Alexey Tolstoy biography briefly for children. Brief biography of Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy

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 Tolstoy's biographies 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.

The beginning of literary activity

In 1907, shortly before defending his diploma, Alexei suddenly decides to leave the institute in order to study literature. He considered his attempt at writing in 1905, when Tolstoy published several of his poems in a provincial newspaper, 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.

Years of emigration

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 fascinating 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.

Return to the USSR

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

Count Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Born December 29, 1882 (January 10, 1883) in Nikolaevsk, Samara province - died February 23, 1945 in Moscow. Russian and Soviet writer, public figure from the Tolstoy family. Laureate of three Stalin Prizes of the first degree (1941, 1943; 1946 - posthumously).

Alexei Tolstoy was born on December 29, 1882 (January 10, 1883 according to the new style) in Nikolaevsk, Samara province.

Father - Count Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tolstoy (1849-1900), a representative of the middle branch of the Tolstoy count family, Samara district marshal of the nobility.

At the same time, a number of researchers believe that the father could be the so-called. unofficial stepfather - Alexei Apollonovich Bostrom (1852-1921). So, Roman Gul in his memoirs cites the version that Alexei Tolstoy was the biological son of A.A. Bostrom, referring in confirmation to the other sons of the count, who, according to the version he cited, had a negative attitude towards him, since he participated in the division of his father's inheritance. At the same time, the historian Aleksey Varlaamov provides very convincing evidence that Gul's testimony is just one of the versions, caused in addition by the memoirist's negative attitude towards A.N. Tolstoy, and in fact Alexey Nikolaevich had the right to a surname, patronymic and title.

Note that Alexey was brought up separately from other children of Nikolai Alexandrovich Tolstoy and until the age of 13 he bore the surname Bostrom.

Mother - Alexandra Leontievna (1854-1906), nee Turgeneva, writer, great-niece of the Decembrist Nikolai Turgenev. By the time Alexei Tolstoy was born, she left her husband for A.A. Bostrom, whom she could not officially marry because of the definition of a spiritual consistory.

Sister - Elizabeth (Lilya; 1874-1940s), in the 1st marriage of Rachmaninov, in the 2nd marriage of Konasevich; in 1898 she published the novel Lida; after the revolution she lived in Belgrade.

Sister - Praskovya (1876-1881).

Brother - Alexander (1878-1918), in 1916-1917. Vilnius governor.

Brother - Mstislav (1880-1949), agronomist, St. Petersburg vice-governor.

Alexei's childhood years were spent in a small farmstead on the estate of A. A. Bostrom on the Sosnovka farm, not far from Samara (at present, the village of Pavlovka in the Krasnoarmeisky district).

In 1897-1898 he lived with his mother in the city of Syzran, where he studied at a real school. In 1898 he moved to Samara.

In the spring of 1905, as a student at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, Alexei Tolstoy was sent to work in the Urals, where he lived in Nevyansk for more than a month. Later, in the book “The Best Journeys in the Middle Urals: Facts, Legends, Traditions”, Tolstoy dedicated his very first story “The Old Tower” to the Nevyansk Leaning Tower.

During the First World War he was a war correspondent. In 1916 he traveled to France and England.

After the October Revolution, Alexei Tolstoy was in exile, where he stayed in 1918-1923. His habitats were Constantinople, Berlin and Paris. He reflected his impressions of emigration in the 1924 satirical story The Adventures of Nevzorov, or Ibikus.

From the pen of Alexei Tolstoy came a number of works that have become classics of Russian literature - even despite the fact that some of them contain an ideological component that reflects the views of his era. But the skill with which he created his works, the depth of images and the original form of presenting the material, his own style - all this introduced Alexei Tolstoy into the pantheon of great Russian writers.

In 1927 he took part in the collective novel "Big Fires", published in the magazine "Spark".

In trilogy "The Road to Calvary"(1922-1941), he was able to present Bolshevism as a phenomenon that has a national and popular soil, and the revolution of 1917 as the highest truth comprehended by the Russian intelligentsia.

Unfinished historical novel "Peter I"(books 1-3, 1929-1945) - perhaps the most famous example of this genre in Soviet literature, contains an apology for a strong and cruel reformist government.

Novels of Tolstoy "Aelita"(1922-1923) and "Hyperboloid engineer Garin"(1925-1927) became classics of Soviet science fiction.

Tale of 1937 "Bread", dedicated to the defense of Tsaritsyn during the years of the civil war, is interesting in that it tells in a fascinating artistic form the vision of the civil war in Russia that existed in the circle and his associates and served as the basis for the creation of the Stalinist cult of personality. At the same time, the story pays detailed attention to the description of the warring parties, the life and psychology of people of that time.

Among other significant works: the story "Russian character" (1944), drama - "Conspiracy of the Empress" (1925), about the decay of the tsarist regime; Vyrubova's Diary (1927). Folk legend ascribes to him (albeit without any convincing justification) the authorship of the anonymous pornographic story "Bath".

At the First Congress of Writers (1934) he made a report on dramaturgy. As a member of the Writers' Union in 1936, he took part in the so-called persecution of the writer Leonid Dobychin - which may have led to the latter's suicide.

In the 1930s he regularly traveled abroad (Germany, Italy - 1932, Germany, France, England - 1935, Czechoslovakia - 1935, England - 1937, France, Spain - 1937).

Member of the First (1935) and Second (1937) Congresses of Writers in Defense of Culture.

In August 1933, as part of a group of writers, he visited the open White Sea-Baltic Canal and became one of the authors of the memorable book The White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Stalin (1934). In 1936-1938, after his death, he headed the Writers' Union of the USSR on a temporary basis.

In 1939 he became an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Since 1937 - Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st convocation.

Member of the Commission for the Investigation of the Atrocities of the Fascist Occupiers. He was present at the "Krasnodar process". One of the actual co-authors of Stalin's famous address of 1941, in which the Soviet leader called on the people to turn to the experience of great ancestors: “Let the courageous image of our great ancestors inspire you in this war - Alexander Nevsky, Dimitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin, Dimitry Pozharsky, Alexander Suvorov, Mikhail Kutuzov! (Stalin's speech at the Red Army parade on November 7, 1941).

During the war years, Alexei Tolstoy wrote about 60 publicistic materials (essays, articles, appeals, sketches about heroes, military operations) - starting from the first days of the war (June 27, 1941 - “What we are defending”) and until his death at the end of winter 1945. The most famous work of Alexei Tolstoy about the war is the essay "Motherland".

Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy died on February 23, 1945, at the age of 63, from lung cancer.

He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (plot No. 2). In connection with his death, state mourning was declared.

Laureate of three Stalin Prizes:

1941 - Stalin Prize of the first degree for parts 1-2 of the novel "Peter I".

1943 - Stalin Prize of the first degree for the novel "Walking through the torments" (transferred to the Defense Fund for the construction of the Grozny tank).

1946 - Stalin Prize of the first degree for the play "Ivan the Terrible" (posthumously).

In November 1959, in the writer's homeland - in the city of Pugachev, Saratov Region - a monument to A.N. Tolstoy by S.D. Merkurov. This square now also bears the name of Alexei Tolstoy.

In 1965, one of the streets of the city of Pushkin, not far from the luxurious estate of the writer (on Moscow Street / Tserkovnaya Street, 8), where he lived and worked in 1928-1938, was renamed Alexei Tolstoy Boulevard.

Since 1983, the name of A.N. Tolstoy is worn by the Syzran Drama Theatre.

In 2006-2007, the project 588 motor ship Nikolai Gastello received a new name, Alexei Tolstoy, in honor of the writer.

Established in 2001 All-Russian Prize named after A. N. Tolstoy. Status - awarded once every two years to authors of prose, journalistic works for their creative contribution to the development of Russian literature. The founders are the Union of Writers of Russia, the administration of the city of Syzran, the Interregional Literary Center of V. Shukshin. Awarded in the following categories: "Great Prose"; "Small prose (novels and short stories)"; "Publicism". It is awarded in Syzran during a solemn event dedicated to this event, in one of the city's cultural institutions.

Red Count Alexei Tolstoy

Personal life of Alexei Tolstoy:

Was married four times.

First wife- Yulia Vasilievna Rozhanskaya (1881-1943). They were together in the period 1901-1907 (officially divorced in 1910). She became the prototype of Galya, the heroine of the story "Life". The couple had a son, Yuri, who died in infancy (01/13/1903 - 05/11/1908).

For the first time, Tolstoy saw Yulia Rozhanskaya, the daughter of collegiate adviser Vasily Mikhailovich Rozhansky, at a rehearsal of an amateur drama theater in Samara, where he studied at a local real school. They spent the summer of 1901 together at the Rozhanskys' dacha in the village of Khvolyn, Saratov province. After graduating from a real school, Tolstoy decided to enter the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology and persuaded Yulia to go with him to St. Petersburg. On his advice, in the same year she entered the St. Petersburg Women's Medical Institute.

A marriage proposal soon followed, and on June 3, 1902, a wedding took place in Turgenevo. And already in January 1903, the son Yuri was born, who was sent to Samara, to her parents for care.

During the revolutionary events, Tolstoy decided to go to Germany - to his fellow student at the institute A. Chumakov. There he hoped to continue his studies at the Royal Saxon Higher School of Technology. In Dresden, Tolstoy met the aspiring artist Sofya Isakovna Dymshits. The divorce followed only in 1910, and in the same year Yulia Vasilievna married a wealthy metropolitan merchant Nikolai Ivanovich Smolenkov, who was 16 years older than her and had an adult son. In 1919, she left for Riga with her husband and stepson, where she died in 1943. She was buried at the Pokrovsky cemetery.

Second wife- Sofia (Sarah) Isaakovna Dymshits (1884-1963), artist. Born on April 23, 1884 in St. Petersburg, in a large family of a merchant of the Jewish faith. They met in 1906, Tolstoy was a classmate of her brother. Sophia's parents strongly opposed his visits (the writer was married). But in the spring of 1907, Tolstoy proposes to Sophia. After several years of cohabitation with Tolstoy, she converted to Orthodoxy in order to legally marry him.

The couple had a daughter, Maryana (Marianna) (1911-1988), she was married to E.A. Shilovsky.

Their relationship ended in 1914.

In 1921, Sophia married a German architect, communist Herman Pessati (Guermain Pessati) and gave birth to his son Alexander. In 1925-1935, Dymshits-Tolstaya was in charge of the art department of the magazine "Worker and Peasant Woman".

Sofya Dymshits - the second wife of Alexei Tolstoy

Third wife- Natalya Vasilievna Krandievskaya (1888-1963), poetess and memoirist. She became the prototype of Katya Roshchina from the novel "Walking through the torments".

Natalya Krandievskaya was born into a literary family. Her mother, Anastasia Romanovna Tarkhova, was a well-known writer at the beginning of the 20th century, close to the Chekhovian direction. Father - Vasily Afanasyevich Krandievsky - was a publisher and journalist who, together with S. A. Skyrmunt, published the publicistic almanac "Bulletins of Literature and Life" (from the beginning of the 1910s until the closing in 1918). She started writing poetry early. Her works were published in magazines, as well as in collections of 1913 and 1919, and received positive reviews from Bunin, Balmont and Blok and Sofia Parnok.

In 1907-1914 she was married to attorney at law Fyodor Akimovich Volkenshtein. Their son is the physical chemist Fedor Fedorovich Volkenstein (1908-1985).

Returning with Alexei Tolstoy from emigration, Krandievsky-Tolstaya completely departed from literature. After parting with Tolstoy, she returned to poetry and did not leave it until the end of her life. Krandievskaya's later poems, including those from the blockade, were published in the 1970s.

They lived in marriage in the period 1914-1935. The couple had sons Nikita and Dmitry.

Son (adoptive, from Krandievsky's first marriage) - Fedor Volkenstein (1908-1985).

Son Nikita (1917-1994), physicist, the story "Nikita's Childhood" is dedicated to him, was married to Natalya Mikhailovna Lozinskaya (daughter of the translator M. Lozinsky), seven children (including Tatyana Tolstaya), fourteen grandchildren (including Artemy Lebedev ).

Son Dmitry (1923-2003), a composer, was married three times, had a child from each marriage, including the famous pancreatic surgeon Professor A. D. Tolstoy.

fourth wife- Lyudmila Ilyinichna Krestinskaya-Barsheva (01/17/1906 - 1982) .. She came to Tolstoy's house in August 1935 as a secretary. Soon they began an affair. In October 1935 they got married and were together until the death of the writer.

Some places near Moscow are associated with the name of A. N. Tolstoy: he visited the House of Creativity of Writers in Maleevka (now the Ruzsky district), in the late 1930s he visited Maxim Gorky at his dacha in Gorki (now the Odintsovo district), together with Gorky visited in 1932 the Bolshevo labor commune (now the territory of the city of Korolev).

For a long time he lived in a dacha in Barvikha (now the Odintsovo district). In 1942, he wrote his military stories there: “Mother and Daughter”, “Katya”, “Stories of Ivan Sudarev”. In the same place, he began the third book of the novel "Walking through the torments", and at the end of 1943 he worked on the third part of the novel "Peter I".

Novels by Alexei Tolstoy:

1912 - Lame master
1923 - Aelita
1924 - The Adventures of Nevzorov, or Ibicus
1927 - Hyperboloid engineer Garin
1931 - Emigrants
The Road to Calvary. Trilogy:
Book 1 "Sisters" (1922);
Book 2 "Year 18" (1928);
Book 3 Gloomy Morning (1941)
Peter the Great
Freaks

Novels and stories by Alexei Tolstoy:

Old Tower (1908)
Arkhip (1909)
Cockerel (A Week in Turenev) (1910)
Matchmaking (1910)
Mishuka Nalymov (Zavolzhye) (1910)
Actress (Two Friends) (1910)
Dreamer (Aggey Korovin) (1910)
Wrong Step (A Tale of a Conscientious Peasant) (1911)
Khariton's gold (1911)
The Adventures of Rastegin (1913)
Love (1916)
Fair Lady (1916)
Ordinary Man (1917)
Peter's Day (1918)
Simple Soul (1919)
Four centuries (1920)
In Paris (1921)
Count Cagliostro (1921)
Childhood of Nikita (1922)
Tale of the Time of Troubles (1922)
Seven days in which the world was robbed, also called "Union of Five" (1924)
Vasily Suchkov (1927)
Seasoned Man (1927)
High Society Bandits (1927)
Frosty Night (1928)
Viper (1928)
Bread (Defense of Tsaritsyn) (1937)
Ivan the Terrible (The Eagle and the Eaglet, 1942; Difficult Years, 1943)
Russian character (1944)
Strange Story (1944)
ancient path
Black Friday
On the island of Halki
The manuscript found under the bed
In the snow
Mirage
Murder of Antoine Rivaud
On a fishing trip

Plays by Alexei Tolstoy:

"Journey to the North Pole" (1900)
"On the Hedgehog, or Punished Curiosity" (1900s)
"The Devil's Masquerade, or the Cunning of Apollo" (1900s)
"A Fly in the Coffee (Gossip That Ends Badly)" (1900s)
"Duel" (1900s)
"Dangerous Way, or Hecate" (1900s)
"Lifebuoy to Aestheticism" (1900s)
"The Sorcerer's Daughter and the Enchanted Prince" (1908)
"Accidental Luck" (1911)
"Day of Ryapolovsky" (1912)
"Rapists" ("Lazy", 1912)
"Young Writer" (1913)
"Cuckoo's Tears" (1913)
"Battle Day" (1914)
"Unclean Power" (1916, 2nd edition 1942)
"Orca" (1916)
"Rocket" (1916)
Obscurantists (1917 - under the title "Bitter Color"
"Love is a golden book" (1918, 2nd edition - 1940)
"The Death of Danton" (1919, adaptation of the play by G. Buchner)
"Riot of the Machines" (1924, adaptation of the play "RUR" by K. Capek)
"Conspiracy of the Empress" (1925, jointly with P. E. Shchegolev)
"Azef" (1925, jointly with P. E. Shchegolev)
"Pauline Goble" (1925, jointly with P. E. Shchegolev)
"Miracles in a sieve..." (1926)
"On the Rack" (1929, later partially revised into the play "Peter I")
“It will be” (1931, jointly with P. S. Sukhotin)
Orango (1932, opera libretto by D. D. Shostakovich, jointly with A. O. Starchakov)
"Patent No. 117" (1933, jointly with A. O. Starchakov)
"Peter I" (reworking of the earlier play "On the Rack")
"Road to Victory" (1938)
The Devil's Bridge (1938; the second act of the play was later reworked into the play The Fuhrer)
"The Golden Key" (arrangements of the story "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio", 1938)
The Fuhrer (1941, based on the second act of the play The Devil's Bridge)
"Ivan the Terrible" - dilogy:
"The Eagle and the Eaglet" (1942)
"Difficult Years" (1943)

Tales of Alexei Tolstoy:

Mermaid Tales:
Host (1909)
Polevik (1909)
Mermaid (Restless Heart, 1910)
Ivan da Marya (1910)
Witcher (1910)
Water (1910)
Kikimora (1910)
Wild Chicken (1910)
Ivan Tsarevich and Alaya-Alitsa (1910)
Straw Groom (1910)
Wanderer and Serpent (1910)
Cursed Tithing (1910)
Animal King (1910)
Tit (1918)
Forty tales:
Camel (1909)
Pot (Little Feuilleton, 1909)
Magpie (1909)
Painting (1909)
Mouse (1909)
Goat (1909)
Hedgehog (Hedgehog-hero, 1909)
Fox (1910)
Hare (1909)
Cat Vaska (1910)
Owl and Cat (1910)
Sage (1909)
Goose (1910)
Crayfish Wedding (1910)
Portochki (1910)
Ant (1910)
Petushki (1910)
Merin (1910)
Chicken God (1910)
Masha and mice (1910)
Lynx, Man and Bear (1910)
Giant (1910)
Bear and goblin (1910)
Bashkiria (1910)
Silver pipe (1910)
Humble Husband (1910)
Bogatyr Sidor (1910)
Fairy tales and stories for children:
Polkan (1909)
Ax (1909)
Sparrow (1911)
Firebird (1911)
Gluttonous Shoe (1911)
Snow House (1911)
Fofka (1918)
Sour Mouth Cat (1924)
As if nothing had happened (1925)
The Story of Captain Hatteras, Mitya Strelnikov, the Hooligan Vaska Taburetkin, and the Evil Cat Ham (1928)
The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio (1936)

Screen versions of Alexei Tolstoy:

1915 - Lame master
1920 - Lame master
1924 - Aelita
1928 - Lame master
1937-1938 - Peter the Great
1939 - Golden Key
1957 - Going through the throes: Sisters (1 episode)
1958 - Going through the throes: 1918 (series 2)
1958 - The Adventures of Pinocchio (cartoon)
1959 - Going through the throes: Gloomy morning (series 3)
1965 - Engineer Garin's hyperboloid
1965 - Viper
1971 - Aktorka
1973 - The collapse of engineer Garin
1975 - The Adventures of Pinocchio ("The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio")
1977 - Going through the throes
1980 - Youth of Peter
1980 - At the beginning of glorious deeds
1980 - Aelita (Hungary)
1982 - Adventures of Count Nevzorov
1984 - Formula of Love ("Count Cagliostro")
1986 - Antics in the old spirit
1992 - Nikita's childhood
1992 - Beautiful stranger
1996 - Dear friend of long forgotten years
1997 - The latest adventures of Pinocchio
2002 - Zheltukhin
2017 -

Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy - Russian writer, poet and playwright. Count Alexei was born on August 24 (according to Yul.kal-ryu) on September 5, 1817 in St. Petersburg in the family of Count Konstantin Tolstoy and the pupil of Count Alexei Razumovsky Anna Perovskaya. Tolstoy died on September 28 (Yul.kal-ryu) on October 10, 1875 in the village of Krasny Rog (Chernigov province).

Biography

Immediately after the birth of her son, Anna left her husband. The father of little Alyosha was replaced by his maternal uncle, the famous writer Alexei Alekseevich Perovsky (real name Anton Pogorelsky). It was he who instilled in his nephew a love of books and literature, encouraging the boy's creative impulses.

The writer spent his early years in the Chernihiv province, namely in the village of Pogoreltsy. It then appeared more than once in the works of Tolstoy, at the mention of childhood. Perovsky brings his sister and nephew to St. Petersburg. In the northern capital, the future playwright meets with Pushkin, Zhukovsky and other writers of that time, with whom his uncle has friendly ties. Alexei shows interest in literature, sneaking into meetings of famous poets and writers, listening to the conversations of adults. A little later, Tolstoy meets the future Russian Emperor Alexander II. The boys find a common language and become good friends, maintaining friendships for life.

(K.P. Bryullov. "Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy in his youth")

In 1827, the uncle arranges for the family a trip to Germany, where Alexei Tolstoy meets Goethe and even receives a gift from the great writer, who then keeps for many years as a valuable trophy. In 1831, Perovsky shows the boy Italy, this country fascinates Tolstoy so much that he calls it "paradise lost" and for a long time is sad when he arrives at home.

The playwright receives education at home, and in 1834 enters the Moscow Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The service takes a little time from the young man, but it develops his interest in history. The young man is actively engaged in creativity, simultaneously studying literature. He actively writes his own poems, reflecting on various topics. In the future, his works will be appreciated by Zhukovsky and Pushkin. After completing his studies, Tolstoy gets a place in Germany and lives there for some time, traveling around Italy and France along the way.

But Alexei did not stay abroad for long, in 1839 he received the title of collegiate secretary and was assigned to St. Petersburg in the department of the imperial office. An ambitious man successfully moves up the career ladder, receiving new titles. During these years, Tolstoy travels a lot, leads an active social life, attends parties and meets women.

In 1850, the writer met Sophia Miller and fell in love, but officially married her only thirteen years later in 1863. After his resignation in 1861, Tolstoy lives in an estate near St. Petersburg and in the village of Krasny Rog.

In 1875, Alexei, who was taking morphine as a cure for headaches, went too far with the dosage. It was a large dose of the drug that caused the death of the writer, who was known among the people as one of the most powerful people of that time.

Creation

Tolstoy's first works ("The Family of the Ghoul" and "Meeting in Three Hundred Years") were in French, written while living in Germany. Later they were also available for the Russian audience. The first book is published in 1841 and has the title “Ghoul”, when writing it, the writer refers to memories, especially to the time spent in the company of the future heir to the throne.

During his service from 1842 to 1846, Tolstoy seeks himself in poetry, releasing the poem "Serebryanka" in the newspaper, and also tries his hand at prose, writes essays. In 1847, Alexei Konstantinovich began to create Russian ballads, even planning to write a novel about princely life.

After his official resignation, he delves more and more into literature, becoming the author of satirical works, the historical novel “Prince Silver”, the dramaturgical trilogy “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” and the psychological novella in poetic form “In the midst of a noisy ball, by chance ...”.

Throughout his life, Alexei Tolstoy creates many biting works that tell about modern life, so most of the satirical creations that ridicule power and political principles were published posthumously.

Years of life: from 12/29/1882 to 02/23/1945

Well-known Russian, and after the Soviet writer, playwright, publicist, public figure, count, academician. In the USSR, he was considered one of the main "official" writers. After himself, he left an extensive creative legacy in a variety of genres.

Born in the city of Nikolaevsk (now - Pugachev) of the Samara province. Mother A.N. Tolstoy, being pregnant, left her husband for her lover - Alexei Apollonovich Bostrom, a landowner and an employee of the Zemstvo Council. The childhood of the writer passed in his estate Sosnovka. A.N. Tolstoy's stepfather was his father and until the age of 13 bore his last name, and the final recognition of Tostoy's right to the title occurred only in 1901. He received his initial education, as was the custom of that time, at home, and in 1897 the family moved to Samara, where the future writer entered a real school. After graduating in 1901, he went to St. Petersburg, where he entered the department of mechanics of the Technological Institute. By this time, his first poems, published in 1907 in the form of a collection, belong. In the same year, the writer leaves the institute without defending his diploma, deciding to devote himself to literary work.

Since that time, A.N. Tolstoy works hard and hard. Fame comes to the writer in 1910-1911 after the publication of novels and short stories, which later compiled the book "Trans-Volga". Before the First World War, Tolstoy wrote many stories, novels, plays, poems, fairy tales, he was a regular at literary evenings, salons, and theatrical premieres. After the start of the war, AN. Tolstoy worked as a war correspondent, wrote a number of essays and stories about the war. He took the October Revolution with hostility. In 1918 Tolstoy left for Odessa, and then through Turkey to Paris. However, life in exile did not go well, Tolstoy experienced financial difficulties, could not get along with the emigrant environment (for his cooperation in the newspaper Nakanune, Tolstoy was expelled from the emigrant Union of Russian Writers and Journalists). Moving to Berlin in 1921 did not improve the situation, and in 1923 A.N. Tolstoy decides to return to the USSR.

The writer was received well and immediately began to work fruitfully. During this period, his most famous fantastic works ("Aelita", "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin") were published. At the same time, in the work of A.N. Tolstoy, ideological moments play an increasingly important role, and in the 1930s. By direct order of the authorities, Alexei Tolstoy wrote the first work about Stalin - the story "Bread (Defense of Tsaritsyn)" (published in 1937). In the 30s A.N. Tolstoy begins to actively develop the theme of the reign of Peter I, which has long interested him, and releases the first two parts of the epic novel Peter I. The authorities treated the writer very well, he became a personal friend of Stalin, had two luxurious dachas, several cars, A.N. Tolstoy was awarded numerous orders, prizes, was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, a full member of the Academy of Sciences. During the Great Patriotic War A.N. Tolstoy often acts as a publicist, continuing work on the third book of the novel Peter I. In 1944, the writer was diagnosed with a malignant lung tumor. The disease progressed rapidly, delivering A.N. Tolstoy was truly infernal torment, and on February 23, 1945, the writer died.

Information about the works of the author:

A.N. Tolstoy was married four times (official and unofficial) and became the father of four children.

In 1944 A.N. Tolstoy actively participated in the work of a special commission headed by academician N. N. Burdenko, which came to the conclusion that the Polish officers in Katyn were shot by the Germans.

Writer's Awards

1938 - Order of Lenin
1939 - Order of the Badge of Honor
1941 - for 1-2 parts of the novel "Peter I".
1943 - Order of the Red Banner of Labor
1943 - Stalin Prize of the first degree for the novel "Walking through the torments".
1946 - Stalin Prize of the first degree for the play "Ivan the Terrible" (posthumously).

Bibliography

Cycles of works

Zavolzhye (1909-1910)
(1909-1910)
(1910-1918)
Stories by Ivan Sudarev (1942-1944)

Tale

Dreamer (Aggey Korovin) (1910)
Wrong Step (A Tale of a Conscientious Peasant) (1911)
The Adventures of Rastegin (1913)
Big Trouble (1914)

Count and Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy was an extremely talented and versatile writer who wrote in a variety of genres and directions. In his arsenal are two collections of poems, processing of fairy tales, scripts, a huge number of plays, journalism and other articles. But above all, he is a great prose writer and master of fascinating stories. He would have been awarded the State Prize of the USSR (in 1941, 1943 and already posthumously in 1946). The writer's biography contains interesting facts from the life of Tolstoy. About them further and will be discussed.

Tolstoy: life and work

December 29, 1882 (according to the old January 10, 1883) in Nikolaevsk (Pugachevsk), Alexey Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born. When his mother was pregnant, she left her husband N. A. Tolstoy and moved to live with the zemstvo employee A. A. Bostrom.

Alyosha spent all his childhood on the estate of his stepfather in the village of Sosnovka, Samara province. These were the happiest years for a child who grew up very strong and cheerful. Then Tolstoy graduated from the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, but did not defend his diploma (1907).

From 1905 to 1908 he began to publish poetry and prose. Fame came to the writer after the stories and novellas of the "Trans-Volga" cycle (1909-1911), the novels "Eccentrics" (1911) and "The Lame Master" (1912). Here he described anecdotal and extraordinary incidents that happened to the eccentric landowners of his native Samara province.

World War I

Interesting facts from the life of Tolstoy indicate that he worked in the First World War. And then he reacted with great enthusiasm to the writer at that time he lived in Moscow. At the time of the socialist revolution, Tolstoy was appointed commissar for the registration of the press. From 1917 to 1918, the entire apolitical writer displayed depression and anxiety.

After the revolution, from 1918 to 1923, Alexei Tolstoy spent his life in exile. In 1918 he went to Ukraine on a literary tour, and in 1919 he was evacuated from Odessa to Istanbul.

Emigration

Returning to the topic “Tolstoy: life and work”, it should be noted that for a couple of years he lived in Paris, then in 1921 he moved to Berlin, where he began to establish old ties with writers who remained in Russia. As a result, without taking root abroad, during the NEP period (1923), he returned back to his homeland. His life abroad bore fruit, and his autobiographical work "Nikita's Childhood" (1920-1922), "Walking through the torments" - the first edition (1921), saw the light, by the way, in 1922 he announced that this there will be a trilogy. Over time, the anti-Bolshevik direction of the novel was corrected, the writer was inclined to remake his works, often hesitating between the poles due to the political situation in the USSR. The writer never forgot about his "sins" - noble origin and emigration, but he understood that he had a wide circle of readers right now, in Soviet times.

New creative period

Upon arrival in Russia, the novel "Aelita" (1922-1923) of the science fiction genre was published. It tells how a soldier of the Red Army arranges a revolution on Mars, but everything did not go the way he wanted. A little later, the second novel of the same genre, The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (1925-1926), was published, which the author remade many times. In 1925, the fantastic story "The Union of Five" appeared. Tolstoy, by the way, in these of his predicted many technical miracles, for example, space flights, catching cosmic voices, laser, "parachute brake", fission of the atomic nucleus, etc.

From 1924 to 1925, Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy created a novel of the satirical genre "The Adventures of Nevzorov, or Ibikus", which describes the adventures of an adventurer. Obviously, this is where the image of Ostap Bender was born from Ilf and Petrov.

As early as 1937, Tolstoy was writing a story about Stalin "Bread" by state order, where the outstanding role of the leader of the proletariat and Voroshilov is clearly visible in the events described.

One of the best children's stories in world literature was the story of A. N. Tolstoy "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio" (1935). The writer very successfully and thoroughly remade the fairy tale "Pinocchio" by the Italian writer Carlo Collodi.

Between 1930 and 1934, Tolstoy created two books about Peter the Great and his time. Here the writer gives his assessment of that era and the concept of the king's reforms. He wrote his third book, Peter the Great, already being mortally ill.

During the Great Patriotic War, Alexei Nikolaevich wrote many journalistic articles and stories. Among them are "Russian character", "Ivan the Terrible", etc.

contradictions

The personality of the writer Alexei Tolstoy is rather controversial, as, in principle, his work. In the Soviet Union, he was the second most important writer after Maxim Gorky. Tolstoy was a symbol of how people from the highest nobility became real Soviet patriots. He never particularly complained about the need and always lived like a gentleman, because he never stopped working on his typewriter and was always in demand.

Interesting facts from Tolstoy's life include the fact that he could fuss about arrested or disgraced acquaintances, but he could also evade this. He was married four times. N. V. Krandievskaya, one of his wives, in some way served as a prototype for the heroines of the novel “Walking Through the Torments”.

Patriot

Alexey Nikolaevich liked to write in a realistic manner using true facts, but he also created fantastic fiction superbly. He was loved, he was the soul of any society, but there were those who showed a contemptuous attitude towards the writer. These included A. Akhmatova, M. Bulgakov, O. Mandelstam (from the latter Tolstoy even received a slap in the face).

Alexei Tolstoy was a real national Russian writer, patriot and statesman, he most often wrote on foreign material and at the same time did not want to learn foreign languages ​​​​for a better feeling of his native Russian language.

After from 1936 to 1938 he headed the Writers' Union of the USSR. After the war, he was a member of the commission to investigate the crimes of the fascist invaders.

It should be noted that the years of Tolstoy's life fell on the period from 1883 to 1945. He died on February 23, 1945 from cancer at the age of 62 and was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.