How responsible is it to be a direct descendant of a glorious family? Is it good when your closest circle consists mainly of relatives?
It must be admitted with bitterness that in our country the concept of clan has almost been lost, we do not know the history of our families, we do not show interest in the genealogy of our ancestors. Fortunately, this cannot be said about the descendants of Leo Tolstoy. Fate scattered them around the world, but they preserve the integrity of the family and the traditions of the family. All this was told to us by the great-great-granddaughter of the writer, the famous television and radio journalist Fyokla Tolstaya.
Fekla, when did you realize that the surname you bear is very famous?
FT: As a child, no one specifically told me that we had a famous surname, but, of course, there were some Yasnaya Polyana photographs hanging on the walls, portraits of Lev Nikolaevich and my grandfather, and I heard my dad tell something about them to guests. Genuine interest in ancestral history came at a more conscious age. And this was connected with the arrivals from Paris of the grandson of Leo Nikolayevich, Sergei Mikhailovich Tolstoy, who was the center of Tolstoy's life, a collector of family and family stories, and also the author of two books "Tolstoy and Tolstoy" and "Children of Tolstoy". I really liked to communicate with him, to learn some family details. Besides, I just like to have everything neatly laid out in my head so that I can understand cause and effect. After all, everything and always in history, and in the history of the family as well, has its own reasons. Knowing them, one can understand the huge family tree (Tolstoy had 13 children and several dozen grandchildren), understand why some ended up in Italy, others in Sweden.
Belonging to the oldest family - a blessing or a troublesome business?
FT: I think it's good. The older I get, the more I understand that it is almost physiologically, well, at least psychologically very important for a person to feel solid ground under his feet, to understand what kind of tribe you belong to, to know what was behind you. These are all called roots.
Did a high-profile surname help you in your television career?
FT: Probably, it did help, because everyone is interested in what is behind a big name. But this is only the first impression: yes - a surname, yes - it's interesting, and then what? They will always talk about us as descendants of Tolstoy, everything will always begin with this, and it is pointless to resist this. It is important that they talk about you not only as the granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy, but also know about some business.
Have the memorial things of the writer been preserved in your family?
FT: No, the vast majority of them are in museums. Some prints of photographs have been preserved in the home archives, but these are just prints of those that are in museums. In fact, the museums themselves and in Yasnaya Polyana, and in Khamovniki were created by the family. The family donated their personal belongings to the state to make it a museum. Therefore, we have practically nothing. But this unique museums, because there is not a single great person, after whom so many authentic personal things would be preserved.
AT Soviet times the director of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum threw away some memorabilia, and your grandfather picked them up...
FT: At first, the museum in Yasnaya Polyana appeared only in a part of the house, because people still lived there. After the revolution, almost the entire house was given to visitors. except for one wing, where the eldest son of the writer Sergey Lvovich lived. He was born in Yasnaya Polyana and lived there all his life, since his estate was burned down in 1918. When he died in 1947, the unreasonable director simply threw some things from his wing into the trash. Then Yasnaya Polyana museum workers called my grandfather and asked to pick them up. So we got a few chairs, a bookcase, some little things. Who could have expected that in one part of the house this bookcase would stand under a glass cap and dust particles would be blown off it, while another, exactly the same, would be thrown into the trash? Maybe this director threw it out because there were always very simple things in Tolstoy's houses.
Tolstoy's family is huge. How many descendants of the writer are now in the world?
FT: I think there are 300 people. If we count Lev Nikolayevich as number one on the family tree, then the kids who are born now will soon receive number four hundred! However, we must remember that none of the children and grandchildren of Tolstoy are no longer alive, and our older generation is now great-grandchildren. Fortunately, there are still plenty of them.
Are they already quite old people?
FT: No, not all of them. For example, one of my uncles, born in 1922, lives in Florida, and the other, born in 1974, lives in Sweden. But they are not native. After all, it is known that Tolstoy's last child was born at the same time that his first granddaughter was born.
Fat people are scattered all over the world: in the USA, Canada, Sweden, Italy, France, the Czech Republic and even in Uruguay and Brazil. How do you manage to keep the family together?
FT: I think leading role this was played by family congresses, which were invented by Vladimir Ilyich Tolstoy. Since 2000, they have been regularly held every two years in Yasnaya Polyana. And if at first foreign Tolstoys came cautiously - to see what, where, how - now they have accumulated huge ones! experience of communication, memories, common affairs. And now foreign Tolstoys often stay with one of their relatives. Likewise, if I go to Italy, I cannot imagine that I will not visit my Roman relatives, but when I am in America, I will definitely visit the American aunts.
Not all descendants speak Russian...
FT: We used to try to communicate in two languages - Russian and English, but then we waved our hand and started speaking English. Sometimes I speak French with someone. In general, in different ways. For example, the American Tolstoys are 100% Russian, Orthodox, they have a wonderful Russian language. When they got to post-war America, their life was hard and poor, and, of course, they tried to stick together in order to somehow make ends meet. But the Swedes have a different story.
Swedish branch of descendants - the most extensive?
FT: Yes. The writer's son Lev Lvovich married a Swede, and their children were half Swedes, half Russian and lived either in St. Petersburg or in Sweden. But when, after the revolution, they left for Sweden, where Lev Lvovich broke up with his wife, the children found themselves in an absolutely Swedish environment and quickly turned into Swedes. Now the Swedish Fats are the most perfect foreigners. But there are a lot of them, they have their own community, they arrange their own Swedish Tolstoy congresses. This is indeed the most significant and prolific branch. And the name of Tolstoy is well-known in Sweden. Among them are my aunt, a green activist, and businessmen, and artists, and scientists, and even jazz singer Victoria Tolstaya.
Are there any generic character traits common to all Tolstoys?
FT: I asked myself this question when I was making a film about the Tolstoys. It seems to me that this is, first of all, the simplicity that we talked about, remembering the way of the Yasnaya Polyana house. Fat people have always eschewed any kind of pretentiousness and pomposity. And they have always been characterized by emotionality. Vladimir Ilyich, when we discussed this with him, remarked very correctly: "I don't know the listless Tolstoys." Yes, I am very emotional.
The point where all family threads converge is Yasnaya Polyana. What is this place for you personally?
FT: As a child, I had never been to Yasnaya Polyana and first came to Khamovniki when I was 20. Everything changed in the mid-90s, when Vladimir Ilyich became the director of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum. We began to come to visit him, and little by little there was a feeling that all this was dear. Now I know Yasnaya Polyana very well, so much has been walked and walked there. And we skied there, and swam in the pond, so much interesting events happened in which I myself took part ...
you filmed documentaries, worked at the Silver Rain radio station, broadcast on a satellite channel. And now they have headed the development department of the Leo Tolstoy Museum. Have you decided to leave journalism?
FT: I still do journalism, and I work part-time at the museum at the invitation of my brother Vladimir Ilyich Tolstoy. Many things here seem very interesting and promising to me. Engaging in the development of the museum, attracting visitors, making it more open - there are excellent funds here - this is a very ambitious task.
Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation
Tula State University
Department of History and Cultural Studies
SUMMARY by discipline
"Cultural heritage of the Tula region"
Genealogical tree of L.N. Tolstoy - the great writer of the land of Tula
Completed: student gr. 220691ya
Akimov A.S.
Checked:
Shekov A.V.
1. Yasnaya Polyana - the family estate of Leo Tolstoy 3
2. Princes Volkonsky 7
3. Count Tolstoy 13
4. Parents of Leo Tolstoy 19
List of sources used 22
APPENDIX. Genealogical tree of Leo Tolstoy 23
1. Yasnaya Polyana - Leo Tolstoy's family estate
"Yasnaya Polyana! Who gave you your beautiful name? Who was the first to take a fancy to this marvelous corner and who was the first to lovingly consecrate it with their labor? And when was it? Yes, you are indeed clear - radiant. Bordered from the east, north, west by the dense forests of the Kozlova notch, you look at the sun all day long and revel in it.
AT
Coat of arms of Counts Tolstoy
So Ilya Lvovich Tolstoy, the son of Leo Tolstoy, wrote about Yasnaya Polyana.
Once Yasnaya Polyana was one of the guard posts that protected Tula from the invasion of the Tatars. Yasnaya Polyana is located on the very road, which from ancient times was the main and even the only one connecting the south and north of Russia. This is the so-called Muravsky (Moravsky) Way, which went from Perekop itself to Tula, without crossing a single large river along its length. Slavic tribes, pressed by the Tatars, once moved along this road from south to north. On the same road, the steppe nomads made their raids: Pechenegs, Polovtsy and Tatars - robbed and burned villages and fortified outposts-cities, took the inhabitants into captivity. “I fought those places and ruined them,” writes a chronicler of the 16th century, “and many people were beaten and many villages and villages were burned, nobles and boyar children with their wives and children and many Orthodox peasants were full of poimash and swedosh; but many are full, as if even old people do not remember such a war from the filthy.
Yasnaya Polyana is surrounded by age-old forests - Zaseka, or zasechnye forests. These are Tolstoy's favorite places for hunting and walking. The name "notch" goes back to XVI century. It was then that the Moscow governments of Vasily III (Dark) and especially Ivan IV (the Terrible) created a defensive line of the so-called notch line. Initially, natural impenetrable forests and swamps were used for defense against the Tatars - “great fortresses” bordering on the steppe south. These forests stretched across the future Tambov, Tula, Ryazan and Kaluga provinces. They were called Zasechny because the Russians cut down centuries-old trees in them and felled them with their tops to the south, and the trunk was not cut off from the root, but only “notched” so that it would be more difficult for nomads to disassemble the rubble.
These forests were protected by the sovereign's people from felling and fires, as evidenced by special royal decrees: "And close to the sovereign's Ukrainian cities, forests and forest fences, and all the fortresses that were built from the arrival of military people, personally protect them from fire firmly." And the lands along the aisles were populated by service people, who were responsible for protecting the borders of central Russia. The governor under Ivan the Terrible in Krapivna was Ivan Ivanovich Tolstoy. From time immemorial, these lands to the west of Yasnaya Polyana were protected by the Volkonsky.
Where the Yasnaya Polyana railway station is now located, in ancient times there was a Kozlova notch. It was located between two glades - Raspberry in the south and Yasnaya in the north. Sometimes forest blockages were reinforced with palisades, earthen ramparts and ditches. Such moats were located not far from Yasnaya Polyana, hence the name of one of the neighboring villages - Moats. Traces of ancient ramparts and ditches can also be found near the village of Novoe Basov, right in the field. This place used to be called Zavitay.
Over time, the need for protection from the Tatars disappeared and the notches became government forests. A part of this protected forest around Yasnaya Polyana has survived to this day. True, this forest has thinned out over the past hundred years, has become cleaner and lost its originality. Now, unfortunately, it can no longer be called virginal, as Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy remembered him.
Behind the Funnel, to the north of Yasnaya Polyana, factories appeared for the manufacture of iron ore from iron ore, from which weapons were cast, and household products were produced. The place where a large iron foundry eventually grew up was called Oblique Mountain. Not far from here, in Sudakovo, lived friends of Lev Nikolaevich's parents - the Arsenyevs, who bequeathed to young Tolstoy custody of their young son before their death. Lev Nikolaevich in 1856-1857 was a frequent guest of the "Sudakov young ladies" - the older sisters of his ward - and even had the intention of marrying one of them - Valeria.
The village of Yasnaya Polyana did not look the same in Petrine times as it did during Tolstoy's lifetime. Lev Nikolayevich draws us the following picture of the village of Yasnoye at the beginning of the 18th century: In the south, two versts from the village of Yasnoye, in an open high place stands a single-domed church with a graveyard surrounded by a low stone wall; turrets crowned with onion domes were set in the corners. From the place where the estate is now, the cemetery could be seen among the flat fields of the Podstepye as a green island, above which a bell tower towered. Nikolo-Kochakovskaya Church was built no later than the middle of the 17th century, including architectural style, which was characteristic of church architecture at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries on the territory of the Moscow state.
Behind the fence on the north-eastern side of the church is the Tolstoy family crypt, where the parents of Leo Nikolayevich and brother Dmitry are buried. In the "Roman of a Russian Landowner" we find a description of this crypt and a visit by the young Tolstoy.
“Having prayed over the ashes of his father and mother, who were buried together in the chapel, Mitya left it and thoughtfully walked towards the house; but, before he had passed the cemetery, he ran into the family of the Telyatinsky landowner.
But we paid a visit to expensive graves, - Alexander Sergeevich told him with a friendly smile. - You, right, were also with your own, Prince?
But the prince, who was still under the influence of the sincere feeling experienced in the chapel, was apparently unpleasantly affected by the neighbor's joke; he, without answering, looked at him dryly ... "
On the eastern side, between the crypt and the fence, is the grave of Tolstoy's maternal grandfather, Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky. The ashes of Volkonsky and the monument were transferred to the Kochakovsky cemetery in 1928, when the cemetery of the Spaso-Andronevsky Monastery in Moscow was liquidated. The inscription is carved on the red marble monument:
"The General of Infantry and Cavalier Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonskoy was born on March 30, 1763, died on February 3, 1821."
Near the monument to N. S. Volkonsky, there is a monument to A. I. Osten-Saken, the sister of the writer’s father, guardian of the young Tolstoy from 1837 to 1841, transported from Optina Pustyn. The poetic epitaph carved on dark marble was most likely written by the thirteen-year-old Leo Tolstoy:
Asleep for earthly life,
You crossed the path unknown
In the abodes of heavenly life
Your sweet peace is wound up.
In the hope of a sweet goodbye -
And with faith to live beyond the grave,
Nephews this sign of remembrance -
Erected: to honor the ashes of the deceased.
FROM
The researcher of the Kochakovsky necropolis, Nikolai Pavlovich Puzin, writes the following about the death of his sons Peter and Nikolai and aunt Tatyana Alexandrovna: “These losses of persons close to Tolstoy fall during the period of writing and printing Anna Karenina, when grief visited his family more than once.” “We are in grief,” Tolstoy wrote to A. A. Fet. - Petya the smaller fell ill with croup and died in two days. This is the first death in eleven years in our family, and it is very difficult for my wife. You can take comfort in the fact that if you choose one of the eight of us, this death is easier for everyone and for everyone. The death of Peter's son was reflected in Anna Karenina, where Dolly Oblonskaya recalls the death of her child.
In the same fence with the graves of sons Beloved aunt Tatyana Alexandrovna is buried. It was a heavy loss for Lev Nikolaevich: “I lived with her all my life. And I’m terrified without her,” he writes in one of the letters. And next to it is the gravestone of Pelageya Ilyinichna Yushkova, the second sister of Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy.
Almost all members of the Leo Tolstoy family are buried at the family cemetery in Kochaki: Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, her sister Tatyana Andreevna Kuzminskaya, daughter Maria Lvovna, married Obolenskaya, sons - Alexei, Vanechka, and grandchildren - Anna, Ilya and Vladimir Ilyichi Thick.
The history of each family, clan, native village or city is always interesting in itself: through it we learn the immediate and more distant history of our people, our country.
When we turn to the study of the history of the ancestors of great writers, such as Pushkin or Leo Tolstoy, we not only satisfy our interest in what role their ancestors played in the history of the Russian state, but we begin to better understand much of what they wrote, the heroes of the works and the personality of the author. The counts of Rostov in "War and Peace" - especially Ilya Andreevich and Nikolai, the princes Bolkonsky - the old prince, Princess Marya, Prince Andrei could not be what we know and love them if Tolstoy had not embodied in them many character traits and even some episodes from the life of their ancestors: counts Tolstoy and princes Volkonsky.
If Tolstoy did not know Tolstoy the American, Dolokhov's appearance would have been different; had it not been for Sonya and Tanya Bers, whom Lev Nikolayevich knew from their very childhood, we would not have met the charming Natasha Rostova.
And how many unfulfilled plans, how many unfinished works, with fragments, and sometimes with whole chapters of which we can get acquainted in the 90-volume Collected Works of L.N. Companions of Peter the Great!
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy devoted many years to the study of Russian history, he was especially deeply interested in the period from Peter I to the December uprising of 1825. He reads the books of Solovyov, Ustryalov, Golikov, Gordon, Pekarsky, Pososhkov, Bantysh-Kamensky in his library. He asks friends and acquaintances to send him everything that is about the era of Peter I, about urban and rural life of that time, diaries and travel notes of Peter's contemporaries, descriptions of battles and geographical information.
Leo Tolstoy's interest in the history of Yasnaya Polyana, his family, is undeniable in a way. This is an interest that helps to understand the history of the people, the history of the Russian state through the history of individuals, their relationships and characters, through the attitude of landowners to serfs and forced peasants to masters.
He carefully examines the genealogy of his ancestors - Tolstoy, princes Volkonsky, and Gorchakov, and Trubetskoy - according to the so-called velvet book, P. Dolgorukov's genealogy book and other sources, because he intends to introduce some of his ancestors into the future novel. This does not mean that he wanted to glorify his ancestors in his historical novel. Here is what Lev Nikolayevich writes on April 4, 1870: “I am reading the story of Solovyov. Everything in this history was ugly in pre-Petrine Russia: cruelty, robbery, righteousness, rudeness, stupidity, inability to do anything. The government began to correct. And the government is just as ugly up to our time. You read this story and involuntarily come to the conclusion that a number of outrages have happened in the history of Russia. But how did a series of outrages produce a great and united state?! This alone proves that it was not the government that produced history.
And in a letter to A.A. Tolstoy in 1873, Lev Nikolayevich asks: does Alexandra Andreevna or her brother know “something about our Tolstoy ancestors that I don’t know. I remember that Count Ilya Andreevich collected information. If there is something written, will he send it to me. The darkest episode for me from the life of our ancestors is the exile in Solovetsky, where Peter and Ivan died. Who is Ivan's wife? (Praskovya Ivanovna, born Troekurova)? When and where did they return? - God willing, I want to go to Solovki this summer. I hope to learn something there. It is touching and important that Ivan did not want to return when this right was returned to him. You say: Peter's time is not interesting, it's cruel. Whatever it is, it is the beginning of everything. Unraveling the skein, I involuntarily reached the time of Peter the Great, and that is the end.”
Tolstoy is an artist, and therefore he creates his own history, history-art. “No matter what you look at,” he writes to N. N. Strakhov on December 17, 1872, “it’s all a task, a riddle, the solution of which is only possible through poetry.”
The parents of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy and Princess Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya, were married in 1822. They had four sons and a daughter: Nikolai, Sergey, Dmitry, Lev and Maria. The writer's relatives became the prototypes of many heroes of the novel "War and Peace": father - Nikolai Rostov, mother - Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, paternal grandfather Ilya Andreevich Tolstoy - the old count of Rostov, maternal grandfather Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky - the old prince Bolkonsky. L. N. Tolstoy had no cousins, since his parents were the only children in their families.
According to his father, L. N. Tolstoy was related to the artist F. P. Tolstoy, F. I. Tolstoy (“American”), the poets A. K. Tolstoy, F. I. Tyutchev and N. A. Nekrasov, the philosopher P. Y. Chaadaev, Chancellor Russian Empire A. M. Gorchakov.
The Tolstoy family was exalted by Peter Andreevich Tolstoy (1645-1729), who received the title of count, an associate of Peter I. From his grandson, Andrei Ivanovich Tolstoy (1721-1803), nicknamed the "Big Nest" for his numerous offspring, many famous Tolstoys went. A. I. Tolstoy was the grandfather of F. I. Tolstoy and F. P. Tolstoy, the great-grandfather of L. N. Tolstoy and A. K. Tolstoy. L. N. Tolstoy and the poet Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy were second cousins to each other. The artist Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy and Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy the American were cousins of Leo Nikolayevich. The sister of F. I. Tolstoy-American Maria Ivanovna Tolstaya-Lopukhina (i.e. cousin aunt of L. N. Tolstoy) is known from the “Portrait of M. I. Lopukhina” by the artist V. L. Borovikovsky. The poet Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev was the sixth cousin of Lev Nikolaevich (Tyutchev's mother, Ekaterina Lvovna, was from the Tolstoy family). The sister of Andrei Ivanovich Tolstoy (great-grandfather of L. N. Tolstoy) - Maria - married P. V. Chaadaev. Her grandson, philosopher Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev, therefore, was a second cousin of Lev Nikolaevich.
There is information that the great-great-grandfather (father of the great-grandfather) of the poet Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov was Ivan Petrovich Tolstoy (1685-1728), who was also the great-great-grandfather of Lev Nikolayevich. If this is true, then it turns out that N. A. Nekrasov and L. N. Tolstoy are fourth cousins. The second cousin of Leo Tolstoy was Chancellor of the Russian Empire Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov. The writer's paternal grandmother, Pelageya Nikolaevna, was from the Gorchakov family.
The great-grandfather of L. N. Tolstoy, A. I. Tolstoy, had a younger brother Fedor, whose descendant was the writer Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy, who depicted his ancestor Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy in the novel "Peter I". The grandfather of A. N. Tolstoy, Alexander Petrovich Tolstoy, was the fourth cousin of Leo Nikolayevich. Consequently, A. N. Tolstoy, nicknamed the "Red Count", was the fourth cousin great-nephew of Lev Nikolayevich. The granddaughter of A. N. Tolstoy is the writer Tatyana Nikitichna Tolstaya.
On the maternal side, L. N. Tolstoy was related to A. S. Pushkin, with the Decembrists, S. P. Trubetskoy, A. I. Odoevsky.
A. S. Pushkin was the fourth cousin of L. N. Tolstoy. Lev Nikolayevich's mother was the fourth cousin of the poet. Their common ancestor was the admiral, an associate of Peter I, Ivan Mikhailovich Golovin. In 1868, Leo Tolstoy met his fifth cousin, Maria Aleksandrovna Pushkina-Gartung, some of whose features he later gave to the appearance of Anna Karenina. Decembrist, Prince Sergei Grigoryevich Volkonsky was the second cousin of the writer. The great-grandfather of Lev Nikolayevich, Prince Dmitry Yuryevich Trubetskoy, married Princess Varvara Ivanovna Odoevskaya. Their daughter, Ekaterina Dmitrievna Trubetskaya, married Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky. D.Yu. Trubetskoy's brother, Field Marshal Nikita Yuryevich Trubetskoy, was the great-grandfather of the Decembrist Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy, who, therefore, was Lev Nikolaevich's fourth cousin. The brother of V. I. Odoevskaya-Trubetskoy, Alexander Ivanovich Odoevsky, was the grandfather of the Decembrist poet Alexander Ivanovich Odoevsky, who, it turns out, was Leo Tolstoy’s second cousin uncle.
In 1862 Leo Tolstoy married Sofya Andreevna Bers. They had 9 sons and 4 daughters (out of 13 children, 5 died in childhood): Sergey, Tatyana, Ilya, Lev, Maria, Peter, Nikolai, Varvara, Andrei, Mikhail, Alexei, Alexandra, Ivan. The granddaughter of L. N. Tolstoy, Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, became the last wife of the poet Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin. The great-great-grandchildren of Leo Nikolayevich (great-grandchildren of his son, Ilya Lvovich) are TV presenters Pyotr Tolstoy and Fyokla Tolstaya.
The wife of L. N. Tolstoy, Sofya Andreevna, was the daughter of the doctor Andrei Evstafievich Bers, who in his youth served with Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva, the mother of the writer Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. A. E. Bers and V. P. Turgenev had an affair, as a result of which appeared illegitimate daughter Barbara. Thus, S. A. Bers-Tolstoy and I. S. Turgenev had a common kindred sister.
Quote message 190 years since the birth of one of the greatest writers Peace of Leo Tolstoy
Museum-estate "Yasnaya Polyana"
L. N. Tolstoy. Newsreel of 1910 (compiled from filming in 1908-1910).
Music: P. I. Tchaikovsky - Grand Sonata in G major, Op. 37, 1st part.
Content:
I. TOLSTOY'S LAST VISIT TO MOSCOW. September 1909 ( 00:00) 1. Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy leaves for Moscow from the Chertkov estate ( 00:03)
2. Countess Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya ( 00:17)
3. L. N. Tolstoy, Chertkov and the family of the great writer ( 00:29)
4. Arrival in Moscow ( 01:34)
5. At the station Bryansk ( 01:43)
6. Leo Tolstoy arrives at his house in Khamovniki; this house will be turned into a Tolstoy museum ( 01:51)
7. Leo Nikolayevich's departure to Yasnaya Polyana ( 02:16)
II. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana. 1908-1910 ( 02:49)
8. Family of L. N. Tolstoy ( 02:51)
9. Lev Nikolaevich distributes alms to poor peasants ( 03:02)
10. Tolstoy's ride on horseback, accompanied by Dr. Makovetsky ( 04:05)
11. L. N. for a walk at five o'clock in the morning ( 04:57)
12. Lev Nikolaevich and his wife Countess Sofya Andreevna ( 05:05)
13. Grandchildren of Lev Nikolaevich ( 05:56)
14. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy at work ( 06:34)
15. Count Tolstoy on the balcony with his family ( 06:47)
16. Sick gr. LN Tolstoy on his balcony on the day of the anniversary. August 28, 1908 ( 07:13)
III. DEATH IN ASTAPOV AND FUNERAL IN Yasnaya Polyana. November 7-9, 1910
17. L. N. Tolstoy on his deathbed ( 07:22)
Interesting Facts:
Behind the epic four-volume book "War and Peace" (which the author himself called "wordy rubbish"), and especially behind its interpretation performed by school curriculum lost the true, mystical personality of Leo Tolstoy.
Who was he - a free-thinking philosopher, or did schizophrenia show through his messianic insights? If such a person lived in Medieval Europe, he would certainly have been burned as a heretic, as was burned in 1314 by the master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay.
And Leo Tolstoy was not as far from the Templars as one might think.
Leo Tolstoy - a descendant of the Templar crusader
The family of Leo Tolstoy's mother, M. N. Volkonskaya, descended from Prince Yaroslav the Wise. And the founder of the paternal family was a Knight Templar named Henri de Mons, also called Indris, who fled to Russia in 1352 from the terror unleashed against his associates. After the defeat of the Order and the execution of its Master, some of the knights disappeared in an unknown direction, taking with them part of the order's treasures and the most important documents, which told about the origins of Christianity. The main version - that the fugitives fled to Scotland, remained unconfirmed.
According to the Chernigov Chronicle, the nobleman Indris came to Russia with his two sons Litvonis and Zigmonten, and 3,000 people of the squad came with them. At baptism, Indris was named Leontius, and his sons were named Konstantin and Fedor. Subsequently, the descendants of Leonty entered the service of the Grand Duke of Moscow, Vasily the Dark.
Another famous descendant of Indris is Marshal Tukhachevsky.
Tolstoy - "loser"
Tolstoy received his primary education at home. At first, the German Reselman was his tutor, then the French Saint-Thomas. In 1844, Leo Tolstoy entered the Faculty of Oriental Languages at the Imperial Kazan University in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. Despite initially excellent results, the student simply did nothing and was left as a freshman for the second year.
Then he transferred to the Faculty of Law, but he studied there for only two years. The young nobleman was disgusted by any information imposed from outside, and to study according to general program he could not, although with self-study he always achieved high results. In 1847, Tolstoy left the university without having passed his degree exams. But the young student began to keep a diary, became interested in this occupation, and subsequently drew many plots for his works from it.
The future writer is the hero of the Sevastopol war
Tolstoy's older brother, Nikolai, served in the army and convinced his brother to also join the army as a cadet. The brothers ended up serving in the Caucasus together and took part in many skirmishes with the highlanders. Lev Nikolaevich deserved the St. George Cross, but generously gave it to a simple soldier, to whom this award gave the right to significant benefits. In November 1854, Lev was transferred to Sevastopol, where he participated in the Crimean War for ten months. He commanded an artillery battery, was present during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan. A young soldier during active battles wrote biographical work"Boyhood", as well as the trilogy "Sevastopol Tales", where he reflected on the harsh and unexpected ways of war. The books turned out to be successful, and they were willingly taken to print for the Sovremennik magazine, edited by A.N. Nekrasov.
For participation in the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy received several awards, including the Order of St. Anne of the 4th degree and the medal "For the Defense of Sevastopol".
"Rebellious" value system
The young writer critically perceived the existing order public life. His intellect was above those limits. Tolstoy saw the unfair distribution of wealth and tried to compensate for it.
Already in 1849, Tolstoy opened a school for serfs in Yasnaya Polyana, and Foka Demidovich, a serf, taught there. Often Tolstoy himself held classes there.
Lev Nikolaevich was not spiritually dependent on anyone's approval. He opposed church abuses, and called rituals witchcraft. As a result, he was excommunicated from the Church, and until now his name is subjected to fierce condemnation as a "sinner", "blasphemer", "possessed" and "spiritual suicide". However, in his actions and statements, the Russian writer was a humanist, and it is not for nothing that he is compared with Mahatma Gandhi. Of course, Tolstoy also had delusions, mainly due to a gap in knowledge of history, but this man was in a sincere search for the right path and was always honest with himself and with others.
There is a version that Tolstoy not only demanded religious reforms: he also threatened to create his own religion. He knew well the essence of Freemasonry and various sects, as well as the Talmud and the Koran. This awareness was also the basis for accusations of blasphemy.
In 1889, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “A new worldview and movement is maturing in the world, and as if participation is required from me - its proclamation. It’s as if I’m purposely made for this by what I am with my reputation—made by a bell.” “During the night I heard a voice demanding the denunciation of the delusions of the world. This night, a voice told me that the time had come to expose the evil of the world ... We must not delay and postpone. There is nothing to be afraid of, nothing to think about, how and what to say.
Tolstoy wrote a letter of appeal to Tsar Nicholas II, where he called him brother. In a letter, he demanded a change in the existing order and warned that otherwise great misfortunes would follow for the country and society. He pointed out that as a result of religious and political persecution, the prisons were overcrowded, the people were starving, and literally all segments of the population were dissatisfied with the government. Prophetically cited the phrase of King Louis XV "After us, at least the deluge." Yes, in France, as a result of his thoughtless rule, a revolution took place, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette died on the guillotine, rivers of blood were shed.
"Measures of violence can oppress the people, but you cannot control them." The only means ... to give the people the opportunity to express their desires and needs ... to fulfill those of them that will meet the requirements of not one class or estate, but the majority of it.
For all his moral qualities, Nicholas II was too weak-willed and dependent on his environment, and did not follow the advice of the writer, who later turned out to be a visionary.
Grave without a cross
Tolstoy bequeathed to bury him without a funeral service and in a simple grave without a cross: simply "bury the body so that it does not stink." This phrase of the Russian writer echoes a similar statement of the ancient Greek sage Demonakt, who, when asked what orders he would give about his burial, replied: “Do not bother. The scent will take care of my burial."
At the grave of Tolstoy, shortly after his death, an incident occurred that served as an occasion for a new surge of reasoning about his demonic essence. Pupils, followers and admirers of the talent of the great writer constantly came here. To the great annoyance of the orthodox believers, who stated that the grave had acquired all the signs of religious reverence. On August 28, 1911, a group of Tolstoy's students laid flowers on the grave. The ten-year-old son of one of them, Biryukov, bent down to correct them, and suddenly cried out loudly. The father was horrified to see right hand the child is entwined with a large viper that has bitten the boy.
This incident was again regarded as a mystical-evil echo of the writer's soul. However, vipers often settle on graves: they are less touched there, and, naturally, they protect their offspring from possible encroachments.
Descendants of the writer
Several talented and outstanding contemporaries are among the writer's descendants. Lives in Russia
Vladimir Ilyich Tolstoy
- Advisor to the President of Russia on cultural issues. It is he who is the organizer of the preservation of the heritage of his ancestor.
Fyokla Tolstaya
is a well-known Russian journalist. Graduated from Moscow State University, speaks five languages.
Pyotr Tolstoy is also a journalist, his father and his family returned to Russia from exile in 1944.
Dmitry Tolstoy lives in Paris and owns a photography studio. He is the author of a series of photographs of the Yasnaya Polyana estate.
In Yasnaya Polyana - the descendants of Tolstoy
The Swedish branch of Tolstoy founded son of Lev Nikolaevich - Lev Lvov h: for health reasons, he was forced to turn to the Swedish doctor Westerlund. And then he fell in love with his daughter Dora and married her.
Their descendants: Andrei Tolstoy, one of the most famous reindeer herders in Scandinavia. Victoria Tolstoy(exactly so, without inclining) - a jazz singer, said: “When I was in Moscow a few years ago, I visited the Tolstoy House-Museum. I remember I saw a portrait of a lady from the Tolstoy family there and was amazed at how similar this young woman from past centuries was to me! Then for the first time I really felt my involvement in the Tolstoy family: how much connects and unites us at the deepest genetic level!
Ilaria Shtiler-Timon lives in Israel and teaches Italian language. She is the great-granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy's eldest daughter, Tatyana Sukhotina-Tolstaya.
Rambler reports. Next: https://news.rambler.ru/o ther/38837363/?utm_content=rnews&utm_medium=read_more&utm_source=copylink
September 9 marks the 190th anniversary of the birth of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. His novels "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina" are known all over the world, and his descendants still gather together in Yasnaya Polyana. The great-great-granddaughter of the writer, a journalist, TV presenter, director Fyokla Tolstaya, spoke about the famous family.
– The main secret Tolstykh is not only that we have a famous ancestor. Every day I heard from my father (Nikita Tolstoy, grandson of the second son of the writer - Ilya Lvovich Tolstoy. - Approx. "Antennas") very friendly, most often funny stories about my grandfather, whom I did not catch, about his sister, my father's aunt, and people from the Tolstoy family. And most importantly, what we managed to learn from them: the family is an important foundation. Of course, to some extent, this is also the legacy of Lev Nikolayevich, who consciously went to ensure that he had a great happy family: I chose a spouse for a long time, they gave birth to 13 children, created a family nest in Yasnaya Polyana. I was not so impressed by the portrait of a rather stern old man with a beard as the fact that this old man looked like my father and grandfather. This feeling that you are not alone, but belong to some branch of a large tree, I remember from childhood.
Fekla in front of a portrait of his father, Nikita Ilyich Tolstoy. She has a family ring on her finger.
Photo by Vadim Shults
When I was filming the series "Fat" for the TV channel "Culture", where each of the eight episodes is dedicated to one representative of the genus, I wanted to catch them common features. The phrase of Lev Nikolaevich is known. After visiting his uncle Fedorov Ivanovich Tolstoy, a flamboyant personality, he wrote that he had a wildness in character, like all Tolstoys. It seems to me that the Tolstoys are very emotional, sometimes quick-tempered and "natural". They don't like to pretend. All people are educated, but what they think is what they say. Still independent and freedom-loving. Rarely ready to submit to violence, hard pressure. I know from my relatives that everything can be done with love, nothing can be done with force.
Museum with ropes turns into a house
– I came to Yasnaya Polyana at the age of 16 and saw the same portraits that hang in our house. Suddenly the world of the historical past turned out to be real. Its material shell has been preserved, and after 1994, when my second cousin Vladimir Tolstoy became the director of the museum-estate and congresses of descendants began to take place, it was filled with real family relationships. I remember how in 2000 we were with my American, Italian, French brothers played a home performance in the estate. The museum with ropes has turned into a house where family life goes on and you can feel at least a little the atmosphere that was during the life of Lev Nikolayevich.
Lev Tolstoy
Photo by Getty Images
The Tolstoy Congresses would not have been possible without the amazing Nikolai Pavlovich Puzin, who lived and worked in Yasnaya Polyana from the 1940s until his death seven years ago.
During the revolution, Tolstoy's children emigrated. Only the eldest son Sergei Lvovich remained in Russia. Until that time, all the grandchildren had known each other since childhood and maintained relationships, but then it became more difficult. Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy in the 40s, before his death, bequeathed to the young employee of Yasnaya Polyana Puzin not to lose touch with the Tolstoys around the world and to collect information about them. Nikolai Pavlovich spoke amazing Russian, grasped, as in the 19th century, it seemed that he had moved from the time of Lev Nikolaevich to ours and was a living bridge for all generations of Tolstoys.
american aunties italian sister
Since 2000, Tolstoy congresses have been held regularly every two years. This summer there were 150 people. Now the main backbone is well acquainted with each other, and already the children are growing up before our eyes. And someone comes for the first time, like this year one family from Sweden. We had an exhibition where everyone brought family heirlooms. This is a great occasion to remember the history of the family. My Swedish cousin, a professional actress and director, showed her performance based on letters from Sofya Andreevna and Lev Nikolaevich. I represented the series "Fat", we discussed it, argued. There was also a ball in the Tula noble assembly, where the descendants danced in beautiful dresses. Although this is rather an exception. Like their ancestors, the Tolstoys gravitate toward a simple life without palaces, balls, and outdoor recreation: taking a walk, swimming in a pond, fishing, mowing grass.
Victoria Tolstoy - Leo Tolstoy's great-granddaughter through his son Leo
Photo by Getty Images
It is a great happiness that everyone can gather in the family nest. For example, my favorite american aunties- 100% Russian. Their father, Tolstoy's grandson, married a Russian emigrant from the well-known Rodzianko family (Mikhail Rodzianko was the last chairman of the State Duma before the revolution). They lived in Belgrade, in France, then moved to America. My aunt Tatyana Tolstaya, despite growing up in a Russian-speaking environment, first came to Russia at the age of 60. Wonderfully said my italian sister: "In Moscow we feel like tourists, but in Yasnaya Polyana we are at home."
The literary gifted family
- Among the descendants there are people of the most different professions. As far as I know, no one became a writer, but very many Tolstoys were literary gifted. Tolstoy's son Lev Lvovich wrote several stories, in encyclopedias he was called Leo Tolstoy Jr. All the children left memories. Sofya Andreevna also wrote stories. For educated people it was all right. Among the Tolstoys, there are many people involved in language and literature, in particular, one of the most famous philologists was my father, academician Nikita Tolstoy, and my uncle, Professor Ilya Tolstoy. Many descendants study the life of their family. Last year and this year we talked a lot with my Italian aunt Marta Albertina. She is writing a book about her mother and grandmother, granddaughter and daughter of Tolstoy, so she came to Moscow. We sat with her in the archives, read old letters, laughed and worried. Now, as a co-curator, I have made the exhibition “Celebrations Cannot Be Banned” at the Tolstoy Museum on Prechistenka. We decided to see how Lev Nikolayevich's contemporaries, when he was famous and at the same time a controversial figure for society, celebrated his 80th birthday. Thousands of newspapers and magazines of that time have been preserved. Some said that he was a magnifying thinker, while others called for not celebrating the anniversary of a man who is excommunicated and criticizes the government. It is very interesting to read also because such articles tell about the society of that time. There is also a huge number of cartoons that were printed for the anniversary of Tolstoy himself and his critics. Contemporaries were in a lively dialogue with Lev Nikolaevich, and we wanted to revive him.