Leaving a fat man from a clear glade. In search of the truth. Why did Leo Tolstoy leave home? The film consists of two parts: "Insomnia" and "Leaving"

On the night of October 28, according to the old style of 1910, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy left Yasnaya Polyana, never to return and a few days later to die at the God-forgotten tiny railway station. What prompted the writer to take such a desperate step?

Yasnaya Polyana

By this time, Lev Nikolaevich's relations with his wife were already seriously complicated. It is known that Sofya Andreevna, who lived with Tolstoy in a marriage that lasted 48 years, was a good wife to him. She gave birth to 13 children to Tolstoy, always performed maternal duties exceptionally tenderly and attentively, was engaged in rewriting and preparing her husband's manuscripts for printing, and was exemplary in housekeeping. However, by 1910, Tolstoy's relationship with his wife had deteriorated to the extreme. Sofia Andreevna began hysterical seizures, during which she simply did not control herself. In the summer of 1910, the psychiatrist Professor Rossolimo and the good doctor Nikitin, who had known Sofya Andreyevna for a long time, were invited to Yasnaya Polyana. After two days of research and observation, they established a diagnosis of "degenerative dual constitution: paranoid and hysterical, with a predominance of the former."

Of course, a serious disorder could not arise out of nowhere. The reason for it was the ideas of Lev Nikolaevich. The writer's desire to be simpler and closer to the people, his manner of dressing in peasant clothes, his vegetarianism and so on, Sofya Andreevna endured. However, when Tolstoy announced his intention to relinquish copyright to his works written after 1881, his wife rebelled. After all, giving up copyright meant giving up publication fees, which were very, very significant. Tolstoy wanted to save the world by leading all of humanity to a more correct, honest and pure life. Sofya Andreevna did not set such big tasks for herself, she only wanted to give the children a proper education and provide them with a decent future. For the first time, Tolstoy announced his desire to give up copyright in 1895. Then he stated in his diary his will in case of death. He also asked children to give up copyright inheritance: “If you do it, it's good. It will be good for you too; if you don’t, it’s your business. It means that you are not ready to do it. The fact that my compositions have been on sale these last 10 years has been the hardest thing in my life. " As you can see, initially Tolstoy simply advised children to do this. However, Sofya Andreevna had reason to believe that over time this thought could be formulated precisely as the last will. In this, she was strengthened by the growing influence on her husband on the part of his friend and leader of Tolstoyism, as a social movement, V.G. Chertkov.

In her diary, Sofya Andreevna will write on October 10, 1902: “I consider it both bad and senseless to give Lev Nikolayevich's works to the common property. I love my family and wish her better well-being, and by transferring my works to the public domain, we would reward rich publishing firms ... ”.

A real nightmare began in the house. Unhappy spouse genius writer lost all control over herself. She eavesdropped and spied on, tried not to let her husband out of sight for a minute, rummaged through his papers, trying to find a will in which Tolstoy deprives his heirs of the copyright to his books. All this was accompanied by hysterics, falling to the floor, demonstrative suicidal attempts.

The last straw was the following episode: Lev Nikolaevich woke up on the night of October 27-28, 1910 and heard his wife rummaging in his office, hoping to find a "secret will."

That same night, after waiting for Sofya Andreevna to finally go home, Tolstoy left the house.

The escape

He left the house, accompanied by his doctor Makovitsky, who permanently lived on the estate. In addition to Makovitsky, only his youngest daughter Sasha knew about the escape, who, the only member of the family, shared her father's views.

It was decided to take only the essentials with us. It turned out to be a suitcase, a bundle with a blanket and a coat, a basket of provisions. The writer took only 50 rubles with him, and Makovitsky, imagining that they were going to the estate to see Tolstoy's son-in-law, left almost all the money in the room.

We woke up the coachman and went to the Shchekino station. Here Tolstoy announced his intention to go to Optina Pustyn.

Tolstoy wished to go to Kozelsk in 3rd grade, with the people.

The carriage was jammed and smoked, Tolstoy soon began to choke. He went to the platform of the carriage. There was an icy headwind, but no one smoked. It was this hour on the front platform of the car that Makovitsky would later call "fatal", believing that it was then that Lev Nikolayevich caught a cold.

Finally, we arrived at Kozelsk.

Optina Hermitage and Shamordino

Here Tolstoy hoped to meet with one of the illustrious elders of Optina Hermitage. As you know, the writer was excommunicated, and such a step of the eighty-two-year-old man should be considered, perhaps, as a willingness to reconsider his views. But it didn’t happen. Tolstoy spent eight hours in Optina, but he never made the first step, did not knock on the house of any of the Optina elders. And none of them called him, despite the fact that everyone in Optina Pustyn knew that the writer was here.

There are stories that when they sailed on the ferry from Optina, Tolstoy was accompanied by fifteen monks.

Sorry for Lev Nikolaevich, oh, God! the monks whispered. - Poor Lev Nikolaevich!

On October 29, Tolstoy went to Shamordino, to his sister, who was a nun of the Kazan Amvrosievskaya Women's Hermitage. He wanted to stay here for some time and even thought to negotiate a lease of a house next to the monastery, but did not. Probably, the reason was the arrival of Sasha's daughter. She arrived very decisively against her family and mother, fully supporting her father, moreover, excited by the journey and the secrecy of her departure. Sasha's young enthusiasm, apparently, was discordant with the mood of Tolstoy, who was endlessly tired of family squabbles and disputes, and wanted only one thing - peace.

Astapovo

Neither Tolstoy nor the people accompanying him, apparently, knew very much where to go next. In Kozelsk, having arrived at the station, they boarded a train that was standing at the Smolensk-Ranenburg platform. We got off at the Belevo station, bought tickets to Volovo. There they intended to take a train heading south. The target was Novocherkassk, where Tolstoy's niece lived. They thought to get foreign passports and go to Bulgaria. And if it doesn't work out - to the Caucasus.

However, on the way, Tolstoy got a cold, which he got on the way to Kozelsk. I had to get off at the Astapovo station - now it is the city of Lev Tolstoy in the Lipetsk region.

The cold turned into pneumonia.

Tolstoy died a few days later in the house of the station chief, Ivan Ivanovich Ozolin. For the short time that the dying writer was there, this small house turned into the most important place in Russia, and not only. From here telegrams flew all over the world, journalists, public figures, admirers of Tolstoy's work and statesmen rushed here. Sofya Andreevna also came here. Not noticing anything, not realizing that almost the whole world had witnessed her grief, she wandered around Ozolin's house, trying to find out what was happening there, what the state of her Lyova was. Chertkov and Alexandra Nikolaevna did everything to prevent Sofya Andreevna from seeing her dying husband. She was able to say goodbye to him only in the very last moments, when he was almost unconscious.

Ozolin stopped the clock in the station building, bringing the hands exactly to this position. The old clock in the building of Lev Tolstoy station still shows 6 hours 5 minutes.

On the same topic:

Why did Leo Tolstoy run away from home in 1910? What made Leo Tolstoy leave home in 1910

It's true. Leaving and death Tolstoy were so unexpected and full of mystery that the effect they created almost completely overshadowed his life and literary activity... In any case, it was they who were then the main event in Russia and the world. We can say that the world lived by the death of Tolstoy. Any conversation about him inevitably boiled down to this plot. Why did he run? Where were you going? What did you want? Unanswered questions.

Rather, there are many answers. And at the moment, the most popular, established in the public consciousness, is this: “Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Church, he was very worried about it, and before his death he went to Optina Pustyn 'to repent. But he did not have time and died on the way. "

No repentance

The last movements of Lev Nikolaevich and the persons accompanying him were recorded in the police records. According to them, Tolstoy actually visited Optina Hermitage. Then I visited my sister in the village of Shamordino. Then he visited Kozelsk, Belyov and intended to go further - to his niece in Novocherkassk. There he planned to get a passport and move to Bulgaria. In case of failure - to the Caucasus. This means that Optina Hermitage could not be Tolstoy's goal in any way. He left her in the same way as Yasnaya Polyana.

Tolstoy was calm about the glory of the worldly. Photo: RIA Novosti

Tolstoy did not thirst for repentance either. This desire was attributed to him in hindsight. Bishop Parthenius of Tula shortly before his death, Tolstoy gave several interviews, where he stated that the writer "undoubtedly seeks rapprochement with the Church." However, the real state of affairs suggests otherwise. Chairman of the Council of Ministers Pyotr Stolypin officially instructed the Synod to finally deal with this issue, since "the latest news of Tolstoy's illness caused a great stir in the highest circles." The Synod promptly telegraphed the diocesan authorities with an order to get in touch with Tolstoy and bring him to repentance before the Church. In other words, it was not Tolstoy who was interested in repentance, but the Church and the state.

In fact, the question, "Tolstoy will repent or not," was related to the sphere of state security. This is not an exaggeration. This is how a witness of those events wrote writer Alexei Suvorin: “We have two kings - Nicholas II and Leo Tolstoy. Which one is stronger? Tolstoy undoubtedly shakes the throne of Nicholas and his dynasty. Try someone to touch Tolstoy. The whole world will scream, and our administration has its tail between its legs. ”

Paradoxically, the administration could only blame itself for this state of affairs. The question of Tolstoy's excommunication from the Church has been considered for a long time. In 1888 Bishop Nikanor of Kherson wrote to the philosopher Nikolai Groth: "We are not jokingly going to proclaim a solemn anathema to Tolstoy." But the final decision was still with the king. AND Alexander III clairvoyantly noted that excommunication of a writer of this magnitude would only hurt: "I do not want to put on him a martyr's crown." His son Nicholas II did not heed his father's warning. The excommunication took place in 1901. The result was an unprecedented rise in Tolstoy's popularity. In essence, it is a loss in the "writer - state" opposition.

And the confrontation was serious. This was especially true of Tolstoy's publishing projects. His firm "Mediator", which published books for the people, has always been on the spearhead of the censorship attack. The total circulation of all these books from 1885 to 1889 alone amounted to 12 million copies. But there could have been more. However, it didn't work out. Head of the Main Directorate for Press Affairs Yevgeny Feoktistov in expressions he was not shy: "There is nothing more disgusting than the" Mediator "and cannot be."

Above insults

What kind of "abominations" were mercilessly washed out? Judge for yourself. An excerpt from "The Brothers Karamazov" was not allowed to be distributed among the people Dostoevsky... Specifically - "The Story of Elder Zosima" as "disagreeing with the spirit of the teachings of the Orthodox faith." The book "Proverbs for Every Day" was banned because there was "neither a list of saints, nor a genealogical table of the reigning house." And, which looks especially significant, they demanded a complete exclusion from the books of the motto: "God is not in power, but in truth."

It would be very tempting to assume that Tolstoy was running away from all this. But it just doesn't work. He did not respond to pressure or even direct insults. John of Kronstadt, who publicly prayed for his death: "Lord, take the most evil and unrepentant Leo Tolstoy from the earth!" (“Novosti Day” newspaper, Moscow, July 14, 1908) In the diaries, however, the syllable is a little more sophisticated: “Lord, take it from the earth, this fetid corpse, which has put the whole earth to shame with its pride!”

This dance has been going on since the moment of excommunication - for almost 10 years. It got to the point of absurdity and anecdote - the Moscow Sobriety Society expelled Tolstoy from its ranks only for the reason that the count, "an honorary member of the Society and an outstanding Russian teetotaler," can no longer be considered Orthodox.

Tolstoy was calm. He worked, thought, plowed the land. And suddenly - headlong flight. Without a clear plan, for no apparent reason. And, as it turned out, towards death. Or something else?

The closest to solving this mystery came theologian Archpriest Sergei Bulgakov: “Death on the way symbolically illuminated the innermost life of his spirit. Is it not about such that the reconciling word is said in the Gospel: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satiated? Tolstoy simply went to seek the higher truth, which he despaired of seeing at home. And, perhaps, found it.

On the night of October 28 (November 10), 1910, an event happened in Yasnaya Polyana that shocked the world. Count L. N. Tolstoy secretly fled from his house in an unknown direction. He made a decision to live last years according to their views. The writer was accompanied in this escape only by his doctor Dusan Petrovich Makovitsky ...

Leaving Yasnaya Polyana

At three o'clock in the morning, Tolstoy woke Makovitsky. From the doctor's notes: “

The face is suffering, agitated and resolute. “I decided to leave. Will you come with me». The task was to get a suitcase out of the bedroom without waking Sofya Andreevna, who kept all the doors open in order to wake up, if anything, from any noise. Tolstoy succeeded.Daughter Sasha and her friend Varvara Feokritova packed a suitcase, a bundle with a blanket and a coat, a basket of food. Lev Nikolayevich went to the stable to help harness the horses ".

Yasnaya Polyana. Leo Tolstoy's house

Before leaving Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy left a letter to his wife:

« My departure will grieve you. I am sorry about this, but understand and believe that I could not have done otherwise. My position in the house is becoming, it has become unbearable.

Apart from everything else, I can no longer live in those conditions of luxury in which I lived, and I do what old people of my age usually do: they leave worldly life in order to live in solitude and silence in the last days of their life.

Please understand this and don't follow me if you find out where I am. Such your arrival will only worsen your and my situation, but will not change my decision.

I thank you for your honest 48-year life with me and ask you to forgive me for everything that I was to blame for you, just as I sincerely forgive you for everything that you could be to blame for me.

I advise you to make peace with the new position in which my departure puts you, and not to have unkind feelings against me. If you want to tell me what, tell Sasha, she will know where I am and will send me what I need; she cannot say where I am, because I took from her a promise not to tell anyone this. "

Sofya Andreevna, having learned that Lev Nikolaevich had left, twice tried to drown herself, she was in the most severe hysterics.

Optina Pustyn

Leaving Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy had not prepared a future refuge for himself in advance. He began his journey at the Shchekino station. After changing at the Gorbachevo station to another train, he drove to Kozelsk. It was October 28 in the afternoon. From here they had to go to Shamordino on horseback. The path lay through Optina Pustyn, which we reached by six o'clock in the evening.

There were still twelve miles to Shamordin, that is, two and a half hours of driving along a terrible road, in bad weather, at night. Therefore, Tolstoy stopped for the night in Optina, in the monastery hotel.

The next day, Tolstoy left Optina Pustyn at four o'clock, that is, spent the entire first half of the day, almost until dusk, in Optina. He talked with Father Michael, the "hotel", that is, the head of the hotel, inquired about the elders he knew, and then went out, wandered around the skete, twice approached the elder's house. Varsonuphia, stood at the gate, but did not enter.

Shamordinsky monastery

Tolstoy went to the Shamordinsky monastery, where his sister was a nun, and, of course, this choice was not accidental. And, of course, it could not be final.

Tolstoy could not help realizing that he was not suitable for Shamordino's permanent residence, for anyone but he, excommunicated from the Church, could expect to find "peace and solitude" in the neighborhood of the monastery.

Very little is known about what Tolstoy and his sister talked about. A. Ksyunin, who visited Shamordino immediately after Tolstoy's death, talks about Tolstoy's visit to Shamordin from the words of his mother Maria. His book was first published during the life of mother Mary, and no refutations on her part followed.

Ksyunin says that when Tolstoy "came to his sister, they sat together for a long time." They went out only for dinner and invited the doctor and the nun to the cell, who was inseparable from Tolstoy's sister.

—Sister, I was in Optina, how good it is, - remarked Tolstoy. - With what joy I would live, performing the lowest and most difficult deeds, but would make it a condition not to force me to go to church.
- This is good,- answered the sister, - but you would be given the condition not to preach or teach anything.

Lev Nikolayevich became thoughtful, lowered his head and remained in this position for a long time, until he was reminded that dinner was over.
— Have you seen the elders?- resumed the conversation about Optina's sister.
— No ... Do you think that they would accept me? .. You forgot that I was excommunicated.

Conversations with his sister were supposed to drag on, Tolstoy even chose a house for himself to live in Shamordin. But everything was thwarted at the very beginning. The next day, after the described conversation, Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya arrived in Shamordino and brought news from Yasnaya Polyana: not only about Sofya Andreevna's condition, but also about what was the worst thing for Tolstoy in the world: that “ his whereabouts, if not open, is about to open, and he will not be left alone. "

Panic seized Tolstoy. His horror at the approach of his wife was such that he forgot everything, broke loose, without saying goodbye to his sister and without agreeing on anything with her, rushed away from Shamordin.

Astapovo station

On the morning of October 31 (November 13), Tolstoy and his entourage departed from Shamordino to Kozelsk, where they boarded train No. 12, which had already reached the station, and was heading south.

We didn’t have time to buy tickets at boarding; having reached Belev, we bought tickets to the Volovo station. Those who accompanied Tolstoy later also testified that the trip had no definite purpose.

After the meeting, they decided to go to his niece Ye. S. Denisenko, in Novocherkassk, where they wanted to try to get foreign passports and then go to Bulgaria; if this fails, go to the Caucasus.

However, on the way, Lev Nikolayevich caught a cold and fell ill with croupous pneumonia and was forced to get off the train on the same day at the first large station next to locality... This station was Astapovo.

The news of Leo Tolstoy's illness caused great commotion both in the highest circles and among the members of the Holy Synod. Encrypted telegrams were systematically sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Moscow Gendarme Directorate of Railways about the state of his health and the state of affairs.

An emergency secret meeting of the Synod was convened, at which, on the initiative of the chief prosecutor Lukyanov, the question was raised about the attitude of the church in the event of the sad outcome of Lev Nikolaevich's illness. But the question has not been positively resolved.

Six doctors tried to save Lev Nikolaevich, but to their offers to help he only replied: “ God will arrange everything". When they asked him what he himself wanted, he said: “ I want no one to bother me».

In his last meaningful words, which he uttered a few hours before his death to his eldest son, which he could not make out from excitement, but which the doctor Makovitsky heard: “ Seryozha ... the truth ... I love a lot, I love everyone ... ".

On the very eve of his death, Fr. Barsanuphius, an elder from Optina Hermitage. Subsequently, there was a rumor that this visit took place "by order from St. Petersburg." Upon arrival in Astapovo, Fr. Barsanuphius asked to be allowed to see Tolstoy.

Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya did not allow him to see her dying father. She only cared about prolonging the last minutes of Tolstoy's life, and the conversation with the elders, even the very meeting, the very appearance of them, should have excited Tolstoy in the deepest way.

On November 7 (20) at 6 hours 5 minutes after a week of serious and painful illness in the house of the station chief, Ivan Ozolin, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy died.

By this time, they were already seriously complicated. It is known that Sofya Andreevna, who lived with Tolstoy in a marriage that lasted 48 years, was a good wife to him. She gave birth to 13 children to Tolstoy, always performed maternal duties exceptionally tenderly and attentively, was engaged in rewriting and preparing her husband's manuscripts for printing, and was exemplary in housekeeping.

However, by 1910, Tolstoy's relationship with his wife had deteriorated to the extreme. Sofia Andreevna began hysterical seizures, during which she simply did not control herself. In the summer of 1910, the psychiatrist Professor Rossolimo and the good doctor Nikitin, who had known Sofya Andreyevna for a long time, were invited to Yasnaya Polyana. After two days of research and observation, they established a diagnosis of "degenerative dual constitution: paranoid and hysterical, with a predominance of the former."

For the first time, Tolstoy announced his desire to give up copyright in 1895. Then he stated in his diary his will in case of death. He also asked children to give up copyright inheritance: “If you do it, it's good. It will be good for you too; if you don’t, it’s your business. It means that you are not ready to do it. The fact that my compositions have been on sale these last 10 years has been the hardest thing in my life. " As you can see, initially Tolstoy simply advised children to do this. However, Sofya Andreevna had reason to believe that over time this thought could be formulated precisely as the last will. In this, she was strengthened by the growing influence on her husband on the part of his friend and leader of Tolstoyism, as a social movement, V.G. Chertkov.

A real nightmare began in the house. The unhappy wife of a genius writer has lost all control over herself. She eavesdropped and spied on, tried not to let her husband out of sight for a minute, rummaged through his papers, trying to find a will in which Tolstoy deprives his heirs of the copyright to his books. All this was accompanied by hysterics, falling to the floor, demonstrative suicidal attempts.

The last straw was the following episode: Lev Nikolaevich woke up on the night of October 27-28, 1910 and heard his wife rummaging in his office, hoping to find a "secret will."

That same night, after waiting for Sofya Andreevna to finally go home, Tolstoy left the house.

The escape

We woke up the coachman and went to the Shchekino station. Here Tolstoy announced his intention to go to Optina Pustyn.

Tolstoy wished to go to Kozelsk in 3rd grade, with the people.

Finally, we arrived at Kozelsk.

Optina Hermitage and Shamordino

Here Tolstoy hoped to meet with one of the illustrious elders of Optina Hermitage. As you know, the writer was excommunicated, and such a step of an eighty-two-year-old man should be considered, perhaps, as a willingness to reconsider his views. But it didn’t happen. Tolstoy spent eight hours in Optina, but he never made the first step, did not knock on the house of any of the Optina elders. And none of them called him, despite the fact that everyone in Optina Pustyn knew that the writer was here.

There are stories that when they sailed on the ferry from Optina, Tolstoy was accompanied by fifteen monks.

Sorry for Lev Nikolaevich, oh, God! the monks whispered.

Tolstoy went to Shamordino, to his sister, who was a nun of the Kazan Amvrosievskaya women's desert. He wanted to stay here for some time and even thought to negotiate a lease of a house next to the monastery, but did not. Probably, the reason was the arrival of Sasha's daughter. She arrived very decisively against her family and mother, fully supporting her father, moreover, excited by the journey and the secrecy of her departure. Sasha's young enthusiasm, apparently, was discordant with the mood of Tolstoy, who was endlessly tired of family squabbles and disputes, and wanted only one thing - peace.

Astapovo

However, on the way, Tolstoy got a cold, which he got on the way to Kozelsk. I had to get off at the Astapovo station - now it is the city of Lev Tolstoy in the Lipetsk region.

The cold turned into pneumonia.

Ozolin stopped the clock in the station building, bringing the hands exactly to this position. The old clock in the building of Lev Tolstoy station still shows 6 hours 5 minutes.