Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy’s birthday also falls in September - only, of course, it is not celebrated at the state level.
“Proud and knowing his own worth, it seems that in his entire life he only said “I’m sorry” to me once, but often he simply did not feel sorry for me when for some reason he offended me or tortured me with some kind of work. It’s strange that he never even encouraged me in anything, never praised me for anything. In my youth, this gave me the conviction that I was such a nonentity, an inept, stupid creature, that I was doing everything wrong.”S. A. Tolstaya, memoirs
Does knowledge about the author's personality affect the perception of the text? Jorge Luis Borges once wrote a story about how the same novel “Don Quixote” will be perceived differently if the reader knows that it was written not by the 16th-century Spanish warrior Cervantes, but by, say, an ironic literature professor in the twentieth century.
“Last night I was struck by L.N.’s conversation about the women’s issue. Yesterday and always he is against freedom and the so-called equality of women; yesterday he suddenly said that a woman, no matter what work she does: teaching, medicine, art, has one goal: sexual love. Once she achieves it, all her activities will go to waste. I was terribly indignant at this opinion and began to reproach Lev Nikolaevich for his eternal cynical view of women, which made me suffer so much.”
In my opinion, this knowledge adds an important additional dimension to Tolstoy's novels. At school, Tolstoy's novels are taught in grades 10-11. At a time when teenagers are looking for their place in life. And here - hello to you, Mr. Count Tolstoy with his “fertile female” Natasha Rostova as the ideal woman! And the villain Helen, whose whole guilt is that she dared to have her own sexual appetite and did not want to give birth (judging by the indirect hints given in the novel, Tolstoy got rid of Helen through a clandestine abortion).
To call a spade a spade: Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is a misogynist. And his novels are misogynistic. The great Russian writer did not consider women full-fledged people. Perhaps it’s for the best that almost no one reads his long novels today.
“...he experienced that rare pleasure that women give when listening to a man - not smart women who, while listening, try to either remember what they are told in order to enrich their minds and, on occasion, retell the same or adapt what is being told to their own and communicate as soon as possible your clever speeches developed in your small mental economy; but the pleasure that real women give, gifted with the ability to select and absorb into themselves all the best that exists in the manifestations of a man.”L.N. Tolstoy, War and Peace, volume 4
If a wife, by definition, has a “small mental household,” is it worth listening to what she says? Baba is like a cow - she moos and doesn’t know why.
In her old age, Sofya Andreevna recalled that in her husband she had either a passionate lover or a stern judge, but never a friend. She worked for decades, but did not deserve praise. The family had a cult of the husband, all the laurels went to him.
“It’s 2 o’clock in the morning, I was rewriting everything. It’s terribly boring and hard work, because, probably, what I wrote today will all be crossed out tomorrow and will be rewritten by Lev Nikolaevich again. What patience and hard work he has is amazing!”Diary of S. A. Tolstoy, 1897
The power of inertia in society is amazing! In Russia, the idea that a “good wife” is obliged to sacrifice herself for the sake of the family is still in use. Read - husband and children. For some reason, she herself and her interests are not included in the “family”. This was the way it was with the Tolstoys. Sofya Andreevna passionately loved music. But…
“I hinted that I would like to go to performances of Wagner’s operas in St. Petersburg, but Lev Nikolayevich poured out such an angry stream of reproaches on me for this, spoke so sarcastically about my madness regarding my love for music, about my inability, stupidity, etc. ... that has now stopped me from wanting anything.”
Over the years, Tolstoy's views on women have not changed. He encouraged his daughters not to marry and to maintain “purity.” He gave other advice to his sons.
“Today Styopa’s brother spoke with Lev Nikolaevich and Seryozha. I entered - they fell silent. I ask: what were they talking about? They hesitated, then L.N. said: “We talked about the fact that the best sexual relationships with women are with simple peasant women, but, of course, without marriage.”Diary of S. A. Tolstoy, 1898
This opinion is identical to what is being broadcast today by rabidly misogynistic public pages on VKontakte, where women are called “sperm receptacles”, suitable only for relieving sexual tension. It is possible that Lev Nikolaevich was simply not capable of loving a woman.
What interests me most about great writers is not their work, but their personal life: through it it is easier to then look at the literary works created by the authors. “Crime and Punishment” reads differently when you know that underage prostitutes were often brought into Dostoevsky’s bathroom and that he was a passionate foot fetishist. Or that Mayakovsky lived with Lilya and Osip Brik, and when they made love, he was on the floor at that time... he also loved himself, let’s say. And today is Lev Nikolaevich’s birthday, so why not talk about this “block of literature”?
You may not know, but Lev Tolstoy began keeping diaries ( an old analogue of LiveJournal - an explanation for the stupid) From five years. And he wrote down everything that happened to him. From there we learned that his older brothers brought him to a woman (prostitute) for the first time when Tolstoy was not even 18 years old. After this, Tolstoy locked himself in his room and cried all night. In general, in his youth he was terribly ugly, which is why he was shy and self-conscious.
When he lived in Kazan with his aunt, she, according to him, dreamed of only one thing - for Levushka to have a relationship with some married lady, otherwise it was somehow inconvenient: the young guy lives as a monk. Levushka fulfilled her wish. He had countless women. Especially after he became an officer. Daily carousing, drinking, and promiscuous relationships even forced him to be treated for the “French cold” several times.
By the way, he did not lose his love of love even into old age. Chekhov recalls that one day he was celebrating the premiere of some production with friends and suddenly the doorbell rang. It was late, Anton Pavlovich had dismissed the servant, so he opened the door himself. He opened it and was stunned: Tolstoy himself was standing on the threshold! (they didn’t know each other before that).
-Are you Chekhov? - asked Tolstoy.
Anton Pavlovich was so confused that he could not answer anything, he only babbled and mumbled. Suddenly Tolstoy exclaimed when he heard women’s laughter and noise from the living room:
- Yes, you have girls there! - and, pushing Chekhov aside, he briskly ran into the house.
He got married quite late - at 34 years old. Sophia was 18. Tolstoy asked for her hand, but before she answered with consent or refusal, he let her read his diaries. Sophia read it, cried for several days (can you imagine what happened there?) and said “yes.” They lived in marriage for 50 years.
As we have already mentioned, Tolstoy was very keen on the female body. He did not give his wife permission until he was very old. Sophia bore him 13 children, and then she simply physically could not satisfy all the count’s whims. Therefore, he had to use the courtyard girls. That is why about 250 illegitimate offspring of Lev Nikolaevich ran around Yasnaya Polyana. For which, by the way, he built a school on the estate at his own expense and taught there himself.
In his old age he became simply unbearable. He constantly taught everyone how to live, moralized. He said that everyone is fornicating, no one keeps the Christian commandments. His children were indignant: “Well, dad, absolutely!” He himself took a walk in his youth, and now he teaches us morality! By the way, it has long been noted: those who in their youth commit adultery are the champions of morality in their old age. So tell the grandmothers sitting at your entrance.
Sophia helped Tolstoy in everything, especially in his literary work. She rewrote his draft notes completely, and if he had any edits again, she rewrote them again. They say she rewrote “War and Peace” alone 12 times!
And here are rare newsreels of Tolstoy.
I will be sincerely glad if this post makes you take down Tolstoy’s volume from your dusty shelf and re-read his works.
At first glance, everything is orderly in Tolstoy’s family. Only wife, love marriage. But she knew better than others about the demons that tormented her husband. Why did the bride walk down the aisle in tears and who did she dream of killing? The answers to these questions can be found in the spouses' diaries. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is a writer read by the whole world. Many of his works are autobiographical and, of course, each of them reflects the worldview of the author. And Tolstoy’s biography is no less interesting than his novels.
Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya (Bers) was his lover, friend, assistant and gave the count 13 children. But all my life I suffered from jealousy. Leo Tolstoy was a passionate man. And he was interested in women from a young age. In her diaries, Sophia accused her husband of tactlessness and admitted that she was ready to kill one of her legal husband’s passions. But how did the young wife know about Tolstoy’s love affairs before marriage? The thing is that on the eve of the wedding he gave her his diaries. So Count Tolstoy decided to clear his conscience and, obviously, show his bride what he is like. She still decided to walk down the aisle, but entered the church in tears. So what did the girl find out?
Not young ladies and peasant women
Leo Tolstoy kept diaries from his youth and trusted the pages with almost everything. He described life events, including intimate ones. From them it is known that the older brothers introduced the future writer to physical relationships when he was 16 years old. They took him to a brothel and paid for the services of a prostitute:“...And I committed this act, I then stood by this woman’s bed and cried,”- he recalled.
Tolstoy will describe this experience in his last novel, Resurrection.
It is worth noting that visits to brothels by noblemen in the 19th century were not something out of the ordinary. Brothels were subject to taxes, and priestesses of love underwent mandatory medical examinations twice a week. In Moscow, on the corner of Plotnikov Lane there is an apartment building. His bas-reliefs are quite unusual, they depict scenes of love. If you look closely at the sculptures, you can see the faces of Pushkin, Tolstoy and Gogol. According to rumors, domestic classics were clients of a brothel that was once located on this site.
As for Leo Tolstoy, he experienced his first passionate attraction even before meeting “this woman.” At 13, he fell in love with a fat maid with a pretty face. He will write down that he refuses to recognize this feeling as first love, especially since:
“...From 13 to 15 years old is the most carefree time for a boy (adolescence): you don’t know what to throw yourself into, and voluptuousness at this time acts with extraordinary force.”
In the biography of young Tolstoy there is an incident of which he was ashamed all his life. One day he got along with his aunt's maid. The girl was innocent, and he seduced her. Glasha became pregnant, and the owner of the house kicked her out. The disgraced woman was refused to be accepted by her own family. The girl was on the verge of death when Tolstoy’s sister took her in.
Among the victories of the passionate count were young women from subject villages, gypsies and maids. But a special role in the writer’s life was played by the married peasant woman Aksinya. He felt tenderness, jealousy and passion for her, which seemed to pursue him to the end. He even gave her name to the heroines of his works.
“Yes, if he had a little more delicacy, he would not call his womanish heroines Aksinya,”- the offended Sofya Andreevna wrote in her diary.
The affair with “semolina” Aksinya in Yasnaya Polyana lasted two years. The peasant woman, according to the writer, drove him crazy and deprived him of peace:
“...I am in love like never before in my life. There is no other thought. I'm suffering. It even scares me how close she is to me... She is nowhere to be found - I was looking for her. It’s no longer the feeling of a deer, but of a husband for his wife.”
This relationship continued after Tolstoy got married. On the family estate, Aksinya served in the master's house. She came to wash the floors and caused Sofia Tolstoy to have fits of anger. The jealous wife even made a note in which she admitted that she did not understand why Aksinya was so “good”, and that she even thought of killing her.
“...And just a woman, fat, white - terrible. I looked at the dagger and guns with such pleasure. One hit is easy. I'm just like crazy."- recalled Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya.
Desire is a manifestation of the devil
Leo Tolstoy will describe the story of his destructive passion in the novel “The Devil”. His wife worked on all his manuscripts. I rewrote it completely. But Lev Nikolaevich prudently hid “The Devil” from her in the seat of his work chair. He very frankly described Evgeny Irtenev’s attraction to the courtyard girl Stepanida.The plot is this: a young nobleman is tormented by carnal desire. He gets along with a peasant woman “not for debauchery, but only for health.” But she lures not only his body, but also his soul into sin. Having decided to marry a noble girl, Irtenev tries to forget his Stepanida. But circumstances again invite him to sin. Tolstoy rewrote the ending of the story twice. In one version, Evgeny chooses suicide in a vicious life, and in another, he kills Stepanida, and he himself loses everything and finds himself on the sidelines of life.
Leo Tolstoy took his stories from real life. Is it a coincidence? He describes in “The Devil” that Stepanida showed up in her master’s house, lifting up her skirts and baring her arms, shamelessly washing the floors. And also trying to break the connection, Irtenev confesses to his wife. He hands her his diary.
Final chord
One can only guess how much Sofya Andreevna and Lev Tolstoy endured. Lev Nikolaevich loved his wife, but was disappointed by her coldness. She was shocked by his sophistication. At first he demanded maximum attention to himself, then he moved away. She bore him thirteen children (five died), rewrote War and Peace by hand several times, and did accounting and housekeeping. She loved and was jealous. Their marriage lasted almost 50 years. The family was "unhappy in its own way." 
At the end of his life, Tolstoy was excommunicated from the church, he almost ruined his family, and accused his wife of persecuting and controlling him. At the age of 82, Leo Tolstoy left home. He caught a cold and died. After his death she was given a letter:
“The fact that I left you does not prove that I was dissatisfied with you... I do not blame you, on the contrary, I remember with gratitude the long 35 years of our life! It’s not my fault... I changed, but not for myself, not for people, but because I can’t do otherwise! I can’t blame you either for not following me.”
Lev Nikolaevich, like many men, did not remember the wedding date. How else to explain that in the last letter he writes about a marriage lasting 35 years, while in fact the marriage lasted 48.
We will turn to his strange judgments about women, which at first may seem inappropriate On the Eighth of March...
At the age of 23, Leo Tolstoy stopped in Kazan for a week on his way to the Caucasus. From here he wrote to his sister: “Mrs. Zagoskina organized boat rides every day. Now in Zilantyevo, now in Switzerland, etc., where I often had the opportunity to meet Zinaida... so intoxicated by Zinaida.” Zinaida is Molostvova, a representative of the famous Kazan noble family, about whom contemporaries recalled: “She was not one of the most beautiful, but she was distinguished by her prettiness and grace. She was smart and witty. Her observations of people were always imbued with humor, and at the same time she was kind, delicate by nature and always dreamy.”
Tolstoy reflected in his diary: “I lived in Kazan for a week. If they asked me why I lived in Kazan, what was pleasant for me? Why was I so happy? I wouldn't say it's because I'm in love. I did not know it. It seems to me that this ignorance is the main feature of love, constitutes all its charm... Do you remember the Bishop’s Garden, Zinaida, the side path? Confession hung on my tongue, and so did you... My job was to start, but, you know, why, it seems to me, I didn’t say anything? “I was so happy that I had nothing to wish for... I didn’t say a word to her about love, but I’m so sure that she knows my feelings...”
But this high poetic side of love always struggled in Tolstoy with dependence on its sensual side, which he also encountered in Kazan: “When the brothers dragged me into a brothel, I performed sexual intercourse for the first time in my life, I then sat down this woman’s bed and cried... I experienced one strong feeling similar to love only when I was 13 or 14 years old, but I don’t want to believe that it was love; because the subject was a fat maid (admittedly, a very pretty face), and from 13 to 15 years old - the most careless time for a boy (adolescence) - you don’t know what to throw yourself at, and voluptuousness in this era acts with extraordinary force.” No matter how Tolstoy promised himself: “I won’t have a single woman in my village, except for some cases that I won’t look for, but I won’t miss,” but, for example, for several years he had a relationship with a married peasant woman Aksinya Bazykina - even then, when he was wooing his future wife, Sophia Bers. Before his marriage, Tolstoy gave his frank diaries to his bride, which caused her despair.
Tolstoy despised this dependence in himself (“A man can survive an earthquake, an epidemic, a terrible illness, any manifestation of mental anguish; the most terrible tragedy that can happen to him remains and will always remain the tragedy of the bedroom”), which led him to practically to misogyny, which he expressed without mincing words: “If a comparison is needed, then marriage should be compared to a funeral, and not to a name day. The man was walking alone - five pounds were tied to his shoulders, and he was rejoicing. What can I say, that if I walk alone, then I am free, but if my leg is tied to a woman’s leg, then she will drag behind me and disturb me... Two people who are strangers come together, and they remain strangers for the rest of their lives...” , “Everything would be fine if only they (women) were in their place, i.e. humble”, “The women’s question!... Just not that women should begin to lead life, but that they should stop ruining it”, “Look at the society of women as a necessary nuisance of social life and, as much as possible, move away from them. In fact, from whom do we get voluptuousness, effeminacy, frivolity in everything and many bad vices, if not from women?
Therefore, Tolstoy was categorically against women's emancipation, and especially against “learned women,” i.e. much of our current university community. In 1870, he wrote: “We will see that there is no need to invent an outcome for women who have given birth and have not found a husband: for these women without offices, departments and telegraphs there is always and has been a demand that exceeds the supply. Midwives, nannies, housekeepers, dissolute women. No one doubts the necessity and lack of midwives, and any unfamily woman who does not want to be dissolute in body and soul will not look for a pulpit, but will go as far as she knows how to help mothers in labor.” Tolstoy even writes this: “Only a farmer, who never leaves home, can, having married young, remain faithful to his wife and she to him, but in complicated forms of life, it seems obvious to me that this is impossible (in the masses, of course) ... Allow free a change of wives and husbands (as the empty-headed liberals want) - this was also not part of the goals of Providence for reasons clear to us - it destroyed the family. And therefore, according to the law of economy of forces, the average appeared - the appearance of the Magdalenes... What would have happened to the families? How many wives and daughters would remain pure? What would happen to the moral laws that people love to observe so much? It seems to me that this class of women is necessary for the family, given the current complicated forms of life.”
The result was Tolstoy’s call to completely abandon marriage and sex life, even for the birth of children, and if there is already a family, then the husband and wife should live like brother and sister, and then the sensual side of love will no longer prevent them from loving - not each other, and all of humanity.
All this led to the colossal family tragedy of the Tolstoys, to which hundreds of both vulgar and talented books and films are devoted (I highly recommend that those interested read Pavel Basinsky’s recent very smart work “Leo Tolstoy: Escape from Paradise”). There were no right and wrong here - there were two suffering creatures: the publicly expressed views of the husband (everyone understood that his attacks against the woman were directed primarily at his wife) brought Sofya Andreevna to a state of hysteria and almost paranoia, which turned life into hell. She eavesdropped, spied, followed her husband’s movements with binoculars, rummaged through his papers at night, ostentatiously drowned herself in a pond... And Tolstoy leaves Yasnaya Polyana, and Sofya Andreevna perceives his secret flight at night as her shame - and there is nothing worse than a photograph, on in which she looks through the window into the room where Tolstoy is dying and where people close to him have gathered, but she is not allowed to see him.
In 1899, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “The main reason for family misfortune is that people are brought up in the idea that marriage brings happiness. Marriage is lured by sexual desire, which takes the form of a promise, a hope for happiness, which is supported by public opinion and literature; but marriage is not only not happiness, but always suffering, with which a person pays for satisfied sexual desire.”
Many biographers and psychiatrists sought the origins of Tolstoy’s ideas in his physiology and even mental deviations, and the statements of the hero of the “Kreutzer Sonata”, who killed his wife out of jealousy, aroused disgust and anger in many readers - especially female readers - both in the 19th century and today.
But... isn’t it worthwhile, on a day dedicated to women’s rights, to think that in many of Tolstoy’s thoughts, paradoxically, there is also something that is important and deep?
The same hero of “The Kreutzer Sonata” says: “Before I got married, I lived like everyone else lives, that is, depravedly, and, like all the people in our circle, living depravedly, I was sure that I was living as I should. I thought to myself that I was cute, that I was a completely moral person. ...I avoided those women who could tie me down with the birth of a child or affection for me. However, maybe there were children and there were attachments, but I acted as if they did not exist. ...But this is the main abomination,” he cried. - Depravity is not in anything physical, after all, no physical disgrace is debauchery; and debauchery, true debauchery lies precisely in freeing oneself from moral relations towards a woman with whom one enters into physical communication. And I took credit for this liberation.” The response to this attitude of men is the morally distorted behavior of women: “... this explains the extraordinary phenomenon that, on the one hand, it is absolutely fair that a woman is reduced to the lowest degree of humiliation, on the other hand, that she dominates.. “Oh, you want us to be only an object of sensuality, well, we, as an object of sensuality, will enslave you,” the women say. … Go shopping in every big city. … All the luxuries of life are required and maintained by women. Count all the factories. A huge proportion of them work useless jewelry, carriages, furniture, toys for women. Millions of people, generations of slaves are dying in this hard labor in factories only for the whims of women. Women, like queens, hold 0.9 of the human race captive in slavery and hard labor. And all because they were humiliated, deprived of equal rights with men. And so they take revenge by acting on our sensuality, by trapping us in their nets. Yes, that's all. Women have made themselves such an instrument for influencing sensuality that a man cannot calmly treat a woman. As soon as the man approached the woman, he fell under her spell and went stunned. And before, I always felt awkward and creepy when I saw a dressed-up lady in a ballgown, but now I’m downright scared...”
There is something in the speeches of this half-crazy hero that makes us think about our current civilization, in which the lack of moral responsibility in relationships has become the norm, and the value is not an intelligent and charming university-educated woman, but a naked and stupid lady of the demimonde...
01 Do you remember. No, not through intrigues and affairs with powerful men, but themselves. By your actions, decisions, desire to live your own way. What are they like, Tolstoy's women, real and literary?
Mother Maria Nikolaevna, née Princess Volkonskaya (1790-1830). On July 9, 1822, she married Nikolai Ilyich, Count Tolstoy, who was 4 years younger than her. Over 8 years of marriage, five children were born in the family - four sons and a daughter. No portraits of the future writer’s mother have survived, but her diaries and letters indicate clear literary talent. She died early, six months after the birth of her daughter. In the memory of her outstanding son she left an unearthly, sublimely spiritual image.
The wife of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is Sofya Andreevna. Born Sophia Bers.
Wife Sofya Andreevna, née Bers (1844-1919), daughter of a Moscow doctor. The first years of their marriage were happy, hot, mutual love. From 1863 to 1888, 13 children were born into the family - 9 sons and 4 daughters, of whom five sons and a daughter survived to adulthood. Sofya Andreevna, no matter what they say about her, was not only the mother of a large, even at that time, family, the head of a troublesome household, but the secretary and publisher of her brilliant husband. She rewrote it several times - not on a computer, and not even on Remington, but by hand!!! - his endless novels, invariably increasing from version to version. At a certain stage, the understanding between the spouses disappeared - he wanted to give up his property in favor of the poor, and she had to think about how to provide a fortune for her sons and a dowry for her daughters. Sofia Andreevna’s greatest grief, according to her, was that she did not find her husband, who had left home and was dying, conscious...
In Tolstoy’s real life there were cousins and aunts, various kinds of social acquaintances. Numerous bright literary portraits were painted from them, generously hung on the pages of his literary masterpieces.
Still from the 1965 film War and Peace.
Natasha Rostova and Elen Kuragina. A lively, but - for now - ugly girl from Moscow and an early-blooming St. Petersburg socialite. Insanely different characters. But how are they similar for the author? Because both are fallen women. Yes Yes Yes! And Natasha too! She cheated on her fiance, deciding to run away and get married to someone else. Prince Andrei talks about this - a fallen woman must be forgiven. But he himself cannot forgive... And Helen, having decided that with her beauty everything is permitted, takes lovers left and right. How did the author dispose of their destinies? He married Natasha to Helen’s ex-husband, portraying her family life in a very unattractive light - the episode with the crap in the diaper became common... And Tolstoy simply “killed” Helen herself, because, apparently, not imagining how her life could develop without a decent marriage, but such a thing was not possible for her. The reputation is not the same...
Greta Garbo as Anna Karenina in the 1935 film of the same name.
Anna Karenina and Dolly Oblonskaya. And in this novel there are no heroines who completely satisfied the author. Another fallen lady, Anna, also had to be “killed”, since she did not have a positive life prospect. She separated from her husband and did not marry her lover... Dolly, “exhausted by children,” also does not enjoy the author’s special sympathy. She clearly reveals the features of Sofia Andreevna, who at a certain stage lost her husband’s love due to the fact that she was bogged down in household chores. And Countess Lydia Ivanovna, constantly teaching everyone something, and Princess Betsy Tverskaya, who is either married or not, who out of boredom brought Anna and Vronsky together... everything, everything is wrong! There are no ideal women in this world!
A still from the 1967 film “Anna Karenina” starring Tatyana Samoilova.
Katerina Maslova and Gasha. But this illegitimate half-gypsy, a hanger-on, seduced for fun by a visiting officer, seems to be very attractive to His Excellency. The aunties who kicked out the pregnant girl are just the opposite. And the seducer himself with his mental tossing, his surroundings are all complete falsehood. But of all the fallen women looking at us from the pages of Tolstoy’s novels, Katyusha Maslova is the most fallen, a resident of a brothel, a drinker and even involved in a poisoning case... Why is this the author’s attitude? From the history of the creation of the novel, Tolstoy’s last major work, written intermittently for eleven years, the reason for the count’s partial attitude towards fallen aristocrats, firstly, and to the rootless commoner who sells herself, secondly, becomes clear.
Mini-serail "War and Peace" 2007. In the role of Natalie Rostova - Clémence Poesy.
...The famous lawyer and public figure A.F. In 1887, Koni told Tolstoy a case from judicial practice - how a certain juror recognized the defendant as a prostitute as a woman whom he had once seduced and abandoned. His conscience prompted him to help the woman out, even marry her, but the unfortunate woman died in prison. Then Tolstoy admitted to his biographer and even his legal wife that he himself had a similar story - an affair with his sister’s maid, Gasha, whom his noble relatives drove from the yard in an unknown direction. Here it becomes clear why the story of the seduction of Katyusha Maslova is written out so juicily and convincingly. The writer simply poured out the torments of a guilty conscience onto paper, as if half a century later he asked for forgiveness from the girl he had ruined and even tried, through his hero, to somehow rectify the situation.
Still from the 2012 film Anna Karenina.
In addition, in many of Tolstoy’s works - remember the short but achingly painful “Kreutzer Sonata” - his heroines, with their femininity demanding love, slowly but surely pull other people nearby, almost always men, into the abyss of immorality. What is this - an attempt to at least slightly justify one’s sins with someone else’s imperfection? They say that they, women, are far from ideal, they experience carnal temptation themselves and seduce others.
What is invariable in Tolstoy’s novels is that only women pay for their own and other people’s mistakes with ruined and often prematurely cut off lives. Men, although they are left alone with heavy, belated repentance, still live... live. Although who knows which is worse.
Sophie Marceau in the 1997 film Anna Karenina. And little has changed since the time when readers tore new books by Leo Tolstoy from the hands of booksellers... A woman is still responsible for everything - both cooking and morality. So reread, at least occasionally, classic novels - maybe then there will be no reason to throw yourself in front of the train.