Count, Russian writer, corresponding member (1873), honorary academician (1900) of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Starting with the autobiographical trilogy Childhood (1852), Boyhood (1852-54), Youth (1855-57), the study of the "fluidity" of the inner world, the moral foundations of the individual, became the main theme of Tolstoy's works. Painful searches for the meaning of life, a moral ideal, hidden general laws of being, spiritual and social criticism, revealing the "untruth" of class relations, run through all of his work. In the story "The Cossacks" (1863), the hero, a young nobleman, is looking for a way out in familiarizing himself with nature, with the natural and integral life of a simple person. The epic "War and Peace" (1863-69) recreates the life of various strata of Russian society during the Patriotic War of 1812, the patriotic impulse of the people that united all classes and led to victory in the war against Napoleon. historical events and personal interests, the ways of spiritual self-determination of the reflecting personality and the elements of Russian folk life with its "swarm" consciousness are shown as equivalent components of natural-historical being. In the novel Anna Karenina (1873-77) - about the tragedy of a woman in the grip of a destructive "criminal" passion - Tolstoy exposes the false foundations of secular society, shows the disintegration of the patriarchal way of life, the destruction of family foundations. To the perception of the world by an individualistic and rationalistic consciousness, he contrasts the inherent value of life as such in its infinity, uncontrollable changeability and real concreteness (“the seer of the flesh” - D. S. Merezhkovsky). Since the late 1870s, he has been experiencing a spiritual crisis, later captured by the idea of moral improvement and "simplification" (which gave rise to the "Tolstoy movement"), Tolstoy comes to an increasingly irreconcilable criticism of the social structure - modern bureaucratic institutions, the state, the church (in 1901 he was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church ), civilization and culture, the entire way of life of the "educated classes": the novel "Resurrection" (1889 - 99), the story "Kreutzer Sonata" (1887 - 89), the drama "The Living Corpse" (1900, published in 1911) and " The Power of Darkness" (1887). At the same time, attention is growing to the themes of death, sin, repentance and moral rebirth (the stories "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", 1884 - 86; "Father Sergius", 1890 - 98, published in 1912; "Hadji Murad", 1896 - 1904, publ. . in 1912). Publicistic writings of a moralizing nature, including "Confession" (1879-82), "What is my faith?" (1884), where the Christian doctrine of love and forgiveness is transformed into a preaching of non-resistance to evil by violence. the desire to harmonize the way of thinking and life leads to the departure of Tolstoy from the house in Yasnaya Polyana; died at Astapovo station.
Biography
Born on August 28 (September 9, n.s.) in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province. By origin, he belonged to the most ancient aristocratic families of Russia. Received home education and upbringing.
After the death of his parents (mother died in 1830, father in 1837), the future writer with three brothers and a sister moved to Kazan, to the guardian P. Yushkova. At the age of sixteen, he entered Kazan University, first at the Faculty of Philosophy in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature, then studied at the Faculty of Law (1844-47). In 1847, without completing the course, he left the university and settled in Yasnaya Polyana, which he received as his father's inheritance.
The future writer spent the next four years searching: he tried to reorganize the life of the peasants of Yasnaya Polyana (1847), lived a secular life in Moscow (1848), at St. deputy meeting (autumn 1849).
In 1851 he left Yasnaya Polyana for the Caucasus, the place of service of his older brother Nikolai, and volunteered to take part in hostilities against the Chechens. Episodes of the Caucasian War are described by him in the stories "Raid" (1853), "Cutting down the forest" (1855), in the story "Cossacks" (1852 - 63). He passed the cadet exam, preparing to become an officer. In 1854, being an artillery officer, he transferred to the Danube army, which acted against the Turks.
In the Caucasus, Tolstoy began to seriously engage in literary creativity, writes the story "Childhood", which was approved by Nekrasov and published in the journal "Contemporary". Later, the story "Boyhood" (1852-54) was printed there.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Crimean War, Tolstoy, at his personal request, was transferred to Sevastopol, where he participated in the defense of the besieged city, showing rare fearlessness. Awarded the Order of St. Anna with the inscription "For Courage" and medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol". In "Sevastopol Tales" he created a mercilessly reliable picture of the war, which made a huge impression on Russian society. In the same years he wrote the last part of the trilogy - "Youth" (1855 - 56), in which he declared himself not just a "poet of childhood", but a researcher of human nature. This interest in man and the desire to understand the laws of mental and spiritual life will continue in his future work.
In 1855, having arrived in St. Petersburg, Tolstoy became close to the staff of the Sovremennik magazine, met Turgenev, Goncharov, Ostrovsky, Chernyshevsky.
In the autumn of 1856 he retired ("A military career is not mine..." he writes in his diary) and in 1857 went on a six-month trip abroad to France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany.
In 1859 he opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, where he taught classes himself. He helped open more than 20 schools in the surrounding villages. In order to study the organization of school affairs abroad, in 1860-1861 Tolstoy made a second trip to Europe, inspected schools in France, Italy, Germany, and England. In London, he met Herzen, attended a lecture by Dickens.
In May 1861 (the year of the abolition of serfdom) he returned to Yasnaya Polyana, assumed the position of mediator and actively defended the interests of the peasants, resolving their disputes with the landowners about the land, for which the Tula nobility, dissatisfied with his actions, demanded his removal from office. In 1862 the Senate issued a decree dismissing Tolstoy. A secret surveillance of him by the III Section began. In the summer, the gendarmes carried out a search in his absence, confident that they would find a secret printing house, which the writer allegedly acquired after meetings and long conversations with Herzen in London.
In 1862, Tolstoy's life, his way of life were ordered for many years: he married the daughter of a Moscow doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers, and a patriarchal life began on his estate as the head of an ever-increasing family. The Tolstoys raised nine children.
The 1860s-1870s were marked by the appearance of two works by Tolstoy that immortalized his name: War and Peace (1863-69) and Anna Karenina (1873-77).
In the early 1880s, the Tolstoy family moved to Moscow to educate their growing children. From that time on, Tolstoy spent his winters in Moscow. Here, in 1882, he participated in the census of the Moscow population, became closely acquainted with the life of the inhabitants of the city's slums, which he described in the treatise "So what should we do?" (1882 - 86), and concluded: "... You can't live like that, you can't live like that, you can't!"
Tolstoy expressed the new worldview in his work "Confession" (1879㭎), where he spoke about the revolution in his views, the meaning of which he saw in the break with the ideology of the noble class and the transition to the side of the "simple working people". This turning point led Tolstoy to deny the state, the official church and property. The consciousness of the meaninglessness of life in the face of inevitable death led him to believe in God. He bases his teaching on the moral precepts of the New Testament: the demand for love for people and the preaching of non-resistance to evil by violence constitute the meaning of the so-called "Tolstoyism", which is becoming popular not only in Russia, but also abroad.
During this period, he came to a complete denial of his previous literary activity, engaged in physical labor, plowed, sewed boots, switched to vegetarian food. In 1891 he publicly renounced copyright on all his writings written after 1880.
Under the influence of friends and true admirers of his talent, as well as his personal need for literary activity, Tolstoy changed his negative attitude towards art in the 1890s. During these years he created the drama "The Power of Darkness" (1886), the play "The Fruits of Enlightenment" (1886 - 90), the novel "Resurrection" (1889 - 99).
In 1891, 1893, 1898 he participated in helping the peasants of the starving provinces, organized free canteens.
In the last decade, as always, he has been engaged in intense creative work. The story "Hadji Murad" (1896 - 1904), the drama "The Living Corpse" (1900), the story "After the Ball" (1903) were written.
At the beginning of 1900 he wrote a number of articles exposing the entire system of state administration. The government of Nicholas II passed a resolution according to which the Holy Synod (the highest church institution in Russia) excommunicated Tolstoy from the church, which caused a wave of indignation in society.
In 1901 Tolstoy lived in the Crimea, was treated after a serious illness, often met with Chekhov and M. Gorky.
In the last years of his life, when Tolstoy was drawing up his will, he found himself at the center of intrigues and strife between the "Tolstoyans", on the one hand, and his wife, who defended the well-being of her family and children, on the other. Trying to bring his way of life in line with his beliefs and burdened by the lordly way of life in the estate. On November 10, 1910, Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. The health of the 82-year-old writer could not stand the trip. He caught a cold and, falling ill, died on November 20 on the way at the Astapovo Ryazans station of the Ural railway.
Buried at Yasnaya Polyana.
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich (August 28, 1828, the estate of Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province - November 7, 1910, Astapovo station (now Lev Tolstoy station) of the Ryazan-Ural railway) - count, Russian writer.
Born into an aristocratic county family. Received home education and upbringing. In 1844 he entered the Kazan University at the Faculty of Oriental Languages, then studied at the Faculty of Law. In 1847, without completing the course, he left the university and arrived in Yasnaya Polyana, which he received as property under the division of his father's inheritance. In 1851, realizing the aimlessness of his existence and, deeply despising himself, he went to the Caucasus to join the army. There he began to work on his first novel "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth". A year later, when the novel was published, Tolstoy became a literary celebrity. In 1862, at the age of 34, Tolstoy married Sophia Bers, an eighteen-year-old girl from a noble family. During the first 10-12 years after his marriage, he creates "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina". In 1879 he began to write "Confession". 1886 "The Power of Darkness", in 1886 the play "The Fruits of Enlightenment", in 1899 the novel "Sunday" was published, the drama "The Living Corpse" 1900, the story "Hadji Murad" 1904. In the autumn of 1910, fulfilling his decision to live the last years according to his views, he secretly left Yasnaya Polyana, renouncing the "circle of the rich and scientists." He fell ill on the way and died. He was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.
A donkey in a lion's skin
The donkey put on a lion's skin, and everyone thought it was a lion. The people and cattle ran. The wind blew, the skin opened up, and the donkey became visible. The people fled: they beat the donkey.
WHAT IS THE DEW ON THE GRASS
When you go to the forest on a sunny summer morning, you can see diamonds in the fields, in the grass. All these diamonds shine and shimmer in the sun in different colors - yellow, red, and blue. When you come closer and see what it is, you will see that these are drops of dew gathered in triangular leaves of grass and glisten in the sun.
The leaf of this grass inside is shaggy and fluffy, like velvet. And the drops roll on the leaf and do not wet it.
When you inadvertently pick off a leaf with a dewdrop, the drop will roll down like a ball of light, and you will not see how it slips past the stem. It used to be that you would tear off such a cup, slowly bring it to your mouth and drink a dewdrop, and this dewdrop seemed tastier than any drink.
HEN AND SWALLOW
The chicken found snake eggs and began to hatch them. The swallow saw and said:
“That's it, stupid! You will lead them out, and when they grow up, they will offend you first.
VEST
One peasant took up trade and became so rich that he became the first rich man. He had hundreds of clerks, and he did not know them all by name.
Once the merchant lost twenty thousand money. The senior clerks began to search and found the one who stole the money.
The senior clerk came to the merchant and said: “I found a thief. We must send him to Siberia.”
The merchant says: “Who stole it?” Senior Clerk says:
"Ivan Petrov himself confessed."
The merchant thought and said: "Ivan Petrov must be forgiven."
The clerk was surprised and said: “How can I forgive? So those clerks will do the same: they will steal everything that is good. The merchant says: “Ivan Petrov must be forgiven: when I started trading, we were comrades with him. When I got married, I had nothing to wear down the aisle. He gave me his vest to wear. Ivan Petrov must be forgiven.”
So they forgave Ivan Petrov.
FOX AND GRAPES
The fox saw - ripe bunches of grapes were hanging, and began to fit in, as if to eat them.
She fought for a long time, but could not get it. To muffle her annoyance, she says: “Still green.”
UD ACHA
People came to the island, where there were many expensive stones. People tried to find more; they ate little, slept little, and everyone worked. Only one of them did nothing, but sat in place, ate, drank and slept. When they began to get ready to go home, they woke up this man and said: “What are you going home with?” He picked up a handful of earth under his feet and put it in his bag.
When everyone arrived home, this man took his land out of the bag and found in it a stone more precious than all the others together.
WORKERS AND COCK
The hostess woke up the workers at night and, as the roosters crowed, put them to work. It seemed hard for the workers, and they decided to kill the rooster so as not to wake the mistress. They killed them, it got worse: the hostess was afraid to oversleep and even earlier began to raise the workers.
FISHERMAN AND FISH
The fisherman caught a fish. Rybka says:
“Fisherman, let me into the water; You see, I am shallow: you will not be of much use to me. And let me go, let me grow up, then you will catch it - you will benefit more.
Rybak says:
“He will be a fool who waits for a great benefit, and misses a small one from his hands.”
TOUCH AND VISION
(Reasoning)
Braid the index finger with the middle and braided fingers, touch the small ball so that it rolls between both fingers, and close your eyes yourself. It will look like two balls to you. Open your eyes - you will see that one ball. The fingers deceived, and the eyes were corrected.
Look (best from the side) at a good clean mirror: it will seem to you that this is a window or a door and that there is something behind it. Feel it with your finger and you will see that it is a mirror. Eyes deceived, and fingers corrected.
FOX AND GOAT
The goat wanted to get drunk: he climbed down the slope to the well, got drunk and became heavy. He began to get back and could not. And he began to cry. The fox saw and said:
“That's it, stupid! If you had as many hairs in your beard, as much intelligence in your head, then before getting off, you would think about how to get back.
HOW THE MAN REMOVED THE STONE
On the square in one city lay a huge stone. The stone took up a lot of space and interfered with driving around the city. Engineers were called and asked how to remove this stone and how much it would cost.
One engineer said that the stone had to be broken into pieces with gunpowder and then taken piece by piece, and that it would cost 8,000 rubles; another said that a large skating rink should be brought under the stone and the stone should be brought on the rink, and that it would cost 6,000 rubles.
And one man said: “And I will remove the stone and take 100 rubles for it.”
He was asked how he would do it. And he said: “I will dig a big hole near the very stone; I will scatter the earth from the pit over the square, I will throw a stone into the pit and level it with earth.
The man did just that, and they gave him 100 rubles and another 100 rubles for a clever invention.
THE DOG AND ITS SHADOW
The dog walked along the plank across the river, and carried meat in its teeth. She saw herself in the water and thought that there was another dog carrying meat, - she threw her meat and rushed to take away from that dog: that meat was not there at all, but her own was carried away by the wave.
And the dog was left behind.
SUDOMA
In the Pskov province, in the Porokhov district, there is the river Sudoma, and on the banks of this river there are two mountains, opposite each other.
On one mountain there used to be the town of Vyshgorod, on the other mountain in the old days the Slavs sued. The old people say that on this mountain in the old days a chain hung from the sky and that whoever was right, he reached the chain with his hand, and whoever was wrong, he could not get it. One person borrowed money from another and unlocked it. They brought them both to Mount Sudoma and ordered them to get to the chain. The one who gave the money raised his hand and immediately took it out. It's the turn of the guilty to get it. He did not unlock, but only gave his crutch to hold the one with whom he was suing, so that it would be more dexterous to reach the chain with his hands; stretched out his hands and took it. Then the people were surprised: how, both are right? And the guilty crutch was empty, and the very money in which he unlocked was hidden in the crutch. When he handed over the crutch with the money to the one to whom he was supposed to hold it, he gave the money with the crutch, and therefore took out the chain.
So he fooled everyone. But since then the chain has ascended to heaven and never descended again. That's what the old people say.
GARDENER AND SONS
The gardener wanted to teach his sons to gardening. When he began to die, he called them and said:
“Behold, children, when I die, you look in the vineyard for what is hidden there.”
The children thought that there was a treasure there, and when their father died, they began to dig and dug up the whole earth. The treasure was not found, and the land in the vineyard was dug up so well that much more fruit began to be born. And they became rich.
EAGLE
The eagle built his nest on the high road, far from the sea, and brought out the children.
Once people worked near the tree, and the eagle flew up to the nest with a big fish in its claws. People saw the fish, surrounded the tree, shouted and threw stones at the eagle.
The eagle dropped the fish, and the people picked it up and left.
The eagle sat on the edge of the nest, and the eaglets raised their heads and began to squeak: they asked for food.
The eagle was tired and could not fly again to the sea; he descended into the nest, covered the eaglets with his wings, caressed them, straightened their feathers, and seemed to ask them to wait a little. But the more he caressed them, the louder they squealed.
Then the eagle flew away from them and sat on the top bough of the tree.
The eagles whistled and squealed even more plaintively.
Then the eagle suddenly screamed loudly, spread its wings and flew heavily towards the sea. He returned only late in the evening: he flew quietly and low above the ground, in his claws he again had a big fish.
When he flew up to the tree, he looked around to see if there were people near again, quickly folded his wings and sat on the edge of the nest.
The eaglets raised their heads and opened their mouths, and the eagle tore the fish and fed the children.
MOUSE UNDER THE BARN
There lived one mouse under the barn. There was a hole in the floor of the barn, and bread fell into the hole. The mouse had a good life, but she wanted to show off her life. She gnawed a hole more and called other mice to visit her.
“Come,” he says, “to me for a walk. I will feed you. There will be food for everyone.” When she brought the mice, she saw that there was no hole at all. The man noticed a large hole in the floor and patched it up.
HARES AND FROGS
Once the hares came together and began to cry for their lives: “We die from people, and from dogs, and from eagles, and from other animals. It is better to die once than to live in fear and suffer. Let's drown!"
And the hares jumped to the lake to drown themselves. The frogs heard the hares and splashed into the water. One hare and says:
“Stop guys! Let's wait for the heat; the life of a frog, apparently, is even worse than ours: they are afraid of us too.”
THREE KALACHA AND ONE BARANKA
One man wanted to eat. He bought a kalach and ate; he was still hungry. He bought another roll and ate; he was still hungry. He bought a third roll and ate it, and he was still hungry. Then he bought a bagel, and when he ate one, he was full. Then the man hit himself on the head and said:
“What a fool I am! Why did I eat so many rolls in vain? I should eat one bagel first.”
PETER I AND A MAN
Tsar Peter ran into a peasant in the forest. The man is chopping wood.
The king says: "God's help, man!"
The man says: "And then I need God's help."
The king asks: “Do you have a big family?”
I have a family of two sons and two daughters.
Well, your family is not big. Where are you putting money?
- And I put the money into three parts: firstly, I pay the debt, secondly, I give it in debt, thirdly, I put the sword into the water.
The king thought and did not know what it means that the old man pays his debt, and lends money, and throws himself into the water.
And the old man says: “I pay a debt - I feed my father-mother; I give in debt - I feed my sons; and into the water of the sword - a grove of daughters.
The king says: “Your smart head, old man. Now take me out of the forest into the field, I won't find the way."
The man says: “You will find the road yourself: go straight, then turn right, and then left, then right again.”
The king says: “I don’t understand this letter, you bring me together.”
“I have no time to drive, sir; a day is dear to us in the peasantry.
- Well, it's expensive, so I'll pay.
- If you pay, let's go.
They sat down on a one-wheeler, drove off. The dear king of the peasant began to ask: “Have you been far, peasant?”
- I've been somewhere.
- Did you see the king?
“I didn’t see the Tsar, but I ought to see him.”
“So, let’s go out into the field and see the king.”
- How do I know him?
- Everyone will be without hats, one king in a hat.
Here they are in the field. I saw the king's people - they all took off their hats. The man stares, but does not see the king.
So he asks: “Where is the king?”
Pyotr Alekseevich says to him: “You see, only the two of us in hats - one of us and the king.”
FATHER AND SONS
The father ordered his sons to live in harmony; they didn't listen. So he ordered to bring a broom and says:
“Break!”
No matter how much they fought, they could not break. Then the father untied the broom and ordered to break one rod at a time.
They easily broke the bars one by one.
Father and says:
“So are you; if you live in harmony, no one will overcome you; but if you quarrel, and all apart, everyone will easily destroy you.
WHY DOES THE WIND HAPPEN?
(Reasoning)
Fish live in water, but humans live in the air. The fish cannot hear or see the water until the fish themselves move, or until the water moves. And we also do not hear the air until we move or the air does not move.
But as soon as we run, we hear the air - it blows in our face; and sometimes you can hear when we run, how the air whistles in our ears. When we open the door to a warm upper room, the wind always blows from below from the courtyard into the upper room, and from above it blows from the upper room into the courtyard.
When someone walks around the room or waves a dress, we say: “he makes the wind”, and when the stove is heated, the wind always blows into it. When the wind blows in the yard, it blows for whole days and nights, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in the other. This happens because somewhere on earth the air gets very hot, and in another place it cools down - then the wind starts, and a cold spirit comes from below, and warm from above, just like from the courtyard to the hut. And until then it blows until it warms up where it was cold, and cools down where it was hot.
VOLGA AND VAZUZA
There were two sisters: Volga and Vazuza. They began to argue which of them is smarter and who will live better.
Volga said: “Why should we argue, we are both old. Let's leave the house tomorrow morning and go our own way; then we will see which of the two will pass better and come to the Khvalyn kingdom sooner.”
Vazuza agreed, but deceived the Volga. As soon as the Volga fell asleep, Vazuza ran at night on a straight road to the Khvalyn kingdom.
When Volga got up and saw that her sister had left, she neither quietly nor quickly went on her way and overtook Vazuza.
Vazuza was afraid that the Volga would not punish her, she called herself a younger sister and asked the Volga to bring her to the Khvalyn kingdom. Volga forgave her sister and took her with her.
The Volga River begins in the Ostashkovsky district from the swamps in the Volga village. There is a small well there, the Volga flows from it. And the Vazuza River starts in the mountains. Vazuza flows straight, but the Volga turns.
The Vazuza breaks the ice earlier in the spring and passes through, while the Volga later. But when the two rivers converge, the Volga is already 30 fathoms wide, and the Vazuza is still a narrow and small river. The Volga passes through all of Russia for three thousand one hundred and sixty miles and flows into the Khvalynsk (Caspian) Sea. And the width in it in the hollow water is up to twelve miles.
FALCON AND COCK
The falcon got used to the owner and walked on the hand when he was called; the rooster ran away from the owner and screamed when they approached him. The falcon says to the rooster:
“There is no gratitude in you roosters; servile breed is visible. You, only when you are hungry, go to the owners. Whether we are a wild bird: we have a lot of strength, and we can fly faster than anyone; but we do not run away from people, but we ourselves still go to their hands when they call us. We remember that they feed us.”
Rooster and says:
"You don't run from people because you've never seen a roasted falcon, but we see roasted roosters every now and then."
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 in the estate of his mother Yasnaya Polyana, Krapivensky district, Tula province. Tolstoy's family belonged to a wealthy and noble family of counts. By the time Leo was born, the family already had three eldest sons: - Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergey (1826 -1904) and Dmitry (1827 - 1856), and in 1830 Lev's younger sister Maria was born.
A few years later, the mother died. In Tolstoy's autobiographical "Childhood" Irtenyev's mother dies when the boy is 10-12 years old and he is quite conscious. However, the portrait of the mother is described by the writer exclusively from the stories of his relatives. After the death of their mother, a distant relative, T. A. Ergolskaya, took care of the orphaned children. She is represented by Sonya from War and Peace.
In 1837, the family moved to Moscow, because. older brother Nikolai had to prepare for entering the university. But a tragedy suddenly occurred in the family - the father died, leaving things in a bad state. Three younger children were forced to return to Yasnaya Polyana under the upbringing of T. A. Ergolskaya and his father's aunt, Countess A. M. Osten-Saken. Here Leo Tolstoy remained until 1840. This year, Countess A. M. Osten-Saken died and the children were moved to Kazan to their father's sister P. I. Yushkova. L. N. Tolstoy quite accurately conveyed this period of his life in his autobiography Childhood.
Tolstoy at the first stage was educated under the guidance of a rude French tutor Saint-Thomas. He is portrayed by a certain M-r Jérôme of Boyhood. In the future, he was replaced by a good-natured German Reselman. His Lev Nikolaevich lovingly portrayed in "Childhood" under the name of Karl Ivanovich.
In 1843, following his brother Tolstoy, he entered Kazan University. There, until 1847, Leo Tolstoy was preparing to enter the only Oriental Faculty in Russia in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. For a year of study, Tolstoy showed himself as the best student of this course. However, there was a conflict between the poet's family and a teacher of Russian and German history, a certain Ivanov. This led to the fact that, according to the results of the year, Leo Tolstoy had poor progress in the relevant subjects and had to re-take the first year program. To avoid a complete repetition of the course, the poet is transferred to the Faculty of Law. But even there the problems with the teacher of German and Russian continue. Soon Tolstoy loses all interest in learning.
In the spring of 1847, Lev Nikolaevich left the university and settled in Yasnaya Polyana. Everything that Tolstoy did in the countryside can be found out by reading The Morning of the Landowner, where the poet introduces himself in the role of Nekhlyudov. There, a lot of time was spent on revelry, games and hunting.
In the spring of 1851, on the advice of his elder brother Nikolai, in order to cut costs and pay off his debts, Lev Nikolayevich left for the Caucasus.
In the fall of 1851, he became a cadet of the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladovo near Kizlyar. Soon L.N. Tolstoy became an officer. When the Crimean War began at the end of 1853, Lev Nikolaevich transferred to the Danube army, participated in the battles of Oltenitsa and Silistria. From November 1854 to August 1855 he participated in the defense of Sevastopol. After the assault on August 27, 1855, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy was sent to Petersburg. A noisy life began there: drinking parties, cards and carousing with gypsies.
In St. Petersburg, L.N. Tolstoy met the staff of the Sovremennik magazine with N.A. Nekrasov, I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharov, N.G. Chernyshevsky.
At the beginning of 1857 Tolstoy went abroad. On the road in Germany, Switzerland, England, Italy, France, he spends a year and a half. Travel does not bring him pleasure. He expressed his disappointment with European life in the story "Lucerne". And returning to Russia, Lev Nikolaevich took up the improvement of schools in Yasnaya Polyana.
In the late 1850s, Tolstoy met Sophia Andreevna Bers, born in 1844, the daughter of a Moscow doctor from the Baltic Germans. He was almost 40 years old, and Sophia was only 17. It seemed to him that this difference was too great and sooner or later Sophia would fall in love with a young guy who had not become obsolete. These experiences of Lev Nikolaevich are set forth in his first novel, Family Happiness.
In September 1862, Leo Tolstoy nevertheless married 18-year-old Sofya Andreevna Bers. For 17 years of marriage, they had 13 children. During the same period, "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" were created. In 1861-62. finishes his story "The Cossacks", the first of the works in which Tolstoy's great talent was recognized as a genius.
In the early 70s, Tolstoy again showed interest in pedagogy, wrote the ABC and the New ABC, composed fables and stories that made up four Russian books for reading.
In order to answer the questions and doubts of a religious nature that tormented him, Lev Nikolayevich began to study theology. In 1891, in Geneva, the writer writes and publishes a Study of Dogmatic Theology, in which he criticizes Bulgakov's Orthodox Dogmatic Theology. He first began to talk with priests and monarchs, read theological treatises, studied ancient Greek and Hebrew. Tolstoy gets acquainted with schismatics, adjoins sectarian peasants.
In the early 1900s By the Holy Synod, Lev Nikolayevich was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church. L. N. Tolstoy lost all interest in life, he was tired of enjoying the achieved prosperity, the thought of suicide arose. He is fond of simple physical labor, becomes a vegetarian, gives his family all his wealth, renounces literary property rights.
On November 10, 1910, Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana, but on the way he became very ill. On November 20, 1910, Leo Tolstoy died at the Astapovo station of the Ryazan-Ural Railway.
"The world, perhaps, did not know another artist in whom the eternally epic, Homeric beginning would be as strong as that of Tolstoy. The element of the epic lives in his works, its majestic monotony and rhythm, like the measured breath of the sea, its tart, powerful freshness , its burning spice, indestructible health, indestructible realism"
Thomas Mann
Not far from Moscow, in the Tula province, there is a small noble estate, the name of which is known to the whole world. This is Yasnaya Polyana, one of the great geniuses of mankind Leo Tolstoy was born, lived and worked. Tolstoy was born on August 28, 1828 into an old noble family. His father was a count, a participant in the war of 1812, a retired colonel.
Biography
Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, in the family of a landowner. Tolstoy's parents belonged to the highest nobility, even under Peter I, Tolstoy's paternal ancestors received the title of count. Lev Nikolaevich's parents died early, leaving him only a sister and three brothers. Tolstoy's aunt, who lived in Kazan, took care of the children. The whole family moved in with her.
|
|
In 1844, Lev Nikolaevich entered the university at the oriental faculty, and then studied at the law faculty. Tolstoy knew more than fifteen foreign languages at the age of 19. He was seriously interested in history and literature. Studying at the university did not last long, Lev Nikolaevich left the university and returned home to Yasnaya Polyana. Soon he decides to leave for Moscow and devote himself to literary activity. His older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, leaves for the Caucasus, where the war was going on, as an artillery officer. Following the example of his brother, Lev Nikolaevich enters the army, receives an officer's rank and goes to the Caucasus. During the Crimean War, L. Tolstoy was transferred to the active Danube army, fought in the besieged Sevastopol, commanding a battery. Tolstoy was awarded the Order of Anna ("For Courage"), medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol", "In Memory of the War of 1853-1856".
In 1856 Lev Nikolayevich retired. After a while he goes abroad (France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany).
Since 1859, Lev Nikolayevich has been actively engaged in educational activities, opening a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, and then contributing to the opening of schools throughout the district, publishing the pedagogical magazine Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy became seriously interested in pedagogy, studied foreign teaching methods. In order to deepen his knowledge in pedagogy, he went abroad again in 1860.
After the abolition of serfdom, Tolstoy actively participated in resolving disputes between landlords and peasants, acting as a mediator. For his activities, Lev Nikolaevich receives a reputation as an unreliable person, as a result of which a search was carried out in Yasnaya Polyana in order to find a secret printing house. Tolstoy's school is closed, the continuation of pedagogical activity becomes almost impossible. By this time, Lev Nikolaevich had already written the famous trilogy "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth.", The story "Cossacks", as well as many stories and articles. A special place in his work was occupied by "Sevastopol stories", in which the author conveyed his impressions of the Crimean War.
In 1862, Lev Nikolaevich married Sofya Andreevna Bers, the daughter of a doctor, who became his faithful friend and assistant for many years. Sofya Andreevna took care of all the household chores, and besides, she became her husband's editor and his first reader. Tolstoy's wife manually rewrote all of his novels before being sent to the editorial office. It is enough to imagine how difficult it was to prepare War and Peace for publication in order to appreciate the dedication of this woman.
In 1873, Lev Nikolayevich finished work on Anna Karenina. By this time, Count Leo Tolstoy became a well-known writer who received recognition, corresponded with many literary critics and authors, and actively participated in public life.
In the late 70s - early 80s, Lev Nikolayevich was going through a serious spiritual crisis, trying to rethink the changes taking place in society and determine his position as a citizen. Tolstoy decides that it is necessary to take care of the welfare and enlightenment of the common people, that a nobleman has no right to be happy when the peasants are in distress. He is trying to start the change from his own estate, from the restructuring of his attitude towards the peasants. Tolstoy's wife insists on moving to Moscow, as the children need to get a good education. From that moment, conflicts in the family begin, since Sofya Andreevna tried to ensure the future of her children, and Lev Nikolaevich believed that the nobility was over and it was time to live modestly, like the entire Russian people.
During these years, Tolstoy wrote philosophical essays, articles, participated in the creation of the Posrednik publishing house, which dealt with books for the common people, wrote the novels The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The History of the Horse, and The Kreutzer Sonata.
In 1889 - 1899 Tolstoy finished the novel "Resurrection".
At the end of his life, Lev Nikolayevich finally decides to break the connection with the well-to-do noble life, is engaged in charity, education, changes the order in his estate, giving freedom to the peasants. Such a life position of Lev Nikolaevich became the cause of serious domestic conflicts and quarrels with his wife, who looked at life differently. Sofya Andreevna was worried about the future of her children, was against the unreasonable, from her point of view, expenses of Lev Nikolaevich. The quarrels became more and more serious, Tolstoy more than once made an attempt to leave home forever, the children experienced conflicts very hard. The former mutual understanding in the family disappeared. Sofya Andreevna tried to stop her husband, but then the conflicts escalated into attempts to divide property, as well as property rights to the works of Lev Nikolayevich.
Finally, on November 10, 1910, Tolstoy leaves his home in Yasnaya Polyana and leaves. Soon he falls ill with pneumonia, is forced to stop at the Astapovo station (now the Lev Tolstoy station) and dies there on November 23.
Test questions:
1. Tell the biography of the writer, mentioning the exact dates.
2. Explain how the connection between the biography of the writer and his work is manifested.
3. Summarize the biographical data and determine the features of it
creative heritage.
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
BiographyLev Nikolaevich Tolstoy(August 28 (September 9), 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire - November 7 (20), 1910, Astapovo station, Ryazan province, Russian Empire) - one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers, revered as one of the greatest world writers.
Born in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana. Among the ancestors of the writer on the paternal side is an associate of Peter I - P. A. Tolstoy, one of the first in Russia to receive the title of count. Member of the Patriotic War of 1812 was the father of the writer gr. N. I. Tolstoy. On the maternal side, Tolstoy belonged to the family of the princes Bolkonsky, related by kinship with the princes Trubetskoy, Golitsyn, Odoevsky, Lykov and other noble families. On his mother's side, Tolstoy was a relative of A. S. Pushkin.
When Tolstoy was in his ninth year, his father took him to Moscow for the first time, the impressions of meeting with which were vividly conveyed by the future writer in the children's essay "Kremlin". Moscow is here called "the greatest and most populous city in Europe", whose walls "saw the shame and defeat of the invincible Napoleonic regiments." The first period of young Tolstoy's life in Moscow lasted less than four years. He was orphaned early, having lost first his mother and then his father. With his sister and three brothers, young Tolstoy moved to Kazan. Here lived one of the father's sisters, who became their guardians.
Living in Kazan, Tolstoy spent two and a half years preparing to enter the university, where he studied from 1844, first at the Oriental Faculty, and then at the Faculty of Law. He studied Turkish and Tatar languages with the famous Turkologist Professor Kazembek. In his mature life, the writer was fluent in English, French and German; read in Italian, Polish, Czech and Serbian; knew Greek, Latin, Ukrainian, Tatar, Church Slavonic; studied Hebrew, Turkish, Dutch, Bulgarian and other languages.
Classes in government programs and textbooks weighed heavily on Tolstoy the student. He became interested in independent work on a historical topic and, leaving the university, left Kazan for Yasnaya Polyana, which he received under the division of his father's inheritance. Then he went to Moscow, where at the end of 1850 he began his writing activity: an unfinished story from the gypsy life (the manuscript has not been preserved) and a description of one day lived ("The History of Yesterday"). Then the story "Childhood" was started. Soon Tolstoy decided to go to the Caucasus, where his older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, an artillery officer, served in the army. Having entered the army as a cadet, he later passed the exam for a junior officer rank. The writer's impressions of the Caucasian War were reflected in the stories "The Raid" (1853), "Cutting the Forest" (1855), "Degraded" (1856), and in the story "Cossacks" (1852-1863). In the Caucasus, the story "Childhood" was completed, which was published in 1852 in the journal Sovremennik.
When the Crimean War began, Tolstoy was transferred from the Caucasus to the Danube army, which acted against the Turks, and then to Sevastopol, besieged by the combined forces of England, France and Turkey. Commanding a battery on the 4th bastion, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of Anna and the medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol" and "In Memory of the War of 1853-1856." More than once Tolstoy was presented for the award of the military St. George Cross, but however, he never received the “George”. In the army, Tolstoy wrote a number of projects - on the reorganization of artillery batteries and the creation of battalions armed with rifled rifles, on the reorganization of the entire Russian army. Together with a group of officers of the Crimean army, Tolstoy intended to publish the magazine "Soldier's Bulletin" ("Military List"), but its publication was not allowed by Emperor Nicholas I.
In the autumn of 1856 he retired and soon went on a six-month trip abroad, visiting France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. In 1859, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, and then helped open more than 20 schools in the surrounding villages. In order to direct their activities along the right path, from his point of view, he published the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana (1862). In order to study the organization of school affairs in foreign countries, the writer went abroad for the second time in 1860.
After the manifesto of 1861, Tolstoy became one of the world's mediators of the first call, who sought to help the peasants resolve their land disputes with the landowners. Soon in Yasnaya Polyana, when Tolstoy was away, the gendarmes searched for a secret printing house, which the writer allegedly started after talking with A. I. Herzen in London. Tolstoy had to close the school and stop publishing the pedagogical journal. In total, he wrote eleven articles on school and pedagogy ("On Public Education", "Upbringing and Education", "On Public Activities in the Field of Public Education" and others). In them, he described in detail the experience of his work with students ("Yasnopolyansk school for the months of November and December", "On the methods of teaching literacy", "Who should learn to write from whom, peasant children from us or us from peasant children"). Tolstoy the teacher demanded that the school be closer to life, sought to put it at the service of the needs of the people, and for this to intensify the processes of education and upbringing, to develop the creative abilities of children.
At the same time, already at the beginning of his creative path, Tolstoy became a supervised writer. One of the first works of the writer were the stories "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth", "Youth" (which, however, was not written). As conceived by the author, they were to compose the novel "Four Epochs of Development".
In the early 1860s for decades, the order of Tolstoy's life, his way of life, is established. In 1862, he married the daughter of a Moscow doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers.
The writer is working on the novel "War and Peace" (1863-1869). After completing War and Peace, Tolstoy spent several years studying materials about Peter I and his time. However, after writing several chapters of the "Petrine" novel, Tolstoy abandoned his plan. In the early 1870s the writer was again fascinated by pedagogy. He put a lot of work into the creation of the ABC, and then the New ABC. Then he compiled "Books for reading", where he included many of his stories.
In the spring of 1873, Tolstoy began and four years later completed work on a great novel about modernity, naming it after the name of the main character - "Anna Karenina".
The spiritual crisis experienced by Tolstoy in the late 1870s - early. 1880, ended with a turning point in his worldview. In "Confession" (1879-1882), the writer speaks of a revolution in his views, the meaning of which he saw in the break with the ideology of the noble class and the transition to the side of the "simple working people."
At the beginning of 1880s. Tolstoy moved with his family from Yasnaya Polyana to Moscow, taking care to educate his growing children. In 1882, a census of the Moscow population took place, in which the writer took part. He saw the inhabitants of the city's slums up close and described their terrible life in an article on the census and in the treatise "So what shall we do?" (1882-1886). In them, the writer made the main conclusion: "... You can't live like that, you can't live like that, you can't!" "Confession" and "So what shall we do?" were works in which Tolstoy acted both as an artist and as a publicist, as a deep psychologist and a bold sociologist-analyst. Later, this kind of works - in the genre of journalistic, but including artistic scenes and paintings, saturated with elements of imagery - will take a large place in his work.
In these and subsequent years, Tolstoy also wrote religious and philosophical works: "Critique of dogmatic theology", "What is my faith?", "Combination, translation and study of the four Gospels", "The Kingdom of God is within you". In them, the writer not only showed a change in his religious and moral views, but also subjected to a critical revision of the main dogmas and principles of the teaching of the official church. In the middle of 1880s. Tolstoy and his like-minded people created the Posrednik publishing house in Moscow, which printed books and pictures for the people. The first of Tolstoy's works, printed for the "simple" people, was the story "What makes people alive." In it, as in many other works of this cycle, the writer widely used not only folklore plots, but also the expressive means of oral creativity. Tolstoy's folk stories are thematically and stylistically related to his plays for folk theaters and, most of all, the drama "The Power of Darkness" (1886), which depicts the tragedy of the post-reform village, where centuries-old patriarchal orders collapsed under the "power of money".
In the 1880s Tolstoy's novels "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and "Kholstomer" ("History of a Horse"), "Kreutzer Sonata" (1887-1889) appeared. In it, as well as in the story "The Devil" (1889-1890) and the story "Father Sergius" (1890-1898), the problems of love and marriage, the purity of family relationships are raised.
On the basis of social and psychological contrast, Tolstoy's story "The Master and the Worker" (1895) is built, stylistically connected with the cycle of his folk stories written in the 80s. Five years earlier, Tolstoy wrote the comedy Fruits of Enlightenment for a "home performance". It also shows the "owners" and "workers": the noble landowners living in the city and the peasants who came from the hungry village, deprived of land. The images of the first are given satirically, the second is portrayed by the author as reasonable and positive people, but in some scenes they are also "presented" in an ironic light.
All these works of the writer are united by the thought of the inevitable and close in time "decoupling" of social contradictions, of replacing the obsolete social "order". “What the outcome will be, I don’t know,” wrote Tolstoy in 1892, “but that things are coming to it and that life cannot go on like this, in such forms, I am sure.” This idea inspired the largest work of all the work of the "late" Tolstoy - the novel "Resurrection" (1889-1899).
Less than ten years separate Anna Karenina from War and Peace. "Resurrection" is separated from "Anna Karenina" by two decades. And although much distinguishes the third novel from the two previous ones, they are united by a truly epic scope in the depiction of life, the ability to “match” individual human destinies with the fate of the people in the narrative. Tolstoy himself pointed to the unity that exists between his novels: he said that Resurrection was written in the "old manner", referring primarily to the epic "manner" in which War and Peace and Anna Karenina were written. ". "Resurrection" was the last novel in the writer's work.
In the early 1900s Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church by the Holy Synod.
In the last decade of his life, the writer worked on the story "Hadji Murad" (1896-1904), in which he sought to compare "two poles of imperious absolutism" - the European, personified by Nicholas I, and the Asian, personified by Shamil. At the same time, Tolstoy creates one of his best plays - "The Living Corpse". Her hero - the kindest soul, soft, conscientious Fedya Protasov leaves the family, breaks relations with his usual environment, falls to the "bottom" and in the courthouse, unable to bear the lies, pretense, hypocrisy of "respectable" people, shoots himself with a pistol accounts with life. An article written in 1908, "I Can't Be Silent", in which he protested against the repressions of participants in the events of 1905-1907, sounded sharp. The stories of the writer "After the ball", "For what?" belong to the same period.
Burdened by the way of life in Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy more than once intended and for a long time did not dare to leave it. But he could no longer live according to the "together-apart" principle, and on the night of October 28 (November 10) he secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, he fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to make a stop at the small station Astapovo (now Leo Tolstoy), where he died. On November 10 (23), 1910, the writer was buried in Yasnaya Polyana, in the forest, on the edge of a ravine, where, as a child, he and his brother searched for a "green stick" that kept the "secret" of how to make all people happy.
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich (28.08. (09.09.) 1828-07(20.11.1910)
Russian writer, philosopher. Born in Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, in a wealthy aristocratic family. Entered Kazan University, but then left it. At the age of 23 he went to war with Chechnya and Dagestan. Here he began to write the trilogy "Childhood", "Boyhood", "Youth".
In the Caucasus, he participated in hostilities as an artillery officer. During the Crimean War, he went to Sevastopol, where he continued to fight. After the end of the war, he left for St. Petersburg and published Sevastopol Tales in the Sovremennik magazine, which clearly reflected his outstanding writing talent. In 1857 Tolstoy went on a journey through Europe, which disappointed him.
From 1853 to 1863 wrote the story "Cossacks", after which he decided to interrupt his literary activity and become a landowner, doing educational work in the village. To this end, he left for Yasnaya Polyana, where he opened a school for peasant children and created his own system of pedagogy.
In 1863-1869. wrote his fundamental work "War and Peace". In 1873-1877. wrote the novel Anna Karenina. In the same years, the writer's worldview, known as "Tolstoyism", was fully formed, the essence of which can be seen in the works: "Confession", "What is my faith?", "The Kreutzer Sonata".
The doctrine is set forth in the philosophical and religious works "Study of dogmatic theology", "Combining and translating the four Gospels", where the main emphasis is on the moral improvement of man, denunciation of evil, non-resistance to evil by violence.
Later, a dilogy was published: the drama "The Power of Darkness" and the comedy "The Fruits of Enlightenment", then a series of stories-parables about the laws of being.
From all over Russia and the world, admirers of the writer's work came to Yasnaya Polyana, whom they treated as a spiritual mentor. In 1899, the novel "Resurrection" was published.
The last works of the writer are the stories "Father Sergius", "After the Ball", "The Posthumous Notes of the Elder Fyodor Kuzmich" and the drama "The Living Corpse".
Tolstoy's confessional journalism gives a detailed idea of his spiritual drama: drawing pictures of social inequality and the idleness of the educated strata, Tolstoy in a harsh form posed questions of the meaning of life and faith to society, criticized all state institutions, reaching the denial of science, art, court, marriage, achievements of civilization.
Tolstoy's social declaration is based on the idea of Christianity as a moral doctrine, and the ethical ideas of Christianity are comprehended by him in a humanistic key, as the basis of the universal brotherhood of people. In 1901, the reaction of the Synod followed: the world famous writer was officially excommunicated, which caused a huge public outcry.
On October 28, 1910, Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana from his family, fell ill on the way and was forced to leave the train at the small Astapovo railway station of the Ryazan-Ural Railway. Here, in the stationmaster's house, he spent the last seven days of his life.