Spiritual problems of creativity of A.K. Tolstoy

Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy was born on September 5 (August 24, old style) 1817 in St. Petersburg. His father came from an ancient and famous family Tolstoy (Leo Tolstoy is Alexei’s second cousin on this line). After the birth of their son, the couple separated; his mother took him to Little Russia to live with her brother A.A. Perovsky, known in literature under the name of Anthony Pogorelsky. Here, on the Pogoreltsy and Krasny Rog estates, Tolstoy spent his childhood. His uncle was involved in raising the future poet; he encouraged his artistic inclinations in every possible way and composed specially for him famous fairy tale"Black chicken, or Underground inhabitants».
In 1826 the boy was transported to St. Petersburg. Through Zhukovsky, he was introduced to the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II, and was among the children who came to the Tsarevich on Sundays for games (later the most warm relations). Perovsky regularly traveled abroad with his nephew, introducing him to the sights there, and once introduced him to Goethe. Until his death in 1836, his uncle remained the main adviser in the pupil’s literary experiments. He also showed the young man’s works to Zhukovsky and Pushkin, with whom he was on friendly terms, and there is evidence that they were approved. Perovsky bequeathed his entire rather significant fortune to his nephew.
Having received a good home training In 1834, Tolstoy became one of the so-called “archive youths” attached to the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1835 he passed the exam for rank at Moscow University. In 1837-1840 was registered with the Russian diplomatic mission in Frankfurt am Main, but very soon after his appointment he obtained leave and spent the time partly in Russia, partly on new trips abroad. Returning to St. Petersburg, from 1840 he was registered with the II Department of the Imperial Chancellery. In 1843 he received the court rank of chamber cadet, in 1851 - master of ceremonies.
In the 1840s. Tolstoy led a brilliant life socialite, allowing himself risky jokes and pranks, which he got away with thanks to the patronage of the crown prince. However, it is then that his serious literary activity. First publication fantastic story“The Ghoul” (1841, under the pseudonym Krasnorogsky) was noted by Belinsky.
Since 1854, poems by Kozma Prutkov have appeared in Sovremennik. This mask of a stupid and narcissistic bureaucrat was invented in the early 50s. Tolstoy and his cousins Alexey, Alexander and Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov. At the same time, Tolstoy began to publish his lyric poems. At the end of the 50s. he collaborates in the Slavophile “Russian Conversation”, then in the “Russian Messenger” and “Bulletin of Europe”.
In the winter of 1850–1851, Tolstoy met Sofya Andreevna Miller, the wife of a Horse Guards colonel, at a ball. A whirlwind romance began, marked by her imminent departure from her husband. The husband, however, did not give a divorce for a long time; Tolstoy’s mother also sharply objected to this affair. Therefore, Tolstoy’s marriage to Sofia Andreevna was concluded only in 1863. Almost all of his love lyrics addressed specifically to her including the poem “In the midst of a noisy ball, by chance” dedicated to their first meeting.
In 1855, during Crimean War, Tolstoy tries to organize a special voluntary militia, but he fails, and he becomes one of the hunters of the so-called “ rifle regiment Imperial family." He never has to take part in hostilities, but he almost dies from severe typhus.
In 1856, on the day of the coronation of Alexander II, Tolstoy was appointed aide-de-camp. Soon, due to reluctance to stay in military service, was appointed Jägermeister (chief of the royal huntsmen).
Tolstoy's official career was successful; at the same time, he knew how to maintain internal independence, follow own principles. It was Tolstoy who helped free him from exile in Central Asia and from the military service of Taras Shevchenko; did everything to ensure that Turgenev was released from exile for his obituary in memory of Gogol. They say that when Alexander II once asked Alexei Konstantinovich: “What is happening in Russian literature?”, he replied: “Russian literature has put on mourning over the unjust condemnation of Chernyshevsky.”
However, the career of a courtier and politician was not to Tolstoy's liking. Overcoming the resistance of people concerned about his future (in particular, the emperor himself), in 1859 he achieved an indefinite leave, and in 1861, complete resignation (this everyday collision was expressed in the poem “John of Damascus”). Now he lives for the most part abroad, in the summer at various resorts, in the winter in Italy and Southern France, but also spends a long time on his Russian estates - Pustynka (near St. Petersburg) and Krasny Rog. Engaged almost exclusively literary creativity. At the same time, he paid little attention to the economy, and gradually went bankrupt.
Published in 1861 dramatic poem"Don Juan". Published in 1863 historical novel"Prince Silver". The novel was not received by critics, but soon became one of the exemplary classic books for children's and youth reading.
Then a historical trilogy appears - the tragedies “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” (1866), “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” (1868), “Tsar Boris” (1870). Its main theme is the tragedy of power.
Tolstoy translates Byron, Chenier, Goethe, Heine, and Scottish poets into Russian, and Russian writers into German.
In 1867, the first (and last lifetime) collection of Tolstoy's poems was published, summing up more than 20 years of creative work.
In the last decade of his life, Tolstoy wrote and published historical ballads and epics. They are largely related to the traditions of oral folk art, although they are by no means stylizations. Here the poet unfolds his concept of Russian history: in place of liberties, universal consent and openness Kievan Rus and Veliky Novgorod come servility, tyranny and national isolation of Muscovite Russia. Epics are filled with topical content (“Snake Tugarin”), and sometimes turn into satire on completely specific phenomena modernity (“Stream-hero”).
Tolstoy's satirical poems enjoyed great success. Among the warring political and literary factions of the era of reforms, the poet tried to maintain independence, which he repeatedly stated (“Not a fighter of two camps, but only a random guest”). He aimed his satirical arrows at nihilists (“Sometimes Merry May”), and at the liberalizing administrative order (“Popov’s Dream”), and even at Russian history itself (“History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev”).
The last work Tolstoy became a drama from the ancient Novgorod history “Posadnik”. Work on it began immediately after the end of the trilogy, but the author did not have time to complete it. Tolstoy died on October 10 (September 28, old style) 1875 in his estate Krasny Rog from an overdose of morphine, which he used to relieve suffering from asthma and neuralgia with severe headaches. He was buried near the village church. Later, Sofya Andreevna bequeathed to bury herself there.
Tolstoy's poetry found due recognition only after his death, when it was appreciated by symbolist poets. He received wide, including European, recognition thanks to the dramatic trilogy.

Korovin V. L.

He was born in St. Petersburg on August 24 (September 5), 1817 from a short marriage of representatives of two noble families - the Tolstoys and the Razumovskys.

Father, Count Konstantin Petrovich Tolstoy, brother of the famous artist Fyodor Tolstoy, gave him count's title(Lev Tolstoy was the poet’s second cousin on this line), and his mother, Anna Alekseevna Perovskaya, and her relatives had a significant fortune (she was the illegitimate daughter of Count Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky, the son of the latter Ukrainian Hetman, and received the surname from his village of Perovo near Moscow).

Almost immediately after the birth of their son, the parents separated. The mother took the six-week-old baby to Little Russia to her brother Alexei Alekseevich Perovsky (1787–1836), a later famous writer (he became famous as the author of fantastic stories under the pseudonym Antony Pogorelsky). On his estate Pogoreltsy Chernigov province The first childhood years of the future poet passed. The uncle, who replaced the child’s father, worked a lot and diligently on his upbringing, encouraging his artistic inclinations in every possible way, and, by the way, especially for him, he composed the famous fairy tale “The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants” (1829). The tale had a moral and spoke of the modesty befitting a gifted boy.

In 1826, Tolstoy was presented to the court and chosen as a playmate for the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II. In the summer of 1827, ten-year-old Tolstoy visited Germany with his uncle and mother, visiting, in particular, Weimar, and played on the lap of Goethe himself. In St. Petersburg, where they settled after returning from abroad, he also found himself surrounded by writers, friends of Perovsky (in his house, young Tolstoy often saw A.S. Pushkin, A.A. Delvig, V.A. Zhukovsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, I.A. Krylov, etc.).

1831 - again with his uncle and mother - Tolstoy traveled around Italy, visiting Venice, Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples. “...In each of these cities,” he later recalled, “my enthusiasm and love for art grew in me, so that upon returning to Russia I fell into real “homesickness,” into some kind of despair, as a result of which I day I didn’t want to eat anything, and at night I cried when my dreams carried me to my lost paradise.” This journey is described in Tolstoy's diary for 1831 - his first to survive literary experience, publ. in 1905; his guides and interlocutors in Italy were S.A. Sobolevsky, a friend of Pushkin, S.P. Shevyrev, who was a teacher for the children of Princess Z.A. Volkonskaya, and the painter K.P. Bryullov, who later, in 1836, would write portrait of Tolstoy - with a gun and a dog.

In 1834, Tolstoy was enrolled as a “student” in the Moscow archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 1835 at Moscow University he passed the exam for rank (passed the exams “from the subjects that make up the course of the Faculty of Literature, to receive an academic certificate for the right of officials of the first category "). An attempt to immediately resign in order to engage exclusively in art met with opposition from Perovsky, and, in order not to upset his beloved uncle, Tolstoy reconciled himself and continued to be listed in the archive. In July 1836, the childless Perovsky died in the arms of his nephew, leaving him a huge fortune - more than three thousand souls in the Chernigov province (the mother took over the management of the estates, so the heir had no more worries).

At the beginning of 1837, Tolstoy was assigned to the Russian diplomatic mission in Frankfurt am Main, but almost immediately secured leave and spent two years traveling around Germany, Italy and France (and, by the way, met Gogol several times, then busy writing " Dead souls"). Two fantasy stories written in French date back to this time: “La famille du vurdalak” (“The Family of the Ghoul,” published 1884) and “Le rendez-vous dans trois cent ans” (“Meeting after three hundred years,” published 1912 ).

In 1840, upon returning to St. Petersburg, Tolstoy was promoted to collegiate secretaries and moved as a “junior official” to the II department of the imperial chancellery, which was involved in compiling various laws and decrees, and in 1843 he became a chamber cadet, i.e. He also had court duties. The service did not occupy him much, however, thanks to influential relatives, he quickly rose in rank (titular councilor, 1842; collegiate assessor, 1845; court councilor, 1846; collegiate councilor, 1852) and court ranks (master of ceremonies, 1851).

In the 1840s. Tolstoy led the life of a secular man. His literary studies were not systematic and were of a distinctly amateurish nature. He did not publish any poems at that time, although they were written in abundance; only one poem - “A pine forest stands in a lonely country...” - appeared without a signature in 1843. The reason for this was probably not only the modesty of the author, but also the indifference of the public to poetry in those years, and the prose works he published over the decade can be counted on one hand. The most significant is the fantastic story “The Ghoul” (1841), which appeared under the signature “Krasnogorsky” and earned the approval of V.G. Belinsky (this was Tolstoy’s literary debut). The result of a trip to the Orenburg province in 1841 (where his other uncle, V.A. Perovsky, was the governor) was the small hunting essays “Two Days in the Kyrgyz Steppe” (1842) and “The Wolf’s Adopted Child” (1843). A tribute to the style of fashionable writers " natural school", who were keen on recreating the "types" of Russian public life, became the essay “Artemy Filippovich Bervenkovsky” (1845) - about an eccentric landowner-inventor. The most original story from the time of the Roman Christian martyrs is “Amena” (1846), which appeared with the subtitle “An excerpt from the novel “Steblovsky”” (there is no information about the novel itself).

In metropolitan society, Tolstoy had a reputation as a joker and prankster, sharing it with his Zhemchuzhnikov cousins - Alexander, Alexei and Vladimir. In collaboration with Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov, Tolstoy composed a parody vaudeville "Fantasy", which failed with a scandal on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater in January 1851. Emperor Nicholas I regarded the vaudeville as stupid joke, and the magazines unanimously scolded him. Only Apollo Grigoriev, with his characteristic sensitivity, understood the intention of the authors hiding behind the initials Y and Z: “Here only what is brought to the point of absurdity and presented in the overall picture is what is found in parts in each of the successful vaudevilles. Parody of Messrs. Y and Z could not succeed because the hour of the fall of the works they parodied had not yet come.”

Later, “Fantasy” was included in the works of Kozma Prutkov. The parody “mask” of this thoughtful writer and official of the Assay Office was formed precisely in 1851 through the joint efforts of Tolstoy and Alexei and Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov. Kozma Prutkov’s “Leisures” first appeared in the Sovremennik magazine in 1854, and his “ Complete collection works" was compiled by Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov already in 1884. In the works of Kozma Prutkov, Tolstoy contains about a dozen poems and many aphorisms, however, he did not foresee the future glory of the collective brainchild and did not take this comic production seriously. Of Tolstoy’s later humorous works, which appeared under his own name, the most significant are “The History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev” (1868; published 1883) and “Popov’s Dream” (1873; published 1878).

In the winter of 1850/1851. Tolstoy began an affair with Sofia Andreevna Miller, the wife of a Horse Guards colonel. Soon she left her husband, and from that moment the poet’s entire subsequent life was connected with her. Thanks to his position at court and friendship with the heir to the throne, a dubious connection with married woman had no unpleasant consequences for him, however, Sofia Andreevna’s husband did not give her a divorce for a long time, and her marriage to Tolstoy was concluded only in 1863. All his love lyrics, starting from 1851, were addressed exclusively to her (including those dedicated to their first meeting, the romance “Among a noisy ball, by chance...”, 1851, published 1856).

During the Crimean War, Tolstoy volunteered to join the army. In the summer of 1854, he formed a detachment to repel the proposed English landing on the Baltic coast. In March 1855 he was enrolled in rifle regiment company commander with the rank of major. After military training in December 1855 he joined the regiment near Odessa, but did not have time to take part in the hostilities, as he soon fell ill with typhus. He recovered from his illness only in the summer of 1856, when the war ended. That same summer, with Sofia Andreevna, he made a trip to Crimea, as a result of which the poetic cycle “ Crimean essays"(published 1856–1859).

In August 1856, the coronation of Alexander II took place, and Tolstoy was appointed aide-de-camp. Soon, due to his reluctance to remain in military service, he became a Jägermeister (chief of the royal huntsmen). New Emperor repeatedly tried to elevate his childhood friend and attract him to government activities(in particular, in the fall of 1856, Tolstoy was appointed clerk at the " Secret Committee about schismatics"), but the poet had absolutely no ambitions as a politician, much less as an official. In addition, he was experiencing a creative surge and had already fully realized his calling.

In the 1850s written by the vast majority lyric poems Tolstoy. In 1854–1856 they were regularly published on the pages of Nekrasov’s Sovremennik. Previously an unknown poet, Tolstoy gained recognition in literary circles, especially among Slavophiles: already in his first published poems - “My Bells...”, “You know the land where everything breathes abundantly...”, “Oh, haystacks, haystacks... " - the theme of unity was read Slavic world. A.S. Khomyakov, K.S. Aksakov, I.S. Aksakov found in his poems the Russian “mindset” and “Russian forms” (they especially liked the stylizations of folk songs, such as, for example, “Arrogance walks, puffing up ...", 1856).

Having parted ways with N.A. Nekrasov and his Sovremennik, who accepted more and more radical direction Since 1857, Tolstoy began to submit new poems to the “Russian Conversation”, published by I.S. Aksakov. His first poems appeared here: “The Sinner” (1858) and “John of Damascus” (1859). The latter contained autobiographical motives. Tolstoy repeatedly asked to be dismissed from service, but met resistance from people who sincerely loved him and wished him well, incl. the emperor himself. So in his poem, John of Damascus, “beloved by the caliph,” surrounded by “honor and affection,” asks to be released “to freedom”:

O sir, listen! my san,

Majesty, splendor, power and strength,

Everything is unbearable to me, everything is disgusting.

I am attracted by another calling,

I cannot rule the people:

I was born simple to be a singer,

Glorify God with a free verb!

In a crowd of nobles there is always one,

I am full of torment and boredom;

Among the feasts, at the head of the squads

I hear different sounds;

Their irresistible call

It attracts me more and more -

Oh, let me go, Caliph,

Let me breathe and sing in freedom!

In the same 1859, Tolstoy finally achieved an indefinite leave, and in 1861 - complete resignation. From that moment, with the exception of trips abroad (France and England, summer 1860; Germany, autumn 1862 - spring 1863; Italy, December 1863; Germany, summer 1864 and January 1868), he spends almost all his time in his two estates - Pustynka under St. Petersburg and Krasny Rog in the Chernigov province. In the lively literary and public discussions 1860s he practically does not participate, except for a few satirical poems with poisonous attacks against the “nihilists”: “The Bogatyr Stream”, “Sometimes Merry May...”, both 1871, etc. Most of the public of that time considered Tolstoy a supporter of “art for art’s sake”, which was not entirely reasonable. He was simply convinced that “the purpose of a poet is not to bring people any direct benefit or benefit, but to elevate them.” moral level, instilling in them a love of beauty.”

In a situation acute conflict between Slavophiles and Westerners, liberals and revolutionaries, “fathers” and “sons”, among the magazine “parties” mortally warring with each other, Tolstoy tried to maintain independence and generosity towards the enemy. He clearly outlined his position - and not without challenge - in the poem “Not a fighter of two camps, but only an accidental guest...” (1858, published 1867):

Two stans is not a fighter, but only a random guest,

For the truth I would be glad to raise my good sword,

But the dispute with both is hitherto my secret lot,

And no one could bring me to the oath;

There will not be a complete union between us -

Not bought by anyone, under whose banner I would stand,

I can’t bear the biased jealousy of my friends,

I would defend the enemy's banner with honor!

However, Tolstoy was not an indifferent contemplator of social unrest and his not the most “advanced” - by the standards of the 1860s. – he didn’t hide his glances. His increased interest to Russian history, especially to the era of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov, was dictated by the desire to comprehend not only the past, but also the present of Russia and guess its future.

Despite his independence (or perhaps thanks to it), Tolstoy had the opportunity to publish in various magazines, and his literary fate was generally prosperous. In 1862, M.N. Katkov’s magazine “Russian Messenger,” which had a reputation as an extremely conservative publication, published the dramatic poem “Don Juan” and the historical novel “Prince Silver,” conceived in the late 1840s. In 1867, the first (and only during his lifetime) collection of Tolstoy's poems was published. But real glory historical tragedies brought him - his main and, it seemed, not very timely work in the 1860s. “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” (1866) was published in “Notes of the Fatherland”, “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” (1868) and “Tsar Boris” (1870) were published in “Bulletin of Europe”. Almost immediately they were staged (with the exception of “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich,” which, however, would later be destined for a brilliant stage fate) and received European recognition (at the premiere of “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” in Weimar in 1868, Tolstoy was personally present; the translation into German was carried out by Karolina Pavlova with the participation of the author).

After completing the “dramatic trilogy,” Tolstoy turned to the lyric-epic genres. In 1869–1875 most of his ballads and poems “Dragon” (1874) and “Portrait” (1875) were written.

His last work was historical drama"Posadnik", the action of which takes place in Veliky Novgorod in the 13th century. Work on it began immediately after the end of the dramatic trilogy in 1870, but the poet did not have time to complete it (three of the four acts were completed; the last is known in the retelling of D.N. Tsertelev).

On September 28 (October 10), 1875, Tolstoy died at the age of 48 in Krasny Rog from an overdose of morphine, which he used to relieve suffering from asthma, angina pectoris and neuralgia with severe headaches. He was buried there, together with Sofia Andreevna, who briefly survived him, in a crypt near the Assumption Church.

He made his debut in literature in 1842 with several stories in prose. From 1855, his lyrical and epic poems began to appear in various magazines, later in Vestnik Evropy and Russian Vestnik.

In the host of Russian poets who wrote on their banner service to pure art, Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, as “a singer who held a banner in the name of beauty,” occupies an outstanding place. “In the name of beauty,” obeying only the voice of inner inspiration, alien to the crowd and its petty everyday interests, he composed his songs, which flowed “as a melodious river endlessly.” The poet, independent of the opinion of the mob, is at the same time captive over his song. “The song is neither his praise nor his judgment; he is not free over it. She is like a river in flood, strong, like a dewy night, beneficial, warm, like a fragrant spring in May, like the sun, welcoming, like a storm, menacing, like a cruel death, undefeated. creative forces In creating such songs, the poet achieved personal inner peace and carried out his humanitarian mission, enlightening people and raising them to the highest moral level with the miraculous influence of pure beauty.

Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. Portrait by I. Repin, 1896

Tolstoy, of course, was far from understanding beauty in its exclusively external, formal meaning. For him, she was, first of all, a powerful spiritual force of life, full of deep content and meaning. He was ready to respond equally to every phenomenon and event that fell into the area of his thought and artistic contemplation. Tolstoy's poetry is inclined to forgiveness, and if we look for a reflection of the poet's moral and philosophical worldview in it, we will find it precisely in the feeling of Christian love, which permeates many of his poems. Exhausted under the burden of external and internal contradictions, the poet would like to mix in his heart “all the feelings that sound separately, and resolve the painful discord with a solemn chord of their voices.” In the same way, he would like to unite all people into one union, to embrace him in his arms, exclaiming in an outburst of Christian love: “Oh, if only I could embrace you, enemies, friends and brothers, and all of nature in my embrace!”

However, some admirers of A.K. Tolstoy (for example, Vl. Solovyov) consider him a poet of the struggle - for the right to beauty and the rights of life human personality. Tolstoy is almost the only poet outside the “populist” trend, which wrote whole line poems in a purely folk style and was engaged in artistic processing of our epic epic and historical subjects. At the same time, he took up arms against the “materialists” who were very influential in the second half of the 19th century, close to Nekrasov , Chernyshevsky , Dobrolyubov: “They don’t tolerate the ringing of the psaltery, give them market goods!... Only that, they say, is really what is sensitive to our body; and their methods are crude, and their teaching is rather dirty!” Standing up for defense traditional beginnings patriarchal Rus', Tolstoy, who, according to I. S. Turgeneva, “instant considerations” were alien, “like everything political in general,” he resorted to political satire (“The Bogatyr Stream”), in which he indulged in ridicule and populists, and liberals, and female students. The deep sadness born in the poet’s soul by the contrast between ideal concept love and its real examples, constitutes the main motive of his beautiful musical romances.

Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. Video

IN artistic treatment historical themes Tolstoy most willingly dwelled on the era Ivan the Terrible And Time of Troubles, representing one of the most tragic moments of the struggle between the tsarist autocracy and the boyars. In addition to the songs “Vasily Shibanov”, “Mikhailo Repnin”, the dramatic trilogy “The Death of Ivan the Terrible”, “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” and “Tsar Boris” and the historical novel “Prince Silver” are dedicated to this era. The second part of the trilogy “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” is the most successful, since the author succeeded in central figure create dramas that are truly alive artistic type. The historical novel "Prince Silver" is one of the best examples of our historical fiction, combining the tension of the plot with fidelity historical facts. The novel, when it appeared, had big success and went through several editions at once.

He was born in St. Petersburg on August 24 (September 5), 1817 from a short marriage of representatives of two noble families - the Tolstoys and the Razumovskys.

His father, Count Konstantin Petrovich Tolstoy, brother of the famous artist Fyodor Tolstoy, gave him the title of count (Leo Tolstoy was the poet’s second cousin on this line), and his mother, Anna Alekseevna Perovskaya, and her relatives had a significant fortune (she was the natural daughter of Count Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky, the son of the last Ukrainian hetman, and received the surname from his village of Perovo near Moscow).

Almost immediately after the birth of their son, the parents separated. The mother took the six-week-old baby to Little Russia to her brother Alexei Alekseevich Perovsky (1787–1836), a later famous writer (he became famous as the author of fantastic stories under the pseudonym Antony Pogorelsky). On his estate, Pogoreltsy, Chernigov province, the future poet spent his first childhood years. The uncle, who replaced the child’s father, worked a lot and diligently on his upbringing, encouraging his artistic inclinations in every possible way, and, by the way, especially for him, he composed the famous fairy tale “The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants” (1829). The tale had a moral and spoke of the modesty befitting a gifted boy.

1831 - again with his uncle and mother - Tolstoy traveled around Italy, visiting Venice, Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples. “...In each of these cities,” he later recalled, “my enthusiasm and love for art grew in me, so that upon returning to Russia I fell into real “homesickness,” into some kind of despair, as a result of which I day I didn’t want to eat anything, and at night I cried when my dreams carried me to my lost paradise.” This journey is described in Tolstoy’s diary for 1831 - his first surviving literary experience, publ. in 1905; his guides and interlocutors in Italy were S.A. Sobolevsky, a friend of Pushkin, S.P. Shevyrev, who was a teacher for the children of Princess Z.A. Volkonskaya, and the painter K.P. Bryullov, who later, in 1836, would write portrait of Tolstoy - with a gun and a dog.

At the beginning of 1837, Tolstoy was assigned to the Russian diplomatic mission in Frankfurt am Main, but almost immediately secured leave and spent two years traveling around Germany, Italy and France (and, by the way, met Gogol several times, then busy writing “Dead Souls”). Two fantasy stories written in French date back to this time: “La famille du vurdalak” (“The Family of the Ghoul,” published 1884) and “Le rendez-vous dans trois cent ans” (“Meeting after three hundred years,” published 1912 ).

In 1840, upon returning to St. Petersburg, Tolstoy was promoted to collegiate secretary and moved as a “junior official” to the II department of the imperial chancellery, which was involved in drawing up various laws and decrees, and in 1843 he became a chamber cadet, t .e. He also had court duties. The service did not occupy him much, however, thanks to influential relatives, he quickly rose in rank (titular councilor, 1842; collegiate assessor, 1845; court councilor, 1846; collegiate councilor, 1852) and court ranks (master of ceremonies, 1851).

In the 1840s. Tolstoy led the life of a secular man. His literary studies were not systematic and were of a distinctly amateurish nature. He did not publish any poems at that time, although they were written in abundance; only one poem - “A pine forest stands in a lonely country...” - appeared without a signature in 1843. The reason for this was probably not only the modesty of the author, but also the indifference of the public to poetry in those years, and the prose works he published over the decade can be counted on one hand. The most significant is the fantastic story “The Ghoul” (1841), which appeared under the signature “Krasnogorsky” and earned the approval of V.G. Belinsky (this was Tolstoy’s literary debut). The result of a trip to the Orenburg province in 1841 (where his other uncle, V.A. Perovsky, was the governor) was the small hunting essays “Two Days in the Kyrgyz Steppe” (1842) and “The Wolf’s Adopted Child” (1843). A tribute to the style of fashionable writers of the “natural school”, who were keen on recreating “types” of Russian social life, was the essay “Artemy Filippovich Bervenkovsky” (1845) - about an eccentric landowner-inventor. The most original story from the time of the Roman Christian martyrs is “Amena” (1846), which appeared with the subtitle “An excerpt from the novel “Steblovsky”” (there is no information about the novel itself).

In metropolitan society, Tolstoy had a reputation as a joker and prankster, sharing it with his Zhemchuzhnikov cousins - Alexander, Alexei and Vladimir. In collaboration with Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov, Tolstoy composed the parody vaudeville “Fantasy,” which failed with scandal on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater in January 1851. Emperor Nicholas I regarded the vaudeville as a stupid joke, and the magazines unanimously scolded it. Only Apollo Grigoriev, with his characteristic sensitivity, understood the intention of the authors hiding behind the initials Y and Z: “Here only what is brought to the point of absurdity and presented in the overall picture is what can be found in parts in each of the successful vaudevilles. The parody of Messrs. Y and Z could not be successful because the hour of the fall of the works they parody has not yet come.”

Later, “Fantasy” became one of the works of Kozma Prutkov. The parodic “mask” of this thoughtful writer and official of the Assay Office was formed precisely in 1851 through the joint efforts of Tolstoy and Alexei and Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov. “Leisures” by Kozma Prutkov first appeared in the magazine “Sovremennik” in 1854, and his “Complete Works” was compiled by Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov already in 1884. In the works of Kozma Prutkov, Tolstoy owns about a dozen poems and many aphorisms, however, of future fame He did not foresee a collective creation and did not take this comic product seriously. Of Tolstoy’s later humorous works, which appeared under his own name, the most significant are “The History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev” (1868; published 1883) and “Popov’s Dream” (1873; published 1878).

In the winter of 1850/1851. Tolstoy began an affair with Sofia Andreevna Miller, the wife of a Horse Guards colonel. Soon she left her husband, and from that moment the poet’s entire subsequent life was connected with her. Thanks to his position at court and friendship with the heir to the throne, a dubious relationship with a married woman did not have unpleasant consequences for him, but Sofia Andreevna’s husband did not give her a divorce for a long time, and her marriage to Tolstoy was concluded only in 1863. All his love lyrics, starting from 1851, addressed exclusively to her (including the romance dedicated to their first meeting, “Among a noisy ball, by chance...”, 1851, published 1856).

During the Crimean War, Tolstoy volunteered to join the army. In the summer of 1854, he formed a detachment to repel the proposed English landing on the Baltic coast. In March 1855, he was enlisted in a rifle regiment as a company commander with the rank of major. After military training in December 1855, he joined the regiment near Odessa, but did not have time to take part in hostilities, as he soon fell ill with typhus. He recovered from his illness only in the summer of 1856, when the war ended. That same summer, with Sofia Andreevna, he made a trip to the Crimea, which resulted in the poetic cycle “Crimean Sketches” (published 1856–1859).

In August 1856, the coronation of Alexander II took place, and Tolstoy was appointed aide-de-camp. Soon, due to his reluctance to remain in military service, he became a Jägermeister (chief of the royal huntsmen). The new emperor repeatedly tried to elevate his childhood friend and involve him in government activities (in particular, in the fall of 1856, Tolstoy was appointed clerk in the “Secret Committee on Dissenters”), but the poet had absolutely no ambitions as a politician, much less as an official. In addition, he was experiencing a creative surge and had already fully realized his calling.

In the 1850s The vast majority of Tolstoy's lyric poems were written. In 1854–1856 they were regularly published on the pages of Nekrasov's Sovremennik. Previously an unknown poet, Tolstoy gained recognition in literary circles, especially among Slavophiles: already in his first published poems - “My little bells...”, “You know the land where everything breathes abundantly...”, “Oh, haystacks, haystacks... " - the theme of the unity of the Slavic world was read. A.S. Khomyakov, K.S. Aksakov, I.S. Aksakov found in his poems the Russian “mindset” and “Russian forms” (they especially liked the stylizations of folk songs, such as, for example, “Arrogance walks, puffing up ...", 1856).

Having parted ways with N.A. Nekrasov and his Sovremennik, which was taking an increasingly radical direction, Tolstoy, from 1857, began to submit new poems to the Russian Conversation, published by I.S. Aksakov. His first poems appeared here: “The Sinner” (1858) and “John of Damascus” (1859). The latter contained autobiographical motives. Tolstoy repeatedly asked to be dismissed from service, but met resistance from people who sincerely loved him and wished him well, incl. the emperor himself. So in his poem, John of Damascus, “beloved by the caliph,” surrounded by “honor and affection,” asks to be released “to freedom”:

O sir, listen! my san,
Majesty, splendor, power and strength,
Everything is unbearable to me, everything is disgusting.
I am attracted by another calling,
I cannot rule the people:
I was born simple to be a singer,
Glorify God with a free verb!
In a crowd of nobles there is always one,
I am full of torment and boredom;
Among the feasts, at the head of the squads
I hear different sounds;
Their irresistible call
It attracts me more and more -
Oh, let me go, Caliph,
Let me breathe and sing in freedom!

In the same 1859, Tolstoy finally achieved an indefinite leave, and in 1861 - complete resignation. From that moment, with the exception of trips abroad (France and England, summer 1860; Germany, autumn 1862 - spring 1863; Italy, December 1863; Germany, summer 1864 and January 1868), he spends almost all his time in his two estates - Pustynka under St. Petersburg and Krasny Rog in the Chernigov province. In the lively literary and public discussions of the 1860s. he practically does not participate, except for several satirical poems with poisonous attacks against the “nihilists”: “The Stream-Bogatyr”, “Sometimes Merry May...”, both 1871, etc. Most of the public of that time considered Tolstoy a supporter of “art for art’s sake” , which was not entirely thorough. He was simply convinced that “the purpose of a poet is not to bring people any direct benefit or benefit, but to elevate their moral level, instilling in them a love of beauty.”

In a situation of acute conflict between Slavophiles and Westerners, liberals and revolutionaries, “fathers” and “sons,” among magazine “parties” mortally warring with each other, Tolstoy tried to maintain independence and generosity towards the enemy. He clearly outlined his position – and not without challenge – in the poem “Not a fighter of two camps, but only a random guest...” (1858, published 1867):

Two stans is not a fighter, but only a random guest,
For the truth I would be glad to raise my good sword,
But the dispute with both is hitherto my secret lot,
And no one could bring me to the oath;
There will not be a complete union between us -
Not bought by anyone, under whose banner I would stand,
I can’t bear the biased jealousy of my friends,
I would defend the enemy's banner with honor!

However, Tolstoy was not an indifferent contemplator of social unrest and his not the most “advanced” - by the standards of the 1860s. – he didn’t hide his glances. His increased interest in Russian history, especially in the era of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov, was dictated by the desire to comprehend not only the past, but also the present of Russia and guess its future.

Despite his independence (or perhaps thanks to it), Tolstoy had the opportunity to publish in various magazines, and his literary fate was generally prosperous. In 1862, the dramatic poem “Don Juan” and the historical novel “Prince Silver,” conceived in the late 1840s, appeared in M.N. Katkov’s magazine “Russian Messenger,” which had a reputation as an extremely conservative publication. In 1867, the first (and only during his lifetime) collection of Tolstoy's poems was published. But his real fame was brought to him by historical tragedies - his main and, it seemed, not very timely work in the 1860s. “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” (1866) was published in “Notes of the Fatherland”, “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” (1868) and “Tsar Boris” (1870) were published in “Bulletin of Europe”. Almost immediately they were staged on stage (with the exception of “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich,” which would later be destined for a brilliant stage fate) and received European recognition (at the premiere of “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” in Weimar in 1868, Tolstoy was personally present; translation into German was carried out by Karolina Pavlova with the participation of the author).

After completing the “dramatic trilogy,” Tolstoy turned to the lyric-epic genres. In 1869–1875 most of his ballads and poems “Dragon” (1874) and “Portrait” (1875) were written.

His last work was the historical drama "Posadnik", which takes place in Veliky Novgorod in the 13th century. Work on it began immediately after the end of the dramatic trilogy in 1870, but the poet did not have time to complete it (three of the four acts were completed; the last is known in the retelling of D.N. Tsertelev).