Lev Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana , Tula province. He was the fourth child in a large noble family. Tolstoy was orphaned early. His mother died when he was not yet two years old, and at the age of nine he lost his father. The aunt, Alexandra Osten-Saken, became the guardian of the five Tolstoy children. The two older children moved in with their aunt in Moscow , while the younger ones stayed in Yasnaya Polyana. It is with the family estate that the most important and dearest memories of Leo Tolstoy's early childhood are connected.

n 1841, Alexandra Osten-Saken died and the Tolstoys moved in with their aunt Pelageya Yushkova in Kazan . Three years after the move, Leo Tolstoy decided to enter the prestigious Imperial Kazan University . However, he did not like to study, he considered exams a formality, and university professors - incompetent. Tolstoy did not even try to get a scientific degree, in Kazan he was more attracted to secular entertainment.

In April 1847, Leo Tolstoy's student life ended. He inherited his part of the estate, including his beloved Yasnaya Polyana, and immediately went home without receiving a higher education. In the family estate, Tolstoy tried to improve his life and start writing. He drew up his educational plan: to study languages, history, medicine, mathematics, geography, law, agriculture, natural sciences. However, he soon came to the conclusion that it is easier to make plans than to carry them out.

Tolstoy's asceticism was often replaced by revelry and card games . Wanting to start the right, in his opinion, life, he made a daily routine. But he did not observe it either, and in his diary he again noted dissatisfaction with himself. All these failures prompted Leo Tolstoy to change his lifestyle. The opportunity presented itself in April 1851: the elder brother Nikolai arrived in Yasnaya Polyana. At that time he served in the Caucasus, where the war was going on. Leo Tolstoy decided to join his brother and went with him to a village on the banks of the Terek River.

On the outskirts of the empire, Leo Tolstoy served for almost two and a half years. He whiled away the time hunting, playing cards, and occasionally participating in raids into enemy territory. Tolstoy liked such a solitary and monotonous life. It was in the Caucasus that the story "Childhood" was born . While working on it, the writer found a source of inspiration that remained important to him until the end of his life: he used his own memories and experience.

In July 1852, Tolstoy sent the manuscript of the story to the Sovremennik magazine and attached a letter: “... I am looking forward to your verdict. He will either encourage me to continue my favorite activities, or make me burn everything I started . Editor Nikolai Nekrasov liked the work of the new author, and soon "Childhood" was published in the magazine. Encouraged by the first success, the writer soon began to continue the "Childhood". In 1854, he published a second story, Boyhood , in the Sovremennik magazine .

At the end of 1854, Leo Tolstoy arrived in Sevastopol , the epicenter of hostilities. Being in the thick of things, he created the story "Sevastopol in the month of December." Although Tolstoy was unusually frank in describing battle scenes, the first Sevastopol story was deeply patriotic and glorified the bravery of Russian soldiers. Soon Tolstoy began working on a second story, Sevastopol in May. By that time, nothing was left of his pride in the Russian army. The horror and shock that Tolstoy experienced on the front line and during the siege of the city greatly influenced his work. Now he wrote about the meaninglessness of death and the inhumanity of war.

In 1855, from the ruins of Sevastopol, Tolstoy traveled to sophisticated Petersburg . The success of the first Sevastopol story gave him a sense of purpose: “My career is literature – writing and writing! From tomorrow I work all my life or I give up everything, rules, religion, decency - everything . In the capital, Leo Tolstoy completed "Sevastopol in May" and wrote "Sevastopol in August 1855" - these essays completed the trilogy. And in November 1856, the writer finally left military service.

Thanks to truthful stories about the Crimean War, Tolstoy entered the St. Petersburg literary circle of the Sovremennik magazine. During this period, he wrote the story "Snowstorm", the story "Two Hussars" , finished the trilogy with the story "Youth" . However, after some time, relations with writers from the circle deteriorated: “These people disgusted me, and I got sick of myself . ” To unwind, in early 1857, Leo Tolstoy went abroad. He visited Paris, Rome, Berlin, Dresden: he got acquainted with famous works of art, met with artists, observed how people live in European cities. Travel did not inspire Tolstoy: he created the story "Lucerne", in which he described his disappointment.

In the summer of 1857 Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana. In his native estate, he continued to work on the story "The Cossacks" , and also wrote the story "Three Deaths" and the novel "Family Happiness". In his diary , Tolstoy defined his purpose for himself at that time in this way: “The main thing is literary works, then family obligations, then farming ... And to live for yourself is enough for a good deed a day . ”

In 1859 Tolstoy founded schools for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana and in the vicinity of the village. A year after their discovery, the writer again went abroad to find out how public education is arranged in European schools and “how to do it so that, without knowing anything yourself, be able to teach others . ” After nine months of European travel, he returned to Russia. Tolstoy wanted to create his own system of education in the Yasnaya Polyana school: he abolished all the rules of discipline and canceled pedagogical programs. In 1862, the writer began to publish the Yasnaya Polyana pedagogical magazine with books for reading. Later he wrote "ABC" and "New ABC" - with his own stories and author's transcriptions of fairy tales and fables.

In the artistic work of Tolstoy at this time there was a crisis. In his diaries, he increasingly expressed dissatisfaction with life: “Indecision, idleness, melancholy, the thought of death. We need to get out of this. One remedy. Effort on oneself in order to work . In 1862, Leo Tolstoy found a way out of his despondency: “I am writing from the village, I am writing and I hear the voice of my wife upstairs, who is talking to her brother and whom I love more than anything in the world. I lived to be 34 years old and did not know that it was possible to love and be so happy . The bride of the writer was 18-year-old Sophia Bers. The writer lived with her for 48 years. During their marriage, they had 13 children . Sophia became Leo Tolstoy's secretary, copyist and unofficial editor.

During this period of spiritual balance, Leo Tolstoy began to write the novel "War and Peace" - a large-scale epic. The basis for peaceful everyday scenes was the life of the Tolstoy family, the writer created battle and civil scenes based on the events of Russian history. The main idea of ​​the work was not patriotism, but pacifism: the furious protest of the author, expressed in Sevastopol Tales, prompted him to describe the troubles that the war entails. In 1869 Tolstoy completed War and Peace. The book was a huge success.

y the early 1870s, Tolstoy was considered one of the greatest Russian writers, but he was at odds with himself. The nobleman and the landowner were worried about social inequality in Russian society, the poverty of the peasants and the uncompromising tsarist regime. In addition, Tolstoy began to get sick. In 1871, Tolstoy went to the Samara province: on the recommendation of a doctor, he was treated with koumiss. He was so inspired by the steppe nature and the life of the Bashkir nomads that in the summer of 1873 he brought his whole family here.

Samara became a refuge and a source of inspiration for the writer. After a family trip, he again took up the novel Anna Karenina , which he began in the spring of 1873. Tolstoy both loved and hated this work, which became very personal for him: “My Anna has bothered me like a bitter radish ... but don’t talk bad about her to me or, if you like, then with ménagement (with caution. - Approx. ed.), She's still adopted . " In 1877 Tolstoy completed Anna Karenina. It was a gloomy novel - it did not have that idyll that was present in the finale of "War and Peace".

n the early 1880s, at the height of his success, Leo Tolstoy renounced his literary past and the ideal of family life — a period of spiritual and moral quest began for him. Tolstoy wrote philosophical treatises in which he talked about life, art and religion. Among them are “Confession”, “So what should we do?”, “About hunger”, “What is art?”, “What is my faith?”, “The kingdom of God is within you…”.

The writer abandoned the dogmas of the Russian Orthodox Church and even created his own version of the Gospel. He combined the four gospels into one, removed everything he disagreed with, such as all the miracle stories, and left only the words of Christ. What Tolstoy wrote about did not become an abstract philosophy: he intended to live in accordance with his words.

Under the influence of the ideas of Leo Tolstoy, a whole religious and ethical trend arose in Russia - Tolstoyism.

In addition to treatises, Tolstoy also wrote works of art: a story about the search for the meaning of life "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" , a story about a righteous recluse "Father Sergius", a play about hopelessness "The Living Corpse" , a story about the tragic death of Naib Shamil "Hadji Murad" .

In 1899 Tolstoy wrote the novel The Resurrection . In this work, the writer criticized the judicial system, the army, the government. The contempt with which Tolstoy described the institution of the church in Resurrection provoked a backlash. In February 1901, the Holy Synod published a resolution on the excommunication of Count Leo Tolstoy from the Church in the journal Tserkovnye Vedomosti. This decision only increased Tolstoy's popularity and drew public attention to the writer's ideals and beliefs.

Tolstoy's literary and social activities became known abroad as well. The writer was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902 and 1909 and for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902-1906. Tolstoy himself did not want to receive the award and even told the Finnish writer Arvid Järnefelt to try to prevent the award of the prize, because "if this happened ... it would be very unpleasant to refuse . "

During this period, the Tolstoy family relations were in a deep crisis - largely due to the friendship of Leo Tolstoy with Vladimir Chertkov, whom Sophia Tolstaya called the devil: “He [Chertkov] took the unfortunate old man in every possible way, he separated us, he killed the artistic spark in Lev Nikolaevich and kindled condemnation, hatred, denial, which are felt in the articles of Lev Nikolaevich of recent years, to which his stupid evil genius incited him .

Tolstoy himself was burdened by the life of a landowner and a family man. He sought to bring his life in line with his convictions, and in early November 1910 he secretly left the Yasnaya Polyana estate. The road turned out to be unbearable for an elderly person: on the way he fell seriously ill and was forced to stay at the house of the caretaker of the Astapovo railway station. Here the writer spent the last days of his life. Leo Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910. The writer was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.