Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy's most famous works. All works by ln tolstoy

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

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

First years of life

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

It is important to note that the primary education in Tolstoy's biography was received at home, lessons were given to him by French and German teachers. In 1843 he entered the Faculty of Oriental Languages ​​at the Imperial Kazan University. Tolstoy failed to excel in his studies - low grades forced him to move to an easier law faculty. Further academic difficulties led Tolstoy to eventually leave the Imperial Kazan University in 1847 without a degree. He returned to his parents' estate, where he planned to take up farming. However, this undertaking of his ended in failure - he was absent too often, leaving for Tula and Moscow. What he really excelled at was keeping his own diary - it was this lifelong habit that inspired Leo Tolstoy for most of his writings.

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

One day, Tolstoy's older brother, Nikolai, came to visit Leo during his army leave, and convinced his brother to join the army as a cadet in the south, in the Caucasus mountains, where he served. After serving as a cadet, Leo Tolstoy was transferred to Sevastopol in November 1854, where he fought in the Crimean War until August 1855.

Early publications

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

After completing the story "Childhood", Tolstoy began to write about his daily life in an army outpost in the Caucasus. The work "Cossacks" begun in the army years, he finished only in 1862, after he had already left the army.

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

After the end of the Crimean War, Tolstoy left the army and returned to Russia. Arriving home, the author enjoyed great popularity on the literary scene of St. Petersburg.

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

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

Major novels

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

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

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

Conversion

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

Late fiction

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

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

Old age

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

Death and legacy

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

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

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Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers, revered as one of the world's greatest writers. Member of the defense of Sevastopol. Enlightener, publicist, religious thinker, whose authoritative opinion caused the emergence of a new religious and moral trend - Tolstoyism.

Born in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province, in the hereditary estate of his mother - Yasnaya Polyana. He was the fourth child in the family. Mother died when Leo was not yet 2 years old.

The education of children was taken up by a distant relative T. A. Ergolskaya. In 1837 the family moved to Moscow, settling on Plyushchikha, because the eldest son had to prepare for university entrance. Soon the father suddenly died, and the three younger children again settled in Yasnaya Polyana under the supervision of Yergolskaya and her paternal aunt, Countess A. M. Osten-Saken. Here Lev remained until 1840, when Osten-Saken died, the children moved to Kazan, to their father's sister P. I. Yushkova.

The Yushkovs' house was considered one of the most cheerful in Kazan; all members of the family highly valued external brilliance. The most diverse, as Tolstoy himself defines them, "thinking" about the main questions of being left an imprint on his character in that era of life.

Following the brothers, Lev decided to enter the Imperial Kazan University (the most famous at that time), where Lobachevsky worked at the mathematical faculty, and Kovalevsky at the East. In 1844 he was enrolled as a student of the category of Oriental literature as paying for his education. According to the results of the year, he had poor progress, did not pass the transitional exam and had to re-take the first year program. In order to avoid a complete repetition of the course, he moved to the Faculty of Law. "... the first year I ... did nothing. In the second year ... I began to study ... there was a professor ... who ... gave me a job - comparing Catherine's "Instruction" with Montesquieu's "Spirit of the Laws" ... this work fascinated me, I went to the village, began to read Montesquieu, this reading opened up endless horizons for me; I began to read Rousseau and left the university. Tolstoy tried to establish a new relationship with the peasants. In 1849 he first opened a school for peasant children. The main teacher was Foka Demidovich, a serf, but Lev Nikolayevich himself often conducted classes. He was seriously engaged in English, music, jurisprudence.

In 1851, after passing an exam in Tiflis, Tolstoy entered as a cadet in the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladovskaya on the banks of the Terek, near Kizlyar. He had the right to the St. George Cross, however, in accordance with his convictions, he "conceded" to his colleague, considering that a significant simplification of the conditions of the colleague's service is higher than personal vanity. With the outbreak of the Crimean War, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube army, participated in the battle of Oltenitsa and the siege of Silistria, and in 1854-1855 was in Sevastopol. For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anne 4th degree, medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855" and "In Memory of the War 1853-1856". In 1856 the writer left military service with the rank of lieutenant.

In St. Petersburg, the young writer was warmly welcomed in high-society salons and in literary circles. However, a cheerful life left a bitter aftertaste in Tolstoy's soul, he began to discord with a circle of writers close to him. As a result, "people got sick of him, and he got sick of himself." And in 1857 Tolstoy went on a journey. He visited Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Italy.

In 1859 Tolstoy took part in the organization of the Literary Fund.

On his next trip, he was mainly interested in public education. His beloved brother Nikolai died of tuberculosis. The death of his brother made a huge impression on Tolstoy. From 1862 Tolstoy began to publish the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana. Soon Tolstoy left pedagogy. Marriage, the birth of his own children, plans associated with writing the novel "War and Peace" pushed back his pedagogical activities for 10 years. In the early 1870s, he began to create his own "Azbuka" and published it in 1872, and then released the "New ABC" and a series of four "Russian Books for Reading".

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is the author of works not only for adults, but also for children. Young readers like stories, there were fables, fairy tales of the famous prose writer. Tolstoy's works for children teach love, kindness, courage, justice, resourcefulness.

Fairy tales for little ones

These books can be read to children by their parents. A child of 3-5 years old will be interested to get acquainted with the heroes of fairy tales. When the kids learn how to put letters together, they will be able to read and study Tolstoy's works for children on their own.

The fairy tale "Three Bears" tells about the girl Masha, who got lost in the forest. She came across the house and entered it. The table was set, on it stood 3 bowls of different sizes. Masha tasted the stew, first from two large ones, and then ate all the soup, which was poured into a small plate. Then she sat on a chair and slept on the bed, which, like the chair and plate, belonged to Mishutka. When he returned home with his bear parents and saw all this, he wanted to catch the girl, but she jumped out the window and ran away.

Kids will also be interested in other works of Tolstoy for children, written in the form of fairy tales.

Stories-were

It is useful for older children to read Tolstoy's works for children, written in the format of short stories, for example, about a boy who really wanted to study, but his mother would not let him go.

The story "Philippok" begins with this. But the boy Philip somehow still went to school without asking, when he stayed at home alone with his grandmother. Entering the classroom, he was frightened at first, but then pulled himself together and answered the teacher's questions. The teacher promised the child that he would ask his mother to let Filippka go to school. That's how the boy wanted to learn. After all, learning something new is so interesting!

Tolstoy wrote about another small and good person. The works for children that Lev Nikolaevich composed include the story "Foundling". From it we learn about the girl Masha, who found a baby on the threshold of her house. The girl was kind, gave the foundling milk to drink. Her mother wanted to give the baby to the boss, since their family was poor, but Masha said that the foundling eats little, and she herself will take care of him. The girl kept her word, she swaddled, fed, put the baby to bed.

The following story, like the previous one, is based on real events. It's called "The Cow". The work tells about the widow Marya, her six children and a cow.

Tolstoy, works for children, created in an instructive form

After reading the story “Stone”, you are once again convinced that you should not, that is, harbor anger at someone for a long time. It's a destructive feeling.

In the story, one poor man wore a stone in his bosom in the literal sense of the word. Once upon a time, a rich man, instead of helping, threw this stone at the poor. When the life of the rich man changed drastically, he was taken to prison, the poor wanted to throw a stone at him, which he had saved, but the anger had long since passed, and it was replaced by pity.

You experience the same feeling when reading the story "Poplar". The story is told in the first person. The author, together with his assistants, wanted to cut down young poplars. They were offshoots of an old tree. The man thought that by doing this he would make his life easier, but everything turned out differently. The poplar dried up and therefore gave life to new trees. The old tree died, and the workers destroyed the new shoots.

fables

Not everyone knows that the works of Leo Tolstoy for children are not only fairy tales, stories, but also fables that are written in prose.

For example, The Ant and the Dove. After reading this fable, the children will conclude that good deeds entail good responses.

The ant fell into the water and began to sink, the dove threw a twig to it, along which the poor fellow could get out. Once a hunter set a net on a dove, he wanted to close the trap, but then an ant came to the aid of the bird. He bit the hunter on the leg, he groaned. At this time, the dove got out of the net and flew away.

Other instructive fables invented by Leo Tolstoy also deserve attention. Works for children written in this genre are:

• "Turtle and Eagle";
• "The head and tail of a snake";
• "Lion and Mouse";
• "Donkey and horse";
• "Lion, bear and fox";
• "The Frog and the Lion";
• "The ox and the old woman".

"Childhood"

Pupils of primary and secondary school age can be advised to read the first part of L. N. Tolstoy's trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence", "Youth". It will be useful for them to learn how their peers, the children of wealthy parents, lived in the 19th century.

The story begins with an acquaintance with Nikolenka Artenyev, who is 10 years old. The boy was instilled with good manners from childhood. And now, waking up, he washed, dressed, and the teacher Karl Ivanovich took him and his younger brother to greet their mother. She poured tea in the living room, then the family had breakfast.

This is how Leo Tolstoy described the morning scene. Works for children teach young readers goodness, love, like this story. The author describes what feelings Nikolenka had for his parents - pure and sincere love. This story will be useful to young readers. In high school, they will study the continuation of the book - "Boyhood" and "Youth".

Tolstoy's works: list

Short stories are read very quickly. Here is the name of some of them, which Lev Nikolaevich wrote for children:

• "Eskimos";
• "Two comrades";
• "Bulka and the wolf";
• "How trees walk";
• "Girls are smarter than old men";
• "Apple trees";
• "Magnet";
• "Lozina";
• "Two merchants";
• "Bone".

• "Candle";
• "Bad air";
• "Bad air";
• "Hares";
• "Deer".

Stories about animals

Tolstoy has very touching stories. We learn about the brave boy from the following story, which is called "Kitten". One family had a cat. For a while, she suddenly disappeared. When the children - brother and sister, found her, they saw that the cat had given birth to kittens. The guys took one for themselves, began to look after the little creature - feed, water.

Once they went for a walk and took the pet with them. But soon the children forgot about him. They remembered only when trouble threatened the baby - hunting dogs rushed at him with barking. The girl was frightened and ran away, and the boy rushed to protect the kitten. He covered him with his body and thus saved him from the dogs, who were then recalled by the hunter.

In the story "Elephant" we learn about a giant animal that lives in India. The owner mistreated him - almost did not feed him and forced him to work hard. Once the animal could not stand such treatment and crushed the man, stepping on him with his foot. Instead of the previous one, the elephant chose the boy - his son - as the owner.

Here are some instructive and interesting stories written by the classic. These are the best works of Leo Tolstoy for children. They will help to instill in children many useful and important qualities, they will teach them to see and understand the world around them better.

Count Leo Tolstoy, a classic of Russian and world literature, is called a master of psychologism, the creator of the epic novel genre, an original thinker and teacher of life. The works of the brilliant writer are the greatest asset of Russia.

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

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

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

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

Lev Nikolaevich returned to Yasnaya Polyana, wanting to establish relations with the peasants in a new way. The idea failed, but the young man regularly kept a diary, loved secular entertainment and became interested in music. Tolstoy listened for hours, and.

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

Literature

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

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

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

In the winter of 1855, 28-year-old Leo Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg and entered the Sovremennik circle, where he was warmly welcomed, calling him "the great hope of Russian literature." But in a year, the writer's environment with its disputes and conflicts, readings and literary dinners got tired. Later, in Confession, Tolstoy confessed:

“These people disgusted me, and I disgusted myself.”

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

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

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

In the 1870s, Leo Tolstoy, continuing to teach peasant children, wrote the novel Anna Karenina, in which he contrasted two storylines: the Karenins' family drama and the domestic idyll of the young landowner Levin, with whom he identified himself. The novel only at first glance seemed to be a love story: the classic raised the problem of the meaning of the existence of the “educated class”, opposing it with the truth of the peasant life. "Anna Karenina" highly appreciated.

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

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

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

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

"War and Peace"

Leo Tolstoy did not like his novel "War and Peace", calling the epic "wordy rubbish". The classic wrote the work in the 1860s, while living with his family in Yasnaya Polyana. The first two chapters, called "1805", were published by "Russian Messenger" in 1865. Three years later, Leo Tolstoy wrote three more chapters and completed the novel, which caused heated debate among critics.

The features of the heroes of the work, written in the years of family happiness and spiritual uplift, the novelist took from life. In Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, the features of Lev Nikolayevich's mother, her penchant for reflection, brilliant education and love for art are recognizable. The traits of his father - mockery, love of reading and hunting - the writer awarded Nikolai Rostov.

When writing the novel, Leo Tolstoy worked in the archives, studied the correspondence of Tolstoy and Volkonsky, Masonic manuscripts, and visited the Borodino field. The young wife helped him, copying the drafts cleanly.

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

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

For the first time, "War and Peace" was filmed by director Pyotr Chardynin in 1913. The most famous film was made by a Soviet director in 1965.

Personal life

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

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

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

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

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

Sofya Andreevna made considerable efforts to dissuade her husband from the idea of ​​distributing good. But the resulting quarrel split the family: Leo Tolstoy left home. Returning, the writer assigned the duty of rewriting drafts to his daughters.

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

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

Death

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

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

Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

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

Bibliography

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

Russian writers are rightfully considered real geniuses of literature. All of them made an invaluable contribution to the development of the art of the word, so their works remain relevant in our time and will be relevant for many years to come. This is largely due to the fact that all writers were not only educated and wise, but also talented people. This helped them to create not only complex and relevant, but also interesting works.

Lev Tolstoy

One of the most famous Russian classics is Leo Tolstoy, whose books were printed in huge numbers. His works are known for their scale and deep philosophical problems that the author reveals.

Tolstoy's books, as a rule, are very voluminous, but not because he repeats a lot, but because he approaches the disclosure of a particular topic as thoroughly as possible. The writer is always trying to get to the core of things. This article will focus on the main books of Tolstoy, which had the greatest public outcry and which made a really huge contribution to world culture.

War and Peace

The epic novel "War and Peace" is one of the most significant works of world literature of the 19th century. It does not just show important historical events of that time, it conveys the atmosphere of that time, the mood of people and talks about the most important things.

The idea of ​​the novel was fundamentally different from what happened in the end. Tolstoy wanted to write a book about the life of a Decembrist who returned from exile. However, in the process of work, the writer realized that the thoughts that he wants to convey to people require a deeper and more thorough analysis of Russian life. That is why the story begins long before the events of December 14, 1925.

The author leads his characters through several decades of their lives, showing their moral development in the context of historical events. The war with Napoleon completely changed the minds of the people of that time. They stopped speaking French, became disillusioned with the war and military leaders, but most importantly, they began to understand what the real value of life is.

The heroes of the novel are very complex and multifaceted personalities who, with their life quests, are trying to come to eternal truths and tell the reader about them. Tolstoy's book "War and Peace" is a novel about the most important things in life that should be mastered by every person. That is why this work is loved all over the world. It has been filmed many times both in Russia and abroad. Particular attention should be paid to the film adaptation, filmed by the Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk, because for it he was awarded the Oscar film award in 1965.

"Anna Karenina"

The books of L. N. Tolstoy are often filmed by famous foreign directors. Based on the novel "Anna Karenina" in 2012, the British director Joe Wright made a film. This project was very successful and grossed about $70 million at the box office. The main roles were played by such famous actors as Keira Knightley and Jude Law.

The plot of the novel takes place in St. Petersburg in the 19th century. A very respected and wealthy representative of the golden youth, Count Vronsky, falls in love with a married girl, Anna Karenina. She was given in marriage against her will and did not love her husband, who was much older than her. An affair begins between Vronsky and Anna Karenina, which breaks the fate of both and leads to sad consequences ...

Anna Karenina, like all of Tolstoy's books, reflects the main problems of Russian life. This novel tells what are the consequences of those marriages that are not for love. He teaches to be more attentive to close people, as well as honest in relation to himself and others.

"Resurrection"

The novel "Resurrection" was the last work of Leo Tolstoy. It was printed in huge numbers and translated into almost all major languages ​​of the world. This was necessary, since interest in Tolstoy's work was enormous, especially after the publication of the novels "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina".

This novel came out much later than all of Tolstoy's previous books. This greatly fueled public interest in this work. However, an important role in such popularity was played by the fact that the theme of the novel was very relevant at that time. The plot tells how a young officer, completely without thinking about the consequences, seduced an innocent girl. Such an act became fatal in his fate. After that, the life of both heroes changed a lot ...

The novel "Resurrection", like Tolstoy's previous works, was filmed a huge number of times by directors from different countries. Particular attention should be paid to the film by the Soviet director Mikhail Schweitzer, filmed in 1960.

Finally

The works of Leo Tolstoy are known and loved not only in Russia, but also abroad. He was an innovator in the field of literature, it was from under his pen that the literary techniques that are now very common began to appear for the first time. Tolstoy's books are a true classic of world literature.