Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (life, creativity). Abstract: Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (life, work) Expert assessment of individual statements of Tolstoy

Count Leo Tolstoy, a classic of Russian and world literature, is called a master of psychologism, the creator of the epic novel genre, an original thinker and teacher of life. The works of this brilliant writer are Russia’s greatest asset.

In August 1828, a classic of Russian literature was born on the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Tula province. The future author of War and Peace became the fourth child in a family of eminent nobles. On his father's side, he belonged to the old family of Count Tolstoy, who served and. On the maternal side, Lev Nikolaevich is a descendant of the Ruriks. It is noteworthy that Leo Tolstoy also has a common ancestor - Admiral Ivan Mikhailovich Golovin.

Lev Nikolayevich’s mother, nee Princess Volkonskaya, died of childbirth fever after the birth of her daughter. At that time, Lev was not even two years old. Seven years later, the head of the family, Count Nikolai Tolstoy, died.

Caring for the children fell on the shoulders of the writer’s aunt, T. A. Ergolskaya. Later, the second aunt, Countess A. M. Osten-Sacken, became the guardian of the orphaned children. After her death in 1840, the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian - their father’s sister P. I. Yushkova. The aunt influenced her nephew, and the writer called his childhood in her house, which was considered the most cheerful and hospitable in the city, happy. Later, Leo Tolstoy described his impressions of life at the Yushkov estate in his story “Childhood.”

Silhouette and portrait of Leo Tolstoy's parents

Elementary education the classic received at home from German and French teachers. In 1843, Leo Tolstoy entered Kazan University, choosing the Faculty of Oriental Languages. Soon, due to low academic performance, he transferred to another faculty - law. But he did not succeed here either: after two years he left the university without receiving a degree.

Lev Nikolaevich returned to Yasnaya Polyana, wanting to establish relations with the peasants in a new way. The idea failed, but the young man kept a diary regularly, loved social entertainment and became interested in music. Tolstoy listened for hours, and...

Disappointed with the life of the landowner after spending the summer in the village, 20-year-old Leo Tolstoy left the estate and moved to Moscow, and from there to St. Petersburg. The young man rushed between preparing for candidate exams at the university, studying music, carousing with cards and gypsies, and dreams of becoming either an official or a cadet in a horse guards regiment. Relatives called Lev “the most trifling fellow,” and it took years to pay off the debts he incurred.

Literature

In 1851, the writer’s brother, officer Nikolai Tolstoy, persuaded Lev to go to the Caucasus. For three years Lev Nikolaevich lived in a village on the banks of the Terek. The nature of the Caucasus and the patriarchal life of the Cossack village were later reflected in the stories “Cossacks” and “Hadji Murat”, the stories “Raid” and “Cutting the Forest”.

In the Caucasus, Leo Tolstoy composed the story “Childhood,” which he published in the magazine “Sovremennik” under the initials L.N. Soon he wrote the sequels “Adolescence” and “Youth,” combining the stories into a trilogy. The literary debut turned out to be brilliant and brought Lev Nikolaevich his first recognition.

The creative biography of Leo Tolstoy is developing rapidly: an appointment to Bucharest, a transfer to besieged Sevastopol, and command of a battery enriched the writer with impressions. From the pen of Lev Nikolaevich came the series “Sevastopol Stories”. The works of the young writer amazed critics with their bold psychological analysis. Nikolai Chernyshevsky found in them a “dialectic of the soul,” and the emperor read the essay “Sevastopol in December” and expressed admiration for Tolstoy’s talent.

In the winter of 1855, 28-year-old Leo Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg and entered the Sovremennik circle, where he was warmly welcomed, calling him “the great hope of Russian literature.” But over the course of a year, I got tired of the writing environment with its disputes and conflicts, readings and literary dinners. Later in Confession Tolstoy admitted:

“These people disgusted me, and I disgusted myself.”

In the fall of 1856, the young writer went to the Yasnaya Polyana estate, and in January 1857 he went abroad. Leo Tolstoy traveled around Europe for six months. Visited Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland. He returned to Moscow, and from there to Yasnaya Polyana. On the family estate, he began arranging schools for peasant children. With his participation, twenty educational institutions appeared in the vicinity of Yasnaya Polyana. In 1860, the writer traveled a lot: in Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium he studied pedagogical systems European countries to apply what we saw in Russia.

A special niche in the work of Leo Tolstoy is occupied by fairy tales and works for children and teenagers. The writer has created hundreds of works for young readers, including good and instructive fairy tales “Kitten”, “Two Brothers”, “Hedgehog and Hare”, “Lion and Dog”.

Leo Tolstoy wrote the school textbook “ABC” to teach children writing, reading and arithmetic. The literary and pedagogical work consists of four books. The writer included instructive stories, epics, fables, as well as methodological advice for teachers. The third book includes the story “Prisoner of the Caucasus.”

Leo Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina"

In the 1870s, Leo Tolstoy, while continuing to teach peasant children, wrote the novel Anna Karenina, in which he contrasted the two storylines: the family drama of the Karenins and the domestic idyll of the young landowner Levin, with whom he identified himself. The novel only at first glance seemed to be a love affair: the classic raised the problem of the meaning of existence of the “educated class”, contrasting it with the truth of peasant life. "Anna Karenina" was highly appreciated.

The turning point in the writer’s consciousness was reflected in the works written in the 1880s. Life-changing spiritual insight occupies a central place in the stories and stories. “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”, “Father Sergius” and the story “After the Ball” appear. The classic of Russian literature paints pictures of social inequality and castigates the idleness of the nobles.

In search of an answer to the question of the meaning of life, Leo Tolstoy turned to the Russian Orthodox Church, but even there he did not find satisfaction. The writer came to the conclusion that Christian church corrupt, and under the guise of religion, priests promote false teaching. In 1883, Lev Nikolaevich founded the publication “Mediator,” where he outlined his spiritual beliefs and criticized the Russian Orthodox Church. For this, Tolstoy was excommunicated from the church, and the writer was monitored by the secret police.

In 1898, Leo Tolstoy wrote the novel Resurrection, which received favorable reviews from critics. But the success of the work was inferior to “Anna Karenina” and “War and Peace”.

For the last 30 years of his life, Leo Tolstoy, with his teachings on non-violent resistance to evil, was recognized as the spiritual and religious leader of Russia.

"War and Peace"

Leo Tolstoy did not like his novel “War and Peace,” calling the epic “ verbose rubbish" The classic writer wrote the work in the 1860s, while living with his family in Yasnaya Polyana. The first two chapters, entitled “1805,” were published by Russkiy Vestnik in 1865. Three years later, Leo Tolstoy wrote three more chapters and completed the novel, which caused heated controversy among critics.

Leo Tolstoy writes "War and Peace"

The novelist took the features of the heroes of the work, written during the years of family happiness and spiritual elation, from life. In Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, the features of Lev Nikolaevich’s mother are recognizable, her penchant for reflection, brilliant education and love of art. The writer awarded Nikolai Rostov with his father’s traits - mockery, love of reading and hunting.

When writing the novel, Leo Tolstoy worked in the archives, studied the correspondence of Tolstoy and Volkonsky, Masonic manuscripts, and visited the Borodino field. His young wife helped him, copying his drafts out clean.

The novel was read avidly, striking readers with the breadth of its epic canvas and subtle psychological analysis. Leo Tolstoy characterized the work as an attempt to “write the history of the people.”

According to the calculations of literary critic Lev Anninsky, by the end of the 1970s, only works abroad Russian classic filmed 40 times. Until 1980, the epic War and Peace was filmed four times. Directors from Europe, America and Russia have made 16 films based on the novel “Anna Karenina”, “Resurrection” has been filmed 22 times.

“War and Peace” was first filmed by director Pyotr Chardynin in 1913. The most famous film was made by a Soviet director in 1965.

Personal life

Leo Tolstoy married 18-year-old in 1862, when he was 34 years old. The count lived with his wife for 48 years, but the couple’s life can hardly be called cloudless.

Sofia Bers is the second of three daughters of the Moscow palace office doctor Andrei Bers. The family lived in the capital, but in the summer they vacationed on a Tula estate near Yasnaya Polyana. For the first time Leo Tolstoy saw future wife child. Sophia was educated at home, read a lot, understood art, and graduated from Moscow University. The diary kept by Bers-Tolstaya is recognized as an example of the memoir genre.

At the beginning of his married life, Leo Tolstoy, wanting there to be no secrets between him and his wife, gave Sophia a diary to read. The shocked wife found out about her husband's turbulent youth, his passion gambling, wild life and the peasant girl Aksinya, who was expecting a child from Lev Nikolaevich.

The first-born Sergei was born in 1863. In the early 1860s, Tolstoy began writing the novel War and Peace. Sofya Andreevna helped her husband, despite her pregnancy. The woman taught and raised all the children at home. Five of the 13 children died in infancy or early childhood childhood.

Problems in the family began after Leo Tolstoy finished his work on Anna Karenina. The writer plunged into depression, expressed dissatisfaction with the life that he had so carefully arranged in family nest Sofya Andreevna. The count's moral turmoil led to Lev Nikolayevich demanding that his relatives give up meat, alcohol and smoking. Tolstoy forced his wife and children to dress in peasant clothes, which he made himself, and wanted to give his acquired property to the peasants.

Sofya Andreevna made considerable efforts to dissuade her husband from the idea of ​​​​distributing goods. But the quarrel that occurred split the family: Leo Tolstoy left home. Upon returning, the writer entrusted the responsibility of rewriting drafts to his daughters.

The death of their last child, seven-year-old Vanya, briefly brought the couple closer together. But soon mutual grievances and misunderstandings alienated them completely. Sofya Andreevna found solace in music. In Moscow, a woman took lessons from a teacher for whom romantic feelings developed. Their relationship remained friendly, but the count did not forgive his wife for “half-betrayal.”

The couple's fatal quarrel occurred at the end of October 1910. Leo Tolstoy left home, leaving Sophia a farewell letter. He wrote that he loved her, but could not do otherwise.

Death

82-year-old Leo Tolstoy, accompanied by his personal doctor D.P. Makovitsky, left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, the writer fell ill and got off the train at the Astapovo railway station. Lev Nikolaevich spent the last 7 days of his life in the stationmaster's house. The whole country followed the news about Tolstoy’s health.

The children and wife arrived at the Astapovo station, but Leo Tolstoy did not want to see anyone. The classic died on November 7, 1910: he died of pneumonia. His wife survived him by 9 years. Tolstoy was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.

Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

• Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one thinks about how to change themselves.
• Everything comes to those who know how to wait.
• All happy families are similar to each other, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
• Let everyone sweep in front of his own door. If everyone does this, the whole street will be clean.
• It's easier to live without love. But without it there is no point.
• I don't have everything I love. But I love everything I have.
• The world moves forward because of those who suffer.
• The greatest truths are the simplest.
• Everyone is making plans, and no one knows whether he will survive until the evening.

Bibliography

• 1869 – “War and Peace”
• 1877 – “Anna Karenina”
• 1899 – “Resurrection”
• 1852-1857 – “Childhood”. "Adolescence". "Youth"
• 1856 – “Two Hussars”
• 1856 – “Morning of the Landowner”
• 1863 – “Cossacks”
• 1886 – “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
• 1903 – “Notes of a Madman”
• 1889 – “Kreutzer Sonata”
• 1898 – “Father Sergius”
• 1904 – “Hadji Murat”

The life and work of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy is still relevant today. The writer became the author of many immortal works. For example, “War and Peace”, etc. To this day, Lev Nikolaevich is one of the great writers in the world.

Childhood
Tolstoy was born on August 26, 1828 in Tula region, was the 4th child. His family was noble and large. The mother was from an ancient noble family - Princess Volkonskaya. She died in 1830. Then Lev Nikolaevich’s cousin began raising the children.

His father had the title of count. He died 7 years later. As a result, Lev Nikolaevich’s aunt became the official guardian. After her death future writer, his sisters and brothers went to stay with relatives in Kazan.

Education
At first, the future writer was educated at home. His teachers were German and French. In 1843 he entered the university, the faculty of studying oriental languages, then switched to law. Only difficulties arose in his studies, and Lev dropped out of school in 1847, without receiving a specialty.

Finding yourself
He returned to his parents' estate and tried to become a farmer. Only it was an unsuccessful attempt. Young Tolstoy often traveled back and forth between Moscow and Tula. However, the habit of keeping a personal diary continued into adulthood. This prompted Tolstoy to write most of his works.

His older brother, having arrived home for a short time, convinced him that Lev should join the army as a cadet. He agreed and in 1854 he was sent to Sevastopol. He fought there until the autumn of 1855.

First publications
While Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, whose life and work is still relevant, was in the service, he often had free time. Then he wrote the story “Childhood”. It includes the writer’s most vivid memories. In 1852, Sovremennik appeared new story Tolstoy. This was his very first publication.

After that, he became as popular as other famous writers. After “Childhood,” Lev Nikolaevich began writing about army service. In 1862 the work “Cossacks” appeared. Tolstoy managed to write even during periods of fierce battles. Then, in 1854, the work “” appeared.

This became a continuation of "Childhood". Then “Sevastopol Stories” appeared, Tolstoy returned back to Russia and gained great popularity. In 1857 he went to live in Paris, spent all his savings and returned home. In 1857 the work “” appeared.

Later creativity
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy: life and work in brief. In 1862, he published the 1st issue of the Yasnaya Polyana publication and married Sophia Bers. They settled on Tolstoy's estate, and the couple had children. The writer was happy. Then he was already writing the first volume of War and Peace. One part of it was published in 1865. Until 1868, Tolstoy wrote 3 more chapters. The entire work was completed within a year.

In 1873, Tolstoy began working on Anna Karenina. The work is partially based on the author's real life events. For example, the relationship between Levin and Kitty is a reflection of Lev Nikolaevich’s courtship of his future wife. The novel was deeply appreciated by readers.

However, Lev Nikolaevich was not particularly happy about this - the author was deeply depressed. He created The Mediator. He tried to find strength in faith, but he was excommunicated from Orthodoxy. At some point, Tolstoy wanted to donate all his savings, but his wife categorically prevented such an impulse. Then a compromise followed - Lev Nikolaevich gave the copyright to his wife.

The writer's latest works
Tolstoy created a number of religious treatises. Among his last works were short stories about morality. The work “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” was very successful. In 1898 “Father Sergius” appeared, then “Resurrection”, “The Living Corpse”, “Hadji Murat”, “After the Ball”. Some of the works were published after the writer’s death.

The last years of the writer
In the last thirty years, Lev Nikolaevich has become a religious and even spiritual leader. However, his wife did not agree with his worldview and did not recognize the students who visited Tolstoy. In 1910, he and his youngest daughter went on a pilgrimage. They traveled around the world incognito.

Tolstoy, Lev Nikolaevich(count; 1828-1910) - the most famous writer in the history of world literature. Z a famous writer who achieved something unprecedented in the history of literature in the 19th century. glory. In his person a great artist and a great moralist were powerfully united.

The personal life of Leo Tolstoy - his stamina, tirelessness, responsiveness, animation in defending his ideals, his attempt to renounce the blessings of this world, to live a new, good life, based only on high, ideal goals and knowledge of the truth - all this adds to the charm of Tolstoy's name to legendary proportions.

The rich and noble family to which he belongs already occupied a prominent position in the time of Peter the Great. It is not without a peculiar interest that great-great-grandfather Pyotr Andreevich The herald of such humane ideals played a sad role in the history of Tsarevich Alexei. Great-grandson of Peter Andreevich, Ilya Andreevich, described in “War and Peace” in the person of the good-natured, impractical old Count Rostov. Son of Ilya Andreevich, Nikolai Ilyich, was the father of Lev Nikolaevich. He is depicted quite close to reality in “Childhood” and “Adolescence” in the person of Father Nikolinka and partly in “War and Peace” in the person of Nikolai Rostov. With the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment, he took part in the war of 1812 and retired after the conclusion of peace. Having spent his youth cheerfully, Nikolai Ilyich lost a lot of money and completely upset his affairs. The passion for the game passed on to Leo Tolstoy who, already a famous writer, played recklessly.

To put his upset affairs in order, Nikolai Ilyich, like Nikolai Rostov, married the ugly and no longer very young Princess Volkonskaya. The marriage, however, was happy. They had four sons: Nikolai, Sergei, Dmitry and Lev and a daughter Maria. Besides Lev, an outstanding person was Nikolai, whose death (abroad, in 1860) Tolstoy so amazingly described in one of his letters to Fet.

Tolstoy's maternal grandfather, Catherine's general, was brought onto the stage in War and Peace in the person of the stern, rigorist old Prince Bolkonsky. Lev Nikolaevich undoubtedly borrowed the best features of his moral character from the Volkonskys.

The writer’s mother, depicted with great accuracy in “War and Peace” in the person of Princess Marya, had a remarkable gift for storytelling, for which, with her shyness passed on to her son, she had to lock herself with the large number of listeners who gathered around her in a dark room.

In addition to the Volkonskys, Tolstoy is closely related to a number of other aristocratic families - the princes Gorchakovs, Trubetskoys and others.

Lev Nikolaevich was born on August 28, 1828 in Krapivensky district of Tula province. (15 versts from Tula), in the now world-famous hereditary magnificent mother’s estate - Yasnaya Polyana.

Tolstoy was not even two years old when his mother died. Took care of raising orphaned children distant relative, T. A. Ergolskaya. In 1837, the family moved to Moscow because the eldest son had to prepare to enter the university; but soon the father suddenly died, leaving affairs in a rather disordered state, and the three youngest children again settled in Yasnaya Polyana under the supervision of T.A. Ergolskaya and paternal aunt, Countess A. M. Osten-Sacken. Here Lev Nikolaevich remained until 1840, when Count. Osten-Sacken and the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian - their father’s sister P. I. Yushkova.

This ends the first period of Tolstoy’s life, which he described in “Childhood” with great accuracy in conveying thoughts and impressions and only with a slight change in external details. The Yushkov house, somewhat provincial in style, but typically secular, was one of the most cheerful in Kazan; All family members highly valued comme il faut and external splendor. " My good aunt,- says Leo Tolstoy - the purest being, she always said that she would like nothing more for me than for me to have a relationship with a married woman." Two the most important beginnings Tolstoy's nature - enormous pride and the desire to achieve something real, to know the truth - have now entered into a struggle.

At the same time, there was an intense internal struggle and the development of a strict moral ideal. All future life Leo Tolstoy represents a painful struggle with the contradictions of life. If Belinsky can rightfully be called great heart, then the epithet suits Tolstoy great conscience.

While receiving higher education, he studied at the Oriental and Law faculties. He was just enrolled at the university, studying very little and receiving twos and ones in the exams. The failure of Tolstoy’s university studies is hardly a mere accident. Being one of the truly great sages in the sense of the ability to think deeply about the purpose and purpose of human life, Tolstoy at the same time lacks the ability to think scientifically, that is, to subordinate his thought to the results of research. Having dropped out of the university even before the transition exams for the 3rd year of law. faculty, Tolstoy settled in Yasnaya Polyana from the spring of 1847.

Tolstoy was very interested in Rousseau. With no one does he have so many points of contact as with the great hater of civilization and the preacher of a return to primitive simplicity. The peasants, however, did not completely capture Tolstoy; he soon left for St. Petersburg and in the spring of 1848 began taking the exam for a candidate of jurisprudence. He passed two exams, from criminal law and criminal procedure, successfully, then he got tired of studying, and he took it again and simply went to the village. Later, he visited Moscow, where he often succumbed to his inherited passion for gambling, greatly upsetting his financial affairs.

During this period of Leo Tolstoy's life. He was especially passionately interested in music (he played the piano quite well and was very fond of classical composers). A lot of time was also spent on carousing, gaming and hunting.

Soon he decided to enlist in military service, but obstacles arose in the form of a lack of necessary papers, which were difficult to obtain, and Tolstoy lived for about 5 months in complete solitude in Pyatigorsk, in a simple hut. In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy, having passed the exam in Tiflis, entered the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladov, on the banks of the Terek, near Kizlyar, as a cadet. In a remote village, Tolstoy found the best part of himself: he began to write and in 1852 sent the first part to the editors of Sovremennik autobiographical trilogy: "Childhood".

In the Caucasus, Tolstoy, soon promoted to officer, remained for two years, participating in many skirmishes and being exposed to all the dangers of combat. Caucasian life. He had rights and claims to the St. George Cross, but did not receive it, which apparently upset him. When the Crimean War broke out at the end of 1853, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube Army, participated in the battle of Oltenica and the siege of Silistria, and from November 1854 to the end of August 1855 he was in Sevastopol. Tolstoy also endured all the horrors, hardships and suffering that befell his heroic defenders. He lived for a long time on the terrible 4th bastion, commanded a battery in the battle of Chernaya, and was during the hellish bombardment during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan.

Tolstoy spent whole days and even nights on drinking and gambling, carousing with his gypsy friends. He was criticized for this by his former comrades from the writing circle. 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. Western Europe - Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Italy - made an unexpected impression on him, where Tolstoy spent only about 1½ years. And upon returning home, he actively began setting up schools in his Yasnaya Polyana.

Tolstoy resolutely rebelled against any regulation and discipline in school; the only method of teaching and education that he recognized was that no method was needed. Everything in teaching should be individual - both the teacher and the student, and their mutual relationships. At the Yasnaya Polyana school, the children sat, whoever wanted where they wanted, whoever wanted as much as they wanted, and whoever wanted as they wanted. There was no specific teaching program. The teacher's only job was to get the class interested. Despite this extreme pedagogical anarchism, 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.

At that time he began to experience a strong feeling for Sofya Andreevna Bers, daughter of a Moscow doctor from the Baltic Germans. He was already in his fourth decade, Sofya Andreevna was only 17 years old. Having endured a passion for Sofya Andreevna in his heart for three years, Tolstoy married her in the fall of 1862, and to his lot fell the greatest completeness of family happiness that can ever be found on earth. In his wife, he found not only his most faithful and devoted friend, but also an irreplaceable assistant in all matters, practical and literary.

Tolstoy revels in the happiness of family life. During the first 10-12 years after his marriage, he created War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

The horror was that, being in the prime of strength and health, Leo Tolstoy lost all desire to enjoy the prosperity he had achieved; he had “nothing to live for” because he could not understand the purpose and meaning of life. In the sphere of material interests, he began to say to himself: “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».

The natural result was suicidal thoughts. « I, happy man, hid the cord from myself so as not to hang myself on the crossbar between the wardrobes in my room, where I was alone every day, undressing, and stopped going hunting with a gun so as not to be too tempted the easy way ridding yourself of life. I myself didn’t know what I wanted: I was afraid of life, I wanted to get away from it and, meanwhile, I still hoped for something from it." To find an answer to the questions and doubts that tormented him, Tolstoy first of all feverishly rushed into the field of theology. He began to have conversations with priests and monks, went to the elders in Optina Pustyn, read theological treatises, studied ancient Greek and Hebrew languages in order to know in the original the original sources of Christian teaching.

At the same time, he looked closely at the schismatic Old Believers, became close to the thoughtful peasant sectarian Syutaev, and talked with the Molokans and Stundists. With the same feverishness he sought the meaning of life in the study of philosophy and in becoming acquainted with the results of the exact sciences. He made a number of attempts at greater and greater simplification, striving to live a life close to nature and agricultural life. He gradually abandons the whims and comforts of a rich life, 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.

According to people who are indignant at Tolstoy for turning from an artist into a preacher, these artistic teachings, written for a specific purpose, are grossly tendentious. But everyone understood that in Tolstoy’s words, tall and terrible truth .

Tolstoy directly comes to the conclusion that “ the more we surrender to artistic beauty, the more we move away from goodness". Tolstoy pursues his new religious worldview, which was the fruit of many years of painful work of his deep analytical mind.The foundations of his worldview are in the doctrine of non-resistance to evil through violence, in the salvation of the world with goodness and love, in the salvation of man through personal free self-improvement, in the denial of all coercive forms of society acting by external force (state, church hierarchy, military organization and war, etc.). Tolstoy attracted a huge following in Russia

The latest fact in Tolstoy’s biography is the determination of the Holy Synod of February 20-22, 1901 “ A writer known to the whole world, we read in this definition, Russian by birth, Orthodox by baptism and upbringing, Count Tolstoy, in the seduction of his proud mind, boldly rebelled against the Lord and against His Christ and against His holy property, openly before everyone having renounced his Mother, the Orthodox Church, who nurtured and raised him, and devoted his literary activity and the talent given to him by God to spreading among the people teachings contrary to Christ and the Church, and to destroying in the minds and hearts of people the fatherly faith, the Orthodox faith, which established the universe , by which our ancestors lived and were saved, and by which Holy Rus' has held on and been strong until now. In his writings and letters, scattered in great numbers by him and his disciples all over the world, especially within our dear fatherland, he preaches, with the zeal of a fanatic, the overthrow of all the dogmas of the Orthodox Church and the very essence of the Christian faith: he rejects the personal living God, in Glorified Holy Trinity, Creator and Provider of the universe; denies the Lord Jesus Christ - the God-man, Redeemer and Savior of the world, who suffered for us for the sake of men and for our salvation and rose from the dead; denies the seedless conception according to the humanity of Christ the Lord and virginity before the Nativity and after the Nativity of the Most Pure Theotokos, Ever-Virgin Mary, does not recognize afterlife and retribution, rejects all the sacraments of the church and the grace-filled action of the Holy Spirit in them and, scolding the most sacred objects of faith of the Orthodox people, did not shudder to mock the greatest of the sacraments, the Holy Eucharist.” Due to all this, “the church does not consider him a member and cannot count him until he repents and restores his fellowship with her».

Some of Tolstoy's works written before 1905 were prohibited by censorship from being published in Russia.

On August 28, 1908, the entire civilized world celebrated the 80th anniversary of his birth, despite the position of the Russian Church.

The religious problem was always in the foreground for Count Tolstoy. Experiencing a painful mental crisis in the late seventies, Count Tolstoy turned to a thorough study of the historical foundations of Christianity. For this purpose, he even studied the Jewish language under the guidance of the Moscow Rabbi Minor.

After re-reading many commentaries on the Bible, Tolstoy unconditionally condemned all orthodox nationalist statements and embarked on the path of broad universalism. According to Count Tolstoy, in the soul of the Russian people there is no hatred, neither religious nor tribal, towards foreigners. This hatred has been artificially instilled over centuries by short-sighted and self-serving policies.

Judeophobia, in Tolstoy’s eyes, is not faith, not political conviction, but a painful passion. Poisoned by their own poison, other maniacs of Judeophobia reach the point of wild eccentricity and savage obscurantism.

It is not economic adversity, not the regiments of enemy armies that destroy nations and countries, but the disintegration of internal strength, the degeneration of the moral core and the pernicious infection of national intolerance - this is what sweeps away tribes and states from the face of the earth. Rome, Egypt and Babylon fell and crumbled for hatred of the peoples who inhabited their country, for hatred, like ice, cannot be a binding cement for long. Woe to that country where conquered and dispossessed peoples, doused with malice and frozen with cruelty, serve as supporting pillars of a fragile statehood.

Only deliberate slander can assert that there is spontaneous, racial enmity, ineradicable tribal discord between Jews and Christians. If others think that by oppressing the Jews they are fulfilling the irresistible dictates of fate, which for some reason doomed entire nations to suffering, then their blind habit must be contrasted with the undoubted truth, expressed in ancient times by one Jewish teacher: God does not seem to care about the food of the poor, so that we have a reason to get rid of the torment of the future with a good deed; God allows the lack of rights of individual nationalities so that we have a reason to correct all previous sins towards foreigners through a living feat of active love of peace.

Of the ancient Jewish legends, Count Tolstoy especially appreciated the legend “ About the cry of the patriarchs“for the optimistic belief in the nearness of that time, “when peoples, having forgotten their strife, will unite into a great family”; the story of the birth of Abraham for his immortal, captivating dream of nature rejoicing at the birth of a new spiritual leader.

The close and inextricable kinship between the religion of Israel and the moral gospel of Jesus predetermines, according to Tolstoy, the duty of true Christians to carefully guard against all temptations of intolerance towards Jews. " Jews are persecuted only for their faith - baptism entails for the most part, almost complete equation in rights».

There is no, in Tolstoy's eyes, a more blasphemous combination of concepts than religious persecution. Religion certainly excludes hatred and persecution, because the first natural movement of the human soul, in which a religious feeling has awakened, is the consciousness of power over oneself high strength, who called him to life and wishes the good of all living things. Just as a religious soul cannot harbor a vengeful feeling towards those who persist in prejudice, so it cannot be characterized by arrogant alienation from those who seek divine truth insatiable, but seeks other ways. People who raise the sword of religious persecution are dead and have not yet been born to faith.

By creating the Jewish question, they are making a terrible mistake. In national disputes, especially in relation to dependent people, it is necessary, first of all, to eliminate all repression and all kinds of restrictions on rights. Evil can only be defeated with good. If some Jews repay active anti-Semites in the same coin, if centuries of insults and oppression accumulate vindictive feelings among the persecuted, then the Russian people, who have seen through this long-standing mistake, can only correct it with patient and unfeigned generosity.

Some of the everyday weaknesses often attributed to merchant Jewry are, according to Tolstoy's interpretation, the direct result of persecution. " To get rid of them, you need to fight persecution, not with them" The best argument in favor of the Jews are, according to Tolstoy, those incredible excesses that other people allow themselves militant anti-Semites and from the church pulpit , and from the parliamentary rostrum.

“If all the accusations against the Jews, accusations that I personally do not believe, were fair, then even then it would remain undoubted that the Jews could not do any harm to people living a Christian life” - Count Tolstoy.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:	Yasnaya Polyana, Tula Governorate, Russian Empire
Date of death:
A place of death:	Astapovo station, Tambov province, Russian Empire
Occupation:	Prose writer, publicist, philosopher
Nicknames:	L.N., L.N.T.
Citizenship:	Russian empire
Years of creativity:
Direction:
Autograph:

Biography

Origin

Education

Military career

Traveling around Europe

Pedagogical activity

Family and offspring

Creativity flourishes

"War and Peace"

"Anna Karenina"

Other works

Religious quest

Excommunication

Philosophy

Bibliography

Translators of Tolstoy

World recognition. Memory

Film adaptations of his works

Documentary

Movies about Leo Tolstoy

Portrait gallery

Translators of Tolstoy

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

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

Biography

Origin

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

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

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

Childhood

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

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

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

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

Education

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

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

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

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

Beginning of literary activity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Military career

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

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

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

For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anne with the inscription “For bravery” and the medals “For the defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855” and “In memory of the war of 1853-1856.” Surrounded by the brilliance of fame and enjoying the reputation of a very brave officer, Tolstoy had every chance of a career, but he “ruined” it for himself. Almost the only time in his life (except for the “Combining different versions of epics into one” made for children in his pedagogical essays) he dabbled in poetry: he wrote a satirical song, in the manner of soldiers, about the unfortunate case 4 (August 16, 1855, when General Read, misunderstanding the order of the commander-in-chief, unwisely attacked the Fedyukhinsky heights. Song (As on the fourth, the mountains were hard to take us away) , which affected a number of important generals, was a huge success and, of course, harmed the author. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (September 8), Tolstoy was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he finished “Sevastopol in May 1855” and wrote “Sevastopol in August 1855 G.".

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

Traveling around Europe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pedagogical activity

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

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

Since 1862, he began publishing the pedagogical magazine “Yasnaya Polyana”, where he, again, was the main employee. In addition to theoretical articles, Tolstoy also wrote a number of stories, fables and adaptations. Combined together, Tolstoy's pedagogical articles made up an entire volume of his collected works. Hidden away in a very rarely circulated special magazine, they remained little noticed at the time. 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 on the concept of “progress” that was favorite at that time, many seriously concluded that Tolstoy was a “conservative.”

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

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

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

Family and offspring

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

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

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

Creativity flourishes

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

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

"War and Peace"

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

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

"Anna Karenina"

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other works

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

Literary criticism of Shakespeare's works

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

Religious quest

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

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

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

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

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

Excommunication

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

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

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

A world-famous writer, Russian by birth, Orthodox by baptism and upbringing, Count Tolstoy, in the seduction of his proud mind, boldly rebelled against the Lord and against His Christ and against His holy property, clearly before everyone renounced the Mother who fed and raised him, the Church. Orthodox, and devoted his literary activity and the talent given to him from God to the dissemination among the people of teachings contrary to Christ and the Church, and to the destruction in the minds and hearts of people of the fatherly faith, the Orthodox faith, which established the universe, by which our ancestors lived and were saved, and by which Until now, Holy Rus' had held out and was strong. In his writings and letters, scattered in large numbers by him and his disciples all over the world, especially within our dear Fatherland, he preaches, with the zeal of a fanatic, the overthrow of all the dogmas of the Orthodox Church and the very essence of the Christian faith; denies the personal living God, glorified in the Holy Trinity, the Creator and Provider of the universe, denies the Lord Jesus Christ - the God-man, Redeemer and Savior of the world, who suffered for us for the sake of men and for our salvation and rose from the dead, denies the seedless conception of Christ the Lord for humanity and virginity until Nativity and after the Nativity of the Most Pure Theotokos, Ever-Virgin Mary, does not recognize the afterlife and retribution, rejects all the sacraments of the Church and the grace-filled action of the Holy Spirit in them and, swearing at the most sacred objects of faith of the Orthodox people, did not shudder to mock the greatest of the sacraments, the Holy Eucharist. Count Tolstoy preaches all this continuously, in word and in writing, to the temptation and horror of the entire Orthodox world, and thus undisguisedly, but clearly before everyone, he consciously and intentionally rejected himself from all communication with the Orthodox Church. The previous attempts, to his understanding, were not crowned with success. Therefore, the Church does not consider him a member and cannot consider him until he repents and restores his communion with her. Therefore, testifying to his falling away from the Church, we pray together that the Lord will grant him repentance into the mind of truth (2 Tim. 2:25). We pray, merciful Lord, do not want the death of sinners, hear and have mercy and turn him to Your holy Church. Amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The purpose of the census is scientific. The census is a sociological survey. The goal of the science of sociology is the happiness of people." This science and its methods differ sharply from other sciences. The peculiarity is that sociological research is not carried out through the work of scientists in their offices, observatories and laboratories, but is carried out by two thousand people from society. Another feature , that the research of other sciences is carried out not on living people, but here on living people. The third feature is that the goal of other sciences is only knowledge, but here the good of people. Foggy spots can be explored alone, but to explore Moscow you need 2000 people. The purpose of the research of foggy spots is only to find out everything about foggy spots, the purpose of the study of the inhabitants is to derive the laws of sociology and, on the basis of these laws, to establish a better life for people. The foggy spots do not care whether they are studied or not, they have waited and are ready to wait for a long time, but Moscow cares, especially to those unfortunate people who make up the most interesting subject of the science of sociology.The census taker comes to the shelter, in the basement, finds a man dying from lack of food and politely asks: title, name, patronymic, occupation; and after a slight hesitation about whether to add him to the list as alive, he writes it down and moves on.

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

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

Last years of life. Death and funeral

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

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

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

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

Philosophy

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

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

Criticism of Tolstoy and Tolstoyism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Expert assessment of individual statements of Tolstoy

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

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

Bibliography

Translators of Tolstoy

World recognition. Memory

Museums

IN former estate“Yasnaya Polyana” is a museum dedicated to his life and work.

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

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

Film adaptations of his works

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

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

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

Documentary

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

Movies about Leo Tolstoy

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

Portrait gallery

Translators of Tolstoy

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

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy- outstanding Russian prose writer, playwright and public figure. Born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Tula region. On his mother’s side, the writer belonged to the eminent family of Princes Volkonsky, and on his father’s side, to the ancient family of Count Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy's great-great-grandfather, grandfather and father were military men. Representatives ancient family Even under Ivan the Terrible, the Tolstoys served as governors in many cities of Rus'.

The writer’s maternal grandfather, “descendant of Rurik,” Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, was enlisted in military service at the age of seven. He was a participant in the Russian-Turkish war and retired with the rank of general-in-chief. The writer's paternal grandfather, Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, served in the navy and then in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. The writer's father, Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, voluntarily entered military service at the age of seventeen. He took part in the Patriotic War of 1812, was captured by the French and was freed by Russian troops who entered Paris after the defeat of Napoleon's army. On his mother's side, Tolstoy was related to the Pushkins. Their common ancestor was boyar I.M. Golovin, an associate of Peter I, who studied shipbuilding with him. One of his daughters is the poet's great-grandmother, the other is the great-grandmother of Tolstoy's mother. Thus, Pushkin was Tolstoy’s fourth cousin.

The writer's childhood took place in Yasnaya Polyana - an ancient family estate. Tolstoy’s interest in history and literature arose in his childhood: while living in the village, he saw how the life of the working people proceeded, from him he heard a lot folk tales, epics, songs, legends. The life of the people, their work, interests and views, oral creativity - everything alive and wise - was revealed to Tolstoy by Yasnaya Polyana.

Maria Nikolaevna Tolstaya, the writer’s mother, was a kind and sympathetic person, an intelligent and educated woman: she knew French, German, English and Italian languages, played the piano, was engaged in painting. Tolstoy was not even two years old when his mother died. The writer did not remember her, but he heard so much about her from those around him that he clearly and vividly imagined her appearance and character.

Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, their father, was loved and appreciated by children for his humane attitude towards serfs. In addition to taking care of the house and children, he read a lot. During his life, Nikolai Ilyich collected a rich library, consisting of rare books of French classics, historical and natural history works at that time. It was he who first noticed his youngest son’s inclination towards a vivid perception of the artistic word.

When Tolstoy was nine years old, his father took him to Moscow for the first time. The first impressions of Lev Nikolaevich’s Moscow life served as the basis for many paintings, scenes and episodes of the hero’s life in Moscow Tolstoy's trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth". Young Tolstoy saw not only the open side of big city life, but also some hidden, shadow sides. With his first stay in Moscow, the writer connected the end of the earliest period of his life, childhood, and the transition to adolescence. The first period of Tolstoy's Moscow life did not last long. In the summer of 1837, while traveling to Tula on business, his father died suddenly. Soon after the death of his father, Tolstoy and his sister and brothers had to endure a new misfortune: their grandmother, whom everyone close to them considered the head of the family, died. The sudden death of her son was a terrible blow for her and less than a year later it took her to the grave. A few years later, the first guardian of the orphaned Tolstoy children, their father’s sister, Alexandra Ilyinichna Osten-Saken, died. Ten-year-old Lev, his three brothers and sister were taken to Kazan, where their new guardian, Aunt Pelageya Ilyinichna Yushkova, lived.

Tolstoy wrote about his second guardian as a “kind and very pious” woman, but at the same time very “frivolous and vain.” According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Pelageya Ilyinichna did not enjoy authority with Tolstoy and his brothers, therefore the move to Kazan is considered to be a new stage in the writer’s life: his upbringing ended, a period of independent life began.

Tolstoy lived in Kazan for more than six years. This was the time of formation of his character and choice of life path. Living with his brothers and sister with Pelageya Ilyinichna, young Tolstoy spent two years preparing to enter Kazan University. Having decided to enter the eastern department of the university, he paid special attention to preparing for exams in foreign languages. In exams in mathematics and Russian literature, Tolstoy received fours, and in foreign languages ​​- fives. Lev Nikolayevich failed in the exams in history and geography - he received unsatisfactory grades.

Failure in the entrance exams served as a serious lesson for Tolstoy. He devoted the entire summer to a thorough study of history and geography, passed additional exams on them, and in September 1844 he was enrolled in the first year of the eastern department of the Faculty of Philosophy of Kazan University in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. However, the study of languages ​​did not captivate Tolstoy, and after summer holidays in Yasnaya Polyana he transferred from the Faculty of Oriental Studies to the Faculty of Law.

But in the future, university studies did not awaken Lev Nikolaevich’s interest in the sciences he was studying. Most of the time he independently studied philosophy, compiled “Rules of Life” and carefully wrote notes in his diary. By the end of the third year of studies, Tolstoy was finally convinced that the then university order only interfered with independent creative work, and he decided to leave the university. However, he needed a university diploma to obtain the license to enter the service. And in order to receive a diploma, Tolstoy passed university exams as an external student, spending two years of living in the village preparing for them. Having received university documents from the chancellery at the end of April 1847, former student Tolstoy left Kazan.

After leaving the university, Tolstoy again went to Yasnaya Polyana, and then to Moscow. Here, at the end of 1850, he took up literary creativity. At this time, he decided to write two stories, but did not finish either of them. In the spring of 1851, Lev Nikolaevich, together with his older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, who served in the army as an artillery officer, arrived in the Caucasus. Here Tolstoy lived for almost three years, being mainly in the village of Starogladkovskaya, located on the left bank of the Terek. From here he traveled to Kizlyar, Tiflis, Vladikavkaz, and visited many villages and villages.

It started in the Caucasus military service Tolstoy. He took part in military operations of Russian troops. Tolstoy's impressions and observations are reflected in his stories “The Raid”, “Cutting Wood”, “Demoted”, and in the story “Cossacks”. Later, turning to the memories of this period of his life, Tolstoy created the story “Hadji Murat”. In March 1854, Tolstoy arrived in Bucharest, where the office of the chief of artillery troops was located. From here, as a staff officer, he traveled throughout Moldavia, Wallachia and Bessarabia.

In the spring and summer of 1854, the writer took part in the siege of the Turkish fortress of Silistria. However, the main place of hostilities at this time was the Crimean Peninsula. Here Russian troops under the leadership of V.A. Kornilov and P.S. Nakhimov heroically defended Sevastopol for eleven months, besieged by Turkish and Anglo-French troops. Participation in Crimean War - important stage in Tolstoy's life. Here he got to know ordinary Russian soldiers, sailors, and residents of Sevastopol closely, and sought to understand the source of the heroism of the city’s defenders, to understand the special character traits inherent in the defender of the Fatherland. Tolstoy himself showed bravery and courage in the defense of Sevastopol.

In November 1855, Tolstoy left Sevastopol for St. Petersburg. By this time he had already earned recognition in advanced literary circles. During this period, the attention of Russian public life was focused around the issue of serfdom. Tolstoy's stories of this time ("Morning of the Landowner", "Polikushka", etc.) are also devoted to this problem.

In 1857 the writer committed foreign travel. He visited France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Traveling to different cities, the writer became acquainted with the culture and social system of Western European countries with great interest. Much of what he saw was subsequently reflected in his work. In 1860, Tolstoy made another trip abroad. A year earlier, in Yasnaya Polyana, he opened a school for children. Traveling through the cities of Germany, France, Switzerland, England and Belgium, the writer visited schools and studied the features of public education. In most of the schools that Tolstoy visited, caning discipline was in effect and corporal punishment was used. Returning to Russia and visiting a number of schools, Tolstoy discovered that many teaching methods that were in effect in Western European countries, in particular Germany, had penetrated into Russian schools. At this time, Lev Nikolaevich wrote a number of articles in which he criticized the public education system both in Russia and in Western European countries.

Arriving home after a trip abroad, Tolstoy devoted himself to working at school and publishing the pedagogical magazine Yasnaya Polyana. The school founded by the writer was located not far from his home - in an outbuilding that has survived to this day. In the early 70s, Tolstoy compiled and published a number of textbooks for primary schools: “ABC”, “Arithmetic”, four “Books for Reading”. More than one generation of children learned from these books. The stories from them are read with enthusiasm by children even today.

In 1862, when Tolstoy was away, landowners arrived in Yasnaya Polyana and searched the writer’s house. In 1861, the Tsar's manifesto announced the abolition of serfdom. During the implementation of the reform, disputes broke out between landowners and peasants, the settlement of which was entrusted to the so-called peace intermediaries. Tolstoy was appointed as a peace mediator in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province. When examining controversial cases between nobles and peasants, the writer most often took a position in favor of the peasantry, which caused discontent among the nobles. This was the reason for the search. Because of this, Tolstoy had to stop working as a peace mediator, close the school in Yasnaya Polyana and refuse to publish a pedagogical magazine.

In 1862 Tolstoy married Sofya Andreevna Bers, daughter of a Moscow doctor. Arriving with her husband in Yasnaya Polyana, Sofya Andreevna tried with all her might to create an environment on the estate in which nothing would distract the writer from his hard work. In the 60s, Tolstoy led a solitary life, completely devoting himself to work on War and Peace.

At the end of the epic War and Peace, Tolstoy decided to write a new work - a novel about the era of Peter I. However, social events in Russia caused by the abolition of serfdom so captured the writer that he left work on historical novel and began to create a new work, which reflected the post-reform life of Russia. This is how the novel Anna Karenina appeared, to which Tolstoy devoted four years to work.

In the early 80s, Tolstoy moved with his family to Moscow to educate his growing children. Here the writer, well acquainted with rural poverty, witnessed urban poverty. In the early 90s of the 19th century, almost half of the central provinces of the country were gripped by famine, and Tolstoy joined the fight against the national disaster. Thanks to his appeal, the collection of donations, purchase and delivery of food to the villages was launched. At this time, under the leadership of Tolstoy, about two hundred free canteens were opened in the villages of the Tula and Ryazan provinces for the starving population. A number of articles written by Tolstoy about the famine date back to the same period, in which the writer truthfully depicted the plight of the people and condemned the policies of the ruling classes.

In the mid-80s Tolstoy wrote drama "The Power of Darkness", which depicts the death of the old foundations of patriarchal-peasant Russia, and the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” dedicated to the fate of a man who only before his death realized the emptiness and meaninglessness of his life. In 1890, Tolstoy wrote the comedy “The Fruits of Enlightenment,” which shows the true situation of the peasantry after the abolition of serfdom. In the early 90s it was created novel "Sunday", on which the writer worked intermittently for ten years. In all his works relating to this period of creativity, Tolstoy openly shows whom he sympathizes with and whom he condemns; depicts the hypocrisy and insignificance of the “masters of life.”

The novel “Sunday” was subject to censorship more than other works of Tolstoy. Most of the novel's chapters were released or abridged. The ruling circles launched an active policy against the writer. Fearing popular outrage, the authorities did not dare to use open repression against Tolstoy. With the consent of the tsar and at the insistence of the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Pobedonostsev, the synod adopted a resolution to excommunicate Tolstoy from the church. The writer was under police surveillance. The world community was outraged by the persecution of Lev Nikolaevich. The peasantry, advanced intelligentsia and ordinary people were on the side of the writer and sought to express their respect and support to him. The love and sympathy of the people served as reliable support for the writer in the years when the reaction sought to silence him.

However, despite all the efforts of reactionary circles, every year Tolstoy denounced the noble-bourgeois society more sharply and boldly and openly opposed the autocracy. Works of this period ( “After the Ball”, “For What?”, “Hadji Murat”, “Living Corpse”) are imbued with deep hatred of the royal power, the limited and ambitious ruler. In journalistic articles dating back to this time, the writer sharply condemned the instigators of wars and called for a peaceful resolution of all disputes and conflicts.

In 1901-1902, Tolstoy suffered a serious illness. At the insistence of doctors, the writer had to go to Crimea, where he spent more than six months.

In Crimea, he met with writers, artists, artists: Chekhov, Korolenko, Gorky, Chaliapin, etc. When Tolstoy returned home, hundreds of ordinary people warmly greeted him at the stations. In the fall of 1909, the writer made his last trip to Moscow.

Tolstoy's diaries and letters of the last decades of his life reflected difficult experiences that were caused by the writer's discord with his family. Tolstoy wanted to transfer the land that belonged to him to the peasants and wanted his works to be published freely and free of charge by anyone who wanted. The writer’s family opposed this, not wanting to give up either the rights to the land or the rights to the works. The old landowner way of life, preserved in Yasnaya Polyana, weighed heavily on Tolstoy.

In the summer of 1881, Tolstoy made his first attempt to leave Yasnaya Polyana, but a feeling of pity for his wife and children forced him to return. Several more attempts by the writer to leave his native estate ended with the same result. On October 28, 1910, secretly from his family, he left Yasnaya Polyana forever, deciding to go south and spend the rest of his life in a peasant hut, among the common Russian people. However, on the way, Tolstoy became seriously ill and was forced to get off the train at the small Astapovo station. The great writer spent the last seven days of his life in the house of the station master. The news of the death of one of the outstanding thinkers, a wonderful writer, a great humanist deeply struck the hearts of all progressive people of this time. Tolstoy's creative heritage is of great importance for world literature. Over the years, interest in the writer’s work does not wane, but, on the contrary, grows. As A. France rightly noted: “With his life he proclaims sincerity, directness, purposefulness, firmness, calm and constant heroism, he teaches that one must be truthful and one must be strong... Precisely because he was full of strength, he always was truthful!”