“A distinctive feature of Tolstoy’s work. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Essay on life and work

Leo Tolstoy: The Beginning of the Path. Early prose

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9, new style) 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Tula province into one of the most distinguished Russian noble families. “The Tolstoy Counts are an ancient noble family, descended, according to the legends of genealogists, from the honest husband Indrik, who came “from the Germans, from the Caesarian lands” [from the Holy Roman Empire, from Austria. - A.R.] to Chernigov in 1353, with two sons and a squad of three thousand people; he was baptized, received the name Leontia and was the founder of several noble families. His great-grandson, Andrei Kharitonovich, who moved from Chernigov to Moscow and received from Vel.<икого>book<язя>Vasily the Dark, nicknamed Tolstoy, was the ancestor of the Tolstoys (in the count branch of the Tolstoy family, Count Lev Nikolaevich is listed from the ancestor Indris in the 20th generation)" (Biryukov P.I. Biography of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. 3rd ed., corrections and additions. M.; Pg., 1923. T. 1. P. 3.) On his mother’s side, Lev Nikolaevich belonged to the ancient family of princes Volkonsky. Belonging to the aristocracy will determine Tolstoy's behavior and thoughts throughout his life. In his youth and in his mature years, he will think a lot about the special calling of the old Russian nobility, preserving the ideals of naturalness, personal honor, independence and freedom. (“The archaic nature” of Tolstoy’s social, as well as literary, position in the 1850s was traced in detail by B. M. Eikhenbaum: Eikhenbaum B. M. Lev Tolstoy. L., 1928. Book 1. 50s. P. 261-291).

Tolstoy lost his mother Maria Nikolaevna very early, at the age of one and a half years, a very emotional and decisive woman. Father, Nikolai Ilyich, a retired colonel, was distinguished by pride and independence in relations with government officials. For Tolstoy the child, his father was the embodiment of beauty, strength, passionate, gambling love for the joys of life. From him Lev Nikolaevich inherited his passion for hound hunting. Many years later, Tolstoy would express the beauty and excitement of hunting on the pages of the novel “War and Peace” in his description of the persecution of a wolf by the hounds of the old Count Rostov.

In 1844 he entered the Faculty of Philosophy at Kazan University. He studied unsystematically, missed lectures and, as a result, was not allowed to take the transfer exams. Not having received admission to take the history exam, Tolstoy in 1845 transferred to another faculty - law. But even at this faculty they taught history, the classes of which were boring and unpleasant for him. Tolstoy again begins to miss lectures on history. He was even punished for missing classes: the careless student was placed in a punishment cell. But he indulged himself with all passion in secular amusements and revelry. His apparent laziness and dislike for history are not evidence of limitations. Once Tolstoy the student remarked in a conversation with an interlocutor: “History... is nothing more than a collection of fables and useless trifles, interspersed with a mass of unnecessary numbers and proper names...”. As if this phrase of Tolstoy is a manifestation of militant ignorance. It seems he was only trying to shock his friend. However, in reality everything is much more complicated. In the sciences, young Tolstoy sought, first of all, practical meaning. He was not interested in knowledge that could not be applied in everyday life. And this is exactly how history seems “useless” to Tolstoy. Such a view of science is generally characteristic of many people of the new era, emerging in the 1840s. It is no coincidence that in the 1860s. Russian youth will survive the fascination with “nihilism.” “Nihilists” considered practical benefit to be the main value modern culture and they despised abstract knowledge that was not directly related to the everyday needs of people. Tolstoy did not like “nihilism”; first of all, he rejected the idea of ​​revolution inherent in “nihilists”. But he grew up in the same atmosphere of change, disillusionment with old cultural values, as the ideologists of “nihilism.” The denial of traditional historical science by Tolstoy the student would manifest itself with renewed vigor in the 1860s. in the novel “War and Peace”.

During his years of study at Kazan University, Tolstoy carefully read the works of French philosophers, especially the works of the 18th century thinker and writer. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau saw in the achievements of civilization: in the development of sciences, technology, and the arts - a decline, the destruction of the original simplicity and naturalness of human life. Rousseau's ideas greatly influenced the young Tolstoy.

For Tolstoy, Rousseau is not only a subtle artist-psychologist, but also a thinker, whose ideas about the primordial good nature man and the corrupting influence of civilization, opposed to the unspoiled “natural state of the savage or commoner,” remained dear to Tolstoy throughout his life.

Another favorite writer of Tolstoy was Stendhal. The poetics of battle scenes in Tolstoy’s works - from early Caucasian stories (“Raid”, etc.) and the cycle about the defense of Sevastopol to “War and Peace” (a look at what is happening from the point of view of a “hero who understands nothing”) - resembles the description of the Battle of Waterloo in Stendhal's novel The Monastery of Parma.

Already in Tolstoy’s youthful diaries and early letters, a living contradiction is palpable between attachment, passionate attraction to “natural” life, rapture in the fullness of being and the joys of the flesh, on the one hand, and moral rigorism and exactingness, on the other. “Religion of the flesh” and “religion of the spirit” (expressions of D. S. Merezhkovsky - Merezhkovsky D. S. L. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky: Life and Work // Merezhkovsky D. S. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Eternal companions. M., 1995. P. 7-350) will subsequently form two poles of Tolstoy’s creativity. Tolstoy's path is, to a large extent, precisely a movement from one pole to another. But the writer did not completely renounce the “religion of the flesh” even in the last years of his life.

On April 12, 1847, Tolstoy, disillusioned with his university education, filed a petition for expulsion from the university. He went to Yasnaya Polyana, hoping to try himself in a new field - to improve the life of his serfs. Reality defeated his plans. The peasants did not understand the master and refused his advice and help. For the first time, Tolstoy acutely felt the huge, insurmountable gulf separating him - the landowner, the gentleman - and the common people. Social and cultural barriers between the educated class and the people will become one of the constant themes of Tolstoy's fiction and articles. He described his first unsuccessful experience of managing a few years later in the story “The Morning of the Landowner” (1856), the hero of which Nekhlyudov is endowed with the features of Tolstoy himself.

Returning from Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy spent several years in St. Petersburg and Moscow. He analyzes in detail his actions and experiences in his diaries, strives to develop a program of behavior, to achieve success in various sciences and areas of life, and in his career. From the self-analysis in Tolstoy's diaries his fiction grows. Tolstoy in his diaries 1847-1852. carefully records various experiences and thoughts in their complex and contradictory connections. He coldly analyzes the manifestation of selfish moods in high and pure feelings, traces the movement, the flow of one emotional state into another. Observations of oneself alternate with descriptions of the appearance, gestures and character of acquaintances, with reflections on how to create a literary work. Tolstoy is guided by the experience of psychological analysis of writers of the 18th century. Laurence Stern and Rousseau, learns the techniques of revealing experiences in the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov “A Hero of Our Time”. In March 1851, Tolstoy wrote “The History of Yesterday,” a passage in which he describes his feelings in detail. This is no longer just a diary entry, but a work of art.

In April 1851 he went to the Caucasus and in January 1852 he entered military service in the artillery. There was a war in the Caucasus between Russian troops and Chechens. Tolstoy takes part in battles and works on the story “Childhood”. Dissatisfied with the story, he revised its text four times. In July 1852, it was sent to the St. Petersburg magazine “Sovremennik” to its editor, poet N. A. Nekrasov. Nekrasov highly appreciated the author's talent. “Childhood” was published under the title “The History of My Childhood” (this title belonged to Nekrasov) in the 9th issue of “Sovremennik” for 1852 and brought Tolstoy great success and fame as one of the most talented Russian writers. Two years later, also in the 9th issue of Sovremennik, a continuation appears - the story “Adolescence”, and in the 1st issue for 1857 the story “Youth” was published, completing the story about Nikolai Irteniev - the hero of “Childhood” and “Adolescence” "

Tolstoy's three stories are a non-sequential story of the upbringing and growing up of the main character and narrator, Nikolenka Irtenyev. This is a description of a number of episodes in his life. B. M. Eikhenbaum drew attention to the fact that the events described in the story fit into two days, and a large period of time passes between these days (Eikhenbaum B. M. Young Tolstoy // Eikhenbaum B. M. About literature. M. , 1987. pp. 75-77). What seems petty to others, unworthy of attention, and what for others are actual events in Nikolenka’s life, occupy an equal place in the consciousness of the child hero himself. Tolstoy carefully records the contradictory, opposing feelings of the hero. Nikolenka Irtenyev’s direct emotional movements are combined with detached introspection, with observations of her own experiences. In “Childhood,” Tolstoy reveals a multi-layered consciousness, in which opposing feelings, aspirations and thoughts coexist at the same time, sincerity coexists with the features of a kind of self-admiration, and sometimes pretense (Features of Tolstoy’s psychologism are traced in detail by L. Ya. Ginzburg. - Ginzburg L. Ya. About psychological prose. 3rd edition. M., 1999. pp. 267-293, 301-334, 372-394).

The depiction of the hero’s feelings in “Childhood”, “Adolescence” and “Youth” is reminiscent of the analysis of his own experiences in Tolstoy’s diaries. The principles of depiction outlined in the diaries and embodied in these three stories inner world characters will be transferred to the novels “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina” and many other later works of Tolstoy.

At the same time as working on “Childhood,” from May to December 1852, Tolstoy wrote the story “Raid” about one of the minor episodes of the war in the Caucasus. Later, based on his impressions of the military events in the Caucasus, Tolstoy created two more stories - “Cutting Wood” and “How Russian Soldiers Die” (the first version of this story was called “Anxiety”). In these stories, for the first time, a theme is expressed that will henceforth be unchanged, constant for Tolstoy. This theme: simplicity, naturalness as the highest value of true human life. “Always from a young age, and the older I get, the more I appreciate one quality<...>above all is simplicity,” Tolstoy wrote in 1872. In his “Caucasian” stories, Tolstoy contrasted his down-to-earth depiction of military action, the confusion of battle and senseless deaths with a romantic, poetic description of battle as a majestic spectacle. Before Tolstoy, Russian literature was dominated by precisely this romanticized perception of war and military feats. This is exactly how the battles in the Caucasus were portrayed by A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, a writer whose works in the 1830s and early 1840s. enjoyed great fame. The simple, “everyday” depiction of war in Tolstoy’s stories is the opposite of the romance of battles and heroism. It resembles the description of one of the battles of the Caucasian War in M. Yu. Lermontov’s poem “Valerik”. Genuine heroism in Tolstoy's portrayal is devoid of any romantic theatricality or artificiality. A true hero never thinks that he is performing a feat. The thirst for fame is alien to him. For Tolstoy, calm acceptance of his own death is a trait of a truly wise and worthy person.

The theme of simplicity and naturalness as the highest value of life and the dispute with the “front door”, beautiful image Tolstoy continued the war in the essays “Sevastopol in December” (1855), “Sevastopol in May” (1855) and “Sevastopol in August 1855” (1856). The essays describe episodes of the heroic defense of Sevastopol from the Anglo-French troops in 1855. Tolstoy himself participated in the defense of Sevastopol and spent many days and nights in the most dangerous place - on the fourth bastion, which was mercilessly fired upon by enemy artillery. Tolstoy's Sevastopol stories are not a panoramic description of the entire months-long gigantic battle for the city, but sketches of several days in the life of its defenders. It is in the details: in the depiction of the everyday life of soldiers, sailors, nurses, officers, townspeople that Tolstoy seeks the true truth of war.

The key motif of Sevastopol stories is the unnaturalness and madness of war. Tolstoy shows the war from an outside, “defamiliarized” perspective. In the essay “Sevastopol in December,” Tolstoy describes not the beautiful correctness of the battle, but the terrible scenes of the suffering of the wounded in the hospital. The writer uses the technique of contrast, sharply pitting the world of the living and beautiful nature against the world of the dead - victims of war. He describes a child picking wildflowers among decaying corpses and touching the outstretched hand of a headless corpse with his foot. Tolstoy acts as an accuser of people who violate the covenants of God, in self-blinding and in a frenzy shedding each other's blood. Tolstoy’s Sevastopol stories are the seed of the future novel “War and Peace.”

In the autumn of 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana. He taught the children history and gave them topics for essays. In 1862 the school was closed after a police search. The reason for the search was the authorities' suspicions that students teaching at the Yasnaya Polyana school were engaged in anti-government activities. The writer formulated the conclusions from his activities at the Yasnaya Polyana school in an article with a “scandalous” title: “Who should learn to write from whom, the peasant children from us or from the peasant children?” According to Tolstoy, folk art and culture is not inferior, but rather superior to the culture and art recognized in an educated society. Peasant children preserve spiritual purity and naturalness, lost in the educated classes. Their teaching of the values ​​of “high” culture, Tolstoy believes, is hardly necessary. On the contrary, the writer himself, while studying with them, found himself in the role not of a teacher, but of a student.

September 24 (old style) 1862 Tolstoy marries the daughter of a Moscow doctor, Sofia Andreevna Bers. On September 25, Tolstoy writes in his diary: “Incredible happiness.” Mutual misunderstanding, serious quarrels, alienation from each other - all this is still in the distant future.

In 1863, Tolstoy published the story “Cossacks,” which he began working on in the mid-1850s. The story, like many other works of Tolstoy, is autobiographical. It is based on the writer’s Caucasian memories, first of all, the story of his unrequited love for a Cossack woman who lived in the Starogladkovskaya village. Tolstoy chooses a traditional plot for romantic literature: the love of a chilled, disillusioned hero-fugitive from the disgusted world of civilization for a “natural” and passionate heroine. A. S. Pushkin’s poems “Prisoner of the Caucasus” and “Gypsies” were written on this subject. Tolstoy re-read “Gypsy” while working on “Cossacks”. But Tolstoy gives this plot a completely new meaning. The young nobleman Dmitry Olenin only superficially resembles a romantic hero: his weariness with life is shallow. He is drawn to the natural simplicity, spontaneous life of the Cossacks, but remains alien to them. Interests, education, social status Olenin alienates him from the inhabitants of the Cossack village. Olenin eagerly absorbs the simple and wise thoughts of the old Cossack, hunter and former thief Uncle Eroshka: happiness, the meaning of life lies in the rapture of all its joys, in carnal pleasures. But he will never be able to become as simple, carefree, kind and evil, pure and cynical at the same time as Uncle Eroshka.

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

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

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

§ Biography

¶ Origin

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

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

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

¶ Childhood

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

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

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

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

¶ Education

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

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

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

¶  Beginning of literary activity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¶ Military service

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

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

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

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

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

¶  Traveling around Europe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¶  Treatment in the Bashkir nomadic camp Karalyk

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

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

¶ Pedagogical activities

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

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

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

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

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

¶ Leo Tolstoy’s social activities in the 1860s

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

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

¶ Flourishing creativity

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

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

✓ “War and Peace”

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

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

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

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

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

✓ “Anna Karenina”

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

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

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

✓ Other works

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

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

✓ Literary criticism of Shakespeare’s works

In his critical essay “On Shakespeare and Drama”, based on 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. At the performance of Hamlet, he experienced “special suffering” for this “false likeness of works of art.”

¶ Participation in the Moscow census

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

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

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

¶  Leo Tolstoy in Moscow

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

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

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

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

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

¶ Spiritual crisis and preaching

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¶ Excommunication

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

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

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

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

According to theologians, including Doctor of Historical Sciences, Candidate of Theology, Doctor of Church History, Priest Georgy Orekhanov, the decision of the Synod regarding Tolstoy is not a curse on the writer, but a statement of the fact that he, of his own free will, is no longer a member of the Church. In addition, the synodal act of February 20-22 stated that Tolstoy could return to the Church if he repented. Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky), who was at that time the leading member of the Holy Synod, wrote to Sofya Andreevna Tolstoy: “All of Russia mourns for your husband, we mourn for him. Do not believe those who say that we are seeking his repentance with political goals" However, the writer, his entourage and the Russian public considered that this definition was an unjustifiably cruel act. For example, when Tolstoy arrived in Optina Pustyn, when asked why he did not go to the elders, he replied that he could not go because he was excommunicated.

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

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

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

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

¶ Leaving Yasnaya Polyana, death and funeral

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On the same day, the newspapers published the resolution of Nicholas II on the report of the Minister of Internal Affairs on the death of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy: “I sincerely regret the death of the great writer, who, during the heyday of his talent, embodied in his works the images of one of the glorious years of Russian life. May the Lord God be his merciful judge.”

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

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

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

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

§ Family

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

§ Philosophy

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

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

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

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

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

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

§ Bibliography

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

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

¶ Lifetime and posthumous editions of collected works

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

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

¶ Translations of Tolstoy

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

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

¶ Worldwide recognition. Memory

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

§ The meaning and influence of Tolstoy’s work

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

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

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

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

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

§  Writers, thinkers and religious figures about Tolstoy

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

§ Criticism

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

¶ Literary criticism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¶ Religious criticism

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

¶ Criticism of the writer’s social views

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

§ Tolstoy in cinema

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

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

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

Russian writer and philosopher Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, the fourth child in a wealthy aristocratic family. Tolstoy lost his parents early; his further upbringing was carried out by his distant relative T. A. Ergolskaya. In 1844, Tolstoy entered Kazan University at the Department of Oriental Languages ​​of the Faculty of Philosophy, but because... classes did not arouse any interest in him, in 1847. submitted his resignation from the university. At the age of 23, Tolstoy, together with his older brother Nikolai, left for the Caucasus, where he took part in hostilities. These years of the writer's life were reflected in the autobiographical story "Cossacks" (1852-63), in the stories "Raid" (1853), "Cutting Wood" (1855), as well as in the later story "Hadji Murat" (1896-1904, published in 1912). In the Caucasus, Tolstoy began to write the trilogy “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth”.

During the Crimean War he went to Sevastopol, where he continued to fight. After the end of the war, he left for St. Petersburg and immediately joined the Sovremennik circle (N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Turgenev, A. N. Ostrovsky, I. A. Goncharov, etc.), where he was greeted as " great hope Russian literature" (Nekrasov), published "Sevastopol Stories", which clearly reflected his outstanding writing talent. In 1857, Tolstoy went on a trip to Europe, with which he was later disappointed..

In the fall of 1856, Tolstoy, having retired, decided to interrupt his literary activity and become a landowner, went to Yasnaya Polyana, where he was engaged in educational work, opened a school, and created his own system of pedagogy. This activity fascinated Tolstoy so much that in 1860 he even went abroad to get acquainted with the schools of Europe.

In September 1862, Tolstoy married the eighteen-year-old daughter of a doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers, and immediately after the wedding, he took his wife from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana, where he completely devoted himself to family life and household concerns, but by the fall of 1863 he was captured by a new literary plan, as a result of which the world was born. the fundamental work “War and Peace” appeared. In 1873-1877 created the novel Anna Karenina. During these same years, the writer’s worldview, known as Tolstoyism, was fully formed, the essence of which is visible in the works: “Confession”, “What is my faith?”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”.

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

The writer’s latest works were the stories “Father Sergius”, “After the Ball”, “Posthumous Notes of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich” and the drama “The Living Corpse”.

In the late autumn of 1910, at night, secretly from his family, 82-year-old Tolstoy, accompanied only by his personal doctor D.P. Makovitsky, left Yasnaya Polyana, fell ill on the way and was forced to get off the train at the small Astapovo Ryazan-Uralskaya railway station railway. Here, in the house of the station chief, he spent the last seven days of his life. November 7 (20) Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy died.

A classic of Russian literature, Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 into the noble family of Nikolai Tolstoy and his wife Maria Nikolaevna. The father and mother of the future writer were nobles and belonged to revered families, so the family lived comfortably in their own Yasnaya Polyana estate, located in the Tula region.

Leo Tolstoy spent his childhood in the family estate. In these places he first saw the course of life of the working people, heard an abundance of old legends, parables, fairy tales, and here his first attraction to literature arose. Yasnaya Polyana is a place to which the writer returned at all stages of his life, drawing wisdom, beauty, and inspiration.

Despite his noble origin, Tolstoy had to learn the bitterness of orphanhood from childhood, because the future writer’s mother died when the boy was only two years old. His father passed away not much later, when Leo was seven years old. The grandmother first took custody of the children, and after her death, Aunt Palageya Yushkova, who took the four children of the Tolstoy family with her to Kazan.

Growing up

The six years of living in Kazan became the informal years of the writer’s growing up, because during this time his character and worldview were formed. In 1844, Leo Tolstoy entered Kazan University, first in the eastern department, then, not finding himself in the study of Arabic and Turkish languages, to the Faculty of Law.

The writer did not show significant interest in studying law, but he understood the need to obtain a diploma. After passing the external exams, in 1847 Lev Nikolaevich received the long-awaited document and returned to Yasnaya Polyana, and then to Moscow, where he began to engage in literary creativity.

Military service

Not having time to finish two planned stories, in the spring of 1851 Tolstoy went to the Caucasus with his brother Nikolai and began military service. The young writer takes part in military operations of the Russian army, acts as one of the defenders of the Crimean Peninsula, liberates his native land from Turkish and Anglo-French troops. Years of service gave Leo Tolstoy invaluable experience, knowledge of the life of ordinary soldiers and citizens, their characters, heroism, and aspirations.

The years of service are vividly reflected in Tolstoy’s stories “Cossacks”, “Hadji Murat”, as well as in the stories “Demoted”, “Cutting Wood”, “Raid”.

Literary and social activities

Returning to St. Petersburg in 1855, Leo Tolstoy was already well-known in literary circles. Remembering the respectful attitude towards serfs in his father’s house, the writer strongly supports the abolition of serfdom, clarifying this question in the stories “Polikushka”, “Morning of the Landowner”, etc.

In an effort to see the world, in 1857 Lev Nikolaevich went on a trip abroad, visiting the countries of Western Europe. Getting acquainted with the cultural traditions of peoples, the master of words records information in his memory in order to later display the most important moments in his work.

Actively engaged in social activities, Tolstoy opens a school in Yasnaya Polyana. The writer strongly criticizes corporal punishment, which was widely practiced at that time in educational institutions in Europe and Russia. In order to improve the educational system, Lev Nikolaevich publishes a pedagogical magazine called “Yasnaya Polyana”, and in the early 70s he compiled several textbooks for primary schoolchildren, including “Arithmetic”, “ABC”, “Books for Reading”. These developments were effectively used in teaching several more generations of children.

Personal life and creativity

In 1862, the writer cast his lot with the daughter of doctor Andrei Bers, Sophia. The young family settled in Yasnaya Polyana, where Sofya Andreevna diligently tried to provide an atmosphere for her husband’s literary work. At this time, Leo Tolstoy was actively working on the creation of the epic “War and Peace”, and also, reflecting life in Russia after the reform, wrote the novel “Anna Karenina”.

In the 80s, Tolstoy moved with his family to Moscow, seeking to educate his growing children. Observing the hungry life of ordinary people, Lev Nikolaevich contributes to the opening of about 200 free tables for those in need. Also at this time, the writer published a number of topical articles about the famine, strongly condemning the policies of the rulers.

The period of literature of the 80-90s includes: the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, the drama “The Power of Darkness”, the comedy “Fruits of Enlightenment”, the novel “Sunday”. For his strong attitude against religion and autocracy, Leo Tolstoy was excommunicated from the church.

last years of life

In 1901 - 1902 the writer became seriously ill. For the purpose of a speedy recovery, the doctor strongly recommends a trip to Crimea, where Leo Tolstoy spends six months. The prose writer's last trip to Moscow took place in 1909.

Beginning in 1881, the writer sought to leave Yasnaya Polyana and retire, but stayed, not wanting to hurt his wife and children. On October 28, 1910, Leo Tolstoy nevertheless decided to take a conscious step and live the rest of his years in a simple hut, refusing all honors.

An unexpected illness on the road becomes an obstacle to the writer’s plans and he spends his last seven days of life in the house of the station master. The day of death of the outstanding literary and public figure was November 20, 1910.

A.P. Chekhov said that Tolstoy belongs to the first place among the great figures of Russian art. “Tolstoy is our common teacher,” said the outstanding French writer Anatole France. More than half a century has passed since the death of the great Russian word artist, but his worldwide fame continues to grow steadily. Wonderful stories, novellas, dramas and three brilliant novels by L. N. Tolstoy - “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina” and “Resurrection” - will never cease to excite human minds and hearts.

The writer's first work is autobiographical. This is the trilogy “Childhood” (1852), “Adolescence” (1854), “Youth” (1857). Its main character, Nikolenka Irtenyev, an impressionable, sensitive and introspective boy, is in many ways reminiscent of Leo Tolstoy himself. The author shows how in Nikolenka’s soul, that is, in the soul of the future writer himself, a critical attitude towards his surroundings gradually arises, the desire to live better, more honestly than the people of his circle - noble aristocrats - grows.

In 1847, Tolstoy, unexpectedly for those around him, left Kazan University, where he entered in 1844, and went to his estate Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy subsequently described this period of his life in the story “The Morning of the Landowner.” The young landowner Nekhlyudov is trying to improve the life of the serfs, to understand their situation and help everyone, but he is faced with people’s distrust of him and blatant poverty, from which it is impossible to get rid of.

Having lived in the estate, and later in Moscow and St. Petersburg for about four years and not finding a job to his liking, Leo Tolstoy in 1851 went to the Caucasus, where he entered military service. With this act, he surprised those around him: a wealthy landowner with a count title and connections in high circles, he could, if he wanted, make a brilliant career in the capital.

But Tolstoy dreams of something else. Once in the Caucasus, he strives to get to know the life of the common people better, to get closer to the Cossacks among whom he found himself, and to live a different life, better life. Tolstoy spoke about his impressions of the life of the Cossacks and thoughts at this time in the “song of his youth” (Romain Rolland) - the story “Cossacks”, written ten years later. This story echoes such works as “Gypsies” by Pushkin, “Bela” from Lermontov’s “Hero of Our Time,” and “Olesya” by Kuprin. It tells the love story of a man from the “civilized” world - nobleman Dmitry Olenin - to a simple girl from the people - the proud beauty of the Cossack Maryana. Olenin, who is close to the author in many ways, despises the life he left in St. Petersburg. He dreams of living like the Cossacks live, and wants to marry Maryana, whom he fell in love with. But Olenin cannot truly get close to the Cossacks.

Upbringing and environment left their mark on him. Olenin cares very little about the joys and sorrows of those around him; he thinks first of all about himself. And the Cossacks feel it. It is not surprising that Maryana dislikes Olenin. Lonely, a stranger to everyone, he is forced to leave the Cossack village for Petersburg, which he hates.

In 1853, the Crimean War began. Tolstoy took part in the defense of Sevastopol in the most dangerous sector - the famous fourth bastion. Following the living traces of military events, he then wrote “Sevastopol Stories.” The true heroes of the Crimean War, according to the writer, are ordinary Russian people who “can do anything.” “Because of the cross, because of the title, because of the threat, people cannot accept these terrible conditions: there must be another, high motivating reason. And this reason is a feeling that is rarely manifested, bashful in a Russian, but lies in the depths of everyone’s soul - love for the homeland.” The writer sharply contrasts the courageous and modest soldiers with those noble officers who boast of “aristocratism” in front of each other and try to flaunt their courage. “Each of the officers,” writes Tolstoy, “is a little Napoleon, a little monster, and is now ready to start a battle, kill a hundred people just to get an extra star or a third of his salary.”

Tolstoy saw that the life of high society - courtiers, eminent landowners, high officials and military men - is full of vanity, selfishness, lies and is unreal, “artificial.” However, the writer believed that mutual love itself - rich and poor, oppressors and oppressed - could change life for the better and destroy the vices of his contemporary society. Tolstoy also hoped that by believing in God and following the commandments of religion, people would do good to each other and become happy. It was a naive illusion of a brilliant writer.

Returning from the war to St. Petersburg, Tolstoy became close to Nekrasov, Chernyshevsky, Turgenev and found his calling in literary activity. But it did not become a “safe haven” for him. “To live honestly, you have to struggle, get confused, struggle, make mistakes, start and quit, and start again, and quit again, and always struggle and lose. And calmness - spiritual meanness“, he asserted in one of his letters in 1857. Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy’s entire life passed in tireless, intense thought, constant anxiety, dissatisfaction with himself and those around him.

In 1862, the writer married Sofya Andreevna Bers, who became his assistant and devoted friend. From then on, he lived almost continuously in his estate. He worked on his books with extraordinary concentration and perseverance. When Sofya Andreevna once asked if he was overtired, Lev Nikolaevich replied: “Do you think that writing is given for nothing? No, every day of labor you leave a piece of yourself in the inkwell.”

Throughout the 60s, Tolstoy worked on the epic novel War and Peace. This work widely covers Russian life at the beginning of the 19th century. In the spotlight - Patriotic War 1812. Among the huge number of characters in “War and Peace” (and there are about six hundred of them) there are both outstanding historical figures and ordinary participants in the War of 1812. Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov are depicted with great sympathy, like Tolstoy, who were looking for truth, justice and true human happiness.

The images of women in the novel are unforgettable, and above all, the image of Natasha Rostova, filled with special charm, in which, in the words of R. Rolland, “the thrill of life itself” is captured.

In "War and Peace" Tolstoy's ability to depict human experiences was very clearly demonstrated. He, in Chernyshevsky’s apt expression, conveyed “the dialectics of the human soul,” “the very mysterious process of developing thoughts and feelings.” The writer achieved this by using the internal monologues of the characters, which sometimes occupy entire pages in the novel. Such, for example, are the thoughts flashing through the mind of Petya Rostov on the eve of his fatal battle, or the thoughts of the wounded Andrei Bolkonsky, who suddenly saw the high sky above him.

Tolstoy was able to convey with extraordinary force the patriotic uplift that the Russian people experienced in 1812. “In War and Peace, I loved popular thought,” said the writer. And with the entire content of the epic novel, Tolstoy showed that it was the Russian people, who rose up to fight for national independence, expelled the French from the borders of their country and ensured victory.

There is no other work in Russian literature where the power and greatness of the Russian people were conveyed with such conviction and force as in “War and Peace.” Tolstoy's patriotic novel, infinitely dear to the people of our country, has worldwide significance. “This novel is perhaps the greatest that has ever been written,” said the French communist writer Louis Aragon.

Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina” reflected that troubled, anxious time when in Russia, after the abolition of serfdom, the old foundations of life were broken and they were replaced by new, bourgeois relations. In the life of people of this era, according to the writer, everything was “unclear and confusing.” Tolstoy showed that the most natural human feelings were distorted and deformed in high society. The fate of the wife of a major St. Petersburg dignitary, Karenin, the charming and sincere Anna, who fell in love with another person and did not hide this feeling, turned out to be tragic. Secular bigots and hypocrites condemned her love for Vronsky as a criminal violation of family duty.

Tolstoy contrasted the landowner Levin with St. Petersburg society. His relationship with his wife Kitty is based on complete trust and great sensitivity to each other. But in. Levin's soul, a happy family man, does not have even a shadow of serene calm: he, like Tolstoy himself, is not satisfied with his life. He is full of anxiety and tirelessly thinks about the meaning of life, about his relationships with the peasants, about the present and future of the country.

Working hard on works of art, L. Tolstoy devoted a lot of energy to social activities in the 60s and 70s. In 1859, he opened a school for peasant children and adults in Yasnaya Polyana and was their teacher himself. With the participation of Leo Tolstoy, twenty-one more schools were organized in the districts of the Tula province. In the 70s, the writer compiled an alphabet for children. He helped peasants in lean and hungry years.

The tsarist government was hostile and distrustful of pedagogical activity Tolstoy. The Yasnaya Polyana school caused particular dissatisfaction with the authorities. A search was carried out at the writer's estate, which deeply offended Tolstoy. Later the school was closed completely.

Thoughts about the unlimited power of the tsar, the arbitrariness of landowners and officials, about poverty, lack of rights and downtrodden people, whose situation after the reform of 1861 remained very difficult, led Tolstoy in the late 70s and 80s to a mental crisis. A long-prepared revolution in the writer’s views took place. Tolstoy finally understood the “crime, cruelty, abomination of that life” that people of the rich classes lead, building their “stupid material external well-being on the suffering, downtroddenness, humiliation” of the people.

In journalistic and artistic works of 1880–1900. Tolstoy castigates the propertied classes with particular force. He, as Lenin put it, “falls down” on the masters drowning in luxury, cruelly oppressing the people, and angrily tears off “all and every mask” from them. The harsh truth of life of the propertied classes was revealed by the writer in his story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.” Its main character, a successful official, only before his death notices the monstrous hypocrisy and lies that fill the daily life of all the people in his circle to the brim.

Tolstoy’s story “After the Ball” is small in volume, but very deep in thought. Its hero is an elderly colonel. Sweet and graceful in the evening at the ball, he changes unrecognizably in the morning, when he leads the public punishment of a soldier with spitzrutens, driving him through the ranks. He beats one of the soldiers, who hit his comrade’s bloody back with a stick not as hard as his superiors demanded. The good nature and secular sophistication of the colonel is just a deceitful and hypocritical mask. Behind it lies brutal cruelty worthy of an executioner.

In the 90s, L. Tolstoy created the last of his famous novels - “Resurrection”. With unprecedented sharpness and passion, even in his works, the writer here castigates the capital’s aristocrats and major royal officials, corrupted by exorbitant luxury and limitless power, criminally indifferent to people who lived in humiliation and captivity, on the brink of poverty and in poverty. The focus of the readers of the novel is the terrible fate of Katyusha Maslova. A young girl who served as a maid in a landowner's family was seduced and abandoned by the young Prince Nekhlyudov, and after several years of homeless life surrounded by low, depraved people, after wanderings and ordeals, she ended up in a brothel, and later, through a misunderstanding, she was accused of murder and exiled to hard labor. The experiences of Katyusha Maslova and Prince Nekhlyudov, who, having accidentally seen Katyusha in the dock, realized his irreparable guilt before her, are described in the novel.

Exposing the anti-people essence of the tsarist court, the army, the church and the state itself, sharply denying private property, proving the relationships and lives of people in all their complexity, Leo Tolstoy in his artistic and journalistic works, according to Lenin, posed the great questions of his time. He forced readers to think about serious, deep contradictions in reality.

At the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. advanced Russian people were especially concerned about the question of ways to destroy the evil that reigned in the country. Leo Tolstoy could not answer this question correctly either.

V.I. Lenin in the article “Leo Tolstoy, as a mirror of the Russian revolution” gave a deep interpretation of the essence of the contradictions in Tolstoy’s views: “On the one hand, a merciless picture of capitalist exploitation, exposure of government violence, the comedy of court and public administration, revealing the full depth of the contradictions between the growth of wealth and the conquests of civilization and the growth of poverty, savagery and torment of the working masses; on the other hand, the holy fool’s preaching of “non-resistance to evil” through violence...”

Tolstoy himself felt the contradictory nature of his views. He realized that following his preaching, the people would not be able to get rid of oppression and poverty. The last decades of his life were for him a time of especially painful reflection, hesitation and dissatisfaction with himself.

Tolstoy refused the help of servants, plowed the land himself, carried water, sawed and chopped wood, helped peasants build huts, put stoves in them, and made boots. However, the writer did not find the strength to break with his family and remained to live in the Yasnaya Polyana estate. “More and more, almost physically, I suffer from inequality, wealth, the excess of our life in the midst of poverty and I cannot reduce this inequality. This is the secret tragedy of my life,” he writes in his diary in 1907.

In October 1910, Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana in order not to return there. He was 82 years old. On the way, Lev Nikolaevich fell ill with pneumonia and at the Astapovo station was forced to get off the train. A week later, on November 7 (20), Tolstoy died. He was buried in Yasnaya Polyana. Hundreds of people visit this place dear to all humanity every day. They walk past ponds surrounded by perennial willows to the estate, examine the small two-story house where Tolstoy worked, and, walking along the alleys of a shady park to a deep ravine, they stand for a long time at the grave of the great writer overgrown with thick grass.