What made Count Tolstoy the "American" famous and why he was called the tattooed devil

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

Count Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy was called by his contemporaries differently - Aleut, American, and even a tattooed devil. The strange man's house was full of weapons and Aleutian masks. The attitude towards this person was different for everyone, someone loved him, and someone hated him. His stories were endless and not always believable. But if someone did not believe the count, he could throw off his clothes and demonstrate a huge number of frightening tattoos without further ado. Read about Fyodor Tolstoy, who is still surprising.

Spit in the face of an officer and escape punishment on a ship under the command of Kruzenshtern

Fyodor Tolstoy was born in Moscow. The family was not rich. Father - Count Ivan Tolstoy, mother - Anna Maikova. Fedor graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg, but did not connect his life with the sea, but entered the service in the Preobrazhensky regiment. Contemporaries said that Tolstoy had a terrible character. He was constantly offended, flushed, was vindictive. At the same time, he perfectly fired a pistol and fought with swords. Already in his youth, he became known as an avid duelist. In 1803, the count was almost demoted to a soldier for a wild act: he did not appear at the regimental inspection to fly in a balloon. It was much more interesting. When the count returned to the regiment, he fell under the distribution. But instead of apologizing, he spat in the face of the senior officer.

Tolstoy was threatened with punishment. To avoid this, he made a daring decision - instead of his cousin Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, who suffered from seasickness, to travel around the world. The cousin gave up his place on the sloop "Nadezhda" under the command of Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern. The voyage was going to be a long one - three years. Tolstoy cherished the hope that during this time everything would be decided, of course.

How the count on the ship was a rowdy and a trained orangutan

So, Tolstoy sailed on the ship. It was then that he showed in all its glory his disgusting character. He came up with evil jokes, quarreled among the team members. There was a case when the count watered the monk Gideon, who served as a ship's priest, to the state of a "log". He fell asleep in a deadly sleep right on the deck, and the "kind" count took the sealing wax, the official seal and with their help sealed the clergyman's beard to the boards. After awakening, the monk tried to free himself, but Tolstoy began to intimidate him that if the seal was broken, a severe punishment would be inevitable. As a result, the priest got scared and gave permission to cut his beard.

On some island, the count acquired an orangutan, and began to teach him various dirty tricks. For example, a monkey has learned to stain paper with ink. After that, the Count let him into the captain's cabin. Kruzenshtern stopped the disgrace, but before that the ship's log was filled with ink. A scandal erupted, the count was taken into custody. The orangutan quickly got tired of Tolstoy, and he more and more often drove him to the deck, where the animal pestered people. Once a monkey attacked the count and was thrown so hard on the deck that he had to be shot in order to avoid prolonged torment.

Was Count Tolstoy in America - a mystery covered in darkness

The trip to Cape Horn took six months. The ship made a stop on the island of Nuku-Khiva (Polynesia), where good-natured natives lived. Count Tolstoy accepted this event with delight. He threw himself into the abyss of love pleasures with local residents and covered his body with various, complex tattoos. But not only the count decorated his skin, for example, Kruzenshtern asked to fill the name of Julian on his hand (that was the name of his wife). After resting in Polynesia, the sailors headed for Petropavlovsk.

Whether Count Tolstoy was in America is unknown. In the logbook you can find a record that in Petropavlovsk he got off the ship and headed to St. Petersburg "by dry route". The count himself said that it was not like that. According to him, he was deceived, forcing him to remain on the "deserted shore" by cunning, however, having given out a certain amount of food. And he, heroically experiencing difficulties, moved around the islands until he encountered the Tlingit Indians. According to the stories of Tolstoy, he remained to live in the tribe, where everyone liked him madly. So much so that the Indians on their knees begged him to accept the rank of king. But the count did not need this, so he somehow gave a signal to a passing ship and sailed on it to Kamchatka. And from there he got to St. Petersburg, moving either by sleigh, then on foot, then by boat. Should we believe these wonderful stories? History is silent.

Marriage to a gypsy woman and death of eleven children

The rest of Count Tolstoy's life was noisy and reckless. He drank, played cards (earning a reputation as a sharper) and actively participated in duels. The explosive nature led to the fact that eleven people were killed by his hand. He participated in the war with the Swedes, was familiar with Denis Davydov, Alexander Pushkin and Yevgeny Baratynsky. The count retells the stories they told him, supplying them with invented details.

In the middle of his life, the count got married. His chosen one was the gypsy dancer Avdotya Tugaeva, who paid off the count's large card debt. In the marriage, the couple had twelve children, but eleven of them died. The count greatly experienced these events and became very devout. It is known that when another child died, Tolstoy crossed out from his notebook the name of the victim, whom he took his life in a duel. When the number of deaths reached eleven, he drew a line and wrote "quotes". Surprisingly, the twelfth child, and this was the daughter of Praskovya, survived.

Before his death, the count finally turned to God. He prayed continuously, and when the hour of death came, he confessed to the priest. His story lasted for many hours. Count Tolstoy was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery, and his grave is still preserved.

Well, in general, the surname Tolstoy is very common in the literary environment. But Are all of them related to the eminent literary figure?