Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (russian: Граф Алексе́й Константи́нович Толсто́й; – ), often referred to as A. K. Tolstoy, was a Russian poet, novelist, and playwright. He is considered to be the most important nineteenth-century Russian historical dramatist, primarily on account of the strength of his dramatic trilogy ''
The Death of Ivan the Terrible
''The Death of Ivan the Terrible'' (russian: Смерть Иоанна Грозного, translit=Smertʹ Ioanna Groznogo) is a historical drama by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy written in 1863 and first published in the January 1866 issue of ''O ...
'' (1866), ''
Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich
''Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich'' (russian: Царь Фёдор Иоаннович, old orthography: Царь Ѳедоръ Іоанновичъ) is a 1868 historical drama by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy.Banham (1998, 1115) and Moser (1992, 270). It is ...
'' (1868), and ''
Tsar Boris
Boris I, also known as Boris-Mihail (Michael) and ''Bogoris'' ( cu, Борисъ А҃ / Борисъ-Михаилъ bg, Борис I / Борис-Михаил; died 2 May 907), was the ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire in 852–889. At ...
'' (1870). He also gained fame for his satirical works, published under his own name (''
History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev'', ''
The Dream of Councillor Popov
''The Dream of Councillor Popov'' (Сон статс-советника Попова; also – Сон Попова) is a satire in verse by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, first published in 1878 in literature, 1878 in Berlin,А.К. Толстой ...
'') and under the collaborational pen name of
Kozma Prutkov
Kozma Petrovich Prutkov (russian: Козьма́ Петро́вич Прутко́в) is a fictional author invented by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875) and his cousins, the brothers Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov (1821-1908), (1830-1884) and ...
.
His fictional works include the novella ''
The Family of the Vourdalak
''The Family of the Vourdalak'' is a gothic novella by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, written in 1839 in French and originally entitled ''La Famille du Vourdalak. Fragment inedit des Memoires d'un inconnu''. Tolstoy wrote it on a trip to Fran ...
'', ''
The Vampire'' (1841), and the historical novel ''
Prince Serebrenni
''Prince Serebrenni'' (russian: Князь Серебряный) is a historical novel by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, written in 1859-1861 and first published in '' The Russian Messenger'' magazine in 1862 (Nos. 8-10, August–October issues) ...
'' (1862).
Aleksey was a member of the
Tolstoy family
The House of Tolstoy, or Tolstoi (russian: Толстой), is a family of Russian gentry that acceded to the high aristocracy of the Russian Empire. The name Tolstoy (Russian "Толстой") is itself derived from the Russian adjective "тол ...
, and a second cousin of
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
. Due to his mother's closeness with the court of the Tsar, Aleksey was admitted to the future
Alexander II's childhood entourage and became "a comrade in games" for the young Crown Prince. As a young man Tolstoy traveled widely, including trips to Italy and Germany, where he met
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...
. Tolstoy began his education at home under the tutelage of his uncle the writer
Antony Pogorelsky
Antony Pogorelsky ( Russian: Анто́ний Погоре́льский) is a pen name of Alexey Alexeyevich Perovsky (Russian Алексе́й Алексе́евич Перо́вский), (1787–) a Russian prose writer.
He was a natural son ...
, under whose influence he first became interested in writing poetry, and a number of other teachers. In 1834 Tolstoy enrolled in the Moscow Foreign Ministry State Archive as a student. In December 1835 he completed exams (in the English, French, and German languages as well as in literature, Latin, World and Russian history, and Russian statistics) at the
University of Moscow
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
.
Throughout the 1840s, Tolstoy led a busy high society life, full of pleasure trips, salon parties and balls, hunting sprees, and fleeting romances. He also spent many years in state service as a bureaucrat and diplomat. In 1856, on the day of his Coronation, Alexander II appointed Tolstoy one of his personal aide-de-adjutants. Tolstoy served as an infantry major in the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
. He eventually left state service in the early 1860s to pursue his literary career. He died in 1875 of a self-administered lethal dose of morphine at his Krasny Rog estate in the
Chernigov Governorate
The Chernigov Governorate (russian: Черниговская губерния; translit.: ''Chernigovskaya guberniya''; ), also known as the Government of Chernigov, was a guberniya in the historical Left-bank Ukraine region of the Russian ...
.
Biography
Early life
Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy was born in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
to the famed family of
Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
. His father, Count Konstantin Petrovich Tolstoy (1780–1870), a son of the army general, was a Russian state assignation bank councilor. His mother, Anna Alekseyevna Perovskaya (1796–1857), was an illegitimate daughter of Count
Aleksey Kirillovich Razumovsky
Alexey, Alexei, Alexie, Aleksei, or Aleksey (russian: Алексе́й ; bg, Алексей ) is a Russian language, Russian and Bulgarian language, Bulgarian male first name deriving from the Greek language, Greek ''Aléxios'' (), meaning "D ...
(1748–1822), an heir of the legendary Ukrainian
hetman
( uk, гетьман, translit=het'man) is a political title from Central and Eastern Europe, historically assigned to military commanders.
Used by the Czechs in Bohemia since the 15th century. It was the title of the second-highest military co ...
Alexey Razumovsky
Count Alexei Grigorievich Razumovsky (russian: Граф Алексе́й Григо́рьевич Разумо́вский, uk, Граф Олексій Григорович Розумовський; 1709–1771) was a Ukrainian-born Russian R ...
.
A. K. Tolstoy's uncle (on his father's side) was
Fyodor Tolstoy (1783–1873). His uncle on his mother's side was Aleksey Perovsky (1787–1836), an author known under the pen name of
Antony Pogorelsky
Antony Pogorelsky ( Russian: Анто́ний Погоре́льский) is a pen name of Alexey Alexeyevich Perovsky (Russian Алексе́й Алексе́евич Перо́вский), (1787–) a Russian prose writer.
He was a natural son ...
. Aleksey Konstantinovich was a second cousin of
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
; Count
Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy
Count Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy (russian: Граф Пётр Андреевич Толстой; 1645–1729) was a Russian statesman and diplomat, prominent during and after the reign of Peter the Great. He was the ancestor of all the Counts ...
was their common great-grandfather.
Konstantin Tolstoy and Anna Perovskaya's marriage was short-lived; they divorced in October 1817. With her six weeks old son, Anna moved first to her own Blistava estate in
Chernigov Governorate
The Chernigov Governorate (russian: Черниговская губерния; translit.: ''Chernigovskaya guberniya''; ), also known as the Government of Chernigov, was a guberniya in the historical Left-bank Ukraine region of the Russian ...
, then to Krasny Rog
( ru), an estate belonging to her brother Aleksey Perovsky, who became Aleksey Konstantinovich's tutor and a long-time companion. Common knowledge has it that Pogorelsky's famous fantasy fairytale ''The Black Chicken or The People of the Underground'' was premiered at home, his young nephew being the only member of Pogorelsky's audience. It was under the latter's influence that Aleksey started to write poetry, as early as 1823, inspired by some old books he found at home. Aleksey had good teachers and at the age of six he fluently spoke French, German and English. Later he learned Italian as well.
As for the Tolstoys, Anna Perovskaya stopped seeing them altogether, only sending them postcards on major dates and holidays.
Remembering those happy years, Aleksey later wrote:
In early 1826 Anna Perovskaya returned to Saint Petersburg with her brother and son. Here, due to his mother's closeness with the court of the Tsar, Aleksey was admitted to the future Tsar
Alexander II's childhood entourage and in August became what was officially termed "a comrade in games" for the young Crown Prince. Aleksey's duties were not many: he had to visit the Crown Prince in Saint Petersburg and
Tsarskoye Selo
Tsarskoye Selo ( rus, Ца́рское Село́, p=ˈtsarskəɪ sʲɪˈlo, a=Ru_Tsarskoye_Selo.ogg, "Tsar's Village") was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the cen ...
, take walks with him on
Yelagin Island
Yelagin Island () is a park island at the mouth of the Neva River which is part of St. Petersburg, Russia. Yelagin Island is home to the Yelagin Palace but has a few other buildings as well. A former suburban estate of 18 century Russian nobl ...
and participate in games, many of which were, in effect, small scale military exercises.
They became friends and this friendship lasted for several decades, ending in the mid-1860s.
[McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, Vol 1.] In autumn of 1826 Aleksey met
Aleksander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
for the first time.
In summer 1827 the family visited Germany where in
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
young Aleksey met
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
. The great man greeted the boy very warmly and left him a fragment of a
mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...
tusk with his own drawing (depicting a
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
) on it, for a present. Aleksey, having been awe-stricken, remembered little: "Only his magnificent features and the way he took me upon his lap," according to his autobiography.
[А.К. Tolstoy. Works in 4 volumes. Moscow. Khudozhestvennaya Literatura publishers. 1964. Vol. 4. Diaries and Letters. No. 274. A letter to A.Gubernatis (translated from French). Pp. 422–428.] The family spent the next ten years in continuous travel, both in Russia and abroad. An 1831 trip to Italy especially impressed the 13-year-old. "Back in Russia I fell into a deep nostalgic depression, longing for Italy which felt like a real motherland; desperately mourning the loss, I cried at night when my dreams carried me off to this Paradise lost," he wrote in his autobiography decades later.
In Italy the family met
Karl Bryullov
Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (russian: Карл Па́влович Брюлло́в; 12 December 1799 – 11 June 1852), original name Charles Bruleau, also transliterated Briullov and Briuloff, and referred to by his friends as "Karl the Great", was a ...
. On 10 May 1831, Aleksey wrote in his diary: "Bryullov dined with us and left a sketch in my album." The painter promised Perovsky to make portraits of all three of them once he was back in Russia, but five years later he had finished only one, that of his nephew.
Career
In 1834 Tolstoy enrolled in the Moscow Foreign Ministry State Archive as a "student", where he got his first taste of working with real historical documents.
In December 1835 he completed exams (in English, French and German languages and literature, Latin, World and Russian history, and Russian statistics)
at the
University of Moscow
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
for the formal 1st Grade State Bureaucrat certificate. He soon embarked on a career in the Economic Affairs and Statistics Department in Saint Petersburg. Before that, in July 1835, he had buried his uncle Aleksey Perovsky (who died in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
) and had become heir to his Krasny Rog estate.
Also in 1835 Aleksey showed some of his new poems to
Vasily Zhukovsky
Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky (russian: Василий Андреевич Жуковский, Vasiliy Andreyevich Zhukovskiy; – ) was the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s and a leading figure in Russian literature in the first half of the 19 ...
, who praised them. There's evidence that Pushkin also approved of the young poet's early works, giving him full moral support.
Tolstoy wrote a lot, refining his technique, but wasn't eager to get published. "My first experiments were, no doubt, absurd, but at least metrically they were flawless. I went on training thus for many years, before I debuted... as a prose writer, not a poet," he remembered later.
![Tolstoy aleksey konstantinovich](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Tolstoy_aleksey_konstantinovich.jpg)
In January 1837 Tolstoy became attached to the Russian Embassy in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
where he spent the next two years. The assignment was rather formal; it did not demand Tolstoy's presence in Germany and he spent most of his time in Saint Petersburg, leading a merry life, spending up to three thousand rubles per month,
often traveling to Italy and France. It was during one of these visits that he wrote his first two "gothic" novellas – ''
The Family of the Vourdalak
''The Family of the Vourdalak'' is a gothic novella by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, written in 1839 in French and originally entitled ''La Famille du Vourdalak. Fragment inedit des Memoires d'un inconnu''. Tolstoy wrote it on a trip to Fran ...
'' and ''Three Hundred Years On'' (originally in German, later translated into Russian by
Boleslav Markevich
Boleslav Mikhailovich Markevich (russian: link=no, Болеслав Михайлович Маркевич; 1822 – 18 (30) November 1884) was a Russian writer, essayist, journalist, and literary critic of Polish origin; author of a number of p ...
). Tolstoy showed great interest in all things macabre, influenced, again, by his late uncle who "was obsessed with mysticism in every possible form"
and who, in turn, was influenced by
E. T. A. Hoffmann
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann; 24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822) was a German Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror, a jurist, composer, music critic and artist. Penrith Goff, "E.T.A. Hoffmann" in E ...
whom he was personally acquainted with.
In late 1840 Tolstoy was transferred back to Russia to a position in the Tsar's Imperial State Chancellery 2nd Department where he continued to work for many years, slowly rising in the hierarchy. As time went by, though, he showed less and less enthusiasm, for the demands of his position had come to feel like a major hindrance to his literary aspirations.
In May 1841 Tolstoy debuted with ''
The Vampire'' (a novella published under the pen name of "Krasnorogsky", a reference to Krasny Rog, his residence). Complicated in structure, multi-layered and rich in counterpoints, featuring both the element of "horror" and political satire, it instantly caught the attention of
Vissarion Belinsky
Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky ( rus, Виссарион Григорьевич БелинскийIn Belinsky's day, his name was written ., Vissarión Grigórʹjevič Belínskij, vʲɪsərʲɪˈon ɡrʲɪˈɡorʲjɪvʲɪdʑ bʲɪˈlʲinskʲ ...
who praised its "obviously still very young, but undoubtedly gifted author," totally unaware of the latter's real identity.
Tolstoy himself saw the story as insignificant and made no attempt to include it in any of the subsequent compilations; it was only in 1900 that ''The Vampire'' was re-issued. In the autumn of 1843 Tolstoy debuted as a poet: his poem "Serebryanka" was published in the No.40 edition of ''Listok Dlya Svetskikh Lyudey'' (The Paper for Fashionable People).
It took another two years for him to see his second short story, "Artyomy Semyonovich Bervenkovsky", a homage to the so-called '
natural school Natural School (russian: Натуральная школа, Naturalnaya Shkola) is a term applied to the literary movement which arose under the influence of Nikolai Gogol in the 1840s in Russia, and included such diverse authors as Nikolai Nekrasov ...
' apparently written under the influence of
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
's ''
Dead Souls
''Dead Souls'' (russian: «Мёртвые души», ''Mjórtvyje dúshi'') is a novel by Nikolai Gogol, first published in 1842, and widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian literature. The novel chronicles the travels and adv ...
'',
published in the 1st volume of Count
Vladimir Sollogub
Count Vladimir Alexandrovich Sollogub (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Алекса́ндрович Соллогу́б; german: link=no, Woldemar Graf Sollogub (Sollohub); 20 August 1813 in St. Petersburg – 17 June 1882 in Bad Homburg) was ...
's ''Yesterday and Today'' almanac. The 2nd volume featured ''Amena'', a novella, described as an extract from a novel called ''Stebelovsky'' which remained unfinished.
Belinsky responded negatively to this publication, describing the piece as "rather dull", and an "unfortunate manifestation of mental irritation picked from
Chateaubriand" (meaning apparently ''Les Martyrs'', 1809).
Throughout the 1840s Tolstoy led a busy high society life, full of pleasure trips, salon parties and balls, hunting sprees and fleeting romances. He was described as "a handsome young man with blonde hair and a freshly coloured face" and was renowned for his physical strength, "bending spoons, forks and horse-shoes and driving nails into walls with one finger."
One notable business trip to
Kaluga
Kaluga ( rus, Калу́га, p=kɐˈɫuɡə), a city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast in Russia, stands on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Population:
Kaluga's most famous resident, the space travel pioneer Konstantin Tsiol ...
in 1850 led to a close friendship with Nikolai Gogol (whom he first met in Frankfurt and then in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
). Tolstoy recited to Gogol many of his yet unpublished poems and fragments from what later became the novel ''Prince Serebryany''. Gogol read him the second part of his novel ''Dead Souls''.
Among other friendships he struck up in the forties were those with
Ivan Aksakov
Ivan Sergeyevich Aksakov (russian: Ива́н Серге́евич Акса́ков; , village Nadezhdino, Belebeyevsky Uyezd, Orenburg Governorate – , Moscow) was a Russian littérateur and notable Slavophile.
Biography
Aksakov was born in ...
,
Pavel Annenkov
Pavel Vasilyevich Annenkov (russian: Па́вел Васи́льевич А́нненков) (July 1, 1813 – March 20, 1887) was a significant Russian Empire literary critic and memoirist.
Biography
Annenkov was born into a wealthy landowning fa ...
,
Nikolai Nekrasov
Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov ( rus, Никола́й Алексе́евич Некра́сов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪkˈsʲejɪvʲɪtɕ nʲɪˈkrasəf, a=Ru-Nikolay_Alexeyevich_Nekrasov.ogg, – ) was a Russian poet, writer, critic and publi ...
,
Ivan Panaev
Ivan Ivanovich Panaev (russian: link=no, Ива́н Ива́нович Пана́ев; March 27, 1812 – March 2, 1862) was a Russian writer, literary critic, journalist and magazine publisher.
Early life
Panaev was born into a gentry family ...
and
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (; rus, links=no, Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́невIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 (Old Style dat ...
.
In the early 1850s, in collaboration with the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers, Tolstoy created the fictional writer
Kozma Prutkov
Kozma Petrovich Prutkov (russian: Козьма́ Петро́вич Прутко́в) is a fictional author invented by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875) and his cousins, the brothers Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov (1821-1908), (1830-1884) and ...
, a petty bureaucrat with great self-esteem who parodied the poetry of the day and soon became famous for his utterly banal aphorisms.
In 1851 Prutkov debuted with ''The Fantasy'' a comedy which was signed "Y" and "Z" and written by Tolstoy and
Aleksey Zhemchuzhnikov. The play, mocking the then popular "nonsense" vaudeville premiered on 8 January in the
Alexandrinsky Theatre
The Alexandrinsky Theatre (russian: Александринский театр) or National Drama Theatre of Russia is a theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The Alexandrinsky Theatre was built for the Imperial troupe of Petersburg (Imperial trou ...
. This spectacular farce (featuring at one point a dozen small dogs running about on stage) caused a huge scandal, was promptly banned by
Nikolay I
, house = Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp
, father = Paul I of Russia
, mother = Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg)
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire
, death_date =
...
(who was among the audience) and remained unpublished until 1884.
It was also in 1851 that Tolstoy first met Sophia Andreyevna Miller (1827?–1892), the wife of a cavalry colonel (whom she later divorced with great difficulty) and an impressively well-educated woman who knew fourteen languages, at a
Bolshoy Theater
The Bolshoi Theatre ( rus, Большо́й теа́тр, r=Bol'shoy teatr, literally "Big Theater", p=bɐlʲˈʂoj tʲɪˈatər) is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds ballet and ope ...
masquerade. Tolstoy fell in love with her but had to wait for another twelve years before they were able to marry. Miller had, apparently, a perfect artistic taste and Tolstoy later referred to her as his harshest and most objective critic, as well as the best friend he'd ever had. All of his love lyrics from 1851 onwards were written for and about Sophia.
Many of his poems ("My dear bluebells", "Amidst the ball uproar", "Brighter than the skylark's singing", "The wind from high up, it is not...") have been set to music by renowned composers and have become famous Russian romances.
In 1854 ''
Sovremennik
''Sovremennik'' ( rus, «Современник», p=səvrʲɪˈmʲenʲːɪk, a=Ru-современник.ogg, "The Contemporary") was a Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in Saint Petersburg in 1836–1866. It came out f ...
'' magazine published several of Tolstoy's verses ("My bluebells", "Oh you haystacks..." and others), which instantly got critics talking, and also the first of Kozma Prutkov's humorously pompous poetic exercises. The latter was not so much a collective pseudonym, as a character who was making quite a point of coming across as a "real" creature, performing, among other things, obnoxious pranks, one of which involved a messenger visiting all the leading Saint Petersburg architects late at night with the urgent news of the
Isaakiyevsky Cathedral having fallen down and urging them to appear early next morning at the court of Tsar Nikolay I, which they hastily did, to the Tsar's utter annoyance.
As the
Crimea War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
broke out, Tolstoy's first intention was to gather a partisan fighting unit and lead it to the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
, should the English decide to land there. Along with Count Aleksey Bobrinsky (future Minister of transport) he started to finance and equip two partisan squads, forty fighters each. He bought some ammunition from
Tula
Tula may refer to:
Geography
Antarctica
*Tula Mountains
*Tula Point
India
*Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar
Iran
* Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province
Italy
* Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...
and traveled all along the Baltic coastline, examining what was supposed to be his future theater of war, the Crown Prince being totally unaware of his plans.
On 2 September the allies landed at
Yevpatoria
Yevpatoria ( uk, Євпаторія, Yevpatoriia; russian: Евпатория, Yevpatoriya; crh, , , gr, Ευπατορία) is a city of regional significance in Western Crimea, north of Kalamita Bay. Yevpatoria serves as the administrative ...
and Tolstoy headed South, to join the Imperial infantry regiment (under the command of Lev Perovsky, another of his uncles) as an army major, in March 1855. The regiment went only as far as
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
where a thousand men were lost from
typhoid
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
. In February 1856 Tolstoy became one of the casualties. In Odessa he was nursed back to health by Sophia Miller.
Alexander II was telegraphed daily on the subject of his old friend's condition, at his personal request. In May 1855 Tolstoy was back on his feet, but the war was over for him; he instead embarked upon a Crimean journey with Sophia.
After the War, in 1856, on the day of his Coronation, Alexander II appointed Tolstoy as one of his personal aide-de-camp. It was only three years later that Tolstoy managed to get rid of this tiresome privilege which implied regular duties in the Palace, interfering with his now burgeoning literary career. "You cannot imagine what a storm of rhymes rages in me, what waves of poetry are sweeping through me, longing to break free," he wrote in a letter to Sophia Miller. Two thirds of Tolstoy's poetic legacy was created in the late 1850s. 1857 saw the publication of a large poem called ''The Sinner''. It was followed by the more significant ''
Ioann Damaskin'', first published in ''
Russkaya Beseda'' January 1859 issue. The poem, dealing with the nature of poetry and the poet's position in society, but also hinting at the author's personal plight, caused scandal. The head of the 3rd Department Prince
Vasily Dolgorukov ordered the printing of the magazine to be stopped and for the poem to be removed. The Minister of Education Evgraf Kovalevsky personally permitted the publication, his rather daring decision causing a serious rift between the two departments.
Tolstoy's poems were appearing in virtually all the major Russian magazines of the time, regardless of their ideological inclinations. Yet, in 1857 his relationship with the leftist ''Sovremennik'' group became strained. Tolstoy drifted towards the
Slavophile
Slavophilia (russian: Славянофильство) was an intellectual movement originating from the 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed on the basis of values and institutions derived from Russia's early history. Slavoph ...
s and their ''
Russkaya Beseda'' magazine, becoming a close friend of Ivan Aksakov and
Aleksey Khomyakov
Aleksey Stepanovich Khomyakov (russian: Алексе́й Степа́нович Хомяко́в; May 13 ( O.S. May 1) 1804, Moscow – October 5 (O.S. September 23), 1860, Moscow) was a Russian theologian, philosopher, poet and amateur artist. H ...
, but this liaison was short-lived too.
In the 1860s he found himself in a strange position of being a highly popular author, criticized fiercely both from the left and from the right.
As to the reasons for this, A.K. Tolstoy was never in doubt. In an autobiographical letter to
Angelo de Gubernatis
Count Angelo De Gubernatis (1840–26 February 1913), Italian man of letters, was born in Turin and educated there and at Berlin, where he studied philology. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature fourteen times.
Life
In 1862 he wa ...
he wrote:
Tolstoy caused much controversy with his scathing remarks aimed at contemporary government officials (Alexander Timashev, Vladimir Butkov, Ivan Veillot) whom he – a supporter of the monarch – considered real enemies of the State. He also criticized the activities of the
3rd Department, and in the wake of the
Polish uprising
This is a chronological list of military conflicts in which Polish armed forces fought or took place on Polish territory from the reign of Mieszko I (960–992) to the ongoing military operations.
This list does not include peacekeeping operation ...
was one of the very few people in the Court to openly denounce
Muravyov the Hangman's draconian methods of political repression.
[Yampolsky, Igor. Works by A.K.Tolstoy in 4 Volumes. 1964. Vol.1. Commentaries. P.14-15.]
A fierce opponent of
xenophobia
Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...
, he saw Russia as a European country, and Russians as Europeans. This clashed with the Slavophile doctrine of maintaining Russia's "special place" in the world. "
peaking
Peaking may refer to:
* Peaking, in improperly installed laminate flooring
* Antenna peaking, orienting a directional antenna toward the greatest radio signal amplitude
* Focus peaking, a feature in digital viewfinders that detects and highlights ...
of slavophiles, Khomyakov sickens me when he places
ussiaabove the West just on the strength of our being
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
," Tolstoy wrote in a letter.
All the while, well-publicized was his dispute with Turgenev, who saw the French state as Russia's potential guiding light. "What France is moving towards is the dictatorship of mediocrity," Tolstoy argued.
Being neither a
westernizer
Westernizers (; russian: За́падник, Západnik, p=ˈzapədnʲɪk) were a group of 19th-century intellectuals who believed that Russia's development depended upon the adoption of Western European technology and liberal government. In their v ...
nor a slavophile, Tolstoy annoyed both parties by his infatuation with pre-Tatar Russian society which he idealized whole-heartedly, seeing it as an Eastern strain of European knighthood, based on the cult of the nobleman. Also causing controversy were Tolstoy's critique of the West's amoral pragmatism and socialist ideas, his dismissal of the Russian imperial ideals which he saw as tragically flawed, and his own doctrine of a centralized Russia, the vile
Moscovia State being, in his view, at the root of all Russian political evil. This eclectic "political romanticism"
appeared to be in conflict with every political and social trend of the time.
Tolstoy rejected some