"Who am I and how shall I live". Presidential Library marking the anniversary of Leo Tolstoy

"A society man, an officer, a landowner, an amiable compositeur, a teacher, a writer! He had a background of enormous, varied experience of life, efforts of thought, intentions, many different feelings! It all may explain his truth and his mistakes", - writes the novelist and playwright Nikolai Timkovsky in the book "The Soul of Leo Tolstoy" (1913), which digital copy is available on the Presidential Library's portal. - "His experience is more enlightening thanks to Tolstoy's feature - to face the problems decidedly and solve them until the end ... Tolstoy gives no rest, worries, bothers, his truth hurts".

September 9, 2020, marks the 192nd anniversary of Leo Tolstoy, one of the most famous Russian writers and philosophers, a participant in the Siege of Sevastopol, publicist, educator. The electronic collection "Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)" includes the major works by Tolstoy "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina". It also features rare books about the writer, allowing comprehending his main contradictions and the ways of spiritual search: "Leo Tolstoy and the Russian Church" (1912) by the religious philosopher Vasily Rozanov, "Leo Tolstoy as a Philosopher" (1914) by sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, "Conversations with Leo Tolstoy" (1911) by journalist, regular interviewer of Tolstoy Sergei Spiro, "The Writing School by Count Leo Tolstoy" (1903) by the writer Fyodor Tishchenko and others.

He was the fourth son in the family of the count's branch of the Tolstoy family (his mother was nee Princess Volkonskaya). He was brought up by Russian nannies, German teachers and French governors. Even as a child, he spoke fluent French, good German and "polished" English. Only a few people understood what a gifted child he was. He thought a lot, spent hours studying and playing the music of Bach, Mozart, Chopin, re-reading his favourite books. Leo Tolstoy later reminded: "I read all Rousseau, all twenty volumes ... I more than admired him, I idolized him. At the age of 16, I wore a medallion with his portrait instead of a cross on my neck", - these words of the writer are cited in the book by Ivanov-Razumnik "Leo Tolstoy" (1910).

The main business of his life, which overcame all other talents, was writing. "Childhood", "Boyhood", "Youth" immediately attracted the attention of sophisticated readers. "Having completed his trilogy as a young man, Tolstoy was honoured as Turgenev, Goncharov, Ostrovsky", states Sergei Spiro in his memoirs "Conversations with Leo Tolstoy".

However, the real glory came after the appearance of "Sevastopol Stories". In Crimea, Tolstoy was utterly amazed by the nonsense and cruelty of the war. This was the first astonishing truth about the war in literature.

"Before Tolstoy, battles and fights had a romantic flair in Russian literature", wrote Ivanov-Razumnik in the book "Leo Tolstoy". "Even the great realist Pushkin in his "Journey to Arzrum" gave a romantic picture of the war. However, he never saw a real war. The great artist had to get to the besieged Sevastopol to understand what war is and describe it with amazing realism". Later, already in "War and Peace", Tolstoy could develop the theme and show that war was "... meaningless, accidental death, evil suffering, mutilation, wounds, cruelty, death".

Sources of the Presidential Library's collection provide an opportunity to consider the great writer in another, no less important hypostasis. By the very nature of his analytical mind, which called in question everything, Tolstoy was a rebel. It is obvious in his publications, which caused a great resonance of readers, strong social and political tension. So, for example, everyone knows the article "I Can't Be Silent!" - about the terror of the counter-revolution, the death penalty of the participants in the events of 1905. Count Tolstoy, who carefully studied all the versions of the Gospel, noticed the deepest disagreement between the essence of Orthodox teaching and church practice. Religious philosopher Vasily Rozanov in the study "Leo Tolstoy and the Russian Church" (1912) notes with a kind of bitterness: "They did not understand each other; they even were not acquainted. And they parted. On the one hand, it led to damnation (Tolstoy's greater excommunication, with its response in society), on the other hand, it caused the complete neglection - (Tolstoy's attitude to the Church). Sofya Andreevna replied to me about Tolstoy's reaction to his excommunication that he "was going to take a constitutional when they brought letters and newspapers from the post office. Tolstoy opened the parcel and read in the very first newspaper about the Synod's decree on his excommunication. After reading, he put on a hat - and went for a walk. He expressed nothing".

"People knew about Tolstoy from the clergy: he depicted balls, races, amusements, hunting, battles - everything far from spiritual subjects", writes Rozanov. "And the clergy did not know at all, and if was acknowledged, did not recognise that huge, exciting and complex spiritual world perceived by Tolstoy. Our clergy does not know literature, it is not mental developed: doubts, worries, moral sufferings of Levin... Prince Andrei Bolkonsky ... Nekhlyudov - it all did not exist for them. They understood it as "nonsense and games of the noble soul", idle, without work and no serious duty".

"He knew the Gospel - indeed", writes Rozanov and continues: "He saw the darkness and greed of the clergy... He saw... the fulsome flattery in relations with the rich people, on whom it was economically dependent; and indifference to the moral state of the people". <…> Tolstoy was angry and worried about these faults of the clergy. And his worries ... were expressed in a blaming of the magnificence of Russian church services... "

"There is no doubt that Leo Tolstoy is a great artist", writes sociologist Pitirim Sorokin in his book "Leo Tolstoy as a Philosopher" (1914), which digital copy is available on the Presidential Library's portal, - "but Tolstoy as a great thinker and, in particular, a philosopher, this is in doubt. "You feel a lot of disappointment", writes professor Isaev, - "when you closely follow the philosophy and journalism of Tolstoy. First of all, numerous contradictions are striking. <...> Tolstoy's striving to be eccentric, his irrepressible inclination to paradoxes, etc., affects the reader". Isaev's opinion is the harsh sentence of an inclement judge... "

However, Sorokin considers this sentence to be unfair and proves that "Tolstoy is a great philosopher". "Who am I and how shall I live", - writes Leo Tolstoy in "False Sciences", immediately putting forward two main problems of philosophy. All of Tolstoy's activity is nothing more than a solution to these questions. A solution not through scientific analysis and the use of terms such as "transcendental", "imminent", "phenomenal", "noumenal", etc., but through a philosophical, universal synthesis... ", - notes Pitirim Sorokin in the mentioned study "Leo Tolstoy as a Philosopher".

“To live honestly, you have to struggle, get confused, fight, make mistakes, start and give up, and always fight and be denied. And calmness is a spiritual trick", wrote Leo Tolstoy to his beloved aunt Countess Alexandra Andreyevna Tolstaya. This statement says a lot about the contradictions and, at the same time, the rare integrity of the writer's nature, the ups and downs of his powerful personality, who spread the spiritual influence to several generations of readers in Russia and abroad.