Alexey Tolstoy is the lion. Mikhail Tolstoy: “The Tolstoy family at the same table is not a romantic story at all
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Many people know such talented writers as Lev Nikolaevich, Alexey Nikolaevich and Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. Some wonder who they are after all. Often their relationship is questionable.
On closer examination of the Tolstoy family, one can notice that the writers Leo and the two Alekseevs have family ties. They all descended from the Tolstoy noble family, whose roots begin in Germany. In the middle of the 14th century, their ancestor Indris left this country and was baptized in Chernigov.
Tolstoy pedigree
The clan of the Tolstoy family itself begins with his great-grandson, whose name was Andrei Kharitonovich. After living in Chernigov, he settled in Moscow. His first descendants were military personnel, which was a kind of tradition. However, in subsequent generations, state political and great literary figures began to appear in the Tolstoy family.
Tree
The closest ancestors of Lev and Alexei Nikolaevich and Alexei Konstantinovich are Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy. He had two sons. One of them could not have children, and the second became the father of several sons, among whom Ilya and Andrei should be distinguished. It was they who gave birth to the closest relatives of these three great writers.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born in 1828 in the Tula province. His father was Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, who was the son of Ilya Andreevich.
The branch of Ilya Tolstoy is famous for the appearance of Lev Nikolaevich and Alexei Konstantinovich. They are second cousins to each other. Alexey Nikolaevich appeared after several generations. Judging by kinship, for Lev Nikolaevich he is the fourth generation grand-nephew. The relationship, of course, is very distant, but nevertheless it indicates that they have common roots and can be considered their relatives, and not just namesakes.
Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born in 1883. The place of his birth was the city of Nikolaevsk. His father is Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Tolstoy.
Many biographers are engaged in the study of the Tolstoy family, and quite detailed genealogical trees have already been compiled. All of them confirm the fact that in this family there are three famous writers who appeared in different periods of time. The oldest of these writers is Alexei Konstantinovich. He was born in 1817 in the city of St. Petersburg. His father was Konstantin Petrovich Tolstoy, who is the brother of the famous artist F.P. Tolstoy.
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Russia is famous all over the world not only for its production facilities, but also for its great cultural values. Three talented writers united under one surname had a tremendous influence on the formation of world classical literature: Lev Tolstoy, Alexei Tolstoy and another Alexei Tolstoy. A short biography of each of these authors is filled with experiences and sufferings, selected and most vivid facts from the life of the creators were taken as the basis of some of the creations.
Some sources indicate that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy were relatives. Their great-grandmothers were sisters. Ignorant readers sometimes mistakenly consider Alexei to be Leo's brother. This is not true: although they bore the same surname and patronymic, they were born at different times and in different places.
The biography of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy also attracts literary critics with its tragedy and magnificent creative period. However, this article will focus on the third of the clan of great writers. About who is known to everyone from early childhood for the work "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino" - Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy. He is known to everyone as a subtle lyricist, historical novelist and playwright.
It was then that the historical theme came into the work of Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy. After the February bloodshed comes which the writer does not want to understand or accept. The result of this position is emigration with a family to Europe. Later, after returning home, the Russian writer will talk about this as a hard and difficult time. It was here, in native birches, in 1928 that the first two parts of the trilogy "Walking through the agony" were finished.
The biography of Alexei Tolstoy is permeated with the events of the Great Patriotic War. It was the pain and tears of the people that pushed the writer to create numerous works of genius, which, alas, were of a dramatic nature: the dilogy "Ivan the Terrible", three volumes, unfortunately, of the unfinished novel "Peter I", the third final part of "Walking in agony" , "I appeal to hatred" and many others.
Not accepting the revolution, choosing emigration, but eventually returning to the USSR forever, the author was treated kindly by the Bolsheviks, who did not skimp on gifts and certificates for the writer. Fantastic adventures and fairy tales, war stories and dramatic novels, life far from the Motherland and nights under the whistle of bullets, a huge estate and beloved family, fearless and immortal heroes of works and painful death from cancer, black and white - this is the biography of Alexei Tolstoy, son of Count Nikolai Tolstoy. A huge number of the author's works were filmed, and plays are staged to this day. More than fifty works, millions of copies and worldwide fame - this is what is left to the descendants
The earthly history of Yasnaya Polyana is very extensive, as well as the Tolstoy family itself. The surname "Tolstoy", according to one version, came from the fact that the ancestor of Lev Nikolaevich had a big head, popularly called him "a fat head". Hence the surname of the Tolstoy went, in whose family, everyone was distinguished by an outstanding mind. In addition to the folk story, there is a more noticeable story. There is a hypothesis that the Tolstoy noble family comes from an ancient Germanic surname. Their ancestor was Indris *, who left Germany in the middle of the XIV century and settled in Chernigov with his two sons. Here he received Orthodox baptism and received the name Leonty. The ancestor of the Tolstoy was the great-grandson of Indris, Andrei Kharitonovich, who moved from Chernigov to Moscow and here from Vasily the Dark received the nickname Tolstoy, which later began to be passed on to his descendants. The first representatives of this surname were military men. This tradition has been preserved by all generations of the Tolstoy, but later many Tolstoy glorified their family both as prominent government officials and as cultural workers.
A) information on the biography of Peter Andreevich Tolstoy
Let us briefly dwell on the biography of the great direct ancestor of the writer Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, who can rightfully be considered the beginning of all beginnings - a real historical figure, ancestor and founder of the Tolstoy family of counts.
Tolstoy Petr Andreevich (1645-1729) was the most prominent statesman of Russia during the Petrine era. He was the son of Andrei Vasilyevich Tolstoy and Stepanida Mikhailovna Miloslavskaya, nephew of I.M. Miloslavsky - an approximate boyar-governor of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich. Possessing a lively mind and cunning from childhood, with age he was tempted in court intrigues. Since 1682, Pyotr Andreevich served as a steward at the court. In the same year, the famous Streletsky revolt took place, in which Tolstoy took an active part, inciting the streltsy to take decisive actions against Peter 1 and spreading slanderous rumors that Peter's relatives, the Naryshkins, strangled Tsar Ivan. The defeat of the rebellion and the fall of Sophia forced Peter Andreevich to take steps to save his position, and he went over to Peter's side, not wanting to share the fate of the vanquished.
However, the tsar for a long time could not forgive Tolstoy for participation in the rebellion and treated him with great distrust, while highly appreciating the mind and abilities of Peter Andreevich. Despite the fact that Tolstoy showed himself perfectly in the Azov campaign of 1696, the attitude of Peter 1 towards him did not change. Pyotr Andreevich preferred to retire for a while from the court, so that in his absence his participation in the riot would be forgotten. In 1697, Peter I sent a group of young people to Europe to study "naval affairs". Tolstoy, no longer a young man, volunteered to go abroad to study and spent two years in Italy with great benefit.
In 1701, at the behest of the sovereign, Tolstoy changed his occupation and switched to the diplomatic service, representing the interests of the Russian state in Constantinople as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary. Here, thanks to his natural ability for diplomacy, he achieved considerable success. The result of his activities was the confirmation by the Turkish Sultan of the peace agreement with Russia. For his merits, Pyotr Andreevich was awarded the title of Privy Councilor and received as a reward a portrait of the sovereign, decorated with diamonds. However, the next time Tolstoy failed to confirm the trust placed in him by Peter the Great. Petr Andreevich negotiated with the Turkish Sultan, the purpose of which was to convince the Turks not to give political asylum to the Swedish king, who was defeated near Poltava. Instead, war was declared on Russia.
Tolstoy's position was responsible and difficult, since any diplomatic failure caused displeasure, on the one hand, for Peter I, and on the other, for the Turks. In 1714, Tolstoy was allowed to return to Russia, where Menshikov began to patronize him. Thanks to Menshikov, Peter Andreevich Tolstoy became a senator, while receiving a considerable amount of land in possession. In 1717, he managed to win the complete confidence of the sovereign by fulfilling a very important and delicate assignment. Peter's son, Tsarevich Alexei, who fled from the trial, took refuge in Naples. Tolstoy, using his influence on the mistress of Alexei Petrovich, with threats and promises persuaded the tsarevich to return to his homeland. Subsequently, Pyotr Andreevich took an active part in the investigation and conviction of Tsarevich Alexei. Grateful to Tolstoy, the sovereign generously rewarded him and appointed him head of the secret office.
After the death of Peter I, Tolstoy, together with Menshikov, contributed to the enthronement of the sovereign's widow, Catherine I (the other heir was Alexei's son, Peter II). On the day of her coronation, he entrusted the title of count. However, differences with Menshikov on the issue of candidates for the Russian throne after the death of Catherine as a result predetermined the fall of Tolstoy. His Serene Highness Prince Menshikov intended to marry his daughter to the Tsarevich. Tolstoy was opposed to the accession of Peter II, because he feared persecution on his part. However, Menshikov's influence turned out to be stronger, and 82-year-old Tolstoy paid with exile to the Solovetsky monastery, where he died and was buried near the walls of the monastery's Transfiguration Cathedral.
Pyotr Andreevich had two children. Count Tolstoy had two sons from his marriage to Solomonida Timofeevna Dubrovskaya. Pyotr Petrovich Tolstoy did not give offspring, but for reference, we note that he was a colonel of the Nizhyn regiment and was married to the daughter of hetman I. I. Skoropadsky, and after the disgrace of his father was removed for permanent residence "in the village", where he died.
The family was continued by the eldest son of Count Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy - Ivan Petrovich Tolstoy (1685-1728) - a real state councilor, exiled at the end to Solovki together with his father, where they both ended their earthly journey.
B) about the noble families and the history of the Tolstoy count's title:
P.A. Tolstoy's certificate of his origin (1686).
All noble families in Russia were listed in a special book called
"Velvet". Velvet Book is a genealogical book of the most noble boyar and noble families of Russia. Compiled in 1687 in connection with the abolition of parochialism (1682) and after the termination of the compilation of category books.
The Velvet Book includes: "Sovereign Genealogy" 1555-1556, consisting mainly of the genealogy records of the Rurik and Gediminovichs (royal, princely, boyar families), as well as materials for the second half of the XVI-XVII centuries from the genealogical paintings submitted by representatives of these surnames in 1682 -87 years. Despite numerous additions, far from all famous and most ancient Russian families were included in the "Velvet Book".
In 1787 "Velvet Book" was published by N. I. Novikov under the title "Genealogical book of princes and noblemen of Russia and abroad" and is a valuable document for genealogical research.
When compiling the Velvet Book in 1686, P.A. Tolstoy submitted to the Discharge Order the following certificate of his origin: "In the summer of 6861, a man of an honest clan named Indros came from a German of the Caesar state with his two sons with Litvonis and with Zygmonten, and with them came squads and their people, three thousand husbands and were baptized Indros and his children in Chernigov in the Orthodox Christian faith and named them Indros Leonty and his son Litvonis Konstantin and Sigmonten Fedor; and from Constantine was born a son Khariton and Fedor died childless, writes about this in the chronicler of Chernigov. " Thus, the great-grandson of Indris (or Indros) named Andrei Kharitonovich, according to Tolstoy's painting, left Chernigov to the court of Vasily the Dark, laying the foundation for the Tolstoy noble family.
Since the beginning of the 18th century, the descendants of Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy have been awarded the titles of counts. As already indicated, the title of count was granted to P.A. Tolstoy.
On May 7 (18), 1724, by the highest decree of Emperor Peter I, the actual privy councilor Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy was elevated, with his descending descendants, to the dignity of the count of the Russian Empire.
But as a result of the struggle with Menshikov for influence, he lost and was forced to admit that he was defeated, deprived of all privileges and further exile to the Solovetsky Monastery. By the imperial decree, dated May 22 (June 2), 1727, Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy and his sons were deprived of ranks and the count's title.
The earl's title was returned only in 1760. By the imperial decree, dated May 30 (June 10), 1760, the rights to the counts of the Russian Empire were restored to the dignity of the grandchildren of Count P.A. Petrovich Tolstykh. Thus, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna returned the count's dignity to the descendants of Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy.
C) direct ancestors and descendants of L.N. Tolstoy
Let's go back to the pedigree of L.N. Tolstoy. Ivan Petrovich Tolstoy, (the only son of Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, who continued his family), was married to Praskovya Mikhailovna Rtischeva, the grandniece of F.M.Rtischev, a friend and favorite of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, an educator and philanthropist. Their son Andrei is the great-great-grandfather of the writer Leo Tolstoy. Count Andrei Ivanovich Tolstoy (1721 - July 12, 1803) - actual state councilor from the Tolstoy family. Andrei Ivanovich got married on June 9, 1745 with a Muscovite, Princess Alexandra Ivanovna Shchetinina (05/26/1727 - 01/28/1812). For numerous offspring, a total of 23 children were born, nicknamed "Big Nest". In 1757, the family of Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy continued - a great-grandson Ilya was born in this family, who, in turn, was the grandfather of L.N. Tolstoy and A.K. Tolstoy, F.I. Tolstoy and F.P. Tolstoy.
Count Ilya Andreevich Tolstoy (1757-1820), Privy Councilor, Leo Tolstoy's grandfather. He was a kind, cheerful and frivolous person. He quickly squandered the considerable fortune of his ancestors and, in order to have the means to live, secured the post of Kazan governor. In 1794, Ilya's son Nikolai was born - the father of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. His wife, and therefore the mother of the writer, was Princess Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya, whose lineage in the male line went back to Yaroslav the Wise himself. I must say, Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, was forced to marry at the choice of his father to a rich princess, taking after her the famous estate of Yasnaya Polyana. However, he had no reason to regret this marriage - Maria Nikolaevna possessed such a meek, friendly and caring character. And the main miracle of the short life of the spouses was their genius child Leo, who was the fourth in the family. The mother died in 1830, six months after the birth of her daughter from “birth fever,” as they said then, when Leo was not yet 2 years old.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (August 28, 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire - November 7, 1910, Astapovo station, Ryazan province, Russian Empire) - Count, one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers, revered as one of the greatest writers in the world , even during his lifetime recognized as the head of Russian literature. Leo Tolstoy's work marked a new stage in Russian and world realism, acting as a bridge between the classic novel of the 19th century and the literature of the 20th century. The educator, publicist, religious thinker, his authoritative opinion was the reason for the emergence of a new religious and moral trend - Tolstoyism. Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1873), honorary academician in the category of fine literature (1900). The best known are such works of Tolstoy as the novels "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", "Resurrection", the autobiographical trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence", "Youth", the stories "Cossacks", "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", "Kreutserov sonata ”,“ Hadji Murad ”, a cycle of essays“ Sevastopol Tales ”, dramas“ Living Corpse ”and“ The Power of Darkness ”, autobiographical religious and philosophical works“ Confession ”and“ What is My Faith? ”
The descendants of Count Pyotr Tolstoy include a whole galaxy of scientists and cultural figures of the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the great Tolstoy, who have now found their peace at the Tolstoy family cemetery in the village of Kochaki, which is located next to Yasnaya Polyana. I would like to name two names of his famous great-grandchildren.
Nikita Ilyich Tolstoy (April 15, 1923, Vrsac, Kingdom of the Union of Artists - June 27, 1996, Moscow, Russia) - Soviet and Russian Slavist, philologist and folklorist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and then the Russian Academy of Sciences. Author of several hundred works on the history of Slavic literary languages, dialectology of Slavs, Old Church Slavonic and Church Slavonic languages, ethnolinguistics and lexicology. Laureate of the 1994 Demidov Prize.
Ilya Vladimirovich Tolstoy (June 29, 1930, Novy Bechei, Yugoslavia - May 16, 1997, Moscow) - great-grandson of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, professor, candidate of philological sciences, head of the Russian language stylistics department of the Faculty of Journalism of Lomonosov Moscow State University. He was posthumously awarded the 1st degree MV Lomonosov Prize for the book “Ways and Fates. Family Chronicle of the Tolstoy "
The names of the current statesmen and journalists of modern Russia, the great-great-grandsons of the great writer - Vladimir Ilyich, Pyotr Olegovich and Anna Nikitichna (by the pseudonym Fekla) Tolstykh are widely known.
D) Tolstoy family ties
Many people are interested in the question of whether Aleksey Nikolaevich Tolstoy and Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Tolstoy-American, Fedor Konstantinovich Tolstoy, medalist, etc. are relatives. Yes, of course, they are relatives. Look, they have a common ancestor, Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy. Lev Nikolaevich and Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy - of the same branch through Andrey's grandson.
Count Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (August 24, 1817, St. Petersburg - September 28, 1875, the village of Krasny Rog, Chernigov province (now in the Pochep district of the Bryansk region)) - Russian writer, poet, playwright from the Tolstoy family. Corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences since 1873. The creator of ballads, satirical poems, the historical novel "Prince of Silver" (published in 1863), the dramatic trilogy "Death of Ivan the Terrible" (1866), "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" (1868) and "Tsar Boris" (1870). The author of heartfelt lyrics, with a pronounced musical beginning, psychological short stories in verse ("Amid a noisy ball, by chance ...", "It was in early spring.") Father - Count Konstantin Petrovich Tolstoy (1779-1870) was the grandson of Peter's only son Andreevich Tolstoy Ivan. Mother - Anna Alekseevna Perovskaya, pupil (illegitimate daughter) of Count A. K. Razumovsky. His older brother F.P. Tolstoy was a famous Russian artist who participated in the design of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
Ivan also had a middle son, Fedor. Count Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy - "American" (6 (17) February 1782, Moscow - 24 October (5 November) 1846, Moscow) - one of the most controversial representatives of the Russian aristocracy of the first half of the 19th century. He was distinguished by his extraordinary temperament, became famous for his passion for gambling, an addiction to duels (cracking) and a trip to America (hence the nickname). He was married to Anna Fedorovna Maikova (1761-1834) and had seven offspring-children in marriage, including Maria Lopukhina, whose brilliant portrait (V.L. Borovikovsky) we all know well.
His great-grandson Alexander was the grandfather of another famous writer of the Russian land - the "red count" Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy (December 29, 1882 (January 10, 1883), Nikolaevsk, Samara province, Russian Empire - February 23, 1945, Moscow), who wrote the great historical novel "Peter 1" and the incredible science fiction novel "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin", as well as the trilogy of the revolutionary days of new Russia, and much more. His father, Nikolai Alexandrovich Tolstoy (1849-1900), was married to Alexandra Leontievna Turgeneva (1854-1906), a writer, the grandniece of the Decembrist Nikolai Turgenev, who had five children, and the child of one of them was Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy. When they ask what specific family ties Lev Nikolaevich and Alexei Nikolaevich have, you begin to count clearly, and then it turns out that the relatives are very distant - the fourth cousin, grandchild, great-great-great-nephew to Lev Nikolaevich. It seems that this is, as they say, "the tenth water on jelly". In fact, they have a common ancestor, Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, and therefore, of course, all Tolstoy are relatives. For example, on the line of his daughter, the great-grandson of Pyotr Tolstoy was the Russian thinker Pyotr Chaadaev. The middle Tolstoy branch also gave the country Dmitry Andreevich Tolstoy, Minister of Public Education, Minister of Internal Affairs, President of the Academy of Sciences. The direct descendants of this outstanding writer are Tatiana Tolstaya, philologist Ivan Tolstoy.
The older, untitled branch of the clan comes from the elder brother of the first Count Tolstoy - Ivan Andreevich, who was the brother-in-law of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich. Ivan Andreevich Tolstoy (1644 - September 5, 1713) - Russian statesman of Peter's time. He was married to Maria Matveyevna Apraksina, the sister of Queen Marfa Matveyevna.
It is interesting that the descendants of this branch tried with all their might to maintain their ancestral affiliation with the Tolstoy. So, in 1859, a representative of an untitled branch, being the grandson of Prince Kutuzov, who had no sons, received permission to take the name "Golenishchev-Kutuzov-Tolstoy" in his memory. Count Osterman-Tolstoy (died 1857) also belonged to the same branch. In 1910, representatives of the untitled branch of the clan, in memory of their descent (along the female line) from the extinct clan Miloslavskys, received the right to be called Tolstoy-Miloslavskys.
This other - the older untitled branch of the Tolstoy - gave Russia the poet Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev (November 23, 1803, Ovstug, Bryansk district, Oryol province - July 15, 1873, Tsarskoe Selo). Ivan Andreevich Tolstoy was his great-great-grandfather. The poet's mother - Ekaterina Lvovna (October 16, 1776 - May 15, 1866), was the great-great-granddaughter of Ivan Andreyevich Tolstoy. A descendant of a great family, the poet-philosopher Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, created wonderful lyrical monologues about the meaning of life, the purpose of the poet and poetry. The original talent put him on a par with the great poets.
Thus, the Tolstoy are an extensive Russian noble family. The nobleman Peter Andreevich Tolstoy, having received the dignity of the count of the Russian Empire for special merits, laid the foundation for the count's branch of the Tolstoy family. The Tolstoy family is one of the most powerful genetic lines in Russia.
E. Grislis.
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* Indris (Leonty), the mythical ancestor of the Tolstoy noble family, from whom, in turn, the Fedtsovs (only three generations), Molchanovs and Durnovs descend, and from the latter - the Danilovs and Vasilchikovs. Later, the Tukhachevskys began to trace their origins to Indris. In general, out of 540 service clans that submitted their genealogies to the Discharge Order, only 35 recognized their primordial Russian origin; the rest made up foreign ancestors for themselves. Often these ancestors (like Indris) bear absolutely fantastic names. The writers of the Tolstoy genealogy, apparently, were not embarrassed by the fact that the names of the children of the "honest German" were given in the Lithuanian pronunciation. - approx. the author.
THE TOLSTOVIAN TRIBE: HOW WAS THE FATE OF THE 13 CHILDREN OF LEO TOLSTOY. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy had 13 children - Sofya Andreevna gave birth to the writer 9 sons and 4 daughters. How was their fate and what trace did they leave in history?
Unfortunately, 5 out of 13 children died early: Peter lived a little over a year, Nikolai - less than a year, Varvara - a few days, Alexey died at 4 years old, Ivan - at 6 years old. The youngest, Ivan, was unusually similar to his father. It was said that his blue-gray eyes saw and understood more than he could express in words. Tolstoy believed that it was this son who would continue his work. However, fate decreed otherwise - the child died of scarlet fever.
SERGEY LVOVICH (1863-1947) Tolstoy described his eldest son Sergei Tolstoy as follows: “Elder, blond, is not bad. There is something weak and patient in his expression and very meek ... Everyone says that he looks like my older brother. I'm afraid to believe. It would be too good. The main feature of his brother was not selfishness and not self-sacrifice, but a strict middle ... Seryozha is smart - he has a mathematical mind and is sensitive to art, he learns perfectly, is dexterous to jump, gymnastics; but gauche (clumsy, fr.) and absent-minded. " Sergei Lvovich was the only one of all the writer's children who survived the October Revolution at home. He seriously studied music, was a professor at the Moscow Conservatory and one of the founders of the Leo Tolstoy Museum in Moscow, took part in commenting on the Complete Works of his father. Also known as the author of musical compositions: "Twenty-seven Scottish Songs", "Belgian Songs", "Hindu Songs and Dances"; wrote romances to the verses of Pushkin, Fet, Tyutchev. He died in 1947 at the age of 84.
TATIANA LVOVNA (1864-1950) Tatiana, like her sisters Maria and Alexandra, was a follower of Tolstoy's teachings. From her mother, the writer's eldest daughter inherited practicality, the ability to do a variety of things, like her mother, she loved toilets, entertainment and was not devoid of vanity. She inherited the ability to write from her father and became a writer. In 1925, together with her daughter Tatyana Lvovna went abroad, lived in Paris, where her guests were Bunin, Morua, Chaliapin, Stravinsky, Alexander Benois and many other representatives of culture and art. From Paris she moved to Italy, where she spent the rest of her life.
ILYA LVOVICH (1866-1933) Description of Leo Tolstoy: “Ilya, the third ... Broad-boned, white, blush, shining. Learns badly. Always thinks about what he is not told to think about. The games are invented by himself. Neat, thrifty, "mine" is very important for him. Hot and violent, now to fight; but also gentle and very sensitive. Sensual - he loves to eat and lie down quietly ... Everything that is not allowed has a charm for him ... Ilya will die if he does not have a strict and beloved leader. " Ilya did not graduate from high school, he worked alternately as an official, then a bank employee, then an agent of a Russian social insurance company, then an agent for the liquidation of private estates. During the First World War, he worked for the Red Cross. In 1916, Ilya Lvovich left for the United States, where until the end of his life he earned money by lecturing on the work and worldview of Tolstoy.
LEV LVOVICH (1869-1945) Lev Lvovich was one of the most talented in the family. Tolstoy himself characterized his son as follows: “Pretty: dexterous, intelligent, graceful. Every dress fits as if it was sewn on it. Everything that others do, so is he, and everything is very clever and good. I still don't understand very well. " In his youth, he was fond of the ideas of his father, but over time he switched to anti-Tolstian, patriotic and monarchist positions. In 1918, without waiting for arrest, he emigrated. He lived in France and Italy, in 1940 he finally settled in Sweden. In emigration he continued to engage in creative work. Lev Lvovich's works were translated into French, German, Swedish, Hungarian and Italian.
MARIA LVOVNA (1871 - 1906) When she was two years old, Lev Nikolaevich described her as follows: “A weak, sickly child. Like milk, white body, curly white hair; big, strange, blue eyes: strange in deep, serious expression. Very smart and ugly. This will be one of the mysteries. He will suffer, he will seek, he will not find anything; but he will eternally seek the most inaccessible. " Sharing the views of her father, she refused social trips; she devoted a lot of effort to educational work. Having passed away early, at the age of 35, Maria Lvovna was remembered by contemporaries as "a good person who did not see happiness." Maria Lvovna was well-read, fluent in several foreign languages, played music. When she received her teacher's diploma, she organized her own school, in which both peasant children and adults studied. Her obsession sometimes frightened her loved ones, a young fragile woman went to remote settlements in any weather, independently driving a horse and overcoming snow drifts.In November 1906, Maria Lvovna fell ill: suddenly the temperature rose sharply, and pain in her shoulder appeared. Doctors diagnosed pneumonia. According to Sofya Andreevna, "no measures weakened the forces of the disease." All week, while the woman was in a semi-conscious state, her parents and husband were nearby; Tolstoy held his daughter's hand until the last minutes.
ANDREY LVOVICH (1877 - 1916) He loved his mother very much, she adored him and forgave her son everything. Father appreciated Andrey's kindness, argued that it was “the most precious and important quality, which is more precious than anyone else in the world,” and advised him to apply his ideas for the benefit of the people. However, Andrei Lvovich did not share his father's views, believing that if he was a nobleman, he should enjoy all the privileges and advantages that his position gives him. Tolstoy strongly disapproved of his son's lifestyle, but said about him: “I don’t want to love him, but I love him because he is genuine and does not want to appear to others.” Andrey took part in the Russo-Japanese War as a non-commissioned officer as a horse orderly. In the war he was wounded, received the St. George Cross for bravery. In 1907, he entered the service of an official on special assignments under the Tula governor Mikhail Viktorovich Artsimovich, who maintained excellent relations with Lev Nikolaevich. Andrei fell in love with his wife, she soon went to Andrei, leaving home, a desperate husband and six children. In February 1916, in St. Petersburg, Andrei had a strange dream, which he told his brother. He saw himself in a dream dead, in a coffin, which was carried out of the house. He attended his own funeral. In the huge crowd following the coffin, he saw Minister Krivoshein, his chief for the Ministry of Internal Affairs in St. Petersburg, and his beloved gypsies, whose singing he loved very much. A few days later, he died of blood poisoning.
MIKHAIL LVOVICH (1879 - 1944) Mikhail was gifted musically. From childhood he was very fond of music, masterly learned to play the balalaika, accordion, piano, composed romances, learned to play the violin. Despite his dream of becoming a composer, Mikhail followed in his father's footsteps and chose a military career. During the First World War, he served in the 2nd Dagestan Regiment of the Caucasian Native Cavalry Division. In 1914-1917. participated in the battles on the Southwestern Front. He was nominated for the award of the Order of St. Anne, 4th degree. In 1920 he emigrated, eventually staying in Morocco, where he died. It was in this country that Mikhail wrote his only literary work: a memoir describing how the Tolstoy family lived in Yasnaya Polyana, this novel was called Mitya Tiverin. In the novel, he also recalled that family and country that could no longer be returned. Mikhail Lvovich died in Morocco in 1944.
ALEXANDRA LVOVNA (1884 - 1979) She was a difficult child. The governess and senior sisters worked with her more than Sofya Andreevna and Lev Nikolaevich. However, at the age of 16, her rapprochement with her father took place, since then she devoted her whole life to him: she did secretarial work, mastered stenography, typescript. According to Tolstoy's will, Alexandra Lvovna received the copyright for her father's literary heritage. After the October Revolution of 1917, Alexandra Tolstaya did not want to come to terms with the new government, which brutally persecuted dissidents. In 1920, the Cheka was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison. Thanks to the petition of the peasants of Yasnaya Polyana, she was released ahead of schedule in 1921, she returned to her native estate, and after the appropriate decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee became the curator of the museum. She organized a cultural and educational center in Yasnaya Polyana, opened a school, a hospital, and a pharmacy. In 1929 she left the Soviet Union, going to Japan, then to the USA, where she gave lectures about her father at many universities. In 1941, she accepted US citizenship and in subsequent years helped many Russian emigrants to settle in the United States, where she herself died on September 26, 1979 at the age of 95. In the Soviet Union, Alexandra Tolstaya was removed from all photographs and newsreels, her name was not mentioned in notes and memoirs, excursion stories and museum exhibitions.
January 10, 2013 marked the 130th anniversary of the birth of one of the brightest and most talented Russian and Soviet writers of the twentieth century - Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
Alyosha Tolstoy was born into a noble family on January 10, 1883 (December 29, 1882 old style) in the Samara province in the city of Nikolaevsk. His father was a representative of an old family of Counts Tolstoy Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tolstoy (1849 - 1900). He graduated from the Nikolaev Cavalry School, in 1868 became a cornet and was sent to the Life Guards Hussar Regiment. But for his penchant for "riot" he was removed from military service with a ban on living in St. Petersburg and Moscow. He moved to the Samara province, where he met his future wife, immediately inflamed with passion for her.
Tolstoy's father was a distant relative of Leo Tolstoy. For those interested in the kinship of three Tolstoys at once - Alexei Konstantinovich, Lev Nikolaevich and Alexei Nikolaevich, I will say right away that they are, to varying degrees, distant relatives to each other. The Tolstoy ancestors in the 13th century came to Russia from Germany, they received their nickname from the Grand Duke Vasily, served Ivan the Terrible, Alexei Mikhailovich and Peter the Great. It was Peter the Great who conferred on Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy the title of count, which had just begun to appear in Russia.
P.A. Tolstoy was the founder of the Russian special services - the Secret Chancellery and was noted for the fact that he prepared and carried out an operation to return to Russia the subsequently executed Tsarevich Alexei. He is the common ancestor for all three Tolstoy writers. In the middle of the 18th century, the Tolstoy family split into various branches. In this sense, Lev Nikolaevich and Alexei Nikolaevich are very far from each other in terms of the degree of kinship, but it is still present.
Mother - Alexandra Leontievna Tolstaya (Turgeneva) came from an old noble family of the Turgenevs. She was the granddaughter of the Decembrist N. Turgenev and, as many argued, a distant relative of the writer Ivan Turgenev, which, however, despite the beauty of the legend, does not necessarily correspond to reality - perhaps they were namesakes or very distant relatives, evidence of which does not exist, despite on the ramified system of registration of the noble genealogy in Russia. It is only known that the branched out dynasty of the Turgenevs originated from the Golden Horde nickname Turgen. However, here is what he wrote about this new writer A.M. Gorky A.V. Amfitheatrova: “I would like to draw your attention to Count Alexei Nick. Tolstoy. This is a young man, the son of Tolstoy, the provincial leader of the nobility in Samara, a relative of I.S. Turgenev: good blood! " M. Voloshin, who wrote about A.N. Tolstoy: “Fate was pleased to combine in him the names of a number of writers of the forties: on his father's side he is Tolstoy; maternal - Turgenev, on some side he is close either with Aksakov, or with Khomyakov. In a word, the blood of the classics of Russian prose flows in him, the black earth, generous, landlord's blood. "
Thus, in the personality of Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy, it is possible that the ancestral branches of the Tolstoy and Turgenevs crossed unexpectedly. However, the word is more likely to be used here by chance, because the nobility, especially hereditary and well-born, was rather closed, so many were distant relatives of each other. For comparison, let me remind you that almost all the monarchical dynasties of Europe were also relatives, so sometimes this led to the appearance of diseases typical for such cases - for example, hemophilia in the male line in Nicholas II and his wife. Among the noblemen, this was a rarity, since the degree of kinship was much lower.
According to the recollections of contemporaries, the father of the future writer Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tolstoy was a complex, spontaneous person, but at the same time extraordinary. Family life for the Tolstoys did not work out. By this time, in general, there was a crisis of the nobility and the entire system of closed class relations in Russia. Many noblemen went bankrupt, squandered their fortunes, while merchants, on the contrary, got rich, the first capitalists appeared, property stratification of the peasant community went on. Sometimes, a rich peasant could afford much more than an impoverished nobleman. But the system of estates was closed, there was no social lift, and this gave rise to many problems. This was reflected in family values as well. That which was quite recently inconceivable became, if not a common thing, then quite often manifested.
It is difficult to say which of the spouses was right and who was wrong, but Alexandra Leontyevna got another person in her life - a small-scale nobleman and liberal zemstvo leader Alexei Apollonovich Bostrom. A few months before the birth of Alyosha, his mother left the noble but impoverished Tolstoy for Bostrom.
This subsequently allowed the appearance of a version according to which Aleksey Tolstoy, who was already the fifth child of Alexandra Leontievna from Tolstoy, is actually Bostrom's son, which, however, apart from rumors and guesses, is not confirmed by anything, so it rather belongs to the field of certain myths and legends.
I pay so much attention to the origin of A.N. Tolstoy quite deliberately, since this largely affected his fate and work, influenced his perception of the revolution in Russia and his position in relation to the Soviet regime and the Russian emigration.
Alyosha Tolstoy spent his childhood on the Bostrom estate, and only after he reached the age of 16 did his father Nikolai Alexandrovich recognize him as his legitimate son and gave his last name (before that Alyosha bore the name of his stepfather - Bostrom). I. Bunin, referring to Aldanov, claims that A.N. Tolstoy confessed to the latter, as if he begged his father to recognize him. In fact, this does not in the least call into question the paternity of N.A. Tolstoy, but testifies to the difficult nature of their meeting, which ended well in the end. In any case, it is quite obvious that Alyosha Tolstoy himself could not in any way be responsible for the actions of his mother to his father.
The Bostroma estate, where Alyosha spent his childhood, was the Sosnovka farm in the Samara province (now it is the village of Pavlovka in the Krasnoarmeisky microdistrict of Samara).
Those years left a deep imprint on the soul of the writer. Later, he himself admitted that he led a mostly contemplative life, observing the changing seasons, natural phenomena, the life of plants and insects, the colors of the sky, forests, meadows, rains and winds, blizzards and the starry sky. He inquisitively tried to understand the world around him, and subtle observation later allowed him to skillfully use this in his literary descriptions.
In 1901, Alexei Tolstoy entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. Here Alexey Tolstoy begins to write and quickly becomes famous in the literary world of the capital. Interestingly, he started out as a poet. In his early work, notes of imitation of Nekrasov and Nadson, as well as the Symbolists, were clearly visible.
In 1905, Alexei was sent to practice in the Urals, where he lived for more than a month in Nevyansk. Under the impression of this trip, the young writer writes his first story "The Old Tower".
It should be noted that Alexei Tolstoy's literary talent was in a certain sense hereditary - his mother, who most of all adored I.S. Turgeneva, she herself was fond of writing and already at the age of 16 she wrote her first story "Will". She subsequently became a children's writer.
Once, after listening to the story of A.N. Tolstoy about his childhood and the life of nobles in the Samara province, M. Voloshin told him: “You know, you are a very rare and interesting person. You should probably be the last in literature to carry the old traditions of noble nests. "
This opinion about A.N. Tolstoy in Petersburg was quite widespread, and together with the influence of the mother, her hobby I.S. Turgenev and childhood memories greatly influenced the choice of topics at the beginning of Alexei Nikolaevich's career as a writer. So there were "noble novels" and stories - "Mishuka Nalymov", "Freaks", "Lame master". But there was in these stories and novels what fundamentally distinguished Tolstoy from the noble descriptions of his predecessors - first of all, they differed in their realism in describing human relations. The novel "Lame Master" partially describes the love story of his parents (mother and NA Tolstoy). Nostalgic, trying to fix the outgoing, A.N. Tolstoy, nevertheless, understands that the nobility, both as a closed estate and as a class, is gradually leaving the forefront of Russian history. This whole contemplative life with the approaches of a rentier, in the twentieth century, which is rapidly moving into an era of industrialization and social change, simply has no future. It was clear to him even before the revolution, which is quite significant.
Serious changes in A.N. Tolstoy occur during the First World War, when he was a war correspondent for the front.
It was there, at the front, that A.N. Tolstoy begins to understand the true value of many things: “... I saw real life, I took part in it, stripping off the tightly buttoned black coat of the Symbolists. I saw the Russian people. " During the war, A.N. Tolstoy visited the allies of England and France.
But the First World War was only the beginning of the upheavals and troubles of life, through which A.N. Tolstoy, like many others, had to go through then.
The revolution of 1917 did not cause A.N. Tolstoy is very enthusiastic. When things got really bad in Moscow, A.N. Tolstoy, along with his family, left for the south and was able to move to Odessa, which at that time was occupied by the Allied troops in the Entente.
It is probably worth saying a few words about the writer's personal life. A.N. Tolstoy was married four times. First, a native of Samara, Yulia Vasilievna Rozhnova. They had a son, Yuri, who died as a child. Then A.N. Tolstoy cohabited for some time with Sophia Isaakovna Dymshits. They had a daughter, Maryana. S.I. Dymshits converted from Judaism to Orthodoxy in order to marry A.N. Tolstoy, but the wedding never took place.
The writer left for the south together with his third family and wife (or the second officially) - Natalya Vasilievna Krandievskaya. She wrote poetry, later - memoirs. They had two children - Dmitry and Nikita. A.N. Tolstoy also adopted the son of Kandievskaya from Fyodor's first marriage.
But Odessa was also restless, and in April 1919 the Tolstoys moved first to Constantinople, and then from there to Paris and in 1921 to Berlin.
However, his position as an emigrant A.N. Tolstoy was also burdened, realizing that he was there, in his own words, "a pariah, a man cut off from his homeland." At the same time, it was precisely the years of emigration that showed that A.N. Tolstoy became a true master of words. From under his pen such wonderful things as "Nikita's Childhood", "Walking Through the Torments", "Aelita", "The Tale of a Time of Troubles" are coming out. The range of his creative topics is extremely wide. "Aelita" is a beautiful fantasy novel, "The Tale of a Time of Troubles" is a historical work, "Walking Through the Torment" was a lively and prompt response to what was happening in Russia. Subsequently, the novel was expanded, and this first version became the initial part under the title "Sisters". The novel was already ideologically strengthened in the USSR, but "Sisters" as a whole is much stronger than the subsequent parts (this also happened with Sholokhov, whose "Quiet Don" is noticeably superior to his "Virgin Soil Upturned"). The prototype of Katya Roshchina was his wife N. Krandievskaya. Nikita's Childhood is, to a certain extent, an autobiographical, nostalgic tale about bygone Russia. The prototype of Nikita was the son of Tolstoy and Krandievskaya Nikita.
At the end of 1921 A.N. Tolstoy begins to draw closer to the writers who remained in Soviet Russia, to cooperate with publications loyal to the Bolsheviks. Unlike many emigrants, he begins to believe that the victory of the Bolsheviks is not an accident, but, perhaps, a historical reality. All this causes irritation in emigrant circles - publications are beginning to appear accusing him of illegitimacy, former cohabitation with a Jewess and other actions. Naturally, this only strengthens A.N. Tolstoy in his views and in his rejection of attempts to turn history back. As a result, in April 1922 A.N. Tolstoy writes “An open letter to N.V. Tchaikovsky ", one of the leaders of the Russian emigration in France, where he speaks of the need to recognize the Bolsheviks as the only government of Russia and asserts the need for cooperation with the Bolsheviks" to strengthen the great power. " This letter actually leads to his break with the white emigration, and A.N. Tolstoy is expelled from the Union of Russian Writers in Paris.
The choice was made, and on September 1, 1923, Alexei Tolstoy returned to Russia. The first published novel that laid the foundations of Soviet science fiction was Aelita. The central character of the novel is the Red Army soldier Gusev, an irrepressible optimist and supporter of the world revolution, who immediately arranges it on Mars, having flown there with the engineer Losev. In 1924 he published the satirical story "The Adventure of Nevzorov, or Ibicus", where he humorously describes his memories and impressions of life in exile.
Alexei Tolstoy does not shy away from teamwork and, together with a number of other writers, takes part in the writing of the novel Big Fires, which was published in the Ogonyok magazine.
Among other works by A.N. Tolstoy, one can note the play "The Conspiracy of the Empress" (1925) and "Vyrubova's Diary" (1927), which tells about the decomposition and decline of the Romanov family.
He is also actively working on the Trilogy trilogy, which we talked about above. It was completed only in 1941. The epic novel "Walking in Torment" describes the Soviet regime as a natural consequence of the entire centuries-old Russian history. At the same time, the revolution of 1917 is described as an absolutely just historical act. A.N. Tolstoy writes about this with conviction, and not at all out of a desire to adapt to someone. Probably, the second was present to some extent, but nevertheless, the main thing was precisely the intention and internal perception of what was happening.
His other science fiction novel "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin" is also curious, in which, in addition to the theme of the responsibility of a genius scientist to mankind for his inventions (which is often written about), issues of life in emigration are also considered in a fairly broad context (which is rarely noticed).
Another fantastic work of A.N. Tolstoy is considered his story "Blue Cities". This opinion is so stable that Blue Cities was even included in the first volume of Science Fiction and Adventure in the series “Library of Russian Classical Literature in 100 Volumes”, jointly published by the publishing houses “Drofa” and “Veche” in 2003. Meanwhile, in my opinion, "Blue Cities" have a rather distant relationship to science fiction (perhaps in a sense - to adventure, and that is tense). It's about something completely different. About the fate of V.A. Buzheninov, who, after wounds and the vicissitudes of the civil war, cannot find himself in a new life, dreaming of the future, dreaming of the life of the beautiful Moscow of 2023, which he sees in delirium, and which he once tells his comrades about (that's all fantastic, in fact). He comes to a provincial town, but does not find himself in a peaceful life, cannot find a job, on top of that, his personal life does not develop - his chosen one, a pupil of his mother rejects his love, reaches out to those who have more money, to the same wealthy merchants with whom he once fought on the civil front. Blue cities are far away, and while this general global happiness is unattainable, of which he so dreamed, and the gloomy reality, oppressing with its hopelessness, is nearby. And then V.A. Buzheninov kills his hated rival, burns down the city mired in philistinism. In a plot sense, this is a kind of synthesis of Ostrovsky's "Dowry" and modern stories in the style of "Afghan syndrome". This is not a fantasy, but a very serious social drama showing the problems of Soviet society in the mid-twenties. “Blue cities”, it seems to me, seriously refute the accusations of A.N. Tolstoy in conformity.
In 1929 A.N. Tolstoy begins work on the novel Peter I, which he wrote until the end of his life and did not manage to finish it. "Peter I" is an attempt by the writer to rethink Russian history, its key, turning points. Quite primitive seems to me to say that A.N. Tolstoy took up this novel because I.V. Stalin was impressed by the images of both Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible, and it was supposedly a kind of social order. Of course, Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy did not shy away from this side of life in Soviet Russia, but the novel "Peter I" has nothing to do with his alleged "conformism". This epic historical work is perhaps the main historical novel (apart from Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace) of Russian literature. It is no coincidence that at the beginning I spoke so much about the origin of A.N. Tolstoy, his title of count, legally transferred to him by his father, the intrigues of ill-wishers about his alleged illegitimacy. It was the era of Peter that changed old Russia, set in motion social elevators that could lift to the very top of yesterday's pariahs, who achieved everything thanks to their talent and personal qualities - such as the same former merchant in the bazaar, and later the all-powerful Alexander Menshikov. Alexei Tolstoy compared the era of Peter and contemporary Soviet Russia as the era of social transformations, drew certain parallels between them, as well as between Peter and Stalin (not in the novel, of course, but ideologically). This coincided with Stalin's understanding of his own historical mission, but this is already secondary in relation to A.N. Tolstoy.
If we talk about works designed to ensure the ideological principles of power, then this is not "Peter I", but rather the story "Bread", which describes Tsaritsyn during the civil war. As you know, his defense was led, including I.V. Stalin, therefore, the story is rather curious in the sense that it reflects the Stalinist view of the civil war.
Of course, A.N. Tolstoy collaborated with the authorities, but that is why he came from emigration. Actually, the writer himself never hid this. In 1934, together with other authors, he wrote the book "The Stalin Canal", in the same year he made a report on drama at the First Congress of the Union of Writers of the USSR.
In 1935 A.N. Tolstoy married for the fourth (officially - the third) time to Lyudmila Ilyinichna Krestinskaya-Barysheva. They had no children.
A.N. Tolstoy often visited abroad in 1932-1937 - in Germany, Italy, France, England, Czechoslovakia, Spain. Participated in the first (in 1935) and the second (in 1937) congresses of writers in defense of culture.
A.N. Tolstoy or Soviet (in other words - red) count was very popular and, after the death of A.M. Gorky, from 1936 to 1938 he headed the Writers' Union of the USSR. Since 1937 he was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, since 1939 - an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Unlike A.M. Gorky A.N. Tolstoy did not feel too serious doubts about what was happening in the USSR - he immediately completely and in the main accepted the line of the Bolsheviks, and considered everything else secondary. Moreover, A.N. Tolstoy was a very cheerful person, he was not averse to drinking a little and at the same time eating well. The Soviet government appreciated its red count and tried to provide him with all the conditions for life without need, even during a period of famine. This, like his cheerfulness, naturally irritated many. This is what L.V., who had known him for many years, writes in her diary. Shaporina: “Before, Aleksey Nikolaevich brought with him a lot of fun; since then, as the government enthusiasm takes over him more and more, his noise becomes some kind of semi-official demagoguery ... When he sees me, he immediately begins historical conversations, always great-power. He is all now - government pathos ”. It is unlikely that A.N. Tolstoy would have exchanged himself for "great-power pathos" in purely everyday conversations. This just confirms that his position was based on his inner convictions.
One cannot agree that during these years, apart from the story "The Adventures of Pinocchio or the Golden Key", he did not write anything significant. Work on "Peter I" took a lot of effort, as well as social activities. And "The Adventures of Pinocchio" became a real creative success - this is the case when the replay turned out to be much better than the original ("The Adventures of Pinocchio" by Carlo Collodi). However, this was not a repetition, but simply the use of a similar plot.
When the war began, A.N. Tolstoy participated in the writing of Stalin's famous address, which was read by Molotov. It was then that the call was first heard to remember the heroic ancestors - Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Minin and Pozharsky, Suvorov and Kutuzov.
During the war, A.N. Tolstoy returns to journalism, recalling his experience of front-line journalism during the First World War. Almost 60 publications come out from under his pen. The essay by A.N. Tolstoy's "Homeland". In his works, the writer often refers to the theme of Russian heroes, the eras of Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Mikhail Kutuzov. The main leitmotif is the fight against the enemy invasion. Moreover, even at the mental level, A.N. Tolstoy compares the skull and bones on the emblems in the collar tabs, the black color of tanks, the mouse form of the Nazis and Hitler himself with a certain common hostile dark force, which the Russian people must surely defeat. It was the appeal to traditional Russian values that formed the basis of his worldview during this period. In 1944 his famous story "Russian Character" was published.
The war once again makes him look in a new way both at the Russian people and at the contemporary Soviet society. He expects victory, being sure that after it: “The people who have returned from the war will not be afraid of anything. He will be demanding and proactive. "
A.N. Tolstoy was waiting for victory, but a serious illness turned out to be stronger, and he did not live to see the end of the war quite a bit, a few weeks - the writer died on February 23, 1945 and was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery. Understanding the meaning of loss, I.V. Stalin declared state mourning.