The outstanding Russian writer, philosopher and thinker Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy is known all over the world. Even in the farthest corners of the world, as soon as it comes to Russia, they certainly remember Peter the Great, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and a few more from Russian history.

We decided to collect the most interesting facts from the life of Tolstoy to remind you of them, and maybe even surprise you with some things.

So let's get started!

1. Tolstoy was born in 1828 and died in 1910 (he lived for 82 years). Married at 34 to 18-year-old Sofya Andreevna. They had 13 children, five of whom died in childhood.

   Leo Tolstoy with his wife and children

2. Before the wedding, the count gave his future wife to re-read his diaries, which described his many fornications. He considered it fair and just. According to the writer's wife, she remembered their content for the rest of her life.
3. At the beginning family life the young couple had complete harmony and mutual understanding, but over time, relations began to deteriorate more and more, reaching a peak shortly before the death of the thinker.
4. Tolstoy's wife was real hostess and exemplary conduct of business.
5. 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.

   
   Diary of Tolstoy L.N.

6. Almost all her life, the thinker's wife rewrote her husband's diaries. However, shortly before his death, Tolstoy began to keep two diaries: one that his wife read, and the other personal. The elderly Sofya Andreevna was furious that she could not find him, although she searched through the whole house.
7. All significant works ("War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", "Resurrection") Leo Tolstoy wrote after his marriage. That is, until the age of 34, he did not engage in serious writing.

   Tolstoy in his youth

8. The creative heritage of Lev Nikolaevich is 165 thousand sheets of manuscripts and ten thousand letters. Complete Works published in 90 volumes.
9. An interesting fact is that in life Tolstoy could not stand when dogs bark, and also did not like cherries.
10. Despite the fact that he was a count from birth, he always gravitated towards the people. Often the peasants saw him plowing the field on his own. On this occasion, there is a funny anecdote: “Leo Tolstoy is sitting in a canvas shirt and writing a novel. A footman in livery and white gloves enters. “Your Excellency, it’s time to plow!”
11. Since childhood, he was an incredibly gambler and gambler. However, like another great writer, F.M. Dostoevsky.
12. It is interesting that once Count Tolstoy lost one of the buildings of his estate Yasnaya Polyana in cards. His partner dismantled the property that had passed to him to the carnation and took everything out. The writer himself dreamed of buying back this extension, but never did it.
13. 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.

    Portrait of the writer Tolstoy

14. Anna Akhmatova as a child taught letters from the primer, which L.N. Tolstoy wrote for peasant children.
15. All his life he tried to help the peasants in everything he had the strength to do.

    
    Tolstoy with assistants makes lists of peasants in need of help

16. The novel "War and Peace" was written for 6 years, and then another 8 times corresponded. Tolstoy rewrote individual fragments up to 25 times.
17. The work “War and Peace” is considered the most significant in the work of the great writer, but he himself said the following in a letter to A. Fet: “I am happy that I will never write verbose rubbish like War again.”
18. 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.

    
    Tolstoy in the family circle in the park

19. Many believe that Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church. In fact, the definition of the Holy Synod sounded literally like this:

“Therefore, testifying to his (Tolstoy’s) falling away from the Church, we pray together that the Lord grant him repentance into the mind of truth.”

That is, the Synod simply testified that Tolstoy "self-excommunicated" from the Church. In fact, it was so, if we analyze the writer's numerous statements addressed to the Church.

1. In fact, by the end of his life, Lev Nikolayevich really expressed his convictions that were very far from Christianity. Quote:

“I don’t want to be a Christian, just as I didn’t advise and wouldn’t want there to be Buddhists, Confucianists, Taoists, Mohammedans and others.”



“Pushkin was like a Kyrgyz. Everyone still admires Pushkin. And just think about the excerpt from his "Eugene Onegin", placed in all the readers for children: "Winter. Peasant, triumphant ... ". Whatever the stanza, then nonsense!

And, meanwhile, the poet, obviously, worked a lot and for a long time on the verse. "Winter. Peasant, triumphant ... ". Why "celebrating"? “Perhaps he is going to the city to buy himself salt or shag.

“On the firewood, it renews the path. His horse, smelling snow ... ". How can you "smell" the snow?! After all, she runs through the snow - so what does the flair have to do with it? Further: "It is trotting somehow ...". This "somehow" is a historically stupid thing. And got into the poem only for the rhyme.

This was written by the great Pushkin, no doubt clever man, wrote because he was young and, like a Kyrgyz, sang instead of talking.

To this Tolstoy was asked a question: But what, Lev Nikolaevich, to do? Should you quit writing?

Tolstoy A: Of course quit! I say this to all beginners. This is my usual advice. Now is not the time to write. You need to do business, live exemplarily and teach others to live by your own example. Drop literature if you want to obey the old man. What do I do! I will die soon..."





“Over the years, Tolstoy expresses his opinions about women more and more often. These opinions are terrible.

“If you need a comparison, then marriage should be compared with a funeral, and not with a name day,” said Leo Tolstoy.

- The man walked alone - five pounds were tied to his shoulders, and he rejoices. What is there to say, that if I walk alone, then I am free, and if my foot is tied with the foot of a woman, then she will follow me and interfere with me.

- Why did you get married? the countess asked.

“But I didn’t know that then.”

Leo Tolstoy with his wife

Despite the interesting facts described above about Leo Tolstoy, he always declared that the highest value in society is the family.





“Indeed, Paris is not at all in harmony with its spiritual system; he is a strange man, I have never met such and do not quite understand him. A mixture of a poet, a Calvinist, a fanatic, a baric - something reminiscent of Rousseau, but more honest than Rousseau - a highly moral and at the same time unsympathetic creature.





If you want to get acquainted with more detailed information from Tolstoy's biography, then we recommend that you read his own work, Confession. We are sure that some things from the personal life of an outstanding thinker will simply shock you!

L.N. Tolstoy

Dates of birth and death.

• Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy Date of birth: September 9, 1828 Place of birth: Yasnaya Polyana Date of death: November 20, 1910 Place of death: Astapovo station Citizenship: Russian Empire Occupation: prose writer, publicist Direction: realism

Leo Tolstoy's parents

The only color photo.

Portrait of a writer

Biography

• By origin, Lev Nikolaevich belonged to famous noble families. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9, New Style) in 1828 at the Yasnaya Polyana estate, near Tula. The writer spent most of his life in this place.

• In addition to Lev Nikolaevich, there were three more sons: Nikolai, Sergey, Dmitry and daughter Maria, the writer's sister. Unfortunately, the children were orphaned early: Maria Nikolaevna, their mother, died in 1830, Nikolai Ilyich, their father, in 1837.

• Their distant relative Tatyana Aleksandrovna Yergolskaya became the teacher of the children. She preserved the children's writings of Leo Tolstoy.

• Since 1841, fat children lived in Kazan with their aunt-guardian Pelageya Ilyinichna Yushkova. In 1844, Lev Nikolaevich entered Kazan University. But the existing teaching did not satisfy his inquisitive mind, and in 1847 Tolstoy filed a petition to dismiss him from among the students.

ABC

• In 1859 he opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana. Following that, in the Krapivensky district, with the active participation of Tolstoy, 26 more schools were opened. Tolstoy himself taught children to read and write. In the 1870s he created the ABC and the original books for reading. These short stories and fables are known to everyone from early childhood.

Continuation of the biography

• – In his declining years, Tolstoy was full of creative energy. During the last decade of his life, he wrote about fifty works. Tolstoy retained his love for children throughout his life. In the 1900s, he again worked with peasant children, as in his youth.

• On October 28, 1910, at six o'clock in the morning, Tolstoy left Yasnaya Polyana forever. He was heading to the south of Russia. On the way, he fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to leave the train at the Astapovo station. The last seven days of the writer's life passed in the house of the head of the station.

• On November 7 at 6:50 am Leo Tolstoy passed away.

• Lev Nikolaevich lived a long life. He died when he was 82 years old. They buried him, as he bequeathed, in Yasnaya Polyana.

In November 1910, the small, unremarkable Astapovo railway station of the Ryazan-Ural Railway became known to the whole world: the last seven days of the life of Leo Tolstoy passed in the house of the head of the station, here he died, and from here a funeral cortege set off from the station house to Yasnaya Polyana, to that place on the edge of a ravine in the Old Order forest, where, according to the writer's will, he was buried.
Tolstoy died on the way in the literal and figurative sense of the word. At the age of 83, he was determined in his search for the truth and broke with his usual way of life in order to live the rest of his days as his conscience dictates...
Tolstoy was on his way to Sister Maria Nikolaevna, a nun convent in Shamordin, on the way he stopped at Optina Pustyn, spent the night in a hotel. Leaving Shamordin, Tolstoy, accompanied by D.P. Makovitsky and his daughter Alexandra Lvovna, boarded a train bound for Rostov-on-Don. He intended to settle in the south of Russia with one of the peasants he knew. We traveled in a third class carriage. Tolstoy caught a cold, pneumonia began with a high temperature. At the Astapovo station, Tolstoy had to get off the train.
The head of the station, Ivan Ivanovich Ozolin, provided the sick writer with a room in the station house and did everything possible to provide him with proper care and peace.
.... In early November 1910, a telegram was received in Optina Pustyn from the Astapovo station, which is near Moscow, along the Ryazan-Ural railway. Leo Tolstoy, who fell ill on the way after visiting Optina and Shamordin, and was forced to leave the train, called Elder Joseph to him. Tolstoy, as is known, was excommunicated on February 22, 1901 by the Holy Synod from the Church for blasphemy against her and for his false teaching. On October 28, 1910, Tolstoy fled from Yasnaya Polyana ... In Optina, at the request of the rector, a telegram was also received from the Synod, where it was allowed to send Abbot Barsanuphius instead of the ailing elder Joseph (who, however, intended, despite his illness, to go). Fr went with him. Panteleimon, doctor. Father Varsonofy did not believe that Tolstoy would repent, but his telegram – like a dying cry of despair – inspired some hope… A conversation with him, a confession was needed… According to the rules of the Orthodox Church, Tolstoy should have anathematized his blasphemous false doctrine. And here is the old man in Astapovo, but Tolstoy's relatives did not even let him into the house.
Fr returned with a heavy feeling. Barsanuphius in Optina. The soul perished ... The father later said with sadness: "They did not allow Tolstoy. He prayed to doctors, relatives, nothing helped ... although Leo was, he could not break the ring with which Satan bound him ..."

Graph Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy- one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers, revered as one of the greatest writers in the world. Member of the defense of Sevastopol. Enlightener, publicist, religious thinker, his authoritative opinion was the reason for the emergence of a new religious and moral trend - Tolstoyism. Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1873), honorary academician in the category of fine literature (1900).

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

Leo Tolstoy biography

Tolstoy was the fourth child in a large noble family. His mother, nee Princess Volkonskaya, died when Tolstoy was not yet two years old, but according to the stories of family members, he had a good idea of ​​\u200b\u200b"her spiritual appearance": some features of the mother (a brilliant education, sensitivity to art, a penchant for reflection) and even a portrait Tolstoy gave the resemblance to Princess Marya Nikolaevna Bolkonskaya ("War and Peace"). Tolstoy's father, a participant in the Patriotic War, remembered by the writer for his good-natured and mocking character, love for reading, for hunting (served as the prototype for Nikolai Rostov), ​​also died early (1837). The upbringing of children was carried out by a distant relative T. A. Ergolskaya, who had a huge influence on Tolstoy: "she taught me the spiritual pleasure of love." Childhood memories have always remained the most joyful for Tolstoy: family traditions, the first impressions of the life of a noble estate served as rich material for his works, were reflected in the autobiographical story "Childhood".

Kazan University

When Tolstoy was 13 years old, the family moved to Kazan, to the house of P. I. Yushkova, a relative and guardian of the children. In 1844 Tolstoy entered Kazan University in the Department of Oriental Languages ​​of the Faculty of Philosophy, then transferred to Faculty of Law, where he studied for less than two years: classes did not arouse a lively interest in him, and he passionately indulged in secular entertainment. In the spring of 1847, having submitted a letter of resignation from the university "due to poor health and domestic circumstances", Tolstoy left for Yasnaya Polyana with the firm intention of studying the entire course of legal sciences (in order to pass the exam as an external student), "practical medicine", languages, agriculture, history, geographical statistics, write a dissertation and "achieve the highest degree of perfection in music and painting."

"The turbulent life of adolescence"

After a summer in the countryside, disappointed by the unsuccessful experience of managing on new, favorable conditions for serfs (this attempt is captured in the story The Morning of the Landowner, 1857), in the fall of 1847 Tolstoy left first for Moscow, then for St. Petersburg to take candidate exams at the university. His way of life during this period often changed: either he prepared for days and passed exams, then he devoted himself passionately to music, then he intended to start a bureaucratic career, then he dreamed of becoming a cadet in a horse guard regiment. Religious moods, reaching asceticism, alternated with revelry, cards, trips to the gypsies. In the family, he was considered "the most trifling fellow", and he managed to repay the debts he had made then only many years later. However, it was these years that were colored by intense introspection and struggle with oneself, which is reflected in the diary that Tolstoy kept throughout his life. At the same time, he had a serious desire to write and the first unfinished artistic sketches appeared.

"War and Freedom"

In 1851, his elder brother Nikolai, an officer in the army, persuaded Tolstoy to travel together to the Caucasus. For almost three years, Tolstoy lived in a Cossack village on the banks of the Terek, traveling to Kizlyar, Tiflis, Vladikavkaz and participating in hostilities (at first voluntarily, then he was hired). The Caucasian nature and the patriarchal simplicity of the Cossack life, which struck Tolstoy in contrast with the life of the noble circle and with the painful reflection of a man of an educated society, provided material for the autobiographical story "The Cossacks" (1852-63). Caucasian impressions were also reflected in the stories "The Raid" (1853), "Cutting the Forest" (1855), as well as in the later story "Hadji Murad" (1896-1904, published in 1912). Returning to Russia, Tolstoy wrote in his diary that he fell in love with this "wild land, in which the two most opposite things, war and freedom, are so strangely and poetically combined." In the Caucasus, Tolstoy wrote the story "Childhood" and sent it to the journal "Sovremennik" without revealing his name (published in 1852 under the initials L. N.; together with the later stories "Boyhood", 1852-54, and "Youth", 1855 -57, compiled an autobiographical trilogy). The literary debut immediately brought real recognition to Tolstoy.

Crimean campaign

In 1854 Tolstoy was assigned to the Danube Army in Bucharest. Boring staff life soon forced him to transfer to the Crimean army, to the besieged Sevastopol, where he commanded a battery on the 4th bastion, showing rare personal courage (he was awarded the Order of St. Anne and medals). In the Crimea, Tolstoy was captured by new impressions and literary plans (he was going to publish a magazine for soldiers), here he began to write a cycle "", which was soon published and had a huge success (even Alexander II read the essay " "). The first works of Tolstoy struck literary critics boldness of psychological analysis and a detailed picture of the "dialectic of the soul" (N. G. Chernyshevsky). Some of the ideas that appeared during these years make it possible to guess in the young artillery officer the late Tolstoy the preacher: he dreamed of "founding a new religion" "the religion of Christ, but purified from faith and mystery, a practical religion."

In the circle of writers and abroad

In November 1855, Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg and immediately entered the Sovremennik circle (N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Turgenev, A. N. Ostrovsky, I. A. Goncharov, etc.), where he was greeted as a "great hope of Russian literature" (Nekrasov). Tolstoy took part in dinners and readings, in the establishment of the Literary Fund, was involved in disputes and conflicts of writers, but he felt like a stranger in this environment, which he described in detail later in Confession (1879-82): "These people disgusted me, and I disgusted myself." In the autumn of 1856, after retiring, Tolstoy went to Yasnaya Polyana, and at the beginning of 1857 went abroad. He visited France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany (Swiss impressions are reflected in the story "Lucerne"), in the fall he returned to Moscow, then to Yasnaya Polyana.

folk school

In 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in the village, helped set up more than 20 schools in the vicinity of Yasnaya Polyana, and this activity fascinated Tolstoy so much that in 1860 he went abroad again to get acquainted with the schools of Europe. Tolstoy traveled a lot, spent a month and a half in London (where he often saw A. I. Herzen), was in Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, studied popular pedagogical systems, which basically did not satisfy the writer. Tolstoy outlined his own ideas in special articles, arguing that the basis of education should be "the freedom of the student" and the rejection of violence in teaching. In 1862 he published the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana with books for reading as an appendix, which became in Russia the same classic examples of children's and folk literature as those compiled by him in the early 1870s. "ABC" and "New ABC". In 1862, in the absence of Tolstoy, a search was conducted in Yasnaya Polyana (they were looking for a secret printing house).

Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

• Respect was invented to hide the empty space where love should be.
• Shame and shame! One thing you are afraid of is meeting Russians abroad.
• Digging in our soul, we often dig out something that would lie there unnoticed.
• If good has a cause, it is no longer good; if it has a consequence, a reward, it is also not good. Therefore, goodness is outside the chain of causes and effects.
• People who can do nothing should make people, and the rest should contribute to their enlightenment and happiness.
• I know only two real misfortunes in life: remorse and illness. And happiness is only the absence of these two evils.
• We think how we will be thrown out of the usual path, that everything is gone; And here only begins a new, good. As long as there is life, there is happiness.
• It's amazing how complete the illusion is that beauty is good. Beautiful woman says nonsense, you listen and do not see nonsense, but you see smart. She talks, she does mean things, and you see something cute. When she does not say anything stupid or nasty, but is beautiful, then now you are sure that she is a miracle how smart and moral
• There is no more or less in love.
• Catch moments of happiness, force yourself to love, fall in love yourself! Only this one thing is real in the world - the rest is all nonsense.

"War and Peace" (1863-69)

In September 1862, Tolstoy married the eighteen-year-old daughter of a doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers, and immediately after the wedding, he took his wife from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana, where he devoted himself completely to family life and household chores. However, already in the autumn of 1863, he was captured by a new literary idea, which for a long time was called "The Year 1805". The time of the creation of the novel was a period of spiritual uplift, family happiness and quiet solitary work. Tolstoy read the memoirs and correspondence of people of the Alexander era (including the materials of Tolstoy and Volkonsky), worked in the archives, studied Masonic manuscripts, traveled to the Borodino field, moving slowly in his work, through many editions (his wife helped him a lot in copying the manuscripts, refuting the fact the very jokes of friends that she is still so young, as if playing with dolls), and only at the beginning of 1865 he published the first part of War and Peace in the Russkiy Vestnik.

Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" was first called "1805", then "All is well that ends well" and "Three Pores". According to researchers, the novel was rewritten 8 times, and some of its episodes more than 25 times. At the same time, the author himself was skeptical about the work. In correspondence with the poet Afanasy Fet, the writer spoke of his book in the following way: “How happy I am ... that I will never write verbose rubbish like War.”

The novel was read avidly, caused a lot of responses, striking with a combination of a wide epic canvas with a subtle psychological analysis, with a lively picture of private life, organically inscribed in history. Heated debate provoked the subsequent parts of the novel, in which Tolstoy developed a fatalistic philosophy of history. There were reproaches that the writer "entrusted" to the people of the beginning of the century the intellectual demands of his era: the idea of ​​a novel about Patriotic war really was a response to the problems that worried the Russian post-reform society. Tolstoy himself characterized his plan as an attempt to "write the history of the people" and considered it impossible to determine its genre nature ("it will not fit into any form, neither a novel, nor a short story, nor a poem, nor a history").

"Anna Karenina" (1873-77)

In the 1870s, still living in Yasnaya Polyana, continuing to teach peasant children and develop his pedagogical views in print, Tolstoy worked on a novel about the life of contemporary society, building a composition on the opposition of two storylines: the family drama is drawn in contrast with the life and domestic idyll of the young landowner Konstantin Levin, who is close to the writer himself in terms of lifestyle, convictions, and psychological drawing. The beginning of work coincided with the enthusiasm for Pushkin's prose: Tolstoy strove for simplicity of style, for outward nonjudgmental tone, paving his way to the new style of the 1880s, especially folk stories. Only tendentious criticism interpreted the novel as a love story. The meaning of the existence of the "educated class" and the deep truth of peasant life, this circle of questions, close to Levin and alien to most of the heroes even sympathetic to the author (including Anna), sounded acutely publicistic for many contemporaries, primarily for F. M. Dostoevsky, who highly appreciated "Anna Karenina in The Writer's Diary. "Family thought" (the main one in the novel, according to Tolstoy) is translated into a social channel, Levin's merciless self-exposures, his thoughts about suicide are read as a figurative illustration of the spiritual crisis experienced by Tolstoy himself in the 1880s, but matured in the course of work on the novel .

Leo Tolstoy considered labor to be the main wealth of a person and he himself did not miss the opportunity to work hard not only mentally, but also physically. It is known that the writer was fond of horse breeding, beekeeping, and even made boots himself. Already in adulthood, Tolstoy, promoting an ascetic lifestyle, even practically refuses shoes, emphasizing his closeness to the people. Apparently, the writer's passion for Indian philosophy affected not only his worldview, but also his eating habits. In October 1885 L.N. Tolstoy was visited by William Frey - a writer, a vegetarian, a follower of the teachings of Auguste Comte. When communicating with V. Frey, Tolstoy first learned the preaching of vegetarianism - the statement that the structure of a person, his teeth and intestines, proves that a person is not a predator. Lev Nikolaevich immediately accepted this teaching, and after realizing the knowledge he had gained, Tolstoy immediately abandoned meat and fish. Soon his daughters, Tatyana and Maria Tolstoy, followed his example. Lev Nikolaevich dreamed that one day all people would give up eating meat, which he considered as unnatural as cannibalism.

Fracture (1880s)

The course of the revolution that took place in Tolstoy's mind was reflected in artistic creativity, primarily in the experiences of the characters, in that spiritual insight that refracts their lives. These heroes occupy a central place in the stories "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (1884-86), "Kreutzer Sonata" (1887-89, published in Russia in 1891), "Father Sergius" (1890-98, published in 1912), drama " Living Corpse" (1900, unfinished, published in 1911), in the story "After the Ball" (1903, published in 1911).

Leo Tolstoy was a man of principle and did not recognize any authority, including the authority of the state and (which was unacceptable for that time) the authority of the church, for which he was subsequently excommunicated from it. It is interesting that at the same time the writer was religious and considered himself a Christian.
Moreover, the writer did not recognize private property and copyright and did not like money, speaking on the side of the peasants. An interesting fact is that these beliefs did not prevent Tolstoy, like Lermontov and Pushkin, from being an avid gambler and losing considerable sums to friends, including the inherited house in which he himself grew up.

Tolstoy's confessional journalism gives a detailed idea of ​​his spiritual drama: drawing pictures of social inequality and the idleness of the educated strata, Tolstoy in a pointed form posed questions of the meaning of life and faith to himself and to society, criticized everything state institutions, reaching the denial of science, art, court, marriage, the achievements of civilization. The writer's new worldview is reflected in Confession (published in 1884 in Geneva, in 1906 in Russia), in the articles On the Census in Moscow (1882), and So What Should We Do? (1882-86, published in full in 1906), "On the Famine" (1891, published on English language in 1892, in Russian in 1954), "What is art?" (1897-98), "Slavery of Our Time" (1900, fully published in Russia in 1917), "On Shakespeare and Drama" (1906), "I Can't Be Silent" (1908).

Tolstoy greatly honored family values. The main great works of the writer were created after his marriage to Sofya Andreevna Bers, with whom they lived for 48 years and gave birth to 13 children, 5 of whom died in childhood. Interestingly, at the time of the wedding, Sofya Andreevna was only 18 years old, and Count Tolstoy was already 34. His wife was an assistant in all matters and a true friend for Lev Nikolayevich. However, after 20 years life together disagreements began in the family because of the adamant views of the writer. An interesting fact about Leo Tolstoy is that as of 2010, there were about 350 descendants of the writer around the world.

Tolstoy's social declaration is based on the idea of ​​Christianity as moral doctrine, and the ethical ideas of Christianity are comprehended by him in a humanistic key as the basis of the worldwide brotherhood of people. This set of problems involved an analysis of the Gospel and critical studies of the theological writings to which Tolstoy's religious and philosophical treatises "Research dogmatic theology"(1879-80), "Combining and translating the four Gospels" (1880-81), "What is my faith" (1884), "The kingdom of God is within you" (1893).

Leo Tolstoy had so many followers, the so-called "Tolstoyites", who shared the views of the writer, that over time people began to gather in a kind of community in order to comprehend the truths of life together. The movement had a religious orientation. Probably, now that the currents of self-knowledge have become fashionable, we would call the writer a “guru”. However, Leo Tolstoy himself did not welcome the creation of such a community and believed that everyone should comprehend the truth on their own. Interestingly, there are still followers of this movement. Another interesting fact from Tolstoy's biography is that the writer became, unwittingly, the ideological inspirer of Mhatma Gandhi himself, who achieved the separation of India from England. The fact is that Tolstoy himself was a fan of Indian philosophy and in particular the idea of ​​non-resistance to evil by violence, which he described in one of his works “The Kingdom of God is within you”, which subsequently made a strong impression on Gandhi. Interestingly, during a trip to France, Tolstoy witnessed the death penalty of a man with the help of a guillotine, and Paris immediately lost its charm in the eyes of the writer.

A stormy reaction in society was accompanied by Tolstoy's calls for direct and immediate adherence to Christian commandments. In particular, his preaching of non-resistance to evil by violence was widely discussed, which became the impetus for the creation of a number of works of art the drama "The Power of Darkness, or the Claw is stuck, the whole bird is abyss" (1887) and folk stories written in a deliberately simplified, "artless" manner. Along with the congenial works of V. M. Garshin, N. S. Leskov and other writers, these stories were published by the Posrednik publishing house, founded by V. G. Chertkov on the initiative and with the close participation of Tolstoy, who defined the task of the Intermediary as "an expression in artistic images of the teachings of Christ", "so that you can read this book to an old man, a woman, a child, and so that both of them become interested, touched and feel kinder."

Leo Tolstoy, himself having an excellent education, considered the Russian education system to be improperly built. Especially the soul of the writer was rooting for the education of the children of the peasants. Tolstoy even founded a school for peasant children and became the author of a pedagogical journal and several textbooks for children. Tolstoy's wonderful book "ABC", for example, was originally addressed to peasant children, but became a desktop for many noble children. For example, Anna Akhmatova taught letters from it. Interestingly, Tolstoy himself was fluent in English, German and French, and also knew and studied Greek, Church Slavonic, Latin, Ukrainian, Tatar, Hebrew, Bulgarian, Turkish, Dutch and some other languages.

As part of the new worldview and ideas about Christianity, Tolstoy opposed Christian dogma and criticized the rapprochement of the church with the state, which led him to complete disunity with Orthodox Church. In 1901, the reaction of the Synod followed: the world-renowned writer and preacher was officially excommunicated, which caused a huge public outcry. "Resurrection" (1889-99) Tolstoy's last novel embodied the whole range of problems that worried him during the years of the turning point. Main character, Dmitry Nekhlyudov, who is spiritually close to the author, goes through the path of moral purification, leading him to active goodness. The narration is built on a system of emphatically evaluative oppositions, exposing the unreasonableness of the social structure (the beauty of nature and the falsity of the social world, the truth of peasant life and the falsehood that prevails in the life of the educated strata of society). Character traits late Tolstoy, a frank, highlighted "tendency" (in these years Tolstoy was a supporter of deliberately tendentious, didactic art), sharp criticism, a satirical beginning manifested itself in the novel with all clarity. Departure and death The years of change abruptly changed the writer's personal biography, turning into a break with the social environment and leading to family discord (the refusal to own private property proclaimed by Tolstoy caused sharp discontent among family members, especially his wife). The personal drama experienced by Tolstoy is reflected in his diary entries. In the late autumn of 1910, at night, secretly from his family, the 82-year-old Tolstoy, accompanied only by his personal doctor D.P. Makovitsky, left Yasnaya Polyana. The road turned out to be unbearable for him: on the way, Tolstoy fell ill and had to get off the train at the small Astapovo railway station. Here, in the stationmaster's house, he spent the last seven days of his life. The whole of Russia followed the news about Tolstoy's health, who by this time had already gained world fame not only as a writer, but also as a religious thinker, a preacher of the new faith. Tolstoy's funeral in Yasnaya Polyana became an event of all-Russian scale.

Golden quotes by Leo Tolstoy

• The strength of the government rests on the ignorance of the people, and it knows this and therefore will always fight against enlightenment. It's time for us to understand this.
• Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one thinks about how to change themselves.
• Everything comes to those who know how to wait.
• All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
• Strong people are always simple.
• Let everyone sweep in front of his door. If everyone does this, the whole street will be clean.
• It always seems that we are loved for being so good. And we do not guess that they love us because those who love us are good.
• Life is easier without love. But without it there is no point.
• I don't have everything I love. But I love everything I have.
• The world moves forward thanks to those who suffer.
• The greatest truths are the simplest.
• The point is not to know a lot, but to know the most necessary of all that can be known.
• People often take pride in the purity of their conscience just because they have a short memory.
• There is no scoundrel who, having searched, would not find scoundrels in some respects worse than himself, and who therefore could not find a reason to be proud and be pleased with himself.
• Evil is only within us, that is, where it can be taken out.
• A person should always be happy; if happiness ends, see where you made a mistake.
• I am sure that the meaning of life for each of us is simply to grow in love.
• Everyone is making plans, and no one knows if he will live until the evening.
• There are no conditions to which a person could not get used, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives the same way.
• One of the most amazing misconceptions is that a person's happiness lies in doing nothing.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, main dates

1828, August 28 (September 9) - The birth of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy in the Yasnaya Polyana estate of the Krapivensky district of the Tula province.

1830 - death of Tolstoy's mother Maria Nikolaevna (née Volkonskaya).

1837 - The Tolstoy family moved from Yasnaya Polyana to Moscow. Death of Tolstoy's father, Nikolai Ilyich.

1840 - First literary work Tolstoy - congratulatory poems by T.A. Ergolskaya: "Dear aunt."

1841 - Death in the Optina Hermitage of the guardian of the children of Tolstykh A.I. Osten-Saken. The fat ones move from Moscow to Kazan, to a new guardian - P.I. Yushkova.

1844 - Tolstoy was admitted to the Kazan University at the Oriental Faculty in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature, passing exams in mathematics, Russian literature, French, German, English, Arabic, Turkish and Tatar languages.

1845 - Tolstoy moves to the Faculty of Law.

1847 - Tolstoy leaves the university and leaves Kazan for Yasnaya Polyana.

1848, October - 1849, January - lives in Moscow, "very carelessly, without service, without work, without purpose."

1849 - Examinations for the degree of candidate at St. Petersburg University. (Discontinued after successful completion of two subjects). Tolstoy begins to write a diary.

1850 - The idea of ​​"Tales from the gypsy life."

1851 - The story "The History of Yesterday" was written. The story "Childhood" was begun (finished in July 1852). Departure for the Caucasus.

1852 - Examination for the rank of cadet, order for enlistment in the military service fireworks 4th class. Wrote the story "Raid". In No. 9 of Sovremennik, Childhood is printed - the first published work of Tolstoy. The "Novel of the Russian Landowner" was begun (the work continued until 1856, remaining unfinished. A fragment of the novel, finished for printing, was published in 1856 under the title "Morning of the Landowner").

1853 - Participation in the campaign against the Chechens. Start of work on "Cossacks" (completed in 1862). The story "Notes of the Marker" was written.

1854 - Tolstoy promoted to ensign. Departure from the Caucasus. Report on transfer to the Crimean army. The project of the magazine "Soldier's Bulletin" ("Military List"). The stories "Uncle Zhdanov and Chevalier Chernov" and "How Russian Soldiers Die" were written for the soldier's journal. Arrival to Sevastopol.

1855 - Work began on "Youth" (finished in September 1856). The stories "Sevastopol in December", "Sevastopol in May" and "Sevastopol in August 1855" were written. Arrival to Petersburg. Acquaintance with Turgenev, Nekrasov, Goncharov, Fet, Tyutchev, Chernyshevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Ostrovsky and other writers.

1856 - The stories "Snowstorm", "Degraded", the story "Two Hussars" were written. Tolstoy was promoted to lieutenant. Resignation. In Yasnaya Polyana, an attempt to free the peasants from serfdom. The story “The Traveling Field” was begun (the work continued until 1865, remaining unfinished). The Sovremennik magazine published an article by Chernyshevsky on Tolstoy's "Childhood" and "Adolescence" and "Military Stories".

1857 - The story "Albert" began (finished March 1858). The first trip abroad in France, Switzerland, Germany. The story of Lucerne.

1858 - The story "Three Deaths" is written.

1859 - Work on the story "Family Happiness".

1859 - 1862 - Classes at the Yasnaya Polyana school with peasant children ("charming, poetic tree"). Tolstoy expounded his pedagogical ideas in the articles of the journal Yasnaya Polyana, created by him in 1862.

1860 - Work on stories from peasant life - "Idyll", "Tikhon and Malanya" (remained unfinished).

1860 - 1861 - The second trip abroad - through Germany, Switzerland, France, England, Belgium. Acquaintance with Herzen in London. Listening to lectures on the history of art at the Sorbonne. Presence at the death penalty in Paris. The beginning of the novel "The Decembrists" (remained unfinished) and the story "Polikushka" (finished in December 1862). Quarrel with Turgenev.

1860 - 1863 - Work on the story "Strider" (completed in 1885).

1861 - 1862 - Tolstoy's activity as a mediator of the 4th section of the Krapivensky district. Publication of the pedagogical journal "Yasnaya Polyana".

1862 - Gendarmerie search in YaP. Marriage to Sofya Andreevna Bers, daughter of a court doctor.

1863 - Work began on "War and Peace" (finished in 1869).

1864 - 1865 - The first Collected Works of L.N. Tolstoy in two volumes (from F. Stellovsky, St. Petersburg).

1865 - 1866 - The first two parts of the future "War and Peace" under the title "1805" were printed in the "Russian Messenger".

1866 - Acquaintance with the artist M.S. Bashilov, whom Tolstoy entrusted with illustrating War and Peace.

1867 - A trip to Borodino in connection with work on "War and Peace".

1867 - 1869 - The publication of two separate editions of War and Peace.

1868 - Tolstoy's article "A few words about the book "War and Peace" was published in the Russian Archive magazine.

1870 - The concept of "Anna Karenina".

1870 - 1872 - Work on a novel about the time of Peter I (left unfinished).

1871 - 1872 - Edition of the "ABC".

1873 - The novel "Anna Karenina" was started (completed in 1877). Letter to Moskovskie Vedomosti about the Samara famine. I.N. Kramskoy paints a portrait of Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana.

1874 - Pedagogical activity, article "On Public Education", compilation of the "New ABC" and "Russian Books for Reading" (came out in 1875).

1875 - The beginning of the printing of "Anna Karenina" in the journal "Russian Messenger". The French magazine Le temps published a translation of the story The Two Hussars with a foreword by Turgenev. Turgenev wrote that after the release of War and Peace, Tolstoy "resolutely occupies the first place in the disposition of the public."

1876 ​​- Acquaintance with P.I. Tchaikovsky.

1877 - A separate edition of the last, 8th part of "Anna Karenina" - due to disagreements that arose with the publisher of "Russian Messenger" M.N. Katkov on the question of the Serbian war.

1878 - Separate edition of the novel Anna Karenina.

1878 - 1879 - Work on a historical novel about the time of Nicholas I and the Decbrists

1878 - Acquaintance with the Decembrists P.N. Svistunov, M.I. Muravyov Apostol, A.P. Belyaev. Written "First Memories".

1879 - Tolstoy collects historical materials and tries to write a novel from the era of the late 17th - early 19th century. Visited Tolstoy N.I. Strakhov found him in a "new phase" - anti-state and anti-church. In Yasnaya Polyana, the narrator V.P. Dapper. Tolstoy writes down folk legends from his words.

1879 - 1880 - Work on "Confession" and "Study of Dogmatic Theology". Acquaintance with V.M. Garshin and I.E. Repin.

1881 - The story "What makes people alive" is written. Letter to Alexander III admonishing not to execute the revolutionaries who killed Alexander II. Relocation of the Tolstoy family to Moscow.

1882 - Participation in the three-day Moscow census. The article "So what should we do?" (finished in 1886). Purchase of a house in Dolgo-Khamovnichesky Lane in Moscow (now the House-Museum of Leo Tolstoy). The story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" was begun (completed in 1886).

1883 - Acquaintance with V.G. Chertkov.

1883 - 1884 - Tolstoy writes a treatise "What is my faith?".

1884 - Portrait of Tolstoy by N.N. Ge. "Notes of a Madman" started (remained unfinished). The first attempt to leave Yasnaya Polyana. The publishing house of books for public reading - "Mediator" was founded.

1885 - 1886 - Folk stories were written for the "Mediator": "Two brothers and gold", "Ilyas", "Where there is love, there is God" about Ivan the Fool”, “How much land does a person need”, etc.

1886 - Acquaintance with V.G. Korolnko. A drama for the folk theater - "The Power of Darkness" (prohibited for staging) has begun. The comedy "The Fruits of Enlightenment" was started (finished in 1890).

1887 - Acquaintance with N.S. Leskov. The Kreutzer Sonata was begun (finished in 1889).

1888 - The story "The False Coupon" was started (the work was stopped in 1904).

1889 - Work on the story "The Devil" (the second version of the end of the story refers to 1890). The “Konevskaya Tale” was started (according to the story of the judicial figure A.F. Koni) - the future “Resurrection” (completed in 1899).

1890 - The Kreutzer Sonata was censored (in 1891 Alexander III allowed printing only in the Collected Works). In a letter to V.G. Chertkov the first version of the story "Father Sergius" (finished in 1898).

1891 - Letter to the editors of Russkiye Vedomosti and Novoye Vremya refusing copyright for works written after 1881.

1891 - 1893 - Organization of assistance to the starving peasants of the Ryazan province. Articles about hunger.

1892 - Production at the Maly Theater of "The Fruits of Enlightenment".

1893 - A preface to the writings of Guy de Maupassant was written. Acquaintance with K.S. Stanislavsky.

1894 - 1895 - The story "The Master and the Worker" was written.

1895 - Acquaintance with A.P. Chekhov. Performance of "The Power of Darkness" at the Maly Theatre. Written article "Shameful" - a protest against corporal punishment of peasants.

1896 - The story "Hadji Murad" was started (the work continued until 1904; during the life of Tolsoy, the story was not published).

1897 - 1898 - Organization of assistance to the starving peasants of the Tula province. Article "Hunger or not hunger?". The decision to print "Father Sergius" and "Resurrection" in favor of the Doukhobors moving to Canada. In Yasnaya Polyana, L.O. Pasternak illustrating "Resurrection".

1898 - 1899 - Inspection of prisons, conversations with prison guards in connection with work on "Resurrection".

1899 - The novel "Resurrection" is published in the Niva magazine.

1899 - 1900 - The article "Slavery of our time" was written.

1900 - acquaintance with A.M. Gorky. Work on the drama "The Living Corpse" (after watching the play "Uncle Vanya" at the Art Theater).

1901 - “The definition of the Holy Synod of February 20 - 22, 1901 ... about Count Leo Tolstoy” is published in the newspapers “Church Gazette”, “Russian Bulletin”, etc. The definition spoke of the “falling away” of the writer from Orthodoxy. In Response to the Synod, Tolstoy stated: “I began by loving my Orthodox faith more than my peace, then I loved Christianity more than my church, now I love the truth more than anything in the world. And until now, the truth coincides for me with Christianity, as I understand it. In connection with the illness, departure to the Crimea, to Gaspra.

1901 - 1902 - Letter to Nicholas II calling for the abolition of private ownership of land and the destruction of "that oppression that prevents the people from expressing their desires and needs."

1902 - return to Yasnaya Polyana.

1903 - "Memoirs" started (work continued until 1906). The story "After the Ball" was written.

1903 - 1904 - Work on the article "On Shakespeare and the Lady."

1904 - Article about the Russo-Japanese war "Rethink!".

1905 - An afterword was written for Chekhov's story "Darling", the articles "On the Social Movement in Russia" and the Green Stick, the stories "Korney Vasiliev", "Alyosha Pot", "Berries", the story "The Posthumous Notes of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich". Reading the notes of the Decembrists and the writings of Herzen. An entry about the October 17 manifesto: "There is nothing for the people in it."

1906 - The story "For what?", the article "The Significance of the Russian Revolution" were written, the story "Fighting and Human", begun in 1903, was completed.

1907 - Letter to P.A. Stolypin on the situation of the Russian people and the need to abolish private ownership of land. In Yasnaya Polyana M.V. Neterov paints a portrait of Tolstoy.

1908 - Tolstoy's article against the death penalty - "I can not be silent!". No. 35 of the Proletariy newspaper published an article by V.I. Lenin "Leo Tolstoy as a Mirror of the Russian Revolution".

1908 - 1910 - Work on the story "There are no guilty in the world."

1909 - Tolstoy writes the story "Who are the killers? Pavel Kudryash”, a sharply critical article about the Kaet collection “Milestones”, essays “A Conversation with a Passerby” and “Songs in the Village”.

1900 - 1910 - Work on the essays "Three Days in the Country".

1910 - The story "Khodynka" was written.

In a letter to V.G. Korolenko gave an enthusiastic review of his article against the death penalty - "Change houses phenomenon".

Tolstoy is preparing a report for the Peace Congress in Stockholm.

Work on the last article - "A Real Remedy" (against the death penalty).