Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Stories for children
Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the Tula province (Russia) into a family belonging to the noble class. In the 1860s, he wrote his first major novel, War and Peace. In 1873, Tolstoy began work on the second of his most famous books, Anna Karenina.
He continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. One of his most successful later works is The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910 in Astapovo, Russia.
The 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 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 primary education in the biography of Tolstoy was received at home, he was given lessons by French and German teachers. In 1843 he entered the Faculty of Oriental Languages at the Imperial Kazan University. Tolstoy did not succeed in his studies - low grades forced him to move 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 was going to start farming. However, his undertaking ended in failure - he was too often absent, leaving for Tula and Moscow. What he really excelled at was keeping his own diary - it was this lifelong habit that inspired Leo Tolstoy for most of his works.
Tolstoy was fond of music, his favorite composers were Schumann, Bach, Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn. Lev Nikolaevich could play their works for several hours a day.
Once, the elder brother of Tolstoy, Nikolai, during his army leave, came to visit Lev, and persuaded his brother to join the army as a cadet to the south, to 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 submitted the story to Sovremennik, the most popular magazine of the time. The story was happily accepted, and it became Tolstoy's first publication. Since that time, critics have put him on a par with the already famous writers, among whom were Ivan Turgenev (with whom Tolstoy made friends), Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Ostrovsky and others.
After completing the story "Childhood", Tolstoy began to write about his daily life in the army outpost in the Caucasus. Started in the army years, the work "Cossacks", he finished only in 1862, after he had already left the army.
Surprisingly, Tolstoy managed to continue writing during the active battles 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 striking contradictions of the war through the trilogy of Sevastopol Tales. In the second book of Sevastopol Tales, Tolstoy experimented with a relatively new technique: part of the story is presented as a narrative from the person of a soldier.
After the end of the Crimean War, Tolstoy left the army and returned to Russia. Arriving home, the author was very popular on the literary scene of St. Petersburg.
Stubborn and arrogant, Tolstoy refused to belong to any particular school of thought. 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. In the same year he married the daughter of a doctor named Sofya Andreevna Bers.
Major novels
Living in Yasnaya Polyana with his wife and children, Tolstoy spent most of the 1860s working on his first famous novel, War and Peace. Part of the novel was first published in the Russian Bulletin in 1865 under the title "Year 1805". By 1868, he had released three more chapters. A year later, the novel was completely finished. Both critics and the public have argued about the historical justice of the Napoleonic Wars in the novel, combined with the development of the stories of its thoughtful and realistic yet fictional characters. The novel is also unique in that it includes three long satirical essays on the laws of history. Among the ideas that Tolstoy also tries to convey in this novel is the conviction that a person's position in society and the meaning of human life are mainly derivatives of his daily activities.
After the success of War and Peace in 1873, Tolstoy began work on his second most famous book, Anna Karenina. It was based in part on real events during the Russian-Turkish war. Like War and Peace, this book describes some biographical events from the life of Tolstoy himself, this is especially noticeable in the romantic relationship between the characters of Kitty and Levin, which is said to be reminiscent of Tolstoy's courtship of his own wife.
The 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 parts from 1873 to 1877, and was highly acclaimed by the public. The royalties received for the novel rapidly enriched the writer.
Conversion
Despite the success of Anna Karenina, after the completion of the novel, Tolstoy experienced a spiritual crisis and was depressed. The next stage in the biography of Leo Tolstoy 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 an 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 non-standard and conflicting spiritual beliefs, Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church. He was even watched by the secret police. When Tolstoy, led by his new conviction, wanted to give away all his money and give up everything that was superfluous, his wife was categorically against it. Not wanting to escalate the situation, Tolstoy reluctantly agreed to a compromise: he transferred the copyright to his wife and, apparently, all deductions for his work until 1881.
Late fiction
In addition to his religious treatises, Tolstoy continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. Among the genres of his later works were moral stories and realistic fiction. One of the most successful among his later works was the story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", written in 1886. The main character struggling to fight the death looming over him. In short, Ivan Ilyich is horrified by the realization that he wasted his life on trifles, but this realization comes to him too late.
In 1898, Tolstoy wrote the story "Father Sergius" work of fiction in which he criticizes the beliefs he developed after his spiritual transformation. The following year, he wrote his third voluminous novel, Resurrection. The work received good reviews, but this success hardly matched the level of recognition of his previous novels. Other later works of Tolstoy 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 tension he created in his family life... His wife not only did not agree with his teaching, she did not approve of his students, who regularly visited Tolstoy in the family estate. Eager to avoid the growing discontent of his wife, in October 1910, Tolstoy and his youngest daughter Alexandra embarked on a pilgrimage. Alexandra was the doctor for her elderly father during the trip. Trying not to flaunt your privacy they traveled incognito, hoping to evade unnecessary inquiries, but sometimes to no avail.
Death and legacy
Unfortunately, the pilgrimage proved too burdensome for the aging writer. In November 1910, the head of the small railway station Astapovo opened the doors of his house for Tolstoy so that the sick writer could rest. Shortly thereafter, on November 20, 1910, Tolstoy died. He was buried in his family estate, Yasnaya Polyana, where Tolstoy lost so many people close to him.
To this day, Tolstoy's novels are considered among the finest achievements of literary art. “War and Peace” is often cited as greatest novel ever written. In the modern scientific community, Tolstoy is widely recognized as the owner of the gift of describing the unconscious motives of character, the refinement of which he defended, emphasizing the role of everyday actions in determining the character and goals of people.
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Biography
Born on August 28, 1828 in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province, in the hereditary estate of his mother - Yasnaya Polyana. Was the 4th child; his three older brothers: Nikolai (1823-1860), Sergei (1826-1904) and Dmitry (1827-1856). Sister Maria (1830-1912) was born in 1830. His mother died when he was not yet 2 years old.
A distant relative T.A.Yergolskaya took up the upbringing of orphaned children. In 1837, the family moved to Moscow, settling on Plyushchikha, because the eldest son had to prepare to enter the university, but his father suddenly died, leaving affairs (including some litigation related to the family's property) unfinished, and three younger ones children again settled in Yasnaya Polyana under the supervision of Ergolskaya and her paternal aunt, Countess A.M. Osten-Saken, who was appointed guardian of the children. Here Lev Nikolayevich remained until 1840, when Countess Osten-Saken died and the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian - father's sister PI Yushkova.
The Yushkovs' house, somewhat provincial, but typically secular, was one of the funniest in Kazan; all family members highly appreciated the external brilliance. “My good aunt,” says Tolstoy, “is a pure being, she always said that she would want nothing more for me than for me to have a relationship with a married woman: rien ne forme un jeune homme comme une liaison avec une femme comme il faut "(" Confession ").
He wanted to shine in society, to earn a reputation young man; but he did not have external data for that: he was ugly, as it seemed to him, awkward, and, in addition, his natural shyness hindered him. Everything that is told in "Adolescence" and "Youth" about the aspirations of Irteniev and Nekhlyudov for self-improvement is taken by Tolstoy from the history of his own ascetic attempts. The most diverse, as Tolstoy himself defines them, "speculations" about major issues of our life - happiness, death, God, love, eternity - painfully tormented him in that era of life when his peers and brothers completely devoted themselves to the cheerful, easy and carefree pastime of rich and noble people. All this led to the fact that Tolstoy developed a "habit of constant moral analysis", as it seemed to him, "destroying the freshness of feeling and clarity of reason" ("Youth").
Education
His education went first under the guidance of the French governor Saint-Thomas (M-r Jerome "Boyhood"), who replaced the good-natured German Reselman, whom he portrayed in "Childhood" under the name of Karl Ivanovich.
15 years old, in 1843, following his brother Dmitry, he entered the number of students of Kazan University, where Lobachevsky was a professor at the Faculty of Mathematics, and Kovalevsky at the East Faculty. Until 1847, he was preparing here for admission to the only Faculty of Oriental Studies in Russia at that time in the category of Arabic-Turkish literature. In the entrance exams, in particular, he showed excellent results in the "Turkish-Tatar language" compulsory for admission.
Due to the conflict between his home and the teacher Russian history and German, by a certain Ivanov, according to the results of the year, had poor progress in the relevant subjects and had to re-pass the first year program. To avoid a complete repetition of the course, he transferred to the Faculty of Law, where his problems with grades in Russian history and German continued. The last was the eminent civil scientist Meyer; Tolstoy at one time became very interested in his lectures and even took a special topic for development - a comparison of "Esprit des lois" by Montesquieu and Catherine's "Order". From this, however, nothing came of it. Lev Tolstoy stayed at the Faculty of Law for less than two years: "Any education imposed by others was always difficult for him, and everything that he learned in life - he learned himself, suddenly, quickly, with hard work," Tolstaya writes in his "Materials for biographies of L. N. Tolstoy ".
It was at this time, while in the Kazan hospital, that he began to keep a diary, where, imitating Franklin, he sets himself goals and rules for self-improvement and notes successes and failures in completing these tasks, analyzes his shortcomings and train of thought and motives of his actions. In 1904 he recalled: “… for the first year… I didn’t do anything. In the second year I began to study. .. there was professor Meyer who… gave me a job - comparing Catherine's Order with Montesquieu's Esprit des lois. ... I was carried away by this work, I went to the village, began to read Montesquieu, this reading opened to me endless horizons; I started reading Rousseau and dropped out of university precisely because I wanted to study. "
The beginning of literary activity
Leaving the university, Tolstoy settled in Yasnaya Polyana in the spring of 1847; his activities there are partly described in "The Landowner's Morning": Tolstoy tried to establish a new relationship with the peasants.
I followed journalism very little; although his attempt to somehow smooth over the guilt of the nobility before the people dates back to the same year when Grigorovich's "Anton Goremyka" and the beginning of Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter" appeared, but this is a simple coincidence. If there were literary influences here, it was of a much older origin: Tolstoy was very fond of Rousseau, a hater of civilization and a preacher of a return to primitive simplicity.
In his diary, Tolstoy sets himself a huge number of goals and rules; it was possible to follow only a small number of them. Among those who succeeded are serious classes in English, music, and jurisprudence. In addition, neither the diary nor the letters reflected the beginning of Tolstoy's studies in pedagogy and charity - in 1849 he first opened a school for peasant children. The main teacher was Foka Demidych, a serf, but L.N. himself often taught classes.
Having left for St. Petersburg, in the spring of 1848 he began to take an examination for a candidate of rights; he passed two exams, from criminal law and criminal proceedings, successfully, but he did not take the third exam and left for the village.
Later he traveled to Moscow, where he often succumbed to a passion for the game, frustrating his financial affairs a lot. During this period of his life, Tolstoy was especially passionately interested in music (he played the piano well and was very fond of classical composers). Exaggerated in relation to most people description of the action that produces "passionate" music, the author of the "Kreutzer Sonata" drew from the sensations excited by the world of sounds in his own soul.
Favorite composers of Tolstoy were Bach, Handel and Chopin. In the late 1840s, Tolstoy, in collaboration with an acquaintance, composed a waltz, which he performed in the early 1900s under the composer Taneyev, who made the musical notation of this piece of music(the only one composed by Tolstoy).
The development of Tolstoy's love for music was also facilitated by the fact that during a trip to St. Petersburg in 1848 he met in a very unsuitable dance class setting with a gifted but disoriented German musician, whom he later described in Albert. Tolstoy got the idea to save him: he took him to Yasnaya Polyana and played a lot with him. Much time was also spent on revelry, play and hunting.
In the winter of 1850-1851. began to write "Childhood". In March 1851 he wrote The History of Yesterday.
This happened after leaving the university for 4 years, when Tolstoy's brother, Nikolai, who served in the Caucasus, came to Yasnaya Polyana and began to call him there. For a long time Tolstoy did not give up on his brother's call until a major loss in Moscow helped the decision. To pay off, he had to cut his expenses to a minimum - and in the spring of 1851 Tolstoy hastily left Moscow for the Caucasus, at first without any definite purpose. Soon he decided to enter the military service, but there were obstacles in the form of a lack of necessary papers, which were difficult to obtain, and Tolstoy lived for about 5 months in complete seclusion in Pyatigorsk, in a simple hut. He spent a significant part of his time hunting, in the company of the Cossack Epishka, the prototype of one of the heroes of the story "The Cossacks", who appears there under the name of Eroshka.
In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy, having passed the exam in Tiflis, entered the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladov, on the banks of the Terek, near Kizlyar, as a cadet. With a slight change in details, she is depicted in all her semi-wild originality in "Cossacks". The same "Cossacks" will give us a picture inner life fled from the capital's pool of Tolstoy. The moods that Tolstoy-Olenin experienced are of a dual nature: here is a deep need to shake off the dust and soot of civilization and to live in a refreshing, clear bosom of nature, outside the empty conventions of urban and, especially, high society life, here is the desire to heal the wounds of pride, carried away from the pursuit of success in this "empty" life, there is also a grave consciousness of wrongdoing against the strict requirements of true morality.
In a remote village, Tolstoy began to write and in 1852 sent the first part of the future trilogy, Childhood, to the Sovremennik editorial office.
The relatively late start of the career is very characteristic of Tolstoy: he was never a professional writer, understanding professionalism not in the sense of a profession that provides a means of living, but in a less narrow sense of the predominance of literary interests. Purely literary interests always stood in the background of Tolstoy: he wrote when he wanted to write and the need to express himself was quite ripe, and in ordinary times he socialite, officer, landowner, teacher, world mediator, preacher, teacher of life, etc. He never took the interests of literary parties to heart, he was far from willing to talk about literature, preferring to talk about questions of faith, morality, and social relations. Not a single work of him, in the words of Turgenev, “stinks of literature,” that is, it did not come out of a bookish mood, out of literary isolation.
Military career
Having received the manuscript of Childhood, the editor of Sovremennik Nekrasov immediately recognized its literary value and wrote the author a kind letter, which had a very encouraging effect on him. He takes up the continuation of the trilogy, and plans for "Morning of the Landowner", "Raid", "Cossacks" are swarming in his head. Published in Sovremennik in 1852, Childhood, signed with the modest initials of L. N. T., had an extraordinary success; The author was immediately ranked among the luminaries of the young literary school, along with the then loud literary fame of Turgenev, Goncharov, Grigorovich, Ostrovsky. Criticism - Apollon Grigoriev, Annenkov, Druzhinin, Chernyshevsky - appreciated the depth of psychological analysis, and the seriousness of the author's intentions, and the bright bulge of realism, with all the veracity of the vividly captured details. real life alien to any vulgarity.
In the Caucasus, Tolstoy remained for two years, participating in many skirmishes with the mountaineers and exposed to all the dangers of military Caucasian life... He had the rights and claims to the St. George Cross, but did not receive it, which, apparently, was upset. When the Crimean War broke out at the end of 1853, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube army, took part in the battle at Oltenitsa and in the siege of Silistria, and from November 1854 to the end of August 1855 he was in Sevastopol.
Tolstoy lived for a long time on the terrible 4th bastion, commanded a battery in the battle at Chornaya, was under a hell of a bombardment during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan. Despite all the horrors of the siege, Tolstoy wrote at this time a combat story from the life of the Caucasus "Cutting the forest" and the first of three "Sevastopol stories" "Sevastopol in December 1854". He sent this last story to Sovremennik. Immediately printed, the story was eagerly read by all of Russia and made a stunning impression with a picture of the horrors that befell the defenders of Sevastopol. The story was noticed by Emperor Nicholas; he ordered the talented officer to be protected, which, however, was impracticable for Tolstoy, who did not want to go into the category of the "staff" he hated.
Stele in memory of a participant in the defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855. Leo N. Tolstoy at the fourth bastion
For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anna with the inscription “For Bravery” and medals “For the Defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855” and “In Memory of the War of 1853-1856”. Surrounded by the glitter of fame and, using the reputation of a very brave officer, Tolstoy had every chance of a career, but he "ruined" it for himself. This is almost the only time in his life (except for the "Combining different versions of epics into one" made for children in his pedagogical compositions) he indulged in poetry: he wrote a satirical song, in the manner of a soldier, about the unfortunate case on August 4 (16), 1855 when General Read, misunderstanding the command of the commander-in-chief, unwisely attacked the Fedyukhinsky heights. The song (As of the fourth, the mountains carried us hard to take away), which offended a number of important generals, was a huge success and, of course, hurt the author. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (September 8), Tolstoy was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he finished "Sevastopol in May 1855" and wrote "Sevastopol in August 1855".
"Sevastopol stories" finally strengthened his reputation as a representative of the new literary generation.
Traveling in Europe
In St. Petersburg he was warmly greeted both in high society salons and in literary circles; he became especially close with Turgenev, with whom he at one time lived in the same apartment. The latter introduced him to the circle of Sovremennik and other literary luminaries: he became on friendly terms with Nekrasov, Goncharov, Panaev, Grigorovich, Druzhinin, Sollogub.
“After the hardships of Sevastopol, life in the capital had a double charm for a rich, cheerful, impressionable and sociable young man. Tolstoy spent whole days and even nights on drinking and playing cards, binges with gypsies ”(Levenfeld).
At this time, "Blizzard", "Two Hussars" were written, "Sevastopol in August" and "Youth" were completed, the writing of future "Cossacks" was continued.
The cheerful life did not hesitate to leave a bitter residue in Tolstoy's soul, especially since he began to have a strong discord with the circle of writers close to him. As a result, “the people were disgusted with him and he was disgusted with himself” - and at the beginning of 1857 Tolstoy left Petersburg without any regret and went abroad.
On his first trip abroad, he visited Paris, where he was horrified by the cult of Napoleon I ("The deification of a villain, terrible"), at the same time he attends balls, museums, he admires the "sense of social freedom." However, the presence at the guillotine made such a heavy impression that Tolstoy left Paris and went to places associated with Rousseau - to Lake Geneva. At this time, Albert writes the story and the story of Lucerne.
In the interval between the first and second trips, he continues to work on "Cossacks", wrote Three Deaths and Family Happiness. It was at this time that Tolstoy almost died on a bear hunt (December 22, 1858). He is having an affair with a peasant woman Aksinya, at the same time his need for marriage is maturing.
On the next trip, he was mainly interested in public education and institutions aimed at raising the educational level of the working population. He closely studied questions of public education in Germany and France, both theoretically and practically, and through conversations with specialists. Of the outstanding people in Germany, he was most interested in Auerbach, as the author of "Black Forest Tales" dedicated to folk life and the publisher of folk calendars. Tolstoy paid him a visit and tried to get closer to him. During his stay in Brussels, Tolstoy met Proudhon and Lelevel. In London he visited Herzen and attended a lecture by Dickens.
Tolstoy's serious mood during his second trip to the south of France was further facilitated by the fact that his beloved brother Nikolai died of tuberculosis in his arms. The death of his brother made a huge impression on Tolstoy.
Pedagogical activities
He returned to Russia soon after the release of the peasants and became a world mediator. At that time they looked at the people as a younger brother, who must be raised upon themselves; Tolstoy thought, on the contrary, that the people are infinitely higher than the cultural classes and that the masters must borrow the heights of the spirit from the peasants. He was actively engaged in the organization of schools in his Yasnaya Polyana and throughout the Krapivensky district.
The Yasnaya Polyana school is one of the original pedagogical attempts: in the era of boundless admiration for the newest German pedagogy, Tolstoy resolutely rebelled against any regulation and discipline in the school; the only method of teaching and upbringing that he recognized was that no method was needed. Everything in teaching should be individual - both the teacher and the student, and their mutual relationship. In the Yasnaya Polyana school, the children sat where they wanted, who how much they wanted and who how they wanted. There was no specific teaching program. The teacher's only job was to keep the class interested. The classes were going well. They were led by Tolstoy himself with the help of several permanent teachers and several random ones, from his closest acquaintances and visitors.
Since 1862, he began to publish the pedagogical journal "Yasnaya Polyana", where he himself was again the main employee. In addition to theoretical articles, Tolstoy also wrote a number of short stories, fables and transcriptions. Tied together, Tolstoy's pedagogical articles made up an entire volume of his collected works. Tucked away in a very little widespread special magazine, they remained little noticed at the time. Nobody paid attention to the sociological basis of Tolstoy's ideas about education, to the fact that Tolstoy saw only facilitated and improved methods of exploiting the people by the upper classes in education, science, art and technological success. Moreover, from Tolstoy's attacks on European education and on the notion of "progress" that was popular at that time, many drew the conclusion that Tolstoy was a "conservative."
This curious misunderstanding lasted about 15 years, bringing closer to Tolstoy, for example, a writer who was organically opposite to him, like N.N. Strakhov. It was only in 1875 that N.K. Mikhailovsky, in his article "The Hand and the Shuytsa of Count Tolstoy," striking with the brilliance of analysis and foreseeing Tolstoy's future activities, outlined the spiritual image of the most original of Russian writers in the real light. The little attention that was paid to Tolstoy's pedagogical articles is partly due to the fact that little was done at that time at all.
Apollon Grigoriev had the right to call his article about Tolstoy ("Time", 1862) "Phenomena of modern literature, missed by our criticism." Extremely cordially welcoming the debits and credits of Tolstoy and the "Sevastopol Tales", recognizing in it great hope Russian literature (Druzhinin even used the epithet "brilliant" in relation to him), criticism then for 10-12 years, until the appearance of "War and Peace", not only ceases to recognize him as a very prominent writer, but somehow grows cold towards him.
Among the stories and essays he wrote in the late 1850s are Lucerne and Three Deaths.
Family and offspring
In the late 1850s, he met Sofya Andreevna Bers (1844-1919), the daughter of a Moscow doctor from the Eastsee Germans. He was already in his fourth decade, Sofya Andreevna was only 17 years old. On September 23, 1862, he married her, and the fullness of family happiness fell to his lot. In the person of his wife, he found not only the most faithful and devoted friend, but also an irreplaceable helper in all matters, practical and literary. For Tolstoy, the brightest period of his life begins - the rapture of personal happiness, very significant thanks to the practicality of Sofya Andreevna, material well-being, outstanding, easily given tension literary creation and in connection with it, the unprecedented glory of all-Russian, and then worldwide.
However, Tolstoy's relationship with his wife was not cloudless. Quarrels often arose between them, including in connection with the lifestyle that Tolstoy chose for himself.
* Sergei (July 10, 1863 - December 23, 1947)
* Tatiana (October 4, 1864 - September 21, 1950). Since 1899 she has been married to Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin. In 1917-1923 she was the curator of the Yasnaya Polyana estate museum. In 1925 she emigrated with her daughter. Daughter Tatiana Mikhailovna Sukhotina-Albertini 1905-1996
* Ilya (May 22, 1866 - December 11, 1933)
* Leo (1869-1945)
* Maria (1871-1906) Buried in the village. Cochets of the Krapivensky district. Since 1897 she has been married to Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (1872-1934)
* Peter (1872-1873)
* Nikolay (1874-1875)
* Barbara (1875-1875)
* Andrew (1877-1916)
* Michael (1879-1944)
* Alexey (1881-1886)
* Alexandra (1884-1979)
* Ivan (1888-1895)
The flowering of creativity
During the first 10-12 years after marriage, he creates War and Peace and Anna Karenina. At the turn of this second era literary life Tolstoy stands, conceived back in 1852 and completed in 1861-1862. "Cossacks", the first of the works in which the great talent of Tolstoy reached the level of a genius. For the first time in world literature, the difference between the brokenness of a cultured person, the absence of strong, clear moods in him, and the spontaneity of people close to nature was shown with such brightness and certainty.
Tolstoy showed that it is not at all the peculiarity of people close to nature that they are good or bad. Can't name good heroes works of Tolstoy dashing horse thief Lukashka, a kind of dissolute girl Maryanka, drunkard Eroshka. But they cannot be called bad either, because they have no consciousness of evil; Eroshka is directly convinced that "there is no sin in anything." Tolstoy's Cossacks are just living people, for whom not a single emotional movement is clouded by reflection. The Cossacks were not assessed in a timely manner. At that time, everyone was too proud of the "progress" and success of civilization to be interested in how a representative of culture defied some half-savages before the force of direct spiritual movements.
Unprecedented success fell to the lot of "War and Peace". An excerpt from the novel entitled "Year 1805" appeared in the "Russian Bulletin" in 1865; in 1868, three parts of it came out, followed shortly by the other two.
Recognized by the critics of the whole world as the greatest epic New European literature, "War and Peace" amazes from a purely technical point of view, the size of its fictional canvas. Only in painting can one find some parallel in the huge paintings of Paolo Veronese in the Venetian Palace of the Doges, where hundreds of faces are also painted with amazing clarity and individual expression. All classes of society are represented in Tolstoy's novel, from emperors and kings to the last soldier, all ages, all temperaments and in the space of the whole reign of Alexander I.
Anna Karenina
The endlessly joyful rapture of the bliss of being is no longer in Anna Karenina, which dates back to 1873-1876. There is still a lot of gratifying experience in the almost autobiographical novel of Levin and Kitty, but there is already so much bitterness in the depiction of Dolly's family life, in the unhappy end of the love of Anna Karenina and Vronsky, so much anxiety in mental life Lyovin that, in general, this novel is already a transition to the third period of Tolstoy's literary activity.
In January 1871, Tolstoy sent a letter to A. A. Fet: "How happy I am ... that I will never again write nonsense, verbose like" War ".
Russian writers from the circle of the Sovremennik magazine. I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, L. N. Tolstoy, D. V. Grigorovich, A. V. Druzhinin and A. N. Ostrovsky (1856)
On December 6, 1908, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: "People love me for those trifles -" War and Peace ", etc., which seem very important to them."
In the summer of 1909, one of the visitors to Yasnaya Polyana expressed his delight and gratitude for the creation of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Tolstoy replied: "It's like someone came to Edison and said: 'I really respect you for dancing the mazurka well." I attribute meaning to my very different books (religious!). ”
In the sphere of material interests, he began to say to himself: “Well, well, you will have 6,000 dessiatines in the Samara province - 300 heads of horses, and then?”; in the literary sphere: “Well, okay, you will be more glorious than Gogol, Pushkin, Shakespeare, Moliere, all the writers in the world — but so what!”. Starting to think about raising children, he asked himself: "why?"; arguing "about how the people can achieve prosperity," he "suddenly said to himself: what is it to me?" In general, he "felt that what he was standing on was broken, that what he was living on was no longer there." The natural result was the thought of suicide.
"I AM, happy man, hid the lace from myself so as not to hang myself on the crossbar between the cupboards in my room, where I was alone every day, undressing, and stopped going hunting with a gun, so as not to be tempted by too easy a way to rid myself of life. I myself did not know what I want: I was afraid of life, I strove away from it and, meanwhile, hoped for something else from it. "
Religious quest
To find an answer to the questions and doubts that tormented him, Tolstoy first of all took up the study of theology and wrote and published in 1891 in Geneva his Study of Dogmatic Theology, in which he criticized Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov's) Orthodox Dogmatic Theology. Conducted conversations with priests and monks, went to the elders in Optina Pustyn, read theological treatises. In order to learn in the original the primary sources of Christian teaching, he studied the ancient Greek and Hebrew languages (in the study of the latter he was helped by the Moscow rabbi Shlomo Minor). At the same time, he looked closely at the schismatics, became close to the thoughtful peasant Syutaev, talked with the Molokans, the Stundists. Tolstoy also looked for the meaning of life in the study of philosophy and in acquaintance with the results of the exact sciences. He made a number of attempts to simplify more and more, striving to live a life close to nature and agricultural life.
Gradually, he abandons the whims and conveniences of a rich life, does a lot of physical labor, dresses in the simplest clothes, becomes a vegetarian, gives his family all his large fortune, and renounces literary property rights. On this soil of unalloyed pure impulse and striving for moral improvement, the third period of Tolstoy's literary activity is created, distinguishing feature which is the denial of all established forms of state, social and religious life. A significant part of Tolstoy's views could not receive open expression in Russia and were fully set forth only in foreign editions of his religious and social treatises.
Any unanimous attitude was not established even in relation to the fictional works of Tolstoy, written during this period. So, in a long series of small stories and legends, intended mainly for folk reading ("How people live", etc.), Tolstoy, in the opinion of his unconditional admirers, reached the pinnacle of artistic power - that spontaneous skill that is given only to folk tales, therefore that they embody the creativity of an entire people. On the contrary, according to people who are indignant at Tolstoy for turning from an artist into a preacher, these artistic teachings, written with a definite purpose, are crudely tendentious. High and terrible truth The Death of Ivan Ilyich, according to fans, placing this work along with the main works of Tolstoy's genius, according to others, is deliberately tough, deliberately sharply emphasizes the soullessness of the upper strata of society in order to show the moral superiority of a simple "kitchen man" Gerasim. The explosion of the most opposite feelings, caused by the analysis of marital relations and the indirect demand for abstinence from marriage, in the "Kreutzer Sonata" made one forget about the amazing brightness and passion with which this story was written. The folk drama The Power of Darkness, according to Tolstoy's admirers, is a great manifestation of his artistic power: Tolstoy managed to accommodate so many common human features within the narrow framework of ethnographic reproduction of Russian peasant life that the drama has bypassed all the scenes of the world with tremendous success.
In the last major work of the novel "Resurrection" he condemned judicial practice and high society life, caricatured the clergy and worship.
Critics of the last phase of Tolstoy's literary and preaching activity find that his artistic power has certainly suffered from the predominance of theoretical interests and that creativity is now only needed for Tolstoy, in order to propagate his social and religious views in a public form. In his aesthetic treatise ("On Art"), one can find enough material to declare Tolstoy an enemy of art: in addition to what Tolstoy here partly completely denies, partly he significantly belittles the artistic significance of Dante, Raphael, Goethe, Shakespeare (in the presentation of Hamlet he experienced "special suffering" for this "false semblance of works of art"), Beethoven and others, he directly comes to the conclusion that "the more we surrender ourselves to beauty, the more we move away from good."
Excommunication
Belonging to the Orthodox Church by birth and baptism, he, like most representatives of the educated society of his time, in his youth and youth was indifferent to religious issues. In the mid-1870s, he showed an increased interest in the teaching and worship of the Orthodox Church; turning away from the teachings of the Church and from participation in its sacraments, the time for him was the second half of 1879. In the 1880s, he took the position of an unambiguously critical attitude towards church doctrine, clergy, and state churchliness. The publication of some of Tolstoy's works was prohibited by the spiritual and secular censorship. In 1899 Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection" was published, in which the author showed the life of various social strata of contemporary Russia; the clergy were depicted as mechanically and hastily performing the rituals, and some took the cold and cynical Toporov for a caricature of K.P. Pobedonostsev, chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod.
In February 1901, the Synod finally inclined to the idea of publicly condemning Tolstoy and declaring him to be outside the church. Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky) played an active role in this. As it appears in the chamber-furrier magazines, on February 22 Pobedonostsev visited Nicholas II in the Winter Palace and talked with him for about an hour. Some historians believe that Pobedonostsev came to the tsar directly from the Synod with a ready-made definition.
On February 24 (old style), 1901, in the official organ of the Synod, "Church Vdomosti published under the Holy Governing Snodѣ", "Determination of the Holy Synod No. 557 dated February 20-22, 1901, with a message to the faithful children of the Orthodox Greek Russian Church about the Count Leo Tolstoy ":
The world-famous writer, Russian by birth, Orthodox by baptism and upbringing, Count Tolstoy, in the seduction of his proud mind, boldly rebelled against the Lord and His Christ and His holy property, clearly before everyone he renounced the Mother, the Church, who had nurtured and raised him. Orthodox, and dedicated his literary activity and the talent given to him from God for spreading among the people teachings that are contrary to Christ and the Church, and for the destruction in the minds and hearts of people of the paternal faith, the Orthodox faith, which established the universe, by which our ancestors lived and were saved, and which hitherto held and was strong in Holy Russia ...
In his writings and letters, scattered in many by him and his disciples all over the world, especially within the borders of our dear Fatherland, he preaches, with zeal of a fanatic, the overthrow of all the dogmas of the Orthodox Church and the very essence of the Christian faith; rejects the personal living God, glorified in the Holy Trinity, the Creator and Provider of the universe, denies the Lord Jesus Christ - the God-man, Redeemer and Savior of the world, who suffered us for the sake of men and ours for salvation and rose from the dead, denies the seedless conception of Christ the Lord through humanity and virginity until and after the birth of the Most Pure Theotokos the Ever-Virgin Mary, does not recognize the afterlife and reward, rejects all the sacraments of the Church and the grace-filled action of the Holy Spirit in them and, cursing the most sacred objects of faith of the Orthodox people, did not shudder to mock the greatest of the sacraments, the Holy Eucharist. All this is preached by Count Tolstoy continuously, in word and in writing, to the temptation and horror of the entire Orthodox world, and thus invisibly, but clearly in front of everyone, consciously and deliberately rejected himself from all communion with the Orthodox Church.
The attempts that were made to his reason were unsuccessful. Therefore, the Church does not consider him as her member and cannot count him until he repent and restores his communion with her. Therefore, testifying about his falling away from the Church, together we pray that the Lord grant him repentance in the mind of truth (2 Tim. 2:25). Pray, merciful Lord, not even though the death of sinners, hear and have mercy and turn him to your holy Church. Amen.
In his Answer to the Synod, Leo Tolstoy confirmed his break with the Church: “I really renounced the Church, stopped performing its rituals and wrote in my will to my loved ones so that when I die, they would not admit church ministers to me, and my dead body they would have removed it as soon as possible, without any spells and prayers over him. "
The synodal definition aroused the indignation of a certain part of society; letters and telegrams were sent to Tolstoy's address expressing sympathy, and greetings from the workers came.
At the end of February 2001, the great-grandson of Count Vladimir Tolstoy, manager of the museum-estate of the writer in Yasnaya Polyana, sent a letter to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II with a request to revise the synodal definition; In an unofficial interview on television, the Patriarch said: "We cannot revise now, because it is still possible to revise if a person changes his position." In March 2009, Vl. Tolstoy expressed his opinion on the significance of the synodal act: “I studied the documents, read the newspapers of that time, got acquainted with the materials of public discussions around excommunication. And I got the feeling that this act gave a signal for a total split in Russian society. The reigning family, the higher aristocracy, the local nobility, the intelligentsia, the raznochin strata, and the common people split. A crack went through the body of the entire Russian, Russian people. "
Last years of life. Death and burial
In October 1910, fulfilling his decision to live last years in accordance with his views, secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. He began his last journey at the station of Kozlova Zaseka; On the way, he fell ill with pneumonia and had to make a stop at a small station Astapovo (now Lev Tolstoy, Lipetsk region), where he died on November 7 (20).
On November 10 (23), 1910, he was buried in Yasnaya Polyana, on the edge of a ravine in the forest, where, as a child, he and his brother were looking for a "green stick" that kept the "secret" of how to make all people happy.
In January 1913, a letter from Countess Sophia Tolstoy dated December 22, 1912 was published, in which she confirms the news in the press that his funeral service was performed on her husband's grave by a certain priest (she refutes rumors that he was fake) in her presence. In particular, the countess wrote: “I also declare that Lev Nikolayevich never before his death expressed a desire not to be inveted, but earlier he wrote in his diary in 1895, as if a testament:“ If possible, then (bury) without priests and funeral services. But if it is unpleasant for those who will bury, then let them bury, as usual, but as cheap and simpler as possible. "
There is also an unofficial version of the death of Lev Tolstoy, set out in exile by I.K. Sursky from the words of an official of the Russian police. According to her, the writer, before his death, wanted to be reconciled with the church and came to Optina Pustyn for this. Here he was awaiting an order from the Synod, but feeling unwell, he was taken away by his daughter who had arrived and died at the Astapovo post station.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers, revered as one of greatest writers the world. Member of the defense of Sevastopol. Enlightener, publicist, religious thinker, whose authoritative opinion was the reason for the emergence of a new religious and moral trend - Tolstoyism.
Born in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province, on the hereditary estate of his mother - Yasnaya Polyana. Was the fourth child in the family. Mother died when Leo was not yet 2 years old.
A distant relative T.A.Yergolskaya took up the upbringing of children. In 1837, the family moved to Moscow, settling on Plyushchikha, since the eldest son had to prepare to enter the university. Soon the father suddenly died, and the three younger children settled again in Yasnaya Polyana under the supervision of Ergolskaya and her paternal aunt, Countess A.M. Osten-Saken. Here Lev remained until 1840, when Osten-Saken died, the children moved to Kazan, to the father's sister, P.I. Yushkova.
The Yushkovs' house was considered one of the funniest in Kazan; all family members highly appreciated the external brilliance. The most diverse, as Tolstoy himself defines them, "speculations" about the most important questions of life left an imprint on his character in that era of life.
Following the brothers, Lev decided to enter the Imperial Kazan University (the most famous at that time), where they worked at the Faculty of Mathematics Lobachevsky, and at the East - Kovalevsky. In 1844 he was enrolled as a student of the category of oriental literature as paying for his studies. According to the results of the year, he had a poor academic performance, did not pass the transition exam and had to re-pass the first year program. In order to avoid a complete repetition of the course, he transferred to the Faculty of Law. "... for the first year ... I did nothing. In the second year ... I began to study ... there was a professor ... who ... gave me a job - comparing Catherine's Order with Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws ... I was carried away by this work, I went to the village, began to read Montesquieu, this reading opened up endless horizons for me; I began to read Rousseau and dropped out of the university. " Tolstoy tried to establish a new relationship with the peasants. In 1849 he first opened a school for peasant children. The main teacher was Foka Demidovich, a serf, but Lev Nikolayevich himself often taught classes. He seriously studied English, music, jurisprudence.
In 1851, Tolstoy, having passed an exam in Tiflis, entered the 4th battery of the 20th artillery brigade, stationed in the Cossack village of Starogladovskaya on the banks of the Terek, near Kizlyar, as a cadet. He had the right to the Cross of St. George, however, in accordance with his convictions, he "yielded" to his colleague, believing that a significant relief of the conditions of service of a colleague is above personal vanity. With the outbreak of the Crimean War, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube army, took part in the battle of Oltenitsa and in the siege of Silistria, and in 1854-1855 he was in Sevastopol. For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 4th degree, medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855" and "In Memory of the War of 1853-1856". In 1856 the writer left military service with the rank of lieutenant.
In St. Petersburg, the young writer was warmly welcomed in high-society salons and literary circles. However, a happy life left a bitter residue in Tolstoy's soul, he began to disagree with the circle of writers close to him. As a result, "people are disgusted with him, and he is disgusted with himself." And in 1857 Tolstoy went on a journey. He visited Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Italy.
In 1859 Tolstoy took part in organizing the Literary Fund.
On the next trip, he was mainly interested in public education. His beloved brother Nikolai died of tuberculosis. The death of his brother made a huge impression on Tolstoy. From 1862 Tolstoy began to publish the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana. Soon Tolstoy left his studies in pedagogy. Marriage, the birth of his own children, plans related to writing the novel "War and Peace", for 10 years postponed his pedagogical activities. In the early 1870s, he began to create his own "ABC" and published it in 1872, and then released "New ABC" and a series of four "Russian books for reading".
The great Russian writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828–1910) was very fond of children, and even more he loved to talk to them.
He knew many fables, fairy tales, stories and stories, which he enthusiastically told to children. Both his own grandchildren and peasant children listened to him with interest.
Having opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, Lev Nikolayevich taught there himself.
He wrote a textbook for the little ones and called it "ABC". The author's work, consisting of four volumes, was "beautiful, short, simple and, most importantly, clear" for children to understand.
Lion and mouse
The lion was asleep. A mouse ran over his body. He woke up and caught her. The mouse began to ask him to let her go; she said:
If you let me in, and I'll do you good.
The lion laughed that the mouse promised him good things, and let her go.
Then the hunters caught the lion and tied it to a tree with a rope. The mouse heard a lion's roar, came running, gnawed at the rope and said:
Do you remember that you laughed, did not think that I could do good to you, but now you see - sometimes good comes from a mouse.
How a thunderstorm caught me in the forest
When I was little, I was sent to the forest for mushrooms.
I reached the forest, picked up some mushrooms and wanted to go home. Suddenly it became dark, it started raining, and it thundered.
I got scared and sat down under a large oak tree. Lightning flashed so bright that my eyes hurt, and I closed my eyes.
Something crackled and thundered over my head; then something hit me in the head.
I fell and lay there until the rain stopped.
When I woke up, trees were dripping all over the forest, birds were singing and the sun was playing. A large oak tree broke and smoke was coming out of the stump. Oak secrets lay around me.
My dress was all wet and sticky to my body; there was a bump on my head and it hurt a little.
I found my hat, took the mushrooms and ran home.
There was no one at home, I took out bread from the table and climbed onto the stove.
When I woke up, I saw from the stove that they had fried my mushrooms, put them on the table and were already hungry.
I shouted: "What are you eating without me?" They say: "Why are you sleeping? Go quickly, eat."
Sparrow and swallows
Once I stood in the yard and looked at the nest of swallows under the roof. Both swallows flew away in my presence, and the nest was left empty.
While they were away, a sparrow flew off the roof, jumped onto the nest, looked around, flapped its wings and ducked into the nest; then he stuck his head out of there and chirped.
Soon after, a swallow flew to the nest. She poked her head into the nest, but as soon as she saw the guest, squeaked, flapped her wings in place and flew away.
Sparrow sat and chirped.
Suddenly a herd of swallows flew in: all the swallows flew up to the nest - as if in order to look at the sparrow, and again flew away.
The sparrow was not shy, turned his head and chirped.
The swallows again flew up to the nest, did something and again flew away.
It was not for nothing that the swallows flew up: they each brought mud in the beak and gradually covered up the hole in the nest.
Again the swallows flew away and again flew in, and more and more they covered the nest, and the hole became tighter and tighter.
First, the sparrow's neck was visible, then only one head, then the nose, and then nothing became visible; the swallows completely covered it in the nest, flew away and whistled around the house.
Two comrades
Two comrades were walking through the forest, and a bear jumped out at them.
One rushed to run, climbed a tree and hid, while the other remained on the road. He had nothing to do - he fell to the ground and pretended to be dead.
The bear came up to him and began to sniff: he stopped breathing.
The bear sniffed his face, thought he was dead, and walked away.
When the bear is gone, he climbed down from the tree and laughs.
Well, - he says, - did the bear speak in your ear?
And he told me that bad people are those who run away from their comrades in danger.
Liar
The boy was guarding the sheep and, as if he saw a wolf, began to call:
Help wolf! Wolf!
The men came running and saw: not true. As he did so two and three times, it happened - indeed, a wolf came running. The boy began to shout:
Here, here quickly, wolf!
The peasants thought that they were deceiving again as usual - they did not listen to him. The wolf sees, there is nothing to be afraid of: in the open, he cut the whole herd.
Hunter and quail
The quail got caught in the hunter's net and began to ask the hunter to let him go.
You just let me go, - he says, - I will serve you. I'll lure other quails into the net for you.
Well, quail, - said the hunter, - and so I wouldn't let you in, and now even more so. I’ll turn my head because you want to give out yours.
Girl and mushrooms
Two girls were walking home with mushrooms.
They had to cross the railroad.
They thought the car was far away, climbed up the embankment and walked across the rails.
Suddenly a car rustled. The older girl ran back, and the younger one ran across the road.
The older girl shouted to her sister: "Don't go back!"
But the car was so close and made such a loud noise that the younger girl did not hear; she thought she was being told to run back. She ran back across the rails, stumbled, dropped the mushrooms and began to pick them up.
The car was already close, and the driver whistled with great force.
The older girl shouted, "Drop the mushrooms!"
The driver could not hold the cars. She whistled with all her might and ran into the girl.
The older girl screamed and cried. Everyone passing by looked from the windows of the carriages, and the conductor ran to the end of the train to see what had become of the girl.
When the train passed, everyone saw that the girl lay between the rails with her head down and did not move.
Then, when the train had already driven far away, the girl raised her head, jumped to her knees, gathered mushrooms and ran to her sister.
Old grandfather and granddaughter
(Fable)
My grandfather became very old. His legs did not walk, his eyes did not see, his ears did not hear, he had no teeth. And when he ate, his mouth flowed back.
The son and daughter-in-law stopped seating him at the table, and gave him dinner at the stove. They took him to dinner once in a cup. He wanted to move her, but dropped and smashed.
The daughter-in-law began scolding the old man for ruining everything in the house with them and beating the cups, and said that now she would give him lunch in the tub.
The old man only sighed and said nothing.
Once a husband and wife are sitting at home and watching - their little son is playing with boards on the floor - he is working on something.
The father asked: "What are you doing this, Misha?" And Misha and saying: “This is me, father, making a pelvis. When you and your mother are old enough to feed you from this pelvis. "
The husband and wife looked at each other and wept.
They felt ashamed that they had offended the old man so much; and from then on they began to put him at the table and look after him.
Little mouse
The mouse went out for a walk. I walked around the yard and came back to my mother.
Well, mother, I saw two animals. One is scary and the other is kind.
Mother asked:
Tell me, what kind of animals are they?
The mouse said:
One terrible - his legs are black, his crest is red, his eyes are curled up, and his nose is crooked. When I walked past, he opened his mouth, lifted his leg and began to scream so loudly that I did not know where to go from fear.
This is a rooster, said the old mouse, he does no harm to anyone, do not be afraid of him. Well, what about the other beast?
Another was lying in the sun and warming himself; his neck is white, his legs are gray, smooth; he himself licks his white breast and slightly moves his tail, looks at me.
The old mouse said:
You are a fool, you are a fool. After all, this is the cat itself.
Two men
Two men were driving: one to the city, the other from the city.
They hit each other with the sled. One shouts:
Give me a way, I need to get to the city as soon as possible.
And the other shouts:
Give me a way. I need to go home soon.
And the third man saw and said:
Whoever needs it quickly - that siege back.
The poor and the rich
They lived in one house: upstairs, a rich master, and downstairs, a poor tailor.
At work, the tailor sang songs and prevented the master from sleeping.
The master gave the tailor a bag of money so that he would not sing.
The tailor became rich and guarded his money, but he stopped singing.
And he got bored. He took the money and took it back to the master and said:
Take your money back, and let me sing the songs. And then melancholy attacked me.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was a little over twenty years old when he began teaching peasant children to read and write on his estate. He continued his work at the Yasnaya Polyana school with interruptions until the end of his life; he worked on the compilation of educational books for a long time and with enthusiasm. In 1872, the "ABC" was published - a book set containing the alphabet itself, texts for the original Russian and Church Slavonic reading, arithmetic and a teacher's manual. Three years later, Tolstoy published The New Alphabet. When teaching, he used proverbs, sayings, riddles. He composed many "proverbial stories": in each of them the proverb developed into a short plot with morality. "New alphabet" was supplemented by "Russian books for reading" - several hundred works: stories and were, retellings folk tales and classical fables, natural history descriptions and reasoning.
Tolstoy strove for an extremely simple and precise language. But it is difficult for a modern child to understand even the simplest texts about the old peasant life.
So what is it? Do Leo Tolstoy's works for children become a literary monument and leave Russian children's reading, the basis of which they have been for a whole century?
There is no shortage of modern editions. Publishers try to make books interesting and understandable for today's children.
1. Tolstoy, L. N. Stories for children / Leo Tolstoy; [foreword V. Tolstoy; comp. Yu. Kublanovsky]; drawings by Natalia Paren-Chelpanova. - [Yasnaya Polyana]: Leo Tolstoy Museum-Estate "Yasnaya Polyana", 2012. - 47 p. : ill.
The children's stories of Leo Tolstoy, illustrated by the Russian artist in exile Natalia Paren-Chelpanova, were translated into French in Paris by the Gallimard publishing house in 1936. They are, of course, printed in Russian in the Yasnaya Polyana booklet. There are both stories, usually included in modern collections and indisputable in children's reading("Fire Dogs", "Kitten", "Filipok"), and rare, even amazing. For example, the fable "The Owl and the Hare" - how an arrogant young owl wanted to catch a huge hare, grabbed his back with one paw, the other into a tree, and that "Rushed and tore an owl"... Read on?
What's true is true: literary means Tolstoy strong; impressions after reading will remain deep.
Natalia Paren's illustrations brought the texts closer to the little readers of her time: the heroes of the stories are drawn as if they were the artist's contemporaries. There are French inscriptions: for example, "Pinson" on the grave of a sparrow (to the story "How the aunt talked about how she had a tame sparrow - Zhivchik").
2. Tolstoy, L. N. Three bears / Leo Tolstoy; artist Yuri Vasnetsov. - Moscow: Melik-Pashaev, 2013 .-- 17 p. : ill.
In the same 1936, Yuri Vasnetsov illustrated an English fairy tale retold in Russian by Leo Tolstoy. Initially, the illustrations were in black and white, but here is a later colorful version. Yuri Vasnetsov's fabulous bears, although Mikhail Ivanovich and Mishutka are in vests, and Nastasya Petrovna with a lace umbrella, are pretty scary. The child understands why “one girl” was so scared of them; but she managed to escape!
Color correction of illustrations was made for the new edition. You can see the first edition, as well as reprints that differ from one another, in the National Electronic Children's Library (books are copyrighted, registration is required to view).
3. Tolstoy, LN Lipunyushka: stories and fairy tales / Leo Tolstoy; illustrations by A. F. Pakhomov. - St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2011 .-- 47 p. : ill. - (Library of the younger student).
Many adults have preserved in their memory Leo Tolstoy's "ABC" with illustrations by Alexei Fyodorovich Pakhomov. The artist knew the peasant way of life very well (he himself was born in a pre-revolutionary village). He painted peasants with great sympathy, children - sentimentally, but always with a firm, confident hand.
Petersburg "Amphora" more than once published in small collections stories from "ABC" by L. N. Tolstoy with illustrations by A. F. Pakhomov. This book contains several stories from which peasant children learned to read. Then the tales - "How a man divided geese" (about a cunning man) and "Lipunyushka" (about a resourceful son that "Hatched in cotton").
4. Tolstoy, LN About animals and birds / LN Tolstoy; artist Andrey Bray. - St. Petersburg; Moscow: Rech, 2015 .-- 19 p. : ill. - (Mom's favorite book).
Stories "Eagle", "Sparrow and Swallows", "How Wolves Teach Their Children", "What Mice Are For", "Elephant", "Ostrich", "Swans". Tolstoy is not in the least sentimental. The animals in his stories are predators and prey. But, of course, morality must be read in an elementary story; not every story is straightforward.
Here is "Swans" - a true poem in prose.
It must be said about the artist that he painted animals expressively; among his teachers was V.A.Vatagin. "Stories about Animals" with illustrations by Andrei Andreevich Brey, published by "Detgiz" in 1945, digitized and available in the National Electronic Children's Library (registration is also required to view).
5. Tolstoy, L. N. Kostochka: stories for children / Leo Tolstoy; drawings by Vladimir Galdyaev. - St. Petersburg; Moscow: Rech, 2015 .-- 79 p. : ill.
The book contains mainly the most often published and read children's stories by L. N. Tolstoy: "Fire", "Fire dogs", "Filipok", "Kitten" ...
"The bone" is also a well-known story, but few are ready to agree with the radical educational method shown in it.
The content of the book and the layout are the same as in the collection "Stories and Were", published in 1977. More texts and drawings by Vladimir Galdyaev were in Leo Tolstoy's Book for Children, published by the Moskovsky Rabochy publishing house in the same 1977 (publications, of course, were being prepared for the 150th anniversary of the writer). The severity of the drawing and the character of the characters correspond well to Tolstoy's literary style.
6. Tolstoy, L. N. Children: stories / L. Tolstoy; drawings by P. Repkin. - Moscow: Nigma, 2015 .-- 16 p. : ill.
Four stories: "The Lion and the Dog", "The Elephant", "The Eagle", "The Kitten". They are illustrated by Pyotr Repkin, graphic artist and animator. It is interesting that the lion, eagle, elephant and its little owner depicted by the artist obviously resemble the characters of the cartoon "Mowgli", the production designer of which was Repkin (together with A. Vinokurov). This cannot harm either Kipling or Tolstoy, but it does suggest the differences and similarities in the views and talents of the two great writers.
7. Tolstoy, LN Lev and the dog: true story / LN Tolstoy; drawings by G.A.V. Traugot. - St. Petersburg: Rech, 2014 .-- 23 p. : ill.
On the flyleaf there is a drawing depicting Count Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy in London in 1861 and, as it were, confirming that this story is a reality. The story itself is given in the form of captions to illustrations.
First line: "Wild animals were shown in London ..." An ancient colorful, almost fabulous Western European city, townspeople and townspeople, curly-haired children - all in a manner that has long been characteristic of the artists “G. A. V. Traugot ". The meat thrown into a lion's cage does not look naturalistic (like Repkin's). The lion, yearning for the dead dog (Tolstoy honestly writes that she "died"), is drawn very expressively.
He spoke in more detail about the book "Biblioguide".
8. Tolstoy, L. N. Filipok / L. N. Tolstoy; artist Gennady Spirin. - Moscow: RIPOL classic, 2012 .--: ill. - (Masterpieces of book illustration).
Filipok from Novaya Azbuka is one of the most famous stories by Leo Tolstoy and all Russian children's literature. The figurative meaning of the word "textbook" here coincides with the direct one.
The RIPOL Classic Publishing House has already republished the book with illustrations by Gennady Spirin several times and included it in the gift “New Year's collection”. Such "Filipok" was previously published in English (see on the artist's website: http://gennadyspirin.com/books/). In the drawings of Gennady Konstantinovich there is a lot of affection for the old peasant life and winter Russian nature.
It is noteworthy that in "Novaya Azbuka" behind this story (at the end of which Filipok “Began to speak to the Mother of God; but every word was not spoken like that ") followed by "Slavic letters", "Slavic words with titles" and prayers.
9. Tolstoy, L. N. My first Russian book for reading / Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. - Moscow: White City,. - 79 p. : ill. - (Russian books for reading).
The White City undertook a complete publication of Russian Books for Reading. The second, third and fourth books were published in the same way. There are no abbreviations here. Stories, fairy tales, there were, fables, descriptions and reasoning were given in the order in which they were arranged by Lev Nikolaevich. There are no comments on the texts. Illustrations are used instead of verbal explanations. Basically, these are reproductions of paintings, famous and not so famous. For example, to the description of "The Sea" - "The Ninth Wave" by Ivan Aivazovsky. To the reasoning "Why is there wind?" - "Children Running from the Thunderstorm" by Konstantin Makovsky. To the story "Fire" - "Fire in the Village" by Nikolai Dmitriev-Orenburgsky. To the story " Prisoner of the Caucasus"- landscapes of Lev Lagorio and Mikhail Lermontov.
The range of ages and interests of the readers of this book can be very wide.
10. Tolstoy, L. N. More: description / Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy; artist Mikhail Bychkov. - St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2014 .-- p. : ill. - (Good and eternal).
Of these books, this one seems to be the most belonging to our time. Artist Mikhail Bychkov says: "A few lines of L. N. Tolstoy gave me a wonderful opportunity to draw the sea"... On the large-format spreads, the artist depicted the southern and northern seas, calm and stormy, day and night. TO short text Tolstoy made a hand-drawn application about all kinds of sea vessels.
The work captivated Mikhail Bychkov, and he illustrated three stories from Tolstoy's "Alphabet", combining them with a fictional trip around the world on a sailing warship. In the story "The Leap" such a journey is mentioned. The Shark story begins with the words: "Our ship was anchored off the coast of Africa." The action of the story "Fire Dogs" takes place in London - and the artist painted a Russian corvette under the St. Andrew's flag against the background of the construction of the Tower Bridge (built from 1886 to 1894; The ABC was compiled earlier, but in the same era, especially if you look from our time) ...
The book "Were" was published by the Rech publishing house in 2015. In the spring of 2016 in State Museum Leo Tolstoy on Prechistenka hosted an exhibition of illustrations by Mikhail Bychkov for these two children's books.
“The sea is wide and deep; there is no end in sight to the sea. In the sea the sun rises and in the sea sets. Nobody has reached the bottom of the sea and does not know. When there is no wind, the sea is blue and smooth; when the wind blows, the sea will shake and become uneven ... "
"Sea. Description"
“... Water from the sea rises in fog; the fog rises higher and clouds are formed out of the fog. The clouds are driven by the wind and carried along the ground. From the clouds, water falls to the ground. From the ground it flows into swamps and streams. From streams flows into rivers; from the rivers to the sea. From the sea again the water rises into clouds, and the clouds spread over the land ... "
“Where does the water from the sea go? Reasoning "
Leo Tolstoy's stories from ABC and Russian Books for Reading are laconic, even lapidary. In many ways, archaic, in today's opinion. But the essential thing about them is this: a rare now not playful, serious attitude to the word, a simple, but not simplified attitude to everything around.
