The great Russian writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is known for the authorship of many works, namely: War and Peace, Anna Karenina and others. The study of his biography and work continues to this day.
The philosopher and writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born into a noble family. As an inheritance from his father, he inherited the title of count. His life began on a large family estate in Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, which left a significant imprint on his future destiny.
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Leo Tolstoy's life
He was born on September 9, 1828. Even as a child, Leo experienced many difficult moments in his life. After his parents died, he and his sisters were raised by their aunts. After her death, when he was 13 years old, he had to move to Kazan to live with a distant relative under her guardianship. Leo's primary education took place at home. At the age of 16 he entered the Faculty of Philology of Kazan University. However, it was impossible to say that he was successful in his studies. This forced Tolstoy to move to an easier, law faculty. After 2 years, he returned to Yasnaya Polyana, never having mastered the granite of science to the end.
Due to the changeable nature of Tolstoy, he tried himself in different industries, interests and priorities changed frequently. The work was interspersed with lingering binges and revelry. During this period, they were endowed with many debts, with which they had to pay off for a long time in the future. The only addiction of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, which has been steadily preserved for the rest of his life, is keeping a personal diary. From there he later drew the most interesting ideas for his works.
Tolstoy was partial to music. His favorite composers are Bach, Schumann, Chopin and Mozart. At a time when Tolstoy had not yet formed the main position regarding his future, he succumbed to the persuasions of his brother. At his instigation, he went to serve in the army as a cadet. During the service he was forced to participate in the year 1855.
The early works of L. N. Tolstoy
As a cadet, he had enough free time to start his creative activity. During this period, Leo began to study an autobiographical story called Childhood. For the most part, it set out the facts that happened to him when he was still a child. The story was sent for consideration to the Sovremennik magazine. It was approved and released in circulation in 1852.
After the first publication, Tolstoy was noticed and began to be equated with significant personalities of that time, namely: I. Turgenev, I. Goncharov, A. Ostrovsky and others.
In the same army years, he began work on the Cossacks story, which he completed in 1862. The second work after Childhood was Adolescence, then - the Sevastopol stories. He was engaged in them while participating in the Crimean battles.
Euro-trip
In 1856 LN Tolstoy left military service with the rank of lieutenant. I decided to travel for a while. First he went to Petersburg, where he was given a warm welcome. There he established friendly contacts with the popular writers of that period: N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Goncharov, I. I. Panaev and others. They showed a genuine interest in him and took part in his fate. At this time, Blizzard and Two Hussars were written.
After living a cheerful and carefree life for 1 year, ruining relations with many members of the literary circle, Tolstoy decides to leave this city. In 1857, he began his journey through Europe.
Leo did not like Paris at all and left a heavy mark on his soul. From there he went to Lake Geneva. Having visited many countries, he returned to Russia with a load of negative emotions... Who and what struck him so? Most likely - this is a too sharp polarity between wealth and poverty, which was covered by the feigned splendor of European culture. And this could be seen everywhere.
L.N. Tolstoy writes the story Albert, continues to work on the Cossacks, wrote the story Three Deaths and Family Happiness. In 1859 he stopped working with Sovremennik. At the same time, Tolstoy began to see changes in his personal life, when his plans were to marry a peasant woman Aksinya Bazykina.
After the death of his older brother, Tolstoy went on a trip to the south of France.
Homecoming
1853 to 1863 his literary activity was suspended due to his departure to his homeland. There he decided to take up farming. At the same time, Leo himself was actively involved in educational activities among the village population. He created a school for peasant children and began teaching according to his own method.
In 1862, he himself created a pedagogical journal called Yasnaya Polyana. Under his leadership, 12 editions were published, which were not appreciated at that time. Their nature was as follows - he alternated theoretical articles with fables and stories for children of the elementary level of education.
Six years from his life, from 1863 to 1869, went to write the main masterpiece - War and Peace. The next on the list was the novel Anna Karenina. It took another 4 years. During this period, his worldview was fully formed and resulted in a direction called Tolstoyism. The foundations of this religious and philosophical trend are set forth in the following works of Tolstoy:
- Confession.
- Kreutzer Sonata.
- Study of dogmatic theology.
- About life.
- Christian teaching and others.
Main focus in them it is placed on the moral dogmas of human nature and their improvement. He called for forgiving those who bring us evil, and for renouncing violence in achieving their goal.
In Yasnaya Polyana, the stream of admirers of Leo Tolstoy's work did not stop, looking for support and mentor in him. In 1899, the novel The Resurrection was published.
Social activity
Returning from Europe, he received an invitation to become the guardian of the Krapivinsky district of the Tula province. He actively joined the active process of protecting the rights of the peasantry, often going against the tsar's decrees. This work broadened Leo's horizons. Faced closer to peasant life, he began to better understand all the subtleties... The information received later helped him in literary work.
The flowering of creativity
Before writing the novel War and Peace, Tolstoy took up another novel - the Decembrists. Tolstoy repeatedly returned to it, but could not complete it. In 1865, a small excerpt from War and Peace appeared in the Russian Bulletin. After 3 years, three more parts came out, and then all the rest. This created a real sensation in Russian and foreign literature. In the novel, various segments of the population are described in the most detailed way.
The last works of the writer include:
- stories by Father Sergius;
- After the ball.
- Posthumous notes of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich.
- drama Living Corpse.
In the nature of his latest journalism, one can trace conservative attitude... He harshly condemns the idle life of the upper strata, who do not think about the meaning of life. LN Tolstoy harshly criticized state dogmas, sweeping aside everything: science, art, court, and so on. The Synod itself reacted to such an attack, and in 1901 Tolstoy was excommunicated.
In 1910, Lev Nikolaevich left the family and fell ill on the way. He had to get off the train at the Astapovo station of the Ural Railroad. He spent the last week of his life at the home of the local station master, where he died.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is one of the five most widely read writers. His work made Russian literature recognizable abroad. Even if you have not read these works, you probably know Natasha Rostova, Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky at least from films or anecdotes. The biography of Lev Nikolaevich can arouse interest in every person, because the personal life of a famous person is always of interest, parallels are drawn with his creative activity. Let's try to trace the life of Leo Tolstoy.
The future classic came from a noble family known since the XIV century. Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, the writer's ancestor on the part of his father, earned the favor of Peter I, investigating the case of his son, who was suspected of treason. Then Pert Andreevich headed the Secret Chancellery, and his career took off. Nikolai Ilyich, the father of the classic, received a good education. However, it was combined with unshakable principles that did not allow him to advance at court.
The condition of the father of the future classic was upset because of the debts of his parent, and he married an elderly but wealthy Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya. Despite the initial calculation, they were happy in marriage and had five children.
Childhood
Lev Nikolaevich was born the fourth (there was still the younger Maria and the older ones Nikolai, Sergei and Dmitry), but he received little attention after birth: his mother died two years after the birth of the writer; the father briefly moved with his children to Moscow, but soon he also died. The impressions of the trip were so strong that young Leva wrote his first composition, "The Kremlin".
Several guardians raised children at once: first T.A. Ergolskaya and A.M. Osten-Sacken. A. M. Osten-Saken died in 1840, and the children left for Kazan to P. I. Yushkova.
Adolescence
Yushkova's house was secular and cheerful: receptions, evenings, external splendor, high society - all this was very important for the family. Tolstoy himself strove to shine in society, to be “comme il faut,” but shyness did not allow him to unfold. Real entertainment for Lev Nikolaevich was replaced by reflections and introspection.
The future classic studied at home: first under the guidance of the German tutor Saint-Thomas, and then under the guidance of the Frenchman Reselmann. Following the example of the brothers, Lev decided to enter the Imperial Kazan University, where Kovalevsky and Lobachevsky worked. In 1844, Tolstoy began to study at the Faculty of Oriental Studies (the selection committee was impressed by the knowledge of the "Turkish-Tatar language"), and later transferred to the Faculty of Law.
Youth
The young man was in conflict with the history teacher at home, so the grades in the subject were unsatisfactory, at the university it was necessary to take the course again. In order to avoid repeating what he had passed, Lev went to law school, but did not graduate, left the university and left for Yasnaya Polyana, his parents' estate. Here he tries to run a household using new technologies, tried, but failed. In 1849 the writer went to Moscow.
During this period, the keeping of a diary begins, the entries will continue until the death of the writer. They are the most important document, in the diaries Lev Nikolaevich describes the events of his life, and is engaged in introspection, and reasoning. It also described the goals and rules that he tried to follow.
History of success
Leo Tolstoy's creative world took shape in adolescence, in his emerging need for constant psychoanalysis. Systemically, the same quality manifested itself in the diary entries. It was as a result of constant introspection that Tolstoy's famous "dialectic of the soul" appeared.
First works
Children's work was written in Moscow, and real works were also written there. Tolstoy creates stories about gypsies, about his daily routine (unfinished manuscripts have been lost). In the early 50s, the story "Childhood" was also created.
Leo Tolstoy is a participant in the Caucasian and Crimean wars. The military service gave the writer many new plots and emotions described in the stories "Raid", "Cutting the Forest", "Demoted", in the story "Cossacks". Here the "Childhood", which brought fame, was also finished. Impressions from the battle for Sevastopol helped to write the cycle "Sevastopol Stories." But in 1856, Lev Nikolaevich parted with the service forever. The personal history of Leo Tolstoy taught him a lot: after watching the bloodshed in the war, he realized the importance of peace and real values - family, marriage, his people. It is these thoughts that he will subsequently put into his works.
Confession
The story "Childhood" was created in the winter of 1850-51, and was published a year later. This work and its sequels "Adolescence" (1854), "Youth" (1857) and "Youth" (was never written) were to compose the novel "Four Epochs of Development" about the spiritual formation of man.
Trilogies tell about the life of Nikolenka Irteniev. He has parents, an older brother Volodya and a sister Lyubochka, he is happy in his home world, but suddenly his father announces his decision to move to Moscow, Nikolenka and Volodya are going with him. Their mother dies just as unexpectedly. A severe blow of fate ends childhood. In adolescence, the hero conflicts with others and with himself, trying to comprehend himself in this world. Nikolenka's grandmother is dying, he not only grieves for her, but also notes with bitterness that some are concerned only with her inheritance. In the same period, the hero begins to prepare for the university and meets Dmitry Nekhlyudov. Having entered the university, he feels like an adult and rushes into the maelstrom of secular pleasures. This pastime leaves no time for study, the hero fails in exams. This event led him to think that the chosen path was wrong, leading to self-improvement.
Personal life
It is always difficult for families of writers: a creative person may be impossible in everyday life, and even he is always not up to earthly things, he is embraced by new ideas. But what about Leo Tolstoy's family?
Wife
Sofya Andreevna Bers was born into the family of a doctor, she was smart, educated, simple. The writer met his future wife when he was 34 and she was 18. A clear, bright and pure girl attracted the experienced Lev Nikolaevich, who had already seen a lot and was ashamed of his past.
After the wedding, the Tolstoys began to live in Yasnaya Polyana, where Sofya Andreevna took care of the household, children and helped her husband in all matters: she copied manuscripts, published works, was a secretary and translator. After the opening of the clinic in Yasnaya Polyana, she helped there, examining the sick. The Tolstoy family kept on her worries, because it was she who conducted all the economic activities.
During a spiritual crisis, Tolstoy came up with a special charter for life and decided to renounce property, depriving the children of their fortune. Sofya Andreevna opposed this, family life cracked. Nevertheless, Lev Nikolaevich's wife is the only one, and she made a great contribution to his work. He treated her ambivalently: on the one hand, he respected and idolized, on the other, he reproached her for doing material things more than spiritual ones. This conflict was continued in his prose. For example, in the novel War and Peace, the surname of the negative hero, evil, indifferent and obsessed with hoarding, is Berg, which is very consonant with his wife's maiden name.
Children
Leo Tolstoy had 13 children, 9 boys and 4 girls, but five of them died in childhood. The image of the great father lived in his children, all of them were associated with his work.
Sergei was engaged in the work of his father (he founded a museum, commented on works), and also became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Tatiana was a follower of her father's teachings and also became a writer. Ilya led a chaotic life: he did not study, did not find a suitable job, and after the revolution he emigrated to the United States, where he lectured on the worldview of Lev Nikolaevich. Leo, too, first followed the ideas of Tolstoyism, but later became a monarchist, so he also emigrated and was engaged in creativity. Maria shared her father's ideas, refused light and was engaged in educational work. Andrei highly valued his noble origins, participated in the Russian-Japanese war, then took his wife away from the chief, and soon died suddenly. Mikhail was musical, but became a military man and wrote a memoir about life in Yasnaya Polyana. Alexandra helped her father in all matters, then became the curator of his museum, but because of emigration, they tried to forget her achievements in Soviet times.
Creative crisis
In the second half of the 60s - early 70s, Tolstoy experienced a painful spiritual crisis. For several years the writer was accompanied by panic attacks, thoughts of suicide, fear of death. The answer to the questions of life that tormented him, Lev Nikolaevich could not find anywhere, and he created his own philosophical doctrine.
Change of worldview
The way to overcome the crisis was unusual: Leo Tolstoy created his own moral teaching. His thoughts were outlined by him in books and articles: "Confession", "So what should we do", "What is art", "I can not be silent."
The writer's teaching bore an anti-Orthodox character, since Orthodoxy, according to Lev Nikolaevich, perverted the essence of the commandments, his dogmas are not permissible, from the point of view of morality, and imposed by age-old traditions, forcibly instilled in the Russian people. Tolstoyism found a response among the common people and among the intelligentsia, pilgrims from different classes began to come to Yasnaya Polyana for advice. The Church reacted sharply to the spread of Tolstoyism: in 1901, the writer was excommunicated from it.
Tolstoy
Morality, morality and philosophy are combined in the teachings of Tolstoy. God is the best in man, his moral center. That is why one cannot follow dogmas and justify any violence (which the Church did, according to the author of the doctrine). The brotherhood of all people and the victory over world evil are the ultimate goals of mankind, which can be achieved through the self-improvement of each of us.
Lev Nikolaevich looked differently not only at his personal life, but also at work. Only the common people are close to the truth, and art should only separate good and evil. And this role is played by one folk art. This leads Tolstoy to reject past works and maximally simplify new works with the addition of edification (Kholstomer, Death of Ivan Ilyich, Boss and Worker, Resurrection).
Death
Since the beginning of the 80s, family relations have become aggravated: the writer wants to give up copyright on his books, his property and give everything to the poor. The wife sharply opposed, promising to accuse her husband of being crazy. Tolstoy realized that the problem could not be solved peacefully, so he decided to leave his house, go abroad and become a peasant.
Accompanied by Dr. D.P. Makovitsky, the writer left the estate (later his daughter Alexandra joined). However, the plans of the writer were not destined to come true. Tolstoy's temperature rose, he stopped at the head of the Astapovo station. After ten days of illness, the writer died.
Creative heritage
Researchers distinguish three periods in the work of Leo Tolstoy:
- Creativity of the 50s ("young Tolstoy")- during this period, the style of the writer, his famous "dialectic of the soul", he accumulates impressions, military service helps in this.
- Creativity of the 60s-70s (classical period)- it was at this time that the most famous works of the writer were written.
- 1880-1910 (Tolstoyan period)- bear the imprint of a spiritual revolution: renunciation of past creativity, new spiritual principles and problems. The style is simplified, as are the plots of the works.
Leo Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 into an eminent noble family in the family estate of his mother, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province. He was the fourth child in the family. But already in childhood, the future great writer became an orphan. After the next birth, when Leo was not even two years old, his mother died. Seven years later, already in Moscow, his father suddenly died. Their aunt, Countess Alexandra Osten-Sacken, was appointed guardian of the children, but she too soon passed away. In 1840, Lev Nikolaevich, together with his brothers and sister Maria, moved to Kazan to live with another aunt, Pelageya Yushkova.
Education
In 1843, the matured Lev Nikolaevich entered the prestigious and one of the most famous Imperial Kazan University in the category of oriental literature. However, after successful entrance exams, the future luminary of Russian literature considered training and exams a formality and failed the final certification for the first year. In order not to undergo training again, young Leo Tolstoy transferred to the Faculty of Law, where, not without problems, he nevertheless switched to the second year. However, here he became interested in French philosophical literature and, without completing his second year, left the university. But he did not interrupt his studies - having settled in the Yasnaya Polyana estate he inherited, he began to self-study. Every day he set himself tasks and tried to fulfill them, analyzing what he had done during the day. In addition, Tolstoy's daily routine included work with the peasants and the establishment of life on the estate. Feeling guilty before the serfs, in 1849 he opened a school for peasant children. But the self-education of the young Tolstoy did not work out, not all sciences interested him and were given to him. He was going to solve this problem in Moscow, preparing for the candidate exams, but instead he got carried away by social life. The same thing happened in St. Petersburg, where he left in February 1849. Not having finished the exams for a candidate for rights, he again left for Yasnaya Polyana. From there he often came to Moscow, where he devoted a lot of time to gambling. The only useful skill he acquired over the years was music. The future writer learned to play the piano well, which resulted in the composition of the waltz and the subsequent writing of the "Kreutzer Sonata".
Military service
In 1850, Leo Tolstoy began writing his autobiographical story Childhood, which was far from the first, but rather large and significant of his literary work. In 1851, his elder brother Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, came to his estate. The need for change and financial difficulties forced Lev Nikolaevich to join his brother and go to war with him. And by the autumn of the same year, he was enlisted as a cadet in the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, which was stationed on the banks of the Terek near Kizlyar. Here Tolstoy again had the opportunity to write, and he finally completed the first part of his trilogy "Childhood", which in the summer of 1852 he sent to the magazine "Sovremennik". The publication appreciated the work of the young author, and with the publication of the story, the first success came to Lev Nikolaevich.
But Lev Nikolayevich did not forget about the service either. For two years in the Caucasus, he repeatedly participated in skirmishes with the enemy and even distinguished himself in battle. With the outbreak of the Crimean War, he transferred to the Danube army, with which he found himself in the thick of the war, having gone through the Battle of the Black River and repulsing enemy attacks on the Malakhov Kurgan in Sevastopol. But even in the trenches, Tolstoy continued to write, publishing the first of the three "Sevastopol stories" - "Sevastopol in December 1854", which was also favorably received by readers and highly appreciated by the Emperor Alexander II himself. At the same time, the artillery writer tried to get permission to publish a simple magazine called "Voenny listok", where military men who were inclined to literature could be published, but this idea did not receive support from the authorities.
Creativity and recognition
In August 1855, Lev Nikolaevich was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he finished the remaining two "Sevastopol Tales" and stayed until in November 1856 he finally left the service. In the capital, the writer was received very well, he became a welcome guest in literary salons and circles, where he became friends with I.S. Turgenev, N.A. Nekrasov, I.S. Goncharov. However, Tolstoy quickly got bored of all this, and at the beginning of 1857 he set off on a trip abroad. Over the next four years, he traveled to many countries of Western Europe, but never found what he was looking for. The European way of life categorically did not suit him.
Between these trips, Lev Nikolaevich continued to write. The result of this creativity was, in particular, the story "Three Deaths" and the novel "Family Happiness". In addition, he finally finished the story "Cossacks", which he had been writing intermittently for almost 10 years. However, soon the popularity of Tolstoy began to decline, which was caused by a falling out with Turgenev and the refusal to continue secular life. Added to this was the general disappointment of the writer, as well as the death of his elder brother Nikolai, whom he considered his best friend and who literally died in his arms from tuberculosis. However, after treatment for depression in the Bashkir farm, Karalyk, Tolstoy returns to creativity, and is also determined with family life. In 1862, he wooed one of the daughters of his old friend Lyubov Aleksandrovna Islavina (married Bers) - Sophia. At that time, his future wife was 18 years old, and the count was already 34 years old. In the Tolstoy family, nine boys and four girls were born, but five children died in childhood.
The wife became a real life companion for the writer. With her help, he set about writing his most famous novel, War and Peace, about Russian society from 1805 to 1812, excerpts and chapters of which he published from 1865 to 1869.
Creative and philosophical turning point
The next great work of the author was the novel "Anna Karenina", on which Tolstoy began to work in 1873. After this novel in the work of Lev Nikolaevich, an ideological turning point began, expressed in the writer's new views on life, attitude to religion, criticism of power, attention to the social aspects of the structure of society. Works on plots of social life were no longer interested in him. All this was reflected in the autobiographical work Confession (1884). This was followed by the religious and philosophical treatise "What is my faith?"
Together with his work, Lev Nikolayevich himself has changed. He gives up wealth, dresses simply, does physical work, separating himself from the rest of the world. Tolstoy pays great attention to questions of faith, but this philosophy takes him far from the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church. In addition, church foundations are actively criticized in such works of the writer as the novel "Resurrection", which is why the Holy Synod in 1901 excommunicates him from the Church, although this decision was more a statement of fact than some kind of measure.
At the same time, Tolstoy devotes a lot of time to helping the peasants, taking care of their education and food. During a famine in the Ryazan province, Lev Nikolaevich opened canteens for the needy, where thousands of peasants were fed.
Last days
On October 28 (November 10), 1910, Tolstoy secretly leaves Yasnaya Polyana and heads towards the border by random trains, but at the Astapovo station (now Lipetsk region) he is forced to leave the train due to pneumonia that has begun. On November 7 (20), the great writer passed away. He died in the house of the station master at the age of 83. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was buried in his estate Yasnaya Polyana in the forest on the edge of a ravine. Several thousand people attended the funeral. A tribute to the memory of the writer was paid in Moscow, and in St. Petersburg, and even abroad. On the occasion of mourning, some entertainment events were canceled, the work of factories and factories was suspended, people went to street demonstrations with portraits of Lev Nikolaevich.
The name of the writer, educator, Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is known to every Russian person. During his lifetime, 78 works of art were printed, and another 96 were preserved in the archives. And in the first half of the 20th century, a complete collection of works was published, numbering 90 volumes and including, in addition to novels, novellas, short stories, essays, etc., numerous letters and diary entries of this great man, distinguished by his enormous talent and outstanding personal qualities. In this article, we recall the most interesting facts from the life of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
House for sale in Yasnaya Polyana
In his youth, the count was known as a gambler and loved, unfortunately, not very successfully, to play cards. It so happened that part of the house in Yasnaya Polyana, where the writer's childhood passed, was given away for debts. Subsequently, Tolstoy planted trees on an empty site. Ilya Lvovich, his son, recalled how he once asked his father to show him the room in the house where he was born. And Lev Nikolaevich pointed to the top of one of the larches, adding: "There." And he described the leather sofa on which this happened in the novel War and Peace. These are interesting facts from the life of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, connected with the family estate.
As for the house itself, two of its two-storey outbuildings have survived and have grown over time. After the marriage and the birth of children, the Tolstoy family grew more and more, and in parallel with this new premises were added.
The Tolstoy family had thirteen children, five of whom died in infancy. The count never spared time for them, and before the crisis of the 80s he loved to arrange pranks. For example, if jelly was served during lunch, the father noticed that it was good for them to glue the boxes. Children immediately brought paper to the table, and the process of creativity began.
Another example. Someone in the family became sad or even burst into tears. Noticing this, the count instantly organized the "Numidian cavalry". He jumped up from his seat, raised his hand up and rushed around the table, and children rushed after him.
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy was always distinguished by his love of literature. He regularly held evening readings in his home. Once I took up a book by Jules Verne without pictures. Then he began to illustrate it himself. And although he was not a very good artist, the family was delighted with what they saw.
The children also remembered the comic poems of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy. He read them in the wrong German for the same purpose: home. By the way, few people know that there are several poetic works in the writer's creative heritage. For example, "Fool", "Volga the Bogatyr". They were mainly written for children and were included in the famous "ABC".
Suicidal thoughts
The works of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy became for the writer a way of studying human characters in their development. Psychologism in the image often demanded great mental stress from the author. So, during the work on "Anna Karenina" the writer almost got into trouble. He was in such a difficult state of mind that he was afraid to repeat the fate of his hero Levin and commit suicide. Later in the "Confession" Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy noted that the thought about this was so persistent that he even carried a string out of the room where he was changing clothes alone, and refused to hunt with a gun.
Disappointment in the church
Nikolaevich is well studied and contains many stories about how he was excommunicated from the church. Meanwhile, the writer always considered himself a believer, and from the 77th year for several years he strictly observed all fasts and attended every church service. However, after visiting Optina Pustyn in 81, everything changed. Lev Nikolaevich went there with his lackey and school teacher. They walked, as expected, with a knapsack, in bast shoes. Finally, when they arrived at the monastery, they found terrible dirt and harsh discipline.
The pilgrims who came were settled on a general basis, which angered the lackey, who always treated the owner like a master. He turned to one of the monks and said that the old man was Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. The writer's work was well known, and he was immediately transferred to the best hotel room. After returning from Optina Hermitage, the count expressed his dissatisfaction with such an honorable veneration, and since then changed his attitude towards church conventions and its servants. It all ended with the fact that in one of the posts he took a cutlet for himself for lunch.
By the way, in the last years of his life, the writer became a vegetarian, completely abandoning meat. But at the same time, I ate scrambled eggs in different forms every day.
Physical work
In the early 80s - the biography of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy informs about this - the writer finally came to the conviction that an idle life and luxury do not paint a person. For a long time he was tormented by the question of what to do: to sell all his property and leave his beloved wife and children unaccustomed to hard work without means? Or rewrite the entire fortune to Sofya Andreevna? Later, Tolstoy will divide everything between family members. At this difficult time for him - the family had already moved to Moscow - Lev Nikolayevich loved to go to Vorobyovy Gory, where he helped the peasants to cut firewood. Then he learned the craft of shoemaking and even designed boots and summer shoes from canvas and leather, in which he wore all summer. And also every year he helped peasant families, in which there was no one to plow, sow and harvest grain. Not everyone approved of this life of Lev Nikolaevich. Tolstoy was not understood even in his own family. But he remained adamant. And one summer all Yasnaya Polyana broke up into artels and went out to mow. Among the workers was even Sofya Andreevna, raking the grass with a rake.
Helping the hungry
Noting interesting facts from the life of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, one can also recall the events of 1898. In the Mtsensk and Chernen districts, famine broke out once again. The writer, dressed in an old retinue and support, with a knapsack on his shoulder, together with his son, who had volunteered to help him, personally traveled all the villages and found out where the situation was really beggarly. Within a week, lists were drawn up and about twelve canteens were created in each county, where they fed, first of all, children, the elderly and the sick. Food was brought from Yasnaya Polyana, two hot dishes were prepared a day. Tolstoy's initiative caused negative feedback from the authorities, who established constant control over him, and local landowners. The latter considered that such actions of the count could lead to the fact that they themselves would soon have to plow the field and milk the cows themselves.
Once a police officer entered one of the canteens and started a conversation with the count. He complained that although he approves of the writer's act, he is a dependent person, therefore he does not know what to do - it was about permission for such activities of the governor. The writer's answer turned out to be simple: "Do not serve where they are forced to act against conscience." And this was the whole life of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
Serious illness
In 1901, the writer fell ill with a severe fever and, on the advice of doctors, went to Crimea. There, instead of a cure, he still caught inflammation and there was practically no hope that he would survive. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, whose work contains many works describing death, mentally prepared for it. He was not at all afraid to part with his life. The writer even said goodbye to loved ones. And although he could only speak in a half-whisper, he gave each of his children valuable advice for the future, as it turned out, even nine years before his death. This was very helpful, since nine years later none of the family members - and they practically all gathered at the Astapovo station - were not allowed to see the patient.
The funeral of a writer
Back in the 90s, Lev Nikolaevich in his diary spoke about how he would like to see his funeral. Ten years later, in "Memoirs", he tells the story of the famous "green stick", buried in a ravine next to oak trees. And already in 1908, he dictates a wish to the stenographer: to bury him in a wooden coffin in the place where the brothers were looking for the source of eternal good in childhood.
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich, according to his will, was buried in the park of Yasnaya Polyana. The funeral was attended by several thousand people, among whom were not only friends, fans of creativity, writers, but also local peasants, to whom he treated all his life with care and understanding.
History of the will
Interesting facts from the life of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy also relate to his expression of will regarding his creative heritage. The writer drew up six wills: in 1895 (diary entries), 1904 (letter to Chertkov), 1908 (dictated to Gusev), twice in 1909 and in 1010. According to one of them, all of his records and works came into common use. For others, the right to them was transferred to Chertkov. Ultimately, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy bequeathed his work and all his notes to his daughter Alexandra, who at the age of sixteen became her father's assistant.
Number 28
According to the testimony of relatives, the writer has always been ironic about prejudices. But he considered the number twenty-eight special for himself and loved it. What was it - a mere coincidence or the fate of fate? It is not known, but many of the most important events in the life and the first works of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy are associated with her. Here is a list of them:
- August 28, 1828 is the date of birth of the writer himself.
- On May 28, 1856, the censorship gave permission for the publication of the first book with stories "Childhood and Adolescence".
- The firstborn, Sergei, was born on June 28.
- On February 28, the wedding of Ilya's son took place.
- On October 28, the writer left Yasnaya Polyana for good.
Born into the noble family of Maria Nikolaevna, nee Princess Volkonskaya, and Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy in the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province as 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. Tatiana Aleksandrovna Ergolskaya, a distant relative, was engaged in the upbringing of the future writer, tutors - the German Reselman and the French Saint-Thomas, who became the heroes of the writer's stories and novels - were educated. At the age of 13, the future writer and his family moved to the hospitable home of P.I. Yushkova in Kazan.
In 1844, Lev Tolstoy entered the Imperial Kazan University at the Department of Oriental Literature of the Philosophical Faculty. After the first year, he did not pass 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 a reputation in secular society as a "thinker" 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 to study science and "achieve 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, a former musician, taught. Yermil Bazykin, who studied there, said: “There were 20 of us boys, the teacher was Foka Demidovich, a courtyard. Under father L.N. Tolstoy, he served as a musician. The old man was good. He taught us the alphabet, counting, sacred history. Lev Nikolaevich also came to us, he also studied with us, showed us his letter. I went every other day, after two, 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 writing 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 Sovremennik magazine to its editor N.A. Nekrasov. On September 18, 1852, the manuscript was printed 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, “conceded” to his fellow soldier, as giving him a life pension. At the beginning of the Crimean War of 1853-1856. transferred to the Danube army, participated in the battles at Oltenitsa, the siege of Silistria, the defense of Sevastopol. Then the written story "Sevastopol in December 1854" was read by Emperor Alexander II, who commanded to protect the talented officer.
In November 1856, the already recognized and famous writer left military service and went to travel across Europe.
In 1862, Leo Tolstoy married seventeen-year-old Sophia Andreevna Bers. In their marriage, 13 children were born, five died in early childhood, the novels "War and Peace" (1863-1869) and "Anna Karenina" (1873-1877), recognized as great works, were written.
In the 1880s. Leo Tolstoy went through a powerful crisis that led to the denial of the official state power and its institutions, the realization 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 of suicide and the need to live correctly, to be a vegetarian, to engage in education and physical labor - he plowed, sewed boots, taught children at school. In 1891 he publicly renounced copyright for 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 biting articles about the system of government - on this basis, the Holy Synod excommunicated Count Leo Tolstoy from the Orthodox Church and anathematized him in 1901.
On October 28 (November 10), 1910, Leo Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana, going on a journey without a specific plan for the sake of his moral and religious ideas of recent years, accompanied by doctor D.P. Makovitsky. On the way, he caught a cold, fell ill with croupous pneumonia and was forced to get off the train at the Astapovo station (now the Lev Tolstoy station of the Lipetsk region). Lev Tolstoy died on November 7 (20), 1910 in the house of the station chief I.I. Ozolin and was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.
