On this day, September 9, 1828, in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province, in the hereditary estate of his mother - Yasnaya Polyana, Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born. He is one of the most famous Russian writers and thinkers, one of the greatest writers in the world.
The image of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is shrouded in many secrets and legends. But is all of this true? The Yasnaya Polyana Estate Museum has compiled a selection of the most popular myths about the writer based on the questions that visitors ask the guides.
Myth # 1 Leo Tolstoy lost the manor house at cards
Reality:
In the fall of 1854, a large three-story house, in which Leo Tolstoy was born, was sold to the neighboring landowner Gorokhov. The reason for this is Lev Nikolaevich's lack of funds for its maintenance and repair, as well as the need to improve his financial situation. “Whether it will stand for a few more years without any repairs (and its repair is quite significant), then it will really only be useful as a souvenir, but you, if you ever have money, you can always build a new one, but you can still live, thank God, there is where , - advises Lev Nikolaevich older brother Sergei in one of the letters.
At the time of the sale of the house, the writer was in the army, taking part in the Crimean War, and his second cousin Valerian Petrovich Tolstoy was engaged in the transaction by proxy. 5000 rubles in banknotes (≈1500 silver), received for the house, for safety were put into the Order of public charity in case of emergency household expenses. When in Crimea Lev Nikolayevich, together with a group of officers, plans to publish a magazine for soldiers, money is sent to him. However, the publication is prohibited by the government, and in January 1855 Tolstoy used the amount sent to him to pay off the card debt. If we talk about the estate as a whole, the writer never had any intention of selling it.
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Myth number 2 Tolstoy had many illegitimate children - both before and after marriage
Reality:
In his youth, before his marriage, Tolstoy regularly mentions in his diaries women - peasant women, gypsies, noble ladies, awakening in him passions and sensuality, for which he blamed himself throughout his life. The most painful episode for the writer was his relationship with a 23-year-old married peasant woman Aksinya Bazykina, which began in 1858. In 1860, Aksinya gave birth to a son, Timofey, who, as Tolstoy himself admitted, was his illegitimate child. Two years later, the writer married Sofya Andreevna Bers.
The experience of his premarital life Tolstoy reflects in the story "The Devil" (1889), which gave rise to rumors among the public about the count's infidelity to his wife. However, the plot of this work reflects real events from the life of a completely different person - the Tula judicial investigator N. N. Friedrichs, who three months after marrying a noble girl shot the peasant Stepanida Munitsyna, with whom he had previously had a relationship. In Tolstoy's diary, the story "The Devil" was called "the history of Friedrichs" (or "Fredericks").
As a married man, the writer never violated marital fidelity. We find evidence of this in his "Secret Diary" of 1908, in which the writer is extremely frank. After the 25-year wedding anniversary, in a confidential conversation with his friend Pavel Biryukov, Tolstoy says that "he is pleased to know that neither on his part, nor on the part of his wife there was not the slightest infidelity, and they lived an honest and pure family life" (PI Biryukov. "Biography of Leo Tolstoy").
Myth number 3 Sofya Andreevna not only copied the works of her husband, but was their co-author
Reality:
Sofya Andreevna was a gifted woman who wrote several small-scale literary works, critical essays and memoirs. She copied her husband's works with great pleasure and enthusiasm, getting aesthetic pleasure from this. “I was fascinated by this life of thought, these twists, surprises and incomprehensible various forms of his work” (SA Tolstaya. “My Life”).
It happened that in the process of introducing amendments to his works, Tolstoy listened to the advice of his wife, who admitted that she "with all her heart" delved into the material being rewritten. However, there is no doubt that Lev Nikolaevich himself was the editor-in-chief of his works: “Otherwise, you will come to Lev Nikolaevich with the finished rewritten work, show him the question marks I put here and there, in margins *, and ask him if this put that word instead of another or throw out frequent repetitions of the same word or something else. Lev Nikolaevich explained to me why it could not be otherwise … "(SA Tolstaya." My Life ")
Myth number 4 Leo Tolstoy did not like his children
Reality:
The family project was for the young Tolstoy the main, primary goal. Orphaned early, from a young age he dreamed of his own family, in which there would certainly be children. In 1862, the writer gets married, and one by one he has sons and daughters. The family was large - out of thirteen children born, eight survived to adulthood. Along with Sofya Andreevna, Lev Nikolaevich took part in the upbringing of children, their education, spent a lot of time with them, invented games for them. He perfectly found a common language with the children, but was restrained in the outward manifestations of love and tenderness. “In all my life my father has never petted me. This does not mean that he does not love me. On the contrary, I know that he loved me, there were periods when we were very close to each other,but he never expressed his love with an open, direct affection and was always, as it were, ashamed of its manifestation”(IL Tolstoy. My memoirs).
A love description of still young children and paternal instructions to grown up children, whose life Tolstoy used to disapprove of, but whom he still loved, were carried through his diaries and letters. “The elder [Sergey] is blond, not bad. There is something weak and patient in expression and very meek. When he laughs, he does not infect, but when he cries, I can hardly restrain myself not to cry Ilya, the third. I've never been sick. Broad-boned, white, blush, shining. Studying badly.
Always thinks about what he is not told to think about. The games are invented by himself. Neat, thrifty: "mine" is very important for him. Hot and violent *, now fight; but very gentle and sensitive Ilya will die if he does not have a strict and beloved leader.
In the summer we went swimming; Seryozha was on horseback, and Ilya was seated in my saddle. I go out in the morning, both are waiting. Ilya in a hat, with a sheet, neatly, shines, Seryozha came running from somewhere, out of breath, without a hat. "Find a hat or I won't take it." Seryozha runs here and there. No hat. “Nothing to do, without a hat I won't take you. - You have a lesson - you are always lost. He is ready to cry. I am leaving with Ilya and waiting to see if regret will be expressed from him. None. He shines and talks about the horse. The wife finds Seryozha in tears. Looking for a hat - no. She guesses that her brother, who went fishing early in the morning, put on Seryozha's hat. She writes me a note that Seryozha is probably not to blame for the missing hat, and sends him to me in a cap. (She guessed right.) I hear rapid footsteps across the bridge of the bathing house, Seryozha runs in.(Dear, he lost the note.) And he begins to cry. Ilya is here, too, and I am a little bit "(Letter to AA Tolstoy, October 26, 1872).
Myth No. 5 Tolstoy preferred walking to any means of transportation
Reality:
Lev Nikolayevich retained his love for walking throughout his life and did not leave it even in recent years in Yasnaya Polyana. It is known that he made three pedestrian transitions from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana, as well as a pedestrian pilgrimage to Optina Pustyn. The purpose of these journeys is “to see how the world of God lives, big, real, and not the one that we have made for ourselves and from which we do not leave” (letter to SA Tolstoy, June 11, 1881).
However, he was equally fond of horseback riding, and at 67 he mastered the bicycle. If we are not talking about walking, but about moving to short and long distances, then here the writer preferred the modern modes of transport - a stroller, a postal carriage, a railway.
"I ride every day" (Diary, November 22, 1895)
Myth number 6 Leo Tolstoy walked barefoot and wore peasant clothes
Reality:
In 1891, Ilya Repin performed a sketch of Tolstoy standing in prayer in the forest. Based on this sketch, ten years later he created the painting “L. N. Tolstoy Barefoot”, in a peculiar manner reflecting the writer's desire to simplify. According to the testimony of Tolstoy's eldest son Sergei Lvovich, “the father was unhappy that Repin portrayed him barefoot. He rarely walked barefoot and said: “It seems Repin never saw me barefoot. All that is needed is to be portrayed without pantaloons "(SL Tolstoy." Essays of the Past "). These words turned out to be prophetic - in 1903, at the exhibition of the St. Petersburg Society of Artists in the Passage, the public's attention was attracted by a painting by N. N. Bunin's "Fishing", in which Tolstoy and Repin were depicted fishing in the same shirts. The writer himself, when asked by the correspondent of the Novoye Vremya newspaper about his opinion about this work, answered: "I have long been the property of society and therefore I am not surprised at anything."
As for simple clothes, Lev Nikolayevich put them on for physical work, as well as during his hiking trips - so that the oncoming ones would not recognize him as a master. His home clothes, which he wore in Yasnaya Polyana, were very democratic, but excluded associations with peasant dress. “Tolstoy's clothes were always the same - a blouse belted with a belt; in winter - dark, in summer - white, canvas. These blouses were sewn by Tolstoy by his wife and a village dressmaker. Tolstoy liked neatness and cleanliness in his clothes, but not panache and elegance "(NN Gusev." Leo Tolstoy is a man "). Over time, wide blouses with a belt began to be called sweatshirts - in honor of the count.
European dress - a frock coat, starched shirts, a coat and a hat - the writer wore when he traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg, and was in high society. Many of his things were made by good tailors or bought from expensive shops.
“I remember how dad sometimes went to Moscow on business. In those days, he still wore a frock coat in Moscow, made by the best French tailor Aye at that time”(IL Tolstoy. My memoirs). In his youth, Lev Nikolaevich strictly adhered to the generally accepted rules concerning the behavior and appearance of young aristocrats: “Not only from Kazan, but even before I was busy with my appearance: I tried to be secular, comme il faut *” (Leo Tolstoy. “Memories (Autobiography ).
Myth number 7 Leo Tolstoy was anathema
Reality:
In the last two decades of LN Tolstoy's life, being a believer baptized in Orthodoxy, in a number of works he clearly showed that he did not accept a number of the most important dogmas of the Orthodox Church and sharply criticized its activities. In fact, he ceases to be a member of the Russian Orthodox Church of his own free will. The church officially announces this in February 1901.
On February 24, in the journal Tserkovnye Vedomosti, published by the Most Holy Governing Synod, the body in charge of the affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, the text of the Determination of the Most Holy Synod dated February 20-22, 1901 No. 557 is published, “with a message to the faithful children of the Orthodox Greek Russian Churches about Count Leo Tolstoy . This document testifies to the writer's falling away from the church. Anathema to Tolstoy was not proclaimed in any of the churches of the Russian Empire, and the plot details of Alexander Kuprin's famous story “Anathema” (1913) are fictional.