“This is a great Russian writer, an unusually versatile person with great talent.
200 years since the birth of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875), Russian writer, poet, playwright
Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy was born in St. Petersburg. He was educated at the verbal department of Moscow University, graduating in 1836.
From 1834 he served in the Moscow archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then he was in the diplomatic and military service; and from 1843 he held various court posts.
From the 1840s he started a literary creative activity , showing talent in creating lyrical poems and ballads. Among the popular ones are “My Bells”, “You know the land where everything breathes in abundance”, “Where the vines bend over the pool” and others. First post - fantasy story"Ghoul" (1841, under the pseudonym Krasnorogsky) - was sympathetically received by V.G. Belinsky.
Since 1854, Tolstoy published in Sovremennik, in collaboration with the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers, poems and parodies on behalf of a fictitious author, Kozma Prutkov. In the late 1850s, he collaborated in the Slavophile "Russian conversation", then in the "Russian Bulletin" and "Bulletin of Europe".
In 1861, Tolstoy retired from court and concentrated entirely on creativity. Published the dramatic poem "Don Juan" (1862), historical novel"Prince Silver" (1863), a historical trilogy - the tragedy "The Death of Ivan the Terrible" (1866), "Tsar Fedor Ioannovich" (1868), "Tsar Boris" (1870). In 1867, the first collection of Tolstoy's poems was published.
In the last decade of life wrote ballads(“Roman Galitsky”, “Borivoy”, “Ilya Muromets”, “Sadko”, etc.), poems, lyric poems. Significance depicted in tragedies historical conflicts, diversity typical characters and wonderful, finely crafted psychological image Tsar Fedor were the reason for the interest of the directors. The production of Tsar Fyodor was opened in 1898 by the Moscow Art Theater. The first two tragedies of the trilogy have firmly entered the repertoire of Soviet theaters.
Lyric poems by Tolstoy simple and sincere. These are “In the midst of a noisy ball, by chance”, “That was in early spring”, etc. Tolstoy introduced elements of a folk poetic style into his lyrics, his poems are often close to a song. More than 70 poems have been set to music by Russian composers - Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rubinstein, Taneyev and others.
Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy died (September 28) October 10, 1875 in the village of Krasny Rog, Chernigov province from an accidental drug overdose. Currently, the Museum-Estate of the writer is located in the Red Horn.
September 5 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Russian poet Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy.
Inheriting the poetic traditions of Pushkin and, his literary contemporaries, asserted himself freelance artist words. He was convinced that the purpose of the poet is to elevate the moral character of a person, instilling in him a love for beauty.
Tolstoy understood his vocation as a struggle for the vital rights of the human person, for the beauty of life."Not bought by anyone, under whose banner I stand" , a fighter for the highest truth, he was not a supporter of any of the warring camps. A man of honor, who did not belong to any of the socio-political camps, the poet was a humanist with broad views.
Blood involvement in the art and history of Russia was given to A.K. Tolstoy from birth. The last hetman of Ukraine, Kirill Georgievich Razumovsky, was his maternal great-grandfather, Minister of Education under AlexanderIwas the grandfather Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky. The poet's mother, Anna Alekseevna Perovskaya, received a European education. illegitimate daughter A.K. Razumovsky. The vice-president of the Academy of Arts was my father's brother, famous sculptor Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy.
The estate of A.K. Tolstoy in the village of Krasny Rog (Bryansk region)
Parents A.K. Tolstoy broke up almost immediately after the birth of their son (September 5, 1817 ). Early childhood was spent in the Chernihiv province, on the estate of the writer Aleksey Alekseevich Perovsky (Antony Pogorelsky), his mother's brother, who took care of the upbringing of his beloved nephew. He dedicated his fairy tale to him.
A.K. Tolstoy considered his childhood very happy. Only bright memories remained with him of this time of life. Endowed with a vivid imagination, the boy was accustomed to daydreaming in the midst of nature, this daydreaming then grew into a pronounced penchant for poetry.
A.K. Tolstoy had a strong attraction to art in all its manifestations. The treasures of art that were revealed to the soul of a thirteen-year-old teenager during his first trip to Italy made him so strong impressions that upon his return to Russia, he longed for this "paradise lost".
Tolstoy passed the final exam at Moscow University at the age of 17. In 1836 he received a position in the Russian mission in Germany, then served in the imperial office. At the time of his coronation, AlexanderIIappointed him adjutant wing.
A brilliant court career was opened before an aristocrat by origin. The poet was not attracted by the service, but the friendship with the sovereign that had begun in childhood did not allow him to decisively break with her. The high court position of Tolstoy helped to achieve the return of I.S. Turgenev. The poet stood up for I.S. Aksakov, fussed about removing the disgrace from T.G. Shevchenko, tried to save N.G. Chernyshevsky.
The basis of the poetic system of A.K. Tolstoy was laid in the 1840s. In his work, two different genre principles closely touched and interacted - the lyric itself and the ballad.
A brightly festive picture of Russian and Ukrainian nature is permeated with early poems filled with a lively sense of history. The symbol of beauty is not only nature, but also a woman. The main source of intimate lyrics was the love he carried through his whole life for S.A. Miller.
Tolstoy's love lyrics are deeply psychological. The poet knows how to subtly penetrate into the transitional state of the human soul, to convey the moments when the feeling is just emerging. Masterpiece of it love lyrics should be considered a poem"In the midst of a noisy ball, by chance ...", become famous romance, the music for which was written by P.I. Chaikovsky. Distinguished by simplicity and sincerity, the lyrics of A.K. Tolstoy also attracted other Russian composers.
The poet widely borrowed plots from the "History of the Russian State" for his historical ballads. But events national history he viewed from the perspective moral standards. For Holy Rus', and not for the father-lord, as in Karamzin, the hero of the ballad dies"Vasily Shibanov" , envoy of Prince Andrei Kurbsky to Ivan the Terrible.
In ballads created in 1860-1870, the poet turned to epic motifs and images. Not heroes in the full sense of the word are their epic heroes, but the heroes of the spirit. Chivalry, consciousness dignity and honor, love for native land- Tolstoy endowed with such qualities perfect image epic hero"Ilya Muromets", love of freedom and love of life - the hero"Sadko", artistic talent - the hero of the epic"Alesha Popovich".
The historical novel, beloved by the Russian reading public, was reprinted three times"Prince Silver". Under the guise of fictional author Kozma Prutkov, Tolstoy co-authored with cousins Zhemchuzhnikov published poems and literary parodies in the Sovremennik magazine.
A special place in Russian literature and culture is occupied by the historical trilogy in the verses of A.K. Tolstoy (tragedy about three kings). play"Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" marked the opening of the Moscow Art Theater in 1898 Tragedy"Death of Ivan the Terrible" was a success at the Alexandrinsky Theatre."Tsar Boris" staged on the stage of metropolitan and provincial theaters.
Having achieved his resignation, A.K. Tolstoy lived either in his estate Pustynka near St. Petersburg, or in the family estate of Krasny Rog, traveled extensively in Europe. The poet, who happily left the royal court, devoted himself entirely to literature. He experienced blessed creative freedom among forests, valleys, mountains and waters.
Distinguished in youth and extraordinary youth physical force Tolstoy, capable of twisting an iron poker into a spiral and straightening a metal horseshoe, a hardy bear hunter, was broken before time severe illness. He diedOctober 10, 1875 He was buried in Krasny Rog, in the family crypt of the Assumption Church.
“Honest, truthful, accessible to everyone good feelings, ready for sacrifice, devoted to tenderness, unfailingly faithful and direct ”was the soul of A.K. Tolstoy - this is how he spoke about the poet I.S. Turgenev.
The information was prepared by G.E. Maksimova
More RI literature, and
Tolstoy No. 1: "I good writer!»
To the 200th anniversary of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Famous poet and writer, author of many poems and poems, the fairy tale "Sadko", the novel "Prince Silver", a dramatic trilogy, which included the works "The Death of Ivan the Terrible", "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" and "Tsar Boris", one of the creators of the famous Kozma Prutkov. More A.K. Tolstoy and further
Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
On September 5, 2017 (August 24, old style), connoisseurs and admirers of his work celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. An extraordinary writer and an extraordinary personality. There were many legends about him during his lifetime. So, contemporaries of Alexei Tolstoy spoke about him as a powerful man who could easily bend horseshoes, drive nails into the wall with his bare hands and walked with a horn on a bear. At the same time, he was known as a frequenter of the capital's secular salons, a witty handsome man who loved practical jokes and fun, personally acquainted with the great Goethe and Emperor Alexander II.
The life principles of Alexei Tolstoy himself are probably most succinctly reflected in these lines belonging to him:
If you love, so without reason,
If you threaten, it's not a joke,
If you scold, so rashly,
If you chop, it's so sloppy!
If you argue, it's so bold
Kohl to punish, so for the cause,
If you forgive, so with all your heart,
If there is a feast, then a feast is a mountain!
The vicissitudes of his fate are closely intertwined with the history of Russia and the biographies of famous historical characters. Some of them are worth talking about in more detail.
Birth history. Childhood
Alexei Tolstoy was maternally the great-grandson of the last hetman of Ukraine, Kirill Razumovsky, President Russian Academy Sciences, on his father - a descendant of the old known kind Tolstykh. Some of his biographers claim that he was a second cousin of the genius of Russian literature, Leo Tolstoy. At least it is known that if they may not have been closely related, then they knew each other for sure.
2. Anna Alekseevna Tolstaya, mother of the poet. Miniature by M. M. Duffinger. 1827
The mother of the future writer, Anna Perovskaya, was the illegitimate daughter of Count Alexei Razumovsky, nevertheless her father achieved a title of nobility for her and gave her a good education. Her husband was Count Konstantin Tolstoy, a widower who was also much older than his wife. His parents' marriage did not last long. The reason why the parents separated shortly after the birth of their son Alexei is not known for certain. Contemporaries claimed that the writer saw his own father for the first time only at his mother's funeral.
3. Konstantin Petrovich Tolstoy, the poet's father. mid XIX
Own early childhood future writer spent in Ukraine in the estate of his mother's brother Alexei Perovsky - trustee of Kharkov University. He entered Russian literature under the pseudonym of Anthony Pogorelsky. He is the author of the first author's fairy tale for children in Russian "The Black Hen, or Underground inhabitants". By the way, he wrote it for his nephew Alexei Tolstoy.
4. Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky, literary pseudonym - Anthony Pogorelsky. Miniature. Between 1812 and 1815
friendship with the emperor
A significant event in the life of Alexei Tolstoy was the acquaintance with the future Emperor Alexander II. They were introduced to each other light hand writer Vasily Zhukovsky - a friend of Uncle Alexei, when both were eight years old. Becoming a playmate, Tolstoy retained affection for his friend from the royal family for life.
It was said that, strong and large Alexei threw the future emperor on his shoulder and ran with him along the corridors Winter Palace. Once, Emperor Nicholas I himself challenged the young count to fight and, fighting off him, noted with surprise how “strong and dexterous this boy is.”
Later, when Tolstoy fell ill with typhus in Odessa, the sovereign was telegraphed several times a day about his state of health.
Thanks to his friendship with the emperor, Tolstoy rapidly rose through the ranks, but he did not want to move to career heights and decided to take up literature.
"In the midst of a noisy ball, by chance ..."
Sofia Miller became the love of his life for Alexei Tolstoy. They met at a masquerade in 1851. At that time, the chosen one of the writer was married. It was said that she knew 14 languages and was seriously interested in history and philosophy. In addition, Sophia was a passionate fan of hunting and loved thrills. Contemporaries noted the alleged complete discrepancy between the poetic subtle nature of Tolstoy and the outwardly rough-looking Sophia, whom Ivan Turgenev later called in his description "a Chukhonian soldier in a skirt."
5. Sophia Miller
Having fallen in love, Sophia Miller immediately left her husband - a horse guards colonel - and settled with Tolstoy on her brother's estate. However, the feeling that seized the lovers did not please either the writer's mother or her entourage. Her husband did not give a divorce either. The love that embraced them had to overcome great trials. It took a long 12 years until they were able to connect their destinies.
The writer's friends said that when Tolstoy fell ill with typhus in Odessa in 1855, it was Sophia, who arrived, who took him out.
"Bad Military"
Good home education Alexei Tolstoy allowed him to enter the ranks of the so-called "archival youths" who were attached to the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Having successfully passed the exam at the end of his studies at Moscow University, he was appointed to the Russian mission at the German Sejm in Frankfurt am Main.
Later, Tolstoy served in the II Department of His Imperial Majesty's own chancellery. Count's lineage was supposed to open him a career in the field of diplomacy, but Alexei became interested in literature. In itself, this occupation was fashionable in those days, but among the nobility it was considered bad form to change the service to literature.
6. Karl Bryullov. Portrait of the poet and playwright Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy in his youth. 1836
There is in the biography of the future writer such interesting fact. 35-year-old Count Aleksey Tolstoy reacted most warmly to the outbreak of the Crimean campaign of 1853-1856. Together with their friend Prince Alexei Bobrinsky, they decided to organize a volunteer militia to protect the Russian Baltic coast from a possible British landing. Friends organized a special military detachment, arming it at their own expense with 80 long-range rifles purchased in Tula, and also purchased a fast yacht. Neither one nor the other was useful, since hostilities did not spread beyond the Crimea and the British landing did not take place.
Count Tolstoy still managed to serve Russia in this war, albeit not for long. He entered the rifle regiment, but near Odessa almost died of typhus, which claimed the lives of a significant part of the regiment.
Immediately after the war, Major Tolstoy was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed clerk of the Secret Committee on schismatics. However, the service, as the poet wrote to the sovereign, was "deeply repugnant" to his nature. Eat different ways to benefit the fatherland, he noticed, and took up writing.
“I will always be a bad military man and a bad official, but it seems to me that without falling into self-conceit, I can say that I am a good writer,” Alexei Tolstoy assessed his mission and retired.
"Good Writer"
Alexey Tolskoy began to try to write as a child. He wrote his first poems at the age of six. The first published book was the fantastic and mystical work "Ghoul". It was published in 1841 under the pseudonym Krasnorogsky and subsequently was not included by the author in collected works, as if Tolstoy was ashamed of him. However, it is known that two years earlier Tolstoy wrote several stories in French, which he masterfully owned, including "The Ghoul Family" and "Meeting in Three Hundred Years".
7. Edition. Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy - Russian Messenger Magazine, No. 1. 1884
Among the writers known to Alexei Tolstoy were Gogol, Aksakov, Nekrasov, Panaev, Annenkov, Turgenev. The latter even owes Tolstoy his release from exile. Tolstoy's works were published by such well-known publications as Sovremennik, Vestnik Evropy, Russkiy Vestnik. At first he wrote for pleasure and even money for his literary works refused. However, after his wife's brothers settled with them and began to manage the estate, destroying it completely, Tolstoy had to write for the sake of fees.
8. A. V. Druzhinin, I. S. Turgenev, and V. P. Botkin. Drawing by D. V. Grigorovich. 1850
And charted his path...
An extraordinary personality, Alexei Tolstoy did not die in the way that each of the mortals would prefer - in old age and surrounded by family and children. By the way, the writer did not have his own children; he and Sofia Andreevna adopted the children of her brother. Possessing a heroic strength in his youth, the writer suffered in last years life from asthma, angina pectoris, neuralgia. His severe headaches especially bothered him.
9. The grave of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy
The cause of Tolstoy's death was an overdose of morphine. It was prescribed to him by a fashionable St. Petersburg doctor as a cure for severe headache attacks. Alexei Tolstoy injected himself with too much morphine and did not wake up. The first of the Tolstoy family, who glorified his name with literary work, was only 58 years old.
10. Portrait of the writer Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Knight of Russian literature
To the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy
He was from his father a descendant of the old noble, and even the boyar family of Tolstoy, distant relative Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, but, oddly enough, due to the circumstances of his life, he was almost in no way connected with this family. He was raised by his mother Anna Alekseevna Perovskaya, who divorced her husband Count Tolstoy and left St. Petersburg with her baby son Alexei, where her son was born on September 5, 1817 (according to the new style), to the south, to Little Russia, to her brother Alexei Alekseevich Perovsky, who had hereditary estates there. The surname of the Perovsky brother and sister was artificial, invented by their father Count Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky for his illegitimate children. He had many children "on the side" ... But Alexei Kirillovich did not leave his illegitimate children, he achieved for them the nobility and a sonorous surname. And besides, from this richest parent (Aleksey Kirillovich was the son of the last hetman of Little Russia, Kirill Razumovsky), his children inherited beautiful estates in the then Chernihiv province.
11. Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky. Self-portrait. 1806
The blood of the Moscow boyars Tolstoy and ordinary Ukrainian Cossacks Rozumov flowed in his veins, from whose family the glorious hetman of Little Russia Kirill Razumovsky, the great-grandfather of the writer, came out. Thanks to his brother Alexei (a favorite of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna), he became a brilliant hetman, field marshal general and ... president of the Russian Academy of Sciences (!). By the way, he held this post for more than half a century. His wealth was enormous, so that the great-grandson of the hetman could afford to live comfortably until the end of his days in one of the former hetman estates, in Krasny Rog, which turned into one of the reserved creative places on literary map Russia.
12. Miniature house of A. K. Tolstoy
Alexei Konstantinovich thought of himself as the direct heir to the ancient Kievan Rus, its epic and proud glory. Therefore, a considerable, and perhaps the main place in his poetic work is occupied by songs and epics, the theme of which was heroic story Kievan Rus. In her heroes, princes, singers, storytellers, Alexei Konstantinovich drew images for his work.
The song begins from ancient ideas,
From cheerful feasts and dinners,
And from fair-haired from braids, and from black curls,
And whether from those from affectionate grandfathers,
That affairs willingly interfered with fun;
From their time the song has now led,
From that old Russian land,
I don't know how the song will end...
13. I. G. Tannauer. Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, the first count of the Tolstoy family. 1719
At the same time, Aleksey Konstantinovich was quite a modern person for his days, widely educated, having worked both in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in Europe, in diplomatic missions. To belong to noble families made him the representative of an elected society close to the throne. And if we add to what young years he was acquainted with the Tsarevich, heir to the throne, Alexander Nikolaevich, the future "Tsar-Liberator" Alexander II, was part of the circle of his closest friends, you can imagine what an apotheosis of greatness and arrogance must have surrounded him!..
14. Coat of arms of the count family of Tolstoy. Bronze. Early XIX
But in fact, everything went wrong.
He who received home education on the estates of his mother and uncle, among the luxurious southern Russian nature that grew up among the peasants of Little Russia, whose children were his friends in boyish games, he never distinguished himself by arrogance towards the common people.
Work in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduced him to numerous historical documents, where the heroic fate of the Russian people appeared before the young socialite with all clarity. In addition, his uncle Alexei Perovsky was not only a wealthy landowner, he was also an excellent Russian writer who wrote under the pseudonym Anton Pogorelsky. He left this for posterity. amazing fairy tale O black chicken and residents underground city. And about the boy Alyosha, who is initiated into the secret of this mysterious kingdom, but involuntarily betrays them, for which he then repents for a long and painful time ... The boy Alyosha from this, everyone famous fairy tale- and there is the future poet, writer and playwright Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy.
15. Illustration of the book "Black Hen, or Underground inhabitants"
16. Illustration of the book "Black Hen, or Underground inhabitants"
17. Cover of the book "Black Hen, or Underground inhabitants"
He did not immediately come to work. Savor for a long time she circled him around the court salons and diplomatic receptions. Proximity to the court, to the heir to the crown prince obliged him to perform many court functions. He was both the master of ceremonies and the master of the champagne for the royal person.
But the most surprising thing is that in the critical fifties and sixties XIX years century, this court man becomes a close friend, one might even say a colleague of famous democratic writers who rallied around the then main democratic and even, in part, revolutionary organ - Nekrasov's Sovremennik magazine.
It began with the fact that the still "frantic" Vissarion Belinsky noted the talent of a young writer who entered literature with the story "Ghoul". This semi-mystical story was written vividly, and clearly bore traces of the author's acquaintance with the prose of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol.
Aleksei Konstantinovich was personally acquainted with Gogol, just as he was with Pushkin, Zhukovsky, with the whole circle of Russian writers of the "golden age" of our literature. He helped many, using his influence at court. Thus, the young Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was obliged to Tolstoy that he did not go to Siberia for a "seditious" article about the death of Gogol, but was only exiled to his estate Spasskoe-Lutovinovo. Meanwhile, Alexei Konstantinovich himself, on the wave of democratic reforms that began after the death of Nicholas I and the accession to the throne of the liberal Alexander II, creates a bright satirical image mossy Nikolaev official Kozma Prutkov, who dabbles in composing moralizing verses and sly aphorisms. These paradoxical funny aphorisms made Kozma Prutkov world wide famous person, and at the same time its creators: Alexei Tolstoy (to whose pen belongs most of"creativity" of Kozma) and the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers.
18. Fictional "portrait" of Prutkov, created by L.M. Zhemchuzhnikov, A.E. Beideman and L.F. Lagorio
As often happens, the literary phantom Kozma Prutkov separated from his authors and took on a life of his own, even acquiring some personality traits character. Perhaps the creators of Kozma wanted to present such an inflated and stupid bureaucrat, but in reality they turned out to be a rather crafty and caustic writer, who notices a lot in surrounding reality and in human hearts. It is useful to recall some of the aphorisms of Kozma Prutkov.
"Love your neighbor, but don't be deceived by him!" “Find the beginning of everything, and you will understand much.” "Every human head similar to the stomach: one digests the food that enters it, and the other becomes clogged from it. "In the depths of every breast there is a snake." “Many people are like sausages: what they stuff them with, they carry them in themselves.”
Kozma Prutkov (read - Alexei Tolstoy) had jokes about the relationship between a man and a woman: “ Wedding ring is the first link in the chain of married life. "He who is passionately in love with one person - suffers another only by calculation."
In a strange way, these aphorisms turned out to be prophetic for Alexei Konstantinovich himself. Long years he will seek marriage with the woman he loves, who was another man's wife. This unhappy love will literally turn his whole life upside down. He will meet his beloved, the wife of the Horse Guards Colonel Sofya Andreevna Miller (Bakhmeteva), at a ball in 1851. Around the same time, his famous poem which, thanks to Tchaikovsky, became a wonderful romance:
In the midst of a noisy ball, by chance,
In the turmoil of the world,
I saw you, but the mystery
Your features are covered.
I liked your slim figure
And all your thoughtful look
And your laughter is both sad and sonorous
Since then it has been in my heart.
In the hours of lonely nights
I love, tired, lie down,
I see sad eyes
I hear a cheerful speech.
And sadly I fall asleep so
And in the dreams of the unknown I sleep,
Do I love you - I don't know
But I think I love it!
This work can be called a masterpiece of Russian lyrics. But this sudden outbreak of love was costly to Tolstoy himself. For 12 years, she and Sofia Andreevna sought her divorce. But her husband was adamant ... Secular society was set against them. However, unlike the heroes of the novel "Anna Karenina", everything worked out for Tolstoy and Sofya Andreevna: they got married after 12 years of ordeal.
20. Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy. 1864
However, all this cost Tolstoy a career under imperial court he resigned. Nevertheless, the king favored his former favorite and awarded him the Order of St. Stanislav - the highest award empire for civic merit.
21. Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Aleksey Konstantinovich himself, however, did not regret his resignation, he was completely immersed in literary creativity. All the major works of his life were written after these events.
Gogol was also present when the author read the first chapters of the novel "Prince Silver" and approved of it. This novel became the most major work A.K. Tolstoy in the field of prose. It clearly expressed civil position the author - the rejection of tyranny and state despotism.
Of course, Tolstoy idealizes his hero, portraying him as an exceptionally noble person without flaws. But it was important for him to emphasize the difference between the noble knight Prince Serebryany (a fictitious figure) and the tyrant Ivan the Terrible. Of course, in describing the tsar, Tolstoy follows Karamzin, who hated Ivan the Terrible. But the novel is not a history textbook, and Tolstoy presents the Terrible not only as a ruthless despot, creating an extremely tragic, dramatic image the ruler of Russia, who took on too heavy a burden ...
22. Edition
The image of the tsar, indomitable in his rampages, but also suffering from his vices, will be further developed by Tolstoy in his famous dramatic trilogy, in the plays The Death of Ivan the Terrible, Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich and Tsar Boris. In this trilogy, written in the 60s of the 19th century, state despotism is condemned, when both the right and the guilty are placed under the punishing Moloch of autocracy, when human law is violated. But the personality of Grozny himself is contradictory. In any case, after the tragedies of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Tsar Ivan the Terrible will remain so in our memory. No artist succeeded in creating a stronger image of the Terrible after Tolstoy.
23. House-Museum of A. K. Tolstoy in the estate of Krasny Rog
All this: titanic work, turmoil in personal life– could not but affect the health of the writer. He developed severe neuralgia. He was treated, traveled abroad to resorts, but nothing helped. life path Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy was cut off on October 10, 1875 (according to the new style) in his beloved estate Krasny Rog in the Chernigov province (where his only museum in Russia is now located).
Now it is the Bryansk region on the border of Russia and Ukraine. His grave, his work is like a reminder to all of us of our common history about our broken unity.
Slavic singer, best qualities of the Slavic soul Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy remains a knight of our literature and continues to fight for the Slavic world.
_______
The article was published as part of a project funded by state support allocated as a grant in accordance with the order of the President Russian Federation dated 04/05/2016 No. 68-rp and on the basis of a competition held by the "Union of Women of Russia".
24. Ilya Efimovich Repin. Portrait of the writer Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy 1896
Alexei Tolstoy - a writer with a prophetic gift
Today marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding writer and poet Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Alexei Tolstoy came from an ancient and branched Tolstoy family, whose roots go back to the distant 14th century. Among his closest relatives, who gained wide popularity on literary field, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Alexei Konstantinovich, he was a second cousin. Alexey was born on August 24 (September 5), 1817 in St. Petersburg. Despite the fact that the parents separated almost immediately after the birth of their son, and the mother took him to her brother Alexei Perovsky, the boy's childhood was cloudless: “My childhood was very happy and left me with only bright memories.”
Tolstoy recalled that his childhood dreaminess very quickly grew into a penchant for poetry, he began to write poetry from the age of six. His first readers were home, his uncle, who was in the close circle of Nicholas I, he sent his essays by mail. And soon he himself moved to St. Petersburg and became a workmate of the tsar's son, the future Emperor Alexander II.
25. Fedor Petrovich Tolstoy. Family portrait. 1830
26. Fedor Petrovich Tolstoy, artist and sculptor, uncle of the poet. Self-portrait. 1804
The uncles tried to interest his nephew in public service, at the age of 20 he served in the Russian mission at the German Diet in Frankfurt am Main, later he received a service in St. Petersburg at the imperial court, but he was more interested in literary experiments.
27. Anthony Pogorelsky (his real name is Alexey Perovsky)
Uncle Alexey Perovsky, bequeathed his fortune to his nephew, among the inheritance was a big library with books on mysticism and unusual phenomena. Alexei Tolstoy begins to write stories in French on mystical themes that were then fashionable. In Europe and Russia, Gothic literature was a very popular trend.
28. Illustration from the first edition of the book "Ghoul". Alexey Tolstoy
In the story “Ghoul”, the writer put mysticism on Russian soil. Belinsky, having read the story, praised the author, seeing in him "all the signs of a still young, but nevertheless remarkable talent".
Others will be translated into Russian later mystical works Tolstoy, written in French: "The Family of Ghouls" and "Meeting in Three Hundred Years".
It is noteworthy that Tolstoy wrote not only works on the theme of "dark" mysticism, he has a number of works in which his religious feeling found expression. main topic the poems "The Sinner" and "John of Damascus" - the triumph of holiness.
29. A. Kivshenko. Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich puts a golden chain on Boris Godunov
30. Van Vergen. Fedor Ioannovich. Engraving
31. Pavel Orlenev, the first performer of the role of Tsar Fedor on the professional stage, 1898
32. Ivan Moskvin as Tsar Fedor. 1898
33. Boris Glagolin as Fedor. 1901
34. Poster
In the context of spirituality, the historical trilogy "Death of Ivan the Terrible", "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" and "Tsar Boris" should also be considered. For Tolstoy, Russian history is a struggle between good and evil, taking place in the clash of human passions. In the center of the trilogy, Boris Godunov, seeking to get the royal crown at any cost. Writer analysis historical events produces in the space of Christian ethics.
35. Boris Godunov
The trilogy adjoins the novel "Prince Silver", which tells about the times of the oprichnina. As the researchers note, Tolstoy significantly smoothed the horrors of the oprichnina, “cast a shadow on them and showed them, as far as possible in the distance”.
36. "Prince Silver". Illustration by Vyacheslav Schwartz. Procession of Ivan the Terrible to Matins
37. Illustration by Vyacheslav Schwartz. Date of Prince Serebryany with Boyar Morozova
38. Count Alexei Tolstoy "Prince Silver". Edition
Literary critics met the novel ambiguously. In addition to positive feedback, there were also such: “We can’t succeed in a historical novel, and that’s it!”
Many of Tolstoy's works were repeatedly filmed, and his lyrical poems, distinguished by their lightness and clarity, served as an inspiration for a host of Russian composers.
39. Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy. 1870
The death of an outstanding writer was premature. He died in 1875 at the age of 58.
Ivan Turgenev responded to Tolstoy's death in the following way: “He left as a legacy to his compatriots excellent examples of dramas, novels, lyric poems, which - for many years - would be ashamed not to know any educated Russian ... "
Later, in the twentieth century, Joseph Brodsky would call Tolstoy a writer with a prophetic gift: “Given what happened to the country in the 20th century, what his contemporaries took for escapical or nostalgic dreams turned into a warning and a prophecy”.
41. Frederic Chaperon Set design for the Paris production of Don Juan. 1866
42. Permanent literary hero writer "Don Juan, or Punished lecher". 1830-1835
43. Ilya Repin. Don Juan and Dona Anna
44. Singer Giovanni Mario as Don Giovanni in opera of the same name Mozart
45. Singer Francisco d'Andrade as Don Giovanni in Mozart's opera. Max Slevogt, 1902
46. Giulia Grisi as Donna Anna. Portrait from the collection of St. Petersburg State Conservatory named after N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov
47. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to whom Don Giovanni is dedicated, by Barbara Krafft (1764–1825)
48.
Olga Karpova / Stanislav Zotov / Kirill Bragin
"IA REGNUM" / "Century" / "Russian Planet", September 5, 2017
Graph Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy(24 August (5 September) 1817 year, St. Petersburg - September 28 (October 10), 1875, the village of Krasny Rog, Chernigov province - Russian writer, poet, playwright, translator, satirist from the Tolstoy family. Corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy- a classic of Russian literature, one of our largest poets of the second half of XIX centuries, a brilliant playwright, translator, creator of magnificent love lyrics, hitherto unsurpassed satirist poet, who wrote his works both under his real name and under the name invented by Tolstoy together with the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers Kozma Prutkov; finally, Tolstoy - a classic of the national " scary literature”, his stories “Ghoul” and “Ghoul Family” are considered masterpieces of Russian mysticism. The works of A. K. Tolstoy are familiar to us from school. But little is known about the life of the writer himself, paradoxically. The fact is that most of the writer's archives perished in fires, and a significant part of the correspondence was destroyed after Tolstoy's death by his wife. Researchers of the writer's work had to restore the facts of his life literally bit by bit.
The poems written in the folk style with which Tolstoy debuted were especially liked by the Moscow Slavophile circle; in his organ, "Russian Conversation", two poems by Tolstoy appeared: "The Sinner" (1858) and "John of Damascus" (1859). With the termination of the "Russian Conversation" Tolstoy became an active collaborator of the Katkovsky "Russian Messenger", where the dramatic poem "Don Juan" (1862), the historical novel "Prince Silver" (1863) and a number of archaically satirical poems mocking the materialism of the 60s were published. years. In "Notes of the Fatherland" in 1866, the first part of Tolstoy's dramatic trilogy, "The Death of Ivan the Terrible", was published.
IN old Rus' Tolstoy is attracted, however, not by the Moscow period, overshadowed by the cruelty of Grozny, but by Kievan Rus, veche. When Potok the Bogatyr, waking up after a five-century sleep, sees the servility of the crowd in front of the king, he is “surprised at the parable” like this: “if he is a prince, or a king in the end, why are they sweeping the ground in front of him with a beard? We honored princes, but not that way! Yes and complete, am I really in Russia? From the earthly God, the Lord save us! We are commanded by scripture to strictly recognize only heavenly God!" He "tortures a young fellow he meets: where is the veche gathering here, uncle?" In "The Tugarin Snake" Vladimir himself proclaims the following toast: "to the ancient Russian Slavic people, for the bell I drink Novgrad, and even if it falls into dust, let its ringing live in the hearts of descendants. The category of frankly retrograde writers This happened because, leaving the "banner of beauty", he threw himself into the struggle of social trends and very sensitively began to offend the "children" of the Bazarov type.
He didn’t like them mainly because “they don’t tolerate harp chimes, give them bazaar goods, everything they can’t weigh, don’t measure, they all scream, you need to fuck it.” To fight this "dirty teaching" Tolstoy called on "Pantelei the Healer": "And on these people, sovereign Pantelei, do not spare the sticks you bitch." All this aroused in many a hostile attitude towards Tolstoy, and he soon felt himself in the position of a writer driven by criticism. But even in this situation, he defended his opinion.
All works reveal inner world works of the writer, the very essence, the very inner world of Tolstoy as a "singer of beauty" is revealed. In 1862 he published the dramatic poem "Don Juan"; in 1866 - 70 - a historical trilogy, which included the tragedies "The Death of Ivan the Terrible", "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich", "Tsar Boris".
In recent years, he turned to poetry (he wrote ballads and political satires in verse). After retiring, he mostly lived on his estates, paying little attention to the economy, and gradually went bankrupt. His health deteriorated. At the age of 58, A. Tolstoy died on September 28 (October 10 n.s.), 1875, in the estate of the Red Horn of the Chernigov province.
A.K. Tolstoy is truly a creator by nature. He left a great legacy for future generations.
Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875) - Count, Russian poet, writer and playwright.
In Russian literature of the 19th - 20th centuries. three writers are known - Count Tolstoy: Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy ("War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", "Resurrection", etc.) and Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy ("Walking Through Torment", "Peter the Great", " Aelita", "Hyperboloid of engineer Garin", etc.). The earliest of them was A.K. Tolstoy, who was born on September 5, 1817, and L.N. Tolstoy was a second cousin.
A. K. Tolstoy spent his early childhood on his uncle's estate - famous writer, published under the pseudonym "Anthony Pogorelsky", received a good education at home. From the age of 10 he traveled abroad, in 1831 he traveled to Italy. A. K. Tolstoy belonged to the children's environment of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II. In the 1840s, the literary talent of A. K. Tolstoy began to unfold. His first publication - the fantastic story "Ghoul" (1841) was sympathetically received by VG Belinsky. A. K. Tolstoy, in collaboration with the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers, created a parody image of the fictional Kozma Prutkov. His aphorisms still live, although many do not remember who their author is. For example:
- If you read the inscription "buffalo" on the cage of an elephant, do not believe your eyes.
- There is no state in the world freer than ours, which, while enjoying liberal political institutions, obeys at the same time the slightest order of power.
- If you have a fountain, shut it up; let the fountain rest.
- Look at the root! No one will embrace the immensity
- If you want to be happy, be it!
In the 1850s-1860s, A.K. Tolstoy became famous as a lyricist and author of ballads. The lyrical poems of A. K. Tolstoy are distinguished by their simplicity and sincerity. Many of them are, as it were, psychological short stories in verse (“In the midst of a noisy ball, by chance ...”, “That was in early spring”). More than 70 of his poems have been set to music by Russian composers - N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. P. Mussorgsky, A. G. Rubinstein, S. I. Taneyev, S. V. Rakhmanin and others.
In 1861, A. K. Tolstoy retired from court service and focused on literary pursuits. He published the dramatic poem "Don Juan", the historical novel "Prince Silver (The Tale of the Times of Ivan the Terrible)", a dramatic trilogy - the tragedies "The Death of Ivan the Terrible", "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich", "Tsar Boris", still going on in our theaters.
He wrote a number of satirical and humorous poems. One of them is called "The History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev"
The poem has 83 stanzas; in such a small volume, A. K. Tolstoy manages to fit a parody story about all the main symbolic events Russian history: from the calling of the Varangians (860) and the baptism of Rus' - until 1868. Written in 1868, "History ..." first saw the light only 15 years later, after the death of A. K. Tolstoy. The refrain "Our land is rich, there is no order in it" repeated in every couplet has not become outdated so far.
Books available in our library:
- Tolstoy A.K. Favorites - M .: Pravda Publishing House, 1986.
- Tolstoy A.K. Dramatic trilogy. Poems -M .: " Fiction", 1982.
- Tolstoy A.K. Prince Silver. Tsar Fedor Ioannovich - Chelyabinsk: Yuzhno-Uralsk. book. ed., 1983.
