(1828-1910)
A brief message about the personal life and work of L.N. Tolstoy for children of grades 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Tolstoy was born in 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate in big family nobles His mother and father died early, and he was raised by a relative who had a great influence on the boy. But Lev Nikolaevich remembered the appearance of his parents well and subsequently reflected them in the heroes of his works. In short, Tolstoy spent his childhood years quite happily. Subsequently, he recalled that time with warmth; it repeatedly served as material for his work.
At the age of 13, Tolstoy moved with his family to Kazan. There he entered the university, where he first studied oriental languages and then law. But the young man never finished university and returned to Yasnaya Polyana. There, however, he decided to take up his education and independently study many different sciences. Still, he spent only one summer in the village and soon moved to St. Petersburg with the goal of passing exams at the university.
short biography Tolstoy in his young years comes down to an intense search for himself and his calling. Either he plunged headlong into festivities and revelry, or he led the life of an ascetic, indulging in religious thoughts. But during these years the young count already felt in himself a love for literary creativity.
In 1851, he and his older brother, an officer, went to the Caucasus, where they took part in military operations. The time spent there left an indelible impression on Tolstoy. During these years, he worked on the story “Childhood,” which later, together with two other stories, brought great fame to the aspiring writer. Next, Tolstoy was transferred to serve first in Bucharest, and then in Sevastopol, where he participated in the Crimean campaign and showed great courage.
After the end of the war, Tolstoy went to St. Petersburg and became a member of the famous Sovremennik circle, but he did not take root in it and soon went abroad. Returning to his family home, the writer opened a famous school there, intended for peasant children. Tolstoy was very fascinated by the cause of education, and he became interested in the organization of schools in Europe, for which he again went abroad. Soon Lev Nikolaevich married young S.A. Bers. Tolstoy's short biography during this period was marked by quiet family happiness.
At the same time, the writer first began work on his great work “War and Peace,” and then on another, no less famous novel, “Anna Karenina.”
The 1880s sometimes became a serious spiritual crisis for Lev Nikolaevich. This was reflected in a number of his works of that time, such as, for example, “Confession”. Tolstoy thinks a lot about faith, the meaning of life, social inequality, criticizes state institutions and the achievements of civilization. He also works on religious treatises. The writer wanted to see 
Christianity as a practical religion, purified from any mysticism. He criticized the Orthodox Church and its rapprochement with the state, and then completely abandoned it. At the beginning of the 20th century he was officially excommunicated from the Church. Lev Nikolaevich reflected the entire gamut of his emotional experiences of those years in his last novel, “Resurrection.”
Tolstoy's drama was expressed in a severance of relations not only with the Church, but also with his own family. In the fall of 1910, the elderly writer secretly left home, but, already in poor health, fell ill on the road and died a week later, on November 7. Lev Nikolaevich was buried in Yasnaya Polyana. One can briefly say this about Tolstoy: he was truly a great literary genius. His work was so loved by readers that the writer’s departure became a great grief for millions of people who lived not only in Russia, but also in various parts of the world.
Born into the noble family of Maria Nikolaevna, nee Princess Volkonskaya, and Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy in the Yasnaya Polyana estate in Krapivensky district of the Tula province, he was the fourth child. The happy marriage of his parents became the prototype of the heroes in the novel “War and Peace” - Princess Marya and Nikolai Rostov. Parents died early. The future writer was educated by Tatyana Aleksandrovna Ergolskaya, a distant relative, and educated by tutors: the German Reselman and the Frenchman Saint-Thomas, who became the heroes of the writer’s stories and novels. At the age of 13, the future writer and his family moved to the hospitable house of his father’s sister P.I. Yushkova in Kazan.
In 1844, Leo Tolstoy entered the Imperial Kazan University at the Department of Oriental Literature of the Faculty of Philosophy. After the first year, he failed the transition exam and transferred to the Faculty of Law, where he studied for two years, plunging into secular entertainment. Leo Tolstoy, naturally shy and ugly, acquired secular society reputation for “thinking” about the happiness of death, eternity, love, although he himself wanted to shine. And in 1847, he left the university and went to Yasnaya Polyana with the intention of pursuing science and “reaching the highest degree of perfection in music and painting.”
In 1849, the first school for peasant children was opened on his estate, where Foka Demidovich, his serf, taught. former musician. Yermil Bazykin, who studied there, said: “There were about 20 of us boys, the teacher was Foka Demidovich, a yard man. Under father L.N. Tolstoy he performed the position of musician. The old man was good. He taught us the alphabet, counting, sacred history. Lev Nikolaevich also came to us, also studied with us, showed us his diploma. I went every other day, every other day, or even every day. He always ordered the teacher not to offend us...”
In 1851, under the influence of his older brother Nikolai, Lev left for the Caucasus, having already begun to write “Childhood”, and in the fall he became a cadet in the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladovskaya on the Terek River. There he finished the first part of “Childhood” and sent it to the magazine “Sovremennik” to its editor N.A. Nekrasov. On September 18, 1852, the manuscript was published with great success.
Leo Tolstoy served for three years in the Caucasus and, having the right to the most honorable St. George Cross for bravery, “ceded” it to a fellow soldier, as giving a lifelong pension. At the beginning of the Crimean War of 1853-1856. transferred to the Danube Army, participated in the battles of Oltenitsa, the siege of Silistria, and the defense of Sevastopol. Then the story “Sevastopol in December 1854” was written. was read by Emperor Alexander II, who ordered to take care of the talented officer.
In November 1856, already recognized and famous writer leaves military service and goes to travel around Europe.
In 1862, Leo Tolstoy married seventeen-year-old Sofya Andreevna Bers. Their marriage produced 13 children, five died in early childhood, the novels “War and Peace” (1863-1869) and “Anna Karenina” (1873-1877) were written, recognized as great works.
In the 1880s. Leo Tolstoy experienced a powerful crisis, which led to the denial of official state power and its institutions, awareness of the inevitability of death, faith in God and the creation of his own teaching - Tolstoyism. He lost interest in the usual lordly life, he began to have thoughts about suicide and the need to live correctly, become a vegetarian, engage in education and physical labor - he plowed, sewed boots, taught children at school. In 1891 he publicly renounced copyright on his literary works, written after 1880
During 1889-1899 Leo Tolstoy wrote the novel "Resurrection", whose plot is based on a real court case, and scathing articles about the system of public administration - on this basis the Holy Synod excommunicated Count Leo Tolstoy from Orthodox Church and anathematized in 1901.
On October 28 (November 10), 1910, Leo Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana, setting off on a journey without a specific plan for the sake of his moral and religious ideas recent years accompanied by doctor D.P. Makovitsky. On the way, he caught a cold, fell ill with lobar pneumonia and was forced to get off the train at Astapovo station (now Lev Tolstoy station in the Lipetsk region). Leo Tolstoy died on November 7 (20), 1910 in the house of the station chief I.I. Ozolin and was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) - Russian writer, publicist, thinker, educator, was a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Considered one of the greatest writers peace. His works have been filmed many times at world film studios, and his plays are staged on stages around the world.
Childhood
Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, Krapivinsky district, Tula province. Here was his mother's estate, which she inherited. The Tolstoy family had very extensive noble and count roots. In the highest aristocratic world there were relatives of the future writer everywhere. There was everyone in his family - a brethren-adventurer and an admiral, a chancellor and an artist, a lady-in-waiting and the first social beauty, a general and a minister.
Leo's dad, Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, was a man with a good education, took part in the foreign campaigns of the Russian military against Napoleon, was captured in France, from where he escaped, and retired as a lieutenant colonel. When his father died, he inherited a lot of debts, and Nikolai Ilyich was forced to take a bureaucratic job. In order to save his upset financial component of the inheritance, Nikolai Tolstoy was legally married to Princess Maria Nikolaevna, who was no longer young and came from the Volkonskys. Despite the small calculation, the marriage turned out to be very happy. The couple had 5 children. The brothers of the future writer Kolya, Seryozha, Mitya and sister Masha. Leo was fourth among all.
After being born last daughter Maria, my mother has developed “childbirth fever.” In 1830 she died. Leo was not yet two years old at that time. And what a wonderful storyteller she was. Perhaps this is where Tolstoy’s early love for literature came from. Five children were left without a mother. Their upbringing had to be done by a distant relative, T.A. Ergolskaya.
In 1837, the Tolstoys left for Moscow, where they settled on Plyushchikha. The older brother, Nikolai, was going to go to university. But very soon and completely unexpectedly, the father of the Tolstoy family died. His financial affairs were not completed, and the three youngest children had to return to Yasnaya Polyana to be raised by Ergolskaya and their paternal aunt, Countess Osten-Sacken A.M. It was here that Leo Tolstoy spent his entire childhood.
The writer's early years
After the death of Aunt Osten-Sacken in 1843, the children had to move again, this time to Kazan under the guardianship of their father’s sister P. I. Yushkova. Yours elementary education Leo Tolstoy received his education at home; his teachers were the good-natured German Reselman and the French tutor Saint-Thomas. In the autumn of 1844, following his brothers, Lev became a student at the Kazan Imperial University. At first he studied at the Faculty of Oriental Literature, later transferred to the Faculty of Law, where he studied for less than two years. He understood that this was absolutely not the occupation to which he would like to devote his life.
In the early spring of 1847, Lev abandoned his studies and went to Yasnaya Polyana, which he inherited. At the same time, he began keeping his famous diary, having adopted this idea from Benjamin Franklin, whose biography he became well acquainted with at the university. Just like the wisest American politician, Tolstoy set himself specific goals and tried with all his might to fulfill them, analyzed his failures and victories, actions and thoughts. This diary went with the writer throughout his life.
In Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy tried to build new relationships with the peasants, and also took up:
- studying in English;
- jurisprudence;
- pedagogy;
- music;
- charity.
In the fall of 1848, Tolstoy went to Moscow, where he planned to prepare for and pass the candidate exams. Instead, a completely different social life with its excitement and card games opened up for him. In the winter of 1849, Lev moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, where he continued to lead revelries and a riotous lifestyle. In the spring of this year, he began taking exams to become a candidate of rights, but, having changed his mind about taking the final exam, he returned to Yasnaya Polyana.
Here he continued to lead an almost metropolitan lifestyle - cards and hunting. However, in 1849, Lev Nikolaevich opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, where he sometimes taught himself, but mostly the lessons were taught by the serf Foka Demidovich.
Military service
At the end of 1850, Tolstoy began work on his first work, the famous trilogy “Childhood”. At the same time, Lev received an offer from his older brother Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, to join the military service. The elder brother was an authority for Leo. After the death of his parents, he became the writer’s best and most faithful friend and mentor. At first, Lev Nikolaevich thought about the service, but a large gambling debt in Moscow accelerated the decision. Tolstoy went to the Caucasus and in the fall of 1851 he entered service as a cadet in an artillery brigade near Kizlyar.
Here he continued to work on the work “Childhood,” which he finished writing in the summer of 1852 and decided to send to the most popular literary magazine of that time, “Sovremennik.” He signed with the initials “L.” N.T.” and enclosed along with the manuscript small letter:
“I will eagerly await your verdict. He will either encourage me to write more or make me burn everything.”
At that time, the editor of Sovremennik was N. A. Nekrasov, and he immediately recognized the literary value of the Childhood manuscript. The work was published and was a huge success.
The military life of Lev Nikolaevich was too eventful:
- more than once he was in danger in skirmishes with the mountaineers commanded by Shamil;
- when the Crimean War began, he transferred to the Danube Army and took part in the battle of Oltenitz;
- participated in the siege of Silistria;
- in the battle of Chernaya he commanded a battery;
- during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan, he came under bombardment;
- held the defense of Sevastopol.
For military service, Lev Nikolaevich received the following awards:
- Order of St. Anne, 4th degree “For Bravery”;
- medal "In memory of the war of 1853-1856";
- medal "For the defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855".
The brave officer Leo Tolstoy had every chance to military career. But he was only interested in writing. During his service, he did not stop composing and sending his stories to Sovremennik. Published in 1856, “Sevastopol Stories” finally established him as a new literary trend in Russia, and Tolstoy left military service forever.
Literary activity
He returned to St. Petersburg, where he made close acquaintances with N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Turgenev, I. S. Goncharov. During his stay in St. Petersburg, he released several of his new works:
- "Blizzard",
- "Youth",
- "Sevastopol in August"
- "Two Hussars"
But very soon he became disgusted with social life, and Tolstoy decided to travel around Europe. He visited Germany, Switzerland, England, France, Italy. He described all the advantages and disadvantages he saw, the emotions he received in his works.
Returning from abroad in 1862, Lev Nikolaevich married Sofya Andreevna Bers. The brightest period of his life began, his wife became his absolute assistant in all matters, and Tolstoy could calmly do his favorite thing - composing works that later became world masterpieces.
| Years of work on the work | Title of the work |
| 1854 | "Adolescence" |
| 1856 | "Morning of the landowner" |
| 1858 | "Albert" |
| 1859 | "Family happiness" |
| 1860-1861 | "Decembrists" |
| 1861-1862 | "Idyll" |
| 1863-1869 | "War and Peace" |
| 1873-1877 | "Anna Karenina" |
| 1884-1903 | "Diary of a Madman" |
| 1887-1889 | "Kreutzer Sonata" |
| 1889-1899 | "Sunday" |
| 1896-1904 | "Hadji Murat" |
Family, death and memory
Lev Nikolaevich lived in marriage and love with his wife for almost 50 years, they had 13 children, five of whom died while still young. There are many descendants of Lev Nikolaevich all over the world. Once every two years they gather in Yasnaya Polyana.
In life, Tolstoy always adhered to his certain principles. He wanted to be as close to the people as possible. He loved very much ordinary people.
In 1910, Lev Nikolaevich left Yasnaya Polyana, setting off on a journey that would correspond to his life views. Only his doctor went with him. There were no specific goals. He went to Optina Pustyn, then to the Shamordino Monastery, then went to visit his niece in Novocherkassk. But the writer became ill; after suffering from a cold, pneumonia began.
In the Lipetsk region, at the Astapovo station, Tolstoy was taken off the train, admitted to the hospital, six doctors tried to save his life, but to their proposals Lev Nikolaevich quietly replied: “God will arrange everything.” After a whole week of heavy and painful breathing, the writer died in the house of the station master on November 20, 1910 at the age of 82 years.
The estate in Yasnaya Polyana, together with the natural beauty that surrounds it, is a museum-reserve. Three more museums of the writer are located in the village of Nikolskoye-Vyazemskoye, in Moscow and at the Astapovo station. Moscow also has state museum L. N. Tolstoy.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is one of the greatest novelists in the world. He is not only the world's greatest writer, but also a philosopher, religious thinker and educator. You will learn more about all this from this.
But what he really achieved success in was managing personal diary. This habit inspired him to write his novels and stories, and also allowed him to form most of his life goals and priorities.
An interesting fact is that this nuance of Tolstoy’s biography (keeping a diary) was a consequence of imitation of the great.
Hobbies and military service
Naturally, Leo Tolstoy had it. He loved music extremely much. His favorite composers were Bach, Handel and.
From his biography it is clear that sometimes he could play works by Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann on the piano for several hours in a row.
It is reliably known that Leo Tolstoy’s elder brother, Nikolai, had a great influence on him. He was a friend and mentor of the future writer.
It was Nikolai who invited his younger brother to join military service in the Caucasus. As a result, Leo Tolstoy became a cadet, and in 1854 he was transferred to, where he participated in the Crimean War until August 1855.
Tolstoy's creativity
During his service, Lev Nikolaevich had quite a lot of free time. During this period he wrote autobiographical story“Childhood”, in which he masterfully described the memories of the first years of his life.
This work became important event to compile his biography.
After this, Leo Tolstoy writes the next story, “Cossacks,” in which he describes his army life in the Caucasus.
Work on this work continued until 1862, and was completed only after serving in the army.
An interesting fact is that Tolstoy did not stop his writing even while participating in the Crimean War.
During this period, the story “Adolescence”, which is a continuation of “Childhood,” as well as “Sevastopol Stories” came out from his pen.
After the end of the Crimean War, Tolstoy left service. Upon arrival home, he already has great fame in the literary field.
His outstanding contemporaries talk about a major acquisition for Russian literature in the person of Tolstoy.
While still young, Tolstoy was distinguished by arrogance and stubbornness, which is clearly visible in his. He refused to belong to one or another school of thought, and once publicly called himself an anarchist, after which he decided to leave for Russia in 1857.
He soon developed an interest in gambling. But it didn't last long. When he lost all his savings, he had to return home from Europe.
Leo Tolstoy in his youth By the way, a passion for gambling is observed in the biographies of many writers.
Despite all the difficulties, he writes the last, third part of his autobiographical trilogy"Youth". This happened in the same 1857.
Since 1862, Tolstoy began publishing the pedagogical magazine Yasnaya Polyana, where he himself was the main employee. However, not having the vocation of a publisher, Tolstoy managed to release only 12 issues.
Leo Tolstoy's family
On September 23, 1862, a sharp turn took place in Tolstoy’s biography: he married Sofya Andreevna Bers, who was the daughter of a doctor. From this marriage 9 sons and 4 daughters were born. Five of the thirteen children died in childhood.
When the wedding took place, Sofya Andreevna was only 18 years old, and Count Tolstoy was 34 years old. An interesting fact is that before his marriage, Tolstoy confessed to his future wife about his premarital affairs.
Leo Tolstoy with his wife Sofia Andreevna For some time, the brightest period began in Tolstoy’s biography.
He is truly happy, largely thanks to the practicality of his wife, material wealth, outstanding literary creativity and, in connection with it, all-Russian and even worldwide fame.
In his wife, Tolstoy found an assistant in all matters, practical and literary. In the absence of the secretary, it was she who rewrote his drafts several times.
However, very soon their happiness is overshadowed by inevitable minor disagreements, fleeting quarrels and mutual misunderstandings, which only worsen over the years.
The fact is that for his family, Leo Tolstoy proposed a kind of “life plan”, according to which he intended to give part of the family income to the poor and schools.
He wanted to significantly simplify his family’s lifestyle (food and clothing), while he intended to sell and distribute “everything unnecessary”: pianos, furniture, carriages.
Tolstoy with his family at a tea table in the park, 1892, Yasnaya Polyana Naturally, his wife, Sofya Andreevna, was clearly not happy with such an ambiguous plan. Because of this, their first serious conflict broke out, which served as the beginning of an “undeclared war” to ensure the future of their children.
In 1892, Tolstoy signed a separate deed and, not wanting to be the owner, transferred all the property to his wife and children.
It must be said that Tolstoy’s biography is in many ways unusually contradictory precisely because of his relationship with his wife, with whom he lived for 48 years.
Works of Tolstoy
Tolstoy is one of the most prolific writers. His works are large-scale not only in volume, but also in the meanings that he touches on in them.
Tolstoy's most popular works are War and Peace, Anna Karenina and Resurrection.
"War and Peace"
In the 1860s, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and his entire family lived in Yasnaya Polyana. It was here that he was born famous novel"War and Peace".
Initially, part of the novel was published in “Russian Bulletin” under the title “1805”.
After 3 years, 3 more chapters appear, thanks to which the novel was completely finished. He was destined to become the most outstanding creative result in Tolstoy's biography.
Both critics and the public debated the work “War and Peace” for a long time. The subject of their disputes was the wars described in the book.
Thoughtful but still fictional characters were also hotly debated.
Tolstoy in 1868 The novel also became interesting because it presented 3 informative satirical essays about the laws of history.
Among all other ideas, Leo Tolstoy tried to convey to the reader that a person’s position in society and the meaning of his life are derivatives of his daily activities.
"Anna Karenina"
After Tolstoy wrote War and Peace, he began work on his second, no less famous novel"Anna Karenina".
The writer contributed many autobiographical essays to it. This can be easily seen by looking at the relationship between Kitty and Levin, the main characters in Anna Karenina.
The work was published in parts between 1873-1877, and was very highly appreciated by both critics and society. Many have noticed that Anna Karenina is practically an autobiography of Tolstoy, written in the third person.
For his next work, Lev Nikolaevich received fabulous fees for those times.
"Resurrection"
In the late 1880s, Tolstoy wrote the novel “Resurrection.” Its plot was based on a true court case. It is in “Resurrection” that the author’s sharp views on church rituals are clearly outlined.
By the way, this work became one of the reasons that led to a complete break between the Orthodox Church and Count Tolstoy.
Tolstoy and religion
Despite the fact that the works described above were a colossal success, it did not bring any joy to the writer.
He was depressed and experienced deep inner emptiness.
In this regard, the next stage in Tolstoy’s biography was a continuous, almost convulsive search for the meaning of life.
Initially, Lev Nikolaevich looked for answers to his questions in the Orthodox Church, but this did not bring him any results.
Over time, he began to criticize in every possible way both the Orthodox Church itself and the Christian religion in general. He began to publish his thoughts on these pressing issues in the publication “Mediator”.
His main position was that Christian teaching is good, but Jesus Christ himself seems to be unnecessary. That is why he decided to make his own translation of the Gospel.
In general, Tolstoy's religious views were extremely complex and confusing. It was some incredible mixture of Christianity and Buddhism, seasoned with various Eastern beliefs.
In 1901, the Holy Governing Synod issued a ruling on Count Leo Tolstoy.
This was a decree that officially announced that Leo Tolstoy was no longer a member of the Orthodox Church, since his publicly expressed beliefs were incompatible with such membership.
The definition of the Holy Synod is sometimes mistakenly interpreted as excommunication (anathema) of Tolstoy from the church.
Copyrights and conflict with my wife
In connection with his new convictions, Leo Tolstoy wanted to give away all his savings and give up his own property in favor of the poor. However, his wife, Sofya Andreevna, expressed a categorical protest in this regard.
In this regard, a major family crisis emerged in Tolstoy’s biography. When Sofya Andreevna found out that her husband had publicly renounced the copyright to all his works (which, in fact, was their main source of income), they began to have fierce conflicts.
From Tolstoy's diary:
“She does not understand, and the children do not understand, spending money, that everyone they live and make money from books is suffering, my shame. It may be a shame, but why weaken the effect that the preaching of the truth could have.”
Of course, it is not difficult to understand Lev Nikolaevich’s wife. After all, they had 9 children, whom he, by and large, left without a livelihood.
Pragmatic, rational and active Sofya Andreevna could not allow this to happen.
Ultimately, Tolstoy drew up a formal will, transferring the rights to his youngest daughter, Alexandra Lvovna, who fully sympathized with his views.
At the same time, an explanatory note was attached to the will that in fact these texts should not become anyone’s property, and V.G. would assume the authority to monitor the processes. Chertkov is a faithful follower and student of Tolstoy, who was supposed to take all the writer’s works, right down to the drafts.
Tolstoy's later work
Tolstoy's later works were realistic fiction, as well as stories filled with moral content.
In 1886, one of Tolstoy’s most famous stories appeared, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.”
Her main character realizes that he wasted most of his life, and the realization came too late.
In 1898 Lev Nikolaevich wrote no less famous work"Father Sergius." In it, he criticized his own beliefs that appeared to him after his spiritual rebirth.
The rest of the works are devoted to the theme of art. These include the play “The Living Corpse” (1890) and the brilliant story “Hadji Murat” (1904).
In 1903 Tolstoy wrote short story, which is called “After the Ball.” It was published only in 1911, after the death of the writer.
last years of life
The last years of his biography, Leo Tolstoy was better known as a religious leader and moral authority. His thoughts were aimed at resisting evil using a non-violent method.
During his lifetime, Tolstoy became an idol for the majority. However, despite all his achievements, there were serious flaws in his family life, which became especially aggravated in old age.
Leo Tolstoy with his grandchildren The writer's wife, Sofya Andreevna, did not agree with her husband's views and disliked some of his followers who often came to Yasnaya Polyana.
She said: “How can you love humanity and hate those who are next to you.”
All this could not last long.
In the fall of 1910, Tolstoy, accompanied only by his doctor D.P. Makovitsky leaves Yasnaya Polyana forever. However, he did not have any specific plan of action.
Death of Tolstoy
However, on the way, L.N. Tolstoy felt unwell. First he caught a cold, and then the illness turned into pneumonia, due to which he had to interrupt the trip and take the sick Lev Nikolaevich out of the train at the first large station near the settlement.
This station was Astapovo (now Leo Tolstoy, Lipetsk region).
Rumors about the writer’s illness instantly spread throughout the entire surrounding area and far beyond its borders. Six doctors tried in vain to save the great old man: the disease progressed inexorably.
On November 7, 1910, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy died at the age of 83. He was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.
“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 times of Russian life. May the Lord God be his merciful judge.”
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(09.09.1828 - 20.11.1910).
Born in the Yasnaya Polyana estate. Among the writer's paternal ancestors is an associate of Peter I - P. A. Tolstoy, one of the first in Russia to receive the title of count. Participant Patriotic War 1812 was the father of the writer, Count. N.I. Tolstoy. On his mother's side, Tolstoy belonged to the family of the Bolkonsky princes, related by kinship to the Trubetskoy, Golitsyn, Odoevsky, Lykov and other noble families. On his mother's side, Tolstoy was a relative of A.S. Pushkin.
When Tolstoy was in his ninth year, his father took him to Moscow for the first time, the impressions of the meeting with which were vividly conveyed by the future writer in the children's essay “The Kremlin.” Moscow is here called “the greatest and most populous city in Europe,” the walls of which “saw the shame and defeat of Napoleon’s invincible regiments.” The first period of young Tolstoy's Moscow life lasted less than four years. He was orphaned early, losing first his mother and then his father. With his sister and three brothers, young Tolstoy moved to Kazan. One of my father’s sisters lived here and became their guardian.
Living in Kazan, Tolstoy spent two and a half years preparing to enter the university, where he studied from 1844, first at the Oriental Faculty and then at the Faculty of Law. Studied Turkish and Tatar languages from the famous Turkologist Professor Kazembek. In his mature years, the writer was fluent in English, French and German languages; read in Italian, Polish, Czech and Serbian; knew Greek, Latin, Ukrainian, Tatar, Church Slavonic; studied Hebrew, Turkish, Dutch, Bulgarian and other languages.
Classes on government programs and textbooks weighed heavily on Tolstoy the student. He got carried away independent work above historical theme and, leaving the university, left Kazan for Yasnaya Polyana, which he received through the division of his father’s inheritance. Then he went to Moscow, where at the end of 1850 his writing began: an unfinished story from gypsy life (the manuscript has not survived) and a description of one day he lived (“The History of Yesterday”). At the same time, the story “Childhood” was begun. Soon Tolstoy decided to go to the Caucasus, where his older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, an artillery officer, served in active army. Having entered the army as a cadet, he later passed the exam for junior officer rank. The writer’s impressions of the Caucasian War were reflected in the stories “Raid” (1853), “Cutting Wood” (1855), “Demoted” (1856), and in the story “Cossacks” (1852-1863). In the Caucasus, the story “Childhood” was completed, published in 1852 in the magazine “Sovremennik”.
When the Crimean War began, Tolstoy was transferred from the Caucasus to the Danube Army, which was operating against the Turks, and then to Sevastopol, which was besieged by the combined forces of England, France and Turkey. Commanding the battery on the 4th bastion, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of Anna and the medals “For the Defense of Sevastopol” and “In Memory of the War of 1853-1856.” More than once Tolstoy was nominated for the military Cross of St. George, but he never received the “George.” In the army, Tolstoy wrote a number of projects - about the reformation of artillery batteries and the creation of artillery battalions armed with rifled guns, about the reformation of the entire Russian army. Together with a group of officers of the Crimean Army, Tolstoy intended to publish the magazine “Soldatsky Vestnik” (“Military Leaflet”), but its publication was not authorized by Emperor Nicholas I.
In the fall of 1856, he retired and soon went on a six-month trip abroad, visiting France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. In 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, and then helped open more than 20 schools in the surrounding villages. To direct their activities along the right path, from his point of view, he published the pedagogical magazine “Yasnaya Polyana” (1862). In order to study the organization of school affairs in foreign countries, the writer went abroad for the second time in 1860.
After the manifesto of 1861, Tolstoy became one of the world mediators of the first call who sought to help peasants resolve their disputes with landowners about land. Soon in Yasnaya Polyana, when Tolstoy was away, the gendarmes carried out a search in search of a secret printing house, which the writer allegedly opened after communicating with A. I. Herzen in London. Tolstoy had to close the school and stop publishing the pedagogical magazine. In total, he wrote eleven articles about school and pedagogy (“On public education”, “Upbringing and education”, “On social activities in the field of public education” and others). In them, he described in detail the experience of his work with students (“Yasnaya Polyana school for the months of November and December”, “On methods of teaching literacy”, “Who should learn to write from whom, the peasant children from us or us from the peasant children”). Tolstoy the teacher demanded that school be brought closer to life, sought to put it at the service of the needs of the people, and for this to intensify the processes of teaching and upbringing, to develop Creative skills children.
At the same time, already at the beginning creative path Tolstoy becomes a supervised writer. Some of the writer’s first works were the stories “Childhood”, “Adolescence” and “Youth”, “Youth” (which, however, was not written). According to the author, they were supposed to compose the novel “Four Epochs of Development.”
In the early 1860s. For decades, the order of Tolstoy’s life, his way of life, is established. In 1862, he married the daughter of a Moscow doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers.
The writer is working on the novel “War and Peace” (1863-1869). Having completed War and Peace, Tolstoy studied materials about Peter I and his time for several years. However, after writing several chapters of the “Petrine” novel, Tolstoy abandoned his plan. In the early 1870s. The writer was again fascinated by pedagogy. He put a lot of work into the creation of the ABC, and then the New ABC. At the same time, he compiled “Books for Reading”, where he included many of his stories.
In the spring of 1873, Tolstoy began and four years later completed work on a great novel about modernity, calling it by name main character- “Anna Karenina.”
The spiritual crisis experienced by Tolstoy at the end of 1870 - beginning. 1880, ended with a turning point in his worldview. In “Confession” (1879-1882), the writer talks about a revolution in his views, the meaning of which he saw in a break with the ideology of the noble class and a transition to the side of the “simple working people.”
At the beginning of the 1880s. Tolstoy moved with his family from Yasnaya Polyana to Moscow, caring about providing an education to his growing children. In 1882, a census of the Moscow population took place, in which the writer took part. He saw closely the inhabitants of the city slums and described them terrible life in an article on the census and in the treatise “So What Should We Do?” (1882-1886). In them, the writer made the main conclusion: “... You can’t live like that, you can’t live like that, you can’t!” "Confession" and "So What Should We Do?" were works in which Tolstoy acted simultaneously as an artist and as a publicist, as a profound psychologist and a courageous sociologist-analyst. Later, this type of work - journalistic in genre, but including artistic scenes and paintings, saturated with elements of imagery - will occupy a large place in his work.
In these and subsequent years, Tolstoy also wrote religious and philosophical works: “Criticism of Dogmatic Theology”, “What is My Faith?”, “Connection, Translation and Study of the Four Gospels”, “The Kingdom of God is Within You”. In them, the writer not only showed a change in his religious and moral views, but also subjected to a critical revision of the main dogmas and principles of the teaching of the official church. In the mid-1880s. Tolstoy and his like-minded people created the Posrednik publishing house in Moscow, which printed books and paintings for the people. The first of Tolstoy's works, published for the “common” people, was the story “How People Live.” In it, as in many other works of this cycle, the writer made extensive use not only of folklore plots, but also expressive means oral creativity. Thematically and stylistically related to Tolstoy’s folk stories are his plays for folk theaters and, most of all, the drama “The Power of Darkness” (1886), which depicts the tragedy of a post-reform village, where under the “power of money” the centuries-old patriarchal order collapsed.
In 1880 Tolstoy's stories "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and "Kholstomer" ("The Story of a Horse"), and "The Kreutzer Sonata" (1887-1889) appeared. In it, as well as in the story “The Devil” (1889-1890) and the story “Father Sergius” (1890-1898), the problems of love and marriage, the purity of family relationships are raised.
Tolstoy’s story “The Master and the Worker” (1895), stylistically related to the cycle of his folk stories written in the 80s, is based on social and psychological contrast. Five years earlier, Tolstoy wrote the comedy “The Fruits of Enlightenment” for a “home performance.” It also shows the “owners” and “workers”: noble landowners living in the city and peasants who came from a hungry village, deprived of land. The images of the former are given satirically, the author portrays the latter as reasonable and positive people, but in some scenes they are “presented” in an ironic light.
All these works of the writer are united by the idea of the inevitable and close in time “denouement” of social contradictions, of the replacement of an obsolete social “order”. “I don’t know what the outcome will be,” Tolstoy wrote in 1892, “but that things are approaching it and that life cannot continue like this, in such forms, I am sure.” This idea inspired the largest work of all the creativity of the “late” Tolstoy - the novel “Resurrection” (1889-1899).
Less than ten years separate Anna Karenina from War and Peace. “Resurrection” is separated from “Anna Karenina” by two decades. And although many things distinguish the third novel from the previous two, they are united by a truly epic scope in the depiction of life, the ability to “pair” individual human destinies with the fate of the people in the narrative. Tolstoy himself pointed out the unity that existed between his novels: he said that "Resurrection" was written in the "old manner", meaning, first of all, the epic "manner" in which "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" were written " “Resurrection” became the last novel in the writer’s work.
At the beginning of 1900 The Holy Synod excommunicated Tolstoy from the Orthodox Church.
In the last decade of his life, the writer worked on the story “Hadji Murat” (1896-1904), in which he sought to compare “the two poles of imperious absolutism” - the European, personified by Nicholas I, and the Asian, personified by Shamil. At the same time, Tolstoy created one of his best plays, “The Living Corpse.” Her hero is kindest soul, soft, conscientious Fedya Protasov leaves his family, breaks off relations with his usual environment, falls to the “bottom” and in the courthouse, unable to bear the lies, pretense, pharisaism of “respectable” people, shoots himself with a pistol and takes his own life. The article “I Can’t Be Silent” written in 1908, in which he protested against the repression of participants in the events of 1905–1907, sounded sharply. The writer’s stories “After the Ball”, “For What?” belong to the same period.
Weighed down by the way of life in Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy more than once contemplated and for a long time did not dare to leave it. But he could no longer live according to the principle of “together and apart,” and on the night of October 28 (November 10) he secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, he fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to stop at the small station of Astapovo (now Leo Tolstoy), where he died. On November 10 (23), 1910, the writer was buried in Yasnaya Polyana, in the forest, on the edge of a ravine, where as a child he and his brother were looking for a “green stick” that held the “secret” of how to make all people happy.