10 little-known facts about the life of the genius writer Leo Tolstoy, whom many considered an eccentric

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

107 years ago, on November 10 (new style) 1910, having collected only the essentials, the brilliant Russian writer Leo Tolstoy left his own home. He left and could not return … However, the whole life of this extraordinary person was filled with strange and sometimes unpredictable actions.

Gambled

In his youth, Leo Tolstoy loved to play cards. The stakes were quite high, but the writer was not always lucky. Once the gambling debt became so great that they had to pay off with a part of their family nest - the estate in Yasnaya Polyana. The part of the house where Lev Nikolaevich was born and spent his childhood became a victim of gambling.

Didn't want to receive the Nobel Prize

As soon as Tolstoy learned that he had been nominated for the Nobel Prize, he immediately wrote a letter to the Finnish writer Jarnefelt, in which he asked to tell the Swedes not to be awarded the prize. When the prize did not go to him, Tolstoy was very happy. He was sure that money is the embodiment of evil, he absolutely did not need it, it would be a huge difficulty for him to dispose of it. In addition, the writer liked to receive sympathy from many people who regretted that the prize did not go to him.

Lost his reward to a common soldier

During his military service in the Caucasus, Leo Tolstoy conceded his award to an ordinary soldier - the St. George's Cross. His act was explained by the fact that the soldier was rootless and poor, and the presence of such an award gave him the right to a life pension in the amount of a standard soldier's salary.

I wanted to plant all of Russia with forests

Being a person close to nature and immensely loving his country, Lev Nikolayevich showed concern for the future. In 1857, he developed his own plan for the landscaping of Russia and was ready to take a direct part in it. In a document addressed to the Ministry of State Property, he offered to give him land located in the Tula region for 9 years and was ready to plant trees himself. Tolstoy did not hide the fact that, in his opinion, the state was immoral with natural resources. However, officials called this project unpromising and incurring losses.

Sewing boots "for gifts"

Lev Nikolaevich loved all kinds of manual labor. He enjoyed the process of creating things with his own hands, especially if it brought benefit and joy to friends and family. One of his hobbies was the sewing of boots. The writer gave the created pairs of shoes with great pleasure to relatives, friends and acquaintances. His son-in-law even wrote about such a gift in his memoirs, attaching great importance to the gift. He noted that he would keep the boots on the same shelf with War and Peace.

Promoted physical labor and helped the hungry

Being a wealthy man and having noble roots, Tolstoy was still an admirer of hard physical labor. He believed that an idle life does not paint a person, it leads to the destruction of the personality, both physical and moral. In difficult times, when thoughts about the future haunted the writer (he had already begun to think about giving up his property), Lev Nikolayevich went with ordinary peasants to cut firewood. A little later, he began to sew shoes from birch bark for general use, having perfectly mastered this difficult craft. He annually helped peasant families in which, for one reason or another, there was no one to plow, sow or harvest. And despite the general disapproval among his noble entourage, he constantly took part in the mowing.

The writer has always helped the hungry. In 1898, there was a crop failure in the surrounding counties, and there was no food left in the villages. Tolstoy personally traveled around the houses and found out where the situation was most difficult. After that, grocery lists were compiled and distributed to families. In Yasnaya Polyana itself, hot meals were prepared and meals were served twice a day. The authorities did not like all this very much, which even organized surveillance of Tolstoy's actions.

He was treated with kumis and walked long distances

In one of the periods of thinking about his life, the writer found his condition not entirely healthy and diagnosed himself with "melancholy and indifference." Following the fashion of that time, he began to be treated with kumis. He liked the method, and he even bought a house for himself next to the kumis hospital. This place later became a place of annual rest for the whole family.

Three times Tolstoy undertook long-distance campaigns. The road gave the count time to think, allowed him to focus on the important and explore his inner world. He went from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana. The distance between them was 200 km. For the first time, Tolstoy went on such a journey in 1886, and he was 58 years old at the time.

Driven his wife to mental breakdown

Peaceful life in the family of Lev Nikolaevich and Sofya Andreevna was under attack at the moment when the count was infected with the idea of giving up copyright to all his works and selling all property. The spouses did not agree on the principles of life and foundations. Tolstoy sought to give all the blessings and live a poor life, and his wife was very worried that their descendants would remain on the street and lead a miserable existence.

Because of her worries, she became not herself, constantly eavesdropping on the Count's conversations and spying on his actions. After Tolstoy announced to everyone his intentions to be closer to the common people, to distribute property and give up the right to her works, Sofya Andreevna waited for Tolstoy to express these thoughts in his will, making them his last will. In addition to spying on the writer himself, at any convenient moment she checked his office, rummaged through documents and papers, trying to find confirmation of this expression of will. On this basis, persecution mania and obsessions developed. In the summer of 1910, the count's wife began to have tantrums and seizures, she practically did not control herself. The doctors summoned to Yasnaya Polyana diagnosed her with "a degenerative double constitution: paranoid and hysterical, with the former predominating."

Ran away from home

Such a difficult situation negatively affected the whole family. The life of Lev Nikolaevich, under the constant persecution of his wife, became unbearable. The last straw was the moment when he found his wife rummaging through his personal papers. That night, after waiting for everyone to fall asleep, Tolstoy collected the most necessary things and left the family estate.

The last trip, 10 days long

From 27 to 28 October (old style) late at night, accompanied by his doctor, Tolstoy began a strange journey. At first, they headed for Optina Pustyn, the count wanted to communicate with the elders there. They rode to Kozelsk with the common people in a smoky, stuffy carriage, Tolstoy often went out into the cold strong wind to breathe out the stench. At these moments, the writer caught a fatal cold. Having visited Optina Pustyn, but did not meet with any of the elders, on the 29th the count went to the monastery in Shamordino. Tormented by mental anguish, he constantly changed plans and points of his journey. One of the last was Novocherkassk, where his niece lived. From there he wanted to leave for Bulgaria or the Caucasus. But then a cold got on the train to Kozelsk made itself felt. The count's condition worsened, and they had to get off the train in the Lipetsk region at the Astapovo station.

The cold turned into pneumonia, Leo Tolstoy died 3 days later in the house of the head of the railway station.

Since then, the city of Lev Tolstoy appeared in the Lipetsk region, and the time on the old clock of the station stopped, it was all 6 hours 5 minutes on them - it was at this time on November 7 (20), 1910 that the writer died.

Sofya Andreevna could not humanly say goodbye to her husband, she was allowed to see him only when the count was already unconscious. Leaving home with a small suitcase, Leo Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana in a wooden coffin. Her last journey lasted 10 days….

An interesting and full of bright events life was lived and Natalia Krandievskaya and Alexey Tolstoy, about whose novel an entire book could be written.