Unlike his relatives, Fyodor Tolstoy did "PR" to the famous family not with successes in the military-political field and not with literary masterpieces, but with scandals.
Professional brawler
The term “professional brawler” is the most appropriate definition for Fyodor Tolstoy. As Alexander Herzen wrote, “he developed only violent passions, only bad inclinations, and this is not surprising; everything that is vicious is allowed to develop here for a long time without hindrance, and for human passions they are sent to the garrison or to Siberia at the first step."
According to the liberal Herzen, Wednesday is to blame. But, for example, our Tolstoy had a cousin - also Fyodor, only not Ivanovich, but Petrovich. Together (with a difference of a year) they studied at the Naval Cadet Corps, together they served in the guard. But Fyodor Petrovich did not go into the dressing down, but took place as a sculptor, medalist and artist. But still they remember his dissolute cousin more …
So, our Tolstoy was born on February 6, 1782 in Moscow, in the family of the noble idler Count Ivan Andreevich and his wife Anna Fedorovna, nee Maikova.
Although even Peter III freed the nobles from compulsory service, they usually served somewhere, at least a little. Fyodor Tolstoy just wanted to live for his own pleasure, but there were seven more children in the family besides him, and there was not enough money for a beautiful life for everyone. Father put Fyodor in the Naval Cadet Corps, and then pushed him into the prestigious Guards Regiment - Preobrazhensky.
Tolstoy was not interested in the sciences, but within the framework of the training course he perfectly mastered fencing and shooting, and then began to practice. At the age of 17, he fought for the first time in a duel - with an officer who appointed him a punishment in the service. It is not known how the matter ended, but in total Fyodor Tolstoy killed 11 opponents in duels (Pushkin fought in duels five times, and only one of them ended in death - the death of the poet himself).
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Cohabitation with a monkey
The people in the Preobrazhensky regiment were not easy to pick up, all with high patrons, and it can be assumed that they decided to get rid of the restless colleague. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand for what reasons a typical representative of the golden youth decided to suddenly set off on a dangerous voyage. It is even more difficult to understand why the head of the first Russian round-the-world expedition, Ivan Kruzenshtern, agreed to take this idiot with him.
The voyage began on August 7, 1803. Tolstoy annoyed his companions with cockiness, hooligan antics and indiscipline. Once he gave the ship's priest a drink, and when he fell asleep, he glued his beard to the deck with the ship's sealing wax. When the priest woke up, the rogue explained to him that the seal was with the royal coat of arms, and in no case could it be torn off, otherwise there was a direct road to hard labor. The poor man had to cut his beard.
On the Marquesas Islands, Tolstoy got himself tattoos and brought an orangutan on board. Near the shores of Kamchatka, the primate taught by him climbed into Krusenstern's cabin and filled the ship's papers with ink. The expedition leader's patience ran out: the officer who had landed on the shore together with the orangutan was advised to get home on his own.
Even today, only the most prepared extremists can walk from Kamchatka to St. Petersburg on foot. But Tolstoy managed to overcome this route, and even visit Alaska. Only the orangutan got lost on the way. Some spiteful critics claimed that Fyodor Ivanovich cohabited with the monkey, others that he ate it, but this, of course, was said behind the eyes, because no one wanted to run into a duel. And the nickname American (the second version is Aleut) stuck to it.
Feats in war
In St. Petersburg Tolstoy appeared in August 1805, i.e. a year before the return of Kruzenshtern. But the report of the head of the expedition had already reached the king, so the American was arrested at the city outpost and sent to the remote fortress of Neishlot on the Finnish border.
But in 1808, a war broke out between Russia and Sweden, and in this wilderness appeared the royal favorite, Prince Mikhail Dolgorukov. The two aristocrats quickly found a common language, good people were similar. Dolgorukov called the younger Tolstoy "Uncle Fedya" and "saved it for the most desperate military operations."
True, on October 15, Dolgorukov was killed by a stray cannonball. For Fyodor Ivanovich, of course, this was a blow, but the new bosses appreciated it. Having shown himself excellently when crossing the ice through the Kvarken Strait, he was rehabilitated and, returning to the Preobrazhensky regiment, received the rank of staff captain.
But in peacetime, the crap again got out of him. First, Tolstoy shot Captain Brunov, who challenged him to a duel, who stood up for his sister's honor. Then - a new duel, the victim of which was ensign Naryshkin.
Tolstoy was demoted to the rank and file and pushed out into retirement, moreover, with an order to live without leaving his Kaluga estate.
But in 1812 Napoleon came along, and the American energy was right again. In 1815, he retired again, but already as a colonel and Knight of St. George.
And Fyodor Ivanovich healed with pleasure. His house has become one of the centers of the Moscow party life. Tolstoy was friends with writers - Baratynsky, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Griboyedov.
Fyodor Ivanovich's relationship with Pushkin was uneven. Once Pushkin saw how Tolstoy twisted in a game of cards and made a remark to him. Tolstoy snapped: "Yes, I know it myself, but I don't like to be noticed." The case smelled like a duel, but those present hushed up the quarrel.
A year later, Pushkin was exiled to the Caucasus, and Tolstoy began to spread rumors that the poet had been whipped in the police before the exile. Pushkin composed an epigram where he mentioned both cheating and the notorious cohabitation with a monkey. But when the link ended, they were reconciled again, especially since they did not really want to fight. Tolstoy understood that "a poet in Russia is more than a poet," and Pushkin was aware of the risk of a duel with such a dangerous opponent. Over time, their relationship became friendly.
Duelist's Confession
Fyodor Ivanovich was a good comrade, unless it was a question of maps, where, in his own words, he "knows neither friend nor brother." Once one of his friends called him a second. Tolstoy agreed, but then he himself started a quarrel with his friend's opponent and, insisting on an immediate duel, killed him.
He was also a first-class sharpshooter, although there were even better masters in Russia. Moreover, Tolstoy was often ruined by passion. Once the American learned that his last name, as the one who had not paid the "debt of honor", would be written on a black board in the English club. There was no money, and Tolstoy decided to shoot himself.
The mistress, the gypsy dancer Avdotya Tugaeva, helped her out, offering her lover all her capital, accumulated from his own gifts. Tolstoy was so moved that he married her.
It happened in 1821. Over the next quarter of a century, the American gradually developed into a respectable member of society. Twelve children were born in the marriage. 11 of them died in infancy or adolescence. Tolstoy himself believed that this was a payback for 11 people killed by him with muzzles and included in the synodikon. After the death of another child, he crossed out one of the surnames and wrote down the opposite - "quit".
The penultimate daughter, Sarah, had a unique poetic gift, but at the age of 17 she died of consumption. Having buried her, Tolstoy expressed the hope that at least the youngest daughter Praskovya would survive. And she, the only one, lived to adulthood, having married the Moscow governor Vasily Perfilyev, to whom she gave birth to a son, Dmitry.
Such blows set Tolstoy in a repentant mood. He began to regularly attend church, was engaged in charity work, and before his death, which followed on October 24, 1846, confessed to the priest for several hours.
However, despite the didactic ending, Fyodor Ivanovich remained a gambler and a brute for his compatriots.
Oleg Pokrovsky
