L Tolstoy's years of life. A short message about the life and work of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Russian writer, philosopher, thinker, was born in the Tula province, in the family estate "Yasnaya Polyana" in 1828. As a child, he lost his parents and was brought up by his distant relative T.A.Yergolskaya. At the age of 16, he entered Kazan at the University of the Faculty of Philosophy, but education turned out to be boring for him, and after 3 years he dropped out. At the age of 23, he left to fight in the Caucasus, about which, subsequently, he wrote a lot, reflecting this experience in his writings "Cossacks", "Raid", "Cutting the forest", "Hadji Murat".
Continuing to fight, after the Crimean War, Tolstoy went to St. Petersburg, where he became a member of the literary circle "Sovremennik", along with the famous writers Nekrasov, Turgenev and others. Already having a certain fame as a writer, many perceived his entry into the circle with enthusiasm, Nekrasov called him "the great hope of Russian literature." There he published his " Sevastopol stories", Written under the influence of the experience of the Crimean War, after which he went on a trip to the countries of Europe, soon, however, disappointed in them.
At the end of 1856, Tolstoy retired and, returning to his native Yasnaya Polyana, became a landowner. Moving away from literary activity, Tolstoy took up educational activities. He opened a school that practiced the system of pedagogy developed by him. For these purposes, he left for Europe in 1860 to study foreign experience.
In the fall of 1862, Tolstoy married a young girl from Moscow, S. A. Bers, leaving with her to Yasnaya Polyana, choosing the quiet life of a family man. But a year later, it suddenly dawned on him new idea, as a result of the incarnation of which was born famous work"War and Peace". His no less famous novel "Anna Karenina" was completed already in 1877. Speaking about this period in the writer's life, we can say that his worldview at that time had already been finally formed and became known as "Tolstoyism". His novel "Sunday" was published in 1899, while the last works for Lev Nikolaevich were "Father Sergius", "Living Corpse", "After the Ball".
Having world fame Tolstoy was popular with many people around the world. Being for them, in fact, a spiritual mentor and authority, he often received guests at his estate.
In accordance with his worldview, at the end of 1910, at night, Tolstoy secretly leaves his home, accompanied by his personal doctor. Intending to leave for Bulgaria or the Caucasus, they had to long road, but due to a serious illness, Tolstoy was forced to stop at the small railway station Astapovo (now named after him), where he died of a serious illness at the age of 82.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) - Russian writer, publicist, thinker, educator, was a corresponding member of Imperial Academy sciences. Considered one of greatest writers the world. His works have been repeatedly filmed at world film studios, and his plays are staged on the world stage.

Childhood

Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, Krapivinsky district, Tula province. Here was the estate of his mother, which she inherited. The Tolstoy family had very ramified noble and county roots. In the highest aristocratic world there were relatives of the future writer everywhere. Whoever was in his family - a brute-adventurer and an admiral, a chancellor and an artist, a chambermaid and the first secular beauty, a general and a minister.

Leo's father, Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, was a man with good education, took part in the foreign campaigns of the Russian military against Napoleon, was captured by the French, from where he fled, retired as a lieutenant colonel. When his father died, he inherited continuous debts, and Nikolai Ilyich was forced to get a bureaucratic job. To save his upset financial component of the inheritance, Nikolai Tolstoy was legally married to Princess Maria Nikolaevna, who was no longer young and came from the Volkonskys. Despite the small calculation, the marriage turned out to be very happy. The couple had 5 children. The brothers of the future writer Kolya, Seryozha, Mitya and sister Masha. Leo was the fourth among all.

After the last daughter Maria was born, my mother started having a “birth fever”. She died in 1830. Leo was not even two years old then. And what a wonderful storyteller she was. Perhaps this is where Tolstoy's early love for literature came from. Five children were left without a mother. Their upbringing had to be dealt with by a distant relative, T.A. Ergolskaya.

In 1837, the Tolstoys left for Moscow, where they settled on Plyushchikha. The elder brother, Nikolai, was going to enter the university. But very soon and completely unexpectedly, the father of the Tolstoy family died. His financial affairs were not finished, and the three youngest children had to return to Yasnaya Polyana to be raised by Ergolskaya and his paternal aunt, Countess A.M. Osten-Saken. It was here that Leo Tolstoy spent his entire childhood.

The early years of the writer

After the death of aunt Osten-Saken in 1843, the children were waiting for another move, this time to Kazan under the guardianship of their paternal sister P.I. Yushkova. Its elementary education Leo Tolstoy received at home, his teachers were the good-natured German Reselman and the French governor of Saint-Thomas. In the fall of 1844, following his brothers, Lev became a student at the Kazan Imperial University. At first he studied at the Faculty of Oriental Literature, and later transferred to law, where he studied for less than two years. He understood that this was absolutely not the occupation to which he would like to devote his life.

In the early spring of 1847, Lev dropped out and went to his inherited Yasnaya Polyana. At the same time, he began keeping his famous diary, adopting this idea from Benjamin Franklin, whose biography he was well acquainted with at the university. Just like the wisest American politician, Tolstoy set himself certain goals and strove with all his might to fulfill them, analyzed his failures and victories, actions and thoughts. This diary went with the writer throughout his life.

In Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy tried to build new relationships with the peasants, and also took up:

• learning English;
• jurisprudence;
• pedagogy;
• music;
• charity.

In the fall of 1848, Tolstoy went to Moscow, where he planned to prepare for and pass the candidate exams. Instead, a completely different Savor with her passion and card games... In the winter of 1849, Lev moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, where he continued to lead a revelry and a riotous lifestyle. In the spring of this year, he began taking exams for a candidate of rights, but, having changed his mind about going to last exam, returned to Yasnaya Polyana.

Here he continued to lead an almost metropolitan lifestyle - cards and hunting. Nevertheless, in 1849, Lev Nikolaevich opened a school for children of peasants in Yasnaya Polyana, where he sometimes taught himself, but mostly the serf Foka Demidovich taught lessons.

Military service

At the end of 1850, Tolstoy began work on his first work - the famous trilogy "Childhood". At the same time, Lev received an offer from his elder brother Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, to join the military service. The elder brother was an authority for Leo. After the death of his parents, he became the best writer and true friend and a mentor. At first, Lev Nikolaevich thought about the service, but a large bank card debt in Moscow accelerated the decision. Tolstoy left for the Caucasus and in the fall of 1851 entered the service as a cadet in an artillery brigade near Kizlyar.

Here he continued to work on the work "Childhood", which he finished writing in the summer of 1852 and decided to send it to the most popular at that time literary magazine"Contemporary". He signed himself with the initials “L. N. T. " and along with the manuscript attached small letter:

“I look forward to your verdict. He will either encourage me to write further, or he will make everything burn. "

At that time, N. A. Nekrasov was the editor of Sovremennik, and he immediately recognized the literary value of the manuscript "Childhood". The work was published and was a huge success.

Military life Lev Nikolaevich was too saturated:

• more than once he was endangered in skirmishes with the highlanders commanded by Shamil;
• when the Crimean war began, he transferred to the Danube army and took part in the battle of Oltenitz;
• participated in the siege of Silistria;
• in the battle at Black, he commanded a battery;
• during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan, he came under bombardment;
• held the defense of Sevastopol.

Per military service Lev Nikolaevich received the following awards:

• Order of St. Anne, 4th degree "For Bravery";
• medal "In memory of the war of 1853-1856";
• medal "For the Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855".

The brave officer Leo Tolstoy had every chance of military career... But he was only interested in writing. During the service, he never stopped composing and sending his stories to Sovremennik. The Sevastopol Stories, published in 1856, finally approved him as a new literary trend in Russia, and Tolstoy left military service forever.

Literary activity

He returned to St. Petersburg, where he made close acquaintances with N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Turgenev, I. S. Goncharov. During his stay in St. Petersburg, he released several of his new works:

• "Blizzard",
• "Youth",
• "Sevastopol in August",
• "Two hussars".

But very soon secular life became disgusting to him, and Tolstoy decided to travel to Europe. He visited Germany, Switzerland, England, France, Italy. He described all the advantages and disadvantages he saw, the emotions he received in his works.

Returning from abroad in 1862, Lev Nikolaevich married Sofya Andreevna Bers. The brightest period began in his life, his wife became his absolute assistant in all matters, and Tolstoy could calmly do his favorite thing - the composition of works that later became world masterpieces.

Family, death and memory

Married to his wife and love, Lev Nikolayevich lived for almost 50 years, they had 13 children, five of whom died while still young. There are a lot of descendants of Lev Nikolaevich all over the world. Once every two years they meet in Yasnaya Polyana.

In life, Tolstoy always adhered to his certain principles. He wanted to be as close to the people as possible. He loved very much ordinary people.

In 1910, Lev Nikolaevich left Yasnaya Polyana, embarking on a journey that would correspond to his life views... Only his doctor went with him. There were no definite goals. He traveled to Optina Pustyn, then to the Shamordinsky monastery, then went to his niece in Novocherkassk. But the writer became ill, after suffering a cold, pneumonia began.

In the Lipetsk region at the Astapovo station, Tolstoy was taken off the train, taken to the hospital, six doctors tried to save his life, but Lev Nikolayevich quietly replied to their suggestions: "God will arrange everything." After a whole week of heavy and painful breaths, the writer died in the house of the station master on November 20, 1910, at the age of 82.

The estate in Yasnaya Polyana, together with the natural beauty that surrounds it, is a museum-reserve. Three more museums of the writer are located in the village of Nikolskoye-Vyazemskoye, in Moscow and at the Astapovo station. Moscow also has state museum L. N. Tolstoy.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9), 1828 on the estate of his mother Yasnaya Polyana, Krapivensky district, Tula province. The Tolstoy family belonged to a wealthy and noble count family. By the time Leo was born, the family already had three eldest sons: Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergei (1826-1904) and Dmitry (1827-1856), and in 1830 Leo's younger sister Maria was born.

A few years later, his mother died. In Tolstoy's autobiographical Childhood, Irteniev's mother dies when the boy turns 10 - 12 years old and he is fully conscious. However, the portrait of the mother is described by the writer exclusively from the stories of his relatives. After the death of the mother, a distant relative T.A.Yergolskaya took up the bereaved children. She is represented by Sonya from War and Peace.

In 1837, the family moved to Moscow, because elder brother Nikolai needed to prepare for entering the university. But a tragedy suddenly occurred in the family - the father died, leaving things in a bad state. The three youngest children were forced to return to Yasnaya Polyana under the education of T.A. Ergolskaya and her father's aunt, Countess A.M. Osten-Saken. Lev Tolstoy remained here until 1840. This year Countess A.M. Osten-Saken died and the children were moved to Kazan to the father's sister P.I.Yushkova. LN Tolstoy conveyed this period of his life quite accurately in his autobiography "Childhood".

At the first stage, Tolstoy received his education under the rude French governor Saint-Thomas. He is depicted by a certain M-r Jerome from Boyhood. Later he was replaced by the good-natured German Reselman. Lev Nikolayevich lovingly portrayed him in Childhood under the name of Karl Ivanovich.

In 1843, following his brother Tolstoy, he entered Kazan University. There, until 1847, Lev Tolstoy was preparing to enter the only Russian Faculty of Oriental Studies in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. During the year of his studies, Tolstoy showed himself as the best student of this course. However, between the family of a poet with a teacher Russian history and German, by a certain Ivanov, there was a conflict. This entailed the fact that, according to the results of the year, L.N. Tolstoy had poor progress in the relevant subjects and had to re-pass the first year program. To avoid a complete repetition of the course, the poet is transferred to the Faculty of Law. But even there problems with the teacher of German and Russian continue. Soon Tolstoy loses all interest in studying.

In the spring of 1847, Lev Nikolaevich left the university and settled in Yasnaya Polyana. Everything that Tolstoy did in the village can be found out by reading "The Landowner's Morning", where the poet presents himself in the role of Nekhlyudov. There, a lot of time was spent on revelry, games and hunting.

In the spring of 1851, on the advice of his elder brother Nikolai, in order to cut costs and pay off debts, Lev Nikolayevich left for the Caucasus.

In the fall of 1851, he became a cadet of the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladov near Kizlyar. Soon L.N. Tolstoy became an officer. When at the end of 1853 began Crimean War Lev Nikolaevich transferred to the Danube army, took part in the battles at Oltenitsa and Silistria. From November 1854 to August 1855 he took part in the defense of Sevastopol. After the assault on August 27, 1855, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was sent to St. Petersburg. A noisy life began there: drinking, cards and carousing with gypsies.

In St. Petersburg, L.N. Tolstoy met with the staff of the magazine "Sovremennik" with N.A. Nekrasov, I.S. Turgenev, I.A.Goncharov, N.G. Chernyshevsky.

In early 1857, Tolstoy went abroad. On the road to Germany, Switzerland, England, Italy, France, he spends a year and a half. Travel does not bring him pleasure. He expressed his disappointment with European life in the story "Lucerne". And returning to Russia, Lev Nikolaevich took up the improvement of schools in Yasnaya Polyana.

In the late 1850s, Tolstoy got to know Sophia Andreevna Bers, born in 1844, the daughter of a Moscow doctor from the Eastsee Germans. He was almost 40 years old, and Sophia was only 17. It seemed to him that this difference was too great and sooner or later Sophia would fall in love with a young, non-obsolete guy. These experiences of Lev Nikolaevich are described in his first novel "Family Happiness".

In September 1862, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy nevertheless married 18-year-old Sophia Andreevna Bers. For 17 years life together they had 13 children. During the same period, War and Peace and Anna Karenina were created. In 1861-62. finishes his story "Cossacks", the first of the works in which the great talent of Tolstoy was recognized as a genius.

At the beginning of the 70s, Tolstoy again showed interest in pedagogy, wrote "Azbuka" and "Novaya Azbuka", wrote fables and stories, which made up four "Russian books for reading."

To give an answer to the questions and doubts of a religious nature that tormented him, Lev Nikolaevich began to study theology. In 1891 in Geneva, the writer writes and publishes A Study of Dogmatic Theology, in which he criticizes Bulgakov's Orthodox Dogmatic Theology. He first began to conduct conversations with priests and monarchs, read the Bogoslav tracts, studied ancient Greek and Hebrew languages. Tolstoy meets the schismatics, joins the sectarian peasants.

At the beginning of 1900. The Holy Synod Lev Nikolaevich was excommunicated from Orthodox Church... LN Tolstoy lost all interest in life, he was tired of taking advantage of the achieved prosperity, the thought of suicide arose. He is fond of simple physical labor, becomes a vegetarian, gives his family all his suck, renounces literary property rights.

On November 10, 1910, Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana, but on the way he fell seriously ill. November 20, 1910 at Astapovo station Ryazan-Uralskaya railroad Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy died.

Biography, life story of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Came from noble family, known, according to legendary sources, since 1351. His paternal ancestor, Count Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, is known for his role in the investigation of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, for which he was placed at the head of the Secret Chancellery. The features of Pyotr Andreevich's great-grandson, Ilya Andreevich, are given in War and Peace to the good-natured, impractical old Count Rostov. The son of Ilya Andreevich, Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy (1794-1837), was the father of Lev Nikolaevich. With some character traits and biographical facts, he was similar to Nikolenka's father in Childhood and Adolescence, and partly to Nikolai Rostov in War and Peace. However, in real life Nikolai Ilyich differed from Nikolai Rostov not only in his good education, but also in his convictions that did not allow him to serve under Nikolai. A participant in the foreign campaign of the Russian army against Napoleon, he also participated in the "Battle of the Nations" near Leipzig and was captured by the French, after the conclusion of peace he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd hussar regiment. Soon after his resignation, he was forced to join the civil service so as not to end up in a debt prison due to the debts of his father, the Kazan governor, who died under investigation for official abuse. Father's negative example helped Nikolai Ilyich develop his own life ideal- private independent life with family joys. To put his upset affairs in order, Nikolai Ilyich, like Nikolai Rostov, married a not very young princess from the Volkonsky clan; the marriage was happy. They had four sons: Nikolai, Sergey, Dmitry, Lev and daughter Maria.

Tolstoy's maternal grandfather, the general of Catherine, Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky, had some resemblance to the stern rigorist - the old prince Bolkonsky in War and Peace. Lev Nikolaevich's mother, similar in some respects to Princess Marya, depicted in War and Peace, had a wonderful gift of storytelling.

In addition to the Volkonskys, L.N. Tolstoy was closely related to some other aristocratic families: the princes Gorchakov, Trubetskoy and others.

CONTINUED BELOW

Born on August 28, 1828 in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province, in the hereditary estate of his mother - Yasnaya Polyana. Was the fourth child; he had three older brothers: Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergei (1826-1904) and Dmitry (1827-1856). Sister Maria (1830-1912) was born in 1830. His mother died with the birth of her last daughter, when he was not yet 2 years old.

A distant relative T.A.Yergolskaya took up the upbringing of orphaned children. In 1837, the family moved to Moscow, settling on Plyushchikha, because the eldest son had to prepare for entering the university, but his father suddenly died, leaving affairs (including some related to family property, litigation) unfinished, and the three youngest children again settled in Yasnaya Polyana under the supervision of Ergolskaya and her paternal aunt, Countess A.M. Osten-Saken, who was appointed guardian of the children. Lev Nikolayevich stayed here until 1840, when Countess Osten-Saken died, and the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian - father's sister P.I. Yushkova.

The Yushkovs' house was one of the funniest in Kazan; all family members highly appreciated the external brilliance. "My good aunt," says Tolstoy, "is a pure being, she always said that she would not want anything more for me than for me to have a relationship with a married woman."

He wanted to shine in society, but he was hampered by natural shyness and lack of external attractiveness. The most diverse, as Tolstoy himself defines them, "speculations" about major issues our being - happiness, death, God, love, eternity - painfully tormented him in that era of life. What he told in "Adolescence" and "Youth" about the aspirations of Irteniev and Nekhlyudov for self-improvement was taken by Tolstoy from the history of his own ascetic attempts of that time. All this led to the fact that Tolstoy developed a "habit of constant moral analysis", As it seemed to him," destroying the freshness of feeling and clarity of reason "(" Adolescence ").

Education

His education went first under the guidance of the French governor Saint-Thomas (M-r Jerome "Boyhood"), who replaced the good-natured German Reselman, whom he portrayed in "Childhood" under the name of Karl Ivanovich.

In 1841, PI Yushkova, taking on the role of the guardian of her underage nephews (only the eldest, Nikolai, was an adult) and nieces, brought them to Kazan. Following brothers Nikolai, Dmitry and Sergey, Lev decided to enter the Imperial Kazan University, where they worked at the Faculty of Mathematics Lobachevsky, and at the East Faculty - Kovalevsky. On October 3, 1844, Leo Tolstoy was enrolled as a student of the category of oriental literature as his own. entrance exams he, in particular, showed excellent results in the compulsory "Turkish-Tatar language" for admission.

Due to the conflict between his family and the teacher of Russian and world history and the history of philosophy, Professor N. A. Ivanov, according to the results of the year had a failure in the relevant subjects and had to re-pass the first year program. To avoid a complete repetition of the course, he transferred to the Faculty of Law, where his problems with grades in Russian history and German continued. Lev Tolstoy stayed at the Faculty of Law for less than two years: “Any education imposed by others was always difficult for him, and everything that he learned in life - he learned himself, suddenly, quickly, with hard work,” Tolstaya writes in his “Materials for biographies of L. N. Tolstoy ". In 1904 he recalled: “ … For the first year… I didn’t do anything. In the second year I started studying ... Professor Meyer was there, who ... gave me a job - comparing Catherine's Order with Montesquieu's Esprit des lois. ... I was carried away by this work, I went to the village, began to read Montesquieu, this reading opened up endless horizons for me; I started reading Rousseau and dropped out of university, precisely because I wanted to study».

While in the Kazan hospital, he began to keep a diary, where, imitating, he set himself goals and rules for self-improvement and noted successes and failures in completing these tasks, analyzed his shortcomings and train of thought, the motives of his actions.

In 1845, Leo Tolstoy had a godson in Kazan. November 11 (23), according to other sources - November 22 (December 4), 1845 in the Kazan Transfiguration Monastery by Archimandrite Clement (P. Mozharov) under the name Luka Tolstoy, 18-year-old Jewish cantonist of the Kazan battalions of military cantonists Zalman was baptized ("Zelman") Kagan, godfather who was listed in the documents as a student of the Imperial Kazan University, Count L.N. Tolstoy. Prior to that - September 25 (October 7) 1845 - his brother, a student of the Imperial Kazan University, Count D. N. Tolstoy became the successor of the 18-year-old Jewish cantonist Nukhim ("Nohim") Beser, who was baptized (named Nikolai Dmitriev) by the archimandrite Kazan Uspensky (Zilantova) male monastery Gabriel (V.N. Voskresensky).

The beginning of literary activity

Leaving the university, Tolstoy settled in Yasnaya Polyana in the spring of 1847; his activities there are partly described in "The Landowner's Morning": Tolstoy tried to establish new relations with the peasants.

His attempt to somehow smooth over the guilt of the nobility before the people dates back to the same year when Grigorovich's "Anton Goremyka" and the beginning of Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter" appeared.

In his diary, Tolstoy sets himself great amount goals and rules; it was possible to follow only a small number of them. Among those who succeeded are serious classes in English, music, and jurisprudence. In addition, neither the diary nor the letters reflected the beginning of Tolstoy's studies in pedagogy and charity - in 1849 he first opened a school for peasant children. The main teacher was Foka Demidych, a serf, but Lev Nikolayevich himself often taught classes.

Having left for St. Petersburg in February 1849, he spends time in revelry with K. A. Islavin, the uncle of his future wife ("My love for Islavin ruined for me the whole 8 months of my life in St. Petersburg"); in the spring he began to take an examination for a candidate for rights; he passed two exams, from criminal law and criminal proceedings, successfully, but he did not take the third exam and left for the village.

Later he came to Moscow, where he often succumbed to a passion for the game, frustrating his financial affairs a lot. During this period of his life, Tolstoy was especially passionately interested in music (he himself played the piano well and greatly appreciated his favorite works performed by others). Exaggerated in relation to most people description of the action that "passionate" music produces, the author of the "Kreutzer Sonata" drew from the sensations excited by the world of sounds in his own soul.

Favorite composers of Tolstoy were Handel and. At the end of the 1840s, Tolstoy, in collaboration with his acquaintance, composed a waltz, which he performed in the early 1900s with the composer Taneyev, who made the musical notation of this piece of music(the only one composed by Tolstoy).

The development of Tolstoy's love for music was also facilitated by the fact that during a trip to St. Petersburg in 1848 he met in a rather unsuitable dance-class setting with a gifted but disoriented German musician, whom he later described in Albert. Tolstoy got the idea to save him: he took him to Yasnaya Polyana and played a lot with him. Much time was also spent on revelry, play and hunting.

In the winter of 1850-1851. began to write "Childhood". In March 1851 he wrote The History of Yesterday.

Four years passed after leaving the university, when Lev Nikolayevich's brother Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, came to Yasnaya Polyana, who invited younger brother join military service in the Caucasus. Lev did not immediately agree, until a major loss in Moscow accelerated final decision... The writer's biographers note the significant and positive influence of brother Nicholas on the young and inexperienced Leo in everyday affairs. The elder brother, in the absence of his parents, was his friend and mentor.

To pay off the debts, it was necessary to reduce their expenses to a minimum - and in the spring of 1851, Tolstoy hastily left Moscow for the Caucasus without a specific goal. Soon he decided to enter the military service, but there were obstacles in the form of a lack of necessary papers, which were difficult to obtain, and Tolstoy lived for about 5 months in complete seclusion in Pyatigorsk, in a simple hut. He spent a significant part of his time hunting, in the company of the Cossack Epishka, the prototype of one of the heroes of the story "Cossacks", who appears there under the name of Eroshka.

In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy, having passed the exam in Tiflis, entered the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladov, on the banks of the Terek, near Kizlyar, as a cadet. With a slight change in details, she is depicted in all her semi-wild originality in "Cossacks". The same "Cossacks" also convey the picture inner life a young master who fled from Moscow life.

In a remote village, Tolstoy began to write and in 1852 sent the first part to the editorial board of Sovremennik future trilogy: "Childhood".

The relatively late start of the career is very characteristic of Tolstoy: he never considered himself a professional writer, understanding professionalism not in the sense of a profession that provides a means of livelihood, but in the sense of the predominance of literary interests. He did not take to heart the interests of literary parties, he was reluctant to talk about literature, preferring to talk about questions of faith, morality, and social relations.

Military career

Having received the manuscript of Childhood, the editor of Sovremennik Nekrasov immediately recognized its literary value and wrote the author a kind letter, which had a very encouraging effect on him.

Meanwhile, the encouraged author is taken to continue the tetralogy "Four epochs of development", the last part of which - "Youth" - did not take place. Plans swarm in his head for The Morning of the Landowner (the finished story was only a fragment of The Novel of the Russian Landowner), The Raid, and The Cossacks. Published in Sovremennik on September 18, 1852, Childhood, signed with the modest initials of L. N., was an extraordinary success; the author was immediately ranked among the luminaries of the young literary school along with Turgenev, Goncharov, Grigorovich, Ostrovsky, who were already well-known in literature at that time. Criticism - Apollon Grigoriev, Annenkov, Druzhinin, Chernyshevsky - appreciated the depth psychological analysis, and the seriousness of the author's intentions, and the bright bulge of realism.

Tolstoy remained in the Caucasus for two years, participating in many skirmishes with the mountaineers and exposed to the dangers of military Caucasian life. He had rights and claims to the St. George Cross, but did not receive it. When the Crimean War broke out at the end of 1853, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube army, took part in the battle at Oltenitsa and in the siege of Silistria, and from November 1854 to the end of August 1855 he was in Sevastopol.

Tolstoy lived for a long time on the dangerous 4th bastion, commanded a battery in the battle at Chornaya, was bombarded during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan. Despite all the horrors of the siege, Tolstoy wrote at this time the story "Cutting the forest", which reflected the Caucasian impressions, and the first of the three "Sevastopol stories" - "Sevastopol in December 1854". He sent this story to Sovremennik. Immediately printed, the story was read with interest by the whole of Russia and made an amazing impression with the picture of horrors that fell to the lot of the defenders of Sevastopol. The story was noticed by Emperor Alexander II; he ordered to take care of the gifted officer.

For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anna with the inscription “For Honor”, ​​medals “For the Defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855” and “In Memory of the War of 1853-1856”. Surrounded by the brilliance of fame, using the reputation of a brave officer, Tolstoy had every chance of a career, but ruined it for himself by writing several satirical songs stylized as soldiers. One of them is devoted to the failure of the military operation on August 4 (16), 1855, when General Read, misunderstanding the command of the commander-in-chief, attacked Fedyukhin Heights. The song entitled “As the fourth, the mountains carried us hard to take away”, which affected a number of important generals, was a huge success. Leo Tolstoy held accountable for her to Assistant Chief of Staff A.A. Yakimakh. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (September 8), Tolstoy was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he finished "Sevastopol in May 1855" and wrote "Sevastopol in August 1855", published in the first issue of "Sovremennik" for 1856, already with the full signature of the author.

"Sevastopol stories" finally strengthened his reputation as a representative of the new literary generation, and in November 1856 the writer parted from military service forever.

Traveling in Europe

In Petersburg he was warmly greeted in high society salons and in literary circles; he became especially close with Turgenev, with whom he lived for some time in the same apartment. The latter introduced him to the "Contemporary" circle, after which Tolstoy's friendly relations with Nekrasov, Goncharov, Panaev, Grigorovich, Druzhinin, Sollogub.

At this time, "Blizzard", "Two Hussars" were written, "Sevastopol in August" and "Youth" were completed, the writing of future "Cossacks" was continued.

The cheerful life did not hesitate to leave a bitter residue in Tolstoy's soul, especially since he began to have a strong discord with the circle of writers close to him. As a result, “the people were disgusted with him and he was disgusted with himself” - and at the beginning of 1857 Tolstoy left Petersburg without any regret and went abroad.

On his first trip abroad, he visited Paris, where he was horrified by the cult ("The deification of a villain, terrible"), at the same time he attends balls, museums, he admires the "sense of social freedom." However, the presence at the guillotine made such a heavy impression that Tolstoy left Paris and went to places associated with Rousseau - to Lake Geneva.

Lev Nikolaevich writes the story "Albert". At the same time, friends do not cease to be amazed at his eccentricities: in his letter to I.S.Turgenev in the fall of 1857, P.V. Annenkov tells Tolstoy's project of planting forests throughout Russia, and in his letter to V.P. Botkin, Leo Tolstoy says that he was very happy the fact that he did not become only a writer despite the advice of Turgenev. However, in the interval between the first and second trips, the writer continued to work on "Cossacks", wrote the story "Three Deaths" and the novel "Family Happiness".

The last novel was published by him in the "Russian Bulletin" by Mikhail Katkov. Tolstoy's collaboration with the Sovremennik magazine, which had been going on since 1852, ended in 1859. In the same year, Tolstoy took part in organizing the Literary Fund. But his life is not limited to literary interests: on December 22, 1858, he almost dies in a bear hunt. Around the same time, he starts an affair with a peasant woman Aksinya, and plans to marry are ripening.

On the next trip, he was mainly interested in public education and institutions aimed at raising the educational level of the working population. He closely studied questions of public education in Germany and France, both theoretically and practically, and through conversations with specialists. From outstanding people Germany interested him most of all in Auerbach as the author of the "Black Forest Tales" dedicated to folk life and as a publisher folk calendars... Tolstoy paid him a visit and tried to get closer to him. In addition, he also met with the German teacher Diesterweg. During his stay in Brussels, Tolstoy met Proudhon and Lelevel. In London he visited Herzen and attended a lecture by Dickens.

Tolstoy's serious mood during his second trip to the south of France was further facilitated by the fact that his beloved brother Nikolai died of tuberculosis in his arms. The death of his brother made a huge impression on Tolstoy.

Among the stories and essays he wrote in the late 1850s are Lucerne and Three Deaths. Gradually criticism for 10-12 years, before the appearance of "War and Peace", cooled to Tolstoy, and he himself does not strive for rapprochement with writers, making an exception for Afanasy Fet.

One of the reasons for this alienation was Leo Tolstoy's quarrel with Turgenev, which occurred at a time when both prose writers were visiting Fet on the Stepanovo estate in May 1861. The quarrel almost ended in a duel and spoiled the relationship between the writers for 17 years.

Treatment in the Bashkir nomadic Kalyk

In 1862, Lev Nikolaevich was treated with kumys in the Samara province. Initially, I wanted to be treated in the Postnikov kumys hospital near Samara, but because of a large number vacationers went to the Bashkir nomad camp Kalyk, on the Karalik river, 130 miles from Samara. There he lived in a Bashkir kibitka (yurt) ate mutton, basked in the sun, drank kumis, tea and played checkers with the Bashkirs. The first time he stayed there for a month and a half. In 1871, Lev Nikolaevich came again due to deteriorating health. Lev Nikolaevich lived not in the village itself, but in a wagon near it. He wrote: "Longing and indifference have passed, I feel myself coming into a Scythian state, and everything is interesting and new ... A lot is new and interesting: the Bashkirs, from whom the smell of Herodotus, and Russian peasants, and villages, especially charming in the simplicity and kindness of the people" ... In 1871, having fallen in love with this land, he bought from Colonel NP Tuchkov estates in the Buzuluk district of the Samara province, near the villages of Gavrilovka and Patrovka (now Alekseevsky district), in the amount of 2,500 dessiatines for 20,000 rubles. Lev Nikolayevich spent the summer of 1872 already at his estate. A few fathoms from the house there was a felt wagon, in which lived the family of the Bashkir Mukhammedshah, who made kumis for Lev Nikolaevich and his guests. In general, Lev Nikolayevich has visited Karalik 10 times in 20 years.

Pedagogical activities

Tolstoy returned to Russia shortly after the liberation of the peasants and became a world mediator. Unlike those who looked at the people as a younger brother who must be raised to oneself, Tolstoy thought, on the contrary, that the people are infinitely higher than the cultural classes and that the masters must borrow the heights of the spirit from the peasants. He was actively engaged in the organization of schools in his Yasnaya Polyana and throughout the Krapivensky district.

The Yasnaya Polyana school was one of the original pedagogical attempts: in the era of admiration for the German pedagogical school, Tolstoy resolutely rebelled against any regulation and discipline in the school. In his opinion, everything in teaching should be individual - both the teacher and the student, and their mutual relations. In the Yasnaya Polyana school, the children sat where they wanted, who how much they wanted and who how they wanted. There was no specific teaching program. The teacher's only job was to keep the class interested. The classes were going well. They were led by Tolstoy himself with the help of several permanent teachers and several random ones, from his closest acquaintances and visitors.

Since 1862, he began to publish the pedagogical journal "Yasnaya Polyana", where he himself was the main employee. In addition to theoretical articles, Tolstoy also wrote a number of short stories, fables and transcriptions. Tied together, Tolstoy's pedagogical articles made up an entire volume of his collected works. At one time they went unnoticed. Nobody paid attention to the sociological basis of Tolstoy's ideas about education, to the fact that Tolstoy saw only facilitated and improved methods of exploiting the people by the upper classes in education, science, art and technological success. Moreover, from Tolstoy's attacks on European education and "progress", many have concluded that Tolstoy is a "conservative."

Soon Tolstoy left his studies in pedagogy. Marriage, the birth of their own children, plans related to the writing of the novel "War and Peace" postponed his pedagogical activities for ten years. It was only in the early 1870s that he began to create his own "Alphabet" and published it in 1872, and then published "New Alphabet" and a series of four "Russian Books for Reading", approved as a result of long ordeals by the Ministry of Public Education as manuals for primary educational institutions. Classes at the Yasnaya Polyana school are resumed for a short time.

It is known that the Yasnaya Polyana school had a certain influence on other domestic teachers. For example, it was her as a sample when creating own school"Vigorous Life" in 1911 was originally based on S. T. Shatsky.

Acting as a defense attorney at trial

In July 1866, Tolstoy spoke at a court-martial as a defender of Vasil Shabunin, a company clerk who was stationed not far from Yasnaya Polyana Moscow Infantry Regiment. Shabunin hit the officer, who ordered to punish him with rods for being drunk. Tolstoy proved Shabunin's insanity, but the court found him guilty and sentenced to death penalty... Shabunin was shot. This case produced great impression on Tolstoy.

Lev Nikolaevich with youthful years was familiar with Lyubov Aleksandrovna Islavina, in marriage Bers (1826-1886), loved to play with her children Lisa, Sonya and Tanya. When the daughters of the Bersov grew up, Lev Nikolaevich thought about marrying eldest daughter Lisa, hesitated for a long time until he made a choice in favor of his middle daughter Sophia. Sofya Andreevna answered with consent when she was 18 years old, and the count was 34 years old. On September 23, 1862, Lev Nikolaevich married her, having previously confessed to his premarital relations.

For a certain period of time, for Tolstoy, the brightest period of his life begins - the rapture of personal happiness, very significant due to the practicality of his wife, material well-being, outstanding literary creation and in connection with him all-Russian and world fame. It would seem that in the person of his wife he found an assistant in all matters, practical and literary - in the absence of the secretary, she copied her husband's rough drafts several times. But very soon, happiness is overshadowed by the inevitable petty quarrels, fleeting quarrels, mutual misunderstandings, which only worsened over the years.

The wedding of the elder brother Sergei Nikolaevich Tolstoy with younger sister Sofia Andreevna - Tatiana Bers. But Sergei's unofficial marriage with a gypsy made it impossible for Sergei and Tatiana to marry.

In addition, Sophia Andreevna's father, life-doctor Andrei Gustav (Evstafievich) Bers, even before his marriage to Islavina, had a daughter, Varvara, from V.P. Turgeneva, the mother of I.S.Turgenev. Varya's mother was own sister I. S. Turgenev, and on the father's side - S. A. Tolstoy, thus, together with his marriage, Leo Tolstoy acquired a relationship with I. S. Turgenev ..

From the marriage of Lev Nikolaevich with Sofya Andreevna, a total of 13 children were born, five of whom died in childhood. Children:
- Sergei (July 10, 1863 - December 23, 1947), composer, musicologist.
- Tatiana (October 4, 1864 - September 21, 1950). Since 1899 she has been married to Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin. In 1917-1923 she was the curator of the Yasnaya Polyana estate museum. In 1925 she emigrated with her daughter. Daughter Tatyana Mikhailovna Sukhotina-Albertini (1905-1996).
- Ilya (May 22, 1866 - December 11, 1933), writer, memoirist
- Leo (1869-1945), writer, sculptor.
- Maria (1871-1906) Buried in the village. Kochaki of the Krapivensky district (present-day Tul.obl., Shchekinsky district, Kochaki village). Since 1897 she has been married to Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (1872-1934).
- Peter (1872-1873).
- Nikolay (1874-1875).
- Barbara (1875-1875).
- Andrey (1877-1916), official in special assignments under the Tula governor. Participant Russo-Japanese War.
- Michael (1879-1944).
- Alexey (1881-1886).
- Alexandra (1884-1979).
- Ivan (1888-1895).

As of 2010, in total, there were more than 350 descendants of L. N. Tolstoy (including both living and already dead) living in 25 countries of the world. Most of them are descendants of Lev Lvovich Tolstoy, who had 10 children, and the third son of Lev Nikolaevich. Since 2000, once every two years, meetings of the writer's descendants have been held in Yasnaya Polyana.

The flowering of creativity

During the first 12 years after his marriage, he creates War and Peace and Anna Karenina. At the turn of this second era literary life Tolstoy stands, conceived back in 1852 and completed in 1861-1862. "Cossacks", the first of the works in which the talent of Tolstoy was most realized.

"War and Peace"

Unprecedented success fell to the lot of "War and Peace". An excerpt from a novel entitled "Year 1805" appeared in the Russian Bulletin of 1865; in 1868, three parts came out, followed shortly by the other two. The release of War and Peace was preceded by the novel The Decembrists (1860-1861), to which the author repeatedly returned, but which remained unfinished.

All classes of society are represented in Tolstoy's novel, from emperors and kings to the last soldier, all ages and all temperaments in the space of the whole reign of Alexander I.

Anna Karenina

The infinitely happy rapture of the bliss of being is no longer in Anna Karenina, which dates back to 1873-1876. There is still a lot of gratifying experience in almost autobiographical novel Lyovin and Kitty, but there is already so much bitterness in the image family life Dolly, in the unhappy end of the love of Anna Karenina and Vronsky, there is so much anxiety in mental life Lyovin that, in general, this novel is already a transition to the third period of Tolstoy's literary activity.

In January 1871, Tolstoy sent a letter to A. A. Fet: “ How happy I am ... that I will never write verbose nonsense like "War" again» .

On December 6, 1908, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “ People love me for those trifles - "War and Peace", etc., which they think are very important»

In the summer of 1909, one of the visitors to Yasnaya Polyana expressed his delight and gratitude for the creation of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Tolstoy replied: “ It's like someone came to Edison and said: "I really respect you for dancing the mazurka well." I attribute meaning to my very different books (religious!)».

In the sphere of material interests, he began to say to himself: “ Well, okay, you will have 6,000 dessiatines in the Samara province - 300 horses, and then?"; in the literary sphere: " Well, well, you will be more glorious than Gogol, Pushkin, Shakespeare, Moliere, all the writers in the world - so what of it!". When he started thinking about raising children, he asked himself: “ why?"; arguing “about how the people can achieve prosperity”, he “ all of a sudden he said to himself: what is it to me?"In general, he" I felt that what he was standing on was broken, that what he was living on was no longer there. ” The natural result was the thought of suicide.

« I AM, happy man, hid the lace from myself so as not to hang myself on the crossbar between the cupboards in my room, where I was alone every day, undressing, and stopped going hunting with a gun, so as not to be tempted by too easy a way to rid myself of life. I myself did not know what I want: I was afraid of life, I strove away from it and, meanwhile, I hoped for something else from it».

Other works

In March 1879, in the city of Moscow, Leo Tolstoy met Vasily Petrovich Shchegolenok and in the same year, at his invitation, he came to Yasnaya Polyana, where he stayed for about a month or a month and a half. The goldfinch told Tolstoy a lot folk tales and epics, of which more than twenty were written down by Tolstoy, and the plots of some, Tolstoy, if he did not write down on paper, then remembered (these records are printed in volume XLVIII of the Jubilee edition of Tolstoy's works). Six works written by Tolstoy have the source of the legends and stories of the Goldfinch (1881 - "How people live", 1885 - "Two old men" and "Three elders", 1905 - "Korney Vasiliev" and "Prayer", 1907 - "The old man in the church") ... In addition, Count Tolstoy diligently wrote down many sayings, proverbs, individual expressions and words told by the Goldfinch.

The last journey, death and burial

On the night of October 28 (November 10) 1910 L.N. Tolstoy, fulfilling his decision to live last years in accordance with his views, secretly left Yasnaya Polyana, accompanied by his doctor D.P. Makovitsky. He began his last journey at the Shchekino station. On the same day, changing at the Gorbachevo station to another train, I reached the Kozelsk station, hired a driver and went to Optina Pustyn, and from there the next day - to the Shamordinsky monastery, where Tolstoy met with his sister, Maria Nikolaevna Tolstoy. Later, Tolstoy's daughter, Alexandra Lvovna, came to Shamordino with her friend.

On the morning of October 31 (November 13) L.N. 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 Belyov, we bought tickets to the Volovo station. According to the testimony of those accompanying Tolstoy, there was no definite purpose for the trip. After the meeting, they decided to go to Novocherkassk, where to try to get foreign passports and then go to Bulgaria; if it fails, go to the Caucasus. However, on the way, L.N. Tolstoy fell ill with pneumonia and was forced to get off the train on the same day at the first large station near settlement... This station turned out to be Astapovo (now Lev Tolstoy, Lipetsk region), where on November 7 (20) L.N. Tolstoy died in the house of the station chief I. I. Ozolin.

On November 10 (23), 1910, he was buried in Yasnaya Polyana, on the edge of a ravine in the forest, where, as a child, he and his brother were looking for a "green stick" that kept the "secret" of how to make all people happy.

In January 1913, a letter from Countess Sophia Tolstoy of December 22, 1912 was published, in which she confirmed the news in the press that his funeral service was performed on her husband's grave by a certain priest (she refutes rumors that he was fake) in her presence. In particular, the countess wrote: “I also declare that Lev Nikolayevich never before his death expressed a desire not to be inveted, but earlier he wrote in his diary in 1895, as if a testament:“ If possible, then (bury) without priests and funeral services. But if it is unpleasant for those who will bury, then let them bury, as usual, but as cheap and simpler as possible. "

Report of the head of the Petersburg security department, Colonel von Cotten, to the Minister of the Interior of the Russian Empire:

« In addition to the reports of this November 8th, I am reporting to Your Excellency information about the disturbances of student youth that took place on November 9th this November ... on the occasion of the day of the burial of the deceased L.N. Tolstoy. At 12 o'clock in the afternoon was served in Armenian Church funeral service for the late Leo Tolstoy, which was attended by about 200 people praying, mostly Armenians, and a small part of the student youth. At the end of the requiem, the worshipers dispersed, but after a few minutes students and female students began to arrive at the church. It turned out that on entrance doors University and the Higher Women's Courses, announcements were posted that the memorial service for Leo Tolstoy would take place on November 9 at one o'clock in the afternoon in the aforementioned church. The Armenian clergy performed a requiem for the second time, by the end of which the church could no longer accommodate all the worshipers, a significant part of whom stood on the porch and in the courtyard of the Armenian Church. At the end of the requiem, everyone who was on the porch and in the churchyard sang "Eternal Memory" ...»

There is also an unofficial version of the death of Leo Tolstoy, set out in exile by I.K.Sursky from the words of an official of the Russian police. According to her, the writer, before his death, wanted to be reconciled with the church and came to Optina Pustyn for this. Here he was awaiting the order of the Synod, but feeling unwell, he was taken away by his daughter who had arrived and died at the Astapovo post station.

Classic Russian literature Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 into the noble family of Nikolai Tolstoy and his wife Maria Nikolaevna. The father and mother of the future writer were nobles and belonged to revered families, so the family lived comfortably in their own estate, Yasnaya Polyana, located in the Tula region.

Leo Tolstoy spent his childhood in the family estate. In these places, he first saw the course of the life of the working people, heard the abundance of old legends, parables, fairy tales, and here his first attraction to literature arose. Yasnaya Polyana is a place to which the writer returned at all stages of his life, drawing wisdom, beauty, inspiration.

Despite his noble origin, Tolstoy had to learn from childhood the bitterness of orphanhood, because the mother of the future writer died when the boy was only two years old. The father passed away not much later, when Leo was seven years old. First, the grandmother took custody of the children, and after her death - the aunt Palageya Yushkova, who took the four children of the Tolstoy family with her to Kazan.

Growing up

Six years of living in Kazan became the informal years of growing up of the writer, because at this time his character and worldview are being formed. In 1844, Leo Tolstoy entered Kazan University, first to the eastern department, then, not finding himself in the study of Arabic and Turkish languages, at the Faculty of Law.

The writer did not show significant interest in the study of law, but he understood the need for a degree. After passing externally exams, in 1847 Lev Nikolaevich received a long-awaited document and returned to Yasnaya Polyana, and then to Moscow, where he began to engage in literary work.

Military service

Not having time to finish two conceived stories, in the spring of 1851 Tolstoy went to the Caucasus with his brother Nikolai and began military service. Young writer takes part in military operations Russian army, acts among the defenders of the Crimean Peninsula, liberates his native land from Turkish and Anglo-French troops. Years of service have given Leo Tolstoy invaluable experience, knowledge of the life of ordinary soldiers and citizens, their characters, heroism, aspirations.

The years of service are vividly reflected in Tolstoy's stories "The Cossacks", "Hadji Murad", as well as in the stories "Demoted", "Cutting the forest", "Raid".

Literary and social activities

Returning to Petersburg in 1855, Leo Tolstoy was already famous in literary circles... Remembering the respectful attitude towards the serfs in his father's house, the writer strongly supports the abolition of serfdom, elucidating this issue in the stories "Polikushka", "Morning of the Landowner" and others.

In an effort to see the world, in 1857 Lev Nikolaevich went on a trip abroad, visiting countries Western Europe... Getting acquainted with the cultural traditions of the peoples, the master of the word fixes the information in his memory in order to display the most important points in his work.

Actively practicing social activities, Tolstoy opens a school in Yasnaya Polyana. The writer in every possible way criticizes corporal punishment, which was widely practiced at that time in educational institutions in Europe and Russia. With the aim of improving educational system, Lev Nikolaevich publishes a pedagogical journal called "Yasnaya Polyana", and in the early 70s compiles several textbooks for junior schoolchildren, including "Arithmetic", "ABC", "Books for reading". These developments were effectively used in teaching several more generations of children.

Personal life and creativity

In 1862, the writer tied his fate with the daughter of the doctor Andrei Bers, Sophia. The young family settled in Yasnaya Polyana, where Sofya Andreevna diligently tried to provide an atmosphere for literary work husband. At this time, Leo Tolstoy is actively working on the creation of the epic "War and Peace", and also, reflecting life in Russia after the reform, writes the novel "Anna Karenina".

In the 80s, Tolstoy moved with his family to Moscow, seeking to educate his growing children. Observing the hungry life of ordinary people, Lev Nikolaevich promotes the opening of about 200 free tables for those in need. Also at this time, the writer publishes a number of topical articles on hunger, vividly condemning the policies of the rulers.

The period of literature of the 80-90s includes the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, the drama “The Power of Darkness”, the comedy “The Fruits of Enlightenment”, the novel “Sunday”. Leo Tolstoy is excommunicated for his vivid attitude against religion and autocracy.

last years of life

In 1901 - 1902 the writer was seriously ill. With the aim of a speedy recovery, the doctor strongly recommends a trip to the Crimea, where Leo Tolstoy spends six months. The last journey of the prose writer to Moscow took place in 1909.

Since 1881, the writer has sought to leave Yasnaya Polyana and retire, but remains, not wanting to hurt his wife and children. On October 28, 1910, Leo Tolstoy still decides to take a deliberate step and live the rest of his years in a simple hut, refusing all honors.

An unexpected illness on the road becomes an obstacle to the writer's plans and he spends the last seven days of his life in the house of the station master. Happy death of an outstanding literary and public figure became November 20, 1910.