Golgotha ​​of the wife of the fat lion. What do modern descendants of Leo Tolstoy do? Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy personal life

Lev Lvovich Tolstoy was born on May 20, 1869 in Yasnaya Polyana. He was the fourth child in the family. Lev Nikolaevich wrote about his three-year-old son Lev: “Pretty, dexterous, memorable, graceful...”.

Little Leva grew up in close communication with his older brothers and sister. The personality of his father had the greatest influence on him. From the book of memories:

“In early childhood, I adored my father, loved the smell of his beard, loved his hands and voice... As a child, he often carried me on his shoulders around the rooms of the house... often played with me... Only by the age of 17-18, just at that time the time when my father was going through his religious crisis, I began to treat him more consciously and looked in him for answers to the life that was unfolding before me...”

Lev Lvovich in his youth actually repeated his father’s youth. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy wrote in his diary:

“To live honestly, you need to rush, get confused, fight, make mistakes, start and quit and start again and quit again, and always struggle and lose, but calmness is spiritual meanness.”

And the son followed this principle. Without graduating from university, he began self-education. While living in Yasnaya Polyana, he became interested in farming and transforming the lives of serfs. Not satisfied with this work, he entered the active army. Having become a writer that the whole of Russia was talking about, he became interested in the problems of public education and opened his own school. Served as a mediator and juror in court. And all this can be considered Leo Tolstoy’s universities, the main subject of which was life. Lev Lvovich, like his father, was transferred from one faculty to another at the university and, without graduating, like his father, leaving the university, he tried to make a military career. Unlike his father, he served for only a short time, but managed to undermine his health. But the main thing was his literary activity, in which he wanted to surpass his father.

Friends of the family often visited the Tolstoys' house: the poet Fet, the Tula vice-governor Urusov, the writer Turgenev, the artists Kramskoy and Repin. Their conversations with Tolstoy influenced the formation of the personality of his children.

He wrote his first stories while still a student. In 1891, his stories “Montecristo” and “Love” were published in the magazines “Rodnik” and “Books of the Week” under the pseudonym Lvov L.

In the period from 1893 to 1896, after realizing the futility of many of his endeavors, Lev Lvovich fell into depression. He was treated by different doctors in Moscow and St. Petersburg. On the recommendation of doctors, Tolstoy in 1896 was sent for treatment to Finland, to the clinic of Dr. Westerlund, whose method contributed to his physical recovery. His spiritual rebirth occurred thanks to his marriage to the daughter of his doctor, Dora Fedorovna. The Tolstoys arrived in Yasnaya Polyana on September 1, 1896.

The family life of Lev and Dora Tolstoy in the first decade after their marriage proceeded quite well.

Dora had to get used to living conditions that were new to her in the Russian village, where everything was different. Dora wrote:

“Yesterday evening a large crowd of women from the village poured in. They danced, sang and loudly called Leva and me. Finally they gave me a colorfully dressed rooster and a scarf full of eggs. For this they were given 4 rubles (obviously the main purpose of their visit) and, finally, they were sent home. Everything was very solemn. But I was completely deaf from all this noise. What a living people they are, apparently, but, God forbid, how sloppy they are! I don’t want to talk about this house and the estate, about everything here, but, between us, it’s not very neat here, and the village is OH! OH! OH! Little unkempt houses with thatched roofs and little, little rooms filled with people and stuff.”

The young were given the Kuzminsky outbuilding, previously renovated by the young owner. Lev Lvovich threw himself headlong into arranging his family nest. He recalled this:

“That same winter, Dora’s dowry arrived from Sweden, and I sent about thirty peasant sleighs to the Shchekino station for it. When this entire long convoy was ascending to the Yasnaya Polyana estate along Prishpekt... Lev Nikolaevich himself, going out for his walk, accidentally met him and was shocked by his appearance. "What is this?" - he asked the men in surprise. “Dowry of the young Countess Dora Fedorovna. Le Leulich hired us.” The father looked at the mountains of things in horror, shook his head and silently moved on. In the evening, he bitterly and condemningly reproached me for bringing so many unnecessary things to Yasnaya. “Why all these things? More luxury next to poverty?

I explained that Dora needed them and that this was her dowry. Among all these things, he later especially hated the anti-macassars with which Dora covered the backs of the chairs to save them from fat nape. The poor anti-Makassars were for my father a symbol of the insane and harmful European culture.”

All these years, despite his painful condition, Lev Lvovich continued to search for himself in the literary field. He wrote stories, novellas, stories for children, published in various magazines. He enters Russian literary circles, meets writers and publishers of various magazines.

Count Tolstoy did not always like what came from his son’s pen. But soon Tolstoy and his son improved their relationship. Although Leo Tolstoy could not accept the luxury of the environment in which his son’s family lived, he tried to restrain himself. When Lev Lvovich returned to Yasnaya Polyana after a short absence in March 1900, Tolstoy wrote to his brother:

“Lyova arrived yesterday. He took his sick wife and children to his father-in-law in Sweden and came himself. He is a strict vegetarian, a hygienist, sleeps with the windows open in winter and is healthy. But the good thing, the main thing, is that he is very good-natured and gentle, and I feel good with him.”

And Tolstoy became more lenient towards his son’s works.

In Yasnaya Polyana, the Tolstoys lived inconsistently: they traveled to Moscow, Sweden, Italy, France, and St. Petersburg. In 1898, their first child was born, named Leo. The joy of communicating with the first-born was short-lived - in 1900 the child died...

The famous photograph "Three Lions". Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, his son Lev Lvovich and grandson Lev. Photo of 1898 from the archives of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum

Tolstoy wrote a lot, published, and his plays were staged in theaters. In 1904, he founded the “Good Deed” bookstore and warehouse and purchased a house in the center of St. Petersburg. Together with his family, he often traveled to Sweden, where his sons and daughters were born. Russia, no matter how hard Dora Feodorovna tried to understand and love her, remained a foreign land for her.

Fact

"Chopin's Prelude"

In 1898, Lev Lvovich wrote the story “Chopin’s Prelude,” the title of which is reminiscent of his father’s story “The Kreutzer Sonata.” Back in the early 90s, the young count tried to follow what his father called for in the story: live peacefully, don’t smoke, don’t drink wine, and respect female beauty. Almost 10 years later, his views changed and in “Chopin’s Prelude” he criticized his father’s views. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “Leva started talking about his story. I told him in pain that what he did was just uncivilized (his favorite thing), not to mention stupid and incompetent.”

“My sculpture is moving. They praise me. If God gives me strength, I will leave more in sculpture than in literature.” On April 5, 1911, he wrote to Yasnaya Polyana from New York: “I donated a bronze bust of my father to the local museum. Received with gratitude. He sold his father's other head to a bronze shop, the best in America. Everyone sincerely loves and understands their father.”

During his visits to Yasnaya Polyana he made a bust of the cook Rumyantsev (pictured).

In 1909, the count's family life was under threat. In a Parisian art workshop, he fell in love with Giselle Bunod Varilla.

A double life began between family and new love. Dora was very worried. The relationship with Giselle lasted about a year... But soon life returned to normal.

Dora Feodorovna and Lev Lvovich Tolstoy in Egypt. Photo from 1904

After the death of his father, Lev Lvovich decided to end his life abroad and settle in St. Petersburg. But he did not receive satisfaction from a measured lifestyle. On January 17, 1912, he writes to his mother from St. Petersburg:

“...Our life goes on as usual. The children are learning, the Russian language is getting better for Petya and, to some extent, Nina. The older ones speak and study very well. They are highly praised at the Tenishev School. I'm still bad. Bad, God knows why. Everything seems to mean nothing but family. But one family is again not enough... Half a life...”

At this time, he found an outlet in his “empty and soulless” life in a card game. On one of his visits to Yasnaya Polyana in 1914, Sofya Andreevna wrote in her diary: “Dora says that Lyova lost about 50 thousand. Poor, pregnant, caring Dora!

When the First World War began, Dora Feodorovna and her children left for Sweden, and Lev Lvovich, under the influence of patriotic feelings, remained in Russia. The departure of his wife greatly cooled Tolstoy’s feelings, but he continued to communicate with his family, traveled to Sweden, and met with his children. Dora Feodorovna still had hope for the possibility of saving her family and came to Russia. But her husband’s heart had already been occupied by another woman, the former governess of the children of his brother Mikhail Tolstoy, Madeleine. The connection with her was short-lived.

On September 22, 1918, Tolstoy received permission to enter Sweden for two days to see his children. On September 24, 1918, he left Petrograd, and with it Russia forever. After meeting with his family, Tolstoy moved to Germany. Here he had to earn his livelihood by literary work, and then by serving on the railway. At this time he was no longer alone. After divorcing Dora Feodorovna in 1916 and breaking off relations with Madeleine, he married Marianna Solskaya and had a son, Ivan, with her. But this marriage did not bring him joy either and already in 1923 it broke up.

Lev Lvovich wanted to reunite with his family, but Dora Feodorovna considered this impossible. She did not want to see him even when, after a car accident, she lay motionless until her death in 1933. Not only her ex-wife, but also her children did not want to meet him.

Of all his children, Lev Lvovich corresponded only with his second son Nikita. In 1936, Nikita Tolstoy and other children of Lev Lvovich insisted on their father’s arrival in Sweden. After some hesitation, he accepted their offer. By this time, Tolstoy already had five grandchildren: his son Peter - Leo and Peter and his daughter Nina had three sons: Christian, Wilhelm and Stefan.

Wedding of the daughter of Tatyana Tolstoy and German Paus. Lev Lvovich Tolstoy is second to the left of his daughter. Photo 1940

After 18 years of wandering, Lev Lvovich again found his large family. He continued to visit Paris and Rome, lived in expensive hotels, and played. The last years of his life he tried to continue to engage in literature, sculpture, and painting. In a letter to his son Nikita, he seemed to sum up his existence: “My life was unlucky or dissolute and bad.” In the winter of 1938, already sick and old, Lev Lvovich decided to finally settle in Sweden. He died in Helsingborg on October 18, 1945.

did you know that

Lev Lvovich Tolstoy had ten children.

From marriage to Dora Fedorovna Westerlund:

• Leo (1898-1900),
• Pavel (1900-1992), agronomist,
• Nikita (1902-1992), Doctor of Philology and Economics, taught at Uppsala University,
• Peter (1905-1970),
• Nina (1908—1987),
• Sophia (1908-2006), artist,
• Fedor (1912-1956),
• Tatiana (1914—2007), artist,
• Daria (1915-1970).

From marriage to Marianna Nikolaevna Solskaya:

• Ivan (1924-1945).

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 great 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

On September 9, 1828, the future writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born in Yasnaya Polyana (Tula province, Russia). He was the fourth child in a large noble family. In 1830, when Tolstoy's mother, née Princess Volkonskaya, died, his 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 their 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 succeed in his studies - low grades forced him to transfer to an easier law faculty. Further difficulties in his studies led Tolstoy to eventually leave the Imperial Kazan University in 1847 without a degree. He returned to his parents' estate, where he planned to start farming. However, this endeavor also 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 much of Leo Tolstoy's writing.

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

One day, Tolstoy’s elder brother, Nikolai, during his army leave, came to visit Lev, 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 years as a cadet in the army, Tolstoy had a lot of free time. During quiet periods, he worked on an autobiographical story called Childhood. In it, he wrote about his favorite childhood memories. In 1852, Tolstoy sent a story to Sovremennik, the most popular magazine of the time. The story was happily accepted, and it became Tolstoy's first publication. From that time on, critics put him on a par with already famous writers, among whom were Ivan Turgenev (with whom Tolstoy became friends), Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Ostrovsky and others.

After completing his story “Childhood,” Tolstoy began writing about his daily life at an army outpost in the Caucasus. The work “Cossacks”, which he began during his army years, was completed only in 1862, after he had already left the army.

Surprisingly, Tolstoy managed to continue writing while actively fighting in the Crimean War. During this time he wrote Boyhood (1854), a sequel to Childhood, the second book in Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy. At the height of the Crimean War, Tolstoy expressed his views on the startling contradictions of the war through a trilogy of works, Sevastopol Tales. In the second book of Sevastopol Stories, 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 school of philosophy. 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 managed to publish 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. That 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 working on his first famous novel, War and Peace. Part of the novel was first published in “Russian Bulletin” in 1865 under the title “1805”. By 1868 he had published three more chapters. A year later, the novel was completely finished. Both critics and the public debated the historical accuracy of the novel's Napoleonic Wars, coupled with the development of the stories of its thoughtful and realistic, yet still 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 belief that a person’s position in society and the meaning of human life are mainly derived from 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 of the biographical events in Tolstoy's own life, most notably in the romantic relationship between the characters Kitty and Levin, which is said to be reminiscent of Tolstoy's courtship with his own wife.

The first lines of the book “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 royalties received for the novel quickly 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 Leo Tolstoy's biography is characterized by the 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 Christian churches were corrupt and, instead of organized religion, promoted their own beliefs. He decided to express these beliefs by founding a new publication in 1883 called The Mediator.
As a result, for his unconventional and controversial 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 unnecessary, his wife was categorically against this. Not wanting to escalate the situation, Tolstoy reluctantly agreed to a compromise: he transferred the copyright and, apparently, all royalties on his work until 1881 to his wife.

Late fiction

In addition to his religious treatises, Tolstoy continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. The genres of his later work included morality tales and realistic fiction. One of the most successful of his later works was the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” written in 1886. The main character tries his best to fight the death hanging over him. In short, Ivan Ilyich is horrified by the realization that he wasted his life on trifles, but the realization of this comes to him too late.

In 1898, Tolstoy wrote the story “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 it is unlikely that this success matched 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 did not agree with his teachings, she did not approve of his students, who regularly visited Tolstoy on the family estate. In an effort to avoid his wife's growing discontent, Tolstoy and his youngest daughter Alexandra went on pilgrimage in October 1910. Alexandra was the doctor for her elderly father during the trip. Trying not to expose their private lives, they traveled incognito, hoping to evade unnecessary questions, but sometimes this was to no avail.

Death and legacy

Unfortunately, the pilgrimage proved too onerous for the aging writer. In November 1910, the head of the small Astapovo railway station opened the doors of his house to Tolstoy so that the ailing writer could rest. Shortly after this, 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 one of the best 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 subtlety of which he championed by emphasizing the role of everyday actions in determining the character and goals of people.

Chronological table

Quest

We have prepared an interesting quest about the life of Lev Nikolaevich - go through it.

Biography test

How well do you know Tolstoy’s short biography? Test your knowledge:

Biography score

New feature! The average rating this biography received. Show rating

In the history of Russian culture, there is hardly a woman who played a very noticeable role in it, but left behind such contradictory opinions as Sofia Tolstaya - the wife of Leo Tolstoy, the great writer, whose work became a kind of era in Russian literature. Let's try to figure out how she lived her life and form our own unbiased opinion about her.

Family connections of Sofia Andreevna

The wife of the great Russian writer Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Sofya Andreevna, was the daughter of the actual state councilor Andrei Evstafievich Bers, who came from a German noble family who settled in Moscow, and Lyubov Alexandrovna Islavina, who came from a merchant family. Such a marriage was considered a clear misalliance (unequal) and could indicate either the ardent love of the groom or his financial difficulties.

Sofya Andreevna Bers was born on August 22, 1844 at a dacha near Moscow, which her parents rented every summer. Her family connections are very remarkable. It is known that on her father’s side she was the great-granddaughter of Pyotr Vasilyevich Zavadovsky, one of the countless favorites of Catherine II and who was Russia’s first minister of education. She was also distantly related to the classic of Russian literature Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, but this is a special story.

The fact is that her father served for some time as a house doctor for the writer’s mother ─ the rich Moscow lady Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva, and took such diligent care of her flesh that she found herself in an “interesting situation” and gave birth to a daughter from him, named after her mother , Varvara.

This girl became a family link between Sofia Andreevna (since they had a common father) and the writer I. S. Turgenev, since she was his half-sister. In addition, in a legal marriage, Andrei Evstafievich became the father of two more daughters and five sons. So Sophia Bers had plenty of brothers and sisters.

The early years of Sophia Bers

In accordance with the tradition accepted in noble families, the young girl received her education at home, for which her parents hired first-class teachers. The level of knowledge she acquired is evidenced by the fact that in 1861, that is, barely reaching the age of 17, she successfully passed the exams at Moscow University and received a diploma as a home teacher.

The chairman of the examination committee, Professor N. S. Tikhonravov, especially noted the essay presented to her on a given topic. It was called "Music". There is a lot of evidence that Sofya Andreevna Bers had a literary gift from birth and began writing stories at an early age. However, her talent was fully revealed when writing personal diaries, which are recognized as real works of the memoir genre.

Options for upcoming marriage

The age difference between Sophia Bers and Lev Nikolaevich was 16 years, and he, already an adult, knew her as a child, but, returning to Moscow after a trip to Western Europe, which the count undertook at the end of the Crimean War, he met a fully formed and very attractive girl.

During the same period, a rapprochement occurred again between both families, who had previously communicated closely with each other, but were then separated by circumstances. The Berses considered Lev Nikolayevich as a quite suitable groom, but they intended him to be the husband of their eldest daughter Elizabeth, and it is known that the count himself quite seriously considered this option. However, fate decreed otherwise.

The event that determined the rest of her life was the meeting of Sophia Bers with her future husband in August 1862, when, on the way to Ivitsy (the estate of Alexander Mikhailovich Islenyev’s grandfather), she and her whole family stopped at Yasnaya Polyana - an estate that belonged to the Tolstoy family and was located in 14 kilometers from Tula. Since this family nest played an important role in the future fate of Sofia Andreevna, let us dwell in more detail on its history.

An estate that went down in the history of Russian culture

The estate was founded back in the 17th century, and its first owners were the Kartsev boyars. From them the estate passed to the Volkonskys, and then the Tolstoys became its owners - representatives of an ancient and very extensive noble family, which originated, as they claimed, from a certain Indris, apparently a fictitious native of the Holy Roman Empire, who settled in Rus' in the 14th century. century.

This estate has become an integral part of Russian culture, since it was here that Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on August 28 (September 9), 1828. Here he wrote his main works and was buried after his death in 1910. As for its architectural appearance, the estate owes it to the writer’s grandfather N.S. Volkonsky, who carried out a major reconstruction of it.

Groom's pre-wedding revelations

It is known, by the way, that before connecting his life with his future wife, Tolstoy gave her his own diary to read, containing a detailed description of his former bachelor life. He motivated this act by the desire to be completely honest and frank with his chosen one.

It is difficult to say whether this chivalrous act raised him in the eyes of his bride. From what she read, Sophia learned not only about the groom’s passion for gambling, which he indulged in at every opportunity, but also about his numerous love affairs, among which was a relationship with a peasant girl who was expecting a child from him.

Brought up in a purely puritanical spirit, Sofya Andreevna was extremely shocked by such revelations, but was able to control herself and not show it. However, throughout her subsequent married life, memories of what she read left an imprint on her attitude towards her husband.

Wedding and anticipation of future happiness

Having visited Yasnaya Polyana in August 1862, Sofya Andreevna received a marriage proposal from its owner, 34-year-old Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, less than a month later. To make it, he followed her to Ivica, where a ball was held on the occasion of their engagement, and a week later the count led his happy bride down the aisle. From later records it is known that, in addition to her external charm, Sophia captivated him with her spontaneity, combined with simplicity and clarity of judgment.

Such a short period between the engagement and the wedding (only a week) was explained by the count’s impatience, to whom it seemed that he had finally found the ideal woman he had long dreamed of. It is also important to note such a detail that in his perception of the young bride, the image of his deceased mother, whom he lost at the age of 2, but despite this, loved immensely, played an important role.

Despite his considerable life experience, the count was an idealist in his own way and expected that his wife would be able to compensate for the lack of warmth that he lost with the death of his mother. He wanted to see his chosen one not only as a faithful wife and caring mother of future children, but also, importantly, as a close assistant in literary creativity, capable of fully appreciating her husband’s gift as a writer.

Hope for future happiness was instilled in him by the bride’s desire to withdraw from the splendor of secular society, in which she was accepted thanks to the position that her father occupied by that time, and to devote herself entirely to life next to him in the quiet of a country estate. Family, children, housekeeping and caring for her husband ─ this is the circle of interests beyond which Sofya Andreevna, in her own words, did not want to go.

Family holidays of the Tolstoys

Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya (after the wedding she took her husband’s surname), becoming the mistress of Yasnaya Polyana, created a special world on the estate, filled with family traditions. They manifested themselves especially clearly during various holidays, which they loved very much here and for which they thoroughly prepared. Two miles from the estate was the St. Nicholas Church, to which the couple often went for liturgy. The subsequently published diaries of Sofia Tolstoy contain colorful descriptions of the celebrations held in Yasnaya Polyana on Easter, Trinity and, especially, Christmas.

These winter days were always filled with the magical charm of a Christmas tree, personally brought from the forest and decorated with gilded nuts, animal figures that children cut out of cardboard, as well as multi-colored wax candles. The crowning glory of the holiday was the masquerade. All residents of Yasnaya Polyana became its participants. Sofia Tolstaya invariably invited to the hall not only guests who came from neighboring estates, but also courtyard people with their children, since the Nativity of the Savior, in her conviction, united all people, regardless of their social status. Her husband shared the same opinion.

An indispensable attribute of all the festivities held in the family of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy and her husband Lev Nikolaevich was a pie prepared according to a special recipe brought from abroad by their good friend Dr. Anke. Named "Ankovsky Pie" in his honor, it was a constant success among guests at home. In the summer, winter pleasures gave way to swimming in the river, tennis, picnics and mushroom hunting.

Everyday life of family

So their family life began cloudlessly. The first serious disagreement between the spouses occurred after the birth of their first-born Seryozha in 1863. For a number of reasons, Sofya Tolstaya could not feed the baby herself and hired a wet nurse. Lev Nikolaevich categorically opposed this decision, citing the fact that in this case the children of this woman herself would be left without milk. The quarrel was soon settled, but, as it turned out later, it was the first crack in their relationship.

In the same year, Tolstoy began work on his most ambitious work, War and Peace. Sofya Andreevna, barely recovered from childbirth and burdened with many household chores that fell entirely on her shoulders, nevertheless found time to help her husband. Her role in her husband’s work is truly invaluable.

It is known that Lev Nikolaevich had disgusting handwriting, and his wife had to completely rewrite his manuscripts. After that, he looked through them, corrected them, returned them to her, and everything started all over again. It is known that she completely rewrote the novel “War and Peace” seven (!) times and at the same time did not abandon her main responsibilities related to the household and children, which grew more and more from year to year.

Breakdown in the relationship between spouses

Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya was very successful in childbearing, giving birth to thirteen children, five of whom died in infancy. The rest, having reached adulthood, took a worthy position in Russian society. They all received an excellent education at home, and she was their main teacher.

It is generally accepted that the first two decades of their married life passed without clouds, and the breakdown in relations began only in the 80s, when Lev Nikolaevich began to try to implement his new philosophical ideas in his personal life. However, from the diaries of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy it is clear that a few years earlier he openly and rather sharply expressed his dissatisfaction with life, which offended her greatly. Having devoted herself entirely to her husband, she had the right to count on a more tactful assessment of her work on his part.

The previously brewing crisis in their relationship worsened after Lev Nikolaevich, in accordance with his new philosophical views, began to increasingly go beyond the traditions accepted in the part of society to which they belonged. When her husband began to dress in peasant clothes, plow the land with his own hands, make boots and call on all family members to “settle down” like him, she remained silent and endured it as the eccentricity of a genius.

But after he decided to give up the estate and all the property they had acquired in favor of the village residents, and move to a peasant hut himself to live “by the labor of his own hands,” Sofya Tolstaya rebelled. She always sincerely tried to make life easier for the peasants. She helped them solve various problems, treated and taught their children, but the madness that gripped her husband overflowed her patience.

Further aggravation of the family crisis

From the memoirs of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy, it is known that she was deeply offended by the knowledge that her husband, who felt, in his words, “guilt before humanity,” did not feel it before her. To please his own ideas, he was ready to destroy the entire world that she had created for him and the children for many years. Moreover, Tolstoy demanded from his wife not only unconditional submission, but also internal acceptance of his philosophy.

His wife’s refusal to share his philosophical views and follow them in real life became the reason for quarrels that became more frequent every day, which over time grew into banal family scandals that poisoned the existence of both spouses. After one of these stormy scenes, Lev Nikolaevich, slamming the door, left the house and did not appear in Yasnaya Polyana for several days. When he finally returned, he further aggravated the tension in the family by removing Sophia Tolstoy from rewriting his manuscripts and entrusting this work to his daughters, which offended her a lot.

On the verge of breaking

In 1888, their last son, seven-year-old Vanya, whom Sofya Andreevna especially loved, died suddenly. This tragedy completely undermined her moral strength. The gap that separated the spouses became increasingly insurmountable, and it is not surprising that she began to look outside the family for satisfaction of her spiritual needs.

One of her long-time hobbies was music. She was once known as a good pianist, but years filled with caring for her family and copying her husband’s countless manuscripts left their mark. As a result, the previous skill was lost. Wanting to somehow unwind and find peace of mind, Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, whose children were already grown up and did not require her constant presence, began regularly taking music lessons from the then fashionable pianist and amateur court composer Alexander Taneyev ─ the father of the famous maid of honor Anna Vyrubova (Taneeva).

Evil tongues at that time claimed that the teacher and the student were connected by stronger feelings than a common love of music. Perhaps there was some truth in this, but in their relationship they did not cross a certain line, especially since both were no longer young. But Lev Nikolaevich believed the rumors, and scenes of jealousy were added to the previous scandals. In turn, Sofya Andreevna, whose grievances resulted in a kind of manic obsession, began secretly looking through her husband’s diaries, hoping to find abuse in them about herself. Thus, life in the house became unbearable.

End of the couple's life

The denouement of the tragedy came on one of the October nights of 1910. After another ugly scene, Tolstoy packed his things and left, leaving his wife a farewell letter full of undeserved reproaches. It ended with the assurance that, with all his love for her, he could no longer remain in the family and was leaving forever. Struck by grief, Sofya Andreevna tried to drown herself, and only thanks to a happy accident, courtyard people who happened to be near the pond saved her from death.

A few days after this, a message was received in Yasnaya Polyana that Lev Nikolaevich was seriously ill with pneumonia and was at the Astapovo station, in almost hopeless condition. Unhappy Sofya Andreevna, together with her children, immediately went to the indicated address and found her husband already unconscious, lying in the stationmaster’s house. On November 7, 1910, he died without regaining consciousness.

Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, whose years of life were filled with the desire to protect her husband from all everyday worries and create conditions for him to create, was very upset about his loss. Death displaced the memory of the grievances she had experienced from her consciousness and left only an unhealed wound in her heart. She spent the final stage of her life in Yasnaya Polyana and devoted it to publishing, publishing the collected works of her husband and her correspondence with him. Having outlived her husband by nine years, Sofya Andreevna died in 1919. At the Kochakovsky cemetery, near Yasnaya Polyana, where Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya is buried, a simple wooden cross was erected, since the difficult post-revolutionary times did not allow thinking about installing a monument.

Afterword

In view of the contribution that Lev Nikolaevich made to Russian culture, an entire section of Russian literary criticism is devoted to the study of his work and life, an integral part of which is Tolstoy’s wife, Sofya Andreevna (maiden name Bers). Many research works have been written about her and the influence she had on her husband’s work, in which she is sometimes given a very ambiguous assessment.

Reproaches are often made against her that she allegedly turned out to be too “down-to-earth”, unable to fully comprehend the scale of her husband’s genius and become a full-fledged support in his work. One can hardly agree with such judgments, since, as stated above, she made every effort to ensure that he could write without wasting mental strength and time on momentary everyday problems.

In addition, one must take into account the colossal work that she did, rewriting his works by hand many times. Despite the fact that the biography of Sophia Tolstoy has been studied very thoroughly, the role of this woman in the life of the writer still requires deeper understanding.

In the comments to my previous post several times I came across phrases like “the only thing missing here is Tolstoy!”, “If Tolstoy were here, I would give Lermontov a head start” and others. I scoured the Internet and, in my opinion, I didn’t find anything so terrifying)) well, yes, a Don Juan, a womanizer and even a misogynist, as it seemed to me))) But our sister in those days was often underestimated by the male part of society... About everything in order. Firstly, have you ever seen Tolstoy without a beard?))

↓↓↓

1848-1849, beardless)))

1856. I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev (Gossip Van Love), L. N. Tolstoy, D. V. Grigorovich, A. V. Druzhinin and A. N. Ostrovsky. Mustache!

aka (1856) - MUSTACHS!

1862 - this is so far... by Tolstoy's standards - a beard)))

From photos to words!

♦ Leo Tolstoy was an amorous man. Even before his marriage, he had numerous relationships of a prodigal nature. He got along with the female servants in the house, and with peasant women from subordinate villages, and with gypsies. He even seduced his aunt’s maid, the innocent peasant girl Glasha. When the girl became pregnant, the owner kicked her out, and her relatives did not want to accept her. And, probably, Glasha would have died if Tolstoy’s sister had not taken her to her. (Perhaps it was this incident that formed the basis of the novel “Sunday”). Tolstoy then made a promise to himself: “I won’t have a single woman in my village, except for some cases that I won’t look for, but I won’t miss.”

♦ Lev Nikolaevich’s relationship with the peasant woman Aksinya Bazykina was especially long and strong. Their relationship lasted three years, although Aksinya was a married woman. Tolstoy described this in his story “The Devil.” When Lev Nikolaevich wooed his future wife Sophia Bers, he still maintained contact with Aksinya, who became pregnant.
♦ Before his marriage, Tolstoy gave his diaries to read to the bride, in which he openly described all his love interests, which shocked the inexperienced girl. She remembered this all her life. Eighteen-year-old wife Sonya was inexperienced and cold in intimate relationships, which upset her experienced thirty-four-year-old husband. During his wedding night, it even seemed to him that he was hugging not his wife, but a porcelain doll.

♦ Leo Tolstoy was not an angel. He cheated on his wife even during her pregnancy. Justifying himself through the mouth of Stiva in the novel Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy admits: “What should I do, tell me what to do? Your wife is getting old, but you are full of life. Before you know it, you already feel that you cannot love your wife with love, no matter how much you respect her. And then suddenly love turns up, and you’re gone, gone!”

♦ At the end of 1899, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “The main reason for family unhappiness is that people are brought up in the idea that marriage brings happiness. Marriage is lured by sexual desire, which takes the form of a promise, a hope for happiness, which is supported by public opinion and literature; but marriage is not only not happiness, but always suffering, with which a person pays for satisfied sexual desire.”

♦ Alexander Goldenweiser wrote: “Over the years, Tolstoy expresses his opinions about women more and more often. These opinions are terrible."

“If a comparison is needed, then marriage should be compared with a funeral, and not with a name day,” said Leo Tolstoy. “The man was walking alone; five pounds were tied to his shoulders, and he was happy. What can I say, that if I walk alone, then I am free, but if my leg is tied to a woman’s leg, then she will drag behind me and interfere with me.
- Why did you get married? – asked the Countess.
– I didn’t know this then.
“It means you are constantly changing your beliefs.”
– Two people who are strangers meet each other, and they remain strangers for the rest of their lives. ... Of course, whoever wants to get married, let him get married. Maybe he will be able to arrange his life well. But let him only look at this step as a fall, and put all his care only into making their joint existence as happy as possible.”

♦ At the end of his life, Tolstoy experienced a collapse. His ideas about family happiness collapsed. Leo Tolstoy was unable to change the life of his family in accordance with his views. In accordance with his teachings, Tolstoy tried to get rid of attachment to loved ones, tried to be evenly friendly to everyone.Sofya Andreevna, on the contrary, maintained a warm attitude towards her husband, but hated Tolstoy’s teaching with all the strength of her soul.

–You will wait to be led to prison on a rope! - Sofya Andreevna scared.
“That’s all I need,” Lev Nikolaevich answered calmly.

♦ For the last fifteen years of his life, Tolstoy thought about becoming a wanderer. But he did not dare to leave his family, the value of which he preached in his life and in his work. Under the influence of like-minded people, Leo Tolstoy renounced copyright on works created by him after 1891. In 1895, Tolstoy formulated his will in the event of death in his diary. He advised his heirs to give up copyright on his works. “If you do this,” Tolstoy wrote, “it will be good. It will be good for you too; if you don’t do it, that’s your business. That means you are not ready to do it. The fact that my works have been sold these last 10 years has been the hardest thing in my life.” ". Tolstoy transferred all his rights to property to his wife. Sofya Andreevna wanted to become the heir to everything created by her great husband. And that was a lot of money at that time. It was because of this that the family conflict broke out. There was no longer any spiritual closeness and mutual understanding between the spouses. The interests and values ​​of the family came first for Sofia Andreevna. She took care of the financial support of her children.And Tolstoy dreamed of giving everything away and becoming a wanderer.

♦ Further - in her own words: Sofya Andreevna was practically crazy, the doctors diagnosed: “a degenerative dual constitution: paranoid and hysterical, with a predominance of the first.” And 82-year-old Tolstoy suffered for his own reasons, could not stand it (he even began to fear for his life) and in the middle of the night, with the help of his daughter, he escaped: he wanted to go to Kakaz, but fell ill on the way, got off at the Astapovo station and after some time died in the apartment of the station chief . Being near death, he asked not to let his wife come to him. In his delirium, he imagined that his wife was pursuing him and wanted to take him home, where Tolstoy terribly did not want to return. And Sofya Andreevna was very upset by the death of her husband and even wanted to commit suicide. At the end of her life, Sofya Andreevna confessed to her daughter: “Yes, I lived with Lev Nikolaevich for forty-eight years, but I never found out what kind of person he was...”

This is about love and love things. Now more familiar and familiar facts:

♦ From his youth, the future genius of Russian literature was quite passionate. Once, in a card game with his neighbor, the landowner Gorokhov, Leo Tolstoy lost the main building of his inherited estate - the Yasnaya Polyana estate. The neighbor dismantled the house and took it 35 miles away as a trophy.

♦ The great writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy had a huge interest in India and Vedic philosophy, much deeper than what was accepted by his contemporaries. Tolstoy’s ideas of non-resistance to evil through violence, set out in the writer’s works, had a strong influence on the young Mahatma Gandhi, who later led the nationalist movement of India and achieved its peaceful separation from England in 1947.

♦ Tolstoy communicated with Chekhov and Gorky. He also knew Turgenev, but the writers failed to become friends - after a quarrel based on their beliefs, they did not speak for many years, and it almost came to a duel.

♦ In October 1885, during a conversation with Vilchm Frey L.N. Tolstoy first learned about the preaching of vegetarianism and immediately accepted this teaching. After realizing the knowledge he had gained, Tolstoy immediately gave up meat and fish. Soon his daughters, Tatyana and Maria Tolstoy, followed his example.

♦ Leo Tolstoy called himself a Christian until the end of his days, although he was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church. This did not prevent him from becoming seriously interested in the occult in the 70s. When Tolstoy died, it was the first public funeral of a famous person in Russia that was not held according to the Orthodox rite (without priests and prayers, without candles and icons)

♦ Leo Tolstoy, instead of a pectoral cross, wore a portrait of the French enlightener J.J. Rousseau.

♦ It is believed that the Tolstoyan movement (of which, for example, Bulgakov was a supporter) was founded by Leo Tolstoy himself. This is wrong. Lev Nikolevich treated with caution, if not disgust, the numerous organizations of people who considered themselves his followers.

And a little more lust:

♦ Tolstoy first learned the joys of carnal love at the age of 14 with a luxurious, curvy 25-year-old maid. Then for twenty years Tolstoy dreamed of love and a family idyll and struggled with the temptations of the flesh. They say that Lev Nikolaevich once asked Chekhov: “Were you very promiscuous in your youth?” While Anton Pavlovich mumbled something, Tolstoy said contritely: “I was tireless.” There are still publications about the writer’s illegitimate descendants.

♦ They say that on the day of his wedding Leo Tolstoy managed to remain shirtless. All things were packed for the departure of the newlyweds; the shops were closed on Sunday. The groom was eagerly awaited in the church, and he rushed around the house, looking for a shirt and imagining with horror what the bride would think of him.

P.S. A similar story happened to my husband on his wedding day - he didn’t lose his shirt, but found it dirty, because the day before he washed his car at the car wash and water somehow leaked into the interior, where his suit and shirt were hanging on a hanger. Our wedding was in a small city that was little known to him, and he and his friends spent the whole morning looking for a store and a new white shirt) In the end, we bought some for 400 rubles)))) a suit for thousands of millions, and a shirt for pennies )

August 28, old style (and September 9, new style) marks the 190th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. His creative heritage is truly priceless. However, there were also his very real heirs - children born in marriage with Sofia Andreevna Bers. Of the writer’s 13 children, only 8 survived to adulthood. How did their destinies turn out and what mark did they leave on history and literature?

Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy, born in 1863

The first-born extremely pleased his father with his talents and similarities with the writer’s older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich. He learned the basics of science at home, and later passed the matriculation exams at the Tula gymnasium. He graduated from Moscow University with the title of Candidate of Sciences, having brilliantly defended his work on heavy petroleum oils. At the same time, he improved in music, mastering not only playing technique, but also theory, harmony, and Russian song.

Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy.

Sergei Lvovich became famous as a talented composer, musical ethnographer and author of articles and teaching materials. He was a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Afterwards, he worked on preserving his father’s legacy, writing memoirs and articles about the role of music in the life of Leo Tolstoy under the pseudonym S. Brodinsky. He spent every summer in Yasnaya Polyana. He was married twice, in his first marriage a son, Sergei, was born.

Sergei Lvovich died at the age of 84 in Moscow.

Tatyana Lvovna Sukhotina (nee Tolstaya), born in 1864.

Leo Tolstoy wrote about his special closeness with Tatyana and her ability to create a cheerful, friendly atmosphere around herself.

Tatyana studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Subsequently, she painted about 30 graphic portraits of her father. Having inherited his writing talent, she published her own diary, which she kept from the age of 14, a series of essays and memoirs. She was the caretaker of the Tolstoy House Museum.

1870 Children of Lev Nikolaevich: Ilya, Lev, Tatyana and Sergei. / Photo: from the non-memorial fund of the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate, countertype from a photograph by F. I. Khodasevich, www.myslo.ru

In 1925, she emigrated with her daughter Tatyana, born in marriage to Mikhail Sukhotin, leader of the district nobility and member of the first State Duma.

Tatyana Lvovna died at the age of 85 in Rome.

Ilya Lvovich Tolstoy, born in 1866

Ilya caused a lot of trouble to his parents in childhood, diligently violating prohibitions and not showing any talent for science. However, it was him who Leo Tolstoy considered the most gifted literary. He failed to graduate from high school, was in military service, then worked as an official, an agent for the liquidation of estates, and served in a bank. Later he became a journalist and founded a newspaper, but received recognition only after emigrating to America. There, his works were published in various publications, but he received his main income from lecturing about his father’s work.


L.N. Tolstoy with his son Ilya Lvovich. 1903

He was married twice, in his first marriage with Sofia Filosofova seven children were born. He died at the age of 67 in America from cancer.

Lev Lvovich Tolstoy, born in 1869

The writer's third son was closer to his mother, and from her he inherited common sense. Later he always took his mother’s side in family conflicts. Lev Lvovich wrote about himself as a very contradictory nature, and Sofya Andreevna noted his nervousness and lack of cheerfulness.

Lev Lvovich Tolstoy.

Not particularly zealous in the sciences, however, was compensated by the gift of writing, musicality and artistic talent. He left his mark on history as the author of many works for children and memoirs about his father. Since 1918 he lived in Sweden.

He was married twice, in his first marriage with Dora Westerlund, 10 children were born, in his second, with Marianna Solskaya, one son was born. Died in Sweden in 1945.

Maria Lvovna Obolenskaya (nee Tolstaya), born in 1871

Maria was a sickly child from childhood. She is the only one of all the children to whom the writer showed outward signs of love and could caress. The girl did not have a good relationship with her mother, but from childhood she became a faithful assistant, associate and favorite of her father. She was engaged in educational work and devoted a lot of strength and health to helping those in need.

She died of pneumonia at the age of 35 in Yasnaya Polyana.

Andrei Lvovich Tolstoy, born in 1877

Lev Nikolaevich took little part in raising the younger children born after the death of Peter, Nicholas and Varvara. It cannot be said that he did not love them, but he instructed them much less. Andrei was his mother's favorite. But he upset his father a lot with his very free lifestyle, his love of wine and women. Andrei Lvovich did not show any special talents; he took part in the Russian-Japanese War, was wounded and received the St. George Cross for bravery. Afterwards he held the position of a high-ranking official.

Andrey Lvovich Tolstoy.

He was married twice and had three children from two marriages. Died as a result of sepsis at the age of 39 in Petrograd. Shortly before his death, he had a prophetic dream in which he was present at his own funeral.

Mikhail Lvovich Tolstoy, born in 1879

Musical talent and the desire to compose music were not subsequently reflected in Mikhail’s life. He chose the military path and took part in the First World War. In 1920 he emigrated. In recent years he lived in Morocco, where his only work, “Mitya Tiverin,” was written, which is Mikhail Lvovich’s memoirs about life in Yasnaya Polyana. He was married and had 9 children.

He died in Morocco at the age of 65.

Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya, born in 1884

The writer’s youngest daughter was already coping with the job of her father’s personal secretary at the age of 16. Many noted her talent and serious attitude towards life. She took part in the First World War as a nurse and was the head of a military medical detachment.

Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya.

In 1920, she was arrested and sentenced to three years; after early release, she returned to Yasnaya Polyana, where in 1924 she became a museum curator, while simultaneously doing educational work. Emigrated to America in 1929. She actively gave lectures, wrote memoirs about her father, and created and headed the Tolstoy Foundation. Helped Russian emigrants settle in the USA.

For anti-Soviet statements, her name was prohibited from being mentioned even during museum excursions; photographs and newsreels with her participation were removed from exhibitions.
She died at the age of 95 in America.