Lev Nikolayevich was born on August 28 (September 9, n.s.), 1829, in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy was the fourth child in a large noble family. By origin, Tolstoy belonged to the oldest aristocratic families in Russia. 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.

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. Tolstoy left for Yasnaya Polyana with the firm intention of studying the entire course of legal sciences (in order to pass the exam as an external student), "practical medicine", languages, agriculture, history, geographical statistics, writing a dissertation and "achieving the highest degree of perfection in music and painting."

After a summer in the countryside, disappointed by the unsuccessful experience of managing on new, favorable conditions for serfs (this attempt is captured in the story "The Morning of the Landowner", 1857), in the fall of 1847 Tolstoy left first for Moscow, then for St. Petersburg to take candidate exams at the university. His way of life during this period often changed: either he prepared for days and passed exams, then he passionately devoted himself to music, then he intended to start a bureaucratic career, then he dreamed of becoming a cadet in a horse guard regiment. Religious moods, reaching asceticism, alternated with revelry, cards, trips to the gypsies. In the family, he was considered "the most trifling fellow", and he managed to repay the debts he had made then only many years later. However, it was these years that were colored by intense introspection and struggle with oneself, which is reflected in the diary that Tolstoy kept throughout his life. At the same time, he had a serious desire to write and the first unfinished artistic sketches appeared.

1851 - Leo Tolstoy works on the story "Childhood". In the same year, he volunteered for the Caucasus, where his brother Nikolai was already serving. Here he takes the exam for the rank of cadet, enrolled in military service. His title is 4th class fireworks. Tolstoy participates in the Chechen war. This period is considered the beginning of the writer's literary activity: he writes many stories, stories about the war.

1852 - "Childhood" was published in Sovremennik, the first of the writer's published works.

1854 - Tolstoy was promoted to warrant officer, he submits a request for transfer to the Crimean army. There is a Russian-Turkish war, and Count Tolstoy takes part in the defense of the besieged Sevastopol. He was awarded the Order of St. Anne with the inscription "For Bravery", medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol". He writes "Sevastopol Tales", which, with their realism, make an indelible impression on Russian society, which lived far from the war.

1855 - return to St. Petersburg. Leo Tolstoy is included in the circle of Russian writers. Among his new acquaintances are Turgenev, Tyutchev, Nekrasov, Ostrovsky and many others.

Soon, "people got sick of him and he got sick of himself," and at the beginning of 1857, leaving St. Petersburg, he went abroad. In Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Tolstoy spent only about a year and a half (1857 and 1860-1861). The impression was negative.

Returning to Russia immediately after the liberation of the peasants, he became a mediator and set up schools in his Yasnaya Polyana and throughout the Krapivensky district. The Yasnaya Polyana school is one of the most original pedagogical attempts ever made: the only method of teaching and education that he recognized was that no methods were needed. Everything in teaching should be individual - both the teacher and the student, and their relationship. At the Yasnaya Polyana school, the children sat wherever they wanted, for as long as they wanted, and as they wanted. There was no specific curriculum. The teacher's only job was to keep the class interested. Despite this extreme pedagogical anarchism, the classes were going great. They were led by Tolstoy himself, with the help of several permanent teachers and a few random ones, from the closest acquaintances and visitors.

From 1862 Tolstoy began to publish the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana. Put together, Tolstoy's pedagogical articles made up an entire volume of his collected works. Having warmly welcomed Tolstoy's debuts, recognizing in him the great hope of Russian literature, criticism then for 10-12 years cools towards him.

In September 1862, Tolstoy married the eighteen-year-old daughter of a doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers, and immediately after the wedding, he took his wife from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana, where he devoted himself completely to family life and household chores. However, already in the autumn of 1863, he was captured by a new literary idea, which for a long time was called "The Year 1805".

The time of the creation of the novel was a period of spiritual uplift, family happiness and quiet solitary work. Tolstoy read the memoirs and correspondence of people of the Alexander era (including the materials of Tolstoy and Volkonsky), worked in the archives, studied Masonic manuscripts, traveled to the Borodino field, moving slowly through many editions (his wife helped him a lot in copying the manuscripts, refuting the fact the very jokes of friends that she is still so young, as if playing with dolls), and only at the beginning of 1865 he published the first part of War and Peace in the Russkiy Vestnik. The novel was read avidly, caused a lot of responses, striking with a combination of a wide epic canvas with a subtle psychological analysis, with a lively picture of private life, organically inscribed in history.

Heated debate provoked the subsequent parts of the novel, in which Tolstoy developed a fatalistic philosophy of history. There were reproaches that the writer "entrusted" the intellectual demands of his era to the people of the beginning of the century: the idea of ​​the novel about the Patriotic War was indeed a response to the problems that worried Russian post-reform society. Tolstoy himself characterized his plan as an attempt to "write the history of the people" and considered it impossible to determine its genre nature ("it will not fit into any form, neither a novel, nor a short story, nor a poem, nor a history").

In 1877, the writer completed his second novel, Anna Karenina. In the original version, he bore the ironic title "Well Done Baba", and the main character was depicted as a spiritual and immoral woman. But the idea changed, and in the final version, Anna is a subtle and sincere nature, a real, strong feeling connects her with her lover. However, in the eyes of Tolstoy, she is still guilty of evading the destiny of a wife and mother. Therefore, her death is a manifestation of God's judgment, but she is not subject to human judgment.

At the pinnacle of literary glory, shortly after the completion of Anna Karenina, Tolstoy entered a period of deep doubt and moral quest. The story of the moral and spiritual anguish that nearly drove him to suicide as he vainly sought to find the meaning of life is told in Confessions (1879-1882). Tolstoy then turned to the Bible, especially the New Testament, and was convinced that he had found the answer to his questions. In each of us, he argued, there is the ability to recognize the good. It is a living source of reason and conscience, and the goal of our conscious life is to obey it, that is, to do good. Tolstoy formulated five commandments, which, he believed, were the true precepts of Christ and by which a person should be guided in his life. Briefly they are: do not fall into anger; do not give in to lust; do not bind yourself with oaths; do not resist evil; be equally good with the righteous and the unrighteous. Both the future teaching of Tolstoy and his life deeds somehow correlate with these commandments.

The writer all his life painfully experienced the poverty and suffering of the people. He was one of the organizers of public assistance to starving peasants in 1891. Personal labor and the rejection of wealth, of property acquired through the work of others, Tolstoy considered the moral duty of every person. His later ideas are reminiscent of socialism, but unlike the socialists, he was a staunch opponent of the revolution, as well as any violence.

Perversion, depravity of human nature and society - the main theme of the late works of Lev Nikolayevich. In his latest works (Kholstomer (1885), The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1881-1886), Master and Worker (1894-1895), Resurrection (1889-1899)) he abandons his favorite method of "dialectic souls", replacing it with direct author's judgments and assessments.

In the last years of his life, the writer worked on the story "Hadji Murad" from 1896 to 1904. In it, Tolstoy wanted to compare "the two poles of imperious absolutism" - the European, represented by Nicholas I, and the Asian, represented by Shamil.

The article “I Cannot Be Silent” published in 1908, where Lev Nikolayevich protested against the persecution of participants in the revolution of 1905–1907, was also loudly heard. Tolstoy's stories "After the Ball" and "For What?" belong to the same time.
The way of life in Yasnaya Polyana weighed heavily on Tolstoy, and he more than once wanted and for a long time could not decide to leave it.

In the late autumn of 1910, at night, secretly from his family, the 82-year-old Tolstoy, accompanied only by his personal doctor D.P. Makovitsky, left Yasnaya Polyana. The road turned out to be unbearable for him: on the way, Tolstoy fell ill and had to get off the train at the small Astapovo railway station (now Leo Tolstoy, Lipetsk region). Here, in the stationmaster's house, he spent the last seven days of his life. November 7 (20) Leo Tolstoy died.

(09.09.1828 - 20.11.1910).

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 the meeting with which were vividly conveyed by the future writer in the children's essay The Kremlin. Moscow is here called "the greatest and most populous city in Europe", the walls of which "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”). At the same time, the story "Childhood" was begun. 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 "Raid" (1853), "Cutting the Forest" (1855), "Degraded" (1856), 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 with the military St. George Cross, but 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 (“Yasnopolyanskaya school for the months of November and December”, “On methods of teaching literacy”, “Who should learn to write from whom, peasant children from us or us from peasant children”). Tolstoy, a 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", "Boyhood" 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 studied materials about Peter I and his time for several years. 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 paintings 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 the 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 "masters" 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 “presented” in an ironic light.

All these works of the writer are united by the idea of ​​the inevitable and close in time "decoupling" of social contradictions, of replacing the obsolete social "order". “What the denouement 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 The 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 - a kind 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 on the principle of "together-apart" 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.

Leo Tolstoy is one of the most famous writers and philosophers in the world. His views and beliefs formed the basis of a whole religious and philosophical movement, which is called Tolstoyism. The literary heritage of the writer amounted to 90 volumes of fiction and journalistic works, diary notes and letters, and he himself was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Fulfill all that you have determined to be fulfilled"

Genealogical tree of Leo Tolstoy. Image: regnum.ru

Silhouette of Maria Tolstoy (nee Volkonskaya), mother of Leo Tolstoy. 1810s Image: wikipedia.org

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The main thing is literary works"

Leo Tolstoy in his youth. 1851. Image: school-science.ru

Lev Tolstoy. 1848. Image: regnum.ru

Lev Tolstoy. Image: old.orlovka.org.ru

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

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

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

Leo Tolstoy at work. Image: kartinkinaden.ru

Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana. Image: kartinkinaden.ru

Leo Tolstoy tells a fairy tale to his grandchildren Ilyusha and Sonya. 1909. Krekshino. Photo: Vladimir Chertkov / wikipedia.org

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

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

Tolstoy's literary and social activities became known abroad as well. The writer was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902 and 1909 and for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902-1906. Tolstoy himself did not want to receive the award and even informed the Finnish writer Arvid Järnefelt to try to prevent the prize from being awarded, because, “if that happened… it would be very unpleasant to refuse” “He [Chertkov] took the unfortunate old man into his hands in every possible way, he separated us, he killed the artistic spark in Lev Nikolayevich and kindled condemnation, hatred, denial, which are felt in Lev Nikolayevich’s last articles years his foolish evil genius urged him on".

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

(1828-1910)

A short message about the personal life and work of L.N. Tolstoy for children in grades 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Tolstoy was born in 1828 at the Yasnaya Polyana estate into a large noble family. His mother and father died early, and he was raised by a relative who had a great influence on the boy. But Lev Nikolaevich remembered the appearance of his parents well and later reflected in the heroes of his works. In short, Tolstoy spent his childhood quite happily. In the future, he recalled that time with warmth, it repeatedly served as material for his work.

At the age of 13, Tolstoy moved with his family to Kazan. There he entered the university, where he first studied oriental languages, and then law. But the young man never graduated from the university and returned to Yasnaya Polyana. There, however, he decided to take up his education and independently study many different sciences. Nevertheless, he spent only one summer in the village and soon moved to St. Petersburg in order to pass exams at the university.

A brief biography of Tolstoy in his younger years comes down to an intense search for himself and his vocation. Either he went headlong into festivities and revels, then he led the life of an ascetic, indulging in religious reflections. But during these years, the young count already felt in himself a love for literary creativity.

In 1851, together with his elder brother, an officer, he went to the Caucasus, where he took part in hostilities. The time spent there left an indelible impression on Tolstoy. During these years, he worked on the story "Childhood", which later, together with two other stories, brought great fame to the novice writer. Further, Tolstoy was transferred to serve first in Bucharest, and then in Sevastopol, where he participated in the Crimean campaign and showed great courage.

After the end of the war, Tolstoy went to St. Petersburg and became a member of the famous Sovremennik circle, but he did not take root in it and soon went abroad. Returning to the family nest, the writer opened a well-known school there, intended for peasant children. The cause of education was very fascinated by Tolstoy, and he became interested in the organization of schools in Europe, for which he again went abroad. Soon Lev Nikolaevich married the young S.A. Bers. A brief biography of Tolstoy during this period was marked by quiet family happiness.

At the same time, the writer first began work on his great work "War and Peace", and then - on another, no less famous novel - "Anna Karenina".
The 1880s were sometimes a serious spiritual crisis for Lev Nikolayevich. This was reflected in a number of his works of that time, such as, for example, "Confession". Tolstoy thinks a lot about faith, about the meaning of life, about social inequality, criticizes state institutions and the achievements of civilization. He also works on religious treatises. The writer wanted to see Christianity as a practical religion, cleansed of any kind of mysticism. He criticized the Orthodox Church and its rapprochement with the state, and then completely departed from it. At the beginning of the 20th century, he was officially excommunicated from the Church. Lev Nikolayevich reflected the whole gamut of his emotional experiences of those years in his latest novel, Resurrection.

Tolstoy's drama was expressed in the rupture of relations not only with the Church, but also with his own family. In the autumn of 1910, the elderly writer secretly left home, but, already in poor health, fell ill on the road and died a week later, on November 7. They buried Lev Nikolaevich in Yasnaya Polyana. One can briefly say this about Tolstoy - he was a truly great literary genius. Readers loved his work so much that the writer's departure became a great grief for millions of people who lived not only in Russia, but also in various parts of the world.

To be one of the best writers in world history is an honorable right, and Leo Tolstoy deserved it, leaving behind a huge creative legacy. Stories, novellas, novels, which are presented in a whole series of volumes, were appreciated not only by the writer's contemporaries, but also by his descendants. What is the secret of this brilliant author, who was able to fit in his life and ""?

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Writer's childhood

Where was the future novelist born? Pen Master came into being in September 9, 1828 in the estate of his mother Yasnaya Polyana, located in Tula province. The family of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy was large. father had county title and mother was born Princess Volkonskaya. When he was two years old, his mother died, and after another 7 years, his father.

Leo was the fourth child in a noble family, so he was not deprived of the attention of relatives. The literary genius never thought of his losses with heartache. On the contrary, only warm memories of his childhood were preserved, because his mother and father were very affectionate with him. In the work of the same name, the author idealizes his childhood and writes that it was the most wonderful time of his life.

The little count received education at home, where he was invited French and German teachers. After leaving school, Leo was fluent in three languages, and also had extensive knowledge in various fields. In addition, the young man was fond of musical creativity, he could play the works of his favorite composers for a long time: Schumann, Bach, Chopin and Mozart.

Young years

In 1843 a young man becomes student of the Imperial Kazan University, chooses the Faculty of Oriental Languages, however, later changes his specialty due to poor academic performance and begins to practice law. Unable to complete the course. The young count returns to his estate in order to become real farmer.

But here, too, failure awaits him: frequent trips completely distract the owner from the important affairs of the estate. Keeping your diary- the only occupation that was done with amazing scrupulousness: a habit that lasted a lifetime and became the foundation of most future works.

Important! The unfortunate student did not become inactive for a long time. Having allowed himself to be persuaded by his brother, he went to serve as a cadet to the south, after which, after spending some time in the Caucasian mountains, he received a transfer to Sevastopol. There, from November 1854 to August 1855, the young count participated in.

Early work

The rich experience gained on the battlefields, as well as in the era of the Junkers, prompted the future writer to create the first literary works. Even in the years of service as a cadet, having a lot of free time, the count begins to work on his first autobiographical story. "Childhood".

Natural observation, a special flair were clearly reflected in the style: the author wrote about what was close, understandable not only to him alone. Life and creativity merge together.

In the story "Childhood" every boy or young man would recognize himself. The story was originally a short story and was published in a magazine. "Contemporary" in 1852. It is noteworthy that already the first story was splendidly received by critics, and the young novelist was compared with Turgenev, Ostrovsky and Goncharov, which was already a real recognition. All these masters of the word were already quite famous and loved by the people.

What works did Leo Tolstoy write at that time?

The young count, feeling that he has finally found his calling, continues to work. Brilliant stories come out of the pen one after another, stories that instantly become popular due to their originality and amazing realistic approach to reality: "Cossacks" (1852), "Boyhood" (1854), "Sevastopol Tales" (1854 - 1855), "Youth" (1857).

AT literary world a new writer is rushing in Lev Tolstoy, which strikes the reader's imagination with detailed details, does not hide the truth and applies a new writing technique: the second collection "Sevastopol stories" written from the point of view of the soldiers, to bring the story even closer to the reader. The young author is not afraid to openly, frankly write about the horrors and contradictions of war. The characters are not heroes from paintings and canvases of artists, but ordinary people who are able to perform real feats in order to save the lives of others.

Belong to something literary movement or to be a supporter of a particular philosophical school, Lev Nikolaevich refused, declaring himself anarchist. Later, the master of the word in the course of a religious search will take the right path, but for now, the whole world lay before the young, successful genius, and he did not want to be one of many.

Family status

In Russia, where he lived and was born, Tolstoy returns after a wild trip to Paris without a penny in his pocket. Here took place marriage to Sofya Andreevna Bers, daughter of a doctor. This woman was main companion in life Tolstoy, became his support to the very end.

Sophia expressed her readiness to be a secretary, wife, mother of his children, girlfriend and even a cleaning lady, although the estate, for which servants were a common thing, was always kept in exemplary order.

The count's title constantly obliged households to observe a certain status. Over time, the husband and wife diverged in religious views: Sophia did not understand and did not accept the attempts of a loved one to create their own philosophical dogma and follow it.

Attention! Only the eldest daughter of the writer Alexandra supported her father's undertakings: in 1910 they made a pilgrimage trip together. Other children adored dad as a great storyteller, although a rather strict parent.

According to the recollections of descendants, the father could scold the little dirty trick, but after a moment he would put him on his knees, regret, writing an amusing story on the go. In the literary arsenal of the famous realist there are many children's works recommended for study at preschool and primary school age - these are "Book for reading" and "ABC". The first work contains stories by L.N. Tolstoy for the 4th grade of the school, which was organized in the Yasnaya Polyana estate.

How many children did Leo and Sophia have? A total of 13 children were born, three of whom died in infancy.

Maturity and creative flourishing of the writer

From the age of thirty-two, Tolstoy began work on his main work - an epic novel. The first part was published in 1865 in the Russky Vestnik magazine, and in 1869 the final edition of the epic saw the light of day. Most of the 1860s were devoted to this monumental work, which the count repeatedly rewrote, corrected, supplemented, and at the end of his life got so tired of it that he called War and Peace "verbose rubbish." The novel was written in Yasnaya Polyana.

The work, which is four volumes long, turned out to be truly unique. What are its advantages? This is first of all:

• historical truth;
• the action in the novel of both realistic and fictional characters, the number of which exceeded a thousand according to philologists;
• interspersing the plot of three historical essays on the laws of history into the outline; accuracy in the description of life and everyday life.

This is the basis of the novel - the path of a person, his position and the meaning of life is made up of these ordinary actions.

After the success of the military-historical epic, the author begins to work on the novel "Anna Karenina" based on much of his autobiography. In particular, the relationship between Kitty and Levina are partial memories of the life of the author himself with his wife Sophia, a kind of brief biography of the writer, as well as a reflection of the canvas of real events of the Russian-Turkish war.

The novel was published in 1875 - 1877, and almost immediately became the most discussed literary event of that time. The story of Anna, written with amazing warmth, attention to female psychology, made a splash. Before him, only Ostrovsky in his poems addressed the female soul and revealed the rich inner world of the beautiful half of humanity. Naturally, high fees for the work were not long in coming, because every educated person read Tolstoy's Karenina. After the release of this rather secular novel, the author was not at all happy, but was in constant mental torment.

Change of outlook and later literary successes

Many years of life were devoted search for the meaning of life, which led the writer to the Orthodox faith, however, this step only confuses the count. Lev Nikolaevich sees corruption in the church diaspora, complete subordination to personal convictions, which does not correspond to the dogma that his soul longed for.

Attention! Leo Tolstoy becomes an apostate and even publishes the incriminating magazine Posrednik (1883), because of which he is excommunicated and accused of "heresy".

However, Leo does not stop there and tries to follow the path of purification, taking rather bold steps. For example, gives all his possessions to the poor, which Sofya Andreevna categorically opposed. The husband reluctantly transferred all the property to her and gave the copyright to the works, but still did not give up the search for his destiny.

This period of creativity is characterized great religious enthusiasm Treatises and moral stories are being created. What works with religious overtones did the author write? Among the most successful works between 1880 and 1990 were:

• the story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (1886), describing a man near death, who is trying to understand and comprehend his "empty" life;
• the story "Father Sergius" (1898), aimed at criticizing his own religious quest;
• the novel "Resurrection", which tells about the moral pain of Katyusha Maslova and the ways of her moral purification.

Completion of life

Having written many works in his life, the count appeared before his contemporaries and descendants as a strong religious leader and spiritual mentor, such as Mahatma Gandhi, with whom he corresponded. The life and work of the writer is permeated by the idea that it is necessary hourly resist evil with all the strength of your soul while demonstrating humility and saving thousands of lives. The master of the word has become a real teacher among the lost souls. Entire pilgrimage trips were organized to the Yasnaya Polyana estate, the students of the great Tolstoy came to “know themselves”, listening to their ideological guru for hours on end, which the writer became in his declining years.

The author-mentor accepted everyone who came with problems, questions and aspirations of the soul, he was ready to distribute his savings and shelter wanderers for any period. Unfortunately, this increased the degree of tension in relations with his wife Sophia and, in the end, resulted in the unwillingness of the great realist to live in his house. Together with his daughter, Lev Nikolaevich went on a pilgrimage to Russia, wanting to travel incognito, but often this was to no avail - they were recognized everywhere.

Where did Lev Nikolayevich die? November 1910 was fatal for the writer: already being ill, he stayed in the house of the head of the railway station, where he died on November 20. Lev Nikolaevich was a real idol. During the funeral of this truly national writer, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, people cried bitterly and followed the coffin in a crowd of thousands. There were so many people, as if they were burying a king.

Society to the depths of the human subconscious, unconscious and refined motives of character, as well as to the great role of everyday life, which determines the whole essence of the individual.