Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy personal life briefly. Brief biography of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, the most important thing

Alexey Tolstoy, 1830s.
Artist K.A. Gobunov

Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875) – poet, writer, playwright. Corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Alexei Tolstoy wrote relatively little. His complete works comprise only four volumes. But he is the author of the short story poem “In the midst of a noisy ball, by chance” (1851), wonderful lyric poems and ballads.

Together with cousins ​​A.M. and V.M. Zhemchuzhnikov Alexei Tolstoy created the image of Kozma Prutkov (1854). From his pen came the historical novel "Prince Silver" (1863) and the satirical "" (1868). Alexei Tolstoy wrote the dramatic trilogy “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” (1866), “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” (1868) and “Tsar Boris” (1870).

All this is listened to, read, filmed and staged today.

Alexei Tolstoy was a descendant of Count Razumovsky. From him to his great-grandson came a huge fortune and connections in high society. In addition, literary talent. Everything seemed to contribute to cloudless happiness. But life, in the person of his mother and uncles, who wished his beloved Alyosha this same happiness, had its own way.

From early childhood, his uncle Alexei Perovsky, who was a writer, developed poetic talent in his nephew. Much attention was paid to the education of moral principles. At the same time, his uncles prepared Alyosha for a court career and contributed greatly to his advancement. As a result, Alexey Tolstoy, already being an aide-de-camp of Alexander II, left his service, although Alexander II favored him, and Empress Maria Fedorovna called him the most honest and truthful person from her entourage. By the way, Alexei Tolstoy used the good attitude of the crowned heads to soften the fate of his familiar writers Turgenev, Aksakov, and Shevchenko. He even tried to help Chernyshevsky, which the emperor considered unnecessary.

As for the mother, her unceremonious interference in her son’s personal life ended with him falling madly in love with a woman he met “in the middle of a noisy ball, by chance.”

Biography of Alexei Tolstoy

• 1817. August 24 - in St. Petersburg, a son, Alexey, was born into the family of adviser to the State Assignment Bank Konstantin Petrovich Tolstoy and Anna Alekseevna Tolstoy (nee Perovskaya). October – departure of A.A. Tolstoy with his son, to the estate of his brother Alexei Alekseevich Perovsky Pogoreltsy.
• 1826. August - during the celebrations in Moscow on the occasion of the coronation of Nicholas I, Alexey Tolstoy was “chosen as a playmate” for the heir to the throne, the future Alexander II.
• 1827. Summer - travel of Alyosha Tolstoy with his mother and A.A. Perovsky to Germany. Visit to Goethe.
• 1831. Travel to Italy, meeting K.P. Bryullov.
• 1834. March 9 – A.K. Tolstoy is included in the Moscow archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• 1835. A.A. Perovsky showed the poetic experiments of his nephew V.A. Zhukovsky. December - Alexey Tolstoy passed exams at Moscow University “to obtain an academic certificate for the law of first-class officials.”
• 1836. January - arrival of K.P. Bryullov to Moscow and work on the portrait of A.K. Tolstoy on the hunt. July 9 – death of A.A. Perovsky.
• 1837. A.K. Tolstoy is included “over-staff” in the “Russian mission” in Frankfurt am Main. Meeting N.V. Gogol.
• 1838. Travel through Europe in the retinue of the heir.
• 1841. Printing in a separate edition under the pseudonym Krasnorogsky of the story by A.K. Tolstoy's "Ghoul".
• 1843. Autumn – Tolstoy’s first poem “A Pine Forest Stands in a Lonely Land” appeared in print.
• 1850. Business trip to Kaluga, close communication with N.V. Gogol and A.O. Smirnova-Rosset.
• 1851. The first works, later attributed to Kozma Prutkov (in collaboration with the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers). January 8 – the scandalous premiere of “Fantasy” at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. January – meeting at a masquerade with Sophia Miller.
• 1852. Efforts about the release of I.S. Turgenev from exile in Spasskoye-Lutovinovo.
• 1855-1856. Military service.
• 1857. June 2 – death of mother.
• 1861. September 28 - decree on the dismissal of A.K. Tolstoy from court service.
• 1862. Publication of the poem "Don Juan" and the novel "Prince Silver".
• 1863. April 3 – marriage to Sophia Miller. Meeting F.M. Dostoevsky.
• 1867. January 12 – premiere of “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
• 1868. April - the drama “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” was completed. The poem "History of the Russian State" was written.
• 1870. End of the play "Tsar Boris" from the trilogy "The Death of Ivan the Terrible", "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich", "Tsar Boris".
• 1873. Summer – the poem “Popov’s Dream” was written.
• 1875. September 28 - Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy died in Krasny Rog. He was buried in a crypt near the Assumption Church of the village.

The childhood of Alexei Tolstoy

Alexey Tolstoy owes his title and surname to his father, Count Konstantin Petrovich Tolstoy, whom he met in adulthood at his mother’s funeral. It is not known what happened between the parents, but when Alyosha was one and a half months old, his mother took him to his uncle’s estate in the village of Pogoreltsy, Chernigov province.

Everything else - wealth, education, connections - came to Alexei Tolstoy from his mother and her brothers. His mother, Anna Alekseevna Perovskaya, was the illegitimate daughter of Catherine’s senator, Minister of Public Education under Alexander I, Count Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky, the son of the last Ukrainian hetman. She had nine brothers and sisters, who were also listed as Perovsky. It is unknown where this surname came from, but Razumovsky took care of the children: there was enough wealth for everyone, they received an education and were accepted in society. Suffice it to say that one of the brothers, Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky, was a famous writer who wrote under the pseudonym Anton Pogorelsky. Pogoreltsy is the village where his estate was located. The second, Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky, became Governor-General of Orenburg.

The uncles took upon themselves the responsibility of raising and ensuring their nephew’s career. Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky, especially for his beloved nephew, who called him “dad,” wrote two fairy tales, “The Black Hen or the Underground Inhabitants” and “The Town in the Snuff Box.” I wrote it not so that the boy could fall asleep peacefully, but to educate moral principles.

Young Alyosha was seriously prepared for life. Lessons in French, German, English, Latin and other things alternated with horse riding, shooting, and fencing. In his uncle's literary salon he was introduced to Pushkin and Zhukovsky. At the age of 10, trips to Italy, France, and Germany began.

In August 1826, when Nicholas I was looking for a “playmate” for the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Alexander, the Tsarevich’s tutor Vasily Zhukovsky, a close friend of Vasily Perovsky, recommended eight-year-old Alyosha Tolstoy to him.

Alyosha and the Tsarevich went hunting and played. Endowed by nature with remarkable strength, he unbent horseshoes and drove nails into the wall with his fingers. It used to be that he would hoist the heir to the throne onto his shoulder and run with him around the Winter Palace. Alyosha came to the court. This was the beginning of a brilliant career.

The early years of Alexei Tolstoy

Alexei Tolstoy's public service began in the spring of 1834, when he was assigned as a “student” to the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The archive was one of the best places where a nobleman who did not want to go into military service could go. Even full-time employees did not burden themselves with work. What can we say about the “student”?

In December 1835, he passed exams at Moscow University from the subjects that made up the course of the Faculty of Literature to receive a certificate giving the right to join the first category of officials. Tolstoy is not attracted to public service; he considers himself a poet, but does not dare to contradict his relatives.

1836 was a special year for Alexei Tolstoy:

• at the beginning of the year, Karl Bryullov painted a portrait of 19-year-old Alyosha. He was introduced to the artist back in 1831 during a trip with his mother and uncle Alexei Perovsky to Italy;
• in the summer he took four months off to take Alexei Perovsky to Nice for treatment. They did not reach Nice. Perovsky died in a Warsaw hotel, leaving his entire fortune to his nephew, including the Krasny Rog estate. Alexey became rich;
• at the end of the year he was transferred to a department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Alexey Tolstoy spent the next three years abroad. In January 1837, he was assigned “over-staff” to the mission at the German Diet in Frankfurt am Main. The appointment was formal. Most of the time was occupied by “social life”, simply entertainment. Germany was followed by Italy and France.

In the spring of 1840, Alexei Tolstoy received the rank of collegiate secretary, and in December he became “a junior official in the second department of His Own Imperial Grand Chancellery.” Having received the title of chamber cadet at the age of 26, he held various court posts.

Alexei Tolstoy's passion was hunting. It gave him the opportunity to show the courage, dexterity and strength that nature had generously endowed him with. Not everyone risked going out alone with a spear to attack a bear. The slightest mistake cost his life: with the first blow the bear broke the spear, and with the second he took off half the skull of the unlucky hunter. Alexey emerged victorious from fights dozens of times. This was an epic hero.

To this should be added the spiritual qualities of Alexei Tolstoy. His friend is Prince A.V. Meshchersky recalled: “Many years of friendship with this wonderful man gives me the undoubted right to think that my opinion of him as the best of all the people I have ever known and met in life is true and not exaggerated. Indeed, such a clear and bright I have never seen a soul, such a responsive and tender heart, such an eternal moral ideal in a person in my life.”

Young, handsome, rich, well-educated Alexei Tolstoy was liked by women. Life smiled on him. True, there was one cloud that over time turned into a thundercloud - his mother Anna Alekseevna Perovskaya.

Her desire to protect her son from starting a family knew no bounds. As soon as it seemed to her that Alyosha had a serious hobby, problems immediately arose. Either the mother got sick and the son had to take her to the resort, or he was sent on an urgent business trip. She did not hesitate to end her many years of acquaintance.

A.V. Meshchersky recalled his sister Elena: “The Countess mother was very friendly with my mother and therefore allowed her son to visit us. Subsequently, when her son was already an adult and told his mother his first youthful love for my sister, he asked permission to ask her hands, she, apparently, much more out of jealousy for her son than due to any other valid reasons, began to vehemently oppose this marriage and stopped seeing my mother. The son submitted to the will of the mother, whom he adored. prevented him from thinking about marriage until a very mature age..."

As a result, the son got a wife who...

Fatal meeting

One January evening in 1851, Alexei Tolstoy, who was a close friend of the Tsarevich, accompanied the future Emperor Alexander II to a masquerade ball at the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater. Here, “Among the noisy ball,” his meeting took place with the wife of the Horse Guards Colonel Sophia Miller. He was captivated by “sad eyes, a wondrous voice, a thin figure, a thoughtful appearance, a sad and ringing laugh.” There was also a secret, but not a romantic one, but one that Tolstoy had no idea about: the description of her love adventures would be enough for a whole novel. Alexey Tolstoy fell in love. For her it was just an ordinary affair. It is not even clear who met whom: Alexei Tolstoy with Sophia Miller or Sophia with Turgenev, who was standing next to him. Moreover, while meeting Tolstoy, she had a passionate affair with Grigorovich.

At first, the vigilant Anna Alekseevna was not worried about her son’s infatuation with a married woman. But her acquaintances enlightened her about the morals and true marital status of Sophia Miller, and she learned from him about the seriousness of her son’s intentions. Alexey felt Sophia’s insincerity and described his doubts in the ballad “With a gun over his shoulders, alone, under the moon.” He learned the truth about his chosen one from his mother, who considered her a dishonored woman, the daughter of a squandered nobleman, who opened a hunt for her son.

Final decision

The next six years were Alexei Tolstoy's tossing between his mother and his lover. He wrote to Anna Alekseevna: “My love grows because of your sadness.” Or: “I don’t remember what I wrote to you, being under a bad impression...” Love for Sophia Miller seems like salvation from the bustle of society and work, an opportunity to create freely: “I don’t want to talk about myself now, but someday I’ll tell you , how little I was born for a working life and how little benefit I can bring to it... But if you want me to tell you what my real calling is - to be a writer. I have not done anything yet - I have never been supported and always. discouraged, I'm very lazy, it's true, but I feel like I could do something good if only I could be sure that I would find an artistic echo, and now I have found it... it's you. that you are interested in my writing, I will work more diligently and better. So know that I am not an official, but an artist.”

Alexey Tolstoy wanted to get rid of the service and get married in order to devote himself to creativity. Meanwhile:

• Anna Alekseevna managed her son’s estates, ensuring the well-being of the family, and was categorically against her son’s marriage to “this woman”;
• his career progressed successfully, and ties with the imperial court strengthened. In February 1851 he became a collegiate adviser, and in May - master of ceremonies of His Majesty's Court. He was an indispensable participant in the hunts of the Tsarevich. The heir to the throne often visited Tolstoy's estate Pustynka. It was located near St. Petersburg and was furnished with the expectation of receiving a distinguished guest: furniture, paintings, statues, porcelain that previously belonged to the Perovskys were brought there from Krasny Rog;
• Sophia Miller's husband did not agree to the divorce.

In 1855, Alexei Tolstoy decided to volunteer to participate in the Crimean War. He was enlisted in a rifle regiment as a company commander with the rank of major. They say that Alexey Tolstoy took part in the development of sketches of the form. Officers and soldiers wore red shirts, half-caftans, trousers and fur hats... It is difficult to say how suitable the uniform was for fighting in the Crimea, but the officers gladly flaunted it around St. Petersburg.

The regiment did not participate in hostilities: while it was marching from Moscow to Crimea, Sevastopol fell. The regiment was stationed near Odessa, in an area where typhus was raging. A month later, the regiment lost half its strength. The disease did not escape Alexei Tolstoy. On March 2, 1856, Minister Lev Alekseevich Perovsky received a letter from Count Stroganov from Odessa: “I am addressing these lines to you, Mr. Count, to tell you news about your nephew Alexei Tolstoy - today he is somewhat better, although he is not yet completely out of danger The doctor who is treating him... is a person with talent and experience, in this regard you can be calm. Your nephew has fallen ill with typhus..."

The letter was shown to the tsar, who ordered a daily report on the patient’s condition: “I will eagerly await news by telegraph, God willing, that it be satisfactory.” Somehow, Sophia Miller found out about Alexei Tolstoy’s illness. Despite the mortal danger, leaving everything behind, she came to nurse the patient. When, after a long period of tossing and turning in delirium, he came to his senses, he saw her. A miracle happened. He survived. Alexei Tolstoy himself attributed his recovery solely to the appearance of the woman he loved. From now on, the issue was finally resolved for him. They spent the summer in Crimea together.

True, everything was far from rosy. Already then, Alexey Tolstoy wrote a poem that became the famous romance “Don’t believe me, friend, when in an excess of grief.” And the “higher powers” ​​reminded of themselves. In August 1856, he took part in the coronation of Alexander II. On this day, against his wishes, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed aide-de-camp to the emperor.

Fulfillment of desires. End

In the summer of 1857, Anna Alekseevna died. With the death of his mother, Alexei Tolstoy became not only the legal, but also the actual owner of a large part of the Razumovskys' fortune. Tens of thousands of acres of land, thousands of serfs, palaces full of paintings, marble statues and antique furniture went to him. In August, Sophie settled near St. Petersburg in Tolstoy’s estate Pustynka, which was often visited by Alexander II. Then the “young” moved to the Krasny Rog estate, away from the yard. It seemed that the dream of family happiness was close to fulfillment.

But the idyll did not work out. In 1858, the poems “A tear trembles in your jealous gaze” and “Passion has passed, and its anxious ardor” were written. It was not enough for Sophie to be the muse and inspiration of Tolstoy alone. She took her irritation out on her husband. Often they heard: “shut up, Tolstoy,” “what nonsense are you talking, Tolstoy,” “Tolstoy, stop.” She was also not interested in housekeeping. The estates of Alexei Tolstoy, which brought in considerable income thanks to the efforts of his mother, began to be managed by Sophie’s beloved brothers, who let their estate go to waste. “Alexey Tolstoy, adoring his wife, found himself in the “family embrace” of his wife’s numerous relatives. The severity of the situation was complicated by the fact that his wife herself, out of her kindness, patronized and loved this relative, while the poet had to endure an unceremonious attitude towards his good, interference in his affairs and large, completely unproductive expenses out of ardent love for his wife...” Added to this were the efforts of raising Sophie’s numerous nephews and nieces, which required large expenses.

Soon Alexei Tolstoy discovered that he was broke. If earlier he worked out of internal need and lordly refused fees, now he wrote a lot for money and even looked for translation work. He wrote to one of his employers: “Do you need the translation of something serious (and perhaps not) from French, German, Italian, English or Polish? Of course, for a fee, and what do you give for good translations?” However, literary fees did not cover expenses. We had to mortgage and sell land and property. Alexey Tolstoy tried to escape from the bustle of home and the unceremonious relatives of his beloved wife on trips abroad, although for him they were also a kind of vanity.

There was one more obstacle on the path to happiness: royal service. Alexei Tolstoy knew that after the coronation of Alexander II, the palace was choosing the position to which he would be appointed. He did not see the opportunity to “get out” and dreamed of only one thing: that the position would give him the opportunity to live according to his conscience. He was not against working on some commission to investigate official abuses or against participating in the liberation of peasants. But it so happened that in the fall of 1856, Alexander II unexpectedly appointed him clerk of the “Secret Committee on Dissenters.” To the objections, the emperor replied: “Serve, Tolstoy, serve!”

Soon Alexei Tolstoy realized that the committee officials condoned the “schism” by collecting tribute for inaction. The fight against bribery would lead to the fact that poor Old Believers would suffer. The rich would pay off. In addition, he was a supporter of religious tolerance, although he did not accept primitive fairy-tale dogma, calling it “priestly argot.” Tolstoy was on the committee until April 1858.

The first step towards release was a request for indefinite leave. It was satisfied in the spring of 1859: “The Sovereign Emperor deigned to order the dismissal of Your Excellency, in accordance with your request, on indefinite leave to the internal provinces of Russia with the right to go abroad when you need it, without asking for special permission...”

But a vacation, even an indefinite one, is still a vacation. In addition, some responsibilities remained. In the summer of 1861, Alexei Tolstoy wrote to the emperor, who was vacationing in Livadia: “Your Majesty, I am embarrassed by my position: I wear a uniform, but I cannot properly fulfill the duties associated with it. Your Majesty’s noble heart will forgive me for my request to finally dismiss me from retirement. “I do this not in order to move away from you, but in order to follow a clearly defined path and stop being a bird dressed up in other people’s feathers.”

On September 28, 1861, a decree on dismissal from service due to domestic circumstances followed. The Emperor gave Alexei Tolstoy a parting gift: he promoted him to Jägermeister. This gave the right to hunt in the royal lands and to visit the palace at any time.

Twelve years have passed since the meeting at the masquerade ball. Lev Miller finally agreed to a divorce. The painful process in the Consistory ended. On April 3, 1863, Alexei Tolstoy and Sofya Bakhmeteva got married in Dresden. The best men at the wedding were close friends Nikolai Zhemchuzhnikov and Alexey Bobrinsky, who came at Tolstoy’s request.

This event did not change anything in the life of the “young”: Alexey and Sophie had lived together for a long time. Alexei's relatives still did not accept Sophie, and Sophie's relatives unceremoniously continued to ruin Alexei's estates. Only now as relatives.

All wishes eventually came true. He got rid of his mother’s unbearable guardianship, achieved dismissal from service, and married the woman he loved. But I no longer had the strength to rejoice. His once vigorous health began to fail in the late 1850s. And a few years later, by the mid-1860s, he became flabby, bags appeared under his eyes, his face became sallow, and he suffered from headaches and attacks of suffocation.

The best German doctors tried in vain to establish the cause of the disease. Only morphine injections, which Tolstoy did on their recommendation, saved him from unbearable pain. Perhaps life with the woman he loved, burdened by her whims, scandals and numerous relatives, turned out to be an unbearable burden for him. It was not for nothing that Sophie destroyed almost all correspondence after her husband’s death.

Elizaveta Matveeva, Alexei Tolstoy’s cousin, believed that Sophie was “a good critic and sensitively noticed everything related to the grace of form, but she suppressed the impulses of her husband’s soul with the deadening breath of doubt and disbelief.” Tolstoy himself, shortly before his death, wrote to Sophie from Carlsbad: “for me, life consists only of being with you and loving you, the rest for me is death, emptiness.” He bequeathed to her all his movable property and writings. The estates of Krasny Rog, Pogoreltsy, Pustynka, lands in the Baydar Valley and Crimea were supposed to pass after Sophie’s death “into the eternal and hereditary possession” of brother Nikolai Zhemchuzhnikov. Alexey Tolstoy did not want to leave the property to the Bakhmetevs. True, Pustynka somehow passed on to her daughter Sophie.

Poems by Tolstoy

Tolstoy began writing poetry as a child and wrote throughout his life. However, I was in no hurry to publish them. His poems first appeared in 1854 in Nekrasov's Sovremennik, and in 1867 the only collection of poems was published. Aleksey Tolstoy wrote about himself: “I am one of two or three writers who hold up the banner of art for art’s sake, for my conviction is that the purpose of a poet is not to bring people any direct benefit or benefit, but to elevate their moral level, instilling in them a love of beauty." And his poetic message has reached us. It contains lyrical poems, satire, ballads. Many of Tolstoy's lyrical poems written after 1851 are dedicated to or associated with Sophia Tolstoy.

Poem "Evening Quiet Hour" Alexey Tolstoy wrote in 1856

Poem "When the dense forest is silent all around" Tolstoy wrote in August or September 1856.

Poem "Oh, if you could just for a single moment" Alexei Tolstoy wrote in 1859

Poem "You make your face sad when you mention it" Tolstoy wrote in 1858

In this article we will consider the biography of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy. We will tell you about his life, work, and introduce you to interesting facts about this poet. You probably associate the surname Tolstoy with another Russian writer, and this coincidence is no coincidence. They are not just namesakes - these figures of Russian literature are distant relatives. The fact is that the Tolstoy family is very extensive. There is another writer with the name Alexey Tolstoy, but his patronymic is different - Nikolaevich (“Peter the Great”, “Walking in Torment”). This surname is also represented in modern Russian literature. Everyone, at least, knows the writer Tatyana Tolstaya.

Origin of Alexei Tolstoy

This poet belonged to the Razumovsky family on his mother’s side. Kirill Razumovsky, the last hetman in Ukraine, was his great-grandfather. And the rich man and nobleman A.K. Razumovsky - count, senator and minister of public education - was the grandfather of this poet. The illegitimate children of this count were the poet's mother, as well as her sisters and brothers. They were legalized at the beginning of the 19th century, receiving the surname Perovsky, as well as the title of nobility.

The childhood of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy

The poet was born in St. Petersburg in 1817, on August 24. Count K.P. Tolstoy, his father, did not play any role in the boy’s life: immediately after the birth of the child, the couple separated, and Alexei’s mother left with her son for the Chernigov province. Here, surrounded by Ukrainian southern nature, on the estates of first his mother and then her brother, Tolstoy spent his childhood, which left only good memories in his memory.

Alexey Konstantinovich showed literary interests very early. From the age of 6, he began to write poetry, as the poet himself reported in a letter to A. Gubernatis. The famous prose writer of the 20-30s, Alexei Perovsky, who signed his works with the name “Antony Pogorelsky”, tried to instill in his nephew a love of creativity and art, and in every possible way encouraged his first poetic experiments. The boy was taken abroad from the age of 10. He described in his diary his trip to Italy, which took place in 1831. Tolstoy was part of the childhood environment of the future heir to the throne, young Alexander II. The connection with this person will continue later.

Work in the Moscow Archive

In 1834, Tolstoy was enrolled as a “student” in the Moscow Archive. His duties included the description and analysis of ancient documents related to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Alexey Konstantinovich in 1840 moved to the department of the Emperor's chancellery and served here for many years, moving up the ranks quite quickly. In 1843, Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy was awarded the title of chamber cadet.

We have very scant information about his work and life in the period of the 30s and 40s. This witty, affable, handsome young man was gifted with great physical strength. He could, for example, twist a poker with a screw. Tolstoy knew foreign languages ​​very well and was very well read. Alexey Konstantinovich divided his time between his service, which did not burden him very much, secular society and literary pursuits. The poet's main adviser until 1836 was Perovsky (he died in 1836). This man showed his literary friends the poems of the young Tolstoy. Among his friends was V.A. Zhukovsky, who spoke sympathetically about them.

First published works

In the period from the late 30s to the early 40s, he wrote two science fiction stories in French: “Meeting after 300 years” and “The Family of the Ghoul.” Tolstoy first published in May 1841, publishing the story “The Ghoul” under the pseudonym “Krasnorogsky” (derived from the Krasny Rog estate). V. G. Belinsky responded very favorably to this work. He saw signs of a young, but promising talent.

Creativity in the 40s

Alexey Konstantinovich published very little in the 40s - only a few stories and essays, as well as one poem. However, "Prince Silver", a historical novel telling about the reign of Ivan the Terrible, was conceived already during this period. Even then, Tolstoy was formed both as an author of ballads and as a lyricist. Many of his famous poems belong to this decade, for example: “Vasily Shibanov”, “My bells...”, “You know the land...” and others. All of them were published much later.

At this time, Alexey Konstantinovich was satisfied with a small circle of listeners - secular friends and acquaintances. He passed by the heated debates and ideological quests of the advanced Russian intelligentsia of the 40s.

Birth of Kozma Prutkov

Kozma Prutkov was “born” in the early 50s. It was not just a pseudonym, but a satirical mask created by Tolstoy, as well as the Zhemchuzhnikovs, his cousins. Kozma Prutkov is a narcissistic, stupid bureaucrat from the period of Nicholas' rule. In his name, they created poems (parodies, epigrams, fables), and plays, as well as aphorisms and anecdotes on historical topics, which ridiculed the phenomena of literature and the surrounding reality. In life, the works corresponded to a number of witty pranks.

It is impossible to unambiguously determine which works were written by Tolstoy, but we can say without a doubt that Alexei Konstantinovich’s contribution was very great, since he had a very strong humorous streak. This poet had the gift of subtle, good-natured ridicule. Many of his most famous and best poems are examples of skillful use of irony (for example, “At the Order Gate,” “Arrogance”).

In 1851, in January, the comedy “Fantasy” by Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov and Tolstoy was staged. It was a parody of vaudeville, meaningless and empty, which then still dominated the Russian stage. Nicholas I, who was present at the premiere, was very dissatisfied with this play and ordered it to be excluded from the repertoire.

Tolstoy marries Sophia Miller

In the winter of 1850-1851, Alexey Konstantinovich met Sofia Andreevna Miller, the wife of a colonel. He fell in love with this girl. Sophia reciprocated, but the marriage was interfered with: on the one hand, her husband, who did not want to give a divorce to his wife, and on the other hand, Tolstoy’s mother, who treated her son’s chosen one unkindly. Only in 1863 was their marriage officially formalized. Sofya Andreevna was an educated woman who knew several languages, knew how to play the piano, and also sang. In addition, she had an extraordinary aesthetic taste. More than once Tolstoy called his wife the best critic. All the love lyrics of this author, starting from 1851, were addressed specifically to her.

Meeting different writers

Gradually Tolstoy acquired connections in literary circles. He became close to Turgenev in the early 50s and helped him free himself from the village, where he was in exile for Gogol’s obituary, which was published by Ivan Sergeevich. Later, Alexey Konstantinovich also met Nekrasov. After a long break, in 1854, it appeared in print again. Several poems by this poet were published in Sovremennik, as well as the first series of works by Kozma Prutkov.

The life of Alexei Konstantinovich during the Crimean War

During the Crimean War, Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy first wanted to create a partisan detachment, after which (in 1855) he entered the rifle regiment as a major. However, the poet did not have the chance to visit the war - he fell ill with typhus when the regiment was stationed near Odessa. After the end of hostilities, on the day when Alexander II was crowned, Alexey Konstantinovich was already appointed aide-de-camp.

The second half of the 50s in the poet’s work

The second half of the 50s was a period of revival of social movement and thought after the collapse of the Nikolaev regime. During these years, the poems of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy appeared very actively. Two thirds of all his works were created then. They were published in all sorts of magazines.

At the same time, this time is characterized by increasing social differentiation. In 1857, relations between the editors of Sovremennik and Tolstoy cooled somewhat. At the same time, the poet became closer to the Slavophiles. Alexey Konstantinovich became friends, in particular, with Aksakov. However, several years later, he did not accept the claims of the Slavophiles to become spokesmen for the true interests of the people.

Vacation and resignation

Alexey Konstantinovich often visited the court. Visits were not limited to official receptions. But he increasingly disliked his official duties, especially the fact that he did not have the opportunity to fully concentrate on art. Only in 1859 did the poet achieve indefinite leave, and retired in 1861.

Life and work of Tolstoy in the 60s

A brief biography of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy in the 60s can be marked by the following events. After the poet retired, he settled in the village permanently. Tolstoy lived either in Pustynka, his estate near St. Petersburg, or in Krasny Rog, far from the capital (Chernigov province). Only occasionally did he come to St. Petersburg.

In the 60s, the poet kept himself pointedly aloof from the literary circle, corresponding and meeting only with a few writers (Markevich, Fet, K.K. Pavlova, Goncharov). He was published mainly in M. N. Katkov’s “Russian Bulletin,” a reactionary magazine. Then (at the end of the 60s) the works of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy were published in Vestnik Evropy, edited by M. M. Stasyulevich.

During this time, at the beginning of the decade, he wrote the dramatic poem Don Juan, as well as a novel called Prince Silver, after which three plays that formed a dramatic trilogy: Tsar Boris, Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich and Death Ivan the Terrible" (years of creation of works - 1862-1869). The poems of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy in the form of a collection that summed up his poetic work were published in 1867.

After a long break, Alexey Konstantinovich returned to the ballad in the second half of the 60s and wrote a number of magnificent examples of this genre. The lyrics of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy now occupied much less space in his work than a decade ago. The late 60s and 70s also saw the production of most of his satires.

The concept of the drama "Posadnik", which tells about an episode from the history of ancient Novgorod, dates back to the early 70s. Alexey Konstantinovich was passionate about this topic. He created a significant part of the work, but, unfortunately, the author was unable to finish it. The work of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy was never replenished with this interesting work in its finished form.

Material difficulties and social contradictions in society, their reflection in the life and work of the poet

The 70s were a difficult time for this poet. Judging by the available information, Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (his photo is presented in the article) was a very humane landowner. However, he did not manage the estates on his own; farming was carried out rather chaotically, using patriarchal methods. This led to the poet’s material affairs gradually falling into disarray. The devastation became especially noticeable towards the end of the 60s. Alexei Konstantinovich told his relatives that he would have to ask the tsar to take him back into service. All these circumstances weighed heavily on the poet.

However, it was not just a matter of ruin. Alexey Konstantinovich felt lonely in society and even called himself an “anchorite.” Tolstoy's experiences were connected with the processes in the life of Russia at that time. In the post-reform era, the social contradictions existing in society deepened more and more. The power of money grew rapidly and had a corrupting effect on the consciousness of people, and political reaction also thickened. The destruction of eternal values ​​was accompanied by the collapse of former foundations.

The feeling of confusion and bewilderment, the search for a way out of this uncomfortable reality at that time was also characteristic of other contemporaries of the author (Uspensky, L.N. Tolstoy, Saltykov-Shchedrin).

At the end of his life, Tolstoy's fear of existence, of the course of history, intensified. In his poem in 1870, the poet said that the “veils have been removed” from his soul, its “living tissue” is exposed, and every touch of life is “a burning torment and evil pain.” This is what Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy wrote. The poems of many of his contemporaries reflect similar sentiments.

Last years

The poet's health has deteriorated significantly since the mid-60s. He began to suffer from asthma, neuralgia, angina pectoris, and headaches. Alexey Konstantinovich went abroad for treatment every year, but this only helped for a short time. He died in 1875, on September 28, in Krasny Rog. Nowadays there is a museum-estate of this poet (Bryansk region, Pochepsky district).

The Count spent his childhood in Krasny Rog, and also returned to these places several times in his adult years. The biography of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy is thus closely connected with Red Horn. His grave is now located here. The poet did not leave behind any children. But he had Sofya Petrovna Bakhmeteva, an adopted daughter.

This ends the biography of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy. We examined the work of this poet only briefly. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with it in more detail. Then the biography of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy will be understood more deeply. After all, the life and work of any poet and writer resonate with each other. A biography helps to better understand the works written by various authors, and autobiographical features are often reflected in poetry and prose. Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy is no exception in this regard.

Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy- a classic of Russian literature, one of our greatest poets of the second half of the 19th century, a brilliant playwright, translator, creator of magnificent love lyrics, an unsurpassed satirist poet, who wrote his works both under his real name and under the name invented by Tolstoy together with the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers of Kozma Prutkov; finally, Tolstoy is a classic of Russian “scary literature”; his stories “The Ghoul” and “The Ghoul’s Family” are considered masterpieces of Russian mysticism. The works of A.K. Tolstoy are familiar to us from school. But, paradoxically, little is known about the life of the writer himself. The fact is that most of the writer’s archives were lost in fires, and a significant part of the correspondence was destroyed after Tolstoy’s death by his wife. Researchers of the writer’s work had to reconstruct the facts of his life literally bit by bit. But I must say that Alexey Konstantinovich lived a very interesting life. Soon after his birth (August 24, 1817 in St. Petersburg), a break occurred in the Tolstoy family - mother Anna Alekseevna (nee Perovskaya, the illegitimate daughter of the all-powerful Count Razumovsky) took six-week-old Alyosha and left for her estate. And she never returned to Count Konstantin Petrovich Tolstoy. Alyosha’s teacher, who essentially replaced his father, was his mother’s brother, writer Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky, better known by his literary pseudonym Antony Pogorelsky. Pogorelsky wrote the famous fairy tale “The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants” especially for Alyosha Tolstoy. Fate itself seemed to favor Tolstoy - thanks to his involvement in two influential noble families - the Tolstoys and Razumovskys - and his relationship with the popular writer Pogorelsky, he met Pushkin as a child, during a trip with his mother and uncle to Germany - with Goethe, and the trip to Italy is connected with an acquaintance with the great artist Karl Bryullov, who would later paint a portrait of the young Tolstoy. The heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II, became Tolstoy's playmate. There is a known case when Emperor Nicholas I himself played soldiers together with Alyosha and Alexander.

In 1834, Tolstoy was enrolled in public service - as a “student” in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In December 1835 he took exams at Moscow University to obtain a certificate for entry into the first category of civil service officials. Tolstoy is deeply disgusted by public service; he wants to become a poet, has been writing poetry since the age of six, but does not find the strength to break with the service, for fear of upsetting his family. In 1836, Tolstoy takes a four-month vacation to accompany the seriously ill Perovsky to Nice for treatment, but on the way, in a Warsaw hotel, Perovsky dies. He leaves his entire fortune to Alyosha. At the end of 1836, Tolstoy was transferred to a department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was soon appointed to the Russian mission at the German Diet in Frankfurt am Main. However, the service was essentially a simple formality, and although Tolstoy went to Frankfurt (where he first met Gogol), he, like any young socialite, spends most of his time in entertainment. In 1838 - 1839 Tolstoy lives abroad - in Germany, Italy, France. At the same time, he wrote his first stories (in French) “The Family of the Ghoul” and “Meeting after Three Hundred Years,” which will be published only after the author’s death. Apparently, the influence of Perovsky, one of the founders of Russian fantastic literature, and Tolstoy’s first stories were vivid examples of mysticism (by the way, the writer’s interest in the otherworldly would remain in adulthood: it is known that he read books on spiritualism, attended sessions of the English spiritualist Hume, who toured in Russia ). Returning to Russia, Tolstoy continues to live a “high life”: he hits on young ladies at St. Petersburg balls, spends money in style, hunts on his estate Krasny Rog in the Chernigov province, which he inherited from Alexei Perovsky. Hunting becomes a passion for Tolstoy; he repeatedly risked his life to hunt a bear with a spear. In general, Alexey Konstantinovich was distinguished by amazing physical strength - he twisted silver forks and spoons with a screw, and unbent horseshoes.

In 1841, Tolstoy made his literary debut - under the pseudonym Krasnorogsky, he published the mystical story “The Ghoul,” the first Russian work on the “vampire” theme. The story earned an approving review from Belinsky. In the 40s, Tolstoy began the novel “Prince Silver”, created many poems and ballads, but wrote mostly “on the table”. In 1850, Tolstoy, together with his cousin Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov, hiding behind the pseudonyms “Y” and “Z,” sent the one-act comedy “Fantasia” to censorship. Although the censor made amendments to the work, on the whole he did not find anything reprehensible in it. The premiere of the play took place on January 8, 1851 at the Alexandria Theater and ended in a huge scandal, after which the production was banned: the public did not understand at all the innovation of the play, the parody of the absurd dialogues and monologues, Emperor Nicholas I, who was present at the premiere, left the hall without waiting for the end of the performance. In the same 1851, Alexei Tolstoy was awarded the title of master of ceremonies of the court, and the most important event in his personal life took place - the poet met his future wife Sophia Miller. The resulting feeling for Miller inspires Tolstoy. Since 1854, he systematically published his poems, including under the name of Kozma Prutkov, a writer he invented together with the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers. During the Crimean War, Tolstoy joined the army as a major, but did not participate in hostilities: he fell ill with typhus near Odessa and barely survived. After recovery, he took part in the coronation of Alexander II; on the day of the coronation celebrations, Tolstoy was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed aide-de-camp to the emperor. Military service weighed heavily on Tolstoy, and in 1861 he sought his resignation. After his resignation, Tolstoy lived mainly on his estates Pustynka (near St. Petersburg) and Krasny Rog. Literary fame comes - his poems are a success. The poet is fascinated by Russian history - the “Time of Troubles” and the era of Ivan the Terrible - and he creates the historical novel “Prince Silver” and the “Dramatic Trilogy”, but Tolstoy is especially interested in pre-Mongol Rus', which he idealizes in many ballads and epics.

In the last years of his life, Tolstoy was seriously ill. Unable to find relief from terrible headaches, he begins to use morphine injections. Morphine addiction develops. On September 28 (October 10, New Style), 1875, Tolstoy dies in Krasny Rog from an overdose of morphine.

Among Tolstoy’s works of fiction, in addition to mystical prose (“The Ghoul”, “The Family of the Ghoul”, Meeting after Three Hundred Years”, “Amen”), many poetic works include the poem “Dragon”, ballads and epics “The Tale of the King and the Monk” "", "Whirlwind Horse", "Wolves", "Prince Rostislav", "Sadko", "Bogatyr", "Stream-Bogatyr", "Snake Tugarin", dramatic poem "Don Juan". Fantastic elements are also present in some of the writer’s other works.

Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy was born August 24 (September 5 n.s.) 1817 In Petersburg. Count, Russian prose writer, poet, playwright.

On the maternal side, he came from the Razumovsky family (great-grandfather - the last Ukrainian hetman Kirill Razumovsky; grandfather - Minister of Public Education under Alexander I - A.K. Razumovsky). Father – Count K.P. Tolsto, with whom his mother separated immediately after the birth of his son. He was brought up under the guidance of his mother and her brother, the writer A.A. Perovsky, who encouraged Tolstoy's early poetic experiments.

In 1834 entered the Moscow archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then he was in the diplomatic service. In 1843 received the rank of chamber cadet. Late 30s - early 40s Tolstoy wrote fantastic stories in the style of the Gothic novel and romantic prose - “The Family of the Ghoul” and “Meeting after Three Hundred Years” (in French). The first publication is the story “Ghoul” ( 1841., under the pseudonym Krasnorogsky) – was greeted sympathetically by V.G. Belinsky. In the 40s A. Tolstoy began working on the historical novel “Prince Silver” (finished in 1861 ), then he created a number of ballads and lyric poems, published later (in 50-60s); many of them gained wide popularity (“My Bells”, “You know the land where everything breathes abundantly”, “Where the vines bend over the pool”, “Barrow”, “Vasily Shibanov”, “Prince Mikhailo Repnin” and others).

In the early 50s A. Tolstoy became close to I.S. Turgenev, N.A. Nekrasov and other writers. Since 1854 publishes poems and literary parodies in Sovremennik. In collaboration with his cousins ​​A.M. and V.M. Zhemchuzhnikov in the “Literary Jumble” department of Sovremennik, in “Svistok” he published satirical and parody works signed by Kozma Prutkov; the work of the author they invented became a parodic mirror of obsolete literary phenomena and at the same time created a satirical type of the Nikolaev bureaucrat, claiming to be the legislator of artistic taste.

Moving away since 1857 from participating in Sovremennik, Tolstoy began to publish in Russian Conversation, and in the 60-70s. – mainly in “Russian Bulletin” and “Bulletin of Europe”. During these years, he defended the principles of the so-called. “pure art”, independent of political ideas. In 1861 A. Tolstoy left the service, which he was very burdened with, and concentrated on literary studies. Published the dramatic poem "Don Juan" ( 1862 ), novel “Prince Silver” ( 1863 ), historical trilogy – tragedy “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” (1866 ), "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" ( 1868) , "Tsar Boris" ( 1870 ).

In 1867 The first collection of poems by Alexei Tolstoy was published. In the last decade he wrote ballads (“Snake Tugarin”, 1868 ; "Song about Harald and Yaroslavna" 1869 ; "Roman Galitsky" 1870 ; "Ilya Muromets", 1871 etc.), poems of political satire (“History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev”, publ. 1883; “Popov’s Dream”, publ. 1882 etc.), poems (“Portrait”, 1874 ; "The Dragon", 1875 ), lyric poems.

After retiring, he lived mainly on his estates, paying little attention to farming, and gradually went bankrupt. His health condition worsened. At the age of 58 A. Tolstoy September 28 (October 10 n.s.) 1875 of the year died in the Krasny Rog estate, Chernigov province.

The work of Alexei Tolstoy is imbued with motives, philosophical ideas, and lyrical emotions. Interest in national antiquity, problems of the philosophy of history, rejection of political tyranny, love for the nature of his native land - these features of Tolstoy as a person and as a thinker are reflected in his works of all genres.

A. Tolstoy's political ideals were unique. He himself believed that he stood outside the warring camps of modern Russian society. He hated political oppression, despised those with retrograde views and unprincipled bureaucratic politicians, but he did not trust people of revolutionary convictions, and found their activities harmful to society. Turning to history and reflecting on the fate of the country, Tolstoy denied the progressive development of Russian monarchical statehood and the unification of Rus' around the Moscow principality. The bureaucratization of the state apparatus and the unlimited sovereignty of the tsars seemed to Tolstoy to be the result of the influence of the Tatar yoke on the political system of Rus'. He considered Kievan Rus and ancient Novgorod to be an ideal state structure corresponding to the national character of the people. The high level of development of art, the special importance of the cultural layer of the knightly aristocracy, the simplicity of morals, the prince’s respect for the personal dignity and freedom of citizens, the breadth and diversity of international connections, especially connections with Europe - this was how he imagined the way of life of Ancient Rus'. Ballads depicting images of Ancient Rus' are imbued with lyricism; they convey the poet’s passionate dream of spiritual independence, admiration for the integral heroic natures captured in folk epic poetry.

Alexey Tolstoy, or Oh, lucky one!

No, there are plants in every rustle
And in every trembling leaf
A different meaning is heard,
A different kind of beauty is visible!
I listen to a different voice in them
And, breathing the life of death,
I look at the earth with love,
But the soul asks higher;
And that, always enchanting her,
Calls and beckons from afar -
I can’t tell you about it
In everyday language.

Alexey Tolstoy “I.S. Aksakov"

We will preface the story of the death of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy with a small, but, as practice shows, a very necessary explanation. The family of Count Tolstoy made its contribution in many areas of Russian social life. However, the Tolstoys became especially famous in Great Russian Literature: three of the family entered its history on an equal footing, and consequently, the history of world literature. These are second cousins ​​Alexey Konstantinovich and Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and their (approximately) fourth cousin, grandson, great-great-great-nephew Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
This may seem funny to some, but I am increasingly faced with the fact that even writers with higher specialized education often confuse which Tolstoy lived when and what he created. Therefore, I will give a brief summary.
1. Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875). Great Russian poet and playwright, famous prose writer. The author of the historical novel “Prince Silver” and the mystical stories “The Family of the Ghoul” and “Meeting after Three Hundred Years”, the story “The Ghoul”. Creator of wonderful lyrical poems, including “In the midst of a noisy ball, by chance...”, “My bells, steppe flowers!”, “No fighter of two camps...”, etc. Author of a number of ballads of amazing beauty and deepest thought , epics and parables, among them one of the greatest spiritual works of the Russian people, the poem “John of Damascus,” stands out. Alexey Konstantinovich’s author also wrote the “History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev”, beloved by many readers, with its famous saying:

Listen guys
What will grandfather tell you?
Our land is rich
There is just no order in it.

Alexey Konstantinovich entered the history of national drama with his grandiose philosophical and historical trilogy “The Death of Ivan the Terrible,” “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” and “Tsar Boris.”
But most of all he is known as one of the main creators of the unforgettable Kozma Prutkov, whom he created together with his cousins ​​Alexei Mikhailovich (1821-1908), Vladimir Mikhailovich (1830-1884) and Alexander Mikhailovich (1826-1896) Zhemchuzhnikovs. At the same time, many experts claim that the best part of the works of the eternal graphomaniac was composed by Alexei Konstantinovich.
Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy from childhood and throughout his life was a personal friend of the Tsarevich, and then Emperor Alexander II.
2. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910). It is enough to name only the writer’s novels: “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”, “Resurrection”. That says it all.
3. Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1882-1945). Great Russian Soviet prose writer. Creator of the famous epic novels “Peter I” and “Walking in Torment”. He also wrote the novels “The Adventures of Nevzorov, or Ibicus” and “Emigrants”. An excellent storyteller, his most famous stories are “Actress”, “Count Cagliostro”, “Viper”, etc. Alexey Nikolaevich is one of the founders of Soviet science fiction, he wrote the famous story “Aelita” and the novel “Engineer Garin’s Hyperboloid”. No less than these works, we all love his fairy tale “The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio.” Lev Nikolaevich and Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy are the authors of the most popular retellings of Russian folk tales for children in our country. Most readers are familiar with these masterpieces of folk art through Tolstoy.
After the Great October Revolution, Alexei Nikolaevich emigrated, but subsequently returned and became a staunch supporter of Soviet power. For this, many in the emigrant community hated him, they even spread rumors that the writer’s mother was a walking woman and adopted Alyosha not from Count Tolstoy, but from an unknown libertine; that Alexei Nikolaevich does not have a drop of aristocratic blood... What significance the social status of his parents has for a genius is not clear, but the fugitive nobles were painfully disgusted by the consciousness of such a blatant class “treason.” They did not even consider the concepts of “my people” and “Motherland”; for most emigrants, unlike Tolstoy, they were already in the 1920s. turned into the abstract romance of dreams.
Since the late 1980s. the memory of Alexei Nikolaevich in our country was subjected to savage mockery from the envious post-Soviet intelligentsia, unable to create at least something close to the works of Tolstoy. On the one hand, he was declared a “red count” and people are raging about the lifestyle that the writer led in the USSR, having an income earned through hard creative work. On the other hand, they present him as an agent of the Jewish Freemasons, through the Jewish Mason Buratino, who is spiritually corrupting Russian children. Due to their illiteracy, envious people often try to present “The Adventures of Pinocchio” as plagiarism of Carlo Collodi’s book “The Adventures of Pinocchio. The history of a wooden doll." This is approximately the same as accusing Moliere, Byron or Pushkin of plagiarism from Tirso de Molina, since each of these authors has brilliant works, the main character of which was Don Juan - the creation of de Molina, who created the basis of the plot, which was later used by all creators of their own interpretations of the history of the famous adventurer and lover. All this cockroach fuss around the genius of our people can cause nothing but disgust. Well them!
We will talk about the first of the three great writers Tolstoy, our wonderful Alexei Konstantinovich. Someone may inevitably have a question about the legality of asserting the equality of Alexei Konstantinovich and Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy in literature. There can be no talk of this in world literature, but for Russian literature and especially for the Russian people they are not only of equal magnitude, but over time, as the role of literature in the life of society is rethought, it is quite possible that Alexey Konstantinovich will occupy, if not a higher than Lev Nikolaevich, then an equal position in the objectively emerging hierarchy of Russian writers. It is not advisable to argue on this issue now. It is enough to take a closer look at the writer’s dramaturgy and poetry. But, of course, it’s not for us to judge; time and history will decide everything.

I bless you, forests,
Valleys, fields, mountains, waters!
I bless freedom
And blue skies!
And I bless my staff,
And this poor sum
And the steppe from edge to edge,
And the light of the sun, and the darkness of the night,
And a lonely path
Which way, beggar, am I going,
And in the field every blade of grass,
And every star in the sky!
Oh, if I could mix my whole life,
To merge my whole soul with you!
Oh, if I could into my arms
I am your enemies, friends and brothers,
And conclude all nature!

These lines are taken from the poem “John of Damascus”, in my opinion, the second spiritual creation of Great Russian Literature after Derzhavin’s ode “God” in its significance, cosmic character and grandeur. Its author is Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, a man and creator of extraordinary integrity and amazing contradictions at the same time. The tragic death of the writer became, as it were, the quintessence of his entire life. We know exactly why Alexey Konstantinovich died - from an overdose of morphine. But we do not know and will never know why this overdose happened: whether Tolstoy made a mistake with a dangerous medicine, trying to drown out the unbearable pain, or deliberately injected himself with a lethal dose in order to stop his incurable physical and moral suffering. Two extremes on which the understanding of this person’s personality directly depends: a victim of an accident or a suicide? Agree - a significant difference.

On his mother's side, Alexey was in a distant and unspoken relationship with the reigning family. Anna Alekseevna (1796-1857) was the illegitimate daughter of Count Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky (1748-1822), nephew of the secret husband of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and, accordingly, the Empress herself. True, Anna’s mother was a bourgeois, Razumovsky’s long-term mistress, which subsequently did not at all affect the fate of her offspring. Thanks to the efforts of the count, perhaps the richest man in Russia at that time, all his illegitimate children received noble dignity and bore the surname Perovsky - after the name of the Razumovsky estate near Moscow. And the capital that their child-loving father gave them, and the highest state and court positions that they themselves achieved, forced the arrogant Russian aristocrats not to notice the low origin of the Perovskys.
Let's not forget that the writer's great-grandfather Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky in his childhood was a village shepherd of oxen, at the age of fifteen his elder brother - already as the empress's favorite - sent him to study abroad, where the young man at the same time received the dignity of a count, and three years later he passionately Elizaveta Petrovna, who loved her husband, appointed her eighteen-year-old brother-in-law as president of the Imperial Academy of Sciences - so that he would be in business. It must be said that both founders of the family, brothers Alexei and Kirill, were characterized by a sharp mind, good nature, great tact and patriotism unusual for that time, which made them outstanding statesmen of the empire. They were such not only under Elizabeth Petrovna, but they further strengthened their position under Catherine II. It was through the efforts of a small group of high-ranking nobles, among whom the Razumovsky brothers were especially active, that the Germans, who had flooded the country since the time of Peter I, were ousted from their leading roles in the Russian state. And worthy representatives of the Russian national nobility came forward.
True, the son of Kirill Grigorievich, Alexei Kirillovich, turned out to be a notorious Westerner, despised his own people and was inclined towards Catholicism, although he held the post of Minister of Education at court. His grandson, the writer Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, inherited almost all the best character traits of the first counts Razumovsky: patriotism, good nature, generosity... Let's add to this an unprecedented naivety and gullibility for an adult, which sometimes allowed him to best resolve sensitive situations, which helped a lot to many figures of Russian culture who found themselves in difficult situations - Tolstoy never refused to work for those persecuted and convicted. It is enough to give just a few names of those for whom Alexei Konstantinovich stood up for the emperor: Ivan Sergeevich Aksakov, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko, Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky and others.
On the other hand, Tolstoy never recognized political and ideological extremes. Remember the “Ceremonial” written by Tolstoy from Kozma Prutkov:

Slavophiles and nihilists are coming,
Both of them have unclean nails.

In a word:

Two stans is not a fighter, but only a random guest,
For the truth I would be glad to raise my good sword,
But the dispute with both has hitherto been my secret lot,
And no one could bring me to the oath;
There will not be a complete union between us -
Not bought by anyone, under whose banner I would stand,
I can’t bear the biased jealousy of my friends,
I would defend the enemy's banner with honor!

He did not recognize extremes at all, and therefore he lived his life in such a way that any of us, no matter how biased our attitude towards the writer, would exclaim:
- Oh, lucky guy!

The writer's father, Count Konstantin Petrovich (1779-1870), was one of the almost ruined, but well-born Tolstoys and was not distinguished by intelligence. As his brother, the great Russian sculptor Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy (1783-1873), wrote: “Brother Konstantin should never have married Anna Alekseevna - she was too smart for him...” Six weeks after the birth of their son Alexei, an affair occurred between the parents a complete break, the countess left, never saw her husband again and forbade her son to meet his father - Alexey subsequently did this secretly, and his friendly relations with Konstantin Petrovich improved only after the death of his mother. It is quite possible that it was this event that predetermined the future fate of the future writer.
After leaving her husband, Anna Alekseevna settled on her estate Blistovo near Chernigov. Her elder brother, Alexei Alekseevich Perovsky (1787-1836), an outstanding Russian mystical writer, creator of the first ever national story for children, “The Black Hen,” lived in the neighboring Pogoreltsy estate. He is better known to readers under the pseudonym Antony Pogorelsky. By the way, the story “The Black Hen” was written by his uncle specifically for his beloved nephew, who became the prototype of the main character, Alyosha. Perovskaya and her little son often lived for a long time on her brother’s estate, and over time they moved there permanently. So the three of them lived for twenty years.
It should be noted that neither their contemporaries nor subsequent historians saw anything reprehensible in this. And only today’s moral monsters, intellectuals, obsessed with sexual problems and not noticing anything other than the genital organs in a person, staged a dirty bacchanalia around the memory of these bright people. Still, what a foul-smelling, mocking time we happen to live in, my reader!
It should be noted that Alyosha became everyone’s favorite of the Perovsky family; for more than forty years they looked after him like a small child, passing guardianship to each other by inheritance. And so the poet turned out to be a man completely unadapted to earthly life, who looked at everything and everyone through rose-colored glasses, a mighty good-natured man who could be offended by any scoundrel and consider this offense quite justified. The benefit of the Perovskys' wealth allowed Tolstoy to live almost his entire life in a world of dreams about man, humanity and philanthropy.
Alexey Alekseevich became Alyosha’s main guardian and replaced the boy’s father, and it was he who raised his nephew. Therefore, it is not surprising that Alexei Konstantinovich composed the first poem in his life when he was six years old.
When Count Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky died in 1822, his children inherited enormous wealth. Among other things, Alexey Alekseevich became the owner of the village of Krasny Rog. In the same year, Perovsky and the Tolstoys moved to this estate, where they spent a significant part of their lives, and Alexei Konstantinovich created the novel “Prince Silver”, wrote a dramatic trilogy and many poems. He died and was buried there.

I will quote a fragment from a very interesting book by Dmitry Anatolyevich Zhukov “Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy”*. It is unlikely that you will find a more complete and so vividly presented biography of the writer. It is not always possible to agree with the author’s point of view, but let’s not forget that the time of the first publication of the book was the last years of L.I.’s reign. Brezhnev, the “golden era” of the Soviet bureaucracy - Dmitry Anatolyevich already expressed a very bold point of view in a number of cases, in particular, he very clearly linked the Decembrist movement with the Freemasons. In this case, we are interested in the most important period in the fate of Alexei Konstantinovich, which left a bright stamp on his entire future life.

* Zhukov D.A. Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. M.: Young Guard, 1982.

“Brought to Russia long ago, Freemasonry served more than dubious purposes. Secret organizations, in which ordinary “brothers” knew nothing about the intentions of the leaders of the lodges, had their roots abroad, and there, at the highest “degrees,” people who had nothing to do with enlightenment, magnificent rituals, or Christianity were in charge.
The Russians often understood Freemasonry in their own way and, taking its organizational foundations, created independent societies that were not recognized by international Freemasonry. The founder of one of them was, for example, the sculptor Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy.
Count Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky was a Freemason. His sons Vasily and Lev Perovsky* were members of the “Military Society,” of which many future Decembrists were members. But then their paths diverged. On December 14, 1825, Vasily Perovsky found himself on Senate Square with the new tsar, and he was even seriously concussed by a log that someone threw at his retinue.

* Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky (1794-1857) - count, adjutant general of Nicholas I. Hero of the War of 1812. From 1833 to 1842. and from 1851 to 1856. was the governor-general of the Orenburg region, and these years in the history of the region are called “the time of Perovsky” or the “golden age of the Orenburg region.” Having no children, he took care of Alexei Konstantinovich until the end of his days and, dying, left him all his large fortune.
Lev Alekseevich Perovsky (1792-1856) - hero of 1812; Senator, since 1841 Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire; since 1852, Minister of Appanages and Manager of His Majesty's Cabinet. Adjutant General of Alexander II. After the death of Alexei Alekseevich Perovsky, it was Lev Alekseevich who took over the main guardianship of Alexei Konstantinovich and, regardless of the age of the ward, did not leave him until his death, forcing him to engage in public service and forbidding him to marry a woman of “indecent behavior.” After the death of this uncle, Tolstoy also received a substantial inheritance.

Since 1818, Vasily Alekseevich was the adjutant of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich. Now he became an aide-de-camp, and a brilliant career awaited him. He was friends with Pushkin, and he had a very touching relationship with Zhukovsky.
Many people relied on the new tsar, and Zhukovsky was among them. The educator of the new heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II, was Karl Karlovich Merder*. Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky was offered to take up the education of the Tsar’s son. He agreed, seeing this as an opportunity to instill humane views in the future sovereign.

* Karl Karlovich Merder (1788-1834) - adjutant general, famous teacher; chief educator of Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich; a participant in all the children's games of the heir, and therefore of Alyosha Tolstoy.

Zhukovsky told Nicholas I that it would be useful for the heir to have study comrades. The eldest son of the composer Count Mikhail Vielgorsky, Joseph, and the son of the general, the good-natured lazy man Alexander Patkul, were chosen. Alexander Adlerberg and Alexei Tolstoy became playmates; later they were joined by the young prince Alexander Baryatinsky.
Whether this was agreed upon in advance by the Perovskys or happened when Alyosha and his mother had already arrived in St. Petersburg, they had to say goodbye to Red Horn for a long time. And in general, the whole life of Alexei Tolstoy would have passed, perhaps, completely differently, if not for his closeness to the throne, for which he later had to pay...”
It is difficult to agree with Zhukov’s last words, but something else is more important for us: Alexei Konstantinovich’s close communication throughout his childhood and youth with Joseph Vielgorsky (1817-1839). In the literature I have come across statements that during these years the most friendly relations developed between Joseph Vielgorsky and Alexei Tolstoy. The heir kept aloof from the comrades proposed to him, and for the better - Alexander was a soft-hearted man, easily fell under bad influence and could have drawn playmates into his affairs: the crown prince, and then the emperor, was fond of collecting pornographic pictures, with all the consequences of this complexes.
In 1838-1839 Alexey Konstantinovich lived in Rome. There he became friends with Gogol, who was caring for Joseph Vielgorsky, who was terminally ill with consumption, and, together with Nikolai Vasilyevich, was at the dying man’s bedside and at his burial. Very symbolic! In fact, Alexei Tolstoy found himself at the cradle of the emerging Great Russian Literature - the literature of God-seeking. His own work has many similarities with the God-seekers and is unusually close in spirit to the work of N.S. Leskov, although researchers usually point to almost an imitation of N.V. Gogol in the writer’s early works - “The Ghoul”, “The Family of the Ghoul” and especially “Prince Silver”. However, genre, theme and form are one thing, and spirit and thought are quite another. It is enough that Alexey Konstantinovich visited Optina Pustyn several times and was received there by the elders with great respect each time. This, however, did not prevent him from becoming seriously interested in spiritualism. Until the end of his days, the writer remained a man of great contradictions.

“Alexey Tolstoy was of extraordinary strength: he bent horseshoes, and by the way, I kept a silver fork for a long time, from which he twisted not only the handle, but also each tooth separately with a screw with his fingers.”* This is what Alexander Vasilyevich Meshchersky, a friend of Alexei Konstantinovich in his youth, wrote. Tolstoy intended to marry his sister Elena Meshcherskaya, but his mother intervened, pointing out their close relationship, and the wedding had to be abandoned.

* Meshchersky A.V. From my old days. Memories. M.: 1901.

Mother tried to turn her son away from his second lover, the same one, the first meeting with whom, which took place in January 1851, the poet immortalized in the brilliant poem “Amidst a noisy ball, by chance...” Sofya Andreevna Miller (1827-1895), née Bakhmeteva , was married to captain Lev Fedorovich Miller, but was very burdened by this marriage and did not live with her husband. In her youth, the woman compromised herself by having an affair with Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Vyazemsky, from whom she became pregnant, but who, at the insistence of her parents, refused to marry her. Bakhmeteva’s mother was offended and persuaded her eldest son, Yuri Andreevich Bakhmetev (1823-1845), to challenge his sister’s offender to a duel. As a result, it was not the offender who was killed, but Yuri himself. Relatives considered Sophia to be the culprit in the death of the young man, and in order to get rid of their reproaches, the girl urgently married another admirer of hers, Miller, whom she did not love. What happened to the fruit of the criminal relationship between Bakhmeteva and Vyazemsky is not known. It was this story that turned out to be an argument for Countess Anna Alekseevna against the beloved of Alexei Konstantinovich.
However, the love was mutual, at least that’s what Tolstoy claimed, although some of his contemporaries openly talked about a relationship of convenience on the part of Sofia Andreevna, which, in the end, allegedly drove the writer to suicide. And although there could be no talk of a wedding without the consent of the writer’s mother, no one could forbid lovers from meeting and loving each other at a distance.
When the Crimean War began in 1853. For a long time, Alexei Konstantinovich could not achieve appointment to the army - high-ranking relatives of the Perovskys interfered. Tolstoy happened to be at the deathbed of Nicholas I, who fell ill and died in the fifty-eighth year of his life from shock after the news of the defeat of the Russian army near Evpatoria. At the end of 1855, the new emperor sent Tolstoy with the rank of major to Odessa, where, after the fall of Sevastopol, the main hostilities were to unfold. But by the time Alexei Konstantinovich arrived at his destination, a typhus epidemic had begun in the Russian troops. On February 13 (25), 1856, the Paris Peace Treaty, shameful for Russia, was signed. And almost on the same day, Major Tolstoy fell ill - the epidemic also reached this strong man.
Dispatches about the patient’s condition were sent daily by telegraph to the emperor, so biographers were able to thoroughly trace the progress of the writer’s illness. Alexey Konstantinovich suffered typhus very hard, for some time he was on the verge of life and death. And only when Sofya Andreevna came to him, things began to improve. She was the one who left Tolstoy. But typhus undermined the health of this mighty man, and those serious internal illnesses began and intensified over the years, which twenty years later, according to the main version, brought Tolstoy to his grave.

During the coronation celebrations in August 1856, Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy was constantly with Emperor Alexander II, then he received the rank of lieutenant colonel and was appointed royal adjutant*. The vast expanses of a brilliant career opened up ahead. But Alexey Konstantinovich, a man not of this world, dreamed of only one thing - to leave the sovereign's service and engage in creativity. Alexander II, uncle Lev Alekseevich, and mother were against it. And Tolstoy was regularly obedient to the will of his relatives.

* Aide-de-camp is an honorary title for officers who were in the emperor's retinue.

But on November 10, 1856, Tolstoy’s main guardian, Lev Alekseevich Perovsky, died. Six months later, in early June, my mother died. In December 1857, Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky passed away. Although even before that Alexey Konstantinovich was, to put it mildly, not a poor man, but now three more huge fortunes have been added to his capital. Tolstoy became one of the richest people in Russia, having received the increased wealth of his grandfather Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky. Tolstoy now owned about 40 thousand acres of land alone, and there were several tens of thousands of serfs under him. Most of the nobles of the Russian Empire were already considered wealthy, having about 100 serfs with land. True, the serf owner from Tolstoy was still the same. Many facts are known when peasants from other estates fled to his estates; Alexey Konstantinovich did not persecute anyone, he only said:
- Let them live until they are caught. Feed and equip.
In addition, Tolstoy received the opportunity to freely dispose of his wealth, before his mother and uncle Perovsky strictly monitored his expenses. Unfortunately, this freedom did not benefit Alexei Konstantinovich - very soon he fell into the Bakhmetevs’ trap.
Immediately after the death of Countess Anna Alekseevna, the family of Bakhmeteva’s brother, Pyotr Andreevich Bakhmetev, settled on Tolstoy’s estate. The writer’s favorite was Peter’s son, Andryusha*. There is, of course, nothing bad about this, on the contrary: Tolstoy’s estate was filled with the ringing, cheerful voices of the Bakhmetev children, and this created an indescribable atmosphere of home comfort. But at the same time, the entire Bakhmetev family immediately sat on the neck of the good-natured Alexei Konstantinovich, and everyone began to shamelessly rob him and drive him out of his own home.

* Andrei Petrovich Bakhmetev (1853-1872) - favorite of A.K. Tolstoy. He died at the age of nineteen from consumption and was buried in the Red Horn churchyard. For Alexei Konstantinovich this was a severe blow; in the young man he saw his only heir.

Unfortunately, in those same years, the writer’s illnesses began to worsen. By this time, Alexey Konstantinovich was already suffering from neuralgia and asthma. Despite everything, in 1859 Tolstoy created the brilliant philosophical poem “John of Damascus.” The most amazing thing about the fate of the poem is that for the first time in Tolstoy’s life, it was its publication that the Third Department tried to ban, citing the ban on church censorship!!! It was rumored that in addition to the clergy, Alexander II himself gave the corresponding instructions. Then the poem was secretly handed over to Empress Maria Alexandrovna for reading, and she, bypassing the III Department, asked the Minister of Public Education Evgraf Petrovich Kovalevsky (senior) (1790-1867) to contribute to the publication. The poem was published in the first issue of the Slavophile magazine “Russian Conversation” and caused a quiet scandal in the ministerial offices.
In the fall of 1861, shortly after the abolition of serfdom, the emperor gave Tolstoy complete resignation. From that time on, Alexei Konstantinovich’s financial situation began to rapidly become more difficult. “Telling himself the hope of becoming a good rural owner, he tried to do something, to manage. His instructions were listened to respectfully, but were not followed. The peasants often turned to him for help, and he never refused it, protected them from the oppression of command rats and police authorities, gave them money... New times have come, capitalist relations have come into force. Resourcefulness, tight-fistedness, the ability to invest every penny in a business and make a profit from it, the daily increase in one’s property at the expense of others by hook or by crook - all this was alien to Tolstoy, full of liberal complacency and benevolence. And no matter how rich he was, his fortune was destined from now on to melt away with catastrophic speed... Businessmen were already hovering around - the new masters of life.” Already in 1862, Tolstoy sold the estate in the Saratov province, others followed, he began to sell forests for felling, and issued bills. By the end of the 1860s. the writer realized that he was going broke, but could not do anything about it.
During these years, certain “X” and “Z” began to be mentioned in Alexei Konstantinovich’s correspondence - “one of them once heard that there is delicacy in the world, and the second had never heard of it. “In a word, this reptile is almost naive.” This is how Tolstoy characterized Pyotr and Nikolai Bakhmetev, who began to take his estate into their hands and squander it. The managers of the count's numerous estates were also not embarrassed and stole everything that was in bad condition, and Tolstoy, under the supervision of the Bakhmetevs, had everything in bad condition!
He vividly described the attitude of Sofia Andreevna’s brothers towards the good-natured Tolstoy A.D. Zhukov: “...they resembled a kind of “good friend” who, drunk, uninvitedly breaks into the house, smokes the owner’s cigars, unceremoniously blowing smoke into the owner’s face, throws books off the desk onto the floor, and puts his legs in their place, lounging in chair, and if the owner makes a dissatisfied face, he will throw a tantrum, accusing him of being a curmudgeon and a purist... Tolstoy preferred not to get involved with such “naivety” and ran away.” He fled abroad.
Vasily Petrovich Gorlenko (1853-1907), a famous Little Russian journalist, ethnographer and art critic, once wrote: “Al. Tolstoy, adoring his wife, found himself in the “family embrace” of his wife’s numerous relatives. The severity of the situation was complicated by the fact that his wife herself, out of her kindness, patronized and loved this relative, while the poet had to endure an unceremonious attitude towards his goods, interference in his affairs and large, completely unproductive expenses out of ardent love for his wife. ..”*

* Gorlenko V.P. South Russian essays and portraits. Kyiv, 1898.

At the end of 1862, Alexei Konstantinovich’s health began to deteriorate sharply. This is how D.A. described it. Zhukov: “He sank, not a trace of the former blush remained - his face became sallow, his features seemed to have become heavier, enlarged, and the bags under his eyes were swollen. He was sick, seriously ill. He had headaches before. My leg ached, which did not allow me to make a trip to Odessa with the regiment at one time. But now everything seemed to have gone wrong - it was like fire was burning through my stomach. Tolstoy often felt sick and vomited. There were attacks of suffocation, pain in the heart area appeared...” The doctors were unable to help.
By this time, Sofya Andreevna Miller received the long-awaited divorce and again became Bakhmeteva. On April 3, 1863, she and Tolstoy finally got married, having lived in a civil marriage for a little less than 12 years.
There is no consensus in the literature about their relationship. Most biographers, pointing to correspondence and memoirs of contemporaries, claim that Tolstoy and Bakhmeteva sincerely loved each other. But sometimes they also refer to I.S., who knew Bakhmeteva well. Turgenev, who allegedly wrote that their family life was like a difficult and boring tragicomedy. Turgenev respected, but did not like Sofya Andreevna, and once even declared to L.N. Tolstoy that she “has the face of a Chukhon soldier in a skirt.” However, Ivan Sergeevich himself was so bogged down in relations with Pauline Viardot and her family, he spent such huge funds received from Russian serfs on their maintenance in France, that it was hardly permissible for Turgenev to talk about Tolstoy’s family, much less condemn his wife.
Since the late 1860s. The Tolstoys settled in Krasny Rog, from where they only traveled abroad for treatment. Life on this estate cost them much less than in the capital, and Alexei Konstantinovich’s finances had long wanted better.
In addition, the writer began to develop a strange illness, during the exacerbation of which the skin all over his body suddenly seemed to be poured with boiling water. Attacks of wild headaches occurred every day, the writer was even afraid to move his head, he walked slowly so as not to cause another attack by an accidental movement. Tolstoy's face turned purple with blue veins. Doctors could not establish an accurate diagnosis of the disease, and therefore did not know how to treat it.
Since August 1874, the Starodub district doctor Korzhenevsky tried to relieve the patient’s neuralgic pain with lithium, but this remedy helped for a very short time, then the suffering resumed. In the autumn of the same year, Tolstoy, accompanied by the nephew of his wife, Prince Dmitry Nikolaevich Tsertelev (1852-1911), a future serious philosopher and passionate admirer of spiritualism, went abroad for treatment. There, in Paris, the writer first had an eerie vision: he woke up in the middle of the night and saw a figure in white bending over his bed, which immediately disappeared into the darkness. The travelers regarded this as a bad sign, but since Tolstoy experienced a temporary improvement in his health, they quickly forgot about what had happened. And in the spring of 1875, Alexey Konstantinovich again felt bad. It was then that he took the fatal step.

In 1853, Edinburgh doctor Alexander Wood came up with a treatment method by injecting medicine into the subcutaneous tissue. Later they were offered an injection machine under the German name “syringe”. And one of the first drugs that Wood used to inject patients as an anesthetic was morphine. It was especially actively used by doctors during the Crimean War. The publication of Wood's article “A new method of treating neuralgia by direct injection of opiates into painful points” in the scientific journal Edinburgh Journal of Medicine and Surgery became a sensation in world medical practice. True, doctors soon began to notice that patients were becoming addicted to morphine and sounded the alarm. But this happened in the year when Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy received the first injection of a terrible drug.
It is usually written that morphine injections were prescribed to the writer by the attending physician. It is not said who this doctor is. There is another version that on Tolstoy’s last visit to Paris, I.S. advised him to inject morphine. Turgenev, who was aware of medical innovations. The writer's wife, Sofya Andreevna, is also blamed for this.
Tolstoy began receiving morphine injections abroad in the spring of 1875. The first injections helped the patient in a matter of minutes and for a long time. Alexey Konstantinovich was happy! When he became ill on the way to Russia in a train compartment, he injected himself with morphine. Later, Tolstoy gave injections to himself.
Soon, an addiction to the drug occurred, the body demanded larger and larger doses... This is how Tolstoy described Tolstoy’s condition in a letter to A.N. Aksakov dated September 24, 1875, the famous Russian novelist Boleslav Mikhailovich Markevich (1822-1884), he was just visiting in Krasny Rog at that time: “But if you saw the state of my poor Tolstoy, you would understand the feeling that holds me here... A person lives only with the help of morphine, and morphine at the same time undermines his life - this is the vicious circle from which he can no longer get out. I was present when he was poisoned with morphine, from which he was barely saved, and now this poisoning begins again, because otherwise he would have been suffocated by asthma.”
In August, under the influence of the drug, Alexei Konstantinovich began to have a split personality, and mental anguish was added to physical suffering. According to the memoirs of Nikolai Mikhailovich Zhemchuzhnikov (1824-1909), the writer’s cousin, who arrived in Krasny Rog on the eve of the onset of this psychosis, Tolstoy, when he felt a little better, kept repeating: “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy... How I suffered! .. What I felt!..” The writer began to have visions: his dead mother came to him and tried to take him with her.
Added to this was an exacerbation of asthma - Alexey Konstantinovich was constantly out of breath. Relief came only in the pine forest. Therefore, throughout the house in the rooms they placed tubs of water, in which they placed fresh cut young pine trees.
But this is not enough! The Bakhmetevs, and above all Sofya Andreevna herself, were not going to give up senseless spending, even despite the sharp drop in income after the abolition of serfdom. Things got to the point that in September 1875, already anticipating his death, Alexey Konstantinovich wrote to Alexander II a request to return him to service - there was nothing to live on! Almost all the estates were mortgaged or sold, Tolstoy issued bills, but further credit was also in question.
Since August 1875, the writer’s friends, Prince D.N., permanently lived in Krasny Rog. Tsertelev, B.M. Markevich and N.M. Zhemchuzhnikov. He was treated by Dr. Velichkovsky, who advised him to take the patient abroad as soon as he felt better. But on August 24, after another morphine injection, Tolstoy began to experience poisoning. This time I managed to overcome the disease. Immediately after the count felt better, they decided to prepare for a trip to Europe.
Departure was scheduled for early October. On the afternoon of September 28, 1875, guests gathered for a walk in the forest. Prince Tsertelev looked into the office of the owner of the house and saw that Alexey Konstantinovich was sleeping in a chair. Since the patient was constantly tormented by insomnia, they decided not to wake him up and left. At about 20.30 in the evening, worried about her husband’s long sleep, Sofya Andreevna went to call Tolstoy to the table. He was already cold, his pulse was not beating. On the desk in front of the deceased lay an empty morphine bottle and a syringe. Artificial respiration and other attempts to bring the writer back to life did not help.
The last words that Alexey Konstantinovich said to those around him as he retired to his office:
- I feel so good!

Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy was buried in the family crypt in the graveyard of the Assumption Church in Krasny Rog, next to Andryusha Bakhmetev. Sofya Andreevna died in 1895 and was buried there.

Neither before the October Revolution, nor after the October Revolution did it occur to anyone to declare Alexei Konstantinovich a drug addict. The tragedy that happened to him is the general result of the youth of contemporary medicine and the severe physical torment that the writer experienced in the last year of his life. Public mockery of his memory began around the mid-1980s, when spiritual life in the USSR came into final decline, the ideological heirs of the generation of the so-called sixties grew up, and Voltaire’s envy of the dead reached catastrophic proportions.
The latter, apparently, needs to be clarified. People, especially educated people, to whom talent, if at all, is granted, is in very small quantities, or those who consider the recognition of their talent insufficient, often tend to envy people revered by society. And not only those living nearby, but even more so those who died long ago, whose glory has been verified by time and seems unshakable. This was especially clearly manifested in the work of Voltaire, who was pathologically jealous of the glory suffered at the beginning of the 15th century. French national heroine Joan of Arc. He poured out all the envious abomination that had accumulated in his soul toward the girl who was burned alive in the vile libel “The Virgin of Orleans.” In his last work in his life, the article “The Last of Joan of Arc’s Relatives,” written in January 1837, A.S. Pushkin pronounced the harshest verdict on Voltaire’s envy: “Recent history does not present a more touching, more poetic subject about the life and death of the Orleans heroine; What did Voltaire, this worthy representative of his people, make of this? Once in his life he happened to be a true poet, and this is what he uses inspiration for! With his satanic breath he fans the sparks that smoldered in the ashes of the martyr's fire, and like a drunken savage dances around his amusing fire. He, like a Roman executioner, adds desecration to the mortal torment of the virgin.<...>Let us note that Voltaire, surrounded in France by enemies and envious people, subjected to the most poisonous censures at every step, found almost no accusers when his criminal poem appeared. His most bitter enemies were disarmed. Everyone enthusiastically accepted the book, in which contempt for everything that is considered sacred for man and citizen was brought to the last degree of cynicism. No one thought to stand up for the honor of their fatherland; and the challenge of the good and honest Dulis, if it had become known then, would have aroused inexhaustible laughter not only in the philosophical drawing rooms of Baron d'Holbach and Mme Joffrin, but also in the ancient halls of the descendants of Lagire and Latrimouille*. Miserable age! Pathetic people!”**

* Jean François Philippe du Lys (? - 1836) - the last of the relatives of Joan of Arc. He died childless. The article by A.S. is dedicated to du Lis. Pushkin. The father of Jean Francois - his name is not known - having read The Virgin of Orleans in 1767, challenged Voltaire to a duel. The frightened philosopher replied that he had nothing to do with this work, and some scoundrel used his name in the title.
Baron d'Holbach, aka Paul Henri Thiry Holbach (1723-1789) - French philosopher of German origin, writer, encyclopedist, educator, foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
Mme Joffrin, aka Maria Theresa Joffrin (1699-1777) - the owner of the famous literary salon, where for 25 years all the most talented intellectuals of Paris gathered, including Montesquieu, d'Alembert, Holbach, Diderot, Gibbon,
Etienne de Vignoles, nicknamed La Hire (The Wrathful) (1390-1440) - an outstanding French commander during the Hundred Years' War; comrade-in-arms of Joan of Arc, tried to free her from English captivity.
Latrimouille, aka Georges La Tremouille (1385-1445) - favorite of the French king Charles VII, one of the opponents of Joan of Arc.
** Pushkin A.S. Collection Op. in 10 volumes. T.6. M.: Artist. lit., 1962.

When the poet contemptuously called the French a “pathetic people” who are not able to silence the throat of an arrogant jester who decided to mock a tortured victim in the name of the Fatherland, he did not suspect that a hundred and fifty years later his native Russians would turn out to be a thousand times more pitiful and disgusting people. In France, one Voltaire outraged the memory of one Joan of Arc; in modern Russia, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of nonentities with the guise of our blood brothers have been mocking the memory of their dead ancestors with impunity for the third decade under the slogans of democracy and freedom of speech. In our history today it is difficult to find at least one worthy name that has not been smeared from one side or another by envious intellectuals and then smeared with this impurity from head to toe by ordinary people who are susceptible to slander. From Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Alexander Suvorov, Mikhail Kutuzov to the unfortunate sufferers Alexander Matrosov, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Nikolai Gastello, from Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol to Alexander Fadeev, Alexander Tvardovsky and Mikhail Sholokhov. Most of all, of course, went to the slaughtered children Pavlik and Fedya Morozov, a thousand times “exposed for denunciation and betrayal of family values” by fat, self-satisfied uncles and angry, hysterical ladies, from the offices of their comfortable metropolitan apartments fighting “for the spiritual cleansing of the Mankurt people, mired in unbelief.”
In this endless series, Alexey Konstantinovich suffered relatively little harm - he was simply declared a drug addict who had gone through all stages of drug withdrawal. But let us remember the letter from A.S. Pushkin to P.A. Vyazemsky in November 1825: “The crowd... in their meanness rejoices at the humiliation of the high, the weaknesses of the mighty. At the discovery of any abomination, she is delighted. He is small, like us, he is vile, like us! You’re lying, scoundrels: he’s both small and vile - not like you - otherwise.”* Indeed, geniuses are not accessible to the abominations of the intelligentsia, since the poet was talking specifically about the intelligentsia - there is no need for anyone else to tinker in the trash heap of someone else’s existence, if other people envy, then it is for others, but not for fame and public respect.

* Pushkin A.S. Collection Op. in 10 volumes. T. 9. M.: Khudozh. lit., 1962.

What happened to Alexei Konstantinovich on September 28, 1875? Was it suicide or a tragic mistake?
Proponents of the possibility of suicide argue their position for a combination of the following reasons. Firstly, Tolstoy understood that he was doomed, that it was pointless to continue the struggle for existence and prolong the ever-increasing torment. Secondly, under the influence of morphine the writer had a narcotic psychosis. Thirdly, on the soul of Alexei Konstantinovich, accustomed to a luxurious life, the possibility of imminent ruin lay as a heavy stone. Fourthly, the patient was negatively affected by indifference and even contempt on the part of Sofia Andreevna, who lived with him only for the sake of his money.
Of course, the first two arguments can be considered truly compelling. But Tolstoy, and this is clear from all of his work, never treated life as a frivolous stroll that could be interrupted at any moment at his own discretion. He was a believer and believed that everyone is obliged to endure the torment that befell him, that the Lord will never send a person trials beyond his strength. On the other hand, it was not typical for Alexei Konstantinovich to change his principles and reject ideals under the influence of the situation. The entire life of the writer and his creations affirm the impossibility of his suicide!
If Alexey Konstantinovich did indeed interrupt his life under the influence of a sudden drug psychosis (and not a single witness to the last month of Tolstoy’s life mentions a prolonged psychosis), then this weakness should be attributed to death by accident, such a death of a person with a clouded mind is condemned is not subject to.
As for the possibility of ruin, people of Alexei Konstantinovich’s social status simply could not go broke. After all, the request to return to service indicates that Tolstoy not only intended to continue living, but also became a signal to the tsar about the need for material support. Alexander II had such opportunities and would never refuse a friend of his family. The writer knew this very well, just as he knew that his death could put Sofya Andreevna in a very difficult financial situation. For the sake of the woman he loved, he could not commit suicide.
The strained relationship between the Tolstoy spouses falls into the category of dirty gossip, fanned by certain groups of people who like to delve into the underwear of great people. They do not have documentary evidence and cannot serve as an argument.
Thus, the version of Alexei Konstantinovich’s suicide is based rather on someone’s desire for it to take place. The likelihood of a patient making an error in the injection dose is much greater. Anyone who has experienced acute pain at least once probably remembers that state when it seems that it is enough to take more painkillers, and everything will quickly return to normal. The main thing is to relieve the pain now. Apparently, something similar happened to Alexei Konstantinovich. After a temporary improvement, when he went to his office, there was a sharp exacerbation of pain. Wanting to get rid of them as quickly as possible, the writer injected himself with a lethal dose of the drug, because he hoped to get rid of the painful condition faster. And the exact permissible one-time volumes of morphine injections in those years had not yet been established. The injection was given in great haste, the pain really went away - forever. She took Alexei Konstantinovich himself with her.