Tolstoy Alexei Nikolaevich (12/20/1882 - 02/23/1945) - Russian writer, author of many works that have become classics of Russian literature. Among the most famous are "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio", "Walking through the torment", "Peter I" and "Engineer Garin's Hyperboloid". Laureate of three Stalin Prizes at once.
“In every person there are huge sources of creativity. And all you have to do is open them up and set them free. But this must be done, not begging for justice, but putting a person in conditions suitable for him.
Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on December 20, 1882 in the Samara region. Historians are still arguing about its origin. Some sources claim that he is the son of Count Nikolai Tolstoy. Others say that his true parent is Alexei Bostrom. The fact is that Alexei's mother, Alexandra Tolstaya, was married to Nikolai, but shortly before the birth of her son, she went to Bostrom, who is officially considered the stepfather of the future writer.
Alexei Tolstov's childhood passed on the estate of Alexei Bostrom. And then the young man moved to St. Petersburg, where he graduated from the Institute of Technology. After studying, he was sent to practice in the Urals, and specifically in the city of Nevyansk. The leaning tower was a local landmark, and the writer dedicated his first story to it. It was called “The Old Tower”.
Alexei Tolstoy spent the entire First World War at the front. He was a war correspondent and wrote many essays. And after the revolution, his noble origin did not allow him to stay in the new Russia. I had to emigrate to Europe and spend almost 5 years there (1918-1923). This forced journey then formed the basis of the story "The Adventure of Nevzorov."
But later Alexei Tolstoy nevertheless returned to his homeland and became a very popular writer in the USSR. The Soviet citizens fell in love with the novel "Walking Through the Torments", as in it the author showed Bolshevism and revolution as the highest good. Even better was Peter the Great, which talked about strong reforms and their necessity for the development of the country.
But Tolstoy wrote not only to please the Soviet regime, but also for the mass reader. His "Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin" is still considered a classic of Soviet science fiction. But most of all, his surname became famous after the release of the fairy tale "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio." This book was read by all children and adults in the USSR. She formed the basis of many adaptations, both artistic and animated.
“Patriotism is not only love for the Motherland. This is a broader concept. This is the ability to experience with your homeland both moments of upsurge and unhappy days.
In the late 1930s, Alexei Tolstoy headed the Writers' Union of the USSR. And he also wrote the famous speech to Stalin in 1941, in which the Soviet leaders urged the people to turn to the experience of their great ancestors. And during the Great Patriotic War, Tolstoy headed the commission to investigate the crimes of the Nazis. And he did not live to see the Victory for only a few months. Alexey Tolstov died on February 23, 1945 from cancer.
During his life, Alexei Tolstoy was married four times. The first wife was Yulia Rozhanskaya. They were together from 1901 to 1907, however, the relationship was not officially legalized.
The second wife, Sofya Dymshits, was an artist and a Jew. They just lived together for a few years. But after the woman decided to change religion in order to legally get engaged to Tolstoy. From this marriage, the writer had a daughter, Maryana.
The most famous wife of Tolstoy was the poetess Natalya Krandievskaya. It was this woman who became the prototype of Katya Roshchina in the trilogy "Walking through the torments". From this marriage, Alexei Nikolaevich had two more children - Nikita and Dmitry.
And finally, the last wife of the writer was Lyudmila Krestinskaya-Barsheva. There were no children from this marriage.
Video about the life of Alexei Tolstoy:
Soviet literature
Biography
Tolstoy Alexey Nikolaevich (1883 - 1945), prose writer, poet.
Born on December 29 (January 10 NS) in the city of Nikolaevsk, Samara province, in the family of a landowner. He was raised by his stepfather A. Bostrom, a liberal and heir to the "sixties", to whom the mother of A. Tolstoy, an educated woman and not alien to writing, left. Childhood years were spent on the Sosnovka farm, which belonged to his stepfather.
He received his primary education at home under the guidance of a visiting teacher. In 1897 the family moved to Samara, where the future writer entered a real school. After graduating in 1901, he went to St. Petersburg to continue his education. Enters the department of mechanics of the Technological Institute. By this time, his first poems belong, not free from imitation of Nekrasov and Nadson.
In 1907, shortly before defending his diploma, he left the institute, deciding to devote himself to literary work. In 1908 he wrote a book of poems "Beyond the Blue Rivers" - the result of the first acquaintance with Russian folklore. The first prose experiments - "Magpie's Tales" also belong to this time.
Tolstoy's early work was influenced by M. Voloshin, who in those years was friendly with him. In 1909 he wrote the first story, A Week in Turgenev, which was later included in the book Zavolzhie. Then two novels were published - "Eccentrics" and "The Lame Master". Tolstoy's works attracted the attention of M. Gorky, who saw in him "... a writer, undoubtedly a major, strong ..." Critics also favorably assessed his first publications.
The First World War changes Tolstoy's plans. As a war correspondent from Russkiye Vedomosti, he is at the fronts, visited England and France. He wrote a number of essays and stories about the war (the stories "On the Mountain", 1915; "Under Water", "The Beautiful Lady", 1916). During the war years, he turned to drama - the comedy "Unclean Force" and "Killer Whale" (1916).
The events of the February Revolution aroused his interest in the problems of Russian statehood, which prompted him to study the history of Peter the Great. He devoted a lot of time to working with archives, trying to discover the true reality of that time, the images of Peter 1 and his entourage.
Tolstoy took the October Revolution with hostility. He continues to work - in 1918 a historical theme appears in his work (the stories "Delusion", "Peter's Day").
In the autumn of 1918, he moved with his family to Odessa, and from there to Paris. Become an immigrant. Tolstoy writes about his life during that period: “Life in exile was the most difficult period of my life. There I understood what it means to be a pariah, a person cut off from his homeland ... no one needs ... ”In 1920, the story“ Nikita's Childhood ”was written. In 1921, he “migrated” to Berlin and joined the Smenovekhov group “On the Eve” (the social and political movement of the Russian émigré intelligentsia, who abandoned the fight against Soviet power and switched to its de facto recognition). Former friends turned away from A. Tolstoy. In 1922, M. Gorky arrived in Berlin, with whom friendly relations were established. During the Berlin period, the following were written: the novel "Aelita", the novels "Black Friday" and "The Manuscript Found Under the Bed".
In 1923 Tolstoy returned to the USSR. Among the works written after the return, the trilogy "Walking through the torments" ("Sisters", "The Eighteenth Year", 1927-28; "Gloomy Morning", 1940-41) stands out above all. The story "Bread" (1937) thematically adjoins the trilogy.
Interesting, talented people gathered in the open hospitable house of A. Tolstoy - writers, actors, musicians.
A significant achievement of A. Tolstoy was his historical novel "Peter I", on which he worked for sixteen years.
During the Patriotic War, he often spoke with articles, essays, stories, the heroes of which were ordinary people who proved themselves in the difficult trials of the war. During the war years, he creates a dramatic duology "Ivan the Terrible" (1941 - 1943).
Used materials of the book: Russian writers and poets. Brief biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.
TOLSTOY Alexei Nikolayevich (December 29, 1882/January 10, 1883–February 23, 1945), Russian prose writer, publicist, playwright.
He was brought up on a farm near Samara in the house of his stepfather. He studied at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology and at the Art School. The first publications are poetry. Tolstoy's early prose is devoted to the disintegration of the landowner's estate ("Zavolzhye", 1910, the novels "Eccentrics", 1911, and "The Lame Master", 1912).
With the outbreak of World War I, as a war correspondent for Russkiye Vedomosti, he repeatedly traveled to the war zone, bringing essays and notes about the patriotism and courage of Russian soldiers from there. Tolstoy's literary tastes are changing; disillusioned with decadent art, he sharply condemns it for lifelessness and worthlessness.
Tolstoy enthusiastically accepts the February Revolution, but the October Revolution destroys his idyllic hopes: two of his brothers are killed, uncles are shot, several relatives die of hunger and disease. “Physically hating the Bolsheviks” as the perpetrators of the turmoil, Tolstoy already in 1918 moved through Odessa to France, then to Germany.
The writer will later call the emigrant years "the most difficult period of his life." Domestic disorder was aggravated by his incompatibility with the emigrant environment, which on the whole did not share his reckless faith in the Russian people. Overcoming the oppressive loneliness, the writer writes the stories “Nikita's Childhood” and “The Adventures of Nikita Roshchin” (1922) filled with memories of the past, and the fantastic story about the beautiful world of universal happiness and justice “Aelita” (1923).
In exile, the novel "Sisters" (1919−22), the 1st part of the future trilogy "Walking through the torments" was written.
In 1922, Tolstoy published an "Open Letter to N.V. Tchaikovsky", explaining to him the reasons for his break with the white emigration and recognizing the Soviet government as the only force capable of saving Russia. With the program of "strengthening our great power" in 1923, Tolstoy and his family returned to their homeland.
In subsequent years, along with numerous short stories and novellas, Tolstoy wrote the second and third books of "Walking Through the Torments" - "The Eighteenth Year" (1928) and "Gloomy Morning" (1941).
In the 1930s, along with the frankly unsuccessful "official" story "Bread" (1937) and the play "The Way to Victory" (1938), the writer wrote one of the best historical novels in Russian prose "Peter I" (1930-45, third part completed during the war years).
Tolstoy's journalistic gift is revealed with particular force during the years of the Great Patriotic War. He wrote over 60 patriotic articles (including the famous essay "Motherland", November 7, 1941), the front-line cycle "Stories of Ivan Sudarev" (1942−44), the dramatic trilogy "Ivan the Terrible".
Due to the writer's illness, the writer's plan about the heroism of the Russian people in the Great Patriotic War remained unfulfilled.
Tolstoy Alexei Nikolaevich (12/29/1882, Nikolaevsk, Samara province - 02/23/1945, Moscow), writer, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939), three times winner of the Stalin Prize (1941, 1943, 1946).
Officially considered the son of Count Tolstoy, but was born after his mother went to the neighboring landowner A. A. Bostrem, so the likelihood that he was the father of the writer is very high. According to a number of sources, it was Tolstoy who was the main author (together with the historian Shchegolev) of the falsification of Vyrubova's Diary - a vulgar and dirty forgery. In 1918, he went into exile. Abroad, he “did not take root” and could not live in a big way, as he used to in Russia. In 1921−22 he joined the Smenovekhites. In 1923 he returned to the USSR and in the same year published the utopia "Aelita". He stated that "the October Revolution gave me everything as an artist." In 1925-26 he wrote "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin", in 1941 - "Peter I", in 1920-1941 - "Walking through the torments". The book "Bread" published by him in 1937 glorified the defense of Tsaritsyn "under the wise leadership of Stalin." Of Tolstoy's children's books, The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio (1936), based on Italian fairy tales, received the greatest fame. Being a very talented writer, he enjoyed great popularity and was promoted in every possible way by the Soviet party press. He lived wonderfully as a great gentleman, having received from the authorities all the benefits that he wanted. He was nicknamed "Comrade Count". During the process of the falsified case of the "Parallel Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center" from beginning to end, together with A. A. Fadeev, P. A. Pavlenko and others, he signed a letter, which, among other things, said: "We demand merciless punishment for traitors selling their homeland . spies and assassins. As one of the few writers of world renown who lived in the USSR, he was used by propaganda to speak at international conferences. Since 1937 he has been a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. During the Great Patriotic War, he was a member of the Soviet commission to establish and investigate the atrocities of the Nazi invaders, which admitted that the Germans shot Polish officers in Katyn.
Tolstoy Alexei Nikolaevich (1883 -1945) - a famous poet and prose writer, born on December 29, according to the new style, on January 10. Place of birth - the city of Nikolaevsk, Samara province. A. Tolstoy's mother is a woman with a good education, reasonable and versed in writing. Alexei spent his childhood on the Sosnovka farm. He lived and was brought up by his mother and stepfather A. Bostrom.
He received his first education at home, and in 1897 the family went to Samara. There he decides to go to school. Now he has one single goal - to continue his education at the Institute of Technology. During this period, he writes his first own poems. In 1907, just before the defense of his diploma, he left the institute and plunged into the world of literature.
Tolstoy's friendship with M. Voloshin significantly affected his early work. Already in 1909, his first story, A Week in Turgenev, was published in the world, which was included in the book Zavolzhye. Later, two of his novels "Eccentrics" and "The Lame Master" were published. The criticism was so positive that he begins to make plans that were not destined to come true.
With the advent of the First World War, he was sent to the front. After he decides to continue his work in literature. In 1918, his work was replenished with historical themes (the stories "Delusion", "Peter's Day").
An important contribution of A. Tolstoy to literature is the historical novel "Peter I". The duration of his work on it was 16 years. During the Patriotic War, quite often he spoke with articles, stories in which ordinary people spoke. A dramatic dilogy "Ivan the Terrible" (1941-1943) is being created.
Contemporaries called Aleksei Nikolayevich Tolstoy the "Red Count", emphasizing the paradox of his biography: in 1917, the Bolsheviks got rid of the titles and their bearers, but Tolstoy managed the impossible. "Comrade Count" became the embodiment of a compromise: hating the Bolsheviks, he faithfully served the regime and managed to receive three Stalin Prizes.
The writer was born in January 1883 in the city of Nikolaevsk, Samara province. The childhood of the author of "Count Cagliostro" and "Walking Through the Torments" was spent on the estate of an impoverished landowner who served in the zemstvo council, Alexei Bostrom, on the Sosnovka farm near Samara.
Who was the genetic father of Alexei Tolstoy - they argue today. The mother of the writer Alexandra Leontievna Turgeneva ran away from her husband, a wealthy Samara landowner, officer of the Life Guards of the Hussars and Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Tolstoy, while pregnant. She went to Bostrom, leaving her husband three children. Biographers and contemporaries of Alexei Tolstoy called the father of the writer landowner Bostrom. Until the age of 13, the prose writer bore his surname and considered his own father. Alexandra Leontyevna never married Alexei Bostrom: the church did not allow her.
When Alyosha grew up, his mother began a 4-year lawsuit, wanting to return the title of count, surname and patronymic of her first husband to her son. The lawsuit ended on the 17th anniversary of Alexei Nikolaevich: in 1901 he became Count Tolstoy, not knowing the person whose patronymic and surname he got.
Love for literature and writing was instilled in Alexei Tolstoy by his mother, the great-niece of Nikolai Turgenev. She signed her writings - novels and children's books - with the pseudonym Alexander Bostrom.
The future author of The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin received his initial education at home. But in 1897 the family moved to Samara, where Tolstoy became a student at a real school. In 1901, the young man continued his education in St. Petersburg, entering the Faculty of Mechanics of the Technological Institute.
A collection of poems by Tolstoy "Lyric" was published in 1907. Critics noted in the early work of 24-year-old Alexei Tolstoy the influence of Semyon Nadson: the young writer imitated the masters. Later, Alexey Nikolayevich was ashamed of the authorship of the collection and tried not to think about poetry.
The first story "The Old Tower" appeared after a trip to the Urals, where the student was sent for practice. For a month and a half, Alexei Tolstoy lived in ancient Nevyansk, where he collected legends, historical information about the region and its sights, including the Nevyansk Leaning Tower.
In 1907, Alexei Nikolaevich left the institute and devoted himself to writing. According to Tolstoy, he "attacked on his theme", prompted by the stories of his mother and relatives: it was the outgoing world of the nobility, whose representatives the writer called "eccentrics, colorful and ridiculous."
The collection of novels and short stories Zavolzhie was received favorably by critics, including Aleksey Tolstoy, who was dissatisfied with the result, calling himself "an ignoramus and an amateur."
In his student years, under the influence of Alexei Remizov, Tolstoy set about improving the language. The richest material turned out to be ancient fairy tales, folklore, the writings of Habakkuk and judicial acts of the 17th century. Soon appeared "Magpie's Tales" and the second (last) collection of poetry "Beyond the Blue Rivers".
Alexei Tolstoy did not write more poetry. But stories, fairy tales, novels and novels were born in huge numbers - the writer worked tirelessly, surprising his colleagues with incredible performance. In 1911, he wrote the novel "Two Lives", the following year the novel "The Lame Master" appeared, then the story "For Style" and short stories. Tolstoy's plays were staged at the capital's Maly Theatre. At the same time, the writer managed to attend parties, opening days, salons and all theatrical premieres.
The First World War made Alexei Tolstoy a war correspondent: he wrote front-line essays for the Russkiye Vedomosti newspaper, visited France and Britain. In 1915-16, the stories "On the Mountain", "Under Water", "The Beautiful Lady" appeared. The writer also did not forget about dramaturgy - in 1916 the comedies "Unclean Force" and "Killer Whale" were released.
The revolutionary events of October 1917 Aleksey Tolstoy took with caution. In the summer of 1918, he moved his family to Odessa to escape the Bolsheviks. The story “Count Cagliostro” and the comedy “Love is a golden book” appeared in the southern city.
From Odessa, the Tolstoy family emigrated to Constantinople, then to Paris. The move did not affect the writer's work capacity: Alexei Tolstoy continued to work without straightening his back. In France, the story "Childhood of Nikita" and the first part of the trilogy "Walking through the torments" were born.
Life abroad seemed to the Russian writer dreary and uncomfortable. Accustomed to luxury and comfort, Count Tolstoy was burdened by the disorder of life. In the autumn of 1921, he moved his family to Berlin, where he stayed for two years. Relations between Alexei Nikolaevich and the emigrant world deteriorated.
At the end of the summer of 1923, Alexei Tolstoy returned to Soviet Russia forever. His return caused a stormy and ambiguous reaction: emigrant circles called the act a betrayal and showered curses on the "Soviet count". The Bolsheviks, however, accepted the writer with open arms: Tolstoy became a personal friend, a regular at the Kremlin receptions, received membership in the Academy of Sciences, and was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Aleksey Nikolayevich did not exactly accept it - he resigned himself to the new system, as if with inevitability. He was presented with an estate in Barvikha, they gave him a car with a driver.
Alexei Tolstoy finalized the trilogy "Walking Through the Torments" and presented dozens of essays to young readers. For children, he remade Carlo Collodi's fairy tale about the adventures of Pinocchio, calling his story "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio."
In 1924, a story was born, which literary critics consider the best work of Alexei Tolstoy - "The Adventures of Nevzorov, or Ibicus." The writer presented the world with fascinating fantastic works - the novels "Aelita" and "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin", the utopian story "Blue Cities". But readers accepted the fantastic writings of the “Comrade Count” with caution, and colleagues, Yuri Tynyanov, were skeptical. Only Maxim Gorky appreciated the new novels of the author, who predicted the glory of novels in the fantasy genre.
In 1937, Alexei Tolstoy wrote the story "Bread", in which he spoke about the outstanding role of Stalin in the defense of Tsaritsyn during the years of the civil war. But the main book on which the writer worked for the last 16 years of his life was the historical novel "". After reading the work, even Ivan Bunin, who did not like Tolstoy, became generous with praise.
The story of Alexei Tolstoy "Bread" During the Great Patriotic War, Alexei Tolstoy wrote the drama-dilogue "" and the story "Russian Character".
But there are works attributed to the pen of the "red count", from which he denied, not wanting to recognize authorship. This is an erotic story "Banya", which is called the first pornographic work of pre-revolutionary Russia. But they did not find confirmation that the story was written by Alexei Tolstoy: there were no traces of work left in the letters or drafts of the writer. Some critics suggest that Banya was written, but there are those who point to Nikolai Leskov.
Perhaps Alexey Nikolayevich was among the "suspects" due to a reasonable assumption about the authorship of another work, which also contains elements of pornography. This is Vyrubova's Diary, which appeared in 1927 - a vulgar libel written (presumably) by Alexei Tolstoy and Pavel Shchegolev on the order of the authorities in order to discredit the royal family.
The works of Alexei Tolstoy have been filmed. Some ("Lame master", "Walking through the torment") 3-4 times. The films "Formula of Love", "Peter the Great", "Peter's Youth", "Golden Key", "Aelita", "Engineer Garin's Hyperboloid" and "Nikita's Childhood" are based on the works of the "Soviet count".
The writer was called a ladies' man and a bon vivant. There were four marriages in the life of Alexei Tolstoy. The first is with Yulia Rozhanskaya, the daughter of a collegiate adviser. The writer met a girl in Samara, at a play rehearsal in an amateur theater. In 1901, after a summer spent together at the Rozhanskys' dacha, Tolstoy persuaded Yulia to leave for St. Petersburg, where she entered a medical institute. The following year the couple got married, and in January 1903 their son Yuri was born (he died in 1908).
During the revolutionary events, Alexei Tolstoy went to Germany, where he met the artist Sofya Dymshits. He officially separated from his first wife in 1910. Jewish Sophia converted to Orthodoxy and married Tolstoy. In 1911, a daughter, Marianna, was born.
Soon, the loving writer drew attention to the poetess Natalya Krandievsky and left his second wife. In 1914, Tolstoy and Krandievskaya got married, the marriage lasted until 1935. In union with Natalya Vasilyevna, who became the prototype of Katya from "Walking Through the Torments", the sons Nikita and Dmitry were born.
In August 1935, the beautiful secretary Lyudmila Krestinskaya-Barsheva came to the Tolstoy's house. In October, Lyudmila, who was strikingly younger than Alexei Nikolaevich, became his wife. Together they lived until the death of the writer.
In 1944, doctors diagnosed Alexei Tolstoy with a terrible diagnosis: rapidly progressing lung cancer. For six months the writer was tormented by hellish pains. He died in February 1945 in Moscow, not having lived to see the Victory.
They buried Alexei Tolstoy at the Novodevichy cemetery, declaring state mourning.
In October 1987, a museum was opened in the capital on Spiridonovka Street, where the writer and his wife Lyudmila lived in recent years.
Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on January 10, 1883 (December 29, 1882 - old style) in the family of Nikolai Alexandrovich Tolstoy and Alexandra Leontievna Turgeneva. True, in all the biographies of Tolstoy it is noted that it was not his own father who raised the boy, but his stepfather, Bostrom Alexei Apollonovich, whom Alexei Tolstoy's mother married. On the Sosnovka farm, which belonged to his stepfather, the childhood of the future writer passed. The boy was educated by a visiting teacher.
In 1897 the family of Alexei Tolstoy moved to Samara. There the young man entered the school, and upon graduation in 1901 he left for St. Petersburg to continue his education at the Institute of Technology.
In 1907, shortly before defending his diploma, Alexei suddenly decides to leave the institute in order to study literature. The attempt to write in 1905, when Tolstoy published several of his poems in a provincial newspaper, he considered a great success, so the decision to leave the institute was relatively easy for the future writer. In the same 1907, Tolstoy published a collection of poems "Lyrics", and in 1908 the magazine "Neva" also published the prose of the beginning writer Tolstoy - the story "The Old Tower".
In 1908, his second book of poems, Beyond the Blue Rivers, was published. Already in Moscow, where the writer moved in 1912, he began cooperation with Russkiye Vedomosti, where he published his prose of a small genre (mainly stories and essays) on an ongoing basis.
When the First World War began, Tolstoy decided to go to the front as a war correspondent. As a journalist during the war, the writer traveled to England and France.
The February Revolution aroused in Tolstoy a keen interest in the issues of Russian statehood. This event became a kind of impetus, after which the writer seriously engaged in the study of the Petrine era. He spent a long time studying historical archives, studying the history of Peter the Great and taking a keen interest in the fate of people from his inner circle. But Alexey Nikolaevich took the October Bolshevik coup very negatively.
In 1918, historical motifs appear in his prose. He writes the stories "Peter's Day" and "Obsession". Even in a brief biography of Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy, it is worth mentioning that later this passion for the time of Peter the Great, all the knowledge gained about this great era of change, will result in a wonderful historical novel "Peter the Great".
In the next two years, three more books by the author saw the light of day: the fantastic novel Aelita, the story Black Friday and The Manuscript Found Under the Bed. The author also returned to the science fiction genre in the book "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin".
But the real bestseller was the book "The Golden Key", which told about the exciting adventures of the wooden boy Pinocchio (it is recommended for extracurricular reading for 5th grade students, but the fairy tale is certainly suitable for elementary school). The fairy tale was written based on the book "Pinocchio" by the Italian author Carlo Collodi. While in exile, Tolstoy began to work on the trilogy "Walking through the torments", which would become the most important work in the writer's life.
After emigration, old friends turned away from Tolstoy, but in Berlin, in 1922, he made a new friend - Maxim Gorky, whom he met when the latter came to Germany. A year later, in 1923, Alexei Nikolaevich decided to return to his homeland. Here he continued to work on the trilogy "Walking through the torments" ("Sisters", "The Eighteenth Year", "Gloomy Sky"). Thematically, the trilogy adjoins the story "Bread", written in 1937, which is considered the most unsuccessful work. In it, he distorted the historical truth, falsely described the personality of Stalin and the events of the bloody and hungry time. Because of this hypocritical propaganda, historical truth, moral traditions, and the very work of the writer could not but suffer.
Tolstoy as a citizen and Tolstoy as an artist are two different people. Of course, he saw how his acquaintances and friends were dying from Stalinist repressions, but he never provided any help to anyone, although he was close to Stalin and favored by the authorities. He simply ignored requests for help.Show rating
Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy is a man with an amazing destiny. Being a descendant of a noble noble family, he built a career in the Soviet Union, returning from emigration. In his later works, the reader will find the exaltation of Stalin, which, with the light hand of a talented author, has acquired the scale of a personality cult. How was his "going through the torments"? Why did he choose this path for himself?
Alexey was born on January 10, 1883 in Nikolaevsk (Samara province). His parents were influential and wealthy nobles. My father held the honorary post of marshal of the nobility and was a representative of the ancient Tolstoy family. However, relations in the family did not go well: his mother left her husband immediately after the birth of her son and cohabited with A.A. Bostrom. The boy lived on his estate and was raised by an educated and intelligent mother, but the family drama worried him very much and did not let go throughout his life. In 1898 they moved to Samara, where the future writer graduated from college.
Petersburg followed Samara, where the young man studied at a technical specialty (department of mechanics). A trip to the Urals (1905) ignited the young man's imagination, he composed poems that were published in the Kazan newspaper Volzhsky Leaf in 1906. Recognition in the literary field inspired Alexei to quit his studies and take up writing. He leaves for Paris.
A year later, he publishes the first collection of lyrical poems. A year later, the book “Beyond the Blue Rivers” was published, but the author was still in search. He found his "I" only in prose, writing "Magpie's Tales". Further, Alexei Tolstoy begins to work closely with publishing houses, where his stories are published with great willingness. Then a collection of short prose "Zavolzhye" and two novels "Eccentrics" and "The Lame Master" appear. The novice writer is praised by the recognized master of the word - M. Gorky, and with him other critics. Alexei Nikolaevich gets a job at Russkiye Vedomosti and becomes a war correspondent in the First World War.
The writer condemned the revolution, as did most of the representatives of his class. He moves to Paris with his family. Being in the midst of the raging waves of history, he is fascinated by the past of his country and works on historical works. From 1918 to 1923, he rushes between Berlin and Paris, where various emigrant circles with the opposite ideology are formed. He chooses "On the Eve", where all members are more loyal to communism than the Paris Writers' Union. According to him, several years in a foreign land is the darkest period in his life. In exile, the novel "Aelita" and the novels "Black Friday", "The Manuscript Found Under the Bed", "Nikita's Childhood" were written.
Thanks to the preserved friendship with M. Gorky, Tolstoy finds an opportunity to return to his homeland. He is working on the trilogy "Walking Through the Torments" and the novel "Black Gold", writes the famous "Pinocchio". In his prose, one can trace the desire to find folk roots in Bolshevism. He sees the highest truth in the new ideology and wants to convey it to the entire opposition-minded intelligentsia, to which he recently counted himself. In 1932, he met Gorky personally and became his closest associate. Two years later, he is already preparing the All-Union Congress of Writers, and three more years later he becomes a deputy of the Supreme Council. In the same year, he wrote the story "Bread", which became the basis for the exaltation of Stalin's personality in the popular mind. There he gives the revolutionary events an ideologically correct interpretation.
The author was captivated by the idea of a strong state ruler, only in him he saw salvation for his country. Therefore, he continues to work on the historical novel "Peter the Great", and for the script of the film about him he receives the Order of Lenin. In 1939, Tolstoy received the title of Academician of Sciences, and in 1943 - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and a prize of 100,000 rubles for the trilogy "Walking Through the Torments".
In 1944, a tumor was found in Alexei Tolstoy's lung. After being diagnosed, he lived less than a year and died in February 1945, just a little short of the Great Victory. During the war he wrote many essays, short stories and articles. He also paid special attention to the personality of another strong monarch in Russian history - Ivan the Terrible, devoting a dilogy to him.
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