Tolstoy Kazan Biography

We bring to your attention a lecture on the topic “Kazan province in the history of the Tolstoy family” Svetlana Konovalova. She was the director of the Kazan Museum of Tolstoy at the stage of designing the restoration of the former Gontalov house on Yapeev Street, at the stage of developing the first concept of the museum exposition, headed the collection of materials for her.

In “Kazan stories” there are enough materials about Leo Tolstoy, specifically - about his Kazan life. But the lecture is interesting in that it tells many facts that are not known even to lovers of antiquity related to representatives of the Tolstoy clan in the Kazan province. The governors of the Kazan province from the family of Tolstoy are one of the most famous noble families of the Russian state.

It is included in the genealogy books of the Moscow, Ryazan, Oryol and Kazan provinces. The most closely with the Kazan province are connected by Tolstoy-Miloslav. Here they had numerous estates that were purchased, inherited by them, for a diligent service, or as it was often as a result of successful marriage. The earliest archival documents fixing the presence of Tolstoy in the Kazan province are dated to the year and are associated with the name of Vasily Ivanovich Tolstoy.

His son - Andrei Vasilievich - will be appointed to Sviyazhsk by the governor in years. In turn, one of the sons of Andrei Vasilyevich - Peter Andreevich - will become the “ancestor” of the count of the Tolstoy in Russia, having received the title of the count. He was a companion and associate of Peter I. Known as one of the most educated people in Petrovsky Rus'. Pyotr Andreevich was a brilliant diplomat, they said about him that he was able to turn any situation in his favor, "to turn inside out the face and face inside out." For thirteen years he was as a Russian ambassador in Constantinople.

Returning to his homeland after imprisonment in the seven-boiled castle during the Russian war with Turkey, Peter Andreevich was appointed president of the commercial college and manager of the foreign affairs station. Tolstoy, like A. Menshikov, turned out to be one of the rulers of the Russian Empire. They both enjoyed the exceptional confidence of Catherine I, proclaimed by the empress.

Tolstoy for great merits to the state received the title of Count. After the death of Ekaterina, Menshikov seized power and arrested all her supporters. Peter Andreevich was deprived of the count's title and sent to a life imprisonment to the Solovetsky monastery, where he silently, stoically, without complaints transferred his opinion and died on January 30 of the year.

In the count of coat of arms, as evidence of the antiquity of the genus, the element of the common coat of arms of the thick: in the center of the shield in a square - crossed sabers and an arrow, rolled into the ring of a golden key; The image in the lower square on the right recalls the events of the diplomatic service of P. Tolstoy: seven towers crowned with overturned crescents, symbolizes the conclusion of Peter Andreevich in the Constantinople unit - the seven -battered castle: the liberation and conclusion on behalf of the Russian government of the world with the Turks.

Two greyhounds supporting the shield mean faithful and imminent success in business. Pyotr Andreevich, by the will of the chance, connected his fate with the East, thereby laid down the beginning and future connections of a kind with the Kazan region. Having entered the faculty of eastern literature of the Imperial Kazan University, young Tolstoy, of course, remembered the brilliant diplomatic career of his great -great -grandfather, dreaming of such successes in this field.

The grandson of Peter Andreyevich-Andrei Ivanovich-returns to the Kazan province again: first, the second-major in the Kazan garrison, a little later-the governor in the district city of Sviyazhsk Andrei Ivanovich was the president of the main magistrate in Moscow, then was the vice president of the Moscow Palace Plant Chancellery. He was married to Princess Alexander Ivanovna Shchetinina.

The couple had 23 children for which A. Tolstoy earned the nickname “Big Nest”, only half of the children reached adulthood. Tolstoy wrote about him: “About Andrei Ivanovich, who married very young on Princess Shchetinina, I heard such a story from Aunt. His wife, by some case, had one without a husband to go to some ball. Having drove away from the house, probably in the cart from which the seat was taken so that the roof of the cart not damaged a high hairstyle, the young countess, probably, the years, remembered the road that she, leaving, did not say goodbye to her husband and returned home.

When she entered the house, she found him in tears. He cried that his wife before leaving did not go to him to say goodbye. " During the years of service in Sviyazhsk, one of his many children - Ilya, who will be destined to become the Kazan governor, has to be the birth of one of his many children. Tolstoy "with renaming to the state advisers" was appointed Kazan governor.

The five -year management of the province began with a dramatic event, which can be regarded as an unlucky omen for the newly made governor. In early September, a fire occurred in Kazan, one of the largest in the history of the city.In these circumstances, the new governor showed energy and courage, organized a collection of donations to restore the city and himself donated five hundred rubles for Pogoreltsev.

The local society appreciated the energetic activity of the governor, as evidenced by the approving tone of publications in Kazan Izvestia of that time. During the period of his governorship, Ilya Andreevich opened the main public school in Kazan. He rebuilt the new building of the Kazan gymnasium. Governor did not help Ilya Andreevich correct his property affairs and ended with a disaster.

In the year of his estate in the Tula province were described; Debts were about thousand. In the summer of the year, a complaint was sent to St. Petersburg, drawn up at the initiative of some Kazan nobles. Governor I. Tolstoy was accused of serious abuse - bribery, embezzlement, inactivity, etc. Senate audit arrived from the capital to Kazan, and on February 5, the highest command of the dismissal of I.

Tolstoy was followed from office without the right to leave. These events struck the reputation, on the moral and physical condition of Ilya Andreevich. Kenotaf Ilya Andreevich at the site of the cemetery of the Kizic Monastery was soon closed. Most likely, the charges were caused by personal relations and did not have enough grounds. To restore the honest name I. Tolstoy, his subordinate was done a lot - Savva Andreevich Moskotilnikov, who served in those years an adviser to the provincial rule.

The personality in Kazan is very noticeable-as a poet, translator, lawyer-practitioner, Mason. Since the year, he was in military service, he was a participant in the Patriotic War and foreign campaigns of the years, for the difference in the battles he received the Order of St. Vladimir of the IV degree with a bow and the rank of headquarters. In the year, Nikolai Ilyich took a vacation and went to his relatives in Kazan.

In the certificate of the chief doctor of the Kazan military hospital about the state of his health, the following was indicated: "It was sick with the weakness of the chest with all the clear signs to the consumption, cold cough, associated with hemoptysis, and a lifeline of colds in all members." The deterioration of health led to the fact that in the year he completely left military service.

During the Kazan vacation, Nikolai Ilyich repeatedly traveled for treatment with kumys. In the two years, Maria lost her mother, Ekaterina Dmitrievna in the girlishness of Trubetskoy, and on the shoulders of her father, Nikolai Sergeyevich, fell care of her daughter. He gave her an excellent education: German, English, Italian, French, she owned as a native.

By the time of her introduction, Princess, Maria Volkonskaya, became a reasonable girl, alive and independent she was of medium height and was by no means a beauty. Her portraits have not been preserved, only one of her image has reached us - a silhouette in childhood. We were only a vague contour of the one who became the mother of Leo Tolstoy. Maria Nikolaevna died on August 4, six months after the birth of her daughter.

The image of the mother was for Tolstoy, as he himself said, by the holy ideal: “She seemed to me such a high, pure, spiritual being, that often in the middle period of my life, during the struggle with the temptations who had prevailed me, I prayed to her soul, asking her to help me, and this prayer always helped me ...”. He kept the cult of his mother in his soul until the end of days.

After the death of his wife, Nikolai Ilyich completely devoted himself to raising children, he was helped by Alexander Ilyinichna Sister and Tatyana Alexandrovna Ergolskaya. But his health worsened, the tuberculous process progressed, and on June 21 he was gone.

The death of Nikolai Ilyich was a terrible loss for the family. Five young children and weak women remained. For nine -year -old Leo Nikolaevich, the death of his father was one of the most powerful impressions. There was a deep spiritual connection between the father and the youngest son. Tolstoy wrote in the “Memoirs”: “I’ll start with the fact that I clearly remember, from the place and from those persons who surrounded me from the first years.

The first place among these persons occupies, although not in terms of influence on me, but in my opinion for him, of course, my father ... ". The guardian of orphaned children is the aunt of Alexander Ilyinichna Osten-Saken. After her death, in August, her younger sister Pelageya Polina Ilyinichna Yushkova took care of the concern for Tolstoy. Unfortunately, their marriage could not be called successful.

Polina, very demanding on observing secular decency, was the embodiment of a “good tone” and would never agree to contact the vulgar. Decent manners, toilets, arrangement of furniture in the house took care of her primarily. She enthusiastically engaged in secular charity. According to the memoirs of loved ones, Aunt Polina was kind, pious, lively, cheerful, conceited and superficial.

Vladimir Ivanovich was a retired hussar colonel, an eminent Kazan landowner. He grew up in a family known in Kazan society by cultural traditions. His uncle, Vasily Ipatievich Polyansky, a collector of a wonderful library, transferred after his death to the Kazan gymnasium, was familiar with Voltaire, corresponded with him. In the year V.Yushkov was enrolled as an officer in the Life Guards Hussar Regiment.

Just like Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, he participated in hostilities, had rewards. By the time of the arrival of Tolstoy in Kazan, Vladimir Ivanovich had long been retired. He had a reputation as a witty man, a lover of pretty women, perfectly embroidered on a canvas, played a little on the piano and composed music, frankly mocking his wife's addictions. The Yushkin belonged to the highest society of Kazan and lived wide and carefree.

In November, P. Yushkova transported Tolstoy from Yasnaya Polyana to Kazan. Yushkova and her husband - V. Yushkov was very thorough: Pelageya Ilyinichna ordered barges who loaded everything that could be removed from Yasnaya Polyana, including the whole yard: Stolyarov, tailors, cooks, etc.