What did L. Tolstoy do. Full biography of L.N. Tolstoy: life and work. The last years of Leo Tolstoy's life

Biography and episodes of life Lev Tolstoy. When born and died Lev Tolstoy, memorable places and dates important events his life. writer quotes, Photo and video.

Years of Leo Tolstoy's life:

born September 9, 1828, died November 20, 1910

Epitaph

"I hear the sound of his speeches...
In the midst of all the confusion
Great old man of our days
Calls to the path of non-resistance.
Simple, clear words -
And who was imbued with their rays,
How to touch the deity
And speaks through his mouth.
From a poem by Arkady Kots dedicated to the memory of Tolstoy

Biography

The biography of Leo Tolstoy is a biography of the most famous Russian writer, whose works are still read all over the world. Even during the life of Tolstoy, his books were translated into many languages, and today his immortal works are included in the golden fund of world literature. But no less interesting is the personal, non-writer's biography of Tolstoy, who all his life tried to understand what the essence of a person's destiny is.

He was born on the Yasnaya Polyana estate, which today houses the Tolstoy Museum. The writer, who comes from a rich and noble count family, lost his mother as a child, and when it came time to enter the university, his father, who left the family's financial affairs in poor condition. Before entering Kazan University, Leo Tolstoy was brought up by relatives in Yasnaya Polyana. Studying Tolstoy was easy, after Kazan University he studied Arabic-Turkish literature, but a conflict with one of the teachers forced him to quit his studies and return to Yasnaya Polyana. Already in those years, Tolstoy began to think about what his purpose was, who he should become. In his diaries, he set himself goals for self-improvement. He continued to keep diaries all his life, trying to answer himself in them. important questions analyzing their actions and judgments. Then, in Yasnaya Polyana, he began to feel guilty towards the peasants - for the first time he opened a school for serf children, where he himself often conducted classes. Soon Tolstoy again left for Moscow to prepare for candidate exams, but the young landowner was carried away by social life and card games, which inevitably led to debts. And then, on the advice of his brother, Lev Nikolaevich left for the Caucasus, where he served for four years. In the Caucasus, he began to write his famous trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth", which later brought him great fame in the literary circles of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Despite the fact that Tolstoy was warmly received after his return and he was well received in all the secular salons of both capitals, over time the writer began to experience disappointment in his environment. Did not bring him pleasure and a trip to Europe. He returned to Yasnaya Polyana and began to improve it, and soon married - a girl who was much younger than him. And at the same time he finished his story "The Cossacks", after which Tolstoy's talent as a brilliant writer was recognized. Sofya Andreevna Bers bore Tolstoy 13 children, and over the years he wrote Anna Karenina and War and Peace.

In Yasnaya Polyana, surrounded by his family and his peasants, Tolstoy again began to think about the destiny of man, about religion and theology, about pedagogy. His desire to get to the very core of religion and human existence, and the theological writings that followed, Orthodox Church negative reaction. The spiritual crisis of the writer was reflected in everything - both in his relationship with his family and in his success in writing. The well-being of Count Tolstoy ceased to bring him joy - he became a vegetarian, walked barefoot, engaged in physical labor, renounced the rights to his literary works gave everything to the family. Before his death, Tolstoy quarreled with his wife and, wanting to live the last years of his life in accordance with his spiritual views, secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, the writer fell seriously ill and died.

The funeral of Leo Tolstoy was held in Yasnaya Polyana, several thousand people came to say goodbye to the great writer - friends, admirers, peasants, students. The ceremony was not held according to the Orthodox rite, since the writer was excommunicated from the church in the early 1900s. Tolstoy's grave is located in Yasnaya Polyana - in the forest where once, as a child, Lev Nikolayevich was looking for a "green stick" that kept the secret of universal happiness.

life line

September 9, 1828 Date of birth of Leo Tolstoy.
1844 Admission to Kazan University in the Department of Oriental Languages.
1847 Dismissal from the university.
1851 Departure for the Caucasus.
1852-1857 Writing autobiographical trilogy"Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth".
1855 Moving to St. Petersburg, joining the Sovremennik circle.
1856 Retirement, return to Yasnaya Polyana.
1859 The opening of a school for peasant children by Tolstoy.
1862 Marriage to Sophia Bers.
1863-1869 Writing the novel "War and Peace".
1873-1877 Writing the novel "Anna Karenina".
1889-1899 Writing the novel "Resurrection".
November 10, 1910 Secret departure of Tolstoy from Yasnaya Polyana.
November 20, 1910 Date of Tolstoy's death.
November 22, 1910 Farewell ceremony for the writer.
November 23, 1910 Funeral of Tolstoy.

Memorable places

1. Yasnaya Polyana, the estate of Leo Tolstoy, the state memorial and natural reserve where Tolstoy is buried.
2. Museum-estate of Leo Tolstoy in Khamovniki.
3. Tolstoy's house in childhood, the first Moscow address of the writer, where he was brought at the age of 7 and where he lived until 1838.
4. Tolstoy's house in Moscow in 1850-1851, where his literary activity began.
5. The former Chevalier Hotel, where Tolstoy stayed, including shortly after his marriage with Sophia Tolstaya.
6. State Museum L. N. Tolstoy in Moscow.
7. Tolstoy Center on Pyatnitskaya, former house Vargin, where Tolstoy lived in 1857-1858.
8. Monument to Tolstoy in Moscow.
9. Kochakovsky necropolis, Tolstoy family cemetery.

Episodes of life

Tolstoy married Sofya Bers when she was 18 years old and he was 34. Before they got married, he confessed to his bride in his premarital affairs - the hero of his work Anna Karenina, Konstantin Levin, did the same later. Tolstoy admitted in his letters to his grandmother: “I constantly have the feeling that I have stolen undeserved happiness that was not assigned to me. Here she comes, I hear her, and so well. For many years, Sophia Tolstaya was a friend and colleague of her husband, they were very happy, but with Tolstoy's passion for theology and spiritual quest, omissions began to arise between the spouses.

Leo Tolstoy did not like War and Peace, his largest and most significant work. Once, in a correspondence with Fet, the writer even called his famous epic "wordy rubbish."

It is known that the last years of his life Tolstoy refused meat. He believed that meat-eating was not humane, and he hoped that one day people would look at him with the same disgust that they now look at cannibalism.

Tolstoy believed that education in Russia was fundamentally wrong, and tried to contribute to its change: he opened a school for peasant children, published a pedagogical magazine, wrote ABC, New ABC and Books for Reading. Despite the fact that he wrote these textbooks primarily for peasant children, more than one generation of children, including noble ones, learned from them. According to the ABC, Tolstoy was taught letters by the Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova.

Covenant

"Everything comes to those who know how to wait."

"Beware of everything that your conscience disapproves of."

Documentary "Living Tolstoy"

condolences

“November 7, 1910 ended at the Astapovo station not only the life of one of the most extraordinary people who ever lived in the world - also ended some extraordinary human feat, an extraordinary struggle in its strength, longitude and difficulty ... "
Ivan Bunin, writer

“It is remarkable that not a single one, not only from Russians, but also from foreign writers, had and still does not have such world significance as Tolstoy. None of the writers abroad was as popular as Tolstoy. This one fact in itself points to the significance of this man's talent."
Sergei Witte, statesman

“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.”
Nicholas II Alexandrovich, Russian Emperor

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Born: September 9, 1828
Died: November 10, 1910

Biography

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9 n.s.) in the Yasnaya Polyana estate of the Tula province. By origin, he belonged to the most ancient aristocratic families of Russia. Received home education and upbringing.

After the death of parents (mother died in 1830, father in 1837) future writer with three brothers and a sister he moved to Kazan, to the guardian P. Yushkova. At the age of sixteen, he entered Kazan University, first at the Faculty of Philosophy in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature, then studied at the Faculty of Law (1844 - 47). In 1847, without completing the course, he left the university and settled in Yasnaya Polyana, which he received as his father's inheritance.

The future writer spent the next four years searching: he tried to reorganize the life of the peasants of Yasnaya Polyana (1847), lived a secular life in Moscow (1848), at St. deputy meeting (autumn 1849).

In 1851 he left Yasnaya Polyana for the Caucasus, the place of service of his older brother Nikolai, and volunteered to take part in hostilities against the Chechens. Episodes Caucasian war described by him in the stories "Raid" (1853), "Cutting down the forest" (1855), in the story "Cossacks" (1852 - 63). He passed the cadet exam, preparing to become an officer. In 1854, being an artillery officer, he transferred to the Danube army, which acted against the Turks.

In the Caucasus Tolstoy began to work in earnest literary creativity, writes the story "Childhood", which was approved by Nekrasov and published in the journal "Contemporary". Later, the story "Boyhood" (1852 - 54) was printed there.

Shortly after the start of the Crimean War Tolstoy at his personal request, he was transferred to Sevastopol, where he participated in the defense of the besieged city, showing rare fearlessness. Awarded the Order of St. Anna with the inscription "For Courage" and medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol". In "Sevastopol Tales" he created a mercilessly reliable picture of the war, which made a huge impression on Russian society. In the same years he wrote the last part of the trilogy - "Youth" (1855 - 56), in which he declared himself not just a "poet of childhood", but a researcher of human nature. This interest in man and the desire to understand the laws of mental and spiritual life will continue in his future work.

In 1855, having arrived in Petersburg, Tolstoy became close to the staff of the Sovremennik magazine, met Turgenev, Goncharov, Ostrovsky, Chernyshevsky.

In the autumn of 1856 he retired ("Military career - not mine ..." - he writes in his diary) and in 1857 went on a six-month trip abroad to France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany.

In 1859 he opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, where he taught classes himself. He helped open more than 20 schools in the surrounding villages. In order to study the organization of school affairs abroad in 1860 - 1861 Tolstoy made a second trip to Europe, visited schools in France, Italy, Germany, and England. In London, he met Herzen, attended a lecture by Dickens.

In May 1861 (the year of the abolition of serfdom) he returned to Yasnaya Polyana, assumed the position of mediator and actively defended the interests of the peasants, resolving their disputes with the landowners about the land, for which the Tula nobility, dissatisfied with his actions, demanded his removal from office. In 1862 the Senate issued a decree dismissing Tolstoy. Secret surveillance of him by the III Section began. In the summer, the gendarmes carried out a search in his absence, confident that they would find a secret printing house, which the writer allegedly acquired after meetings and long conversations with Herzen in London.

In 1862 life Tolstoy, his life was ordered to long years: he married the daughter of a Moscow doctor Sofya Andreevna Bers and began a patriarchal life on his estate as the head of an ever-increasing family. thick raised nine children.

The 1860s - 1870s were marked by the appearance of two works by Tolstoy, which immortalized his name: "War and Peace" (1863 - 69), "Anna Karenina" (1873 - 77).

In the early 1880s, the Tolstoy family moved to Moscow to educate their growing children. From this time of winter Tolstoy spent in Moscow. Here, in 1882, he participated in the census of the Moscow population, became closely acquainted with the life of the inhabitants of the city's slums, which he described in the treatise "So what should we do?" (1882 - 86), and concluded: "... You can't live like that, you can't live like that, you can't!"

New worldview Tolstoy expressed in the work "Confession" (1879), where he spoke about the revolution in his views, the meaning of which he saw in the break with the ideology of the noble class and the transition to the side of the "simple working people". This fracture has led Tolstoy to the denial of the state, official church and property. The consciousness of the meaninglessness of life in the face of inevitable death led him to believe in God. He bases his teaching on the moral precepts of the New Testament: the demand for love for people and the preaching of non-resistance to evil by violence constitute the meaning of the so-called "Tolstoyism", which is becoming popular not only in Russia, but also abroad.

During this period, he came to a complete denial of his previous literary activity, engaged in physical labor, plowed, sewed boots, switched to vegetarian food. In 1891 he publicly renounced copyright on all his writings written after 1880.

Influenced by friends and true admirers of his talent, as well as personal need for literary activity Tolstoy in the 1890s he changed his negative attitude towards art. During these years he created the drama "The Power of Darkness" (1886), the play "The Fruits of Enlightenment" (1886 - 90), the novel "Resurrection" (1889 - 99).

In 1891, 1893, 1898 he participated in helping the peasants of the starving provinces, organized free canteens.

In the last decade, as always, he has been engaged in intense creative work. The story "Hadji Murad" (1896 - 1904), the drama "The Living Corpse" (1900), the story "After the Ball" (1903) were written.

At the beginning of 1900 he wrote a number of articles exposing the entire system of state administration. The government of Nicholas II passed a resolution according to which the Holy Synod (the highest church institution in Russia) excommunicated Tolstoy from the church, which caused a wave of indignation in society.

In 1901 Tolstoy lived in the Crimea, was treated after a serious illness, often met with Chekhov and M. Gorky.

In the last years of his life, when Tolstoy drew up his will, he found himself at the center of intrigue and strife between the Tolstoyites, on the one hand, and his wife, who defended the well-being of her family and children, on the other. Trying to bring his way of life in line with his beliefs and burdened by the lordly way of life in the estate. On November 10, 1910, Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. The health of the 82-year-old writer could not stand the trip. He caught a cold and, falling ill, died on November 20 on the way at the Astapovo station of the Ryazan-Ural railway.

Buried at Yasnaya Polyana.

Novels

1859 - Family happiness
1884 - Decembrists
1873 - War and Peace
1875 - Anna Karenina

Trilogy: Childhood, Boyhood and Youth

1852 - Childhood
1854 - Boyhood
1864 - Youth

Tale

1856 - Two hussars
1856 - Morning of the landowner
1858 - Albert
1862 - Idyll
1862 - Polikushka
1863 - Cossacks
1886 - Death of Ivan Ilyich
1903 - Notes of a madman
1891 - Kreutzer Sonata
1911 - Devil
1891 - Mother
1895 - Master and worker
1912 - Father Sergius
1912 - Hadji Murad

stories

1851 - History of yesterday
1853 - Raid
1853 - Christmas night
1854 - Uncle Zhdanov and Chevalier Chernov
1854 - How Russian soldiers die
1855 - Marker notes
1855 - Wood cutting
1856 - The cycle "Sevastopol stories"
1856 - Blizzard
1856 - Demoted
1857 - Lucerne
1859 - Three deaths
1887 - Surat coffee shop
1891 - Francoise
1911 - Who is right?
1894 - Karma
1894 - Dream of a young king
1911 - After the ball
1911 - Fake Coupon
1911 - Alyosha Pot
1905 - Poor people
1906 - Korney Vasiliev
1906 - Berries
1906 - For what?
1906 - Divine and Human
1911 - What I saw in a dream
1906 - Father Vasily
1908 - The power of childhood
1909 - Conversation with a passerby
1909 - Traveler and peasant
1909 - Songs in the village
1909 - Three days in the countryside
1912 - Khodynka
1911 - Unintentionally
1910 - Grateful soil

One of the most famous writers and philosophers Russian Empire, is considered an influential thinker in world history.

Childhood and youth

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the Tula province into a noble family. V early childhood Leo lost his mother and all the children were raised by their father and nannies. But seven years after the loss of their mother, all the children became orphans, having lost their father. Their closest relative, their aunt, became their guardian. The noble origin obliged Leo to study various languages ​​​​and science, he received education from private teachers. In 1843, the young man entered the Imperial Kazan University at the Faculty of Oriental Philology. However, Leo did not succeed in studying another culture, he was forced to switch to the legal direction. However, despite the change of faculty, the difficulties in studying the material provided by the educational institution have not gone away. Ultimately, Leo Tolstoy left the university in 1847 without graduating.

Passion for gambling

The first experience as a writer can be considered the diary of a young man, which he carefully filled out until last days own life. After leaving the university, the writer went to Moscow, where he planned to improve his knowledge of jurisprudence and re-test his strength in obtaining a diploma. However, having got involved in gambling, he was distracted from the primary task and spent long hours at the card table. Deciding to change the situation, the young man went to St. Petersburg, where the situation has not changed, but only worsened. Finally pulling himself together, Tolstoy takes exams for different kinds rights and passes them successfully, but having abandoned everything, he returns to his father's house. In 1849, Tolstoy opened a school for poor children, where he taught students to read and write using his own primer.

Change of scenery, military service

Until 1851, the writer spent time at gambling, studying at his school and a little development on the novel "Childhood". In the same year with military service his brother returned, who, seeing not the most worthy lifestyle of his relative, offered him to become a military man. Hastily collecting things, Lev Nikolaevich went to the Caucasus. After passing the exams, he entered the service and spent a lot of time with the locals. Some of the people who were especially close to him in spirit in the future became prototypes for the heroes of the story "Cossacks". Having decided to put everything on the line, Tolstoy sent the still unfinished manuscript of Childhood to the editors of one of the most popular magazines of that time, Sovremennik. The editor-in-chief was deeply impressed by the talent of the young writer. The resulting material was sent to print immediately after correction and soon showed off on the shelves of many bookstores. It is noteworthy that "Childhood" was an autobiographical work of a writer and, despite the tragedy of his early losses, he described his early years life as sunny and joyful moments.

Service in the Crimea. End of military career

All this time, Leo served in the Caucasus and worked on new masterpieces of literature. After the war began in the Crimea, the young man went to the front line and devoted himself completely to the service of his fatherland. During the period spent in the thick of hostilities, the writer created such works as “Cutting the Forest” and “Sevastopol in December 1854”. Great success in military affairs and a talent for writing good military stories made the perfect combination for moving up the military ladder. Despite this, the character of the writer and his special humor played a bad joke on him, and after writing several unsuccessful satirical poems, he left the service. Although everything was over with his military career, Lev Nikolayevich did not grieve and devoted himself completely to the literary business. The literary community welcomed the new generation of writers, and Tolstoy was no exception. He wrote "Two Hussars" and "Youth", which caused an enthusiastic reaction from the public and critics.

The beginning of a black streak in life

Excessive attention, and sometimes frank impudence, bothered the writer, and he decided to take a break and went on a journey. The first city visited by the writer was Paris. Filled with freedom and an unusual creative atmosphere, this city helped Lev Nikolaevich open up and fall in love with literature again. However, his stay in this city was overshadowed by the political situation, Tolstoy did not accept the blind worship of Napoleon and soon left Paris. His wanderings stretched throughout Europe: Germany, Italy, France inspired the creator to new feats. In the winter of 1858, the writer surprised everyone with a new brilliant story "Three Deaths". Soon the life of the writer was overshadowed by the bitterness of loss, his beloved brother died of tuberculosis. This loss led to a deep and lingering depression, and as a result, Tolstoy went to a sanatorium to improve his health. Remoteness from secular life, delicious food and friendly locals contributed to the restoration of the health of the writer.

Creation of world masterpieces

In 1863, one of the most famous works Writer "War and Peace" Readers gladly accept the unique masterpiece, and the community of writers enthusiastically calls Tolstoy the harbinger of a new era. Surprisingly huge interest of the public was not only within the Russian Empire, but also beyond its borders, many public figures spoke flatteringly about Leo's work. The success of the writer was greatly influenced by his marriage to Sofya Andreevna. A practical and often more mature-minded spouse has more than once prevented the adoption of stupid and reckless decisions. The next amazing and tragic novel was Anna Karenina. In this work, changes were felt that took place in the most remote corners of the writer's subconscious. Courage and an unusual perception of the world around him allowed Tolstoy to become the first representative of the world of literature who criticized Shakespeare.

Renunciation of Orthodoxy

Toward the end of the 70s, the writer began a creative crisis. All that he did did not bring him any moral satisfaction. Raising children and writing new novels faded into the background. Even his wife, who had always been an outlet for him, began to irritate him and cause bouts of anger. In search of truth and a solution to his inner gravity, Tolstoy comes to religion. He is deeply interested in the study of the Bible and writes A Study in Dogmatic Theology. Gradually, his interest shifts from the study of religion to the study of religious art. Raphael, Michelangelo, as well as Dante and Beethoven fall under a wave of criticism and misunderstanding from the writer. Such a deep penetration into religion led to a complete rejection of the judgments that the Bible carried. Church leaders denounced Tolstoy's sharply negative behavior, and he ended up excommunicated from the church. In an attempt to explain his decision to others, the writer created a "Response to the Synod" in which he describes his thoughts about church beliefs. The public, being deeply religious, reacted very negatively to this kind of activity and many insults were sent to the writer.

last years of life

Not wanting to stay any longer in his homeland, Tolstoy went on a journey. He had no end point, he simply decided to take the train and go, looking at the Caucasus and Bulgaria along the way. However, his plans were interrupted by illness, which worsened due to the stress caused by long hours spent on the road. When the highest circles of society and his relatives learned about Lev Nikolayevich's illness, a commotion began in the country. In an attempt to return the writer to Orthodoxy, a priest was sent, who was not allowed to see the dying man. The family was also not allowed to see Tolstoy because of their religious views. Until the end, the writer was true to himself and continued to make plans. Many ideas for creativity were conceived by him, some, while still being able to write, he mentioned in his diary. In 1910, on November 20, Lev Nikolayevich died from a lack of air entering the heart. The world plunged into mourning, thousands of people mourned the great man, not only at home, but also abroad. Many admirers of his work staged demonstrations and marches in memory of the great writer.

• As a child, Tolstoy heard from his brother Nikolai the legend of the "green stick" - it was enough to find it on the edge of the ravine in Yasnaya Polyana, and there would be no wars and deaths on earth. This children's game greatly influenced Tolstoy's personality. The idea of ​​universal happiness and love can be traced in all the writer's work, philosophical works and publications. In his declining years, Lev Nikolaevich asked to be buried without any honors on the edge of the ravine - where, as a child, he and his brother were looking for a "green stick".
• An interesting fact is that Sofya Andreevna (Tolstoy's wife) rewrote almost all the works of her husband in order to send manuscripts to the publishing house. This was necessary because no editor would have made out the handwriting of the great writer.
• Excellent command of English, French and German. Read in Italian, Polish, Serbian and Czech. He studied Greek and Church Slavonic, Latin, Ukrainian and Tatar, Hebrew and Turkish, Dutch and Bulgarian.
• An interesting fact about Tolstoy is also that the count, by the end of his life, developed several serious principles of his worldview. The main ones are reduced to non-resistance to evil by violence, denial of private property and complete disregard for any authority, be it church, state or any other.

Awards:

• Order of Saint Anne
• Medal "For the Defense of Sevastopol"
• Medal "In memory of the war 1853-1856"
• Medal "In memory of the 50th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol"

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is a classic of world literature, thinker, educator, founder of religious and ethical teachings, count, corresponding member and honorary academician of the IAS, four times nominee for the Alfred Nobel Prize.

Among his popular works that do not lose their relevance are War and Peace, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Anna Karenina, The Kreutzer Sonata, The Living Corpse, Sunday.

Childhood and youth

The future literary genius was born on September 9, 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate into a family of aristocrats. Father, Nikolai Ilyich, a retired colonel, came from a noble old count family of Tolstoy. Subsequently, he served as the prototype for Nikolai Rostov, a character from War and Peace, Natasha's brother. Mother, Maria Nikolaevna, was the daughter of the prince, General Nikolai Volkonsky, was famous for her extraordinary gift for telling instructive stories. She is depicted in the epic novel in the face of Princess Marya.

The boy had three older brothers - Nikolai, Dmitry and Sergey, and a two-year younger sister Masha. They were orphaned early: the mother died six months after the birth of her daughter, the father when Leo was 9 years old. Before his father's death, his second cousin Tatyana Ergolskaya was engaged in raising children, and after their guardian, their own aunt, Countess Alexandra Osten-Saken, was appointed as their guardian. Two older brothers moved to her in the White Stone capital, two younger ones and a sister remained on the estate.

Three years later, my aunt passed away. The children moved to Kazan to their father's second sister Pelageya. In 1844, Lev, brought up by home teachers, followed his older brothers into a student at the local university. He chose the department of oriental literature, but studies (unlike secular entertainment) did not particularly attract him. He was distrustful of any authority, considering examination tests an annoying formality.

In 1847, the young man left the university and left to manage the estate in a new way and independently study the sciences of interest. But he was in for a failure in establishing life as a manager, described later in the story "The Morning of the Landowner".

For several years he led a secular life in the capital and in Moscow, noting in his diary his dissatisfaction with himself. Periods of asceticism, attempts to prepare for examinations for a scientific degree and remorse were replaced by high-society idleness and revelry.

creative way

In 1851, the eldest of the brothers, Nikolai, came to visit the estate. He served in the Caucasus, where the war had been going on for several years, and suggested that his brother also join the army. Leo agreed, realizing that he should change his lifestyle, as well as due to a large loss in cards and growing debts. Together with his brother, he went to the outskirts of the empire, received an army post and served in the Cossack village near Kizlyar, participating in military operations.

At the same time, Leo took up literary activity and a year later he completed the story "Childhood", publishing it in Sovremennik. The readers liked the work and, inspired by the successful beginning, the author in 1854 presented to the public the second part of the trilogy, Boyhood, and eventually the third, Youth.

At the end of the same 1854, he transferred to the Danube front, where he had to endure the siege of Sevastopol and all the horrors that befell its defenders. This experience prompted him to create the truthful and deeply patriotic "Sevastopol Tales", which struck contemporaries with a realistic depiction of the inhumanity of war. For the defense of the city, he was awarded a number of awards, including the Imperial Order of St. Anna "For Courage".

After the end of hostilities, Lieutenant Tolstoy left the service and went to St. Petersburg, where he had great success in the literary environment and in secular salons. The talent of the 28-year-old writer was admired, even then he was called "hope domestic literature". He has developed friendly relations with Nikolai Nekrasov, Ivan Turgenev, Dmitry Grigorovich, Alexander Druzhinin and other masters of the pen.

He became a member of the circle of the Sovremennik magazine, which was the ideological center of the democratic public thought, published "Two Hussars", "Snowstorm". But over time, Tolstoy became weary of being in a circle with its endless discussions and conflicts, and in 1857 he went on a trip abroad.

During the trip, the young writer visited the capital of France, where he was unpleasantly surprised by the “deification of the villain” of Napoleon and shocked by the public execution. Then he traveled to Italy, Germany, Switzerland - got acquainted with architectural monuments, met with artists, earned a venereal disease from promiscuity, lost to the nines in Baden-Baden at roulette. He expressed his disappointment in the foreign way of life in famous work"Lucerne".

Documentary film about Leo Tolstoy ("Geniuses and villains")

Returning to his estate in the summer of the same year, the classic wrote the novel "Family Happiness", the story "Three Deaths", and continued writing "Cossacks". Then he set aside writer's work and took up the problems of public education.

In 1860 he again traveled abroad to study the Western European education system. After 9 months in Yasnaya Polyana, he began to publish a pedagogical journal, where he promoted his own educational methodology. Later, he compiled several textbooks for elementary education with author's stories and presentations of fairy tales and fables.

Between 1863 and 1869 the classic of Russian literature wrote his famous large-scale epic "War and Peace", where he expressed a fierce protest against wars. The book, which became the pinnacle of realistic depiction in world literature, was a huge success and brought universal recognition to the author.

In 1871, due to health problems, he went to one of the Bashkir camps near Samara to be treated with koumiss at the insistence of doctors. Inspired by steppe nature, in 1873 he took up the novel Anna Karenina, creating by 1877 greatest work about the family, the meaning of being, love and passion, and revealing the subtlest movements of the human soul.

In the 1880s, at the height of his literary fame, the writer-thinker had a moral torment that nearly drove him to suicide. He created a number of journalistic treatises, including "Confession", "On Life", "The Kingdom of God is within you", where he outlined the thesis of non-violent resistance.

On the basis of his doctrines, the Tolstoyan movement arose, supported by such famous figures as Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. Colonies of followers later appeared in the Kharkov, Tver provinces, in Western Europe, Japan, India, South Africa.

In parallel with the works of a philosophical nature, the count also created artistic works - “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” about the search for the meaning of life, “Kreutzer Sonata” about the anger of jealousy, “Father Sergius” about a Christian ascetic, “The Living Corpse” about doom. In 1899, his novel Sunday was published, which criticized the army, the judicial system, and the institution of the church. Two years later, the Holy Synod promulgated the decision to excommunicate the author from the Church.

Personal life of Leo Tolstoy

The head of Russian literature was very fond of women. In his big heart there was a place for maids, peasant women, young aristocrats and married ladies. Critics called his main mood in his youth a sensual attraction to the fairer sex, along with a thirst for family life.

At the age of 28, he decided to marry the 20-year-old daughter of the nobleman Arseniev Valeria. Their romance lasted about six months. But it turned out that they had too different ideas about family happiness. He dreamed that his wife, in a simple dress, would visit peasant huts and give help, and she, as in luxurious outfits, would drive around Nevsky in her own carriage.

In 1857, Lev Nikolaevich was carried away by the daughter of the poet Tyutchev Ekaterina, but their relationship did not work out. Then he had a connection with a married peasant woman Aksinya, who gave birth to his son Timofey in 1860.

In 1862 he married 18-year-old Sophia Bers. They lived together for 48 years. During the marriage, the wife gave him 13 children - 9 sons and 4 daughters (five of them died in childhood, the biggest blow was the death of Vanya's youngest son in 1895), became his secretary, business assistant, translator and unofficial editor.

“Lyovochka made me feel that one cannot be satisfied with one family life and a wife or husband, but something else, an extraneous matter, is needed,” she wrote in her diary.

Their relationship was sometimes overshadowed by quarrels, for example, when the writer wanted to distribute all the property to the peasants and, having become a vegetarian, demanded that his relatives give up meat.

The composer's favorite poem was Pushkin's famous Remembrance, and his favorite composers were Chopin, Bach and Handel.

Death

In early November 1910, in an effort to bring life in line with his new views, the 82-year-old pacifist nobleman secretly left the family estate, accompanied by family doctor Dushan Makovitsky.

On the way to Novocherkassk, where they intended to obtain a passport for a trip to Bulgaria, and in case of refusal to go south, the elderly writer fell seriously ill with lobar pneumonia. At the Astapovo station, he was removed from the train and placed in the caretaker's house.

There, six doctors tried to save him, but to no avail - November 20 great writer died. The classic was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.

Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich
(09.09.1828 - 20.11.1910).

Born in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana. Among the ancestors of the writer on the paternal side is an associate of Peter I - P. A. Tolstoy, one of the first in Russia to receive the title of count. Member Patriotic War 1812 was the father of the writer gr. N. I. Tolstoy. On the maternal side, Tolstoy belonged to the family of the princes Bolkonsky, related by kinship with the princes 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 meeting with which were vividly conveyed by the future writer in the children's essay "Kremlin". Moscow is here called "the greatest and most populous city in Europe", whose walls "saw the shame and defeat of the invincible Napoleonic regiments." The first period of young Tolstoy's life in Moscow lasted less than four years. He was orphaned early, having lost first his mother and then his father. With his sister and three brothers, young Tolstoy moved to Kazan. Here lived one of the father's sisters, who became their guardians.
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. He studied Turkish and Tatar languages ​​with the famous Turkologist Professor Kazembek. In his mature life, the writer was fluent in English, French and German; read in Italian, Polish, Czech and Serbian; knew Greek, Latin, Ukrainian, Tatar, Church Slavonic; studied Hebrew, Turkish, Dutch, Bulgarian and other languages.
Classes in government programs and textbooks weighed heavily on Tolstoy the student. He became interested in independent work on a historical topic and, leaving the university, left Kazan for Yasnaya Polyana, which he received under the division of his father's inheritance. Then he went to Moscow, where at the end of 1850 his writing activity began: an unfinished story from the gypsy life (the manuscript has not been preserved) and a description of one day lived ("The History of Yesterday"). Then the story "Childhood" was started. Soon Tolstoy decided to go to the Caucasus, where his older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, an artillery officer, served in the army. Having entered the army as a cadet, he later passed the exam for a junior officer rank. The writer's impressions of the Caucasian War were reflected in the stories "The Raid" (1853), "Cutting the Forest" (1855), "Degraded" (1856), and in the story "Cossacks" (1852-1863). In the Caucasus, the story "Childhood" was completed, which was published in 1852 in the journal Sovremennik.

When did it start Crimean War, Tolstoy was transferred from the Caucasus to the Danube army, which acted against the Turks, and then to Sevastopol, besieged by the combined forces of England, France and Turkey. Commanding a 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 presented for the award of the military St. George Cross, but however, he never received the “George”. In the army, Tolstoy wrote a number of projects - on the reorganization of artillery batteries and the creation of battalions armed with rifled rifles, on the reorganization of the entire Russian army. Together with a group of officers of the Crimean army, Tolstoy intended to publish the magazine "Soldier's Bulletin" ("Military List"), but its publication was not allowed by Emperor Nicholas I.
In the autumn 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. In order to direct their activities along the right path, from his point of view, he published the pedagogical journal 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's mediators of the first call, who sought to help the peasants resolve their land disputes with the landowners. Soon in Yasnaya Polyana, when Tolstoy was away, the gendarmes searched for a secret printing house, which the writer allegedly started after talking with A. I. Herzen in London. Tolstoy had to close the school and stop publishing the pedagogical journal. In total, he wrote eleven articles on 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 ("Yasnopolyanskaya school for the months of November and December", "On methods of teaching literacy", "Who should learn to write from whom, peasant children with us or we peasant children"). Tolstoy, the teacher, demanded that the school be closer to life, sought to put it at the service of the needs of the people, and for this to intensify the processes of education and upbringing, to develop the creative abilities of children.
However, already at the beginning creative way Tolstoy becomes a supervised writer. One of the first works of the writer were the stories "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth", "Youth" (which, however, was not written). As conceived by the author, they were 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). After completing War and Peace, Tolstoy spent several years studying materials about Peter I and his time. 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. Then 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 large novel about modernity, naming it by name main character- Anna Karenina.
The spiritual crisis experienced by Tolstoy in the late 1870s - early. 1880, ended with a turning point in his worldview. In "Confession" (1879-1882), the writer speaks of a revolution in his views, the meaning of which he saw in the break with the ideology of the noble class and the transition to the side of the "simple working people."
At the beginning of 1880s. Tolstoy moved with his family from Yasnaya Polyana to Moscow, taking care to educate his growing children. In 1882, a census of the Moscow population took place, in which the writer took part. He saw the inhabitants of the city's slums up close and described them terrible life in the article on the census and in the treatise "So what shall 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 shall we do?" were works in which Tolstoy acted both as an artist and as a publicist, as a deep psychologist and a bold sociologist-analyst. Later, this kind of works - in the genre of journalistic, but including artistic scenes and paintings, saturated with elements of imagery - will take a large place in his work.
In these and subsequent years, Tolstoy also wrote religious and philosophical works: "Critique of dogmatic theology", "What is my faith?", "Combination, 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 middle of 1880s. Tolstoy and his like-minded people created the Posrednik publishing house in Moscow, which printed books and pictures for the people. The first of Tolstoy's works, printed for the "simple" people, was the story "What makes people alive." In it, as in many other works of this cycle, the writer widely used not only folklore stories, but also expressive means oral art. Tolstoy's folk stories are thematically and stylistically related to his plays for folk theaters and, most of all, the drama "The Power of Darkness" (1886), which depicts the tragedy of the post-reform village, where centuries-old patriarchal orders collapsed under the "power of money".
In the 1880s Tolstoy's novels "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and "Kholstomer" ("History of a Horse"), "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.
On the basis of social and psychological contrast, Tolstoy's story "The Master and the Worker" (1895) is built, stylistically connected with the cycle of his folk stories written in the 80s. Five years earlier, Tolstoy wrote the comedy Fruits of Enlightenment for a "home performance". It also shows the "owners" and "workers": the noble landowners living in the city and the peasants who came from the hungry village, deprived of land. The images of the first are given satirically, the second is portrayed by the author as reasonable and positive people, but in some scenes they are also "presented" in an ironic light.
All these works of the writer are united by the thought of the inevitable and close in time "decoupling" of social contradictions, of replacing the obsolete social "order". “What the outcome will be, I don’t know,” wrote Tolstoy in 1892, “but that things are coming to it and that life cannot go on like this, in such forms, I am sure.” This idea inspired the largest work of all the work 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 much distinguishes the third novel from the two previous ones, they are united by a truly epic scope in the depiction of life, the ability to “match” individual human destinies with the fate of the people in the narrative. Tolstoy himself pointed to the unity that exists between his novels: he said that Resurrection was written in the "old manner", referring primarily to the epic "manner" in which War and Peace and Anna Karenina were written. ". "Resurrection" was the last novel in the writer's work.
In the early 1900s Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church by the Holy Synod.
In the last decade of his life, the writer worked on the story "Hadji Murad" (1896-1904), in which he sought to compare "two poles of imperious absolutism" - the European, personified by Nicholas I, and the Asian, personified by Shamil. At the same time, Tolstoy creates one of his best plays - "The Living Corpse". Her hero - the kindest soul, soft, conscientious Fedya Protasov leaves the family, breaks relations with his usual environment, falls to the "bottom" and in the courthouse, unable to bear the lies, pretense, hypocrisy of "respectable" people, shoots himself with a pistol accounts with life. An article written in 1908, "I Can't Be Silent", in which he protested against the repressions of participants in the events of 1905-1907, sounded sharp. The stories of the writer "After the ball", "For what?" belong to the same period.
Burdened by the way of life in Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy more than once intended and for a long time did not dare to leave it. But he could no longer live according to the "together-apart" principle, 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 make a stop at the small station 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 searched for a "green stick" that kept the "secret" of how to make all people happy.