Tolstoy, Nikolai Nikolaevich

Count Nikolai Nikolayevich Tolstoy (June 21 ( July 3 ) 1823 , Yasnaya Polyana , September 20 ( October 2 ) 1860 , Hyeres , near Nice ) - Russian writer, officer, participant in the war in the Caucasus. The elder brother of Leo Tolstoy .

In 1839 he entered the Faculty of Mathematics of Moscow University, then after moving to Kazan in 1844 he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of Kazan University. In 1846, after an exam in the artillery department of the military training committee in early 1846, N. Tolstoy was sent to the Caucasus to the 20th artillery brigade, whose parking lot was the village of Starogladovskaya of the Kizlyar district of the Terek region .

N. N. Tolstoy served in the Caucasus for a total of 12 years, participated in the battles more than once, and was awarded the orders of St. for courage and courage . Anne of the 4th degree and St. 3rd degree Anna with a bow. In 1858, Mr .. retired with the rank of staff captain . He lived in Moscow in his own small house, and in his own estate in Nikolsky-Vyazemsky, Chernsky district, Tula province.

It was Nikolai Tolstoy who told the younger brothers, among whom was Leo Tolstoy: “that he has a secret, through which, when it is revealed, all people will be happy, there will be no illnesses, no troubles, no one will be angry with anyone and everyone will to love each other ... The main secret ... was, as he told us, written on a green stick , and this stick was buried by the road, on the edge of the ravine of the Old Order ... ” ^[1] .

In a letter to A. A. Fet on May 16, 1858, Leo Tolstoy writes that the home nickname of Nikolai Tolstoy is “ Firdousi ” by the name of a Persian poet.

The estate of Nikolai Tolstoy was located 20 kilometers from Spassky I.S. Turgenev , the neighbor was also the famous poet A.A. Fet , on whose estate Nikolai Nikolayevich Tolstoy and Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev often visited Novoselki. They played chess, talked about hunting and hunting, read novels. I. S. Turgenev wrote to Pauline Viardot : “An adorable, small, lazy, phlegmatic, unresponsive and at the same time very kind, with a very gentle and delicate taste and feelings, a truly original person.”

Tatyana Andreevna Kuzminskaya in her memoirs writes about Nikolai Tolstoy: “He was short, broad-shouldered, with expressive deep eyes. This winter, he had just arrived from the Caucasus and wore a military uniform. This wonderful man in his intelligence and modesty left me with the best impressions of my childhood. How much poetry I learned from his improvised fairy tales. It happened that he would sit down with his feet in the corner of the sofa, and we, the children around him, would start a long tale or compose something for presentation, give us roles and play with us. ”

In 1857, the debut cycle of Nikolai Tolstoy's “Hunting in the Caucasus” appeared in N.A. Nekrasov ’s journal Sovremennik (No. 2), a colorful description of the Caucasian nature and way of life of people, which, among other things, is interesting as a document characterizing the situation and the environment, which the Tolstoy brothers lived. Lev Nikolayevich in his diaries and letters, often mentions the great influence of the versatile mind and literary talent of his older brother.

Criticism was noted by expressive characters, among which were especially vivid - Uncle Epishka and hunter-officer Mamonov. In a letter to I. S. Turgenev dated April 22, 1857, N. A. Nekrasov wrote about Nikolai Tolstoy's essays: “He accomplished the task that the author set for himself masterfully and, moreover, found himself a poet. The poetry here in place and in passing pops up by itself ... the talent for observation and description, in my opinion, is huge - the figure of the old Cossack is at first a little touched, but, importantly, not shredded, love is visible to nature itself and the bird, and not a description of both . This is a good thing ... " ^[2]

Leo Tolstoy, recalling his elder brother, wrote: “... The qualities of the writer, which he had, above all, had a fine artistic flair, an extreme sense of proportion, good-natured, cheerful humor ... a highly moral worldview - and all this without the slightest complacency ... ". ^[3] Nikolai Tolstoy to some extent served as the prototype of Nikolai Levin in Anna Karenina .

In 1926, the journal Krasnaya Nov (No. 5 and No. 7) published an adventure, vivid story by Nikolai Tolstoy - “ Plastun ”. This story is remarkable for the fact that it was written in the genre of adventure art, which was almost not typical of the then Russian literature.

In 1927 in the collection “Hunting Heart” were published - “Hunting Notes”, essays “Spring Fields” and “Hare”.

Shortly before his death, in a letter to his brother Leo, Nikolai Nikolayevich reports that "he is engaged in translating the Bible into Russian and is very seriously engaged." Two draft manuscripts of this translation have been preserved in his archive.

In one of the rooms of the Tolstoy’s house in Khamovniki there was a plaster bust of Nikolai Tolstoy, the same bust was located in the office of Leo Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana during his lifetime. ^[four]

N.N. Tolstoy was buried in Hyeres at a city cemetery located in the small Paradis valley. Leo Tolstoy in 1860 acquired a place in the city hall at the cemetery. This is confirmed by the fact that when in 1882 the city cemetery was abolished and transferred to the "Ritorte", where it is still located, the remains of N. N. Tolstoy were transferred there.