a secure future for their children. And in 1892, Tolstoy signed a separate deed and transferred all the property to his wife and children, not wanting to be the owner. Nevertheless, they lived together in great love for almost fifty years.

In addition, his older brother Sergei Nikolaevich Tolstoy was going to marry Sophia Andreevna’s younger sister, Tatyana Bers. But Sergei’s unofficial marriage to the gypsy singer Maria Mikhailovna Shishkina (who had four children from him) made the marriage of Sergei and Tatyana impossible.

In addition, Sofia Andreevna’s father, physician Andrei Gustav (Evstafievich) Bers, even before his marriage to Islavina, had a daughter, Varvara, from Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva, the mother of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. According to her mother, Varya was sister Ivan Turgenev, and on his father’s side - S. A. Tolstoy, thus, together with marriage, Leo Tolstoy acquired a relationship with I. S. Turgenev.

From the marriage of Lev Nikolaevich with Sofia Andreevna, 9 sons and 4 daughters were born, five of the thirteen children died in childhood.

1. Sergei (1863-1947), composer, musicologist. The only one of all the writer’s children who survived the October Revolution who did not emigrate. Knight of the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.
2. Tatiana (1864-1950). Since 1899 she has been married to Mikhail Sukhotin. In 1917-1923 she was the curator of the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate. In 1925 she emigrated with her daughter. Daughter Tatyana Sukhotina-Albertini (1905-1996).
3. Ilya (1866-1933), writer, memoirist. In 1916 he left Russia and went to the USA.
4. Lev (1869-1945), writer, sculptor. Since 1918, in exile - in France, Italy, then in Sweden.
5. Maria (1871-1906). Since 1897 she has been married to Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (1872-1934). She died of pneumonia. Buried in the village. Kochaki of Krapivensky district (modern Tula region, Shchekinsky district, village of Kochaki).
6. Peter (1872-1873)
7. Nicholas (1874-1875)
8. Varvara (1875-1875)
9. Andrey (1877-1916), official of special assignments under the Tula governor. Participant Russo-Japanese War. He died in Petrograd from general blood poisoning.
10. Mikhail (1879-1944). In 1920 he emigrated and lived in Turkey, Yugoslavia, France and Morocco. Died on October 19, 1944 in Morocco.
11. Alexey (1881-1886)
12. Alexandra (1884-1979). At the age of 16 she became her father's assistant. Head of a military medical detachment during the First World War. In 1920, she was arrested by the Cheka in the Tactical Center case, sentenced to three years, and after her release she worked in Yasnaya Polyana. In 1929 she emigrated from the USSR and in 1941 received US citizenship. She died on September 26, 1979 in New York State at the age of 95, the last of all the children of Leo Tolstoy, more than 150 years after the birth of her father.
13. Ivan (1888-1895).

As of 2010, there were a total of more than 350 descendants of Leo Tolstoy (including both living and deceased), living in 25 countries around the world. Most of them are descendants of Lev Lvovich Tolstoy, who had 10 children. Since 2000, once every two years, meetings of the writer’s descendants have been held in Yasnaya Polyana.

✓ Tolstoy’s views on family and family in Tolstoy’s works

Leo Tolstoy, both in his personal life and in his work, assigned a central role to the family. According to the writer, the main institution of human life is not the state or the church, but the family. From the very beginning of his creative activity, Tolstoy was absorbed in thoughts about his family and dedicated his first work, “Childhood,” to this. Three years later, in 1855, he wrote the story “Notes of a Marker,” where the writer’s craving for gambling and women can already be traced. This is also reflected in his novel “Family Happiness,” in which the relationship between a man and a woman is strikingly similar to the marital relationship between Tolstoy himself and Sofia Andreevna. During the period of happy family life (1860s), which created a stable atmosphere, spiritual and physical balance and became a source of poetic inspiration, two of the writer’s greatest works were written: “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina”. But if in “War and Peace” Tolstoy firmly defends the value of family life, being convinced of the fidelity of the ideal, then in “Anna Karenina” he already expresses doubts about its achievability. When relationships in his personal family life became more difficult, these aggravations were expressed in such works as “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”, “The Devil” and “Father Sergius”.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy paid great attention to his family. His thoughts are not limited to the details of marital relations. In the trilogy “Childhood”, “Adolescence” and “Youth”, the author gave a vivid artistic description of the world of a child, in whose life the child’s love for his parents, and vice versa, the love he receives from them, plays an important role. In War and Peace, Tolstoy already most fully revealed different types family relationships and love. And in “Family Happiness” and “Anna Karenina” various aspects love in the family is simply lost behind the power of “eros”. The critic and philosopher N. N. Strakhov, after the release of the novel “War and Peace,” noted that all of Tolstoy’s previous works can be classified as preliminary studies that culminated in the creation of a “family chronicle.”

§ Philosophy

The religious and moral imperatives of Leo Tolstoy were the source of the Tolstoyan movement, built on two fundamental theses: “simplification” and “non-resistance to evil through violence.” The latter, according to Tolstoy, is recorded in a number of places in the Gospel and is the core of the teachings of Christ, as well as Buddhism. The essence of Christianity, according to Tolstoy, can be expressed in a simple rule: “Be kind and do not resist evil with violence” - “The Law of Violence and the Law of Love” (1908).

The most important basis of Tolstoy’s teachings were the words of the Gospel “Love your enemies” and the Sermon on the Mount. The followers of his teachings - the Tolstoyans - honored the five commandments proclaimed by Lev Nikolaevich: do not be angry, do not commit adultery, do not swear, do not resist evil with violence, love your enemies as your neighbor.

Among adherents of the doctrine, and not only, Tolstoy’s books “What is My Faith,” “Confession,” and others were very popular. Tolstoy’s life teaching was influenced by various ideological movements: Brahmanism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam, as well as the teachings of moral philosophers (Socrates, late Stoics, Kant, Schopenhauer).

Tolstoy developed a special ideology of nonviolent anarchism (it can be described as Christian anarchism), which was based on a rationalistic understanding of Christianity. Considering coercion an evil, he concluded that it was necessary to abolish the state, but not through a revolution based on violence, but through the voluntary refusal of each member of society to fulfill any state duties, be it military service, paying taxes, etc. L.N. Tolstoy believed: “Anarchists are right in everything: both in denying what exists and in affirming that, given existing morals, nothing can be worse than the violence of power; but they are grossly mistaken in thinking that anarchy can be established by revolution.”

The ideas of nonviolent resistance set forth by L. N. Tolstoy in his work “The Kingdom of God is Within You” influenced Mahatma Gandhi, who corresponded with the Russian writer.

According to the historian of Russian philosophy V.V. Zenkovsky, the enormous philosophical significance of Leo Tolstoy, and not only for Russia, is in his desire to build culture on religious basis and in his personal example of liberation from secularism. In Tolstoy’s philosophy, he notes the coexistence of multipolar forces, the “sharp and unobtrusive rationalism” of his religious and philosophical constructions and the irrationalistic insurmountability of his “panmoralism”: “Although Tolstoy does not believe in the Divinity of Christ, Tolstoy believed His words as only those who can believe.” who sees God in Christ,” “follows Him as God.” One of the key features of Tolstoy’s worldview is the search and expression of “mystical ethics”, to which he considers it necessary to subordinate all secularized elements of society, including science, philosophy, art, and considers it “blasphemous” to put them on the same level with good. The writer’s ethical imperative explains the lack of contradiction between the titles of the chapters of the book “The Way of Life”: “ To a reasonable person one cannot help but recognize God” and “God cannot be known by reason.” In contrast to the patristic, and subsequently Orthodox, identification of beauty and goodness, Tolstoy decisively declares that “goodness has nothing to do with beauty.” In his book “The Reading Circle,” Tolstoy quotes John Ruskin: “Art is only in its proper place when its goal is moral improvement. If art does not help people discover the truth, but only provides a pleasant pastime, then it is a shameful, not a sublime thing.” On the one hand, Zenkovsky characterizes Tolstoy’s discrepancy with the church not so much as a reasonably substantiated result, but as a “fatal misunderstanding,” since “Tolstoy was an ardent and sincere follower of Christ.” He explains Tolstoy’s denial of the church’s view of dogma, the Divinity of Christ and His Resurrection by the contradiction between “rationalism, internally completely inconsistent with his mystical experience.” On the other hand, Zenkovsky himself notes that “it was already in Gogol that the theme of the internal heterogeneity of the aesthetic and moral sphere was raised for the first time; for reality is alien to the aesthetic principle.”

§ Bibliography

Of what Leo Tolstoy wrote, 174 of his works of art have survived, including unfinished works and rough sketches. Tolstoy himself considered 78 of his works to be completely finished works; only they were published during his lifetime and were included in collected works. The remaining 96 of his works remained in the archive of the writer himself, and only after his death did they see the light of day.

The first of his published works was the story “Childhood”, 1852. The writer’s first published book during his lifetime was “War Stories of Count L.N. Tolstoy” 1856, St. Petersburg; in the same year, his second book, “Childhood and Adolescence,” was published. The last work of fiction published during Tolstoy’s lifetime was the artistic essay “Grateful Soil,” dedicated to Tolstoy’s meeting with a young peasant in Meshcherskoye on June 21, 1910; The essay was first published in 1910 in the newspaper Rech. A month before his death, Leo Tolstoy was working on the third version of the story “There are No Guilty People in the World.”

¶ Lifetime and posthumous editions of collected works

In 1886, Lev Nikolaevich’s wife first published the writer’s collected works. For literary science, the publication of the Complete (anniversary) collected works of Tolstoy in 90 volumes (1928-58), which included many new literary texts, letters and diaries of the writer.

In addition, and later, collected works of his works were published several times: in 1951-1953, “Collected Works in 14 volumes” (Moscow, Goslitizdat), in 1958-1959, “Collected Works in 12 volumes” (Moscow, Goslitizdat), in 1960- 1965 “Collected works in 20 volumes” (Moscow, ed. “ Fiction"), in 1972 "Collected works in 12 volumes" (Moscow, publishing house "Khudozhestvennaya Literatura"), in 1978-1985 "Collected works in 22 volumes (in 20 books)" (Moscow, publishing house "Khudozhestvennaya" literature"), in 1980, “Collected Works in 12 volumes” (Moscow, publishing house “Sovremennik”), in 1987 “Collected Works in 12 volumes” (Moscow, publishing house “Pravda”).

¶ Translations of Tolstoy

During the Russian Empire, over 30 years before the October Revolution, 10 million copies of Tolstoy’s books were published in Russia in 10 languages. Over the years of the existence of the USSR, Tolstoy's works were published in the Soviet Union in over 60 million copies in 75 languages.

The translation of Tolstoy's complete works into Chinese was carried out by Cao Ying; the work took 20 years.

¶ Worldwide recognition. Memory

Four museums dedicated to the life and work of Leo Tolstoy have been created on the territory of Russia. Tolstoy's Yasnaya Polyana estate, together with all the surrounding forests, fields, gardens and lands, has been turned into a museum-reserve, its branch museum-estate of L. N. Tolstoy in the village of Nikolskoye-Vyazemskoye. Under state protection is Tolstoy's house-estate in Moscow (Lva Tolstoy Street, 21), converted on the personal instructions of V.I. Lenin into a memorial museum. The house at the Astapovo station, Moscow-Kursk-Donbass railway, was also turned into a museum. (now Lev Tolstoy station, Moscow railway), where the writer died. The largest of Tolstoy's museums, as well as a center for research work on the study of the life and work of the writer, is State Museum L.N. Tolstoy in Moscow (Prechistenka St., building 11/8). Many schools, clubs, libraries and other cultural institutions in Russia are named after the writer. The regional center and railway station (formerly Astapovo) of the Lipetsk region bear his name; district and regional center Kaluga region; village (formerly Stary Yurt) in the Grozny region, where Tolstoy visited in his youth. In many Russian cities there are squares and streets named after Leo Tolstoy. Monuments to the writer have been erected in different cities of Russia and the world. In Russia, monuments to Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy were erected in a number of cities: in Moscow, in Tula (as a native of the Tula province), in Pyatigorsk, Orenburg.

§ The meaning and influence of Tolstoy’s work

The nature of the perception and interpretation of Leo Tolstoy's work, as well as the nature of his influence on individual artists and on the literary process, was largely determined by the characteristics of each country, its historical and artistic development. Thus, French writers perceived him, first of all, as an artist who opposed naturalism and knew how to combine a truthful depiction of life with spirituality and high moral purity. English writers relied on his work in the fight against traditional “Victorian” hypocrisy; they saw in him an example of high artistic courage. In the USA, Leo Tolstoy became a support for writers who asserted acute social themes in art. In Germany highest value acquired his anti-militarist speeches, German writers studied his experience realistic image war. For writers Slavic peoples I was impressed by his sympathy for the “small” oppressed nations, as well as the national-heroic theme of his works.

Leo Tolstoy had a huge influence on the evolution of European humanism and on the development of realistic traditions in world literature. His influence affected the work of Romain Rolland, François Mauriac and Roger Martin du Gard in France, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe in the USA, John Galsworthy and Bernard Shaw in England, Thomas Mann and Anna Seghers in Germany, August Strindberg and Arthur Lundquist in Sweden, Rainer Rilke in Austria, Eliza Orzeszko, Boleslaw Prus, Jaroslav Iwaszkiewicz in Poland, Maria Puymanova in Czechoslovakia, Lao She in China, Tokutomi Roka (English) Russian. in Japan, and each of them experienced this influence in their own way.

Western humanist writers, such as Romain Rolland, Anatole France, Bernard Shaw, the brothers Heinrich and Thomas Mann, listened carefully to the author’s accusatory voice in his works “The Resurrection”, “The Fruits of Enlightenment”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” " Tolstoy's critical worldview penetrated their consciousness not only through his journalism and philosophical works, but also through his artistic works. Heinrich Mann said that Tolstoy's works were an antidote to Nietzscheanism for the German intelligentsia. For Heinrich Mann, Jean-Richard Bloch, Hamlin Garland, Leo Tolstoy was an example of great moral purity and intransigence to social evil and attracted them as an enemy of the oppressors and a defender of the oppressed. The aesthetic ideas of Tolstoy’s worldview were reflected in one way or another in Romain Rolland’s book “The People’s Theater”, in the articles of Bernard Shaw and Boleslav Prus (the treatise “What is Art?”) and in Frank Norris’s book “The Responsibility of the Novelist”, in which the author repeatedly refers to Tolstoy .

For Western European writers of Romain Rolland's generation, Leo Tolstoy was an older brother and teacher. He was the center of attraction of democratic and realistic forces in the ideological and literary struggle of the beginning of the century, but also the subject of heated daily debate. At the same time, for later writers, the generation of Louis Aragon or Ernest Hemingway, Tolstoy's work became part of the cultural wealth that they assimilated in their youth. Nowadays, many foreign prose writers, who do not even consider themselves students of Tolstoy and do not define their attitude towards him, at the same time assimilate elements of his creative experience, which has become the common property of world literature.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was nominated 16 times for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902-1906. and 4 times - for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902 and 1909.

§  Writers, thinkers and religious figures about Tolstoy

• French writer and member of the French Academy Andre Maurois argued that Leo Tolstoy is one of the three greatest writers in the entire history of culture (along with Shakespeare and Balzac).
• The German writer, Nobel Prize winner in literature Thomas Mann said that the world did not know another artist in whom the epic, Homeric element would be as strong as Tolstoy, and that the elements of the epic and indestructible realism live in his works.
• The Indian philosopher and politician Mahatma Gandhi spoke of Tolstoy as the most honest man of his time, who never tried to hide the truth, embellish it, not fearing either spiritual or temporal power, reinforcing his preaching with deeds and making any sacrifices for the sake of the truth.
• Russian writer and thinker Fyodor Dostoevsky said in 1876 that only Tolstoy shines because, in addition to the poem, he “knows to the smallest accuracy (historical and current) the reality depicted.”
• Russian writer and critic Dmitry Merezhkovsky wrote about Tolstoy: “His face is the face of humanity. If the inhabitants of other worlds asked our world: who are you? - humanity could answer, pointing to Tolstoy: here I am."
• The Russian poet Alexander Blok spoke of Tolstoy: “Tolstoy is the greatest and only genius of modern Europe, the highest pride of Russia, a man whose one name is fragrance, a writer of great purity and holiness.”
• Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov wrote in his English “Lectures on Russian Literature”: “Tolstoy is an unsurpassed Russian prose writer. Leaving aside his predecessors Pushkin and Lermontov, all the great Russian writers can be arranged in the following sequence: the first is Tolstoy, the second is Gogol, the third is Chekhov, the fourth is Turgenev.”
• Russian religious philosopher and writer Vasily Rozanov about Tolstoy: “Tolstoy is only a writer, but not a prophet, not a saint, and therefore his teaching does not inspire anyone.”
• The famous theologian Alexander Men said that Tolstoy is still the voice of conscience and a living reproach for people who are confident that they live in accordance with moral principles.

§ Criticism

During his lifetime, many newspapers and magazines of all political trends wrote about Tolstoy. Thousands of critical articles and reviews have been written about him. His early works were appreciated in revolutionary democratic criticism. However, "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina" and "Resurrection" did not receive real disclosure and coverage in contemporary criticism. His novel Anna Karenina did not receive adequate criticism in the 1870s; the ideological system of the novel remained undisclosed, as well as its amazing artistic power. At the same time, Tolstoy himself wrote, not without irony: “If myopic critics think that I wanted to describe only what I like, how Oblonsky dines and what kind of shoulders Karenina has, then they are mistaken.”

¶ Literary criticism

The first critic to respond favorably to Tolstoy’s literary debut in print was “ Domestic notes"S. S. Dudyshkin in 1854 in an article dedicated to the stories “Childhood” and “Adolescence.” However, two years later, in 1856, the same critic wrote a negative review of the book edition of Childhood and Boyhood, War Stories. In the same year, N. G. Chernyshevsky’s review of these books by Tolstoy appeared, in which the critic drew attention to the writer’s ability to depict human psychology in its contradictory development. In the same place, Chernyshevsky writes about the absurdity of S. S. Dudyshkin’s reproaches to Tolstoy. In particular, objecting to the critic’s remark that Tolstoy does not depict female characters in his works, Chernyshevsky draws attention to the image of Lisa from “The Two Hussars.” In 1855-1856, one of the theorists of “pure art,” P. V. Annenkov, gave a high assessment of Tolstoy’s work, noting the depth of thought in the works of Tolstoy and Turgenev and the fact that Tolstoy’s thought and its expression through the means of art were fused together. At the same time, another representative of “aesthetic” criticism, A.V. Druzhinin, in reviews of “Blizzard”, “Two Hussars” and “War Stories”, described Tolstoy as a deep connoisseur of social life and a subtle researcher of the human soul. Meanwhile, the Slavophile K. S. Aksakov in 1857, in the article “Review of Modern Literature,” found in the works of Tolstoy and Turgenev, along with “truly beautiful” works, the presence of unnecessary details, because of which “the common line, connecting them into one whole.”

In the 1870s, P. N. Tkachev, who believed that the writer’s task was to express in his work the liberating aspirations of the “progressive” part of society, in the article “Salon Art” dedicated to the novel “Anna Karenina”, spoke sharply negatively about the work of Tolstoy.

N. N. Strakhov compared the novel “War and Peace” in scale with the work of Pushkin. Tolstoy's genius and innovation, according to the critic, were manifested in his ability to use “simple” means to create a harmonious and comprehensive picture of Russian life. The writer’s characteristic objectivity allowed him to “deeply and truthfully” depict the dynamics of the characters’ inner life, which in Tolstoy’s work is not subject to any initially given patterns and stereotypes. The critic also noted the author's desire to find the best traits in a person. What Strakhov especially appreciates in the novel is that the writer is interested not only in spiritual qualities personality, but also the problem of supra-individual - family and community - consciousness.

The philosopher K. N. Leontiev, in the brochure “Our New Christians” published in 1882, expressed doubts about the socio-religious validity of the teachings of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. According to Leontyev, Pushkin’s speech by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy’s story “How People Live” show the immaturity of their religious thinking and the insufficient familiarity of these writers with the content of the works of the church fathers. Leontyev believed that Tolstoy’s “religion of love,” accepted by the majority of “neo-Slavophiles,” distorts the true essence of Christianity. Leontyev’s attitude towards Tolstoy’s artistic works was different. The critic announced the novels “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina” greatest works world literature “over the last 40-50 years”. Considering the main drawback of Russian literature to be the “humiliation” of Russian reality dating back to Gogol, the critic believed that only Tolstoy was able to overcome this tradition, depicting “the highest Russian society... finally in a human way, that is, impartially, and in places with obvious love.” N. S. Leskov in 1883, in the article “Count L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky as heresiarchs (The Religion of Fear and the Religion of Love),” criticized Leontiev’s pamphlet, convicting him of “conceivability,” ignorance of patristic sources and misunderstanding the only argument chosen from them (which Leontyev himself admitted).

N. S. Leskov shared N. N. Strakhov’s enthusiastic attitude towards Tolstoy’s works. Contrasting Tolstoy’s “religion of love” with K. N. Leontiev’s “religion of fear,” Leskov believed that it was the former that was closer to the essence of Christian morality.

Later, Tolstoy’s work was highly appreciated, unlike most democratic critics, by Andreevich (E. A. Solovyov), who published his articles in the journal of “legal Marxists” “Life”. In the late Tolstoy, he especially appreciated the “unattainable truth of the image,” the realism of the writer, tearing off the veils “from the conventions of our cultural, social life,” revealing “its lies, covered with lofty words” (“Life,” 1899, No. 12).

The critic I. I. Ivanov found “naturalism” in the literature of the late 19th century, going back to Maupassant, Zola and Tolstoy and being an expression of a general moral decline.

In the words of K.I. Chukovsky, “in order to write “War and Peace” - just think with what terrible greed it was necessary to pounce on life, grab everything around with your eyes and ears, and accumulate all this immeasurable wealth...” (article “Tolstoy as artistic genius", 1908).

A representative of Marxist literary criticism, which developed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, V.I. Lenin believed that Tolstoy in his works was an exponent of the interests of the Russian peasantry.

The Russian poet and writer, Nobel Prize winner in literature Ivan Bunin, in his study “The Liberation of Tolstoy” (Paris, 1937), characterized Tolstoy’s artistic nature by the intense interaction of “animal primitiveness” and a refined taste for the most complex intellectual and aesthetic quests.

¶ Religious criticism

Opponents and critics of Tolstoy's religious views were the Church historian Konstantin Pobedonostsev, Vladimir Solovyov, the Christian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev, the historian-theologian Georgy Florovsky, and Candidate of Theology John of Kronstadt.

¶ Criticism of the writer’s social views

In Russia, the opportunity to openly discuss social and philosophical views of the late Tolstoy appeared in 1886 in connection with the publication in the 12th volume of his collected works of an abridged version of the article “So what should we do?”

The controversy surrounding the 12th volume was opened by A. M. Skabichevsky, condemning Tolstoy for his views on art and science. N.K. Mikhailovsky, on the contrary, expressed support for Tolstoy’s views on art: “In the XII volume of the Works of gr. Tolstoy says a lot about the absurdity and illegality of the so-called “science for science” and “art for art’s sake”... Gr. Tolstoy says a lot of truth in this sense, and in relation to art this is extremely significant in the mouth of a first-class artist.”

Abroad, Romain Rolland, William Howells, and Emile Zola responded to Tolstoy’s article. Later, Stefan Zweig, having highly appreciated the first, descriptive part of the article (“...hardly ever has social criticism been more brilliantly demonstrated in an earthly phenomenon than in the depiction of these rooms of beggars and degenerate people”), at the same time remarked: “but barely, in In the second part, the utopian Tolstoy moves from diagnosis to therapy and tries to preach objective methods of correction, each concept becomes vague, the contours fade, thoughts, driving one another, stumble. And this confusion grows from problem to problem.”

V.I. Lenin in the article “L.” published in 1910 in Russia. N. Tolstoy and the modern labor movement" wrote about Tolstoy's "impotent curses" "at capitalism and the 'power of money'." According to Lenin, Tolstoy’s criticism of the modern order “reflects a turning point in the views of millions of peasants who had just emerged from serfdom and saw that this freedom meant new horrors of ruin, starvation, and homeless life...”. Earlier, in his work “Leo Tolstoy as a Mirror of the Russian Revolution” (1908), Lenin wrote that Tolstoy was ridiculous, like a prophet who discovered new recipes for the salvation of mankind. But at the same time, he is great as an exponent of the ideas and sentiments that had developed among the Russian peasantry at the time of the onset of the bourgeois revolution in Russia, and also that Tolstoy is original, since his views express the features of the revolution as a peasant bourgeois revolution. In the article “L. N. Tolstoy” (1910) Lenin points out that the contradictions in Tolstoy’s views reflect “the contradictory conditions and traditions that determined the psychology of various classes and strata of Russian society in the post-reform, but pre-revolutionary era.”

G. V. Plekhanov, in his article “Confusion of Ideas” (1911), highly appreciated Tolstoy’s criticism of private property.

V. G. Korolenko wrote about Tolstoy in 1908 that his wonderful dream of establishing the first centuries of Christianity can have a strong effect on simple souls, but others cannot follow him to this “dream-ridden” country. According to Korolenko, Tolstoy knew, saw and felt only the very bottom and the very heights of the social system, and it was easy for him to refuse “one-sided” improvements, such as the constitutional system.

Maxim Gorky admired Tolstoy as an artist, but condemned his teaching. After Tolstoy spoke out against the zemstvo movement, Gorky, expressing the dissatisfaction of his like-minded people, wrote that Tolstoy was captured by his idea, separated from Russian life and stopped listening to the voice of the people, soaring too high above Russia.

Sociologist and historian M. M. Kovalevsky said that Tolstoy’s economic teaching ( main idea which is borrowed from the Gospels), shows only that the social doctrine of Christ, perfectly adapted to the simple morals, rural and pastoral life of Galilee, cannot serve as a rule of conduct for modern civilizations.

A thorough polemic with Tolstoy’s teachings is contained in the study of the Russian philosopher I. A. Ilyin “On Resistance to Evil by Force” (Berlin, 1925).

§ Tolstoy in cinema

In 1912, the young director Yakov Protazanov shot a 30-minute silent film “The Passing of the Great Old Man” based on evidence about the last period of Leo Tolstoy’s life using documentary footage. In the role of Leo Tolstoy - Vladimir Shaternikov, in the role of Sofia Tolstoy - British-American actress Muriel Harding, who used the pseudonym Olga Petrova. The film was very negatively received by the writer's relatives and those around him and was not released in Russia, but was shown abroad.

The Soviet full-length feature film directed by Sergei Gerasimov “Leo Tolstoy” (1984) is dedicated to Leo Tolstoy and his family. The film tells the story of the last two years of the writer's life and his death. Main role The film was performed by the director himself, in the role of Sofia Andreevna - Tamara Makarova. In the Soviet television film “The Shore of His Life” (1985) about the fate of Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay, the role of Tolstoy was played by Alexander Vokach.

In the 2009 film by American director Michael Hoffman, “The Last Resurrection,” the role of Leo Tolstoy was played by Canadian Christopher Plummer, for which he was nominated for an Oscar in the category “Best Supporting Actor.” British actress Helen Mirren, whose Russian ancestors were mentioned by Tolstoy in War and Peace, played the role of Sophia Tolstoy and was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress.