Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (/ˈtoʊlstɔɪ, ˈtɒl-/; Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой, IPA: [ˈlʲef nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tɐlˈstoj]; 9 September [O.S. 28 August] 1828 – 20 November [O.S. 7 November] 1910), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time. He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909.

Participant in the defense of Sevastopol. Educator, publicist, religious thinker, his authoritative opinion served as the reason for the emergence of a new religious and moral movement — Tolstoyism. Corresponding Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1873), Honorary Academician in the category of fine literature (1900).

A writer, recognized during his lifetime as the head of Russian literature. The work of Leo Tolstoy marked a new stage in Russian and world realism, acting as a bridge between the classical novel of the 19th century and the literature of the 20th 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.

Born into an aristocratic family, Tolstoy’s notable works include the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878), often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction, and two of the greatest books of all time. He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856), and Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based upon his experiences in the Crimean War. His fiction includes dozens of short stories such as «After the Ball» (1911), and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), Family Happiness (1859) and Hadji Murad (1912). He also wrote plays and essays concerning philosophical, moral and religious themes.

Biography

He came from the noble Tolstoy 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 Lev Nikolayevich’s father. In some character traits and biographical facts, he was similar to Nikolenka’s father in «Childhood» and «Boyhood» and partly to Nikolai Rostov in «War and Peace». However, in real life, Nikolai Ilyich differed from Nikolai Rostov not only in his good education, but also in his convictions, which did not allow him to serve under Nicholas I. He participated in the foreign campaign of the Russian army against Napoleon, including the «Battle of the Nations» near Leipzig and was captured by the French, but was able to escape, and after the conclusion of peace, he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment. Soon after his retirement, he was forced to take up civil service in order to avoid ending up in debtors’ prison due to the debts of his father, the Kazan governor, who died under investigation for abuse of office. The negative example of his father helped Nikolai Ilyich develop his ideal in life — a private, independent life with family joys. In order to put his disordered affairs in order, Nikolai Ilyich (like Nikolai Rostov), ​​married the no longer very young Princess Maria Nikolaevna from the Volkonsky family in 1822, a happy marriage. They had five children: Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergei (1826-1904), Dmitry (1827-1856), Lev, Maria (1830-1912).

Tolstoy’s maternal grandfather, Catherine’s general, Nikolai Sergeyevich Volkonsky, had some resemblance to the stern rigorist — old Prince Bolkonsky in War and Peace. Lev Nikolaevich’s mother, similar in some respects to Princess Marya depicted in War and Peace, possessed a remarkable gift as a storyteller. In addition to the Volkonskys, L. N. Tolstoy was closely related to several other aristocratic families: the princes Gorchakov, Trubetskoy and others.

Childhood

Leo Tolstoy was born on August 28, 1828 in the Krapivinsky district of the Tula province, in his mother’s hereditary estate — Yasnaya Polyana. He was the fourth child in the family. His mother died in 1830, six months after the birth of her daughter, from «childbed fever», as they said then, when Leo was not yet 2 years old.
A distant relative, T. A. Ergolskaya, took on the upbringing of the orphaned children. In 1837, the family moved to Moscow, settling in Plyushchikha, since the eldest son had to prepare to enter the university. Soon after, his father, Nikolai Ilyich, died suddenly, leaving his affairs (including some litigation related to the family’s property) unfinished, and the three younger children again settled in Yasnaya Polyana under the supervision of Ergolskaya and his paternal aunt, Countess A. M. Osten-Saken, who was appointed guardian of the children. Lev Nikolaevich remained here 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 members of the family highly valued external splendor. «My kind aunt,» Tolstoy says, «the purest creature, always said that she would wish nothing more for me than for me to have a relationship with a married woman.»

Lev Nikolayevich wanted to shine in society, but his natural shyness and lack of external attractiveness hindered him. The most diverse, as Tolstoy himself defines them, «reasonings» about the most important questions of our existence — happiness, death, God, love, eternity — left an imprint on his character in that era of his life. What he told in «Boyhood» and «Youth», in the novel «Resurrection» about the aspirations of Irtenyev and Nekhlyudov for self-improvement was taken by Tolstoy from the history of his own ascetic attempts at that time. All this, wrote the critic S. A. Vengerov, led to the fact that Tolstoy developed, in the words of his story «Boyhood», «a habit of constant moral analysis, which destroyed the freshness of feeling and clarity of reason.»

Education

The house where L. N. Tolstoy was born, 1898. In 1854, the house was sold by order of the writer for removal to the village of Dolgoe. Demolished in 1913.
His education was initially handled by the French tutor Saint-Thomas (the prototype of St.-Jérôme in the story «Boyhood»), who replaced the good-natured German Resselman, whom Tolstoy depicted 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 an adult) and niece, brought them to Kazan. Following his brothers Nikolai, Dmitry and Sergei, Lev decided to enroll in the Imperial Kazan University, where Lobachevsky worked in the Mathematics department, and Kovalevsky in the Eastern Department. On October 3, 1844, Leo Tolstoy was enrolled as a student in the category of oriental (Arabic-Turkish) literature as a self-funded student. In particular, he showed excellent results in the entrance exams in the «Turkish-Tatar language» required 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 retake the first-year program.

In order to avoid a complete repetition of the course, he transferred to the law faculty, where his problems with grades in some subjects continued. The transition exams in May 1846 were passed satisfactorily (he received one A, three Bs and four Cs; the average result was C), and Lev Nikolayevich was transferred to the second year. Leo Tolstoy spent less than two years at the Faculty of Law: “Any education imposed by others was always difficult for him, and everything he learned in life, he learned himself, suddenly, quickly, with intense work,” writes S. A. Tolstaya in her “Materials for the Biography of L. N. Tolstoy.” In 1904, he recalled: “…the first year I… did nothing. In the second year I began to study… there was Professor Meyer, who… gave me a job — a comparison of Catherine’s “Instruction” with Montesquieu’s Esprit des lois. … I was captivated by this work, I went to the village, 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.”

Beginning of Literary Activity

L. N. Tolstoy kept his diary from his youth until the end of his life. Notebook entries from 1891-1895.
From 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 completing these tasks, analyzed his shortcomings and train of thought, the motives of his actions. He kept this diary with short breaks throughout his life.

After completing treatment, in the spring of 1847, Tolstoy left his studies at the university and went to Yasnaya Polyana, which he received as part of the division; 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 over the young landowner’s sense of guilt before the people dates back to the same year when «Anton-Goremyka» by D. V. Grigorovich and the beginning of «A Hunter’s Sketches» by I. S. Turgenev appeared.

In his diary, Tolstoy formulated a large number of life rules and goals for himself, but he managed to follow only a small part of them. Among the successful ones were serious studies in English, music, and jurisprudence. In addition, neither the diary nor the letters reflect Tolstoy’s beginning to study teaching and charity, although in 1849 he opened the first school for peasant children. The main teacher was Foka Demidovich, a serf, but Lev Nikolayevich himself often held classes.

In mid-October 1848, Tolstoy left for Moscow, settling in the area of ​​Arbat, where many of his relatives and acquaintances lived. He stayed at Ivanova’s house in Nikolopeskovsky Lane. In Moscow, he was going to begin preparing for the candidate exams, but the classes never started. Instead, he was attracted by 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 playing cards. But since he played very passionately and did not always think through his moves, he often lost. Having left for St. Petersburg in February 1849, he spent his time carousing with K. A. Islavin, the uncle of his future wife («My love for Islavin ruined 8 months of my life in St. Petersburg»). In the spring, Tolstoy began taking the exam for a candidate of law; he passed two exams, criminal law and criminal procedure, successfully, but he did not take the third exam and left for the village.

Later he came to Moscow, where he often spent his 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 quite well and greatly appreciated his favorite works performed by others). His passion for music later prompted him 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 a talented but lost German musician in a dance class, in a very unsuitable setting, whom he later described in the story «Albert». In 1849, Lev Nikolayevich settled the musician Rudolf in his home in Yasnaya Polyana, with whom he played four hands on the piano. Having become interested in music at that time, he spent several hours a day playing works by Schumann, Chopin, Mozart, and Mendelssohn. In the late 1840s, Tolstoy, in collaboration with his friend Zybin, composed a waltz, 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). Much time was also spent on drinking, gambling, and hunting. In the winter of 1850-1851, he began writing Childhood. In March 1851, he wrote The History of Yesterday. Four years after he left the university, Lev Nikolayevich’s brother Nikolai, who had served in the Caucasus, came to Yasnaya Polyana and invited his younger brother to join the military service in the Caucasus. Lev did not agree immediately, until a major loss in Moscow hastened the final decision. The writer’s biographers note the significant and positive influence of his brother Nikolai on the young and inexperienced Lev. In the absence of his parents, the older brother was his friend and mentor.

In order to pay off his debts, he had to cut his expenses to a minimum — and in the spring of 1851, Tolstoy hastily 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, while waiting for 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 of Eroshka.

In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy, having passed the exam in Tiflis, entered as a cadet in the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladovskaya on the bank of the Terek, near Kizlyar. With some changes in details, it is depicted in the story «The Cossacks». The story reproduces a picture of the inner life of a young gentleman who fled from Moscow life. In the Cossack village, Tolstoy began writing again and in July 1852 he sent the first part of the future autobiographical trilogy, «Childhood», to the editors of the most popular magazine of that time, «Sovremennik», signed only with the initials «L. N. T.» When sending the manuscript to the magazine, Leo Tolstoy enclosed a letter which said: «… I am impatiently awaiting your verdict. It will either encourage me to continue my favorite activities, or force me to burn everything I have 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 is a new talent and, it seems, reliable.» The manuscript of the still unknown author was published in September of the same year. Meanwhile, the aspiring and inspired author began to continue the tetralogy “Four Epochs of Development”, the last part of which, “Youth”, never took place. He thought over the plot of “The Morning of a Landowner” (the finished story was only a fragment of “The Novel of a Russian Landowner”), “Raid”, and “The Cossacks”. Published in “Sovremennik” on September 18, 1852, “Childhood” was an extraordinary success; after its publication, the author was immediately considered one of the luminaries of the young literary school, along with I. S. Turgenev, Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, and Ostrovsky, who were already enjoying great literary fame. Critics Apollon Grigoriev, Annenkov, Druzhinin, and Chernyshevsky appreciated the depth of the psychological analysis, the seriousness of the author’s intentions, and the vivid convexity of realism.

A relatively late start to his career is very typical of Tolstoy: he never considered himself a professional writer, understanding professionalism not in the sense of a profession that provides a living, but in the sense of the prevalence of literary interests. He did not take the interests of literary parties to heart, reluctantly talked about literature, preferring to talk about questions of faith, morality, and social relations.

Military service

As a cadet, Lev Nikolayevich remained in the Caucasus for two years, where he participated in many skirmishes with the highlanders 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 convictions, he «gave up» it to a fellow soldier, believing that a significant easing of the fellow soldier’s conditions of service was worth more than personal vanity. With the outbreak of the Crimean War, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube Army, participated in the Battle of Oltenitsa and the siege of Silistra, 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 at the bombardment during the storming of Malakhov Kurgan. Tolstoy, despite all the hardships of life and the horrors of the siege, at this time wrote the story «Felling the Forest», which reflected his impressions of the Caucasus, 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 all of Russia, making a stunning impression with a picture of the horrors that befell the defenders of Sevastopol. The story was noticed by the Russian Emperor Alexander II; he ordered that the talented officer be protected.

Even during the life of Emperor Nicholas I, Tolstoy intended to publish a “cheap and popular” magazine “Military Leaflet” together with artillery officers, but Tolstoy was unable to implement the magazine project: “My Sovereign Emperor most graciously deigned to allow our articles to be published in “Invalid”,” Tolstoy bitterly ironized about this.

For being on the fourth bastion during the bombardment of the Jason Redoubt, composure and resourcefulness.
— From the nomination for the Order of St. Anne, 4th Art.
For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 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». He was subsequently awarded two medals «In Memory of the 50th Anniversary of the Defense of Sevastopol»: a silver one as a participant in the defense of Sevastopol and a bronze one as the author of «Sevastopol Stories». Tolstoy, enjoying the reputation of a brave officer and surrounded by the glitter of fame, had every chance of a career. However, his career was spoiled by the writing of several satirical songs, stylized as soldiers’ songs. One of these songs was dedicated to the failure during the battle at the Chernaya River on August 4 (16), 1855, when General Read, misunderstanding the order of the commander-in-chief, attacked the Fedyukhin Heights. The song entitled «As on the fourth day, the heavy burden carried us to take back the mountains», which offended a number of important generals, was a huge success. Lev Nikolayevich had to answer for it to the assistant chief of staff A. A. Yakimakh. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (September 8), Tolstoy was sent as a courier to St. Petersburg, where he finished «Sevastopol in May 1855» and wrote «Sevastopol in August 1855», published in the first issue of «Sovremennik» in 1856 with the author’s full signature. «Sevastopol Stories» finally strengthened his reputation as a representative of the new literary generation, and in November 1856 the writer left military service forever.

Travels in Europe

In St. Petersburg, the young writer was warmly welcomed in high society salons and literary circles. He became closest friends with I. S. Turgenev, with whom he 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. Panayev, D. V. Grigorovich, A. V. Druzhinin, V. A. Sollogub.
At this time, «The Snowstorm», «Two Hussars» were written, «Sevastopol in August» and «Youth» were completed, and the writing of the future «Cossacks» continued.

However, a cheerful and eventful life left a bitter aftertaste in Tolstoy’s soul, at the same time he began to have a strong discord with the circle of writers close to him. As a result, “people became disgusting to him, and he himself became disgusting” — and at the beginning of 1857, Tolstoy left 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 a villain is terrible”), at the same time he attended balls, museums, and admired the “feeling of social freedom”. However, being present 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 — to Lake Geneva. In the spring of 1857, I. S. Turgenev described his meetings with Leo Tolstoy in Paris after his sudden departure from Petersburg as follows:

“Indeed, Paris is not at all in tune with his spiritual structure; he is a strange man, I have never met anyone like him and do not quite understand him. A mixture of poet, Calvinist, fanatic, nobleman — something reminiscent of Rousseau, but more honest than Rousseau — a highly moral and at the same time unsympathetic creature.» — I. S. Turgenev, Complete Works and Letters. Letters, Vol. III, p. 52.
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 outer cover of European culture.

Lev Nikolayevich writes the story «Albert». At the same time, his friends never ceased to be amazed by his eccentricities: in his letter to I. S. Turgenev in the autumn of 1857, P. V. Annenkov described Tolstoy’s project to plant forests throughout Russia, and in his letter to V. P. Botkin, Leo Tolstoy reported how glad he was that he had not become only a writer, contrary to 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».
On the day of the photo shoot of the writers of «Sovremennik», Levitsky made separate portraits of each writer in his studio. Tolstoy is wearing the uniform of a participant in the Crimean War

He published his last novel in Mikhail Katkov’s «Russian Messenger». Tolstoy’s collaboration with the magazine «Sovremennik», which had lasted since 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 during a bear hunt.
Around the same time, he began an affair with a peasant woman, Aksinya Bazykina, and plans for marriage were 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 closely studied issues of public education in Germany and France, both theoretically and practically — in conversations with specialists. Of the outstanding people of Germany, he was most interested in Berthold Auerbach as the author of the «Black Forest Tales» devoted to folk life and as a publisher of folk calendars. Tolstoy paid him a visit and tried to get closer to him. In addition, he also met with the German educator Diesterweg. During his stay in Brussels, Tolstoy met Proudhon and Lelewel. In London he visited A. I. Herzen and attended a lecture by Charles Dickens.

Tolstoy’s serious mood during his second trip to the south of France was also helped by the fact that his beloved brother Nikolai died of tuberculosis almost in his arms. The death of his brother made a huge impression on Tolstoy.

Gradually, critics cooled towards Leo Tolstoy for 10-12 years, until the very publication of War and Peace, and he himself did not seek rapprochement with writers, making an exception only for Afanasy Fet. One of the reasons for this alienation was the quarrel between Leo Tolstoy and Turgenev, which occurred when both 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 17 long years.

Treatment in the Bashkir nomad camp of Karalyk

In May 1862, Lev Nikolayevich, suffering from depression, on the recommendation of doctors went to the Bashkir farm of Karalyk, Samara province, to be treated with the new and fashionable at that time method of kumis treatment. Initially, he was going to stay at Postnikov’s kumys clinic near Samara, but when he learned that many high-ranking officials were to arrive at the same time (a society that the young count could not stand), he went to the Bashkir nomad camp of Karalyk, on the Karalyk River, 130 miles from Samara. There, Tolstoy lived in a Bashkir tent (yurt), ate lamb, took sun baths, drank kumys, tea, and also entertained himself with the Bashkirs by 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 came there again due to deteriorating health. He wrote about his impressions: “The melancholy and indifference have passed, I feel myself coming into a Scythian state, and everything is interesting and new… Much is new and interesting: the Bashkirs, who smell of Herodotus, and the Russian peasants, and the villages, especially charming in the simplicity and kindness of the people.”
Enchanted by Karalyk, Tolstoy bought an estate in these places, and spent the summer of the following year, 1872, with his whole family in it.

Teaching activity

In 1859, even before the liberation of the peasants, Tolstoy was actively engaged in organizing schools in his Yasnaya Polyana and in the entire Krapivinsky district.
The Yasnaya Polyana school was one of the original pedagogical experiments: in the era of admiration for the German pedagogical school, Tolstoy resolutely rebelled against any regulation and discipline in school. According to his idea, everything in teaching should be individual — both the teacher and the student, and their mutual relations. In the Yasnaya Polyana school, children sat wherever they wanted, for as long as they wanted, and however they wanted. There was no specific teaching program. The teacher’s only job was to interest the class. The classes were going well. Tolstoy himself taught them with the help of several permanent teachers and a few random ones, from his closest acquaintances and visitors.

Since 1862, Tolstoy began publishing the pedagogical journal «Yasnaya Polyana», where he himself was the main contributor. Not feeling the calling of a publisher, Tolstoy managed to publish only 12 issues of the journal, the last of which appeared late in 1863. In addition to theoretical articles, he also wrote a number of short stories, fables, and adaptations adapted for primary school. Combined together, Tolstoy’s pedagogical articles made up an entire volume of his collected works. At the time, they went unnoticed. No one paid attention to the sociological basis of Tolstoy’s ideas about education, to the fact that Tolstoy saw in education, science, art and technical advances only easier and more advanced ways of exploiting the people by the upper classes. Moreover, from Tolstoy’s attacks on European education and «progress» many concluded that Tolstoy was a «conservative». Soon Tolstoy left teaching. Marriage, the birth of his own children, plans related to writing the novel «War and Peace» pushed back his teaching activities for ten years. Only in the early 1870s did he begin to create his own «ABC» and published it in 1872, and then released «The New ABC» and a series of four «Russian Books for Reading», approved after long ordeals by the Ministry of Public Education as teaching aids for primary schools. In the early 1870s, classes at the Yasnaya Polyana school were resumed for a short time.

Gradually, critics cooled towards Leo Tolstoy for 10-12 years, until the very publication of War and Peace, and he himself did not seek rapprochement with writers, making an exception only for Afanasy Fet. One of the reasons for this alienation was the quarrel between Leo Tolstoy and Turgenev, which occurred when both 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 17 long years.

Treatment in the Bashkir nomad camp of Karalyk

In May 1862, Lev Nikolayevich, suffering from depression, on the recommendation of doctors went to the Bashkir farm of Karalyk, Samara province, to be treated with the new and fashionable at that time method of kumis treatment. Initially, he was going to stay at Postnikov’s kumys clinic near Samara, but when he learned that many high-ranking officials were to arrive at the same time (a society that the young count could not stand), he went to the Bashkir nomad camp of Karalyk, on the Karalyk River, 130 miles from Samara. There, Tolstoy lived in a Bashkir tent (yurt), ate lamb, took sun baths, drank kumys, tea, and also entertained himself with the Bashkirs by 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 came there again due to deteriorating health. He wrote about his impressions: “The melancholy and indifference have passed, I feel myself coming into a Scythian state, and everything is interesting and new… Much is new and interesting: the Bashkirs, who smell of Herodotus, and the Russian peasants, and the villages, especially charming in the simplicity and kindness of the people.”
Enchanted by Karalyk, Tolstoy bought an estate in these places, and spent the summer of the following year, 1872, with his whole family in it.

Teaching activity

In 1859, even before the liberation of the peasants, Tolstoy was actively engaged in organizing schools in his Yasnaya Polyana and in the entire Krapivinsky district.
The Yasnaya Polyana school was one of the original pedagogical experiments: in the era of admiration for the German pedagogical school, Tolstoy resolutely rebelled against any regulation and discipline in school. According to his idea, everything in teaching should be individual — both the teacher and the student, and their mutual relations. In the Yasnaya Polyana school, children sat wherever they wanted, for as long as they wanted, and however they wanted. There was no specific teaching program. The teacher’s only job was to interest the class. The classes were going well. Tolstoy himself taught them with the help of several permanent teachers and a few random ones, from his closest acquaintances and visitors.

Since 1862, Tolstoy began publishing the pedagogical journal «Yasnaya Polyana», where he himself was the main contributor. Not feeling the calling of a publisher, Tolstoy managed to publish only 12 issues of the journal, the last of which appeared late in 1863. In addition to theoretical articles, he also wrote a number of short stories, fables, and adaptations adapted for primary school. Combined together, Tolstoy’s pedagogical articles made up an entire volume of his collected works. At the time, they went unnoticed. No one paid attention to the sociological basis of Tolstoy’s ideas about education, to the fact that Tolstoy saw in education, science, art and technical advances only easier and more advanced ways of exploiting the people by the upper classes. Moreover, from Tolstoy’s attacks on European education and «progress» many concluded that Tolstoy was a «conservative». Soon Tolstoy left teaching. Marriage, the birth of his own children, plans related to writing the novel «War and Peace» pushed back his teaching activities for ten years. Only in the early 1870s did he begin to create his own «ABC» and published it in 1872, and then released «The New ABC» and a series of four «Russian Books for Reading», approved after long ordeals by the Ministry of Public Education as teaching aids for primary schools. In the early 1870s, classes at the Yasnaya Polyana school were resumed for a short time.

The experience of the Yasnaya Polyana school was later useful to some domestic teachers. Thus, S. T. Shatsky, creating his own school-colony «Bodraya Zhizn» in 1911, was inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s experiments in the field of cooperation pedagogy.

Leo Tolstoy’s public activities in the 1860s
Upon his return from Europe in May 1861, L. N. Tolstoy was offered to become a peace mediator for the 4th section of the Krapivinsky district of the Tula province. Unlike those who looked at the people as a younger brother who needed to be raised to their level, Tolstoy thought the opposite, that the people were infinitely higher than the cultural classes and that the lords needed to borrow the heights of spirit from the peasants, so he, having accepted the position of mediator, actively defended the land interests of the peasants, often violating the tsar’s decrees. «Mediation is interesting and exciting, but the bad thing is that the entire nobility hates me with all their might and puts des bâtons dans les roues (French for «sticks in the wheels») in my way from all sides.» Working as a mediator expanded the writer’s range of observations of the life of peasants, giving him material for artistic creativity.

In July 1866, Tolstoy appeared at a military field court as a defense attorney for Vasil Shabunin, a company clerk of the Moscow Infantry Regiment stationed near Yasnaya Polyana. Shabunin struck an officer who ordered him to be flogged for being drunk. Tolstoy argued that Shabunin was insane, but the court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Shabunin was shot. This episode made a great impression on Tolstoy, since he saw in this terrible phenomenon the merciless force that a state based on violence represented. On this occasion he wrote to his friend, the publicist P. I. Biryukov:

«This incident had a much greater influence on my entire life than all the seemingly more important events in life: the loss or improvement of my fortune, successes or failures in literature, even the loss of loved ones.»

The heyday of creativity

L. N. Tolstoy (1876)
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 are «The Cossacks,» conceived in 1852 and completed in 1861-1862, the first of the works in which the talent of the mature Tolstoy was most fully realized.
The main interest of creativity for Tolstoy was manifested «in the ‘history’ of characters, in their continuous and complex movement, development.» His goal was to show the ability of the individual to moral growth, improvement, and resistance to the environment, relying on the strength of his own soul.

«War and Peace»

The publication 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. But «War and Peace» was an unprecedented success. An excerpt from the novel under the title «1805» appeared in the «Russian Messenger» in 1865; in 1868, three of its parts were published, 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 one edition, printed in an increased print run.

«War and Peace» became a unique phenomenon in both Russian and foreign literature. This work 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, addressed «the special state of national consciousness in the heroic period of 1812, when people from different strata of the population united in resistance to foreign invasion,» which, in turn, «created the ground for the epic.» The author showed national Russian features in the «hidden warmth of patriotism,» in disgust for ostentatious heroism, in a calm faith in justice, in the modest dignity and courage of ordinary soldiers. He depicted Russia’s war with Napoleon’s troops as a nationwide war. The epic style of the work is conveyed through the fullness and plasticity of the image, the ramifications and intersection of destinies, and incomparable pictures of Russian nature.

Tolstoy’s novel widely represents the most diverse social strata, from emperors and kings to soldiers, all ages and all temperaments in the space of the reign of Alexander I.

Tolstoy was pleased with his own work, but already in January 1871 he sent a letter to A. A. Fet: «How happy I am … that I will never again write verbose nonsense like «War».» However, Tolstoy hardly crossed out the importance of his previous works. When Tokutomi Roka asked him in 1906 which of his works he liked most, the writer answered: «The novel «War and Peace».»

«Anna Karenina»

An equally dramatic and serious work was the novel about tragic love «Anna Karenina» (1873-1876). Unlike the previous work, there is no place in it for the infinitely happy rapture of the bliss of being. In the almost autobiographical novel of Levin and Kitty there are still joyful experiences, but in the depiction of Dolly’s family life there is already more bitterness, and in the unhappy ending of the love of Anna Karenina and Vronsky there is so much anxiety of spiritual life that this novel is essentially a transition to the third period of Tolstoy’s literary activity, the dramatic one.

It has less simplicity and clarity of spiritual movements, characteristic of the heroes of «War and Peace», more heightened sensitivity, inner alertness and anxiety. The characters of the main characters are more complex and refined. The author sought to show the subtlest nuances of love, disappointment, jealousy, despair, spiritual enlightenment.

The problems of this work directly led Tolstoy to the ideological turning point of the late 1870s.

Other works

Waltz composed by Tolstoy and recorded by S. I. Taneyev on February 10, 1906

In March 1879, in Moscow, Leo Tolstoy met Vasily Petrovich Shchegolenok, and that same year, at his invitation, he came to Yasnaya Polyana, where he stayed for about a month and a half. Shchegolenok told Tolstoy many folk tales, epics and legends, more than twenty of which were written down by Tolstoy (these notes were published in Volume XLVIII of the Jubilee Edition of Tolstoy’s Works), and Tolstoy, if he did not write down on paper, then remembered the plots of some of them: six works written by Tolstoy are based on Shchegolenok’s stories (1881 — «What People Live By», 1885 — «Two Old Men» and «Three Old Men», 1905 — «Kornei Vasiliev» and «Prayer», 1907 — «The Old Man in the Church»). In addition, Tolstoy diligently wrote down many sayings, proverbs, individual expressions and words told by Shchegolenok.

Tolstoy’s new worldview was most fully expressed in his works «Confession» (1879-1880, published in 1884) and «What is My Faith?» (1882-1884). Tolstoy dedicated the story «The Kreutzer Sonata» (1887-1889, published in 1891) and «The Devil» (1889-1890, published in 1911) to the theme of the Christian principle of love, devoid of any self-interest and rising above sensual love in the struggle with the flesh. In the 1890s, trying to theoretically substantiate his views on art, he wrote the treatise «What is Art?» (1897-1898). But his main artistic work of those years was his novel «Resurrection» (1889-1899), the plot of which was based on a real court case. Sharp criticism of church rituals in this work became one of the reasons for Tolstoy’s excommunication from the Orthodox Church by the Holy Synod in 1901. The highest achievements of the early 1900s were the story «Hadji Murat» and the drama «The Living Corpse». In «Hadji Murat» the despotism of Shamil and Nicholas I is equally exposed. In the story, Tolstoy glorified the courage of struggle, the power of resistance and love of life. The play «The Living Corpse» became evidence of Tolstoy’s new artistic quests, objectively close to Chekhov’s drama.

Literary criticism of Shakespeare’s works

In his critical essay «On Shakespeare and Drama», based on a detailed analysis of some of Shakespeare’s most popular works, in particular, «King Lear», «Othello», «Falstaff», «Hamlet» and others, Tolstoy sharply criticized Shakespeare’s abilities as a playwright. At the performance of «Hamlet», he experienced «particular suffering» for this «false semblance of works of art».

Participation in the Moscow census

L. N. Tolstoy took part in the Moscow census of 1882. He wrote about it as follows: «I proposed to use the census in order to find out about poverty in Moscow and to help it with deeds and money, and to make sure that there are no poor people in Moscow.»

Tolstoy believed that the interest and significance of the census for society is that it gives it a mirror in which, whether you want to or not, the whole society and each of us will look. He chose one of the most difficult areas, Protochny Lane, where there was a flophouse; among the Moscow rabble, this gloomy two-story building was called «Rzhanova Fortress». Having received the order of the Duma, Tolstoy began to walk around the area a few days before the census according to the plan that was given to him. Indeed, the dirty flophouse, filled with beggars who had sunk to the very bottom, desperate people, served as a mirror for Tolstoy, reflecting the terrible poverty of the people. Freshly impressed by what he saw, L. N. Tolstoy wrote his famous article «On the Census in Moscow». In this article, he indicated that the purpose of the census was scientific, and was a sociological study.

Despite the good goals of the census declared by Tolstoy, the population was suspicious of this event. On this occasion, Tolstoy wrote: “When they explained to us that the people had already learned about the door-to-door visit and were leaving, we asked the owner to lock the gates, and we ourselves went out into the yard to persuade the people who were leaving.” Lev Nikolayevich hoped to arouse sympathy for urban poverty in the rich, collect money, recruit people willing to assist in this matter, and, together with the census, go through all the dens of poverty. In addition to fulfilling the duties of a census taker, the writer wanted to communicate with the unfortunate, learn the details of their needs, and help them with money and work, expulsion from Moscow, placing children in schools, old men and women in shelters and almshouses.

Leo Tolstoy in Moscow

“The Bolkonsky House” in Moscow (9 Vozdvizhenka St.)
As Moscow expert Alexander Vaskin writes, Leo Tolstoy visited Moscow more than one hundred and fifty times.

The general impressions he gained from his acquaintance with Moscow life were, as a rule, negative, and his comments on the social situation in the city were sharply critical. Thus, on October 5, 1881, he wrote in his diary:

“Stench, stones, luxury, poverty. Debauchery. The villains who robbed the people gathered, recruited soldiers and judges to protect their orgy. And they feast. The people have nothing better to do than to take advantage of the passions of these people and lure back what they stole.”
Many buildings associated with the life and work of the writer have been preserved on the streets of Plyushchikha, Sivtsev Vrazhek, Vozdvizhenka, Tverskaya, Nizhny Kislovsky Lane, Smolensky Boulevard, Zemledelchesky Lane, Voznesensky Lane and, finally, Dolgokhamovnichesky Lane (modern Leo Tolstoy Street) and others. The writer often visited the Kremlin, where his wife Bersa’s family lived. Tolstoy loved to walk around Moscow, even in winter. The writer last visited Moscow in 1909.

In addition, at 9 Vozdvizhenka Street, there was the house of Lev Nikolayevich’s grandfather, Prince Nikolai Sergeyevich Volkonsky, which he bought in 1816 from Praskovya Vasilyevna Muravyova-Apostol (the daughter of Lieutenant General V. V. Grushetsky, who built this house, the wife of the writer Senator I. M. Muravyov-Apostol, the mother of three Decembrist brothers, the Muravyov-Apostols). Prince Volkonsky owned the house for five years, which is why the house is also known in Moscow as the main house of the Volkonsky princes’ estate or as the «Bolkonsky house». The house was described by L. N. Tolstoy as the house of Pierre Bezukhov. Lev Nikolayevich was well acquainted with this house — he often visited it as a young man at balls, where he courted the lovely princess Praskovia Shcherbatova: «With boredom and drowsiness I went to the Ryumins, and suddenly it washed over me. Praskovia Shcherbatova is a delight. There hasn’t been anything fresher than this for a long time.» He endowed Kitty Shcherbatskaya with the features of the beautiful Praskovia in «Anna Karenina». In 1886, 1888 and 1889, L. N. Tolstoy walked from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana three times. On the first such journey, his companions were the politician Mikhail Stakhovich and Nikolai Ge (the son of the artist N. N. Ge). On the second — also Nikolai Ge, and from the second half of the journey (from Serpukhov) A. N. Dunayev and S. D. Sytin (the publisher’s brother) joined him. During his third journey, Leo Nikolayevich was accompanied by a new friend and like-minded person, the 25-year-old teacher Evgeny Popov.

Spiritual Crisis and Preaching

In his work «Confession» Tolstoy wrote that from the end of the 1870s he began to be often tormented by unanswerable questions: «Okay, you will have 6,000 dessiatines in the Samara province — 300 horses, and then what?»; in the literary sphere: «Okay, you will be more famous than Gogol, Pushkin, Shakespeare, Moliere, all the writers in the world — so what!». Starting to think about raising children, he asked himself: «Why?»; reasoning «about how the people can achieve prosperity», he «suddenly said to himself: what business is it of mine?» In general, he «felt that what he stood on had given way, that what he lived by no longer exists.» The natural result was the thought of suicide:

“I, a happy man, hid the cord from myself so as not to hang myself on the crossbar between the cupboards in my room, where I was alone every day, undressing, and I stopped going hunting with a gun, so as not to be tempted by an overly easy way of ridding myself of life. I myself did not know what I wanted: I was afraid of life, I strove to get away from it and, meanwhile, I still hoped for something from it.”

In order to find an answer to the questions and doubts that constantly troubled him, Tolstoy first of all took up the study of theology and wrote and published in 1891 in Geneva his “Study of Dogmatic Theology”, in which he criticized the “Orthodox Dogmatic Theology” of Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov). He held conversations with priests and monks, visited the elders at Optina Pustyn (in 1877, 1881 and 1890), read theological treatises, talked with Elder Ambrose, K. N. Leontiev, an ardent opponent of Tolstoy’s teaching. In a letter to T. I. Filippov dated March 14, 1890, Leontiev reported that during this conversation he said to Tolstoy: “It’s a pity, Lev Nikolaevich, that I have little fanaticism. But I should write to Petersburg, where I have connections, so that they exile you to Tomsk and do not allow either the Countess or your daughters to even visit you, and so that they send you little money. Otherwise, you are positively harmful.” To this, Lev Nikolaevich exclaimed with fervor: “My dear Konstantin Nikolaevich! Write, for God’s sake, so that they exile me. This is my dream. I do everything possible to compromise myself in the eyes of the government, and I get away with it. Please write.» In order to study the original sources of Christian teaching, he studied ancient Greek and Hebrew (Moscow rabbi Shlomo Minor helped him study the latter). At the same time, he looked closely at the Old Believers, became close to the peasant preacher Vasily Syutayev, talked with the Molokans and Stundists. Lev Nikolayevich sought the meaning of life in the study of philosophy, in familiarizing himself with the results of the exact sciences. He tried to simplify everything as much as possible, to live a life close to nature and agricultural life.

Gradually, Tolstoy renounced the whims and comforts of a rich life (simplification), did a lot of physical labor, dressed in the simplest clothes, became a vegetarian, gave his entire large fortune to his family, and renounced the rights to literary property. On the basis of a sincere desire for moral improvement, the third period of Tolstoy’s literary activity was created, the distinctive feature of which was the denial of all established forms of state, social and religious life. At the beginning of the reign of Alexander III, Tolstoy wrote to the emperor with a request to pardon the regicides in the spirit of the evangelical forgiveness. From September 1882, he was put under secret surveillance to clarify relations with the sectarians; in September 1883, he refused to perform the duties of a juror, citing incompatibility with his religious worldview. At the same time, he was banned from public speaking in connection with the death of Turgenev. Gradually, the ideas of Tolstoyism began to penetrate society. In early 1885, a precedent of refusal to serve in the military due to Tolstoy’s religious beliefs occurred in Russia. A significant part of Tolstoy’s views could not be openly expressed in Russia and were set out in full only in foreign editions of his religious and social treatises. There was no unanimity in the attitude towards Tolstoy’s works of art written during this period. Thus, in a long series of short stories and legends intended primarily for popular reading («What People Live By,» etc.), Tolstoy, in the opinion of his unconditional admirers, reached the pinnacle of artistic power. At the same time, in the opinion of people who reproached Tolstoy for turning from an artist into a preacher, these artistic teachings written with a specific purpose were crudely tendentious. The sublime and terrible truth of «The Death of Ivan Ilyich», according to admirers, putting this work on a par with the main works of the genius Tolstoy, according to others, is deliberately harsh, it sharply emphasized the heartlessness of the upper classes of society in order to show the moral superiority of the simple «kitchen peasant» Gerasim. Opposite reviews were also caused by «The Kreutzer Sonata» (written in 1887-1889, published in 1890) — the analysis of marital relations made one forget about the amazing brightness and passion with which this story was written. The work was banned by the censors, it was possible to publish it thanks to the efforts of S. A. Tolstaya, who managed to meet with Alexander III. As a result, the story was published in a form cut by the censors in Tolstoy’s Collected Works with the personal permission of the tsar. Alexander III was pleased with the story, but the tsarina was shocked. But the folk drama «The Power of Darkness», according to Tolstoy’s admirers, became a great manifestation of his artistic power: Tolstoy managed to fit so many universal human features into the narrow framework of the ethnographic reproduction of Russian peasant life that the drama was a colossal success on all stages of the world.

During the famine of 1891-1892, Tolstoy organized institutions in the Ryazan province to help the starving and needy. He opened 187 canteens, which fed 10 thousand people, as well as several canteens for children, distributed firewood, seeds and potatoes for sowing, bought and distributed horses to farmers (almost all farms lost their horses during the year of famine), and collected almost 150,000 rubles in donations.

The treatise «The Kingdom of God is Within You…» was written by Tolstoy with short breaks over almost 3 years: from July 1890 to May 1893. The treatise, which aroused the admiration of the critic V. V. Stasov («the first book of the 19th century») and I. E. Repin («this thing of terrifying power»), could not be published in Russia due to censorship, and it was published abroad. The book began to be illegally distributed in a huge number of copies in Russia. In Russia itself, the first legal edition appeared in July 1906, but even after that it was withdrawn from sale. The treatise was included in the collected works of Tolstoy, published in 1911, after his death.

In his last major work, the novel Resurrection, published in 1899, Tolstoy condemned judicial practice and high society life, and portrayed the clergy and church services as secularized and united with secular power.

On December 6, 1908, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: «People love me for those trifles — War and Peace, etc., which seem very important to them.»

In the summer of 1909, one of the visitors to Yasnaya Polyana expressed his delight and gratitude for the creation of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Tolstoy replied: «It’s the same as if someone came to Edison and said: «I respect you very much because you dance the mazurka well.» I attribute significance to my completely different books (religious ones!)». That same year, Tolstoy described the role of his works of art as follows: «They draw attention to my serious things.» Some critics of the last stage of Tolstoy’s literary activity stated that his artistic power suffered from the predominance of theoretical interests and that Tolstoy now needed creativity only to propagate his socio-religious views in a generally accessible form. On the other hand, Vladimir Nabokov, for example, denies the presence of preaching specifics in Tolstoy and notes that the power and universal meaning of his work have nothing to do with politics and simply displace his teaching: «In essence, Tolstoy the thinker was always occupied with only two themes: Life and Death. And no artist can avoid these themes.» It was suggested that in his work «What is Art?» Tolstoy partly completely denies and partly significantly belittles the artistic significance of Dante, Raphael, Goethe, Shakespeare, Beethoven and others, he directly comes to the conclusion that «the more we give ourselves to beauty, the more we move away from goodness», asserting the priority of the moral component of creativity over aesthetics.

Excommunication

The Synod’s decision was proclaimed on February 24, 1901 and published in the «Church Gazette»
After his birth, Leo Tolstoy was baptized into Orthodoxy. Nevertheless, despite his attitude towards the Orthodox Church, he, like most representatives of the educated society of his time, was indifferent to religious issues in his youth and early adulthood. But in the mid-1870s, he showed an increased interest in the teachings and worship of the Orthodox Church: «I reread everything I could about the teachings of the church, … strictly followed, for more than a year, all the instructions of the church, observing all the fasts and attending all the church services,» which resulted in complete disappointment in the church faith. The turning point away from the teachings of the Orthodox Church for him was the second half of 1879. In the 1880s, he adopted a position of an unequivocally critical attitude towards church doctrine, the clergy, and the official church. The publication of some of Tolstoy’s works was prohibited by both spiritual and secular censorship. In 1899, Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection was published, in which the author showed the life of various social strata of contemporary Russia; the clergy were depicted as mechanically and hastily performing rituals, and some took the cold and cynical Toporov for a caricature of K. P. Pobedonostsev, the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod.

Leo Tolstoy applied his teaching primarily to his own way of life. He denied the church’s interpretation of immortality and rejected church authority; he did not recognize the rights of the state, since it was built (in his opinion) on violence and coercion. He criticized church teaching, according to which «life as it is here on earth, with all its joys, beauties, with all the struggle of reason against darkness — the life of all people who lived before me, my whole life with my inner struggle and victories of reason is not true life, but fallen life, hopelessly spoiled; «The true, sinless life is in faith, that is, in imagination, that is, in madness.» Leo Tolstoy did not agree with the teaching of the church that man from his birth, by his very nature, is vicious and sinful, since, in his opinion, such a teaching «cuts off at the root everything that is best in human nature.» Seeing how the church was quickly losing its influence on the people, the writer, according to K. N. Lomunov, came to the conclusion: «Everything living is independent of the church.»

In February 1901, the Synod finally came to the conclusion that Tolstoy should be publicly condemned and declared outside the Church. Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky) played an active role in this. As stated in the chamber journals, on February 22, Pobedonostsev visited Nicholas II in the Winter Palace and talked with him for about an hour. Some historians believe that Pobedonostsev came to the Tsar directly from the Synod with a ready-made decision.

On February 24 (old style), 1901, the official organ of the Synod, “Church Gazette, Published by the Holy Governing Synod,” published “The Decision of the Holy Synod of February 20-22, 1901, No. 557, with a message to the faithful children of the Orthodox Greek-Russian Church about Count Leo Tolstoy.”

<…> The world-famous writer, Russian by birth, Orthodox by baptism and upbringing, Count Tolstoy, in the delusion of his proud mind, boldly rebelled against the Lord and His Christ and His holy heritage, openly renounced before everyone the Mother who had nourished and raised him, the Orthodox Church, and devoted his literary activity and the talent given to him by God to the dissemination among the people of teachings contrary to Christ and the Church, and to the destruction in the minds and hearts of people of the faith of the fathers, the Orthodox faith, which established the universe, by which our ancestors lived and were saved, and by which Holy Rus’ has held fast and been strong to this day.

In his writings and letters, in great numbers scattered by him and his disciples throughout the world, and especially within the borders of our dear Fatherland, he preaches, with the zeal of a fanatic, the overthrow of all dogmas of the Orthodox Church and the very essence of the Christian faith; rejects the personal living God, glorified in the Holy Trinity, the Creator and Provider of the universe, denies the Lord Jesus Christ — the God-man, the Redeemer and Savior of the world, who suffered for us humans and for our salvation and rose from the dead, denies the seedless conception of Christ the Lord according to humanity and the virginity before and after the birth of the Most Pure Mother of God Ever-Virgin Mary, does not recognize the afterlife and retribution, rejects all the sacraments of the Church and the gracious action of the Holy Spirit in them and, mocking the most sacred objects of the faith of the Orthodox people, did not shudder to subject to mockery the greatest of the sacraments, the Holy Eucharist. Count Tolstoy preaches all this continuously, in word and in writing, to the temptation and horror of the entire Orthodox world, and thereby openly, but clearly before everyone, consciously and intentionally cut himself off from all communion with the Orthodox Church.

The attempts to bring him to his senses were unsuccessful. Therefore, the Church does not consider him a member and cannot consider him one until he repents and restores his communion with her. <…> Therefore, testifying to his falling away from the Church, we also pray that the Lord will grant him repentance to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 2:25). We pray to Thee, merciful Lord, who does not desire the death of sinners, hear and have mercy and turn him to Thy holy Church. Amen.

«Leo Tolstoy in Hell.» Collection of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. 1883. On a fragment of a wall painting from the church in the village. Tazova Kursk province Tolstoy in the arms of Satan. According to theologians, including Doctor of Historical Sciences, Candidate of Theology, Doctor of Church History priest Georgy Orekhanov, the decision of the Synod regarding Tolstoy is not a curse on the writer, but a statement of the fact that he is no longer a member of the Church by his own will. In addition, the Synodal act of February 20-22 stated that Tolstoy could return to the Church if he repented. Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky), who was the first member of the Holy Synod at that time, wrote to Sofya Andreyevna Tolstaya: “All of Russia mourns for your husband, we mourn for him. Do not believe those who say that we are seeking his repentance for political purposes.” Nevertheless, the writer, his entourage and the Russian public considered this definition to be an unjustifiably cruel act. For example, when Tolstoy arrived at Optina Pustyn, when asked why he did not go to the elders, he replied that he could not go because he was excommunicated.

In his «Response to the Synod,» Leo Tolstoy confirmed his break with the church: «It is entirely fair that I have renounced the church that calls itself Orthodox. But I renounced it not because I rebelled against the Lord, but on the contrary, only because I wished to serve Him with all the strength of my soul.» Tolstoy objected to the accusations brought against him in the Synod’s resolution: «The Synod’s resolution has many shortcomings in general. It is illegal or deliberately ambiguous; it is arbitrary, unfounded, untrue, and, in addition, contains slander and incitement to evil feelings and actions.» In the text of the «Response to the Synod,» Tolstoy elaborates on these theses, acknowledging a number of significant discrepancies between the dogmas of the Orthodox Church and his own understanding of the teachings of Christ.

The Synodal resolution provoked indignation among a certain part of society; Tolstoy received numerous letters and telegrams expressing sympathy and support. At the same time, this definition provoked a stream of letters from another part of society — with threats and abuse.

In November 1909, he wrote down a thought that indicated his broad understanding of religion:

«I do not want to be a Christian, just as I did not advise and would not like there to be Brahmanists, Buddhists, Confucianists, Taoists, Mohammedans and others. We must all find, each in our own faith, what is common to all, and, having rejected the exclusive, our own, adhere to what is common.»

At the end of February 2001, the Count’s great-grandson Vladimir Tolstoy, who manages the writer’s museum-estate in Yasnaya Polyana, sent a letter to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ Alexy II with a request to reconsider the synodal definition. In response to the letter, the Moscow Patriarchate stated that the decision to excommunicate Leo Tolstoy from the Church, made exactly 105 years ago, cannot be reviewed, since (according to the Secretary for Church Relations Mikhail Dudko), it would be wrong in the absence of the person to whom the church court applies. In March 2009, Vladimir Tolstoy expressed his opinion on the significance of the synodal act: “I studied the documents, read the newspapers of that time, familiarized myself with the materials of public discussions around the excommunication. And I had the feeling that this act gave a signal for a total split in Russian society. The royal family, the highest aristocracy, the landed gentry, the intelligentsia, the raznochintsy classes, and the common people all split. A crack ran through the body of the entire Russian, Russian people.”

Departure from Yasnaya Polyana, death and burial

Letter from L.N. Tolstoy to his wife, left before leaving Yasnaya Polyana

1910 October 28. Yasnaya Polyana.

My departure will upset you. I regret it, but understand and believe that I could not act otherwise. My situation at home is becoming, has become, unbearable. Apart from everything else, I can no longer live in the luxurious conditions in which I lived, and I am doing what old men of my age usually do: they leave worldly life to live in solitude and silence for the last days of their lives.

Please understand this and do not follow me, even if you find out where I am. Such a visit from you will only worsen your and my situation, but will not change my decision. I thank you for your honest 48 years of life with me and ask you to forgive me for everything that I have been guilty of before you, just as I forgive you with all my heart for everything that you could have been guilty of before me. I advise you to reconcile yourself to the new situation in which my departure places you, and not to bear me any ill will. If you want to tell me anything, tell Sasha, she will know where I am and will forward what is needed to me; however, she cannot tell me where I am, because I made her promise not to tell anyone.

Leo Tolstoy. October 28.

I have entrusted Sasha with collecting my things and manuscripts and sending them to me.
Leo Tolstoy

Yasnaya Polyana, where the writer lived most of his life
On the night of October 28 (November 10), 1910, L. N. Tolstoy, fulfilling his decision to live his last years according to his views, secretly left Yasnaya Polyana forever, accompanied only by his doctor D. P. Makovitsky.

At the same time, Tolstoy did not even have a specific plan of action. He began his last journey at Shchyokino station. On the same day, having changed trains at Gorbachyovo station, he reached the city of Belev in Tula province, then in the same way, but on another train to Kozelsk station, hired a coachman and headed to Optina Pustyn, and from there the next day to Shamordino Monastery, where he met his sister, Maria Nikolaevna Tolstaya. Later, Tolstoy’s daughter Alexandra Lvovna secretly arrived in Shamordino.

On the morning of October 31 (November 13), L. N. Tolstoy and his companions set off from Shamordino to Kozelsk, where they boarded train No. 12, Smolensk-Ranenburg, heading east, which had already arrived at the station. They did not have time to buy tickets upon boarding; having reached Belev, they bought tickets to Volovo station, where they intended to transfer to some train heading south. Those accompanying Tolstoy later also testified that there was no specific purpose to the trip. After a meeting, they decided to go to his niece E. S. Denisenko in Novocherkassk, where they wanted to try to get foreign passports and then go to Bulgaria; if this did not work out, they would go to the Caucasus. However, on the way L. N. Tolstoy felt worse — the cold turned into croupous pneumonia and the accompanying people were forced to interrupt the trip that same day and carry the sick Tolstoy out of the train at the first large station near the settlement. This station was Astapovo (now Lev Tolstoy, Lipetsk region).

The news of Leo Tolstoy’s illness caused a great stir both in the highest circles and among the members of the Holy Synod. Encrypted telegrams about his health and the state of affairs were systematically sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Moscow Gendarme Administration of Railways. An emergency secret meeting of the Synod was convened, at which, on the initiative of Chief Prosecutor Lukyanov, the question of the church’s attitude in the event of a sad outcome of Leo Nikolayevich’s illness was raised. But the question was never resolved positively.

Six doctors tried to save Leo Nikolayevich, but to their offers to help he only replied: «God will arrange everything.» When he was asked what he wanted, he said: «I want no one to bother me.» His last meaningful words, which he uttered a few hours before his death to his eldest son, which he was too excited to understand, but which the doctor Makovitsky heard, were: «Seryozha… I love the truth… a lot, I love everyone…».

On November 7 (20), at 6:05 am, after a week of a serious and painful illness (he was suffocating), Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy died in the house of the station master I. I. Ozolin.

When L. N. Tolstoy came to Optina Pustyn before his death, the abbot of the monastery and the head of the skete was the elder Barsanuphius. Tolstoy did not dare to go into the skete, and the elder went after him to the Astapovo station to give him the opportunity to reconcile with the Church. He had spare Holy Gifts, and he received instructions: if Tolstoy whispered in his ear just one word, «I repent,» he had the right to give him communion. But the elder was not allowed to see the writer, nor were his wife and some of his closest relatives from among the Orthodox believers.

On November 9, 1910, several thousand people gathered in Yasnaya Polyana for the funeral of Leo Tolstoy. Among those gathered were the writer’s friends and admirers of his work, local peasants and Moscow students, as well as representatives of government agencies and local police officers sent to Yasnaya Polyana by the authorities, who feared that the farewell ceremony to Tolstoy could be accompanied by anti-government statements, and perhaps even turn into a demonstration. In addition, this was the first public funeral of a famous person in Russia that was not to be held according to the Orthodox rite (without priests and prayers, without candles and icons), as Tolstoy himself wished. The ceremony was peaceful, which was noted in the police reports. The mourners, observing complete order, accompanied Tolstoy’s coffin from the station to the estate with quiet singing. People lined up and silently entered the room to say goodbye to the body.

On the same day, the newspapers published a resolution of Nicholas II on the report of the Minister of Internal Affairs on the death of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy: «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 a merciful judge to him.»

Leo Tolstoy’s Grave

On November 10 (23), 1910, L. N. Tolstoy was buried in Yasnaya Polyana, on the edge of a ravine in the forest, where as a child he and his brother searched for the «green stick» that held the «secret» of how to make all people happy. When the coffin with the deceased was lowered into the grave, all those present reverently knelt.

In January 1913, a letter from Countess S. A. Tolstaya dated December 22, 1912, was published, in which she confirmed the news in the press that a funeral service had been performed at her husband’s grave by a certain priest in her presence, while she refuted rumors that the priest was not real. In particular, the Countess wrote: «I also declare that Lev Nikolaevich never once before his death expressed a desire not to have the funeral service performed, and earlier he wrote in his diary of 1895, as if a will: «If possible, then (bury) without priests and a funeral service. But if this is unpleasant for those who will bury him, then let them bury him as usual, but as cheaply and simply as possible.» The priest who voluntarily wished to violate the will of the Holy Synod and secretly perform the funeral service for the excommunicated count turned out to be Grigory Leontyevich Kalinovsky, a priest from the village of Ivankovo ​​in the Pereyaslav district of the Poltava province. Soon he was removed from office, but not for the illegal funeral service for Tolstoy, but “in view of the fact that he is under investigation for the drunken murder of a peasant <…>, and the said priest Kalinovsky is of rather unapprovable behavior and moral qualities, that is, a bitter drunkard and capable of all sorts of dirty deeds,” as reported in the intelligence gendarme reports

Report of the head of the St. Petersburg security department, Colonel von Kotten, to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire:

“In addition to the reports of November 8, I report to Your Excellency information about the unrest among student youth that took place on November 9… on the occasion of the burial day of the deceased L. N. Tolstoy. At 12 o’clock in the afternoon, a memorial service for the late L. N. Tolstoy was held in the Armenian Church, attended by about 200 worshipers, mostly Armenians, and a small number of students. After the memorial service, the worshipers dispersed, but a few minutes later, male and female students began to arrive at the church. It turned out that notices had been posted on the entrance doors of the university and the Higher Women’s Courses that a memorial service for L. N. Tolstoy would take place on November 9 at one o’clock in the afternoon in the aforementioned church. The Armenian clergy held a second memorial service, by the end of which the church could no longer accommodate all the worshipers, a significant number of whom stood on the porch and in the courtyard of the Armenian Church. At the end of the funeral service, everyone on the porch and in the churchyard sang “Eternal Memory”…”

Two years before his death, on January 22, 1909, Tolstoy wrote in his diary:

“Yesterday the bishop was there<…> It is especially unpleasant that he asked to let him know when I will die. I hope they will come up with something to convince people that I “repented” before death. And therefore I declare, I think I repeat, that I cannot return to church, take communion before death, just as I cannot say obscene words or look at obscene pictures before death, and therefore everything that will be said about my deathbed repentance and communion is a lie.”

The death of Leo Tolstoy was reacted to not only in Russia, but throughout the world. In Russia, student and worker demonstrations with portraits of the deceased took place, which became a response to the death of the great writer. To honor Tolstoy’s memory, workers in Moscow and St. Petersburg stopped work at several factories and plants. Legal and illegal gatherings and meetings took place, leaflets were issued, concerts and parties were cancelled, theaters and cinemas were closed during the mourning period, and bookstores and shops suspended trade. Many people wanted to take part in the writer’s funeral, but the government, fearing spontaneous unrest, prevented this in every possible way. People could not carry out their intentions, so Yasnaya Polyana was literally inundated with condolence telegrams. The democratic part of Russian society was outraged by the behavior of the government, which had harassed Tolstoy for many years, banned his works, and, finally, prevented the honoring of his memory.

Family

Sisters S. A. Tolstaya (left) and T. A. Bers (right), 1860s.
Lev Nikolayevich had known Lyubov Aleksandrovna Islavina, married Bers (1826-1886), since his youth, and loved to play with her children Liza, Sonya, and Tanya. When the Bers daughters grew up, Lev Nikolayevich thought about marrying the eldest daughter Liza, and hesitated for a long time until he chose the middle daughter, Sophia. Sophia Andreyevna agreed when she was 18 years old, and the count was 34 years old, and on September 23, 1862, Lev Nikolayevich married her, having previously confessed to his premarital affairs.

For a while, the brightest period in his life begins — he is truly happy, largely due to the practicality of his wife, material well-being, outstanding literary work and, in connection with it, all-Russian and world fame. In the person of his wife, he found an assistant in all matters, practical and literary — in the absence of a secretary, she rewrote his drafts several times. However, very soon the happiness is overshadowed by inevitable minor disagreements, fleeting quarrels, mutual misunderstanding, which only worsened over the years. For his family, Leo Tolstoy proposed a certain «life plan», according to which he assumed that part of the income would be given to the poor and schools, and the way of life of his family (life, food, clothing) would be significantly simplified, while also selling and giving away «all the excess»: a piano, furniture, carriages. His wife, Sofya Andreyevna, was clearly not happy with this plan, which led to their first serious conflict and the beginning of her «undeclared war» for the secure future of her children. And in 1892, Tolstoy signed a separate deed and transferred all the real estate to his wife and children, not wanting to be the owner. Nevertheless, they lived together in great love for almost fifty years.

In addition, his older brother Sergei Nikolaevich Tolstoy was going to marry Sofya Andreyevna’s younger sister, Tatyana Bers. But Sergei’s unofficial marriage to the gypsy singer Maria Mikhailovna Shishkina (who had four children with him) made the marriage of Sergei and Tatyana impossible.

In addition, Sofia Andreyevna’s father, physician-in-ordinary Andrei Gustav (Evstafievich) Bers, had a daughter, Varvara, from Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva, the mother of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, before his marriage to Islavina. On her mother’s side, Varya was Ivan Turgenev’s sister, and on her father’s side, she was S. A. Tolstoy’s sister. Thus, with the marriage, Leo Tolstoy acquired kinship with I. S. Turgenev.

L. N. Tolstoy with his wife and children. 1887
From the marriage of Lev Nikolayevich and Sofia Andreyevna, 13 children were born, five of whom died in childhood.

Children:

Sergei (1863-1947), composer, musicologist.
Tatyana (1864-1950). Since 1899, she has been married to Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin. In 1917-1923 she was the keeper of the Yasnaya Polyana estate museum. In 1925 she emigrated with her daughter. Daughter Tatyana Mikhailovna Sukhotina-Albertini (1905-1996).
Ilya (1866-1933), writer, memoirist. In 1916 he left Russia and went to the USA.
Lev (1869-1945), writer, sculptor. In exile in France, Italy, then Sweden.
Maria (1871-1906). From 1897 she was married to Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (1872-1934). She died of pneumonia. She was buried in the village of Kochaki, Krapivinsky district (modern Tula region, Shchekinsky district, Kochaki village).
Pyotr (1872-1873)
Nikolai (1874-1875)
Varvara (1875-1875)
Andrei (1877-1916), an official on special assignments for the Tula governor. Participant in the Russo-Japanese War. Died in Petrograd from general blood poisoning.
Mikhail (1879-1944). In 1920 he emigrated, lived in Turkey, Yugoslavia, France and Morocco. He died on October 19, 1944 in Morocco.
Alexei (1881-1886)
Alexandra (1884-1979). From the age of 16 she became her father’s assistant. For her participation in World War I she was awarded three St. George’s Crosses and was awarded the rank of colonel. In 1929 she emigrated from the USSR, in 1941 she received US citizenship. Died September 26, 1979 in Valley Cottage, New York.
Ivan (1888-1895).
As of 2010, there were more than 350 descendants of L. N. Tolstoy (including both living and deceased), living in 25 countries. Most of them are descendants of Leo Lvovich Tolstoy, the third son of Leo Nikolayevich, who had 10 children. Since 2000, meetings of the writer’s descendants have been held in Yasnaya Polyana every two years.

Tolstoy’s views on family and family in Tolstoy’s works
L. N. Tolstoy tells a fairy tale about a cucumber to his grandchildren Ilyusha and Sonya, 1909, Krekshino, photo by V. G. Chertkov. Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya in the future — the last wife of Sergei Yesenin
Leo Tolstoy, both in his personal life and in his work, assigned a central role to the family. According to the writer, the main institution of human life is not the state or the church, but the family. From the very beginning of his creative activity, Tolstoy was absorbed in thoughts about the family and dedicated his first work to this — «Childhood». Three years later, in 1855, he wrote the story «Notes of a Marker», where the writer’s craving for gambling and women can already be traced. This is also reflected in his novel «Family Happiness», in which the relationship between a man and a woman is strikingly similar to the marital relationship of Tolstoy himself and Sofya Andreyevna. During the period of happy family life (1860s), which created a stable atmosphere, spiritual and physical balance and became a source of poetic inspiration, two of the writer’s greatest works were written: «War and Peace» and «Anna Karenina». But if in «War and Peace» Tolstoy firmly defends the value of family life, being convinced of the fidelity of the ideal, then in «Anna Karenina» he already expresses doubts about its achievability. When the relationships in his personal family life became more difficult, these aggravations were expressed in such works as «The Death of Ivan Ilyich», «The Kreutzer Sonata», «The Devil» and «Father Sergius».

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy paid great attention to the family. His reflections are not limited to the details of marital relations. In the trilogy Childhood, Boyhood and Youth, the author gave a vivid artistic description of the world of a child, in whose life an important role is played by the child’s love for his parents, and vice versa — the love he receives from them. In War and Peace, Tolstoy already most fully revealed the different types of family relationships and love. And in Family Happiness and Anna Karenina, various aspects of love in the family are simply lost behind the power of «eros». Critic and philosopher N. N. Strakhov, after the publication of the novel War and Peace, noted that all of Tolstoy’s previous works can be classified as preliminary studies that culminated in the creation of a «family chronicle».

Philosophy

Leo Tolstoy’s religious and moral imperatives were the source of the Tolstoyan movement, built on two fundamental theses: «simplification» and «non-resistance to evil by violence.» The latter, according to Tolstoy, is recorded in a number of places in the Gospel and is the core of Christ’s teaching, as well as Buddhism. The essence of Christianity, according to Tolstoy, can be expressed in a simple rule: «Be kind and do not resist evil with violence» — «The Law of Violence and the Law of Love» (1908).

The most important basis of Tolstoy’s teaching were the words of the Gospel «Love your enemies» and the Sermon on the Mount. The followers of his teaching — the Tolstoyans — honored the five commandments proclaimed by Leo Nikolayevich: do not be angry, do not commit adultery, do not swear, do not resist evil with violence, love your enemies as your neighbor.

Among the adherents of the teaching, and not only, Tolstoy’s books «What is my faith», «Confession» and others were very popular. Tolstoy’s life teaching was influenced by various ideological movements: Brahmanism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam, as well as the teachings of moral philosophers (Socrates, the late Stoics, Kant, Schopenhauer).

Tolstoy developed a special ideology of non-violent anarchism (it can be characterized as Christian anarchism), which was based on a rationalistic understanding of Christianity. Considering coercion to be evil, he concluded that it was necessary to abolish the state, but not through a revolution based on violence, but through the voluntary refusal of each member of society to fulfill any state obligations, be it military service, paying taxes, etc. L. N. Tolstoy believed: «Anarchists are right in everything: both in denying what exists and in asserting that under existing morals nothing can be worse than the violence of power; but they are grossly mistaken in thinking that anarchy can be established by revolution.»

The ideas of non-violent resistance, set out by L. N. Tolstoy in his work «The Kingdom of God is Within You», influenced Mahatma Gandhi, who corresponded with the Russian writer.

According to the historian of Russian philosophy V. V. Zenkovsky, the enormous philosophical significance of Leo Tolstoy, and not only for Russia, is in his desire to build a culture on a religious basis and in his personal example of liberation from secularism.

Bibliography

Of the works written by Leo Tolstoy, 174 of his works of fiction have survived, including unfinished compositions and rough drafts. Tolstoy himself considered 78 of his works to be fully completed; only these were published during his lifetime and included in collected works. The remaining 96 of his works remained in the writer’s own archive, and only after his death did they see the light of day.

The first of his published works was the story «Childhood», 1852. The first book published during the writer’s lifetime was «War Stories of Count L. N. Tolstoy» 1856, St. Petersburg; in the same year, his second book, «Childhood and Adolescence», was published. The last work of fiction published during Tolstoy’s lifetime was the fiction essay «Grateful Soil», dedicated to Tolstoy’s meeting with a young peasant in Meshcherskoye on June 21, 1910; the essay was first published in 1910 in the newspaper «Rech». A month before his death, Leo Tolstoy worked on the third version of the story «There is no one guilty in the world».

Lifetime and posthumous editions of collected works
«The Kreutzer Sonata». Geneva edition by Mikhail Elpidin without censorship cuts. 1901.
In 1886, the wife of Lev Nikolayevich published the first edition of the writer’s collected works. For literary science, the publication of the Complete (Jubilee) Collected Works of Tolstoy in 90 volumes (1928-58) became a milestone, which included many new literary texts, letters and diaries of the writer.

In addition, later, collections of his works were published several times: in 1951-1953, “Collected Works in 14 Volumes” (Moscow, Goslitizdat), in 1958-1959, “Collected Works in 12 Volumes” (Moscow, Goslitizdat), in 1960-1965, “Collected Works in 20 Volumes” (Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publishing House), in 1972, “Collected Works in 12 Volumes” (Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publishing House), in 1978-1985, “Collected Works in 22 Volumes (in 20 Books)” (Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publishing House), in 1980, “Collected Works in 12 volumes» (Moscow, Sovremennik Publishing House), in 1987 «Collected Works in 12 Volumes» (Moscow, Pravda Publishing House).

Translations of Tolstoy

During the Russian Empire, over the course of 30 years before the October Revolution, 10 million copies of Tolstoy’s books were published in Russia in 10 languages. During the years of the USSR, Tolstoy’s works were published in the Soviet Union in the amount of over 60 million copies in 75 languages.

World recognition. Memory

Four museums dedicated to the life and work of L. N. Tolstoy have been created in Russia. Tolstoy’s estate Yasnaya Polyana, along with all the surrounding forests, fields, gardens and lands, has been turned into a museum-reserve, its branch is the L. N. Tolstoy Museum-Estate in the village of Nikolskoye-Vyazemskoye. Tolstoy’s estate house in Moscow (21 Leo Tolstoy Street) is under state protection; it was converted into a memorial museum on the personal orders of V. I. Lenin. The house at Astapovo station on the Moscow-Kursk-Donbass Railway (now Lev Tolstoy station on the Moscow Railway), where the writer died, has also been converted into a museum. The largest of Tolstoy’s museums, as well as a center for scientific research into the writer’s life and work, is the L. N. Tolstoy State Museum in Moscow (11/8 Prechistenka Street). Many schools, clubs, libraries and other cultural institutions in Russia are named after the writer. His name is borne by a district center and a railway station (former Astapovo) in Lipetsk Oblast; a district and a district center in Kaluga Oblast; a village (former Stary Yurt) in Grozny Oblast, where Tolstoy visited in his youth. In many cities of Russia there are squares and streets named after Leo Tolstoy. Monuments to the writer have been erected in various cities of Russia and the world. In Russia, monuments to Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy have been erected in a number of cities: in Moscow, in Tula (as a native of the Tula province), in Pyatigorsk, and in Orenburg.

The meaning and influence of Tolstoy’s works

The nature of the perception and interpretation of Leo Tolstoy’s works, as well as the nature of his influence on individual artists and the literary process, was largely determined by the characteristics of each country, its historical and artistic development. Thus, French writers perceived him, first of all, as an artist who opposed naturalism and was able to combine a truthful depiction of life with spirituality and high moral purity. English writers relied on his works in the fight against traditional «Victorian» hypocrisy; they saw in him an example of high artistic courage. In the United States, Leo Tolstoy became a support for writers who asserted acute social themes in art. In Germany, his anti-militaristic speeches acquired the greatest significance; German writers studied his experience of realistic depiction of war. Slavic writers were impressed by his sympathy for the «small» oppressed nations, as well as the national heroic themes of his works.

Leo Tolstoy had a huge influence on the evolution of European humanism and the development of realistic traditions in world literature. His influence was felt in the works of Romain Rolland, François Mauriac and Roger Martin du Gard in France, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe in the USA, John Galsworthy and Bernard Shaw in England, Thomas Mann and Anna Seghers in Germany, August Strindberg and Arthur Lundqvist in Sweden, Rainer Rilke in Austria, Eliza Orzeszko, Bolesław Prus, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz in Poland, Maria Puymanova in Czechoslovakia, Lao She in China, Tokutomi Roka (English) in Japan, and each of them experienced this influence in their own way.

Western humanist writers such as Romain Rolland, Anatole France, Bernard Shaw, the brothers Heinrich and Thomas Mann, listened attentively to the author’s accusatory voice in his works «Resurrection», «Fruits of Enlightenment», «The Kreutzer Sonata», «The Death of Ivan Ilyich». Tolstoy’s critical worldview penetrated their consciousness not only through his journalism and philosophical works, but also through his fiction. Heinrich Mann said that Tolstoy’s works were an antidote to Nietzscheanism for the German intelligentsia. For Heinrich Mann, Jean-Richard Bloch, Hamlin Garland, Leo Tolstoy was a model of great moral purity and irreconcilability to social evil and attracted them as an enemy of the oppressors and a defender of the oppressed. The aesthetic ideas of Tolstoy’s worldview were reflected in one way or another in Romain Rolland’s book «The People’s Theatre», in the articles of Bernard Shaw and Boleslav Prus (the treatise «What is Art?») and in Frank Norris’s book «The Novelist’s Responsibility», in which the author repeatedly refers to Tolstoy.

For Western European writers of Romain Rolland’s generation, Leo Tolstoy was an older brother, a teacher. He was the center of attraction for democratic and realistic forces in the ideological and literary struggle of the beginning of the century, but also the subject of everyday heated debates. At the same time, for later writers, the generation of Louis Aragon or Ernest Hemingway, Tolstoy’s work became part of the cultural wealth that they had assimilated in their youth. Nowadays, many foreign writers, even those who do not consider themselves Tolstoy’s students and do not define their attitude towards him, at the same time assimilate elements of his creative experience, which has become the common property of world literature.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was nominated 16 times for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902-1906 and 4 times for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902 and 1909.

Writers, thinkers and religious figures about Tolstoy
French writer and member of the French Academy André Maurois claimed that Leo Tolstoy is one of the three greatest writers in the history of culture (along with Shakespeare and Balzac).
German writer and Nobel Prize winner in literature Thomas Mann said that the world did not know another artist in whom the epic, Homeric element was as strong as in Tolstoy, and that the elements of the epic and unshakable realism live in his works.
Indian philosopher and political figure Mahatma Gandhi spoke of Tolstoy as the most honest man of his time, who never tried to hide the truth, embellish it, not fearing either spiritual or secular power, supporting his preaching with deeds and making any sacrifice for the sake of truth.

Russian writer and thinker Fyodor Dostoevsky said in 1876 that only Tolstoy shines in that, in addition to the poem, he “knows the reality he depicts to the smallest detail (historical and current).”
Russian writer and critic Dmitry Merezhkovsky wrote about Tolstoy: “His face is the face of humanity. If the inhabitants of other worlds asked our world: who are you? — humanity could answer, pointing to Tolstoy: here I am.”
Russian poet Alexander Blok spoke of Tolstoy: “Tolstoy is the greatest and only genius of modern Europe, the highest pride of Russia, a man whose very name is a fragrance, a writer of great purity and holiness.”
Russian writer V. V. Nabokov wrote in his English “Lectures on Russian Literature”: “Tolstoy is an unsurpassed Russian prose writer. Leaving aside his predecessors Pushkin and Lermontov, all the great Russian writers can be arranged in the following order: first — Tolstoy, second — Gogol, third — Chekhov, fourth — Turgenev.» Russian religious philosopher and writer V. V. Rozanov about Tolstoy: «Tolstoy is only a writer, but not a prophet, not a saint, and therefore his teaching does not inspire anyone.» The famous theologian Alexander Men said that Tolstoy is still the voice of conscience and a living reproach for people who are sure that they live in accordance with moral principles.

Criticism

Many newspapers and magazines of all political orientations wrote about Tolstoy during his lifetime. Thousands of critical articles and reviews have been written about him. His early works were appreciated by revolutionary democratic criticism. However, «War and Peace», «Anna Karenina» and «Resurrection» did not receive real disclosure and coverage in contemporary criticism. His novel Anna Karenina did not receive a worthy assessment in the criticism of the 1870s; the ideological system of the novel remained undisclosed, as did its amazing artistic power. At the same time, Tolstoy himself wrote, not without irony: “If short-sighted critics think that I wanted to describe only what I like, how Oblonsky dines and what kind of shoulders Karenina has, then they are mistaken.”

Literary Criticism

The first to respond favorably to Tolstoy’s literary debut in print was the critic of Otechestvennye Zapiski, S. S. Dudyshkin, in 1854, in an article devoted to the stories Childhood and Boyhood. However, two years later, in 1856, the same critic wrote a negative review of the book edition of Childhood and Boyhood, and Military Stories. That same year, N. G. Chernyshevsky published a review of these books by Tolstoy, in which the critic drew attention to the writer’s ability to depict human psychology in its contradictory development. In the same place, Chernyshevsky wrote about the absurdity of S. S. Dudyshkin’s reproaches to Tolstoy. In particular, objecting to the critic’s remark that Tolstoy does not depict female characters in his works, Chernyshevsky drew attention to the image of Liza from Two Hussars. In 1855-1856, one of the theoreticians of «pure art» P. V. Annenkov also gave a high assessment of Tolstoy’s work, noting the depth of thought in the works of Tolstoy and Turgenev and the fact that thought and its expression by means of art in Tolstoy are fused into one. At the same time, another representative of «aesthetic» criticism, A. V. Druzhinin, in reviews of «The Snowstorm», «Two Hussars» and «War Stories» characterized Tolstoy as a profound connoisseur of social life and a subtle researcher of the human soul. Meanwhile, in 1857, in the article «Review of Modern Literature», the Slavophile K. S. Aksakov found in the works of Tolstoy and Turgenev, along with «truly beautiful» works, the presence of unnecessary details, due to which «the common line connecting them into a single whole is lost». In the 1870s, P. N. Tkachev, who believed that the task of a writer was to express the liberating aspirations of the «progressive» part of society in his work, wrote a sharply negative review of Tolstoy’s work in his article «Salon Art» dedicated to the novel «Anna Karenina». N. N. Strakhov compared the novel «War and Peace» in its scale with the work of Pushkin. According to the critic, Tolstoy’s genius and innovation were manifested in his ability to create a harmonious and comprehensive picture of Russian life with «simple» means. The writer’s inherent objectivity allowed him to «deeply and truthfully» depict the dynamics of the characters’ inner lives, which Tolstoy does not subordinate to any initially given patterns or stereotypes. The critic also noted the author’s desire to find the best traits in a person. Strakhov especially values ​​in the novel the fact that the writer is interested not only in the spiritual qualities of the individual, but also in the problem of supra-individual — family and community — consciousness.

The philosopher K. N. Leontiev, in his brochure «Our New Christians» published in 1882, expressed doubts about the socio-religious validity of the teachings of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. According to Leontiev, Dostoevsky’s Pushkin speech and Tolstoy’s story «What People Live By» show the immaturity of their religious thinking and the insufficient familiarity of these writers with the content of the works of the Church Fathers. Leontiev believed that Tolstoy’s «religion of love», accepted by the majority of «neo-Slavophiles», distorts the true essence of Christianity. Leontiev’s attitude to Tolstoy’s works of art was different. The critic declared the novels «War and Peace» and «Anna Karenina» to be the greatest works of world literature «of the last 40-50 years». Considering the main shortcoming of Russian literature to be the “humiliation” of Russian reality that goes back to Gogol, the critic believed that only Tolstoy was able to overcome this tradition, depicting “high Russian society… finally in a humane way, that is, impartially, and in places with obvious love.” In 1883, N. S. Leskov, in his article “Count L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky as Heresiarchs (The Religion of Fear and the Religion of Love),” criticized Leontyev’s brochure, accusing him of “conveniently perverse,” ignorance of patristic sources, and misunderstanding of the only argument chosen from them (which Leontyev himself admitted).

N. S. Leskov shared N. N. Strakhov’s enthusiastic attitude towards Tolstoy’s works. Contrasting Tolstoy’s «religion of love» with K. N. Leontiev’s «religion of fear», Leskov believed that the former was closer to the essence of Christian morality. , who published his articles in the journal of «legal Marxists» «Life». In the late Tolstoy, he especially valued the «unattainable truth of depiction», the realism of the writer, tearing off the covers «from the conventions of our cultural, social life», revealing «its lies, covered with high words» («Life», 1899, No. 12).

The critic I. I. Ivanov found «naturalism» in the literature of the late 19th century, dating back to Maupassant, Zola and Tolstoy and being an expression of general moral decline.

In the words of K. I. Chukovsky, “to write War and Peace, just think with what terrible greed one had to pounce on life, seize everything around with one’s eyes and ears, and accumulate all this immeasurable wealth…” (article “Tolstoy as an Artistic Genius,” 1908).

A representative of Marxist literary criticism that developed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, V. I. Lenin believed that Tolstoy in his works expressed the interests of the Russian peasantry

The Russian poet and writer, Nobel Prize laureate in literature Ivan Bunin, in his study “The Liberation of Tolstoy” (Paris, 1937), characterized Tolstoy’s artistic nature as a tense interaction of “animal primitiveness” and a refined taste for the most complex intellectual and aesthetic quests.

Religious criticism

Tolstoy’s religious views were opposed and criticized by the Church historian Konstantin Pobedonostsev, Vladimir Solovyov, Christian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev, historian and theologian Georgy Florovsky, and candidate of theology John of Kronstadt.

Criticism of the writer’s social views

In Russia, the opportunity to openly discuss the social and philosophical views of the late Tolstoy in print appeared in 1886 in connection with the publication of an abridged version of the article «So What Should We Do?» in the 12th volume of his collected works.

The controversy surrounding the 12th volume was opened by A. M. Skabichevsky, who condemned Tolstoy for his views on art and science. N. K. Mikhailovsky, on the contrary, expressed support for Tolstoy’s views on art: «In the 12th volume of the Works of Count Tolstoy says a lot about the absurdity and illegality of the so-called «science for science’s sake» and «art for art’s sake»… Count Tolstoy says a lot of truth in this sense, and in relation to art this is extremely significant coming from a first-class artist.» Abroad, Romain Rolland, William Howells, and Emile Zola responded to Tolstoy’s article. Later, Stefan Zweig, having highly praised the first, descriptive part of the article («… social criticism has hardly ever been more brilliantly demonstrated in an earthly phenomenon than in the depiction of these rooms of beggars and fallen people»), at the same time noted: «but as soon as, in the second part, the utopian Tolstoy moves from diagnosis to therapy and tries to preach objective methods of correction, each concept becomes foggy, contours fade, thoughts, driving one another, stumble. And this confusion grows from problem to problem.»

In his article “L. N. Tolstoy and the Modern Labor Movement,” published in Russia in 1910, V. I. Lenin wrote about Tolstoy’s “impotent curses” “addressed to capitalism and the ‘power of money.’” According to Lenin, Tolstoy’s criticism of the contemporary order “reflects a turning point in the views of millions of peasants who had just emerged from serfdom and saw that this freedom meant new horrors of ruin, starvation, homelessness…” Earlier, in his work “Leo Tolstoy as a Mirror of the Russian Revolution” (1908), Lenin wrote that Tolstoy was ridiculous as a prophet who had discovered new recipes for saving humanity. But at the same time, he was great as an exponent of the ideas and sentiments that had developed among the Russian peasantry by the time the bourgeois revolution in Russia came, and that Tolstoy was original because his views expressed the peculiarities of the revolution as a peasant bourgeois revolution. In his article “L. N. Tolstoy» (1910) Lenin points out that the contradictions in Tolstoy’s views reflect «the contradictory conditions and traditions that determined the psychology of various classes and strata of Russian society in the post-reform but pre-revolutionary era.»

G. V. Plekhanov in his article «Mixing of Ideas» (1911) highly praised Tolstoy’s criticism of private property.

V. G. Korolenko in 1908 wrote about Tolstoy that his beautiful dream of restoring the first centuries of Christianity could have a strong effect on simple souls, but the rest could not follow him to this «marvelous» country. According to Korolenko, Tolstoy knew, saw and felt only the very bottom and the very top of the social system, and it was easy for him to reject «one-sided» improvements, such as a constitutional system.

Maxim Gorky was enthusiastic about Tolstoy as an artist, but condemned his teaching. After Tolstoy spoke out against the Zemstvo movement, Gorky, expressing the dissatisfaction of his associates, wrote that Tolstoy had become a captive of his idea, had separated himself from Russian life and had stopped listening to the voice of the people, hovering too high above Russia.

Sociologist and historian M. M. Kovalevsky said that Tolstoy’s economic teaching (the main idea of ​​which is borrowed from the Gospels) only shows that the social doctrine of Christ, perfectly adapted to simple morals, rural and pastoral life of Galilee, cannot serve as a rule of conduct for modern civilizations.

A thorough polemic with Tolstoy’s teaching is contained in the study of the Russian philosopher I. A. Ilyin «On Resisting Evil by Force» (Berlin, 1925)