Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the Tula province (Russia) into a family belonging to the noble class. In the 1860s, he wrote his first major novel, War and Peace. In 1873, Tolstoy began work on the second of his most famous books, Anna Karenina.

He continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. One of his most successful later works is The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910 in Astapovo, Russia.

The first years of life

On September 9, 1828, the future writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born in Yasnaya Polyana (Tula province, Russia). He was the fourth child in a large noble family. In 1830, when Tolstoy's mother, nee Princess Volkonskaya, died, cousin father took care of the children. Their father, Count Nikolai Tolstoy, died seven years later, and their aunt was appointed guardian. After the death of aunt Leo Tolstoy, his brothers and sisters moved to their second aunt in Kazan. Although Tolstoy experienced many losses at an early age, he later idealized his childhood memories in his work.

It is important to note that primary education in the biography of Tolstoy was received at home, lessons were given to him by French and German teachers. In 1843 he entered the Faculty of Oriental Languages ​​at the Imperial Kazan University. Tolstoy did not succeed in his studies - low marks forced him to move to an easier law faculty. Further difficulties in his studies led Tolstoy to eventually leave the Imperial Kazan University in 1847 without a degree. He returned to his parents' estate, where he was going to start farming. However, his undertaking ended in failure - he was too often absent, leaving for Tula and Moscow. What he really excelled at was keeping his own diary - it was this lifelong habit that inspired Leo Tolstoy for most of his works.

Tolstoy was fond of music, his favorite composers were Schumann, Bach, Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn. Lev Nikolaevich could play their works for several hours a day.

Once, the elder brother of Tolstoy, Nikolai, during his army leave, came to visit Lev, and persuaded his brother to join the army as a cadet to the south, to the Caucasus mountains, where he served. After serving as a cadet, Leo Tolstoy was transferred to Sevastopol in November 1854, where he fought in the Crimean War until August 1855.

Early publications

During his years as a cadet in the army, Tolstoy had a lot of free time. During quiet periods, he worked on an autobiographical story called Childhood. In it, he wrote about his favorite childhood memories. In 1852, Tolstoy submitted the story to Sovremennik, the most popular magazine of the time. The story was happily accepted, and it became Tolstoy's first publication. Since that time, critics have put him on a par with the already famous writers, among whom were Ivan Turgenev (with whom Tolstoy made friends), Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Ostrovsky and others.

After completing Childhood, Tolstoy began writing about his daily life at an army outpost in the Caucasus. Started in the army years, the work "Cossacks", he finished only in 1862, after he had already left the army.

Surprisingly, Tolstoy managed to continue writing during the active battles in the Crimean War. During this time he wrote Boyhood (1854), a sequel to Childhood, the second book in Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy. At the height of the Crimean War, Tolstoy expressed his views on the striking contradictions of the war through the trilogy of Sevastopol Tales. In the second book of Sevastopol Tales, Tolstoy experimented with a relatively new technique: part of the story is presented as a narrative from the person of a soldier.

After the end of the Crimean War, Tolstoy left the army and returned to Russia. Arriving home, the author was very popular on the literary scene of St. Petersburg.

Stubborn and arrogant, Tolstoy refused to belong to any particular school of thought. Declaring himself an anarchist, he left for Paris in 1857. Once there, he lost all his money and was forced to return home to Russia. He also managed to publish Youth, the third part of an autobiographical trilogy, in 1857.

Returning to Russia in 1862, Tolstoy published the first of 12 issues of the thematic magazine Yasnaya Polyana. In the same year he married the daughter of a doctor named Sofya Andreevna Bers.

Major novels

Living in Yasnaya Polyana with his wife and children, Tolstoy spent most of the 1860s working on his first famous novel, War and Peace. Part of the novel was first published in the Russian Bulletin in 1865 under the title "Year 1805". By 1868, he had released three more chapters. A year later, the novel was completely finished. Both critics and the public have argued about the historical justice of the Napoleonic Wars in the novel, combined with the development of the stories of its thoughtful and realistic, yet fictional characters. The novel is also unique in that it includes three long satirical essays on the laws of history. Among the ideas that Tolstoy also tries to convey in this novel is the conviction that a person's position in society and the meaning of human life are mainly derivatives of his daily activities.

After the success of War and Peace in 1873, Tolstoy began work on his second most famous book, Anna Karenina. It was based in part on real events during the war between Russia and Turkey. Like War and Peace, this book describes some biographical events from the life of Tolstoy himself, this is especially noticeable in the romantic relationship between the characters of Kitty and Levin, which is said to be reminiscent of Tolstoy's courtship of his own wife.

The first lines of the book "Anna Karenina" are among the most famous: "All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Anna Karenina was published in parts from 1873 to 1877, and was highly acclaimed by the public. The royalties received for the novel rapidly enriched the writer.

Conversion

Despite the success of Anna Karenina, after the completion of the novel, Tolstoy experienced a spiritual crisis and was depressed. The next stage in the biography of Leo Tolstoy is characterized by the search for the meaning of life. The writer first turned to the Russian Orthodox Church, but did not find answers to his questions there. He concluded that Christian churches were corrupt and, instead of an organized religion, promoted their own beliefs. He decided to express these beliefs by founding a new publication in 1883 called The Mediator.
As a result, for his non-standard and conflicting spiritual beliefs, Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church. He was even watched by the secret police. When Tolstoy, led by his new conviction, wanted to give away all his money and give up everything that was superfluous, his wife was categorically against it. Not wanting to escalate the situation, Tolstoy reluctantly agreed to a compromise: he transferred the copyright to his wife and, apparently, all deductions for his work until 1881.

Late fiction

In addition to his religious treatises, Tolstoy continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. Among the genres of his later works were moral stories and realistic fiction. One of the most successful among his later works was the story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", written in 1886. The main character struggling to fight the death looming over him. In short, Ivan Ilyich is horrified by the realization that he wasted his life on trifles, but this realization comes to him too late.

In 1898, Tolstoy wrote the story "Father Sergius" work of fiction in which he criticizes the beliefs he developed after his spiritual transformation. The following year, he wrote his third voluminous novel, Resurrection. The work received good reviews, but this success hardly matched the level of recognition of his previous novels... Other later works by Tolstoy are essays on art, a satirical play called The Living Corpse, written in 1890, and a story called Hadji Murad (1904), which was discovered and published after his death. In 1903, Tolstoy wrote a short story "After the Ball", which was first published after his death, in 1911.

Old age

During his later years, Tolstoy reaped the benefits of international recognition. However, he still struggled to reconcile his spiritual beliefs with the tensions he created in his family life... His wife not only did not agree with his teachings, she did not approve of his students, who regularly visited Tolstoy in the family estate. In an effort to avoid the growing discontent of his wife, in October 1910, Tolstoy and his youngest daughter Alexandra embarked on a pilgrimage. Alexandra was the doctor for her elderly father during the trip. Trying not to flaunt their privacy, they traveled incognito, hoping to evade unnecessary inquiries, but sometimes to no avail.

Death and legacy

Unfortunately, the pilgrimage proved to be too burdensome for the aging writer. In November 1910, the head of the small Astapovo railway station opened the doors of his house for Tolstoy so that the sick writer could rest. Shortly thereafter, on November 20, 1910, Tolstoy died. He was buried in his family estate, Yasnaya Polyana, where Tolstoy lost so many people close to him.

To this day, Tolstoy's novels are considered some of the finest achievements of literary art. “War and Peace” is often cited as greatest novel ever written. In the modern scientific community, Tolstoy is widely recognized as the owner of the gift of describing the unconscious motives of character, the refinement of which he defended, emphasizing the role of everyday actions in determining the character and goals of people.

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The great Russian writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is known for the authorship of many works, namely: War and Peace, Anna Karenina and others. The study of his biography and work continues to this day.

The philosopher and writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born into a noble family. As an inheritance from his father, he inherited the title of count. His life began on a large family estate in Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, which left a significant imprint on his future destiny.

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Leo Tolstoy's life

He was born on September 9, 1828. Even as a child, Leo experienced many difficult moments in his life. After his parents died, he and his sisters were raised by their aunts. After her death, when he was 13 years old, he had to move to Kazan to a distant relative under the care. Leo's primary education took place at home. At the age of 16 he entered the Faculty of Philology of Kazan University. However, it was impossible to say that he was successful in his studies. This forced Tolstoy to move to an easier, law faculty. After 2 years, he returned to Clear glade, never having mastered the granite of science to the end.

Due to the changeable nature of Tolstoy, he tried himself in different industries, interests and priorities changed frequently. The work was interspersed with long spree and revelry. During this period, they were endowed with many debts, with which they had to pay off for a long time in the future. The only addiction of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, which has been steadily preserved for the rest of his life, is keeping a personal diary. From there he later drew the most interesting ideas for his works.

Tolstoy was partial to music. His favorite composers are Bach, Schumann, Chopin and Mozart. At a time when Tolstoy had not yet formed the main position regarding his future, he succumbed to the persuasions of his brother. At his instigation, he went to serve in the army as a cadet. During the service he was forced to participate in the year 1855.

The early works of L. N. Tolstoy

As a cadet, he had enough free time to start his creative activity... During this period, Leo began to study an autobiographical story called Childhood. For the most part, it set out the facts that happened to him when he was still a child. The story was sent for consideration to the Sovremennik magazine. It was approved and released in circulation in 1852.

After the first publication, Tolstoy was noticed and began to be equated with significant personalities of that time, namely: I. Turgenev, I. Goncharov, A. Ostrovsky and others.

In the same army years, he began work on the Cossacks story, which he completed in 1862. The second work after Childhood was Adolescence, then - the Sevastopol stories. He was engaged in them while participating in the Crimean battles.

Euro-trip

In 1856 LN Tolstoy left military service with the rank of lieutenant. I decided to travel for a while. First he went to Petersburg, where he was given a warm welcome. There he established friendly contacts with the popular writers of that period: N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Goncharov, I. I. Panaev and others. They showed a genuine interest in him and took part in his fate. At this time Blizzard and Two Hussars were written.

After living a cheerful and carefree life for 1 year, ruining relations with many members of the literary circle, Tolstoy decides to leave this city. In 1857, he began his journey through Europe.

Leo did not like Paris at all and left a heavy mark on his soul. From there he went to Lake Geneva. Having visited many countries, he returned to Russia with a load of negative emotions... Who and what struck him so? Most likely - this is too sharp polarity between wealth and poverty, which was covered with feigned splendor European culture... And this was seen everywhere.

L.N. Tolstoy writes the story Albert, continues to work on the Cossacks, wrote the story Three Deaths and Family Happiness. In 1859 he stopped working with Sovremennik. At the same time, Tolstoy began to notice changes in his personal life, when plans were to marry a peasant woman Aksinya Bazykina.

After the death of his older brother, Tolstoy went on a trip to the south of France.

Homecoming

1853 to 1863 his literary activity suspended due to leaving home. There he decided to take up farming. At the same time, Leo himself was actively involved in educational activities among the village population. He created a school for peasant children and began teaching according to his own method.

In 1862, he himself created a pedagogical journal called Yasnaya Polyana. Under his leadership, 12 editions were published, which were not appreciated at that time. Their nature was as follows - he alternated theoretical articles with fables and stories for children of the elementary level of education.

Six years from his life, from 1863 to 1869, went to write the main masterpiece - War and Peace. The next on the list was Anna Karenina's novel. It took another 4 years. During this period, his worldview was fully formed and resulted in a direction called Tolstoyism. The foundations of this religious and philosophical trend are set forth in the following works of Tolstoy:

• Confession.
• Kreutzer Sonata.
• Study of dogmatic theology.
• About life.
• Christian teaching and others.

Main focus in them it is placed on the moral dogmas of human nature and their improvement. He called for forgiving those who bring us evil and refusing to use violence when achieving our goal.

In Yasnaya Polyana, the stream of admirers of Leo Tolstoy's work did not stop, looking for support and mentor in him. In 1899, the novel The Resurrection was published.

Social activity

Returning from Europe, he received an invitation to become the guardian of the Krapivinsky district of the Tula province. He actively joined the active process of protecting the rights of the peasantry, often going against the tsar's decrees. This work broadened Leo's horizons. Faced closer to peasant life, he began to better understand all the subtleties... The information received later helped him in literary work.

The flowering of creativity

Before writing the novel War and Peace, Tolstoy took up another novel - the Decembrists. Tolstoy repeatedly returned to it, but could not complete it. In 1865, a small excerpt from War and Peace appeared in the Russian Bulletin. After 3 years, three more parts came out, and then all the rest. This created a real sensation in the Russian and foreign literature... In the novel, the most in detail different segments of the population are described.

The last works of the writer include:

• stories by Father Sergius;
• After the ball.
• Posthumous notes of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich.
• drama Living Corpse.

In the nature of his latest journalism, one can trace conservative attitude... He harshly condemns the idle life of the upper strata, who do not think about the meaning of life. LN Tolstoy harshly criticized state dogmas, sweeping aside everything: science, art, court, and so on. The Synod itself reacted to such an attack, and in 1901 Tolstoy was excommunicated.

In 1910, Lev Nikolaevich left the family and fell ill on the way. He had to get off the train at the Astapovo station of the Ural Railroad. He spent the last week of his life at the home of the local stationmaster, where he died.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy- an outstanding Russian prose writer, playwright and public figure. Born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 in the Yasnaya Polyana estate, Tula region. On the maternal side, the writer belonged to the eminent family of the Volkonsky princes, and on the paternal side - to the old family of the Tolstoy counts. Leo Tolstoy's great-great-grandfather, great-grandfather, grandfather and father were military men. Representatives of the ancient Tolstoy family even under Ivan the Terrible served as voivods in many cities of Russia.

The writer's grandfather on the mother's side, "a descendant of Rurik", Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, was enlisted in military service from the age of seven. He was a participant in the Russian-Turkish war and retired with the rank of general-in-chief. The writer's grandfather on the father's side - Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy - served in the Navy, and then in the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment. The writer's father, Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, voluntarily entered military service at the age of seventeen. He participated in Patriotic War 1812, was captured by the French and was liberated by Russian troops who entered Paris after the defeat of Napoleon's army. On the maternal side, Tolstoy was related to the Pushkins. Their common ancestor was the boyar I.M. Golovin, an associate of Peter I, who studied shipbuilding with him. One of his daughters is the poet's great-grandmother, the other is the great-grandmother of Tolstoy's mother. Thus, Pushkin was Tolstoy's fourth uncle.

Childhood of the writer took place in Yasnaya Polyana - an old family estate. Tolstoy's interest in history and literature arose in childhood: living in the village, he saw how the life of the working people proceeded, from him he heard many folk tales, epics, songs, legends. The life of the people, their work, interests and views, oral creativity- everything alive and wise - Yasnaya Polyana opened to Tolstoy.

Maria Nikolaevna Tolstaya, the writer's mother, was a kind and sympathetic person, an intelligent and educated woman: she knew French, German, English and Italian, played the piano, and painted. Tolstoy was not even two years old when his mother died. The writer did not remember her, but he heard so much about her from those around him that he clearly and vividly represented her appearance and character.

Children loved and appreciated Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, their father, for their humane attitude towards serfs. In addition to doing housework and children, he read a lot. During his life, Nikolai Ilyich collected a rich library, consisting of books, rare for those times, by French classics, historical and natural history works. It was he who first noticed the tendency of his youngest son to lively perception of the artistic word.

When Tolstoy was nine years old, his father took him to Moscow for the first time. The first impressions of Lev Nikolaevich's life in Moscow served as the basis for many paintings, scenes and episodes of the hero's life in Moscow Tolstoy's trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth"... Young Tolstoy saw not only the open side of big city life, but also some hidden, shadowy sides. With his first stay in Moscow, the writer connected the end of the earliest period of his life, childhood, and the transition to adolescence. The first period of Tolstoy's life in Moscow did not last long. In the summer of 1837, having gone on business to Tula, his father suddenly died. Soon after the death of his father, Tolstoy and his sister and brothers had to endure a new misfortune: their grandmother died, whom all relatives considered the head of the family. The sudden death of her son was a terrible blow to her and in less than a year took her to the grave. A few years later, the first guardian of the orphaned children of the Tolstoys, the sister of their father, Alexandra Ilinichna Osten-Saken, died. Ten-year-old Lev, his three brothers and sister were taken to Kazan, where their new guardian lived - aunt Pelageya Ilyinichna Yushkova.

Tolstoy wrote about his second guardian as a woman "kind and very pious", but at the same time very "frivolous and vain." According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Pelageya Ilyinichna did not enjoy authority with Tolstoy and his brothers, therefore, moving to Kazan is considered to be a new stage in the writer's life: upbringing ended, a period of independent life began.

Tolstoy lived in Kazan for over six years. It was the time for the formation of his character and choice. life path... Living with his brothers and sister at Pelageya Ilyinichna's, young Tolstoy spent two years preparing to enter Kazan University. Having decided to enter the eastern department of the university, he paid special attention to preparing for exams in foreign languages... In exams in mathematics and Russian literature, Tolstoy received fours, and fives in foreign languages. In the exams in history and geography, Lev Nikolaevich failed - he received unsatisfactory marks.

Failure in the entrance exams served as a serious lesson for Tolstoy. He devoted the whole summer to a thorough study of history and geography, passed additional exams on them, and in September 1844 was enrolled in the first year of the Oriental Department of the Faculty of Philosophy of Kazan University in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. However, the study of languages ​​did not captivate Tolstoy, and after summer holidays in Yasnaya Polyana, he transferred from the oriental faculty to the law faculty.

But in the future, university studies did not awaken Lev Nikolaevich's interest in the studied sciences. Most of the time he studied philosophy on his own, compiled the "Rules of Life" and neatly made notes in his diary. By the end of the third year of studies, Tolstoy was finally convinced that the then university order only interfered with independent creative work, and he made the decision to leave the university. However, he needed a university degree in order to get the right to enter the service. And in order to get his diploma, Tolstoy passed the university exams as an external student, having spent two years of his life in the countryside preparing for them. Having received university documents from the office at the end of April 1847, the former student Tolstoy left Kazan.

After leaving the university, Tolstoy again went to Yasnaya Polyana, and then to Moscow. Here at the end of 1850 he took up literary work. At this time, he decided to write two stories, but he did not finish one of them. In the spring of 1851, Lev Nikolaevich, together with his older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, who served in the army as an artillery officer, arrived in the Caucasus. Here Tolstoy lived for almost three years, being mainly in the village of Starogladkovskaya, located on the left bank of the Terek. From here he went to Kizlyar, Tiflis, Vladikavkaz, visited many villages and auls.

In the Caucasus, began military service Tolstoy... He took part in the military operations of the Russian troops. Tolstoy's impressions and observations are reflected in his stories "Raid", "Cutting the Forest", "Demoted", in the story "Cossacks". Later, referring to the memories of this period of his life, Tolstoy created the story "Hadji Murad". In March 1854, Tolstoy arrived in Bucharest, where the headquarters of the chief of the artillery troops was located. From here, as a staff officer, he traveled to Moldavia, Wallachia and Bessarabia.

In the spring and summer of 1854, the writer took part in the siege of the Turkish fortress of Silistria. However, the main place of hostilities at that time was the Crimean peninsula. Here the Russian troops under the leadership of V.A. Kornilov and P.S. Nakhimov for eleven months heroically defended Sevastopol, besieged by Turkish and Anglo-French troops. Participation in the Crimean War is an important stage in Tolstoy's life. Here he closely got to know ordinary Russian soldiers, sailors, residents of Sevastopol, tried to understand what is the source of the heroism of the defenders of the city, to understand the special character traits inherent in the defender of the Fatherland. Tolstoy himself showed courage and courage in the defense of Sevastopol.

In November 1855, Tolstoy left Sevastopol for St. Petersburg. By this time, he had already earned recognition in the leading literary circles. During this period, the attention of public life in Russia was focused around the issue of serfdom. Tolstoy's stories of this time ("Morning of the Landowner", "Polikushka", etc.) are also devoted to this problem.

In 1857, the writer made overseas travel... He visited France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Traveling to different cities, the writer got acquainted with the culture and social system of Western European countries with great interest. Much of what he saw was subsequently reflected in his work. In 1860, Tolstoy made another trip abroad. A year earlier, in Yasnaya Polyana, he opened a school for children. Traveling to cities in Germany, France, Switzerland, England and Belgium, the writer attended schools and studied the peculiarities of public education. Most of the schools Tolstoy attended had cannon discipline and corporal punishment. Returning to Russia and visiting a number of schools, Tolstoy discovered that many of the teaching methods used in Western European countries, in particular in Germany, had penetrated into Russian schools as well. At this time, Lev Nikolaevich wrote a number of articles in which he criticized the system of public education both in Russia and in Western European countries.

Arriving home after a trip abroad, Tolstoy devoted himself to work at school and the publication of the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana. The school, founded by the writer, was located not far from his house - in an outbuilding that has survived to our time. In the early 70s, Tolstoy compiled and published a number of textbooks for primary school: "ABC", "Arithmetic", four "Books for reading". More than one generation of children has learned from these books. Stories from them are read with enthusiasm by children in our time.

In 1862, when Tolstoy was away, landowners arrived in Yasnaya Polyana and searched the writer's house. In 1861, the tsarist manifesto announced the abolition of serfdom. During the reform, disputes broke out between landowners and peasants, the settlement of which was entrusted to the so-called conciliators. Tolstoy was appointed conciliator in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province. When examining controversial matters between nobles and peasants, the writer often took a position in favor of the peasantry, which caused discontent among the nobles. This was the reason for the search. Because of this, Tolstoy had to stop the activities of the world mediator, close the school in Yasnaya Polyana and refuse to publish a pedagogical journal.

In 1862 Tolstoy married Sofya Andreevna Bers, the daughter of a Moscow doctor. Arriving with her husband in Yasnaya Polyana, Sofya Andreevna did her best to create an environment in the estate in which nothing would distract the writer from strenuous work. In the 1960s, Tolstoy led a secluded life, fully devoting himself to work on War and Peace.

At the end of the epic "War and Peace", Tolstoy decided to write a new work - a novel about the era of Peter I. which reflected the post-reform life of Russia. This is how the novel Anna Karenina appeared, on which Tolstoy devoted four years.

In the early 1980s, Tolstoy moved with his family to Moscow to study the education of his growing children. Here, a writer familiar with village poverty witnessed urban poverty. In the early 90s of the XIX century, almost half of the central provinces of the country were seized by famine, and Tolstoy joined in the fight against the national disaster. Thanks to his call, fundraising, purchase and delivery of food to the villages was launched. At this time, under the leadership of Tolstoy, in the villages of the Tula and Ryazan provinces, about two hundred free canteens were opened for the starving population. A number of articles on hunger written by Tolstoy belong to the same period, in which the writer truthfully portrayed the plight of the people and condemned the policies of the ruling classes.

In the mid-80s, Tolstoy wrote the drama "The Power of Darkness", which depicts the death of the old foundations of patriarchal-peasant Russia, and the story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", dedicated to the fate of a man who only before his death realized the emptiness and meaninglessness of his life. In 1890, Tolstoy wrote the comedy "The Fruits of Enlightenment", which shows the true position of the peasantry after the abolition of serfdom. In the early 90s was created novel "Sunday", on which the writer worked intermittently for ten years. In all works related to this period of creativity, Tolstoy openly shows whom he sympathizes with and whom he condemns; depicts the hypocrisy and insignificance of the "masters of life."

The novel "Sunday" more than other works by Tolstoy was censored. Most of the chapters in the novel have been released or shortened. The ruling circles launched an active policy against the writer. Fearing popular indignation, the authorities did not dare to use open repression against Tolstoy. With the consent of the Tsar and at the insistence of the Chief Prosecutor of the Most Holy Synod Pobedonostsev, the Synod adopted a resolution to excommunicate Tolstoy from the church. The writer was under police surveillance. The world community was outraged by the persecution of Lev Nikolaevich. The peasantry, the advanced intelligentsia and the common people were on the side of the writer, they strove to express their respect and support to him. The love and sympathy of the people served as reliable support to the writer in the years when the reaction tried to silence him.

However, in spite of all the efforts of reactionary circles, Tolstoy every year more and more sharply and boldly denounced the noble-bourgeois society, openly opposed the autocracy. The works of this period ( "After the Ball", "For What?", "Hadji Murad", "Living Corpse") are imbued with a deep hatred of royal power, a limited and ambitious ruler. In publicistic articles related to this time, the writer sharply condemned the instigators of wars, called for a peaceful resolution of all disputes and conflicts.

In 1901-1902, Tolstoy suffered a serious illness. At the insistence of the doctors, the writer had to go to the Crimea, where he spent more than six months.

In Crimea, he met with a writer, artists, artists: Chekhov, Korolenko, Gorky, Shalyapin, etc. When Tolstoy returned home, hundreds of ordinary people warmly greeted him at the stations. In the fall of 1909, the writer made his last trip to Moscow.

Tolstoy's diaries and letters of the last decades of his life reflected the difficult experiences that were caused by the discord between the writer and his family. Tolstoy wanted to transfer the land belonging to him to the peasants and wanted his works to be published freely and free of charge by everyone who wants to. The family of the writer opposed this, not wanting to give up either the rights to land or the rights to works. The old landlord way of life, preserved in Yasnaya Polyana, weighed heavily on Tolstoy.

In the summer of 1881, Tolstoy made the first attempt to leave Yasnaya Polyana, but a feeling of pity for his wife and children forced him to return. Several more attempts by the writer to leave his native estate ended with the same result. On October 28, 1910, secretly from his family, he left Yasnaya Polyana forever, deciding to go south and spend the rest of his life in a peasant hut, among the common Russian people. However, on the way, Tolstoy fell seriously ill and was forced to get off the train at the small station Astapovo. The last seven days of my life great writer spent at the station master's house. The news of the death of one of the outstanding thinkers, a remarkable writer, a great humanist deeply struck the hearts of all progressive people of that time. Tolstoy's creative heritage is of great importance for world literature. Over the years, interest in the writer's work does not wane, but, on the contrary, grows. As A. France justly noted: “In his life he proclaims sincerity, directness, determination, firmness, calm and constant heroism, he teaches that one must be truthful and one must be strong ... It is precisely because he was full of strength that he always was true! "

Count Leo Tolstoy, a classic of Russian and world literature, is called a master of psychology, the creator of the epic novel genre, an original thinker and teacher of life. Artworks genius writer- the greatest asset of Russia.

In August 1828, a classic of Russian literature was born on the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Tula province. The future author of War and Peace became the fourth child in a family of eminent nobles. On the paternal side, he belonged to the old family of the Tolstoy counts, who served and. On the maternal side, Lev Nikolaevich is a descendant of the Ruriks. It is noteworthy that Leo Tolstoy has a common ancestor - Admiral Ivan Mikhailovich Golovin.

Lev Nikolaevich's mother - nee Princess Volkonskaya - died of a fever after the birth of her daughter. At that time, Leo was not even two years old. Seven years later, the head of the family, Count Nikolai Tolstoy, died.

Caring for the children fell on the shoulders of the writer's aunt, T.A.Yergolskaya. Later, the second aunt, Countess A.M. Osten-Saken, became the guardian of the orphaned children. After her death in 1840, the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian - father's sister P.I. Yushkova. The aunt influenced her nephew, and the writer called her childhood in her house, which was considered the most cheerful and hospitable in the city, happy. Later, Lev Tolstoy described his impressions of life in the Yushkovs' estate in the story "Childhood".

Silhouette and portrait of Leo Tolstoy's parents

The classic received his primary education at home from German and French teachers. In 1843, Leo Tolstoy entered Kazan University, choosing the Faculty of Oriental Languages. Soon, due to low academic performance, he moved to another faculty - law. But he did not succeed here either: two years later he left the university without receiving a degree.

Lev Nikolaevich returned to Yasnaya Polyana, wishing to improve relations with the peasants in a new way. The venture failed, but the young man regularly kept a diary, loved secular entertainment and was carried away by music. Tolstoy listened for hours, and.

Disappointed with the life of the landowner after a summer spent in the village, 20-year-old Leo Tolstoy left the estate and moved to Moscow, and from there to St. Petersburg. The young man rushed between preparing for the candidate exams at the university, music lessons, carousing with cards and gypsies, and dreams of becoming either an official or a cadet of the Horse Guards regiment. Relatives called Leo "the most trifling fellow", and it took years to distribute the debts that he had endowed.

Literature

In 1851, the writer's brother, officer Nikolai Tolstoy, persuaded Lev to go to the Caucasus. For three years Lev Nikolayevich lived in a village on the banks of the Terek. The nature of the Caucasus and the patriarchal life of the Cossack village were later reflected in the stories "Cossacks" and "Hadji Murad", stories "Raid" and "Cutting the forest".

In the Caucasus, Leo Tolstoy composed the story "Childhood", which he published in the journal "Sovremennik" under the initials L. N. Soon he wrote the sequels "Adolescence" and "Youth", combining the stories into a trilogy. His literary debut turned out to be brilliant and brought Lev Nikolaevich his first recognition.

The creative biography of Leo Tolstoy is developing rapidly: the appointment to Bucharest, the transfer to the besieged Sevastopol, the command of the battery enriched the writer with impressions. From the pen of Lev Nikolaevich came the series of "Sevastopol Stories". The works of the young writer amazed critics with a bold psychological analysis. Nikolai Chernyshevsky found in them "the dialectic of the soul", and the emperor read the essay "Sevastopol in December" and expressed admiration for Tolstoy's talent.

In the winter of 1855, 28-year-old Leo Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg and entered the Sovremennik circle, where he was warmly greeted, calling him “the great hope of Russian literature”. But over the course of a year, the writers' environment with its disputes and conflicts, readings and literary dinners got bored. Later in the "Confession" Tolstoy admitted:

"These people are disgusted with me, and I am disgusted with myself."

In the fall of 1856, the young writer left for the Yasnaya Polyana estate, and in January 1857 - abroad. For half a year, Leo Tolstoy traveled around Europe. Visited Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland. He returned to Moscow, and from there - to Yasnaya Polyana. In the family estate, he took up the arrangement of schools for peasant children. In the vicinity of Yasnaya Polyana, twenty educational institutions appeared with his participation. In 1860, the writer traveled a lot: in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, he studied the pedagogical systems of European countries in order to apply what he saw in Russia.

A special niche in the work of Leo Tolstoy is occupied by fairy tales and compositions for children and adolescents. The writer has created hundreds of works for young readers, including the kind and instructive fairy tales "Kitten", "Two Brothers", "Hedgehog and Hare", "Lion and Dog".

Leo Tolstoy wrote the school manual "ABC" for teaching children to write, read and arithmetic. Literary and pedagogical work consists of four books. The writer included instructive stories, epics, fables, as well as methodological advice to teachers. The third book includes the story "Prisoner of the Caucasus".

Leo Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina"

In 1870, Leo Tolstoy, continuing to teach peasant children, wrote the novel Anna Karenina, in which he contrasted two plot lines: the Karenins family drama and the homely idyll of the young landowner Levin, with whom he identified himself. The novel only at first glance seemed amorous: the classic raised the problem of the meaning of the existence of the "educated class", opposing it with the truth of peasant life. I highly appreciated Anna Karenina.

The turning point in the mind of the writer was reflected in the works written in the 1880s. Life-changing spiritual insight is central to stories and novellas. The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata, Father Sergius and the story After the Ball appear. The classic of Russian literature paints pictures of social inequality, castigates the idleness of the nobles.

In search of an answer to the question about the meaning of life, Lev Tolstoy turned to the Russian Orthodox Church, but he did not find satisfaction there either. The writer came to the conviction that the Christian church is corrupt, and under the guise of religion, priests promote false doctrine. In 1883, Lev Nikolaevich founded the publication Posrednik, where he outlined spiritual beliefs with criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church. For this, Tolstoy was excommunicated, the secret police watched the writer.

In 1898, Leo Tolstoy wrote the novel Resurrection, which received critical acclaim. But the success of the work was inferior to Anna Karenina and War and Peace.

For the last 30 years of his life, Leo Tolstoy was recognized as the spiritual and religious leader of Russia with the doctrine of non-violent resistance to evil.

"War and Peace"

Leo Tolstoy disliked his novel War and Peace, calling the epic “ verbose rubbish". The classic wrote the work in the 1860s, living with his family in Yasnaya Polyana. The first two chapters, entitled “Year 1805”, were published by the “Russian Bulletin” in 1865. Three years later, Leo Tolstoy wrote three more chapters and completed the novel, which caused heated controversy among critics.

Leo Tolstoy writes "War and Peace"

The novelist took the features of the heroes of the work, written during the years of family happiness and elation. In Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, there are recognizable features of Lev Nikolaevich's mother, her tendency to reflection, brilliant education and love of art. The traits of his father - mockery, love of reading and hunting - the writer awarded Nikolai Rostov.

While writing the novel, Lev Tolstoy worked in the archives, studied the correspondence between the Tolstoy and Volkonsky, Masonic manuscripts, and visited the Borodino field. The young wife helped him by rewriting the rough drafts.

The novel was read avidly, striking readers with the breadth of the epic canvas and subtle psychological analysis. Leo Tolstoy characterized the work as an attempt to "write the history of the people."

According to the estimates of the literary critic Lev Anninsky, by the end of the 1970s, the works of the Russian classic were filmed 40 times only abroad. Until 1980, the epic "War and Peace" was filmed four times. Directors from Europe, America and Russia have shot 16 films based on the novel "Anna Karenina", "Resurrection" has been filmed 22 times.

For the first time "War and Peace" was filmed by director Pyotr Chardinin in 1913. Best known is the film made by a Soviet director in 1965.

Personal life

Leo Tolstoy married 18 years old in 1862, when he was 34 years old. The count lived with his wife for 48 years, but the life of the couple can hardly be called cloudless.

Sophia Bers is the second of three daughters of Andrei Bers, a doctor at the Moscow Palace Office. The family lived in the capital, but in the summer they rested in the Tula estate near Yasnaya Polyana. For the first time, Leo Tolstoy saw his future wife as a child. Sophia was educated at home, read a lot, understood art and graduated from Moscow University. The diary kept by Bers-Tolstaya is recognized as an example of the genre of memoirs.

At the beginning of his married life, Leo Tolstoy, wishing that there were no secrets between him and his wife, gave Sophia a diary to read. The shocked wife found out about her husband's stormy youth, hobby gambling, a riotous life and a peasant girl Aksinya, who was expecting a child from Lev Nikolaevich.

The firstborn Sergey was born in 1863. In the early 1860s, Tolstoy took up writing the novel War and Peace. Sofya Andreevna helped her husband, despite the pregnancy. The woman taught and raised all the children at home. Five out of 13 children died in infancy or early childhood.

Family problems began after Leo Tolstoy finished his work on Anna Karenina. The writer plunged into depression, expressed dissatisfaction with life, which Sofya Andreevna so diligently arranged in the family nest. The count's moral throwing led to the fact that Lev Nikolaevich demanded that his relatives give up meat, alcohol and smoking. Tolstoy forced his wife and children to dress in peasant clothes, which he himself made, and wished to give the acquired property to the peasants.

Sofya Andreevna made great efforts to dissuade her husband from the idea of ​​distributing goodness. But the quarrel that occurred split the family: Leo Tolstoy left home. When he returned, the writer assigned the responsibility to rewrite the drafts on his daughters.

The death of the last child - seven-year-old Vanya - briefly brought the spouses together. But soon mutual grievances and misunderstandings alienated them completely. Sofya Andreevna found solace in music. In Moscow, a woman took lessons from a teacher for whom romantic feelings appeared. Their relationship remained friendly, but the count did not forgive his wife for "half-betrayal".

The fatal quarrel of the spouses happened at the end of October 1910. Leo Tolstoy left home, leaving Sophia a farewell letter. He wrote that he loved her, but could not act otherwise.

Death

82-year-old Lev Tolstoy, accompanied by his personal doctor D.P. Makovitsky, left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, the writer fell ill and got off the train at the Astapovo railway station. Lev Nikolayevich spent the last 7 days of his life in a house station superintendent... The whole country followed the news about Tolstoy's state of health.

The children and wife arrived at the Astapovo station, but Leo Tolstoy did not want to see anyone. The classic died on November 7, 1910: he died of pneumonia. His wife survived him by 9 years. Tolstoy was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.

Leo Tolstoy Quotes

• Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one thinks about how to change themselves.
• Everything comes to the one who knows how to wait.
• All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
• Let everyone sweep in front of his door. If everyone does this, the whole street will be clean.
• It's easier to live without love. But there is no point without it.
• I don't have everything I love. But I love everything I have.
• The world is moving forward thanks to those who suffer.
• The greatest truths are the simplest.
• Everyone is making plans, and no one knows if he will live until the evening.

Bibliography

• 1869 - "War and Peace"
• 1877 - Anna Karenina
• 1899 - Resurrection
• 1852-1857 - "Childhood". "Adolescence". "Youth"
• 1856 - "Two Hussars"
• 1856 - "Morning of the Landowner"
• 1863 - "Cossacks"
• 1886 - "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"
• 1903 - "Diary of a Madman"
• 1889 - "The Kreutzer Sonata"
• 1898 - "Father Sergius"
• 1904 - "Hadji Murad"

In August 1828, a talented writer and also a philosopher Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born. His parents died early, and almost from birth he was raised by a guardian from Kazan.

At the age of sixteen, Lev Nikolaevich entered the Faculty of Philology of Kazan University, later he transferred to the Faculty of Law. But still, he did not study for a long time and left the university altogether. He began to look for himself, living in Yasnaya Polyana, which he inherited from his father. A little later he took part in the Caucasian war against the Chechens. During these years, Lev Nikolaevich began to write his autobiographical trilogy "Childhood" (1852) and "Boyhood" (1852-1854). And it was this period of his life that was reflected in a large number of Tolstoy's works, for example, the story "Raid" (1853), "Cutting the Forest" (1855), the story "Cossacks" (1852-1863), in which a young nobleman wants to live an ordinary life , next to nature.

After the start of the Crimean War, at the request of Lev Nikolaevich, he was transferred to Sevastopol. There he wrote many works, which soon greatly impressed his readers. Tolstoy received many awards for bravery and for the defense of Sevastopol. In the same years, namely 1855-1857, Lev Nikolaevich wrote the last part of the "Youth" trilogy.

In 1855, Lev Nikolaevich returned to St. Petersburg and retired, due to the fact that he did not like to fight. He meets a lot of writers. During this period, he travels a lot in France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. He opens schools for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana and in the surrounding area. Travels a lot because of this event. In the year of the abolition of serfdom, he begins to actively defend the peasants from the landowners who wanted to take away the land from the liberated. Because of this, many complaints were received that demanded the dismissal of Tolstoy. They searched his house, followed him, tried to find dirt on Tolstoy, but soon his life became very quiet.

In 1862, Lev Nikolaevich married Sofya Andreevna Bers. After a while, his family was very large, Tolstoy had nine children. He writes two of his most popular works: in 1863-1869 "War and Peace", and in 1873-1877 "Anna Karenina", a story about a woman who was subjected to criminal passion.

A little later, he and his family moved temporarily to Moscow to educate their children, but this trip gave Tolstoy a little more than the education of children. It was in Moscow that Lev Nikolaevich changed his attitude to work. He saw how ordinary hard workers are fighting for a piece of bread, and decided to be like them. Tolstoy renounces the authorship of all his written works and begins to make a living with his hands. But soon the need for money forced Tolstoy to return his authorship. Throughout years he writes again. In the interval between 1879 and 1882. writes the work "Confession", in 1884 "What is my faith?", and from 1884 to 1886 "The Death of Ivan Ilyich." In 1886 the drama "The Power of Darkness" was published, and until 1890 the play "The Fruits of Enlightenment" was written. Also during this period, namely from 1887 to 1889, Lev Nikolaevich created the story "The Kreutzer Sonata", and immediately proceeded to the novel "Resurrection", which he finished in 1899. In 1890, Tolstoy wrote the work "Father Sergius".

In the early 1900s, he wrote a series of articles exposing the entire system government controlled... The government of Nicholas II issued a decree 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.

The last decade of Tolstoy presented readers with such works as the story "Hadji Murad" (1896-1904), the drama "The Living Corpse" (1900), the story "After the Ball" (1909, but published in 1911).

Before his death, Lev Nikolaevich lived for a long time in the Crimea. He was very ill and began to draw up a will, which caused quarrels in his family over the division of the inheritance.

In 1910, Tolstoy secretly leaves Yasnaya Polyana and catches a cold on the way, and while on the road, namely at the Astapov station of the Ryazan-Ural railway, Lev Nikolayevich dies on November 20.