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Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy biography, information, personal life
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (August 28 [September 9] 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula Province, Russian Empire November 7 [20] 1910, Astapovo Station, Ryazan Province, Russian Empire) was one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers, revered as one of the greatest writers in the world.
An educator, publicist, religious thinker, his authoritative opinion caused 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 was recognized as the head of Russian literature during his lifetime.
The work of Leo Tolstoy marked a new stage in Russian and world realism, acting as a bridge between the classic novel of the XIX century and the literature of the XX century.
Leo Tolstoy had a strong influence on the evolution of European humanism, as well as on the development of realistic traditions in world literature.
The works of Leo Tolstoy were repeatedly filmed and staged in the USSR and abroad; his plays were staged on stages all over the world.
The most famous works of Tolstoy are the novels "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", "Resurrection", the autobiographical trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence", "Youth", the novellas "Cossacks", "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", "Kreutzer Sonata", "Hadji Murad", the cycle of essays "Sevastopol stories", the dramas "The Living Corpse" and "The Power of Darkness", the autobiographical religious and philosophical works "Confession" and "What my faith?" et al..
He came from the Tolstoy noble family, known since 1351.
The features of Ilya Andreevich's grandfather are given in "War and Peace" to the good natured, impractical old Count Rostov.
Ilya Andreevich's son, Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy (1794-1837), was the father of Lev Nikolaevich.
In some character traits and biography facts, he was similar to Nikolenka's father in "Childhood" and "Adolescence" and partly to Nikolai Rostov in "War and Peace".
However, in real life, Nikolai Ilyich differed from Nikolai Rostov not only with a good education, but also with beliefs that did not allow him to serve under Nicholas I.
A participant in the foreign campaign of the Russian army against Napoleon, including participated in the" battle of the peoples " near Leipzig and was captured by the French, but was able to escape, after the conclusion of peace, he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd Hussar regiment.
Soon after his resignation, he was forced to enter the official service in order not to end up in debt prison because of the debts of his father, the Kazan governor, who died under investigation for official abuses.
The negative example of his father helped Nikolai Ilyich develop his life ideal — a private independent life with family joys.
To put his frustrated affairs in order, Nikolai Ilyich (like Nikolai Rostov), married the no longer very young Princess Maria Nikolaevna from the Volkonsky family in 1822, the marriage was happy.
They had five children: Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergey (1826-1904), Dmitry (1827-1856), Lev, Maria (1830-1912).
Tolstoy's maternal grandfather, the Catherine's general, Nikolai Sergeyevich Volkonsky, had some resemblance to the stern rigorist the old Prince Bolkonsky in "War and Peace".
Lev Nikolaevich's mother, similar in some respects to the Princess Mary depicted in "War and Peace", had a wonderful gift of a storyteller.
In addition to the Volkonskys, Leo Tolstoy was closely related to some other aristocratic families: the princes Gorchakov, Trubetskoy and others.
Leo Tolstoy was born on August 28, 1828 in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province, in the hereditary estate of his mother — Yasnaya Polyana.
He was the fourth child in the family.
The mother died in 1830, six months after the birth of her daughter from "birth fever", as they said then, when Leo was not yet 2 years old.
A distant relative of T. A. Ergolskaya took up the upbringing of orphaned children.
In 1837, the family moved to Moscow, settling on Plyushchikha, as the eldest son had to prepare for admission to the university.
Soon his father, Nikolai Ilyich, died suddenly, leaving the affairs (including some lawsuits related to the family's property) in an unfinished state, and the three younger children again settled in Yasnaya Polyana under the supervision of Yergolskaya and her paternal aunt, Countess A.M. Osten Saken, who was appointed guardian of the children.
Here Lev Nikolayevich remained until 1840, when Countess Osten Saken died, and the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian — his father's sister P. I. Yushkova.
The Yushkovs ' house was considered one of the most cheerful in Kazan; all family members highly appreciated the external brilliance.
"My good aunt," Tolstoy says, " is a pure being, she always said that she would like nothing more for me than for me to have an affair with a married woman."
Lev Nikolaevich wanted to shine in society, but his natural shyness and lack of external attractiveness prevented him.
The most diverse, as Tolstoy himself defines them, "speculations" about the most important issues of our existence happiness, death, God, love, eternity left an imprint on his character in that era of life.
What he told in his "Adolescence" and "Youth", in the novel "Resurrection" about the aspirations of Irtenyev and Nekhludoff for self improvement, is taken by Tolstoy from the history of his own ascetic attempts of this time.
All this, wrote the critic S. A. Vengerov, led to the fact that Tolstoy created, in the words of his story "Adolescence", "a habit of constant moral analysis, which destroyed the freshness of feeling and clarity of reason."
His education was initially handled by the French tutor Saint Thomas (the prototype of St. Jerome in the story "Adolescence"), who replaced the good natured German Reselman, whom Tolstoy portrayed in the story" Childhood " under the name of Karl Ivanovich.
In 1843, P. I. Yushkova, taking on the role of guardian of her minor nephews (only the eldest, Nikolai, was of age) and nieces, brought them to Kazan.
Following his brothers Nikolai, Dmitry and Sergei, Lev decided to enroll in the Imperial Kazan University, where Lobachevsky worked at the mathematical faculty, and Kovalevsky worked at the Eastern Faculty.
On October 3, 1844, Leo Tolstoy was enrolled as a student of the category of Oriental (Arabic Turkish) literature as a self paying student.
At the entrance exams, in particular, he showed excellent results in the "Turkish Tatar language", which is mandatory for admission.
According to the results of the year, he had poor academic performance in the relevant subjects, failed the transition exam and had to re pass the first year program.
In order to avoid a complete repetition of the course, he moved to the law faculty, where his problems with grades in some subjects continued.
The transitional May exams of 1846 were passed satisfactorily (he received one five, three fours and four threes; the average output turned out to be three), and Lev Nikolaevich was transferred to the second year.
Lev Tolstoy spent less than two years at the Faculty of Law: "It was always difficult for him to get any education imposed by others, and everything he learned in life, he learned himself, suddenly, quickly, with hard work," writes S. A. Tolstaya in her "Materials for the biography of L. N. Tolstoy".
In 1904, he recalled: "I'm the first year ...I didnot do anything.
In the second year, I started studying ...there was Professor Meyer, who ...he gave me a job a comparison of the "Order" Catherine with Esprit des lois ("The Spirit of the Laws") Montesquieu. ...
I was fascinated by this work, I went to the country, began to read Montesquieu, this reading opened up endless horizons for me;
I began to read Rousseau and dropped out of university, precisely because I wanted to study."
Since March 11, 1847, Tolstoy was in the Kazan hospital, on March 17 he began to keep a diary, where, imitating Benjamin Franklin, he set goals and tasks for self improvement, noted successes and failures in performing these tasks, analyzed his shortcomings and the course of thoughts, the motives of his actions.
He kept this diary with small interruptions throughout his life.
After completing his treatment, in the spring of 1847 Tolstoy left his studies at the university and went to Yasnaya Polyana, which he inherited under the section; his activities there are partly described in the work "The Morning of the Landowner": Tolstoy tried to establish new relations with the peasants.
His attempt to somehow smooth out the young landowner's sense of guilt before the people dates back to the same year when D. V. Grigorovich's "Anton Goremyka" and the beginning of I. S. Turgenev's "Notes of the Hunter" appeared.
In his diary, Tolstoy formulated a large number of life rules and goals, but he managed to follow only a small part of them.
Among the successful ones — serious classes in English, music, law.
In addition, neither the diary nor the letters reflected the beginning of Tolstoy's studies in pedagogy and charity, although in 1849 he opened a school for peasant children for the first time.
The main teacher was Foka Demidovich, a serf, but Lev Nikolaevich himself often conducted classes.
In mid October 1848, Tolstoy left for Moscow, settling where many of his relatives and friends lived in the Arbat district.
He was staying at Ivanova's house in Nikolopeskovsky Lane.
In Moscow, he was going to start preparing for the candidate's exams, but classes were never started.
Instead, he was attracted to a completely different side of life — social life.
In addition to his passion for social life, in Moscow, in the winter of 1848-1849, Lev Nikolaevich first developed a passion for a card game.
But since he played very recklessly and not always thinking about his moves, he often lost.
After leaving for St. Petersburg in February 1849, he spent time on carousals with K. A. Islavin, the uncle of his future wife ("My love for Islavin spoiled for me the whole 8 months of my life in St. Petersburg").
In the spring, Tolstoy began to take the exam for the candidate of rights; he passed two exams, from criminal law and criminal justice, successfully, but he did not take the third exam and left for the village.
Later, he came to Moscow, where he often spent time gambling, which often had a negative impact on his financial situation.
During this period of his life, Tolstoy was especially passionately interested in music (he himself played the piano well and greatly appreciated his favorite works performed by others).
His passion for music prompted him later to write the "Kreutzer Sonata".
Tolstoy's favorite composers were Bach, Handel and Chopin.
The development of Tolstoy's love for music was also facilitated by the fact that during a trip to St. Petersburg in 1848, he met in a very unsuitable dance class environment with a gifted but lost German musician, whom he later described in the story "Albert".
In 1849, Lev Nikolaevich settled a musician Rudolf in Yasnaya Polyana, with whom he played four handed on the piano.
Being interested in music at that time, he played works by Schumann, Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn for several hours a day.
In the late 1840s, Tolstoy co authored a waltz with his friend Zybin, which he performed in the early 1900s with the composer S. I. Taneyev, who made a musical notation of this musical work (the only one composed by Tolstoy).
A lot of time was also spent on carousing, playing and hunting.
In the winter of 1850-1851, he began to write "Childhood".
In March 1851, he wrote "The History of Yesterday".
4 years after he left the university, Lev Nikolaevich's brother Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, came to Yasnaya Polyana, who invited his younger brother to join military service in the Caucasus.
Lev did not agree immediately, until a major loss in Moscow accelerated the final decision.
Biographers of the writer note the significant and positive influence of brother Nikolai on the young and inexperienced in everyday affairs of Leo.
His older brother was a friend and mentor to him in the absence of his parents.
In order to pay off his debts, it was necessary to reduce his expenses to a minimum — and in the spring of 1851, Tolstoy hurriedly left Moscow for the Caucasus without a specific goal.
Soon he decided to enlist in the military, but for this he lacked the necessary documents left in Moscow, in anticipation of which Tolstoy lived for about five months in Pyatigorsk, in a simple hut.
He spent a significant part of his time hunting, in the company of the Cossack Epishka, the prototype of one of the heroes of the story "The Cossacks", who appears there under the name Eroshka.
In the autumn of 1851, Tolstoy, having passed the exam in Tiflis, entered as a cadet in the 4th battery of the 20th Artillery Brigade, which stood in the Cossack village of Starogladovskaya on the bank of the Terek, near Kizlyar.
With some changes in details, she is depicted in the story "The Cossacks".
The story reproduces a picture of the inner life of a young master who fled from Moscow life.
In the Cossack village, Tolstoy began to write again and in July 1852 he sent the first part of the future autobiographical trilogy "Childhood", signed only with the initials "L. N. T.", to the editorial office of the most popular magazine at that time, "Sovremennik", signed only with the initials "L. N. T.".
When sending the manuscript to the magazine, Leo Tolstoy attached a letter in which he said axis: "...I am looking forward to your verdict.
He will either encourage me to continue my favorite activities, or make me burn everything I started."
Having received the manuscript of "Childhood", the editor of" Sovremennik " N. A. Nekrasov immediately recognized its literary value and wrote a kind letter to the author, which had a very encouraging effect on him.
In a letter to I. S. Turgenev, Nekrasov noted: "This talent is new and seems to be reliable."
The manuscript of an as yet unknown author was published in September of the same year.
Meanwhile, the novice and inspired author began to continue the tetralogy "Four Epochs of Development", the last part of which — "Youth" — did not take place.
He was thinking over the plot of "The Morning of the Landowner" (the finished story was only a fragment of "The Novel of the Russian Landowner"), "The Raid", "The Cossacks".
Published in Sovremennik on September 18, 1852," Childhood " was an extraordinary success; after publication, the author was immediately ranked among the luminaries of the young literary school, along with I. S. Turgenev, Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, Ostrovsky, who were already enjoying loud literary fame at that time.
Critics Apollo Grigoriev, Annenkov, Druzhinin, Chernyshevsky appreciated the depth of psychological analysis, the seriousness of the author's intentions and the bright convexity of realism.
The relatively late beginning of the field is very characteristic of Tolstoy: he never considered himself a professional writer, understanding professionalism not in the sense of a profession that provides a means of living, but in the sense of the predominance of literary interests.
He did not take the interests of literary parties to heart, reluctantly talked about literature, preferring to talk about issues of faith, morality, and social relations.
As a cadet, Lev Nikolaevich stayed for two years in the Caucasus, where he participated in many skirmishes with the mountaineers led by Shamil, and was exposed to the dangers of military Caucasian life.
He had the right to the St. George Cross, but in accordance with his beliefs, he "conceded" it to a fellow soldier, considering that a significant relief of the conditions of service of a colleague is above personal vanity.
With the beginning of the Crimean War, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube Army, participated in the Battle of Oltenitsa and in the siege of Silistria, and from November 1854 to the end of August 1855 was in Sevastopol.
For a long time he lived on the 4th bastion, which was often attacked, commanded a battery in the Battle of Chernaya, was bombed during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan.
Tolstoy, despite all the hardships of life and the horrors of the siege, at this time wrote the story "Cutting the Forest", which reflected Caucasian impressions, and the first of three "Sevastopol stories" — "Sevastopol in December 1854".
He sent this story to Sovremennik.
It was quickly published and read with interest by the whole of Russia, making a stunning impression with a picture of the horrors that fell to the lot of the defenders of Sevastopol.
The story was noticed by the Russian Emperor Alexander II; he ordered to take care of the gifted officer.
Even during the life of Emperor Nicholas I, Tolstoy intended to publish together with the artillery officers the "cheap and popular "magazine" Military Leaf", but Tolstoy failed to implement the magazine project: "My Sovereign Emperor most graciously deigned to allow our articles to be published in the Invalid, "Tolstoy bitterly ironized about this.
For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anna of the 4th degree with the inscription "For Bravery", the medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855" and "In memory of the war of 1853-1856".
Subsequently, he was awarded two medals "In memory of the 50th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol": silver as a participant in the defense of Sevastopol and bronze as the author of"Sevastopol stories".
Tolstoy, enjoying the reputation of a brave officer and surrounded by the brilliance of fame, had every chance of a career.
Nevertheless, his career was spoiled by writing several satirical songs, stylized as soldiers ' songs.
One of these songs was dedicated to the failure during the battle of the Chernaya River on August 4 (16), 1855, when General Read, having misunderstood the commander in chief's order, attacked Fedyukhin heights.
The song entitled "As on the fourth day, we were not easy to take away the mountains", which touched a number of important generals, was a huge success.
For her, Lev Nikolaevich had to answer to the assistant Chief of Staff A. A. Yakimakh.
Immediately after the assault on August 27 (September 8), Tolstoy was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he finished "Sevastopol in May 1855" and wrote "Sevastopol in August 1855", published in the first issue of "Sovremennik" for 1856 with the author's full signature.
"Sevastopol stories" finally strengthened his reputation as a representative of a new literary generation, and in November 1856, the writer left military service forever.
In St. Petersburg, the young writer was warmly welcomed in high society salons and in literary circles.
He became closest friends with I. S. Turgenev, with whom they lived in the same apartment for some time.
Turgenev introduced him to the Sovremennik circle, after which Tolstoy established friendly relations with such famous writers as N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Goncharov, I. I. Panaev, D. V. Grigorovich, A.V. Druzhinin, V. A. Sollogub.
At this time, "Blizzard", "Two Hussars" were written, "Sevastopol in August" and "Youth" were completed, the writing of the future "Cossacks"continued.
However, a cheerful and eventful life left a bitter residue in Tolstoy's soul, at the same time he began to have a strong discord with a circle of writers close to him.
As a result," people were disgusted with him, and he was disgusted with himself " — and at the beginning of 1857, Tolstoy left St. Petersburg without any regret and went abroad.
On his first trip abroad, he visited Paris, where he was horrified by the cult of Napoleon I ("The deification of the villain, terrible"), at the same time he visited balls, museums, admired the "sense of social freedom".
However, the presence at the guillotining made such a heavy impression that Tolstoy left Paris and went to places associated with the French writer and thinker J.-J.
Rousseau on Lake Geneva.
In the spring of 1857, I. S. Turgenev described his meetings with Leo Tolstoy in Paris in the following way after his sudden departure from St. Petersburg: "Indeed, Paris does not at all fit into his spiritual system; he is a strange man, I have not met such people and do not quite understand.
A mixture of a poet, a Calvinist, a fanatic, a barich — something reminiscent of Rousseau, but more honest than Rousseau — a highly moral and at the same time unsympathetic being."
Trips to Western Europe — Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Italy (in 1857 and 1860-1861) made a rather negative impression on him.
He expressed his disappointment in the European way of life in the story "Lucerne".
Tolstoy's disappointment was caused by the deep contrast between wealth and poverty, which he was able to see through the magnificent external cover of European culture.
Lev Nikolaevich is writing the novel "Albert".
At the same time, friends do not cease to be surprised by his eccentricities: in his letter to I. S. Turgenev in the autumn of 1857, P. V. Annenkov told Tolstoy's project for planting forests throughout Russia, and in his letter to V. P. Botkin, Leo Tolstoy reported how he was very glad that he did not become only a writer against Turgenev's advice.
However, in the interval between the first and second trips, the writer continued working on "The Cossacks", wrote the story "Three Deaths" and the novel "Family Happiness".
His last novel was published in the" Russian Bulletin " by Mikhail Katkov.
Tolstoy's collaboration with the magazine Sovremennik, which lasted from 1852, ended in 1859.
In the same year, Tolstoy took part in the organization of the Literary Fund.
But his life was not limited to literary interests: on December 22, 1858, he almost died on a bear hunt.
Around the same time, he began an affair with a peasant woman Aksinya Bazykina, plans for marriage are maturing.
On his next trip, he was mainly interested in public education and institutions aimed at raising the educational level of the working population.
He carefully studied the issues of public education in Germany and France, both theoretically and practically — in conversations with specialists.
Of the outstanding people in Germany, he was most interested in Bertold Auerbach as the author of the "Black Forest Stories" devoted to folk life and as the publisher of folk calendars.
Tolstoy paid him a visit and tried to get closer to him.
In addition, he also met with the German teacher Disterweg.
During his stay in Brussels, Tolstoy met Proudhon and Lelevel.
In London, he visited A. I. Herzen, attended a lecture by Charles Dickens.
Tolstoy's serious mood during his second trip to the south of France was also facilitated by the fact that his beloved brother Nikolai died of tuberculosis almost on his hands.
The death of his brother made a huge impression on Tolstoy.
Gradually, criticism for 10-12 years cools down to Leo Tolstoy, until the very appearance of "War and Peace", and he himself did not strive for rapprochement with writers, making an exception only for Athanasius Fet.
One of the reasons for this estrangement was the quarrel between Leo Tolstoy and Turgenev, which occurred at a time when both prose writers were visiting Fet at the Stepanovka estate in May 1861.
The quarrel almost ended in a duel and spoiled the relationship between the writers for a long 17 years.
In May 1862, Lev Nikolaevich, suffering from depression, went to the Bashkir farm Karalyk, Samara province, on the recommendation of doctors I came to be treated with a new and fashionable method of kumysolechenie at that time.
Initially, he was going to stay in Postnikov's kumysolechebnitsa near Samara, but after learning that many high ranking officials were coming at the same time (a secular society that the young count could not stand), he went to the Bashkir nomad Karalyk, on the Karalyk River, 130 versts from Samara.
There Tolstoy lived in a Bashkir kibitka (yurt), ate mutton, took sun baths, drank kumis, tea, and also had fun with the Bashkirs playing checkers.
The first time he stayed there for a month and a half.
In 1871, when he had already written "War and Peace", he returned there again due to poor health.
He wrote about his impressions as follows: "The melancholy and indifference have passed, I feel like I'm coming to the Scythian state, and everything is interesting and new...
A lot is new and interesting: Bashkirs, who smell of Herodotus, and Russian peasants, and villages, especially charming for the simplicity and kindness of the people."
Fascinated by Karalyk, Tolstoy bought an estate in these places, and already spent the summer of the following year, 1872, together with the whole family in it.
In July 1866, Tolstoy appeared at a military field court as a defender of Vasil Shabunin, a company clerk standing near Yasnaya Polyana of the Moscow Infantry Regiment.
Shabunin hit an officer who ordered him to be punished with rods for being drunk.
Tolstoy proved Shabunin's insanity, but the court found him guilty and sentenced him to death.
Shabunin was shot.
This episode made a great impression on Tolstoy, as he saw in this terrible phenomenon the merciless force represented by a state based on violence.
On this occasion, he wrote to his friend, the publicist P. I. Biryukov: "This case had much more influence on my whole life than all the seemingly more important events in life: the loss or recovery of a fortune, successes or failures in literature, even the loss of close people."
During the first 12 years after his marriage, he created " War and Peace "and"Anna Karenina".
At the turn of this second era of Tolstoy's literary life, "The Cossacks", conceived in 1852 and completed in 1861-1862, is the first of the works in which the mature Tolstoy's talent was most realized.
The main interest of Tolstoy's creativity was manifested "in the 'history' of characters, in their continuous and complex movement and development."
Its purpose was to show the ability of a person to moral growth, improvement, opposition to the environment based on the power of his own soul.
The release of "War and Peace" was preceded by work on the novel "The Decembrists" (1860-1861), to which the author repeatedly returned, but which remained unfinished.
And the share of "War and Peace" was an unprecedented success.
An excerpt from the novel entitled "1805" appeared in the "Russian Bulletin" of 1865; in 1868, three parts of it were published, which were soon followed by the remaining two.
The first four volumes of War and Peace quickly sold out, and a second edition was needed, which was released in October 1868.
The fifth and sixth volumes of the novel were published in the same edition, printed in an already increased circulation.
"War and Peace" has become a unique phenomenon in both Russian and foreign literature.
This work has absorbed all the depth and intimacy of a psychological novel with the scope and multi figure nature of an epic fresco.
The writer, according to V. Ya.
Lakshin, turned "to a special state of national consciousness in the heroic time of 1812, when people from different strata of the population united in resistance to foreign invasion," which, in turn, " created the ground for an epic."
The author showed national Russian features in " hidden warmth
