Tolstoi is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

in the

Municipality of Emerson – Franklin The Municipality of Emerson – Franklin is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba. History The municipality was created on January 1, 2015 via the amalgamation of the RM of Franklin and the Town of Emerson. It was ...

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It is located along

Manitoba Highway 59 Provincial Trunk Highway 59 (PTH 59) is a major provincial highway in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It runs from the Lancaster-Tolstoi Border Crossing (where it meets with U.S. Highway 59), through the city of Winnipeg, north to 8th Aven ...

at the junction with Provincial Road 209, approximately south of

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

and north of the Tolstoi Port of Entry at the

Canada–United States border The international border between Canada and the United States is the longest in the world by total length. The boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Canada' ...

History

Tolstoi was founded by Ukrainian immigrants in the 1890s, one of the earliest Ukrainian settlements in

western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

. Once a thriving community, Tolstoi's population has declined dramatically in recent decades. Its current population is generally older, as most young people have left for jobs in Winnipeg. The community is served by a grocery store, Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox churches. The Tolstoi Hotel and Bar opened in 1940, closed in 2008, and was later renovated and reopened in 2022. The community is also the home to the Tolstoi Seniors Centre which is located in the former two-room school house. The hamlet also has a Ukrainian National community hall which is rented out for social events. Tolstoi is the transfer point for

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter than other radio waves but longer than infrared waves. Its wavelength ranges from about one meter to one millimeter, corresponding to frequency, frequencies between 300&n ...

(

S-band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the convention ...

) television signals between Winnipeg and

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

. The closest weather station is at Emerson. Between 1974 and March 1986, cable companies in Winnipeg received the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

affiliates from Fargo,

KTHI KTHI (107.1 FM, "107.1 Hank FM") is a commercial radio station located in Caldwell, Idaho, broadcasting to the Boise, Idaho, area. KTHI airs a classic country music format. History The station launched in 1983 as a country station branded a ...

TV11 and

KXJB-TV KXJB-LD (channel 30) is a low-power television station licensed to Horace, North Dakota, United States, serving the Fargo–Grand Forks market as an affiliate of CBS and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Media alongside NBC affiliate KVLY-TV (c ...

TV4, respectively (via

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

K58BP at Glasston, North Dakota). Two other signals,

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

and

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

affiliates from

Grand Forks Grand Forks is a city in and the county seat of Grand Forks County, North Dakota, United States. The city's population was 59,166 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in the state, after Fargo and Bismarck. Grand For ...

WDAZ WDAZ-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Devils Lake, North Dakota, United States, serving the Grand Forks area as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by the Forum Communications Company, which also owns the '' Grand Forks Heral ...

TV8 and KGFE TV2, are also received from here. By March 1986

Videon Cablesystems Videon Cablesystems (also Videon Cable-TV or Metro Videon Community Antenna Television Inc.) was a Canadian cable television service in Manitoba, Alberta, and for a short period, northwest Ontario. The company was owned by Moffat Communication ...

and Greater Winnipeg Cablevision received permission from the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

(CRTC) to replace

and

with

WDIV WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio facilit ...

and

WJBK WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Owned and operated by the Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on West 9 Mile Road in th ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

via the

CANCOM Shaw Satellite Services Inc., dba Shaw Broadcast Services ( French: Services de Radiodiffusion Shaw), is the division of Canadian telecommunications company Shaw Communications that is responsible for providing and managing the distribution of ...

package on the Anik satellite.

and KGFE are still available on Winnipeg cable TV. One of the biggest challenges for the hamlet is reliable cellular telephone services. The hamlet is located between cellular tower services areas and service is spotty and requires residents to purchase and install antennas and boosters for their residences.

References

Hamlets in Manitoba Unincorporated communities in Eastman Region, Manitoba Ukrainian-Canadian communities in Manitoba {{Manitoba-geo-stub