Biography Composition of Tolstoy

Brief content. Features of the novel. Tolstoy biography of the writer L. Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is an outstanding Russian prose writer, playwright and public figure. Born on August 28 on September 9 in the estate of Yasnaya Polyana of the Tula region. On the maternal line, the writer belonged to the eminent genus of the princes of the Volkonsky, and according to his paternal - to the old family of the Counts of Tolstoy.

Great -great -grandfather, great -grandfather, grandfather and father of Leo Tolstoy were the military. Representatives of the ancient family of Tolstoy even under Ivan the Terrible served as governors in many cities of Rus'. The writer’s grandfather from his mother, “Descent of Rurik”, Prince Nikolai Sergeyevich Volkonsky, was enrolled in military service from seven years.

He was a participant in the Russo-Turkish war and resigned as a general-general. The grandfather of the writer from his father’s side-Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy-served in the fleet, and then in the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky regiment. The writer’s father - Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy - at the age of seventeen voluntarily entered military service. He participated in the Patriotic War of the year, was captured by the French and was liberated by the Russian troops who entered Paris after the defeat of Napoleon’s army.

On the maternal line, Tolstoy was related to the Pushkin. Their common ancestor was the boyar I. Golovin, the associate of Peter I, who studied with him the ship's business. One of his daughters is the poet’s great -grandmother, the other is Tolstoy's great -grandmother. Thus, Pushkin was a fat four -cursed uncle. The writer's childhood passed in Yasnaya Polyana - an old family estate.

Tolstoy’s interest in history and literature originated in the childhood: living in the village, he saw how the life of the working people flowed, from him he heard many folk tales, epics, songs, legends. The life of the people, their work, interests and views, oral creativity - all living and wise - opened a clear clearing of Tolstoy. Maria Nikolaevna Tolstaya, the writer’s mother, was a kind and responsive person, a smart and educated woman: she knew French, German, English and Italian, played the piano, and was engaged in painting.

Tolstoy was not even two years old when his mother died. The writer did not remember her, but he heard so much about her from others, which clearly and vividly represented her appearance and character. Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, their father, the children loved and appreciated for a humane attitude towards serfs. In addition to classes by economy and children, he read a lot. During his life, Nikolai Ilyich gathered a rich library consisting of books of French classics rare at that time, historical and natural-historical works.

It was he who was the first to notice the tendency of his youngest son to the lively perception of the artistic word. When Tolstoy was ninth year, his father drove him to Moscow for the first time. The first impressions of the Moscow life of Leo Nikolaevich served as the basis for many paintings, scenes and episodes of life in Moscow of the hero of the Tolstoy trilogy "Childhood", "adolescence" and "Youth".

Young Tolstoy saw not only the open side of the life of a large city, but also some hidden, shadow sides. With his first stay in Moscow, the writer associated the end of the earliest time of his life, childhood, and the transition to adolescence. The first period of Moscow life of Tolstoy did not last long. In the summer of the year, having gone on business to Tula, his father died suddenly.

Soon after the death of his father, Tolstoy and his sister and brothers had to endure a new misfortune: a grandmother died, whom all relatives considered the head of the family. The sudden death of her son was her terrible blow and less than a year later carried her into the grave. A few years later, the first guardian of orphaned children of Tolstoy, the sister of her father, Alexander Ilyinichna Osten-Saken died.

A ten -year -old lion, three of his brothers and sister were taken to Kazan, where their new guardianship - Aunt Pelageya Ilyinichna Yushkova lived. Tolstoy wrote about his second guardian as a woman “kind and very pious”, but at the same time very “frivolous and conceited”. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Pelageya Ilyinichna did not enjoy the authority of Tolstoy and his brothers, so moving to Kazan is considered to be a new stage in the life of the writer: education has ended, the period of independent life began.

Tolstoy lived in Kazan for more than six years. It was the time of the formation of his character and choosing a life path. Living with the brothers and sister with Pelagea Ilyinichna, young Tolstoy was preparing for admission to Kazan University for two years. Having decided to enter the eastern department of the university, he paid special attention to preparations for exams in foreign languages.

In exams in mathematics and Russian literature, Tolstoy received four, and in foreign languages ​​- five. In the exams on the history and geography of Lev Nikolaevich, failure befell - he received unsatisfactory marks. The failure of the entrance exams served for Tolstoy with a serious lesson.All summer he devoted to the thorough study of history and geography, passed additional exams on them and in September was enrolled in the first course of the eastern branch of the Faculty of Philosophy of Kazan University in the category of Arab-Turkish literature.

However, the study of languages ​​did not concern Tolstoy, and after the summer holidays in Yasnaya Polyana, he transferred from the eastern faculty to legal. But even in the future, university classes did not arouse the interests of Lev Nikolaevich in the studied sciences. Most of the time he independently engaged in philosophy, made up the “Rules of Life” and carefully made notes in the diary.

By the end of the third year, Tolstoy was finally convinced that the then university order only interfered with independent creative work, and he decided to leave the university. However, he needed a university diploma to get the rights to enter the service. And in order to get a diploma, Tolstoy withstood university exams by an external, spending two years of his life in the village on preparing for them.

Having received university documents at the end of April in the office, the former student Tolstoy left Kazan. After leaving the university, Tolstoy again left for Yasnaya Polyana, and then to Moscow. Here at the end of the year he took up literary work. At this time, he decided to write two novels, but he did not finish any of them. In the spring of the year, Lev Nikolaevich, together with his older brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, who served in the army, arrived at the Caucasus.

Here Tolstoy lived for almost three years, being mainly in the village of Starogladkovskaya, located on the left bank of the Terek. From here he went to Kizlyar, Tiflis, Vladikavkaz, he was in many villages and auls. In the Caucasus, the military service of Tolstoy began. He took part in military operations of Russian troops. The impressions and observations of Tolstoy are reflected in his stories “RAST”, “LOADING”, “DIRECTED”, in the novel “Cossacks”.

Later, turning to the memories of this period of life, Tolstoy created the story “Haji Murat”. In March, Tolstoy arrived in Bucharest, where the department of the chief of artillery troops was located. From here, as a headquarters officer, he made trips to Moldova, Wallachia and Bessarabia. In the spring and summer of the year, the writer took part in the siege of the Turkish fortress of Silistria.

However, the main place of military operations at that time was the Crimean peninsula. Here, Russian troops led by V. Kornilov and P. Nakhimov eleven months heroically defended Sevastopol, besieged by Turkish and Anglo-French troops. Participation in the Crimean War is an important stage in Tolstoy’s life. Here, he closely recognized ordinary Russian soldiers, sailors, residents of Sevastopol, sought to understand what the source of heroism of the city’s defenders was to understand the special character traits, characteristic of the defender of the Fatherland.

Tolstoy himself showed courage and courage in the defense of Sevastopol. In November, Tolstoy left Sevastopol to Petersburg. By this time, he had already earned recognition in advanced literary circles. During this period, the attention of the social life of Russia was focused around the issue of serfdom. Tolstoy’s stories of this time “The morning of the landowner”, “Polykushka” and others.

In the year, the writer made a foreign trip. He visited France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Traveling to different cities, the writer got acquainted with great interest with the culture and social system of Western European countries. Much of what he saw later reflected in his work. In the year, Tolstoy made another trip abroad. A year before in Yasnaya Polyana, he opened a school for children.

Traveling through the cities of Germany, France, Switzerland, England and Belgium, the writer attended schools and studied the features of public education. In most schools that Tolstoy visited, stick discipline acted and bodily punishments were used. Having returned to Russia and attending a number of schools, Tolstoy discovered that many teaching methods operating in Western European countries, in particular in Germany, also penetrated into Russian schools.

At this time, Lev Nikolaevich wrote a number of articles in which he criticized the public education system in Russia and in Western European countries. Arriving at his homeland after a foreign trip, Tolstoy devoted himself to the work at the school and the publication of the pedagogical magazine "Yasnaya Polyana". The school, founded by the writer, was located near his house - in the outbuilding, which has survived to our time.

In the beginning of the x, Tolstoy compiled and published a number of textbooks for elementary school: “ABC”, “Arithmetic”, four “Reading Books”. More than one generation of children has learned from these books. Children read stories from them with enthusiasm in our time. In the year, when Tolstoy was away, the landowners arrived in Yasnaya Polyana and searched the writer's house. In the year, the tsarist manifesto was announced the abolition of serfdom.

During the reform between the landowners and peasants, disputes flashed, the arrangement of which was entrusted to the so -called world mediators.Tolstoy was appointed a world mediator in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province. Disassembleing the controversial affairs between the nobles and peasants, the writer most often took a position in favor of the peasantry, which caused the discontent of the nobles.