Tolstoy L.N. (1828-1910), writer

Categories / Literature. Book Publishing/Personalia
TOLSTOY Lev Nikolaevich (Leo Tolstoy) (1828-1910), Count, writer, associate (1873) and honorary member (1900) of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He first came to St. Petersburg in February of 1849 with the purpose of graduating from the university and enter the civil service (at that time he stayed at the Napoleon Hotel, now 39 Malaya Morskaya Street), but left the capital in May. He owed his first literary renown to Sovremennik, where his works were published. Tolstoy approached the circle of its contributors when he came to St. Petersburg in 1855; at that time he lived in the flat of I.S. Turgenev at 38 Fontanka River Embankment (memorial plaque). From the early 1860s he lived at his estate Yasnaya Polyana in Tula province, and visited St. Petersburg in 1878, 1880 and 1897. However, Tolstoy didn't break the bonds uniting him with the city: in 1884 V.G. Chertkov, with the active participation of Tolstoy, established here The Mediator Publishing House "for the education of Russian people". Many works of Tolstoy met a harsh reaction from St. Petersburg officials and became a fact of St. Petersburg life. By the early 20th century the confrontation between Tolstoy and official St. Petersburg had come out on a national scope: "We have two tsars: Nicholas II and Leo Tolstoy" announced A.S. Suvorin). In 1901 Tolstoy was officially excommunicated by the Orthodox Church in St. Petersburg. The festivities held on the account of the writer's 80th anniversary became a notable event in the capital. In general, the high society of St. Petersburg, officials and bureaucrats, personifying the hypocrisy and viciousness of the modern civilisation for Tolstoy, in many respects found a distinctly negative portrayal in his works (War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilyich etc.). In 1918 the name of Tolstoy was attached to a square and the former Arkhiereyskaya Street. In 1909 Tolstoy's Exhibition was opened in St. Petersburg in the halls of the Theatre Club at Liteyny Avenue; in 1911 it served as the basis for establishing Tolstoy's Museum (24 First Line of Vasilievsky Island; 6/13 Bolshoy Avenue of Vasilievsky Island). From 1924 all the exhibits of the museum have been stored at Pushkin House, where there was the permanent exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the writer. One of the libraries of Vasileostrovsky District bears the name of Tolstoy.

References: Кузьмина Л.И. Лев Толстой в Петербурге. Л., 1986.

A. B. Muratov. Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich
Suvorin Alexey Sergeevich
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich, Count
Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich
1st Line of Vasilievsky Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 24
Bolshoy Ave of Vasilievsky Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 6/13
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 38
Leo Tolstoy Square/Saint Petersburg, city
Leo Tolstoy St./Saint Petersburg, city
Liteiny Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Malaya Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 39
Кузьмина Л. И. Лев Толстой в Петербурге. Л., 1986 Russian Academy of Sciences
Sovremennik (Contemporary), journal
Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of