100 years ago the funeral of Leo Tolstoy became an event in Russia. Today, the famous Russian writer is remembered not only in Russia but throughout the world.
1/18
© RIA Novosti
100 years ago the funeral of Leo Tolstoy became an event in Russia. Today, the famous Russian writer is remembered not only in Russia but throughout the world. Photo: Leo Tolstoy. 1908.
Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828, in Yasnaya Polyana, to the south of Moscow, in a well-known family of Russian nobility. His mother died when Tolstoy was just about two years old and he was raised in the family of his relatives. Photo: Leo Tolstoy (St. Petersburg, 1849).
In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy passed his exam to become an officer. In 1851-1853, he took part in a battle in the Caucasus. Between November 1854 and August 1855 he participated in the Siege of Sevastopol. Tolstoy later shared his experiences in his works. Photo: Leo Tolstoy. Photo: 1854.
In 1851, Tolstoy sent his first work Childhood for publication to the prominent journal Sovremennik edited by the poet Nikolai Nekrasov. The novel was welcomed by both readers and critics. In November 1855, Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg and joined Sovremennik. Photo: Tolstoy in the second row to the left.
In the fall of 1856, Leo Tolstoy retired from the Army and returned to Yasnaya Polyana. Photo: Leo Tolstoy. 1962.
In Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy started improving life in local schools and opened over 20 schools for children in nearby villages. Photo: Leo Tolstoy. 1968.
In September 1862, he married the daughter of a Moscow doctor, Sophia Bers. Photo: Sophia Bers, the future wife of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. 1862.
The following years, the Tolstoys lived in Yasnaya Polyana and sometimes came to Moscow. During their 17 years of living together, they had 13 children, five of whom died in early childhood. Photo: Leo Tolstoy and his family in the garden of Yasnaya Polyana. 1887.
Tolstoy had many grandchildren. His granddaughter Sophia, the daughter of Andrei Tolstoy, later became the wife of another famous Russian writer, Sergei Yesenin. Photo: Leo Tolstoy with grandchildren Sophia and Ilya in Krekshino. 1909.
The family estate of Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana was always his home. Photo: Leo Tolstoy and his family and friends in the garden of Yasnaya Polyana. 1888.
11/18
© RIA Novosti
At the age of 50 Tolstoy skated with his children and at the age of 60 he chopped wood, ploughed soil, built stoves and made shoes… Photo: Leo Tolstoy plays a gorodki game in Yasnaya Polyana. 1909.
Russian writer Maxim Gorky was also a guest in Yasnaya Polyana. Photo 1900.
Anton Chekhov, with whom Tolstoy met later in the Crimea where he spent time after an illness, also arrived in Yasnaya Polyana. Photo: Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy in Gaspra, Crimea. Photo: 1901.
Yasnaya Polyana became the birthplace of such famous Tolstoy works as Resurrection, Anna Karenina, and War and Peace, which the author himself said were the result of an “insane effort.” Photo: Leo Tolstoy in his study. 1900.
The spiritual crisis which Tolstoy experienced in the late 1870s-1880s made a breakthrough in his mind. His striving for a pure and simple life and the principle of non-resistance to evil by violence became the basis of Tolstoy’s life. Photo: Leo Tolstoy. 1905.
The spiritual crisis which Tolstoy experienced in the late 1870s-1880s made a breakthrough in his mind. His striving for a pure and simple life and the principle of non-resistance to evil by violence became the basis of Tolstoy’s life. Photo: Leo Tolstoy. 1905.
In the late fall of 1910, Tolstoy secretly left Yasnaya Polyana. But he did not endure the trip, fell ill and had to make a stop at the small train station Astapovo. Photo: Leo Tolstoy on his deathbed in the house of the head of the Astapovo station.
Tolstoy died at Astapovo train station on November 20, 1910, in the presence of his relatives. Tolstoy was buried in Yasnaya Polyana. No prayers were said at Tolstoy’s funeral as the writer was excommunicated by the Orthodox Church.
