All his life Leo Tolstoy struggled with lust. Leo Tolstoy Is it true that Leo Tolstoy was a lecher?

At first glance, everything is decorous in Tolstoy's family. Only wife, marriage for love. But she knew better than anyone else about the demons who tormented her husband. Why did the bride walk down the aisle in tears and whom did she dream of killing? The answers to these questions can be found in the diaries of the spouses. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is a writer who is read by the whole world. Many of his works are autobiographical and, of course, each of them reflects the author's worldview. And Tolstoy's biography is no less interesting than his novels.

Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya (Bers) was his lover, friend, assistant and gave the count 13 children. But all my life I was tormented by jealousy. Leo Tolstoy was a passionate man. And he was fond of women from a young age. In her diaries, Sophia accused her husband of tactlessness and admitted that she was ready to kill one of the passions of her lawful spouse. But how did the young wife know about Tolstoy's love affairs before marriage? The thing is that on the eve of the wedding, he gave her his diaries. So Count Tolstoy decided to clear his conscience and, obviously, show the bride what he is. She decided to go down the aisle, but she entered the church in tears. So what did the girl learn?

Not young ladies and peasant women

Leo Tolstoy kept diaries from his youth and trusted the pages for almost everything. He described life events, including intimate ones. From them it is known that older brothers introduced the future writer to physical relationships when he was 16 years old. They took them to a brothel and paid for the services of a prostitute:

"... And I performed this act, then I stood by the bed of this woman and cried,"- he recalled.

Tolstoy will describe this experience in his last novel "Resurrection".

It is worth noting that visiting houses of tolerance by noble gentlemen in the 19th century was not something out of the ordinary. Brothels were taxed, and priestesses of love underwent compulsory medical check-ups twice a week. In Moscow, at the corner of Plotnikov Lane, there is an apartment building. His bas-reliefs are rather unusual, they depict scenes of love. Looking closely at the sculptures, you can see the faces of Pushkin, Tolstoy and Gogol. According to rumors, domestic classics were clients of a brothel, which was once located in this place.

As for Leo Tolstoy, he experienced his first passionate attraction even before meeting "this woman." At 13, he flared up for a fat maid with a pretty face. He will write down that he refuses to recognize this feeling as his first love, especially since:

"... From 13 to 15 years is the most careless time for a boy (adolescence): you do not know what to throw yourself at, and voluptuousness at this time acts with extraordinary power."

In the biography of the young Tolstoy there is a case of which he was ashamed all his life. One day he became friends with his aunt's maid. The girl was innocent, and he seduced her. Glasha became pregnant, and the mistress of the house kicked her out. Her family refused to accept the disgraced. The girl was on the verge of death when Tolstoy's sister took her in.

Among the victories of the passionate count were young women from subordinate villages, gypsies and maids. But a special role in the life of the writer was played by the married peasant woman Aksinya. For her, he felt tenderness, jealousy and passion, which, it seems, pursued him to the end. He even gave her name to the heroines of the works.

"Yes, if there was a little more delicacy in him, he would not have called his female heroines Aksinya",- the offended Sophia Andreevna wrote in her diary.

The affair with "semolina" Aksinya in Yasnaya Polyana lasted two years. The peasant woman, according to the writer, drove him crazy and deprived him of peace:
“... I am in love as never before in my life. There is no other thought. I'm suffering. I even get scared how close she is to me ... She is nowhere to be found - I was looking for her. It is no longer the feeling of a deer, but of a husband for a wife. "

This relationship continued after Tolstoy got married. In the family estate, Aksinya served in the master's house. She came to wash the floors and caused fits of anger in Sofia Tolstoy. The jealous wife even made a note in which she admitted that she did not understand why Aksinya was so “good”, and that she even thought of killing her.

“… And just a woman, fat, white - awful. I looked at the dagger and guns with such pleasure. One hit is easy. I'm just like crazy ",- Sophia Andreevna Tolstaya recalled.

Desire is a Devil's Appearance

Leo Tolstoy will describe the history of his pernicious passion in the novel "The Devil". His wife worked with all of his manuscripts. She copied out completely. But Lev Nikolaevich prudently hid the "Devil" from her in the seat of his working chair. He very frankly described the attraction of Yevgeny Irtenev to the courtyard girl Stepanida.

The plot is as follows: a young nobleman is tormented by carnal desire. He converges with a peasant woman "not for debauchery, but only for health." But she lures not only his body into sin, but also his soul. Having decided to marry a noble girl, Irtenev tries to forget his Stepanida. But circumstances again invite him to sin. Tolstoy rewrote the end of the story twice. In one of the versions, Eugene chooses a vicious life of suicide, and according to the other, he kills Stepanida, and he loses everything and finds himself on the sidelines of life.

Leo Tolstoy took his plots from real life... Is it a coincidence? He describes in "The Devil" that Stepanida appeared in the master's house, lifting her skirts and bare hands, shamelessly washing the floors. And still trying to break the connection, Irtenev confesses to his wife. He hands her his diary.

Final chord

It remains only to guess how much Sofya Andreevna and Lev Tolstoy survived. Lev Nikolayevich loved his wife, but was disappointed by her coldness. She was shocked by his sophistication. At first he demanded maximum attention to himself, then he moved away. She bore him thirteen children (five died), rewrote "War and Peace" by hand several times, kept accounting and housekeeping. She loved and was jealous. Their marriage lasted nearly 50 years. The family was "unhappy in its own way."

At the end of his life, Tolstoy was excommunicated, he almost ruined his family, accused his wife of persecuting and controlling him. At 82, Leo Tolstoy left home. He caught a cold and died. After his death, she was given a letter:

“The fact that I left you does not prove that I was dissatisfied with you ... I do not blame you, on the contrary, I remember with gratitude the long 35 years of our life! It is not my fault ... I have changed, but not for myself, not for people, but because I cannot do otherwise! I can’t blame you for not following me. ”

Lev Nikolaevich, like many men, did not remember the date of the wedding. How else to explain that in the last letter he writes about a marriage of 35 years, while in fact the marriage lasted 48.

Count Leo Tolstoy, a classic of Russian and world literature, is called a master of psychology, the creator of the epic novel genre, an original thinker and teacher of life. The works of the genius writer are the greatest treasure of Russia.

In August 1828, a classic of Russian literature was born on the Yasnaya Polyana estate in the Tula province. The future author of War and Peace became the fourth child in a family of eminent nobles. On the paternal side, he belonged to the old family of the Tolstoy counts, who served and. On the maternal side, Lev Nikolaevich is a descendant of the Ruriks. It is noteworthy that Leo Tolstoy has a common ancestor - Admiral Ivan Mikhailovich Golovin.

Lev Nikolaevich's mother - nee Princess Volkonskaya - died of a fever after the birth of her daughter. At that time, Leo was not even two years old. Seven years later, the head of the family, Count Nikolai Tolstoy, died.

Caring for the children fell on the shoulders of the writer's aunt, T. A. Ergolskaya. Later, the second aunt, Countess A.M. Osten-Saken, became the guardian of the orphaned children. After her death in 1840, the children moved to Kazan, to a new guardian - father's sister P.I. Yushkova. The aunt influenced her nephew, and the writer called her childhood in her house, which was considered the most cheerful and hospitable in the city, happy. Later, Lev Tolstoy described his impressions of life at the Yushkovs' estate in the story "Childhood".

Silhouette and portrait of Leo Tolstoy's parents

The classic received his primary education at home from German and French teachers. In 1843, Leo Tolstoy entered Kazan University, choosing the Faculty of Oriental Languages. Soon, due to low academic performance, he moved to another faculty - law. But he did not succeed here either: two years later he left the university without receiving a degree.

Lev Nikolaevich returned to Yasnaya Polyana, wishing to improve relations with the peasants in a new way. The venture failed, but the young man regularly kept a diary, loved secular entertainment and was carried away by music. Tolstoy listened for hours, and.

Disappointed with the life of the landowner after a summer spent in the village, 20-year-old Leo Tolstoy left the estate and moved to Moscow, and from there to St. Petersburg. The young man rushed between preparing for the candidate exams at the university, music lessons, carousing with cards and gypsies, and dreams of becoming either an official or a cadet of the Horse Guards regiment. Relatives called Leo "the most trifling fellow", and it took years to distribute the debts he had endowed.

Literature

In 1851, the writer's brother, officer Nikolai Tolstoy, persuaded Lev to go to the Caucasus. For three years Lev Nikolaevich lived in a village on the banks of the Terek. The nature of the Caucasus and the patriarchal life of the Cossack village were later reflected in the stories "Cossacks" and "Hadji Murad", stories "Raid" and "Cutting the forest".

In the Caucasus, Leo Tolstoy composed the story "Childhood", which he published in the magazine "Sovremennik" under the initials L. N. Soon he wrote the sequels "Adolescence" and "Youth", combining the stories into a trilogy. His literary debut turned out to be brilliant and brought Lev Nikolaevich his first recognition.

The creative biography of Leo Tolstoy is developing rapidly: the appointment to Bucharest, the transfer to the besieged Sevastopol, the command of the battery enriched the writer with impressions. From the pen of Lev Nikolaevich came the cycle of "Sevastopol Stories". The works of the young writer amazed critics with a bold psychological analysis. Nikolai Chernyshevsky found in them "the dialectic of the soul", and the emperor read the essay "Sevastopol in December" and expressed admiration for Tolstoy's talent.

In the winter of 1855, 28-year-old Leo Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg and entered the Sovremennik circle, where he was warmly greeted, calling him “the great hope of Russian literature”. But over the course of a year, the writers' environment with its disputes and conflicts, readings and literary dinners got bored. Later in the "Confession" Tolstoy admitted:

"These people are disgusted with me, and I am disgusted with myself."

In the fall of 1856, the young writer left for the Yasnaya Polyana estate, and in January 1857 - abroad. For half a year, Leo Tolstoy traveled around Europe. Visited Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland. He returned to Moscow, and from there - to Yasnaya Polyana. In the family estate he took up the arrangement of schools for peasant children. In the vicinity of Yasnaya Polyana, twenty educational institutions... In 1860, the writer traveled a lot: in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, he studied pedagogical systems European countries to apply what they saw in Russia.

A special niche in the work of Leo Tolstoy is occupied by fairy tales and compositions for children and adolescents. The writer has created hundreds of works for young readers, including the kind and instructive fairy tales "Kitten", "Two Brothers", "Hedgehog and Hare", "Lion and Dog".

Leo Tolstoy wrote the school manual "ABC" for teaching children to write, read and arithmetic. Literary and pedagogical work consists of four books. The writer included instructive stories, epics, fables, as well as methodological advice to teachers. The third book includes the story "Prisoner of the Caucasus".

Leo Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina"

In 1870, Leo Tolstoy, continuing to teach peasant children, wrote the novel "Anna Karenina", in which he contrasted two storylines: the Karenins' family drama and the homely idyll of the young landowner Levin, with whom he identified himself. The novel only at first glance seemed amorous: the classic raised the problem of the meaning of the existence of the "educated class", opposing it with the truth of peasant life. I highly appreciated Anna Karenina.

The turning point in the mind of the writer was reflected in the works written in the 1880s. Life-changing spiritual insight is central to stories and novellas. The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata, Father Sergius and the story After the Ball appear. The classic of Russian literature paints pictures of social inequality, castigates the idleness of the nobles.

In search of an answer to the question about the meaning of life, Leo Tolstoy turned to the Russian Orthodox Church, but did not find satisfaction there either. The writer came to the conviction that the Christian church was corrupt, and under the guise of religion, priests were promoting false doctrine. In 1883, Lev Nikolaevich founded the publication Posrednik, where he outlined spiritual beliefs with criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church. For this, Tolstoy was excommunicated, the secret police watched the writer.

In 1898, Leo Tolstoy wrote the novel Resurrection, which received critical acclaim. But the success of the work was inferior to Anna Karenina and War and Peace.

For the last 30 years of his life, Leo Tolstoy was recognized as the spiritual and religious leader of Russia with the doctrine of non-violent resistance to evil.

"War and Peace"

Leo Tolstoy disliked his novel War and Peace, calling the epic "verbose rubbish." The classic wrote the work in the 1860s, living with his family in Yasnaya Polyana. The first two chapters, entitled "Year 1805", were published by the "Russian Bulletin" in 1865. Three years later, Leo Tolstoy wrote three more chapters and completed the novel, which caused heated controversy among critics.

Leo Tolstoy writes "War and Peace"

The novelist took the features of the heroes of the work, written in the years of family happiness and elation, from life. In Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, there are recognizable features of Lev Nikolaevich's mother, her inclination to reflection, brilliant education and love of art. The traits of his father - mockery, love of reading and hunting - the writer awarded Nikolai Rostov.

While writing the novel, Lev Tolstoy worked in the archives, studied the correspondence between the Tolstoys and Volkonskys, Masonic manuscripts, and visited the Borodino field. The young wife helped him by rewriting the rough drafts.

The novel was read avidly, striking readers with the breadth of the epic canvas and subtle psychological analysis. Leo Tolstoy characterized the work as an attempt to "write the history of the people."

According to the estimates of the literary critic Lev Anninsky, by the end of the 1970s, only abroad, the works of the Russian classic were filmed 40 times. Until 1980, the epic "War and Peace" was filmed four times. Directors from Europe, America and Russia shot 16 films based on the novel "Anna Karenina", "Resurrection" was filmed 22 times.

For the first time "War and Peace" was filmed by director Pyotr Chardinin in 1913. Best known is the film made by a Soviet director in 1965.

Personal life

Leo Tolstoy married 18 years old in 1862, when he was 34 years old. The count lived with his wife for 48 years, but the life of the couple can hardly be called cloudless.

Sophia Bers is the second of three daughters of Andrei Bers, a doctor at the Moscow Palace Office. The family lived in the capital, but in the summer they rested in the Tula estate near Yasnaya Polyana. For the first time, Leo Tolstoy saw his future wife as a child. Sophia was educated at home, read a lot, understood art and graduated from Moscow University. The diary kept by Bers-Tolstaya is recognized as an example of the genre of memoirs.

At the beginning of his married life, Leo Tolstoy, wishing that there were no secrets between him and his wife, gave Sophia a diary to read. The shocked wife learned about her husband's stormy youth, passion for gambling, wild life and the peasant girl Aksinya, who was expecting a child from Lev Nikolaevich.

The firstborn Sergey was born in 1863. In the early 1860s, Tolstoy took up writing the novel War and Peace. Sofya Andreevna helped her husband, despite the pregnancy. The woman taught and raised all the children at home. Five out of 13 children died in infancy or early childhood.

Family problems began after Leo Tolstoy finished his work on Anna Karenina. The writer plunged into depression, expressed dissatisfaction with life, which Sofya Andreevna so diligently arranged in the family nest. The count's moral throws led to the fact that Lev Nikolaevich demanded that his relatives give up meat, alcohol and smoking. Tolstoy forced his wife and children to dress in peasant clothes, which he made himself, and wished to give the acquired property to the peasants.

Sofya Andreevna made great efforts to dissuade her husband from the idea of ​​distributing goodness. But the quarrel that occurred split the family: Leo Tolstoy left home. When he returned, the writer assigned the responsibility to rewrite the drafts on his daughters.

The death of the last child, seven-year-old Vanya, brought the spouses together for a short time. But soon mutual grievances and misunderstandings alienated them completely. Sofya Andreevna found solace in music. In Moscow, a woman took lessons from a teacher for whom romantic feelings appeared. Their relationship remained friendly, but the count did not forgive his wife for "half-betrayal".

The fatal quarrel between the spouses happened at the end of October 1910. Leo Tolstoy left home, leaving Sophia Farewell letter... He wrote that he loved her, but could not act otherwise.

Death

82-year-old Leo Tolstoy, accompanied by his personal doctor D. P. Makovitsky, left Yasnaya Polyana. On the way, the writer fell ill and got off the train at the Astapovo railway station. The last 7 days of his life Lev Nikolaevich spent in the house of the station superintendent. The whole country followed the news about Tolstoy's state of health.

The children and wife arrived at the Astapovo station, but Leo Tolstoy did not want to see anyone. The classic died on November 7, 1910: he died of pneumonia. His wife survived him by 9 years. Tolstoy was buried in Yasnaya Polyana.

Leo Tolstoy Quotes

• Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one thinks about how to change themselves.
• Everything comes to the one who knows how to wait.
• All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
• Let everyone sweep in front of his door. If everyone does this, the whole street will be clean.
• It's easier to live without love. But there is no point without it.
• I don't have everything that I love. But I love everything I have.
• The world is moving forward thanks to those who suffer.
• The greatest truths are the simplest.
• Everyone is making plans, and no one knows if he will live until the evening.

Bibliography

• 1869 - "War and Peace"
• 1877 - Anna Karenina
• 1899 - "Resurrection"
• 1852-1857 - "Childhood". "Adolescence". "Youth"
• 1856 - "Two Hussars"
• 1856 - "Morning of the Landowner"
• 1863 - "Cossacks"
• 1886 - "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"
• 1903 - "Diary of a Madman"
• 1889 - "The Kreutzer Sonata"
• 1898 - "Father Sergius"
• 1904 - "Hadji Murad"

September 23, 1862 Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy married Sofya Andreevna Bers... She at that time was 18 years old, count - 34. They lived together for 48 years, until Tolstoy's death, and this marriage cannot be called easy or cloudlessly happy. Nevertheless, Sofya Andreevna gave birth to 13 children to the count, published both the lifetime collection of his works and the posthumous edition of his letters. Tolstoy, in the last message written to his wife after a quarrel and before leaving home, on his last journey to Astapovo station, admitted that he loved her, no matter what - only he could not live with her. The story of love and life of the Count and Countess Tolstoy is recalled by AiF.ru.

Reproduction of painting by artist Ilya Repin "Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya at the table". Photo: RIA Novosti

Sofya Andreevna, both during her husband's life and after his death, was accused of not understanding her husband, not sharing his ideas, being too mundane and far from the philosophical views of the count. He himself accused her of this, this, in fact, became the cause of numerous disagreements that darkened the last 20 years of their life together. And yet Sofya Andreevna cannot be reproached for being a bad wife. Having devoted her whole life not only to the birth and upbringing of numerous children, but also to housekeeping, household chores, solving peasant and economic problems, as well as preserving the creative heritage of the great husband, she forgot about dresses and social life.

Writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy with his wife Sophia. Gaspra. Crimea. Reproduction of a 1902 photograph. Photo: RIA Novosti

Before meeting his first and only wife, Count Tolstoy - a descendant of an ancient noble family, in which the blood of several noble families was mixed at once - had already managed to make both a military and a teaching career, was a famous writer. Tolstoy was familiar with the Bersov family even before his service in the Caucasus and travel to Europe in the 50s. Sophia was the second of three daughters of a doctor at the Moscow Palace Office Andrey Bers and his wife Lyubov Bers, nee Islavina... The Bersy lived in Moscow, in an apartment in the Kremlin, but they often visited the Islavins' Tula estate in the village of Ivitsy, not far from Yasnaya Polyana. Lyubov Alexandrovna was friends with Lev Nikolaevich's sister Mary, her brother Konstantin- with the graph himself. He saw Sophia and her sisters for the first time as children, they spent time together both in Yasnaya Polyana and in Moscow, played the piano, sang and even once staged an opera house.

Writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy with his wife Sofya Andreevna, 1910. Photo: RIA Novosti

Sophia received an excellent education at home - from childhood, her mother instilled in her children a love of literature, and later a diploma as a home teacher at Moscow University and wrote short stories. In addition, the future Countess Tolstaya from her youth was fond of writing stories and kept a diary, which would later be recognized as one of the outstanding examples of the memoir genre. Returning to Moscow, Tolstoy found no longer a little girl with whom he had once staged home performances, but a charming girl. Families again began to visit each other, and the Berses clearly noticed the count's interest in one of their daughters, but for a long time they believed that Tolstoy would woo the elder Elizabeth. For some time, as you know, he himself doubted, but after another day spent with Bers in Yasnaya Polyana in August 1862, he made a final decision. Sophia conquered him with her spontaneity, simplicity and clarity of judgment. They parted for a few days, after which the count himself came to Ivica - to the ball, which was organized by the Bersa and at which Sophia danced so that there was no doubt in Tolstoy's heart. It is even believed that the writer conveyed his own feelings at that moment in War and Peace, in the scene where Prince Andrei watches Natasha Rostova at her first ball. On September 16, Lev Nikolaevich asked the Bers for the hand of their daughter, having previously sent a letter to Sophia to make sure that she agreed: “Tell me, as an honest man, do you want to be my wife? Only if from the bottom of your heart, you can boldly say: yes, or it is better to say: no, if you have a shadow of self-doubt. For God's sake, ask yourself well. I will be scared to hear: no, but I foresee it and will find the strength to take it down. But if I’m never loved by my husband as I love, it will be awful! ” Sophia immediately agreed.

Wanting to be honest with his future wife, Tolstoy gave her his diary to read - this is how the girl learned about the stormy past of the groom, about gambling, about numerous novels and passionate hobbies, including the connection with a peasant girl Aksinya who was expecting a child from him. Sofya Andreevna was shocked, but she hid her feelings as best she could, nevertheless she will carry the memory of these revelations throughout her life.

The wedding was played just a week after the engagement - the parents could not resist the pressure of the count, who wanted to get married as soon as possible. It seemed to him that after so many years he had finally found the one he had dreamed of as a child. Having lost his mother early, he grew up listening to stories about her, and thought that his future wife should also be a faithful, loving, companion who completely shares his views, mother and helper, simple and at the same time able to appreciate the beauty of literature and the gift her husband. This is exactly how he saw Sofya Andreevna - an 18-year-old girl who abandoned city life, secular receptions and beautiful outfits for the sake of living next to her husband on his country estate. The girl took care of the household, gradually getting used to rural life, so different from that to which she was accustomed.

Leo Tolstoy with his wife Sophia (center) on the porch of the Yasnaya Polyana house on Troitsin Day, 1909. Photo: RIA Novosti

Firstborn Seryozha Sofya Andreevna gave birth to in 1863. Tolstoy then set about writing War and Peace. Despite a difficult pregnancy, his wife not only continued to do household chores, but also helped her husband in his work - she copied drafts completely.

Writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and his wife Sofya Andreevna drinking tea at home in Yasnaya Polyana, 1908. Photo: RIA Novosti

For the first time, Sofya Andreevna showed her character after the birth of Seryozha. Unable to feed him herself, she demanded that the count bring a wet nurse, although he was categorically against, saying that then the children of this woman would be left without milk. For the rest, she fully followed the rules established by her husband, solved the problems of peasants in the surrounding villages, even treated them. She taught and raised all the children at home: in total, Sofya Andreevna gave birth to 13 children to Tolstoy, five of whom died at an early age.

Russian writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (left) with his grandchildren Sonya (right) and Ilya (center) in Krekshino, 1909. Photo: RIA Novosti

The first twenty years passed almost cloudlessly, but grievances accumulated. In 1877, Tolstoy finished work on Anna Karenina and felt a deep dissatisfaction with life, which upset and even offended Sofya Andreevna. She, who sacrificed everything for him, in return received dissatisfaction with the life that she so diligently arranged for him. Tolstoy's moral quest led him to formulate the commandments by which his family now had to live. The count called, among other things, for the simplest existence, the rejection of meat, alcohol, smoking. He dressed in peasant clothes, made clothes and shoes for himself, his wife and children, he even wanted to give up all property in favor of the villagers - Sofya Andreevna had to work hard to dissuade her husband from this act. She was sincerely offended that her husband, who suddenly felt guilty before all of humanity, did not feel guilt before her and was ready to give up everything she had acquired and protected for so many years. He expected from his wife that she would share not only his material, but also his spiritual life, his philosophical views. For the first time, having had a big quarrel with Sofya Andreevna, Tolstoy left home, and when he returned, he no longer trusted her manuscript - now the responsibility to rewrite the drafts fell on his daughters, to whom Tolstaya was very jealous. The death of the last child also knocked her down, Vani born in 1888 - he did not live to be seven years old. This grief at first brought the spouses closer, but not for long - the abyss that separated them, mutual resentment and misunderstanding, all this pushed Sofya Andreevna to seek solace on the side. She took up music, began to travel to Moscow to take lessons from a teacher Alexandra Taneeva... Her romantic feelings for the musician were not a secret either for Taneev himself or for Tolstoy, but the relationship remained friendly. But the count, who was jealous, angry, could not forgive this "half-betrayal".

Sophia Tolstaya at the window of the house of the head of the Astapovo station I.M. Ozolin, where the dying Leo Tolstoy lies, 1910. Photo: RIA Novosti.

V last years mutual suspicion and resentment grew into an almost manic obsession: Sofya Andreevna re-read Tolstoy's diaries, looking for something bad that he could write about her. He scolded his wife for being too suspicious: the last, fatal quarrel took place from October 27 to 28, 1910. Tolstoy packed his things and left home, leaving Sofya Andreevna a farewell letter: “Don't think that I left because I don't love you. I love you and I regret you from the bottom of my heart, but I cannot act differently from what I am doing. " According to the stories of the family, after reading the note, Tolstaya rushed to drown herself - she was miraculously pulled out of the pond. Soon, information came that the count, having caught a cold, was dying of pneumonia at the Astapovo station - the children and his wife, whom he did not want to see even then, came to the sick man's house of the station superintendent. The last meeting of Lev Nikolaevich and Sofya Andreevna took place just before the death of the writer, who died on November 7, 1910. The countess outlived her husband by 9 years, was engaged in publishing his diaries and until the end of her days listened to reproaches that she was a wife not worthy of a genius.

There are still disputes about this couple - about no one there was so much gossip and so many conjectures were born as about the two of them. The history of the Tolstoy family life is a conflict between the real and the sublime, between everyday life and dreams, and the inevitably following spiritual abyss. But who is right in this conflict is an unanswered question. Each of the spouses had their own truth ...

Graph

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on August 28, 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana. The count came from several ancient clans, branches of the Trubetskoy and Golitsyns, Volkonsky and Odoevsky were intertwined in his genealogy. Lev Nikolaevich's father married the heiress of a huge fortune, Maria Volkonskaya, who sat in girls, not for love, but the relationship in the family was tender and touching. Little Lyova's mother died of fever when he was one and a half years old. The orphaned children were raised by the aunts, who told the boy what an angel his late mother was - she was smart, educated, and delicate with the servants, and took care of the children - and how happy the father was with her. Although it was a good fairy tale, it was then that the ideal image of the one with which he would like to connect his life was formed in the imagination of the future writer. The search for the ideal turned into a heavy burden for the young man, which over time turned into a pernicious, almost manic attraction to the female sex. The first step towards revealing this new side of life for Tolstoy was a visit to a brothel, where his brothers were brought. Soon in his diary he will write: "I performed this act, and then I stood by the bed of this woman and cried!" At the age of 14, Leo experienced a feeling, as he believed, similar to love, seducing a young maid. This picture, already being a writer, Tolstoy will reproduce in "Resurrection", revealing in detail the scene of Katyusha's seduction. The whole life of the young Tolstoy was spent in developing strict rules of conduct, in spontaneous evasion from them and in a stubborn struggle with personal shortcomings. There is only one vice he cannot overcome - voluptuousness. Perhaps the admirers of the great writer would not have known about his many predilections for the female sex - Koloshina, Molostvova, Obolenskaya, Arsenyeva, Tyutcheva, Sverbeeva, Shcherbatova, Chicherina, Olsufyeva, Rebinder, the Lvov sisters. But he persistently entered into his diary the details of his love victories. Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana full of sensual impulses. “This is no longer a temperament, but a habit of debauchery,” he wrote upon arrival. “Lust is terrible, reaching the point of physical illness. He wandered about the garden with a vague, voluptuous hope of catching someone in the bush. Nothing prevents me from working like that. "

Desire or love

Sonechka Bers was born into the family of a doctor, an actual state councilor. She received a good education, was smart, easy to communicate, had a strong character. In August 1862, the Bers family went to visit their grandfather at his estate Ivica and stopped at Yasnaya Polyana on the way. And then the 34-year-old Count Tolstoy, who remembered Sonya as a child, suddenly saw a lovely 18-year-old girl who excited him. There was a picnic on the lawn, where Sophia sang and danced, showering everything around with sparks of youth and happiness. And then there were conversations in the twilight, when Sonya was shy in front of Lev Nikolaevich, but he managed to get her to talk, and he listened to her with delight, and said at parting: "How clear you are!" Soon the Bersy left Ivitz, but now Tolstoy could not live a day without a girl who won his heart. He suffered and was tormented because of the age difference and thought that this deafening happiness was not available to him: "Every day I think that you can no longer suffer and be happy together, and every day I become crazier." In addition, he was tormented by the question: what is it - desire or love? This difficult period of trying to understand oneself will be reflected in War and Peace. He could not resist his feelings any longer and went to Moscow, where he proposed to Sophia. The girl happily agreed. Now Tolstoy was absolutely happy: "Never so joyfully, clearly and calmly did I imagine my future with my wife." But there was one more thing: before getting married, he wanted them not to have any secrets from each other. Sonya had no secrets from her husband - she was as pure as an angel. But Lev Nikolaevich had plenty of them. And then he made a fatal mistake that predetermined the course of further family relations. Tolstoy gave the bride to read the diaries in which he described all his adventures, passions and hobbies. For the girl, these revelations were a real shock. Sofya Andreevna with children. Only her mother was able to convince Sonya not to give up the marriage, she tried to explain to her that all men at the age of Lev Nikolaevich have a past, they just prudently hide it from their brides. Sonya decided that she loved Lev Nikolaevich enough to forgive him everything, including the peasant woman Aksinya, who at that time was expecting a child from the count.

Family weekdays

Married life in Yasnaya Polyana began far from cloudlessly: it was difficult for Sophia to overcome the disgust she felt for her husband, remembering his diaries. However, she gave birth to Lev Nikolaevich 13 children, five of whom died in infancy. In addition, for many years she remained a faithful assistant to Tolstoy in all his affairs: a copyist of manuscripts, a translator, a secretary, and a publisher of his works.
The village of Yasnaya Polyana. Photo "Scherer, Nabgolts and K0". 1892 For many years Sofya Andreevna was deprived of the pleasures of Moscow life, to which she was accustomed from childhood, but she humbly accepted the hardships of rural life. She raised the children herself, without nannies and governesses. In her free time, Sophia was completely rewriting the manuscripts of the "mirrors of the Russian revolution." The countess, trying to correspond to the ideal of a wife, which Tolstoy told her about more than once, received petitioners from the village, resolved disputes, and eventually opened a hospital in Yasnaya Polyana, where she herself examined the suffering and helped as far as she had knowledge and skills.
Maria and Alexandra Tolstoy with peasant women Avdotya Bugrova and Matryona Komarova and peasant children. Yasnaya Polyana, 1896 Everything she did for the peasants was actually done for Lev Nikolaevich. The count took all this for granted, and was never interested in what was happening in the soul of his wife.

Out of the frying pan into the fire...

After writing "Anna Karenina", in the nineteenth year of family life, the writer had a mental crisis. He tried to find solace in the church, but he could not. Then the writer renounced the traditions of his circle and became a real ascetic: he began to wear peasant clothes, conduct subsistence farming, and even promised to distribute all his property to the peasants. Tolstoy was a real "house builder", having invented his own charter for his future life, demanding its unquestioning fulfillment. The chaos of countless household chores did not allow Sofya Andreevna to delve into her husband's new ideas, listen to him, share his experiences.
Sometimes Lev Nikolayevich went beyond reason and demanded that younger children should not be taught what was not needed in a simple folk life, then he wanted to give up property, thereby depriving the family of their livelihood. He wanted to renounce copyright for his works, because he believed that he could not own them and profit from them.
Lev Tolstoy with his grandchildren Sonya and Ilya in Krekshino Sofya Andreevna stoically defended the interests of the family, which led to the inevitable family collapse. Moreover, her mental anguish was revived with renewed vigor. If earlier she did not even dare to be offended by the betrayal of Lev Nikolaevich, now she began to recall all the past grievances at once.
Tolstoy with his family at the tea table in the park. After all, whenever she, pregnant or having just given birth, could not share a matrimonial bed with him, Tolstoy was fond of another maid or cook. Again he sinned and repented ... But he demanded obedience and obedience to his paranoid life rules from his family.

A letter from the other world

Tolstoy died during a trip, which he went on after breaking up with his wife at a very old age. During the move, Lev Nikolayevich fell ill with pneumonia, got off at the nearest large station (Astapovo), where he died on November 7, 1910 in the house of the station chief. Leo Tolstoy on the way from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana. After the death of the great writer, a storm of accusations fell upon the widow. Yes, she could not become a like-minded person and an ideal for Tolstoy, but she was a model of a faithful wife and an exemplary mother, sacrificing her happiness for the sake of her family.
Sifting through the papers of her late husband, Sofya Andreevna found his sealed letter to her, dated in the summer of 1897, when Lev Nikolayevich first decided to leave. And now, as if from another world, his voice sounded, as if asking for forgiveness from his wife: energetically and firmly carried what she considered herself called to. You gave me and the world what you could give, you gave a lot maternal love and selflessness, and we cannot but appreciate you for that ... I thank you and remember with love and I will remember for what you have given me. "